The girl in the stained blue jeans and worn out t-shirt. That was Kyoko Nagami some ten years ago. At the time, she was destined to become a starving artist-- her painting skills formidable but hardly earth-shattering. She was an anomaly at Inusaka High, a truly ordinary person... as far as skills and powers were concerned. She was one of the few students who studied in the school's halls who was there purely for their education, and not for some dark or mysterious reason known only to the Majestics that worked behind the scenes. This didn't keep her from being drawn into the games of the other more... empowered students at the school. Funny how friendship can ruin your life. When your best friends lead your life down a path of death and damnation, albeit unwittingly, it almost makes you wish for the comfort of loneliness again... almost. Kyoko, now the servant of the Void like her companion Devyn Soyokaze, would rather be damned than be alone again. Even if that means killing those that were once her friends-- those that lead her to this blissful oblivion that she currently inhabits.

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Kyoko can't sleep. Seeing Seryph after all these years... reminded her of HIM-- Yushiro. The image of Yushiro face from all those years ago would not leave her mind. She tosses and turns in bed, attempting to rustle the image from her mind, casting it to the ground below her where it belongs, but to no avail. She gets out of bed and walks about the guest room Devyn has given her. She wasn't supposed to feel anymore, not after the exchange with him-- the one that asked Devyn to return and destroy Seryph. But not only was she starting to garner feeling for Devyn, but her old ones for Yushiro were also resurfacing.

"No..." she whispers. "No, I can't feel this way. I... must find a way to forget."

She walks out of her room and down to the room where she and Devyn would have tea. She grabs a small canvas and began to paint. "Yes." she thinks, "Let the brush sweep my thoughts away. Forget about the past, revel in the moment." She paints, paying little heed to what she is creating. She doesn't care what the brush has to say, she only hopes that it will create something that will allow her mind to drift away from these thoughts of Yushiro. Minutes later, she looks at her creation and screams. She flings the canvas across the room. It lands on the table that she and Devyn had tea at earlier that night. The impact causes her personal tea cup to fall to the ground, breaking into shards. The painting lands canvas-up on the table, revealing a portrait of Yushiro just as he appeared when she first saw him all those years ago at Inusaka High. As she sees the painting shatter the cup, she turns her back and runs out the door.

"Yushiro... why do you torment me so." She thinks to herself as she runs out of Devyn's mansion. "Keeping me so close back during our youth, yet distancing yourself in the arms of the one you said you truly loved when you knew I too loved you. And now... when I find a kindred spirit, you return only to haunt my mind with the regrets of my youth. Can I never find happiness because of your existence? No... never again. I won't let you ruin my life once more. Devyn is mine, you are nothing. First you, then our teacher. Pity he too stands in the way of my destiny with Devyn. I truly liked him as well. But that was the past. My life starts now."

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Seryph and Yushiro walk out of the Santa Fe Bar and Grill laughing, doing their best to hide the fact that they just found out one of their closest friends may die.

"Need a lift back to your car Yushiro?" Seryph asks as he unlocked his own car.

"Nah.... the parking garage I parked at is just a couple of blocks away. Its an easy walk from here."

Seryph just smiles as he gets into his car and heads home. Yushiro proceeds to walk down the relatively deserted street when a slight breeze picks up.

"Cherry blossoms?" he questions the night air, as numerous cherry blossoms swirl about him. A odd sight considering that there are no cherry trees in the area. Then, it clicks in Yushiro‘s mind-- the one person he knew that complimented such a display. "Kyoko!?"

On the opposite side of the street, Kyoko appears amidst a swirl of blossoms. She peers at him with a piercing gaze and bows to him. Before Yushiro can say anything, she begins to speak.

