「secret empire」ー 折原 臨也

Ch. 8: Real life fairy tales

05/03:

As much as a pawn wished to be a king, there would be no way to achieve a rank this high. Not to mention, the most powerful of them all was the queen.

Have you ever seen a chess master slaying their enemy with the king? Figured.

In the end all pawns are of protective usage. The queen, however, served as the offensive.

As in a usual game of chess, the queen would wait until she would attack. But when she did, it would be merciless and fatale.

"Hello," the man spoke softly with a shy smile spread across his lips.

To be murderous, you must take risks. When a queen leaves her original place, she's in ultimate danger. An easy target, but she's still very deadly.

Yuzuki knew how dangerous it was, but she didn't care. She had to do this. It was the only thing she could do, in order to escape this bubble of self defense, in order to stop floating around powerlessly.

At least her mind told her to be at least cautious enough to not spit the wrong words. So she chose to remain silent for now.

"You're so beautiful," his words rang in her ears, leaving behind a numb and uneasy feeling.

As he took a step forward, she didn't move a muscle. Not because she was frozen in place, not because she was afraid. Because she was ready.

"After all these years," he continued, his voice low and quiet, as his hand reached out to her face, "I've finally found you."

Yuzuki observed the tears dwelling up in her opponent's eye and she allowed his fingertips to gently brush against her cheeks. They travelled across her skin, drawing an invisible line of nostalgia; with a salty hint of regret perhaps?

"Have you got the slightest idea how hard it was to find you?" his breath was shaky and his hand proceeded to place itself onto her shoulder, grabbing it with force as he suddenly pulled her.

It all happened in just a few seconds.

The scenery so familiar, everything rushed, too fast to comprehend, the atmosphere filled with violence and one sided hatred.

One swift movement from Yuzukis side, a blade in her hand, aiming right for his chest.

But he was smarter than that, grabbing her by the wrist harshly and throwing it up, somehow managing to snatch the knife from her grip.

While all this happened so incredibly fast, the next few seconds seemed to remain for hours. The expression lingering in his eyes changed from surprise to raw anger and his grip tightened, making her fear he might break her wrist.

"Why?" the man asked confused through gritted teeth. "Why. Do. You. Always. Have. To. Be. Like. This?!" To punctuate every word he paused between them, topping everything off with shoving her a step further each time.

"Can't you see? Everything I've done, all that happened, it was just to protect you! To be with you! To make you happy!" he shouted, practically throwing her against the wall and pinning both her wrists on each side of her head.

Her muscles stiffened, but she was weirdly enough quite calm. Despite knowing how unwise it was to anger her brother, despite acknowledging he might get violent with her now, despite remembering that he killed their parents out of anger and he is not to be underestimated, she was calm. 

Confused about this, she wondered why.

Had she seen no purpose in breaking down in fear and anxiety? Sure. But it was something different. It was almost as if there simply was no reason to be afraid.