Interlude IX - Wednesday IV - Saho Sisters' Catch-Up

A layer of white, with grey ruffles dominated the sky, leaving only a few light spots with vague traces of blue. The only evidence of the sun’s presence could be found in the brightness of the sky. The airfield sat quiet, save for the light blustering of the coastal winds against the walls of the solitary metal building.

After 11 am and you’re only just joining us, Cap? ‘How nice of you to finally join us, Captain Sleepy,’ the black and purple-haired member of the group greeted the slowly arriving captain, with a jeering tone. ‘How’s our ace pilot feeling this morning?’ she warmly added.

‘Well, I still feel drained on the energy front, but at least my muscles don’t permanently feel like they’re going to tear themselves apart or give up anymore.’

‘That’s good to hear; let’s hope you get back to normal soon. We miss our fierce, courageous and pretty weird captain.’

‘I’m trying to, okay.’ Renka wearily huffed, before narrowing her eyes and glaring at Hikari through the lenses of her glasses. ‘Also, you’re not much better than me, Miss Tera—’

‘Yes, yes. Now come and join our sort-of circle; our guests were waiting for you, so that they could interrogate all of us together, heh.’

After setting herself down on the hangar floor, cross-legged, beside Kasumi, Saki’s sapphire eyes panned over the four women. She asked, with a suspicious tone. ‘Sooo, would you care to explain to us where you got this place from? When we last saw you, you all looked like a bunch of nomads.’

‘What do we look like now then?’ Renka fired back.

‘I don’t know. Armed resistance fighters? Like, you have this home base, a plane, an impressive weapons cache and a roaming robot guard, which we’re still yet to hear an explanation of,’ Saki quickly replied, holding out her hands, palms-up, gesturing at the surroundings.

‘Umm, the previous inhabitants no longer needed them, so they passed them on to us,’ Renka gaily replied, with an innocent smile. ‘Also; that robot’s name is Subaru.’

The two sisters briefly glanced at each other, with derisive smiles.

‘Riiight. So, moving on from that, we wanna hear the spicy stuff, like what’s going on between you and the captain, my pink-haired friend. You two seemed awfully cosy when you stopped by the village a couple of weeks ago and if last night was anything to go by, you two are even more cosy now.’

‘We’re partners now,’ Kasumi plainly replied.

‘Partners how? Like friends, colleagues or…’ Aki pressed, keeping her eyes fixed on Kasumi.

‘Both, and lovers.’

‘How very direct.’ Aki sulked. ‘I guess we’re not gonna get an elaboration, so we’ll leave it at that and move onto the real questions, no offence,’ Aki added, her eyes drifting away and settling on the amethyst and emerald-eyed women sat to Kasumi’s left.

Saki’s eyes also fixed on the same two ladies, ‘To put it mildly, you two were a total mess when you visited us. We couldn’t tell if you two were like one of those idiot couples that we sometimes read about or if you two just really didn’t like each other. So, seeing the state of you two last night came as a bit of a shock. Did you both receive an intervention from a goddess of love or something?’

Hikari giggled lightly, ‘Maybe? There’s still a bunch of issues that we’re yet to figure out, but we’re mostly on the same page now.’

Aki’s eyes narrowed, ‘Oh, ho? Pray tell; what page would that be?’

‘We’re girlfriends now,’ Tsubaki firmly replied, with a friendly smile, before resting her head against Hikari’s for a brief period.

The two wide–eyed sisters again briefly glanced at each other and giggled. ‘Ehh? So, our suspicions were correct, though admittedly, for a long while, we thought the doctor would never give you anything more than the time of day, like ever. What do you have to say for yourself?’ Aki queried, shifting her eyes from Hikari to the increasingly guilty-looking Tsubaki.

‘I’ve never considered romance before, at all. So, I hadn’t the first clue on how any of that stuff worked. Well, that and my mind was kind of stuck in the wrong time period, so to speak; these last few weeks have been the wildest rollercoaster I’ve ever been on. We kind of ended up having a fight, after which I realised a few important things and here we are. She’s definitely not perfect, but I’m slowly warming up to the idea that we’re destined to be together.’

With a friendly smile, Saki warmly replied. ‘Aww, how cute; it looks like you’re both pretty happy together, so I’m happy for you two. See, Kasumi; this is the kinda stuff we came looking for, not that we aren’t happy for you and the captain as well, of course.’

Eyeing the green-eyed woman, Aki interjected, with a teasing smile. Holding up her right hand and curling her middle and ring fingers, ‘Also, if your nails are anything to go by, it looks like we’ve realised an important thing or two about dearest Hikari,’ Aki playfully added, while shifting her gaze onto the black and purple-haired woman.

‘What can I say; she’s a doctor and makes compact electronic devices, so it should be no surprise that she’s good with her hands and delicate operations.’ Her voice turning increasingly mischievous, she added, ‘Althoughh, she’s just as good at the—.’ Really?? An elbow? ‘Ow!... Yeah; she hits a bit harder now as well,’ Hikari concluded, with a playfully injured tone.

The sisters giggled again, with Aki concluding, ‘Good to see that you’re still kinda idiots, you two. Also, we’re agreed that we’re loving your new look as well, Tsubaki. Not that we didn’t love the whole straight–laced cute nerd thing that you had going on when you stopped by our village, but the new look is definitely one of the coolest we’ve seen anybody rock in a long while.’

‘The credit isn’t all mine; Hikari made the skirt from scratch, which I guess makes the difference to how confidently I can wear it,’ Tsubaki warmly replied, softly resting her head against Hikari’s.