"Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein."
("He who fights with Monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a Monster. And when you gaze long into an Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into you.")
"Beyond Good and Evil", Aphorism 146 (1886) by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15th October 1844 - 25th August 1900)
Mann - Ungeheuer
(Man - Monster)
"A time long ago, one man served as the Kogi Kaishakunin - the Shōgun's executioner, a position of high power in the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was responsible for enforcing the will of the Shogun over the daimyō of lesser domains. For those samurai and lords ordered to commit seppuku, he assisted their deaths by decapitating them to relieve the agony of disembowelment.
However, one day the man came home and found his family, his relatives and his friends massacred. Everyone except his infant son. Ravaged by the rage and grief, he torched his house, vowed to slaughter the murderer, as well as presented two things before his son: A branch of a Bodhi tree, and a Katana. If the boy had chosen the branch, he would had had been slain on spot.
But he chose the sword, and thus the father and son began their meifumadō - The Road to Hell. Their nemesis were petrified in awaiting a painful, inevitable death. The duo's ferocity even worried the Shōgun, and armies of hundreds were sent after them - but all returned as corpses.
However, one day, after executed their last foe, the father spoke to his son:
"Kill me, and break my blade..."
And he did, by impaled his father through his heart by his own sword. But he never fulfill the latter half of his father's will, instead forced the blade to drink even more blood. The boy, now a fine warrior, retreated to the shadow world, trained his own offspring into killers-for-hire, and spread the terror throughout Japan.
He soon became a folk legend, a monster that is only know with its last name, a synonym of "death": "Orimura..."
"Why didn't you kill me then?"
"..."
*Ka-BOOM!*
"Kanzashi!"
All of his friends, they laid there, death...
Houki... She refused to let go of the broken swords. Even when both of her arms were chopped off, and pieces of the blades were jammed into her heart.
Cecilia... Fell like a shooting star. In the middle of a half-a-kilometer crater, rock rose up to be her tomb, guarded the princess for her eternal sleep.
Rin... Died with an utter terror on her face. Or what is left of it, in this mess of blood, brain and fragments of bone that was once her dead.
Charlotte and Laura... Burned crisply into a statue. One desperately used her body to shield the other, like a mother bird to its newborn chick. They couldn't crumble.
Tatenashi... Nothing remain of her on this world, except a sole blood-stained snow flakes on Ichika's shoulder. But that was slowly melting away.
"Ichika.. kun..."
... And the last one, Kanzashi Sarashiki, was going to die on his arm. Her stomach was pierced cleanly, intestines protruded out. A stream of blood and bubbles flowed out from the hole. Small puddles of red liquid soon gathered on the ground, soaking Ichika's shoes and even his clothes. Blood, tear and dirt clot on the boy's face. It's inevitable.
"Stay with me, Kanzashi! STAY WITH ME!... No... No... NOOO!"
Another soul had left this world for the greater light.
"... Sleep well, my friend..."
Ichika gently used his fingers to close Kanzashi's eyes. He couldn't cry, speak or scream. Just silently and solemnly lay his close one onto the red cushion of blood. They didn't deserved this end. Ichika felt guilty to let the filth stains his deceased friends' bodies. But this must be deal with first...
He slowly rose up on his trembling legs. No more light of life, just flames of revenge burned on the crimson retinas. It manifested itself around him, engulfed him in its terrifying inferno. This isn't time to mourn the fallen. Not yet...
Ichika summoned his IS. Unlike its usual pure white paint, blood splattered on Byakushiki and steadily turned it into carmine. Its chipped outer shell strengthened the impression of a rusty bronze armor that had been through inferno with its owner. One of the wings was ripped out, while another hanged unnaturally on the left shoulder.
The Angel had been clipped and banished to hell. No more the image of the mighty warrior, but just a battered soldier, barely able to stand after all of his comrades has been slaughtered. But just one more time...
Ichika brought up his sword, and with a broken cry, he charged up to his end...
"Not yet..."
The once great city of Kyoto was in shamble. The flat ground had been ploughed, crushed, melted and stained with blood. Pieces of metal scattered over the ground, reflecting sunlight, and now the bloody moon together with small grains of glass - formed from sand under extreme heat. The darkness and silence, not the usual gentle atmosphere of the old capital, was more like a thick, touchable substance like crude old, able to squeeze the life out of every living beings.
