Chương 5: Her Story (Part 1)

Seele sighed. Deeply, as if she was frustrated about the existence she found herself in.

She was already bored about interacting with other human beings, especially most of the ones that were the same age group as her.

Their lifes were bland, boring and uninspiring for Seele.

Day in and day out they were fishing for achievments, titles in their lifes, without even looking back at them to be proud at them, they were just looking at them as if it was the most natural thing in the world to get them.

Ther goals were shallow and so were them.

Going to school on the day, comparing each others grades under them, mocking their friends if they didn't achieve the usual grade.

After school wasn't any better, cram school, some random practice that would look good on their resume, strict parents observing their every step to see if the knowledge was up to expectations.

Seele looked at them and saw nothing but achieving for the sake of a random title they could pin on themselves, no passion, no dedication, no drive, just moving forward and grabbing everything that was grabbable.

From what she got after comprehending the words of a higher being, was that they were young.

Young indeed, even for lifeforms whose life is predetermined to end before they could reach the two centurie mark, they were young.

Just a bit more than a decade and yet they are expected to know an almost equal amount of knowledge as their parents and for what? Just to forget most of it again, never using it again.

Don't misunderstand, she didn't hate the gathering of knowledge, after all knowledge was also a strength and the more you had of it, the better it was.

But what use was a blade that you would drop again, neglecting it, never to be used again?

The adults weren't any better, bragging to their 'friends' about the achievements of their children, with the cost of their happiness, it wasn't always like that, but it was most of the time so.

She sighed once again.

There was no point about contemplating about all of that. If she didn't like it, she would deny it, after all she had the ability to do so, who would dare to stand in her way and look down on her, whose who did landed in hospital sooner or later.

She sat up from her bed, yawning.

Her body felt a bit stiff, she didn't had the opportunity to do much, since she was suspended from school and grounded for what she did.

She chuckled.

She was set up, all she did was dodge a blow from a kid that tried messing with her. The fist landed on the concrete wall behind her and he broke his fist because of it.

Of course it didn't end with that, that boy insisted that she was the one that broke his fist and so she got suspended from school for a couple of days.

Upon her return to school these kids pestered her as if they managed to grab onto a weakness of hers, mocking her, asking 'if she reflected on her mistakes'.

Seele ignored what they said, they weren't worth her time.

Provoked from her being so nonchalant about this whole situation angered him, it angered him beyond any reason, but Seele just couldn't be bothered with this.

Just an immature soul in a low world, thinking that he was someone important, reaching for something that he doesn't want to, in a way that is wrong.

It was obvious that he had a crush on her, but of course he himself didn't realize it, coupled with the strong belief of his strict parents that children shouldn't get distracted andthat it was 'predestined' that his school career will continue with Kunugigaoka Junior High School made him numb to his own desires.

But of course Seele couldn't be bothered with something like that, it was incomprehensible for her.

She who knew what she wanted to do in this life, coupled with the fact that she knew about a fracture of the truth of the world couldn't bring herself to care for someone that is squandering his life away for the sake people that insist just on filial piety and abuse the love that a child has to their parents.

She was slightly disgusted thinking about this, how warped this was and that fool thinks that he is happy.

Seele cracked her knuckles, before she punched the concrete pillar in her room, leaving a visible fist mark on it.

"How weak he is, breaking his knuckles on something like concrete."

Sadly, the incident didn't end with just that. Of course that idiot just couldn't stop thinking about her, mistaking his love for her bothering him.

And so he gathered some of his 'friends' to threaten her, to stop bother him.

After that one thing followed another and at the end all of them lay face-first on the ground with him peeing his pants.

This resulted in her suspension from school, for an undetermined amount of time and the rumour that she was 'shanking her bullies for money', even though they just threw that at her.

Seele smiled softly, simply because she couldn't help but to laugh, with how things turned out, her parents started blaming themself for raising her wrong and wondering where they went wrong with their education.

Maybe she should have resolved her parents worries with talking about it all with them, but she was still very shy with talking, not because she couldn't or was actually shy about it, but because her mouth just couldn't follow her brain process at some times, resulting in just incoherent mumbling out of her mouth.

That's why she tried to only say few sentences, so her mouth can catch up with what her brain wants it to say.

Anyways, here indefinite suspension from school resulted in a lot of free time she got because of it, she decided to fill the time with some night strolls, even getting a new sense of fashion in the process of it.

At some point she just bought a leather jacket at a random street vendour at night, at first she was confused at how to put a jacket over a kimono, any kind of jacket, but after fiddling with the sash and the hem for a while she managed to put the jacket on in a comfortable manner.

