Who Are You Without The Mask?

[Anadwen]

"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.

[Brisinger987]

"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?"

[Anadwen]

"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.

[Brisinger987]

"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.

[Anadwen]

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.

[Brisinger987]

"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."

[Anadwen]

"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?"

[Brisinger987]

"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."

[Anadwen]

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.

[Brisinger987]

"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."

[Anadwen]

"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!"

[Brisinger987]

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!"

[Anadwen]

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.

[Brisinger987]

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.

[Anadwen]

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.

[Brisinger987]

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.

[Anadwen]

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.

[Brisinger987]

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."

[Anadwen]

"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.

[Brisinger987]

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.