"How do you feel about Saber?"
You've decided to walk home with Hitomi tonight; her house is on your way from the Tomoe apartment, and now that the enemy has seen her face it's better to keep watch on her. You can sense Saber's presence beside her, but like Archer her servant is invisible to prying eyes. "Well, it's too early to judge, isn't it?" Hitomi asks. "He seems like a respectable enough person, at the very least. I don't know enough to say if his, er, stats, are good enough to hold up to our competition, but I suppose I'm in no place to complain, since I was the one who summoned him."
"He's going to have to do until you're ready to defend yourself," you say. "What sort of Mystic Codes do you have that you can use right now?"
"Well, I've got my pair of hydrogen and oxygen density manipulating Mystic Codes, and not too long ago I made one that applies a mixture of nitrogen manipulation with Alteration; it lets me pull nitrogen out of the ground so I can shape it however I want. That one's not very precise, but the few times I've tested it it seems like it'll be useful enough in a pinch."
"Unfortunately, what we're going to find ourselves in is a bit more dangerous than 'a pinch'," you have to remind Hitomi. Hoping that Tohsaka-san can give Hitomi some tips on making good Mystic Codes for combat, you ask her "What are you going to start working on, now that you've seen what combat between
puella magi is like?"
"Something with a bit more 'oomph' to it, I suppose would be the most logical choice," Hitomi replies. "I've been tossing around the idea of a sensor that uses vibrations in the air to detect where someone is, and I've also been working on a, well..." Hitomi looks both ways as her voice lowers, as though she's afraid of what an eavesdropper might think of what she was about to say. "Well, since I've been working with elemental gasses, I thought working with chlorine and fluorine would be the next logical steps. I'm not
comfortable with making what would essentially be a form of chemical weapon, but if it'll help the rest of you, I guess I could expedite my work."
Hitomi's reluctance to employ chemical weapons on your enemies, as noble as they are, raise an interesting and important point to you. "Where do you draw the line?" you ask her. "If you're going to fight with us, I need to know what your ethical and moral limits will be." You know Oriko refuses to kill; it's detrimental to the team effort when the enemy is trying to kill you, but you understand her reason for refusing to kill and you know you can't force her to. You need to know if Hitomi is the same.
"Well, I guess I'm not really comfortable with the idea that I'll have to take a life," she replies. "I know I signed on to fight with you, and I do sincerely intend to do my part when it comes to keeping this city and the people I care about safe, but I don't believe I could live with myself if I ever had to kill someone."
"If it was your life or theirs, would your answer be the same?"
"I... I'm afraid I can't answer that, Akemi-san. I'm sorry."
Hitomi averts her eyes; you aren't sure if she's ashamed of herself for whatever response she might be considering, or if she's ashamed of you for the response she must think
you are considering. "That's fine," you say, hoping to ease some of the tension between you. "Let's talk about something a bit easier, then. What do you think of the rest of the team?"
"The servants, or the other girls?" Hitomi asks. "Aside from Archer, I guess I don't really know too much about any of the other servants. I recognise, um, Lancer, was it? The one belonging to Mikuni-san?" You nod; Lancer it is. "She seems nice enough, at least outside of combat. I admit she was... Rather terrifying to see, when she actually started fighting the enemy Saber. I suppose that might colour my impression of her differently going forward. Assassin seems to be quite mean, actually. I don't know if she'll be easy to get along with, and I don't know how that's going to impact the team's overall cohesion. I hope she can calm down eventually."
You nod. "I'm unsure how to think of Assassin as well. On one hand, her anger at being forced into an unsuitable class is understandable, even if it's disruptive to the rest of the team. But on the other hand, if she weren't an Assassin we might not have as powerful a counter to the enemy's Rider servant as we do now. If she's able to calm down and get over her desire to harm Nurse Ortensia, she'll be an invaluable ally against the enemy Rider."
"Actually, I'm worried about Nurse Ortensia as well," Hitomi adds. "I hope she doesn't keep saying things to provoke Assassin like she did at the meeting tonight. She..." Hitomi breathes in deeply, before sighing, saying "I know she wasn't your first choice, Akemi-san, but she is important to Mikuni-san, right? I hope she's able to work together with the rest of the team."
"I hope so, too." You don't really want to think about the position your team might find themselves in if you have to fight the enemy Rider without a powerful Assassin at your side. Now, as you near Hitomi's house, you decide to bring the night to a close on a topic you're sure will lighten Hitomi's mental load. "So... I really thought after you and Kamijou Kyousuke broke up that you'd be done with dating for awhile, but here you are hiding a boyfriend from us for almost a year. Kind of hard to imagine Tomoe-san being the only single one of our friends now, actually."
