Umi was rudely awakened by the clanging of the metal bars sliding open, sitting up and squinting at the figure that had appeared there, accompanied by two guards.

"Stand up and face me."

Swallowing, she stood up, rubbing her eyes to confirm what she already knew. Her father had graced her with his presence, but she got the feeling he wasn't here with friendly intent.

"The charges against you are murder and treason."

"Well, if the glove fits," She shrugged.

"I raised you better than this."

"Better?" She scoffed, "If by better you mean indoctrinated, ignored and treated like an object then yes, I was better."

Suddenly, a balled up fist connected with her nose, snapping it as she stumbled back, but not collapsing. Squeezing her eyes shut, she brought her hand up to her face, catching the blood before it could drip too far down. Her eyes watered, but she didn't let any tears out.

"Assaulting your own daughter. How befitting and proving of my point," She looked back at his face, her eyes now adjusting to the darkness, she could see his face, contorted by anger and hatred.

"But still, my own daughter," He hissed, "Not only a murderer of two higher authorities, but in an illicit relationship with a female faun. If there's one thing you have that runs in this family, it's nerve, I'll give you that."

"I admit both charges. And on the second one, I don't care what you or anyone else thinks."

"You've created one of the biggest scandals of the past God knows how long! And me and your mother are paying for it."

Umi could do nothing but shrug, wiping her nose over her arm, leaving a streak of blood. Her father looked at her with disgust and she returned the hostile eye contact.

"You feel nothing? You feel nothing for those that raised you? All your respect is gone?"

"Respect? I never had any for you in the first place. I was a pawn, an object for you to use to continue the family and have connections. And I know that you always wanted a boy as well. I was never good enough for your full attention, was I?"

All of a sudden, she was shoved against the wall with a thud as the stones dug into her back. He had an arm over her neck, putting pressure on it to deprive her of air slowly, "I could kill you right now. Nothing would change, the scandal has already made us nothing and no one would miss you at this point."

"But the city wants justice, doesn't it?" Despite her hands being free, she didn't move them, knowing the guards on the other side of the bars would step in. She didn't want to make this worse for herself, "Let the people have what they want."

The corner of his mouth twitched and he backed off, allowing her to breathe properly again, "You know the punishments. On both charges."

"Of course I do."

"Then I'll see you bleed. We all will."

"And you're the first to cause me to."

Grinding his teeth, he shuddered as he stalked out of her cell without another word. A nagging thought in the back of her mind told her that her father may truly love her, but that was quickly suppressed by the pain pulsing through her nose and the blur at the corner of her eyes confirming that tears were flowing yet again.

A few shorts moments later, the shadow returned and her father's voice reached her again, "Umi, Sonodas are not known for their tears. Toughen up."

"Well," She let out a quiet, bittersweet laugh, "I refuse to be one."

She didn't know how long she'd been asleep for, or how long she'd been in that cell. There were no windows and the underground was stifling; the guards outside refused to give her any information whatsoever and she was given no treatment for her broken nose. She rubbed some of the streaked, dried blood on her arm and face off, wincing every time she knocked the broken bone slightly.

After she felt herself becoming somewhat stir-crazy, a woman slid the door open as she lazily stood to attention, "Sonoda, today's the day you'll be judged."

The two guards slid into her cell, holding iron shackles. As they were fastened into place on her limbs, she sighed when she began to get pulled along, trying her best to get adjusted to the weight.

Dragged out into the sunlight, she squinted and directed her head towards the ground. It would make sense for the trial and judgement to be delivered during the daytime for the hungry crowds.

Finally out of the prison's walls, she realised she would much rather be back inside. Hordes of people had gathered outside, harsh jeers reached her, which only intensified at the sight of her. She decided it would be best to look at the ground and put one foot in front of the other obediently.

"Hey, Sonoda!" She tried not to jerk her head towards the voice, but she couldn't help but tilt her head in the direction, "Since you love fauns so much, you'll love this!" Out of the corner of her eye, red liquid flew at her, causing her to flinch away, but that did little to dodge as it covered her clothes are bare skin, flecks hitting her face and neck and soaking into her hair.

