Sing for the Queen; She and her Beginnings | Chapter 1
"I'll bring him back, I promise."
Rise quickly looked away, unwilling to watch Yosuke leave—or were they leaving him?
She let the thought hang as she ran on, clinging on closely to Kanji's arm. She suspected he was shortening his stride to help her keep up, and wanted to scream at him to just save himself, but the frightened part of her kept her silent.
In most situations, it did.
They sped through the forest in a loose group—Chie up front, Naoto holding the rear, Yukiko and Teddie tumbling breathless between them—weaving between the tall trees until a booming crash made Chie spin her head and run straight into a trunk.
"Chie!" Yukiko huffed, crouching by her side. "Are you hurt?"
Chie rubbed the side of her head, but her eyes looked on the distant. "Yeah—"
"Hurry," Naoto cut in, mincing her words. She stood rigidly, staring in the direction they came from, then suddenly lifted her gun and shot. The sound cracked in Rise's ears, and she didn't quite hear what Naoto said next.
"There's just too many!" Teddie squawked, stubby arms reaching for his ears.
Kanji tugged his arm slightly in Rise's grip. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Fussing some, Yukiko lifted Chie off the ground, and Rise caught the look in Chie's eyes as everyone dashed forward. Somehow—somehow, how?—she knew what was happening before it happened, and some part of her empathized enough to grab Yukiko's hand as Chie spun on heel and ran the other way.
Yukiko screamed—"Chie, Chie, please don't go!"—and Chie's head twitched, almost looked back, then jerked forward, staring ahead and low.
Screaming still, Yukiko tried to shake out of Rise's grip, and escaped for a second before Naoto slammed into her and grabbed her by the waist.
"There's nothing you can do, Amagi-senpai!"
But Yukiko flailed, fought tooth and nail yelling after Chie. It was a funny image, in the sad-sort of way: graceful, composed Yukiko throwing a tantrum, grabbing and kicking against a now tiny-looking, hatless Naoto, jaw clenched.
It wasn't until Kanji stepped forward—Rise hadn't even noticed they'd stopped running—and gently but firmly clasped Yukiko's shoulder and said, just as tenderly, "Yukiko-senpai, please."
Like she just remembered something, Yukiko stopped still for a moment, eyes creased as they followed Kanji's arm to his eyes, looking like she she'd rather know the wrong answer. Though Kanji met her gaze, Rise watched warily. She wished she could tell Yukiko what Chie had meant to, but what? I have to protect Yukiko; I need to save Yosuke's stupid ass and kick it later; I'm not running away from a fight—she meant all of it, Rise knew, and it wouldn't mean anything if she said it.
"Chie will explain why after we're out," Rise finished aloud, then put her hand on Yukiko's other shoulder. "Then you can chew her out for everything."
Yukiko still looked unconvinced and ready to say something, but the ground rumbled beneath their feet.
Teddie grabbed Yukiko's hand—any other time, the bear would have chirped victorious—and started stumbling ahead. "They're coming, no time to paws!"
Naoto had already picked up her hat and, while scanning their surroundings, hastily put it on. It sat crooked on her head, messing her hair up even more. Her crisp white dress-shirt was disheveled, her vest and tie askew, and Rise noticed a reddening pair of scratches along her cheek.
Maybe Naoto hadn't noticed; maybe that was why she didn't bother fixing her appearance. Appearance meant a lot to Naoto.
This was all wrong, Rise thought, as Naoto nodded at her and began running just behind. The way the forest dampened all the sounds of footsteps and fighting and breathing into one phasing echo was all wrong. The way the edge of everyone's thoughts touched hers was all wrong, sounded all wrong.
Running away was all wrong.
Rise felt two bullets pass her head before she heard them, and pulled herself out of her thoughts quick enough to see the watercolour black dissolve. She hesitated, but Kanji cursed quietly and pulled her sideways, swinging the other arm and cursing again when she felt his body falter upon impact.
Teddie wailed, "Bear-el roll!", and Rise watched him roll over to his side and under a trio of meter-long, black lurching—snakes? Vipers, she wanted to say, they were fanged and frightening—and barrel roll right into a pair of trees too close together.
