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The forests around Reingar is no place to walk around in the dead of night. The risk of being jumped by bandits or chased by patrolling robots is enough to deter anyone. But when the forest is dead quiet at night, without even the sound of wind blowing through…
…it is far more dangerous.
And right now, two girls, one blind, one mute, with only the small light from the latter’s droid companion, are treading carefully through the woods.
______________________________________
*rustling* *rustling*
THUD!
“Yuna? Yuna, was that you?”
“Owwwww…” Tuna, Yuna’s drone, plays one of its pre-installed lines.
“Not again, Yuna… *sigh* You have to be more careful! You’ve tripped like six times so far! I need you to pay close attention for me!”
“I’m trying!…”
“*sigh* Yeah, you’re right. Lost my cool there. Come on – Hup!”
…
*rustling*
…
Every step they take, the silence becomes more unbearable.
Yuna can definitely see the silhouettes of the machines and thieves from a distance, but for some reason, they’re nothing more than shadows to them.
And they must be treating the two girls like shadows as well, willfully ignoring them even when they made noise more than once.
Something is really wrong. But they’re not even close to getting out of the woods.
“Do we really have to find her?” The swordsgirl asks, slightly nervous. “Are you sure she’s still alive?”
“Of course. I saw it with my eyes. She flew into these woods after she fell. If I can’t find her now after all this time… I don’t know if she’ll ever look at me again.”
“Hmph…”
Yuna types out something on her keyboard.
“Are you scared, Karin?”
“What? Of course I’m not! How can I defend you if I’m scared?”
“…”
“…”
“…Well, I’m still kinda nervous. It’s been four months since I’ve lost my sight, but I’m still not used to sensing danger with my other senses. For example – OW!” A tree branch rudely interrupted Karin. “That.”
“Hehe.” Yuna can’t help but ‘giggle’ as quietly as possible.
“Hey, I can still hear that!”
“Don’t be so tough on yourself. It’s not like you to stress yourself like this. Besides, if things go wrong, we can still use my secret weapon!”
“Yeah, but…”
Karin clenches the hilt in her hand.
“…Maybe I still felt frustrated for what happened that day. Had I reacted a little bit faster…”
“Come on, we’ve been through this so many times already. It wasn’t –”
The voice stops.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…Yuna? Hello? Yuna?”
Nothing.
“Yuna? YUNA! ANSWER ME! YUNA! THIS ISN’T FUNNY!”
A pair of hands suddenly touches Karin’s shoulders.
“AAAH! Oh, thank the Goddess! Did Tuna ran out of battery or something?” She nervously pants.
But she didn’t expect a reply.
“Sorry~~”
SLASH!
“Ahahaha! Oh, I knew you two would come for me today!”
“Tamarinne!”
Four months since that incident. That hysterical laughter is nowhere close to the meek voice of that strange girl that woke up in the woods.
But deep inside, she just knows. It’s precisely the girl they’re looking for.
“I can’t believe it… You’re still alive!”
“More than alive, Karin! I’m reborn anew!” Tamarinne laughed, as she soars through the night sky with her wings.
“What did you do to Yuna!?”
“Oh come on Karin~ What happened to your cheer back then? Now you look so boring and serious. Don’t tell me you have another sword stuck up your –”
“Shut it! Just answer my question!”
“Jeez. I don’t even need to hear you to know what you’re saying next. How predictable.”
The siren glumly rests herself on a branch. “The first time you guys decided to pay precious ol’ me a visit, and you already bummed me out. And you all claimed to be my friends…” Tamarinne pouts.
“But you know what, I’m still a kind girl. I’ll forgive all of this and let you go… if you agree to play a little game.”
“What are you planning now.” Karin grits her teeth.
“Don’t worryyyy. You see – oh wait, you can’t see, haha – Yuna is somewhere in these woods. Silenced, of course.”
“Silenced? What do you mean by that? Is that what you did to the forest!?”
