Thank you Hououza, full-metal-sousuke, and mangadude for your feedback! I just want you all to know that I appreciate it!
As another warning there are massive spoilers for both The End of Day By Day novels and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. You have been warned. Again.
Chapter 5 – The Sword of Damocles
"Is Kashim coming?"
The Interrogator had no idea as to what was going on outside of the room. There was a loud clanging of sudden activity and raised voices shouting orders.
The entire session was an unmitigated disaster.
Indeed, they seemed to be solidly planted in the midst of an unmitigated disaster.
There was a bright look in Colleen's eyes that was strangely juxtaposed against her calm smile.
At that moment Tessa burst into the room.
With a wave of her hand the Interrogator was dismissed. She walked straight up to the other girl and stuck her hand out.
"Return it, now." There was a glint of steel in her eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"The earring. Stop this. No one deserves the kind of life you've had, but it doesn't give you the right to act like this."
Colleen met her gaze evenly.
"It seems you catch on much faster than everyone else, but you don't want to take it back by force. Your scientists at their base are facing down three Arastols right now. I am the only one here who can rescind that order. It seemed you needed motivation to pursue my request."
Tessa could feel her face blanch.
"You're no better than the people who kidnapped you in the first place."
"You don't know that."
"You're threatening innocent, unarmed people with death. That's monstrous."
There was a silence that hung between the two girls. It was heavy, almost suffocating. Colleen did not speak; she looked down at her lap.
"It is what I am forced to do to be treated as a human." Tessa could feel the air ripple around her. The simple sentence wasn't said out loud. It was said through a Whispered resonance.
Tessa took an involuntary step back. It was a different voice, one that could hide nothing through putting on a mask and smiling.
It had been filled with pain. It was the voice of a lost child speaking as an adult.
Tessa stared, not being able to act.
The girl, her gaze still even, still hidden behind a carefully controlled façade, said with emphasis, "I am not a murderer."
"Stop it. I've given the order. He'll come."
She did not respond. Instead, she seemingly materialized the earring out of nowhere.
She dexterously plugged it in, an interface came up. A preset list of commands came up.
In that moment, Tessa knew that she had anticipated having to do this.
"Rover," she said, clearly, "Lie down."
Colleen put the earring in the vial and put it on the table.
She had used her trump card. But now someone would hear her story.
Tessa took the vial and left without another word between them.
------------------------------
The incident with the Astarols during the rescue mission was suddenly much clearer to Tessa.
She understood that, somehow, she had gained control over them at that time.
That time she had saved many of Mithril's own troops.
This time she had threatened the lives of those same individuals.
Mao had explained the situation with the Arastols at Merida Island to her, making her take her mind off the squabble Kaname and she had been having. She said that they had fenced in the group of researchers examining them, not actually shooting, but their A.I. units had said two words.
"Bring Kashim."
All of the connections seemed to make sense to Tessa at once.
It is what I am forced to do to be treated as a human.
Tessa did not know what to do with that thought. She set her mind to matters that she might possibly figure out.
For instance, that there was no mistaking the connection between Colleen Riley and those machines.
Her own brother's machines…
But, what did it mean?
------------------------------
Kaname felt a bit guilty for having forced her way into the venture.
Originally, she had rationalized that Tessa had said (even though she had for all intents and purposes goaded it out of the petite Captain) that it was all right for her to come.
Well, not all right, but she tried to tell herself that she had been invited.
Sousuke, not having time to argue with her, had not been able to do anything about it.
Kaname had simply boarded the jet with him. He was not, however, pleased.
Indeed, he felt as if it was time to put his foot down.
"Chidori," he was not looking at her, "You should be more aware of your safety."
Out of a well-ingrained reflex she responded, "Like you should talk idiot, going off at stupid Tessa's whim without so much as a thought to your own health! Now you're just going to tell me something about it just being about following orders!"
