The smoke rose in a perfectly straight line this time, the slant of the citrus incense stick the only thing to break the uniformity of the image.
Mei looked away from her sister's hand as she waved the burning match into extinguishment, her gaze settling for the third time on the resting face of Harumi Taniguchi. She looked peaceful as she slept, as though she was very much aware she was surrounded by good company despite the pain in her freshly bandaged hand that must have still bit her from beyond the realm of slumber.
Mei drew her gaze down the industrial-looking bed, the sheet's Yuzu had fitted the makeshift factory bedroom with sported a Nemo design print, (the fact of which caused a slight blush from her sister when Mei had commented on them an hour prior). Though back then the pattern of the quilt cover was the least of Mei's worries as she heard the tumble in the shower down the hall about ninety minutes after the three of them had emerged from the outhouse. The pair of them had rushed into the room to find Harumi, fully showered, but half-dressed and collapsed on the wet floor due to exertion.
Another hour had passed since then, her and Yuzu having successfully dragged Harumi's half-conscious body into the old bed after fitting its steel frame with the appropriate bedclothes.
Mei looked up from where she was watching Harumi's half-open mouth contentedly to regard her sister, who had turned from the incense stick on the shelf to look directly at her. Her face was unreadable, but Mei caught the half a second diversion her eyes made as they skittered between her's and Harumi. Mei suddenly felt uncomfortable, like she should open her mouth to say something; but, Yuzu beat her to it. Her voice was soft and slow.
"You know I originally intended to use only your husband, Mei. I never wanted you to be involved. When I found out you killed him - that's when the trouble started." Yuzu trailed off, the apology in her tone ringing thickly through her wet voice." I never wanted to drag you or Harumin out here. I'm so sorry, Mei."
"I know Yuzu, I know."
Yuzu stopped herself in her stride, nodding gently as she calmed herself down. Mei took the brief pause to say what needed to be said. "And I'm sorry too, Yuzu. For everything. If I could take that day back seven years ago, I would."
Yuzu nodded again, her green eyes vivid with emotion. She looked suddenly back at Mei, causing the other woman to flinch, and then back down at her feet again. She bit her pink lip and Mei could tell there was something else her sister wanted to say. And, as Yuzu's bold eyes met hers, a touch of resolve lacing their clear irises, Mei felt a sudden fear as to the nature of that something. "And Mei, if. If you and Harumin…" She trailed off, the trickling of fear on Mei's horizon suddenly becoming a very real sensation in her heart as Yuzu clicked her tongue and forced herself to continue." I wouldn't-"
Mei had stepped across the hexagonal carpet and pulled her sister into a tight embrace before she'd ever realised she had even been considering doing so. She felt the sudden surprise spike in her sister's stiff form before her body eventually softened and leant into Mei's desperate embrace. Mei whispered against her sister's neck as naturally as the bloom of spring, shocking herself more than anyone with the speed of her response," No, Yuzu, it's not like that."
Mei felt Yuzu's body physically relax against hers almost immediately after those words. In that moment, Mei used all her bodily power to convince herself as much as her sister as she tightened the hug, that those words were true.
She inhaled citrus as she felt Yuzu's arms come to encircle her back slowly and with the tightening of her sister's embrace, Mei felt herself awash with the images of all those she had seen shunting around in the great warehouse hall on her brief trip upstairs half an hour prior. She thought of all the people, young and old, families and lone sheep alike, who would be free of the nightmare they had known for God knows how long thanks to Yuzu's constant sacrifices.
She wondered as her sisters golden tressed tickled her nose, how the girl who would cry if she stubbed her toe had grown into such a strong person; a person who could ride a storm as intense as this and still come out the other side a victor, and what's more, without a shred of hatred to show for it.
Mei choked on her emotion as she drew her arms up her sister's back for the first time in seven years, a journey she would repeat a thousand times just to hold the woman before her for even a minute; a woman who in that moment and in so many of the moments before it, Mei couldn't help but feel a massively overwhelming love and adoration for. She buried her head in the crook of Yuzu's shoulder as she spoke, her voice muffled but clear enough to comprehend as she told her sister how much she loved her, how much she missed her and how much she would never forgive her if she ever left her side again.
Mei felt Yuzu squeeze back as she assured her," Never, Mei. Never again. And, I love you too. So much."
Mei Aihara felt a myriad of emotions at the words, all too intense for her to swallow and all utterly incomprehensible in their shifting nature. All she knew then, was the love she held onto, the love
Yuzu offered to her; was a sister's love, and for now and perhaps forever, that was enough.
/
Twelve hours later, Mei returned, alone, to the outhouse. She didn't look at Takamoto's body as she stepped up to it. Instead, she kept her eyes fixed on the object that was the true purpose of her last trek down to the hallowed room. She stared at its mockingly glittering surface as she pulled the silver case from the dried pool of maroon; this time she didn't spend time honouring the beauty of the trinket.
She slipped the blood-caked lighter into her pocket and striding across the room, stooped by what was left standing of the hallowed torture shrine. She hoisted two milky jugs of kerosene into either steady hand and lugged their contents back across the six metres of concrete that led to the door. There was a profound thud and slosh of thick liquid as she placed the objects down in the hall outside, returning her steady hands to the robust steel door that guarded the room.
The rectangle of light quivered and then started to wane, it whined on its oily hinges all the way to the point where its infamous mass was no more than a slit across the velvet dark, and then it fell silent.
The vain rectangle anguished as it was swallowed by the black, for it knew, as the lateral bolt finally shunted to a close, that not another in this world would regard its beauty for the remainder of this eternity.
/
