Akizetsumei clung to Eld as tightly as she possibly could. She was scared, genuinely scared, that he was going to get himself killed. Indeed, she couldn't think about herself. Akizets couldn't understand why, either. It was just-- she hadn't, for the entirety of the battle, thought of her own safety. It was Eld's or Oboreru's-- and now, one was nothing more than a pipe dream. She tried to stay silent when upon Eld's back, but couldn't help herself but to let out a "meep" or a soft whimper whenever she felt too scared by the situation.

And then Eld did it-- he charged the behemoth, withdrew the knife from his shoulder, and with all the hope in the world, lurched it towards the broken heart of Oboreru.

The blade pierced the azure hide and sunk into its "flesh," drilled forward, foot by foot, inch by inch, slowed-- slower-- slowest-- centimeter by centimeter--

Akizets could barely watch it. She wanted to hold her breath. It made her more nervous than Eld going headlong into battle. She couldn't watch it. In the end, she looked away, shut her eyes, and held her breath. All she could have was hope. Perhaps all Eld might have, too, was hope. It was all anyone could feel in the situation. Perhaps Oboreru felt hope, too. Perhaps he wanted that blade to pierce his heart just as much as Eld did.

But it didn't. It stopped short, less than an inch away, and drifted up, up into the monstrosity's azure skull, to float lifelessly in suction, whilst Hell fell down upon Eldridge Tsukimono and Akizetsumei.

The rain would suddenly pelt them both. Akizets let out a sharp cry and a soft whimper as she felt a series of hard lumps strike her upon the top of her head-- and then again, and again, except those hard lumps felt more like blades, and her back, already numb with warmth, felt even warmer, and her shoulders felt the same warmth, and suddenly she wanted to cry again. Akizetsumei was bleeding . . . and Eld would bleed the same. Like light knives, they would cut him, across his arms, down his shoulders, sending deep scratches everywhere they stuck him-- and then, the behemoth he charged--

Before, it had released cannonball sized blasts of water. Eld, closing in on its form, would see it coming immediately, yet escape would not be an option. Trails of water took to the air, arched up, and fell, like arrows-- hundreds of arrows, all aimed for the earth, for Tsukimono, Akizets, the shadows below, to obliterate everything upon the beach in one swoop.

Even if Tsukimono could stop the blades, they would still come-- their blades , for him, dulled and weakened, but the blunt forces like strong punches, not even his Qi could stop . . .

Eld, too, held his breath, silently willing the blade to keep moving, but it was not to be. The knife stopped just short--so short he could swear it was touching Oboreru's heart--and then floated up into the "head," harmlessly away from it.

And then, suddenly, pain; the rain around him stopped pelting him numbly, and instead felt like it was cutting him. He staggered upon landing, heard Kaze cry out, and in desperation shot a Qi blast up in the air, but it only succeeded in blunting the blows instead of stopping them.

Each hit was tiny, but the sheer amount of them added up--and there seemed to be no way to avoid him. The water dripping off of him was soon stained in red.

He did the only thing he could--tried to cover Kaze as best as he could, standing between her and the volley, the suddenly violent rain falling on his back. "You have to...get out of here..." he gasped, his legs buckling a little more with each passing second...

Eld grounded himself, stopped what could have pierced right through the both of them, that which decimated the very army that Oboreru had amounted, and brought Akizetsumei and Eld nearly to the point of extinction right then and there, right before the last remnant of Oboreru.

To be in the rain, now, was to be cut. They were minor cuts, scratches, but sometimes those scratches could be hit again, creating deeper cuts, cuts in cloth, cuts in skin, cuts in muscle if Eld was not careful.

"N-no . . ." she whispered painfully.

Akizets clung as tightly as she could to Eld's body. It might hurt him more, and she wasn't think about that. Had she been, she'd have done no such thing. She'd have instead held back, restrained herself from squeezing so hard, and just let herself scream like she wanted to. Pain. Pain was running all throughout her body. It felt like it was in the very blood coursing through her veins. Blood passed through her arm, and her arm hurt. Everything hurt. Everything everywhere. The back and shoulders of her dress, at that point, were ripped; shredded, but still holding on. The blood flowing down her back, down her arms, and her shoulders, perhaps even staining upon Eld, washed off with the cold rain.

Yet still, she did not release him.

