oh my god WHY
So I realized faggotry is contagious. :(
Challenge None
Prompt(s): going home, memories/remembering
Title: Of Flying and Falling
She had found it an honor that Koromaru remained close, keeping pace with her as she did her final rounds around the island. Telling Dante that she still expected to get that call when he found Teresa again, giving Yuuta one final and affectionate hair mussing, joking with Mion, spending the night before with Sabrina, dropping by briefly to hug Sion and skipping off before the girl could do more than yell something about proper warnings before initiating physical contact-- she would have said that the hug itself was warning, knowing that Ikki would be even more spontaneous, but decided not to ruin it.
Whatever chill the morning possessed (not that it was much) was beginning to burn off to make way for the afternoon when Emiri slowed down to a jog, then to a walk, and then finally stopped altogether. Koromaru danced impatiently by her feet and, spotting the attention-getter, sprang forward to greet him.
Minato reached down to pet the joyful dog, straightening to meet Emiri's eyes.
"... He'll miss you."
That was safe, a neutral topic, and she suppressed a relieved sigh with minor difficulty. "I'll miss him too-- he's been great company, and he doesn't complain half as much as the rest of the track team." She grinned to show she was joking when he shifted awkwardly. "But you need him more than I do."
He nodded once, and they fell silent. Neither of them said what nearly everyone else still on the sadistic landmass was doing. The few murmured words, the teary babbling in a desperate attempt to get everything out, even the odd couple or two throwing insults as a veiled attempt to soften the inevitable.
Instead, Emiri propped a hand on her hip. "I'm bad at good-byes," she informed her friend. "So I'm not going to bother. You're going to beat up death and I'll see you again, whether you like it or not."
Minato blinked, slightly taken aback for all that he'd had a few years to know this girl. The puzzlement was replaced with a smile though, no less warm for how small it was.
"I'd like it very much, Emiri-san."
For once Ikki isn't grinning, tipping his head at his teammate as she approaches. They're more comfortable shrieking at each other, but he knows she's not feeling receptive to such an approach right now, just as she knows the next words out of his mouth are going to be forced.
"Kuahahahaha! Today's the day this god bids farewell to this hellhole and flies free! You ready, Adachi?"
Emiri almost winces, the automatic reply lodged in her throat until she clears it free-- and discovers, to Hell with it, she isn't going to be sarcastic for once. One hand reaches for her whistle, the only familiar thing she's kept close during her stay here (besides the bracelet), but her fingers close on air. She'd left it with someone else, she recalls suddenly. No hugs, no tears, just the whistle ending its aerial arc in his hands.
She pretends the gesture was to arrange her hoodie, and she steps up beside him. "Ready for anything, Ikki-kun."
He drops an elbow on her head, his way of approving without saying it outright or touching anything he shouldn't be, his muscles tensing in preparation. There's sorrow, possibly regrets, but for this moment the two of them share a reckless grin, captured in the space that only a Storm Rider knows and embraces.
They fly.
-- ღ --
Forcing herself out of bed before five is a Herculean task, one that Emiri almost abandons in favor of her blankets, but this is the one thing she's always dedicated herself to, before Kazu, before Kogarasumaru, before she even had a reason to do anything.
It's easier when she steps outside, worn sneakers pushing against the pavement until she adjusts her course to the road itself, steadily moving uphill and just-- breathing. Inhale, exhale, little puffs of breath, simple things. No confusion, no clouded recollections that feel more like the product of a bad night coupled with one of Nakayama's bizarre beverages. No cast of characters that could have come straight from her imagination.
No inexplicable feeling that yesterday was not the last time she ran this path, that it had, in actuality, been much longer.
She runs, but it follows, letting her go but also holding her in place.
-- ღ --
"Did you grow overnight?" Yayoi studies her best friend, one thin brow skeptically lifted.
Engrossed in leg stretches, Emiri finally lifts her head from the limb and blows dark strands away from her face. "What are you talking about, Nakayama? I haven't grown in over a year."
Rather than debate details (because she knows Emiri can argue forever if necessary), Yayoi opts to drag her to the nurse's office to prove her point: Emiri has indeed gained an inch. One that she can't remember achieving, which is off-putting, because the last time she grew, she'd paid close enough attention to it and had spent the day bragging about how one day she'd be towering over them all.
