A tale of the heart told with anything but

Tsuna woke up. She was wearing the modified bedsheets that Izumi had made. It was a bit small on her now, though.

To her left and right were the others. Some were already awake, others not.

Most of them looked down on Tsuna. Tsuna was seen as "other". A " premium". Tsuna was never treated well, but she was treated better. "Clients" might come just to enjoy a meal with her.

Though she nearly always saw them later under different circumstances.

The inn was very careful with her, warning "clients" against "damaging the goods".

Tsuna was the only one that got that special treatment. The others resented her for that, even though she had no control over it.

But even through that resentment, there was still a level of friendship, of  camaraderie. They were all in this hell together.

Izumi had been a big part of that feeling. She was always, someone, at least a little bit, positive. Everyone know it was fake, a mask. And she knew everyone knew.

But everyone also ignored that. One person could bring light to this dismal room with her very presence.

Izumi had not returned after meeting with a certain "influential client" three days before.

The room was darker than it had ever been.

The door flung open, slamming against the wall. Tsuna flinched.

She knew most everyone else would to.

The innkeeper was walking in, and walked past the first row of cots.

Past the second row of cots.

Past the third.

And the fourth.

It was close enough for Tsuna to see, now, what was being carried with.

A black strapless dress. It was probably about half a meter long, and the edges were traced in frills.

Tsuna swallowed.

This was hers. She knew it. On most of the other girls, it would be a bit large. For her, a bit small.

And she was right. At the sixth row of cots, where Tsuna slept, the "innkeeper" turned and gave her Tue dress, telling her to "prepare for a new client" before quickly leaving.

Tsuna wanted to cry. Izumi would normally have given her a verbal pat on the back, and informed her that, no matter how bad it would be, she could handle it.

But today, nobody offered reassurances. Nobody reached out to connect. They pulled away, away from the sign of what their life had been reduced to.

And Tsuna cried.

---

Tsuna sat on the edge of the bed in the small room. She saw the padding on the wall, the black sheets that easily hid most stains.

And she forced herself to smile, hiding her bloodshot eyes, hoping nobody would notice until they were better.

Having been surrounded by near silence in the compound of Yugure she had been itching for a small reprieve of sorts - something to give her a break of silence and submerge herself in the sounds of life once again. Seems old habits die hard as she found herself in the country of Yugakure moving from bar to bar - only to find herself hearing of the same ‘Inn’ being spoken about. It wasn’t the ‘Inn’ itself that sparked her interest, she had heard of plenty of these places in her time - it was how it was spoken about that had peaked her however. After the fourth mention of it, by the same type of man, she knew she couldn’t leave for home before checking into it. Paying for her drink she would ask the barkeep where she would be able to find such an inn, the man seemed unsure at first but gave her directions regardless - who was he to assume the tastes of patrons.

Saying her thanks she turned from the man and swept out the door, fixing her straw hat back upon her black hair as she moved through the streets. Wearing her usual all black skin tight attire she moved lithely through the streets until she reached her destination, ordered the company of a woman and waited for the room to be ready. Money was money in the Inn Keepers mind so he had no intention of questioning the oddity of a woman in such a place. It was a short time before she was escorted to the designated room, as the door was opened for her to enter she quickly grabbed the handle on the other side - flashing a kind smile to the attendant - and swiftly shut it in their face. 

Turning her face to the figure sitting on the bed - the hat dipping over most of her face as she listened to the heartbeats surrounding her - the attendant moving away and the frighteningly fast beats of the girl. Raising her hands she would remove the hat allowing it to fall back and rest at her back, the cord tying it now around her throat. The two tones of her eyes stared wordlessly into the bloodshot pair, the girl swam in the black dress she was sure she hadn’t chosen herself. Finally breaking the silence she would say in a calm tone, making no move toward the girl, as she settled against the door. “Tell me, did you choose this life, or were you enslaved into it.” The answer of the girl would dictate her coming words.

