The Knights Himura

Tsukiko awoke and found herself on a squeaky mattress in a rusty metal bedframe. She looked around the dark room, lit enough for her to make out shapes, but too dark for her to make out any colors. The walls were bare, with only a nightstand and chair to furnish the room.

She tried to move, but Tsuki found the resistance of a rather heavy, warm blanket on top of her. She let out a sigh and lowered her head back onto the pillow and it was just perfect. For a moment, she felt like she was sinking into a cloud of comfort, her whole body relaxing and decompressing.

Her hand touched something and Tsuki turned, noticing Fumiko lying next to her, hidden under the blanket. Somehow, she hadn't noticed her, even though the room was quiet enough to hear her breathing.

"Tsuki, you awake?" Fumiko's voice sounded as if she hadn't been asleep at all.

"…sorta." Tsuki groaned.

Fumi playfully reached down. Her hand slid under Tsukiko's uniform.

"Stop…" Tsuki wiggled and tried to grab Fumiko's arm.

"C'mon, just playin' around." Fumi pulled her hand back and chuckled.

"Mmnh, not tonight." Tsukiko rolled over.

"Alright, not like that. I just need to wake you up!" Fumi nudged Tsuki.

"Too comfy…" Tsuki closed her eyes again.

"What was that?" Fumiko edged closer.

"Comfy." Tsuki covered her face with the blanket.

"At least tell me what happened…" Fumi shook Tsukiko again.

The black haired girl pulled the blanket away from her face. She saw Fumiko looking down at her with concern in her face.

"What do you mean?"

"On the other side of that door. You kept going in over and over…" Fumi looked at her.

"I dunno… It was this old timey town… I met some dude, and a girl…" Tsuki blinked as she tried to wake back up.

"And?" Fumi asked excitedly.

Tsuki started to doze back off, but Fumi tugged at her clothes violently to get her eyes open again.

"Ugh, fine…" Tsukiko forced her own eyes open and rubbed her face. "I saved them from some weird drunk dudes."

Fumi got a bit closer. "Did you get hurt?"

Tsuki put her hand on her face. "Uhh, just my feelings, I guess. That, and I got stabbed. It hurt really, really bad."

Fumiko's eyes widened. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. I felt it, but it didn't stay with me. Must've been something with the door." Tsuki moved her hands down underneath the blanket.

Tsukiko pulled up the jacket and revealed her stomach, untouched. Other than a few neglected bandages from previous fights, Tsukiko's body really was unharmed.

"Don't scare me like that!" Fumiko wrapped her arm around Tsuki and squeezed her tightly.

Tsuki smiled. "Then, I ate some really good cake…"

"Damn, I knew I should've gone with you." Fumi laid her head on Tsuki's chest.

"Then I went to their place, and picked some stuff up for… Aurelia." Tsuki began to run her fingers through Fumi's messy hair.

"That's it? Why'd it take you… like a hundred tries?" Fumi put her hand on Tsuki's leg.

"Wait, what?" Tsuki asked.

"Yeah, that's what Aurelia told me." Fumi tried to look up at Tsuki.

Tsukiko rolled her eyes. "Aww, man."

"Hey, c'mon, at least tell me what they were like!" Fumi shook Tsuki again.

"The guy was this doctor that kinda kept to himself. Nice guy." Tsuki yawned.

"And the girl?" Fumi pressed.

"…She was kinda weird."

"Daughter?"

"No, definitely not…" Tsuki trailed off as she tried to force her tired brain to remember.

Fumi yawned. "Girlfriend?"

Tsuki shook her head. "Nah, no way, too young."

"C'mon, you're holding back!" Fumiko whined.

"She was like… Lily's age. Mature, not a brat or anything." Tsuki explained.

"Aww, that's high praise." Fumi smiled.

"She kinda reminded me of Aurelia." Tsuki's voice trailed off.

"Blonde?" Fumi fidgeted.

"No." Tsuki paused for a while. "She had the same aura, I guess, and grey hair."

"Like white?"

