Maho stopped drawing and put her pen down, pulling out her phone to check the time. It was almost half-past three. As if she could possibly have misread, she once again opened up her text messages, and read the unexpected reply she had received. It was short and to the point. They were to meet in the park at three o'clock.
Maho sighed, put her phone back in the pocket of her leather jacket, and began to collect her things again. She let the half-finished drawing of the building across from her remain as such, and closed the sketchpad, putting it and her pens into the bag along with everything else. They clearly weren't coming. She didn't even understand why she felt sad and disappointed. It's not like she cared. She just wanted some distraction, nothing else. She rose from the bench, brushed the back of her jeans off, and picked up her bag, turning to leave.
"Hey!" a voice called out behind her, out of breath. "Sor… hah… sorry about… about being late!" Maho turned around, and standing by the walled entrance to the park, was Hana and Saori, bent over and struggling for air. "We… we would have been here... sooner, but… you know…"
Maho sighed, and rolled her eyes. Why had she even asked them if they wanted to spend some time? She knew it was just to distract herself of course, but they could have at least had the decency to be on time. "Took you long enough," she said in an annoyed tone as she began to walk over to them. "Another minute and I'd have already left!"
"Once again, we're sorry." Hana regathered herself the quickest of the two girls, and so was the first to speak without stopping for air in the middle of a sentence. "We had to make an extra stop."
"An extra stop?" Maho raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "What for?" Her question didn't wait for a reply to be answered, as Yukari came walking nervously around the corner.
"H-hi, Miss Nishizumi…" She bowed, but didn't rise back up as expected while she continued to speak. "W-we didn't get a proper introduction yesterday… I'm Yu-Yukari Akiyama. I'm very happy to get to meet you…"
"Saori, can I talk to you?" Maho said in a low, annoyed voice and sighed. "And stop bowing to me. It's not like I'm the Emperor," she said absentmindedly to Yukari as she pulled Saori to the side. They walked a few steps away from Hana and Yukari, before Maho put an arm across Saori's shoulders and began to speak in a hushed voice, no less annoyed. "What the hell Saori?!"
"What are you talking about?" Saori did not, it seemed, see the need for a hushed voice, and spoke as if nothing was wrong.
"I'm talking about her! Why'd you bring her along?!"
"Because she's a friend! Yukari's really nice when you get to know her. It's really a shame she's not in our class, or I'd have met her earlier. Hey, yesterday, after that girl in the waistcoat led us up from the lower decks, she took us to meet…"
"I don't care what you did yesterday, ok?! I'm asking why you brought her here today! I asked you and Hana, not her!"
"You're really childish sometimes, you know that Maho? I brought her because she's a friend, and because I think you need more of them, and because I think you'd get on like a house on fire if you just gave her a chance. Besides, I already made it clear to her that you don't like to talk about your past, and she'll make sure to respect that."
Maho sighed, and glanced over her shoulder at where Hana and Yukari were talking. "You sure she's got it? Cause the moment she asks something I don't want to answer, I'm out of here, ok?"
Saori nodded and smiled. "U-huh! I'm positive!"
I'll say… Maho thought, but sighed and let go of Saori's shoulder, walking back to the others with the ginger girl in tow. "Alright, fine." she said and put her hands in her pockets. "So where are we going?" Hana, Saori and Yukari shared a few looks, before Yukari took a nervous step forward.
"U-uhm… We talked about it on the way here, and if it's ok with you Miss Nishizumi…"
"It's Maho," Maho interrupted, cursed to herself, and reached out a hand towards Yukari. "It's Maho, and nothing else. You're Yukari, right?"
The girl looked like she was ready to faint, but after a few seconds, she took Maho's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Y-y-yes, I am. P-pleased to make your acquaintance Miss Nish...I-I mean Maho!"
"I don't really care where we're going, as long as it gives me something to think about." Maho pulled her hand back, and returned it to her pocket, letting her thumb hang on the outside. "Lead the way."
