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Post by LEO LION on Apr 14, 2009 20:04:46 GMT -5
Vast expanses of nothing, floating fragments of rock above endless amounts of water, there nothing to be seen nor anything to be heard. Flickering waves beat against the few surfaces that actually touched the water, the only entrance into this area, this world. Despite the depressing nothing, the sky was bright, and it seemed that the sun shone on the horizon – almost as if it was setting, or perhaps rising. It was hard to tell what direction was what here. Nothing indicated north, and there was no compass to find out. Clouds streaked the sky, the color a opaque pink, swirling across a darker lavender and pale magenta. But the world wasn’t quite as empty as many might think. For standing on one of the drifting rocks, was a young girl. She couldn’t have been any older than thirteen; her hair was long and fell in elegant ringlets. The strands were colored orange, some highlights of light brown mixed within. Her face had a solemn look, very stoic and still. Her yellow eyes seemed glassy, and distant, as though she was thinking of a far off place.
She wasn’t very tall, she might’ve just reached five feet, her clothing was tattered, and her shoes had holes. She hadn’t changed them since the incident; they were still splattered with blood. But from animals too, the ones that she had to eat in order to survive.
Her name was Akane Suzuko, Akane meant – in a way – madness; fitting for the nekomimi. Very suddenly her expression changed, her eyes narrowed and grew cold, if looks could kill – the saying came to mind – then the water should’ve dried up by now. She clenched her fists, knuckles turning white as her nails dug into her palms. How could she have ever done such a thing? How could she do that to her best friend? Tears began to form streams down her cheeks, streams that turned into rivers and then waterfalls that would cascade down her jaw and onto the ground before her feet. Her breathing was sporadic as she cried, some sobs louder than others, her body shaking from the stress of it all. Why was it her, why did it happen to her? Surely she was a soul too good for this sort of thing, why should it happen to her as opposed to a more befitting soul?
Stop crying! A voice told her, the whispers of the Darkness. She bit her lip and tried to shove the tears from her face, smearing them as she took deep breaths to calm herself. Get a grip! Rachel deserved it! Akane bit down harder, tasting the metallic flavor of blood. She whimpered, wondering how on earth her best friend had deserved to go like that; torn to shreds. “She didn’t deserve it… not anything…” she said bitterly to the voices, the ones that only she could hear. Such a mark of insanity – of course that’s exactly what she was, insane; that voice in her ear, it sounded so much like she did too, it was so difficult to ignore. “Rachel was good… I’m more deserving of such an end…” She watched the water move, ripple. She wondered if perhaps there were some sharp rocks just below the surface, where you couldn’t see them. Suicidal as it was it seemed the only thing she could do. Living with such guilt seemed far too impossible. Living with the blame on her shoulders, when no one but her knew… the secret was just too much to bear. Briefly she contemplated drowning herself in the dark waters below. She wondered what Rachel would do if she saw her in the afterlife. Would they still be friends? Could she ever understand? “I’m going to the Underworld…” She murmured with dismay. “the deepest pits of the Underworld.”
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Post by Akito on Apr 14, 2009 22:12:36 GMT -5
A rough hand pushed the little girl into the water, not stopping with that though, the same hand followed her into the water and held her head down under it while she struggled. It was a firm hand, calm and affirmative, clearly knowing what it was doing. This was no random act of aggression, but a simple calibrated act. How terrifying a man must be to behave so collectively during a murder.
Her struggling got more fierce, more desperate, yet the man seemed unphased, not in the slightest bit bothered by the cold-hearted act he was now committing. The lonely rhythmic beating of Akane's heart pulsated loud enough to hear, she would be convinced she would die. There was no hesitation in the man's grasp after all. When her limbs began to ease their struggle, weaken from lack of oxygen, when she could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel...
A gasp of air. The man pulled her head right back up. She would open her eyes to find a blue haired man with the most distinct crimson eyes smiling at her as if he had just passed her on the street and not attempted to murder her. Crooked glasses, slanted from their little engagement, stood on the brim of his nose. His clothes consisted of a tight fitting turtle neck jumper and a casual pair of jeans and sneakers. As expected, his clothes were soaked and even his hair was dampened; mostly as a result of her splashing water on him during her struggling.
