Chapter Text
What’s even the point?
Kira asked herself as she got back to her room, which was just a repurposed empty room in the LCE, from her talk with that blue four-eyed loser. She didn’t even bother turning the lights on, she just closed the door behind her back and let herself fall into her bed. In the dark, she could barely see boxes left over from what they took from her previous room. In them, she could see stacks of fixer magazines, video tapes of “Let's go, Poludnitsa!” and other fixer shows and some loosely rolled up posters she never bothered to hang up again. She didn’t want to get reminded of him right now.
She rolled around, trying to forget about it for now. Maybe she should try to sleep. The less she thought about it the better. She shut her eyes. The mattress wasn’t great, it was uncomfortable, the sheets had a few holes in them, and the pillow was hard as a rock.
Her eyes shone like they were stars. She had gotten a new episode of her favorite show, and the main character had just beaten the main villain at the type with a super-duper cool move! She should definitely show papa later, and maybe with his help, she could recreate it. The person beside her would be looking as well, but mainly they were looking at her talk on and on about the show.
They both chatted for a while as they saw the episode, snacking on junk food, ice cream. This was the happiest she had felt in a while. Sure, she loved spending time with her father, but he often left on revenge crusades, and wasn’t in the House of Spiders for much. Her friend right now, though? The best!
As she was yapping about some other fixer she had read about a while back, she heard a beep coming from her friend. They looked disappointed and stood up to leave, without so much as a farewell. Kira was confused. She stood up, but her legs didn’t move. She called out to them, but they didn’t turn back. She screamed for them to come back, but they only faded into the dark of the corridor.
Kira woke up in a cold sweat, shooting up from her lame excuse of a bed, her chest heaving. What the hell was that? She doesn’t remember that happening at all… She didn’t have a friend to watch her shows with- and even if she did, why would they leave so suddenly? Her head hurt like crazy, it probably didn’t help that she hadn’t drank water in a good while… She slowly sat up on her bed, slouching and opening her door. She was blinded by the lights coming from outside. LCE employees were already roaming around, inspecting and repairing the facilities… way too early for her anyway.
“Ah, Kira. I was just going to come get you.” A voice called out to her. She was still squinting, so she couldn’t immediately tell who it was. “That you four-eyes?”
“I’m not the only one in all of the LCE who wears glasses.” He quipped back. Though his figure was a blur, he was the only one with that blue suit and nails.
“Still, you know what I meant, Hoe- Hoj-” Her voice lacked her usual enthusiasm.
“Hohenheim.”
“That. Let’s just get this over with…”
He didn’t say anything more, he just expected her to follow him. They’ve been doing consultations between the two of them ever since the raid on the House of Spiders and her being taken from there. Technically, the LCC should be doing this, but most of the staff was busy either tying up loose ends in the LCE or at the House, and as luck would have it, Hohenheim was given orders to question her in their stead.
As they walked along the hallways, her gaze stopped looking into the containment chamber of the Drenched Gossypium. She stopped as well, remembering the raid and her encounter with it, and how her father dispatched it in seconds. She didn’t understand how someone like him, who always taught her that loyalty was the Middle’s first and foremost priority, someone who indulged her in her interest in fixers or absurd amounts of junk food could just easily sacrifice her…
She felt a hand on her shoulder, the nerd’s. He didn’t say anything, and it didn’t seem like he was going to, but he probably heard of what had happened, so maybe that was his own way of trying to comfort her. Kira brushed it off and kept walking. She knew the way already.
She reached his office first, sliding the door open and sitting in front of where Hohenheim would sit in a few moments.
“You know the drill by now. If you answer faster, we’ll both be outta here sooner.“
She didn’t respond.
“...alright. Let’s just get on with it…” he muttered under his breath. “What do you know of the relationship between the Middle Nursefather and Sinner #4, Yoshihide?”
“I dunno… He didn’t talk about her much at all…”
“Nothing?”
“Maybe a passing comment, but I didn’t ask him much about it…”
“Fine… Can you tell me what you know of the day Yoshihide escaped the House of Spiders?”
“I think… maybe that’s where he lost his arm… Again, he didn’t tell me much about her.”
“What was his affiliation with other branches of the middle?”
