31_days | [21-Feb-2007] [El-Hazard] Remains In Her Memory

Title: Remains In Her Memory
Challenge: 21-Feb-2007 "bones powder and blood"
Based on: El-Hazard
Characters: Ifurita, Makoto
Type: Angst; 200 words
Warnings: Descriptions of graphic violence and adult themes.
Notes: This takes place some time after the end of the first OVA series.

El-Hazard © AIC / Pioneer / Geneon.

Ifurita stood motionless at an open window of the Floristica palace, staring into the distance.

Makoto walked up behind her, and held a hand on her shoulder. "Ifurita?" he asked quietly.

Ifurita didn't move. "I passed a construction site today," she said distantly. "The workers had uncovered an ancient subterranean chamber.

"It was a torture chamber. The bones of its prisoners still lay in the dust of the centuries. The blood spilled there still stained the stone floor.

"The workers were horrified, and rightly so. But... it horrified me... even more...

Ifurita turned to Makoto, and began to weep. "I remember it, Makoto. I was there. To those men, it was only a relic of the past. But for me, it is a living memory.

"I still see the faces twisted in pain. I hear the wordless screams. I smell... the death..."

Words failed Ifurita. Makoto held her silently; he knew there was nothing he could say. But there was one thing he could do.

"Ifurita?" he said, after some time. "You know I could make you forget. I've given you memories. I can also take them away."

"I know," Ifurita whispered. "But you know that I must never forget."