Chapter the next. I could have kept going, but I really felt like where I stopped was a good spot to end the chapter.
Leave of Absence: Sorrow
Leave of Absence: Sorrow
"I wonder how surprised he'll be~" hummed one Yagami Hayate to herself as she stood at the portal to her boyfriend's domicile. There was a happy smile on her lips and a bag full of groceries in her arms. She hadn't really planned this little dinner, but she found herself unable to resist once she'd found out Yuuno had actually been forced to take the vacation. The fact it had been her hand which had helped force him take it never once gave her pause.
Her smile faltered after receiving no response for a short time and it turned into an unamused pout when that length of time grew even further. Hayate found it slightly strange there was no answer. Unless he was so enthralled by something or otherwise occupied in matters which made answering the door impossible, Yuuno was usually rather prompt. Well, it's not like it would have mattered; given her possession of a key and all. She would have just found it a slight easier to gain entrance with a bit of a hand.
Plus, she did enjoy seeing his shocked face; something Nanoha and even Fate admitted to enjoying as well. A giggle escaped her lips as she set down the groceries on the ground.
After opening up the door and reacquiring her bundle of foodstuffs, Hayate announced herself and strode inside. Not once did she take notice of how parts of the door frame did not seem quite so... in synch with the world. Then again, how would she have been able to tell? The human mind is an amazing thing, for human endeavors.
"Yuuno~ The one and only Hayate-chan has arrived~ And I brought dinner!" The utter lack of response from the deathly silent interior put her ever so slightly on edge. She knew he was home judging by both his car being outside and the keys resting on the peg in the wall by the door. He was adorably predictable like that. "...Yuuno?"
If this was a prank, she wasn't laughing. While she might like pranks a bit more than the next person; though perhaps not nearly as much as Admiral Harlaown, she found the situation a bit more than she was willing to accept as funny. The silence pervading the home was not one from being empty, rather it was uneasy and foreboding. "Yuuno, if you jump out and shout 'boo', I'm not going to be happy." Again, no reply. She set down the groceries by the door and ventured further inside.
The only reasons Hayate could think of for Yuuno not responding would be one of three. One was him being in the shower; but she struck that from her list as she would have heard it running. The second struck from her list was the notion of him being asleep. Even if he had been asleep, the amount of racket she had made would have awoken him. The third option had her reaching for the cross shaped pendant around her neck. The final option was that something was very wrong in one form or another and the possibility of her boyfriend being in no small amount of peril had now been placed on the table.
There were times Hayate wished she didn't have to consider that possibility, but considering the line of work their little circle of friends was involved in and their various upbringings... it was very hard to not take into account. It didn't matter just how well she knew he was capable of taking care of himself; there was never a guarantee. The same ran true for anyone.
"Yuuno? If you're there, please say something." Again, her cautious and worried plea received no reply.
When she was about to round a corner and enter the kitchen area, a pulse of something... unnatural passed over her body. Were she put put it into words; Hayate would have described it as walking through a wall of extremely dense, humid air. Only here, the air was frigid and dark. She shivered and pulled the golden cross from her neck. Something was very, very wrong here.
Taking on a much more steeled demeanor with Schwertkreuz in hand, she pressed forward into the kitchen. The moment she rounded the corner, her vision was met with an incomprehensible darkness. It was so confounding that it made her freeze in her tracks and caused incredible pain whenever she so much as thought about deciphering it. All she could do was call out to it in a voice filled with fear and defiance. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
Her demands were not complied with.
Rather... One could interpret them as being met with hostility.
The darkness seemed to solidify in some manner which would have made Newton weep as another wave of the heavy, icy air washed over the brunette. Hayate did not have more than a moment's warning before her body was bound up in the solid shadow. It constricted her so tightly that no amount of force she exerted could produce any give from the otherworldly bindings. She narrowed her eyes angrily and shouted against her captor. "Let me go. Let me go, now! I don't know what you are or what you're doing here, but you are really making me angry!" And if this... thing was the reason why Yuuno seemed to be missing...
Fury would be the most mundane description of her reaction.
