Teacher Talk

Takeda tapped his feet repeatedly on the snow. He checked his watch; only five minutes had passed after his spar with Shin. Another five minutes passed until the soft scrunching of snow could be heard approaching Takeda.

“Hey Taku, did you wait for me long?” Satori approached Takeda with their usual smile, but Takeda only returned it with a frown. “What’s wrong, Taku? You look nervous. Oh, did you mean to…ask me out on a date? Ahhh, I’m not ready.” Satori continued to feign ignorance until Takeda responded to their antics.

“Satori, stop messing around. What did you do?”

“Hm? Whatever do you mean, Taku?”

“You know what I’m talking about… You encouraged Shin to use the Kishin to fight me, didn’t you?”

“Oh, you mean that? I only gave him a tiny push. Where’s the harm in that?” Takeda walked closer to Satori, towering over them. His shadow painted Satori’s face and the snow around them black as he spoke.

“He could’ve lost control. People could’ve been harmed or worse, killed.”

“But they didn’t, so there’s no harm, no foul.” Takeda gripped Satori’s jacket, slightly lifting Satori from the ground.

“Listen here, you piece of—” However, Takeda stopped himself. He noticed the shine of a blade in the sleeve of Satori’s jacket moments before dropping her on the snow.

“Really aggressive today, aren’t we, Taku?”

“Aggressive? What do you mean, we’re only having a tiny chat?”

“Good, good. ‘Cause for a second I thought we were going to have to fight, and I wouldn’t be a fan of going to dinner with bruises.”

“No, I’d never actually fight another Onmyoji… But don’t get in the way of my teaching, Satori, just do the job General Hyon assigned to you. Nothing more.”

Satori opened their eyes as they were about to speak, but they didn’t need their ability to see how serious Takeda was at this moment. “Aye, aye, Taku. I’ll leave the teaching to you then. I was just a little worried, after all, there isn’t a lot of time in a week.”

“What are you implying?”

“Nothing!” Satori said this with a smile before skipping to the front door. Then it was only Takeda in the snow. He exhaled a breath of white into his hand. He calmly walked in after Satori, tightening the fist in his hand.

I know there’s not a lot of time, but I need to make this work.