"Ikki-kun's gotten taller, too," the girl remarks offhandedly once they've returned to the track.
"He's a guy," is the only explanation the smaller one can think to offer, since odds are that Ikki won't know why either. "They grow every time they take a deep breath. Just wait, Agito-kun will be like Godzilla by next week."
She leaves Yayoi gaping at that particular mental image and reaches for her whistle to get the rest of the team's attention-- and then sighs in exasperation when she remembers that it's still missing.
"I liked that whistle, dammit!"
-- ღ --
She's been dreaming lately, always the same setting, occasionally a different face. A silver-haired man, cocky and grinning, correcting her grip on a gun that's nearly dislocated her shoulder or teasing her about "Kazoo".
"I'd rather hang around with the crazy girl who rides her skates off a cliff in a monsoon than the boring, normal girl."
An older blonde girl, always there with a solution and the world's best luck. Almost as though she's got some kind of magic charm on her.
You're one of the first friends I made here and... You're practically family."
A green-haired girl, her partner in crime. A kid clinging to her with almost as much affection as he showed money. Another girl teaching her to move, to dance, and even when awake, Emiri swears the wind responds to her movements. There are more faces, more people whose features blur and vanish when she wakes up, but there's always one person there.
He never speaks. He just watches her with calm gray eyes, waiting to be there, waiting for her to speak his name.
And Emiri always wakes up aggravated with no words on her lips, just as the glowing numbers on her clock click to one minute past midnight.
-- ღ --
She's deleting pictures on her phone one day, just on a whim, when she fumbles and almost drops it. She does drop it a second later when her fingers begin to shake too badly for her to maintain a proper grip on it.
Fifteen minutes later, she's still half on her bike when she's banging on Kazu's door, and for once, it isn't the confused-looking blond she wants to see answering it. It's the boy behind him, black spikes disheveled and shirt rumpled, and clearly wondering why the team's only female member is panting heavily and brandishing her cellphone at him.
"Adachi, what--" Kazu begins, bewildered, but she leans the bike against the wall, gives him an apologetic smile, and pitches the phone over his head to Ikki. He obligingly stares down at it, brown eyes widening at the picture-- more specifically, the purple-haired girl gazing sternly back at him. A quick jab reveals a dark-haired boy with gray eyes and a steady expression with just the faintest hint of a smile. He keeps pushing buttons, discovering more familiar faces, and finally looks up at Emiri, who beams at his expression.
"... Fuck, Adachi," he says reverently.
"His name is Minato," she whispers, and is surprised to realize she's crying.
-- ღ --
It hits her one day, as Kazu offers her a hand up from the latest trick Kogarasumaru's testing out and she doesn't blush. They have a tournament to win, friends to avenge, and each and every one of them is fighting their hardest and acting to fill in the parts where their teammates are lacking. Kazu is the speed, Emiri is the impact.
He blinks when her fingers wrap around his and she's silent, brows drawn together because she doesn't quite get why her heart isn't pounding in her throat, the way it usually does. The affection is still very much there, as is the conviction that she will haul herself onto moving cars and tackle killers for this boy, but they stare at each other and they're teammates. Friends. Comrades. It may be precisely because they've fought alongside each other and faced death, because to him, everyone on Kogarasumaru is a vital part of the team and a cherished friend, but she's aware that Kazu can never view her as one of the girls at school. As anyone desirable.
But he views her as that cherished friend, and she'd rather have that than anything else. She can still love him. And she does. At one time, she'd even told him that.
That's why she can step back, even as the bracelet sparkles on her wrist.
"Adachi?" Kazu has never remembered the island, but he smiles now, uncertainly. "Uh--"
"Sorry," she interrupts him with a sheepish grin, and scrambles to her feet. "I kind of spaced out there. Do you think we can practice that trick again? I think I almost had it until the landing..."
He mirrors her grin, back in his comfort zone, and pulls her in to guide her movements with no hint of awkwardness whatsoever. She remembers them, repeats them, and soars.
The course of action is clear now.
-- ღ --
She doesn't go immediately-- not because she's nervous, because Emiri has long since ceased to be that way. If something needs to be done, there isn't a person or obstacle out there that can keep her grounded. But the Gram Scale Tournament comes first, along with her obligation to her team. She won't allow for any more sacrifices; she wants to end this just as badly as all of them, because they've all lost allies and good friends. The sky isn't free anymore.
