12 hours had gone by since Ayano Komichi was declared deceased.
When extraction personnel arrived on Site-4, the arriving medical teams did whatever they could to assist the joint-operation's survivors. Aiko had been found lying unconscious amidst the wreckage of Team-04's vehicle. Emergency responders were able to stabilize her injuries.
The same could not be said for Komichi's condition. Even with the advanced facilities which were available within their submarine base's med-bays, her wounds were deemed beyond their capabilities to save her. Komichi's passing was confirmed only about an hour after the team's return to the docked vessel.
Once S.O.N.G. began the process of securing Site-4, the bodies of Clan Hida's missing operatives were discovered near the crash site of the intercepted Illuminati escape craft. Neither Kagami nor Tsuchiya were willing to discuss the physical state of their fallen warriors. Their reports only informed them that investigations were still in the midst of uncovering whatever they could find within the targeted Illuminati hideouts. Kagami didn't even bother to spare Lanfen any words when they crossed paths with each other back in the submarine. She was already preoccupied with readying the deceased for their eventual burials. A momentary stare was the only thing Lanfen received from the redhead.
At some point, Tomosato and Fujitaka had recommended for Lanfen to get some rest in the barracks.
But it was impossible to fall asleep.
Every time Lanfen attempted to close her eyes, she would always proceed to wake up in a cold sweat.
Her hands could never feel free of the ichor that had stained them either. It did not matter how many times Lanfen stood underneath the hot waters of a running shower-head. By the time she managed to drag herself out onto the corridors again, Lanfen's fingernails had already left deep, reddish marks on the palms beneath her gloved hands. Nothing could provide the Symphogear-Wielder any opportunities to distract herself with. Not when the Distortions remained absent from their sensor readings. And especially not when Lanfen herself was on standby as a result of her inability to follow orders. Her unauthorized usage of the S.W.O.R.D. was reportedly being overlooked on the basis of providing 'valuable information', at least.
In time, Lanfen found herself standing before the vessel's morgue at the end of an empty corridor.
It would only take the Adaptor five steps forward for the sliding door to automatically open up. And yet, Lanfen felt her boots practically anchor her to where she stood, all while Lanfen bit down on her chapped lips until bright crimson was shed. It had been some time since she last felt the coppery taste of blood on her tongue. "I'm sorry," were the words she desired to whisper, but Lanfen instead choked back on the plea, and began reaching for a small, square-shaped device which was hooked on to her belt. A micro-player. The Christmas gift that Komichi had gifted her just yesterday. Through a tap of its projected holo-interface, a pair of wireless earbuds switched on, providing Lanfen one simple avenue to drown out her auditory senses with.
As a small exhale slipped between Lanfen's bleeding lips, soft rhythmic tunes began pouring out of her earbuds. With each gentle beat which entered her ears like water droplets from a drizzle of rain, Lanfen could feel her five senses disassociating themselves from her surroundings, sealing the Adaptor within a small, protective bubble for her to truly process last night's events.
Had Lanfen not disobeyed her orders, there was a chance that Komichi would still be here. Had Lanfen not disobeyed her orders, Aiko would not be lying unconscious in the med-bay all by herself. But even then, such pointless thoughts gave Lanfen no reassurance, because she knew that her inaction still would have resulted in Yuki's own death. Caressing the micro-player on her belt with one gloved hand, Lanfen leaned against the corridor's hand-railing, and wordlessly wondered if she even deserved to continue holding on to Komichi's present like this. She had sworn to herself that she would become a Wielder everyone - and anyone - could rely on. And now, here she was, standing atop a pedestal of corpses and empty promises.
Lanfen shifted her sore, reddish eyes to lay its blurry sights on the nearby entrance again. Yuki had not stepped outside of the morgue ever since she entered it alongside Kagami. Yuki had not spoken a single word ever since she witnessed Komichi's body being carried into an arriving helicopter either.
