Chapter Twenty-Two - Monday IV - Extinguished Flame

The poem which appears in scene four for this chapter was originally formatted as a Rubaiyat Quatrain. Thanks to Honeyfeed's lack of paragraph formatting options, the layout is suboptimal here. For the best reading experience, please consult the Docs version for this particular text.

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Ehhh? Both still underdressed and Sensei’s wrapping her arms around Koneko?... With those silly cuddly sounds, they both sound awfully cosy as well... As Renka entered the kitchen space, partly vividly bathed in orange by the rising sun pouring in through a nearby window, she silenced a yawn before loudly greeting, ‘Is it just me or are you both glowing? And I don’t mean your usual light tricks. I thought I’d never live to see the day, but it looks you finally pulled it off, Koneko.’ Good lord; did Aphrodite personally pay you two a visit last night?? Sensei giving your neck such an affectionate parting kiss almost makes me think I’m in some bizarre alternate reality, or still dreaming…

‘I guess, so…’ Hikari warmly began, gazing at the doctor with a satisfied smile. Turning back to the captain, she continued, with a mischievous smile, ‘For a vegetarian, it turns out Tsubaki’s surprisingly carnivorous, heh.’ Yes, yes, I get it; no need to squeeze my arm so tightly.

Glaring harshly at Hikari, the doctor quietly ‘Would you like me to share with them how much you s–’

Hurriedly pressing a palm over Tsubaki’s mouth, Hikari interjected, ‘Jokes aside, that first time wasn't anywhere near as disappointing as I'd heard it should be; It was actually pretty magical. Despite being a bit exhausted from the lengthy overnight venture, the world definitely looks a lot brighter this morning, now that we’ve found ourselves a healthier trajectory together,’ Hikari warmly concluded.

‘I guess the “useless” designation can no longer be applied to them?’ Kasumi asked, resting her palms and chin on one of the captain’s shoulders.

‘I think you’re right, Kasumi, dear. Let’s hope it’s not just a honeymoon phase. In metalworking, some of the strongest materials are forged from continuous pressure, so here’s hoping your relationship is similarly or more unbreakable; lord knows that watching you two get here was a pretty trying experience.’ It’s just as well; I think the author would probably have found a way to kill you off, had things not resulted in your current situation, Sensei.

‘Ummm, thanks?’

The morning after the night before, heh. It looks like my little intervention plan worked out wonderfully, even if the sapphic energy filling the room does make me feel a bit lonely… ‘Good Morning! I see we’re all in good spirits,’ Haruka cheerfully chirped. Her smile turning playful, along with her voice, ‘I take it you all had fun last night?’ she asked, with slightly narrowed eyes.

After a short period of muffled giggles, the short woman with the blue streak in her hair sighed and interrupted with playful despair evident in her facial expression and tone, ‘Yikes; they’re all so lovestruck that they’ve forgotten how to use words…’ Returning to her regular cheery tone, ‘It’s still quite early, but just so you know; I do need to be returned to the YHI headquarters by 09:00; you know, standard Monday morning proceedings. We still have a good bit of time, but not all the time in the world, unfortunately.’

After roughly an hour had passed, the five women had gathered around the Lancer Evo which peacefully sat as the sole remaining car on the gravel area to the front of the mansion.

‘Before we go; you didn’t check out the cloaks those blade-wielding assailants wore, did you, Cap?’

‘I was curious as to how they managed to scoot in under Sayaka’s nose, but I didn’t pack any gloves, so no. I’m guessing you did? What did you find?’

‘Some trick wearable tech system. Three layers; the innermost being a fairly ordinary insulating material. Turn that layer transparent and a network of tiny heating elements revealed itself, with a variety of similarly micro temperature and IR sensors on and around in the lower garments and footwear as well. It looked like the outer layer was a highly–conducive temperature–regulated outer membrane. Should we keep them?’

‘Nah; we’re not really resourced enough to make best use of them. Better we leave them for the YHI devs to have fun with. That said, you should retrieve them and we’ll drop them off when we return Miss Satou.’

‘Haruka.’

‘Huh?’

