Work Text:
Yae had just arrived home from her daily hunt when she heard a light knock on the door, that was odd. She had already been around and given the other townspeople the food / fur they had asked for.
Yae cautiously slid open the door to find a man about her height standing there, she noticed he was wearing a similar uniform to the one shinobu and Tomioka had worn when she had first met them. Yae realised that the man was probably here to give her a letter from shinobu, this theory was confirmed when the man held out a package with a letter tied to it. “These are from Miss Kochou,” he said “She requested i bring them to you in person.” That was odd. Shinobu normally sent her crow to send her letters. This must be important.
The man left and Yae slid the shoji door closed and opened the letter that had been tied to the package with some twine. She smiled at shinobus cursive, yet familiar handwriting. The two of them had been sending letters to each other since shortly after they first met. Yae had begun to catch feelings for the other girl, and decided to tell her of them in one of her many letters. That was the quickest Yae had ever gotten a letter back from shinobu, admitting that she too had feelings for Yae. From then on the two girls sent letters even more often than before, love poems, stories, gossip, and Yae had kept every one of them.
Yae began to read the letter,
”My dearest, Yae
If you are reading this letter right now, it means I have passed on.”
Yaes eyes widened in shock, she.. she couldn’t be serious? She felt her hands shaking as she continued reading,
”I know you must be very confused. So I will explain.
You know of my older sister kanae, and how she passed. Well, since she died I’ve had a plan to avenge her and slaughter the demon who murdered her. If you have received this letter, I did that successfully. However, as you also know from my previous letters, I am unable to behead demons so I use wisteria poisons to kill them. The issue is this demon isn’t like any average demon this demon is one of the most powerful in all of Japan. I know that My poisons wont be able to eliminate him. So I devised a plan. Since Kanae passed I have ingesting wisteria poison in every way possible. Injecting it into my arms, drinking it, any and every way I can. There is currently enough poison in my body to kill 700 normal demons.Because this demon is not only powerful, but he is selfish and full of greed. He apparently eats only women. I know that if I try to kill him normally that I will die trying. I am going to let him eat me and watch from the heavens as he fades away.”
Yae was frozen. Shinobu couldn’t actually have died, she couldn’t have gone through with this stupid plan, she couldn’t have. She felt tears welling in her eyes. She had heard of her sister, kanae from previous letters, she knew how much she meant to shinobu and how shinobu would never joke about this. She sniffeled as she continued reading:
”I apologise for not telling you sooner, but knowing you , you would’ve somehow come to find me and stopped me. The package has all the things I would like you to keep, to remember me so I can live on in your memories.
I love you so much Yae, more than this world can comprehend. I hope that someday, we will meet again, in aonther life, one where demons don’t plague this earth.
Just know my love for you is eternal. Even if my heart no longer beats it will still yearn for you.
Forever yours
Shinobu.”
Yae felt the tears spilling over as she read the final sentence. How could Shinobu just leave her like this? Why had she not told her earlier? If she had she could’ve done something, stopped her, begged her not to go through with her plan. But she knew that was the exact reason why shinobu hadn’t told her.
Yae remembered the package that had arrived with the letter, in her shock she had dropped it to the floor. She knelt down and shakily unwrapped it, laying all of her gifts on the paper, a small flower press painting of both of their favourite flowers, a leather pouch, a engraved hunting knife, a few small wooden charms and finally a small picture of Shinobu, her Shinobu. Yae had nearly forgotten what she looked like. It had been 2 whole years since she had last seen her. In the picture shinobu was wearing a gorgeous kimono with the butterfly clip she had been wearing the last time she had seen her. Despite the picture not being in colour shinobus eyes still stood out from the rest of the picture. She turned the picture around to find a note in shinobus handwriting,
“Always yours.”
That was when Yae broke down, sobbing on the cool floor of the home she had once shared with her father.