r e f l e c t i o n s ; [OPEN]

[REDEMPTION]

She watched the sun as it slowly began to dip beyond the horizon. This would be such a romantic view. Sitting out on a beach. Watching the sunset. Too bad she didn’t believe any man was good enough. Besides, she wasn’t exactly the romantic type. It would never do to have someone fall in love with her. She found that hard to believe, though, that anyone could fall in love with her. In her experience, the male population had deemed her stubborn, talkative, and a whole other lot of apparently unattractive things. But that didn’t matter. She didn’t even want love. At least, she didn’t think she did. Sometimes, she got onto tangents in her own thoughts, and they went farther than they should’ve, but she never accepted the possibility of falling in love. . . . Well, all that bunch of thoughts had nothing to do with what she and Sayuri were talking about! Now, what was that again about fairy tales? Never mind.

How the heck did I end up talking in the first place? she asked herself, suddenly aware that she was really, actually have a conversation. She had noticed, but she hadn’t really realized it. Well, she liked it. She already deemed that, didn’t she? Sayuri was pleasant enough a person to talk to, despite her probably not having many people to talk to, especially as of late, with the increase of stupidity and the rise of higher demons who apparently planned to rule the world or something. Why would anyone want to rule the world? That sounds like it would be very boring, you know, to control every aspect of everything with an iron fist and never really have opposition, because of fear. Nah, she didn’t want everyone to fear her. Life wasn’t as fun that way.

She could smell the salt of the sea a little stronger now, with a huge gust of wind passing right on by her. Then it faded as the winds calmed. Ha. “I don’t know about destiny. If I have one, I haven’t figured it out, unless it’s to wander for all eternity.” Picking at all the weirdos. She looked up at the darkening sky. “But I find I can’t just believe only in what is visible to me. I have to believe in something more, or I don’t feel held together.” She paused to think. Did that make any sense? “Being too rational sometimes takes the fun out of life.”

Redemption stretched a little and stood as the other youkai did the same. “I think there’s a village not too far from here. It’s small, but I wouldn’t underestimate the ones who live there.” They’re certainly not small. “I did a job for someone there, so I might be able to find us a good place for the night, if, of course, you want to sleep. Either way, come morning, I will have to depart.” Times felt constrained these days. Haha. I have to agree with the boring part of traveling alone. She smiled and turned to walk with Sayuri, coming up beside her. “Up for some possibly mean-tempered youkai?”

[SAYURI]

Redemption seemed to be absent for a certain period of time. She was looking at the horizon, but her thoughts were obviously not focused on the beautiful landscape. There was something bothering her; something she could not get rid of and that sucked all hope out of her. "I wonder what kind of worries a Youkai like her could have…" Sayuri thought as she waited for the demoness to get up and make herself ready to part. Her long and wavy hair made Sayuri feel jealous. Such an intense color it had… it made it really look like fire. "Stunning." Was the only words she could come up with and she still felt as if it was not enough to describe the fire demon. Suddenly the kitsune realized it, well, at least that is what her naive mind thought. Redemption could be worried about some sort of lover, maybe she was looking for him and that is why she considers herself a wanderer. However, her job did not really fit with that idea. Could it be a lost love, then? No, that would be too much from a fairytale and Redemption did not believe in such things. Plus, Sayuri did not have any idea of what kind of life she had or what kind of person she actually was. Starting senseless stories was even worse than believing in them.

Rationality against fantasy? It was difficult to choose a side, but Sayuri had always preferred rationality. It was true that life could be boring that way: always predicting other's moves, trying to be as much negative as possible in order to not be taken by surprise. The last thing the fox wanted, was to be betrayed by somebody she loved. That is basically why she had decided to not have any friends or lovers. They were useless and only a fountain of problems. She would be constantly worrying about them and if their life was put in danger she would scarify her own in order to safe them. Furthermore, if an end was put on her existence, her spirit would never be able to find peace. Accomplishing her mission was the only reason she had to continue living and to move on. It was Nekomata, a natural enemy of hers, who kept her alive. Her thirst of death and revenge made her move on and fight. "Fun? Does that actually exist, Redemption?" She asked with a slight smile as she started to walk next to the red-haired. Sayuri barely remembered how it felt to have fun or be happy. She was only twenty years old when her family was murdered. The memories of those her two first decades had almost vanished. "I'm sorry, I sound like an old hag who has condemned herself time ago. I'm sure life can be fun." But not everybody had the right to be happy and Sayuri was among those unfortunate people.

