So I've had this one random sentence stuck in my head for God-knows-how-long, and I wanted to write it into a story somehow. Up until a couple days ago, I couldn't really think of anything that would fit. Finally, during study hall, it hit me, and I wrote this short little piece on a sheet of paper. Enjoy!

Tales of the Abyss, Jade, and Dist all c. NamcoxBandai.

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He couldn't believe it.

He had him down, on the ground, on his knees. He could tell he was unarmed...from the outside, anyway. His spear had been tossed across the room, but Yulia only knew if he could call it back or make a new one from scratch.

Or if the man could still use artes.

Now here he was, the great warrior, cowed and humbled before him. He was panting heavily, eyes to the ground, not daring to look up at the man that had finally outdone him. It was ridiculous, they both thought, that such an underdog could've taken down such a mighty person who had easily defeated him in all other areas during their entire lives.

Then he looked up.

The two old friends stared at each other for what seemed more than an eternity. While one's fingers raked at the ground of their own accord, as if trying to grasp his weapon out of the air itself, the other hung the heavy object in his hands loosely at his side, the object he had used to strike down his opponent. (He now saw that it was a book.) The air between them grew icy, unbearable.

If snow had suddenly started falling from the sky, it wouldn't have surprised either of them: It was exactly like their childhood, the events that had transpired exactly like one snowy day, except now the tables had turned. The prey was the predator now.

The man on the ground smiled. "Well?"

"'Well', what?!" the man with the book snapped. His voice cracked; he was scared.

The man on the ground suddenly asked him a question he wasn't prepared for: "Are you afraid of death, Dist?"

Dist blinked, caught off-guard. In any other situation, he would've answered "no": He had an appearance to keep up. But now the familiar word (too familiar) was nothing more than a whisper, an alien sound. "No."

"So..."

And Jade sat back on his heels and spread his arms wide, still smiling.

"Kill me."