Akai stepped out of the hot shower, after which she finally felt relaxed enough to take some rest. She tossed herself onto the bed carelessly and was lying there frozen for a decent amount of time. Only her eyes were jumping from one detail of this room to another in pretty slow manner, as if they were searching for something interesting enough in order to lock onto it for much longer. Wooden ceiling, wooden ground, wooden table and wooden chair, everything was made from natural material causing the room to seem so simple, but cozy at the same time. This room was nothing close to the one Akai used to live in, when she was still at their Hyuuga mansion. Walls made of the finest stone, decorations covered in gold dust, best quality porcelain items resting on pretty much every surface, several servants trying their best to make every piece of it shine, these were the things she could recall best. And now there she was, a Hyuuga princess, lying on the hard wooden bed, being completely by herself, only several kimonos and yukatas, which she had bought earlier in the market street, and this inherited golden hairpin, were the last bridge connecting her to the quality of life she was used to back at home. However, the memory of an image of their mansion caused a feeling of slight disgust. Wealth was never something the red head sought for or found enjoyment in, especially when this wealth was used in order to cover the whole nastiness, which dwelled deep underneath it. After remembering certain events of the past, this simple room was becoming more and more comfortable for Akai. Be it made of wood, rock or even mud, as long as it is far away from her golden cage, it was totally satisfactory for her.


Shaking her head in denial of bothering thoughts, Akai pushed herself out of the bed immediately. She gazed at the clock, which caught her attention for a second there.”Midnight already.” Even though Akai was exhausted, the atmosphere was too noisy for her to fall asleep easily. The red head went by the window, leaned herself against the side of the wall and peeked outside. The room she was staying in was on the second floor of this building, which was located in the middle of the market street of Mount Ikkyu resort. The first floor held quite a popular bar, which caused the whole place to be very loud. Akai could almost hear every conversation, which would occur at the table down below her room. Most of those conversations were of drunken men; trying to prove their manliness to the squeaking women they had ordered company from.

Even though it was midnight already, while gazing outside the window, Akai saw that the street was crowded with people and it seemed as if a festival of some kind would be taking place. The street was decorated with red lanterns, which were glowing in the dark, putting the whole street under this dim light. The red head noticed that most of the people were wearing colorful yukatas, carrying red or yellow lanterns in various sizes themselves, buying all kinds of souvenirs or simply eating while enjoying their walk through the resort. Suddenly, Akai backed away from the window and grabbed the first yukata, which was resting on top of the wooden chair. It was a black one, rather simple looking, with some floral patterns on it. The red head fitted herself into it quickly and turned to head out of the room. She could not get any sleep anyway, thus it would be pointless for her to stay alone in this shallow room, when she could be enjoying the time outside by mixing herself into a crowd of strangers instead. Or deeper reason behind it was that Akai simply tried to avoid remaining alone with her own shallow thoughts, she needed some distraction and needed it fast.

After locking up the door, Akai went down the stairs and appeared at the bar. She was somehow disgusted by the image she saw there. The place was full of old, nasty looking men, who were drinking sake and shamelessly groping young girls, who were sitting on their laps, lighting up their cigarettes. This image was something Akai had not seen in her life, as she grew up in this very formal and of closed circle environment. No one from her family line was allowed to visit such places and in case men needed to have some manly fun, they would organise their own party demonstrating their splendid taste for luxury. Akai remembered seeing some of the girls in her mansion, but at that time they looked like a royalty of some kind and she mistook them for someone’s wives or sisters. Only later she got to know that those were the women who came to entertain Hyuuga men.

Trying to make her way out of the bar, Akai felt a tight grip onto her hand pulling her to the side at the same time. Hey, sweetie, compared to how much we payed for you, you kept us waiting for too long, don’t you think? Now be a good girl and do your job!” She turned her gaze to her hand and followed the one which was holding a tight grip of it slowly, right up to the face of that person, whose hand was squeezing her own. Akai found a nasty face of drunken man, arrogantly staring at her, with three more similar faces supporting the stare. She pulled her hand out and squeezed it into a fist, which immediately appeared hitting the man’s nose pretty badly. ”Keep your disgusting hands to yourself, you bastard! You're disgusting!” His nose started to bleed and he shouted in reflex, other three were trying to stand up and give Akai a lesson, though they were too drunk to make at least one stable move. The read head looked around as the place got so quiet all of the sudden. As it appeared, she caused a scene and now everyone’s attention was drawn to her and this unlucky bleeding man. Soon after some woman came running to the table, mumbling something like „this was not the right girl”, “they’re my best clients here” and “are you insane, what is wrong with you”. Akai understood that it was a mistake to get so hot-headed, especially for someone who was in a situation when keeping a low profile was the matter of life and death. The only way out of this mess was to disappear without getting herself deeper into the process of making explanations.

Once the red head got outside, she mixed herself into the crowd of people, who were taking their walks in the street. Seeing that no one exited the bar, she took a deep sigh and felt the whole pressure vanishing together with the oxygen she breathed out. Her body loosened up a little and Akai started looking around the stalls, hoping to find something she would like to buy. Nothing seemed to catch her eye, however, after some time spent walking, the red head saw something interesting in the horizon. There was a tiny pond, with a narrow bridge crossing it and a couple of people standing on it as well. The pond was full of lit lanterns, making it look even more magical, than the market street was. Only now Akai figured that it was already past midnight and most people had already lit up their lanterns, as well as released them to carelessly float on the water or fly up in the sky. It was an old tradition practiced during festivals. One supposed to think of a wish before releasing the lantern and after it was done, the wish was considered to come true for sure.