Kanji swerved again—"Dammit, Rise, look out!"—and punched down another Shadow, two, three, and drop to the floor as one swerved overhead, high-pitched squeal from cutting air or its battle cry, Rise couldn't tell.
A few more bullets rang through the air, a few more grunts from the others dodging by the skin of their teeth, a few more curses from Kanji until Rise realized they were completely surrounded by the leaping viper Shadows.
"Can barely move with all these trees," Kanji muttered, throwing a stray stone at a Shadow that nearly chomped down on Naoto's shoulder. "Naoto, what next?"
Naoto backpedaled into a crouch, eyes steely cold. "If they're here, then the others must be—"
She was only thinking aloud, Rise could understand. No time to watch her words, watch the others' feelings. Still, Rise couldn't help a sharp, "Naoto-kun!" before looking for Yukiko.
Who was standing straight, taut as piano wire, observing the chaos around with a disconnected stare.
The words stop, drop, and roll echoed in Rise's mind as she watched the wind pick up around Yukiko, caught in her red cardigan. Kanji shifted towards her, shouting her name, but Yukiko didn't even take notice.
Barely moving her lips, she spoke in a dangerously level voice. "If you're asking for judgement for your sins, Shadows, then allow me."
Simultaneous to her rising arm, fires burst at her sides. Everyone jerked back, and Rise watched in wonder as the flames licked the grass and trees, dancing in the building breeze.
"You shall have no forgivingness," she flicked her wrist and opened her fan. "You shall have no mercy." She swung her arm to her side, whipping the flames into roaring towers that sent embers scattering like fireflies, its heat burning the air dry.
Rise could feel her face almost scorching, and faintly heard Kanji over the cacophony. She managed to pry her eyes off Yukiko—there were tears, probably, but the fire dried them without a trace—to see Kanji pulling her upright and away, Naoto doing the same with Teddie, though with her focus on Yukiko.
Trees crashed around licking flame and withering Shadows, and everyone struggled to escape. But Yukiko stood calm, hair swaying, sparks falling like cherry blossom petals around her. The calm before the storm, the beautiful, fiery storm.
A beat, a breath; and then the moment when Rise heard Yukiko's mind finally shake the tranquility with a choked sob.
"You shall have judgement," Yukiko shouted, cracking, then screaming, "You shall have Hellfire!"
The blaze erupted, rolling out in every direction. Shadows evaporated into dust even before the flames caught them. The ground, the air, the sound scorched everywhere, all around, closed around Yukiko. Behind her, Amaterasu faded into existence slowly, lifting herself into a firm stand with serene poise, watching expressionless like a statute.
Rise watched—beautiful, beautiful, how ugly—until she belatedly realised she was running away, screaming—how ugly—as Kanji swatted at her arm.
Panic set snugly into the hole the fire burned through her, and Rise screamed more and ran more, pulling ahead of Kanji. The forest fire raged on behind them, the distant part of Rise wondering if Teddie and Naoto were okay, if Yukiko was okay.
But even that part didn't dare think about the other senpai.
It might have been minutes, might have been seconds, but not enough time had passed before Kanji decided they put enough distance between them and the char-black forest. They had reached a clearing—Rise was looking, but not seeing—and everyone collapsed panting.
There was no smoke, which was frightening, and the forest had settled into a steady slow burn, like a fireplace on Christmas.
How fitting, Rise heard someone think. She didn't try to figure out who.
When everyone's breathing eased enough, Kanji finally broke the silence: "Frickin' hell."
"Precisely," Naoto added, eyes shut and forehead against her upright knee. "We, I—" and Rise thought stuttering looked very bad on Naoto, "—the ring, Rise-san. Do you have it?"
"To hell with the ring!" Kanji roared, climbing to his feet. "Are we just gonna ignore what happened?" He waited for an answer, glaring Naoto down. She kept his gaze, cool and almost sleepy, until he slumped his shoulders. "Shit, Naoto. Shit!"
He kicked at the ground, but it did very little other than send grass flying in Teddie's gloomy-looking face. "Sorry, Ted," Kanji mumbled, gently brushing the debris.
Rise wanted Kanji to say something about Teddie's fur, wanted Teddie to make some remark about Kanji being after him. Something to tell them everything was still okay.
