Could things have been different?

In the following couple of days, I didn’t see Fuji again. Ryou and I kept our ears to the streets for chatter that could lead to new jobs, and Time and I avoided mentioning the elephant in the room, but it weighed heavy on my mind.

My partner, someone I had so much history with, re-entered my life out of nowhere after three years. And just like that, she was gone again. It wasn’t even like I necessarily wanted to see her, but it just felt… anticlimactic.

A dramatic reunion starting with a fight to the death, but it all falls apart and she just turns and walks away? An ending like that left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was stewing over the dilemma in the living room of the apartment a few days after the fact, when I heard a dull noise outside the window. We were being far more cautious than usual following the databank raid, since we couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t track us back to Ryou’s home.

So, slowly picking up my katana, I made my way over to the window and tried to look outside. Condensation had made the damn thing completely opaque, so I had no choice but to open it.

I took a deep breath, pushed the window up, and…

Premonition.

I raised my hand aside my head and caught the projectile hurled in through the window. I panicked. Was it a grenade? A Molotov cocktail? Tear gas? Every nerve screamed at me to throw it back, but against my better judgement, I looked down to see what I had caught.

“A… cola can?”

“They’re your favourite, right?” The voice came from the balcony just outside the window. There, perched on the railing like a cat, was the girl I had been stressing myself out over. “C’mon. Let’s walk.”

***

“Reports from the E-JSDF have confirmed that the murder of an unidentified colonel and the destruction of billions of yen in data storage are the work of magical girl and ‘known troublemaker,’ Denka Fujiko, the self-titled “Electric Princess.”

“Go to hell, bastard,” Denka said, throwing her can at the shop store TV. “Can you believe the shit the media says about me?” Between the baggy jumper, ripped jeans and dyed blonde hair she really looked the part of a juvenile delinquent.

Except she was 23.

“You mean accusing you of killing the guy that you killed? And breaking the stuff that you broke? How dare they?”

“I know, right?”

“Why did you call me out here, Fuji?”

She turned away from me a little, and I thought I heard a slight sigh. I wasn’t surprised. For how headstrong she was when it came to danger and destruction, Fuji was hardly the best at dealing with deep talks and emotions. She preferred to dodge the topic at all costs until it became unavoidable.

It was probably that habit that caused our communication to break down so badly before we split.

Still, I mentally gave her props for initiating this time round.

“I uh… I wanted to uh… saythatI’msorry”

“What was that?”

“I’m tryna… apologise.”

“Really? I didn’t think you were biologically capable.”

“Dammit, Toki, I’m tryna be-“ she cut herself off and groaned, putting her hand to her forehead. “Look, I know I’m not great at this stuff, but could you just bear with me for a moment? I want you to at least listen to what I have to say.”

I crossed my arms and faced her directly.

“I’m listening.”

She looked relieved that I wasn’t talking over her any more, but also nervous that the conversation now fell completely on her. Still, she’s the one who called me out here, the least she could do is actually say what’s on her mind.

“…around the time of the job, mum’s cancer started getting worse. It went from ‘chemo should be able to fix this’ to ‘if she doesn’t get a replacement she’s dead for sure.’ So when you stopped me half way through our biggest paying job of all time, it almost felt like an attack on mum’s cancer treatment-“

“Not hearing any apologies here, Fuji.”

“-but I shouldn’t have lashed out with you and started a fight over it. After all we’d been through together, I should have trusted you and heard you out. When the dust settled, I really regretted what I did. So… I’m sorry. And I wanna make it right.”

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I was more shocked than when Z pinballed me across the opera house.

“...huh…” I raised an eyebrow.

“What? What’s with the reaction?”

“No, it’s just… that sounded like a genuine and thoughtful apology. Like you actually reflected on your actions, identified what you did wrong and expressed sincere remorse.”

“I… yeah? Are you really that shocked?”

“Umm… kinda? You’re just displaying more emotional maturity than you did in… like… the entire time I knew you.”

“I mean… is it so surprising for someone to change a little in three years?”

