Woke up safe

Sora's sleep wasn't very calm. Influenced by the narcotics she had been given, she seemed to have some sort of soup of dreams happening simultaneously. There were many pictures of Yoshi in historical clothing from various stages of life. He seemed to smile a lot. The last thing she saw before waking up was two kids fighting with wooden swords.

"Yoshi, you are not that bad anymore. Soon you will be able to compete with me!" The taller boy noted.

"Thank you, older brother, I am happy to hear that!"

The boy frowned, "I told you to stop calling me brother, we are not brothers!"

"But why, I thought we were friends, we are both disciples here..." Yoshi became sad, trying to hide his tears by turning away.

The older boy looked at him seriously, put his sword down, and approached him, "Okay, okay, you can call me whatever, just don't cry, you are too old for that."

"For real? Oh, that's great!" Yoshi hugged him earnestly. "I will run to get us some water, wait for me, brother!"

The boy stood there with a complex expression as he observed Yoshi's happy figure running away.

The moment Sora tried to concentrate on the boy, everything went to black. She slowly opened her eyes. Her head felt like it was made out of stone.

"Ouch!" She touched her forehead. "Belle, are you asleep?"

"Sora! You are awake!" Belle's head appeared right in front of Sora's eyes.

"You are too close," she blinked. "I feel awful. How did I get home?"

"Oh, Sora," Belle began crying.

"What? Why are you crying?"

She heard Maki's voice, "It's good you are awake, we came with the first train. Oshiro gave you a potent opiate, so I thought you might be unconscious for a while."

Sora tried to lift herself, but her whole body was so heavy that she gave up, turning her head towards the noise. Maki sat on the chair beside the bed, Koga, surprisingly was there too standing beside the window.

"And Koga too?" Sora felt very confused. "Can you tell me what happened? Wait," she frowned, "did I see Yoshi for real yesterday?!"

Belle was sobbing quietly and hugging Sora's hand with her wings, "It's all my fault! You forgot your phone before you left, and when Maki called I ignored it several times, and then he messaged me, and finally I saw it, and then it was already too late to find you..."

Maki moved her away carefully, "Stop blaming yourself. We managed to take care of it nonetheless. Let me explain to Sora consistently." He turned so she could easily see him, and continued in a reserved manner, "Unfortunately, it took some digging when it came to Oshiro. So that's why we were a bit late. He looked differently before, he also changed his name slightly. He was a psychology PhD student when he assaulted an undergraduate student of his. He was expelled and moved to Tokyo shortly after, escaping the prosecution because he had vanished. The student then committed suicide several months later. In Tokyo, he entered the University claiming he had already obtained his PhD. Since he changed his appearance in the process, it didn't match the rapist at all. He wasn't very creative in his name change, though. I don't know how he managed to enter the University and work with you for so long. I hadn't seen him when I came to pick you up before, so I assume he knew about us well enough to hide himself. I think now that Yoshio-san took him to the station, they will be able to match the DNA, since they were looking for him in Okinawa, and never thought of searching for him elsewhere seriously after they gave up on the visual search. Also..." he looked at his hand, "he is stupid enough to carry the ring with opiate residue in it. I think he's not getting out of this one."

Sora's face looked ugly, as she listened to all of this. The information seemed to float around her. She turned around with a frown, "Maromi!"

"What?" Maki didn't understand.

"Maromi, she will be left alone if he's gone!"

"Who?"

Belle stopped sobbing, "It's his stupid cat!"

Sora seemed to be in a daze, she grabbed his hand, "Maki-kun, you have to take her! She will die alone, you can't let her stay there alone!"

Maki looked back at Koga, perplexed. Koga didn't react in any way, observing them calmly. Disappointed, Maki turned back, and said, "Okay, I will take her to the temple once we come back."

"For real?" Sora's eyes lit up, "Maki-kun, you are the best, she is great, so there won't be any issues with that, I promise. Maybe we can ask around, and someone will be willing to take her in. Thank you." She closed her eyes happily, "now, you can continue telling me what'd happened."

"Khm, yes. I told you the main story. He wanted your power, Yoshio-san told me he was promised it by the killer. That's why he drugged you yesterday, he..well... he wanted to take it by force. I think he was lied to, it's probably not how you take the power, he was just the killer's tool. I don't know yet what the true motive was. Anyway, when Yoshio-san heard all the information from me, he immediately rushed to Kyoto. I wouldn't have been able to make it on time, yet he managed. I wouldn't have thought less of Yoshio-san." He added proudly. "Sora, we are happy you are alright, I feel a bit responsible that I let you travel with him before we checked everything. I apologize," he bowed.

"Maki-kun, what are you talking about, don't be silly!" She straightened his head with her hand, "How you should be responsible? You did your best, and it all went well because of your efforts. Thank you, and Yoshi too..." She mumbled, "Even though he was a bit of an asshole last time we've talked... Anyway, thank you for coming just to see if I was okay!"

"Do you want us to return to Tokyo together?"

"I still had to participate in the conference, but I won't go today. We can leave when I can stand up."

"Are you hungry?" Maki rose, "I will go out and buy us all food. We've rushed here, so I didn't get anything for you."

Belle looked up at him cautiously, "I want something sweet!"

Sora waved her hand, "right. Me too, Maki-kun, you can buy me something sweet with strawberries in the shop. As per the real food, I don't think I can process it yet."

"Okay. Then, Belle, since you know Sora best, you are coming with me, and Koga is staying here just in case."

"What?" Koga moved for the first time, his brows furrowed. "I..."

Maki came up to him, "You are here to protect Sora, you are the strongest one, we can't leave her alone now." He tilted his head and lowered his voice, "See if you find something to talk about."