Instead, sounding like he had been left out in the rain too long, Teddie said, "Yuki-chan has to come back. We still have to go on our date. I just hope she isn't that scary when we have dinner."
Kanji only made a noncommittal noise. Rise, maybe because she wanted it most, maybe because she was the best actress there, spoke up. "She wouldn't bail on a promise, Teddie. You know that." Then, cracking an almost-smile. "She was pretty hot back there, though, if you get my drift."
Rise caught the tilt in Naoto's chin, like she wanted to object, but kept her focus on Teddie's hopeful eyes. "Y-yeah, she was un-bear-lievably smokin'."
"Chie-senpai better watch out, cause she's next," Kanji managed to say lightly.
Teddie hopped to his feet with a boing. "On a date with Teddie?"
"That or facing Yukiko's wrath, both'll be a living hell," Rise offered just as lightly, and the three of them laughed wearily, painful on their lungs and hearts, feeling less hopeless and at least ready to start running for their lives again.
Naoto stayed stiff and stern, looking somewhere in the distance, touching her cheek.
With a sigh, Rise looked at her ring finger, and maybe it was the glint of gold that caught Naoto's attention, and she stood up with a huff.
"Teddie, can you find an exit?"
"I'll have to sniff around…" And he began to do just that, looking determined. Rise watched with detached amusement, but her mind drifted on to ask why she didn't try looking as well. They hadn't summoned their Personas again in the forest—the trees were too densely packed, and they were hell-bent on running anyway—but it didn't feel right calling Kanzeon right now, just for her to notice just how much was missing.
"This wa-ay-ay-aaaay!"
Teddie tumbled on his back, narrowly missing a viper Shadow shoot up from the ground. Like piranhas, dozens of them followed in suit, missing until they clipped Kanji's chin.
"Tha's it, I'm done!" he bellowed, summoning his shining card and swinging his arm to shatter it. Rokuten-Maou shimmered to life, calling lightning from Heaven to strike down on the Shadows. Rise ran over to help Teddie up and was facing Kanji's back when he said, "Get the hell outta here, I'll catch up."
"No!" came the collective, unified response, and Rise looked between Teddie and Naoto, the latter gritting her jaw tightly like she hadn't planned to speak.
Quickly, levelled, Naoto continued, "We get nothing from leaving someone behind. We'll all run—"
A Shadow lurched at her almost as suddenly as Kanji grabbed her. He then hesitated, and a little less forcefully pushed her at Rise and Teddie, Rokuten-Maou rearing for another Maziodyne. "I'll keep 'em busy, hurry and go!"
Looking all together affronted, ruffled, and worried, Naoto caught her balance and nodded, back to Kanji. "When we get far enough, I expect you to follow behind us."
"What're you still doin'? Get movin'!"
And with crashing lightning as their popgun, the three jolted into a run, Rise and Teddie looking back at Kanji waving his arms wide and taunting, "C'mon, I'm right here!"
Rise returned her gaze forward, trying to see Naoto's expression out of the corner of her eye. When she couldn't, she focused on running faster, and quickly felt the pressing emptiness of not having Kanji's arm to guide her.
They were hardly a minute into escaping when Naoto breathlessly called out, "Persona!"
Her card spun rapidly in a blue fire before she mimed shooting at it with her hand. It shattered, sounding like glass breaking in another room, and Yamato-Takeru burst to life, a pale white against the faint glow. He only nodded curtly, familiarly, before zipping away behind them.
Rise hadn't asked for an explanation, but ever-reasonable, Naoto offered one: "If we're almost out of here, there's no reason for me to need my Persona with me right now."
"Wow, Nao-chan, you really let yourself go!" Teddie practically giggled. When Naoto shot a glare at him like she would a bullet, he shut his eyes and hummed happily. "Get it? Because it's yourself? Your Persona? Bear-y clever, huh?"
Rise wanted to laugh and roll her eyes at the same time, but Naoto quickly snapped, "Are we almost at the exit?"
Teddie blinked his eyes a few times, as though he had completely forgotten the situation and the gravity it carried. Then, creasing his brow, he nodded. "Just a bit ahead, I can smell it."