Sousuke was silent for a moment. Inwardly, Kaname began berating her own stubborn self. Her words did not carry the sentiment she had hoped.
What she had wanted to say was that she was worried about him.
She had come to make sure he would be okay.
She had come to prove that she could protect him just as well as he could…only in a different way.
In a gesture of frustration she hit herself on the head because she had not managed to say any of those things.
Sousuke must have misinterpreted that same gesture as a gesture of frustration with him.
Finally he responded.
"Sorry Chidori, it could not be helped."
He unstrapped himself from the seat and went to change into his fatigues leaving Kaname to herself.
When he was gone she let out a frustrated sigh, clenching her fists. Unsure of what to make of this, the other personnel in the helicopter merely raised their eyebrows.
They did not do anything else. They had heard stories about what happened to Sergeant Sagara during his missions. The men were sufficiently aware of enough tactical knowledge not to tempt faith with the girl high command had (and rather erroneously from what they had heard) named Angel.
Kaname sighed.
She had heard Mao describe the situation to Tessa - people's lives were at stake and once again only Sousuke could save them.
Only Sousuke.
Again.
This time she knew for certain it couldn't be helped. She knew that no one could ask him to leave those people in harm's way.
It was out of his control. Entirely.
But she, being the way she was, had once again taken it out on Sousuke.
He returned, a folder in his hands that apparently pertained to his mission. Reading the numerous leaflets of paper with a great degree of concentration, he did not look up.
She sighed again.
It wasn't him who was the idiot, at that moment she thought herself to be the biggest idiot of them all.
------------------------------
Sousuke, seeing that Kaname was safely entrusted to Mao, had immediately reported to Tessa as ordered.
She had been waiting for him just outside one of the TDD-1's interrogation rooms. Inside of it was the Whispered girl whom they had rescued.
He stopped in front of Tessa, snapping a crisp salute off. She gave a quiet "at ease" command.
"Sergeant, your task is simply to get as much information from the target as possible while securing her trust. That is all."
Sousuke nodded and stepped into the room.
The girl looked up at him briefly.
Her short, greasy hair was plastered to her head and there were dark circles under her eyes.
She had an incredibly intense and penetrating stare.
Chidori and her, although both Whispered, were nothing alike. Sousuke's cursory reconnaissance of this girl showed her to be much more serious than Kaname.
Additionally, he hoped Kaname would never be inclined to use heavy weaponry to get her way as this girl had.
That thought disturbed him more than a bit, however. He brushed it aside.
"You've come."
Sousuke nodded. "I was ordered to come in order to secure the safety of our personnel."
There was a cold note in his voice. As a child in Afghanistan he had taken many lives in his raids with the Majahideen. But he would have drawn the line at innocent, unarmed people. The girl across from him had crossed a line.
"That doesn't amount to much to me. I've seen what you do to your informers in order to get around paying them."
Sousuke's eyes narrowed. He did not know what she was talking about.
She seemingly examined his face for a moment.
"You don't know?"
"Negative. I do not even know why particularly my presence is required here."
The enemy's face remained neutral.
"I went through a lot of effort to save myself from that hell. It took a very long time to find a security guard greedy enough to make a bid to one of Amalgam's rivals. So, I put myself up on the auction block. However, it was much easier for you to shoot him than it was to pay your bills…Guess it was more tactically sound that way."
Sousuke nodded, missing her sarcasm.
"Affirmative. You are quite correct in your tactical analysis of the situation. The man was a potential threat to the security of the organization due to his potential to disseminate classified information. If there had been a danger of the informer playing both sides, then it would be in Mithril's best interests to neutralize the threat, although I was not aware of a direct order to do so."
The girl chuckled. At this point, Kaname would have begun smacking him with her fan after having mistaken his thorough explanation for "otaku behavior."
This girl's reaction was a bit unnerving.
"Least you're blunt. That's refreshing."
