Timelessness Pain (Yoimiya Drabble)

Timelessness Pain

"So, Yoimiya. These fireworks, what do they mean to you?"

The question kept ringing in Yoimiya's head long after Paimon and her friend left.

It wasn't that she couldn't think of an answer at the moment, but rather the question made her think about the answer. She dangled her legs over the cliff of Amakane island, sighing as she stared up to the now empty sky.

"I need someone to talk to," she said out loud. She waited for an answer, but only a slight breeze responded. She took a glance at the cherry blossoms behind her, continuing to stay silent.

"You can come out y'know," she called out to the tree. A figure walked out from behind it.

"You shouldn't call out to me so casually, Naganohara-sama."

"I thought Ayaka said that she would stop sending people to watch over me." she asked.

"It was not the Shirasagi Himegami's order. I came here of my own volition because I was worried you had run into trouble. I apologize if I was intruding, Naganohara-sama." The figure bowed.

Yoimiya shook her head before patting the grass beside her. The figure desperately tried to excuse themselves from doing it, but she managed to get them to sit anyway.

"And please, don't be so formal with me. We've known each other for a while now." she said, sliding closer to her friend.

"Sure, Naganohara-san." they replied.

"Call me like you used to before." she pleaded. She really didn't like the uptight way the people in power speak.

"I can't do that Nagonohara-san! I'll be breaking the pledge I made with the Yashiro commission. I am your servant, but calling my master too casually will bring shame to me!" they pleaded.

"Well... I don't see anyone else, especially since it's almost midnight. C'mon! Please! Just this once?" she clapped her hands together, begging.

The person beside her was someone she got to know as a friend a few years back. To her surprise, that same friend also turned out to be one of Ayaka's servants. When Ayaka found out about her friendship, she let them serve under her.

"Fine, I'll accept your request, Miya-chan" they sighed, defeated.

They didn't say a word to each other after that. Yoimiya returned to staring aimlessly at the sky as her friend watched her. They watched as the expression on her face changed. They smiled, thinking of how easy it was to tell what her thought process was.

"How are Matsuzaka, Iwao, and Saika?" They asked, breaking the silence.

"The youkai hunting trio? They seem to be fine. When they're older and realize that the youkai wasn't real, they'll at least have the fireworks I gave them as a memory!" She said, her usual vigor back at full force.

Her friend frowned. It wasn't that she didn't like the idea of the trio's beliefs of youkai being crushed. Rather, they knew that the chirpiness in her voice was a facade.

They both sat in silence once more. Her friend knew that whatever her mind was playing with was definitely not a positive one. "Fireworks" and "memory" were two words that she knew to avoid putting together in a sentence, at least in front of Yoimiya.

"Hey, you know, we helped someone escape the island today. Actually, his own best friend came to arrest him. The locals at the village they lived in together said that they were practically brothers. Can you believe it? Then I met this traveler and..." she went on to tell them what happened.

Her friend listened intently to her, despite already knowing all the events that she was telling. They knew very well that Yoimiya's goal wasn't to tell them an amazing story about her adventure. Rather, she was simply trying to get things out of her head.

Yoimiya's storytelling was so detailed that the sun was already beginning to rise without either of them realizing. Since they usually worked late into the night, they weren't that tired yet, but they knew that she had a habit of staying up until midnight only. The excitement of the last few days seemed to start taking a toll on her, and it wasn't like the morning sun's warmth was going to help.

"During the fireworks, the traveler's friend asked me a question that's been bothering me for a while," she said.

"These fireworks, what do they mean to you? That question right?" they filled in.

"Yeah, and you already knew everything that I recounted right?'"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but be worried about you," they apologized.

"It's fine, I know you meant no harm, but I'm not the defenseless person I was before," she told him.

"I know. I'm sorry."

Another silence passed between the two. It didn't last long though as Yoimiya finally asked the question that she'd been holding in the entire time.

"I make tons of fireworks since they don't last long, right?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Then if there are few, then it should last longer right?"

They hummed in agreement.

"And if there is only one, it should last the longest."

"Yeah..."

"Then why didn't my mom last that long in my life?" She asked. Her eyes were beginning to water. The emotions, the answer she had been hiding from the traveler since yesterday––it all came out instantaneously like a firework explosion.

No words would help the pain flooding out of her. The loss of her mother at an early age had affected her deeply. Her mother was her happiness, alongside her fireworks. They held her close until she fell asleep from exhaustion.

"I guess it's true that the saddest people smile the brightest."