A/N: So, Re/verse. Side manga written in the traditional style of luring you in with cute and fluffy things then sucker punchs you with trauma. Fortunately trauma gets the brain juices flowing, so have a drabble for now until I can write something longer.


The faces all look the same.

Yuragi has lived with this for her entire life, ever since that day. No matter who she looks at, no matter the age, the gender, the ethnicity, they all look the same to her. It is a face she can never sweep or drive from her memory, a sign of her sin.

Oh, she knows that it isn't her fault for what took place, that she couldn't have prevented what happened. She has heard that same line a million times, but it makes no difference.

Instead she always sees it, those wide eyes, that chilling grin of fatalistic bliss, the love and rapture reflected there even as the person wearing that face prepares for the end of their own life. No, she might not have been the cause of Mako's sister taking her own life, but she bears the scars of it forever.

Her parents have done their best, taking her to an army of psychologists, analysts, and given her an array of drugs sine they found out about her condition. Yet this has never succeeded. Either the cost wasn't worth it in terms of the side effects, or she didn't have the will to do it. Eventually they gave up, leaving her to deal with it on her own.

But she doesn't mind. Yuragi has learned to live with it, to recognize people from other factors and signs. It isn't that hard once you learn how to distinguish people from their voices, from how they dress. It's why she can still function in society in spite of her condition.

It serves another purpose as well. It ensures that Yuragi remembers the promise that was made that day, her agreement to watch over and protect Mako from whatever might happen. She has held on to that promise, those last words burned into her memory like a mark from a brand. Sometimes she feels like it has consumed her existence whole, until her very existence itself is devoted to Mako solely.

So she has done what she can, watching over Mako, protecting her, keeping her from being hurt and from having the same fate as her sister. Every single time she sees that face she remembers it anew, and it only spurs her desire to protect her friend.

Her friends know about it, but they don't mention it all that much. Perhaps it is simply out of a respect for her and her previous refusals of their assistance. Maybe they just don't know how bad it actually is, and that it hasn't changed. Either way, she doesn't tell them, and life goes on.

All she can do is live with it, both with her condition as the memories. Perhaps it is that she doesn't want to forget, doesn't want to get better. Perhaps she has no control, a dependency on Mako fostered by all the events of the past. She's hardly the most screwed up person in the world, in spite of it. In fact, if you didn't know then you would assume that she was a normal person like everyone else.

Yes, she can't see the faces of people she meets and knows, but she doesn't mind. In the end, perhaps it's easier that way.