rlm@0: This is a tribute to my personal favorite of the Witches 5, Viluy Yuri. ^-^ Sure, rlm@0: she only got one episode and got talked down to by Ami while nanites where rlm@0: ripping her body apart. Sure she fell prey to the BSSM anime rule that a villain rlm@0: must have a lame death at their own hands or at the hands of their employer or rlm@0: peer. Sure, she made me wonder just how deep Ami’s egomaniacal obsession rlm@0: with being the smartest went if she could bitch at a girl that’s getting killed by rlm@0: her own devices (who needs that? I mean, c’mon, she was –dying-. You’d think rlm@0: that’d be bad enough without a self serving speech from Ami. Odd how the rlm@0: nanites merely wracked the Senshi with pain, but killed her. But I digress.). But rlm@0: she was great for the less than half an hour we got of her. ^-^ So thanks, Viluy, rlm@0: for being such a cool villain. ^-^ rlm@0: rlm@0: rlm@0: Shattered Mirror rlm@0: By Amazoness Duo rlm@0: amazonessduo@hotmail.com rlm@0: rlm@0: rlm@0: My name is Viluy Yuri. I’m the top student at Mugen Gakuen and rlm@0: possibly in the entirety of Tokyo. That is, with the possible exception of Ami rlm@0: Mizuno. She’s amazing. Quiet, thoughtful, shy, all trussed up with beautiful blue rlm@0: hair. Her eyes seem to be ever searching for more, wanting so much to rlm@0: understand that which she never possibly could. She is perfect. At least from all rlm@0: of the data I’ve collected on her. Obsessed? Maybe. I have her picture up as my rlm@0: desktop. I’ve been teased quite often by some of my ‘teammates’ here with the rlm@0: Witches 5, but I ignore them. Cold logic will win against any of their outlandish rlm@0: schemes. I never could understand what Tellu hoped to accomplish with plants. rlm@0: But if that’s how she wants to do things, who am I to argue? rlm@0: I can almost hear Eiko’s soft voice chiding me to get some sleep, but rlm@0: she’s not there when I swivel around in my chair. I can’t hold back the pained rlm@0: disappointment that wells up despite my normal control. She’s the only thing rlm@0: that can hurt me anymore. Or the lack of her presence, as the case may be. She rlm@0: was.. She is the driving force behind all that I do. I was going to add some safety rlm@0: systems to my nanites, but I can barely concentrate anymore. I miss her even rlm@0: more than usual right now. I’ve been so empty since she left. I’ve been all alone rlm@0: for so long, fighting just to stay alive. I had lost my sense of purpose until rlm@0: Professor Tomoe came to me with an offer I could never reufuse. rlm@0: Picking up the single framed picture by my desk, I remember with rlm@0: crystal clarity the girl standing with me in it. I was only nine when the picture rlm@0: was taken. She must’ve been nearly six. My sweet little sister, Eiko. She was my rlm@0: best friend when no one else wanted to be near me. She was my light at the end rlm@0: of the tunnel when things seemed to dark to go on. She made me laugh when I rlm@0: was being too serious for my own good. Even when mom and dad would argue, rlm@0: she tried to cheer me up, even though I knew it must have been eating her away rlm@0: inside. I wouldn’t let dad hit her whenever I could help it. Which meant he had rlm@0: to hurt me all the more when I’d get in the way. When someone who’s supposed rlm@0: to protect and love you can inflict such pain upon a child, all hope is quickly lost rlm@0: in the world. How anyone can do that, I still don’t know. I will always hate him rlm@0: for that. And I will always hate my mother for standing by, doing nothing as rlm@0: he’d hit one of us again and again. Sometimes life was wonderful. Eiko and I rlm@0: would stay up all night in the living room on the weekend while my parents rlm@0: slept, telling each other stories and playing. But sometimes life became rlm@0: unbearable. We would be too afraid to breath, afraid that the slightest movement rlm@0: would evoke our father’s wrath. Many times we didn’t even have to do anything rlm@0: to bring out his rage. And as time went by, it became that way more and more rlm@0: often. rlm@0: When I got home from cram school one day and found her curled in a rlm@0: ball in her room all battered and bruised, I couldn’t take it. Tears spilling down rlm@0: my face and rage scalding me inside, I knew that I couldn’t stay there any rlm@0: longer. That I couldn’t let that happen ever again to my little sister. I had called rlm@0: the police before, but dad had a friend at the station so they never actually came. rlm@0: He would tell my dad all of the awful things I told him, all the truth, and he rlm@0: would come back into my room... And all the while my mother become more rlm@0: and more a shell of her former self, watching it all behind glassy eyes as she too rlm@0: took to the bottle. I ran away from home with onee-chan that day before our rlm@0: parents could get back from the store. And I never looked back. rlm@0: I promised myself long ago that I would protect my imouto no matter rlm@0: what. I did whatever I could to make sure that she was safe. I would take care of rlm@0: her better than our parents ever could. I had been the smartest one at my school, rlm@0: but that just made people want to ignore me. They pretended I didn’t exist when rlm@0: I was lucky, torturing me when I wasn’t. Eiko was the only one who hadn’t rlm@0: abandoned me. And I would be damned if I ever abandoned her. So I did the rlm@0: best I could to support the two of us. We lived in a small condemned building rlm@0: that no one ever seemed to have any intention of tearing down. I stole from rlm@0: honest people to get what we needed to survive. I took what I could from rlm@0: wherever I could in order to provide for myself and for my little sister. When rlm@0: she was sick, I even managed to fake signatures and other things to get her rlm@0: looked at. I knew she hated