Yukari took the lead, with Hana and Saori sprinting for a second to walk beside her, hanging off of her and talking the way Maho had seen close friends do. Maho for her part, walked with her hands in her pockets, and followed quietly a few steps behind the others. She wasn't very much in the mood for talking. The walk was enough of a distraction for now. Still, whenever one of her companions looked over their shoulder or took a few steps back to ask some question, or try to talk to her, she answered. She didn't say much of course, but she answered.
Not paying a great deal of attention to where they were actually going, Maho was brought back to the walk by the sound of a bell, and looking up, realized they had reached a house, and walked through the door.
"Here we are then," Yukari noted, and kept on walking into the room. Looking around the somewhat empty room, Maho could clearly tell it was a hair salon, and quickly identified the seemingly only worker. A woman with short curly dark brown hair, wearing a pink apron over her regular clothes.
"Hello dear, back already?" the woman asked Yukari.
"Yeah, we took a walk but it didn't take very long," Yukari answered matter-of-factly.
"Good afternoon Missus Akiyama," Hana and Saori said almost in unison and bowed to the woman who all evidence pointed to being Yukari's mother.
"Good afternoon to you too," the woman answered with a smile to the two girls. "But who's this? I don't think we've met, miss...?" She looked Maho up and down for a few seconds, before Maho bowed and answered.
"Nishizumi. Maho Nishizumi. Thank you for your hospitality." She may have been in a foul mood, but Maho wasn't about to be rude to someone's mother the first time they met.
"Oh you are most welcome. It's good to see Yukari making friends." She grabbed Yukari and pulled her in close, using her free hand to ruffle her daughter's hair.
"Mo-ooom! Stop it!" Yukari protested, and wriggled free from her mother. Maho didn't see the issue, considering that Yukari's hair returned instantly to the shape it had had before the ruffling. After giggling to herself for a few seconds, Yukari's mother gave Maho another quizzical look. "Nishizumi, Nishizumi… That sounds familiar…" She turned to her daughter. "Yukari, isn't that the name of that tanker you like so muc…"
"Yes Mom, so don't embarrass me ok? She doesn't like talking about it." Yukari interrupted in a hushed voice, before walking through the salon towards what looked like a small kitchen. She stopped in the doorway, and turned back to the three of them. "You can go upstairs in the meantime, and I'll be right there." Saori and Hana nodded, and began walking towards the stairs. Maho reluctantly followed behind, finding herself trapped by pure politeness. "MO-OOOM?!" she could hear Yukari yelling from the kitchen while her mother swept the floor of the salon, "WHERE'S THE TEA KETTLE?!"
"It's where it always is dear. Second cupboard from the stove," she answered in a calm tone.
"NEVERMIND, FOUND IT!"
"Yukari?"
"YEAH?!"
"Do you see the blue tin in the window?"
"YEAH!"
"If you want, there are some cookies for you and your friends in there."
"THANKS MOM!"
"Uhm… so…" Saori said in a nervous tone as the three girls walked up the stairs. "Yukari's room is a bit… uh… special. So, just… Just be understanding, ok?" Maho didn't understand what all the fuss was about, thinking Saori was just being overly cautious, but when Hana opened the door to Yukari's room, she quickly understood.
Lining the walls were posters of famous tankers, or for movies involving tanks in one way or another. More than one featured Maho herself, wearing her black-and-red uniform and standing in the turret of her 212, or in front of it. Complimenting the posters lining the walls, every shelf and horizontal surface in the room was filled to the brim with models of tanks. British, American, German, Japanese, the diversity was staggering. Leaning against a bookshelf in the corner there were even some incredibly detailed replicas of a panzerfaust and some old stielhandgranate. If Maho didn't know any better, she could have sworn they were real. What little open space was left in the room was given to a bed, a small square table, and a desk with an accompanying chair.
