This night is strange, but Ashura has seen stranger.

If anyone needs light, Ashura can help!

[Ashura is among the last to reach the shores of the new settlement. Hir white robes bloodstained and hir body smudged with soot, sie is now sitting calmly near the base of a tree, with the computer on the ground next to hir.]

[Sie gives the camera a smile--a slightly weary, bittersweet smile, yes, but a smile.]

Ashura promised to come back safe. You see, Hina-chan? Ashura is here.

Is everyone else all right now? Hana-chan? Mireille-chan?

[It's been a while since Ashura was last really a happy camper. Sie's been in self-imposed exile, trying to teach hirself to cope without hir guardian around...]

[And sie comes back, and what does sie see on the network? One of the few who are left of those who've cared for hir, dead or near to it, attacked while helpless, and his attackers--his betrayers--still there, disgracing him while he suffers with their hateful licentiousness, and--]

[And who else does sie know, who would betray love for lust, lust for the flesh and for power and destruction?]

[Oh, right. Mommy dearest.]

[Standing before the camera, sword drawn, is not Ashura the child, nor Ashura the monster. This is Ashura the war god, and sie is NOT pleased. Hir eyes, more brilliantly golden than ever in the firelight, are narrowed with hate; hir long hair and loose robes billow about hir, stirred by the heat of the flames and by the currents of magic threatening to escape hir.]

Grell Sutcliff. Takasugi.

You will pay dearly for this. I am coming for you now.

Wh...what is this?!

[Ashura has never seen a refrigerator before. This box full of light and food, it transfixes hir! Sie's distracted from hir angst, opening and closing the magic foodbox.]

[This is Ashura's first entry since the high school curse, and probably the first anyone but Mireille has heard from hir. Sie's spent more or less all of that time curled up in hir tent, on Yasha's bed, with hir head pillowed on the one robe he left behind. When the village flooded, sie took the robe and stayed as close to the water's edge as sie could, then went back once the waters receded.

Hir voice is quiet and weak, empty of the confidence sie'd been slowly building up. Sie sounds more like a frightened child than when sie was a child. But sie's talking again, and that's more than sie's done for about a month now.]

...Ashura is lonely.

Are...A-Are Ashura's friends still here?

[There's not long until class, but the school's art room is a mess. Ashura is wearing a makeshift smock--a white, button-down shirt that's much too big for hir--over a tank top and shorts, and is barefoot, to Hell with regulations. Hir shirt, hir hair, and hir skin are smeared with oil paints, and there's a look to hir that's halfway between manic and exhausted.

The canvas sie's near is still wet, but the painting on it looks pretty close to done, a moderately disturbing surrealist piece in dark tones.

Sie catches sight of the computer, and looks over at it, as though just noticing it existed and still not particularly caring.]

...I won't be attending Ancient History class today. Someone can inform the teacher, if they wish.

[OOC: Ashura has changed too much since last time to do the Foreign Exchange Student thing again. Now, sie's dealing with hir grief through art! Have fun trying to make hir do anything else, teachers :| ]

[Ashura is not in a happy place.

Well, that's putting it mildly. Ashura is curled up in a sort of tangle, shaking uncontrollably and weeping loudly. Any words that can be made out-- there probably aren't all that many-- have to do with people always going away, a promise, and being such a bad person that sie doesn't deserve anyone.]

Y...Yasha...! [Sobs harder, if that's even possible at this point.]

Ashura is really happy to be back in Sieben! Tenkai was really lonely and scary...Ashura hopes that isn't what it's really like, now. Ashura...wants Ashura's friends to be free and safe and happy...

Ah, but I'm here again! And the Hibou left a bunch of little egg-presents! Ashura is happy ♥

[OOC: Ashura now has a whole bunch of glitter everywhere, smells like bubble bath, and is in possession of a great many pieces of jewelry that look like they came out of Cracker Jack boxes. Which sie is wearing alongside hir gold and rubies. ]

[Ashura is by a majestic waterfall, in a world that rings distinctly of the mythical. Sie's curled in on hirself, sobbing softly]

Ashura didn't want to come back here...And...And I can't find Ryuu-chan, or Souma, or anybody...did Taishakuten catch them while Ashura was gone...?

[Whimpers]

Yasha, where are you?

Ashura has been here for a year and two days now.

A year...is not very long. But it is. Ashura remembers...I was scared, when I came here. But people were nice to me. Matsuri-chan let me live with him, and then Mireille-chan moved in with us. Ashura made lots of friends! And Yasha came here, like Ashura knew he would...

And sometimes, bad people have been mean to Ashura's friends, or they've gone home and left Ashura behind, or the Bad Ashura has done mean things to people. But lots of Ashura's friends are still here, and Ashura is happy for that!

This has...it has been a very good year. Hibou...thank you.

And thank you, to the people who have been Ashura's friends. Ashura loves you!

[Private | Really Hackable]

A whole year since Ashura has seen Ryuu-chan or Souma or Kujaku or anybody...[Sigh]