Interlude: Reunion
"So… that's how you fall, Hans…"
The woman undid the bun she had tied her long hair into. She flicked her hair to the side and glared across the clearing, the air filling with smoke as the foliage burned. Her eyes fixated on a boy. He had black hair, and he was the one who had killed Hans.
"Dying to a kid… ignoring our rivalry…"
She sighed, her purple eyes looking away from the boy, who had just stumbled back and had fallen down.
"In the end… it was your fault that you died."
She shook her head.
"Idiot."
She grit her teeth together as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Hans…"
She shook her head and glared at the black-haired man. She raised her bow and took an arrow out of her quiver.
"Hans…"
She slid the arrow into place and pulled back the bowstring. The bow flexed in her hand as she aimed at the bow. "Hans…" She took a deep breath and focused solely on hitting the man. Just as her fingers were about to loosen and fire the arrow, a scream filled the air. A pain-filled, scared, and confused scream.
It came from the boy.
"Hk-"
She hesitated. She released her pent-up breath in a sigh. She relaxed her arm and lowered her bow. She returned the arrow to her quiver.
"Goodbye… Hans… My love."
She closed her eyes and turned away from the clearing.
She bumped into something as she took a step forward. It was warm. It was a human. But who-
She jumped back, her eyes springing open, and looked at whoever she had bumped into. His name accidentally escaped her lips, "Youra-"
The man was terribly injured from his engagement with Hans. He had various cuts all over his body—some shallow and some deep, burns covered his body from Hans' explosion spell, and one of his eyes was blackened and shut. A trail of blood was spilling out of his forehead and dripping down to the ground beneath. He held his sword tightly and with determination. His deep voice was quiet as he spoke her name, "Aura."
She glared at him. She had to get farther away. At this range, she was useless in a fight. But where? There weren't any good trees she could climb to get away, most of the foliage around the area was already gone from the fires, and Youra was already running at her-
She used her agile body to leap up and managed to avoid his strike.
She transitioned this jump into another. She grabbed a low tree branch and used it to fling herself onto a larger branch of a stronger tree. It was scarred by the fires, but the branch supported her.
Youra pursued her, he jumped after her and cut the branch she was on off of the tree. However, she was already on another branch by the time it fell.
She jumped farther away, pulling out her bow and skillfully putting an arrow into place while mid-air. She pulled the bowstring back as soon as she landed, and fired an arrow at Youra.
Youra swung his sword at it, stopping it in its tracks.
"You've grown weak since the last time we fought, Aura."
The woman glared at him and bit her lip, as she knew his words were true. She jumped away, skillfully weaving through the forest. Youra stood still and sighed, tension leaving his body. He turned around and walked towards Clement and the unconscious Subaru.