Hirune's skull smacked into the wall behind making her concussed as a large executioner's sword pierced through her gut. She coughed up blood and weakly lifted her head to look at the witch of adventure. The woman who she chose not to trust and instead fight stood in front of her, staring at her with sorry eyes and a scowl.
"I hoped it wouldn't come to this, that you wouldn't side with Axia. I also hoped you wouldn't hold back, not once did you send those mighty jaws at me with the intent to kill. It's a pity, I thought you'd be used to killing by now after burtally murdering a man, massacring an entire civilization, and eating a man; yet you still chose to try and keep me alive. Even if you somehow survive and don't kill me now, eventually you will kill again. Murder is a habit, you know?" Niye pulled the executioners blade out of her gut and Hirune dropped to the ground. A puddle of blood forming under her.
Tears welled in her eyes but she kept them in, she didn't like to think about her killings and would rather pretend they never happened. "Why are you making me think about this? This is cruel."
Niye snatched her hair. Hirune winced. "The cruel thing isn't making you think about this, the cruel thing is you choosing to ignore the weight of your sins. By choosing to ignore those who you've killed , you choose to ignore your cruelty and repeat it, you fail to respect them, and you fail your promise to Shisme."
"Promise... to Shisme?" Hirune said weakly, her vision starting to blur and thoughts starting to fade, the flash of all of her good memories playing in her head once again, she smiled pathetically as her body relaxed. It suprisingly didn't take her long to get used to this feeling, this was only her eleventh try at beating Niye in the same battle.
Niye threw Hirune to the ground and turned around, "You disgust me. You spoke of going down the route of an angel, yet you choose to be selfish and greedy, ignoring the suffering you've caused others."
Hirune's smile grew a little wider, "Yeah, I need some time to think. I don't want murder to become a habit for me, so I'll leave it up to you."
'Up to you?' Everything seemed to slow down as Niye turned her head and narrowly dodged a sharp pitch black spike awfully resemblant of coral. She barely managed to deflect another attack coming from above her as Hirune dropped down from above in front of her. Her hair now fully silver and eyes bright yellow, a disgustingly pleased smile on her face.
"Thank you master, for giving me the pleasure of feasting on a witch," 'Hirune' chuckled and landed a kick that pierced directly through Niye's abdomen before twisting around and launching her away.
Niye caught herself and took a defensive stance with her sword. She looked at 'Hirune's' wound and found it had already healed. "You're not Hirune, who are you?" Niye demanded.
She held the bridge of her nose and put her hand on her hip, "Hmm, that's a good question. I guess I haven't been properly named."
"Then how should I refer to you?" Niye asked her look nearly as sharp and viscious as her blade.
She giggled, "I'll simply name myself. I'm Amia, pleased to meet you."
***
Hirune nodded side to side, "Hm, she named herself after Axia. That's cool, that's cool... Lame hoe."
Namulenza roled her eyes, "I'm surprised Axia missed this way of communication between the two of us, she's gotten sloppy ever since she served me."
She stired a cup of tea, "The Forsaken Realm, you know this place has a lot of iterations. I mean, it's only three but that's more than most places."
The wichuza of gluttony and sloth rolled her eyes, "You know, you've dissapointed me slightly. You allowed that thing that calls itself Amia out to solve your problems for you and you don't even know when you'll get your body back."
"Oh, but I do," Hirune smiled and took a sip of tea, "This tastes like warm water, blegh. Sorry, that was disrespectful."
"And, how is that?" She raised her eyebrow."
"You probably don't know this, but i really like reading," Hirune smiled brightly.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Namulenza said looking at the girl with pity.
"It's simple. In fantasy books where the main character has some sort of being inside of them like I have you and the devourer inside of me, they usually have a way to fight, or overcome, or team up with that being, or some sort of thing that forces them to literally face and overcome their past. Considering the fact that artifacts like that exist, ours as an example, that means that those scenarios are likely based on the real deal."
Namulenza dropped her cup of tea. The cup shattered on the floor before seeping into it like a liquid, "Why are you right, and why is your like for reading, why you're right?"
"So, what is it I have to do?" Hirune said leaning forwards in her chair.
"This is the most emotion I've seen out of you," Namulenza said as she pulled the fabric of the Forsaken Realm besides her apart creating a rift. "I won't throw you directly into the devourer, your other self, or me. I'll start it with something simple, I want you to remember who you are and gain those memories of who you once were and could've been back."
