Astonishing ducked low behind a thick cluster of wild shrubs.
Meanwhile, End stepped up to the edge of the cliff, where the grassy hill sloped sharply down into a steep cliff, from here you can see everything below, the dorms, the beaches.
She paused, looking out over the horizon for a brief second before slipping her heavy bag off her shoulder on a flat patch of grass. Astonishing tilted her head, watching through the branches as End unzipped the compartment and pulled out a sleek, professional camera, followed by a lightweight folding tripod. She extended the tripod legs, planting them firmly into the ground and mounted the camera onto it.
"If you keep crouching in those bushes," End said, turning around towards the bushes. "you're going to drag burrs back into your room."
Realizing her cover was completely blown, she pushed herself up from the brush and brushed a few stray leaves off her tracksuit. "I was just making sure you weren't planning on jumping," she reasoned.
"Now now... that's a bit too much" She dropped a sweat. "Though I'd think the same too if I was you"
.....
.....
'This is awkward' Both thought the same.
"So, you are into photography, huh?" Astonishing said.
"Well... I wouldn't call it a full-blown passion," End replied. "Call it... capturing moments before they fade. We spend so much time looking straight ahead, that we rarely stop to record where we actually stood."
Astonishing stepped closer, keeping a comfortable distance as she looked out over the cliff's edge. "It's a nice view," she admitted. "Though I never took you for the reflective type."
End let out a dry, breathy laugh, though her eyes remained fixed on the small viewfinder. "Hey, can you look over here?"
She turned around, "What?".
Click.
"Hey!"
Astonishing grumbled, folding her arms across her chest. "You could've said it first".
"It's always better to capture things in their natural state", End taps the playback button to review the shot. "Not bad".
Astonishing stepped up beside her, leaning over just enough to peek at the tiny glow of the LCD screen. "Let me see that."
Displayed on the screen was her own image, wind whipping a few loose strands of hair across her face, her tracksuit is full of dirt, grass, and leaves, and her expression looks innocent, though that's normal when you didn't someone took a photo of you.
"I look like I just got tossed out of a lawnmower," she grumbled.
End lets out a soft laught. "I'd say it adds character. Besides, polished photos are boring. Real moments are messy."
Astonishing plucked a stray dry leaf out of her bang, letting the wind whisk it away. "Why are you even here?"
End didn't answer immediately. She shortened the tripod legs, then took a sit on the grass on the same level as her camera. "To clear my head," she said simply.
"Clear your head?" Astonishing repeated, dropping down to sit on the grass. She pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. "Didn't think someone who wins as effortlessly as you had anything cluttering up her mind."
End tilted her head. "Nobody wins effortlessly, Astonishing. When you stand at the front, every step you take is watched, dissected, and expected to be flawless. It gets quiet at the top, but it gets loud inside your own head."
"My training is as harsh if not harsher than you. We all bleed the exact same way, no matter how many trophies sit on our shelves." she continued.
Astonishing let out a soft sigh. "I guess I forgot for a second,"
.....
.....
.....
"Do you hate me?" End suddenly asked.
"Huh? Where did that come from?" Astonishing turned her head, blinking in surprise.
"You avoid me. Whenever we cross paths, you looked away"
Astonishing went quiet for a moment.
"No, no, no, I don't hate you," Astonishing admitted. "I was just... frustated. Everytime I run, all I see is you in front of me. Whatever I do, you won't bulge. It's really annoying..."
"Maybe I do hate you a little bit" she continued.
"Fair enough," End said quietly. "If the roles were reversed, I'd probably feel the exact same way."
Astonishing rested her chin back onto her knees,"Every race was the same. You ran like a machine built solely to leave the rest of us behind. I won't be surprised if you get the triple crownd and went undefeated the whole year"
End let out a hummed breath, unhooking the camera from its tripod and resting it in her lap. "You really put a lot of expectation on me didn't you? I feel honored, but you should not belittle yourself."
"You pushed me harder than anyone else at the Satsuki Sho, you know. My trainer had to ice my knee for three days straight after that" she continued.
Astonishing snapped her head. "You're lying"
"No one is truly invincible. Not the Overlord, not the Ashen Beast, not even the Emperor." End said. "Even titans bleed when pushed hard enough"
.....
"You know, after the Derby, I was thinking to skip the Kikuka Sho." Astonishing admitted. "It's clear that I wasn't perfectly build for long races, so I just thought I shouldn't bother participating"
"During that time I was..." she paused. "Maybe the stress got me and... things really went down for me--"
"-- but I'm fine now, really!" she quickly added. "I know I can't let myself to feel down forever. Afterall, I have good friends surrounding me"
"Friends, huh..." End repeated softly
Astonishing glanced at her sideways. "Don't tell me you don't have any?"
"I have teammates. Classmates. People who run beside me," End replied. "But when you're expected to win every single time, the space around you changes. People talk to you like you're already standing on the podium, or they talk about you like you're an obstacle they have to tear down. Finding someone who just... sees you as a person? That's rare."
"For all I can think of, you are my only friend. Maybe Dorazora too, cause you know, you two comes in one package?"
Astonishing froze for a second. "We are definately not not a package deal!"
