Mental Recovery [Seiko/Open]

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Not very long ago, Takehiro had endured his trial with Izanami, and she bestowed upon him some sort of strange power that kept eating away at him. More than that, the things she did to him, the pain he felt, all of it was weighing him down and driving him mad. It was difficult not to think about it. Every life he'd ever taken. Every family he'd torn apart... he remembered them all, and heard their screams every moment of every day since then.

It was a dark night, and the mercenary found himself mindlessly wandering the roads of a large village. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of loud screams, screams that weren't coming from his imagination. Almost immediately, he turned to them, running to find the source. What he found was a man in the process of trying to rape a woman. Upon seeing Takehiro, however, he stopped, terrified by this dark, red-eyed knight who seemed to have energy seeping off of him. But, the fact that he was even attempting this was enough to set him off.

"You fucking... ANIMAL!"

Tendrils of pure darkness shot out of the ground, wrapping around the man's limbs and lifting him into the air. He would scream in terror, though it was quickly interrupted as Takehiro used those tendrils to rip the man clean in half. The woman, the victim-to-be, screamed as well, running off through the village, waking everyone up to alert them of the monster nearby.

[Tsukino Seiko]

Likewise, she ran to the source of the scream, making it just in time to see the man being ripped apart. The woman screamed a second time and ran into Seiko's shoulder- no utter of apology, just a frantic desperation to get away from the man before her- the man who seemed to be opposite in appearance of Seiko. He was so dark and exuded a fearful aura that made her wish she was back at home and not wandering the streets of Japan. But they had one thing in similar; his red eyes, as unnatural as it appeared on him.

Did you hear those screams? I think it came from over there!

Make or break moment. She didn't know why she was still standing near the man who had just taken the life of another; didn't know why she didn't run away like the other woman despite the fact that, in a messed up way, this guy was her savior. But she knew if she didn't get out of there soon, she would be swept up as being a part of this incident because of her own uncanny appearance. It was a scandal she didn't need.

"Onii-sama, I want to go back home!" She said so loudly enough for the people that were starting to gather nearby to hear, voice laden with a wild sense of fake fear, as she reached forward, her small almost delicate hands tightly grasping around one wrist. She would tug and tug to get him moving in a separate direction, away from the forming crowd. Their attention was divided; some stared incredulously at the mangled body before them while others looked at the duo who couldn't possibly pass as siblings but actually might pull it off because of such the stark difference.

Why was she leaving with someone she was afraid of? Someone who could potentially rip her apart as easily as he did with the other man? Her eyes blinked furiously while her mind raced, not wholly sure who she was getting her life involved with. She would keep on walking, either until he forced her to let go or at least until she saw no more people- which was also probably a bad idea, but--

She glanced back at him, red eyes peeking beneath the snow white wisps of hair.

--she realized she was more afraid for him than she was of him, whatever that meant.

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Takehiro's mind was racing so fast he didn't notice anyone as they approached, giving the crowd time to gather and he would not react. His train of thought was derailed, however, when he heard the woman speak loudly, calling him... brother? The man looked to the woman, his curious red eyes observing her. She was the opposite of him, it seemed. How she looked. The white hair, like Haji's, her skin. But her eyes were red, too.

"What are you..." he began quietly, before noticing the amassing crowd. He suddenly understood once the woman took his wrist and would begin walking, she was trying to get him out of there. But why? He would follow her, of course, leaving a small trail of dark energy behind him with each step he took, and he could hear the hushed murmurs of the people behind them.

He'd just killed someone. He ripped a man in half. He looked like a monster, felt like a monster. And here was this strange woman, looking to help him?

"You shouldn't want to be seen with a man like me," He spoke calmly as they were out of earshot. Maybe she did him a service, though, and the scorn of the people was not yet directed toward him, seeing as she got him out of there so quick. But he knew not her motives, and was hesitant to thank her.

[Tsukino Seiko]

It was hard. She had seen men being killed before but never in such a manner as this; at first she thought he could have been demon possessed but after gauging his reaction to his own deed, it probably wasn't the case. Although she had helped him in leaving the scene, she had also helped herself; woman with white hair and unnatural eyes fleeing from the event alone would have triggered some unfortunate thoughts. But act out a play and maybe the focus of the situation would diffuse onto something else.

"Ironic because I could say the same to you," her voice murmured, not exactly intending for him to hear.

She wondered why she hadn't reacted so badly to witnessing a man being ripped in two. She was more horrified that she didn't exactly feel anything for the man despite him having lost a life; had she been desensitized from when she was a teenager, when she would aid her father in dissecting people after they had passed?

There was so much yet at the same time nothing to say. Here was a complete stranger before her and she had twisted her own fate with his by weaving herself into his life. Sounds pretty dramatic.

"You have a heavy burden."

