25. Repose

They were walking west, across hill after hill, straight into the setting sun, which was invisible already behind the thick layer of clouds, looming right above their heads with their obese bellies. Full of snow, probably. All the roads in the Land of Frost seemed to be directed either to heaven or to hell. They ascended steep mountain paths, only to go back down again a few hours later. It made them understand now, however, why this country was already ruled by winter, when the rest of the continent was experiencing autumn. The difficult terrain depleted their energy and their journey seemed especially grim as they were too busy biting down their teeth hard to keep them from chattering to exchange any words. It was bitter cold.

Sasuke was walking up front, leading the way north-west, because this is where they assumed (but didn't know) Madara's base to be. Karin was not able to sense him. Not yet. And so they were chasing mere assumptions. At least until they were close enough to make anything out. Hopefully. It was all they could do for the moment and it was certainly better than sitting on their hands.

Up until now they hadn't encountered a single soul on their way. The shinobi of the Allied Nations would be farther in the north, the civilians have been evacuated, successfully it seemed, and as for the enemy – they didn't know a thing about Madara's troops yet.

Night fell like a pitch black curtain. A distant rumble echoed through the valley they were currently passing. It was less cold down here, but ere long the so distant sounding storm caught up to them and they were no longer sure if the gentle snow wouldn't have been preferable to this literal downpour. It took less than a minute for them to be soaked to the skin and they were shivering just as hard now as they did on the frosty mountaintops.

"Let's search for a place to rest," Karin screamed over the din of their surroundings, the thunder and the clashing of water against rocks and more water. None of her two reticent fellow travellers had said a word about resting yet, which struck her as a little suspicious. "I'm soaked and tired and if you think I'll march through the whole night then forget about that right away!"

After all she had no real reason to attend this journey. At least none other than wanting to escape Sasuke's wrath, which would certainly follow a refusal on her part and that was something she did absolutely not want to experience by any means. But wading through puddles and having lashes of rain whip her face didn't rank so pretty high on her list either…

"You're right," Sasuke said after a long moment. Actually the thought of resting when his son was somewhere out there, all alone, was almost unbearable to him, but in their current condition they were ultimately useless. They were all tired and exhausted and he was no exception. After all he spent the whole night searching his family. "We should come across a small town soon. We'll seek cover there."

"Fine by me," Karin said, "But the hotel room goes on your bill!"

No one laughed.

It took them about an hour to find the town Sasuke had spotted on the map, before it started to rain and the thin paper got so soaked that the ink blurred and the countries ran down the edges of the world like a waterfall of colour. Some of the fat raindrops had punched holes into it and now the land was cluttered with craters.

The three shinobi halted before the gates leading into the town. With the rain and the darkness their vision was limited to perhaps ten metres, but whenever a flash of lightning tore through the blackness, the shadows of the buildings, pylons and trees snapped forward as though trying to catch them and everything looked so grim and distorted then that they couldn't help having a bad feeling about staying at this place.

"Karin," Sasuke turned towards his former team-mate, who was a little annoyed by now about the way the Uchiha only needed to say her name in order to boss her around.

"I know, I know…" she groaned and brought her index fingers together, closing her eyes to make concentrating easier. "No living human being for miles around. It's a ghost town."

"Hn," Sasuke nodded his acknowledgement. "It'll do for the night," he said and passed through the gate, directly followed by the two women, who appeared a little more tentative though. You could tell by the way their pupils followed every shadow, maybe taking the expression "ghost town" a bit too literal.

The place sure had seen better days. Unlike Konoha, this town was very close to the presumed battlefields and as it seemed, they did not have time for an organised evacuation. The streets were full of trash, the items peeking like little islands out of the gigantic puddle, which made the whole place look like a swamp. Despite the rain, a stench of decay hung in the air and as the three turned another corner, they saw one possibly source of it. There was a market. Some of the stalls have been thrown over and the streets were littered with mouldy food and animal waste. Cats feasted on half-mauled carcasses, but interrupted their meal to arch their backs and hiss at them as they approached. Their slitted eyes aglow with a demonic fire, whenever a streak of lightning cut through the sky. With the humans gone, the animals have reclaimed this town and all the remnants of its past population and they seemed loathe to return it again. The people really must have taken what they could carry and fled, leaving everything else, formerly good food, toys, bags and even a few wheelbarrows to rot in the muddy streets. How many other places looked this way? And how many would do so after the war? How would Konoha look?