He did not know how to take this. In fact, he would much rather merely have taken out his combat knife and interrogated her in a way proper to his field…this felt more like the interview assignment that Kagurazaka-sensei had ordered that he perform.
He had slowly discovered that asking people's food, color, and movie preferences in this manner was effective in getting answers but, as Kaname rather forcibly explained, not completely aligned with the missions overall objectives of developing friendly relations.
It had been a highly effective method, however.
"Interviews" like this were outside of the parameters a Specialist dealt with.
Sousuke had no idea why he was even there. This would require careful tactical planning. The girl was an unknown threat.
She had already expressed a liking for his "bluntness," so he would continue to act in a similar matter.
"Why did you request my presence here?"
He could see her frown. Perhaps she was like Kaname in that she only selectively liked certain of his traits. Perhaps women were like that.
"I have two reasons," her voice became low and serious, "the first being that a man called Gauron hated you. Leonard Testarossa also hated you….it's like that old saying: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Additionally, you seem less likely to have political motivations or biases."
Gauron.
Leonard Testarossa.
He could feel a feeling of hatred well up within him. He noticed an underlying rage in her as well, a feral rage, like a man too long left alone in the wilderness in Afghanistan.
"You hate them too."
It was a statement. Sousuke tried to bring himself under control. He shouldn't show weaknesses in a situation like this.
"How were you related to those men?" There was still a bit of an edge on his voice.
"Gauron both sold my specialty and worked as what Leonard termed my "motivator." And by "motivator" I mean, when I resisted he found inventive means of showing me the error of my ways."
Sousuke knew perfectly well what that might mean having been a witness of Gauron's cruelty more than once.
She continued, looking down at the floor.
"Mithril does not necessarily protect that family of the Whispered. They didn't in my case…so when I resisted and programmed small bits of sabotage only I was capable of fixing into the Black Technology…my father unfortunately suffered a fatal car crash…A complete accident. Gauron brought me pictures for my enjoyment. When my mother died suddenly of a heart attack, he lamented about how grief finally must have overcome her…or perhaps poison. He told me they got my brother too. I don't know what happened to him though. I just don't know."
Colleen did not cry; there was merely a blunted edge to her voice.
Sousuke's gaze dropped to the floor. Certainly he felt sorry for this girl, but his thoughts kept going to Kaname. He needed to maintain his focus.
He was now all the more aware of the price of failure.
The girl suddenly looked straight at him, dropping her voice.
"I know you have some sort of connection to a Whispered. Gauron said she was ruining you. Be careful. Someone betrayed me, your job may be harder than it appears."
Sousuke was fighting to control himself still, fighting to suppress memories of Hong Kong and thoughts of Kaname being dead.
But he still distrusted this girl. She could be an elaborate actress manipulating him.
Questions still remained unanswered.
"What about Leonard?"
"That is the second part of why I wanted to speak with you. He hates you because you foil his plans. You beat my dear little monsters."
"Your monsters?"
"My speciality…the Arastol. Leonard takes credit for them, but he does not have the specialization necessary to miniaturize the AS mechanisms. He merely takes credit for them to keep the fact that Amalgam has control of other Whispereds secret. It gratifies his ego because he cannot get his hands on some girl he met on a roof a few months ago."
Unbidden, his eyes widened, not at the revelations about the girl's Whispered capabilities, but at the last sentence.
Some girl he met on a roof.
It sounded like Kaname's story of what had happened to her during his brief reassignment.
"What did he say about the girl on the roof?"
Colleen looked confused that he had latched onto that small bit of bitterness.
She blinked a couple of times before responding.
"He came back bragging about how he had kissed some girl on a rooftop when he was testing out the Arastols for the first time…I don't know anything more about it…."
There was a feeling of urgency within Sousuke.
So far, with the notable exception of Leonard's presence, it lined up with Kaname's story.
Why would Kaname hide that from him?