Rather than release her or tighten it's hold, the entity appeared to shift in another display of mind breaking movement. Hayate had only the ability to loose the beginnings of a terrified scream as she was pulled inside nearly faster than she could comprehend. Blackness filled her vision and then, there was nothing.
"-at were you thinking!?"
"-abilize for days. This was the be-"
"This could be the worst course of act-"
"-ther have her call for an investigation and risk far more than her ire?"
"That's not the only thing I'm angry about!"
Hayate's vision slowly began returning to her as the voices pounded away on her poor cranium. She blinked and attempted to stand up, only to find that her limbs felt like they were made of lead. She craned her neck towards the sound of the voices in an effort to see who was making such a racket. When she did, she couldn't help but call out. "Y-Yuuno...?" It was more of a pitiful mewl at this moment, much to her irritation.
Thankfully for her sanity, the figures stopped going back and forth on one another and one of them ran over to her side. Hayate felt her head spin as she was picked up off of whatever it was she'd been lying on and was wrapped up in the embrace of a very familiar person. "Yuuno? Yuuno, it is you!" She gave a relieved smile as she tried to return the embrace, but sadly found herself unable to do so. "I was really worried when you didn't respond. I thought something had happened."
Yuuno shook his head grimly. "Something... did happen." He intentionally did not look back at the silver haired being still standing some distance away from them. Reinforce said she would explain everything to Hayate, but he could not even begin to guess where she would start.
Hayate blinked again as she recalled the bizarre events that had put her here. "That's right!" She glanced around the now alien landscape that seemed to overlay itself on top of Yuuno's home. "Where are we? There was that black mass that..." She paused with a wince before continuing, "...makes my head hurt trying to think about it. Then I was... eaten?"
"Eaten. Transported. Shifted... I have a feeling any of those could work. This place is... not natural." Certainly not by their standards at any length. He sighed and looked down at Hayate's concerned face, her presence alone helping him cope with the madness now encompassing his life far better than one might imagine. "Are you okay?"
She smiled and nodded. "A little stiff, but I'm okay." As if to prove her point she raised her hand and tried to tickle her boyfriend. It was a stiff, mechanical motion, but at least she could move the bloody thing again. Being in such a state brought back memories of being bound to her wheelchair so many years ago. Not... unpleasant, but nothing she'd really like to relive at the moment. "Who else is here with us? I couldn't really see who it was." The suddenly furious and not at all comforting expression on Yuuno's face made her more than nervous.
"She'll explain that herself, as promised." He looked back over to where Reinforce was standing and made a beckoning gesture with his head.
Hayate tried to crane her neck to see who could have produced such an expression from Yuuno, but found herself unable to do so. As the off-tone sound of footsteps grew closer, she grew more and more anxious. And when the person finally came into view, there were no words that could be spoken. The brunette had gone mute in shock upon seeing something her mind and heart could not truly comprehend.
The silver haired woman fidgeted slightly under Hayate's gaze before remembering that she had to reintroduce herself. "It has been... a long time, my Mistress Hayate."
At that moment in time, Hayate's world became naught but herself and the woman before her. Yuuno's protective hold vanished like dust before a storm and her vision was filled with only Reinforce. There was no bizarre realm beyond her understanding nor the entire wrongness of every single event that had transpired ever since she arrived here. Even thoughts of her dearest friends and family never once came to being as she stared wide-eyed at the woman she had long since accepted as dead.
Tears began to gather and fall from her eyes as a pitiful whimper escaped her lips. "R-Reinforce..." How could this be? How...? This person should not be alive, yet so clearly is... She attempted to struggle against a binding she could not recognize. Something was holding her back, but in her mindset she couldn't begin to realize what it could be. There was only the risen dead before her eyes.
Yuuno watched the painful scene with hard eyes pinned solely upon the silver haired being as if ordering her to speak, to explain to Hayate what exactly was happening. Eventually his mouth did was his eyes were unable to. "Well? You said you tell her everything. Tell her." He was well aware of how condemning his words might have sounded and for a moment he did not care in the slightest. He would not allow Hayate to suffer or be mired in confusion any longer.
