Fumei no Musubi
Chapter Three 
by Ina-chan
First Posted Online:  December 24, 2002
History: Sequel to Jyuunishi no Enkei Monogatari

The bright moonlight filtered through the windows, giving the room an eerie dim glow. Save for the sound of the medical equipment in the room, the sound of the evening was a sea of calm. The only occupant of the room continued his deep slumber, not bothered by the pale shafts of light landing on his face, completely unaware of his surroundings. He was completely unaware of the shadow that gradually appeared in the room. 

A shadow that grew bigger until it completely towered over him. Completely unaware of the delicate and slender hand that slowly reached out hesitantly to touch his face, only to stop midway and withdraw, as if afraid to be scalded. Completely unaware as the same hand slowly made its way to the clear plastic tube connected to his throat, slowly closing around it… 

…and faltering for a few moments. 

Only then at that moment’s hesitation, that the owner of the hand noticed its involuntary trembling. The hand’s sibling came to its aid, as if to help ease its shakiness… 

The sleeping figure continued to slumber innocently as two delicate hands prepared to make one quick yank… 

“What are you doing?!” 

A pair of larger hands painfully grappled the smaller delicate ones. The owner of the smaller pair gasped in surprise, being roughly shoved by the owner of the larger pair away from the sleeping figure. She could only let herself get helplessly dragged out of the room. The smaller figure let out an involuntary whimper of pain as her captor led her out of the house’s hallways, through one of the house’s sliding doors, and unto the nearest courtyard, away from hearing distance of the other occupants of the house. 

“What the hell were you doing?” The owner of the larger pair of hands hissed again 

She turned her head away, but her captor roughly turned her jaw to force her to meet his eyes. 

“Answer me now, Rin!” 

The young woman could only stare back silently at the dark eyes flashing down at her in anger. A tiny tinge of terror pierced through her entire being. 

“Don’t you realize what you almost did?” 

She had only seen him angry once. But back then, the intensity of his anger was nothing compared to the fury she was sensing in him now. She felt like a frightened child staring the bared fangs of a rabid dog. 

 “Don’t you realize what could have happened if I didn’t catch you in time? You could have killed him!” 

Her arms started to feel numb as his fingers dug into her flesh and shook her shoulders violently. Another first. Though she felt the sting of his cruel words in the past. The sharp pain of his casual rejection carving through her heart like a razor… he was never like this. He never touched her like this… with unfeeling and unforgiving hands like Akito. Hands whose aim was nothing else but to force someone weaker into submitting into another’s will. 

Then again… that’s the nature of men. They come in all shapes and different packages. Most of the time, deceptively gift-wrapped in the illusion of kindness. But deep down inside, she knew how exactly how they really are. In the end, all of them were all the same. 

Cruel. 

“Why did you try to do that?” His voice continued to demand angrily, “Answer me, Rin!” 

“Gure-nii…” She whispered almost inaudibly,  “You’re hurting me.” 

The hands restraining her immediately loosened their hold. She felt him take a step away to give her more room to breathe. But the aura of distrust was still there. The invisible wall that he refused to let her pass through stood strong. The fact that he harbored ill feelings toward her was more painful than the rough way he physically handled her just a few moments before. 

“I’m sorry,” his voice was calm now. 

He turned around and took several steps away from her, before settling to sit down on the edge of the house’s engawa. He fumbled through the folds of his yukata to produce a lighter and a package of cigarettes from his sleeves.  She watched him light a stick, before taking a long drag. Ironically enough, as if he were taking a long cleansing breath. His eyes turned back to her and watched her silently for a few more seconds before raising his arm toward her to offer his cigarette. 

The young woman stepped forward and took the stick from his hand and settled down beside him, within respectable distance. She, too, took a slow long drag and held her breath, to let the smoke settle in her lungs to calm her own frayed nerves. Then lazily watch the smoke swirl in the air before her as she let it escape from her lungs in the same manner. She handed back the stick and they sat together in relative silence, waiting for the other to begin. 

“What are you doing here?” His voice finally broke the awkward silence 

“How am I doing? Why I’m so-so, thank you. It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Gure-nii? What have I been up to lately? Well, nothing much… mostly wallowing in self-pity and drowning in remorse. By the way, Haru has been doing a good job distracting Akito since you abandoned him, while everyone else is busy fussing over Mr. Sleeping Beauty. But it’s still a very difficult job to stay sane with, so I help him out once in a while on my free time. Listening to Akito wallow in self-pity and drown in remorse is change of pace in my otherwise monotone lifestyle. Thank you for asking how I’m doing,” The young woman drawled sarcastically, “Now how are you?” 

The older man gave no reaction to the young woman’s speech, and simply drew in another drag from his cigarette. 

“There’s no crime against visiting a ill relative, is there?” She finally stated blandly, when she received no reply 

“Interesting,” Shigure replied in the same bland tone, “Since when did you start caring about what happens to Yuki? For as long as I can remember, you’ve hated him with almost the same intensity as Kyou.” 

“Funny, I should ask the same about you,” The woman retorted, “As far as I can remember, you never really cared about anybody else to the point of defying Akito.” 

“That only comes to show that you don’t know me at all,” The man countered 

“What I don’t know…” The young woman laughed sardonically, “…is what exactly are you getting out of this.” 

The writer simply silently lifted the cigarette back to his lips and took another long drag. 