‘Please, Captain; especially after last night, you needn’t be so formal. You can call me the same as Hikari normally does,’ Haruka suggested, with a friendly smile.

‘Right. Sorry.’ Renka sheepishly replied.

❀

After the best part of two hours, spent tearing along the convoluted route between the mountains and the island’s industrial capital, the five women and their roaring chariot calmly passed through the entrance of the YHI’s headquarters. The 4G63 engine purred as Hikari briefly focused inwards, to the little digital display which sat above the large red button on the central dashboard area.

‘We made it with fifteen minutes to spare. How would you rate your taxi service, Miss Satou?’ Hikari playfully asked.

‘We arrived in time and I’ll give you a bonus point for not crashing despite the exuberant driving as well, I guess, Miss Terashi,’ Haruka remarked, with a similarly playful tone and smile.

‘I’m glad that you approve, Haru—, shit! What was that?’ Hikari loudly questioned, as she kicked down the throttle pedal, and the Evo lurched forward, with a hearty engine and exhaust roar and brief screech from the tyres.

Amid the flurry of heavy gunfire that hurtled toward and past the car, ‘If I had to guess, the guys from last night aren’t happy about the result of their operation,’ Renka calmly replied. ‘Sorry, Haruka, it looks like we’ll be parting on a callsign basis. Once we get to the car park, Songstress and I will be providing cover fire and a diversion for yourself, Sensei and Kitten.’

‘Understood, Captain,’ Haruka huffed.

Within twenty seconds, the Evo had rapidly ducked into the underground car park and away from the loud storm of fully-automatic gunfire.

After coming to a halt, with a light squeal from the brakes and complaint from the tyres, the five women hurriedly emerged from the car.

‘Stay low and sheltered until we’re ready to advance, please,’ Renka firmly advised.

‘Uwah; you’ve definitely got the same impressive, strong, calm and composed air about you that Momo does, Captain.’

I’m guessing she’s the friendly one? I dearly hope that’s an appropriate name for the one with peach-coloured eyes and not the terrifying one…

After collecting from the car’s luggage area armour vests, plates, hearing and knee protection, the HK45T, MP5SD, G28, wrist-mounted arrow launcher and spare ammunition, Renka briefed, with a neutral expression and level tone. ‘Keep us shielded until we hit the pillared area near the entrance; we can take cover there and you, Kitten and our Queen can get to safety. So long as we deal with any HMGs while still under Sensei’s protection, we should be fine. Understood?’

‘Yes, Captain!’ the other four women replied, in perfect sync.

The five women hurried to the slope which led them back to broad daylight and begun to carefully emerge, with Renka, her MP5 beside Kasumi and her G28 leading the other three, who remained invisible, save for their brightly-coloured bangles.

As the pair emerged out into the sunlight-soaked front yard area of the headquarters, Kasumi quietly picked off a few of the armed operators who continuously hurled the bullets of 5.7x28mm and 7.62x35mm ammunition at the entrance of the building from P90 TR PDWs and SCAR-SC SBRs respectively.

Nicely done Kasumi, but there’s still like fifty of them and now they and the men on the turrets of the LSVs will know exactly where we are, not that diverting their attention away from the YHI building isn’t a bad thing… Renka assessed, as she trained the muzzle of her SMG on one of the men who had an LSV-mounted M2HB at the palm of his hands, resting it in place when the masked and helmet-topped head of her target sat almost firmly in the middle of the green 2 MOA dot of her MP5’s AEMS reflex sight.

With a calm pull of the trigger, she watched through the digital optic as the head of the turret gunner violently jerked back and a small trail of blood flew from it in the same direction. One down, two to go…

While Kasumi drew the G28 from the sling, set her hands in position and her cheek against the pad on the stock, Renka’s SMG quietly snapped away, as she removed the terrifying heavy rattle of 12.7mm gunfire from the rapturous concert.

Despite the deluge of gunfire which rushed toward the pair, the MP5SD popped and puffed away and the G28 joined in, regularly emitting large snaps and claps as Kasumi steadily sent 7.62 NATO rounds in reply to the armed men who had swarmed the headquarters’ previously beautiful front yard.

