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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 30, 2017 1:23:12 GMT -6
"Seeking Another Voice": (continued) A few minutes later, Yumiko sat at the table in the tearoom with her hands in her lap. She was the guest. Though she had offered to help, Kouen had insisted. The fact that she had come without warning didn't matter to him either. And he had said it wouldn't have mattered to his mother either. It had taken a few minutes, but he had won the short argument. Unlike Lord Takuro Ozaki. Yumiko stood and looked out over the courtyard.
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 30, 2017 7:27:16 GMT -6
Kouen reentered the tea room his hands full, Koko following behind him, her hands full as well. He was wearing a big bright smile as he looked to Yumiko. "Hope you're hungry." Kouen told her.
"The cook made too much. He though everyone was home." Kouen chuckled. "That's alright though. More for us." He started placing thing he had on the tray to the table. Koko kneeling at the table side doing the same thing as she placed plates and chopsticks on the table as well.
When she was done she rose and bowed to the couple. "I will return with your tea, Kouen-sama."
Kouen looked up from what he was doing and smiled at Koko. "Thank you, Koko." She exited the room as Kouen looked to Yumiko, he was still smiling brightly. "She is so sweet."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 30, 2017 14:16:37 GMT -6
“That seems to be a prerequisite of your family,” Yumiko replied quietly. “I’m not surprised to find it equally true in those who serve you.” At that moment, her own stomach growled loudly and she blushed, setting a hand on her belly.
"Excuse me," she muttered.
Kouen laughed. “Sounds like you need fuel as badly as I do,” he declared. “Let me get you a plate, and then we’ll talk. Good food makes talking easier; at least it did for me when our father died.”
Yumiko decided to forgo the argument that she could serve herself when he looked up with a daring light in his eyes and sat down again, rubbing her belly. “How’s your sister today?”
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 30, 2017 17:55:23 GMT -6
"She is doing a lot better. Complaining she wants to go to the Fall Festival." He shook his head, "I don't know if Byakuya-sama will give in or not. He has gotten rather protective of her as of late."
Finally getting her plate set up he handed it to her, he then made his and sat down across from her. "So," he looked at her. "Tell me all about this fantastic starting day that crashed and burned at your feet?"
She giggled softly at his choice of words. "Alright, maybe it was not that bad." He shrugged his shoulders. "Though if you think about it... You were not with me, so it was bound to turn out to be a bad day somewhere along the way."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 30, 2017 22:36:23 GMT -6
Yumiko shook her head with a larger smile. It was hard not to cheer up with the ease in which Kouen Masanobu fired off both passes at her and more compliments about himself. It was like birdsong or laughter after a long summer storm. She couldn't help but be caught up in the light tones or respond to it. She hesitated and then dared to ask something, trying to keep a straight face, at the same time. “Are you always this self-absorbed after the first successful meeting, Kouen-san?”
Kouen smiled slyly at her. "Of course not. I am always this self-absorbed." He chuckled lightly giving her a wink and took a bite of his food.
Yumiko laughed softly and took a bite of stir fried vegetables. "You're impossible. Why didn't I see that before?"
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 30, 2017 23:08:25 GMT -6
Kouen looked over his cup at her as he smiled from behind it. "But you like it. That's why you keep coming back. Right?" He took a drink and set it back to the table. "So now tell me. What's the issue with your day?"
Yumiko's mood sobered. He was so different from everyone else she had met, but she could talk to him. She hoped that wouldn't change. "I received a proposition of marriage. After some discussion, he withdrew the offer and called me a fool, unladylike, and said I was stepping out of my place." She set her food down.
"Who was this?" Kouen looked at her with a shocked looked. "You don't just ask a woman you don't know for her hand in marriage."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 31, 2017 0:33:19 GMT -6
Yumiko sighed and lifted her teacup, taking a slow sip and savoring the flood or warmth and soothing spices. The urge to cry again faded. Though she knew her emotions were still tender. “It doesn't matter who. I am a high noble’s daughter. That is the fate that was scripted for me.” She looked away. “I was set to marry someone before I was locked away. And then the first time I returned to Soul Society after Las Noches, I was set up again, this time with the man you are starting to call father. Until he, the late commander and Ukitake stepped up against it in my circumstances.”
