-Faith, Love, and Forgiveness - Chapter Thirteen: Birthday-
Kaeda House - Twelve days later
Despite having shared a bed with Lucy the previous night, Kouta woke up to an empty bed.
After getting dressed, he walked into the kitchen to find Lucy and Yuka making lunch together.
"Heyyyyyyyyy..." he yawned.
"About time..." Yuka muttered.
Lucy looked over at Kouta and smiled, wearing a knee-length black and blue plaid skirt with a dark blue, long-sleeve top.
"We're almost done making lunch if you're hungry."
"Where'd Nana and Mayu go?"
Yuka looked over at Lucy. When it became obvious she wasn't going to answer, Yuka simply reminded him it was Sunday.
Kouta nodded, and dropped the subject. He knew his girlfriend absolutely despised Nana's 'Papa', though for the life of him, he wasn't sure why. Nana once said it was probably over a human friend of hers that was shot and later died.
After Nana and Mayu returned, the five of them sat down and had lunch together.
"Did Nyu really make this?" Mayu asked.
"She did, yes. How is it?" Yuka questioned.
"It tastes a lot like Nana's, but they're not burnt." Mayu said.
"Hey!"
Lucy grinned slightly, pretending she didn't hear the girls' conversation. She'd probably never admit it outloud, but she found cooking to be rather enjoyable, even if she was terrible at it. Yuka found trying to teach her infinitely easier than trying to teach Nana, mostly because she hadn't been confined in a lab all her life, and had the 'real world' experience that Nana didn't.
"After lunch, I'm going to go get my hair trimmed, then I'm stopping at the bakery on the way home. Do you guys want to come?" Yuka asked. Noticing the glare Kouta was giving her, she suddenly remembered the bakery errand was supposed to be a surprise. Nana's birthday was today, and they wanted to buy her a cake and surprise her with it.
"What are you getting at the bakery?" the Sipelit asked.
"Just some pies, that's all." Kouta answered.
Being aware of the surprise, Mayu opted to stay so she could take Wanta for a walk. As she expected, Nana offered to stay with her.
"Nyu, would you like to come?" Yuka asked, looking at the older Diclonius
"Sure."
Kouta knew she'd rather stay behind and spend time with him, but he was thankful for her efforts to be more sociable.
After lunch, the two women boarded the bus to their destination (more accurately, to the bus-stop closest to their destination): Haritoma Mall, in the nearby town of Haritoma.
"Why are we REALLY going to the bakery?" Lucy asked.
"We're getting a birthday cake for Nana."
"How do you know it's her birthday?"
"Honestly, we don't. She doesn't know when it is, so we're basically taking a guess."
Lucy nodded her head, "I imagine it's hard not to know something that basic."
"Does that mean you know yours?"
"It's August 6th, but I'm not sure about the year, only that it's close to Kouta's."
"That's not too far from mine, actually." Yuka pointed out.
"What kind of cake are you getting?" the Diclonius asked.
"I'm not sure. We would have just made her one, but we probably wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret." Yuka replied.
The driver announced their stop, and the girl's got up, continuing their conversation as they got off the bus and headed down the street.
Before long, the two women reached the shopping mall that held the salon Yuka wanted to go to. The pink-haired girl hadn't expected their destination to be inside of a large, crowded mall, but it was too late to change her mind about that now.
"When you said local salon I thought it was... well... not in a mall."
Yuka stopped and turned to her companion. "I'm sorry, I should have been a little more clear about it. Do you want to skip the salon? It's fine if you do, it won't bother me." she offered.
Lucy shook her head, "No, it's alright."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. It'll be fine." the Diclonius assured her.
Yuka smiled. "If you change your mind, tell me, ok?"
"Ok."
As they were walking in, Lucy was surprised to see how much bigger everything looked from the inside. The mall was a classic example of a building that looks small from the outside, but much larger from the inside. But this wasn't the only thing that surprised her.
"Is it always so crowded here?"
Yuka shook her head no. "There must be some kind of event going on. Are you still OK being here?"
"I'm fine. It was just unexpected, that's all."
Thankfully, the salon was close to the entrance they had come in. As they were walking, Yuka noticed her companion looking curiously at a row of old-fashion gum machines. The Diclonius knew what gum was, but had never seen it in coin-op dispensers before.
"What are those?"
"They're gumball machines. Come on, I'll show you how they work."
Leading her over to them, Yuka handed Lucy a couple of ¥100 coins. Putting a ¥100 coin of her own in one of them, she turned the metallic knob until it released a gumball.
