( KILL LOG - QUER )

[abhoth]

[It's quiet out in the city. The sun perpetually hangs over the horizon, granting illumination to the cobbled streets even after nighttime. Under any other circumstances, perhaps taking a stroll from the Botanical Gardens back to the motel would have been peaceful — but. Well. That's not really the case here. Not with the murders and trials hanging over everyone's heads, alongside this week's night terrors.

It's no wonder that as Quer heads out of the gardens, intent of returning to the motel, that misfortune strikes. Now, it's time to set the scene.]

Comments

[18x0]

Stop lying!

[Fortunately for Quer, the distance between is about to get closed right now. Akane lunges forward, emboldened by disarming her foe to go for another swing at her throat.]

[blacktailed]

[the blow will strike her in the back, if it hits at all - Quer moves forward herself, aiming to bite Akane, sinking in her teeth as hard as she can until she tastes blood and then moving to do it again in another spot. she can't spend too long to rip her apart, but she wants to bite, tear, force Akane into giving in.]

[18x0]

[The cleaver passes harmlessly past Quer's head, not even scratching her. The biting is so unexpected that Akane almost drops her weapon, crying out in pain as tetth sink into her once, then twice. She hadn't prepared for anything near this level of ferocity.

With a snarl, she grabs at Quer with her free hand and tries to push her away. She's so close now, all she needs is a better angle to strike and...]

[blacktailed]

[this is a fight. this is a fight, and Quer hasn't felt like this since she was racing to save her sister, and the danger is thick. she wants wings to beat back the air and a cry to rend the sky, even as she's pushed and stumbles a little back. like this, blood on her teeth and her hands and rage in her expression, she looks like something feral that the fog spat out, old and unrelenting.

the cleaver. quickly, Quer reaches for the cleaver with a hand, but it leaves her neck unprotected.]

[18x0]

[As they separate and glimpse each other, Akane could not look more different than her opponent. Even with rage contorting her features, she looks small and sad and terrified, more like a little girl than an adult.

Then the moment breaks. As Quer's hand snakes out for the cleaver, Akane slashes it one final time. It cuts through the carotid artery, releasing a stream of blood in its wake.

The sight of her success makes Akane pause, her grip on the weapon loosening. What has she done?]

1/2

[blacktailed]

[she sees the girl there, under the emotion, and the image would have stayed with her for a time. broken into pieces and reassembled, and what became of someone to end this way?

the metal bites into her throat, the blood flowing, and Quer knows a fact as keenly as she did once before. this is enough. this will end it.

I curse you, Akane Kurashiki.

though she cannot speak the words through the pain and the dark, she says them in her heart, loud enough to reach heaven. she curses this one for killing her, when there was no need. when she did nothing, when it was not even fortune turning and saying that justice would be enacted by a divine hand.

a hand comes up to pathetically try and stop the flow of blood, her other still lunging forward to grab the weapon. she gets it from loosened grip, she has it, and Quer has one final plan. before she dies, she needs....she needs to do this. for the others. to make it easier. she can't do this secretly, but there is so little time to care.

she lets go of her neck, reaching for her head to take down something that Akane can't see, and Quer drops the cleaver-]

2/2

[blacktailed]

[-into an invisible nothingness.

the deed is done. it will be hidden until it is found, and that is her gift to those who will find her. no worrying about what did this. it will be there, with the marks she has left on Akane's body.

cold comes in, and she finds herself too weak to stand, her legs collapsing. she's not tired, but the blood flows, taking her energy with it. she can't barely breathe, the rage and emotion that requires energy and life draining from her face, because all there is in her is pain and her own heartbeat.

life fades as she thinks about those that she prays are safe, away, hidden, and the last thought is half of a memory.

sister...I can smell the flowers...

Quer has gone quiet and still.]

[18x0]

[She watches the cleaver disappear, and even through the horror dawning upon her she thinks that's a problem. She's just made everything much more complicated than it was supposed to be.

Then the life bleeds out of Quer, and Akane knows she has done something unforgivable.

She's never killed anyone with her own hands before. There's blood on her hands, blood everywhere, and everyone's going to know. They're going to know, they're going to execute her for it, and for once in her life she can't afford to die now.

It's all gone wrong.

She flees the scene of her crime, tears streaming down her face, and tries to think of how to fix this.]

[blacktailed]

[thirty minutes after this death, long after Akane has gone, two objects return to reality.

a bouquet of fresh picked flowers, and a bloody cleaver.]