Tatemae

Day 6 - Morning - Death's Friend

They take a different route into the arena. I imagine they must have walked through an entrance on the side, because I cannot see them until they are suddenly standing in the center of the open field. Both girls have their swords, and Lily even sports an extra knife looped around a holder on her waist. They look like flowers the way the sun catches them, but like monsters the way the shadows obscure their faces. Something about them is both beautiful and captivatingly hideous at the same time. It's the type of ugly you can live with. They have the type of ugly I know lives deep inside me but I've never wanted to face before, because deep down, part of me likes the evil. They're simple braids and bouncy walks remind me of the friends I've made with my greatest fears.

I wonder briefly why. Why go through all the trouble to take the long way around? The arena is huge and it no doubt added several minutes onto the trek from their house. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

They won't be able to see us, and in honesty, I wanted the two of them to meet my new family.

"Lily! Your sword! You have to stop holding it like that!" Poppy yells.

My new family trembles at her words, but I tell them to calm down. They insistently shake their thousands of fists at her, but I know they're threats are useless huddled in the back of a cave.

Lily groans. Loudly. She has the voice of an insect mating under the ground in the springtime. It's a mix of insect wings grinding together and a heavy chirping that no matter how many times you stomp on the dirt won't go away.

"Stop that." Poppy says. "Warriors don't act like babies."

This only causes Lily to growl louder. "Come on! Stop going easy on me! I can do this! I'm going to take you down and anyone else who comes in my way! I'm going to take down that stupid caged Lumière you got me too!"

She can't possibly be talking about me, can she? Oh of course! They haven't seen me! They both don't know I'm no longer human! My family laughs at their stupidity.

I watch Poppy smile through the bars of my cage. The young morning air smells remotely of rock dust and the fumes of milky white water settled as dew. The sweetness of the air is a sharp contrast to the refined brutality of Poppy's face.

"You're never going to decapitate an animal that way." She says, looking at her sister. "God, how easy it'd be for one to decapitate you!"

Lily reminds me a bit of myself. She has the same hopeless technique and absolute hatred for whatever it is she's doing. Yet, there's a determination there. She both hates what's she doing and yet wants to be the very best. Better than Poppy.

"It's hard!" Lily screams. "Stop going easy!"

Poppy changes her stance. The people behind me are screaming. I turn, and see their chalk bodies illuminated by light so bright they almost look like angels. Poppy raises her sword.

"I think you're afraid to fight me!" Lily yells. "What are you so worried about?! I'm just like you!"

Poppy gives a battle cry and goes charging towards Lily. In an instant, the girl's eyes change from idle discomfort to a harrowing expression of fear. She gives a cry, but it reminds me more of Matri than her sister. She has just enough time to raise her sword up to above her head to block a blow from above. If she hadn't have done so, the strike could have easily cut her right down the middle like a knife through heart tissue. She has the expression of death on her face.

"You could have...! You- you-!"

"I could have killed you?" Poppy finishes. "I wasn't trying to. This time. Don't you see that as soon as you get into the Void you'll face people far stronger than I? You're not strong enough, and there isn't much time. The truth is, the truth you don't want to admit but everyone coming to your ceremony knows, is that you'll never be strong enough to take out a Lumière that hasn't been starved for weeks on end. Your easy pickings and a real monster won't hesitate to eat you alive."