Reina sat as patiently as she could manage underneath the fluorescent lights of the police station. She had her head resting against the wall behind her, just listening to the bustling of the people passing by her. Her hand gave the barest of twitches towards the knife hidden at the small of her back when she heard someone sit down in a hard plastic chair next to her.
"Why do you wear sunglasses inside?" an innocent voice asked.
Reina glanced down towards the source of the voice and saw Sachiko looking up at her expectantly. She considered the small girl for a moment as she tried to decided how best to answer her question. Without the smudges of dirt marring her face she was rather cute, and Reina would guess that this little girl would grow up to be a beautiful woman.
If she makes it that long, a cynical voice commented in the back of her mind.
"The lights hurt my eyes," Reina answered easily, settling back into a more comfortable position.
"Oh," Sachiko said softly.
The ringing of phones and the clacking of keys on a keyboard filled the air between them for a long second before Sachiko spoke up again.
"Are you going to take me back to my father?" she asked, knocking her heels against the legs of her chair.
"Yes," Reina answered, turning her head a bit to look down at the girl. "He asked me to."
"That's surprising," she scoffed softly, looking down and away from Reina. "I'm amazed he even noticed I was missing…"
"Don't say that," the brunette teen chastised lightly, "he was very distraught when he called me."
"Probably because he thought he would have to pay a ransom for me," Sachiko muttered.
"You'll see," Reina sighed, placing a hand on the girl's back. "He'll be happy to see you."
The train rocked gently as it shot down the tracks on its way to Nagoya. Reina and Sachiko were seated in an otherwise vacant car in silence, Reina staring out the window and Sachiko finding the floor very interesting. The trees set against the afternoon sky flew by in a green blur reflected on her tinted glasses.
"I'm tired," Sachiko said, shifting a bit closer to Reina.
"Then go to sleep," Reina said simply, not looking down at the girl who had practically crawled into her lap. "I won't stop you."
"Will you tell me a story?" she asked, looking up at the older girl with expectant eyes.
Reina looked down into the child's eyes for a moment before letting out a heavy breath, all her excuses leaving her mind with the exhale.
"About what?" she asked, moving her arm to wrap around the younger girl's shoulders and pulling her a bit closer.
"Will you tell me a story about you?" Sachiko asked with a hopeful look in her eyes.
For not even a fraction of a second Reina felt her heart drop. Should she tell this girl – whom she knew nothing about – about the things that had happened in her life? That had happened to her? Better yet, did she even have any memories that would be appropriate for a child's ears?
"Are you sure?" she asked with a playful lilt in her voice, "I'm not a very interesting person…"
"Yes you are!" Sachiko gasped, looking up at Reina as if she had been slapped. "You're a hero! You saved me and the other girls!"
"I'm not a hero," Reina said softly, turning to look out the window again.
"Well, I think you are," the girl huffed as she settled her head against Reina's shoulder.
The teen gave a sort of half-smile at the comment and let quiet fall between them for a while before she spoke up again.
"Once upon a time, in a faraway land there was a girl," she started, a little unsure of how to phrase things. "She had a mother, a father, and a brother; and they lived happily together by the sea. One day their happiness was destroyed by a snake, a terrible, venomous snake. The snake killed the girl's mother and kidnapped the girl and brought her to his native land." Reina stopped talking as she listened to the girl's steady breathing, signifying that she was asleep.
She sighed and rested her head against the glass of the window behind her. It was going to be a long train ride if this child kept asking her questions.
"Wait," Sachiko said, halting abruptly and tightening her grip on Reina's hand.
"What is it?" Reina asked, looking down at the girl.
"Do I have to go back?" she asked as she looked up at the teen with large, innocent eyes.
"Tell you what," Reina sighed, crouching down to the child's level, "next time you're in Namimori, feel free to look me up."
"Okay!" Sachiko's face lit up. "Wait," she said after a pause, "what's your name?"
"Reina," the teen said after a long moment. "Now let's go, best not to keep your father waiting."
It was after well midnight when Reina stepped off the platform in Namimori. She reveled in the cool night air as she cut through the drainage ditches as she made her way home. Here was calm, here was peace, here was – relative – normality. Here she didn't have to worry about fighting for her life or the lives of others. Here she was free. She allowed a small smile to cross her face as she started to slide down a grassy bank expecting to find damp concrete at the bottom, but instead she found a raging river.
"What?" she gasped as she watched the black water crash through the channel; was that blood in the water?
She eased herself down to the water's edge, careful to not fall in as she tried to get a better look. From the gaping maw that led to the sewers she thought she saw a glimmer of silver, or was that white? Slowly emerging into the moonlight was a body floating face-down, white hair trailing in front of it in the current. Without pausing for a moment to think of a plan Reina threw her backpack higher up the embankment and waded into the rushing water. Was this dangerous? Yes. Was this stupid? Yes. But that's okay, it seemed that dangerous and stupid was her specialty.
She gripped the turf just beneath the surface of the water as she fought against the current with her other arm, waiting for the body to come closer. When it was within her reach she grabbed its arm and hauled herself back up the bank along with the waterlogged body. She panted heavily as she lay on her back for a moment before rolling over to examine the body.
She felt her blood run cold when she recognized the crest stitched into the tattered black jacket on the body. With shaking hands she cleared some of the hair from the face and she was pretty sure her blood had been replaced with ice water at that moment. She knew the sharp features that the white hair had hidden; she remembered them contorted into a snarl of rage reflected off of a shining sword leveled at her neck. She scuttled backwards up the hill, her feet slipping on the grass and heart pounding in her throat.
"Hello?" a voice called down from street level, "Is anyone down there?"
"There's a man," she answered back, her voice rising over the sound of the water, "he's bleeding heavily and needs help!"
She heard footsteps shuffling down the bank as she grabbed her backpack and started to dig through it. Her fingers brushed against her sunglasses when she saw a blond man kneel down next to her and start examining the bleeding man carefully. She quickly released the accessory and tilted her chin down so her face was covered by her hair as she feigned searching for bandages.
"Romario!" the man called over his shoulder back up to the street, "Call an ambulance!"