By Hydraa
This is the sequel to "Aftermath". Wow, did I actually put two whole words in the title?
---000---
Rosette turned around just in time to see Chrno die.
Her scream echoed through the terminal as she ran forward, his death resounding in her mind even louder than the sound of his body falling bonelessly to hit the floor. He was in his demon form, she couldn't figure out why he was in his demon form, but he was lying there and she could see his chest wasn't moving and she couldn't feel him.
"Chrno!" she sobbed, skidding to her knees beside him. "No, Chrno, no!" He wasn't supposed to just fall down dead in some stupid air terminal. "Don't you dare!" The last word was a shriek. His eyes were half closed, black tar oozing slowly out of his mouth and nose. "Damnit!" Joshua dropped to his knees behind her, pulling her back into his arms. People started to gather around, amazed, and she shrieked at them, ready to kill anyone who touched him. He was dead, he was dead… She couldn't stop crying.
Shader ignored her tirade, running one hand up Chrno's bared chest until she found the breastbone. Wedging her palm over top of it, she laid her other palm over the first hand and leaned over him, suddenly pressing down quickly and sharply. "One, two, three, four, five," she chanted. "Two, two, three, four, five. Three, two, three, four, five." With each count, she pumped down and at the end, rested her ear against his chest, listening. Frowning, she stuck a finger in his mouth, scooping the black goo out, and tilted his head back, opening his mouth wider. Laying her own over it and forming a seal, she exhaled into him, listened, and did it again four more times. That done, she put her hand to his throat. Frowning at what she found, she went back to pumping his chest and counting.
Rosette stared at her, baffled but desperate to grab onto anything. Joshua hugged her tightly, staring fearfully over her shoulder while Azmaria was somewhere behind them both, sobbing.
"What are you doing?" she gulped.
"Cardiopulmonary resuscitation," the cat told her without slowing her count. "Getting him breathing and his heart going again. It's fantastic. It just takes a lot of work." She bent over his mouth, breathing into him, and took an extra moment after blowing air to force a great gout of astral into him as well. Then she went straight back to pumping.
Shader could bring him back. Rosette latched onto that and forced herself to her feet. "Get back," she growled, shoving at the gathered people. "Give her room." Airport security was arriving and she turned on them, flashing her badge. "Clear this area," she ordered. "And stop that flight to New York, on the authority of the Holy Order of Magdalena." They nodded, staring at the lifeless demon and ready to do just about anything she said, just to get out of there. They scrambled to obey and she turned back to Chrno and Shader, her anger the only thing keeping her from losing whatever control she had left.
Shader was breathing into Chrno again. She finished her five count and checked for his pulse. Frowning, she looked fearfully at Rosette and scrambled for the bag she'd been planning to bring on the plane. "I knew he was sick," she muttered to herself, talking out loud. "I knew he'd been through too much for his legions. I should have kept my lab up, I should have kept the full kit. Dug this one out last night, hoped I wouldn't need it." She hauled out a square box and snapped it open, withdrawing a needle that had to be a foot long and thick enough to nearly double as a pencil. It was full of a clear liquid already and she tugged off the cap.
"What are you going to do with that?" Rosette gasped, cringing.
"Shoot it right into his heart," Shader told her happily. "One hundred percent adrenaline!"
Before Rosette could even think that she might even want to stop her, Shader had hauled the needle up and slammed it down into Chrno's chest, between the bones of the ribcage and into his heart. She shoved the plunger down and suddenly he was sitting up, gasping for breath and staring at the massive needle sticking out of his chest in confusion.
He was back in Rosette's mind as well, just that quickly. "Chrno!" she shouted, dropping to her knees and throwing her arms around him. "You're okay!"
"No, he's not," Shader sang, repacking the needle. "I need my lab."
Rosette spun on her brother. "Make sure that plane hasn't left," she snarled. He blinked and ran off, Azmaria following him.
"What's going on?" Chrno whimpered, coughing.
"You died," Shader told him cheerily.
"Don't do that again," Rosette sobbed. "You scared me so badly."
"I, uh…" He was already sagging against her, weakening. "I'm so tired."
"Don't go to sleep!" she begged, afraid of what would happen if he did. "Change back to a boy, it uses less astral."
"He can't," Shader told her seriously. "I knew he was really bad when he shifted. I can't do anything more here. I only have the one needle."