Hana and Saori each took a seat on the floor by the table, while Maho walked to the other end of the room, and straddled the chair standing by the desk, leaning forwards onto the back-rest. Her jacket she took off and threw onto Yukari's bed.
"I see what you mean…" she noted in a dry tone to Saori. "It's certainly special…"
They sat mostly in silence for the next few minutes, until Yukari came through the door carrying a tray with cups of tea and some cookies. She set the tray down on the table, allowing Hana and Saori to grab a cup each, and then reached over to give Maho a cup of her own.
"Thanks," Maho mumbled and took a sip. She still wasn't quite at ease with the decoration of Yukari's room, and she had just spotted something that added considerably to her unease. "Hey, Yukari…"
"Yes Miss Ni-I-I mean Maho?" she answered, flustered by her mistake.
"Do you think you could… you know… put that somewhere I can't see it?" Maho continued, and gestured to a model standing on Yukari's bedside table. It was a Tiger 1 with Kuromorimine's insignia and the number 212 painted on the turret. That much Maho would have been able to stomach, both Kuromorimine and Wittmann were well-regarded in Sensha-Do circles after all, but the fact that a miniature version of herself was looking out from the turret did make her quite uncomfortable.
"Oh, r-right. Of course!" Yukari said and in a slight panic got up from the table, put the tank down on the floor, and gently pushed it underneath her bed. "Sorry…"
"It's fine…" Maho mumbled, and stared out the window.
"Maho, you doing ok? We're not annoying you are we?" Saori asked after a little while, breaking the awkward silence.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…" she turned back to the table, and sighed. "I'm sorry, ok?"
"Sorry for what? You haven't done anything wrong have you?" Hana replied.
"No, I have. I've been horrible to you three, and I need to apologize, ok? I'm still not used to, or ready, for all of this," she gestured to the three, "I still don't want to make friends. Someone will just end up hurt by it. Still, I realize I've been unreasonable. So, if you're ok with it, just give me some time. I need to clear my head, and figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life." She turned back to the window, and mumbled to herself. "It might take a while…"
At first there was no response, and Maho felt like an idiot. Of course they wouldn't just up and forgive her. She was a horrible person, and she didn't deserve forgiveness. She looked down at her lower arm, and saw the faint white scars she'd put there to remind herself.
"Of course. You take however much time you need." Saori was the first to speak, but Hana soon followed. "Yes, we were the ones who pushed you after all. We didn't know how much baggage you were carrying, so the blame lies entirely with us."
"I-I need to apologize too. I shouldn't have said a word about your past without asking first!" Yukari practically sprung to her feet to give her confession. Maho just rolled her eyes at the sight, and turned back to the window.
"Thanks…"
"M-miss Maho?"
"What?" Maho sighed as she answered Yukari. "And drop the 'Miss'. It makes it seem like I'm better than you…"
"Y-yes, o-of course…"
"So, what is it?"
"I… uhm…" The fact that Yukari hesitated put Maho on edge. She was about to ask something Maho would find uncomfortable to talk about, wasn't she? "I hope I'm not being rude, but… Why did you leave Kuromorimine and come here? Someone like you could go anywhere she wanted, and yet you chose Ooarai? Why?"
Maho didn't answer at first. She just continued to stare quietly out the window. Behind her she heard Saori talking in a hushed voice. "Yukari! I told you not to ask anything personal! I don't know how I could have been cleare…"
"You really want to know?" Maho interrupted without facing them. "Are you sure?"
"I…" Yukari swallowed, but nodded. "Yes, Maho. I need to know."
Maho sighed, took a deep breath, and turned to face her three companions. Hana was hard to read, but Saori was clearly shocked, sitting almost frozen with her mouth agape. Yukari for her part had a look of determined anticipation.
"I got fed up with my old life. Every day was a horrific struggle, and everyday I felt the light and fire within me get smothered a little bit more." She reached over to the desk where she had put her cup of tea, and emptied it before continuing.
