Scatter the Ashes

Yuya is not Sakuya.

Yuya is not Sakuya, and sometimes Kyo finds that he has to remind himself of this.

Only sometimes, though, because most of the time Yuya is loud and fiery and spirited, whereas Sakuya has always been the embodiment of calmness and tranquility.

But other times…other times, when Yuya retreats within herself, becomes contemplative and thoughtful and just a little bit sad, Kyo is struck by the resemblances.

True, some are physical – the smile, the face, the bone-structure, something about the eyes – but others…others are the gentleness and that damnable kindness that so drives them both.

And inner strength. Both women are strong – not strong in the way that really matters, the kind of strength that enables one to earn a title like "Thousand-Slayer," the kind of strength that one can use to spray blood in the air like confetti, but that…

That other kind of strength.

The strength that it takes Yuya, so weak and so defenseless and so goddamn breakable, to shield Kyo with her body in the face of real, imminent danger. The strength that it takes Sakuya to withstand for so many years against all who wish to enslave her.

Then again, while their strength is more or less the same, it comes from different places.

Yuya's comes from an inner flame of passion and fierceness and stubbornness, coupled with compassion and her uncanny ability to never give up on him.

Sakuya's comes from a molten core of steel within her – impossible to break, impossible to bend.

He loved her, once - Sakuya.

At least, he thought he did. Thinks he did. But he has moved on, and Sakuya has drifted, as she always seems to do, out of his life.

The memory of her remains, however, and occasionally he watches Yuya and compares – Sakuya would have never done that, or Sakuya would have said this, not that.

Sometimes the fact that Yuya is not Sakuya saddens him, ever so slightly. Other times it makes him love her for it.

Trite, I know. =/ Ah well. Character introspection-ish, I guess.

Disclaimer: Writing disclaimers depresses me. I do not own Samurai Deeper Kyo. T_T