Introduction: Well, just a quick introduction, feel free to skip anything not related to the story if you aren't interested. This story will be written from the POVs of Canaan and Alphard, first person. The story takes place one year after the events of the anime and picks up where the story ended. It will eventually lead to yuri, if you don't like that you are free to leave, nothing forces you to stay.
If you don't know what yuri is, though that is rather unlikely, it means a love relationship between two female characters and may include sexual content, which this story probably will, later on. We shall also warn you that violence is likely to occur, read it at your own discretion. With the warnings out of the way, please enjoy the story!
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Canaan's POV, her apartment in Shanghai, one year after the events of the anime
...
It has already been one year, hasn't it...? One year since Alphard fell into what I though would be her certain death. Just when I felt that I could forgive her, just when I felt that I could reach out for her, just when I did reach out for her... It was one of the worst experiences in my entire life, I have never been this shocked, for some reason. She was out of my reach again, forever, or so I thought.
It happened in seconds, one moment I was trying to convince her that her life should be saved, the next moment my gun fell down and she caught it... I thought she was going to kill me at first, or at least try it, but she didn't. She shot herself in her arm, again and again, until the small amount of flesh that was left couldn't support her weight anymore... I could do nothing but watch how she fell, her warm arm still in my grasp...
I never quite recovered from that shock, I think. I still have my friends, but I haven't met any of them since then, all I have been doing was searching for Alphard... I couldn't sense her anywhere and I didn't find her body, not even a trace of her after I let her arm fall as well... I didn't want to cooperate with Natsume Yuri anymore, I always felt that she wasn't a good person, but she was always reliable as my informant when it came to Alphard.
I have been hunting the Snakes after I recovered from the initial shock. I was afraid of losing something important to me ever since I lost Siam, but I always failed to realise that Alphard was also important to me... but even as I hunted down the Snakes I never found any traces of her at all, it was as if she really had died. But sometimes... Sometimes I could swear I saw her from the corner of my eyes, but I couldn't find her afterwards, even with my synesthesia...
She must hate me more than ever now, she chose shooting off her own arm over being rescued by me... but even so, I want to meet her. I never saw anything in her but a monster who killed someone both she and I had seen as our father in cold blood before that event on the roof of a train and I still don't feel good about it, but I want to know her motivations...
While investigating the Snakes, just as always, I got myself another informant, his name seems to be Kodoku. He had a lot of valuable information for me and I felt that I was getting closer to Alphard every time I got a hint from him, but it usually just turned out to be some operation set up by the Snakes. I always thought that the Snakes would disband without Alphard as their leader, but I am probably wrong, unless Alphard is still their leader.
But if that was the case she shouldn't be so damn hard to find. Kodoku seems to be a rather high-ranking member of the Snakes, but he hasn't heard anything about her name, except for other members saying that everything was better under her leadership. I don't really care about their new leaders or even the Snakes themselves, it was never about them. They do terrible things and I want to stop them, but Alphard was always my motivation...
One year... I have even adopted her looks, a little bit... Now I have a ponytail that always reminds me of her whenever I look in the mirror. Natsume always told me that I had some sort of obsession with Alphard, now she says it has gotten far worse... not that I give much about her opinion, she betrayed me. If it wasn't for her knowledge about the Snakes and her resources I wouldn't work for her anymore.
*Ring* Speaking of the devil... a quick glance at my mobile phone reveals to me that it is indeed Natsume, not that I was expecting something else, I didn't give my new number to any of my old friends. This is between Alphard and myself, I don't want my old friends to get caught up in all of this again. Didn't Alphard say something along the lines of wanting to break free of her curse? I will have to scold her when I meet her...
"You have work." Just as friendly as I remember her... I really rather wouldn't work with her and I didn't give her my new number, but she still found me. Well, this way I can also get some information out of her while doing her dirty work...
"You never learn, do you? I can't believe you're still asking me to do things." Well, maybe this will soon be over...
"I could say the same thing about you. And your target this time isn't an easy one." Hm, this isn't the first time she tried to bait me with such a statement. But all the other ones were small fish, compared to Alphard...
"Who is it?" I do hope it is her... I want to settle all of this, once and for all.
"A woman who only has one arm." This... After all this time... one year since I saw her and a lot of time before that. This chase is finally getting to an end, though I don't know how it will turn out. I offered her my hand once, but she rather lost her arm...
