tampered | Log; ONGOING

Log; ONGOING

When; December 04, following up this conversation.
Rating; TBA
Characters; Noh [

sans_dimension] and Mitsuhide [

silk_in_ebony]
Summary; Sleeping Beauty is awakened by a second wish.
Log;

They had all disappointed her.

Even now, Noh still felt the pain of Nobunaga's leaving upon a path she could not follow; yet it had been easier to bear with her husband's loyal vassal and sister sharing the loss, and when Mitsuhide had arrived, she had found herself able to smile now and then, without any mask. But then they started to trickle through the City's gasp, following in Nobunaga's footsteps, until only her and Mitsuhide remained. It was painful, but Mitsuhide understood. Their hearts shared the same despair and longing. They were not yet alone. So why had he wished himself into an eternal sleep?

Her family had abandoned her.

But Mitsuhide, unlike the others, was still within her reach. He could be returned to her. He would be.

Noh smiled calmly as her dark eyes took in Yuuko's beauty, and she stepped back to allow the other woman into the apartment.

Once the door had been closed behind them, she said smoothly, "Lord Mitsuhide is through here. Come," before she lead the Dimensional Witch into the bedroom where the samurai tossed and turned in his sleep.

A wish had caused this trouble; Noh knew only a wish-giver would be able to give her the answer she desperately seeked. How could he be freed?

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Yuuko had dressed in something she thought appropriate--an older styled kimono, playing on her own unique sense of history; shoulders bare and obi tale long, embroidered with roses. Butterflies seemed to be important to the young somber woman as well, and Yuuko smiled darkly in greeting.

But time for tea and fashions would come later, and she turned her attention to the young warrior laid out on the bed. She could see immediately the work of the Alchino, though true to the City's strange ways, the exchange had been incomplete. He had withdrawn into himself, asleep too deep for normal dreams to reach him.

Yuuko bent down and pressed a hand to his forehead--his skin was cold, despite the blankets and his obvious distress. "He is sleeping. And if he continues in this state, his body will continue to weaken."

Mitsuhide's dream was indeed not a normal one; it was more like the reliving of a dark, violent memory, one he had buried deep away inside the core of his being in order to protect his gentle, fragile mind. But now that his entirety had withdrawn inside, that memory was being unleashed upon him, and he was feeling its effects most vividly.

In the dark more-than-a-dream, Mitsuhide was reduced to a child of ten years of age. Dressed simply, his hair only brushing his sholders, the pure soul stared on in horror as the faceless man tortured his beautiful mother. He did not understand why, just that they wanted to make her suffer. They wanted to make her suffer by making him watch them torture her with blades and bludgeons, and thus, he suffered too. Tears streamed down in his face, and he pitifully cried out to his mama.

"Mama! Maaaamaaaa!"

She was bleeding heavily, great pools of liquid forming around her form on the dark, formless ground. But the pain she felt from these wounds clearly did not match the pain she felt at her son being forced to watch. Her eyes locked with his, and she tried to whisper his name.

Outside of his mind, on the outside, a quiet 'mama' escaped from his dry lips.

Noh turned her gaze away at Yuuko's words, and wordlessly bent down to brush Mitsuhide's hair from his face as he murmured in distress. The implication was obvious enough.

"Is there a way to free him from this slumber?" she asked as she straightened up, and calmly met Yuuko's gaze.

Though there was a hint of her sorrow in her expression, her eyes were cold; she would do as necessary to restore him. This was not the right moment for grief.

"Yes." Yuuko said simply, her attention returning to the regal woman without hesitation or any sense of hurry. The man's suffering was apparent, but it did not seem to reach her. "Anything is possible, with the right price."

Her smile faded not unkindly and she fixed Noh with a sturdy gaze, although she doubted the other woman would be foolish enough as the boy had been. "The price will equal the request. Nothing more, nothing less."

And now she moved, touching Noh's pretty profile with slender fingers. "How far are you willing to go for him?"

