| abstract | - "Unghh…" Agito slowly began to open her eyes. Where she was wasn't familiar; heck, she couldn't even recognize this place. As the blinding light in her eyes subsided, she quickly analyzed her environment; it was…your run of the mill hospital room. Nothing sinister; nothing suspicious. Just a standard hospital room. "Wow, how anticlimactic." These thoughts raced through Agito's mind, as she attempted to stand, to gain a stable footing so she could haul arse out of there. Of course, as she stood to her feet, a tremendously painful stinging feeling ran up her body, starting from gaining pins and needles in her feet. The pain quickly escalated into her blood clotting and losing breath. Though noticing in the mirror that all she was butt-naked, as she almost doubled over in pain right then and there. "You shouldn't be standing." A calm voice called, quickly rushing to Agito's side, lifting her back onto the bed which she was once laying upon. Faintly, Agito could make out this person's features; they were clearly female, with kind, emerald eyes which sparkled in a similar manner to a stream. Their overall facial construction was almost-perfect; a radiant beauty. They possessed long, dark crimson hair which had four spikes protruding upwards slightly into the air at the back; while the rest reached down to their ankles. They had two thin strands that framed each side of their face, and their bangs were parted in the middle. At the tips, their hair was white. Who on earth possessed multicoloured hair? This didn't seem like it was dyed. The young woman's stature was rather tall; overall, while she looked rather irresponsible and rough around the edges, she seemed incredibly kind. "H-Huh…?" Agito weakly gasped, shocked that the woman would help her so readily without even knowing a single thing about each other. No-one had ever displayed such kindness aside from Mika to Agito before. Quickly grabbing a roll of bandages, the woman gently lifted Agito up, beginning to wrap them around her lithe body. Such an action caused Agito to snap back while still in tremendous pain; regaining her senses and returning to her usual snappy personality, though she felt as if her body was breaking apart. "A-'Ay! Watch what you're doing, got that!?" Ignoring the younger girl's rudeness, the woman continued to perform her job, stating, "You won't be dying. Especially not here." "Wai-wai-wai-wai-wait…I'm dying!?" Agito exclaimed, surprised. She couldn't feel that she was dying. Not at all- she merely felt incredibly pained. Blood trickled down her lip, as she howled in pain. Damn! Whatever that devil woman did, it most certainly was life-threatening. The woman shook Agito's body, declaring, "This is no joke! You're going to live. We've only just met today…! Unacceptable! I won't allow you to! My life as Sayaka Izayoi is just getting back on track!" "To protect that life, I need every piece, not lacking a single one! If you die…then I'll never be able to repent for my sins! Something tells me…that you are a vital piece in the puzzle that comprises my life. For me to be moved to tears over the death of a stranger…you have to live…for my personal reasons." Quickly, the woman named Sayaka Izayoi unsheathed a sakabatō; a blade with a dull edge which appeared as if it most certainly couldn't possibly harm even a fly. Unlike Agito's Rettenjō, this blade was only eighty centimeters long and unnaturally thin. Along the blade, there were several symbols, most notably the phrase "Thou shalt not kill" in English. This blade was the Zanpakutō of Sayaka Izayoi; Inyō. "Iyashi Renraku!" Not even watching her blade, Sayaka twirled Inyō above her head, while focusing and concentrating her own spiritual energy, heightening her body's own natural healing properties. Gathering life energy which was drawn from nearby plants and objects upon the blade of her Zanpakutō, Sayaka inflicted a light cut upon her own body, augmenting the life energy with her own natural healing properties, before impaling Agito with her blade. "G-Gah…!" Becoming squeamish, Agito felt minor discomfort, before all the life energy stored upon Inyō poured into her system; completely curing her grievous wounds as a green energy, the energy of life integrated itself within her body, restoring all her functions to normal. Regaining her composure, Agito slowly stood up, as Sayaka retracted her Zanpakutō from Agito's chest, quickly sheathing it as the blood upon