For the first time since they had met, Sayuri noticed that Redemption was taller than her. There was not much of a difference between their heigh, but she still had to look up to face her eyes. The idea of sharing the night with her took her a little by surprise since she had not expected such an offering. "I guess a little rest won't harm me." In fact, finding a good place to sleep would be great. She had spent the nights outside, under a tree or in a cave, so finding a warm bed was a chance she could not miss. However, the fact of finding some hot-tempered demons did not sound bad at all. Mean-tempered youkai?" A naughty smirk appeared on her lips. "Hmm… I don't know, maybe I'm a bit rusty, I haven't found a good battle in too much time." Sayuri was obviously being ironic, somehow. It was true that she had not found a good rival in time, but the will to fight was there. "Who knows? It could be fun." Hell, she really wanted to release the adrenaline that was now flowing at full-speed through her veins.

[REDEMPTION]

Worry. It had no place in her life, and yet she knew it was always there, pounding at the back of her mind. Liserion gave her worry. He always had. Although he couldn’t do anything without her help, or without someone to pick him up and carry him around, she knew he was a treacherous demon. Some sort of bond had been created between the two over the years, so she knew it was unlikely he would turn his back on her. They both had respect for each other, to an extent. He was older than she was, just a lot more limited and a lot more bloodthirsty.

Redemption focused her eyes ahead, but she put a smile on her face as she listened to Sayuri. There was no need to worry the other youkai, though Redemption found it difficult to believe she could ever worry about someone she’d only just met. She realized she was often too kind for her own good. She could never bring herself to kill anyone, no matter how terrible the creature, and once she found someone worth her time and attention, she did care for them. Now, she wasn’t always loyal to them. There was a point at which that loyalty would spring up, but that point rarely came.

Sayuri didn’t appear to be much of a betrayer, if at all. It was a good feeling not to think you’d be betrayed, but it was also a wary feeling. Betrayal stuck with Redemption, and she knew very well that she could, and would, hold a grudge against anyone who betrayed her. Forgiveness in that area was something she was hardly capable of. Absentmindedly, she checked her gloves, making sure they were secure. The heat didn’t bother her out here, not that it was all that hot in the first place. She did feel warm, but she was always warm. It was certainly nothing new.

She laughed a little when Sayuri asked her if fun really did exist, suddenly bringing Redemption out of her own little reverie. “I think life itself is pretty fun,” she said, her smile becoming more genuine. “But you can’t have fun if you don’t allow yourself to have fun.” A little puff of sand sprayed up a bit ahead of them as they were nearing the edge of the beach, and then another one. Re loved making those little heat pockets under the sand. As long as she was far enough away to keep from being sprayed with it, she was perfectly peachy.

Looking over to Sayuri, she said, “You have to want to have fun and be willing to have fun. If both, you can have fun in just about everything you do.” To her, fighting was like a game. It was a game. She loved to fight, but she hated to kill. Oftentimes, the game was to see how much damage you could do to an opponent before they either gave up or went unconscious, without killing them. It was a fun pursuit, though it depended on who she was fighting whether she’d leave them lying there, if they did indeed pass out.

That look on Sayuri’s face filled Redemption with a little bit of excitement. “Mean-tempered hardly does them justice,” she said with a light chuckle. “But perhaps we should rest first. Don’t need us getting kicked out before we’ve been there an hour.” Though that was often how it seemed to go. “You’ll figure out all kinds of different ways to get back at people without ever laying a hand on them, or sometimes in my case, laying only one hand on them.”

[SAYURI]

The warm day had actually tired her. She needed to take a rest and have some sleep. As a traveller, Sayuri used to sleep wherever she could, but there always was a certain time limit. It was not safe to stay at the same place for over five or six hours, reason for why she could not sleep more than that. However, this time things could be different. If she was going to stay with Redemption in a nearby village, there could be the possibility of recovering all of her energy. At the same time, though, the excitement of having an amusing battle kept her awake. She would obviously not cause the fight and neither would she dare to provoke the other Youkai. The last thing she wanted was to waste her time without a good reason. Sayuri smiled as she heard Redemption talking about letting oneself have fun. The fire-demon was right, but theory used to be always easier than practice. For Sayuri having fun meant that you had enough free time to spent on your own while forgetting about any trouble. Nevertheless, the kitsune was not so lucky and she did not enjoy such moments. The question, however, was: who forbid her having fun? Because there was nobody pushing her or forcing her to accomplish her mission as soon as possible. Indeed, she was probably one of the most independent and free creatures in Japan. But she also was her own boss and not even her father was so strict with her as she was with herself. Whenever she enjoyed something, guiltiness darkened her heart. She was afraid she could forget about her goals and forget about Nekomata and let him escape.

