Restless, with energy coursing through her and crying to be unbridled, all Tsubaki could do was stare into the endless abyss, confined by her blindness to this bed. She sighed, the noise morphing into a growl at its tail. She couldn't just lay here all the time like this, mired by the weight of her thoughts.

After several deep breaths to steel herself, Tsubaki shifted over and planted her bare feet on the cold tile of the floor. She shivered, but pressed on, rising up off the comforts and safety of the bed. She kept one hand on the mattress's edge, the other hand outstretched before her. As long as she didn't stray too far from here, this should be fine, right?

She extended a foot out, a ginger probe to make sure she was not about to step on anything. After that first successful step, she repeated the process; scout, then step. Each step was the same, and in short order, she rounded the entirety of the bed and her outstretched palm met the wall. Allowing herself a small smile, she turned around and started back the other way. As her walk continued, back and forth, the smile grew. It was small—insignificant, really—but just being able to do something semi-active without help…

"You sure you should be doing that?" Ragna's voice stalled her, and she turned in his general direction. A warm, gloved hand cupped her shoulder, and she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I mean, I guess you're fine if you don't go too far, but…"

"Yes, that's what I was thinking as well." Tsubaki shuffled over, hoping to give Ragna enough room to seat himself beside her. And sure enough, a weight sunk the mattress beside her, and she turned to smile in Ragna's direction. "Well, I hope Kokonoe didn't overwork you again."

"Goddamn slavedriver, that woman." Ragna grumbled a bit and wrapped an arm around Tsubaki's shoulders. Sweat slicked his arms from the effort of helping to craft new armored parts for Tager's rebuilding, but nonetheless he pulled her in a bit, earning a giggle and a side-hug of her own. "I mean, I know she's busy with Azrael and all, but… gah. And I'm sure she's finding time to work on your Ars. Hopefully."

"Mm. I would assume she would be." Tsubaki nestled in closer—

Kill Ragna.

The resurgent voice stalled her for but a moment. Surely it would eventually go away; all she had to do was ignore it. She leaned her head against his shoulder, curling up in his embrace. "I do have to wonder what exactly she has in mind, though. I can't imagine my problem being solved through just Ars Magus."

"Knowing her? Something completely insane. No idea what, though." Ragna swallowed, body freezing up at the proximity. Despite the frequency of this contact, every instance left him immobilized by attraction, the feeling of her arms, her fiery mane, her chest pressed against his side… He couldn't help but bring a hand up to stroke her hair, giving in to her charms. Now, if only she would leave the Library… "So, uh… you doing alright?"

"I… yes, mostly." Tsubaki purred at the petting, but a weight tugged at her at the question, as if gravity had increased its pull on her stomach alone. In short order, the pleased noise faltered and died. The stroking stopped, and Tsubaki buried herself deeper against him. "…Mostly. But… I hate being cooped up like this. Abhor it. If I'm stuck here, then I am unable to fight for the peace I seek. That alone stings, but to know my only chance of ever fighting again lies with a madwoman…"

"…Shit. Sorry for, uh…" A shake of Tsubaki's head made Ragna trail off. He sighed, and dropped his hand back down to grip her shoulder. "That why you were up and about earlier?"

"Mostly, although it was partially to just let off energy. I know it's silly, but just the illusion of being able to do things on my own was quite comforting. I…" Tsubaki sank lower, out of his grip to curl up and lay her head in his lap. "…I know I talked about how the Librarium no doubt has jobs I could take up with my condition, but… My dream was to reap the evils of this world and cast them into the purgatory of justice. I don't believe I could ever be happy if I'm confined to some desk, while evil is allowed to run free."

Ragna frowned, hand moving with Tsubaki to stroke her head again. His mind worked to come up with something, anything, to say to ease her fears. But nothing came to mind, so he just dragged his palm in a caress over her cheek. "…I'm sorry, Tsu." His failure to defeat Azrael stung at him harder than ever.

Hair rustled against his leg as Tsubaki shook her head, before rolling onto her back to face up at him. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Ragna. At all. Neither of us could have taken on Azrael on our own."

"Yeah, but…" Trailing off, Ragna just cupped her cheek again. No logic he possessed could argue with what she said. "So, uh, if you do get a non-combat job…"

"I will do it to the best of my ability and manufacture all the pride in it I can. But any joy in it I show will be purely a façade." She closed her eyes and nuzzled back against his hand, seeking out the only comfort she had at the moment. "I know I must be sounding horribly entitled and ungrateful right now, but…"

"Nah, not at all. I figure it's normal." A silence followed. "…Uh, wanna change the subject? Don't want to depress you more or nothing."

To his surprise, Tsubaki smiled at him. "No, it's alright. Really. I suppose I just want to get this off of my chest here, before it's bottled up too long."

