CHAPTER 108 — LURKING AROUND THE CORNER
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It was another ordinary day at the bakery.
The morning started with a single, calla lily placed at Kazumi's bedside table for her to wake up to as the sun breached the sky's barriers. Ever since her Shinobi duties had discontinued, her days were already planned ahead. In a way, she liked this sense of normalcy and quietude. She never knew what to expect on a mission that required constant alert and ability to sense danger from miles way. It was a strange sort of different, but refreshing nonetheless.
After they had dropped Kazumi off to school, her mother had taken her to a local diner where they enjoyed breakfast together. Kei had told her about the week-long mission Kakashi was assigned to and expressed his condolences in not being able to tell her himself. She wasn't mad, she understood. Being a Shinobi was expeditious and often interrupted family life, but they made it work. They always did. Whether it was through apologetic dinners, movie nights or kept promises.
"Thank you for your purchase." She smiled at the customer. "I hope you come again!" Handing them their spare change, she watched as they walked off happily munching the muffin she'd helped prep hours ago.
"Dawn!"
Dawn craned her head over her shoulder. "Yeah, Tomi?"
"Can you help me unload the boxes at the back?!"
"Sure!"
"Stop shouting, Mimi! Your voice will disappear!"
"Sorry, Nana!" Hitomi screamed back.
Nana swapped with Dawn at the till, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Give her a whack on the head for me, will you?"
Dawn smiled. "Of course, Nana."
Making her way into the storage room at the back, Hitomi sighed in relief at the sight of Dawn while simultaneously balancing four boxes in her arms. She chuckled at the sight and removed two of the boxes from her hold and placed them on the floor.
"Thanks, Dawn- ow! Hey! What was that for?" Hitomi rubbed the spot Dawn had whacked.
She shrugged unapologetically. "Nana told me to do it."
"You could've toned it down on your freakish Ninja strength." Hitomi scowled.
"You're a big girl." Dawn teased, before she began to unload the supplies from the boxes to the table in front of them. "Are you excited for tonight?"
"Excited?" She snickered, her eyes lighting up. "I'm ecstatic! It's the five year anniversary of the Fugishima bakery ever since I'd taken over with you, Sasuke and Jiro and with all the funds I've saved up, it's almost enough to open up a bakery in Ame."
Dawn smiled softly at the look of pure excitement on her best friend's face. "You're so close to fulfilling your dream, huh?"
"Don't be silly." Hitomi unpackaged the balloons and streamers. "My dream has already been accomplished. I have a family now and an annoying sister." She shot Dawn a teasing look. "And I have the Fugishima bakery, even if I don't introduce sale in Ame, this is more than enough for me. You're more than enough for me, Dawn."
She didn't hear a response. Hitomi furrowed her eyebrows and turned around, only to see a sniffling Dawn wipe her nose with her sleeve.
"You know... you're such a crybaby."
"Leave me alone, I get emotional when you say things like that." Dawn grumbled, wiping the remainder of her tears away.
Hitomi swung her arm over Dawn's shoulders and ruffled her hair. Dawn flailed her arms in attempt to push her away. "Hey- stop- why'd you always mess my hair up!" She whined.
"Because it's fun to see you complain." Hitomi grinned, eventually releasing her hold and returned back to the items in the box. "So... I heard the gremlin's taking you on a date tomorrow."
Dawn stacked up eight boxes and lifted them with ease to the front, a light blush donning her cheeks. "Yeah, it sucks that he's not telling me what we're doing though."
"Ah, but the element of surprise is what keeps you on your toes, young one." Hitomi chortled, her eyes then widening. "What the- how are you carrying all of those boxes?! They all weigh a ton!"
"It's my freakish Ninja strength, remember? I don't have noodle arms like you."
"I have you know, years of kneading have strengthened these muscles, thank you very much for your unwanted opinion." She said defensively.
"You're welcome." Dawn cracked a grin and placed the boxes down by the counters and watched as Nana disappeared into the kitchen. She presumed to finish the rest of the pastries for tonight's feast.
"Oh, I forgot the last box." Hitomi groaned.
"No worries, I'll get it."
Dawn ventured back to the storage room in search of the box Hitomi missed. It was a rather large room, given the size of the bakery itself, where Hitomi tended to store random clusters of junk from her home above.
