"When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain, and the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain."
- CHAM, Perfect Blue
"And now, Red Ranger, it is time for me to destroy you. I must be victorious for my queen!"
- Ritter, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Anima
"It is too late. My blood is in your veins."
- Mint Adenade, Tales of Phantasia
"Oo. Hee. Ha. Ha. And I thought my jokes were bad."
- Miyu Greer, My HiME
"Told you I'm never going back."
- Melissa Thorn, Montana Jones
"I know now why you cry."
- Key the Metal Idol
Meister Akane limped through the palace entrance with the last fading traces of energy in her body. Her combat slippers stumbled over the carpet leading toward the throne, causing her to stagger into one of the room's concrete support columns and prop herself to keep her balance. The graceful Otome had always been able to vault, fly, and twirl with the ease of a hummingbird. Now she could barely stand on her own weight.
As she continued forcing herself to walk with her head hanging tiredly and her shoulders slumped forward, the thing that would soon become the source of her mortality was dreadfully apparent: Half a dozen purple and gold links from a broken razor chain were stabbing through the back of her backless Robe and turning her white and navy capelet deep red. The fang-shaped shards were coated with nano-toxins to guarantee her death from disciplinary whipping. Nice kitty got herself a little snakebit.
Midday sunlight glared through the baroque doors behind Akane, adding a blinding spotlight to the sounds of clanging metal and exploding laser turrets echoing from the battlefield she had barely hobbled away from. The lifeless remains of vassals and noble retainers were piled high on both sides of the carpet. The only thing that still moved in the bleak chamber was the suffering heap of white and gold fabric slumped over the throne.
The capital was falling. The defense had failed. While Akane was on the battlefield, the sadistic enemies had infiltrated the royal grounds, slaughtered everything in their path, and left the emperor untouched just so he could wait for his turn to die when they killed his Otome.
Akane stumbled closer and closer to her Master, a lonely shrinking white dot in the center of her fading vision. When she had struggled for what felt like a hundred miles and couldn't force her numb legs to take her any further, she gasped in agony and collapsed over the young emperor's lap.
Kazuya's sweating feverish face spasmed between terrified awareness and mindless delirium. He weakly writhed in his seat, trying to find any kind of comfort for the invisible stabbing pain haunting his back. Blood trickled from his nose, and it wasn't just a reaction to seeing Akane armed in her Robe. His body was being slowly destroyed by the effects of the same venom invading her body. He was dying because she was dying.
Akane struggled to lift her head off of the emperor's shoulder so she could see his face for the last time.
"I'm sorry I couldn't win, Kazu," she murmured with despairing tears in her eyes.
"But you did, Akane," Kazuya whispered with labored panting. A relieved smile was trying to grow on his dying face. "You made sure we'll stay together… this time…"
His arm fought against paralysis just long enough so it flopped over the fragmented blades in Akane's back and pulled her closer with a shaking elbow. Akane gave up trying to hold her balance and painfully crumpled into him. She was so frail that her whole weight swayed in his languid grasp with the resistance of a feather.
They were scared, they were morally devastated, and they shared their suffering together. The world they had built for the past three years was collapsing around them, but the bond between them was everlasting. The emperor and his Otome closed their eyes with the smallest trace of happiness and exhaled the last breath in their collapsing lungs.
The throne started to softly shimmer after their hearts stopped on the same beat. Akane and Kazuya's slumped forms evaporated together in a single ascending cloud of green particles.
Their names would appear together on a crystal grave marker in Garderobe's memorial crypt, commemorating how the Pure Heart Malachite gave up her life nobly in defense of her Master. The Peaceful and Prosperous Empire That Could Have Been.
Author's notes:
Otome Kazu is also the Muv-Luv amalgamation of all previous Kazu-kuns. And scenarios like this one make me wonder if Fumi designed the system that way specifically with girls like Akane in mind.
If this is taking place in the "Orange Brunch" timeline, Chie is bawling her eyes out after this happens. If it takes place in the "To Live and Die in Cardair" timeline, everyone is just like "Eh. Who didn't see that one coming?"