However, the time for releasing lanterns had already passed and those couple of people on the bridge were only admiring the magical view. Even though Akai knew that she already missed her chance, she went to the stall with lanterns and bought two for herself. One was meant to be released on water and another one into the sky. ”In my type of hardship, I probably need double luck.” The red head giggled to herself and after grabbing both of bought lanterns, she rushed onto the bridge. Akai stood there for a minute or so, gazing at round paper items in her hands, simply trying to figure out how to light them up. After noticing a tiny piece of thread in the middle of one lantern, she assumed that it works just as simple as a candle. However, Akai had no source of fire with her. She threw her gaze to the side attempting to ask the same couple of people she saw before getting onto the bridge herself. Perhaps they had any lighter or matches at least. Though the couple was in the middle of passionate kiss and Akai turned her gaze away immediately, feeling as if she would be disturbing them even by simple gaze. Due to the embarassment of seeing two people kissing, a slight blush appeared on Akai's face.

After looking around and finding that she was nearly alone on this bride, the red head leaned her body against the rail and gazed down at other floating lanterns. She imagined that other people’s dreams were dwelling within each of those flames and as long as the flame kept burning, the dream existed. The longer they were burning, the more luck they brought for the dreams to come true. ”Yeah…so much of my luck. Ended without having a chance to begin.” Words of disappointment escaped her mouth while squeezing her own lanterns in hand. Akai bit her lower lip without even feeling it as if she would be trying to get rid of this feeling of bitterness. Suddenly, the urgent desire to put all of those tiny flames out got awakened somewhere deep within Akai’s self. ”Silly people with their silly dreams.”

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WC 1686

Akai was still wandering through the depths of her mind trying to find at least one way out of this anger and disappointment, which had shadowed the moment that supposed to be the new start for settling down within herself and accepting the idea of upcoming existence in complete solitude. Though after going through every corner with various memories of different events, she could not find anything that would comfort her at the moment, or at least give her the needed amount of hope in order to save her from the agony she was feeling. Soon enough after exams would be over, everyone she met would be heading back to where they belonged and she would remain completely alone again. The delusion that solitude was something that she could live with was not good enough anymore. Reality denied came back to haunt. Without even noticing it, Akai squeezed the paper lanterns even tighter, to the point where they already lost their original circular form and became just like mere creased sheets of paper. As if the dream they were supposed to carry would be like some bad ideas written on the paper before and trashed away immediately after, without being given a chance to be read and evaluated.

Fortunately, soon enough the read head was saved from her slow self destruction as unrecognizable male voice approached her with a comment to the previous words she had accidentally mumbled due to being carried away by unnecessary emotions. This voice was coming from the side of the bridge and Akai peeked in response to see who the owner of it was. Even though she could hear the steps getting closer very clearly now, she was still not able to see the complete image of the person, only the fragmented figure was getting clearer with each step. The first thing Akai had noticed was the black attire the person was wearing, though due to the dim light reaching solely several spots on the bridge, the figure of his somehow seemed to blend in with the scenery of the night time. In the end, the whole image still remained a mystery to her.

Thinking about what was told before, the comment this man made was directed at those lanterns the red head was squeezing, and only now when he pointed it out, Akai lowered her head down to gaze at her hands. She suddenly realised how deformed in shape those lanterns had become and because of her tight grip, how several blood vessels could be seen popping out on her skin. At that moment the woman imagined how stupid she should have looked from aside. She somehow accepted those words as a simple laugh at her, interpreting that this was the main thing which caught the man’s attention onto her, as well as the main intention for him to approach. The same feeling of needing to defend herself, just like the one in the bar, suddenly appeared, however, with restraining herself from answering anything impolite and going hot headed again, she directed her thoughts towards wondering about when the man had noticed her, as well as how could she not notice his presence more earlier than now. If Akai would continue to space out like that, she could get caught very easily any second. Knowing her own situation well, the woman made an instant promise to be more concentrated from now on.

Now as Akai found her previous chain of shallow thoughts to be interrupted, she started to consider this turn of event as a positive one, like a distraction in order for her bothering feelings to be put at ease. Even if it was for one night, it would do. While the whole sentence was finished completely by the man, ending in what appeared to be a cliché thought about dreams to Akai’s thinking, she still kept silent and witnessed him appearing closer to her. Even though their gaze would not meet yet, because of him gazing down to the water, she was letting her eyes scrutinize the man’s appearance in curiosity anyways. Normally, Akai would not do that, because she was nurtured to behave all politely in every situation. A word, a bow and even a gaze, all of it was taught to be a mere formality, very strictly limited and controlled. However, no one was observing and evaluating her behaviour now, even if mistake would be made, she would not get scolded for it, thus Akai got a boost to her confidence all of the sudden.

Thus, the red head started her investigation from the hair, which were silver in colour and made her assume that the man might be local here. Though Akai already made that mistake once and she would not dare to let herself assume wrong again. Or at least she would not express it as directly as she did before. Then there was the attire, consisting of completely black clothes, barely revealing any parts of bare skin. Continuing to trace her eyes through the unknown figure, she ended up onto the man’s face, which seemed rather pale in complexion. Pale skin coming together into one picture with that black clothing gave Akai somehow a demonic feel to what she was seeing in front of her. However, the last missing piece to this puzzle was the eyes. They were considered to be the sole source of most valid information about a person. Unless, this person would be a Hyuuga, because the lack of the pigment in their eyes made them almost unreadable, if well controlled. Even though, Akai was all lost into thinking and observing every detail of the stranger standing beside her, she still managed to let out a silent response to the words being said regarding the dreams.