"You could die," Yayoi says worriedly, watching them prepare for their last fight. She'll be on standby, always worrying about them, and they view her as a valuable member for more than just being Agito's tuner.
In response, Emiri gives her a crooked grin. "Hey, Nakayama... do you remember what we were like back then?" When Yayoi blinks, she adds, "Before Buccha-kun joined the team."
The pigtailed girl nods and waits for further elaboration. Emiri complies.
"We were always the ones being protected. The ones stuck on the ground. Girls on track-and-field don't fly." She laughs at the thought and grabs her jacket.
"Always middle-ranking, remember? I never won any of the meets, and athletically-speaking, everyone else on the team was higher ranked. Everyone else on Kogarasumaru is still better than I am. I could still slow them down. Any of us could die if we screw up." She runs a hand through her hair. "We could die," she repeats confidently, "but we won't."
Yayoi asks why, softly.
Emiri straightens up.
"Because it's us."
She closes her eyes and sees Minato smiling.
"Because it's my turn to protect everyone."
The jacket is on.
"Because we can fight death, too. And if losing to it is going to mean I won't be able to keep a promise, then death is getting its ass kicked."
This time, Ikki slaps her hand (and Onigiri eyes her until she lifts a foot threateningly), she and Kazu bump fists, Buccha cracks his knuckles, Agito mutters his usual "Fuck!" and Kogarasumaru heads out to their final fight.
-- ღ --
She arrives at Tatsumi Port Island with a broken arm in its third week of healing, tired but determined. From there, she hops a train, does some asking around, and obtains directions for Gekkoukan High School. She doesn't know how long it's been, whether he's still in school, if she'll be looking for someone with gray hair or someone who has yet to exist, and she doesn't feel like dwelling on it.
Emiri doesn't end up at the school; niggling doubts and an arm twinging every so often convince her to take a breather at a shrine. There's a small playground there with a bench nearby, and she's grateful to plunk down and catch her breath.
It's hard to imagine that the tournament is over, but her team is all in one piece. Shaken and exhausted, but still very much lively. She can't help but wonder how the others are doing... if their final battle's happened yet, if Mitsuru kept her composure, if Yukari was scared, if Akihiko fought to the end.
If they'll be here.
If they'll even know who she is.
"What am I doing here?" she mutters to herself in bafflement. This isn't like her at all. She kicks people into trucks. She takes down kidnappers with her hands cuffed over her head. She leaps into open air for her team. She shields the President of the United States with her own body (and suffers miserably for it). She doesn't go traveling across the country to find a person she's met in a surreal situation. It's either insanity or devotion that drives someone to such lengths, and Emiri can't clarify which it is-- or, rather, she won't.
She's still arguing with herself when something white and furry vaults into her lap and proceeds to kiss her quite enthusiastically. The barking prevents her from instinctively decking the intruder, and she is rewarded with a lolling tongue and bright red eyes when Koromaru finally pulls back.
"Hey, Koro-chan, how many times have I said not to go harassing cute girls without me--" A guy in a baseball cap ambles over, looking sheepish. "Hey, uh, sorry about that. He usually doesn't run off like that--"
He breaks off, looking over the girl with the cast, who returns his stare with one of her own. There's faint recognition on both ends.
"Well, shit," Junpei says conversationally. "If I break the news to you, you'd better promise not to break my nose."
Emiri holds up the cast as best she can, all innocence. Her voice when she speaks, however, is cheerfully threatening.
"Tell me everything."
Junpei does, starting with "About a year ago, maybe almost two..." When he's finished, she's glad she's sitting down.
"Self-sacrificing bastard," she remarks, adding in the same breath, "so how's the ramen here?"
He stares at her for a moment, then lets out a laugh that's more surprised than anything. "No wonder he liked you."
When she returns home, Ringo gives her the news that Ikki has gone on a self-proclaimed "Rugged Journey of One Man's Solitude and Searching", whatever that means. Emiri doesn't have the heart to tell her; she just wants to lie down.
In the dream that night, he faces away from her.
I'm sorry, she tries to tell him, but nothing emerges. He doesn't hear her as he walks away, and in the end, there's nothing Emiri can do except watch him disappear.