While she looked around for the box, the lights above began to flicker vehemently. She paused, watching it spiral out of control and hum from overexertion until the light exploded within the bulb; clusters of glass scattering to the ground. Dawn didn't move for a second, using the light from the open door to navigate where the pieces of glass had fallen before she stood up and began to gather the mess. It turned out to be not one of her brightest ideas as she felt a deep prick on her finger, followed by the sting of her blood leaking from the cut.
"Ouch." Dawn stared at her finger, her eyes narrowing in on the cut that was a lot bigger than expected. "Should've just used a brush." She mumbled.
For some inexplicable reason, she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the blood, remembering the long, torturous hours spent on missions that only led to the realisation that human life was as expendable as the hand being used to commit the murder. Seemingly, the cut grew in size and the blood that flowed now painted her entire hand red.
Dawn sharply inhaled, standing upright and staggered back in horror, only for a single second to pass and the light to turn back on.
Her mouth separated, glancing back at the light that was intact, the bulb untouched and her fingers devoid of the blood that'd tainted it. She exhaled, rubbing her hands together to rid of the numbness in her fingers, only for her head to snap up at the sharp ringing that resonated in her ears. At first, it was a low buzzing, as if there was a bee passing by. And then it escalated, loud vultures screeching into her ears, pained and dying and screaming endlessly.
"T-Tomi!" Dawn called, the box long forgotten as she stumbled into the front of the bakery, Hitomi nowhere to be seen. "Tomi?"
"Out here." Hitomi, who was standing outside on the streets, replied.
She narrowed her eyes in confusion, wondering what she was doing out there and decided to follow her.
"Tomi, what-"
"Look." She pointed up at the sky.
Dawn chased her gaze, her eyes widening at the sight. The sky almost seemed... fake? With large pools of mystical colours flowing around each other to create a whirlpool, its tempo and mobility coordinated in an untimely manner that she couldn't help be enamoured by the sight.
Though, when she squinted, she noticed a layer, similar to a barrier of glass that separated land from sky and a crack in its midst. One that grew like vines that spread its arms and doubled it size, her heart pounded against her chest in anticipation, knowing that if the glass shattered completely- something terrible was going to happen. Something Dawn knew she didn't want to happen, afraid of what the consequences entailed. As if she was familiar with the storm's wrath and dexterity.
"Tomi- we need to go—"
"You never call me that." Hitomi replied, her gaze never leaving the sky.
"What?" Dawn furrowed her eyebrows.
"Tomi. You've never called me Tomi, no matter how much I insisted. And I never call you Dawn, mostly Shortie." She finally drew her gaze to Dawn's confused eyes.
"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about." She said, the ringing in her ears increasing in pitch. "But we need to go inside, the glass wall will break." She grabbed her wrist.
"No." Hitomi snatched her wrist back. "You need to stop running away."
"But if we don't run, we'll get hurt." Dawn reasoned.
"Don't you see? I'm already hurt."
Dawn stared at Hitomi, unsure on what she was talking about until her gaze travelled to her heart where blood began to pool out of the deep wound and staining her white shirt. An inaudible gasp escaped her mouth as she caught Hitomi before she could reach the ground.
Tears blurred her vision as she placed her hand over the wound, only to see her fingers gripping the handle of a kunai that was buried deep into her chest.
"Hitomi..." Dawn whispered in fright, frantic pants escaping her mouth. "What- What do I do? How do I fix it? You're-You're bleeding so much!"
A lightning bolt struck one of the houses close by, setting it to flames.
In the near distance, she could see jagged lines that formed the horizon of mountains that surrounded them with colourful beams of lightning flashing around it- dark red and black and white, colours that clashed against each other fiercely in battle and a sky that bled and bled and bled, overriding the blue and tainting the world she buried herself in with darkness.
I got it wrong. Dawn glanced up at the sky, unable to see the cracked glass. The glass isn't above, it's beneath—
The ground shattered and she was falling. Hitomi disappeared from her arms and into the dark abyss, a void that she travelled further into, the light above a mere dot that granted no promise of escape until all that could be heard was silence and the sound of her heavy breathing. Dawn recognised this place, it was where she resided.
Suddenly, she gasped in pain, her knees clashing with the ground as she gripped her temples. A headache, it was more than a headache, Dawn could feel the walls of her mind being crushed, as if sharp knives were being scraped against it and it was difficult to fight against the overwhelming force that threatened to consume her. It was unfamiliar and that ignited a burning rage in her chest, a rage that wanted nothing but to remove the parasite and reduce it to nothing.
