An Old Tale

By: Esuna

Epilogue: A New Day

Kurando had one hand over his mouth as he stumbled for the deck. Just as he hit the railing, he leaned over it and heaved out all of last night's dinner into the sea. Even when he was done hurling, he remained leaning against the railing with both arms dangling over it. He couldn't believe he shared this kind of commonality with Yuri…

The vessel began to sway some more and the young man felt another gag reflex coming. He pulled his hand over his mouth again. Being a man that he was, he swallowed that nasty sensation down his throat. Eventually, he felt someone stroke his shaky back in order to comfort him. He glanced to the side, while keeping his hand over his mouth.

There was a worried-looking Anastasia standing by his side, stroking his trembling back in hopes of making him feel better. "Almost there," the girl promised.

"Ughhhhh," Kurando wheezed as he leaned his forehead against his arm.

She ran her hand through his disheveled, dark brown hair and just watched him in silence. Sadly, he felt another gag reflex coming and this time, he couldn't hold it in anymore. He raised his head quickly and leaned over the railing one more time as he heaved out whatever was left in his stomach. Anastasia stroked his trembling back again but somehow, she couldn't help but to smile at the poor guy.

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Kurando was arched over with a drooping head as his arms dangled pathetically. He took very slow, staggering steps as he walked next to the worried girl. One could say he looked exactly like Yuri upon being seasick. Anastasia held onto his arm as support, for fear he would suddenly fall flat on his face. However, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. The girl glanced up at him, wondering why he had halted in his spot.

"Look, Anastasia," he said softly.

The girl did as he instructed and gazed around their surroundings. They had arrived in a rather hilly area that was relatively forested with a huge pond down below them. This place…it looked very familiar… Yes. It did, indeed. Have they been here before? The girl released him slowly as she headed towards the bend of the hill and flicked her green eyes down upon that beautiful landscape. At the far side of the pond, there were a group of swans basking in it. Slowly, the memories returned to her. She remembered now.

"So, this was it," she finally said. It was the place where they had arrived in after the fall of the Asuka Stone Platform.

"Ah," Kurando replied with a smile on his lips as he staggered next to her. He took her hand in his and pulled her down to the grass.

The girl leaned close to the young man as they sat there gazing down at the beautiful landscape below them. The warm, summer breeze blew gently against the two as they huddled there without a word. Nothing but the sounds of the trees rustling and the swans singing. They were, in fact, sitting in a lovely and peaceful place. It was no wonder they had somehow arrived here after the fall of the Stone Platform.

"Anastasia," Kurando interrupted. "I…errr…," he mumbled as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

She tilted her head left and right at him, confused by his rare, unusual behaviour.

Words failed him and so, he chose action instead. He fumbled inside the front of his traditional wear for something. Finally, he pulled out an all-so-familiar item and held it out to the startled girl. She stared at the item in his hand before she gazed into his soft, crimson eyes. He was holding out that pasty-green handkerchief with the two embroidered swans! The girl was absolutely stupefied. How on earth did he…?

Kurando looked shyly away from her. The girl could have sworn she saw a little blush in his cheeks but she couldn't be too sure. She finally took the item from his out-stretched hand. Gazing at the handkerchief, she said, "On the morning of that day when you found me, I was looking at this item on the street. It was such a beautiful handkerchief and it reminded me of the time when we were here gazing at the swans together. However, it was also a handkerchief that led me to believe that we were never meant to be together like these swans."

Kurando didn't reply just yet. He sat there in silence, slowly absorbing her words. To him, the handkerchief only reminded him of one thing: their happiness. When they were together. Slowly, he confessed rather inaudibly, "When I came upon this handkerchief, I was also reminded of our good times. I saw this embroidering in the perspective of our relationship. I remember that morning on the Yokohama Streets; I must have stood in front of that merchant for a very long time. I studied the handkerchief for so long that it finally struck me. It all made sense: I had clearly destroyed our relationship. That night back in Inugami Village, you really intended to leave me. And in the end, I did lose you. We were separated for a while. The handkerchief led me to believe that we could never return to the way it was before. We couldn't pretend that nothing happened. No matter what, there would always be a thorn in our relationship."

