-Ami-
Ami felt still incredibly guilty for not telling Michiru, how Haruka wasn't in a good place right now and how a reuniting with the blonde might be moving into the far future, if not utterly impossible if things continued to decline. Kakyuu never talked about it, but the chances of Haruka ever waking up were dwindling with each passing day. Haruka's responses were declining and the MRIs were showing a bleak picture despite the decreasing viral count. The nerve and tissue damage was vast.
It had been two days now since she had seen her friend at her home and one day since she had returned to the tower to help Kakyuu with the monitoring of Haruka's condition.
The other doctor had been sleeping in the on call room for the last two hours to get some absolute silence and rest, while Ami was spending time in Haruka's room, reading up on the works that were meant to be dealt with for her sabbatical, as suddenly she saw how Kakashi and Taiki stepped around the corner, seemingly in a heated discussion. Both men seemed strained to keep their voices down and articulated vividly with their hands and frowns.
"….fine… as soon as you find out who was sent, we follow the appropriate protocol." Kakashi grunted as he stepped through the door to Haruka's room. Taiki just nodded curt before he turned around and disappeared again in direction of the elevators.
Kakashi sighed as he closed the door behind him before turning to Ami
"How is she doing?" He asked her casually.
Ami didn't respond immediately but before she could find any words to respond, Kakashi shook his head.
"Don't worry. There is no need to find comforting words for me. This is not my first rodeo with a stubborn Tenoh." Kakashi chuckled wryly.
He walked over to the blonde and sat down next to her. It was a very silent moment, nothing but the beeping and humming of the machines filled the room.
"Is there something wrong?" Ami asked timidly as Kakashi sat next to Haruka as he always did when something was bothering him and he needed a minute to think about it.
"Nothing particular. Haruka has just some appointments that she needs to attend to as soon as possible." Kakashi said, more to himself than anyone else in the room.
"What would happen if she doesn't make it?" Ami asked hesitantly.
"Haruka has everything sorted out. Anyone who needs instructions will receive them when needed." Kakashi responded calm and resolute, his eyes never leaving his nieces sleeping face.
He took his niece's right into his and held it tenderly as if in a prayer.
Taiki returned not much later, sporting a grave face. He walked into the room without hesitation and stepped up next to Kakashi.
"He sent unit 47, headed by Ernest Caine." Taiki reported curtly.
"Is Seiya ready?" Kakashi just asked in return.
"Yes, he is readying the equipment right now and our flight is leaving in three hours." Taiki explained.
"You are staying here. I need you to stay on post. Yaten is good in here, but you will make the more consequent decisions. If we need further enforcement I will contact someone local. Also, arrange for the flight to leave as soon Seiya is ready, we have no time to spare. Go ahead. I will be right down. " Kakashi frowned and gripped Haruka's hand tighter.
"Ok, I will make adjustments now." Taiki just nodded and walked away again.
"Haruka, I am only getting married when you get back up, so don't let Setsuna wait too long. You know how impatient she can get. Don't forget, you need to keep your promise to be my best man." Kakashi spoke with a hint of a chuckle in his voice, but Ami noticed how he slightly choked on the last words. "I am off to cover our asses. By the time I get back, I want your banana and chocolate chip pancakes and one of your cinnamon coffees that have way too much nutmeg in the mix." There was a melancholic smile on his lips before he kissed her fatherly on the forehead and left the room again.
-Michiru-
It was one of those days, Michiru thought to herself as she sighed.
Nothing was going smoothly. No call was being returned, no email was getting the expected replies, no source was getting back to her and to make matters even worse, now the system was shut down for emergency maintenance work. As if her life wasn't already as Monday as it could get, the coffee machine on their floor had just broken down and Michiru stood with her empty mug and lack of sleep in front of the unresponsive machine.
"So here you are" Makoto smiled as she stepped up next to Michiru with two steaming mugs of coffee.
"Where did you get that from?" Michiru asked surprised.
"The lab floor. Ami gave me the access code ages ago." Makoto grinned as passed Michiru a mug.
A sudden pang of guilt hit Michiru as she saw the melancholy in the brunette's eyes as she took the hot beverage out of the other's hands. She wanted to tell Makoto about her visit at Ami's place, but she knew that this wasn't the right place.
"I think it is time for us to go on a road trip." Michiru announced, after she had a warming sip of the hot black brew. The coffee wasn't bad, it was actually quite good considering the old machine they had on the laboratory floor, but it wasn't even close to the coffee at Haruka's place. Michiru knew she was spoiled but the long absence of the blonde was slowly creeping up on her and she started to compare everything she did or consumed, to the things she had when Haruka was around.
