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Breeze, gust, gale. The wind.
You come and go, passing by
I can't grab for you.
Kazuha recently, has taken an interest to birds.
Lately, he’s been bird watching. But all he’s seen so far are sparrows and crows. So he decides to get to higher ground.
You think you’d see more birds in Sumeru, considering the amount of species that live here.
Perhaps he’s unlucky.
Recently, he bought himself a pair of half off binoculars, courtesy of one kind old lady at a street market.
He’s scanning around before he looks at the item — Miss, how much are these?
She turns her attention away from the other customer inquiring her.
Oh, my! Well, aren’t you a looker. Looking at those binoculars? They’re 10k mora.
Kazuha winces at the price — Ah.. I’m afraid I don’t have the money for that.
The old lady pouts her lips. — Well, we can’t have that, young man. Are you having a tough time financially?
She proceeds to rub her chin and smile — Since I’m feeling generous, how about a discount? 5,000 mora.
! Really? Miss, that’s half price though–
Don’t be humble. Just make sure to come back!
That lady was very persistent, he couldn’t seem to shake her off. Although with this now, he can see the smallest of birds from the highest of peaks.
At the top of the Akademiya, in the middle of Sumeru city. It’s a marvelous view, and the lush safari, green trees cover the nation for miles. He can even see the start of Aaru desert from up here.
He takes the binoculars of his pocket, and proceeds to zoom into different places. He’s used them before, but it’s been a while.
He focuses on a patch of blue. Maybe he’s finally gotten lucky. At first It’s hard to tell what it was.
But it’s not a bird.
It’s a hat?
The style appears to be Inazuman. He can see ribbons and dangling bells fluttering on it and a cape.
“Quite dangerous, being so high up.” It’s a person. They’re sitting, back facing from him on a tree branch. Probably 300 feet off the ground.
Kazuha can’t help but be a bit concerned. His eyebrow creases and he zooms in some more. But he doesn’t expect them to turn around, and stare right at him.
His eyes go wide and he almost drops the binoculars. Did they notice him from this far away?
Kazuha can’t see their expression, but they’re definitely staring right at him. He puts the binoculars down.
That’s when they jump.
Unveiled secret
An expression worn too much
I can't stay with you
He’s seen that man way too many times this week.
6 times, to be exact. Almost once a day. He’s everywhere.
He’s definitely being stalked.. But what would they want?
After that bird watching incident, Kazuha has been a bit antsy. At first, he thought the man had fallen to his death. He quickly made haste, and instantly alerted the people around him. But after authorities went to go look, nobody found a body around there, anywhere.
Either that man was a ghost, had somehow buried himself on his own, or grew wings and started flying.
A few days later, he went back to the akademiya. He didn’t want his binoculars to go to waste.. Nothing happened while bird watching this time.
Except he saw him, ground level after coming back down the stairs to the bottom of campus.
Kazuha stopped in his tracks to stare at what he can now identify as the person that should’ve been dead. He was crossing his legs, sitting on top of a roof. The strangers calculating stare could pierce through anyone's soul.
Kazuha’s heart stops. It was practically the undead come back living.
He regains his breath as if the wind got knocked out of him. He talks quickly.
“How-..Nevermind. Do you need somethi–”
“I knew it was you, Niwa.” He hears the man whisper, so quiet, but Kazuha can hear.
Kazuha stops talking.
Scratches his face.
Niwa ?
The mans smiles for a second before dropping it, waves as if it’s the most normal thing. flys away. Not even temporarily, like his chihayaburu, he actually flys away.
That was the second time he saw him.
He came back there the next day, saw him a third time, and the same thing happened. Met at ground level.
He tried to speak to him, but the man left whenever he approached.
And the other 3 times he saw him in places he normally frequented. Like the Cafe. Or the Bazaar.
He tried to confront him each time he saw him, but it always ended up with him fleeing.
It almost reminded him of a stray cat, coming back each time for food.
A bird, and a cat.
The cat is shackled by land
While the bird flies free.
Kazuha chokes.
“This coffee– ehemEUGH—is quite bitter.” Of course, this Cafe has been recommended to him by many, and lives up to its reputation.
An employee. “Isn’t it? It’s been seeping for a couple hours now.”
“mm.”
Anyways, he shouldn’t think of this like that.
This is no lighthearted matter.
What does the man want from him?
“I didn’t think it would be so hard to approach you.”
Dingding. Bells jingle. The cafe door opens.
“Hm. So, you’ve decided to come and talk to me now?” He expected this stranger was gonna be around. But didn’t think he’d be approached.
“Explain. What’ve you been doing?” Kazuha folds his hands together.
“I ask myself that question every day,” The stranger rolls his eyes.
“I don’t want to joke about this. Are you spying on me? Who are you working with?”
“I’ve heard about you from the traveler.” Question dodged.
“The traveler?” Why would this man be friends with the traveler?
“Say, I know this might be weird. But you’d believe me, whatever I say, even if it was utterly ridiculous. Right?”
Kazuha thinks for a couple seconds.
“It depends. What are we talking about?”
He leans in a bit more, as if to make sure of something.
“The resemblance is uncanny.” he smirks.
