Always and Forever
An Akuma no Riddle Fanfiction
How I want episode 12 to go.
From the day she was born she'd been promised a world blessed with crimson dreams. She was told that it didn't matter where she went, what she did or when she died, because the warmth of darkness and bloodshed would follow her like a child chasing after a runaway balloon.
They warned her to stop rebelling and accept their simple declaration. For a while she did believe that there was no way out to run. That she had to be a puppet of obligation and orders.
Not anymore. Not for her. There was a way. She had collected the missing pieces and assembled them together inside the gaping hole in her heart. She analyzed the final product it created. Upon viewing it, she wondered how she had let the truth slip right beneath her skirt hem. What a foolish and funny move on her part. The answers to everything up until this very moment were something she knew herself all along.
"It's all because of you, Haru..." She walked forward, each step a poisonous advance. "That I realized I had nothing before you and I met. You became my reason to fight, to live. I learned how to truly feel because of you." The shattered grin expanded on her parted lips.
The girl, Haru, sat trembling on the cemetery floor. Her fuchsia eyes contracted. She scooted backwards, horrified at what was unraveling before her. This couldn't be happening, it wasn't real, it couldn't be, all of this was just a scary nightmare!
Tears threatened to break free from the prisons of her eyelids. Haru quaked, watching the girl creep closer, closer, and closer still. She reduced the space between them like a starving lioness stalking the perfect prey. Quiet and slow. The natural rage of a predator awakened within her bones.
"Thank you, Haru. You taught me all these things. You will always be the only precious thing to me in this world. "She cleaved the silence and tightened her grip around the katana in her hand.
In each second that died, blackness stained the aggressor's wounded innocence. It consumed the fragile spirit and fractured in the process.
"That's why… I absolutely must do this!"
Haru's heart plummeted into the pits of her churning stomach. A stream of tears traced along her jaw line. Something thick lodged itself in the back of her throat. She wanted to swallow, but a deep, dark emotion suffocated her first. Time and reality deteriorated and oozed out underneath her feet. The katana was pointed at the center of the canvas of Haru's petrified-painted face.
One.
She raised the weapon.
Two.
Haru's pulse skyrocketed.
Three.
The katana sliced the clouds of steam floating around them into oblivion.
Scream.
Haru leaped out of the way from the blade's fury, landing in a somewhat defensive crouching position. She stood upright and stared into the menacing glare. The girl's gaze blazed blue as she angled her sword. They were suspended in tension. The puffs of steam devoured their body and left mainly only their heads to be seen. Memories of the girl were bees invading her throbbing mind. It hurts; it hurts so much, please just make it stop. Abandoned on the ground in the growing space molded by the girl and Haru was a scarlet lettert—the advance notice.
"T-Tokaku, I'm sorry, Haru didn't mean for any of this to happen, I just didn't want for you to hate me." Haru, having found the mobility to speak what hollered within, poured out.
"You've crossed the line and I won't forgive you. I will kill Haru with my all, for Haru's sake." Tokaku leered.
Haru gasped and staggered backwards. Thoughts reeled, spun, twisted and distorted as she realized the exact depth of her consequences. However, a shred of her was still firmly confident that Haru hadn't manipulated Tokaku-san to protect her from all of the other failed assassins. That Tokaku had acted out of her own free will and not because of Haru's apparent "Queen Bee power". She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go back to the way things use to be with Tokaku, even if it entailed fleeing death every morning and night. As long as she was with her, everything was fine. But now she, she—
Tokaku dashed forward with blinding speed.
Haru had little time to react. The razor edge slashed Haru's arm and the fabric of her cream-yellow shirt. She swiped again and again and frantically Haru tried to dodge the piercing blows, a yelp escaping her mouth. The flowing tears spilled in waterfalls and the freezing air stirred by the katana's cutting force nipped at the fresh incisions made on Haru's skin. Blood welled to the surface, dripped down to her wrists and etched crimson lines onto her cheeks. She turned tail and ran, running as fast as any other prey would.
