"No! That was YOUR job! It's not my fault that you can't search for them fast enough!"
"My job? It's your job to chop it to pieces!"
"If I am to do my job, first you have to do yours! Isn't that how it's always been?"
"You don't even have to search for them! You just have to lure them!"
"And get a ghost-claw straight into my face? No, thank you!"
"So that's it? The perfect Seiki Naohiro Adachi is afraid something might spoil his beauty? If that's the case, then-"
Shinobu didn't have the time to finish her statement in the argument - it was Seiki's clenched fist that interrupted her in the form of a punch, flying from the side. She gave him a cold, enraged glance - right before her foot was sent at his chin. It crashed into his forearm, but threw him off the chair nonetheless, flipping both him and the chair over. He immediately stood up, facing her, and threw another rain of punches and kicks on her.
"You're a hypocritical, lazy liar!" he growled.
"That's the definition of yourself, isn't it?" she replied, ducking underneath another hit from him.
Isako watched all that show with the same bored expression as always. Shinobu and Seiki argued all the time, and almost every time they fought together with fists. Hard. She was so glad that she never got caught in one of those fights, but the crashing and shouting was really annoying her. She pushed her unfinished bowl with dumplings away, and stood up.
"Arimus! Aaaaariiiiimuuuuus! Come here and stop them!" she cried out, holding her hands by her mouth. Her cry was soon drowned out by Shinobu's wailing as Seiki pulled her hair and dragged her through the hair, and a muffled thud as she grabbed his leg and tripped him over. Isako just smacked her head. Where was that butler? He usually appeared in an instant!
"You incompetent fool! Stop it! Stop!"
"You begun it! Stop blaming me for your mistakes!"
Through a mash of screams, Isako rushed out of the hall, carefully avoiding her fighting siblings and their lightning-fast punches and kicks, and searched for Arimus, repeating his name in the process. If he wasn't anywhere near, he must be in his room...
Oh, why it has to be so far from the dining hall by our rooms? Running in these high shoes is so hard! she thought while running. The sound of her shoes, clattering on the wooden floor, echoed in the long, tall hallways, but she ran faster than she might have though. The door of Arimus' room was soon in front of her.
She has always wondered how it looked inside. The truth was that Isako has never entered the butler's room - after all, he always came when you called him! Though, maybe something was wrong today... Well, everything has to be done for the first time once. This might just as well be the first time she'd come there!
And without further hesitation, she knocked the door open and burst into his room. "Arimus, Shinobu and Seiki are fighting again and they're making a terrible mess! Please, go to the dining hall by father's room - not the main one - and divide them, otherwise they'd break everything and kick a wall in like the last time they fought this much!" she whined at him in her loud, high-pitched voice, stomping onto the ground to emphasize her request.
Arimus had spent the morning pampering himself relative to his daily actions and chores, and simply laid on his bed reading, his eye patch flipped up so he could read the script he was examining. He had an agenda, but he was in no rush. He had a green apple to his left, and a glass of wine, and the room was lit with incense and candles, the smell of burning wick and lavender intoxicating to him.
The candles were only present for light, and he smiled as he read about things that were even older than he was, remembering hearing some of these events happening as he grew up. He began to reminisce about times long forgotten to death now, and family members he had seen live and die as he remained ageless, and it made him sad.
So many of his charges died, and he was older than all of them, and it broke his heart knowing that while they could all die, he would live forever, owing his life to service of the family that had saved him over 1000 years ago.
So when Isako burst into the room, he panicked, closing his cursed eye, and staring at her intently. Then he did something he had never done before, in the presence of any of the current family members.
"Is someone going to die?"
"No! But they're wrecking the room again! They totally broke one of the dividers again and I was painting the cherry-trees on that one for hours! Besides, who's going to listen to their whining afterwards? I'm not! I'm so fed up with their constant fighting and that's all just because of the ghosts!" she replied, just as fast and loud as before.
Only then did she open her eyes and realized that Arimus had his helmet off, and he actually spoke to her. She's never seen or heard him speaking... It was an unusual sound, and an unusual sight, too. He wasn't old or scary as she has thought as a child... He actually didn't look much older than herself.
Even his room was... Surprising. It was quite dark in there, though, considering how late it was, that was logical. She could see the painted fan her mother made a long time ago, one of many like that, on the wall, and there was an apple and wine by his side. Along with scripts. She knew so little of him and this was all so surprising...
"A-Arimus! I always thought you were mute!" she burst out the first thing that came to her mind.
Arimus didn't respond to the mute comment, feeling that he was at least doing a good job of making himself seem quiet and respectful. He did however, respond to Isako's mention of a lack of death.
But only with the slight shaking of his head that he was used to. He picked up his script again and laid down, wanting nothing but to rest on his day off. He worked nearly every day of the month for this family, and they choose his day off to fight. Typical.
He flicked his hand, indicating to Isako that he would refuse to do it, and that merely speaking had dirtied his image. However, she would not be able to prove that he had actually spoken, so it would become mere suspicion that he could speak.
So he simply decided to ignore her, and shoo her away.
Isako's face became sad when he shooed her away. Her hands, till then in the air by her chest, dropped to her sides, and she opened her mouth in a disappointed disbelief. How was it that he wasn't willing to help her?
Seiki and Shinobu were just wrecking a hall, and he was... Reading. How was that even possible? Wasn't it his responsibility to take care of these things? And what was she supposed to do without him? It was practically impossible to tear Shinobu and Seiki apart in a fight...
"Arimus, please. If someone doesn't tear them apart, they'll soon demolish... Completely everything! You know how much mess they make every time!" she begged him, far more quietly than before, and showing him her large, glimmering crimson eyes.
Arimus frowned, annoyed that she was disturbing him on his day of rest, and looked at her.
"Fine! But do not bother me again." He got up from where he was sat, and put on his helmet, taking off his eye patch, and scowling at the idea of having to do something that wasn't relaxing on the one day he got off.
He beckoned for Isako to follow as he strode down the hall, his looming frame light and agile. When he reached the fighting siblings, he let out an audible growl and got to work.
Seiki was the first to be dealt with, one of the thrown punches caught by Arimus, how flipped Seiki over and planted a foot on his chest, while he got Shinobu into an intricate lock hold with the other arm.
Unlike Seiki and Shinobu, Isako was shining with glee. Immediately after those two were set at the opposite ends of the low table, off course with their backs to each other and frowning, she grabbed the bowl on the table and offered its contents to Arimus.
"Thank you! Good job! I think you deserve a sweet dumpling, quick and awesome as always!" She cheered, sticking the bowl underneath his face. Except for Takuya, Arimus was the only person that could ever get Shinobu and Seiki off each other in a fight... Something really useful, considering how often they got into one!
However, Shinobu's voice broke this moment of silence. Isako's older sister partly turned her face towards the other two of her siblings, and frowned. "I smell a ghost. An evil one, at that." she muttered.
The first thing Arimus knew of said ghost was when a knife was flung at his back, and he whipped around and caught it with lightning precision, before walking over and placing the knife back in it's sheath on the wall.