Growling, Rosette hauled Chrno up, Shader taking his other side as they partially helped, but mostly carried him down the hall to where their plane waited, Joshua standing anxiously at the door. Rosette picked Chrno up then, carrying him bodily onto the plane, and glared at the stewardess that came to meet her. "I'm taking over first class," she growled at her. "Clear it out now."
The woman looked at her, and at Chrno, and paled.
First class was opulent, the chairs leather and the tables edged with gold. Rosette didn't care about any of that, just that the chairs reclined all the way that so a passenger could sleep. She lowered Chrno into one and covered him with blankets, kissing his forehead. Her anger she clung to. She had to stay mad to stay focused.
"Can he sleep?" she asked Shader.
"Sure. It'll be good for him."
She brushed Chrno's hair away from his eyes. "Go to sleep, baby. We'll be in New York soon."
"I saw a train," he told her fuzzily. "I was getting on it when I woke up. Will I see it again?"
She swallowed a lump. "Not for a long time. Dream of our lake instead."
"Okay." He drifted off.
Rosette stood and spun on Shader. "Tell me what the hell is wrong with him, now."
The cat cowered immediately and Rosette forced herself to take a deep breath. "Thank you for saving his life, Shader. You were wonderful. Please, tell me what's happening."
The cat pulled off her cap and wiggled her ears, her lips pursed pensively. "He told me last night about all the times he's been hurt or sick."
"Yeah," Rosette agreed, remembering them unwillingly herself. "But he always got better."
Shader shook her head no. "Not really, not really. His legions triiiied, but they got weaker each time and then he kept getting hurt again before they fully recovered. And he kept getting sick. That made it worse. He got sick more because his legions were sick, and you just don't have the ability to give him enough astral for them to stay healthy." She lifted a finger, showing a smudge of black on it. "They're shutting down now. That's what he was coughing up last night. Dead legions." She peered at her finger curiously. "I thought they were, but I wasn't sure at first because my microscope was one of the first things they packed and they'd already taken it to the airport and I had to guess and I hate guessing. Guesses suck. Him going back to demon really showed it. They reverted to their default state, so bam, he went demon, and of course that took more astral and he didn't have enough and he died."
Rosette swallowed, heavily, suddenly having to sit down. Her heart felt like someone had shoved a spike in it. Chrno's legions were dying? "But you know what this is," she said to her. "You know what to do. What would they do for this in Pandemonium?"
The cat shrugged. "Euthanize him."
She didn't recognize the word. "What does that mean?"
"Kill him."
Rosette surged out of the chair, not noticing as Joshua grabbed her arm, trying to calm her down. The airplane was rumbling, starting to move out to the runway, and she thought distantly that it was a good thing as it meant she wouldn't have to tear the pilot's head off.
"You can't kill Chrno!"
Shader rolled her eyes. "Like I have the ingredients for the injection with me here. Sheesh!"
Rosette looked down at Chrno. He was pale, but she could see his chest rising. He didn't seem to have the faintest idea they were talking about him. "Can you save him?" she whimpered. "Is he going to die?"
"I don't know," the cat admitted, her ears drooping. She was reacting to her misery, Rosette realised, unhappy because her master was. "If I can get a tank up, I can put him in there, but it'll take days to assemble and reset them. Which I told everyone but oh no, they insisted. He might last that long, if we're lucky and he stays real quiet. And if we keep his astral levels high enough. Enough astral can do just about anything for a demon."
Rosette nodded, studying her intently. "But the tank can heal him?"
"Given enough time in it. I think. I've never used them to rebuild a demon's legion supplies before. It's easier to replace them, but I can't actually make legions. They only create new copies inside a host they're programmed for, or in Pandemonium's vats."
So he just needed lots of astral and new legions. Rosette looked at the cat intently. "Is there somewhere else that a demon can get legions?"
---000---
Father Remington walked into Sister Kate's old office with a great sense of trepidation. It had been cleaned out while they were gone, the window replaced and the walls replastered where they'd been damaged. Her desk was even there, more scratched than before, but intact.
It felt wrong to be there, wrong that it wasn't Sister Kate. He wasn't a leader, he was just a militia member who liked his freedom and taking risks. He wasn't the type to be in charge of a massive organization of people.
