Sakaki saw the beam surge towards her friend in agonizing bullet-time, crawling along like a huge stream of malevolent, glowing molasses. It almost seemed as though she could sprint the distance between them and tackle Chiyo out of its path, but of course her muscles refused to respond, her breath was frozen in her lungs and her eyes wouldn't close against what she knew was coming.
But when it was about a quarter of the way along its interminable, half-second journey, the ray seemed to ripple. Halfway and it was definitely starting to twist… and then, so close that it must have singed Chiyo's nose, the beam abruptly bent away from her and lashed over their heads, momentarily surrounding them with swirling, buffeting wind and the feeling of high noon in the summer.
None of them realized what had happened at first, but it became obvious when the wind changed direction and they were hit with the smell of a flooded kennel. Godzilla's strike had vanished into the orange eye of King Caesar, who came striding past the girls, big as life and twice as ugly. For the second time in this generation, the Azumi family statue had been placed (auspiciously, of course!) and their guardian monster awakened.
A tiny shape dropped from the hair on his leg and wove its unsteady way towards them. It was Kazuki Azumi, dazed by his long, bouncing ride and reeking of Caesar's essence of 40 yaks. "Found it," he announced weakly, then fainted into Yomi's arms.
If the monsters recognized each other from when they'd fought side-by-side so long ago, they gave no sign. Even though the Living Shiisa was less than half the size of the other, he didn't have any problem with picking a fight… and given his condition, Godzilla certainly did. Casting one last glance at Chiyo ("you lucky!"), he grunted and lumbered away, ignoring the smaller monster's braying and capering behind him.
Once the Monster King's head disappeared beneath the waves, Caesar looked around and, finding nothing to fight, sagged with disappointment and shuffled back towards Okinawa. "Sorry, guy!" Ayumu called up to him. Sakaki was almost offended by how flippant she was being so soon after Chiyo's brush with death, but the heroic rescue seemed to have lifted everyone's spirits.
Everyone's but hers. Who could describe the feelings that silently coursed through Sakaki as she stalked quickly across the blasted plain towards her friend? She could have crushed bricks in her hands and yet she couldn't take another step. She'd felt a blossom of relief as Chiyo was spared, but it had immediately burst into flames.
Her thoughts were so steeped in emotion that they could scarcely be expressed as words. Stupid! Stupid! Why do you have to die? Who does that protect? Fair play? No! You'll rip yourself away from us for fair play? Get yourself vaporized for some twisted kind of honor? STUPID!! Histrionic little martyr! If you've got such a death wish, maybe I shouldn't…
It would not be accurate to say that her anger evaporated upon seeing Chiyo, but it was certainly shoved aside. The girl was sprawled on the ground behind her little ridge, limbs splayed pathetically, head resting at an odd (but survivable) angle turned away from her. She made Sakaki think of a broken doll that had been cast aside.
"Oh…" She knelt next to Chiyo, frantically checking for broken bones, pulse, breathing… it was jumbled and out of order, not at all like the standard exams she was used to giving, the fact that her subject was a person being the smallest difference. Still, somebody watching could never have guessed at the gob of panic rolling greasily about in her chest.
All at once, Chiyo's eyes fluttered open. For an instant, Sakaki wanted to strangle her, kiss her, slap her, burst into tears or laughter, scream or just get up and walk away… but all of the conflicting urges just collided within her and went POOM! When the smoke cleared, Sakaki was herself again. "Chiyo-chan?"
Chiyo stared at her for a moment, eyes bleary and confused. "I'm sorry," she finally asked, "Is that my name?"
Sakaki couldn't make herself respond immediately. Of all the pointless, contrived, idiotic…! But that was the universe's fault, not her friend's, wasn't it? "Yes," she said. "How do you feel?"
"Horrible, honestly," Chiyo sat up and rubbed her eyes, then tried to find her feet. Sakaki stood alongside and helped her up. "Was I hit by a bus or… my word! What on Earth happened here?"
Sakaki blandly surveyed the desolation about them. It was really the first time she'd gotten a good look at it. While incredible for what it represented, she didn't find the view terribly interesting. "Interstellar war," she explained with the same tone she might have used for "light rain."
"Oh… uh…" Chiyo scratched her head, looking around. "Did we… win?"
"I think so."
"That's a relief…" Chiyo gave a sudden start. "Oh, God! I… I don't know anything! I don't remember… Do you know me? Who are you? Who am I? What are we doing out here?" She trailed off helplessly, her huge eyes so lost and alone that Sakaki was completely powerless to stay even a tiny bit mad at her. It wasn't like either of them could do anything about her grievance now, right?
"Don't worry," Sakaki took her shoulder gently, feeling strangely like she'd agreed to something of this nature long ago. "I'll protect you."
A jeep honked at them from the landing site. "Hey!" Kagura hollered, "You two done kissing yet? C'mon!"
