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Chapter 15

A place for your heart

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Who to call? Who to ask for help…?

A pearl of sweat races down Ikuno's forehead while her eyes linger locked onto the communicator, silently wishing with all herself a spark of intuition, a suggestion out of thin air. Seconds pass, but her head remains clear as a blank slate. Suddenly, she pinches her nose and frowns, forcing herself to desperately dump out her mind and scrounge an answer.

Ichigo…? She's her first thought in her mind, as always. She would have been an invaluable moral support, that's for sure, and that's not just because of her feelings. Ikuno doesn't have her bossiness, her firm wrist, her attitude and her sweetness, her… everything. And most importantly that everything is delivered all at the same time. Knowing Ikuno's shortcomings at personal relationships, she would have known how to communicate with Hachi and drive some specks of sense into him, she would have surely known better how to talk to others and- but... she's together… with Goro… at the hospital.

Ahhh-! Goro! The mere thought of Ichigo being within meters of that dog! His way to be so perpetually calm and collected drives her sick…! And, to not talk about the way he's always behind her with his ever-wagging-tail…! And you see, the state of reality is even worse at this moment! Since he's a serial martyr on top of being an idiot, Ichigo is most probably already at his bedside, caring for him and grooming him up like and… Uhhhg! The mere thought makes Ikuno nauseous! And her next thought isn't that far off either…

Mitsuru? He's a lost cause, that's for sure. He drove Chloropythum with her a long time ago, so she perfectly knows that trusting him is the worst idea in the world, second maybe to ask a Klaxxosaur to be your play-friend. After living inside his head for more than six months straight, she wouldn't even think for a full second about re-delving inside it and scoop up manure again. With that self-loathing attitude of his, he would be capable to side with that idiot across the room-! Wouldn't they make a splendid squad together, with that character of theirs? At least dear Kokoro sorta turned him a decent guy after he switched partners with Futoshi, but that lasted too short after their brainwash, way too short than it was actually needed to be permanent. She needs helping hands, not liabilities, jeez…!

Hiro, Zero Two…? That's impossible, they've been hospitalized after the battle, and they're not in shape to be even walking, as she was told. After not having any news on them for a week straight, the squad worried quite a bit, but she honestly didn't care until now. Hiro, of course, would have his charisma on the ready to resolve the situation right away: just a pep-talk and there you go, better than Papa's mind tricks! That guy would convince you to jump off a window, given the right motivation… yeah, motivation, that's a lost cause with him. His sole and only motivation is his pistil, the horned-girl-and-former-partner-killer, Zero Two. She's still with him in a bed as far as she knows, despite her insane - borderline inhumane metabolism… would she have been a helpful hand in this situation? In hindsight, thinking how she almost killed her own entire squad out of a sad misunderstanding, it's better this way. She actually knows that she's a sweet girl down inside, past her being exaggerated and savage, but this is not what she needs right now. Futoshi already looks a ticking bomb himself, it's not wise to have another, bigger one in the vicinity.

Oh, she forgot Miku and Zor… actually, nevermind.

Is this it…? Is that all? Like that? Over as quickly as she started thinking? Is that all the help she could muster if she really tried…?

"Are you kidding me-!" she frustratingly whispers.

This is so nerve-wracking! What does she have to do with all of this? It's not her fault, it's the Adults! They took care of everything for them, everything they ever needed, so they never had to put up with anything and concentrate in fighting the Klaxxosaurs for the glory of humanity, and then they dropped the ball like -poof!- they're gone! What on earth she's supposed to do? They knew how to do stuff, and they vanished without saying a word! In the end, everything she could muster to do is to sit down like a duck and wait for someone to clean up after her!

"Unforgivable…!"

