They were definitely dropping. Hiro could feel the change in the direction of the wind as the Trans carrying him aimed towards the roof of a building.

Hiro had no desire to stay stuck to her legs any longer than he had to, and was thankful when he was finally able to let go and drop down to the roof. She alighted a few feet farther down, after taking some time to properly land.

Thank you for not just abandoning me when you had the chance… Hiro thought as her wings vanished into her back, their purpose spent.

She turned to face him, a glare on her face, and while it made her look almost adorable in her short, more aerodynamic state, the intent behind those eyes only served to intimidate him.

"Alright, Nakamura-san." she said with a tone of annoyance, though it was laced with something else Hiro couldn't read very well. "You seem to think you know me very well, so tell me. What is this that you claim to be my true desire?"

He couldn't tell if she was just asking out of frustration or out of genuine curiosity. He was silent for several seconds while he tried to figure out which was true.

Darkness took his silence as a negative. "So, you don't know." she said, grinning. "Well, if you're done wasting my time-"

"Protection." Hiro said softly, in as calm and flat a voice as he could.

Darkness blinked and stared at him. "What?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

Hiro sighed, shaking his head. Screw this trying to plan a response, time to go full cliche and speak from the heart. Guess that it's unavoidable for me to become a basic shonen protagonist.

"I do know you, Yami." he started. "I know what you're like. You're shy and awkward around people, regardless of their planet of origin. You like sweet foods and hate perverted people. I've seen you open up whenever you're around me, like your thoughts click into place. I've seen both sides of your spectrum, the introverted Trans that the other students see and the playful girl that you are at home. Yes, I do know you, Yami, and if what you say about Darkness is true, I know you better than you know yourself."

Darkness was silent as she listened, and burst out in laughter after he'd finished. "Oh, that's great! It's as if you really know what you're talking about!" she said happily, clapping her hands together in a way that clearly was meant to be threatening. "But you didn't answer my question. How does any of that have to do with me wanting to protect? I see nothing I want to protect on this world."

Hiro bit his lip, before shaking his head. "You told me you wanted to be my 'guardian angel of darkness'." he said. "You said you'd be there to keep me safe, whether I wanted you around or not. You said I needed you to protect me, because I'm a stupid hero and would probably get myself killed if you weren't there to protect me from people like you. That's what I mean by protection, Yami. Your greatest, your deepest desire is not to kill. It's to protect those you consider your friends."

Hopefully that at least did SOMETHING, because I probably sound like a conceited bastard for using her relationship with me to convince her. he thought to himself after he finished.

Another silence, this time, longer than the last. No laughter escaped the girl's mouth. She simply stood still, looking at him, hair and dress blowing slightly in the wind at the top of the building.

Another few seconds, and Darkness sighed, all trace of the laughing gone from her expression.

"You know, you're not half bad, Nakamura Hiro." she said quietly, looking directly into his eyes. "You're quite good at convincing people when you want your way."

Hiro blinked. "Does that mean-" he was about to say, before he was cut off by Darkness raising her hand.

"Shut up and let me finish." she said. "As I was saying, you've convinced me. Kudos to you for managing to do it this quickly, when it took Yuuki Rito hours before he could pluck up the courage to do what needed to be done to revert me last time."

"So does that mean you'll-"

"Quiet!" she snapped. "I want to say something before I revert back to normal. When I'm in my regular mode, as you know, I am quite shy, and even to you I hide many things. But in this mode, my inhibitions are destabilized and I tend to do and say things I otherwise wouldn't. I will remember everything, but I want to remember what I'm going to say anyway."

Hiro was silent, not wanting to interrupt again, and she nodded, continuing.

"Right. I don't have much time left. Just know that my wish to protect you...it's more than just the desire to protect. It's the desire to know what it's like to love someone."

Hiro stared at the girl in front of him, unsure how to respond to her words. He was by no means an idiot, quite the opposite, he knew exactly what she meant by what she said.

But that was the problem. That he knew what she meant made this far more awkward than it already had been.

First Yukihime and now Yami. He didn't know how to react, and he knew that he couldn't just ask her to explain, staring at her even as she began reverting back to normal…

...He was broken out of his thoughts by a ripping sound, and a blush crept across Yami's face, now back to normal.

He would have looked down, but he was afraid what the rip signified, remembering that this iteration of Darkness had been shorter and less endowed than the regular form, and her clothes had changed to match.

It seems that they don't go vice versa.

They both stood still, silently staring into each other's eyes, neither wanting to point out the elephant in the room.

Yami was the first to react, slowly sitting down on her knees, doing her best to cover the large rip down the front of her battle dress with her hands.

She glared at Hiro, though it was somewhat diluted by the tomato of her cheeks as a result of both the situation now and the words she'd said before reverting.

"Isn't a gentleman supposed to offer his shirt to a woman who's lost her clothing?" she asked flatly, trying and failing to hide the embarrassment in her voice.

Hiro blinked, then glanced away from her, tapping his chin with his finger. "I don't really want to lose another shirt, but I guess…"

Two minutes later, Hiro was sitting cross-legged, sans shirt, and Yami was attempting to fit it over her. Her arms were slender enough that she could get them into the sleeves easily, but unlike Nemesis, who lacked the most obvious 'quality' of most grown females, couldn't fit the shirt all the way over her chest.

Who knew that she was larger than she looked? That battle dress must be pretty tight-fitting for her to hide that much. Hiro wasn't very big in terms of muscle mass, and his shirt was sized to match.

"..." Yami stared disappointedly at the shirt, before finally successfully pulling it over her body, over the rip in her dress. It didn't look like the most elegant of costume choice, with the odd cape of the dress sticking out from a shirt with the words "Asobi ni iku yo" and a nekomimi on it, but hey, it was better than shedding the dress altogether.

"You can turn around now, Nakamura-san." Yami said, now back to her normal voice, though her embarrassment was still clear in her tone.

Hiro nodded, shifting in his seat to look at her. "This feels...pretty familiar." he said, tilting his head. "Like the more realistic version of when I took Nemesis home after she was healed."

Yami looked down, the rooftop they were sitting on suddenly quite interesting. "You mean...that shirt she always flaunts around with the big stain on it? I remember that she told me about that…"

Hiro nodded, looking at the sky. "So...how are we going to get down now? I doubt you want me riding your legs again."

"...Of course not. And I doubt anyone will be finding us any time soon, considering the fact that Darkness put so much pressure on them that it's unlikely that any of them will wake up any time soon."

Hiro looked down. "I hope they're alright…" he said, a sudden sadness creeping into his voice as he remembered what had happened to the poor third Trans. "But Mea's…"

Yami sighed. "She was annoying, but it was nice having her around. She didn't deserve to become a victim of Tsubaki's wrath."

Hearing Yami speak like that didn't help Hiro's mood at all. He knew that she never spoke definitively unless she was absolutely certain of something. Hearing her talk about Mea in past tense only confirmed his fears.

Well, his fears were only a small part of his thoughts now. He looked over at Yami, and she looked back, cringing and looking away from his eyes at the intense glare he now had.

"You already know what I'm about to say, don't you?" he asked. When Yami nodded, he nodded back, his mouth curling into a frown. "She's killed too many people. Tsubaki will pay."