Alone Together - Zetsuen No Tempest FanFiction - 1215

Episode 10

Everything happens for a reason... Aika used to believe in that too, Hakaze.
So if Aika was killed for a reason, was it all for Mahiro's sake? In that he would find Hakaze and fight to save the world? And what about me and Yoshino, we're just side characters in his story then, aren't we?

"We're like characters in Hamlet."
"You think so?" I asked in reply. I knew Aika loved Shakespeare, so this was a usual thing. But I'd never actually heard her start trying to place us as characters in the plays.

"How would any of us relate to Hamlet?"
"Lets see... I would be Ophelia." She began.

"Ophelia d-"
She quickly put her finger over my lips, "Quiet now." She took a breath, "Mahiro would be Laertes... Yoshino would be Horatio."

"What about Hamlet, then? Wouldn't Yoshino be Hamlet?" I asked, trying to pull up everything I knew about Yoshino in my mind.

"No, his head is too well on his shoulders for that." Aika removed her finger from my lips and walked a few steps forward before turning over to me,

"Hamlet would be you."

Ophelia dies. I thought again, remembering how she covered my mouth so swiftly. How far apart was that moment before the day of her death? How could she say something seemingly so simple and kindhearted, and have it end up being disgustingly true?

But didn't Ophelia kill herself?

"Yoshino, could you act as bait and lure them in?"

To be, or not to be.

I stood watching Mahiro threaten the men's lives below us. The force of water was sometimes so much stronger than the force of any fire, in that they could hardly activate their shields fast enough to protect themselves from getting smashed into the walls around them.

That is the question.

What should I do, Aika? If we are truly to live out our roles on this earth as characters from a play written by a mourning middle aged man, should I lay down my hopes and dreams and run into battle for your cause? As Hamlet, should I give up on love and simply live to avenge myself? To fight against this curse I feel I've become apart of, not just from the Kusaribe clan, but from my own parents?

This conscience, does make cowards of us all.

Now that I think of it, maybe you were the only one that was so opposite to the rest of us. So different, so far away. You were just two steps ahead and you never had to lift a finger.

You knew how to help me even though you shouldn't have, and you managed to have not only myself and Mahiro, but Yoshino wrapped around your finger. You read shakespeare like it was the only thing you understood. You believed in gods and fate and so I should too.

Soft you now, the fair Ophelia. Nymph, in the orisons.

Ophelia was a beautiful, fair maiden, and so were you. Maybe you liked the idea of being part of such a tragic but beautiful story, but non of us did. There is no Laertes, or Horatio, or Hamlet, in this world right now. We might all be here because of your death, but we aren't like them. We gathered to save the world so we could create a happy ending, not live out the tragedy that someone else might have written for us.

Are you watching us, Aika? Watch us grow to become people who represent our own names, and not someone else's.

-

I pressed my hands to Mahiro's shoulders and jumped lightly off the edge of the truck. He held my weight in his hands and set me down gently. I yawned, taking a moment before removing my hands.

"You've been out of it. How are you that tired?"
I shrugged, "It is night time." I suggested.

He rolled his eyes and moved on with our current mission. Junichiro's house should be around this area, and we needed to find him quickly, before someone else did.

Hakaze warned us not to tell him about her condition as we walked, explaining that she didn't want him to worry. It was interesting to hear her finally talk lightly about someone, instead of talk down on them like she was queen of the world or something.

Mahiro knocked on the door and I yawned again, getting a raised eye brow from Yoshino.
"Want some trail mix?"
"You really do come prepared." I smiled, taking the bag, "Thanks, Yoshi-kun. I'm glad you came along."

He smiled in reply, a really gentle look on his face that I feel like I haven't seen in a while, "It's no problem. I'm glad we're all together as well."

The door opened and my eyes widened at a young male with a bobbed hair cut and a completely innocent look in his eyes. He looked like he'd snap in half if Mahiro flicked him.
"Who might you be?" He asked.

"Sorry for coming by so late." Yoshino began politely, "You're Hoshimura... Kusaribe Junichiro, right?"

The male nodded in reply and I munched on my trail mix, looking to see the name of the company the treat came from.

"Ms. Hakaze requested that we receive a talisman from you."
"A request from Hakaze?" He replied, blinking, Mahiro leaning in to look at his apartment.
"Can we come in?"

Hoshimura quickly rose his hand to stop Mahiro from just barging right in, "Um, just in case, could you say the password?"

I blinked, before scowling at the stupid password Hakaze told us about before I decided to sleep on the way over here. Mahiro took a deep breath and shut his eyes, unfortunately no matter how hard I stared his cheeks, and his ears, neither ever became red from saying the words.

"Boobs that don't shake aren't boobs at all."
The dude listening wasn't fazed either, "Okay. Come in, then."

"Why does the password have to be such a basic hetero statement?" I wondered in vain, sighing as I scanned the room and prayed I wouldn't have to look at any posters of girls in bathing suits.

I tipped the bag back to get the rest of the trail mix as Hoshimura moved some boxes.
"How unfortunate for you, that Hakaze-chan took a liking to you. She used to be a cute little kid who wet her bed."

I sweat dropped and Mahiro got tired of the small talk, "Hurry it up. Do we look like we have this much time?"

"It must be serious." He mumbled in reply, rummaging through his closet, he finally stepped out with a silver case, "Here it is. I haven't touched it since I retrieved it, so it shouldn't be broken."
"Thank you." Yoshino replied in the same polite tone as before.

"Did you want to light some incense before you go?"
"Uh, for who?"
"Hakaze-chan."

My eyes widened and I almost choked on my spit, Mahiro and Yoshino gasping in confused reply. I walked forward and tensed at the picture of her, a whole shrine set up to commemorate a person who was alive.

"Hey- you believed this just cause someone told you?!"
"Of course not, I'm not that simple minded. But there's no doubt about it. I verified her body. She died on an island, next to a barrel."