Were the source of information anyone else then he might have not been so short. But after all Reinforce had done, he was done with pleasantries.
What's more... The wound. The wound Hayate had received in the wake of the battle against the corrupted Defense Program had never healed. No, it could only be bandaged. And until the day came when she could be reunited with Reinforce, it would remain.
It was beyond his abilities to truly comprehend the relationship between the two; between the Hayate he had come to love and the Reinforce he had only known for a mere sliver of time. All that he could comprehend was that in the time the two had known each other, they had bonded on a level that held no equivalent term in mortal tongue. Friends. Rivals. Lovers. Enemies. Vassal and Lord. Slave and Master. Equals. Soul mates. All those and more did not even begin to touch upon the explanation of what they had become in such a minuscule span of time. Even attempting to do so only led him to migraines and confusion.
Reinforce stepped forward and kneeled before them, her long silver locks falling about in a manner which partially concealed her gaze towards the ground. There was a moment of silence in which Yuuno was certain the female took a deep and shuddering breath to prepare herself. "My Mistress, The Lady Yagami Hayate, I by the name of Reinforce, the former Master Control Program of the Book of The Night Sky, must beg first your understanding before I utter another word. My crimes are not the likes of which that can be tried by mortal courts. Only you have the understanding, authority, and right to pass judgement for mine actions."
The formality and vulnerability in that declaration made time seem to freeze. For Yuuno it was as if he had become a spectator to something beyond the world, something he was only permitted to witness because of chance and the graces of higher beings. Hayate could only stare dumbfounded at the absolute submissiveness within Reinforce. Never in their time together had she been witness to such a sight. Not even the Wolkenritter at their most devout had ever spoken in such a manner. Reinforce would only await judgement for her actions and hope that her most beloved Mistress would understand the steps that had been taken.
At that moment Hayate wanted to do so many things, but she found herself able to only nod and give a simple reply, "...Speak." She was dimly aware of Yuuno's grasp tightening it's hold on her. More accurately, she was now aware enough for his touch to register in her overwhelmed mind.
Silence reigned for exactly thirteen seconds as Reinforce took the time to swallow and nod in response to her Mistress' permission.
And so she spoke, never once allowing her blood red gaze leave Hayate's dark blue.
Reinforce held nothing back. Everything was explained exactly as had been done before to Yuuno. Every action. Every reason. Every acceptance of consequence was given to the horrified brunette.
When told of what had been done to Yuuno, Hayate very nearly ripped herself from his hold to strike her beloved Reinforce. All that stopped her was the weakness placed upon her body out of shock from the tale being told to her. Even a roar of indignation and fury was too much for her at this point in time. Hayate was forced to stew in her own cauldron of boiling emotions with no way in which to pour them out.
It took some time for her to realize that Reinforce had stopped speaking and remained in her kneeling position. Hayate did not ask why Yuuno hadn't said a word the entire time. What remained of her rational mind suggested that he was waiting for her to make a decision. There was also the possibility of being shocked to hear the story for a second time. "Reinforce..." Her voice was low, dangerous, and wounded like that of the wrongfully scorned.
Yuuno couldn't stop her when she regained the strength to stand and thrust herself from his arms without any sort of warning. "Ha-Hayate? What are yo-"
"Silence."
His mouth shut with the clacking of teeth.
Turning a shadowed gaze towards the kneeling woman, Hayate attempted to speak her name again, "R-Rein... Reinforce..." The addressed neither moved a muscle nor did she speak.
When Reinforce did speak again it was a yelp of surprise as she was bowled over by a bawling and enraged Hayate. The cries of her Mistress cut her down to the deepest depths of her being and only the self-assurance that this was the only path saved her from drowning in her own aguish. She felt her back slam against the ground of the space they inhabited and loosed a cough as the air was expelled from her lungs. Looking up, she saw Hayate straddling her and reaching down to grasp her tunic in a vice-like grip. Hot tears splashed down onto her face.
