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