2018-04-20 - Decimated...
| Title: Decimated... | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Even Mikoto Minagi has limits. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Hikawa Shrine | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2018-04-20 - 04-07-2015 | |
Soundtracker: Sia - Breathe Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFGvmrJ5rjM
Miroku jets through the air, away from the towers and their destruction. Fast, at first - but slower, now, slower and slower, as Mikoto pants frantic little breaths. She must stop these misguided heroics soon. Her free hand clenches and unclenches, against the cloth rope she's holding.
This close, they can see the drying blood, collected on the gashes of her arm and leg, welted along a hundred obsidian scrapes. This close, they can see the cauterised hole in her side, low on ribs which have managed to protect her most vital areas. This close, they can see the bruises blossoming across her flesh, like so many five-petalled flowers. This close, they can see the sweat collected on her brow as it knits in concentration, the cold pale sheen of her skin, the thin line of a singe across her cheek. They can see the pale red birthmark on her arm, circular and jagged, revealed by Fallen Stern's slice through her stained blue t-shirt. It's so terribly clear that Mikoto is not a Puella Magi. Mikoto's body is the only one she will ever have, and there are consequences to her reckless actions. But that star marks her as HiME, as a girl who understands power at a price. It's a price she gladly pays, for Eri's sake, even though it hurts so very much. The price was steep, tonight.
Her suffering is so beautiful.
"... Mi...roku," she murmurs, her breath shivering. "Miroku, I..." ... need to stop, before everyone crashes down. She can't force the words past her lips. It hears her regardless, and descends. A jet of air ensures that the field it lands on is not cratered by its great girth - though the imprint is still vast.
It reaches up, takes its passengers in its huge hand, and deposits them carelessly on the earth beside it. Obsidian spires crash out of the earth - perhaps too close for comfort - and completely envelop the gigantic creature. All that black glass shatters, fades into the aether. Underneath, Miroku is gone.
The blade is sated. Red sigils close to nothingness. Mikoto does not notice the influence has gone, at first; so many just feel like her thoughts...
She lies where she has tumbled from Miroku's palm, sprawled upon the earth. Grass tickles her lip as she takes in shaky breath, but she can't seem to summon the strength to lift her hand and push it away. One hand still grasps the sword Miroku's hilt.
"I'm sorry," she says, voice quiet, far too quiet for Mikoto Minagi. "I'm... at limit... I can't..." Tears prick at her eyes, equal measures shame and pain. "... this far's fine... right?"
A gem is offered, and Mikoto turns her face away. "No! They... took everything, and Eri needs... magic... more than -" - cut off by coughing. She is racked by the painful jolts, curling in on herself. It all threatens to overwhelm her, now she's not transformed, but she must endure.
She tries again. "This time, Eri can't..." Mikoto's breath hitches, catches. She shifts just an inch too far inward, and her side explodes in agony. "Ahhh-!"
The Sovereign's lance was cruel, and its aim perfectly angled to the weakest point of her side, where she was slammed into the concrete with the might of Fallen Stern's swing. She was a horrifying obsidian monster, struck down by a mighty knight. Slain twice, once and again, by one pure knight and then another, as if they were an inexhaustible resource of the world. That is the price of defending her loved ones: those knights will never stop coming to slay the terrible beast. They will never stop coming to slay her. She made her peace with that, long ago and far away, but... it hurts.
Unable to hold back the sound, Mikoto cries out, sharp and wailing. For a moment, she forgets that she and Miroku share the same blood, and that it would not push her further than she was capable of going. She forgets she is Mikoto Minagi, and thinks of herself only as a girl, bleeding into the grass. She forgets, and she knows fear.
Her whole world is pain. Even those cries bring sharp stabs of agony into her chest, and she struggles to choke them down. She isn't thinking about Eri any more, can't possibly hear anyone's words. She is taken by something more desperate, more primal. Wide golden eyes look up, rimmed with salty damp, searching for mercy or forgiveness or salvation. Her tone shifts from its wavering brave insistence to a pitiful plea, small and mortal and so very, very breakable.
"... help me..."
This strong, implacable girl, who rends steel like it were straw, somehow seems like the most fragile thing in the world right now. She has gone too far, this time, all for the desperation of Eri Shimanouchi. It is a terrible thing, deep and familiar - and she knows she belongs right here, in the service of someone she loves. Everything she is screams to her that the person using her will take care of her, if only she can survive and return to them. And here, she has returned...
She has returned, so Eri will take care of her... right..?
Her eyes close, and the only sound she makes is her shallow, rasping breath. Her world narrows to unconscious darkness, fitful in its suffering.
