Kasuza wandered from the darkness of the forest, hopping over the brick wall and landing with a thud. She gazed at her coat for the first time, and saw the red spatters across it. From when her struggle with her room mate got too heated. She pulled it off like an unwanted parasite, shuddering and tossing it over the brick wall, as if the forest she ran from would hide it for her. She retreated to the dorms cautiously, panting and full of toxic nervousness that made her want to vomit, made her want to fall down. No, she couldn't now. She had finished the deal, the black pendant was hers. Kasuza took a breath, trying as hard as she could to wipe the adrenaline-injected smirk from her face, and alleviate her wild, insane eyes opened too wide.
She coiled through the stairway of the Spica dormitory as silently as possible, making sure the headmother wasn't doing headcount. Luckily, she had already retreated to the night office, reading and praying. The demoness Remi made good on her deal to make the sacrifice flawless and undetected. Nobody had even known there was a commotion. Kasuza strode to her own dorm room, pushing it open with a tender finger, and walked into a room that felt wrong. One side of her room kept all of her familiar things, but it was the other side that sent out a shiver of loss. There was all of Eri's belongings. The bands she tied in her hair every day, the brush she would use to straighten the gentle rivers of her long hair, the pair of slippers she would tap Kasuza's head with in an attempt to get her to wake up when she slept in late. "You can't press snooze on the slipper alarm, Kazu-chan!" she'd yell out eagerly, as Eri would rapidly spank her sleeping head with it. Slap slap slap! Until Kasuza emerged from the covers like a zombie, ready to shoo away the slipper like an unwanted fly. Kasuza clutched the slipper with familiarity, chuckling to herself over it. Sweet Eri-chan would never wake her up again, and nobody would even know she was missing anymore.
Any sacrifices to the forest would never be remembered again. So why, why did Kasuza know who any of this stuff belonged to? Kasuza laid on her lost room mates bed this night, the slipper in one hand, and the pendant in the other, letting the horrors of the forest blaze through her head until the sun painted the sky deep blue again, her eyes strained, ached with red veins and darkened under-eye color. Kazusa heard a knock at her door.
"Kasuza? This is the police department. We are here to question you about the disappearance of your room mate." spoke an unfamiliar, masculine voice behind the door. The amount of dread that blasted through Kasuza's blood could've ruptured the veins in her eyes, it was so fierce. She flipped off of the bed and landed on the ground with a thud, shaking her head in disbelief. "No, no, there's no way. This is impossible!" She almost deteriorated right there, clutching the slipper in her hand so tight her fingers went white.
That was until Remi melted through the door, grinning and laughing to herself, her wings aiding her stride across the ground like decrepit pteranodon-like limbs, blades of membrane stretching and contracting. Her bedroom, once a save haven, now felt wronged, violated and disgusting, upon letting this seductress enter it. Inhumanly glowing eyes peered out from bangs, and sultry lips curled to their resting state. But even as she smiled at Kasuza with condemnation, the laughter continued, spiraling down in pitch until it was feminine no longer, almost gurgling and vomiting like a cauldron. Kasuza slinked back from between the two beds towards the windowed wall, lowering her eyes to keep them away from the beautiful creature, the evil creature.
"Forgive me Kazu-chan, but I couldn't resist torturing you again. The amount of panic I draw from you is...irresistible." She chuckled to herself in her own voice, the guttural gurgling stopping and setting the room silent. "Why are you here, Remi?" asked Kasuza, gritting her teeth and wiping the terror-induced tears from her eyes, as she threw the slipper at the succubus. Remi simply watched it flop against her large breasts, and she caught it on the fall down, gloved fingers coiling into a harpy's talons. "Well my girl, I just came here to check on you! Since you've let me into the sealed little world of Astraea Hill, I can do this as often as I want again. Making sure that you were enjoying your newfound love, but I see you here, mourning your sacrifice."