Despite having Karin's word that there was no one there, the three shinobi skulked cautiously through the abandoned streets. They felt a lot like intruders, despite still moving across public space, but they did not plan on spending the night out here in the open. The place they targeted next wasn't quite so public any longer. At a venture they approached a bigger, but otherwise inconspicuous house, but then in the gloom all the houses in the street looked virtually the same: simple, square and somewhat sinister. It was with brief hesitation that Sasuke gave the front door a shove. It didn't surprise any of them that already the first house they tried was unlocked. A certain look was exchanged between the three of them and without a word they agreed that this would be their residence for the night.

It was almost bold with what a naturalness they entered, as though this was not somebody else's home. They did not take off their shoes, as common courtesy would demand and left muddy footprints on the dusty hardwood floor. It must have been a while, probably a week or more, since the last time someone has been in here.

"Not bad," Karin gave an acknowledging nod as she entered the living room and turned on the light. The room was large and unlike the rest of the house orderly, which they realised as they went from room to room like sceptical house buyers. "They still have electricity here; let's turn on the heat. I'm half frozen."

The last and to them probably most important room on the ground floor was the kitchen. The window had been left open and the floor was submerged with filthy rain water. A fine mist of water had sprayed the entire countertop, too, and the antique-looking wood was ruined. Despite the fresh air, streaming through the open window, it smelled of damp and mildew. Not surprising, though. Apart from a dead mouse, having been draped quite nicely in the middle of the stove with its intestines surrounding it, the dark wooden dining table in the centre of the kitchen was still laid. There were four bone china plates, a soup tureen and several bowls filled with rice, meat and vegetables. As though the owners of the house would come back any second to have dinner – if it weren't for the feathery blooms of mould all over it…

Sayuri was the first to leave the room again. It was too sorry a sight and there was only so much a human being could bear at a single day. So far she had managed the day without breaking down, but now she had about reached the end of her tether. Though her body clearly yearned for rest, she wanted their stay in this house to be a brief one, so they could set out and resume searching their son. She did not want to rest more than was absolutely necessary and she did not want to start feeling sympathy for a bunch of perfect strangers either. Back in the corridor, she looked out at the darkened land through the glass panes of the white coated veranda door, focusing her full attention on watching bubbles appear on the puddles' surfaces, drift across them and then vanish into nothingness once again. A peal of thunder, so loud it must have split the sky in halves, left her unmoved, but the following flash of lightning, which brought upon a light, far brighter than that of day, deflected her attention, as she saw the reflection of a cabinet cluttered with picture frames and various souvenirs in the mirror-like glass.

Turning her back on the now again black window, Sayuri approached the piece of furniture, she had spotted. It fitted well to the house's old-fashioned style with its scalloped edges and the embroidered tablecloth; white with golden tendrils of flowers. A pattern that could be found on the various picture frames as well, which were gold, too, and now with the dust also white. Her fingers, still red and swollen from the cold, curled around one of them. With her sleeve she brushed the dust off the glass and stared into the faces of a happy family, smiling at her from out of the distant world of captured memories. There were four people, an elderly couple and two children, a boy and a girl. They were really young, the boy maybe four and the girl seven or eight and it wasn't clear how exactly these four people were related. Were they their parents or grandparents? She turned her attention to the other photos, but they always featured the same four people, ranging from wedding images to baby's first steps. They've had no camera there as Mikan had succeeded to stand all by himself for the very first time. They've rarely taken any pictures at all. Their walls were bare and their shelves empty. If someone entered their house there would be nothing but their clothes to imply the identity of the house owners. It seemed like a big neglect on their part and now what if they never got the chance to make up for that?

"Don't do that," Sasuke said as he saw his girlfriend with the two picture frames in her hands, the wedding picture and the walking boy, that had her attention captured. "It's just a house," he said and took the pictures out of her hands, putting them face down on the desk, but Sayuri's eyes just passed on to the remaining ones then. "We have no business with this family. Now c'mon, let's search for a place to sleep."

He pulled at her hand, encountering only mild resistance before she trotted after him and up the stairs. The hallway was narrow, the old wooden floor covered by a brown rug. There was no furniture, other than some toys scattered here and there. There was also a lone sock, pink with white dots. Three doors, two on the left, one on the right, led into what they assumed to be the bedrooms. Sasuke halted at the top of the stairs and looked over his shoulder as he perceived the soft patter of further steps behind them.

