[It's a strange sensation, as if someone has grabbed a hold of her core, her very essence, molding it into a different shape. Ayumu's body feels lighter as it blurs, becoming thinner, silkier somehow. It almost feels as if she's floating in mid-air as their bond snaps into place.
Ayumu's lost memories flood her new lord's mind. It starts as a rapid barrage of flashing images of her childhood when she was small and alone as the path that led her to her doom started many years before. Her parents' instruction, their cold insistence that they weren't family, years of harsh training far more severe than a child should ever experience. Images of a young girl whispering sweet words into a servant boy's ear, of her as an adult falling into bed with her enemies followed by bloodshed.
Sprinkled throughout are scenes of her with her brother, shouting the same things at Susumu that were once shouted at her and giving him the exact same harsh lessons. Her teaching him to disguise himself as her so that he would live, she would die, and the mission would still succeed.
There's a couple of familiar faces - Hijikata and Okita, more of the former, and the other Shinsengumi. The most notable scene is her going to take her final assignment. There's images of her coming and going from Masuya's shop and her tearful breakdown in front of Tetsu.
At last, there's her capture by the enemy and the brutal gang rape, torture, and beatings until her eye socket was crushed, her left arm was broken with the bone sticking out grotesquely, and she was bleeding heavily from cuts all over her body. A myriad of feelings color the final scene - grief, regret, defiance, shame, disgust, and determination. So much determination but also love. Love for her brother, love for the Shinsengumi. No matter what the enemy did to her, she would not break. She'd protect them all until her final breath.
And she did. After that, there is darkness and nothng more.
By the time the vision clears, there's a dark blue woman's kimono lying in a pile at Hakkai's feet, the exact same one Ayumu had worn on her last mission.]
cw: mentions of rape, torture, possible child abuse
Ayumu's lost memories flood her new lord's mind. It starts as a rapid barrage of flashing images of her childhood when she was small and alone as the path that led her to her doom started many years before. Her parents' instruction, their cold insistence that they weren't family, years of harsh training far more severe than a child should ever experience. Images of a young girl whispering sweet words into a servant boy's ear, of her as an adult falling into bed with her enemies followed by bloodshed.
Sprinkled throughout are scenes of her with her brother, shouting the same things at Susumu that were once shouted at her and giving him the exact same harsh lessons. Her teaching him to disguise himself as her so that he would live, she would die, and the mission would still succeed.
There's a couple of familiar faces - Hijikata and Okita, more of the former, and the other Shinsengumi. The most notable scene is her going to take her final assignment. There's images of her coming and going from Masuya's shop and her tearful breakdown in front of Tetsu.
At last, there's her capture by the enemy and the brutal gang rape, torture, and beatings until her eye socket was crushed, her left arm was broken with the bone sticking out grotesquely, and she was bleeding heavily from cuts all over her body. A myriad of feelings color the final scene - grief, regret, defiance, shame, disgust, and determination. So much determination but also love. Love for her brother, love for the Shinsengumi. No matter what the enemy did to her, she would not break. She'd protect them all until her final breath.
And she did. After that, there is darkness and nothng more.
By the time the vision clears, there's a dark blue woman's kimono lying in a pile at Hakkai's feet, the exact same one Ayumu had worn on her last mission.]