Maybe the girl was simply mistaken. Maybe she really was manipulating him as Gauron had tried to manipulate him…but she seemed surprised her had even asked about it. In his
"Are you sure that is all you know?"
Damn, he was losing control of himself. Acting on instinct.
In a very soft tone of voice she said, "I do know more…I was lying to you, but I can see it matters…the girl was a Whispered, too."
It must be Kaname.
Why hadn't she told him?
Why?
The girl rose shakily, shocking Sousuke out of his own mind. She strode over to the mirror, putting her hand to the glass.
Sousuke knew that Tessa and Kalinin would be observing her from out there.
"It seems you care. At least about her."
Sousuke did not confirm or deny anything. He merely remained watching her cautiously, his trained senses more than a little muddled by irrelevant emotion.
But Kaname never left his mind. He simply needed to finish this.
"What is it that you want?"
This girl did not act in accordance with any tactics. Again, she did not immediately respond.
There was a long silence between her where she simply remained turned to the mirror.
"Have you ever heard of the Sword of Damocles?" she asked suddenly.
"Negative."
This girl definitely took advantage of the element of surprise as much as she was capable of doing so.
"King Dionysus had a servant, Damocles, that constantly complained about the way in which he was ruling his country. He decided he would then exchange his position with Damocles for a day, so that he would understand it from his prospective. As he sat in the palace he noticed a sword dangling from the ceiling above him, only secured by horsehair. It's no wonder that Damocles was not comfortable in the King's place the entire day."
She turned around to face him.
"When Dionysus returned, Damocles asked him about the sword. He responded, 'That is what I face everyday. I may lose my life at any moment if I take one wrong step.' …Let's just say, Damocles complained no more."
"I do not really understand," said Sousuke at a length.
"We Whispered have the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads everyday. You are responsible for my continued presence within this world, so I hold you partially responsible for keeping that sword from falling down on me. So I will make your organization a deal. Take me out from under it a while, even if I have to pretend, and I will work for you."
There was a brightness in Colleen's eyes. Her story had not mitigated his suspicions, but her request was not a reasonable one.
Kaname had spoken of being really free once…free from Mithril's eye, from Amalgam's eye, from Wraith's eye…This girl was only asking for an illusion of that.
A small voice in that back of his mind, however, reminded him that Kaname had not told him about ever encountering Leonard Testarossa...did she want to be free of him as well, despite her confessions of trust?
That needed to wait, however, until he finished the mission at hand.
He mentioned to the girl that he would do what was in his power and consult his superiors. She merely nodded.
He left, wondering how he should face Kaname.
As he left, however, he heard the barest whisper of "Thank You."
------------------------------
She had done the best she could do.
Colleen had told her story. She had asked what she could of them.
Her fate was once again out of her own hands.
------------------------------
Tessa had debriefed him regarding the interview and sent the girl off to whoever was to be her bodyguard.
Sousuke did not feel up to seeing Kaname at the moment, so he had gone to the one place he could think to go.
The cockpit of the ARX-7 Arbalest.
As he did so, he could not help but feel a bit ridiculous that he was taking his problems to a mechanical nuisance that merely affected human talk.
"Check. Confirming Sergeant Sagara. It seems it is you."
The AI's voice held an amusement he did not feel.
"Shut up." It was half hearted.
"It does not appear you are facing a combat situation. Would I guess this is what you call 'whim'?"
"Is there another reason for waking up such an idiotic piece of machinery?" he said was a great deal of irritation.
"Perhaps you are having difficulties with you love life."
Al's sudden interjection surprised him. Really, where did this machine learn such nonsense? He asked it just such a question.
"The chief mechanic, Sergeant. He thinks it important that I have knowledge of such things."
Sousuke made a derisive noise.
"What would you do about my 'love life'?"
He did not expect a sensible answer.
"This is outside of my programming parameters, Sergeant. You will have to educate me further as such events come up."
Sousuke sighed. This was merely avoiding the issue entirely.
