Together - A Senku Ishigami Love Story (Dr.Stone)

Chapter 48

"That isn't the way the Kingdom of Science does things. Your life isn't mine to take, nor is anyone else's. Wouldn't want to upset the ol' brainiac in charge."

Despite her situation she laughed lightheartedly, but it melted slowly into a sorrowful frown like snow on a sunny morning. Killing wasn't in Tachi's nature, but the day she had met Homura and known that she was working with Tsukasa, a dark, bloodied crimson had ebbed into her vision, accompanied by a hateful, vile venom that raced through her entirety and turned her blood to ice. The Kingdom of Might had tried to take Senku away as its first display of its power, Tsukasa flexing his raw muscle to try and extinguish the bright, hopeful spark of science and progression that Senku was so hell bent on nurturing. The man snatched up lives where he saw fit, smashing the statues of those he didn't deem worthy based on nothing but age, and snapping the neck of Senku as though it was nothing, as though he was nothing. 

If she killed Homura, she would be no better than Tsukasa. Someone thought about her, someone knew her, someone cared about her. It wasn't Tachi's place to hurt that someone, not now, nor ever. It was her duty, as a member of the Kingdom of Science, to do the right thing. It had been when she cut Homura down from the snare, and it still was now.

Homura still stared down at her expecently, Tachi's head falling back to rest against the thick wooden bars behind her with a dull thud, and allow the last beams of the setting sun streaming in through the singular window to catch in her hair comb, the refracted light projecting brilliantly on the walls of the cell, like scarlet flowers blooming across its dreary interior.  

"The guy gave you cotton candy, you really think he would be happy to hear I murdered you?"

It took another few intense moments of staring before Homura relaxed her tense stance, and with a short shake of her head, she slid down the wall behind her to come to rest as Tachi was. 

"Why did he give me that?"

Tachi hummed loudly.

"Same reason you ate it I guess. So many of us want things to be sweeter."

She chuckled before Homura had a chance to respond, lulling her head lazily to the side to watch the red pattern across the walls warp and dance as she shifted.

"I read that in the window of an old candy store back home. Ms. Petiguire's Candies and Treats it was called. On Halloween the old lady would dress up in the best haggard witch costume you'd ever seen, and she gave out the best treats. Always my very first stop."

She paused for a moment, giving Homura a chance to chime in on the so far one sided conversation, but the input never came, so Tachi continued on.

"Halloween is my favourite, but Senku said he preferred New Year. What about you? Have a favourite holiday? You strike me as a festival girl. Maybe...Tanabata?"

Her head nodded forward, a firm smirk in place as she expected to meet Homura's blank expression. Instead however, the young woman's face seemed stern, her lower lip slightly jutted as she drew her knees up to her chest, slender but toned arms wrapping around them almost protectively.

"We are not friends."

While Tachi knew the phrase to be entirely true, it still took her by surprise that she had said it, the last rays of the sun disappearing at the edge of the window and bringing their soft light show to its final end. A heavy silence filled the cell almost as quickly as the inky darkness which had until now been confined to the corners leaked forwards, blotting its way across the dusty floor and bringing with it a cold, jagged chill.

"Sorry, Homura."

The apology fell on deaf ears, Homura's bright pink irises disappearing behind her eyelids as she closed her eyes, and herself, to Tachi. She watched the dexterous girl silently, this being the first chance she had ever actually had to observe her while she was still. Although Homura was small in stature, she knew that assuming the young woman to be weak or fragile would be a mistake. Her sharp green eyes trailed her arms in the dying light, inching across pale scars and small, mottled bruises. She had a few snags and catches in her clothing, an irritated patch of reddened skin just below her knee, likely caused by an allergen or stinging nettle.