Archive of Our Own

It’s not an uncommon occurrence for Suika to startle awake in the middle of the night. It’s still dark out, but the moon shines so brightly that she can find her glasses with ease.

She looks through the small window of the shelter she had built in her first year alone, down onto the walls of Fort Medusa. Everyone's statues are still lined up along the wall. Still motionless.

No matter, it won’t be much longer now...

The revival formula is almost ready, Suika can tell by now that all her efforts are about to pay off. Just a bit more time, and she will be reunited with her friends.

But...

She looks around her little room. She has food and all the necessary tools and items, of course, but the walls are also adorned with flowers she’s found in the forest. The plants in this area are so different from back home, so Suika doesn’t really know what any of these flowers symbolize. She likes to pick yellow ones, yellow is a happy color, right? Optimistic.

There’s several notebooks neatly arranged on the floor. Stacks of paper that she’d made and bound together all by herself. She doesn’t want to fall out of practice, so she does her best to write about whatever comes to mind. But the notebooks are also filled with drawings, doodles of her friends or plants or animals she’s seen. She wasn’t too bad of an artist to begin with, but her drawings have only gotten more and more complex with time, as a simple hobby to stave off boredom developed into an actual skill.

All in all, it’s a nice little place she’s got.

By this point, Suika has been completely self-sufficient for years. She can make her own tools, clothes, prepare her own food, she can handle all the upkeep around the fortress by herself. When she’s not building things or working on the revival fluid, she can fill her days with studying, drawing, or exploring the lush local area. There’s wild animals around, sure, but she knows how to handle herself. She hasn’t been in any real danger for a long time now. Nobody has.

Nobody has. Her friends have been safe for years now. Completely unlike that horrible dream she’s just had.

It’s in moments like this that... she almost feels like... it might even be for the best to leave her friends in the stone, so that they will never be in danger again...

She shakes the thought away immediately. Her mind can be terrifying after a nightmare. How could she even think that? That’s not what she wants. That’s not what anybody wants. Suika longs to free her friends from the stone and have them all by her side again, of course she does. The thought of one day reuniting with them is all that keeps her going every day.

No matter. It’s no matter. It won’t be much longer now.

In what she could remember of the first few years of her life, Suika had always been awkward, clumsy, and useless.

People didn’t tell her this, but she could feel it in how they dismissed her, how they would always rather have her stand aside than help out.

She was also ugly. She couldn’t go a day without someone around her commenting on the weird face she was always making.

She learned to hide it, to keep quiet and stay out of the way, to not be a bother...

If asked, Suika would not be able to say how old she was when she first spoke to Kohaku, but she remembered it.

"Why are you wearing that fruit on your head?"

At the time, Suika had felt intimidated, but now she giggles at the memory. Kohaku would definitely never be insensitive on purpose, but she was still very… blunt.

“Ah-! Um...”

She turned around to see a blurry mop of yellow. It was an older girl. Suika grabbed the watermelon on her head with both hands to keep it in place and squinted her eyes in an attempt to see her better, but it wasn’t much help.

The blurry mop tilted her head to the side.

“Helloooo-?”

The girl was getting impatient, as people often did with her.

Suika wanted to speak up, to answer the girl’s question, but all she could manage was more stammering. She didn't speak to people often, she wasn’t used to this.

The girl’s patience seemed to run out. She gave a heavy sigh and unceremoniously turned around and ran back in the other direction. Suika could only watch her retreating figure as it got increasingly blurry, another fumbled opportunity.

But almost as if she could feel Suika’s disappointment, the distant blurry figure came to a stop, stood in place for a bit, then turned around and ran back towards her. Before Suika could compose herself, the girl was back in front of her and squatting down so they were face to face.

“My name is Kohaku. Do you like stories?”

The girl-- Kohaku, had pushed so far into Suika’s personal space that it caused her to reflexively flinch and step away. She stammered some more, but from this distance, she could see that Kohaku was looking at her intently, but not unkindly.

She was waiting. She waited long enough for Suika to pull herself together and finally manage to get a single word out.

“...Stories?”

Kohaku let out a satisfied huff and got back up, raising a hand towards Suika.

“C’mon! There's someone you’ve gotta meet.”

--

They had quickly grown fond of each other. That first day, Suika was too nervous to tell Kohaku her name, so Kohaku just told her sister about how she found this funny watermelon girl on her way to the temple, and the nickname stuck.

Suika enjoyed Ruri’s stories, of course, but it was Kohaku who would constantly call out to her. Kohaku always made sure Suika wasn't being left out during games, her gaze never wandered when Suika spoke to her. Suika felt included.

But it wasn't just that. It didn't take long for Kohaku to notice that Suika was self conscious about her appearance, and she would quickly pick fights with anyone who tried to mess with her watermelon. Kohaku would hold her hand while they walked together. She would get so excited to see her that she would pick her up and spin her around. She was unabashedly a hugger, and her embrace filled Suika with a warmth and safety she'd never experienced before. Suika felt loved.

When she was with Kohaku, she didn’t feel bad for existing. She felt like her presence was accepted, even wanted, rather than tolerated. With time, she grew more comfortable with being the one to call out. With asking for things she wished for.

“Kohaku-chan!” Suika called out as she ran towards her friend, who was just on her way out of the village. Just as she had turned around, Suika ran up to her and hugged her leg, which drew out a giggle from Kohaku. “Where are you going with that big thing all the time these days? Suika wants to play.”

Kohaku was carrying some large round object that Suika couldn’t really identify, but she had seen her carrying it around multiple times by now. Suika felt her watermelon gently pressing onto the top of her head, letting her know that Kohaku was patting her head in a comforting gesture. The big object balanced effortlessly in her free hand.

Kohaku hummed slowly. She seemed to be uncharacteristically quiet for a few moments, contemplative, before she finally spoke.

“Sorry, Suika. I can’t right now.”

Still holding on to Kohaku’s leg, Suika looked down with a disappointed grumble. Kohaku squatted down so that they were at eye level and placed her free hand on Suika’s shoulder.

“It’s for Ruri-nee. She’s been sick lately. I bring her water from the hot springs to help her keep warm.”

“Oh...”

Now that she thought about it, the last time Suika tried to visit Ruri, she was turned away by Jasper and Turquoise on account of her not feeling well.

The hand that was on her shoulder moved behind her back as Kohaku gave Suika a quick one-armed hug. She then slowly got back up and turned around to face the bridge leading out of the village. But rather than leaving, she seemed to consider something for a moment, until her head whipped back around to face Suika again.

