Ink Stained

100: sojobo kurama*

僧正坊鞍馬

She was left in awe at the sight of the Royal Palace all over again, after a whole month had passed since she was last here. She'd thought that its incredible beauty was forever etched in her mind, but she was wrong. As she and Shin walked through the halls of the Palace, Tengu bowing deeply before Shin as they passed, she found herself marvelling at things she hadn't noticed before.

The green dragons coiling through white clouds painted on the backdrop of red walls of the Palace weren't made from paint, but instead jade stone that was hewn into the shapes of the mighty beasts and slid into crevices cut into the wall. The arching bridges connecting one landing to the other were like sculptures out of some incredible fantastical story woven into the fabric of her reality. The sturdy wood of the floor was polished to a gleam, and she knew that attendants and servants must have scrubbed furiously to get it so. She felt guilty for walking all over their hard work, and had the absurd thought of wondering when shoes with little cleaners attached to the back would be invented, so that her footsteps would be cleaned away instead of leaving behind dirty imprints. Or maybe floating shoes to avoid the problem entirely.

Every Tengu who set eyes on her did a double-take when they saw her white hair. She'd come to Kyoto this time without dyeing it, more out of lack of time than anything else – and a little bit suspicion that Shiori wouldn't dye it just black, because now that she knew what Pai's hair looked like in a different colour, she seemed to be on a mission to give Pai something called 'lowlights'.

She felt their eyes follow her every move as she walked, and she kept shifting her shoulders under the sweater she wore, skin pulled tight from the awareness of their gaze fixed on her. Whenever she looked up from her feet, she met someone's eyes skittering away from hers. It all made her queasy.

She and Shin had arrived a few minutes after Kouta. It was already evening by the time they got there, and after a little while speaking with his father, Kouta came back and told them that the meeting would take place early the next morning. He showed her to her quarters, now on the same floor as his and Shin's.

Her room was right next to Shin's, in fact.

From the sly smirk on Kouta's lips as he turned and went on his own merry way, she knew that the arrangement had been wrangled about by him.

Before she went into her room Shin asked her if she wanted him to keep her company. She'd contemplated saying yes, already missing his touch, but she'd only smiled and said that she was okay, just tired and needed to sleep.

That was really only half true. She was tired, especially with Kuniumi's disappearance after helping her use her [ability], if only for a few seconds. There was also the confusing, disturbing sliver of Kuniumi's memory to ponder on, even if she knew that no matter how many times she turned it over in her head, she wouldn't make heads or tails of any of it.

But she also said no because she was afraid to let her heart leap to her throat in unfair anticipation of his kiss, yet seeing the hesitation in his eyes as he moved an inch away, giving her space she didn't want.

Now, as she stood trembling before the ornate, massive double doors to the Main Hall, where Sojobo Kurama and his council awaited, she wondered if she could really go through with this.

Of course she'd realized what it meant to come all the way to Kyoto. Of course she'd realized that she was going to have to relive all she already had with Kouta and Shiori to his father, the King. But it was only now, before the imposing doors of bronze and gold carved with the menacing images of a Tengu flying into battle dressed in fierce armour, did the full import of what she was about to do hit her.