NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 275: Chapter 269
Teka had watched on live TV as Japan was engulfed by the Pacific, waters swallowing everything except the tip of the highest mounts.
She'd felt dizzy, the world suddenly tilting sideways, and had to sit for a moment.
They'd brought her another pillow for her back, had drawn the curtains so she could lay in cool darkness, slowly gathering back her meager strengths.
Fragile and feeble she was inside even though she didn't look like it.
She'd half dozed, half dreamed of Japan swallowed by the sea, saw herself dragged down and down and down until she woke up with a startled gasp, hand reaching for her throat.
"Do you hate me now too ?"
His voice was sharp and cool, a sheathed blade that could be drawn at a moment's notice but not at her, never at her.
Her eyes vainly searched the darkness.
"Come here"
She patted the free space next to her on the large bed.
She didn't hear him move.
"Come here, Shoto"
There, a slight ruffling of clothes.
He emerged from the darkness as though he'd been one with it, dark tendrils unraveling from his skin and disappearing in the surrounding obscurity.
"Take off your shoes", she said, and he obeyed. "Lay next to me"
She held him close as she used to when Enji was a very young child and couldn't have remembered her maternal affections.
Shoto was stiff beneath her grip, too tall and bulky, forced to shrink to a near fetal position so the old woman she was could hold him.
The life monitor biped regularly next to them, its white light flashing intermittently.
"Are you sick ?", he asked her quietly. "Will you die ?"
"We all do, one day", she answered.
She brushed his hair until the shaking in his hands stopped.
His breath evened. His taut muscles relaxed.
"Do you hate me ?", he repeated
"Do you hate yourself ?"
"Yes"
She held him closer.
"Poor child", she murmured.
"You should pity those I've killed. Hundred of millions"
"I pity you because you're the one who'll have to bear the weight of their unjustified deaths"
He retreated, sat up, turning her back to her.
She could only see the outline of his body.
"They're gonna be reincarnated. What I've done doesn't matter as much as you think it does"
"You know it does"
He rose, scowling.
"That's rich coming from you. Your empire has been built on rape and murder"
Teka swiftly rose, meeting her grandson's gaze with equal steel.
"And human trafficking", she said. "Though everything I've done was done on purpose. Every murder, every death paved the way to where we are now. But this ? A senseless massacre ? What was the point ?"
"Nezu… It was my last warning. They had to understand I couldn't be messed with. They shouldn't come for me or else..."
"Or else what ?", snapped Teka. "You'll murder people by millions again ? Innocent people, children and babies ? They drowned, Shoto. Do you know how agonizing a death by drowning is ?"
His jaw tightened.
He answered through gritted teeth :
"I did it to protect what I care about"
Teka crossed her arms.
"What do you even have left that you need to protect ?"
He turned around, chin shaking.
"You"
Teka's next retort died in her throat.
"I am tired of fighting for what's mine", said Shoto. "I was feared for things I had yet to do. I've done it, became everything they said I would be, every bit the murderer and monster they saw even when I tried to be good and now at least I know they'll leave me alone and I'll never-"
Teka's arms wrapped around Shoto.
"-I'll never lose-"
Teka drew small circles on his back.
"It's okay", she said. "It's okay"
Shoto gulped, looked up at the ceiling to fight back the tears.
"-lose anyone-"
"There's no need to pretend with those who love you"
A sob tore through him.
"I'm sorry", he said, burying his head in the crook of her neck "I'm sorry", he repeated, tears staining her shoulders.
"Everything's going to be all right", she murmured.
In his back pocket was his father's opened letter.
BARGAINING