Song recommendation: Zero no Chouritsu by Amano Tsukiko
Yuzu grasped tightly at her seatbelt when the car took a sudden sharp turn as they entered the pier. "Yuzu, I see them!" Kei shouted beside her, causing the blonde to look straight ahead towards two shadowy figures a couple of meters away. The car was still running at a relatively high speed but Yuzu knew she didn't have the luxury of waiting around after seeing the smaller figure get shoved closer to the end of the platform.
"Kei! I'm trusting you to back me up!" the man protested at her actions but Yuzu didn't even bother to wait for the car to come to a complete halt before she flew out of the passenger door. Stumbling but quickly regaining her balance before dashing off towards Amemiya and Mei. Within the next second, Yuzu's heart sank to the pits of her stomach as Amemiya finally pushed the raven-haired girl into the water.
"AMEMIYA!" Yuzu shouted, catching the criminal's attention.
"Oh? How did you find us? Well, no matter. I'll just kill you too." He sneered, pointing his gun directly at the blonde and firing a round which missed but grazed Yuzu's arm, "The next one is going to hit you." He smiled sadistically.
'Shit,' Yuzu grasped at her wound while she looked for something that could shelter her from the bullets, ultimately finding a few metal barrels that stood nearby. She ducked for cover as Amemiya fired another shot, missing her once more.
"You won't get to her in time, she's probably already running out of air at this point. Are you really stupid enough to waste your life for one cold-hearted, bitch?" A laugh erupted from the deranged man but she wasn't going to be deterred by the fear of death. She inhaled sharply, closing her eyes in the process, then quickly bolted from behind the barrels, discarding her safety and leaving her life in the hands of fate. All that mattered now was that she reached Mei before the girl drowned.
"Are you crazy?!" Another bullet went through the barrel of the gun. This time grazing her leg but she remained steadfast and didn't even flinch at the pain that jolted through her entire body.
"Maybe I am!" She shouted back at Amemiya, "But I am not going to let you win and you're not gonna get in my way!" she proclaimed even louder. She wasn't willing to lose Mei. Especially not after she just realized and accepted her feelings for the girl.
"I won't let you, you crazy dog!" Amemiya took his stance, prepared to fire another round at Yuzu but someone shot at him before he could pull the trigger and his attention momentarily strayed from the blonde as he searched for the origin of the bullet which almost hit him. There was a bit of panic in Amemiya now. He wasted a few bullets and now he's up against someone with a fully loaded firearm.
"Sorry for the wait, Yuzu! Leave him to me and go!" Kei shouted at a distance with the gun pointed at Amemiya. Yuzu couldn't help but mentally thank him for the save. This was exactly what she was hoping for. She knew that if Amemiya was threatened by another person's presence, one that could endanger him, then he would completely ignore her and focus on the other person, "Took you long enough! I owe you!" She shouted back at Kei before plunging into the dark waters.
"Shit, shit!" Amemiya cursed loudly, unsure of who to prioritize. He knew he wasn't going to get out of this unscathed but he never considered that someone would be able to find them before the deed was done and now his entire plan was ruined. He wasn't going to forgive these meddlers for interrupting.
"Give it up, Amemiya. I'm not going to hold back on shooting if you move." Kei warned him, Yuzu's pistol in hand and ready to shoot at the slightest movement.
"What a joke. Do you think I'm scared of dying?" Amemiya's face contorted to a smile, then with one swift movement, he pulled his gun and prepared to shoot Kei. The other man, having noticed in a fraction of a second, fired a shot towards Amemiya as well; both collapsing as a bullet passed through their body.
Mei continuously struggled to free herself from the cuffs as she sank deeper into the depths of the water. She hoped that she could somehow break free before she ran out of oxygen but, sadly, it was quickly becoming apparent that she was doomed. No matter how much she tugged and pulled on her bindings, she couldn't rid herself of them and the seconds ticked by taking her lucidity with it.
'How did it come to this?' she asked herself, thinking back on everything that happened in her life up 'til this point. It was laughable because all of her memories contained mostly school, work, talks of inheritance and responsibilities. What little happy memories she did have had long disappeared into the obscurity of time; too long ago to even be remembered vividly.
Ah, but there was also that girl who kept chasing after her. Always uninvitedly saving her, scolding her, watching over her with warmth. There were a few times when she wanted to chase after the blonde when the latter would leave and once she gave in to the desire... was that selfish of her? To want something despite choosing to live this abstained existence she called life.
She didn't know what to think anymore. Her consciousness started fading as the oxygen in her lungs slowly depleted and in that moment of weakness, she remembered something she read a long time ago: The person you think about in your final moments, is the one who matters to you the most. Mei didn't even know where that passage came from but if that was true, then she guessed that the blonde meant more to her than she would ever admit... not that it mattered anymore.
'I suppose this is the end,' Mei closed her eyes, bracing herself for the eventuality that was her death. Amemiya's words toyed with her, 'No one is coming for a cold-hearted bitch like you,' those words remained imprinted in her memory, repeating endlessly.
'Perhaps.. but even if just once more-' bitterness overtook her. She didn't really want it to end like this and her eyes stung with pain but whether that pain was due to the salt from the water or her own eyes, she couldn't tell.
She thought about it. If there really was a God and she begged enough, would she be given a second a chance? Would she even change if she was given one? probably not but still- even still...
I want to see you.
Those words bled from every fiber of her being. Melding the sadness and the desperation together as she lost all self-control and allowed the thought to drown her mind. 'I want to see you even if just one more time.' As if 'God' heard her prayers and decided to comfort her in these last moments, a soft touch ran through her fingers. It was comforting and she let herself go - accepting her fate... but the phantom touch didn't disappear, it became stronger and tugged at her hand forcing Mei to fling her eyes open.