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Tsuna's heart quickened when the person walking through the door was a woman.

Sometimes, even most of the time, it could be fine, even safer. It could be a person her on business like any other.

But the wife angry at the "beguiling witch" that enticed her "faithful husband" was not a rare story in the back room.

The risk was small but... It was there, and the rarity of it scared Tsuna more than the constant risk of an overzealous client. The rare threat was more concerning than the common one, even if it was lesser.

As the woman made eye contact, Tsuna almost instinctively looked away, and down. Partly out of fear, partly out of training.

Partly out if a need to hide her bloodshot eyes.

Before looking away, though, she noticed the women's brilliant eyes. Two toned. Tsuna thought she had heard a term for that before, but if she had, it was a time too far past, one she could not bring forth to memory.

And then the worst happened. A simple question that chilled Tsuna's everything. Her heart, already beating fast, would quicken. She began breathing faster. She knew, remembered. She had not had one yet, but stories and rumors were not contained.

Especially not when they were a warning.

"M-" she started, her voice shaky. "My choice," she said.

Tsuna was not a good liar. But that was never what it was about. It was just a test, it had to he a test.

It was always a test.

She dared not risk failing. All she had to do was he convincing enough. Lie well enough that whoever this was, likely paid by the "innkeeper", would accept it, and move on.

But Tsuna was not a liar. Perhaps well enough to fool a random woman off the street given some cash to do a "loyalty" check, but not well enough to fool anyone trying to dig deeper.

Tsuna, nor, she expected, any of the other girls here, were here by choice.

But the false hope of escape had been drilled out of them long, long ago. Those who tried always returned.

Not nessecarily in one piece.

---

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The drumming of her heartbeat spurred faster and faster as the moment between the two drew out. Had her ability to hear her heart fly been stunted her breathing would be enough for any to understand the panic that flooded the woman’s being. The small glance at her before her eyes flickered to the ground was yet another indication of the lie the girl stuttered through - simple as the two words were. Pressing her lips together into a firm line she would close her eyes and lean her head back against the door - lost in the thrumming of her heart for a moment before speaking in a gentle tone. “You lie only to yourself, hummingbird.” The nickname was fitting as she wasn’t given a name, or at least not a name she believed to be true by the attendant.

“I’ll ask once more and only once more, are you here by choice or enslaved into this work?”, as she spoke she had silently pushed from the door, walking around the cramped room to search it with her eyes - fingers drumming against her thighs as she moved. “Think before you lie your way out of freedom as I do not wish to free the unwilling.” Now facing away from the woman sat still on the bed, she would turn her face just so to look over her shoulder for the woman’s final reply. Standing as she did, legs firmly planted, wide brimmed hat concealing her upper torso - the look in her eyes filled with vengeance.

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Tsuna knew.
Not by some marvel of deduction, but from the woman very plainly stating it.
Her lie had been seen.
And caught.
It had not been good enough.
This... this was it.
This was it.
There was... almost a calmness to the finality.
She was fucked. And not in the normal way.
That was... not freeing, per se.
But it gave room to hope.
Room to hope that the woman was not lying.
Room to believe that maybe, just maybe, this was not a test.
If it was, she had already failed.
But maybe, just maybe, this person, the woman in front of her, was... actually sincere.
It was a pipe dream.
A long shot.
But it was a single, beautiful, shining, drop of hope.
Tsuna had not known hope for a very, very long time.
So she saw this woman in front of her.
Heard the words she said.
And she hoped.

"I-"
She paused. The fear fighting the small, almost insignificant drop of hope.
But hope was powerful, truly powerful.
Something she lacked for so long.
Something that, even through her hesitation?
She was not willing to drop.

"Enslaved."

A single word.
Two syllables.
Enough hope to shatter her body.
She knew, at that moment, this was a defining point in her life.
The question just remained:
Would she be saved from this life of torture and use?
Or was this just a test? One she had, very clearly, boldly even, just failed.

