Something in her ached, a stomachache maybe, like the first day of school every year. She swam back to consciousness, as if out of a fog, and the pain increased to a throbbing, then a searing sensation. It was the pain that finally dragged her back to the surface, and her eyes creaked open, a breath like a sob shaking her shoulders. Her fingers grabbed for anything, anything. Cold flooring scraped her palms, fine threads tangled in the fingers on her right. Her eyes were glassy with tears but she managed to focus on the sight, at orange-gold hairs trapped under her fingernails.
"Oh god," she gasped, a sob in her throat, as Momo's body slowly coming into focus. She wrenched her eyes away from the girl, becoming aware for the first time of a dialogue happening, off to the side, a taunting male voice and a young girl wailing. Was that Mary? She knew she should care, but she searched first for her brothers. Her vision was bad so she felt with one hand, the other holding herself together, wrapped around her stomach. She felt her way through a puddle of blood that seeped into her shoes and the knees of her pants. She couldn't find Seto, but she knew he had been right here, and that was bad, because she had to protect him, the other kids were always picking on him because he was so small, and— she shook the memory away as it threatened to settle around her for good, and kept looking. A smaller figure, and she knew who it was, she knew but she kept looking for Seto for several desperate seconds, then dragged herself to Kano's side.
He looked to be sleeping, his back to her, and it almost took more strength than she had to turn him over, her fingers digging into the familiar black jacket. His head rolled against the floor as she turned him, and she choked, because he didn't have much of a face left anymore. She couldn't tell how much was gone, with blood obscuring much of his nose and eyes, but there was something white peeking through near his temple, and she clamped her bloody hand over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut against the image.
The screaming was still at the edges of her perception, and she still hadn't found Mary, and she was dying, she realized with a dull sense of surprise. Her body was falling apart. Her heart lurched, and she felt something stir, like her soul was being pulled away.
She forced her eyes open.
What was left of Kano's face looked terrified, his mouth slack in a horror-filled expression. She became aware of blood from her mouth seeping through her fingers, and moved her hand, reaching over shakily to press it over his mouth. Making him smile was beyond her at this point, and her hand fell away to reveal the bloody hand print over his lips.
Kido fought guilt that she hadn't used her last moments for something more productive, to find Mary or to protect Seto from those childhood bullies, and her muscles gave out as she coughed up blood, sputtering messily. As her thoughts ebbed away into nothing, she felt the energy coiled in her stomach rip from her back, and she felt hot all over for a moment, until she felt nothing at all.
