Archive of Our Own

On that night, in a darkened garden, with only the moonlight to break up the night's blackness, Izutsumi knew only one thing.

She was so happy it was Asebi that had to go out here tonight, and not her. So happy it was Asebi who had to climb up a cherry tree and huddle there, pressing down like a shadow, a blade held under her body so it wouldn't glint at all.

So happy it was Asebi who had had to huddle up there for two hours now, limbs numb and dull.

So happy it was Asebi when, finally, the footsteps came.

Because, right now, Asebi was shivering from both the cold and the fear. And Izutsumi needed nothing to do with either, or any of this.

-

Asebi pressed down against the branch with all her training and all her natural gifts. All whipped into her and given to her during her twelve years of life - even if she only remembered about five of those and hated each one.

She had to truly try to keep steady, to ignore all the terrified, anxious noises in her head telling her she would be seen.

The branch she huddled on stretched over the small garden. To her eyes, it was almost as bright as day, and she could make out every flowerbed and every stone on the path going past them. She could even make out the koi in the pond.

To her, it was so bright. She felt entirely in the open. But she knew, and kept repeating to herself, feverishly, that it had to be near pitch dark for proper human eyes.

Maizuru certainly liked reminding her of it. That her eyes were as freakish as the rest of her.

And thus, when the footsteps came, she forced herself to ignore all the terrified warnings in her head. She stilled herself, narrowed her eyes enough so they would

not glint. Forced her breathing to even out. Killed her presence, like Maizuru called it.

It would not be the only thing she'd kill tonight.

Her eyes followed the man as he walked along the wooden walkway hemming the estate. Followed as he drew closer.

A fat man. As they had told her. On the older side. Carrying a bottle of sake. As they had told her.

Asebi had no idea who this man was. They didn't tell her that. The only thing about any of that she had been told… was that this man would die now.

They had told her it'd be her who'd do it, too. Or otherwise, she'd die as well.

This place was far from the Nakamoto estate. After she was done, she'd have just barely enough time to make it back before the curse on her neck would claim her life.

The hag had made it clear that she would not lay a hand on it unless the deed was done, either.

And so, Asebi knew not what this man had done to deserve to die, or who he was. She merely knew that this man had to die, or she would.

She forced the trembling in her straining limbs to stay down. There was a lot to tremble about. The exhaustion. The fear of death. The tension.

The fact she would be killing for the first time tonight. She did not know if that was supposed to be important. She hardly knew what it meant to live or die. But she felt like it might mean something.

Asebi watched, head full of nervous anticipation, as the man shuffled along the garden path, to the koi pond.

He would now sit by the dark pond and drink his bottle, and then either crawl to bed, or collapse here. A guard might come along later to check.

A routine. A perfect opportunity. A very simple job. As Maizuru had put it: If she could not manage this, she was as good and useless, and deserved to get stabbed to death by a vengeful demon. Or simply shot by a guard.

She would not suffer either. She had decided that much.

And thus, she pressed low on the branch, among the canopy, and watched as the man settled.

Should she go right now? He wasn't drunk, but his eyes had not yet adjusted. His ears had not settled.

Asebi's fingers tightened on the knife… but no. She had one opportunity, after all.

And thus, she waited more. As the man sat in the dark and hummed some tune Asebi did not know. She didn't know any tunes.

Funny. This man reminded her a lot of another drunk, aging man who liked to crawl around in a stupor at night.

Would someone be in a tree one day, watching Toshitsugu? Asebi had no idea. She did not need to know.

She still watched when the humming started to break a bit. After he'd taken many, many swigs from his bottle. He was quickly growing properly drunk. Like Toshitsugu.

Maybe now was the time? He was dull and slow now. He wouldn't even notice. Now was surely the best chance…

Again, she felt for the knife, pressed against her body… but no.

She had one chance. There were at least seven paces to the man from here. He might scream out. Asebi was not sure how well a man could scream with a knife in his back.

No. He'd either fall down or be reduced to crawling soon. Then, he would not even notice it when he died.

And thus, Asebi watched as the man sat some more… but the bottle remained to the side. It didn't move to his lips anymore.

What was this? He was supposed to drink it all and make this easy. He wasn't drunk enough yet. He was still fit to comprehend.

Asebi's mind voiced new terrors when the man finally seized his bottle… and turned it over, letting the rest pour into the pond.

This… wasn't the routine. Why was he making the fish drunk now? Why wasn't he getting more drunk?