"Hah... Hah..."
Ichika's lungs were in fire. Dry lips, and taste like rusty metal. Cut and cracks were a common sight on his armor, like the field under a drought. Some parts were even missing. His body was mostly intact, though. Byakushiki had been performing its job excellently. However, neither him or his IS would last long.
"7 points... No good..."
His shield meter had dropped to the red level. Byakushiki's system playing claxon, warning that it was very close to the breaking point. He had to end this battle soon. But how? Which way to defeat the devil in front of him: The mysterious girl whom Ichika knows as "M"?
The Chifuyu-nee lookalike and her group, "Phantom Tasks", ambushed them on the least expecting occasion: their trip to Kyoto. While teachers evacuateed their students, the Personal IS users were assigned to buy some time before reinforcement arrive. The battle was brutal - Under the content gaze of Shinigami, they killed each others, letting the land quenched its thirst with their blood, satisfied its hunger with their flesh. Despite the valiant effort, one by one, Ichika's friends were struck down mercilessly. And now, only him stand, surrounded by death.
However, instead of opting for a quick kill with her BIT or lance, M instead gracefully hovered to him. [Silent Zephyr], or [Kurokishi] as Ichika heard from the transmission, was almost perfectly blended into the midnight background, if not for the silver flames under its wings, which were shaped like a butterfly's. The machine was identical to [Shirokishi] down to the smallest details. But there was one thing different: It had flaw. If [Shirokishi] was an angel - full and absolute, then [Kurokishi] was similar to a human-turned-devil.
"I'm sorry..." People said that in your last moment, you would recall so many things. But with Ichika, only the unarchived vengeance lingered on his mind.
However, unlike his anticipation, M deactivated her armor, revealing the slim silhouette of a 16 years-old girl. Or what resemble a human face at best - there was no way a person could make that smile. She seemed... fulfilled with the killing before her.
The BITs were still there, though. She pulled out a beautiful carved revolver from its leather holster - it had the body made out of silver with an ivory handle. M pointed it to his forehead, her index finger fixing on the trigger while thumb rested on the hammer.
"This is the greatest handgun ever made. The Colt Single Action Army Revolver. Six bullets... More than enough to kill anything that is moving."
*PANG!PANG!PANG!PANG!PANG!*
The barrier shook under each bullet, producing an unique "ZZZZ" sound as the slugs ricocheted around it.
"Be honored to meet your end by this gun."
Consecutive shots, but M's slender arm perfectly maintained its aim, not one bit affected by the recoil.
*PANG!*
"Looks like it take some more to kill you, huh?... Fine, I've got a lot of time... and bullets."
*CLING!*
The sound of empty cases fell to the ground was like a wake-up bell to him. In the split seconds that took M to reload her bullet, a plan was conjured in his mnd.
Or, if you could call using the last Shield Point to change Setsura into barrier mode, then yes, it was s a plan.
*FLASH*
The only thing that Byakushiki could created was a bright white flash that temporary blinded everyone. But that is all he needs. By the time M reactivated her IS for [Hyper Sensor], Ichika had already sprung on her from another direction.
"Hi-YAH!"
They rolled into a ball downhill to the river. One desperately tried to choke his enemy, the other struggled to escape from the suicide attacker. Blows were exchanged, and soon both of their faces were wrecks. None seem to mind about that, though, only kept relentlessly punching each other with metal gauntlets.
*SPLASH*
"This is for Houki! And Cecilia! Rin!"
Scorching plasma sweeps through his back, incinerates his flesh. But Ichika gives it no mind, and continues his assault. The world shook under his violence beating, and M became a pile of battered flesh eventually.
'For Charlotte! Laura! Tatenashi! Kanzashi!"
Every time Ichika hammers his punch, he pours all of his agony and sorrow within it. They are so hard that that even his metal gloves started to crack. M is getting paler and bloodier with every hit. It was no use to struggle, for the iron grip is nearly choking her to death. All of her previous training, they become useless before this monstrosity.
"And for ME!"
