Currently Playing: HIM - Killing Loneliness
"So here we are, and this is where we stand. Opposites, you and I. It's time, we end this. Phase one, begin..."
I looked then up from where my head was bowed and towards the red horizon, and I knew, I could sense that Kira was also doing the same. Wherever she was. I sensed here near, though, as one might a dangerous threat and almost every part of me was tense. Tearing my gaze, though, from the horizon I glanced back at Max's body, she looked so peaceful, and for a moment I gave to the reverie that maybe she was better off like this. Yes, I thought, that is right. It is better that she be dead now, then to have her fade away when the world ends. And right now that seems to be the inevitability. I sighed, my eyes closing in my thoughts and then opening as I exhaled heavily. Bringing my gaze back up, my sapphire blue eyes looked to the sakura tree, who's blossoms had yet to bloom. Yet, I knew what sort of tree it were. A cherry blossom tree, a sakura tree, why had Max chosen to lye here and no where else?
My heart clentched tightly as I remembered my parents and the accident. The cliff they had went over with their car, at the bottom of it's rocky edges there lyed a single sakura tree, which now when in blossom, the blooms were a horrid bloodred color. And unfortunately, unlike most other trees of it's family and nature, it was in bloom all the time. All around me it seemed that I was the centerfold of a dance of death, with those blossoms parading about my fragile, pale form. I couldn't escape them no matter how much I may have tried or had wanted to, I was boxed in. As taking on last look at Max's solitary silhouette, I stood and turned to face the horizon my hands resting at my sides clentched into fists. All this time I remember that I had promised to Kira that I would protect her regardless of what came about, but now here we were being forced to face one another. She was my twin star, my dark reflection, and the light's archnemesis. Was Inari-sama testing us, testing me to see what I would do when faced with such adversity? I knew what I had to do, but I was hestitant with my decision for if I followed through on it than that would make Yami correct.
What sort of humor did fate have to set us against one another like this? And Inari-sama and the Devil, what were they hoping for? The end of the world, aa, I knew that but I wanted no part of it. I never asked to be Kira's reflection, her twin star, the light in the darkness, and I was sure that she did not want any of this for herself either. Though, who was I to judge? I was only half angel after all, the second part of me bore the cunningness of a kitsune, and something that Inari-sama scorned. Yet she was willing to let me face this battle on her behalf. I had done no favors to deserve this, but perhaps it was sin that led to this series of misfortune. I couldn't say, nor could I come to the conclusion on my own and it was times like this when I wished that I had someone that I could talk to. Who could help me make sense and find some understanding in this insanity. However now as I gazed into the horizon, I could see an almost full moon rising, in three night's time it would be full, and that was when Final Judgment would be passed. Humanity had lived enough, they have done enough and damaged this world enough. Inari-sama would judge as Kira and I met for a final time, on a battlefield. Not as friends but as rising stars, and as archenemies.
A few more moments passed before I finally could look away from the distant skyline, and turned back to Max. I buried her and said a prayer for her departing soul, as once I finished I finally found the courage to walk away, and leave my friend to her rest. An left Yami's prison with a heavy heart, appearing in my bedroom laying atop my bed. The house was still completely empty, not even Rae could be found, but I figured that he was just out with Ace again in my absence. So being left alone as I were, and still feeling the exhaustion of what had just recently played out, I curled up on my bed watching the sun set and the moon rising much the same as it had done in Yami's domain. Turning on my side, I shifted so that my back faced the rising moon as wave of nausea swept over me. An I felt my heart quaking once more, closing my eyes I tried to block out the rotation of the room, and with a little luck stop my insides from turning to ice and churning sickly.
"Let go, let go of this world that hold's you. Let go, let go of this world that you hold ties to. Release your soul, and let it soar. It is time, there is no denying it this time, Sakuuya. Hikari no otome, Daughter of the Light."
Again I twisted and turned this time trying to drown out that voice whispering caressingly in the backs of my world-rid mind. I tried pleading with that voice saying that I was not ready, but they would counter saying that I had been ready long before now. An then images would swim into my mind of a bloodred moon in a pitch black sky. A cold wind blowing, and yanking at the trees casting shadowy figures upon the land. There were screams of pain and sorrow, of the dead dying and of the living being murdered, somewhere people where dying and it was not in small quantities, it was a mass massacre. The world too was dying little by little. I saw trees lose their leaves, and watering holes drying up, lakes, river, streams, oceans too, and the deserts grew weatherborne throwing up great clouds of dust and covering the few plants that made their homes in such a dry climate. An through all of this in the backs of my mind's eye I felt like I was being watched as two bright crimson eyes gazed at me from the darkness of my own mind and of these grotesque images. Continuing to toss and turn, I braced my hands at the sides of my head feeling the urge as if I were going insane. I could feel the pain and the hurt, the sorrow and despair deep within my own form and with the bitter strength of a torrent.
