The Emperor's Rose

Chapter 47//Late Discoveries

Aiko felt her blood drain from her face. What did Fumi want with her? What had she done? The hand that had been trying to disentangle her messed hair, fell limp next to her.

The Emperor, even though mad, slowly inched closer to her.

The Emperor roughly hit her lower back with his hand. Aiko woke up from her dazed state and clasped her hands together. She realised she had been too lost in thought to give a response.

"Well, what is it?" Aiko said gently, grabbing her long sleeve from the inside and brining it up to cover her face.

Fumi started pacing around the room. She tapped her chin gently with her hand. Her eyes jumped from the Emperor to Aiko in a frenetic dance. "Please, follow me in this room. Quickly." She said, smiling coldly.

Slyly, she fit her fan in between the two sliding doors and slightly gave them a nudge, to open. Aiko realized the situation was strangely familiar. Her mind presented her the memory of the conversation of the red string. Fumi was the fan, Aiko and the Emperor the two sliding doors. Unfortunately stuck together. Fumi was always trying to fit in between them.

Aiko's fingers curled in anger. Fumi slipped inside the room. Aiko felt fury warm her heart. The Emperor roughly grabbed her wrist and yanked her inside with him. Red finger marks blooming on the pale skin of her wrist.

Fumi sighed loudly. She turned around and slammed the two sliding doors shut. The rice paper trembling. Ever so fragile. Just like Aiko's calm.

Fumi went to sit down. The Emperor went to the sliding doors that led to the garden. He leaned on them. His cold eyes scanning the garden, not even glancing at Aiko. It almost seemed that the distance he had created in between them meant she had to defend herself, and not receive any help. The garden wasn't at its full splendour yet. It seemed sadden him.

Aiko stayed standing. She didn't sit down. Her nerves too jumpy.
Fumi threw her fan on the table. Her eyes slid from the Emperor's grumpy figure to Aiko's rigid one. "Where should we begin?" She murmured softly. Her red lips contrasting with her pale face.

"The first time we met," Fumi started, playing with her kimono. "I decided I wanted to know more about your relationship, and I might have asked, one of the servants to drop a little Truth Serum in your teas." She said, sighing as if it were nothing. Her lips parting in a sneer. Her eyes twinkling with disgusting pleasure.

The Emperor stiffened even more. He turned his head to stare at his sister, who was sitting down. Aiko scrunched up the fabric of her kimono in her hands. The sun was setting. The women's shadows slowly started become longer. Entangling with each other. Becoming abstracts concepts of the two very different women who were facing each other.

Aiko's head dropped. Her eyes scanned the floor. The Emperor looked at Aiko. "That.....that day when I found myself in your room at nighttime. The effects had just vanished." He realised. The gears in his mind turning.

Aiko nodded. "I tried telling you, but you just made fun of me and you didn't listen."

The Emperor looked at his future wife in shock, before turning to his sister with an implacable rage pulsing through his body. Red started seeping in his vision.

Fumi was laughing, pure pleasure in her eyes. As she caught sight of her brother, she calmed herself down, fanning herself . "Ah, it was just a little joke." Fumi whispered, as she leaned closer to her brother over the table, tapping het nails against the wood. The sound was irritating.

The Emperor's hand started to rise. Aiko realised. "If he hits her, we will start a scandal. Right now, Fumi has the upper hand." Aiko thought, her eyes widening.

She threw herself on the Emperor. Both tumbling to the floor, in a flurry of coloured silk.

The Emperor groaned as he pushed Aiko off him. Aiko slipped off him, her back aching. As the Emperor tried calming himself down, long breaths coming out of his mouth, Aiko walked to the table were Fumi was sitting. "Your little sly plan didn't even work." Aiko hissed in her face.

A light glimmered in Fumi's eyes. Her eyes became half-lidded slowly. "Oh, but it did." She said, smiling. Her teeth gleaming like fangs. "Oh, it surely did." She repeated.

Fumi started laughing uncontrollably as she saw Aiko's face. The Emperor's head snapped to his sister. "A little bird told me that Aiko was a filthy commoner." Fumi said, as she snapped open her black fan, covering her face it, only her dark eyes visible.

Aiko felt her world fall, and looked at the Emperor, panic in her eyes. Meanwhile,the Emperor, felt that something was off. He didn't know what, but he felt something nagging him. "At a certain point of the night, a drugged Hisato came~more stumbled I dare say, to my rooms and explained the touching love story. After having finished he mumbled something that closely resembled, "I have to go to her!" and he left." Fumi cackled. The withering flowers wilted more. A petal fell of a dying rose.

Aiko's head whipped to look at the Emperor. His eyes were blank. Glassy. Like beads. Lost in the sea of memories. Staring at the tatami mats.

The Emperor blinked a few times. "I went to her before I came to you." He said, repeating his sister's words in a sign of dreaded confirmation.

Aiko felt numbness spread in her body.

"But," the Emperor said, breaking the torturing silence. Fumi's eyes glinted worriedly as she snapped her fan shut. Aiko turned to him, hoping he would find a solution. She felt her mind thinking trying to find something but it just didn't come. Aiko despised  Fumi and the danger she had pressed against her back. She almost felt it. Aiko hoped the Emperor had had an idea. She prayed to her mother with all her heart, hoping she would protect her daughter.

The Emperor took a deep breath of fresh air.
"My little sister, such a monster like you, blinded my hate and loath, I thought you would have planned everything correctly." The Emperor lifted his eyes. They were as black as the pits of hell. Something close to pure loath for his sister dying them an even darker shade of black. A terrifying smile spreading on his face.

Fumi slowly fealt doubt sprout in her like a toxic weed. Sucking her confidence. "I....I did." She said, trying to keep her calm. Although it was slowly cracking. Like a fragile piece of glass.

The Emperor laughed. It rang around the room. "Oh no. You made one little mistake."