It is early morning; the sun has not yet risen, and the Sennin's running lights do little to illuminate the gloom. The salty smell of the sea is all-pervading, and the deck is wet with the spray. The moon sinks behind the clouds, and all around the ship, the waters fade from silver to pitch black. Rei's red eyes seem faintly luminous in the darkness. She stands at the top of the stairs, waiting for Kiyoshi to notice her.
Well, 'notice' is the wrong word. Her senses skitter off of the surface of the Void, and she knows that he knows she's there. 'Acknowledge' is a better term. More accurate.
He's practicing with Keibatsu. Sword forms. Flowing smoothly from one to the other with the skill of a master. Rei watches with an analytical eye, and is quickly forced to conclude that so long as he held Keibatsu, Kiyoshi could dispatch her without much trouble if he put his mind to it.
Not a pleasant thought, but then, not many of Rei's thoughts were pleasant. When Kiyoshi's exercises finally wind to a close, she steps out onto the deck and speaks. "So," she says, and that is all. She waits, then, watching for his response. Waiting for the beginning of an uncomfortable conversation. And her hand aches where Keibatsu cut into her.
Ruins
Cities
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Kiyoshi eyes Rei as he nonchalantly towels off sweat and ocean spray. "You have something to say to me, Rei? You have my full attention." He gazes at her, face and mind carefully blank, waiting to see what she will say or do.
"You said we would need to talk about what happened earlier," Rei says. If Kiyoshi's face is blank, Rei's face is visibly discomforted.
"Yes, I did. More to the point, I would like you to talk. You suspected what would happen when you touched Keibatsu. I felt it react, felt its... hunger. For the Enemy. For you. Care to explain?"
"Explain what? That I am Rei-Oni, the one-who-is-creepy?" Rei smiles ruefully. She seems to think about what she's going to say for a long moment, just watching Kiyoshi's expression, her awareness skittering across the surface of the Void but not attempting to dig any deeper. At last she says, "I probably shouldn't be joking about this. I'd suspected that something was wrong since... well, since I looked at myself in the mirror while wearing Elder Winter's mask."
She reaches down and unbuckles the knife-sheath that's strapped to her left leg. From this she produces a small cylinder with one wickedly jagged, barbed end: a DisLocator. Though it is no longer covered in blood, its appearance is no less savage. She snaps it open, pulls a shard of White-Rock out of it, and holds it up to the starlight. "This is Silex Niveus," she says. "A form of mana used to power the DisLocators that Goshi is using these days. Do you remember our meeting with Elder Winter? Remember how he said that the DisLocator was made of Cataclysm?"
"White Rock. What does this have to do with Keibatsu reacting to you as if you were the Enemy?"
She wanted to tell the truth. Until this moment, she had intended to do so, but now, with Kiyoshi looking at her suspiciously, with his mind hidden in the Void and all her fears multiplying exponentially, Rei panics. She panics, and in a moment of weakness, she decides that it would be better to lie.
Rei meets Kiyoshi's gaze, and for a moment, she looks lost, almost desperate. She wants - no, she needs Kiyoshi to believe what she's saying, even as she knows full well that it's a lie.
She doesn't want her friends - her family - to know that she is one of the Oni they've been fighting.
"I don't know if it's just the way that the DisLocator uses Silex Niveus's distinct energy pattern, or if the rock itself is connected to the Enemy somehow, but the energy signature this thing puts out is clearly connected to the Enemy. Before we met up, I went to the wreck of the Bosphorous. I accessed the ship's systems, and I scanned for Enemy signatures. The number of Enemy signatures in Geneva Prime looked pretty damn close to the number of Heishi employed by Goshi. What do they all have in common? DisLocators. What's more, one of the Enemy signatures corresponded to my own location. What do I have in common with the Heishi? I have a DisLocator. I've been carrying it since the Griolsa village. I've never actually used it, since use of it requires that you install it into the spine; I never thought that just carrying it around would be enough for the Enemy signal to rub off on me. I guess I was wrong. I'll need to destroy the DisLocator at the very least. Hopefully, after a while without contact with the unique energies given off by the combination of Silex Niveus and a DisLocator, the 'Enemy' energy signature will dissipate."
That's the ticket. A plausible lie is the easiest kind to swallow. After all, surely Kiyoshi wouldn't suspect that Rei herself is one of the Enemy. Right?
...
Right?
Nothing about his face reveals whether or not Kiyoshi believes her. He simply nods and draws Keibatsu. "I can destroy the thing if you like. If not then I will trust you to deal with the situation in your own way." His gaze locks with hers and for an instant it seems that silver flames dance in the depths of his eyes. "I will trust you, Rei."
Guilt. Shame. Rei looks away, unable to meet Kiyoshi's silver-flame-filled eyes. "Kiyoshi, I..." she trails off. What is there to say? He wouldn't react well to the truth. That much she's certain of. Duty. Honour. He would kill her without hesitation if his duty required it, she thinks. And his duty is the destruction of the Enemy, isn't it? Her heart races. She can't tell him. Does he know already? She's never been a good liar.
In the end, she doesn't say anything at all, but tosses the DisLocator to Kiyoshi, and walks down the stairs into Sennin, thoroughly miserable.
She's never had to lie to a friend before.
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