"What are you going to do?" asked Alter-Shenhe getting up slowly. She now realized how indefense she was.
Kenshin had learned a lot in his fight with Ei, so he made some appear behind Alter-Shenhe, and tied her ankles together, followed by another rope that tied her wrists behind her back. Alter-Shenhe fell to the floor with a panicked expression.
"Don't worry I'm not a molester" said Kenshin with a malicious smile, approaching her.
"What is a molester?" asked a nervous Alter-Shenhe, trying to get away.
Kenshin had a dark face hearing her.
"If you don't know anything about sex or masturbation, how were you going to help me?" he asked.
"Well, m-maybe ho-holding hands" Alter-Shenhe said with an unsure voice, but Kenshin was able to feel the violent plans swirling in her mind.
"Ah, yes the lewd art of hand-holding" muttered Kenshin, not impressed at all. "Well, I am not going to touch you indecently, but I need to have my reward. You will unknowingly provide me with some scenes for my next book".
"I am not going to give you anything!" she shouted in anger, her black hair and red eyes glaring at him.
Kenshin didn't reply, but just like he made ropes, he made a feather.
Alter-Shenhe, for nudity reasons, was wearing the same outfit outer Shenhe was wearing, which meant that she had the sides of her hips uncovered, and most of her body covered only by a thin black fabric.
"What are you going to do with that?" asked Alter-Shenhe seeing how Kenshin's expression morphed into one she will always remember. He had a bloodthirsty smile that rivalled her own.
Kenshin didn't reply but lightly tickled her uncovered side-hip with the feather.
"Sto- ahahaha" Alter-Shenhe showed a terrified expression when she realized Kenshin's plan.
"Please st- ahahahaha. STOP!"
"No" Kenshin replied with a smirk. He used the feather to tickle Alter-Shenhe's belly.
Alter-Shenhe tried to resist laughing, but once she started she couldn't stop. It was only now that she realized that she was extremely ticklish.
Every time Shenhe laughed, her whole body trembled, and an earthquake made the mountains shake.
Kenshin saw this, but merely this was something he wasn't satisfied with.
He continued tickling Alter-Shenhe all over her body, obviously ignoring some private areas.
"Haaa....haaaa.....haaaa" Shenhe breathed trying to recover, but she was tired from too much laughing. "Are....you.....done?".
Kenshin, who had suddenly stopped tickling her, had a regretful face.
"I am still too immature" he mused. "I need to wake up".
Yes, because Kenshin realized how foolish he was.
A dozen feathers materialized in the air, making Alter-Shenhe cry.
"I hadn't thought of this. I battled Ei in an apocalyptic battle, and a feather is all I can think of?" Kenshin was disappointed in himself.
"Please, stop" Alter-Shenhe was crying from laughing too much but Kenshin only directed the same smirk to her. "Please no- ahahahahaha".
"You tried to attack me, now I'm going to attack you. You wouldn't have stopped until I was almost dead, so I will do the same" replied Kenshin, controlling the feathers to move even more vigorously.
"STOP- ahahaha. You mole! Ahahahaha" she couldn't stop no matter what she tried. She tried to muster all her anger and humiliation, but it was no use.
Kenshin kept tickling her for half an hour and stepped back to contemplate the result.
Alter-Shenhe, with her black hair and red eyes previously holding animosity, was now lying on the floor with a dead gaze.
Her slow breathing made her chest slowly rise, and her sweaty skin gave the view an erotic touch.
"I approve" said Kenshin with a nod.
Alter-Shenhe's pupils moved to put Kenshin's figure in her view, but she was too tired to express any feeling through her eyes.
"I need to go now" said a sad Kenshin. "I wanted to see more of this marvellous view, but I don't know how much time has passed outside. I will leave you tied like that, no, I will tie you like you were. And I will give you some entertainment".
Kenshin tied Alter-Shenhe's limp body in that tortoise bondage and made some books.
"These are popular outside. I will teach you what you don't know about the world. Be thankful" Kenshin made a ton of porn books, that will slowly move in front of Shenhe over time. She will be forced to see a bit more than that lewd 'hand-holding'.
Kenshin knew that he would need to see her quite frequently, so he avoided some dangerous topics, like the 'tentacle' genre. He feared what she could do with the knowledge.
'Wait a bit, maybe I can create some tentacles here' he mused, before shaking his head. That would be a line that once crossed, he won't be able to turn back.
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"I'm back" said Kenshin, separating from Shenhe.
"You took a while, what did you do?" asked Cloud Retainer with a suspicious gaze.
