Dearly Departed;; Black rose Hounds + Jiyu

500 words

It had been about one full week since Marschal had swept into a dingy unhygienic cabin with dirt floors, casing after the word of a boy who often cried wolf, chasing that world to find her bound and shackled for two years. Even right now? She had a hard time believing it had been two years since she had been kidnapped, that she'd lasted those full two years until Leigh swept in like a prince she insisted on not needing. However, no matter her words, Kazehime knew the often drunk man had saved her life, even if it irked her so much that she'd needed help, this showed her there was at least one person in the world she could rely on, even if he seemed like the domineering type from how they'd interacted, she felt safe around him for now. However the guild hall was not the same as someone she felt safe around, and it drove her crazy being stuck within SilverMoon, she'd already taken every mission in rose garden viable to her! Now she needed to find a new way to get out, and she really didn't care if going far could be dangerous, she wanted to take a normal mission, heck maybe with some fighting, she felt like she could beat someone up about now!

     Jiyu was walking to the job board, and reaching for one of the magic required jobs, when the mail man rushed in and asked for her, which was odd since she was really only on her guilds mailing list, and no one else was getting a letter today. Despite how odd she found the letter? Kazehime went over to one of the booths on the top floor to read it, not expecting what she would find within.

Dear Jiyu,

      What has it been since we last spoke? Three, four years, well anyways I've always trusted you'd contact me when you settled down somewhere and had time! However I don't have the time to wait for that anymore, neither does the village, so I looked you up, did well for yourself becoming a mage in a guild! Even thought we didn't know long, I have a favor to ask, your likely the last person alive I know,  the village is dead and I'm not quiet sure what happened, but I was bitten by someone when I ran out, I'm starting to feel very ill........

-Yours ----

       It trailed off because there was a spot of blood on the signature, but she knew it was from the girl who helped her hide briefly after she ran away until she'd managed to get onto a ship! It was a weird relation, because they had not contacted each other since, Kazehime had not wanted to leave a paper trail for her father to follow if he went looking, so they'd been out of touch. Still, she owed the apparently sickly person, so if they just wanted someone by their bed side as they slipped away?

1065 word count

One week and the event's that had taken place during her captivity over the course of two years were the only things on Marschal's mind, for some reason that unjustly irked her. While there was nothing exactly wrong with her beaten and somewhat broken state in his mind? The state of her body and abilities got to the mage so badly, made her lay awake at night struggling for breath she just couldn't find! It felt like she was drowning every single second of the day or night, like she was still laying there slowly dying, and while she could run to him for help whenever she found her body incapable of something or when she moved rashly to something going bump in the night. For some reason? She found it nearly impossible to consult anything else to him, tell the male anything that had actually taken place and verbally fully admit she was incapable of anything at all! Even as she ran to the drunk for help several times a day when she hadn't managed to sneak a job in? There still seemed to be a distance she was broadcasting between them, something that had always actually been there, a wall between the wind mage and other's, but it was a barrier that anyone could logically expect to be lowered after what Marschal had done for her. Jiyu didn't want him sitting there only seeing the narrow field of her life he knew, being possessive because he knew she had been helpless and alone for two years  in captivity, beaten and starved. Instead? If he was going to be so protective of her, she wanted it to be because she told him that she'd run away at fifteen and taken care of herself since than, that she'd felt alone until and for a while after joining the guild! Kazehime wished he'd see something besides a damsel in distress when looking at her, that he could see the strength she'd needed to make it to Black Rose the first time, the strength she'd regain and hone. However, every-time she thought of telling him anything from her past, how she was certain her mother had been murdered, how she'd traveled alone and evaded anyone who could try to take her back to peace village? Tell the male how strong she really was, kazehime's throat went dry and no sound emerged, she couldn't say a word so she sat there his dolled damsel in distress! It wasn't his fault, but it infuriated her none the less.

