§Future Empress§

Getting to love you

Recap
"Not this more like...if you were holding someone in a ball dance! Or being held by someone, as you like!" Izumi said innocently but meant something else. Katsumi blushed and posed as if she was held by someone.
"Oh my...you are so beautiful" Izumi said dreamingly.

~Flashback time~
During Izumi's bath
Izumi entered the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror plastered on the wall. The oval shaped mirror reflected her entirely. She stood there monotonously and looked straight into her own eyes. "Why don't you remember anything?" Izumi sighed as she rubbed her face with both her hands and arched her back backwards. She regained her posture and gently ran her fingers through her hair. "Well I should just dive deep inside my bathtub and hope to remember something" Izumi said as she walked away from the mirror. The mirror glistened in an almost magical way. By the time Izumi noticed anything and turned to check there was only sparkling dust particles flying in the air. "What type of powder is now being used in the bathroom curtains?" Izumi asked to herself and shrugged it off.

She slipped out of her gown and wrapped herself with a bathrobe- white and silvery. She walked towards her big bathtub. It stretched from one end of the bathroom to the other. She stepped in and tossed her bathrobe nearby. She then continued to submerge herself entirely in the bathtub water for a while, then rose back up gasping for air. Her hands ran through her beautiful green hair and gathered it behind her head. The water was the right temperature and Izumi comfortably rested on the bathtub edge. Her eyes closed, in hopes of remembering something, but nothing came to her avail. Annoyed she punched the water but gave up expressing her anger. She just stared at the ceiling and then her eyes filled with tears. She was frustrated. For years she felt like there was something amiss in her. As if a part of her was tore apart and kept somewhere far. It was no physical injury but she never seemed to be completely healthy since over a decade. 

Her descriptions of her pain as a child worried her mother a lot and many experienced physicians were called in to check her but none found anything amiss. Inko thought that this could be Izumi's way of grabbing her attention so she stopped putting up with Izumi's shenanigans.

Perhaps that's where it started...Izumi's expressionless self.
"What's the point in remembering now? I was doing well without expressing. It helped me numb away my pain...but now when she came back into my life everything seems to have changed. That feeling of being incomplete is stronger than ever! Is she the answer to my emptiness? Did something happen in the past which I don't remember? Help me lord..." Izumi cried with her palms covering her face. 

Her tears fell into the bath. Suddenly the water started to gleam in silver. The shine grabbed her attention and she removed her palms from her face, resting her hands beside her. Suddenly steam rose from the bathtub and covered her entirely. "Hey what?!" Before she could process anything, a pair of hands closed her eyes from behind. A gentle voice spoke, low intensity and high pitched, "Now think of your biggest question." Izumi knew one thing for sure that she shouldn't ignore this. ^I want to know what exactly am I missing from myself all these years?^ Izumi thought intently. 

Izumi found herself sitting in a carriage. When she looked up she saw her younger self beside the Young Queen. Izumi understood it was memory from the past which she somehow got permission to revisit.

 The younger Izumi looked out and saw little Katsumi bawling her eyes out but she didn't react and just waved her goodbye with a smile on her face. The queen beside her sighed as she commanded the coachmen to drive off.