?￢ﾜ ? ~ Interlude One — Scarlet Midnight ~ ?￢ﾜ ?

"I love you, mom."

"I love you too, my darling."

The young girl of scarlet midnight snuggled into her mother, a woman with the same namesake. Mother's pale hand stroked her daughter's, and her slender fingers weaved through the strands of her silky black hair.

A smile couldn't help but spread across the girl's face. She opened her scarlet eyes to look into her mother's eyes, and it was like she was gazing into a mirror of the future. Mother returned the grin and kissed her daughter's forehead.

She was in a place, so safe, with not a single tear in sight. It was the best feeling. So warm, so soft, so loved. The thing that would make it perfect was her father's presence, but if she was being honest, she didn't need him.

Her mother was more than enough—she was everything.

"You'll never leave me, right, mom?"

"Oh, of course not. I'll never leave you, my Yoraika."

She looked up and intensified the eye contact. "Promise?"

"I promise."

—⊱✿⊰—

Warmth left her hands. Her already slender fingers were nothing but skin-wrapped bone. Her pale was so sickly that it was transparent. The light blue veins beneath her skin were clear as day, and even they were losing color.

Yoraika clasped her mother's skeletal hand, tears drenched her face and flooded her eyes. Scarlet cracked as it watched scarlet fade. "Mom," the girl pleaded through her sobs. "Please! You promised!"

Mother placed her other freezing hand on Yoraika's. "I did promise, and I'll never break that promise."

"But! B-but," the girl wept, through her choppy breaths. Not another sentence could escape her pain.

Mother smiled. "I'll never leave you because…" she started, moving her sickly, trembling hand to her daughter's chest, placing her palm onto the girl's heart. "I'm right here. I'll forever be here."

Yoraika broke down and clutched her mother's hand to her heart. "O-okay," she barely managed.

"I love you, my darling."

"I… I love you too, mom."

—⊱✿⊰—

Cold. It was just her and the emptiness in her hands. The girl was alone. Her father wasn't even there when his wife died. Why would he be there to comfort his daughter? When the light in her mother's eyes went out, a new one awakened in her. Scarlet twinkled like the starlight; white the snow that floated around her.

What happened to her mother would never happen again. That was a promise, and she'd rather join her mother than break it. Midnight was an oasis in the endless white, the color that loved her hair and clad her uniform. An oasis was salvation, and she would be that.

Nobody will ever be sick again, especially if she could do something about it. A foolish dream, it was. Even a child could see that. She knew it herself.

But she couldn't help but believe it.

A fellow Nin of Grass walked toward her, his uniform disheveled and old. It was clearly too large for him. "Yoraika, right?"

"Yes," she affirmed, walking forward.

The Nin nodded. "Alright, we'll start your Shinobi training as soon as you come with me."

"I want to specialize in being a medical ninja," she added, then she bowed. "Please."

He hummed. "I'll see what I can do."

Yoraika couldn't help but squeeze her fists in relief. "Thank you… so much."

—⊱✿⊰—

Her father in the few times he asked her to do anything… instructed her to wait outside. Alone. Like she always was. Crowds washed around her like cold water off metal. They barely stuck, nobody stood out.

They didn't care about her… but she couldn't help but care about them. Just like her, they were forced to walk on this dirty, unkept path. They were forced to scrounge the bottom of the barrel for food. They had no choice but to wear the same clothes for years.

Yoraika looked down at her uniform. She was older, larger. The sleeve only went halfway up her forearm, and the collar of her shirt felt like it was strangling her every time she attempted to move her neck.

She was sick of living like this. Everyone was, and she could feel it. Scarlet saw the looks on their faces, the stomp in their stride, the apathy to everything. She felt it too. Her mother died because they couldn't afford medical care, they couldn't afford to keep her alive.

Life had a price tag. The mere thought sickened her, and living in the reality of it… she shook her head. The opening of the door next to her redirected her attention. A man of midnight walked through, her father.

He had two blades, both were identical, but there was only one she recognized. It was the one strapped to his waist, an entirely black Grass Cutter. With an outstretched arm, he handed her the other blade, a white Grass Cutter with a midnight stripe down the middle.

He didn't spare her a glance. "This is yours. We train starting today."

"Yes, father," she answered, grabbing the blade and observing it. There was nothing special about this… she didn't even want to go into combat.