"Every single day I was growing up, I was taught that people were tools to be used and discarded. I was taught that nothing but perfection and strength mattered. I was taught that life was a zero-sum game, that anything someone else gained was at my own expense. All my life I was taught that I was superior to others, and excelling at Sensha-Do made others believe it too. I was praised for my ability to destroy, my ability to take from others to better my own standing. It sickened me, all of it. I knew it was wrong, but everyone treated it as true and right. I tried and tried to fight against it, but whenever I did, my only reward would be pain." She turned around in the chair, and lifted the back of her T-shirt, showing the hideous scarring on her back. A dozen and more lessons forever marked on her skin.
"Maho…" Saori said quietly, clearly disturbed.
W-who… who did tha..." Hana asked gently. She hesitated slightly, which was unusual for her.
"My mother. Whenever I failed at a task or didn't do as I was told, she'd add another scar to the collection. 'Something to remember the lesson by' she'd call it." She let her T-shirt fall back down, and turned back around. She could still recite every lesson, and point out the corresponding scar. "Then the Pravda-match happened. I was already fed up with it all long before the accident, but seeing my friends in trouble and being expected to do nothing? That broke me. I snapped like a twig in a typhoon, and I left. I left my family, my name, my school, everything I knew. I left it all, and I came here." There was nothing but silence in the room as the trio considered what Maho had just told them.
"That… that must have been hell..." Hana looked down at the floor as she spoke.
"No, the Nishizumi style isn't Hell," Maho replied. "The Nishizumi style is the Nishizumi style, and Hell is Hell. And of the two of them, the Nishizumi style is much worse."
"How do you figure? I get that it was horrible, but..." Yukari asked, but Maho quickly countered with a question of her own.
"Who goes to Hell?"
"Well," Saori said, taken aback by the unexpected question. "Supposedly all the bad people?"
"Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. But the Nishizumi style destroys everything it touches, no matter who or what it is."
"So… I guess that's why you didn't sign up for Sensha-Do then…" Yukari deduced, and Maho nodded. "I'm sorry I asked…"
Maho, Hana and Saori left shortly thereafter, and Maho soon separated from her companions. The following day Maho spent trying to study all that she had missed during her week of drinking and blowing off school.
As Maho arrived at school on monday, she was fully prepared for a berating lecture from the teacher for her absence. She had after all done it fully aware of the consequences. As the first period ended, the teacher called her over, just as she had expected.
"Miss Nishizumi, if I could have a word please."
"Of course Sir."
"Are you feeling alright?" The question took Maho a second to comprehend. She was feeling fine, but what kind of question was that to ask of someone who had skipped school for a week.
"I'm… I'm fine, Sir, but why do you ask? I thought you were going to… I mean... I was missing almost all of last week?!"
"Oh don't worry. It's not your fault you got the flu."
"The flu? But I…"
"Anyways, I must get back to the staff room. It's good to have you back, and to hear you are well." The teacher collected his things, and left through the door. Maho wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. Then it hit her. Slightly annoyed, she turned around and glared at Hana and Saori, and took a few quick strides over to their desks.
"What the hell?!"
"What?" Saori asked, startled. "What did we do?"
"You guys covered for me last week, didn't you?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about?"
"You told the teacher I had the flu!"
"No I didn't. I swear. Did you cover for her Hana?"
"No," Hana answered, just as surprised and lacking understanding for Maho's accusation. "How could we cover for you when we didn't know where you were or what you were doing?"
"You could and you would! I never asked you to cover for me! I blew off school for a week, and I'm prepared to face the consequences!" She turned and stormed out of the classroom, and ran down the corridor to catch up with the teacher.
"Excuse me! Sir!"
"Oh, Miss Nishizumi. Was there something else?"
"Yes, well, I'm really sorry to trouble you but, who told you I had the flu last week?"
"Hmm… I don't remember to be frank. I think it was input into the report-system by someone else. But as I said, it wasn't your fault you were sick, so don't worry about it. I understand completely." The teacher disappeared into the staff room, and Maho was left just as confused as she had been before.