She paused. “I didn’t mind, at first. This time. I thought I had lost all standing. But I was unsure if I wanted to follow that path." She took a breath. "And I spoke of my reasons as they came to me. I hadn't even considered the future, but the reasons, to consider my own path,” she clenched her hands against her kimono over her stomach, “to try and find a way to help against the threat of Aizen, was the wrong answer. I should give birth and put the war from my mind. It was out of bounds.”
She raised her head. “After everything, is that what they still want from me? To birth this child and become a suitable wife?” she demanded. “When I have Mizue no Kagami? When I can still help? When I’ve already become a part of this war? Do they STILL think I can go back to what I was bred to be before anything of it happened?”
She lowered her head, face heating up with shame, both at her outburst and the event. “I was told to leave. Dismissed. Before the meal."
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 31, 2017 1:01:18 GMT -6
Kouen sighed shaking his head. "I really hate Nobles." With his words Yumiko looked quickly up at him. He laughed sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Don't take me wrong now, Yumiko. You're a smart girl; figure it out."
He shook his head, "what the hell is life given to us for if we can't live? Fall in love, and fight for what we believe in? The noble rules and laws strip all that away. PFT! I say kiss my shiny tone ass. Is what I say." He reached over and took her hand in his.
"I will agree with one thing on this topic with you." She looked at him. "Forget Las Noches, forget the war you fought before. Because the next war will be nothing like it. It will be worse and you don't need scars on top of scars and when the war comes to us again. Raise your sword and fight for what you love. Protect what is yours and never have second thoughts about if it is proper or not because you are a Noble woman. Because when the time comes all social statuses will be erased. We will stand side by side to fight that bastard. And our heritage will mean nothing to the ones spilling our blood."
He squeezed her hand gently. "Don't chase your past, Yumiko. It's in the past for a reason. Lift your head and moved forever forward. In doing that you have less chance of stumbling and falling."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 31, 2017 1:41:32 GMT -6
She turned her hand to take his. “I don’t hate my heritage or my family. There are good nobles and there are …. less desirable ones,” she sighed. “And some of the rules were created to place us apart to keep our blood pure. For the sake of protecting the realms. And there were some things I learned as a noble I probably wouldn’t have somewhere else. Calligraphy and arts are electives, but we grew up with them.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m torn, but what happened today…. stung. I felt like a cloud was lifting from my eyes…. and then I was scolded …. looked down at with a mixture of anger and pity, almost as I am observed in some places still because of the past. But this time…. I didn’t do anything to deserve it.”
“In fact, I was trying to erase what I did wrong last time. I want to stand against the past that nearly destroyed me, protect others as someone did me …. I want to be someone my child can go stand beside, not just protect…. I …. can’t go back, but does the way forward have to hurt too?”
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 31, 2017 12:53:40 GMT -6
Kouen shrugged his shoulders. "I can't tell you what to do, Yumiko. I can only give you the advice I believe and live by. My family lives by two sets of rules and laws. The Assassins and the Nobles. I for one do not follow all the rules and laws of the Nobles I refuse to. Dividing us just because of a bloodline or wealth is foolish. We all bleed the same color of blood, we all cry when we get hurt and we all fear when what we love is in danger."
He pushed his plate away only half eaten. "What we know knowledge wise is nothing. Because there is other knowledge out there we refuse to learn because it is of the ones Nobles call street rats, trash, our enemies. What they know is just as important to know as what we are taught and learn, and another knowledge we dare not learn is the very knowledge that keeps destroying us." Kouen sighed shaking his head. "The knowledge of darkness."