Rise searched the open field ahead of her; the prairie went on until it met the horizon. She couldn't see any outdated television boxes, or any rips in sky to escape into. All she could see was the sea of black that spread wide and far—
"Oh no…" Rise breathed, stumbling to a stop and falling to her knees. Teddie stopped a few paces ahead of her, and Naoto awkwardly crumpled to the ground as though she had tried stubbornly not to.
Teddie instead seemed to be filled with panicked energy, circling with his paws up and repeating, "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!"
Between the spoing from Teddie's footsteps and his yelps, Rise heard Naoto huff unevenly—a pattern of a few short, controlled breaths before a long, shaky cough that reached deep. She watched her carefully, then, as Naoto moved her mouth trying to speak but failed and dug her fingers deeper into the dirt.
Rise noted the absence of constant thinking that often vibrated in her head when she was near Naoto, and then cautiously asked, "Is Kan—your Persona, is he okay?"
Another failed attempt, then almost through sheer frustration, Naoto managed a, "Fine. Must be the distance. Teddie!" Hearing his name, Teddie snapped straight up and saluted. "Is there-is there another way?"
"I'm trying, but we have to go through all that!"
Naoto tried to pull herself up, but settled for lifting only her head. "Then we run through."
"We can't!" Rise protested, like she wanted to for the past few ideas: desperate and fragile. "You can't even stand—"
"I'm fine!"
"And we only have one Persona left to fight with—"
Teddie stiffened.
"And please, please, let's just wait for the others, or just stay here, or do something else than run!"
Naoto lurched forward, almost hitting the ground nose-first, before shouting, "We have to secure the ring, nothing else matt—"
"Don't say that!" Rise bit back, but only because she couldn't bear to hear Naoto say what they all knew in a voice that sounded so resigned.
"Teddie knows what to do."
They both raised their heads to see Teddie stand, head dipped low but eyes burning. "Teddie will save you."
"H-how?" Rise gasped, but knew—she could practically hear his mind bellow—that he was going to do what everyone else did.
They were all the same, all the same self-sacrificing heroes, all of them.
Teddie even looked like the self-sacrificing hero, comically so. "Kamui will clear a path through those Shadows, and send them running with their tails between their legs!"
"No, no way!"
"Now, now, Princess." Teddie lifted his paw to his mouth, thinking. "Well, Princess and Prince. But not to each other, to me! Umm…" He shook his head. "Either way, it's my job as your stud to protect you."
Rise shook her head, locks bouncing. "Enough with all of that, enough with the lame one-liners."
"Rise."
Rise looked at Naoto, Naoto looked at Rise. Teddie looked at Naoto and Rise.
Naoto paused, then pulled herself to her feet, nodding at Teddie. "You're certain it's just beyond the Shadows?"
Teddie nodded back firmly, familiarly. "Paw-sitive."
"Then—"
"I said no!"
Rise tried—she tried so hard—to stare Naoto into thinking of anything else. But her eyes drifted to the scratch on her cheek, and her mind drifted to reckless kicking and screaming.
She would have done just that, she told herself, if Naoto hadn't already been through it once.
Rise slowly stood up, grumbling gingerly. "Teddie, you better bring everyone back before dinner or I'm so gonna cover you in rotten tofu."
"Not my soft, soft fur!"
"Hoh yeah, all over it. So you better not mess up!"
Teddie dropped his hands to his sides, paused, then bowed his head and gestured ahead. "After you, m'lady."
Rise sucked in a deep breath and held it until her lungs hurt. Then, she dashed off with a, "Stupid bear!"
The Shadow sea was maybe fifty paces ahead, growing closer and larger, so Rise reasoned that slowing down just a bit to stay closer to Naoto was reasonable enough and totally not just because she wasn't quite as brave alone.
Twenty paces to the fray, and Rise felt the temperature drop so low she could almost taste the air frost over. From overhead and growing closer, she heard Teddie roar.
"I'm the King of this world, Shadows, and you better bear-lieve I'm going to execute you all for attacking it!"
Like an eclipse over the sun, a massive shadow passed over Rise and Naoto, and Rise dared looked up to see Kamui soar over them, Teddie standing heroically on top and pointing forward like he was leading an army.