-- ღ --
Emiri is nothing if not resilient, and time grants her some relief. It's almost a year later and she's doing warm-up stretches before entering her lane. Why she's even competing in a meet is beyond her knowledge, since she's up against taller girls with longer legs, the athletic ones who spend every single day running five miles and racing bullet trains. She doesn't exactly have the greatest record in these things, and some of her more familiar opponents smirk when she steps up between them. Is she hoping they'll give some kind of pity prize this time?
She merely smiles and asks which one of them would prefer to lose her teeth and which one would prefer to resemble a panda.
They shut up.
The gun sounds and she takes off, finding her pace almost immediately. She can dimly hear the cheers and roars of the crowd in the stands (along with Agito screaming something about "not fucking losing" because of course Kogarasumaru would come along to cheer one of their members on), but tunes them out with little trouble.
She doesn't usually have a reason to run. But these girls don't know a thing about running for their lives. They weren't trapped on an island for a few years. They don't understand how someone on the ground can still fly. They aren't fighters. They don't have a team of guys who will give them grief if they don't give it their all.
And they don't have someone to run for like Emiri does, which is why she sprints past them. The only thing she can do for Minato right now is her best, and nothing there can hold her back now.
I hope you're watching.
It doesn't feel as though her feet are even touching the ground, but she can feel the strain in her limbs. She's reaching her limit-- and she'll be damned if she doesn't surpass it.
This is my road!!
As she crosses the marking point, she hears the shrill call of a whistle, the first sound that registers in her ears, and she stumbles, hops a few feet to try and recover her balance, and falls regardless.
... Into somebody, whose arms go around her to hold her up.
Her eyes are squeezed shut in anticipation of impact, and she knows it could be anyone. A judging official, any of her teammates, someone not him.
But Emiri says it anyway, gasping and breathless.
"I promised."
A low chuckle greets her.
"You kept it."
There are a great many things she wants to say, more than half of which she suspects he already knows, and for all she knows, she could have finally descended into insanity and started imagining him.
Emiri decides she doesn't really give a damn about details, murmurs a threat to kick his ass for scaring her like that, and just lets Minato hold her.
Challenge None
Prompt(s): going home, memories/remembering
Title: Of Flying and Falling
She had found it an honor that Koromaru remained close, keeping pace with her as she did her final rounds around the island. Telling Dante that she still expected to get that call when he found Teresa again, giving Yuuta one final and affectionate hair mussing, joking with Mion, spending the night before with Sabrina, dropping by briefly to hug Sion and skipping off before the girl could do more than yell something about proper warnings before initiating physical contact-- she would have said that the hug itself was warning, knowing that Ikki would be even more spontaneous, but decided not to ruin it.
Whatever chill the morning possessed (not that it was much) was beginning to burn off to make way for the afternoon when Emiri slowed down to a jog, then to a walk, and then finally stopped altogether. Koromaru danced impatiently by her feet and, spotting the attention-getter, sprang forward to greet him.
Minato reached down to pet the joyful dog, straightening to meet Emiri's eyes.
"... He'll miss you."
That was safe, a neutral topic, and she suppressed a relieved sigh with minor difficulty. "I'll miss him too-- he's been great company, and he doesn't complain half as much as the rest of the track team." She grinned to show she was joking when he shifted awkwardly. "But you need him more than I do."
He nodded once, and they fell silent. Neither of them said what nearly everyone else still on the sadistic landmass was doing. The few murmured words, the teary babbling in a desperate attempt to get everything out, even the odd couple or two throwing insults as a veiled attempt to soften the inevitable.
Instead, Emiri propped a hand on her hip. "I'm bad at good-byes," she informed her friend. "So I'm not going to bother. You're going to beat up death and I'll see you again, whether you like it or not."
Minato blinked, slightly taken aback for all that he'd had a few years to know this girl. The puzzlement was replaced with a smile though, no less warm for how small it was.
"I'd like it very much, Emiri-san."
For once Ikki isn't grinning, tipping his head at his teammate as she approaches. They're more comfortable shrieking at each other, but he knows she's not feeling receptive to such an approach right now, just as she knows the next words out of his mouth are going to be forced.
"Kuahahahaha! Today's the day this god bids farewell to this hellhole and flies free! You ready, Adachi?"
