Chapter Text
Lisa felt her eyes sliding off of the page of her history textbook, unable to continue focusing on the details of the construction of the public transit system, and, once again, pulled out the letter she'd placed folded between its pages. Its energetic, slightly messy handwriting immediately brought to mind the exuberance of the person who'd written it, and she couldn't help but smile faintly.
Hey, Lisacchi! it opened. It's a lot different out here, away from the school. There's not a whole lot of people around, so that's a little less fun, but there's lots more weird magic stuff to mess around with. The old lady I'm supposed to be learning from says I'm 'difficult,' but she sure knows a lot. I should have a whole bunch of cool stuff to show you when I get back!
What followed were several paragraphs of difficult-to-understand descriptions of spells—whether that difficulty came from the complexity of the spells themselves or Hina's unique description of them, Lisa couldn't say—before returning to more personal conversation.
I thought you might get lonely in that room by yourself, so I told my sister and Chisato to keep an eye on you so that doesn't happen. Anyway, it's not too bad out here but no one's as fun to talk to as you are, Lisacchi, so I'll make sure to get back by break!
Write back! The letter urged, then ended with Lisa's roommate's distinctive signature, the one Lisa had seen her practicing on a number of objects that had no reason to be signed. Hina was, as always, Hina, and reading the letter only made Lisa want to see her again more, even though it had only been a couple of weeks since she'd gone off for her specialized training. It was, as Hina had surmised, lonely being in a dorm room by oneself, although the dormitory being full of people meant that it wasn't as difficult as it might have been in another situation.
And, while Lisa appreciated the thought of Hina asking people to check up on Lisa, the people she'd chosen were, well, maybe not exactly ideal for the task. Chisato and Lisa had been on good terms once, but the passage of time and the way the two of them had changed meant that their relationship could no longer really be considered close. And while Chisato was hardly the most friendly person Lisa knew, she was a good deal easier to deal with than Hina's sister, who adopted a sharp attitude even with people considerably more diligent and serious than Lisa was.
She sighed and prepared to fold the letter back up, then noticed a short postscript on the back she must have missed the first time she'd read it.
By the way, I heard from the old lady that there's a whole bunch of secret passages around Hanasakigawa! Piques your interest, doesn't it? Let's go explore some of them when I get back!
It seemed like the kind of thing Hina would find exciting, Lisa thought, smiling to herself. Getting dragged around on one of Hina's adventures was always surprisingly fun—even when things seemed like they were starting to go disastrously, they had a way of working themselves out when Hina was around.
But she'd distracted herself for long enough, so, reluctantly, she turned her gaze back to the too-thorough discussion of train construction in her textbook. And, then, almost immediately afterwards, heard the door to the classroom open as two of her classmates entered.
The shy-looking girl with the silky black hair gave Lisa a reserved wave as she walked in, while the girl with the serious gaze and face strikingly similar to Hina's merely nodded in Lisa's direction.
Speak of the devil, huh? "Hi, Rinko! And you, too, Sayo."
Rinko smiled gently in Lisa's direction. "It's nice to see you."
"Pardon me asking," Sayo said, seemingly seeing no need for pleasantries, "but is that a letter from my sister?"
"It is, yeah." Lisa felt a vague discomfort rising in her chest. It wasn't that she disliked Hikawa Sayo, not exactly. They'd talked a few times, both in class and through Hina, but not enough for Lisa to form an opinion as concrete as that. It was just that Sayo was the embodiment of diligence, the kind of person who approached everything she did with a thorough dedication Lisa couldn't hope to match. That was borne out in their results, too—Sayo was notably better than Lisa was at both schoolwork and magic, a model student in every way. Whereas Lisa was sitting here, in the common room, looking for an excuse to slack off from her studies. It would make sense for her not to be viewed terribly favorably.
But, Lisa thought, despite the differences in their personalities, it didn't seem as though Sayo disliked her either, exactly. She could be strict, but there wasn't usually any particular displeasure or annoyance to her tone, just a firm conviction in how she believed people should act. Rinko, who knew Sayo a good bit better than Lisa did, had assured Lisa that Sayo was, in fact, a kind person; Lisa had yet to see that part of her come out, but it wasn't hard to imagine that it was in there somewhere. (Hina would, no doubt, have said the same thing, but when it came to Sayo Lisa knew that her opinion could hardly be trusted.)