“If you want, you’re welcome to come along!”

--

Suika had never been too far out of the village before, and she couldn’t see her surroundings well, so she made sure to walk close to Kohaku the entire time. Kohaku matched her pace to Suika’s, and they would make a stop whenever something caught Suika’s interest. What she noticed most of all were the different kinds of plants growing in the forest. Kohaku wasn’t particularly interested in them herself, but she did her best to recount whatever information she knew about any particular plant, either from Ruri’s stories or Chrome’s experiments.

“Better leave that one be, Chrome was throwing up for days after he ate one,” Kohaku explained in an incredibly exasperated voice.

Suika shuddered and flinched away from the flower she was looking at. From behind her, she could hear Kohaku giggle and place her large item onto the ground.

“How about we rest for a bit? We’ve been walking for a while.”

“Um!” Suika turned around to the shape of Kohaku already sitting down. “Kohaku-chan, you can rest a bit, but Suika wants to look around some more!”

“Don’t go too faaaar,” Kohaku drawled as she stretched her arms.

She didn’t really need to say this, as Suika wasn’t brave enough to go too far outside her friend’s line of sight. She walked around the surrounding area, keeping an eye out for any interestingly colored plants, then coming closer to get a better look at them. She made sure not to touch the ones she couldn't identify, which were... most of them.

Looking around some more, a curious gray blob caught her attention. It seemed to be a long object protruding out of the ground. When she got closer, she was pretty sure it was just a rock, but it had an interesting form. It was long and thin, but at the end it came to a circle. Feeling along it with her hand, she got the impression that it felt like several smaller thin shapes closing in on themselves, kind of like a fist. No, that’s exactly what it seemed like...

It was... That had to be a human arm.

“AAAHH!!” Suika exclaimed, jumping away the second the realization hit her.

“Suika?!” Kohaku’s voice came from behind, along with the sound of a knife being dislodged from the shield she always wore on her back.

“Kohaku-chan!! Someone’s stuck in there!!” Suika cried, pointing at the fist. She had expected Kohaku to immediately be by her side, for her to instantly jump right into helping the person trapped in the ground. But instead, she once again heard the slide of Kohaku’s knife, this time calmly being put back into its place.

“Oh, that’s just a statue. They’re everywhere.”

“Um?!”

Kohaku paused for a second, her hand coming up to scratch her head.

“There’s really nothing to worry about, they’re lifelike, but those aren’t real people. No idea where they came from, but they really are everywhere,” Kohaku explained, then her voice lowered, sounding apologetic. “It’s normal, I see them so often that I stopped noticing them. Sorry it ended up frightening you.”

“Oh...”

Suika turned back towards the arm, then looked around, seeing that there were indeed more gray shapes just like it here and there. A familiar embarrassment crept up her face, it wasn’t uncommon for Suika to be completely unaware of something that everybody else found ordinary.

She turned back towards Kohaku, arms raised and hands balled into fists. “I-it’s okay! Suika wasn’t scared!”

Kohaku chuckled warmly. “Oh! My bad!”

She was too nice.

Suika felt relieved once more. She turned and walked back towards the arm, still a bit hesitant. She slowly placed her hand back over it and felt along the statue, it really was just a rock, albeit a really smooth one.

“You really don’t know where they came from?”

Kohaku hummed. "Ruri-nee says there are stories about these statues in the 100 Tales, but she won't tell me any, she says I'm not 'old enough'.” She was silent for a bit, then gave an exaggerated sigh. “What is with her? Does she think being all mysterious makes her look cool?"

With that, Kohaku flopped backwards and fully laid down on the ground, facing the sky. She was quiet for a while... Suika got curious. She walked back to where Kohaku was and crouched down to get a look at her face. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t acknowledge Suika coming near her, she seemed to just be staring upwards with a blank expression.

The silence dragged, Suika got worried.

“Kohaku-chan... are you very tired? Could Suika help with carrying the big thing?”

A second passed before Kohaku seemed to come back into the present moment, the features of her face twitching for a second and her eyes finally finding Suika again.

“Big thing? The pot?” she said in an amused voice, “Wanna try?”

Kohaku got up and set the big pot in front of Suika, who could already tell from the heavy thud it made when it hit the ground that she was probably out of depth here. Nevertheless, she placed her tiny hands on either side of the pot and tried her best to pull it up.

Naturally, the attempt was a complete failure. After a few tries, Suika fell backwards onto the ground panting.

“Heavy!!” she exclaimed. Kohaku was laughing, but it wasn’t mean spirited. Her laugh sounded warm, Suika wished she could see it as well as hear it.

“You sure are amazing, Kohaku-chan. There really is nothing Suika can help you with...” She couldn’t keep from pouting a bit.

Kohaku’s laugh slowed down after that and trailed off. “Ahaha... well. Uh,”

The blurry image of her head started to quickly move in different directions, like she was looking for something. “Hmm... oh! Over there!”

Before she could tell what was happening, Suika had swiftly been picked up and placed on Kohaku’s shoulders. Kohaku maneuvered Suika’s hands to be holding on to her head before she effortlessly picked up the pot as well.

“Make sure to hold on tight!”

Kohaku set off on a light jog in the direction of whatever it was she had spotted, carrying both Suika and the pot with ease. Despite the warning, her pace was so careful that there was absolutely no danger of Suika falling off.

They jogged like that for longer than Suika was expecting. How could Kohaku see something that was so far away? Suika was amazed by her friend’s abilities, but couldn't help feeling envious. She tried not to dwell on it.

While Suika was lost in her thoughts, they finally came to a stop.

“Look! This rock has a shiny part in it, that blockhead Chrome loves this kind of stuff,” Kohaku said, pointing out the large boulder they had stopped in front of. She carefully placed the pot and then Suika back on the ground, then took one of her knives out again.

“Stand back a bit,” Kohaku warned. Suika went a few steps back, and then could hear the loud thunk of Kohaku slamming the blunt end of her knife into the boulder. A smaller piece was dislodged from it, and when Suika came back to get a closer look, she saw that it did indeed sparkle in the sunlight.

“Suika, I didn’t bring any bags along, could you carry this for me til’ we get back to the village?”

Suika’s head shot upwards to look at Kohaku excitedly, her heart suddenly beating faster. She had never been entrusted with something before. Her answer was immediate, “Of course! Suika’s gonna be useful!!”

