#seien

the hummingbird heartbeat thundering in her ears feels like the build-up to a heart-dropping action scene—except, in seiseki's case, this 'scene' would be her heart leaping out of her chest.

through the noise, seiseki manages to stabilise her voice enough to croak out, "why?"

"why what?" eien repeats, voice infuriatingly dry.

"why didn't you let me bleed to death?" seiseki hisses through gritted teeth. she squeezes her eyes shut, breathing in sharply through her bruised lips. "why didn't you let me fucking die?"

sandals kick off the wall, slapping against concrete as eien's footsteps grow increasingly louder the closer he gets to seiseki.

"why didn't i kill you, you mean?" he says ruthlessly, venom coating his usually placating tone. "you weren't dying when i got here. you held my blade to your neck and asked me to kill you. begged me to."

she can't see his face, doesn't know if she could handle seeing the fury that's surely written on every tight line that's making up his current expression.

soul sight tells enough on its own. eien's soul is seething.

his circle of silver blades are all drenched in a thick, shadow-hued ink that gravitates towards the centre, swirling like it's the eye of a storm. even if they weren't covered by the ink, their numerical inscriptions wouldn't be visible from their gyrating speed.

seiseki has only ever seen souls change gradually over time, never like this—undergoing a striking change in both appearance and nature right before her eyes.

it can only be described as such: metamorphosis.

one of eien's dagger clatters to the ground, landing right beside her head. it's still dripping with her blood.

"that yamatomo girl should've made you swear a binding vow to never once think of suicide, instead of to never commit the act itself."

each word is spat out with the kind of cruelty seiseki isn't familiar with facing. the kind that burns bone-deep, searing tissue and flesh. ferocious and violent. cultivating vicious rage instead of the bitter resentment seiseki's used to nurturing.

seiseki shuts her eyes closed, lets her mind zero in on the new form eien's soul has taken, and doesn't make an attempt to quiet the noise in her head.

eien's next words twist the metaphorical knife that's already lodged in her chest.