"Well, I know your mother would have wanted you to follow your heart young master, maybe you could try it out for a month or so then decide?" Darif suggested.
"Actually, I need to make my decision by the end of this month, so that's.. pretty good!" Akira agreed. The Kogetsu also wants his final decision on whether he would take over the family business in agriculture and arms manufacture by the end of the month too..
"Young master Akira?" Darif called when he realized Akira wasn't following him.
Akira tore his eyes from a female gangster with mini silver bells pierced along her entire arm, ringing as she moved.
"Yea?"Akira asked as he turned only to see Darif right behind him, tripping onto the floor as a chorus of jeers came from the pool table areas, accompanying his growing embarrassment.
"Young master Akira, that girl Laurel Grey is one of our best headers," Darif said, beaming with pride.
"Headers?" Akira asked as he got up from the floor and dusted himself off.
"You really don't know anything do you?" Darif frowned as he shook his head and gestured for Akira to head towards the shelves of bowling balls.
"Bowling balls?" Akira asks in confusion.
"This is something you can only find here young master Akira," Darif said as he picked up a yellowish translucent bowling ball with the number sixteen on it and twirled it on a finger.
"I thought- the heaviest weight for a bowling ball is about seven kilograms?" Akira asks as he stares at the bowling ball twirling in Darif's palm.
"The number sixteen here, doesn't represent it's weight, young master Akira. It's the age, of the head inside." Darif tilted his palm slightly as the ball stopped, revealing a ghastly face of a boy within. His long eyelashes curled upwards on his eye sockets- were where the third and fourth fingers go, while the gaping toothless, mouth for the thumb. The gums were stripped bare, whereas what remained of the tongue was merely a stub. The boy's silky dark blue hair was suspended within the bowling ball, as if it was under water.
Akira stood rooted to the ground at this sight.
A young boy of only... Sixteen? What crime had he committed to be targeted by the Kageyuki? He is merely a young boy, barely two years younger than him!!
Akira covered his mouth in disgust and looked away when Darif placed a hand onto his shoulder, pulling his head back towards him.
"You have the foresight to be able to tell that it is a real head, and you didn't run away from it by telling me how realistic our sculptors must be. You really are a Kageyuki, young master Akira."
Akira felt vomit pushing up his throat and used a hand to cover his mouth, trying to hold it back, forcefully.
"Young master Akira, you must not avert your eyes," Darif's voice commanded Akira's eyes back to the bowling ball, seeing the scratches on his face, and a small mole beside his chapped lips, forever preserved in that bowling ball. "It would be of utmost disrespect to the dead if you would even look at what they've become."
"Why do this to them? Isn't killing them enough?" Akira asked, desperate to seek an answer as to why they desecrated the dead in this manner.
"Not quite, young master Akira. Being able to preserve them in this manner, is also a work of art-"
"Art my ass!" Akira yelled as he shook free of Darif's grip and stormed towards the entrance of the bowling center.
"Young master Akira," Darif's voice warned as the sound of bells rang and suddenly, a long curved blade was rested against the skin of Akira's throat.
".. Why are you doing this to me?" Akira turned his bitter eyes towards Darif.
"You said you knew my mother, and I trusted you! The dead should be left alone, that's the respect we should give them at the very least, the respect that they've lived, the proof that their human!!" Akira hollered in Laurel's face.
Laurel's blade wavered in the face of his determination, and blinked several times before looking to Darif for confirmation. Darif shook his head and she relaxed her position, removing her dagger from Akira's throat.
Rubbing his adam's apple, Akira turned to Darif for answers.
"I know my mother, she would have never agreed to something like this-" Akira started as Darif placed the ball back on the shelf and jerked his head nearer.
"She had no authority on this manner Akira, sometimes, just being the owner doesn't mean you have the power to do as you wish. Traditions, rules, they must be followed." Darif said in a gruff tone and pushed Akira backwards, sending him to the floor before walking back to the back of the counter, Laurel at his heels.
When Akira reached the entrance of the counter, a step before he crossed the dark midnight curtains back into his normal world, Darif's voice called out.
"Inside here, the brutality is all spread bare, but when you step into that outside world, you won't see it coming, because everyone conceals it well there. When you feel like you want the truth again, come back and find us. We will always welcome you, young master Akira, son of Rubian."
