Sakido had fainted, his body laid behind the woman standing tall above him, with a single snap, she eviscerated every single one of the ten thousand blades as they shattered like glass. All of the yellow Seishin energy had vanished, and all that remained were three conscious individuals in a three way stance. Korihime stated at the woman and looked in awe, the sheer presence she had alone was like what no one could conceive, it seemed as if she was using a sort of Ketsui, but there was no sign of it, there was just something unspeakably menacing about her. But, there was seemingly no reason for this.
What could be seen of her hair was of a beautiful blue complexion, her lips were full and glossy, her teeth shone white, and her hands were well managed and free from any marring obstruction. It seemed as if she were a sort of actress, and not a true soldier. Her figure was rather thin, but not a fighter's thin, but thin that resembled a conventional beauty.
She smiled with a smile that alluded thousands of possible feelings, and could only invite feelings of cynicism to any who saw it.
Hiru's countenance had switched from painful relief to grave within mere moments. His eyes looked as if he had seen his life flash before him, he looked as if his soul crumbled within his body. He looked as if the essence of his life was drained from him. His face wrinkled as he laboriously took panting breaths. He was in no state to even stand here now in this moment.
All power he had, all presence he exhumed was completely absent now. One cannot describe the feeling of witnessing and observing death before them. It is simply something that surpasses the limits of language and exists only in the expression of spirit. It is something so ethereal that looking into its eyes is sure to rid the viewer mute and with an ineffable sensation of isolation and incalculable fear.
The cloaked woman spoke "Hiru, how irreverent of you. Speaking of me in that way. I would love to hear what you have to say now." She laughed an evil, skin crawling laugh, that would turn the stomach of any mortal who had a sense of rudimentary morality.
Hiru attempted to speak, but all that came out was empty air. Mizumi began to slowly move toward him, stepping slowly one foot at a time. Her low cut black boots crushed the grass elegantly somehow as she walked. Hiru attempted to back away, and in that moment, Mizumi rose her hand upward slightly. He was stopped by a thin almost transparent red wall that came from nowhere. Her grey eyes stared into his soul. They had a sort of power about them, the color and sternness worked together in a way that could light the match of fear so vibrantly within one's being.
It was something about how blank the greyness was, yet how that made way for a vessel which carried the austerity and sanctimonious nature of her glance.
As she finally reached him, she put her hand in the collar of his undershirt, she then pulled him closer, within a nose touching distance of her.
Hiru was finally able to whimper "P-please." He begged quietly "What do you want?"
He felt her breath on his face as she answered him. "I want you to go back to that forsaken kingdom you crawled out of, and warn them of today." She gripped his collar tighter and grit her teeth in a sort of invisible frustration. "Tell your putrid king to keep his little fucking maggots out of this realm. Or else, we'll have a seventh war. And, this time, Answeisen will certainly win. Do you understand?"
There was a pause as he stared into her eyes. Within him stirred a mix of paralyzing fear, and an immense sense of wonder. A wonder of what power he was in the face of, or how this power could be wielded by someone with such a...rather seductive appearance.
Suddenly, she let go of his collar and slowly closed her fingers into a fist. As she closed her hand, an invisible pressure grew inside of Hiru as his eyes became bloodshot, his skin turned red, and his heart was racing far over the fatal limit. A natural heat overcame him and he felt within a moment as if he were in an internal purgatory.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" He shouted with trepidation.
"Good, now go, before I change my mind." She said with a stern smile. "Yes ma'am." Hiru said, overwhelmingly off character. What kind of presence must one have to completely change another in such a short time?
With those words, he turned away from her and outstretched his sword in front of him. A yellow light was given off from the tip of his sword and he slowly moved in a circular pattern. As he moved it, a tear in reality seemed to open before in that same circular shape. It had a yellow outside, the same color as his power, but the inside was obsidian with a tint of purple. He stared at the portal for a moment, then proceeded to step inside. Upon vanishing into this portal, it closed behind him, and no trace of it was left behind.
Mizumi turned to Korihime and spoke "I'd suggest you take Sakido somewhere safe, use your ability and heal him."
Korihime spoke, her voice riddled with confusion and anguish "But why are you here? You sent me here."
Mizumi exhaled and said to Korihime in an almost scolding way "Just take him and go, your questions are irrelevant."
Korihime, with her bright eyes, spoke softly and asked "Why did you help us?" Mizumi responded quickly with "I didn't help you, I helped myself. Now go, you may be able to heal your own injuries, but he can't."
The bright blue haired girl then asked "How will I-?" She rose her head to see that the cloaked queen had vanished, without a sign of where she went.
