There was a long, painful pause, where there was no sound at all. Tokiko wanted to speak, but after all that commotion, the words couldn't leave her mouth. She was too afraid of what she was almost certain had happened. But then, footsteps. Faint, but getting closer. They didn't seem hostile, though. Perhaps it was just a passerby.
"Kazuki? Kazuki!" Tokiko exclaimed into the phone. "Kazuki, are you there? What happened? Kazuki!"
The last think Tokiko heard was Kazuki fighting Koushaku. She faintly heard Kazuki mention the key, and her name, and then, silence.
There was a little under two hours before she became a homunculus. She could feel the embryo creeping closer and closer to her brain.
She continued to yell for him, knowing fullwell that he had passed out from overexertion. She knew he'd wake up in a few hours, but she didn't have that kind of time. Her only hope was for him to wake up and get the cure, and she needed him to wake up now. If he didn't... she'd have to kill herself before she turned into a homunculus. She'd have to summon her Valkyrie skirt, order it to pierce her heart, brain, and the embryo...
"Kazuki, are you there? Kazuki!" Tokiko yelled, her face growing full of panic.
"Relax, Tokiko, you'll wake the neighbors!" Came a familiar voice.
Tokiko's eyes widened with surprise as she immediately knew who it was.
"Warrior Chief?" Tokiko exclaimed.
"Yes, it is I!" Captain Bravo boomed, in his usual boastful voice. "And who is this striking young man you're speaking to? Is it strawberry time?"
Tokiko flushed slightly, irked by that notion and even more irked by the fact that she knew Bravo knew that it irked her.
"Warrior Chief, there's no time for this!" Tokiko said loudly. "I have a homunculus embryo parasite on my neck, and I have-" she glanced at the clock, "-less than two hours before it reaches my brain. Kazuki found the key, which should unlock the container to the cure. It's where Koushaku Chouno's great-great grandfather kept his research, where it all began. I need you to get it and bring it to me at the dormitory of Ginsei Private Academy." And she gave him the addresses.
There was dead silence in the room and on the phone as Bravo digested this information. Soon, though, Tokiko could hear that Bravo was on the move.
And indeed he was. Bravo kept the phone near his ear, in case Tokiko had more directions, but there was nothing else to say. Some people might have continued to ask who Kazuki was, or how this happened, but these issues were not important at the moment. In fact, how this happened wasn't important at all, really. Even the best of men and women make mistakes. Any person can be beaten by any other person on any given day, given the right circumstances. Tokiko was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bravo may insist on training her a little bit later, but that's the extent to which he cared to lecture Tokiko on this matter. It happened, and all that mattered now was fixing it.
As for Kazuki, Bravo didn't want to leave him there, vulnerable, but he couldn't make this trip in time while hoisting the boy's body. They just had to hope that no other homunculi were in the area. Thankfully, though Bravo didn't realize it, Kazuki and Tokiko had taken care of the others, so Kazuki was safe, for now.
Tokiko held the phone close, listening to Bravo's every footstep.
Suddenly, a quick jolt of pain snapped Tokiko from intently listening to the reality of her situation. Tokiko winced, suppressing a yelp, as she quickly massaged the source of her pain – the embryo on her neck. It had dug in that much closer to her brain. The pain was throbbing now, growing with intensity. Tokiko lowered the phone a little, focusing on the pain. Breathing harder, she began to tremble, trying to fight off the pain. To equate it to someone driving a nail through the back of your head would be somewhat redundant, because, thanks to the metallic nature of the embryo, that was essentially what was happening.
Another bolt of pain hit, stronger than the first. This time, Tokiko was forced to let out an audible yelp, and was very glad that Kazuki's friends and Mahiro had left the room. She lowered the phone entirely, and harshly grabbed the embryo, trying to massage the pain away. Unfortunately, grabbing the embryo that harshly only made the pain worse.
Fighting back watering eyes from the pain, Tokiko breathed heavily. It quickly dawned on her now that maybe 'midnight' was too literal. Maybe there was a margin of error of several minutes, or perhaps longer. Maybe the transformation could take place at any moment. And by the time she realized it was happening, it would likely be too late. Maybe she should kill herself now, just to be sure...