Akira's footsteps paused for a moment, before he pushed through the curtains and stepped back into society, the world he was more comfortable with. He is the heir of the Kogetsu, surely he wouldn't have to worry about not having enough money to live, would he? He walked up the cold desolate concrete stairs upwards, where the light and noise came from. Each step up, bringing him back to the society he was more familiar with. The society which rejected his blood, of being partly a Kageyuki, the society which murmurs about his mother being nothing but a mistress, and him but a bastard. The society Akira would rather live with, rather than see heads of young children preserved into bowling balls used for entertainment in that bowling center.
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"That boy is too kind," Darif sighed as he watch his cigarette smoke twist and turn in the air of the bowling center.
"He has inherited her kind heart, maybe that's why?" Laurel mumbled when Darif burst into laughter, nearly choking on the smoke.
"Rubian is kind yes, but there has been a sort of madness in her that has become more apparent during Akio's death," Darif smirked as he pulled gently on his mustache.
"Madness? In that angel?" Laurel asked, alarmed.
"Indeed- The madness that makes her the genius of the Kageyuki clan, second to no one, even her prodigious twin Rubert-"
"That can't be-" Laurel interrupted. "Her ladyship has gotten scars from protecting us orphans when the orphanage was burning- she has absolutely no skills and knows nothing about killing!!"
"Rubian is kind, oh so very kind, but you must remember. Rubian is a Kageyuki. The children of his lordship are trained in the art of killing from the moment they were born, the things they see, and the hobbies they practice, are beyond humane." Darif exhaled out smoke from his nostrils. "It's not like I never once believed in her pure heart, it's just that all these monstrosity, has to go somewhere-"
"You mean Her Ladyship never meant all the things she had done for us?" Laurel asked as she collapsed into a chair and lit a cigarette of her own.
"Rubian did, she wished from the bottom of her heart to help all those in need. Do you remember the massacre back in 1987? When several clans under the Kageyuki sought to rebel?"
"Of course I do, the clan that founded my orphanage was part of it, and when the Kogetsu found out the rebellion had lost, Gaia ordered everything relating to them to be wiped clean, lest the Kageyuki find out they had a hand in it. I heard that the Kageyuki unleashed 'Shadows' to clean up the mess, and they finished it in less than half a day, with only one person to do it!!"
"Yea, that was the leader of the 'Shadows', Rubian." Darif said in a nonchalant manner while Laurel fell off her chair.
"You're awfully clumsy as one of the commanders in Shadow," Darif grinned as he offered her a hand and she sat back up.
"Her Ladyship can't kill even an ant-"
"Yes, that is why I never found out either, until she was around eight?" Darif sighed as he continued. "I never knew the kind-hearted soul I was training to be ruthless was already a hell lot better than I was back then.."
Laurel looked him and shook her head. "Rumors are rumors. Her Ladyship is one of the kindest people I've ever met, and I will not allow you to tarnish her reputation any longer!" She stood up and left in a huff, leaving Darif with his thoughts, and old memories.
------
[Spring 1984]
Staring at her small figure, he took a step back and looked up at the twilight sky, waiting for a sign.
Just as a breeze blew passed, he lunged forward for her throat.
The eight year old merely bent backwards, skillfully avoiding the attack with her eyes closed, swaying gently in the wind like flowers in a meadow. Darif sighed as he watched her movements.
"Enough!" He said as the little girl stood up into a straight position, her hands behind her back.
"Do you think I'm playing with you? I thought I told you to attack, and show me everything you've got! Just because I showed you a soft side during our previous session, doesn't mean you can mock me!!" He yelled at the girl as he walked in a circle around her.
"No sir, I just didn't want to hurt you-" the little girl mumbled, her peach coloured eyes facing the soil and grass at her feet.
Darif pinched his nose bridge and sighed. Why is it so hard to harden her heart? Every other Kageyuki her age is already a skillful assassin, while she acts like a normal girl who grew up in the countryside.
"At ease!" Darif said as Rubian relaxed and crouched to pick up a small white rabbit at her feet.
"Thank you for your mentoring today sire," Rubian curtsied and ran in the direction of the Kageyuki mansion.
Darif sighed again at the sight of Rubian cradling the little animal in her arms and turned to leave, before spotting another baby rabbit in the grass.
Deciding to bring it to Rubian, since he knows how much the little girl loves the little creatures, he took the little rabbit and placed it into a inner pocket in the inside of his coat. He spotted the little girl running excitedly into a shed, leaving the door open.
Peering inside, Darif knew that his world would never be the same again.