Holii crap.
I finished this, and forgot to post it on FFN.
(Probably because the only two people that normally read/comment have seen it now.)
Oh well, I post now!
Warning:....It's not happy D:
Brilliant crimson light of the sunset poured over the land. Ruby beauty spilled across the fields, the meadows and a wide river.
Yet what ran red in the water was not the trickles of red sunlight playing on the surface's reflections; it was blood. And it was blood that stained the earth dark, poured over grass and blanketed mangled bodies and dried wounds, and created rusty patterns upon exposed skin.
It had been the first major battle of the Great War. Countless corpses lay scattered over the field, some in unorganized piles, some limp as though simply in slumber. Severed limbs and extricated insides were strewn randomly, discarded and forgotten save the crows and scavenger animals that crawled from the forest. Their calls sang of death.
With dull eyes whose glint, at the moment, had been replaced by the reflection of the bloodied sun, she stood with her shoulders slumped and her back bent in a wary arch. Her mouth was pursed, and she pulled her cloak closer about her shoulders as the boiling fury from the battle slithered into the cool of the melancholy night.
Kanon heard her alias called, and turned slowly, boots shuffling softly. Upon seeing the face of her commander, she bowed her head slightly in respect. From behind the man, there were the eerie, jerking movements of the injured and those who helped them. Several frantic medics raced back and fourth. Even further behind them, their large aircraft was the backdrop to the hysteria of the humans beneath the vessel's looming shadow.
"Are you injured?"
Kanon automatically clutched the gash in her side. At her commander's notice, she muttered in a low pitch, "It's not serious."
"Go get treated." Her commander told Kyuzo, "Then I want you to go collect bodies from our army."
"I....." She couldn't risk letting someone treat her, lest her secret be exposed. Kanon wasn't sure if she should protest at all. But at her commander's weary face, she continued, "It can wait. I'll find bodies now."
Kanon, christened 'Kyuzo', half-dragged her worn body through the clusters of forsaken lives. Her limbs ached, her muscles throbbed, her skin shivered unexpectedly. Despite the scorching ache that crept like a parasite through her skin, her spine felt cold, the hair on the back of her neck still rising. All over, she was lacerated or bruised somehow, and although there were multiple splatters of blood over her clothes and face, she had yet to distinguish what was hers and what was that of an enemy's who she had slaughtered.
Heavy breaths came between her parted and chapped lips. She came upon the river, and took several moments to take several desperate gulps of water. The drops that slid from her lips like tears, she wiped off with the back of her wrist as she stood. Around her, many uniforms dotted the landscape, some of the enemy's olive green, and the rest of her comrades' navy blue.
She kept her feet from dragging as best as she could, and began her gruesome task.
Coming to the first body closest her, Kanon knelt in the dirt. Her master had instructed to check the pockets of fallen soldiers. They could have valuables useful to her. Slowly, her fingertips wrapped around the flap of the fallen samurai's pocket. Kanon then tentatively released it.
She would not, could not, take from the deceased.
Instead, she flipped the corpse over onto his back, the face of the dead boy's eerily close in age to hers. Slowly, the girl dragged it to the spot where the bodies were being collected. Already a morbid pile of dead flesh had accumulated.
The medics and other soldiers paid little mind to 'him', as Kanon rested the boy's corpse onto the ground.
"Kyuzo."
Kanon looked up to the medic who approached 'him'. Catching sight of the young samurai's face, the physician halted for a moment. Why, Kyuzo never really found out; she couldn't recall what her face might have looked like.
Nonetheless, the medic said, "The commander told us you've be injured. Come get treated first."
"Later." Kyuzo argued.
"Don't fight me here," The medic attempted to give his voice power. However, given the trials of the day, the mock strength withered as he spoke. "Just get some treatment. You'll collapse of fatigue."
"I won't." Kyuzo assured.
They stared at each other. The medic studied the young warrior's face thoroughly; Kanon refused to turn away, his eyes worn, yet placid, and steady.
"Fine." The doctor gave in with a slight sigh and turned, calling back over his shoulder, "Just don't let your bodies be one of those they drag back here."
Almost an hour later, Kyuzo was still pulling at mangled, cold corpses. In the cases where one still had warm blood, signaling their very recent passing, her hands momentarily froze upon the limp flesh. She then continued, dragging the unfortunate souls to their pitiful, albeit temporary, graveyard.
The sun had begun to set, and the blood red day just began to envelop the world in its twilight end. Kyuzo gazed, out of the corner of her ruby eye, the darkened horizon. Was that the oncoming night, or approaching storm clouds?
Her shoulders fell limp, and she let out an exasperated sigh. The darkened circles under her eyes spoke to the weariness in her body. In her eyes, a fire still flickered, yet was left in slumbering embers. How many more bodies would she carry....?
Each time, she had to drag the bodies further and further back. As she cleared the ones closest to their site, she then had to travel more to retrieve their comrade's corpses.
Boots trailing in the dirt, scraping over grass, rocks, bones, Kanon's shaking fingers (from exhaustion, from nerves, she didn't know anymore) weakly grasped her cloak and again hauled it closer around her shoulders.
It was beginning to get cold.
As she stepped, something nearby caught her attention. It caused her to stop in her tracks, and force her fatigued-racked mind to attention. Breaking into haste, she knelt again, and her hands, forgetting their tiredness, curled around the enemy's green uniform and examined the design on the chest.
Her eyes widened.
There was no mistaking her family's crest.
But then, surely....
That meant....
Kanon eased the head to point the face upwards, as the figure lay flat on his back. Carefully, she eased her fingers beneath the face mask, and pulled it off in one quick swipe.
Indeed, it was what she feared.
As she stared, her brother's lifeless face watched her.
Yuuma....
It had been years since she had seen him...but there was no mistaking...
Kyuzo wasn't quite sure how long she sat there staring at her dead brother's face. Briefly, her eyes flickered to the gaping wound in his side. Several other serious slashes lacerated his body; he had been disabled by one and thrashed by the rest....likely, he had fallen against multiple attackers.
"Kyuzo."
Pulled out of her daze with a small flinch, she pulled the mask back down over her brother's face so it wasn't seen. They too clearly resembled one another.
Her fingers brushed against his face, and the skin contact chilled down to her very bones.
She glanced over her shoulder at one of her comrades, Hiraku. He was a disciplined young man several years her elder. He appeared to have escaped the battle with less injuries than her.
"Is that one of ours?"
"No." She replied swiftly, and stood to face him.
Despite his own weariness, the man's dark, terse eyes bore into Kyuzo's averted gaze. Thoughtfully, he questioned, "Someone you know?"
"No."
"Alright then. The commander wants us to come back for today." He instructed and turned, expecting her to follow.
Still, he stood rooted to the spot. After distancing himself several paces, he looked back over his shoulder.
"Kyuzo? Something wrong?"
"...." Kanon shook her head.
"Come along then." Hiraku told him. "It's not been an easy day. Let's go rest. We could certainly use it."
He turned back to continue walking. At first, he thought Kyuzo hadn't until he heard the shuffling of boots following him.
This is probably the first of a two-parter.
Hope you enjoyed the change of pace from the comical extras :)