The pink-haired girl glided across the polished wood table and picked up the ceramic kettle. She poured herself a cup, allowing the fragrant steam to rise into the air until the entire room smelled of a sweet, earthy green tea.
"Have a taste... it's locally grown," she said softly, handing a cup toward Shion before refilling her own.
Shion didn't resist. Accepting the offering with proper etiquette, she received the warm ceramic cup with both hands.
Sip... Sip...
Her lips touched the rim, taking cautious, gentle sips of the piping hot liquid.
'It's remarkably good...' Shion mused internally, the warmth spreading down her throat.
"It's great, isn't it?" the pink-haired girl said, her gaze locking onto Shion with a sudden, heavy intensity. "But unfortunately... the poor village people who farm these leaves never get to drink a single drop of it. Every harvest is confiscated and sent straight to the nobles in the Capital."
The subtle political grievance hung heavily in the air.
Recognising the shift, Shion's demeanour hardened instantly. The bittersweet comfort of her restored voice vanished, replaced by the lethal focus of an Iga kunoichi.
"What... is it that you truly want from me...?" Shion demanded, her voice dropping into a cold, echoing register.
The moment her words left her lips, her intense Reiryoku flared violently within the mental space! The serene tea room began to tremble violently, the pristine tatami mats groaning as the immaculate white walls turned a shadowy, suffocating dark.
"Ha...?"
Realising her outburst was destabilising the domain, Shion reined in her volatile Reiryoku. As her dark energy receded, the shaking ceased, and the shadowy walls gradually smoothed back into clean, white panels.
"As you can see," the pink-haired girl said softly, taking another slow sip of her tea, "this room transforms directly according to your mood and state of mind. Thus, inside this space, there can be no lies between us."
She set her ceramic cup down onto the polished wood table with a gentle click.
"I will now tell you my story. And by the end of it, I will ask you a single question. Depending on your answer... that is when I will willingly surrender the remaining pillar to you."
Without another word, the girl reached up and unfastened one side of her ceremonial kimono, letting the silk fabric slide off her shoulder.
Shion's eyes widened in horror.
Just above the girl's pale chest, where her sternum should have been, was a gaping, hollow void. Suspended directly in the centre of that black pit hung a dark, pulsating heart, tightly bound in glowing spiritual chains that beat in a heavy, rhythmic thump.
Thump-thump... Thump-thump...
Suddenly, a sharp, suffocating pain shot through Shion's chest!
Her breath seized in her throat as her own heart violently hitched and then began to beat in exact, forced synchronisation with the chained heart across the table.
Thump-thump... Thump-thump...
Though the silent kunoichi did not realise it yet, the trap had already been sprung. She was being bound by a dark, insidious heartbeat curse.
"Mhhhhhmm..." Shion groaned softly, her hand pressing against her sternum as sweat beaded on her brow.
"Yare, yare... Dance and move, little rat... for if you stop, you will die..."
The pink-haired girl sang softly, closing her eyes as if swaying to an invisible melody.
"A few decades before now, there was a young girl named Mitsuki. She was born into a low-class family, but she had loving parents and a protective older brother. Though they were poor, she lived a fulfilling life. At age ten, she came to understand the world. At age thirteen, she discovered her purpose—she was a dancer. Learning the art from her father, she would take the stage and dance for the village. And at age fifteen... she came to know her destiny. She was to be married off to the local lord, who had heard grand tales of her beauty and grace."
As the story progressed, the forced tempo of their synchronised heartbeats accelerated rapidly, pounding against Shion's ribs like the violent, frantic beating of a war drum!
Thump-thump-thump! Thump-thump-thump!
"Huffff... Huffff..."
Shion took heavy, agonising breaths, her fingers clutching her chest as cold sweat drenched her ceremonial kimono. She forced her eyes open, glaring across the small tea table through the hazy steam.
"What... are you doing to me...?" Shion rasped out.
Piercing through the spiritual veil with her mystic vision, Shion gasped. The pink-haired girl's vibrant locks had completely withered and vanished, leaving behind a pale, bald skull.
"The weight of a human soul is heavy, isn't it?" the creature said, her toothy smile remaining eerily cheerful despite her horrifying decay. "Our deal was simple: you agreed to listen to my story. Now that the ritual has officially begun, you must see it through to the end. And if the weight of this story proves too heavy for your spirit to bear... you will die right along with me."
A single thread on her ceremonial kimono snapped, beginning to unravel into dark mist as the tale continued.
'Tsk... It seems I walked right into a trap,' Shion's mind raced, her thoughts turning sharply despite the agonising pounding in her chest. 'By telling her story, she is forcing her will and soul directly onto mine. If I am not careful, I will be completely consumed by the unbearable weight of her grief and my spirit will be crushed. So this is her true game... She is trying to prove her existence by drowning mine.'
Across the table, the bald, decaying figure smiled as her story reached its turning point.
"By the age of sixteen, Mitsuki came to face her ultimate destiny," the girl continued, her voice echoing in the darkening space. "Though she wished for nothing more than to dance, she understood full well what being married off meant for her starving family. And that was the exact moment her life began to ch—"
"There... was a young girl... born in the mountains..." Shion cut her off, her voice raspy and strained.
"Tsk..." The pink-haired girl's body tensed for a moment.
The sudden intrusion broke the rhythm of the ritual. Shion's breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. Her skin had turned deathly pale, and heavy beads of cold sweat rolled down her temples, dripping onto the tatami mats.
"Kukukuku..."
The bald girl chuckled, her toothy grin widening as she stared across the table at Shion.
"So... you figured it out, did you?" she mused, her eyes gleaming with dark amusement. "You intend to share your own story to balance the scale? But from what I have seen of you, with a heart as cold and unyielding as ice, are you even capable of understanding the emotions you felt? Remember... no falsehoods or masked feelings are permitted inside this hall."
The girl flashed a thoroughly devious smile, her unravelling kimono fluttering in the heavy, oppressive air.
"Show me your soul then, little pawn from Iga."