"J-just-- just go back, come back, w-we'll g-go--" she paused in order to let out a strong whimper she'd been holding back; it hurt just to breath, practically. "Please-- p-please-- you can't die-- you-- you-- you c-can't--"

She wasn't letting go of him. No matter how much it hurt, she wasn't letting go of him. Eld could make her do it, but under these circumstances, it was unlikely that he was able to, not while still preserving her safety. In the end, if Eld wanted Akizets to be safe, he'd have to take himself to safety, as well. It was the only way. The woman wasn't going to leave his side, after all.

They didn't have time to argue, and he was forced to admit that right now he couldn't beat this thing. But if they left it alone, what would it do? He couldn't be sure just yet, but somehow they had to lose it. He refused to leave Kaze behind, and she wasn't going to go without him.

"A-Alright, hold on tight," he whispered. He kept one arm around her, and in the other arm he wielded the staff, to drive off any shadows that assaulted them. As soon as she was ready, he'd start to run.

Staying in the rain was suicide; recalling how long it took Oboreru to find them before, with a strength burst he leaped for the tree line--not knowing what else to do, he sought a tree that offered them some shelter from the now deadly rain, and hopefully Oboreru wouldn't be able to find them easily.

She was ready; she'd been ready ever since Eld began to fight. She didn't want him to go out there and fight like that. She knew he'd get himself hurt-- she wasn't going to hold it against him, but she knew it. No, Akizets wasn't going to hold that against him at all. She could have warned him, and felt like she'd told him so, but once they were into the woods, under maple with a thick canopy, relatively protected from the rain that could very well have been the death of them, she could only feel sorry for Eld-- sorry that he had to be hurt like this.

If she could have mended them right then and there, even if it hurt her in the process, she would have without a second thought.

Akizets struggled to keep her thoughts straight. The pain swelling everywhere in her body was too much. Everything hurt; everything made her want to die-- even though she felt, deep down on the inside, that it wasn't an option right at this moment. Technically, she still had some years left in her, right? It was far too early for a natural death right now.

Though she was in a horrible state of pain, Akizetsumei released Eld. She set her feet back upon the ground and slowly removed her arms from where she draped them about his shoulders. Painfully, she tried to stand on her own, but in the end, she could do little more than let out a cry of pain, cling to Eld, and use him as the only device she had left to keep herself standing. There were, in fact, tears upon her cheeks; they were difficult to see, her entire face was wet, after all-- yet it didn't matter. She was holding back the urge to cry loudly, and for once, she was succeeding.

"Ah, don't--" Eld tried to warn her as she pulled away, but it was too late, and Kaze found out how hard it was to stand on her feet with the amount of pain she was in. He'd gathered that, unlike him, she wasn't used to getting beat up on a semi-regular basis.

"Shhh," he whispered, trying to soothe her, "just relax; we're safe for now. There's no rush." He was leaning heavily on the tree himself, and under her weight as well sank down so he was sitting up against it instead.

Of course, he wasn't sure how long they'd be safe. How good were Oboreru's senses? How long would he keep hunting for them? Eld didn't have the answer to any of these, so all he could do was hope the answers were in his favor.

Unfortunately, the more practical part of him figured the answers were "very good" and "until they or he died." Which meant he'd need to figure out some way to beat him. But short of regaining his strength and gathering enough Qi to simply brute force his way to the heart, he couldn't think of anything.

Maybe it would've been better had she stayed clinging to Eld's back, but she didn't do that, and now she was experiencing the drawback to trying to get down. Akizets leaned into Eld. He was the only thing that kept her standing, now. He would have been the only thing that kept her standing even if she weren't so beaten up.

After all, what was left of her brother beyond a shell and a heart, both of which wanted them to die and nothing more? Whenever her mind trailed back to that, she felt an intense urge to break down. But she couldn't do that, not right now. Not yet. Later, maybe. Right now, they had to focus-- well, Eld had to focus. She had to just make sure she did not get in his way.

"F-for now . . ." Akizets replied hopelessly.

She felt like she had something-- an idea or . . . or something. She genuinely felt like something was there, something sitting on the bottom of her heart, something she'd actually been thinking of for awhile. For how long, exactly? She couldn't name any numbers. She couldn't name any feelings, either, or ideas, concepts, tactics, or anything. Truth be told, she still couldn't remember Eld's name-- and here she was, distraught at the idea of him dying, even when her heart felt a little heavy when she was around him.

Eld was silent as he tried to wrack his brain for a way out of the situation, but when he came up with with nothing after a few minutes he sighed. In the end, it came down to the same problem: "With the rain hurting us like this, I just don't see how we can't fight out there." And he wasn't terribly certain he could blow all the clouds away again like that; at least not in his current state.