By then, the water around them had turned into a red stream. Only the eyes of M still managed to dim on the broken face. What wass under these crimson orbs? Relive, Hatred, Sorrow, Regrets, Begging,...? A cocktail of emotions, one unexpected thing coming from a honed assassin.
Ichika drew the knifes of M from its sheath.
"This will ends all."'
That was the only thing matter to him then, that the weight would be lifted from his heart. But as the dagger was raised, his nemesis looked directly onto his eyes. What happened during that moment, when electricity passed through them?
For all we know, Ichika suddenly found his muscles turned into mushy. He went limb, drop the knife onto the river for it to flow with the stream, and...
"... Not yet..."
... threw out the last punch onto M before letting the blankness gets a hold of him...
"Why did you kill all of my friends?"
In the dim-lighten room, there were only two person. Ichika sat on a plain wooden chair, while M was shackled to the steel bed. Bags cluster under both of their eyes, and their hair are even messier than a raven's nest. They had been remaining silent until Madoka broke the ice.
"That is irrelevant to the current situation." M raised her arm. Her wrists had long used being cuffed. "And pray tell, why should I tell you?"
"I know who you are, M." Ichika's voice was devoid of his usual gentleness, but laced with ice. "Madoka Orimura... Sister."
"Then what?" Even then, her irritating smug smile never leave the prisoner.
"Chifuyu-nee has told me about her "imperfect clone", and I..."
"Silence!" Losing her composure the moment the word "imperfect" left Ichika's mouth, Madoka's face twisted into an uncontrollable rage. "Never put me under that insolence woman, one that dare to betray "the Unit" for a worthless like you!"
"... I could understand that you want to kill Chifuyu-nee and me. But why now? You had so many chance to kill me in the past. Why dragging my friends into this? Please tell me the reason!"
"..."
"... I've expected this. Fine! I'll do anything to make you open your mouth. And then..."
"Then what? Turning me to the court?" But Ichika's respond was even colder than that:
"No. I'll kill you."
"You call me, sis?"
"Sit, Ichika!" Chifuyu pointed to a chair directly in front of her. "And call me Chifuyu-nee. Sugar, or Honey?"
"No thanks, I'll drink it plain." Ichika casually took a sip from his cup. But in truth, no drop of coffee passed his teeth. The cup is simply something to put between him and Chifuyu's gaze.
"Not "Orimura-san" like usual?"
"Ichika, what are you doing in that place?"
The uneasiness grew within seconds. An awkward silence casted upon the siblings.
"Are you asking as a teacher, or a sister?"
"Both. Your marks are steadily falling. And look at you." Her fingers touched his face, but Ichika avoided them like something disgusting. Why are them so similar to that of the monster's: ivory-like and svelte?
"When did you last have decent sleep?" The bizarre behavior couldn't escape her eyes.
By pretending to look at a particular Bonsai tree on Chifuyu's desk, Ichika hopes to bury deep his dirty secret.
But is it weird for he to see a snake sprouting from the ground?
A small, black cobra wiggling its tail in excitement while slithered to Ichika, not a minute of removing its peer to him. These yellow orbs were like a magician's watch - the prey wished nothing but to escape it, but he couldn't, being glued to the armchair.
It got bigger and bigger within seconds, until its size rivaled that of a boa. Slowly and patiently, snake wrapped itself around him like an overtight scarf. The moist, slippery scales give him a terrible goosebumps. Then, when it gets to his throat, the reptile increases the force of its press.
"Ah..." He couldn't breath. Ichika's desperately inhaled for air, or letting out a silence scream. His tiny figures was completely swallowed by snake's patterned hood, which was eerie similar to a face, a creepy one. He could saw his reflection in its topaz lens: small, pity and pathetic. Its forked tongue licked his face thoroughly, leaving a trail of saliva. And... The abyss that was its jaw opened widely, poison dripped between razor sharp fangs, ready to devour the helpless prey...
"Ichika!"
"AHHHHH!" He curled up and screamed like a child in nightmare in her arms.
"Ichika! ICHIKA!"
...
*SPLASH*
The first thing of her morning was being greeted by a bucket of freezing water.
"Again?" Her only thought, followed by the feeling of brain congestion. We could saw her incomplete jaws, the remaining teeth had turned red because of blood. However, it was just a grain of how much Madoka had to suffered to suffered: Broken limbs, torched skin, deep gashes stretching across the body. She had been subjected to a beating that could had killed a man long ago.
