Originally Posted by
grampagen
Kenshiko fell silent for a moment. Held's challenge seemed to stir something in her apathetic, taunting mask. Ripples shook and scattered the image, revealing a distorted something as it disturbed something beneath.
“He's my last living student.”
No obfuscation of the matter, only the simple truth. She spoke tersely, the smoulder of her admission betraying the bonds of nostalgia and a hint of longing, in spite of her voice quavering as if to absorb the rude upturn of an dark joke.
“Dossiers and documents. How convenient. They don't tell you what it's like to live it,” she said. “To answer the call and lift up another life from nothing. The responsibility for the people who depend on you, to accept the duty of those who came before you.”
Her fangs disappeared in the shadow, a streak of red reflection catching the light of the control panel in a path down her face.
“And to feel everything moving you forward drag you down, knowing everything precious taken from you is carried on by a pretender fool,” she said, “you don't know what that's like, Xeno. But I didn't have your papers before you decided to come in and fill your pockets. That's enough of an estimate for me."
"Hell, I don't even know your name.”
One might suppose this little Capsule Corp Banter, about what's inside these Capsule Corp Capsules, in the confines of this Capsule Corp Ship would be enough for Jinzi Pantaloon to rest upon contented. It's not every day one finally manages to meet the face of a brand, and by the shadowed expression on her face, Kenshiko had found exactly what she wanted. Drifting her gaze listlessly towards him as he entered the craft, it was clear she'd expected nothing in the first place. He'd offered her and Willa a modicum of comfort before they were to face their sentence, but now that there was no audience to play to, he'd finally said his piece.
She saw the Colonel there bound in her energy-shackle irons. Kenshiko's gaze fell, impassive, as the Master Sergeant looked right through her Commanding Officer. An errant strand parted before her eyes where she locked them absently between her and Jinzi.
“It bothers you doesn't it? Not having complete control,” she said, her voice falling unbecomingly soft. “All the lovely things you've designed, all the monuments to yourself you've built, all the little things you raised up, the thought that they just might one day break down and come to nothing...”
She paused. Something between a cough - or perhaps a laugh - seized her speech. Kenshiko pressed her trembling lips together for a moment and swallowed. What she held in was broken with a long sigh, hollow resignation burning out of her like smoke.
“Congratulations. You're one in a handful. It's all so simple a thing, up until something doesn't line up with your simple vision. Then it just needs to go away, forgotten. Well I won't let you forget,” she said. “Grinthorn's been the Prime Minister for how long? In the name of unification, how many acceptable losses do you think he allowed, turning a blind eye masking it with speeches about justice, and moving up, up, up?"
"Every day I've heard their stories. Broke bread with the survivors. Their voices weren't heard, these lives lost to a closed-door vote. Can you give them back their lives? Who fights for the forgotten?”
Her unblinking eyes flit to the Colonel for a moment, and an unspoken tension filled the air before returning to the space between the parties gathered, the firmament of spirit released to nothing, empty.
“Truly, you are the biggest humanitarian,” she continued. The rebellion bled out of her voice as she straightened herself where she sat prisoner. “That sort of **** sustains you, eating the hopes and dreams of other people. Makes you feel real big before you slap your logo on them. What a winner.”
The faint outline of the red axehead insignia on her chest, dyed in blood, faded to black in the darkness. It became increasingly unclear just to whom the fallen Tiger Master was speaking to right now, Held, Jinzi, or Willa.
“The truth is you really can't stand people at all, can you? Not unless they follow in your vision,” she said, “Why don't you just shrink down the world and stuff it into your pocket?”