The Ghost
by Korii Shoujo
A/N: Alas, my special more-than-one-chaper fiction for CM is finally revealed:) It shall probably be no more than 5 chapters, as the end of the school year is drawing near and I do need to work extra hard in studying for finals. Also, it's quite a bit AUish - as it explains that they healed the Empress with the Tears of the Moon. This is needed for the plot line. Also, Misoka never lost his power to transform. Anyway, the inspiration for this definitely has to be the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - a haunting romance that left me with goosebumps when I was done with it. The story was so captivating, yet confusing. If you're up for somewhat of a literary challenge(and a great story), I definitely recommend this. It's written during the Romantic Time Period, so expect the same sort of style(yet vastly different) as Poe. Also, Mitsuru's character with be almost based on Heathcliff, the main character of the novel. Mahiru will, in a very slight way, resemble Cathy. Well, enough with my rambling!
(One last note, however: first chapter IS a songfic, with lyrics by mewithoutYou from the song 'Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt')
Disclaimer: I do not own Crescent Moon, its characters, plot line, etc. (Wow...that was bad.)
Prologue - Nagare
"Everything was beautiful...
And nothing hurt."
His breathing was shallow, filled with choking and sobs as the past, in his eyes, repeated itself in an elegiac flaunting of mocking hatred right in front of him. Dazed from the sheer emotional pain, he grasped his head with both of his hands, squeezing it tightly and pulling at his already mussed hair. Saliva dripped out of the corner of his gasping mouth; however, in his state, he cared not for his appearance to an outsider. Sobs wracked his entire body, causing him to cough and sputter, like the engine of an old car who had worn itself down long ago. Placing his hands on the ground, he began wretching due to the sobs that choked him so, forcing him to gag and dry-heave until the torment left his body, like a foreign object it would never accept.
"How could you?" he barely whispered, registering the view around him through blurred eyelids which throbbed with the ache of being abused by relentless torrents of tears and many sleepless nights where their owner forced them awake as he stared out the window, deep into the waning moon outside. However, these once vibrant windows to the world remembered more jovial times, when the sun and moon had been one, dancing across the sky together in each others' arms. These days were long past for Mitsuru Suou, yet when he reminisced on his cherished memories, which happened quite often, he held them with utmost praise and wishfulness, desiring to be where he once was long ago - smiling.
Five entire years had passed since the collection of all seven Tears of the Moon, five years since the Empress's illness had been remedied, five years since the keepers of the 'Moonshine' had moved their residence to the Moon Palace along with their Princess, Mahiru, and five years since Mitsuru had confessed himself to her. Mahiru was quite dazed at first, but soon accepted the tengu with a small kiss on the cheek and deeply caring embrace, and for once in his miserable life, Mitsuru had considered himself happy, so happy to actually be living for something other than himself. Bitterly, he remembered how much courage he had to summon up to tell her something as simple as the three words he had uttered for his princess that day, anxious for the answer in return - yet fearing the worst, almost to the point of not wanting to hear her reply. Two years passed seemlessly, two years of utter utopia in the Moon Palace.
"As we melt, let's make no noise.
Profanation of our love
To tell the world our passing joys."
Mitsuru's thoughts hushed themselves as he lay on the floor of his residence in the palace, struggling to remember in a good light when he had asked her for her hand, to be his forever, no one else's - his, as selfish as it may have seemed. As before, she accepted timidly, but this time with more passion towards her love. The tengu recalled her lambent, sapphire eyes as she jumped into his waiting arms, crying tears of joy as he placed a sparkling, sea-blue diamond ring upon her refined finger. The band was an exquisite white gold, formed only from the best metels of its kind, that Mitsuru carefully made sure of. Two majestic dolphins surrounded the center gem protectively, their detail absolutely astonishing. He knew that she would love it, with her affection towards water and every creature that made its home in the mysteriously appealing liquid.
"Mahiru," Mitsuru choked out, grinning painfully as he hugged his knees tightly to his chest, as he once had to Mahiru, "She was as permenant as water, damnit. Always flowing, never in the same place twice."
As the tengu immersed himself in his grief-stricken thoughts once more, his sobbing emerged from its hiding place, tearing free of the thin layer that kept the pain at bay for only so long. Mitsuru squeezed his eyes shut, as if the harder he pressed his eyelids together, the less the force would be of the depression he suffered from, every waking and even sleeping moment the excuse of a life his existence had descended to. Yet, the images still came, pouring into him like a downpour of needles of frigid, winter rain. Mahiru's delirious face, as her silky golden hair, now matted with sweat, clung to her perspiring forehead feebly in an effort to cover her obvious discomfort. The worried tengu had gently smoothed the protesting strands back as his dying love's breaths escaped from her lips in an increasingly shallower manner.