Of course, previously the way she'd try and unlock such a situation is to leave herself on Hachi's judgment but… with all the things she learned from the boy protecting her little pistil, opening up to him feels a gigantic gamble. He had always been a competent and level-headed commander to them, and paired to Nana a stern but dear counselor… but what about the current situation, what about the Klaxxosaurs? Ikuno knows that the boy across the room totally nailed the problem head-on: those demons are still here on earth, and most probably, they are meant to stay after that Pyrrhic victory at Gran Crevasse. Papa, the only one with the absolute power to stop them, left at the crucial moment and made so that every sacrifice in the span of a hundred years ended up completely vain. So, he might feel justified to do what he thinks it's the better course of action and… yes, of course. Just like a trough-and-trough officer would behave… to ensure humanity's survival.

At any cost necessary.

Revealing him where they were was completely out of the question, as she wanted to keep at least the promise she made to the long-haired stamen. She doesn't feel like trying on their skin if what he said was true or not, that's for sure… Ikuno didn't feel being part of that cost, either. So, any open options on the table yet…? No. None. Not even a shadow of one. But, even if they were? Would they understand what's going on? Would they be as adamant as her, and what she's doing?

Ikuno cradles her forehead with her free hand, disappointed and more devoid of any hope as ever.

"Why…? Why no one understands?"

While absorbed in her thoughts, though, her mind freezes over for a second. Still a bit confused, she slowly picks up the cues of what's wrong in her, and a vague picture pops up in her mind for the first time like a realization slapping on the back of her head. Ikuno sneers… as she finally admits. A painful admission for sure, but… there's something she disregarded for too much time. And such a realization is that, in her intimate, she feels alone, despite being surrounded by people. Not as 'alone' like when being by yourself and needing to have some human contact, but the alone-kind that happens when surrounded by people that make you feel alone.

It's harsh to admit it, but for the longest time she never truly connected with anyone. Ichigo, Goro, Hiro, Futoshi, Mitsuru, Zorome, Miku… even them, her supposed teammates, so-called friends that she watched over, actually live in worlds miles apart from hers, inaccessible and hermetic. For the longest time, she couldn't properly talk to them and expose her inner self in a way she found comfortable. She just pretended that the sole feeling of comradeship was enough, so she could function as a pilot while lulling herself with the security of having her squad by her side and vice-versa. That status-quo worked for a while, but going forward, somehow, it stopped giving her something she needed. There was some kind of a wall between her and others, so much thick and impenetrable she didn't feel any less alone than being the only person alive in this world.

No one was there for her and understand what she felt.

Why was that? Was it completely incapable of connecting to others? Or were they that didn't try hard enough to come close to her? With her stamens, the ones she was supposed to share her own mind in the line of duty, it didn't work more than the sufficient amount to turn on a FranXX. It's not that she didn't even try… one time, when the partner switch happened and couldn't bear anymore to drive with Mitsuru, she tried to enter a FranXX with Ichigo as pistil and her as a stamen, in order to finally open her mind to someone she was comfortable with and end her own suffering. Ichigo would work, of course, she would! She literally walked a meter off the ground at the mere thought! She tried her hardest to connect, but… after countless minutes spent to try and try, nothing happened. All she found were walls, walls and more walls, and… a dry comment in the changing room.

"I knew couldn't work…"

But Ikuno didn't, and the disappointment she felt was a burn of highest of degree. Complete failure. The connection graph wouldn't budge an inch. That's the limitation of the driving system, for some reason there can be only a male stamen and a girl pistil, and by corollary, girls can't drive a FranXX with other girls. The revelation of that fact didn't console her, quite the opposite: as it didn't work outside the FranXX, it didn't work even inside it, and, most importantly, it didn't work with Ichigo, the person that represented everything positive in her whole world for so long, that carried her through her constant dissatisfaction due to living with people, apart from books. Now, it was like the whole extent of what she called reality refused her, bare some consumed pages from a dusty and old tome, but that doesn't count. Books can console you, bring you to another place and isolate you from your problems, but… reality is always there to stay after the last page turns.

