Taira no Takiyasha flips a card and then two more.
The room around her remains still. Silent enough that the soft clack of paper-thin wood is easy to hear. Even the birds outside seem to find themselves without the motivation to sing.
Takiyasha wonders if their silence is meant to be a reflection of how she feels, but that would be stupid. Birds don't care about the feelings of humans. Their silence is just a coincidence, or perhaps a presence nearby has scared them all away. That wouldn't surprise her, all things considered.
Takiyasha moves one of the flipped cards, adds it to the end of a long line of cards and then moves another two from two neighbouring lines of cards and puts them after the first.
Isn't it strange that we play games? We make up some random goal, apply some self-defined rules and then call ourselves losers if we ever break those rules that have no basis in anything but our own decision to abide them.
It's strange. Takiyasha's father never played any games. She used to think that was strange.
After all, it isn't as if her father had any room left to improve. Yet he would still train and train and practice every day, never once improving in all the time that she's known him.
She used to wonder why he didn't just play games instead. At least then he could have fun, and he would be achieving equally as little either way.
Is there a point to this?
...Takiyasha can't remember why she started thinking about this. Boredom has a way of taking the mind down strange paths.
Takiyasha flips another card and then one more—the last in that lonely pile. She starts making new piles to replace it. Four in total, one for each suit.
The room around her doesn't change. Four walls, unadorned. Two doors, one leading to a small washroom and one being the exit. Entrance. Depending on one's perspective.
There is a sliding window, but the sight isn't very impressive so she left it closed.
Inside of her gilded cage, Taira no Takiyasha completes yet another game of 'Solitaireu.'
With four stacks of cards neatly collected before her, Takiyasha quietly mutters the apparent 'victory phrase,' as Narauko likes to call it.
"Yahtuzee~."
She doesn't know why one is supposed to declare 'yahtuzee' upon finishing a game of solitaireu, but since anytime any of them asked Narauko would just laugh, she assumes she is being pranked.
Taira no Takiyasha collects the cards back into one pile and shuffles them once more before redistributing them into six distinct lines.
One card for the first, face-up. Two for the second, then three then four et cetera, each line having only the bottom card face-up.
Takiyasha's hand hovers over a card in a moment of stillness before a long sigh leaves her and her hand simply drops to the floor, uncaring for how her carefully ordered cards fall askew.
She is bored.
It isn't what she expected out of her imprisonment.
Of course, she wasn't expecting to be locked in a cage or any such thing. Prisons like that are for common born. Nobility like her simply do not experience imprisonment like that. Not unless one has committed the most vile of crimes.
Still, while the level of comfort available to her is no surprise, what she had expected was that shame would be the most prevalent feeling.
Granted, shame is certainly what she felt at the start, and she certainly still feels it to a degree. She is warrior after all. A Sorcerer. Being locked away like some demure princess feels dishonourable in a way that she struggles to articulate.
But despite all of that, after... a week? Two? Not very long, really. Yet the shame has already begun to fade and all that is left is boredom. Her jailers even put up wards to prevent her from sending or receiving any Black Butterflies so she can't even gossip with Sabishī.
It's boring. She's used to travelling around exorcizing Curses and Curse Users. She isn't used to this... stillness.
Not for the first time, her eyes stray to her sword—propped against the wall beside her low-quality futon—and thoughts of simply forcing her way free swirl through her mind.
It isn't as if she couldn't, though she wouldn't put her chances at surviving as a guarantee.
But in the end, as usual, she knows that it isn't so simple. She could try to escape, but all that would result in is her death. Even if she succeeds, she'd just be killed by an assassination squad later. Just as her jailers could try to take her sword from her, but know that she would not be nearly so docile should they make the attempt.
With her Technique functioning as a near-perfect defence and her sword effectively being a perfect offence, there are few with the authority to make such a decision that would be foolish to actually do so.
Imprisoning a Noble is never a simple thing at the best of times. For a Noble who is also a Sorcerer..?
She is surprised she hasn't been lent a servant to attend to her. Takiyasha suspects that the lack of attending to her is a result of the Fujiwara expressing their anger over the deaths of so many Fujiwara Sorcerers.