How did you go about telling an old friend that she was (or would be, or had been… nobody was quite sure) a Goddess? Well, in this case, you didn't. This was the agreement her friends came to, separately and silently, guided not by the insidious hands of an astral being or half-baked ideas of what was best for her but something else… they would never know it, and each would doubt and feel guilt in her turn, but their unfounded conviction that it was Chiyo's to lead the life of an ordinary woman was absolutely correct.
It could almost be said that things returned to normal in the days that followed, but this was only because "normal" was being redefined for the whole world. As the Gaijin reluctantly withdrew and old nations were reborn by the dozen, Tokyo was rebuilt and Dimension Tide was scrapped. Ghidora made himself a home in Antarctica and stood ready to defend the Earth ever after; the Western powers would never a chance get to use their army of giant robots.
To anybody following the vast sweep of word events that week would have seemed amazingly epic, a landmark in history. To Sakaki, however, it was just a little strange. Chiyo had continued to stay with her, at first coming about as close as the Once and Future Pigtailed One would ever get to being a pain to live with. For the first few days she was in quite a state, easygoing one moment and weeping the next, clinging and antisocial in turns, frequently lost in thought for hours only to pop up with some awkward question at an odd moment.
A turning point came when Chiyo decided to start earning her keep (though she hastened to assure Sakaki that she didn't feel forced into it.) Being cheerfully at work, whether by cooking and cleaning around the house, catching up on the school work she'd brought or volunteering to help people displaced by recent events, seemed to do the trick like nothing else.
So it was that Sakaki came home one day to find her guest in the kitchen, wearing torn jeans and a tie-dyed shirt, hair held back by a purple bandanna, cheerfully humming "the cooking song" as she teased something delicious out of the rather dull contents of the pantry. It was odd… in spite of her lanky height, the cascade of hair to her shoulders and the strange outfit, Chiyo looked more like herself than she had in a long time. The three-ton boulder she'd carried on her back was gone for one thing, but there was something else to it…
"Hi, Ms. Sakaki!" she called over her shoulder. "How was work?"
Sakaki would have just shrugged, but since the other was facing away she was forced to answer verbally. "Nothing exciting."
"Same here," Chiyo replied. "Say, may I ask you something?"
Sakaki sat down heavily; in truth, it had been a very long day. "Sure."
For a little while the only sounds were sizzling and boiling until lids clanged down over a pot and pan. Their sounds continued, subdued, as Chiyo hopped the back of the couch and dropped lightly into the seat next to her. "I'm supposed to go back to the States tomorrow…" she started doubtfully.
"You can stay as long as you like," Sakaki assured her.
The guest blinked in surprise. "You don't mince around, do you?" Chiyo commented with a pleasant half-smile. "Thank you. I was just thinking… this is the strangest thing in the world. I've been remembering more and more lately, but I don't feel any emotional connection to what I can recall. It's like… a book I read once, or things that happened to someone else. The memories, they're… colorless."
Sakaki nodded slowly. That would be distressing.
"But the more I remember, the more I realize how important you guys, you, Ms. Ayumu and the others, were to me. I just didn't want to leave without getting to know you all again."
"I understand." For a little while they just rested as Sakaki's calming aura began to seep into the younger woman. She didn't want to admit it, but the prodigy felt a little manic when she was alone, like she had to be doing something every instant—was this new or some holdover from before her knock to the head?
"One more thing," Chiyo added after a minute or two, sounding mellower already. "Er, why are your toenails blue? Did I inflict that on you?"
"Yes."
Chiyo covered her mouth and tittered. "I'm so sorry!"
"But it's not…"
The doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" Chiyo said brightly, springing to her feet before the other woman could even stir. Watching her dart across the room with a strange mix of monkey and cat-like grace, Sakaki realized why the other seemed so familiar. In some ways, at least, she was a child again.
Maya leapt onto the back of the couch next to Sakaki and tensed as if to shield her from some awful predator. That could only mean one thing…
"H-hello!" Chiyo greeted a wall of Hawaiian shirt that filled the door before her. "Er, come on in." This was a fellow she knew by reputation alone: the mighty giraffe man, Takeshi "Jumbo" Takeda! Even after close encounters with various rampant Kaiju, his size made her reel back as he ducked into the room.
"You must be Chiyo-chan," he said cordially, offering a hand that could have closed around both of hers and one of her feet as well. "I've heard a lot about you."
"P-pleased to meet you, Mr. Takeda," she managed, "Likewise."
Sakaki watched them with interest. Blunted by interstellar war and amnesia, she didn't expect the "girlfriend's best-friend" effect to be as fierce as she'd feared before. (And since when had she admitted that there was a relationship anyway?) But even as they made small talk in the doorway, she could see the set of the girl's shoulders shift, her expression change subtly and their conversation morph into a challenge. Her voice was friendly, but her eyes said, "Let's see if you're good enough for my friend!"
