Chapter Text
Two steps forward.
The stinging that crawled down her arm could not be ignored. Yet Sara gritted her teeth and chose to pretend it wasn’t there. She needed something else to focus on- walking, she would focus on her steps.
One step.
Two steps.
She simply needed a few hundred more. She’d slip through the cracks and pull it all together before stepping out the next morning with no one the wiser. The dogs would lick up the remains before anyone stopped to take a look at what it was the animal was licking furiously at. Anything that dropped down to the ricemat below her feet would be scrubbed with that same ferocity by her own hands until it was no more clear if the mats were newly replaced or the same mats that had been there for ten years.
Five steps.
She looked over to calm waves that waded in and out along the sandy shore. The sound was nothing extraordinary. It was as it was every day. Nothing about it was exceptional- the water was not special even as the algae glowed in tandem with the moonlight. For that was just a natural part of the shoreline she had always seen.
Three steps.
One step.
One step.
Cool and stinging, that was how it felt as she splashed it against her arm. She cupped it in one hand, pouring it down to run over the gash. The water and sand beneath her began to hold a reddish tint, swirling around with each drip that joined it. Sara scowled and struck the water. The bloodied water spiraled away from her, losing its red color as the blue of the ocean overtook it.
She took up and began her trek back up to her home.
Three steps.
Two steps.
She stilled in front of the doors. The guards who stood watch- one who had left his post and was asking something that she could not clearly hear would need to be reminded of proper duties, she was sure. She turned down the steps and walked across the courtyard, picking up the creaking sound of the small rocks underneath her shoes. When the soft sound of grass replaced it, she looked up to the tree that reached out towards her bedroom window.
One step.
“H- Tengu-?”
One step.
“Oi- Teng-!”
One step.
“Kujou!”
One step.
“Sara!”
She took a step forward again- a misstep in her daze forcing her shoulder into the tree with all of her weight. She bit down on the inside of her cheek as she jerked back, gripping (clawing) at her gashed arm. The sound of voices suddenly filled her ears and in that moment she just wanted to go to sleep.
“What?” She rasped.
“Madam Sara!”
The voice of the guard is almost panicked. That was something she did not understand. There was no reason to panic. She simply needed to patch up her arm and then it would be well and good.
“Where the hell did ya go to end up like that-?”
New voice- Sara strained herself to remember who was there. Not a guard- who was it? She tried to focus on something. Horns. Oni. Arataki Itto.
“Why are you here?” Her voice was softer- no, it was as if she couldn’t even make her voice any louder than it already was.
“What the hell happened to yer arm!”
She can feel someone moving toward her. She stepped back- flaring out her wings before flinching and hissing out.
“You there! Go get someone who can heal or somethin’!”
“Uh- ! Right, of course!”
“...You gonna start talkin’ or am I guessin’?”
Sara gulped down another cup of water, savouring the cold liquid soothing her parched throat.
“Fatui.”
“They rough you up that badly-?”
“Cryo Gunner. Got my foot. Slipped down the mountain.”
She coughed out dryly, gulping down her cup a second time once it was filled. She had encountered one during a scouting mission. In the rain, the freezing ice fired at her coated her foot.
But then she slipped.
In her attempts to avoid the continuous onslaught, and to break off the ice coating her foot, she was certain she had done something wrong to her wings. Mangled and falling apart on one side, she could still feel the rocks grinding against them. And then her grip faltered- and the side of the mountain showed little mercy as it tore up her arm and left her stranded at the bottom. The only mercy it granted her was her life, and the Fatui losing interest. She dragged herself away from that place, silently letting herself be grateful at the mountain’s mercy.
“There-! All patched up.”
Itto had cleaned up her wound and wrapped it up tightly, setting back where the bones had become twisted out of place. She looked down at it. She couldn’t use a bow like this. She began to pull at it- she could not waste time not being able to train. She had to keep herself in top shape.
The hand that came on top of hers was an annoyance.
“I will not be held up by a simple injury-”
“Your arm is broken, Tengu.”
“It will heal.”
