Yukimura Chizuru

She looked at the dreadful picture in front of her. Her eyes didn't want to accept what she was actually seeing. Her mind didn't want to comprehend what was happening in this place even if her nose already smelt what she hated the most in this world: blood and guns, blood and blades, blood and deaths. Everything was linked to that red liquid which sole usefulness was to keep us alive. And here it was, already splatted on the field, making the beautiful and peaceful green colour she loved disappear and be drowned by it. Here it was, showing to the world that the ocean wasn't only blue; it could be red of blood, red and composed of dead bodies. A horrific reddish ocean on an island called Ezo.

The brown-haired woman didn't move yet, almost looking for a living being around here. She knew it. Nothing was alive. She knew it. No one escaped. Except her who had decided to bear the responsibility of her father's behaviour by choosing another path. She never thought of the consequences of her own acts: now she was too late and she couldn't save a single thing. Could she save someone in the first place? Had she saved someone once? Maybe yes but she didn't remember. All she could see in her memories was her pitiful self who had to be saved by the others. So would this awful sight have changed if she had decided to stay with them?

The young woman started to walk slowly, letting her boots feels the dead ground she was stepping on. She could hear the sound of the dried grass at each footsteps and the sound of some ravens which were completing the monstrous scene she had already entered. The close sight was even worse than the large one as she could see the details of the dead bodies surrounding her from both sides of the conflict. Some of the men were killed by gunshots; other's with blades' cut and the worst one were dismembered by the explosions. That was horrific but she couldn't stop walking. Not yet. She felt like she would fall if she even stopped for a second. She would miserably fall and cry as she always did.

She thought that her nightmarish view would fade out as she continued her path toward nothing. Towards where was she walking in the first place? Did she honestly believe that she would find something alive here? The demon woman didn't know for how many minutes she was walking but she was sure of one single thing: nothing had changed. Bodies continued to be laid on the ground without any kind of colour on their skin or air in their lungs. Just motionless humans whose lives have been deprive by a war which killed everyone's heart. A war that killed her mind and her will. Could she walk away from here without any empathy? Could she create a life worth it after all the events?

Her endless questions about her future and her past continued to travel her mind with such speed that she forgot them every time she changed her subject. All of the sudden, her gaze caught something she thought she would never see again. The young woman changed her direction, walking now towards an object. Not a simple object. As she arrived in front of it, her legs abandoned her and let her fall as she had predicted when she arrived in the island. She was suddenly trembling, all her body being controlled by her the sadness and the despair she was feeling at this exact moment. She knew that nothing could be done.

The young woman didn't even know when it started but she was already feeling her cheeks being soaked by tears. Gently, she grabbed the white flag in front of her, reading in her mind the red word written on it. She would have loved saying it out loud but her voice already left her. She couldn't believe it, the flag was ripped apart. It was a symbol of hope; it represented all the men who went to war with bravery and yet, she found it lay on the ground in such a state. She finally hugged it as it was the last thing she was going to touch in her life. Gone, all of them were gone but she was still here, watching the blue sky with the flag in her arms and the tears on her face.

Promise me that you never regretted your choice. Shinsengumi.

Hi there ! I hope you like this drabble ! There isn't a lot of stuff to say about it, I wrote it for a friends in tumblr who drew a picture of a torn-up Shisengumi flag at the end of the war.

Anyway do not hesitate leaving a feedback, it's just so important for me ;)