"Again, I really am sorry for hiding Makoto-san from you all. I really was worried about how Sayaka-san would react if she found out I was seeing someone again so soon after dumping Kamijou-kun. I'm just glad I don't have to hide him from you all anymore."
"Do you have a picture of him you would be willing to show me?"
"Of course!" Hitomi fishes through her skirt's pocket for her phone, proudly showing you the home screen picture. She, and a boy you assume is her boyfriend, are wearing the blue-and-green uniform of the Chigasaki junior high; he's not much taller than her, with slightly messy black hair and calm, blue eyes. He has his arms around Hitomi, who has one arm around his waist and the other arm stretched out, holding her phone to take the shot. "We took this on my last day at Chigasaki," Hitomi says, returning her phone to her pocket with a wistful expression. "Does it... Does it make me a selfish person to wish I were still attending school there? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being able to see you and Kaname-san each day, but there are times where I wish I could wake up, and it would just be Makoto-san and myself sitting in class together, sharing notes during lunch or sneaking kisses when we thought no one was looking. I wish we could see each other more than once every other week or so."
You shake your head. "I don't think so," you say. "I know I'd be upset if Madoka and I had to attend different schools; and look at Kirika- I've never seen her work as hard on anything as she did to pass her high school entrance exams, just so she could go to the same school as Oriko." Your words elicit a look of understanding from Hitomi, and you move on to asking her "Well, now that you're not trying to hide him, maybe you can see him more frequently?"
Hitomi shakes her head. "The course load at Chigasaki was the one thing I
don't miss. He really doesn't have that much time to come and see me. I would go and see him more frequently, but my father isn't exactly as supportive of my relationship with Matoko-san as he was with Kamijou-kun, and he's just a bit too concerned about letting me go off to-" Hitomi feigns a shocked gasp as she says "-spend a whole day alone with a
boy, unsupervised!" When you and Hitomi find your voices again after the giggle you shared at her mimicry of her father, she says "But in all seriousness, I really do wish my father would ease up on Makoto-san a little bit."
"He's probably just worried for you, that's all. You're a teenage girl, he's a teenage boy..." You'll let the implication stand on its own. "If it makes you feel better, sometimes Minako is that concerned about Kirika's relationship with Oriko. Not to the point of being unsupportive, but she's very concerned that Kirika spends more time thinking about Oriko and less time thinking about her schoolwork." You won't say that Minako has every reason to be concerned for how her daughter spends time with her lover.
"I see." Hitomi smiles, saying "Well, this is me," as the two of you come to a stop in front of her house. "Thank you so much for walking home with me, Akemi-san. I enjoyed our conversation."
"So did I," you reply. "Hopefully soon, Oriko or Lancer will have a, I guess you'd call it a lesson plan of runes for you. That should help get you up to speed with the rest of us."
Hitomi nods, disappearing into her house with a "Thank you, Akemi-san. I'll be looking forward to them." The door closes behind her, and it's home for you as well.
The lights are off when you and Archer return home, and Minako's laptop is sitting closed atop the living room table. You hope she was able to finish whatever she was working on. "I'm going to make sure Minako's not too freaked out about us coming home late," Archer says, leaving you to your own devices as he heads off to his bedroom to check on her. Your own bedroom is right across the hall, so you follow him until the two of you part ways into your respective bedrooms.
You pull your chair out, taking a seat at your desk as you open your laptop. Pale blue light floods your darkened bedroom, prompting a muffled
"Mew" and the sensation of fur rubbing against your leg. "Did I wake you?" you ask Amy, reaching down to give her scratches behind the ears. "Sorry. I've got to look some things up, but I can play with you for a bit while I'm working, if you'd like." Your suggestion receives no complaints, and Amy climbs up, sitting down beside your laptop. But before you can get to work, your phone buzzes.
<Madoka: Srry if I woke U Homura-chan. I just wanted 2 kno if everything was alright.>
You smile, typing back a quick reply to Madoka to soother her worries.
<Homura: Everything's fine. We ran into some trouble earlier in the night, but everyone is okay. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.>
Your phone vibrates once more after that; it's another message from Madoka.
<Madoka: Sounds good. See U tomorow Homura-chan.>
Setting your phone aside, you can finally get to work. With one hand you type the name "Sigurd" into the search engine, while with the other you stroke Amy's fur and give her scratches. Your hope is to find something in the enemy Saber's story; some weakness you can exploit to your advantage;
but then... "Oh, dear," you say, as your results come back. That's a lot more than you were thinking you would have to read.
