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IX
“Two months. That’s how long she has left to live.”
All it took was two sentences for Inoue Takina’s entire being to come to a screeching halt. The words rang in her ears, mocking her. It couldn’t be - It couldn’t be true?!
Her eyes frantically met Chisato’s, and the calm acceptance she found in those ruby orbs terrified her. No, no, no!
This… This wasn’t right. The girl who loved life itself so much that she went out of her way to help everyone, even her enemies, was dying. The girl who barged into Takina’s dim world with twinkling ruby eyes and a mischievous grin and dragged her into the light. The girl, who in a matter of months, became someone irreplaceable; the most important person in her life.
Every smile, every laugh, every word that she’s exchanged with Chisato are her most cherished memories.
She doesn’t want to live in a world without Nishikigi Chisato. She doesn’t know how.
She can’t - She won’t let Chisato die.
—-
XI
She rejoins the DA without much of an affair. It's funny how a year ago she would’ve given everything to be back here, but as she climbs the stairs with the rest of her team it feels wrong. She tries to focus on the mission, but her thoughts drift back to LycoReco, to Chisato.
As if reading her mind, Chisato’s phone rings and Takina receives information that causes a spark of hope to bloom in her chest:
There’s another heart.
But Chisato is heading to the old radio tower where the heart is and Takina is at Enkuboku to stop Majima. She finds herself at a crossroad:
“If you drop out of this mission you’ll never be able to return to the DA. This is your last chance, right?”
‘Chance’ .
Fuki’s words bring back a memory that feels like it was a lifetime ago. A time when Chisato picked her up by the fountain in the DA and spun her around, not a care in the world of what others thought of her.
“A chance will surely come, and when it does, you can decide what you want to do.”
It’s scary how easy the decision is. In LycoReco she has found a new purpose. A family. People she loves and will do anything to protect.
“I can’t save Chisato here. That’s all there is to it.”
And just like that, she chooses the girl who showed her how to love and value life itself over the organisation that raised her and trained her how to take it from others.
—-
XII
The taking of a life was not something Inoue Takina relished in, contrary to popular opinion in the DA. Removing her enemies as obstacles simply maximised the odds of successfully completing a mission. Dealing in death was an expected result of being a Lycoris, a forgone conclusion.
Or at least that had been her belief until she met the whirlwind that was Nishikigi Chisato. The DA doctrine she grew up following without question was upended in a matter of weeks by a girl with a desire to save anyone she could.
Takina was raised to take lives by the DA without hesitation, but it was Chisato who taught her to appreciate the inherent value of life itself, even if it was the lives of her enemies.
But she quickly finds there’s an exception:
“I didn’t wind up the springs of a dying doll for something like that."
And those cruel, cruel words spark a cold, dark hatred that writhes in her veins and hooks deep into her heart until it turns to black. For the first time in her life, Inoue Takina desires to spill blood. To kill the man who is toying with Chisato’s life in some sick, twisted game while he holds the key to her salvation; to put an end to the attempts he’s making at corrupting Chisato’s light into something dark and tainted. Takina's feet are moving before she even realises and she strides into the room with a grim determination:
Yoshimatsu Shinji will not leave here alive.
—-
But of course, with Chisato involved things rarely go as planned. Her shots miss in her trembling rage, and then Chisato is holding her back, stopping her from ripping the heart right out of Yoshimatsu’s chest! She roars, struggling against Chisato’s strength. But she can’t fight Chisato, she can’t…
“Even if I stay alive by killing Mr Yoshi, that wouldn’t be me anymore!”
Chisato is so unfair, Takina realises as she falls to her knees. Does she not realise the bitter irony in her desire to save everyone she can, to never take another’s life, if it comes at the cost of her own?
“No… I don’t want you to die.”
(That to Takina, saving everyone means nothing if she cannot save the one she loves.)
She doesn’t even realise she’s biting her lip until the fresh taste of copper floods her mouth. Takina bites down her emotions, her grief and swallows them whole until there’s nothing left but a numb acceptance.
She cannot bring herself to destroy everything Chisato stands for. Not like this when Chisato holds her so gently, when her voice is as soft and gentle as the fading rays of a setting sun as she utters the words:
“Because Mr Yoshi kept me alive, I was able to meet you.”
Takina takes a shuddering breath.
“It’s not just me. The time for farewell comes to everyone.”
She doesn’t think she’ll ever be ready to say goodbye to Chisato.
—
XIII
The elevator doors close with a mocking chime. Once again she’s been separated from Chisato and she can only scream.