Meanwhile, at the Hinode Residence
The two women were tending to daily tasks as they usually do, as recently not much conversation has been present between the two. Ichika was at the age of which she questions the world around her the most. The age that most forget once the exit that pensive phase and succumb to being one of their fellow kind, no more mortal than their societal conscience allows for them.
Izumi sat at the amber colored dinner table while gazing at the novel that she was flipping through. She sat with her hand adjusted under her chin as she pushed her red hair back over her ear. Ichika, who was cleaning some dishes for the two had put her things away and slowly made her way to the table where Izumi sat. She stood by the chair for a moment before pulling it out and taking a seat. A period of silence was encountered between the two, previous arguments had raised tensions.
Izumi, with a sigh, closed her novel and asked "Yes, dear?"
"You know what I'm sitting here for." Ichika strictly responded.
Izumi let out a degrading sigh and pushed her novel aside. She responded with "Ichika, I know that I've taught you better than that. If that's the extent of my teaching then I might as well resign from my profession."
Ichika took a deep breath and slammed her fist onto the table "Stop with your fucking remarks! I'm done with your pathetic excuses! I just want to know the truth! I'm sick of these blurry details being all that I know!"
Upon hearing this, Izumi pushed her hands over her eyes and pulled her glasses back down. "Ichika, there's nothing more that I have to tell you." She says, keeping her patience together.
"Deny what I ask one more time and-" she stopped as she caught Izumi's glance turn from agitation to anger.
The elder girl suddenly shouted "And you'll do what? Huh?! Really, I'd like to know because you've never tried to fight for anything in your fucking life! Your victim playing is so ludicrous! You can hardly even keep a partner because of how insufferable you can be! Stop holding on to shit, Ichika! I've told you the truth, now FUCK OFF!!!"
Ichika had never had such an outburst directed at her, it was never her place to talk large or ask for much, but after trying and falling so immensely short, she stood there with an empty gaze with tears swelling in her eyes. "I'm just so tired of living like this. It seems that I'm in a continuous cycle. I think I'm getting somewhere with Sakido, but it all reverts back after I make one wrong move."
Izumi quickly snaps with "Naturally! The kid ACTUALLY witnessed tragedy happen. He's the one with something to complain about, but he pushes it away because of you. But what happens, you feel the need to bring it up and fester the wound he has. That's why he acts that way towards you, Ichika, if you EVER want to get anywhere with him or in life, you have to learn that the past is the fucking PAST."
Ichika, gaining adrenaline fueled anger replies "How could you ever compare something like that?! You are and always have been so damn insensitive! You've really failed me, you can't support me emotionally, physically, or intellectually! You complain about me being caught up in the past, well look at yourself! Your sister is dead! Don't you think it's about time that YOU moved on? But yet here you are yelling at me for wanting to know the full truth! You, who has the past reflected in your eyes, you're one to talk!"
Izumi marches close to Ichika and puts her hand around her throat, she yells "You ungrateful girl. All that I do is sacrifice everything that I have for you to be happy, yet you do nothing but complain! I can't change the past, or give you a more glamorous story about your life, sorry that you're driven by jealously, but it's not my fault."
Ichika, releasing the penultimate stock of her aggression, screams "You BITCH!!!"
With those words, the resounding sound of pain echoed from Ichika's mouth as pain shot across her cheek. Izumi had slapped her, a shocking result for two such patient women who, though commonly have quarrels, can resolve them quite easily.
Izumi followed this action up by growling the statement "You don't know a goddamn thing. Do what you want, but I have nothing else to tell you. The world will crash upon you faster than you can see it coming. It always does, after all, reality is the fastest moving force of them all."
Ichika remained silent as tears flowed down her face. She sniffled and came to terms with herself. Did Izumi's words have any merit, was she too denying herself, and finding release in the pain of others? If that were a reality, she would surely be labeled evil. But, how can one be evil without having such intentions? In this case, should one question what evil is to be?
Ichika thought these things to herself. She contemplated her relationship with Sakido, her treatment of he and Izumi, of herself, and of the world around her. Such an innocent girl that only had the most pure of intentions, reduced to this evaporated mass of ebullient broken emotions. The potion used to create a human conscience is botched each time a being is created.
"I'm..I'm sorry, Izumi." Ichika was able to squeak out from under her breath. Her embarrassment and paine as too much to put into words, but Izumi could tell simply from Ichika's speech.
Izumi began to speak but was quickly interrupted by Ichika more loudly "No, I'm just sorry! Please...I...-" Ichika was choking on her own words in the process of trying to find the right ones. At this sight, and at the guilt of such an immature act of violence, Izumi also began to break and tears began to swell in her eyes. She quickly embraced her niece and held her tightly.
