Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/2748854. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Major_Character_Death, Underage Category: F/M Fandom: Kanon_(2006) Relationship: Aizawa_Yuichi/Tsukimiya_Ayu, Aizawa_Yuichi/Minase_Nayuki, Aizawa_Yuichi/ Misaka_Kaori, Aizawa_Yuichi/Misaka_Shiori, Aizawa_Yuichi/Kawasumi_Mai, Aizawa_Yuichi/Original_Female_Character Character: Aizawa_Yuichi, Tsukimiya_Ayu, Minase_Nayuki, Misaka_Kaori, Misaka_Shiori, Kawasumi_Mai, Kurata_Sayuri, Ieyasu_Ryoko_(Original_Female_Character), Minase_Akiko Additional Tags: Explicit_Sexual_Content, Smut, Multiple_Relationships, Canon Relationships, Major_Spoilers, Non-Canonical_Relationships, Non-Canonical Character_Death Stats: Published: 2014-12-16 Chapters: 2/? Words: 1361 ****** Requiem of a Dream Long Forgotten ****** by harmonysKiss Summary Yuichi thought he remembered everything: his past with Mai, Ayu's fall, and Makoto the fox, not to mention Nayuki. But there are two things he's forgotten. 1. Nayuki had a crush on him. 2. Ryoko Ieyasu, a girl he found on the roof of a music shop, who he helped by giving her change. But, after he went away, Ryoko developed a hatred for Yuichi. So when she finds out he's returned, she begins to hunt him relentlessly. Notes So this is the first work in this fandom on AO3. Makes me feel special. Personally I find Kanon sadder than Clannad. So... it's pretty damn sad. ***** Prologue - Standing on a Roof of Memories ***** I could hear my name being called. It was as if I was in a dream. It was near silent, and by an unfamiliar voice. It was male. I had no friends. Why was this boy speaking to me? His voice was familiar. I knew that much. It made my fingers clench the hilt of my curved knife, shoved into a rough sling made of vines and rope. Why I was in the city, I couldn't tell you. I just felt a tug. No. He wasn't calling my name. That was a memory. In the present moment, he was calling out "Ayu!" and laughing. He was chasing another girl around. I knew she was familiar as well. I have to... remember. I must remember this pair. Why do they make me want to kill them? They must have betrayed me at one point. I paused, before silently jumping off the roof and creeping back to the safety of the trees. *** I was chasing Ayu around the shopping district. We were having so much fun, and she was so beautiful in the snow. She had just learned to walk again after a year of rehab. And, before that, a seven year coma. I call out her name. But, as I do, I glance up at the roof of the shop right next to us. And... there's a girl. I don't think I know this girl. She has aqua-green hair, like Mai's eyes but brighter. Her eyes are a deep brown. Her lips are curled back into a sneer. But... a memory... When I call out Ayu's name again, it sounds like I'm saying... Ryoko? ***** Dancing in the Melting Snow ***** Chapter Notes See the end of the chapter for notes Her feet glided silently over the frozen ground, not even making a small sound when her dirty toes slid over white snow. Her tanned hand clutched a crude spear, while, in her left, a dull-colored stone machete sliced cleanly through any brambles or branches in her way. Across her shoulder she had a dead fox. It wasn't one she'd killed; it was a dead one she'd found. It had a bell around its neck, so she assumed it was a pet that had run away and died of starvation. Or something. While she walked, she came across a big black bear. It was sluggish as it picked berries by the pawful and tipped them back into its mouth. The girl raised her spear and plunged it into the weak spot just below its skull, the brain stem. Then she jumped twenty feet into the air and grabbed a branch of a nearby tree. Although her fingers slipped on the frozen bark, she managed to pull herself up and crouch as the bear roared in pain and turned, slashing at thin air. Its nose twitched. It was sniffing for the girl. Luckily the girl was wrapped in a woven dress of vines, so her scent was masked. The bear stumbled around for another minute, then collapsed to the ground. The girl dropped, landing easily on her feet, and tugged out her spear. "Did you hear that?" The girl's ears pricked up. Deep male voices emanated from the woods just a little further down the hill, and the girl cursed. Hurriedly and carelessly hacking at the bear with her machete, she managed to retrieve some flesh to cook and eat and a small amount of warm black pelt before the voices got too close for comfort. She silently leapt back into the tree, and then to the next one, which was a perfect point at which to stay hidden while watching the men. "Sounded like