In any case, if there was nothing his mind could do to aid, his body could still do just fine. "Kaze, let me see your arms." They were both cut up pretty bad from the rain, but their arms and shoulders had the worst of it. Tearing off pieces of his shirt (which was mostly shredded anyway), he intended to apply some make shift first aid. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

"This might sting a bit, but it won't be as bad as leaving it like that," he commented as he began.

She stood with her hands upon Eld's chest, holding onto him lightly, still using him as her only form of balance. That balance was, regrettably, thrown off as soon as he started to wrap torn cloth around her arms. With a withheld whimper and the genuine need to break down, she clutched the front of his shirt tightly, knees shaking, body wanting nothing more than to collapse right then and there.

A-am I really so useless?

It was a sudden thought that came to mind when she tried to think about something else beyond the pain.

I can even control the wind anymore.

It was a reasonable conclusion, at least to her. In battle now she was dead weight. She couldn't run at any high speed; she could only limp and even then she needed something or someone to hold onto. She wasn't strong, she couldn't take any amount of pain well, and she couldn't remember a brilliant tactic whether she came up with it or not. To Eld, she was probably useless, just someone that was getting in the way of his battle, someone that was making the risk to his life even greater.

It just won't accept my feelings anymore.

Akizets bit her lower lip as she thought about that. It made sense. Maybe her heart was just in such a state of chaos that the wind refused to listen to her. But she didn't think she could ever get it out of that chaotic state again. If anything, she could probably only make it worse. The longer she was around Eld, the worse it was probably going to get, and if she couldn't bring Oboreru home alive, she was probably going to stay with Eld.

She might never use the wind again. I really am that useless.

"I-- I really don't want you to die," Akizets would whimper upon the conclusion of Eld's dressing of her arms, "I really don't want you to die at all . . ."

"I don't really want to die either," he replied dryly. He finished Kaze's arms, and while he kind of wanted to check her shoulders and back too, that would require her taking off her shirt, was a bad idea for many, many reasons. Instead, he started to bandage his own arms, as best as he could.

"But...I also don't want to see others die, and especially others who've proven to be good people despite every opportunity to not be." Kaze was truly amazing; if their situations were reversed he really doubted he could take things half as well as she'd been doing.

"So, whatever I need to do to stop Oboreru--because I'm fairly certain he isn't going to stop until we're both dead--I'll do it."

He sighed again. "I may not have figured that out yet, but I will. I'm not about to let either of us die; that much I promise."

"A-and I-- I know that . . . that if you die, all the people you know like that-- they won't make it without you," Akizets replied, "I-- I know he'll hurt them, if you're gone. I know they'll all hurt them."

Clearly, she didn't recognize that he was talking about her. In fact, she thought he was talking about the other people he knew, the people he lived with, the girl who he could say his heart belonged to, his parents, his village, whatever it was called, wherever it might be. That's what Akizets thought. She didn't-- she couldn't --attribute something so noble to herself. Eld might have thought of her as strong, but she was not. The only strength she had was a fake one. Forgetfulness, Akizets was convinced, was the only reason she could last through this without running away.

Whether she truly understood it or not, Akizetsumei was completely wrong. Forgetfulness had nothing to do with her actions on this battlefield, on this day.

Anything-- he'd do anything . . . I'd do anything . . .

And while interpretations of Eld's words were important, so were those of Akizetsumei's. She didn't remember Eld ever talking about them, but she felt deep down inside that such people existed-- that Eld wasn't just fighting for her, but for everyone else, whoever everyone else might be-- and so was she. She felt two strong emotions, two very powerful urges: one to retrieve the dusk remnant and take it home, and the other to ensure that Eld was in possession of the dusk remnant, and no one else.

Yet, it all seemed so hopeless. Oboreru was far too powerful, and she had no doubt that he would find them eventually. Their lives, everyone's lives perhaps, were supported by only a fleeting wind.

Is that it . . .?

Akizets, despite her pain, looked up to Eld. Her brow furrowed; she gulped back a whimper, and asked, then, with the utmost seriousness: "C-can I suggest something, then . . .?"

Eld remained silent after her first commnet; he'd feared that even if Oboreru managed to kill them his vengence might not stop there. It might not even stop at Hillcrest. It was entirely possible he'd go on rampaging until someone finally came along that was capable of getting to his heart. But who that would be, he didn't know; he was the most powerful (living) person that he knew, he didn't have anyone stronger he could turn to and ask for assistance.

If Remmy was here...maybe even if Mizuki was still around...

