Kashou Honeshiro, from The Ways of Samurai, a roleplay on RPG

Lady Chinatsu had been eerily quiet, a crazed calm tingling under her skin, visible in her half lidded eyes. She allowed Kana to comb her hair, her head leaning this way or that with the gentle strokes. This activity kept her calmer these days. The morning was spent this way until the honorable lady spoke. "Bring me his head Kana-chan, won't you? His head." She sounded like a little girl almost, the request so simple and innocent, as though she were simply asking Kana to go to the store and get her some sweets. It almost made Kana wince. Sake made Lady Chinatsu more agreeable, but she took it like medicine. It was not up to Kana on whether or not she should have it though.

"Of course Chinatsu-dono." came her reply, her voice strained with the force of sounding chipper, her smile offset by the worried furrow of her brow. She did not like what the Lady had become, but it was not her place to judge. "Today I am meeting a few men- Ah. My father is meeting a few men who will accompany us." Kana finished Lady Chinatsu's hair.

"Tsk tsk kana, you're doing something your father doesn't know about aren't you." It was a statement, not a question, an amused one. "You were always so very willful, but well meaning. It's going to get you into trouble... but not from me." She raised a finger to her mouth childishly, smiling at her new secret. This left Kana to smile and excuse herself, the Lady Chinatsu was laughing her out, finding something else she had thought of entirely hilarious. The laughter was loud and unabashed, unrestrained, unlike the Lady Chinatsu from three years ago.

"What mood is she in today?" Lady Chinatsu's mother asked as she passed by Kana in the hall.

"The Sake is working. So she might throw a tantrum today but otherwise she won't get angry." This was one of Lady Chinatsu's better moods. Other days she would be in a rage all day, over the smallest things.

With a sigh Lady Chinatsu's mother handed her the bundle she was carrying and turned away from Kana, off to see her daughter, "Do yourself a favor and find yourself a husband dear, one that will take you away from here and this nonsense. And if you'd stop playing with swords and put your hair up properly you'd find one much quicker... you look like a peasant with your hair like that." Kana silently watched her leave for a moment before continuing on her way out. She unwrapped the bundle a bit, already knowing what it was, Lady Chinatsu's mother may talk harsh sometimes but she was kind and knew her affinity for dumplings.

Kana had been getting up early to come over and do Lady Chinatsu's hair every morning, to establish a pattern of behavior that her father could expect from her. He wouldn't be expecting her for another while since she was always sure to stay until a little after noon. And this particular day is when her father would be recruiting ronin for their trip. She would take this time to visit a couple of promising ronin that her various contacts had been recommending to her. She wanted to hand pick a few very strong ones to show to her father, to surprise him with her initiative. She wanted him to take her role in this seriously. Kana had her suspicions that although he would allow her to come along he wouldn't allow her to participate in any way. She knew she could prove to him otherwise, he'd have to see.

"Kana-chan!" Kana whirled around, her friend Inoue had been the one to tell her about a few who were in Edo. Inoue was one of the ladies of the Daimyo's wife and she heard talk of all sorts about the political on-goings of the district. "I'm so lucky I found you, please come quickly, he was about to leave, but I convinced him to stay." Inoue hurried Kana along. "He likes pretty women so you're in luck! You're beautiful friend was able to convince him to wait around for a bit." Kana laughed at her friend's ruthless flirtations as they hurried along.

Ravenous green eyes trailed after unwitting passerby. The foot traffic consisted of floral patterns, of ladies and men with their easy smiles and clean, dust free tabi. Smooth hands. White skin. His hungry gaze pawed and tore into their loosely clutched baskets and packages. A bolt of cloth here, a bundle of rice there.

Today’s shoppers were practically gleaming. As expected.

This shining crowd avoided him and his sort, like fish in the river coasting away from a lurking shadow. It seemed to happen automatically and naturally, as though the people were programmed to move with one another in some unseen and seamless fashion. Unspoken social cues, shoulders that tilted away from the offset alcove the beggar huddled in.

It was important to avoid meeting such a starved expression. Honeshiro’s face, lean and gaunt, was lined with bandages around his jaw and forehead. If you could call those ragged scraps of cloth “bandages”, of course. The hanyou wasn’t injured, but somehow he doubted anyone would care to see the places where his skull had eaten through skin.

