Sureiyazu

Episode 15: The Girl in the Paint

"Yuri -"

"I don't want to go there!" Yuri shrieked. 

"Yuri, it'll be okay." Aya tried to calm her down as Yuri became increasingly unstable, her eyes darting to various places in the room and muttering words Aya couldn't understand. "Yuri, we'll figure this out; it's most likely just a misunderstanding -"

"You can't make me go back there!" Yuri tore from the room, shoving Aya out of the way. She sprinted down the hall, and, to Aya's amazement, out the window.

"Yuri!" she called out the opening Yuri had just gone through. The blonde didn't even look back as she ran, down the hill, across the fields, and farther and farther until she was just a speck on the horizon, blending in with the distant trees.

"Yuri!" Aya cried desperately again. But it was in vain, and she knew it. Yuri was too far away now to be reached.

~~~

Akuma was training outside. She set the logs standing up on their ends, and stepped back, readying herself and balancing her stance. She swung her kyoketsu shoge over her head and charged into the group of enemies.

Swinging the weapon around her, she cut most of the wood in half with one attack. She turned to the remaining two, kicking one over with her right foot, and poured a vial of purified water on the other. Barely sweating, she surveyed her work and decided that she needed to figure out a more challenging form of practicing. She also decided it hadn't been the best idea to pour some of her only pure water on a log, which wasn't evil or possessed and wouldn't be affected at all by it. But, she told herself, she knew the ritual for purifying water, so it was alright for now.

"Akuma!" A breathless Aya appeared next to her. Akuma raised an eyebrow.

"Yuri's gone . . ." Aya paused to catch her breath. "I should explain quickly, she's moving farther away every minute. Kasai!"

Kasai jumped out of a window close by and jogged over, while Aya rubbed her temples and shook her head.

"Oh, sorry mother," Kasai said, rolling her eyes. "I was explicitly told not to jump out the windows anymore. Is that it?"

"Kasai." Aya was dead serious, and Kasai's smile melted. "Yuri ran away."

"Why?" asked Akuma. "She seems so happy." Aya's voice echoed in her head, She may appear one-dimensional to us, but everyone has the same feelings. Even Yuri will feel sad at a time.

"Some guards arrived earlier, from Hana Firudo," explained Aya. "They were looking for someone, but I don't know who. They told me she looked like this." Aya reached into her pocket for something, but couldn't find it. "Yuri must have taken the picture."

"Okay, why would she do that?" wondered Kasai.

"The picture was of her. After I showed Yuri the painting, she ran away. She wouldn't stop saying she didn't want to go back somewhere. I should have told you as soon as she left, but some part of me thought she might come back . . ."

"I think," said Akuma suddenly. "I think we have to go to Hana Firudo and find out what's going on."

"Pffffft," Kasai said sarcastically, "yeah, they'll just let us in and tell us exactly what's happening."

"We are the Sureiyazu," Aya pointed out. "We could say we want to help find whoever they think Yuri is, and when we find her, we can explain that it was some kind of a misunderstanding."

A thought struck Akuma. "Did Yuri ever tell either of you about her past?"

Her teammates shook their heads.