As she woke up, she saw a rather familiar wall over her. Her hazel brown eyes looked at it for a while before turning to her side where Fuyumi would've been. She looks at the clock at it, and it reads 5.30 am. She got off the futon to prepare for the day, the room was empty as Io's other wives slept in their rooms, by now Io would've been awake and getting her bath in the room, that sequence of events plays in her mind as she entered the bathroom.
Inorin: "Good... That's right, she's in the hospital bed, right now."
It's been a week since she had been bedridden because of battle damage sustained by the air raid and subsequent kamikaze strike, the fleet has been sitting in anchor since their morale had plummeted to rock bottom.
She got into the shower to freshen herself for the day, as she finished, she stopped moving for a bit to let the water run down her beautiful skin before turning off the tap and drying herself, she got into her uniform before leaving the room and into the office, where upon closing the door behind her, she locks it and places the key in the left corner of the top shelf of the desk that has the window behind it.
She proceeds downstairs to cook breakfast for everyone, but she finds someone else there.
Inorin: "Jo, good morning."
Jo: "Oh, Inorin, good morning. How are you holding up?"
Inorin: "I'm okay, maybe."
Jo: "Want to talk about it? I only just wore my apron."
Inorin: "Sure." Jo removed her apron, and the two sat around one of the empty tables in their cafeteria.
Jo: "Must be hard for you to be yourself when she's out, right?"
Inorin: "Yes, even now I'm still thinking she's here with us."
Jo: "I feel you. By now she'll be helping to make breakfast, and honestly, she's a great help."
Inorin: "I know."
Jo: "But at least she's not dead, so we all can still see her again."
Inorin: "Yeah."
Jo: "You shouldn't force yourself to cook today, I can handle it."
Inorin: "No, I want to help, and at the same time, make breakfast for Ellie."
Jo: "Now that you mention it, she's been sleeping in the hospital so she can monitor her at all times."
Inorin: "Yeah, I want to thank her for her hard work, so I want to be able to do that for her."
Jo: "I see. Then let's get making breakfast."
Inorin: "Yeah."
The two went to put their aprons on and began cooking breakfast. Once it was done, Inorin packed another set to take it to Ellie and set off. Not long after, she arrives at Io's current room and opens the door to see Ellie awake and sitting next to Io. The monitor next to her shows that Io's stable.
Inorin: "Here Ellie. *Hands her the breakfast*"
Ellie: "Thank you. *Proceeds to eat her breakfast* This is delicious."
Inorin: "Thank you." She finishes her breakfast sometime later.
Inorin: "I'll be going now."
Ellie: "Yeah, but before that, I'm sure you want to cry, right?"
Inorin: "No."
Ellie: "I know you're lying. It's okay to cry it out." Inorin began to cry while Ellie hugged her and brought Inorin to her chest.
Inorin: "It just hurts so much to see her like this."
Ellie: "*Sad expression and tone* I know, I feel the same." She began petting and stroking her head. Sometime later, Inorin felt better.
Inorin: "Thank you."
Ellie: "It's alright, we're friends after all."
Inorin: "Yeah, I'll be going now, see you."
Ellie: "Yeah, see you."
Inorin exits the room, bringing the box back with her to the kitchen in their dorm. After returning it to the kitchen, she joins Jintsu, Sanya, Ginny, and Milasha.
Milasha: "Good morning, Inorin."
Inorin: "Milasha, good morning."
Milasha: "You alright? Your face is a little..."
Inorin: "Ah, I didn't wash my face after..." The four of them are certain that she went to visit Fuyumi earlier and cried.
Sanya: "Let's not push that any further than we have."
Milasha: "Yeah. Let's eat." The six began eating their breakfast.
Ginny: "Jintsu, you seem rather calm."
Jintsu: "Yeah, despite what happened to Fuyumi, I must remain strong, no matter what."
Inorin: "Then, you won't visit her?"
Jintsu: "It's not that I won't, but I think now isn't the time for it. After all the other fleets are already going to be on the move soon. I need to coordinate with the other admirals on deployment. Sure, right now we're in recovery, but that doesn't mean that all of us can fully recover because we still have a job to fulfill.