Takiyasha mentally scoffs in derision. As if any of that is my fault.
Alas, the sins of the father do tend to weigh on the shoulders of children, no matter what overly optimistic men might say.
Another sigh leaves her as her eyes fall back to the cards arrayed across the tatami floor before her.
It is as she is pondering whether to go through the motions with her sword or go through the motions with her cards—the only two activities that she really has to pass the time—that Takiyasha feels something.
It's... comfort. Home. Forgiveness. Pride. Welcome.
It brushes against her skin like acid if it were kind. Sharp and fizzy but undeniably caring.
Feeling it, Takiyasha only has one thought that comes to mind.
It's warm.
From that alone, she has no need to guess as to what this invasive feeling might mean. There can only be one answer there.
Narauko has arrived.
Not a moment after the thought strikes, Takiyasha sees a shadow opposite her begin to twist and she finds her eyes closing to the sight of it.
She doesn't know what to think about him. What to feel. A swirling contradiction coils behind her throat like bile that refuses to be swallowed.
However, she refuses to be so weak as to avert her sight, so when she hears the cheerful exclamation of, "Taki-chan~!" She opens her eyes.
He is, predictably, making a silly face. Grinning and holding his hands in the air as if in celebration.
Conflicting emotions war through her at the sight of him. Most of that conflict comes from the jarring contrast between the attraction she still feels for him and the fact that he killed her father.
Imprisoned she may be, Takiyasha has not been left entirely bereft of news.
"Narauko-san." Takiyasha replies with a faint nod, keeping her tone neutral for now. "You look well."
"Naturally~." His reply might have gotten an amused huff from her in another time. As it is, she simply watches as he plops himself down on the floor across from her. "You look bored. Wanna go do something?"
Takiyasha raises a brow at him. Though she doesn't doubt his words, it feels as though he has somehow gotten even more brazen.
Her tone is dry as she replies, "I am unsure how my jailers would react to you dragging me out of my isolation."
Narauko blinks and tilts his head in that way he does when he's curious about something.
It is an effort to ignore how cute she finds the gesture.
"Eh? You're in jail?" Narauko casts an appraising look around the room before turning back to her with a cheeky smile. "Pretty decent digs for a prisoner~."
Digs? Takiyasha thinks before dismissing the odd terminology as unimportant. She can understand well enough what he means from context.
"I am still a Taira."
"True enough~," Narauko leans back slightly, grinning at the ceiling for a moment. "Woe be those born without pedigree, I suppose. Then again, Sukuna and I don't have fancy smancy family names anyway, and look at us? Meh, whatever. What did you even do to get jailed anyway?"
Takiyasha almost punches him for asking. It's only because she understands him that she doesn't.
She still almost decides to hit him anyway.
"I allowed myself to be born from the seed of a foolish man."
Narauko blinks again and then she watches as his expression pulls into a frown and then into a helpless smile before twisting back into a slighter frown again. A sigh leaves him then, one that voices the sort of disappointment a parent would feel seeing their child acting out.
"The crimes of the father do so often way upon the shoulders of children," he quietly speak the words as a complaint before refocusing on her, unknowing of how his words mirror her own thoughts. "How are you holding up?"
Takiyasha stares at him for a moment, wondering how much he knows and how much he does not. It is a contradiction that used to fascinate her, how he could see so much more in the world than anyone else yet managed to be so ignorant of other matters at the same time.
Right now though, she doesn't feel that fascination. It just... kind of pisses her off.
"My father is dead." She doesn't say the words with heat, but she knows her tone is harsh. She doesn't feel bad about it. She knows Narauko, and she knows that these words will hurt him in a way that her sword never could. Some part of her knows that he doesn't deserve to hurt, but the larger part of her just doesn't care.
"My father is dead," Takiyasha repeats, meeting his eyes without flinching. She hates the compassion she sees reflected within those coal orbs, and she hates even more how the hurt she sees at her words does not bring her the satisfaction she desires. "You killed him. I will not pretend that the relationship between my father and I was a strong one, but whether I truly loved him as a daughter should or not, he was still my father!"
