Blood Path

“Not without you, Jade.” Hei-chan says defiantly. He lifts me up and puts the other hand on my back, where the exit wound is. He carefully wraps up both wounds and places me gently back on the ground.

It’s too late and both of us know it…he’s only prolonging it.

I smile and cough up blood. “…you have to…you don’t belong here…”

“Then…I’ll take you with me.” Tears start to form in his eyes. This amazes me; I never expected to see someone like him cry.

“…I don’t belong there…” I put a bloodied hand on his face.

A shadow looms off to the left. With my rapidly fading vn, In, I see Nightmare stand up.

Despite the holes in his stomach and chest, he lifts Soul Edge over his head and prepares to bring it down on Hei-chan’s head. With onet gat gasp, I motion behind him and Hei-chan whirls around, katana flashing. I pass out then.

I wake up to silence. Something heavy is on my chest; Hei-chan’s head. His eyes are closed and he is breathing raggedly. A dark red line crosses his chest while a bloody hole occupies his stomach.

Other than my head, I can’t move and it’s very difficult to breathe. There’s a hole in my right chest---a good one. My lung is punctured and the wound is most likely fatal. Hei-chan’s hand is on it in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding and air leakage.

I look around as best as I could. Nightmare is on his back, facing away from me. A katana---mine--is sticking out of his chest and another is lying nearby. Mitsurugi Heishiro’s katana. It is bloody, as well as Nightmare’s neck---slashed throat.

Hei-chan coughs weakly and opens his eyes. “Jade-chan… daijoubu desuka… ?

“... hai...” [“Yes”] I lie. I lean my head back on the grass and watch the moon overhead. So beautiful... “...Nightmare... ?”

“…dead…” The ronin coughs again, this time blood comes up.

“…Soul Edge… ?”

“...destroyed..” He squeezes my hand and smiles.

I smile back the best I can. “…at least we’ll die together…”

”Aishiteru…” he moves closer to my face with a lot of effort.

Mitsurugi Heishiro kisses me one last time and lays his head on my shoulder. It was too late for either of us to call for help; my cellphone had been smashed in the fight with Nightmare and neither of us can call out because of chest wounds. We both know we’re dying, but right now being with each other in our last moments is the best thing in the world.

It’s harder to breathe now and my chest hurts from the air building up outside of the lung. The lung is collapsing and there’s nothing I can do about it.

In restrospect, I realize that Hei-chan’s still with me and not home, where he should be. I make it a point to discuss this with someone when I get to the afterworld.

I’m out of my body again and I know I can’t go back. I see myself seize once, twice while Hei-chan just holds me, then see the last breath. Hei-chan stops breathing soon afterwards and I feel his presence by my side as we both walk…or float…or soar, whatever floats your boat, to the afterlife.

A/N

Okay, grammar lesson. In JPNese, two vowels mean longer vowel sound, except with the ‘o’ as demonstrated below.

‘aa’ = aah
‘ii’ = pea
‘ee’ = hey
‘ou’ = hoe
‘uu’ = yew

NOW the disclaimer: I don’t own SC chars.

I felt that it would detract from the story somewhat if I kept the disclaimer at the beginning of the chapters! ^__^;;