"All right." I hang up on her without further exchanges and bite off the piece of candy I was just eating, she will just send someone to deliver the information I need. My weapon is ready, though I hope I won't have to use it on Alphard... All I can do now is wait... I hate waiting! Well, I have been waiting one entire year for this very moment, so I should be able to bear with some more hours.
I wonder how all of my friends are doing... I wanted to tell them, I wanted to be with them some more, Mino and Yun Yun, but especially with Maria... But I don't want to put them in danger, the Snakes are still rather pissed off because I defeated Alphard and apparently killed her. I don't want them to take my friends as hostages ever again. All of the Snakes who knew much about my friends are dead or gone, so I should stay away from them...
Well, I can check out my e-mails, maybe Kodoku wrote me a message. It isn't exactly a very save method and he must risk a lot to give me these hints I need, so I still put other people in danger. Hm, though he is just a terrorist, isn't he? I don't even know why he is helping me... Well, his information didn't lead me to an ambush even once, so I guess he is reliable. Natsume tried to find out more about him, but he can hide himself quite well, apparently.
Indeed, there is an e-mail. As always. I have been 'talking' with him for quite some time now, I just feel that I can trust him. Strange, considering that I could never meet him in person and use my synesthesia to make sure about that. Well, I rarely used it unless it was necessary during this year, I have been relying way too much on it before that. I still use it during fights, but other than that I try to get along without it.
"Dear Canaan, I have send Natsume information I obtained about a meeting of the leaders of the Snakes, apparently the one-armed woman Alphard you were searching for will also attend said meeting. It has been big news within the higher ranks of the organisation and the members are trying to keep her comeback as secretive as possible, but Natsume will probably send you over, won't she?"
As always he is very well-informed about Natsume, almost too well-informed. They have been aware of each other for quite some time and they don't really seem to get along very well since Kodoku somehow found out about her. Well, they obviously never met, but Natsume has probably been trying to hack his account and blow his cover or something like that. Well, he does seem to help her out now...
"That is quite a great risk for me, I have been doing my best to lay low, but if I were to approach you in any other way than through e-mails I would probably get caught, therefore I must reject your offer of a talk on phone or even meeting. It takes a great amount of efforts to just send you these e-mails to begin with, but I don't want to bother you with the details. Let's just say that usually nothing gets out from inside the Snakes without them noticing..."
That much is true, they are very good at hiding themselves. So he has to take many risks and it must be a lot of work for him... I feel somewhat bad for him, I would almost consider him a friend. I have been telling him a lot about myself and he was very understanding and always found the right words to cheer me up. I think I consider him as a friend, even if he is a terrorist and I never met him. The past year would've been much harder without his support...
"Well, it has been a long time now and I hope you can settle whatever you have to settle with Alphard. How long was it? Eleven months? Not that it matters. I wish you the best of luck on your new mission, if the legends of the Snakes are to be believed Alphard is a very formidable opponent, but you managed to defeat her once, right? Do your best, whether you want to destroy her or something else."
I... I don't want to destroy her, not under any circumstances... After losing her that time I realised just how much she means to me... even if she killed Siam and almost made me lose those precious to me... she is still one of them. I don't think that feeling will ever go away, especially not after seeing what was behind her cold and uncaring veneer. She had it even worse than me, all that time without a single flicker of hope...
"With that said this will probably be our last exchange, won't it? If you pull this off the Snakes will probably be no more, with all of their leaders assembled, even Alphard, at one spot. If you can take care of us tonight that will be the end of the road for the Snakes and probably myself. Well, I can't say that I don't regret it a little bit, it was better when Alphard was still there, but that's how it is now. Don't feel bad about me, just do what you have to do. Sincerely yours, Kodoku"
Well, he is a leader or at least a high-level member of the Snakes if he has access to such qualified information and he probably committed his fair share of crimes for that organisation as well. I still would kind of want to let him off the hook, it would feel wrong to kill him in spite of the fact that he is the reason I might get to meet Alphard now. Would he really have to come? I mean... I should at least try to help him somehow.
"Thank you very much for your continued support, I don't know about your motivations or your goals, but it was a great help. I know that you take great risks in doing what you do and I appreciate it. Won't you tell me who you are? Maybe you could wear some kind of special clothing or something like that to show me that you're you? That way I could take care of things without killing you, you know?" And send...
