Dark Edge Village

After a trip to the temple, Hotaru returned to her yurt to do some packing. With all of the running around she did yesterday, she didn't pack as much as she would have like. Some of her kimono were still hanging on their racks and a few tickets laid about. Mamoru found his usually spot behind one of the kimono and laid there for a nap, beat from the day already.

Hotaru sat down in a seiza in the middle of the room and removed her mask with a sigh. Her attention was at the entrance, as she was sure that someone would come to see her. There were a good number of people who were either surprised or enraged by her choice, she was sure. Any one of those people could walk in on her at the moment, the least she could do was to be prepared to accept them.

Of all those people, the one comes. "Butaj." The cold announcement of presence rings just outside the flap.

Hotaru was tired to react much to the announcement but it did surprise her nevertheless in some small way. She gave the voice a nod of acceptance. "I am here. Please, come in." Her voice was rather plain and to the point, lacking the usual good spirits she usually showed in public.

He enters without further ado, skipping courtesies. Standing just past the flap. His gaze is different than she has ever seen before from him. Metaphors wouldn't cut it... not murderous, but unrelentingly harsh. He doesn't care much for the answer she will give, all she would say would be a bowl of lies anyway, but he needs a prop to start and he doesn't want to make it anything more than a monosyllable. "Why."

She gave a few weighted nods at the question and it was a fair one to ask, considering everything that she had done to him and Yuki. "Why? The choice didn't come easily for me, Moto-san. At the end of the day, I was in need of a husband and I only spoke to a few number of your kin. I could risk going with someone I had no idea about or someone who truly showed some admirable qualities."

Her gaze slowly lowered as she faced the ground, a place where she divined many readings for others, including herself. She brushed her fingers against the tatami mat in contemplation. "It probably wasn't your intention to do so, but you did impress me with your variety of talents in both the arts and brawn. You'll learn that the Bayushi family is a versatile family, we need to be. Despite what you think of me or my Family, you'll at least fit in the Scorpion in that regard. You'll learn other qualities in time."

She gave a pained sigh and looked back up at him. Her eyes had some faint conviction to them. "But that's probably not what you're asking about. Why did I take you away from Asako Yuki? Because I needed a man for a husband, and you were available. It was unfortunate...Asako Yuki-san is a good woman and I'm sure you had something. You told me. However, I came here to get married and start a family. I chose you to make that happen." I've already stabbed my own foot on choice, I'm not doing so again.

He stays impassive for the most part but vivid anger rolls over his features when she disregards the bond between Yuki and him. "So Butaj is like livestock to you. A ram. Strong horns, bleats nice. Is that your way to start a family, the Scorpion way? To deny what's in the soul? What kind of priestess are you? Of what?" His fists clench. "Surely not Benten. Benten will curse you."

"No, not one of Benten." Hotaru said sternly, looking at him, in case he wanted to use that line of thought scold her with.

To deny... She bit her lower lip for only a moment, to pick up her resolve again and continue on her thought. "...What?! You're not livestock to me. I would not choose someone so simply? Not when the rest of our lives are involved!" You're hardly alone. Many of us don't get what we want.

"...I could like you," she said carefully, trying to vocalize her potential interest at such a tense time. After all, she did say that he had her interest and it was true. "I-I don't expect to take her place, or for you to love me. That's fine. Regardless of that, we are to be husband and wife. I would appreciate some relationship."

"But you did. You chose simply, a husk. You've not cared to learn anything more. And a husk you now have. You've made it, your loot, torn out of the bleeding heart of another. You've taken everything from me and speak of it like it doesn't matter!" His voice rises in anger, and yet stays a seething whisper. "You could like me? I could have liked you. I trusted you. You had your chance to tell me... anything.You could have sung for me, then I would have known. Nothing of this happened. Now I look at you and I despise you, seeing your casual, careless cruelty. Relationship? What do you want to relate to?" He steps in and extends his arms sideways.

