"Shall we continue?" Only Rei Rukh remained indifferent, making quite a few of them sputter.

"There's more?"

"You're kidding..."

"Well... We've always wanted to know how Kimiko spent that weekend when she disappeared..."

"And I guess we can see what happened on God Eden too..."

"And whatever it was with Senguuji Daigo..."

"Tsurugi...?"

He spared his captain a glance over his shoulder. The brunette had eyes that seemed as though he was asking for his permission to see it all. It was almost laughable how they were all turning to him, even the people that called themselves her family.

But no one was laughing.

"... Do whatever you want."

No one dared to stop him from leaving. Not when the glare he held near rivaled the ones they saw Ixal Fleet had in their match. It didn't help that even his older brother seemed to be struggling in keeping himself under control, and with what happened the day they arrived, none of them would prefer to mess with either brother.

They exchanged looks, relaying a hidden message that only the two understood, before the younger left. The older one turned back to the rest, specifically her family, with a rather cold look.

"As the ones who raised her, you have a responsibility to watch this until the end, and understand just how much you put her through. But I won't stop anyone else from leaving, because this doesn't necessarily concern all of you."

"Leaving would be the more respectful thing to do..."

"But at the same time, she'd never open up to us if we ask her directly, right?"

"But do we even want to know what happens after this?"

"I do." Mizukawa spoke up, her expression unchanged from her usual scowl. "Pointy-head said to do whatever we want. And from what little I've seen about the kid herself, she doesn't give a shit about what we know and don't know anymore. All her secrets are out, so what's the point of staying in the dark if we're curious?"

"Well..."

"It's not just about ourselves you know..."

"Yeah, this feels like a breach of privacy..."

"I'm with Mizukawa." Matatagi scoffed at their hesitance. "We've seen through flashbacks of those two dead alien ghosts before. Is it suddenly that different just because this is Kimiko's memories this time?"

"... Kind of, yeah."

"And throughout your whole debate, not a single one of you had made the move to leave." Zanark said, walking up to the controls. "We don't have all day, so I'm hitting continue on the count of three. If none of you made it out by then, then that answers that."

"Alright―"