It stings so badly… I have to stop this! Tokaku, please listen to me! Haru sprinted to the elevator, her one chance for sanctuary. Despite the heavy steam fogging her vision, she could see the metal cage approaching ahead. Almost there, come on; she would make it, just a bit further and…
Two gunshots fired, the first bullet missed, the second did not.
She screeched and fell, her arm never reaching the button to open the elevator.
Collapsed onto the ground, Haru clutched her right shoulder, blood warmed her palm and her pupils jittered and shrunk to slits. She tucked her legs in closer to her chest, the pain excruciating to bear. Haru's breathing was erratic and uneven. She sunk her teeth into her lips and slowly rolled over onto her hands and knees. Shivering, Haru ogled at the blood and tears plopping onto the backs of her hands and her eyebrows furrowed together at the site.
The soft clicks of Tokaku's boots filled the burial place; Haru's temperature spiraled with each and every step.
Haru looked up. Standing over her was Tokaku. A bitter storm raged in the haze of her cold, red eyes.
Red?! Haru couldn't believe what she was seeing, Tokaku's irises were glowing in the most sinful and corrupted red hue she'd ever dreamed to imagine, more impure than a devil's tempting gaze. The color of her eyes was impossible. Tokaku's eyes were blue, not red. What was the meaning to this?
Tokaku extended her katana out, the sharp tip almost touching Haru's nose.
"Tokaku, your eyes—"Haru quivered in her speech.
"Isn't it fine, for Haru to die?"
That voice…
"Nio-san?" Haru exclaimed, a shadowy figure walking forward from behind Tokaku.
"After all, Haru has killed all the dreams and hopes of her classmates, right?" Nio's crooked smile flaunted shark fangs.
Nio came into view. Her natural red eyes were similar to how Tokaku's were and scintillated against the backdrop of white. Haru wobbled as she struggled to stand. She glowered at the blonde haired girl with utter disdain, more so than when she had looked at Hanabusa Sumireko during the tea party. Covering the soaked splotch of blood on her shoulder, Haru didn't dare to move. She kept her complete and undivided attention on the grinning monster in front of her.
"What did you do to Tokaku-san!" She put two and two together to finally understand the current situation.
Nio closed her eyes, a soft sigh and tiny laugh leaving her as she did. "What did I do?" she reopened them; the color was darker this time. "Ah, don't you mean what you did to Azuma Tokaku? All I'm giving her is the extra little push she needed." She made a wicked noise through her nostrils and throat that sounded a lot like an hmm.
Tokaku breathed and moved out of the way like a mindless robot, her katana at her side.
"You're manipulating her heart!" Haru shouted, hands curling into tight fists.
"Maybe I am, but, that just means we're the same." She grinned slyly.
"H-haru is nothing like you!" Haru's knees buckled, she fought them to cease in their actions.
"Really? I'd think two Queen Bee candidates would be like looking into a mirror of their selves. Manipulative, dangerous, alone. Ichinose Haru, you and I are exactly alike. It truly is a lonely thing we endured, isn't it? These special powers we were born with. It's the only choice in life we ever had to follow."
Haru's fists faltered in their grip and she stood straighter. "You're a Queen Bee candidate too? But, you weren't even born into my clan…" Haru's anger ebbed away for the moment, an extreme confusion taking hold.
"Just because I'm not from your clan doesn't mean I can't have a variation like your Queen Bee powers."
"Haru has no such power!" Her heart stopped dead in its tracks.
"I've told you about my clan before, the Kuzunohas, right?" She ignored Haru, her grin widened, spreading onto unholy lips.
Yes, Nio talked about the Azumas of the east's rival clan once before, when they were eating lunch together, but, she had failed to mention that she was a part of it. After that conversation had happened, Haru asked Tokaku-san some time later more about the clans. Of course, she denied speaking about her own clan, yet, she launched into cut quick details on the Kuzunohas. Apparently, they had been users of magic and spells and things of that ilk. Tokaku's family always called them devils.