But I'll surely visit her once it's done."
Inorin: "*Slams table and stands up* That's the difference between you girls and us. *Sniff* I know you girls have feelings like us, but when we talk with her, it's always ourselves and each other before our job. For you girls, maybe it's the other way round, ready to lose the other for victory, only to grieve when it's over.
We know you've been alive for a long time, but have you seen it like we do? Are you really okay with the way it is?!" Inorin dashed out of the cafeteria with tears flowing out of her eyes.
Jintsu: "Inorin, wait!"
Ginny/Sanya: "We'll go after her." Ginny and Sanya also leave to get her, leaving the other two at the table.
Milasha: "She's a sensitive girl, but I agree with her. I may not have talked with Fuyumi as much as the three of you, but I can always feel that she puts us before her job, at first, she's much like you, but with time, she changed to see all of us first before her job."
Jintsu: "Before you girls came to this world, she too looked after us."
Milasha: "Then was it because it's part of her duty, or is it because she cared?
Based on what I know, I think it was her duty to make sure all of you are at maximum efficiency and not held down by anything. Compared to now she cares for us, even the most minor of things she asked, like whether we sustained any minor injuries while we're on missions, she'll tell us to go to the infirmary to get it patched up.
I'm sure she rarely says such things to you girls because you girls can always regenerate such minor injuries, even the worse ones' you girls can take a trip back to the docks and have it healed there. While we can regenerate, not all of us can do that, and any injuries will leave scars if not treated fully."
Jintsu sat there in silence, thinking about what Milasha said, and it was true. In the past, she never asked such minor things because, as Milasha said, they can always self-heal even on the battlefield.
Milasha: "It's better if you go see her after finishing here."
Jintsu: "I guess so."
Meanwhile, with Inorin, she got back into the room where she woke up in the morning getting onto the bed, and she cried again, even though she just did not long before this. The two who chased her found her in Fuyumi's room.
Ginny: "I should go in, I know her best, so I'm sure I can talk my way to her."
Sanya: "Sure." With that, Ginny entered the room alone and closed the door behind her.
Ginny: "Hey Inorin."
Inorin: "Ginny-chan." Ginny sat on the bed next to her.
Ginny: "I kind of understand what you're feeling now, you're sad because she chose her job over not only her but also yours and Sanya's wife. You feel that in a way she betrayed the two of you because of it, right?"
Inorin: "Yeah. I know she has an important job, but what about the person she cares the most for? It's not okay. None of that thinking of her is!"
Ginny began petting and stroking her head with gentleness until she stopped.
Ginny: "If you're still not feeling okay, then how about I sleep here."
Inorin: "Eh, is that okay?"
Ginny: "Yes, I want to make sure you're okay because you're an important friend to me."
Inorin: "Thank you." She began to sleep, but before Ginny could join her, she went back out.
Sanya: "Is she alright?"
Ginny: "She's alright, so what will you do now?"
Sanya: "I was thinking of visiting her even before we got here."
Ginny: "Yeah, let's go see her. Even if she can't see or hear us now, I'm sure she can feel us."
Sanya: "Yeah." The two walked over to the hospital and into Fuyumi's room.
Ginny/Sanya: "Ellie, good morning."
Ellie: "Ginny, Sanya, good morning. Sanya-chan, are you feeling alright?"
Sanya: "Yeah. *Sits down and holds Fuyumi's right hand with both her hands* Fuyumi, I'm right here, Inorin got into a fight with Jintsu about whether she should put her work first or you first, she's sleeping right now. I'm sure that Jintsu is reflecting on what Inorin said, so they'll make amendments with each other.
Please don't die on us, we'll be waiting for you, no matter how long you stay like this." Her eyes began to fill with tears before crying on the bed.
Ellie: "Were they fighting earlier?"
Ginny: "Yeah, as she said, Jintsu chose her work over her loved one, and Inorin got upset because of that. Knowing Milasha, I'm sure she talked a bit of sense into her, maybe."
Ellie: "Knowing the kind girl Milasha is, I'm sure she did."