But they weren't, and there was no getting around that. No one was coming to save him. Remmy wouldn't show up in the nick of time, wooden sword in hand, nor would Tabris appear and tell him of a power he had that he'd never known about. The only way out of this mess would be one he made himself.

Which made it all the more depressing that he couldn't find it. He wondered grimly how long they could feasibly hide from Oboreru before he found them. Could they escape again and hide again? How long could they keep it up?

"Please do," he replied to her question. Right now he was desperate for any kind of idea of what to do.

Akizets clung somewhat tighter to the front of Eld's shirt; this all came back in a rush of memories, one that was bound to die away in less than a minute. She needed to say it all now, to tell him before she forgot she'd ever come up with a plan at all.

"I-- I can give you all of me-- m-my power, that is," Akizets replied. She insisted that she looked into his eyes as she said this.

The way Akizetsumei looked up to Eld was a pleading one. If there was anything-- anything --she could do to stop this, she would do it. This was her brother Eld was fighting, after all. This was her responsibility. She felt an underlying sense of obligation to this fight. She couldn't bring him home-- there was nothing human left in his heart. There never was anything, not since she killed him the first time. Was it with words, that time, or did she drive her steel fan into his heart? She suspected it was a mixture of both.

The knot in her chest told her she'd mourned the death of her brother long ago. It was her duty to make sure the shell of her brother could not have his way . . .

. . . and if she couldn't do it personally, then she was more than willing to give away that ability to someone more capable. The wind would not accept her, but it would surely accept Eldridge Tsukimono. Even after it ceased to listen to her, Eld retained a hold over his powers.

"Th-the wind won't listen to me, b-but . . . but I know it'll listen to you . . ."

It was a good thing that Kaze added to her first statement, because there was a moment where Eld could only stare and think that now really wasn't the time for that.

So, that's why she's been so scared. He'd probably be pretty damn frightened himself if he suddenly lost his powers in the middle of a fight. While he could fight a little without them, he definitely wasn't on par with the various people who'd come looking for him on his own.

In theory, it was a good idea; he had some reservations, though. He didn't see how she could just give him her powers--whatever she and her family did was entirley different from his Qi. That, and...

"...If you do that, what'll happen to you?" he asked, afraid that she was trying to sacrifice herself again.

"I don't . . . really know . . ."

Not that it mattered. Whatever the risk was for herself, she was willing to take it. She couldn't think of any risk that made it less of a worthwhile endeavor. Nothing Eld could say would convince her otherwise. It was just the same as before; when the only risk in her mind was the end of her existence, there was little Eld could say or do that would stop her. If the wind had listened to her and accepted her heart, then Eld would've never reached her in time.

But the fact was, the wind didn't accept her heart, and it might never listen to her ever again. On this battlefield, she was effectively useless if she wasn't allowed this right.

"I could . . . lose the wind forever, for all I know. Or lose myself . . ." Akizets trailed off; the latter was a scary though, and she briefly looked away from Eld as she conjured up the thoughts of self sacrifice again, and how passionately she felt the need for Eld to survive, "But I don't care! I don't care about the risks . . ."

"I just-- I know that-- I feel that-- that the shell of my brother, he's my responsibility just as much as yours," although Akizets stated it in a warm, passionate tone, there might have been a hint of offensiveness in her words-- one she did not mean, but genuinely felt nonetheless: Oboreru was here, mainly, because Eld killed their father. It was possible for this to come off as offensive-- even if she merely meant it as stating a fact --but only because it was true. Even if Akizets couldn't remember it anymore, that didn't mean she couldn't feel it, and understand that Eld was responsible for luring Oboreru here, just as Akizetsumei was responsible for making sure Oboreru didn't kill anyone-- just as she was responsible for eliminating the shell that remained of him.

So . . . that's why they wanted to come with me . . .

"If I don't do everything I can . . ." she looked into Eld's eyes again-- insistent, passionate, ". . . then I've failed everyone."

And so, if Eld ever wondered how she could feel such a willingness to sacrifice herself earlier to stop her brother, protect Eld, and protect everyone-- now he'd know. Akizetsumei might be unable to take injuries like Eld could, like any normal person in the world, but that only meant she was fragile. Fragile, so she had to make sure she didn't get hit. Akizetsumei, as a person with a functional heart and passionate feelings for lack of memory's hold, was a warrior in the same right that Eldridge Tsukimono was. If he had a responsibility like this, something just as powerful, even if he shared it with another, he might have felt the very same drives as she.