“There is nothing wrong with dreaming, huh? Dreams are exhausting. To the point when the death itself becomes the most desirable dream.“

These words came out in a silent whisper as if they would be meant more to herself, than anyone else around. Akai did not expect the man to hear them though as it seemed to her if he would be concentrating on finding a comfortable position on the bridge near her at the moment. How else the red head could have explained the fact that he had not looked at her yet. She had been piercing through him with her ghostly white eyes since the second she saw him, though he did not even threw a single gaze to her side. Akai was kind of confused about what this man wanted from her and why he approached her in the first place. Why he would not introduce himself or at least look? How could two people talk with each other without even making any eye contant? In the end the chain of questions in Akai‘s head settled on one. Was he playing some game here? In that case, let the game begin.

Soon enough Akai witnessed the man speak once more. It wasn‘t an itroduction though. Actually, a question this time, and rather odd one, inquiring about some silly kiss she had no idea about. For a second there Akai was feeling lost about what kind of kiss did he mean, as she had been already distracted from the people who were passionately kissing each other in the background of this place. That view was long gone out of Akai‘s head, because now she had a much more interesting picture to gaze at. Though thinking about it thouroughly the woman finally realised what kind of meaning was behinf that question. If he saw her from afar already, he could assume that she was observing th couple the whole time. As soon as Akai realised the wrong of the whole situation, she wanted to speak out and deny that the reason she would be out of that bridge was that particular kiss. However, her attempt to speak out was posponed by the gaze this man threw at her. Suddenly Akai cought a pair of ebony eyes looking at her. She find them to be somehow mysterious and the whole image of this man now was complete to her, giving some kind of a tempting or even sinful feeling. This gaze changed Akai‘s attitude completely and she felt the boost of conficende flowing into her mind and body.

Well, as the woman finally caught the man‘s gaze, it was about the time to give an answer in this the game. Feeling those ebony eyes onto her, Akai felt the adrenaline rush to her head. She turned around and leaned her back against the rail of the bridge. Then the red head made a significant curve out of her body in order to adjust it to the supporting part of it. “Oh. You mean THAT.“ She tilted her head gracefully to the side, reffereng to that passionate couple still concentrating on theirs own intimate things in the background. Akai chuckled for response and curved a playful smile on her lips. Still gazing at the couple, she continued to speak in a playful voice.“Simply annoying. The are more interesting ways to enjoy the festival.“ Akai tilted her head back, as if she would want to gaze at the starring sky. Then she streched her neck lightly and slowly bruhed her hair strands away from it, leaving the skin completely open there. Akai did not stop though, she feathered her hand down her silky yukata material slowly as if she would be fixing some invisible mistakes there. All of this ended up into the direct pierce to a pair of ebony eyes. “And you. Are you enjoying the festival?“

Akai put an emphasis while pronouncing the word „enjoying“ as she herself was indeed enjoying her boost on conficence  now. The whole time, a flirty smile lingered on her lips and as the last word was spoken, she bit the lower one due to having the habit of doing so. In the end, Akai did not inquire about his name, where was he from, nor did she provide any information about herself. All of that just seemed too boring for the time being and not really necessary, because here, out in the darkness, in the company of a stranger, Akai felt that she could be whoever she wanted. A whole different person.  She was not sure whether it was because of the night time, or because of the temptation found in man‘s eyes, but an inner devil was awakened from the deep withing this woman‘s body. And it was craving to be let out to play.

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WC 1776 + 1686 = 3462

Akai was leaning against the rail patiently following the man‘s figure from the corners of her eyes. When the word maiden escaped from his mouth, Akai centered her gaze straight to him and rose her eyebrow in question. It made her assume, that this silver haired person might have much knowledge in that field and it made Akai chuckle in her mind.“Is that so?“ The woman posed a simple question and it seemed as if she wanted to add something more while parting her lips, though she restricted herself from both denying or agreeing with the man‘s remark and sealed them again. In the presence of a stranger, Akai could be whatever she wanted to be, because the seeing between two stangers was not shadowed by prieviously formed expectations. Answering particular questions and revealing particular information could create the space for expectations to appear. Simply said, carefully analysed information could give knowledge about what kind of beharior one could receive from a person, which would destroy the full enjoyment of the mystery.

Soon after, the red headed woman was granted one more reply to her last question about the festival, which appeared that the man did not know of being held. Though, Akai simply took it as if he would be mocking her, thus she did not take it so seriously and had no other reply to it, but just a friendly chuckle. The man did not stop speaking, Akai witnessed him turning his eyes away while at some point explaing what she understood was his type of enjoyment. However, the gaze went away only for a second or so and returned to meet her own with the finishing part of the sentence, which sounded kind of playful for her. Since the first second he came here on the bridge, Akai could not get rid of the feeling that he was playing some mind games with her. Though, she also had a feeling that he might have understood her wrong as by annoying she meant not the whole process of kissing. Being too filthy in front of others was what caused her irritation before. On the other hand, in that case if the man exactly knew what she meant, it would mean that he tended to find great enjoyment in physical intercourses no mater of space and time. This kind of information could have a disturbing effect on any person, though Akai perfectly understood that every person is just mere human to his primary essence, who find the joy in the very process of granting his essential needs, including Akai herself. The red headed woman threw her gaze to the horizon and returned it back with a new fresh glow in her eyes. “Not that different as you might think.“ She made a simple remark which was not meant to be commented any further.

Due to the absence of proper boundaries defining where the eye pupils in that round and almost snow white territory were, it was rather hard to figure out the exact spot at which the Hyuga woman would be gazing. One must possess a really sharp eye to be able to see and follow the slightest shifts of her gaze.  At the moment it seemed that she was generally looking at the man‘s face as a whole, which at first might have seemed as if it would be carved into stone, unmoved for ages. The reason behing this was that the presence of any more significant facial movements there seemed to be quite absent. Though, even if her gaze might have looked like a simple one, Akai was secretly scrutinizing every feature of this man‘s face. Having a gift of exquisit seeing, the woman was  actually able to grasp the dynamics of it, consisting of the tiny rise in the corners of the lips, slight rise of the eyebrow or even the brief shifts of the gaze in his ebony eyes.  However, these little momevents were not even close enough to allow Akai to get any clue about what the unknown man would be thinking in his mind or how he felt regarding the situation. Even the words he would emit, did not seem to match or at least affect the ways of his slight expressions, which left an impression that his thoughts or the way he felt had to be kept only for him alone to know. That caused no astonishment for Akai, they were complete strangers after all . In the end, even with her full concentration and attention, the man‘s body language still remained unreadable for the Hyuga woman, maintaining the same thrillng feeling of the mystery surrounding him.

