Nonoha staggered into her room, pulled off her hair band, and collapsed onto her bed, too exhausted even to change clothes.

It's not like she had even done anything—she was useless, she knew she was, but that was the problem: she spent so much time watching the others solve puzzles, fighting the Orpheus Order, but she couldn't do anything herself. She forced herself to watch the puzzles, to take them in, to play through her memories, to look for something to contribute, but for all that she had perfect recall of the past, she could never see what was the right next move to make.

She had been helpless at the 5v5 match against the Orpheus Order; the Order had permitted Kaito to take an extra turn in place of Nonoha. Then, she had been useless when Erena's life had been on the line, and she was only saved by the miraculous timely arrival of Rook.

Nonoha wasn't exhausted from solving puzzles. She was exhausted from not solving them. She was emotionally exhausted. She was stressed. She knew that it was only a matter of time before their luck ran out and nobody would be able to cover for her, before her cluelessness got someone killed.

Sure, she could just leave the team, and leave her worries behind… but if someone got killed because she wasn't there, that would be even worse than if they had gotten killed because she had tried and failed. The Orpheus Order was out there, hurting people and taking over their minds, whether she liked it or not, and she had to do what she could to stop them. Not to mention that she was Kaito's emotional support, and she had to admit to herself, she needed him, too, and she didn't want to leave his side.

Maybe somebody else would have been content with that role. Should she?

She knew she really should talk to Kaito about this. She sat up and looked at her phone. She could call him, or just walk over to his room. But she needed to be strong for Kaito; she couldn't let her own problems distract him.

Suddenly her eyes caught on a package on her desk. How did that get there? I guess I grabbed it this morning? It said something about how beaten she was that she didn't remember something like that.

She reached across the desk and pulled the package to her and ripped open the cardboard.