The illness had struck fast and hard, yet the physicians claimed it to be a simple case of bronchopneumonia that could be easily cured. However, with each passing day, the Princess's condition only worsened, until after four weeks, Mahiru accepted the fact(upon coming out of the delirium she often lived under while suffering) that she was on her death bed and would cease to live on any given day, so she weakly called her fiance to her bedside to keep vigil for her as she lay dying. Mitsuru came, of course, his eyes a bright red from shedding tears before coming to watch over his Princess in her last few hours. Holding her in his arms gently, as to not cause her further discomfort, the tengu cursed himself over and over for letting this happen to her.
"And we, besides, care less to miss
Our eyes and lips and hands.
Oh, but honey, I'm not who you think I am!"
"Mahiru," he had whispered desperately, hoping that she would come to one final time for him. He cursed under his breath as he noticed her wince slightly in pain as she glanced up at him, which he knew caused a lot more hurt than the Princess dared to let on, in place of worrying her friends further.
"M-Mitsuru?" Mahiru gasped out, her crystal-clear eyes shining brightly as she smiled for her demon one last time, "There you are. I've missed you. Say, could you do me a favour...or two?"
"Any...anything at all," the tengu breathed, once again carefully placing strands of hair places elsewhere than her beautiful face, as to not to impair her vision.
"Please smile...it's so hard to leave with you frowning like that," she giggled lightly, a giggle than soon developed into an incredibly hoarse coughing fit that wracked the poor girl's entire body which made Mitsuru's despair increase by nearly ten fold and caused her to wheeze out her next words,"I w-w-want to see your true form once m-m-more."
"Of course, Princess," Mitsuru mumbled softly, interjecting a pet name he'd decided to call her years ago. The tengu forced out a smile that ripped him to shreds inside, sending forth some kind of invisible creature which continually ate away at his insides whenever he layed eyes on his princess. The mere thought of smiling while Mahiru lay in her predicament was unthinkable, and it tormented him to do so. Yet, he forced a smile, albeit a very fake one, for her and only her. Summoning his power that he knew lie deep inside of him, Mitsuru groaned as his true form, that of a tengu, burst forth from its hiding place within a young man's body. Every time he tried to change, it hurt more and more, the pain from Mahiru's sickness dragging him down further into the abyss of desolation, but for her, he managed. A single ebony feather loosened from his crow-like wings and landed on the pale, twisted sheets of the Descendant of the Princess's death bed. She picked it up carefully, then taking it into both hands, rubbed the downy item against her flushed cheek lovingly.
"So you'll be to me
Who must obliquely run.
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I've begun."
Mitsuru, consumed with emotion, rushed forth and took Mahiru into his arms, wrapping the lengthy sleeves of his outfit around her gaunt body protectively. She buried her face into the juncture where his should and neck met, light sobs coming from her frail form. The tengu nuzzled her neck soothingly, to perhaps calm the terrified girl in her fear. The girl removed her face from him, sadness pouring out of her sapphire eyes like a rapid, yet tranquil stream. As she placed a trembling hand on the dark markings that overlayed most of his cheek, Mitsuru barely caught a faint whisper that emitted itself from her thin lips.
"I...I don't want to die, Miru," she breathed, including her pet name for him, dread covering her countenance in layers. "Don't l-leave me here alone."
"Never," Mitsuru's deep voice growled out, a little more darkly than he would've preferred, but it chided Mahiru nonetheless.
"Thank you, Miru," the comforted princess purred out, her voice peaceful in her time of terror,"I love you forever." She moved her head slightly, placing a delicate kiss on his nose, then on his trembling lips as she embraced him for the last time. Falling back on to her bed, she fixed Mitsuru with a joyful stare, her crystal-blue eyes vibrant and vivid with emotion, yet it wasn't fear or sorrow, it was an everlasting look of serenity that the tengu would remember forever and on. Slowly, Mahiru's dark eyelashing touched her blushing cheeks, and her lips formed themselves into a gentle smile, to stay that way forever.
She never woke up.
"DAMNIT!" Mitsuru screamed, a mere week after Mahiru's death, as he lay on the floor of the room they once shared, reminiscing. He sat up, anger etched deeply into his once melancholy features as he glanced around, looking for something that wasn't there to the naked eye. Growling deeply, he stood up completely and transformed, howling in agony at the sheer pain the process caused him to endure. Flapping his glossy wings twice, he gripped his large hands together firmly, a determined look setting itself deeply within his face.
"I swear to you, Mahiru Shiraishi, I'll find you. You're not gone yet, damnit. I'll find a way to reverse this. You'll come back to me - as Mahiru Suou!"
"There's nothing wrong,
As I'll be somewhere singing all along.
No! Tell me, where have you gone, my love?"
A/N: Well, there's the prologue. Sorry for the long A/N up front, I just needed to explain a few things. Anyway, this story is gonna be very angsty, kiddies. Probably more so than now. Well, until next time!(probably in a few days or so)
Reviews make me very happy. :)