"…No, like the color grey." Tsuki spoke slowly.

"Weird…"

"What was in the bag?" Tsuki stared up at the ceiling.

"Who knows?" Fumi shrugged.

"Huh?"

Fumiko stirred. "Aurelia just opened it and smiled. Didn't tell us a thing."

Tsukiko cut her off. "That girl was so dedicated… She said he saved her from something, but she didn't tell me what."

"Whatever it is, I hope she's happy." Fumi instinctively squeezed Tsuki's leg.

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"I'm pretty sure she is." Tsuki smiled.

Fumiko held onto Tsuki's arm. "Enjoying being a hero, huh?"

"It all kind of… reminded me of you…" Tsuki's face grew warm.

"What do you mean?" Fumi rolled over to get a good look at Tsuki's face.

Tsuki looked away. "I'd be nothing without you, Fumi."

"We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place, huh?" Fumiko closed her eyes.

"I love you."

"Huh?" Fumi opened her eyes again.

Tsukiko spoke louder. "I love you. Don't think I regret a single goddamn second with you, y'hear?"

"Tsuki…" Fumi struggled to reply.

The black haired girl weakly wrapped an arm around Fumiko's back, pulling her close and leaving them face to face as she pulled the blanket back over the both of them.

"I'm not giving up till this is over, Fumi. I love you." Tsuki could feel a slight wetness in her eyes.

Fumiko squeezed herself closer. "I love you too, Tsukiko."

They sat there together for a while. Tsuki and Fumi stared at each other, neither of them brave enough to look away first. That, and they were both too tired to move. Tsukiko just let her eyes shut for a while, before she dozed off. Fumiko simply rolled off and fell asleep next to her.

--

Tsukiko stumbled into the main fabric room in a daze. "W-what are we gonna do now?"

"Rest." Aurelia leaned back.

"No, no, we can't." Tsukiko stumbled into the chair next to hers.

Tsukiko sat down at one of the fabric working tables, trying to argue, but not able to muster the energy to do so. From behind her, an arm extended and placed a tall glass before her. Tsuki's eyes widened as it filled itself with cold tea before the hand returned to drop a slice of lemon. This impossible act would have impressed her a few days before, but she was already too used to the fantastic things Aurelia and Claudia did.

"C'mon, you're not a one man army, Tsuki." Haruka nudged her.

Tsukiko brought her head up to take a sip of the sweet tea. "Why am I so tired?"

"You tried to rescue those two over one hundred and twenty times." Aurelia leaned forward. "Naturally, you are going to feel fatigued."

As Tsukiko drank more of the tea, she began to feel more energized. It was nowhere near enough to carry her through any fighting, though.

"Why don't you go somewhere peaceful with Miss Nakano?" Aurelia spoke in almost a whisper.

"You mean with the doctor?" Tsuki turned to Aurelia.

"No, you should not return so soon. It would not be very interesting if one of you knew more than the other." Aurelia grinned.

Tsukiko yawned. "…the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Discovery is key. Variety is the spice of life." Aurelia smiled. "You have heard people say these things before, no?"

"What're you talking--" Tsuki tried to respond but she found herself standing in front of a door, Fumiko clinging to her arm.

Claudia stood in front of them both with a grin.

"Where does this door go?" Fumiko asked.

Claudia only shrugged, before guiding them in.

--

"Whoa, holy crap." Fumi looked around.

Tsuki looked around to scan their surroundings. They were in some huge building, where everything was all frosted glass and sterile white, with skylights above revealing a deep blue cloudless sky above. Behind them was another one of Aurelia's shops, a professional looking sign hanging above the door to what was apparently a cafe. Music played in the distance, sounding like a soft piano and quiet guitar strumming miles away, their sounds echoing down the long white walled halls.

Fumi took a few steps, Tsuki following, and found that she'd somehow been transported to a massive shopping mall, with no customers. A deeply unsettling feeling washed over them as they looked all over for any sign of life, but there were none, outside of a few plants and shrubs that sat in planters spaced every few meters.

