Welcome to chapter two of a Photograph of hope and despair and I am so sorry for the long wait for this chapter and any bad grammar but here it is and I hope you enjoy it.
Mahiru and Soda decided that they would just walk around the first island and just talk with both of them talking about a bit of themselves with Soda not even mentioning Sonia once surprising Mahiru a bit since she thought the only thing that was on his mind would be Sonia making Soda look at her with a confused face. "is something wrong?" Soda asks "no I just thought you would only talk about Sonia I guess I was wrong." Mahiru answers a little embarrassed from what she initially thought of Soda which looks at her before noticing that the sun is starting to set making him turn and face Mahiru once again. "well i'm happy that I proved you wrong but I think its time to call it a day maybe we can do this again tomorrow." Soda explains "maybe." Mahiru says as they head back to their cottages with Mahiru seeing Hiyoko at Mahiru's cottage.
"he didn't do anything to you did he?" Hiyoko asks "no we just had a friendly conversation is all." Mahiru answers as she enters her cottage and closes the door before getting dressed for bed and falling asleep on her bed hoping that she won't have to deal with Soda for long. Mahiru wakes up to hear knocking on her door so she goes to open it to see Soda standing at the door. "what is it?" Mahiru asks "Togami wants everyone to meet at the hotel so he sent me and Ibuki to let everyone know." Soda answers with Mahiru closing the door and getting dressed into her regular outfit before stepping outside to see Hiyoko waiting to walk with her to the hotel.
Mahiru and Hiyoko arrives at the hotel to see that the ones that are usually late aren't there yet making Mahiru sigh knowing that this will take a long while before she walks over to Hajime which is sitting next to a preoccupied Chiaki. "so how did it go yesterday?" Hajime asks "surprisingly I don't think this will take long he barely even mentioned Sonia once surprisingly." Mahiru answers "not even once, do you think he's really not as obsessed as we thought?" Hajime thinks "he might still be, he might just know when he should talk about something else." Mahiru answers as they see the others arrive with Togami beginning his speech with Mahiru looking over at Soda which is sitting near Sonia watching the princess. After the meeting Mahiru starts leaving the hotel and starts heading for the second island to go look at the ruins again to see if there might be a answer or something interesting there for her to find.
Mahiru arrives at the ruins on the second island as she starts to take pictures of the ruins with her camera not noticing a certain pink haired mechanic starts walking around 'trying to look for sonia' before he sees Mahiru busy taking pictures of the ruins. "so why do you like coming here?" Soda asks getting Mahiru's attention making her turn around to face him as he starts walking towards the photographer. "its just that I think this might hold some answers to why we might be here." Mahiru answers with Soda nodding before he stops and looks around the ruins seeing nothing that gets his attention. "so yesterday you told me somethings I didn't want to hear, before you go yelling at me I do have to be honest I don't even know if I truly care about her and I've been thinking about it last night and during Togami's meeting." Soda explains "its nice to see you getting over her, if you want to talk about anything just find me i'll be happy to talk." Mahiru says with a faint smile happy to see that the mechanic is finally getting over Sonia even if its a slow process so far since she didn't want to see Soda chase the impossible.
The two starts walking to the first island talking as it slowly starts to get before Mahiru notices Peko standing next to the cottages with her bamboo sword ready as if she was going to fight someone with Mahiru starting to walk slower with Peko quickly running at the two with Fuyuhiko walking from behind them. "get out of here mechanic you're not a part of this." Fuyuhiko commands "i'm not going anywhere!" Soda yells as he gets in front of Mahiru before Peko goes to swing her bamboo sword striking Soda in the face hard enough to make blood drip from Soda's mouth making Mahiru look at him scared for him as Peko looks at the two emotionlessly. "Soda are you okay?" Mahiru asks "i-i'm fine." Soda answers stuttering to reveal that he's not okay as he slowly stretches his arms out trying to protect Mahiru with Fuyuhiko chuckling at Soda's 'heroic' act. "just kill them both." Fuyuhiko commands with Peko hitting Soda in his left arm bruising it with Soda groaning in pain as he turns his head to face Mahiru with a faint smile at her making Mahiru look at him now more scared. "just run Mahiru i'll try holding them back, just get to your cottage and lock the door i'll talk to you later." Soda commands as Mahiru nods before quickly running towards her cottage not noticing that Peko is still hitting Soda with her bamboo sword.
