"Retribution and Healing"
-------------------------

"They went too far."

The female blinked, looking at her male companion and mouthing the words back. "Your
grasp of understatement is, as always, stunning."

The male smirked, bracing himself from the cold wind that was blowing down the alley
at them, biting. "Don't snap at me. It certainly wasn't my idea." He paused, kicking his
heel into the wall he leaned against. "Curse them. They have made things so difficult for
all of us, now. I don't enjoy life on the run."

"It was a good idea," the female injected. "It just didn't work. If you had heard about it
beforehand, are you saying you wouldn't have supported them?"

"Not the point."

"Whatever." The female glanced at a clock tower in the distance. "This probably isn't a
good place to be, considering the time..."

The male nodded, and they both started to turn towards the entrance to the alley when a
soft, steady voice called out, causing both of them to stop in their tracks.

"Shin-ma..."

Both figures froze, turning ever so slowly, casting their eyes in the direction of what had
been the empty wall at the end of the alley. Before them, a girl in white, arms crossed,
leaned against the aging brick, her bare legs appearing unfazed by the cold. The female
figure gasped in terror.

"I've come for you," Miyu whispered, her voice carrying in the cold, crisp air. "As I will
for all Shinma, forevermore...as destiny dictates." She unfolded her arms, small flames
popping up in each palm. Flames in the darkness.

The figures started to back away, but their escape quickly closed as a tall, dark figure in a
mask stepped into the alleyway, blocking the way out.

"We had nothing to do with it!" the male protested, his eyes focusing and locking on
Miyu. "They acted on their own, Guardian..."

"We had nothing to do with the Birds or their plans!" the female injected, her voice
desperate. "We've been peaceful...we never interfere or act wrongly towards
humans...please..."

Miyu turned her head to the sky, looking for a long moment at a light on a distant
building. Inhaling, she shifted her eyes back on the two, golden intensity. "I've reached a
decision, based on your words and pleading."

The male shifted his feet, his eyes hopeful. "And what is your decision, Guardian?"

"I...don't...care."

The flames leapt from the hands of Miyu and, before they could react, engulfed both
Shinma fully. Both screamed and twitched in their agony, and then were gone, with nary
a trace to speak of their existence. Miyu exhaled, nodded at Larva, and closed her eyes.

When her eyes reopened, Miyu was back in her world. Larva stood nearby, removing his
mask and shifting his eyes around, settling on Miyu and watching her move about,
seemingly without purpose or direction. "Are we done tonight?"

"Possibly." Miyu picked up a handball, gazing at it a long moment, and then set it down.
"The Shinma are doing a better job of hiding from me. These two were stupid and clumsy
to be out. We won't score like that again, tonight." Miyu walked to a blackened tree, looking
into a hole created by rot and decay, her eyes half-closed. "I wish the cowards would come
out in force, so I can finish this."

"Even both of us cannot challenge all the Shinma at once," Larva stated, more as a flat,
general observation then a correction to Miyu. He studied her a moment, and then walked
near her. "When will this pursuit of the Shinma end? Will this hunt ever really make your
pain end? Your role as Guardian isn't to search and destroy, at least not like this."

Miyu didn't answer, but instead took a step closer to the tree. She started to reach into the
hole, but hesitated.

"I don't think hunting Shinma relentlessly is the answer to your pain, Miyu."

Miyu sighed, reaching into the hole in the trunk of the tree with both hands. When her
hands emerged, they held a large, opaque handball. In a moment, it turned into the
severed head of Inoue Chisato, eyes closed in blissful eternal fantasy. Unconsciously,
Miyu stroked the hair a moment, and then looked at the face closely.

"Would you like me to place that somewhere out of your sight?" Larva offered, knowing
the answer beforehand.

Miyu shook her head. "No. I need to always remember what my friend here did." Miyu
bit her lip, her eyes filled with hurt and bitterness. She looked at the head for a long moment,
lost in trance-like thought..

So many things went through Miyu's mind. Affection. Confusion. Hatred. It was all a blur.
Her transformation into the Guardian had made her nearly immune to being manipulated
emotionally, but not on this occasion. Not this time...

It was the perfect trap, and she fell into it, fully.

"I hate you for what you did!" Miyu thought, but the words echoed in her conscious hollow
and without meaning. It wasn't accurate to say that, but Miyu couldn't think of how she truly
felt, having for so long put emotions to the side. She had allowed three humans in, and now
they were all gone...two by death, and one...

Miyu's own voice echoed in her head, recalling something that she had both said and thought
countless times before:

"I don't want friends."

And, as if on cue, the voice of Chisato replied, as it always did:

"That's a lie."

Larva stood silently. He had witnessed this same ritual, countless times it seemed. There
was always variation, perhaps even the hint of a tear, but in the end Miyu would place the
ball back in the tree, and begin the work to find her next targets. Out of reflex, his eyes
shifted to the hole in the trunk, expecting the ball to be deposited. Larva wasn't
expecting Miyu to say anything else, so he was startled when she did speak.

"It was the cruelest of tactics, Larva."

It was more than she had really ever said about the incident with Chisato, even if it was
simply a mere sentence. It summarized, in no terms uncertain, what Miyu was thinking.
Larva had tried, on many occasions, to find her feelings out, but she had kept them
locked away.

Miyu stroked the side of Chisato's face. "I blame her for everything, but yet, she was just
a shell. She didn't know...how could she?" Miyu brushed the hair more, taking care to lay
each strand down, as it was when the girl used to be. "I can't let it go. This head is the
physical representation of what they did. They took everything but you from me...and
they almost took you as well. I may forgive Chisato, someday, but I'll never forgive
them. I will destroy them, before they have the chance to try again with me, and take you
away."

"The Birds are dead," Larva reminded Miyu. "And the other Shinma didn't participate
in the planning or execution of the scheme, from what we've learned."

"It doesn't matter!" Miyu injected, cradling the head near to her chest. "They would
have, if they had known. To destroy the Guardian would have been the wish and dream
of any Shinma."

Larva nodded. It had even been his goal, once...and, because of a promise, might be his
destiny, someday...

Miyu calmly placed the head back in the tree, and turned away from it, her eyes closed.
"As long as Shinma exist, I must hunt them down, not only because of my role as
Guardian, but so no one can ever do that to us again."

"What about me?" Larva inquired in a low, steady voice. "I'm Shinma, too."

Miyu looked up, and smiled slightly. It was the first time in a long time that she had done
so, other than a quick victory smirk after defeating Shinma. "You're different. You know
that."

Larva tipped his head. "What makes me different?" He knew the answer, but he wanted
to hear it. He wanted to keep Miyu talking.

Miyu smiled again, and then moved in, giving Larva a hug with more energy than she
had in ages. "Because we share the same blood, my Larva...we are one, in blood and
soul. You are all I'm sure of, in this existence, but that is all I need."

Larva was about to reply, but held his thought as Miyu, softly, started to cry. She pressed
her face into his dark cloak, the gold in her eyes sparkling with the additional moisture.
Larva instinctively drew her in, holding her close. After a few moments, she leaned back,
looking up at his face and running a hand along it, slowly and thoughtfully.

"To kill you would be to kill myself," Miyu whispered. "And I could never do either."
She sighed, renewed tears entering her eyes as she recalled her last words to Chisato,
thinking of her role and her destiny, knowing her destiny could only end when her mission
did. Miyu was content in the knowledge that when her mission truly did end, the one she
loved would be the one to send her beyond her life. Nothing could seem more fitting,
more appropriate, as again her own voice echoed her words to Chisato:

"I can't die now."

This fanfiction Copyright 2002 Kevin Turnquist. Er...rights?