I have even talked to him about my past with Alphard, we weren't always on bad terms, I once looked up to her as my older sister... but all of that changed when she killed Siam, our 'father'. I wish we could all return to the way things were before she did that... both of us were friends with Maria back then and we were having fun together, even Alphard, I think... Or was it all just another act of hers? I don't even know...
Kodoku said that I would never know unless I'd ask her myself, though it didn't fit any of the stories he heard about Alphard while working for the organisation. I guess Alphard was rather cruel towards her subordinates, though I never saw much of that. Is she really the monster the world seems to perceive her as and am I just seeing what I want to see in her? Or is it the other way around? I just don't know... All the more reason to find out!
I don't think anyone ever really understood Alphard, even I don't understand her at all, even now... If I didn't meet Maria again and made friends with her and the others I might have ended up as bad as Alphard used to be, if not worse... She always was able to control her hatred, until the very end. Though that flame was probably extinguished some time before our last confrontation, there was just... loneliness... Oh, I received another e-mail.
"Hey, you shouldn't worry about me, I know how to take care of myself. As if some rookie mercenary could take the great Kodoku down! Well, just kidding. I think I'll wear a purple trench coat or something like that, if you have to know. And why are you asking me who I am? I already told you, I am Kodoku. Just your average terrorist... Well, either way, good luck. I hope you'll be happy with the outcome, whatever it may be."
Somehow what he said right now was very familiar, though I can't exactly remember what... I could swear that I've heard something like that before... Well, that doesn't matter. Purple trench coat? Got it. I will try to spare him, if I can. And the rest of those Snakes... I will probably kill them or take their venom from them. That way they will be harmless and Natsume or someone else can take care of them.
After this will be over I'll take my leave from all of these stupid government organisations and all of that, I just don't want anything to do with that anymore... The only thing tying me to all of that is Alphard, if she could let go of her past I would be free as well. I was so close, that day on the train... but losing her didn't bring me the freedom I once thought it would, it just created a different hole in my heart...
I will definitely get her back, one way or another. Though that could prove to be pretty difficult... Alphard was always stronger than me, up to our last battle. Even then I don't know if I would have been able to defeat her if she hadn't slipped, though I don't think she was really trying to win at all. She never really seemed to want to kill me, she often ended up saving me instead...
I really want to ask her what she was thinking at all those times when she had perfect opportunities to kill me but didn't... Was it just so that I would hate her even more? Was that really what she wanted? Even when I tried to see through her, there was no blue, almost never did she fight me with that colour, it was always something different... *Ding Dong* Oh, I guess that is Natsume's informant. I quickly get the door.
"Well, here we are. I guess this will be our last mission together like this, won't it?" Natsume herself? That's unusual, I almost never met her during that time... Maybe this is the real deal, maybe this will be the end of everything, all those things still haunting Alphard and myself... "Though I really wouldn't trust that man."
"Kodoku? He hasn't betrayed my faith even once. You, on the contrary..." She has betrayed me more than once. The research conducted in that village... Alphard wanted to destroy it, but it got out of there. Not with Alphard though... There were many other instances as well, the soldiers who destroyed that place and probably killed... Hakko... they were also send by her, weren't they? Redemption? Don't make me laugh...
"Well, I think we will both be happy to put an end to this business relationship, you do good work, but you've just become too obsessive with her." *Sigh* Well, all of this should be over soon, I really look forward to leaving her. I don't like her, nor do I trust her... Who knows what she might want to do? I don't think she would let Alphard leave that meeting alive under any circumstances, much less pardon her. Well, who would do that either way...?
"What I obsess over or don't is my personal affair, isn't it? Let's focus on business instead. What do you have for me?" Discussing whether I am obsessed with Alphard or not won't get me anywhere and I will just think of something once I meet her. Well, if Alphard really wanted to be forgiven she could work something out, she was always better at scheming things than me, I was usually just there to thwart her plans, though that also seemed to be a part of her plan...
"Yes, you are right. We have received information from that man, Kodoku, about a meeting that supposedly will take place in Europe, France, in three days. I have already ordered the tickets, the flight will take off tomorrow at 5 am, I will come for you, so I would suggest that you catch some sleep." It is already evening, isn't it? I guess it would be a good idea to catch some sleep, I have to be rested for our mission.