"Good morning, aniki!"
The sweet tone didn't fit with her situation then: Hanging upside down, with her foot tied up by a rope hanging from the ceiling. Wearing this tattered shirt was almost akin to bing naked - it was nearly torn into rags. Her body has been ravaged with wounds, some old, some new, some still bleeding.
"Ready to tell?" Ichika grumbled. His clothes soaked with sweat. For a few days, his appearance has changed drastically: The face became emaciated. The body trembled under exhaustion. The mouth twisted, making unrecognizable syllables not unlike how hounds and other scavenger speaks.
"Course not!"
The whip continued to be swung, turned into an endless rhythm. However, Madoka seemed more bored than pain.
"Hey, are you really holding a whip?"
"All of these could have been avoided if you had told me what I wanted, you monster!" The boy spatted out. His wrists were full of scrapes.
"This is no torture! It's merely a "sport" to me." Madoka yawned. "And beside, I'm not really sure about who is the real monster here. You are becoming more and more like us."
"And it's all because of you!" The beating got more erratic. "And I'll make you pay back with your life!" Ichika was walking on the line between sane and insane. That wasn't the face of a man that he bear. That was the face of a rabid dog.
"And why haven't you killed me?"
Only the whip answered her question.
A hostile winds woke Madoka from her doze. The girl simply never sleep with two eyes close.
"Hello, nee-chan." The shadow of her "beloved" sister loomed over her. However, the aura that usually came with it was dismissed: No longer could Madoka felt the intoxicating and glee of death so close to her. Just distressed, pure distressed.
"Madoka, I need to know what have Ichika done to you." Chifuyu looked much morose now. Sure, she tried to maintains the cold hard shell, but it failed: Madoka's sharp eyes catched a glimpse of her shaking arms.
"Nothing much. Just look around you and see."
The room is more like a torture cell that came straight out of a medieval tale. In the middle of it, there wass a rope still attached to ceiling, the knot was nearly wore out. There were various tools laying around: pincer, car batteries, nails and hammer,... They were all stained with dry blood, like the ground below: From white, these ceramic tiles had turned carmine. A sink and and toilet far on a corner of the room, both have a sickly substance sticked to them: vomit and human's sanguine fluid.
"Ichika... This is not him... Madoka, Ichika hasn't got out of his room for day. Tell me why!"
"Oh? And you're his sister." Like a man to whom be told a bad joke, Madoka wasn't bother to hide her crassness and distaste.
"Tell me! First, he fainted in my room, then this. Explain it, or else." The woman's eyes change to that of infuriated. Hell blazes inside them.
Madoka stares at the plastic-tube light hangs on the wall. Maybe this would be her theoretical point.
"I'll tell."
...
*THUD*
The rooms never looked this murky, even with the light on. Why the neon built seemed so far from her reach?
The bed shook violently under the weight of its two occupations. On top of Madoka was her brother, letting out the alcohol-reeked breath while roaring crazily like a hungry beast ready to gnaw its prey. He had lost it...
"Listen bitch, I'm going to give you something worse than death!"
He kissed, no, more like chewed on her. The saliva stuck, and it felt like acid burning skin.
"Let... Go... Of me!" There was something of him that terrified Madoka. While she had been trained to prepare with all kind of torture, including rape, this boy, with his expression had tapped to one of her primal instinct: fear.
Is this he had unlocked the vault of power: The ability to bring of terror of Orimura bloodline?
*SPLASH*
One hand silenced her, while with the other, Ichika continued the endeavor to torment his sister.
"Stay quiet!"
His fingers roamed her body, squeezing not-too gently. Everytime he touched one of her sensitive points, Madoka shrugged with horror and despair. It was hot, like melting metal! And when he has got enough, he tore her clothes in half. Fast, and dry.
There was nothing romantic or arouse to see Madoka naked: The aftermath of his torture sessions chiseled on her. Barely recognized as a human body, more like a board of flesh - a scarred, burned, electrified one. The biggest wound was a burn on the middle of the belly. A hellish experience brought forth by a large chunk of blazing coal, and its mark still fresh then. He could saw the green veins under it, from which blood drippe out together with fat and a sickly yellow substance.
