Sakiya Aikawa was a girl with tragedy flowing through her veins and fury muted beneath her skin. She was living proof that a shattered heart could still beat. She had spent her entire life chasing one purpose after another. She was not born strong...
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For the first time in centuries, Kokushibo sat not in darkness but in light.
Sakiya lay upon the futon before him, her violet hair spilled like ink across the pillow. Her breathing was steady now, her chest rising and falling in a soft rhythm. Yet he could not forget what it took to give her that rest.
She had dragged herself back here from the battlefield on sheer willpower alone, refusing to rest. She had been afraid. She had feared that if she closed her eyes, if she gave in to rest, she would awaken to find them gone
The Insect Pillar had been the one to intervene. Shinobu had coaxed her into sleep when sheer will threatened to destroy her. Kokushibo had watched, and though he did not interfere, he had not liked it. She had not stirred in hours; the exhaustion that weighed upon her was unlike anything even he had seen before. And yet she remained tense even now. Like the fear of losing them was still engrained upon her very soul even at rest. Even with them at her side.
Kokushibo didn't like it. He had not liked seeing Sakiya so frayed, so emotionally unbalanced, clinging to them with fear rather than her usual calm strength. The feeling of that dreaded tightness in his chest was the very same weight he felt when he saw her tears.
Those crystalline droplets spilling from her eyes as she ran to him as bursts of golden sunlight enveloping her and himself. Even as he started to burn he had watched her. The sun made her look ethereal. Otherworldly. Beautiful. Its warm rays softened her and he had a fleeting thought that if this was how he would end, then it would be okay with him as long as he could keep that image engraved upon his damned soul forever.
Then reality slammed into him as he studied her now. Only able to do so because of her intervention.
The rise and fall of her chest. The curve of her fingers curled softly against the blanket. The warmth of her skin, the faint hitch of her breath. Fragile and so very human.
And yet—
The blue spider lily markings traced luminous patterns across her skin. Her heartbeat, slow and unnaturally calm, whispered of something not mortal. She exuded a glow even in sleep, faint but unmistakable, something otherworldly that set her apart from all he had ever known.