He had told Tessa exactly how he felt about Kaname. However, he would rather run through an entire regiment of Arastols with a single round of ammunition than divulge such information to Kaname herself.
Particularly now.
He had no knowledge of these things.
But Kaname had met Leonard.
She had kissed Leonard.
Those thoughts were outside of his parameters entirely.
------------------------------
Kurz waited in Colleen Riley's newly assigned quarters.
The Whispered girl was currently taking a shower and so he did not see much of a point to his being there, but Tessa was insistent.
Kurz Weber did not disappoint Tessa.
She had confided in him that he simply did not want her to be left alone. The ghost of Bunny Morauta still very much haunted her.
Lieutenant Santos was currently supervising her, although he had also offered to take this duty.
Geez, did women take long showers!
It wasn't at if he had signed up for this duty either. He had heard that this girl was…something close to the Devil.
At that moment, the shower turned off.
Santos walked out and waited at the door.
She laughed a bit.
"I never thought the SRT would be commissioned to be babysitters."
Kurz made a whistling noise.
"They don't pay me enough for this!"
At that moment the bathroom's door opened and out walked the girl. Her short hair had lost its curly resilience and was dripping, tucked behind her ears. She had on a towel, tightly wrapped around her.
She stopped and stared intently at him for a moment.
The towel slipped a bit lower.
Perhaps, he thought, this won't be so bad at all…
After a moment she smiled at him, and began to slowly walk toward him, letting the towel slip down a little further.
Santos looked a little shocked at the brazen display.
She marched right up to him, smiling and leaned close to his ear.
Kurz was thanking Clouzot for once for recommending him to such an assignment.
Colleen whispered one word.
"Pervert."
Suddenly, Kurz felt a sharp pain in his groin.
She strolled behind him, grabbing the robe hanging there and flinging the wet towel back on his head.
Lieutenant Santos covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing.
Kurz definitely wasn't paid enough for this at all.
That girl was the Devil!
------------------------------
It had been a long day, Tessa decided.
However, she was unable to so much as slouch in her chair or even lower her head to the nine holographic images that represented the Mithril high command before her. Doing so would be considered a sign of weakness.
She could not afford that today.
It was time to begin with the last matter of the day's agenda.
"Lieutenant Yamazaki."
A Japanese woman in her mid-thirties, hair done up in a sedate clip, stepped forward, sat down at the table, and opened a dossier in front of her.
Sir Mallory, monocle in hand, stated brusquely, "Please state your name and rank."
Opening up the file before her and pushing her glasses farther up her nose she stated, "Fumie Yamazaki, First Lieutenant and personnel psychologist aboard the Tuatha Da Daanan-1."
Several of the men nodded.
"What is your professional opinion of the condition of the Whispered, Ms. Colleen Riley?"
This was Dr. Painrose, the head of the Research branch.
"At the moment, from the brain scans we took during Ms. Riley's convalescence, she, quite predictably, has a visible degree of mental trauma and a general degree of mental fatigue. Additionally, she seems to suffer from an extreme state of depression due to the traumatic events during her captivity. These, in combination, have no doubt manifested themselves in Ms. Riley's erratic and violent behavior."
"Understandably," quipped Malory. It was difficult to tell if he was sarcastic or not.
"But what is her future prognosis?" asked Dr. Painrose, seeming leaning farther over the table in interest.
The possibility of developing Mithril's own Arastol-type weapon had piqued his interest considerably earlier in the meaning, although he lamented the fact that the Lambda Driver Specialist had still not been found.
"In going over the data that has been collected from other Whispered individuals, as well as Ms. Riley herself prior to her activity, it is my opinion that should this mental fatigue continue unchecked, she would be rendered useless for any practical purposes of research. Additionally, there is a high probability that permanent mental stability would result."
"She would also most likely lose a sense of herself altogether," said Tessa, a quiet intensity in her voice.
The nine somber men surrounding her nodded gravely.
