“Miss! Please stop!” Shindo pleaded. It felt as if the electricity crashed down on the crown of his head before surging through his body. Despite fighting to remain conscious, he refused to release his hold around Satsuki’s hot body on the verge of bursting into flames.
“...Miss...” he wheezed, his voice not wanting to come out. But Shindo only held Satsuki tighter, pressing her head against his chest. He stroked her hair as he did when she was a baby.
“Shindo...” Satsuki said gently. As if taking that voice as a sign, the electric currents around Satsuki showed signs of ebbing. Peace and calm gradually returned to their surroundings.
“Shindo...” came the sound of Satsuki’s calm voice. Held in the embrace Shindo fought desperately to win, she rubbed her cheek against his chest and happily whispered, “Stay with me...Shindo...”
“Miss...”
“Stay with me...forever...” she whispered.
With Satsuki in his arms, Shindo raised his head. His eyes fell upon the man reduced to nothing more than a lump of mass by Satsuki’s powers. Her powers took his life, leaving just a corpse.
“Miss...” Shindo whispered. As he fervently stroked her hair, he was surprised at himself for nearly bursting into sobs, something he had never done in all his sixteen years of life.
Why must the Miss be put through this? Why does she have these awful powers?! The more such thoughts raced through his mind, the more an emotion unknown to him filled his heart: sadness.
“Shindo...” Satsuki gently called out to him as he fell into sadness.
Shindo looked down at her and gasped. Satsuki was crying. She was looking up at him, tears filling eyes as clear and intelligent as ever.
“Shindo...you’ve had a hard life, haven’t you...?”
“Miss...”
“Shindo...” she repeated, beautiful, clear tears streaming from her eyes. Those eyes gazed into Shindo’s gray-tinted eyes, piercing to their inner depths. It was just like how he was drawn to her eyes and mesmerized by them when he first met her as a month-old infant. They held him paralyzed.
Shindo slowly dropped to his knees on the grass as he peered into Satsuki’s eyes and she into his. Helping Satsuki to her feet, their eyes locked at the same level.
“Shindo...” Satsuki reached her hand out to gently brush Shindo’s cheek. “You’ve endured...so many hardships...”
The tears she shed were not for herself, but for Shindo. Satsuki read the man’s mind, uncovering all of his memories concerning Shindo. It showed his past. His past as a nameless boy before he met her pierced her heart with agony.
The sight filled Shindo with pain too great to bear. He never wanted Satsuki to know. All she needed to know...was that he was originally a shady character without a name who came to kill her. She didn’t need to know that he was raised in an environment no better than a cesspool, that he was taught the obscenest way of life, or that it was necessary to put those lessons to use in order to survive. He thought nothing of it when women reduced to animals made him their plaything.
Shindo didn’t want Satsuki to learn that side of him ever existed. Not her...not the child as pure as an angel who saved him. She was the one person...he didn’t want to find out...
But even upon learning Shindo’s past, Satsuki did not look down on him with contempt. Instead she shed tears on his behalf. And here she had every right to cry for herself after just killing a man with the abnormal powers contained within her body. The man’s horrific death was etched into her eyes, yet instead of bemoaning her own lot in life, she offered words of sympathy for Shindo.
“It must have been awful... I feel for you...Shindo...”
Shindo could feel warmth emanating from Satsuki’s hands pressed against his cheeks. That warmth cleansed his heart of the remorse and disgrace that tainted it.
“Are you crying...?” Shindo asked as he gently cupped his hands over hers. “Are you crying for me?”
He felt as though he could lose himself in her eyes. He was seized by the illusion that simply bathing in her gaze alone could purify him.
“Miss...” he said as he gave her hands a squeeze. “Please forget...”
Rustle... The trees shook. As if whipped around by mighty winds, their leaves blew off as they thrashed about.
“If...you feel any pity...or compassion for me...please forget everything that happened here today...” Shindo continued.
Whoosh! Rustle...! Almost as if they were moving with a mind of their own, the fallen leaves piled on top of the remains to conceal the hideous corpse.
“Forget that you used your powers to render this person into a pile of flesh...” Shindo requested.
Once the tree leaves fully covered the body, wisteria petals quietly began whirling up from the earth.
“And forget...my past...” he finished.
As if trying to comfort Satsuki, the whirl of wisteria petals fluttered down over her head. When Shindo brushed a tear from her cheek with his finger, she tilted her head questioningly and asked, “Shindo...would it make you happy if I forgot?”
“Yes, it would.”
“Everything?”
“...Yes, everything.”
Satsuki gave him a big smile. She was like an angel, her eyes clear, her smile adorable. “Then I’ll forget,” she promised.
Rustle...! The wisteria flowers jostled, dropping a cascade of petals. The petals began to encircle Satsuki in their fluttering dance.
“If you want me to forget...then I’ll forget...” Satsuki agreed.
Like a squall, the wisteria petals poured upon Satsuki, hiding her from sight. Only her hands upon Shindo’s cheeks poked through the lavender curtain.
“...Miss.” Shindo gave her hands a squeeze.
“Shindo...” came her happy voice from the curtain of flower petals. “Stay with me...forever...”
“Miss!”
Shindo had to fight back the tears forming in his eyes. If he allowed the dam to break, there would be no stopping the cascade of tears, never before shed by his eyes.
The curtain of petals gradually began to dissipate. As he felt the weight of Satsuki’s hands fall into his own, he knew she had passed out. With this, the wild dance of the wisteria petals drew to an end.
“Miss...” Shindo whispered. He sat on the ground with Satsuki in his arms, unable to move for some time.
“I...” he said in a quivering voice with his arms wrapped around the little girl. “I will stay with you...for as long as I live...”
It was quite possible he was crying.