That moment, brushing the rim of the wound, images of Kanzashi flashed through his eyes.
A girl dying on his arm, her stomach being pierced through. Blood, so many blood stained his hands...
"I... I... No, no, no, what have I done?!..."
The boy tumbled headfirst to the ground, his world spin around him. He lubberly to the entrance, leaving a dumbfolded and petrified Madoka.
"I see..."
"Worthless!" Even though Madoka seemed disgusted and sarcastic, she still shivered when calling back the images. "A true Orimura would had killed me long ago."
"He is not meant to be an Orimura!"
"And how did you get that ridiculous idea? Each of us was born with a fate."
"... You still remember the legend of our clan? Do you know why the Father asked the Son to kill him?"
"..."
"That is because he was tired with the killing. He sought redemption."
"Then why didn't the son be like that? We are on the top of the food chain. Why should any Orimura stop enjoying our power?"
"That is wrong! In our family, nothing is more valuable than power. But what is "power" really mean?" The more Chifuyu tried to close the distance, the more Madoka unconsciously widened it, to the point her point her elbows touch the metal bed poles.
"Don't you see it? Do you know why could Ichika defeated you? Is it because his friends, those girls you killed! He adores his friends, and that is what pushes him forward! Is it because of "Love" that he is stronger than you and me!" Chifuyu's lines might be simple, but her face carried a convincement that could shakes mountains and cracks down the walls of her sister.
"Stop it! Stop it!" Madoka used her hands to cover her ears. But they couldn't stop the inner voices. "Leave me alone!"
"Please consider it during your time in here." Chifuyu walked to the door. "But remember this: I live as a human. And I only wish the same thing with my family"
Silent reigned the room for a few moment. Something unknown had struck Madoka. To live as a human?... Normally, it would had bought a sarcastic smile to her lips, but not then. She couldn't dismiss it, scoff at it, or even crush it. Why the thought of being "normal" had made her like this?
One thing for sure: She could be tired of all this conspiring and killing. Believe it or not, sometime Madoka did question herself about her whole existence: What is the meaning behind this onslaught? And that usually led her to a single answer.
Nothing...
"No, no, no. Not like this." The idea persistently clung to her mind, refused to be warded off. "I'm born to be like this. I can't live like my brother, or my sister... Can I?"
"I promise never to allow Ichika to commit this again... And do you have any request to make?"
"You'll never come back in this cell again." And with that, Madoka was once again is left alone with her conflicting thoughts.
"AAAHHH!"
In the middle of the night, a boy was awakened by a terrible nightmare.
"Why can't I..."
His slippery fingers groped around before switched open a lamp switch, revealing the figure of Ichika. His body bathed in his own cold sweet, and maybe even tears.
"11:45 PM... No good."
It took a few minutes for the bloodshot eyes to get use to the warm light. When Ichika could finally calmed down, he grabbed a cup for a drink. The porcelain container was cracking and nearly broken. Just like him...
The cold water had a great effect on him: Not only it quenched his thirst, Ichika's senses were much more clearer after it. Immediately, a horrible odor rushed to his nose: a mix of old sweat, cheap alcohol, leftover food and blood. The room itself is a garbage dump: unwashed clothes, empty bottles, broken furnitures that show their user hadn't got much mercy on them,... It seemed a storm had passed here. A contradictory to Ichika's usual cleanness. But the only thing that matter to him was the mess inside him.
"Everyone..."
A set down wooden frame was turned over. His dirty thumb carelessed the cracked glass. Behind it, a picture of Ichika's friend and him. Everyone was happy, including... him...
Why couldn't he just do it? Why couldn't he pulled the trigger on that day? Why the one that he wants to kill most is himself? Damn that bitch! Damn that "soul" of him! He could had ended everything there, avenging everyone. But here he was, crippled, too coward to deliver the death to the killer.
"I'm sorry..."
Ichika sunk lower onto his messed up bed. He wanted to cry, to scream, to break something. But above all, a desire to puke in self-disgust. He sat there, like a lifeless stone for what seemed like an eternity, until the sirens caught his ears:
"WARNING! WARNING! ALL STUDENTS PLEASE STAY INSIDE YOUR ROOM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!"
