Omega progenitor tomioka pt.2

Chapter 3

There was something like too much emotion.

There was also something like not enough emotions and, of the two, the latter was more comfortable. But not enough emotion was hard to achieve, even harder to maintain and it made life infinitely duller. Sanemi didn't want anything like that.

What would even be the point of going on living if it was all dull and dispassionate, lifeless, hopeless ?

Sanemi's life had never been dull. Even when his progenitor was an abusive asshole, he still had his mother, sweet and loving and far too good for this world.

Even when said asshole was gone and she had to work herself to the bone to feed them, he still had Genya and his young siblings.

Even when he had killed his mother, his sweet, kind and loving mother, who had become a man-eating monster, destroyer of her own flesh, life had not been dull.

Even when Genya's screams and accusations had echoed in a dirty street illuminated by the rays of the rising sun, as a corpse turned to dust, life had not been dull.

Even when his eyesight shattered like a mirror, as the red of the blood staining his hands, his clothes, his face, his very soul faded to a greenish-brown, the color fleeing forever from his vision, life had not been dull.

Even when Masachika...

Even when Kanae...

Shinazugawa Sanemi's life had never been dull.

No, it had been vibrant, restless and relentless, in a way that was as beautiful as it was terrible.

It had been a tireless energy running like lightning through his skin, it had been the roar of a storm in his throat, it had been the unleashing of a cyclone in his Breath.

It had been the ferrous taste of blood lingering on his tongue, the sharpness of his fangs tearing his own lips and gums, the suffocating smell of pine and spikenard he trailed in his wake.

It had been the moonlight on his raised blade, the medal-like scars on his skin, the tears of relief from the recruits and victims.

It was the complete opposite of Dull !

He was—

"It's because we just can't, Shinazugawa."

He had gone to see Kocho — Shinobu, not Kanae, never again Kanae — after the funeral. He had let himself into the Butterfly Mansion, walking through the empty and silent corridors with the tested practicality of someone who had spent many hours in this place. He'd found her in the lab, hunched over a row of vials and the sweet smell of wisteria filling the room. She hadn't acknowledged his presence at first, letting him close the door with a light slam, with only the sound of Kanae's haori and the clink of vials disturbing the silence.

He didn't know if the wisteria scent was Kocho herself or the poison she was working on, although he could make a guess.

"You really aren't going to say anything ?" he had finally groaned after several long minutes of waiting.

There had been a distinct pose in her gestures, before she put down the vial she was manipulating to turn towards him. Her doll-like face was devoid of any trace of feelings except for an unruffled calm and she wore Kanae's smile on her lips.

"Well, I don't know, what would you like me to tell you, Shinazugawa ?"

She would have almost seemed honest, if it hadn't been for that fucking smile. He wanted to rip it, tear it from her too-young, round face, undo and destroy it, and all the memories attached to it.