And indeed, Takeshi seemed to realize that he was menaced. As sweet and mild as she generally was, should Chiyo see it as her duty as a best friend, she would surely find a way to make him miserable. Maya had already made his choice, of course, but hopefully the girl would be more reasonable than him.
"So, I hear you're a florist?" Chiyo asked as they started back towards the hostess.
"Um, yeah," Takeshi shrugged. "It's my dad's old business."
"It must be tough these days."
"Well, y'know. My help quit during the occupation, so I've had to run the place by myself. I didn't think it I was up for it, but…" he made a fist, "I've got the Takeda green thumb, so nothing can stop me!"
Chiyo laughed, very much taken. Perhaps, Sakaki wondered with a slightly arched eyebrow, a little bit too taken? "Takeshi," she greeted with a reserved smile.
"Hey Ms. Sak…" he grinned sheepishly, "Nanashi. How's it going?"
"Rough week."
"Me, too. I was dragged away from the shop by this little blue jerk… no, I mean little, like her size," he gestured towards Chiyo, who'd retreated to a respectful distance. "He said it had something to do with you. Do you know him?"
"An Xian?"
"Yeah…"
Sakaki's smile widened fractionally, but only Chiyo could see the difference. "He kidnapped me once. Their Prince wanted to marry me and make me Queen of Earth."
Jumbo's jaw dropped. "Buh?"
"Oh, shoot!" Chiyo yelped, making to rise. "I forgot about the soup!"
"I'll get it," Sakaki said languorously and walked away, leaving Takeshi gawping in her wake. After a few seconds, he jumped forward in his seat and leaned towards Chiyo. "Is she for real?" he whispered urgently.
"I, uh… don't remember…"
"You don't remember your friend being abducted by aliens?" he hissed incredulously, "This is important!"
She shook her head helplessly, tapping on a temple. "Amnesiac."
"Useless!" he flopped back disgustedly. Chiyo might have taken offense, but she was a little jarred by the alien-abduction revelation herself; she was 95% certain that Sakaki would never make something like that up, but maybe she'd check this one with Ayumu—no, scratch that. Probably Yomi.
Maya hadn't moved from his perch this whole time, staring at Jumbo with narrow, suspicious golden eyes. He made a move to pet the beast, but it wouldn't take Dr. Doolittle to tell what Maya thought of this. "The roses look good," he commented inconsequentially. "I thought they'd be gone by now."
"I've been taking care of them," Chiyo said.
"Really?" the giraffe-man asked with sudden interest, sitting up. But Sakaki made her return, sitting down close alongside him… a lot closer than he expected, to judge from his expression. "Uh, hi." Then, after a moment to collect himself, "Uh, about that alien prince…"
"Don't worry," she said, leaning slowly against him, "He was handsome, but not very bright. And he did kidnap me." A good point, that. Life isn't a romance novel, after all. "I shouldn't have brought it up."
"S'okay," he muttered, frozen by her proximity (not that it was unpleasant.) "So… uh, you gonna tell me about your week?"
"No." By now her head was on his chest. It took him a few moments before he realized he was supposed to do anything, but then he hesitantly put his arms around her.
For the barest of instants, Chiyo's emotions were a mirror of Maya's: Hey! Only I'm allowed to nestle with Sakaki! But fortunately, as predicted, she was much more reasonable about it than the cat. Maya hopped down and cast a bland look up at her that said, This is truly revolting and neither of us have any part in it. I'll be expecting you to come by your room and give me a belly-rub soon. He padded away disdainfully.
Chiyo probably would have left to tend the stove immediately, but she felt compelled out of sympathy for poor Jumbo to try and pull him out of his stupor. "So, um," she fumbled out, "That's a nice shirt. It must be difficult to find clothes your size."
Sakaki glanced up at her, expression showing momentary surprise and then a little guilt. It occurred to Chiyo that the taller woman had quite forgotten about her for a few seconds. Though honestly a tad resentful, she understood; it must have been a novel experience for a person Sakaki's size to be able to curl up in somebody else's arms.
"Finding clothes?" Jumbo chuckled nervously, his voice curiously high-pitched. "Ah, who needs clothes, eh?" Sakaki smiled up at him, eyes half-lidded. "Wha-?" Then he realized what he'd actually said. "Uh… that is to say…"
Even though that smile was just teasing, Chiyo saw it and realized something she was certain she'd never known, even pre-amnesia. She recalled odd little hints in conversations, curious blips in the other's reading and, most tellingly, her behavior when Tomo was hitting their teachers up for smut stories. (Strange that all of this rushed back while the alien abduction thing hadn't.) Was it possible… that… Sakaki maybe had a tiny bit of an ecchi streak?
"Are you all right?" Sakaki asked.
"Eh? Oh, fine!" Chiyo giggled weakly and rubbed the back of her head. "Just thinking about how embarrassed I'd be if I let that pilaf burn." She scurried away.
"She's making pilaf?" Jumbo asked, slowly regaining his equilibrium.
Sakaki nodded. "Isn't she wonderful?"