Kasuza felt ill at the mention of sacrifice. "Why is Eri's stuff still here? I thought you would erase her completely, and nobody would remember her...I wouldn't remember her." Remi floated across the ground, her ragged dress slithering across the ground as her wings assisted her forward, putting her a kisses length away from Kasuza. "Dear Kazu-chan, beautiful, irresistible Kazu-chan..." Remi placed a hand along Kazusa's face, letting a powerful and supernatural blush permeate from her face and set her panicked eyes into ones of relaxation, of school girl yearning. "...I couldn't resist torturing you again." As Remi stood there, her predatory smile relaxing, her face began to morph into one of familiarity, one of immeasurable beauty that it made Kazusa's legs buckle and her lip quiver. She had morphed into Maaya. "I'm waiting for you, Kazusa-sama..." echoed Maaya's gentle voice, her eyes sparkling and filled with happiness. As Kasuza leaned in to embrace the face of Maaya, to kiss her with unrestrained desire and love, suddenly, the face morphed again. It morphed into Eri, crying, screaming and panicking.
"You let her kill me Kasuza! How could you let this happen to me!? I hope you burn in hell!" and in that instant, Remi vanished, her laughter trailing off once again as Kasuza shuddered in place, completely consumed by fear and dread, collapsing to the ground and vomiting as her imagination ran wild, her mind trying to comprehend the infinite expanses of hell that her dear friend's soul was now living in. Deep and unsearchable, a necrotic nether filled with pain and screaming, agony and horror.
Another knock at the door, more panicked and worried. "Kasuza? Are you okay? Kasuza!" screamed a familiar girl. She was too paralyzed to respond, breathing heavily and shivering in the cold touch of regret. Why was Remi doing this to her? She did exactly what she asked, she gave Eri to the forest. The contract was complete, wasn't the pendant a sign of that? Did she forget something? Was the deal completely fictional to begin with, and was Remi just toying with her? Her imagination ran wild, and she melted away from the reality around her, sobbing and panicking. Dread consumed her, flossed it's teeth with her soul as the detached insanity she once had began to melt, and she felt her humanity return in bursts, ugly and ashamed, as she wondered if Eri's soul, Eri's entire being, was worth throwing away for a warm touch, a tender kiss of her perfect sweet heart. Is any love worth killing somebody over?
"Somebody help me, anyone, God, Saint Spica, Saint Miator, Saint Lulim...anyone. I've done something terrible, so terrible...somebody please help me..." Kazusa coiled into spasms on the ground, as the door flung open. A lithe and willowy girl with glorious sunfire hair burst through the door, and saw the suffering girl on the ground, crying and wailing, praying in a garbled weeping she could barely understand. Her uniform brightened up the room with a sun-touched white that seemed to introduce her like a guardian angel. "Kasuza, it's me, Maaya. Stay with me okay? You're going to be fine." Kasuza could not see her past the continuous stretch of black that ate away what she could see, her consciousness fading. "Somebody get the head-mother! Quick!"
Little golden eyes peered through the bushes lining the dormitories. Branches from the bushes poked out of her bright pink hair comedically, almost decorating her as a Greek nymph. Tsubomi was on the hunt. "Where are you? You should be coming out any time now." she spoke to herself sternly, scanning the girls that poured out of the dorms and into the morning sun, laughing and talking amongst each other. Black hair! No, that wasn't her. Golden eyes! No, not her either. The little eyes darted back and forth searching for her elusive prey. She hadn't seen Yaya in a couple days, and made it her mission to catch her. "You can't hide from me forever." she grinned to herself, as she locked onto her prey. Walking by herself, her eyes locked onto the ground. "Target acquired, Plan A is go."
Tsubomi pushed through the bushes as silently as possible, stumbling through the branches and catching herself from falling forward, matching Yaya's stride with her own and pushing leaves and twigs from her hair, straightening it with a flick of her hand. "Oh hey Yaya, I didn't see you there!" Totally nailed it.
"Were you trying to sneak up on me?" Yaya asked, her eyes breaking from their somber stare and analyzing her softly. "Of course not! I just happened to be going this way." Tsubomi announced, as she held her head high, feigning ignorance. Yaya sent her hand outwards and pulled her closer. They passed by the fountain safely, the one that Tsubomi would've crashed into if he continued forward. "You know the tsun-tsun strategy can get you hurt if you aren't aware of your surroundings." Tsubomi huffed. "I am doing no such thing, Yaya!" Yaya smiled at the huffing and puffing of her little friend. "Keep telling yourself that Tsunde-bomi. How have you been?"
