"From a Specter to Forgiveness""
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"Why are you being so hostile to me? It is like you don't know me! I'm not an enemy!"

Miyu, her posture of both elegance and contained violence, considered this for a long moment,
a wry smile appearing at last. "I must return you to the Dark, because of your nature.."

"The...Dark?" the figure inquired, the feminine voice low and neutral. "What's that?"

"Don't play stupid!" Miyu snapped, but then shrugged. "I sense you are Shinma. It is my destiny
to confront you. You know this to be true. If you don't about the Guardian, you're a poor excuse
for a Shinma."

"I don't know about any of this 'Guardian' or 'Shinma' talk, but you can explain that to me later."
The figure smiled from under a face-concealing hood. She looked at Miyu, and then at Larva,
standing behind and slightly to Miyu's right. "I simple wish to talk to you, my friend." The tone and
inflection she used for the last two words made Miyu shiver visibly, once. "In private, if you don't
mind. You can introduce me to your friend when we are done."

The mannerism of this creature was starting to confuse Miyu, ever so slightly. Either it was a very
detailed, elaborate ploy, or Miyu was dealing with a Shinma that wasn't terribly bright. Miyu decided
to play the game, just to see. "Very well," Miyu replied. "Larva? Please leave us. I'll summon you if
necessary."

Larva hesitated a moment. "You think that is wise? Perhaps I should stay..."

"Larva, please," Miyu whispered, looking back. Her eyes conveyed her desire more than
her words. "I'll be fine. Don't go too far, though."

Larva nodded, walking backward and disappearing into the darkness, leaving the
grinning figure and Miyu to their own devices. Miyu watched the point of departure for a
long moment, and then turned her full attention on the female. "What is your name, so
that I might know who I'm dealing with?"

The voice, soft, replied with no tone. "You don't recognize me? Have I been gone so long now?
I don't think I've change so much. You haven't changed at all!" The figure shuffled its feet. "I thought
it would be such a nice surprise...but you don't remember."

Miyu tipped her head to the left. Now she was really curious. "I don't know you, or why you think
I should know you, but it doesn't matter. Even if I did know who you were, the manner I deal with
you wouldn't change." Miyu extended a palm, a flame forming. "And here is your surprise, Shinma."

The figure giggled, in a tone that sounded eerily familiar to Miyu. "That's a neat trick...magic!" The
figure shuffled her feet again. "I don't know...if you don't want me around, I can leave, if that is what
you desire, Miyu."

Miyu showed her teeth in anger. She was growing tired of this game, and the flame danced in
annoyance in her palm. Miyu paused, not remembering telling the figure her name. Miyu thought that
was odd, but quickly put it out of her mind as irrelevant. "It is my desire and destiny! I will now send
you back to the Dark..."

Before Miyu could finish her sentence, the air around the figure shifted and blurred, as if
a haze or fog had set in. The world took on a surreal atmosphere, and for a long moment
Miyu felt as if she were in a dream. Slowly, the visual field cleared, and the two stood alone
in a pleasant park, with a bench nearby. The figure reached up, pulling the concealing hood
of the raincoat back and away, and smiled pleasantly.

Miyu found herself staring, her mouth dropped open but unable to formulate words or sound. Her
vocal cords were frozen, but not her mind. The flame in Miyu's palm extinguished itself. "It can't be..."

"Hello, Miyu!" the figure before her greeted, in a voice that, although committed to a
distant memory, rung true in every tone. "I've missed you, my special friend. Surprised?"

"It can't be..."

"I have been gone a long time, but I'm back," the figure continued, running a thin frail
hand through reddish-brown hair. "I came back for you! I've missed you so much! You,
and Yukari and Hisae...I've missed all my friends! I can't wait for us to all be together again."

Miyu trembled. Her mind told her, over and over, that the person before her couldn't be,
that she should react, before it was too late. But Miyu couldn't do anything, for she was
paralyzed by the ghost before her, a ghost that felt all too real, in mannerism, appearance,
and even soul...

"Chisato?"

Chisato smiled, her eyes lighting up. "You do remember me! Well? Did you miss me? You
have always been so quiet, but then you started acting all weird on me when I first showed up...
I was starting to wonder. And those clothes."

Miyu shivered, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "You aren't real. You can't be
real. You are in eternal dream, forever locked away."

Chisato laughed. "Silly! The things you say! Perhaps you had a dream, yes? Thinking
something happened to me, while I simply went away for a while. I'm back now. I'm
just...me...you look at me like I'm a stranger, Miyu."

"But..." Miyu was confused, and a touch frightened. She remembered the events of long
ago, or at least she thought she remembered them. She could picture Yukari, struck down,
and Chisato doing the same to her. Miyu remembered the pain, as the sword pierced her
body, impaling her soul and her emotional center, forever.

But yet here was Chisato, as if the world had never changed, like that dark day had never
occurred. She seemed so innocent...so...

"I brought you back something, from my trip," Chisato announced, happily. "It's a relic...
want to see? You have to come closer...it is a surprise...a present, I guess. I couldn't help
but think of you when I saw it, for some reason."

Miyu, seemingly not in control of her body, took a step forward. "This can't be..." she
breathed, over and over. "It just can't...I know it can't...but...it feels like her presence...
it feels like the time before...before..."

As Miyu approached, Chisato reached behind her back, and quickly brought forward the
sword. "Isn't it great, Miyu?" she asked, excitement in her voice. "Come closer! Look at
the details. It's very different."

Miyu looked at the sword, her eyes wide. "You...the sword...what are you doing?"

