❝ Mumei, please release my hand━ I have no time to fool around on the job. ❞
█┆❜ ♛; But the conductor’s earnest request for her ensnared appendage was futile.
Dour physiognomy immediately played host to a facial expression of jaded grimace as her serpentine irises continued to direct forward, never once withdrawing its stern rivet upon the railway ahead. The young kabaneri’s precipitous involvement with her hand reared in the most inopportune moments: Yukina was composedly situated within her conducting domain when her right appendage was gingerly purloined, with the other’s incentive behind this gesticulation still unbeknownst. And so the engineer commenced her intrepid gesture of protest —- a tedious shaking of the head, afflicted by a confusion that instantaneously produced by the undeniably peculiar nature of the situation.
Until it struck her that Mumei was trembling through the junction of their meekly entwined hands.
Poised countenance contorted into tacit condolence, though furrowed brows are naive to the origins of her companion’s passive withdrawal. Yukina was rattled by this revelation despite her aloof demeanor and peered over the robust of her shoulder in devoted patience, watching as the younger girl marinated in smothering silence ━- all the while still clinging to the engineer’s hand as if it was a fleeting dream.
Her unoccupied appendage tightened around the controls.
❝ Mumei ━ ❞
A transient deliver of utterance, though her gelid tonality no longer possess the typical vexation employed when she is hindered from her duty. Instead, the conductor pursed her lips; her stoicism taking on an edge of something more profound ━- ever silent, ever unyielding, and yet there was a flicker of expression lining those sharp edges. A convection of solicitude stirred within the burrow of her chest, drawing closer to the surface and realigning her features.
She imposed the Koutetsujou on autopilot and turned around.
█┆❜ ♛; The hammock was empty. A patent revelation that goaded the taciturn conductor to will herself from a heavy fatigue.
Balled fists bruised into the stubborn lids of her eyes, Yukina persisted to squint through the veil of darkness at a spot where her superior should have been. Blearily, she protruded out an appendage, feeling the vacant contours of the levitating berth. It was still warm from where the princess’s body had worn an all-night groove, but Ayame was nowhere to be found.
The engineer did not exert herself questing a decent footwear before she dispatched from the tranquil compartment, afflicting by a pang of trepidation at the prospect of inadvertently convulsing the remainder of her dormant peers. It was an obscene hour in which the droning hum of the festive crowds outdoor had dulled significantly; an obscene hour where the exuberance of their Tanabata evening had become a stow- away. An attentive padding of bare feet resonated throughout the desolate corridor as Yukina navigated deftly through the dimly lit passage, pursuing a path that lead towards the deck of the Hayajiro.
If her foresight chose not to betray her, then there she will locate the astray heiress━ to her unabating relief.*
❝ Ayame-sama… ❞
Bathed under a pale shaft of cascading effulgence, the princess’s stationary form was unveiled by the vibrantly ornamented bamboo. It was a residual treasure of the crew’s twilight festivity; for as abruptly as it had started, the chaos ceased. Even just for one evening, perturbation skittered back into shadows━ off to gnaw at some other precariously sheltered segment of the erstwhile station, leaving their current sanctuary to bask in the quiet aftermath of isolated destruction.
Yukina shouldered her way through the adjoining threshold to quietly accompany her superior’s vacant side. She voluntarily yielded to the sombering peacefulness and careened her pair of phlegmatic oculars at the cumbersome sphere. Tonight, the star- speckled abyss above them hailed a prominent moon━ a milky spectacle amongst an inky canvas.
It was the first organic serenity they had experienced in what feels like an eternity.
the cramped space within this bird’s cage was claustrophobic. biba had successfully taken over kongouhaku. the shogun was dead. the liberator imprisoned the survivors. it wasn’t a problem for mumei since she had a smaller build than yukina… she felt bad for her. her legs were huddled into a fetus position with the cold bars touching against the flesh of her arm, in order to create more space for the conductor. the weak dies. the strong survives. ❛i’m sorry about everything… ❜
❝ ... ❞
█┆❜ ♛; 𝓘t was beyond the engineer of how her musculature would be detrimental to them in such predicament. Whirling discomfort clashed with agitation as Yukina attempted to shift, begrudgingly so, only to loiter within the confines of their shared proximity. It was to no avail, though; justifiable distance remained between the conductor and the kabaneri even within the closeness of their conflicting frames.
Yukina’s oculars balked absently into the hollow ambiance beyond the succession of bars. Her stillness was eerie as she continued to listen on, permitting the young kabaneri to wallow in her dunes of vexation. Granted, it was an alarming gush of peril that ensued the girl’s naivety. But Mumei’s apology encompassed volumes of despair━━ a despondency only magnifying as turmoils clawed onward and the growing chaos continued to drive this wedge.
The conductor entitled a strained silence to steep in the wake of her companion’s wretched monologue; her aloof physiognomy idled in a perturbed state of reigning stoicism. It is difficult to go through this sort of thing with grace. And it is this kind of grieving that naturally comes an element of self-blame.
It is only natural.
Yukina reposed her steady palm upon the crown of the dejected kabaneri.
✿ܓ✿ܓ✿ܓ✿ܓ✿ܓ✿ܓ✿ܓ✿ܓ [ a lot of compliments for hime-sama ]
✻ █ ▌▌𝕄𝕪 𝕞𝕦𝕤𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕚𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 ( 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 ) ࿐ᐤ
【𝑀𝐸𝑀𝐸𝒮】⇢ ᴬ ᶜ ᶜ ᵉ ᵖ ᵗ ᶤ ᶰ ᵍ
❝ You have been strong, Ayame-san. ❞
█┆❜ ♛; 𝓣he train conductor declared earnestly, sparing her superior a gaze befitting of her cordial tone over a robust shelf of her shoulder.
❝ More so than others. It’s a kind of strength that even I do not have. ❞
A strength that deserves respect. A strength that fortified by the princess’s authentic kindness and humility. Veneration splayed across Yukina’s sharp features, barely inciting so much as a ripple as it teased the surface of her abiding stoicism━ though it conveyed the sentiment her unpracticed tongue couldn’t quite manage to grasp.
█┆❜ ♛; 𝓣he engineer all but hissed, wincing as her companion’s deft hand fashioned a makeshift sheath of gauze against her own afflicted bicep ━ finally hindering the thin rivulets of blood that previously welled around the unattended lesion. In contrary, Yukina’s remedial knowledge could be collectively summarized as “heat for pain, ice for swelling,“ but Inori was competent enough to bypass that amateur curative barrier and transpired her favorable knowledge into a concrete medical procedure.
As a sheen of perspiration erupts, glazing the contours of her writhing muscles reliefs were evident in the engineer’s eyes.
Smiling happily she felt the sincerity of her thanks and it warmed her heart. Making people happy was the always so satisfying if she could see them smile and it was really all she like doing.
“But how do you look after so many people on a train? Do you get help?” she asked. Bouncing a bit she clapped her hands together, “I can help if you need it.”
❝ Our princess look after the people, actually. ❞
❝ I am just the engineer. ❞
𝓨ukina elucidated with a modicum of placidity; the evanescent simper that affixed to her covertly stolid countenance waxed and waned at the manifesting aloofness that underlies her designation. Green eyes glistened in light of the premature dawn, she pivoted her trenchant gaze to her imploring companion; gauntleted palms complacent upon clad knees.
