Chapter 100 - ALI MINI THEATER Side Story 6

In this world, there were different types of love. There was love for God and country, love for fellow men and friends, love for family, true love, young love, a love that was destined, and lastly, the kind of love that was not meant to be…

It was one of those moments that were unexpected.

Kazehaya Gin was walking towards the Cedar Palace. The almost eighteen-year-old wanted to clear his head, and so he asked the driver to stop a couple of blocks near the place and walked the rest of the way.

He had been requested to come by Yayoi, the head housekeeper, and Ryuu's nanny. As they had been expecting, the succession ceremony for the new head of the Homura House would be sooner than normal since the heir was a returner to ancestry, their clan's deity, Kresnik, himself who descended from heaven to bless his bloodline.

But Ryuu was only thirteen years old – too young to have such responsibilities, ergo the heir's refusal to attend the clan gathering.

Kazehaya sighed. Although he wanted Ryuu to take over as early as possible, he had totally forgotten how that would go about, and now he almost pitied him. This was why he chose to take a walk first. He didn't want to face Ryuu with hesitation on his part. For some unexplainable reason, the Koutaishidenka valued his opinion a lot and would listen to him most of the time. It would be a disservice to Ryuu if he faced him with a faltering heart.

What was the reason for that reluctance?

Normally, during the succession ceremony, the new Makura would be presented for the first time and would be moved to her new palace-like place in the estate. Before that, she was raised and hidden from the world with only the heir knowing who she was.

As per tradition, the new master and Makura would get married almost immediately. But, since Ryuu had a fated partner, he would just have a child with the Makura, the concubine before his marriage. It was to make sure he had spare children.

But to make a thirteen-year-old boy stick to tradition like that was just unbelievable.

Well, most of Kazehaya's reluctance was his bias towards the Makuras. He hated them. But he had no power to break such a system.

Kazehaya Gin sighed. He knew he had to go see Ryuu forthwith, but he couldn't help but dillydally. Soon, he was almost a block from the Cedar Palace. He had to fix his thoughts quickly.

"Hey!"

A soft voice filled with distress rang, and Kazehaya Gin was distracted from his thoughts. He turned to search its source and found a young girl wearing an old yukata standing at the edge of the railing of the bridge, leaning over with her feet dangling above the ground. She was trying to fend off some ducks which seemed to be trying to take the bread from her hands.

"This girl…"Kazehaya was perplexed.

He had no idea whether to laugh or scold her. Didn't she know that these birds could become aggressive just for food?

"No! It's not for you – it's for the fish!" she cried again, as she leaned further forward trying to take the bread back.

But the action made her off-balanced, that she leaned over too much, almost toppling over to fall into the water.

Gin had no idea what came over him. He unthinkingly used his wind and was instantly behind her, as if he teleported, just in time to hook his arm around her waist before she fell into the cold water below the bridge and pulled her back.

"You – "

Gin was about to scold her but stopped, his hazel eyes wide, his mouth remained agape as he stared at her, mesmerized.

In spite of her shabby clothing, the elfin face that looked back at him was a beauty. She had long black hair that naturally curled at the end and a pair of huge doe eyes the color of chocolate. Her petite frame and delicate alabaster skin with blushes on the right places, made her seem to look like a doll.

If she weren't nervously clutching at her hands right now, and shifting nervously on her feet, he might have thought she was.

"Uhm…T-Thank you…"

Her sweet voice rang like bells, something he hadn't noticed earlier, and Kazehaya Gin finally stopped staring at her, seeing as he had made her totally uncomfortable.

"You're welcome," he answered. "I'm Gin," he continued unexpectedly that even surprised himself.

He normally didn't care about introducing himself to other people – not that he needed to. People just seemed to know who he was on sight. This girl seemed not to know who he was though –at least she didn't recognize his face. If she did, she would have run away a long time ago.

Being here near the Cedar Palace meant that in a way, she's related to it. She might be the daughter of one of the servants. His reputation as a killer would have been known to her, so he didn't mention his family name.

"I-I'm Emi," she said with her eyes wide, staring back at him as she blushed an adorable shade of pink.

Kazehaya Gin almost laughed. The way the girl looked at him was the way Ryuu looked when he saw his favorite snacks. Well, at least now he knew he was not hated nor feared by this little lady.

"Emi," he said as he gave her a dazzling smile.

Kazehaya Gin almost laughed upon seeing her turn a deeper shade of crimson.