a bear," another man grumbled, waving his bright torch around. "A dying bear." "Yeah. And the wolves are freaking out." The girl's instincts honed into another sound she'd been tuning out: the howling and barking of two dogs. Meat, they cried. Hungry! Need food! The girl felt quite sorry for the pair of dogs. She moved back to the bear carcass and cut off more meat, then she threw it down the hill. She carefully sliced off some more meat, and more pelt, and continued for another few seconds before the men cried, "What the heck?" and the dogs attacked the meat. Food! Thank you! She launched herself back into the tree, smiling, and waited for the men to pass. Instead, they came closer and shone their torches on the carcass. "What the fuck?" the first man swore. "It's... it's been partly eaten." "No, it hasn't," the second man argued. "Look - the meat has been sliced off, not bitten, and a wild animal wouldn't leave so much flesh behind." "Oh, yeah..." The first guy nodded in agreement. But then he scratched his head. "But then... what the fuck happened?" "Human, probably." The second guy shrugged. "But... we only just heard it die. If there was a human here we'd have heard them leave." "True..." The second man stroked his chin, then shone his torch upwards. He looked in the same direction, and his eyes narrowed. There was nothing there. But there were parts where the ice had been melted off in the rough shape of handprints. The man shone his torch over into the berry bushes where the bear had been eating, and noticed a slight shadow. The girl tried to press herself further into the leaves, but this just created a slight rustle. The girl cursed herself silently. She'd always been clumsy or noisy around humans. Ever since she woke up in the woods, cold and sick, when she was six. She had no idea how to get out, but she knew she was there because humans put her there. As such, whenever a human came near her, her senses would grow dimmer with anger.  The man peered around the bush and gasped. "Dude, it's a girl!" The girl hissed and swung her machete upwards. The sharp stone embedded itself deep in the man's neck and he fell to the ground with a scream. "What the fuck?" The first man walked around the bush, curious and worried. A moment later he'd been speared through the throat, and the only noise he could make was a gross and bloody burble. The girl tugged her machete from the second man's neck and raised it over his head. "What... are you?" the man choked out, looking scared and confused. "I'm a girl that was dumped in the forest when I was sick," the girl snarled. "I had no way of knowing where to go, so instead I taught myself to hunt and keep hidden." The man's eyes widened. "You're... Ryoko Ieyasu?" "Yeah," Ryoko sneered, sending her blade plunging into the man's skull. "That's me." "Your parents... not looking... anymore..." the man gasped, then he was silent. Ryoko's shoulders tensed, then relaxed. She looked back at the other man, seeing that he'd long since bled out. She tugged her spear from his neck and wiped the blood off the tip with the hem of her dress. Then she threw both bodies carelessly down the hill, not waiting around to hear the crunch of their broken bones.  *** It was night when Ryoko found herself ambling slowly down the hill, gripping her spear but not her machete. She found the men on the road at the base, spines twisted at horrifying angles, legs at impossible angles, and heads smashed open. Ignoring the gruesomeness of it all, Ryoko calmly checked the men for valuables. They both had wallets with small amounts of money, and ID. She took the money, about two thousand yen in total, and began to walk down the road. She couldn't live in the forest. While she showed no remorse at killing humans, her cold, calculating mind determined that when the men were discovered, she'd be found eventually. So she decided to slowly integrate into society, maybe find her parents again.  Ryoko dropped her spear on the road, wiping the tip and the handle for fingerprints. She unhooked her machete from its loop at her hip and wiped it off as well, then left them at the roadside. In the distance, she heard the howling of the wolves that had belonged to the men. Free, they shouted. Freedom. Chapter End Notes Yeah, so that fox at the start was a bad representation of Makoto. I mean, a bell? That's the only way it was her. Playing the Kanon visual novel (and skipping the hentai) made me cry at the end of Makoto's arc. The CG where it's just her hand lying on the grass made me especially tearful, because sadness. Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!