Emiri almost winces, the automatic reply lodged in her throat until she clears it free-- and discovers, to Hell with it, she isn't going to be sarcastic for once. One hand reaches for her whistle, the only familiar thing she's kept close during her stay here (besides the bracelet), but her fingers close on air. She'd left it with someone else, she recalls suddenly. No hugs, no tears, just the whistle ending its aerial arc in his hands.
She pretends the gesture was to arrange her hoodie, and she steps up beside him. "Ready for anything, Ikki-kun."
He drops an elbow on her head, his way of approving without saying it outright or touching anything he shouldn't be, his muscles tensing in preparation. There's sorrow, possibly regrets, but for this moment the two of them share a reckless grin, captured in the space that only a Storm Rider knows and embraces.
They fly.
-- ღ --
Forcing herself out of bed before five is a Herculean task, one that Emiri almost abandons in favor of her blankets, but this is the one thing she's always dedicated herself to, before Kazu, before Kogarasumaru, before she even had a reason to do anything.
It's easier when she steps outside, worn sneakers pushing against the pavement until she adjusts her course to the road itself, steadily moving uphill and just-- breathing. Inhale, exhale, little puffs of breath, simple things. No confusion, no clouded recollections that feel more like the product of a bad night coupled with one of Nakayama's bizarre beverages. No cast of characters that could have come straight from her imagination.
No inexplicable feeling that yesterday was not the last time she ran this path, that it had, in actuality, been much longer.
She runs, but it follows, letting her go but also holding her in place.
-- ღ --
"Did you grow overnight?" Yayoi studies her best friend, one thin brow skeptically lifted.
Engrossed in leg stretches, Emiri finally lifts her head from the limb and blows dark strands away from her face. "What are you talking about, Nakayama? I haven't grown in over a year."
Rather than debate details (because she knows Emiri can argue forever if necessary), Yayoi opts to drag her to the nurse's office to prove her point: Emiri has indeed gained an inch. One that she can't remember achieving, which is off-putting, because the last time she grew, she'd paid close enough attention to it and had spent the day bragging about how one day she'd be towering over them all.
"Ikki-kun's gotten taller, too," the girl remarks offhandedly once they've returned to the track.
"He's a guy," is the only explanation the smaller one can think to offer, since odds are that Ikki won't know why either. "They grow every time they take a deep breath. Just wait, Agito-kun will be like Godzilla by next week."
She leaves Yayoi gaping at that particular mental image and reaches for her whistle to get the rest of the team's attention-- and then sighs in exasperation when she remembers that it's still missing.
"I liked that whistle, dammit!"
-- ღ --
She's been dreaming lately, always the same setting, occasionally a different face. A silver-haired man, cocky and grinning, correcting her grip on a gun that's nearly dislocated her shoulder or teasing her about "Kazoo".
"I'd rather hang around with the crazy girl who rides her skates off a cliff in a monsoon than the boring, normal girl."
An older blonde girl, always there with a solution and the world's best luck. Almost as though she's got some kind of magic charm on her.
You're one of the first friends I made here and... You're practically family."
A green-haired girl, her partner in crime. A kid clinging to her with almost as much affection as he showed money. Another girl teaching her to move, to dance, and even when awake, Emiri swears the wind responds to her movements. There are more faces, more people whose features blur and vanish when she wakes up, but there's always one person there.
He never speaks. He just watches her with calm gray eyes, waiting to be there, waiting for her to speak his name.
And Emiri always wakes up aggravated with no words on her lips, just as the glowing numbers on her clock click to one minute past midnight.
-- ღ --
She's deleting pictures on her phone one day, just on a whim, when she fumbles and almost drops it. She does drop it a second later when her fingers begin to shake too badly for her to maintain a proper grip on it.
Fifteen minutes later, she's still half on her bike when she's banging on Kazu's door, and for once, it isn't the confused-looking blond she wants to see answering it. It's the boy behind him, black spikes disheveled and shirt rumpled, and clearly wondering why the team's only female member is panting heavily and brandishing her cellphone at him.
