"You Blade Children. You're too much to handle."
Eyes sips his tea and looks calmly at the pink-haired woman sitting across from him, feeling a mixture of annoyance and amusement at her words. Tsuchiya Kirie was the last person he had expected to accompany him home from the hospital - and stay with him, on top of that. She sent home his manager and various attendants days ago, insisting that she was the only one capable of caring for him. Now she is living in his home, and at the start of this morning she has arrived at the head of his table with this angry announcement.
He supposes he should ask what has happened, but he knows that she will tell him anyway - so he simply sits and waits.
"I know you visited Kanone Hilbert yesterday." She drinks from a mug of black coffee, her eyes narrowed and focused at him even as she does so. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"
"I never made any attempt to hide it from you." He reaches for his fork, looking down at the half-eaten omelet on his plate. "You said before that he would be allowed visitors - "
"Don't you think it's going to bother you, having seen him? When he finally dies, isn't that going to make it worse for you?"
His fork scrapes the plate slightly, and he feels one of his eyebrows twitch. He hates to show any sign of her words having an impact on him. He knows full well that she desires the satisfaction of hurting him, this woman - not because she is cruel, but because she knows the truth too well, wants him to be fully aware that there is no hope for him, for Kanone, for any of the others. She is realistic, and reality is pain. "Perhaps," he answers, and adjusts the angle of his fork as he attempts again to tear away another bite of food. "But it cannot be just me that you're angry with."
"No," she snorts, and leans backwards in her chair. Eyes sees that she hasn't bothered to dress yet, is still wearing a bathrobe and slippers. "Rio-chan tried to escape from the hospital this morning, and that redheaded idiot friend of yours was hobbling around on his broken leg trying to find her. They both caused me a lot of trouble."
He feels a smile tug on the corner of his mouth, and disguises it with a mouthful of egg. "Hmm," he murmurs, hoping she won't notice. "I see."
"On top of that, this situation with Hizumi..." She makes a sour face, cursing under her breath. "It'd be best if Ayumu-kun would kill him quickly, but they're acting as if they'd rather have fun. The longer Hizumi stays alive, the worse things will become for everyone. He's certainly planning something beneath that stupid smile of his... damn it!" She gulps down the rest of her coffee, then slams the empty mug down on the surface of the table. "You kids are too much for me. I feel like a babysitter."
"Were you asked to mind us so closely?"
"Don't get smart with me, Raza-kun." Eyes feels almost as if Kirie should have fangs, judging by the venom in her voice. "No one else can do my job. If I wasn't here with you, or watching Ayumu-kun and Hizumi, the whole situation would be entirely out of control."
"You don't feel that the things would resolve themselves?"
At this question she starts, sitting upright in her chair. Some of the anger fades from her face, and she is quiet for a moment, simply looking at him. She rises then, slowly, and leaves the room. When she returns, she carries a crumpled pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "Kiyotaka believes that the board will eventually be cleared of all its pawns," she says, her voice returned to normal. "That everything will return to zero. All of the Blade Children, Watchers, Hunters, and Savers will be gone, and the world will be returned to the way it was before Mizushiro Yaiba even existed."
Eyes is familiar with this declaration, of course. He places his fork down on the table, discarding the thought of eating for the time being. "Yes," he responds, and watches her sit again, this time in a chair closer to his. "But your opinion is ... ?"
"This kind of thing isn't going to be possible without some interference." She tosses the small box and lighter to the table, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm forbidden to directly prevent someone from following through with their intentions, but I can argue against them. By watching the situation, I can determine how Kiyotaka's plan will become reality. But..." Her brows crease. "... I should have prevented Hizumi from enrolling in school. I also should have kept a better watch on Rio-chan and the others, to make sure they weren't going to cause trouble for the hospital. While you're all still alive, I'm responsible for keeping other people - innocent people - from being dragged into this mess. It's bad enough that Ayumu-kun's little girlfriend is already involved."
"So you feel that no one other than us should suffer."
"Don't throw yourself a pity party, Raza-kun." She turns dark blue eyes on him, frowning. "I'll be gone in the end, too. The board will be cleared of all of its pieces. Not just the Blade Children."
He twines his fingers together, returning her gaze without hesitation. "Are you afraid of your own death, Kirie?"
She opens her mouth, closes it, then opens it again. "Don't think," she says, sharply, "that I don't realize how likely it is - that your switch might just flip right now. I could have a bullet in my head in five minutes." She leans forward, holding up a finger. "And that, Raza-kun, is why I am here. Because I'll die in the end, too, eventually. If you killed me now, it would simply follow Kiyotaka's plans. If I die later, it won't make any difference. We're all destined to follow this downward spiral until the very end."
"So you aren't scared, then."
"I've come to accept it." She draws back, turning away to fish a cigarette out of the box on the table. "I can't possibly care about my own life, now, or even yours. I know what's coming for us." Her voice softens. "It's a little romantic, if you want to be a fool about it... all of us meeting our fates together."
He watches her bring the cigarette to her lips, thinking for a moment. "So," he says, quietly, calmly, "if you have no attachment to us, you won't feel any remorse when I finally die."
"... che." She makes a disgruntled noise around the cigarette in her mouth, looking sharply to the bay window behind the table. "When you say it like that, it sounds inhumane."
"Isn't it ... ?"
She reaches for her lighter. "I don't care. Live or die... just don't kill anyone innocent while you do it. If you give the Hunters a reason to act, things will get even more complicated than they already are. And in that case..." She watches the flame that jumps to meet the end of her cigarette, her eyes flicking to his for just a moment. "In that case, I would just have to kill you myself."
And somehow, Eyes doesn't believe that she could.