"I thought you wanted to die?" The man asked her, as if he were greeting her on the street. His easiness was unsettling, his composure was terrifying and his friendliness was dangerous.
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Post by LEO LION on Apr 14, 2009 22:40:57 GMT -5
The ground vanished, where had it gone? Once it had been firmly beneath her feet, how it was nowhere to be found. She kicked her legs, searching for solidity, her arms reached and grasped, her eyes burned and all she could see was murkiness. Was she in the water? How had she gotten there? Her mind wasn’t in a time of clear thoughts; the only thing that she could think of right now really was “air.” Water slithered down her throat into her lungs where oxygen should’ve been. Something was holding her there, firmly, unrelentingly. Her body jerked, she struggled, flailing, kicking, grasping. But there was nothing to hold on to, nothing but water, and water could not be held. Slowly she began to give up, feeling the weight of death, it was almost a relief. To escape the pain of suffocation, to escape the feeling of water filling her lungs and cutting off all hope. What hope? Rachel was dead, slain by her own hands, her own teeth. In frenzy she had once even eaten her friend’s flesh, if she could indeed still call Rachel her friend. Black began to enclose her, worse than the water; fear crept into her heart as she made her last motions of struggling. A light – the pits of hell she assumed – shone before her, lighting her way to the end. Obediently she followed, her short life passing before her eyes, and then…
Oxygen.
She was pulled from the water, back on the ground; she tore herself from the grasp of the man. Lying on her stomach she coughed up a mixture of water and vomit. She heaved; gasping in deep breaths of air – too fast – more water came up, mostly from her stomach as she puked again. Water dripped off her body, her hair, and her clothes, oozed down her chin. Her hands clutched the dirt beneath them; her hair was in worse condition then before and darker thanks to being wet. She was cold. And a voice rang in her ears. “I thought you wanted to die?” It echoed, a voice that would no doubt belong to a man who was very handsome, thought at this particular moment she hated.
She was in shock though, and proper syllables and words escaped her. When she did turn to look at him, weak and unable to stand, she was glaring fiercely, her cat tail lashing in anger. “Who said?!” She snapped, trying to sound composed, though her voice was shaky and came out more fearful than she had intended. She couldn’t recall anything from before, thoughts of near death interrupted that. She pushed up from the ground, her arms felt like jelly, and she managed to roll to her side before falling back into a lying position on her back. Nothing wanted to cooperate. If he was going to kill her, why had he chosen not to? It was just a brief thought, but one that seemed to nag at the back of her mind. Kill him! Shouted the shadows, kill, they begged. Tears began to pour from her eyes again as she began to cry, no sobs to be heard, just silent tears. She had almost been killed, not quite like Rachel, but murdered none-the-less. She wondered if that was how Rachel had felt in her last moments, wondered if she had realized her best friend was mutilating her. No forgiveness for a murderer.
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Post by Akito on Apr 14, 2009 23:25:35 GMT -5
"Hahahaha!" The blue haired man laughed joyously, as if he had just heard a particularly witty joke. Unlike Akane, he sat down upright next to her, retaining the strength to do so. While his left hand supported him up, his right was clasped over his forehead as he laughed. One might gander a guess and think he was being condescending, making light of a serious situation. No, this was not true. He, more than anyone, knew the ease of murder, the fragility of a life and silence of loss. It had been his everyday, his everything. So now when he laughed, he laughed from the bottom of his heart at the sheer audacity of a girl who even humored the idea of discarding her life. He wasn't laughing because the situation was funny, he was laughing at the girl because she was ridiculous.
When his laughter finally started to die down, the man wiped the residual tears in his eyes away and turned to face her; still smiling broadly. "Am I wrong?" A rhetorical question, to be sure. Slowly, and with far too comfortable an ease, the man picked himself up from the ground, standing his full height. He peered out towards the great stretch of sea and in doing so, he challenged the allure of a peaceful death this body of water offered.