"There is an intruder." Kaede spoke, her voice echoing down the walls of mirrors in which she lacked a reflection. "They're trying to infiltrate through your mental barriers and in a few minutes, they will succeed if you don't do anything."
Dawn slowly stood up, clenching and unclenching her fingers. "Who is it?"
"A Yamanaka. He wants access to your memories, he wants answers."
"He's not getting them." She scoffed. The headache increased and she knew that Kaede was right, she was no longer strong enough to withstand the pressure. But Kaede was. While Dawn grew weaker, Kaede grew stronger. "How long has it been?"
"A week." Kaede replied. "And in two weeks-"
"I know."
Kaede watched Dawn carefully, her head tilting to the side in deep contemplation. "You don't need to wake up if you don't want to."
"I know." She reiterated. "But I have to."
"You owe them nothing-"
"I'm aware. But there is one person I do owe." Dawn turned around and began to walk. "Take care of the pest."
"Understood."
∷
"We can't waste anymore time than we already have." Ibiki gritted, his palms flat against the table.
They resided in the enclosed side of the intelligence department where the light was obnubilated by the darkness that enshrouded the hallways, hallways that began to twist and turn like a meticulous, unsolvable puzzle and walls sans apertures that would allow any sort of light to enter.
In a way, it was fitting for the criminals that were locked away in places that were hard to find as they were as equally difficult to escape. After all, if you didn't know where you were, then a viable escape would be almost impossible.
Almost. Inoichi noted, because he knew that the woman behind the heavily, sealed door was very much capable of the impossible. And that was what they needed, a solution to the impossible.
"She's wounded." Inoichi argued, massaging his temples. "I'm not sure if internal issues could intervene with my Jutsu."
"It's been a week." Ibiki reminded him harshly. "We can't even afford to waste seconds and we've been here for a week waiting for Dawn to wake up. Her unconscious state will make it easier to penetrate through her mental barriers, we don't necessarily need her, just her knowledge."
"You've seen how her mind works, she's not like any regular Shinobi I've infiltrated the minds of- the walls surrounding her semantic and episodic memory operate automatically, almost like a system designed to defend itself." He said, navigating through his own mind for any other solution but to no avail.
"Then try." Ibiki pushed. "Don't you see? She's not as strong as she was before, she's weakening and that means her guard is lowered as well, whether it'd be mentally or physically."
"Look, we're all tense and desperate. At any moment, we could be attacked. The Villagers are restless and the Hokage is unable to do anything about it." He took a step forward, his finger pointed towards the sealed door. "That's our key to survival. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the damage she'd undergo, we need something to work with and we need them now, Inoichi."
"Fine." Inoichi caved, sighing deeply.
It had been a week since Dawn Hatake was retrieved near the outskirts of the Fire Lands by a group of scouts along with the body of Hitomi Fugishima, an individual known to be acquainted with Dawn. She was found dead on sight and Dawn was depleted of energy with evidence of battle scattered across her body. She was taken in for emergency operation before being transported to solitary.
He didn't know much about Dawn, but he knew quite a bit about her achievements. She worked under Lady Tsunade's tutelage and took an apprenticeship, scaled the ranks and led her own Anbu team for a year, involved in Konoha's political and economic affairs and now known for committing treason against the Leaf as well as arbitrary assassinations. She had made her allegiance with the Oogami clear and it didn't take a genius to understand the extent in which damage had already been caused as a result of knowledge exploitation. Her knowledge itself was capable of bringing the Village to its knees and in a way, she had already succeeded in doing so, one of her accomplices being an ex-root Anbu trained in such expertise. She picked her allies carefully and plotted with even more precision.
One thing that had always caught his interest was her apparent resolve towards change as well as the uncertainty that surrounded her loyalties. Dawn always acted in the interest of the Leaf, unbeknownst to everyone else that it resulted in the opposite effect. She was able to trick even the most intelligent of people and the only reason why she was caught, was because she allowed herself to be caught.
"Inoichi." Ibiki said suddenly, he glanced at him. "I didn't mean to pressurise you, but you know what's at stake."
It wasn't just the Village, it was his family as well. His daughter, his wife, his Clan, the people he cared about deeply. The fate of the world laid in the palm of her hands.
"I know." Inoichi said, before entering the room.
