/*Bring Asher and Sophie's bodies to an empty warehouse.*/
Yan trembled.
What the hell was going on?
Was this not her own will, but another plan of the Prescripts?
'I swear, if you tell me to hurt him-'
Yan's eyes widened. Her cheeks puffed up.
Did she just... threaten... the Index?
She vomited.
"No- no no nonono-" Yan pushed her palms against her temple as rambled. She spat the taste out of her mouth.
Her expression was twisted into something pitiful, a visage of shattered glass.
Twice shattered, actually.
"Are you alright? Why'd you come here again?" Sayako stepped forward, but Yan's arm blocked her approach.
The girl caught her breath before raising her head.
Her pupils were frighteningly hollow.
"Ggh- I'm here for a Prescript. I n-need to take those bodies." Her hand jerked forward, vaguely in the direction of Asher's body.
Sayako narrowed her eyes. Despite the dripping gash on her shoulder, she stood up to the Messenger.
"Didn't you just say the opposite? Which is it?"
Sayako flinched as Yan stumbled into her chest. The girl's arms unconsciously wrapped around her body.
Yan clawed at the folds of the woman's clothes, barely keeping herself from collapsing.
As the Messenger trembled, she spouted a river of babble.
"please i need to take them i won't hurt them please-"
Yan took a deep breath of blood.
"just let me take them just one time just now just once i just need to take them..."
And the river flowed on and on, forming a desperate wail.
At that moment, Sayako once again experienced an instant of déjà vu. Empathy swirled inside her as she found herself reciprocating the girl's embrace.
She squeezed closer to the girl, almost subconsciously.
Yan's wretched chant faded away, turning into soft, wordless whimpers.
Sayako placed her hands on Yan's shoulders, gently pushing away from her. As the girl's glistening expression filled Sayako's vision, the woman was struck with a thought she never believed was possible.
This Messenger of the Index... was incredibly cute.
Yan sniffled, running her sleeve over her eyes.
"...Please?"
Sayako bent down to Yan's eye level.
"You won't hurt him?" Sayako neglected to mention Sophie. Obviously, Sophie couldn't be hurt anymore - she was dead.
Yan bobbed her head up and down.
"O-Of course not. I promise to never hurt Asher, ever." The Prescript only told her to take the bodies to a warehouse, after all.
If It told her to hurt him when I got there...
What would I do?
I let out a sob.
Sayako cooed softly, running her hand through the girl's pure white hair.
With a jolt of shock, Yan found her lips drawing into euphoria.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Her expression began to melt.
Motherly affection, as if she was a regular girl... This was her first experience of it.
"That's one way to make a promise, sweetie. M-Make sure you keep it-"
Before Yan could reassure her, Sayako abruptly lost her balance, crumpling to the ground.
"Sayako!!" Yan caught the woman before she could hit the gravel. She shifted her into a sitting position.
"Shit, I was hoping I could hold out," Sayako muttered. The exhaustion in her eyes was clear by now.
Yan hadn't noticed before, but the former Dark Cloud Blade was deathly pale.
She followed Sayako's gaze to the terrible slice on her shoulder.
Looking closer, it really was a hideous wound.
A serrated gash ran down her left collarbone to her torso, cutting a few inches deeper than the bone. The woman's dark kimono was drenched with blood, forming a stain that covered her entire body, seeping through her clothes.
The Fragment's arm was too drained to mend such a fatal wound, especially considering the energy it expended to create the melody from earlier, against the third Don.
"W-What do you mean, hold out??"
Yan fumbled over her words. In her fluster, she hastily pressed the woman's shoulder, in a well-meaning attempt to staunch the blood flow.
"-Damn!"
The girl's hand jolted away.
Sayako flashed a grimace. "That hurt, girl... But yeah, I guess I'm done for. Probably lost three liters by now. Of b-blood. Was hoping I could die in peace..." She flicked a dimmed glare at Yan, as if to shoo her away.
Yan clenched her fists together. The woman who, for the second time in her life, embraced and comforted her as if she was a regular, ordinary girl... would disappear just like this?
Out of all the years of her life, she had only experienced decietless, pure affection from two people.
One of them was from the woman dying in front of her.
"No way... Why are you dying??"
A stupid question, but she couldn't think of anything else.
Sayako cawed. Her voice was fading away.
"Not everyone's so strong... Yan-"
"I'm not either! And don't say that, you're still alive!"
But Yan knew the truth. She denied the mere thought of it, yet her body moved by itself, setting Sayako's head on her lap.
"Thanks, honey. Sitting down started to get a bit rough..."
Sayako closed her eyes.
"Sayako? Sayako! Hey, don't fall asleep!" Yan's eyes blurred with tears.
A faint wheeze came from the body below, the last remnants of a laugh.
If the woman still had the energy to speak coherently, she would have given a lighthearted quip in response.
Something about how she wasn't falling asleep.
She was dying.
"taein... m-mother..."
The woman's breath faded away.
Tears spilled from Yan's eyes.