Umi awoke to sunshine blaring in her eyes and a slight jagged sensation digging into her side. She must have twisted and turned in her sleep far too much and sitting up, she half wished she'd stayed with Nozomi and Eli. At least then she'd have something to wake up to, even if one half of it was hostile. At least she'd probably have something to eat that way.

But for whatever reason, she didn't feel particularly hungry. Umi brought out the compass given to her so she could navigate her way back to the city in time for the end of the festival, but with it, her thoughts lingered on her speech from the previous night. Had she gone overboard? Probably, but she deserved a vent that wasn't just sobbing she reasoned with herself and with that, she placed the compass back.

Climbing up a nearby tree, she checked the position of the sun and came to the conclusion that it was the morning, she hadn't overslept and she had plenty of time to think up of something to get out of killing. But she couldn't cling onto that hope forever.

Kotori wouldn't be close to the city, if she was smart and Umi didn't doubt she was. But there was just something in the pit of her stomach that didn't want to leave her be as she lowered herself back down to ground level. Taking a few cursory glances around her, she decided to move closer to the city, but she was running out of time. It was either find a faun and move in for the kill now, or face, well… Whatever would be waiting for her when she came back. No one had ever come back from the hunt without a kill.

But no matter how much she tried to steel herself, she couldn't do it. After all, the last time she'd been faced with a perfect opportunity, that turned out rather interestingly, all things considered.

As she began her slow, depressing march, she made a note to skirt around Nozomi and Eli's camp, not wishing to disturb them or face Eli after her outburst. Halfway through her walk, she heard a male voice cause her to jump out of her half awake daze.

"Sonoda?"

Looking towards the noise, one of the men she hadn't recognised initially pushed his way through the plants in his way, a smirk plastered on his face.

"... Tsunemori."

"Ah, Sonoda! You're the first contestant I've come across, but certainly not the first living thing, if you catch my meaning." As he laughed, Umi rolled her eyes, thankfully without him picking up on it. "So, how's your hunt doing? It's going well I hope."

"You'll find out when the festival is over," She bluffed. Trying to keep up her family's name and her demeanor proved to be a bit difficult, but thankfully he didn't call her out on it.

"Of course, of course, I have no doubts," Scratching the back of his neck, he continued, "I was just going to keep heading forward, but I was just wondering, do you think it's wise to head closer to the city now?"

A thought struck her suddenly. While she had all the desire in the world to leave this oaf to keep going forward, she knew that he would likely come across Nozomi and Eli's camp. She couldn't let him get close to them, because she knew well enough he would gladly slaughter them both without a second thought.

"Y-yes that is probably the best choice. It's the same way I was headed. "

"Do you mind if I carry on with you? If we come across any fauns we can have ourselves a little game, hm?" Umi shuddered slightly, but he took her silence as a sign that she agreed.

Tsunemori. Now that she thought deeper about it, the two had been introduced to each other at a business party by each of their parents and now that thought was present in her mind; she realised. Tsunemori was introduced to her as a potential suitor. But at least they were of a similar age, so it wasn't too strange. Come to think of it, she'd been highly oblivious to that fact the whole encounter. Even if she had realised, she doubted she would have chosen the man of her own free will. But that wasn't just down to one factor if she was perfectly honest. Not only would her opinions anger her parents, but so would her orientation.

"So, did you have a comfortable rest last night?"

"Comfortable enough."

Raising his eyebrow, he decided to continue to push a conversation, "How do you fancy your chances of winning?"

Biting her tongue and resisting saying anything too controversial, she replied, "I prefer not to boast."

"Fair enough. I like a woman who lets her actions speak for her." He took the opportunity to move slightly closer and in return, she returned the distance back to normal between them, not giving dignifying him with a response.

"... You're a cold woman, you know that, Umi?"

Only now shooting him a glare, she replied, "Call me Sonoda or call me nothing at all," Although out of courtesy on the day he had been introduced to her she had allowed Tsunemori to call her Umi, but she simply called him Tsunemori. He did try to get her to call him by his first name, but she insisted.

"R-right… You're a cold woman then, Sonoda."

"What do you expect from me then? I have too much pressure on me to be a ray of sunshine all the time."

"Hahah… That's true. But don't you think you should loosen up every so often? Perhaps after this is over you'd like to join me at a family soiree?"

Umi cleared her throat, annoyed at his persistence so she decided to humour him, "I'll consider it."

"See! Was that so hard?" Gesturing excitedly with his hands, he grinned, more to himself than at Umi, who rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking. Giving him a bit of hope was fine, she supposed, but what would happen when she had to act upon that?

