[ShiroKirishiki]

---

To be an Akatsuki is to struggle. It is to suffer, to grit your teeth, and drive your heels into the ground in defiance of fate.

For decades, I had waged war upon the world for what I thought was right.

Through scars that mounted, through every death and loss, I have remained.

Dozens of Magi were raised under my wing, given twisted truths and swept into my wish to free a Fallen Angel.

To free Her.

-

Yet, 'freedom' can mean many things. The definition shifted over these long years, as each loss and ruin brought more clarity.

My 'freedom' meant to be free from shackles, bindings on the wrists and ankles that kept one from going where they wished, being what they wished.

I gave you that vision, Ayse. A world painted black, a fresh start, free from the Light of Avalon.
So many of you followed me, but none as closely as you, my dear cousin.

-

You sought to be my mirror. You wished to echo an echo, to become something that wasn't yourself.

You succeeded. You became the past that we all must bury, you became the representation of a fallen nation of corruption and ruin.

You became me...before I learned to live without blind faith.

-

But you became something worse.
-
Something I loathe with all my heart. A selfish thing. That of senseless destruction, of thoughtless rot.

That which I promised to expunge from sight, so long as I was able...

Yet, to do so to my family? To one that has fought by my side for so many years?

I haven't the words, my dear. They always were my weak point.

After all,

I've always spoken better with my claws.

---

Date: 11/01/25

Time: 2PM EST

Place: The Ruins of Viritas

Setting: Deadly 3

[awwlie]

I recall the day, I appeared before you, carrying this accursed name. Learning of you, I idolized your existence, envied you as to become you. I breathed and fought in the same air as you, not for ourselves, not for us: for Her. A tool, that is what you called yourself: I knew that day, we were different. I knew, myself: be more than a tool for Her. I asked your advice to become Her Priestess, you laughed: said it wasn't a title. Only after appeasing Her with a rite, did you see it real: she had seen me, smiled upon me.

You were becoming, 

Jealous of Mercucio, Jealous of me.

You always have been,

Jealous.

We are not so different.

Once upon a time: you were dearer to me than myself..

Misguided, taken off the correct path for Her. I was lead astray, only when I embraced Her once more, I realized, as did you. I had taken myself to chase after you, instead of Her. It isn't your place to yearn for violence: you do not command me, nor do you speak for me. Once I was Yaeka Akatsuki: no longer am I. I might mirror your appearance, but, you have lost yourself in the history. Future holds no more than blight in your approach as you seek to betray all you have left, just as I have.

Even as you called me,

a version of an Akatsuki, 

False in blood.

You seek gather yourself against me as one,

unsightly: provocative,

That is why..

What you seek will not be found,

Silence will follow you as it did before,

your prayers will once more echo unanswered.

For you betrayed Her.

You will not be given grace: for you have betrayed Her.

...

You, who walked alongside me,

You, who shaped me for Her: so I could be your echo.

For I will become what you made me, dear Cousin: 

even if I must make you abhor me.

She shall smile.

whether or not: Ayse Akatsuki appears is a mystery.

[ShiroKirishiki]

The Dark Cathedral
The Ruins of Viritas
On the eve of the winter, 2194

---

Parchment reaches blackened hands, a raven's caw heralds silence that stretches seemingly into eternity.
Its contents are read, yet not comprehended. They are read again, to the same effect.
Over and over. Again and again.

...what?

The paper quivers in stilled air, the slender fingers that bear it shaking like brittle leaves in the wind—not from anger, but realization too slow and too human.

It can't be...

"You...coward." I whispered to the silence. It wasn't hatred that danced in the air with the scent of roses and iron...it was disbelief.
No...no...
My mirror, my echo...my necessary opposite. The wound that I was supposed to make holy, the trial that was meant to make me truly understand—I'd been robbed of it at that moment.

It's gone.