It was heavily sealed up, courtesy of the Fūinjutsu users to immobilise the intended recipient and nullify her abilities- whatever it may be. Another mystery she was able to conceal; the true extent of what she was capable of.
And there she was, her torso and limbs strapped to the metal, boxed chair. Given the field he worked in, he was no stranger to the reality of what his work entailed, whether it'd be torture or information extraction— morals were superintended by the judges while they were mere hirelings ensuring that punishment has been ensued. But a part of him hesitated, Dawn was a friend of his daughter, what would she think? Would she approve of him invading her privacy? Did she think Dawn was guilty of the crimes she committed or was there more to it?
Inoichi placed his hand on her forehead, a shiver climbing up the ladders of his spine as goosebumps arose on his skin. He paused, looking around the room, he felt as if a cold raft was vigorously lashing against his skin while, at the same time, feeling nothing at all.
Her skin was cold and lifeless, but he paid no mind to it as he closed his eyes and lifted his other hand to form a hand-sign. "Psycho mind transmission."
There were several downsides of using this Jutsu.
The first being memory interference and being able to find relevant information before the recipient attempted forms of resistance; a natural reaction the body extorted to eliminate the threat of infiltration. The second being a risk to his own self and the psychological impact he might face if the recipient was capable of convoluted forms of resistance that include an embedded offence response.
When he opened his eyes, he was lurking in a dark void. The breath he was holding escaped in relief as he realised he completed the first process of the Jutsu; infiltration. The second step being retrieval, in which he'd search for fissures within reach which openly displayed a trivial memory, the deeper he ventured the more complicated the network of memories operated. The darkest of them were usually the hardest to access, the normal human mind naturally buried and locked it away to prevent it from resurfacing- but the trained minds purposefully displaced the memory in a place that cannot be accessed, even by themselves.
Strangely enough, there were no fissures in sight. No cracks or gateways or entries to the simplest of memories. Just an endless abyss of darkness with no light at the end of the road, or any signs of there even being an end.
"What..." Inoichi furrowed his eyebrows in disbelief. "This shouldn't be possible, not unless..."
The mind is already aware of the intruder.
Was this the result of Tsunade's training or was Tsunade already aware of Dawn's impressive mental defence mechanisms which acted as a factor towards entrusting her with confidentiality? Be that as it may, it was a risk staying in her mind any longer, but the resolve that trickled through his veins refused to leave empty-handed.
Inoichi looked around, searching as he bypassed many dead-ends until finally, a flash of colour caught his attention.
It was quick, a swift splatter of luminescence that beguiled his rationale and forced him to follow in its stead towards a darker tunnel, a tunnel that played the sound of his own footsteps in his ears as well as many other sounds, sounds that indicated that he wasn't alone but being watched by the creatures that lurked in the shadows. He stared at them, bewildered by the mass of red, empty eyes staring at him viciously and jagged, sharp teeth dripping with saliva, as if they were awaiting the command to attack.
Hastening his steps, Inoichi was approached by a ripple that consisted of a pressure so high, it instantly vacuumed him in to its clutches, the intensity rattling his bones and made him clench his teeth in response.
He was falling.
Feeling nothing and yet everything at the same time as he fell through the air, flailing to postpone the impact— and when he landed on the ground, the air was sucked out of his body, his chest crushing against an invisible force.
Inoichi coughed, lifting himself up with his elbows and took the chance to examine his new surroundings as well as the feeling of pain that permeated throughout his body- something he'd never imagine to feel in the subconscious mind. He was meant to be transparent to touch and yet he knew that physical damage had been done to this corporeal form.
Sand. He felt beneath his feet. Red sand, a sea of red sand that branched into round hills in the distance and above him was an amalgamation of colours that could only be compared to a storm- a storm that lived and had a mind of its own, able to move its own limbs and control its own body. He felt his mouth run dry as he turned his gaze back to the ground, his nerves skyrocketing. It wasn't just sand, but bones and skulls as well, clusters of them and it made him wonder if he was the first to be here or if he was one of many unfortunate others.
"A curious little thing, aren't you?"
His eyes widened, his head snapping towards the direction of the voice.
Dawn. Was his first thought, but the closer he looked the more he realised he couldn't be more wrong. He wasn't one to rely on gut instinct when the apparent answer was displayed right before him, but the impulse to survive was inordinate. It equipped him like a freshly new pair of clothes and yielded his limbs like a lasso, his insides rattled trying to seep through all the muscles and tissue and out into the open where he could make a real chance of escape, but his body refused to move. It couldn't.
