[Dream, Flashback] kazamidori

[PepsiYuuka]

The powerful, the ancient- they cannot be allowed to act indefinitely. That is why they hibernate.

It wasn't as though she was intending to find her "other side" so... easily. Her fingers traced the petals of a sunflower that sprang from the ground as she took a step, though they passed through when she applied any pressure. She wasn't really here. Her body had been discarded somewhere in the physical realm. A shame- she'd need to work on that one.

Though her shoes weren't truly touching it, the thick grass beneath her feet rippled out like water as she took slow, calculated steps through the ever-expanding field. In the corners of her vision she could see the edges of the field marred by the claw-like grasp of encroaching mountains, but as she turned, they disappeared. Whatever. It was a dream- dreams were dreams. They'd always and still be dreams, she told herself. They didn't and couldn't make sense.

She breathed in.

A riot of colors painted the grass as the ripples faded. Though she hadn't exactly intended to make flowers bloom, there they were. Her hand arced a simple path, painting another swath further away. Ah. Her eyes closed, but her feet kept moving. Slowly, casually, deliberately. She could recall in the very back of her mind what feeling this was, but she hadn't a name to give it. All she could tell herself was that she had felt it before, but so long ago she didn't have any memory of when.

She wasn't sure what she was thinking anymore. Through her closed eyes, all she saw were the colors she imagined drawing on the ground below her.

just something to get me back into the mode of writing for her.

i have been procrastinating to hell and back finishing this as one post so i'm breaking it up into parts. bite m

[PepsiYuuka]

It wasn't as though she lost track of time. She'd never had track of it in the first place.

No, it wasn't as though her skin didn't feel the blistering heat and grasping cold of each of the seasons as they passed. But soon enough she found them changing as soon as her mind reacted to comment on them. So she went on unfeeling, ignoring it for a long while. The seasons soon meant little to her- little more than new colors with which her brush strokes took. She didn't need to think about it, so why should she? She didn't need to think about anything-

And it wasn't as though she found herself exhausted. Even through that blistering heat, the claws of that cold, her movement didn't ever slow. No- she'd keep walking. Her body seemed to have long since forgotten exhaustion, sleep, rest... She would keep moving until she fell over and died. Not that she understood why she did it- did she need to understand? Was that important to her? Her empty mind gave no answers.

But it wasn't as though she particularly hated it. For the most part, she felt quite fulfilled. Living in and for every moment, no matter if it was the same or different- with nothing to compare it to, it was just fine. She didn't know, didn't understand the possibility of more- it was a distant dream.

And yet-

And yet?

Still her heart faltered. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard her own voice calling. "There is more," it said. "You are a fool for living without question." Her brain languished in this wording for what seemed like an eternity.

"You have seen them- you are a fool for not realizing it." She opened her eyes, halting in her place. Taller and taller the flowers at her feet grew, climbing into the sky until their faces blotted out the sun above her head.

"Don't you want to be powerful too?"

[PepsiYuuka]

It was in this state she found herself surrounded. She hadn't been paying enough attention to see the humans, individual faces clouded in the blurry shadows of dreams, approach, still staring down at the ground beneath her feet. Wordlessly she hung there, suspended in midair, surrounded now by the shadows cast from long wilted flowers. Her heart was still- unsure? Slowly her mind reached for words to describe her feelings.

But her eyes still snapped to the small group the moment the closest man cleared his throat. Though no other part of her body moved, he still faltered on his feet, backing up a step at the sudden glance. She didn't know what she had done- no one had done anything like this before when she looked at them, so why? Why were they now? A pang of pain rang through her head as she heard a hundred thousand questions in her own voice. Why? Why did she need to know why in th-

"Wake up! We asked you a damn question!"

His accusatory tone pulled her back into the world around her. She blinked, her eyes lifting themselves from the ground once again. Anyone with a brain could see she really didn't care much about the ones in front of her, but she looked as a courtesy. Her mind was on other things. More important things. Regardless, he spoke again.

"You've been doing nothing but standing there for two months, now. Isn't it your job to make things flower all over this country? Yet you ignore-"

"...I don't want to."

Her quiet voice managed. There was an unhappy murmuring from the crowd. To be honest she wasn't sure what she was expecting- was she expecting something at all? Maybe she had just... done it. It was all very sudden, to her. Being here. Thinking. Expecting anything.

"What do you mean you don-"

"Insolent. I don't live to serve you. You're just humans- you don't deserve to control nature."

It was a booming tone of voice she wasn't expecting from herself. Was this really what she was thinking? She supposed... it was. It was strange to be saying it outright, though. How... different. Unexpected. For some reason, she decided right then and there that she liked this feeling, whatever it was. Power? No, not that, not yet. Just being something more than mindless. Her lips curled up in a bit of an idle smile as several of the humans took their steps back, shuffling. She didn't wait long enough for a retort before continuing.

"I'm bored. I don't want to listen to you anymore. If you have a problem with that, you can-"

There wasn't a warning. The first shot took her left arm clean off.

[PepsiYuuka]

It was an all too painful notice of her all too sudden corporeality.

For several seconds she simply stared into space in awe, too surprised by the attack to react. Eventually she flinched, doubling over to clench what was left of her now ex-arm to her chest. It didn't bleed- but it burned, stank of charred floral incense. There was some kind of sealing magic on whatever had hit her. Perhaps it was meant to just end her then and there, but the grazing blow had softened the impact.

The humans didn't wait for her to react. The majority of the group charged forward, brandishing their pitchforks and what have you. Ah. She hadn't bothered taking those into account earlier, figuring nothing of farmers farming. She barely sidestepped the prongs of one, one she morbidly realized would have hit her arm regardless- had she still been equipped with one. This was rapidly cut off by the fact she had to tilt her head to dodge the back end of another, though it still struck her hard in the shoulder.

