12/13/2024, 4:22 AM
❁
Izumi softened, for just a fraction. Yet her ire returned the moment he even dared speak of his own peril.
Still, he saw her as none more than an empress under his protection – it felt like a barrier between them that she couldn't dream of clawing through. In the beginning, this was fine. Their relationship as student to her teacher – ruler to her samurai – she could get by. Yet now, Izumi had made the mistake of allowing him to become something more in her mind. She’d long since recognized that; yet maybe she hadn’t recognized how easily she was letting it slip from the cracks.
Died in my place?Her eyes were sharp when her gaze snapped in his direction. Her voice grew cold, yet with a hint of bruising within it. Almost as if his words bruised her…actually, they had.
What do you mean by that, Osamu – that this existence would be jovial regardless of your presence in it?
Still, he saw her as none more than an empress under his protection – it felt like a barrier between them that she couldn't dream of clawing through. In the beginning, this was fine. Their relationship as student to her teacher – ruler to her samurai – she could get by. Yet now, Izumi had made the mistake of allowing him to become something more in her mind. She’d long since recognized that; yet maybe she hadn’t recognized how easily she was letting it slip from the cracks.
That is not what I want Osamu! I am not some coreless feather that breaks in the wind, I am your student -- your friend! I…she had to recoil for a second to find her words – her composure. Her ears pressed against her crown. What was she saying? What could she even say?
Is….Is that what you truly want? The idea that you might’ve died in those mountains, and you’d become nothing but a wisp in my memory….is that something that would truly make you content?
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