Anastasia finally looked away from the handkerchief and fixed her gaze on him.

"However," he continued, "back in the waterfall cavern, Mother told me that 'it could still be mended'. At first, I was rather confused but after I came upon this handkerchief, everything she told me at the cavern was beginning to make sense. It was the swans that reminded me of our happiness when we were together. I know I was the one who destroyed it. I was such a fool then. But the embroidering was a sign telling me to cherish that relationship with you. It gave me much endurance to pursue you, to explain everything to you, and to make amends because of my foolishness."

"There is no need to make amends," she stated as she averted her gaze from him.

He followed her gaze as well, knowing fully well that a part of her still believed he wanted to make amends only because he pitied her due to her illness. However, it was nothing like that. Although he truly felt bad about it. He cursed himself so many times because of it. But that was not the reason why he wanted to make amends. It was because of his indecisiveness from the start that he obliterated their relationship. In truth, he shared more enjoyable days with Anastasia than with Sayori. He truly cared about the princess and truly loved her from the bottom of his heart. If only he had expressed these feelings to her on that particular evening back in Inugami Village. Then Anastasia wouldn't have to suffer from a broken heart and wouldn't have to go through so much because of it. He wanted to make amends now because of his past mistakes. "After you left the village," he finally said, "I truly felt lost without you. It wasn't long before I realized I needed you because…I…," he trailed off, unsure how he should express the emotions that were tumbling deep inside.

Anastasia blushed deeply. He didn't need to say anymore because she understood. The girl nodded with a gentle smile on her beautiful face.

Kurando sighed in relief and looked away from her, obviously embarrassed by his confession. This time, he was gazing at the trees before his eyes wandered down to the pond below. "I have learned something from that tale," he said after.

The girl arched her brows. "What is it?"

"To remain true to your feelings," he answered as he felt another wave of embarrassment.

The girl smiled again but did not reply. It appeared that their tale was nothing similar to that other one after all. While the old tale concluded with a dark, miserable end, theirs had actually concluded with a bright, satisfying one. Still, the old tale had taught them an important lesson: misunderstanding leads to grave consequences like death. She had feared for the worst upon hearing the old tale from Master Zhuzhen. It was very tragic and she did believe that their tale would conclude no differently from that one. Anastasia was almost convinced that she would end up like that woman. She became really sick and believed that she would share the same fate as that woman if she didn't stop herself from thinking about Kurando and how he had shattered her much fragile heart. Luckily, nothing like that happened after all. Kurando had followed his own heart, his own feelings in which the man in the old tale didn't. Fortunately, Kurando had reached her just in time, before there would be anymore misunderstanding between them. In the end, that was why their tale had concluded so differently from the old tale.

While Anastasia was lost in her thoughts, she did not realize that Kurando had been staring at her all this time. Only with the obvious silence did she turn fully towards him in order to gaze into those beautiful red orbs that reflected softly upon her own green ones. She felt the young man pull her in as he stooped lower towards her. She knew what it meant. Her heart was pounding excitedly. She was about to close her eyes as the young man's lovely face stooped closer to hers. By the time she had closed her eyes completely and waited, nothing happened! Curiously, the girl decided to peek with one eye and…

…saw Kurando suddenly jerk his head down. "BLEEEEHHHHHH!" Well, needless to say, he had hurled all over Anastasia's kimono.

"AAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" the girl screeched with absolute disgust as she jumped to her feet at once. She flapped her once-lovely kimono in order to loosen some of the nasty mess on the surface.

"Augh," Kurando wheezed as he rubbed his poor, emptied stomach. "I-I feel so much better now…" He stood up as well and eventually peered over at the smelly Anastasia. He blinked twice in acknowledging the situation and silently looked away from her, obviously overcome with shame.

