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“She didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. All she did was tell the truth. Too bad she couldn’t handle the truth.”
Lumine turned the page to her self-written novel, a small excerpt about a lady who’s fallen in love with her senior, and wrote a haiku to confess her love. The twist, though, is that the love is unrequited. It was written with black ink in a small leather book, and Lumine was presenting it at the Grand Narukami Shrine with Paimon to Yae Miko and a few neighboring shrine maidens.
A plot that stabbed Yae straight through the chest, like a sharpened knife, prepared for a brutal end.
Lumine, on the other hand, was enjoying the experience. A visible smirk was plastered on her face.
“The young lady stood alone, with no one to turn to, aside from-”
Lumine’s words were cut off. Yae had snatched the book from Lumine’s hands, and had a strained expression on her face. Lumine was taken aback. She didn’t expect the usually calm kitsune to do something so aggressive.
Little did she know, Yae’s aggressiveness was going to be cranked up even further.
“Lady Guuji?”
Inagi Hotomi, one of the shrine maidens listening in, questioned Yae’s wellbeing.
“Is Miko ok?” Paimon whispered to Lumine.
Yae’s arms raised, book still in hand. In a swift motion, she swung the book forward, striking Lumine straight on the head. The smirk once on Lumine’s face has disappeared, instead being replaced by a wince, decorated with a throbbing head.
Everyone who witnessed it gasped. Yae tensed her body.
It’s ruined. Her image is ruined. The sly fox is no longer sly. The composed woman is no longer composed.
She has snapped.
Yae was overwhelmed with her conflicting feelings. With no sense in her mind, she sprints off, dropping the book and leaving concerned shrine maidens speechless in the process.
“Yae Miko…” Paimon muttered, concerned about the kitsune.
Lumine was positioning herself to her normal posture, her hand placed on her aching head.
“Maybe this whole plan went a bit too far,” Lumine sighed.
“You didn’t finish the story, travelor,” Paimon assured, “Surely if she heard the whole story, she’d understand.”
~~
~~
Yae Miko stood next to her best friend, Raiden Ei, the most powerful figure in Inazuma. Not only that, she just so happened to be Yae’s girlfriend.
Well… not yet at least. At least that’s what Yae thought.
Too bad there was no way Ei would feel the same way.
Yae gave Ei a genuine smile and unveiled a small piece of paper that contained a small haiku Yae wrote herself. She prepared herself to reveal her love.
Of course she was nervous. Not once has she become such an anxious woman, at least not in front of anyone else. She was nothing but a cunning, manipulative fox. But this was different. She has to show her true self.
Her true, vulnerable self.
“This is…” Ei’s words trailed off. Her face stayed expressionless, as she didn’t know how to respond to such a confession.
“Th-These are my true feelings,” Yae confirmed, trying her best not to stutter. She failed, obviously.
Ei stared blankly.
“True feelings,” she echoed.
Yae gulped. Surely she felt the same, right?
Ei’s eyes trailed to the ground, unable to respond.
No… she didn’t. She didn’t feel the same.
~~
~~
“Paimon, are you sure some of these word choices are… ok? Yae’s surely still healing since the incident.”
Paimon licked her lips as she wrote another sentence, peppered with truthful words about Yae’s rejection.
“You said we have to convince her to confess to Ayato, right? I just thought, maybe, revealing how clingy she is towards Ei will get her to release there are more fish in the sea,” Paimon smiled, “And maybe that one fish, destined to be with her, is Ayato~!”
Lumine registered Paimon’s words. She was hesitant, but she agreed. That sly fox will never get over Ei if she keeps sulking.
Being a close friend… er, more like a close acquaintance, to Yae, Lumine knows quite a lot about Yae. Not only her routines, but her deep dark secrets. One of those secrets is her crush on Ei, the other, her crush on Ayato.
Yes, Yae was somewhat of a hopeless romantic. Either that or she’s indecisive… or maybe both.
