Epilogue

Five years after Ryoushi joined the war on the continent, his prediction came true: both of the alliances were forced to negotiate for peace. Fields had been ransacked, and there was not enough food or clean water on either side for them to continue fighting for very long. The Awakened One served as a kind of guard for the delegates from the organization's side, and the negotiations went through without a hitch, as he was slaying the assassins that came almost every night from and for either side; there were some extremists who wanted the war to continue, but the treaty was signed.

Reconstruction began, and the organization's research gear and notes were put to the torch, as were all living yoma. The remaining mainland hanyoma were permitted to help with the reconstruction, as they were far stronger and far faster than ordinary humans. Because Ryoushi had wings in his Awakened form, people were able to build whole roofs on the ground and then have him fly up with them to lower them into place.

Even with all of the help they received, it took over one hundred years for the last scars of the centuries-long war to vanish into nature. Bit by bit, records of the Great War disappeared just like their physical counterparts. The hanyoma an Awakened Ones who remained kept a low profile and avoided one another if it was likely to come to a fight.

Time marched on. Technology improved, civilizations grew and declined, wars began and ended. Though Ryoushi searched and searched, he never found Kinatia; the world is a big place. He did meet up with Riful and Isley, who'd paired off simply so they wouldn't have to fight over territory. They were utterly delighted to see him and were able to give him Helen and Deneve's last known locations, hopefully so he could get in touch with Miria. She kept track of all remaining yoma by-products, Awakened or no, and if anyone knew where Kinatia could be found, it would be her.

He found her running a drugstore in England in 1893 AD and stayed with her for a while to help make youki suppressants for the hanyoma, so they could hide their silver eyes. It was during that time that Flora meandered in to tell them that an earthquake had sunk the Awakened One test site below the waves; now it was lost forever. Though they had been born there, they were happy to see it go; it held too many bad memories to still be called 'home.'

Clare came by with Raki in the early nineteen hundreds; they were happy to see him and soundly cursed the organization's name when they learned of what had befallen him on the continent. Kinatia had not been in contact with anyone for a long time, but they promised to keep an eye out for her and left. In 1950, he headed over to the United States and made several successful investments in the future of society, could live off the profits for easily a hundred years.

Winter Garden, FL. 2010.

Ryoushi was not quite sure what street he was on, only that there were several shops on either side of the street and an ice cream place down the way called Scoops. He'd wandered the planet in search of his hanyoma friend, only to miss her time and again. Needless to say, he was beginning to believe that Someone Up There had it out for him. With a sigh, he flopped down into one of the chair outside a French bakery and cafe and waited, mentally cataloguing all of the places he'd gone and reviewing all those that were left.

"What can I get you?" He was so distracted that he hadn't even noticed the waitress walk up, and he was about to give her an order for just a cup of coffee when something clicked in the back of his mind. She had a youki, a suppressed one that he could sense, one that he knew all too well. His head snapped up, and his jaw dropped.

"Kinatia?"

The claymore looked up from her pad of paper and gasped sharply. "Ryoushi?" A moment later, they were embracing fiercely, and he kissed her forehead before getting down on one knee.

She said yes.