[takeda sadako]

Caught between two orders, Sadako froze at the threshold, one foot in and one foot out. Dark eyes flicked between Sora and Preceptor Akio, thrumming with anticipation, waiting for the Preceptor to insist that she leave and hoping beyond hope that he wouldn’t. For a long, drawn-out moment, Akio said nothing; only looked at Sora quietly, pensively, as if searching for something in the curve of her mouth and the shape of her eyes. What, exactly, he was looking for, it was hard to say. Genetic markers? Motivation? Emotion? Whatever it was he found, though, it appeared to satisfy him. He let out a long, soft sigh. "Kuroshi was the name given to him after the fact,” Akio said. "In life, he was Takeda Seijaku.” "Holy shit,” Sadako whispered, unwittingly drawing Akio’s attention back to her; she stiffened ramrod-straight when his gaze instantly flicked back to her, completely missed the small, amused smile that curved his mouth. "I’m afraid I must insist that any other questions will have to wait,” he said. "I hope you have a restful evening, Minami-san.” With the law laid down, Sadako knew definitively which order took priority, and she scurried out the door without another glance backwards. As soon as the door was shut behind them she whirled on Sora, visibly vibrating with intensity. "This is fucking crazy,” she said. She led the way to the guest house in a route that would take her straight past her aunt’s home, staring at Sora with awe all the while, as if she was seeing one of her heroes made flesh. "You have to tell me everything.”

Sora Minami -- 274

LAIKA OF THQ

[Sora Minami]

Sora stared into Akio’s eyes for a long few moments while the man contemplated her question, clearly looking for something in her gaze, just as she sought something in his. There was no moment that she could point to where she knew he would answer, no sign she could point to that declared he had understood why it mattered- there was only the silence, deafening and tense all at once, broken only when the older Takeda man let loose a long, soft sigh… and answered her question.

Seijaku. The name echoed through her mind as the Preceptor again dismissed them, this time with an air of finality that, coupled with his refusal to address her other questions, let the pink-haired woman know she would get no more information out of him. Not today anyway. Giving the older man a nod of understanding, she turned on her heel and followed Sadako out the door, sky-blue gaze finally shifting to meet the hyper-excited teen’s dark eyes, her body almost vibrating with barely contained zeal.

"Yeah, it’s pretty wild." Sora said back, a soft smile spreading across her lips as the girl led her towards where she would be staying. She tried to be a good conversationalist to Sadako while they walked, but most of what came from her mouth was meaningless pleasantries- as it stood she was too busy going over the fact that Akio had given her Kuroshi’s name. "Seijaku” could be written a number of ways with a number of meanings, but she had a feeling that the man’s parents had named him something closer to "justice” than they had "fragile,” though play on words wasn’t lost on her.

"I will, Sadako. Promise."

fin

takeda sadako