Secrectly following the man‘s face, Akai slipped on the slight swing of his chin, which made her automatically turn her eyes to the direction it attempted to point at. This, of course, gave her away. Now the fact that the woman had been putting an effort to figure out his thoughts through his facial movements could be easily noticed by him. It somehow felt that this was kind of out of nowhere at some poit, thus the woman interpreted this as some kind of distraction thrown at her by this man. Perhaps he did notice her continuing stare even earlier than expected and wanted to give it a rest. Akai on purpose lost her concentration just for a minute, in order to keep her gaze on the fresh target for a little longer, so that it would not look as if she was solely interested in this man. Akai simply wanted to express, that she was also aware of the environment they were in. Even though it was only a part of pretend game. The view of which the man spoke while swinging his chin and which Akai‘s gaze was now locked on, consisted of many people gathering around the lake, all of them admiring the beauty of lit up lanterns, which were still floating on the water or high up in the sky. Even though it was nightime, which had caused the feeling of some sort of serenity in the atmosphere before, now was completely corrupted by the touch of human beings. They had turned it into rather noisy and chaotic atmosphere, which caused this irritating feeling for the woman. Not only because her concentration on the man was interupted, but also her own mind became disturbed again. It could be said that after the previous attempts to pretend, Akai returned to the same place where this man found her half an hour ago. The inner demon which wanted to be let out to play was now put to sleep again, but the old one returned and took his place. This one was not playful all, it rather liked to act from the shadows, hide himself, which made him darker and more tricky.

Seeing all those people whether in pairs or surrounded by their families, it seemed that they were all stuck in the moment of pure happiness, without any knowledge about how many cruel hardships the life could one day pose upon their fragile heads. First of all, Akai observed every family with their chirdren, then her gaze quickly went trhough the lovers in pairs. Even though both she and the man were standing on the bridge in the middle of the lake, which basically meant in the very heart of the whole event, standing higher created quite a distance from the bunch of look-alike admirers surrounding the lake area. Dressed in black and not having this overflow of excitement in their faces, they seemed like two separate human beings obviously differing from the whole crowd, creating an impression that they both were not participating in the event at all. Seeing all of it from the position of an observer, Akai experienced some kind of dejavu, leaping back through time in her messed up head. The woman remembered, that the last two times she was at this festival, were in her homeland, one with her family and the second one with her lover. The memory of the later one left the feeling of strong nostalgia and longing in Akai‘s mind, thus, the most wise decision was simply to shoo that memory away. She would not want to get too upset and burst in tears in the presence of this stranger here.

To her most surprise, even though she was experiencing what appeared to be the same event again, it would be completely wrong to call it dejavu. The festival had a whole different meaning to it now. It solely showed how much things could change through the very short period of time. The red-haired woman had no family by her side anymore, was standing not on the grounds of her roots and had no one dear to share the euphoria of being surrounded by the beauty of so many lights. Akai was starting to regret letting her thoughts wander through the past for too long as one particular memory returned into her  mind. It was the main one she was trying her hardest to forget, the most disgusting memory that rested in the depths of her soul, waiting for the right time to return and haunt the woman for the rest of her existance. In response to her own thoughts, a big wrinkle appeared on Akai‘s forehead making her expression look bitter, as if she would have eaten a bag of sour lemons.

Suddenly, a bright image of herself appeared in front of her eyes. She was in her years of sixteen then, was simply sitting in front of the mirror and observing how her mother was brushing her hair. Even then it seemed so strange to Akai, that only for this one evening, so many people from their household had put much effort into her look. Though, the mother‘s face was kind of in fragments, not that she would not remember how her mother looked anymore, just that she had some kind of sad expression then, which was not like her at all. In a few seconds, this picture vanished and a new one appeared. Now Akai was standing in the middle of the festival, all dressed up in such a luxury gown, that was specificaly bought only for that evening. Her father was standing by her side, and her one year younger brother by another. Akai‘s mother was not there though and it also was another important sign, which Akai was too slow to figure out.  

Then the picture of them three standing in the middle of the event slowly changed into an image of the man. Akai‘s father simply introduced him as Uncle Kitayama. Though he himself would always name him Lord, which meant that this man had a higher position than her father did. To what Akai remembered, Uncle Kitayama seemed like every Hyuga one could meet. Raven black hair going down right to where the shoulders start, ghostly white eyes, calm and almost emotionless expression on the face. He seemed to be somewhere around his forty‘s at that time, though he seemed rather simple, did not hesitate to talk with Akai and even took her separately to the stand in order to treat her with ice-cream. So called Uncle would once in a while brush against Akai‘s hair, never getting tired of being surprised about how she came into this world with such an exquisite hair color. Even the syrup of the ice-cream he had chosen for her was the cherry one, which was a perfect match for her hair. Going through her own behavior, Akai remembered being very calm or shy at times, though she was really happy and enjoyed the event silently then, whether it was in the generous company of Uncle Kitayama or her own father, who seemed to be quite satisfied and attentive that night. Most of the times, everything held an official matter for her father, even those visits to the festivals hid the purpose of getting some kind of profit. Sometimes it was like establishing a new valuable connection or landing a great deal while showing himself off as a family person, as moral one, who would get himself into the personal, of close proximity space with his potential partners in village bussiness. However, what caused Akai the most happines, was that she saw her father transform, become whole different person that night. Everyhting he would say or do then involved Akai, even so that she was starting to think that her father was finally opening up to his family.

