Valkyrie Profile is (c) Enix... this is for entertainment only. Although I don't think you'll get much of that out of it either. ^^ Some of the characters in VP weren't all that well characterized... you'd think I would do better, eh? ^^


Our cause is just... we can do no wrong.

But it was not honor, what he did...

Shiho... The ocean moved in the distance, uncaring, echoing her name, at least in his imagination. His eyes fixed upon the horizon, Suo sat still upon the rocks of the cliff, as a statue might... or a dead man.

Perhaps his superior was right - he was just too soft.

But those eyes...

But why? What did one little girl matter? She was the enemy! Her voice had driven thousands of men against his division to kill and maim and slaughter... She was the song maiden, as responsible for death on the battlefield as the men who inflicted it with their own hands. Song maidens were cursed with the voice of the gods. Like the sirens of southern lore, they only existed to perpetuate suffering.

But those eyes... wet with tears, clear as the ocean. That glimpse beneath her lids had carried him farther than any honeyed words she might have spoken, they were so pained... a girl of that age should never carry the weight that he had seen behind those beautiful eyes... She should have been happy, protected, weaving bridal wreathes, talking to friends... not beaten and forced to bear the weight of the song maidens.

But that was Fate. Cruel Mistress Fate.

Suo was no different than the citizens of Hai-Lan... They were human beings; they worshipped the same gods he did. Shiho was - had been - human, not just a tool of Hel, as he had been made to believe until the moment he met her, and looked into that glirlish face...

What was to become of innocence in this world, if it was treated as something to be stepped on and destroyed?

What were they making of the gifts the gods were bestowng on their people - war? Killing, suffering? Disrespect for their creations? What right had man to kill, when it was the gods who had berathed life into them to begin with?

What right had man, to kill the innocent girl who had been blessed with the ability to sing the songs of Heaven?

The breeze picked up, carrying sea spray and the sound of gulls, but no answers. Only a whispering rush, as the waves beat upon the shore far below his vantave point, then drew themselves back into the ocean beneath yet another crash of waves and foam. That was the eternal cycle - wax and wane, tides rushing in, and out... the sun setting and the moon rising, until a new day dawned and the cycle began anew.

This too, was the song of the gods - a gift from heaven to the lowly dwellers of Midgard. Something even they were worthy to look upon - something every human being shared with every other.

This was regarded as beauty - why not Shiho, and others like her? Was it mankind's nature to create a weapon of everything, and dehumanize itself until even they did not recognize themselves?

Or perhaps... these were just the bitter rantings of a man who was denied something he wanted. Perhaps.

It was against his code to consort with the enemy... Suo had been lucky his superior had not killed him along with the song maiden. But what had been the harm in bringing her back with him? She hadn't the will to coerce him or any of the others with her voice; by her own words, she had been tired of living.

Indeed... why did he mourn? Shiho's wish was granted. Death. A cold embrace, but forgiving for those who had led admirable lives. Certainly, she had that. Despite the uses to which her people had put her, her heart was pure light. He could not imagine anything that would taint her.

It was his own failings, wasn't it? Yes. The waves murmured below, chanting their agreement.

He wanted something he did not deserve. One look into that girl's eyes had bewitched him as surely as her song might have to her 'comrades'... He was a shameful excuse for a samurai, with no right to complain when he had seen such suffering in someone else... suffering far beyond any misgivings he might have about the war.

There would be another campaign, soon... another senseless slaughter that he would be a part of. The more he participated in the doings of his legion, the more he felt sure that he was in the wrong place... There was no honor in this... It was a battle for supremecy, not protection of the weak - they were killing the weak! It was, after all, just an excuse to strut like senseless animals, as they beat their declared enemy into the ground...

Shiho... If I had only been able to free you, and give you peace... and save you from such tragedy.

The surface of the ocean pulsed, jagged, in the pale blue moonlight. Sea spray hung like a fog over the sands of the beach, but his eyes found the marking he searched for anyway - his only way of honoring the girl, and her release.

Shiho... your wish has been granted. I pray you are happy, in the expanse beyond Midgard...

And Suo... He would return to the way things had been before.

It was said there was a time in every lifetime when a human would encounter something, meet someone, and that occurance would change their lives forever, for better or worse. It had been called luck, curse, chance, and a million other words in dialects beyond his own.

But Shiho was his, whatever it might be - he knew beyond a doubt that somehow, that event and that meeting had changed him forever. She was his luck, curse, chance, fate...

... His divine destiny.