[KURAYAMI]
"Then tell me who YOU really are," Rinko said, determined to get the truth from her queen.
"I'm Yuzuki Kuramitsu… Can we please focus on the matter at hand? Pretty please? She can't kiss me again, man," Yuzuki said, like she didn't know Rinko was suspicious of her.
Had been for a while now, but that didn't matter more than the current threat she was really facing.
It had been absolute luck for her to get a kiss from Ayami again, and she wasn't about to waste it on Hirano again.
"Looks like you're on your own this time, Yuzu," Rinko said, and Yuzuki looked at her like she'd just been betrayed.
"You said you were my best friend!" Yuzuki argued as she rushed to hold Rinko's arm.
It was the most ridiculous of sights, really, seeing as one of them was the most powerful woman who could bend wills like she wished to, and the other was an enforcer who was really suspicious.
Yuzuki was aware of that suspicion yet still refused to pay any heed to it.
"And you lied. I suppose that makes us both liars, no?" Rinko said as she pulled her arm from Yuzuki's hands like the woman repulsed her, which was crazy at this point in time.
"Alright, alright. You won't have to trigger a war with Ayami," Yuzuki bargained.
Rinko raised a brow.
"That is not an answer," Rinko said, and Yuzuki grumbled.
"The war idea was really a good one, though. But if it's any comfort, I already sent messengers to the kingdoms across the realm. Now, please save me from Hirano so I can tell you the rest?
"If she kisses me, you'll never know what I'm planning… We can both save each other the logistics?" Yuzuki pleaded, and Rinko had never been put in such a situation.
Who the fuck was this woman really?
Queen Kuramitsu was never this obsessed with war, yet everything that Yuzuki had done since she had woken up from that damn coma had pulled every last nerve that Rinko had.
Now this woman was bargaining with the worst of conditions as if it were normal.
What the fuck was going on?
"Zura, my love!" Amaya called out, her voice sounding closer as Yuzuki stared at Rinko desperately.
"Come on, Rinko. Don't you want to know what crazy stunt I pulled this time?" Yuzuki practically begged, and Rinko sighed.
Yuzuki was crazy.
She knew it.
She had seen it one too many times. Which was why she knew there wasn't much of a choice for her.
The fate of Kurayami may not have been at stake, but there was no telling what the unhinged woman she served was up to this time. It wasn't even that she wanted to stop Yuzu, no. She just wanted to make sense of Yuzuki.
"Fine. If you lie to me, you will have to find yourself a new enforcer," Rinko said with a tone of finality, even though she knew it wouldn't stick.
Not with Yuzuki anyway.
"That means, but a good deal. Now, please save me from Hirano, please," Yuzuki insisted.
Rinko grumbled under her breath, mumbling things like how she was never trained to be the mad queen's relationship therapist. Still, she walked out to Amaya, who had almost gotten to the room.
Yuzuki then heard Amaya rambling about how she had every right because she was the royal consort. But Rinko must have said something that terrified her.
Because the next thing Yuzuki knew was Rinko coming back and Amaya's bitter scent, as the consort went away.
"Your consort is gone. I kept my end of the deal. Now spill," Rinko said, and Yuzuki sighed exaggeratedly before she plopped on one of the seats in the room.
"Yuzu…"
"The borders of Kurayami are opening to the public," Yuzuki said, and the silence that followed was deafening. She could almost hear the screws in Rinko's head coming to a definite stop.
She understood her, though.
The Kurayami borders had never once been opened to anyone.
Those who were lucky enough to make it past the borders were not as lucky to get out with any more information other than what was drilled into them. It was a system that Queen Kuramitsu had set up after her father's death.
And now the woman was letting all the realms' factions in?
Just like that?
"Let me get this straight… You wanted a war over a kiss, changed your mind, then reopened the very borders you closed yourself thousands of years ago? For what?
"Romance?!" Rinko breathed, staggering as she forced her last few steps to the nearest wall.
This was not right.
This was not sane.
What the fuck was her queen thinking of?
"The Kurayami borders are opening, and merchants will be allowed to mingle with our merchants instead of the common marketplace. Besides, that way I get to see Ayami more often and get my kisses.
"Everyone wins. Kurayami's economy gets boosted, and I get to spend time with my beloved instead of having to sneak at the borders," Yuzuki said, like it was okay.
Rinko looked like there were three breaths between her thirtieth aneurysm and a stroke because of Yuzuki Kuramitsu. This woman was going to be the death of her. That much she was starting to be sure of.
"Are you insane by any chance?" Rinko asked like she had reached all the stages of whatever the fuck this was.
"You declined the idea of war… Now you're complaining about the actually productive plan? What do you want me to say?" Yuzuki whined sheepishly.
Rinko had to remind herself a few times that this woman had been the protector of Kurayami for so many years. That this woman had never been a stupid strategist.
Everything Queen Kuramitsu had ever done was calculated and usually didn't end well for strangers.
And Rinko…
She wasn't sure if she was to trust the woman she knew or the circus she had been dealing with over the past year.
This was madness.
This was the kind of shit that no one ever really prepared her for.
"The seven kingdoms want you dead. Did you forget that bit in your quest for romance?" Rinko asked like it was the most obvious of things.
The realm was always up against Kuramitsu and wanted her as the trophy because the blood on the woman's hands was too much. She was undefeated, and many believed it was because she was always within her borders.
Maybe that was why they had been safe, but with the borders being opened, there was no telling what anyone could think of this.
The queen was putting herself in danger because of a kiss from Ayami Araki??
"I'll kidnap Ayami for you if you want that kiss so badly," Rinko sighed.
This time, Yuzuki laughed heartily at her.
Gods, the woman looked so frustrated and couldn't even express herself well because she knew that beneath all this madness, her queen was still the most lethal creation of the Moon Goddess.
"Thank you, but no. I don't want Ayami to say no to kissing me. Besides, by opening the borders, the kingdoms will keep theirs open, and we can finally get answers as to why Kazuya suddenly chose to use his lethal enforcer—
"… to patrol the southern border we share with them so intently for the past seventeen years," Yuzuki said casually before she walked out, leaving Rinko with her jaw on the floor, thinking of how she had misread her queen…
Again.