As much as her mind wished to stop at this point of bright memory and forget the rest of it, it was not up to her powers anymore. The other part just forced its way violently into the woman‘s head. Now came the moment where it all turned into complete darkness. The next thing Akai remembered was her little brother storming into her room, suddenly pushing her onto the bed, placing himself on top of her and snaking his pale arms around her fragile neck. The expression which Akai saw in his eyes that night was that kind of evil she had not seen before and probably will never see in the future. His gaze was full of harted and he was growling at her with his salive dripping down on her face, looking like if he would be possessed by some kind of an evil spirit. Akai remembered herself lying frozen and speechless, with no strenght in her arms to push him away, as the last energy she had was consumed while falling into this shock state. The only thing that rung in her mind was that her own brother was trying to strangle her. He kept shouting these words at her, which now came only in fragments. They held the meaning of something like him being happy that Kitayama would finally take Akai away, that he would finally get the parents‘ attention, that he would be happy even if his sister died. At that time, all came to realisation for her. Akai suddenly understood the source of father‘s happiness and generousity this night. Why her mother did not come. Why her brother was acting the way he did. Each question received an answer in that brief moment of truth. Akai knew now that back there at the festival her father was actually not transforming at all, but simply became even worse by landing the most important deal in her life. That her mum was probably crying the whole night at home, not wishing to witness it happening. And for the brother, he was completely hearbroked that he did not receive enough of the love he in fact deserved.

After reaching its peak, the memory started to pose a stonger effect on Akai‘s mind and she felt a painful twitch in her head, like it would be pierced by thousand senbons. Following the reflex, the woman closed her eyes and her eyebrows twitched for several times. She felt so disgusted by that memory. There were no such expression in the world, which could at least partly illustrate the level of disgust Akai was feeling. If there would be one, it would be worse than the very painting of Dorian Gray‘s portrait of his tainted soul. Akai somehow forgot for the moment about the environment she was in and the presence of the unknown man‘s gaze, who had probably noticed that something was wrong, but with her keeping silent, only some signs of a headache could be noticed from her face. Trying to get rid of an uneasy feeling, Akai soon remembered that the man spoke of something before her little mental travel throught time. She opened her eyes to the stranger and withouth having much to think about an answer she might give, simply spoke of her experience.

“That‘s not something I could enlighten you with. I never had that.“ With the last word emphasized, Akai swung her chin to the side, pointing to all of the people who were enjoying the festival both in families and with lovers down the bridge. Even though the man‘s voice seemed more like he would be wondering to himself, Akai felt the need to agree and admit, that he also got her to wonder. Though even the woman knew that the man had another meaning in his remark, the question Akai wondered about was what would have felt like to have all of that these people were having there. However, she bit her lip immediately in order to stop herself from going back to the same dark palce again.

Suddenly, Akai felt a grip onto something, which must have grown into her hands during the whole time spent on this bridge. She gazed down for a moment and saw some pale fingers pulling the red lantern out of her tight hold. Even though Akai did not act on the edge and simply did nothing about it, she still could not pass it though her fingers and just had to at least make a mocking remark directed at this man’s rather childish behavior. ”Taking things which are not yours to take, huh? That’s a really bad habit.” After he pulled the lantern out of Akai’s hand, she let her hand loose immediately, hesitating to interact on the touching level. While carefully listening what the man had to say, Akai crossed her both hands on her chest and tilted her head to the side just a little. At some point the woman expected it to be an explanation of his behavior, though they were simple words asking what such a lady could be doing alone in such a place. The question distracted and cheered Akai up for a little, as if the man would have figured that she was feeling uneasy. In response, Akai curved a playful smile and spoke of an answer immediately. “I‘m not alone. You‘re here, aren‘t you? Or. Are you telling me I should consider you of no company at all?“ Akai granted the man a brief wink as he was the one at fault of this little mocking of hers. The next question that soon followed was if she was going to light up those lanterns or not. It was her main purpose why she had come to this bridge in the first place after all. However, hearing the man speak of the later part of the sentence, Akai felt as if she would be challenged. The woman assumed that the game must be still on, thus, there was no way she could resist such a challenge now.

Akai was thinking for a moment how she should light up those damn lanterns without having any fire at her side. Of course she figured, that she could ask this man if he had a lighter, but then it would mean she had to rely on other people again and the promise she made for herself did not involve so much of that activity anymore. However, suddenly the woman remembered something of great value in this situation. She curved a devilish smile on her lips and took a step forward to this pale figure she was gazing at. It seemed as if she would be heading to do something wicked as her eyes emitted that kind of shine out of them. Her eyes were piercing through these ebony ones the whole time and after stopping at a distance of some inches away, she placed her hand on the lantern. After pausing for a second and throwing a determined gaze, Akai pulled it hard to herself as if she would be confirming that nobody was allowed to take anything from her on their own accord. Feeling the paper material back in her hand again, Akai completely turned her back to the man and moved herself approaching the same couple in the background, who were still so much into themselves like they were when she came. However, then the woman seemed kind of shy to even peek at their private moment, but now, her attitude had shifted once more. She shamelessly approached the couple by startling them as they were caught in their moment by her. Akai did not even mind to pat the man on his shoulder, to get his attention to her, as at the time she stepped by them, they were too concentrated on cuddling each other, so that did not even had the time to notice a stranger nearby. From afar, some significant fragments could be noticed indicating what she was doing there, like Akai’s lips moving, the man getting his hand into his pocket, the woman clinging to his side, all red in cheeks, gazing down shyly. It could be seen that the man gave something to Akai and the moment she reached with her hand to take it gracefully, she turned to move back where she came from. The couple was still gazing in surprise for a while, probably thinking how rude or disturbing Akai’s behavior was. Though, the woman could not care less.