This man wasn't like Toshitsugu at all. He would have never put a drop of sake anywhere but inside himself.

The man let out a low chuckle. And then he rose up.

Asebi tensed, knife clenched in hand. He was going to leave. She needed to go right now. Go and do it. Otherwise, he'd… wait.

The man… turned right towards Asebi. And began to take steps.

It was all she could do to not flinch up and expose herself.

No. Not towards Asebi. The sakura. The tree. His eyes were dull. He was not looking up. His movement were slow. He had no idea Asebi was there.

She watched as the man halted almost exactly under her. She could see the bald spot on top of his head… and she could see well enough what this was about.

The man shuffled and let out a grunt… and the came the dripping noise. Followed by more broken humming.

Nevermind. Just like Toshitsugu after all.

Asebi still stared as the man drew his head back, grimacing. Doing his best to coax his old man bladder.

Funny. He was looking almost right at her. Still all blind. Especially with the clouds in front of the moon.

Asebi tried to work it out. How she should do it. Clearly… now was the time.

Throw the knife? She'd need to hit the throat. Bad angle.

Leap down and sink the knife in? Messy. Shoddy. Would make noise.

Wait until he turns, drop down, and stab him in the back? Yes. That was what a ninja would do.

She waited still. As the man stared up at her with night-blinded eyes and seemed to spend an eternity trying to empty his bladder.

She waited, head thrumming with plans, and fears, and thoughts. What would it feel like? To kill? To die? To be a killer?

She still waited… when the clouds parted and put her on perfect back-lighting when viewed from directly below. Asebi went stiff as dead. It felt like a torch was being held up to her. But she held on. What else could she do?

She held on… until she realizes those night-blind eyes below were… focusing on something. Right where she was.

The man frowned, trying to make sense of the weird shape on the branch. And suddenly his face lit up in recognition.

"Ha. Kitty" he mumbled, slurring.

A fraction of a moment later, his eyes went wide again when he took in more of the form.

And then wider still, in shock.

Everything seemed to be happening so slowly. The man's mouth trying to work itself out into some shape. His face going through a full plethora of emotions. His hands fumbling at his groin.

And just as he seemed to remember what shouting was, Asebi finally remembered what an assassin was.

She plunged down, eyes wide. Knife pulling back as she fell. No plans, no time to think. Only training and instinct.

She slammed right into the man. They both went over. She scrabbled in panic.

Her knife. Where was it? She had missed, the man was making noises. She had dropped it. Where…

In the moonlight, Asebi stared at the man on his back, fumbling weakly at the knife stuck in his eye socket. Right through a ruined eye.

Still moving, but… slow. As if he did not understand what was going on. As if the knife sunken into his head a good finger-length might have made that somewhat difficult.

Entranced, in a daze, Asebi scrabbled up and staggered closer to the man. He was gasping like a fish on dry land. Until his one remaining eye latched onto her.

"Girl… I fell. Help… me up."

Asebi stared. Why was he not dying? What… should she do now?

"Girl!" The man groaned out, louder.

That set her off. She lurched closer and tore the blade out of his head. And before he had time to complain, she slashed and tore through his throat.

The crimson spray that painted the air, and the flowerbeds, and Asebi herself, was finally just a bit more familiar. A relief.

Asebi dimly realized she was panting as if she had run herself ragged. She clamped her mouth shut… and opened it again when there just wasn't enough air.

The man, face and throat ruined, stared up into the moon amidst the red.

Asebi stared at him for a moment more. So, this was what it felt like to kill.

Something heaved inside her. She staggered away, to the side, and heaved out what little there was to heave in her stomach.

So, this was what it felt like to be a killer.

Slowly, she straightened. All that could wait. Even as she was, she recognized how much noise all this had made. It seemed like nobody was there to come check… but Asebi did not want to see if she was wrong.

As she looked around, one last time, her eyes fell upon something on the ground. Amidst the red that the man had spurted out.

There, in the flowerbed… was just about the only flower she knew. Her own.

A clump of asebi. She knew just barely what it looked like. Big, bushy plants with small, white bells. These ones had just bloomed, it seemed like. The white flowers had barely emerged.

Well. Red now. All of them red. Stained entirely in blood. It would likely not come off before they wilted. Asebi knew that too; the flowers bloomed only for a short while, and then they'd be gone.

They'd live and die all stained now… And so, she supposed, would Asebi.

So much blood. It was already matting her fur down…

"Assassin!"

The shout jarred Asebi out of all her thoughts. Out of her mind, into sheer panic.