Tsuna hoped.
Because that was all she had left as she stared into the eyes of the unknown stranger.

---

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Enslaved. The words caused the two toned eyes close as the goosebumps rose over her skin, releasing her emotions like a fire sparking back to life from the embers - the insidious smile spread over her lips. This is what she had hoped for… craved even - an actionable cause that released the tension she had building up. All at once her entire demeanor shifted from a poised lady to languid assassin - the words she whispered were spoken with such reverence it was as if she spoke to the heavens themselves, “Honesty is always rewarded.” In the next breath she was gone, having slipped into the ground without a trace.

In the moments before her merge she had activated her ability to nullify her chakra , essentially making her a ghost to any who swore protection over the building as she moved through its halls. She needn’t use jutsu other than Mayfly for the occasion of bloodshed she wrought upon the house as she seamlessly dispatched workers - striding past them through the halls - all it took was a quick jerk of her claws over their unwitting throats to silence them. Each room she melted into held it’s own array of debauchery, and each man unwittingly sealed their fate for being in her presence. Each was dispatched in similar fashion, going for major arteries with each strike - the rooms that held women would be directed to the room that held the hummingbird with no further explanation.

In essence she was swift and efficient, leaning on her decades of this exact work to lead her motions as if in a trance - seek the heartbeats and cease them. If she weren’t covered in more blood than a butcher’s kill room she might be seen as a hero but instead she knew the visage the girls saw her as and she spent no time dwelling on it until her task was complete… all but one lay dead on some ground. The final man, the one she had deemed head of operations, sat unknowingly in his office going over the weekly profits and expenditures. His silent contemplation was interrupted by the soft dripping of blood coming from her clothes as she stood behind him, unbreathing.

The portly man only had a second to him before one hand of nails plunged into his kidney from behind and the other wrapped tightly around his neck - ultimately dragging him from his seat, out the door, and down the hall in the same pathing she had been led not an hour ago. The man’s screams pierced the air growing ever louder until she kicked the door open and threw him at the feet of the women who had dared gather in the room that held the hummingbird. The pool of blood gathering at her own feet met the pool that was exiting the man's panting form. With another movement she extricated a single kunai from her weapons pouch and held it out to the only face she recognized in the room - though she was covered in blood, her expression wild - she spoke in a gentle tone. “Your freedom should be won by your hand, or it means nothing.”

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'Honesty is always rewarded.'

It was almost comical. All the fear, the pain. All the doubt, of just these few minutes. All because honesty was not rewarded. Because deceit was.. expected.

Was her reward to be a quick death?

Tsuna closed her eyes.

And waited.

And nothing.

The woman was gone, but the door most certainly had not opened. Tsuna saw this as she opened her eyes, frantically searching around the room, only for there to be a knock on the door. Three quick raps, then two. Tsuna got up and opened the door to see another victim of this heartless place. There was blood splatter upon her otherwise naked body, and her eyes were blank, as if they had seen too much.

But her mouth, it was in a smile. Tsuna could hear as screams rung out, rare, but there. It was not unusual to hear screaming, many rooms were muffled for exactly that purpose. Only with an open door, only if the hallways were quiet, could you make it out.

And with that, Tsuna realized the hallways were... quiet. Aside from the shuffling of feet as more and more came to the room she was in. Many with that same, blank stare. Some manically laughing, others silent, withdrawn.

Still, they filed in, as the woman returned. With another.

Those who laughed, stopped. Those who seemed empty, on the verge of tears, many of them began laughing.

Then the woman held out a hand, with an object.

Tsuna was not entirely sure what it was called, but she could tell from a glance, it was sharp. And the words the woman said...

Tsuna gently took the bladed object into her hands, looking at the man.

He shouted, pleaded.

It was a buzz.

The world around Tsuna was disappearing.

All she saw, all she knew, all that was... was herself, and the man.

The man that had taken so much from her. So much from the others.

