They sat.
[Here] SharpandPointy: It happened a couple years after you left
[Here] SharpandPointy: She's a pretty girl
[Here] SharpandPointy: And we'd all assumed that you two... well
[Here] SharpandPointy: So no one made a move on her for a while
[Here] SharpandPointy: Until...
[Here] SharpandPointy: Well, everyone thought you were dead
[Here] SharpandPointy: You never bothered to come back, see
[Here] SharpandPointy: So...
[Here] SharpandPointy: Some men came around courting
[Here] SharpandPointy: Some of them were polite, and some weren't
[Here] SharpandPointy: And then one day, she just up and left
[Here] SharpandPointy: The last we'd heard of her, she'd left to roam the Way of the Ninja
[Here] SharpandPointy: And then...
[Here] SharpandPointy wipes their tears
[Here] SharpandPointy: word came back
[Here] SharpandPointy: That she'd died
[Here] SharpandPointy: At the hands of the Black Lily
Meister's avatar stood up abruptly, fury on his face.
[Here] SharpandPointy: Where are you going?
[Here] SharpandPointy: Hey Sm1rk?!
[Here] SharpandPointy: Hey!
But he was already gone.
The camera panned to a dark, dank inn, where a female avatar dressed in a risque leather costume and a silver mask sat at her desk. All of a sudden, she stopped and looked up.
[Here] Th3DarkLily: I see you've killed most of my guards
[Here] Th3DarkLily: You might as well come out now
[Here] Th3DarkLily: I've never been shy about courting death
Meister's avatar appeared from underneath a cloak of stealth
[Here] Th3DarkLily: Wh-what?
[Here] Th3DarkLily: You!
In her moment of shock, he drew his sword and rammed it into her heart. No fuss, no fancy moves, just a straight assassination. The Dark Lily slumped to the floor. Meister was about to turn away, when she spoke her dying words
[Here] Th3DarkLily: Meister...
The camera captured that moment of horror on his face perfectly as he turned back around, and pulled the mask off her face and her pink hair and green eyes reappeared. Sakura could actually see his hands shaking as he touched her eyes, already dull in death. Meister slumped, bowed over by grief, and the music faded to silence as tears flowed down his face and the screen faded to black once more.
Sakura expected the next scene to be on sunset hill, with a final short but tragic montage of Meister jumping off the cliff holding her dead body, but noticed that the video still had several minutes to go. Curious, she watched as the scene opened to the village again, back at the gravestone of Meister's mother. This time, however, there were two gravestones.
[Here] SharpandPointy: Oh! Meister. You're here
[Here] SharpandPointy: It was nice of you to erect a gravestone for Sakura
[Here] SharpandPointy: She'd have liked that
[Here] Sm1rkMeister: ...
He turned to leave.
[Here] SharpandPointy: Hey! One more thing, since you're here
[Here] SharpandPointy: By the way, I found something when I was cleaning up my forge the other day
[Here] SharpandPointy: Here
[Here] SharpandPointy has given Sm1rkMeister a simple wedding band
[Here] SharpandPointy: The one you commissioned from me all those years ago
[Here] SharpandPointy: Before... well, before your mother died
[Here] SharpandPointy: She'd have liked to know that you'd meant to ask her to marry you
[Here] SharpandPointy: Maybe now, you can learn to forgive yourself
[Here] SharpandPointy: And move on
[Here] SharpandPointy: She'd have wanted you to
[Here] SharpandPointy: They both would
[Here] Sm1rkMeister: ...
[Here] Sm1rkMeister nods to SharpandPointy
[Here] SharpandPointy: Bye!
[Here] SharpandPointy: Honestly, that boy
[Here] SharpandPointy: He's basically the walking dead these days
Meister slowly walked back through the village, on the road past the meadows where they'd met. He walked up to the hill where he'd been training on that fateful day so many years ago, where he'd almost confessed to her, and stared around him. Flashbacks of the two of playing together, training together, and falling in love together played. What had once been a heartwarming and fluffy scene became bittersweet as Meister knelt down as if to propose, but the only one there was the empty sky. In defeat, tears started flowing down Meister's face.
One last flashback played. Sakura's avatar was looking at the viewer with an innocent and carefree smile.
[Here] SakuraBlossom: It's not like we're going to be leaving the village to roam the way of the Ninja, anyways
[Here] SakuraBlossom: I mean, don't get me wrong. it would be fun
[Here] SakuraBlossom: But what I really want is very simple
[Here] SakuraBlossom: Raising some animals and growing some crops
[Here] SakuraBlossom: Maybe a couple dogs
[Here] SakuraBlossom: A family
[Here] SakuraBlossom: A warm home
[Here] SakuraBlossom: I just need to be strong enough to protect those who I love
The camera showed Meister curled up in the middle of the field, clutching the ring in his hand. As the screen faded to black for the last time, the last piece of voice acting came on. It was her voice, distorted and warped by a voice changer, as if it came from far, far away.
