Chapter Text
“—And that concludes our financial report. I’d like to thank Mr. Migakaze for being in attendance today, I know just how busy your schedule must be.” A thin suited man spoke in front of a screen projecting several bars and graphs that would look like gibberish to the average person. To Takii though, they were as clear as a written language. A blurry written language.
“Mr. Migakaze?” A further pressing for a response got his inattentive gaze immediately turn to the man at the end of the long conference hall.
“Ah, yes. Good work as always, Gozo.” Takii Migakaze flashed his perfectly practiced smile at the man while cursing himself internally for almost having dozed off at a meeting, again.
“Well then, I’d say this meeting’s adjourned. And a thank you to everyone else for coming as well.” A third voice chimed in from the man seated in the chair next to Takii’s. He was an elderly man with a round face and kind smile. Mr. Andre Glacier. A man who had been with the company for decades, back when Takii’s father had only just started as CEO of Migakaze Heavy Industries. Though he had come from afar, he had taken quickly to the work ethic of the company, and had initially gravitated towards working for them due to the company image of Migakaze Industries, along with the many deeds they had done for the community and for their employees.
As the room cleared out save for Takii and Mr. Glacier, the blonde couldn’t help but think to himself how this man despite being his father’s senior still had a few strands of dark hair left atop his head, whereas his father’s hair had been as white as snow for as long as he could remember.
“Did my old man always have white hair?” He blurted out of the blue. His natural inquisitiveness had gotten the better of him yet again, a fatal fault of the Tiger was his perpetual nosiness. A good trait for a hero to have, but not so much for anyone you’d like to be friends with to have.
“That’s right. He was about your age when he first started working for the company, even back then he had the hair of an old man, and the soul of one too.”
“Good to know he’s always been like that.”
“Now now, even your parents were once children, Takii-kun. Look at yourself now, hardly the same carefree boy that first stepped in to this company.”
“That so? Say, you didn’t catch a hint of bitterness in that guy’s tone when he thanked me for coming, did you? I’m pretty sure he was being sarcastic.” Said Takii, changing the conversation as abruptly as he’d started it.
“You’re simply being paranoid. It’s quite natural for a CEO to be only barely show up for meetings, especially when they’re young such as you. I’m sure he just believes you’re the rich playboy type, living off the money earned by your parents.” Glacier replied.
His was a face that made it feel like you could tell him anything, and oftentimes he would remark to Takii about how on bus rides those sitting next to him would get to conversing with him. Be it a simple question or their entire life story, such was the friendly aura this man exuded. Even so, at times he could be exceptionally harsh, despite his appearance.
“Even though I’d rather that than he know the truth about what I’m doing, it still stings a bit to hear your assessment.” Takii grumbled.
“Mhm, this way they couldn’t possibly believe that their boss is secretly out fighting monsters when he’s not in the office.” Of course, as a trusted friend of both Takii and his father, Glacier had long since known the secret of the Migakaze. For a normal human to be privy to the knowledge of the world of Beasts was unprecedented, and it felt good to have someone to talk to who knew what he was going through, a fully ordinary human he could rely upon. It was enough to put Takii so at ease that he might fall asleep, or maybe that was due to the fact he’d been awake for three days? His vision gradually became blurry.
Rather, one eyes vision had turned unfocused.
Takii jolted up in his seat. He stared straight ahead, focusing on a patch of the white wall at the end of the room while Glacier looked at him curiously. Closing one eye then the other, he noticed immediately which eye was failing. He traced the scar which ran down the left side of his face and over his eye. That wound which had been given to him that fateful night where he’d lost a dear friend.
He had been foolish to think the only consequences from receiving a cut down his face would be a faded scar. In the months since the duel with the youkai Engetsu, his vision had been slowly deteriorating. Perhaps he could have seen a doctor, were he not so stubborn, but could they have done something to help him, when even his superhuman body that could repair even the gravest of wounds wasn’t able to fix his eye? The thought was chilling, and he was suddenly reminded of Shinsuke’s words. The man who spoke of mortality so frivolously, and now Takii could feel death encroaching upon him. A consequence beyond a measly scar.
“Takii-kun, is everything alright?” Glacier’s words brought him back to reality. Anxiety took him over, telling him to act before his vision got any worse. There was a million things to do, one of which simply couldn’t be done with impaired sight.
“Sorry, I have to step out now. Could you…?”
“Not to worry Takii-kun, I’ll whip up some excuse. Family affairs come first, and the Migakaze head surely has a lot on his plate.” Reassuring words gave Takii momentary ease before nerves were once again shocked by the immediate task ahead.
Yata no Kagami. It was the incident caused by that mirror which had given him this scar, his waning vision, and the loss of his dear friend. He had collected the fragments of the mirror bit by bit over the course of several months, but now the pressure to collect that final piece became all the heavier.
As Takii stepped out of the building owned by Migakaze Industries, he recalled the words repeated to him by his father over the course of his training. Even now he could hear them played clearly in his head:
“Find a way.”