Something Rings A Bell…

[pc32_fics]

Her eyes… they are filled with tears. How does she know my name? She shouts it and my heart hurts, like it’s breaking. I don’t know why.

I twirl my scythe. I’m skilled with it – but she’s adept with her weapon, large as it is. Why am I hesitating? I’ve fought this woman before. She tried to kill me. That’s a fact.

As I think this, I see my weapon breaking pottery off tall wooden posts. The woman who stares at me now is next to me, laughing, a small two-tailed neko youkai mewing her own encouragement. Why do I think these things? This never happened – I don’t understand!

I look into her eyes again and something in me shatters as she calls my name again, her face hardening with determination. I can hear screams, distantly, as though they’re hundreds of miles away.

“Snap out of it!” She leaps forward and I leap back, as though we are dancing a dance we’ve indulged in thousands of times before.

But we haven’t. She's only an enemy, isn't she? If she wasn't, wouldn't I know? Something would ring a bell – more than vivid daydreams and foreboding feelings I can't understand.

‘Kohaku. Kill her.’

I always do what master tells me. If I refuse… he makes me think awful things. I never remember what they are, but they always hurt.

I don’t want to hurt any more.

But I don’t want to kill her.