Chapter Text
"It sure has been… quiet around here, now, huh, chief?"
The sound of Asaba Harumasa's voice broke the silence in the room, notably different from footsteps from the corridor, different from what could be assumed was the hypersomniac's snoring.
Chief Hoshimi Miyabi's ears twitched at the sound. He was right. She had been admittedly on edge after the kidnapping by that wretch Sarah not too long ago, despite how much she had been able to keep herself together for the sake of completing the mission. The past few weeks had indeed been much "louder", grating on such sensitive ears than things were now. The blade was about as maintained as it could be, Tailless back under control, that burning sensation in her arms from trying to get the damn thing back in its scabbard now just a faint, occasional warmth at the thought of it. It would have been suspicious, how at ease everything seemed to be. She was able to be as vulnerable as to pay respects to her mother, near the Proxies, no less. That hairpin that she had spent hours on, painstaking recreating her mother's craft… it was in their hands.
She trusted them, even as they vouched for the woman who likely had started this hell in the first place.
She exhaled her admittance after a while. "Indeed." She anticipated some sort of jinx, for something to crop up right as she acknowledge the fact, but… there was indeed quiet.
"There's no excuse for you to head home early, Harumasa…" Tsukishiro glared up at the boy, halfway up out of his chair, "but… you're not wrong at all. You'd think there would be much more to clean up after dealing with Bringer."
"The proxy siblings seem to be a lot more reliable than I thought." Miyabi crossed her arms, also glaring at the poor man. "I'd imagine that this lull in conflict is partially thanks to them."
"Maybe it's a sign from them, Chief…" Harumasa raised his hands in surrender, chuckling. "We've been working major overtime lately, right? Even little Soukaku is tired!"
"Hey!" The blue oni protested. "Don't… use me as an ex… excuse…! I'm just hungry!"
The pink haired executive officer chuckled with some mix of praise and amusement at the little girl's use of the new word. "That's exactly right, Harumasa… Though, I could use something to eat myself."
The idle chatter between the other three only solidified this fact that Miyabi had finally given the chance to take the forefront of her mind.
It was a quiet day in New Eridu, and it would be for quite some time.
She let everyone continue talking, despite how much the overlapping sounds tended to overwhelm her without anything in particular to focus on. It was nice, not having to be so on edge. The group always tended to act rather unserious, joking around even before they put blades (and arrows) to use against that Sacrifice in the Port Elpis Hollow. Despite everyone's efforts to keep morale up, the tension had been thick enough for the sensitive ears of Hoshimi Miyabi to ring and buzz. Of course, many hours of training had kept her senses sharp enough to cut through any kind of tension, to focus on the evil in front of her… but it was times like this, in the relative silence of the office that almost overstimulated her. There was indeed no one thing to focus on, the conversation between Yanagi, Harumasa and Soukaku was friendly banter at the very worst, no need to tell everyone to be quiet and work…
And the blade was indeed maintained…
The familiar sensation of vibration finally gave her something else to focus on, the phone in her pocket buzzing rhythmically. The pattern belonged to a friend, Miyabi could easily tell as much even from the first two beats of the sequence. She produced the device from her pocket, taking the call.
"Zhu Yuan." Her voice remained monotone even as her tail slowly wagged behind her. It had been a while since she had found the time to speak to the captain outside of work, let alone between being brought to the hospital by her not too long ago and now. She was never all that good with keeping up with others if she weren't seeing them in person, but she knew that Zhu Yuan was the same. It was a pleasant surprise (as unexpected as it was), to receive a call from her.
"Hey, Miyabi!" Zhu Yuan sounded much more emotive over the phone than Miyabi ever could, voice excited with notes of concern. "You doing okay?"
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Miyabi replied, following along with the standard small-talk procedure.
"…That burn from the foxfire?" She could hear the rising tone in Zhu Yuan's voice. This wasn't small talk.
It was a shock to see the Proxy trying to keep the scabbard in place for Miyabi not long ago, getting torn up by the foxfire while the young void hunter stood there, almost in a trance. That burn was indeed rather extensive, climbing up both arms, even underneath the armor on her left. It left her pale, well-taken care of skin covered in burns to the third degree, blisters and visible dermis painting the appendage like some sort of painting. It was an injury that the girl would have to live with for the rest of her days, and even though they would heal, even as Miyabi sat at her desk in the Section 6 office, she could faintly see the marks on her un-armored arm, that faint warmth coming back again.
"…Right." She hadn't realized how long she had been silent for.
"It's… been a long time since I was hovering over you in that hospital bed! Is it healing up okay?" The concern was only thickening in Zhu Yuan's voice. It made Miyabi check herself, putting up a bit more of an effort to share the burden of that concern with the person who had seen her at her weakest more times than she'd like to admit.