"Makes me think of my honorary niece, a little. You haven't met her yet, have you?"
"No."
"We should get together with them sometime. I think you'd love her."
Chiyo didn't regain her balance for some time. She kept trying the thought out, finding it stranger and stranger with every repetition. Sakaki has an ecchi streak? Sakaki has an ecchi streak? Even hours later, when she went out running with Kagura, the other had to pause and ask, "So what's with you? Did you just remember the Yukari-mobile or something?"
"The who-mobile?"
"Never mind," Kagura said quickly.
"…and that's how we got the statue," Kazuki finished.
"Wow," Osamu sat back and looked between Kazuki and Sanada. "That's quite an adventure. Did you ever figure out where the mantis-people came from?"
"No, actually," Sanada spread his hands. "And we're technically not allowed to tell anyone about them, but we figured you love this kind of stuff. Besides, how are they gonna find out?"
Osamu's eyes bugged out. "Like, the agents they've probably assigned to follow your every move using directional microphones?" he gasped. "Barricade the door!"
The others blanched. "Uh…" Sanada started.
"Ah, I'm just screwing with you," Osamu laughed. "The mantis-men were declassified three days ago! Jeez, you guys should stay in the loop."
"Jerk," Sanada muttered.
"You should be happy," Osamu advised. "Nobody will sic agents on us or kidnap us or astrally visitate us anyway, because officially, all of us guys don't matter one bit to anyone. Well, to anyone important, anyway."
Kazuki bobbed his head. "Very wise."
"Forget it. I'm not answering any questions about anything like that," Kaori pronounced, beating her fist on the desk/counter, "I've given up the occult racket. I'd rather live to retire."
"Aww…" Ayumu turned away in disappointment.
"You know," Xandra suggested, "Most people don't leap into it quite as hard as you did. You could be an expert without periodically blowing up the store."
"What? Go half-way?" Kaori seemed offended. "Come on, Xandra, you know that with me it's head-over-heels or nothing."
It was another slow day at Olhos Do Ceu. Jumbo might have been seeing more business with the occupation lifted, but people seemed to have less interest in the mysterious and macabre these days. That and the fact that she could be pick up as a psychologist again made it all the easier for Kaori to make her decision.
Oddly enough, though the interior of the store (right up to the very edge of those valuable circular bookcases) had been pretty much reduced to ash, she and Osamu were completely unharmed by whatever it was she'd done. Just as she refused to answer Ayumu's questions, though, she refused to explain the what and how and why of this latest incident.
"Just one?" Ayumu pleaded. "One, that's all I'm askin'."
"All right," Kaori heaved a deep sigh. "If it'll quiet you down, just one."
"If I wasn't around ta carry the egg, how come Mothra came?"
"Oh, that's easy. The proper Soul of Light found it this time and carried it to Birth Island as planned. Actually, we know her. Do you remember Chihiro?"
"Who?" Ayumu asked blankly.
"Never mind!" Kaori threw her hands in the air. "Why does nobody remember Chihiro? And no, no more questions." Ayumu closed her mouth and shrugged. The intermittent (and much friendlier) visits by Gathra were a lot more fun unexplained.
"By the way," Xandra folded a magazine she'd been leafing through and slid it under the register. "I guess they looked at DNA in Godzilla's blood and determined that it was the same creature that's been appearing since 1954."
"That means he survived the Oxygen Destroyer, doesn't it?" A faraway look came to Kaori's eyes. "Can you imagine what that must have been like, though? He was totally covered with acid…" Ayumu shuddered, but neither of them noticed. "The poor beast."
The three had a moment of silence for the Monster King.
"Say, do you know what?" Xandra suddenly burst out, (thankfully) changing the subject 180 degrees, "I think I'll keep this place going. Tokyo needs Olhos do Ceu. So what do you want to do about the apartment?"
Kaori made a noncommittal sound. "I'll probably be able to afford a better place pretty soon. You'd be welcome to join me."
Pa-king, king, king! Yomi and Chiyo entered. The Bespectacled One was on the tail end of a two week-long vacation, the longest she'd take after her abduction, and that because the Ambassador had insisted. "I convinced her that she had to see this pl—" Chiyo started.
"I'm gonna kill that bell!" Ayumu suddenly cried. "How can you stand that thing?"
"Uh, I was gonna get a new one, actually," Xandra patted her shoulder. "You can kill it all you want, then."
"Well, I only want to kill it once, o'course." Ayumu grumbled, crossing her arms. "'Less you're gonna do some diabolical doorbell necromancy on it."
"Good to see you, Chiyo, Ms. Yomi," Kaori said smoothly, somehow drowning them out by speaking softly. "Oh, it's about that time. Could you please turn the sign to 'closed' and lock the door?"
"Sure," Yomi replied, trying desperately to keep herself from looking at Ayumu sideways. She'd inherited her mother's wariness around people who didn't "have both feet on the ground." Actually, she secretly admired Kaori because she was comfortable working with such people and even more because didn't seem to think of them as "such people."
