Sakura petals drifting lightly despite the weight of countless centuries, dancing in a starless darkness, shimmering with pale morganite hues against the dominating dimness as if battling to bring beauty and peace even to the corners and domains pulsing forebodingly with the terror of the unknown while harboring endless possibilities within their frail nature like offerings at an alter to be prayed to only once.
Warmth, tenderness, redemption, hope, comfort… but also justice, equality, fury, punishment, despair... every emotion and feeling was carried evenly through an undisputed resolution.
All these different colors to be don onto a person's soul were maintained and protected inside those petals, just like the thin yet determined blade swaying alongside them with matching grace and beauty as if they were molded from the same cup that every living body had to empty in a single instant after filling it with all kinds of tastes and flavors along the course of a lifetime.
Ayumi could not shake that image from her mind; the mysticism it carried contrasting strikingly against the light she represented, yet both completing each other in a unique harmony. It brought her no fear... all her terrors had vanished within that brief embrace of salvation and protection, as the petals burdened themselves with her sorrows, adding to the huge myriads of collected emotions they were entrusted with, harboring no complaints or grievances over this task.
On the contrary, that image brought a semblance of true peace to her ever – worried heart and restless mind.
She might have wished for a certain departure leading her to the people she missed, but now she wanted to live on, even while carrying that longing that no longer weighed heavily on her soul and dictated her actions. That encounter instead gifted that longing a goal, a deeper meaning that would unfold when it reaches its conclusion one day.
And so, putting her head on the pillow and before closing her eyes, Ayumi found herself smiling contently.
Long flowing black hair, as if entangled from dark shadows that still hovered through the thick locks brought together in a high ponytail, yet glimmering as if combed by a melted Tourmaline, quietly longing for its berth residing in the wide eyes these locks perfectly framed, stable and mellow like an untainted earth, never disturbed by the footsteps of mankind but ready to stir and quake in brutal retaliation need there be against any transgression. Still, Ayumi could now while recalling the prince of souls features spot a looming touch of sorrow embraced tightly beneath the calm surface, though difficult to trace, a boat stranded on an island of isolation and harshness meant to protect, not to threaten or endanger. His traditional dojo clothes, Paige and blue flowed seamlessly with a solemn homage to simplicity, modesty, practicality and a reluctance to let go of a time long gone by.
Ayumi, with her eyes closed, found her hand resting on her heart that was beating in the same way it always did... however, this time the barrier anchoring it into the cage of safety she had created was being without her control infiltrated by a different tune. A tune she had never allowed her heart to play before. And yet, she was not angry or disappointed in herself. Many barriers had already come down from the firm bars she erected around herself, why not let this one fall down as well, with her full awareness and desire?
Her chest heaved with long overdue breath of comforting relief and freedom. However, the feeling did not last long as a tug tightened around the strings of her heart, beating freely for the first time to their own rhythm while creating their own chime.
That prince was so similar to Noboru yet so different at the same time, like a wave at times crashing furiously at the shore to wipe everything standing in its way, and at other times brushing gently upon the sand warmed by the sun rays.
Why was that?
The same black hair, the same brown eyes,; a pair narrow with malice, the other wide with solemnity. The two men resembled a statue carved by two different painters sharing the same grace and beauty but differing in the way they reflected them. While Noboru seemed to be born of the night itself, donning its mysteries and ruthlessness with grace and vigor that betrayed no mercy, the prince shone within the same dark shadows enveloping the two figures like a cold moon protecting that same night in elegant silence.
Two faces of unnervingly similar beauty, one wrought from an abyss refusing to cradle the light, the other from a jade hiding its warmth.
Both persons draped in pride; one deceitful, the other truthful, but both still carved out of ruins.
"How come you are visible to us?!"Many asked that question, clearly disturbed and immensely surprised, and the prince of souls did not give an answer. All the elemental princesses, including their revived queen, could show their faces and wander the streets so what did that question mean? What secret laid within the appearance of the moon – lit sword sheltering ethereal ageless blossoms?
Even Noboru was indeed shaken up at seeing the prince of souls, but not completely surprised.
Ayumi made that night many resolves, ones going with and against the currents of life; carrying out her duties and freeing the princesses, stopping Noboru's evilness while trying as hard as she could to avoid turning the battle personal as he had wished by the trap he laid for her, releasing her heart from its strenuous rhythm and setting it free to find the rhyme it desired to beat to, and to find the answer hidden between the two men, her enemy and her savior.