YORI

No.

Not again.

No.

No, please... Please, I can't do anything... Her thoughts begged for mercy, begged for release from the blackened pit into which she was dropping once more. The world was going up in flames, just like the hostel, just like her home, just like the fragile stitches she had used to sew together her broken heart. But now...now she could feel it rupture, shattering outward again in a thousand microscopic pieces that she could never hope to recover. She had thought that she could not possibly fall any further and then, abruptly, the floor had dropped out from under her feet once again.

Her feet halted suddenly, as though she had hit an invisible barrier, and she felt her skin go cold. The air in her lungs felt raw, damaged, and toxic. The house was burning, as well as the barn beside it. She had seen that before, though now that she was only a couple of yards away the smoke was thicker and heavier. And now... Now she could see Kaze's body, crumpled like a child's doll, in the yard. He seemed so much smaller in death, like a heap of rags that had been tossed out when they were no longer useful. Around him, the dirt drank in a deep red-brown stain; the liquid remnants of the old man's life. Yet far, far worse...were the screams emanating from the hostel, which had been barricaded shut with tools and bales of flaming hay from the barn. Even as she heard them, the screaming seemed to become more shrill and then cut off sharply.

How could this happen again? Was she cursed? Was her existence so terrible that it must be charred to ash, along with everything it touched? It was too late, she knew that it was, and yet for a moment her mind raced, trying to think of some way she might pull Beruka from the flames. There was not. The burns would have been too much, even if Yori had been able to rescue her... She would have been dead within moments anyway. Yori felt her fists clench. Despite that, despite the truth which stood before her, encapsulated in choking black smoke, her impotence speared through her.

Throwing off her bow and quiver in a pile beside her, she kicked the leather case that held her arrows with a sudden burst of rage. Why could she not save anyone? Why was she rendered helpless time and time again, trapped in wrong decisions that couldn't be undone? She wanted to scream, but at the same time had no voice to do so. Powerless. Yes... She was forever powerless, forever the spectator, watching helplessly as the world burned. She kicked the quiver again, lashing out at it as her inability to act suffocated her.

A pair of arms wrapped her around her then from behind and a familiar voice murmured in a hoarse murmur, "This isn't our fault..." She wasn't sure if the knight was comforting himself or her.

For a moment, she wanted to fight him, to shout that it was their fault, that they had left Kaze and Beruka alone, that they had plainly heard the threats that the children had directed towards the older couple. After all, who else could have done this but them? She wanted to jerk away and take her frustration out on the quiver of arrows that was now out of reach of her foot. Her brain was feverish, narrowing to a tunnel of guilt and fury and sorrow so jumbled that she could no longer distinguish one from the other. So she only shook her head violently, trembling until at last her lips unlocked enough to whisper, "We should have been here. We heard what the children said..."

In an emotional maelstrom it seemed that Hanabusa's arms were like the bars of a cage, holding her there helpless as the roof began to cave in and the barn began to collapse. Smoke billowed and rolled away from them, stirred into a morbid, black concoction by the slight breeze. His words were laced with a terrifying, nightmarish logic that she did not wish to accept as he said, "There's no way we could have known. If the children are responsible for this, I would have expected them to try something after dark, but they were obviously watching us and waiting for the opportunity. When we left...that's what they were waiting for."

Yori shook her head again, though his words echoed the same truth she already knew...the one she had not wanted to accept. Yori felt the anger drain from her like the blood from Kaze's body. As the flames devoured the house, that place of peace in the middle of the forsaken swamp, she saw within the dancing tongues of fire the faces of her townspeople, pale with fear, fleeing from The Vale. She saw her father, cut down before her eyes, his blood spilling out to color the inferno red-orange. And she saw her half-siblings, at first smiling and then with their eyes as black and empty as graves. As she watched, the images blurred and vanished, coursing down her cheeks in hot, watery tracks. There was no way she could have saved them. Not them, or Kaze or Beruka... No one...

She didn't want to accept her own powerlessness, her own weakness. She wanted to be stronger, to be able to protect the people she cared about. Instead, she watched them burn, not once but twice. And although she knew ultimately she was not to blame, she felt as though there was something more she might have done. Anything... Something that might have saved at least one other person, other than herself... It was not fair, not fair that she should be the one to survive. There were so many others, so many children... But their lives had been sacrificed and hers had been spared. She had to bear the burden of their memories alone.

It should have been me. Not them... Not them. She wanted it to end, this plunge into an abyss of bottomless sorrow. She could feel herself falling, deeper and deeper into slippery darkness, but there was no handhold, nothing to stop the fall. Each time she thought she might be able to move on, the tide of emotions pulled her back under once more.

Concentrating only on the inhale and exhale of her breath, Yori fought to control the tide of emotions that threatened to incapacitate her. Even though she had sworn to herself that she would never, ever allow a travesty like the one that had passed in The Vale to occur again, this one had happened so rapidly that she had been unable to act before it had become irreversible. Just like the Vale, it was over before it had begun...over before she could act.