"Your recommendation, Lieutenant Yamazaki?"
She paused, again pushing her glasses up on her nose in, perhaps, a nervous gesture.
"Protecting Mithril's interests is in this case aligned with the girl's request to Sergeant Sagara…I would recommend a situation in which she has the allusion of autonomy and safety in a normal, constant situation. Additionally, in this location she should not use her Whispered power unless absolutely necessary."
"Thank you," General Amitt, the President of the Intelligence Branch, quipped curtly. "We will take your findings and recommendations into account, Lieutenant Yamazaki."
She stood and saluted the assembled heads of Mithril crisply and then, dismissed by Tessa, left the gathering.
"So, what shall we do now with the volatile Ms.Riley?"
A contemplative silence followed in the wake of Admiral Borda's question.
"Amalgam will not give her up lightly. We need to place her somewhere in which she will be well protected."
"God be praised that she wasn't the Lambda Driver specialist."
This was one of the Research Branch's heads of staff. There was a general murmur of assent.
"She'll still be useful," a young man, an aide of Amitt's, said.
"We should protect her to the best of our abilities despite the nature of her Specialty," Tessa felt it was time to be firm, Colleen's earlier words about humanity at the forefront of her mind.
Borda nodded in approval and the others, after a moment of examining the young Captain's face, followed suit.
Another silence descended.
Finally Admiral Borda spoke.
"The girl speaks Japanese, yes?"
Tessa nodded. It was noted in her dossier that she had spent almost a year working in a Japanese lab outside of Fukui prefecture prior to her capture.
"Send Sergeant Weber with her to Tokyo. She can attend Jindai High School with Angel and have both Sergeant Sagara and Wraith for insurance. This would provide for both the security concerns and the environmental concerns."
General Amitt, who was forever at odds with the Operations Department, was, however, skeptical.
"Are you sure that even that is enough considering the damage she has managed to do contained?"
"I can send Second Lieutenant Mao along in the meantime to assure you, General," said Tessa, "But I believe this plan is preferable when compared to the consequences of keeping her contained."
Amitt admitted that she had a valid point.
The hawk-faced Head of the Finance Department, however, sighed deeply.
"That school is a financial black hole," he said wearily. "Every time my subordinates contact that principal she greets him with that smile and really, with all of the damage Sergeant Sagara caus-"
Borda cut him off.
"Calm down, Carlos. We are in agreement about this, then. However, I am interested to know whether the original case regarding her kidnapping was solved."
He looked towards General Amitt. He opened up a thick file before him.
"It was determined that Jack Carver was the original leak. After his death during Ms. Riley's kidnapping the informational leaks ceased. At that time we were unaware of Amalgam's presence, but we merely believed some rival organization had captured her for her Whispered talents."
"Was the investigation of the U.S. government personnel involved in the case ever completed?"
"Mithril finished it on covert terms, not wanting to strain future relationships, as the military had a vested interest in the girl's talents and, indeed, hired us to maintain her safety while keeping watch over her through the Geotron front company."
General Amitt finished his report.
"Now gentleman," interjected Sir Malory, "We are in agreement to send Ms. Riley to Jindai under the supervision of Sergeant Weber and Second Lieutenant Mao. Hopefully she can then be useful to Mithril."
The men nodded their assent and said their good-byes.
The grainy holographs faded out one by one leaving Tessa alone in the dark meeting room.
She slumped down into her chair. Mardukas put his hand upon her shoulder in support.
This had been a very long day.
------------------------------
Colleen sat at as far of a distance as was possible away from her…hmmm, she wasn't sure what to call him…guardian?
Babysitter?
Jail keeper?
What did it matter anyways what she called him. At least she was going somewhere.
She was going somewhere that she had almost mandated she go for the first time in three years.
Certainly, she hadn't picked the destination.