"We have to remain hidden so that we don't startle the Snakes before the meeting has started, right?" If we alarm them somehow they will probably retreat and if they did I don't know if Kodoku could still provide us with information about the location or the time of the next meeting or if there'd even be one, so we should definitely not screw this up. Especially Alphard would not get caught if she would come and knew we were coming. If she doesn't know already...
"See you tomorrow." I close the door before she can even respond, I really don't want to have any more contact with her than necessary. If only I could convince Alphard that she should stop being a terrorist... If I can only get her to come with me she could make up some sort of a plan, we would be invincible as a team, just how we used to be, back when Siam was still... We may never get these days back, but still...
I put some clothes into a bag and my other equipment, my Beretta Px4 Storm Type G, some bullets, a knife and a sniper rifle. Natsume should have arranged a private flight, the Snakes would most likely keep an eye out for the public airports, so we'll have to land somewhere else. That will probably mean a long trip with some sort of vehicle. Being stuck with Natsume in a small vehicle for hours... Oh joy...
Well, if that is what it takes to bring this to an end I have to make some sacrifices, I guess. Though I really have the lingering feeling that Alphard will be expecting us, just as she always did. I can't remember a single time when I managed to surprise her. Well, even if she didn't expect us she could probably improvise some sort of a plan on the spot, she was always like that, two steps ahead of me...
But I don't think she ever really wanted to kill me, she always let me go, even if she defeated me or when I was in a position where I was unable to defend myself. She was still very rough with me, she would still kick me if I was lying on the ground and insult me, but she never really did try to kill me. She had many chances to do that, yet she didn't even try to use one of them for real, from what I can tell...
She told me that she wanted to transform me into a monster made of hatred as herself to get her revenge on Siam, but if that was what she had wanted she could've killed me when I confronted her on the toilet at the International Anti-Terrorism Meeting, I was consumed by my hatred for her at that time, I could feel how I was consumed by the darkness while fighting her, I didn't even try to resist...
Yet she let go of me yet again. I don't know why though. I told Kodoku all of this, he said that Alphard might just have cared for me for all this time... He also told me a lot about his own past, it wasn't very much unlike ours, just like us he was raised during the war in that region, he used to believe in Alphard, but he mentioned that the Snakes got depraved during Alphard's abscence, though I never thought they could get more depraved than what they were under Alphard...
It turns out Alphard was keeping them in line all of this time, she always did great things and civilian casualties couldn't be avoided, but those were never her goal, she always had other plans, though no one seems to know what they were. Now the Snakes are really terrorising the world, random bombings at shops, armed raids on banks and many other despicable crimes, they do it all now. I wonder what Alphard is planning with them...
*Yawn* No point worrying about it now, I guess. I should really get some sleep now, no matter what plans Alphard might have and how things will go I have to be in my best possible condition for that encounter. I turn off the lights, undress and slip under my blanket, staring at the ceiling while the sun outside is setting. I wonder what Alphard is doing right now...
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Alphard's POV, somewhere in France
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Here I am, in a rundown and abandoned old building, probably some block of flats before it was abandoned completely. The walls are of a dull grey and the windows are broken, there are burned spots on the old carpet and the crumbling wallpaper looks like skin that someone tried to rip from the flesh, the wounds old, but still so fresh... We seem to have a lot in common, this building and I...
Just like it I can't seem to get rid of the past, can I? I shot off this cursed forearm of mine once on that train, hoping it would end my misery and set us free... yet here it is again, firmly attached to my upper arm, as if it was never missing to begin with. I can even move it as if nothing had happened... Fate seems to have a great sense for irony, reminding me of the fact that I will never be free, unless I finally do reach death. But killing myself just won't do it.
If I go out I want it to end with a bang, a blaze of glorious flames consuming my very existence while the whole world watches, especially Canaan, or Canaan alone... I have given her all of the hints she will need to come here and finish this once and for all, regardless of what she wants to do with me. She doesn't want to destroy me? She is so naive... I had always hoped she could set me free someday...
Well, we shall see. In three days it will end, one way or another. Canaan must have gone insane over that past year, choosing to pursue me even after I appeared to be dead. She could have just left the stage and moved on with Maria and her other friends, maybe she could have even become a normal person, she does know how to do things other than killing. I only learned that and practised it for all of my life...