Making the connection between the heckler and what had hit her, she realised.

It was a faun blood that had been thrown at her. Suppressing the urge to vomit, she saw that no authority figure had gone to stop him or punish him.

'That's the way things are.'

Some stones were thrown at her from her left, by a group of elves ranging from barely older than her to barely younger than her. A few stray ones hit their mark, one grazing her nose and sending a shot of pain through her.

'That's what society taught them.'

If only the walk would stop soon. If only the crowd could fade, if only everything would end. But mostly, if only Kotori could come back.

If only she'd taken more action. If she had to spend the rest of her life being hunted because she disappeared during the games, then so be it. But Kotori probably wouldn't have wanted her to throw her life away. But still, she should have insisted… Things could have been different.

Finally, she trudged up the wooden steps, hearing them creak under the weight of herself combined with the shackles. Shoved forward, she stumbled and almost fell before steadying herself. As she looked up, a man clad in black faced her, parchment in hand with a disapproving frown.

"Sonoda Umi, you have been charged with two counts of second degree murder, of Tsunemori Ryoichi and Akiyama Takehiko and treason, admitting to consorting romantically with a female faun. How do you respond?"

"I accept both charges," She called over the raucous crowd.

"So you plead guilty?"

"I do," She wanted to rub at her arms to make the ugly flakes of blood fall off, but her hands were locked in chains, forcing her to remain dirty.

"Then I am forced to sentence you to two forms of punishment. Bring her forward," He jerked his head towards the guards, who forced her onto her knees with little effort. Her head was tilted up forcibly, making her look forward. She heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed behind her and she swallowed.

Jolting at the feeling of someone touching her ear, she soon felt cold metal pressing against her flesh and as the roar of the crowd intensified, she felt a moment's reprieve from the blade before it came down harshly, slicing through tough cartilage and severing the pointed tip. Biting her lip and squeezing her eyes shut, she refused to gratify the crowd. They were already seeing her suffer, they didn't need to hear her and she wouldn't let them.

Blood ran down the side of her face, making her wince as it mixed with the faun blood thrown over her previously. Hissing, she felt the bloodied blade move to her other ear as the other throbbed painfully and soon the blade fell again, but almost on purpose, it stopped midway so the guard had to slowly hack through the remainder of the flesh, not being able to stop herself from twitching and shaking violently as nausea and pain pulsed through her.

She was allowed a moment's rest, looking back down at the wooden stage before the man clad in black spoke up again, "The first punishment for treason has been carried out. Your second punishment is death," Her breath hitched; she knew that was going to be declared, but all the same it was far more shocking to hear it rather than just anticipate it, "You will be given two options. Either you can have your life taken by an executioner, via beheading, or you can commit an honourable suicide."

The crowd suddenly raised in an uproar, mainly consisting of people shouting, "She doesn't deserve any honour!" And a few elves even had to restrained by guards. But now she had her options, she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She wanted to piss off the crowd, quite frankly.

She tilted and turned her head towards the judge, "I'll take honourable suicide," She could have mustered up a smirk, but she felt like that would throw her chances of being allowed that kind of death out, so she decided to play it safe.

"Very well," The executioner (who did look quite disappointed, she thought), came forward with the key, removing the shackles on her wrists and letting them fall with a resounding clank. Rubbing at her reddened arms, the blade used to hack off the tips of her ears was placed beside her, smeared, but she grabbed the handle in a tight grip, raising herself up properly. At least the fact that her legs were shackled meant that the convulsions during death wouldn't cause her to end up in an undignified position.

She looked forward, past the crowd, her eyes blurring and her heart hammering in her chest, she held the blade before her stomach.

