Queenfisher

Sorry for the late release! I was struggling with the correct splitting on this chapter because it... runs a bit long. But of course this is one of the most important character&motivation chapters in the story because it establishes the relationship the two mains will have throughout their lives. So yes, -( -- it will be on the longer side.

Chapter Twenty-One

Bondage!

(Part 1 of 3¹Alas, I had to cut it into three parts! This mess of a chapter is ridiculously long otherwise. But I will release the other parts of it each day so it feels complete faster.)

The first three quarters of a year in Izumo passed by so slowly, Nekohiko felt cheated. The passage of time felt different for him as compared to the others. He couldn't simply forget the gruesome deaths of his guardians, and he couldn't move on. Misery and loneliness pressed him so much he thought it impossible for him to ever be happy again.

The interactions he had with other children were stuck in the same mode of petty bullying and apathetic misunderstandings. And to add to the torture, his studies were still flubbing way behind everyone else's.

Kotone said it was because he didn't seek help from his peers and was shutting inward instead. Nekohiko imagined that she was right and that bonding and friendships with the world outside of himself indeed helped all the other novices in gaining favors from Spirits for better Binding. But knowing didn't equal succeeding. He couldn't do anything about the fact that he had no idea how to make friends or how to interact with people without it seeming fake and forced.

Sometimes, he watched other novices chat to each other about the silliest things and laugh and play together. The idea that he could come over and join in was so alien that he found himself freezing on the spot, unable to even voice out a hello when someone walked by.

Other times, the sounds of people making friends at every corner and with such blissful ease only filled him with bitterness. It wasn't his fault he hadn't been taught how to elbow people around so that it didn't seem aggressive but instead appeared playful. He hadn't been taught how to flatter girls and boys both with irrelevant compliments he would forget a minute later like no big deal. He hadn't been taught to show off, or to be loud, or to be so talented at everything that both the teachers and other pupils couldn't take their eyes off him.

This was so unfair.

And because this feeling of unfairness never dissipated but only grew deeper, the thing Nekohiko was learning here the fastest was to despise the person who was all the things he wasn't.

Abihiko.

Whenever the two met -- be it in the crisp mornings, or in the reddening copper afternoons, in autumn heat, or in early winter snow -- they clashed. They clashed even harder than Nekohiko did with the lanky girl who always pranced around Sakami like a guard hound.

And none of it was strictly Nekohiko's fault.

Though he was annoyed at Abihiko, he never sought him out by himself. When they were in the general vicinity of each other, Nekohiko always preferred to ignore him. He told himself -- that's what the Head Priest Suminoe would do, yes? Ignore people he disliked.

And since Head Priest Suminoe was such an elegant, superior person to everyone around, why wouldn't Nekohiko mirror all of his behaviors and attitudes? He did. Other than Kotone's soft guidance in Spirit Binding, Suminoe's outstanding example of behavior was the most reliable teacher Nekohiko found in Izumo.

But how could he easily ignore someone who went out of his way to pursue Nekohiko and torture him?

"Kitten, Kitten, Kitten," Nekohiko heard every time Abihiko noticed him around. "Are there any more enlightening things you want to tell us, by chance?"

Yesterday, for example, Nekohiko had been needled by Abihiko so much, he had lost his temper and yelled, "People only respect you because of Lord Okinaga! On your own, you're nothing but a cheap merchant who yells the loudest and therefore gets everyone's attention! If everyone was like you, nobody would even know who you were, so ordinary you are outside of being loud!"

First of all, Nekohiko hadn't yet learned to swear or to properly insult people. By the mere fact that his rant was so lengthy and so confused, the majority of kids gathering already stopped listening and began laughing at him half-way through his speech. And second of all... as if anything said against Abihiko would ever gain traction in people's minds.

Today, the kids already started giggling the moment they saw him and Abihiko meet gazes within the tight canteen during breakfast. The early-spring day was pale and aching with luminous light, even though the skies were overcast. Everyone wanted warmth and something spicy to drink. The huddled children all wore winter cloaks with northern seal fur trim. Snowflakes melted all along the fur and the eyelashes and the hair. The melted water puddled on the floor under the feet and the entrance was slippery because of it.

