Of course he was going to the Masquerade. He’d basically organized the entire thing. Shogo was happy that his little party was going to go off without a hitch. If he played his cards right, maybe his two greatest enemies (and two greatest friends) would pair off and he’d go on with his business. There was also the matter of whether or not it would make either of them stronger, but he knew that they were too prideful to work together on such matters. If anything, Soshi may get killed by the end of all of this. Sociopathic as he was, he couldn’t help but feel a little remorse for the upcoming future (it was most definitely true; his calculations were always correct), and to make up for it, he’d resolved not to kill near the ball. He’d get his kicks later.
Amusedly, he watched the events of the ball unfold from a distance, his eyes slowly dancing across the floor with the couple that “was”- and at the same time “was not”. He watched them for a few moments, torn between “cringing” and “awing” at no sight of his aunt and best friend dancing together, but decisively swerved and scanned the room elsewhere with his binoculars. He stopped upon noticing a familiar brunette male in the balcony opposite of him.
The binoculars lowered slowly. Shogo‘s head sank down so that he was level with the rest of his body, which lie straight, as he was on his stomach. That man…his aunt’s former lover. He inclined an eyebrow at him (though he doubted the man could see that), a bit wary. That man would never hurt auntie…but…His eyes flickered to Soshi and back to Buriel. Ah. He may do the job for me…
That may be regretful. He sort of liked keeping Soshi around. They had been friend since they were children, after all, and he hadn’t always been like-
Like what?
He paused. How had he always been, really? What had changed from “then” to “now”? The concept itself was relative; a “change” could have happened in a moment, not over a course of years or hours.
And yet…
The blonde closed his eyes. Better to keep them both alive.
It would probably preserve whatever humanity he had left.