"Did she happen to say anything, well, unusual?"
"More so than she always does? I guess she did mention that there were a lot of secret passages at Hanasakigawa—" Lisa cut herself off at seeing Sayo and Rinko exchange knowing glances. "Sorry, did I say something weird?"
"It's, um, not that," Rinko said. "It's just… she mentioned the same thing to Sayo, so…" She trailed off, seemingly unsure of how best to continue.
"Did you want me to explain it?" Sayo asked, turning to Rinko with an expression gentler than Lisa had been aware she could make. But, then again, Lisa couldn't imagine a person who could be harsh to someone as nice as Rinko.
Rinko shook her head. "I can do it myself," she said, and began to explain.
The Shirokanes, per her telling, were not a particularly powerful or prestigious magical family, nothing like the illustrious families of some of Hanasakigawa's more prominent students. But even so, they had a lengthy history they were, in their own way, proud of, exemplified by a ring they'd received many years ago in honor of their contributions to some long-defunct wizards' guild, which Rinko made clear had been a more or less priceless treasure. But at some point, that priceless treasure had found its way out of her family's hands.
"So, you're saying that you think this ring is at the school somewhere?" Lisa asked. "What happened to it, exactly?"
"My father… lost it when he was a student here, he said. He was trying to inspect its properties by looking in rare books when he took a wrong turn into a hidden chamber… and something chased him out when he was trying to figure out where he was… making him drop the ring. Even if he could find the place again, he said that he was too scared to try…"
"So that's why Hina mentioning the secret passages caught your notice." Lisa put a hand on her chin thoughtfully.
"We had all kind of given up on finding it again, but I thought that maybe… with this…" Rinko paused, then looked up at Lisa and Sayo. "I'd… like to look for it, if either of you are willing to help…"
Lisa glanced over in Sayo's direction, trying to gauge her reaction. Sayo and Rinko were on good terms, she knew, but nevertheless Sayo hardly seemed the type to want to go poking around hidden corners of the school, especially when it seemed like something the teachers might frown on.
But, somewhat surprisingly, the frown lifted from Sayo's face. "If it's that important to you," she said slowly, "I think that it's at least worth doing a little bit of investigation. There might be some unexpected benefits to the whole process."
Rinko beamed, and the two of them looked in Lisa's direction expectantly. It was probably worth genuinely thinking about whether or not she actually wanted to get involved in this sort of thing, but a glance at Rinko's eyes and her decision was made for her. Every time Rinko really wanted something, her eyes betrayed just how important it was to her, shimmering with a faint hope that Lisa couldn't bring herself to crush.
"I guess it's sort of like something out of one of those mysteries you read, isn't it?" she said, smiling. "I don't mind looking into it a little more, no."
Rinko's smile widened, and Lisa sighed internally. It was a good thing Rinko didn't have a manipulative bone in her body, she thought wryly. Who knew what would happen if she did.
"If that's decided, where would you suggest we start?" Sayo asked, frowning slightly.
"I was thinking that it might, um, be a good idea to talk to our history teacher, since he's been here for a really long time. But doing it by myself is a little bit…"
"That does seem like a good idea. I don't mind going with you if it makes talking easier," Lisa said, smiling in Rinko's direction. Rinko's face, which had acquired a trace of gloom, suddenly perked up again.
"In that case, there are a few books I picked up from the library I'd like to look through in case they have any pertinent information." Sayo grabbed a volume from her bag—Mid-Century School Architecture, the title read—and began to flip through its pages. That was a role Lisa was glad she'd been spared.
She and Rinko left Sayo to her reading and headed off in the direction of their history teacher's office, the sound of their shoes echoing throughout the large stone hallway. Stone had been the building material of choice when Hanasakigawa had been constructed, but these days, while certainly impressive, the architecture came off as a little cold and imposing, particularly when sun wasn't out.
By contrast, as they knocked on the door they were looking for and were invited in, their history teacher's office gave off a warm, relaxing atmosphere. Books filled the bookshelves on the walls and overflowed into piles on the floor and their teacher's desk, and a couple of lamps glowed gently over the room, which felt old in a comfortable way, like a pair of well-made shoes that had long since been broken in but had yet to look worse for wear.