Then, silently, he went to leave the room, feeling that he deserved to go back to his ancient texts/
A loud, blood-curling scream escaped Isako's mouth when she turned away. She immediately bolted towards Arimus, coiling up to a ball on the floor behind him, and hiding her face with her hands. "It's huge! It's so big, so big, so big! Do something! Please!" she begged, crying.
Shinobu and Seiki looked to see what scared Isako so much - and their jaws dropped. It was indeed huge - and it burst a hole into the wall. Dust was settling in the large crack, and where others might see just a blurred shape, or nothing at all, they saw the ashen-grey body of the creature, topped by a large, skull-like horned mask.
"Someone bring our swords, I can engage it till then! Shinobu! Arimus! Just go get them!" Seiki shouted, springing from his chair at once, almost instantly followed by Shinobu. In a split second, everything was upside down.
Arimus saw the damage done, but no ghost. And for a minute, he spoke his own name, and time slowed around him, warping, and he sped to get the swords, seeming to appear with them instantly, and threw them to Shinobu and Seiki, before deciding on a tactic.
"Hey, skull-breath! Look here!" He gave Shinobu and Seiki a look to say to direct it's attention to Arimus. Then he removed his helmet. The eye patch was still in his room, so he kept his eye closed.
"None of you look at my eye if you want to live." Arimus made a gesture that was one of inviting death.
Was Arimus trying to engage the spirit while they actually fought? It looked like it... He was sure a good bait, practically indestructible, while the more fragile, but stronger trio would...
Slice it to pieces. He caught his katana in mid-air, gripping both hands around the handle of the extraordinary large blade, and with the corner of his eye, he saw Shinobu do the same. In the meantime, Isako was covering somewhere in the back of the room, staring at them, petrified in horror.
Both him and Shinobu shifted to the opposite sides of the room, avoiding Arimus' face with their glances, while the attention of the ghost was still glued to him. He gave her a signal, nodding his head at the spirit. Stun it while it's looking, then slice its head off.
All of a sudden, it moved towards Arimus. And that was the sign for Seiki and Shinobu to attack. They leaped into the air, both quickly moving towards the head of the ghost, and a bolt of energy, directed from Shinobu, hit it. It turned the skull-shaped mask in that direction, but before the soul-cutter swords could hit it, it burst forth, towards Arimus, with unusual speed. It appeared that it was avoiding him, but aiming at him at the same time...
Arimus opened his eye for a brief second and saw that he could see the ghost with his unobstructed eye, and he grabbed a kitchen knife, and threw it through the monster's mouth, before closing his eye, and preparing to get torn apart, and knowing that it was going to hurt.
And then it happened. He felt the hands dig into his body, and he felt the two halves separate, spraying his blood everywhere, and he roared in agony, the pain unbearable to him. But of all the things he did, he still kept his eye shut, knowing that without his helmet, he was a danger to them all.
Seiki was knocked into the wall by the spirit's strong swinging tail. Cracks spread from where he hit it, such was the force of the impact, but even though he was pushed into it more and more, he still held his katana. With the little possibilities to move, he lifted it, and sliced the part that kept him in check off, falling onto the ground right after.
The only one who was still on her feet was Shinobu. With a few fast cleaving blows, she managed to cut off the spirit's clawed arms, and she got to Arimus in a few moments. Even though she was aware of the dangers she exposed herself to like this, she bent above him in an attempt to use Kido to put his severed halves back together.
Off course, it's impossible to see a tail flinging at you from behind when you're not looking up. It was Isako's scream that warned her - her little sister was screaming in the corner some indistinguishable words. Isako was obviously too terrified to do anything about it...
However, before the spirit's tail could have hit them, it seemed to crash into some kind of invisible shield, and it flicked back. Isako... Was defending them?
Though, this way, Seiki was left on the other side of the shield alone. Shinobu believed he could deal with this even without them. She wanted to believe it, even though this was a pretty big and strong evil spirit. And he was on the floor when she last saw him.
Fortunately, not anymore.
The right half of Arimus disintegrated, and his left side began to bubble and boil at the cleaving, and very slowly began regenerating. It looked gruesome, and the smell of nitrogen filled the air, but he slowly began regenerating the lost half.
Why didn't she remember it sooner? Arimus would naturally regenerate after any physical damage... That must have been why Kido wasn't working. Just that simple.
If she would have realized that before, her brother wouldn't be tossed around the room like that, slicing the spirit! He had to avoid both the remains of the tail and arms, and the head of the ghost, and Shinobu couldn't get through Isako's shield...
"Isako, let it go! Shield Arimus and let me help Seiki!" she shouted.
"I can't... I can't control it!" Isako screamed back through her tears. Shinobu threw herself at the shield, banging her fists into it, but it was worthless - Isako's defensive spells were too strong.
Not even shoving a blade through or channeling her spiritual energy into it in the form a strong spell worked. Shinobu dropped onto her knees, drained off her power, and reached after Isako, shaking her violently. "Do something about that! Seiki's fighting it alone!"
"I can't! I don't even know how it happened!"
"You used your Kido! Don't you remember nothing that you've been taught?"
"No! I was asleep! Ow, Shinobu, stop! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Isako begged her, quivering in her hands.
Their argument was interrupted by a long, horrible scream. As they turned their heads towards the spirit, they saw the handle of Seiki's sword sticking out of the forehead of the mask, sliced in half. His hands were still clenched around it, partly covered in blood. The floor beneath was melted by acid...
"Shinobu, do something! I'm stuck!" he shouted, desperately trying to yank the blade out, but apparently without any greater success. The head was twisting and turning, trying to shake the dragon-blood atop it off, while repeating the same horrible scream over and over.
The half disintegrated form of Arimus sudden reanimated, throwing knives at the beast with astounding accuracy, each knife aimed at eye sockets or the throat.
The other half of the head had only just begun forming from the boiling, bubbling fluid, and yet he could see through the eye that was forming there.
Every knife was deflected by the invisible shield, bouncing back onto the floor. Shinobu attempted to drag Arimus back, when all of a sudden, the spirit turned towards him.
It was most likely the soul-cutter blade in its head that made him face Arimus. Its deep, hollowed eyes met those of the butler... And with a last terrifying scream, it crumbled to ash, collapsing onto the floor.
Seiki's figure tumbled to the ground, landing amid the hole, burned into the wood, with a loud crash. Isako copied his motion, dropping and coiling on the floor, and Shinobu fell through the shield she was till then pushing into, since it disappeared almost in an instant. She turned to Arimus with a reluctant glance in her cold eyes.
"Did you just...?"
Arimus had already closed his eye, and was nearly fully regenerated. When he was regenerated, her got up, and began to walk to his room to get into a fresh outfit, now that the old one was torn in half.
When he returned, he was wearing his helmet, which he had somehow hidden on his person as he left, an suddenly he began to speak.
"How stupid are you?" Arimus' voice boomed out, his anger barely concealed, and his fists actively clenched.