Chisato giggled. "I'll be careful, Miyu! I would never hurt you, my friend!" Chisato
started to walk forward, the sword out before her. "Never! I just want you to see it."

The words Chisato had used rolled through Miyu's head over and over again:, as her eyes
watched the apparition approach.

"I would never hurt you, my friend!...I would never hurt you...I would never...I..."

Miyu's looked once more at the sword. Her thoughts raced. "I can't believe I didn't think of it
before...the answer has always been there, but my anger and hurt blocked it away..."

"I see us having a great time in this life, Miyu!" Chisato announced, though her voice seemed
a little off now. "Do me a favor..."

"Lies!" Miyu cried out, her voice filled with anger. Miyu jumped back and away from
the tip of the sword, just as Chisato lurched, nearly thrusting it into Miyu's abdomen. "Reveal
your true self, Shinma! I know your true nature!" The flame reappeared in Miyu's hand, the
tips dancing with her fury.

Chisato stood still, holding the sword. "What nature? That was just an accidental slip, Miyu..."

"You won't cloud my mind again!" Miyu declared fiercely. "You've managed to change your
appearance, but you have revealed your sinister self to me.. I know now what I've been
seeking - what I should always have known - that the creature that acted against me wasn't
the true Chisato. The true Chisato died when the egg within her hatched."

The flame leapt from Miyu's hand, engulfing the form of the girl before her.

"If I'm wrong, this won't have an affect on her," Miyu told herself, preparing, but there was
no need. The air around Chisato blurred, and in her place a wrinkled old female Shinma
stood, thrashing and screaming in its throes. In a moment, it was gone, consumed by the fire,
with only a wisp of smoke remaining.

Miyu sank to her knees, looking at the ground and taking deep, calculated breaths, tears
in her eyes. A moment later, she turned her head, acknowledging the form of her companion.
"Larva."

"That was very strange," Larva observed, looking at the spot the Shinma vanished. "I have heard
heard of that Shinma...Urakata...a scene shifter of sorts, but had always thought her more of a legend."
He extended a hand out to Miyu, helping her up. "She was said to have great power, with the ability
to make her target see whatever she desired them to see." Larva studied Miyu a moment, as she
worked to regain her composure. "What did she reveal to you in her visions, Miyu?" He placed a
reassuring hand on her shoulder, looking in her eyes. "You appeared confused and frozen a moment,
until you recovered."

Miyu closed her eyes, inhaling. "I saw Inoue Chisato." When Miyu opened her eyes, they
both stood under the crimson sky of her world. "It was so real, Larva. It felt like
Chisato...even smelled like her, if you can believe that. She apparently could manipulate the
senses as well."

Larva nodded. "She must have known a bit about your past to use that against
you. Perhaps she was a bit telepathic, to pull from your thoughts as she went along."
He leaned against a blackened tree. "I had a hard time not interfering, but you seemed to
snap out of her trance on your own."

Miyu smiled, slightly. "It is good you didn't interfere. I discovered something, about
myself and the past. It is something I've always known, but denied, inside. Lingering doubts,
you might say."

Miyu walked to the trunk of an old, rotted tree, reached in, and pulled a round handball. The orb
faded away, and Miyu held the severed head of Chisato, cradling it to her and hugging it softly.
"I know that the true Chisato wasn't the one who hurt me so...that she ceased being Chisato
when the Shinma took over her body." Miyu sighed, stroking the red head softly. "I think I knew
right away, when I put her in eternal bliss, but I convinced myself afterwards that it had to be her
fault, because it hurt so much, and I placed myself in the position for that to happen."

"She was a tool to get at you," Larva injected, soft and steady. "Neither of you are to blame. It
was the Birds who did this, to both of you. She lost as well."

"All this time, I have held her responsible, to different levels at different times, but it wasn't her.
She was, at the end, what she was in life...innocent." Miyu looked at the head. "She still is, in her
dreams."

Miyu turned the head, cradling it in the nook of her arm and, using her fingers, opened
Chisato's eyes. They started back, expressionless and vacant. "It still hurts, and I'll never
trust a human to that level again, but fault her? I can't fault her any longer...I never did. Her name
may bring me pain, but it will also bring me good memories, too, for what she was, for a little while."

Larva nodded. "It is good to relieve this burden from your soul. It is good not to carry it around,
and let it engulf yourself and everything you live for."

Miyu sighed, hugging the head of Chisato once more, and it slowly turned back into a handball.
When she was done, Miyu handed the handball to Larva, gently. "Please take Chisato away,"
she whispered. "To a nice place, but a place I don't know of. I don't need her around any longer,
and now she can dream in true peace. Make it a beautiful place, fit for the pure of heart and soul,
that she was."

"I will put her in a proper place," Larva promised, taking the handball from Miyu and slowly
walking away. The head faded away, replaced by the glass orb once more, and Larva handled
it delicately.

"Thank you, Larva." Miyu watched Larva go, and soon he disappeared into the dense forest in
the distance. After he was gone, Miyu wiped her eyes. "Goodbye, Chisato," she whispered." Miyu
jumped up into the tree that had been home for Chisato for so long, sitting on a branch and gazing
out at the landscape.

"My existence will never be the same again, because of the Birds," Miyu whispered
to herself. "But I will remember the time I had you in my life when you were really
yourself, Chisato. Perhaps someday, when I think of you, I'll smile for you."

Miyu glanced up in her red sky, a close-lipped grin evident. "Maybe."

Copyright 2002 Kevin Turnquist. Rights...right.