"Where is everyone?" Fumiko looked everywhere for any signs of other people.

The scale of the place was something truly incredible, larger than any building either of them had ever been in, with huge wide open spaces lined with what felt like hundreds of abandoned shops. It was all kept in immaculate shape, too, like it was all, including the music, was left there just for them.

"Did you visit this place, Tsuki?" Fumi clung to Tsuki's arm.

"No, I have no idea where we are." Tsuki kept looking forward, walking slowly.

They walked a short while, before an electronics store caught Fumiko's eye, and she dragged Tsuki inside. It was stocked with cutting edge audio and video equipment, the kind Tsuki only ever saw locked behind glass back home, but here, they sat completely unprotected. Tsuki grabbed a pair of headphones off a shelf and inspected their box.

Fumi shouted from the other side of the shop. "Notice anything missing?"

"Shoppers?" Tsukiko projected her voice across the shop.

"No." Fumiko paced around the store. "No cashiers, no cameras, nothing…"

Tsuki looked toward the front of the store. "…You're right."

Despite thousands of dollars of equipment, there were no employees. Everything was sitting around, completely unguarded. Fumiko hopped over the counter, looking underneath it for any sign of human life.

"Careful, don't trip any alarms, Fumi." Tsuki approached the counter with a box under her arm.

"I can't." Fumi's voice was muffled.

"What do you mean you can't?" Tsuki leaned over the counter.

Fumi popped back up like a prairie dog. "There's nothing back here."

"What?" Tsuki sat up on the counter, trying to look underneath.

Fumi hopped over the counter again. "I see some names, but not many."

"Names of…"

"Employees." Fumiko finished her sentence.

Fumi pulled up what appeared to be a shift schedule. They both scanned the document several times. Upon closer inspection, most of them were plain placeholder names.

"So…" Tsuki kept scanning the paper for answers that weren't there.

Fumi shrugged. "Anything catch your eye?"

Tsuki narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

Fumiko looked around before grabbing some rather expensive headphones. "Yoink."

"What're you doing?" Tsukiko grabbed her arm.

"Stealing, duh." Fumi struggled weakly.

"Yeah, we could get caught!" Tsuki looked around, speaking in a harsh whisper.

"That's what you're worried about?" Fumi grinned. "Who's gonna catch us?"

"Well…" Tsuki opened her mouth to speak before grabbing a few things and putting them in a bag.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Fumiko laughed.

"Shut up."

--

They walked around grabbing whatever interested them, shoving it all into bags. Of course, the things with the biggest price tags were always the most interesting of the bunch.

Fumiko waved around a professional camera. "C'mon, you'll model for me, right, Tsuki?"

Tsukiko kept stopping to look for what she called her dream records, and snuck brand new video games and movies under her jacket. Among Tsuki's items was an ornate little music box that she had found in an antique shop.

"You think this would be a good gift for Lily?" Tsuki asked.

"It's really cute!" Fumi approved.

Neither stopped to consider the morality of what they were doing. Though the idea of stealing made Tsukiko look over her shoulder from time to time.

"You think this is okay?" Tsuki's fear was starting to turn into paranoia.

"Don't worry, Tsuki. We deserve a little shopping spree, don't you think?" Fumi wrapped an arm around Tsuki.

"This isn't exactly shopping…" Tsuki scratched her head.

"Why don't we ask Claudia?" Fumiko raised her hand with one finger up.

"What?"

"Claudia!" Fumi called out.

Claudia appeared behind them with her hands over her ears.

Fumiko turned around. "Oh sorry…"

"Are we gonna get in trouble for this?" Tsuki asked.

Claudia replied with a side to side hand motion.

"Is Aurelia gonna get mad?" Fumi asked.

Claudia gave her another dismissive wave.

"See?" Fumi tugged on Tsukiko's jacket. "We're fine! Now apologize for wasting Claudia's time."

Tsuki looked down at the redhead's feet in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Claudia."

Claudia waved and walked off into a side shop, disappearing.