"Your eyes...they were so pitiful, lightless and lonesome. Yet, at the same time...beautiful without compare," He seemed to reminisce, perhaps talking more to himself than to her, "A flame burns brightest as it is about to go out," He quoted. Her eyes had told him everything he needed to know. Even from a distance, those eyes were unmistakable. Turning back at her, the blue haired man seemed to snap out of his forlorn state and without so much as a half-hearted blink, pulled out a sabre from thin air. Sharp and sleek, handsome and alarming, these words could describe either the blade or its wielder. He stood there, regal and proud, his sword arm held out at her, the cool tip of steel lifting up her chin to make vulnerable her delicate throat.
"Choose," Was all he said, and she would understand.
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Post by LEO LION on Apr 14, 2009 23:55:54 GMT -5
Bitterly she grimaced. He wasn’t wrong; on the contrary, he was very correct. “No…” she said, as if she hated herself for giving him the victory. She pushed herself up again, sitting, still so weak. There was still fluid in her lungs, she could feel it, and she wondered if it would always be there, causing her chest to ache whenever she tried to breathe. His laughter was cruel, or at least to her, she didn’t see a joke, of course she didn’t see a lot of humor in life. One so young dealing with the atrocity of murder, well it was hard to believe. If believable at all, but there were no lies here, only the raw truth of sullied innocence. Akane’s golden eyes regarded him carefully. She watched him as he stood, elegant and regal in every movement. His handsome face smiling, his crimson eyes seeming to glitter – his glasses still askew – and blue hair… even splattered with water and damp he had a strange allure about him. Not romantically to her, but there was something in his voice that made her wish to listen to his words. Something that made her want to follow him.
Who was he? More importantly why was he here and why had he gone through all the trouble of almost killing her, and then not?
Beautiful? Her eyes? Her demonic, feline, yellow eyes? Her expression bore no realization to what he was saying, showed no understanding. Her brows were furrowed, pulled together and creased slightly. Her eyes still shaded by her recovering from near-death. They were still glassy, but somehow they sparkled. He spoke in riddles, this man.
The cool blade was uncomfortable, but she did nothing to move it or fight it as she lifted her gaze, eyes locking with his, and suddenly lighting up. Her lips were curved down, frowning, her face serious. There was no more laughing, the next events would determine how she would hold herself from now on. It was time to except that she’d killed someone, time to except that even though her friend was now dead by her hands – she was still living. Or perhaps not, still the thought of murder chilled her bones; maybe it was the chill from being drenched. Still water dripped from her figure. Her gaze dropped – not her head, for that would cause harm that she rather wouldn’t want – and her finger very carefully followed the blade, careful enough to not slice her skin open. She could feel how sharp it was, he kept his weapons in good condition, impeccably so. “If you were to kill me you would’ve done so before.” She said softly, looking back up at him, her gaze giving her answer. She didn’t want to die, not by his cause anyway, not by his blade nor his hands. No, she would much rather kill herself – though still she had much to work out.
She set two fingers against the blunt portion of his blade, and she pushed away. Drawing her legs beneath her, leaning forward so that her palms were flat against the ground, and determined to show him that she wouldn’t let him kill her, she slowly rose to her feet. Grunting and grasping her ribcage. It still stung to breathe heavily, or deeply, as a matter of fact at all.
“I won’t die by your hands… not without a fight. I’m not a dog.” She put emphasis on dog, showing that she wouldn’t just roll over. “I will die by my own accord.” Her golden gaze boring into his; there was a spark in her eyes, an intense look about her. Even if she was just a little girl looking up at the much taller, more powerful man. There was defiance in her blood. The feline instinct of not taking orders, of fighting back and of not taking an owner.
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Post by Akito on Apr 15, 2009 0:47:54 GMT -5
He looked at her meticulously, like he was scrutinizing some caged wild animal. Unflinching, yet seemingly defeated, he sighed and lowered his sabre, "If you have this strong a will, then live. Live of your own accord," There was not much he could say, but he wanted to say at least this. Despite appearances, he had wanted to help this girl. He had wanted to make her see the foolishness of her wavering path. He wanted her to know how terrible a thing it is to die. Why? It is but a simple and selfish reason. It was not because he cared for her, he only just met her. It was not because he would feel guilt, it was none of his concern what she did. It was because she carried the same eyes he did once upon a time. It was because he selfishly never wanted anyone else to have those same eyes; they were his, they belonged to her.