"We'll set out early next morning," he said to Karin. "Make sure to get some rest."

"Hmph," was the only comment Karin managed to fit in, before Sasuke started walking. He opened the door closest to them before peeking inside. Then, apparently satisfied, he entered, his hand at the small of Sayuri's back forcing her to come with him. The door behind them swung shut again and Karin was left alone in the corridor, thinking about running away. If it weren't raining outside, she might have actually done so, but as it was, she looked forward to drying up and crawling into bed. She could still make a run for it early next morning.

The room Sasuke had chosen at random turned out to be the master bedroom. The walls were made of wood and the floor covered by a thick red carpet. It was large and dark, despite the white furniture. There were again pictures of the couple from before. They had been placed on a white oak vanity table, which matched the enormous wardrobe, covering the entire right wall. The centre of the room was occupied by a big double bed. It was unmade and one of the thick duvets was halfway on the ground, one of the edges pointing towards the door, hinting at where the house-owners had vanished to. Other than that it was very orderly, but also very crammed.

Fighting the urge to inspect the pictures again and pry into the lives of these strangers, who were, unbeknownst to them, providing them with shelter, Sayuri sat down on the edge of the bed, her eyes on the door. She tried to erase all her thoughts and have her mind go blank. To her surprise there wasn't much effort involved in that.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had made it his task to investigate the room. There was nothing remarkable about it, apart from a second door, leading into a small bathroom, so he was through with it really quick. His eyes drifted back to Sayuri, sitting blank-eyed on the bed, withdrawn into a private world of guilt and shame. There was only the consistent hammering of rain against the window, but instead of defying, the sound only emphasised the silence between them. Sasuke badly wanted to break it, but didn't know how. Now that they were alone, what was left to say? What, but idle words they didn't believe anyway?

He turned away again. He put his backpack down on the floor and hung his dripping wet flak jacket and his pullover over the backrest of a wooden rocking chair, which groaned under the weight of his clothes. Immediately, he felt ten kilos lighter and that wasn't entirely due to having stripped down to his pants. Apart from a hasty breakfast, his stomach hasn't seen much of anything today and he had probably burned his share of calories long before noon. Now that he had time to think about it, he realised how hungry he was.

He picked up his backpack again and started sorting through it. There wasn't much left of his provisions. They had only been meant to last until yesterday afternoon and the three rice balls he had left, barely seemed enough to fill his stomach. They'd have to ransack the house after all, before setting out tomorrow. Who knew how long they'd be on the road and who knew when they'd have another chance to stock up on provisions?

He turned around to Sayuri, the box with rice balls in his hands. "Are you hungry?"

She shook her head. Of course not.

How could she eat when her son might be starving somewhere? How could she sleep when her only child might not even have a roof over his head? How could she stop worrying herself sick, when her baby might be scared to death, crying for them, thinking they had abandoned him?

"I'll leave it here. For later," he said and placed the box on the bedside table. Not that she even looked his way. He has been surprised, maybe even a bit proud but also worried, about how composed she has been all day. She has been quiet alright, but she didn't cry or let her feelings get the best of her. She still didn't cry, but as for the latter, her feelings seemed to be overwhelming her now. After all she's been there. She's been there as Madara had taken their son and she has not been able to do anything. That had to be torturing her, when actually it was just as much his fault as it was hers. Even more so. He was the one who has not been able to keep his promise.

He had eaten two of the filled rice balls, she had prepared for him in their own kitchen what felt like a lifetime ago and Sayuri still hadn't moved. Still sitting like a statue in her dripping clothes, the carpet around her feet stained a darker shade of red, as though she was bleeding.

He squatted down on the floor before her, taking her hands in his. They felt cold and rigid, as though she was actually made of porcelain; white china, just like the crockery downstairs. Ten minutes in this house and she had transformed into a part of it, just as lifeless and just as sad. It was rubbing off on him, too.

"It's not your fault, you know?" he said and looked into her grey-blue eyes, but all he could see was a reflection of his thumbs, moving in circles over her knuckles. "There was nothing you could have done." The mere thought of her taking on Uchiha Madara, one of the co-founders of Konoha Gakure and leader of Akatsuki was ridiculous. How could she not see that? "It's a miracle you're even alive."