"I MAY AS WELL HAVE WALKED AROUND WITH MY EYE OPEN AND JUST MUTTERED TO MYSELF TO LOOK AWAY!" His rage was boundless, and they had pushed him beyond his tolerance, and he found himself laughing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p90yRIyKDK0). He was laughing in the most insane, maniacal manner possible.
Shinobu has been just helping Seiki up when Arimus returned. She was still confused - and partly horrified - by what happened... The spirit just got destroyed. A soul dead. How was that even possible? That was...
"Arimus, what are you even talking about? Calm down! Everybody's alright by now!" she burst out back at him, abruptly standing up. "Are you insane? What are you screaming at me for now? How was I even supposed to know anything when you NEVER SAY A WORD!"
Isako covered her mouth when she heard them screaming. She hated listening to arguments... Bad things followed every time. In the end, she could no longer hold it in. She burst into tears, and bolted out of the hall, crying.
"Now look at that!" She, too, was off her limits. Shinobu was rarely ever screaming, or even angry at all, but when it happened... "WAS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED?"
"Shinobu, stop screaming." All of a sudden, Seiki stepped in, obviously not amused by the scene she was making. "Can't you just let it be?"
"No! And what do you think? Let everything be, like you did? Like a selfish fool?"
He narrowed his eyes. And without warning, a heavy punch struck her from the side, successfully knocking her unconscious and leaving a trace of blood on the side of her jaw. It was, off course, Seiki's.
He sprung to his feet, wrapping his hands in his robe, and with long steps walked out of the room. "Everybody in this household is insane..." he muttered on the way as he passed by Arimus. However, as he stood in the doorway, he suddenly turned on his heel, and faced the butler. "Arimus. If I ask you not to tell Takuya and Risa about this, can I trust you to keep it secret?"
"Hmmm, let me think about that one: NO! I will personally greet them, and inform them the TRUE retelling of this disaster!" Arimus sighed, kicking Shinobu gently to see if she was still alive.
"This was supposed to be my day off! And now, it's ruined. I shall be taking another day off, to recover from the stress the three of you have placed upon me today! Do you have any idea what could have happened if you had stared into my eye? If you had even glimpsed it?!" Arimus stared at Seiki, angry, upset, frustrated, and truly, truly enraged at what he had seen happen.
"You and your blasted sister, constantly fighting! I DON'T SERVE THIS FAMILY TO BREAK YOU TWO APART, EVERY TIME YOU FEEL LIKE GETTING INTIMATE WITH SWORD AND FIST! I SERVE THIS FAMILY BECAUSE I OWE YOUR GRANDFATHER A DEBT OF SERVICE! I OWE NOTHING TO YOU TWO, IT'S HIS LEGACY I PRESERVE, NOT HIS RECKLESS, STUPID DESCENDANTS!"
"Very well." Seiki nodded. His cold eyes pierced the butler like the sword by his side, raising up from his hands, which wrapped each other with the soft fabric of his belt. "Then I shall make sure that you will not meet them, or speak to them."
He remained calm for the whole time being, but his whole persona was as cold as ice. Evil spirits may be intimidating, or terrible, but he was a different kind of... Dangerous. One never saw him attacking, and therefore couldn't predict it - there was an absolute lack of warning.
He didn't seem to even react to Arimus' sudden screaming, he wasn't even moved! He just gave him that same cold look Shinobu received before he knocked her out, and turned away, slowly walking towards his room. "I do not wish you to speak to them. Remember that." he reminded him for the last time.
"You have nothing to threaten me with. My skills are applicable elsewhere, and now that your grandfather is dead, I no longer feel obliged to serve your family, it is merely a convenience that I already serve, and live comfortably." Arimus stated bluntly.
"I don't do the "your wish is my command" charade. Remember that boy. I have seen at least double your time, and will see much, much longer than you ever will." Arimus stated, giving Shinobu a slightly sharper kick than before, as his way of saying thanks for a ruined relaxing day.
Then he walked off to check the innocent bystander, Isako. He went around the house, checking every corner and desk and table for a young, crying girl.
"Isako?"
"As you wish. I will assure about it myself, then." Seiki's narrowed eyes flashed across the destroyed hall again, before he walked out, towards his room.
Isako has ran to the training hall, one of the places she knew were secure and safe, and coiled up under a few neatly ordered racks of weapons. There were long and short swords, bows and spears, all around her this incredible number of weapons, which she didn't even seem to perceive.
She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them with her arms, wiping the tears out of her eyes as she bowed her head towards her legs. Why did they always have to argue? There was something going on between Seiki and Shinobu for the past few weeks... She didn't know what, but it worried her and made her sad.
When Arimus's voice reached her ears, she raised her head a little. "Arimus? Is it you?" she replied silently.
"Yes Isako. It's me." Arimus didn't remove his helmet, for fear of killing the girl, but he wanted Isako to feel some form of comfort, so he composed himself, ready to give hugs and comfort, something he had almost forgotten how to do.
"It's okay, you can come out, they've both stormed off. It's only me now." Arimus started looking for her, his voice smooth and relaxed.
She climbed out of her hiding, wiping her tears away, and silently walked towards him. Arimus was one of the few people in the house that weren't cold, heartless warriors. Even though she never really knew him, she felt that he wasn't like that.
"They're horrible, aren't they?" she muttered, glancing down at her feet.
"Indeed. Imagine what it's like for me. I will have to live through eternity, unable to do anything to but listen to peoples troubles and pains, and know that my greatest pain is unimaginable to them. And I will have to no doubt take care of their descendants for aeons to come." Arimus sighed, and sat on the floor, inviting her to sit next to him.
He adjusted his cloak, and then continued.
"You only have to live a set number of years. I'll long outlive everyone in this household. And their children. No doubt, I will see the ruin of this family."
"A set number of years? That's only what you think." Isako replied silently, sitting down beside him, and softly leaning onto him with her shoulder. "Most of us die a very brutal death." she whispered.
"I can't imagine how it's for you, but I know how it's for me. All of us will be one day slaughtered by a spirit. I know it. And that kind of death hurts... Our souls will most likely be all consumed by them." Her eyes widened in horror as she spoke. "That's what we have to pay for protecting this world. Never being able to go to the other one. Did you know that, Arimus?"
"I can see them you know. I can see spirits and ghosts. But that was grandfather's gift to me. The ability to protect you, and all your family. And I can't die. I will outlive everyone. I will see the end of eternity, the end of time. And beyond. I will watch everyone I ever come to care for die, and all their descendants. And their descendants. I will be there, to the point where all of the people I care for are all but forgotten by all but me. And eventually I will forget too. Eventually." Arimus sighed.
"And that's why I don't talk to any of you, because I don't want the pain of knowing that you're dead. And Seiki, and Shinobu. All of it. I don't want to feel the pain I felt when I lost the last ones."
Isako hugged him tightly. As tightly as she could with her small arms, and she laid her head down onto his shoulder, shedding silent tears like crystals onto the fabric of his suit. What he said was just...
...so touching!
She was always much more empathetic than her siblings. Isako was like Risa, their mother, a person with a heart bigger than their sword... And she couldn't help crying.
