Chapter Text
She can't be.
«The capillaries in my eyes are bursting.»
Miko's ear twitches in annoyance as she looks down at the general from the comfortable place she's nuzzled up in, that is to say, Ei's lap.
‘Your Excellence,’ Miko's very soul aches to bare her teeth at the general, to snarl and growl at her and tell her to back off already. She feels bad about it just a second later though, when her logical mind beats her possessive nature. The young Tengu was merely doing her job, after all. It seems that those 500 years had really taken their toll.
“—the intruding Nobushi have been eliminated, along with the Hiriculs that resided there and the Kairagi. Fortunately, there weren't many of the latter,” idly Miko wonders when this meeting would be over. Honestly, is it too much to ask for affection from her lover in peace? Ei had mentioned that she was in her debt after that stunt she pulled..
(“Miko! You know I can't get any of my work done when you're sitting right atop my paperwork!!”) - alright, maybe she should loosen up on the 'constantly demanding attention' shebang, but she digresses.
Dramatically, she sniffles, Ei deserved it anyhow.
“-reports of a substancial colony of Rifthounds have come in, from the Southwestern side of Tsurumi Island's coast. Shall we send some troops to do away with them?” she feels how Ei nods, chin digging into her ear lightly.
Miko's nose scrunches in mock offence and she chances a glance at Ei to make sure she noticed, but her eyes stray from their path, landing instead on the other woman occupying the room with them.
“Will that be all, General?” the young Kujou looks contemplative before her mouth opens once more, silky smooth voice soothing Miko's frayed nerves -to Miko's chagrin- as she comments;
“We've received some complaints - the Thunder Manifestations have apparently been in uproar since the appeal of the Vision Hunt decree and the people of Seirai Island are mildly distressed,” Ei humms, a hand coming up to rub behind the Guuji's ear. Miko's shoulders slump, mood suddenly soaring at the simple gesture.
“As much as it intrigues me to hear this, I do not consider it wise to expend our forces based on hearsay, however troubling it may appear to be,”
Kujou Sara nods, head still bowed, back straight and shoulders set. Does it ever hurt her to stand like that? It must be so uncomfortable.. Wait, why does Miko care anyway? What in the world?
“You are dismissed, then,” and with that, the general of the Shogun's army and her right hand, turns around and leaves.
Miko quickly leans in and steals a kiss from her archon.
“Miko!!” Ei chides, covering her face in an attempt to hide her blush.
The Gujii giggles.
The sun shines bright today.
«If our love died, would that be the worst thing?,»
Miko squints as she glances at the sky, her attempt at orientation becoming futile, however. The sky is dark, the clouds promising rain.
“Eiiiiiii..” Miko whines, clinging to the Goddess’ arm. Behind them walks the young Tengu, having recently gotten back from another expedition to Serai Island.
Ei lets out a long, suffering sigh as her answer. “What is it, Miko?” Miko's lips part as she prepares a teasing remark, yet she loses her words when she turns to look at her lover, eyes landing instead on the woman behind her just in time to catch her limp and wince.
“.. Miko?” the Guuji blinks, spending another few seconds just staring at the soldier before Ei pulls her from her thoughts with a tug on her sleeve.
“Is something wrong?” another few blinks as she tears her eyes away from the General.
“No, no,” she turn on her heels, head laying down on the goddess’ shoulder as she drags her along.
“Everything is fine,” She must've imagined it.
Ei doesn't look like she believes her.
Miko isn't sure she quite believes herself, either.
«For somebody I thought was my saviour,»
Miko's ears twitch at the moist air, only adding to her mounting annoyance.
The former clan leader, Takayuki Kujou, stands before her and Ei.
Sara stands by the far wall, covered in bandages, eyes dull; almost dead. Miko can still vividly recall her collapsed form, lying on the floor only a few feet from where the traitorous man now kneels.
Miko shudders, she can vaguely smell the blood that soaks through the bandages, she's wondering why it is that the General had come back at all, if she is not fully healed.
“You have betrayed the Shogunate,” he has betrayed them all. “You have lied for your own gain, you have comited forgery and fraud, not to mention tampered with documents,” -he had caused a fucking war.
Ei eyes the man coldly, disdain clear on her face.
They all want him dead.
“You are to be stripped of your titles and thrown into the dungeon, never to see the light of day again,” Takayuki trembles in fear, the soldiers that restrain him glance down at the coward with hatred clear in their eyes.
“Take him away, guards,”
Beside her, Ei feels how her General's muscles relax before she springs to attention. Her skin is pale, her eyes distant, she looks almost in pain.
Her lips draw into a thin line.
She says nothing.
Children run around, laughing and screaming in joy under the light drizzle. Their parents squint through the fog.
«You sure make me do a whole lot of labour.»