Aside from brief pauses, to swap empty magazines for full ones retrieved from pouches on their vests, the pair maintained cold, focused expressions and fearlessly advanced toward the relatively sheltered area, with the other three women trailing close behind, bullets similarly trickling off their silhouettes.

After almost a minute of continuously targeting the men who stood under and nearby the covered area at the skyscraper’s entrance, Renka and Kasumi scampered to take up positions pressed against each of the two large, thick concrete pillars which stood at the corners of the shaded region.

The other three women popped back into view and Hikari offered an encouraging nod and smile. ‘Give them hell, you two,’ she quietly suggested, before shaking her head, to invite Tsubaki and Haruka to pass through the large, heavily–cracked and borderline–shattered sliding doors.

‘Ever my guardian angel, you are,’ Haruka remarked, as the bullets continued to slip off the very faint holographic layer which surrounded her.

‘Please; I’m just the intermediary,’ she remarked, briefly gazing and flashing a smile at the doctor, before the trio hurried deeper inside.

I see those guards from Saturday don’t travel light; I swear those vests have the same heavy plating Cap and her girlfriend are wearing. That and they have helmets, goggles, masks and are hitting back using unsuppressed 417 Recce rifles.

While the front yard of the headquarters remained filled with the intense crackle and the wispy white smoke trails of a tsunami of gunfire, Renka and Kasumi continued to intermittently emerge from their sheltered positions and send small, steady bursts of 9mm Luger and 7.62 NATO bullets in reply.

With a flick of the paddle near the well, a magazine fell from Renka’s MP5SD. She pondered. I swear, during that last stint of engaging them, there were still roughly thirty of them ou—, ‘Urgh, shit,’ Renka haphazardly spluttered, as her weapon and the fresh magazine from her left hand clattered against the floor beside her.

❀

My heart sank in a way that it never had before when I heard her splutter through my earpiece.

Despite the intense storm of bullets heading my way, the shock effectively paralysed me and I couldn’t look away. The car accident when I was a child happened in a flash. What happened there and then, despite lasting only a second or so, stretched out far longer as I watched. Everything else faded into total irrelevance; the sounds, the deadly projectiles and everybody else who occupied the yard.

My breath sharpened dramatically and I honestly don’t even remember what happened to my heartbeat as I watched her tumble to the floor and her weapon waywardly clatter against the paving, coming to a similarly disheartening rest beside her.

Knowing that even if she were still alive, another hit would probably kill her, I dumped all of my anguish and fury into one lengthy, pained scream.

As tiring as using my sound amplification ability is, I thought that if ever there was a time to test its limits, that moment was it.

Using all of the power that my lungs and breath control would offer me, I emitted a scream which amplified to carry enough energy to rumble the ground and everything else that visibly lay in front of me. Despite them being shut, the effort forced tears from my eyes part way through the scream, but still I continued, until my lungs had contracted to the point of starting to hurt.

By the time I opened my eyes, not a single one of the armed operators remained pointing their weapons in my direction, let alone firing.

Their weapons involuntarily fell from their hands or ended up waywardly aimed toward the floor as their holders staggered and clutched at their heads with completely scrunched-up facial expressions. Others were already well into the process of tumbling to the floor, emitting much more pained groans than Renka did, not that I cared one bit.

As I rushed over to her, I could see from the corner of my eye that yet more armed men poured through the gate.

I heard the rough crack of something strike and break the ground as I quickly covered the distance between my pillar and hers.

As soon as I arrived, I hastily hauled her back from what I believed to be the side that she got hit from.

I peered around the far corner of the pillar and much to my irritation, in the distant sky, I was almost certain that I spotted a helicopter heading straight toward us. The relative quiet that the yard descended into confirmed as much, as the loud repeating sound of the rotor blades gradually grew louder.

I couldn’t think about the freshly-arrived gunmen or the new flying nuisance for too long though; if Renka was still alive, her chances of survival probably shrank with each passing second. ‘Renka is down. I repeat; Renka is down,’ I shouted.