"There. That's all there is to it." Yuka smiled.
Following her example, Lucy put a coin in and turned the knob.
"That's actually kinda neat. Do they make a lot of money with these?" she asked after getting up.
"I'm not sure, but I imagine the answer would probably be yes."
Lucy popped a gumball in her mouth at almost the same time Yuka did.
"I can see why." the pink-haired girl remarked. "There's got to be hundreds of kids walking by them every day."
When they reached their destination, Yuka went over to the counter to sign in, then sat down beside Lucy to wait her turn.
"This shouldn't take long. They're normally pretty quick here."
The two women talked about various things as they waited for Yuka's name to be called. The more time she spent with Yuka, the more her opinion of the brunette changed. They weren't "besties" by any stretch of the imagination, but over time, Lucy had come to think of her as a genuine friend, not just someone she lived with.
Unknown to her, Yuka had actually come to the same conclusion. At first, she didn't like how cold the Diclonius was to her, and she DEFINITELY didn't like being cut out of the loop about the pink-haired girl's relationship with Kouta. It was obvious that she and him were in love, yet both of them denied having a romantic relationship, and insisted they were just friends.
That was a pile of bullshit so high, you could hang-glide off of it. Not even Nana bought that one.
In hindsight, Yuka understood why they wouldn't tell her anything. She had been ridiculously possessive of Kouta, and the angry outbursts she exhibited when the two of them wanted to spend time alone, or cuddle, or share a bed (among other things) was plenty of reason not to tell her the truth.
Despite that, the Diclonius never refused to help out with chores or cooking, nor did she lock herself in her room and ignore everybody except Kouta. She willingly spent time socializing with the other residents of Kaeda House, be it through board games, or watching movies, or going with Mayu on her walks with Wanta.
If she was upset or depressed and needed someone to talk to, Lucy never blew her off or told her she didn't have time to listen. In some ways, the girl was a better friend to Yuka than Yuka was to her.
"I can't believe I'm just now noticing this, but what happened to your hair bow? Did you lose or forget it?" Yuka asked.
"No. I stopped wearing it after me and Kouta went to the zoo."
"Not to be nosy, but why?"
"Because I stopped caring about what people think of my horns. I have a family who accepts me the way I am, so why would I care what anyone else thinks?"
Yuka smiled and lightly squeezed the other girl's hand. "That's very brave of you."
"Thank you." Lucy smiled back.
After a few minutes, Yuka unexpectedly proposed they celebrate by getting her ears pierced.
"You didn't want to before because you didn't want anyone that close to your horns. Since you've stopped caring about that, what do you think of having it done before we go home?"
Nana had hers done recently, leaving Lucy the only girl at Kaeda House without pierced ears.
"Sure." Lucy agreed. Before the conversation could go any further, the brunette's name was called.
"Yuka? Is there a Yuka here?"
As she started to get up, Lucy asked her if she had a couple more ¥100 coins. Following Yuka's instructions, she retrieved them from a coin pouch and left the purse itself where it could easily be watched by Yuka. Leaving the salon, the Diclonius walked back to the row of machines.
It hadn't occurred to her at first that not all of the machine's contents were the same, and now that she was aware of this, the Diclonius Queen wanted to try a couple of the others.
She walked from one end of the row to the other, taking the time to read the various labels attached to the glass. The prices all seemed to be the same, so if she ended up getting something she didn't like, at least she wasn't out more than ¥100.
'Sour? Not really interested in that kind.' she thought to herself.
"Hey, cutie!"
'This one isn't gum, it's some kind of candy. It doesn't say anything about the taste though'.
"You got a tight little booty, you know that?"
'This looks like gum, but it's shaped like little squares.'
"Man, she straight up ignoring yo' ass!"
The pink-haired girl was aware that there were people laughing and talking behind her, but didn't know they were trying to get her attention until one of them walked up and started knocking on the machine she was looking at.
Turning around, she saw a group of men standing behind her. From what she could tell, they seemed a little too old to be teenagers. If she had to guess, she'd likely say early-twenties.
"What do you want?" she asked coldly. She might have made some pretty incredible progress towards being more "socially normal", but she still couldn't stand idiotic humans.
"It's all good, baby. I just wanted to holla-"
"I'm not your baby, and I already have a boyfriend." she interrupted. With that, she turned around and went back to checking out the rest of the machines.