"That's so... So sad, Arimus. I never knew it was like that!" she sobbed into his sleeve.
"Isako..." Arimus reached into his pocket, pulling out a black eye patch. Then he shut his eye, taking off his helmet. He put the eye patch on, holding back hundreds of years of sadness. Hundreds of years crying, all locked away. He imagined what might have been, what his life could have been.
He wanted to love, to care, and he knew that he would suffer for ever talking to her. He would suffer when she died, and he could feel the attachment already. And that was his true curse.
"Please stop."
"I can't stop! How could I ever stop?" she whispered, gripping his other side, as she pulled her legs closer. Her shoes screeched on the floor as she did so. Why did he hold back so much? Afraid of the future?
"You have to live for today, not for tomorrow... That's what I've been told. Both by Seiki and Shinobu... That fear is stupid because you are afraid of the future, which may not come... And so, there's no need to worry." Her voice was silent, unlike in most times.
"And so... Please, don't be sad... And don't think about what will be... Cause it doesn't have to be!"
Arimus felt himself trembling, as the weight of nearly 1500 years of sorrow bearing down on him. He refused to give in. He refused. He wouldn't...
"I can't. You can't comprehend!" Arimus shook her off and stood up, still trembling all over. "I have the greatest curse a man can be given. Immortality. And I hate it. I HATE IT!"
Isako stared at him in surprise. She scrambled back onto her feet, and for a moment, she appeared mature far even beyond her true age.
"Then use it for good, because it's a gift just as well as a curse. Do you think I don't consider my own abilities a curse?" she whispered, and with a shake of her head, she ran out of the hall, straight into her room.
Arimus felt anger and sadness boiling up inside of him, and walked himself to the combat room. There, he began to kill the targets, the dummies. He struck at them with unimaginable speed, breaking most of them beyond any form of repair, and bruising his knuckles.
Then he continued, and his knuckles began to bleed, and soon, his gloves were torn, and his face covered in tears. His hands were bloodied, and it slowly dripped onto the floor.
Tears welled out of her eyes as she ran, and she hid them with her palms. However, that barred her vision, and so, she didn't notice the tall figure, walking straight opposite her.
In a short moment, that figure moved aside to avoid crashing into her. Isako only felt a touch of a soft red fabric by her side, and then, it was gone. Her door closed behind her, and she collapsed onto her bed, crying. Why was this family so, so hard?
The figure was no one else than Haru. She stopped walking for a moment, wondering what could have thrown the girl off so much. She was running from the direction of the training hall, but today was not a training day... Something serious must have happened.
She brisked up, letting her beautiful red kimono billow behind the steps of her long legs, till she came to the door of the hall. Closed, but not empty.
The door opened seemingly without any touch of her hands, and she stepped inside, just to find Arimus - without his helmet, and training. There was blood on the floor...
"Arimus. Is something the matter?" she spoke up with her silky voice, approaching him with the grace of a mountain lion.
Arimus turned and realised who was speaking, and immediately turned away.
Why did it have to be her? Could it have been anyone else? Is this a hallucination? A lucid dream? Arimus begged and prayed that she wouldn't come any closer. He hadn't got his helmet on, and she made him nervous. Very nervous. Probably because he found her beyond attractive.
"Excuse me, I have work to do." He let his knuckles regenerate, the blood flow stopping as he strode out of the room, eager to escape the discomfort.
He walked to Seiki's room, hoping to find Seiki there, and to tell him exactly what he was going to tell his father, before resuming eternal silence.
Unfortunately - or not? - Seiki's room in the top level of the residence, with a gorgeous view at the gardens, was entirely empty. There was nothing except for his low bed and the stand for his Zanpakuto, placed before it. And his white Haori, folded on the bed in a perfect square.
Seiki was a stern man, and his room reflected it. It was perfectly clean and almost bare, like a prison cell with large window. A single sakura tree painted on the walls of his wardrobe, and a black stand for a sword with the tools, required to clean it.
Haru, however, followed Arimus up into her nephew's room. Something seemed to be wrong with him... She had her suspects, as she only before a moment had to clean Seiki's hands off the acidic blood of an evil spirit, and he seemed even more hostile than usually.
Arimus was annoyed to see that Seiki was not present in his room, meaning he was most likely off causing more problems, or dragging Shinobu to her room, just down the corridor. However, Arimus decided he had every right to root through all of Seiki's stuff, after all, he was a butler. His job was to organise it.
And so, he began tearing the room apart, leaving things more meticulous and organised than they had been before.
Then Haru walked in. Arimus heard the footsteps coming, but assumed it was Seiki, and so, he didn't turn around just yet.
"I'll be telling your father of what you were doing Seiki... And trust me, he will not be pleased."
"It's only me, Haru." she corrected him, and smiled softly, stepping inside. "I'm afraid Seiki won't be happy that someone reorganised his room when he finds out, though." For a moment, the smile became a chuckle.
She walked forth, when all of a sudden, something pulled her back. Her kimono must have gotten caught on something... She pulled and pulled in an attempt to get off it, when she once pulled too hard, and accidentally sent her own self flying onto the floor.
Arimus grinned. "You act like I'm afraid of him." Arimus sawa she got caught, and just as he moved to her aid, she fell, taking him down with her.
Then, suddenly, she was lying on top of him, and they were nose to nose, and her kimono was gone. She was just in her underwear. And he felt himself blushing. She was so close to him.
Then he saw someone in the corner of his eye.
If Haru blushed rose when she landed on top of Arimus just in her half-transparent lower dress, her cheeks turned crimson when the door noiselessly opened. A tall, dark figure stood in the square of empty space, and she prayed it would be her brother and not his son, although irrationally.
It wasn't. Seiki froze in the door, with one hand still on its edge, and stared at them. He didn't even want to imagine what was about to happen in there... How fortunate he came soon enough.
His eyes widened in a combination of surprise and disgust, and his eyebrows slowly arose in an untold question. It was one of the most apparent portrayals of emotions on his face there has been in the past twenty years. He was horrified. Utterly horrified and disgusted.
Arimus, in his wonderous intelligence, had an epiphany. A dooming, stupid epiphany, one only a person who was the age he looked could have.
To crack a joke.
"Ha, funny you walked in when you did. Any later and you'd have been scarred for life." Arimus put on a very awkward smile, one that was clearly nervous and very incriminating.
He had no need for respect or reputation though. He could easily kill them all if he really wanted to. He'd just have to make eye contact.
Seiki's jaw dropped. He couldn't take humor - he could hardly even understand it, even despite his incredible intelligence. He closed his eyes, and quickly clenched his teeth.
"What a disgrace." he muttered, turning on his heel, and quickly leaving. He might have to request to sleep in a different room for the next week... How awful. How could Haru, as the sister of the head of the house, do something so disgusting? He'd make sure to inform Takuya... Of this, and Arimus's disobedience.
In the meantime, Haru managed to roll off Arimus, undoubtedly just as surprised and alarmed as herself. She showed him a smile, even though still blushing. "Congratulations, you completely threw him off. If there was a prize for startling Seiki, you'd get the first one, you know." she attempted to joke, putting her kimono back on.