He kissed her cold fingers and folded them together, before closing his hands around them, futilely trying to warm her from the outside, when she was still carrying the cold inside her. She wondered if she'd ever feel warm again.

"I just wish…" she spoke up, sudden and quiet, as though taking up a previous conversation, "I just wish we could take him and go home."

"We will," he said, kissing her hands again, "I promise, we will."

"Don't promise," she said, lowering her head. "I don't believe in promises any longer. It's not in our hands anyway."

He could promise to try, but not promise anything concerning the result. There were too many other factors involved in that. Too many people who would try to keep him from keeping his word.

"In whose hands then?"

"I don't know… God, fate, something else – take your pick."

"So that's it? You just want to lean back and hope for some divine power to settle things?" he asked, wondering when she had become so world-weary, so resigned.

"No… I just really wish this had never happened and we could now all be home together."

"But it did happen. There's nothing you can do about that."

"I know… that's why I said I wish. I know that wishes don't usually come true… But I just really wish they would. He's really scared of thunder, you know? I hope it's at least warm where he is…"

She looked over her shoulder at the small window, the glass black, except for when distant shudderings of light made the bleak world reappear, only to disappear again a second later. The low growling of thunder made her shiver. Something was brewing…

"Let's get you out of these wet clothes," Sasuke suggested, but received no reaction. She had retreated into her private world again, no longer listening, no longer in his reach. "C'mon," he sighed and reached for her feet, carefully taking off her shoes and putting them aside. Her feet felt like lumps of ice, as though there was no more blood flowing through them. None of them had expected to be exposed to such extreme temperatures. Apart from food, they would have to look for clothes here, too.

The dry warmth of the heater filled the room, along with the smell of burning dust. The old house creaked and groaned as it warmed up, as though coming to life after a long sleep. The actually living beings, however, were quiet. Sasuke took off her clothes piece by piece, and he did it with so much care that it seemed like he was handling glass. He started at the bottom and once he reached her upper garments, the sight of her chest made him falter, stunned. There was a painful looking bruise on her chest, featuring different shades of red, from a soft rose to a dark auburn, already turning violet at the edges. The skin above the ridges of her collarbones was split open and swollen, still dotted with crumbs of dried blood. To him it looked like her sternum was broken, but he was no medic and she did not once say a word about being in pain and if she really had a broken bone then it would have had to be painful as hell. But then, even without being broken, her injury looked anything but pleasant. And she didn't even think it necessary to inform him about something like this…

"What did he do to you?" he asked, his voice soft, his hands ginger as they trailed across her sore skin, but his eyes were ablaze with raw anger. Sayuri looked away, ashamed, and Sasuke almost wanted too add some more pressure to her wounds, just to get any reaction out of her at all. Anything was better than seeing her like this, like a breathing corpse.

No wonder she no longer believed in promises. He had promised her that he would not let anyone lay a finger on them and now Mikan was gone and she was hurt – physically and mentally. And it was all his fault. It happened because he stood up against Madara. He hadn't even betrayed him out of conviction, not in the first place… he had done it for his family, but now…

He will pay for this.

"I'll take a shower," he said as a pretext to leave the room, so she wouldn't have to watch him lose control. He picked up the thick duvet, the one that had not lain on the floor, and draped it around her slender shoulders. He pressed a kiss against her forehead and then vanished in the adjacent bathroom.

It was tiny, with only a bathtub, a sink, a toilet and a small cabinet with neatly folded towels on top of it. The walls and the floor were covered with the same light brown tiles. Some of them had dark brown flower prints on them. He took off his boxers, pulled back the white shower curtain and stepped onto the rubber mat in the middle of the porcelain tub, feeling the knobs under his bare feet.

He turned on the water on its highest setting, but barely registered the heat. Countless hours of intensive, relentless training had made his body almost insensitive to temperatures hot and cold alike. His muscled, steeled body, which was unharmed, while his elfin girlfriend was covered in bruises and his son-

-he didn't even know how his son was faring. He could be dead for all he knew!

It was only now that Sasuke stood in the steamed up bathroom, beneath the jet of scalding hot water that this realisation hit him with full force. His body began to shake and he couldn't even recall the last time he felt so helpless. With his forehead resting against the cold tiles, Sasuke took slow, laboured breaths, trying to regain his composure. But as he closed his eyes, all his nightmares about Madara resurfaced and played like movies on the back of his lids and it was all he could do to keep standing and not have his knees give way beneath him.

