Progression of Evil

Chapter 11
Daughter of White

"Meiko-san," Kaito's voice said softly.

The self-assured woman didn't turn her head. She knew what his next words would be.

Meiko wasn't stupid; for the past two months, since the execution, Kaito had been openly courting her. What attraction she held for him, Meiko didn't know, considering she was nothing like his deceased bride-to-be. The Prince of Blue was sneaky, however; while he openly courted her in private, out in public he was nothing but courteous and politely attentive. So secretive was he that not even his best friend and closest advisor, the Lady Megurine Luka, had caught wind of his plot. Of course, it helped that Kaito had not returned home since the execution, and so Luka hadn't actually seen him.

In fact, none of the monarchs had returned to their familiar domains as of yet, for the matter of the Yellow Country still remained to be determined. The Green King was adamant about his desire for the land to be split, and was loudly against Meiko taking over, for reasons unspoken but well-known. Teto fought diplomatically for her case, presenting factual reason and compelling words for the Green King to digest. Kaito provided his evidence, real and true because he had fought on the battlefield with her. Mikuo remained undecided, but then, he never voiced his true opinion in his father's presence, and in fact had not even said one word to Kaito or Teto since Miku's death.

Meiko was incessantly curious about this supposed beauty of a child who seemed to have appeared straight out of thin air merely to be courted by Kaito. As far as she could tell, the story was circulated that she was the much-adored daughter of the Green King, so adored that she was kept hidden for all the years of her life until Kaito had found her. However, something didn't add up…like that white-haired girl rumored to be her personal servant. And the fact that when Mikuo had been born, the King had only circulated the news of a baby boy.

She sighed. Well, the girl was dead, and Meiko's questions would probably never be answered.

"Meiko-san?" Kaito said, hearing her sigh and interpreting it as annoyance with him.

"Sorry. Just lost in my thoughts. You were about to say something?"

Kaito blinked a few times. "Yes. Well, I wanted to discuss something with you. Ah, well, you know I've been interested in you for some time."

Meiko didn't say anything. She didn't need to.

"Well, er, my attentions are not going to go unnoticed. And with you poised to take over the Yellow Kingdom…"

"That hasn't been decided yet."

Kaito waved his hand, dismissing her concern. "The Green King's an old windbag. He'll huff and puff for awhile, but then he'll agree to what Teto-ojousama says. It's only logical." He paused, and then continued, "Well, what I wanted to say is, I'd like to court you publicly, if I may. And, if you agree, I'd like to go to your father and ask for your hand."

Meiko was silent.

"I, uh, I know that you think I'm being shallow, that I'm forgetting about…about Miku-chan. I'm not. I see her every now and then in my dreams. My point in asking now is that…well, right now, I don't know a lot about you, and I'd like the chance to get to know you more. And I don't want to seem like I'm only taking you to try to get at the Yellow Kingdom. So, if I ask now, when you still do not own anything…"

Meiko sighed. "I won't have much of a dowry, either."

"I don't care about that. I'm a prince who's just lost a fiancé and won a war with an amazing woman by his side. What do I want with a dowry?" Kaito cleared his throat. "I would much prefer the woman over her dowry."

Meiko blinked and considered his proposal. What would her father say if the famed Prince of Blue came to his door with her in his arms? It would be a sight to see, and certainly her father would agree. It was mostly up to Meiko.

She bit her lip. "Before we go to see my father, I must tell you a little bit about how I lived before coming to the Red Country."

Kaito grinned from ear-to-ear and had to restrain himself from taking her into his arms and squeezing her tightly.

Rin read part of Len's journal every night before she went to sleep, and through his writing, she felt as if she was getting to know a different side of her brother, a side she never knew existed.

Once, when we were children, Rin and I went to the seaside and played for a bit. We found a few glass bottles, still intact, and Rin came up with the idea of putting a note inside them.

"Just like the stories, Len!" she said. "If we put a wish inside and float it out to sea and the bottle doesn't break, the wish will come true!"

I wanted to know how we would know if the bottle broke, and she only said, "Well, you'll know if your wish comes true, won't you?"

I agreed to her scheme. I always agree to her schemes, because most of them have only innocent reason behind them. And they make her happy. I would go to my deathbed eagerly if I knew it would keep her safe and happy for the rest of her life.

We wrote our wishes and sealed the bottles, and then floated the glass wish-bottles carefully out to sea. The waning tide did our work for us, and we just stood there watching them until we could no longer see the faint sparkle.

"What did you wish for, Len?"

I never told her, and I probably never will, because it's so precious to me that I don't want anyone to know unless it comes true. But here, in my private record-book, I can be frank. My wish was and is this: if I die, I want to be reborn right beside Rin and play again.

Often, these peeks into Len's inner mind left Rin in tears, but she felt better knowing she had a way of keeping him close to her heart. She wore the locket always, even when she slept and bathed. It comforted her if she held it when she felt morose.