...no, not yet. Not after Kazuki had gone through all this to try to save her.
She was still angry with him for doing all this. She had already resigned herself to her fate, but he forced her to... to have hope. This pain she was enduring now was his fault! If he had just left her in the forest to kill herself, he wouldn't be almost killing himself overexerting, and she wouldn't be going through this hell, where she felt like a knife was piercing the back of her skull with each beat of her heart.
...no. No, that wasn't fair. Tokiko knew she couldn't be angry with Kazuki for trying to save her life. Even if she thought it was stupid, and that he needed a far better reason to risk his life than that, she couldn't rightly be angry at the basic concept of it all. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered that it was this trait of his that made her so intrigued by him in the first place. But right now, fighting through the throbbing pain, all she could realize was that it wasn't right to be angry with him over this. Her thoughts couldn't go deeper than that.
Suddenly, the door burst open. Tokiko jumped a little in surprise, looked at the door, and saw... Captain Bravo.
Surprised, Tokiko glanced at the clock. It was 11:13. Almost an hour had passed since Bravo answered the phone. Tokiko had lost track of time in her world of pain.
"Hey, what's the hurry-" Mahiro asked from the hallway.
Bravo quickly closed the door behind him. It seemed Mahiro had let him in and showed him to Tokiko's room, but what was coming next was not for her eyes, or for those of Kazuki's friends. Bravo would not be getting more innocent people involved in the world of homunculi.
"Hey!" Mahiro protested outside, but she did not enter.
"I have it." Bravo said, pulling a fancy syringe from his clothes. Wasting no time, he approached Tokiko.
Tokiko turned her back to him, pushing her hair up so Bravo could get better access to the embryo. It had crawled all the way up to the back of her neck, near the base of her head. Bravo almost didn't need to pull her top down slightly to get better access. Without another word, Bravo removed the protective cap from the syringe. He didn't take the extra step of flicking the syringe and squeezing some of the fluid out to ensure a lack of air. This was going into the embryo, not Tokiko. He held her neck steady with one hand, and carefully plunged the syringe into a softer part of the embryo. Once it was in, he injected the fluid.
For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. But then, the embryo began to shrivel up. Tokiko gritted her teeth, fighting back the pain, but even though having the embryo move this quickly in her flesh was painful, the pain was quickly lessening, as the embryo's long tail began to take up less and less space in her body. Finally, it shriveled down as small and compact as it could make itself, and began to loosen against her flesh. A few moments later, Bravo grabbed hold of it, and yanked it off.
There was pain now, but compared to the previous throbbing, it was meaningless. It was simply a dull ache, like after ripping a hangnail out. Tokiko rubbed the back of her neck, feeling the unnatural depression there from where the embryo was once lodged. No doubt, in a few hours, it would heal.
"Are you alright?" Bravo asked, holding the dead embryo in his hand.
"Yes, I'm fine." Tokiko said, her face still slightly panicked from the whole ordeal.
"That was right down to the wire." Bravo said, looking at the clock. "But a job done is a job done."
Tokiko exhaled heavily, finally calming down. The full gravity of what just happened was dawning on her. She was going to survive! The embryo was out of her body and dead. The clock would strike midnight, and she would continue living. It was over! And though Bravo had delivered the cure, this was almost all thanks to Kazuki. He forced her from the forest. He insisted on doing all this, despite Tokiko repeatedly telling him to just forget it and return to his old life. His stupidly irresponsible selflessness used to simply be intriguing to Tokiko, but now, she had no choice but to be grateful for it. He didn't really save her life when he died originally, but this time, he did.
"What, no thank you?" Bravo asked boastingly, in his usual manner of lightening the mood.
"...sorry." Tokiko said, somewhat softly. "Thank you, Warrior Chief, very much. You saved my life."
"I gave you the shot, but as I understand it, I just delivered the results of someone else's hard work." Bravo said. "Who was that young man you were talking to?"
Tokiko only now realized that Kazuki was not with Bravo.
"Kazuki! Where is he?" Tokiko asked anxiously.
"I couldn't carry him and arrive here in time." Bravo said. "In fact, I should go make sure he's okay."
"No." Tokiko said, pushing the covers off herself. "I will."
