Difference between revisions of "Rectification (Yuna Kagurazaka)"

Latest revision as of 01:51, 15 November 2016

The hotter a fire burns, the faster it burns out; unless it's tended and more fuel fed to the flames, eventually nothing will be left but ashes.

So it is with Yuna's anger. At the moment that she heard Yunomi's death, her wrath against Ijiwaru was kindled, instantly igniting to a lethal blaze that should have ended in the magic-eater's death. She can still remember the sound of her fist slamming into his face, the feel of his jaw cracking under her knuckles ...

But then, nothing. Ijiwaru vanished with the other magic-eaters, and Yuna's fury had no outlet - doubly so, when Maya tackled her. The Junker meant well, of course, and Yuna doesn't hold the intervention against her friend; normally, Yuna seeks to avoid taking a life, no matter what it costs, and the last time she resorted to killing, it nearly broke her spirit. But the loss of a friend's life - one of those irreplaceable treasures, precious beyond any metal or jewel - has never failed to incite Yuna's uttermost rage.

After that, with no way to pursue revenge, Yuna succumbed to her grief. For a couple of days, she didn't even stir beyond her guest room in Thirix; when she did finally leave those walls, it was only to get a meal - something to keep the pangs of hunger at bay. Gradually, she began to open back up to her allies, communicating on the radio again, and starting to pull herself out of the emotional abyss into which she'd been plunged.

And all the while, the fury which drove her to seek Ijiwaru's death was slowly ebbing away, dissolving into sorrow or simply burning itself out a little bit at a time.

While anger comes easily for Yuna, hatred - which should be anger's neighbor - is largely foreign to her: the sustained malice which leads a person to desire someone else's suffering or destruction has never been able to find purchase in her heart. Even staying angry for a long time is difficult; Yuna can hold a grudge, but she doesn't enjoy trying to do so - particularly when she'd rather try to turn an enemy into a friend, even when that seems impossible. Ijiwaru is the first individual she's met whom she hasn't wanted to try and befriend, just because of his hunting of Yunomi and the feeling Yuna got when he first showed up at the Ravnican guilds' conclave.

For the first time since Yunomi's ... for the first time since that day at the Nexus, when she had thought they'd be welcoming Yunomi home (even if only in passing), Yuna puts on the clothes she'd worn that day. White blouse and red skirt, reminiscent of a miko's vestments; a light blue sweater and midnight-blue tights, for warmth and to add the Izzet League's other color, complimenting the red. For jewelry, she puts on the red and blue magatama earrings and the silver dragon necklace she'd bought in the Namamura District, as well as the five-stone bracelet she commissioned from Rarity. She pauses briefly in front of the mirror, her face somber; this outfit was supposed to be celebratory, even if the circumstances had been far from ideal. Yunomi had only been coming back to face Ravnican justice, and Ijiwaru ...

Ijiwaru turned it into a deathtrap for Yunomi herself. Even Sakiaro died, after being cruelly drained and used as bait to draw Yunomi out; his daughter's death was too much for the old tanuki to take on top of those, even after Yuna and Sanary had tried to get him to safety.

Yuna opens her eyes again, gazing once more at her reflection. Even the clear memory of Yunomi's and Sakiaro's deaths doesn't quite drive her back to wanting to kill Ijiwaru with her own hands. When did mercy start to prevail over revenge again? Was it when Sanary proposed keeping Ijiwaru alive so that they could torture him with repeated deaths? Was it before that? Was it as early as Maya's reminder that Yuna is not a killer, that she should not be a killer?

... It's not that important. Yuna straightens her sweater, making sure it's securely buttoned, and heads out; Elner teleports back from wherever the robo-faerie was, and flits along next to her shoulder, all the way down to the Mana Nexus.

Not to pray, not to renew any oaths - at least, not outwardly. Yuna just looks over the plaza and the Nexus's structure, letting her thoughts drift over the events since Presentation Day. One way or another, it'll all be over soon ...

And that's what Yuna is thinking when Elner addresses her - at the same moment that Mi, speaking on the radio, calls attention to the state of the Window.