𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊 || ᴋɴʏ

||The Blazing Heart Of An Unwilling Samurai||

"Set your heart ablaze!"

"..."

"..."

"Come again?"

"... Set your heart ablaze?!"

You deadpan, clearly not understanding a word that he was saying. How does one set their heart ablaze? You've never heard of such a thing, it was like a strange pep talk.

What were his words supposed to mean and how in the world did they pertain to you?

Is this really what he wanted to talk about?

"Have you... Not heard the terminology before?" Rengoku hesitantly asked, not sure if he liked how your eyes focused on him. You looked as if you were silently judging him.

You just thought he was weirdly pretty for a grown man. That and the fact that you weren't sure if you were sitting too close to him or too far away.

"... We don't normally use terminology in samurai training... Or the history of it. It's more so quotes and important rules." You plainly reply.

You're kind of feeling bad now for stopping his happy go lucky and loud attitude with your boring voice.

"... Ah... That makes sense."

Once again, an uncomfortable silence fell on the two of you and you weren't sure how to feel about that. 

You were basically having a staring contest with the smiley hashira. The flame pillar hashira no less, he had to be pretty important right? Since fire was so strong.

This all should have been nerve-wracking but instead, it was somehow calming to you. Maybe because it reminded you that he was still a human like you and not some deity that would kill you if you looked at him the wrong way.

You have no real clue though. That and his smile was always there as if it was permanent, it made you wonder if he had a stroke when he was younger and his face just defaulted to that expression.

That was probably a dumb thing to think.

"Sir, I don't believe I understand what you're trying to say to me." You finally commented, hoping to get some sort of explanation for this strange meeting.

"... Oh right! Setting your heart ablaze means that you can have courage and bravery at your fingertips!" He immediately yelled back, his smile growing that much more.

You nodded, reminding yourself to be intimidated.

"So don't ever look down! You're strong and you should be proud of yourself!"

You nodded again, still struggling not to be intimidated.

He came all this way... Just to encourage you? Why? What was he actually doing here? This is what he wanted to talk to you about? 

This felt like a set up.

"... But?" You hesitantly asked, noticing how the silence got thicker with a strange apprehension on his part and clear confusion on yours.

"... But," Rengoku repeats, sighing before speaking again. "You need guidance."

It was a simple phrase, one that you weren't unfamiliar with and yet it felt unusually detached from his voice. For a moment, he looked almost nervous and you have no clue as to why.

"You mean, I need guidance on how to set my heart ablaze or how to use it?" You continued. Hopefully you were asking good questions, after all, you still wanted to at least try to follow Aoi's instructions so as to not embarrass yourself.

"Both!" He grinned with wide eyes, his expression bright and strong again.

He smile reminded you of the sun but his eyes looked like an owl and those two thoughts shouldn't have gone together towards the same person. It was... Strange. He was strange, but you didn't mind.