Chapter 5: A Friend's Advice

Haruna awoke staring at the ceiling. She was in a ship, however instead of lying on the cold metal floor, she was placed with care in a comfortable seat. She rubbed her head, wondering what was going on before her memory returned and she jumped up out of the seat, frantically looking around. There were red chain marks on her skin, but the worst of the damage had already been healed. She then noticed where she was.

"Yuriko's...?" She said to herself as she looked around.

It was then she saw Yuriko herself, who was sitting in the corner of the room, still. Haruna walked over to her, concerned considering what she remembered happening.

"Yuriko, are you okay? It's me, Haruna, I'm okay." She said, and placed a hand on her shoulder lightly.

Yuriko turned around to face her. Her face looked a little redder than usual, but the most unusual thing was the tears dripping down her face. This was a face full of emotion, a face full of relief, anger and confusion. Haruna quickly realised what must have happened whilst she had been unconscious.

"Yuriko...you came back for me? You're crying too..." Haruna said, then hugged the crying girl, "You let yourself feel, didn't you? For the first time..."

Yuriko spoke for the first time since the event, her voice shaky as more tears ran down her face.

"I did...when I saw you like that...there was something...I just couldn't..." Yuriko sobbed between her words.

"Shh...it's okay now..." Haruna said, tightening the hug, "How do you feel?"

"I'm not sure...I think I feel...relieved, but angry at...her..." Yuriko replied, wiping her tears away.

"You just need to get used to feelings...you'll become accustomed to them soon, okay? Is there anything I can do to help?" Haruna asked.

"Two things...can you answer two questions for me?" Yuriko said, looking up at Haruna.

"Of course, what are they?" Haruna replied.

"Where do I go now, a-and...how do I deal with...guilt?" Yuriko returned the hug, wrapping her arms around Haruna."

Haruna was a little surprised at first, but soon smiled at her and held her close to comfort her.

"You can come with me, back to the Rebelli-" Haruna started, but was cut off.

"I can't go there! Not after what I've done!" Shouted Yuriko, starting to tear up again. "You're working against the Fleet, and I'm fine with that...but after everything I've done to humans, and after everything humans have done to me...I can't help at a place that's working for them!"

"We're not working for humanity...we're working for peace between the Fog and humanity. You can come with us...and you can help us take down that rotten Flagship!" Haruna tried to persuade.

Yuriko was thinking about a lot of things, and it wasn't hard to notice. However, what wasn't easy to know was what she was thinking about. After almost a minute of silence, Yuriko made up her mind.

"You can go back to that base, but I can't go there, I'm sorry." She said, a hint of sadness in her voice as she stood up, breaking the hug.

"I suppose I can't force you..." Haruna replied, clearly sad about it too, "Just...remember that no matter what happens, you can call me and I'll be right there. After all, I'm your friend!"

"Friend? I have a...friend?" Yuriko looked right at her, "Yes...and I'm your friend too, so don't get hurt like that ever again, okay?"

Even Haruna was surprised at how the experience had changed Yuriko. She looked different, and even sounded different. Her face and voice both had clear emotion in them. She'd even accepted the human idea of having a friend.

With a final goodbye hug, Haruna left the room. Around a minute later, Yuriko watched the large ship that was her first friend sail away, with Haruna on deck and waving at her. As Yuriko waved back, she felt happy for the first time in her long life. It was all thanks to giving in to feelings that she'd experienced this. Even if it was the result of comfort from sadness, it had still allowed her to feel happy in the end.

However, she knew it wasn't the end, it was far from it.

-1 Day Later-

The battleship Haruna docked at the Rebellion base after a long journey. After hopping onto land, Haruna was greeted by something that made her smile. Makie ran over to her, dragging the teddy bear Kirishima behind her.

"Haruharu!" The girl shouted as she leapt into Haruna, practically tackle hugging her.

"Makie...it's so good to see you..." She smiled and hugged her.

"Where have you been all this time? I was really worried after Youtarou told me you went off with a strange girl, what happened?" Makie asked, looking up at her.

As she was about to answer, somebody else spoke first.

"It's good to have you back, Haruna. I'm glad you're unharmed." The voice said.

Haruna recognised the voice instantly, as it was Iona.

"Thanks, Iona. Everything worked out in the end, so thanks for keeping the others away for me." Haruna said, looking over at Iona.

"Well we did make a promise, and I'm glad we both kept it. We should discuss what happened out there with the others." The light-blue haired girl said.

"Of course...if you get everyone else to the meeting room, I'll bring Makie there." Haruna replied.

Iona nodded and headed off to bring the other mental models who were at the base to the meeting room. In the meantime, Haruna took Makie's hand to bring her to the meeting room.

"It's nice to have all of my friends back again!" Giggled Makie, looking at both Haruna and 'Youtarou'.

"Yeah, it's good to see you, Haruna." The teddy spoke up.

"You too, Youtarou." Said Haruna, holding back a little laughter.

"It's Kirishima!" She waved her free arm around in frustration, the other being held by Makie.

"I know, I know...it was your choice to stay like that, though. I'm glad you stayed to comfort Makie, thanks." Said Haruna, giving her a little smile.

Soon, everyone was sat in the small meeting room of the Rebellion base. At the head of the table was Iona and Gunzou, who were representing the crew of I-401. In other seats sat Takao, Hyuga, Kirishima and Makie. Haruna was stood up at the other end of the table.

The meeting began, and Haruna explained everything that had happened with Yuriko to the other mental models. The only parts that were left out were the parts she was unconscious or away for. After explaining everything, Haruna sat down next to Makie.

"So what you're saying is, that girl is no longer allied with anyone, but she's allowed herself to feel, and you're friends? Well...I think I speak for everyone when I say it's a relief you managed to get back safely. I was pretty worried when I heard you were helping her steal our stuff. You could have just asked, you know?" Kirishima said first.

"And that Flagship is gonna be a real pain to deal with! Why don't we just team up and blast it away already?" Takao suggested.

"We no longer have enough nanomaterials to fix anyone else, we can't just lead an assault on a Flagship that powerful." Iona replied.

"Well you think that, but I wanna hear what Gunzou thinks of it!" Takao said.

"I think Iona's right. We can't just charge in, we need to plan it out. We have the advantage here with this new potential comrade, don't we?" said Gunzou.

"I agree with that!" Takao quickly said.

"Didn't you disagree with it just a minute ago?" Iona said, looking at her.

"Of course not! You must be imagining things!" Takao replied, looking quite flustered.

"Riiiiiiight...but how do we know we can trust this Yuriko girl?" Asked Hyuga.

"Trust me, she's changed. When we need her, she'll be happy to help." Haruna concluded.

It was then that a loud alarm sounded through the base, and they all stood up in surprise.

"We're under attack!"