[Day 5, Early Morning] Strike From the Shadows (Expecting but Public)

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

Hatsuki could feel the floor fall out under her. It was like every hope she'd had of trying to get some level of control over her life was over. They would fail, and chance would never bring them together like this. She would be trapped in a blandly amicable marriage with her children never knowing their father.

Choudai would be stuck with this monster.

He said something nearby, she thought, but all she could hear was her heart pounding in her ears.

"... It's a powerful piece," she simply observed.

There was nothing left in her to be angry about this. She simply bowed.

"Please excuse me. I have a few things I need to work on for my piece later."

Willpower/Etiquette TN 43, Void | 6k3 ⇒ 17 (TN: 43)

/exit

[Doji Nadeshiko]

Nadeshiko, despite herself, looks to the painting -- her shoulders sagging as she's let in on the joke. Well, this was all she'd ever be: at best, someone's punchline, at worst some nameless laughingstock of a fool who'd never amount to anything despite clinging to life like it's the last thing she has. She's almost completely alone in the world, mostly tolerated when she just wants to be loved, and Akihito... she blinks back tears before her eyes close fully. Perhaps she should have thrown herself off that bridge. It would certainly have spared her from this.

...why is Hatsuki leaving?

Now the woman's torn between two paths: get answers from Mikan (and keep Choudai well within propriety), or follow Hatsuki.

It's not a difficult choice.

"I have heard it said," Her voice quivers as she speaks, "That true art evokes a reaction from its audience. In this you have succeeded. While I do not understand your intent, I believe I have come to understand its meaning. If I may be so bold, I find I do not agree with it."

Teardrops fall on the tatami mat as Nadeshiko bows.

"If you should ever wish to speak on misery, you know where to find me, Kakita-san. Bayushi-san, I apologize for leaving you without a chaperone, but I find I also have business to attend to."

For [Day 5, Early Morning] Strike From the Shadows: Willpower/Etiquette (Courtesy) vs Mikan TN 43. +1k0 from Prodigy. +1k1 from Void Point spent because Oh No. | 7k3 ⇒ 30 (TN: 43)

[Kakita Mikan]

Even her tears are perfect. Her smiles....her tears.....they will never be mine, but I will remember them for the rest of my days. Mikan thought, swept up in the beauty of Nadeshiko's tears.

"Of course, Doji-san, I would not keep you a moment more." she said.

She turned her attention to the Bothersome, Bottom Bayushi. Was he really going to let both of his allies leave and persist in bothering her?

[Bayushi Choudai]

How little they understood one another.

Because of course, having made Hatsuki as miserable as she had, Mikan had given Choudai the most powerful of motives to hang around.

He waited until Nadeshiko was gone, then turned his face to Mikan. And donned the most awful, hollowed-out smile he ever had.

"Alone at last, Kakita-san. A window on our future together. Think how many years we'll get to spend this way. And make no mistake, after this?" He nodded after the two departed women. "I truly look forward to our married life. Why, just think- you'll get to see me every single day. And Nadeshiko-san? Well. I'm sure she'll write."

He leaned closer, his voice becoming a venomous hiss.

"I was prepared to help you, Mikan. I was ready to take long trips away from our home. Or develop illnesses that forced me to stay home while you traveled back to the Crane lands to attend business here. I was ready to find children to adopt and claim were ours after you took a nice long vacation somewhere for about nine months. I would never, ever have tried to so much as touch you. Now you've given me no reason to be anywhere near so considerate of your feelings, if this little... tantrum of yours is how you repay an overture made in good faith."

The horrible smile was back.

"So. You're going to hang it there, are you? Well, naturally, you know best. Please, tell me the whole story about how you arrived at your particular stylistic choice. We'll need to sort out how you can best continue your art as a Scorpion, after all, so a full understanding is required..."

[Saibankan]

(Willpower/Intimidation Please)

[Bayushi Choudai]

[Holy shit D5/EM Laughable Willpower/Intimidation roll, what the hell, I'll spend a Void on it for +1k1. | 4k3 ⇒ 31]

[Kakita Mikan]

Say what you would about Choudai, his venom was particular potent, if not often deployed. The effects were particularly noticeable: the smile vanished off the Kakita's face, she became noticeably paler, and the pride in her eyes was replaced with despair, and the start of tears.

She turned away from the monster, unwilling to face him directly.

"You don't understand. You don't matter, Bayushi-san. Your overtures, your plans, your plots, your promises, your lies, your threats, none of them matter. A world where I cannot have her is meaningless I only reside within it for the far distant flickers of her beauty."

Her fingers tightened upon the painting case.

"My heart screams, and through my art I shake my fist at the Heavens themselves for their cruelty. I apologize if it disappoints your cruel nature, Bayushi-san, but my tears will always be for her, and never for you."

She shed them freely now, but would not show them to him.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"That is precisely the point," he snarled. "I know exactly how that feels. And I would have moved heaven and earth to spare someone else what I go through on an almost-daily basis. But now?"

He gestured to the painting.

"You've shown me that there's no point. To any of my hopes to do better by another than I have been done by the world. After all, if you would lash out like that where it would hurt the only person in the world you really care about, then there really is no hope. At all. So. Let's get comfortable, Kakita-chan."

[Kakita Mikan]

Mikan nodded.

"There is no hope." she agreed. "For either of us, Bayushi-san. No matter what we do, they shall forever be out of our reach, no matter how close they may seem. Whether we are kind, whether we are cruel, whether we scream in rage or in agony, it does not bring either of us one step closer to being with the one we love."