Kohaku giggled. “Thank you!” She patted Suika’s head and then finally handed the rock over. It certainly wasn’t as light as Kohaku had made it seem, but it was nothing Suika couldn’t handle. She stood up straight and clenched the rock tightly to her chest.

“Suika’s gonna take good care of this!”

As time goes by, Suika’s hair grows longer.

There is nobody to cut it for her now. In the past, Kohaku did it for her. Most people saw her as a brute, but Kohaku had the capacity to be quite careful when the situation called for it. It was slow and meticulous work, and Suika enjoyed every second of it. She never felt more cared for.

But now it's up to her, just like every other task.

Among the many tools left behind at Fort Medusa is a pair of scissors that are still in pretty good shape, all things considered. She tries to use them every couple of months, alone at the river. These scissors weren’t made for her to hold, they’re too large for her small hands to use properly. Her hair is thick and hard to slice through. She has no idea what she’s doing while trying to cut the back. It leaves her frustrated. It’s bothersome, it’s unnecessary. It’s not like anyone can see her, anyway.

She thinks of Kohaku.

She thinks of...

Suika gets some rope. She runs her fingers through both sides of her hair, smoothing it out, it's been getting wavy lately. She bunches her hair behind her head and wraps the rope around it several times, before tying a knot.

It's a ponytail. Kohaku did this every morning.

They have mirrors at Fort Medusa, small ones left behind from the motorcycles. Suika doesn’t do this all that much anymore, but for the occasion, she takes a peek at her own reflection.

She feels silly. It’s a mess. But then again, the same could be said about Kohaku’s.

Both her parents had died the winter of the year after she was born, something that she later learned was a sadly common occurrence. This left her to live in the hut that functioned as the village's orphanage, housing her and a few other kids, including…

"If you want to go up to see Ruri-nee, you can just ask Jasper and Turquoise nicely and they might let you."

"GAH!"

Chrome jumped back in surprise, startling Suika in turn.

He had been loitering around the bridge that connects to the island with the chief’s hut for a while now.

"What?! I don't want to see Ruri!!"

"Oh! Really? Suika thought for sure you would, since you play together so often…"

“Whateeever! It’s none of your business, Suika!”

Ah, that was true. Of course it was none of her business.

“R-right.” Suika lowered her head, her hands grabbing at the ends of her poncho. She heard Chrome let out a grunt.

“Shit. Sorry. I didn’t mean to, uh...”

He couldn’t find the words, but the apology sounded sincere. Suika looked back up, immediately feeling lighter. Chrome could be pretty careless, but he meant well.

"Listen, I’m really not going to visit Ruri or anything. Looks like she’s sick again today, I don't want to bother her…"

He trailed off as the blurry shape of his head looked towards the chief’s hut again, but then quickly turned back around.

"And anyway, maybe asking nicely would work for you, but not for me! Ruri’s dad doesn't like me all that much. Says I'm always distracting her from studying… whatever! What's even the point of being alive if you don't get to go outside and experience the world! There's so many cool rocks I've found since the last time we hung out that I want to show to her but they won't even let me see her! Ugh!"

He was rambling. This must have been bothering him for a while.

"...Cool rocks?” Suika had heard something like this before. Chrome sure seemed to like rocks. “You could show them to Kohaku-chan?"

It was instantaneous. Chrome’s head shot towards her with an expression that must've been so exaggeratedly displeased because even Suika could tell that there was something very wrong with his face.

"That gorilla never listens to me. I swear all she thinks about is fighting and carrying hot water around."

Suika would have argued that Kohaku wasn't like that, she was just worried about her sister, but by this point she had picked up on the fact that Chrome and Kohaku had a mutually teasing relationship.

"...You could show them… to Suika?"

Chrome’s facial features dislodged from the cartoony expression back into their regular fuzziness. He crossed his arms and was silent for a moment, tapping his foot.

Back then, she had just hoped to make herself useful. Chrome clearly wanted to show off his loot, and Suika was there and willing. But looking back, she could now understand. Rather than anybody, he had really wanted to show them to Ruri.

“I guess...” He cocked his head, spared one last glance behind him, and gave a heavy sigh. “Why not. C’mon, let's go back.”

“Yay!!”

As he started to walk back to the village, she happily raised her arms and rain in circles around him. "Suika’s gonna listen really well! You can talk about them as much as you want! Maybe you could even take Suika on an expedition some day!"

"Hahaaa, I don't know about that one Suika. It’s too dangerous for a kid like you."

"Aw, come on! Kohaku-chan had taken Suika on one of her hot spring trips, so why can’t Chrome take Suika on an expedition?"

That made him stop again.

"What?! Kohaku took you with her?! What was that gorilla thinking, that route’s dangerous!"

Something like that had never occurred to her.

"Well, Suika thinks the safest place is beside Kohaku-chan."

Chrome was silent for a bit, then clicked his tongue.

"...Can't argue with that one, I guess."

--

“Chromeee? Are you up there?”

“Suika? You shouldn’t be out this late!”

As of the last few months, Chrome had primarily been sleeping in the new hut he had built outside the village. Originally, it was just for storage, extra space to keep all the interesting loot he found on his expeditions. But with time, he started spending the nights over there more and more, and returning to the orphanage less. Suika could tell he enjoyed having his own space, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss him.

There was a torch light coming from inside the hut, but instead of coming out of the entrance, the shape of Chrome’s body seemed to rise up from the roof.

“How’d you even get past Kinro and Ginro?”

“Hehe, it was only Ginro this time, so Suika just rolled right past him.”

Chrome made a disgruntled noise, “That guy’s gonna lose his job. Wait, he would probably like tHAt- ahem,” his voice squeaked for a moment, probably a hiccup.

Suika had walked right up to the foot of the ladder leading into his hut, and looked up at him expectantly. Chrome’s head turned to face her.

“...You need something?”

She held onto the first step of the ladder, and rocked back and forth on her heels, suddenly feeling shy. “Suika’s just here to hang out... You’re never around anymore, and Kohaku-chan’s out of the village again...”

Chrome sighed. “Sure, whatever, come upstairs.”

Suika happily climbed up to the top of the stairs, then took the hand Chrome had extended to help her get up on the roof.

“What are you doing up here anyway?” she said as she settled down next to him.

“It’s really clear out tonight! There’s no clouds or anything, I’m looking at the stars."

“Right...” Suika looked up at the sky. She knew what stars were, in theory. She could see that there was something up there. Shining lights in the sky. But it was all too blurry to catch her interest. She could identify the biggest one, the moon, but that one was only visible sometimes, for whatever reason.