Her ears pull down, fur puffing up, flustered, from her hiding spot up in a tree.
Not even ten feet away from her, the General stands, muscles pulled as taught as the bowstring of the weapon she holds, before she lets go.
An arrow strikes the painted target.
Bullseye.
Two more arrows in quick succession, one splits open the first, the sound of snapping wood filling the air momentarily.
And yet Miko's eyes wander far from the show of great prowess, a spectacle meant to be seen by no one, landing instead on the young woman's form.
Her muscles ripple with every arrow she fires, skin damp with sweat, face a mask of cold determination.
Atop her, Ei chirps, and she guesses that she, just as the priestess herself, was distracted by things far from the splintering of wood and feathers.
Just one more reason to love Sara all the mor— hate. Hate Sara more. Because that's what Miko feels for her.
Hatred.
Not love, never love.
Why can't she tear her eyes away?
«The calloused skin of my hands is cracking.»
Sangonomiya Kokomi looks at Sara as if she hung the moon.
Miko feels the same urge, to snap her teeth at Kokomi now, to tell her to stay away from her Sara–
She stops herself, a polite smile plastered on her face that doesn't reach her eyes.
She has no right.
And why would she want to do that anyway? Sangonomiya can have Sara, why would she care? She hates the General's guts, after all.
It doesn't stop her from gritting her teeth and glaring at Kokomi subtly though.
Ei shifts behind Miko, her arms wrapping around Miko's waist from behind, but the fox envoy is sure that the archon is glaring daggers at Sangonomiya as well.
Her suspicion is confirmed when she meets Ei's eyes.
Miko doesn't like lying to herself. She knows that she's never hated Sara at all. Even if she swears she'll never admit it.
«If our love ends, would that be a bad thing?»
Yelling. Lots and lots of it.
Her ears are pulled flush against the top of her head, brows furrowed in misdirected rage.
Possessiveness and jealousy built up, boiling over, unrestricted. Unchecked.
“Just how blind can you be, Kujou?!”
Ei could've gotten hurt. Inazuma could've ended, all because of Sara's so called ‘oversight’. Takayuki could've gotten away with it all, Signora could've succeeded in taking the gnosis—
“At this point,”
Miko stands, fluffy hair ruffled, air around her sparkling and cracking an ominous purple.
“You'd be better off dead.”
And Sara isn't reacting past the blinking of an eye, the rise and fall of her chest.
“Get out of my sight.”
Miko turns away before she can see Sara bow and take her leave.
She fears that she'd see the hurt in the Tengu's eyes, that she'd have to face her own wrongs.
«And the silence haunts our bedchamber.»
“You will go to Watatsumi Island and bring down the beast. Take a fifth of the army with you, and be back by fortnight's end.”
General Kujou nods dully, before rising to her feet.
..She doesn't make to leave as usual, however.
“Your excellency, if I may..?"
Ei tilts her head and nods, scratching behind Yae's left ear. Miko sits in her kitsune form atop her lap.
No matter how much she tells herself that it is due to it being more comfortable, she knows that she is too cowardly to face Sara after last time.
“..In the case of anything going awry, I have appointed Haruka Hashimoto as my stand in.”
Sara shifts on her feet.
“Will that be all?”
“Yes, your Excellence.”
“Dismissed.”
Rain bashes unforgivingly against the windows.
The skies rage hell upon soaked earth.
Miko's hands tremble around the small piece of paper that had shattered her world, she feels like she's falling deep down a rabbit hole of treacherous darkness she can never hope to claw her way out from.
Hopeless, distraught, her eyes skim over the cursive words once again, hoping against hope that she had misread, even as Ei shook behind her, tears soundlessly rolling down her face.
[Your Excellence,
The beast has been slain, we have won.
The general has fallen,
The army grieves.]
Haruka Hashimoto kneels before them, head hung, a white rose offered in her hand alongside the letter.
“If I were to fall, I shall send you a letter with a rose tainted white, brought to you by the hand of my successor.”
Miko had scoffed at the flowery language then, as well as the ridiculous notion that Sara might die. Tengu can live up to thousands of years with ease — Sara had just barely turned twenty seven. Wasn't it a bit early for such fruitless discussions?
Petals fall. Miko numbly stares down at the cracked and scruffed up mask in her hands.
She refuses to believe it—
Electricity rises in the air, hers and Ei's agitation combining, sending all foreseers running out of the room, thunder cracking at their heels.
—but what good has denial done for her?
She loved— loves Sara. Kujou Sara. Their Sara.
And yet she'd been trying so hard to convince herself that she hated her instead. For what? Why?
She finds that she cannot recall the reason.
The paper crumples in her hand.
Yea Miko sobs.
«You make me do too much labour.»