She kind of liked what she saw in the mirror and afterwards bought a shit-ton of all kinds of high quality jackets to go alongside her kimonos.

The surprise on her parents face after they were delivered to her home was comedic, she was supposed to stay home, but she didn't really care about that. In her mind, she didn't do anything particularly wrong, so she decided to go against the words of her parents.

For her, this was a great choice. She enjoyed it, walking out in the night of the city, seeing things that kids her age normally never would see.

The empty living districts, desolate of any human beings out in the street, only occasionaly seeing the businesman, coming home late after having to spend their time on nomikai, nobody waiting ofr them at home.

The lack of any cars in this time of night, being able to walk freely in the middle of the street without any consequences.

The construction sides that were left alone, being able to walk in them without worry, shouting her lungs out.

The fun places she couldn't enter in the day, because she would get scolded for that if someone saw her enter in broad daylight.

Just all the silence was enjoyable for Seele. In this time she seemed free, free from all the shit people were spouting in the day, free from all of these nagging adults, acting as if they knew what they were talking about, free from all these willless puppets, just getting pulled along the puppet-player named 'society'.

The corners of her mouth started to twitch a bit up, a rare smile was about to spread on her face, it wasn't a strong one, going from across all of her face, instead it was a soft smile, showing a bit of satisfaction.

Night was so much fun for her and that didn't exclusively count for the deep nights were everything started closing, but the 24-hour konbini stores.

The times where night business also were kind of fun.

The dazzling, colourful neon signs, shop employess advertising for their shop right in front of them, adults getting drunk with silly smiles on their face, going around the streets, celebrating and the occasional young brat that thought they were fitting into this nightly scene.

It might have been a bit obscene and more often than not a bit disgusting, but at times she found walking around here more enjoyable than interacting with all the people in her age group.

Watching them talk about dreams that weren't theirs, thinking that what their parents told them is what they want and where there hapiness lies, seeing as they think that they are so mature and educated.

They never thought about what they wanted, they never truly learnt something out of their own volution, all they ever did was struggling to get good grades on their tests, learn for them and think that they would actually matter some time outside of school, or just even outside of the grades they want to graduate from.

But walking alongside all these people in the night showed her the complete opposite. People that followed their desires without any kind of restraint, getting drunk, harassing women, taking drugs, gambling, and all kinds of other vulgar things played out in the night.

The night gave them a cover, a bit of a safety blanket in their mind, because in the past, the dark obscured the people, so they would less likely get spotted with the things they are doing. Because it was night the same type of people gathered, thinking that they were safe, because the same kind of people gathered they think what they are doing is slightly less illegal, because they were in a group they would think that they would get away with things.

The night, or better said, the dark truly showed the ugly desires humanity had.

She truly found this scene in front of her absolutely, totally, incredibly...

...utterly disgusting.

She enjoyed the honesty to their desires, but desire running rampant without much restraint was bad, especially with humans.

Once humans let their desires and instincts ran rampant they are worse than animals, simply because humans have a mind to work with they can create things that just enhanced all of these desires, because they had a mind they could fullfill their desires in a way an animal could never hope to even comprehend, because they had a working mind they were different from animals.

For a moment, she suddenly stopped walking and sighed.

"The distinction of human to animal is only their intellect, yet they only use the only tool that makes them think that they are better than them to do things that are more animilastic than what animals could only hope to dream of."

Surprised by her sudden halt and monologue, her pursuers stopped moving and whispered among themself.

"Come out, I know that you've been following me since a while now."

Seeing how their pursuit was pointless the entire time, the people that followed her decided to walk out of their hidng places, they seemed like hired mercenaries.

"Sigh, as expected of my relatives. Hiring people to come after me, not even planning to simply leave it with my death, but also trying to break me. Why else would you have brought so many kinds of drugs and tools to tie me up with you? To think that they would use my body to get additional profit. They truly are just animals, after the name of the Fujou clan."

Her pursuers were startled at the words she uttered. She was just barely a pre-teen, yet she was already aware of the internal conflicts of her family and knows what her position is.

"Young Miss, we don't want to make things too complicated, so please cooperate with us."

She laughed softly, the man in front of her were confused, but they all felt a slight tingle run down their spines.

"And who do you think you are to say that you can make me cooperate?"

The hearts of the three men sank into their pants the moment they heard her say that with the most ominous smile they saw in their life.

But of course they didn't back down, they were trained assassins and she was just one girl, all by her lonesome.

What could she do against them?

Sadly, they underestimated the violent tendencies that were hidden inside her soul, despte being reforged...