“Are they fun to look at..?” Suika couldn’t imagine it was very fun to just spend your time looking up at a bunch of spots in the sky, but who knows, maybe she’d feel differently if she could actually see them. Chrome on the other hand seemed very pleased by her question, as he jumped in to answer almost before she had even finished speaking.

“WeLL- khm.” Another hiccup, or maybe he had a sore throat? “There really are so many of them. They’re seriously all over the sky. Some of them are also biggER than others, and most of them twinkle but some of them don’t? Some of them are so close to each other that they kind of look like cloUDS except they don’t because that’s not what clouds look like. But they look fluffy like clouds. Maybe stars are just what clouds look likE from really far awAY?”

He had happily launched into a rant that was completely incomprehensible to her. Curiously, the more excited he got the more trouble he seemed to have with his voice, not that it stopped him from speaking.

“But then what is it that makes them shine like that? The moon is interesting too, obviously it changes shape in a pattern but sometimes it also seems to be biggER than other times? It can also change color?? One time I saw the moON right above that mountAIN over there and it looked REALLY orange, aND-- ughh.” He finally stopped to rub his throat.

She really had to ask by this point. “Chrome... are you sick?”

“NO. Ugh, listen. It’s a growing up thing or whatevER,” Chrome shot back immediately, “My voice sounds stupid right now but soon it’s gonna change and I’m gonna sound really badass. Just you wAIT.” Despite being pretty irked with his inability to control his own voice, he still refused to stop using it. Suika found it pretty funny, but could tell he probably didn’t want to hear about that impression right now.

“It doesn’t sound stupid or anything, Suika was just worried,” she explained. She heard Chrome sigh next to her.

“No, yeah, you’re right,” he said, shuffling around a bit. He seemed to be looking off to somewhere far away, but then turned his gaze back up to the sky. “Anyway, where was I? Right now the moon is in its half shape. The only times I’ve seen it change coLOR is when it’s a full circle.”

“A half shape...” Suika hummed. She was looking up at the same sky Chrome was, but she couldn’t make out any of the interesting things he was finding in it. In a normal case, whenever she couldn’t see something clearly, she would simply get closer to it. Chrome’s hut was already pretty high up off the ground, but it absolutely did not help make the image clearer. How much closer would she have to get? Could she ask Kohaku to carry her up a tree?

Chrome was still rambling next to her, but she found herself unable to pay attention. In truth, she knew her train of thought was ridiculous. Whatever it was that he was seeing up there was much too far away for her. It wasn’t the first time she had to give up on something. There were many beautiful things in the world that she would never be able to see, no matter how close she got...

“-ka. HEEEEEEY. Are you even listening?”

“Oh!” She startled. “Sorry Chrome! Suika got a bit lost.”

Chrome was silent for a bit, then gave a long “Hmmmmmmmm......” He got like this sometimes. Suika couldn’t see his face, but he was probably concentrating on something.

She felt bad. He was probably annoyed. She came all this way in the middle of the night and interrupted his alone time and then couldn’t even follow the conversation. Suika felt like she should probably leave. She was about to do so when she heard Chrome snapping his fingers.

“Oh! I’ve got an idea. Just wait a bit.”

Well, to his credit he was completely unaware of the little spiral she was having. Suika looked at him again, his hands seemed to be moving around a lot and she realized he was searching for something in the pouches he always wore. He finally took out an item that she couldn’t really place, and turned around on his knees so that he was bending over the roof. He then started to continuously poke the item into the roofboards. While squinting, she could finally tell he was holding something long and pointy, probably some kind of knife.

For a while then, there was nothing but the sound of Chrome scratching and poking into the wood. This was kind of awkward, she had no idea what he was up to. He always got like this whenever he had an idea.

“Umm... what are you doing?” Suika finally asked, only for Chrome to immediately shush her.

“Just wait a bit, okay!! It’ll be sooo worth iT.”

Suika shut her mouth and conceded to waiting until he was done with whatever-it-was-this-time. She pulled her knees up and rested her head on them, looking back up at the murky sky, before giving up and closing them. The steady, regular sounds of Chrome’s knife were pretty pleasant to listen to, at least. She liked that he wasn’t making her go away.

A while passed, and she had relaxed to the point of dozing off when she was suddenly shaken by a hand on her shoulder.

“Okay, try this!” Chrome said vaguely, with absolutely no regard to the whirling sensation he was causing by shaking her so abruptly. He then grabbed one of her hands and led it down so that her palm was pressed against the boards he had just been carving on.

“Uuhhh...” Suika couldn’t focus on much of anything for a second while the dizziness passed. When her head stopped spinning, she could finally move her attention to what she was feeling under her hand. Unsurprisingly, it seemed that Chrome had just poked a bunch of shallow holes into the board.

She pressed against the holes with the pads of her fingers to get a better feel, then moved her hand around. He sure poked a lot of them, no matter how far she reached there was always something under her fingers. She stopped her hand when she reached an imprint that was much bigger than the rest, one that was definitely carved in rather than poked. It seemed to be an unfinished shape, half of a circle.

“That one’s the moon, as I was saying.”

Oh.

Suika moved her hand over the holes again. Oh. Oh! He was trying to show her what the sky looked like. She closed her eyes and focused on what she was feeling under her fingers.

She moved her hand away from the “moon” and traced it along the “stars”. It was pretty much as Chrome said, some of the holes were bigger than others, some closer to each other, some more isolated. There were some sections where the stars were clumped so closely together that she could definitely understand what he meant when he said they look fluffy like clouds. But above all else...

“There’s so many of them...”

“Hardly,” he said. “This is barely anything compared to what's up there, but I wanted to give you a sense of it.”

There's even more than this?

Suika opened her eyes and looked back up at the sky. She could tell where the moon was, as it was bigger and brighter than anything else up there, but she couldn’t identify much else. The bright lights in the sky just blurred together. But Chrome could see so much in it. It was so interesting that he could spend hours just looking up at the sky.

Chrome wasn't always very nice to her, but it wasn't a malicious thing. He was trying. He didn't just want to talk her ear off, he wanted her to see what he was seeing.

“Ah, wait, shit- Don’t cry...” Chrome said from beside her. Had she been crying? She suddenly hiccuped, and brought her hand up to her cheek to find it damp. She rubbed at her face and tried not to make any more embarrassing sounds. She really didn’t want to cry in front of her friend.

