Blossoming Swallowtail Chapter 4: Reasons, a dead or alive fanfic

Edit : Reposting of Chapter 4, much like the other chapters this chapter has been modified to follow the overall feel starting from the Lonely Road Chapters, some spelling mistakes here, a little more vocabulary there, nothing incredible. I gotta say, fixing these chapters up isn't the boring task I'd thought it would have been. Loads of fun really.

As I recall, at this point I noticed that Maveriq and Dynamic Tenshi were becoming somewhat of regular reviewers for my story and I'd like to thank them for that. Maveriq always takes the time to look into the deeper meanings I sometimes try to put into my story and I'm glad someone takes the time to notice them and Tenshi may be a little scary for a kid but I'm happy to see that despite the "tame" nature of this fic, she still takes the time to read and review my story I should probably do the same sometime soon.

Disclaimer:I got used to writing these on the day I wrote this chapter, also, this was the first new chapter that I had wrote since starting this story months ago in one of my...oh crap...what was it in english again? Cahiers...urm...Ah! Notebooks! Yeah that's right, so this one took me a little longer to do...since I stopped writing in that notebook after chapter 3. Anyways, I don't own Dead or Alive or any of it's characters though if I did i'd probably make Kasumi and Ayane get along dammit!

Blossoming Swallowtail

Chapter 4: Reasons

The realm of dreams, a land where people sought to join whenever their tired minds and bodies needed rest. A place that had been for so many years, the object of many artists' inspirations as well as many scientists' fascinations due to it's unpredictable and mysterious nature.

A land that could show great happyness.

A land that could show great pain.

A land that now had one more visitor within it's mists.

Kasumi looked around at her surroundings. Once again, like so many nights past, she was back home.

The moonlight shone brightly tonight, only a few clouds daring to come between it and the earth. It wasn't cold...yet, something caused her to shiver.

She hugged herself, trying to warm her body. Dreams were not supposed to be like this...in them, the viewer was not obliged by the natural laws of the world. But deep down, Kasumi knew this was no dream...it was something she had long accepted but that continued to haunt her all the same.

Kasumi looked down at the ground, where she spotted a few traces of coloured dirt differenciating itself from it's lighter soil.

Another spot formed. She knew what they were.

Her own tears.

She reached up to her face and stroked it gently. Her face felt flushed and her skin was still moist.

The sign that she had done a lot of crying without even realising it.

One more spot formed.

Kasumi tried to wipe them off her face but knew that she wasn't done shedding tears, if this dream was the same as all the rest, then more tears were sure to come.

She started to approach the gate.

She knew what her dream had instore for her waited there.

Kasumi slowly stepped up and looked through the gate.

From where she was, Kasumi noticed two young girls. One had a considerable head start over the other one, while the second girl tried to make up for it by running up to the other one.

"Ayane! Ayane! Wait for me!" the girl who ran yelled to the other one. Trying to catch her attention.

The other girl didn't react and kept walking.

Kasumi watched quietly as the scene unfurled.

Ayane finally stopped when her Kasumi's younger self finally caught up to the future Hajin Mon Ninja, Kasumi blocking her way. She took a moment to catch her breath and questionned her "W-why...why didn't you stop? Didn't you hear me?"

"..."

"Ayane...?"

"..."

Kasumi felt a slight pain to her heart as she witnessed the younger girl's silence, knowing well the reason behind it.

She took a look at the eyes of her younger self. Her eyes were red, her face flushed as well, obviously, she had done her fair share of crying too.

The younger Kasumi gazed at Ayane for the longest of times, but the younger girl just stared at the ground.

Concerned, Kasumi put her hands on Ayane's shoulders.

"Ayane...?".

Ayane's faced lifted up to meet hers...

And she uttered only three words, her eyes still veiled behind the bands of her bright purple hair.

"I hate you..."

Kasumi awoke with a gasp at the sudden jab that the memory inflicted on her.

"Again..." she said while looking down at her knees, which she hugged in an effort to console herself. That was a memory she didn't need to be re-living and especially not at this point in her life. She had come to terms with what happened between her and Ayane years ago...or so she thought. So why was she having these drea-- no, why were these memories resurfacing? Now? Of all times?

She surveilled her surroundings just once to make sure that no one was nearby and then took a deep breath when she realised that she was alone.

"No one..." she mumbled to herself, still suffering from a bit of fatigue from her actions earlier that morning.

She tried to forget about what memories her sleep stirred.

Alone, that was a good thing, she thought to herself, that's how she needed it to be right now. Far from her friends and family to carry out her mission. A mission that required all of her focus and that she would not stray from no matter what the cost.

Vengeance.

Her saddened look from the memory that she had just awokened from changed to a solemn look.

She wiped the burning from her eyes away.

The How and When were still unclear for the moment but to her, the Why and Who were all to easely answered whenever she closed her eyes and imagined her brother in bed, still suffering from his near fatal injuries.

Raidou.

What he did to Hayate...he would have to pay for that with his life and only when Kasumi had felt that that foul excuse for a man was burning in hell for what he did, then she would be able to think about what would be left of her future.

She let out a sigh, so at the moment, having no place to live and very little to eat was not that much of a serious problem.

Althought sleeping on a tree branch was just a little uncomfortable.

She guessed it must have been around 5 in the afternoon at the time, judging from the sun's position in the sky. After that little episode in the cavern this morning (up to you to decide which one), she decided to advance just a little bit more before taking a real rest before nightfall, which was certainly a much better choice than running around in the middle of the day.

She leaned back on the large tree she had found rest in and wondered...wondered why she had allowed that purple haired kunoichi to cloud her thoughts recently.

