1. The Moment when Night turns to Day

The blade swung downwards in a familiar arc, and for a moment, the world seemed to be carved into dark and light, stark and strange and yet for a moment strangely nostalgic. There was a flash of sapphire eyes, and dark hair and white robes and crimson blood staining silver blades.

Then Aya blinked and the moment was gone.

Frowning slightly, she swung around, only to see the sunlight streaming in through the windows of her family's dojo. The weight of her sword felt familiar in her hands, but nothing else did. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she felt as though there was something she ought to be remembering, something that she should not have forgotten.

Why...

This was not the first time she had asked herself this. What was she searching for?

Someplace, between her daily, repetitive school life. Someone. If only she could find what it was. If only she could ignore the constant emptiness. But she could do neither, and the dreams she could only half remember continued to haunt the silences between twilight and dawn.

Aya frowned, trying and failing to come up with an adequate answer. Then in a swift motion, her blade was flashing in the light again, and her momentary respite was over.

2. Where Horizons become the Sky

The school roof was empty at the end of the day, and the wind which blew was cold although it was already the start of summer. It was clear at a glance that there there was nothing up here but an unending summer sky, yet even so, she felt as though she should have found someone at this late hour and she should have been scolding him for staying out this long.

While it was true that her classmates had become less rowdy now that they were older and there had not been any fights for her to break up since the beginning of middle school, the peace still did not feel right.

A part of her always insisted that she should be somewhere, that there was always someone who insisted on annoying her with his blatant disregard for rules.

She never found him no matter where she searched.

Looking out over the city sprawled out before her from where she stood near the edge of the roof, she saw the abandoned construction site near the outskirts of town. She had been there once, two years ago, convinced that she would find what she was looking for in that place.

All she had discovered were rusted beams and darkness where the sunlight did not reach. It had given her a distinct sense of disquiet she could not understand even though the afternoon had been peaceful.

Aya never went back there again, but even now, three years and half a town away, she could still remember it as clear as yesterday.

3. That Boundary of Light and Darkness

She never questioned the existence of this emptiness though. She had merely assumed that everyone also somehow felt it. Perhaps in a different form, perhaps about different things, but she never ever considered that maybe she was the one different.

After all, was it not true that humans were born incomplete so that in their fleeting lifetimes they would come to know that thing called love and desire?

It was what kept this world moving after all. Brought people together and pulled them apart. The silent song which everyone knew but never in a melody to be sung. Echoing in empty hallways and woven by footsteps and dawn light and mist.

Nothing was created in and of itself. Nothing like that could survive.

And so she believed that she was never any different.

4. The Turning of Winter to Spring

It was only many years later when she finally remembered, when she realized that she had never been the same.

Akira!

She did not understand how she could ever have forgotten.

'Aya is special after all!'

Or perhaps why they would make her forget.

Her younger self might have understood. She probably did understand. But she was no longer her younger self anymore. Had not been for more years than she would have liked.

A betrayal was still a betrayal by any other name, and even if she tried to reason it out, she could not forget the emptiness which echoed and never left.

Always knowing that something wrong, yet never knowing why. What had she left behind in all those years of searching? They had not changed. The them of ten years ago was the same them now. But even if they had stepped out of the turning of time, she had not.

Never could, she realized.

We'll meet again soon.

And she wondered what that soon was like for them. No more than a day perhaps, in their long unending lifetimes, but for her it might as well be a thousand years of longing.

Yeah. Of course.

5. Space between Dream and Reality

Her sword flashed downwards in a familiar arc. How long had it been since she last wielded it and felt the thrill of battle? How long had it been since she saw the world carved into light and darkness, stark and familiar?

Even if for only moment, even if just for a flash of red eyes and silver hair. Before she had to wake up, she could for now remember.

The sunlight glittered with golden dust motes, and she drew them in spiraling eddies even as her sword swung through the air.

That which she had been looking for was now no more than a dream, and the everyday which she had once decided to leave behind was now her reality.

This was what kept the world turning after all. People coming together, being pulled apart. Nothing stayed the same, nothing remained unchanging. And she knew she was never any different.

Perhaps one day even she will disappear into the sunlight and stardust, but until then, this fleeting dream could live on.

Between forgetting and forgiving.

Between remembering and rewinding.

Perhaps they left her behind so that she could walk that line between light and darkness and never fall. Perhaps that had been their reason.

She knows will become stronger. She knows will continue to fight. So that even if it was a day or a thousand years of longing

We will meet again...

That was what she had been searching for.

A/N: I sincerely hate this piece. I really do. It is nowhere near anything like what I had planned, and it is a lot shorter. And to think how it sounded so utterly brilliant in my mind.

It isn't.

Nonetheless, dedicated to Ferrero13, my dear friend/person who edited last few chapters to Monochrome Factor and requested something not yaoi/shounen-ai for the fandom. I hope you (and the readers) liked it better than I did, my attempt to write things from Aya's point of view. After all, I suppose she must have gone through quite some terrible stuff knowing she was left behind and all that.

Se-kari