As they stepped in, a pair of chairs scooted themselves over towards the desk, inviting Lisa and Rinko to take a seat. Glancing at them over his small reading glasses, their teacher spoke.
"Miss Imai, Miss Shirokane. How may I help you?"
"Um, well, we were hoping we could ask you a question. There's a bit of a rumor going around about secret passages hidden within Hanasakigawa—do you know if there's any credibility to it?"
Their teacher sighed, in that way he frequently did when some student showed a seeming lack of respect for history. "I've gotten that question many times over the years, and the answer is never what students want it to be. There are a handful of what you might call hidden passageways that were used during the school's construction, but they were almost all covered over when construction was finished. And even if there were such a passage, it wouldn't have anything particularly interesting in it."
"This… maybe sounds a little silly… but there's not any sorts of magical creatures guarding anything within the school, then, right…?"
"I have a feeling," he said, "that if I say no to that question you'll start poking your noses around places you shouldn't. There aren't any secret passages, per se, but that doesn't mean you can't get yourself into trouble. Do be careful."
Rinko and Lisa nodded obediently, prompting a sigh from their teacher. "In any case, was that all?"
"I, um, think that's it," Lisa said, glancing towards Rinko for confirmation. "Thanks very much for your help!"
"You're welcome. Hopefully this ignites some interest within you, or within other students, to learn more about the school's history. Preferably not by investigating it yourself."
They each gave him a light bow and left the office to return to the classroom. Lisa couldn't quite tell if the conversation had made Rinko more or less excited about their investigation of the situation.
"Hidden passages, huh," she said, well aware that this was not what she had been supposed to take away from their discussion. "He didn't seem to think they were really a thing, but this seems like the kind of place that might have all kinds of secrets, don't you think? Like paintings that are actually doors, and whatnot. It's kind of made me want to try and look for something…"
Rinko giggled softly. "You'd better not… let him hear that. We'd definitely get lectured…"
But after a second, her face clouded over again, as though something about the situation was worrying her. Lisa considered poking further into it, but figured that it could at least wait until Sayo heard what they had to say.
"I see," Sayo said, frowning. "There's no mention of the construction of secret doors or passageways in this volume either, which lines up with what you've said."
"But I don't think Hina would send us faulty information. She seems to always know when people are lying, somehow."
"You're right. It's a bit of a difficult situation, but I think it's much too early to give up. Do we have any other leads?" Sayo turned to Rinko. "Did your father happen to know anything about where this hidden room might be?"
"He said… he had no idea about how he ended up there. Almost as though some magic had been used to hide the location of the entrance…"
"I suppose it makes sense that these might not be ordinary hidden rooms." Sayo frowned again. At first Lisa had thought that that expression meant that Sayo was upset about something, but maybe it was just the way she looked when she was thinking deeply.
"Do you think talking to Chisato might help?" Lisa suggested. "If anyone can find out this kind of information, it'd be her, right?"
Sayo grimaced, this time a definite expression of displeasure. "You might be right, although I'm loath to actually ask her for help. The two of you would probably have a little more luck."
"What do you think, Rinko?"
"It's worth trying, at the very least…" Once again, Lisa found herself enthralled by Rinko's eyes, which were, even now, shining with a determined light.
The kind of determination she knew she was incapable of producing herself.
"Secrets, hmm," said the owner of a different pair of violet eyes, these sharper and more piercing than Rinko's. Rinko and Lisa were sitting next to each other on the bed opposite from Chisato's, waiting as she thought about the story they'd just told her. Her dorm room had a pleasant, feminine, pastel-colored vibe to its decorations, the kind that evoked Chisato's pale blond hair if not those hard, sharp eyes.
Hina was particularly fond of Chisato, for reasons Lisa remained unsure of. Chisato wasn't the sort to make friends, except maybe with Kanon, who was diligently working on something at the desk in the back, and she was far from easy to talk to. Like glass, Lisa thought, smooth and perfectly reflective, but dangerously sharp when chipped or broken. The length of time they'd known each other—a result of family ties—seemed to stop Chisato from wielding that dangerous part of her to bear against Lisa, which Lisa was grateful for. Not that she really had any idea exactly where she stood with Chisato these days.
Because no matter what the situation was, she had no idea what Chisato was really thinking.