The Adaptor soon detected movement within the corner of her eye along with a resounding thumping of shoes against the metal flooring. Gazing down the corridor behind her, Lanfen took notice of an approaching Professor Elfnein while the teenage researcher's hands tentatively grasped on to her chemical-stained lab-coat. A quick tap of a holo-prompt halted the stream of ambient music within Lanfen's ears. She also made sure to take off her earbuds as a gesture of etiquette before pushing herself off the cold hand-railing. The sharp bow Lanfen promptly gave to the arriving girl could not have been more forced than if she tried.
"Good afternoon, Professor." Lanfen's tone was hush. She cared little about the fresh blood on her lips. "I take it that you needed something of me?"
The Professor's answer came with a shake of the head and a timid folding of her hands behind the young girl's back. "I simply wanted to check on you, Cassandra," Professor Elfnein stated while she casted a brief gaze at the closed door behind Lanfen. "I had... heard... about what occurred last night. You have my condolences. Komichi was... a rather splendid person, wasn't she?" The Professor's quiet musings received only the smallest of nods. "The rest of the Wielders have also just received the news. Hibiki especially wanted to know how you were doing," Professor Elfnein carefully elaborated, providing little surprise with her gentle words.
Being stationed all the way in America could never stop Tachibana from worrying about what went on with all the other members of the Adaptor Corps.
"I'm fine," Lanfen insisted purely out of reflex as a sword-hand grasped her belt-buckle, tightening its aching fingers around the chamber where her pendant was securely kept. The crimson pendant which should have kept the operation from turning out the way it did. Lanfen didn't even bother to wonder if Professor Elfnein actually believed her words. The teenage girl's bright eyes told her everything. "Professor," Lanfen slowly began again, even when her bleeding lips were beginning to sting, "have Komichi's parents... been made aware of what happened...?"
A hasty shift of the topic was the only action Lanfen could think of. Especially when Komichi was the only person in Team-04 who still had a family to regularly associate with.
Lowering a pensive gaze down to her black shoes, Professor Elfnein pressed the tips of her fingers against one another before momentarily closing her eyes. "Commander Genjuuro will be personally informing them once he has settled a meeting with the world council," she quietly explained. "Ogawa is already handling the matters related to her passing."
It was the exact same thing like back then, Lanfen thought to herself, unable to forget the circumstances surrounding her own parents' deaths. Monetary compensation and government aid were the standard measures to be applied whenever a S.O.N.G. operative lost their life in the line of duty. Lanfen and Kai-Ming would not have been able to live practically by themselves if it weren't for such procedures. With a slight twitch in her aching fingers, the Adaptor slowly reached into her uniform's pockets, and carefully drew out her smartphone in the palm of her hand, causing a slight jingle to resonate from the toy that was attached to the device by a chain. Lanfen's sights could barely maintain a consistent focus on the swinging object amidst her swirling thoughts.
Kai-Ming was gone. Komichi was gone. And the ones responsible for their deaths were both nowhere to be found.
Before either Lanfen or Professor Elfnein could exchange any more words, a firm voice from down the corridor made itself known. "Miss Jiang?"
Precise footfalls followed, prompting Lanfen and the Professor to subsequently notice a blonde man marching over to them with a data-pad held underneath one arm. It was Tsuchiya Kagero. Despite maintaining a formal composure that a personal aide of Commander Genjuuro was typically expected to don, it was not difficult for even Lanfen to sense Tsuchiya's disquiet beneath his mask of utter calm. After halting a few steps away from the awaiting pair, the man held one arm across his chest and greeted them with a quick bow of the head.
"My apologies if I am interrupting anything, Professor," Tsuchiya said, still holding on to formalities, "but I wish to speak with Miss Jiang regarding our findings surrounding the Illuminati sites."
Professor Elfnein returned the polite bow in kind before glancing back at a hush Lanfen with a small smile. "I will be undertaking a check-up on your pendant later on, Cassandra," Professor Elfnein informed her, placing a pair of hands inside the pockets of her lab-coat. "Please head to my office once I've sent a request for your presence, okay?" Once the Adaptor responded with a curt nod of the head, the Professor bid the woman a gentle farewell, and began making her presence sparse within the vessel's corridors.