Nekohiko was only trying to get out of the canteen with his tray since he always ate alone, in the courtyard, whether it was sunny or raining, or snowy like today. He slipped on the wet floorboards when he swerved out of the way of a large group of novices swarming in.

And thus, most of Nekohiko's red sauce cabbage breakfast ended up on Abihiko's pure white coat.

Nekohiko dropped his gaze and wanted to run but Abihiko already blocked his way out.

"It seems you want to add something to what you told me yesterday, yes?" Abihiko squinted amicably, which only felt more ominous to Nekohiko. "You have my full attention, Kitten, and you didn't even have to yell loudest to do that. Only ruin my clothes. Congratulations on choosing such unique methods."

Nekohiko sidestepped to flee but Abihiko also sidestepped to keep in his way.

"Aww, look. They're dancing!" some small boy by the tables cried out and almost the entire first year broke out in giddy laughter.

It was hard to tell how exactly it happened because resentment swelled in Nekohiko so fast -- but the resulting fight ended up with him having broken a couple of his fingers on top of chipping one of Nekohiko's teeth. While Abihiko sported several large bruises across his fine pale face and a bloodied nose.

Oh, and the majority of everyone's breakfast decorated them head to toe from how they'd crashed into tables and toppled the entirety of buffet on themselves. A mess to end all messes.

Needless to say, neither Kotone nor Takara, the adept pupil responsible for boy novices, were thrilled when they had to pry the two raging children apart and bring them back to the Head Priest's office for receiving their punishment. Kotone was doing her best to Spirit Bind Nekohiko's broken bones back together as they walked but she was clearly too shaken to do it right.

It still hurt like hell even after she was done.

The least thrilled was the Head Priest himself. Nekohiko's own personal hero, watching the mess that Nekohiko and Abihiko had made of his office with their dirty, smeared clothes. The Head Priest had such weary, disappointed eyes...

"Venerable One! We failed!" Takara and Kotone dropped to their knees in front of the Head Priest's desk. "Please forgive us for our lacking methods of teaching them discipline and adherence to rules!"

The Head Priest gently put his endless scrolls to the side and looked to the window and the soft flakes of snow drifting down beyond. His pristine face bore no signs of anger. Only of deep sorrow.

Gradually, his eyes trailed back to Abihiko's proud, fiery glare and then... as if unwilling... toward Nekohiko's gloomy, lost face.

Nekohiko averted his eyes almost immediately.

No. He couldn't bear this! Anyone but Head Priest Suminoe! Nekohiko's shame was like a blanket that slowly threatened to suffocate him. He shrank down, even though his heart was blazing with fierceness within his chest.

"These youngsters..." Kotone said, her head shaking as if in denial. "...have no respect for the Shrine or for everything we stand for. But Your Holiness, please -- don't go too harshly on them! It is my and Takara's fault for not teaching them manners well enough! We are ready to bear most of the punishment--"

"Wait, what?!" Takara flinched. "No, we're not!" He quickly turned to the Head Priest, arms raised in submission. "Please punish these brats in order, Your Holiness! What do I have to do with them?"

Abihiko held his chin higher to not be intimidated by the Head Priest's great height. "It was her fault," Abihiko said, hand sticking out at Nekohiko. "She dumped food all over me and then refused to apologize."

Nekohiko sparked. "You are a liar," he said, low.

He wanted to argue and tell Suminoe everything as it had actually happened but by now he'd learned that when a kid started excusing themselves for some fault, adults dismissed them that much faster. A child's high, demanding voice only roused annoyance out of a grown-up but not the willingness to listen.

"And you are a waste of breathable air," Abihiko snapped back.

Keep it civil, Nekohiko begged himself. Keep cool and reserved like Suminoe. You can't lose your face like that in front of him.

"Even your parents probably think so, that's why they don't send you gifts and letters," Abihiko went on, oblivious.

Everything in Nekohiko froze over. He turned to the side, eyes burning on Abihiko's aggravating face.

One day, he would kill this person, he knew it. There was no other way for this terrible relationship to resolve. They were enemies for life.

There was the only thing he could do to hurt Abihiko back even if he knew it was wrong to say a word he didn't really understand.