the blade quickly evaporated. Clutching her stomach in discomfort, Agito queried, "Why the hell didn't you do that straight away!?" Quickly throwing her sheathed blade to a wall, causing it to fall in with other assorted goods, Sayaka responded meekly, "Three hundred years ago, I made a promise to myself. I wouldn't utilize that cursed blade nor participate in any combat. If I could conform to pacifism, then maybe…just maybe, I could achieve a peaceful life, away from my past. Look at Inyō's shape…It looks like it's meant to take life, no?" Ironic that Inyō's special ability was to generate life energy and it was a blade which could not cut, but it was certain that Sayaka could apply its ability in other, more terrifying ways and she dulled the blade in order to not harm another person. Finishing wrapping bandages around Agito's bare torso, Sayaka continued, "You see, three hundred years ago, I encountered a man. He looked kinda wolf-ish, with magenta within blue eyes; he called himself a "Tenjōgekido". I remember his words very clearly, 'What you're doing right now…it's wrong. These people are innocent; they never harmed you nor insulted you at all. Why are you doing this, exactly? Don't you tire of what you're doing?' …He then placed his claw-like hand upon my blade, telling me that I can stop all this and start a new life, free from all this hassle. He said that I would make an excellent doctor, and wished me luck in life no matter what I decided to do." The words 'kinda wolf-ish, with magenta within blue eyes' struck a chord within Agito, who demanded an explanation, clutching at Sayaka's shirt and screaming in her face, "Don't bullshit me, woman! That wolf Tenjōgekido is a monster, plain and simple! He killed my sister—" "…Come to think of it, you have the same air about you that he does. …Ayup, the exact same spiritual signature and scent." These words served to further incense Agito, who pushed Sayaka away violently and stormed out, resuming her search for the wolf Tenjōgekido. "Dammit! That's twice that I've been told that! I don't get it! Bastard kills Mika-nee, and that woman just told me that he's the nicest guy on the planet! Damn, damn, DAMN! It just doesn't…It just doesn't make sense! None of this shit makes any fucking sense!" Agito howled in anguish, as the rain became plummeting down from the cumulonimbus clouds floating in the already grey sky. Standing in the heavy rain for twenty minutes straight, cursing into the sky most certainly didn't do wonders for Agito's health; especially since she was essentially wearing nothing but bandages which covered her from neck to toe. After another ten minutes had passed, Agito fell to her knees, shattered by this turn of events. Everything she knew and believed in had been turned upside down in the span of ten minutes. What the hell was going on, exactly? So many contradictions. So many inconsistencies. Nothing made sense anymore. Agito wanted to just give up; so that she could just be left to rot, having no other purpose in her life. As her angst built up, her own spiritual energy surrounded and immersed her, turning a faint purple; the same colour as the wolf Tenjōgekido's. Purple as a colour of spiritual energy was the embodiment of hollowness that nullified desire; reflecting Agito's fragmented mind at this point of time. Rettenjō summoned itself, reacting to the change in her spiritual energy and morphing accordingly, sensing her lack of desire, becoming tinted a slight purple. Slowly walking outside, Sayaka happened upon a truly tragic figure, Agito Kishima; slumped in the rain in solitude. "…You'll catch a cold if you're out there, you know." Sayaka whispered, covering Agito's body with her coat, concerned with Agito's wellbeing; despite the fact that they had just met. Of course, Sayaka's mantra, "If you show someone even so much as a sliver of kindness, they will return warmth" shone through on such an occasion; Agito was somewhat comforted by this display of kindness- though she couldn't shake the feeling that she had been on a wild goose chase this entire time. The similarities between her own spiritual energy signature and the wolf Tenjōgekido's…It was uncannily similar, after all. Just what did this mean? Agito knew deep down that she would find out eventually. After a brief moment of silence, Agito responded to Sayaka's gesture with a stuttering, thankful, "…T-Thank you."
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