Saki Ryuumonbuchi
Reimyaku - Sea of Souls
Night
Moon Phase: ????
The woman listens intently to your answer.
Recognizing that she is not you, and thus, finally having the chance to open your heart to someone besides yourself and your master, you speak fervently, the sincere words reaching out to the one who shared your face, before disappearing into the rushing endless blue that surrounded you both. It is neither uncomfortable or embarrassing to do so, the woman does not interrupt, nor does she say that your words are a lie, she simply listens, as one who desires nothing more than the true answer from those she spoke with, you do not get the feeling she is judging you in any real way.
Regardless of your answer, so long as you believed in it, you got the feeling that would be enough for this one.
"Desiring power... To keep your world a place worth living in?" repeating your statement back to you as you finish, as if to ensure that she heard it correctly, her tone brightens ever so slightly, and if you didn't know better, you would almost think that she was smiling beneath that mask, "I suppose for a human, that sort of answer is to be expected. A world without color is indeed a sad, lifeless place, I agree, and thus, I bear witness to your answer."
Uncrossing her arms, the woman hold out her hand to you, and driven by curiosity, you glance at it for a moment.
The stone.
The thing you had sought so much back in the shop, was resting silently in the palm of her hand.
"Of course, Power itself is also nothing more than a single color," so saying, the woman's voice evens out again, and the stone begins to shine. Around you, red figures appear in this blue world, wraiths, bad feelings and thoughts given form, regrets, hatreds, broken promises, lost loves, all gathered in a single stone that some, even you, had thought of as 'power,' "If I am reading your experiences correctly, then this is the thing that acted as a catalyst for your path to me. A stone of infinite power, but also infinite hate, that attacks the souls of the living in exchange for the limitless power of the dead... Such a thing will simple dye your world red."
Closing her hand around the stone completely, it's light disappearing with the solid form of her fist, the nonexistent ground begins to shake as if in protest, and the wraiths, the lost ones who were staining this blue world crimson, vanish in the blink of an eye.
"And a world that is completely red is no different from a world that is completely gray," her hand still closed, the woman makes no motion to give the stone back to you, to your slight annoyance, "If you wish to bring color back to your world... Then this stone is not the right way... Perhaps the best way to do that is by mixing your red with the colors others hold... That is a limitless power in it's own right."
Another pause, a sense that the girl is smiling, then, as if she was never there...
She vanishes...
For an instant you blink, but before you can turn around again, someone embraces you, lightly from behind.
In an instant you understand it is the entity.
That if you were to look back, you would see perhaps, what the true form of ‘She-Who-Reigns-Sovereign-Over-The-Pitrs’ was...
"But these are just the words of an observer, my words, words of someone who perhaps does not understand," her voice light now, the words charm you to the point where you can't move your body, and a warm feeling, a feeling similar to that of what you had felt eight years ago, spreads from the point where her arms are touching your stomach, a feeling similar to the one you got when you were first granted your ESP, "Even still, as someone who wishes to see the young succeed, and as a present for one who found their way to me, I shall bind that foreign red, and in exchange, share my 'blue,' with you."
Before you can argue...
Each and every one of your senses is violated in some way, a burning feeling, like everything about you has become a cool flame, shoots throughout the soul that makes up the core of Saki Ryuumonbuchi, and...
Just like eight years ago...
You begin to feel a tad faint...
??? has shared a portion of her power with you.
??? Perk. "A Gift of Blue," has been acquired.
A certain red stone has become "Sealed."
Your eyes fading back to darkness, as was the fate of the living that tread in this place, her words come out to you one last time as your soul retreats back it's mortal shell to sleep a long sleep.
"The next time we meet, you and I, I hope your world will have become something other than red and gray."
And thus...
Once more...
Your world became darkness.
----