Curse the Snakes, they are responsible for me having this arm back... I was unconscious when they found me and Canaan probably let my forearm fall down after I fell, though it is beyond me how the Snakes managed to recover it in time to get it back on. In appreciation of their deeds I killed them as soon as I woke up and made it look as if our enemies had found the hideout and blown it up with me still in it, they apparently fell for my deceit.
This organisation isn't what it used to be, I always had great plans laid out so that Canaan could intervene and even when she apparently won I still was the real winner for she was a part of my plans. Now they are just a common group of thugs with more resources than others, resources I build up over the cause of years. And they are practically throwing it out of the window, a successful raid on a bank takes so much money that it's hardly worth it...
I always had a good sense of irony and my plans had a certain sort of elegance and foresight, these people calling themselves the Snakes... they will pay for taking over MY organisation. I will show them that even a dead snake doesn't lose the deadly poison it's known and feared for, rightfully so. That's right, I am already dead, that is exactly what Canaan told me. I knew, but I didn't want to acknowledge it at that time, these schemes made me feel alive...
Once I have conquered my organisation once more I can step down from the stage of life, I can finally rest if Canaan would just kill me. Deciding the fate of a dead person? She is right, fate is something for the living to decide, but no matter what sorts of delusions she might have in her head, she will never change my fate. Soon it will all be over and I will be in charge of my organisation again and a short while after that I will be dead.
What if Canaan decides that she wants to 'rescue' me once more...? She doesn't seem to accept my fate yet, even after all I did to her over the cause of the years. Well, to be honest I did a lot of the things I did for her sake as well, killing Siam was not just for my revenge, I didn't want her to go through the same things as me. He only saw us as tools to achieve his dream of a perfect soldier, I was never his daughter, nor was she.
"Are you so sure about that?" There he is, taunting me again out of a shaded corner of the apartment. Even after all this time has passed I hate him as much as I hated him back then... He is just another one of them, teaching me the ways of killing other humans without any attachment whatsoever. I don't feel anything for anyone thanks to the likes of him, it's all the fault of such humans! ...No, I mustn't let my hatred get the better of me, he is just an illusion I fabricate on my own.
"Yes, I am. You are the reason for my suffering, you have taught me to be what I am. You never cared for what she wanted, always trying to raise us... no, to raise her to be the perfect soldier, a superhuman being, as you called it." I was just another obstacle for Canaan to overcome on her way to become such a thing, at least after I killed him... it certainly has a great irony, I tried to protect Canaan from my fate in the beginning, but that caused her to become what he wanted her to be...
"I have to thank you for helping her on her way, I don't think she would have gotten even close to where she is now if you hadn't killed me. Thank you for taking care of her in my stead." He is really pissing me off! I am really pissing myself off... he always agitates me, even if he is nothing but a fabrication conjured forth by my own memory and thoughts, the reason Canaan became what she is instead of a normal and happy girl is me...
"This time I will end it, I will get rid of you for good. If I die so shall you. After all you are nothing but my own delusion. I know very well that it is my fault and I will make it up to her, somehow. She will have a happy life after I am gone, you have no power over her anymore. I am the only thing remaining to tie her to her past and once I am gone there will be nothing keeping her from being happy."
"... I wonder. Would it make her happy if you died? Don't you remember what she was like when you appeared to die after falling from that train?" I remember it all too well... She was in a catatonic state... damn, why? She should have laughed with glee as I fell to what both of us thought ought to be my death, yet she abandoned her friends and searched for me... Why...?
"... Even if it won't make her happy, it will be the best for her. Once I am gone she will have no reason to stay in the past, she can wear that vivid smile of hers and move on after this is over, away from this desolate past where only you and I remain..." That is my wish... isn't it? If I get her to do just that I will win against the ghost of Siam and break free, the bonds of life will release me and I can rest, finally...
"You thought the same thing when you killed me on that train, didn't you? If you would just kill me and leave Canaan alive you could advance on your self-destructive path while Canaan would find happiness somehow. I don't think I'll have to remind you of how that went down, do I?" I thought I would be finally free of Siam and my previous life, I could just search my own end along the way and be done with it...