"I'll see what exactly I can find. There should be, if I remember correctly, an old map of the school with various hidden doors and passageways labeled in existence somewhere. I might be able to procure it, or a copy of it… if you're able to give me something of equal value in exchange."
"Chisato…" A soft voice came from the corner of the room. Kanon had paused her work and was looking in their direction, brushing her light blue hair out of the way of her slightly disappointed gaze.
Chisato glanced back in her roommate's direction and mouthed a couple of words, then turned back to Lisa and Rinko with a smile and a cough. "What I meant to say was that I'd be happy to do both of you a favor. I'm sorry, being around certain types of people for this many years has left me with some habits it's difficult to break. You understand what I'm talking about, don't you, Lisa?"
Lisa laughed uncomfortably. She'd been to enough fancy functions, though likely nowhere near as many as Chisato had, to have a good idea of the kind of person Chisato was talking about.
"Thank you, um, very much!" Rinko said, looking extremely grateful.
"…You're welcome, I suppose." Chisato seemed a little bit unsure of how to handle Rinko, which made a faint grin rise to Lisa's lips. This kind of sincerity was almost certainly not something Chisato was used to being faced with.
But, really, it wasn't bad, sincerity. Genuine, straightforward people—Lisa couldn't help but find herself admiring them. Even though admitting that in the wrong company would no doubt get her scoffed at.
Chisato had delivered the map, as promised, late in the evening about a week later, and three of them were currently poring over it in Sayo and Rinko's dorm room, trying to make sense of the faded lines and messy handwriting.
Or, at least, they had been poring over it—at the moment, Rinko was collapsed against her bed, having fallen asleep in the midst of looking up dates in an old school yearbook. Lisa smiled softly at the sight, then looked over at Sayo, who was once more making a difficult face.
"You figure anything out, Sayo?"
"…I think we should be able to locate the entrances to some of these passages. Although that's no guarantee that we'll actually be able to get in—it's entirely possible they may be locked in some manner."
"Well, it's a start, at least, isn't it?"
"I do wish we had some more clues to go off of. It feels in some respects as though we're just guessing blindly about where this ring might be, which may not end up being a productive course of action."
"Yeah. It's a little bit of a tricky thing she wants our help with, isn't it? Not that I'm complaining, really, but…"
There was a brief silence, and then Lisa spoke up again. "Sayo, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but… why exactly did you agree to help? It doesn't really, um, fit with my image of you, you know? I get that you're friends with Rinko and all, but still…"
Sayo sighed, and for a second Lisa thought that she might have upset her classmate. But Sayo's voice, when she spoke, seemed more resigned than it did annoyed.
"It's true that I did want to help Rinko. But you're also correct in that tramping around the school on what might end up being a wild goose chase is not how I would prefer to spend my time. What ended up tipping the scales was…" She trailed off, seemingly thinking of how best to continue.
"Lisa, do you remember how we were doing the light-producing exercise in class last week?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, that. What about it?" The exercise Sayo was talking about was a magic practice tool designed to help students with fine control of their magical abilities through the creation of small points of light, which could then be made to dance around or be arranged in various patterns. Lisa greatly preferred doing this sort of thing to brute force tasks like lifting heavy objects, although she was of course nowhere near as good at either as Sayo was.
"You mentioned that my magic looked like it could have been a picture in a textbook."
"Yeah, I guess I did…" Lisa noticed Sayo's displeased expression and hurriedly tried to soothe her. "But I didn't mean anything bad by it! Just that the quality of your lights, and the way you moved them, were really polished, that's all!"
"It's fine. I know you didn't have bad intentions. But I think there was more truth to your words than you perhaps knew there was. After all, I'm the kind of person who's very good at replicating pictures in a textbook. No more, and no less."
Lisa was silent for a second, unsure of how best to respond, and Sayo continued. "I've been thinking, though, lately, that I want to try and find something of my own, that isn't just a copy of something someone else has already done. So I wondered if there might not be some sort of inspiration to be found in doing this sort of investigation. If there's a real Hikawa Sayo out there somewhere… I'd like to find her, I think."
In that moment, a vaguely embarrassed expression on her face, Sayo suddenly seemed to Lisa as though she were shining with light.
