A/N: Okay, uhm, hi! Heh, before anyone asks, yes, I am still working on Deeper Drive, I'm just having major issues with my work and it isn't turning out too good for the story.
So, this story was written before I read the final chapters of SDKyo and it's just a little thing I had rolling around in my head. Hope you enjoy and hopefully I'll get Deeper Drive up and running soon.
It is over.
I hear these words and I do not know what to think. It seems like forever since the day that I met you on the road, but no. It was not you that I met that day. It was him. You are nothing like him and you prove that with every word, every motion, everything that you do. It almost seems like you are trying to drive that fact in even though you claim that you do not care.
I can see you standing amid the rubble that was once the proud land of the equally proud Mibu. You are in your body, once again the master of your own life. A small sound of disbelief leaves me before I can stop it at that thought. When have you ever not been the master of your own life and those around you? Or so you like to think.
I look around to see those who have gathered around you and I am once again struck by how strange this group truly is. These people were collected from all walks of life to stand by your side, brought together because of the presence that you emit. I look at them and I wonder. I wonder if now that everything is supposedly over what will happen with each of them. I wonder if they will stay with you, if I will stay with you, if you even want us to. I wonder what will change now that it is all over.
The Mibu brothers are here with you, one because he once walked with you four years ago and the other because he wanted to right the wrongs within his clan. They are as different as the elements they control, but one only needs to watch to see that they will protect each other when push comes to shove. The one still does not fully trust you for he has grown up hating you and you did just destroy everything he has ever known, but he is willing to look past this for a moment to reach the goal that was just out of his reach. The other actually looks like he does not know what just happened or, if he does, he does not really care.
Two of the Mibu elders also stand amid the rubble, both of them defeated by your emperors. One stands near the student he claims to have taught nothing, the other near the blind boy who brought her down. Even though they were both enemies to begin with, they were both on 'our' side of the fight when it truly mattered. One lost her father and almost all she believed in, but she still stands tall, commanding those around her as she always has. The older one is still all smiles and jokes, brushing aside what has just happened and looking to the hopeful future instead of at the harmful past.
Near them are two emperors who seem as different as night and day. The larger one towers over all of those here, but of all us he is the one who seems to care the most. He carried me when I only had hours left to live, then he carried the small elder after her fight and put up with the rudeness that she seemed to produce with each exhalation. His cloak is wrapped around her, protecting her both from the rain pouring down on our heads and preventing us from seeing something that she was not willing to share. The smaller one, the one who worshiped and then hated you for so long, leans upon the crutch that is the only thing keeping him up and listens to the harsh words of the little elder. He does not react to anything she says and that only drives her to command more. His eyes are shut, but that does not mean that his ears are. He knows that it is just the way she is and that she is not going to change in the hours that it takes to walk from her home to the rubble we now stand in.
Apart from them there is a large group, warriors all of them and here because their lord follows you. This group is strange, but they are all worthy of being here. They have protected, saved, fought for and lost in this long struggle. The one who has been with us since our first trip to the forest, he has both gained and lost more than anyone in that group. He is small, but he is more than capable of handling whatever is dished out to him, which he has proven throughout this long journey. He stands amid the constant jokes of his 'family' about his height, rising to the bait sometimes but for the most part ignoring them as much as anyone is humanly possible.
Their lord is talking with the final emperor, the topic of their conversation most likely you. He always has a laugh or a smile for whatever is going on. At the end of one of your fights, did he not merely sit down and begin laughing at it all? However, beneath the joviality there is a hardened warrior who values his friends more than his own life. The emperor is a strange one, but cares in the deepest way. She has tried many a time to strike your face to win that ridiculous bet the two of you have, but every time she misses and you merely smirk. She heals what seem to be life-threatening wounds and, while many do not like her price, they pay it for her gift is like no other.
Near them, the one who finished off our original trio stands, arguing with the small ninja of the large group over some petty squabble probably. His hands grip the shaft of the spear that your mentor created, using it as a prop as it continued to drain his energy. He has been through so much, following you because of his supposed love of me. He fought one of the stars and prevailed. He fought off the minions of the small elder to return the blade of the boy emperor. He lies as to why he stays. He stays because he enjoys this life that you all lead. He has no desire to be anything except what he is at this moment.
A trio sits a distance away from the others, one plucking at the instrument in his lap, the other observing us as she always does. He was the blacksmith for the clan that has just fallen and father of the taller elder left standing. He might tell you that his other job, a seamstress if you could believe it, was more important, but I think he much prefers being a father and general annoyance to his son. She was a spy, a woman following you out of her love for you and from the orders she no longer follows. The final one is truly the strangest of the bunch that became all the stranger when you called her Auntie. She was devoted to the one you just brought down but she stands among us, knowing that he was no longer the man she had cared about. They make an odd group sitting together, but that is all any of us ever were.
The final group consists of three people, you, him and her. You are not trying to decapitate him as I'm sure you would have liked to at the beginning of this journey, but you are not talking to him either. You seem to be ignoring what those two have to say, despite what the three of you have gone through because of each other. He is no longer hiding behind the façade he wore when I first met him, but I can see some of it beneath of who he supposedly is. You do not just suddenly become a klutz out of nowhere. That is something he was born with. She is talking with both of you, laughing with him, but smiling for you. You have yet to smile back. I do not think you ever will.
In my mind, I have no doubt that all you want to do is return to your wandering. You were a lone demon for most of your life and you do not like being caged to one spot. As I think of this, I am once again struck with the thought of what will I do now that this is over. Will I follow you as I have these past months or will I strike out on my own, returning to the life of bounty hunting that I do not truly need to do anymore?
So much has changed since the moment I first met you and him. My life has been turned upside down so many times that I am not sure which way is truly up anymore. I have come close to death more times than I like to admit. I have seen things that normal people could only dream of. I have watched my friends surpass their limits, overcoming unthinkable odds all for you. No, that is not right. They were fighting for me at one point, but in the end everything that has happened was for you. It has changed us.
The light of the setting sun draws my attention and as I stare at the crimson light being shed over the destruction you have wrought I try to come to a decision. Shall I walk with you again when you have never shown that you want me there? Shall I return to bounty hunting, casting aside everything once again to catch the outlaws of this land and ignore what I feel? Or shall I go somewhere new and start over, leaving everything behind?
Too many changes have occurred to return to the life I once lived so very long ago with my brother. Too many things are different from what they used to be. My eyes have been opened to a world that I never even knew existed. Because of you. Everything is because of you.
I feel the telltale prickle that signals your approach ripple over my skin, but I do not turn to face you. I need time to think. I need to figure out what I am going to do now. I realise my mistake too late as your arms reach around me, one sliding through the top of my kimono to squeeze my breast and the other slipping under the hem to stroke my thigh.
"You really shouldn't think so much, ugly," you chuckle in my ear. "It will stunt your growth even more than you already have. Besides, I still have to show you what-"
You never finish the statement as I struggle in your grip to get away from you, outraged by the fact that you still do not have any manners and voicing it loudly, when it finally hits me.
After all that has happened, after all the things that we have done, nothing has really changed after all.
A/N: Well, it isn't much but honestly this is how I thought it would be because honestly. Does anyone expect Kyo to EVER change?