Who is Queen? [Shishiyuki, Kasha]

"Of that I have no doubt."

Shishiyuki was in much the same situation as Kasha, perhaps overly confident in her abilities, but unwilling to budge on the matter. She knew that every master kept secrets just as Kasha did, but that was not something she worried overmuch about. After all, she kept many secrets of her own.

Laughing quietly to herself at Kasha's offer, Shishiyuki only shook her head at such boldness. She understood well the implication of what Kasha had said, but she was not the sort to address it any further. After all, the stated meaning was not something she chose to do, and the implied was something she had no interest in.

"There are many who would be relatively unwilling to accept a lady of noble standing such as I bear so many scars. For the sake of my duties as the family head, and master of the 108 sects, I maintain appearances."

Of course, that wasn't the whole truth. Shishiyuki tended not to tell the whole truth, but this place was different, reluctant as she was to accept that fact. Looking idly at the scars which crossed one of her hands, she then continued, her voice a bit more firm as she spoke.

"Each scar I bear is a mark of pride in my style, a sign of respect for those who have inflicted them. I show them only to those who would understand their value. Others do not deserve the honor."

"Ahaha. A prize for the worthy, huh? Fair enough."

Her hand moved came up to touch the piece of cloth that covered her eye. A small bit of discomfort given the fabric was holding all the heat and moisture from the sauna but she didn't remove it regardless. Unlike every other part of her body she rarely ever removed it under any circumstances.

"I suppose I agree with that. Though I gave up any kind of subtefuge after my eye so I have no interest in hiding anything, scarred or not. Give's people something to look at I guess."

"It surprises me that you keep your eye hidden away, and all of your other scars on show. I could certainly do as is the unspoken custom of our family, and pry into the matter through deduction and circular speech. But neither of us would much care for that."

Relaxing a touch more finally, Shishiyuki simply leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, almost curious how long it might reasonably take for her body to no longer earn any scars. Would that be a tragic day? She did not consider it often.

"I will simply ask what happened, if you are willing to share the story."

"Oho. Such a personal question, what could we exchange for that story?"

She laughed afterwards, coercing people into things wasn't her style but it didn't mean she wouldn't make some jokes either way for a bit of light fun. Kasha did coax the other lady a bit closer though and start to talk real low. Set the mood you know?

It was technically the material of rumours as to why she wore her eyepatch and giving Shishiyuki the secret knowledge of its true nature was a big deal. Though others had tried in indirect ways, only those that had the balls to ask her directly ever got the story. Not a lot did that in this family.

"You mentioned going unchallenged during your ascension to head, well I might've had the gall to tell my teacher, the former Kasha, that I intended to contend. He insisted I was blind and foolish..."

She leaned in close to Shishiyuki as she continued.

"If I insisted on being blind, my body should reflect that and so he took his hand and he tore it down my eye."

Her hand repeated the gesture harmlessly over her new friend's face to give a visual aid.

"..and when the time came, it didn't matter because I had lost my sense of depth perception and that's why I decided that day two things. I'd never be like him or like my family in concealing my true nature and I'd never change for anyone but me."

She did not explain the technique he used or that if she removed her eyepatch then it would continue to burn away at her face and spread nor did she explain the specifics of the man that most people thought was reasonable and approachable. Maybe if she asked or persisted in learning. It's not like Kasha would deny her anything.

"I had thought that such a riveting fight and my frank honesty with you would be more than enough."

Shishiyuki wasn't the sort to laugh so openly, even when being as honest as this, but she allowed herself a small smile to make clear the joking nature of the response. Of course, she didn't maintain the smile for long, particularly as she heard Kasha's tale. She might normally have listened to this all in a rather detached manner, but she could not. Not in these circumstances, and certainly not when it connected to the one moment of her life that she had never once forgotten.

"I would have been quite overjoyed to have had your challenge. I think there are few things in life I would have enjoyed more, but I am not one to look back on what-ifs."

The intimacy of their current state was not lost on Shishiyuki, of course, but it was also far from the main concern for her at the moment. No, her thoughts were entirely on the prior Kasha, the one who had taken so much from them both.