“Crap.” A hand came to rub her back, much gentler than before. “Kohaku’s gonna kILL mE.”

Suika hiccuped again, thought this time the sound that came out was half a sob and half a giggle. Chrome really was so funny.

She couldn’t trust her voice to be steady right now, but she wanted to at least smile to show him that she was okay, and grateful. When she wiped her nose and finally looked back up at him, she realized that he was rubbing his eyes with the hand that wasn’t on her back.

Remembering the moment was sweet. That wouldn’t be the only time something like this would happen. Chrome was someone who Gen would go on to call a sympathetic crier.

Her friend’s clothes have been slowly degrading as the years went on. By this point they would definitely need brand new ones whenever they finally got revived.

Suika wants to make new clothes for them right away. It would take a lot of work, but if she’s got anything it's free time. She has to be rational, though. She has no idea how long it could take her to complete the revival fluid, how many more years she’ll have to wait to reunite with her friends. If it takes her a really long time, the new clothes will just fall apart as well, she can’t just waste precious resources like that.

But, there is one clothing item, or rather, accessory, that she feels she can’t overlook.

Suika takes some time to make new ropes for her fellow Ishigami villagers. She collects some long vines, beats them with a rock to loosen the fibers, separates them out and twists them into rope.

This process is familiar to her, calming. As she twists the rope, she can close her eyes and imagine she’s in the village again, surrounded by her loved ones. Chrome had actually helped her out when she was first learning to make these, back at the orphanage.

When she goes to replace his headband, she realizes she’s grown tall enough that she can reach his face by just standing on her tiptoes.

“It’s not a disease. And there’s nothing wrong with you.”

Ever since he arrived at the village and unceremoniously started crashing at Chrome’s hut, Senku had been the most interesting person Suika had ever met. But this was something else.

Suika had allowed herself to want, to imagine, but never to hope. Never to think that there could be an actual possibility for her to ever see her friends' faces clearly. But Senku’s voice was so level, so certain in what he was saying. Suika could tell, Senku didn’t lie about things like this. The realization that his words were irrevocably true moved her to tears.

--

On the morning after they got back from gathering silica sand, Senku approached her with an unexpected question.

"Suika, can you draw?"

"Oh?” Well, it seemed like even Senku could have a dense moment here and there. “Um! If you need an artist, Namari is pretty good. The villagers still don’t trust you, but Suika could go snoop to see if there's anything we could give Namari in return-"

Before she could continue her babbling, she could make out the fuzzy image of Senku raising his hand in front of her and waving it slightly.

"Stop, stop. Focus," he said with a slight chuckle in his voice, "I didn’t ask for an artist. I asked if you can draw."

Senku crouched down in front of her and handed her a stick. He was holding one as well, and started scratching at the ground with it. Once he was done, he leaned away and let her come closer to examine his work. Suika lowered her face closely to the ground, it was a pretty crude doodle of an indistinct flower.

His voice came from behind, “Now you.”

He could be so weird sometimes.

Suika looked back at him, her face scrunching in confusion. “Um, okay... What should Suika draw?”

“Anything that interests you.”

Too vague. He really was a weirdo. But everything he did always had some purpose or another, so Suika decided to just give up and do as he says.

She wasn’t sure what to start with, so she imitated the flower shape that Senku had drawn, but it really didn’t look like any flower in particular. Flowers fell into the category of things whose appearance Suika had a somewhat okay understanding of, as they would not get weirded out no matter how close she came to stare at them.

Senku needed her for something. She didn’t understand what for, but she would do her best. She continued to scratch at the ground with her stick, doing her best to draw any flower that came to mind. A dandelion, a morning glory, a sunflower, a cherry blossom. They were still pretty crude. She quickly got tired, her inability to recreate the images in her mind was really frustrating. She looked back in Senku’s direction.

“Is that enough?”

“Sure. Which one’s your favourite?”

She frowned, “Why?”

“Humor me.”

Suika felt kind of embarrassed, she looked back at her creations, and started to move her stick around in looping lines next to a certain flower. “Um. Sunflowers are nice. They’re kinda like Kohaku-chan’s hair...” she said shily. Senku gave a long hum.

“I see.” He patted her head before turning to walk away. “Thanks, this’ll come in handy.”

“For what? Senku!” she called out, starting to run in the same direction, but Senku’s fuzzy shape raised one of its hands and seemed to be waving her away.

“Secret! Get me some leather and pencils from the village, would ya?”

--

Once Senku was satisfied with the circular shape of this “glass” thing they'd been grinding at, he pulled Suika aside to a nearby tree. He nailed some kind of thin white shape to the tree and had her take her watermelon off.

"Our goal is for you to be able to see this,” he said, his hand gesturing to the bottom end of the white shape.

She squinted, and started to move her face forward to try and get a better look. “See what?”

Before she could move too close, Senku placed a gentle hand on her forehead and pushed her back into position. “Exactly. Close one of your eyes, either is fine.”

Suika did so, and then Senku placed a leaf over the closed eye for good measure, holding it in place with a stick. He then rummaged through his pouches and pulled out one of the glass pieces they had made. Senku always spoke with purpose, but his next words felt particularly deliberate.

“Okay, I’m about to put the glass in front of your eye. You haven’t been able to see properly your entire life, so this’ll be a bit of a shock. Try to avoid looking around too much and just focus on what’s directly in front of you.”

Suika quickly inhaled a breath, suddenly feeling both excited and nervous. But Senku still did nothing.

“Okay?” He was waiting for permission.

“Okay.”

Senku slowly brought the glass towards her face and then held it right in front of her uncovered eye. The proximity immediately made her squint. When she tried to look properly again, there was a split second where she wondered if Senku really was just crazy, where everything in front of her looked even worse than before, but the moment quickly passed. Somehow, Suika’s eye seemed to know exactly what it needed to do without any input from her. She blinked a few times, her eye focused, and the image in front of her cleared.

The white object nailed to the tree was the wide piece of leather Senku had her bring him earlier. There were some simple shapes drawn onto it, starting with a big one on top and getting progressively smaller towards the bottom.

Being able to process even that much information about the object in front of her was almost overwhelming. Suika stiffened, her breath hitched, she couldn’t keep from closing her eye again. She had never seen so clearly in her life, is this how everyone else saw the world every day? She suddenly wished Kohaku could be here to hold her hand, but she was busy training Kinro and Ginro.

“Try to relax,” came a measured voice by her side. “Can you tell me what the first shape is?”

Suika took a breath, then slowly opened her eye and looked in front of her again, suddenly determined to see this through.