"The right price, you say..."

Noh did not pull away from the touch, instead she lifted her chin ever so slightly, and the corners of her painted lips lifted into a sad smile.

Nobunaga alone was her world, the one who gave her life meaning. Yet Mitsuhide was a close friend, and the only one who would one day come to understand how it felt to both love and hate Nobunaga; without his betrayal, she would have never found the end of her path -- their fates were intertwined. He was important to her.

"I will do as I must... for his sake," she answered, knowing there was no way backwards.

Sacrifice was nothing new to her.

Determination and willpower. That was all she needed. Smiling again, she swept up a fan from her obi and passed it once in front of the lady's face with a flourish. And in that instant, she read Noh's fate and all that which was available to her with the least amount of effort. The path, and the price, came clear like it always did. "The price, then.."

She held out her hand without emotion, motioning towards the necklace she knew was a token of love, and said simply. "Your marriage."

"...My marriage...?"

Noh lifted a hand to touch the butterfly that hung from her neck, and all at once a rush of emotion filled her eyes; longing, despair, hatred, devotion, love. She turned her gaze away, and for a moment was lost in a different place, where fires raged through a castle, a dagger was cast aside and lips met and sealed a promise.

But then she closed off and returned to herself, then turned towards the bed where Mitsuhide slept on. She had first worn the necklace on the day -- at that moment -- when the Viper's Daughter shed her Saito past, and became the Demon's Wife, one of the Oda. But Nobunaga had left her here. How could the Demon's Wife exist without the Demon King?

The price was their marriage; not her love, not him.

"...Nobunaga..." a whisper of his name escaped her lips as she carefully removed her necklace from her throat.

All signs of her struggle faded as she gracefully turned to Yuuko again, and she softly pressed it into the other's womans waiting hand.

Yuuko took the necklace carefully, and slipped it into the folds of her clothes without a word. The price would take her ties to the Oda clan, her title as a wife and lady of Nobunaga--and indeed, change history, if even only the sphere of the city. Would they create a new dimension, just from this exchange? A smile touched her lips as she thought over the possibilities, saw them laid bare in front of her. But her path, despite the burstings of new realities every moment of breath, remained clear. "The price is paid, and now for the wish."

Nodding, she settled next to the dreamer and arranged herself comfortably. It may take a very long time. "I will go retrieve him. Time holds no meaning in dreams, so if I do not wake quickly, have no fear. I will return with him."

And with that, she pressed a hand to Mitsuhide's forehead once more and descended into his dreams.

Within his dream, the child Mitsuhide continued to struggle, reaching for the figure of his mother. Shadow-like hands, their source uncertain, held onto his arms fast as he wailed, wanting only to be close to her and her heartbeat once more. She was Mama! The only person that offered him unconditional love, despite his various rebellions against her before. And she loved him...

"Maaaaammmmaaaaaaaa!"

Then the hands were gone. The figures torturing his mother gone. But so, too... was her gaze. There was nothing there. She was lying on the darkness, bleeding profusely. Mitsuhide knew. He knew. She was dead; gone.

He approached her softly.

"Mama.... mama?"

Yuuko appeared like a memory of shadow, stepping forward into the realm of the dream calmly, watching the boy and his mother with dark eyes. Here, so deep into pain and sorrow, the present long forgotten in favor of his past, was the dangerous line between this world and the next. He was losing himself.

"Mitsuhide-san," she said as she stepped closer, her voice cutting through the hollow dream, gently but firmly. "It is time for you to come back."

The woman slipped into his dream so easily, and Mitsuhide tore his gaze away from his crimsom-stained mother to stare up at her. Something about her present unsettled him; like she should not be a part of it. With his mind connected to his ten year old self, he reacted much as that self would have done.

"You're strange... you're not supposed to be here! And where's back, anyway? There isn't any back."

His words were filled with grief, and he turned his back to the woman, stepping closer to his mother.