It was obvious that Ayane absolutely hated her with a passion, althought why she did so, Kasumi might never know. Ayane had just...confronted her one day and that was it, a year's friendship had been ended with only three words.

"I hate you!"

Kasumi cringed, her face sunk behind her knees as she pulled them in even closer to her body, the sound of Ayane's younger self echoeing throught her mind.

What had she done to deserve such cruel words at such an age anyways? She had thought of Ayane as a younger sister and loved her as such and yet...

Ayane had found it fit to break her heart and trust within less than 3 seconds.

She couldn't think of any kind of ninjutsu technique that could inflict that much pain in so little time, that would not eventually be healed by the passage of time.

And if any such technique existed, she did best not to learn it.

Then again...part of her had a pretty good idea why Ayane would suddenly develop such a hatred in regards to her...

"It's a promise!"

She decided to set the memory aside, fearing more pain.

Kasumi had already made quite some distance as she could tell. Tokyo was within eyesight( which is relative considering Kasumi's eyesight was much more superior to a normal human's) but wondered what she would do without some kind of disguise to veil her presence to prying eyes. She knew perfectly well that she'd stick out like some kind of fish out of water.

Another problem arose, she had no where to go and it was nearly dark out, despite looking and acting like day and night were no different, Kasumi was aware that it could get somewhat dangerous for a girl her age to wander around...at night...while searching for somewhere to stay...in her current outfit(Costume 1 in Dead or Alive Ultimate...basicly her usual blue outfit)...in Tokyo.

She didn't feel like hurting anyone right now.

So she stuck to her tree for now, she would think of a solution later...so until then she would have to return to her childhood dreams...

Meanwhile...

"Hmm...never thought little Miss Perfect would have ever gone for it." Ayane thought to herself as she hitched a ride on a passing bus, laying down low as not to be seen by passing cars as it headed towards the city.

It had been a while since she received news of Kasumi's betrayal of clan laws, Ayane had prepared herself well during that time, kunais, check, shurikens, check, smokebombs, check, lunch, check, toothbrush, check.

You name it and it was all neatly tucked in on a small bag on her back.

This bus served as her ride for the moment simply because she didn't really feel like wasting her time running around like a fool like those other ninjas while they searched for Kasumi's whereabouts.

"My guess is that she will probably head towards Tokyo, what better place to get lost in than a huge crowd riddled with people." Ayane thought to herself as she stared at the passing sky.

Also, she had some of the other ninjas looking around for her. So she had no real need to join in the menial task.

Ayane had been informed that Kasumi would most likely try and find Raidou, seeing as how that was pretty much the only thing the clan had ever refused to let her do that was worth the effort and risk of becoming a runaway.

Hmm...Raidou...

Ayane smirked.

Oh how she hoped to stop Kasumi before hand so she could take him out herself as a welcome bonus. That man was the reason why Hayate was in a such a lousy state, maybe destined to live out the rest of his days in bed...well, that was part of the reason why she'd love to take him out.

Another might be something along the lines of family issues...

Ayane didn't want to dig any deeper than that.

"Darn it!" She cursed, maybe she didn't give Kasumi enough credit. Maybe there was more up there (besides the obvious) than she originally thought since now Kasumi had the freedom to take out Raidou without having to be binded to the clan anymore.

Althought, with the current situation, now Ayane had that possibility too and even moreso since she didn't need to fear retribution from the clan...

Ayane smiled, all Kasumi had managed to get was a head start.

"Oh right..." she thought about it, technically, she was supposed to only get Kasumi and bring her back DOA (which didn't make much sense since Kasumi's dead either way, one is just a little later) but to her, Kasumi's action acted as a way to kill two birds with one stone.

She wouldn't mind at all taking out that bouncy bimbo while handling her little family issues at the same time.

After all, traitors always get what is coming to them.

Kasumi has just been delaying for 7 years.

End of Chapter 4

You unlocked Alternate ending 4!

Ayane glanced downwards, "Althought..." she thought as she saw it was nearly impossible for her to spot her own feet because of her own...womanly features.

Ayane wondered how she even managed to stand up let alone keep her favorite outfit (Ayane's typical C2 outfit in DOA Ultimate, with the bow and short skirt and low top) on without showing more than she would like...

Ayane started to even doubt that the cars passing next to the bus were not able to see her because of these!

"Kasumi had better not bring up a stupid 'You're all grown up!' type joke on me before I kill her or I'll never live it down..." Ayane thought full of melancholy.

Then a thought came to her, "Why do I wear such skimpy clothing anyways?"

Another thought came to her, "Last time I checked...Kasumi wears things like this too..."

"Oh my god..." The final thought that came to Ayane's mind made her sit up straight with shock as she recalled who clothed both of them.

"Our elders are perverts!" she screamed to herself, her eyes swirling lightly at the thought that it was the clan elders(all old people as you can guess) who chose their battle attire and thus, they wanted the two to bounce around...alot.

"NOOOO! I'VE BECOME FAN SERVICE FODDER!" she yelled out loudly, then falling into a fit of curses at her own naivety.

Meanwhile, everyone who was on the bus stared at the ceiling, wondering who the heck was up there and what was their deal.

Althought they stopped caring once Ayane shut up.

This was Japan after all, all kinds of crazy things happen here on a regular basis. Nothing unusual about a teen hitching a a litteral ride on the bus...

End of Alternate Ending 4!

And here you have it, my 4th chapter digitally remastered with better special effects and acting! Lol, anyways, I'll get to work on the next chapter so I can finally start work on my 7th chapter. Hope you enjoyed my longer dream sequence.

See ya.

-Saddened Melody

A.K.A Final