A guard was already rushing towards her. The one making his rounds to check on his master.

It was only that panic that got her to bolt quickly enough to avoid the spear that the guard thrust at her.

More shouts joined the first man's as she bounded to the stone wall and scrabbled up. She needed to get out. Just past the wall. She'd be gone before they could follow.

She was already gone. None of those weapons could reach her here. She was faster than anyone. She was…

An arrow punched clean through her right shoulder, just as she rose up atop the wall and painted herself a perfect silhouetted target against moonlight.

She did not even have time to cry out. The impact tore her off the wall and sent her plummeting down to the other side like a crashing kite, tail trailing behind like a little streamer.

Now her own blood mingled with the man's, staining her all the more.

-

When she came to, Asebi knew she couldn't have been out for more than a moment.

The night was just as dark. The shouts around were just the same. The pain was just as bad.

The only reason she knew she had been out at all was that she didn't remember hitting the ground.

She had been atop the wall… and now she was staring up at it, sprawled. An arrow had come and…

The arrow. Her dazed brain was starting to remember that too.

A shaft of wood the thickness of her finger, impaling her shoulder through.

She was sprawled on the ground, shot through and crumpled like a game bird. Clipped and crippled.

Her one working arm reached for it and gave it a shaky tug… and that was enough to almost black her out again.

She was just like the old man now. Lying down, all dazed, impaled. Gasping.

The longer she stared at the shaft, the harder her breaths came. The more it hurt. She had been trained to endure pain. Long and hard. This… was not like the training.

She let out a groan no amount of whipped-in discipline could hold back. A noise of pure pain and fear. No amount of pain training would make her ignore this and push on.

Something else did, though.

"It fell here! I don't see it!"

Asebi's eyes stared right up at a man, aiming down with a bow.

His eyes were useless now, he couldn't make her out in the shadows of the wall… but it still jarred an entirely different kind of panic into Asebi's brain. One that pushed the panic of injury and pain far down.

She could already hear the shouts of men running around. And… the dogs.

She was going to die here and now if she didn't move. Not tomorrow to Maizuru's curse. Right now, speared, or shot through… or torn to pieces.

She scrabbled. The pain in her shoulder felt like fire through her as the arrow jarred. She forced it aside. The fear of death killed whatever hesitation her training couldn't.

Shoulder tearing, Asebi heaved up. Every movement was pure pain. Her legs didn't want any of this. She forced them in line. She had to move. Now.

As if to concur, the man on the wall let out a yell, finally spotting the movement, and loosed an arrow.

The sound gave Asebi the burst of speed she needed to scrabble away like a wounded rabbit, lurching into an unsteady flight as the arrow slammed into the ground right where she had been.

She stumbled around a corner, legs shaking. So much blood on her. Her blood smelled different from the old man blood. Both pounded into her mind.

Her head was rushing at such speed. So many thoughts of death and survival and blood and danger. Rushing to get away from here like some desperate prey.

Her body tried to follow, shot and hobbled. Like maimed prey.

She was supposed to be so fast. Able to outrun anything. Now, staggering like drunk… she couldn't have fled from that old man.

The shouting got louder as she stumbled away from the estate. Men already out of the gates. And she… she hadn't even made it to the bridge that ran over the river. The long, open bridge over the wide, deep river.

By the time her feet were dragging over planks, the shouts were almost on top of her.

"There's the ninja! Capture it! Kill it! No matter!"

Just a tiny part of Asebi, the one that always managed to get her just a bit more punishment, wanted to smirk. See, Maizuru, she really was a ninja now.

Maizuru, in her mind, smirked back, so very happily; a very dead ninja.

The steps were closing in. The dogs too. The hag… would be so damn happy now. She'd finally be getting what she had been telling her she wanted for years; she'd finally be rid of the gruesome little beast that couldn't do anything right.

She had told her, just before she had sent her off to do this, that she had hopes for her. Asebi suspected they were not hopes of success.

Asebi's legs were about to give out. She had to hang onto the railing to stay up. Maizuru would get her hopes.

Maybe… that was okay.

Asebi would finally be rid of Maizuru, too. No punishments. No torments. No more training to make her into a monster.

No more… killing. Asebi didn't think she wanted more of that either.

None of that could reach her soon. She'd finally be free of all this. And not a single soul would miss her. Funny. Just like the flowers. Stained red and soon gone. Never missed.

She stopped. Fingers loosened on the railing. Legs finally admitted their defeat. She lurched. Asebi was at peace.