The rest of the day continued without much spectacle. As lunch arrived, Maho left and ate by her lonesome and continued with her drawings. As she headed back, she steeled herself when she saw the black-haired cyclops approaching her in the corridor. Here we go again, she thought, but to her surprise, no lecture on the need for her to do Sensha-Do came.
A few feet ahead of her, the black haired girl was intercepted on her collision course with Maho.
"Momo, thank goodness I found you," a girl with brown hair in a ponytail said and grabbed the cyclops by the arm.
"Yuzu? Can't it wait? I was about to…"
"Sorry," the brunette apologized. "I really need your help with some important business in the office right now." Not waiting for a reply, she began to drag the black-haired girl down another corridor. Maho breathed a sigh of relief, and returned to her classroom.
Shortly after Maho got back to her apartment after school, the dark clouds outside devolved into rain and thunder. Opening a window to let some fresh air in, she sat herself down by her desk to deal with her homework. The rain should have dealt her psyche a pretty bad blow, but something about the sound of it plonking off of the window seemed to counteract the effect.
After a while, there was a knock on the door. One which Maho ignored. She wasn't interested in spending time with Hana and Saori right now. She had to get her homework in order. Once again, there was a knock, and again Maho ignored it. By the third time the knock sounded, Maho sighed, and got up from her desk. "Can't they take a hint?" she muttered to herself as she walked over to the door. As she looked through the peephole, she did not see Hana or Saori, but a girl with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. The same one she had seen earlier in the day dragging the black-haired cyclops away.
"What?" Maho asked as she opened the door. The girl's jacket and hair was drenched by the rain, and she was doing her best to protect a folder of documents of some kind from the elements. She was failing.
"I'm terribly sorry to intrude, but I was hoping to talk to you, and apologize for my colleagues behavior," she said and bowed.
"Your colleagues?" Maho replied and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, my colleagues in the student council. I'm Yuzu Koyama, the Vice-President. I hope it's not too much to ask after all they've put you through, but would you mind if we continued this conversation inside?" She gave Maho a pleading look, clearly not wishing to be turned away and back into the rain. Maho wasn't very interested in hearing apologies or excuses, but ultimately sighed and stepped aside, allowing Yuzu inside.
"Tea?" she asked absentmindedly as she walked back to the room while the vice-president got out of her jacket.
"Please, if it's not too much trouble." At least the girl had manners, which was more than could be said for her colleagues.
A few minutes later, Maho brought a steaming cup of tea for them each, and sat herself down by the small table she had in her room, gesturing for Yuzu to join her.
"Thank you," the brunette said as Maho gave her the cup, and took a sip. "Oh that feels a lot better. Terrible weather, isn't it?"
"I suppose," Maho shrugged, not caring for small talk. "Now, you said you were here to apologize?"
"Ah, yes." Yuzu put the cup down, and gave a quick bow. "I wanted to apologize on behalf of my colleagues. Anzu and Momo can be quite… determined once they get an idea in their heads. You've sadly had to suffer for it, and for that I am truly sorry."
"I see," Maho replied, trying her best to read the girl as she spoke. "And do your colleagues know that you are here?" Yuzu's cheeks turned red, clearly embarrassed.
"Oh… Uhm… No. No they do not."
"Then explain to me how you can apologize for their behavior, when they don't know about this. I suspect they don't condone it."
Yuzu sighed, and took another sip of tea before answering. "I can't. I'm here on my own initiative, it's true, but I want you to understand…"
"Understand what? That they have deluded themselves to believe that I would join a fledgling Sensha-Do team just for the hell of it? That much was quite clear, if you don't mind me saying."
"They have been very clumsy and clearly overstepped, I agree. But please, let me explain. Things aren't as simple as they may appear."