"And since Chairwomen Meichi Yuri adopted me, it sort of does make me one of your clan members. Even though I don't trace back to your bloodline, the Kuzunohas are similar enough. She was benevolent enough to overlook it, since I had just as great of a potential as you did. All they need is a successor and if you died in your time in Class Black, who would be left to lead besides myself?"
Nio bore into Haru's soul with her gaze.
"I will become the next Primer, marry one of the worker bees when I'm older and have children to continue the clan, there'd be enough of your clan blood in them to produce another Queen Bee candidate." Nio threatened.
Haru was speechless.
"Ah, I should probably tell you that Tokaku-san's notice is my own, sooo, surprise-suu~" Nio shrugged cheerfully. "It's only fair that you die for the classmates you've murdered by staying alive all this time."
Paralyzed, Haru's jaws dropped, unable to comprehend what she heard.
"They…died, even Takechi-san?" Haru remembered the delirious and psychopathic assassin she had encountered once again even after her leaving the Academy.
"Yep! " Nio continued in an afterthought. "Though, we only kept her alive for the first time because we taught it would be amusing if she spent her life in the one place she wished never to go, but then that mishap happened at the tea party and with the possibility of her escaping prison again, we killed her too."
"W-why?" Haru asked, deep down she knew.
"Why? What do you think expulsion means. Do you really think we'd let them go home and go on about their lives? They all failed."
Nio's eyes glistened as she watched the red headed and shaking Queen Bee candidate take it all in.
"No, stop it, it's not true!" Haru walked away from Nio and kept focus on her as she did, however, she felt herself bump into someone.
Haru whipped around and inhaled in disbelief. Takechi Otoya was standing in front of her. A veil of shadows blocked most of her facial features except for the warped smile searing into her flesh. She held one of her bloodied pairs of scissors to her lips and licked it zestfully.
"Harruchi~ I've come to take your life."
Haru, with fright seeping into her bloodstream, immediately turned around and ran. She halted in her endeavors when another body appeared out of nowhere in front of her, this time it was Kaminaga Kouko, who held her broken cross necklace outwards. Haru almost fell down upon seeing her. She gulped and shuddered.
"All I wanted was to quit being an assassin…" Kouko murmured.
Haru started to pant and gasp for breath; her throat itched with the vile liquid sloshing inside. She was going to puke or worse, urinate in her panties, probably even both. Terror had never been this intimate with her before.
In all the directions Haru tried to avoid the appearing assassins, another one would show up to cease her movements. She found herself encircled by all of her classmates.
"I will liberate you. This is the only way for you to be free of your shackles." Sagae Haruki said remorsefully, a tear tracing her jaw line.
Haru snapped her head left.
"It's because of you that so many people have died until now!" Namatame Chitaru yelled.
"Luck clearly wasn't on my side." Kirigaya Hitsugi gripped her pink teddy bear in one hand, her other was protectively in the hold of Chitaru.
The overwhelming emotions emitting from their words and their bodies crushed Haru, she grabbed the ends of her skirt in response.
"My body is being ravaged by a disease…that day will come yet again now." Shuto Suzu mourned, her hand wrapped around her neck.
What's going on? They are supposed to be dead; h-how are they in here?
"No matter how much you're calling out… and calling out…and calling out, no one… no one hears you!" Banba Shinya screeched.
Haru froze, fingers twitching at the horror surrounding her.
"Come on now, pull yourself together and run away." Inukai Isuke joked.
"It's like the wasp and jorou spider, right Ichinose-san?" Hanabusa Sumireko asked with her frail, dignified voice.
Haru peered all around her, there was no way out, she was stuck in their trap. As she gazed at the faces of the assassins, they all began to talk at once, their voices molding together to form a quickened chorus of anguished sentences. Their spiteful words were like maggots squirming in her brain. Faster, faster and louder and louder their tones spiked. Haru's mind bled from the sheer intensity. They overtook her, made her weak, deaf, and it buried her under the pressure. She caved in and toppled over with her hands pressing into her ears.