"I think that's… really impressive, Sayo. Wanting to change yourself for the better like that."
"Do you really?" Sayo looked in Lisa's direction, clearly surprised by her response. "I think it's only natural, though, when you're unsatisfied with where you currently are."
"Feeling unsatisfied and taking action to do something about it are two different things, I think!"
That much, Lisa knew as well as anybody. After all, no matter how empty, how shallow a person she knew herself to be, not even once had she made a concerted effort to change that.
Hikawa Sayo and Imai Lisa were, it seemed, fundamentally different in that regard.
"If you say so." The skepticism in Sayo's tone was obvious.
"It's true! So if there's anything I can do to help you, just tell me. Like, for example, your room's a little bit bare, so maybe it'd be nice to have some decorations that made it feel more like a space made for you—I know a store downtown where you could pick some stuff up—"
At Sayo's soft laughter, Lisa abruptly cut herself off. Had she gone too far?
But Sayo's words were kind, kinder than she'd ever imagined the other girl could be. "Thank you very much. I, well, wasn't exactly expecting that kind of response to me, but your words are heartening, Lisa."
"You're very welcome! The help's only if you want it, so if you think I'm being too pushy or anything, it's fine to reject it."
"I'm not so rude as to reject someone going out of their way to be kind to me."
At the faint smile that Sayo gave her along with those words, Lisa felt something in her chest stir again. She and Sayo were different. That much this conversation had made clear.
But like a moth drawn to a light, she felt that there was something pulling her towards Sayo. Even if she herself couldn't change, being around someone who was trying her best to do so—maybe that was, in itself, a small salvation.
Their investigation ran into its first hurdle a couple of days later, when, in search of a cellar marked on their map that seemed easy to locate, they found in its place a large, glass building.
"The greenhouse, huh…" Lisa said, stating the obvious. "Do we, um, know exactly when this map is from?"
"Sometime before this building was built, at the very least, it seems." Sayo was frowning again. "It's possible that the cellar is still present even despite the building having been built over it, but it seems unlikely that Rinko's father would have run into it if the building was here when he was. If we don't know those dates, then our efforts might be better spent elsewhere."
"Yeah, that makes sense. We picked this spot because it seemed like somewhere easy to run into by accident, but if it was hidden by the greenhouse all this time, it might not be a good choice…" Lisa leaned against the outside of the glass walls as the three of them pondered their next move.
"I… could go check on the dates. There's, um, a fairly recent book talking about the construction of Hanasakigawa in the library that… might be useful…"
"I guess our other option would be to search another location today instead, but this seems fine too. What do you think, Sayo?"
"We are already here, so it makes some degree of sense to search here if possible. Do you think it'll take you long to find the dates, Rinko?"
"Probably, not very long…"
"Then let's wait for that information and, if it turns out this is an unlikely place, search somewhere else. I think we should have enough time for that."
With that, Rinko hurried off towards the library, leaving Sayo and Lisa by themselves again.
"Want to look inside a little bit?" Lisa asked.
"Were we not waiting precisely so we could avoid having to do that?"
"We don't have to search for anything in particular. It's just, you know, we've got some time to kill, right? Plus, the greenhouse is just an interesting place to look around."
"You've been in here before?" Sayo asked, somewhat reluctantly following Lisa into the heated interior.
"Sometimes I need to come here to get some ingredients for something I'm making. Salves for the infirmary, or just some herbal concoction for one of my friends… I guess you could call it a hobby of mine."
"I see. That's a useful skill to have."
"You think so? It's nothing special, I promise. I'm sure you're able to do a lot of things that're more impressive."
"That's not really the point, is it? I think it's a unique thing to be able to do. I'd like to see you at work some time—I have the feeling I'd learn something."
They really weren't very similar people at all, but there was something about the blunt way Sayo said what she felt that reminded Lisa of Hina. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but getting praised this much made Lisa feel vaguely embarrassed.
"That's real nice of you to say! Maybe I'll show you sometime."
Sayo seemed as though she was about to say something else, but Lisa hurriedly changed the subject. "So anyway, where's this cellar supposed to be in here? We might as well see if it's easy to find, just in case."
"Give me a second to make sure I have the orientation correct," Sayo said, squinting at the map in her hands. As she did so, Lisa took a look around them at the greenhouse.