Takiyasha takes a deep breath and leans back into a normal sitting position, having raised her voice and pushed forward without realising it. Her eyes close as she continues to take deep breaths, and for a moment, the considerate silence on Narauko's part combined with the gentle compassion she can still feel radiating from him almost brings tears to her eyes.
She chokes them back by force of will alone, though a trail on her cheek tells her she wasn't as successful as she wanted to be. She pretends that the tear doesn't exist, and she hates how Narauko pretends alongside her.
Why can't you just be cruel? Takiyasha finds herself thinking as she glares at him. Why wasn't it Sukuna? Why can I not hate you?
With one last inhale, Takiyasha keeps talking, fighting to keep her voice level and without warble as she does.
"Had he committed a lesser crime, perhaps I would not have been largely affected. However, not only did he commit treason against the Emperor, but Michinaga is also not feeling forgiving. Both for the act itself and for the deaths of so many Fujiwara men. In any other circumstance, I would have already been executed for his crime. My siblings as well."
"That's fucked up," Narauko bemoans with another helpless sigh, and his words cause Takiyasha's eyes to sharpen against him.
"That's life." She snaps the words at him, nearly growling them out even as he merely raises his hands in a placating gesture. "The only reason I still live is because of you. So perhaps I should be thanking you instead!?" Takiyasha's hands slam! on the floor with her words and her pitch turns warbled as she half yells at him and half chokes on her own words and unwilling tears.
"I don't even know! My sib—" A sob interrupts her but she doesn't let it stop her, "Siblings could be dead and I don't even know! I'm only alive because they expect you to claim me! And where have you been!?! You did this! It's your fault!"
Her lips twist into a snarl as all the emotions she's been locking away burst through all at once and she's lunging at him before she can even think about the action.
Takiyasha's fist connects with Narauko's chin at the same time that a wordless scream of rage and loss tears its way through her throat.
Narauko does not defend himself, falling back with the blow as se follows through and collapses on top of him for only a moment before raising her chest just enough to pull back her other hand and throw another punch down at him.
At the same time, Narauko's arms move not to defend himself, but only to embrace her.
"It's okay," he whispers to her as her knuckles continue to bleed his face and chest. "Let it all out, Taki-chan. Let it out."
Takiyasha isn't entirely sure how many times she hit him, but at some point she just didn't have any energy left to keep going. Instead, she just collapsed against him, her hands bundling up the cloth of his robe in clenched fists, sobbing gently into his chest as his warmth and comforting arms lull her into some measure of peace.
She hates that even know, with both of their blood splattered across his face, Narauko does not push her away. Does not dismiss her or Curse her. She thinks that most of all, she hates that she cannot bring herself to truly hate him.
Everything would be so much easier if she could just hate him.
"I'm sorry for not being here sooner," Narauko whispers into her hair. "A lot happened and I was really out of it for a while. I'll do what I can to make it up to you."
Takiyasha doesn't reply. She doesn't pull away from him either. She just...
She just needs a moment.
So there they remain, huddled together on the floor. At some point, Narauko starts humming something. She enjoys the vibrations and how they reverberate through his chest, and for a moment she can almost pretend that nothing has gone wrong. That they are just classmates again without anything to set them apart.
She doesn't know how long it takes her to speak. She almost regrets bringing an end to this false dream, where there was nothing to complicate their relationship.
Alas, her father remains dead, and no matter her wishes, that is a fact that she cannot forget.
"I don't forgive you." Her voice is a soft murmur against his chest. She doesn't look up, knowing what sort of face he will be making and refusing to look at it.
She isn't ready for that just yet.
Let me be miserable for a little bit longer.
"That's fine," Narauko easily acquiesces. So understanding. "I wouldn't forgive me either." Another brief silence stretched between them before he speaks again. "May I ask you something?"
Takiyasha grunts something equivalent to a 'yes'.
"Earlier, you said something about people expecting me to 'claim' you? I feel like I can make some unfortunate guesses, but what exactly did you mean by that?"
Takiyasha almost chuckles. Almost.
A county boy you remain, she thinks to herself as she answers.