"Hmph. He acts like the family don't need my services. They can have as many servants as they want. They have to provide for them though. I don't need providing for. I can go without food and drink. And I can do the work of 100 servants, taking up 100 times less space." Arimus snuck in a look at Haru as she stood up.
If only I could. Maybe as a fling. No, no, no attachments. Arimus averted his eyes to avoid drawing attention to himself. He didn't need her getting the wrong idea. They were just friends.
"Anyways. One trick, just to annoy Seiki when he gets into his room." Arimus took out his small knife, and carved a symbol into the floor. Immediately, an incorporeal spirit entered the room, and found itself stuck above the symbol. And like a magnet, they flocked, filling the room.
"Haha!"
Haru frowned a little. "On one side, I do admire your gut to stand against him. On the other side, you have a problem, Arimus..." She shook her head. "This won't be a problem for him... But for you."
The ghosts started collecting there, innocent lost souls for most, but there was a trace of evil spirits, too. She stood up, finally fastening the sash around her waist, and dragging Arimus out. "I don't want to get into trouble with him. Trust me, he'd punish even me." she muttered, and led the butler down to her own room. "Besides, what you did is dangerous. It can attract evil spirits... I know he'll be able to defeat them, and there are others around, too, but that changes nothing." she explained him on the way. "You put people in danger. There will be a punishment for that, too."
As if an answer to that, a dark figure passed them by in the following moment. She could recognize Seiki even without looking, as he let a much larger part of his power seep out, and no one else could move as fast.
"It's coming." she whispered. A blood-curling howl echoed through the manor.
"You're mistaken. He's here." Arimus pointed at the end of the corridor, and grinned. He wanted a physical fight.
Then he felt the blow land. Then he felt his lower half separate from his upper, half, and he yelled. The tendril of gas retracted, and a humanoid figure formed.
"I wondered exactly when you'd show up. Long time no see. You remember Haru?" Arimus' legs regenerated and he stood up, cracking his neck.
"YOU ARE A FOOL TO PROTECT THEM!" Another explosive blow, from another tendril of the gas, and Arimus grinned, despite the huge hole in his head.
"I would say that hurt, but it didn't."
Seiki has felt the spirits almost instantly. It was a priority greater than reprimanding the butler and Haru, and he turned in the middle of his way, running back towards his room. The presence was intensely strong, dozens, no, hundreds of spirits...
This was the case of emergency, and Takuya wasn't at home! Incredible...
There was no other option for him left than to release at least a quarter of his power. A full release would obliterate the entire manor, and therefore, wasn't an option...
His figure started glowing with a faint white shine as he unsheathed his Zanpakuto, and whirled into his room. Full of spirits. All of a sudden, a larger one, not just a simple lost soul, but an evil ghost, ran up at him. However, there was just a flash of black as he appeared behind it, and crashed Blood-red Blossom into the head of it, now bashed into the wall opposite the door. It cleaved it straight, and Seiki leaped into the room. The blade itself was starting to glow.
A few feet away, Haru was still standing up, trying to figure out what is happening. Something was fighting Arimus, but she was unable to see it... And she was covered in blood. Seiki's spiritual presence, going off the leash, could be felt nearby, and the thudding of the alarm echoed through the manor.
She unsheathed her weapon, the thin, sleek blade appearing in her clenched hands, and stepped beside Arimus. "Let me deal with this, whatever it is..." she growled.
"Haru, stand back. I don't need another mess to clean up." Arimus' suddenly cold attitude was to throw the scent of the being, to make it think he didn't care for them.
"And close your eyes. I don't think Takuya needs a corpse as much as he does a healer." Arimus took off his eyepatch, and he saw the world in a different light. He saw it in a blurry, pulsing form, filled with the rank of corruption. That was his world.
And in it, hovered a tendril of pure white, his curse. Incarnate.
"Nice to see you Azaroth. Now I know you're not that far away. So why not come closer? Scared I can kill you?"
Haru started to charge a blast on the tip of her sword when Arimus stopped her. What he was meaning to do she wasn't aware of, but it was too late to stop the blast. It was fired, like a five leashes suddenly flashing at...
Nothing. They came straight through the air, towards the other end of the corridor, and successfully blasted Seiki's current target into oblivion, almost hitting the man himself. It reached his palm, outstretched for it, and was sucked in. Disappeared.
He turned back into the door. His robe was billowing as if blown from underneath, shining white, and he raised the same hand up again, clenched in a fist. Then, he opened it.
A blinding blast of white was released into the room. For a moment, there was nothing but that light, Haru's spell amplified a hundred times, and released to obliterate whatever would get into its way.
She was lucky to close her eyes. Seiki at the extent of his power was really something.
Arimus sighed, hearing the blast, and seeing only the tendril. He decided to follow it, taking a sword off it's mounting, and swinging it near the tentacle, seeing it recoil.
"Oh, you'll feel this one." And off Arimus went.
A few minutes later, when the ghost symbol would have become useless, and things suddenly calmed down, Arimus returned, limping. This injury wasn't regenerating.
"Owwww... Haru, I need you to get Seiki here, he needs to check if my cursed eye is still working... And then, when you've done that, perhaps you could see why I'm not healing?..." He stumbled towards Haru, collapsing a few feet in front of her, only barely managing to get his eyepatch on.
"To get Seiki here might be more difficult than you think - if I don't want to get sliced up..." she whispered, and quickly begun the silent chant of a spell that would stop the bleeding. The words of the incantation were like a river, coming from her lips... It was the least she could do while Seiki held the spirits back.
She could see the light, coming from the room. It was blinding, as white as a lightning, with an ever so slight rosy tint. The shadows of a thousand swords were reflected on the wall behind for a moment, before they turned into a whirlwind of white, and an even brighter light entered the corridor.
Another three figures appeared. One was surely Shinobu, as the voice that shouted another incantation, but this time, of an attacking spell, would confirm, and the other two must have been some of the currently present warriors, too.
All of a sudden, an intense spiritual presence could be felt in the air. A spirit like that... Could be match even for Seiki. That ghost-bait or what was it was sure strong!
Something flew out of the door, and landed in the corridor, leaving a stream of red on the floor. Seiki. He stood up almost instantly, followed by a stream of shards of his released sword, which burst into the room again almost instantly. His glance connected with Shinobu's.
Her eyes widened. If something was powerful enough to hit her brother...
She grabbed Haru by the shoulder, together with Arimus, and started dragging them away. "Get out of here! Get Arimus out and disappear, there's something big in there!" she warned them, clenching her teeth on the edge of panic.
"Oh for the love of the gods. Give me your zanpakuto Seiki. Let me go and kill Azaroth at long last." Arimus pulled himself up, tearing open new wounds, and held out his hand expectantly to Seiki.
"Give it to me, and I will end them all."
"Are you crazy? Asking for someone's soul-cutter?" Shinobu shouted at him, grabbing him by the waist, and picking him up. Even despite her small size, she was strong enough to pick him up and attempt to throw him over her shoulder.