“Is it fun, Gure-nii?” Rin continued giving the older man a mocking smile, “Is it fun pretending to be Akito? Playing with Yuki and that woman’s lives as you please? Is it fun pretending to be God?” 

Shigure’s eyes darkened, still gave no reply to the woman’s taunting other the silent sound of blowing out the smoke in his lungs from his drag, “Just be relieved that Hatori convinced Tooru-kun to get some rest and not stay with Yuki tonight. If she was here to witness what you almost did, I would never forgive you.” 

The young woman bit her lip as a scowl immediately marred her pretty face, “Tooru-kun… Tooru-kun… I’m sick and tired of hearing that name.” 

The novelist couldn’t help but give the young woman a curious glance. This wasn’t a secret. He was aware that this… unspoken rivalry… had been going on for quite some time. Though he never really put his finger on the real reason why his younger cousin hated their innocent flower. At one time, he thought it was simply because of Yuki’s affections for Tooru… of all the Jyuunishi’s unconditional affections for Tooru. 

But this evening… 

“Or maybe…” Rin paused, the frown on her face instantly melting as a thought occurred to her, “Perhaps… Gure-nii has actually fallen in love with her.” 

There was something different about this evening… 

“Shame on you, Gure-nii. Already trying to make moves on the grieving widow-to-be. The corpse hasn’t even stopped breathing yet,” The young woman let out a peal of silver laughter, “I bet you, yourself, wanted to pull the plug on Yuki. That’s just too bad. If you didn’t stop me, then you wouldn’t need to have to stain your conscience.” 

“Keep those filthy thoughts from spilling out from that filthy mouth. Other wise, I’ll make sure that mouth will swallow a bar of soap then rinse it with a bottle of bleach,” The man finally stated in a low and dangerous tone, “It’s just like you to twist a situation to fit into your own distorted perception of the world.” 

“Why are you protecting her? Why is everyone protecting her?” Rin snapped back angrily, “I already warned her to stay away from us. She’s an outsider. She had no business associating with us.” 

“She’s no longer an outsider, Rin. She’s a Souma’s wife,” Shigure stated nonchalantly, “and the future mother of a Souma child.” 

The young woman gaped at the older man in shocked disbelief. She quickly rose to her feet and clenched her fists, “How could this have happened?” 

“Well, Rin-chan… it’s only to be expected…” Shigure raised an eyebrow, a derisive smirk reaching his lips, “When a man and a woman love each other…” 

“SHUT UP!” The woman hissed as she faced the writer once again, “This is all her fault! If she listened in the first place and left us alone, none of this would have happened! You know that! This is all her fault! But still, you… all of you… still continue to protect her! ” 

Shigure frowned. He had known this young woman since she was a child. She was headstrong…  Stubborn… Set on her own ways… Have the tendency to indulge in violent outbursts… But there was something different this time. “Rin…” 

“I’m sick of it! I’m sick of all of this! I’m sick of you and Akito and the little games that the both of you enjoy playing!”

 “Rin, what’s wrong?” Genuine concern was laced in his voice.

 “You think that I’m so young and naïve as not to understand what will happen after Yuki dies.”

 “Rin, what are you talking about?” Beneath that rage, he could sense it.

 “And you’re afraid of it too, aren’t you? Because you’re going to be second last... you’re going to be forced to watch before your turn. That’s the real reason why you’re so determined to keep him alive. That’s why you’re delaying the inevitable.”

 “Did Akito say something to you?”

 Beneath her fury, he could smell it.

 “If I’m destined to that fate, I’d rather take in my own terms. Even if it means killing him with my own hands.”

 “What did Akito say to you?”

 Beneath that ire was….

 “I AM NOT A TOY FOR YOU AND AKITO TO PLAY WITH!”

 “RIN!” 

… the undeniable stench of fear.

The writer watched her turn on her heels and walk through the courtyard before the shadows that the bright moon didn’t reach swallowed her disappearing figure. He took one final drag before flicking the cigarette butt from his fingers and crushing the glowing ember on the ground with the heel of his slipper. He then turned on his heels and started to make his way back inside the house, through the halls and the corridors, and into that infernal room that reeked of many generations of death.

The Souma Family curse carried so much sorrow and pain that it is close to impossible to determine all the secrets it hid within its heavy load. But he had a fairly good idea what “secret” Akito may have revealed to Rin. It was really just a stupid family folklore… but he could understand why his younger cousin would be frightened of it. Most specially since the shadow of death looms near.

Nevertheless… it still sucked having to play the role of the villain.

The writer let out a sigh and looked at his slumbering cousin wistfully, “Nee, Yuki-kun… this better be worth it. You owe me big time.”

End of Chapter Three
Return to Chapter Two  
Continued on Chapter Four 

AUTHOR’S SQUAWK:

                I decided to introduce this particular element in the storyline. I still have no idea how to end this, BUT I have the next 3 chapters figured out at least. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish “Monogatari” before I tackle chapter 5… or it will be major spoilage. Monogatari is actually finished in my head. It’s probably the most organized fic I’ve ever formulated. BUT I just can’t seem to have the motivation to sit down and put it on paper! ^_^. HAAAAA! Two more chapters and an epilogue to go…

Anywayz… I decided to give Akito a fairly important role in this fic. When he’ll show up and what it is… we’ll just have to wait and see.

Ja!
Ina-chan