After a while, Sanya stopped crying and they left for Fuyumi's original room and slept in the bed with Inorin. Jintsu and Milasha arrived not long after they slept.
Ellie: "Oh, Jintsu, Milasha, good morning."
Jintsu/Milasha: "Good morning."
Ellie: "I heard about what happened from Ginny, we understand you've got an important job to do, but."
Jintsu: "I know, sometimes it's better that I look after those that I hold dear, I always thought once I'm done, like Inorin said 'grieve once it's over.' I forgot that she's sometimes more important than work."
Ellie: "That's right, when she calms down, you're going to apologize, right?"
Jintsu: "Yes. *Sits next to Fuyumi* Fuyumi, I'm sorry for getting into a fight with Inorin, I'll be sure to apologize to her when I see her later."
Hours passed, and it was already time for dinner. Inorin wakes up to see the same wall that she woke up to in the morning, and beside her are Ginny and Sanya. In her mind, if Io had been there earlier, she would've thought she was cheating on her.
Inorin: "Io, sorry, they wanted to sleep in the bed just to make sure I'm okay. It's not like I'm cheating on you." She gets off the bed and wakes the other two up.
Ginny: "*Yawn* Morning Inorin."
Inorin: "Morning, though it should be evening."
Sanya: "Let's get ourselves ready for dinner."
Inorin: "Yeah."
The three of them washed up and went downstairs to get their dinner. When they reached the cafeteria, Jintsu and Milasha were already seated at a table. After grabbing their food, they approached them.
Jintsu: "About earlier, I'm sorry. You're right, I should've chosen her over work. Like you said, for us, it's always been the mission first, while there were times when we've placed our friends first, those moments are rare.
This is how I've always been, but from now on, I'll try to put her first before work."
Inorin: "It's okay, I didn't know you were always this type of character, so I must've pulled a few strings that you didn't want to touch."
Jintsu: "It's alright, thanks to your words I've changed my view."
Milasha: "That's case closed. Let's just enjoy dinner. I'll drop by Ellie to pass her dinner."
Later that night, Ellie was thinking about her time with Fuyumi, which made her sad. She wished that she had spent more time before today, though right now, this was her chance since she was taking care of her until she recovered. But before she could close her eyes and get to sleep, Rio, her familiar was hissing at her.
Ellie: "What's wrong, Rio?"
Rio: "*In an aggressive stance* Hiss!" Rio's eyes were focused on her stomach. She looked down and was surprised to find a white bird just lying there, terrified of Rio.
Ellie: "That's enough Rio, you're scaring her." Rio stopped her hissing, and Ellie looked at it.
Ellie: "I've never seen you before. You are certainly a familiar, but whose?" It began flying towards its partner, and when she caught up with it, she saw it cuddling Fuyumi.
Ellie: "So you belong to Fuyumi-chan. Just what are you?" It chirped back at her.
Inorin: "Hey, Ellie."
Ellie: "Oh, Inorin, can't sleep?"
Inorin: "Not yet."
Ellie: "Given how late it is, how about you sleep with her tonight."
Inorin: "Eh? Wouldn't I be in the way of your job?"
Ellie: "You won't be in the way. I'll have Rio wake me up." Rio meows back at her partner.
Inorin: "I want to ask about that bird."
Ellie: "Yeah, it seems like she belongs to Fuyumi, even I was surprised. Any idea what it is?"
Inorin: "Um, if I remember correctly, it's a Sakura night heron, but an all-white is unusual."
Ellie: "I see. I'll leave you so you can sleep quietly with her."
Inorin: "I think it's better if you sleep with us, that way you can react on the spot if something happens."
Ellie: "If you're okay with it, then sure." They both got into bed with them taking either side of the bed with them facing Fuyumi.
Ellie: "Then, goodnight."
Inorin: "Goodnight." After a little while longer she still couldn't sleep so she held Io's right hand.
Inorin: "*Whispers while holding Io's right hand with both of hers as tears begin falling* Wake up, Io. I miss you. *Let's go of her right hand*" Not long after saying that she too fell asleep.