Eld's eyes widened at the words that crossed Toushikyo's lips as lingering memories flashed of a giant made of water. He did not know exactly what would happen in this case, but he knew as he was now he'd die, and it was likely everyone in Hillcrest would be doomed as well.

"No!" He leaped forward desperately, one last burst of energy to fight against the numbing cold. The scythe felt heavier in his hands than it ever had, heavier even than when he'd first started training with it. What little strength he had left was fading.

There was no special technique he could use; even an accurate strike was probably too much ask for at this point. All he could do was swing as hard as he could, and hope that the attack landed and that it would be enough to bring Toushikyo down for good.

Eld dashed across the ice to the very best of his weary ability, an act which may well have been less skillful and more of a desperate throwing of one's body weight as far as one could muster. In most cases, this would not have worked. Eld was halfway across a lake from a man who wished to kill him-- who had the very strength necessary to kill him. There was no way he could have reached Toushikyo in time.

However, the ice provided a surprising boon: friction, or a lack thereof . . .

Throwing his body weight forward, unwittingly using a lack of friction to throw him even farther, Eld closed in on his foe as the air became noticeably denser. Infinitely colder. Colder than anything Eld would have ever experienced in his life. It was a quick decline in temperature, and what would feel like an impossible one. In only a second, the temperature dropped by thirty degrees. In another second, it might well have been sixty. It was compounding and it was almost instantaneous. Toushikyo did not offer a water giant or a hurricane--he offered death. Inescapable, freezing death.

By the end of it all, Eld was on the other side of Toushikyo, like haven fallen upon the ice, though decently close to shore. More seconds would pass, though the cold would only alleviate with time, warm up as quickly as it cooled down.

And were he to look back, he'd see a man, standing upon the ice, half turned to face Eld, looking him in the eyes, a look of disappointment upon his face, and a transparency assailing his body . . .

For several moments Eld could not be sure what happened. The cold was so intense that he felt like he would die any second, and that was if he wasn't dead already. His senses began to shut down, and he was too numb to even feel if he'd connected with his strike. The only thing that prevented him from dropping the scythe was the fact that his hands were frozen in their grip of it.

Pain was the first thing that returned to him. His whole body felt like it was burning from the sudden decrease in temperature, followed by the rapid return to what it was before.

Despite that, he forced himself to stand, leaning heavily on the scythe to do so as though it were a walking stick. It was only then that he caught a glimpse of Toushikyo. He blinked several times before he could be certain that it was not a trick of his mind that he could see through him partially.

He allowed a sigh of relief; that had done it. It did not feel good in any sense, but Hillcrest would survive another day, as would he.

A moment passed, and Toushikyo looked down to his hand. He could see through it, see the cracking ice beneath his feet, immediately behind his fingers. It was a strange feeling. An equilibrium of sorts. He felt a warmth somewhere in his chest whenever he thought of his sisters' names, his brother, father, and even his mother. He felt the need to apologize to his mother for not returning home. It felt like he'd been lost in the cold, wandering a wasteland, searching for something-- someone --and never finding a trace of them. But he had now. He'd found them longer after they were gone.

He wished he could have been human. He wished his family could have been there. He wished he could have had the opportunity to open the door and say I'm home. Hug his mother. Protect his little brother and sister. Thank his older sister. Embrace his father. He'd have never let them go. If they'd been human . . .



"So . . ." Toushikyo released a sigh, "I guess it was fate, after all . . ."



And the last traces of Toushikyo of Terra faded, heralding a slow depreciation of the frozen lake and a rapid loss of precipitation . . .

Was it really fate that led to his victory? If so, should he have been grateful? He certainly didn't feel like fate had done him any favors lately. But he supposed at least he was alive, though if he didn't get home soon that might change.

His body was shaking heavily as he carefully made his way off the ice, until he collapsed on the beach. He was more exhausted than he could remember being in a long, long time. And sick too; bodies couldn't take rapid changes in temperature gracefully, even his.

He wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, but even though it was steadily warming up he was still afraid that doing so would be the death of him. But he would need a minute to gather enough strength to make the trek back home. Yes, just a minute or two...

And it would only take a minute for Eld to finally start nodding off. In his condition, attempting to stay awake would be fruitless. And if no one found him . . .

Perhaps, then, it was fortunate that he'd awaken some time later, head crooked down and eyes to the ground. He'd see his feet at first and the ground below them, and perhaps after a moment, recognize that the ground was moving and that he was mostly upright. Or, at the very least, as upright as he could be, all things considered. His back was arched and he was leaning heavily into something. Someone. It'd take only a glance to realize who it was that had her shoulder tucked under Eld's armpit and her arm wrapped around his waist, grabbing him by the belt to keep him from falling off of her.

Etsu was silent in the night, intent as could be to get Eld back home, though at first oblivious to his coming to.

What's...where...? He was moving, somehow, being carried or at least supported. He hadn't intended to fall asleep, or pass out, or whatever had happened.

Truthfully, he didn't need to look to know who was supporting him; even as drained as he was, he could feel her. Ever since his powers had returned he could always feel her. But he looked anyway, and was grateful to see not only that he was right, but that she had the scythe on her back as well.

"S-Sorry, Etsu," he mumbled. He forced his feet to move and do their part, or at least try to. He would probably still need her help to actually go anywhere. He really didn't like this; he hated when she was forced to take care of him for any reason. Made him feel like he wasn't doing a good job or something.

He was too disoriented to tell, but it would probably not escape Etsu's notice that he had a bad fever.

Etsu was actually surprised to hear Eld's voice--pleasantly so. Her brow perked and she lifted her head and looked to him quickly, though she continued walking all the same. It seemed Eld tried to start walking himself, but it wasn't working. It seemed he hadn't the strength to move his legs in succession, and were she to stop carrying him like this, he'd likely fall on his face.