Hotaru pressed her lips together, wondering if he got the subtle sense of the word or the fact the worked ever gradually. "Hai, I suppose I didn't show you as much attention as I should have earlier. I was...very focused elsewhere and almost sure about it. Nevertheless, I deemed you fit as a husband now. You are all right on all accounts about what I could have done but I'm looking more toward the future now. As a diviner, its what I do."

Hotaru smirked ruefully, recalling their first meeting together. "...You do sing, dance and play, don't you?"

Her calm infuriates him. In his eyes, it is mockery. Furtherance of denial of the gravity of what she's done to him. He glares at her, his temples twitching, thoughts of violence briefly luring him into snapping and seeking quick revenge, despite all his claims that he doesn't want one. To stop her pretty face from smirking in just a few heartbeats, and for good...

...

He flops onto the ground. "You should have taken that other man. Dong-Ha, right? You could. You will curse the day you haven't. I don't know what you witchcraft has revealed to you, but if some contentment with me, then you're not good at your trade." He is drained and blanched from all the emotions that have rolled through him, leaving a wasteland in their wake. "My music and my dance were from my heart. There is nothing to fuel it now, nothing with you attached to it. Today you've taken away the joy I had in life. If it gave you any pleasure to do so, then good for you. Don't expect much else, not much is left to take."

As brawny as the Moto have shown themselves to be, Hotaru did expect a more agressive meeting from Butaj. However, it was doubtful she would have guessed murderous thoughts would have been among one of them.

Hotaru looked down once more at the mention of Dong-Ha. She supposed that was something that might have slipped by the Moto, even with her dedicated blunder to Dong-Ha. His deduction was something she probably given more credit. "Yes, I could have and I didn't. I didn't find great pleasure, or any, taking you away from another. As cruel as you think I am, I am not a monster. However, I doubt I could convince you. I've already given you much to assume from my actions alone."

"Maybe I'm a failure of a diviner..." she murmured in thought, thinking back to the idea that brought her here in the first place, Dong-Ha and Tomoe together as well.

"Regret is a sin, you know. Are you going to do your best to make me commit it in thought?" She asked as she slowly looked up at him, assuming he already had much intent to do so.

He looks into her eyes, calmer but still intense. "Make it right for Yuki and me, to the extent it is still possible. Then we can talk about avoiding further regret. Not only yours, but also your family's."

It seemed the Moto had a plan and he even threatened her about it. Hotaru brought her hands together and rested them on her lap. She looked at Butaj with a faint lift of her brows. "And how do you suppose I could do that? I can't declare a divorce from you, especially having selected you in the process to be my husband. You could leave the contact, if you wish. I won't stop you but there are some consequences associated with that. You must have something else in mind."

In fact, he came here with only rough idea, the plan emerged as he was speaking and learning of her. "I don't think there is a good way to go back on your poor choice either." He puffs. "So no matter how I despise the outcome, there will be a Bayushi Butaj, your husband. Many people, you included, have been informing me that here in the East love and marriage are often two different things. I fought for a life by my beloved's side, for the children hers and mine, to the end. But I have you instead. So let's draw a line. On my side, there is freedom to organise my life with Yuki out of public eye, without your meddling or any other interference. She will be my wife in all but name and appearances, and no further harm will ever be done to her because of your decisions and actions." He stops at this, waiting for her reaction, demanding it with his gaze.

Hotaru looked visibly surprised by the proposal. It was an audacious and bold one, to be certain. In a strange way, it did reinforce with her that Butaj had some small potential to be a Scorpion after all. He indeed wasn't the brute she ran into on her first day here.

She wordlessly looked at him a while before considering her response. "That's going to be something very difficult to pull off successful in a land of scrutiny and life among my kin. However, perhaps my lack of involvement would be for the best, I'm not complicit."

Her head inclined slowly, expectant of more. "And? What are you giving me on my side?"