"The world is a dangerous place for a woman to tread by herself. Fathers and husbands are more than just family, they are safety. I do not have a betrothed and you killed my father, thus, you have taken 'safety' away from me." Takiyasha pauses for a second without meaning to. "It is somewhat expected that you would take responsibility by taking me to wife, thus returning the safety that you took from me. Michinaga would rather have my head, and I doubt he is the only one. However, there is no one left that will deny that you are The Strongest and with your reputation, no one wants to execute me until they understand what position you intend to take."
Silence returns as he mulls over her words. She knows that he will find them distasteful. Narauko has such odd sensibilities about this sort of thing.
"Y'know... Taira no Tadatsune and I had a conversation not too long ago. Just before all the..." Narauko waves a hand around in a circle as if that alone is enough description, which, she supposes that it is. "Long story short, he basically just wanted to marry you to me. Felt like he was trying to sell me a car to be honest."
Takiyasha tenses slightly at his words, though she ignores the typically nonsensical ending.
"Naturally, I told him that you should be allowed to choose for yourself who you marry and that I'd kill him if he tried to force or coerce you into a betrothal." The words cause her hands to clench just a bit tighter, even as they also cause her heart to feel lighter at the same time.
"So you will not marry me?" She whispers the question out and feels a warm hand begin to gently stroke her hair in response.
"If you want to, we can spend some more time together with that in mind and see how things develop?"
Takiyasha doesn't speak immediately, and when she does, it feels as though she is admitting a sin. Her voice is barely audible, and she knows that it is only by Narauko's nature that she could admit anything at all.
Because despite it all, Takiyasha still trusts him.
"I... I do not want to marry you. I know that I should, that it would be the better choice. I do not dislike you, and... I remain attracted to you. But... You killed my father, and I— I just—"
Her mouth snaps shut as Narauko holds her just a bit tighter against his chest.
"I understand, I do. It's okay, we can still be friends, or you can never see my face again if you would prefer that. I won't marry you if you do not want to marry me."
"But I must," Takiyasha's whisper is desperate in a way she hates to hear echoed back at her. "If you do not take responsibility for my safety through marriage then I will almost certainly die to some assassination squad. Maybe I could accept that, but my sisters are not warriors and if they are still alive then marrying you is the only way—"
Her whispered rant is cut off again by Narauko, this time accompanied by a light chuckle on his part that has her leaning up finally only to glare at him.
Narauko simply pokes his nose against her own.
"Don't be silly, Taki-chan. You're hyperfocusing. We don't have to marry. I can just adopt you or something if you really need the official familial connection to feel secure. But really, you said it yourself didn't you?" The cocky smirk as he says that reminds her why she fell for him in the first place. It is just a shame that it is now marred by the image in her mind of him wearing that same smirk as her father lay dead before him. It is an unfair thing to think of him, but se cannot control the thought.
"I am The Strongest, right?" Narauko doesn't wait for an answer before simply shrugging his shoulders laxly. "I will just make it clear that I'll kill anyone who hurts you or your siblings. We don't need to be married for that, you know? ...It's the least I could do."
Takiyasha stares into his eyes for a moment longer, yet she only sees sincerity in them. How absurd. She collapses back into his chest with a slight smile.
It is absurd to expect anyone to make enemies for the sake of anyone who is not family in one sense or another. It is so absurd in fact, that she really should have known that Narauko would do so without so much as thinking it an odd thing to do.
"...Thank you."
Another long silence befalls them, and she enjoys his company. She doesn't think she will ever forgive him for killing her father, but she doesn't resent him for it. Her father was a Sorcerer and a warrior both, dying in battle is an honourable end, and Narauko didn't just kill him for fun.
So yes, she doesn't forgive him. But she won't force herself to hate his company. Not when he feels so very warm.
Eventually though the comfort fades enough for another thought to strike, and though she shies away from the subject, Takiyasha knows that she cannot ignore it, so she forces herself to break the comfortable silence.
"About my father..." She swallows, hesitant, but she needs to know. "How... How did he die?"
Narauko does not reply right away. He considers his words. She appreciates that he doesn't try to coddle her with vague words as if she were a child.
"On his feet. He died a warrior. Didn't stop fighting right until the end..." Narauko pauses as if imagining something. A slight upward tilt of the lips is all she knows of what passed his mind. "It was a respectable end. I won't forget him."