"Huh. Alright." Ragna grinned down at her and stroked her cheek again; he just couldn't refuse the impulse to do so at this point. His stomach knotted at the touch, and he shivered. "Talk away, then. I ain't going nowhere."

"Alright. Thanks, Ragna." Tsubaki closed her eyes, contemplating to herself. "…Although, truth be told, I'm not sure where to even begin."

"How about… uh…" Ragna thought for a moment. "…Well, why you're fighting in the first place? I mean, I know you're trying to be like your heroes and shit, but I'm sure you've got a more personal reason than that. Uh, if you don't mind telling me, of course."

To his surprise, Tsubaki nodded, although her eyes remained shut. Maybe even winced; it had been such a brief motion, he could not be sure it had happened. "While I've always wanted to emulate the Six Heroes, living through the Ikaruga War instilled a hatred of war in me. It seemed that every day, a new calamity occurred, including one of the worst in my home city of Naobi. But… well, that's not even what hit me the worst."

With a nod, Ragna grimaced. Of course. "You lost a friend, didn't you?"

"…Sort of. He wasn't killed, nor was he crippled by injury. The NOL does not list him as a casualty of the war—rather, as a hero—but in my mind, he was every bit a casualty as those slain." A sniffle punctuated her words, and Tsubaki lifted a hand to rub her eye. "I have only seen him a few times since, but he's so different now. Where there was once warmth and compassion, all I saw was frost and derision. He vanished from my life for a couple years, and when he resurfaced, he had deserted. In search of you."

She curled into a fetal ball, sobs piercing her breaths. "That's why I fought. To quell the evil that festers in this world, and to put an end to war, so that none may have to suffer, either as official casualties, as those hurt by the aftermath as I was, or being utterly changed as Jin was. I know; it was always a foolishly naïve goal. But it was one I was ready to lay down my life for, in the hopes of somehow making a difference. And now, I'm left with no ability to do so, having sacrificed it to defeat a threat that's simply being released back into the world."

Ragna winced as he tried to take in all of the information, especially about Jin. Maybe, when Tsubaki's melancholy had broken, he would ask her more about him. That is if they ever saw each other again—his stomach twisted at the thought. "Well, shit. You've gotta hate me for what I've been doing."

Tsubaki twisted her head around in his direction, reddening eyes opening again. "…I used to. But not anymore. I understand your plight; you, too, were a victim of sort. While it churns my gut knowing what you did—"

Kill Ragna. The hell with that. "I can't hate you for it anymore. You have a strong reason for why you're fighting, and you're… honestly, a wonderful person from what I've seen of you recently. Part of me really does wish I could travel with you, but…" With one more sniffle, Tsubaki sat up and leaned on his shoulder. "Thank you so much for everything, Ragna."

"Not a problem, Tsubaki." Ragna snaked an arm around her shoulders and drew her in close. His chest ached to see her in such depression, but at the same time, the touch of her pressing against him intoxicated him, so he pulled her in even tighter. An arm around his waist rewarded the action. Just what was it about this girl that left him like this? He closed his eyes, pondering the question. Was it because acting as her caretaker reminded him of his days with Saya? Well, yes, but it was even stronger than that. Not even amazement encapsulated what he felt for her. "You're always free to join me, you know. I'll stick around here for a couple more days in case shit with the Library doesn't go well, or you change your mind, or… well, whatever happens, I'll be around, alright?"

Finally smiling again, Tsubaki nodded. Her hands came up to rest on his shoulders, feeling the contours of his body on the way up. "Alright. Thanks for hearing me out. I swear, I'll get through this, no matter what the final outcome is."

"Yeah… I know you will. Your fire's already coming back." Ragna caressed her cheek; the light purr that she gave made him shiver. And then it struck him. So that's what he felt for her. He never wanted her to leave his life… but at the least he would let her decide for herself. He leaned closer, resting their foreheads together. "Hey, uh, Tsu…"

A radio crackled from a corner of the room, and Kokonoe's voice blared. "Ragna, Tsubaki. Get your asses up to my main lab, right now. Got some important shit to discuss."

With a sigh of deepest regret, Ragna rose and took Tsubaki by the hand. "Goddammit… well, let's see what the hell she wants."

Kokonoe chewed on the stick of her sucker as she surveyed a computer monitor. Well, finally. The results she wanted. According to the data that flew across the screen, the algorithm for controlling Azrael's limiters that she had created should work. Now all that was left was to override his current limiter structure with her own equations, a process performed at an atomic level… She sighed. Another day or so of working on this piece of shit. Oh well. If this worked, she could rid herself of both the Sector ringleaders that wanted her dead and the threat of Azrael in a single stroke.

The door behind her slid open, and she swiveled around as Ragna entered, arm around Tsubaki's waist as he guided her around. Kokonoe raised an eyebrow, but decided against commenting on the sight. "Well, you two sure got here in a hurry. Guess I wasn't interrupting anything too important."