But if that was what her father wished, then she didn't have a choice.

—⊱✿⊰—

Hot. Despite that, everything inside was still frigid. Her hands burned from the cuts embedded into her palm by the blade she grasped. Chills crawled over her sweat-drenched body at the sound of her father's booming voice.

"KEEP FIGHTING!" he commanded.

Yoraika's legs were weak, jelly, but her father's rage solidified them. She was sick of this man. Scarlet glared into careless midnight. She was older, stronger, wiser. Through all that, she saw that he didn't care.

She meant nothing to him.

With the blade in her hands, she charged.

She was kicked down once again.

"If you're not a Shinobi, if you're not following the orders that I tell you, then you mean nothing. So, Get UP!" he screamed.

Yoraika did as he said, everything else he said washed over her. She heard it dozens of times before. She listened to him, not because he wanted her too, but because she needed to.

She needed strength. She needed it to keep her promise to her mother. Nobody would ever get sick again.

Seed only cared about the sick when it could bring them profit.

Life had a price tag.

Blade would cut that price tag off.

So, she gripped her blade and cut at her father.

—⊱✿⊰—

Shame, guilt, regret. Her knees dug into the snow as scarlet gazed with tears. Midnight smoke blew into her lungs. The blaze she faced roared not only in front of her, but to the left, the right, the rear.

Her world came crashing down around her. Blade did this. Blade killed these people… these innocents.

They may have been advantaged by the system, but they did no wrong. They had no part to play in all of this.

Rumors spread of Blade's increasing violence were things she chose to ignore. It was impossible to do that when the evidence smoldered right in front of her.

Yoraika gripped her Grass Cutter. The innocents weren't the only ones who died that day.

So did her allegiance to Blade.

They were gonna cut this country down to its knees.

She'd die before she allowed that to happen.

—⊱✿⊰—

His hands were frigid.

Not again.

His skin was pale, sickly—almost green.

No, not again.

His heart slowed.

NO!

Yoraika had a promise to keep. She couldn't let him die. She wouldn't let him die. This man received her all and if that wasn't enough, what would all of this amount to? What would it have all been worth?

Nothing.

She refused to let this be for nothing. This man would not die.

—⊱✿⊰—

Tears. All she could see were her own tears. Her refusal meant nothing. Her all amounted to nothing. She was worth nothing. Failure, a shattered promise, and broken scarlet eyes. The cold chilled her tears and left her with a shivering tremble.

Greenseed Okano was dead.

He was dead because she wasn't enough.

No matter how hard she tried, it didn't even matter.

Nothing mattered anymore.

At least… she wasn't alone with her tears, her sobs, her cries.

Ms. Aiko needed protection. She would be that.

Her father finally did something right, it seemed, teaching her how to fight.

Ms. Aiko leave the Land of Grass safe and alive.

Yoraika would make sure of that.

—⊱✿⊰—

If Yoraika was being honest with herself, she was embarrassed by how excited she got when she saw a boy impaled on a sword. In her defense, he didn't seem too bothered by it himself.

With the ongoing theme of honestly, she didn't really see the boy for who he was. She saw redemption. A way to erase her failure from the forefront of her mind, a naive notion, but there were plenty of those she believed.

That's what she saw, not Shinrai.

However… Shinrai would somehow eclipse that redemption.

That cold she was so used to… he warmed it.

He warmed her. The only other person to do that was her mother.

He was special… she'd keep him around.

If she could. She knew she couldn't.

—⊱✿⊰—

She sobbed. She cried. She nearly wailed. She kept her head dug into her knees, shielded by her arms, and covered by her hair. Her lungs ached from the constant choppy breaths, and the pieces of her heart stung like the attack of a wasp inside her chest.

Everything she went through truly amounted to nothing. She failed to save Greenseed; she failed to protect Ms. Aiko, and she wasn't there for Shinrai anymore. She was pathetic.

She was alone. She was cold. Like she always was. This was simply… how it was supposed to be.

Her cracking eyes pained her through the tears. Scarlet shattered, scarlet broke, scarlet—

"Broken scarlet eyes."

Chills comforted her as the sound of that voice warmed her, calmed her…

It was Shinrai.

?￢ﾜ ? ~ Interlude End ~ ?￢ﾜ ?