‘Understood, we’ll be with you in under a minute,’ the purple one replied, across the radio. I couldn’t bear to look back at Renka and see what state she was in, but before I even had time to, two immense knocks from a metre or two away from me, a few seconds apart from each other drew my attention.

Shortly after the second of those shots, I watched the helicopter wildly sink into the horizon.

I turned and saw none other than the grey-eyed woman, wearing her smart shirt, formal trousers and ballerina flats, but with an armour vest similar to ours over her uniform and wielding a DMR not too different to the ones that we had.

‘They had a sniper out there. Sneaky bastard did a good job of hiding themselves, but I highly doubt their head can survive an armour piercing 7.62 NATO round fired without suppression. Same applies for the head of the pilot of that AH-1W, even if they were five–hundred or so metres away,’ she coldly informed.

She turned to me briefly and peered straight into my eyes, informing, ‘You did well, young lady. We’ll take it from here. As soon as your friends get here, bring her home. Whatever your partner got hit with; it was definitely no ordinary round; I’m guessing a special .338 Lapua Magnum. I dearly hope that she pulls through and you can get her back to full strength.’

I wanted to thank her, but under the circumstances, it was near impossible to derive comfort of any kind, even if it came with the best intentions and from the most unexpected of people. I nodded in response, as her peach-eyed partner steadily arrived, also wearing armour over her formal shirt and gripping a partly peach-coloured version of pretty much the same rifle that her partner held. She trailed behind what I presume was an automated mobile shield; essentially a two-metre-tall, charcoal-coloured, three-sided, thick metal wall with moveable slats, a comparatively small counterweight chassis and four small wheels quietly and steadily moving it along.

‘Neutralise all hostiles?’ the peach-eyed woman calmly asked.

‘With extreme prejudice.’

With a subtle nod, she quickly raised the rifle so that its scope sat a short distance in front of her right eye. Almost instantly, she joined her grey-eyed partner in carefully sending bullets ripping across the yard, with thunderous blasts and white puffs of hot gas from her rifle’s muzzle and ejector port.

At most, every other shot from the two women resulted in violent blood splatter from a head of the men who advanced and once again sent an ever-dwindling storm of gunfire toward the entrance of the YHI building.

Maybe ten or so seconds after the astonishingly efficient slaughter commenced, a tap on my shoulder forced me to turn away.

‘You get her left, I’ll get her right and Tsubaki’ll carry the weapons.’

As much as I feared getting confirmation that another person close to me had departed from this world sooner than I’d expected, I didn’t want to run from reality. I swallowed the bitter fear that welled up within and asked Tsubaki-sensei, as her hands retreated from Renka’s wrist, ‘How is she?’

‘Pulse is weak, but it’s there. She’s lucky that the only bullet which defeated the armour hit between the ribs and didn’t penetrate much. The bleeding isn’t too bad, but I won’t be able to find out the root cause of her current state until we either get her home or to a lab with a microscope,’ she calmly replied.

‘Come on; let’s get moving; time is of the essence, right?’ the purple one asked, as she knelt down beside Renka, eyes slightly watery as she looked down at her.

After lifting her from the floor and onto each of our shoulders, we hurriedly carried her away from the sheltered area of the YHI skyscraper’s entrance.

As we passed behind the pair of Mr. Satou’s bodyguards, the peach-eyed one remarked, without taking her eyes away from the sight of her rifle, ‘Godspeed ladies; stay strong.’

After a two minute or so trudge back to the car, Tsubaki-sensei recklessly tossed the equipment into the car’s luggage area and after a brief rummage, pulled out a green box.

She turned to the purple one and I. With a flat expression and equally straight voice, she advised, ‘I know we’re short on time, but if you could drive steady until I’ve sorted out the bleeding, that would be much appreciated. After that; drive like it’s another mountain race for all I care, so long as you don’t get us all killed.’

‘Understood,’ our designated driver coldly replied, before opening the passenger door, so that we could stow Renka in the back of the car.

After the initial rush, to thread the car through the gap in the incoming forces that our smartly-dressed allies had carved out, Tsubaki-sensei set to work on Renka as soon as the car returned to a relatively relaxed pace.

It took the doctor little more than five minutes before she straightened up and belted Renka and herself into their seats and advised, ‘You’re free to race now.’