"Nah, you kinda were. We just figured whatever shit you've got in mind might be more important, since it's probably about your attempting to let Tsubaki see again." Ragna slumped back in a chair, pulling Tsubaki down to sit in his lap as he did so. The girl blushed, but sank back against him anyways. "So. Let's hear it. What do you got for Tsu?"

"Right. I was struggling to come up with any shit to simulate sight for her—can't restore her sight, and my first few ideas would kill her from the seithr use needed." Kokonoe leaned back with a smirk. "But then it hit me. It's no real substitute—you won't be able to read and stuff with it. But it should be mostly serviceable. Just kinda… well, fucked up at first. Might take a while to really adjust to it."

With a roll of his eyes, Ragna leaned forward. "And just what is this 'it'?"

"Bio-sonar. Or in layman's terms, echolocation."

A stunned silence fell. Tsubaki blinked several times, despite the pointlessness of the gesture. "…You mean, like what a bat does?"

"Yep. Figure if you're as blind as they're supposed to be, you might as well get around like one. I mean, you could train yourself to do something like that, but this'll be quicker. And more efficient; having something that works without having to tap a cane or whatever will be much better if you want to continue fighting." With a grin, Kokonoe stood up and walked over to Tsubaki. "Since it would take a while to adjust to such expanded sensory stimulation, I'll give you a couple more days to stay here. And hey. Can't bitch about whatever data I collect from you with this attempt. So. How about it, Yayoi? Want to give it a try?"

Without the slightest hesitation, Tsubaki nodded. "Yes, please. I'll do whatever is necessary."

"Excellent. Ragna, put her down on the chair, alright? I gotta go get something real quick." Kokonoe whipped around and headed into a small room at the back of the laboratory, a rare bounce to her step. This should prove interesting, at the very least. In the room, she located a syringe on a desk, some clear fluid in its container. She swiped it up, the liquid rippling rather than sloshing about, and returned to her charges. Tsubaki sat straight in the chair, eyes closed as though in prayer, with Ragna standing beside her, hand on her shoulder. Kokonoe approached Tsubaki from behind and brandished the syringe. "Okay, there's gonna be a bit of a pinch here. Just a little thing I concocted in my spare time to expedite the process of interpreting sounds and figuring out your surroundings and all that shit. Just avoid rock concerts, they'll screw with your mind so damn bad with this. Haven't tested it yet, though, so… last chance to get out of being my guinea pig."

Tsubaki shook her head. "Do it. Again, I will do whatever I need to in order be able to bring evil to justice once more."

"Alright then." With that, Kokonoe jabbed the needle into the back of Tsubaki's neck. A pained squeak answered her, and as Ragna squeezed Tsubaki's shoulder tighter for comfort, Kokonoe injected the serum into Tsubaki's bloodstream. After ten seconds of piercing pain, Kokonoe pulled the syringe out. "How do you feel?"

Tsubaki jumped at the sound. "Ah! So loud… whoa, everything sounds weird now. But… um… hm." The echoes of her voice formed the vaguest of pictures in her mind—how she could recognize anything just through that, she had no idea—and she turned around to meet Kokonoe's eyes. "…I think it's working. Kind of."

"Yeah, it'll take a while to really adjust. Surprised you can already look me in the eye, but then, I'm right beside you. Just one more thing; can't rely on you needing a manual sound source if you're going to be fighting, so just a little Ars to help with that. Memorize this." Kokonoe leaned in and whispered an incantation into Tsubaki's ear. "Okay, try that."

Nodding, Tsubaki closed her eyes and repeated the words. A high-pitched buzz resulted, a constant ring in her head that made her wince. She doubted that Ragna and Kokonoe could hear it; it should have been above of what human ears could register. But as it echoed around the chamber, the picture of the laboratory she had concocted earlier solidified, details filling in based entirely on the echoes. "…This is the weirdest thing ever. There's a spill of some sort in the corner of this room, isn't there?"

"Yep." With a wide grin, Kokonoe threw her head back and cackled. "Ah hahahaha! I am such a genius! Come on and praise me, you two!"

"…Um, thanks for this and all, but could you please tone it down a little? My ears are kind of sensitive now."

Ragna rolled his eyes and took Tsubaki by the hand to pull her to her feet. "Genius? Try a batshit mad scientist. That all you got for us?"

After a few moments of annoyed silence, Kokonoe cleared her throat and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, you two can go. I'm ready to start working on Azrael properly; think I figured out what I'm doing with him."

With a light hum, Tsubaki awakened. As she sat up and yawned, she heard voices from at least a floor above. She tuned them out as well as she could; she wouldn't betray Kokonoe's trust by using her gift to eavesdrop. Although maybe, if she couldn't fight anymore, she could join Intelligence, and put her heightened sense to use. Eyes closed, she muttered the incantation taught to her and activated her Ars.