Izutsumi sure as hell wasn’t.

Shut the hell up! Move, you tiny little whimpering idiot!

Fingers tightened back. Legs straightened. She hauled herself back up, and slapped a simpering little fool to the side.

Izutsumi should have known she couldn't rely on something as crappy as this little whining girl to survive. Shouldn't be surprised. She was Maizuru's crappy little beast. Of course she'd suck and give the hag exactly what she wanted. Small and weak…

Well. Izutsumi wouldn't. She was big and strong, and she was here to stay.

One glance behind told her all she needed to know. There was a man already lining up a shot. And the dog already bounding at her. She’d never outrun this.

Time to take a faster route away, then.

The arrow slammed into the railing next to her. Yeah. That would do. Close enough to think they’d hit her.

She tore it out and hissed at the dog rushing at her, before lurching to the side.

The mutt snapped at her heels before she went over the edge. The world heaved as she plummeted again.

A moment later, the murky water took her in.

-

This time, she didn't black out. Everything went pretty black anyway.

Izutsumi sank to the bottom, into murk. The night sky was dark above black water. She didn't see anything.

The water was freezing cold and full of muck. She didn't taste anything but scum and slime… and her own blood, oozing out of her into the river.

Above, a little spot of light came to view. Men on the bridge, with their lamps and torches.

They were peering down. Izutsumi knew. Wondering whether the ninja had drowned.

Her lungs were starting to complain. She hadn't had time to prepare. She forced herself to stay still. The river was not so deep at this point. If she moved, they might see. And she'd never swim fast enough with her shoulder.

More lights. Just more men on the bridge. Coming to make sure nobody would be coming up for air.

The complaining in her lungs was quickly starting to turn into a pain. Izutsumi ignored it. Slowed herself down. Forced a stillness. As the hag had trained her.

She had almost drowned in a damn vat when she had trained for this technique. When Maizuru hadn't taken the lid off, no matter how much she scrabbled against it. Claimed a ninja had to withstand panic, too…

Well. Here she was, withstanding about as much panic as she could imagine. Most of her mind screeching to go get air. To move. To… not drown amidst damn river muck.

The lights on the bridge weren't going anywhere. Minute by minute, Izutsumi stared up, saw them move. Getting fewer… but not going away.

Stubborn idiots. Were they actually going to make her drown herself? She was starting to feel kind of dead, here…

She could just barely make out a bowman on the bridge, in the light. If she moved now, she knew, there would be another arrow through her. She would be even deader if she moved.

She almost did when something bumped into her. It took her a moment to realize it was a fish. Circling her shoulder. Smelling the blood. She felt it trying to nip at her. Testing if she was food yet. As she would be very soon, at this rate.

Another minute passed. One light still remained up on the bridge. One last stubborn idiot making absolutely sure. And the pain in her lungs had turned into a burning.

Her head throbbed and boomed, growing duller every moment. She bit down with all she had to prevent herself from breathing the river in.

She would not drown in a river. Izutsumi repeated that, again and again, as she stared up. She would not. Maizuru would not win.

She would never die, if only to spite that shitty hag.

She would not…

-

The moon slowly crawled over the sky, glancing down at a quiet river. And the guards finally left the bridge, hurrying along.

No ninja had come up for air. That must either have meant the arrow had killed the assassin… or that the assassin was already elsewhere.

In any case, it meant they were wasting time here. Nobody could stay down that long. Not a human, at any rate. If there was anything down there anymore… it would be fish food by now.

-

The setting sun bid farewell to the Nakamoto estate. Maizuru, standing in the yard, barely suppressed a breath that was as much disappointment as it was satisfaction.

So, Asebi had failed. She would have been back by now if she was in any state to be back. She was either dead… or she would be very soon. The spell at her neck would activate in less than an hour, when the sun sank past the horizon.

It had been an ample time limit. No Nakamoto ninja worth even keeping would tarry longer than this on such a simple, inconsequential task. If they did… well. They were not needed back in any case.

And of course Asebi had not managed such an insignificant task. Stabbing one drunken old merchant conspiring with the enemy had simply been too much to ask.

Maizuru took a breath, trying to calm her bile. Even thinking of how worthless that… that miserable mongrel beast was roused her ire so much…

She let it out… and dared a little smile. On the other hand… now she was rid of that uppity, accursed creature. Finally.

Maizuru had hoped to see it happen for a long time. The harsh training, the punishments, the gruelling pace… oh, how she had hoped for a fortunate accident. Students had perished from less than what she had put Asebi through.

