|COMPLETED| The Emotion Love - Heisuke x OC

Chapter 14 ~ A Very Special Scarf

~ Heisuke ~

   I looked around the room, seeing everyone except the girl from yesterday. Tsukino. It was like she had disappeared yesterday after she left. I hadn't seen her anywhere around the compound.

   Chizuru looked very...glum. Sad. I sighed quietly.

   "Where's Tsukino?" I asked, looking around the room once more. Chizuru perked up at the mention of Tsukino but then slumped over again. Everyone in the room seemed to tense.

   "Speaking of that, what happened when I wasn't around? Tsukino said to ask you guys about the other night."

   The room just...died. Everyone looked at their food, some - Sano, Shinpachi and Chizuru - had very pained expressions on their faces. Especially Chizuru. Like she was about to cry.

   "Tsukino's story is very, unique." I looked over at Hajime-kun, who had put down his chopsticks. I looked from the corner of my eye to see both Sano and Shinpachi scoff.

   "I wouldn't exactly call it unique," Shinpachi said, a hint of anger in his voice. "Her story...It's disgusting!"

   "Both disgusting and hard to believe," Sano joined in. I looked at the two of them back and forth, confusion the only thing I could comprehend.

   "After we left, Tsukino joined. I do not know about her earlier past, but I do know of some of it." Saito had a blank face, but his eyes told me a different story.

   "Tsukino told us half her past, and then she told us the rest of it yesterday," Hijikata said. "I'll let someone else do the talking."

   It was quiet. No one seemed willing to talk.

   "Not even Hajime-kun will speak," Souji said, his signature smirk on his face. "Well then, I might as well.

   "Two years ago, Tsukino was tortured. I don't feel like getting into details because this is Tsukino we are talking about. But, the torture she went through was enough to ruin her life to the degree of making her trying to kill herself. She said it herself."

   "First, they pinned her arms to the ground with swords. Then broke her legs. Third, they stripped her of her dignity and last..." Sano looked like he was seething.

   "They skinned her like she was an animal," Chizuru whispered. My eyes widened. "What?" I said, my voice raised.

   "You heard Sano and Chizuru," Shinpachi said. "They tortured her to the extent that she is what she is now."

   "She lives in shame. She isolates herself. Finds it impossible to make friends and trust people. All because of Kazama." Chizuru named what I thought to be what the torture did to her.

   "That is some extreme torture," I said, taken aback. I turned to the door as I heard footsteps, the others also copying my actions. It was quiet for a minute. Then the door slightly opened, a very unexpected visitor outside.

~ Tsukino ~

   I dressed in my normal attire, discarding the kimono from yesterday. I looked at my swords on the ground, laying beside my futon. I grabbed both of them with one hand and slid it around my waist, the cord holding the many layers of fabrics in place while my other hand held my scarf.

   The white scarf that I was so very attached to. The one that I had received on my sixteenth birthday by Kazama. Something I was so attached to and couldn't get rid of, yet I hated it so much. I mentally laughed every time I thought about it. It was a very weird thing.

   I opened the door, the scarf still in my hand as I left my room. I walked down the halls, my feet guiding me as I looked at the scarf.

   When I looked very closely at the scarf, there was a very beautiful pattern everywhere. It was basically invisible though. The design was complicated yet simple. A dragon ran down its length, the smallest details taken in by the maker of the scarf.