The night was dark and walking throught the streets, Keiko felt as if all light was sucked into the shadows as she walked. The cold dry wind made her zip up her jacket and rub the coldness of her nose away.
Her mind was racing at a pace that her feet couldn't keep up with. Satoru's words seemed to come alive in the deep black moving shadows she looked at.
'Why her out of all the people... Why her? Did my words affect him too much? Did he take my words too seriously—killing her to prove his love.'
Keiko shuddered. She had seens cases were lovers went to extreme heights for the people they loved.
Things I do for love... Was how they would justify their actions.
Keiko rubbed her palms together aggressively, desperate to make this chillness deep her bones go away.
'Did I do this?' Keiko couldn't shake these words away, guilt kept creeping up in her cold body.
Satoru had killed for her, bled for her, took fights he would lose for her... Was it not enough? How much more would Satoru have to do to show that he loves her?
Keiko shut her ears in a futile attempt to block her thoughts.
It wasn't Satoru who was wrong, it was her. It wasn't Satoru who had to prove himself... It was her.
'You don't have to prove yourself to me, Satoru... You don't have to kill her. It's me who should be working hard, not you.'
Keiko stopped walking and as if in response her mind stopped racing. She knew what she had to do. She stood right in front of Reiko's house.
A deep breath, then she knocked on the door. She waited for a while only to hear nothing. She took a step towards the door and listened intently, her hand was just a few inches away from knocking again.
She heard a few things before stepping back with a gasp.
As she stepped back, she accidently knocked over a potted plant near the entrance. The plant fell over with a loud crack. The sound from inside the house stopped for a second before there was some shuffling.
The door opened and a man with a deep frown and an angered expression came out. He looked he wanted nothing other than to go back to what he was doing.
There was blood on his knuckles.
"The hell do you want?" Tessai asked Keiko. When he didn't get a reply from her, he tried to close the door.
A sword stopped him from closing the door. Tessai was startled for a second to see a blade so close to his neck.
"Why is there blood on your knuckles?" Keiko looked at the man with bubbling anger, "And why do I hear children crying?"
"Move your sword kid," Tessai looked as if it took a lot of willpower to restrain himself, "...Before you get hurt."
"Where is Reiko? I want to see her. Tell me where she is or you will spend your days in a prison!" Keiko said, her grip on her sword still hadn't loosened.
There was a police station nearby, with its signature blue to help people recognise it from a distance.
Tessai gritted his teeth and backed down, knowing that fighting her will just get him arrested. Even if she couldn't defeat him, the neighbours could report him.
He took a step back and Reiko—with some disheveled hair and bloody lips came out of the house slowly. Keiko was disturbed by seeing the girl's condition.
Reiko looked her weirdly but didn't say anything, her posture relaxed the more they walked away from Tessai.
"What kind of parent beats their daughter like this? How long has this been happening for?" Keiko asked, her eyes softened in genuine worry.
"The drunkard kind that was threatened in his own house by Satoru." She then glared at Keiko, her eyes were filled with hatred, "Why does it matter to you? Came to gloat?"
Keiko looked at her, confused by her hostility and what she said about Satoru. Why would Satoru come to her house and threaten her father?
"Gloat? Why would I come here to gloat? And-and why would Satoru threaten your father?"
Reiko sat down on cold grass which instantly made her moan in pain. Keiko observed the belt mark that turned purple from bruising. Her baggy pants did wonders to hide them.
"Oh, he didn't tell you, did he? You should be proud of yourself finding yourself a man like him. He didn't waver—not even for a second."
Reiko looked genuinely impressed, as observed by the smirk on her bloody lips. "You win... I lose. Again." Her tone was that of a defeated one.
"What do y—"
"I love Satoru. I told him and that guy didn't even hesitate to reject me." Reiko shrugged, "I guess you win."
"And your father? He took his anger out on you because you like him?" Keiko guessed, she herself was targetted by her clan for her father's alleged disgrace.
"More or less." She looked up to meet Keiko's eyes, "You don't seem surprised that Satoru threatened my father. Not the first time is it?"
"Satoru has gotten himself entangled in many such cases like my clan... Or the Yotsuki."