"Heya, Chiyo-chan," Ayumu waved. "Yo, Yomi! Long time no see."
"I'm," Yomi glanced at her shoes, "Sorry for not visiting."
"Nah, don' worry about it. I saw how uncomfortable you were… I'd'a felt worse if you kept subjectin' yourself to the place. And me."
Though stung by that last part, Yomi was hopeful. "Really?"
"Well, I was kinda upset at the time," Ayumu seemed to float to her feet and did a pirouette, the tail of her lime-green scarf drifting after. "But I'm free as a parakeet now! Why screw it up by gettin' worked up over somethin' like that?"
"But, um, the bell?" Chiyo asked.
"Now that's somethin' to get worked up over!" Ayumu affirmed, staring murder at the space above the door.
"Thank you, Ayumu." At Xandra's silent urging, Yomi moved into the store, glancing the various titles over. "Hm…"
"They all seem a little lightweight, don't they?" Kaori asked, amused.
"Yes, actually. I take it you don't sell the real stuff?"
"Oh, some of it's plenty real, but the dangerous stuff…" Kaori was cut off by somebody trying the door and then, when it proved locked, giving it a good drubbing. "Stupid people, can't they read?"
Chiyo turned around and unlocked the door. "I'll tell them you're closed…"
But upon opening it, she froze. On the other side, stopping just short of whacking her in the face in another shot at the door, was a thin woman with long black hair and wide brown eyes, wrapped in a flowing tan trenchcoat with a fedora tucked under one arm. The outfit, Chiyo couldn't help but notice, all but screamed "badass maverick private eye/detective/cop etc."
Their eyes met with a feeling a portent, but neither recognized the other. They just stood there for a few seconds, staring awkwardly, until Ayumu pushed the prodigy aside. Her expression was desperate and disbelieving as her small fingers lit softly on the woman's face and brushed across her cheeks. Neither moved as the seconds piled up and tension mounted until Ayumu finally snapped, "W-well? Say something!"
"Um…" the other started, a little alarmed, but then Ayumu collapsed into her, sobbing. With a rueful smile, the taller woman stroked her hair and glanced up to Yomi, who at the moment looked like she'd been hit in the face with an eight-pound cod. "Whatsa matter?" Tomo asked. "Never seen a zombie before?"
"You… you…" Yomi shook her head slowly. Even though she'd been as good as told this would happen, she still couldn't believe it. "No."
"Don't worry," Ayumu stood back with a watery smile, "She's gotta heartbeat."
Tomo waggled a finger. "That can fool you, though."
Ayumu turned back to her thoughtfully, but didn't say anything. Just as Tomo was about to speak, though, the Space Cadet gave her a good punch in the arm. "YEOW! What the hell did you do that for?"
"Yup," Ayumu decided. "She's alive all right."
Yomi chuckled. "Thanks." She was about to say more but then felt a nostalgic stab of irritation as she was interrupted.
"So, we gonna celebrate my homecoming or what?" Tomo yelled. "C'mon, you guys, kegger at Chiyo's summer home!"
"Wow. It's like she never left," Yomi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I have a summer home?" Chiyo asked.
As it turned out, she didn't. While the Mihama family still owned that beachfront property, the house itself had been destroyed at some point. None of the girls were particularly interested in finding out how or by whom. And so the proposed kegger became a camping trip, minus the excessive alcohol. (Tomo quickly forgot her dismay when Yomi arranged for each of them to bring a watermelon for smashing.)
Kagura and Yomi each took a vehicle out and the others divided between them. "I can't believe you went and got amnesia!" Tomo berated from shotgun, "Now you won't remember your unconditional worship and adoration for me!"
"Not in the mood," Chiyo replied calmly. "Sorry, but could you wait until I'm on firmer footing before filling my head with nonsense?"
"What a sourpuss," Tomo turned back to face forward. "It's not so farfetched, is it, Yomi?"
"If I answer you'll probably hit me, and I'm driving."
"Aw, man. You guys aren't any fun. Doesn't anybody know how to get baited anymore? Oh, wait, I know!" She reached over and pinched Yomi's stomach. "Hah! You're still squishy! Glad to see you haven't-!" Yomi's elbow to her face set off a round of maniacal laughter. "You'll hafta do better than that, Yomikins! You can't hurt the Takinator! I eat sissy elbows like that for—ACK!"
Chiyo glanced between them, concerned. "Do'worry, they're like this all the time," Ayumu murmured, leaning back with her eyes closed. "S'good to know some things don't change, eh? In spite of all the crazy stuff goin' down."
"Ah. I just wish I could…" Chiyo trailed off in quiet frustration. "I feel like I'm someone else."
"Chiyo-chan," Ayumu sounded amused, "Ah can tell you, empirically and for darn sure, that you are Chiyo-chan. You were never more yourself. You're rememberin' more an' more, an' some day you'll have everything an' all the horrible stuff that happened to ya won't even be a bad dream."