Is she doomed to never connect to people? Is this something that can go away, or is it her own personal curse? Can she do something about it, or is it too late? Is it just a temporary fault, or is it something lodged so deep inside her whole being that's impossible to recover from? At that instant, a void around her heart materializes, sucking every warmth apart from her beating vessels. Was it always there? Did she just shove her own heart deeper inside in order to not feel it anymore? That familiar feeling… She forgot about it for the longest time, hasn't she? It had always been like that since when she was little. After all the time that passed, when Ichigo first approached her, that feeling disappeared like stormy clouds carried away by warm and strong winds. Just like her smile, whose radiance made her feel accepted for the first time in her life. But that storm, that lingering dread… it never really left. It was just suppressed, concealed, taken away to another sky. But the earth goes around each day, and you've never under the same sky twice. Eventually, after even the clearest day, rainy clouds are bound to reform, in the shape of countless cold, refusing hands, erratically grasping at your back with fingers sharp as daggers. The painful feeling of loneliness, once again joining with her.

Being alone is so…

«RING RING RING RING!»

"Huh!?" Ikuno jumps as the communicator in her hand suddenly explodes in vibration and a nondescript, anonymous ringtone bursts from it. "Who-!" She flicks on the screen, eventually powered down as she was trying to think, and a mature, serious face with jet-black hair painted by solitary strands of white appears before her.

...

Incoming call

Code FP18-R6DE-013

Swipe to pick up

...

"Who…?" Ikuno tries to recognize the person displayed in the call interface, but her puzzled look shows how she had never seen that face ever. Then, her look passes over his uniform makes her realize it's the same one that the parasites in the hospital in the Nest's tower are wearing since they started living there. The only person she had been talking to… coming from there… isn't that mysterious stamen, Code 013? "Oh, damn… I forgot about him…"

He told her he would have gone down to the spheres to look inside the couple's room, but that escaped her mind when she stormed outside with Futoshi and Kokoro, hell-bent in finding 121 and 723 before Hachi did. She had been careless! He's already there, and Ikuno was supposed to be with him… Her hand makes to swipe the holographic screen to deliver her excuses, but her fingers linger motionless above the caption, hesitant. How is she supposed to explain where she is? Above all, could she reveal to him their situation? Could she trust him? Ikuno mentally goes back to their conversation, and some strands of his speech emerge clear from her own memory.

Push through what? Do you think this is a military operation? No, it's not! This is a different type of fight! You can't do this on your own!

Did you ever stop and acknowledge this is not just the fight of Plantation 13 and that everyone has a stake in this? We're all in the same boat!

I can understand why people in the Spheres are breaking down, they are left alone, scared!

He was right! He knew everything from the get-go, this is no fight she, her companions or even Hachi or others can fight alone! This problem is far deeper than she ever imagined, so pervasive, so humongous... this is the problem of the society they always lived in. Everything that was supposed to be right is, painfully, awfully wrong in every way possible. Everyone is scared and apart from each other, unable to connect with others, to have intimacy or fraternity, and most importantly to have hope for their future. This is eating everyone alive from the inside, creating hate, enmity, isolation, hopelessness, and pain. Now that little bubble has burst and the world is finally revealed as it is before her, she finally understands everything!

Solitude creates monsters! Awful, terrible, inescapable monsters!

But now Ikuno wants to finally defeat them, and defeat her own in the process as well! Maybe in this world, past all the terrible things that have happened, there's a way to finally understand each other and clear the shadows of doubt, to cast away fear and finally express what lingers down deep, without the insurmountable barriers that the adults placed on them without any apparent reason or rationale! She knows that such a world is possible…

So, her slender fingers swipe the screen.

As soon as the call is picked up, an annoyed voice resounds in her earpiece.

"Finally-! What's with everyone not picking up, jeez!"

"He-Hello?" Ikuno jumps at the surprise.

"Oh-! Umm, sorry about that, 196! But, hell-! People should always keep their communicators by them! This is an emergency after all!"

"S-Sure, sorry… and sorry I'm not in the Spheres anymore."

"What-? No, no, no, no! You're actually at the place you are supposed to be!"

Ikuno's eyes open wide as the fear of having being discovered rings clear in her chest. Was she followed!? Is he siding with Hachi? Is he actually trying to-!

"I've- I've-!" Ikuno stutters, but the mature voice overpowers her.