“Not if you try to use it when its still broken.”
“I have a duty to the shogun’s army. An injury will not be allowed to stop me.”
“Well-!” He paused as he got up to stop her from getting up herself- “What if the head of your clan tells you that yer required to rest!”
“He would do no such thing.”
“You’ll be resting until you are fully healed.”
Kamaji had never been exactly close with his adoptive sister. She was more alike to their older brother- a warrior at their very core. He had tried to be close, they were close in age after all- but Sara was always someone he could never get close to. It did not help it appeared any attempt was shot down by her stoic nature- though he would admit he didn’t think he ever tried very hard.
Which was why he shouldn’t have been surprised (though he was, extremely shocked in fact) when the one who came banging on his bedroom door and waking him in the middle of the night was someone of Oni blood. The very same that continually demanded a rivalry with his sister and created multiple disturbances.
Perhaps that was something he didn’t understand as someone without any inhuman blood- or perhaps simply as someone who was not a worrier at their core.
“I can not just rest during this time! I have a duty-”
“As the head of the Kujou Clan, I command that you are to be relieved from your duties until you are fully healed.”
He was not entirely sure if he could make such a demand. He wasn’t even sure he could command her- loyal to the Kujou clan she was, but orders from a father and clan head had a different weight than the orders from a brother and acting clan head.
“...I will still continue on a modified routine to my usual. I will not allow my training to slack.”
Kamaji wondered if she was really that different from a normal person to continue on even with the injuries she had. A person would like a break every so often right? From what he saw of her routine, she really had to be inhuman to want to continue it while injured. But- it was the only thing she said in opposition to the command.
And it was not as if the people around her would allow her to push herself beyond what she was capable of- not when one of them would wake up the entire household just to get him to make her take time to heal. Part of him was thankful to know she had such a good friend-
“We are not friends. We are…Rivals”
“You’re finally admitting it Tengu-!”
Kamaji decided he was never going to be able to understand his sister.
“Oi! Kujou Tengu! Wait up!”
Sara did not slow her stride, continuing down the path for her daily walk. He caught up all the same, a bulging bag in his arms threatening to topple over. She looked over briefly. Sweets. She could smell that much.
“Are you picking up treats for children?”
“Aha! I can’t always steal theirs.”
“You shouldn’t just eat sweets. It’s hardly healthy, and provides little energy.”
“Come on! Sweets are made to be enjoyed, not eaten like rice.”
“Sweets weaken the body.”
He didn’t say anything to that. He just walked alongside her with the bag. The smell was almost nauseating. She couldn’t understand why anyone would wish to let themselves fall off guard just for a simple food.
“Onigiri?”
“Huh-? Did you buy that as well?”
“Well, ye like that sort of food, right?”
She did. It was simple, quick, and easy to make. It could be eaten on the battlefield, off the battlefield. It was the perfect food. She looked at the piece offered up to her and stopped her stride to take it. If he bought it for her sake- it would be rude to refuse it after it went to the effort of getting it.
She took a bite, and stopped midway through her chew. Sweetness.
“This- this is sweet.”
“Yeah! Some guy was selling this sweetened onigiri, a new recipe and all that.”
“...”
Itto looked at her pained face with furrowed brows. “Are you okay?”
“I can not eat this.”
“It will cause me to lose my edge.”
“Haa-? Why would it?”
“Sweets make it easy to relax. I can not allow myself to slack off in any way.”
She didn’t loosen her grip however. It tasted good- but she could not let her routine be ruined just so she could indulge in something like that.
“Yer supposed to be resting- relaxing is part of that.”
Sara sighed. “No- I can not.”
“Oi, Tengu of Kujou. Are ya going to toss that or eat it?”
“That is none of your business.”
Sara had found herself eating the onigiri throughout the day. Small bites- out of her usual habit of eating everything in five bites only. Itto watched it play out and wondered if that was why she avoided sweets. She seemed to actually savor the food she was eating, instead of eating it and then being finished with the entire experience just as soon as it began.
“I’ll bring more tomorrow then.”
“You will do no such thing!”