soul_logs | I would walk five hundred miles [OPEN]

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I would walk five hundred miles [OPEN]

Characters:

faintly_smiles & OPEN
Location: The Park
Rating: PG - minor blood
Time: January 19th - Late Morning
Description: Teresa ventured beyond the city walls, and she returned to realize how debilitated she is and how this partnership system requires her participation.

Cross-posted to Dreamwidth

While she had heard the express instructions that wandering beyond the city walls was dangerous, Teresa had eventually given up making constant rounds in the city. There were patrols of people for that, and she had memorized the outside walls protecting the city by now as well as most of the streets. She was nomadic by occupation, and she couldn't well sit around all day. This slow decline into inactivity was unacceptable, and she hadn't found morning training all that interesting. The only reason she went was to observe other fighting pairs and to occasionally speak with Yuuri; his views on life and trust were fascinating.

So, she had finally acquired a large hunting knife and began to walk the desert. It was strange that walking fatigued her now, that while her stamina was great, she actually had to settle down to rest. The desert situation only seemed to compound that realization that she had been reduced to a well-exercised human without any of the benefits she remembered.

The desert was vast, and most of the common animals fled in her presence or watched from afar. When she had finally encountered a creature willing to engage her, she was curious of its healing abilities and the slow grinding drive towards thoughts that were forbidden. Her knife strikes were perfect as always, but it healed with each stroke of the blade for longer than she would have thought was possible. It was resilient, which was a surprise, and she was disappointed to realize that she was forced to withdraw and leg it back to the city walls before her human frailty forced her to deal with a greater humiliation than the deep gash to her thigh.

It was the first time she had ever had to retreat from anything before. It was a serious knock to the foundation of her beliefs that she was just plain stronger than anything she faced.

She had returned to the park lands where she made her 'home', ignoring the blood soaking her uniform leggings and eventually seating herself cross-legged near a tree. It had been a long time since she had bled without it stopping almost right away. This world had made her experience a lot of things 'for the first time', and she wasn't certain that she approved of it at all. Still, it was better than being dead.

Flexing her fingers, she laid a hand over the still bleeding wound, closing her eyes to concentrate on stopping the flow. She was again disappointed when all of her youki was sealed, and her lips down-turned into a frown of displeasure. "How bothersome."

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He still looked uncertain despite her attempts to reassure him. Yet if she didn't want to have anything done to numb the area, then there didn't seem like much that he could do. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to have a high pain tolerance. What would have happened to her for Teresa to ever have such a thing? The possibilities didn't sit well with him even if he tried to push it to the back of his mind.

Yuuri reluctantly got to work though as he began to suture the wound. Starting to mend the area, the young Maou worked quietly for a while before he found himself asking, "What's your world like?"

Teresa said nothing more about the wound even as Yuuri bent to suture it closed. The press of the needle into her skin was only slightly annoying, but she didn't move a muscle beyond being relaxed where she sat. She sensed that some of what she had said disturbed him, but he was clearly too innocent for his own good.

At the question, she hummed softly to herself. "Nothing like this," she replied after a moment. "We have no veins with lightning in them to power things. We fetch our own water, and use swords as primary weapons. There are few wars, mostly because the population of humans is kept in check by a creature that can disguise as a human but kills and eats flesh," she murmured softly. "Those are youma, and it... was my job to hunt youma down to remove them from villages in the territory I was assigned."

Yuuri didn't miss the fact that she was so motionless and quiet as he worked. The worry that he had was still there despite her reassurances, but as he moved on, the young Maou's concern did seem to lessen along the way. He'd have to make sure that she took are of herself in the future, and Yuuri made a mental note to do just that while he waited for her answer.

It wasn't the first time that he'd heard that response, but he did glance up at her description of technology. Her words caused him to smile fondly, and he nodded his head while murmuring, "That sounds a little like Shin Makoku." That was until his eyes widened and he paused at the mention of creatures disguised as people that ate humans! "Eeeh?! They eat humans?!"

This sort of work was mostly relaxing, and she found it strange to be doing it sitting on a bed. She had never been able to get comfortable on them since she had been taken into the Organization, but she found sitting upon them rather pleasant. Yuuri's methodical work helped to distract her mind as well.

She looked down at him, expecting that reaction now that she had been around him more than just casual interactions. "They eat human innards actually," she replied without preamble. "They are human predators, but there was a group known as the Organization who formed defense against the youma."