His hands, carefully tucked into ragged sleeves, clacked and clattered as skeletal fingers twitched and flexed. Today wasn’t a good day. Today, in fact, was the most recent in an unbroken chain of bad days. He didn’t mind. Misfortune bled into misfortune until the world dripped with colorless, bleak melancholia. After a certain point it grew difficult to make the distinction from one sorrow to the next.

Hunger. His teeth ate at the insides of his gums, at his lips and jaw. The ridges of his spine dug into the back of his neck, stretching and straining against Honeshiro's wearied skin. A sense of failing urgency tugged and tugged. Too many people. Too many bits of bone had eaten their starving way through his flesh. And too many eyes capable of seeing them.

But, crumbled off to the side, Honeshiro’s filthy form sat obscured by the shade. His kind remained avoided by the pedestrians, and their careless eyes skated right over the outlier in the shadows.

One didn’t necessarily need to become invisible to remain unseen.

Inoue and Kana weaved through the crowd, "Inoue slow down, I am holding delicate dumplings you know!" Inoue did not slow down. Kana hurried to keep up but was compelled to stop suddenly. Her head tilted, her face took a look of confusion, and then she looked to her right. A man under a tree, or rather a bunch of rags under a tree, the man was so obscured by them. Kana's feet took her straight to him. Upon getting a good look at him the reason for knowing he was there before seeing him was no longer important.

"Do you like dumplings by any chance? They're fresh, and there's plenty of them." Kana said, realizing she was staring.

"Kana what are you doing?! Hurry up!" Inoue yelled, keeping her distance.

"Here just take the whole thing." Kana had no more time to spare, she hurriedly shoved the bundle into his arms and started to hurry toward Inoue. "Oh and, eat something else too!" Kana tossed her entire coin purse to the vagabond, not having the opportunity to politely give him a set amount of spare change as Inoue was dragging her away now, giving her a look.

Honeshiro coughed, sputtering as the young girl began to vanish in the colorful swirl of human traffic. Now, where had that come from!? Hadn't he just been musing on the apathy of the masses, the need to blend in with the rest of the species? Despairing upon the bleakness of his general existence?

Screw all that crap; this was the best day ever!!!

'Free food, huh?' The warmth from the package bundled in his arms seeped into the halfbreed's very core. The scent of the dust and the passing rabble subsided in the face of the overpowering aroma of... dough and cooked poultry. She really had given him dumplings. Given. All on her own. He hadn't even seen her com--!

His bones reverberated, burning under his skin. A single voice drove itself, as piercing as any blade, straight through Honeshiro's thick skull.

Had to eat. Had to eat. Had to....

Kashou looked down, leveling his gaze slowly. In his lap, a mess of torn fabric was all that remained of the serendipitous girl's gift. He had devoured them all, so quickly? Not surprising. Hadn't eaten in days. Still. Honeshiro didn't remember how many dumplings had been in the package, didn't even remember opening the damn thing. "What did they... taste like?" The beggar's mouth went dry. He didn't know.

A moment of silence.

The half demon groaned, the flesh of his face twisting and twining back over the exposed bone of his jaw and cheek. Bandaged, skeletal fingertips reached up, inspecting the tender new skin. Huh. It seemed like he would no longer need to cover his face. 'This makes things easier.' Honeshiro wasted no time peeling the worn rags from his person, flexing his jaw testily.

"Best damn day ever," the half demon concluded once more, muttering to himself as he stowed the cloth and the girl's wallet up a haggard sleeve. Sure as hell wasn't gonna give any of this shit back. But it wasn't as though Honeshiro was ungrateful.

Far from it, in fact. The man rose to his feet, pointedly ignoring a handful of stares as he stretched luxuriously. He twisted, bones and joints popping and cracking. 'That girl... where did she go?' She was an interesting one, that was for sure. Though the flavor of the dumplings evaded him, the image of her rushed and hurried expression had burned itself behind Honeshiro's eyes.

She had gone... left, yeah? Dragged off by her friend. Hmph. No matter. Her smell had been rather distinct.

He'd find her.

Kashou Honeshiro

0 · 353 views · located in sengoku period, japan

a character in “The Ways of Samurai”, as played by angelwolf123

Description

So begins...

Kashou Honeshiro's Story

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