"Y-yes?" she stammered and he finally let out a laugh. She looked so charming; he couldn't help but tease her.

"Emi, you shouldn't feed the fish or the ducks will get jealous and they'll try to attack you again," he said, and he watched as she bobbed her head.

For the first time, Kazehaya Gin became curious about a girl. "Are you from here?"

At his question, the girl suddenly looked sad. She stiffened before she nodded.

His guess that she might be a servant's daughter became more solid in his mind. If this was the case, she must have sneaked out of the Cedar Palace for a bit of fun.

Naughty girl…

Kazehaya reckoned she's around the same age as Ryuu. "It's going to rain soon. You should go back," he told her, softly and she looked at him as if she wanted to say something but changed her mind.

"Thank you G-Gin," she said, her melodious voice assailed him once more. He wondered why she seemed so sad.

After that, he watched her leave until she disappeared from his sight. He was about to go his way as well when something shiny on the floor caught his eye. He crouched down to pick up a kanzashi, a delicate traditional hair ornament of a sakura cluster, and he frowned. It was the color of the palest cherry blossom with gold linings, but what surprised him was the cluster of small diamonds on it.

"So, she wasn't a servant's daughter after all?" No servant could ever afford such expensive ornament. He had seen her hair fall down when she nearly fell so the clip must be the pretty girl's.

If that was the case…

He placed the delicate ornament in his pocket.

A caged princess. She must be a very sheltered daughter to have not known him. He wondered which branch family that girl belonged to. He would like to see her again, and perhaps…

A chuckle escaped his lips, and Kazehaya Gin, feeling a lot better flew towards the Cedar Palace, landing just outside the Koutaishidenka's door.

"Yo!"

Kazehaya greeted his friend as he plopped down on the pillow seat across the sulking Ryuu on the small table.

"You must be here to change my mind," Ryuu stated, his voice laced with accusation as his blue gaze clouded, before being slightly covered by his half-closed lids when he looked down at his drink.

"Yep!" Kazehaya answered unabashedly.

There was no sense lying to this solemn Young Master. Ryuu could easily see past through the lies anyway. Besides, he had vowed to himself that he'd always speak the truth with him.

"I'm not changing my mind," Homura Ryuu told him firmly as he took a sip of his tea.

"Why are you so against it?"

"Because they will be presenting the Makura in the gathering and that I have to start sleeping with my pillow after that ceremony," the Koutaishidenka said, with disgust visible on his face.

At the mention of the Makura, even Kazehaya Gin's smile vanished, replaced by a cold, hard look. "You don't have to if you don't want to," he said. "After the ceremony, you will be the new head. Nobody can force you to do something that you don't want to do."

The Koutaishidenka looked thoughtful as Gin spoke. It was as if he was trying to analyze his words carefully.

"The most important thing is for you to be there," Kazehaya continued. "You don't have to bother with the Makura if you don't want to."

"You're right," Ryuu agreed afterwards. "I will go."

"That's the spirit!" Kazehaya was happy that his job was done. "If they complain feed them to Mavara."

With this, the Koutaishidenka finally gave a small smile.

The day of the succession ceremony arrived, and Gin had been scanning the crowd for one elfin face he had wanted to see again since that day at the bridge. All of the clan members were there in attendance, so she must be here too. But so far, there was neither hide nor hair of his chocolate-eyed beauty.

But, at some cruel twisted turn of events, when he did finally see her, she had become someone whom he couldn't ever have.

Kazehaya Gin stood next to Ryuu on the platform as the Makura of the Homura House was announced. He watched with veiled hatred as a figure clad in a heavy white kimono with her face covered walked across the room as the ceremony required of her.

Gin didn't know why, but when the Makura looked up to where he and Ryuu were, her body jerked as if in shock. He then realized the reason when they had finally removed the cover off her face as he had a similar startled reaction.

Shocked hazel eyes met with equally surprised chocolate ones that were beginning to glisten with tears. It was momentary, as Gin's ever-smiling face finally closed up, turning away from the most beautiful yet most hideous sight he'd ever seen in his life.

"Gin-nii, is there something wrong?"

Kazehaya turned to Ryuu, as his hand slipped inside his pocket where the hair clip was and gripped it tight enough to snap it in two.

"No," he told him with a small smile.

Ryuu's blue gaze however bored into his, prying, and he turned his gaze away from him as well, feeling guilty. For the first time in his life, towards the Koutaishidenka, Kazehaya Gin had lied.

"Nothing's wrong..."