"Adachi, what--" Kazu begins, bewildered, but she leans the bike against the wall, gives him an apologetic smile, and pitches the phone over his head to Ikki. He obligingly stares down at it, brown eyes widening at the picture-- more specifically, the purple-haired girl gazing sternly back at him. A quick jab reveals a dark-haired boy with gray eyes and a steady expression with just the faintest hint of a smile. He keeps pushing buttons, discovering more familiar faces, and finally looks up at Emiri, who beams at his expression.
"... Fuck, Adachi," he says reverently.
"His name is Minato," she whispers, and is surprised to realize she's crying.
-- ღ --
It hits her one day, as Kazu offers her a hand up from the latest trick Kogarasumaru's testing out and she doesn't blush. They have a tournament to win, friends to avenge, and each and every one of them is fighting their hardest and acting to fill in the parts where their teammates are lacking. Kazu is the speed, Emiri is the impact.
He blinks when her fingers wrap around his and she's silent, brows drawn together because she doesn't quite get why her heart isn't pounding in her throat, the way it usually does. The affection is still very much there, as is the conviction that she will haul herself onto moving cars and tackle killers for this boy, but they stare at each other and they're teammates. Friends. Comrades. It may be precisely because they've fought alongside each other and faced death, because to him, everyone on Kogarasumaru is a vital part of the team and a cherished friend, but she's aware that Kazu can never view her as one of the girls at school. As anyone desirable.
But he views her as that cherished friend, and she'd rather have that than anything else. She can still love him. And she does. At one time, she'd even told him that.
That's why she can step back, even as the bracelet sparkles on her wrist.
"Adachi?" Kazu has never remembered the island, but he smiles now, uncertainly. "Uh--"
"Sorry," she interrupts him with a sheepish grin, and scrambles to her feet. "I kind of spaced out there. Do you think we can practice that trick again? I think I almost had it until the landing..."
He mirrors her grin, back in his comfort zone, and pulls her in to guide her movements with no hint of awkwardness whatsoever. She remembers them, repeats them, and soars.
The course of action is clear now.
-- ღ --
She doesn't go immediately-- not because she's nervous, because Emiri has long since ceased to be that way. If something needs to be done, there isn't a person or obstacle out there that can keep her grounded. But the Gram Scale Tournament comes first, along with her obligation to her team. She won't allow for any more sacrifices; she wants to end this just as badly as all of them, because they've all lost allies and good friends. The sky isn't free anymore.
"You could die," Yayoi says worriedly, watching them prepare for their last fight. She'll be on standby, always worrying about them, and they view her as a valuable member for more than just being Agito's tuner.
In response, Emiri gives her a crooked grin. "Hey, Nakayama... do you remember what we were like back then?" When Yayoi blinks, she adds, "Before Buccha-kun joined the team."
The pigtailed girl nods and waits for further elaboration. Emiri complies.
"We were always the ones being protected. The ones stuck on the ground. Girls on track-and-field don't fly." She laughs at the thought and grabs her jacket.
"Always middle-ranking, remember? I never won any of the meets, and athletically-speaking, everyone else on the team was higher ranked. Everyone else on Kogarasumaru is still better than I am. I could still slow them down. Any of us could die if we screw up." She runs a hand through her hair. "We could die," she repeats confidently, "but we won't."
Yayoi asks why, softly.
Emiri straightens up.
"Because it's us."
She closes her eyes and sees Minato smiling.
"Because it's my turn to protect everyone."
The jacket is on.
"Because we can fight death, too. And if losing to it is going to mean I won't be able to keep a promise, then death is getting its ass kicked."
This time, Ikki slaps her hand (and Onigiri eyes her until she lifts a foot threateningly), she and Kazu bump fists, Buccha cracks his knuckles, Agito mutters his usual "Fuck!" and Kogarasumaru heads out to their final fight.
-- ღ --
She arrives at Tatsumi Port Island with a broken arm in its third week of healing, tired but determined. From there, she hops a train, does some asking around, and obtains directions for Gekkoukan High School. She doesn't know how long it's been, whether he's still in school, if she'll be looking for someone with gray hair or someone who has yet to exist, and she doesn't feel like dwelling on it.
Emiri doesn't end up at the school; niggling doubts and an arm twinging every so often convince her to take a breather at a shrine. There's a small playground there with a bench nearby, and she's grateful to plunk down and catch her breath.