"Stop!" Haru's shrill scream cut through the middle of their words. Tears coated her eyelashes.
The assassins vanished from existence, an eerie silence following suit.
Shocked, Haru gradually let her arms fall back down. She blinked a couple of times, her heart slammed into her ribcage. She hesitated a few times before she lifted her head back up. That momentary peace she had experienced withered into nothingness because right there, standing a distance away from Haru was, not Nio, but, Tokaku.
Tokaku glared. Mercy and reason long disserted in the waters of the ocean filled madness swimming within her eyes. Serious auras bounced off her skin and she gripped the handle of her katana like when she had hugged Haru for the first and probably last time back in the wreckage of the tea party room. Tokaku had been bloody and beaten that day, but alive and there as well. Where did that Tokaku go? Haru wanted her back so, so much that it left her true feelings vulnerable and naked.
She was about to allow defeat and die by Tokaku's hand until a spark in the remaining wire of her heart electrified something she had never felt since the day her family had died. It was similar and also different beyond comprehension. It was reviving, reassuring and calming. Colored in the warmest and sweetest shades of pink and red, it hugged her and kissed every scar with tender care. This sensation was the most beautiful rose without a single thorn. The soft petals brushed away her tears. The more Haru looked at Tokaku, the stronger it became. Growing higher than the tallest building in the world, bringing even the happiest laughter to shame and exploding like New Year fireworks, it could light the entire darkness of the world. Purity, no… it was purer than purity itself, it was…
Love.
Haru smiled at Tokaku.
Those emotions, which had been hidden through the ashes of fear, surfaced and oh, did it feel so good and right. How unfortunate that it had taken this long for her to realize it. Tokaku must have suffered the entire time with the same feelings while Haru had been oblivious and blind. If she thought back on it now, it was always there between them, from the very day they had met briefly in that classroom. It couldn't have been her Queen Bee powers that made Tokaku come to want to protect her because she hadn't done what Nio was doing. Somewhere in Tokaku resided this resolve as well.
"I will say that it was fun knowing you, Haru." The voice belonged to Nio; she crawled out from the white shadows of steam. "But, now it's really time to say our goodbyes."
Tokaku made a disgusted tch sound and braced herself for a run.
Haru stepped forward, indignation in her challenging step. "Haru is not afraid anymore! Haru will save Tokaku for sure!" The determination laced every letter.
"So Naïve, Haru~" she glanced at Tokaku, her eyes were incandescent. "You've already lost."
"No! Haru will prove it to you!"
"How?" Nio's head tilted back to stare at Haru uncannily.
Nothing.
Nio chuckled heartedly. "You can't, can you?"
"Tokaku-san, if you would please-suu."
Tokaku smiled. A faint, feverish red crept into her eyes, the majority was still blue.
"This is the path I chose for myself!" Tokaku yelled.
Tokaku burst forward, keeping the katana fixated straight at stabbing point. Nio's shark grin touched each corner of her face. The vermillion flu in her gaze was as jagged as Tokaku's sword.
"Tokaku, stop it, Haru loves you!" Haru's words came out rapidly and in the moment. Her plea was enough to splinter glass and demolish every window ever made. She jammed her eyes shut. The glinting silver would be the last thing she saw in this world.
Crimson…
That horrid shade…
It…
All of it…
The evil crimson…
…Disappeared from Tokaku's irises and she halted the katana, her hand trembling in spasms. She stumbled backwards a bit and, aghast, she stared at the bloody sword and then to Haru.
Haru peeked open an eye and then the other, seeing the frozen katana. A small blush was underneath Haru's eyelids and she smiled in a tearful relief.
"W-what is the meaning of this?" Tokaku asked, bewildered.
"Toka-"
Haru was interrupted.
