Chapter 2: Fate

it's my destiny to run deep through
the frozen conifers,
vainly pulling my wish close to my heart,
to the eddy of the flaming storm

            Dusk was settling in. The sky burned orange and red as the crickets began their song and the busy murmur of the streets became more of a faded hush. It was drafty, cool outside. The scent of oolong tea filled the room as the steam billowed around the kneeling form of Kashiwazaki Nenji, commonly known as Okina.

            Aoshi sat two feet across from him, his clothes knees resting against the hard wooden floor as he stared into the pale green glazed cup, the amber liquid dimly reflecting his blank expression.

            Okina, a man normally always with a grin of sorts, now had an almost grim expression on his deeply lined features.

            “Aoshi...what are your intentions with my little Misao?” he asked finally, his voice calm.

            Aoshi looked up, and took a sip of his tea and then set his cup down.

            “I intend to fulfil the stipulations of the contract I made with the previous Okashira, the very same one you bore witness to.”

            Okina sighed.

            So long ago, in the days when Misao was more his friend’s grand-daughter. Before he had adopted her.

            He had too cared for her best interest, and had agreed with Makimachi that Aoshi was the perfect choice for Misao’s future husband. He was an intelligent boy, brave and honorable, and always kept an eye on the little girl.

            But time, like a flood, had its way of eradicating even the strongest of things. Time had gone by, changed Aoshi. He was now more stranger than the boy Okina had watched grow into a man.

            And his plans for Misao were unknown. It unsettled and upset Okina to even have suspicions of Aoshi, having once thought the boy like a child of his own. He knew, about the Kanryuu incident, the mysterious deaths in the mountains, the Battousai...

            Could he really trust the man before him with his precious Misao?

            “Aoshi, I must express my concern. I know you’ve been through a great ordeal, and you are no longer the same man I once knew. I know there is nothing I can do to stop you from claiming Misao as your wife. I can only hope you honor her and respect her.”

            “She will be taken care of.” Aoshi murmured.

            Okina took up his cup, drank.

            “Her becoming Okashira...she truly had the best intentions, Aoshi. Do not be angry at her or seek to punish her in some way for her actions. Sometimes her heart is so big, she does not see everything in magnitude.”

            Aoshi made no reply, stood up and bowed his head slightly as he left Okina’s quarters and made his way to his room to collect a sleeping yukata and made his way downstairs and outside, walking to the bath house.