Yuzu.
There she was, in all her splendid glory, locks of blonde hair dancing in the water and the familiar emerald eyes staring intently back at her. It was definitely Yuzu and Mei couldn't tell if her brain was so deprived of air that she was now hallucinating or this was really happening. The blonde tugged on her a little harder, pulling her up closer to the surface and looking back as if to say 'Hang in there.'
Mei couldn't explain what she felt, it was like a mixture of relief and elation. Her heart pounded like a drum inside of her chest and finally, her body started coming to a realization that she was still alive as time returned to her; lungs begging to release the breath she had been holding for so long. Her eyes widened as she gawked at her blonde savior, trusting her entirety to the girl as her mind faded to black.
When Yuzu finally pulled Mei out of the water, she realized that the girl had already fainted and immediately lay Mei flat on her back in an attempt to listen for any form of breathing or a faint heartbeat- anything that would confirm that the raven-haired girl was still alive but she couldn't find any. The cold light from the moon didn't help her composure either, having amplified the paleness of Mei's skin to a deathly blue.
"Come on, Mei. Don't do this to me," she waited a few more seconds, but not a single beat pulsed through Mei and she knew what she had to do, "Excuse me." She leaned in on Mei's lips, giving the girl a few rescue breaths before starting on chest compressions.
"Come on, Mei. You can't go like this... please," Yuzu did her best to retain what little sanity was left while tears started running down her cheeks as she counted.
"There's still something I want to tell you, so please... breathe!" 50, 51, 52... and then a cough sounded from the girl which lit Yuzu like a lone candle in the forest, "MEI!" she shouted at the girl who continued coughing in an attempt to expel the water from her lungs.
"Hey! They're over here!" Harumi's voice erupted nearby, alerting the paramedics to Yuzu's and Mei's location. "Yuzu-cchi! Prez!" she ran towards them, trying to assess the situation.
"I'm fine. Focus on her, she was in the water for a few minutes."
The paramedics arrived and tried to treat Mei but the girl violently pulled her arm away as if to forbid them from touching her and like a child searching for protection, she clung to Yuzu's shirt, still gasping for air.
"Hey Mei," Yuzu's voice was soft and gentle, wrapping her arms around the raven-haired girl. "It's okay, You're safe now. They're just here to help, all right?" she stroked Mei's head, trying to comfort the girl and get her to warm up to the paramedics though Mei was being a little too adamant on not wanting to part with Yuzu. Unfortunately for the raven-haired girl, her body had already reached its limit and could no longer hold her consciousness, collapsing into Yuzu's arms.
When the paramedics finally got ahold of Mei, they quickly got to work and checked her vitals, relieving the blonde when they informed her that the raven-haired girl was fine but still needed a more thorough examination back at the hospital. Yuzu agreed and Mei was soon loaded into an ambulance and driven off.
"Is it fine to send her without a police escort?" Yuzu questioned Harumi who was now offering her hand to the blonde in an attempt to get her up from the floor.
"Yes, Amemiya won't be going after her anymore." Harumi answered with a smile on her face which made the Yuzu remember that she brought Kei along with her, "OH, WAIT! Where's Kei?"
"En route to the hospital. Gunshot wound to the shoulder but he'll live. He really did a number on Amemiya though, two shots straight through the chest, collapsed lung and all that. He wouldn't have survived long enough for us to get here but also wouldn't die instantly. Dunno if he's a good shot or a terrible one but that must've been pretty agonizing."
Goro was already supervising the rest of the police force and collecting whatever evidence they could find on Amemiya, which wasn't much aside from his actual DNA which they needed for comparison. Other than that, there was the suspect's mobile phone, the gun, plus the car he used. "Good work, Okogi," he greeted as the two approached him.
"Get those wounds checked. We'll talk later." Yuzu immediately agreed to Goro's order. It wasn't like she had any strength to spare in helping out at this point. All the adrenaline that coursed through her body a few minutes ago had long disappeared, leaving her weakened in its wake.
It would take some time to match the DNA samples and finalize the details of the case but at least now Yuzu was confident in Mei's safety even if that meant Amemiya's death. She allowed herself a brief moment of rest as she and Harumi sat at the back of an ambulance.
"How's Sho-ojisan?"
"He's in surgery the last I heard. He lost a lot of blood but the doctors said that chances of him surviving are pretty high since no major internal organ was damaged. The bullet went through his stomach though, so an infection might occur and that's what they're looking out for." Harumi explained how the bullet passed through Sho's abdomen by using her hand to reenact the trajectory of the bullet.
"Thank god," Yuzu sighed as she got up from her comfortable spot.
"Where are you going, Yuzu-cchi?" Harumi asked, a little surprised that the blonde had any life left in her after the whole ordeal that night.
"To Mei, of course!" She smiled at her best friend.
Notes:
Looks like I've been adding too many commas. Took a while for me to get what Guest meant. Haha. I'll try to be a bit more careful from now on. No promises though as this is practically the only way I know how to punctuate... âīšâ
I am not willing to write longer chapters because I am not willing to proofread longer pieces (Yes, I do proofread... lazily). I even bug a friend of mine to do it for me occasionally because that's how much I hate doing it.
Man, oh man! I have been drooling over that scene in the water where Mei accepts her fate only to have Yuzu appear at just the right moment to pull her out of it. asdfn;asdf. I could just picture Amano Tsukiko singing as soon as Yuzu jumped out of the car and towards the water despite the dangers, getting into the water during the pre-chorus and Mei saying "Yuzu" as soon as the chorus starts.
I know the sea gets dark at night but whatever. Let me have my piece of fantasy.
I'm fangasming too hard. Send help.