Epilogue
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"But you have to decide who gets it."
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"It has to be you."
Ryohime faced him, her heart tightened into little knot of pain within her chest, but her eyes set.
"It has to be you."
He wouldn't look at her. "You're wrong."
"I can survive this," she insisted. "I can. I have Muramasa, Maigetsu, and my family knows life is insane. Your family... your mom... she's waiting for you on the other side, and she has no idea what is going on."
He did not speak, just shook his head. A familiar frustration boiled up in Ryohime's chest, but she forced herself to remain calm.
"Please, there is no question about who needs this more... I won't take it. Not when it could save you." Silence. "Please... you can't even stand your own name."
He finally turned to face her, and his expression sent a shiver of warning up Ryohime's spine. She stiffened.
"Exactly," he replied, and his voice had deadened again. She hated that tone. "I am not that person anymore. I can't go back to being that... boy. It would be my own death sentence to take that deal."
"That's not true, and you know it."
"Oh?" He stepped closer. "Are you sure? I know you prefer the me-before, but he is gone. We are mutually exclusive. I've done things he would have nightmares about, and I've learned things he thought he never would."
"None of that matters," she protested. "You can have your life back!"
He took another step, and now stood right in front of her. She could practically feel his breath, but they were not touching.
"If I did," he said, slowly, darkly, "then you would not. I- Vance would live his life, small and useless and trying desperately to matter in a world too big for him, and completely ignorant of the fact that he was the cause of every single one of your scars."
His hand hovered near her shoulder, but did not land.
"And you would live your life, tall and proud and torn to shreds, and you would not be able to look at little useless me without knowing what I did. You would still wake in the night, convinced I was ambushing you. You would look over your shoulder whenever I wasn't within eyesight."
She opened her mouth to protest, but the words died in her throat.
"We have both done things we regret, but I was the one who kept escalating. The guilt of that was long in coming, but more then earned. I will not let myself cheat by forgetting." His tone had softened, but not kindly. There was a note of hate within his words, and Ryohime knew full well it was not directed at her. "There is only one way this ends."
He dropped his hand, and his voice, and he had to lean in so she could hear the whisper. "Even now, Ryohime, you owe me some scars."
Her heart pounded as his lips brushed her cheek, and then he was gone.
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