It only took a full minute for her footsteps to completely disappear from earshot. Tightening a gloved hand around her smartphone, Lanfen turned back to Tsuchiya, and immediately noticed the way his eyes directed themselves towards the morgue's closed door. Nothing else about the man physically needed to indicate just what he was enduring behind his calm demeanour. The silence which hovered in the air while they stood in the corridor said everything. Although Lanfen was unfamiliar with the names of the Hida operatives who had lost their lives, she did not doubt the possibility that Tsuchiya knew them all to an extent. Thus, the Wielder was the first to break the ongoing silence between them. Lanfen only did so after sliding her smartphone back into her pockets.
"What do you have to report, Tsuchiya?" Her voice was still barely above a hoarse whisper.
Tsuchiya answered with a data-pad held in one hand after calmly fixing his suit's unkempt collar. "Judging from what our investigators have reported, three out of the five sites we struck last night had their databases purged of information before we could secure each hideout," he explained, sounding formal as ever. "They are currently looking into the remaining two, but our teams at Site-3 and Site-5 will require some time to complete the decryption of their findings."
Lanfen listened on to Tsuchiya's expected report while a pair of gloved fingertips brushed themselves against the micro-player on her belt again. The politeness of the conversation was honestly unusual. Four of Tsuchiya's ex-colleagues were in the morgue because of her. And yet, the man did not even seem the least bit interested in reprimanding her for last night's casualties. Instead, Tsuchiya typed away on his ringing data-pad, manifesting holograms which displayed either incoming digital reports or scanned photographs of the Illuminati sites. The blonde man's swift motions temporarily halted only so Tsuchiya could take a slight detour from his report on the current situation.
"I would suggest that you maintain your focus on those who are still with us, Miss Jiang," he said without needing to avert his eyes from his data-pad's projected information. "I'm certain that's what Miss Ayano would have wanted as well."
Lanfen practically flinched at his words. Upon registering Tsuchiya's advice with a practiced breath, Lanfen pursed her bleeding lips and attempted to rest a palm on her hip. The shift in her posture was then interrupted when she sensed a warm sensation suddenly trailing down her cheek. "... Dammit," Lanfen muttered before wiping at the scarred skin with the back of her hand. She was quick to click her tongue at what now stained her gloves: Teardrops. Lanfen initially assumed she had already run dry of such things. After wiping her face using her uniform's monochrome tie this time, Lanfen sharply exhaled and gritted her teeth. "What else is there to report?"
This time, Tsuchiya visibly tensed. The change in his stance was brief but noticeable. "The coroners are currently investigating the bodies of our fallen." He projected a particular report from his data-pad and ran his gaze through the entire thing within seconds. "Even after our operatives had finished scouring the entirety of Site-4's estimated perimeter, it would appear that one of Miss Ayano's belongings still remains missing." Tsuchiya's report made Lanfen narrow her reddish eyes. "It's her handphone," he elaborated. "We are unable to track its current location nor make any contact with it."
Crossing a pair of arms over her aching chest, Lanfen was about to wonder what this could even mean when Tsuchiya suddenly motioned to hand the woman his data-pad.
"There's also one more thing," he soon added, now fixating a focused gaze directly on the Adaptor. "Precisely ten minutes ago, an investigation team managed to extract surveillance footage directly from Site-4's security systems. It was the only footage left behind. And if our assumptions are correct-" There was a brief, almost uncharacteristic pause in his words. "-We may have identified the person responsible for Miss Ayano's passing."
Lanfen felt her sword-hand immediately twitching at her side before she used its aching fingers to grasp Tsuchiya's electronic device. Taking care to not damage the delicate item within her tightened grip, the Adaptor could not ignore the sensation of flickering fires behind her purple eyes.
It was faint. But it was there. And its warmth only became more apparent while the data-pad proceeded to open up a recently-transmitted video file.