"I always did love you Yushiro. Forgive me for what I'm about to do." She pulls out her brush from her kimono and begins to paint broad strokes in front of herself. Within moments, the entire area around them has turned into an oil painting, vibrant colors abounding, replacing the drab colors of the urban setting they are in. The lampposts, the sidewalks, the street, even the buildings, they all look as if they were alive... and they were. They have entered Kyoko's world-- her world of brilliant imagination and horrible insight. The street that separates them flows like a tranquil river. The lampposts writhe like ivy, ignoring their previous stoic positions and creeping about the walls of the buildings. The buildings themselves... their patterns are ever-shifting. Bricks and mortar move about as if it were the inner workings of a living cell, becoming blocks of perpetual motion. Kyoko pauses from her painting of reality to watch Yushiro as he takes in everything about him.

"Yes... this is my true power. This is the gift given to me by my benefactor. I can take life and make it beautiful, turning the stagnant world about me into a masterpiece of my own creation. Doing for it what I always wished to do for you: make you happy. Yes, I love you, but you keep me from true happiness. You keep me from making this image you see before you TRULY beautiful." She takes to the air again, swirling among her cherry blossoms. "Now I make the first stroke in my ultimate masterpiece!"

She flies towards Yushiro, sweeping her paintbrush about the sky. Waves of flowing asphalt strike out at Yushiro, which he deftly dodges. The asphalt splashes down on the concrete sidewalk, and flowers of bright hues sprout out from the ground, quickly weaving themselves about Yushiro's body, keeping him in place. Yushiro struggles in place as Kyoko touches down on the ground next to him.

"Is this how you treat everyone you love, Kyoko? Surely not. You weren't always like this. Why...."

"I already TOLD you why! You scorn me for the arms of another woman! Lynne never did anything for you, I was the only one that always told you the truth and gave you any real compassion. It wasn't Lynne that you would run to when you were having difficulties, it was me. But when you desired to truly be close to someone, you didn't go to the arms that cradled you in you true moments of pain, no, you went to HER arms! But I put that all out of my mind. I had forgotten about you, until today. Until today, I had found a new love. Until today, I was sure of my destiny and knew what I wanted. Until today, you were dead to me, then you appear again in my mind, as I fought your sensei. Now, I must make sure my past dies forever." Just as she’s about to make another stroke with her brush, Yushiro breaks free of his botanical bonds and draws his katana from his side.

"Don't blame me for staying true to one of the few true friends I have left, Kyoko... unlike you who has betrayed him." He says as he kicks towards Kyoko, doing his best to avoid using his blade on her. "Have you forgotten the bond we had?" He slashes upwards towards her face with the sheath of his blade. "We were like brother and sister back then." He crouches and kicks a low sweep at her legs. "Our friendship went beyond the one I had with Lynne, we had something more." Frustrated, he lunges towards her with the tip of his blade but forces himself to stop in midst ride, much to the shock of Kyoko. "I could talk to about things that I could tell no one else save for Seryph... and Devyn. So I didn't want to kiss you, so what? Lynne was a childhood crush, you were a true friend." Yushiro drops his blade to his side, content on ceasing this fight with Kyoko.

"Rubbish!" Kyoko pants, breathless from dodging all of Yushiro's attacks. "You only say that now to defend your meaningless life! But I won't take pity on you, not when so much can come from your demise." She swings about her brush and the windows in the nearby buildings shatter. The shattered glass whirls about, forming twisted forms vaguely resembling creatures. They start to attack Yushiro, one by one, but he easily crushes the glass constructs and works his way to Kyoko. With the last one shattered, he grabs Kyoko by the arm holding the brush.

"If I were only fighting to keep myself alive, I would kill you where you stand... but that's not what I'm about. You should remember that from our childhood."

With that, Kyoko starts to cry slightly. But her tears are soon interrupted with a scream as she pulls away from Yushiro. He tries to come closer to her, but she waves her brush, causing the ivy-like lamppost nearby to write around him. She sniffs and tries to regain her composure.

"No... I... I..." She drops to her knees and starts to weep again.

"It's not too late Kyoko." Yushiro says, this time not fighting the bonds Kyoko has created. "You..."

