Chapter One:
"Are you... Are you crying?" Yonah asked in wonder.
"Yeah I... I guess I am..." Kaine admitted quietly.
Yonah reached out a soft, slender hand towards the woman standing at her side; Kaine managed to smile at the girl as she grasped her hand. They stood silently together for several minutes, quietly gazing at the rising sun, overlooking the mountains.
"I should probably get you home now, right...?" Kaine said at last. "Don't you have a family waiting for you?"
Yonah closed her eyes in thought. After a moment, she opened her eyes and shook her head, her voice coming out in a whisper, as if she herself could not believe it. "I live alone..."
"Well that's a relief..." The woman laughed softly.
"It is...?" Yonah's eyes opened wide. Perhaps with fear, or hope; it was hard to tell.
Kaine stopped herself from explaining. Uncertainty clouded her mind; she pulled free from the girl's hand and thought quickly to herself. Why did she feel such a powerful urge to protect this child? Was it really her responsibility? It must be... Why else would they be here...? But then, who was the man she kept seeing in her mind's eye...?
Kaine looked over at the girl and nodded. "Yeah...If memory serves me right, then I don't have any place to call home." She wrapped her arms around herself instinctively. " If you want, I could-"
"You could stay there with me!" Yonah finished quickly. "Oh, would you?" The girl walked over to Kaine and gestured with her hand for the woman to bend down. Kaine obeyed, then watched in awe as the girl gently weaved the Lunar Tear back into Kaine's hair.
"..." Kaine took the girls hands into hers. "Thank you, Yonah..."
"Thank you for saving me." Yonah replied.
"Don't mention it." Really. Kaine felt it was best not to remember the duel she had within herself with the Black Scrawl- a disease which now seemed to have vanished... Wait a second- "Are you feeling... all right...?" Kaine asked.
"Hm?" Yonah gave Kaine a nod. "Yes, I feel great. Better than I have in a long while. My cough is gone, too!"
"That's good. I'm glad to hear it... Now come on; lets go home..."
"Together?" the girl inquired.
"Yeah. Together..."
Once the duo had descended from the Shadowlord's tower, it was up to Yonah to lead them back home to the village. Full of freedom and sunshine, Yonah twirled as she walked and laughed as she danced, feeling so much live within herself now that the Black Scrawl had been cured. But sometimes her voice would crack; sometimes she would stumble: The memory of her father teased at the corners of her mind like the ghost; transparent, but deadly. She made no mention of the ghost to Kaine as they walked down the mountain path. Instead, Yonah spoke about the sea.
"I've always wanted to go to the Seafront, but I always stayed indoors because I didn't wnt to get anyone sick with my disease."
"Heh...I know what you mean..." Kaine brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear, watching the girl climb onto a rock and balance there on one foot.
"Ta-dah!" Yonah cried. "Look at me! I'm like a ballerina!"
Kaine smiled. "It's been a long time since I heard that word... That's a word way before your time." Kaine walked over to Yonah and silently helped her jump off the rock. "Where did you learn about them? Did someone teach you?"
"No, I read about them in a book. We have a library- I mean... There's a library in the town I live in..."
"I've never really cared for books, but-" Kaine broke off in a gasp, stopping in her tracks. Weiss... Had he been defeated as Emil had...? And what about Nier-
"Kaine, look what I found!" The woman trotted over where Yonah squatted next to a cluster of tiny white flowers on the side of the cliff. Yonah pointed. "If you look really close, you can see ants gathering nectar..."
"Ants...?" Kaine knelt down and peered closely at the flowers; sure enough, black little dots swarmed the center of the flowers. But these did not look like ants. There was something sinister about them; she could almost see a cloud of darkness leak out from the flowers like a factory.
The girl leaned forward and breathed in the scent. "They smell so nice!"
"Yonah!" Kaine got to her feet, grabbing Yonah by her shoulder roughly, pulling her away. But once Kaine let the girl go, Yonah crumpled to the dirt, her mouth lolling open, eyes twitching, burning. "God damn it!" Kaine slung the girl over her shoulder and sprinted away from the flowers just as the black smoke expanded, swirling in the form of daggers through the sky; they had just barely managed to escape.
Kaine did not stop running until she crossed the bridge and felt grass beneath her shoes. She laid the girl down carefully and scanned her surroundings. The land was pleasant and clean; the very earth seemed to glisten from the morning dew. Up ahead Kaine spotted a herd of ram. One of them bleated. The woman stood straighter and took a few deep, patient breaths. "Calm down, damn it..." She chided herself.
On the ground, Yonah stirred, her body visably more relaxed. Kaine knelt down at her side, a trembling hand reaching to stroke the girl's head. "Please be okay..."
The girl's eyes opened; a piercing, almost yearning gaze. "Oh, it's..." Yonah sat up, rubbing her eyes. "It's only you..." Her voice was full of sorrow as she continued. "I had thought, that...that maybe you were... I just thought-"
"Hey. Get a grip on yourself, all right?" Kaine told the girl gently, but firmly. "You're starting to make me sound insignificant." The woman sighed, then said, "Look, that flower back there was dangerous. It was toxic, and you could have been seriously hurt... "
Yonah sat still and listened. "Okay, Kaine. I'll be more careful."
As Kaine met the girl's eyes, she knew they both had the same thought: As far as they were concerned, they were the only ones left alive: they only had each other.
"Can you stand?" Kaine asked. Yonah nodded and stood up with ease. The woman stood up as well and began walking. "Let's go... We need to start looking for shelter."
Yonah walked swiftly at her side. "Shelter? From what?"
"I don't know." replied Kaine. "This kind of evil hasn't been named yet..."
"You mean the flower?"
"Yeah. I've never seen nature act that way..."
They walked through the grass, approaching the rams which seemed to be happy to see them. Politely, Kaine and Yonah tried to walk around them, but the animals formed a circle and closed them in.
"K-Kaine...?" Yonah took Kaine's hand, but Kaine jerked her hand free, drawing out her two long blades in a fluid, practiced motion.
"Back OFF!" shouted Kaine. The rams shuffled closer, soft noses oozing red snot onto their clothes. Their eyes, enlarged and coal-black, steamed with smoke from within. One of the rams thrashed it's head, the tip of it's horn grazing Yonah's chest. The child opened her mouth and let out a scream of terror.
Abandoning one blade, Kaine grabbed Yonah's arm and pulled her close, using her other blade to slice cleanly through the necks of several rams. At her right, a ram lurched forward with an unnatural force; Kaine lifted a leg and kicked it away, the arm around Yonah tightening; she would never let Yonah come to harm. Never.
Screaming, the woman spun on her toes, lashing out with her sword in a wild frenzy until a path was made. "Run, Yonah! Go! I'll be right behind you!" Kaine pushed the girl ahead, but she refused to move. ("Run, Yonah! Hurry!") But it wasn't out of fear as Kaine suspected, but out of love that she stayed; tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Yonah bent down and picked of Kaine's other sword. In both hands, the girl wielded this weapon boldly, stabbing and swinging at random
"You idiot..." Kaine smiled. Just like her father... Kaine gasped. Father...? But who-
"Kaine, watch out behind you!" Yonah cried.
Kaine turned swiftly, swinging her sword just in time to send a ram's insides spilling out onto the grass. Yonah ran over and stood at Kaine's back. "We're doing this together!" the girl told her firmly. "You saved my life, and now it's time I return the favor!"
"Heh... Fine. Go for it." Kaine couldn't help the grin that crossed her face; just feeling Yonah pressed to her back made her feel more empowered. Even if the girl couldn't hold a sword right, Kaine still felt like they were an unstoppable force.