Only, there was no one else. Not now and likely not for a while. Whether he wanted it or not, the office was his and he'd be doing Kate's memory no favours by letting the work she'd started slide while he regretted the loss of his freedom. She'd lost a great deal more.
Slowly, he crossed the room and sat down behind the desk, finding the chair as uncomfortable as he'd always imagined it. He sighed again and looked at the work piled on the desk. He wasn't even sure where to start. At the top, he supposed. Taking the first folder off the pile, he opened it and started to read.
An hour later, the phone rang. His eyes already aching, Remington lifted his head from his work and picked up the receiver. "Father Remington here… Oh, hello, Joshua. How are you…?" He listened and all the blood ran out of his face. "Yes, we'll be there. When are you landing…? We'll be there. Tell him I'm praying for him."
Remington hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment before he stood and hurried out to get everyone moving.
He hated this job.
---000---
The airplane landed with delicate smoothness, barely sending a ripple of discomfort through its passengers. In the main body of the plane, the passengers sat crowded together, not daring to speak and risk waking the demon in the first class cabin, not after the last man who voiced his protests ended up thrown across the cabin by a golden winged monster dressed like a nun. As the plane landed, they sighed, hoping that this meant it would be over soon, but still they didn't speak, all of them afraid to.
In the first class cabin, Joshua lifted his head as the plane touched down. He'd dozed off, Azmaria asleep with her head in his lap, and he looked across the cabin at his sister.
She was still sitting where he'd last seen her, beside Chrno's makeshift bed with a long tube running from her arm to his. Shader sat on the other side, doing the same thing to Chrno's other arm. She'd told them all that the transfusion was only temporary, that their legions wouldn't accept Chrno's body and would shut down in a matter of days themselves, but it was better than nothing. He even looked a little better and hadn't had a coughing fit where he hacked up black gunk for hours.
Rosette was asleep, her head resting on Chrno's chair next to his. He'd turned his own head towards hers and they looked so peaceful together that he had to smile. He'd figured out pretty quickly that they were lovers, but hadn't been entirely sure how to react to it. Chrno was the little boy who played tag and went fishing with them. It was hard to imagine his big sister doing that with him. He didn't appear nearly so innocent in his demon form, but they did look like they belonged together. They were happy, so happy he felt a little bit like a third wheel. For his sister's sake, Joshua really hoped that Chrno lived.
The plane taxied, slowing, and Shader looked towards him for a moment, her eyes sparkling. He had no idea how she could be so cheerful all of the time, but she was. He supposed it was just natural for her. "I think we're here," she said optimistically and Rosette woke.
"What?" she asked, looking around. Her attention returned to Chrno immediately and Shader checked his pulse. "Is he okay?"
"Nope. But he isn't any worse, so I guess he's better." The cat grinned at her and checked the tubes. Shaking Azmaria awake first, Joshua went to join them.
"I wish I could just heal him," he said wistfully.
"Nope, nope," Shader told him, shaking her head. "I tooold you. It just makes his legions work harder. They don't like that. He's gonna have to do this the long way." She patted Chrno on the head, making him groan, and cringed before Rosette could get angry at her. "Sorry!"
Rosette just glared, apparently unaware of how intimidating she looked, even with her hair mussed and drool on her chin. "I'm not going to beat you, Shader. It's jake."
The plane stopped and there were mechanical chunking sounds. Joshua started towards the hatch, wondering if he should open it, and it opened on its own. Immediately, Father Remington stepped inside, accompanied by militia.
"Father!" Azmaria cheered, running up to hug him. He smiled down at her and looked at Rosette.
"How is he?"
"Sleeping," she answered sombrely. "His legions are failing, Father. We need Shader's tanks."
"Then we'll have to reassemble them." He gestured and the men moved forward. Without waking him or disturbing the tubes, they transferred Chrno to a gurney and took him out of the airplane, Rosette and Shader scrambling to keep close enough. The priest looked at Joshua. "You said it was close."
Joshua shuddered. "He was gone, Father. For real gone. He died right in front of me." He looked away. "He died in front of Rosette. Shader brought him back, but he needs help."
"Then he'll get it. He's one of us." He stroked Azmaria's hair and pushed her back so he could take her hand instead and lead her out of the plane. With only a glance through the curtain at the rest of the plane's passengers, Joshua followed them.
