Last Crack At Hope

Recovery & Life Segments (3)

—Chapter 9—
Recovery & Life Segments (3)

The sound of knocking echoed as the male opened the door to the room of his traveling companion. Lights were completely off and the blinds were shut tight. All he could see was a mountain of ruffled blanket covers in the corner of the bed. He sighed, shaking his head as he placed the tray full of food on the table off to the side.

"Yuu-san." He breathed in before karate-chopping the mountain straight down the top. "NGHH..... That hurt..." The presumed female groaned in pain as she wiggled out of the mountain, exposing her face and limbs from the blanket. "All the more to see if you were feeling alright, which I was correct with." He stifled a laugh as the brunette frowned immensely. "Was the karate chop necessary?" The male shrugged, smirking as he spoke. "Who knows."

If only glares could stab, Satou would definitely be stabbing her companion right about now. "How are you faring right now after a few days of rest?" The female glanced down at her hands, checking her kinesthetic awareness by clenching her hands and wriggling her toes. "I think I'm fine. I still feel a bit of some tingling feeling at the tips of my fingers but everything else seems normal."

Emiya's brow rose, questioning her choice of words. "Tingling? Explain what you mean by that." He brought over the food tray and sat it down in front of her on the bed. The brunette thanked her companion for the food as she began to eat bits of it. "Exactly what I mean by that. For some reason, I feel some sort of numbing sensation at the tips of my fingers. It's as if I lost—no pun intended—touch with bits of my hand. I can't tell if it was due to temperature or from something else."

The male thought back to what occurred days ago when he went to find Satou. 'That hummingbird was active despite her being unconscious for hours. What was that? A defense mechanism or something?' In the end, he only scoffed. "For sure, your mind is back on whatever track it was on before." She merely squinted at him in anger by the insult.

"...Although there is something that keeps nagging me at the back of my mind the past few days." He pulled the desk chair out of its location and sat down on it, the chair backing facing the female. "One—explain what the hell this holographic bird thing that you can manifest. That thing allowed me to find you during the blizzard but knowing how magic exists and such... That shouldn't be possible especially when the blizzard was extremely dense with magic."

The brunette placed the utensils on the tray. She held her right hand up as she concentrated on the hummingbird. Small particles of light formed above the palm of her hand as it wove into a tiny bird. "This... is my spirit animal. Funny isn't it? A small bird that can't do anything but hum in place with its wings. A bird that cannot defend but escape from predators at rapid speeds."

The animated bird hummed in place before zipping through the space of the room without a care. Emiya rose his brow as he glanced at the creature before back at his traveling companion. "This manifestation never appeared until I left the Clock Tower many years ago. I guess this hummingbird is my guide in life? I'm not entirely sure. As I said a while ago, I lost my parents two decades ago. I don't recall the details since I was informed that I lost most of my childhood memories before I landed in the hospital with cuts and bruises throughout my body. All I could remember was a vague figure of someone with blue hair and ruby-colored eyes in small fragmentations, bits of who my parents were, and how long I've been within Ireland."

The male stayed silent as Satou spoke. "I don't know why this hummingbird decided to appear then and stay with me until this day. All I know is that it has saved my lifetime and time again." She weakly chuckled as she snapped her fingers and the animated bird flickered away.