"You come up with the weirdest ideas, you know that?"
I can't help the affronted look I send Kamo-Sensei's way hearing those words coming from him. It is incredible that he has the gall to say that.
"At least I am only weird," I counter, looking at him as one might look at a person asking to smell one's feet. "You come up with the grossest ideas, and I'd say that's way worse."
Kamo-Sensei laughs without denying it and I shake my head and return to observing the room around us.
When I asked Kamo-Sensei to help me with a surgery, I wasn't expecting him to have a stereotypically creepy mad scientist style lab already set up.
The room we are in is underground, of course, and absolutely stuffed with horror movie stuff.
Seriously, there's literally a pile of bones in the far corner and I'm pretty sure only most of them are from animals.
There are several surgery tables, none of which seem to receive much care in the cleaning department considering the dried bloodstains and stains of various other colours that I wish I wasn't curious about.
There is a diamond-shaped pigeonhole cabinet stuffed full of scrolls and several tables set up with a variety of either equipment or ritual script. There's even a brass distillery. One that's fitting for the time period of course, but still...
Really makes you wonder what this guy gets up to in his free time, I think to myself with a wry shake of the head. I think I underestimated his Curiosity.
Walking over to a cabinet full of jars and vases, I pick one of them up and hold the glass container up to my eyes. I take a moment to stare into the jar and it stares back at me.
"Why in Yomi do you have jars of human eyes?" I ask as I put the organ back with the others.
"To experiment with," Kamo-Sensei absently answers as he rummages through a chest. However, for all that his tone is as cool as one talking about the weather, I do not fail to notice an undercurrent of... is that concern? It's hard to say; so faint that I can barely parse it.
But my gut tells me that there is some worry in his voice. What it is that has him worrying about though, I could only guess.
"You do a lot of human experimentation?"
"Of course," is the easy answer, given as he rises from the chest with a bundle of cloth in his hands and a smile on his face. "You saw it the moment we met too, did you not? We're both Curious fellows~."
"Only with differing moral barometers," I snark with a roll of my eyes, moving over to one of the tables that he gestures me to.
As he rolls the bundle of cloth over an attached table, revealing a set of tools bound together, Kamo-Sensei lets out a small chuckle and eyes me with sly playfulness.
"You disapprove~?"
Ah. Is that what he's worried about? My my~, Sensei is going soft~.
Shaking my head with a laugh, I pat him on the back before using a Spell to clean the table and tools. "I Love you because you are you, Kamo-Sensei. So long as you're still being honest to yourself then I'll always be happy."
I think I will always be upset when people die, but so what? People die, such is life. It wouldn't so beautiful to be alive without the potential for death or suffering. I don't have to enjoy something to admire it anyway.
Kamo-Sensei laughs, "You're such a maudlin, where are the tears~?"
Rolling my eyes again with good humour, I give him a shove before sitting on the table pulling one of Tamamo's gifts from my shadow. Specifically, Thief of Time, the polaroid she made me.
This one is a duplicate though. I broke a bit off and then paid Nagayasu a visit and asked him to use his Technique to revert the state of both pieces into wholes, thus leaving me with two polaroids.
Also, I made sure to see Tamamo and tell her what I was doing and ask if she was okay with it. Naturally, she laughed at me. But still, it's important to do what you can to ensure you don't hurt your loved ones.
Especially when they love you to the point of invention.
Nagayasu's Technique is seriously unreasonable though. I dread to imagine what the Tachibana clan would be like if they went to war. No one really seems to have considered it as far as I know, but they probably have like a bajillion copies of every Cursed Tool they have.
Imagine a whole army wielding Cursed Tools? Crazy.
Either way, he said he owed me for turning him into an adult or whatever and didn't complain.
Really weird seeing him looking so grown though, but eh, I'm friends with an orb. What does weird even mean anymore.
He also made kind of a big deal about how we're square now and he's no longer in my debt or some such. I don't know, I was kind of distracted by the Cursed Tools so I wasn't paying much attention. It seemed important to him though, probably a point of pride or something, so I told him I owe him one now instead.