She'd chosen mercy. She'd chosen peace.
She'd broken the cycle of violence that carved meaning into our flesh and bones.
Mercy was worse than defeat.

Hollow.

"He forbade you from challenge." I murmured to the voices in my mind, those that plagued me as they grew in number with each wound I'd carved. They echoed my wounds, mocked me in my own tongue. "...And you listened."
...why?
I felt it then—sorrow's twin. A bite, gnawing at the back of my mind until it slowly grew enough for me to realize it: emptiness.

It hurts more than I thought it would. It hurts...

The place where my realization should have gone. The vindication for the wisdom owed, vacant now. An abyss that yawns before me as I stand at its precipice. The world blurs into discordant colors and shades, thoughts given shape drift in and out of my periphery. The veil thins, my control wanes for the briefest of moments, allowing Them to surface. Allowing Them to chuckle. Allowing Them to drink in my pain as if it were delicacy.

Wounds...are wisdom.

"Then, I will grant meaning to emptiness.
I will carry it like stone to a sculptor."

Scars are lessons.

My eyes refocused upon the letters writ in dissonant script. They were bleeding together in my presence; ink seeping from my fingertips, darkening the parchment. It was not rage that bled into the words that had given me such pause—no, it was resignation.

It cannot be changed. It shouldn't.

With mechanical precision, I fold the letter. I stride forward, Vesper unable to quiet the crunching of shattered glass beneath me. Upon the altar of the Dark Cathedral, moonlight bathing it in pale glow, I placed her answer. Had it been necessary, her heart would have gone there instead. Beating calmly like a metronome until the silence drank in Ayse's last dredges.

Is it bad that I wanted to, even a little?

"The abyss will be my burden instead.

The place where the echo was cast.

The place where it died."

---

The Duel between Yaeka Akatsuki and Ayse does not come to pass.
The ruins of Viritas are spared the spilling of blood.
Yet, the future remains ever uncertain.
A shadowed path shrouded in haze, its destination ever in flux...

-0-0-0-

OOC: Duel Cancelled!

-0-0-0-

[awwlie]

The Ruins of Viritas
On the eve of autumn, 2210AC

---

The scent of iron is heavy, the pained stare was exchanged.

I prayed for days, hours prior for the ritual. I asked Her my purpose, like usual; I only heard silence. She is gone from my world of belief, these chains that rest around soul are naught but traps meant discourage my own truth. I see the form of an angel appear in my dreams, I see it clear as day. It is not Her, it is not any that I have seen before. I wondered if I had gone insane, midst our fight, I realized the answer.

"I offered you mercy,
I asked for in return your compliance.

You call me a coward, yet - 
I dare not say what you have became in years... "

How far have we came in life, I wondered as I rode off and away. I felt the blood rushing out. I felt alive again. 

How empty I was, as I rode off and away.

No longer were we echoes, mirrors - necessary opposites. A part of me misses your sweet voice, the advice you'd offer me as I found distress. How I felt your ire for my existence in your eyes, the gaze of a murderer. You did not doubt a single slash of your claws, you meant to kill me. It made me feel special. To know that you would never have done so before. Now before me rests an endless pool of blood, the tiles underneath my feet absorb it.

It whispers a tale of our split.

"To be an Akatsuki is to struggle.."  I whisper quietly as I begin to mend my wounds, I see the stark difference in our characters now; I had never been a true mirror to you. I had been an imitation of your perfection, your imperfection.  You corrected me as you saw fit, only - I managed to hide the taint away from your eyes, I became what you hated most.

The version of Yaeka Akatsuki that would've done anything for Her, no matter if it hindered Her the time by which she would come to us. The version of Yaeka Akatsuki that would've cleaved open half the world to bring forth Her as she was in chains. The one who would help us paint the world anew in her holy ink.

---

I loved you,

Did you love me,

Did I forget our pact,

Did you forget my promise?

.. did I betray you?

I haven't betrayed Her..

I am sorry..