The surveillance footage played out through a single holo-display. Through the view of this specific security camera, Lanfen and Tsuchiya could see the main gates of the Illuminati mansion standing tall up ahead with its iron entrance sealed shut. The time-stamp placed this recording as having occurred right after the Hida operatives accomplished their strike against the hideout's occupants. The camera's sweeping view also allowed them to view the edges of a lingering Alca-Noise Barrier. Initially, its lenses detected nothing within the vicinity of the courtyard. Not even the Hida operatives while they presumably began their chase of an escaping Illuminati vehicle. But upon the passing of a full minute, an electrical alarm arose from the gates, clearly signaling its imminent parting.
Accompanied by the creaking of sluggish metal, the tall gates fully slid to the sides, leaving the courtyard's entrance completely unobstructed. The sheer amount of snow on the ground concealed whatever roads laid underneath the blankets of pure white.
Lanfen practically waited with bated breath for whomever she was about to lay her narrowed sights on. The first thing that caught the Adaptor's attention turned out to be a glimmer of light reflecting off silver metal.
And then, came the approach of a tall, slender silhouette. Striding right into the mansion's snowy grounds was an individual who possessed no regard for the freezing winter winds. A firearm of shining chrome was held in one hand, all while the rays of a hovering, ringed moon constantly reflected off their silver weapon's shimmering allure. The very moment the figure took their first steps into the blanketed courtyard, the glow of the lamp posts around the area washed over their ichor-stained body, perfectly illuminating their form with dim yellow until there was nothing left to the imagination. Lanfen drew in a sharp breath right as all the words on her tongue evaporated. It could not be.
It cannot be.
But it was her.
Their diamond-patterned suit and flowing, azure hair could not pinpoint their identity to anyone else. The serene smile which subsequently directed itself right at the observing camera lens was a blood-chilling sight that Lanfen had witnessed before, both in real life, and within the farthest reaches of her darkest dreams. It was her. The person who had granted Lanfen a crystal which now laid within the confines of her monochrome belt-buckle.
The one who was responsible for placing Lanfen on the path of an Adaptor from the very beginning.
And the very individual who had saved Lanfen's life on the night of the global attack.
"... Is this what's become of you, Proto-Zero?"
As the muffled buzzing of an intercom registered within Aiko's stirring senses, she drew a lungful of air and lightly winced at the light that was falling onto her eyelids. Every extension of her body felt heavy. A proverbial fog practically obfuscated her mind. And any memories of how Aiko ended up where she was - wherever it could even be - were nonexistent. Breathing in the cold air once more, Aiko focused on the tender fabric beneath her fingertips along with the soft object which her head laid itself on. Recognition subsequently became the first coherent thought process within her mind, because the earliest memories she could manifest pinpointed these sensations to one possible location.
When Aiko's eyelids managed to finally pull themselves open, she was greeted by the familiar ceiling of a patient room within a submarine's medical bay. It was just like that night. The one night in which Aiko first met her acquaintance with everyone she now knew.
The slightest shift of her aching head allowed Aiko to see that she had the entire room all to herself. Stationed beside her reclining bed was a mobile stand which held on to a bag of IV fluid by means of a metal hook. The bag's tubing - as one would expect - had been inserted into Aiko's right hand. Arrays of medical equipment could also be seen placed around her room, but she paid them no heed, and instead nursed her sore temples with the heavy fingers of her other hand. Whatever fog still lingered around the spinning gears of Aiko's mental comprehension made it impossible to even remember why she was suddenly in the med-bay of all places.
The medical wraps around her arms, legs, and torso were palpable beneath her patient's garb. Shifting around in her bed did not conjure any semblances of pain, but Aiko still refrained from making any considerable movements while she pulled herself up into a sitting position. Upon turning her golden eyes over to a bedside drawer, Aiko spotted her belongings all seated neatly atop the wooden furniture. This included items that she initially believed to have stored within her personal locker. Aiko's monochrome scarf was the first thing she spotted. Sitting on its sides were her smartphone and lucky charm respectively. Aside from the belongings which had been gifted to her by Aiko's teammates, the silver-haired woman couldn't help but tilt her head at the strange absence of her wrist device.