It's good to keep favours in a cycle like that, rather than just squaring a debt and forgetting the relationship entirely.
"You don't have any idea how to go about this, do you?" Kamo-Sensei's voice pulls me from my thoughts, and I realise I've been staring at the polaroid close for a minute.
"I have concepts of a plan," I smartly counter, to which he smirks at me. How rude, doesn't he know how smart I am sometimes?
Turning the camera over in my hand, I leave it facing myself and activate it, causing the eyelid on the front to open and start staring at me...
It's really creepy, to be honest.
Regardless, I had this thought back during Akeno's funeral. I had Nue taking pictures from the sky at the time because I couldn't bring myself to be seen doing so. It would have been insanely insensitive to do so. In fact, it's pretty insensitive to have taken pictures without permission too.
Unfortunately, I am in possession of a great potential for insensitivity.
But it all got me thinking, there are going to be more times where I will want to take a photo but that it would be awkward to do so.
The solution I came up with?
Why don't I just replace one of my eyes entirely with the polaroid. That way I can take as many photos as I want without the awkwardness of holding up a camera!
...It's kind of hella creepy though, now that I think about it. But at the same time, it's not like I'm going to be making videos or taking upskirt photos or anything. I just want the world to be remembered.
Simply put, I trust myself to not be a pervert or overly disrespectful, so it's fine.
Even if this idea doesn't pan out how I want it, worst case I just have to regenerate my eyeball. It's not exactly like that's much of a challenge anymore.
"Your plan wouldn't happen to simply be to rip out your eye and put that one in your skull, would it?" Kamo-Sensei asks, to which I purse my lips and look away from him.
"No," I lie. Blatantly. "My plan is all about delegation, actually. Aren't you my Sensei? Mr Knowledgeable over here should know what he's doing, right?"
Kamo-Sensei huffs but does nod his head. "I have a few different ideas," he admits before pausing and then smiling in that way a friend smiles before handing you an egg decorated to look like chocolate. "I have no way to know which method would be more effective though, if any will work at all. It'll likely be painful, but we have to check every option to ensure you get nothing but the best... right?"
I stare at him with squinting eyes for a moment. "My Sensei is feeling extra sadistic today it seems."
He shrugs. "You told Tengen that I told you it's fine to destroy the school grounds because there's someone with a Technique that can repair it super easily. Do you have any idea how long it took to convince her that I wasn't lying when I said I didn't tell you that?"
...I forgot about that.
"Teehee?" I try.
"Fuck yourself." I failed.
I slump forward with a pout before sighing dramatically and flopping back on the table.
This is gonna suck, but I trust that he won't go too far. Besides, I am the one asking for a favour here...
Meh, whatever. I'll fill his bedroom with lava or something if he makes this too much more painful than it has to be.
Kamo-Sensei re-enters my peripheral vision, hovering over my now prone form with a fuckin bonesaw in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other.
I send him a flat glare.
"There is no fucking way you need those to perform an optical surgery."
The dumbass laughs like a schoolgirl despite being like a million years old, but he does put the tools away and come back with actual equipment.
It really sucks that anaesthesia hasn't been invented yet, but whatever. Going through an eye surgery fully conscious probably isn't that bad. I fought a Curse who drowned me in acid once, that shit hurt.
Ah well. For the sake of making a cool photo album, sacrifices must be made.
However, as Kamo-Sensei begins the procedure of removing my left eyeball, I find myself surprised.
It winds up being more uncomfortable than actually painful.
I mean, it is a little bit painful, but it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting.
A chuckling from above draws my eyes—well, eye, as one has just left its socket—to Kamo-Sensei smirking down at me.
"You really thought I'd torture you? Just like that?"
Well now I feel a little bit bad for not thinking higher of him. At the same time though...
"You're kind of an asshole you know?"
Kamo-Sensei simply shrugs before dropping my eye into a jar full of preserving liquid.
"If the subject thrashes around too much then it leads to damage to the experiments. Is it then truly a surprise that I would have developed methods to avoid pain? I'm not a sadist, you know? I am only Curious."