Sayuri could notice redemption's excitement growing. She also wanted to have a fight, she also thought it could be fun. Plus, it would not make Sayuri feel guilty at all. She would simply convince herself that it had just happened and that nothing could have been done to avoid it. Yes, she needed to lie at her own person in order to live in peace, how paradox, right? But oh well, that is how she was: abstract and contradictory with everything she did and said. "Oh, don't worry about me. I promise I'll be a good girl." Of course she would be a good girl, but this did not mean she would be as much patient as she usually was. Redemption was right, though and it would probably be better to firstly have some rest and then take care of possible trouble. "You seem to be pretty known around Japan." She then commented, soon reaching the beach's end. "Have you caused many trouble, Redemption?" Now the kitsune was using a playful tone. She would not judge Redemption for her past actions. The fire demon had her own life and Sayuri did not have right to judge her for whatever she had done. Plus, who did not get into trouble with other demons? Nowadays even the weakest Youkais thought of themselves as strong and powerful and they did not really care when it came to challenge a real demon lord or lady. Sayuri had met many of those and finally getting tired of multiple battles that only made her waste her time, the albino had decided to just avoid them as much as possible, although this time she really wanted to get back to those times in which she used to kick many butts.

[REDEMPTION]

As they were nearing the edge of the beach, she couldn’t help but wonder what the heck had gotten her to be so friendly. Well, she believed she was a naturally friendly person. This girl seemed friendly. It seemed to work out quite well. Hadn’t she asked herself about this already? She wasn’t really sure, but she did appear to have a habit of talking to herself, in her head, of course. She asked herself too many questions. And at the same time, many people she’d known throughout the years would say she doesn’t ask enough. It was very confusing.

This would be her “free time,” she decided. It wasn’t like she really had somewhere to be. She was her own boss unless employed, and for the moment, she wasn’t, so she could go wherever and do whatever whenever she wanted. She liked that part of being freelance. The only downside was that you had to keep moving. Eh, it was a downside, but it was kind of obvious that anyone couldn’t stay in the same place for long without either a) causing trouble, b) getting their butts kicked, or c) just going insane from lack of difference and whatnot.

I need a break from wandering. Her smile, she noticed, was actually genuine, and she wanted to keep laughing. But her cheeks would go red and start hurting, so she refrained. They were already a little sore from just smiling. The prospect of a fight was exciting, but she knew they couldn’t just “go at it.” It didn’t work that way. Many of the demons in this village were of an average tier. They weren’t exactly dumb, but they weren’t really powerful either, except perhaps in hovering over slaves like crazy. It was one thing she hated about the place.

A good girl? She knew a time when she had said something similar, or heard others say that. Things didn’t always pan out as they’d planned. Then again, they never went as they’d planned. It was how the world worked. Things weren’t fair. It was a bit why she just tried to ignore the humans. She couldn’t mess around the wood with a match or a big fire would break loose, with her at the center of it all. It was something which, at this point in her life, she didn’t want to deal with. She’d had plenty of experiences.

Redemption paused at the beach’s edge and shook her head, before continuing onward alongside her newfound companion. “Plenty of it. But if asked, I’ll blame those I messed with. A few moves and batty lashes seem to work pretty well.” Since most of the problems were often addressed by male demons. Of course, she wasn’t the type of girl to “mess with” other people, not in the sense that most would think of. When she messed with someone, she beat the crap out of them. There were no naughty deeds done in bed. In all honesty, she’d never done that.

“But really, we shouldn’t go getting big heads because humans are going under. I feel like I’m a part of a dirty, underhanded race.” She paused. “Probably true.” She paused again, this time to laugh a bit at what she was thinking. Silly demons. “Besides, our new rulers would probably stake anyone who got in their way, especially those who are low on the totem pole. Many of the guys I’ve dealt with are those whose toes will eventually be stepped on, and most likely crushed. I just hope I’m there to see it happen. Should be a great show.”