A night so beautiful and so tranquil as this should not be wasted. That is what she thought as she slipped out of the dorm hall, clad only in a silk yukata and her sandals, and sauntered into the night among the forest trail leading to the gentle flowing waters of the river, a return to that very place she laid eyes upon the ever adorable Ryuko-chan not too long ago. Surely yes she would have joined the other girls to bathe in the showers, but...given her
infamous reputation, the company of others was less to be desired. Besides, she somewhat relished these moments she had to herself, to be alone with only her thoughts to accompany her, even...the ones she didn't wish to ponder of. But, while most of her ill thoughts were those of the constant shame she brought upon her family and the consequences that would follow, the guilt eating at her like the incessant moths devouring an old, withered piece of cloth, tonight...her thoughts were elsewhere.
Ryuko-chan.... As if in trance she glanced at her hand, the very same the girl had squeezed so tight, such an odd touch to give, and yet...so mesmerizing to Asuka.
There were fireflies out tonight, little stars that seemed to have fallen from the heavens above and flickered and fluttered about the red haired girl, removing her yukata and letting it slip from her smooth shoulders. Such an eventful evening indeed it been, but now it was over and the midnight sun....that pleasant full moon....was in bright spirits with her pale light dancing upon the stream, notably calmer than before...the water almost as still as glass until Asuka disrupted that stillness wading into the shallow portion of the stream. She shivered a little at the brisk touch of the water to her sensitive exterior, but gradually she eased into it....feeling yet again at peace. Her hand reached for the silk black hair tie that kept her ponytail in place and removed it, letting her long, crimson locks fall about her rather slim shoulders as she closed her eyes and submerged into the clear, cool water. She opened her eyes momentarily underneath, noting how....different it felt under the water....such a different world below, even more mysterious with the rays of the moon permeating the crystal surface and casting dim light and dappled shadows upon everything. She resurfaced again with a breath of air taken in and exhaled, pushing back her damp and heavy hair, a few meticulous strands clinging to her face.
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((Battle Music:
Our Last Night Alive))
It was that dream again...... the same that haunted her sleep night after night since her youth.
No...not again... Why am I here? What does this all mean?Beyond the battlefield, scarred and defiled, tainted black by several years of ceaseless, bloody warfare, beyond the festering, maggot ridden corpses of dead men, the splintered shields and shattered swords, the cracked helms and rusted armor, there...they stood, the last two warriors left alive. Two knights, one in white, the other in black, their swords drawn and their shields raised as the warriors gazed at each other from among the dark of their helms....but their gaze...twas not the heated glare of death between adversaries...but a painful stare of regret, as if Tohru could see into their eyes, see the suffering and discord the two knights shared. Neither of them wanted to do it, neither of them...wanted to fight any longer. The thick scuffs and dents in their tattered armor, the dried blood upon their swords worn down by years upon years of vicious war and turmoil, both knew it was the end for them. It would not be a fight to victory...but to the death.
The black knight, Tohru couldn't help but notice it now. For as long as she's had this dream, she had never realized underneath her dark, shadowy armor, the black knight....was crying, and...so too was the white knight. They were both in lachrymose, but even so, to their fate they charged headlong, a mighty war cry exhumed from both their dry and cracked hollow lips. Their swords met in a violent clash of thunder, steel and sparks shooting too and fro as without mercy, without quarter they bashed their blades together, several painful grunts and groans as they fought onwards...onwards...to a bitter end. Blood, red and viscous, it poured from their ghastly wounds, yet neither knight surrendering to the agony inflicted upon their bodies. Finally...
...it ended just as it had begun.
Both warriors, with one final, heartfelt thrust of their blades into one another, they fell to their knees upon the ashen grounds of the battlefield, the life...slowly and ever so tortuously draining from their mortal coils. Twas then the black knight...with a dying gasp for air she would never savor, fell into the arms of the white knight, embracing her in their last moments...as death took them both...