"Besides, you could never wield Blood-red Blossom... The sword would kill you outside the hands of its master!" Her very eyes reflected the scene that stood as a proof to those words. A thousand thousands of petals, shining, were around Seiki's figure. They whirled and arose, tearing the walls apart, and slowly took the form of small swords. Shinobu kept persistently dragging Arimus away, accompanied by Haru, trying to help her.
The swords gathered, and at a push of Seiki's hand, they whirled into the room. He himself ran into it at a great speed. And nothing but desolation was left.
Arimus felt a surge of energy, and instead, he managed to outmatch Shinobu's strength, straining until his muscles regenerated to a new strength, and actually pinning her to the wall, his normal eye flickering with the sign of the curse.
"Now, now... Be reasonable. If I can't have Seiki's, yours will do just as well." Arimus smiled, taking the sword, and feeling his abilities flickering between overdrive and non-existant, as the curse went haywire at the introduction of more energy.
He then began to stumble towards the room, before breaking into a run, and diving into the fray. He felt his flesh tearing as things grabbed at him, and he fought his way to Azaroth, before he reached the core of the monster, piercing it with Seiki's blade.
The huge tentacle being screamed in agony, and suddenly a wave of energy was released from it, vaporising the symbol that was drawing the ghosts, before wiping them all out.
Leaving Arimus lying on the floor, bloodied and broken.
Ashes...
They fell like a snow on the figures around, covering them in a veil of grey. It mixed with blood and hid the black of their robes, coloring them in the dull colors of shadows. They settled on their heads and shoulders...
Shinobu and Haru, standing in the door, were too frozen to move. Half of the room was blasted away, windows were broken and floor shattered. That was surely the work of Blood-red Blossom in Seiki's clenched hands, still pulsing with light which was slowly disappearing. But the last surge of spiritual energy wasn't his. It had a completely different feeling...
What really just happened? What could create a blast of power so great?
"Done." Seiki's voice echoed in the emptiness. He stood almost at the edge of the now broken floor, staring into the distance with his sword, touching the floor. A stream of blood ran down from his torn gloves along the blade, dripping onto the floor.
A carnage.
Haru was the first to come back to her senses, and immediately rushed to Arimus, gesturing Shinobu to follow. However, Seiki stopped them. "Take him to the cell and lock him there." he instructed them coldly, not even bothering to look.
"But Seiki, like that-" Haru attempted to protest, but was immediately silenced.
"I will not repeat myself."
In Arimus' unconscious, a new war raged, one of rage, and sorrow. Thousands of years of sadness, fighting off the encroaching feeling of death. It was strange. He had never felt the cold embrace of death trying to take him before, and he wanted to give himself to it. To give himself up to this fate.
But then, in his mind, he found himself cold, alone, and with no rage or sorrow. He found himself in empty darkness, the inky black of everything around him making him feel small, but feeling that no matter where he went, he could keep going.
He studied this mental prison, and he began to wander.
Eventually, he came across the corpse of Azaroth, the being of his mind. The being of his curse. The being that caused him so much misery. He kicked Azaroth's corpse, and sent it flying. He was angry that he had been given the curse of endless life.
Eventually, he felt the world beginning to brighten, and hoped that he was regenerating, healing, so he could live out the rest of time in this endless misery.
"Seiki, that's dangerous! You can't just imprison someone that's-" Haru kept protesting, but Seiki's ears were deaf and eyes blind to her pleas.
"His actions were irresponsible. He caused it to himself, so let him suffer the consequences." he replied, and turned away, sheathing Blood-red Blossom, and leaving the room.
Shinobu gave her aunt a sad glance. "There isn't anything I can do, Haru... Without father, Seiki gives the orders here." she muttered.
"That's just madness. Because of his mood..." she shook her head. "You can't refuse someone medical help."
"If you are him, you can." she answered back bleakly.
But Haru was stubborn. She picked Arimus up, and on her arms carried him to her own room.
Arimus found the world in his mind turned white, and suddenly, he was no longer alone. He knew, somehow, that Azaroth couldn't hurt him anymore. Never again. And he knew that he could live in peace now.
And around him, stood the entire Adachi family he knew. Every single one. Shinobu, Seiki, Minoru, even Takuya. But to one side, stood Haru.
She took him to her own room even though Seiki forbade her to do it. How could she leave an injured man, and a member of the family, in a cell just because he broke a law?
Her own honor wouldn't allow her to do so, it was her duty to take care of the hurt, the sick, every one that needed that care. And Seiki's attitude was angering her... Takuya himself most likely wouldn't agree.
Heck, how moody that nephew of hers was.
And there she was, kneeling beside the bed she put him onto, in a room locked away from her own brother's son. Wasn't it a little... Pathetic?
He analysed the scene around him. Every Adachi, stood there. But, one by one, they disappeared, and he felt pain. Immense pain. He realised just how he cared, despite promising himself he wouldn't care. And in that solitary moment, his spirit broke, his resolve reduced to nothing under the power of loss.
Then he strengthened himself. He could feel that Azaroth was dead. There was nothing that he would let kill any of them. He would sacrifice himself before they died. That was his choice. That was his gift. To be able to protect them when no-one else could.
Then he woke up.
"Good evening, Arimus." Haru greeted him bleakly, noticing the change in his breath as he woke up. She was sitting on the floor and arranging a vase of flowers by the windows. It was getting dark, as the lanterns were already lit...
"I must warn you not to leave the room. We are practically runaways in our own house. Till Takuya returns, there is no way we can escape being imprisoned, as Seiki insist on it. However, till we remain here, we are safe. He will not enter... I know that." she informed him.
Arimus felt something over his left eye, and as he listened to Haru, he made note of checking what it was.
He reached one hand under his eye patch, and felt something glass, it was impossibly thin, yet unbelievably strong. He took it out, and saw it looked to contain the sigil of his curse, printed on glass.
He then spoke to Haru.
"He thinks that will stop me walking around? What will he do?"
"Bind you, and lock you up in the lowest cell. The Cell of a Thousand Tears." Haru answered him. That cell's very name was infamous - very few have been inside it, but it was said to be nearly impossible to escape. The very walls crush the spiritual powers, and they are entirely steep and smooth. The only entrance is from the ceiling, and that is, without a ladder, impossible.
"Yes, he would go that far. I myself am allowed to leave, but I have to be careful, his eyes are always on me. He's furious, I know it, even though he pretends not to be."
"Ha. He acts like solitary confinement is punishment for me. It's R&R really." Arimus stood up, hiding the contact lens. It was clearly made magically. No-one could forge glass that small.
"Have you ever-" Haru abruptly turned at him from the half-complete ikebana, and pierced him with the look of her grey eyes, "-been inside that cell? I hope not, and I hope you never will."
The Cell of a Thousand Tears was one rumored to bring men to insanity. Her father's younger brother has been imprisoned for twenty years... And it made him mad. Entirely. Since then, the cell was empty - for good.
She wanted it to stay empty.