"He made me laugh" replied Shenhe in her calm voice.
"Yes, I told a few jokes her inner self considered amusing" Kenshin agreed with a nod. "I am trying to make up. If we are going to see each other more frequently, I need to have at least a decent relationship with her."
Cloud Retainer nodded in approval, but a question assaulted her mind.
"If you end up with Shenhe, won't the other one be forced to be with you too?" she confusedly asked. She didn't know how this whole mess of inner-outer Shenhe was going to affect a possible relationship.
"Leave it to us., it's our business as almost adults to manage our affairs" Kenshin said with a wave of his hand. "And I'm the eminence here, I will think of something".
Cloud Retainer looked a bit suspicious but finally nodded.
"Now, dear icy lady, why don't we have a talk?" asked Kenshin with what he thought was a charming smile.
"Hmm" based on Shenhe's happy hum, she thought so too.
And the 2 of them left, leaving behind a somewhat lonely Cloud Retainer.
"Master, what's wrong?" Ganyu came with a bowl in her hands. She found that there was an area for vegans, so she happily made a salad with the ingredients she found.
"Nothing" sighed Cloud Retainer. She wouldn't say it, she was a tsundere bird after all, but she felt lonely. Shenhe was already knowing someone she may marry in the future, and Ganyu didn't have time to visit her, so staying alone in her abode made her feel like she was alone.
"Please Master, take a bite" Ganyu said offering her salad, trying to distract her Master. "I made them with the ingredients in the vegan area".
"Let me try" Cloud Retainer took a pair of exquisite chopsticks from her adeptal thing, and took a bit of salad. "Hmm, it's delicious".
"Right?" Ganyu animatedly said. "And I only used the ingredients in that area. The mushrooms were a bit far, but they give a nice touch to the salad".
Cloud Retained gulped and swallowed the bite he took.
"Ganyu, there are no mushrooms here".
Ganyu, who avoided greeting Kenshin in the dock, couldn't hear his warning.
There were no mushrooms here.
Only chicken.
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"So, icy lady, please tell me what your hobbies are" Kenshin said, trying to make Shenhe release his arm, but she wouldn't let him go.
"Training" she replied, not caring about Kenshin's tries to escape. She missed Kenshin, so she was not going to release him. If he was uncomfortable with their position, he could move to readjust it, she didn't mind.
"I swear you sound like someone else" Kenshin muttered, remembering the woman whose hobby was meditating. "What do you do when you are not training?".
"Think" replied Shenhe.
"Hmm, this is hard" Kenshin didn't know anyone with less emotions than her. Even Ei felt anger, and he was not interested in angering Shenhe, intense emotions like anger or hate would give strength to Alter-Shenhe. "Then, who gave you that white jade comb?".
"Master gave it to me. She said that if I wanted to be her student, I had to brush my hair thrice with it" she replied in her calm voice, but Kenshin sensed her fondness for it.
"Why don't you tell me about your childhood?" Kenshin asked the wrong question, as Shenhe's air started turning black. "Oooor you can tell me why didn't you reply to my letters."
Kenshin had to rethink again how strong Shenhe was. Even with his bindings, which he admittedly had done half-heartedly as Alter-Shenhe didn't have the ability to interact with them, she started coming out automatically. Shenhe was an exceptional case where her soul had 2 different sides while remaining one.
In other words, 'Shattered, But Whole'.
"Hmm" Shenhe liked that topic more. "I wanted to write back, but I didn't know how to write what I wanted to say".
'Ouch', Kenshin felt a stab in his heart.
"Well, why don't we write a letter so you learn how to do it?" proposed Kenshin, taking out a bottle of the special ink he always carried with him.
"Okay" replied Shenhe, feeling excited about learning. Maybe she could write back to Kenshin and say the same beautiful things he told her.
They sat on the ground, and Shenhe brought a stone for Kenshin to rest his paper on so he could write.
Only later will he know that the mountain the Shrine was in had dangerously leaned after a huge portion of one of the sides mysteriously disappeared, only standing in its place because of Ei and Yae's desperate help.
"The first one is a greeting okay?" said Kenshin, taking a pen and inserting it in the ink bottle. "How do you want to start?".
"I love you" Shenhe replied blankly.
"W-Well, let's leave that for later" it was the first time he had been confessed like that, and Kenshin was quite nervous hearing it. But he didn't know what Shenhe considered love as she lived with a lonely bird after all. "What about, hello, my friend for distant lands? I usually write it like this".
"You are not far" replied Shenhe.