Tsubomi shrugged. "What do you mean? I've been fine, it's you I was worried about. I couldn't find you anywhere." Yaya curled her finger, signaling Tsubomi to follow her towards the church where the choir sang. "I just needed some alone time was all. My mind has been a hurricane recently." Tsubomi analyzed the tall girl before her, and while she was out of line of sight, let the butterflies in her stomach flutter a bit. That jet black hair was just amazing to see. Majestic and clean, so well kept and so soft to the touch. She wanted to grab a fistful of it and feel the flawless texture of it all. Tsubomi wanted hair like that. Even with the care she gave it, it paled in comparison to Yaya's. Majestic Yaya, Beautiful Yaya. Sexy Yaya. Fearsome Yaya!
Tsubomi beamed with cartoonish fervor, and scuttled her way back towards Yaya. "So Tsubomi, do you really not know where I go in my free time?" Tsubomi shook her head. "Well, it's not exactly a bat cave, but its a special place I like to call my own, a place where I go that people can't bother me. People like you for instance." She smirked at her comment. "I'm a bother to you?" Tsubomi felt insulted, but played along with it as she saw Yaya's non-hostile expression. "Oh, a huge bother. I can't seem to get away from you anymore, maybe its this leash you put on me." She tugged at the choker necklace that was around her neck, a little black lace strip. Tsubomi had given to her as a present, an offering that "totally doesn't mean we are girlfriends", as she called it.
"It's not a leash, it was something I saw in town that I thought would look really nice on you." Yaya twirled, a catlike smirk on her face. "Oh, so you wanted to dress me up all sexy for you then? Dirty Tsubomi." Tsubomi exploded into a panic of blushing. "No no no no nooo! I just thought it looked nice!" she waved her hands forward in a rapid flourish of shyness and girly shame. "So, you don't think I'm sexy? Oh..." Yaya sank her head down, her bangs blanketing her expression as she strolled away slowly. Tsubomi reflexively reached out. "No! I think you do! Super sexy!" As she let the comment explode from her mouth, she cupped it closed, as Yaya's catlike grin surfaced once again. "Tsubomi hentai~"
Tsubomi's face went so pink that nobody could tell where her hair began and her face started. "Why do you continue to embarrass and exploit me like this!? How do you do that!?" Tsubomi stamped her foot down on the ground, and Yaya laughed. "Oh come now, at least nobody was around to see me put you in such an embarrassing state. I just like playing with you younger girls is all. You're silly and filled with emotion, much less reserved. That just makes you that much more fun to hang with than girls my age." They looked around, realizing that the churches pathway was completely bare, locking them in a moment all of their own. Finally they both sighed, and relaxed as Yaya led them to the fabled spot that Tsubomi never bothered to look. Green grass stretched on towards a hidden alcove where nobody could see her unless they actively looked. "Welcome to my special spot! Now get out." She shoved Tsubomi into one of the softly trimmed bushes and giggled, while Tsubomi emerged and gave chase towards her running senpai.
"So, you never did answer my question." Yaya said, sitting against the brick wall, relaxed while Tsubomi did the same, her body language defensive and reserved. A bit of strain seemed to melt away as Tsubomi answered. "Question?"
"Yes, from the last time we talked, after the Etoile election." Tsubomi attempted to wrap her hands around a journal that wasn't there, her gestures almost instinctual now. She let her hands fall to her side. "What is it that you spend so much time writing about?" Tsubomi remembered her journal, wedged deep underneath her bed, the hard-cover's edges hollowed out and filled with folded up pieces of paper. Pieces of paper that bore many sentences, many paragraphs that were seen only by her, that held the key to her heart's desires. One thing that stretched across many of these papers, was just a single word. "Yaya."
"I write about things I think are pretty..." Yaya. "...things that make me happy, and cheer me up when I'm sad." Yaya. "Things that I will miss if I ever leave this school." Yaya. "Things I have grown so attached to, that I think I won't be able to live without them." Yaya.
