Awakened (Hotaru Tomoe)
| Awakened (Hotaru Tomoe) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 15 August 2023 |
| Location: | Hotaru's room |
| Synopsis: | Hotaru has a chilling nightmare that radiates through her entire body. Fortunately, it couldn't be an omen of what was to come, right?
... If only she could remember what it was about. |
| Cast of Characters: | Hotaru Tomoe |
Her eyes fluttered open. She was laying in a bed so soft it could have been a cloud. Covers so soft they might as well have been the wind. In garments so comfortable, yet elegant, that they could have easily permitted her entry in the highest of locales.
Silence was all that greeted her.
She was awake. She had a duty. A duty only she could perform. Slowly, gingerly, she crawled from her bed. The room should have been covered in a layer of dust so thick that each step would make clouds, yet there wasn’t a single speck. As if even dust feared to be here.
Her steps were silent, just like everything else, when she made her way towards the door to her room. Silence. Always silence. Her hand reached out and took the single thing that rested by the door. Her only companion. A glaive.
There was no more silence now. When she pushed the door open and stepped into the long, empty hallway of her castle. She dragged the glaive across the ground, the shriek of the metal against tile her only company. It might leave a line in the tile, but nobody would know. Stained glass windows lined the hall. The first four were beautiful. The inner princesses. Radiant. Graceful. Majestic. Beautiful. A hand reached out to stroke each window as she passed. She wondered if they knew she was here. Alone. A single isolated world. Lonely.
She hoped not. They didn’t deserve to be burdened by that weight. To know that their fate, their destiny, was to keep fighting, to keep their home strong. And in doing so, they doomed her to an eternity of sleep. Of isolation.
They were dead now, she could feel it. That gnawed at her heart. She would have liked to see them at least once.
The next window. The queen and her daughter. She stopped then, reaching out a hand to stroke the princess’ cheek. Even in the glass her kind eyes seemed to radiate warmth. Caring. Perhaps the awakened girl could have hated the queen for this task. Maybe. There had been moments she had, even in her slumber. But she understood. The burden had to be carried. By three and then by one. A weapon like her could never, ever be allowed to be at the whims of any. She had to be sleep so that others could not fear. She had to carry this burden so that others could live. She had to be alone because she could be far too dangerous. An apocalypse needed too many safeguards to just be allowed to walk free.
Three more windows. The duo. Two souls that seemed interconnected, even if so far apart. Even from here she could see that.
The last. The guardian of the door. An eternal guardian. Once again she hesitated. If ever there was a soul who could understand her own. Which was better? To be alone, eternally, helpless and watching the world pass you by? Or to lay there, asleep, the world drifting by without you being aware of it at all?
The only moments of reality you are able to grasp, those fleeting moments before you are called. To miss the party, to only appear for the cleanup.
Step by step she walked through her castle. The only sound her glaive dragging along the ground. From her castle on Titan she looked up. The beams of light summoning her. Her final duty. Her final moment. She looked on her people. Gently, she chided herself.
“Do not be distraught,” she told herself before looking up. “Always with the end comes hope and rebirth.” Slowly, she stepped into the light. To see those who summoned her for the first, and last, time.
To take on her final burden. Every soul weighed on her, a reminder of why she must be here. The three called her, but in the end only she could unleash this final judgment. This was why she must stand. Why the glaive must fall. This was her burden… Even if she would only be remembered for the former, it was the latter which made her awaken. Which gave her hope. Perhaps, this time, things could be different.
For there must first be destruction, so that there could be rebirth.
Hotaru sat up with a shriek, her body enveloped in a cold sweat. What was that? As quickly as it came, the terrible nightmare faded away. She just remembered… faces. Three familiar faces. Staring at her with pity. Sadness. Silence. A deafening silence somehow so loud it had made her ears ache. “D-daddy?” Hotaru called out. But there was nothing. Nobody came.
She was alone. Daddy wasn’t home. She felt that pain in her chest. It hurt. Daddy. She wanted her daddy. She needed help. Someone. Please. Some--
She… wasn’t alone. Movement reminded her. Slowly, she reached out and grabbed one friend who was with her now. A doll. Yochu. Clutching the doll, she held it so gently. Feeding it dark energy until the pain began to fade. Relaxing slightly. Better. So much better. She wasn’t alone. It was just… a nightmare. Just a silly, tiny nightmare…
Nothing more.
Kaolinite paced back and forth through the living room, her eyes narrowing when she heard Hotaru called out. She almost went to the girl, but then shoved that thought aside. Hotaru, like it or not, hated her. Despised her…
She wished she’d just wake up as Mistress 9 already. She should have long ago. Yet, if anything, it seemed that Hotaru might just die before Mistress 9 awoke. How was she so weak?
But perhaps this was an opportunity. Perhaps it was time someone else took their place at Phantom 90’s side. Someone… more dependable. After all, if Mistress 9 couldn’t lay claim to one mere host, of what use was she?
