|Forgone conclusion

The next day was like any other, he rose up for breakfast with the Ryugo family. He ate normally, trained normally, but the interactions were off. He couldn’t look her in the eye. This was painfully obvious when they were around each other, so obvious that Kirisaki had to postpone the announcement of the alliance between nations just so this issue could be sorted out. A rather selfish move but he saw it as a minor problem that could be sorted out easily, unaware of the deep roots hidden.

Shinji rounded up training in style, Setsuna was a mere spectator today but despite that, she cheered for him throughout the session which didn’t make things any better but moments like these were only important due to the sentiment involved.

“That form is beautiful.”

“It was my uncle that taught me. It was something he took pride in learning so he passed it down to me. Unfortunately, it’s still not perfected.”

“Wow, swords are really the most elegant weapon. Maybe it’s not too late for me to change my main weapon. Just kidding. Anyway, that form you just used goes well with mine.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, my battle stances focus on fluid attack and semi-penetrable defence while yours is light speed attack and quick reflex to compensate for your defence. We can help each other, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean by semi-penetrable defence?”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s an actual word.”

“Not that.”

“Oh, in this case, a defence that can only by penetrated by the very best offence. It’s not the ultimate defence but it’s pretty close.”

“I see. And, how will that help me?”

“How wouldn’t it? From what I saw,despite your speed, you are still open to attacks, some of them being unnecessary. You are merely compensating with your speed, meet someone just as fast as you or even faster and that’s the end. Didn’t he tell you that?”

“As I said, it’s still far from perfect. I try to improve it in any way I can.”

“So the first thing should be your defence, don’t tell me you’ve only been focusing on attack all these years?? That will get you killed.”

In Quesur, magic being the most popular concept you could find, brought about it’s own twisted rules. The most important rule of magic was that there were no rules at all. You could easily defeat other magic users by pouring magical energy around your body, enveloping it in an armour of sorts. Of course, some people did this and died the quickest. After all, it wasn’t like wearing bullet proof vests to a gun fight. Essentially, there were different ways to utilize magic, and all of them could easily get you killed if you didn’t know what you were doing. Magic all boiled down to percentage of the magical energy within and one’s mana manipulation. You could put 100% of your magical energy on your body; this was the most unconventional way of fighting, but it was often considered as suicidal. You could also distribute some to the weapon you are wielding. This could be in any given percentage, as long as the distribution was reasonable, it was strongly advised to use this. The last and probably the most popular was the casting method which involved reserving your magic for spells based on the elements you reacted to; in other words, mage-esque style. There was no general rule to be applied here, so an individual could pick their style based on what they believe could keep them alive the longest.

“You don’t need to say it like that.”

He rubbed his head as he looked the other way, slightly embarrassed.

“Of course, I work on improving my defence, it will be suicidal not to, but prioritizing two things at the same time is also suicidal, don’t you think?”

“I disagree. It’s common for people to think that but that doesn’t make it true. Once I learned that, I worked at both areas equally, and now, although I call my defence semi penetrable, it doesn’t mean just anybody can penetrate it, you know?”

“That’s just you. People are different.I don’t care about what methods I use, if it can grant me victory then I’ll be more than happy to stick to it.”

“You won’t get very far with that line of thinking, buddy.”

She flicked his forehead, nodding her head in disapproval.

“You still don’t get it, do you? If you can’t adapt, then warriors like you should not even exist to begin with.”

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

“For someone who is so obsessed with revenge, you really aren’t doing yourself any favours. Imagine going through all this training, all to die pathetically in the hands of your enemy.”

“Who told you about all that?”

“I asked Keiko a couple of random questions and used them to form a link. She technically did nothing.”

“Don’t act like you know me. You may look like her but you’re not Myra.”

“And who said I wanted to be like her, huh?”

“Just a friendly warning.”

His words were enough to receive a glare from the lady with “boisterous” as her middle name, though the glare was from both sides.

“If you want to shut me up, petty words won’t do the trick. You know what I’m talking about, right?”

His mind went straight to only one thing, a sparring match.

“I do.”

“Let’s see if you would be able to break my defence.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw her concluding her training session. Yoshida was her training partner today. Keiko hardly trained with others so this was definitely weird in his eyes. She caught his attention and now he found it difficult to stop looking.

“She was training?”

His fierce expression suddenly changed, Setsuna looked back, and turned to him, slapping her head.

“Go talk to her.”

“But we have--”

“I didn’t say anything about cancelling. Just go.”