The blade disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared and the blue haired man found himself kneeling down next to Akane. His face different now, not jubilant and merry, not hard and serious; it was...warmth. All the description his slight smile and soft eyes needed. "No more talk about dying, okay?" He reached out to ruffle her hair with a firm hand.
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Post by LEO LION on Apr 15, 2009 2:06:12 GMT -5
Even kneeling she still had to look up slightly, curious now as to his change. Such strange warmth, she almost didn’t want to believe it. In that instant she felt the age that she should’ve been. She flinched and almost crumbled beneath his hand as it messed her hair even more. To think that she once kept it so proudly pristine, to think it used to be so elegant and beautiful. Those proud ringlets fit for a princess, and to think that her clothing, even, had once fit her better, and had been neat without splatters of blood. He she realized that all he was doing was a sort of… brother or fatherly motion her curiosity grew. Such a strange man. “I… guess?” She grew uncomfortable with the warmth; she hadn’t had much human interaction in the last year, maybe a little more. She’d been in the White Forest for most of her life, and then she’d left. Simply she’d escaped her world for anywhere. She’d ended up in a few different areas, and then came here. Akane couldn’t hold his gaze anymore, such a strange feeling. Like she wanted to smile, she could feel the corners of her mouth moving that way, but looked down just in time. It felt awkward to smile. When was the last time she had? She’d been with Rachel, it was before… Her frown seemed to grow slightly, moving from a neutral to a distraught look.
Her legs were getting weak again, her chest hurt. She took a step away from the man, stumbled a little, and sat down on the ground, careful to avoid the debris from a while earlier. She thought back to what’s he’d said before. “Live of your own accord.” Akane repeated him. “I’m not sure I really… have my own life.” She murmured, more to herself than anyone else.
Was it possible for you to have your own life when you have so many strange thoughts, so many voices – some your own, some belonging to strangers? She was at a loss. Where would she go from here if she was to live a different life?
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Post by Akito on Apr 17, 2009 6:38:06 GMT -5
"...You'll find your way somehow, else I would look very stupid for the presumptuous things I've said," The man grinned even more broadly than before. How irresponsible and careless, he demanded something so unreasonable of her. To live with yourself, it is said, is harder than it is to die for your sins. If he could bear it for countless centuries, then surely this girl could survive a few more decades. "You will not regret heeding my prattle,"
He looked at her for a moment, eerie and forbidding. An intense stare that could only remind her of how mysterious this man who appeared before her was, intruding on her choices in life like it was his damn right. He was nosy, yet reclusive; he hadn't even told her his name and already he had told her how to live her life. Simply selfish, he was. However, the way he looked at her now, as if he wanted something from her...
"That aside for now..." His hand stopped ruffling her hair and he glared at her with those passionate red eyes glistened with a subtle flame. His hand slowly and carefully traced the lines on her head as his other hand reached out seemingly towards her cheek with all the elegance of a lover....
"Are these really real?" He asked rudely, his hands each grabbing onto one of her ears. He tugged at them roughly, as if they could be removed. An inquisitive looked donned his face, curious and callous.
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Post by LEO LION on Apr 20, 2009 17:35:27 GMT -5
The next look that the man gave her was a little intimidating, but so intense that she couldn’t bring herself to look away. Her gold eyes seemed attracted to his red. It made her nervous, the way he was staring, she felt like he might’ve been looking into her, not just at her – through her. Akane wanted to step away from him, this stranger who had tried to kill her, who had told her to stop pursuing death, told her to live life. She wasn’t sure now, what she thought of him. He was strange, an enigma; something to revere, something to fear.
She wanted to recoil from his touch, especially when he approached so slowly, so beautifully… until…
“OW! HEY STOP!” She shrieked pulling away and gently caressing her ears once free. Her tail was puffed, each tabby fur sticking up; she glared at him, bearing her slight fangs. Deep in her chest a growl formed that tore out of her throat. “Of course they’re real!” She snapped, nursing her poor, sensitive ears. She took the hair at the either side of her head and pulled back to show that there were no human ears to be found there, but that her cat ears connected and grew upwards like any cat’s would – and were placed on the top of her head. “Why would you do that?”
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