Getting jolted out of her thoughts by Tsunemori's outstretched arm, she managed to stop before she bumped into him. "Hey, d'you hear that…?" His sudden serious expression quickly turned into a smirk, "I think we got ourself some game. Animal or faun. Ah, who'm I kidding? They're both animals."

Before she could say anything, he sped off into the tree canopy and Umi had little choice but to follow the impatient and, in her opinion, quite annoying man.

Tsunemori had slid into a bush, hidden from the rest of the lines of trees and Umi slowly made her way over next to him, still leaving a sizeable distance between the two of them. He glanced at her and put his finger to his lips, as he began to survey where he'd heard the noise. Umi wasn't paying to much attention. If it was a faun, she didn't want to watch as he killed them and she didn't want to kill them herself. And stopping him would be no small task.

"Hey, Sonoda," He edged closer and nudged her arm persistently, earning him a cold, hard glare, "Oi, don't get annoyed with me, I'm just trying to get your attention."

Really, Umi was quite amazed about how little manners he had. He seemed to be the typical spoilt rich man who had never quite grown out of his childish years, rather than the gentleman that was expected of him.

"You're not even gonna draw your bow? You're making this far too easy for me. So be it Sonoda." With a smirk, he drew his bow, peeking out through the bush.

"It's a shame really…" He whispered, "If she were an elf, she'd be quite attractive."

Rearing himself up in a flash, the brown painted arrow shot from his string, an aggravating smirk plastered across his face that Umi wanted to do nothing more than to wipe if off his-

As the bottom of her stomach dropped into the abyss, she realised something.

She'd never looked at the faun.

But she recognised their voice.

The yelp of pain and surprise, the desperate laboured breath as they clutched onto life.

It was undeniable.

It was Kotori.

Grief and fear quickly mixed inside her, melding and melting into a bubbling mass of rage, and before she knew it, an arrow was nocked and shot. Bits of her memory cut out, only remembering Tsunemori's pierced forehead, clean through his skull was an arrow, his expression as death took him and blood spattering over herself from his wound.

When she came around, her anger suddenly disappeared, leaving her a shaking mess of adrenaline and fresh blood.

'Kotori…'

She could still be alive. Clinging onto hope, she clumsily pushed through the foliage and dropped to her knees beside her, blood staining onto the grass and absorbing into the ground.

"Kotori… Please…" Umi's voice cracked, fighting back the tears that she had shed so many of already, but this was her biggest trial yet. She gently tilted her face closer to her, her eyes fluttering open, half lidded.

"U-Umi…" She tried to reach up with an unstable hand, which Umi tried to grasp gently in return, lowering it so she didn't strain herself.

"Please… Don't leave me… I don't want to be alone again…" Umi desperately begged for Kotori's life to remain, she wanted to be with her. "I should have done something… I should have… Made sure everything would be okay, th-that something like this wouldn't happen…" Tears fell finally, her body shaking in silent sobs.

"Don't say that… It's not… Not your fault, okay?" Her chest rose and fell and she fought against the urge to close her eyes and succumb, but the weight was getting heavier. As stabs of pain shot through her, she thumbed away Umi's tears, a bittersweet smile on her lips.

"I should have ran away with you, just something, just something…!"

"They would have found you… But please… Please Umi, I don't want to talk about what… Could have been…"

Umi looked up through the tree canopy, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to regain what little control she had over her emotions. She knew how to handle death, but now that it was being presented to her, face to face, its grip on a loved one, it was difficult. But she mustered up a smile. For Kotori.

"Tell me something pleasant… Nothing… Nothing sad… No more sadness, Umi."

Swallowing hard, she stroked her hand gently through Kotori's hair, tracing over her horns delicately, "You know, the flowers are blooming in the city. Reds, pinks, golds, purples, every colour imaginable."

"Yeah? Are there dark blues?"

"Mm, of course. I'll bring you some, okay?"

"Okay."

Kotori's hands settled on her chest and Umi's hands found her way to them.

"And during Winter, the lakes freeze over. The two of us can go skating."

"I don't think I'll be that good…"

"Of course you will. It'll just take some practice."

"If you say so, Umi." With a quiet giggle that ended with a cough, she murmured, "I'm tired, but I want to keep talking to you…"

"We can talk when you wake up," She paused for a moment, "I promise." It was empty, but neither of them pointed it out. "Sleep well, Kotori." She leant down, planting a loving kiss on her lips, ignoring the slightly metallic taste lingering in the other's mouth.