Mahiru gets into her cottage while locking the door before sliding down the door crying and hoping that Soda will be fine and that Peko won't kill him while she holds her knees wandering why Fuyuhiko wants her dead. Mahiru hears knocking making her stand up and opens the door to see Soda standing there with blood dripping from his forehead while holding his left arm as if it might be broken with Mahiru pulling him in and leading him to her bedroom before she runs to the bathroom and comes back with a first aid kit to see Soda sitting on her bed half conscious. "so why did you try doing that?" Mahiru asks while opening up the first aid kit and starts to take care of Soda's wounds as he looks at her with a unreadable expression. "I just didn't want to see one of my friends get hurt or die." Soda answers while trying to give Mahiru a smile as she finishes up taking care of his wounds as best as she could. "tis won't hold for long so tomorrow i'll get you to tsumiki." Mahiru says as she help Soda off the bed as he sits up against the wall next to the door losing the rest of his consciousness before Mahiru gets ready for bed while looking at Soda worried for the mechanic before laying in bed.
Mahiru finds herself in a deserted ruin to see a photo album with her name on it so she opens it to see a photo of her in the same deserted ruin looking into the same photo album as she starts to flip he pages, a white hand starts to clamp around her neck with the final photo showing her lying on the floor, She looks at the album shocked as a camera starts to begin to shoot with Mahiru trying to throw it away not noticing a white hand appearing behind her.
Mahiru wakes up in her bed sweating as she sees Soda standing next to the bed with a scared expression making Mahiru sit up and feeling her neck to see and feel no white hand with Soda stepping back with a smile happy to see that she's fine. "hey don't mind me asking but what were you dreaming of?" Soda asks "its kind of a long story but it was honestly terrifying I can tell you that." Mahiru answers before walking into the bathroom and gets dressed for the day as she sees Soda waiting at the door for her while she opens the door with them going outside to see right away Hiyoko kicking Soda in the groin section sending him to the ground in pain surprising and shocking Mahiru. "what were you doing in Mahiru's cottage you pervert?" Hiyoko asks in a hostile tone making Soda look at her mixed with angry and pain with Mahiru quickly going to Soda's side. "he stood up for me against Fuyuhiko and Peko so in return he got a few wounds so I went and helped fix his wounds temporarily before we talk to Mikan and you possibly might've made things worse. "Mahiru explains before looking over at Hiyoko angrily as Hiyoko takes a step back nervously not wanting to make Mahiru angry since they're friends.
"i'm sorry I thought he snuck in last night while you were sleeping." Hiyoko says with Mahiru helping Soda up to his feet before they walk past Hiyoko which looks like she might start crying because of what just happened. Mahiru and Soda finds Mikan at the hotel with Mikan looking at Soda's arm to confirm that it is broken making Mahiru wince knowing that its all her fault that Soda got hurt this bad before Soda looks at her with a reassuring smile to tell her that its not her fault at all as Mikan just looks at the two waiting for them to speak. "so what are you going to do about Soda?" Mahiru asks "there's a hospital on one of the islands so i'll take him there you can come with us if you want." Mikan answers "ok then lets get going." Mahiru says with Mikan leading the two to the hospital with Soda seeing Mahiru walking a little closer to him than he expected her to. "so why are you getting closer?" Soda asks "I just want to say that i'm sorry about last night I didn't mean for any of that to happen I don't even know what that was about." Mahiru explains with them arriving at the hospital as Mikan leads them in and towards a empty hospital room with her leaving to go find some stuff that she'll need to treat Soda's wounds properly as Soda looks at Mahiru awkwardly before Mahiru hugs her making Soda's face turn a light red. "so we're doing this now, why are we doing this?" Soda asks as Mahiru quickly pushes away with a lighter red face than her own hair making Soda chuckly quietly to himself while Mahiru's face slowly goes back to it's normal color.
"I honestly don't know I just felt like it was the right thing to do." Mahiru answers as she starts to look away still blushing making Soda smile before he grabs her right arm's wrist gently. "to be honest it was a great feeling but next time please let me know beforehand so it doesn't get a little awkward between us and definitely not in front of that little demon or she would probably literally kill me." Soda explains "well um i'm going to go, i'll visit whenever I have the chance later." Mahiru says before leaving the room with Soda sitting down on the hospital bed and smiling while having thoughts of Mahiru instead of Sonia in in his head as Mikan arrives with the things she went to go get to take care of Soda.
and that is the end of chapter two and once again I am so sorry about the long wait so I will see you all in the next chapter and if you like this story so far don't be shy to give me your opinion on it.