'If there is some hope of seeing her again, please, please let it happen. Her voice, her eyes, her everything… Please let me see her again. If there is a being who can grant that wish, I beg them to do so…'

With her thoughts finally going blank and what she perceived to be her final prayer faded, she plunged the blade into her stomach, a sudden agony spread through her body, stopping the edge in its tracks as more blood poured from her system, but this wasn't a wound that would kill her quickly. Feeling something rise in her throat, she lurched forward, choking and spitting blood onto the grimy stage, leaving a coppery taste in her mouth, as she managed to block out the chants and cheers from the crowd at her impending demise.

It was time to finish this, she thought, using the sharp edge to cut through her skin lower into her gut, and as her body was torn apart and her organs spilled, everything finally went black.

"Elichi, you've been sulking for a few days now. Instead of just moping, maybe you should change your viewpoint?" Nozomi sighed, lying next to Eli, snuggling into the back of her and laying a hand on her shoulder, she rubbed it gently.

"I already have, I just feel horrible…" Eli turned over to face Nozomi, and in response, Nozomi cupped her cheek and stroked it with her thumb gently.

"Hey, well, that's better than being bigoted, right? I'm sure Umi put more than she meant to into what she said to you," At Eli's sigh, she continued, "I'm sure she'd be willing to forgive you. She probably knows how you feel."

Eli brightened up a little at her words, a small smile appeared on her face, "You think so?"

"Of course," Nozomi leant up and planted a kiss on her forehead before she rolled over to stand up, "C'mon, we need to go foraging, yeah?" Offering her hand down at the now less moping Eli, the other smiled and took it, hauling herself up.

"Sure."

The two rarely split up during their foraging, remaining in the same clearing and checking with each other to make sure what they picked wasn't poisonous. Even if they weren't sure, they wouldn't take any risks.

"I'm not going far Nozomi, if you need me I'll be in the next clearing."

"Okay!" Nozomi nodded and glanced at her so she knew the direction she would be in and threw up a hand sign.

As Eli trudged into the next area, things continued as normal, she foraged and checked for new areas to move their camp, should they need to, as well as noting where dry wood was.

Until suddenly, a stench caused her to wrinkle her nose in disgust, like someone had slaughtered an animal and left it there, not bothering to take out any meat, just let it die with its entrails hanging out. Clearing past a bush towards the hard to detect smell, she let curiosity drive her, but she soon regretted it when she saw what lay in front of her.

Umi's body had been unceremoniously dumped into the forest in the state she had died in, minus the shackles. A party had taken her deep into the forest to avoid the people finding her and mutilating her body as the authorities didn't doubt they would, and left to rot. Thankfully, that process hadn't begun yet, but it gave off a foul scent nonetheless.

Eli turned pale, a wave of nausea hitting her and she stumbled backwards, soon hitting a tree which provided just enough support for her. She barely knew what to do, but in her panicked state, she weakly called out for Nozomi to come quickly.

"Elichi? What's wro-" Nozomi joined Eli with a quiet sigh, before she yelped and shuddered, her reaction almost mirroring Eli's, up until the point she began to retch behind the tree. Eli quickly spun around and held her hair up.

"H-hey Nozomi, come on…" She gently rubbed her back until she stopped and it was replaced with sobs wracking her body instead. Eli slowly lead her away, far enough so that Umi wasn't in view and brought her into herself, holding her tightly, feeling Nozomi's hands grasp at her clothing, "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't h-have called you over…"

Nozomi didn't reply for a moment, but feeling Eli stroke her hair despite how much the both of them were trembling managed to calm her down at least a little bit, "E-Elichi… What… Wh-what do you think happened…?"

"I-I don't want to think about it Nozomi… We can't leave her there though…" She felt Nozomi nod weakly against her chest, "How about you go and lie down for a moment? We'll send her off properly, okay?" At another nod, she gave her a light squeeze before Nozomi split away and trekked off back to the camp.

