Weakness

The bridge of elements burned fiercely. They were never meant for such intimate co-existence. Their union was violent and explosion. It appeared that all too soon there would be nothing more than the wind that stole their ashes. They were wrong.


As the school bell rang the students raced outside into the sun. The fastest amongst them was Kannagi, Ayano. Her fire red hair burned as violently as her temper. She was allowed to pass without any hindrance.

Their reaction to her presence suited Ayano. As the heiress of the Kannagi family she was used to certain standards. However, she cast all of those beliefs aside when it came to Kazuma. He had powers beyond her reckoning and she knew better than to test them. It was an uneasy pact between the two where she would not cause him too much trouble and he wouldn't push her limits of patience.

As she drew closer to the school gates she saw him waiting for her. Their tracking of a youma seemed to finally have come to something. Ayano stopped next to him but he didn't respond. His gaze was directed to the sky. She tugged on his shoulder but he didn't respond.

"Kazuma!" she yelled.

He was unmoving. His entire body was rigid. She pulled on his shoulder once more. He still didn't respond. Ayano moved around to his front. She poked his cheek none too gently. Then she tugged on his arm. She kicked him.

"Answer me!" she yelled. "Kazuma, are you ignoring me!"

She tried to kick him again but he moved his leg. He grabbed her arms and pulled her closer. She shied away from the intensity of his glare. This was not a side to him that she was accustomed to seeing. It worried her.

"Did you find the youma?" she demanded.

"No," he replied, his breath fanning her face.

"Then why are you here?" she snapped.

"You're not going to find the youma. You will never find the youma," he warned.

She frowned at him and tried to move away. He refused to let her go. Her fear fell into oblivion and her temper sparked. The change in her expression was usually enough of a warning. This time it wasn't enough.

"What are you trying to do?" she glared.

"Do you understand the boundaries?" he enquired.

"Maybe if you told me which ones," she snapped.

He scoffed. "Wind is fire's medium. Without wind fire can't exist. Too much wind will extinguish the fire,"

"I know that. I'm not stupid," she fought against his grip.

Kazuma leant forward and kissed her forehead. Her struggles ceased. A dark blush stained her cheeks. She mumbled quietly about being embarrassed. He leant back and tilted her head to look into her eyes. For the first time since their meeting she saw the colour of his eyes.

"What is this?" she whispered, fearfully.

"Do you understand what they mean?" he replied, equally as quiet. "Do you understand when they say love isn't enough?"

"What are you talking about?" she lowered her head. "I don't understand. What's wrong with you?"

"This isn't about me. I'm not the fire. I won't be extinguished," he muttered grimly before pushing her away.

She cried out and threw her arms in the air. For a moment she flailed wildly but managed to keep her balance. A sigh escaped her until she saw Kazuma's expression. He averted his gaze to the ground in an attempt to hide it from her.

"I love you,"

Then he vanished.

Author's Note: I've typed it before and I'll type it again – you can take the girl out of China but you can't take China's love of tragic love stories out of her. I was going to do this differently, you know, but then I did it like this. My friend needed me and I only saw up to episode 5 because of that before writing this. I'm telling you this because I won't have any complaints made about the sorrowful ending. If you gave me the opportunity to go back and start again then I'll still choose my friend.

Now that that's out of the way, I thank you. I thank you for sparing your time to read my work. I hope that you have enjoyed this short story. I apologise if you were unhappy with the story.

Part of the Revival Collection.