She had to, anyway. Something that grotesque and misbegotten needed, demanded, harsh methods. She had been too lax if anything; Asebi had remained just as unruly, no matter how hard Maizuru had pushed her.

But the damn half-human thing was tenacious as only something so inhuman could be. Limped through all that, as if to spite her. And she had never dared be more overt about it, for the fear of Toshitsugu noticing. Asebi was… had been… his property, after all.

But now… well, she could hardly be blamed for this. It was inevitable, truly; such an unruly beast obviously had no hope of carrying out a true test.

Maizuru allowed herself a true, sincere smile. As warm as any she had ever given to Toshiro. She truly was happy, in this moment. Finally, she was truly free.

She took another breath and turned to go inside. She should celebrate, really. Why, maybe tonight she might even…

A noise made Maizuru cease. A groan. A weird, half-human whimper… from a half-human throat.

She turned around, back towards the gates. And in one instant, she knew… she truly was cursed.

Asebi couldn't even die right.

Maizuru watched, in disdain, as the beast dragged its wounded, broken carcass to her like a wounded dog. Or a cat, as it were.

Asebi… was truly a mess. Arrow in shoulder, soaked through, barely above crawling…

How had this thing made its way back at all? It was over ten ri from here to where she had sent Asebi. A full day’s travel, even for a fit and healthy traveller. That damn tenaciousness again. Truly, inhuman…

Maizuru stood in place, quiet, as Asebi finally stopped some paces away. She looked up with glassy eyes… and collapsed. As if she had just realized she had made it.

Maizuru wondered, for a moment, if she might be able to claim the mongrel had simply died on the spot, taken by exhaustion and wounds. Honestly, that seemed more plausible than her being alive…

She shook her head in annoyance. No, no. She was a proper and good retainer of her lord. She would carry out his orders… as much as it galled her.

A groan from Asebi demanded her attention.

"Did… it. Did… job. Man… dead…"

It was barely comprehensible at all. Broken gasps.

Maizuru took a step closer, in no hurry, and crouched down. So much blood, too. Asebi had clearly taken a dive… and it still hadn't washed it off.

Maizuru scoffed and covered her nose. What a reek. Mud and worse.

"And what a poor job it is. What a sorry sight you are. I asked for one dead fat man, and I seem to have gained a dead beast in the bargain!"

Asebi seemed to be in no mood to appreciate her wit. Or possibly no state. She slowly turned her head enough to peer up with one dull eye.

"The… curse."

"Oh? What of it?" Maizuru asked.

"… Almost… time. Touch… it."

Maizuru scoffed again.

"And why would I even sully my hands? You have made a fine mess of things. Why, just your escape… so shoddy. A wonder you did not lead your pursuers right here! Honestly, you just don't seem worth even keeping around."

"… I… did the… job."

Maizuru huffed. Asebi was no sport at all, like this. Too broken to even torment. No more fun than a corpse…

Well. Asebi's corpse would have been rather fun.

She rolled her eyes and tugged down the collar of Asebi's ragged uniform from around her neck. The spell was already starting to smolder. Half an hour more and it would have all been over.

Such cruel misfortune.

Disdainfully, Maizuru lifted up a hand and gave the glyphs ringing Asebi's neck a slap. The spell quieted again.

"There. You can quit your whinging now."

She rose back up and prodded the arrow sticking out of Asebi with a foot. That reaction, at least, gave her just a bit of amusement. Still alive enough to flinch and whimper, it seemed.

"I suppose I shall have to find a servant to fix all that. Such a mess you are. Though… I suppose you did exceed my feeble expectations."

Maizuru crouched again and patted the little beast on the head. As if she was actually complimenting her. She truly hoped even Asebi could recognize patronizing.

"So congratulations, Asebi. You have exceeded the bare minimum of acceptable. For the first time in your life. Maybe I truly can make miracles happen!"

Maizuru sighed. She wiped her hand from the filth and stood back up. She turned around to walk away. She supposed she truly did need to find someone to salvage Asebi's battered carcass.

Perhaps the beast might even be good for another task later. She’d have to make sure it’d be more… hazardous.

"Double… portions."

She turned to stare at Asebi. She could barely make out the words that had oozed out of her mouth.

"What?"

"Double… portions. Rice. And meat. For me… and Tade. You… promised."

Oh. She had, hadn't she? A silly childish demand from a simple mind. She had agreed that if this wretch managed this and did it right… she and the oni would both be getting two bowls in the evening. She had even promised meat stew on the side.