For now, Aiko brushed off the thought and simply motioned to don her black-and-white scarf. Since its monochrome fabric had been personally woven by Lanfen's own delicate hands, she made sure to secure it around her neck with care before grabbing her smartphone to check the current time. A subsequent scan of Aiko's thumbprint was the only thing it required for the digital lock to be bypassed with a confirmatory ring.
2049, December 26th
2:32 PM.
Aiko cupped her pale cheek with one hand after reading the displayed clock.
The last thing her cloudy mind could remember was seeing everyone working together to tune up their vehicle for an upcoming operation. The wallpaper of Aiko's smartphone was visual proof of it, because the moment she switched on her device, Aiko was greeted by a picture of Lanfen, herself, Komichi, and Yuki all standing in front of the team's van. Each of them were clad in their S.O.N.G. uniforms and the small smile that Lanfen could be seen wearing made the entire image a cherished memory just by itself. As Aiko fixated her glimmering eyes on her smartphone's wallpaper, she combed her silver hair with one hand, and subsequently perked her ears at the sound of a ringing noise from the room's entrance.
Someone was about to head inside. Expecting to see one of the medical-bay's dutiful staff members, Aiko placed her smartphone next to her charm again on the bedside drawer before preparing a few questions regarding the whereabouts of her absent teammates. She simply felt that it took priority over finding out the severity of her current condition.
But when the door to the room proceeded to slide open, Aiko felt all of her readied questions slipping right through her grasp.
The person who stood beneath the open door-frame turned out to be Lanfen herself. She was wearing a wrinkled uniform of the Adaptor Corps and her gloved hands were visibly tightened into clenched fists at her sides. And yet, what caught Aiko's attention first and foremost were her eyes. Lanfen's purple eyes always carried a faint sense of melancholy behind them. It was the first thing Aiko noticed during their first ever meeting. But now, what she witnessed before her could only be described as a gaze which was utterly devoid of focus. Even when the Wielder's sights slowly met with Aiko's own widening eyes, Lanfen's expression seemingly shifted just so she could muster an obvious façade of placidity.
"Lanfen?" Aiko worriedly called out to her. "Is there- What's wrong?" She was at a complete loss for what to even begin with.
After slowly loosening up a pair of gloved hands at her sides, Lanfen stepped into the room, allowing the door behind her to quietly close back up. The thumping of the Adaptor's boots against the floor did not possess even a hint of their usual vigour. "Tsuchiya provided me with a report of the situation just now," Lanfen quietly stated, running a brief but concerned gaze over the medical wraps on both of Aiko's arms. "There's... something you need to be aware of, Aiko." A distinct twitch visibly coursed through the fingers on Lanfen's right hand. "It's important."
Aiko found it difficult to recall a time where the Adaptor's voice ever sounded so distant. Although most strangers would still regard Lanfen as a woman who preferred keeping her proverbial cards close to her chest, every moment they had spent together thus far typically provided Aiko with glimpses to be made aware of what she hid beneath the convenience of an emotional shield. Aiko herself was almost no different when it came to concealing her worries. So, when she witnessed Lanfen wordlessly walking over to the foot of her bed, Aiko couldn't help but sense as if there were ten different barriers standing between them all of a sudden. Walls that the Wielder herself clearly did not wish to continue holding up for much longer.
While Lanfen slowly leaned against the cold railing of a reclining bed, Aiko watched on as the Adaptor avoided her concerned gaze by facing Aiko with the rear of an Adaptor Corps' winter jacket. A pair of bare hands soon grasped on to the chrome railing after Lanfen accomplished the motions of removing her uniform's gloves. If the Symphogear-Wielder was about to speak, Aiko could not tell due to her complete inability to directly lay her sights on Lanfen's face. The proverbial distance between them had never once felt this vast. Not even when the pair exchanged their first ever conversation in a room which was identical to this one.
"Lanfen...?" Aiko tentatively called out to her again, already noticing the way the woman's hands were shivering around the bed's railing. "Please, tell me what happened." She made sure to choose her words carefully. "How did I even end up-?"