“Oh, what is silence, you ask? I simply touch them, and they’re basically erased! Can’t speak, can’t hear, can’t move, can’t feel – can’t do anything! Just like a shadow!”
“What – Then how the hell am I able to… find… her…”
The realization hits her. The same moment the other’s grin widens with maddening glee.
“Ahahaha! That’s right! That one precious sense that you lost when you subjected me to that ridiculous experiment! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA –”
“Tch - GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!”
SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!
RUMBLE!
An entire row of trees collapsed at once.
“What the – How much anger do you have in there!?”
“None of your concern.” A threatening aura emits from below. “Yuna wants to turn you back to normal. But me?”
A grin, brimming with anger.
“I want you silenced.”
“………...Fine.” A bitter scowl.
.
.
.
Silence again.
.
The kind of cold, bitter silence that pierces your skin –
SWIPE!
“Nngh!”
The siren’s claws only grazed the skin, but it left a burning sensation.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting by myself!?”
SWOOOSH!
“Four months! Four. Whole. Months!”
WOOSH!
“I had to hide in this forest, from everyone that could hunt me down, lived wide awake every moment I could because I could never hear them coming, and ate whatever I could find to stay alive! You want to see how skinny I’ve become while you were busy playing with the walking cane!?”
“What do you mean – We’ve both been trying to –”
“DON’T LIE TO ME!”
Karin only had time to cover her ears before Tamarinne’s bloodcurdling cries send her flying across the forest as if she’s made of paper.
CRASH!
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”
Her back forcefully collides with a great tree. Just a bit stronger would’ve snapped it in two, but it still left Karin unable to move a limb.
“Hah…Hah…*Cough* *Cough* Aaaaahhh!”
“I’ve seen what she could make. Creating something that lets her communicate with others would only take a day. So why…”
Footsteps coming near, each one dug into the ground deeper than the last.
“Why did you took so long?”
Karin can’t move. She has to move. But she can only stare into the darkness, as painful memories of that day started flooding back…
Right. That day…
“Hey. Answer me.” said Tamarinne, completely aware that she can’t hear a thing. That blood is still spilling from Karin’s mouth.
…when everything went wrong.
CRUSH!
“ANSWER ME!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”
________________________________________
…Umm, Yuna?
What is it, Somi?
…W-What are you doing? And why are you calling me that? My name is Tama -
Don’t worry. This thing will help you regain your memories back, trust me. Memories…of when you were Somi Choi. When we were best friends.
That’s… nice of you, President, but why do you have to use that thing?
Well, I just happen to find this fragment while I was looking for materials in the woods. Don’t worry, I checked as many times as I could – it’s a perfectly safe energy source. It can generate power almost infinitely by letting light and dark energy interact with one another.
…I guess I’ll trust you then. I’ll go on patrol now. But remember, if anything happens – Wait.
Alright, let’s get started! Don’t worry, Somi, this won’t hurt!
Waitwaitwait, Yuna! Isn’t that thing glowing a bit too strong!?
Light and dark…Moonlight – Wait a minute!
FLAAAAAASSSHHHH
Yuna! Take that shard out right now –
KABOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
.
.
.
.
.
…What happened here… How did it…
The President! Are you okay!? Why did you try to jump out of the window!?
She can’t speak! The president has gone mute!
It’s okay… We got you here… Don’t cry…
Where’s that foreign girl? Where did she go?
We couldn’t find any trace of her! I’m afraid… she disappeared!
Dammit! How could this happen! Karin! Where’s Karin? She said she would make sure nothing goes wrong!
L…Lieutenant?
What!?
Be-Behind you… She’s… Her eyes are –
.
.
.
Nngh! I'm sorry. It doesn't seem like my powers can revert this.
I'm afraid you'll have to track down that energy source that you used again if you want to cure the damage.
.
.
.
.
I’m sorry, Yuna. We’ve been trying to find her for the past two months, but there was no one in that forest.
