Title: Abandoned Butterfly
Rating: T
Genre(s): Tragedy/Angst
Summary: A sympathetic story, from Sae's point of view. Starts during the attempted escape and ends after the Repentance, when Sae is left all alone.
Abandoned Butterfly
No…!
This isn't right!
If we leave the village, we might become separated!
Oh, Yae, can't you see—
If I have to die in order to be with you always…
…I'm willing to pay the price.
oOo
Tachibana Itsuki allowed the searching villagers to go by before finally stepping out from behind the tree he had been hiding behind and looking around. Once Itsuki was sure the path was clear, he turned back, to where Kurosawa Yae and Sae waited anxiously. "You two go on by yourselves," he whispered, motioning to keep quiet.
Yae turned to her twin and nodded decisively, her expression defiant as she squeezed her sister's hand.
Sae stared back fearfully. She wasn't ready for this, she didn't want to go through with this, but her mouth refused to say so.
"Don't look back," Itsuki instructed as the two sisters set off down the now-empty path, but Sae, clutching Yae's arm, did all the same, looking longingly back at Itsuki, and at the aura of her home village—All God's Village—that he exuded.
But then she turned back around, and did as told.
oOo
It seemed like they had been running for a very long time. Sae's sides hurt terribly, and she couldn't run very fast anymore. She, who had been lagging behind for at least ten minutes now, called out pitifully, "Yae! Wait! Don't leave me behind!"
Don't go.
Stop.
Let's go back to the village, Yae…
Yae turned then, smiling reassuringly as she called, "Come on!" and turned back around.
This isn't right.
Yae, why are you doing this?
You must know, Yae, that when we emerge in the outside world, you'll forget about me. I know you will.
You'll forget me and leave me behind and
don't you dare do that, Yae!
I love you, Yae!
Sae stole a glance toward the edge of the path, which gave away in a steep hillside. Her eyes lit up as a terrible plan formed in her head, and she inched toward the edge, toward the near-cliff, toward certain doom if she didn't fall correctly.
Yae…Yae, if this is what it comes to…
If I have to be hurt in order for us to be together always…
…I'll do it.
I'll do anything to be with you, Yae…
And with a long, shrill shriek, Sae fell from the path and tumbled down the hillside as, above her, Yae whirled around at the scream, eyes wide with horror.
oOo
Her father and his priests had found her.
Yae hadn't returned for her, like she had promised.
Yae, Yae, you said you would come back!You said you would return to get me, but where are you, Yae?
You promised me, together always!Have you forgotten?
Are you so quick to forget vows, Yae?
Sae knelt on the floor in the parlor of the Kurosawa mansion as a woman attended to her cuts and bruises. There were village men all around her, mumbling to themselves, mostly about Yae.
"We still can't find the other," said one.
"She left her sister to die…!" hissed another.
Sae's eyes stung with unshed tears. That villager was wrong; Yae would've come back. She wouldn't have left Sae all alone.
Maybe she got lost.
She'll return, I know she will.
We'll be one.
Yae promised.
Together forever.
Just then, Sae's father—Kurosawa Ryokan; the Ceremony Master—strode in, face red with anger. "We will perform the ritual with Sae alone," he decreed, and as he left, Sae heard him muttering under his breath, "Yae… why did you run?"
I will not be alone.
Yae will come back for me…
She will.
oOo
The ritual was approaching, fast, and still no sign of Yae.
What about Itsuki…?
Sae heard that he had been imprisoned in the storehouse for his help in the plot, and she pleaded with her father to let her see him.
Eventually, he allowed it, and she, accompanied by three villagers should she try to escape again, went to the storehouse, which was firmly locked. The oldest villager, however, had the key.
Itsuki…
Before the ritual, I want to see you again, one last time…
When the door was at last opened, Sae stepped inside, mustering a smile. "Itsu—"
But then her eyes landed on the figure in the cell and she gasped. He hung from the ceiling, a noose made of rope around his fragile neck. There was a smile on his face, and that was all Sae could take as she averted her eyes with a suppressed sob.
"The ritual is beginning," said one of the villagers from behind her, and Sae, wiping her tears away, dashed away as quick as she could.
