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An uncharacteristic flinch overtakes Yae's frame, and she looks, for the first time Sara has ever seen, caught off-guard. "You want your body to be sent to me if you fall in battle?"
Sara stares at the bridge of Yae's nose. "Yes," she lies. She does not want her body to be returned to Kujou lands. She does not want her body to be sent to the Grand Narukami Shrine. She does not want her body to be sent anywhere.
Sara just wants to fight for the Raiden Shogun. And fighting for the Raiden Shogun, it seems, means completing her paperwork in full.
She already has a pitch ready, stripped of unnecessary sentiments during the climb up to the shrine: "You are under no obligation to prepare my funeral rites. Rather, I request that you do not." Because Her Excellency would be required to attend, and I do not wish for her to witness this shame. "Other than my body, you will be sent my tengu mask, of which you can dispose. Weapons will be folded back into the Tenryou Commission armoury. My Vision will be confiscated. You need not concern yourself with my will."
Yae clicks her tongue, and Sara cannot suppress the urge to bite the inside of her cheeks. "Troublesome tengu. You realize you're of high enough rank to avoid the frontlines —"
"Respectfully," Sara interrupts with ill-founded confidence, "I refuse to be the kind of General who would sit back and watch her soldiers die."
"Even if that meant giving up your position on the Shogun's guard?"
"To bring eternity to Our Excellency is my most fervent dream. I am prepared to do what is necessary." The Guuji Yae continues to stare. With no response forthcoming, Sara adds, "...And this is a more effective use of my service."
Yae purses her lips. Sara cannot claim to be a master of reading faces, much less one as guarded as Yae Miko's, but she looks — skeptical. Worried. It looks unnatural, on her eternally-coy face.
"Why not ask your brothers?" she inquires after a long moment. Something must give in Sara's expression because the frown deepens. "Or a friend, perhaps?"
In a moment of weakness, Sara averts her eyes. The sun casts the shrine in a lovely shade of gold, radiant light beaming through the sakura trees. If it were midday, she would need to squint against the sunlight, but since it is late afternoon, she only needs to ignore the circles playing at the edges of her vision. Sara counts to five and wills her voice not to shake. "I do not have many."
The Guuji's stare burns hot where it hits her cheek, and it dawns on Sara that this is her way of saying no. She is asking Sara about alternatives because she does not want to be burdened.
It... hurts. More than she expected.
She breathes against the disappointment swirling in her chest. So she must ask Takayuki, then. Tonight's dinner will be an exercise in tempering desperation.
"I apologize for overstepping my boundaries. I — of course, we are only coworkers, and barely at that, so I cannot imagine…" A metallic tang hits her tongue; a cursory swipe informs her of a new cut inside her cheek. Sara nods, once, before turning on her heels. "I will take my leave now. Good day, Guuji Yae."
She does not get far.
"Goodness," Yae sighs from behind. "Are all birds so prone to flight? No — don't answer that. Turn around. Hand it over. I'm a very busy woman, you see."
It takes a moment for the comment to register. Yae Miko raises a singular eyebrow.
"Oh," Sara blinks. "You mean the — " Next of Kin form.
A branch sways, the clouds shift, and a new sunbeam blinds her from Yae's gaze. Vision impeded as it is, she can almost pretend that the Guuji Yae is not watching her fumble through her robes in her haste to procure said form. Etiquette training kicks in, and with a single, practiced step, she marches forward and places the rolled-up form in Yae Miko's awaiting hand.
In the blink of an eye, Yae summons a brush and a wooden board to write on, no doubt stored in the pocket dimension that every vision wielder possesses. The tip of Sara's ears heats up as she realizes she could have done the same. An oversight, one she will not repeat.
As Yae begins to read, Sara offers to explain, "You only have to sign your name and the address where you, ah, wish to be sent my belongings. I am able to fill out the rest."
She does not want to see what Yae checks under the Relationship section. Sara is not sure how she'll feel seeing None.
Yae's eyes snap up. What she is searching for, Sara does not know, but Yae holds the stare for another moment before returning to the form. "A silly sentiment from a silly bird," she chides, tapping her chin with the brush. "You may not know this, but I despise leaving things unfinished. I will fill it out to completion."
Pointedly, she signs… something, with a flourish.
Standing across from each other, Sara cannot even begin to guess at what she is writing, so she defaults to standing at the ready, with her spine ramrod straight and arms folded behind her back. She is a Kujou, and Kujous are disciplined. They do not give in to the urge to lean over Yae's shoulder, watching her pen glide over the paper. Instead, she imagines the process in her mind's eye. Name: Yae Miko. Address: Grand Narukami Shrine, Narukami Island. Relationship —
"And done," Yae hums, grounding Sara back into reality. As she glances towards her, she catches golden sparks in the air, a telltale sign of items being whisked back into the pocket dimension. Yae steps through the sparks and knocks the once-again rolled-up form against Sara's chest, but when Sara makes a motion to grab it, she quickly snatches it away.
"Now, I may have signed this, but we'll have a problem if I see that mask of yours on its lonesome."
And though she pledged her life and loyalty to the Raiden Shogun, Sara is a soldier through and through. She can recognize an order from a mile away, and this — this one is not so hard to follow.
"Of course," she agrees, sliding it into the same box as Uphold the Shogun's will and Protect Inazuma.
Don't die slots in nicely between the two.
A smile finally breaks on Yae's face, and relief settles in Sara's bones. Yes, this is the Yae Miko she knows. Sara is familiar with her playful ways.
"And so the crow takes her first flight out of the nest," Yae affirms, this time knocking the form against Sara's head. It shocks a yelp out of her, fumbling to catch it before it flutters away in the wind. Yae laughs, evidently amused at the display, and Sara bites down a grumble.
She is still there when Sara secures the form beneath her robes, so she drops into a bow and says, "Thank you, Guuji Yae. I appreciate it."
Yae waves it away with a shake of her head. "A charming display, but thank me by staying alive, General." She makes to return to her duties, but before she departs, she pauses, directing one last comment. "Oh, but do check the form when you return home; we don't want any mistakes, do we?"
An easy order. Sara nods, Yae grins, and they part ways.
When Sara returns home, it is night, the sun long set. Crows do not see well in the dark, and Sara is no exception, so she lights five candles, placing them around her room.
As she promised Yae Miko, she unfurls the form, checking it over for mistakes. As expected, Next of Kin is bolded and underlined clearly at the top, but what Sara is interested in lies further down, where the troublesome fox left her marks.
It says, Name: Yae Miko. Address: Yae Publishing House, Inazuma City.
And then… Sara feels her eyes go wide.
Relationship: Friend.