"How did you break my spell? This is not supposed to happen! Tokaku, listen to me!" Nio was vicious and her tone was inhuman and scathing.
"Hashiri?" Tokaku turned, confused. "What—"
And then she remembered the advance notice in the drawer, of her mind being ravaged suddenly when she looked at it and coming down into whatever this place was.
"You. Will. Obey. ME!" Her eyes were indescribable. "I won't let you make me be alone again! I will make Yuri so proud of me that she'll consider me her daughter! Listen to me! You will kill haru!" Nio was paranoid, tears hazing her glowing vision. Isuke-sama would call her gap moe, but, for some reason this didn't seem entirely off, like they were just viewing the real, exposed nature of Hashiri Nio.
Tokaku hollered and writhed, head whipping left and right as if she was trying to shake something off of her. Haru's face shifted to dread for Tokaku and animosity for Nio.
"That's right, you know what you want to do, Tokaku-san." She laughed like a hyena.
"I—"Tokaku caterwauled and the katana went flying out of sight.
"Hurry and get another weapon out!" Nio ordered.
This was it, Haru's one chance to save her.
"Tokaku!" Haru screamed.
Haru raced towards the struggling assassin. The tears flew behind her as she ran and her eyebrows scrunched in urgency. Tokaku!
Tokaku put her right leg forward; she had chosen her knife in favor for her gun.
Haru gasped. She felt it.
The hug.
Haru melted in Tokaku's embrace. She hadn't expected for Tokaku to be the one who pulled her in first. Nio fumed in the background. Haru didn't care; she was in Tokaku's warm and protective arms.
"What are you doing, Tokaku-san?" Nio demanded fiercely.
Tokaku released Haru from her hold, a small frown showing on Haru's mouth; she gave her a gentle smile and whipped around, the knife angled defensively from her face.
"This is the path I chose for myself!" Tokaku repeated, this time being her real self.
"I will protect Haru!"
Haru was baffled by Tokaku's statement and her eyes shimmered in a variety of emotions. Her mouth was opened slightly and her eyebrows drawn together. She knew Tokaku was herself right now, but there was still a hidden part of her that expected Tokaku to be infuriated with her like she was when they had their talk in their dorm room. It was a relief, but a shocking one.
"No, you won't." Nio sneered and advanced like a slithering snake.
Tokaku's grip weakened and she gritted her teeth.
Nio laughed and stared directly into Tokaku.
"Tokaku, don't let her manipulate her heart!" Haru yelled.
"Shut up." She said in distress.
"You have to keep fighting Tokaku, you can do it, Haru believes in you!"
"I'm not the one who manipulated your heart Tokaku, remember that. Haru was the one who ripped everything inside of you into shreds. You want to kill her, your angry, and you can kill now." Nio lured.
"Stop it! Tokaku, you broke her spell once, you can do it again, please! You have to!"
"I said shut up!" Both Nio and Haru were stunned; neither had heard Tokaku's voice reach that level of ferocity ever in the time they've known each other.
Nio was the first to become un-phased by Tokaku and she smirked.
"Kill her."
Tokaku stood stagnant. Then, she turned and faced Haru. Her eyes were completely glazed over red.
"Tokaku…" Haru felt the sands of her life and her temporary bliss slip through the cracks between her fingers.
Tokaku pointed the knife at Haru.
She turned.
The knife sailed through the air. Nio, who had been smiling, frowned, and the blade pierced her chest. She crumpled to the floor, her gaze lightening.
Haru would've hyperventilated if not for Tokaku hovering over her, arm extended. She reached for it, a thankful grin blooming onto her lips. Tokaku pulled Haru up and embraced her in another hug, tighter and securer than the last. Then, the even more unexpected thing happened; Tokaku placed her hands on Haru's cheeks and kissed her longingly.
Haru's face was a strawberry and she stared, dumfounded. It transitioned into delight. Her eyes narrowed until they closed and she wrapped her arms around Tokaku's neck.