"Indeed" Kenshin coughed a bit to regain his bearings and thought about what Shenhe needed. She was very direct, so words or phrases with double meanings wouldn't work. "Then 'Friend next to me', what about that?".
Shenhe thought for a while but nodded. She didn't know if they were friends or lovers as she had that Contract, but for now, she found it acceptable.
"Okay then" Kenshin nodded and wrote it. "Then you should ask about how the other person is doing, just to tell them that you are interested in their well-being".
Shenhe nodded but waited for Kenshin to write.
"Shenhe, you are trying to learn, if I tell you, you won't be able to write it by yourself next time. I'm sure your Master taught you about this" Kenshin gently said.
"Hmm" Shenhe nodded and thought. How could she show interest in Kenshin? "I want to know what you are doing".
It was a very direct sentence, almost a command, but Kenshin found it a very Shenhe-like sentence.
"That's good, there is nothing wrong with it. You clearly stated what you wanted to know" Kenshin nodded and wrote it. "Normally, you would follow with something like 'I hope you are well', to show that you want me to have good health, or that I am content with my life. How would you write it?".
Shenhe thought calmly, and Kenshin patiently waited for her to answer.
"I hope you are happy" she replied, looking at Kenshin for his opinion.
"I think it's good" Kenshin nodded, and wrote it. "Then, you can start talking about what you want to say. Remember to say the important thing first, and you will describe it later. Remember, why are you writing the letter?" he added sensing her confusion.
"To tell you that I didn't forget about you" she said. All she wanted was to tell Kenshin that even if she didn't write back to him, she didn't forget him, and that she liked her letters.
"Then write it like that. 'I want you to know that I didn't forget about you'" he wrote. "What else? Now it's your chance to say everything you want, I will write it directly as you said it".
"I liked your letters" she said, feeling that she could finally convey all she thought.
"Okay" Kenshin wrote it. "More".
"I like the beautiful words you wrote in the letters" Shenhe said, remembering all the 'praise' she received.
"M-more" even Kenshin couldn't help it but feel guilty about it.
"They make me feel warm inside, and I want to make you feel warm too" she added.
"More". 'Evil thoughts, begone!'.
"Hmmm" Shenhe thought for a while, but nothing came to mind. She had been wanting to say those things for so long, and she thought about them so much that she didn't think about anything else.
"A letter doesn't need to be long, what is important is to convey what you want to say" gently explained Kenshin. "Now, what do you want to know about my life? Normally you would say something like, 'How are you doing?' Well, that could also be said at the start, but what you are trying to convey here is your interest in the other person. Until now you talked about what you wanted to say, now it's your turn to listen to what the other person wants to say".
"What do you want to tell me? I want to hear it" Shenhe couldn't think of another way to ask it. She said what she wanted to know, literally.
"That's good" Kenshin understood it and wrote it. "And then, the goodbye. You could also tell something funny that isn't too important to mention, but we will stick with the basics. You don't need to say 'goodbye' like that, you can also say 'I'm waiting for your next letter', or 'I hope to see you soon'".
"I hope to see you soon" Shenhe thought that sentence aligned with her feelings the best.
Kenshin nodded and wrote it.
"Look at it, and tell me what you think" said Kenshin, handing her the letter.
'Friend next to me, I want to know what you are doing.
I want you to be happy.
I liked your letters. I like the beautiful words you wrote in the letters.
They make me feel warm inside, and I want to make you feel warm too.
What do you want to tell me? I want to hear it.
I hope to see you soon.'
"It doesn't sound good at all" replied Shenhe sadly.
"Of course it doesn't" Kenshin laughed. "It's your first letter, it's not going to be good, and we are writing it like this to be a learning experience for you. Let me connect the phrases with each other".
'Dear friend next to me.
I am interested in what you are doing, I hope you are happy.
I wrote this letter to tell you that I liked your letters, they made me feel warm, and I hope to be able to make you feel the same warmth too.
Is there anything you want to tell me? I am interested to know about what you want to say.
I hope we can see each other soon.
Shenhe'
"Here" Kenshin handed her the slightly modified letter. It was not a prize-winning work of art, but it was the best letter Kenshin could think of. It told him about Shenhe's feelings after all.
"This is better" Shenhe nodded. Kenshin's letters were a lot better, but she now had a starting point. "I will keep it safe".
"Do whatever you want" replied Kenshin taking the first letter, the 'bad' one. "But I will keep this one".
"Why?" asked Shenhe curiously. It was a bad letter, and she couldn't think of why would Kenshin prefer the 'bad' one over the 'good' one.
"Because it's your first letter" replied Kenshin with a smile. "And I like this one more".