Akai gracefully returned back to the silver-haired stranger, having some natural swing in her hips. She raised her hand, the one with the red lantern in it, threw brief gaze at the man and parted her lips to speak. ”Well, if a man is going to try, he must go all the way. Otherwise, he shouldn’t even start. Don’t you agree?” By posing a rhetorical question at the end, Akai raised her other hand with the lighter and ignited it. The same moment its flame and the red thin paper collided, resulting in it catching on fire immediately. She did the same with the second lantern she was holding. The woman supposed to light up the small knot secured with candle wax inside the round paper figure, though instead of it, she lit up the paper part. They were starting to burn faster with each second and Akai’s eyes followed the flame, which was eating those lanterns quickly by shedding each burnt piece away. All of the pieces seemed like leaves made from ashes. As Akai was carefully observing everything, almost white eyes had a very clear reflection of this flame inside them, which might have looked rather scary in this dim light of the nighttime. Her whole expression seemed spiteful in some ways as well. Akai was actually smiling, which gave the impression as if she would have found great enjoyment in the view of the flame completely destroying the lanterns. When solely a tiny piece was left on her hands, the flame was starting to burn Akai’s skin and even though she considered it to be disturbing, she patiently waited until most of remaining pieces would be eaten by the fire. Then the woman put her lips into an “o” and gracefully blew away the two remaining burning miniature parts into the air. In the end, after granting the observers with the last burst of light, the last piece of things, which once had taken the form of lanterns, disappeared into the darkness completely. In response to pulsing pain, Akai gazed down at her palms and found their skin to be red, slightly damaged by the fire.  Reflecting everything that she was feeling at that moment, Akai spoke in her calm voice.

“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things; they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely. Though, we people, nevertheless being completely consumed, tend to hold on to them tightly anyways. Because only in the face of death, we are able to feel the purest feeling of living. However, a thing is not necessarily true just because a man dies for it.” With this remark, even though she might have appeared as extremely easy to distract, Akai proved that she still had not forgotten the subject they started from - dreams. She personally found enjoyment in considering these kinds of topics as they were on way deeper and intellectual level than most of things wayfaring strangers normally talk about.

While taking a tiny pause, Akai used it to change her body position. She loosened up her muscles and placed her elbows on the top of the rail, leaning to the front and gazing down to the water. It had its own slight movements, which had some kind of hypnotizing power in it. Just only from gazing at the water, it seemed so soothing or even cleansing, so that it tempted to jump for a brief swim. However, the sharp pain interrupted this very calm moment and it forced Akai to shift her gaze at her hand again, about which she had almost forgotten. The woman saw the drop of blood trying to escape her little finger, which was damaged by previous play with fire the most. Following her reflexes, Akai immediately pressed her little finger to her mouth and lightly licked the tiny drop of blood. Even though it was tiny, it had a strong flavor of iron to it. While taking her finger out of her mouth, the woman placed her gaze on the man and as if nothing had happened, emitted some words again.

”I’m getting quite annoyed by these noisy people here. And cold. Do you happen to know any inside place worth going?”  That was said in a very casual and almost cool tone, nor stating that she wished to go there with him, neither stating that she wanted to go there alone.  That was the thing with Akai, she was very hesitant to ask things directly and one could never be sure of what her true needs might be. Though, some things could be understood even if being unsaid sometimes. Akai threw her arms around herself, lightly securing the places with bare skin from cool evening breeze. Then she simply froze. Actually, she was not so annoyed as she was trying to state earlier, but more like afraid of the memories which these circumstances might bring to her again. As she was starting to notice, they were returning way more painful and darker with each time. To this time, even though Akai pretended to play some kind of imagined game with this man before, the only game she was playing, was a hide and seek with herself. The thought that there might be a day when there would be no place to run or hide to anymore made Akai’s body shiver, though it blended in with the physical feeling of cold she was experiencing and was thoughfully used for the purpose of self deception again. Now the only saving raft for Akai was to wait for this ebony-eyed man’s answer.

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WC 4476 +3462= 7938

The impression that Hyuuga lady could have so far, besides of the mysterious feeling that surrounded this stranger, was that he indeed had much conficende in himself and was very well capable of playing mind games with other people. Seeing his stance with his arms crossed on the chest, his face making slow tiny movements with expressing no visible interest in the woman and taking into consideration the answers he would speak out, Akai finally realised how much caught up in his game she actually was. Remembering the remark about the maiden, the woman then got caucious that all of this might hold an intention of a simple play, since he seemed such a skilled player with an unexperienced women or women in general. However, this was just the most obvious stage, but underneath there were more layers than just that. Now the woman understood that this game she once got cautious about was actually unconsciously entered since the very first words were spoken out, the words which trigerred all those shifts of moods, all those expressions out of her, as well as various memories to spice up the act. But only now the man revealed, that they were nothing real to begin with, only the intentional, fake remark to lighten up the mood. Thus, the main idea Akai was trying to deny and to prove wrong the whole time, was wrong already from the very beginning. But knowing that so well, the man still obvserved the woman proving something that did not really exist and probably enjoying her having no sence of what exactly was happening. So as she assumed, this was what the game was about, he simply pulled the strings from a distance and Akai moved in response, probably revealing every piece of information about herself just by those responses and getting almost no information about him in return. However, it made Akai slightly chuckle at her own stupidity. One could not be mad at the man because of the trick, but only respect the complete mastering of a sharp mind. Perhaps he was a genjutsu user, that would explain where he got the skill from. However, even after realising she was played, Akai did not lose the primary interest which was present the whole time. She was eager to know what kind of game would follow the next.