He hesitatingly walked a few steps and went a few more after a startling push to the back. He found himself looking for reasons to avoid talking to her. “I don’t want to interrupt their conversation”.. “After training so hard, she’s probably heading straight to the bath,I shouldn’t disturb her.”.. “I don’t even know what to say, it will just come off as creepy.” These thoughts filled his head, he had never had trouble speaking to her but now, things were different. As he moved closer, she noticed him. Her fake smile attached as her lips moved.

“I didn’t know you were training.”

“I gave it my best.”

“Was Yoshida a good partner?.”

“Yeah….We trained together for a while, when we were kids. I just felt like it today, that’s all.”

“Keiko, uhh.. Could we talk in private?”

“I’m really sweaty so I’ll be going now.”

“It won’t take long, I promise.”

“What is it about?”

“It’s about yesterday.”

“Yesterday?? What happened yesterday?”

“You were in my room. Remember?”

“Oh, Shinji-san is talking about last night. I was just a little jealous. You and Setsuna are so close, it’s not that I don’t like it but…you know??”

--Nothing she said yesterday had to do with that.

“You’re lying.”

“Just forget it, okay?”

“No.. I don’t want to. I’m tired of hearing that.”

“?????”

“Why choose to ask for the impossible?? Excluding me from your problems, aren’t we supposed to be friends?”

“You really are an idiot.”

She walked away, similar to how Yoshida did. Was he that much of a terrible friend? Or was it that he just couldn’t see the bigger picture?

It was night time and as usual, Shinji was outside at his favourite spot, on the engawa, where the cold wind breezed past him and reminded him constantly of his loneliness. He stared at the stars but she wasn’t there beside him. It made the whole setting lose a little something. Something he couldn’t put into words. That missing element made him a bit restless. It had been 2 days since their last conversation. Ever since then, she had been holed up in her room, refusing to come out. Under the pretext of searching for inspiration for a new painting she randomly thought of. He had no right to approach her so he spent all his time dealing with the confusion by vigorous training. These two days have been a mess to say the least and there was really no way to fix what broke. He walked to the middle of the lit garden and stood there in awe.

“I might have found myself another beautiful spot.”

“It really is beautiful.”

“Setsuna??”

“That’s me. I also came out for a walk. I slept a lot during the day, that’s probably why I’m still up. Tee-hee.”

She pushed her hips to the side and made a v pose with her hands while Shinji crossed his arms in slight disgust.

“Please don’t do that again. It’s disturbing.”

“What part of me acting cute and cheery is disturbing??? Sheesh, dense guys are the worst.”

“What do you mean by that??”

“Whatever. Keiko is too busy with her ‘art’ to talk to me so what else can I do?”

“That’s my fault. I’ve never seen her that upset before.”

“Who was the one that hurt her?”

“Are you listening?”

“Of course. That is why I am asking you who hurt her.”

“I’m lost.”

“It wasn’t that difficult to see that you didn’t love her. I’m only surprised that the people around you haven’t noticed yet when it took me only a day. If you didn’t love her then that makes playing the blame game more fun. Was it you that hurt her or fate for putting the both of you through these circumstances or her parents for not noticing that the marriage would have been a failure? So many people but only one finger for one person so what do you think?”

“As I said before, I’m the one at fault.”

“For?”

“For relying on logic. This stupid custom of selecting the best partner would have been fine, but this time it involved her too. I tried to think of the most logical solution and the best decision. But sometimes, the best decisions aren’t always the right answer.”

“Serves you right. Gosh, you kids. This is no fairytale. At times, there’s no happy ending waiting for you.”

“I know that.”

“You sure? Doesn’t sound like you do.”

“I’m not an idiot. I knew this was going to happen.”

“Huh?”

“For the selection, I tried convincing her not to participate all together but her mind was already set from the beginning. Maybe it’s because I didn’t persuade her hard enough.”

“You’re not going anywhere like this.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Think of it like this. You want to cut down a tree. Instead of aiming for the roots, you decide to cut the branches one by one. That’s what you’re doing right now.”

“I see.”

“You see,love just can’t be explained by logic.You need to understand that. From what I see, it’s something that has been there, just hurting, over and over. Something that has been around for a really long time. You need to locate that and tackle it.”

“So I need to track back…”

“Yeah..Collapse and rewind.”

“Collapse and what?”

“Collapse and rewind. It means taking a moment to retrace your steps and move forward following the steps your past self made, with some re-adjustments, of course. It’s a popular concept.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Totally not made up.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Ughh you’re really being a smart ass right now.”