Pushing down any nausea inside her, she swallowed and turned back to the body that lay in the clearing, hardening herself before she knelt beside her, placing her hand over Umi's cold one, "Hey, Umi… I know that… Things didn't go well before… But the last thing you said to me was… Powerful, t-to say the least… I regret the way I spoke to you, I really do... "

"If you were alive right now, I'd like to think you'd forgive me for how I acted," A shiver ran up her spine as her eyes flicked over her bloodstained clothes and torn up lower half, "You… Y-you weren't a bad person, Umi…" Finally, the emotions bubbling up in her chest became too much for her, her voice breaking as she managed one final sentiment.

"Umi… I'm sorry."

They left the controlled filames burning, careful as to not let it set the forest alight. It had hurt, but Eli had taken responsibility to spend the most time handling the body. Nozomi had spoken very few words since they'd discovered her, but Eli understood, holding her close and clearing her tears away from her face.

"Elichi…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that maybe we'll meet in a happier timeline? Me, you, Umi and the Kotori we never knew?"

Eli shuddered as she sighed, rubbing her own stinging, reddened eyes, "I hope so. We won't remember this, but maybe I can make it up to Umi."

As the stench of smoke overtook the one coming from the body, the ashes blew away and eventually the silhouette of the body had vanished. Eli took it upon herself to snuff out the flames, not caring if she got a few burns in the process. It felt like she owed it to her in some way. When the deed was finally finished, the two silently made their way back to the camp, forgetting about their foraging.

Eli sat, mulling over everything in her discordant mind, trying to make sense of what had happened and that she should have treated Umi better. It was quite possible all elves weren't the same, yet she'd shoved that aside for reasons of self-loathing and a twisted world view. But she didn't intend to go into the city and apologise. She only had one elf she needed to apologise to, and she was gone.

Nozomi must have been mentally exhausted from the ordeal, as she had fallen asleep quite quickly, or either Eli had been thinking for so long. Shuffling over, she stroked her hair slowly, "Sleep well, Nozomi."

Looking up through the tree canopy at the starry sky caused her eyes to blur with tears and her voice to break, "Sleep well, Umi."

OMAKE:

"Kotori-chan, I got you!"

"Aah, that's not fair, Honoka-chan!"

As the ginger girl ran away cheerfully, despite Kotori's protests, she was alerted to the presence or someone else behind the nearby tree, via a twig snapping. When she turned her head, something dark blue jumped out of view behind the large trunk.

"Is something wrong Kotori-chan?" Honoka asked having climbed her way on top of a metal frame, presumably to keep out of her reach and she already had her escape route planned down the slide nearby.

"Just a second!" Gingerly making her way over and laying her hand on the trunk, she peeked round to be greeted with the sight of a timid-looking girl. The two of them froze for a moment, disjointed memories suddenly flooding back into only one of them.

Honoka, who had quickly gotten bored with just waiting for Kotori to finish… Whatever she was doing, she tapped Kotori on the shoulder, snapping her out of her stupor with a quiet yelp, "Hey, Kotori-chan, who've you found?"

Kotori opened her mouth to answer before promptly shutting it again, and realising that she wasn't going to get an answer from either of them, Honoka spun to the other, "Hey, do you want to join us? I'm Honoka, and this is Kotori-chan!" Offering her hand and a bright grin to her, the blue haired girl anxiously took her hand and quietly responded.

"I-I'm Umi…"

Umi was promptly dragged out from her area of refuge and towards the middle of the park, but Kotori didn't follow for a moment, instead turning and smiling as she watched the two of them.

'So this time, Umi's the one hiding behind the tree.'

Author's Note: *Falls over and screams* I DID IT! I FINISHED IT!
I'm sorry for all the suffering, but I'm so happy I finished this! Oh wait, I have that other thing that I'm pretty much halfway through finishing the next chapter. I knew I shouldn't have published that one so soon. Oh well, thank you for sticking with me, and whether you hate my guts for killing off Kotori and Umi or not, I thank you all.

If anyone wants to talk to me, or just generally interact with me, then feel free to follow me on my Tumblr (made pretty recently), which can be found on my profile.