The kiss was absolute paradise on her lips. She'd never imagined the usually cold assassin to have lips that were this inviting and soft. Haru wanted this moment to last forever. She felt like she would drift out of the earth's atmosphere and travel to the other side of the moon. The lightness in her chest surpassed the brightness of an angel's halo. Stars twinkled in the back of her mind, happiness within that was greater than any cosmic force pushed her with a gravitational pull towards the other girl. Haru angled her nose so that it wouldn't smash against Tokaku's and of course, for the optimal experience they each had both waited patiently for.
Tokaku tasted better than the ripest fruit in all of the Garden of Eden. This moment was too perfect to be real and too sweet to be a dream. Haru blushed insanely when she felt Tokaku's tongue slip into her mouth. Tokaku opened her eyes and reeled quickly away from Haru, she rubbed the back of her shaggy and short blue hair. Her gaze rolled over to the side, unable to look Haru in the eyes; the bridge of her nose and cheeks were flushed in a dark rosy color.
"I-I'm s-sorry."
"Uhh…It's okay." Haru smiled, she was flustered. Is Tokaku embarrassed?!
Haru beamed nervously.
"It wasn't the Queen Bee power. I figured it out. I chose to protect you because…" Tokaku had started to say after a while of awkward tension, she broke it.
"You—were manipulated by the Queen Bee power, my Queen Bee power, all of you were. You… didn't even believe that I would ever use my… my advance notice. I'm an assassin too, you know…but unlike you, I don't die as easily as you would think."
Nio staggered onto her feet, pulling the knife from her chest, a trail of blood connecting from her shirt to the blade and it plopped and fell onto her skirt.
Tokaku whirled and faced Nio, glowering with daggers spitting from her stare. She held one arm out to protect Haru behind her while with the other one; she reached for the gun hidden in her skirt.
Tokaku fired.
The bullets were encased in a red aura and hovered mid-air, Nio laughed and held her hand out, the bullets turned to face Tokaku.
Tokaku anticipated Nio's move and tackled Haru onto the floor, the bullets flying over their heads and crashing into the hexagon patterns on the wall.
"Haru, fall back!"
"But—" Haru shivered.
"I'll protect you, so go!"
I don't want to leave you…I want to help.
Nio rushed at Tokaku with all she had left, she threw careless, fast slashes with the knife and Tokaku swiftly evaded each one. She grinned with her shark fangs and put her foot out, Tokaku's own foot got caught with Nio's and she tripped. She plummeted to the floor, her skull smashing against the hard surface.
Haru eyes deepened to a freezing purple.
Nio crashed onto Tokaku with the knife and stabbed her directly in the heart. Tokaku eyes narrowed. Nio chuckled and shortly after she too fell to the ground, laughing all the way to her deathbed.
No, no, no! This, this wasn't possible. Haru scrambled over to Tokaku, endless, endless tears spilling from her and crashing onto Tokaku's pallid face. Haru blinked and grabbed Tokaku's hand, lips quivering. No, please don't let this happen! Not now, not now…
"I…know the answer, Haru." Tokaku smiled sadly.
"T- to w-what?" Haru almost didn't want to look at Tokaku because she knew she'd break out into gross sobbing if she did, she bared through it.
"Kaiba's graduation riddle that he gave me. It's love. The world is full of love. Tokaku struggled to reach for Haru and caress her cheek. Haru was always so warm…
"Haru…I love you."
Haru couldn't stand it anymore, she laughed in sorrow, trying to feign a smile, but she became corrupted in the agonizing emotions overfilling her and broke down weeping onto Tokaku's chest.
"Haru loves—I love you, Tokaku, I love you so much."
Tokaku rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, feeling at peace. "I'm sorry…Haru, that I have to leave. I will always protect you, even after—"
"Don't talk like that!" Haru screamed. "We will both definitely live!"
"I'm sorry, I..."
Tokaku's eyes fluttered closed.
"Tokaku!" Haru wailed a deafening shriek, and gripped the girl's hand.
