The storm showed no mercy. Snow lashed at their exposed faces, howling around them as it buried the world in white. Miura and Sabrina, locked in the stockades, were almost unrecognizable beneath the frost clinging to their hair and clothes. Yet, in their final moments, the colours of their lives clung to them like ghosts.
Miura's pink-and-black kimono fluttered weakly in the wind, the embroidered plum blossoms on its fabric glistening with frost. The fabric had once glowed with a life all its own, like her, but now it hung heavy, soaked with snow and stained by her blood. She shivered violently, her breath coming in shallow gasps as the pain from her broken joints wracked her body.
Sabrina, just a step away in the next stockade, wore her favourite privateer's garb: a tailored white coat and baby-blue breeches, once crisp and pristine, now stiff with ice and torn from the earlier battle. Her white shirt was splattered with blood, her broken jaw hanging at an unnatural angle. Yet even in the storm, the pale hues of her outfit stood out, a testament to the fearless spirit she had once carried.
Miura's head lifted weakly, her dark eyes barely visible through the frost clinging to her lashes. She turned her face toward Sabrina, her lips quivering as she tried to speak. "Sabrina..." Her voice cracked, barely audible over the roaring wind.
Sabrina couldn't answer. Her shattered jaw left her incapable of words, but her body trembled, her eyes fluttering open at the sound of her name. She turned her head as best she could, meeting Miura's gaze with glassy, pain-filled eyes. She groaned softly, the sound a wordless cry of shared suffering.
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Miura's trembling lips curved into a faint smile, though her tears froze before they could fall. "I... I'm glad..." She paused, gasping for breath. "... you're here... in the end..."
Her body convulsed as a wave of pain coursed through her, her broken shoulders grinding against the wooden stockade. Yet she forced herself to keep speaking, her voice trembling but filled with longing. "This kimono... the one I met you in... I wanted to show it to you... under the plum blossoms... so you'd see... how they match..."
Her words dissolved into a choked sob, her chest heaving as she fought against the agony. "The way... the pink blossoms fall... so soft... like snow..." She gasped, her voice trailing into a faint wail. "I wanted to... to watch them... with you..."
Sabrina groaned again, her body jerking as though she wanted to say something, to comfort her. Her fingers twitched against the restraints, but she was powerless. The tears freezing on her cheeks were her only response, her blue-and-white coat barely visible now under the gathering snow.
Miura's voice grew weaker, her breath hitching as the frost began to claim her. "And the sea... Sabrina... the blue waves... so clear in spring..." She coughed, the sound raw and guttural. "I wanted... to sail with you then... to feel it all... together..."
Her body sagged in the stockade, her strength slipping away. Yet she forced herself to raise her head one last time, her dark eyes locking on Sabrina's. "You're... my blossom..." she whispered, her words barely carried by the wind. "The one... I'll... n-never let go of..."
Her lips moved again, but no sound came. The storm claimed her final breath, her body falling still as the wind tore at the pink-and-black kimono that had been her pride.
Sabrina's trembling stopped moments later. Her bloodied coat and breeches, her favourite colours of white and baby blue, were covered in frost as her head hung forward in silence. Her last breath escaped into the cold air, mingling with the blizzard that buried them both.
Together, they became one with the storm, their colours and love fading into the endless white.