Lalin
Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life.
-Edvard Munch
Phase I
Part VII
Sora was bound by shadows.
Aya was unconscious.
And Sasuke was confused.
Everything had happened so quickly; Ai disappearing, the woman she was holding falling through the trees, the wolf jumping after her only to be put down by Sasuke's chidori. He had watched as the shadows began to crawl from Ai's feet down to the floor of the forest, binding the raven haired woman to a tree.
Sasuke sat on the wolf, overlooking the situation before him, which wasn't much of a sight. Ai was just standing there, staring at the woman, her expression unreadable as she tapped her fingers against the side of her leg. Her captive was unmoving and silent; she hadn't said a single word.
Then again, what was there to say?
"Are we leaving, then?" Sasuke finally asked. "Now that we have the final piece for your..." he wasn't sure what to call it. "Ritual?"
Ai didn't even look at him. It was as if he wasn't even there.
What could she have possibly been thinking?
"Don't bother," the woman spoke as Sasuke opened his mouth once more. "When she gets like this, there's no getting through to her."
His eyes narrowed.
"And how would you know this?"
Sora turned her head, her blue eyes connecting with his black ones.
"How would I not? She's my sister, after all."
It was then Ai finally made a sound. She cocked her head back as hysterical laughter left her lips, scaring the birds from the trees. She grabbed her stomach, doubling over for only a second before her leg came swinging from behind her and hit Sora in the jaw.
"Oh, man that felt good," she grinned, watching as the blood dripped from the older woman's lips. "And here I was, thinking I would never be able to do that again."
"Ai, please. Stop this."
She a brought a finger to her lips, pouting, pretending to think.
"I guess I could..." she paused. "But I won't."
"Ai," Sasuke spoke, his stomach churning. Ai had said that she had killed her entire family, and yet here was her sister, alive, right in front of them. "We should head back. You have your Sun."
"Why so impatient, Sas-oo-kay? We have the entire day ahead of us now. We can go sight seeing, I could find you a cheap brothel, we could even all go out to eat like a family. What do you say, Sora?" she bent over, grabbing her sisters chin with her bandaged hand and forcing her to look into her eyes. "How about some food, hm? I'm sure the princess must be starving."
"Ai."
"Sora."
"Please, you're in danger."
"From what?" she shot back, her hands on her hips and her white hair flowing down her shoulders. "You? Please, Sora. You've never been a threat to me."
Sora shook her head. "No, it's... there are people looking for you."
"Someone is always looking for me. I'm an S-rank criminal for crying out loud. Or did Daddy dearest never teach you what big people words mean?"
"The New Moon is coming... and when it does, he's going to come for you. Please, I'm begging you - "
Ai held up her hand, silencing her.
"Shut up."
And so she did.
"Tell me, how would you feel about being a Wolf... forever?"
Blue eyes widened as sweat began to drip down the side of her face.
"Excuse me?"
"You know, I never thought about it because you were supposed to be, dead. But now that I think about it, once the Moon is destroyed that means... there will be no cycle for you anymore. Either you'll be a human forever, or..." Ai grinned. "Not."
"What the hell is going on!?" Sasuke snapped, getting up from his position on the wolf. His eyes changed to crimson, his teeth grinding together as he tried to piece together what was happening. "What are you talking about?"
"Sasuke, you are growing to be rather irritating."
His wrists and ankles began to tighten. When he looked down, he realized the shadows had made their way over to him. Binding him completely.
"I don't owe you any answers," her voice was monotone - deadly, her hair shadowing her face as she glanced over towards him. "I didn't owe you the answers I already gave you. So if you do not shut your mouth, I will shut it for you. Permanently. And then you'll never be able to see your stupid big brother ever again, do you understand me?"
It was then he noticed her hands were shaking.
She was just confused as he was.
She had no idea Sora had lived.
When Ai returned home after the transformation she was covered in blood.
Sora had screamed and ran up the stairs of their spacious home to get her mother because, surely, Manami could fix this. She had to fix her little sister who smelled of iron and burnt flesh, who looked as if the blood in her body and been drained from her only to be poured over her head.
Manami came downstairs with a towel, wrapping Ai in it and carrying her to the bathroom where her eldest child was drawing a bath. Ai didn't speak, she only watched with dead eyes as her mother removed her clothes and set her in the tub.
When she was clean and dry she was wrapped in bandages and sent to bed. Sora waited outside her room just in cause her younger sister needed anything, which made it easier for her to hear her parents fighting down the hall.
Ai didn't sleep that night, and every night for the week after.
She didn't speak. Didn't eat. Didn't bathe.
All she did was sit and think of the shadows and wondered how they could feel so cold yet be able to burn her skin to ash.
Sora continued to wait outside Ai's room every night. She was the first person the white haired child saw in the morning and the last before she went to be. She would always ask - are you okay? Do you need anything? Do you want me to change your bandages? Are you ready to eat yet? But Ai said nothing in return.
And when she finally did speak, Sora wished that her sister had become a mute, because though her words were quiet and few, the way they slipped off her tongue sent shivers down the blue eyed child's spine.
You did this to me, and for that I can never forgive you.
And then the four year old grinned.
On Ai's sixth birthday she was given a gift. It came in the form of a small black box, tied nicely with white ribbon and cut specifically to each corner.
She remembered the golden ring with the diamond center perfectly; how it sparkled in the kitchen's light, how it was just a bit too big but could fit perfectly on a necklace -
and how her mother had snatched it away from her and given it to her sister.
"You're too young for suitors, Lalin," her mother had said. "And don't you dare cry about it. We will worry about marrying you off once Sora's been betrothed."
She didn't cry. Instead, she smiled.
"Okay, Mommy," the young girl replied, getting up from her stool and facing her older sister."Do you want to play, Sora?
Sora nodded enthusiastically and followed her outside. It had been two years since her younger sister had spoken to her, and though she understood why Ai was upset, she did not like the tension that roamed the house. If Ai wanted to play, that meant she had forgiven her, and with the grudge over the two could continue on as sister's again.
When she came in covered in bruises her mother and shrieked and called for her father. Rogue ninja had attacked and her stolen her ring. Her father had immediately left the house, weapons in hand, to track down the beasts who would do this to a ten year old child.
"Mommy," Sora spoke, her eyes lowered towards the ground. "Do you think... Daddy could train me?"
"In what?"
"How to... be a ninja."
She averted to her eyes to the window across the room where her young sister sat, her grin never faltering.
Her father would never catch the rogue ninja, simply because they didn't exist.