"No, I won't let you explain a thing. The kindergartener and cyclops you call colleagues think they know me and what's best for me, and they don't. They don't know the first thing about me. All they see is a former Sensha-Do ace and some easy publicity. Until they come crawling here on their own to apologize, I don't need to listen to a thing."
"I was afraid you'd say that." Yuzu sighed, took a deep breath, got out the folder she had brought with her. "They may not know you Maho, but I make a point of doing my homework properly." She began flipping between different pages in the folder, not looking up at Maho at all as she continued. "Maho Nishizumi, born July 1st, 1996 in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto prefecture. Named after your great-grandmother, you're the firstborn daughter of Shiho and Tsuneo Nishizumi, and heir presumptive to the Nishizumi family."
Maho wanted to interrupt, but couldn't. She just sat in stunned silence. How did Yuzu know all this?
"You studied under your mother for most of your youth, together with your sister Miho, born October 23rd of the following year, learning the ways of the Nishizumi style. Her methods were cold, calculating, and by all accounts ruthless. Still, despite it all she taught you everything there is to know about tanks and more. That is until you enrolled at Kuromorimine in middle school and was almost immediately promoted to Commander of their Sensha-Do team. Heavy criticism was leveled against your conduct in a match against the German 'Oberpreussische Akademie' when you faced them in an exhibition match, and you fired on an enemy tank rushing to the aid of one of your own. This is quite the contrast to how you helped and protected both your sister and her best friend throughout their younger years. The Nishizumi style, and a woman who wants to help and protect others. Quite the paradox that."
"Why are you telling me this? And how did you find all this out?"
"A magician never tells," Yuzu said and looked up at Maho with an innocent smile, before flipping to a new page and looking back down at her documents. "Anyways, as I was saying; Together with your sister who enrolled a year later, you quickly made a name for yourselves, taking home title after title. As things continued, you were named 'Most Distinguished Young Tanker' by the Sensha-Do Federation Journal, and gained the nickname 'The Kurt Knispel of Sensha-Do', quickly leading to…"
"Why?" Maho slammed a fist into the table, nearly tipping over the cups of tea. "Why are you so interested in me? What makes me so special?"
"Because I know what happened. I know why you left Kuromorimine and your family. Or at least I know a big part of it."
"If you know so much, then you know why I'm not going back to Sensha-Do. I swore an oath I'd never get in a tank again, and I'm not about to break that oath just to give some upstart school the illusion of a shot at winning a match."
"You and I are quite similar, did you know that?" Yuzu asked, seemingly ignoring Maho's reply, and calmly took another sip of her tea.
"Don't change the subject! You and I are nothing alike!"
"All your life, you tried to protect your sister from your mother. Your sister that you loved above all else. And in the end, you failed. Didn't you?"
"What… How…"
"As I said, I do my homework. But I'll take that as a 'yes'. I'm here because I too have something that I love above all else and will do anything to protect. And I need your help doing it." She pulled out a piece of paper, and slid it across the table to Maho. Glancing at it, she recognized the formatting.
"This is an official MEXT document…"
"Read it." Whatever happiness or friendliness that had surrounded Yuzu when she arrived at Maho's apartment was now gone. She was dead serious. Maho picked up the piece of paper, and began to read. "Then you'll understand."
Maho read the piece of paper several times over, and still couldn't believe it. "They… they're shutting down Ooarai?"
"At the end of the semester. 'Government spending cuts and all that' they told us," Yuzu nodded, and reclaimed the document. "But Anzu managed to give us a chance. A chance to save Ooarai. One we intend to pursue."
"The Sensha-Do-team…" Suddenly everything started to click for Maho. This explained why the student council had been so fanatical in their attempts to have her join the team.
"Correct. If we manage to win the national tournament, Ooarai will remain open. That's why we restarted the team, and that's why we need you."
Maho stood up from the table and walked a few paces back and forth, almost laughing to herself. "Winning the national tournament… with nothing but beginners… It can't be done… I'm sorry to say what you already know, but it can't be done. You can't just take a newly formed team of all beginners and win the national tournament."