---000---
The night sky was beautiful, clear and full of stars. Rosette sat on the stone bench outside the women's barracks, which still served as the Order's hospital after the original infirmary was destroyed in the fight against the Sinners. Staring upwards at the stars, she tried to calm her mind and her breathing, focusing on drawing in as much astral as she could. Her horns ached, but she didn't care. The more astral she and Shader could collect, the more they could give Chrno.
The cat demon didn't even have to focus on it. Her horns were nearly six inches long. She didn't have next to useless stubs like Rosette did. She could give Chrno more astral in one kiss than Rosette could in a dozen.
Tears burned her eyes, but she wiped them away and focused. Draw in astral, draw in astral…
Joshua walked out of the barracks and over to her, sitting down at her side. He was carrying two coffee cups and handed her one. Rosette took it gratefully, her focus lost again.
"Thanks," she said.
"No problem." He sipped his own coffee, looking upwards at the stars. "It's a beautiful night out."
"It is," she agreed. It made her want to weep again, since Chrno couldn't see it. Shader had him heavily sedated to lower his astral draw as much as she could. He was still in demon form, making Rosette's astral even more important. She closed her eyes and focused. Draw in astral…
"I can see the astral line from here," Joshua told her suddenly.
Rosette started, losing her focus again, and stared at him. "You can?"
He nodded thoughtfully. "I could sometimes, before. Now I can all the time. A leftover present from those horns, I suppose. It's running right along there." He pointed upwards and drew his finger along the skyline, right over their heads. "It's beautiful."
Rosette stared along the way he was pointing, but couldn't see anything. "I can't see it."
"It's there." He smiled contentedly. "I like being able to look at it. It's calming." He sipped his coffee. "Do you remember when we were kids, and Chrno told us that story about how everyone who dies goes up to the astral line and becomes part of it, like some sort of great big ocean?"
Rosette's lip started to tremble and she had to put her cup down before she spilled it. Joshua looked at her and realized what he'd said. "Oh! Rosette, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that, I wasn't thinking!"
With a sob, she flung herself against him, crying hysterically. "Oh, Joshua! I don't want him to die! I don't ever want him to die! But I'm so scared!"
Joshua held his sister tightly, whispering promises he wasn't sure of and that she didn't hear.
"It's not fair!" she wailed. "We went through so much to find you! He got hurt all those times helping me find you! It's all my fault! He did whatever I wanted him to!" She was crying so hard she could barely breathe. "He always did what I wanted him to! Now I have you back and he's dying. Why can't I have you both at once? What did I do that I can't have both my brother and my lover?? Does God hate me?"
"He doesn't hate you," Joshua promised her. "Maybe… maybe it's just Chrno's time."
"No! I won't let him go!"
Joshua tightened his grip on his sister. He didn't like the thought of Chrno leaving them either, but if he died and Rosette didn't accept it, it would destroy her.
"Is that necessarily the best thing for Chrno?" he asked instead.
She pulled back and looked at him. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged, looking up at the astral line that only he could see. "He'll hold on forever for you if he can, no matter how much it hurts. Maybe the best thing for him now is not to hold on." He looked down at her and sighed, wiping her cheeks free of tears. "I don't know the answer. I just know he's in pain."
"He is?" she whispered.
"Yeah. I can feel it whenever I'm near him." Chrno was locked on her, unable to let go and knowing on some level he was letting her down. He tried not to, but he had no control over what his legions did anymore. "He's suffering."
Her eyes filled again. "How will I ever survive without him?"
"I don't know. But I'll help you. We all will."
---000---
Shader's healing tanks were half assembled, the cat and a whole team of militia scientists working insanely long hours to get them working again. Rosette watched them for a time, thinking, and finally went to see Chrno.
He was lying in one of the barrack rooms, surrounded by Shader's machines. Something she called an IV dripped something else she called saline into him and somehow, a tube leading to his forearm kept him asleep. He was ashen, his ears drooping and his wings strapped to his sides. More tubes were up his nose and a mask over his face did his breathing for him. The machines beeped softly, working steadily. Life support, Shader had called it. Chrno would have died again already without it and the cat's ears flattened every time she looked at the monitors, before she went back out again and redoubled her efforts with the tanks.
Rosette didn't know what the monitors meant. She walked up to his bed and stared at him before looking at the man sitting in the corner near his head. "What are you doing here, Father?" she asked.
Remington lifted a bible in his lap. "Just in case I'm needed," he told her softly.
