Yua

In that moment, Eita realized, he had a decision. By one path, he'd be a hypocrite, using ignorance to shield Yua from danger. By the other, of course, he'd be putting her in the crossfire the same way he'd put himself there.

With a fraction of a second to decide, the answer was clear.

“This is Sammy-san,” he said, hoping no tremble in his voice betrayed a thing, or that it was covered by the awkwardness of appending an honorific to a western name. “Do you remember?”

“Remember?” Yua asked.

“The new student who came after Golden Week?” Eita offered, “We talked about this.”

Yua frowned, and seemed to consider. Mercifully, Sammy recovered enough to speak for herself. She bowed her head, and adopted a more formal tone than Eita had heard her use before.

“I'm pleased to properly make your acquaintance,” she said.

Yua eyed Sammy carefully. She wasn't exactly raising her voice, but her glare was scarier than Eita had seen in an age, whether it fell on Eita or on Sammy.

“What brings you here today?” she asked.

Sammy was quick to respond, preventing Eita from scrambling whatever story she'd hoped to tell.

“I was in the shopping district,” she said, “and rather lost when I happened to run into Ikami-san, who I asked to bring me to a calmer place where I could get my bearings.”

She played the shrinking violet shockingly well, Eita thought. The way she was talking to Yua, it would be impossible to guess anything but that she was the kind of girl who was easily overwhelmed and pathologically harmless.

“I see,” Yua said, softening at least a little. Then she happened to notice.

“Is something wrong with your arm?”

Again, only Sammy's haste in replying let Eita bite back the urge to tell some ill-convinced fiction.

“It's an old family remedy,” she said, as though that answered everything.

For a moment, Eita thought Sammy was terribly clever.

“A remedy?” Yua asked, “for what?”

“Ah,” Sammy said, looking up and away, “Mosquito bites.”

“At this time of year?” Yua asked, more concerned than anything.

“Um,” Sammy said, “it was a spider.”

“But you said the remedy was for mosquito bites.”

“It is,” Sammy said, “I just hoped it would help a spider bite as well.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Yua said, “though that looks pretty intense for a bug bite.”

“It was a big spider,” Sammy offered.

“It was?” Yua asked, “Are you sure you shouldn't go to the hospital?”

Eita wondered if he should intercede, but the thought of trying to stand between Yua and Sammy made him think the angel's sword was safer.

“I'm sure!” Sammy said, and all too quickly. She rubbed the taped-up towel nervously, and pulled on a corner that was stained gold.

“Really,” Yua said, “This isn't like America...”

“I swear,” Sammy said, “I... I think it's about time to take this off. Do you have a pair of scissors?”

Yua thought about it, putting her hand on her chin and gazing upwards.

“Scissors?” she asked no one in particular, “Maybe there...”

“I would really appreciate it,” Sammy said, bowing her head.

“I'll go look in the store room, then,” Yua said, “You two can wait right here.

Yua turned, and headed back the way she came, and Eita almost expected Sammy to bolt right away. Even once Yua ducked in, though, she remained, fidgeting anxiously.

“Are you sure?” Eita asked, hoping of what was clear enough, “I could say your folks called.”

“I stopped feeling any sort of... itch. I think it'll be alright?”

“And what if Yua sees a big golden scab?” Eita asked.

Sammy gritted her teeth.

“I'll think of something,” she said.

“Thinking of something got you this far,” Eita said.

“If all else fails, I could scare her away,” Sammy said.

“She'd exorcise you,” Eita replied. Yua always squealed and overreacted to ghost stories, but she liked them too much to be really afraid in earnest.

“Is everyone in your school crazy?” Sammy asked.

At that, the chance to flee was lost, as Yua emerged from the storeroom, holding a pair of shears over her head and beaming with triumph as she waved to Eita and Sammy. At least she knew better than to run with them.

Yua's former intensity had vanished entirely when she returned, and she looked Sammy over like a mother hen.

“Okay,” she said, “hold out your arm.”

Sammy, back to the meek fakery, offered her arm limply and turned her head away as though she were afraid to look at the shears.

“I'm going to try to just get rid of this tape without hurting the towel,” Yua said. She fussed, glared intently at the bandaging job that Eita had done, and snipped carefully, holding Sammy's wrist in one hand and the shears in the other. Strip by strip, the tape fell, and then Yua set about gingerly unwrapping the towel from around Sammy's arm. Yua's nose crinkled, and she pinched at the towel's corners. Even if she didn't know the golden stain was blood, it clearly didn't sit easily with her.

As the towel fell free, Yua produced a rag of her own, and gingerly wiped down the limb that had been impaled not an hour before.

“Wow,” Yua intoned.

“You've got such smooth skin!” she exclaimed, looking at Sammy, “can you share that family remedy?”

“Maybe some time,” Sammy said with a nervous laugh, “but right now I should really get home.”

She stood up, and bowed formally again.

“Thank you, Jinguushi-san.”

“Can you find your way?” Yua asked, “I could walk you at least part of the way.”

“I'll be fine, really,” Sammy said, faking that her relief was borne of something other than her secret not being outed again, and hurried away.

Where did she stay when school wasn't in session? That was something that Eita had never asked, it seemed too personal.

For his part, Eita considered making his excuses as well. He stood, prepared to do so, but then Yua caught his sleeve.

“Mind if we hang out for a bit, Eita-kun?”

Her smile was sweet as could be, but she only called him that way when she was upset. There were worse ways to spend an afternoon than accepting, and harder ways to lose his head than refusing.

“Sure,” he said.

By the time the sun started to get low, and Eita really did need to head home, he felt as though he had gotten his head on straight. The world he'd known was still here, there were tethers to hold onto.

That was good, because the coming day, he'd be plunging back into the unknown world at the meeting of the Fallen.