I kinda get into it more in the A/N. But bare with me here. You didn't miss click.
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17. Before the Tea Leaves Fall (YuuNaa,FuuMiru,TomoTomo)
A/N: This is more of a story centered around Murayama Yuiri than it is a YuuNaa or a romance fic. Also... bare with me it's a pretty big experiment and I'm trying new things. There was orignally a song link in the middle of this, but formatting wouldn't agree with me. It was Sacrifice of Tradition from the Ghost of Tsushima OST up to the point of where Yuiri "snaps" back.Tragedy always follows the tale of a warrior.
Murayama dragged herself back to the remains of her village to complete her final hunt to claim the life of General Shiroma, The Empress of War.
She hardly considered herself to be living. Opting to believe was a walking corpse with a sword at her side. A burning-hot engine where her heart used to beat. Only purpose for existing was to carry out revenge, and die soon after.
Murayama smelled the ashes of her village piled at heaps on the ground. Her eyes were devoid of life when she saw the cinders of what she used to call her home again.
A smoldering emptiness. The only thing that still existed here were screams in her head as she walked through.
Underneath the tree that watched over her village for generations... she saw her standing in front of the graves of Murayama's beloved family.
The empress of war herself.
She was a stone statue holding a naginata, appearing to be in deep thought as she swallowed the emotions of seeing a family she once knew in the ground.
“NO MORE RUNNING SHIROMA!” Yuiri roared.
The empress slowly turned around and met her eyes.
Murayama’s face was twisted in anguish and rage, whereas Shiroma’s was frozen in a near unbreakable stoicism.
“ANSWER FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME!”
“What I did? And what would that be? Putting an end to your husband treating the wounds of the enemy soldiers!? You knew the actions of your village was a betrayal to our country! Do you believe that this was the outcome I wanted? I simply... did what I had to do.”
"What you had to do? You razed my home to the ground. You followed orders to slaughter my family… my neighbors… so many innocents… for NOTHING!"
"Those men your husband treated were going to come back and raid your village, what would happen then? We'd have marauders living amongst us. Imagine what they would do with your husband's medical knowledge at their disposal. It wasn't an easy choice, but I had to! To the shogunate, you're a traitor along with your village!"
"If I'm a traitor to him, then you're his slave! My husband's medical research is gone! Lost in the ashes behind me! Our country would have benefited from his work, but the shogun is obsessed with the enemy and allows his people to suffer!" The pauldrons of her damaged armour came undone as she lumbered closer to the empress, "you dare lecture me about betrayal as you stand in front of my son's grave!?!" Tears streamed from Yuiri's eyes, "...my sweet Ryoma."
Yuiri was open, vulnerable. She fell to her knees as everything she had been through had finally caught up to her. The warrior had never reflected on her traumas and was unable to slow down her rage. Her grief had chained her to the floor as she was hit with a flash flood of emotion. She cried out in agony, indifferent to the presence of her final adversary.
The shogun ordered Shiroma to claim her head, and if there ever was a time to collect it. It was now.
But she couldn't.
A lifetime ago, these girls were friends. She had even considered her to be a sister.
Shiroma knelt down beside her and embraced her. She had no right to comfort her, but she deserved it.
It'd be so easy to drive her tanto into Shiroma's abdomen. But this was the first time she had a shoulder to cry on after burying her family. She needed this more than anything, she grit her teeth cursing herself for being weak. Humiliated for allowing herself to be fragile ever so close to her revenge.
What would even come of Shiroma's death? Killing the only family she had left.
The empress stood up as Yuiri continued to grieve. Miru approached the graves, her hands gripping her naginata tight.
Miru bowed to the grave of Yuiri's father. The strong warrior that trained both of them. A death that was regrettably on her hands.
She was just following the Shogun's orders. Murayama's father would've done the same.
For the country… for honour… right?
Miru planted her naginata next to his grave before noticing several leaves blowing from the direction of the eastern mountains.
"The tea leaves are falling…" Murayama spoke without her soul.
Miru stayed silent and allowed her to continue.
"My father said he would teach Ryoma how to use a sword once he saw the tsubaki leaves fall from the mountains."
"Yuuchan…" Shiroma used the nickname she called her as a child.
"Don't call me that…"
"You've come to me for revenge right?"
Yuiri looked up and saw Miru's usual stoic expression with tears slowly crawling down her cheeks like a mountain under the rain.