It wasn't an enormous place, not like some of the ones she'd heard about, but it was well-sized enough for the school, with most every herb she'd ever used (and plenty more she hadn't) growing somewhere within its walls. Not quite wild and untamed, but more so than the rest of the occasionally too well-groomed school grounds. She found it somehow comforting, not least because of the warmth it gave off during the cold months.
"It should be over in this direction, I believe." Sayo began walking to the right of the entrance, near the greenhouse's closest corner, and Lisa followed, keeping an eye on the ground for anything that looked suspicious.
…They did not, it turned out, have to look very hard. The large pot some sort of bright-leafed tropical plant was growing in close to the entrance seemed to somewhat obviously be at a lower level than the surrounding pots, and after some concentration and their combined effort, they dragged the pot out of the way, revealing a a worn, wooden cellar door at the bottom of a shallow hole.
It gave Lisa a bit of an ominous feeling, looking at it. Their teacher had told them not to pry into matters they shouldn't, and it was entirely possible this was one of those matters. Or maybe she was just feeling spooked for no good reason.
"Do you think it's worth taking a look inside? Just real quick, in case the ring's sitting right there or something."
"I think we should probably wait for Rinko to return before attempting any kind of lengthy search, but if it's a small cellar or obviously has nothing in it a quick look might be fine." Sayo made to reach for the handle, but Lisa put a hand on her shoulder before she could.
"Let's do it from a distance, just in case."
"…I suppose it doesn't hurt to be careful."
The two of them backed up a couple of feet, then Sayo, a look of concentration on her face, slowly lifted the door—
—and something burst out of it, as though it had been lying in wait for someone to open the door, thorny vines flowing out of the cellar like an endless spool of thread. Before they even had time to realize what was going on, they were surrounded.
A nauseous feeling grew in Lisa's stomach as she surveyed their situation. From the cellar entrance, a woody, painfully spiky vine had appeared, cutting off their immediate access to the door of the greenhouse. The other, more roundabout paths to the exit were blocked off by the same vine, which had wound itself across the greenhouse so as to encircle them. At its end lay one large, blood-red flower, its dark center looking unnervingly like a single eye staring them down. Sayo took a step forward, tentatively, and then stepped back as the vine twitched threateningly.
"If only I could get a little closer to it…" she said softly. "At this distance, I don't think anything we could do with magic would cause too much damage. But it'll definitely aim for us if I try and close in."
Lisa's nausea worsened. Sayo was kind of amazing, she thought, in her ability to rationally consider the situation. This was, again, the difference between the two of them, wasn't it—the way Sayo rose to the challenge while Lisa retreated within herself, the way Sayo considered escape strategies while Lisa wallowed in her own mediocrity.
In this situation, she was no better than dead weight.
"Rinko should show up eventually. I think we'd be best off waiting until she does—it might be possible to escape, but not without one of us getting hurt. If our hand is forced, we can make a move, but I'd rather not if we don't have to. Unless you have some sort of plan?"
Just waiting to be saved… it really didn't sit right with Lisa. In the first place, it had been her suggestion to look through the greenhouse, and her failure to mention that she'd had a bad feeling about the cellar door. She at least wanted to do something so that this day didn't end up as a parade of Imai Lisa's bad decisions and failures to act in important moments.
Maybe then, she'd be able to acquire some of that shining light that gathered around Sayo.
"I… might have an idea," she said, glancing at the equipment rack behind her. Sayo would definitely protest if Lisa told her what she had in mind, so she'd have to act fast.
"What is it?" Sayo asked, cocking her head to the side.
Lisa slowly shuffled backwards, the vine making a rustling, creaking noise as it looked… well, seemed like it looked in Lisa's direction. A wrinkle appeared in Sayo's brow, and as she seemed about to say something Lisa made her move. She'd had her eye on the sturdy pair of gardening shears on the rack for a while and, barely thinking about what it was she was doing, grabbed them and ran towards the cellar door.
"Sayo! Distract it!" she yelled, and she heard her classmate curse from behind her before an explosion of light—a lot like the small, dancing points they'd been talking about earlier, but more violent, uncontrolled—seemingly dazed the vine for a second.
