This freak was inviting him to fight him... Hirohisa barred his teeth at him, clenching his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. "Fight you? After you barge in and insult this place with your very presence? No f**king way I'm going to fight you. Grow a brain, you asshole." He didn't need to 'let his rage out' or anything of the sorts. He just needed a break from this madness...<br/><br/>And then ANOTHER fool burst in straight through the door, lightning cracking behind his back and a huge wolf barging into the inn straight after. Faster than what an eye would catch, he stepped all the way to the side, pressing his shoulder onto the wall of the premise to keep himself from getting caught up in the mess inside. So this person, too, wanted to fight him? What has he ever done to anyone? His eyes widened, the pupils shrinking to the point of almost disappearing in the crimson of his irises, and his hands went by sheer instinct to the tsukas of Uchikudaku and Tsukinuku, though not drawing them yet. "F**k off! I'm not going to show anyone anything, least of all to some bastard right out of their mind like you! Go f**k with someone else, asswipe!" he shouted, to guard his sensitive hearing from the noise inside pressing his palms onto his ears.<br/>The only person that seemed to have at least a little common sense was that sleepy guy.<br/><br/>Shutting his eyes tightly, he pushed himself through the rest of the people in the tavern, straight towards the barkeep. The man seemed more than stressed from all the noise inside, and Hirohisa didn't appear to be helpful in that. With a deep sigh, he frowned at him. "Give me the strongest, cheapest sake you have here..." he growled. Hopefully, tomorrow would show this to be just a horrible dream.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Idiots.</span>Sanryuu never favored loud, boastful men.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Tell me about that.</span>he replied, a hint of sadness flashing through his voice.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">I can't appreciate silence enough... You seem to have a reputation infamy everywhere you go, Enryuu.</span>she chuckled softly, but it was a chuckle without kindness.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Like hell that's my fault! I'm just doing what I consider right!</span>he burst out angrily back at her.<br/>The bottle was finally handed to him, and he wasted no time in taking it and taking a large swig of it.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Maybe that's the issue. You make a lot of noise wherever you go; rumors spread fast.</span>She would have shrugged.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Are you implying something?</span>A thorn of distrust was painfully audible in the response.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">That you yourself aren't without blame when it comes to shouting and showing off.</span><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Ohh, f**k off. You're not helpful.</span><br/><br/>But the door, opening once more, caught his attention. This time, it wasn't thrust open - the motion was gentle and elegant.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">-TWENTY NINE YEARS AGO-</div><br/><br/>"My son... My son..." Tears rolled down his white skin as he held the child in his arms, shaking. Its small, doll-like body was devoid of the familiar warmth of a human body. Skin pale, eyes like marbles of glass, simply blankly staring up. No heartbeat.<br/>So cold.<br/>No matter what he did, the child didn't respond.<br/>Stop lying to yourself, someone said, it's simply like that...<br/><br/>He begged and prayed, swore favors and promised riches. He would give up anything for his son to live. And those prayers were answered. The child twitched, suddenly growing warm within the sheet of silk it was wrapped in, the black of its hair turning into a vibrant purple. And he cried, again, but this time from joy. Overjoyed, so overjoyed. His son...<br/><br/>Five years later, the footsteps of the child laced the ground, covered in a carpet of sakura petals. He was alone, all alone underneath the old trees, where only scarcely a ray of sunlight pierced their white-blossomed branches. The breeze was softly toying with his long purple hair, picking its wisps up and dropping them down, all the while he dragged his long hakama through the soft petals on the ground. It was early in the morning...<br/>And the petals in his immediate surroundings were fading, falling off the branches, collapsing onto him like a shower of white.<br/>What was a child doing all alone in the gardens?<br/><br/>Sen Masayuki was always a strange child.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">-<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">TWENTY NINE YEARS LATER</span> NOW-</div><br/><br/>Even the people in the streets occasionally shot strange looks in his direction. As if there was something that was making them turn around and face him, watch him walk down the street with ethereal grace, till he reached the door of the local inn. Something that was making them step aside, even slow down a little, a hardly noticeable presence that seeped through their very essences.<br/>He felt them all around himself. Old, young, healthy and sick, not one was hidden from him. And that was not all - even the trees, the flowers, the insects in the air, the worms beneath the ground, were leaving their tiny imprints in his conscience.<br/><br/>That was nothing new. Senbonzakura always felt the flow of life, surrounding him. In his youth, the flowers wilted around him and the grass faded when he stepped onto it, but he no longer robbed the life around himself off its force, though subconsciously. He locked that deep within himself, allowing it to awaken only rarely. Just the way that should be.<br/><br/>But his hope of a tranquil dinner and a good night's sleep was spoiled the moment he opened the door, the moment he laid his pale hand onto the panels of the door. Someone else stepped out just a moment before he entered... The commotion inside was disturbing at the very best. That didn't disturb the facade of calmness he has set up, though, and he simply entered, in utter silence, followed by the long wave of his hair. A few heads turned towards him at that moment, but he paid no heed to them, his cold eyes not even gazing at them once. Something unsettling filled the strange aura that surrounding... If one stood too close to him, they would suddenly feel tired, very tired...<br/><br/>He didn't make even a minuscule amount of noise as he slowly, with the grace of a high-caste noble, paced through the inn towards the bar. As if he truly paid no heed to the things happening around him, a cold, graceful creature without emotions. His long lashes shadowed the deep purple of his eyes till the very moment he came to the barkeep.<br/>"Nigiri. Without sauce or wasabi." he informed the man silently, with a voice akin to a sheet of silk. Slowly nodding, the man moved over to prepare the meal, while Senbonzakura orderly and tidily prepared the bill. Such perfect calmness in all this ruckus; did this strange visitor even take into his conscience what was going on around?