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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25.

In lieu of actually understanding the dumping of such a revelation, a revelation meant only for their ears, the only thing Sumi can think of to do is have a sleepover.

Sonoko giggles with glee at the very idea. Her eyes are soft and damp with unshed tears but Sumi doesn’t say a word about those directly, only encourages some alpha waves from her. They must be healthy. After all, there is no way out of this, not without losing their bodies. Not without losing everything.

“Sumi.”

She looks at Iona. Iona smiles a little, a heartbroken thing. It’s beautiful. “I don’t want to do this.”

Sumi once would have snapped, then why are you, but she doesn’t.

Instead, she says, “I’m sorry too.”

Sonoko calls her name. She goes to her without hesitation.

Apparently, they are to try on kimonos together.

Gin walks right past them, smiling sadly as they go.

26.

Golden Week arrives to Sonoko screaming about a book deadline, and Yuzuki — Gin — cleaning the classroom, pretending every thing is normal. No one has noticed the slight falsetto she needs to use. Yuzuki was closer to adulthood than Gin had been. They stress different syllables. But no one notices. They are too in awe of the hero that retired and when they ask probing questions as to why, the only answer they receive is—

“My parents wanted me to stop.”

—As if that’s actually an answer.

Sumi says nothing against it, only smiles and agrees. She does her best to mimic Sonoko, who is shaking a little at her desk. It’s hard to hold up a smile for so long.

Some days, Sumi wonders if it would have been better if Gin were just dead altogether. Then they could actually mourn her.

27.

The festival arrives with a bang. Their academy is full of cafes, plays, exhibitions. There will even be a concert before everyone is dismissed for the fireworks tonight. Sonoko’s hand hasn’t left hers once, except to buy anything she can find.

And Sumi had thought her adoptive family was rich.

She doesn’t even think to look for her birth parents. They were more interested in the honor of having a Hero child than raising an actual child.

“Wasshi! Look, look at those bananas~” A sly grin had wrought over the blonde girl’s face and Sumi blanches.

“Y-yes, do you want to buy one?”

Thankfully, she nods eagerly enough and does not say what Sumi had feared she would. That was terrifying in and of itself.

“Gin~” She decides to call out instead, causing the girl to turn. Sumi flinches but Sonoko winds up like a pro pitcher and throws something to smack right into her nose. Gin falls back with a comical thud.

“Sonocchi!” Sumi gives up on manners entirely, but Sonoko only grinsand bounces a plush cat off her head too.

“It’s not right if we all don’t have one~” She exclaimes, twirling about her. “Come on Wasshi, let’s go!”

Sumi hesitates, watching Yu-Gin get up with a grumble. But then the girl grins, and there is no difference, none at all!

“Nice!” Gin calls in terrible, terrible English. “I like it baby, like it a lot!”

Sumi facepalms. She is going to hit them both.

28.

“Ru…”

Iona dreams. Iona dreams and weeps.

Sumi presses her finger over the card as if she could wipe the tears away.

“Piriluk-san doesn’t do that,” Sonoko muses over the sound of the fireworks. She glances at the LRIG around her neck as she speaks, unwilling to let go of Sumi’s hand. It’s warm, not clammy, just warm. Her hands always are.

Piriluk smiles a little. “The person who saved me was an ordinary girl, who lived an ordinary life. She died at peace and helping as she wanted to help. Unlike Iona, I wasn’t attached to Kominato Ruko-san. She was just another opponent.” She sighs. “I tried to follow in her footsteps, however, foolish though it may have seemed to so many others.”

“Oh…” Sumi looks down at the sleeping, trembling card.

“She loved her,” Sumi says simply. Loved her more than any god, than her creator. Just as Tama did. She wanted to stay, but then if she had, you could have had someone worse.”

But she doesn’t say who would be worse, or why she wasn’t there. She just looked up at the fireworks and when Gin sat beside them, chided her for taking her time.

Seeing Gin’s body in that kimono makes Sumi cry. Eventually, there’s not a dry eye from the five of them and that’s okay.

At least, Sonoko thinks so.

29.

Their terminals are the same color, but they are bathed in holy water and dressed as if they are dolls anyway. “It’s an upgrade,” their teacher claims. Sensei is as blank as ever when she speaks, as soothing. She dons her porcelain mask after a while, locking Sonoko and Sumi away from the only ally they have.

So the worship, the honor continues. At some point, Sumi glimpses Yuzuki standing nearby. Gin’s hair is getting longer, darker. Her eyes look a little closer to amber. She smiles at them, sadly, knowingly. She mouths words at the two of them.

When they blink, she’s gone.

And the forestize warning goes off in an explosion, a weak gunshot sound all the way to a thunderclap.

The two of them join hands.

30.

Bloody rain falls.

Sumi is dimly aware that the rain is from her fingers and from Sonoko, but they are only two now. And she has to cover Sonoko. She fires and fires. “SIGNII!” She screams. “Iona! Grow! Black—”

Sonoko’s cry of pain cuts her off as she falls, a fall that would kill a human, a fall that only causes her to get back up, spit still white.