End chuckled, "I'm just calling it as I see it."
"..... What I mean is... I'm going to be there" Astonishing's gaze returned to the scenary. "Perhaps, for the last time..."
"The last time?"
"I don't mean I'm quitting," Astonishing clarified. "I just mean..... *sigh* I don't know how to explain this. I'm not even sure if I can just go around telling people"
End didn't push. She simply leaned back, supporting her weight on her palms as the evening breeze rustled the grass and leaves around them. "You don't have to explain it," she said, "Whatever it is, you don't owe anyone a speech about it."
"But," she continued. "If this is going to be our last race together, then I'll make sure I give everything I had. I'll make our race so memorable, you won't forget it for countless lifetimes"
"Countless lifetimes..." Astonishing repeated. "Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
Astonishing eyes locked on hers. "Why do you run, End?"
"Why, eh?" End looked up the sky that had starting to darken. "I had a little sister."
"Had?" Astonishing asked softly
"She was born with weak lungs," End said, her gaze resting somewhere far past the horizon, where the sea met the darkening sky. "She couldn't run. She could barely walk up a flight of stairs without needing to rest. But whenever I took her outside, whenever she watched me run... her eyes would light up"
"Years went by just like that. I would run, and she would watch" she continued. "But one day, as if she hasn't suffered enough, she... started to forget things"
"It started with little things. Where she left her sketchbook. What day of the week it was. My parents thought it was just fatigue, or side effects from her treatment." End's voice dropped, "Then one evening, I came home from training with a medal in my hand. She looked right at me, smiled her usual bright smile, and asked me who I was."
"She forgot... you?" Astonishing whispered.
End nodded slowly, "She forgot my name first. Then my face. Eventually, she forgot how to walk entirely. My parents never gives me the full picture, all I know is that there's something wrong with her brain, and day by day, more and more memories were chipped away from her head."
"Then I remember. When we were little, she was completely obsessed with fantasy books," End said, her gaze fixed on the first pale star breaking through the twilight. "She loved stories about knights"
"So when everything started slipping away from her, I thought... maybe if I dressed like one, act like one, maybe I could save whatever memories she had left of me."
End let out a dry, chuckle. "It worked for a while. Whenever I put on the act, her eyes would lighten up."
"She couldn't remember my name," End continued, her voice soft, floating away on the night ocean breeze. "She didn't know I was her sister anymore. Perhaps all she sees is her favorite knight running of the track, defeating all her foes"
"Right up until the end," she continued. "she forgot everything else. She forgot our home, our parents, even her own name. But she never forgot the knight."
"She passed away two weeks before I entered Tracen," End said softly. "And after she was gone... I didn't know how to take the mask off. So, I tried to maintain that persona. I thought if I stopped winning, if I showed even a single moment of vulnerability, then the last promise I kept for her would crumble into nothing."
"It's exhausting to pretend to be someone you weren't" she continued, "She isn't here anymore so what's the point of doing it anymore? At the end of the day, I just want to be myself again. To let go"
Astonishing sat completely still, keeping her mouth shut and keep listening to her story. Sheknew, the reason why her otherself keeps suffering for loop after loop is because of the person in front of her. To sit side by side with someone worth calling sworn enemy, to hear her side of story. She started to think maybe she was the villain all along. Afterall, the reason why her other self got trapped in a loop was because of her own fault.
"Now that I thought about it, I cringed myself a lot didn't I? When we first meet too, I'm sure you thought I was cringe" End can't help but chuckled.
Astonishing let out am involuntary snort, the heavy emotional weight instantly shattered.
"You have no idea," she blurted out. "I almost thought you were a chunnibyou"
End buried her face into her hands, trying to suppress her laughs. "Please don't say that out loud. It sounds ten times worse when someone else puts a label on it."
"I'm just calling it as I saw it" Astonishing wheezed.
"I just thought it sounded cool!" End protested weakly.
The silly banter slowly quieted down, leaving behind a warm, comfortable silence that wrapped around the cliffside. Below them, the distant lights of the dormitories and the shoreline began to flicker on against the darkening blue of the coast.
Astonishing leaned back on her elbows, staring up at the emerging stars.
"You don't have to keep wearing the mask, End," She said softly, "The knight did her job. She gave your sister something to hold onto when everything else was fading. But you don't need to carry that weight anymore. You're allowed to just be you."
End sat quietly for a long moment, looking down at the camera resting safely in her lap. "Just me..."
"And for the record, when the Kikuka Sho comes... I'm giving it everything. Long race or not, last chance or not. I'm going to run like there's no tomorrow"
End turned her head, her gaze shifting from the camera in her lap to Astonishing's face. The light from the setting sun illuminates her face as she smiled.
.....
Click.
"Oh, come on! I told you to should've said it first!"
End lowered the camera with a small laugh, tapping the screen to review the shot. "I couldn't help it. The light was perfect."
Astonishing huffed, leaning over End's shoulder to look at the LCD screen anyway. "Fine, That one's... actually not terrible."
"I'll keep it in the private album, then." She turned back to Astonishing, holding out an open hand. "Well, now it's my turn to ask. Why do you run?"
"Why I run..." Astonishing repeated.
.....
"Can you keep a secret?"