... That is! Tonight, everything would be settled!
Ichika grabbed the Colt SAA and one bullet under his pillow. Somehow, he managed to sneak them from the hands of authority and brought into ISA. But just as before he walks out his room, Ichika made one last longing look at the picture.
"Farewell..."
"Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty! Or should I give you a kiss?"
... More like scarring her lips with a blunt knife. The girl immediately rose up after hearing Squall's voice.
"Can't you just do it more quietly?" Madoka's irritated tone sounded even more clearer than normal, in the middles of gunshots, explosion and alarm bells of ISA. It was born for this kind of environment, just like her.
She threw an annoyed and disgusting look to her superior. For God's sake, Squall didn't even bother to wear properly: this thin, honey-colored, shoulder-and-breast revealed gown made out of silk is more appropriate for a party of perverts and sluts, not a rescue mission like this.
"Not as bad as I thought." Squall pressed vermilion nails upon one particular deep scar on M's face. They were so sharp that the wound immediately open under it once again.
"Hmm... Tasty!" Although not unfamiliar with her commander's antics, Squall's tongue on her her cheek still brought goosebumps upon her.
"Stop it!"
"Delicious as ever... And I could see that your brother has began to return to his true self." Waving the cat o' nine tails nonchalantly, Squall's eyes take a dreaming look. The sadist must has been recalling her good old days.
"He knows the basic... But still not very creative."
"Can we get out of here now?" Somehow, Madoka had already got out from her shackles and now stretching her limbs. Most of her injures had healed, thanks to the few quiet days - After that night, neither her sister or her brother had stepped into the cell. Meals were brought in, but by a busty, green-haired woman.
"Sure! After you!"
But just as Madoka made her first step outside...
"Stop right there!"
This wasn't Chifuyu Orimura, the Sister. She also wassn't Brundhilde, the Champion. She was Death. In her black suit, Chifuyu emitted a violent, untamed aura. The Grim Reaper's pet crow, with feathers as swords that ready to harvest your life and banished it to Hell.
"Well, well, if it isn't the traitor. Little girl, I'll show you the consequences of your choice."
In this narrow corridor, Squall couldn't deploy her [Golden Dawn]. However, unfazed, the blond unsheathed her CQC knifes. Like the embody of Squall's flamboyance, both of them were coated with a layer of gold and silver, with the hilts inlaid with gemstones.
*CLANG*
The sound of metal met metal, blows met blows shaking the concrete wall. The fighting was straight and vicious, for there was no room for evasion. You either block the attack, or get hit - which 100% guarantees death. Both sides had their blades just one hair away from the other's throat.
"Khukhukhu! You are better than I remember!" Squall let out while dogging one particular ferocious uppercut, then countered it with a quick jab. It was not a laugh, but a howl belonged to wolfs in ecstasy of playing with the prey. The knifes in Squall's hand had became an extension of her body: It was impossible to see where they were, or where would they strike next.
However, Chifuyu was also has an advantage of her own: The wise choice that was a pair of Wakizashi, a bit longer than Squall's dagger, but still small enough for maneuver in the lack of space. She had two choices: Holding the two in here long enough for reinforcement to arrive, or, fight to kill - an obvious thing, considered the Determination to Annihilate on her face.
Both fighters adopt the same stance: one knife pegged between the fingers of the right hand for unexpected strike, while the left one holds it downward to deliver powerful slashes. A lot of their movements were similar, too. They utilized every inches of their bodies, synchronized into an unobservable waltz. Two of them simply knedw the other so well that their brains didn't even need to make the direction - everything is fueled by instinct. The battle of wild beasts.
"This will be long." Madoka mumbled to herself, as Chifuyu side stepped to avoid a lethal stab, then weepped her leg in a perfect horizontal arc, nearly slammed onto Squall's face. The wall was nearly broken under the force, rubbles of paint and concrete covered the floor.
"I better get out of here now."
"Where are you think you're going?"
"Sh.." Faster than Madoka could finished her curse unconsciously, Ichika's fist had already made contact with her stomach. The impact was powerful enough to send unmeasurable waves of pain through her spine and immediately shut her consciousness down.