"If your father wanted you to kill me, he'd want it to be through an honorable duel." Miru gripped the katana at her side. "If you take my head, I can only hope that we meet again in the next life so I can finally see you at peace again."
"If I fall to your sword… promise me that you will bury me next to my husband." Yuiri stood up and readied her hand on the handle of her blade.
"I promise."
Miru proceeded to pull her katana out and threw the sheath off to the side.
A sign of Miru accepting her fate. At peace with the fact that this may be the last time she'd pull her blade out.
Yuiri did the same, pointing her weapon forward and throwing the sheath onto the ground as she was also uncertain if she would come out the victor of the duel.
...or if she even wanted to for that matter.
This is where we part.
Revenants of our failures.
Will death redeem us? The two charged at each other and collided with their blades, rapidly swiping at each other creating a steel barrier that shredded the falling leaves that interfered in their duel.
Each strike was familiar as they had dueled countless times in the past underneath the same tree where they trained as little girls.
The once sweet memories returning as a bitter reminders of how cruel destiny can be.
Yuiri was relentless in her attacks, trying to crush Miru's stone guard.
A pattern of dodges, deflects, parries, and ripostes.
A brutal back and forth.
Even though there wasn't a single cut delivered, pain was brought with every swing of their katana.
Murayama brought down her blade in a downward slash, the same slash she won against Miru in one of their many duels. It was deflected with a fluid motion of Miru’s wrist.
Miru countered with a thrust, the technique that was the killing blow against Yuiri’s father. It rolled off Yuiri’s breastplate in a glancing blow. But the battle raged on.
The sounds of colliding steel rang in their ears as they continued to strike at each other, anticipating every move they had in their respective arsenals.
The warriors began to lose their breath. Their weapons weighing heavily in their hands. They made eye contact, knowing this battle's ending was drawing near.
They swung their katana at each other with all their might and the two blades clashed in the middle, grinding the edge of their weapons as they met face to face once more.
Releasing one hand from the handle, Yuiri delivered a vicious gut-check to Miru's abdomen with her fist.
As the empress tried to regain her poise, Yuiri shoved her with her shoulder and swung her blade upwards, unable to control the speed of its ascent.
The wood of her prop caught Miru's eye. And the girl dropped to the floor, clutching at her injury, screaming out in pain.
Fuck… fuck… fuck! No ashes. No tree. No village. No war.
Yuiri found herself back on the stage of her theater class rehearsals. Immediately attempting to rush over to Miru to see if she was okay.
This was the worst case scenario… Miru trusted her with the choreography and her own incompetence allowed her to hurt a fellow actress.
"Fucking idiot!"
A drink was thrown directly at Yuiri's head before she could aid the other girl, leaving her face and hair drenched in iced coffee, with the sticky sweet substance slowly dripping down her costume and the set.
Unsurprisingly Fuuko, who occasionally stopped by to watch the rehearsals, was furious at Yuiri for hurting her girlfriend. Fuuko stormed up the stage, getting up in the drenched actress's face.
Yuiri tried her hardest to choke back tears.
"Who allowed you to be in the lead role?! Miru trusted you! Look at what you've done, bitch!" Fuuko pointed at Miru who was crumpled to the floor, crying as she clutched her eye. Yuiri couldn't see the injury clearly, but there was definitely blood in Miru's hand.
TomoTomo led rehearsals as the theater teacher was healing off a leg injury.
The two girls stood between Fuuko and Yuiri, guarding the latter with their bodies.
"The stage is sacred, chiyuu~. If you throw anything at the stage as an audience member again, you can consider yourself banned from the theater." Kasai said, laying down the authority.
Itano followed up, crunching down on the lollipop in her mouth.
"It's also not your place to discipline the talent. You may exit the stage now." Her tone laced with an ice cold admonition.
Fuuko backed off a step.
"At least let me take Miru to the nurses office."
Kasai gestured to her with her head and kept a close eye on Fuuko.
The girl carefully helped her girlfriend up and put her arm over her shoulder. She carried the injured actress off towards the exit of the stage.
Before making the complete exit Fuuko spoke over her shoulder.
"Sorry for making a mess on the set."
"Hold on Fuuko, wait."
Miru freed herself from Fuuko and ran up to Yuiri who was completely crestfallen.
"Look at me, Yuuchan."
Yuiri slowly turned her head up.