[Bayushi Choudai]

He let out a ragged sigh.

"You could have been. If you had trusted me."

[Kakita Mikan]

He let out a ragged sigh.

"You could have been. If you had trusted me."

Mikan shook her head.

"You are deceiving only yourself, Bayushi-san. You don't know her like I do. It was an impossible love the day I laid eyes upon her. Our paths were destined to forever run at most parallel to each other. No matter how highly you think of yourself, bridging the two paths was never in your power, anymore than you could reach the one you want to be with. It was always meant to be hopeless." she disagreed.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I can see that you feel that way."

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"But she was here. Today. With me, to talk to you. And you drove her off as surely as you repelled Shosuro-san. And you did it on purpose. Take a lesson from one with some experience in self-destructive actions, Mikan- it's bad form to harm others when you do it. Especially those you care for."

[Kakita Mikan]

"I can see that you feel that way."

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"But she was here. Today. With me, to talk to you. And you drove her off as surely as you repelled Shosuro-san. And you did it on purpose. Take a lesson from one with some experience in self-destructive actions, Mikan- it's bad form to harm others when you do it. Especially those you care for."

"I did not wish to speak to her. It hurts every time I see her. Her melodious voice pierces my very soul., I turned down her invitation to meet. I sequestered myself in my room. I made sure to arrive here and leave before any showed up so I could fulfill my duty to my lord and not see her."

She shook her head.

"You did not care. Instead you rallied her and Shosuro-san to corner me here so you could what.....tell me that you wanted me to be happy? I made it clear I did not want to talk. You pressed on, positioning yourself so I could not leave without punching my way through you. I lashed out because I was outnumbered. That's what happens when you force yourself on someone Bayushi-san. Do not blame me for your foolishness." she said, tears drying into bitterness.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I did not wish to speak to her. It hurts every time I see her. Her melodious voice pierces my very soul., I turned down her invitation to meet. I sequestered myself in my room. I made sure to arrive here and leave before any showed up so I could fulfill my duty to my lord and not see her."

She shook her head.

"You did not care. Instead you rallied her and Shosuro-san to corner me here so you could what.....tell me that you wanted me to be happy? I made it clear I did not want to talk. You pressed on, positioning yourself so I could not leave without punching my way through you. I lashed out because I was outnumbered. That's what happens when you force yourself on someone Bayushi-san. Do not blame me for your foolishness." she said, tears drying into bitterness.

"We are to be wed. The fool here is you, if you think you can hide from that fact. Rather than find what joy you can, or seek to lessen your pain, you wallow in it, flaunt it, and then regret it. I brought her here because your regard for her would only be clearer if you ran around with a gigantic sashimono reading, 'I am in love with Nadeshiko.' And besides. Here we are, both still trapped. So what did you achieve? Merely the misery of those who meant you no harm. You talk of your duty to your lord? It seems to me you would rather whine about it in as public a fashion as you can than accept it."

A pause.

"And even I am a better samurai than that."

[Kakita Mikan]

"We are to be wed. The fool here is you, if you think you can hide from that fact. Rather than find what joy you can, or seek to lessen your pain, you wallow in it, flaunt it, and then regret it. I brought her here because your regard for her would only be clearer if you ran around with a gigantic sashimono reading, 'I am in love with Nadeshiko.' And besides. Here we are, both still trapped. So what did you achieve? Merely the misery of those who meant you no harm. You talk of your duty to your lord? It seems to me you would rather whine about it in as public a fashion as you can than accept it."

A pause.

"And even I am a better samurai than that."

"We're trapped here only because you believe you can somehow save me. If you can just do this one good deed, the Heavens will smile upon you and craft a bridge to who you truly want." she offered, with a dismissive shake of her head.

She turned to face him.

"I will not have my love, you will not have yours, and she will not have you. Kiss me, kill me, nothing will change that. the seaonss will change, the sun will rise and set, and the two of you will grow old and wither away without each other. These are simple truths that you are powerless to change, Bayushi-san." she said with finality.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"We're trapped here only because you believe you can somehow save me. If you can just do this one good deed, the Heavens will smile upon you and craft a bridge to who you truly want." she offered, with a dismissive shake of her head.

She turned to face him.

"I will not have my love, you will not have yours, and she will not have you. Kiss me, kill me, nothing will change that. the seaonss will change, the sun will rise and set, and the two of you will grow old and wither away without each other. These are simple truths that you are powerless to change, Bayushi-san." she said with finality.

"And look, all talk of duty flies from you the second you are challenged, as you retreat into trying to make your misery a universal truth! The trap is your clinging to your pain as if it should somehow define you and the whole world. You think I see any hope of being with the one I love through some act of redemption? You've been reading too many pillowbooks. This isn't about getting what we want, it's about limiting the pain of being alive."

He offered another awful smile.

"But I see you love your pain more than you could ever love anyone or anything else. Do drop me a note when the time comes to melodramatically throw yourself down a well or engage in performative kanshi, I would hate to miss the show."

He turned as if to go, but... no. Life wasn't nearly so merciful.

He looked at the painting.

"And you know, if I don't matter, if none of this matters, then why do you always paint me in particular? You say only she matters, and yet you've spent as much effort on rendering my likeness as you have hers."

He didn't appear interested in an answer- instead, he clapped his hands, and donned the smile again.

"I'll be seeing you around, Kakita-chan. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll bring you breakfast, and we can discuss how many children the Clan will expect."