Fic: "Fragments" [Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni + FFTactics Crossover]
Title: Fragments
Fandom: Final Fantasy Tactics / Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni
Characters: Teta Hyral, Rika Furude
Rating: PG
Genre: Introspective/Angst
Summary: Two doomed young women end up meeting on middle ground, shortly before one of them is destined to die.
Warnings: Spoilers for Higurashi no naku koro ni (Mostly Kai, but they're implied).
Note: This is what you get when you do plotting for a commonly used FFTactics muse and watch Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei in the same sitting. This is just something that popped into my head, and what I think a conversation between them would be like (and Teta faced the same issue as Rika, which in my brain, somehow makes sense).
“...so it's time again.”
“...Yes.”
Again and again, time repeats. Fragments are spread, the worlds change, but everything stays the same. The tragedy goes on and on, and the world is sent into oblivion. Swords clash, and the ground is bathed in blood, all for the sake of a successor that will, in truth, never step up to their true place.
Nay, it will be he who succeeds. He is irrelevant, as it changes with the times, however it is always He, done by the catalyst of She, who is doomed, again and again.
It was strange. It was always this night that she would see her. But in the hundreds of years that she had lived, it was the same. No matter how many worlds she had visited, no matter how many situations she had gone in, how many circumstances had been wrought...
The sunset was always balmy, the fields were always so green, and they were always the only two there.
Teta Hyral let out a sigh. It was the same this time, too. The girl didn't look any different from the last time they had seen one another. Long hair, strange blouse and skirt, and a pair of eyes that were much older than her years, watching her.
But then, weren't her own? No matter how much she tried to hide it, with each world, she grew older. And with each world, she kept running out of time, dying before she had the chance to change what it was that would pass.
“It won't be the same as this time?” The girl asked, face unreadable as always.
“...No.” Teta chuckled. “I could hear the brigands coming along the bend. They will take me as expected, but it shall not be Algus who cuts me down. I know that for certain.”
“He was already felled?”
She nodded. “Yes. He was cut down before he could meet my brother. But still...I will be slain.”
“By your brother?”
“...No. When they realize I am not a Beoulve, they shall cut me down as I stand. It is sad...but it is my lot in life.”
“You've grown cynical.”
“It is hard not to be. You are the same, are you not? Were you already slain?”
The other girl said nothing, but still, Teta knew. She gave her a smile, tucking some hair behind her ear.
“We are doomed, and yet still we meet shortly before my death. It is...comforting, somehow. That someone shares the same fate as I.”
The girl let out a sigh. “But one day the wheel must stop. It will not turn forever.”
“And when it does...I hope it is my brothers who remain victorious.”