It was no surprise Yae went for Ei before anything. She’d known Ei for her whole life. They were close, at least after the ending of the Shogun. It took Lumine by surprise that she rejected Yae’s confession, though she would be lying if she said a small part of her didn’t see it coming. Ei never showed any sign of affection to Yae, at least not ‘I wanna be your girlfriend’ ones.
Then again, archons work in a mysterious way.
Attempting to cheer poor Yae up, Lumine and Paimon started to write a small novel with a main character that was basically Yae; cocky about her chances, but ultimately shut down.
The story ends with the main character getting together with someone else, all because she got over her rejection and kept moving forward. Coincidentally, Yae would never know of the ending, as she ran away sobbing before Lumine could read it to her.
~~
~~
That’s all it was meant to be; inspiration. A hopeful outlook on what’s to happen next.
Yae wiped away her warm tears, the scene still replaying in her head. Whether that scene was the rejection or the read aloud, not even she could say. Both were clouding any conscious thoughts she had.
The heartbroken fox was hiding in the outskirts of Inazuma City, by the shores and far away enough so nobody could see her pity party. Slowly sitting down against the soft sand, her back against one of the large rocks that decorated the scene, Yae sighed.
Her reputation is ruined now, she thought. At least when she was rejected, no one other than a few hands of people knew, but now she assaulted someone and ran away crying in front of her fellow shrine maidens.
“Oh my, I’ve found the runaway fox.”
Yae Miko let out a small yelp as she was startled by the smooth, invasive voice. She lifted her chin up, just to be face-to-face with who she wanted to be with the least.
Kamisato Ayato.
The man casually took a seat next to Yae, much to her dismay.
“Was the book really that bad? I found it quite charming, although written by an amature.”
Yae Miko’s face flushed. She knew Ayato enough to know what he was doing. Acting dumb to cheer her up.
Wearing a fake smirk, Miko responded, “The grammar was atrocious.”
Ayato gave a fake chuckle before his smile faded.
“Yae, was that story based on you?”
The question made her shiver. Of course he’d notice. He knew the cold-hearted woman wouldn’t cry over a book, unless it were for a very personal reason.
“Well…”
Yae tried thinking of a snarky response, but nothing came to mind.
Ayato hummed, “I see.”
He grunted while repositioning himself.
“That other woman in the book then, the one who rejected the main character, that must have been Ei.”
Yae curled her legs up, hugging her knees and not saying a word.
“How tragic. I’d assume you’re not over it considering the position you are in as of now.”
Yae contemplated whether she wanted to speak before deciding not to and only nod as a reply.
“Well,” Ayato smiled, “Spoiler alert, but the main girl ends up with some guy at the end.”
Yae’s eyes widened, the grasp on her knees tightening.
“Hm, I wonder who that character is based on…”
Her body trembled in anxiousness.
“So that’s what the story was written for. Not as a way to mock me, but to…”
Yae halted her thoughts. It was no time to be lost in her subconsciousness, as it was certain Ayato already knew the answer to his own question. She could do nothing but stare at Ayato, who then stared back with his signature soulless eyes.
“...What a shame.”
“Huh?” Yae muttered, finally letting out a sound after the silence she had been in for the conversation.
“I regret to inform you of this but I…”
Yae whimpered, she knew what were to come next. She was all-so-familiar with the buildup after the last experience.
“...Well, it seems you already know the answer.”
Without another word, Ayato got up from the ground and dusted the sand off his pants. He turned to Yae to give his goodbyes.
“This won’t put a dent in our already-established relationship, I hope.”
Yae did nothing but continue to stare into his eyes. The pain she had felt before had come back to attack her again.
“Um,” Ayato was starting to get uncomfortable, “Goodbye, Lady Guuji.”
He left, and so did Yae’s dignity.
She got rejected, twice. Embarrassing.
Yae continued to stare at Ayato as he walked away, his figure getting smaller and smaller as it disappeared into the Inazuman scenery. She placed her palms on the ground, fingers intertwining with the sand.
She wanted nothing more than to be consumed by said sand, dying, and being forgotten by the world. It would truly be a better fate than… this.