She could hear them laughing and egging each other on, but ignored them. People like that didn't deserve her attention, and she just assumed they'd get bored and go bother someone else.
She finally made up her mind about which machines she wanted to try, deciding to go with the hard candy, and the square-shaped gum. As she bent over to collect her purchases, she felt a hand shoot up her skirt and grab her panty-covered ass, then heard the men laughing about it as if sexually assaulting a complete stranger in a crowded shopping mall was some kind of joke.
Lucy immediately retaliated with her vectors, hitting the man who had groped so hard, the impact knocked him nearly to the shops on the other side of the walkway. He would survive, but the amount of force in her vector's strike had broken his nose, jaw, and a few teeth, and knocked him out cold.
He'd definitely live through it, but there was a good chance he'd wish he hadn't.
Turning around, she said to the rest of the men, "Tell your friend he should really, REALLY think twice next time before getting grabby."
"W-What are you?" one of them asked fearfully as they started backing away from her.
"The wrong girl to fuck with."
With that, she popped some of the gum squares in her mouth and headed back to the salon.
Twenty minutes later, Yuka was finished and the girls were on their way out. By now, EMS and police had arrived to take the bloody ass-groper to the hospital.
"What happened here? Did he slip on something?" Yuka asked, to which Lucy just shrugged and replied with, "Maybe."
Yuka wasn't stupid, and since EMS was set up directly across from the gumball machines, it wasn't exactly hard to figure out that Lucy most likely had something to do with it.
"That's her! There she go!"
Turning around, the women saw police officers approaching them, followed by the men from earlier.
"I'm sorry to bother you ladies, but I need a moment of your time."
"No problem. How can we help?" Yuka asked.
The officer explained that one of the men had somehow been seriously injured, and that his friends were claiming the pink-haired girl had done it.
"Really? Well, as you can see, she's about... what, 45 kg's soaking wet? Does it look like she's strong enough to beat up a grown man who's easily thrice as big as her? Really?" Yuka asked.
"I told you this was a waste of time." one of the cops told the others.
"Man, she got a weapon! Check her ass, I bet you find one!"
Two of the officers just looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Miss, would it be alright if I searched you? We don't have to do this right here, and if you'd be more comfortable with a female officer, I'd be happy to call one." he asked. Judging from his tone, it was obvious he didn't believe a word of what he was being told.
"No need. You can do it yourself right here." Lucy told him cordially. Even after being told the search would be a little intrusive, her answer still didn't change. So, right there in the middle of the crowded mall, in plain view of hundreds of people, Lucy all but stripped. She removed her shoes, hiked her skirt up to expose her panties, and took her shirt completely off. When she tried to take off her bra, they declared the search was over and stopped her.
Lucy was getting a kick out of the whole ordeal. The more intrusive the search became, the more it embarrassed and flustered the police officer doing the searching. By the time they walked away, the men who accused her were getting arrested for making false accusations.
"So, what actually happened?" she asked.
"That pervert stuck his hand up my skirt and groped me."
"WHAT?! That little creep! No wonder you beat him up!"
Lucy smiled to herself. It wasn't really approval, but it wasn't really disapproval either.
Taikomi Jewelers - Ten minutes later
"Normally, I'd advise getting a simple stud or hoop, but this is going to look so good on you!"
Lucy sat across from what was clearly a high-school aged girl, about to get her ears pierced.
The Diclonius had no idea there were so many styles of earrings. The ones she decided to get were silver and pink crystal "dangle" type earrings. Holding them up to her ears, Lucy wasn't able to resist smiling at her reflection.
"Leave these in for twenty-four hours, ok? Rotate them now and then so they don't stick to your earlobe. After twenty-four hours, take them out and clean them with something mild. Put them back in, and repeat this cycle for three or four days. If they get sore or red, that's normal, don't worry about it unless they stay red and sore longer than a week."
Lucy nodded and held still so the girl could mark her earlobes with a fine-tip marker. She went behind the counter and came back with a small piercing gun. After moving her chair over next to Lucy's, she started sanitizing the equipment she was about to use.
"By the way, I LOVE your hairband!"
"It's not a hairband, they're horns."
The younger girl started laughing, but stopped when Yuka told her Lucy was serious. She took a closer look, then started yelling for her coworker.
"Esomi! Come here, you gotta see this!"
Yuka saw the look in Lucy's eyes and motioned for her to stay calm.
When the girl's coworker came out, the younger girl called her over, and the pink-haired girl found herself getting a much different reaction than what she received as a child.