"Really?" Bravo asked, with a slightly amused tone. "Strawberry time after all, so soon after recovering from the embryo, you want to go out once more for him?"
Bravo knew it irked her, and she couldn't help but show her irritation. But even so, Tokiko knew that this was his way of asking 'seriously, who is he'. So, she answered.
"His name is Kazuki." Tokiko said. "Last week, he tried to save my life, and was killed by a homunculus in the process. I decided that he deserved to live, so I gave him a Kakugane to use as a heart. He refuses to return to his normal life, so I've been teaching him to use his buso renkin ever since."
Bravo paused briefly, clearly surprised. He certainly was not expecting that.
"That was noble of him, he has the heart of a warrior." Bravo remarked. "But you aren't in a position to train him, when you are still learning yourself."
"I know." Tokiko said. "But he refused to take no for an answer. Besides, he's defeated two homunculi already."
Tokiko climbed out of bed, and retrieved her clothes. She gave Bravo a look, clearly meaning 'I'm going to change, out.' Bravo understood, but didn't step out yet.
"You should rest. I can get him." Bravo said.
"No, it's alright." Tokiko answered. "I want to get him."
Bravo was somewhat surprised at Tokiko's reaction. In truth, Tokiko didn't understand it too much, herself. All she knew was that Kazuki had saved her life today, and something in her just wanted to be the one to go and help him, now. She wanted to be there when he woke up, to thank him personally.
"I'm going to where I found the shot." Bravo said. "I need to retrieve the Incubator and research before it can be used to make any more embryos. If you want to retrieve him, you can accompany me."
"...alright, I will." Tokiko said, happy with this compromise. She glanced at the door. "The girl with pale red hair is Kazuki's sister. She's been taking care of me while Kazuki went for the cure. She thinks I just have chronic back pain."
"Ah, that explains how concerned she was." Bravo said. "Don't worry, I'll calm her."
With that, Bravo opened the door. As expected, Mahiro was standing right there, nervous and anxious.
"Sorry for my rush earlier!" Bravo boasted exuberantly, closing the door behind him. "I'm an on-call masseuse. Tokiko called to help with her back."
"Really?" Mahiro asked. "Aw, she could have asked me, I could have rubbed her back for her!"
The two began to walk away from the door, so Tokiko couldn't hear more of the conversation. Tokiko paused for a moment, bemused with Mahiro's eagerness to help her, then quickly changed into her school uniform. It took about a minute or two. When she was done, she opened the door, and walked into the hall, just as Mahiro walked into view.
"Tokiko, what are you doing up?" Mahiro asked, immediately concerned. "You should rest! I know masseuses do good work, but it's just temporary, not a permanent fix!"
"I know, Mahiro." Tokiko said, rushing her walk. "I'm just going to get Kazuki. We'll be back soon."
"Are you sure? He said he could handle it." Mahiro said, struggling to keep up.
"Together, we can handle it more quickly." Tokiko replied, keeping up the 'we can't tell you what it is' cherade. "Thanks for the help, now get some rest."
They were already at the door now, and Tokiko was already out the door.
"Alright. Be careful!" Mahiro yelled after her.
Tokiko walked off the dorm's grounds, quickly walking towards the Chouno mansion. From behind a large tree, Bravo emerged, having waited for her. After all, it would have been odd for the 'masseuse' to be waiting for her at the dorm.
"I've never seen you like this, Tokiko." Bravo teased. "Tell me more about Kazuki."
The trip was spent with Tokiko telling Bravo everything about what happened in the past week. In doing this, Tokiko now realized something that she had previously just glazed over, given the desperation of her former situation - Kazuki had actually defeated a humanoid homunculus. In only a week, Kazuki had grown in strength and skill enough to do what took most alchemist warriors weeks, months, perhaps longer. He had single-handedly completed the mission to stop the papillon-masked creator. Tokiko couldn't have been more proud of him.
Though Bravo made this trip in less than an hour, he was running. At their current rate of fast walking, it took more like an hour and a half, maybe an hour forty-five. But finally, they made it to the mansion. Bravo led the way, and sure enough, Kazuki was exactly where Bravo had left him, still passed out.
