The Sight of Tears
You stood in utter shock as the guards took Yosuke away. For whatever reason you couldn't move your body. Silence filled the room as Yosuke went farther away. As you stood in place your arms just seemed to get weaker and weaker until you couldn't keep them up anymore. They fell to your sides and the papers you were holding before scattered everywhere. The noise of the paper stack thumping onto the ground whilst loose pieces fluttered down brought you back to your senses.
You turned this way and that, looking around you hoping that Yosuke was still in sight. When you couldn't find him anywhere nearby you felt your legs run in the direction he had gone. You knew he wasn't the one who killed that noble, you just knew it. There was no way the happy-go-lucky Yosuke assassinated a noble.
You ran down the halls frantically looking around. In spite of your determined search, no matter how many times you spun in circles looking down multiple halls, you couldn't tell where Yosuke and the guards had gone. If you hadn't stood in place for so long, if you just hadn't been so shocked this wouldn't have been happening.
After running around for so long, you felt your pace slow. Shortly after, you had to stop to catch your breath. Immediately when your breath came back to you, you ran off again to find Yosuke. As you turned a corner to saw someone and for a split second you felt hope fill your whole being as you thought that maybe you had finally caught up with Yosuke. However, it took next to no time for you to realize who it was.
You slowed down for the prince who stood in front of you. Looking away towards the wall, you felt your hope dwindle. With an immense feeling of sadness you leaned the side of your body up against the wall as you once again began to catch your breath.
While breathing in and out, you felt Koumei's eyes staring at you. Hesitantly, you turned your eyes to meet his then managed to choke out a question. "P-Prince Koumei... W-Where D-do...they keep p-prisoners?... Wh-where is... the prison?"
"Why do you want to go there?" You just wanted him to answer your question, not question you.
"Y-Yosuke... Th-they took him. H-he didn't do it!" You were struggling to just speak. "I-I d-dont even know why th-they think-"
"Why they think what?"
"Why..." Why did they think Yosuke did it? It crossed your mind that you knew the answer so in your mind you went through all the events that had happened recently involving the assassination. Yosuke had been arrested for the assassination of that noble, Taiki Hamano. He was arrested for the assassination with all the missing records. Not to mention all the records had gone missing just this morning, or more like were stolen since someone broke into your room to get them. Someone must have needed them to find a way to frame Yosuke.
Then there was the fact that Koumei had been looking at them last night, looking at a case that no one ever bothered to continue to investigate. It was a case everyone had supposedly given up hope on. He had been looking at that case the exact night before this all happened. Was it possible he was connected to all this? But, why would he want to frame Yosuke for that, what did he have against Yosuke?
"(Name)?" Koumei interrupted your thoughts.
"P-Prince Koumei. Um, this is really presumptuous but... Um, what was the work you were doing all day today?"
His normally calm face turned into a disappointed scowl. "You really weren't supposed to figure it out. It's because I let you see me looking at those records, isn't it?"
"Does that mean you were the person in my room, too? Did you frame Yosuke?"
"Were you awake?"
Everything was so confusing, you couldn't understand anything that was going on. "Why? Why?! Koumei, why did you do this to Yosuke. I don't understand, you seemed like a nice person!"
"He wasn't worth your time. He just wasn't right for you, so I had to get rid of him."
"Th-That's not something for you to decide."
"I thought you were smart enough to notice when you're around bad people, but I guess I was wrong about you. If you can't keep away from bad people, I guess I will have to keep you away from them for you."
"That's crazy! Yosuke isn't a bad person and even if he was, you shouldn't mess with other people's business. I guess I was also wrong about you. I should have never come here in the first place, then me and Yosuke could be happy right now. Right now, I wonder what me and him would be doing right now if we were still... home!" Anger and sadness overwhelmed you. Tears began to fill your eyes as you clenched your fists together and glared at Koumei. "I won't let you do this, I will prove that Yosuke is innocent."
He gave you a slight confident smile. "Yes, I'm sure you would... if you had access to the records."