Around the pair, spots of the atmosphere crumpled into itself, forming sharp icicles and small icebergs that floated a moment before rushing forward. Rise kept her eyes on them as they crashed into the black sea in front of her—she hadn't noticed she had already stepped on one of the snakes underfoot, but a few steps further and the ground was clear.
Clear was a bit too nice a way to put it, though; the grass snapped under her shoes and the dirt felt brittle. Everything took on a grey-blue hue, and too quickly Rise felt shivers creep up on her.
She hugged herself tightly and winced, pain shooting up her arm at the contact. She hazarded a look at it; the shirt and undershirt were burned through, bearing red skin. She bitterly thought the cold might do well for the burn she didn't remember getting before moving her hand to her shoulder and soldiering on.
Ice crashed, glass shards scattered, and Shadows vanished as far as Rise could see, but no television in sight. She couldn't hear her own footsteps over the noise, but her thoughts amplified and desperation began to set in: frostbite, hypothermia, slipping and falling on her face and dying even when everyone threw themselves away just to save the stupid ring—
It practically had a halo over it.
Off to her left stood a pile of retro television boxes, most with cracked screen or crooked antennae. She tried to switch her momentum into a turn, but tripped and bent forward to keep herself from falling. She slowed to a stop and spun on heel, seeing Naoto practically limp a few meters behind before facing the TVs.
"Naoto!" Rise screamed, but couldn't even hear herself. Instead, she grabbed her arm as she approached—she was cold to the touch, and her head piped something about reflecting the inside—and wrapped the other one around her waist, receiving quite unwanted resistance.
Still, leaning on each other, Rise guided them to the set in an unbalanced trot that ended in a half-leap through the screen, Teddie's growls fading into the static hum of the portal.
In the short moments it took to phase between the worlds, Rise begged herself to believe she wasn't leaving anyone behind, but instead waiting for them to return.
She crashed into pale-yellow linoleum tiles, yelping but clinging tightly to Naoto's arm. She fell on her side, but didn't lay still for long; she drew her legs up and shivered, hiccupping. She felt her hair tangle over her face, and overall felt not at all pretty, not even decent, but she felt safe.
She let that sink in.
She needed to.
She—
"Rise-san?"
Rise realised she had been staring off at a corner of the ceiling, and that Naoto was gently shaking her. She also noticed the arm under her weight burn, and the pins in her heels, and the ache in her lungs.
"Rise-san."
She really didn't want to answer; she wanted to stay still for a while longer, to not have to keep moving and running and facing things for just a little longer.
But when Naoto drew her hand back and inspected Rise with that look halfway between scrutiny and concern, she told herself it was no time to be selfish and pushed herself upright.
Reluctantly, she let go of Naoto's arm to fix her hair, and if Naoto noticed—how could she not, Rise was practically suffocating it—she didn't show it, instead focusing on Rise's hurt arm.
Well, Rise chose to think that, slowly closing her fist to hide the ring.
"Are you hurt?" Naoto asked, voice deep, all business.
Yeah. "I'm okay," Rise said. "Just a light burn, I think. You?"
"Fine," Naoto said curtly, adjusting her hat. Rise wanted to argue that no, this was no time to act tough and detached, but the better part of her knew one of them had to.
Still, she couldn't help but add, "You sure? You did leave a part of yourself behind there."
Naoto made a gesture that was somewhere between brushing the thought away and looking for a hand to hold before standing up, studying their surroundings. Rise followed in suit, noting the snow drifting down gently over the empty road, sparkling even more if the fell into the streetlamp spotlight.
"We should catch the evening bus to the hospital," Naoto said after a modest pause. "Do you have the time?"
Rise shook her head, then pulled out a silver pocket watch. Naoto raised an eyebrow, and Rise explained, "An officer—and sort of an old friend, I guess—gave this to me a few days ago, but it's not working." Rise unlocked the latch, lifting the worn cover to show Naoto the hands stuck at 9:15.
Rise watched Naoto inspect the watch, eyes tight and jaw loose, heard her unconciously hum quietly in thought to the tune of that thirty's Sherlock radio show Rise knew she loved, the one Kanji couldn't stop talking about once he tried it, too, driving the senpai crazy.
And despite herself, despite the pressing atmosphere, despite the weight of the ring on her finger, Rise smiled.
A small distraction, a moment of normalcy.