I suppose there is a difference between maliciousness and indifference. Kamo-Sensei is very much the latter; I've even commented before on how that makes us a perfect trio with Sukuna.
"What do you even do down here?" I ask as he picks up the duplicate of Thief of Time and takes it over to some of his equipment elsewhere. "This is probably gonna take a while, so I'd be interested to hear what experiments you've run to pass the time? Also why did we take my eye out before preparing the replacement?"
"Because I didn't think about it," Kamo-Sensei easily answers, getting a laugh from me since I didn't either. "But sure, why not? Tengen usually scowls at me whenever I try and talk to her about what I do in my free time. Honestly, what a bore she is."
I can only wonder why, I think with a roll of my eyes that does not go unnoticed.
We share another laugh before Kamo-Sensei gestures me towards a set of draws.
"I leave theoretical stuff in there and finished notes in the cabinet," he says, making me look at the pigeonhole cabinet full of scrolls. "Feel free to peruse, it'll take me a bit to take this apart properly. Why didn't you bring multiple copies?"
I laugh as I approach the cabinet and pick up a random scroll, shaking it at him like I'm dispensing some wisdom, even if my grin makes it obvious that I'm not.
"Because I didn't think about it~."
///
Setsura
///
Casting her eyes about, Setsura has a passing thought on how far a human would be able to see in this environment. The snowstorm raging around her is thick enough to almost feel solid. Without the eyes of a Yuki-onna, she would be surprised if they could see their own fingers in front of their face.
However, while sight may naturally be no issue to her in this frozen landscape, even Setsura is forced to use a touch of Youki to keep herself steady under the raging wind and hail.
And to think, Setsura's eyes pan to the distance, where she sees no end to the storm, That the effect is so vast already.
Finally, her eyes drop back down to her side and three steps ahead where her adorable, bratty little sister sits on the ice below, eyes closed in meditation. Her breathing is steady, even in the way of sleep. Her hair and clothes remain perfectly level, flat against the weather as if the wind itself does not deign to touch her shoulders.
It is her snowstorm, after all.
While the Yuki-onna as a whole did once vote to allow Reiti the chance to be a normal child before shouldering any of the burdens they have tied to her, times change.
The recent scare restarted the debate, and while that argument was still ongoing a valley opened up from the human capital to the ocean at the same time that elsewhere a crater reshaped the map so thoroughly that the risen edges became a new mountain range.
Times are changing indeed, and it seems as if it is the Yōkai who are behind.
With that, the debate came to an end and a majority vote was given to begin Reiti's training immediately.
At the very least, it was agreed to keep the true cause of training Reiti hidden from her, so the girl's young mind still remains at peace. Setsura dreads the day that her adorable sister must become a woman and learn of the duty on her shoulders.
Regardless of that, Setsura was naturally the one to head Reiti's training. She is likely the strongest Yuki-onna behind their Queen, after all. Not only does that put her in an appropriate position to train her, but it also allows her to double as a bodyguard for their race's hope.
As it has only been a couple of months, there is not yet the need for any of the other lined up teachers to come, but Reiti's path forward has ben carefully lain by each of the greatest minds among their kin.
Setsura will teach her how to handle her own personal power, her Youki and her Osore. Soon, Reiti will be taught every weapon that has a master among them to teach. She will be taught strategy and statecraft and history and diplomacy.
Anything and everything. Little Reiti will be moulded into the perfect Yuki-onna. The height of their history, greater than any in all. A Yuki-onna to represent their entire species. She will be perfect. A culmination of their species inside of one body and she does not have a choice in the matter at all; not when her entire species is betting everything on her.
Setsura struggles to sleep, some nights.
Unfortunately, the only thing greater than her love and her pity for her sister is her honour.
This is a make or break moment. Either the Yuki-onna will rise within Reiti's arms, or they will forever be second-class to greater Yōkai.
Setsura wants to cry every time she looks at her sister and she wants to rage every time she sees her reflection.
She will do what must be done. She will transform her sister into an idol. A Legend. A mythical figure beyond approach and entirely alone without equal.
