DrabbleNovember, Days 19 & 20. The prompts: "How do you destroy a monster without becoming one?" and "I have a secret."
Behold the return of Furubatale snippets! These two prompts worked well together. They're both also just over 200 words.
Kyo's voice is quiet, but the echo in the cavern amplifies it. "How do you destroy a monster without becoming one?"
They're back-to-back in the flower patch, travel-weary sunlight creeping in from high above. Tohru touches his hand and represses a shiver, represses cloudy memories of a bloodstained knife, her bloodsoaked clothes, the rictus grin that isn't hers but can't possibly be his—
She's probably even killed Kyo. Maybe more than once. The endless runs blur together, dizzying her mind and sickening her stomach.
"I don't know."
What she does know: Kyo isn't a monster. Yuki, despite everything, isn't a monster. The force she's only felt hints of—that she's felt most strongly when the worst side of Yuki has infected her too— that's the true evil, she's sure of it.
"Yuki wasn't… a good person. Toward the end. But…"
She feels his head tilt back against hers.
"If anyone deserves to be called a monster, it's me."
Protesting words rise in her throat like bile; she forces them back down.
"I've done so many horrible things. Out of spite, fear, boredom."
She can't deny that, though she desperately wants to.
"…My d—Kazuma would never recognize me."
She covers his hand with hers.
###
There's good in you. I'll prove it.
Instead, she says, "I have a secret."
"What?"
She taps Kyo's shoulder, then shuffles around to face him. "I've been here before."
His eyes betray nothing. "I know. Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Not like this— it's, it's different. I can…" She shouldn't be telling him this, anyway. "We've had this conversation before. I've visited you, after you've tried to rewrite the world. So many times."
There—a flicker of surprise, of remembrance. "You mean…" The light spreads, then, abruptly, fades. "I thought I was the only one."
She wonders: if he truly doesn't remember her. If he's lying. If loop after loop has made her invisible to him when she wasn't before.
Wonders if the only thing that made Kyo recognize their sameness had been Yuki in her head.
This time, it's better Yuki's gone.
"Then you of all people should know—"
"No!" She grasps his shoulders. "I know how hurt you've been, that you can't take anything you've done back. That's a terrible burden to bear. But you aren't a monster, Kyo, and you'll never convince me otherwise."
Something like a laugh comes out of him, and a real, eye-crinkling smile shapes his mouth. "You're… really something."
She hugs him fiercely.
He hesitates… then puts his arms across her back.