SUBMIT

34

Hata no Kawakatsu would tell anyone that would listen that he hates the mask down to the very core of his being. It was a heavy emotion that swirled in the pits of his chest before it slithered down to his churning bowels. It danced upon every nerve in his body, every cell that migrated through him and overtook his cool mind with ease. He was the embodiment of fury when confronted with them, and wished nothing more than to exact his revenge upon them for what they have done to his young descendant!

But The Prince, the sweet and kind prince, murmured how it would not be wise to do so. Kawakatsu had looked upon him with narrowed eyes and lips upturned in a sneer, but he said nothing in response, at least immediately. It was only a few seconds later that he huffed, "They escape fate because you let them. When will you stop pulling them away from it when their existence is a danger to our kin?"

"She needs them," Prince Shōtoku said with little force, but little gentleness either. He was firm and stiff but all the same very soft in nature as he looked down at the shivering young girl in their grasp. "Or at least until Komote succeeds. Then we shall see. I do not wish for you to think that I am choosing them over my own flesh and blood. It would be wrong of me to do so."

Kawakatsu turned his attention to the dense wave of black tar slithering from the gaps of his fingers, "You think that mask could help her?"

"Do you doubt?"

"Of course I do," Kawakatsu scoffed. "I will continue to do so until our descendant is cleansed."

Prince Shōtoku's eyes dripped with his golden tears as he whispered, "She sacrificed herself, Kawakatsu. She won't return even if she fails."

"Is that any of my concern?" Kawakatsu muttered with a twitch of his brow. He turned his gaze towards the crying prince, observing his features before sighing, "Are you saddened by this? To lose a mask?"

The Prince spoke nothing at first, merely letting the space between him and Kawakatsu go hush. The only thing between them was the delicate form of Menreiki who spoke in quiet tongues and wails for comfort. Both spirits rubbed their large thumbs over her to soothe her aches, even if only for a moment, and Prince Shōtoku watched as the tension in Menreiki's brows softened. Kawakatsu stroked her hair away, "She is not lost forever, my prince. If she means well and she succeeds then she will live on inside our kin. Pure and benevolent Komote will be, just as you intended them before."

The two ghostly figures spared no glance to the rest of the masks that brawled at the side. Otobide and Kitsunemen had been going at it since the beginning, and despite being regarded as durable shields who bore no scratch on their surfaces, their even white painting was beginning to chip off. Uba had been all but decimated from the eyes up as Fukujin, Saru and Semimaru grieved despite her still being conscious enough to berate them. Saru shivered, "What is happening? Were we not all one?"

"We were, brother," Semimaru reassured as he briefly pressed their foreheads together in a show of comfort. "But even we cannot stay together when there is betrayal and deception within."

"So what do we do now?" Saru quietly asked as he looked elsewhere from his brawling brothers, the spirits of the humans and the floating form of Uba. His gaze fell onto his usually jovial brother, who had pressed his lips into a straight line. His cheeks drooped with solemness, though it only jumped upwards a small bit when Saru looked at him, as if to give him comfort. Saru saw, observed the oddness of his brother, but still he asked, "Fukujin? What do we do? Komote is no longer here. We do not know where she has wandered!"

Fukujin said nothing at first.

He knew his brother needed some words to ease his turbulent mind. He needed a solid ground so that he may stand upon it rather than sink in his own nerves, but Fukujin had nothing to say. He was mighty but not as much as Otobide, and he was intelligent in his own right, but not so much that he could contend with his brother, Kitsunemen. His kindness fell short compared to Komote and his forcefulness was nowhere near Uba's own.