Almost before the doctor had finished her sentence, the purple one kicked down hard and thrust the gear lever. In enthusiastic acceptance, the car leaped forward with a light roar and all of us compressed back into our seats.

It took us little more than an hour to cover the almost 200km, despite the various checkpoints, thanks to the purple one truly driving like lives were at stake and disappearing the car to help it slink by undetected, with the help of my altering the sounds emitted from its engine and exhaust.

As soon as the car screeched to a halt on the smooth floor of the hangar, we hauled Renka straight to her bed, where Tsubaki-sensei instantly jabbed her with a needle, which she rushed away with once it had filled with dark red liquid.

Roughly five minutes later, she returned to the three of us and with little delay coldly advised, ‘The bullet that took her down carried a chemical agent which has altered her body’s behaviour; essentially, her cells are currently at war with themselves. Judging from the pulse reading that I took while getting the blood sample, I’d say we have only five or six hours to create an antidote. We can get most of the chemicals from drugstores and labs, thanks to my certification, but some of the ingredients aren’t so quick to procure, so we might require a visit to the mountains; we should probably get going.’

‘Here.’

I looked across and the sight instantly confused me. The purple one held out the keys to her car.

‘You have a chance to save her, so don’t waste time questioning me. That car’s the fastest and least conspicuous thing we have, so you’d better push her for all that she’ll give you,’ she bluntly informed, as she stared straight into my eyes with an expression whose seriousness matched that which she showed when we first fought in that gym almost two weeks earlier.

Once in the driver’s seat, I did briefly consider asking Tsubaki-sensei why the purple did what she did, but decided against it, given that there’s no way I could drive as fast as her and would need full concentration. To make the situation even more challenging, without her ability to make the car undetectable to the naked eye, I had to take convoluted routes in order to avoid gang checkpoints and any other random battles that had broken out. The ~150km outbound journey, to reach a specific chemical distribution centre took us almost ninety minutes despite me driving the car as hard as I possibly could without damaging it.

Thankfully, Tsubaki-sensei was able to acquire all of the off–the–shelf ingredients that she needed after around a thirty-minute wait. Four hours remained on the timer so far as I was aware and trust me; I was watching the time at every possible opportunity.

The rapid dash into the mountains ate another forty or so minutes and prompted the doctor and I to begin the most difficult part of the process; hunting for a specific tree sap and an oil, which were both essential components for the remedy which Tsubaki-sensei believed would bring Renka back to us. The search process was agonising, largely thanks to the continuously growing doubt which arose from the painfully slow pace.

The pace being so slow, I figured asking the unspent question from earlier would help pass the time. As we briskly walked through the mountain forests, I asked, ‘You wouldn’t happen to know why your girlfriend was so insistent on me driving, would you?’

She kept her eyes panning the forest and replied with little delay. ‘Probably because something about your current situation has struck a particular sensitive area of hers. I know you two don’t get along all that well, but I think as soon as you get the chance, you should ask her why she always wears that water lily in her hair. If she refuses to tell you, then tell her that I sent you, heh. Looking at the current situation, who knows? You might find that you two have more in common and are more alike than either of you think.’

Altogether, we spent almost half an hour roaming the forest until Tsubaki-sensei located both the tree and bushes that she needed to gather her ingredients from.

After carefully collecting a few test tubes’ worth of sap and oil, we hastily jogged through the woods for our return leg to the car. Even despite her heeled wedge boots not being the best suited for running, Tsubaki-sensei managed to put in a remarkable performance. Despite my initial impressions of her and her then not-girlfriend almost two weeks ago, on this particular afternoon, I couldn’t have been more thankful for their effort in supporting me.

With only 150 minutes left on the timer, our return to the car marked the start of an even hastier dash, from the mountains to the hangar which had to leave enough time for Tsubaki-sensei to carefully construct her antidote.

❀

There I was; over ten years later, watching somebody at risk of going through almost exactly what I did. As much as Kasumi didn’t like or trust me, I genuinely didn’t have an issue with her by this point; it’s just unfortunate that we got off on the wrong foot right.