The two recited multiple apologies on top of each other. Their tears wet each other's hair and the guilt residing in both of their consciences had finally had a moment to pour out. As righteous as we are, as we can be, we are vulnerable inside, a conscience will find you eventually, and it will break you. Even if it's something that one pushes aside or doesn't believe in, give it time. Every action taken in life is on a timer to return to your psyche, and when it hits, the mental damage will be only that much more multiplied than if you had just come to terms with it beforehand.
Through her tears, Ichika found a way to say "Izumi, you're all that I have, you and Sakido are all that I've ever had. No one else has accepted me like you two have. There's so much that I've seen the wrong way, I beg for you to forgive me, I know that I've been wrong!"
Izumi found solace in her words and responded to her with "Baby, listen, I'll always protect you, no matter what you think of me. You're my duty in life and I need to be honest with myself. I'm sorry, Ichika." The two found comfort in each other's regret, they slowly departed from one another's arms and vowed to truly fix what had been so badly damaged over the neglected course of their lives.
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location somewhere around the city of Kurigawa.
The man moaned as he slowly opened his eyes. A film covered them that he had to blink and get rid of. This man was none other than Shizuka, somehow, by some effect that one could not imagine even in their wildest fantasy, was awake and alive.
How could this be? His death was all too real, twas' not an illusion or misunderstanding. The boy looked at his hands, at his legs, he noticed that they were all as they were. He was lying down, no chains are shackles to hold him in place, he only lay on a stone slab under a large roof that hung over him. As he leaned upwards to explore his movement and corporeal effect, he felt an unreal jolt of pain shoot through his chest. This jolt sent him back down, instead of curling upwards he decided to turn his body and throw himself off of where he lay. This plan was successful and he had made contact with the cold and damp ground.
He looked down at his chest, as he was wearing an opened white button up shirt, and viewed a horrific scar. This scar left a dark red jagged line across his chest and seemed to become lighter and darker in tandem with the blood flow of his heart. It was all too real, yet it seemed somehow to be a sort of dystopian nightmare. It was a combination of his inhuman scar, the abandoned and unkempt warehouse he was thrown into, and the unfathomable pain that was not only pulsing through his body, but his head as well.
He attempted to drag himself upwards, and after multiple failed attempts, he finally managed to propel himself upwards and loosely stand on two feet. His hands instinctively held onto his scar and what he felt was nothing human.
It felt crystalized and somehow inorganic, with just enough life to the touch to make it completely revolting. It was as if a sort of extraterrestrial life form had invaded his body and taken refuge within his wound. It was pulsing as he watched, he felt like more of a 'monster' than a man. As he walked around his environment, he was eventually able to stabilize his movements and regain much of his stamina and balance. He panted with the many thoughts that raced through his head. Everything was happening so quickly, no matter how slow everything was.
He was alive, he was repaired, he was lost, he was completely abandoned as it seemed. There was nothing in sight except a small door behind him, opposite to where he laid, in front of him was a large barred walkway that he moved his way over towards. He felt like he could see more clearly, he felt like his movements were all executed with more force than they had been before his fatal incident. The boy didn't even know what killed him, he didn't know if he had ever died. He didn't even know if his memory served him correctly.
All that he remembered was quarreling with Sakido, feeling a sharp pain, and then it all faded to black before him. And then here he awoke. What happened in that time? What happened at all? He had no answers for, yet seeked all of them regardless. He felt the boarded up wall and felt how the wooden planks were tender and could be pulled from their locations.
He immediately pulled and this ended up with him launching himself back onto the ground. He struggled to stand himself back up, but he did without as much trouble as beforehand. He tore at the doorway and the wood began to fall from it's place. It was loosely bolted to the wall and came off without much strength required to tear it from it's place. Eventually, the boy tore enough of it off in order to continue through this doorway.
The sunlight from the other side hit him like the flash of no other light, it penetrated his senses and nearly blinded the boy at a single moment. His pupils burned and sent shockwaves of pain to his brain immediately after having contact with this light. For how long had he remained in darkness? What could cause this sort of bodily reaction? Shizuka finally managed to stumble out of the building and fall onto the pavement in front of him. He looked up to see a surprisingly beautiful scene, almost as if it were too perfect to be compounded with the location that he was just in.
He saw luscious green pastures and a bright blue sky with minimal clouds. Within a few feet in front of him exists a wide pond, the water called to him as he made his way into this picturesque scene. The heat from his surroundings broke him as he had been so cold in the warehouse. His scar was reacting in such a way that added even more pain to the amount that he was currently feeling. He felt as if the line that ran on both sides of his chest were made of continuously burning matches. His body felt completely brand new to all surroundings that interacted with him.
He was born again.