"Three!"

~~~~~

He headed for her room and the scene he saw was exactly as he expected. His friend, with an exhausted expression, whining like a baby about how bored she was into the void. Only then could he feel the smile returning to his face.

When she finally noticed he had entered, it was like life itself had returned to her. "Kyou! Get me out of here! Please!"

He chuckled. "That's why I'm here. I figured you'd be screaming by now, though."

"I tried, but the walls are apparently soundproof."

"They thought of everything, huh?"

"Ugh... Don't get me started."

He unfolded the wheelchair that was kept in a compartment under the bed and lifted her onto it, earning a smile in thanks. Then, they headed out.

He was already given the time limit for her, in which there was actually none, but they still want her to rest properly so the ideal time for them to get back would be before 10 at night. It was currently almost 4 in the afternoon. He could work with that.

"So, what were you guys doing while I was getting experimented on?"

"Treated."

"No, I'm gonna keep saying I'm getting experimented on. It sounds cooler."

"More like it'll cause a bunch of misunderstandings..."

"No one cares. Now, answer the question!"

"We were looking into how you found out about Teikoku's forbidden move in the first place."

Her smile immediately fell. "... Ah."

"Yeah..."

"How much... did you see...?"

"Just about everything from when we made the promise to work on our combo hissatsu up until how you managed to escape to get to my house." He paused before adding, "Right now, the rest are watching what happened after and... I guess everything else..."

Her escape to his place, the pendant she got for the birthday, her short visit to see his brother the next day and how they convinced her to go home (which seems ironic now that they know what made her run to them in the first place), how she went to Fifth Sector's main headquarters instead of home to strike that deal, how she led her best friend into that fucked up organization, and so on.

Her gaze went down, and for a while, they continued their walk in silence. When she finally lifted her head up again, she found that they had just left the city and crossed the bridge across the river, making their way through the field on the outskirts. Dozens of flowerbeds were scattered around the dirt paths, creating random patches of colors, almost like a painting.

"The scenery is rather nice." He suddenly said. "Didn't think the future would have nature that's this calming."

She took a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh, before nodding. "Yeah... Yeah, this isn't something we see everyday."

"You've never been here before?"

"Whenever I go out, it's usually Zanark dragging me around on his bike, so I never really got to slow down to take in what's around me."

"That's... rough, huh?"

"I mean, it wasn't all bad, but... Well, it wasn't all good either."

He hummed in reply. There was nothing else to be said about that.

She looked up at him as he continued to push her through the field. He was looking straight ahead, making sure they wouldn't run into anything. But seeing how empty the place was, he shouldn't have to worry about that.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment before letting her mouth open. "Kyousuke..."

"Hm?"

"The reason why I didn't tell you too much about what happened... about Teikoku... It's because..."

"You didn't want me worrying too much, right?" She snapped her head back up and saw him smiling slightly. "You didn't want me worrying, and you didn't want to be a burden. The reason you came was because you just needed someone to keep you company while you go through the worst of it."

A similar expression dawned on her face. "You figured me out, huh..."

"We're childhood friends. It'd be wrong if I couldn't tell this much by now."

"Right." She chuckled, her gaze softening. "My head was a mess, but... I think, deep down inside, I knew I didn't want to hate soccer, I didn't want to hate my family, so I needed someone who could help me make sure of that."

"I can help you with soccer, but the thing with your family's still..."

"Well, in all honesty, I haven't forgiven them or Kidou-san for it either..." She sighed. "But... At the same time, I understand why they did it, so I'm neutral about them right now."

"I'm not."

Her eyes widened as she looked back up at him. He had an unreadable expression on.

"In all the time I've known you, you've never cried. Even on the day my brother got injured, though you were that close, you could hold yourself in..." His arms stiffened, his grip on the handles tightening. "But then you came to my door that night and didn't smile even once that weekend. And ever since then, it's like you haven't been happy at all. You keep making all these decisions that just... makes you miserable."

Her mouth hung open as she continued to listen.

"The first real smile I've seen from you was... when I told you about nii-san's surgery, I think. But even after that, you were still in a lot of pain, right? Like you didn't know how to move through life anymore and were just going with the motions. Even when you came back from the future, it didn't seem like anything had changed."

"And despite noticing all that, you still acted 'as usual' with me." She couldn't help a small smile. "Since when were you so good at controlling your temper?"

"I hardly am." He rolled his eyes. "I just know who's more important."

"'More important'?"

"... It's something nii-san taught me, that's all." He sighed. "All I'm saying is, it's your family, so I won't overthink it. And as long as you're alright, I won't overthink about Gouenji-san or Kidou-san either. But if you need anything, don't hesitate to let me know."

She hummed and nodded before leaning her head against his arm. "You know... sometimes..."

"What?"

"I wish I could kiss you."

Something invisible shot through him. "What?!"

"Joking! I'm joking!"

"Why you little...!" He stopped walking to push the back of her head down. "I told you not to say stupid things like that out of nowhere!"

"Oh, come on! It's not like it'll be the first!"

"Wha―" Now, he was glad he pushed her head down, because he swore his face had never felt so warm. "You know about that?!"

"Well, of course! You did it to wake me up from that nightmare, right? Because nothing else worked?"

"T-That's... Yeah... Sorry." He already apologized right after he did it that time, but she was crying so much he didn't know if she heard.

However, right in front of him, she was shaking her head. "Don't be. It's not like you had bad intentions. And since it's from you, I don't really mind."

The moment just keeps getting weirder and weirder for him. "You... don't mind... getting kissed by me...?"

"Well, yeah. You're always acting like you're too cool for affection, so in a way, it was kinda nice to get it from you."

"..." You're the biggest idiot alive. At the moment, he was very happy that she's finally lost her telepathic abilities.

Feeling his face cool off, he let her head go, allowing her to look up. The first thing her eyes landed on was the city in the distance, basked in the light of the almost-setting sun. Everything felt warm.

"Whoa... You don't get this kind of view anywhere either..."

He followed her gaze and gave a small smile. "Yeah... This is a bit like Steel Tower Plaza."

"Just more futuristic, huh?"

He nodded.

She then turned to her side, finding that they were at the top of a small hill. She turned the front of her wheelchair towards that direction.

"Hey, Kyou―"

"I know what you're thinking." He cut off. "And it's dangerous."

"But it seems fun." She casually replied, smiling with her eyes shining. "And the wheelchair is sturdier than it looks. It's 200 years in the future after all."

He rolled his eyes. "I know that, but still, your whole family's gonna kill me."

"I'll share half the blame?"

"You know that's not what this is about."

"W-Well..." Her gaze went down the hill, a slightly disappointed expression on her face.

"Come on. We're not going over this again. You need to take care of yourself better and―"

She suddenly felt her body leaning forward.

"Oh, oops. My grip slipped. I'll just―"

No, wait... It's the whole chair...?

"Oh, no. I can't seem to keep it steady up here."

That's when she noticed his sarcastic tone. And his smirk.

"Kyou..."

His smirk got wider. "Better hang on tight."

She did. She gripped on the armrests as hard as she could as he started running down, pushing her along.

"Woohoo!" She couldn't stop herself from screaming and laughing out loud.

When they picked up enough speed, he lifted his feet to the little space beneath her seat, that was really meant for carrying small items, one at a time. The hill wasn't steep, and there were hardly any obstacles, so they were safe. It started feeling more like a trolley ride kids would ask their parents for when they're on shopping trips.

As they rode on the mercy of gravity, they found the wind to be surprisingly calming.

She let out a sigh, watching the water turn from its clear blue to a beautiful orange-purple mix. "What a rush... When was the last time we did something this crazy and fun?"

"What do you mean? We time traveled and went to space."

"Well, sure... But I mean, just the two of us. You know, before Raimon?"

He hummed in thought, following her gaze before shaking his head. "Can't think of anything. I think we were pretty tame kids."

"Emphasis on 'were'." She laughed. "Now, we practically jump at the chance to make people mad."

"That's just you."

"Sure, sure. We can pretend you didn't betray Earth for a little longer if that's what you want."

He grumbled a quiet "Touche."

It only made her laugh more.

He nearly lifted a hand to push her head down again, but doing so would throw the rolling chair off balance, so he refrained. He can bully her more once they reach the bottom.

"But... There's really no doubt about it now."

Her tone suddenly changed. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

"I only ever have this much fun when I'm with you!" She grinned up at him. "That's why, I'm definitely staying. I'll stay in our timeline, go to Raimon, join the club, and continue playing with you forever!"

Another invisible thing pierced through him. But this time, he let out a smirk in response. "So, I'll be stuck with you for the rest of my life, huh?"

"Seems so!"

"Looks like I won't need a replacement punching bag after all then."

"Hey! Don't make me regret it!"

"Oh, I will."

~~~~~~~~~~

Two updates today, because Yes.

Finally, a happy chapter! :D