       In the time she had been thinking, the man himself had already appeared in front of her and she made sure her weary eyes glared at him pointedly. Leigh's tempting voice sliced through the air swiftly, invading her ears and taking over her keen sense of hearing. In not too long? Her terse expression had been annihilated and replaced with something softer, the sense of safety washed back over her and she couldn't be upset at him for thing's he didn't actually have any knowledge of. "Hey you can't just take my thing's!" the female nearly shouted, but her voice found itself unable to go that high right now, the hoarseness in her throat from screaming at people for two years, no where near completely cured. Fuming relentlessly over his snatching of her personal effects, the wind mage shot up and aimed to round the table in order to take it back from him. However? Her left buised and scraped up hand brushed against the jeans she was wearing, ,and she remembered, the pair she was wearing right now, were his, tightened with a rather decorative belt and cut down in length to fit her much smaller form. If he wanted to read one of her letters, what right did she really have to stop him? No matter how much it angered the female, she knew that at least this much and more was owed to him. After-all? She'd not be around to receive the letter anyways right now, if not for him.

       "You can't stop m-" she was rash and quickly assumed that he was stating she would not be allowed to go under any condition. However? the words she heard from her protective and possessive guild-mate, surprised her. He wasn't letting her go alone? More so, he was letting her go! Her mouth stayed somewhat agaped as she looked down in something akin to shame. Why had she thought he'd prevent her from going whatsoever? Jiyu's heart skipped beneath her flesh, the only armor to it being her bikini top, she still got ready in the morning not anticipating the embarrassment and shame she'd feel once people started looking at her damaged body. The wind mage closed some of the short distance between them, eyes sparking with something as she gazed up at him, damn this man made it so easy to love him. Of course? he had saved her life, the urge to kiss him had to be coming from that, because she didn't really want anyone coming with her much less him.

         Only?! She than decided she wanted him coming with, if she couldn't tell him the version of herself she wanted him to see, little miss letter sender could, the only person who knew she was a run away and who also did not want to bring her home, was laying dying in an abandoned cabin. Even if the mission ended in failure, there would hopefully be time for words entailing something of her past she could not give him herself! No, she would not fail this job, but oh the thought, she bit her bottom lip, looking down. However when Jiyu glanced up, rage was the only thing existing in her eyes, and he had put it there just as easily as he lulled it away earlier. "My magic is not useless!"  however she seemed to drop it after that, not expecting a real response. "Let's go" she seemed somewhat cross now but that was nothing new, it was just part of the way she was sometimes, Jiyu was too headstrong to admit she was beyond weak right now. She couldn't let her pride hurt the female who asked for her help thought, because she wouldn't even be in Black Rose to be having this argument if her running away had not been successful.

1176 word count

It was amazing how easily someone could sneak their diabolical way into your very beating heart, even if you didn’t intend for them to end up there, nor to actually remember their name. Every single day of the time before she joined Black Rose? Her temper had been enough to intimidate people away from attempting to give her any aid, even if they thought she desperately needed the assistance, she was such a biting personality, anyone would fear losing their head if they offered something she did not want. Jiyu had survived for so long by shutting herself off to everyone around her, only giving a small handful of what she had, greedily keeping every single thing to herself, no matter how hard it had been sometimes. Relying on someone else? Made her so uncomfortable, because she was so used to be being let down by other people, it had been that way ever since her mother died! Even her own father couldn’t see past the rebellious, reckless, strength she threw up, to the confused, hurt and desperate girl beneath it. However she’d grown since than, she wasn’t confused or lost anymore, nor was she desperate in the same way she’d been before, she was just lonely and aimless. Of course she had always been aimless and lonely, wandering around on her own, smile on her face, almost never seeing anyone twice; Truth was she just hadn’t noticed how lonely that life was before, she was alright with being aimless, but feeling so alone? Even with Marschal right in front of her, the mage knew that he knew so little of her, and it made her feel so distant from the man. Honestly it was so pitiful, she trusted the drunken magus with her very life, if he told her to jump and it looked as if death was the only thing at the bottom, she’d still do it, he was owed that much blind trust, she wouldn’t even be alive without him! Yet she couldn’t tell him about any of the things she wished him to know, including the fact he was always so right about her, even if she always told him that he was wrong. After so long of knowing she couldn’t rely on anyone except herself, it had become to hard to rely on someone, even if that person had saved her life, cared for the way she’d never admit she had always wanted someone to worry over her. He was a person she knew would never do anything to hurt her, and yet she couldn’t tell him any of it, let him know a single thing, all because of the very past she wanted to tell him of.