"Now, let's us play a game of Russian Roulette, shall we?" The boy had dragged his sister to the front yard. Above them, the full moon shone outlandishly, and the nocturne of nightly wind screamed terror around them.
Ichika pointed the Colt SAA to his captive's ear.
"One bullet. Either she die, or free."
"Oh, are my eyes deceive me, or is it truly Ichika-kun dares to play the devil's game?"
The two women had stopped their battle and followed him to here. Both were very surprised, but it was Squall that spoke first. The sweet nectar tone sounded like she... encouraged him to do it.
"You doesn't seem to care much for Madoka, does you? I'm really going to do it. I square!.."
Although Ichika seemed to be dead-set on this, his words were actually vibrating, trembling to be exact. The dirty face twisted into a mix of confuse, perplexed, angry and distress. The quivering index fingers lightly gripped on the trigger on one moment and let it out on the next.
"Ichika..." Chifuyu was clouded with nothing but anxiety.
"Be my guess!" Squall deactivated her IS, revealing the scantily-clad body. "But even better, why not make this even more exciting? If you don't shoot M, I will kill you myself."
Before the sight of Squall's EAA Thor Single Shot Pistol aimed for Ichika, Chifuyu roared like a lioness before threw herself to the Phantom Task's member. But before she could reached her...
*CLANG*
"I'll not let you harm Squall-sama!"
... Autumn, in her [Archane], dove from the sky and used the spider-like limbs to latch on her. Even with the near-superhuman physical ability, Chifuyu still had to face a force of tons - there was nothing she could do but struggled in futile, watching everything unfolded everything with the desperate eyes.
"I have neither time or patient for this, Ichika-kun~!" Ichika still kept quiet, his eyes focused solely on the girl in his arm. Even a glance of emotion couldn't be seen. On that moment, under the pale moonlight, his figure and Madoka's were like a pair of Renaissance gypsum statues - It gave you a sense of cold absoluteness. Death or Alive, Man or Monster, all in the end of the spectrum.
He curled up his index finger...
*CLICK*
Madoka's heart almost jumped out of her chest the moment Ichika pressed the trigger. The feeling didn't subside when the sound of an empty chamber echoes through her brain, but only increased with Ichika's near-madness laughter. He was crazy!
"HAHAHA!"
"Il semble que le Seigneur n'est pas de votre côté aujourd'hui!... Looks like the Lord is not on your side today! Bad luck, Ichika-kun!"
"Indeed he doesn't! HAHAHA!" In an astonishing movement, he hurled Madoka toward Squall. His face high up, bathed under the light of the galaxy. That smile, none know what was truly behind it.
"If I must die in this form, so be it!"
*PANG*
"Lesson number one: Never to turn your back from your enemy!" Despite the .45-70 bullet pierces through his atrium, Ichika's laugh still not ends. It gradually becomes smaller but higher until the vibration transits the level of mortal's ear. He staggers for a few more steps until finally drops to his knee, the gun and one particular bullet fall from his palm.
"He didn't load it?"
"ICHIKA!"
Who know that the great Brunhilde could let out such a heart-wrenching sound? With her newfound vigor, Chifuyu tore through Autumn's iron grip and rushed to her brother's body. The woman brought his head onto her chest, her crying and screaming tear through the black night. Even Autumn and Squall felt the pressure upon them, taking out air from their lungs.
... But look at Ichika's face that moment! No more pain, no more anguish. The face that he used to wear before this tragedy happened, the one that always...
... smile. And that was no normal smile. The cherry lips still trembled a bit in simple exhilaration. Similar to that of an infant: pure and innocent, the joy of living. There was also a tsunami of emotions behind it. Something more... Impossible to express. Rested on Chifuyu's lap, he returned to be the little boy that she used to sing her lullaby and gently stroke his hair into sleep.
Ichika died smiling...
Near the IS Academy, lays an almost deserted area. You could say that this is where they dumped the exceed materials when building this artificial island: A mess of rocks, concrete, steel,... and on top of them, Eden.
Here, God replaces the Gardener. Nature shed the coat that human sewed for it, returned to its naked form. It's a miracle for plants to grow on the hard land with nothing but the harsh sun above and salty water. An acre of life: behind the thick grass, how many creature resides? Countless: bluebell, lacecap, goldenrod, ladybug, bee, ant, frog, snake,... In summer, the small prairie is a market of love, and in winter, a great mystery.