Reiko's eyes were wide open with shock. Her mother had died in the crossfire of that clan's infighting.
"Leave the village and hide. Do not go anywhere he tries to lead you into and especially not into any forests... He trains in one of them." Keiko's stern gaze was like a warning—just like her words. A warning.
A million thoughts raced through her mind but before she could process them, she was left alone. Keiko had left.
A little far away was a doll that hid among the leaves of a potted plant. It had a chakra string attached to it that connected straight to Tessai's ears.
He heard it all.
---
Shinichi watched Satoru with mild appreciation as Satoru showed progress in the new jutsu he was working on. If perfected, it would become a part of his arsenal till the day he would retire... Or die.
But in the short term, the biggest inconvenience was that Shinichi's neatly combed hair constantly became straightened and then disheveled from the static in the air.
Each time Satoru turned the chakra into lightning, the sparks flew from his hands outwards and gave a tingling sensation to anyone that came near.
'He was already good at shape transformation... Except for that accumulation and retaining chakra into parts of his body for prolonged periods,' Shinichi stepped a little closer to watch, '...his change in chakra nature on the other hand—was crude but something he had most experience in.'
"Your experience with using wind style in the way you do is helping you in this, isn't it?" Shinichi asked, already knowing the answer.
"Learning to compress air is harder than almost anything I know. If I hadn't learnt it, I would not have progressed this far so quickly." Satoru said, internally thanking Miku.
Miku would give pointers and train with him whenever he got the chance. Satoru owed most of his skillset to him.
"Can I ask you about something? I'm confused about something." Satoru asked, thinking about how he should word his question. Shinichi sighed before raising his eyebrows, prompting him to ask.
"Why is Reiko avoiding me all of a sudden? I mean, I know that I denied her... But she avoids like," Satoru thought to that word he hated the most—his trigger word, "like I'm a monster."
Satoru's chakra became erratic and then simmered down to low hum just like his feelings. While Satoru didn't regret doing what he did, he didn't like the kind of reaction she was giving him recently. To him it almost felt... Disproportionate.
Shinichi opened his mouth to say something but stopped, choosing to stay silent. He turned and picked up the bag from his side and took out a bottle. It was the same as the last one, with its contents not visible.
Satoru, realized that he won't get an answer, so he just took the bottle and downed it before continuing his training.
Electricity crackled around his fist as he shaped it and held in place. His palm now opened and his fingers straightened in a stabbing motion. 'Sorry for the plagiarism, Ay. Wait, is it still plagiarism if I'm better?'
Satoru took a few steps forward and stood right in front of the earth wall created by Shinichi. He thrust his hand forward and hit the wall.
"Fuck! Argh!" Satoru grunted in pain and held his broken middle finger. The electricity coating his arm was simply that—electricity, it didn't strengthen his fist.
"Do you want to know where you made the mistake? I can point out at least two." Shinichi said, tapping the earth wall causing to crumble to dust. Satoru sighed and said, "I didn't reinforce my hand with Chakra before hitting the wall. I thought this would have been enough."
"And?"
"I overestimated the advantage Lightning style has over Earth style?" Satoru said in a guessing tone.
"You actually underestimated the advantage. The wall crumbled right now from Lightning style. What you missed is the same thing swords use for slashing or stabbing." Shinichi said, pointing at the two swords at Satoru's waist.
"Longswords are meant for stabbing through armor and it needs them to be straight and pointy," Satoru looked at Arashi-ken, then at Fumikage, "Curved blades are for slashing because their curved edges automatically align themselves to the swing."
"Then why did you think this was any different? When you fight him in forest of death, silly mistakes like this will be your downfall. You nee—" Shinichi became alarmed and instantly threw a volley of shuriken at the bushes.
A bird quickly rushed out and flew upwards dodging the shuriken. Shinichi threw a kunai with enough force to make a shockwave, the kunai tore through the bird—splashing no blood, but metal and wires.
The bird opened its mouth for a smaller insect like object to fly out while it exploded with blinding light and deafening sound.
Shinichi sighed, figuring that the bird was a puppet and that Tessai saw Satoru's secret technique.
"Damn it." He pretended to be disappointed.