Ayumi's grandmother, Ayumi, and a third entirely out of this world looking - like person were glued to the television as the weather news was broadcasting.
At first, Ayumi's grandmother could not avert her gaze even for a split second from the new friend Ayumi had brought home, or for the sake of a more accurate description, the friend she had dragged inside pleading and insisting she come in and pay a visit despite and obvious reluctance from the other party, utter refusal then some kind of respectful submit.
The elderly grandmother was happy that her grandchild had managed to keep two friends, not just mere "colleagues" but actual friends with whom she hanged out, chatted, planned for the future together with... and growing that small cycle to include a third person? This was heaven... she can finally think about passing away in peace. However, not only was that "third friend" never mentioned before, or that it was not a boyfriend after nights of prayers and offerings, "that friend" was way out of her granddaughter's league... with all due love and respect to her little Ayumi. Blond grayish hair? Colored eyes? Even of she was lacking in the clothes department, her looks worked all the magic.
"This is... " Ayumi pondered for a few seconds then realized she did not need to come up with a fake name. They were not super heroes fighting a secret powerful organization or spies stopping world - dominance conspiracies.
"This is Reiha... she's my friend! I have been meaning to introduce you two for a while!"
"Welcome dear Reiha... please consider yourself at your home."
The grandmother was stunned silent for a while as Reiha nodded, bowing a little in elegance and respect. The bewildered old woman could not wait for further introductions or future visits, and could not help but ask on the spot.
"How did you two... where... where did you such a fine young woman Ayumi?"
Reiha remained silent leaving all the low work of fabrication to the school girl who but her cheek in thoughts before replying.
"At school... she is a senior..."
"Repeating classes?"
Ayumi forgot that she herself was a senior there and about to graduate, but even at her ripe age of eighteen, she had achieved nothing of Reiha's womanly looks.
"I have graduated last years, but I am working at the school to tutor excellent students on how to pass the exams smoothly."
Ayumi's mouth gaped at the confident answer, of course, it was understandable. Reiha would never accept failure even in a made up scenario. She was the star of the school now, and she even sneaked a complement in Ayumi's direction to make her grandma less worried and more proud.
"Right... right..."
Ayumi repeated after Reiha with a wide smile at her grandmother's satisfied reaction. Still, one more detail needed clarification.
"And where do come from, dear Reiha?"
Reiha opened her mouth to answer but Ayumi was faster.
"America! Her mother is american! Is it not awesome?"
"I see... indeed... that explains it..."
The grandmother nodded in comprehension before leading the two girls in. Ayumi sneaked a glance at her half american senior tutor, and found Reiha frowning.
"Why American?"
"Is is not good? You're kinda of blond..."
"I always thought I had a European air to my appearance... you should have said half Italian. These people knows fashion and are less stupid than american!"
Reiha stated in a matter of fact tone, she was not reprimanding Ayumi, she just wanted a perfect cover story that matched her taste. Looking at the dark long skirt and plain shirt, she did not know where Reiha's fixation on fashion came from or when would it strike.
"A storm had hit the city today, it was not unanticipated and struck suddenly without warning signs causing some collateral damage in some school buildings, a local mall but no people or homes were affected thankfully. The windy storm is expected to last another three days, decreasing in intensity...."
Ayumi's attention trailed from the screen showing images of her damaged school to the princess of the wind sitting opposite it.
"You can do that?"
"Do what?"
"Control the news broadcast?!"
"I only created a small phenomena to justify the school damage and since your school could not be the only targeted place I had to upbeat things a little, you know, make a proper logical natural explanation."
"I see...."
Ayumi sighed amazed, would she be able to make a story to cover up some light storm one day? However Reiha was not that enthralled by the show she had to orchestrate and went on.
"This is the most boring part. Heavens will aid us no longer, and everything has to have a logical scientific explanation... people these days panic so easily yet believe in nothing... it is a tiring work nowadays..."
Ayumi did not look at the matter this way at first, but Reiha was right. Back then, anything abnormal or grand could be attributed to the gods and their miracles or disdain. Today this was nonsense that would not ease anyone's heart. The princesses work really did go further than she had imagined, growing more complicated by today's standards instead of lessening or retraining a mythical majestic aspect.
The girl switched the channels, Ayumi was looking for a good show or movie to introduce Reiha to it, but that kind of bonding was not the reason Reiha had came to visit Ayumi, unexpectedly dragged inside as a proper guest.
"Ayumi, are you alright? I cannot claim I fully understand what you are feeling right now but…"
The princess of the wind was truly concerned over such a trivial matter compared to her duties and powers. And Ayumi appreciated the emotions behind the act, her heart aching for Reiha in return, as she knew her concerned attitude toward her came from a personal experience she had yet to learn more about.
"No, I know you understand me well, Reiha. No one else would. After all, you and the princess of fire… had also have a fall out… but unfortunately it is not a rip sewn yet. At least I will be fine, knowing I am fortunate enough to have two friends whom I don't need ever to pretend while I am with!"
Ayumi had to say this to her cheerfully, many hopeful wishes gliding her words. She was right in a way regarding that aspect, you did not need many people as friends to be happy. Having few, only one sometimes whom you can relax with and be yourself was more than enough. It was a fortune not many appreciated. For the princess of the wind these words were true for a short period of time, preceded and followed by lonely journeying. There at Amaterasu's palace the powers of the nature were finally unified and leaving harmoniously. That went for the state of the nature but not necessarily for the princesses themselves. For Reiha, a certain carefree princess, so frank and direct, so quick to place her trust in others to the point of risking certain recklessness in actions and words from Reiha's perspective and view on things was the only one she could get along with. Although she was the mistress of the wind, free to roam as she pleased, that person's presence was even more freeing.