Cyclical rounds of sound waves, too high in pitch for any human except for her to hear, reverberated off of every contour of the room. Within fractions of a second, the echoes formed a picture in Tsubaki's mind. Even such things as differences in material were made perceptible to Tsubaki; although she couldn't tell exactly what the shelf in the back of the room was made from, she could at least sense its difference from the table across from it and the tiles of the floor from the way her sonar Ars echoed. And now, after two days of adjusting to it, the time had come to truly test it.

With a deep breath to steel herself, Tsubaki swiveled around on the bed and placed her feet down on the cold floor. After rising, she made a beeline to the door, hand stretching towards what could only be a knob. And sure enough, her hand wound around the metal cylinder. As the door opened, she couldn't help but smile to herself. She continued on, up a set of stairs and into the main hallways of the laboratory. She paused a moment, taking in her surroundings. The voices came from her left, and so she headed through the corridor to her right. There was little doubt that if Kokonoe caught her doing this, she would put an end to Tsubaki's little adventure,

For a solid fifteen minutes, Tsubaki roamed the halls, doing nothing more than practicing interpreting the echoes to find her way. Of course, all she could really make out were open paths to walk down; what she knew to be an elevator door sounded no different than a wall to her, and she made no attempt to figure out what the puddle of liquid in the northeastern corner of the lab actually was. Finally, humming to herself, she turned and tried to find her way back to her room.

Within a minute, the echoes of footsteps cut through Tsubaki's sonar, distorting the image she had in mind. She slowed down, hoping that it wasn't Kokonoe. But the footsteps moved in the direction she was aiming to head towards, so she cleared her throat and chanced it. "Ragna? Is that you?"

"Huh? Tsubaki?" The steps sped up, and in seconds, Ragna stepped in front of her; she could just imagine the slack-jawed gawk he wore. "Hey, uh, you sure you should be doing this? I mean, you ain't lost or anything, right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just thought I'd test my capabilities so far. Don't worry; I made sure to avoid anything I wasn't completely sure about." Tsubaki smiled up at him—trying to look him in the eyes, although she couldn't quite make out that level of detail—and stepped forward. "However, I was just about to head back here, if you'd care to come with me. I'm guessing you were coming down to visit anyways?"

"Uh… yeah, I was." As his surprise faded, Ragna gave her a grin and drew in closer. "Great to see you doing that well already. So, uh, you want me to carry you again, or…?"

Her hand sliding into his silenced him, and Tsubaki shook her head. "Not this time. I'd rather properly walk with you for once."

"Oh, uh, sure. Ain't a problem." Ragna swallowed as she gave him an appreciative squeeze of the hand, and he allowed her to lead, too cowed to do anything else. As they reached the stairs, he nearly stumbled, eyes trained on Tsubaki as they were. But Tsubaki steadied him with her grip, halting until he found his balance again. "…Shit. Thanks, Tsu."

"No problem." Although she had no idea why he had almost tumbled, while she in her handicapped state had been in no danger of doing so. She led him back down to her room, but rather than head back to her bed, she stalled in the middle of the chamber. She didn't have to be able to interpret expressions yet to know he once more wore a confused expression. "I would like to do one more test, if you don't mind. Could you help me with it, please?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"See that object on the table? Please throw it to me. Um, gently, though."

"Alright…" After releasing her hand, Ragna trudged over to the table and cast a flat look down at what awaited him there. "…Tsu, that's a wrench."

"It is? Oh well. Please, throw it my way. Um, underhanded, please."

"…'Kay. If you insist." As he lifted up the wrench, Ragna turned back to her, grimacing. He could just see the number of ways this could go awry. But hell, if she felt this necessary… "Alright, here it comes."

With an underhand lob, he sent it her way. Tsubaki focused all of her concentration on it, to the point that all other echoes blurred in detail. Even with such focus, however, she could barely form a firm picture of the metal tool flying her way. She stretched out her hand to catch it—

Kill Ragna.

—and succeeded, wincing as the steel impacted against her palm. She blinked; the resurgent voice did not distort her perception in any way, proving itself to be entirely in her mind. Still, she smiled and walked ahead to set the wrench back down. "Alright, thanks. I'm going to need to work on that a little; I couldn't really make out the rest of my surroundings while focusing so much on it, which would be fatal in combat. But it's progress."

"Huh, alright. Thought you looked fine there, but if you say so." Grinning at her with something resembling pride, Ragna wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer. "So, uh, want me to read to you for a bit?"

"Sure." With a bright grin, Tsubaki took him by the hand and pulled him back over to the bed.

A/N: Just for those wondering: no, I haven't started uploading stuff onto any other sites yet. I'm still unable to post new stories, however. If I do end up (temporarily) moving, I'll post a link to it on my profile.