Lanfen visibly quivered right before a shaky breath audibly escaped her. The Adaptor's grip around the metal railing only grew tighter. It was to the point that the knuckles on both of her bare hands were turning into a stressful white.
The sheer faintness of Lanfen's subsequent words made it almost impossible to even hear her. "She's gone," the woman stated, still facing Aiko with the back of her uniform. "Komichi is gone, Aiko."
Aiko blinked and tightly interlocked her shivering fingers with one another. "'Gone'...?" she stuttered, pursing her lips together. "What is that supposed to mean...?" Seeds of concern were starting to sow themselves within Aiko's pounding chest. "Aren't we supposed to-?"
Abruptly releasing her hold on the railing of Aiko's reclining bed, Lanfen audibly drew in a trembling breath before uttering a stream of words which were hardly discernible even with the surrounding silence. She then began to slowly turn around, finally allowing Aiko to witness the bits of teardrops that lingered in the corners of the woman's eyes. Whatever words Aiko initially intended to utter next were immediately lost. "I'm sorry, Aiko," Lanfen muttered between her lips. "The doctors couldn't save her. And neither could I."
The palpable pain within those hush syllables was the final thing Aiko required to register just what she was trying to tell her. There was nothing around them to obscure even one bit of Lanfen's words. Akin to the final pieces of an unfinished puzzle, the woman's statement slipped into Aiko's mind, fixing a single, essential point for absolutely everything to come together right before her golden eyes.
In the span of a heartbeat, Aiko began to remember. She remembered how she had received the wounds on her arms, legs, and torso. How Symphogear Team-04 had been deployed on a mission in the dead of a snowy night. And how she had survived an encounter with a pale, golden-eyed woman of azure who gleefully took the lives of their allies. Aiko could not react in any way other than to draw in a sharp breath after digging her aching fingers deep into the bed's blanket. The pounding of her sinking heart could be felt all while it plunged into the deepest pits of her stomach. There were no possible words for Aiko to even respond with, because it was her very own wrist communicator which had provided Komichi's location directly to the enemy.
At the end of it all, Aiko had survived - purely through means she still could not fathom - while Komichi ended up paying for Aiko's mistakes with her own life.
By the time she noticed the sound of teardrops falling onto her blanket, a stream of warm tears had already begun flowing down Aiko's cheeks, far faster than she could even control them.
It wasn't fair. None of this was fair. And there wasn't anything Aiko could do to ever fix it. Her only possible action was to slowly wipe away at her tears as she attempted to utter the faintest of apologies for her lone failure.
Eventually, Aiko felt a pair of arms slowly wrap around her, hesitantly pulling her into a tight hug while Aiko buried her face within the comforts of Lanfen's shoulder. Her flowing tears quickly stained the woman's winter uniform. The Symphogear-Wielder was trembling just like Aiko. And even though she felt completely undeserving of this gentle embrace, Aiko did not hesitate to return the gesture by wrapping her own arms around Lanfen's waist. Her ears could faintly hear Lanfen desperately repeating a stream of hush apologies as the Adaptor sat down on one side of the bed. Aiko desired to utter the same thing, but nothing would come out of her other than the stifled cries she was struggling to hold back.
Their tightening embrace lasted for an amount of time that neither of them cared to track.
They held on to each other for as long as Aiko desired, and their arms only began to loosen just so Aiko could better draw the room's air into her pounding chest. The echoes of their heartbeats sounded as if they were in sync. But even though the warmth which radiated from Lanfen gave Aiko little reason to actually let go, a part of her subconsciously knew that there were still matters for Aiko to inquire about. Once Aiko felt the trembling in her arms slowly weaken into the mildest of shivers, she stifled one last cry, and hesitantly pulled her face away from Lanfen's warm shoulder. What felt like the remnants of Aiko's tears were wiped away by the sleeve of her patient's robe while Lanfen retained a gentle hold around the silver-haired woman.