She sat on a throne augmented by bones and stone on a dais, where she was clearly elevated, higher, superior in his eyes and inferior in hers. Lips curled into a vicious smirk and eyes that told an entirely different story, eyes that told him exactly what her intentions with him were and black marks that he'd only see in seals enshrouding her body.
It's beginning to make sense now. Inoichi started to piece things together. You only see those types of markings when someone is using Jujutsu or have been cursed.
"Good guess, but I'm afraid you're wrong." She chuckled, her eyes watching him as if he was prey as her fingers mindlessly drumming against the arm of the throne. "Jujutsu as you call it, is a mere falsification humans constructed as a way of trying to understand a power beyond their comprehension. You may see me because I allow you to see me, but you will never understand."
"You— You read my thoughts?"
"Of course. You've invaded my subconscious mind and in return, I've invaded yours.." She stood up, the darkness surrounding the rim on her eyes more prominent. "Look around you, Inoichi. These bones are not merely for decoration, it's to show what happens to trespassers when they try to seek more than what they've been given. They suffer the consequences of angering me."
"You hear them, don't you?" A blood-curdling smile enraptured her cruel lips.
The hollow sounds in the distance, the shuffling, the low moans of the shadows that emerged from the darkness of the trees and into sight.
His throat grew dry as he realised the woman in front of him disappeared. Inoichi took a step back, his eyes darting all around as he watched the shadows slither towards him excruciatingly slow- the fissure in which he emerged from no longer existent. There was no escape and the way the shadows looked at him, he knew it to be blood-thirst and vengeance.
"It's been a while since I've encountered a human this brave." Her voice resonated in his ears, in the far depths of his mind, he could feel her presence everywhere, itching his skin, a cold touch that curled around his body and his thoughts until he realised he had no privacy- she already knew everything. "Rest assured, I won't kill you. I just want to send a little message to your companions. However, it might sting just a little."
The first touch felt like acid on his body.
One that melted his skin as the first shadow buried its claws and penetrated his bones. It tugged and pulled from all directions as they crowded into him. The scream that escaped him mouth was swallowed by the hollow sounds and a blinding, white pain that relentlessly repaired itself before inflicting the same wound over and over again. He thrashed and yelled, his fingers tugging at his hair, trying to rid of the being stuck in his head and creating overpowering tremors.
"Or a lot." Kaede smiled in amusement. She hummed, blissfully relishing the sound of his distress and pain. She lifted the palm of her hand, gesturing the shadows to retreat.
Inoichi gasped, his body covered in bloodied handprints, cuts, bruises and skin separated from tissue. He laid limp on the ground, his limbs occasionally twitching from the sudden shock.
"Let this be a reminder." Kaede murmured and crouched to the ground, clenching his neck tightly. "Invade my personal space again and I will ensure those shadows tear you apart, skin to bone— bone to dust."
∷
PRESENT DAY
Delirium.
And a lack of awareness of her surroundings. Senses impeded through invisible restraints and a body so weak, she could physically feel the frailty in the way her heart pumped blood around her body, every intake of breath she took and— the coldness was alarming and desolate, her body felt as though it would shatter due to the pressure.
Everything was blurred, disoriented, as if a huge bubble was circulating her peripheral- amplifying certain aspects of her surroundings and obfuscating the rest.
Dawn expected to be left completely in the dark, there was nothing else she was capable of doing or achieving besides waiting for time to decay and the world to change in many ways unimaginable. Drastic changes that the civilians that resided in this Village, let alone the rest of the world would not be able to survive- not blindly, at least. She knew it wasn't something that could be fought, only endured.
And the price of abetting the calamity of humanity? Ensuring its survival afterwards.
It took all that she had and soon enough, it would take everything else as well. Dawn had seen it a million times in a million different ways and still- it was difficult to fathom the cost of sacrificing her body and her soul, trust and happiness, attachment and love, for an outcome undetermined.
Where am I? She asked herself, eyes glued shut, refusing to budge.
When they finally fluttered open, her senses overrode.
The room was dark, everything was dark as her eyes opened and closed, adjusting to her new surroundings. To the tightness in her chest. To the wounds on her body. To the restraints tied around her wrist and ankles.