"Chisatoooo!"
But then she climbs. And climbs again until her body is trembling and aching and it feels like she's going to either throw up or pass out. But still she climbs with steely determination, because she'll do anything, everything to save Chisato regardless of what it costs her.
What Takina doesn't anticipate is how Chisato, in return, will do anything, everything to save Takina , regardless of what it costs her.
It almost seems to happen in slow motion: Chisato pulling herself over the edge with Majima; Takina already sprinting towards them, hopping over the barrier, her already exhausted body crying out from the effort.
She hears the gunshots, feels the glass dome cracking into a million tiny pieces beneath her feet, but still Takina runs towards the girl who is falling through the shattered glass, unholstering her gun as she moves.
She only has one chance to save her.
Each wire she fires is a lifeline, wrapping around Chisato in a desperate attempt to stop her plummet to the bottom of Enkuboku.
She holds onto the ledge for dear life with one hand and the wire goes taught in the other, ripping into her shoulder and she screams and screams but Chisato is no longer falling. She doesn't have the strength to pull them both up so she can do nothing but wait and repeat that desperate mantra in her head:
Please, please be okay-
She barely even notices the fireworks go off.
—
Mika arrives at the hospital with a familiar briefcase and dark, aggrieved eyes. She nods once in respect of what he’s sacrificed for the daughter he loves dearly, not giving voice to what they all know: Yoshimastu is dead and Chisato will live.
Mika has done what she could not and words will never be enough to show how grateful she is.
She collapses into the chair by Chisato’s side, her body no longer able to move due to sheer exhaustion. But still, she reaches out with trembling fingers and takes Chisato’s hand. She needs the reassurance found in the warmth of her touch to ground her, to tell her that Chisato is okay, that no-one is going to take her away ever again.
It’s only after Chisato emerges from the surgery and is on the mend that she finally lets the doctors treat and stitch up her shoulder properly. She’ll need physical therapy to regain full movement in her shoulder; the muscles were torn up badly and her refusal to leave Chisato’s bedside didn’t help matters.
One day when she returns from a physio appointment, Chisato is gone.
—-
She fantasises about what she’ll say to Chisato if she sees her again. No, when she sees her again. The thoughts occupy her waking moments; what she’ll say, how Chisato will react. Will she be happy or annoyed that she was tracked down, Takina wonders. Hypothetical scenarios float around in her head, some more ridiculous than others and filled with a tender, longing hope, and it's terribly frustrating. It has a noticeable effect on her mission performance and everyone in LycoReco skirts around it, although she sees Kurumi occasionally smirk at her with knowing eyes.
They all know but are kind enough to not say it aloud.
Then they finally get a lead and Takina is off on the next plane to wherever in Miyuki that Chisato has exiled herself to.
Takina wants to be angry at Chisato for leaving, but the second those bright crimson eyes meet hers, a wave of overwhelming relief settles over her and any flicker of anger is quenched. Well, almost all of it. She makes sure to send a picture of Chisato tied to a tree to Mika first. A petty revenge for her leaving without saying a word.
They settle back into their usual rhythm with alarming ease, but then again, nothing has ever felt more natural than being with Chisato. She hides a small, pleased smile when Chisato introduces her to the owner of the bar she’s working at.
“She’s my partner!”
Takina ignores the way her heart flutters at the words. She turns her gaze to the sea where the setting sun paints the sky and sea in a gorgeous ombre of reds and oranges that’s all too reminiscent of Chisato’s eyes.
Eyes that look at her so softly that she feels like she may melt in their warmth, but in them Takina also sees the barely masked trepidation towards a future Chisato thought she’d never get to see.
She wonders if it had been easier for Chisato to only live in the present when she knew she didn't have a future.
“What should I do from now on?” Chisato asks her and Takina has never heard her sound so lost before; so directionless and unsure of what she wants to do.
But Takina, she knows what she wants. She wants to help Chisato find a new purpose, just as Chisato once helped her all those months ago.
“Why don’t you start with something you’d given up on?”
And just like that, even though Takina isn't looking at her, she can feel the familiar excitement and love of life start to radiate from Chisato once more.
"That's a great idea!"
Chisato stands abruptly and starts running up the beach, a haphazard plan for their future spilling excitedly from her lips.
Takina runs after her, confused beyond belief - she wants to go to Hawaii?! - but knows two things for certain:
The girl she loves is alive and well. And now they have all the time in the world to do whatever they want and make many more cherished memories.