Maybe you were just dazed from the explosion.
Yuna, listen to me. Maybe it’s time to accept that she’s gone.
Yuna, just calm down…
…
Yuna…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yuna. How long have you been trying to find her? How much rest have you taken?
You can’t keep going on like this, Yuna. No, I can’t help you, Yuna! You’re just wasting your life away chasing a phantom!
.
.
.
.
…So you’ve come to me.
How did I know? I guess I just got used to the sound of you running around the school for the past three months.
Look, I want to help you. I really do. But I’m still discharged ever since that incident. I still can’t defend myself like I used to without three more officers watching me. So please, ask someone else –
.
Yuna!
.
…Your hands… I’m the last one you can ask for, right?
.
.
…Give me another month. Then we’ll try to find her. Together.
_________________________________
“Hah……………Hah……………”
Never would Karin thought this is where she lays down her life. Broken. Bleeding. Alone.
Cold.
“…Why…Why won’t you answer me…?” Tears keep rolling down Tamarinne’s cheeks like raindrops.
She wishes she could answer her. That she really had been training for the past four months to even wield a sword without her eyes. But right now, she can hardly utter a word.
So...
“What… What’s that glowing in your hand –”
FLASH!
A fountain of brilliant light spews forth the moment Karin unsheathes the blade, lighting the entire forest even for a brief moment.
“GYYYYAAAAAAAA! IT BURNS!” The sirens wails in pain, leaving her vulnerable for a strike.
But it never came.
“*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*”
THUD!
Karin collapses, fully motionless.
“What… Why you –”
“SOOOOOOMMMMMMIIIIIIII!” A distressful voice from behind her caught her completely off guard.
“AAAHHH! What are you doing – Let me go! Don’t you – ………Yuna?”
The girl that transformed her into a monster, holding her neck tightly, having seen what she did to her friend.
“So you finally returned, huh~? I’ll make you pay dearly for what you’ve done to me!”
Her hands immediately reach for Yuna’s neck.
.
But she can’t do anything.
Maybe it’s because her physical strength has deteriorated after those four months. Maybe it’s how she expended most of her energy dealing with Karin.
But she can’t do anything. Desperately try to squeeze the air out of Yuna as she squeezes hers.
Her face is turning purple fast. Her limbs already gave up.
She can only let out a faint whimper.
“…It…It hurts…”
.
.
As if she heard those faint sounds immediately, Yuna loosens her grip.
.
Tears.
Streams of tears keep flooding down Yuna’s cheeks, as she cries her heart out without a sound.
.
.
Somehow…
…it deafens Tamarinne.
______________________________________
The sun rises. The sunlight clears away Tamarinne’s silence, but it clears away something inside her as well.
“…Karin…"
The swordsgirl lays in a puddle of her blood, barely breathing.
"How could you…?”
“…………I’m sorry. My emotions overflowed.”
Tamarinne didn’t thought she’d feel sorry ever again.
It made her faintly sick.
.
The siren takes a deep breath. She wouldn’t think she’d be doing this again so long as she is deaf.
“…Just… let me try to heal her.”
.
It took Tamarinne every bit of concentration to sing as clearly as she once could.
A slightly broken, but still somewhat calming, melody.
She can only hope that her magic still works.
At the same time, the blade in Karin’s hand shines, as if it’s in tune.
“…!”
It can generate power almost infinitely by letting light and dark energy interact with one another.
The two sides of that shard…
…are resonating.
.
.
.
.
“*Gasp*! *Cough* *Cough*”
“Karin!”
“Hey hey, don’t force it on her. She still needs to recover.”
“…What…How did I…”
“Tamarinne healed you, along with the shard’s power.”
“…Tamarinne? …That siren?”
“Right next to you, yeah.”
“Ah! …………Well………Thank you, I guess.”
“Don’t move.”
“Oh, right. I still need to recover.”