Sonoko looks back at her and manages a grin. “We can do this!”

Just as she says that, tears fall from Sumi’s eyes. Another Vertex lands in front of the one metaphorically licking its wounds.

We can’t do this.

“Sumi.” Eyes streaked with tears, Sumi looks over at Iona. “Trust in me.”

The words are wrong for the deadpan, sour LRIG. “For what?”

She looks over, away from the battle. “Trust in me. I want to see Ru again.” She holds out her gloved hand. Sumi hesitates, and then takes it. “Now repeat after me.”

Sumi nods.

“I accept the laws of the selection.”

She repeats the words slowly, unable to hear the sounds of battle.

Iona smiles. “Now, a new Eternal Girl will be born.”

She repeats them and then another word forms from her mouth. “Mankai.”

The world turns blue and purple and alive, but she is not in it. She is in a white apartment building, looking at a group of girls.

“Aw,” says one, her white hair in twintails. “I thought Yuzuki-chan would make it this time.”

“She has time,” murmurs the second, patting her head. “We’ll all be together soon, I’m sure.” She smiles at Sumi.

“Ruko,” Sumi says and she doesn’t know why she says it, she just knows that it’s true.

“Mm!” Ruko lets out a noise of joy, rising up from what is likely her bed. “And you’re Sumi-chan! Gin-chan has told us all about you.”

“Gin has?” A warmth, bubbling and sad, welled up in her chest.

“Yep.”

Sumi turns around to see Gin standing behind her.

“Hey,” she says.

Sumi weeps again.

31.

Sonoko needs to be here. She needs to be here for this. She needs to see it is true. Gin isn’t dead. She was just here. She is safe and alive… or something like it, oh Sonoko needs to see this.

She and Gin hug for a long time, smiling as only Heroes can. Then a horrible pain strikes her chest. She coughs, knees giving way. Ruko takes her other side with Gin, the older girl still smiling a sad, knowing smile. Everything hurts all of a sudden.

“Where am I?” she croaks.

“Like Heaven but limited,” Gin cracks in reply, sitting on the floor. “Heroes are sent here. Heroes and LRIGs. When Taisha is done with them. Or when they just can’t fight anymore.”

“It was the only way to balance the Hero system. Yuna-san, she helped me a lot.” Ruko sits like any other girl: legs bouncing, smiling pleasantly. She is supposedly a ruthless battler, willing to destroy any wish for the sake of her victory. ‘Taisha-san, they couldn’t help it. They had to rush something into place against the gods.’ She sighs. “So we had to patch it up the best we could.”

“Yuki’s fighting right now!” exclaims the girl dressed in white. “I feel it, Ru! I need to help!”

Ruko giggles, bright and lively and warm. “It’ll be okay, Tama. I believe in her! You should too.”

She is pacified so easily, so gently. When Ruko turns back to her, eyes ablaze, Sumi takes a step back.

“You need to go on back now,” she tells her gently. “You still have a friend on that side. Sonoko-chan needs you.”

Sumi can’t even think of refusing, not even when Gin’s hand slips away from hers. She will save Sonoko, her friend, her… something.

And she will… she will… what?

32.

Sonoko’s fear for Sumi as she dances in the sky with guns in hand is nothing compared to the fear she has now of those blank, big eyes, and the terror in her face. Washio Sumi’s entire life is gone. Her best friend, her memories of Gin, everything is gone and she is going to die out here.

Because of Taisha. Because of Taisha and this stupid game and this war that gods created.

“Piriluk!” she shouts. “Help me!”

“Of course.” Her LRIG’s voice is as steady as she comes, cold and unforgiving to the world.

With a battle cry, purple blossoms over her skin, her hair, her hands, her everything. And she lunges for the many Vertex.

All of them would fall.

---

Togo Mimori’s fingers tremble around the wheels of her chair. This isn’t right somehow. It is where she belongs but… it isn’t right. She shivers in the spring air.

She… she needs to be doing something, needs to be somewhere, with someone. There’s just… something she has to say, no matter what.

“Hello!”

And that was not it. She looks up to see gentle red and pink, a brilliant smile that seems to know everything in the universe.

She doesn’t smile. Her face hurts. She thinks of blond hair and citrus and pencils and shivers. “H-Hello…”

“I’m Yuki Yuna!” the other girl blurts out ‘You just moved here, right?’ She leans down and presses their hands together. “Ohowoow~!” She jumps back with a giggle. “Your hands are cold!”

Her hands were warm, not clammy, but warm. And it’s nostalgic.

“Togo Mimori,” she manages to say, the dry warmth of the other girl’s palms catching her off guard.

“Nice to meet you, Togo-san!” and as their hands shake properly, a card reader comes loose from her jacket. A girl with white pigtails sat on it. It was perfectly still at first.

Then the girl smiles and waves at her.

Togo Mimori shivers, and not with cold.

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