doctors, but I had to make sure she would be okay. I rlm@0: felt bad about the measures I had to take, but survival is a tricky thing at best. I rlm@0: had to do what I did in order that we both may live. rlm@0: And in that existence, Eiko and I spent happier times together than we rlm@0: had living with our parents. For a while, I attempted to teach her. A child rlm@0: teaching a child. I had always been advanced for my class, but my parents didn’t rlm@0: seem to care. In fact, it was expected of me to do well. Anything less was met rlm@0: harshly. And so I had learned to push myself to the limits of my endurance and rlm@0: beyond. Eiko was a quick learner and she did well. But she missed going to rlm@0: school, missed being around others. I was the only one in her life, alone in our rlm@0: small building we called home. That was enough for me. She had been all I’d rlm@0: had in my life for quite some time, after all. But she needed more. I faked the rlm@0: necessary papers and managed to get her and myself enrolled in school shortly rlm@0: afterwards. There was no more time for cram school for me, though. I had to rlm@0: make sure there was food on the table for the two of us to get by. rlm@0: My sweet little sister finally seemed happier. She was making friends rlm@0: and enjoying herself. I, on the other hand, hated every moment of it. I once rlm@0: again found myself deep into my studies in an attempt to have something, rlm@0: anything, to grasp onto throughout the tumultuous times at school. My only rlm@0: solace was back at our ‘home’ with Eiko. No matter how bad things went during rlm@0: the day, it all seemed to melt away when I got home. We would talk late into the rlm@0: night, far past when it grew dark out. Sometimes Eiko worried about the future, rlm@0: but I assured her of a bright and sunny one awaiting the both of us. And she rlm@0: would smile at me and agree the way she always did. And then we’d fall asleep, rlm@0: huddled for warmth on the floor under the blankets I’d managed to steal while rlm@0: they’d been out drying in some woman’s back yard. rlm@0: But one fateful day, my happy slice of heaven, my little ray of life rlm@0: amongst an otherwise bleak light, my tiny flame of warmth was snubbed out. rlm@0: The streets had been curiously silent that morning as I’d filled up my backpack, rlm@0: running a few minutes late. Eiko had already took off for school on her own, rlm@0: despite my continued urgings for her to wait. She’d giggled playfully and told rlm@0: me to catch up. But when I’d caught up, she wasn’t running anymore. It wasn’t rlm@0: fair. I was supposed to catch her on the way. She wasn’t supposed to forfeit. The rlm@0: cars had been curiously still as well. A man outside his car was going on and on rlm@0: about how it wasn’t his fault. I hardly cared if it was or not. It didn’t concern rlm@0: me. I had to catch up with imouto. But a sparkle of crimson caught my eye and rlm@0: when I turned to look, our little game had come to a violent end. There she lie, rlm@0: crumpled in the street like a broken china doll. Her small body was lying limp, a rlm@0: pool of blood under her. Words cannot convey how I felt. Tears cannot wipe rlm@0: away the stain that day has left on my mind. I held onto her for as long as I rlm@0: could, trying desperately to hear anything more than the sickening gurgle that rlm@0: came from what was left of my broken little sister. The rest of that day is gone. I rlm@0: can’t remember anymore than her slowed breathing in my arms until it finally rlm@0: stopped altogether, her life slipping out of my very grasp like so many grains of rlm@0: sand. That was nearly two years ago. rlm@0: I weeped, as most young girls do, but that the last time. My crystal tears rlm@0: were the last of my warmth, the last I had of her. I became cold after that. This rlm@0: life had no rhyme or reason. Nothing made sense. All I had was logic to try and rlm@0: sort out what I could, to make some sense of this frigid world. From that day rlm@0: forward, I put all of my faith into cold, heartless logic. Its icy touch was all I rlm@0: could hold onto to keep me sane. I needed something to occupy my mind or I rlm@0: would be consumed by my grief for her, lost in an endless night of pain. And rlm@0: because of my drive to succeed and my achievements over my classmates, I was rlm@0: invited to go to Mugen Gakuen for high school. After a short while, I was rlm@0: approached by professor Tomoe. He said he had an offer for me. An offer I rlm@0: couldn’t refuse. rlm@0: He was right. I will help bring an unspeakable force into this world so rlm@0: that I may have my little sister brought back to me. Taken before her time, I can rlm@0: make up to her the promise I had made her that had been broken so suddenly. rlm@0: Professor Tomoe’s own daughter had been brought back by this same force. rlm@0: And so I bide my time, doing what is asked of me so that I will one day achieve rlm@0: my goal. That she will one day be returned to me. rlm@0: Not a day goes by when I don’t see her out of the corner of my eye or rlm@0: hear her voice. I’m haunted. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. To shut out rlm@0: those little pieces of her would be to deny what I’m striving towards. It would be rlm@0: to deny what’s left of my soul inside this cold body. And so I continue, rlm@0: waiting... and hoping. rlm@0: rlm@0: Tellu laughed as she read the last entry on Viluy’s computer. Such rlm@0: sentimental rubbish. Did she actually think her sister would be brought back like rlm@0: that? The Professor’s child was merely a vessel for Mistress 9. Of course, it rlm@0: didn’t matter one way or the other. Viluy had gotten killed shortly after that rlm@0: entry. The green haired Witches 5 member paused for a moment before she rlm@0: turned off the computer. “I hope you’re with your sister now, Viluy.”