His fist hit the wall once.

Twice.

Again and again.

The tiles crumbled under the force of his hits bit by bit, revealing the shabby concrete wall beneath. The noise of it almost sufficed to drown out his wailed curses.

On the other side of the bathroom door, Sayuri still sat on the bed, the way he had left her. She had pulled the blanket up high to shield her ears from having to listen to Sasuke's outburst. She's never heard him like that before and neither did she want to, but the sound of it had already imprinted on her mind, never to be forgotten again.

It made her want to cry, too, but instead of tears it were drops of rain that fell from her hair and rolled down her cheeks.

Karin in the other room, the children's room, heard him, too. Moreover she could feel what Sasuke was feeling and it was that ability of hers, which now left her anxious, torn in between pity for her old crush and fear for herself. She knew Sasuke and knew his temper and though his chakra might not feel as dark as it did at some points in the past, the pure, raw hatred and more than that the despair that had him in its clutches were terrifying. Sometimes it has taken far weaker emotions for Sasuke to lose his mind and turn into a raving, bloodthirsty madman with no remorse and no mercy – no discernible conscience. Someone capable of virtually anything. And that Sasuke, the one who seemed so close now, was someone she did not want to come across ever again.

And still she was here.

She was lying in a bed that was not her own and was so tiny that her legs dangled over its edge, listening to the pounding of thunder outdoors and the pounding of fists against the wall by her side. The one an array of stuffed animals was lined up against in a neat row. There were only two gaps. One gap had previously been occupied by the soft pink unicorn, she was now cradling to her chest, stroking its head as though it was the toy that needed to be comforted and not her. The other gap she didn't know about, but something about its presence left her restless.

And she didn't know what she was doing here anyhow. She was through with Sasuke and owed no loyalty to him. All he ever did was use her. He took and took, but what did he ever give back? – Nothing. He never did anything he derived no personal benefit from. But now that's what he expected of her. It could- no, it would be dangerous and she might not even get out of this alive and still he expected her to just be okay with it all and help him rescue his son, the one he had made with a woman that was definitely not her. Of course she felt sorry for him and she understood him in a way. She understood why he wanted to do anything to get him back, but that had nothing to do with her. She had never even seen him and it was hard to sympathise with something that existed only as a name without a face in your mind.

And still she was here.

His fist hit the wall again. So hard, the whole bed shook and the big teddy beside her pillow fell face-first against it. She wondered if he'd punch right through the wall. Though that was only something she wondered about to keep herself from mulling over what really occupied her and that was wondering about whether she should leave or not. In Sasuke's current state he'd beat the living daylight out of her, once he noticed and he would notice. But even if his momentary lack of composure were not a problem, she somehow doubted she could find it in her to desert him. She had managed to walk out on him before, but that had taken all her strength. She didn't have it in her to leave him again. Not now that he needed her.

She used to be obsessively in love with him, wanted him all to herself because of all the feelings he evoke in her. The way he could make her feel, could make her forget about the hard times. However now being with him no longer made her feel good. It made her feel weak and needy, and she couldn't help but hate herself a little.

And still she was here.

Over the time her obsessive love must have turned into altruistic love. She was so pathetic…

It has been a necessity, something he could not suppress and secretly Sasuke might have expected or hoped really to feel better, once it was all out. But instead of taking away some of the pressure, it was more like an admission of his own helplessness. Neither had he been able to stop himself from letting his self-control slip, nor was he able to do anything about the reason that caused this deviation from the norm in the first place.

Like a ghost, he emerged from the bathroom, pale and somewhat intangible. The thick wall of smoke, billowing into the dim bedroom, only added to the impression of someone having returned from a world in between. It somehow felt like that, too, like this reality was one he did not belong in.

Sayuri was standing at the window, still wrapped in the blanket, looking out at the dark scenery. It was still raining. She was watching the world drown and he was watching her back. The constant pattering filling the room in lieu of conversation, though it did not quite manage to expel the silence. For a moment all Sasuke did was stand there, not knowing what to do or say, for what was there to say really? His previous outburst was a topic neither of them would broach. Eventually he overcame his stupor and approached Sayuri from behind, wrapping his arms around her middle. It surprised him to feel her flinch and pull away, hugging herself instead. She turned around then, looking at him like he was a stranger, although, truth be told, she appeared like a stranger to him as well, so quiet and withdrawn and somehow lacking something.