"Tokaku, Tokaku, Tokaku!" She shook Tokaku frantically, her vision blurring in burning tears. "Wake up, come on, beauties should smile remember! Tokaku, please don't leave! Haru loves you!" She shuddered, knowing that it was far too late for her to change their unrequested fate.
Haru sat back, any human word to explain the utter grief and pain consuming her would be an understatement. The world before her shattered and she quaked and shivered and trembled like Lucifer himself was in front of her. She brought her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them and pulled them in. With jittering hands, she tried to interlock her fingers together, everything felt numb to the touch. She couldn't tell if her heart was in her throat or sinking in her chest. All she knew that it hurt.
She sobbed for what felt like hours. When she had bled her tears dry, she looked at Tokaku, who lay motionless. Haru frowned and gazed intently at her. So beautiful, even when she was…sleeping.
Haru felt compelled to kiss that beautiful forehead and she did. Then, she stood; her shoulders slouched forward as if she was carrying the weight of the entire universe on her. She sauntered to the steps where her family hexagon laid amongst the countless others. Heavy bags sagged from her eyelids. A down casted shadow seemed to hover over her. All light and happiness drained from her gaze. Haru looked sickly, like she was running the highest fever and coldest of colds.
Haru collapsed at the top, her hands wavering as she touched the Ichinose nameplate.
"Mom, dad, big brother…Wataru... Haru cannot smile anymore, I'm sorry."
She wept at their stone, more tears traversing her wet-dried face; however, these tears were only the bitter remains. Everyone is gone now. There's no one left. Tokaku is—dead and Haru no longer has a reason to smile. Haru is…she is… all alone…Haru should die like everyone else and live the happy, normal life she always wanted.
Haru gasped, what was she saying? She couldn't think like that. Not after all of their sacrifices. Haru had to live in honor for the ones who died for her, for her family, for the eleven assassins who'd lost their life because of her, for Tokaku….
The bleak knife of misfortune twisted inside of her just a bit deeper.
She staggered up onto her feet, pressing a hand against the wall so that she wouldn't fall back down. Dizziness whirled underneath her. She couldn't differentiate colors because all she saw was muted shades of black and grey. Walking back to Tokaku, she tried to sit down normally beside her, but, her legs were weak and sore and she sort of came down onto her kneecaps like a falling domino. A puff of steam jostled in her wake.
Tokaku was so beautiful, from the curve of her neck to the lines of her slender hips and everything below and in between. She always had such a perfect body, perfect hair and eyelashes, Haru even remembered that she had the perfect smile. Her beauty traversed far beyond appearances as well. Tokaku's kind spirit, agile wits, serious behavior and the way she murmured about curry in her slumber, all of those traits were just as beautiful too.
Haru wanted to laugh at herself for starting to recall all the simple things and movements Tokaku used to do. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Haru felt dead.
"Tokaku-san, may Haru sleep with you just for a little while, it won't be long, I just—"She didn't know why she said Tokaku's name with an honorific, it didn't really matter.
Haru lowered herself to the floor, her gaze never leaving Tokaku. She felt her left cheek cool as it touched the ground. She watched Tokaku; her eyes were covered by her bangs since she was still looking upwards. Haru inched closer to Tokaku's face, the faintest of blushes somehow managed to come alive on her.
She had always wondered what it would be like to sleep next to Tokaku, she remembered one night in their shared dorm room, right after the Romeo and Juliet play, Haru had wanted to desperately crawl into Tokaku's bed for comfort. At the time she had thought nothing of it except for a simple friendly gesture of reassurance after that night's events. Now, she realized there had always been an underlying romantic desire.
Haru put her hands around Tokaku's neck and sighed. No, not a sigh, she didn't know what it was.
She kissed Tokaku's cheek gingerly, lovingly. A few tears glimmered in her eyes and she closed them.
"I love you, Tokaku-san." She mimicked a broken and flawed smile.