"At least my mom isn't a slu--"

Abihiko struck at him even before Nekohiko finished.

"I see," Suminoe said, calm. He didn't need to step in between the two of them as Takara and Kotone each pulled their respective ward away. All Head Priest Suminoe did was observe, his thin long fingers of one hand slowly rubbing against each other as though holding something invisible in them.

With a graceful flip of his sleeve, he turned away. He paced the room as he spoke. "This is the third time you two are brought into my office for misdemeanor. I find it bothersome not only because any of the punishments you are given don't seem to work but also because your misbehaviors increase instead of going down. Pupils in Izumo learn one most important lesson by living together for six whole years. That lesson is --" And he turned, curt "-- that fate binds us together whether we like it or not. Like the Spiritway itself, this Bond is neither positive nor negative on its own. It is only people who push it into being negative." He gave Abihiko and Nekohiko a pointed look, then again glanced into the serene wintery landscape in the window. "And people are the only ones who can make such Bond into a positive."

Nekohiko listened, hushed. Not because he cared about his bond with Abihiko -- whatever it was but because it meant a lot to Suminoe.

He couldn't let him down again.

Yet Abihiko sounded very much appalled instead. "I'm not the one who made it negative! She started it all!" he screamed.

"Shut up," Nekohiko told him.

"You shut up!"

Once more, Suminoe skewed his eyes at the two of them. Suddenly, a cold little smile ghosted on his lips. "If you don't understand metaphor and the beauty of my lesson when I give it to you in theory, let me proceed to practice, then."

One smooth, swift flourish of Suminoe's hand, and a shimmering wave of pearly mist breathed at the space between Nekohiko and Abihiko. Nekohiko didn't even understand what was going on, and already, out of this mist, something tight and powerful grabbed his right wrist, circling it all around. The touch wasn't human and wasn't personal -- so he didn't shudder from it. Mostly, it resembled a cool shackle of a Bound guard trying to restrain him for punishment. But unlike a Bound guard's hand, this touch was thin as a silk thread and just as weightless.

Abihiko was frowning at his own left wrist, also clouded with white mist. "What the hell--" he said.

Suminoe waved his hand away, and the mist dissipated. Behind it, only a slender thread remained -- glimmering in pure white like the freshest of snows. The thread pooled on the floor in coils, but each of its ends was bound to the boy's wrist. On the left wrist of Abihiko's, on the right wrist of Nekohiko's.

Abihiko jerked his arm up, and the coils on the floor stirred as his thread stretched. "What is this thing?!"

"Neither of you understands allegory," Suminoe said dryly. "Here is the demonstration in its place. This is the Bond between you two."

"Yeah?" Abihiko gaped, frustrated. "And?"

Kotone couldn't take this anymore. She smacked Takara on the back of his head. "Restrain your ward. How dare he speak up to His Holiness like that?"

"Ouch! What do I have to do with that?"

"This Bond will remain on you for as long as it takes the two of you to turn the negative aspect of it into the positive," Suminoe said, already sounding tired and uninvolved. He strolled back to his desk and leaned over it to find the scrolls he'd been reading before.

Nekohiko's heart fell.

What did this mean? How could Suminoe say something so vague and... impossible to achieve?

Bizarrely, Abihiko must have had the same thought. "What is that even supposed to mean?" He turned to Nekohiko who already began pulling on the thread to find out how he could break it. "Pull the other way!" he screamed, then gathered his end of the thread and started yanking on it.

Between the two of them, the thread was now stretched so taut it was ringing with tension. And with how frail and thin it looked, Nekohiko could bet it would rip... any moment now.

But when it almost seemed like it would rip, it didn't. Instead, the fine glimmering bonds in the middle of the thread sprouted out and began twining themselves into each other. And soon, the spot that had been stretched till breaking, was mended.

And it was mended much shorter than it had been before.

Nekohiko's breath stuttered in his cold throat. The thread had shortened right before his eyes!