His expression twisted with horror when she said that they actually ate human innards. Who would do that?! He knew that carnivore animals ate other animals, but to think that these youma ate just humans was scary. When Teresa spoke of the group, the Organization, who defended people from those predators, Yuuri paused in his work as he peered up.

"And that's what you do?" The young king asked before flustering lightly and clarifying. "Aaaa I mean, you help to defend people from these youma?" She seemed like a warrior, and her sword knowledge further indicated that.

His expression was amusing, and she lightly chuckled at his reaction. She supposed that to someone not of their world that such a thought would be horrible. She just considered it another predator-prey relationship, and she had done her job without question. Youma were primitive in their own way, and she had little to no respect for their lives.

"Yes, my job is to hunt down youma that have become a bother to villages in my specific area," she replied smoothly. "I search them out and dispatch them... or I did before circumstances changed. However, I was very good at the job assigned to me." The best of her generation she knew.

He couldn't even begin to imagine any of the horrible things that these youma had done to people. The fact that they could disguise themselves as humans as well sent a shudder down the length of his spine. That was scary stuff!

"That must be hard work," Yuuri said with concern still lacing his voice. He couldn't even begin to imagine how such fighting and duties would affect an individual. Yet as she spoke of her duties in a past tense, he felt his eyes widen as he tried to hope while asking, "Circumstance? You mean coming here?"

Hard work? Teresa had never found it particularly difficult, though she had heard that lower-ranked warriors could be killed in such skirmishes. She hadn't been wounded by a simple youma since she was given her symbol, and her other injures usually happened as she tested her powers or fought awakened beings and played with them.

"No, it was my job, and I did what I was told," she said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "The battles themselves were very easy for me." There was no arrogance or even pride in the statement either. "No, there was... an incident that caused me to leave the Organization, and I was branded a traitor." That was all she felt like saying in the way of details.

If she told him more, she would have to go into much more about the Organization, her own creation and Clare. She didn't want to do that just yet.

There was something about her answer that made him sad. She only did what she was told? That thought didn't sit well with him at all, It didn't matter that the battles were easy, and he could understand the need to protect people, but it was more that she did it because she'd been told to?

"It must have felt good knowing that you were helping so many people," Yuuri murmured with a soft smile before his eyes widened at the mention of an incident. The silence she gave him after had him peering at her curiously. When nothing came forth, Yuuri blinked before he asked, "A traitor? But you didn't do whatever it was, right?"

She offered him a confused look, not sure why she should feel good helping people who were made to be scared of her sheer existence. Everyone knew that the Organization took in abandoned girls or those sold to them, that they had all once been human but no more. Why should she feel good saving ungrateful people?

Teresa slowly turned her gaze back to Yuuri, letting him have a good look at her inhuman silver eyes and a slow sad smile came over her lips. "I am a traitor," she murmured in a matter-of-fact voice. "I broke the only rule that protects the trust that humans have for warriors of the Organization. I would do it again as well."

The confused look was returned with one of his own. He had no idea what her world was like, but shouldnt those being helped be thankful to those helping them? Yuri has a brief flash of some of the earlier days when he had arrived in Shin Makoku, but he didnt want to think that anyone else had to go through things like that.

He remained peering at her even as Teresa turned back around to stare at him. The silver colour of her eyes were different, he wouldnt lie about that, but he actually found them to be rather pretty as well. That thought mellowed a little though as he caught sight of her small sad smile. The sight of it broke his heart, and his own expression shifted to one of sadness as he softly asked, "What happened? You dont seem like a bad person at all, so I have no doubt that you had your reasons."

Teresa measured the use of telling him of the iron-clad rule of the Organization. It was a small thing really, but she had broken it so spectacularly. She had never lost her cool or her level-headedness before that moment, and she still couldn't quite figure it out.

"I killed humans," she said simply, letting that statement sink in. He was the type to jump on the first thing one said she found, so let him get eaten away by that statement first. "I had saved a small village surrounded by mountains with no where to run from a youma. Bandits had been following my progress, targeting that village and struck when I had left. It was a matter of humans hurting other humans, so I was not to get involved."

She looked away, shading herself with her long blonde hair. "They... hurt the one person I had come to care about. I lost my head, and I killed each and every bandit, so so my life was forfeit."