Before she could make an effort to reach up to wipe away Hayate's tears or speak, Reinforce felt herself lifted up and slammed against the ground with a surprising amount of force. "You were dead! Dead and gone! We all had to go on with our lives knowing we couldn't save you!" She released the woman's garment and brought her hand down on Reinforce's cheek with an ear-splitting crack. "A-And now!?"
Reinforce seemed too stunned by the strike to speak in her defense, even if there was no defense she could offer that she had not already. Another slap rang out in the warped and alien space. "It was all for nothing! You left us. We-we failed you. A-And now y-you tell me th-that it was c-completely mea-meaningless!?" A third strike resounded and snapped the silver haired woman's head to the side. Hayate was ignorant of the scrambling sounds in the background. "A-All those years! All those years be-believing I h-had-!" Her tears obscured her vision and made Reinforce's form too blurry to see. Without a clear target, she balled her fist and brought it down on Reinforce's chest. The yelp of pain only made her sob more strongly and fueled her furious sorrow.
"And... And now you... you just... You j-just a-appear." Her sobs continued to wrack her body as she curled up atop the battered Reinforce. "A-Appear and d-drop a-all of this on us..." A hand gently placed itself on Hayate's shoulder and made her shiver. Her gaze grew only more agonized as she screamed yet again. "You e-even broke Yuuno! Wh-What did he ever d-do to deserve wh-whatever you did to him!? S-Soul b-b-binding and w-weird m-magic... He-he's the o-only one?!" She reared up to deliver another blow to her beloved and loathed Reinforce when another hand clamped down firmly on her wrist.
Hayate looked up in teary eyed confusion to see an angry, but also tired and pained looking Yuuno. He shook his head. "That's... That enough... Hayate... I think she understands." He gestured towards the floored woman and bit his lip. "I think she understood from the beginning..."
With slow motions the brunette lowered her arms to wipe her eyes with shuddering hands. She looked down to see Reinforce beneath her, looking away with the markings of a bruise beginning to form on her face. But what took away so much of the fire in her fury was the expression the woman wore. Her blood-red eyes were filled with tears that flowed freely and her body shook from her own sorrow and self-directed anger.
"I-I... I'm sorry... I'm so... sorry..."
Yagami Hayate fell atop Reinforce Eins and embraced her, howling in pain and crying all the tears she had held within her for all the years lost between them.
Her smile faltered after receiving no response for a short time and it turned into an unamused pout when that length of time grew even further. Hayate found it slightly strange there was no answer. Unless he was so enthralled by something or otherwise occupied in matters which made answering the door impossible, Yuuno was usually rather prompt. Well, it's not like it would have mattered; given her possession of a key and all. She would have just found it a slight easier to gain entrance with a bit of a hand.
Plus, she did enjoy seeing his shocked face; something Nanoha and even Fate admitted to enjoying as well. A giggle escaped her lips as she set down the groceries on the ground.
After opening up the door and reacquiring her bundle of foodstuffs, Hayate announced herself and strode inside. Not once did she take notice of how parts of the door frame did not seem quite so... in synch with the world. Then again, how would she have been able to tell? The human mind is an amazing thing, for human endeavors.
"Yuuno~ The one and only Hayate-chan has arrived~ And I brought dinner!" The utter lack of response from the deathly silent interior put her ever so slightly on edge. She knew he was home judging by both his car being outside and the keys resting on the peg in the wall by the door. He was adorably predictable like that. "...Yuuno?"
If this was a prank, she wasn't laughing. While she might like pranks a bit more than the next person; though perhaps not nearly as much as Admiral Harlaown, she found the situation a bit more than she was willing to accept as funny. The silence pervading the home was not one from being empty, rather it was uneasy and foreboding. "Yuuno, if you jump out and shout 'boo', I'm not going to be happy." Again, no reply. She set down the groceries by the door and ventured further inside.
The only reasons Hayate could think of for Yuuno not responding would be one of three. One was him being in the shower; but she struck that from her list as she would have heard it running. The second struck from her list was the notion of him being asleep. Even if he had been asleep, the amount of racket she had made would have awoken him. The third option had her reaching for the cross shaped pendant around her neck. The final option was that something was very wrong in one form or another and the possibility of her boyfriend being in no small amount of peril had now been placed on the table.
