𝑯𝑰𝑫𝑫𝑬𝑵 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵, 𝒂: 𝒕𝒍𝒂

➳ 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳

tw: blood + death

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"I've been the archer,

I've been the prey

Screaming, who could ever leave me, darling?

But who could stay?"

-Taylor Swift

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KIDA WANTS TO SCREAM UNTIL HER THROAT IS RAW. She wants to curse all the spirits; she wants to curse the entire universe; mostly, she wants to curse herself, because if it weren't for her and her false heroism, Yoko would still be alive.

Yoko's hand detaches itself from Kida's wrist, falling limply on her chest. Kida stares at Yoko for what seems like forever, as if the girl would suddenly break into a grin, laugh, and wake up. Yoko stays frozen in place.

It should have been me, Kida pleads internally.

A little ways away, the woman who ambushed them sputters, trying to catch her breath. Kida's arrow must have landed somewhere fatal, and the woman is probably battling for her life. When the sputtering stops, Kida can't care less.

The weather is beautiful: the sun is shining through the trees, the birds are chirping and the clouds are light and fluffy in a beautifully blue sky. It's the epitome of a perfect spring day, yet everything about it just makes the situation that much worse.

Kida doesn't know what to do next. She doesn't want to leave Yoko, but she needs to get as far away from here as possible. Her limbs betray her; Kida can barely move, let alone feel her legs. She settles for leaning against the trunk of a tree, hugging her knees to her chest. She allows herself to cry and cry and cry until her lungs are empty and she's gasping for air.

Time passes, Kida can no longer stand the sight of her own hands, still covered in Yoko's blood. She wills every muscle in her body to move and finds a river nearby. The red fades to pink in the water and washes away. Kida still sees the bloodstains on her skin as she walks back to Yoko. She sees some purple flowers along the way, ripping them from the ground.

Yoko lays peacefully in the grass, as still as a rock. Kida thinks back to the nights she and Yoko did the same to look up at the stars. The only difference was that before, Yoko was alive and happy, and now she can be neither. Kida would do anything to switch their places, and make that her own fate instead.

As Kida crouches down next to Yoko's body, she wishes that the earth would swallow her whole, but she knows that she deserves to face the consequences of her actions.

It doesn't seem right to move Yoko's body because she loves — loved — the forest, and Kida wouldn't even know where to go anyways. Trembling despite the sun's rays beating down on her, Kida threads the flowers into Yoko's hair. Once she's done, Kida kisses Yoko's forehead between sobs. She gently removes the ring from Yoko's finger and places it on her own as a reminder. Then, Kida gets up to leave.

Anywhere but here.

Before she goes, Kida takes her bow, a few arrows and her cape. She carries them as she walks away, further and further from Yoko's body, until the sun sets. That's when she stops to throw everything back on the ground. Concentrating, Kida wills a flame to appear in her palm and without a second thought, sets fire to her belongings and who she once was. The bandit, the vigilante, the Hood, the archer; it all burns tonight.

Kida has nothing, nobody, nowhere to go; in Kida's opinion, she deserves nothing more.

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author's note !

okay so this chapter was really short (and sad) 

but don't worry, some reunions are coming shortly :)