It took Lisa no time at all to reach the cellar door, at which point she placed the shears around the vine and began to squeeze them closed with both of her arms, doing her best to support her grip strength with magic. It was tougher than she'd thought it would be given its thickness, though maybe that made sense considering it was obviously far from an ordinary plant.
Slowly, surely, she could feel the wood giving way to the shears, blood pumping loudly through her veins as she tried to will the plant to just collapse, to let the two of them escape.
"Lisa!" Sayo yelled, and she realized that she hadn't been fast enough, that the time Sayo had bought for her hadn't turned out to be sufficient for what she'd needed to do. The blood-red flower was headed this way—it was fast—and it was all Lisa could do to shift her grip on the shears from two hands to one and hold up her right hand to protect her face.
There was a wave of pain as she assumed it had hit her arm, its petals, surprisingly soft given the rest of it, touching her face, but she didn't have the time to think about that, she had to try and finish the job even though with one arm she had a lot less power at her disposal.
Then she felt something warm cover her from behind, Sayo's head next to hers as the other girl laid her hand over Lisa's and pressed as hard as she could, their combined power managing to, somehow, snap the vine in two. The flower, which had been rearing up for another strike, fell limply to the ground, convulsing as it did so but, after a second, ceasing all movement. The other half of the plant vanished back into the cellar, either dead or simply retreating. Lisa wasn't inclined to find out which it was.
She slumped back into Sayo's arms. As the adrenaline slowly left her system, she realized that god, her arm really fucking hurt, didn't it. She almost didn't want to look at it.
"Why did you—I asked if you had a plan, but not this sort of plan! What exactly did you think you were doing? What if its thorns were poisoned? What was your plan in that case?" Sayo was angry—that Lisa had expected—but there was no real bite to her anger. Instead, she sounded like she was about to cry.
Ah. So that's what you meant when you said she was nice, Rinko. Lisa felt a little bad for making Sayo, this strict, serious, but clearly deeply kind girl, upset. But she'd have felt a lot worse if it had been Sayo who'd gotten hurt. So as painful as this was, it was definitely preferable to the alternative.
"I was the one who got us into this mess, so I figured I'd get us out of it. And I did, so it's all good, right?"
"It's not like I would have blamed you for any of this. I went along with it, and I was the one who opened the door, anyway. That's no excuse for getting yourself hurt like that!"
You might not have blamed me, Sayo, but I definitely would have blamed myself. And that's what really matters in the end, isn't it? Despite herself, Lisa could feel a stupid grin forming on her face. She'd done something—even if Sayo called it stupid and reckless—that she felt like she could be proud of. She'd been helpful. That made her, more than anything else, happy.
Her gaze traveled to her right arm, and then immediately jerked away, but not before the image of the line of thorns embedded into her flesh had been seared into her memory.
If those thorns were poisonous, it'll definitely be a pain, won't it, she thought idly.
Hours later, she was back in her room, arm thoroughly bandaged, pain reduced to a dull throb by the soothing properties of the infirmary's salves. Sayo was sitting on a chair next to her bed, still looking exceedingly worried.
"You should really get some more sleep. The teacher at the infirmary said it was a weak poison, but you still need time to recover. Rinko said she'd go grab some food from the cafeteria for you to eat when you wake up."
"Oh, she did? I'll have to thank her later… I guess I've really caused everyone a lot of trouble with all of this, haven't I? Rinko looked like she was about to die of guilt when she showed up."
"It'd help us all out if you weren't this reckless again. But for now, rest." She made to get up, but Lisa grabbed her hand with her still-functioning one.
"…Sayo."
"What is it?"
"Stay with me for a little bit longer?"
Sayo looked at her, sighed, and then sat back down. "You really keep on surprising me, don't you. I got the impression from Hina you were the sort of person who thinks about other people before yourself, like a level-headed older sister. But you're actually a lot more reckless, selfish, and needy, aren't you?"
"It's the poison. It makes me want human company." Lisa tried her best to keep a straight face while she said that, but a bit of a grin seeped through.
"You're hopeless." Sayo's tone was vaguely disgusted, but she made no move to let go of Lisa's hand, and a faint smile played about her lips.
You're the one who keeps on surprising me, you know. You could scold me, reject me, leave me for someone else to take care of. But you don't. You listen to my selfish requests.
If you keep doing that… it's just going to make me want more, you know?