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Seele woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling...

...and realized that she was at the main Fujou residence, the place where her grandparents currently lived in.

She breathed out in relief, so she managed to return home safely.

Was what she believed, but the moment she stood up she felt how her body just hurt all over. Great, the fight was as tough, if not even tougher than expected.

Trying to get up from the bed she noticed that the pain...

...was honestly lesser than expected.

Yes, she how her body was stinging all over, as if she was getting pricked by needles over and over again, but it was only to that level, just a rather big annoyance.

Just as she fully stood up did she notice that her body was bandaged all over, how curious.

"Grandma, you are really skilled with your bandage technique, could you teach me it later?"

Surprised that her grandaughter noticed her peeking through the door, she decided to enter.

"Why later, if I can teach you it now?"

Hearing her grandmothers reply, Seele was surprised, she would have expected that she would have asked what she did last night to come back in such an injured state, but she did not.

Instead she decided to follow the conversation and teach her how to properly bandage someone.

"What are you staring holes into the air for? You wanted to be taught."

Seele smiled upon the reaction of her grandmother, as strict and disciplined as usual, but with a hint of happiness.

And so the morning was slowly spent with her wrapping bandages around little puppets that were made for this exercise.

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Sitting on the breakfast table, Seele was enjoying her food.

It tasted great, it really did, better than most luxury restaurants she ever tasted in her life, which were a lot. Because she was the young lady of an influental family and her parents like to spoil her she experienced many pleasures in life most people could only dream to achieve.

Despite the decline of the Fujou family, they still had a lot of money. Enough money to last her for about three generations, that was if she partied for the rest of her life, now imagine how long that money would last if she decided to run away with it and live a frugal life.

Way too much money to be able to ever spend it all in one life.

Sadly that was also one of the reasons why her uncles and aunts and whatever tried to get rid of her. She was already the guaranteed successor of the Fujou-clan, so obviously she was in the way if they wanted to get that position.

Money, influence, maybe even fame, that was what these fools hoped to get from the Fujou main family position.

Seele couldn't help, but smirk. These fools didn't even remotely know what this position even entailed.

The tasks of the side branches of the clan, was just to look like a normal influental family after all, but with the advance of society and many side families rising in status with their own corporate empires, the Fujou clan couldn't hold them any longer.

They went independant and made a name of their own.

So, most of the competent families already left the Fujou family and only the useless, incompetent, retarded, shameless, back-stabbing stragglers left.

Idiots that didn't even know why the Fujou house was so influental in the first place and what it meant to be the head of the clan.

Their task was to do the dirty work of the current ruler of the country, that was their task since ancient times , even as their family were still just shinto priests.

That didn't change even in modern times, now they were members of the underground scene, working for the government.

A heavy and dangerous responsibility that got handed to the head of the family, which will be her position to take in the future.

And these fools coveted this seat. They would die the moment they find out what their job was.

If that wasn't supposed to be funny, than nothing will be.

"Seele, your parents will come to take you back home by three."

Said a voice from behind her. Seele looked behind herself, to the source of the sound, just to see that it was her grandfather, coming from the other room

Seele just nodded as a reply to the informaation her grandfather just gave her.

It was understandable, she was supposed to stay home after all and she did in fact 'run away from home' and so her parents would be worried to death since last night when she didn't return home.

She started to sweat, she was pretty sure that her parents were worried to death and will scold her massively, yet she felt happy.

She felt happy that she got such loving parents in this life, but still there was still something that nagged her mind, mainly...

"Aren't I in trouble for what happened yesterday evening?"

...about the thing she did last night, probably killing these men.

She was worried about how her grandfather would react upon her question. She broke the rules of the families martial arts.

That was to never kill someone immediately, a corpse would bring trouble, no matter the person and as such the techniques were made to beat someone within an inch of their life.

She was worried that she might have lost control and killed them yesterday, this was a simple deduction on her part, considering the fact that she simply couldn't remember what happened after she encountered them.

Seele was sweating bullets, worried what punishments would await her, but she could have never guessed what would happen next.

After her question, her grandfather had a surprised expression for a split second on his face, before he turned around and walked into the room he came in again.

Followed by a thundering laugh from the other room.

Seele was surprised about what happened, never in her life did she expect such a reaction coming from her grandfather.

She felt a bit flustered by the reaction of her grandfather, mainly because she asked a serious question and her grandfather just seemed to be amused by it.

She sighed, this reminded her too much about the first day she was at the residence.

She acted all cutesy, asking him to teach her the families martial arts and swords techniques. This resulted in her grandfather suddenly breaking out laughing because of her unexpected request.