"Once were? Could've been?" Hirune frowned. "I've always been like this though. It's what my mentor Kopna taught me."
"Do you remember anything of what happened before you met Kopna?"
Hirune felt her heart clench, tears sprinkled into her eyes, "What?"
"Just go through it," Namulenza said pushing the rift at her. Hirune took a deep breath and stepped in, the rift closing behind her.
She felt the harsh sun parching her skin. The sound of the ocean waves familiar and relaxing.
She felt something in her hands and looked down. The moment she did, a seagull snatched what she had in her hansd out of them. A fry fell onto the sand besides her feet.
"Pajaraco de mierda!" A woman yelled with exagerated hand gestures. She sighed and looked down at Hirune, who was way shorter than usual. "I'm sorry querida, here you can have this, I'm not hungry."
The woman, which awfully ressembled Hirune herself just much older and with a faded out scar under her stomach handed her an ice cream cone.
"Make sure to eat it fast or it'll melt! C'mon, let's walk around a little. I saw a souvenier shop over in that direction." The woman and held out her hand to Hirune and without thinking, she took it.
A man walked up, wrapped his arm around the womans waist, and kissed her softly. The woman kissed him back and smiled, "Where have you been?"
"I had to help some guy fix his car and got caught up oiling someones bike and helping a tourist couple figure out where they should visit. I also had to help this homeless guy because an officer was about to beat him for simply sleeping on a bench," the man said causally.
"Oh you and your people helping. Me and Ru here were about to go to the souvenier shop to get something for your parents since they're visiting," the woman said.
Hirune wasn't paying attention to what they were saying and was more focused on a stray black cat nearby. She tugged on the womans arm to no avail.
"Hey! Hey!" Hirune called to the woman. She looked down at her, "Yes sweetheart?"
She handed her back the ice cream and took off towards the cat.
The woman barely managed to take a hold of her again before she picked up the cat, "Wait! No, no, no. This cat could have piojos, or rabias, or something. Don't touch it."
"Listen to your mother," the man said. Hirune looked at the woman with pleading eyes, completely dismissing what the man had just called the woman.
The woman tried her best to deny her, but Hirune's beady purple eyes got the best of her and she allowed her to pick up the cat.
Hirune smiled brightly, brighter than she'd ever smiled before and looked at the woman. Without thinking she said, "Mama, nos lo podemos quedar?"
Her mom smiled softly at her, "I don't know about keeping it. Having a pet takes a lot of work."
The man walked up and scrached the cats ear, "I don't see why not. Owning a cat seems easier than owning a dog and we've owned two."
Hirune cheered and hugged the cat tightly. The cat purred. Her mother smiled at her.
They didn't spend a lot of time at the gift shop and the time that it took to walk home flew by. She sprawled out on the floor, winded and parched from the long day in the sun. The cat curled up on her belly and purred. She ran her fingers through the cats fur and smiled.
She jumped as she felt a cold chill touch her cheek. Her mother let out a hearty laugh, "Minga! Ten, una paleta."
Hirune sat up and started eating the popsicle. As she did, an old ladies voice called out to her from upstairs. As if knowing she was about to get up, the cat got off of her and ran out the door. She nearly went to chase after it but her mother stopped her, "Don't worry. I'm sure it'll be back soon enough. For now just go see what grandma wants upstairs."
Hirune pouted and stomped up the stairs. Just to instantly calm down at the sight of her grandma and tightly hugging her. "I'm also happy to see you dear. I brought you a gift from Spaniaca," the old lady said reaching behind her and pulling out a large book. "I know how much you love to read so I got you one of the classics, 'Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes. It may be a tad bit above your reading level but I'm sure you'll eventually be able to read it and I'm sure thatt once you can you'll like it."
Hirune smiled brightly at the sight of the book. She remembered it now, quite fondly in fact, she was extremely attached to this book. In fact she still owned the copy and had it hidden in an extremely safe cabinet. It was like her own little precious Holy Grail.
Suddenly her heart dropped as though she knew what would happen next, even if she didn't have any memory of it. Her grandma suddenly coughed up a puddle of blood on her little head, the cover of the book getting stained. Now Sancho was covered and you could only see Don Quixote. She looked up and saw a hooded man standing behind her grandma, a knife stabbed through her heart.
Before she could recover from the shock her surroundings exploded into flames. She gripped the book tightly and shrieked before running as fast as her little legs would allow her. She tripped over her own leg and fell down the stairs, rolling her ankle and hitting her head hard against the guard rail before having it slam into the hard concrete floor.