Taking a silent position, Akai now changed her stance and became rather an observer, than the actor. She cautiously observed and listened to what the silver haired stranger had to say to her previous comment about the irritating environment they were in, waiting for an answer or more like suggestion of the place to next head to.  First the woman witnessed him getting slightly closer to her side taking heavier step than normally and that made her assume that something interesting might come up soon. Now knowing that the man had a really sharp mind, she assumed that all of his statue-like movements and spoken words were well thought of, in order to lead to the wanted scenario planned few steps ahead. First the woman concentrated on the undirect critique she received about speaking of death so freely, which indicated that this topic could be way more personal to the stranger that he would bear just to simply speak about it hypothetically. It was the first remark thoughout this whole time, which gave at least some kind of material which could lead to some guesses about his own experiences. Even though those guesses were clouded with uncertainty, they were of high value. However, despite the undirect critique, there was one more thing which caught Akai‘s attention and knocked her cautious mind out of balance for a bit. Having a dull or rather cold tone of voice the whole time, now towards the end of that speech something new could be felt there. It seemed as if the man‘s voice held a slight shadow of sorrow in it, never expressed in their converation before. This slight shadow, as if it would be the last piece to the puzzle, now made the previous guesses complete. Akai wondered if he had experienced the death before and even though it was on the level of wonder, the expression of words and that slight amount of sorrow in his voice coming together made her feel that he certainly did. Speaking so freely about the death. Of course. No one could speak frankly about pain until they were no longer enduring it. Akai threw her gaze full of questions to pierce into the man‘s ebony eyes, then she slowly ran them through his statue-like face and posture. It caused a chaotic image of this stranger in the woman‘s head. Underneath this layer of solid clay, was he still enduring it?

Due to feeling a little guilty of this slight shift in his voice, the corners of Akai‘s lips went down, leaving no visible trace of a chuckle or playful smile anymore. The expression was rather serious and a little compassionate now. If everything she wondered would appear to be truth, then compared to him, her own problems would become a blur of nothing important. After the death occurs, it leaves the person powerless, there is nothing one can do, only realise that things would never be the same like they were before it. On the other hand, deep inside Akai held some kind of envy towards that thought. She wished her own certain someone would rather be dead, as in that case she could put an end to her worthless wondering and start to move forward. However, those were only  unrealistic wishes. She was destined to spend the rest of her existance in obscurance. By not wanting to trigger any further conversation, which may invoke this slight sorrow in the man‘s voice again, Akai simply stood still and kept silent, even though there was a certain response she wanted to say. However, most probably it might find its way out of her head later.

Brushing some strands of her hair from her neck with a gentle move with her fingers, the woman moved her eyes onto the man‘s face again with a more soft expression now. It was probably because she witnessed some honesty coming out of him in a stange form of speech before. Akai was willing to catch his eyes again to see if the same could be felt while gazing into them, however, his eyes were down onto her yukata. It made her wonder if there was something wrong with it, so her own eyes traced down through the silky material, followed by the feathering brush of her hand against it. The intention was just to make sure if the material was not wrinkled at some point, even though if that might have seen as a tempting act from aside. Regarding her previous open question about the place she could visit next, the woman heard a suggestion of hot springs. Akai had no wish at the moment to soak in hot water and get all dizzy. She was already too dizzy mentally to be able to bear a physical dizziness at the same time without fully collapsing. However, soon the woman realised that this suggestion was made to be a simple tease, before the real one was spoken of. The stranger spoke of suggesting something more lively and now his words were matched by the actions he took. Akai gradually felt his face getting near her left side, reaching for her earlobe. As if adjusting herself to his movements, she tilted her head to the side in the slightest manner, as it seemed, in order to present that ear for him, as well as  to leave some space around the bare skin of neck, in order to be able to easily absorb that warm breath which came out while speaking. Even though he neutrally announced that he was about to head to his lodge, the Hyuga woman understood that this was his own way of inviting. Just as he understood how it was her way of asking for invitation from before. However, having the man play such a tease on her, when he could just present an offer in a normal manner, there was no way Akai could allow herself just to simply nod to what he had said.

When the man took a step back, leaving the place around her neck lonely again, Akai raised her eyes to find the man‘s playful expression. She wondered if her scent of clean clothes and innocence had triggered this expression she was looking at right now. However, soon the woman noticed that his eyes were slowly going through her body, as if they would be searching for something there, maybe some signs of her reflection to what he did earlier. However, the Hyuuga lady in general was never too shy to share close space with other people, most of the times even willing to do so, as it was kept as an indication of having a closer and more honest bond as well. Speaking about the results of the sudden proximity, the only thing that could be seen was her flushed face, signalising that the cold she felt earlier completely disappeared after this little act of this man. As much as Akai did not want any signs of her reaction to show, even the best puppeteers sometimes could not have the full control of their puppets. The same went with the human being and his body. Thinking of no way to hide her face, the woman simply turned around  and pressed her front part of body agains the railing as if wanting to gaze to the water relfecting the moon again. She felt the man leaning against the railing as well, however, still being cautious about the redness of her cheeks, she did not turn to look at his movements. However, soon when she felt confident calm enough, Akai finally turned in order to gaze and preent her answer, but she noticed the man‘s lips parted to speak again. His speech seemed more of a final one, with stating that there were nothing bad nor good, which was a sentence suggesting to drop the subject and agree on one obvious truth. However, the last part of speech seemed somehow arrogant for Akai, so she simply could not ignore it in silence.  

“Spoken like a true criminal.“ As she had no disagreements regarding the first part of the speech, Akai made a friendly mock solely to the second part of it, a comment about everything there being up for the taking. This could only mean one thing, that the woman was not putting anything there for anyone else to take freely.

