𝐒𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 - ★彡[ᴀʟʜᴀɪᴛʜᴀᴍ]彡★

𝟎𝟎 - 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐊𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐈

I still remember the day where I first fell in love with her. She was the only person in this world I have ever loved in such a way, and it will remain that way until the end of time. For her I would gladly sacrifice my morals, life, and my own body. I will always lament over her life and death that she didn't deserve; I pray that if she shall be reborn, she will be able to live a peaceful and happy life—whether it's with or without me.

    But if you truly wish to know how I got to this point in the first place, I suppose it would be best to tell the story of Inori and I.

    If we were to start from the very beginning, I should probably mention beforehand that I was born into a family that specialized in martial arts. It had been decided from my birth onwards that I would go down the same path as my father and his fathers before him, and I was told every since my youth that this was the best and only option that was offered to me in this lifetime.

    Despite the fact that the Shikanoin family was highly renowned for their exquisite and in-depth training courses, my family located their dojo in a smaller suburban city. Due to the population of the city being smaller than what would be considered the average population for that time, most people knew each other personally.

    Of course this meant from my youth, I had known of Sato Inori's existence. She had been described by the townsfolk as the purest and most beautiful maiden on this earth, known for her maternal kindness and perfect demeanor, her lack of flaws being so nonexistent that I found it quite disturbing. On days where I refused to practice due to childish spite, those around me would compare me to Inori—because of such comparisons, I developed a strong disliking of her as I grew older. I made sure to steer clear of her in any possible situation, although I still ended up having a few run-ins with her from time to time in which I refrained from speaking as much as possible, never looking her in the eyes. The only sight I had of her was her smooth white gloves and pale skin.

    By the age of thirteen, I had accepted my future as the next head of my family's dojo and had begun to work diligently to better my craft. My father and I decided that they would send me to the mountains east of the town to do a bit of harsher training to test my strength without guidance. Excited for the chance to impress my father, I set out the following day with minimal belongings.

    The first destination in which I decided to stop was a stream that was only a couple miles away from the base of the mountain. I had hiked here several times with my family in the past, so I knew the area like the back of my thumb.

    Upon reaching my initial destination, I saw a familiar figure sitting on a rock at the edge of the stream, her ebony black hair draped over her shoulders. Why is Inori in such a place? I had never donned her the type to go out for walks in the mountains, at least with her reputation.

    Although my mind urged me to simply walk the other way and leave her behind, I found myself only capable of standing there listlessly, watching her hair blow behind her in the wind. For a few minutes I stood in the undergrowth behind her, unsure of what to do or say, before I decided to leave her in peace.

    As I took a step back the dried leaves behind me cracked, causing Inori to jolt upwards with surprise and immediately snap her head in my direction.

    Ah.

    At that moment, I understood. Her eyes were like black onyxes, possessing within them depths that I couldn't possibly understand. Tears slid down her cheeks, yet her eyes hardly held any emotion. It was almost as if I were staring at a porcelain doll. This fleeting moment only lasted a second before she smiled warmly at me, any trace of her sadness gone.

    "I apologize," she spoke gently, her voice pure and gentle like a small bell chiming in my ears, "I was so moved by the beauty of the stream that I shed a tear."

It was an obvious lie, but I didn't want to pry into it too much. If she wanted to act like she was some perfect angel, I figured that it was none of my business to disturb that. I averted my gaze downwards so I didn't have to continue looking at her face in fear that I would become bewitched as the other men in the village had, which led me to stare at her gloveless hands. Strangely there were calluses on her knuckles and the back of her hand, which seemed unbefitting to her angelic image. Upon seeing this, my eyes widened. Is that...Russell's sign?

Inori noticed my gaze and hurriedly placed her hands behind her back. "My apologies, I didn't mean to look so disorderly. Please forgive my rudeness."

"It's no problem, but..." I started to speak, but my words died out as soon as I saw the expression on her face.

Thus was the day when I first met the gaze of Sato Inori, the purest and most beautiful maiden on this earth.

Thus was the day when I first met the gaze of Sato Inori, the purest and most beautiful maiden on this earth.

hi guys! im so hyped to write this and i hope you all enjoy--this part will only be 5 chapters long at the max and then it will return back to (y/n) and alhaitham^ thank you guys for 260k reads—the drawing was done with inspiration from How to Get My Husband On My Side (edit: looking at this a few months later and idk why my camera sharpness was so high)

ty all for the support as always ily all sm! my birthday is two weeks from now so i may be m.i.a. for a bit but we'll have to see how it goes. otsu!<3