“If I’m not wrong, he was kicked out… used to be a great brother…” She sank into her chair, burrowing her face inside her hoodie. Hohenheim didn’t comment on her attitude, instead looking back down to his notes.
“How long has he bee-”
“Gosh, enough about that fucker already!” She cut the questioning short. “You wanna know what I know about him? He’s a liar and a backstabber! He raised me teaching me about loyalty all my life just for him to throw my life away on a whim-”
Before she even noticed, she had slammed her hand on the desk and was yelling in his face. The researcher closed his eyes for a second and after a sigh, he talked again. “Questioning is over for now, we’ll continue later.”
She stormed off again to her pitch black room and sat down with a sigh. She didn’t talk much with Lucio or Albina, but she did miss them… His perfectionist, and maybe a little obsessive rants as he tended to his wounds from training with his Nursefather, and her fascination over her own greatsword. I mean- she saw some examples of talking swords in a few of her comics, but Fascia didn’t talk back to her, it was creepy…
Kira missed them, despite their creepy habits. They were company when papa wasn’t around for her.
Still, yesterday’s dream lingered in her mind. Lucio didn’t take the time to bother with her fixer ramblings, and Albina’s interest didn’t sound genuine, so that couldn’t have been either of them… It couldn’t have been any of the Nursefathers either, they weren’t shy at all. Ugh… it’s so strange. It feels as if there’s a damn hole in the world. She shut her eyes and rested her head on the pillow again. She hoped this would all blow over soon.
A knock on her door shook her awake.
“Ngh… Who is it…?” She groaned from her bed.
“It’s four-eyes. You haven’t eaten in a while, have you?” Hohenheim responded from the other side. “It’s about lunchtime. Come, we should go.”
“We? What, you think I can’t eat by myself?”
“I need to make sure you eat something. Besides, some people here probably hate you, so you could use someone to mediate.“
“...fine.”
Kira got up and opened the door, following behind Hohenheim, exhausted. She waddled on, now a bit more mindful of all the stares she gets from the passing employees, a wave of guilt washing over her. It didn’t help when she spotted a certain group of people she knew, all together trying to repair some of the damaged infrastructure, more specifically a certain blondie. She stopped walking and stared for a while. She didn’t get the chance to apologize yet, did she? She looked back at Hohenheim, who noticed she stopped.
“Looking at the LCB?”
“Yeah… it’s just that… I think I made the blonde girl mad before- and I wanna… apologize, I guess.”
“Hm…” Was it a coincidence that his glasses shined at that moment? Or did he know how to tilt his head to make it look like that? “Her name’s Don Quixote, don’t embarrass yourself by not knowing her name, at least.”
She shyly nodded, and sucked in a breath through her teeth, approaching them with her face buried deep in her clothes. Some of them turned to look at her, but didn’t comment yet. Don had been sewing bloodied uniforms back together while happily chatting with Rodya, who lifted her sight once she saw Kira approaching. Don still hadn’t noticed- okay, here we go.
“Excuse me- Don Quixote…?” fuckfuckfuck please don’t be too mad.
She gasped, probably surprised someone knew her name “Have the stories of mine adventures spread throughout the LCE alrea-“ and her expression darkened once she saw her face. “Ah. ‘tis thou...”
Exactly what she wished didn’t happen. She was staying silent for who knows how long. Hell, the tension made it feel like they were there for years. Just talk already, dumbass!
“Look, I wanted to say I’m… sorry. For having beaten you up, and for disrespecting… fixers, and all…”
The sinner looked up at her, before breathing in and getting up to meet her eyes. Kira couldn’t dare, she tried to hide her face as much as possible. What if she hated her for it? No, she definitely would…
“It is all forgiven, friend.”
What?
“As I understand thy situation, thou has been surrounded by senseless violence, ‘tis only rational that thou wouldst only think of fixers as “badass” and think not more of them…“
Kira didn’t expect that at all. Maybe she was just hoping to apologize and get cussed out. It would be fair for her, but forgiveness? Nah. Her mouth was agape, but no words came out.
“I only wish for thou to make a vow to help others whenever possible. For that is closer to the goals of a fixer.”
“I- uh- Man, you make it hard to apologize… I’ll… try to keep that in mind.”
