CHAPTER THREE
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The Dragon Boy - Joe Hisaishi
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Hayates slim fingers threaded gently through Tetsuros long black locks as she continued to sleep beside him, eyes closed to the world and the storm raging just outside. She had come to him scared in the middle of the night but was embarrassed to admit that it was the thunder and lightning that shook her. He found it adorable. She had tried to play off coming to his room as her checking on him but had all but jumped under the covers when he offered to protect her. He supposed everyone, even strong little Tetsuro, had their fears. He wasn't surprised, after all she was still a child.
What did surprise him though was how she doubted his pride in her.
He had just concluded some business with the compounds medics and was glad to be home when he heard the words to Ishida. It struck him surprisingly hard, as well as angered him, that she could even doubt his words. Had he not provided everything for her so she could grow? Had he not proved how much he loved and adored her everyday by letting her sit beside him in the pagoda. A high honour. But she was still a child, he supposed she didn't know better. After all, her world view was intentionally small and controlled, everything witnessed by her eyes being approved by his own first. He couldn't have her mind tainted.
After all, she was perfect.
She was everything he had worked for all these long years. A perfect successor. Refined but already so powerful. Her body was strong and her mind malleable, ready to be moulded like clay under his hands.
But most importantly, she inherited his technique.
It was a relief when she did, she was his favourite after all. So strong, so much like him. The children he had in the past were adequate but had never reached the milestones he wanted so he was forced to get rid of them as well as their mothers. Couldn't have failures running around, now could he. It would of been embarrassing. His followers barley noticed. How could they? So preoccupied with the desperate search for the salvation he promised them, the afterlife of Eternal Paradise only he could provide. Their simple minds were so sweet.
His mind however wandered to Ishida.
She was strong, trained in martial arts even before joining them, but her mind was tired after her life plans fell through. She had been more then happy to hand over control to someone else. So sad, so low. Hayate supposed when you're life falls apart, it's easier to let someone build it back up for you. He respected and trusted her enough to be around Tetsuro but the anger that bubbled in his stomach after hearing Tetsuro doubt him because of something she said was near blinding. Tetsuro was his daughter, his only chosen heir to a kingdom he had built from the ground up. Her faith should be unwavering.
Excitement suddenly made his nerves light up like fireworks as an idea bloomed.
Carefully, he shifted to his knees as a smile made his cheeks pinch. The scar over his eye felt tight but he didn't mind. Hayate was gentle as he reached out to shake his daughter shoulders, chucking when she slapped his hand away and rolled onto her stomach, before reaching out and doing it again just with the slightest bit more force. Tetsuro grunted, head shooting up in confusion, and Hayate could only laugh as her long black locks stuck up in ever which direction.
"Tetsuro" Hayate chuckled "you need to get up"
"No"
He laughed again, pushing himself up to his own feet "yes. I have something very important to show you"
The girls silver eyes flickered around, taking in the still dark sky peaking through the window, before she pushed her face back into the pillow "can it wait till morning? Please?"
"Maybe but I'd rather do it now" He hummed. He large hands poked at her side, making the girl giggle and squirm, before she finally pulled herself up into a sitting position. The sleep yukata she wore was disheveled and crumpled beyond belief while her hair seemed even worse than it was a few seconds ago.
"Fine" she huffed with a roll of her eyes.
"Come on"
Hayates hands almost completely engulfed Tetsuros when he grabbed them to pull her to her feet before beginning to lead the girl through his rooms shoji doors and down the deserted hallway. He didn't need light to see, feet familiar with the path to where he wanted to go, but his daughter stumbled with each step. Her silver eyes were squinted uselessly but he found her annoyed scrunched up nose cute.
"Is the storm over?" Tetsuro whispered, hands gripping her fathers clothes tightly.
"Not yet but I promised I'd protect you so you have no need to worry" He whispered back before turning them down another corner. Tetsuro smiled up at him, eyes barley seeing him through the dark, and he couldn't help but smile back.
The corridor was long and dark, lined on each side by shoji doors, while the roof was littered with red paper lanterns that cast a crimson glow across the polished wood. Shadows seemed to dance across the paper of the sliding doors. It was immaculately cleaned, not a single speck of dust even though the hallway was deserted, while the wooden floor was surprisingly worn down. What confused the girl the most though was the fact that it led to a dead end. Hayate didn't seem to mind. The same calm smile simply pulled across his lips.