Oh, Itsuki…
This is all our fault for running away…
oOo
Sae was brought down to the underground passage with her father and his troop of Veiled Priests. And as they passed under Torii gate after crimson Torii gate, Sae looked down at the paper that was clutched in her hand.
It was for Yae.
Yae, you'll come for me, I know you will.
It read,
"Yae,
You came for me after all.
Please hurry.
I'm right below you.
I know you might not make it in time, but I'll wait for you until the very end.
Sae"
Inconspicuously, she dropped it on the stone floor.
Forever…
As she promised, Sae waited until the very end, waiting, craning her neck to see if her twin would come rocketing down the stairs, apologizing and weeping and promising again that they would be together always.
But no one came.
I'll wait… forever.
They hung her from the final Torii gate. She didn't struggle outwardly, but inwardly…
Yae, Yae, Yae—you promised! You said you'd come back! You said we would be together forever!
I can't hate you, Yae…
…I love you too much, but why, Yae? Why did you leave me all alone?
Why didn't you come back?
And then the darkness of death descended over the girl, and she was thrown into the Hellish Abyss.
Sae fell down, down, down into the pit—but then a gravelly, evil voice broke through the calm coverlet of darkness that had settled over her, disturbing her trip to the river Styx and filling her world with harsh, red light.
"She left you alone," growled the voice. "Yae left you… you should make her pay…"
"No," Sae whispered. "No, I love Yae… I don't want to ever hurt her…"
"She left you," snarled the monstrous being, whatever it was. "Even though she promised to be with you always…"
Suddenly, Sae was able to see what was speaking to her. It was huge, hideous—it was the Kusabi.
Ropes floated around its body like possessed snakes, but the creature was also bound by those same chains. Its right arm was tied to its side, while the other groped for Sae desperately. It wore a long, bloodstained robe that disappeared into nothingness below the torso, but its face was worst of all. Its face was long and narrow, not much more than a skull, and behind its head billowed a great white mane. Its eyes, twin sparks of red light deep within its empty sockets, glared out at Sae angrily.
"Come with me, Sae," it said, and stretched out its hand.
It repulsed her. To touch it would be touching death itself. But the promise of power it represented called to Sae, and suddenly she was taking its hand.
Sae rocketed up out of the Abyss with the Kusabi by her side. Her vision was tinted with red and she rocked with manic laughter as she watched her father and his priests try to flee.
But they couldn't escape her.
All that mattered to Sae was that everyone had to die… here and now.
"The Repentance has begun," whispered Sae hollowly, and darkness swept over All God's Village, sentencing it to eternal night.
oOo
The Kusabi had been a demanding partner. It had been constantly ordering for more killing, even when Sae's lust for blood and gore had gone and all she wanted to do was to cry alone.
But she had gone on killing, knowing it would destroy her if she disobeyed.
And she wanted to stay as she was—a ghost, was it? Like from some faery tale!—and wait for Yae. Sae would wait forever.
She was sure Yae would come back.
And she didn't want to die, not when she had so much at stake. But when the Kusabi all but dragged her to the Tachibana house, Sae nearly lost it. Both the Kusabi and Sae had seen Chitose hiding in the closet, but Sae had denied her existence and left Chitose there to die in the dark.
Rather than by Sae's own hands.
Yae…
I'm still waiting for you, Yae…
Now all the villagers were dead, and gone was the Kusabi, back in whatever hell it had emerged from.
And Sae was alone.
All alone…
Yae hadn't come…
But she will.
Yae will come for me.
She promised me, and I'll wait forever.
Because I love Yae.
I love her more than anything in the world.
And I'll wait until the night when we can finally become one.
oOo
Sae didn't know how much time had passed…
But she had sensed a disturbance, and when she went to see, she knew the time had finally come.
I've waited so long…
There were two girls standing atop Misono Hill.
One like herself… the one to be used as a vessel…
And the other…
Sae felt a wide, insane grin spread across her face as she watched from the shadows.
Yae… you've finally come for me.
Fin.
Author's Notes: Well, that wasn't depressing. (/sarcasm) Anyway, I thought it would be cool to write a different take on Sae's feelings about the Repentance.I really enjoyed writing it. This was a different style I was trying out—the erratic, insane Sae-type—and I'm glad with how it came out.
Review!