Home > Work > Frail Human Heart (The Name of the Blade, #3)
1 " I just wanted to be quiet and alone – get my head around everything. Make sure I was really back to normal. I drank hot chocolate and … waited. I even slept for a bit. When I was sure nothing bad was going to happen, I came home. And, you know, found Mio nearly being eaten by a giant spider.” “What? I didn’t see that!” Jack yelped. “You were too busy grabbing the firebombs,” Hikaru put in. “I saw it, though. Rachel clocked it in the side and knocked it right off. It went flying.” I gave Rachel a questioning look. She shrugged again and put down her mug on the coffee table. Picking up an empty metal serving plate with her right hand, she poked it sharply with the index finger of her left. There was a rending noise, and Rachel’s finger popped out of the bottom of the plate. “I’m pretty strong,” she said, with what I thought was epic understatement. “But I can control it now.” Seeing the alarmed expressions on Hikaru and my dad’s faces, I quickly said, “The king – your king, Hikaru – told me this could happen. If people recover from the Nekomata’s bite, they have gifts. Seeing in the dark. Speed. Strength.” “Let me get this straight,” Jack said slowly. “My sister is Catwoman now?” “I suppose that makes you the Joker, then.” Rachel reached out to mess up Jack’s spiky hair. Jack squeaked, trying to bat Rachel’s hands away. “Not the hair!” “Oh, please. Try that on me when you don’t have an inch of roots.” Hikaru leaned out of their way, looking confused and not sure if he should try to intervene. I could sympathize. Siblings were odd. "
― Zoë Marriott , Frail Human Heart (The Name of the Blade, #3)
2 " We’d all started for the front hall when my father’s throat-clearing stopped us. “Where do you think you’re going?” Jack and I exchanged wary looks. Parents pretending to be stupid was usually a sign that they were about to try to be – eugh – funny. “Out, Mr Yamato,” Rachel said patiently, falling for it. “We’re going to walk to this nexus place. Aren’t you coming?” Dad got out of the armchair and stretched fluidly. “Yes, but I’m not walking it. I assume you’re up for a ride in the Dad Taxi?” I might be a barely functioning, emotionally shattered control freak, but I wasn’t an idiot. The next word out of my mouth was “Shotgun!” The others groaned. "
3 " Just as big a coward as ever,” I taunted. I circled the sword forward and backward in my grip as I moved towards him, warming up my wrist. “What a shame you never had a mother. You’d have made a perfect mummy’s boy.” He frowned in confusion, apparently realizing he’d been insulted, but not how. "
4 " Have you fought about this?” “No.” I pause. “Not really. You know how he is. He just goes all stubborn and refuses to talk. Like a rock. A big stupid rock.” “Such sweet words for your beloved. "
5 " Come here; let me look at you.” Mum gestured imperiously, and after a moment’s hesitation, Shinobu bent down so that she could cup his face in her small, delicate fingers. She stared up at him, dark gaze piercing. He stayed still, but behind his back I saw his hands find each other and his fingers lace together, as if it was an effort not to fidget. I didn’t blame him. “Rachel also says that you helped save her and did a lot of other heroic things. I think you must have a great deal of character to have survived everything that’s happened to you, Shinobu, and I’m very grateful for all that you’ve done for my family. But I’m fully aware that you’ve been hanging out in my house with my underage daughter completely unsupervised the whole time I’ve been gone. I will be keeping my eye on you from now on.” Shinobu nodded respectfully, not moving out of my mother’s grasp. I couldn’t stand it. “Mum! Shinobu’s been a − a perfect gentleman!” “And I was there at least some of the time,” my father put in. “There is no such thing as a perfect gentleman, Mio. And you don’t count, Takashi. You can never tell when Mio’s lying about anything.” She fixed her eyes back on Shinobu. “I’m not saying that I don't approve. But if you’re the sort of young man that I want for my daughter – and I think you are – you won’t have a problem with me looking out for her. When this mess is sorted out, we can get to know each other properly.” Shinobu nodded again. Mum smiled at him and slid her hands down to pat his shoulders, and he smiled back, his expression a little dazed. Damn. Dazzled by Mum Power. “‘This mess’ being … the imminent apocalypse?” my dad asked, apparently unable to leave well enough alone. Mum ignored his tone magnificently. “Yes, that. Now, could anyone else murder a sandwich and a cup of tea? Because I’ve had a heck of a day.” Jack and Hikaru, who’d retreated to the till area with Ebisu during the family drama, crept out. Jack raised her hand. “I’m starving.” “Me too,” Hikaru said. “Ah, the appetites of the young,” Ebisu said, smiling serenely as he limped towards my mother and offered her his hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Yamato. You are almost exactly as I had imagined. Let’s go upstairs to my flat and see what we can find to eat, yes?” “You might want to put me in charge of that,” my dad said, hurrying after them. “She’s a terrible cook.” “Stuff it,” my mum retorted as Ebisu led her away. “I’m still not talking to you.” And just like that, our motley crew had another member. My mum. Sweet baby Jebus, how did this happen? "
6 " We’ve been watching you in my water mirror. Just watching, mind you. There’s no sound.” My face must have betrayed complete horror. Watching us? The whole time? What if they’d read our lips, what if they’d worked out what Silver Fangs had said? They’d never let us go! “Don’t worry,” my father said dryly. He gathered me into one of his trademark awkward dad-hugs. I could feel him shaking a little bit, and he, too, looked drawn and tired. “I looked away during all the personal moments. Frankly, it was that or lose my breakfast.” “And I made Hikaru look away,” Jack said. “Although, seriously, at one point I was starting to wonder if you two were just going to stay in the dream realm and mack forever.” I saw Shinobu’s lips twitch at that. I was so relieved they hadn’t rumbled us that I managed a sort of feeble giggle. Dad gave me a pat on the shoulder, then stood and held his hand out to Shinobu, who took it and let Dad pull him upright. "
7 " Where you go…” He raised my hands and pressed them to his heart, then kissed each palm. “I will follow, always. "
8 " Do you remember,” I said, slowly, “when we were little and Hitomi the kitchen maid told us the story of the red thread? How some people are born tied together by a long scarlet string that no one can see? The red thread is fate. People joined in this way would always be searching for each other, always moving towards each other, even if they never realized it until the moment they met. Remember she said that the red thread may stretch, or tangle, but never, ever break?” A pained half-smile twitched at one corner of his mouth. “You stole the red silk from your mother’s embroidery box and tied our little fingers together.” “Which only lasted until bath time, when Father very firmly cut us apart again.” I stroked his left little finger with mine. “I still believe in that thread, Shinobu. I know it’s there. I can feel it, even if I can’t see it. We were always meant to be together. But maybe … maybe we weren’t meant to be together forever.” “Mio-dono…” “Shin-chan.” I forced myself to smile into his anguished eyes through the welling tears. “If none of this had ever happened, if Izanagi and the Nekomata had never come to the village, if we had grown old together in my family’s home the way we dreamed, we would have chosen this, wouldn’t we? To be together as long as we could. And, when it was time, to die together. After all these years, we finally get our wish.” He whispered, “You have already made up your mind, my love.” “Haven’t you? Where you go…” He raised my hands and pressed them to his heart, then kissed each palm. “I will follow, always. "