She had so much she wanted to say. So much that she had imagined, believed, as she cried herself to sleep.

This was a dream. A dream, it had to be.

But... but no. She did not speak. It was not a dream.

This... somehow, this was real.

Tears flowed down from her cheek. Tsuna cried, and she cried out. A scream of pain. Of sorrow. Of embarrassment, humiliation. A scream of anger. Of rage.

A scream of hope.

Practically falling to the floor, she pushed herself into the man. The man who had done so much wrong. The man who had caused so much pain.

And the world came back.

There was a hush from the other girls.

Tsuna rose, extracting the now blood stained kunai from the man's torso. She held it up even as he went limp. Her head was down, her eyes were closed. Once more, she cried out. It was still a cry of pain, of sorrow, embarrassment and humiliation, anger and rage.

But also of victory. Of hope. Of success.

Tsuna dropped to her knees, still clutching the bloody kunai high in the air, feeling the drops hit her head.

And she cried. The first happy cry in a long, long time.

---

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The room filled with heartbeats and the sounds of those fully alive for the first time in an ungodly amount of time was overcome with the scream of the girl who had yet spoken above a whisper. Mizuki simply closed her eyes to the sound, not to block it out by any means, but to absorb it in it’s purest form. Blocking out as many senses as she could, stopping her intake of breath even to allow the scream wrack her being in it’s raw intensity. Only when the sound ran its course did she open her eyes to view the woman in her state. The flicker of interest would be lost on those in her company but it burned brighter as she took in the scene.

The kunai held above her head as if in offering to a god she had not learned the name of yet, even as she screamed once more and fell to her knees the hands raised above her showed devotion. Had she a heartbeat it would be beating with a furious time as she witnessed the offering to Jashin in real time. As the blood dripped from the instrument onto the crown of the woman she endearingly thought of as Hummingbird she too would kneel - swiftly shoving aside the corpse. With gentle hands she would cradle the woman's face - leaving prints of blood wherever she touched - and turned it up slowly to look her in the eyes. “Jashin smiles upon your act in ways you have no idea… I can offer you all a safe place to recover if you wish.” With the last bit of her words she would tear her rapt attention away from her to glance at the others to include them in her offer.

Her hands would slip from her face as softly as a butterfly's wing touch, in the same movement she would rise to her feet - standing no taller than many of the women. Her lack of rising and falling chest - as the frantic evening left everyone else gasping or hyperventilating in their own manner - aided her inhuman appearance. Her eyes scanned the array of emotions exposed in the room before dropping into a rare bow, and as she straightened she would fold her hands in front of her in a regal manner. “My name is Mizuki Ohta, and may I be the first to welcome you to freedom.” The silence that followed did not disturb her, as she knew what she looked like and expected nothing less. Stepping to the side she would grab up the sheet that was on the bed and began wiping the blood from her face and exposed skin.

As she did so, she spoke in a matter of fact tone. “I commend you all for lasting as you have, I do not seek from you what you are unwilling to do. I will be leaving in five minutes, you may follow me or find your own way in the world.” Harsh as her words were, these women understood enough of her at this point to know that she was not one to pander to the whims of others. “That is my offer… Hummingbird? What do you say?” She was staring directly at the woman now, waiting with a stern look.

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Tears are a funny thing. It is surprisingly easy for tears of one kind to morph into tears of another. As Tsuna knelt there, the weight of her tears, of her pain, of her sorrow, and fear, and... and the joy in this all being over...

The catalyst of this change was something she did not quite expect: the mysterious woman reached out, and settled on Tsuna's face. Tsuna was... not quite processing it at the time, but somewhere, deep down, not even a conscious thought, she recognized the bloody fingers on her face, the marks the left, and...

And she did not hate it.

These were people she hated. Hatred she had had to hold back, to hide, for so long.

Accept, accept, accept.

Accept the punishment.

Accept the humiliation.

Accept the dehumanization.