"Father?" Tetsuro hissed, tugging on his sleep clothes sharply. He glanced at her and almost chuckled at the visible confusion painted across her scrunched up features.
"Just watch" He assured before brushing her hands off of him. The mans steps were incredibly light as he crouched down in the right corner of the hallways dead end before using his hand to press down gently on a floorboard. It was small, inconspicuous, and lodged into the very corner. One would glance over it if they weren't looking for it. The small piece of wood sank about a centimetre into the ground when Hayate pressed on it.
A small click! echoed around the hallway.
The tiny sound seemed to bounce off each corner before everything fell silent again. There wasn't even a creak when a small square section of the ground beside Hayate suddenly began to sink into the ground. The girl scrambled towards it, falling to her knees at the edge of the hole, before dipping her head down into it. All she saw was a set of stone stairs. More red lanterns lined the low stone roof above it while moss clung to the walls and steps.
"This is so cool!" She whispered "what's it doing here thought?"
"Follow me and I'll just show you" Her father whispered back before he gracefully slid down through the hole and landed on the top of the stairs. There was a small drop between the top step and the floor of their home. Hayate waited there for her, expectant blue eye watching her. Tetsuro hesitated for a moment, sweat beading on the back of her neck, before shuffling closer to edge and slipping down much less gracefully then her father. He caught her before her bare feet could hit the stone ground.
"Father?" She whispered again. Even with the red lamps, the staircase was swimming with shadows.
"Watch you're head" he hummed musically as he placed her back on the ground before continuing on his path down the stairs. His back was bent slightly, ducking under the lanterns, with his loose black hair swaying over his shoulders as he walked. With each step, he disappeared further into the shadows and out of the girls reach.
Tetsuro lingered at the top. The nervous sweat had loose hairs sticking to her skin while her hands gripped her yukata tightly to the point her fists were shaking. She didn't want to go down. To the dark, to the unknown. The shadows looked alive, swirling around her father as he stopped to look over his shoulder expectantly. The girl almost sobbed when she saw the familiar gleam of disappointment in his eye.
"Tetsuro" His tone was much more firm "come here"
She didn't hesitate this time. Her footsteps were quick, bare feet slipping slightly on the edge of a mossy step, before she latched herself onto her fathers arm when she finally reached him. His gaze slowly became more appraising. Tetsuro continued to cling to him as he led them both down the stairs, the red lights becoming more few and far between, before they cams to a stop at the sight of a large heavy wood door braced with metal. The girls grip became tighter. Hayate payed his daughters fear no mind as he pulled the sleeve on his right arm up the reveal a medley of intricate tattoos branded onto his skin. His hand hovered over one shaped like a key.
Tetsuro watched in fascination as the ink of the tattoo began to rise through his skin as a viscous liquid before taking the solid shape of the key it had originally been.
"It's a simple technique called Tainted Skin" Hayate hummed as he used the key to unlock the heavy door "I'll teach you soon"
The words seemed to go straight through one of Tetsuros ears and out the other as her eyes remained fixated on the shadows the now open door revealed. Hayate stepped into the room readily but her feet remained rooted to the floor. Something felt wrong. The cold sweat came back with a vengeance, a drop dangling from the tip of her nose, while her breath came out in sharp pants.
She watched from the doorway as the room suddenly lit up with a red lanterns glow. It's shadows were still deep, clinging to the corners desperately and flickering out like living things reaching for something just out of their grasp. Her father remained stoic. He made a small 'come hither' gesture that had Tetsuro stumbling up to his side. Her legs felt weak. Nausea twisted in her stomach, her throat tightening with each breath. The air felt too heavy.
The rooms dark mossy walls were covered in paper talisman and the roof has a single red lantern in the centre. The floor was the same stone but lacked the green growths that was on the walls and was instead covered in more warding symbols to suppress what was stored here. Tetsuro hated how tight the square room felt. She felt crowded, too hot and stuffy, even though it was just her and her father.
A singular large scroll lay resting against the wall.
It was the epicentre of the malice that rested across the girls shoulder. Even just looking at the thing, old and inconspicuous, was making the bile rise in her throat. Hayate raised a brow when she dry heaved next to him.
The black haired man crouched beside the scroll "do you know what this is?"