There were times Hayate wished she didn't have to consider that possibility, but considering the line of work their little circle of friends was involved in and their various upbringings... it was very hard to not take into account. It didn't matter just how well she knew he was capable of taking care of himself; there was never a guarantee. The same ran true for anyone.
"Yuuno? If you're there, please say something." Again, her cautious and worried plea received no reply.
When she was about to round a corner and enter the kitchen area, a pulse of something... unnatural passed over her body. Were she put put it into words; Hayate would have described it as walking through a wall of extremely dense, humid air. Only here, the air was frigid and dark. She shivered and pulled the golden cross from her neck. Something was very, very wrong here.
Taking on a much more steeled demeanor with Schwertkreuz in hand, she pressed forward into the kitchen. The moment she rounded the corner, her vision was met with an incomprehensible darkness. It was so confounding that it made her freeze in her tracks and caused incredible pain whenever she so much as thought about deciphering it. All she could do was call out to it in a voice filled with fear and defiance. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
Her demands were not complied with.
Rather... One could interpret them as being met with hostility.
The darkness seemed to solidify in some manner which would have made Newton weep as another wave of the heavy, icy air washed over the brunette. Hayate did not have more than a moment's warning before her body was bound up in the solid shadow. It constricted her so tightly that no amount of force she exerted could produce any give from the otherworldly bindings. She narrowed her eyes angrily and shouted against her captor. "Let me go. Let me go, now! I don't know what you are or what you're doing here, but you are really making me angry!" And if this... thing was the reason why Yuuno seemed to be missing...
Fury would be the most mundane description of her reaction.
Rather than release her or tighten it's hold, the entity appeared to shift in another display of mind breaking movement. Hayate had only the ability to loose the beginnings of a terrified scream as she was pulled inside nearly faster than she could comprehend. Blackness filled her vision and then, there was nothing.
"-at were you thinking!?"
"-abilize for days. This was the be-"
"This could be the worst course of act-"
"-ther have her call for an investigation and risk far more than her ire?"
"That's not the only thing I'm angry about!"
Hayate's vision slowly began returning to her as the voices pounded away on her poor cranium. She blinked and attempted to stand up, only to find that her limbs felt like they were made of lead. She craned her neck towards the sound of the voices in an effort to see who was making such a racket. When she did, she couldn't help but call out. "Y-Yuuno...?" It was more of a pitiful mewl at this moment, much to her irritation.
Thankfully for her sanity, the figures stopped going back and forth on one another and one of them ran over to her side. Hayate felt her head spin as she was picked up off of whatever it was she'd been lying on and was wrapped up in the embrace of a very familiar person. "Yuuno? Yuuno, it is you!" She gave a relieved smile as she tried to return the embrace, but sadly found herself unable to do so. "I was really worried when you didn't respond. I thought something had happened."
Yuuno shook his head grimly. "Something... did happen." He intentionally did not look back at the silver haired being still standing some distance away from them. Reinforce said she would explain everything to Hayate, but he could not even begin to guess where she would start.
Hayate blinked again as she recalled the bizarre events that had put her here. "That's right!" She glanced around the now alien landscape that seemed to overlay itself on top of Yuuno's home. "Where are we? There was that black mass that..." She paused with a wince before continuing, "...makes my head hurt trying to think about it. Then I was... eaten?"
"Eaten. Transported. Shifted... I have a feeling any of those could work. This place is... not natural." Certainly not by their standards at any length. He sighed and looked down at Hayate's concerned face, her presence alone helping him cope with the madness now encompassing his life far better than one might imagine. "Are you okay?"
She smiled and nodded. "A little stiff, but I'm okay." As if to prove her point she raised her hand and tried to tickle her boyfriend. It was a stiff, mechanical motion, but at least she could move the bloody thing again. Being in such a state brought back memories of being bound to her wheelchair so many years ago. Not... unpleasant, but nothing she'd really like to relive at the moment. "Who else is here with us? I couldn't really see who it was." The suddenly furious and not at all comforting expression on Yuuno's face made her more than nervous.
