hakai | gabimaru

十四

As Riku listens to her words, he notices one criminal not even moving an inch from his spot. He points at him towards Rika. "Look" He spoke to her, the two of them know looking at the same person. "He's not even moving a muscle yet he's a big shot amongst the criminals here." He says, bringing his hand down back to his side. "Why were you talking to him anyway?" Riku asks her.

As her hands fixes the front of her kimono, she darts her eyes towards Gabimaru's figure, still sitting in the sand. "When I first him, he already looks interesting to me. Although he initially was glaring at me since I was adjacent to him, I took the liberty of making the first move and talking to him." She replies, moving a few hair strands away from her face. No other person had ever caught her attention except Rien.

"Talking to him somewhat feels refreshing." Rika pitches in. "He thinks differently the way I do. So to see and hear everything from his perspective is really nice. I can look at the world the way he does."

"He feels somewhat...extraordinary." Rika goes on, tilting her head as her purple eyes continues to look at Gabimaru's figure. "I haven't know him for a long time yet I feel like we'll get along really well. Sure what he has done to land here in this place could be more than twisted the way I did, but just thinking about all the possibilities one after another intrigues me."

All the while Rika stares at Gabimaru's figure from afar, Riku has his head turned to look at Rika. As someone who is as articulate as her, it surprises Riku just how much Rika speaks of Gabimaru. She isn't fickle rather constant and stable by his side and at one point, in Rien's side. So to hear her speak so rather highly of Gabimaru just proves one thing, she is orbiting around him. Two complete strangers meeting and forming a bond. 

How uncanny. They met in prison.

"What do you think he's going to do?" Rika asks, her voice drawing Riku out of his thoughts.

The twins' eyes lands on Gabimaru's figure, forwarding towards the front of the platform. Towards the Tokugawa himself. Riku's eyebrows scrunch forward, though Gabimaru isn't his watched over criminal, his hands instinctively flew to hold the handle and case of his katana by his hip.

"Don't draw it out just yet." Rika spoke, pouting at her younger brother. "I want to see what he's trying to compromise."

The twins' eyes widened as they continue to watch him say whatever is coming out of his mouth to the Tokugawa himself. It didn't help that the male attendants were also ready to draw their katana's out against him, the possibility of him plotting something diabolic already floating in their heads. As Rika turns her head to look around, the criminals have stopped and stared at him too.

"How rude of you to speak to the Lord that way!" One belowed at him.

"I would prefer not to kill." Is what Gabimaru replies. His voice a little louder and holding a firm stance. "It's a normal thought." He adds.

How...intriguing. How very intriguing. In this world of to kill or be killed, he chose neither. Perhaps he's playing safe? Some people preferred to live that way. With what happened to her earlier, she was forced to kill in order to live.

"Hey, you over there!" An attendant calls, his index finger pointing to a group of men near her side. "Kill him and you're all on the landing party." He instructs, ushering towards Gabimaru.

"Seriously?" A half naked man gasps, bending down to pick up a stone. "Don't move."

A soft gasp escapes Rika's lips, one hand clutching on the sleeve of Riku's uniform. If she could do what she did to the man who attempted to kill her earlier, she could spare Gabimaru's life. Then again, who is she to play as a saint.

His expression and demeanor changed. Taking steps closer to the other man, he closes the distance between them. "I don't really want to kill you. But I have to." He spoke to him, a tinge of idle laced in his voice.

Rika's eyes widens in surprise as Gabimaru does the same move in how she killed the man earlier. With just one swing of the leg, Gabimaru's foot manages to cut the neck, blood furiously sipping out as both the neck and body fall down to the sandy ground. Both landing with a soft thud.

Even as the fight goes out of the tent, her purple eyes continues to follow Gabimaru's fleeting and hard figure. The golden orange rays of the setting sun in the horizon illuminating on her face. She couldn't understand why her insides felt soft, mushy and why goosebumps are running all over her body the more she continues to look at him.

"That's enough, sinners! I hereby declare the landing party."

"The bandit king, Aza Chobei."

"The blade dragon, Tamiya Gantetsusai."

"Hunter of the Hundred, Warped Keiun, Nurugai of the Mountains."

"Killing Buddha, Horubo."

"Rogue Ninja, Gabimaru the Hollow."

"Cannibal Courtesan, Akaginu."

"Yuzuriha of Keishu."

"The Apostate, Moro Makiya."

"The Giant of Bizen, Rokurota."

"And Holocaust of Edo, Rika of Yoshiwara."