Mr. Blue Sky

Her comment about doing what she wanted other than what others wanted her to do left a mixture of jealousy and appreciation in his chest. He’d done much of what he’d wanted, to be sure, but it had mostly been out of rebellion than his true personality. So much of his life had been controlled by his birth and line of succession and he’d always been under the scrutinous eye of the clan head and the elders because of it. Hattori and his brother had always been content to go along with it, they’d even thrived under the supervision and expectation, but he’d struggled internally to live up to their expectations of perfection. He didn’t want to be perfect, he just wanted to be Raijin. “I can promise you’re all the more charming for it,” he replied with a smirk.

The small woman went on to ask him about his scar and, absently, his jaw muscles worked to wriggle it around. It would likely be several more months before the disfigurement would fully heal, and even then he knew that it would always be sensitive as it was now if his other scars were any indication. He wished his aunt Kiyo were around to apply one of her soothing balms, but she was still hidden away in Iga where she’d be a prisoner the rest of her life like he’d once thought he would be. “I have mixed feelings I suppose. It’s a reminder of a dark point in my life, one that I’ll now have to live with the memory of for the rest of it...but it’s also a reminder that I didn’t sit back on the sidelines and let a grave injustice go unpunished. I didn’t kill them, unfortunately, and if you had asked me several weeks ago I might have said I’d be inclined to make sure that outcome changed...but the situation has become much more complicated now. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get the revenge that my kin deserves, but it’s a burden I must bear,” gods, when was the last time he’d been this honest and unguarded? But, Aslatiel felt like she was someone who wouldn’t judge him for what his intentions had been...in fact, she felt like she might even understand.

The man watched as she stretched, her intriguing retractable claws flashing before she gave him a compliment of not being boring. He flashed an amused grin, “Well I do appreciate that, I try my best to be...ah...that word you used, stuffy. It’s always nice to have someone around to match wits.” Raijin, while fluent in Common Tongue, didn’t always know the slang terms that were used by natives. He was able to use context clues, but sometimes even that wasn’t enough.