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Asamiya Saki, who has spent most of her life under the name K. Wada with a horrible miserable life in New York with her horrible miserable mother she still loves, is currently herself horrible and miserable and covered in blood, and most of it is hers. Some, at least, belonged to the crazy bastard that tried to kill her for asking too many questions.
He was right, of course, but he only made her job easier now she’s escaped.
If she can find a pay phone.
“Saki!”
…or a friend.
“Tae?”
Tae awkwardly drops down in front of Saki.
“What happened?” She asks. “Who are you fighting?”
“…no one,” Saki says. “Don’t worry about it. Need to call someone.”
“You can use my phone,” Tae says. “Are— what happened? Let’s… I’ll call an ambulance.”
“I’ll be fine,” Saki says. “It’s not just my blood.”
“That isn’t helpful!” Tae says. “Please don’t say things like that, I don’t want to lose you…”
Her eyes are so wide and caring and earnest. Saki could get lost in them.
She almost does, then she remembers she’s no good, her taste is worse, and Tae has a better girl, anyways.
A hopefully less currently deadly one.
“…Kotomi lives near here,” Tae says. “Can we go there?”
Saki nods.
And passes out.
…okay, it’s mostly her blood.
She wakes up bandaged up and in a much nicer bed than the dingy apartment the dark police pay for. Which is still nicer than Kira’s place.
She sits up, groaning. She needs to call Kira, or get to his place, but walking sounds unpleasant right now.
“Saki!” Tae’s voice sounds, and a different pair of hands to hers helps Saki sit. Saki leans against it.
“Thanks, Kotomi,” Saki says.
“Are you in trouble again?” Kotomi asks. “Because we can help. We want to.”
“It’s not your problem,” Saki says.
“It was before,” Tae says. “And we still want to help. You think we haven’t noticed?”
Despite the attempted suicide bombing, these girls are kind, timid creatures. Good people.
“You shouldn’t have to be involved,” Saki says. “You shouldn’t even be involved with me… can I see the phone?”
Handling the case goes easy. The rest of it is annoying.
“You know, the old program had a lot of side girls. They had some cool weapons, too.”
“And my girls aren’t fighters.”
“Your girls?”
“Not important,” Saki says. “So it’s handled?”
“Yes, Saki. Get some rest.”
Kotomi came back to school and it was like they all slid into place. Those two especially. Hand in hand, always together. Like all the horrors came to a head and they could not only finally smile together but were so close to making out, Saki almost bashed their heads together and told them to just say they’re lesbians.
They did eventually, on their own, but Saki never felt like an outsider. And as much as they shouldn’t have to fight and frankly don’t do it naturally, they were interesting.
They made her feel like a normal girl, not like the result of 50 bad decisions, half of them not her own.
She can’t…
Her taste is too bad. She’s the girl who fell for the other Romeo in the end.
Kotomi hands her a glass of tea.
“I don’t deserve her either,” she says. “After what I did, and why. It’s why I shut down.”
“You don’t gotta tell me,” Saki says.
“But we want you,” Kotomi says. She holds up a pen, and tosses it past Saki’s head. It imbeds itself in the wall. “So we’re going to help.”
Saki looks at her.
“Pretty tricks won’t stop the kind of problems I face from bringing more guns and bombs.”
“We looked it up,” Tae says, stepping into the room too. “It’s worked before.”
“For some,” Saki says. “Don’t… don’t get hurt. My mom almost lost a good boy and then she spiraled so bad she had me.”
“I tried giving up,” Kotomi says. “Desperation isn’t a fight, but this can be.”
“And I don’t want to fight,” Tae says. “But I’ll stay close so you don’t have to stumble through the streets… covered in blood.”
She shudders.
Saki sighs and leans back.
“So, you girls wanna take me on a date?” She asks. “Alright. We’ll see how it goes.”
Twin smiles. Kind, delicate… creative, stubborn.
They’ve seen pain and decided to fight.
Saki wants to believe in that.