Submission #17 -- Leporis, "Shards of a Tenuous Life"
Title: Shards of a Tenuous Life
User ID: Leporis
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Yuzuriha, Kakyou, Aoki, Yuuto, Subaru, Fuuma
Warnings:X. It’s to be expected.
Summary: It’s been ten years, but the final battle still haunts them.
She is twenty-four years old, though her eyes hold the shadows of one twice her age. The bright optimism she embodied as a girl of fourteen on the eve of a battle she had no hope of surviving has matured with her body - what once was blinding is now soothing, and she lays on her back in the grass and stares at the sky.
Sometimes, when she is wistful, Yuzuriha closes her eyes and pictures a man who died ten years prior, protecting her from a fate that was her right.
Inuki sits beside her and licks the tears from her face.
---
He had never meant to live, though he did not find it surprising when Fuuma smiled at him and wished him well as he disappeared into a tower that fell in a burst of light.
Kakyou stands on the sand, letting the surf nip at his bare feet, and listens to the gentle call of the ocean. For the past five years, he has come to this place - a place he had seen in a dream more than twenty years ago - and allows the salt air to sting his lungs.
It reminds him that he lives, and that even the most sorrowful memories can be bittersweet.
---
Yuuka has grown into a beautiful teenager - bright, smart and intelligent. Everything he ever wanted for his precious daughter and more, because he can never give her enough, can never protect her enough, so he is glad that this wonderful child has grown into a wonderful young woman.
Shimako has grown older, more quiet and thoughtful, and she watches him with an intensity that makes Seiichirou uneasy, as though she can see through him. As if she knows the very few secrets he hides from her.
She is nothing like Karen - Karen, who shone brightly in the fire of her own conviction, who smiled even as she fell to the ground, body robbed of a life that he had been fighting to protect.
Sometimes, he wonders if he tried hard enough to save her. If he had been a moment earlier, a second faster. He dreams sometimes that it was Shimako or Yuuka. He watches them fall to the floor, eyes staring blankly at him.
He looks at his wife and daughter - the two people who gave him the strength to stand in defiance as the city fell around him - and sees his failure.
---
Yuuto stands in the ruins under the newly constructed Diet building and smiles. BEAST hums in the empty room, and he marvels at how the computer system was able to survive the cave-in when Satsuki-chan - who had been safely ensconced in BEAST - had not. He almost believes that BEAST killed her in a jealous rage, but then, he has always given himself far too much credit.
It wasn’t like Satsuki-chan had understood what he wanted from her. He wasn’t even quite sure what he had wanted from her.
---
They had rebuilt the bridge five years ago, and he has found ways to avoid it since its re-opening. He forgave both Seishirou-san and Hokuto-chan long ago, but he wonders if returning to the place he killed Seishirou-san and triggered Hokuto-chan’s curse might be too much for him.
Subaru can see Rainbow Bridge from his apartment, and just the sight is enough to tighten his chest, even after all these years. He looks away from the window and pulls on a simple pair of black leather gloves. His coat is slung over a chair and he grabs it as he leaves the apartment in search of a man who has done nothing to him, but whose blood will stain his hands.
---
Fuuma stands on the observation deck of Tokyo Tower and looks out over the city. Lights burn brightly, casting a hazy glow over a Tokyo that fights back the hands of night. If he concentrates, he can see the kekkai Kamui died to create.
It has been a decade since the final battle, and he still wonders if there was a way they could have changed the outcome. Neither of them won that day and he can still see Kamui’s blood staining the shinken when he closes his eyes.
The sun is setting when he leaves the tower and steps back onto the street. He starts towards home, and doesn’t look back.
User ID: Leporis
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Yuzuriha, Kakyou, Aoki, Yuuto, Subaru, Fuuma
Warnings:X. It’s to be expected.
Summary: It’s been ten years, but the final battle still haunts them.
She is twenty-four years old, though her eyes hold the shadows of one twice her age. The bright optimism she embodied as a girl of fourteen on the eve of a battle she had no hope of surviving has matured with her body - what once was blinding is now soothing, and she lays on her back in the grass and stares at the sky.
Sometimes, when she is wistful, Yuzuriha closes her eyes and pictures a man who died ten years prior, protecting her from a fate that was her right.
Inuki sits beside her and licks the tears from her face.
---
He had never meant to live, though he did not find it surprising when Fuuma smiled at him and wished him well as he disappeared into a tower that fell in a burst of light.
Kakyou stands on the sand, letting the surf nip at his bare feet, and listens to the gentle call of the ocean. For the past five years, he has come to this place - a place he had seen in a dream more than twenty years ago - and allows the salt air to sting his lungs.
It reminds him that he lives, and that even the most sorrowful memories can be bittersweet.
---
Yuuka has grown into a beautiful teenager - bright, smart and intelligent. Everything he ever wanted for his precious daughter and more, because he can never give her enough, can never protect her enough, so he is glad that this wonderful child has grown into a wonderful young woman.
Shimako has grown older, more quiet and thoughtful, and she watches him with an intensity that makes Seiichirou uneasy, as though she can see through him. As if she knows the very few secrets he hides from her.
She is nothing like Karen - Karen, who shone brightly in the fire of her own conviction, who smiled even as she fell to the ground, body robbed of a life that he had been fighting to protect.
Sometimes, he wonders if he tried hard enough to save her. If he had been a moment earlier, a second faster. He dreams sometimes that it was Shimako or Yuuka. He watches them fall to the floor, eyes staring blankly at him.
He looks at his wife and daughter - the two people who gave him the strength to stand in defiance as the city fell around him - and sees his failure.
---
Yuuto stands in the ruins under the newly constructed Diet building and smiles. BEAST hums in the empty room, and he marvels at how the computer system was able to survive the cave-in when Satsuki-chan - who had been safely ensconced in BEAST - had not. He almost believes that BEAST killed her in a jealous rage, but then, he has always given himself far too much credit.
It wasn’t like Satsuki-chan had understood what he wanted from her. He wasn’t even quite sure what he had wanted from her.
---
They had rebuilt the bridge five years ago, and he has found ways to avoid it since its re-opening. He forgave both Seishirou-san and Hokuto-chan long ago, but he wonders if returning to the place he killed Seishirou-san and triggered Hokuto-chan’s curse might be too much for him.
Subaru can see Rainbow Bridge from his apartment, and just the sight is enough to tighten his chest, even after all these years. He looks away from the window and pulls on a simple pair of black leather gloves. His coat is slung over a chair and he grabs it as he leaves the apartment in search of a man who has done nothing to him, but whose blood will stain his hands.
---
Fuuma stands on the observation deck of Tokyo Tower and looks out over the city. Lights burn brightly, casting a hazy glow over a Tokyo that fights back the hands of night. If he concentrates, he can see the kekkai Kamui died to create.
It has been a decade since the final battle, and he still wonders if there was a way they could have changed the outcome. Neither of them won that day and he can still see Kamui’s blood staining the shinken when he closes his eyes.
The sun is setting when he leaves the tower and steps back onto the street. He starts towards home, and doesn’t look back.