A/N: Just in case you didn't already notice, this fanfic is marked as mature, and this chapter is the reason for that. If you don't feel comfortable reading about the trigger warnings below, I recommend you stop now and read something else. I'm sorry for the inconvenience

TW: Death, violence and grief

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The friendship between the two girls began to grow more and more as they got older. They started opening up to each other more about their feelings and what troubles them, especially Nene, as well as creating many different handshakes and gestures only they understood.

Even after they both turned sixteen, they had a very strong friendship that the whole village knew about. And as much as neither would want to confess, they loved each other too...

However, neither of them wanted to confess as they feared rejection...

One day when the sun shone brighter than usual, Nene went to the cherry blossom tree to wait for Minori. The tree that they first met under had become their hangout and they always met their every day.

Prior to them meeting, the cherry blossom tree only rarely bloomed and so it would be very crowded on the days where the pink flowers were out. But after meeting, the tree was always in bloom and had an even more magical aura when the two girls were together.

While Nene was waiting in their usual spot, she noticed that there weren't as many flowers on the tree, which concerned her. She felt this was a sign from Hatsune Miku that something was coming, something dangerous.

However, the green haired girl shook her head and decided to brush it off as this was happening just because her best friend wasn't here yet, wasn't here to make the magic happen.

Soon after she pushed the thought away, she heard footsteps fastly approaching. Then suddenly, Minori jumped through a bush and landed beside Nene.

"I-i'm h-here!" She said while panting, she was very out of breath from running all the way there.

"Minori-chan!" Her best friend cried out with concern, "Why are you so out of breath?"

"I'm sorry! I woke up so late and I didn't want to worry you so I came as fast as I could!" Minori apologised.

"It's okay," Nene reassured her with a warm smile, "You didn't have to jump through a bush though..."

She put her hand into her friend's hair as brushed out the leaves, which made both of them blush.

"I wasn't looking where I was going..." The brown haired girl sighed, now very embarrassed.

The green haired girl giggled and then the two girls began to chat as they usually did every day. Somehow they never ever run out of things to talk about. Currently they were talking about how Kiritani Haruka was hosting another concert soon at the village's stage, something they were both very excited about.

However, as Minori rambled on and on, Nene couldn't help but keep on looking up at the cherry blossom tree. Still no new flowers bloomed and the current ones looked like they were wilting more and more as the seconds went by. There was no sense of magic present, only fear and foreshadowing.

The brown haired girl felt sad seeing her best friend look so concerned and she wanted to do something about it. She thought maybe is she finally confessed her feelings it would make her feel better but she was still so scared to tell her.

The green haired girl looked down and blushed at the sight of seeing her best friend lean closer to her with a warm smile on her face. She could tell what she was about to do so she leaned in as well.

Just when their lips were about to make contact with a passionate kiss, the two heard slashes of swords and footsteps of horses running into the clearing. They turned away from each other to look at the two knights approaching them, swords in hand and on top of two vicious looking steads.

One knight had ginger hair and the other had two toned hair of both light blue and dark blue. They were both wearing armour that Nene could tell was not apart of their village's armour but instead of another kingdom's.

The ginger haired knight slashed his sword through the air so he could point at Minori's chest but what he ended up doing instead was slicing a scar into Nene's cheek and his sword then cut through Minori. He quickly brought his sword back to his side, his face going pale with shock.

The brown haired girl panicked as she saw a cut in her dress, blood pouring out of it. Before anyone could do anything more, she fell backwards, now lying on the grass.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" The ginger haired knight exclaimed.

"Akito... how could you?..." His friend sighed.

"I'm so sorry you had to witness that, Toya..." Akito apologised in a mumble.

"I can't bare to look you in the eyes... Goodbye Akito..." Toya muttered and then looked down at his horse, "Cookie, let's go home..."

The two tone haired knight rode out of the clearing and the ginger haired knight tried to call for him but he didn't return, he then turned back to the two girls.

Nene was hyperventilating with tears beginning to shed from her purple eyes as she held her best friend. The light in Minori's grey eyes flickered as she tried to stay alive, even though more blood stained her dress and the colour began to drain out of her skin.

"P-please M-minori, st-stay with me!" The green haired girl spluttered, her voice barely able to be heard as she tried to speak through her panicking state.

"I-i-i'm s-sorry N-nene-chan!" The brown haired girl mumbled, trying to place her pale hand on her friend's scarred cheek where blood dripped from.

"P-please don't b-be s-sorry M-minori, you haven't done anything wrong!" Nene cried.

"B-but I n-never g-got to t-tell you th-that... I l-l-lo..." Minori tried to confess but it was too late.

With a smile on her face in her final seconds, she went unconscious...

"MINORI!!!" The green haired girl screamed, tears now flooding from her eyes.

She shook her and shook her but her friend wouldn't wake up. She finally kissed her on her now cold and pale lips but despite the fact she was smiling, she couldn't feel it.

Minori is dead...

Nene bawled her eyes out hysterically. She could barely breathe now knowing that the only real friend she had was now gone, lost to an accidental stab of a sword to the chest.

Akito hopped off of his horse and quietly approached her, trying to make things right, but he froze when the green haired girl turned around and glared at him with the scariest look he had ever seen with blood pouring down from the slash on her cheek.

"DON'T YOU DARE GET ANY CLOSER!!!" She yelled.

"I'm s-so s-sorry..." He tried to apologise with a stutter.

"APOLOGISING WON'T BRING HER BACK!!! GO AWAY!!!" She screeched.

He jumped backwards with fright and then frantically jumped onto his horse.

"Let's go h-home too, Pancake!" The ginger haired knight called.

The horse nodded its head and in the blink of an eye, it rode out of the clearing.

Nene gritted her teeth and furrowed her eyebrows with fury, but very quickly she went back to weeping. She had never felt this way before and this mix of emotions currently swarming her was very confusing along with unbearable.

Sadness, anger, grief, rage, depression, fury, shock and fear, she felt it all, and she couldn't take it.

She picked up one of the wilted cherry blossoms and placed it in her deceased friend's hair before running away from the scene while sobbing, back to her home that she didn't feel she deserved anymore.

She didn't deserve anything other than to have suffered that fatal blow instead of her dear, best friend, Hanasato Minori...