Not forgetting that there was this one issue left unsolved, Akai pushed herself lightly from the railing and took her steps towards the man. While doing so, she was speaking in a half silent voice. “And about the thing we talked before, I‘m still not ready to go home just yet, so...“ She made an intentionall pause while finding her way closer to the man and using the same method of tease like he did before, whispered. “....lead the way.“ After the silent words were spoken, Akai completely passed the man and taking several steps ahead she stopped. She knew that the man would understand what she meant by encouraging to lead the way and now was only the matter of him taking his action. The woman turned her head over the shoulder, having no playful or flirty smile lingering on her lips. The face was all covered with a serious expression as if the woman was being determined about how the things were going to go next.

“Oh. And then about before as well. The past is never where a person thinks he left it. Sometimes...“ She took a deep sigh pausing and waiting while the words would find their way out loud uneasily. “...the things I remember are more real than the things I see.“ She finally finished the sentence with a sence of heavines in her voice, as if it was the most difficult task so far. “ And still, we solely have today.“ With that being said as a final remark, inviting for having many different meaning, Akai continued to wait for a man to make a move. Now it was only up to him if he agreed on the need to better grasp the fragile feel of the present moment, rather than scatter in to fragments of the past. As well as it was solely for him to decide if he wanted to use up this moment just by himself, or have a company to share.

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WC 2129 +7938= 10057

Akai was standing still and stretched, almost taking a pose that of a statue. Only the tiny movements of her chest lifting and going down showed the signs of light breathing.  In this brief moment of waiting, it felt as if she got absorbed by the environment which received none of the attention before. Maybe it was the occurring changes which soaked the woman in. It was always those changes that a woman searched, rather longed for. However, in the face of this moment, Akai would just slowly breathe in and breathe out, passively watching the changes to pass by.

She could almost feel the tranquility creeping into the night air, embracing her statuesque, cooled down body.  The noises were going down gradually and the light seemed to be going away with each lantern forced further to the horizon by the light push of the water. It mainly meant that the magical momentum of the festival was coming to an end, followed by the flow of people leaving the river and separating their own ways. She would have just been drowned into the whole tranquility and been made to forget everything, at least for a second or two, but the light breeze suddenly invaded the surrounding space, crossing it shortly after and causing Akai to return to her senses.  

Apparently this breeze was caused by the man passing by Akai’s figure. The air was mixed with the glimpse of the human warmth and the smell of the freshness. Akai took a deep breath of it as if preparing to follow it further. However, all she could see was the back of this man, covered in his silvery hair, moving away from her sight. The man neither stopped there for too long, nor did he turn around to encourage Akai to step further his way. He did voice a sentence or two, though the woman was not in any rush to reply him. Or in any need to reply something at all. Maybe Akai was not sure if she heard him correctly. Or if she even needed to hear him. The situation could be understood quite clearly even without saying it out loud.




”It’s a shame he is leaving.” A disappointing thought crossed Akai’s mind, leaving a tiny curve above her eyebrows, which indicated some sort of dissatisfaction. It was hard to tell what caused this dissatisfaction though, if it was that the woman did want to have the company for a little bit longer or if she was too anxious to be left alone with herself. However, as disappointed as she felt, her lips remained locked, not even a single sound other than a mere sigh made its way through them. The red head forced a simple smile on her face, almost the same one with which she had started. There was nothing left to say at this moment. Akai considered it would be totally awkward to say her goodbyes right now.  Not that Akai felt the need to do so either.  To think of it, all of the goodbyes were more or less the same dreams and expectations, only voiced out loud. I’ll see you later? Until the next time? Take care? Sayonara? Even at such simplicity, one without knowing , realizing it places an expectation within himself whether it would be an expectation or a desire of seeing, meeting the same person again, or whether it would be the sorrow and disappointment of knowing that such expectations are impossible to come into reality. In this very moment, in this very situation, with this very person, none of those expectations, wishes or sorrow could find their place in Akai’s mind and logic.  They’ve just met and even that “just” had already passed like a blink of an eye.




Due to unknown reasons, or the reasons not worthy of mentioning anymore, Akai’s fingers moved in a tiny manner as if imitating a potential waving gesture. Though, that hand never ended up fully risen after all. Nor could the primary effort be noticed. Akai pressured her muscles and stayed there still and statuesque, breathing in and breathing out the still lingering freshness, watching the man blend into the whole flow of the crowd. Only the moment when the man had blended into the crowd completely and was nowhere to be seen, Akai felt secure enough to relax her body and allowed herself to make a barely visible wave into what seemed to be nothingness. Still gazing at the depths of the crowd to just make sure, holding the breath with every pair of ebony eyes seen, the woman swallowed some kind of uneasiness along with the feeling of unfinished business.




After being sure that there were no traces of the nightly company left anywhere around, Akai slowly returned to the middle of the bridge again, just the very same spot where she was found at. She leaned over the railing to gaze at the deep dark water, which had turned to pure black in color at places where the dim light of the moon wouldn’t reach it. Each time leaning over, a clear reflection of this young woman would appear.  Akai would stare at her reflection in one of those dark spots and question her own realness. It looked almost magical how the darkness enframed her emotionless face.  It even lured to come and meet her, to finally merge and become one and the same person.




Suddenly feeling drained in the calmest moment of the night, the red haired woman pushed herself away from the railing, at the same time observing the reflection of the otherside woman gradually fade away. She crossed her almost frozen arms around her chest to regain that human warmth a little and without looking back, slowly stepped down the bridge. It was almost completely dark around as all of the lights in the village were being put off.  From the most well lit spot on the bridge, Akai was casually making her way into the dark streets of the village. She was going with her eyes fixated on one single spot into the horizon until the beautifully curved body silhouette lost its definition to complete darkness.




1152 +10057 is 11209

Total of the thread is 11209

Gathered 11 EP as in Chunnin Exam Event