Underneath the Red Trees

CHAPTER 56: RETURNING GRIEF

"Jinshiro?" his voice trembled.

Hayate could feel his shoulders start to shake. He had spent months trying to figure out the identity of the Face Eater. He had thought that maybe he was someone from the Madou clan. Someone he had killed. Perhaps it was one of the Akano twins. He had considered everyone he had wronged in his past life. But in all the possibilities, he had never suspected his own brother.

Jinshiro let out a long sigh. One red eye and one black eye landed on Hayate. There was no love in them. The kindness gone like the chocolate colour that had once been in them. "I waited for a long time." He started. "I hoped." His voice was emotionless. "My memories are faded and blurred, but I remember everything from the years in that dungeon. In that hellhole." He dragged a hand through his hair. "I believed that you would save me, but you never did. Why is that?"

"I... I tried," Hayate insisted, "I really did." His eyes burned from the tears welling up in them. Daisaku Akano... What had that monster done to Jinshiro?

Jinshiro. His brother. He despised him. For what? Because Daisaku Akano destroyed him mentally. He had barely any memory of their time as brothers. But he sure as hell remembered his days spent in suffering.

Wait...

What had he said? 'You killed her.'

Was it because Ryogetsu burned down Naguchi Castle? Ourei had died in that fire.

Kaguya.

Hayate's head whipped around. She had fallen to her knees. Her whole body shook. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Her head moved from side to side in slow movement.

"No," Kaguya gasped, "no."

"Kaguya?" Hayate's voice was riddled with grief. He recognised that face. It was the same face... the face she had worn after losing Jinshiro.

Memories of Ourei's grief shot through his head. The things she had done to herself after losing her love. The scars that studded her wrists had stayed until she burned. She had blamed herself for Jinshiro's fate. And no more than a week after he was gone, she had cut her wrists. He had found her like that, and he had managed to revive her. She came to him, begging him to make her an assassin. She, who loathed the idea, had begged to become a killer. He had refused at first, but she was grieving, and needed something to take her mind off it. So, he eventually gave in. He always knew she was hurting herself, but she had held fast to the idea that being an assassin was her fate.

Hayate rushed to her side. "Kaguya!" he tried again.

She started to peel at the skin on her lips. "No, no, no," her cheeks glistened with wetness, "Please no!" Her tears were like a waterfall of emotion.

Hayate wrapped his arms around her. She pressed her face into his chest. "It's okay, Kaguya, please don't do something stupid."

"Master?" Sachiko had appeared. She turned her face toward the two humans wrapped in each other's sorrowful embrace.

Hayate glanced at her. He had never noticed it before. It was only vaguely, but she looked like Kaguya. Sachiko had a rounder face, and she was shorter. Kaguya was far thinner. But the resemblance was there. Especially in their voices.

Sachiko turned her head in the Face Eater's direction. He seemed frozen to the spot. There was a look of longing in his face, like he wanted to be the one to comfort her. "Master?" she tried again. He still did not answer her. His breath caught in his throat.

Loathing crept into the back of Sachiko's mind. Hatred for the assassin woman and the hold she still had on Jinshiro. Sachiko had known... she had known that Jinshiro watched Kaguya whenever he got the chance. And when he slept, he dreamt of her. She had known he favoured her because she resembled Kaguya. But she had never despised that woman as much as she did in this moment.

Jinshiro closed his eyes. "Let us leave."

Hayate glanced at him. "You're leaving?" He was furious. Angry at Jinshiro for what he was doing to Kaguya. She had been okay. She had shown some semblance of healing in this lifetime. Why did he have to reveal himself while she was here? Shouldn't he have known? If he knew what had happened to Ourei, shouldn't he have known about the things she did to herself?

Jinshiro grabbed Naozumi by the back of his collar. He stared at Hayate for a time. "I don't particularly care for what you are thinking at the moment, Brother. I will leave you to sort through those thoughts." He said nothing to or about Kaguya, like he was holding himself back. "But we will see each other again." With that Jinshiro, Naozumi and Sachiko vanished into the shadows. 

"Kirigaya!" Chihiro jogged up to Masaki and fell into step beside him. She grabbed him, forcing him to stop. "Your weapon has arrived. Let's go see." Before Masaki could answer her, she hooked her arm with his and pulled him with her.

Chihiro took Masaki to the fourth floor*. It had white walls and white floors. It reminded him of a hospital. The room they entered had black walls and a black floor, contrasting with the corridor they had just been walking down.

*Traditionally, the number four is unlucky because it is sometimes pronounced shi, which is the Japanese word for death. Sometimes levels or rooms with 4 don't exist in hospitals or hotels.

Two people stood by a glass cylinder. It was about half the height of an average man. It laid vertically, displaying a kokyu which seemed to have a subtle glow to it.

Nakamura turned her head. She grinned at Masaki. "What do you think, cutie?"

At times Nakamura would flirt with him, even though she was technically his teacher. It still made him uncomfortable.

"It's glowing," he said.

"That means it will work."

Masaki recognised the voice. Akira Soma was standing beside Nakamura, glancing over pages on a clipboard. His eyes were narrowed at the words on the page. He was wearing a clean white lab coat over his clothes. In the heat of summer, he had somehow also donned a beige turtleneck.

Nakamura smiled at him, "Everything in order, Doc?"

His dark eyes left the clipboard and stayed on Nakamura momentarily. "It seems to be."

Nakamura giggled. She wrapped her arms around Masaki's shoulders. His muscles tensed. "Isn't my student just the cutest?"

Akira's eyes did not leave the clipboard this time. "Stop being a cougar. It is disgusting."

Nakamura pouted. "You're so mean to me, doc. And besides, he's nineteen."

"That's older than what you usually go for, isn't it?"

Nakamura sneered. "Oh, shut up. I don't need more parents on my back." Nakamura grabbed the clipboard from Akira and turned to Masaki. "Okay. Your operation is tomorrow at noon. Be here an hour before. Don't eat or drink anything." She looked up from the clipboard. "You got that?"

Masaki forced a smile. It had gotten harder to fake excitement. "Yes."

Masaki walked out of ERIS.

He didn't want to go back there ever again. He didn't want a thirty-something woman flirting with him and making him uncomfortable. He didn't want some mysterious doctor to get to work on his soul—however that was even possible. And he never wanted to hear the words ERIS or Spearhead or Break ever again.

He had no intention of ever coming back here again.

He was done.