"Welcome, gentlemen! Sinners of all stripes!"
"Seated before you is the eleventh Shogun of this island, Tokugawa Nariyoshi! Normally, you lot would never be granted an audience with his excellence!"
"The fuck?!"
"Acting all high and mighty?!"
"You think were all chumps. Is that it?"
"What's a shogun?"
Though almost every criminal complained of being looked down by the attendants, Rika remains silent. Although she couldn't see clearly the sight in front of her, she could make out at least their figures. Their large and small backs, their stuck up and greasy hair and the stout Tokugawa Nariyoshi seated in the middle of the platform. Averting her eyes, she could visibly make out the figure of Riku staring down at the other white haired male seated beside her. He had that look, a look in which he seems to be questioning him.
Presumably a look which meant about her interaction earlier.
"Can you even breathe with this cloth on your face?" She hears him ask her. "It's really hard to breathe and I want to see the Tokugawa."
"What's a tokugawa?" Rika asks, blinking her eyes.
She hears another female voice respond just by her side. "You can't."
"Now we will present you with your secret mission!" The attendant announces, scroll in hand. "Any man who fulfills it will be granted full exoneration by the authority of this writ of pardon!"
Behind the white cloth on the front of her face, Rika's eyebrows furrowed. She didn't needed the writ of pardon, the other criminals could have that for all she cares. What truly is important is the ferry to return back to Horai and kill ever single Tensen before killing Rien. Even if she dies along the way, she'll keep wishing to reborn again and again and again until it takes her to fulfill her dream.
Dreams may not have any real purpose but it does shed light on a heavy concern that involves her.
Besides her, other criminals began murmuring to themselves about wanting to have the writ of pardon to themselves. To be able to walk under the sun like a free man and have the Shogun not bat an eyelash at their killing spree sounds like a real treat for them. However, she hears him yawn and babble to her side. Unexpectedly, she lets out a laugh. Thinking that he does have an amusing side in him.
"Hey you. You're Gabimaru the Hollow, right?" Rika hears another feminine voice murmur. Averting her eyes to take a look at the purple haired woman. "That physique plus the white hair, it's gotta be you! I mean you're a celebrity in our world!" She beams to him.
So his name is Gabimaru. How...peculiar, Rika thinks. Gabimaru isn't a name, rather, it's a cluster of onomatopoeia's hollow, empty and deserted. As she thinks, is that even his real name? To think like a criminal, that mustn't be his name. Unlike her, she preferred to stick with her birth name.
"You're kinda disappointing in real life. You're way shorter than the rumors have it. Not to mention, you got dragged in the same as us in the end." The purple haired girl draws on.
"...Sorry. I dashed on your expectations." He replies.
Now it made her curious, just what did Gabimaru do to be put in the same ending as them? Surely he wouldn't have done a slip up...or perhaps, it was a set up? There are an array of options of what could have happened.
"And holy smokes! White hair with light green tips, you're Rika of Yoshiwara!" The purple haired girl beams, slipping the white cloth off her face a little. "You are the talk of the country when you burned down the capital and it's neighboring cities! The great fire of Meireki as they call it! How did you managed to pull that off?"
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?"