The path to a chained heart (EDITING)

Mizuki's Traits - 10

"You are too weak." The same taunting shrieks repeated over and over and over in Asahi's head, laughing and poking fun at him each time, like a broken record player. It sounded worse every time. What could be, what was worse than seeing the face of his dear sister taunt and prod fun at him? To tell him all his hopes were for nothing? Well, to put it simply, nothing was worse than his dreadful fate. Simply nothing.

He shook his head wildly and pinched himself hard - leaving a bright red mark where he had been trying to disprove of his existence. That his sister wasn't about to kill him, showing no mercy like the kind and nurturing person she was.

"No! She's still fighting! Mizuki... I know you're in there!" Asahi cried, hoarse with despair and the endless flow of tears. "God. How do I still have so many tears left? I thought I had nothing more to cry. I'd give anything just to see the real Mizuki again..." he muttered to himself. It seemed like the corrupted soul standing inches away from his neck, rearing to strike his neck and kill him in one go had heard.

"Anything? Anything, you say? Well, I can't promise you that, but I have enough mercy and kindness to give you a quick death." The malicious being sneered, full of disgust and rotten-to-the-core evil. If there was any good left in Mizuki, it must have been buried deep. Very very deep. Extremely. Probably even impossible to get to.

"I think the quickest death would be by your neck. Swift and clean... why don't I test it out on you? It won't hurt... only for a bit!" Maliciously, she bellowed in his ear, slowly tracing her long and dagger-sharp fingernails across, not minding the fact that she was cutting Asahi's neck, letting blood ooze out of the wound. Drip. Drip. Splat. The blood dripped, giving a sickly splashing noise each time it fell to the ground, escaping Asahi's body by the second. A minute later, it seemed like Mizuki had changed her mind because she then cocked her head to the side, with a dark grin plastered across her face, expanding and expanding.

"No.. I really am not this merciful. I'm thinking a long and painful demise would suit a falling hero like you. What about - no, I have an even better idea. You watch your friends die, unable to help, before you beg to die too. Ooh, I must congratulate myself, it's a splendid idea don't you think? I'll call my soldiers to start my brilliant plan right away!" She flashed her sickly smile once more, that it even made Himari and Homare feel disgusted just looking at her. There was also a looking pit at the bottom of their hearts, which was extremely hard to hide.

A loud click, and three other different puffs of smoke came from the other mirrors, exactly where they were standing - all the other blue, red and golden mirrors. However, there was no cackle or shriek of laughter coming from the other ones. It took only a millisecond and the three other puffs of smoke materialised into three other people. If they thought things couldn't get any more weirder and out of their favour, then here it was.

Three other exact duplicates of the Mizuki standing before Asahi appeared, and if it couldn't make it any more confusing and despairing for him it just did. The only difference was their expressions and the strange feelings the kids got when they took time to examine what was going on and try to understand at least some of it. Except, that wasn't really working.

The figure from the blue mirror had a constantly melancholy aura emanating from it. There were no signs of happiness, or even that bright twinkle of life in her eyes. It looked like she was an empty carcass, willingly doing other's biddings to forget the pain they'd caused. And all the mistakes she had made, which made her seem cowardly, trying to hide away all the mistakes you kept secret, not owning up to them. Yet there was still a strong feeling they got from her. Although it took a few minutes to realise, the three pieced together the information they had - somehow by just keeping eye-to-eye contact with each other, and it had come to mind that this was Mizuki's regretful side. The side where all her emotions of guilt had been left to sit and wither into something more rotten than what had been discarded.

To add to this, there was also a figure that formed from the inferno-red smoke. Something about it made them feel angry, and, oddly enough, overpowered their feelings of fear and pure, utter shock. Squinting closely, the two at the furthest end from the billowing red smoke could see a fierce glow in her eyes. Not only this, but her eyebrows were pulled down significantly, as if there was an imaginary hook that had pulled it down to look so... furious. Her teeth were gritted, sawing against each other, but it was slightly hard to tell from her thinning lips and both eyes in a strong glare at the three. What Homare had noticed was that the two personalities they had seen after the corrupted Mizuki was an exaggeration of her personalities, each most important emotion she felt had been given its own soul and body to think and act on its own. He shivered. Just the mere thought of it seemed slightly disturbing that he was looking at Mizuki, but wasn't looking at the real one. Freaky.

Lastly, there was the spirit of golden smoke. It didn't feel pure, though, like the reflection of good itself. It was filled with darkness, anger and regret, a combination of the three personalities. There was also a feeling of hope that it brought along with it, but it was too shallow a feeling and was overpowered in no time at all. Familiar. Far more familiar than the other forms of Mizuki, far too familiar. Unless... that was Mizuki. The one who was fighting so hard to free herself from the darkness, yet unable to. She seemed sad, angry, but cursed with nothing to do but wallow in its endless silence. The deafening silence of screams and thuds to the ground. She had killed so many people in just a short time, but she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if the people she had sacrificed herself for died. Died by her own hands.

Asahi's eyes widened incredibly when he saw the real Mizuki, as if he was going to run to her, and tell her to come home. Back home to their only nakama left. But, the look in his sister's eyes told him not to, and, surprisingly, he obeyed. With the last of her sanity, Mizuki tried to ward of the murderous spirits, to protect her friends from herself. There was a bright flash of light and a loud bang, but the three knew what Mizuki tried to tell them. And they ran.

Without looking back, one single scream could be heard, before they ran away, into the darkness beyond.

I'm happy with this one depressed actually didn't I just read what happened twice and there wasn't much to edit, so I got through this one pretty quickly (no, no you did not) and am going to attempt the next edit!

"It's impossible to save everyone, otherwise you'll risk losing them all." ~ Asahi Katsumoto