“…No. Because I still hate you.”
“What!?”
“Seriously, did you spend half of those four months inside your room and cry or something? You were fun back then, but now you’re just miserable.”
“Why you…You still want to pick a fight? I can easily throw you around like a stick, let alone cut you – Mmph!”
“Hey –!”
Yuna embraces both of them tightly in her arms before they could say another word. They can feel her arms shaking as she tries to type in each letter on the keyboard.
“…Ple…ase…stop…fight…ing…”
“…”
“…Alright, we won’t.”
“……………Yeah.”
At least, right now, there’s something the two of them shares.
__________________________________
“…So…What are you guys planning to do?” asks Tamarinne, now that the three got out of the woods.
“…We’ll find another Moonlight Shard.” Yuna then opens a screen filled with notes and a picture of the shard. “You know that resonance when you performed the healing song?”
“…Yeah?”
“That day, when you were struck by the shard’s Dark power… Karin and I must’ve got hit with its Light side. Anyway, the resonance back then obviously didn’t cure the damage. But it did speed up Karin’s recovery. So maybe if we can find another, no, more of these shards, we can generate enough power to fully heal ourselves.”
“…How can I trust that you won’t kill off another one of my senses?”
“...I’ll have to try. What other option do I have?”
Yuna turns to holds Tamarinne’s hand tight. Compared to her cold hands, they’re warm and gentle, like sunlight.
Her eyes, glimmering with hope, earnestly asks.
…So please.
Can you trust me one more time?
Tamarinne?
Somewhere in Tamarinne’s dim eyes, a tiny light shone as well.
“…”
“…*sigh* Just so you know, Somi Choi no longer exists.”
After a short pauses, her wings unfolds.
“…But I’m going to help you, as Tamarinne.”
A bright smile spreads across Yuna’s face.
…Thank you.
“…!”
Suddenly, a flash runs across Tamarinne’s mind.
…Yuna…Are you okay?...
No one believed me, Tama.*sobs* No one believed that my dad was killed by something out of this world… How am I supposed to stop it? When I’m the only one that believes it exists, that it will one day appear again, that one day it will threaten –
*hugs*
Don’t worry Yuna. I’ll believe you.
…
…*sobs* Thank you, Somi.
“Ah! It’s okay, I’m fine.”
What the hell was that?... Tamarinne wonders.
“Can we start going now? I’m hungry from the fighting. Also we need to give Tama something to eat. And maybe a cloak.” Karin calls from the distance, slightly annoyed.
“Alright, let’s go.”
But the siren stood still.
“……………Tamarinne?”
“Hey, Yuna,” Karin whispers, “aren’t you trusting Tamarinne a bit too quickly?”
“It’s okay. You and I both know she doesn’t mean harm. Besides…”
Tamarinne can only vaguely make out what they’re talking from afar, but one look at Karin’s flustered face tells her all she needs to know.
“Hmph. Dorks.”
ZAP!
Yuna suddenly fires a laser at Tamarinne for no reason, nearly hitting her square at the face.
“Hey! What gives!?”
But when she points her finger at the woods, she remembered.
The bandits.
“Look what we have here~~ If it isn’t the President and her crippled bodyguard!”
“Hey, you must be the one that ate all of our rations! That’s it! You’re not making it out of here alive!”
“Might as well give it up, girls~~ How are the three of you going to take down all of us?”
About a hundred Goblins gather at the edge of the forest, daggers and satchels in hand.
“Tch! I knew I forgot about those Goblins! Hey guys, we have to –”
But she couldn’t finish her sentence.
Just like all the thieves, she was dumbfounded at what she saw.
Something that that girl must’ve saved up this whole time.
Her “secret weapon”.
A massive array of drones, formed from light.
“That’s our President.” Karin chuckles.
“…Tamarinne?”
“Y-Yes?”
The drones shines with energy.
“Would you kindly move out of the strike area?”