"They're probably just in your room."
"That's not what I meant. You've only been here for one day yet you've already lost your job." He sighed at this as if he were disappointed with you.
"So you decided to get rid of me then? I still don't understand why you hate me and Yosuke so much."
"You're still misunderstanding. How am I supposed to explain this to you?" Once again he seemed like he was talking to himself as he started to rub his head. "What I mean is that you aren't working here anymore, however you aren't really allowed to leave either. You're now under house arrest for harboring a criminal and other things. I guess because you live here at the palace you'll have to stay here. You can do whatever you want, you just can't leave the palace grounds."
You almost asked him why you had to stay here. Wouldn't they normally kick a person out of the palace into whatever building was available when sentencing something like house arrest. Wouldn't a criminal living in the palace be bad for the royal name or something like that? Although you were confused you held your tongue.
Despite your suspicions, this was actually a good opportunity for you. If you stayed at the palace you were more likely to see Yosuke and you might be able you find a way to get to the records of the assassination and prove his innocence. Just staying at the palace gave you so much more of a chance to somehow free Yosuke.
In response to learning about your house arrest you gave Koumei a little nod then, "fine." When you began to walk away you felt a hand grip onto your shoulder.
"And one more thing, you said something about me hating you. I'm sure you'll find that it's quite the opposite of that." He released your shoulder and walked off saying something else about wanting smoked squid.
In spite of everything, you needed to find out where Yosuke was. Just asking around seemed like it might help you. By and by it did and soon you figured out where he was being kept. Without delay, you went to the prison ward where he was being detained. When you arrived though, there were guards stationed at the entrance to the prison. You walked over to them and hoped they would let you see Yosuke. When you asked for entrance they just replied, "we can't allow you to visit prisoners who are to be executed. Even if he wasn't going to be executed you would have to have permission anyway."
Hearing this you didn't know what to think. Yosuke was going to be executed? But they only just arrested him. Wouldn't they have a trial for him or something? Or did Koumei have something to do with this too? Refusing to let yourself stand in shock like you had previously done you managed to stay calm. "Wh-when is it going to take place... The execution, I mean."
"A week from now." Hearing that nearly took away all your hope and strength. Only one week to prove Yosuke's innocence, if you could even do that.
"Please, just let me see him." You practically cried out while resorting to begging. The guards had either a look of guilt or pity on their faces and seemed about to give into your pleas. "I just want to see him one more time before..."
They knew what you meant and one started to grab some keys of his belt. "Alrig-"
"No, there's no need for that." Just as the guards were about to let you through they were interrupted by a yawning Koumei. "You weren't anywhere else, so I figured you'd be here (Name)."
"Prince Koumei! If you understand, please just let me see him."
"Why? Were you going to tell him you were going to get him out of there somehow? I don't want you to become a liar. You should realize it's cruel to get people's hopes up."
"I will get him out, I'm not going to lie to him!"
Koumei paid no attention to what you said and instead looked over to the guards. "You two, make sure this person does not enter the prison under any circumstances. Never let her pass." He then walked away leaving you furious. This wasn't the end. No matter what, you refused to give up.
When Koumei was gone you ran past the guards while snatching the keys that that one guard had been about to use to let you into the prison. Before the guards could catch you, you had already opened the door and started to run down a spiraling staircase. Once you reached the bottom, you ran through the many cells looking for Yosuke while calling out his name.
"(Name)?!" You turned to Yosuke who looked surprised to see you there. He jumped up and went straight to the bars of his cell. You also ran over to him and reached to him through the cell doors, just barely having enough time to grasp his hand before the guards had caught up with you and began to pull you away.
You struggled against them and started calling out to Yosuke. "I promise! Yosuke I promise to find a way to get you out of this mess. I know you didn't do it!" You were pulled against your will farther and farther away from Yosuke. As the distance between you two grew Yosuke gave you a smile you had never seen on his face before. It was full of sadness, almost like he was saying goodbye. Then, you could have sworn you saw tears run down his cheeks just before you lost sight of him.
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