Last rites. Rosette had to swallow hard. "T-thank you," she managed and went to kneel on the other side of Chrno's bed.
"Chrno," she whispered. "Can you hear me?" She couldn't tell. Even his mind was closed to her. "I wanted to see you. I wanted to tell you I love you." She bit her lip, her voice thickening. "And I wanted you to know, if you can't stay here any longer, it's okay for you to go."
She started to cry again and choked it down. "I mean it, Chrno, don't you stay here for me. We'll try and get the tanks running and I'm working real hard to get enough astral for you… I wish I had enough astral. I wish I had horns three miles long so I could have enough for you."
"How much astral does he need?" Remington asked quietly. "I thought he needed the tank."
Rosette looked over the bed at him. "More than me and Shader have," she said. "I don't know how much. Shader said his legions could heal themselves if they got enough."
"Oh," he said. "That's interesting."
Not really caring what he thought, Rosette turned back to Chrno, laying her head on his chest and trying not to cry anymore as the priest left the room, looking for Shader.
---000---
Chrno was back on the train. He sat there dazedly, not really thinking about anything as it rattled along, shaking him gently. There wasn't much to see, the outside as filled with mist as the inside, and while there were other people there, they were all cloaked and he couldn't see anyone's faces. Nor did they speak. Everyone just sat there in silence.
Where were they going? he wondered, and how long had he been there? He couldn't remember. He couldn't really remember much of anything, or quite figure out what roused him. It was crying, he thought slowly. He could hear a woman crying.
Rosette was crying. Chrno snapped up, suddenly aware again, and he stared in bafflement at the train car he was in. It was peaceful there, so much so he was tempted to relax once more, but he could hear Rosette, wailing, and he ran out into the aisle, looking for her. More people were out there, all cloaked, but he could still hear her, echoing in the mist all around them.
"Rosette," he shouted. "Rosette, where are you?" Wings flaring, he ran down the aisle, dodging around other passengers and struggling to see through the mist. "Rosette!"
"She's not here. You're hearing the memory of her."
Chrno spun at the sound of the soft voice, his tail rising defensively. A small, cloaked figure stood before him, her pale hands folded demurely before her. "What?" He knew that voice.
"Its just your own mind resisting, Chrno. Rosette has given you your freedom to go."
She lifted her hands, pulling the hood back, and he stared at Mary's serene face, his eyes widening.
"Where am I going?" he whispered. Oh, God in Heaven, Mary…
She stepped forward and put a hand on the cross that lay on his bare chest. "Home, Chrno. It's time for you to come home. I've missed you."
Chrno shuddered, hardly able to breathe. "Am I dead?" he asked her, frightened, and he wrapped his wings around himself at her shrug.
"You're halfway between life and death. Closer to here now than there." She smiled again. "The train will be stopping soon. I stayed on it to wait for you."
"I never meant for you to die," he whispered, reaching out to touch her cheek.
She leaned into it. "It was my fate, I told you that. I'm just happy I got to know you, and to help you." She'd stripped his ties to Aion, died on him and left him masterless and alone, sleeping for fifty years in a tomb until Rosette found him. He shuddered again, still loving her, still wanting her touch in his mind that had been so soft he didn't even recognize it was there until the end. For a short time, she had been his entire world and he stepped closer to her.
"I missed you, Mary."
"Chrno!"
Surprised, Chrno looked up and gasped. Sister Kate stood behind Mary, glaring at him sternly. "You shouldn't be here," she snapped at him. "You're God's warrior. You're needed back there." She pointed towards the rear of the train. It was close, the door that led outside closed.
"It's time for you to come home," Mary countered, stroking his cheek. "Aion is defeated. You can stay with me."
"You need to go back!"
Chrno cried out, torn. Both were his masters, both had died with him draining their lives. He owed them both his life and his soul.
But he hadn't died for them.
"Rosette!" he cried, bolting past them for the door Kate had indicated. He didn't go for her, but for his blonde demon lover. Neither woman tried to stop him and he shot a look back over his shoulder to see he'd left some part of himself behind after all. An image of himself in his adult form stood before Mary, bending down to accept her embrace while a boy stood half behind Kate, looking up at her obediently. His love for them and his guilt died on the train while the rest of him crashed through the rear door and leaped, wings spreading out for an eternity into the mist.
