Tears in Rain

"May I join you?" Iko, having not learned her lesson from last night, has a bottle of sake in her right hand along with two cups in her left hand.

"Of course." Oka clears out the dust from the space next to her and gestures for Iko to sit, which she does. Fireflies weave in and out of the spaces between the bamboo trees. The soft chirping of the crickets fill their ears while the soft light of the waning moon fills their eyes. The two women sit cross-legged on the dojo landing. Klara's snores softly in the distance. "Have you ever seen a more beautiful moon?"

"Once." Iko's eyes gloss over as she's whisked away by a flock of memories. "A long, long time ago."

"Tell me about it."

"It's just a sappy love story." Iko blushes a little.

"I don't mind. Love stories are best sappy."

Iko pours herself a cup of sake before downing it in one go. "Ahhh. Where do I even begin?"

"The beginning."

"If only there was one." Iko looks up at the night sky. "I fell in love once."

Oka smirks, indulging her immaturity.

"We met at a festival when I was still a child. At the time, I was the only one who couldn't afford to buy a yukata. He was the only one who didn't laugh at me. The moment I laid my eyes on him, I felt like he was the one."

"Ah, puppy love." Oka sips her sake delicately. "Is anything more precious or more fragile?"

"Maybe so. But it was there to stay. Every year, we would meet at the festival for one night and one night only. We hardly ever said a word to each other. There was just never a need to. He understood me and I understood him. I showed him all of me and he showed me all of him. That was the kind of relationship we had."

Oka wonders what Iko meant by that before it suddenly dawns on her. She raises her hand to her face to hide the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"If he asked, I would have given him everything… But I never got the chance." Iko looks off into the distance with a wistful smile. "On the day I was going to ask, he already had a ring on his finger. I never saw him again."

"Oh." The magic of the moment crumbles away. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Iko waves away Oka's sympathy. "It taught me a valuable lesson."

"And what would that be?"

"Friendships and lovers drift apart but family… family is forever. I was foolish to think otherwise."

"I don't think there's anything foolish about falling in love."

Iko gives Oka a sidelong glance. "Try it."

"If I ever find that special someone then sure."

"What would that special someone look like?"

"What would that special someone look like?" Oka lies down on the floor. "I would like to fall in love with someone small enough to pick up."

"Go on." Iko pours herself and Oka some more sake.

"I think someone unafraid to speak his mind would be nice. I'm a boring person at heart so maybe someone with a wild attitude. And… er… this is a little strange."

"I don't mind. I'm a little strange myself."

"It's a bit weird but I think I'd like someone who likes it rough, if you catch my drift."

"You mean… like a masochist?"

"That's certainly a blunt way of putting it." Oka blushes. "But yes, I think a masochist would mesh well with my preferences."

"Ah. So you're a sadist." Iko nods in understanding.

"Don't say it like that!"

"I'm also a bit of a sadist."

You're making this weird!"

"No judgments."

Oka sighs and shakes her head. "What I would give to be as carefree as you, Iko."

"Carefree?" Iko raises an eyebrow. "Me?"

"Well, maybe 'carefree' is the wrong word. I mean something more along the lines of 'resilience.' You seem like you've got stuff going on too but you're handling it much better than I am."

"To each their own. At least you managed to turn your pain into resolve."

"And you haven't?"

"No. All I'm doing is causing more pain." Iko looks down at her hands.

"You always have a choice."

"Not for me. Not anymore. That woman… Valeriya, took that freedom away from me."

"What did she do?"

"It's not about what she did. It's about what she doesn't. That woman doesn't regret what she did at all. And someone has to make sure she does."

"It's not necessarily the sin but the lack of atonement, huh?"

"Exactly." Iko picks up a pebble off the ground and throws it at a nearby bamboo tree. It pierces through the shoot cleanly before disappearing into the darkness. "I'm surprised. Your sister was killed just today and you haven't sworn vengeance on that… chainsaw-wielding person yet."

"It's not as though I forgive her... But I feel that I understand her on some level." Oka stares forward into the forest. "I know what it's like to take someone's life. I know how easy it is to justify it in your own head. And I don't blame her for doing just that. Most of all, I'm just tired of seeing people get hurt."

"I suppose that's what separates you and me." Iko looks up at the moon. "I haven't had my fill yet."

"And I don't blame you for that."

"Yeah… Thanks."

"You too."

Iko yawns quietly. "Maybe one day, after all this is over, after things finally calm down, after I see my family again, I'll see things your way."

"You think it could really happen?"

"With luck… with luck"

"Yet again, you present yourself to me, empty handed." The Lady of Tokyo raps her fingernails on her throne's armrest. "My patience is running thin."

"Y-yes… forgive me, master." Kirika holds her damaged finger with trembling hands. She tries to wipe it off with a cloth but it's just not going away. She doesn't want to ruin it with an unsightly weld either but at this rate, it looks like she might not have a choice. Damn it… She curses herself a thousand times over for her carelessness. "But, if I may, I have brought you a tribute."

"Then present it to me before I lose my temper."

"Of course."

Kirika scrambles towards the table at the far end of the room. There's a cloth draped over it, concealing something large and lumpy. WIth a flourish, she pulls the cloth off, revealing the corpse of a magical girl. She has a tremendous laceration in her chest, that was most likely the cause of death. The blood around it has started to brown. The Lady of Tokyo's lips press together in contempt. "What is the meaning of this? Why have you brought me a corpse?"

"She was an enemy, ma'am. I thought it would please you–"

"That much is also within my understanding. Perhaps this may come as a surprise but I do not delight in death like you do." The Lady of Tokyo motions with her hand and a conglomeration of mechanical arms rises up from the ground.

"M-ma'am! You're not seriously–"

"Silence, wench." One of the mechanical arms forcefully snatches up Kirika by the neck and pins her to the wall. "As punishment, you shall watch as I bestow upon her the reward I was to bestow upon you."

"M-my lady– please! Wait!" Kirika struggles in vain to wrench the arm from her neck but it's like trying to move a statue. The Lady of Tokyo presses a button on a control panel and a miniature buzzsaw pokes out of one of the arms. She begins peeling back skin and adipose before sawing through the bone of the ribcage.

"The heart, the seat of the soul, is destroyed." She tuts. "That makes things… tricky. But thankfully, we no longer need it."