That was understandable is some way, considering what directly played out in front of him just a minute ago, that was threatening one of her useless aunts.

She was still embarassed thinking back to that day, too embarassed to talk, Seele waited for her grandfather to calm down.

When all of a sudden she felt something cold on her cheek. She flinched a bit at the stinging feeling on her cheek, but she knew what was happening.

Her grandmother was simply just holding a jug of iced tea against her cheek, she was offering her some of it.

Seele nodded, gracefully accepting the cooling drink, before taking a sip from it.

Happy that her granddaughter accepted the drink, she decided to sit opposite of her, also taking a glass of the refreshing beverage.

"Little Seele, don't be too flustered. That is just how you grandfather is."

The only reaction she got was that the child tilted her head cutely to the side, she chuckled seeing this.

The child seemed mature, but she knew that her granddaughter was just a bit awkward and embarassed about finding ways to do something.

"That old man is just laughing his ass of, because his granddaugther in her early teens just beat a bunch of trained mercenaries. He just can't get over the fact what happened yesterday."

"What happened to them?"

She was surprised, surprised that her granddaughter chose to 'waste' some of her precious words to people like that.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because no matter how bland or vile a life is, it shouldn't be taken away lightly, no matter what."

Taken aback by the mature words of her granddaughter, she stopped drinking her tea for a moment.

She thought about her for a moment and sighed. That child was a bit too mature for her own sake.

"Seele, are you enjoying you childhood properly?"

Looking at her grandmother, Seele was contemplating the meaning of her question, coming to the conclusion that she was worried about her.

"Always did."

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Talking things with her grandfather through, Seele found out that the men yesterday were all just severely incapitated.

Hearing this, Seele let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't a murderer. Yet.

She was glad about that, a life always had so much potential.

Even the tiniest of microbes could reach the realms of gods that govern existance itself, even if that probability is zero, it wasn't yet zero.

That probability was only remotely reachable in an imaginary space, just like how imaginary numbers worked.

But even if such probabilities are at best imaginary, a life rarely is ever meant to grasp the true nature of existence, ignoring all the stuff about ascending and everything, a life had so much potential, always even in it's tiniest form.

Through evolution it manages to overcome themself and form the most optimal vessel, through intellect it can reach even newer heights, using mysteries to learn the truth, through the desire to overcome it reaches new heights when they manage to climb over an obstacle.

No matter how insignificant it is, Seele swore to herself to never disrespect any form of life.

Something a normal cultivator never would be able to get in their head, no matter what.

"What will you do with these men?"

"You decide."

"Huh?"

Seele was surprised, baffled that her grandfather suddenly gave her the responsibility over this decision made her unable to reply.

"You are the one that defeated them and brought them here afterwards. As a Fujou, and more importantly being the future head of the clan, you should be able to make decisions like this."

Still stunned, Seele needed to process what her grandfather just said and nodded at her grandfather.

Calming considerably to be able to make a sound decision, Seele turned around to the mercenaries.

"So, you all are mercenaries? From which group?"

The men felt a shiver run down their spine the moment she asked them that. She was but a child, but remembering how she defeated them yesterday and the calm and composed demeanor she displayed in front of them, it just unnerved them.

But after hearing the conversation between grandfather and granddaughter, it all just made sense. She was the future head of the Fujou clan after all.

"We aren't afiliated with any group. We are just a little people offering our strength and services to people that are willing to pay us enough money."

A guy in the back of the group said. Out of all of them he seemed to be the strongest, well that much was obvious, considering that he was the only one that didn't tremble under her icy leer.

"Is that so? Are you the groups leader?"

He shook his head.

"We are just a ragtag group, that got thrown together to kidnap a little girl. I never met one of these bastards in my life."

Seele nodded at his words. This only made sense.

The current side branches left in the family shouldn't have the funds to hire a professional groups of mercs of assassins, only leaving them to hire a bunch of misfits to the job.

How pathetic. Well, she guessed that these idiots got lucky in choosing this guy.

"Take all the cowards away and interrogate them on who dared to hire a bunch of people to get rid of me."

She turned around and smiled at her grandfather.

"I'll leave the decision of what happens to them afterwards to you."

The old man chuckled and nodded at his granddaughters request. He was far to interested in what she will do with the remaining guy.

"As for you..."

Even he started to sweat as he realized in what kind of situation he was in, a young lady took interest in him.

This couldn't end well, no matter how he thought about it.

"I'll let you be my personal bodyguard."

He breathed out if exhaustion, of course this was going to happen to him.

He just hoped that his ojou-sama wasn't a sadist.