"Where to?" Makoto asked her curiously as they walked together back to Michiru's office.
"I was thinking about visiting the site of the burned warehouse." Michiru explained.
"Do you think there are any clues left, so long after the fire?" Makoto voiced her doubts.
"Maybe not any obvious ones, but maybe we could look for and question unwitting eye witnesses that the local law enforcement might have missed. It is not as if we could get much work done from the office today." Michiru shrugged and Makoto nodded in agreement.
"Ok, lets grab some essentials then and get going. We are burning valuable daylight." Makoto grinned.
They gave notice to Minako, who noted it down that they would be leaving for a couple of days for investigative purposes and left the building.
Makoto seemed particularly excited to get out.
The brunette had that in common with the blonde, that thirst for action and need for progress and movement. Sitting still definitely wasn't one of Makoto's strengths, making Michiru wonder how Ami and Makoto were when they were alone and if they could last, as different as they were. One being the definition of patience and calm while the other was the perfect picture of a warrior ever ready to charge into battle at any moment.
Once they had grabbed their go bags, they were sitting safely in the next Shinkansen heading to Osaka and were watching the landscape just rushing them by.
"Makoto…." Michiru started.
"Look there is Fuji-san!" Makoto pointed excitedly at the large mountain in the distance.
Michiru smiled at the childlike outburst and just nodded.
The large compartment was empty besides the two of them and their tickets had already been checked when Makoto stood up and walked twice the length of it, before sitting down again.
"Ok, we are in the clear, so what is our plan?" Makoto asked excitedly.
"What do you mean exactly?" Michiru asked hesitantly in return.
"I have already swept the place, there are no listening devices, so we can talk at least …" she looked onto her watch. "for 45 minutes, before we pull into the next station, and have possibly more travellers coming with whom we have to share this compartment." Makoto explained. "We do have a plan on how to exonerate Kakashi-sama… right?" Makoto looked at her expectantly.
"Yes of course. I do not think he has anything to do with it to start off with, but we need to proceed with caution, the best we can manage is to manipulate the information we gather by omission. Any direct manipulation of any evidence is too risky. Tenoh-sama is very sharp." Michiru reminded her friend. "Once his involvement has been ruled out, we'll be stuck with finding the real perpetrator to satisfy the Chinese's want for revenge, which will be difficult, considering they had laid out the thinly sprinkled evidence pointing to Kakashi rather skilfully without a single trace of an outside involvement."
-Haruka-
Haruka was curiously looking down on her right hand, as the faint sensation of touch seemed to run through it. She looked at her empty hand suspiciously but before she could find out where the sensation came from she noticed movement from the corner of her eye.
"Ruka, what are you doing here again?" a familiar voice asked kindly next to her and she turned her head.
"Ruto... I am not sure... " Haruka frowned confused as she saw him sitting, smiling his usual warm smile, next to her.
Haruto smiled at her patiently. "Let's go for a walk. You don't do well when you're sedentary for too long." her brother sighed and Haruka nodded eagerly in agreement.
Both stood up from the couch they were sitting on and both walked out of their beach house. They walked silently next to one another the along the familiar beach.
"How is Sayaka?" Haruto asked casually.
"Don't know…kind of stopped caring." Haruka shrugged.
"Nee….." Haruto sighed.
"Seriously, she is no one and nothing to me anymore." Haruka waved off his concerns.
"You know I will not let this topic rest." Haruto insisted.
"You are the one to talk, as if you had ever made better choices in your romantic partners. What were you thinking anyway when you courted Sayuri….." Haruka stopped and suddenly realized, that she was missing something very important.
"Sayuri was the love of my life, you know that." Haruto replied defensively.
"I thought the same about Sayaka, I was ready to give her the rest of my life…." Haruka sighed, feeling suddenly extremely tired.
"I told you that she was not good for you from the start." Haruto reminded her and Haruka just stopped mid walk.
"Will you drop it? I have already regretted ever meeting her in the first place ever since she got us into trouble with grandpa. How many more times do I have to apologise that? For the mistake to have ever loved her and trusted her?" anger rose in Haruka that translated into pain slowly growing within her body.
"You know I have no issues with your love, I have issues with her though." Haruto spoke soothingly. "She made you ignore all the red flags, Ruka."
Haruka's head started to ache…there was something, somewhere in her mind that she needed to remember, but the harder she thought about it, the more her head pained.
Suddenly she felt sharp pain racing up her right arm and her chest tightened.
She wanted to call out and scream in pain, but nothing came out. She broke down and her brother leaned down to her.
"Stay strong Haruka. I know you can do it." Were the words that rang in her ear before her world went blank with pain.