Ultima Ratio

Chapter 18: Pier Pressure

"I'd consider it," Akira compromised, knowing Danya was completely correct.

"Hm," Danya said, letting the hair band shoot off her finger and bounce off of Akira's arms.

Akira took a moment to hold back her irritation before she retrieved her hair tie from the floor. With the additional movement, her thick hair had almost completely unraveled from its braid, and Akira was forced to postpone the rest of her workout even longer to fix it. By the time she finished, Akira could already feel her muscles stiffen from the lack of exertion, but she stubbornly kept her complaints to herself as she slowly stretched her limbs as if that had been her intention all along.

Judging by Danya's subtle smirk, she saw right through the charade. Thankfully, she kept any verbal comments to herself and simply wandered to the edge of the base's deck, looking out at the vast stretch of blue waves that separated them from land.

There were a thousand kilometers of ocean between them and Chennai, but Akira still felt like she was capable of swimming the distance just to get back into the action. Of course, Danya would keep her from even touching the water, but given recent developments, she would at least do so gently.

Lately, Akira noticed, Danya was surprisingly laid back. After her rage-filled outburst over Akira almost dying and their subsequent "renegotiation of terms" a couple days later, Danya's intensity took a sharp turn back to zero. The sudden change almost gave Akira whiplash, but she wasn't going to question it. Instead, Akira used the time to observe the woman without having to fear for her life.

For instance, Danya's gaze lingered on the horizon for a few seconds before slowly nearing, stopping only when she was looking at the water directly below them. The only things separating Danya from the fifty-meter drop to the ocean was a thin guardrail, an invisible barrier, and her sporadic self-control. While the realization set Akira on edge, she decided against warding Danya away in favor of observing her next move.

While Akira couldn't see Danya's face, she tried her best to read the woman's body language. Her hands were clasped loosely behind her back, and her weight shifted back and forth from her heels to her toes. As she swayed, her long ponytail shifted ever so slightly, having already grown a quarter meter in the past few weeks.

She wore almost the same outfit as Akira, mainly because there were only so many clothing options on the mobile base. They both had the same olive green "ARMY" T-shirt, with the only differences being that Danya's was a size smaller and turned inside out as she did with all military-branded garments. Both of them also wore loose black running shorts, but Akira had hers under a thick pair of black sweatpants for additional heat training.

The similarities ended with their footwear: while Akira had her combat boots for the workout, Danya wore a pair of rubber sandals made to look like green cabbage leaves. Jivan had brought them back from land a few days prior, insisting they were traditional footwear in their ancestors' native India and wanted Akira to feel like she was accompanying them on their travels. While Akira had silently debated on whether or not to go along with Jivan's obvious prank for the sake of team morale, Danya stepped in and snagged the shoes without a word, and no one bothered to argue with her.

"Do you think I'm like the ocean?" Danya suddenly asked, her gaze still directed to the water below.

Akira was getting used to Danya's strange questions, along with the idea that the "correct" answer was not always the obvious one.

"Why's that?" Akira said after a moment of thought.

Danya didn't respond right away; instead, she stilled her swaying and let out a slow, sullen sigh.

"Because," Danya said, then paused briefly. "Apparently, I'm all you sea."

At Danya's final word, her proud grin was clearly audible in her tone. As clever as her unexpected pun was, Akira was still slightly bitter about being held back by her hair, and she refused to chuckle like she did with her dad's jokes, nor did she groan as she did with Sam's.