"There is no back, and no forward, here, Mitsuhide. Time does not flow here."

She moved closer, to stand next to him, looking down at the dark body and the top of his dark head. There was no reason to hurry, and she pulled out her fan merely for something to keep his attention divided.

"Your mother?"

Mitsuhide just looked confused at that comment, not really understanding. No time? It made no sense to him. But neither did he care that much. He just cared about his mother.

"That's... my Mama, yeah..." he said, gentle tears rolling down their faces. "Mama is... all red now..."

He looked down at the beloved woman. Her hair was all fanned out around her, the only part of her not covered in blood. So like his own...

"She is dead." The words came simply, without cruelty or sympathy--simple, calming fact. But in the next breath she smiled softly, and settled a hand against his slender shoulder.

"She is gone now, and cannot come back. No one can bring back the dead, not even me. But you are still alive, and don't you think she would want you to be strong, not trapped in endless sorrow."

Mitsuhide heard the woman's words, and stood motionless for a while. Trapped..? Endless sorrow... it was strange, but her words stirred something within. A warrior. The man the ten year old would become, the man he would become with this memory locked away. Pure, honourable... living for the sake of others.

But...

"I never really said goodbye to Mama..." he sniffed. "I just ran away and forgot about it. Can I... can I say goodbye?"

Children, despite being dirty and loud, could be quite charming, and Yuuko's smile deepened.

"Of course you can say goodbye. Do you believe she will hear you? If you do, then she will hear you."

Mitsuhide nodded. She would hear him... he knew that deeply. Perhaps she had always been waiting for it to be said, somehow. Leaning down to be closer to his mother, his kissed a bloodless spot on her cheek.

"Umm... bye bye, Mama. I'm sorry I wouldn't remember about this before. I won't forget you now, I promise. I love you."

Standing up again, he turned back to the woman. His eyes were filled with tears, but there was a grim certainty behind the wetness.

"I... will come now..."

Yuuko held out a hand for the boy, and taking it firmly in hers, looked upwards into the darkness.

"We're going back now," she said, before taking a step and rising with him back to reality.

He took the hand, slightly hesitantly, but the moment he did so there was darkness all around... and then light.

And it burned.

Sitting with a sudden jolt, the magic broken, Mitsuhide brought his hands to eyes in order to try and dull the pain. Forgetting all else for a moment, he squinted tightly until the burning faded away.

Then reality flooded in, bringing a harsh feeling to his chest and heart.

He had given in to his sorrow. What had been thinking? How selfish! How foolish! What did an eternal sleep do for him, really? Escapism... just like he'd run his whole life from his mother's death...

"No... NO!" he declared, slamming a fist into the bed. "How could I do something so STUPID!"

In the time that had passed, Noh herself had taken a seat in the room; at the sudden motion she lifted her gaze, and turned towards the commotion. "So it is done..." she said softly, as she watched Mitsuhide's struggle with the light.

She cast a glance to Yuuko, before she rose to her feet and made her way over to the side of Mitsuhide's bed, watching his self-loathing as she floated across the floor.

Once at his side, without a word, she placed one of her own hands over Mitsuhide's fist, and then softly brushed his cheek with the other. She offered him a sad smile and a tender, pained gaze, before she leant in and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"That is enough, Mitsuhide," she said quietly, as she pulled back.

"Quite enough," Yuuko said smiling, rising gracefully as if she had only just sat down. She brushed back her hair with a hand and let her fingers rest against the butterfly nestled in her belt. The union of Oda Nobunaga and his bride. It was well received.

"Choices have been made. Prices paid~ And now it is time to move forward. The past cannot be changed."

Sharing her own secret smile--for indeed, hadn't she just changed the past, as most would see it?--she relaxed into more languid a manner and regarded them both with a slightly expectant smile. "Now.. I'm sure we'd all enjoy something refreshing?"

[ooc; sorrrryy i took so long;;; I ended up having to get my bed lol]

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Log; ONGOING

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