I'm sorry this took so long! but here it is.
After the War: 2
"Pri-cill-a" I croaked as I struggled towards consciousness, "You… Will… Pay!" I screeched the last word, shooting to my feet, reaching for a sword that wasn't there. Instead of seeing the face of that monster, I saw six very angry looking faces, with flashing silver eyes. "What the hell?" I muttered, feeling really confused. Not to mention completely drained.
"Eat." Commanded Miria, "You've been unconscious for over a week." As she spoke, she tossed three apples into my lap.
"Huh? I was out for a whole week? Why? I didn't even fight."
"You IDIOT! You were unconscious that long because you almost awakened! If it wasn't for Miria pulling you back, you wouldn't be here right now! Really! How stupid do you get?! Charging off TO THE ENEMY, when you're barely at half power! You're lucky she didn't kill you the second you took to air!" Helen's tirade was cutoff by Miria,
" You really should be grateful, or do you value the life your comrades died for so little?" The familiarity of her words struck a chord in me. The last time something like this had happened, Irene. She said almost those same words. Looking down, I gently placed my hand on the right arm Irene gave me. 'I guess I'm still a fool.' Sighing, I began to eat.
Later that night, after everyone else was asleep, I walked a distance away from camp, just far enough so that I could sense them easily without them sensing me easily. Stepping out into the white light of the moon, I closed my eyes, and forced the constant presence that was my yoki down inside me as far as it could possibly go. I waited for that nagging voice to come back to taunt me again, but inside my head, all I heard were my own thoughts. Concentrating my will, I tried to do the quick-sword, but the second I tried to use it, the voice rose back up as strong as ever. Forcing it back down took more out of me than I expected. When I got back to camp, dawn was breaking and the others were stirring. A faint presence behind me caused me turn wheel around, and almost go crashing into a very pissed off Miria.
"Where the hell have you been?!" she screamed in my face. "When I noticed you were gone, I thought you had gone back to,"
"I just went for a walk. I couldn't sleep, okay? Now will you leave me alone?" I felt kind of bad for making her worry like that, but really! If she had gone out looking for me in the same direction I went, wouldn't she have felt my yoki? Or I hers? 'Who knows.' I thought, dejectedly. 'It's not like it matters. I didn't do anything.'
"Hey! Miria! You seen Clare? She wasn't around when I got up. Can't sense her either." That was Tabatha, she was probably best at long range yoki detection, just like I was best at pin-pointing the flow. 'Wonder why she can't sense me when I'm this close. Must be the pills, no, it's been over a week. The side affects should be gone by now. Oh well.' I shrugged. 'If Tabatha's having problems it's none of my business.'
"You can't sense her? She just came back a few minutes ago. But now that you mention it, I didn't notice her until I almost ran her over, weird." There was a long, heavy silence. Getting freaked out by the seriousness, I walked back over and said,
"Hi Tabatha, Miria. What's with the scary faces?" They really were scary. I didn't know what to think. It was like they had just seen something even worse than the end of the world. We had already seen that. "Hello? Are you guys okay? You both look awful."
"You. I can't feel your yoki. Why can't I feel it? Why, Clare?" Tabatha's voice was so hopeless, I decided to cut her some slack and be honest.
"Well, we're basically on the run now, right? No matter who's won, they're our enemies. Although it might be worse if the organization came out on top. Anyway, I was walking last night, and I had an idea. What if we could figure out a way to completely extinguish our yoki? Shove it down so deep inside of us that no trace gets out. I'm not talking like what Rafaella does, you can feel hers if you get close enough, I'm talking making it seem like we're just ordinary humans, even to Galetea. So, I decided to try an experiment. I tried to remember the feeling I get when I take those yoki-suppressant pills and then, I tried to recreate that feeling naturally. It was exhausting, but judging by your faces, and the fact that I can't hear the voice of my yoki in my head anymore, I think it worked. Right now, I could walk right up to the organization's door, and they would never be able to know who I am." Actually saying it, made it sound completely ridiculous, but somehow, I knew this was a good thing. It meant we didn't have to live in constant fear of being hunted down. "Unfortunately, I can't use my quick-sword when I'm like this, but I can always use a different technique," Waiting for a response, I felt like a total fool. How could I expect them to believe this?
"You did it. You actually did it. You whose come closer to awakening than any of us, managed to defeat your inner yoma."
Next chapter's the last flashback. old friends bring shocking news.