It's hard to imagine that the tournament is over, but her team is all in one piece. Shaken and exhausted, but still very much lively. She can't help but wonder how the others are doing... if their final battle's happened yet, if Mitsuru kept her composure, if Yukari was scared, if Akihiko fought to the end.
If they'll be here.
If they'll even know who she is.
"What am I doing here?" she mutters to herself in bafflement. This isn't like her at all. She kicks people into trucks. She takes down kidnappers with her hands cuffed over her head. She leaps into open air for her team. She shields the President of the United States with her own body (and suffers miserably for it). She doesn't go traveling across the country to find a person she's met in a surreal situation. It's either insanity or devotion that drives someone to such lengths, and Emiri can't clarify which it is-- or, rather, she won't.
She's still arguing with herself when something white and furry vaults into her lap and proceeds to kiss her quite enthusiastically. The barking prevents her from instinctively decking the intruder, and she is rewarded with a lolling tongue and bright red eyes when Koromaru finally pulls back.
"Hey, Koro-chan, how many times have I said not to go harassing cute girls without me--" A guy in a baseball cap ambles over, looking sheepish. "Hey, uh, sorry about that. He usually doesn't run off like that--"
He breaks off, looking over the girl with the cast, who returns his stare with one of her own. There's faint recognition on both ends.
"Well, shit," Junpei says conversationally. "If I break the news to you, you'd better promise not to break my nose."
Emiri holds up the cast as best she can, all innocence. Her voice when she speaks, however, is cheerfully threatening.
"Tell me everything."
Junpei does, starting with "About a year ago, maybe almost two..." When he's finished, she's glad she's sitting down.
"Self-sacrificing bastard," she remarks, adding in the same breath, "so how's the ramen here?"
He stares at her for a moment, then lets out a laugh that's more surprised than anything. "No wonder he liked you."
When she returns home, Ringo gives her the news that Ikki has gone on a self-proclaimed "Rugged Journey of One Man's Solitude and Searching", whatever that means. Emiri doesn't have the heart to tell her; she just wants to lie down.
In the dream that night, he faces away from her.
I'm sorry, she tries to tell him, but nothing emerges. He doesn't hear her as he walks away, and in the end, there's nothing Emiri can do except watch him disappear.
-- ღ --
Emiri is nothing if not resilient, and time grants her some relief. It's almost a year later and she's doing warm-up stretches before entering her lane. Why she's even competing in a meet is beyond her knowledge, since she's up against taller girls with longer legs, the athletic ones who spend every single day running five miles and racing bullet trains. She doesn't exactly have the greatest record in these things, and some of her more familiar opponents smirk when she steps up between them. Is she hoping they'll give some kind of pity prize this time?
She merely smiles and asks which one of them would prefer to lose her teeth and which one would prefer to resemble a panda.
They shut up.
The gun sounds and she takes off, finding her pace almost immediately. She can dimly hear the cheers and roars of the crowd in the stands (along with Agito screaming something about "not fucking losing" because of course Kogarasumaru would come along to cheer one of their members on), but tunes them out with little trouble.
She doesn't usually have a reason to run. But these girls don't know a thing about running for their lives. They weren't trapped on an island for a few years. They don't understand how someone on the ground can still fly. They aren't fighters. They don't have a team of guys who will give them grief if they don't give it their all.
And they don't have someone to run for like Emiri does, which is why she sprints past them. The only thing she can do for Minato right now is her best, and nothing there can hold her back now.
I hope you're watching.
It doesn't feel as though her feet are even touching the ground, but she can feel the strain in her limbs. She's reaching her limit-- and she'll be damned if she doesn't surpass it.
This is my road!!
As she crosses the marking point, she hears the shrill call of a whistle, the first sound that registers in her ears, and she stumbles, hops a few feet to try and recover her balance, and falls regardless.
... Into somebody, whose arms go around her to hold her up.
Her eyes are squeezed shut in anticipation of impact, and she knows it could be anyone. A judging official, any of her teammates, someone not him.
But Emiri says it anyway, gasping and breathless.
"I promised."
A low chuckle greets her.
"You kept it."
There are a great many things she wants to say, more than half of which she suspects he already knows, and for all she knows, she could have finally descended into insanity and started imagining him.
Emiri decides she doesn't really give a damn about details, murmurs a threat to kick his ass for scaring her like that, and just lets Minato hold her.