"You don't get it, do you? I'm mad already. I've lived through being torn apart and burned alive. I can't get any worse. No horror will break me. No act will destroy me. I will continue." Arimus turned to one side, and took his eye patch off, to see if the world appeared in a different colour. It didn't. Then he turned to Haru, letting her look into both of his violet eyes.
"Besides. I feel better than I have in a long time."
"You have beautiful eyes, Arimus. It's a pity I only got to see them now." Haru replied silently. They really were beautiful - large, in a vibrant hue of dark lavender, just like hers had the color of cold stones in the stream of a river.
"Besides, Seiki is neither a god, nor a king. He can't command everyone around just because he happens to be the heir, and because he is a better fighter than the rest of us. He's got issues with his brain."
She bent her head back, and looked at Arimus like that, a little comical. "I wonder if he didn't accidentally damage his brain, not only liver and kidneys, back then twelve years ago."
"I don't think I do. I have the eyes of a man who has been cursed with immortality." Arimus rebuffed the comment. He didn't want any more attachment, but something made him want to hold her. That comment made an emotion stir in him, one that brought back pain and bad memories.
"He is but an insect to me. I can kill him if I so desire. He can die. I can't. He can tire. I can't. He can bleed. I can't." Arimus stated with a deathly serious tone. Then he stretched his muscles, and began to walk to the door. He wanted to go for a walk, and Seiki had no power to stop him.
Haru sighed, and returning to creating the ikebana. If someone was stubborn, there was no help to him. Fortunate was that Seiki was rarely outside his room at this time.
That didn't, however, stop Shinobu, carrying the tray with her food to her own room, from walking straight into him. She almost dropped the rice, fish, and a small bowl of something green onto the floor, staring at him like if she just had an incredible hallucination.
"Good grief, Arimus, don't walk so silent!" she hissed at him. It was quite the hypocritical comment from someone who walks like a cat herself.
Arimus' eyes analysed Shinobu, and every vicious thought was conveyed in his eyes. He looked at her as if she were his only meal in a thousand years, with a ravenous yearning for more.
"Sorry Shinobu. You get used to walking round like a ghost." He growled, and his eyes turned to the sword he had held earlier. It reminded him of his potential. His lethality, and he grinned with malice for life.
"It's a lovely sword. Mind running me through with it? I'm feeling rather bright, so I figure I should quell the feeling before you lot realise I have feelings, right?"
"Are you crazy? Nobody ever lends his Zanpakuto unless it's necessary!" Shinobu burst back, obviously offended by the very thought. She defensively shifted to hide the sheathed weapon behind her obi away from him, and frowned. "And I'm not stabbing you with it, either. No way."
She was unusually snapping today, immediately jumping into a defensive stance at the slightest sign of threat. Arimus was weird... Very, very weird, and she didn't like this attitude of his. His very face was unsettling to her...
"Now, now, what do you notice that is different from earlier? Look closely." Arimus smiled, letting her stare at both of his eyes, the curse lens in his pocket. He felt more powerful now, more free. Maybe he was still a bit blurry from the explosion earlier.
He waited for her to answer, tensing his arms repeatedly to try and at least begin to strengthen his muscles.
"Uhhh... Your eyes?" she asked, still frowning. Why was he asking her dumb questions like this? She was becoming slightly irritated with him. Arimus was being really, really strange today. Not only did he talk, but he talked about... Strange things.
She put both hands onto the edges of her food tray, and regained a bored expression that she had before bumping into him.
"Well done Shinobu. You know something, I think I deserve a prize." Arimus feinted a punch to her side, then followed through with a sweep and a take down scissor kick. He hoped she would be caught off guard and he could take the sword. He had enjoyed using the sword.
Shinobu frowned deeper as she deflected the punch, and moved away to get out of the range of the kick. The tray with food hit the floor, flipping the fish a few feet away, and she crossed her arms before her chest in a position, characteristic for a very high-level and complicated binding spell.
"Tenfold flame of an unyielding pyre, and all the light of the stars on a night sky. Number seventy-eight, bind." she growled through her clenched teeth. A half of an incantation, called out loud should magnify the effect, and bind Arimus down with ease.
As if to answer her call, ten white ropes started tying around him. Shinobu kept frowning. For once, she had to agree with Seiki...
Arimus began laughing as he felt the ropes bind, and he began to struggle, his muscles tearing and regenerating over and over, and even the strength of these ropes began to falter a little under the sheer power Arimus withheld. Not enough to break them yet.
"Oh, I've never felt better, haha!" He strained more, hoping to feel the ropes snap at some point soon.
Shinobu's purple eyes widened as he started breaking the spell, and she took a step back. An even stronger binding was needed... She took a breath and set her arms into a different position.
"The last crescent of the moon above the horizon. Three hundred crimson dragons that breathe their flame upon it, three thousand sparks that connect into chains. Number eighty-four, the burning phoenix, bind!" her voice grew louder over the incantation, and a couple of burning chains started materializing in the air. Their very sight seemed hellish, the irons bursting with flames. It was one of the most advanced spells she knew... Most creatures had no chance of ever breaking something like this.
The fire took on the form of a burning bird, enveloping Arimus' figure with its wings. She wondered if it was really necessary to use something this powerful... She could even get punished for the use of high-level Kido within the residence...
As if it was the answer to her questions, a dark, tall figure appeared behind her. "So this is the cause of the sudden commotion. I have to remind you that the use of mid- and high-level spells inside is forbidden." A well-known cold voice resonated in the room. She looked over her shoulder to see Seiki's figure looking down at her with a question in his eyes.
"It was an emergency. He attacked me. I attempted using a less powerful spell at the start, but it failed." she explained sternly. Seiki - for it was no one else than him - nodded. His eyes narrowed.
"Very well." he proclaimed, and watched over her and Arimus. Endless hate seemed to flash through the midnight blue of his irises as his glance sled over the butler, but that disappeared soon, leaving nothing but a spark of disdain and disgust.
"Oh, that's why I feel so alive..." Arimus began muttering a spell that turned the very air heavy with dread, and thunder resounded outside.
"Break the 9th circle of hell, and watch as heaven comes crashing down with it..." Arimus began to push against the flames, and with his strength and regeneration, endured the burns, walking through the fiery restraint.
"That little voice in my head is back. And he's giving me some very fancy spells." A black flame jumped into his hand, and from it, a black longsword formed.
"Meet Ragnarok. MY zanpakuto."
Shinobu instinctively stepped back, just to bump into Seiki, and feel the handle of Blood-red Blossom between her shoulderblades. That made her back up further, stepping behind Seiki himself. If something could break a level eighty-four spell...
The sight of her brother still calmed her. Seiki could handle this... He's dealt with things that should have killed him, and emerged unscathed. Yes, he will deal with it...
"If you really wish to fight, I will gladly accept. But not within the walls of this house." Seiki replied to Arimus' threat. As usually, he didn't consider his opponent worth his precious time.
Arimus took his sword and smiled.
"Gladly. Wouldn't want to get any more blood on the carpet..." Arimus began walking away. The voice in his head needed to go away, and it was already driving him to insanity. If he could just get blown up or something, he would be fine. Or if someone would stab him.
