@sentckiâ  continued from xxxx confronting  sentence  prompts . / @behindthestrings
A MORE OR LESS FRIENDLY CHAT WITH THE HEADCAPTAIN turned into an argument just a few minutes later. as per usual whenever the hot spring demon talked to the old man. he had a LOT on his mind and not enough voice to make the old man understand ever so often. this guy needed the crap beaten out of him sometimes, thatâs for sure. he would only ever listen when what he heard made sense to him and served him well. an attitude that tenjiro wouldâve likely adopted had he been in the manâs position or continued living in rukongai all by himself, forced to steal and kill to make it out there. BUT NOT HERE AND NOT NOW!
he brought up the topic of behavior towards women among the seireitei soldiers, which had yamamoto shut off an ear immediately. so tenjiro raised his voice against him. he was admonished but didnât give a shit. he named names. and places. he named exmaples of violence and their victims. among those, the name shutara senjumaru dropped. a coincidence, that she had been passing by in that very moment. tenjiro immediately avoided her gaze and looked past yamamotoâs face to the wall behind him. he didnât want being caught off guard ; didnât like being seen when upset like that. not because people shouldnât know he got upset sometimes, but because people knew him strong. the last person he wanted to be vulnerable towards was a PATIENT of his.
â weâre done talking! â said yamamoto, pushing through tenjiro and shutara with vigor and stomping away. the man was going to think about what the other accused him of and he would not forget about it for the coming weeks and for as long as tenjiro would continue to remind him of it. tenjiro was sure. ........ standing with his back to shutara, he sighed. â sorry about that. we were prettty loud... â if only it was just the volume of their voices though... â you... werenât supposed to hear all that. â
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She approaches him, now that Yama has blustered off.  Shutara has never cared for the man, and thatâs part of why sheâs joined forces.  Sometimes more good can be done from within, and given that sheâs a paragon of power, with charisma that few deny, as much as she hates this from time to timeâŚsheâll never regret the steps that sheâs taken to carve out a brave new world.  Sheâs seen Tenjiro fight with the man from time to time, but this timeâŚit was different.
âItâs all right,â she says.  âI know that I wasnâtâŚbut I canâtâŚwellâŚâ  She frowns.  Itâs an odd mixture of feelings.  Tightness in her chest.  Frustration. A deep warmth that she cannot place. She looks down.  The words she wants to say donât want to form.  Neither she nor Tenjiro have ever been expressive in a candid emotional wayâŚwhich is why when she runs into him that way, or he runs into her, her rigid core is shaken. Â
After a pause she looks back up.  âI appreciate itâŚeven if I donât really like to accept someoneâs help.  Especially not with something like that.â  She thinks for a moment.  âMost men who pretend to care have ulterior motives as well.  ButâŚI think youâre the first man who I actually believe feels this way genuinely.â
She crosses her arms over her chest.  âIt blurs the lines in my world,â she says. Itâs cryptic.  But thereâs things that will take time for her to say.  Sheâs wondered many things for a very long time. He makes her afraid.  Afraid of giving in, trusting, feeling something for him. But, sooner or later, sheâll have to figure out everything about him that can make her feel tied up in knots. Sheâs wrapped tightly, tense as a rubber band, but she wants to lose this fear.
