#// congrats usami you saw her most vulnerable state and survived

[usagimen]

           「 兎 」  IT’S EXHAUSTING TO EXIST, to wear another’s face, she felt the weight of it all sink into the marrow of the bone && her hands would tremble. Tired, aching, when did the monotony of an equally drab life become so damn heavy? The dullness of her eyes suddenly contrasts, narrowing as her teeth grit, everyone is waved away && the manager shall handle it. Several pastries, from Mont Blanc to simple strawberry pan, sugar coated, thick with dollops of cream inside the middle - sweet things to wash away the bitterness, all of them, served with utmost care.

          “That is what we specialize in” she mouths it, with a sigh leaving the confines of her chest, uttered a thousand times till it became tight && shiny like plastic, she had not learned to smile the same way just yet. A singular brow raises, arched, ready to move by itself in agitation, of course, there was not a moment to spare && the rabbit must escape the wolves that come to devour her whole. “That’s rather troublesome” finally, she takes a seat, the scent of vanilla, roses, thick with a spice yet utmost belonging to her wafts, digits pressed into her temple. “I’m not a position to inherently fight off a swarm of assassins by myself, unfortunately, ascending into Godhood comes with a heavy toll while I have no desire to return home” the facial mask is removed, glaring, bright red in a gruesome manner where the sinew && bone was exposed, now the skin was pulled together whole as one could say, seamless yet obvious in its scarring. “I rather not go through something like this again, don’t think my face has enough room for a companion to this nasty blemish” she laughs, hollowed, never quite matching the cryptic expression upon the sheen of ice that she called a facade.

         “Revise is a fanciful term for more money, don’t play coy, I hate dull men who think they are more cunning than they are” there, she was undefeated, the spark that had not extinguished simmers. Awaiting to rage into an inferno, yet, she was not quite ready - grasping at her wounds, licking them furiously, but a prey animal would not quiver for long. She was still the vessel of the slumbering God, a chosen heroine in his eyes or perhaps, another child that would earn their crown amongst the glory of slaughter, fate had yet to grant her insight. Penetrating, she latches her gaze into the deaden one, corpse girl, it was odd to view such apathy now, wasn’t it?

           “Your price, speak plainly && clearly, we are both in a position to profit. I have not mastered the usage of Miyako Odori, in truth, I believe it will take a few months to access tier one && then a year for tier two, in such time I am vulnerable. This is not a plea for help, more or less, a business deal -  let us seal the contract”

His senses have been finely tuned — to catch the moment inertia breaks, the peaceful stasis of the café shattering like the shifting of tectonic plates to split the continents and divide the land. If Usami were a young man, he'd find the motions loud, rattling against his skull, disturbed by the echoes of trepidation. Do you understand what it means to be a groundskeeper so unsettled by the movement of prey animal in the thicket, to quake at signs of intrusion in the still garden and what hid in unruly, hideous weeds that have yet to be pulled? It meant you had no proclivity as a hunter, which was half the burden of being a groundskeeper.

“Correct.” Usami finds little reason to debate. There was no obligation for him to be anywhere in this world. He waited for the tea to settle, for stagnancy to return. With dark eyes, he appraised the lapses of perfection upon the missing Kobayashi's face, examining the ripples in her façade without much conscious effort. He could not help but notice all disruption to his perfect monotony. “I came here for peace of mind.”

In business, they referred to this as insurance. She understands business and the language of reciprocation well enough, responding swift with compensation and fulfilling conditional clauses. Equilibrium gradually returns as he nods at pastries, until he remembers the first ripple. “The Hei have increased their efforts to find you. I have come to inform you of this unprecedented development and measure your progress.” The beautiful stillness of the tea was undeserved, so Usami taps the edge of the cup. “Depending on your diligence, it may be required to revise the terms of our contract.”