hakai | gabimaru

十二

 Slipping the white cloth a little, her purple eyes meets a fellow purple eyes. "One kimono will do."

"We will now inform you about the island you will be headed to!" The attendant announced. Immediately, she slipped back the white cloth over her face. Here it is, the words that she so ardently want to hear ever since her imprisonment. Her ears perking up as she wants to hear every detail of it. However, a chorus of disappointment erupts. 

"It is unto a paradise on earth-"

"Cut the bullshit, would you?"

"We know that already!"

"Is this some children's fairy tale?"

"Shut up!" Rika roars, infuriated at how they could cut him off like that. Riku's cool demeanor retains whereas Tenza and Kisho shook and blinked their eyes at her sudden outburst.

As everyone falls a silent a sigh escapes the attendant's lips. "Remove your masks."

Removing the cloth off her face, Rika could smell the salt in the air perfectly. Before them is a person who is in the process of arborification. Tilting her head to the side, Rika examines the body - although she could see his lips still moving it is highly likely that this man's body must have been injected with the butterfly's mature samples of Tan, hence how others undergo the process of arborification itself. It would have been impossible if this man in front of them have drank Tan. Horai is in the innermost part of the island and no human, ever in her thousand years of living, has stepped foot in their- her and Riku's, former humble abode.

"He was the only back up soldier who returned from the recent island survey. As you can see, he is no longer a person." The attendant continues.

Rika lets out a snort followed by sounds of her giggling.

'No longer a person? Please. The way the man could still murmur means he's still human. As the arborification is still ongoing within he's body, he still has a chance to live.' Rika thinks to herself.

"What's so funny?!" The attendant yells at her.

As Rika stops giggling, she shook her head to them. "I just find flowers sprouting out of a human's body to be very intriguing." She replies, a small smile painted on her lips. "If it is possible, I'd like flowers to grow out of me too. Will the flowers be peony? Peach blossom? Hibiscus? I'm getting excited just thinking about it!"

"Oi." Kisho murmurs, leaning a little close to whisper onto Riku's ear. "If you think you can't handle your sister, give her to my care." 

"When he returned, he had bumps all over his body. The next day, they blossomed." The attendant continues. "Besides him, sixty odd members of the survey team are still missing."

"Sure..." Rika murmurs under her breath, tilting her head down a little so they wouldn't catch her talking to herself. "That sixty odd members are probably in the flower pit already."

"What happened in the island?" A criminal asks.

"We don't know. We have no clue as our only witness is in this state." The attendant continues to speak.

Other criminals tensed at the sight and information. It is only natural that they would get scared at what lingers in the island. With the soshi and doshi wandering out and about, who's to say they would last the island for more than a week? Nothing is edible as they do not require food to sustain themselves. Recklessly plucking a flower and eating it would still be a wrong move.

As an uproar of criminals opposed to the dangers of the island, an attendant busts himself into tears.

"Enough!" He shouts at all of them. "It's just as the woman says, nothing is so mystical and beautiful for a man to turn into a flower! Especially for sinners like you, you're all condemned to death! And now, you're all acquitted and given a chance to go to the Pure Land!"

"Pure Land my foot." Rika murmurs again. "Nothing about that island is pure. It reeks of dead bodies and salt."

"Seems like you know a lot about the island." Gabimaru murmurs, his head already turned to face her.

Rika's demeanor shifts, turning her head to smile at him. "What makes you think so? The only reason I can ever talk is based on the tangible and intangible evidences these people brought upon us." Is her explanation. "I wouldn't be talking nonsense if they didn't bring the man with blossoming flowers in his body."

"Don't you fools understand the deep compassion of the court?!"

"Oi." A rather deep tone of voice calls out, turning heads towards his direction. Spitting out the stick situated between their lips. 

"No one knows anything about the island, right? What if there's no elixir?"