It was a rhetorical question but Tetsuro still shook her head, loose hair swaying around her and sticking to her sweaty cheeks. Hayate moved away from the scroll, brushing some hair out of his daughters face, before standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders to hold her up right.
"This is a special grade cursed object" He hummed, thumbs rubbing circles on his daughters shoulders absently "one of the four Gyakusatsu Scrolls. The Scrolls of Slaughter and Salvation."
"I-what?" Tetsuro whimpered. The feeling of overwhelming hatred had eased now she was closer to her father, his familiar cursed energy wrapping around her like a blanket, but her skin still felt tainted. Like a layer of dust and grime was clinging to her.
"This is Kon, the oldest of the scrolls." Hayate continued to talk "I was able to steal it before escaping from my family."
"Kon?" She whispered. The name felt odd on her tongue, mouth feeling like it was full of cotton, while a buzzing began at the very base of her skull.
"Yes" Her father whispered before kneeling down on the cold stone ground, Tetsuro all but collapsing back into his chest with a ragged breath, and resting his chin on her head far to casually "The Mori clan are liars Tetsuro. They say only the clan leader can summon the beasts in the scrolls but it's a trick to keep the others weak, so the clan head always has a trump card over everyone. The Mori clan always lie. About their history, their strength, and more importantly about what I did"
"The Mori clan always lies" The girl could barley mumbled out. She didn't know why she was exhausted but simply being near the scroll was taking everything out of her. Her legs felt weak, all her joints were achy, while the weight of the cursed energy was almost physical.
"Good girl" Hayate whispered happily. His hand gently stroked over her ruffled black hair, idly twisting several locks around his fingers.
"Mori...always lie" she was close to incoherent at this point. The man chuckled at her struggles. He wasn't surprised the amount of cursed energy the scroll was giving off was affecting her greatly, after all he was the strongest thing she had come in contact with but he always kept his energy as repressed as possible. The small number of curse users in the compound barley reached his level.
"That's right dear, they alway lie" He whispered in her ear "Tetsuro, I'm showing this to you because I trust you more then anything, because I'm proud of you and I want you to trust me. I only want the best for you. After all you're my future, my favorite. This is our little secret"
Tetsuro woke up the next morning, head heavy, feeling like what had happened the night before was nothing more than a twisted dream.
Her hair was worse than a birds nest a raccoon had attacked while her skin still felt grimy. Her throat felt tight, while her mouth was cotton dry. She felt like she could vomit. The girls dreary silver eyes flickered around the room she lay in, her own instead of her fathers, before she attempted to push herself up into a sitting position. Her arms shook and collapsed out from under her the first try but she got it the second. She regretted it however, nausea twisting her stomach roughly. Ishida opened her rooms doors just as Tetsuro gagged.
"Shit!" The brunette cursed as she rushed to the girls side while Tetsuro let herself flop back onto her futon which a whine resembling a dying cat "what the hell happened?!"
"I'm sick" Tetsuro groaned and rolled over onto her stomach so she could smother herself with her pillow.
"Yeah, you look terrible"
"Shut up!"
"Sorry" Ishida giggled as she rubbed soothing circles on the heiress back but worry quickly slipped into her tone "you were completely fine yesterday, what happened? Did you eat something?"
"I don't know" Tetsuro lied. Her arms wrapped around her pillow tightly, nails sinking into the plush fabric, before she turned her face to the open doors that her guardian had come throughout. They led straight to an engawa overlooking a small private courtyard with a beautiful koi pond centrepiece that her father had built for her birthday. The courtyard was her space, private and secret. Safe from prying eyes.
"Then you should rest today" the woman's smile was annoyingly kind "We can pick up your training when this bug has passed"
"Thanks..." the raven haired girl mumbled.
She buried her face into her pillow even further, half tempted to just smother herself. She truthfully wanted to tell Ishida about the scroll, Kon, and the malice that still lingered on her skin from simply being near it. The sheer hatred she had felt. But she couldn't. Her father had said it was a secret, their secret. No one could know.
Tetsuro remained deathly silent the rest of the day.
"Our secret" was the only thing she could bring herself to say.
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⛩ Note ⛩
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Ngl I mixed up cursed energy and chakra so F for me but they're very similar so it's fine :). They both can affect you physically I think, like a sort of pressure, and I remember emotions can be portrayed through chakra.