He stood and started clearing his dishes. "Until the people stop being so narrow minded they will never see what I speak of. No matter how long they have lived."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 31, 2017 13:20:52 GMT -6
Yumiko retrieved her own food and started to eat as she considered Kouen's words. She couldn't just dismiss her heritage like he did, and she wasn't welcome on the streets of the Rukongai most of the time. If she was with others, those with a grudge usually left her alone. But unless she wanted to do more than defend herself with the bare minimum of strength, it wasn't safe there. And darkness...
It was the second time he had mentioned the need to understand that. But she didn't wish to understand that anymore than she had from experience.
Yumiko lifted her head and then lowered it again, second guessing her decision to discuss the darkness again now. "I hope I didn't turn you away from your meal, Kouen-san. I apologize if that was the case."
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 31, 2017 13:47:04 GMT -6
Kouen sighed his free hand combing through his loose hair. "Yumiko, I am not telling you to turn away from your heritage. What I am telling you is to embrace what you believe in. Follow what you know is truth. You have lived long enough to see what this realm is. You have lived through things others fear to even think of. Just because you believe differently than another does not make you the enemy. It's how you act on it, but not acting on it at all will make you an enemy of yourself. Which is where you have yourself right now. You are so unsure of where you want to be in life and so worried about what others think. You don't know who you are anymore."
He walked toward the tearoom door. "Stop worrying about about others think and live your life as you see fit. If they don't like it, tough shit." He left to return his dishes to the kitchen.
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 31, 2017 15:27:43 GMT -6
Yumiko lowered her chopsticks as Kouen left with that declaration that so boldly illustrated her feelings and predicament. She didn’t realize that the tangle of emotions that had risen in her at Takuro’s accusations were all from one source of stress. The question: What did she want for her future after everything that had happened?
“Blunt as always,” she chuckled quietly.
She started eating again as she continued to think on the matter, her words to the lord of the Ozaki clan and what has passed through her mind as her anger had gotten out of control in her reiteration to Kouen. She’d started teaching as a means to take her mind off of her misery from waiting for someone who had claimed her heart, but in the short time she had taken up the role, she had enjoyed the opportunity. It also gave her a chance to bridge the gap between her and others.
Her chopsticks paused over a piece of pork. There was another matter to consider, too. If she were to stop worrying about the past, did that mean she should stop avoiding the Gotei? She looked to Mizue no Kagami on her hip. Her mind wandered.
Until Misao’s child kicked her. She smiled and continued her meal.
Wondering how to repay Kouen for speaking to her even if it ruined his appetite.
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Post by Kouen Masanobu on Jan 31, 2017 15:55:26 GMT -6
Kouen walked back in the room seeing Yumiko still eating. He smiled warmly at her and sat back down across from her. He said nothing just watched her eat, waiting until she was done with her meal. Even if he could not finish his, he was not going to deprive a pregnant woman of her nutrients. The growing child inside of her needed that far worse than he did.
When she finished and pushed her plate away and looked to Kouen he nodded. "Would you like more?"
Yumiko shook her head. "No, thank you. I'm full now." She smiled. "Thank you for being a gentleman and keeping me company."
He smiled kindly at her as he reached across the table and patted her hand. "You're always welcome here, Yumiko. No matter the reason and I will always be willing to lend a helpful hand or ear if you need them."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jan 31, 2017 17:32:24 GMT -6
"Thank you. You've been a wonderful help. Again." She giggled. "And this time, you even kept the tears away. I was certain I was going to cry again." She paused, hesitating, and then stroked her stomach. "Kouen-san, can I ask for your opinion on one more matter? Without ruining your next meal?"
Kouen chuckled and nodded his head. "Yes you know you can. What do you need?"
"Many people see the past and don't trust me. On the streets. In the Gotei. But I don't hear about it as much with the students." She laced her hands together as unease crept up on her. "How do I replace that? Or is it something I can only do so much against? And I should stay away in order to not upset the ranks?" She blushed and lifted her lukewarm cup of coffee. "Sorry, that's two questions."
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