Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Red Shaman ❯ Truth and Consequences ( Chapter 80 )

 

Watari sat in the garden of the Red Shaman compound, watching the growing dark gather around him. It was the place Blaze or Tatsumi were least likely to look for him if they tried to find him. He was hiding in plain sight so to speak.

 

He was thinking. Always a dangerous thing to be sure; even under the best of circumstances. Now he was thinking over what had been said back at the club. He had never really thought about it before. Had never honestly considered the level of power both his husband and wife possessed. Tatsumi, with his ability to manipulate the shadows, was a deadly adversary in just about any circumstance. Blaze's power, dear gods, it equaled Tsuzuki's shikigami. All twelve of them. At the same time. He had never thought it made them any different than he was. He had never considered that he might be a burden to them or just some novelty to play with. It had never mattered that he was married to two of the most powerful beings in the afterlife because he hadn't really thought about it before.

 

“Why does it matter now?” said a voice from beside him.

 

“Who the hell are you?” Watari asked the man suddenly seated next to him on the bench. “And why do you care what I do with this situation?”

 

The man smiled slightly. “Suffice it to say that I am a long standing friend of Edana's. I wish to see her happy. I happen to believe you do that for her. That is the only reason for this conversation.”

 

“How did you get in here?”

 

“Relax, young man. I was properly invited.”

 

Watari blinked. “That much was obvious. At least the fact you pose no threat.”

 

“How is it that you successfully ascertained such a notion?” the man asked.

 

Watari smiled. “Easy. I know my wife. If you posed a threat you would have been flambéed before you got anywhere near here.”

 

“Yes. You certainly seem to know her well. Thereby, in knowing her as you do, what has you questioning her loyalties?”

 

“Uh?”

 

“Allow me to point out to you, the obvious. She, nor the shadow master I believe from what little I've seen of him, would remotely tolerate someone unworthy of their time and attention. Correct?”

 

Watari nodded. “That's true.”

 

“Then you should be capable of drawing your own conclusion.”

 

Watari looked at him suspiciously. “Which one are you?”

 

“I fail to grasp the intended discernment of the question.”

 

“Which one of the Kings of Earth are you?”

 

“Ah. I ascertain one of the reasons she loves you. I am the King of Air,” he said, pulling aside the high collar of his shirt to expose the same mark Watari had seen in pictures of several enslaved children.

 

“I thought that was a mark of water,” Watari said.

 

“No. Were Kwan Yin and I together you would see the differences in the markings. Minute though they are.”

 

“What made you mark those kids if you weren't the one hurting them? I mean, really, what was the point of it?” Watari asked.

 

“Partially the reasons were so I could find them on short notice. The things that flow through the minds of some individuals in regard to children never ceases to make me nauseous. Considering I had the ability to prevent anything other than psychological harm and confusion from occurring, I protected them as best I could. But there was also the purpose of gaining Edana's attention. In making her angry enough to want to end my afterlife. I had counted on that incredible fireball temper of hers, as she has never been a patient being. That plan failed . . . rather spectacularly.”

 

“Why not just ask her to end your afterlife instead of this whole game?”

 

“That was an error in judgment on my part. I failed to see the individual she has become; which is so immeasurably dissimilar from the woman she was I can barely resolve in my own mind that it is the same person.”

 

“How so?”

 

“If Edana had known my reasons before, she would have laughed me out of the afterlife and refused on principle.”

 

“Before what?”

 

“Before you and the shadow master became her husbands. I believe you fail to realize how much the two of you have changed her. How you continue to change her for the better. Not so long ago she would have frozen the blood in someone's veins by just being near her. However, there was a sweetness to her that no one could find because there were layers of armor no one could get past for millennia. Jeirn came back to her century after century but it was cold comfort because he always dies so early in his mortal lives. Do you think you could have survived so many millennia alone without hardening? Watching the souls of those you love pass from body to body while you remain the same.”

 

“Probably not.”

 

“When she and I met, she was such an amazing person. Generous, understanding, still with that temper, but gracious and so strong. I called her friend for nearly two thousand years. We knew all of the stories told about us as individuals. Laughed at what people had gotten right and what they'd gotten stunningly wrong. Remembered things no one else could dream. We've been close in the way those who go through battle together are close. Over the years she became . . . incredibly bitter and as I have mentioned, cold. After a while I could only recall the woman she had been through my memories along with Jeirn's tales of her and his unswerving loyalty to the woman whom he has always considered to be his mother. But I saw none of that in her at the time. I was aware something had to be left. One is not made a king or queen of Earth lightly. I believe she started to soften slightly finding Sunny and the twins and bringing them into her afterlife. Then there was Tsuzuki. He was the first one to sincerely seek what was hidden in her. Because she could see what a good soul he was and he absolutely loathed himself, he rekindled that protective, mothering instinct so long dormant in her. That, my friend, is a far more dangerous thing than any coldness in her could endeavor to be.”

 

“That's for sure,” Watari laughed. “Tsuzuki really does try to see the best in everyone. Even though he sometimes can't see it in himself.”

 

“Often the way of things. As I am confident you are aware, she is fiercely protective of him. So, by the time that the shadow master and eventually you came to her, she was prepared for that shift. I believe that finding her grandson Hisoka is what truly made the irreversible impact. His death so closely mirrored her own and the final walls in her seemed to crumble at that moment. She became more like the woman she had been.”

 

“I can see that. She's much different from the way she was when even I first met her.”

 

The other man nodded. “That is so. But it was you who first accepted her knowing who and what she genuinely was. You cared for her due to the person you saw inside, rather than the façade. She could laugh with you and that in turn made her accept the small joys in the afterlife.”

 

“I'd never thought of it that way before,” Watari said thoughtfully. “How old is she? Really? She's mentioned seeing the pyramids being built in Egypt. I know she's at least two thousand years old by that.”

 

“You would not accept it as the truth if I were to tell you.”

 

“Maybe not. But what you've said just . . . makes it worse in some ways and better in others. I know she's wonderful. And I know neither she nor Sei would ever intentionally hurt me.”

 

“However . . .”

 

“It just brings home all the more how incredibly powerful she is.”

 

“She's still fragile though, my friend. I know that thought will puzzle you as you have seen nothing concerning her be fragile. But think on this. To love someone, genuinely and truly, is something so long forgotten to her that it is almost incomprehensible to her. She follows your lead in order to grasp those elusive threads.”

 

Watari stared at him for a moment openmouthed. “I never realized,” he murmured.

 

“You might allow yourself to ponder that, rather than brooding on what one who lives premierly to cause trouble for others says to or concerning you.”

 

 

There was a sudden commotion at the front of the garden and Watari was startled to find three teenagers running toward him at top speed.

 

“Watari-san, you have to come to the hospital wing in Meifu,” Ghost gasped, skidding to a halt in front of him.

 

He stood up from the bench so fast he almost lost his balance. He didn't know how they knew he was there and at that moment, didn't care. “What happened? Is Sei hurt?”

 

Ghost shook her head, trying to catch her breath. “Not Tatsumi-san. Blaze.”

 

She had barely gotten the words out when a dark shape formed behind the three teenagers. They all turned and stared at the tall, muscular man dressed completely in black. He nodded to them and then stepped around. The man reached out and put one hand on Watari's shoulder.

 

“I have been sent to retrieve you, Watari Yutaka,” he said and with that both of them disappeared.