I was an idiot. Love can never best hate.
Wrong.
Wrong.
WRONG!
Running feels good when there is no purpose. A sense of freedom sings through your veins and vibrates your entire being. This feeling courses through me now.
"Kisshu, have you seen Tachibana? He seems to be plotting something…" Aka asks as she matches my pace.
"Nope, dunno where he could be." I say. I could care less about him. It's just me and Aka now, and I see no reason to change that.
"Okay…" She pauses. "Well I think we should look for him."
My feedom dissipates, and I stop abruptly. An emerald beast claws my heart raw and steals control over my tongue. From somewhere else, it seems, I bite out a response, unable to keep it caged away.
"Why does he matter, he's not here." Envy enflames me, incinerating common sense.
"Why do your friends matter? Try living without them. See how much harder it is."
My feet fall in step with her. I'll go, Aka, if that's what you want.
Of course the first place we look is the other side. Neither of us had seen him return from there yet.
Smoke billows out of a building in the near distance, encasing us in a bitter, foul-smelling haze. We break once more into a run. There is a scream. And a curse. Still, we approach the danger.
Pai stands before the building, a tongue of flame curling against its blackened sides. He glares at us, bringing a tear forth from Aka's eye.
"How could you leave Taruto, your own cousin, inside there?! How, you selfish pig!" She turns to slowly face me, then leans over and presses her lips to my cheek, wrapping her arms around me in deep embrace. The embrace of a farewell. Her lips mouth three words: I love you.
"No! Aka, don't!" we fall apart and she rushes through the arch of flame that was previously a door, entering the maw of the hellish inferno. I leap to follow and an arm of steal snakes around me and restrains my advance. I struggle, blindly, in vain. Dragon sword comes and slashes, drawing my own blood as well as the blood of my captor. That arm, too, is caught and restrained.
Fire swells and falls, twists and contorts, writhing into shapes out of my nightmares and images snatched from dreams. It snarls at us, maddened, and rampages on, weakening, then collapsing, the back of the house. I stare into its deepest pits and my eyes fill in a flower, show me each leaf crumble into dust and shatter the soft petals into black ash. Crimson blood slithers down my arm and joins the blaze, tendrils flaring up in acceptance of my offering.
Blood.
Pain.
Fire.
Aka, my love, come back to me.
My hand tears free, unleashing a new splatter of blood. I don't care, can't care. Colors wriggle and form anew, my vision blurs at the edges then reshapes harsher. Silence fights a never-ending battle with flame. Then a body stumbles out and my hope is revived.
Taruto.
There is no second person, no other survivor. And the whole house collapses with a final sigh.
"No! Aka!" I screech, freeing myself and tossing wood, still aflame, aside. Adrenaline courses through my every fiber, fueled by an empowering hate. But even I, half-maddened and not quite sane, cannot break free a second time.
I fall limp in the arms of whoever is holding me back, staring at the last of the flames amongst ash.
So much destruction, too much to bear.
"Kisshu… She died well, I think." Taruto says from somewhere behind me.
"She found me and led me out, almost reaching the exit until a piece of wood falls on her leg. She was yanking it free as she yelled at me to continue on, telling me that she'd be right behind me… I believed her." He finishes quietly, almost a whisper.
For many minutes everything lies festooned in silence and regret.
A voice comes from behind, a shout.
"It was her, Doku! That girl is obviously not right in the head, and she can start fires!"
I turn my head a bit to see a girl with chains clasped around both wrists being dragged away. In her eyes lies an unfathomable pain, and her head slightly shakes a 'no'. I want to believe, to find an object to focus my wrath on, but that girl was not the one who started the fire. My heart tells me that, and I cannot find enough evidence to refute it.
Aka is no longer alive. All that remains of her existence are ashes and scars in our hearts.
We searched, through all of the rubble that remained, but found naught. Tachibana and Tsuki, and a few of Aka's other friends had appeared at some time or another, and they too joined our fruitless search.
My heart lies in battered shards beyond repair. Sword.
Blood.
Pain.
Fire.
I plunge the bloodied sword into my heart.
Tachibana hits it out of my hand before it strikes true, however.
"Idiot! There is never going to be a time where you can do that, okay?! Plus, Aka would hate to see you kill yourself for her." A line used so many times, yet effective. Staring dully at him, I sift through my feelings to try and attempt a response. Of course, it doesn't help when the loudspeaker, which has never been used in my lifetime, blares loudly in my ears.
"There has been a grave disaster. Everyone knows of the fire that spread throughout our community and right into the next, and I'm sure everyone has lost a loved one…"
Aka…
"…to become a part of the mission to take back the planet so cruelly stolen by the filthy humans, report to the Master."
Mechanically, I walk to the place that all know of, but few ever get to enter in person. Just barely am I aware of Taruto and Pai trailing behind. I'll get you your flower, Aka.
I loved Aka. Her death turned what remained of my heart into something else entirely. Scars on my arms and legs, concealed by bandages, remained hidden for a long time after the fire. I kept them in remembrance for Aka, and in fear that they too would be revealed as the ones in my heart already had been. My whole being built up a barrier to my hurt, obscuring the fractured person I truly was with fake sarcasm and lacing it with ice.
Then I saw her. Ichigo. She was Aka, in a way, both by looks and personality. I gave her the kiss that should have belonged to Aka, but it was from a different Kisshu, not the one locked up within a wall of grief. And against every grain of will I possessed, I fell hopelessly in love with her.
Now I know who truly started the fire.
Tachibana.
He got his revenge for Taruto, yes, but he couldn't control the fire once it was so innocently conceived.
I felt a stab of pain when he told me, yes. But Aka is still here. Amongst the fields of flowers, and within every breath of wind I can feel her. And I have Ichigo.