Chapter twenty-seven: Say Uncle

I take two steps back away from him in concern. Uncle Kakashin didn’t seem fond of mentioning him back in the void. If I recall correctly, he said that Roukuu was on “Prohibition for certain reasons.” I can see why now.

He takes my action as an alert and tries to make himself less threatening. “Kakashin must have told you about me, hasn’t he?”

I push the words out of my mouth, “Not much.”

A little huff of good humor escapes his nose. “That little man, always dramatizing things.”

He didn’t dramatize Vensen.

Father rattles his chains to get Uncle Roukuu’s attention.

He does as was expected and darts his gaze to Sommi. His unsettling eyes peer to me for a short second with his uncanny smile. “Excuse me while I take care of something real quick,” before ending his line he begins to walk backwards to my father and whispers loud enough for me to hear, “My princess.” His body then turns and comes up to my father. He brings his face close to Dad’s as his hand holds him by the jaw line. “You’re not allowed to have any guests, so I have to double your punishment. One for father, and one for the princess.”

Sommi starts to breath heavily as his eyes shoot to me.

I suddenly hear a familiar voice in my head.

“Vila, escape while you can.”

Was that my father just now?

“Sommi, look at me,” Uncle Roukuu says in a lowered and intimidating tone. Once he locks eyes with my father he speaks a word that I don’t recognize, “Khri*.”

The blood vessels near Sommi’s eyes pop out and he screams at the top of his lungs.

What is he doing!? I bolt towards him and shove myself into Roukuu.

I manage to throw him off balance just enough to hinder whatever he was doing. He stares at me with his gloomy eyes to pierce my pride. Roukuu stands straight to show his authority and opens his mouth to say something.

“Roukuu,” a voice rings through the circular room and Uncle Kakashin steps forward into the dying light enough for us to recognize him.

Roukuu turns to huff a scoff and addresses him sarcastically, “Well, if it isn’t the little man himself.”

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Kakashin keeps his pose. “Vensen sent me to take those two.”

Roukuu shifts his body with skepticism. “He told me that I needed to keep these two company.”

“He changed his mind just now, he wants them in the Library.”

The assailant looks to the ground out of frustration and then peers back to Uncle Kakashin. “What for?”

“He didn’t say.”

As I watch my two uncles debate against each other, another figure in the darkness catches my attention. Is that-Zaru?

Roukuu notices as well and points it out with a stern tone, “Who are you?”

Kakashin’s dull red eyes gaze to Zaru and then back to his brother. “This is-“

“I didn’t ask you,” Roukuu snaps to his brother as his tenebrific eyes shift to him and then back to Zaru. “Who are you?”

The two look at each other for a reformation of their plan and then back to Roukuu.

Zaru, as always, keeps his cool and replies, “My name is Zaru, I’m Kakashin’s new assistant.”

My body involuntarily jumps when Roukuu suddenly appears inches away from Zaru as a provocation with a trail of black fog trailing behind him. Zaru tries to step back a little, but Roukuu just moves forward with the same short distance between the two. “I don’t sense the signature in you,” he states with his suspicion as he leans closer to Zaru for a daunting effect.

“Vensen thought it would be best if I test him first before initiating him,” Uncle Kakashin intervenes to be a part of the conversation again. He manages to gather both of their attentions.

Roukuu squints his unbelieving eyes to his brother and looks down on him now. “That does sound like something Father would do. Yamato tells me that he’s becoming more attached to this orphan project without giving too much detail-or his purpose for those rats.”

“He hasn’t informed me on his plans with that yet.” If Uncle Kakashin is freaking out right now, he’s surely doing a good job at hiding it. The only muscles that I see moving on him are the ones that form his mouth. He’s like a statue that’s been cursed to have the ability to talk and do nothing else.

Roukuu brings his face closer to Kakashin’s in an aggressive manner and speaks to him in an aggravated tenor, “Of course he wouldn’t, not to a man who had sex with a prostitute who didn’t even belong to him.”

Uncle Kakashin shortens the gap between the two of them and tries to lower his voice as he verbally attacks his brother. “I’m not the one who lost his title as first-born for raping a servant and then infusing his blood into random people!”

A dead silence devours us all from the sickening confession. Is-that why-Roukuu is on prohibition?...

Before Roukuu could say more, Uncle puffs up his chest to make him back down and says more, “Now if you would excuse me, I have to take my niece and brother-in-law to a family antique, just as my father asked of me.”

An awkward, yet unnerving ambiance covers us with dread as we wait for Roukuu’s reaction. I can feel that pit in my stomach form a deeper hole into my soul.

Roukuu finally decides to step aside and let Uncle finish his task.

Uncle swiftly glides off the edge and lands next to me. He still has that look of spite on his face, but as I gaze deeper into his eyes, I can see a hidden love that can only be understood with family.

Zaru takes more time getting down as he carefully jumps off the edge and follows behind Uncle. Before getting too far from me, he tries to whisper a question in my direction, “Are those two really your uncles?”

“Apparently,” I answer.

We both shrug a little and Zaru advances towards where my uncle and father are.

Not wanting to see the great amount of bare skin my dad is bestowing as the two uncuff him, I turn around and decide to keep my eye on Roukuu in case he tries to pull off any nasty tricks.

His stare towards me makes this situation even more uncomfortable. I just want this to be over with. That clown-like smile of his transformed into a frown as he watches them take care of Sommi.

“Help me put this on him,” I hear Uncle say to Zaru from behind me.

Roukuu looks back to me with that same expression of gloom on his face. I can feel the hatred faze through me and impair my movement. I can sense it stabbing Uncle over a thousand times. He has more to give, I’m sure of it.

So much hatred.

“Vila, we’re ready.”

Uncle’s calling doesn’t distract me from watching Roukuu. “Okay,” I breath out, totally focused on observing him. My eyes don’t leave him as I step towards them.

All four of us make a compacted circle with Zaru supporting my father. Uncle Kakashin also guards us against his brother.

Uncle Kakashin’s announcement catches me off guard slightly, “This will only take a second, so try not to move too much.”

In a blink of an eye, we all appear in a building full of book shelves and out of that dreadful place with that clearly disturbed man.

I already know that using the void is another way to travel, but I didn’t think it would be this quick. I thought it would take a bit of a process, like having to get to the shadowy area, walking around to look for a specific door, and then reach the wanted destination. Whatever, this was easy as far as I can tell.

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Khri-Pronounced with a silent ‘k’ and a hard ‘h’ sound, this word most likely translates as “Pain,” but the language is foreign to this era of Fupum as it was created even before the Crenhis era (when crenhis was the universal language).