Eternal SailorM (Bombay/Omi)
I swear I'll never look at white roses the same way again, I think to myself as I finger the delicate flowers. A single petal drops off. Without thinking, I lean over to pick it up. Beneath my fingertips, it turns red. A fountain of blood explodes from where I hold it, staining the floor, staining the flowers, staining me. Everywhere I look is red.
The door to the Koneko creaks open. With great trepidation, I turn slowly to look... as a body falls towards me. Out of instinct, I reach to catch it. It's light, lighter than me, even as a dead weight (gods what a bad pun!). It's easy for me to lower it to the ground and roll it over to look at...
No...
It's futile, but I shake the person in my arms, regardless of the limpness of the form, like all the bones in his body have been pulverized. His head flops back, lifeless dark blue eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. I shake him again, unable to stop myself from screaming, "Wake up! Damn it, wake up! You can't be dead!" Of course, all my yelling is in vain; who can hold to raise the dead anyway? I feel myself let out a yell that solidifies into "Nagi!"
The body... no, Nagi is suddenly stiff in my arms. Not stiff like rigor mortis, but like a... like a...
"A doll?" Nagi's form vanishes from my arms and I whirl to see who spoke. "You should know what a doll is like, chibi," Hikaru smiles as he says.
A whimper builds in my throat, and as it slips out, he smiles. "Why..." I take a deep breath and start over. "Why are you doing this, Hikaru?"
He smiles and, instead of answering, gestures to the blood-covered shop. Nagi's body reappears on the floor just before the register as Hikaru's hand waves by. "See this, Doll? This is what will happen. This is your future."
Eyes tracking slowly, I scan the shop. The first thing I spot, besides the body and the blood, is a broken katana, and I feel myself go cold inside. "Ran..." A few steps from it lays a shattered watch, the thin wire hidden within spilling onto the red-dyed floor. Siberian's bugnuks are stuck in the wall by the last two remaining claws. I glance around the rest of the shop quickly, taking in where one of neesan's knives is stuck through a pot, where Farfarello's short sword has impaled the cash register, where Nagi's body still lies, before they come to land and stop on an unforgettably yellow bandanna. "Schu..."
"This is your future, Doll." I look over at him where he sits on the table. He hops down, landing on Yohji's watch. I watch a piece go flying past my face and bounce off the far wall. "If you stay with Schwarz and Weiss, or Licht or Rot, even Grau, they will all die." The smile on his face is too sweet. "I'll make sure of it... and I'll personally take care of your two redheads."
I feel my head shake. "... don't ..."
"Leave them and come with me now. I'll give you everything you want."
"... except what I want," slips out of my mouth. No choice now but to say it. "All I want, Hikaru, is a chance at life! A life with Schu or Ran or both! I want out of the assassin game! I want Ran and Schu to be happy! I want Moira-neesan to get better! I want Yohji to find someone! I want to see Nagi live a long, normal life! That's what I want! Can you give me that?!"
21 March 2002
Please, Ran, Schu, someone... WAKE BOMBAY UP! Wake him up before he drives me batty!!
Blame the title on River, by the way. I've been calling Hikaru the Big Bad ever since the decision was made to add him, but River suggested using it as the title. *glomps River and dances*