Ah, right; what point in time am I talking about here? Kasumi and Tsubaki had left to get ingredients, and I restlessly flitted between kneeling and sitting at the bedside of a bed which had a dying captain lying on top. Our dying captain, rather.

As I sat with my back leaned against her bed, how she didn’t fully trust me gnawed at my conscience a bit, but there was no denying that in the past almost three weeks, she’d been a huge help and support to me, even if she chose tough love as her means of delivering it. The wait for the other two to return was nothing short of excruciating.

Occasionally, I got up and glanced over her, laying on her back; I’d never previously seen her so still and I could have sworn her skin had paled a bit too. I desperately hoped that her eyelids would flutter open, but at the same time, I dreaded the sight of her drawing her last breath as well.

The internal tension and anguish were things I hadn’t experienced in over a decade and the effects reached very deep within me when I recalled the previous Friday morning.

She and I both sat on those rocks, talking and joking about things as if we’d known each for a good while longer than two weeks. I made the joke about calling her Renka-nee or something and although I casually reeled it off like a throwaway comment, if I were honest, considering her like a fun, dependable but also stern older sister probably sat either warmly at the back of my mind or deep in my heart.

Yet again, my eyes burned slightly and grew very watery. It’d happened multiple times since we got the radio shout from Kasumi that morning, but that particular flashback, the sound of her playful yet comforting voice and the image of her smiling face contrasted with how lifeless she looked laying on that bed more or less brought me back to that shed in 2017, with Naoka.

Theoretically, time still remained for the other two and sending Kasumi off in my car gave them the best chance I could offer, for her partner to avoid the same fate as my departed friend and to give me some hope of avoiding ending up paralysed with pain like I did that fateful Friday afternoon.

As I glanced over the captain once more, I noticed the corner of a white page sticking out from under the pillow which her head rested on. On closer inspection, I could have sworn that I saw a line, as if it were a book leaf. I guessed that in the rush that preceded her diagnosis before Kasumi and Tsubaki left, none of us noticed. I’d been by Renka’s side from the moment that we hauled her out of the car, so if anybody else had spotted it, I would have been aware.

I carefully pulled the paper from beneath the captain’s resting head and as my eyes journeyed across the page, my heart almost broke. I had no doubt that the handwriting was hers. The leaf read;

“Hey, Kasumi. I don’t know if you were/ are into song writing, but I figured you’d appreciate this. Probably sounds weird coming from me, but hey; it wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t at least a bit weird, right?

I suggested that we run away.

Rather than opt for safety and stay,

You followed me, without question,

And we both dashed off, that very same day.

You started off anything besides expressive.

Always cold and calm, but never quite oppressive.

You quickly captured my heart,

In ways that have been increasingly impressive.

Your handsome face and shiny black hair with highlights bright pink,

Plus muscular build oft makes it hard to sensibly think.

Your icy yet riveting gaze, sets my insides ablaze.

Watch for too long and my composure ends up at the brink.

As if blessed by Artemis herself, you always strike your target without fail,

With admirable natural beauty and strength, much like the mighty killer whale.

I guess I should have known from the start; I’d fall hopelessly for you,

Though, if I’m a prisoner to your splendour, I’ll blissfully stay in jail.

Your power, grace and commitment complete me, at least that’s how it seems;

Since I’ve gotten close to you, I’m sure that my spirit now brightly gleams.

I hadn’t known it before, but now I’m absolutely sure;

That you’re a woman superior to any ideal from my dreams.

My heart aches whenever I think of your troubled past,

Rough they may be, but the seas ahead of us are vast.

Faced with danger, I’ll do my best to stay alive,

So that our relationship will eternally last.

It probably doesn’t compete with your mother’s haiku, but I tried, heh”

Unsurprisingly, my mind raced when I reached the bottom. The fact that the book leaf remained under her own pillow suggested that she was still yet to deliver it to Kasumi. I guess on one hand, getting the closure of knowing how the (departed) captain felt would be a good thing but if it were me, the sentiment would definitely tear me apart. On the other hand, leaving her to only deal with grief of having lost Renka would be a pretty bleak experience, with nothing more than her memories to guide her through the pain and despair. I also briefly wondered how irritated Kasumi would be if the captain survived, delivered her feelings and had to apologise for fucking up on the avoiding danger part. If she did survive, I’d definitely persist in quietly giving her a hard time about it too, I mean any caring little sister would, right?