"She'll explain that herself, as promised." He looked back over to where Reinforce was standing and made a beckoning gesture with his head.
Hayate tried to crane her neck to see who could have produced such an expression from Yuuno, but found herself unable to do so. As the off-tone sound of footsteps grew closer, she grew more and more anxious. And when the person finally came into view, there were no words that could be spoken. The brunette had gone mute in shock upon seeing something her mind and heart could not truly comprehend.
The silver haired woman fidgeted slightly under Hayate's gaze before remembering that she had to reintroduce herself. "It has been... a long time, my Mistress Hayate."
At that moment in time, Hayate's world became naught but herself and the woman before her. Yuuno's protective hold vanished like dust before a storm and her vision was filled with only Reinforce. There was no bizarre realm beyond her understanding nor the entire wrongness of every single event that had transpired ever since she arrived here. Even thoughts of her dearest friends and family never once came to being as she stared wide-eyed at the woman she had long since accepted as dead.
Tears began to gather and fall from her eyes as a pitiful whimper escaped her lips. "R-Reinforce..." How could this be? How...? This person should not be alive, yet so clearly is... She attempted to struggle against a binding she could not recognize. Something was holding her back, but in her mindset she couldn't begin to realize what it could be. There was only the risen dead before her eyes.
Yuuno watched the painful scene with hard eyes pinned solely upon the silver haired being as if ordering her to speak, to explain to Hayate what exactly was happening. Eventually his mouth did was his eyes were unable to. "Well? You said you tell her everything. Tell her." He was well aware of how condemning his words might have sounded and for a moment he did not care in the slightest. He would not allow Hayate to suffer or be mired in confusion any longer.
Were the source of information anyone else then he might have not been so short. But after all Reinforce had done, he was done with pleasantries.
What's more... The wound. The wound Hayate had received in the wake of the battle against the corrupted Defense Program had never healed. No, it could only be bandaged. And until the day came when she could be reunited with Reinforce, it would remain.
It was beyond his abilities to truly comprehend the relationship between the two; between the Hayate he had come to love and the Reinforce he had only known for a mere sliver of time. All that he could comprehend was that in the time the two had known each other, they had bonded on a level that held no equivalent term in mortal tongue. Friends. Rivals. Lovers. Enemies. Vassal and Lord. Slave and Master. Equals. Soul mates. All those and more did not even begin to touch upon the explanation of what they had become in such a minuscule span of time. Even attempting to do so only led him to migraines and confusion.
Reinforce stepped forward and kneeled before them, her long silver locks falling about in a manner which partially concealed her gaze towards the ground. There was a moment of silence in which Yuuno was certain the female took a deep and shuddering breath to prepare herself. "My Mistress, The Lady Yagami Hayate, I by the name of Reinforce, the former Master Control Program of the Book of The Night Sky, must beg first your understanding before I utter another word. My crimes are not the likes of which that can be tried by mortal courts. Only you have the understanding, authority, and right to pass judgement for mine actions."
The formality and vulnerability in that declaration made time seem to freeze. For Yuuno it was as if he had become a spectator to something beyond the world, something he was only permitted to witness because of chance and the graces of higher beings. Hayate could only stare dumbfounded at the absolute submissiveness within Reinforce. Never in their time together had she been witness to such a sight. Not even the Wolkenritter at their most devout had ever spoken in such a manner. Reinforce would only await judgement for her actions and hope that her most beloved Mistress would understand the steps that had been taken.
At that moment Hayate wanted to do so many things, but she found herself able to only nod and give a simple reply, "...Speak." She was dimly aware of Yuuno's grasp tightening it's hold on her. More accurately, she was now aware enough for his touch to register in her overwhelmed mind.
Silence reigned for exactly thirteen seconds as Reinforce took the time to swallow and nod in response to her Mistress' permission.
And so she spoke, never once allowing her blood red gaze leave Hayate's dark blue.