Yaya relaxed, gazing up into the sky with dreamy eyes. "Ah, those are nice things to write about. Maybe someday, you can show me what you write, when you are comfortable enough around me." Tsubomi blushed, and nodded nervously. "...Sure! they're not ready yet,,,but eventually I can." Tsubomi had written another thing repeatedly in that journal too, a command, a suggestion, that she just couldn't get the courage to do. "Today I will tell Yaya." Today was the day she would tell her. This is what Plan A was all about, right? Tsubomi took a deep breath, feeling the clamminess of her hands and the rush of her heartbeat as she sat idle right next to the girl that captivated her heart, that drew her in with her beautiful but sad appearance. Her untouchable face and her sympathetic eyes. Her tough and feisty exterior, but still stunning features. She felt safe around Yaya, it made her feel right, made her feel protected. Oh god, she was so nervous right now. Could Yaya see it? Did she know the entire time? It felt stupid pretending that she wasn't so in love with Yaya right now.
Love!?
Tsubomi exploded into a rage of pink and blush, her heartbeat skipping and thrumming in her chest so loud she could barely hear her inner screaming. Using "Love" and "Yaya" in the same sentence made her feel like imploding.
However, Yaya was not her usually cat-like self, leaning over with a mischievous smirk on her face as she pounced on Tsubomi's shyness or doubt. She was not running her fingers along the grass or dreamily relaxing. She was troubled, she held a heavy heart, her love-filled eyes losing all of their sheen and life, sitting in her head merely measuring the depth of the bushes in front of her, her perfectly drawn eyebrows tilted in a melancholy flatness.
"I didn't realize that until yesterday, that I lost the only thing I couldn't live without...and I will never have it back." Yaya ran her fingers along her choker necklace, and clutched something else along her neck, pulling it out and gazing into its insidious dark. The black etoile pendant. She remembered Remi, in all of her unholy glory, and the beautiful words that laid silent in her head, and seemed to trance her. "Yaya, I can make Hikari love you." She felt the words of Hikari pour into her mind again. "I don't want you to ever feel like I want you to stay away." And another, and another. The words of Hikari poured into her mind, sweet soft words, and then ones that broke her heart every time she heard them. "Please!" "No more!" "Stop!" Yaya felt truly ashamed, and realized she was no different than the demon Remi. She was a creature of lust, who preyed upon others. She slumped in place, and let her mask crack, revealing her sorrow and shame to the world.
Tsubomi felt the thrumming in her heart begin to slow, and she felt a drive. A drive to look at Yaya in a different light. She was weak too, in all of her strength, protectiveness and joy, she had been damaged. This drive channeled Tsubomi's courage, and she could feel herself growing in different ways, to step away from the childish indifference and flutter-hearted romance, to step into the shoes of a woman, an able bodied girl that could help somebody suffering from things beyond their control. To alleviate the pain of the one she loved, the one she wrote so much about. It was her time to save someone, to protect someone.
Tsubomi scooted closer to Yaya, breaking her dismal view on the bushes and standing up in front of her. Her heart was beating, and her hands were sweating. She stretched her arms out and cupped Yaya's head between them, and pulled them close to her heart. Yaya twitched, her eyes widening at the act, and she could hear Tsubomi's heartbeat racing out of control, scared and nervous. "Yaya. You don't have to be alone anymore...I will help you find the thing you can't live without. If I can't find your old thing, I will help you find a new one. We can have both of our special things together. "
Yaya shook her head. "No Tsubomi. You don't understand." she said, wanting to pull herself away, but Tsubomi kept her grip on Yaya tight. "I know I don't. I don't understand why my heart is beating so fast. I don't understand why I am sweating, or why I feel like running away when the only thing I want to do, right now, is stay here with you. I don't understand why you look so sad, I don't know how to ask. I don't know what I can do to fix what happened in the past. I don't know how to make it better for you right now. I only know one thing right now, besides how nervous I am! I know that I don't want to see you suffer, see you cry! I only want to see you happy Yaya! I will do anything I can to make that happen!" Tsubomi pulled Yaya closer, causing Yaya to lose her grip on the bead in her hand and catch herself onto Tsubomi.