Her mother rushed over to her and picked her up trying to calm her down. "Shhh, shhh. It's okay honey, everything will be fine. Shhh, shhh. Just calm down, deep breaths sweetheart."
"There's a big scary man upstairs!" Hirune whailed completely ignoring the pain her head and ankle were in.
She ran outside and heard the cheering of a crowd outside, "Damn you Namulenza!" Her mom muttered as she rushed over to the well. "I'm sorry honey, but you'll be stuck in here for a long time."
She put Hirune in a large, wide bucket and let her down into the well. Hirune cried and cried until it was day again. The smell of the flames was stuck in her nose, her hair and face still drenched in blood. She felt her consciousness slowly fading as she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her head and ankle.
The time she spent in the well was a blurr, she wasn't doing anything productive and was starving. She couldn't even entertain herself with her book because she couldn't read it. After enough time, she felt the bucket being slowly pulled up and she saw her master, Kopna.
Though she was way younger and had long hair. Not only that, but she didn't have any red in her hair like she remembered. Though her gothic asthetic seemed to always be there.
"Well would you look at that. You want some food?" She offered her some bread and chicken. Hirune nodded hard and devoured the food. The flavors melted on her tongue, tears running down her cheeks. Kopna skimmed through Hirune's book, "'Don Quixote', huh? This one's pretty good. You can't read it though can you?"
Hirune shook her head. Kopna nodded, "So, what happened here?" Hirune shrugged. Kopna nodded again, "Do you have any family?" Hirune shrugged again. Kopna nodded twice, "Do you want to come with me? I can keep you fed and teach you how to read this. Considering how this place looks and the fact that this is your only belonging, I can assume something terrible happened." Hirune nodded.
From this moment on Hirune went on many adventures with Kopna, watching as she ruthlessly took care of bad people and protected those who needed protecting, gave food to the homeless, completed tasks without pay, and she loved it all. Though most of all, she loved how Kopna treated her. Though Kopna was quite young and Hirune wasn't related to her in the slightest, Kopna still treated her like her own daughter.
Eventually, she could read Don Quixote, but eventually Kopna also had to leave her. "I'm sorry Hirune, but there's some business I must attend to that I can't take you on as it is far too dangerous." Kopna said stroking Hirune's hair. Tears ran down Hirune's cheeks as she hugged Kopna tightly, "Why? Why can't you take me with you?"
Kopna smiled softly, "I can't tell you. I'm sorry."
Hirune pulled away and gave Kopna a cyan ribbon, "I was going to give this to you on your birthday, but I may as well give it to you now. Sorry about it not matching your asthetic, you don't have to worry if you don't want to."
Kopna took the ribbon and tied it in her hair, "Does it look good?"
"Yes, it fits you," Hirune said smiling. Kopna smiled back, "Sorry about not having anything to give you, it came too suddenly and I didn't have the time to get you something."
Hirune shook her head, "It's fine, you've given me more than I could ever repay you for."
Kopna nodded and went on her way. Hirune went back inside and dropped onto the couch. She closed her eyes one second and the next she was in a dark abyss. A large everexpanding ocean bellow her.
"So, that's my story? There's so many missing blanks! What was the point of that?" Hirune yelled into the abyss. "All that did was make me sad! It didn't spark anything in me!" She was frustrated by this revelation.
'How am I going to get out of here now?' Hirune looked around. She tried to devour the ground just for the essence to turn into liquid. She punched the ground hard. The water splashed high and formed into a statue of Don Quixote. It was really him. An old man Brandashing cardboard armor and a large tree branch as a lance.
"Don Quixote?" Hirune look up at him, her eyes filled with admiration. "Why are you here?"
The statue stood still and didn't respond, though that was response enough for Hirune. "You're right. Allow me to apologize, for you are my greatest influence, you've allowed me to remember my path and set myself on it once more. Not just you, but looking at it now, my fathers small influence, my mothers self sacraficing attitude, my grandma's gift, and Kopna's way of raising me. I need to apologize to all of you, for I let myself be blinded by the struggles of life and completely forgot the one true ideal I stand for and the one true ideal you taught me."
Hirune smiled, her heart filled with justice as her surroundings shattered and she took control of her body once more. She instantly dropped and rolled to the side before looking at Niye and raising her hands up, "I'm back."
Niye looked at her and rolled her eyes, "And I was just starting to like that other ruthless and maniacal version of you."