Eros. (Benimaru Shinmon)

❊四十❊

"How the hell is she alive when you told me she died!" Benimaru yelled.

"Calm down," Konro said.

"How the hell do you expect me to calm down when the woman I thought was dead is actually alive and has been for all these years!" Benimaru argued.

"Lower your tone," a stern voice said.

"You need to shut the hell up! You still are dead for turning Kantaro into an Infernal,"

I opened my eyes to see everyone sitting around me. Benimaru and Konro on my left side, a blond guy and girl at my foot, a girl, a guy, Akitaru, and Shinra on my right, and Akira and Ichijiro at my head with their helmets off. Talk about being boxed in.

"You guys are so loud," I muttered while holding my head and attempted to lift my body up only to cringe in pain from the injury.

"You should lie back down so you don't re-open the wound," someone said.

I turned towards a young man with a short crop of brown hair, with bangs that hang just above his brown eyes, and dons glasses.

"Why didn't you tell me you were injured when you called?" Akira yelled.

"Because I was being targeted," I said flatly, "I didn't want to bring unnecessary heat your way but it was inevitable to remain covert here: either I was going to be found out like this or by the corpse on the road near the area where Company 8 and Company 7 remained."

"Corpse?" Konro questioned.

I turned my head slightly in his direction and he had changed from how I remembered him back in the days. He still held his height and hair in a ponytail but he had a long scar running horizontally between his nose and eyes, his arms are wrapped in bandages and his eyes have developed a sickly shadowing.

"There were some local loan sharks planning to kill a resident in Asakusa but I intervened," I said, "But something was off--their physical appearance had changed as if someone altered their face."

"Altered their face..." a woman questioned.

I glance down at her and noticed she was a young adult of above-average height with an athletic and curvaceous figure. What was striking about her was her large violet eyes and long, straight dark brown hair that falls over her forehead and is usually positioned behind her left ear.

"Inori, what else were you able to gather?" Akitaru asked seriously.

I glanced towards the gentle giant to see he was holding a serious expression but behind those dark eyes, he was really concerned.

"There is a distance-ranged user here," I gritted through my teeth as I attempted to sit up and look and lift my shirt.

"WOAH!" A young man of average height with shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes with white pupils yelled.

I snorted at him and stopped my shirt right below my breast to see that there were bandages wrapped over it. I used my finger to incinerate a small portion of the bandages to get them off. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Benimaru questioned.

I ignored him and removed the bandages to get a good look at the wound. 

"Shit...that infernal gave me a second-degree burn..." I mumbled as I inspected the wound to see it looked wet, red, blistered, and swollen with a bluish-purple color forming around it from Benimaru punching at it. I lightly press my index finger against the center of the cut and suck in a sharp breath as the pain spirals all across my body, "Damn..."

"Akira, did you bring any systemic antibiotics?" I questioned.

"Hm," Akira answered as he dug through his uniform pockets and found a small tube along with gauze and handed it over. I put some on my wound and attempted to wrap my wound only to have Akitaru take the gaze out of my hand and wrap my burn causing me to blush profusely. 

"Thanks," I mumbled as I turned my head away from him while still blushing and crossed eyes with his hooded, crimson eyes. From the way, He curled his upper lip to keep himself from speaking. From the idea that his mind whirling with thoughts that only made him assume the worst. The feeling of jealousy was clear as it slowly grew into his skin, filled his blood. Making his eyes go dark, and his mouth becomes a straight line.

"You guys said you went to the store," Benimaru began as he rose from his sitting position, "I'll ask the store clerk to confirm this."

He walked out of the room and slid the shoji open, " I'm delaying your judgment, try to leave before you say I can and there will be violence."

He slid the door shut.

"He hasn't changed at all..." I mumbled.

Konro gave me a small smile and chuckled slightly, "Not really, he kind of changed when I told him that you passed away."

"And yet he had hope for me being alive..." I muttered.

"Yeah...he rebuilt your home to precision and became more focused on protecting everyone in Asakusa," Konro said.

"I guess now is the time I can properly thank you for letting Inori, Ichijiro, and myself for leaving that day," Akira said.

"Given everything you three went through, I knew a change of scenery was best. Also, I knew you had the potential of being a Fire Soldier, Inori, and I wanted to have you apart of the Hikeshi Brigade, but Benimaru begged me not to let you join even after you fought us with your pyrokinetic abilities-he pleaded with me to not let you join and offer to take any work I would have assigned to you."

"Tsk," I said as I rose from the futon and walked towards the shoji and closed the door."That's all in the past now...besides...Benimaru has a family now, I shouldn't be his focus anymore."