“Um, it’s a triangle.”

“Sure is.” Satisfaction seeped out of Senku’s voice. “And the one under it?”

“A square.”

“Next one?”

“Umm... It’s...” She squinted. “A circle?”

“Hmmm...” Senku stopped for a second, but then continued. “Next one?”

She squinted even more. “Uuuuummmmmm...”

He moved the glass away and suddenly the world was blurry again.

“Alright, don’t move from here, I’ll be back in a moment.”

Suika watched his blurry figure retreat back in the direction of the tool they had been using to polish the glass, heard the sound of some more drilling, and then Senku was back in a jiffy.

He positioned the glass in front of her again. “How about now?”

This time, the image was slightly clearer than before. “Umm.. another triangle?”

“Yeah, next one?”

This routine proceeded to drag on a bit too long for her liking, especially when she thought they were finally done only to find out that they now had to repeat the whole thing for the other eye as well. Every time Suika wasn’t sure of what she was looking at, Senku went back to grind at the glass some more. Really, it would’ve been easier if he’d just let her stand closer, but it seemed like he wouldn’t be satisfied until she could see the shapes from a certain distance.

“Looks like this diopter will do,” he said, cryptically, then started walking back towards Chrome’s hut, “C’mon, we’re going on a picnic.”

--

Ever since gaining the ability to see properly, Suika had been almost obsessively observing her friend's appearances. She paid particular attention to their faces. She would look them in the eyes when they were talking to her, watch them smile, frown, laugh.

It was all so interesting to her. The shapes of their noses, the colors of their eyes, the way their hair fell over their face, the ways they moved, the gestures they made. She never wanted to forget what they looked like, she wanted to remember every detail.

As the months went by, Suika found drawing to be more and more fun. Her new interest also helped her grow closer to Namari, who was delighted to finally have a drawing buddy.

Chrome always had wooden planks lying around his storage in case his hut was ever in need of a repair. He didn’t particularly care about what they looked like, so he was happy to let her use them as canvas when asked about it. More and more often, she found herself on the bench of Senku’s lab, trying her best to recreate the things she could now see clearly.

“Oh, Suika. Didn’t know you were in here.”

Senku found her on one such day.

“Senku!”

“Don’t mind me, just here to get some stuff.”

He gave a small wave as he entered, and went around the lab picking up random things. When he passed by her, he stopped and turned his head, noticing what she was doing.

“Watcha got there?”

“Um! Just some drawings.”

She felt bashful for a moment, but decided to gather her courage. She stacked all the boards together and turned towards him, “Wanna see?”

“Hmmmmm...” Senku took the stack and looked through them one by one. A picture of Kohaku, Chrome, Chalk, Senku himself. There was an easy smile on his face, until he flipped over to the last one and his expression morphed into a comedic scowl.

Suika snorted, her hands quickly going up to cover the smile on her face. Senku seemed to notice her amusement and leaned into the joke. “Who invited this guy,” he said flatly, pinching the drawing of Gen with two fingers and dangling it around, drawing out a genuine laugh from her.

“Suika thinks you did.”

“AS IF.”

That got her laughing some more. Senku snorted as well, then put all the boards back together and handed them back to her.

“These are good.” Coming from him, it was a simple fact. “Kohaku’s is pretty detailed,” he added, teasingly.

“Ehehe...” Suika took the drawings back and could only smile and scratch her neck sheepishly.

He turned to walk back outside with a wave, but Suika raised an arm towards him, “Ah- Senku, wait!”

He turned back again, a wordless question on his face. She immediately felt shy about raising her voice.

“Um, you like to draw too, right?”

“Ha?”

That seemed to surprise him.

“You’re always drawing yourself on everything we make!” Suika explained.

Senku had had his hands on his hips, but now one of them went up to dig his pinky finger into his ear. “I guess. I wouldn’t call that drawing though.”

“Why not?”

“Uhhhh.” He continued picking at his ear. “I guess you got me there.” He turned back to face her fully. “You need me to draw something?”

“Um, well, the thing is...! It’s nice to finally see you guys, but Suika is also curious... About... Um.”

She wasn’t sure how to express what she wanted and kept stumbling on her words. It was silent for a bit, and she was almost about to give up when she looked back at Senku and saw his amused expression.

“Theres still one person left that you can’t really see, huh?”

He sat down in front of her and reached a hand out.

“C’mon, give me one of those.”

Feeling a renewed rush of excitement, Suika quickly grabbed an empty board and handed it over to Senku along with a charcoal pencil. He got into position, head leaned over the board, and looked back at her.

“I can’t promise it’s gonna be good or anything.”

“It’s fine!! Suika likes Senku’s drawings.”

He chuckled at that and got to work. As he drew, his face scrunched up in concentration. It was just a doodle, so it didn’t take long until he leaned away and handed the board back to her.

“Thank you!!” Suika exclaimed as she excitedly took the board and -

Oh. Wait. She hadn’t thought this through.

The drawing was indeed of Suika, and it was nice, there was personality in it despite the simplistic style. But... Obviously, if anyone was asked to draw Suika, this is what they would draw, this is how everybody saw her every day. But it’s not quite what she was curious about.

“Ummm...”

“What?” Senku said teasingly, leaning his cheek on his hand as he watched her reaction, “You don’t like my drawing?”

“No! I mean yes! NO I MEAN YES I LIKE IT!!!”

This got him to laugh for real. “Relax, I’m joking.”

Suika shifted in her seat a bit.

“Um... Suika wants to see... Could you... Maybe...”

He reached his hand back to her again.

“Sure.”

She sighed in relief and handed him another board. Then, when he looked back at her expectantly, she took off her watermelon and set it on the table. The world immediately went blurry again, and she started to squint out of habit.

Senku’s blurry shape got back into position. She couldn’t see his expression anymore, but when he spoke again there was clear amusement in his voice.

“Just try to relax your eyes.”

Suika tried her best to do so. For a while as Senku worked, she sat still, once again back in that familiar old blurry world. This world used to be all she ever knew of, but now she knew that once he was finished, she could easily go back to seeing properly.

She could make out Senku as he kept looking back and forth between her and his work. She listened intently to his pencil moving across the board, until it finally stopped. He had spent a while longer on this one than the first.

“Alright, it’s done.”

Suika excitedly put her watermelon back on and took the board that was being handed to her. She turned the drawing over to look at it and...