Above. Adjacent. Everywhere, consisted of seals and more seals, no windows, she even found it hard to locate an exit, or to see beyond the four walls she was contained in. They didn't waste time ensuring that there was absolutely no chance of her escaping, not that she intended to, there was nowhere else she could go and the bittersweet side of her found comfort knowing that the place where everything began would also be the place where it all ended.
The owl made her in the hollow bounds of darkness, reshaped her— skin and bone, and moulded her into a vessel that knew nothing than the darkness she was raised in, nescient that darkness was all she'd ever known, all that she had ever felt.
A curse of loneliness that followed her everywhere she went, from the moment she slaughtered her first ever friends to the current present; where her regrets couldn't amount to the crimes she'd committed and the many more lives that'd been stolen. In darkness, a monster had been assembled and in darkness a monster would dismantle its layers and cease to exist. The irony was that it was fitting that the only place that she had ever known happiness was also the place where she'd return to the darkness of a room and sealed behind a door.
And for some reason, Dawn had no problem with that.
The rustic, metal door screeched against the floor. Dawn grimaced at the sound, her eyes momentarily closed at the white light that blinded her vision, before she opened them upon realising it'd swiftly disappeared.
It was strange, being in the position she had often administered to others- the darker side of her relishing the sight of eyes that widened at her presence, a mouth that quivered and limbs that trembled until they could no longer handle the weight of what was to come. She had also watched Ibiki execute different styles of torture, different ways of making someone speak while he didn't even break a sweat at the mess he'd created. But never had she retreated, accepting the challenge and used the opportunity to understand the different ways his mind operated.
"Strange, isn't it?"
Ibiki walked towards her, his features dark and menacing, having seen many things but she'd seen more. Dawn was curious to see what he had up his sleeve. "From ages five to seven you've spent in solitary confinement. Mutilated, burned, experimented on, psychologically and physically harmed. An endless hell a small child had to endure for two years straight, every hope and dream you had, even your will to live- dying in the very place you left Keiji behind. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he sacrificed his life for you, right? Only for you to attempt to end it a year later."
"You've been doing your homework." Dawn said wryly.
He smiled. "Of course, I need to know what I'm working with. Allow me to continue, it seems I haven't even begun to unload the emotional baggage you carry."
"You considered Keiji a father, didn't you? I mean, there was nothing left for you to hold onto, no way to keep yourself sane other than to rely on the kindness of a stranger who glued together the pieces that had fallen apart and ensured your survival. The man who kept you sane, who watched your back as you slept, who protected you from any expendable damage— died for your well being. And you ran away and never looked back. Not even once. You never even thought about what might've happened to his body, the cruel things he'd endured during his last moments, you only ever cared about yourself. In fact, a part of me wonders if you're even capable of caring about anyone else other than yourself."
Ibiki lifted one of the many items on the tray, a sharp knife that glinted in the dim light that reflected in his dark, beady eyes. A guilty pleasure he had no issue with experimenting on her. "No remorse, no regret, not even an ounce of guilt in those cold eyes of yours. Is that how you were when you've seen and buried your own family whose corpses were scorched to the bone? Or when you glanced at Keiji for the last time? Or when you selfishly lifted that Kunai and pressed it against your neck? You enjoyed that sense of control you had, the ability to choose how you die after leading others like lamb to the slaughter."
No reaction.
"You've spent a year in poverty and sickness, using trash bags in alleyways to lay your head at night. Rummaging through left-overs in order to survive another day. Getting your hands dirty, killing grown men at the age of seven. It's no surprise you turned out this way, murder runs through your blood and you thrive in it, don't you?"
Ibiki lifted the knife and dragged it along her collarbone, the warmth of her blood trickling down her cold skin. Not once did she flinch, in fact, her gaze held a twinge of amusement. "It excites you, entices you even, the scent of blood. Everywhere you go, blood is spilt. But that's nothing new to you, isn't it? Everyone you're close to, dies."
"Kei Izanagi." He announced, placing the knife down, his fingers lightly touching the other weapons on the tray. "A lovely, kind woman she was. The first person you ever met from this Village and likely the first person who had ever shown you kindness and love. Who gave you food to eat, shelter to sleep under and an opportunity to start your life anew. And how did you repay her? By killing her, of course."
Something colder, darker, lurked in the depths of her eyes. She tilted her head, waiting for him to continue.
