Jolene Aurora's life was slowly spilling out before her.

Nevertheless, she solemnly forced herself to keep her eyes on the young man's pitiful face that was directed at her until the very end.

Her breaths were slowly becoming forced, as the pain gradually burned and churned into something like a haunting numbness that began to spread across her body.

Even so, she remained stooping down, motionless while she reflected on everything that occurred in her life up to this one point.

Hah, so much for an assassin, huh?

"JOLENE!!!!!"

S-Shit.

Liohime Kitagami tried to run towards her, but his legs gave way, and he coughed up blood as he collided hard into the ground below.

He raised his head and desperately pushed himself towards her, sputtering and choking on his own spit as he tried to formulate words, but he finally made his overwhelmed state clear.

"SHIT, SHIT , SHIT!!! WE-WE NEED….UH…FUCK!! YOU NEED….YOU NEED A…!!!!"

His breathing became uncontrollable, and his lips trembled with severity on seeing Jolene's forced breathing and her expressionless gaze.

"C-Calm down, calm down and think, Lio!!!" he screamed to himself, before edging closer in order to lift her up. "R-Right…I'll get you out of here myself and return to the group!! Someone….someone has to have something to….!!"

His voice trailed off, and his legs refused to push his body upwards as a stinging sensation ripped through his insiders and he collapsed once more. He cursed himself with rage.

"GET THE FUCK UP, DAMMIT!!!!!"

He could feel something welling up in his eyes, but he could barely notice it as his focus was entirely on the person whom he had known for most of his life. He had to ensure that-

"That's….enough, Lio."

He stopped completely after flinching, and he slowly exchanged glances with Jolene, who had just muttered faintly.

Her lips curved upwards ever so slightly, and her eyes relaxed, and Liohime instantly realized what she was trying to say.

And he rejected it wholeheartedly.

"SH….SHUT UP."

"Lio-"

"NO!!! I REFUSE!! I'LL THINK OF SOMETHING- Y-YEAH! I'LL CALL SHIHON!! HER HEALING FACTOR-"

"The damage is done!"

The forced yell that only rose slightly cut him off rendered him immobile, and he saw Jolene cough up blood as a result before continuing:

"It's….over. Only….about…a minute left….maybe."

Liohime's eyes twitched, then came the watery tears that dripped down from the corner of his eyelids.

--Liohime froze, and then broke down completely with silent sobs of despair.

His rushed breaths caused him to almost choke on himself again, and he gripped his chest tightly while mucus began to leak from his nostrils and tears continued nonstop, causing the dying woman to give a weak smile once more.

"Crying for someone…who's just…your coworker…Lio, you dummy."

They had known each other for such a long time, yet, there was still so much for the both of them to discover about one another.

Life truly was funny. Liohime Kitagami was pretty much the first best thing that had ever happened to her dull, horrible life, and here he was, witnessing her final moments.

When she felt like things were getting too stressful for her, when she had made mistakes that she thought would destroy the relationship that she had with him, Liohime had told her to live.

"Live…and work on my mistakes….that's what…you told me, Lio," she faintly spoke.

Unlike her father, who seemed like he would rather not want her alive, or her mother who could only care about pleasing her horrible husband, he was the first one who was truly interested in her bettering her life, even if they were both criminals at the end of the day.

"....And I lived."

She had kept fighting until the bitter end, from her early childhood until the age of twenty-one, and that was most important.

Fighting on….wasn't so bad after all.

She was slowly embraced by the weak arms of her compatriot, who had worked alongside her for years, and finally, tears began to run down her cheek as Jolene could feel everywhere become more and more dull and hazy.

If she had known that things would have ended here for her beforehand, there would have been so much that she wanted to say to each and every person that she had encountered in life until this point.

She wanted to remind her dad what a shitbag he was, scold her mother for not speaking against him, fight back against the bullies in school tormented her relentlessly and told her that she was a waste of oxygen, meet with the mailman once and thank him for being at the right place at the right time to stop her attempted suicide, tell her penpal that she would be running away from home and that she will miss them, go on countless outings with Liohime, and more.

But, this would do.

As Jolene could finally feel the cold sensation of the winter snow known as death creeping up towards her body, she whispered her final words into Liohime's ears.

"Live.....keep living….love...you."

And her movements froze completely after her strength failed and her head leaned against his neck…

…..As the curtains closed on Jolene Aurora's theatre of life.

***

"Huh."

Jolene found herself in an endless field of snow.

Her expression was not one of anger, sadness, regret, or anything of the like. She simply sighed and gave an faint smirk as she took a step forward.

Then, she stopped, noticing something as she gazed downwards.

Oh, it's just a....a flower?

Jolene stooped low, inspecting the only lively object other than her in the endless tundra, and her eyes widened as she noticed something resting on its petals.

A beautiful butterfly with broken wings stumbled and strutted around the perimeter, and she stared at it in awe.

It could not fly. It lost all hope as it remained stranded on the flower. But, it still struggled to continue.

Jolene's face relaxed, and she picked up the flower that was rooted to the snow before holding it close to her face with a gorgeous, innocent smile.

"....Well played, Jolene," she concluded, with nobody to hear her final speech.

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