In that moment of warmth, of bravery, Tsubomi had planted a seed in Yaya's heart. The sorrows of what she had done, and what she still felt towards Hikari rippled. The fantasies, lustful and sweet, of a world where Hikari was hers, shuddered like TV static and behind it, was another future, and unseen future. A future of her playing hand in hand with a pink haired girl, being tugged forward by a sweater-covered hand, A world where even in her worst moments, she could feel an embrace like this again. A gentle embrace that belonged to her, that was not given by somebody she felt inferior to, or belonged on a person greater than her. She did not need to compete for the affection of Tsubomi, and that Tsubomi was the cure for her aching heart all along. She was short, young and ignorant of the workings of heart-break and desire, but maybe that was a good thing. She could begin again, with Tsubomi by her side. A fresh start. She closed her aching eyes, and absorbed all of the tenderness Tsubomi silently offered, saying no more than what she had exclaimed.
As they shared an eternity of loving silence between them, and the sun seemed to expose the two girls, Tsubomi fidgeted. "Something is really cold." Yaya shifted, and pulled the black etoile necklace from her neck. She clutched it in her hand, unseen by Tsubomi, and readied herself to toss it away, to throw it into the expanses of woods over the bushes, but she hesitated. Something unknown and dark flooded her heart, challenging the new hope that laid itself inside of Yaya. A flash of an image erupted in her head, a subliminal assault that made her hesitate. "I forgive you, Yaya-sama." It was the words of Hikari, whispering softly as she laid naked against Yaya's chest, dreaming and full of love as her eyes twinkled with joy. Yaya felt the twinge of desire pump through her blood again, and begin to consume her, as it did last time. "Just throw it away." beckoned a voice inside her, as she felt the shudder-inducing touch of the relic at her neck. "Listen to Tsubomi's words, you don't need to go down that dark path." It beseeched, trying to get her to listen to reason.
Yaya grabbed the necklace, and quietly pulled it from her neck, hiding it in her pocket. "No, I can't. Not yet." she spoke to the voices inside of her. She blinked slowly, letting the righteous and sane voices of dissent in her heart to be drowned out. The happy glow in her eyes returned, and they became full of life again, breaking away from the private darkness of her mind, and brought back into the world where her and Tsubomi stood. There she stood, her burst of courage and change vanishing, as her eyes widened, and she stepped back. Twirling her fingers around each other and stuttering. "...But yeah, and stuff! Things...stuff." she choked out, losing all of her tact and returning to her shyness. Yaya nodded, patting her on the head. "That's a good Tsubomi, getting all brave all of the sudden. Do you want to go out and grab something to eat? I'm hungry."
She bloomed red and nodded so fast she sent static through her hair against Yaya's hand. "Yup! lets go!" she scurried away shyly, out of view towards the pathway. As she sprinted ahead towards the path, something dark caught her eye, and something alluring caught her ear. "Tsubomi-chan..." A shade of black flashed in her view and then vanished, with monstrous wings, sultry cleavage and lustful lips, eyes callous and cruel, with an aura of savagery that sent panic and danger throughout her body. She jerked her head towards the church doors where the black figure had stood, but nothing was there. Tsubomi scratched her head, but continued on her way when Yaya stepped onto the pathway with her, and they continued away from the church and Yaya's private spot.
Unseen to the both of them, Remi stared at Tsubomi with a newfound lust she had never felt before. She measured her, absorbing the smell of her hair and skin, and the sight of her cuteness. Cuteness to pollute, and defile. Remi grinned to herself as Yaya and Tsubomi got acquainted over dinner, laughing and making jokes together. She knew who she desired as her payment, as her sacrifice. She couldn't wait to see the look on Tsubomi's face, when Yaya eventually betrays her. Her tears would taste like heaven.
Author's Note: Nobody cares about Strawberry Panic. This fandom is dead. No reviews, no favorites, no views. I regret not publishing this sooner, when the Yuri fervor was at it's peak. I hope that someday, people come back, and see this little fic I pushed my hours into, and can draw something nice from it. That they enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will fight my cynicism for now. Let's press on.