hakai | gabimaru

十二

"Welcome, gentlemen! Sinners of all stripes!"

"Seated before you is the eleventh Shogun of this island, Tokugawa Nariyoshi! Normally, you lot would never be granted an audience with his excellence!"

"The fuck?!"

"Acting all high and mighty?!"

"You think were all chumps. Is that it?"

"What's a shogun?"

Though almost every criminal complained of being looked down by the attendants, Rika remains silent. Although she couldn't see clearly the sight in front of her, she could make out at least their figures. Their large and small backs, their stuck up and greasy hair and the stout Tokugawa Nariyoshi seated in the middle of the platform. Averting her eyes, she could visibly make out the figure of Riku staring down at the other white haired male seated beside her. He had that look, a look in which he seems to be questioning him.

Presumably a look which meant about her interaction earlier. 

"Can you even breathe with this cloth on your face?" She hears him ask her. "It's really hard to breathe and I want to see the Tokugawa."

"What's a tokugawa?" Rika asks, blinking her eyes.

She hears another female voice respond just by her side. "You can't."

"Now we will present you with your secret mission!" The attendant announces, scroll in hand. "Any man who fulfills it will be granted full exoneration by the authority of this writ of pardon!"

Behind the white cloth on the front of her face, Rika's eyebrows furrowed. She didn't needed the writ of pardon, the other criminals could have that for all she cares. What truly is important is the ferry to return back to Horai and kill ever single Tensen before killing Rien. Even if she dies along the way, she'll keep wishing to reborn again and again and again until it takes her to fulfill her dream.

Dreams may not have any real purpose but it does shed light on a heavy concern that involves her.

Besides her, other criminals began murmuring to themselves about wanting to have the writ of pardon to themselves. To be able to walk under the sun like a free man and have the Shogun not bat an eyelash at their killing spree sounds like a real treat for them. However, she hears him yawn and babble to her side. Unexpectedly, she lets out a laugh. Thinking that he does have an amusing side in him.

"Hey you. You're Gabimaru the Hollow, right?" Rika hears another feminine voice murmur. Averting her eyes to take a look at the purple haired woman. "That physique plus the white hair, it's gotta be you! I mean you're a celebrity in our world!" She beams to him.

So his name is Gabimaru. How...peculiar, Rika thinks. Gabimaru isn't a name, rather, it's a cluster of onomatopoeia's hollow, empty and deserted. As she thinks, is that even his real name? To think like a criminal, that mustn't be his name. Unlike her, she preferred to stick with her birth name.

"You're kinda disappointing in real life. You're way shorter than the rumors have it. Not to mention, you got dragged in the same as us in the end." The purple haired girl draws on.

"...Sorry. I dashed on your expectations." He replies.

Now it made her curious, just what did Gabimaru do to be put in the same ending as them? Surely he wouldn't have done a slip up...or perhaps, it was a set up? There are an array of options of what could have happened.

"And holy smokes! White hair with light green tips, you're Rika of Yoshiwara!" The purple haired girl beams, slipping the white cloth off her face a little. "You are the talk of the country when you burned down the capital and it's neighboring cities! The great fire of Meireki as they call it! How did you managed to pull that off?"