"Thank you for you concern, Zhu Yuan," she started, inspecting the scar tissue herself, "it is. The pain was much worse after my adrenaline had finally gone down, but after this long, I can move both arms without issue."
"That's good to hear…!" A sigh of relief made the fox's ears twitch.
"…You weren't too worried about me, were you?"
"How could I not be?" She got rather defensive at the very notion. "You were damn near covered in burns! So was Belle!"
"…I'm sorry."
The apology hung in the quiet space in the middle of the conversation, almost surprising for either end of the line to hear.
"As much as I had no other option, I put a civilian and myself under harms way of my own doing."
Zhu Yuan remained silent over the line, weary of the topic. She knew that Miyabi wasn't exactly in the right state of mind when it all went down, and as much as the thiren was adept at remaining stoic and focusing on the task at hand, she wouldn't forget the sight of Miyabi laying there, arms covered in burns, almost a thousand cuts covering her body. She didn't quite understand everything about what the monster in her sword was capable of, but she knew that the incident in front of that crowd that fateful night wasn't her fault. She had seen similar freezing up back when they were classmates, the sort of blank stare dead ahead, somehow acutely aware of everything, yet so horribly unaware at the same time.
"…It wasn't your fault, Miyabi. I know that." Another sigh from the other end. "You don't have to blame yourself for it.
As long as you're doing okay."
"…With how quiet the world seems to be now, I think that I am 'okay'." There went the monotone voice again.
"…So you've noticed it too?"
Finally. She thought. They were getting to the point of this phone call.
"I have." Miyabi nodded. "I've been hesitant to say so, at the risk of jinxing it, but… I feel like I can rest for a while."
"Hey, same here… Even here at the precinct, it's like everybody's calmed down after we dealt with the Inspector."
"Is that so?"
Miyabi found herself losing focus on the phone call and trying to make sense of the ongoing conversation, which had somehow went from banter to trying to agree on one place to go to eat for the evening. Everyone was in good spirits, genuine good spirits after such a stressful conflict's resolution. She found herself thinking about how she could spend this time off once the time came to clock out, maybe stocking back up on those melon-flavored snacks that she liked… meeting up with the rest of the team for dinner…
"…So I was wondering if you wanted to catch back up this afternoon."
The sound of something like the end of a proposition pulled Miyabi's focus back to the woman on the phone.
"Sorry, my mind was elsewhere." She admitted. "You were saying?"
The sound of a chuckle went in and out on the other end. When it came to casual chatter, Zhu Yuan knew that Miyabi wasn't all too good at focusing on one thing at once.
"I was saying," Zhu Yuan repeated, "that since your team's got nothing to do, and since my team's got nothing to do, I was wondering if you wanted to catch back up this afternoon."
"Oh."
This might have beeen another sign, almost like Harumasa said. Maybe an early day off was in order.
Pulling herself away from work would prove to be a difficult task. She didn't want to get too comfortable, have something pop off in a time of vulnerability and be unprepared… She hated the idea of it, but at the same time, she did need much more training in the art of not training. She had heard that lecture from the Proxies, from her mother and father, even from Zhu Yuan herself. They hadn't taken nearly enough time to celebrate that hard earned victory.
It'd be foolish of her not to wind down for a moment.
Especially foolish of her to not wind down with Zhu Yuan.
"Yes, I'd like to meet up." She replied, nodding triumphantly.
"H-hey! Great! I wasn't expecting you to agree…" Zhu Yuan responded similarly, a whole lot more jovial now over the phone. "What time should we meet up? I'm cleaning up my office for the day."
"I'll meet you outside your building soon. You don't need to go anywhere far." Miyabi was already preparing to leave her own office, seeing as everything was tidy and ready for whenever she'd return.
"O-oh, alright! You sure? I don't mind driving!"
"I'm very sure, Zhu Yuan."
"Alright, alright… see you soon, then."
"Indeed. Goodbye."
The chatter in the office finally quieted down as Miyabi cleared her throat, standing up from her desk and making eye contact with everyone again.
"I've come to a decision." She spoke clear as can be, fitting for the Chief Executive Officer of Section 6. "Since we haven't had much time to relax and celebrate our victory against the villains of the past, I'd like for us to cut work short today."
"…I can't believe it." Harumasa actually sat there in disbelief for a moment.
"Please, all of you, go home and relax for a while. I demand it."
"Yes, Chief!" The team responded in unison, tired yet content smiles all around.
Today's training… Relaxation. She thought, following the group out of headquarters shortly thereafter.