"Yuki," Aiko carefully whispered, already sensing the rising fear within her chest again. "Where is...?" Upon gazing at the forlorn Adaptor beneath a concealing fringe of silver, Aiko saw the way Lanfen pondered about her answer before she clicked her tongue.
"She's with Kagami and the others," Lanfen steadily answered, directing a tired gaze on Aiko and her alone. "They're still paying their respects to those we lost last night."
Although relieved to hear of Yuki's successful rescue from the Alca-Noise Barrier, Aiko could not begin to fathom what Yuki could possibly be going through right now. Few had known Komichi for as long as Yuki did. And even if such a woman was no stranger to experiencing the results of death, it was obvious from a shared look at one another that both Lanfen and Aiko remained concerned for her well-being. They were supposed to be a team, after all. Unfortunately, whatever words either of them were about to say next would go unspoken. The ringing announcement of someone's imminent entry had just been declared from a terminal beside the room door.
Lanfen motioned to take her arms off completely, but Aiko insistently kept her within their loose embrace by gently returning her own arms around the Adaptor's waist. Thus, when the door slid open to one side for Tsuchiya Kagero's entry into the room, the blonde man was greeted by the sight of Aiko still holding on to Lanfen for some measure of comfort. Tsuchiya gave little in the way of a reaction other than a respectful bow before he made his way inside with a data-pad held underneath one arm. When the door closed itself shut, the man stood to attention and brought up a holo-display from the device in his grasp.
"I am assuming that you've already briefed Miss Shinonome about what had occurred?" Tsuchiya carefully asked of Lanfen, earning him a small nod while Aiko wordlessly glanced at the lucky charm which sat atop her bedside drawer. It had barely been a day since Komichi presented it to Aiko. "... I see. I apologize if this may be inconvenient, but this is unfortunately an urgent matter we have to undertake." He turned to Aiko this time and held one hand across his chest. "You have my condolences for Miss Ayano's passing, Miss Shinonome, but I currently need to inquire several questions regarding what happened during last night's operation. Would that be alright with you?"
Aiko only answered after giving herself a chance to bury the lower half of her face within the monochrome scarf around her neck. If there was still any way for her to provide any assistance in a situation like this, Aiko could not pass up on it. Not after her first ever mission as a field operator. "I have no objections, Tsuchiya."
"Very well then," Tsuchiya said before turning back to Lanfen once again, data-pad placed back underneath one arm. "On another note, I had been told that Miss Godai would like to meet with you on the observation deck, Miss Jiang," he added with his usual formalities. "She stated that she will be there in precisely twenty minutes."
It was only when the two heard this announcement did Lanfen and Aiko finally release their hold on one another. With Yuki's personal well-being on the forefront of her mind, Aiko gestured for Lanfen to go ahead and meet with her as Lanfen carefully got up from the side of the woman's reclining bed. Her purple eyes proceeded to linger on Aiko for just a brief moment. "If anything comes up, contact me," Lanfen requested of her, prompting Aiko to wordlessly respond by manifesting a small smile of reassurance. "I'm... glad you're alright, Aiko," she steadily added, momentarily donning a grin which was still tinged with sorrow.
Tsuchiya promptly stepped out of the way for Lanfen to take her leave. The Adaptor did so after donning her uniform's gloves along with her usual expression of melancholy. Making sure to first provide a thankful bow towards the blonde man, Lanfen soon disappeared behind the sliding door, leaving Aiko to her own devices while the silver-haired woman huddled her legs close to chest beneath the cover of a thick, warm blanket. Last night had been Aiko's first attempt at becoming a protector of this world, and yet, she could not call it anything else other than a complete failure.
"I cannot apologize enough for my performance, Tsuchiya," Aiko whispered beneath the returning silence.
Tsuchiya simply shook his head and sighed. "I assure you that nothing could have prepared yourself for such an opponent, Miss Shinonome." The frustration within the blonde man's voice was barely disguised. "I've already witnessed what Miss Ayano's killer had done to my comrades, and I cannot be convinced that they are anything but a monster in human form."