Somehow he’s now leaning over on the table, taking up Kazuha’s personal space.
Kazuha leans back into his seat. His curiosity is already getting the better of him.
“..Do I remind you of somebody? Niwa?”
He flinches.
“You heard me say that..? You must have quite the pair of ears on you.”
The stranger settles in, sits across from him. “Employee, get me a cup of coffee, too. What he has.”
The only employee jumps at the mention.
“OH, OKAY!”
..
“Who is he?”
“Just.. an old friend.”
The stranger fidgets with his glove, seemingly readying himself .
“I need you to hear me out. This may take a while to explain.”
“And why should I hear you out? You still haven’t answered why you’re bothering me.”
Kazuha looks at the man in front of him inquisitively.
The expression he has isn’t one expected.
...
“Alright. But first, what's your name? I’m Kaedehara Kazuha.”
He grunts. “Just call me wanderer. Or hat guy. That’s what most people call me..” The employee comes back with the coffee. A mumbled ‘thank you’ can be heard from the wanderer.
Cat sleeps, no worry
And the bird comes back to cry
You're alright. you're fine.
The next 2 hours is jumbling, confusing, chaotic, and everything in between.
It consists of debating, questioning, awkward silence and a horrible atmosphere that nobody should subject themselves to.
“I killed your parents' parents. I caused the Raiden Gokadens downfall.” Is how he started off the conversation.
Maybe Kazuha should clean his ears out. But his hearing is clear as day.
“What?”
“I killed off many. Some, your ancestors. It was…my own childish revenge. I know about the blueprints, and the way of Isshin art.”
Ah, revenge. Not many know about the Isshin art. A very select few do.
“Please, explain more.”
So he does. He explains things in detail, like the blueprint to make their katanas, confirming he does know something more than let on.
The wanderer starts to go more into detail about his bold claim.
“I was erased from history.”
“Erased from history..”
“Yes. I myself, found a way to erase myself from history. I thought I’d be gone, but I came back.” The wanderer sighs. “And NOW it’s allllll messed up. Have you heard about the killings from a blacksmith wanting revenge?”
He listens intently. nods. “I have, but I don’t remember well.”
“That was me. It was all me, at first. Since I erased myself, That blacksmith is basically now the placeholder for who killed all those men.” The wanderer covers his face with a hand.
As the wanderer continues to explain, Kazuha is, in all the ways you can say it, surprised. Bewildered. Flabbergasted. Shocked.
But what’s most surprising.. It is his pity.
“You must be quite old.. That incident happened a long time ago.”
“For humans, I must be. You guys have barely any time to live.”
The wanderer makes eye contact for the first time since they’ve started this conversation. He reaches for his coffee, which is lukewarm now.
“Anyways… er .. do you believe me? I’m telling you the honest truth, I don’t lie about this stuff. If you do, I’m all ears to what you want.” The wanderer holds his cup on the table, with both hands.
“..Although, I do find this hard to believe.” Kazuha scratches his face.
“I don’t think you’re lying. The way you talk about this.. It feels as if you’ve lived through it. You’ve also been very open to questions. Unless you’ve been tricked into thinking what you’re saying is the truth.. I believe you.”
The wanderers' eyes light up. “How about a duel, then? I understand, in your position—”
“There is no need.”
The wanderer deflates. "Excuse me ? Why?”
“I feel no need to take revenge.”
“Surely, you should feel some type of disdain towards me, considering what I’ve told you.”
Kazuha looks at the wanderer melancholy. “In life, we must learn to live and carry on. Though you’ve done those heinous deeds in the past, it’s already happened. And it is true that right now, I feel a bit nauseated by what you’ve told me. But that doesn’t mean that I’m gonna go to the same lengths to do what landed you up here. It does not help anybody in this case to inflict harm on you.”
“...I need this.”
“You must feel a consequential amount of guilt for what you’ve done. And you feel this will set things right?”
“This is not going how I expected. I want us to have a duel. Even better, you can stick your blade into my chest right this second.”
The wanderer lunges toward Kazuha, trying to grab his fillet blade.
Kazuha swiftly dodges and gets up out of his chair.
“I’m afraid I can’t give you that.”
“Come on. It’s just one, lowly puppet.”
“You won’t be content unless you can have a duel with me.”
The wanderer gets up now and nods, crossing his arms.
“We will be on equal footing, yes?”
“Yes! Come on, I’m getting impatient here.”
Kazuha frowns. “Alright. Follow me.”
The wanderer's eyes open up a bit.
he smiles, walking behind.
After 10 minutes of walking and another 20 venturing in the forest, Kazuha leads the other to an open patch, where nobody could interfere. They don’t talk before they get there.
“I want to make something clear.” Kazuha states. “I’m only doing this for your sake. After we’ve crossed blades, you must learn to be at peace with what you’ve done.”
“That’s quite the noble thing to ask.. Is that really all?”
“No, I don’t think it's noble at all. Why would I ask for more? I value the present most. We live for now, not for before.”
“..I see.”
The wanderer takes out his catalyst. Kazuha gets into position and readies his blade.
“I, Kaedehara Kazuha, accept this duel.”
“May you forgive yourself, Kaedehara.”