| yukino aguria

"Do you see that?"

She points at the moon and I nod. "Yes, it's the moon." I try not to sound rude.

She shakes her head. "That's not what I mean, but it's okay. I can barely see it myself." Mavis stands up, goes over to the table, and dusts the telescope using a thick brush. Then, she peers through it. "Darn. I hoped I was wrong. Take a look, Yukino."

I stand up and look through the telescope. It's hard to see, as Mavis said, but there's a thin, glowing, crack - which is worrying, because no one - and no range magic - can reach the moon. I press a button and thick, glowing, rings appear. Too many to count. The crack appears to be spread over the rings now, but it's hard to tell; there're so many, they seem to be a sphere with holes. "There's a crack. On the moon."

She nods, frowning. "I think I know why." Mavis gets up and fetches the thick book I saw earlier. She scoots closer to me and opens it up. It's a picture book. The biggest picture is of four people, one tall blond man, a black-haired muscular man that looks oddly like a tree, a sinister-looking man with an eye patch, and Mavis. 

"Those were really nice days. Now, everything's gone awry," Mavis says wistfully. 

"What do you mean by that?"

She chuckles and stands up. "Hades is the blond with the eye patch in the middle. He was a good man, really, until too much power fell into grasp and it drove him to insanity . . ." she cuts herself off and laughs. "Well, look at me making you worry about the past. Anyways, I've got something to do. Would you inspect the moon from outside? See if you can see anything beyond the cracks. Here, take the telescope."

It's heavy and dusty, but I nod. 

Mavis guides me to the elevator and disappears back down. Setting up the telescope takes its fair share of time and yields little results even after staring at the moon for half an hour. I'm about to go back inside when I see traces of a face.

The same face Mavis spoke of.

Hades's eyes are glancing down at me, his expression cold. Then, he morphs into a figure with a yellow, triangular mask which's head is shaped like a trident, with thick black hair that could be a wig. Never seen that before. 

For a brief moment after, I hallucinate someone; this time, I catch a long white beard, a black headpiece, and a necklace made of enormous red beads. 

And then he appears, and my vision of him is clearer than a crystal. 

He's holding an umbrella, looking down at his shoes while mumbling to himself.

There're circles under his eyes, not as dark as when I saw him last, and his blond hair is soaked -  deeming the umbrella nothing but a formality.

His aura is hopeful; what of it I can see, at least. It's a welcome change from all the times I've seen him down.

The rain starts to let up.

And our eyes meet.

. . .

hard to believe it's been two years, eh?