"What…"her voice quavered as her body was held in place by the sheer force of words.
"I'm sorry Tachibana-San, we…we can't trust you," Yurippe muttered again, turning away from the painful look on the girl's face. "You hurt us too much, and …"
"I was never your enemy," Kanade whispered, holding in the unexplainable discomfort in her throat. What was it? She knew the answer, deep inside of her. It was the feeling when she had to eat on her own, at a table totally deserted and devoid of any laughter. It was the feeling when she had to harm people she had only innocently wanted to befriend. It was emotion, raw and painfully gripping. Kanade swallowed hard, trying to make it go away, but in vain. With every ounce of her strength left, she tried to keep her face straight and emotionless, a slate of unreadable blankness.
All the other Battlefront members looked guilty, turning away, or staring at the floor. They simply couldn't face the girl; it was like shutting the door on an abandoned puppy on your doorstep. Almost impossible and immensely heart wrenching.
"I, no, all of us, fought so hard, giving it all we had. We thought that if we got you, we could find out why we were all called here, why such lives were forced onto us. We thought we could go back, to a happier life," Yurippe ended looking downcast herself.
"Nakamura-San," Kanade took a step forward, "don't you think I want to go back too?" the words came out so light, and a breeze blew across the school yard. Why did I say that? Kanade brought a hand to her lips, as if she could take the words back, but it was like the wind had blown the words away with it.
The crowd in front of her slowly looked towards her. What was that in their eyes? There wasn't any more of the usual fighting spirit that seemed to blaze in them in a not-so-long-ago past.
"I understand," Yurippe replied, with a certain forced air in her voice, "but it seems we have nothing to fight for now," she choked out a laugh, but it had no happiness in it, making it seem hollow and eerie. "Oh my, what shall I do now?" she asked, seemingly directed to the wind, "what do we fight for?"
"I…I don't know," Kanade tripped on her words. Her fingertips brushed against her throat, emotion was crawling its way up her body, claiming and ravaging the frail, tiny body, making her feet tremble and hands clench, nails digging into her flesh.
"Yes, you don't. And that is why we cannot let you join us, no matter how pure your intentions are" the Battlefront leader kept her chin tilted down. "You are not one of us,"