Bedtime Riddle

(Set after Episode 7)

Being an assassin meant being a light sleeper, amongst many other things. That was why Tokaku woke up immediately when she felt her sheets being pulled back, automatically reaching for her knife until she smelled sunlight and green meadows and sweet living things.

"Ichinose what are you doing?" she demanded, voice scratchy with irritation. Didn't this girl have any idea of how dangerous it was to sneak up on a sleeping assassin?

"Couldn't sleep," was all Haru said, getting into Tokaku's bed as if this was an entirely normal thing to do; despite the fact that she'd never done it before, despite the fact that Tokaku certainly hadn't invited her.

The insistent press of an unfamiliar body forced Tokaku to shift over and make room almost before she knew what she was doing. There was an awkward moment of knees and elbows clashing as they got comfortable, with Haru ending up close enough to wrap her arms around Tokaku's waist and steal half her pillow to boot.

Belatedly, she asked, "this is okay, right?"

Tokaku levelled an incredulous look at the apparently sleeping girl. Why bother asking once she'd already done it? She huffed, non-committal. Did sharing her bed on demand come under the remit of her role as protector? The longer this went on, the more difficulty Tokaku was having in keeping the boundary clear between being Haru's protector and being her…What? Ally? Friend?

Would Haru's scent make her ache like this if she was just a friend?

"It's fine," she said, accepting after some uncomfortable squirming that there was nowhere for her arms to go besides around the girl currently occupying every part of her normally inviolate personal space.

No part of this was fine; not in the least little bit. But if this was what Haru needed in order to sleep, Tokaku couldn't throw her out. A well-rested Haru was a Haru with sharper reflexes who was more likely to survive.

And what if she does survive? Some part of her whispered. What will happen then? Will she still be climbing into your bed, seeking solace in the arms of an assassin?

It was a useless thought, and Tokaku pushed it away.

"Ichinose."

"What?"

"Today was close. Too close. You should prepare yourself for the fact that I might not make it next time."

"Takaku-san won't die."

"I might," said Tokaku. "We need to think about what your strategy will be if that happens."

"Haru doesn't want to think about things like that. It's too sad."

"Well, if I died for you, I'd be pissed off if you didn't survive after all, so listen!"

Haru's eyes snapped open in surprise and looked into hers. "Okay," she whispered, in a voice that was slightly unsteady.

Tokaku sighed. "If I…stop being around, you should stay with the teacher as much as possible. Bother him outside of class. The others aren't allowed to involve him; you should be safe as long as you're with him.

"At night, don't go anywhere, especially not by yourself, and especially not with any Class Black members. Just lock yourself into this room and booby trap the door. I can show you how to do it, so you'll have warning if anyone tries to get in."

Haru frowned unhappily. "Haru doesn't want to live like that."

"Then you might not get the choice to live at all."

"Haru won't die. Neither will Tokaku-san. You'll see."

"That's just wishful thinking," Tokaku said, her eyes skittering away nervously from the soft smile Haru was giving her, and whatever it might mean.

"I don't want people dying for me. I don't want you dying for me. Haru wants to live and be friends with everyone."

"How can you possibly believe that's going to happen?" Tokaku heard the frustration creeping into her own voice. It drove her to distraction that Haru could persist in thinking such patently untrue things.

"It will happen."

"You're foolish."

"We survived today, right?"

"There's still tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after that."

"Tokaku-san changed her mind about killing Haru. Some of the others might still do the same."

They wouldn't, Tokaku knew. Assassins weren't sentimental. They didn't have feelings for the targets they killed. They couldn't afford to. Feelings led to disaster. Feelings led to crazy situations like this; an assassin in bed with her target trying to keep her alive.

Executing mission she'd sent to Kaiba when she started protecting Haru, but exactly what mission was she executing here? And whose? Haru's? Her own?

"I won't," Tokaku whispered. "I won't ever hurt you. I won't let anyone touch you."

Protecting life was foreign to her. It was the opposite of everything she'd been trained to do. So why was it that killing this one cheerful girl was so unthinkable to her? Why did the thought of her death fill her with grief and anguish; she, who had hardly felt anything for years?

It was a riddle whose answer was terrifyingly obvious.

She remembered the soft press of lips against her own in a watery blue world and then wished she hadn't. There was no kiss of life that could save her.

I should have died in that cage today, she thought. Better to die in a cage than to live in one and never escape.

"Tokaku has a nice scent," Haru murmured, her eyes falling closed again. "Like a forest. I can smell trees and earth and the wind."

"What are you saying? No assassin has a scent like that. It's impossible."

"You are Haru's guardian, not an assassin. An assassin would not protect Haru, right?"

"I don't know," said Tokaku. "I don't know what I am anymore."

The desperate questioning of her own nature received no reply. Haru had already fallen asleep trustingly in her arms, which, if Tokaku had stopped and thought about it, would have provided a more thorough answer to her uncertainties than any words could.

In the sterile heart of the hive, Yuri Meichi observed all that happened with great interest via the hidden camera that Tokaku had missed in the bedroom.

"Haru has amazing power," she said approvingly. "To make even an Azuma forget what she is. Killing is in the lineage of that girl's blood, just as it is in yours."

She glanced sidelong at the sharp-toothed assassin who stood silently by her chair.

Nio made a face. "Yuri-sama, I wish you wouldn't watch them. I'll have nightmares from all that sweet talk."

The Chairperson chuckled. "There's a lesson to be learned from all this, Nio. What do you think it is?"

"Hmm. Assassins should not go to bed with their targets!" Nio guessed.

"Wrong," said Yuri, turning back to the monitor. "The lesson is that everybody wants to love someone. It's a natural human impulse. But for an assassin, love is the most unaffordable emotion of all. Every time an assassin kills, even if it's for the things she loves, they end up slipping further and further away from her. Will Tokaku destroy her own innocence, for the sake of this girl? Will she do it because she loves her, or because she hates her? Or to prove to herself what her true feelings are?" The Chairperson laughed, an unpleasant sound. "Ah, I do so love the years when we have a Class Black. They're always so entertaining!"

Not knowing they were being watched, Haru and Tokaku slept on, holding each other in the blue shadows of night.