Reinforce held nothing back. Everything was explained exactly as had been done before to Yuuno. Every action. Every reason. Every acceptance of consequence was given to the horrified brunette.
When told of what had been done to Yuuno, Hayate very nearly ripped herself from his hold to strike her beloved Reinforce. All that stopped her was the weakness placed upon her body out of shock from the tale being told to her. Even a roar of indignation and fury was too much for her at this point in time. Hayate was forced to stew in her own cauldron of boiling emotions with no way in which to pour them out.
It took some time for her to realize that Reinforce had stopped speaking and remained in her kneeling position. Hayate did not ask why Yuuno hadn't said a word the entire time. What remained of her rational mind suggested that he was waiting for her to make a decision. There was also the possibility of being shocked to hear the story for a second time. "Reinforce..." Her voice was low, dangerous, and wounded like that of the wrongfully scorned.
Yuuno couldn't stop her when she regained the strength to stand and thrust herself from his arms without any sort of warning. "Ha-Hayate? What are yo-"
"Silence."
His mouth shut with the clacking of teeth.
Turning a shadowed gaze towards the kneeling woman, Hayate attempted to speak her name again, "R-Rein... Reinforce..." The addressed neither moved a muscle nor did she speak.
When Reinforce did speak again it was a yelp of surprise as she was bowled over by a bawling and enraged Hayate. The cries of her Mistress cut her down to the deepest depths of her being and only the self-assurance that this was the only path saved her from drowning in her own aguish. She felt her back slam against the ground of the space they inhabited and loosed a cough as the air was expelled from her lungs. Looking up, she saw Hayate straddling her and reaching down to grasp her tunic in a vice-like grip. Hot tears splashed down onto her face.
Before she could make an effort to reach up to wipe away Hayate's tears or speak, Reinforce felt herself lifted up and slammed against the ground with a surprising amount of force. "You were dead! Dead and gone! We all had to go on with our lives knowing we couldn't save you!" She released the woman's garment and brought her hand down on Reinforce's cheek with an ear-splitting crack. "A-And now!?"
Reinforce seemed too stunned by the strike to speak in her defense, even if there was no defense she could offer that she had not already. Another slap rang out in the warped and alien space. "It was all for nothing! You left us. We-we failed you. A-And now y-you tell me th-that it was c-completely mea-meaningless!?" A third strike resounded and snapped the silver haired woman's head to the side. Hayate was ignorant of the scrambling sounds in the background. "A-All those years! All those years be-believing I h-had-!" Her tears obscured her vision and made Reinforce's form too blurry to see. Without a clear target, she balled her fist and brought it down on Reinforce's chest. The yelp of pain only made her sob more strongly and fueled her furious sorrow.
"And... And now you... you just... You j-just a-appear." Her sobs continued to wrack her body as she curled up atop the battered Reinforce. "A-Appear and d-drop a-all of this on us..." A hand gently placed itself on Hayate's shoulder and made her shiver. Her gaze grew only more agonized as she screamed yet again. "You e-even broke Yuuno! Wh-What did he ever d-do to deserve wh-whatever you did to him!? S-Soul b-b-binding and w-weird m-magic... He-he's the o-only one?!" She reared up to deliver another blow to her beloved and loathed Reinforce when another hand clamped down firmly on her wrist.
Hayate looked up in teary eyed confusion to see an angry, but also tired and pained looking Yuuno. He shook his head. "That's... That enough... Hayate... I think she understands." He gestured towards the floored woman and bit his lip. "I think she understood from the beginning..."
With slow motions the brunette lowered her arms to wipe her eyes with shuddering hands. She looked down to see Reinforce beneath her, looking away with the markings of a bruise beginning to form on her face. But what took away so much of the fire in her fury was the expression the woman wore. Her blood-red eyes were filled with tears that flowed freely and her body shook from her own sorrow and self-directed anger.
"I-I... I'm sorry... I'm so... sorry..."
Yagami Hayate fell atop Reinforce Eins and embraced her, howling in pain and crying all the tears she had held within her for all the years lost between them.