She had lived like that for so long.

Her days were filled with fear, bending to the whims of those people.

Too weak to fight back, to stand up for herself.

Or perhaps too strong to be driven to that point.

It was a strange case.

She, even as she cried, even as the bloody fingerprints were left on her face, she did something she forgot about. A sound she had not made in so long.

She laughed.

Not the half psychotic, broken laughs of the others.

She laughed at the absurdity of it all.

She had be so afraid. So... controlled.

She was afraid to fight back, and had been for so long.

One person showed up, and ended it all.

Was that not hilarious? It was a fucking comedy.

She had heard several times over the years, from 'clients' that thought so highly of themselves, that "a tragedy is a misunderstood comedy."

And Tsuna? She finally understood.

This was a grand comedy.

And the punchline was that all that fear, all that sorrow, it was pointless!

The woman in front of her... that was someone to fear.

Respect, yes.

Admire, even, quite probably.

But fear? It was too ingrained into Tsuna. The tragic comedy of reality was that she was broken.

Her hand fell as she continued to chuckle. The grand joke of her life was over. Or at least, the first grand joke was.

And, as much as she wanted to fold up..


She wanted to bloom, to explore.

She wanted to be feared. Not fearful, but feared. A force of nature. Someone who's mere mention could drive fear into those who lived for the night, for the darkness.

Perhaps she was insane. Perhaps, perhaps she was destined to die the dumbest way possible.

Perhaps even this mysterious savior was just another person out to fuck over her life, just wanted her to herself.

That did not matter.

Tsuna looked up. The other woman had finished speaking.

One might think, after all she had gone through, so quickly, she might be staring blankly forwards. Following along and nothing else.

Some of the girls were absolutely doing that.

Tsuna was not among them.

Tsuna's eyes blazed with determination.

The bloody fingerprints marked her face, and blood dripped down.

One might think she was crying blood, perhaps.

Tsuna stood up, and held the sharp object back out to the kunoichi, holding the sharp, bloody end in her hands.

"I will follow."

No smile touched her lips, but neither did a frown. Perhaps the best way to describe it was a sort of steely determination, driven on by a fiery inferno of hope and passion. A desire for a better tomorrow.

Even if that possibly meant leaving the frying pan and diving directly into the fire.

---

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The laugh that came from her mouth might have made lesser beings flinch - the scenario being as bizarre and offensive as it was - but for Mizuki she only saw the birth of a renowned name coming into the world. She continued to watch the woman, all body language cues and heartbeat sense focused on her - had she been in danger of attack she may have even been taken for a fool as her attention was so wholly captured by the woman. Her eyes blazed with determination and her figure lacked the tremble of a fearful runt but instead lusted after the action she had committed with her own hands. Exactly as she had hoped it would… For those able to grasp its concept it was a drug like no other.

As she held the kunai out to be grasped instead of wielded as a defensive mechanism the words would hit like a key clicking in a lock - she would follow. Hands still wet with the nights events she would reach out and grasp the hilt of the blood soaked kunai - inherently knowing this tool would be one she treasured - even as she restored it with its brethren. With no hint to her inner mind she would simply straighten into a more relaxed pose as she cracked her neck easily as though the night was nothing of consequence to her. ]b]“I leave in 2 minutes, meet me out front if you choose to.” [/b] And with a sly smile she would slink out of the room - withholding the teasing notion to show exactly how she moved with the ease that allowed the massacre she left in her wake.

Instead she moved through the silent halls as anyone else would and waited, leaned against the wall with the cigarette pressed to her lips - any passerby would see nothing amiss and keep their pathing with a glance in her direction at best. The straw hat that had missed majority of the blood splatter now sat on top of her head to cover her face. She would wait for the 2 minutes prescribed before putting out the cig on the wall to her back and heading off to her home of Yugure. Anyone who chose to accompany her would not be met with more greeting than a glance of acknowledgment and the path laid out to them as she moved.

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