She will do all of that, because there might never be another chance to overcome thousands of years of history like this ever again.
So she will do as she must, and she will forever hate herself because of it.
I'm sorry, Setsura has repeated the words in her head a thousand times by now. She thinks them every time she sees her sister smile as she advances in the training that she believes is simply play with her sister. Yet, she has not once said the words aloud. Why couldn't you have been weak?
Setsura turns away from her sister as she feels the icy prick of tears trying to form in her eyes.
Perhaps what she hates the most about herself is that she has found herself starting to blame Reiti.
If only she was weak.
If only she didn't run away at that time.
If only she were born as someone else's sister.
...It is that last unspoken accusation that she felt broke something inside of her.
How could she think such a thing?
Obviously, she knows how. If only Reiti wasn't her sister, then she would have no problem turning her into a weapon of their people.
But she is her sister and she loves her. She wouldn't give Reiti up, not even if it spared them both of the future that awaits them.
Yet no matter how she tells herself that, the insidious thought just won't leave.
It's enough to drive anyone mad.
However, Setsura has to be strong. She cannot allow her own weakness to infest Reiti, not when she must be even stronger still.
Setsura closes her eyes, knowing in her heart that one of the Queen's people are going to try and teach her apathy.
A Queen cannot be compromised by emotion, after all. A Queen must be aloof, cold.
Setsura's mind flashes back to the last time she saw her Queen. Those eyes that met hers without ripple and left her with a cold dread in her spine.
So cold.
The image in her mind shifts, her sister's face taking place of their Queen's and she shivers.
Reiti is going to be taught to be cold. To be unflinching.
She is going to be taught such that even should Setsura die, she should not react to it at all.
Strong emotions like love and hate and grief are volatile things, after all.
Such things are for hot-blooded creatures, not the future Queen of Ice.
...Is it so wrong that Setsura would prefer her sister to be a worse Queen if it meant preserving her smile?
Setsura doesn't know what to think. Torn between duty and love, she fears that there will be nothing left of her by the end.
Nothing but the legacy of a Queen greater than any who came before her.
She wishes she could feel any kind joy in that future.
As if to make everything even worse, she thought she had more time.
Time to be with her sister. Time to watch her grow and correct her mistakes.
Time before the next teacher in line will come and begin the process of turning her sister into a future Queen in truth.
However, it is becoming clear to her that she might not have so much time after all.
Setsura of course always knew that her adorable little sister was a talent without peer among all the history of their species, but even then...
The rate of progress is unbelievable. Her dread is only matched by her pride, for every day that passes Setsura becomes more and more sure that Reiti becoming a Daiyōkai is a matter of eventuality rather than possibility.
"OhayoWAH!!" A sudden voice behind her has Setsura acting on instinct, spinning around in a flash at the same time that she conjures a blade of ice in her hand and a glacier where the voice came from.
Her eyes take in the scene behind her just in time to see Narauko jerking away from her blade at the same time that the glacier she threw behind her twists without her consent, morphing like a liquid around the intruder until it forms a throne for him to fall back on in his panic.
Setsura doesn't even get a moment to be awed by the incredible showing of control before her body tenses as she is reminded o Reiti's presence by the girl in question noticing the commotion.
"Na-san!" Reiti's voice calls out, and only because she does not view Narauko as a threat does Setsura turn back to her sister in time to see the girl's eyes light up with stars as she jumps up from her meditative seat and all but throws herself at Narauko.
Setsura twitches to block the movement, aware that Reiti doesn't have the time to slack off, but she stops herself in hesitation when she sees the smiles being shared between them.
It's not like she can beat Narauko anyway, and that excuse is enough for her shoulders to loose.
"Yukihime!" Narauko responds, catching Reiti in his arms. Setsura walks closer as they embrace, allowing herself a moment to shake off the whiplash of going from calm to reaction and back to calm again.
Luckily, Narauko is not the sort of person to take violence against himself personally; though really it's his own fault for arriving so suddenly.
As a matter of fact, Setsura's eyes narrow in thought. How did he get here?
