Haru and Shoukatsuryou were back in their own camp. Once Sousou had been elected the leader of the alliance, things had moved very quickly; despite the fact that Sousou was controlling the discussion, Enshou had been allowed to speak as freely as any of the other generals or strategists, but did so rarely, as she was clearly sulking over Haru's interference in her plans to lead the alliance, and often glared in his direction. In contrast, Sousou seemed to deliberately go out of her way to test the Zhuo party. She often directly asked their opinions directly on the majority of the potential plans to assault Sishui and Hulao, and Shoukatsuryou, despite her discomfort at Haru's earlier conduct, replied normally, as did Haru. Sonken, Ryomou, Jun'iku, and Kousonsan seemed satisfied simply to let her do so, though Kousonsan at least interjected whenever she felt that Haru and Shoukatsuryou were being too bullied or that Sousou was overlooking something important.
Ultimately, Sousou had proposed to send spies ahead to Sishui and Hulao, as there was little information about the defenses set up at either fortress. Everyone had agreed to that plan, and dedicated a number of men to the group that would be sent to gather that information.
Once they were safely in their own camp, Haru let out a low sigh, and looked down at a frowning Shoukatsuryou, who'd said nothing to him the entire way back. "I'm sorry, Shuri. I know I was dumb back there, but I meant what I said about Enshou. She's petty and stupid and I wasn't about to let her shitty decisions get us all killed."
Shoukatsuryou sighed and frowned. "To be honest, Lord Haru, I was expecting it. By now I understand that you're just that kind of independent thinker, and I don't blame you for speaking up, especially since it wasn't my place to do so while the leaders were talking. In the future, though, could you please try to be more polite? I understand that you're not used to it, but even so, it's as I've told you before..."
The way her voice sounded both sad and frustrated reminded Haru way too much of those rare times when Maru would get upset about something, and he bit his lip to remind himself that he was not dealing with his little sister, but with a subordinate that respected him even if his antics drove her up a wall sometimes. "Yeah, I know. I'm trying, Shuri. Really, I am."
Shoukatsuryou finally looked at him, but her mouth was still drawn into a pert frown. "Then please, Lord Haru, try harder. We are in a sensitive situation in this alliance with En, Gi and Go. We need you to be our leader more than ever now."
When they got to the center of camp, Kan'u and Chouhi, resting from an impromptu spar with live steel, greeted them directly, though Kan'u immediately sobered when she saw the pensive scowl on Haru's face and Shoukatsuryou's cross expression. "What happened?" Kan'u asked.
"We're going to get information before Sousou decides who's going to do what," Haru said. "I also might have gotten a bit impatient with Enshou and cut her down a couple of pegs because she was being a pain in the ass."
Shoukatsuryou pinched the bridge of her nose. "He called an argument between Sousou and Enshou a 'pissing contest' and told them to stop, then said that Enshou wasn't qualified to lead the alliance because she was spoiled and arrogant. Then he proposed that either Sousou or Sonken lead us, and Sonken basically allowed Sousou to take the position. It could have gone a lot worse, but it wasn't what I would call a success."
Kan'u gave Haru an annoyed glare, and Haru shrugged. "I wasn't lying, though. Enshou's a goddamn idiot. I'm not going to let some incompetent brat get us in all over our heads."
"It was well-said," replied a very familiar female voice from behind them. Haru grimaced, and turned around and looked downward. Sure enough, Sousou was walking up to them, with Kakouton and a woman with short, slicked-back blue hair—Myousai Kakouen, Kakouton's younger sister—flanking her. Both Kakouton and Kakouen were wearing a shoulder pauldron shaped like the skull ornaments tying up Sousou's ponytails, as well as armor that covered one part of their chests. However, Kakouton's clothes were colored a dark violet, whereas Kakouen's were navy-colored; Kakouton's pauldron covered her right shoulder, while Kakouen's was on her left shoulder.
Haru, however, paid them no mind, but instead looked at the predatory smile on Sousou's face. For a little girl—or at least someone that looked like one—she possessed a very discomfiting air of danger. "What's the matter, Sousou?" Haru asked. "You need something from me?"
Sousou put her right hand on her hip once again and barely lifted her head to look Haru dead in the eyes. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to speak to Unchou Kan'u."
Haru stepped back and gestured toward a bemused Kan'u. "There she is."
Sousou's smile widened. "Ah. You're as beautiful as I'd heard... Unchou Kan'u." She glanced at Kan'u's Green Dragon Blade, and nodded, then looked back to Kan'u, continuing to speak with a relaxed, casual air. "I have heard much of your valor and your idealism, and your indomitable fighting spirit. Seeing you now has confirmed what I believed. Everything that you are is all too beautiful to be bound to an ugly man. Your existence is worth much more than his. You have no reason to follow him."
Kan'u blushed, but her eyebrows drew into an angry furrow. "U-ugly man? How dare you speak of Lord Haru that way? You know nothing about him or about me if you think I would be flattered by someone who would insult my lord so casually!"
Haru's ire spiked slightly as well; this was the second time he'd been called ugly by Sousou, and while he was willing to take it during the council since he'd been a bit too rude for high company, he wasn't going to take it from her in the middle of his own camp. "Are you really in any position to be calling people names, midget?"
Kakouton snarled, and her hand immediately flew to her back, where the bandage-wrapped hilt of her sword was visible over her left shoulder. "How dare you speak to Lady Karin that way, you miserable—"
"Shunran," Sousou said, her voice dropping to just above a whisper, "if your hand touches that sword, you will regret it later."
Kakouton immediately froze, then lowered her hand and stood silently, glaring at Haru with undisguised hatred. With Kakouton silenced, Sousou raised her voice and continued speaking. "Unchou Kan'u. Become mine. Break from his ugliness and his pathetic army, and use the power of Gi to accomplish all that you could desire. Talent, soldiers, and funds will be at your endless disposal." Then, a note of pure longing and lust entered her voice."And I will show you personally the pleasure that a fool like him could never give to you."