Miru's injured eye was covered by her hair, some blood and tears still trickling down her face.
"Accidents happen, Yuuchan. I understand. It's gonna be tough with one eye, but I'm still gonna work really hard to make our performance perfect. And I want you to work hard too. Don't give up… and uhh... I'm sorry about Fuuko. Can't really blame her for being protective, huh?" Miru tried to bring Yuiri's spirit up as she noticed tears building up in her eyes. "On the bright side, I think my character would look way cooler with an eyepatch."
The last remark brought a small smile to Yuiri's lips.
"That's the smile I wanted to see… We're gonna kill it next time!" Miru retreated back to Fuuko who was still glaring at Yuiri.
After the two girls left the building, Yuiri fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I ruined everything… I didn't… mean to…" Yuiri mumbled into her hands as tears broke free from her eyes.
Itano walked off to grab cleaning supplies for the spilled coffee on the stage.
Kasai however stayed behind to comfort Yuiri. She knelt down beside her and rubbed her back as she wept.
"I'm not good enough Kasai… I'm a failure of an actress. I'm sorry for letting everyone down." Yuiri was barely audible as she was muffled by her hands.
"This is a challenging role, Murayama. I recommended professor Akimoto for you to take the lead for a reason. You're a skilled performer. From the day you stepped foot here, I had you pegged as the Theater Queen. And coming from a multi-generational kabuki theater background, I think I have an eye for these things." Kasai assured warmly before pulling Yuiri's head to allow her to cry on her shoulder.
"Murayama… The stage, and everything on it is sacred. And when you're performing, that includes you…"
Yuiri wanted so badly to believe her.
---
Okada Nana couldn't wait to just take her uniform off and just be back in the comfort of her dorm.
Once she made her way inside, she laid her portfolio by the door as usual and took in the sight of her girlfriend.
"Yuuchan?"
She was huddled up on the couch clutching a dolphin plushie in one hand, and a near empty wine glass in the other. She was watching Big Hero 6 for the twentieth time.
"Hello my naachannnnn." Yuiri slurred.
Okada scanned the site and immediately found the empty wine bottle on the coffee table.
She seemed to have remembered it being pretty close to full before she went to class.
*Hic*"Sorry Naachan, I didn't save any for you" *hic* She swished around the liquid in the glass. She almost tipped over.
"Why are you drinking so much?"
"Because!" *Hic* "I feel bad for youuuu." *Hic* "You're dating a loser like me… can't do a simmmple scene without hurting someone."
Nana settled down next to her partner and took the wine glass away from her, setting it out of her reach on the far end of the coffee table.
"I was drinkinnn that."
"I don't think so… So what happened?"
Yuiri sighed and leaned on Nana, laying all her weight onto her, "I fucking hurt someone! Hit her in the fucking eye with the sword." Yuiri's tears threatened to leave her eyes for the umpteenth time, "Some girl threw a coffee at me after… I deserved it though"
"You absolutely do not deserve getting stuff thrown at you." Nana stroked her hair, "C'mon let's get you into bed. Get some rest. You're gonna have a shitty wine hangover tomorrow."
Yuiri groaned, "Urgh… not yet. I think I'm gonna throw up…"
"Okay, then let me help you up and get to the bathroom."
"No… I can find my way to the bathroom myself…"
"You couldn't even find your asscheeks by yourself. I'm helping you up whether you like it or not!" Nana asserted.
Yuiri groaned, "fine… but be slow."
"Maybe when you're all lucid we can practice that scene till you're perfect!"
"Ugh… the thought of messing up and hurting you makes me wanna throw up more."
"Alright alright… let's get your drunk ass to the toilet."
---
EpilogueSae barged into the break room, gagging.
"Sae, what's wrong?" Rena rushed over to check if she was okay.
"Sorry Rena, but can you take care of the patient outside? She's got this eye injury… and man… I don't do well with eye stuff…"
"What?! As if I'd want to be involved with that?! You're the leader, you shouldn't have such a weak stomach!"
"Well it'd be a shame if Maimai learned that you never finished medical school, nor do you have any licence to practice."
"YOU WOULDN'T DARE!"
Sae made herself comfy on the break room couch giving Rena a shit eating grin.
"As long as you patch her eye up, I wouldn't dream of it."
Topic: Adventures in Art School: Minis (WMatsui+) (07/31/22) (Read 67131 times)