The girl glared daggers at him, even as he turned slightly away from her. She was expecting his kiss, not his puke! She had to get her kimono changed. But first, she had to wash off this lovely present of his. With a disappointed sigh, the girl explained to him, "I'll have to get this cleaned down by that pond."

Anastasia turned away from him and started down the bend of the hill. Even from afar, she could detect Kurando's eyes on her back. By the time she had reached the pond, she scooped up some water into both hands and poured it over her kimono. The swans were singing at the other end of the pond and flapped their pretty white wings in the air to dry the surface of their beautiful feathers. The girl smiled at their beauty before she continued washing her dirty kimono.

While she scrubbed the stinky material, a familiar yellow and orange kimono dangled in front of her beautiful face. Anastasia halted at once. "Th-this is…," she stammered unbelievably.

"…the autumn kimono," finished Kurando as he held the clean kimono against his chest and knelt down beside her.

"Ah…," she trailed off.

"It's yours, isn't it?"

Her hands fidgeted uncomfortably on the folds of her damp kimono. Did he even know that his mother had given this kimono to her? Did he even know what it was supposed to mean? Perhaps not. Kurando had never seen her wear it before. The only time she ever wore it was at the guest room back in Inugami Village when she had tried it on in front of the mirror that night.

"Put it on after you're done," he insisted as he placed the autumn kimono down on the grass and got to his feet. He turned his back to her.

The girl took the clean kimono in her hands and stood up. She wanted to explain why Saki had even given this autumn kimono to her. Perhaps, she should also explain what it was supposed to mean once the precious kimono has been passed down to a girl. "Kurando," she began.

"The autumn kimono…suits you," he said meaningfully.

She was startled by that remark. It took her some time to absorb what he truly meant. "Are you implying that…" However, before she could even finish the question, Kurando had already spun around in order to stoop down to brush his lips against hers. He tilted her chin up with one hand while the other encircled her slender waist, pulling her close to him.

Her eyes widened in surprise. She didn't expect this coming! When did he learn to become so forward? Nevertheless, she closed her eyes slowly and cherished this blissful moment with him. She had always longed for Kurando to kiss her.

…now wait a minute…

"GAAAAHHHH!" the girl suddenly remembered as she pulled back in order to whack the startled young man to the ground.

"Eh?" Kurando uttered as he blinked innocently up at her.

Anastasia rubbed her lips with the sleeve of her kimono. "You didn't rinse your mouth before you kissed me!"

THE END…

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Notes: Well, that's it! I hope you all liked the finale. Thank you for reading and reviewing this fanfic! It gave me so much inspiration to write!

But first, let me do some rambling. I actually have two endings written for this fanfic. Of course, the good ending would be this one but the bad one has been safely tucked away somewhere in my hard drive. I actually intended to choose the bad ending (considering I'm such a pessimist) but I was afraid of getting flamed to the depths of hell if I did. So…yeah.

Anastasia was meant to have a similar fate as Alice. If you're wondering why Anastasia was supposed to meet the reaper, well, let me do some explanations then. Remember in Chapter 9 where Tuta states that Anastasia cannot leave the bed until she regains all her energy back? Well, she ended up in the Mikasa harbor looking for Zhuzhen, didn't she? Kurando finds her, tries to take her home, and later loses himself to Jutendouji. Blanca then takes Anastasia in a frantic search for the fusion monster. And please note, she had to run all the way back to the Yokohama Streets when she wasn't even supposed to get out of bed! With all that energy she exerted through the wild chase, she should have dropped dead by then. Remember, she was still weak from all that blood loss and was still recovering from it. I found it almost impossible to keep her alive in this epilogue but then again, miracles do happen… Lovvve conquers everything (oh, barf, barf, barf!)…

If any of you are interested in reading the supposedly bad ending, feel free to contact me. I will be more than happy to send it over to your email account. I will not post it here at to ruin the good ending. So…yeah. Anyways, thank you again for reading this fanfic. I was really happy to read all your comments / suggestions. They were wonderful.

So, this is it. :Cries: Time to bid you all farewell! Sayonara!