Ink Stained

75: beginning of the end*

終わりの始まり

"Careful with my brother. He forgets that others have different limits to his own."

She was reminded, stomach lurching, of when the Onihitokuchi sent her flying straight into a crate after she riddled its face with a barrage of bullets. This weightlessness, this sense of hovering buoyancy, was what she felt in the second before she almost broke her spine when she crashed into the crate. The pain came only after, but right before it did, she'd felt like she was suspended in an airtight bubble where time couldn't affect her.

Then she realized what was happening as her hair flew above her in a white storm. The wind was so cold it stung her skin, biting her like little insects trying to devour her to the bone. Her stomach dropped out of her body as she stared with wide eyes at the canopy of trees overhead quickly getting further and further away from her.

No, that wasn't right. It wasn't getting away from her. She was getting further and further away from the treetops as she plummeted straight to the ground.

Her first thought wasn't to scream, or even, What's happening?

It was, Am I finally going to die?

That wasn't what happened.

The air around her whipped in a gale, white hair lashing around her in a flurry as everything slowed. Her fall was broken by a pair of arms that came up to enclose her in their steel embrace, one settled under her knees and the other at her back. Her heart jumped to her throat as her head lolled before snapping back in place, and she found herself staring in silent, dumbfounded confusion at Shin.

At his back were his wings, beating against the wind to keep them afloat. His dusky wings lined with feathers ending in white tips were just as she remembered them, strong and powerful and ethereal. Supernal light emanated from his wings and his entire being. Heat pooled in her stomach; it was like she was encased in that wonderful, almost there but not-there light, almost like it was blessing her with its rare, unseen touch.

Their beauty brought tears to her eyes when she remembered the last time she was in his arms like this, when he took her to the hill just outside the main village and gave her a little part of himself, trusting her with it. Then she'd gone and broken that precious trust when she approached Kagetora for his help when she promised Shin she wouldn't go near him.

His eyes were wide with concern, and he was holding on to her so tight that she was afraid she would break away into a thousand pieces that could never be stuck back together again. It was a long moment before she realized that she was staring at him, at his lips moving, shaping words.

"Pai? Pai, are you okay?"

She blinked owlishly, unable to respond. She looked to her left, down to the ground; saw how far it really was. The little colourfully lighted Yori Chiisai floated in the air around them, dancing slowly to an unheard tune of their own, oblivious to the world outside of themselves.

If Shin hadn't caught her, she could have cracked her spine, become paralysed for life.

If Shin hadn't caught her, she could have broken her neck, making the horrible snapping sound she hated hearing in films and dramas.

If Shin hadn't caught her, she could have died.

That wasn't what stunned her into silence, rendering her completely unable to speak, as her eyes glazed over from staring at her feet dangling over Shin's arm, supporting her under her knees. It was what she'd thought as she was falling. She hadn't been afraid to die.