VIDEO FILE 10613992132411

TRANSCRIBER: INTERN ID 914205181402

And we're back at it! The footage picks back up a while after the split between D1/D2 and D4. It's fully dark, and Amar (D1) and Katsuo (D1) are just now crashing onto a cloud platform to rest. Except it's less like they're crashing and more like Amar is dragging him down.

"You have to let me look at it," she insists.

"Amar-"

"Stop arguing with me for once and let me help you, Katsuo!"

Either he realizes she's upset about this, or he's in a lot of pain, or maybe both, but he stops arguing with her.

She forces him to sit down and takes his bag off his shoulders before she starts to look at the arrow in his wound. "Kat…"

He won't look at her. His eyes are on his leg. "It's not that deep."

"Yes it is." She starts rummaging through the bag she escaped with, pulling out bandages after a few seconds.

"I can fix it myself," Katsuo mumbles.

"Shut up," Amar says. "You definitely need stitches."

"I-"

"Katsuo," she says very sternly. "You don't have an option. I'm going to take the arrow out and clean and stitch your leg. If you do it, you'll be in pain and not thinking clearly and fuck it up, and I'm not letting you do that. Bite down on something."

He gives her a long look, but follows her directions and puts part of his shirt sleeve in his mouth.

"Three, two-" and then before she gets to one, she yanks the arrow out.

She was smart to tell him to bite on something, because the shirt sleeve muffles a noise that's something between a screech and a groan. It doesn't sound pleasant.

"Okay, time to clean," she says. "Or actually let's stop the bleeding first. You feeling okay?"

"No!"

She puts pressure on his calf. "Do you want a distraction?"

He narrows his eyes at her. "Depends."

"I have some knock-knock jokes."

"Then no."

"Uh… oh, this is funny. Tanith told me why they flipped on us," she tells him.

"Why?"

"She said that they thought we were gonna flip first."

He frowns. "We hadn't even planned much."

"They thought we were too close and just assumed," she answers.

"That's stupid."

"Is it?" she asks. "I don't know, Kat."

"It is. They were being paranoid," he says.

"You don't think we're close?" she asks.

He hesitates. She lets up on his leg for a moment to check the bleeding, and he winces. "I don't know."

She pauses for a moment, and everything is quiet. "Did you ever figure out why Carina was my off-limits topic?"

His eyes widen a little bit. "No. I mean, I figured there was something, because I saw you sparring with her sometimes, but… no."

"She's my sister. She's a year younger than us. But you already know that," she says.

"Yes."

"She doesn't like me very much. She hasn't for a long time," Amar says, and her voice starts to get quieter. She keeps her eyes on her work, though. "Not since the divorce."

"How long ago was that?" he asks.

"Eleven, twelve years ago?" she answers. "Dad got custody of me. Mom got custody of Carina. And it was really, really ugly. I don't know if your parents divorced, since I know you have a stepmom, but when my parents split everything was a fight. And they always wanted to win."

"No divorce," he tells her. "My biological parents weren't married."

"We weren't that lucky," Amar says. "I thought my parents would stop fighting once everything was settled, but they didn't. They started pitting me and Carina against each other, you know? They wanted to outdo each other. Prove they got the better daughter."

"Oh."

"I didn't really care about that. I just wanted to see Mom and Carina. But it… it was like Mom stopped loving me after I went with Dad. And Carina didn't remember as much before the divorce stuff as I did. Whatever Mom told her, she believed. Mom wanted her to beat me at whatever we did. They kept putting me and Carina in the same activities and telling us to be better than the other one. And I didn't care about that stuff, but Carina did."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah…" she says. "And then, you know… Dad puts me in training, so Mom has to put Carina in training, and you know how the Academy is."

He nods. "Competitive."

"Ruthless, too," she says. "They literally rank us all the time. And there's been all the, like, sabotaging bullshit lately. Which you would know about."

"I never started anything," Katsuo mutters.

"You sure did end it," Amar says, smiling a little bit. "I just tried to stay out of it."

"In case Carina went after you?"

"She never did," she replies. "She's always been pretty clear about wanting to beat me, though."

"Did she?"

"Once."

He eyes her for a minute. "Did she legitimately beat you?"

Amar sighs. "I just wanted her to be happy. It was the only time I ever saw her smile."

