As for spoilers, 21 is post series, and 25 is near the end.

Spinning on the Edge
For the 30 ANGSTS challenge
By DarkenedSakura
Themes #21-25 (your laugh is a disease)

21. Lost Memories (touching the illusion)

Winter nights were usually never as severe as the ones from the winter after the Nobuseri's defeat, but this one was an exception. Kirara buried herself further into her shawl but pushed onwards, stopping only when she reached the hill. The weather couldn't keep her from making her daily pilgrimage here; nor would time and aging memories.

Today, however, she was not alone. A stranger stood there as though he was made of stone, garbed in a long hooded cloak.

Why did he seem so familiar?

Ignoring the feeling of prickling unease growing at the back of her neck, she walked up the hill so that she stood right behind the stranger. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

He turned as a seasoned traveler would, as though he sensed her presence a long time ago and had already determined that she was not a threat. Slowly, he flipped back his hood and said, "Don't you remember me?"

She gasped slightly, her grip on the shawl loosening. A shiver went down her spine as several thoughts and emotions ran through her head all at once. "Katsushirou-sama?"

Battle weary eyes, travel-worn countenance, tired quirk of the mouth. "So you do." He stepped towards her.

Memories passed by her eyes, things she recalled and things she did not, things she put behind her and things she dutifully kept in the back of her mind.

He noticed the flickering in her eyes. "You don't remember it anymore, do you," he stated, moving closer again.

She could only stare back in reply.

His voice came like a whisper in her ear, breath against her neck. "It never meant much, did it?"

Silence, pierced by the whistling of wind.

A lingering touch on the cheek, a ghost of a kiss on the lips. "A good thing, I suppose, since we didn't have much anyway."

His cloak swirled about him as he turned his back to her. "I wish you well, Kirara-dono."

He disappeared into the snows in the same way that he came from them, fading into the mists of time.

22. Once upon a time (you are never here for once)

Once upon a time is a phrase that means "here and now," which people like because it does not say so outright, because confronting that would be too much to bear.

Once upon a time, a maiden came to the city to search for warriors to protect her village. She found seven of them, one of them who was soon enamored with her. After many trials, tribulations, and the samurai defeating the evil bandits and securing the safety of the village, the maiden overcame all odds and fell in love with him as well. And they all lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time. Here and now. Past and present.

Once upon a time, there was such a thing as a happy ending. Once upon a time used to mean there was a happily ever after. But those only existed for children, when they were children.

Katsushirou is not a child, not a young boy, anymore.

Katsushirou hates fairy tales.

23. Black Roses (red funeral)

Katsushirou had nightmares.

He fought an endless tirade of enemies in a sea of white. It always started that way.

Bloodlust was dangerous, yet his mind always shifted to that mode of blind slash-and-hack in the midst of battle. At least then he wasn't aware of what he should've thought when he looked into the eyes of his enemies as he cut them down.

The crimson that flowed from his kills sprayed all over the endless field of white roses, staining them dark with death until the very air itself seemed to be misted in a red night. And then he would be dimly aware of the fact that perhaps he lost control, and then – please stop don't do this – was that her blood dripping onto the blackened roses?

He wasn't sure if she was dead or alive but he would be all too aware of how her body lay amid feathery black petals, stirring the rosehips and waking them from their eternal still night.

Katsushirou had nightmares that he could never wake from.

24. Blush (no future)

They were out on another one of their nightly strolls. When he talked about the work he accomplished that day with his sensei, a faint tinge of pink-red bloomed on her cheeks. He wondered what it meant, when he noticed it at all.

He mostly ignored it, though something gnawed at the back of his mind. Something important that he couldn't ignore.

But for the most part, he still ignored it.

---------------

Shichiroji watched their outlines move in the dark as he poked at the fire with a long stick. "You should tell her sometime, if you're planning to do what you're going to do. Can't let a girl like her hang onto nonexistent hope like that."

Kambei did not respond, merely staring into the flames.

25. To touch the Devil is to die (dying from bliss)

She knew that she had fallen into sin. The murky water in the pendant confirmed it. Duties neglected and love and lust…they were all parts of it.

The choices were the most important parts of it, though, the most important causes of it. The choices she made, the ones she did not. Decisions that, if she had made them correctly, would've given her something more than what she ended up getting, would've kept hearts from breaking.

Ignoring her duty, she followed one with her eyes and her feelings, managing to reject the other without saying anything outright. While she ignored the feeling that she knew it was wrong, it got her so far in the wrong direction at the same time.

Giving in to temptation and trying to reach what tainted fruit it could yield merely killed everything around her instead.

For some reason, I'm not so happy with this batch...hm. Oh well.

I think I said it wouldn't take me this long to update again last time, or something. I hope I didn't, because I just went and took nearly three weeks again. It's just that argh my finals are coming up, I'm ladened with work and any intelligence I have doesn't cover for the fact that I am incredibly lazy, I've been having chronic headaches, school newspaper and story contest deadlines with me being the editor…and to be honest, this fic is low on my list of priorities. I finished all 30 themes in the first place, and the other fic, art, and icons projects of mine are of higher priority for various reasons including feedback, requests, people prodding me with sharp sticks, and the like.

Sorry about that. Two more bonus themes to go and everything will be posted. Though, the last five themes are in need of extreme revisions, so yes.

Major thanks to the beta, and reviewing is sublime, ahaha.