Kotori smiled up at Umi one last time, before her eyelids finally fell, the weight too much for her to fight against any longer, but the smile remained.

Umi began to cry again. But she didn't sob, she didn't make any noise and she knelt there over her lover's body. She gingerly touched her still-warm neck. No pulse.

She didn't know how long she had been there, kneeling on the blood stained grass. She ignored the cannon shot in the distance, signifying that search teams had been sent to count up bodies and find any remaining contestants.

Finally dragging herself upwards, Umi's attention was brought to a felled tree, abused by weather and splintered by its fall. Branches lay littering the ground and she moved forward to gather them without truly knowing what she was doing. Her body moved of its own accord and soon she made a bed of wood. Smaller twigs were placed around it as tinder and she pulled an arrow out of her quiver, trudging to find a rock.

Bringing it back, she began to strike at it, making a few feeble sparks before finally succeeding in ignition. As the fire began to burn, Umi took Kotori's body as if it were sacred, laying her onto the soon to be burned wood. Smoke rose through the trees, undoubtedly giving her position away, but she knew it was too late for her too. This was treason, what she had done was betrayal and murder. She only knew that her end would be far more drawn out and that no one would comfort her.

But she wouldn't let them take Kotori's body. She wouldn't let them toss it on a pile to be counted as a kill. It was no object to be treated poorly. It meant the world to her.

The stench of Tsunemori's rotten blood began to fade as the smoke took over and Umi knelt again, watching as her lover was slowly cremated. At least she would be at peace. She wouldn't have to struggle any more, to scrape at basic survival. The only problem was that Umi had no one to comfort her. There was something missing however.

Grasping firmly her arrows, she brought them out of their quiver, inspecting them before finding what she was looking for. The arrow with two rings carved near the tip. Exhaling shakily, she laid the arrow on the fire next to her. At least she looked serene. Content maybe. The only thing disrupting the tranquility was the arrow lodged in her torso, not that Umi could bring herself to wrench it out.

Sitting back, she stayed there. Hours passed as the ashes began to drift into the air, spreading over trees, leaves and grass and she was motionless. Not even the smoke blowing in her face, causing her to cough and choke could get her to move. The well of tears had dried up finally and all she did was stare.

Voices could be heard through the trees, snapping her out of her stupor.

"The smoke's coming from this way."

"Is it a distress signal?"

"What else could it be?"

"It's just Sonoda and Tsunemori left to come back, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Hope nothing bad's happened to them."

"I'm sure they can handle themselves."

Rising to her feet, she could see that this was it. The beginning of the end. Wrenching her eyes away from the nearly fully cremated body, she drew her bow and nocked an arrow, not quite pointing it at the direction of the voices yet.

"Sonoda? Tsunemori?"

"... I'm here."

"Sonoda? Ah, thank God. Are you okay? Is Tsunemori with you-"

At first glance, the scene before them would be confusing to anyone. An elf burning a faun's body, her eyes reddened from too much crying and tear stains down her face. This was the likely what caused the man's face to pale and his eyes to widen, "G-Gods, what's going on?"

Another pushed past him, taller, more strong and the very aura he exuded demanded authority. Ah yes, Umi recognised him. Akiyama. A high ranking general and one who was not a stranger to these games at all, always being one in the search parties and holding the highest kill count in the history of the games.

Umi wanted to spit on him.

"Sonoda… What is this…?!"

When he received nothing but silence and a cold glare, he snarled, "Do you know where Tsunemori is?!"

"... Behind the bush."

Jerking her head, he grit his teeth and stomped over, "Tsunemori?! Are you asleep?! You're normally much louder than this, so you must b-"

He stopped dead as he saw his corpse, dried blood trailing down his face, his eyes open in shock and more importantly, the telltale sign of a dark blue arrow protruding from his forehead.

"He's simply sleeping forever."

"Sonoda, you are to explain to me exactly what is going on here, or I will beat you within an inch of your life and throw you on the fire with this sorry excuse for a creature!" He barked at her, which she certainly didn't appreciate.

"Tsunemori killed Kotori, so I killed him."

She watched his facial expression contort, angry and obviously not satisfied with her minimalist response.

"Kotori…? Who are you referring to?" He asked, through gritted teeth, his fist clenching. He watched her gesture leisurely to the still burning pile of wood and the corner of her mouth twitched, seeing that she was nearly gone, nearly free of this world entirely.

"You mean to say that you know a faun personally?"

"Well, typically when you refer to someone with their first name you do know them on a personal level, general. So yes, I do mean to say that."