"You've done a splendid job, Ikuno, but now comes the more difficult part of this. I've been inside the couple's room, and I've found the hematic traces you've been talking to me before, and it was abundantly clear that's something grave, very grave. I'm sure- no, I'm dead sure, this is actually a case of an elixir-related syndrome."

"Elixir…?"

"Yeah. You know the treatment they give to children that are willing to become parasites even if their compatibility with the FranXX system is low?"

Ikuno stops for a moment, then her eyes jump as she remembered the conversation she had with Futoshi and Hachi over the phone coming from the elevator, and more importantly even something about when she was little while living at the Garden. "You mean the- yes! A stamen of our squad, Mitsuru, Code 326, had taken it once in order to drive!"

"Really? Was he fine afterward?"

"Actually, we didn't see him for a month straight. We thought it was a routine procedure, and…! After all these years, just now I realized he actually had a chance to-! He'd been capable to drive since… at least averagely, but at what risk!"

"Ah, yeah… they make it sound like you've decided by yourself that you've taken the treatment, as a voluntary thing… It makes me absolutely sick. You know, that treatment scars you for life. How could you decide something like that as a kid? You're not informed about the consequences as a kid, you can't even imagine the hell you're thrown into…" Hisui's voice cracks a little, then resumes.

Ikuno stops to process the last sentence. "Wait. What do you mean, scarred for life?"

"The treatment… has a chance for dire complications. The little Code 723 survived at first… but there's something more."

Ikuno's eyes scrawl. "More…?"

"The blood on the sheets, back at their room, was actually hers."

Ikuno's expression aggravates. "No way!" Somehow, it was like she knew all along, but the reality was actually scarier when said out aloud.

"Unfortunately, she was administered the elixir right before being shipped for service. Fortunately, she survived. But… the aftereffects didn't stop there."

"B-but, I thought that the elixir is dangerous just when you take it!"

"No, that's actually false. You get put in strict observation even after the administration, and even for months in some cases, because the elixir warps your insides in ways that shouldn't be safe to do with mutagens! In this fringe case, the elixir keeps warping your body further even after the desired effect, triggering a body-degenerative syndrome. The girl just had the worst weeks of her life… "

"Mutagens…? Degenerative!? Is she-! Are you telling me she never got treatment after-!"

"I'm dead serious right now. The situation is very grave- I've already sent a sample to get a quick counter-factor solution for her, and I'm expecting to receive it in about ten minutes. Long story short, she's in a life-threatening situation right now- and we don't have time to waste if we want her to recover!"

"Is she going to…!"

"From what I've seen by the samples, if she doesn't receive it in a couple of hours, there won't be any hope."

"NO!" Ikuno's aghast expression is hurriedly covered by her hand, which forces her yell back down her throat. Then, she shuts her eyes and grits her teeth to steer herself back on track, where she was lodged from by the sudden revelation.

"I know where you guys are. I've contacted Hachi…"

At his name, Ikuno frowns. "Hachi…"

"He knows about the situation, you don't have to be on edge with him. He looked as distraught as you when I told him that. He sure didn't want this to get out of hand, I assure you."

"Did he…?"

"Yeah, he looked so lost and clueless… that's so unlike him. I had the pervasive thought of someone switching persons with him…"

"Uh…?"

"Or, you know, maybe he just changed with time. Anyways, is code 121 there with you?"

"Yes…?"

"What's his stance on the situation?"

"He won't let us close to the girl, he's terrified and confrontational-!"

"Hmpf, figures. Well, the pistil doesn't have any time for that, so we don't either. I'm about to get down there with… ten of us, get her out of there, administer the delayer and transport her on a hover stretcher to the main hospital, where she's going to be placed under full-time treatment. She has months to catch up on the medication she lost!"

"Wait! A-are you telling me you're going to take a bunch of people here and-!"

"If he's still in the violent mood…" Hisui pauses, as about to say something "Sometimes, saving a life means putting in danger another."

"But-! He's not doing this because he's evil, but because he's convinced he's actually protecting her! He's just terrified of everyone! How could you go at him like that? Are you going waltz on him and… use violence?!"