"This time I will defeat you, I will see this through to the conclusion and I will make sure that Canaan will stop trying to keep me alive!" Seriously, am I asking for that much? All I want is an end to all of this, no more corrupt governments I have to fight against, no more single-minded idealists... I am tired of fighting against the whole world on my own, I just want this to end...
"That remains to be seen, doesn't it?" He disappeared, just as he always did. Attacking him would be pointless, he is just an illusion of mine, I learned that a long time ago. Yet he is the only human being I feel any sort of emotion towards, honest and absolute hatred. Except for Canaan, though I don't know how I feel about her...
This building will collapse on its own very soon or someone will demolish it, right? We certainly have a lot in common, this crumbling old building and I, both of us yearning for brighter days, yet only our destruction lies ahead of us. Well, I should stop making such strange comparisons, otherwise I just might really go insane. No, I am already insane, but I have just enough sanity left to pull my act together, don't I...?
The sun has pasesd the horizon a long time ago, the red light was slowly being drowned out by the inevitable nightfall... Now it is the darkest, just before dawn, there is almost no light at all, just some artificial light coming from the city I'm in. I almost don't want this night to end, I want to stay here, far away from Canaan in a cold and abandoned place, I can't harm her here. But I have to meet her again, to end this...
I wonder what Canaan might be seeing or thinking about right now, in her nice and comfortable apartment in Shanghai, 9141 kilometres away from here... My own endless night isn't too far away now, is it? I wonder if Canaan will appear for me in that dream at the end of my way as a glimmer of light one last time, but a sleep without any dreams might be even better, just forgetting everything...
...
Canaan's POV, the next morning
...
*Yawn* How late is it? 4 am. I have to get ready. I'm still rather tired, I was thinking a lot before falling asleep, but I still want to take a shower before Natsume picks me up. This might be my last chance to save Alphard, if I can't convince her this time I probably never will. Maria would also want this, even after all this time I can feel her kindness right here by my side. This time I will definitely save Alphard from herself, I will make her stop doing those stupid things.
Though I still don't know how I should go about that... Alphard always enforced her own will, no matter what, and convincing her is just about impossible. She does listen to what others say, but her line of thoughts only makes sense to her, if I want to convince her I can do nothing but relying on pure luck, her decisions often appear to be completely random, though I don't think it really is random, I just don't understand the underlying logic...
Hm, I always was rather lucky, I guess. That I managed to 'befriend' the one member of the Snakes who would be willing to tell me where I could meet Alphard must already be luck in its purest form... I really don't want to push my luck, but I don't seem to have much of a choice in that matter. Well, for now I should just focus on the tasks at hand, taking a shower and getting ready for my journey.
It takes about 15 hours with a normal airplane to fly from Shanghai to Paris, though there would probably be a stop along the way. I don't know what Natsume has in mind, but she probably will take a faster way, I can't imagine her wanting to spend that much time on an airplane. Then again we may not even use an airport in France, at least not one close to our goal, so it will be a rather long trip either way.
I walk into the small bathroom of my apartment, unhook my bra, take off my panties and put away my hair band. A nice and warm shower in the morning, there could be no better way to start the day. I close the curtains after stepping into the shower and turn on the water, letting the warm liquid purify my body, though it also feels like washing away all of the bad memories. If only it was that easy, I'd just have to get Alphard under the shower and everything would be fine...
Well, that wouldn't be so bad, would it? Uh, what am I even thinking? As if Alphard, of all people, would ever let me take her to the shower, she was always a rather secluded person, even when we used to be like sisters she rarely ever touched me, except for our sparring matches, though she used to pat my head sometimes when I was younger... I wonder why she actually joined the Snakes to begin with, I just noticed that she was drifting further away from us with each passing day...
She never really told me anything about her own motivations, did she? I wonder what is driving her to commit acts of terrorism in the first place, she doesn't seem to really enjoy it. Well, she does seem to enjoy the challenge or playing everyone for fools, but that also had a hollow feeling to it, her laughter... Kodoku said she might have some sort of ideals she is fighting for, but she never made any demands or talked about morals...
Maybe she actually thinks she is doing something good by doing what she does... did? She never seemed to do anything just for the sake of doing it, almost all of her actions had some sort of underlying reason and turned the tide for her whenever she seemed to be in trouble. I had somewhat hoped that she would give up on the whole terrorism thing in this year, but she is attending a meeting of the Snakes now, so...
