“STAY with me forever, please...” With her proffered pinky finger, four-year-old Satsuki laughed innocently.
“Certainly, Miss.” Wrapping his finger around hers, sixteen-year-old Shindo laughed happily.
The two believed unquestioningly that promise would last forever. Satsuki believed Shindo would stay by her side. Shindo believed he could stay by her side. The feelings behind that promise were honest and pure. Neither realized it was impossible.
The feelings they harbored would never come to fruition.
Rustle...! The wisteria noisily swayed. Its petals danced down, concealing the two. If it could hide them now... If it could hide these two from their destiny now... It could save them from all the tears they would shed.
Alas, the wisteria lacked the power to conceal them. The surrounding petals it shed were like tears bemoaning its lack of power. The petals fell sadly. It was almost as if the wisteria already knew their fate. It rustled to comfort Satsuki as she gazed sadly upon the Shindo before her...and the Shindo she beheld in the distant future.
“Stay with me...forever...” Satsuki said with love and sadness as she peered into the wisteria to see the image of Shindo. “Shindo...”
Satsuki’s eyes were filled with images of the distant future. She saw many years ahead, when she was eighteen. She knew of how she would break the taboo... As a little child, Satsuki knew what the future held. She could see it clearly. Her destiny was laid out before her.
Her eyes saw everything. As a little girl, she knew all that would transpire. At this point in her life, Satsuki already knew how this would end. But now that she was eighteen, she no longer possessed memory of such things. Those memories and her foresight were sealed in the depths of her heart.
But at one point, Satsuki knew... She foresaw her own future and the fate of her romance. She knew her destiny, and shivered at what fate had planned for her.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’LL be with you forever...”
As their lips parted, the vision of the past that raced through their minds vanished.
“Even if I must step down as your retainer...I’ll always be with you,” Shindo promised.
“Shindo...”
The only light shining on these two was the meager illumination of a floor lamp. That dim lighting was all they had to see the expression on the other’s face.
“I was always afraid,” he said, confessing his innermost feelings with his eyes transfixed on Satsuki. “As you grew more beautiful with each passing year, my feelings for you grew from platonic to romantic. They grew so strong and vast, I had no hope of ever reining them in. I was able to keep myself in check because of my duties as your retainer, but I also lived in constant fear.”
Shindo caressed Satsuki’s cheek and traced the outline of her lips with his thumb. “I was afraid that someday all it would take was a little trigger and I would corrupt you... The very man charged with protecting you from being tainted would sully you... The thought that I might corrupt you terrified me...”
Satsuki nuzzled Shindo’s hand, holding it with one of her own hands.
“Shindo, you haven’t corrupted me,” Satsuki asserted. Removing his hand from her cheek, she looked him square in the eye. “You’ve filled me with happiness, Shindo. I’m overjoyed by the love you’ve shown me.”
“Miss...” Shindo whispered as he wrapped his arms around Satsuki.
She was like an angel. Breathing pure air, she only walked a clear, noble path. No matter how vile of a human heart she touched, no matter how horrible of an accident she beheld, her heart was always the height of purity. The act of tainting such an angelic figure could never go unpunished.
“Miss...” Shindo whispered in her ear with his arms still wrapped around her. “Please...kill me...”
Satsuki’s body began to tremble.
“Someday, I will be punished...punished for tainting you.”
“Shindo...”
“When that time comes, I want you to kill me,” he said.
“No!” Satsuki pushed Shindo with all her might, pulling away from his arms and glaring angrily at him.
“No one is going to punish you! I could never kill you... I won’t allow things to come to that!” Satsuki cried and flung herself onto Shindo. She thrust her lips upon his. Forcing her tongue upon his, she sucked at his lips. Shindo slowly laid Satsuki back down on the bed.
“Stay with me forever...” Satsuki pleaded. The moment Shindo’s lips began to trace the length of her neck, they parted hers. She leaned her head back, arching her neck to make it easier for him. “Stay with me forever and ever...”
Even after realizing their mutual love, their hearts were still lost and wandering.
Even after sharing the ecstasy of becoming one, their hearts knew no peace. And they never would so long as they continued to care for one another. Not so long as they wished to stay together. Such desires doomed their hearts to wander endlessly.
“I will stay with you forever...Miss,” Shindo promised.
Their secret love doomed them to wander in this labyrinth.
Meanwhile, other forces were at work around them.