The entire Zhuo camp, whether by coincidence or design, fell silent at that moment. Haru's brows began to furrow as his temper ran hotter than ever before. Before he said a word, though, Kan'u's patience hit the exploding point and filled that awful silence.
"You claim to think me and my ideals beautiful, and yet you spit on me and everything that I am by entreating me as if I'm some common mercenary!" Kan'u roared. It took a tremendous force of will on her part to remember that she was speaking to Moutoku Sousou, and that she could not kill the short, arrogant blonde on the spot. "I do not need anything that such a fool would dare offer me! I have no need of your talent, your funds, your soldiers, or even your damned 'pleasure'!" She rapped the Green Dragon Blade on the ground. "I have pledged my life to the service of Haru of Zhuo, the Messenger of Heaven and the man that will end this war-torn era! I will never be anything other than the Green Dragon Blade of Youzhou and his first vassal! He may be 'ugly' to you, but this man has a heart and a soul far purer than yours! I would sooner die than betray him!"
Sousou and Haru both were completely taken aback by this explosion, and though Kakouton tensed again, she remembered Sousou's warning from earlier, and held herself in place by force of will. Seeing that Sousou had no counter to this, Kan'u turned her back on the party from Gi completely, and did not flinch in the slightest. "I will hear nothing more from you, Moutoku Sousou. Be gone from this place."
After a few moments, Sousou regained her composure, but something thirsty had come into her smile now. "The more you deny me, the more I want you. However, I suppose that I should not be so foolish as to cause a scene in a place where I'm clearly not welcome." She looked over at a still-stunned Haru. "I don't quite understand what an ugly man like you did to earn the trust of my beautiful Kan'u. But know this. She will be mine. Heaven is on my side, not yours."
It was the particular inflection and emphasis on the word mine that made Haru's shocked expression disappear. Without even realizing it, he clenched his right hand into a fist, and to the astonishment of everyone present, spurts of black flame began to roil up from it. His canines seemed to glisten as he bared his teeth at Sousou. "Aisha's not a fucking thing. She's a person with her own goddamn feelings and thoughts. I don't own her and you sure as fuck don't either! If you ever talk to her or any of my partners with that level of disrespect again, I'll put this sword through your gut and split you in half from your crotch up to your pin-sized head." His voice raised to an infernal roar, and it was everyone else's turn to shrink back from him as his right eye seemed to blaze with hatred. "Get out of my camp right now or I'll throw you out in fucking pieces!"
The air was still and heavy with the oppressive rage that seemed to billow out from Haru's posture and clenched hands. There was no more strange fire coming from his right hand, but no one, not even Sousou, dared to say a word to him. In fact, a small bead of sweat was actually crawling down Sousou's cheek as she stared at Haru, and yet she couldn't take her eyes off of him.
Is this it? She felt the fear in her belly roiling, mixing with a strange admiration of his ferocity. How had she missed this fearsome aura been hiding behind that annoyed scowl? Is this why she follows him so devotedly?
Then, he took three ominous steps, and stood in front of her directly. Kakouton and Kakouen quickly moved to shield her, but could do no more than that as he stared down at both of them.
"If I have to repeat myself, someone's going to die," he said, and to their surprise, his voice was barely above a growl now. "So I'll say it one more time, politely even. Get out of my camp. If you don't, Gi is going to be down one empress."
After what felt like an eternity, Sousou finally recovered herself. "Shunran. Shuuran. I believe you heard Haru. We're leaving."
Both of her bodyguards nodded dumbly, and stepped back to her side. Haru stepped back as well, but his glare remained stony and hateful. However, once he was no longer in her face, Sousou smiled again, in that hungry, predatory way. "Haru of Zhuo. I apologize. You are indeed an ugly man. But you are not a weak one. I will not make that mistake again. However, take heed. I will have Kan'u. But I will have you, as well. And both of your prides shall be broken under my heel. You both will be mine ."
Before Haru could step forward, before he could give in to the surge of baying blood that told him to take her head from her shoulders, Sousou walked away, and her bodyguards walked with her. He snarled bitterly and began to walk after them, but stopped when his right arm nearly exploded with pain. Hissing, he took several shallow breaths and gripped it as tightly as he could, realizing that his peaking emotions had pushed it too far again. When at last the pain stopped, he turned back to Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou, then saw that they were all looking at him with naked, undisguised fear.
Something broke in him at that, and he felt a weariness settle over him that he hadn't felt in a while. Noticing the dead look that suddenly crawled over his face, Kan'u spoke, her voice quiet and wispy. "Lord Haru..."
"You are not mine , Aisha," Haru said, his voice equally soft. "You are not a thing. You're a goddamn human being, and if that jumped-up bitch tries to tell you otherwise ever again you'd better knock her flat on her ass." He looked around, and saw that a group of Zhuo soldiers had gathered to see the incident. Somehow he managed to raise his voice again, but something in it was broken, tired, even as he swung his hand through the air to punctuate his point. "And that goes for the rest of you too. No one has any goddamn right to tell you that you are a thing! You're human beings! All of you! Live like you are until the very end of your goddamn lives!"
That proclamation rang out loud and clear, even as Haru slowly, quietly, lowered his hand.
That proclamation rang out loud and clear, even as Haru slowly walked to his personal tent, and the speechless crowd parted to let him through.
That proclamation rang out loud and clear, even as Kan'u, Chouhi, and Shoukatsuryou looked at each other with concern, and Kan'u finally asked the question that was on their minds, their soldiers' minds, and even Sousou's mind.
"What was that?"