The bustling city near it, one of the center of modern world. Who care? In here, the only sound are that of waves tapping steadily to the cobbles, the lazy cool wind being sliced by razor blades of grass, and an endless symphony performed by crickets, cicadas, orioles,... Human becomes the closest to their progenitors - Adam and Eva - here. It is truly a blessing for a patch of heaven to exist on Earth, unspoiled by men's hands.
It was neither day or night on that moment. The moonlight still reigned over the sky, its silver light shone upon a row of tombstones. In front of each of them was a different kind of flower.
Houki Shinonono... a branch of cherry blossoms, its flowers had veins so red that they seems like blood is flowing.
Cecilia Alcott... drops of water rolled on the cerulean rose's petals, embellished it with a necklace of diamonds.
Huang Ling Yin... that lotus flower seemed even more ardent in this darkness, almost like a flame was lit up.
Charlotte Dunois... a lone golden ray greeted the brave buttercup that smiles before the new day.
Laura Bodewig... the black tulip hid its bud reticently like a shy maiden under layers of silk and lace.
Kanzashi Sarashiki... no gemstone that dare to compete with the azure chrysanthemum's aristocratic and abysmal colors.
Tatenashi Sarashiki... the pristine white dandelion swaying lightly with the wind, yearning for the boundless sky above.
If you stroll a few more steps, you will discover another grave, this one stays under the shadow of a tall Bodhi tree. How many seasons has the wood observed? Sitting next to the stone tablet is a woman, her face turns opaque under the dim light. She mindlessly picks up handfuls of dirt only to see the wind wipes them away. The eyes wanders to a place that is farther than the horizon there.
"You come here early."
"So do you, nee-chan."
The two Orimura took a next few minutes staring onto the grave. So many complex, entangled emotions could be observed throughout their look.
"I still can't figure it out which flower would suit him." Madoka was the first to break the silence.
"Heh... Buying flowers for the ones whom you killed." Sarcasm within her words. Chifuyu had became older, much older since that day. But the lack of light had erased all traces of time: She was still the old mighty Brunhilde on that moment, just like years ago. However, she had no malice intend underneath like she used to show with every of her relatives.
"Nee-chan, you know that I am still being tormented by it today." Madoka had also grown up by a few. Now, she was the carbon-copy of Chifuyu when she had just won the first Mondo Grosso. Almost similar, except the eyes... Gloomy and usually looking down. Full of regret.
... That is right. Chifuyu fought for the others, for little Ichika. And Madoka, the road ahead was one for redemption and salvationl.
"Yeah, I know. U.N undercover job is not exactly the most comfortable thing."
"The higher-ups always reserve a place for you, nee-chan."
"I'm too old for that." There was a small, almost unrecognizable patch of white on Chifuyu's hair. "And I'd rather stay her and prevent the youngsters to repeat our mistake."
"... I must go. Take care of his grave for me, nee-chan." The majestic butterfly wings once again adorned her. They are silver: Neither Black or White, as with all of her IS.
"Wait! I haven't ask you the question!"
"Again?"
"To imprint it onto you. Why did you kill them?"
"I don't know... I murdered people, to seek my purpose. Desperation. I murdered his friends, to make him suffered my pain. Jealous... But then, on that day, he changed me. If I want to be human, I must try my best. And I'm still trying."
As the sun had raised up over the thick mist, it was bright enough for we to see some wrinkles on Madoka's nose and cheek. Ten years was like twenty to her face.
"Also, Chifuyu-nee."
"What?"
"The flowers will soon withered. Please remember to change them regularly. Goodbye, nee-chan."
"Take care of yourself." Chifuyu watched her little sister flew away. Time is unforgiving to everyone, but human does, even when he is clouded.
"You truly is the most humanly of the Orimura... Ichika."
The red fireball finally got past the horizon, drained the world with its glorious, unstained aurora. It's a new day.
... And the stone monolith, this was what it said:
"Ichika Orimura"
"Live as Human, Died as Human"
"Always remember who you are, even when your world collapse in front of you"