"Ah."

"Yeah… I just didn't know any other way to be there for her anymore."

"But you only did it once."

She shrugs. "Dad was furious. I was afraid of risking it."

"Oh."

"But I always kind of thought you and Carina would get along," she continues. "Or you'd hate each other. You both hate my jokes, at least."

Katsuo looks like he's having some sort of lightbulb moment, but he stays quiet.

"So, yeah. We kept training. The Academy is the only place I see her anymore, honestly. And then I got picked, and Dad was so happy, and Carina and Mom were so mad… I don't know. I kind of hoped they'd be at least a little bit proud. Or respect that I earned the spot. They didn't."

"Wow."

"Sorry, I know that's sort of a lot," Amar says. "You didn't want jokes, though."

"That's true," Katsuo says.

"Okay. I think I'm gonna try to stitch it up now."

"In the dark?" he asks.

"I know we have a flashlight in here somewhere," Amar says. "And the stars are pretty bright!"

"They are," he admits, glancing upward.

After another minute or so, she finds her flashlight. She hands it to Katsuo. "If you could hold this for me, that would be great."

He nods and takes it, pointing the beam of light down at his calf. Honestly, it still looks really gross. His whole lower pant leg is soaked in blood. What a waste of good pants! Thank Snow I'm not a doctor, because I wouldn't be able to handle ruining my clothes all day long. Katsuo himself still looks pale, and his skin is definitely a little oily after six days in the arena, but at least he's managed to avoid any sunburns.

"I need to concentrate," Amar says, "so I'm going to stop talking now."

"Okay."

"You can talk if you want, though," she says. "For a distraction."

He nods, and she starts threading the needle.

She's two stitches in before he talks again. "I used to have another friend."

Her head jerks up. For a moment, they just sort of stare at each other, like Katsuo took both himself and Amar off guard. Finally, Amar says, "Did they have a name?"

Katsuo pulls his uninjured leg closer, hugging his knee to his chest. "Hideo," he mumbles. "But I haven't seen him in four years."

"That's a long time."

"Yeah." He watches her for about ten seconds. "I don't know where he went. He just… left one day. He always used to say that he wanted to see the world, but no one knew where he went, or no one would tell me, and he never came back. I haven't seen him since."

"I'm sorry, Kat," Amar says. "That's really hard."

He rests his chin on top of his knee. "I, um… I think it's… I think he left because I kissed him."

"Oh," Amar says, looking up from her next stitch.

He starts talking really fast. "And I was so fucking nervous about it, because I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't want to ask Mother or Asaki about it, because it's not like they would've given a shit anyway, but then I did it and I thought it was okay because he kissed me back but then the next day he was gone."

It's hard to tell, because it's pretty dark, but the stars are giving enough light here that I think I can see tears in Katsuo's eyes.

"Your mother wouldn't have cared?" Amar asks.

"Of course not," he says. It kind of sounds like he wants to laugh. "She only cares about how good I make her look. She's not the feeling type."

Amar quickly completes another stitch. "Have you told anyone this before?"

He glances up. "No?"

"For four years, you've been keeping that to yourself?"

He shrugs. "There wasn't anyone to tell."

They're quiet for another few minutes while Amar keeps working. Then, she sets her needle and thread down. "All done."

Katsuo visibly relaxes. "Good."

"Just one more thing," she says.

"That's not what 'all done' means, then-"

Amar scoots over to Katsuo and throws her arms around him. Katsuo stiffens, and Amar rests her chin on his shoulder and squeezes him. It takes a full minute, but eventually he pats her back. It's a little awkward. I can tell he doesn't really know what to do.

Amar pulls away. "Thanks for telling me."

He's still at a loss, and her saying that clearly doesn't help.

"And thanks for being there for me, too," she adds.

He nods very slowly. "Me too."

She smiles and pats his shoulder. "Long day, huh? How are you feeling?"

He glances at his leg. "I… I'm not sure."

"How about I take first watch, and you sleep for a bit?" she suggests.

"That's fine," he says.

She pulls her ax out and starts cleaning Tanith's blood off of it while Katsuo makes himself comfortable. It's a little tricky, because he has to elevate his leg, but he seems to figure it out okay. By the time Amar says goodnight, he's already asleep. Then the footage ends.