Hell, the only reason he was going outside was to get stabbed.
The sakura gardens were, unlike the most calm times, now shaken by a fierce wind that ripped the blossoms off the branches, and they whirled around Seiki's figure, swiftly moving through and away from the house. They have already destroyed his room, there was no need to wreck anything else.
He took his stance when he thought they were far enough from the residence, and greeted Arimus with an ice-cold impression. The blade, which has been sheathed while they walked, now once again gleamed in his hands, hidden in white. The pair of gloves covering their backs was like the crescent of moon upon the darkness of the night when they gripped the black sheath.
Slowly, he raised the blade in his right hand, and pointed it at Arimus, still not saying a word.
Arimus struggled to fight the demon in his mind, the problem of his curse, and a million other things, while the demon decided to wage a battle against Seiki.
He tried desperately to fight the power of the curse, the desire to kill. But the curse, it's power, was winning.
"I want to make a deal... You win, and I will sit in the cell of a thousand tears, and argue endlessly with Arimus over who deserves this body. I win, and I get Haru as my trophy..." Azaroth flourished the sword in a wide, wild swing, grinning madly.
"So, do we have a deal?"
Such an offer was, for Seiki, infuriating. Off course, he wouldn't let it show, but he was angered that he even dared to say something like that.
"My father's sister is no one's trophy. If you win, I will not pursue you anymore. Accept that, or begone, and don't you ever show your face before me again." The way he spoke radiated with distaste, although his outside was calm and collected.
This wasn't the Arimus he knew... Something took over him. Though, whatever it was, Seiki wouldn't put Haru on a bet in a thousand years.
"If I win, I won't leave you alive to stop me. You will tire and die. I won't. I, Azaroth, am immortal, so long as Arimus lives, I will plague him." Azaroth grinned, and felt a mask forming on his face, one of shadow and death. It was his mask (http://images.wikia.com/bleachfanfiction/images/a/a5/Lion_mask.jpg). His power.
He charged Seiki, moving at blinding speed, before seemingly teleporting away, snarling.
"Arimus is trying to hold me back... You must be one he cares about... I will crush you for that reason alone." He charged again, taking a powerful upward swing against Seiki, hoping to make contact with either sword or flesh.
Seiki could see every step Arimus took, and he knew that he could evade the strike that was sent at him. It was slow and obvious... Definitely no match for him.
With a set of lightning-fast steps, he got far from the place where the strike would land, and while Arimus would remain stunned from the landing, he could strike him.
He charged forth at a speed that made his very form seem nothing but a blur, and pointed Blood-red Blossom forth for a deadly strike right under his opponent's ribs, one that would impale him and momentarily incapacitate. He could then exploit this moment of vulnerability, slice the head off, and destroy it.
Seiki was too fast for even Azaroth to comprehend, and he found himself lagging as the half-blood warrior pierced his torso.
"Ow..." Azaroth tried to pull the sword away from Seiki's hands, but found himself stuck.
Then he went to strangle Seiki, dropping his sword. If he could strangle this son of a bitch, he could kill him, and take what he wanted. None of them could kill him. He was a god to them. A complete, unfaltering god!
He pulled himself further onto the blade, the sound of bone scraping metal truly sickening as he did so.
Seiki backed up before the hands that reached after him, pulling the sword out. He wasn't getting strangled... Fresh and full of strength not.
With a flashing step, he got behind the back of what was Arimus' body, but with a different mind in control. His plan was working out...
He whirled at his opponent maybe even faster than before. The wide arch his sword, swinging though the air, made was aimed at the neck of the figure before him. It would be strong enough to slice a wall in half - even though Arimus was not as dense as one.
None could beat him in battle. Not even his father.
Arimus took advantage of the decapitation to take Azaroth out of control, and instead of regenerating, the body just dropped and laid there, and in Arimus' mind, a huge battle raged, as he beat Azaroth slowly into submission.
When the body began regenerating, a purple glow shone out of the eye, indicating that the curse was there again, although it would take a few minutes to come into effect this time.
When Arimus stood up, he placed his eyepatch on, and look disdainfully at Seiki.
"I'm not cleaning your sword for you."
"I would not allow you to lay a hand on it." Seiki replied in his usual icy manner, giving him a comparably disdainful look of his dark eyes. Off course, he was victorious. It didn't take the flick of a brow... Arimus wasn't a match to him.
"Get back to your work. It is your duty to repair what you destroyed." he instructed him sharply after turning away and walking back into the residence, waving his hand at the destroyed part of the house. "Then, I expect to see you before the cells. Do not disappoint me again."
"Of course. Nazbara." The word evoked the sound of wind, and the house reassembled, the broken pieces fusing together again, in exactly the place it normally was.
"But I'm not going in the cells. I refuse. I have superiority through age here, Seiki, and I am the backup now. Even when your father is around, I still hold much more experience, wisdom and ability than you. Thus, I will decide when I go the cells. And I refuse." Arimus stood up straight, trying to resume a nonchalant attitude, but he found it difficult again. He couldn't figure out why.
"Why don't you show me experience and judgement that matches what I know you're capable of? Then, if you still deem it necessary, I will go to the cells. But right now, you are trying to be cool, and detached. Don't."
"You broke a law. You put all of us into danger by your foolish actions, done out of childish spite." Seiki responded, and kept walking. Arguing with Arimus had no point. "You acted both against the laws, established in this household, and against the will of my father and me. In Takuya's absence, I take his place, and his absolute responsibility and authority. What do you not understand on breaking the law?"
He was just a butler. A honorary member. He didn't have the status he, as the heir of the clan, possessed. Age meant nothing in that case. For Seiki, Arimus's words had no weight. If it was possible, he would order his execution.
That, however, did not mean he was right.
"If a man is starving, is he not allowed to steal to survive? Must he accept his fate rather than commit wrong? If a man's family are threatened, should he not be allowed to fight his attacker, to kill them if necessary? It is against the law to steal or kill, and yet, some are allowed to, because their circumstances demand it. I would argue that my case was much the same as the second example. I admit, you are heir, but you are arrogant, too set in your ways. You would kill a man who stole to save himself. You need to learn leniency, to understand." Arimus bowed to Seiki.
"Now, I shall return to my duties. Good day Seiki." Arimus rudely began to walk off, clearly not believing that Seiki could possibly understand the reasoning of Arimus, who, himself, was immortal.
"Your case was not the same. You used a piece of spirit bait out of simple spite. How can you justify that?" he spoke silently as Arimus passed by. Something so low was going against all his principles, and his blood was rising at the thought, and yet he retained a calm face.
Arimus couldn't understand. He simply didn't possess the qualities that would grant him that kind of understanding.
He wasn't going to bother with it any further. He made his way straight into Takuya's work hall. If his words could not convince the butler, his father's could. And when he was not there, a letter could surely pass the words on.
"Haru, would you care to accompany me?" Arimus offered. He wanted her company above anything at the moment. He couldn't say why. But he liked Haru.
And for that, he wanted to spend time with her.
"I just feel a bit of company would be nice." He waited for her response, ignoring Seiki completely.