"I did, yes. I have not forgotten, beast."

Asebi wrenched her head up enough to stare. Oh, she looked shocked, didn't she?

Maizuru's feigned smile turned into a real one when she continued.

"… For a job well done. Not a pathetic, botched travesty. You'll be enough of a burden for a while anyway, with those injuries. Be glad you'll even get one bowl, useless as you are!"

Maizuru allowed herself just a moment of satisfaction, staring at Asebi's twisting face. It truly made her smile as sincerely as she ever could.

She turned away and left the mongrel to ponder her failures in a broken heap. The smile died soon after.

Damn thing refused to die just to spite her…

Maizuru steadied herself and regained her proper bearing. Patience. There was always the next time…

-

"Oh, mistress Maizuru is so kind! She said Tade could have two bowls of rice tonight! Asebi, isn't she nice?"

Izutsumi tried to ignore Inutade's babbling. The stupid oni was practically bursting at the seams from the joy of getting to stuff her face some more.

At the moment, she really wasn't feeling very joyful. Not with a hole in her from an arrow pulled out just recently. Not with an infected, mangled shoulder packed with stinging, stinking crap that was supposedly going to keep it from rotting.

Not with a fever from said infection making her feel like every moment was an agony.

Not with the utter lack of healing spells that would have sorted all that out. She knew Maizuru could do it. The hag had sneered at the very idea and called it a waste.

"Mistress Maizuru said that someone did their job very badly, and Tade could eat their rice, since she is a good girl that works hard. Isn't she great, Asebi?"

Tade gave Izutsumi a shove that nearly sent her sprawling on her cot.

"Shut the hell up!" She snarled, before breaking into a painful cough.

The oni just frowned sadly and patted her on the back.

"Tade is sorry it hurts."

Izutsumi didn't know whether the hag was actually holding up half of the bargain out of some gross kind of kindness, or because she wanted to mess with her. She didn't much care, either.

She looked at the thing clasped in her working hand. A sharp, jagged piece of metal. The arrowhead that had pierced clean through her. She wasn't sure if the pain of it would ever really go away. It didn't feel like it right now.

It was still stained, the arrowhead. With browned, dried blood. Rusted with it, by now.

She put the ugly thing away and tried to find a way to lie down that did not hurt so much.

She tried to find a way to be so that nobody would see how her hand trembled when she remembered any of that night. Maizuru had already gotten enough kicks out of berating her for weakness.

Damn Asebi. Making such a mess of everything. Of her. She was Maizuru's student, alright. The hag couldn't even train her right.

Though… Izutsumi was happy for something. She was happy it was Asebi that had been in the garden. She had been happy then, already. She was more now.

Maybe Asebi still wasn't sure what it meant to put a knife through someone's eye. She was still too young to really get what it meant to die… even if she had just about gotten to feel it.

She had never even really lived, in any real way. Ending any of that seemed like… nothing. Just a lack of something that never seemed to do Asebi any good, either.

But Izutsumi knew this: whatever any of all that meant… she was happy that only Asebi had ever been in that garden. That only Asebi had opened a man's throat and painted the night red.

She was glad that in that garden, only Asebi, and the asebi, had been stained. Because, she knew, that flower that had just barely managed to bloom at all would never be clean. Always crimson.

It’d be even redder, before the end. Maizuru would see to that.

The red would still be there when the flower wilted away, after a short and meaningless life. It would die, tarnished and sullied, and nobody would miss it. Asebi was meant to wilt before long, after all.

And maybe… maybe that was good. It would wilt in crimson, and take all its filth and ugliness with it, and nobody would need to know it ever existed at all.

Not even Izutsumi needed an ugly, filthy flower an evil woman had stained and ruined. When she finally got out of here… and she would… she would be happy to leave the rotting thing behind.

She would… plant nicer flowers very far from here. She would keep them clean. People would see them and say they were good. They would… want those flowers.

-

"Asebi, do you want a hug? Tade thinks it would help."

"Shut up and stay away. Don't need help."

"Well, Tade thinks that it must be pretty tough if you're cry… Ow!"

Izutsumi huffed as the oni covered her clawed face and complained.

"Yeah, who's crying? Because I only hear your whimpering."

"Tade's sorry it feels bad…"

"… Shut up."

-

Izutsumi laid back down and clenched her teeth until the tears died. Stupid.

Who'd weep for ugly, dirty flowers?