But, the sooner they saved everything, the sooner they could get those moments back.
"I meant to bring it to you earlier, but I forgot because of, well…all this. Everything that happened."
Naoto kept her focus on the watch and was about to touch it until Rise's hesitation, where she looked back up and creased her brow, nodding. "Right. Well," Naoto started walking, fixing the cuff of her shirt and looking like business. "We'll certainly find a clock near the exit, and catch a bus if we can. Otherwise, I suppose we can make a small detour to your house and take your scooter."
Rise kept pace with Naoto. "And when we get there?"
Naoto paused, but didn't miss a beat. "The trip will give us time to figure that out."
"Good."
A few paces of settling silence found them at the escalator, and though Naoto had remained switched in Detective-on-a-Case Mode, Rise found that she was comfortable: they had a plan, they were safe, and there was just enough left to chance in their plan for her to feel at home.
Keeping her eyes ahead as they got off the escalator, Naoto asked, "An officer?"
"Hmm?"
"The officer acquaintance that gave you the watch, what was his name?"
"Oh. Officer Kurosawa. And," Rise's eye caught the Risette section, filling her up like sarsaparilla—equally parts bitter and sweet. "He's more than an acquaintance. It's like, we would be friends if we didn't have to keep things so professional."
"Kurosawa…" Naoto muttered, likely trying to match the name to a face in her mind's database. Her eyes distractedly caught the digital clock against the far wall, and she shook her head lightly. "We'll talk about it later. Something doesn't…in any case, we've got about five minutes until the next bus is scheduled to arrive."
Rise nodded. "Running again, right? Inoue-san will be so proud of me," she said, the sarsaparilla from before bubbling back up.
They stopped for a second just before the automatic opening doors as they lagged in response. Then, things moved in slow motion, the sort that changed beat so suddenly Rise felt less a part of it and more of a spectator.
A frigid breeze clawed between the widening gap of the doors, and the two braced themselves before storming off onto the streets.
It felt like jumping through the television: from the elevator music and background bustle of a warm coloured Junes into the cool, dark scheme of Inaba's evening streets. The temperature barrier sent a ringing through Rise's ears until they hit the parking lot gravel: the sound of Naoto's thick-soled boots and Rise's thin flats echoed once, quickly swallowed by the silent night.
And for a heartbeat—the time between footsteps—that stretched out in slow motion, it stayed deafeningly quiet.
Rise could have sworn she heard the bullet push through the air before she heard it leave the pistol.
By unspoken decision, Rise and Naoto ducked and charged forward, faster. All quiet was lost to the frighteningly recognized sounds of an all-out getaway; pounding footfalls, ragged breaths, and someone was saying or screaming something.
"I don't know, Rise, just keep running!" Naoto shouted back with so much control Rise shut her mouth before she noticed it was open.
Two gunshots followed. Rise screamed—she knew it was her this time—and tripped.
She wasn't quite sure how, but gravity spun her wildly until her back hit cold metal and she landed on her feet in a crouch. When her head stopped spinning, she noticed Naoto crouch beside her, arm held out to keep Rise from falling.
"Pardon me," Naoto whispered, eyes looking around the car's bumper. "You were falling."
Rise hoped her whisper wasn't too much of a wheeze. "Thanks. But what about-"
"We're being pursued." Naoto said simply, lifting her head a bit to increase her scope. "They're far, but have good aim."
"Then," Rise tried to calm her racing mind enough to contribute, or at least make some sense of the situation jump. Fighting in the TV world was one thing, where they had Dias and Beads, but a bullet in the real world was a lot more permanent. "It's dark, so he can't see us, right?"
Naoto dropped back down, one knee pulled up and one on the ground. She gave Rise a tight frown. "Junes lights: we're walking targets. Additionally," she clenched her jaw for a moment, then continued. "We don't know what he's armed with. He can hit moving targets in the dark, so we can only assume he's a professional. I can only guess his trajectory from—"
"Wait," Rise said more calmly than she meant to—hadn't really meant to say anything at all, but her mouth moved faster than her brain. "Hit moving…did he..?"
Naoto barely let her finish. "He's right of us, facing the car. As soon as we—"
"Naoto-kun, you're shot!"