"I think I needed to hear that," Chiyo said gratefully.
Yomi growled under her breath, knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. "Did you come back from the dead just to piss me off?"
"Totally worth it!" Tomo crowed.
"Maybe you should do an exorcism," Ayumu offered.
"Yeah, I'll exorcise her right out the car door if she touches me ag-hey!"
Kagura slammed on the brakes, bringing them to a skidding halt at the old summer home site. Her passengers dismounted quickly; even Sakaki looked a little shaky. "How about it?" Kagura asked. "I told you there wouldn't be any injuries!"
"I dunno, I think I'm dead," Xandra said.
"I'm pretty sure my intestines are still in Tokyo," Kaori added.
"…" Sakaki put in. Her expression was worth a thousand words.
"Wimps," Kagura smirked, hauling a tent out of the trunk. "Kaori, give me a hand with this, willya?"
"Huh? Sure."
They trundled off with the tent, leaving Sakaki to lean on the car's roof and collect herself. Once recovered sufficiently, she started towards them but found Xandra standing sort-of-but-not-really in her path, very studiously not looking at her. The white dragon was coiled over her shoulders; Sakaki wondered vaguely if she ever left home without it.
The Xian girl was in an awkward plight, she saw. It was worse than approaching someone to apologize, it was approaching somebody in the hopes that they would apologize to you so you could be friends again. A weird, somewhat passive-aggressive tactic that was the most difficult for exactly the sort of people who would most often end up using it. "Xandra," Sakaki said, never one to make things difficult. "I'm sorry."
"Me, too," Xandra replied, eyes full of gratitude. "I said a lot of awful things. But look, he's fine now!" The dragon lifted his head lazily and hiccoughed. By dragon standards, this was leaping for joy.
"I'm sorry, Xozzinidschiriticanfranzista," Sakaki continued, stroking his head with two fingers. "Maya didn't know any better, but I should have." The dragon trilled softly, offering another part of his neck to be stroked.
"Holy crap, you remembered his name!" Xandra gasped, "I've just been calling him Fluffy!"
Chiyo sat in the sand, marveling at how incredibly blue the ocean was. She felt as though she was seeing it for the first time, and in a way maybe she was. If you didn't look at the field where her summer home once stood, the stretch of beach had hardly changed, laden with ghostly half-memories slowly brightening and sharpening in the crisp sunlight.
"The leaves will be turning soon," Kaori commented, sitting down next to her. "It's a little cool for swimming, I think."
"I'm considering it," Chiyo nodded towards the Bonkuras in the surf. "They seem to be having fun."
As Kaori looked, Kagura in the midst of being thrown by Tomo, hitting the water with a dull slap. "Yayy!" came Ayumu's voice, thin and distant through the sound of rushing waves. "Touchdown!"
"Y'see that, Kags? I know how to take people out! Try it again!"
"Oh, this is not going to stand!" Kagura snarled, finding her feet again. "And neither are you! It's on!" Her spear-tackle would have seemed unspeakably brutal if its target had anybody but Tomo, but instead it had an element of slapstick. Ayumu backstroked tranquilly away (wait, she'd learned to swim?), ignoring their epic rematch.
"So Tomo knows Judo now?" Kaori shook her head.
"Why does that thought fill me with foreboding?"
"It sounds like you remember her pretty well."
Chiyo took a handful of cold sand and let it run through her fingers. "I suppose I do… sort of. It's all so distant. Ms. Kaori, are the problems I'm having, er, normal?"
"I don't know," Kaori said apologetically. "The circumstances were a little unusual."
"Really?" Fortunately, she was distracted from this potentially difficult line of questioning by Sakaki's entrance. The towering woman walked by in a dark green swimsuit, pausing nearby to stretch. "Oh, Ms. Sakaki. You're going in, then?"
Sakaki glanced an affirmative, then three running steps carried her into the surf and she hit the water like a porpoise, cutting seaward with effortless grace. She'd forgotten how much she loved the ocean and how relaxing a good swim could be. It had been far, far too long.
Chiyo gazed after her, smiling softly.
"It's not going to happen," Kaori warned mildly.
"What?"
"Come on, you don't think that you can hide that from me, of all people."
"Hide what?" Chiyo asked innocently. "Help me out here!"
Kaori stared at her for a few seconds then turned away. "I'm sorry, I seem to have put my foot in my mouth. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to find a branch about the height of your summer home's balcony and fling myself from it for old time's sake."
"Huh? Wait, what-?" Chiyo watched her go, baffled. After a few seconds, though, she turned back to the water and grinned.
Hours later, Yomi made her way along the beach beneath a dark blue sky full of tumbling clouds. The water shifted from cobalt to black as she walked on, her long jacket stirring lazily in the cold seabreeze as it plucked at her hair and pulled long brown locks of it this way and that. Her expression was… not exactly worried, but not totally peaceful either.
