Nami stared at the back of the wavy-haired man standing on the roof, holding the drawing of a sleeping her in his hand. She knew she and her friends needed all the help they could get, but still remembered how coldly he'd killed and the wounds he had once inflicted on her during her battle with Kanon.

"Why do you have to come with us?" she asked Yura in a soft nervous voice. "I'm not sure I really trust you."

The creepy guy didn't turn around, but she could hear the smile in his reply. "Don't trust me? Don't you remember that I saved your life?"

She recalled vividly how it'd felt lying there on the cold ground, her hands numb, half her blood having exited her body through her torn belly and her mouth. How agony had swallowed her after that other weird guy plunged claws like her own through her soft, delicate guts. Still...

"Saved my life? Yeah, right. I've taken a lot worse than that." Like being impaled by a bigger ice claw by herself. She probably could have fought on against her attacker, if he hadn't puzzled her by leaving on his own. Why had she lain there for so long afterwards, though? Nami sneezed. She had even caught a bit of a cold. Was she weaker than when she'd fought Kanon, to let her wounds or his question affect her so much? She had been a fiercer person before. "I was just gathering my strength to make it to Kanou. Didn't I start to sit up once you came?"

Yura faced her, a sardonic look in his eye. "All I saw was you curling up into a tighter ball. If you're so tough and don't need anybody's help, why didn't you ask to be put down?"

Nami looked down. "You said you were taking me to Kanou. I figured letting you carry me would be faster than me trying to walk."

He grinned, a sly, sleazy grin. "So then you do trust me."

"No. I just trusted you to know I'd hurt you if you tricked me."

"You were in no shape." Before she could retort, he added, "Is that why you were sleeping so soundly when we got back?"

"I wasn't that asleep! I liked hearing him fawn over me." She covered her mouth in shock, accidentally disturbing her bandaged face wounds. What was she doing confiding such private thoughts to him? What if he told Kanou? She wasn't ready for that.

"How did you like the way I put you down?"

Her eyes widened as she realized what he meant. "That ass rub was intentional?" Ice claws began to form before Nami's knuckles. "I'll freaking-"

"Nami, are you up there?" Kanou's voice called from downstairs. "You shouldn't be out of bed so soon."

She probably shouldn't, as her stomach still burned. With a last warning look at Yura, she turned and headed back down. But she couldn't deny that feeling his big hand admiringly pat her rear, had brought an inexplicable warmth to her cold wounded body...