[AYAMI]
A year.
That was how much time had passed since Ayami had seen her mate.
She had been looking, gods, she really had. She had asked around for the servant girl from Kurayami who had long hair and was always in pigtails.
She asked around the central markets, beyond the borders, and even bought off merchants who went into the Kurayami kingdom to help her find the woman she had kissed and gotten addicted to.
She wondered on some days whether the woman had been real, but then the way that Kujo was always glaring at her whenever she talked about Yuzuki was all the proof she needed to know that the girl wasn't in her head.
Even then, Ayami had kept wondering how that innocence had stayed. And even if there was a chance for her to see her again. Yami had been dedicated to her search even when she could still come up empty.
Oh, how she missed her servant girl.
Of course, she had tried around the channels for Rinko, the older sister of Yuzuki. But no one had enough information for her.
It was all just a dead end over and over.
"Yuzuki and Rinko are a common name in the Kuramitsu kingdom, enforcer," she had been told by more than ten merchants, and her search had been slowed, but Ayami never gave up.
Not even after a year.
Each evening, she set foot at the border's river like it was the only thing that kept her sane.
Expectedly, King Kazuya had noticed and questioned her about it, and her answer to the king had been simple.
"What I do with my personal life is not your business as long as it doesn't harm Yamashita."
It had been a simple declaration, and King Kazuya had stepped back.
He didn't push, never again. He trusted Ayami with his life, and given the fact that Ayami had never slacked on her work as the enforcer of the Yamashita kingdom, King Kazuya had no reason to be wary of her.
Kujo, her friend, had tried to talk some sense into her. tried to make her understand that looking for twin sisters with the commonest names in a kingdom that was enemies with their s was madness.
But Ayami had ignored her.
She didn't pay attention to anything that stopped her or was meant to deter her from meeting with Yuzuki again. The only thing that gave her even more hope was the fact that her mate was still active.
That had to mean something.
Yuzuki was alive, and if Ayami had to scout the entire realm and even risk being caught in Kurayami for her, then she would do it.
"I'm going out. Won't be available for dinner," Ayami announced, and her servants didn't say a word.
They didn't need to.
They all knew where she was going. Where to find her.
They knew and understood it all so well because, like clockwork, Ayami would go to the river border between Kurayami and Yamashita.
Many of her warriors tried to deter her, but all they got in return were crueler punishments for whenever they slacked. Slowly, they got to understand Ayami's personal life wasn't theirs to interfere with.
"Aya…" Kujo called out when she ran into Ayami on the streets. Just like everyone, she knew where the most lethal enforcer in the realm was headed.
"Not now, Kujo. You know this is my time," Ayami dismissed, but Kujo was not one to give up.
So, she kept on.
"Don't. Don't get to the border today. The mad queen of Kurayami will be patrolling, and what will she do if she finds you looking?" Kujo tried like it were a need for her.
She knew she had to, even though a part of her knew that Ayami was not going to be deterred by something as dangerous as the Kurayami queen. She had made up her mind, and maybe this was just a trial.
"I am not going to see their queen. I am going to practice like I always do," Ayami said dismissively, and before Kujo could deter her even more, she walked away. She didn't have time. She didn't, truly.
Ever since she had met Yuzuki, her life had been agonizing as fuck.
She never slept well.
She was haunted by memories that he could swear she had never experienced before. It was like there was a bit of her life that she didn't know about.
Each night, it was the same dream, and each night it ended with her calling for Yuzuki, the serving girl of Kurayami. She never said it to anyone, but those dreams had been concurrent.
Each night. Without fail.
On some days, she ended up dead in her dreams and then woke up, while on others, she watched helplessly as her life was ripped to pieces, and there wasn't a soul that was left to say a word to her.
It was something that scared the hell out of her because it all began on the day that Yuzuki had kissed her. And Ayami, for all she believed in, started asking questions about her memories.
She had gone to the warlocks, and some had told her that they were merely dreams. Others even dared to tell her that they were probably memories from one of her past lives.
Nevertheless, Ayami never believed in reincarnation.
She only believed in life and death. There was nothing like rebirth, so she assumed that the warlocks were playing games with her.
But then she had a reputation for killing everything she didn't like, yet the warlocks had all been saying the same things. So, Ayami decided not to go back to the warlocks. Because it was impossible to be reincarnated.
They were wolves, not some magical beings anyway.
"Please let her come today," Ayami prayed when she got to the river border, and there was no one.
Not even a sign of life.
And for hours, it was like that, just an enforcer forcing herself to train and be better while waiting for the woman who had her heart. When the third hour went by, Amai figured it was pointless to keep waiting.
After all, it was part of the hour for servants to come this far to look for water or do their laundry. So she packed up, ready to leave. Until a screeching voice hit her ears.
"Zura.... your enforcer, Rinko, is being mean to me again," a woman whined annoyingly.
Ayami paused.
She hid behind the streets and masked her scent so no one could know she was here. It was something that she never let out on this side because she wanted Yuzuki to find her.
She had wanted even to see Rinko just so the woman could tell her to stay away from Yuzuki, but there had been nothing.
Maybe today was just another day.
However, as she looked closer, the woman who was talking looked like a consort, and she was accompanied by several other warriors.
Zura, the woman she was whining to, had her face masked by magic, and Ayami didn't need to ask more questions to know that that had to be the Kurayami queen.
The devil Kuramitsu.
Which meant that these were royals. But had they come here because they had known that she would be here? Ayami had her mind facing, yet each thought was slashed down them, never coming this far out of the palace.
So, it made no sense.
"Then be mean to her. Besides, is she telling the truth? Is that what you have been up to? Whoring around?" the woman Ayami had figured was the queen Kuramitsu spoke dismissively.
Ayami almost snorted at the insistence of that consort. But then she had to be careful too because this was a risk that she couldn't afford.
"Why do you ask that?" the consort screeched, and Queen Kuramitsu sighed tiredly.
"If it is not the truth, then stop making excuses and keep walking. If it is the truth, you do you, I couldn't give a shit about it," Queen Kuramitsu said, and Ayami almost let out a laugh at that.
This woman, the woman whose face had always been a mystery to everyone, was here patrolling the borders. Ayami was intelligent enough to know that they had to be looking for something, anything.
But then, before she could think further, her mind clicked something.
More like a name.
Rinko.
Enforcer Rinko.
"Could she be…" Ayami asked herself as she focused using her eyesight.
And right there with the whiny woman and Queen Kuramitsu was the woman she had been looking for for a year.
Rinko.
Yuzuki's older sister.