#quixoticspear

"   are you alright   ?   "   a gruff voice, one deepened purposefully, calls out to the woman nearby   ---   lucina’s blade flickers blood off its metal after slaying one of the risen who dares to creep on the other.   "   this area is dangerous;   if you’ve no business here, take leave immediately.   "

Feudal Japan, a bygone era that modern society loves to romanticize. He marches in his warrior’s kimono and reaches for the katana he suddenly knows how to wield. Knives are easier to manipulate and require less precision. But a powerful sense of honor demands that he fight with tradition instead.

Men clad in armor as black as the night gallop towards him on possessed steeds with ghoulish eyes. He raises his sword and lets out a battle cry as he hastens forward and aims low. Disabling a mount is no small feat but he will never allow the enemy to overtake their keep.

It continues like this for hours.

When at last he strikes down his final foe, he collapses to his knees and props himself up with his loyal blade. The battlefield runs red with the blood of Hoshido and Nohr alike.

“A normal dream...?”

"   ...   o   -   oboro   ...   ?   but...   i   ---   i thought you were   ------   "   dead.   killed.   murdered.   the word doesn’t dare escape her lips.   no, she’d rather be hopeful that she’s alive.   maybe if she is...   takumi could be too.  ryoma as well.

He never learned what happened to her.

Takumi breaks into a sprint. Lakeside, empty. Hallways, empty. Where is she? Where could she be?

The mountain in the distance beckons for him. Though he fears what will happen when he shuts his eyes, he invites the darkness and imagines himself at the summit where no one else would dare venture.

Upon welcoming the light as the darkness takes its leave, he finds himself along a rocky path, just a few paces away from the peak. He freezes up.

He has no clue what to say to her.

Does she know?

The pain she must carry; he burdens her with so much.

He’s never been good at it, but he forces a smile. He wishes, oh, how he wishes, that she’s escaped his fate. But that would be selfish. Maybe it was time for her to be reunited with her family.

He wants to tell her that everything is all right now, to reassure her the way a leader ought to. Yet his hands grow clammy, his neck grows hot, and his sense of courage keeps shrinking.

“Hey.” Takumi’s voice cracks, “It’s about damn time you showed up. How long did you expect me to wait?” Dammit. He lifts the heel of his palm to his stupid face that can’t keep a hold on Happiness or Joy. “It’s, it’s good to see you...normally I’d tell you to, to don’t you know...whatever, you know what I--hic--mean.”

His naked loneliness collapses before her, the trails on his cheeks echoing all the sentiments he wants to scream.

“...you’ve no idea how glad...”

But she does know and that’s why he can show her this. All of this, whatever this is.

What a melancholy glade! I hope Oboro finds some respite from both her daily duties and her mourning in her dreams. Oboro is Mod Sexy’s best Hoshidan girl so we’re very excited to have you!