She knows that he can teleport through shadows, but that by itself shouldn't allow him access to here. It is not as if they would beggar Reiti the appropriate training grounds.
"What are you doing here!?" Reiti excitedly asks, her words stabbing through Setsura as she feels the second-hand joy and still can't stop herself from wondering when those feelings will be frozen over.
"I told you I'd visit, didn't I?" Narauko returns with a grin, taking a moment to ruffle Reiti's hair before turning to Setsura. "Yo! You good? Need anything?"
Setsura blinks and then she doesn't know what to feel. Helpless, perhaps? Amused? Annoyed?
The first thought Setsura ever had about this man was that his whining was pathetic—but the second was that he was a perceptive one.
And always so quick to offer aid, she thinks, settling on feeling bitterly bemused.
Because of course he would notice her troubles so easily that she might as well be wearing them on her sleeve. It barely even took him one look at her, and Setsura does hope that that is a testament to his perception and not her own lack of concealment.
But what can he do? What does an offer of aid matter when it is given by one who is not even a Yuki-onna?
Setsura notices Reiti's head turn her way with a curious tilt and she quickly banishes such thoughts away, sending her sister a small smile instead.
"We are well, Narauko-dono." Setsura thinks that Narauko notices her use of 'we' so that Reiti will think that his question was a general one instead of specific, but he doesn't voice her small deception. "No need to concern yourself."
"Dono, huh?" Narauko responds instead with a teasing grin. "They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but apparently it can earn one some respect too~." Narauko chuckles lightly before waving his hand as if to disperse her formality from the air, "Really though, there's no need to be that formal with me."
It is more the fresh mountain range you created than absence that has earned you greater caution, Setsura inwardly thinks. Outwardly, she sends him a bland look. "Would you rather I call you Na-san?"
Somewhat expectedly, her words only cause him to laugh. Though, she feels somewhat gratified to hear Reiti giggle and see the excited gleam in her eyes as she fervently nods her head.
"Na-san is Na-san definitely!" Reiti exclaims. "What happened to your eye?"
By now, Setsura is long used to the whiplash of Reiti changing topic so abruptly, so instead of pausing like Narauko does, she instead frowns and observes the human closer.
Indeed, she sees that one of his eyes has gone through a small change. It is tough to describe it.
Narauko's eyes have always been dark as coals, the pupil barely distinguishable from the iris. Now, his left iris is subtly different. Instead of the rough canvas of his other eye, this one is smoother around the pupil.
More noticeably than that, however, is that his iris seems to have been split into nearly a dozen curved triangles arraigned into an overlapping spiral around his pupil. Even his pupil, upon closer examination, has these barely noticeable rings inside of it.
What really catches Setsura off-guard is when Reiti's question draws his attention down to the girl in question and Setsura can see as his eye shifts. Those tiny shapes contracting and retracting in ever so minute adjustments; presumably to adjust his focus.
It makes for a strange, if oddly captivating sight.
"You like it?" Narauko responds, wiggling his brows in a way that has little Reiti giggling all over again. Naturally, he shares in her laughter for a moment before pushing himself to his feet, picking Reiti up as he does and depositing her on his shoulders. "Enough about me though, what are you two up to?"
Before Setsura can say anything, Reiti is already leaning forward enough to face Narauko upside-down and answering his question without hesitating.
"Setsura-nee is helping me practice my Osore! I'm gonna become super strong and kick Kazuro's butt!" Narauko chuckles again at the smug certainty in Reiti's tone.
"Good for you, Yukihime!" Narauko cheers, pulling another smug grin from Reiti, though mostly she just seems happy to be playing around. Setsura again does not let the guilt she feels at that fact show. "Mind if I ask what your Osore is?"
"Sure!" If Narauko's question hadn't already risen Setsura's hackles all the way back up, then Reiti's immediate and cheerful acceptance would have done so twice over by itself. So when Reiti goes to answer in full, Setsura interrupts her in a rush.
"Reiti." She only says the one word, but since she used her 'big sister' voice, it is enough for Reiti's mouth to snap shut and her full attention to fall on Setsura. However, once again, she finds herself hesitating as she looks between the two of them.