"…"

At the sudden silence filling the line, Ikuno presses on. "Are you still there? Answer me!"

"Ikuno, don't make this more difficult than it already is."

"Difficult-!"

"Yes, difficult-! Reality is not simple, it's difficult! As much as I don't want to do it, I don't know what the hell is up with him! Surely he would have noticed that the girl has some problems, wouldn't he? Then, why didn't he thought a little how she felt earlier? Why didn't he picked up that his pistil is in extreme danger? Hell, his being clouded by his emotions, and he's going to make a grave mistake if we don't stop him immediately! Are you telling me you're fine at just watching that little girl wither in front of your eyes while you try to calm his guts down? That's not acceptable, you're being unreasonable!"

"Unreasonable?" Ikuno's voice paints with a clear shade of pure grudge. "Papa did the same thing to us, to me and our squad! He sent a group of Guards to our Plantation, they stormed in our home and beat us down to the ground like animals! Then, they apprehended two of my teammates and wiped their memories to the point they didn't even know each other anymore! They returned as two blank slates, after everything we went through! The shame and the fear I felt that moment that I realized that our lives were just a fancy, re-programmable and disposable tool-! How in the world would you say that I'm unreasonable!"

"You…"

"Since that day, I promised myself that I won't make that happen ever again, to anybody! And you know what, I actually understand his stance about being jumpy at everyone! Imagine what they had done to him in order for him to be like that! Isn't that normal? If I experienced that, just imagine what happened to him! I don't want that happening anymore! I wouldn't live anymore thinking that I've made someone get the same thing that Papa did when trying to breaking us apart! And what about you? Would you do it all the same? After all the things you've told me before, how would you even look yourself in the mirror?"

"It's actually quite a while that I can't look myself in the mirror," Hisui says deadpan to the communicator. From his side of the communication, the loud steps accompanying his words suddenly halted.

"What… do you mean?"

"I also know shame. It's a very familiar feeling, by now," he says with a mellow voice. "For the longest time, I felt it every day, while wearing this white coat. Each day I put it on myself, it reminded me of how the world was nothing as I imagined when I grew up… I was so full of energy, so wishful, so idealistic… then, all of a sudden, I found myself in a cold, solitary place, with no escape or relief and a life that I wished I didn't have. And now…"

Hisui takes a long, deep breath.

"Now I don't want that shame anymore! I have the power to decide my path on my own! I'm a doctor," he proudly declares, "so I save lives! That's how it should be! And that's exactly what I want to do now, I just want to save her life and give her the hope she never had!"

Ikuno's shoulders slump.

"If even just one person falls before me, I know won't forgive myself. I won't try and hurt Code 121, but I won't stand by as he condemns his pistil, either. Forgive me, but I have to do it. I want to be there for her, even against his stamen's will, or anyone's will for how much I care-!"

"That's..."

"The world is an unforgiving place. Sometimes, the situation just leaves you without choice. Sometimes, you hate what you must do, but you do it regardless. Sometimes, you have to live with the consequences of your actions well after your decisions, be it right or wrong, and regardless if it was for right or wrong. It's called taking responsibility. It's called behaving like an adult."

"Adult…?"

"Yes. Not the kind that was taught to you, though, nothing like what that word meant in the Old World. A hundred years ago, back when Plantations didn't exist yet, that word appealed to someone to look up to, someone to be proud of and to which ask for guidance… and being in front of one felt like being in front of one of the many cornerstones of the world. Definitely not the kind that populates the Plantations that we were made to worship."

Ikuno's mesmerized expression hovers onto Hisui's forlorn smile, unable to say anything.

"I-I… didn't… worship…"

"Nice hearing that. But, in the end, this is what I ought to do. If this world has any mercy left, I want to be the hand of that mercy, the one once carried the world in his wake."

That statement makes Ikuno finally comes out from her woodwork and deliver the first out-of-the-chest thought she ever blurted, after being regarded it a sealed and inaccessible place for so long.

"That's incredibly beautiful to hear."