She waved her hand dismissively, almost annoyed. "Irrelevant. He has the upper hand—"
But Rise stopped listening, instead leaning forward so she could see past Naoto's profile. It took her a while—her eyes were still adjusting to the distant light of Junes—but she saw a blooming patch on Naoto's far shoulder.
On reflex, Rise reached forward and grabbed it; on reflex, Naoto pushed her hand away.
"Naoto—"
"Rise-san, there's no time!" Naoto snapped, looking a bit—panicked? No, Naoto didn't panic, Rise wouldn't know how that would look on her—looked a bit hassled. "We'll split ways, you head to the bus—we'll hope he doesn't aim for a bus. I'll chase him down, if he's staying his distance he must not want to be seen so—"
"No-" Rise screamed, but managed only that much until Naoto shoved her gun into Rise's hands.
"The safety is off, just pull the trigger. Brace for recoil, aim with your good eye," Naoto listed off mechanically. "Face offs are my element, you're best to get to the hospital, don't look back. Secure the ring, complete the mission."
Rise's hands involuntarily tightened around the gun. It weighed heavy in her hands, almost as much as the ring. "Naoto—"
"Please, Rise-san, there's no time. Once you get to the hospital, remain there." Then, Naoto smiled wryly. "I might end up meeting you there."
"Oh God, Naoto-kun. Was that—"
"A joke, somewhat." The smile remained. "Maybe this really is the end."
Rise wasn't sure when she agreed to the plan, wasn't sure what part of her made that decision, but she shifted forward, ready to run.
Again, some part of her said.
Naoto pulled down the brim of her cap, and her fingers left dark marks. She peered around the car, then looked back at Rise, all business.
They nodded at each other, then spun around and bolted.
Rise didn't think, didn't look back, didn't feel. There was no fatigue, no cold, no loneliness for—she wanted to say hours that felt like seconds—a few minutes until the backlights of the bus came into view, flashing red as it took the left.
She sped up, some part of her still could, across the intersection without a thought, and skidded to the stop just as the doors closed behind a passenger. He turned his head back as Rise stopped, and waved his hand at the doors until they opened again.
Rise tried to thank him, but it came out as a few hoarse breaths. In her place, he smiled and said, "Cheers," before his eyes darted to the gun in her hands.
In the light from the bus, she saw his face shift into alarm before he backpedaled, stumbled, and pivoted completely into a full-out dash.
"Wait!" Rise shouted, stuffing the weapon in her pocket and pulling her shirt over it to cover the barrel sticking out.
She heard a gruff voice from the bus—the driver, looking impatient. Rise climbed on cautiously, but the driver seemed too apathetic to care about the other passenger, or the pocket that Rise avoided when pulling out change.
She hadn't realized she was shaking until she took the window seat at the end of the empty back row. She also hadn't noticed how frighteningly tight her throat was feeling until she tried to take a deep breath.
They'll be—they're fine. They're fine, they're fine, they're fine.
And though repeating things was her wont as a popstar, she hated every notion of it. She hated how much everything was repeating.
For the next half-hour, Rise was on a constant cycle of worry, hold back tears, and bite down on her fears with a confidence she lost too soon. Rinse, and repeat.
Repeat.
Rise barely registered it when she stumbled off the bus—did someone say something to her?—but she when sirens wailed behind and beyond her, saw the red lights against the soft white of the hospital rooms, she snapped out of her daze and—rinse, repeat—began to run.
And—rinse, repeat—she was helpless to save herself.
She wasn't sure if she had enough energy to scream even if she had the time.
She could feel red: piercing, intense, burning, Yukiko and fire and—
Then she saw it, in blinding lights like when she was on stage. They flashed blindingly in her eyes, her life flashed before her eyes. Hey, was she really an idol before? Did she really give that life up?
And then she saw nothing, and felt nothing, and felt no one.
She was alone.
Did she really give that life up?
A/N: And scene.
So.
This story; how do I put it? It's an attempt at putting together story elements with musical ones-repetition, primarily, and matching character quirks to recurring elements. Poetic wordplay that doesn't make much sense unless you're the one who wrote it. Chapters treated more like verses.
Whatever it ends up being, I hope-I'll try to make it an end that deserves an applause.
Let me know if I'm off to the right start.