---000---
Shader looked like she was about to have an orgasm.
Shaking and squealing, the cat demon checked and rechecked the settings on the Elder's astral dialysis machine, babbling on non-stop about how brilliant it was.
"Do you have any idea how long I tried to come up with a way to gather astral? Soul gems, pocket watches, they're nothing! This makes it! It makes more than Pandemonium herself can draw and it's all mechanical! It's brilliant!" She clapped her hands together and actually shrieked, spinning in a circle. "I spent years trying to research this for Aion! It couldn't be done, I told him. Nope, couldn't be done. But it's here! And it's all mine mine mine! When can I meet this Elder? If I were human, I think I'd want to have his babies. Yup, lots of bald, brilliant babies."
Remington watched her bemusedly, not really knowing what to say to her, or entirely sure he'd get the device back. When he heard Rosette say that Chrno needed astral, he thought immediately about the dialysis machine the Elder had been using to suppress his own legions for the last half century. It had never occurred to him that it could be used on Chrno.
Apparently it could give him more than the tanks would on their own. He laid on his front on the padded table, stripped to his waist with dozens of wires imbedded into his back, each spot they touched on his skin glowing as they flushed his system. The setting was far higher than anything Remington had undergone and he knew how painful the process usually was, but Chrno was still sedated, his face covered by an oxygen mask. Rosette sat by his head, stroking his long ears and looking at Remington periodically with a look of gratitude so deep it made him uncomfortable. If he'd thought about it, he could have shared the machine with them months ago. Chrno could have avoided his dependency on Rosette entirely.
Well, not entirely, he thought as he watched her kiss his forehead. He'd have to have a talk with Rosette soon, one even Kate had been putting off.
"What's happening with his Legions?" she asked the scientist and Shader's antics stopped while she checked the monitors.
"Betterish," she said. "Too soon to tell. His astral levels are way, way healthy high. The legions are just kind of sitting there, resting. There's not a lot of them left. Too few, much too few. Fifty years of abuse on them all. It'll take a looong time for them to regenerate to what they should be." She peered at the demon. "I still want to put him in the tank, yup, I do. Let him sleep. When they're rested, they'll start regenerating themselves. I need to figure out how to hook this up to the tanks, yes indeedy." She grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and started scribbling, muttering to herself. Giggling a little insanely, she trotted off towards the wall, where she started to write on the paint.
Remington looked down at Rosette. "How are you doing?" he asked her.
"Me? Like it's going to be worthwhile getting up tomorrow." She leaned her cheek against Chrno's head.
"He could be in the tank a long time," the priest pointed out.
"It doesn't matter, as long as I know he's coming out again." Rosette put a hand to her lover's neck, feeling the steady beat there. "I can wait."
---000---
The tanks took up half the pavilion that had been hastily erected to hold them, the other side filled with machinery and monitors. Work was already slated to begin on a lab around it all, even before the barracks were finished or the new administration building started. For now though, it was a hazardous mess, with cables hanging everywhere or snaking across the ground, threatening to trip people, while the lighting was horrific, casting frightening shadows on the canvas walls that seemed to move.
Azmaria was frightened by it, but Rosette didn't care. She held Chrno's hand while he slid under the legion-filled, astral-enriched goo in one of Shader's tanks. He still slept, his legion count too low to risk any strain on him, and while she wished she could tell him goodbye, Rosette didn't argue. She settled for kissing his palm and whispering good night before she let the hand drift under to join the rest of the sleeping demon. The lid closed, sealing with a final boom. Chrno was a shadowed shape inside, drifting on a motionless tide.
Joshua took her hand and she smiled at him briefly before looking back at her lover. He'd given her everything, even his life, and she owed him for all of it. She wouldn't let him sacrifice himself for her again. She might have been his master, but she refused to make him her slave.
"Shader," she called. The cat demon looked up. "I have an order for you. I'll have the same for Chrno later. You are never to hide your pain or unhappiness from me. If you don't like a command, you're to tell me. If you're sick or hurt, you're to tell me. At all times, you are to remember you're an individual, not a slave, and you will be granted as much freedom as you need. Do you understand?"
Shader's ears wriggled in confusion. "Um, yes?"
"Good." Rosette put a hand on Chrno's tank, whispering to him, and finally turned. With one arm around Joshua and the other around Azmaria, she led them out into the sunlight.
THE END