Those words bring some measure of pride to her chest, enough to lift her mood slightly.
"I heard that you hit a Black Flash that reshaped the landscape," Takiyasha idly comments. "Is that what it took to break through my father's Technique?"
A snort is her answer, causing her to look up at him in curiosity to see a sheepish expression on his face.
"Well, kinda. I did hit a Black Flash, but that was within my Domain so it didn't touch the landscape, that was from a different attack that was honestly just shrugged off. Do you know the truth of what your father's Technique was?"
Takiyasha raises a brow at the odd question, but obliges anyway. "Of course I do. His Technique allowed him to adapt to harm, eventually culminating in a total immunity to Cursed Energy as a whole. His Technique was no secret?"
"...Kami damnit Kamo-Sensei," Narauko mutters under his breath, and Takiyasha finds some amusement in what is obvious. That their annoying Sensei purposefully sent him off without telling him what to expect.
"Well," Narauko begins again, "When I figured out that it was Cursed Energy that couldn't touch him, I just had to use Touki to win. It, uh... Wasn't that hard."
Takiyasha's brows furrow, both at the mildly insulting words and at the impossibility of them.
"Sorcerers cannot use Touki," she states, to which Narauko simply raises a brow before igniting in the white flames of lifeforce itself. Touki.
She isn't as surprised as she feels she should be.
"Just because you can do something does not mean that it is possible," Takiyasha counters with narrow eyes. "It merely proves your abnormality. It is not possible for a Sorcerer to use Touki, you are just an exception."
Narauko grins at her words, causing her to realise too late that she has just fed his ego even more.
Not deigning to grace that grin with a response, Takiyasha moves to the other half of his words.
"From what I hear, your battle was the thing of myth, yet you claim it 'wasn't that hard'?"
If what she has heard described was something that Narauko considers leisurely, then she will have to seriously revaluate her understanding of his strength.
"Yeah, about that... So, there's really no easy way to say this, but after I killed your father he came back as a Vengeful Spirit, and without the limits of flesh holding him back, his Technique started adapting to..." Narauko shakes his head as if struggling to find the words, "Fuckin' everything. Eventually, I naturally won a second time, but then your father's Technique adapted to my Technique and he turned himself into a Shikigami in order to force my Technique into a taming ritual, which is still just not fair. From there, he honestly kicked my ass a bit. For a moment... I actually doubted my own chances at victory. It was amazing."
Takiyasha takes a moment to absorb his words, and while she does feel some pride in her father for putting up such a stiff fight against a freak of nature like Narauko, she can't help but hone in on one specific part.
"...You tamed my father??" Her incredulous tone and sharp eyes make Narauko chuckle nervously.
"Kiiiiinda? I did want to talk about this, because I originally meant to give you back your father's sword, but, well... Mahoraga."
From Narauko's shadow, a large, humanoid Shikigami rises.
Takiyasha doesn't feel any familiarity from the Shikigami itself, but her eyes do snap to the Sword of Extermination fused into its wrist.
"I see."
"This isn't your father," Narauko quickly cuts in, drawing her eyes back to him. "I am sorry, but he is dead. I believe that Izanami-sama has his true Soul. This Shikigami is just the twisted remnants of your father's Curse and an echo of his will. So... y'know. I didn't want to give you the impression that he was still alive and chained to my Technique or anything. ...Sorry."
Takiyasha closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
She just... This is a lot. She needs a minute to process.
"If you want—"
"Narauko?"
"Yes?"
"Stop talking for a minute will you?"
"Sure."
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
phew, finally done with the emotional overly stuff for now, holy hell I am not built for this lmao. I don't feel bad about this chapter like I did the last, since I feel like I can empathise with Takiyasha here somewhat, but still, I tend to feel unsure if I'm doing angsty emotional stuff right since I make it a point irl to avoid feeling negative emotions.
Next chapter will be the last of these chill-ish ones methinks, cuz someone wanted to know what gojo and shiki are up to so I guess I'm gonna figure that out. Chapter after that will have some good ole action, cuz I had an idea while on the toilet for something cool tamamo can do with her osore and I wanna write it :P