Among the woeful options that I had to choose from, I slipped the note under Renka’s bed, determined to leave it alone and only reveal it soon after she lost her battle to stay alive, sincerely hoping that such an eventuality wouldn’t occur.

Although I should have spent the remaining wait time checking on the captain, I couldn’t take any more of it. I sat on the floor, slouched, with my back against the bed and spaced out for however long it was until the peppy roar of a turbocharged two-litre, inline-four snapped me back to reality.

❀

By the time we pulled up back at the hangar, roughly thirty minutes remained on the timer, so far as I knew.

While Tsubaki-sensei hurried to her makeshift laboratory, I dashed straight back to the bedside, where the purple one still remained, watching over Renka. Her eyes seemed permanently stuck in a watery state by this point and her overall expression noticeably more downcast than when we had left.

I silently joined her, presuming that no news was good news. Asking or saying anything seemed out of the question, as it would probably have broken her, myself or the both of us.

The only mild comfort that came from the soul-crushingly tense wait arrived in the form of the purple one gently clasping my closest hand. It came as a bit of a shock, but the fact that she didn’t for a second take her eyes away from Renka told me clearly enough that both of our hearts were in the same aching state.

The concept of time being severely warped between the purple one’s gesture and the point that Tsubaki-sensei hurried into the bedroom, with a syringe half-filled with a clear liquid.

With little hesitation, she rolled up one of Renka’s sleeves and delivered the entirety of the syringe’s contents into Renka’s upper arm, with one long press of the plastic unit’s tail.

In short order, both of my hands became occupied. One hand with purple nails on one side and one with mint green on the other; both of them watched on alongside me, in terrifying silence.

Time still remained a long–forgotten concept as we waited, until my heartbeat quickened at a ridiculous rate.

Her dark-brown eyes revealed themselves and I genuinely couldn’t think of a moment in life where I’d been happier. The two women beside me released their hands and I leaped forward, coming to a rest on top of Renka, having wrapped my arms around her.

She let out a long, weak groan and then eventually mumbled, ‘I’m glad to see you too, heh.’

After a lengthy pause, she struggled to wriggle her arms around, to wrap them around me. Sounding fairly upset, she forced out a pained ‘I’m sorry, for worrying you like that.’

I felt a hand on my shoulder not long after. I refused to turn away, but still the voice which commented did so warmly. ‘When you two have settled down, come and find me on the shore.’

Probably unsurprising, but Renka had fallen asleep again within a few minutes of waking up. Thankfully, her blood condition showed small signs of improvement within half an hour of the remedy administration, which greatly reduced the level of internal tension which still stirred within me. Tsubaki-sensei confirmed that Renka’s recovery would be slow, but that she’d be okay, given enough resting time.

After the amount of worry and fear that had filled me during that day, some good resting time was desperately needed for me as well; I was genuinely exhausted. Still, I had to at least stay awake to visit the rocky shore that sat beside the hangar.

After she invited me to take a seat on one of the boulders, much to my surprise, the purple one spared me the need to ask why she behaved so strangely earlier on and also spared me the need to awkwardly attempt to find out the story behind the water lily that she almost always wore in her hair.

Almost immediately after telling me the story of what she experienced in her first year of high school, she ensured that we shared eye contact and informed me, ‘You know, rose doesn’t actually exist on the electromagnetic spectrum for visible light because it’s sort of a mixture of wavelengths, but if it did, it’d be like the RGB loops and sit next to violet.’

I didn’t ask for an explanation, but combined with her fairly warm tone, her behaviour the previous day, that day and especially that afternoon, it was pretty obvious what she earnestly wanted. By that point, I saw no reason to hold past events against her. I’d never been big on gestures, so after an instant of consideration I replied with a simple nod and smile, signalling that I was perfectly happy to start living beside and to get along with her as best I could.