So Tomo had been held as collateral, frozen or sleeping or whatever it was those awful people subjected them to. Yomi had always hoped that it was painless, no sense of the passage of time, maybe a weird dream or two and then—hey presto, it's two years later! That was the popular understanding.
But then… whenever Tomo had been hurt, she'd always signaled that she was okay by whining and carrying on and mooching for attention. It was when she was quiet and wanted to be left alone that the problems came. Tomo Takino had not so much as mentioned her experience with the Gaijin, even in passing, to anybody but Yomi herself. And even with her best friend, she'd seemed eager to brush the subject aside.
Not a good sign.
But it was really time to worry when, after Yomi's attempt at "campfire karaoke" (Xandra insisted), nobody was on hand to lambaste her mercilessly. She realized the Wildcat Idiot had left their circle and struck out into the cold (okay, the pleasantly cool) night on her own. She didn't know if this was strictly a cry for help, but it was certainly a cry of some kind, and if Yomi wasn't to answer, who would?
And sure enough, as the sand faded to purple beneath her and the sky became yet darker, she saw a silhouette ahead that could only be Tomo, sitting dejectedly as the water crawled up to her toes and receded. Yomi picked up her pace and drew closer… but then came to a stop when she noticed two things. First, the shape ahead was a little too large to be Tomo alone, and second, she could hear Ayumu speaking softly, though not her words.
Feeling oddly chastened, Yomi turned and trudged back to the campfire. Would she have been intruding? She wondered, without really hoping to find out, what had passed between those two in the college years. The others had mostly retired for the night; only Kagura sat at the fire still, sipping a steaming mug of cocoa and handing another over to her as she approached. Chiyo was asleep on the other side of the fire, curled up like a puppy.
"Thanks," Yomi accepted the mug.
"I take it you saw the lovebirds?"
"They're not…" Moving without her mind's consent, her hands pressed the mug to her lips. The long, burning sip cleared her head. "Look, Kagura. Unless I'm completely wrong about both of them, it's not like that at all."
"You, uh, you know I was just messing with you, right?" Kagura tossed a stick into the fire. "Whatever they do, I'm cool with."
Yomi took another long sip and sighed.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
"You look like you've lost your best fr—oh." Kagura grimaced into her cup. "You know, I never really understood how those two got so tight."
"No, it makes perfect sense. She's the one person in our whole circle who doesn't seem to see Tomo as an annoying idiot. It's not that we torment her or anything, but now that I think about it, it must have been refreshing to have a friend who… looked to her. Someone who could actually count on her, and believed it."
"Sounds like it's her own fault that we…"
"It's not a matter of fault," Yomi waved the notion off. "And then there's Ayumu, depending on the one person in our circle that really takes her seriously."
"We take her seriously, don't we?"
"Maybe I'm exaggerating, but… I don't know about you guys, but I, at least, condescended to her a bit. And I still feel bad about ditching her on the sidewalk when she used to stop and stare off into space. I wonder how annoying it was to suddenly find yourself standing alone and have to find us?"
"She never said anything about it."
"And then there was both of them being stuck in Chiyo-chan's…" Yomi leaned to the side and glanced at the sleeping girl, "Well, in their own group."
"You're thinking too much."
"Probably, you're right… but still, it's no wonder they're so close. And it'd be no wonder…" Yomi kicked a pebble into the fire, marveling at the bleak Adolphe-esque-ness of it all, "If I wasn't her best friend anymore."
"Well," Kagura looked up. "If it's any consolation, you're probably my best friend."
"I guess it's not all bad news," Yomi smiled ironically and held out her mug. "To new beginnings?"
"Yo," Kagura said gravely, but instead of a graceful little clink!, they nearly spilled half their drinks when…
"WAUUGHH!" Chiyo surged off the ground and flailed in panic, annihilating the somber atmosphere. After a moment she sagged, clutching at her chest and panting. "Not again!"
"What… what was that?" Kagura asked, wide-eyed.
"Sorry." Chiyo rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I keep having this dream where I'm turning into a tree… wow, it's just… it's amazingly vivid."
"It was probably something you ate," Kagura advised.
"How ya doin'?" Ayumu greeted, sinking to her knees next to Tomo. "Had enough of the singin'?"
"Oh, yeah," Tomo replied. "My dulcet voice is not for coarse ears such as theirs. And I wanted a breather anyway."
Ayumu blinked. That was about the most un-Tomo thing she'd ever heard her say. "Should I…?"
"Nah, you're fine."
They sat together in silence, listening to the waves scramble over each other. After a few minutes, Ayumu glanced over at her friend uncomfortably. "Hey, you all right?"
"Of course I'm all right! I'm invincible, don't you remember?"
"You're just bein' so quiet."
"Just a little tired."
"But didn't you say you were invincible?"
Tomo rubbed her forehead. "You can be a real pain sometimes."
"Sorry."