She waved as she reunited with Hohenheim, who had been watching from afar. Don Quixote waved back with a grin on her face. It still felt wrong, to see her forgive so easily…
She could practically feel the people in the cafeteria staring daggers at her. She would have usually turned back and yelled at them all, or maybe stared back at someone that looked a bit too much to scare them off, but- it was deserved… She looked at the options…
…
She didn’t like any of these. Maybe she was just too used to the junk food she used to eat, but she was honestly at a standstill here. The noodles looked too oily, the bread too hard, the salad looked… hot, somehow. It was all a mess. Kira let out an exhausted sigh, taking a scoop of noodles, at least they could be somewhat similar to the cup noodles she’s used to. Make the transition smooth and all, y’know?
Hohenheim followed right behind her, accompanying her in her meal. She picked at it with her fork, half of the noodles fell off. She begrudgingly ate them, practically forcing herself to swallow them. God, she was hungry. This sucked, but it was food. She needed this. And people were still staring. She couldn’t catch a damn break, could she?
“You know, you can’t let the past cripple you. You made mistakes, but you’ll have the chance to do good.”
Well, she didn’t expect this coming from him of all people. To her, he was just a shut-in, friendless loser- with a bit of skill around E.G.O gears, but not much more.
“Why are you of all people telling me this?“
“Because I’ve seen what it does to people and letting it be repeated is just foolish.” He said, barely thinking about it, sure of his response.
She looked back down to her food, taking in his words. Just how much does this guy know? Damn…
They met in his office again, she was taking a better posture this time, slouching less as she sat on her chair. He grabbed a pen and paper, getting the questionnaire ready, where to write down her answers, etc…
“So, we’ve been informed by LCB manager Dante that-”
“Who?”
“...the red clockhead.”
“Ah. I saw them a few times, yeah.”
“...we’ve been informed by them that there used to be finger apprentices for the pinky and index.”
“What? I’ve been in the House of Spiders my whole life, there’s no way-”
“We were made aware that the relic that Yoshihide carries is capable of erasing people from existence. We were wondering if you have anything that resembles a hole in your memory that could possibly point to one of them.”
There’s no way, right? I mean, it felt weird that two Nursefathers never had apprentices, maybe they just liked asymmetry, or somethin’, but this? Maybe it could explain a few things…
“There is something… though it may not be exactly reliable…”
She looked at Hohenheim, who was waiting for her to continue without a word. She cleared her throat.
“Yesterday night, I think- I had a weird dream. I was in the hallway where blondie and her friends found me and papa. I was watching a fixer show, not sure which one- but I was watching it with someone I was friends with, I think. We were eating junk food and ice cream… drinking soda… chatting. But they suddenly heard a beep- and they like, got up and left. I was stuck there- screaming at them to come back as I saw them leave. I’m, uh- yeah.”
“I see.” he quietly wrote something in a paper.
“I was trying to figure out who it could be, since it was weird as hell- It wasn't either Lucio or Albina, they behaved differently- less… shy. Lucio wouldn’t have joined me in the first place, and Albina I don’t think cared about fixers…”
“Some Index proxies carry a pager to receive their prescripts. It’s likely that’s the source of the beep.”
“So they were the Index apprentice…?”
“Dante has told me that her name was Sora. The pinky apprentice’s name was Ren.“
Sora.
That name sounded so extremely familiar, yet so far away. Kinda like deja vu. Every time she said that name in her own head, it hurt a little. Could those holes in the world be explained by that? Ugh, she wasn’t used to thinking this hard about anything.
“So, you don’t remember anything about them besides that?”
“I don’t think so, no… couldn’t the other apprentices tell you anything? You used one of ‘em green ampules on me, couldn’t have used one on them?”
“The Ring apprentice’s status is questionable, but the Thumb apprentice is making a slow recovery. As you may know, in an incident, his heart was pierced and torn out. We’ll be asking them as well as soon as they are in a state where they may talk.”
“Alright… at least they’re alive…”
…
The tension between the two of them was thick, but nonetheless, he cut right through it with a groan.
“I’m sorry to sour the mood. We can wrap it up for today if you want.”
He whispered something about how his higher-ups are gonna kill him.
“No! It’s fine, really. I wanna find out more about what happened, and- them…”