Chapter Text
The full moon illuminated the vast dark sky. The stars were bright.
Standing there was a figure of a young man, mysteriously older than his appearance, smiling calmly after a rampage—driving a terrified ayakashi back to the forest far from town.
Not so far was his own unfortunate shikigami, seemingly beaten to a pulp—it didn’t even the doings of those poor ayakashi, but it was his own master. That twistedly innocent smile of his showed no remorse—even though he just sent his ally flying that far.
He hasn’t done anything! Suzaku could swear to the upper-ranked god. Just getting a little close to the human, and then, Swoosh! He’s all soaked! Everyone should’ve known that the vermillion bird definitely hated water, and yet! Seriously, this guy…
Not knowing whether that was just an accident or intentional—but if it was intentional, surely Suzaku would scold him really hard…ugh…forget it. Not that Seimei would care anyway…
All he could do was let out an exasperated sigh: “Seimei-kun, you’ve done it again.”
“What do you mean, Suzaku?,” the human glanced back, tilting his head slightly and questioning, “Oh? Why are you all wet? You dislike water, don’t you?”
“Well, well, it’s because of YOU.”
Suzaku replied in a playful tone, though he did have a frown on his face, clearly not being pleased with this dreadfully innocent behavior. The divine bird used his own flame to evaporate the water from his body until he completely dried. Crimson eyes drew to his own master, only to meet that sheepish smile. It didn’t look cute at all, though. This was Seimei we’re talking about.
“Whoops, so sorry about that.”
He said that, but with no guilt.
He knew he had done wrong, but he would forget soon. And repeating the same mistake afterwards.
This was Abe no Seimei’s nature. Almost like his ways of thinking were too foreign, no one couldn’t understand him, and he didn’t understand anyone either.
Once again, Suzaku sighed.
“I’ve told you hundreds of times! Could you at least pay attention to the surroundings?”
“It’s an accident! You approached me from behind, of course I’d think you’re enemy~”
“Can you just look before launching that destructive attack, please?”
“I did it subconsciously~ It’s what you call “too-good reflexes”.”
“It’s way too good that it’s bad! If it was Ashiya-dono, he could get seriously injured!”
The god’s tone was getting more serious the more they talked. Even Seimei could understand that he was being scolded really hard. So he just wore that silly smile like he had always done—that certain smile which looked like the mangaka was too lazy to draw, then he blurted out:
“Suzaku, you sound like a mother, you know.”
Vermillion bird raised his brows, asking half-jokingly: “What’s with that? Did I remind you of your mother?”
“Fufu~”
Seimei just giggled. He turned his face away from his shikigami, gazing at the radiant full moon. The breeze grazed the tree gently, the grass whistling in the silent night. The great onmyouji simply stood there—in that stunning yet lonesome scenery.
Their eyes weren’t met at all. Seimei let his voice be carried by the gentle wind—escaping Suzaku to the vast sky, to the shining stars.
“Maybe? I can’t even remember what she looks like.”
It was so calm—his voice showed no sign of wavering in his heart…yet, Suzaku thought his indifferent master was about to cry.
Not a single drop of tears in those emotionless ruby eyes, the great onmyouji reached his hand to the bright full moon, as if yearning to those days he couldn’t return to.