It was... cute. While Senku was definitely no artist, he had clearly tried a bit harder at this drawing, as opposed to the first one which had just been a doodle. Her hair looked soft and fluffy. Her eyes were just dots, but they were wide open, not squinting. She could tell he had slowed down and been more careful while drawing this.

The Suika on the board had a bright smile on her face, had she been smiling as he drew? She hadn’t noticed.

Her eyes were fixed on the drawing, she couldn’t quite look back at Senku yet. The realization suddenly hit her that ever since they had met, she never once felt like he was annoyed with her. Senku was clearly a very busy guy, but here he was, sitting across from her, giving her his time. He drew a picture of her, he drew two.

Suika could feel her eyes watering, but she tried her best to keep it in and instead looked up with a smile, finally meeting Senku’s gaze. He was smiling as well.

“Thank you, Senku.”

She was grateful for the drawing, of course, but also for so, so much more.

After each failed attempt at making nitric acid, Suika tries giving Senku’s instructions another read-through. But no matter how many times she tries...

It’s all too complicated, Senku!!

Of course someone like her can’t understand all these convoluted words and symbols. Everything is so confusing to her that it might as well be English. These papers were always meant for someone else, Chrome or Kaseki at best, not her. But she’s the only one here...

She looks back down at the papers. The contents are complicated, but the writing itself is very tidy.

Suika had seen Senku’s normal handwriting, Gen had used it as an opportunity to teach her about the term “chicken scratch”. But here it’s clean, deliberate. These documents are important. Senku had purposefully slowed down when writing them, had made sure that anyone would be able to read them.

Suika takes a deep breath and holds it for a while, then exhales slowly, trying her best to calm the storm in her mind.

Don’t get ahead of yourself. Start at step 1.

"Do you have any flowers, Suika-chan?"

Suika had to admit that Gen was a bit confusing. He was a bad guy, but he wasn’t. He worked for Tsukasa, but he was helping them? He fell into step with Senku so naturally it was like they'd known each other their whole lives, but Suika knew for a fact that this wasn't the case. And how had he known her name? She didn’t remember introducing herself.

With time, Gen properly joined the Kingdom of Science, and Suika learned to relax around him. In fact, she found him quite fun to be around.

She liked his magic tricks, or course. But more than that, she particularly enjoyed whenever he would ask her to be his guide on foraging trips.They were ostensibly there to look for food, but Gen was very indulgent, and would let her wander off course whenever she spotted something interesting.

As it turned out, Gen and Suika shared a love of flowers. With Gen around, Suika would often get very distracted showing off every kind of different flower she could find. Gen would listen to her descriptions intently, and in turn, he started to explain flower meanings to her. It was quite different from the things Senku would teach her, but fascinating all the same.

Like Gen himself, the flower meanings were interesting, but confusing. A single flower would often have multiple meanings, some of which would even be wildly different from each other. And how was he even able to remember so many of them? Suika found it somewhat frustrating to think about.

She hadn’t actually voiced her impression, but Gen still gave a measured chuckle, “Well, some flowers are better than others in this regard. A red rose is universally a romantic symbol, though I don’t suppose you have any of those around here.”

Suika had to agree, as she had never heard of that flower. She was about to ask him what it looked like, when she spotted an edible mushroom not too far from them. Her glasses really were amazing. She was halfway to the mushroom when she felt a drop on her arm, then another.

She looked up for a moment, then quickly turned around to run back towards Gen.

“It started to rain!”

When she reached him, she immediately got right under his arm to hide under one of his wide sleeves. Gen raised his arm higher, feeling the rain on his palm, and inadvertently ended up covering Suika up even more.

"Mmm... so it has. Senku-chan had warned me that there would be rain today…” he said, then looked down at her with a sheepish expression, “Orrysay! It slipped my mind."

She smiled up at him. "It’s okay! Suika knows a nearby cave we can hide in!"

"Do you now~? Well, lead the way, great detective Suika."

But before they could set off, Gen quickly took the basket of forageables off of his shoulders and passed it to Suika, then shed his purple overcoat and held it above her.

“Make sure the food doesn’t get wet! Can I count on you?”

The basket was only half full, but either way, Suika was much stronger now than when she was a kid, and could carry it with ease. She couldn’t see his face anymore from the coat covering her, but she still smiled brightly.

“Of course!!”

It only took a couple of minutes to reach the cave, Suika leading the way and Gen holding the coat above her. The rain was quickly getting stronger, so every second counted. They were rushing a bit, though still careful not to slip.

The second they finally got inside, Suika stopped to let the basket down and catch her breath. The coat was swiftly removed from above her, but instead of stopping there with her, Gen had immediately continued a few steps further inside. In the second it took for Suika to raise her head and look at him, he already had his back to the wall of the cave, he could be so odd for no reason.

Gen exhaled, and momentarily combed his fingers through the longer part of his hair in an attempt to get the water out. Suika had no need for that, as her hair was completely dry.

He lifted up the now mostly wet coat and looked at it with a pout that made Suika smile. “Well, this is of no use to us anymore.”

He shook the coat out a few times and laid it aside to dry. After sitting down, he purposefully looked back towards Suika and the entrance of the cave. Suika automatically followed his gaze and looked outside as well. The rain was picking up, already falling much stronger than just a few moments ago.

“Looks like we avoided the worst of it,” Gen said from behind her, though his voice still sounded apologetic. Why...?

Suika nodded in agreement, then was silent for a while. She slowly turned to look back at him.

“...I’m sorry, Gen.”

He gave a long hum. “Whatever for?”

"It's all my fault for getting distracted and making us stay longer than we were supposed to,” she said, “I hope Senku won't be mad."

Gen chuckled at that. "Suika-chan, you must know by now that Senku-chan isn't the type to get angry at these sorts of things."

The truth in those words made her brighten up immediately. "Haha, I guess you have a point!"

"That's right~ Our leader always keeps a cool head."

Something in the way he said that made him sound very distant. This is something Suika would later notice happened often when Gen talked about Senku, but at the moment she paid it no mind.

She looked back outside.

"Geez, I wonder how long we'll be stuck here."

"Indeed."

They were silent for a bit longer, and then, "Well, there's no use in standing around like that, come sit as well, Suika-chan," Gen said, patting the ground next to him.

Suika happily turned to walk over and sit down next to him. It’s been a while since they’d had a storm this heavy. It made her remember that first day he showed up at the village, and how all the villagers they’d gathered at their ramen stand had run away the second the rain started.