"Holy shit! That is AWESOME!" Esomi exclaimed. Yuka giggled as she watched a flustered Lucy silently tolerate the two humans fawning over her. When the second girl left, the one doing the piercing apologized if they made her uncomfortable.
"It's... It's fine..."
When Yuka explained the Diclonius had been bullied over her horns as a child, the teenager smiled sympathetically at Lucy.
"I'm so sorry that happened. I'd have been happy to be your friend if I was there. Kids can be so damn cruel over the smallest things. Trust me, I know..."
When Yuka asked if she had horns too, the girl slid her chair back and pulled her long skirt up to reveal her prosthetic feet.
"I had a birth defect that caused my feet to be deformed. I had to use crutches just to learn to walk. Finally, a few years ago, I told my parents I'd rather just have them amputated than go through life having everyone make fun of me for using crutches all the time."
Now, Lucy was the one giving a sympathetic smile.
"Anyway... we're getting side-tracked." the human girl said. "You ready?"
Lucy nodded, and held still as her ears were pierced. After the human girl put her earrings in, she held up a mirror so the Diclonius could see her reflection. Seeing the bright smile on Lucy's face made both of the other girls smile with her.
"You look beautiful! You really do!" the younger girl said.
Lucy blushed, thanking her for the complement.
"I wonder if we can pierce your horns..." she teased.
Yuka and the pink-haired girl just laughed and thanked her again before they left.
Chie's Confections - Twenty minutes later
The bakery Yuka wanted to visit was only one block away from the mall, and took them only about fifteen minutes to walk there. This one was much bigger than the one Mayu used to stop at back when she was homeless, which was to be expected since that bakery was locally owned, and this one was part of a national chain.
As soon as they walked in, the Diclonius instantly regretted it.
"No, no, no! How many times do I have to dumb this down for you?!"
There stood Japanese-Karen in all her entitled glory. Yuka saw the look on Lucy's face and immediately knew it wasn't the first time she had run into the woman.
"Ma'am, we wrote exactly what you put down on the order form." an employee explained, even going as far as showing it to her to prove it was her error and not theirs.
"I don't have time for your excuses, just hurry up and fix it!"
"There's nothing TO fix! You wrote down, "Happy Birthday Ayane" right here in big letters, and if you look at your cake, you'll see that's exactly what we wrote."
"Are you saying it's my fault you can't read?! I want to speak to your manager!"
"I'm right here." the second employee said. "Like she just said, the words on the cake match what you wrote down on the form."
"What a bitch..." Yuka said quietly.
Lucy nodded in agreement. "We might as well take a look around while we're waiting."
"We're not letting you have it for free, ma'am. If you want, we can scrape off the top layer of icing and do it over again." the manager offered.
"Fine... but you'll be getting a call from my lawyer!"
The manager took the cake into the kitchen to "fix" it, and the first employee turned her attention to Yuka. "Hi, can I help you find something?" she asked nicely. "No thanks, we're just looking for the moment." Yuka replied.
As they were browsing, Japanese-Karen was impatiently drumming her fingers on the front counter, sighing dramatically as she waited for someone else to fix a problem that she caused in the first place.
Then, she heard the pink-haired girl's voice, and finally noticed the two women.
"Ugh! If it isn't the junkie slut with the stupid hair color!"
"Junkie slut"? Yuka asked.
"That's right! This little whore and her baby-daddy or whatever he was almost traumatized my child with their inappropriate sexual behavior! On a public BUS, of all places!"
Lucy stared coldly at the entitled bitch. "We kissed, that was all."
'So THIS is the woman Kouta was arguing with when they went to the zoo!' Yuka realized.
"Why haven't you dyed your hair back to your REAL color? Are you really that desperate for attention?!"
"Ma'am, pink IS her real hair color." Yuka offered.
"That's the same thing her so-called "boyfriend" said! Well, guess what, honey... Pink isn't a natural hair color! Do I look stupid to you?!" Japanese-Karen said. "I see you're still scrawny. Still having that eating disorder, huh?"
"Not everybody's diet is made of sugar and lard." Lucy replied.
Yuka fake-coughed and turned away so Japanese-Karen wouldn't see her struggling not to laugh at Lucy's comment. Both the Diclonius and Kouta had told her about the woman's poor behavior on the bus, and after running into her herself, Yuka believed everything they told her. This woman truly was an overbearing, nagging bitch with a major entitlement problem.
