Chapter Text
The jagged edges of ice split the dancing lights of the sky into thousands of pieces. You jam your hands over your ears, blocking out the chanting of old holiday songs. It’s best not to listen to the music of the barriers too much and besides, Tomoe made you promise to stay out of the way. You can’t see the Witch or Kaname or Tomoe but you hear the sounds of fighting reverberating against the pillars of ice.
Flecks of ice melt against your glasses as an ice pillar far above shatters with a resounding musket shot. Blinking, see a yellow ribbon swing out of the smoke to tie around another pillar. Tomoe comes out of the smoke following the ribbon quickly enough. Kaname—when another pillar cracks with a flash of pink light you sigh. The Witch is still unseen but the slow steady creak of ice betrays her presence.
Flashes of pink and yellow against an endless dance of multi-colored lights burn into your brain. When the barrier fades away you’re still wiping the illusion of melting ice off your glasses. Tomoe is smirking in her half-absent way with the dark Grief Seed in one hand. Kaname rushes you, making sure you’re fine. Your face feels hot when you think you hear the sound of Tomoe’s haughty laughter.
The next time you’re in the ice field barrier you’re totally alone. You know now the ice pillars are the familiars and not just part of the scenery. It takes you a while to get the hang of jumping from one to another as the delicate Witch watches from her frozen stance. Her ice-covered claws move at a snail’s pace. Your high-powered rifle places a bullet in-between where her eyes would have been if she were still a girl. A thousand cracks grow and spread over the ice sculpture of a witch.
You jump off the ice pillar familiars as they begin to melt with the destruction of their mistress. It doesn’t take long for the sculpture to shatter completely. As the barrier vanishes you look up to see the fading light show against the melting ice. Kaname had once told you that she thought that this barrier was the prettiest. You faintly think that you don’t regret not letting her see it again as you place your rifle back into the space behind your buckler.
There are many more witches to defeat, after all.