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[ Xian Le is in such disarray after the decision - after losing Shinobu, Baren, and Wei WuXian all in one fell swoop - that perhaps Ookurikara should never have made the choice to leave. But he did, almost immediately. Why, exactly, Wei WuXian had turned traitor has never really mattered. He’d made his choices, and Ookurikara is determined to make him regret it.

"Letting him go will just give him the chance to ruin you from outside the city," he says, the day he leaves. "I won’t let him hurt you again."

And so, he goes. He rarely writes (though Shinobu, when he finds her, cheerfully threatens him into it), and he only receives snippets of news regarding the situation back home. But his eyes are focused elsewhere, nose to the grindstone and ear to the ground, looking for any trace of their traitor. It’s a personal offense, on some level, that Wei WuXian would attack Xie Lian after all he’s done to establish peace, all while pretending to be their friends - to be Ookurikara’s own friend, putting up the front of the neutral friend who could sympathize with their problems when he was the root cause of them.

Ookurikara has never forgiven himself for having believed it. There’s an irrational part of his mind that tells him that somehow, he should have known. He should have put a stop to it before things got that far. He failed Xie Lian, for failing to find the traitor beforehand.

So he keeps going, and loses track of how much time has passed. And if the Eastside is a little quieter without him, Ookurikara doesn’t seem to care. Life goes on, and Xie Lian has others to work for him, after all. Jiang Cheng wouldn’t allow anything else to go wrong, now that the traitor is gone.

Some time later, though, when Xie Lian returns to his office on an overcast morning, he’ll find Ookurikara’s sword sitting on his desk, and a wooden practice sword from one of the training rooms beside it. With no note to be seen, it seems the message should be clear from that alone.

Ookurikara has returned to Montevallo. ]

Comments

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[ as a swordsman, ookurikara is relentless, with offensive and defensive skills at the top of his class. his technique is bold, but each move he makes only serves to prove his expertise as he continues to press forward. agility is one advantage that xie lian will always have over him, though, so it's no surprise that despite kara's efforts to pull back, the kick lands, grazing his side. while it doesn't quite knock him off balance, he does stumble, and has to rework his grip on the sword.

of course, it isn’t enough to stop him. every new development in battle is another opportunity to turn it around, so kara uses this one to swing the practice sword in a wide, upward arc while xie lian is close, with the intent to push him back.

and if xie lian looks close enough, he might see a hint of a smile, right before the sword connects. it feels like a lifetime since they’ve done this - since ookurikara has had this much fun. he hadn’t even allowed himself a chance in these past few months, so there won’t be any holding back now. not that anyone would ever say he went easy on xie lian, but sometimes you pass up what would be, logistically, the better move to make in a real battle for something a little more fun.

which is why, the second he gets a chance, he swings for xie lian's wrists - more to see how he'll evade than to knock the sword from his hands, but kara wouldn't pass up the chance to boast a little if h did, either. ]

kicks your fucking door open

[dianxias]

[ he's paying attention to ookurikara's every movement, and gets pushed back as he has to put his strength into blocking his next strike. where ookurikara's nearly smiling, xie lian is too - his face is lit up with the sense of challenge, and they clash blades, again and again. when the swing comes at his wrists, instead of taking the hit, xie lian releases his practice blade, hand opening wide and arm moving up, so for the briefest moment, it seems like he's disarmed.

but, as the momentum comes down, he grabs the sword by the hilt in his non-dominant left hand again and swings around, pivoting as light as a feather on the tip of his toes to get behind him. in another world, he'd be long hair and flowing silks; here, there's just the rustle of the fine fabric of his suit as he comes around kara, and this time, he'll hear xie lian's breathless laugh. it's not mean, or teasing, or cruel, it's --

it's delight is what it is.

it's certainly a bold way to dodge, but ookurikara can probably expect nothing less from xie lian, who is only conventional in the way that he's mastered how to be and how to avoid it. this is something he loves about ookurikara too, though - he is unbelievably, unbelievably talented, and every sparring match with him could carry on for hours.

sometimes saying things is hard, even for xie lian, who is as sincere as they come. but the movements he applies here scream so much more of his emotions than anything he could say. the care he puts into sparring with him, the expressions on his face, the easy flow and dance of communication that comes out of years of martial arts with a partner you know like the back of your hand. i missed you, it says, with every strike forward, pushing ookurikara now towards the back of the room with a more aggressive series of strikes, when he gets two hands on his blade again.

i missed you, i'm so glad you're here, i missed you, i needed you, i'm so glad you're home. ]