Maybe it was hope.

"I don't think we should stay here," she said, her voice a frail thing, but no less urgent for that. She tightened her hold around her slim body, directing another glance at the darkness, consuming the world beyond the four walls they had intruded so boldly. Following her gaze, Sasuke noticed that all the picture frames on the windowsill were turned over. "It doesn't seem right."

"We have no choice," he said, sounding and looking every bit as tired as he felt. "We need to get some rest."

"How?" she asked and he did not need her to explain the meaning behind this single word.

How indeed? How were they supposed to lie down and sleep, when their son could be who knows where in who knows what condition? As parents they had failed.

"He is okay. Madara wouldn't touch him."

"How do you know?"

"He wants to blackmail us and needs Mikan as leverage. Dead he'd be of very little use to him."

"D-dead…?" Sayuri stammered, feeling her face go white, as Sasuke said aloud the one thing she didn't even want to think about. The fact that he negated the scenario didn't mitigate his statement. He was terrible when it came to comforting someone.

"Or harmed," he added. "He won't lay a finger on him."

At least not when they weren't there to see it. He was at least sixty percent sure of that.

"We should sleep now," he said, reaching for her hand.

"Okay."

"Will you be able to?"

"… I don't think so."

He figured as much. After all he knew her. He could fall asleep wherever he was, regardless of the situation. Orochimaru taught him to seize every chance he could get to rest, because he could never know when another chance would present itself, but she was not like that. She was too emotional a person for that.

"Look at me," he said and before the surprise about seeing his Sharingan activated had time to show on her face, her knees already gave way and she slumped against his chest, unconscious. He caught her in his arms and picked her up, inevitably remembering another time he held her lifeless body like this…

The room flickered with light, as he gentled her onto the mattress, smoothing her hair back. Not even sleep managed to erase the worry from her face.

Clashing against the tin roof, the rain sounded like a hail of bullets and a landslide or maybe just thunder after all, set the window panes vibrating. Everything about the scenery was hostile and Sasuke couldn't help having a bad feeling about this. Maybe it has been a bad idea after all to hypnotise her; especially without warning her beforehand or asking for her permission. In case something happened, he wouldn't be able to wake her up. She'd be asleep for at least four or five hours, exhausted as she's been probably more and he couldn't change that.

With a sigh, he lay down by her side and spread the blanket over them. Listening to the steady pattering of rain, he waited for sleep to overpower his racing mind and haul him somewhere dark and deep, where worries couldn't follow.

An indefinable amount of time later, Sasuke woke to the sound of dripping water and the feeling of the cold, empty spot by his side. Immediately, he shot up in bed, his pupils darting rapidly from side to side, scanning the room to confirm what he already knew. Apart from him, there was no one there.

She was gone.

"So, my name is Isamu," said the one with dark hair, who appeared like the more outgoing of the two, "and this is Senkai."

He pointed at the blonde, who was definitely calmer and more reserved, not in an unfriendly way, or so she guessed. His silence was nothing compared to that of Kagai, which was always charged with threats and the fear of the moment he would break it.

They had to be somewhat around 16, so much older than her and they looked well-trained and they had to be – otherwise they wouldn't have managed to save her from that group of people.

"How about you? What's your name?"

"Hm… what's in a name?"

"Well, we have to know how to call you."

"There's no need for you to call me anything."

"We just saved your life and you won't even tell us your name?" Isamu bowed down to her, looking impatient; impatient but not dangerous and yet she couldn't help but move away. Maybe there was no need to be scared, 'scared' wasn't the right word anyway; she had long reached a point where something like fear was nothing but a vague memory.

"I never asked you to."

"Are you serious?" he raised his voice slightly, irritated. "What happened to gratitude?"

"Gratitude?"

"Yes, gratitude. After all we saved you and decided to take you with us."

"Who said I wanted to go with you?"

She didn't need their pity. Not for something like that.

"It's safer, for all of us." The blonde, Senkai, tried to calm them. "There are far more of them waiting where these guys came from. Our chances are greater when we stick together."

"…"

So they didn't want to keep her because they thought she needed help, but because they themselves needed her.

She was needed.

"I'm Yuumei."

…

…