She hadn't even chosen to share the small jet with the perverted man next to her, nor the vulgar women sitting near the cockpit snoring loudly with a slightly red face, nor the boy Gauron called Kashim who seemed, at least to Colleen's own eyes, to be strangely distant from his companion.
But she had mandated that she go somewhere. Anywhere.
She had asked to be freed and they had granted it. She had the power to do that for the first time in three years.
And that girl…
There was a different feeling to her, a wave of familiarity, as if she had known her in some past life, as if she could read things in her own mind that were only known to her.
It made her shift uncomfortably in her seat.
Colleen frowned to the swiftly passing clouds outside of her window.
She brushed the thought away. That didn't matter to her at the moment.
Outside of her window was the moon. A moon that was not some product of her imagination, or fabricated out of a hazy memory.
The real moon.
It was barely a sliver, like the smile of Wonderland's Chesire Cat.
The real moon was above her and she was going somewhere.
Tessa slowly walked back to the bridge, Mardukas following close behind.
"Captain, do you believe that it was a wise decision to allow Sergeant Sagara and Sergeant Weber to take charge of such an unstable person?"
On any other day she might have jumped up and defended both of her subordinates, however she knew Mardukas' reputation for stubbornness and was not ready for such a battle.
"If there is anything that can be done for her, Ms. Chidori and Sergeant Sagara will find a way to do it. Sometimes I think those two of capable of doing anything when they are together."
Mardukas did not immediately respond noticing the strange tone of voice she used to utter the last few words. Quietly, he put a hand on her shoulder and stated in a voice lacking his usual edge, "Aye, Ma'am."
------------------------------
Kaname sat there, uncomfortably shifting from one side of her seat to the other, trying to sleep but unable to.
Everything seemed wrong.
When Sousuke had returned from the interview, or whatever day he had been sent to save, he seemed to avoid her.
Could he still be angry about her coming?
No, it couldn't be.
Maybe it was something the girl…Colleen was her name?...had said.
She shot the other girl a look. At that moment Colleen was also looking in her direction, and noticing her sharp look (and perhaps the less than friendly look on Kaname's own face) the other girl resumed looking out the window.
Sousuke did not seem to notice much of anything. True, he remained sitting next to Kaname, but he merely stared at the floor, perhaps grunting in response to her questions.
Eventually Kaname had merely stopped asking questions altogether.
To think that moody military otaku spent the last two nights in my house and now won't say a full sentence to me, she thought with more than a small bit of indignation.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him sigh deeply.
Something was definitely wrong. When he had problems he told her. Even back on the Tuatha Da Daanan they have sat together in a room for almost an hour in an awkward silence interrupted by her failed attempts to start a conversation.
Even when she had asked him how he was feeling he merely responded, "My physical state is satisfactory" and did not pursue the subject any further.
Something was definitely bothering him.
It was as if the last few months had been erased and he was still looking at her from behind a newspaper with a hole in the front cover, stating "It is merely a coincidence" when she asked what he was doing.
…or the empty person who had stood on the streets of Hong Kong merely looking for another battle without a future beyond it.
In the person she sat next to she could find no trace of the person who had given her lapis lazuli for her birthday or carried her through the air with a military issue balloon.
But what had happened to hollow him out again?
She hated Sousuke acting like this; she might even have smacked him with her halisen if she thought it would snap him out of it.
It was like a piece of her had gone hollow as well.
------------------------------
A/N: Hopefully this chapter has begun to answer several of your questions (and hopefully that makes up for the long time it has taken me to post it…). There are also a number of allusions to the novels. A lot of elements have really started to come together in this chapter, but I promise there will be more humor in the next few chapters! However, the next one won't be up for 3-4 weeks…after finals week…
Anyways, thank you all so much for reading! Also, to my readers who either have added this fic to favorites or have an alert on it (you know who you are), could you tell me what you like / hate about it? I'm actually very curious…and to let you know I respond to all of my reviews as well, so feel free to ask questions and such if you wish.
Thank you all again for reading!