"It's just people like me and you, here and now, Ikuno. We're the ones that want to change the world, whose actions will shape the future for everyone, and… yes. We're the adults in charge now. We have a great responsibility ahead, girl, so carry it proudly."

Ikuno has understood perfectly what he was talking about. In a moment long an eternity, she finally feels that something touched her down deep, so deep, in a place so intrinsically tied to her being that the caress of such thoughts made her shiver, smile and cry internally at the same time. Ikuno didn't even imagine that she carried such a place in herself! What was that abode? So hidden and concealed behind the deadly grove of her fears and irrationalities, now though she finally found a lodge, a clearing, a meadow, vibrating, beautiful but unyielding and savage, raw and honest at the same time. Isn't that… what she heard it was called… the place where her soul resides?

Yes, it must be!

Is it the indescribable sensation of her soul dancing irrationally in her chest, or is it her heart fibrillating from the excitement? She can't tell anymore from the two like they fused to generate more energy than all the stars of the night sky combined! The mere thought of being finally the master of her own destiny is equal to hundreds of bombs going off at the same time! Finally, after all this time waiting and concealing herself behind countless walls, Ikuno feels having the power to realize her inner self and to reach over to her own deep desires, accompanied by the most inebriating feeling she ever felt in her own short and sad life! A mind-warping thought passes her mind- she is free! She can be herself, finally! She can make the world accept her, and escape from that reality where she's forced inside a box that was the role of a tool for war, and gracefully go into one where-! Where…

Where she truly matters for someone.

Ikuno feels like her eyes got humid for a second, and for good measure, a bright smile appears on her face. "Yes, finally… finally!"

Hisui is caught completely by surprise from Ikuno's reaction. "Haha, yes, finally indeed, huh? I'm glad you're happy to take the torch…"

After some long sighs to calm herself down and moment of recollection, Ikuno squints her eyes behind her glasses, then grips her forehead and pulls the front of her disheveled white hair, like trying to pull out an idea from her head like pulling a cabbage from the ground. "Aaagghh, I know! Just-! Just give me fifteen minutes, please trust me! I know I can convince him somehow!"

"Twelve."

"Jeez! Give me a break, would you!"

"I really hope you can, though…. Ok, whatever, make that twenty tops, I don't like having to resort to violence either. But in extremis…"

"I'll make him eat right back that attitude of his-!"

"Whoa, girl! With your attitude, you'll smash his face before I do!"

"Y-you…!"

"Hehe, just kidding! I'm counting on you prematurely and safely detaching the guard dog from the girl, then. Good luck and see you in a bit!"

With such words, the call closes shut, and Ikuno keeps her eyes lingering on the 'Call closed' captions still hovering above the communicator's body. Eventually, her lungs instinctually force her to remember to breathe, and the white-out in her head is blown away.

"I don't have any time to waste-!" She flips the slab of electronics among her fingers, but before putting it back in her leg pocket, a movement beside her catches the tail of her eye.

Kokoro had eavesdropped the conversation. As soon as Ikuno turns to her, she's already frantically and embarrassedly excusing herself for her intrusion.

"S-Sorry! I-I-I-I di-di-didn't want to-"

"Nevermind, Kokoro, I wouldn't hide that from you either way," Ikuno says as she drags her by the arm towards the far corner of the back room.

"I-Ikuno…?" she squeals, and when they've regained a little privacy, Ikuno cradles both her hands inside her own.

"Did you hear everything?"

"Y-yes, I think…! But… what the adult part meant…?"

"That meant we're in charge now, for the good and the worse. And we have to do something before the guys from the hospital force their way to her."

"H-How-! Isn't that dangerous…?"

"Not if we appeal to him and we convince him that we're not here to hurt him."

"I… I don't know what to think about it…" Kokoro's gaze wanders through the room, lost in thought. "Say, Ikuno… was I happy before they removed my memories?"

"You…" Ikuno looks her straight in the eyes, pondering her question. She did talk about her, and others never bothered to explain to her properly, but she was there with her, she witnessed it all. At least, she could tell her those moments, even if forever lost from the violence of Papa. "Yes. Your smile was so bright... You were so, so beautiful."