"It's too late for me, Yushiro." she cries. "Too late for you. Too late for everyone." She waves her brush one last time, and the magnificent world she has created disappears. And with that gesture she disappears amidst another swirl of cherry blossoms.

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“Bring in my latest suitor.”

Eva Vhista sits upon her throne exhuming a deadly aura of regality. 500 years ago she single-handedly seized power of the tiny nation-state of Ghrimhiltra by seducing its Duke and slaying him upon their wedding night. Naturally, the rest of the former Duke’s subjects believed it was a rival Duke’s assassin that wished to bring about an unpleasant end to the newlywed’s honeymoon.

Foolish human mortals will believe anything you tell them so long as you hold a position of authority.

For the past 500 years many a man has sought the hand of the fair Duchess Vhista in holy matrimony… and the all the more “holy” wealth of her nation… but the Duchess remains a widow.

“What is your name, fair gentleman?”

“I am Sir Yulian of Cronstire, the Duke of Cronstire’s most faithful and decorated knight. I come at my lord’s request to ask for your hand in marriage. I wish to offer my undying loyalty to you in exchange for a long-lasting peace between our two great cities. I…”

Sir Yulian’s marriage proposal is abruptly ended with a wave of Eva’s hand as her hand gesture conjures a spell that twists Sir Yulian’s vocal cords, rendering them unusable. A small stream of blood begins to seep from the young knight’s mouth.

“Dear knight… your ‘lord’ has no desire to bring about peace with my city, and he most certainly does not wish to have you join me in marriage. Poor child… you came here totally unaware of what happens to all potential suitors, did you not? Surely the tails of the Demoness Eva Vhista have reached your young ears at one point in your life… or did you think that your youthful good looks and charm would be that which would warm over my cold, dead heart?” Eva motions her hand again, sending the knight hurling into a nearby stone wall. “I know all about you. How you petitioned to your lord to cease the war between our two nations. How you wished to see the end of the bloodshed between our two peoples. I have eyes and ears in every court in this misbegotten world, my dear boy, and I know of the impending attack by your lord’s troops that would follow your arrival here. ‘Distract the Duchess with the young boy and lead her away from our armies so that we can strike while she is unprepared.’ I believe that was your lord’s plan. Fortunately for your lord I grow weary of these medieval games. I leave tonight for more… opportunistic endeavors, so your lord will find my people easily conquered. As for you… you will have the honor of being the last man I slay on this wretched planet.”

Eva closes her hand into a fist, and the young knight’s body wretches in agony before collapsing into a bloodied heap of mangled flesh and bone. Eva smiles to herself.

Eva is a poet at heart, even if her poet‘s heart is hardened to all but pain and sorrow. The only beauty she can see now was that of suffering. The Bard of Despair, as she was known before becoming Duchess of her own nation. Such was not always the case. No… at one time she traveled across her world, spinning words into elegant tapestries of adventure and romance. She risked her life to record the escapades of great heroes in search of that one thing all living creatures desire: Love. Her eyes soon found that One Man. A man who’s very being made words spill out of her soul into her parchment-- filling every void within her body. Her body and soul once longed to experience everything the world had to offer with that One Man. But no longer.

Eva snaps her fingers, causing a door to shift open behind her throne. Within the secret room lies a mirror glistening in the darkness, reflecting the absence of light as brightly as it would a star’s warm rays. Beyond this mirror lies that One Man-- beyond this mirror lies her ultimate revenge. That man, at one time, caused her to lose sight of everything she once feared in life. She was blind to suffering-- blind to hate-- blind to death while thinking of him. Now she sees those objects all too clearly. But soon her eyes will be open again. With his demise… perhaps even her cold heart may again feel again.

The sounds of cannons begin to ring in the distance. The Duke of Cronstire undoubtedly has begun his siege upon her former nation. That no longer mattered. The affairs of mere humans, their political and military games no longer amused her as they once did. All that mattered was the impending Dwindling Twilight. Eva steps into the dark mirror’s gleam and steps into the realm of Khazan.