Well, I can't just stand under the shower all day long and think about Alphard, I don't really want to be here when Natsume comes to pick me up. Where is my shampoo again? I reach behind myself and feel around for a bottle full of it. Got it. As I open it a delicate smell of lemons and some other things reaches my nose, though lemon is the most prominent one. I really like this one a lot,...
I take some of the shampoo into my left hand and put the rest back to where it was. I wonder if Alphard would like it? It would be nice if I could just talk to her about some trivial things like this someday, without any terrorism or governments involved... But the government won't let Alphard withdraw quietly from the stage and Alphard probably won't want that either, so what are my options...?
I could try to talk with Natsume, but she seems to be determined to kill Alphard, no matter what. Besides, I never really got along with her... I don't have any political influence, it was never made public that Natsume and I stopped that bomb from blasting the conference hall to dust, it was attributed to some sort of error... Only Alphard would have the necessary influence to bring about her own absolution, but she wouldn't want that...
Are there any other options I haven't thought about so far? Maybe I could... join her? That... it would be possible, if Alphard would let me, but I don't think she would and I really have no desire whatsoever to work together with the Snakes. And if that was the only way I could see her and maybe influence her? No, that would be far too dangerous, I was never good and convincing others with just my words and Alphard's abilities at that are beyond belief...
*Sigh* I'm not getting anywhere, I'm just running on and on in circles. That's all I can do until I finally get to meet her in person if she even does appear at that meeting. Well, I have no reason to doubt that, Kodoku was always a reliable source of information and Natsume is coming with me, she wouldn't do that unless she was sure that the information is true. It almost feels like a dream, the chance to see her after all that time...
...
Ah, that was just perfect, I feel much calmer now. I'm still pretty nervous about meeting Alphard again, but I feel very relieved as well, the uncertainty was much more depressing and unnerving than the certain confrontation. No matter what, I'm sure that it will all end this time, there is no way I will just let her walk off without settling this matter. And if I have to defeat her in order to talk with her that's what I'll do.
I jump out of the shower, feeling completely recuperated and ready for whatever the future might have in store for me. In two days what felt like an eternity will finally come to an end and we will be free again, hopefully... I should put some clothes on... I will wear the same things as I did back then, for the memories. Well, the exact sleeveless red shirt and the khaki pants I used to wear back then are pretty worn out and too small, so I got myself new ones.
So, here I am, prepared for whatever may come now. Alphard will surely recognise me at first glance, but I wonder if she also looks the same as back then. Well, minus her left arm... I still don't get it, she could have just accepted my help and tried to kill me as soon as she got back up, she could have looked for an opportunity to escape as soon as the train had passed the bridge, she was by no means without other options, so why...?
*Ring* Well, I guess these thoughts will have to wait for now, Natsume is probably at the door to get me. I am overjoyed, many hours on a plane with Natsume and probably a lot more time I will have to spend with, what more could I ask for? *Sigh* I would really much rather do this on my own, but there is no way in hell Natsume would let me. I pick up my luggage and open the door for her...
"I hope you are ready, we will leave now. If there is anything you still need get it right now, we won't return until Alphard Alshua is dead and buried or just dead." What does she think I am, a small child? And so much for talking to her about Alphard... No chance at all. So I have to rely on Alphard to make some sort of move, she will have to do something about her situation on her own and I will make her do that, one way or the other.
"Good morning to you as well..." She looks at me with an icy glare and gets into a black car parking in front of my apartment. Well, so much for being inconspicuous... I get in next to her on the back-seat and lean back, now all I have to do is wait and wait and wait some more...
...
Author's note: Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter of our new story, it will probably get really long. There are quite things we aren't too sure about, like having Alphard have her forearm back on after losing it, but I hope it isn't too much of a bother. If it is we will edit the story and make it so she never lost it in the first place. If you don't like the characters as we portray them we can't help you, just stop reading if you don't enjoy it.
We would appreciate reviews, especially constructive ones. If we make mistakes while writing, grammar or spelling or whatever, feel free to point them out, English isn't our native language. If you think the characters are too out of character you can certainly point that out as well, though I don't guarantee that we'd change anything related to that. If you'd like to just talk about our story you can also write a PM, feel free to contact us.