Symphonic Lie(s)

She lets her eyes drift closed. Her breathes grow shallow. A perfect reflection of the stars shines in her eyes as the last rays of sunlight fade. Her relaxation is swiftly cut short. She lurches upright and glances down as Shun races past. She looks back to the house and anger flashes in her eyes - no one is coming after him. She throws herself down from the tree branch. Skilfully, she lands running.

She soon slows at the edges of the treeline. Tentatively, she glances back. Would they even want her to chase after him like this? She dismisses the thought and steps out of the forest. Before her lies a training area. She looks over the dents in the trees and the damage dealt to the ground. Fear rises in her making her feel choked. The various amounts of damage dealt are astounding in their variation. Some blows are barely visible whilst others have created tiny craters.

"What do you want?" Shun hisses.

"I want to apologise," she replies. "for leaving you then and for telling you now."

"You wouldn't have told me if you were really sorry," he snaps. "You wouldn't have left me if you were sorry."

"I understand," she tells him.

"You don't understand!" he yells, turning to glare at her.

She sighs, having hoped that she wouldn't need to resort to this. "… My parents died on the day that I was born. I was juggled around from place to place. No one wanted me. I was never good enough for them. Eventually, I found my sister, but she was in a bad place. She committed suicide right after our first meeting. I found out that I had a brother, but he was dead too… Family can be torturous - even if they have good intentions."

She watches him carefully. He keeps his eyes averted from her. She pushes away the rising urge to hold him and assure him that all will be well. She can tell that he's struggling to come to terms with everything. Out of respect she almost leaves him - almost is never quite enough.

"That's why you always have friends to back you up when family fails," she explains. "You will always have your friends, Shun, and they will be there for you. They can't understand this, but the least you can do is let them try."

He frowns at the ground. He still looks as calm and composed as ever, but a war is raging within him. Should he cast her away forever? Should he ask why she left him? Does he want to know why she's come back? Could he ever forgive himself if he sent her away? His fists clench. Her essence flows through him. She gave him the life that he's lived. It's been good to him at times, but in life his near constant companion has been pain.

"Leave me alone," he snaps. "Do you think you can tell me about your sad little life and I'll run back to you? Do you think I'm that stupid? Get lost."

She frowns at him disapprovingly. "I will leave you, but do not expect me to vanish from your life. Do you not expect to return to your previous life,"

"Come out," she calls out. "I know you are not a coward."

A low but amused hiss rings out. She looks out into the vast forest with determined eyes. The person who had paid her a visit the previous day has returned. He moves around her like a starved beast circling its chosen prey. Despite the threatening behaviour she remains entirely composed. Over the years she's faced those who are 'big', 'bad' and downright hideous in every way. This one who has challenged her now is nothing more than a juvenile at best.

"Show us your fate," the juvenile hisses as it clambers along the treetops. "Your weaknesses are too plain."

"Your kind are foolish and like to waste my time. Unfortunately for you I don't intend to waste any more of it," she warns, coldly. "Surrender now and perhaps I can excuse your appalling manners. However, know that if you continue there will be severe consequences. I won't guarantee anyone's safety if you don't surrender."

"Not even the boy?" it enquires mockingly.

Those are the last words that it utters. The mangled corpse falls to the ground after being torn in two. The grey steel of the buster blade hide the crimson liquid well. She swings the sword around and slides it into the sheath on her back. Her eyes are fixated on the marred remains. She doesn't like to look at her victims and she most certainly does not believe in taking pride in matters relating to death.

"Are you just going to stand there?" she asks. "Don't you have any questions?"

"What was that thing?" Shun queries, tentatively. "That wasn't-"

"It wasn't human; you don't need to know anything more than that. It can't harm us now,"

She starts making her way back towards Shun's home when it dawns on him. He grabs her firmly by the wrist and she stops. She's reluctant to answer this kind of question because it will only lead to many more. The answers aren't quite what she should be divulging to him but he isn't one to give in.

"Ask me my name," she tells him. "Go on, I won't bite."

"What is your name?" he asks, reluctantly.

"Koori," she replies. "Don't forget that."

She pulls away from him. Her heart feels heavy from guilt but the timing isn't right. Koori tries to ignore the sound of him following her. Anger flashes across her eyes. He's too curious. He should never have such in-depth theories yet but he has. She knows that he was watching her meeting with that person yesterday.

"Was that thing why you left me?" Shun yells.

Koori slows. "Do you not have ears? I've told you all that you need to know. You should forget your questions and continue with your life,"

Shun rips a kunai from his weapons pouch and angles it at his throat. Her body tenses and he knows that she's noticed. He presses it even closer to his skin and a small trail of blood trickles out from the wound. He winces but smirks proudly at his actions. She wasn't lying, she does care about him, and he plans on using that to his advantage.

"Put down your weapon," she asks, her voice trembling.

"You want me to continue with my life? What life is this? What kind of life is it when everything I've known has been a lie?" Shun yells. "Tell me what I want to know!"

Author's Note: This is the end for a while. I have other things to concentrate on so I won't be updating this story for a while. As I won't be here for a while can you please leave me a little going away present in the form of a review? I do have a review policy, but I haven't been able to tell whether I should start implementing it here or not. Right now I think yes. If you want to know more then you'll find the details on the bottom of my profile page where Esther and Eden hacked my account.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I apologise if you haven't.

I own Koori, the plot and some (if not all) nemesis'.