"It can be done!" Yuzu replied, and stood up from her own seat. "It can be done, if you lead us. We've already started training, and…"
"How many tanks do you have?" Maho interrupted, looking at Yuzu. She didn't answer. "Tell me."
Yuzu remained quiet for a moment, before she looked at the floor and answered. "We have five."
"I'm sorry what? How many did you say?"
"I said we have five tanks, ok?!" Yuzu cried out to Maho with closed fists. "And I'm telling you it can be done!"
"Five tanks, you say. That's a far cry from the 20 your opponent will use in the finals." Yuzu was about to reply, but Maho kept going. "Any of them serviceable? Have you got any competent trainers? What about maintenance crews? Logistics? Just putting me in charge isn't going to win the tournament. Hell, even putting my sister in charge wouldn't have saved you. It takes scores of talented people and years of training to even reach the finals, nevermind winning it. And all you're betting on is me? You say you've done your homework, so you know I'm nowhere near my best right now." Maho looked down at the floor, and for some reason felt sad as she finished her speech. "And I don't intend to go back and improve…"
Yuzu sighed, and took a deep breath. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. I really thought you were the one. I hoped beyond all hope that you'd help me save the school." She reached down to the table and picked up her teacup. "Not that it matters. I'll keep trying no matter what you claim is possible." She turned and looked out the window at the pouring rain. "My family actually founded Ooarai. Did you know that?" Maho's surprised expression answered the question, so Yuzu took a sip of her tea and continued. "It was my great-great-great-grandfather, I think. Or maybe it was a great-great-uncle. I don't remember. Anyways, he and some friends founded this school, and even though I never met him, for some reason I felt like it was my responsibility to maintain and protect the school. It runs through my blood after all." She finished her tea, and returned the cup to the table. "But I guess if you're not interested, I suppose I should get going. Thanks for the tea."
Yuzu gathered her documents and papers, and walked over to the hall. "You are one of the greatest tankers of all time," she said, almost like an afterthought, as she put on her jacket. "And I think it would be a terrible thing to let that talent go to waste. Especially when you could use it to help people." She grabbed her umbrella from the stand, and reached for the doorknob. "Just my two cents. "
"I don't know who I am anymore..." Maho replied, resigned, and stared at herself in the mirror. "I don't know..." Yuzu let the doorknob go, and turned back to face her. "I look at myself, and the only thing I see is a monster who destroyed people's lives, and a coward who ran from it all."
"Interesting…" Yuzu replied, and walked back towards the room, putting a hand on Maho's from the other side of the counter. "That's not what I see." She looked at Maho's reflection as she spoke, a gentle, almost motherly smile on her face. No, Yuzu wasn't motherly. Kikuyo was motherly. "I see a girl who wants to do her all to help people grow, but can't bear to help herself." Yuzu acted like Maho used to do towards Miho. She spoke like a big sister.
"How can you be so sure? You don't know me. You've only spoken to me for less than an hour. How do you know that you can entrust me with your family's legacy?"
Yuzu turned to look Maho in the eye before continuing. "If you had come here to run away after doing nothing, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't so much as look at you. But you did do something. You tried, despite knowing both the risks and the consequences. And that's what Ooarai needs. Someone who will try, despite it all." She gave Maho's hand a quick squeeze. "Anyways, thank you again for the tea." Yuzu didn't even wait for a reply before she walked out through the door into the pouring rain, and Maho was once again alone in the empty apartment.
Author's Notes:
I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to say in these little segments. But I suppose it never hurts to reiterate how happy I am for the support the series is getting, and the interest people seem to take in the mysteries and unclear changes that have been made to this universe.
Actually, I can probably say with all certainty that next week's chapter will be on the shorter end, just as a little advance notice.
Questions, feedback, reviews and thoughts in general are as always welcome, and I hope to see you back her next week.
/Rihno