aiko's otter den

The Promise We Never Made Aloud - They never promised to protect each other. They never promised to wish for only good things. In a world where everything might just come to an end tomorrow, it’s surely okay to be a little bit selfish, isn’t it? Sonoko/Sumi.

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1.

The aptitude test is complete. Soon her life will be placed in a color box, and her training will begin anew. Joy.

Sumi puts down her pencil, hands shaking. She should not be afraid. She has done well. She is of the best. She is a Washio. They called her forth from her old family to take on a new one. It had to be worth it.

Beside her, children sing their delight and murmur with relief. They pack their pencils away and she hurries to mimic them, to not stand out. She is not ready to be special, not yet.

Taisha-sama chimes for them. The class stands and they bow. Sumi stands too and she shudders in front of her chair. The wish flutters like a butterfly.

She watches the nearly perfect sky shudder and shuts her eyes. It’s gone too fast and the bell chimes.

Without hesitation, she escapes from one watchful pair of eyes to another.

And another. And another. She hurries home before they can call her name.

They watch her.

2.

In this world, the idea of battle is a given.

In this world, children are soldiers in battle games. That is a given. Only children have the power to fight against the things on the other side of the barrier. Only children know how to navigate the safe zone, a power which is lost as humans age.

Children fight and adults raise fighters. That is how the world has been. In the old families especially. At least, this is the case for the few old families that are left. Like hers. The Washio family, who glowed with blue or white, never black, never red. Sometimes purple. But the colors matched, the colors mattered. They were a sign of the soul. And a warrior’s soul must be serene, must be at ease, especially on the battlefield.

Sumi’s heart is not serene. Like the rippling water it trembles in fear.

How foolish, she thinks. This is what I was born for.

But that really doesn’t mean anything in the long run.

The package looms in her mailbox. It is purple. So she will be of the darkness.

Sumi giggles so much it hurts. It’s hysteria in progress.

3.

She gets a letter. After the purple, the second matters slightly more, but just barely. She doesn’t care as much as she should, she knows. After all, this is where her partner, or partners, will be told to her. She will be given her first training session schedule. Even though she already knows how to play, even though she is fully aware of how to fight, using both is something you don’t get to do until you’re assigned, and now that she is—

Thump thump goes her heart.

Sumi smiles.

She will be fine, she knows it. She is in this family because she is wanted here, not because she was born to it. She has earned this.

She takes the package and slits it open with her nail.

Your partners will be Nogi Sonoko and Minowa Gin, led by Nogi Sonoko. Present yourself at the training center at 0700 on this upcoming Thursday.

Your LRIG is Iona Ultima. Please acquaint yourselves appropriately.

The symbol of the Taisha is all that remains for a signature.

She opens the deck pack now with careful fingers and the magic thrums beneath them in delighted assurance. It knows better than she does. Figures.

She lifts the main card out and looks at it, at the long beautiful black hair she has been trying to cultivate for years and years. “Pleased to meet you, selector,” she says.

Sumi nods, mimicking her. “Pleased to meet you, Iona.”

Wow, she thinks. That was stiff.

Is this what she has to look forward to?

4.

They fight a lot.

Not the kind of fighting that rivals make of each other, but Gin makes it close.

You see, she is the strongest. No one’s allowed to forget that. No one. She’s not arrogant about it but it’d be nice if she forgot herself every once in a while.

Sonoko finds her funny.

Sumi finds Sonoko amusing herself.

Gin is… Gin. Sumi isn’t sure what category to put her in yet.

Their LRIGs seem to get along fine, a sentiment that made Gin crow like, well, the bird.

“Even your stiff LRIG is more fun than you, Sumi-chan!”

She’s joking, Sumi knows. She knows because when the heat of the game starts, Sumi is the wildest of any of them. Just get a Vertex youth in her sights, They’re gone in a flash.

It’s just a sign of her good aim, she knows, otherwise she would be dead.

“I guess.”

“Really?” Sonoko looks at her own blue LRIG, who seems to be dozing in her card until she isn’t. She is wide awake and watching them. Piriluk’s hollow eyes stare into her and through her with a mocking sort of ease. She almost never talks.

“Yeah!” Gin’s staring at her now. “Do you go out?”

Sumi nods, mouth dry. This is out for her. This is out and active because home was people willing to give her up, home was people who were thinking so hard of the world, the greater good. They were home like the training grounds.

Gin scoffs and laughs in the same push of her mouth. “No way! We’ll have to show you what going out looks like, right Sonoko?”

“Mm…” Sonoko scribbles in her novel’s notebook. “Okay~”

“Are you even listening?”

5.

They fight a lot.

