I dream… I fight it but I dream.
It’s the library. Even during my Judgement it was a sunny place. But now, it’s a dark, starless night. The lights inside turned low, so that I stumble a bit, here and there.
I avoid his shelves. Skirting alongside the outside, where the lesser members lie. Kano’s face leers up to me from one shelf.
Along the wall I find it that small alcove, on the edges of this great monument. There’s a small chair, and I slump down into it.
“You can borrow a match, if you’d like?”
I look up. “-You-,” I mutter. I look away.
“Oh, come on now. You finally know that he knows that you’re not the ~perfect Yagi Hide~. That your relationship was… doomed.” She grins a little. “Didn’t I tell you that, in the beginning when you chased after him? He only -plays- with women – I’d already seen enough of that.” She laughs. “And some men, too. He wasn’t so picky. It’s too bad you both dragged all of those others into it before he saw through you and finally -said- something. Nearly -seventeen- years!”
“Shut up,” I say.
She rolls her eyes, “ooh, you’re so sassy now. Were you always like this when you get dumped?”
I sigh. “Why didn’t you come? I knew you were -around- at the dojo.”
She shakes her head. “With the Battosai? That’s his fight. Women don’t interfere. You know how he is,” she says, smiling. “Had he actually tried against you? Then that was my place.” She runs her fingers along the cut on my neck. “And now… I get to go rescue him, but that’s what I do. As always, it’s your fault when he goes… off track.”
“He doesn’t love you. He’s still not capable of that.” Can’t -she- see?
I feel her eyes on me. “Unlike you, I’m content. He’s content with what I can offer. Do we copulate like wild creatures, ruined by lust? Do we make anguished declarations? No. And that’s fine for us.” She laughs, again. “I’d rather be -content- than whatever it is you have now.”
She nudges me with a box of matches. “Go on, make one of your speeches! Cry! Then set it on fire!”
I throw it back at her. “Go -away-.”
“How disappointing….” She turns, and then glances over her shoulder. “Well, I have to see about getting Souji out of jail. it’s no place for him. I’m certain Saitou-san will listen to me – after all, while he may hate me, little fake wife, at least I didn’t make him live a lie. You moaned about your hope and blah blah blah… but he at least had a core that was -himself- to return to once you corrupted that weak one.”
She leaves. I lean my head back against the wall, listening for Ai-chan on the other side. I’ll stay here until I wake, there.
(OOC – close)