“Gen, did you know? Everyone in the village used to think that storms were the wrath of the gods. They could be punishment for something bad you did, or sometimes the gods could just be angry for no reason,” Suika said, then paused for a bit, "But Senku said that's not true."

She turned around to find him faintly smiling at nothing in particular.

"It's not," was all he said.

Was he even listening? She suddenly felt like she really wanted to prove this to him.

“It’s all just a part of nature! Um, let’s see... So water changes shape when it gets cold or hot. When it’s cold, the water turns into ice. When it’s hot, it turns into.... um? Well, basically it becomes invisible and starts rising into the air. But then when it’s up there, it gets cold again and turns back to water. But then it’s too heavy to stay in the air, so it falls back down to the ground, and that’s rain!”

Suika did her best to remember Senku’s explanation, though she couldn’t recall all of the words he’d used. When she turned back to Gen, he had his cheek resting in his hand and was looking at her with a soft smile.

“Suika-chan, you truly do listen to people when they explain things to you, it's a wonderful virtue to have.”

Suika didn’t really know what a virtue was, but she liked being called wonderful. A shy giggle escaped her.

The sounds of rain were making her drowsy. Suika couldn’t lean her back on the wall properly with her watermelon on, so she slipped it off and set it aside. A comfortable silence settled around them, but every now and then, the quiet moment was broken by the cracking sound of thunder from the outside.

The first time it happened, Suika couldn’t help but twitch in surprise. She immediately felt embarrassed. Senku had attempted to give her an explanation on lightning, though this one was still a bit too complex for her to recall. Nevertheless, she understood that lightning and thunder were also just another normal part of nature, and they were safe in the cave, there was nothing to be afraid of.

And yet, despite knowing all of this, a fear of the sound was still ingrained deep into her. It felt foolish and embarrassing. She didn’t want a modern timer to know she was scared, so she did her best to stifle her reactions.

Luckily, Gen made no comment, so he probably hadn’t noticed. In fact, he didn’t seem to be very present at the moment at all, as Suika noticed he had started to softly hum sometime while she was busy worrying about the thunder.

Another loud crack was heard from outside, but Suika tried to focus on Gen’s humming. The sound was relaxing, and she soon found her eyelids feeling heavy again. Her head drooped a few times, before she finally gave up and rested it on Gen’s side, shutting her eyes. After some time, the humming sound was replaced by what Suika could recognize was probably a song. Gen was singing quietly, but she couldn’t understand any of the words. Maybe she was just too tired, she could ask him about it later...

...

Suika couldn’t fall asleep completely, but she drifted in and out of consciousness. In the moments when she was more awake than not, she noticed that there were no more sounds of thunder from the outside, and that Gen too had gone quiet next to her. She also realized that her legs had been cold, in retrospect, as now they were warm and covered by a red cloth. She couldn’t focus enough to wonder where it came from...

...

She did not know how long it had been, but after a while the haze of her sleep was slightly broken by the sound of Gen singing again. The background drizzle of the rain had died out without her noticing.

After some time, the singing stopped and was instead replaced by a conversation. Gen was talking to someone, but Suika was still too sleepy to make out any of it. She wanted to continue to sleep at least a little bit more, but was inevitably brought back by a gentle tap on her shoulder.

"Suika-chan, Kohaku-chan is here to get us," Gen spoke softly, "How nice of her~"

“Mghh...” Suika was happy to hear that, but she had relaxed so fully that she honestly didn’t feel like getting up and having to walk back to the village. Luckily, it turned out she didn’t have to, as the next thing she felt was the familiar motion of Kohaku picking her up and carrying her in her arms. The red cloth was then wrapped around her like a blanket.

“We can't have our great detective Suika getting sick! The Kingdom of Science would be an essmay without her.”

Suika continued to doze as they made their way back to the village. Kohaku and Gen were talking. She could tell they were trying to be quiet for her sake, but their conversation still slowly brought her back to consciousness.

"I managed to find you guys because I heard you singing. What was that song? It was pretty."

"Hahah, if you want, I could teach it to you, Kohaku-chan."

Kohaku seemed to consider it for a moment, then replied softly, "I'd like that."

"How wonderful~ I could teach you lots of other songs as well! I could even teach you the one I sing to the kids while we make wire, and maybe then you could take over for me sometimes~”

Her next reply was a bit sharper, but still lighthearted. "Don't push it, Gen."

"Geez, Kohaku-chan, have some sympathy~! It really is such tiring work, I don't enjoy it at all."

There was a moment of silence until Kohaku laughed in that way that Suika loved dearly.

“Hah! You're so full of bullshit.”

"Kohaku-chan!!!" Gen hissed dramatically, still making sure to keep his voice low, "That sort of language is inappropriate and uncalled for!"

Suika could only smile.

Suika feels cold.

She remembers this moment as she carefully pulls the purple haori off of Gen’s statue.

The first thing she notices about the piece of clothing is that it’s surprisingly heavy. That’s right, Gen was always carrying things inside his clothes. There are various small pouches all over the inside of the garment. Suika looks through them in hopes of finding anything useful. She’s surprised by just how much she finds.

Leftovers of flowers that have been dried out for years now. Cards. Paper and pencils. A pair or gloves. Hand cream! A small knife. Rope. Surprisingly, she finds a jar of fruit. It’s been carefully padded, probably so as not to make any noise while he moves. Unsurprisingly, the fruit has all rotted away long ago.

She eventually finds a piece of leather neatly tucked away into one of his many hidden pockets. Upon unfolding it, she is greeted with four big letters written above a familiar doodle. Suika smiles. How nostalgic, but why would he keep this?

She raises her head back up at the statue. Oh. Now that she thinks about it, Gen must have been... he is. Present tense. He’s still in there. They all are. She’ll bring them all back.

Suika looks again at Senku’s goofy self portrait, that’s right, he was always doing things like this. The memory tugs at her heart, but this is not hers to keep.

Suika carefully folds the leather back up, then climbs along the wall behind Gen’s statue and slides it under the front opening of his yukata. She hops back down and returns to the haori, which has now been emptied out.

She feels bad about taking it, it’s his signature item after all. He looks so strange and different without it, like Ukyo and Ryusui without their hats.

It’s in bad shape, just like most of her friends’ clothes. It’s grown thin, but it’s also big. There's enough material that when she folds it up and wraps it around herself, it feels soft and warm. It might just be her imagination, but the cloth somehow still has a lingering scent of flowers. It almost makes her feel like she’s finally, finally being hugged back.

Her heart still aches for the real thing.