✿ Forty-Third Ink Drop ✿ - [Voice]
[At first there was...pain. Endless, sharp, and terrible. Then, there was darkness. Suffocating, cold, and also endless. It felt like she had been trapped in that horrible darkness forever, and it scared her. Miyabi had always been afraid of darkness; that level of darkness - where no light could shine through - terrified her. She wanted to escape it, this blackness. She wanted to scream and cry and beg for someone to help, but it seemed like her voice didn't work, either.
Dying...it was terrible.
But at the same time, the same time Miyabi thought she was going to be trapped in that darkness forever, it was like she was thrown into a blinding white light. It burned her eyes, and Miyabi could only stare into it for a second, before she was thrust back into the blackness. The last thing she saw of that white world was a lone figure, blurred around the edges, but with deep, wise eyes. ...Sad eyes.
The blackness, this time, only lasts a second, before she can feel, and hear, and smell. Her eyes open, and for a moment, the girl thinks she's in a whole other place. Where...where is she? This wasn't right. Everything was wrong! Where's the green of the trees?! The brown of the earth?! The color that was supposed to fill the forest?! It isn't there anymore. The world surrounding Miyabi is a grim and dull black and white. The only subtle difference is the change in light or dark of the colors. Greys, off-whites...that's it. Nothing else.
Miyabi looks around, scared and confused and distraught. Why isn't there any--....wait. That's right. She died. This is her penalty, isn't it? Miyabi swallows, breathes hard, then sits up. An unwise choice, as the vertigo that overtakes her a second later makes her fall back to the ground. She coughs out a yelp, as a stinging pain surges into her left knee. Pulling her leg close, Miyabi sees that she scraped it, and a thick, black, ink-like substance is now running down her leg.
Ha...haha, is that supposed to be her blood? She can't even see the color of her own blood?
It would have been better if she just went blind. This was...a mockery.
Miyabi stares at the wound for a few minutes longer, numb, then dully thumbs around for her journal. Did they provide it? And what about the war? Was Nami all right?! Did she--...she had to see it. No, no, that's...not that bad. It can be forgotten, erased. Just so long as Nami is alive. Nami didn't have to die, too! She didn't have to suffer like this! She better not have! She--!
Miyabi finds Nami's entry, reads it, reads it again...and again. Miyabi is dead. Miyabi is dead.
The next entry she finds is...Elicia's. Her note, the picture... Come over so we can paint again, okay?
Tears fill her eyes as the painter runs her fingers over the little butterfly. Did it have color, too? She wonders...
Painting. She can't paint like this. For how long? With a quiver in her lip, and a shaky breath, Miyabi turns on the journal's audio. She tries making a filtered post, to Amaterasu, and...somehow isn't shocked to figure out that Ammy's name is no longer available. Unhindered, the journal's audio can catch the soft sounds of a girl crying, and the drops of moisture as they fall onto and soak into the pages. Ammy's gone again.
Without even making an attempt to mask the sorrow in her voice, or the tears, or the crying - Miyabi just doesn't care right now - she announces to the village.]
I'm... [Alive.] ...back. A-Amaterasu is g-gone. [Her voice cracks, and she holds the journal close as her eyes squeeze shut and she cries. Why? Why are you gone again? I need you right now! I need you!] I'm...s-sorry. For tro-troubling you all...
[Filtered to Nami some time later | 40%]
I'm oka
It's all ri
I'm sorry I couldn't
[Miyabi can't find words. Nothing feels good enough to say. So, instead, she just uses bloom on the journal to make a single sakura blossom manifest into Nami's journal, when she opens it. Miyabi is sorry. She's so, so sorry for failing.]
Dying...it was terrible.
But at the same time, the same time Miyabi thought she was going to be trapped in that darkness forever, it was like she was thrown into a blinding white light. It burned her eyes, and Miyabi could only stare into it for a second, before she was thrust back into the blackness. The last thing she saw of that white world was a lone figure, blurred around the edges, but with deep, wise eyes. ...Sad eyes.
The blackness, this time, only lasts a second, before she can feel, and hear, and smell. Her eyes open, and for a moment, the girl thinks she's in a whole other place. Where...where is she? This wasn't right. Everything was wrong! Where's the green of the trees?! The brown of the earth?! The color that was supposed to fill the forest?! It isn't there anymore. The world surrounding Miyabi is a grim and dull black and white. The only subtle difference is the change in light or dark of the colors. Greys, off-whites...that's it. Nothing else.
Miyabi looks around, scared and confused and distraught. Why isn't there any--....wait. That's right. She died. This is her penalty, isn't it? Miyabi swallows, breathes hard, then sits up. An unwise choice, as the vertigo that overtakes her a second later makes her fall back to the ground. She coughs out a yelp, as a stinging pain surges into her left knee. Pulling her leg close, Miyabi sees that she scraped it, and a thick, black, ink-like substance is now running down her leg.
Ha...haha, is that supposed to be her blood? She can't even see the color of her own blood?
It would have been better if she just went blind. This was...a mockery.
Miyabi stares at the wound for a few minutes longer, numb, then dully thumbs around for her journal. Did they provide it? And what about the war? Was Nami all right?! Did she--...she had to see it. No, no, that's...not that bad. It can be forgotten, erased. Just so long as Nami is alive. Nami didn't have to die, too! She didn't have to suffer like this! She better not have! She--!
Miyabi finds Nami's entry, reads it, reads it again...and again. Miyabi is dead. Miyabi is dead.
The next entry she finds is...Elicia's. Her note, the picture... Come over so we can paint again, okay?
Tears fill her eyes as the painter runs her fingers over the little butterfly. Did it have color, too? She wonders...
Painting. She can't paint like this. For how long? With a quiver in her lip, and a shaky breath, Miyabi turns on the journal's audio. She tries making a filtered post, to Amaterasu, and...somehow isn't shocked to figure out that Ammy's name is no longer available. Unhindered, the journal's audio can catch the soft sounds of a girl crying, and the drops of moisture as they fall onto and soak into the pages. Ammy's gone again.
Without even making an attempt to mask the sorrow in her voice, or the tears, or the crying - Miyabi just doesn't care right now - she announces to the village.]
I'm... [Alive.] ...back. A-Amaterasu is g-gone. [Her voice cracks, and she holds the journal close as her eyes squeeze shut and she cries. Why? Why are you gone again? I need you right now! I need you!] I'm...s-sorry. For tro-troubling you all...
[Filtered to Nami some time later | 40%]
I'm oka
It's all ri
I'm sorry I couldn't
[Miyabi can't find words. Nothing feels good enough to say. So, instead, she just uses bloom on the journal to make a single sakura blossom manifest into Nami's journal, when she opens it. Miyabi is sorry. She's so, so sorry for failing.]