Eventually she realized she should maybe hit back.

Tumbling forward and into a rake slashing holes in her clothes and back, she managed to grasp one of the faceless humans around the neck with her knees. Despite the pain she put that little bit of extra push behind her weight, just enough to feel the telltale snap of the man's neck beneath her. A horrified screech hit her ears around the same time some sort of sharp hoe or scythe hit her right thigh, both causing her to grit her teeth even harder than before. Though she released the grip with her legs, it was too late for her victim- he crashed to the ground below, her body still floating where it was. She swung her good leg hard, the sharp impact smashing into the second human's head hard enough to make him, too, crumple.

She drew a sharp breath in, and let a shaking one out. She wasn't prepared, but that didn't mean she wouldn't win.

Another pitchfork came her way, though this time she was more prepared. Grabbing the edge sharply with her solitary hand as it got close, she shoved downwards on it like a lever. Overwhelmed by her superior strength, the faceless man fought to keep his grip on his weapon- the end of its wooden handle catching him hard in the jaw as he learned the purpose of a Class-1 lever. This was her chance. Though the human had a moment to recover as she readied herself, it wasn't enough- she yanked the weapon from the man's hands with her one good one, giving an extra flick of her wrist to slam the handle-end into his head once more. Now that he was totally off balance, she took the time to swing the weapon around and brace it between her arm and body. Though it wasn't particularly speedy, she didn't hesitate before jabbing the offending human full of holes. Perhaps too many holes to be simply making sure he was dead- would you hold it against her?

She whipped around to face the crowd of humans that still remained, most now crowded together several meters away with scared, hushed whispers firing between them, her brilliant red eyes glaring holes in each of them individually. Slowly, she turned her pained grimace into a smirk.

"Run if you'd like. But I still won't forgive you."

[PepsiYuuka]

That was enough to bolden the last of them into choosing their fates.

Several fled. Others grit their teeth and chose to join their fallen fellows. A courageous, but wholly idiotic choice, Yuuka's inner monologue told her. Some met their end with a bit of disgusted kicking, the kind one would use to toss a particularly nasty piece of trash out of their way. Others simply found themselves impaled on the blunt side of the pitchfork. All in all none of them were very pleasant ways to go. The humans should have thought of this.

One more that approached found a swifter end, her superior height giving her all that she needed to direct the fork end of her weapon into his skull. The ground- and she- were both beginning to get quite out of sorts, covered in blood and body parts. It was unseemly. She frowned, her mind for the time being more focused on this than the fight around her. Something told her she needed to get used to this "thinking" thing a bit.

The lunge forward from one bearing a scythe was unexpected. She swung her remaining arm in front of her face, feeling the blade catch against the handle of her weapon, though part of it still sunk into her arm. By now rose red-colored blood was dripping down most of her remaining limbs, and her thoroughly torn back stung from overuse. She should have wanted to give in. But inside of her, deep in the corners of her mind and the back of her heart, she heard something else- something a bit unexpected.

"It's really quite fun, isn't it?"

At that, her smile returned.

Suddenly, she yanked back on the blade of the scythe, though she could still feel the sharp edge cutting deeper into her forearm. But it was enough to surprise her opponent, and that was all she was asking for- anything else was just extra. She swung her leg just in time for the human to not be quite back on his feet yet. Though not a particularly powerful kick, she had aimed it square in his diaphragm- and so again, he faltered, the breath knocked out of him. His scythe clattered to the ground below.

Not a miracle. Just enough.

She twisted the pitchfork again in her grasp, pointing the handle end out. Though she wasn't entirely sure of the thing's capacity, she would make it work. She lined up her aim. Through the current fighters. Made a line of sight on those who were fleeing. A damn shame. She'd put so much effort into this field, but she'd have to go and mess it up for the sake of these humans.

As her energy flowed into the tip of the weapon, a pure white line of light drew itself into existence, as if that filtering through a slowly opened door.

Her off-balance body wasn't totally prepared for the kick back, which drove the fork bit hard into her midriff as the beam opened up. Ouch. Still, despite the minor setback of perforated internal organs, she grit her teeth and held out. She counted silently to herself as each human in turn disappeared into the light. The deep hum of magic flowing through her eardrums drowned out any screams.

The fork was not meant for this purpose. She was tired. She was desperate. She didn't know what combination of these factors caused it, but it didn't matter. In short order, the weapon burst open like a firework, launching parts everywhere and knocking her unceremoniously to the ground.

The light dissipated, leaving nothing but the smell of burnt grass in its wake.

[PepsiYuuka]

Her bloodstained form rose up again from the deep, rustling grass that still surrounded her. A desperate, shaking in-out, in-out breathing dominated her whole body. Is this... What I wanted? She questioned herself, hand still shuddering too much for her blurry gaze to focus on it. Weakly, she clenched her fist, though even that didn't fully close.

In the corner of her vision something moved. A quiet click rang out like a gunshot in her head as she turned.

The impact shouldn't have surprised her, but it took her breath away. Quite literally. She gasped for any sort of air harshly as her hand reached for her neck. But it wasn't enough to just try. Her dull eyes barely made it to rest on the last human archer, panting and sobbing as he looked out over the bodies of his fellows. Before she knew it she collapsed onto the stained red earth, hand clutching at the arrow embedded deep in her throat. The world around her went white, her own mind chanting back to her.

"Bloom, bloom, bloom and scatter, return to the earth- Awaken, and bloom again. That is your fate."

She laughed a pained laugh as she fell once more into the arms of the fate she had rejected, and awoke.

exit.