Not the kind of fighting that rivals make of each other, but Gin makes it close.

You see, she is the strongest. No one’s allowed to forget that. No one. She’s not arrogant about it but it’d be nice if she forgot herself every once in a while.

Sonoko finds her funny.

Sumi finds Sonoko amusing herself.

Gin is… Gin. Sumi isn’t sure what category to put her in yet.

Their LRIGs seem to get along fine, a sentiment that made Gin crow like, well, the bird.

“Even your stiff LRIG is more fun than you, Sumi-chan!”

She’s joking, Sumi knows. She knows because when the heat of the game starts, Sumi is the wildest of any of them. Just get a Vertex youth in her sights, They’re gone in a flash.

It’s just a sign of her good aim, she knows, otherwise she would be dead.

“I guess.”

“Really?” Sonoko looks at her own blue LRIG, who seems to be dozing in her card until she isn’t. She is wide awake and watching them. Piriluk’s hollow eyes stare into her and through her with a mocking sort of ease. She almost never talks.

“Yeah!” Gin’s staring at her now. “Do you go out?”

Sumi nods, mouth dry. This is out for her. This is out and active because home was people willing to give her up, home was people who were thinking so hard of the world, the greater good. They were home like the training grounds.

Gin scoffs and laughs in the same push of her mouth. “No way! We’ll have to show you what going out looks like, right Sonoko?”

“Mm…” Sonoko scribbles in her novel’s notebook. “Okay~”

“Are you even listening?”

6.

“Iona?”

“Mm?”

Sumi sighs. She doesn’t mean to do it so loudly. She doesn’t mean to be so outright disappointed. But they’ve been together for a month and they still don’t talk. They just train and study and that’s the end of it. But Sumi cannot continue like this, not when the Washio home is full of duty and power (and sometimes love).

She needs something more than this.

“You require something.” Not a question. Iona’s tone would have questions but they wouldn’t be questions.

Sumi colors and it shows all over her face. “I, I do not require anything. I want something but I don’t… require…” The courage and anger had drained out into her shoes. “I want you to be my friend is that too much to ask?”

Silence. A different silence, one that would let her cover her blushing cheeks and let Iona think. Or be angry. She’d never seen her angry.

Iona looks at her with strange, strong eyes. It almost seems like they glow. She makes herself stare back.

Then the blank face returns. “How?” she inquires.

Sumi pauses, feeling dismay creep into her throat. “I… I don’t know.”

Iona purses her lips.

“But!” Sumi makes a face of indignation. “There has to be some way. If we don’t work well, we’ll die.”

“You will.” Iona’s correction is seemingly harmless. Seemingly.

“You’ll be burnt.” Sumi is slightly final, though she doesn’t mean to be.

7.

It’s the worst battle yet. She’s shaking. She’s shaking. The chimes are growing. No one breathes around her but them.

Gin feels happy. So happy.

Why can’t I feel the same way?

This was her duty. This is her everything, how can she be shaking now what is the matter with her?

The world erodes beneath her feet. No it does more, it crumbles lie sot and for a moment she can “t breathe. Then Sonoko bounces about like a child and raises her LRIG to the not-heavens.

“Grow!” she shouts. “Piriluk!”

Gin is right beside her, Yuzuki already at her heels and bursting flames.

Somehow… somehow they are so strong.

She readies her bow and even when she hits, the timing works. But it grazes flames and swords and people could be getting hurt and it’s all her fault!

“Iona, grow!” she shouts.

Purple and blue are mixed on a palette.

Those are the opening lines to one of Sonoko’s novels and as Iona reacts to her, dances black feathers and white light, it feels appropriate.

So does the blood suddenly dripping from her stomach.

8.

She wakes and fills up with shame like water in a basement.

“You’re long-ranged,” their coach chides. “Why did you just stand there like that?”

Sumi makes to speak and finds that all she can do is croak. “I…”

“It was a mistime!” Gin says quickly, waving her bandaged hands. “There was a lot of wind and I couldn’t hear Sonocchi! I don’t think you should get too mad. What if she had jumped wrong, she could have lost her leg and—”

“Minowa-san.” Iona’s deadpan subdues the swordswoman before the coach even had a chance. “My partner made an error of judgement.”

Gin wilts but quickly reasserts herself. “Well, we’re trained for this but… that’s not the same as experience, you know?”

Sumi winces because—

“Gin-chan, you’re not helping,” Sonoko says in her dreamy way, now brushing her fingers over Sumi’s forehead like she’s checking for a fever. Well, that’s not quite right but her face is burning from shame so… it’s close enough, surely.

And it’s not embarrassment at the blatant affection, nope nope.

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