The Sword’s Last Strike

Mamoru was back in Hikari’s memories once again. She was trapped in the sword and buried within the rubble of the burned castle by her own body. Time passed and she was dug up by a samurai, though she tried to plead with him, he didn’t believe her story and used the cursed sword to kill many foes.

Something broke insider her, and time passed until the next one took her up to kill. Years flew by, new users took her up. New killers used her to end the lives of others. Her pleas to stop—turned to bloodlust, and eventually she began to demand the users kill and kill and not stop killing.

She was marked cursed and packed away except for every few years when someone brough the blade out to kill some more.

Until a redhaired boy picked up the blade and ignored her pleas to kill, telling her she had issues of all the things to say.

Hikari’s puppet body dropped the dagger and clasped around both sides of Mamoru’s face, it seemed in the last moment, it was going to try and crush his skull like an egg, but the moment never came.

Mamoru could feel it, it was like in the memory when Hikari was pulled out of her own body, and the thing entered, except now it was flipped.

She said something to him, that grew faint so fast he didn’t catch it, only to pull the blade free from her body and hear a new voice.

Kill.

Mamoru’s vision went red and he wasn’t able to move to catch Hikari as she collapsed on the roof.

Kill. Kill. You will kill. You think you can resist?

Mamoru tried to let go of the blade, but his hand didn’t loosen. It felt like an invisible hand clenched around his own, and held it firmly shut. All while the voice urged him to kill.

Kill the girl. She is weak, kill her. Kill her.

Mamoru raised the blade over his head and looked down at the unconscious body of Hikari.

“No. No!” He shouted, stumbling back and falling down.

You can’t resist. Why even bother.

Mamoru clawed at the hand that clutched his blade, but it wouldn’t break free.

Then his hand began to burn. He screamed and the monster in his head did as well. His hand loosened and the blade clanged onto the rooftop, the fox mark on his palm glowed red hot like a branding both in hand and on the hilt.

Mamoru looked at Mako who strolled over next to him and dusted him off with her tail. She winked and stomped the blade of the sword in two.

“Nasty thing. I am glad thou can be done with it, young master.”

Mamoru pushed himself up and stumbled over to Hikari’s body.

He fell at his knees next to her and gently shook her shoulders.

“Hikari. Hikari. Are you in there?”

She groaned and coughed up some black fluid.

“Why?” she spoke in a raspy voice, “why couldn’t I just die?”

Mamoru pulled her up slightly, so she was leaning on his torso. She coughed up more black liquid.

“Don’t say that! You. We, we beat that thing, didn’t we! We can’t have you die at the end like that!” Mamoru wasn’t sure what he was saying. “Besides, I want you to meet Mae, you’ll probably get along, and you can call Yamiko a witch in real life now.”

Hikari’s coughs turned into a choking laugh. She weakly pounded on her chest.

“But it hurts,” she wheezed. Hikari tried to push herself away from Mamoru, and her hand slipped in the bloody gash on his side. She looked at her bloodied palm then stared back at the redhaired boy. Slowly the princess closed her hand into a fist and let herself grow relaxed in his arms. “It hurts you jerk, you better get us to a doctor real quick.”

“I do believe,” Mako chimed in as she strolled next to the duo collapsed on the rooftop, “that our ride is on its way.” In the distance lights that were obviously the captured air bus were flying close. “I cannot wait to fly in that contraption myself!” the fox girl added with glee.

“Now that you can hear me, I’ll say you are a strange fox, Mako.”

“Oh dear, I could hear you the whole time, you never shut up.”

Hikari gawked at the fox, who just laughed in return. Mamoru shook his head and helped the princess to her feet.

“Promise me one thing though, now that I am not in your head, Mamoru,” Hikari said as the air bus began its slow landing on the roof.

“What?”

“Do not ever play that Mirai song around me ever again.”

Mamoru broke into laughter so hard that he nearly fell over. When he was done wheezing, he began to hum the song to Hikari. “What did I just say?”

The bus landed and the crew from the resistance jumped out.

“Mamoru! We were chasing that van it like went flying-” Yamiko shouted as she ran across the rooftop, she stopped at the sight of Hikari leaning against him. “Get away from him you hussy! Mamoru, bae, why are you with the bad girl? Did I like miss out on some super serious stuff? Like, that’s not cool!”

Hikari chuckled and shook her head.

“We’ll explain later, witch, let’s just get going.”

“Witch? Like, girl we literally just met and you are already insulting me? I can’t even.”

As if on cue, banging began from behind where the van had crashed landed. Shouts could be heard from the other side. Mirai’s voice rang out from the air bus.

“There isn’t time for chitchat now, everyone load up and let’s get out of here.”

They did as they told, taking only enough time to properly strap the pod to the air bus before it took to the sky. The ride was surprisingly smooth as it zipped through the city. Mako with wide curious eyes looked at everything while Yamiko spat at the princess who was slowly trying to explain everything—the purple-haired girl was having trouble believing she was with them the whole time until Hikari explained how she cried at having to do manual labor with the shovel.

Mamoru for his part just stayed quiet as he watched the colorful city below grow smaller and smaller. In a matter of an hour, it was only a tiny blip in the horizon, a small star that had crash landed on the ground but still tried to burn bright all the same. Then the light vanished in the distance, and he could see the real stars shining overhead.