Title: Kabuki
Summary: There is beauty in the breakdown. Tomoe watches Battousai kill.
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the property of Watsuki Nobuhiro, Fuji, Sony, Shueisha and Jump Comics.
Life is a kabuki performance.
The staccato taps of the dancers' geta is the first hesitant contact of steel on steel.
Their flowing yellow and red furisode sleeves become the murky browns and austere greys of an Ishin haori.
The heady beat of the drums pounds a rapid tattoo against her heart; and still she is transfixed by the sight because she will not, nay, cannot leave him.
The golden glow from a hundred flickering lamps is surpassed by the cold beauty of the moonlight falling through the autumn eaves. A melancholy river of silver threads weaving across the ground.
The audience watch dispassionate- their white painted masks firmly in place as the dancers' bodies stretch taut, every muscle clenched in readiness. Patterns caused by the deft twirling of their fans become etched into the ground as they warily circle each other. As the drumming grows louder, she is rooted on the spot, all will gone.
The crescendo approaches, she watches the painful beauty of the new moon waning across the sky. Her heart gives a painful throb. The flowers showered onto the actors turn into the blood red petals blossoming across her kimono.
The oni who makes the rain bleed sees her for the first time. Her beauty strikes him as ethereal as an iris on a battlefield. Something flickers in the feral depths of his eyes, and for a moment in eternity, his amber orbs soften.
Alone, in the deceiving shadows of a Kyoto inn, Tomoe laments the loss of her humanity.
Glossary:
Geta- high wooden clogs
Furisode- The baggy 'swinging' sleeves worn by an unmarried woman.
Haori- a sort of overcoat worn over a kimono, with ties in the front.
Oni- Demon.
This is the first time I've attempted anything of this sort, so suggestions would be highly appreciated. Read & Review please.