“No, it’s just…” I stopped and sighed. Come on, if even the Duchess of Death and Destruction can swallow her pride for a moment, surely I can too. “I should apologise as well. Instead of properly communicating my concerns with you, I dropped an ultimatum on you at the hardest point of your life without any concern for how it would affect you. Besides, the fight wasn’t… exactly one sided.”

“Yeah, you did get me pretty good,” she chuckled, “my legs still have the scars. Even my skirt is still cut to shreds.”

“Y-yeah… I’m sorry…” I may not have taken her eye, but Fuji didn’t exactly leave our little spat unscathed either. She was barely walking by the end. “Actually, I was surprised to see that. Shouldn’t magical girl clothes fix themselves?”

At my question, Fuji looked off distantly for a moment.

“...Electron said ‘a magical girl’s outfit is a reflection of her very soul.’ Except… y’know… in an incomprehensible dialect. When you left… I guess you took a piece of me with you.” For someone always so full of confidence, it was almost unnerving to see her so despondent. “..Hey, Toki?”

“Yeah?”

“You ever wonder if things could have been different?”

“Hmm? How do you mean?”

“Y’know… if we’d made different decisions? Could we have talked it out? Come to an understanding, stayed together?”

She turned to me, almost with a pleading look in her eyes. I think I knew what she wanted me to say. That it was just ‘wrong place, wrong time,’ and things could have gone over smoothly in different circumstances.

But that was wrong.

“...no. No, I don’t think we could have.” Her expression quickly dropped to disappointment, and I felt a twinge of guilt, but I had to tell the truth. “At the time, you and I were a powder keg and lighter just waiting to be lit. We couldn’t talk things through with anything but violence, because that’s the only language we knew. I think… I think what happened between us was inevitable. I’m sorry.

“...I see.” Her tone noticeably dropped, and she failed to meet my eye.

“...but I don’t think that matters now. It’s been three years, we’ve both learned a lot by being apart. Maybe we couldn’t save our partnership back then, but that doesn’t mean we can’t build a new one now. We can’t really pick back up where we left off, so… if you’re willing… wanna start over from scratch?”

Her face lit up, like a puppy hearing the word ‘walk.’ She always did wear her heart on her sleeve.

“Yeah. I think I’d like that.” Dammit. Her smile made me smile.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Almost in tandem, we silently turned and began our walk back the way we came. A comfortable, warm silence between us. Nothing more needed to be said.

“So… you shacked up with that Ryou chick yet?”

“What?!”

She immediately ruined it.

“Come on, two vigilantes living under the same roof, adrenaline always pumping, emotions always high… you’re telling me you’ve never… uh… danced the sideways tango after a job?”

“Fuji, for the love of- the first time we met she tried to kill me.”

“I know your type in women. You’re into that.”

“My type in women is you, you fool.”

“Exactly. Who’s tried to kill you more times than me?”

“Ehh… point taken. But no, we’re not. I’m only living with her to get out of my old squalor.”

“Then… how ‘bout living with me instead?” I stopped dead, and she slowly raised a hand to my cheek. “If you really wanna start over…”

For a second, a lot of emotions I thought I had long buried rushed back to me. The girl who was the source of so much of my pain, back in front of me, offering me exactly what I had missed for so long. There was a short breath where I almost instinctively took her up. But, when the shock faded, I clasped her hand with mine and shook my head.

“...sorry, Fuji. I think… some wounds are gonna take a little longer to heal than others.”

Her face dismayed, Fuji looked down and slowly retracted her hand from my cheek.

“R-right… my bad… jumped the gun a little.”

“Y-yeah…”

“...sorry.” Fujiko slowly turned around and began traipsing off the other way. “...see you later…”

Seeing the usually-proud-princess hang her head so low almost made me feel a little guilty, even though I did feel I’d made the right decision.

Still, I figured I could throw her a bone.

“Hey, Fuji,” I called, and she stopped in her tracks. “...make sure to be on time for the meeting tomorrow, alright? We’ve gotta plan for our next mission, right?”

She turned her head back to me slowly, and a wide grin spread across her face. It was almost annoyingly cute.

“Yep! Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

She flashed a peace sign, and off she wandered into the night.

Man. That girl’s gonna be the death of me.