"I should have foreseen this." Her lips and tongue felt numb as they produced the words.

"How...? You're only human, Yori... Or should I have seen it, too?" Hanabusa demanded softly. "Should I have foreseen this, and the time before, and when Kaien died, and everything that has passed..?"

She swallowed hard. "No." The denial stuck in her throat.

"The past is the past. There's nothing you or I or anyone else can do to change it. It's the future that's worth fighting for."

And what if the future is the same..? A chain of tragedy that she could not break or change.

Yori did not realize she had spoken the words aloud until the knight answered, "To prevent that... We are taught this as knights in training. As my instructor told me, turn your fear and anger into fuel, your failures into teachers, your weaknesses into reasons to keep fighting. Don't waste your pain."

She quieted, the words turning over in her mind again and again. She didn't need Hanabusa to tell her that she couldn't change the past or that she should make use of her pain to move forward, but somehow, hearing someone else say those words, she couldn't help but acknowledge them as truth. Maybe there was still time to learn, to change the future, to become stronger... She still felt sickeningly small and vulnerable, but... But. She didn't have to remain this way. Maybe she was only bent after all and not quite broken. Maybe by accepting the past she could finally begin to walk towards the future.

Rubbing away her tears fiercely, she sucked in a breath, shoulders straightening a little. Against her back, she could feel the very faint, comforting beat of Hanabusa's heart thudding, reassuring her. She focused on that rhythm for a brief moment as the bloody flames gradually reduced the hostel to char and bone before her eyes. And then she stepped away from him, standing on her own. She promised herself then that she would be stronger, that she would learn from her mistakes. She didn't want to delude herself into thinking that she wouldn't allow tragedy to pass again, but she would certainly do everything in her power to prevent it.

"Yori," Hanabusa's tone was urgent this time, and as she glanced at him she immediately noted the tension in his face and shoulders. "Quickly, get your bow and arrows." His eyes were tracking something in the distance with hawkish attention.

Her body responded automatically, trusting him instinctively even when her mind had not quite caught up. She picked up the items, slinging them over her shoulders securely before she noticed the group of children that had gathered between the house and the barn, passing indiscernible objects amongst themselves. Her brain assessed the situation in an instant. These were the same children Hanabusa had scared off before. Most likely, they were the culprits of the crime, as well. She could think of no others who would have a reason to burn down both the hostel and the barn or to kill Kaze in cold blood.

"Carefully, let's move," the knight suggested.

Neither fast nor slow, the pair began to head away from the hostel. Yori understood that he did not wish to draw attention to them, though she also felt that they were too exposed and would almost certainly be discovered. Briefly, she wondered if the horse had escaped the fire, and then decided she most likely did not wish to know the answer. Fortunately, at the very least, none of their valuable possessions had been lost, although neither did they have any food rations. The water Kaze and Beruka had given them would have to last them until they found a means to replace it.

A shout reached out towards them, crackling across the open air. Yori turned her head to see the group of children point at the pair before the entire mob began to sprint in their direction. The Wakaba noble did not need Hanabusa's prompting to take off at a run, heading towards the trees they had spotted earlier while searching for Wishbloom. Although the swamp was not absent of brush and trees , they were not dense enough to shelter the nobles.

Several times, Yori thought she might lose her footing on the slick, marshy ground. Not only was the ground muddy and wet, but her bow and arrow quiver offset her balance, knocking rhythmically against her back. She hadn't had time to properly tighten the straps, and the impact with every stride was jarring. Behind her, however, she could hear the yells of the children, and that sound alone spurred her forward. Once, she glanced back to ensure that Hanabusa was behind her, though she did not doubt his ability to keep up, even if she was a little faster than him.

By the time Yori and Hanabusa hit the tree line, both were out of breath and panting heavily. The auburn-haired girl did her best to take in deep breaths, attempting to lessen the seemingly deafening sound of her breathing while still hurrying. The ground underfoot was still that of a swamp, though the number of trees and undergrowth was significantly higher than what it had been around the hostel. Yori was able to slip through the trees with more ease here, a woodland wraith accustomed to being light and silent on her feet The blond knight did not fare quite as well, though he kept up with her pace reasonably well and without creating as much of a ruckus as she had feared.

It wasn't long, however, before the children reached the trees as well. She heard them as an explosion of noise, of twigs breaking and water splashing. Despite their lead, the mob was gaining on them, little by little, and Yori knew that she and Hanabusa were greatly outnumbered, even if more experienced. And... She shuddered at the merest brush of the thought. She did not want to hurt or kill children, whether it be in self-defense or not.

A rock sailed past her shoulder and she felt another strike the back of her thigh, breaking her stride for a moment as she stumbled on the tangle of roots and vines underfoot. Beside her, she heard the knight curse beneath his breath as he was hit, too, although she did not see where. In a split-second decision, Yori ducked to the side, pulling Hanabusa after her into the heavier foliage to their left. Thorns pricked at her skin from the shrubs that grew close to the ground in abundance. A moment later, they were moving as rapidly as possible through the winding wetland, still pursued, although at a greater distance now, by the children.