More images and a voice still whispering to me. I saw Max appear before me as well as several other spirits; those of Ace, Rae, Jake, and Logan. All of them looked onto to me. As the voice quietly asked in a ventriloquay as silent as a just breaking wave. "What will you do now, Sakuuya?"
My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright staring into a corner of my room. Wrapping my arms about my knees I brought them to my chest holding them tightly. "What will I do? I don't know what it is that I am suppose to say. I never asked for any of this, but I knew deep down that this is something that I must do. But I don't know, what do you all want of me? What do you want me to do, to say? Somebody, anybody, please help me..." With downcast eyes I buried my face in my arms, sinking into a faint depressive lapse. Max was dead, and Kira was as good as such. She was evil and I was going to have to fight her, and probably end up spilling her blood with my own. I didn't want violence, I never asked for death, but just like those horrid sakura trees they seemed to follow me no matter what I did or where I went.
"You know what you must do, Sakuuya. What is expected, there is still time, but there will never be enough to undo what has already been done or acted upon. You can't change destiny, but you can help make the new world a better place, one worth living. Do not let this end with the beginning being nothing but a historical repeat," again the voice came to me and I looked up with tearstained eyes. "You must be strong, Sakuuya, and you must have faith and believe in yourself, your powers and friends. You must believe in me and in the goodness that this world still does possess within its lowly core. The time is come there is no more left for denial, now awaken, otome, and rise to face your challenger. For she is no longer your friend, her memories of you she may still possess, but her soul and heart are tained by Yami's dark powers, and by Akuma. So it is time to wash away this world and to rebuild it on a newer ground. Look outside and listen, review what I have shown to you, Sakuuya. Too much blood has been spilt and it is time to cleanse this world of evil and the darkness."
I shook my head still not ready to accept. "I can't do this on my own. I can't do this permanently. Fight against Kira, against my best friend for all these years? We've been too close for too long, I could never fight her, let alone kill her which is what you are asking. Which is what Yami was asking. You tell me that you want me to cleanse this world, well I can't cleanse it when my best friend is at the root of all this misfortune. I'm only half angel, and I cannot do this, not on my own, not at all. Now leave me alone!"
"Sakuuya," said a familiar voice. As turning to see who had spoken I felt my heart seem to skip a beat, my blood running cold. There in my room, about three feet from me stood the silhouette of an blond haired, blue eyed boy dressed in his usual attire.
"Ace?" I asked in an awed tone of voice gazing at the other boy with surprised eyes. His form was trasparent and I could see right through him and at the anime poster that hung on the wall behind him. Rotating on my bed, I turned and slipped my feet to the floor, before standing and walking over to him, standing about two feet away. I glanced at him. "W-what's happened to you? You're not really--are you?" I couldn't bring myself to say the words, nor was I so certain I could brace myself against his answer. However the other male did not reply and instead just nodded as if that were answer enough. My eyes widened as I again scanned over his transparent form. "W-what happened? Who killed you?" Dear Inari, I thought, please don't tell me it was Kira.
Ace, though just glanced at me with an almost ironic tone on his face. As if he were silently saying, silently asking, 'are you serious?' And I simply turned away, and he could tell that regardless of the fact if I knew it or not, I wasn't handling all of this too well. Though, he could tell I was making the attempt; bringing my navy blue gaze up to meet his own soft blue one I spoke very quietly, "Just answer me this, was it Kira?" An the boy's ghost glanced aside, but nodded nonetheless. "And just how many of our friends has she killed?" I asked still keeping the same quiet, leveled tone. My friend just glanced at me with a solemn expression.
"I'm not so sure how many of us are left, nor do I know how many of them are still alive."
"Wonderful," I said sarcastically, but then I once again diverted my gaze and glanced towards the forbidden skyline. Watching the moon continuing to rise there, and knowing it would grow with each passing evening till it was full and a brilliant bloodred. "So this is where it all ends, and this is the start of a new beginning, all in one night. So this is where we are and where we stand." Sighing my eyes changed from irritation to sorrow, and I glanced back at Ace my sapphire blue eyes catching a ray of the now fully risen moon and sparkling. Glancing between the boy's spirit and a picture of the seven of us all together at this year's Otoku festival, all of us smiling, Kira hanging on Logan, Max and Jake caught in the middle of a playful kiss, me standing beside Rae hands folded in front of me, and smiling meekly at the camera, and Ace behind Rae grinning. I'd give anything for things to go back to how they once had been, to go back to the good days. Where we didn't have to worry about Armageddon and could act like usual teenagers, harboring our own secrets. What ever happened to those days of innocence? In simple terms, they were gone and this was where we stood. I had two options give up or stand my ground. I looked back towards the moon.
Whispering quietly to the night air. "Inari, help me..."
So now tell me where to begin, because I now know that we can never go back. From here we can only move onwards, the past is now forever behind us.
~Phase One Completed-
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