"How infuriating. I would have stricken him down myself, had I known. Perhaps I still would, even today."

"Hehe. Not a chance, I would not have given you the pleasure that was all mine."

Kasha said cheerily, completely unfazed that she didn't show any mercy in the succession against her predecessor. It was all to satisfying and deserving that she did it. It wasn't exactly normal for the school to be passed down through murdering their teacher and maybe that is one of the reasons people kept their distance from her.

"It's alright though, we can make up for it as many times as you want. I'm not a bitch."

She contemplated following that up with, unless you made her one but she withheld that comment given the fact that she had developed some respect for her. Quite a lot really but the point stood that she'd be happy for their near-death spars to be such a semi-regular occurance. It wasn't like she had much else to do these days besides hang out with the student she referred to as a hormonal teenager.

"Do you want to see it?"

Kasha opted to throw the offer out there, playfully having a finger work its way under the fabric. She rarely showed it, only really using it as an example whenever her pupil thought he was hard done by and needed some scary stories to bring him back into line and humble him. Ah the youthful.

"I typically do not relish bringing grievous harm to friends. I swore to myself many years ago that I would not fight simply for the sake of my own enjoyment. That combat was always to serve a purpose. But I suppose that facing you is a matter of self-improvement."

She knew that was just a loophole, of course, that it was a manner of denying something she had promised herself long ago. But Shishiyuki had found, of late, that perhaps not all of the promises she had made were ones she could in good conscience keep. That, ultimately, her own honor, her own dignity, were worth far more than those oaths that none had ever heard spoken.

"If you wish to show it. I would not force you to do so simply for my benefit."

While she was naturally curious, Shishiyuki knew well the feeling of wishing to keep one's scars hidden. If Kasha chose to hide this singular wound, then she, who hid all of her own scars, could hardly say anything about it. She simply watched, her eyes moving to the finger that had slipped under the eyepatch. Perhaps her curiosity had gotten the better of her.

There was a moment of hesitation, not because she didn't want to but the master of the phoenix crown fist did get an idea of the kind of woman that Shishiyuki was. The selfless type that put others above herself far too much and so Kasha's finger receded from underneath the fabric - her face inching closer to Shishiyuki afterwards.

"I'm happy to let you see it, as long as you do it for yourself."

She made sure that the meaning was clear that if her new friend wanted to see it, she'd have to remove the fabric herself.

"Just be gentle, it's tender."

The straightface disappeared and she couldn't conceal her small chuckle. Okay, maybe she wasn't as transparent as she was but a little bit of humour at the cost of some honesty was nice, right?

"Very well."

There was no hesitation on Shishiyuki's behalf, though not on account of her own fascination with what have been below Kasha's eyepatch. It was, rather, a matter of respect. To show that she would treat Kasha's scars in much the same way as her own, marks which merited respect.

As she did not know what lay beneath the eyepatch, she would not dare to be callous with this. Shishiyuki's fingers delicately took hold of the cloth, moving it out of the way as if it protected the most fragile thing to ever exist. She did not doubt that Kasha could survive if she were to remove it roughly, of course, but it was a matter of principle, of respect.

Kasha refrained from making any comments as Shishiyuki got to work, she didn't want to distract her from the task at hand. Her hands were pretty soft though, weren't they? Despite the scars and calluses of course. Aside from that, they were soft, cute hands.

Underneath the eye covering, the skin was scarred and her eye looked covered over by burnt flesh, overall utterly mangled. There were two distinct marks, and a third which clearly didn't connect as much, which trailed down from her forehead to the upper cheek which looked black around them and still glowed like a dying fire.

The feeling of exposure, as well as the intense moisture and heat of the sauna did make her wince more than the pain from her destroyed leg but that was more attachments of the face wound than the injury itself.

"Pretty gross, right? Don't want to kiss me anymore, I bet."

Chuckling again at the humour to lighten the mood rather than let Shishiyuki dwell on the type of wound it was. Technically unhealable given the nature of the secret technique of her former teacher and the crowning achievement in his contribution to her school. Kasha herself loathed that technique personally, it was excessive and disgusting.