Without warning, Hanabusa's hand clamped around her forearm, jerking her to the right and dragging her down where the swamp dipped and sloped to create a ditch. Yori hit the ground hard and was not given even a moment to recover before the Aidou lord was shoving her into a hollow beneath a fallen tree. He then crammed himself in as well, shielding her with his body where the tree was split open on one side. If the children passed by, expecting them to still be running, they would miss the two bodies hiding beneath the tree. However...if the children stopped to search the area, Yori was certain that they would be discovered.

Above them, Yori heard feet pound into the dirt, rushing onward. She tensed, her entire body quivering anxiously. She couldn't kill a child, even one that clearly meant her harm. Even one who had slaughtered the innocent elderly couple who ran the hostel, their guest, and probably the horse as well... Swallowing hard and keeping her breathing as muffled as possible, she waited in the horrific interim as the children passed overhead.

"Where did they go?" a voice belonging to what Yori judged to be one of the older boys asked. Footsteps halted over Yori and Hanabusa's heads as a sprinkle of muddy dirt rained down on them.

"They were running this way," a second voice, this one feminine, replied.

"We can't let them get away. They saw what we did... They could tell someone." A pause. "And the blond one hit me with a broom," he growled angrily.

"Maybe they're hiding?" the girl proposed.

"We should look," the boy agreed. "You still have that knife?"

"Yes."

Please, she begged mentally, please let them pass us by.

"Good. If you see them, give the signal. You know what to do," the boy instructed.

"Where should I look?" the girl was inquiring.

"They were just ahead of us. Let's start over there." Presumably, the boy pointed somewhere, and the pair moved off from over the hiding spot and further into the swamp.

Moments passed, agonizing in length, each one scalding hotly against her frayed nerves. There were voices yelling in the distance for a while, and then silence. Even in the quiet, every bird call, every sound made Yori flinch, fingers sporadically clenching against the mud. Once, a twig snapped nearby, and she nearly tasted her heart in her mouth, terrified of what she might do to escape death at the hands of the mob.

Dusk was beginning to settle like dust across the swamp by the time the knight relaxed, rolling onto his back with an audible exhalation of breath after removing his pack. Yori could not do the same, encumbered with her weapons, but she sighed as well, shutting her eyes and allowing the rest of the adrenaline seep out of her veins.

"The water isn't deep here," the blond observed in a whisper, and her eyes flicked to the small, greenish puddle of water at the bottom of the natural indentation the earth made here. "Maybe we should wait them out here for the night just in case. From what I understand about them, there shouldn't be any crocodylus with water this shallow."

Hearing his proposal, she half wanted to laugh and half wanted to cry. Abruptly, she had remembered that until a few short weeks ago she had taken for granted sleeping in a bed each night, beneath a roof, safely high in the trees. Now...she was lucky to have a roof over her head or a bed to sleep on. The swamp was uncomfortably humid at night despite the respite from the sun, and the insects preyed upon her with a vicious, insatiable hunger. But she couldn't deny that he was probably right to stay where they were. It was already dark and she knew there was no one within walking distance. And, of course, it was likely the children were still nearby.

Stiffly, she removed her bow and quiver, hefting them further up into the hollow where it was too narrow for a person to fit. At the very least she was exhausted. Hanabusa dug around in the backpack and pulled out two canteens, handing her one before drinking thirstily from the other. Neither of them drank as much as they would have liked since, rather unfortunately, the four bottles of water they had was all the filtered water they possessed or were likely to get anytime soon.

Replacing the canteens in the pack, Hanabusa muttered, "I'm starting to hate kids."

"Basin kids," Yori qualified.

"You're right. It's the swamp water. It turns them into demons."

She smiled tightly, settling down as comfortably as she could in the dirt, which was relatively firm here in comparison to the majority of the water-logged earth in the Basin. Beneath the husk of the dead tree they were high enough above the water that the dirt was not so completely saturated with moisture. In spite of this small measure of fortune, it was going to be a long night. The hollow ache in her belly reminded her that she had not eaten since lunch.

"Kaze mentioned a town a day or so's ride in this direction," the knight told her. "I think we can make it in a couple of days if we ration the water."

Yori nodded, feeling the energy deplete away, deflating her bones and leaving her empty and tired. She was just so very, very worn down. But she was not defeated. She was going to protect Yuki and avenge her people. She was going to take back what had been stolen from her in fire and blood.


AN: Yes, I'd like 1 helping of angst with a side of drama, please? LOL. These 2 never seem to get a break, do they? Tune in next week for a much-anticipated narrator! -teaser- -spoiler- -evil- :3 Also, Hanabusa's lovely quote isn't mine. Credit goes to the anon person who said it. =)