And this particular memory was the same awful vision the princess of darkness reached to and plucked from inside her heart, strumming it twistedly on her black threads.
When Reiha was rendered unconscious by those marionette like strings, Laila did not possess enough power to control her body and power, however, her mind was an open field; showing the princess of darkness the memories that mind hated more than anything. She was not a woman to fear confrontation, or evade guilt. She was not to blame. She merely acted on her own will, not Amaterasu's as the latter had commended, she did what she believed was best to maintain the peace rigorously worked for and bloodily earned so that no more blood had to be shed and no more disasters had to befall innocent humans, regardless of the method. But even by doing saw, she lost on both ends. The war erupted, the demons won, Amaterasu was killed, and the rift between her and Enya would never be closed again.
Moments of serenity like a beautiful summer dream where the two princesses of fire and wind would chat and spar for fun, were quickly devoured by the cries of wars and the wails of Enya's massacred soldiers. That look of devastation and shock turning into uncontrollable rage was forever burnt into Reiha's thoughts. And just as she was escaping those past dishonorable events; that figured appeared. When she thought that person was the sought escape, she sorrowfully realized he never was. For that figure clad in a white armor matching his long floating hair, was the shovel that dug the first hole into a beautiful bridging friendship. She dared not reach to it, she could not forgive herself and grant herself that reward, and he harbored the same feelings for different reasons. He also could not forgive himself and had to look for redemption, departing in a justifiable cruelty birthing an ever burning yearning, leaving Reiha with a promise to come back.
Now, how many centuries had it been?
She was about to give in, call him back from his stupid heroic seek for forgiveness and ask him to finally return the other earring, a token of their bond, a proof of their union as she would finally wear the two pieces, him by her side.
But was that something they deserved?
She was about to give up, Enya and her troops, her own guilt and his be damned to hell before Ayumi's light from the broken crown poured down on her memories… the wishes entrapped in frustrated tears calling to that figure's blade to save those who still could not be saved to this time and age.
And she herself was saved from falling into a selfish illusion by that light.
Reiha reached to the lonely earring she had on her left earlobe, hidden beneath her long parted bang. Centuries are long wait for mortal souls but they both were not ones. But despite knowing this longing did not abide, a feeling time could not erase but only intensified. She could fly the entire skies yet still, the star she was seeking was not easily reached or obtained. All what she could hold to and was determined to hold to, was that promise.
Reiha had once been mortal, then obtained a power equal to the gods' but not everlasting as they were. Looking into the cheerful eyes of her current queen, another wave of guilt swept by her shore. This time the guilt was not born from a fault she had committed, it was a fault pertaining to the ephemeral nature of any living being.
She stood up suddenly, and excused herself. Ayumi failed to guess what had spoiled the mood and she tugged at Reiha's sleeve telling her to wait till desert at least but the latter answered, returning to her perfunctionary nature.
"Every battle, no matter how prolonged and furious is its roots, will end eventually, whether fruiting peace or disaster."
The princess said then disappeared. For a moment, Ayumi could not comprehend why would Reiha say something like that, but it was not weighing defeat as an option for their battle, it was about the battle itself. It might have spanned the past centuries, but it would not engulf the future as well. Even if it were to does, an end will be reached.
The words of the blonde figure in Ayumi's vision echoed more gravely, anchoring the fear they sprouted deeper and deeper in the girl's heart.
"These two will not be always there to protect you."
***
"I don't believe a word you say, I don't trust your actions. You can play the innocent fool all you like but you cannot deceive my eyes. Your meek role playing is even more despicable than Amaterasu's!"
Chiyasu, even while saved form a similar dreadful vision by that light, could not appreciate the effort, and the sincerity of the act did not touch the outset layer of her hatred – clouded heart. How could she, as that light was the same light that took everything she had held dear from her?
Held by Laila's strings of darkness, she needed no reminder of that dreadful event in that moonless night. Yet seeing them played all over again in front of her subdued body, once again pitifully powerless to stop what was happening fueled her with more anger and hatred. It ignited a fire that had never even started to dim down.
There she was, in her princely attire bestowed from the earth and spun from its flowers, sobbing, begging on the floor, asking for mercy to befall a name carved into her soul and heart with all the strength love sustains a truthful heart with, and which she could no longer summon or feel as an imposing golden figure towered over her, deaf to her pleas and blind to her tears, engulfed in its own blinding gold, only interested in silencing her and pointing out her own blindness.
"These feelings have dulled your judgment. You are poking your eyes out with your own heart… I would have never wanted to see you in such miserable state… but since you cannot do anything, or more precisely refuse to obey my command and do something, I am more than willing to open your eyes!"
Such hypocrisy. Whose eyes were blinded more, who was the one falling by the enemy's weapon in the end?
"You dare disobey me and go against my commands?! I shall show no mercy, even to you!"
That was that woman's response to Chiyasu's pleas. And indeed no mercy was shown. The object of her love was no more, love had no place to regrow in hear heart, and she herself, was forever bound into her human form never able to integrate with the source of her power, the element that saved her life and cradled her dreams, her beloved earth, until forgiveness was granted. Thus becoming doomed to fight emerging demons in that form to protect a legacy she no longer believed in, bound by a cruse meant as a punishment. And forgiveness would never be shown.
How and the person to bestow it, is long dead?
It was a punishment stripped of its purpose, just leaving a curse of hatred and longing.