"Living is hard, but we must live on, for our loved ones and for ourselves."
Sakura didn't snap out of her trance until the first teardrops splashed onto her fingers. She was still in the library, although thankfully the section was now deserted. Even the campus outside was dark, shrouded in night as it was.
Shannaro! I can't believe I'm crying in public! Hoping no one saw, she quickly wiped away the tears with the remnants of the tissue she'd been clutching in her hand. She turned off the video without even looking at the credits, and quickly went into the game to talk to Meister. Luckily for her, he was online at the moment.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: I watched the video
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: It was so good
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: You changed the ending?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Yeah
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: It wasn't long enough
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: ?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Videos over 30 mins get double rewards if they win
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: If we're going to enter this competition, we might as well go for everything
Sakura flipped back to the Way of the Ninja forums and read the post announcing the contest again, this time paying more attention to the fine print. It really does say you get double rewards if you win! Huh, Meister sure pays attention to detail. She checked the run time of their video. 30 minutes and 1 second exactly.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: So you changed the ending to add more flashbacks?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Yes
I can't believe I bawled my eyes out over filler, Sakura grumbled, feeling a bit silly. Still, she shook off that feeling quickly.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Nice
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Should I post it, or do you want to?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: You do it
Couple] Sm1rkMeister: I don't have a forum account
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Tell me when the results are posted
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Roger that!
Sakura went ahead and posted the link to forum, and pretty soon, the comments started rolling in. The first couple of dozen were either from fans of UWUAmi, who ridiculed her for trying to steal their goddesses' stage, or lookieloos, who brought up old gossip about the "love-triangle" between her, Fries, and Ami, or her, Meister and Fries. It wasn't until 20 minutes in that the first comment about the video itself appeared.
Oh no, I didn't bring enough tissues for this. WHY DID YOU LEAVE HER ON A BENCH, MEISTER?! SakuraBlossom, you are too cruel! First feed us the fluffy, and now this!? Heartless!
Sakura snickered. Wait till she gets to the end. She flipped back to her game to say goodbye to Meister before she finally left the library. Instead of saying goodbye, though, another question came out in the chat
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Meister?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: ?
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Why did he kill her?
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Why was he so consumed by revenge that he killed without even asking?
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Or investigating?
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Is love really that powerful?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: I'm pretty sure you wrote that storyline.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: I was just fooling around
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: But you portrayed it so well in the editing
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Would you do that?
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Throw it all away for revenge
It took a while for Meister to answer her. His silence made her nervous. Was that too weird a question? Just before Sakura was going to take back her words and laugh it off, though, he did finally respond.
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: I'm not him
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: It's just a story
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: You should go home soon, it's pretty late
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Mm I should
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: The library's nearly empty now
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: It's a bit scary
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: There should still be someone there
Surprised, Sakura instinctively looked around. She was a bit startled to see a figure in the back, face shadowed by the lamp behind him. She squinted her eyes to see who it was.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: You're right
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: The supervising librarian is still here.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: I'm less afraid now lol
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Good night then!
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: good night, MDW
(¬‿¬ ) (//▽//)
Sasuke watched Sakura pack her things and pick up her bag, and kept watching as she turned off her desk light and became a dark shadow against the window. If anyone he'd known well had seen him at that moment, they might not have recognized him, because the small, charmed smile on his face still hadn't faded. I'm glad she liked the new ending. I feel a bit bad for making her cry like that, though. I hope that's the last time.
( ^ ___ ^ )
AN: That's right, Sasuke-kun, you better not be like him in this lifetime!
And I'm back again! Sorry guys, hit a rough patch lifewise. Hopefully we're back on track now (if not, please donate to Reglee the amazing Beta's Genshin Impact fund). Does the bench scene still make people blubber? Because like honestly it still does get me going after all these years. Maybe that was when my shipping heart really fell for this pairing (tbh I fell for Sakura as a character first. Part of the charm might've been the forehead). So yes, this is the video! Love O2O/WWYXHQC fans will notice that this is a fairly large deviation from the drama, and I WILL have extra notes about this on my tumblr, because I have thoughts (as I usually do when I deviate). For everyone else who doesn't want to read hours of ANs, though, I will just say thank you to Reglee the amazing Beta, thank you the reader for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed it! As always, comments, reviews, kudos, favourites, bookmarks, subscriptions, and illegible scrawls on doctor's notes always make my day. See you soon!
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