Rin decided that soon, she would go to the confessional hall and confess everything. Maybe not the next day, but soon. Someone needed to know. If there was a God out there, Rin wanted him to know what she thought.

She went to sleep with that reassurance lifting her spirit.

Since the blonde girl had come to the church, Yowane Haku's routine had changed. Every morning, she woke with the dawn bells and walked to the other side of the room, where Rin slept, and began the battle to get the girl up and moving. Rin was definitely not a morning person, but Haku was hoping with consistent discipline she could at least be persuaded to get up before noon.

Haku made breakfast for herself, Rin, and the other three laundry maids. This was her duty, and she performed it every day because the other girls had become quite accustomed to having a good breakfast to start the day. Lately, Rin had been making lunch as an effort to improve her cooking skills, so the other girls had learned quickly not to expect edible food until dinner, when Miki or Prima would cook.

Today, Haku was surprised to see the Rin's bed was empty. Somehow she'd awaken in the pre-dawn stillness, though how, Haku would never know. She whispered the petite girl's name and then went wandering, looking for her.

Haku almost passed up the confessional hall, but she heard the sounds of faint crying from within and paused. The door was open just a crack, and Haku pushed it open a little more so she could see.

Rin was there, kneeling at the altar, hands clasped in front of her, tears pouring down her face. "Forgive me," she whispered. "I've done so many things wrong. I was a heartless queen. I turned away so many requests, and went and spent the money on myself. I impoverished my country. I got jealous and slapped someone. I ran away from my problem. I raged in anger. Somehow I started a war. I don't remember what I said to do that, but I know it was my fault, so I ask forgiveness anyway.

"I sent my brother into horrors unimaginable. I had so many people killed. So many…I ended them all. I had Len kill her. I had Len kill Miku-san. I didn't even know her. But…I think he loved her. He loved her, and I had him kill her."

There was a bang as the door behind her slammed shut. Rin stopped and looked back, but there was nothing there out of the ordinary. She dismissed it and bent back to her prayers. "I ruined him. I ruined Len. I corrupted him. And then…and then…I killed him. He sacrificed himself for me because I was heartless and pulled us both into that mess. He's dead because of me.

"I regret all of this. I regret and repent everything that I have ever done, except for one thing. I do not regret loving Len in the way I did. I still love Len, and I always will. That night before I became queen…it was the happiest of my life. I do not regret it." She looked up at the statue above her. "I just…wanted you to know. Forgive me my sins, please…"

Haku didn't hear the rest of it. She'd slammed the door and bolted back to the bedroom she and Rin shared, collapsing on the bed and breathing hard, trying to steady herself.

Rin was the Daughter of Evil. She was the queen who had ordered the war on the Green Kingdom. And, worse, she had ordered Len, her servant who looked like her because he was her brother, to kill Miku. She had ordered that Haku's only friend be killed. She had orchestrated it. She was the heartless soul who had torn Haku's only happiness from her, had ended Miku's life so abruptly.

Haku forgot about breakfast. She forgot about everything she was ever supposed to do. Slowly her hand reached between the mattresses on her bed and closed on the wooden handle of her dagger. Rin usually went to the shore after breakfast, and as many times as she could between then and nightfall. Haku would follow her…for the last time.

And then she would finally get her revenge for Miku's death.

The color yellow was all that was remembered, and so it was dwelt on constantly. The large, omnipresent voice did not speak again, and so there was only silence, deafening silence.

There must be something important about this yellow.

But nothing sprang to mind.

Maybe it tells me who I am?

But still, nothing more was revealed. Only the brightness of the yellow flash, and tantalizing hints in it.

I have to remember. That's what that person said. I have to remember, I have to understand, I have to know, and then I have to get the hell out of here.

But why? Why do I have to leave?

There's something important. Something I have to do…someone I have to see?

But who?

Who?

Who?

A face flashes briefly in the mind, but disappears before it can be called on for further study.

That person? That's the person I have to see?

Who is it? I can't remember now. No…augh!

But there was yellow. I can't remember the face, but there was yellow. I know it. If I can just…

"You will atone for your sins."

Oh, not you again…

Carefully, Rin finished writing on the scrap of paper, rolled it neatly, and gently tapped it into the glass bottle. She searched around in her desk until she found the little cork she'd saved from the kitchen and shoved it into the top of the bottle, sealing it. Sighing, the blonde girl sighed and smiled tenderly at the bottle. It had taken her a whole week to find a glass bottle in the first place; glass wasn't common at the church, where most people made do with wood or fabric. Once she'd found it, she'd squirreled it away, hiding it underneath her mattress when she wasn't in the room. The cork had proved easier to find than the bottle, but she'd still hidden it away from the other girls, some of whom might take it to sell.

