Chapter Text
Chinatsu knows where they are. Of all places…
“Where are we?” The Apple Rider says. “And why use only your base form?”
“You wanted the Rider who killed an innocent kid,” Chinatsu says. “Didn’t you, Akatsuki?”
The Apple Rider freezes.
“How…”
Chinatsu laughs.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” She asks, like she didn’t figure it out a minute ago. Bluffing works surprisingly well, and surprisingly often. “You should know: I invented playing the friend.”
She takes out her Lockseed, and tosses it at Akatsuki.
Who catches it.
“You can kill me,” Chinatsu says. “This is where Hase lost it, so fitting enough. All I want to know is… why?”
Akatsuki drops the Grape Lockseed and takes her sword from the shield.
“My real name,” she says. “Is Minato Touka.”
2007
“I KNOW YOU DID SOMETHING TO HER!”
Chinatsu wasn’t supposed to be here. She was just trying to make sure her brother wasn’t causing any more grave sins. Failing, she was sure, but trying.
Something had died inside of her, looking at Minato’s smiling face, covered in blood.
She knew she could never go back.
And yet.
“Minato-San.”
“Oh, don’t ‘Minato-San’ me,” said the voice. “TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO MY GODDAMN SISTER.”
Chinatsu closed her eyes. She could imagine her brother’s disinterest barely hidden.
“Minato Sayako worked in a top secret project,” he said. “But it was completed prior to your sister’s disappearance.”
“I don’t believe you!” Minato’s sister shouted. She sounded so angry. “I swear, when I find out what you did to her, I’ll—”
Chinatsu ran before she could hear what punishment was deserved for her sins.
2012 - present
“You never gave up,” Chinatsu says. “All these years…”
“Of course I didn’t,” Aka— Minato’s sister says. “You killed my sister, right as she was getting her head on straight— ”
“And why do you think that was?” Chinatsu asks. “Do you think it was school? Or— or you ? No! It was the Beat Riders. They were all doing better .”
“Then why are they dead?” Minato’s sister asks. Chinatsu meets her gaze.
“Because of me,” she says. “You know that already. So kill me.”
Minato’s sister pauses.
“Why did you take us here?” She asks.
“Because I know you know what that Lockseed does,” Chinatsu says. “And I’m not leaving a monster around if you kill me.”
“Is this some attempt at sympathy?”
“No,” Chinatsu says. “I put my trust in you for a reason. You’re a good person, just like your sister was. She didn’t falter until we saw the ruins. You didn’t falter until now.”
“I’m not…”
“Then kill me.”
“I…”
Chinatsu hmms.
“You wanted a fight, didn’t you?” She asks. “You wanted a villain. A monster. Well I’m still here. I’m not sane, and I’m not a hero. I’m just the one who keeps surviving .”
She pulls out Kachidoki Shin.
“This is the only time someone was right in believing me,” she says. “By winning, you can prove them wrong. I will happily be your monster.”
Minato mentioned her older sister. Their parents were barely there, so it was Touka who raised Sayako in every way that mattered. Touka, so overbearing. Overly worried. Goodie-two-shoes Minato Touka.
So different from Minato, who was brash and rude and confident, so confident. Scared to care, because her parents were good to her sister, five years older. And then she was born.
And suddenly everything was wrong.
Chinatsu barely remembers her parents. What she does remember is her brother, cruel as he was controlling. A caring sister sounded like a damn miracle.
Kureshima Ryoma would never fight as hard for her as Minato’s sister is fighting right now.
Chinatsu has always preferred range weapons, so she uses her flags to block the whirlwind of attacks coming from Minato Touka.
Apple really is damn powerful, to keep up with her. But is that a surprise?
Chinatsu is pushed back. She just has to get Minato Touka where she wants her, to end this.
But she is tiring, and Minato Touka… is definitely running out of time, by now.
And so… Chinatsu stops.
A sword pierces her.
But she gets what she wants… as the sword fades from her stomach.
“Now I die,” she says. “And you live.”
She falls.
Darkness.
(In the distance, she can almost hear clapping.)
In the darkness, Chinatsu dreams.
The woman’s hair is blonde, under a white hood lined in pitch black. But the rest is just like that day, when…
“Natsumi?” Chinatsu asks.
The woman turns. One eye is red like the last time, but now, so is the other. But it’s her, alright.
“Not quite,” Natsumi says. “I’m who she was before.”
As she says it, her form flashes, skin turning to a warm brown, textured like wood, her blonde hair tied up in thin braids, but those eyes… red or pitch black, those eyes belong to Natsumi.
Oh.
“You’re the reason the Forest left,” Chinatsu says. Not-Natsumi nods.
“Every Man or Woman of Beginning has a part of me,” Not-Natsumi says. “If their heart is pure. Natsumi is different. We’re the same person.”
“So then why…”
“Because,” Not-Natsumi says, smiling. “We both know how unfair it is when a broken person is forced to stick a sword through the one they love. It’s how I died, after all.”
Oh…
“To that avatar?”
Not-Natsumi’s face is sad.
“To Saganoya,” she says. “It took his soul with me. But yes, what’s left of him is Sagara.”
“That still doesn’t explain,” Chinatsu says. “Aka— Minato doesn’t love me, and… I’m dead either way.”
Not-Natsumi smiles.
“Natsumi was still watching you, you know,” she says. “You did everything you could. So we just couldn’t accept your death. She’s sacrificed her rest for this, even.”
Chinatsu pauses, too overwhelmed to try and figure out all those words.
“So what does that mean?”
Not-Natsumi smiles, and one eye turns Natsumi’s deep brown.
“It means you still have a chance to live.”
Kureshima Chinatsu wakes up.