No matter. He was awake and for that she was glad.

"Ts-- Tsukimono-kun--" Etsu whispered, glee audible in her voice.

But she soon cleared her throat and dipped her head down, looked at the road ahead of them again and kept moving on. She couldn't let herself become preoccupied. She had to stay steady. She could embrace Eld later. For now, he needed her to keep moving.

"We are ar-rmost home."

He blinked in surprise; he'd been out for longer than he'd thought if they were already almost back. Especially at the pace she must have been moving while practically carrying him.

"That's good to hear," he said nevertheless. Because really, the sooner he had a bed to lay down in, the better. Everything ached, the very air felt like knives in every pore of his skin.

A firsthand experience with hypothermia. How educational. Or it would be if he survived. He had to assume he would; his body seemed to recover from everything faster as of late, whether it was injuries or illness.

"Looks like we'll have to postpone leaving town for a bit." They certainly couldn't travel terribly far like this, that was certain.

Etsu nodded her head.

"Hai," she replied, "But per-haps it wir-rr be better. We were r-reaving to keep masked man from reaching vir-rage, cor-rect? We-- . . . a-ano, you --know vir-rage very wer-rr. I think we can set a trap."

That was it, after all. For the past week or so, they'd been antagonized by a man in a half-mask. He was a frightening person and had at least once tried to kill them; he'd even done serious harm to a few townspeople earlier, which fortunately seemed mostly taken care of. They'd planned on leaving to keep him from harming anyone else, but if Eld was down, then they really had no other choice. The masked man might have been powerful, but it didn't matter. Everything had a weakness. If they could trap him, maybe they could find and exploit it.

"Tsukimono-kun," she started after a second, derailing her own thoughts a bit; her voice went from slightly happy to sullen. "May I ask why you r-reft with-out me? And in the rain . . .?"

A trap? It was possible, but he wasn't sure if a trap could work at all. As far as he'd seen, Memories could just vanish whenever they wished. Even if they physically confined him somehow, he wasn't sure it would do any good.

Unless she meant more like an ambush kind of trap, but given his power that was still risky.

What she said next confused him, because he couldn't immediately bring to mind what she was talking about. "W-When did I do that?" he asked, confused. While it was entirely possible he left the house without Etsu while it was raining at some point, there was non specific occurrence that stuck out in his mind.

Perhaps he was just too tired to think of it at the moment.

Etsu looked to him with a wrinkled brow. Well . . . he was sick, so maybe it couldn't be helped. He was probably delirious. Actually, this was a bad sign. She needed to get him back home pronto . . .

"I know he is onr-ry after you, but . . . I tor-rd you I would fight with you," she sighed, "I-- I can onr-ry guess that you were r-reaving to keep me away from him . . ."

Which probably wouldn't be too far from the truth. If Eld had a very powerful threat coming after him and he had steeled himself to leave the village to keep his friends and family safe, no doubt he'd probably consider leaving Etsu, too, regardless of how much she'd told him she could fight. She was powerless now and had only her ability with a spear to protect herself with--something that wasn't too useful against a person you could not physically get close to without feeling the utter inability to move.

"A-- anyway-- we had . . . another fr-rood, and I was get-ting peopr-re to safe-ty, and when I came back home you were gone. I for-rowed footprint to the r-rake, and you were . . ." she trailed off. The rest was history.

"W-What? No, I was fighting...Toushikyo." His memory was hazy, but he'd definitely been fighting Toushikyo at the lake before he'd collapsed. Why they were at the lake he wasn't sure, or what they'd been fighting over to begin with. And the flooding must've been caused by all the snow and ice melting...but why didn't Etsu remember that?

"Oh...that's right...because he died, we're forgetting." When Memories passed away, the people who knew them forgot them. Someone had told him that, but who and when he couldn't recall. "Didn't think it would happen so quickly."

It was kind of an unnerving thought. How many Memories other than Toushikyo might he had have killed so far and forgotten?

". . . Tsukimono-kun, you are not wer-rr," Etsu replied softly.

She was now seriously concerned for his health. He sounded absolutely delirious. Delirium induced ranting, maybe? That was even worse. She needed to get him back home and soon.

It was hard for her to believe something, even something Eld said, when she had no recollection of it. There was no person named Toushikyo, not that she was aware of, and Etsu liked to think that Eld was willing to tell her about his confrontations. Even at this point, though, Eld might find himself willing to believe the same as Etsu: that he may have possibly been mad with delirium. He was, after all, citing something that no lips ever uttered, and mentioning a fight that was little more than complete fantasy.

But Etsu stopped in the midst of her hustle. She perked her head up, furrowed her brow, and checked her sides. Something felt wrong. Off. It reminded her of the feelings she had back when she had powers-- that short lived period as a Reaper. She shouldn't have been--

And in an instant, Eld would feel the world spinning all around him, shocking him with a loud ringing in his ears, as his body was violently cast aside . . .

...I wonder why she's forgetting so much faster than I am. Because I was the one fighting him, my memories are stronger, maybe? Or...had Etsu even met Toushikyo before? He got the impression today was not his first encounter with him, but trying to recall when they'd met before was the mental equivalent of swimming upstream.

Maybe this will turn out to be just a dream too. It's getting harder for me to tell the difference. For various reasons, his sleep tended to be invaded by outside forces. Very rarely did he actually have regular dreams, and when he did they were usually nightmares. Sometimes he wondered if everything after that night wasn't just one long dream...

"E-Etsu...?" He was about to ask her why they stopped (it was probably because he was heavy), and then the next thing he knew he was sent tumbling away so quickly he wasn't sure what caused it. He hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop on his back.

For a moment he just lay there with a groan, before forcing himself to focus and look around to see what happened.