"But..." Koga tried grabbing Maki's arm, but he already slipped away, taking Belle with him.

Koga turned to Sora, who again tried to sit up. He sympathized with her, so he helped her sit. She looked at him, trying to be as clear headed as she could.

"Koga-san, right?"

He grimaced, "Call me Koga, that's my name."

"Sorry, Koga. Well, that's great, I like calling people by their names only. Anyway, how did you meet Maki-kun?"

Koga narrowed his eyes, and sat on the chair next to the bed, "Why are you asking?"

"It's just interesting, he is my friend..."

"Aren't you the fujoshi friend of his?" He asked suspiciously.

"Em... well..." her ears redenned. "We discuss certain manga yes."

Koga didn't care, he pressed on, "Aren't you the one whom he had borrowed the Pink Jam Heart from?"

She clenched her fists, pursed her lips, and muttered proudly, "Yes, it was me! And you know what, he absolutely loved it, got it?"

Koga chuckled, "Indeed, he almost lost it when he saw me reading it. So you said he liked it? Hm. Good to know."

Sora's interest was picked, "You took it without asking permission?"

"He was sleeping, and I was bored, so..." He gestured with his hands, "I could've done anything if it was out in the open, right?"

Sora's eyes widened in excitement. Her imagination started to get off course after such information. So Maki was not wasting his time, good to know, somehow it was much more interesting to hear about him things like this after she'd already constructed his pristine pupil-of-a-teacher-like persona. She looked at Koga with greater attention now, as it seemed that these two were an intriguing pair. Until now Koga seemed reserved, yet now he was overly eager to boast about Maki, and with her. They met this Monday, and here he was already bragging about sleeping together? Was he jealous by any means? She decided to probe carefully. But somehow the next moment she opened her mouth, the words started pouring out nonstop.

"Koga, from what I know about Maki-kun, is that he is a very caring person. And I was so happy to hear that he finally found someone he finds perfect. I think it's great that you are together now, I am really happy for you. Is there any chance that you might be jealous? I mean you had only begun dating, and he already has to spend so much of his attention on me. I hope you are not thought. We are friends, but I think some of the things he does are partially because of Yoshi's interest in my power. I don't know how much you know, but you are certainly in on the whole ordeal, so I hope you do understand that there is no need to feel like I am trying to steal his attention or anything..."

Koga looked at her for a moment and began laughing loudly. "Me, jealous? Darling, no way, you are funny. I never feel jealous, what do you mean? I understand what feelings he has for you, there is nothing even remotely close to what he feels about me."

She smiled at him, "Of course, Koga, but you can be jealous of a person's time and attention, even without romantic connotations."

"What?" He stopped laughing. "What do you mean?"

"It means, that you want his full attention on you, despite the other person's identity. You wish he would be next to you all the time, never looking at anything or anyone else. But you have to understand, that you can't have a person fully to yourself, and have him be happy at the same time. If he lives for you, there is no other purpose in life for him, that would mean that your desire for him is from a possessive standpoint. As if you don't want him to be free, truly happy, and able to fulfill his self-actualization needs."

Koga's face became uglier by the minute. He started to feel uncomfortable. 'What are you implying?"

"Nothing, I am just guessing that's all. I hope you see that for Maki-kun caring about others is part of who he is. And I am not talking only about me, I mean it. You should observe him interact with others, he likes caring, it's something that he learned while he traveled with Yoshi, or while he lived alone during WWII." Sora closed her eyes, her voice was ringing in her ears, and she wasn't fully certain if she was saying those things, or thinking them. But she continued, "Maybe I am talking too much, and you know about it already, so I seem very boring and pretentious to you. But I just wanted to say that Maki is great when he is helping others. And I hope you are not the person who needs help because that would make you two a perfect co-dependent pair, right?" She glared at him seriously.

Koga stared back. Something in the last sentence made him feel a certain way. He wanted to stop feeling it. "I...I am not his way!" He almost yelled at her.

The door to the room opened, "We are back, hope it wasn't awkward..." Maki stopped next to the door. Sora was seemingly tired and Koga, looked at him with his eyes rimmed red, on the verge of crying.

"What's going on?" Maki put the food on the table. "Are you okay?"

Sora opened her eyes, "Maki-kun, Belle, can you give us a moment with Koga, please. I need to tell him something." Maki frowned, but seeing Koga nod, he took disoriented Belle and left. Sora looked up,

"Listen, Koga, I am sorry. I don't want to blame my overly confident speech on the drugs, but it just felt like I needed to say it for some reason, and it certainly was out of line. I want the best for Maki. If I have offended you, please forgive me. I am sure he didn't make a mistake when choosing you."

He listened, and after a pause, he cleared his throat and said hoarsely, "I know. And...You are maybe right. I am this way when I'm afraid he might slip away - possessive, and overly attached. It's just something I don't want to think about it, and don't want to deal with. You are right about Maki, he is like this. He is happy when he's able to help. And I...well. I am not sure anymore."

She put her hand onto his, "I am sorry again, for saying all of these things to you. I shouldn't have."

"It's really alright, Sora. It made me reflect..." He smiled melancholically. "Maki, you can return."

Maki opened the door and looked inside, Belle's head next to him. They were both still uncertain of what was happening. He observed the two and saw them holding hands and sighed. "It seems everything is alright."

Sora smiled, "Yes, we are all good. Just some girl talk." It seemed that her eyes were also wet. 

Koga went to look out of the window, deep in thought. Maki touched his shoulder and put a matcha drink into his hand.

"You good?"

"Yes." His voice was so soft, it could melt any heart. Of course, Maki was no exception. He had to brace himself and remember they were not alone in the room. He brushed over Koga's fingers and kissed him on the cheek.

"Then we shall take the train to Tokyo at six."