"Ah…?"

"You were… another Kokoro. I swear that, when you've had come to love Mitsuru, your smile was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my entire life. It was like the entire world didn't really matter to you, could it fall or crack, you wouldn't even flinch. What it mattered to you was only Mitsuru, and him only, and so you were the same for Mitsuru, and you both completed each other. Seeing you two together was the most mesmerizing thing I've ever seen, I was so, so jealous. But then…"

Ikuno's delicate lineaments aggravate.

"I see. Thanks for wishing for others to not happen what happened to me… I don't know what I've lost, really… but… I understand it was very important for everyone."

"Yes. I think it showed me what I really lacked. But most of it all, it was important even for you, Kokoro. That day, they stole something important from you, and that is such a thing I can't forgive…!"

The ashen-blond haired girl's lips start trembling, and in no time, she frees her hands from her hold and launches forward.

"Ikuno…!"

"Koko-!" the bespectacled girl suddenly finds herself being embraced by her friend, with her head firmly lodged in her shoulder and her body steadily pressed against hers, with the holographic tables still shining dimly against the black backdrop of the walls' penumbra. "Kokoro…"

Eventually, she wraps around her arms around the girl, and -albeit with quite the blush- softly gathers her body to be in full contact with hers and putting her cheek pressed against her head. They linger in that position for a couple of seconds, then among her soft sniffles, a voice resounds from inside her chest.

"I'm so lucky… to have all of you… worrying about me…"

"Don't mention it, Kokoro. We're here for each other, aren't we?"

"Hehehe…!"

Ikuno, given her natural proclivity on girls, with two such… features pressed against her, she's on the seventh heaven already. But alas, she's not the right one for her… Eventually, Kokoro releases her hold, leaving some wet spots on her shoulders.

"Thanks, Ikuno… I don't really know what I've lost… but one thing I've never lost is you, and my friends! Thanks for always being at my side! I'm sure there will be thousands of happier moments more… I know life doesn't end here!"

"Yes, it's going to be different from now on. But… we're going to make the difference and make it so that it won't happen to anyone ever again. Starting, now…! I'll need your help, though… could you?"

"I'm…" her friend hesitates for a moment, but just for a moment. "I-If you ask me, I'm willing to do anything! I trust you, Ikuno!"

Ikuno blushes even more, and a sincere smile finally dawns on her eternal all-business demeanor.

"Thanks, Kokoro. Let's go!"

She turns towards the storage room to find it as they previously left it. A few steps in, with the meek, ashen-blond friend in her wake, Ikuno summons a quick reality check: Futoshi is still lashing out on the stamen in front of him, but the courageous blond girl's efforts are actually working, and they haven't started the brawl yet. What are they going to resolve with that? Instead of focusing on the real issue on hand, it was almost like everyone had forgotten why they were there in the first place…

Everyone but her.

Ikuno's gaze raises from the hologram of the communicator and darts past the commotion Futoshi and Code 121 are making and plunges among the mess of chairs, stacks of black-shaded computer components. There, tucked in the corner, she finds a pair of shining, small yet big eyes, full of tears, fear and pain. There she is, the little girl, Code 723. Tucked in a nest made of thick bed covers but still trembling like a leaf in the wind. Looking at the still white blankets she's tucked into, she really does seem like he's about to wander off death's door at any moment, as her white skin blends into the steel wall behind her. Are those the effects of having bled that much? Eventually, the little girl's eyes interlock with hers, and the cub's fear vanishes for a second for curiosity to take place instead. She stares intensely inside her eyeballs, maybe in remembering something, and they spend an infinite second in gazing at each other, then they squeeze as a fit of pain takes her senses. Quick breaths and panicky hands try to take hold of the edge of the blankets, confused like an injured puppy trapped in a cave witnessing her wolf father keeping a hungry bear at bay.

Ikuno suddenly wishes she hadn't read so many books about nature…

"I'm doing all of this for her, am I not…?" Ikuno whispers.

...

A place for your heart - END

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