Reiti's existence is currently the single greatest secret of her entire species. Narauko knowing of her is a subject that has seen much debate, concluding with the decision that they will not try to do anything about it. The decision was made in part because he doesn't know the full truth of it all anyway, but the other deciding factor was simply a matter of ability.
Setsura would kill him without hesitation if that is what was decided to be the best way to ensure Reiti's future. The issue, is simply the question of whether or not they could.
There was a large debate on whether or not the strongest Yuki-onna would be able to kill him if they all ambushed him together. If not for the fact that his entire Technique revolves around never being outnumbered, then they might have tried it already. His ability to teleport certainly doesn't help, but there are ways around that.
The point is that no one can know, and Narauko is only accepted because he doesn't know. Not really.
Setsura can almost be amused by it if it wasn't so absurd, but he likely can't even see Reiti as someone for them to put their hopes in simply because he is too strong to understand how powerful Reiti is for her age.
Even more absurd for him being a human.
So Narauko cannot learn more about Reiti's potential. No one who isn't a Yuki-onna can.
"Setsura-nee?"
Reiti's voice snaps her out of her thoughts, and she almost flinches away when she looks back and sees two pairs of eyes staring at her with honest concern.
Setsura looks away. She can't bear it. It feels like it's tearing her in half to look at them.
What is she supposed to do? Make an enemy of the man who saved her sister's life in the first place? The debt that he is owed is immeasurable, and yet they will never repay it because to do so would be to admit why the debt exists.
So, what? Should she just send him away? Should she skip the slow and steady and just rip her adorable sister's happiness away right now? Why hesitate over something that is inevitable in the end?
Or should she betray her race instead? Thousands of years of hope and want discarded at the whim of a single woman too pathetic to hold to her own resolve?
"Are you sure you don't need anything?" Narauko asks when she fails to answer.
Setsura feels lost. Conflicted. Weak.
But looking at the two of them together, another image flashes through her mind. Three fools sitting around in a forest making whistles of blades of grass.
"...Never mind." I'm sorry, Setsura thinks as she speaks, doing all she can to keep her feelings from her face. I'm failing you.
"You sure?" Narauko asks, obviously seeing through her with insulting ease.
Reiti though seems to be mostly taking cues from him instead of seeing through her by herself, so Setsura masters herself as best as she is able and blandly nods her head.
"Yes. I just—" Nothing shows on her face as she rapidly thinks through excuses, "—Thought we were going to be late to a commitment. However, I believe I got the days mixed up, so it's fine."
"Okay!" Narauko beams a smile and turns straight to Reiti above him, his voice gaining a playful tilt. "Life of a Princess sure is busy, huh?"
Naturally, Reiti grins back down at him and emphatically nods her head. "I've never had so much stuff to do before! I kind of like it, usually I'm so bored I end up pranking Hakurei-nii. Anyway! Let me tell you about my Osore! It's super cool, so don't get jealous!"
Narauko's eyes meet hers again as Reiti babbles on, and she so easily sees what he is doing. Turning her sister's attention away from her obvious lies, understanding implicitly her hesitation.
Perhaps she should thank him, but it is hard for her to feel thankful when every drop of gratitude she feels burns like acid in her veins.
She doesn't deserve compassion.
She's going to turn her sister into a tool. A weapon for her people's prestige.
Setsura can't meet his eyes.
I'm sorry. The words are losing meaning to her with how many times she has thought them. She doesn't even know who she is apologising to anymore.
You will be the greatest of us, Reiti. You will be perfect, without peer, and for that...
Setsura dares to look up, allowing for a moment to watch Reiti excitedly regale Narauko as if he is a favoured uncle.
I am so so sorry.
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Why am I crying? What the fuck. This was supposed to be a fluffy chapter. Fucking politics ruin everything and now I'm sad.
Also now I guess I'm gonna be writing a fucking yuki-onna subplot? Fuck it, why not, I guess...
Surely this will all conclude with a nice and happy ending.