"I know you're on drugs, I can tell just by looking at you! Why are you even in here anyway? You're obviously too poor to afford anything they sell, so why don't you just go back to your low-income apartment? I shouldn't have to shop alongside a drugged-out slut like you!"
Lucy opened her mouth to tell the irate Karen off, but ironically, was beaten to the punch for the second time.
"Lady, if you don't quit harassing my customers, you'll be leaving here empty-handed." the manager warned. He had heard the nagging bitch from all the way in the back of the store, and had just about enough of her insults and poor behavior. "They weren't doing or saying anything to you, but you still came up to them and started running your mouth. Either quit bothering them, or leave."
Japanese-Karen huffed in irritation, but kept quiet and settled for giving Lucy a disapproving glare. As the manager returned to trying to "fix" her cake, the other employee came back to check on the girls.
"What do you think Nyu: Chocolate, Red Velvet, Peanut Butter, or Vanilla?"
Lucy honestly didn't really care, but went with Red Velvet since it was the only flavor she knew Nana hadn't tried yet.
Japanese-Karen snorted, but was ignored.
"Would you like add a message to it?" the other employee asked.
"Could you put 'Happy Birthday Nana' on it?"
"I'd be happy to." the girl replied. "By the way, I love your hairband." she added, giving Lucy a cheerful smile.
"It's not a hairband." she replied simply.
Yuka was a bit surprised at the pink-haired girl's newfound courage. She heard how badly the girl freaked out when her bow was stolen at the zoo, and that was pretty recently.
"Is it a hair ornament?"
"No, they're horns."
"For real?!"
For the second time that hour, Lucy patiently allowed a stranger to get a closer look at her horns. Just like the first two girls, this one had nothing but positive things to say about it.
It made her wonder where the hell girls like them were when she was a child and needed a little positively.
Japanese-Karen kept glaring at the two girls, but kept her mouth shut. This peacefully quiet atmosphere evaporated instantly as soon as the girl returned with their cake.
"What the hell?! I was here long before THEM, so why are they getting their cake first?!"
"They didn't screw up the order and then blame us for it."
"Excuse me?!"
Lucy snickered. The more time she spent outside of Kaeda House, the more she reconsidered her stance on humans being worthless.
"What are YOU laughing at?!" Japanese-Karen ranted.
"You." Lucy replied matter-of-factly. "You're so much older than me, and yet you still haven't learned to stop blaming others for your own mistakes."
Before things could get any worse than they already were, the manager returned with the newly repaired cake. The top-layer of frosting had been replaced, and it now read: "Happy Birthday Akane" just as requested.
Except...
"What is THIS?! You were supposed to write it in capital letters! CAPITAL LETTERS! You idiots couldn't even remember THAT?!"
"We're done. Take your cake and leave." the manager firmly answered.
"You know... It'd be a shame if she happened to trip while carrying that thing." Yuka quietly mentioned to her companion. "It sure would, wouldn't it?" Lucy replied with a mischievous smile on her face.
After more yelling and threats to sue, Japanese-Karen grabbed the cake and stormed out. As soon as the automatic doors opened, Lucy's vectors tripped her, sending her crashing to the floor with her face buried in the now completely ruined cake.
The two young women, both employees, and several bystanders who witnessed the event all started laughing at the same time. Without a word, Japanese-Karen got up, climbed inside of her overly-large SUV, and drove off, leaving the pile of frosting that used to be a cake behind.
Yuka and Lucy grinned at each other, then turned back to the employee to pay the bill.
"Don't worry about that, it's on us. I'm sorry you had to put up with that woman's abuse for so long." the manager announced. The girls thanked him, but when they turned to leave, he told them to wait, then went to get something put of the office.
When he returned, he handed Yuka a five-pack of movie tickets, explaining that the company was running a promotion that awarded customers tickets with the purchase of a three-tier or larger cake.
"They were supposed to be hers, but I think you deserve them more than she does."
Thanking him again, the girls left the bakery and were soon back at Kaeda House.
Four hours later
That night, Mayu managed to get Nana out of the house long enough to give them time to set up her surprise party. When the purple-haired girl was presented with the cake, she instantly burst into tears, touched that her family had gone through so much effort just for her. Before the cake was cut, Yuka had another surprise for the young Sipelit.
"What's a movie ticket?"
Having never gone to the movies before, Nana was a little bit confused about the concept of paying to see a film that could be seen for free if enough time had passed. After explaining to her it was more about the atmosphere than it was the movie, it didn't take her long to get the birthday girl excited about going.