He waited for her answer. Yuuri wouldn't have pushed for it, but he knew that deep down that Teresa was a nice person, and that she wouldn't do anything bad without a good reason. He trusted her, and if she decided not to talk about it, then he'd respect her decision for now. Yuuri wouldn't forget about it, but he had learnt that there are sometimes a time and a place for questions an answers.

Her confession did have his eyes widening in surprise as his heart clenched at the thought of lives lost. "Eeeeh?! You killed them?" Yuuri called out in surprised. "But why?" If he had been just taken from his world, he never would have accepted that there could be reasons behind the act of killing someone else. While he'd never condone it, the young Maou also knew that people did have their reasons, and in some situations, it couldn't be helped.

Yuuri listened to every single word she spoke, feeling his heart clench at the thought of people killing each other, but his thoughts froze as she glanced away and mentioned that someone she cared about got hurt. The image of Conrad's reactions whenever he had been in danger sprang to mind, and he glanced down to the hands paused in suturing her wound as the memory weighed heavily on his mind.

"It's human nature for people to become emotional when those closest to them are hurt," the young Maou softly said. He did whenever anyone he cared for got injured, while he'd never taken a human life before, Yuuri had begun learning here that there were many different ways that people reacted to such loss. Just like the different reactions Conrad and Aldebert had when Julia had lost her life. "Did she--- die?"

She made no excuses for her behaviour, but death was a normal part of her involvement with anything. Where she went, death tended to follow in swift succession, and she had no problem with that either. It was the life that she had lived and was used to, but of course it had all changed once Clare had forced herself into her life.

"A human consciousness is all I have left," she murmured softly, still shaded by her hair. With Clare, she had found a reason to keep on living, and that change had been good enough for her. For the first time in her life where it was filled with constant betrayals, she had been truly happy.

"The rule is iron-clad. Warriors like myself gathered to cut off my head, but I refused because of the one I had taken in. So, the Organization sent a hunting party after me, and one of them became a monster..." she murmured softly, not about to explain what that meant. "She would have killed me and then moved to Clare... so she's as good as dead."

"You have a lot more than that," Yuuri said with a smile. He didn't mind that she was hiding away from him. Obviously this was a difficult subject for her, and that the girl she had with her meant as much to Teresa as Conrad did to him. Glancing back down to the wound, the young Maou began working on Teresa's wound again.

He listened quietly while suturing her wound. The story she told him left him feeling sad, and while a lot of it went over his head, Yuuri couldn't help but feel empathetic towards her plight. "I'm sorry that you had to go through something like that," he softly murmured while working on the tail ends of his suture. Tying it off and cutting the thread, the young Maou pulled out another cloth to clean up the new traces of blood before glancing up to regard her. "I wish that there was something that I could have done to help." Even if he knew that going to her world to help her was impossible, it didn't stop the feeling being there.

Glancing at Yuuri after he had returned to work on her leg, Teresa watched him silently in the moments after his words. He didn't know what he was talking about, but she was still pleased that someone said that there was more than just her mind human. No one had said that to her before, and she suspected that he would have said the same thing even if he had known everything about her. That seemed to be the kind of person that he was.

Shrugging at his apology, she hadn't told him expecting one at all. It was her life to lead, and she had lead it to the best of her ability. She didn't waste time on regretting what was done to her or the people involved in it. "I knew the rules; I don't regret my decisions in that life at all. Right now, I'm living on burrowed time." He was a good human. "You should simply do the best you can in this war if you are committed to it."

The shrug didn't distract him at all. Yuuri meant his words regardless of what she said, and he was glad to see that she didn't regret her actions either. Although the way that she spoke about borrowed time, it left him wondering to whether she was one of the few who'd come here after they'd died. That thought caused his chest to tighten, and try as he might, he couldn't stop the sadness he felt within.

"Then you should continue on living and make what you can of what life you have here," Yuuri said before he pulled the cloth off and took out an adhesive pad to place over the sutured area to help protect it. Bandaging the area, the young Maou nodded his head to Teresa's words as he murmured, "I do what I can with what I've got, and regardless of the situation, I won't ever give up."

This place was a little strange to her anyway, and she wondered how long it would take her to feel comfortable in a normal human life. She supposed being part of a war zone didn't make it a human life, but this was closer than she had been since she was sold to the Organization. She didn't really have a life here yet, too confused with everything that was different.

