Back on Track

[Ryummel]

Dato casted a look of disapproval at Saerieve and then glanced at his wound again.

'If you claim that you failed your purpose here in Kusari, why didn't you finish the job by plunging a tanto into your stomach instead of slitting your wrist?'

He made a gesture with the hand, like ordering Saerieve not the answer and then he began his wardance around the room: slowly walking in circles while evading the furniture and the empty bottles across the floor.

'But a single sentence was clear enough for me to understand what's happening. It's not good to hear that the mists covering Kusari remind you to that Chrysanthemum... and her fortuneless fate. I have felt the same before, believe me; The loss of somebody you loved, a wife, a mother... or a daughter.

After the Shogun interrupted the last sentence abruptly, he kept walking in silence around the room for some minutes.

'I left Kusari seventeen years ago. It was a place beyond Sigma borders... I guess people still call it Omicron systems. A small group of Zoners welcomed and took care of me in one of their stations in the middle of nowhere. During the four months I stayed away from Kusari, I could heal my wounds and forget about a past I wanted to erase from my memories. Once I returned to Kyoto, I felt... recovered, ready to fight alongside my people again.'

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