It happened within a split second, the back of his hand slapped her harshly on her cheek, leaving a bright red mark, but she refused to make a sound. She didn't have any anger left to retaliate with and she didn't want to stoop to his level anyway.

"And what about Tsunemori?!"

"I told you what happened. He killed Kotori, so I killed him."

She could have sworn that Akiyama was ready to explode, finish her off right then and there, but she felt no fear. What could he do to her that felt worse than losing Kotori? Not even losing her own life compared to that.

"So Tsunemori, a gentleman from a highly well regarded family, was killed over a lowly faun?"

"Tsunemori was no gentleman and Kotori was not a 'lowly' faun. He was worth less than her."

"You do know that you will hang for this Sonoda? Your name will burn like this creature's body is right now-" He went to stomp on the ashes, but Umi was faster. She held up her bow, aiming under the man's chin and he stopped.

"Touch her and I won't hesitate to kill you too."

The men behind the scene unfolding in front of them whispered frantically behind them, unsure of what to do. They hand'nt brought any weapons; they didn't think they would need them. "Has Sonoda gone insane?!"

"I think so, there's no way anyone would aim at the general and talk to him like that!"

"What should we do?"

"If we go closer she might kill him."

"Just stay back, stay back! Maybe he has things under control."

As Akiyama stepped back, her aim didn't lower. If she did, he would strike. "Tell me Sonoda, why are you doing this?!"

"It wasn't just friendship you know. And these games have gone on far too long. We never should have forced the fauns out in the first place."

"More than friendship…?! Sonoda, you-!" He choked on his own words momentarily, but Umi admitted that it was amusing to watch him.

"There's no point hiding anything now."

The body was gone. The only thing remaining on the first was a metal tip from the arrow and the ashes had blown away into the wind. She felt her chest tightening before the weight lifted off of her, suddenly satisfied.

'You're finally free of fear, Kotori.'

Jerking her head towards the men behind the general, she instructed them, "You don't want the whole forest to catch alight, do you? Stomp it out now."

She stepped back, allowing the general some room, "She's gone. You can go ahead now."

"Tch." He didn't appreciate being told what to do from a treasonous murderer, "Very well men."

As the fire was put out, everyone turned back to her. "You know that there's no way out of this, don't you Sonoda?"

"I am fully aware."

"I'll be taking you in then. Sonoda Umi, you are hereby under arrest for murder and treason."

"Of course. Just after I do one more thing though."

"No, you will be coming now. This has gone on long enough and we have all of the charges we need."

"I think I hold most of the power right now general. Besides, the other thing is just a little bit of karma catching up to you."

Without hesitation, she let the arrow go, piercing it into Akiyama's chest. Giving her one final incredulous look, he choked up his own blood and fell onto the floor in an undignified fashion.

And yet she felt nothing but a small amount of satisfaction. It was better than spitting on him whilst he was alive at least.

"I was going to die anyway, why not get some revenge for all of those undeserving fauns you killed?" Throwing her bow onto the floor along with her quiver, she placed her hands behind her back, "I'll go peacefully from now on."

One man who had recovered from the shock of what happened, swallowed and stepped forward and with shaky movements made his way behind her, avoiding her gaze, pulling out his handkerchief and tying her wrists together. It was makeshift, but it would do.

"M-Matoi, Toshino, y-you take General Akiyama's body… Th-the other two of you take Tsunemori… I'll be fine with Sonoda."

"A-are you sure…?"

"I promise no more danger will be posed by me." Umi looked to the ground, keeping her composure. She'd come this far. She refused to break now.

As she was led off through the trees, she watched the ground, feeling the accusing, burrowing stares of the men around her. But she couldn't care less, this was how things would end. Her family would crash and burn with her. And with a somewhat bittersweet feeling, she was fine with that.

"Ladies and gentleman, I regret to inform everyone that we have run into some difficulties," As one of the men waved a member of the authorities over, he listened and began to part the mass of people, arranging a crowd around the search party, Umi and the two bodies being carried through to avoid panic.

She remembered very little, the time passed quickly as she brought one foot in front of the other. The next thing she knew, she stepped into a dark cell.

"We need time to explain what happened and make it public. We don't know how long you'll be here, but there'll be no doubt the city will be out for your blood, Sonoda."

"I don't doubt that at all."

Author's Note: Okay, I'm sorry! This was the way it was intended to be from the very beginning, from the planning stages! And I felt really bad when I saw all the reviews going 'I hope Kotori is gonna be okay'!

But I'm sorry, I really am, it hurt to kill her off. But as I said, me and my friend had this planned for a while. In fact, it's mainly her fault it turned out this way.