gentle angel • kousano

IX. it was simple, you are sweetness

"It was okay at first," Yosnao continued, her grip on Kouyou's hand becoming more intense, "the men loved me and treated me like I was their saving grace. I was so happy to be able to finally cause some good."

She squeezed her eyes shut—Kouyou was starting to lose feeling in her hand.

"That was until the casualties started getting out of hand. The first time it happened, I treated eighty people in one day." Yosano sighed, not having yet opened her eyes, "There was one man..." she stopped, choking up on her words. Kouyou rubbed her thumb across the girl's hand encouragingly, "He... he lost half of his body..."

There was a long pause after that while Kouyou stared in utter shock.

"I saved him," Yosnao breathed out, voice cracking, "he lived, but his mind..."

Her hand was shaking now and when Kouyou was about to tell her girl that she could stop, she held up her hand and continued.

"I couldn't bring his mind back. He couldn't even say his own name."

Yosano finally opened her eyes, there were no tears, but they looked utterly broken. The bright purple that usually shined in them was a dull, almost black color.

"I couldn't comprehend how I could have possibly been an angel. It was like I was healing them just so we could kill them again."

She took in a deep breath, "but there was this man. He was so kind to me. I told him my grievances, and he told me that he was keeping count. Every time I saved his life, he would mark a tally with a symbol that meant correct. He told me that... that every time he would complete a tally, I add one more correct thing to this world."

Yosnao let out a deep, shaking sigh.

"Those words helped me for a while, kept me going, but it was a lot. Often times I would try and run away, I wasn't sure what I was thinking, there was nowhere to go, but every time I would wake up back in that godforsaken bed, I was crushed."

"It was like waking up there for the first time all over again."

"There was a point where I was sure that any normal army would have given up by then, but we didn't. We kept on going. We kept on going because I was there."

Yosano stopped talking for a while, and during that time Kouyou just continued to rub circles on her shaking hand. When it eventually died down, she started again.

"There was once when I refused. It was the man who was kind to me, he had a broken wrist and so I told Mori to just let him heal in the rear. We argued about it, and I stood my ground, stubbornly, so Mori shot him. Right in the stomach, right then and there, and at that moment I felt my heart sink. It was like something had snapped and everything was suddenly real. I had no choice but to heal him, he would have died, so I did, and he went right back onto the battlefield. Good as new."

"I had stolen their right to lose."

"The man, he told me something later, through an air vent so I could hear him a few rooms over. He told me that I had come upon their battlefield as an angel of death. He told me that everybody's hearts have their limits. And he told me to tell his family that he says goodbye."

"I rushed to the room that I had heard him in, but it was too late," Yosano recited numbly, "I found him hanging from the ceiling, and underneath him was a note..."

Kouyou watched as tears filled her eyes.

"It read: 'You are too correct.'"

Another shaky intake of breath before she steeled herself to continue.

"And that was it. The final straw, if you will," she laughed humorlessly, "My memory after that was pretty fuzzy. They say I was arrested after being caught trying to sink the carrier with a bomb."

Kouyou stared in horror. She was so young.

"I was kept in isolation, a mental hospital of sorts, but I don't think I would have left even if the door was open..." she paused, "I was there for three years before Mori found me again, in search of my ability. I ran away shortly after, that's how I ended up on the streets here."

It all made sense now, Kouyou realized, her familiar face. She had seen her in the newspaper, something like a year back, a missing person report.

Yosano nodded slowly, as if reading Kouyou's mind, "I was on the run from the police for a while. It didn't take long for them to give up on me, I was presumed dead after only a year."

Kouyou gasped at that, "How awful! Those incompetent fools that are the Yokohama police never cease to amaze."

Yosano gave the woman a watery smile in return.

"Everything is okay now, though."

The redhead squeezed her hand in response, "I'm glad, Yosano."

"Thank you," she breathed, falling into Kouyou's arms once again.

Said girl let her, adjusting so that they could both be comfortable. They stayed like that for a while: Yosano gripping the back of the other girl's shirt while Kouyou slowly brought her fingers up and down the girl in her lap's back.

Eventually, Yosano adjusted again so that she was straddling the other, it was somewhat reminiscent of the position the two were in the first day they met and Kouyou couldn't help the fond smile that stretched her lips.

Yosano brought her hand's up to Kouyou's cheeks and looked at her with something glinting in her eye's that the other couldn't quite decipher.

Luckily, the violet-eyed girl spelled it out for her, plain and simple.

"I am going to kiss you," she whispered. "Is that okay?"

Kouoyou had to hold in her grin. "Of course."

And with that Yosano crashed her lips into hers.

Her lips were dry and chapped from the continued mistreatment of her body, but at that moment, Kouyou could think of nothing but how much she loved how the girl felt melting into her lips. It was soft and slow, like they were both savoring the moment and each other, and when they finally broke apart they just stared at each other, breathing hard and smiling like idiots until they locked lips once again.