Tokiko rushed over to his side, and gently rolled him onto his back.
"Kazuki?" Tokiko asked, knowing it likely would not wake him up.
"He should be fine in a few hours." Bravo affirmed.
While Tokiko was telling Bravo the story, she had to recount Kazuki's list of names he had for his lance. She remembered snapping at him over that, and rightly so, at the time. She thought it was stupid and a waste of time. Now, though, she thought that maybe she should help with a name...
"If you want to stay by his side, I will go take care of the research." Bravo said.
"Alright. We'll be here." Takiko agreed.
Bravo turned and began to walk away, leaving Tokiko to think about what she'd say to Kazuki. She even thought about a few names for his lance, when suddenly... she had it. A perfect name. And with it came a great idea. It was so unlike her to think like this. It was absurdly cheesy, but for some reason, because she was so thankful, she just felt the need to do it.
"Wait!" Tokiko called.
Bravo stopped, and turned around to listen.
"I'm going to take him to the hillside. The fresh air should help him wake up quicker." Tokiko said.
"Is that so?" Bravo asked. "Using fresh air as a poor excuse to hide the strawberry time you want to have when he wakes up? Such a terrible liar! Very well, if you want to, you may."
Tokiko flushed slightly and scowled at him, which, of course, amused him greatly. But Bravo wasn't just joking around with this. He still thought Tokiko needed to rest, and wouldn't fight nearly as well as she should or could if they were ambushed by some homunculus they weren't aware of. But after learning everything, he could understand what Tokiko wanted to do. Besides, he had his phone, and would not be far away. So, he walked off, towards the research.
Tokiko gently closed Kazuki's cell phone, and slipped it into his pocket. And with that, she grabbed hold of Kazuki, and... struggled to carry him. This was an oversight. So, she quickly activated her Valkyrie Skirt, using the flats of the blades to carefully help carry him.
The hillside was not far away, though it took about 20 minutes to make the uphill journey while carrying Kazuki. Finally, though, Tokiko carried Kazuki to a nice area of the hillside. Rolling green, with a nice view of the city. With luck, Kazuki would awaken in the morning. They would share a beautiful view, and Tokiko could give him her name for his lance. His Kakugane was his heart, and the energy from the cloth on his lance, up close, was beautiful, like rays from the sun. His lance would be called Sunlight Heart.
She got down on her knees, deactivating her Valkyrie Skirt, and set Kazuki down on his back. She rested his head in her lap, and waited patiently for him to wake up, and for morning.
She didn't know what had come over her with this whole thing. But he saved her life, and she was going to let him know just how thankful she was.
The hours passed slowly, but Tokiko's resolve to do this didn't waver. If anything, the anticipation was sweet, something to savor, for it made what was to come so much better. She was too full of gratitude to grow bored by the wait. But finally, the sun peeked its head over the horizon, bathing the pair and the hillside in its orange glow. Tokiko looked at the sunrise with a renewed admiration. The sunrise was so much more beautiful after thinking she wouldn't survive past midnight just hours ago.
It took another two hours, but finally, Kazuki began to stir. Tokiko smiled warmly, looking down at his face, but he was looking too forward and didn't quite see her. After a moment, he gasped, falling into an utter panic. He began to make quivering noises, he closed his eyes, and he looked on the verge of tears.
It took Tokiko a second to realize that Kazuki didn't actually see her. He thought she was dead. Ordinarily, she'd have simply told him otherwise, but no, not this time. He deserved better than that, after all that he did.
"Kazuki?" Tokiko asked softly.
Kazuki's eyes opened, and he stopped trembling. He looked up at her, head still in her lap.
"Did you know that, up close, your buso renkin energy is a beautiful, bright, golden yellow color, similar to the rays of the sun?" Tokiko continued gently, holding him softly. "It took me a little while, but how about we name your lance Sunlight Heart. What do you think?"
"...Tokiko." Was all Kazuki could muster. And he closed his eyes, resting in her lap, seemingly relishing this moment as much as possible. Tokiko looked at him warmly, and gave a satisfied hmph. Putting this moment together was completely worth it.
"Kazuki, thank you, very much." Tokiko said softly. "Now, the mission is complete."