"Well, whatever." Tomo rested an arm across her shoulders. "I guess it's just my karma coming back and biting me in the ass, huh?"
"Nah, that wasn't it. We'd all have to work together to be as annoying as you." Ayumu slid up next to her. "By the way, I was wonderin' about your nightstick…"
"Yeah?"
"You used your nightstick to break those melons, right? An' then we ate the pieces. That's fine, but… I was thinkin' about if it's sanitary. Haven't ya busted peoples' heads in with it?"
"No, they have rules about that." Tomo said sadly. "It's a real drag."
"Oh. Well, that's good, I guess."
"And they had to taser me before I was allowed to use one."
"Poor Tomo!"
"Oh, come on, it takes more than 40,000 volts to stop Takinzilla!"
"So…" Ayumu swallowed. "So what did it take? You're not… you're… somethin's wrong."
Tomo sat very still for a long time, long enough that Ayumu started to worry she'd touched a nerve, but finally she spoke again. "It wasn't so bad, I guess. A lot like what they say, y'know? Two years, poof, gone. And I had some pretty funky dreams, too. I think you were in a few of them."
"You're… really okay, then?"
"But there was this one that kept coming back… I dreamed that I was trapped and couldn't move, and it was so cold…" Tomo smiled thinly. "Heh. Wonder where that one came from?"
"Oh!" Ayumu threw her arms about Tomo's waist.
"Hey, it's okay!" Tomo exclaimed. "I was just being dramatic. Osaka! Come on…"
Ayumu sniffled. "I dreamed about you every night. I-I missed you so bad!"
"Well, uh, I'm here now…"
"You're not gonna disappear again?"
"No way!" Tomo punched her arm. "Osaka, I promised I'd take care of you. If I screw everything else up, I'll do that, okay?"
The Space Cadet sat up slowly, looking up at her. Tomo met her enormous, sincere eyes and got that old deer-in-the-headlights-of-an-oncoming-semi-truck feeling. "Tomo?" Ayumu said slowly. "I think… I think I love you."
Tomo was stupefied. "But… uh… you… you said you didn't swing that way!"
"What?" Ayumu blinked. "Why should that…? Ah! Tomo, I didn't say I wanted to have sex with you… c'mon, ya gotta listen when people talk to you!"
"Oh," Tomo said, relieved. "If that's all it is, then…"
"All it is?" Too late, the Wildcat Idiot saw what a poor choice of words that was. "Tomo, I… you… you were all that I had! You were holdin' me together! When… when you disappeared, it was all I could… all I…" she covered her eyes. "It was like I'd died."
"I didn't mean to… hey, don't cry!"
"You're just the person that matters most to me in all the world! Nah, that's no big deal… you don't hafta care." Ayumu moved away a few feet and hugged her knees, biting back tears. "Not a big deal at all."
"Osak… A-Ayumu!"
"Too late," Ayumu sulked. "I hate you now."
Tomo pursed her lips quasi-thoughtfully. "Um… you look a little tense. Here, give me your back." Without replying, Ayumu scooted up to her backwards. "Come on. Do it right." Ayumu sighed and took off her jacket, then pulled her shirt up a ways. "Okay, prepare yourself—for the Takino magic fingers!"
The Osakan gal almost collapsed when Tomo struck. "Oh… I'd forgotten…"
"There. How can you hate the magic fingers, huh? You can't."
Ayumu was silent.
"Okay, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. But you know I don't think about anything I say! I was just relieved that it was… you know what? Forget I said that. But… well, it'd help me if you told me how you…" No, it was too hard to say at the moment. "What am Ito you?"
"You're…" Ayumu paused to gasp as her back loosened cataclysmically. Her voice rose to a childish pitch. "You're my Tomo!"
"That's not what I…!" Tomo mentally slapped her forehead. Leave it to Osaka… "Oh, never mind. We'll figure it out later." Sister? Friend? L-l-lover? Knowing Ayumu, it probably didn't fit into any of those and she'd never figure it out.
"Ahhh…" Ayumu spread her arms, letting her shirt fall into place and sagging back into Tomo. "I'm Jello!"
"Ha! Don't you feel better?" the Wildcat Masseur asked smugly.
"Yeah…"
Tomo rested her head on top of Ayumu's. "So it's love, is it? Guess I shouldn't be surprised. I am pretty lovable, after all."
Ayumu giggled. "You're not freaked out?"
"I guess I'm not. And I might… I just might… well." Tomo flopped back, shifting to let Ayumu lie down next to her and use her arm as a pillow. "I think you're all right, too."
"Thanks," Ayumu said happily.
"Say, remember when I said we'd make it 'cause we were the plucky heroines?"
"Yeah."
"BAM! Who was right? Eh? Who was right?"
"Guess we did make it, huh?" Ayumu considered. "I don't feel too plucky, though."
"Yeah?" Tomo looked out to sea and watched the last band of purple twilight fade. She smiled a little, showing nothing of her usual crazed energy. "Me neither."
Finis