Seven virtues
Notes: This fic was written originally for retos_a_lacarta's seven virtues' challenge.
I
There's a big commotion the day Divine arrives with the girl.
Not everyone tries to slip to have a look at her, but most of the youngest of the Arcadia Movement do.
Aki doesn't need to do such thing and simply follows Divine to the room where the girl is connected to several machines that measure more than her vital signs.
"The Sleeping beauty", as some call her, doesn't seem to want to wake up anytime soon and Divine himself declares so with a sigh.
If that's the case then she doesn't really matter, Aki assumes and stops thinking about her.
II
It's because Divine asks her that Aki returns to the room of the girl, Luca.
She hasn't received specific instructions and doesn't know what to do, but even so she sits down in the chair ready for her and watches Luca for several minutes.
"You should wake up," Aki says and the sound of one of the machines startles her, but there doesn't seem to be any change in the girl.
Aki waits patiently and tries to talk a little more, at least until she decides she's wasting her time.
Divine isn't watching them and no one dares to stop her from leaving.
III
"You should keep trying."
If that had been said by any other person, Aki would have branded him a wishful thinker, but he's Divine so she accepts his words and returns day after day.
Divine seems pleased with the reactions showed by the machines during her visits and after ten days, Aki can't help but feel that he's only focused on Luca even though she knows it isn't like that.
"You know? There's someone waiting for you," she says with a hint of annoyance. That feeling disappears as soon as she sees Luca open her eyes for the first time since she arrived to the Arcadia Movement.
IV
She already fulfilled her role. That's why Aki doesn't try to visit her again, but Divine suggests her to do it.
Surely he has a good reason for that, so she does so even tough she has a feeling that the meeting will end with distrustful glances or something worse.
But Luca welcomes her with a cheerful "Aki-san!" and a smile that doesn't disappear when she asks Luca how she knows who is she.
"They told me," she says and looks away.
So she knows.
This time is Aki who smiles -sourly- and gets ready to leave, not for that girl's regard but for Divine's. If her powers were to go out of control they would lose all the effort they had put in Luca.
"And I heard you," the girl adds quietly before Aki can leave.
"You heard me?" Aki asks, bewildered. Luca looks at her again and nods.
"From the beginning."
Luca doesn't seem to know how to explain, but she tries. She talks about spirits, dragons and other worlds as if they really exist.
It's unreal; just like her own abilities. That's enough to make her listen to Luca with attention and even to forget her apprehension of being called "witch" or "monster".
V
The duel monsters themselves seem to protect Luca in the psychic duels and she doesn't get hurt even though she ends exhausted; that gives validity to her stories and explains Divine's interest and the reason she's at the Arcadia Movement.
Despite that, he doesn't look pleased anymore. His impatience is more obvious every day and even though he has told her she has helped, Aki feels like she's actually disappointing him.
"She needs to learn to focus," Divine declares one day, while checking the reports of the latest duel.
His words should be true. However, for first time Aki doubts them but not enough to forget the guilt of not being able to fulfill his expectations.
Because it's a fact he awaits more from her and that's confirmed when he leaves the documents aside and says:
"I leave it to you."
Once again Aki doesn't know what to do, but that doesn't stop her from visiting Luca.
She neither tells Divine that she suspects that the problem isn't lack of concentration and that Luca's just not like her. Like them.
VI
"I wonder how are they..."
The comment comes from thin air, but Aki knows who they are and doesn't answer. Luca's lucky that Divine got to her before they hurt her, that's why it isn't weird that she still talks about her family like that.
"I don't understand why they haven't come to see me."
"It's better like this," says Aki abruptly and the indignant exclamation that she gets for an answer takes her by surprise.
"That isn't true!"
She hasn't ever seen Luca angry and though there aren't sings that Luca wants to hurt her, Aki doesn't know what to expect. That's why she doesn't insist and doesn't explain the reasons behind her words.
Yet nothing happens. Luca seems to calm down and some seconds later she says softly:
"Lua… Lua is waiting me."
"Lua?"
"My brother."
Luca seems to become absorbed in her thoughts for a moment and when she talks again, she does it while looking at Aki's eyes and grasping her hands, begging her.
"Aki-san, please. I want to see my brother."
It's a bad idea. Too many things could go wrong. It's impossible.
Aki doesn't say any of that, instead she promises her:
"I'll talk to Divine."
VII
"One hour," accepts Divine after considering it. "You know what could happen."
It's Divine who says it, that's why Aki doesn't answer telling him that she knows that better than anyone, that she knows Luca could be treated the same way she did.
That's why she needs to go with her and prevent that from happening, and has to give her the news that'll make her so happy along with a warning of not talking about spirits.
A small ironic smile appears on Aki's face. She's the least suited person to take care for someone. Even so, she'll do it for once.