"She's dead because of you." Ibiki glared deep into her eyes, engraving the message she had already repeated to herself a million times. "If she didn't save you that day, she would still be alive. She'd be able to watch as her child grew up, she wouldn't have to watch as her husband tore himself apart, spending endless nights at inns to drink his sorrows away, she wouldn't have to watch as the little girl she took in become the very cause of her pain and demise. You killed her, Dawn. And along with that, you killed the spirit of everyone else as well."
The black butterfly. The confusion. The opened window and the cold raft that entered the corridor. Her heart pounding against her chest, her palm twisting the door knob—
"And then, you couldn't help but strike again. Poor, Hitomi Fugishima. She was your best friend, sister even, no?" A sickly grin made its way to his face. "I wonder if she thought of you as her best friend when you plunged that kunai into her chest and watched as she bled to death."
The deafening silence of the storm that ceased to exist, a sort of heavy tide that receded into the ocean and clouds that lightly sprinkled the earth with rain.
Not a ray of light shone through its crevices.
And yet, her face remained still.
In fact, her lips threatened to twitch a little. Funny, he thought he could break her mind, her soul. He'd have to die a million times and more to even be able to reach her level.
He lowered his body, until he was face to face with her, she met his gaze, unwavering. "And you're telling me that you don't have a few screws loose?"
Her mouth separated, a bubble of laughter escaping her throat as a smile etched onto her lips. This time, Dawn truly stared at him, allowing him a glimpse of the screws that had been loosened long ago.
"Really, Morino?" She questioned lowly, cocking her head to the side and lifted that veil again. "And here I thought you were the best of the best."
He was a tough nut to crack, experiences made a person, helped you to understand the world a little easier, but it was what you do with those experiences that really counted. You could train yourself to overcome the weaknesses of the mind, like Ibiki had done. Or you could be like her; tame your mind and soul until it obeyed no living soul on earth other than you.
Dawn didn't overcome experiences, she destroyed them completely. She became what she feared, thus eliminating the weaknesses she had left. If he wanted to break her, he had to become something more menacing than Sora, than the Owl, than her.
"If you want crazy, I can show you crazy." Her eyes gleamed a little, showing the storm hidden within. "But we both know that's what you want, isn't it? To prove that I'm as crazy as you claim, crazy enough to be apart of a ploy to destroy the world."
"You underestimate me." Morino stated, before chuckling darkly. He was apart of the different, he was enticed by darkness, played around with it a little bit, unlike those wise enough to stay away. "Fine, I'll play your game. Looks like we'll be here a long time."
She smiled back. Minutes, maybe even hours, or days, a person could survive his torture. She'd give it more than eighteen years for him to break her.
He stood up, his face wiped blank. Before he could speak, Dawn interrupted him.
"I suggest starvation." She decided to mess with him. "For a week, then you can amp it up a little. Cut the lights and leave me in total darkness, it'll make me see things, won't it? Make those screws looser? Those equipment over there look clean, it's only a matter of time until you decorate them with my blood, I suggest my legs, the scars over there are healed so you'll be able to see your work a little easier. Then... my favourite part, the mind games. Maybe you'll bring your Yamanaka buddy, have him take a look into my mind, snoop around even."
He tensed, the only way to make a sadistic bastard like him uncomfortable was to reveal his own mind to him. She knew his little games. To others, his mind was a closed book with many locks. To her, she could see all the pages, ready at her disposal.
"Surely, that'll make me break, but... we both know how that turned out. Speaking of which, how's Inoichi doing?"
There it was. A flash of emotion. Anger. It quickly disappeared, but she was even quicker.
"Oh? Sorry, did I hit a nerve." Dawn feigned worry. "Maybe it's on me, I should've warned you that there's a reason why death follows me around and yet I'm the only one left alive. And while we're on the topic, I couldn't help but notice you were sounding a little... desperate. Usually you'd resort to soliloquies after you get your hands dirty. But the truth is, you can't harm me no matter how much you truly want to."
"I have something you want and knowing that you can't intrude into my mind after what happened to your Yamanaka friend angers you, doesn't it? Because it means you need me and you know that no matter what you say or do, I won't budge. Not unless I'm feeling generous."
"You're right." Ibiki gave in, shrugging his shoulders. "I do need you and just because I can't physically harm you to great extents doesn't mean I don't have other ways of giving you a taste of what hell feels like."
"You're not the first to wish hell upon me, Ibiki." Dawn whispered with a twisted smile. "And you certainly won't be the first to succeed either."