Chapter 1: Together

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"I...I want to go back..."

Fuu looked up to see Hikaru choking back sobs. Like a true warrior, she fought the pain that threatened to overtake her being. Fuu knew this, they all felt the same way. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu. How she wished she could go back, wished for a second chance to set things right. To do something, anything, to atone for the terrible sins they had committed together.

...murderer...

The word rang in her head, steady as the pounding of her own pained heart beat, and for a moment, she slipped. The guilt, the anger, the pain overflowed her soul. The others felt it too, and soon they were hugging, clinging to each other for support in the peaceful, sunny observation deck of Tokyo tower. People were giving them strange looks. Fuu wished they would just go away. Hikaru was sobbing openly now, the words "go" and "back" spilling out of her mouth in senseless babble. Umi's eyes were dead, the fighting spirit pouring down her face in bright, crystal tears. Fuu couldn't bear it, couldn't bear to see them like this. Swallowing hard, she tested her voice...

"But we can't..."

It was almost a whisper, so quiet, Hikaru wasn't sure she'd heard her right. She looked up, startled, tears still falling from her face.

"Huh?"

Fuu took a deep breath, and cleared her throat, trying her best to sound like her usual self.

"We can't go back, Hikaru-san, Umi-san...we just can't..."

There was a long pause. Fuu stared at the floor. After a minute, she took another deep breath, and raised her head to stare in the faces of her two best friends, her only friends.

"...so we have to move forward." She concluded, "Together." Her voice gained confidence with every second. They could do this, they would! Together, they had faced demons, and monsters. Together, they had watched friends die, and mourned their losses. Together they had grown to overcome their greatest fears and demons, and finally, to become the Magic Knights of Cefiro. Together, they could do anything.

"Together." she repeated, and slowly thrust her hand outward into the space between them. There was a pause, Umi and Hikaru looked at each other, then back at Fuu.

"Together," It was unanimous. A second later, bother their hands joined Fuu's, resting on top of hers, but also, holding it up. Fuu let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and looked into the eyes of the two people she was joined with. Cefiro was not something they would ever forget, and perhaps the pain would never ease. However, as long as they had eachother, the will of their hearts would be strong enough to withstand any pain. She knew they would make it, they had to...Together.

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