"We'll go tomorrow night. That'll give you time to watch some previews and decide what you want to see. In the meantime..."
Yuka smiled playfully and sat down in a chair, calling the Sipelit over to her. Nana had teased Mayu about getting a birthday spanking on her birthday, and knew this was probably coming. With an embarrassed blush on her face, the Sipelit let Yuka guide her over her knee and give her a dozen or so light slaps over her clothes.
"How come Lucy didn't spanked on HER birthday?" Nana teased as Yuka helped her stand up.
"She's too old for that." Yuka grinned. "Although..."
"Don't even think about it."
As everyone laughed, Yuka started cutting slices of cake. Soon, they all migrated to the living room to eat cake and watch TV as a family. As usual, Kouta sat between Yuka and Lucy on the couch, while Nana and Mayu occupied the smaller sofa. As Yuka was telling them about what had happened at the bakery, a small scrolling blip at the bottom of the screen mentioned an incident of some kind at Haritoma Mall was being investigated by the police.
"Isn't that where you two went earlier?" Mayu asked.
Kouta had already been told about their little run-in, so he wasn't surprised when the news feed mentioned someone getting sent to the hospital with suspicious injuries.
"Why do I get the feeling Lucy had something to do with that?" Nana teased.
"Because she did." Kouta replied.
"What happened?"
"Some punk stuck his hand under her skirt and grabbed her ass, so she bitch-slapped him with a vector." Yuka explained. "Serves the little creep right."
Lucy smiled at the brunette in appreciation. It was nice having someone other than Kouta defend her "less than peaceful" actions.
"It wouldn't have happened if he'd kept his hands to himself." the pink-haired girl said. "Why the hell would you think it's ok to do something like that?"
"Some people are just stupid, I guess..." Kouta answered. "But on the bright side, at least you didn't put someone in a coma this time."
Sotetsu Inn - That same night
Meanwhile, the mood was quite different over on the other side of town.
With only three days left to live, Arakawa was an emotional wreck. The mousey scientist was lying in the bathtub, writing what was basically a combination of a confession, and a Last Will and Testament.
"I should've just stayed at the Institute. Being that disgusting man's "plaything" would have been better than being blown up..."
Every few minutes, she'd stop and cry for a bit, then continue writing.
"I leave all my worldly possessions to my cat... fuck, that's right, I don't HAVE a cat anymore."
She sighed deeply as she started over.
"I leave all my worldly possessions to... whoever cleans this room, I guess. To this person, I leave my black high heels, my three skirts, my blouses, my bras, panties, two pairs of my favorite stockings, my broken glasses... what else? Oh, the four cups of instant noodles I still have left, plus my six cans of Mountain Mist."
She signed and dated the page and put it aside so she could cry a little more. When she was done, she dried her hands and picked up her pen.
"I, Yoshino Arakawa, leave this document as my confession to whoever it concerns."
She went on to describe what happened up until the point she basically became Kakuzawa's prisoner.
"Director Kakuzawa became obsessed with finding the student that was with me when the body of his son was discovered. After several weeks without progress, he... began to punish my lack of results with sexual assault. First by himself, and then later by paying security staff members to... to do it so he could watch."
"A couple of months after the assaults began, it was reported that some of the remaining Diclonii would be allowed to testify against the Institute as part of an official investigation. When I was asked for my opinion on how to stop the Diclonii from testifying, it was my suggestion to stage an attempted escape and kill all those remaining under the pretense of preventing harm to the citizens of Kamakura."
"There was never an escape attempt, and the Diclonii were in no way a threat to the public. I just wanted to get in the Director's good graces in the hopes that doing so would help me escape the Institute."
"Just over a month ago, I requested to leave the facility to return to Kamakura and search for the second witness. Director Kakuzawa approved the request, but decided I'd have to under go surgery to plant a tracking device inside me. When I woke up after this procedure, I was told that a bomb had been placed inside me, and would be detonated in thirty days unless I was able to find the second witness."
"As I write this, I am on Day 27. I have no choice but to accept that I am going to die. Despite my efforts, I cannot locate the witness. I can't return to the Institute without him, and it was made clear to me that there would be no second chances."
"I deeply regret the decisions I've made, but it is too late. At least I can leave this confession so whoever finds it will know the truth."
-Yoshino Arakawa
After she got out, she toweled off, crawled in bed, and fell asleep. She had accepted that it was hopeless, and decided to just try and enjoy the time she had left.