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Sanae dies, and the peaceful, quiet days are over.
A beautiful, quiet six months.
The only thing Momiji has left is Sousei. He avenges her mom, he kills everyone who puts a stop to the little warm idyll that Momiji has, and she's grateful for it. After all, she can't help but be like that — he's the only one she has now, and without him, she'll lose herself completely. She feels like after he reveals himself — the Red Keeper, the one, the legend, right there — he's going to simply look away from her and chase her away, because where is Momiji and where is one of the Keepers, but Sousei doesn't do that, he doesn't really do anything. He just lets her follow him as they leave the place where her mother died, and Momiji runs after him, afraid to turn around because the man in the mime mask is watching them with a predatory gaze.
Momiji may still be young, but she understands a lot of things. She knows what happened, she knows why Sousei's white shirt is stained red, why he's breathing through his teeth, but she's afraid to talk about it, afraid of being chased away. She saw, through her slumber, how Sanae attacked Sousei, how she stabbed him, how she screamed... She felt him grab her when the car flipped over, which made the back of his head bleed too.
She follows Sousei, and the two of them go to the outskirts of the slum, where the two of them climb into an abandoned house; there's nothing here, even the roof leaks, but there's a mattress that smells badly of mold. Momiji sees Sousei fall heavily onto the mattress, still holding his side, his breathing becoming short, and he sees the sweat on his skin. She immediately disappears; runs all over the house until she finds some rags and a needle and thread.
Momiji knows what is needed now. Sanae had explained it to her.
At the time, they both thought it would never come in handy, but...
"Here."
When Momiji approaches Sousei, he flinches as if he's dozing off. He looks at her a little puzzled as if he doesn't know what she's doing here, but then he nods. With difficulty, he pulls off his blood-stained shirt, and then touches the wound on his side with his fingers. Momiji, unfortunately, isn't that aware of everything, but she looks at the dried blood, at the way Sousei's fingers tremble as he touches the injury, at...
"Momiji," he says suddenly.
She flinched immediately, and leaned forward, tilting her head to the side like a bird.
"Give me the shirt."
So she does. Sousei nods again, but instead of what she expects, he sinks his teeth into the shirt, then picks up a needle and thread. Momiji washes them in the sink before bringing them here and examines them carefully, but sees no rust. Well, she hopes so, anyway. She watches in horror as Sousei's hand rises...
When the needle pierces his flesh and he lets out a suppressed groan, she wants to cover her ears with her arms and run away.
But she stays. Because she has no one else but Sousei. What if he needs help...?
The help Sanae never got.
What will they do next? Sousei looks angry. Furious — she'd never seen him like that before, and it scared her far more than the fact that he'd killed several people in a matter of minutes. But how could she leave? After all, she had no one else but him right now. Chidori hadn't shown up in six months...
She is alone. Well... with Sousei.
When he's done with the wound, Sousei throws the needle away, and it disappears into the darkness like a shining star. He bandages the wound with rags and just collapses on the mattress, exhausted. For a while Momiji just stands there, seeing Sousei's eyes closing, his breathing getting quieter, she's scared, but she doesn't know what to do. This isn't the peaceful quiet life she's lived before. Not the fun days in the slums with Sanae. Not even the six months when Sousei has yet to remember the past when together they learn stupid things or try to hack the antenna to watch cable TV for free.
There is nothing more left.
She disappears into the darkness of the abandoned house again until she finds what she was looking for — the blanket looks tattered, but it's warm, and with it, she goes back out. She's not sure if Sousei is asleep — in the moonlight coming through the hole in the ceiling, he looks white, making the traces of blood on his skin seem like black, ugly stains. For a while, she just stands there looking at him, then leans closer... She wipes the traces of blood from his face with her sleeve.
When she drops the blanket on top of him, Sousei opens his eyes suddenly, and it's like they glow a terrible scarlet in the darkness. But when he sees Momiji beside him, the crimson color fades — he just stares at her tiredly, and instead of the Red Keeper who kills all of Sanae's assassins, who speaks about the terrible and strange things on which their absurd world is built, she sees the same man who's been living with her for six months. Who suffers from headaches and is completely unable to fix a roof.
Swallowing, she timidly says:
"May I? Lie down near you? Please."
Sousei examines the blanket as if not really understanding, but then looks at her again and nods.
"Yes. Sure."
Momiji climbs under the blanket with him.
Sousei's skin feels hot when she touches him, like a furnace, but it's even better for her on this cold, unpleasant night. She snuggles against him, closing her eyes, and Sousei places his hand on her; Momiji feels his hand stroking her hair, barely noticeable. This reminds her so much of Sanae...
When she can't hold back her tears any longer, Momiji cries quietly into his shoulder. She feels the embrace grow tighter and she whimpers louder, unable to hold back any longer. But Sousei doesn't chase her away, doesn't do anything.
"What are we going to do now...?"
"Don't worry," his voice sounds hoarse but low and angry. "Payback won't take long. And everything will be just fine."
But he doesn't specify whether he'll avenge Sanae or his honor.
But Momiji decides not to ask, because, after all, ignorance is blissful. She will learn it from Sanae, and perhaps that's really how it is. She just snuggles tighter against Sousei's shoulder, feeling his lips touch the top of her head, and then slowly falls into the black abyss of sleep, where she hears her mother's quiet voice telling tales of the five colored heroes.