"Ah," Suminoe called over from his scrolls. "I forgot to tell you. If any harm comes to this thread for any reason -- even figuratively speaking when either of you starts fighting or arguing with each other -- the thread will shorten each time. So please don't stretch it too far. Literally, or figuratively. Because that will cause your Bond to be become tighter and closer until... I suppose the two of you will be tied at each other's wrists without any thread left between you at all."

And just like that, both Nekohiko and Abihiko dropped their ends of the thread.

No thread left between them at all? This thread wasn't that long, to begin with! How much was it? Nekohiko wondered, staring in dismay at the small shiny coils on the floor. No longer than ten steps to each other!

"This is not fair!" he and Abihiko screamed at the same time.

"I will tell Lord Okinaga about how you treat me here! This is absolutely unforgivable!"

"Ugh, the noise! These brats are sure loud," Takara grumbled on the background.

"I will kill myself from having to endure this person around me!" Nekohiko screamed, dark promise in his voice. "Do you know how bad it will be for everyone if I killed myself?"

The Empire would never have a chance to be revived. He, the True Emperor, could not be dishonored in such a way. The only reasonable action was to threaten the future of the Empire. No doubt Suminoe would listen to reason if these were the odds.

But the Head Priest's smooth forehead didn't show even the slightest trace of a frown. He kept reading his scrolls, only raising his fingers to flick.

And after that tiny flick, something even more disturbing happened to Nekohiko. His hearing was abruptly gone. He was going on screaming and threatening Suminoe but no sound reached his ears.

And though Abihiko was clearly yelling on his side, no sound came from his lips either.

Had he gone deaf? Nekohiko panicked.

Abihiko must have experienced the same thought because his lips stopped moving. The boy watched Suminoe, infuriated, then stomped his foot. That stomp, Nekohiko heard. In fact, as he turned around to look for Kotone, he heard his clothes rustling and the chunks of breakfast meal still plopping off his robes and onto the floor. His hearing wasn't gone!

Only his... voice was. And so was Abihiko's voice.

The two of them had gone mute.

"Oh, oh, my poor girl," Kotone murmured at Nekohiko, paling. "I think you were punished with Hush for screaming too much."

"If you cannot learn a lesson because you refuse to listen," Suminoe said quietly, still busy with his work, "then you have no right to speak either."

He looked up long enough to give Takara and Kotone a subtle arching of his eyebrow. "I have work to do."

"Yes, yes, forgive us for bothering you, Your Holiness," Kotone mumbled, dragging both Nekohiko and Abihiko, stomping and clapping as they were to call anyone's attention to themselves, out the doors of the office.

The doors shuffled closed, and the two Bound dummies who guarded it crossed their arms like a lock against the door's frame. Nekohiko and Abihiko had nothing better to do than continue stomping their feet and screaming at the shut door even though none of their screams made it out of their mouths.

After a while, Takara snorted into his fist, leaning over to Abihiko to whisper. "At least be grateful the girl is cute. If I were you, I'd use this to my advantage. Lucky!"

Nekohiko had never seen Abihiko make such a stunned, horrified face. Abihiko stopped his tantrum to give Takara a "huh?" expression.

If Kotone could, she would explode on the spot. "Takara, how... dare you? They're only ten years old! Don't teach them the wrong things!"

"What wrong things? These things are natural. You know what I mean." Takata nudged Abihiko with his elbow to the boy's ever-growing shock. "If a girl fights with a boy so often as Kitten does with you, it only means she really likes you. See? I solved it for both of you about how to make it from negative to a positive quickly." And he pursed his lips and then made strange lip-smacking noises in the most disgusting performance as an elaboration.

Nekohiko was paralyzed at such a gruesome offense to his persona.

Run. Run as fast as possible, and away from this horrible place and horrible people!

Kotone huffed. "Takara!"

"Whaaaat?" Takara yawned.

For real, Nekohiko had to go away from them. If anything, they would only make his torment worse.

But the moment he made a step away from them, so did Abihiko. The only problem was -- the two of them tried to run in opposite directions.

And the thread stretched taut in between them really didn't like that.

Queenfisher

Oh, and the first of my chibi pics for the story ^^. Under the spoiler. But be warned that I forgot to draw all the food messing them up. My bad -((. I might draw a fried egg and a piece of cake on top of their heads to fix that, one day...

Spoiler

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