Later on, after taking a fifteen minute rest, she got up. Tokaku was starting to smell a bit bad. The scent couldn't taint her beauty.
Haru decided to be selfish just this once. She hoped Tokaku and her family would forgive her.
Haru took the knife.
…
…Haru took the knife and pointed the tip at herself, it glinted slightly. She thrust it into the soft skin of her throat.
Or she would've, she should've, she did, didn't she? Then why had a familiar hand grasped her wrist to stop? Wait, she hadn't stopped, right?
Haru blinked and looked up to see a strange, white space that wasn't from the steam, floating around her. The hand and the person was gone…below her the ground was littered in purple and white lilac petals. Where was she?
Haru peered through the whiteness, jaw hanging wide open. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. Haru had gone crazy; Haru wanted it to be true, but she feared truth now.
She stood.
"T-Tokaku, is it really you?" She went forward a step, and then halted.
"You won't need that anymore, Haru."
Haru dropped the knife, emotions devastating her and bringing on a coursing river of tears.
"Tokaku!" She bounded into a full on dash like a cheetah cub running for its first time, excited and amazed. She leaped into Tokaku's opening arms and smiled, really, really smiled. Tokaku held Haru with the feelings she couldn't convey at that moment. She inhaled as she rested her head onto Haru's, a certain scent wafted off of her.
The smell of the sun…
"I love you too, Ichinose Haru." Tokaku stammered a little upon speaking Haru's full name, her embarrassed blush sneaked onto her face.
Haru laughed, laughed loud and joyously for the first time in a long, long time. Tokaku grew even redder.
Finishing her hearty laughter, Haru reached out to touch Tokaku's face, doubt still masking a part of her uplifted heart. Yet, as Haru reached, she hesitated; maybe she was being too persistent. They had only conveyed their confessions of love only an hour or so ago, maybe Haru should wait, let things flow at a natural pace, even if it would injure Haru spirits.
She began to let her arm fall back down to her sides.
Tokaku snatched Haru's hand, she gasped, puzzled.
Smiling clumsily, Tokaku brought Haru's hand to her cheek and pressed it onto her. Haru immediately looked down at the ground, her heart pounding violently against her chest that she was afraid Tokaku could hear it. Then, as if that wasn't enough, Tokaku yanked her arm and with it, Haru came as well.
Their lips crashed against each other. Sweet-tempered at first, but, then it escalated into a violent and lusting need. This time, Tokaku wasn't as nervous to "French" as some would like to call it. It was a serene and euphoric kiss.
Haru pulled away, giggling in ecstasy. Tokaku blinked, her gaze softening, she laughed a little too.
Haru froze.
"What?" Tokaku said, trying to revert back and maintain her normal and cool attitude.
"Haru has never heard Tokaku's laugh or cry." She replied in wonderment, also acknowledging Tokaku's earlier face when she was still living.
"I can laugh because I'm with you." She said it quite menacingly, rather than sweetly, but the message was still there. "And I'm not crying, I don't cry."Tokaku said in her tough, harsh tone.
But there are tears running down your eyes...
"No, I'm just really happy to see a new quality about Tokaku; it just makes her more beautiful, after all, Tokaku is a beauty."
Oxygen was shot from Tokaku's lungs like a duck out of a pond. Her blush was a red triple layer cake on her face. She looked away, abashed in Haru's compliment. She had never heard someone call her that before.
"T-thank you, I find you very beautifuler, I mean full in beauty. No, what I mean that is to say… your very pretty Haru. I'm glad you and I met." She laughed helplessly.
Poor Tokaku had a sparse amount of game, didn't she?
Haru loved it and gave the biggest, goofiest grin.
"So..., come on, there are some people I want you to meet that have been waiting for your arrival. My family included."
"Okay!" She latched onto Tokaku's arm, smiling. In the past, she would've told Haru to stop clinging to her.
Not anymore.
Together Haru and Tokaku walked into the eternal light ahead of them.
Therefore…the world, always and forever, would be full of love.
— The End