She looked at the wound just before it was dressed with a bandage, but she didn't mind at all. She would need to wash and repair her leggings after this. "How do you live in a place you don't know anything about," she finally asked simply. "You don't seem like the type that gives up on anything once you've set your mind to it. That makes you stubborn."

Happy that the bandage was wrapped around tightly, Yuuri finally sat himself back before glancing back up at Teresa. The question had him blinking as he considered his answer. Hand up to his chin, he rubbed at it in thought. How did he do it? That was something that he didn't really think much about. He simply did it, which made sense in his mind.

"I don't really think about it," he murmured honestly. "Death City is the second place I've lived in that I didn't know anything about. I figure 'why worry about it' and just go with the flow. It's better than weighing yourself down with worries, right?"

Stubborn? "Eeeh?" His eyes widened at the accusation, and he opened his mouth to debate that statement before promptly closing it. She was right, but he wouldn't have called it stubbornness! Rubbing at the back of his head sheepishly, the young Maou muttered, "Aaa well I guess that I just don't see the point in giving up once you've started something."

She had to wonder about his story, but he appeared to be honest enough. He must have come from some strange places to take all of this in so casually and then to turn protective over this place. Perhaps he came from a time and place where lightning flowed through veins as well?

"I suppose so, but this place is vastly different from where I'm from," she stated with a bit of a shrug. She shifted her leg, feeling the bandage and not being concerned about having it or sutures in her leg.

Teresa shifted herself on the bed, drawing her injured leg up and under the sheet that she was using to cover herself. "Hmpt, stubborn," she replied before reaching for her leggings and slipping them under the sheet with her so that she could pull them back on. "When do I remove the sutures?"

"It's sort of similar from my homeworld, but it's completely different from Shin Makoku," Yuuri said with a smile. He moved to step back when Teresa made signs of moving. Of course he did watch her to make sure that she wasn't in any pain, but he surprisingly found that she honestly wasn't. It was an amazing concept for Yuuri, and he couldn't help but regard her with slight awe.

Shaking his head and turning his face away as she re-clothed herself, he smiled happily at her second stubborn comment. Momentarily forgetting about her dressing situation, he peered back, turned bright red, before abruptly glancing the other way as he blurted out, "Aaa! They should be okay to take out in four or five days!"

Teresa was accepting that he at least knew how this world worked, though she had never heard of Shin Makoku before. She supposed that it was some other world or something, but there was no need to even pretend to understand. If he wanted to explain it better, he could at a later date.

She slipped her blooded legging on her body, before she tossed the sheet aside when she was dressed again. There was still a large red stain and a rip in the material where the white bandages showed. His red face matched her clothing it seemed. "Are you going to be alright with your face that red?"

Rising, she moved to step back into her metal boots, clipping them in place with a routine expertise.

"Huh? Oh! My face will be fine," Yuuri sheepishly said in a hope to get her attention away from the current state of his face. He really needed to get himself under control! He hadn't reacted this badly in a long time, and Yuuri knew that he was embarrassing himself.

Glancing back, he couldn't help but notice the bloodied leggings "You should probably get them cleaned before they stain," Yuuri offered befoe suggesting, "Or maybe get a new pair if you can't get rid of the blood, although I'm sure that you'll be able to!"

Clearly he was having some kind of interesting reaction to the sheer thought that he might catch her exposed. She hadn't experienced a lot of humans like that, and while she could bug him about it, she decided that his innocence was best preserved. "I hope so. You look like you've seen too much sun."

Glancing at her leggings, she continued to put on her boots before stamping her feet to make them settle before looking at him again. "I will clean them when I return to the park. I believe there's a stream there that will be of use," she murmured in a non-chalant way. "These are the only clothes I have; there is no retainer to provide me with new leggings. I will repair these ones."

He was rubbing at the back of his head uncomfortably at her continued observation. Yeah, he was really going to have to work on that. He couldn't continue going around making a fool of himself, after all! "I guess I'll just have to get less sun," he said with an awkward laugh.

"The park?" Yuuri asked while blinking in surprise. Why would she be cleaning her leggings in a stream? That didn't make much sense to Yuuri, and that much showed in his expression as he said, "Why don't you just use the washing machine in your apartment? Or I guess you could try soaking it with soap as well--- Eeeh?! You don't have any other clothes?!"

I would walk five hundred miles [OPEN]

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