Her wish was now safely sealed inside its glass protector. She would go down to the shore, perhaps for the last time, and drop it in the water, floating it out to sea. Rin dressed in her work clothes, barely more than poorly sewn rags that in her old life she would have scorned, and left the room, unaware she was being followed.

Haku kept the dagger partially hidden in her clothing, in case one of the old nuns should venture downstairs for this reason or that. Her head was so filled with rage, yet her senses were sharper than ever. She could smell the ocean already, could hear the grunts of the old nuns as they carefully maneuvered their way to the hall for morning mass.

She was ready for this moment. She was ready to set Miku's spirit to rest.

It was odd that Haku had never once considered revenge for Miku's death. It was enough that the war had been ended, that no more deaths would have to happen, that no other white-haired girl would be deprived of her best friend. But once she'd heard Rin's confession, something had awakened inside of her, some almost-hidden desire to hurt the one who had hurt her most.

An hour before, Haku would have been terrified to find that she possessed such a wicked desire. Now she only acted, silently stalking her prey, her weapon at the ready, her eyes and mind hungry, hungry for the pain she would cause, for the vengeance she would claim.

Hungry for blood.

Rin was on the beach, standing to face the waves, away from Haku. She held something up to her face, and then set it in the water. Haku saw it was the little glass bottle. Rin gave it a push to set it in motion, and the bottle started floating away.

When she stood, Haku was behind her, dagger raised to strike.

"If it doesn't break, then my wish will come true." Rin whispered. "If it does come true, maybe I won't be so lonely."

Haku froze, a torrent of memories flooding her brain at that moment, shocking her out of her bloodlust.

Rin laying on the beach, beat up, bruised and exhausted. "I've been through a lot."

Rin stirring her bread batter determinedly, bits of flour and other ingredients covering her face and hair. "I will do it! It will come out right!"

At night, in bed, Rin's tears. "I've done horrible things, Haku-chan. And I've lost someone dear to me because of it all."

"Can I call you Haku-chan?"

Haku talking to Miku in the dead of night. "Miku-chan, you're the only girl friend I've ever had."

Rin, the first week she lived in the church: "I don't have any friends."

"Why are you kind to me? Do you pity me? Is that it? Do you pity me because I can never be on your level? Is it because I'm inferior to one like you?"

Rin: "It's okay. It's okay if no one likes me. I'm used to it. I'm inferior now."

Rin, smiling when her first loaf of un-burnt bread came out. "Let's try it!"

Rin's laughter. Miku's laughter. Haku's laughter.

Rin and Haku baking in the kitchen, little Rin watching every move Haku made. "Teach me how to cook!"

Rin helping a nun up the stairs, her smile never fading.

"What's today's snack, Rin-chan?" That same nun asking her.

Rin's cheeky grin. "Brioche!"

Rin brushing her hair in the morning.

Rin refusing to wake up.

Rin's eyes.

Rin.

Haku blinked, her eyes filling with water. This girl, this horrid girl, was just like Haku. The loneliness she felt was true; she was hated just as Haku was hated, only for a different reason. What right had Haku to hate her, too?

The knife was still raised, still prepared to strike her in the back, to end Rin's life. Was Haku really the type of person to kill someone over different circumstances?

She couldn't do it. It would be like killing a part of herself…like killing Miku.

Once upon a time there was a village on the edge of a great country. And in that village lived a girl with green hair so beautiful and a voice so kind that she was beloved by everyone. She was killed in a jealous rage, and no one would avenge her death.

I'm sorry, Miku-chan, Haku thought to herself, raising her eyes to the sky as the first tear slid down her cheek. She thought of yesterday's tea-time snack, prepared by Rin: a very well-made brioche. Her cooking really is improving.

The knife made a dull thump as it hit the sand, and Haku collapsed onto her knees next to it, tears pouring down her face.

"Haku-chan?" Rin said when she turned, slightly confused. She knelt beside her friend. "Haku-chan, what's wrong?"

Haku's response was to cling tightly to the yellow-haired girl, her cries noisy and painful. Rin held her gently, soothing her, but her eyes scanned the ground. When they came upon the knife, Rin bit her lip. Even now, after Len's sacrifice, her destiny had come to haunt her. Even now, after running as far away from her throne as she could, Rin was still the Daughter of Evil.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Haku sobbed, her words heavily distorted but still audible. "I'm sorry, Rin-chan."

Rin closed her eyes. Haku had been about to stab her. But she stopped, hadn't she? She stopped, and she was apologizing.

If I don't learn to trust others now, I'll always be alone.

And so Rin held her friend tightly, whispering through muted tears, "It's okay. It's okay, Haku-chan. I…I forgive you."

Somewhere out on the ocean floated a little glass bottle, and the note inside read simply, "If it doesn't break, then my wish will come true. I wish to be reborn right by your side, too."