“Couldn’t you have picked any other name?”

“Like what? zero reset? reset life?”

“Those are terrible.”

“That’s the point!! Anyway, you really need to get this fairytale over with once and for all. Your people need a ruler, how long would Ryugo-san be filling in for you?”

“I know that.”

“Shinji….How do you feel about Keiko?”

His eyes widened to the question that he was hearing for the first time. No, that was not it. This simple question had been in his mind for a while. Appearing unannounced, filling his heart with guilt.

“I’ve been looking for the answer. No, the right way to put it.”

“So in other words….”

“Yeah, I don’t know.”

“You’re the worst..Scum, pervert, trash,playboy, loser, dumbass.”

“Dumbass?”

“So, you are admitting that you’re everything but a dumbass?”

“Of course not.”

“Guess there’s no helping it.From now on, I’ll be your sensei.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll be teaching you the art of love. I don’t believe in fairytales but I do believe in satisfactory endings so I’ll help you out.”

“You’re really unbelievable sometimes.”

That was why, in those moments, he never expected to hear those words.

“What do you mean by you want to cancel the wedding? This is all so sudden.”

“Father. I don’t love Shinji anymore. I thought of what would make me happy and this is the best option.”

“Make you happy? Why do you think I didn’t hesitate to pick you as the best candidate for him, huh?? This is unacceptable, Keiko.”

“I understand where you’re coming from but I ask that you understand where I’m coming from, too.”

“I’m trying to but this..This is a very selfish request.”

“Then what do you suggest I do? Tell me the best decision to make, Father.”

He took a deep breath. The tight grip he had on the table loosened as he took a moment to regain composure.

“How about you think about it some more?”

“As you wish, father. I will think about it for a few more days then I will give you my final answer.”

Keiko slowly stood up and walked away with her mother right behind her. She wasn’t the only one looking for answers but she was probably the best person Keiko could turn to at that moment. Yoshida, who was beside him, stared in disbelief. He stared at Shinji, grinning from ear to ear as he gave him a pat on the back.

“Perhaps it was meant to happen.”

“Don’t touch me.”

Shinji slapped his hands away and stared him dead in the eye. It wasn’t anger. It was regret. Yoshida didn’t form any resistance. After all, violence was useless at this point. In his eyes, he saw himself. He saw a Yoshida consumed with so much regret that it had eaten away his ability to smile. That was the reason for his grin. It wasn’t a mocking gesture and it also wasn’t a form of victory. It was a firm understanding of the situation which had taken place in front of him and he knew his role in fixing it.

“Yoshida, what do you mean by that??”

“Oh, that?? Maybe it was a brief glimpse of reality for Shinji. Father, if you excuse me, I’ll continue with my training.”

“Shinji,do not worry. I will resolve this issue as soon as I can so do not be disheartened.”

“You’re wasting your time.”

“Huh??”

“It’s already over.”

“Over?”

He managed to pull himself up and walked out of the room.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Ryugo was left puzzled by what had just taken place in front of him. The main cast of the act had vanished and the only people left were him and Setsuna who was engrossed in the apple offered to her a few minutes prior. She didn’t seem fazed. He slammed the table and lowered his head.

“So sweet.”

“I’m so sorry you had to see that. It is so shameful to have an outsider see such. Please pardon my foolish daughter. She seems ignorant of the customs and I will not fail to remind her.”

“Customs, huh? Aren’t those just getting in the way?”

“How many daughters have been disowned for attempting the exact same thing?”

“Heh.. Exactly my point.”

“Breaking customs shouldn’t be encouraged. I won’t go as far as disowning my own daughter but I need to convince her that she’s wrong.”

“Is she the one that is wrong or are you the one that’s wrong?”

“I can see why you would think that way but you can’t just fall out of love in mere weeks to the wedding. It’s shameful.”

“Fair point. This is just my advice but I suggest you and your beautiful wife stay out of this.No matter what you say, you won’t make her change her mind. All we need is a universally beneficial,spontaneous reaction and the one responsible will be yours truly.”

“I should leave her to you?”

“Yeah. This much is necessary to knock sense into a dense guy.”

“Honestly..”

He gripped his head slowly as she gave a thumbs up with a reassuring smile.

“So I have to put my faith in a stranger? Those two…. If that’s the case, then please…..make sure they sort this problem out…make sure they sort it out together.

“Got it.”