“I know you will.” it was spoken just after he told her he’d take whatever he wanted, and a small smile graced her small pink mouth as she said the words. Even if the male meant it as a joke, and she knew it? The truth was he took from her anyways, without even really knowing he was doing it, he was only playing, but in the end he ended up taking a piece of her, each and every single time he did, without even knowing it! At first she had despised Marsch for it, utterly hated the male for forcing his way into her existence, making her want him around. Jiyu had craved deeply the sensation of peace and safety only given to her when he forced his aid upon her, the help she needed most times but never asked for because she didn’t know how to anymore. Yet even with that desire? She had hated him so much for it. She wanted him to keep protecting her, stay by her side, but she could never seem to admit it, especially not long enough to tell him directly what her desire was.

“I don’t really, I just owe her, a great deal.” it was really a miserable fact that he had hit the nail on the head of her not having any friends. Sure she had her life in peace village and the friends from then, but they no longer counted, she’d been away so long and never intended to go back, no one believed her there anyways, and they only sorrowfully gazed on a girl who lost her mother too young, not who she was. Thus she really couldn’t ever do anything to make up for what the woman currently hiding in the cursed lands had done for her, she had her opening life at Black Rose in part because of the older female. “I only knew her for a few days.” the admission to that extent was easy, but the mage doubted telling him why would be easy in the slightest, and almost certainly enough she knew her voice wouldn’t provide anything else.

“That’s Not Fair Marschal, I-I Never Saw Them Coming, I Didn’t Get The Chance To Fight Before They Had Me Chained!”  She was always too much of an emotional card, no matter how strong she was in terms of showing her emotions, not crying over something like this? Her emotions still ran the show, rage and pain reflecting in her odd optics, cheeks puffed out as she breathed trying to convince herself of something, argue with herself of something she did not even know. “I'm not gonna leave you alone.” Jiyu had seemed so upset and enraged, maybe even hurt, only seconds prior, but something in her eyes seemed to spark as he spoke those words, right away her expression was passively happy once more. “Hmm, I do wear it so much better than you.” she chuckled out the comment, running her hands down her outer thighs and cocking her hips to one side, hands ending up on her hips, playful smirk on her mouth. “And what if I decide to wear nothing instead after you take them, hmm?” she hummed at the end, looking up at him with something akin to a dare gleaming in her blue-green eyes, laughing softly.

        Jiyu listened to him, as she walked along the ground, somewhat upset and yet trying to find a way through it, because she knew it was more her own baggage than Marschal’s actual actions. As he neared the end of his words? The mage stopped, so he’d likely end up walking into her back, her slender and bruised hand moving back to grip his larger one, head tilting upwards slightly so he could see her face. Jiyu knew that he was telling the truth and that he was right, only protecting her and she did like it. However even now, she couldn’t say that, it made her feel guilty and low, but, she couldn’t help it. “I-” she seemed to change her mind on what to say at the very last second “You -I’ll be alright Marsch, let’s just hurry.”

And with that she aimed to tug his hand and dart forward the best she could, so they’d get to transport and the cursed lands sooner.