She knew a thing or two about them, but she was not going to try and understand how he felt. Her heart went out to the people who were injured, but never did she think of injury in such a manner before. Her eyes flickered to the small dark energy that was behind him and stared at it, literally not knowing what else to do or say.

That is, until the shouts of people could be heard at a distance, growing louder by the second. They had followed the little trail of dark matter that he left with each step. What to do, what to do!

[Amakusa Takehiro]

She spoke quietly, but the man did hear. Though, Takehiro had no clue why he shouldn't want to be seen with her. What was it, just because of how she looked? He'd seen enough weird appearances in his lifetime that he couldn't really care, honestly. Himself, on the other hand, he was a walking mass of darkness that had just ripped a man in two. If there was anything Takehiro would fear about this woman, it was that she seemed to have no real sense of fear herself.

"It is the price I pay for being a monster."

Physically, he did look like one, but he meant more than that. The things he'd done in his past, they were haunting him now, and that was never a problem he had to face. Izanami wanted him to relive all of that, though, and turned him into... this.

Upon hearing the villagers draw closer, Takehiro instinctively protected the woman at his side. An arm crossed in front of her protectively, and a barrier of dark energy would form around the two. At the same time, another Takehiro would seem to separate from the original body, this one made entirely of darkness. Nega-Tak would run toward the villagers, before leading them in a different direction and dissipating.

"Come, it's best we leave." He would turn and usher the woman down the road, away from the village. "Getting yourself involved with a man who looks like a demon was not a wise choice, I'm afraid. These people will hunt you, should you ever be in their territory again."

[Tsukino Seiko]

"You're only a monster if you behave like one."

His immediate reaction to the forming crowd, the protective demeanor-- she blinked when she was surrounded by darkness, her hand instinctively reaching out to hold onto him, almost as if she feared she would sink into them. But then another pulled outward from the man's body and she watched, speechless, as it ran off while the red-eyed man stood before her.

"Monsters do not protect, else you would be the nicest monster I know." She followed in the direction where he led. She wasn't familiar with the area and assumed because he was ushering, that he knew- then again, they could just be running in a random direction for the sake of getting away. She was starting to wish she had told Yukimura that she was leaving on one of her little mini-adventures in Japan. Hnn.

"What about your...doppleganger?" She didn't know what else to call it.

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Her words, though simple, struck home, and Takehiro felt a little more calm. Maybe she was right. He could have been too hard on himself. That would have been a very simple explanation. Though, lately, it was hard to see things so plainly.

"Don't worry about that," he muttered. In a few moments, a mass of dark energy would seep into him from all sides. His doppelganger did his job of getting the mob away, and he didn't want to overextend its use. Not when he was so new to this ability of his.

"So, tell me. Why did you do what you did?"

[Tsukino Seiko]

Fascinating. The dark matter that he could control was literally a part of him? What kind of magic was this...? And then she remembered Yukimura talking about a dark energy knight- similarly calling it a monster. Probably not the same person, but interesting that the two had similar characteristics.

There were lots of things that she could have said- but unfortunately they were all things she thought of after she had acted. So he brought up a very good question- why did she do what she did?

"Many reasons, I suppose- to protect the people from you and to protect you from the people. Or- realizing that I was afraid for you, and not of you. Maybe both."

Pause.

"What made you so angry?"

[Amakusa Takehiro]

So, she was not afraid of him? And why was that, exactly? Was it because of the simple similarity in their eyes? Were that the case, he could understand, in a sense. His appearance had been so morphed since gaining this ability of his, he felt like a monster even without his equipment on.

"I could not stand by while a man attempted to steal a woman's innocence on a whim."

For him, maybe there was a little more behind it. Even before he changed into the monster he currently was, he would have destroyed a man if he saw them acting like that. As he was now, he just had means of destroying them much more easily.

"I'm sure you understand what the people will say. Tales change into something much larger in times like these. Word could spread that you aided a demon in his conquest."

[Tsukino Seiko]

"I would not have, either." She would have gone about it differently, probably because she was a woman and didn't have those weird demon powers that this man had. Any who would idly stand while a man was trying to take what was not rightfully his was just as bad as said man, in her opinion.

"I'm sure you understand what the people will say. Tales change into something much larger in times like these. Word could spread that you aided a demon in his conquest."

"I care little- if at all- what people say about and of me." Because Seiko knew who she was, and those closest to her knew who she was; and as long as there was no misunderstandings in her inner circle, she was more than fine. She grew up around careless voices- some whispers, and some outright rude and obnoxious. As a result, she grew tough skin. He probably didn't understand because he didn't react so harshly to her appearance; but to those who had never seen a white haired individual, let alone with red eyes always seemed to have some sort of new name for her- demon being one of them.

"You're very good at self-condemnation." A random observational comment.