929 word count

His hand was wrapped around her much smaller limb, some of their finger's even laced together, and little to his knowledge her gaze kept turning to that sight here and there. Looking back occasionally? Could always easily be mistaken for ensuring he was behind her, or someone could think she was watching for an enemy of whatever sort might be lurking around. However the harsh truth for Jiyu was the fact she couldn't get enough of the sight of their hand's linked like that, even if she'd let go and scream at him if the man confronted her about it, she really liked their current state! It had been some time since she'd just been able to hold someone's hand and trust they wouldn't just let go of her's and vanish into thing air on her. When had she come to trust him that far? Sure he saved her life, but she wondered if that was enough to cause this level of blind faith, this belief he'd never hurt nor abandon her.

      "Marschal." maybe alone like this, in the forest, with her back to him and their hands linked? Her voice would work, she would not need her acquaintance to solve this thing, tell him something he didn't yet know, but deserved to. Honestly? Despite the fact he saved her and gave her everything possible so easily, she'd given very little back to him and it made her feel antsy, uneven, guilty even. Even one fact, it would be enough to set the tables even within her frail mind, but she could never even manage that much! Her eyes lingered to him from her position in the front of their line again, her mouth moving to say something, but in the end, she shook her head and said nothing.

       Even thought they happened to be alone and comfortable in body? The wind mage carried the same fears that her companion did, the possibility she would not be able to protect him. At this point however? The fear of looking weak before the male might be greater than her fear of loosing him, or they could be even, someone could never quiet tell. However, as he stood there fearing the loss of her life, she strode only steps ahead, fearing the exact same thing! It was a shame neither of them voiced it, maybe it would have led to something, but anywhere such a conversation could go, well it was for a time when they might not be attacked and kill at any moment. "Mm, Marschal, I am rarely safe." probably the wrong thing to say to him, but in the coming days she would prove herself reckless and likely too fiercely independent for her own good, she would prove it true that she was prone to putting herself into danger. However? She'd also prove herself just as capable of coming out of it alive, and relatively alright.

     "HEY!" she felt her body nearly fall backwards, dancing a few steps back, anger sparking in her eyes. In Jiyu's mind? She could have faced that bear herself, even thought she likely could not have actually gotten the beast murdered on her own, with her body in it's current state.

"Jiyu, I'm going to need a bit of help,"

      She looked stunned for a few seconds, that he was actually requesting her to aid him, in spite of his early behavior that seemed to suggest for her to stay out of it. Jiyu did not quiet recover from this quickly enough, and the beast tried to possess her, causing a dazed look and a small shriek for a second, as it deal damage in this way as well. "You Bitch, You Tried To Posses Me! Wind Dance!" the female shouted at the ghost, once it was ejected from her body, since she was strong enough to fight off the possession, the air around the ghost exploding, hopefully avoiding hitting Marschal as well. "Wind Slash!"with that the ghost was certainly dead, but it was clear it took it's toll on Jiyu, her breaths heavy and some of her wounds reopened.

      "Come on the cabin isn't much further off, I can smell her, she's hurt." the wind mage broke away, running with ungraceful, fumbling steps, until she eventually made it to the cabin. The old building? Was nearly falling apart, and she pushed the door open cautiously, looking back at marschal and motioning to make sure he knew that he was allowed to come in. "Well if it isn't my favorite little run away." well that was enough information if the male had heard her friend speaking, jiyu smiled lightly, walking into the room, not suspecting that her friend would be an enemy here very soon. "I'm not a fourteen year old kid anymore." she laughed it out sadly, coming to bend down next to the several year older woman, clearly there was nothing they could do to save her, the scent of death had already taken over her own. So Jiyu sat there, locking hands with the person who had sent the letter, seeing the woman spread out on an old futon, sitting there and waiting for her final breath to come. "Thank you, I just didn't- I didn't want to die alone." it was so scripted, but it really happened, her last breath was drawn right when those words were spoken. "No one ever does, at least I could make sure you didn't have to." and she moved her hand to close the woman's eyes, standing up and approaching marschal again.