Tangerine ~ Bullet Train

13 - She felt herself changing

'What are you saying?' Tangerine asked. Of course he already knew what his brother was going to say, but he wanted to hear it anyway. 'What I'm saying,' Lemon said whilst narrowing his eyes again, 'is that for all we know, she could be playing along with that guy.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Tangerine replied indignantly. He didn't only believe that statement; he loathed the very thought of it. This girl he felt strangely connected with couldn't be double crossing him. That just wasn't possible. 'Ridiculous?' Lemon hold on. 'Don't you find it a little strange she's here again, right after meeting you last time? For all we know, her traveling with her friends was a disguise to swindle us, to steal our money and to let us die, killing the son.' All Yuina could think of in this moment was his statement about traveling with her friends. They weren't her friends at all.

'You think she killed the son?!' Tangerine said, laughing indignantly once again. He didn't sound like he couldn't believe it because he wouldn't thought of her as being capable of doing so. He just sounded like he couldn't believe it because of the sincerity he had seen in her. 'She may very well could've killed him,' Lemon replied. 'She was in here whilst we were in the hallway, and when we returned he had died. I'm very good at reading people, I got that from Thomas, and Glasses isn't our guy.'

There he was, talking about Thomas the fucking Tank Engine again.

'Maybe you should reconsider your knowledge of people, then,' Yuina answered, 'because I couldn't harm a fly even if I wanted to.' To be honest Lemon didn't really think she killed the son; he was just grasping at straws here. Surely she should've been involved in someone's plans? Because how else could he explain this strange meeting between her and his brother again?

'Why are you here?' Lemon asked her whilst looking straight at her. 'Honestly, I ask myself the same question,' she replied. 'I shouldn't be here. I should be back in Tokyo with my–' She stopped talked, because she realised she was in the presence of dangerous men. She couldn't tell them her lovely family lived in Tokyo. What if they would hurt them, because they wouldn't believe she wasn't involved in any of the schemes going on here? But they already knew of her family's whereabouts, Tangerine anyway. 'With your what?' Lemon held on. 'With your handler?'

'Lemon, that's enough,' Tangerine interfered. 'We still have five minutes until the train stops again. We need to stop that thief from going off the train with our money.'

'Or she could just tell us where the case is,' his brother said whilst nodding at Yuina. Did he really think she was involved in any way? 'She told you about your water being drugged,' Tangerine replied. 'Would she have done that if she was out here to harm us?'

'She could've done it to gain our trust.'

There's no point in saying anything, because they would just believe what they wanted. Yuina knew that. She sighed whilst leaning back into her seat, annoyed and suddenly tired.

'You know what,' she said sincerely, 'I don't even care anymore. I should be away from home to enjoy being in the company of the only people I have cared about my whole life. But no, my father had to be involved in a serious car accident and my mother had to buy me a ticket for this train, so I could get back as soon as possible, only to discover I'm in the presence of several psychotic lunatics that want to kill each other. And the strangest fucking thing? I should've been scared for my life, I should've gotten off this damn train the moment I was capable of, but I didn't care. I stayed to help a stranger repair the damage that had been done, to help someone who had killed complete his mission so that he wouldn't be tortured to death by a mafia boss.' Yuina felt like she was losing her mind. 'I shouldn't even be here, yet I am, sitting next to a corpse with fucking Momomon glasses on! All because I don't want a stranger to suffer. Fuck, I think I'm a psychopath as well.'

Both Tangerine and Lemon didn't know how to react to her confession. She still could be lying, but Lemon didn't believe so. He genuinely believed that this was just a girl who hadn't done anything wrong and who got dragged into this against her knowledge.

As for Tangerine, he felt something when she said she wanted to help him and didn't want to see him dead. He believed she really was here for him, whilst not understanding why. He didn't expect let alone deserve it. But the strangest thing was that she acted like he did, as if he deserved to be saved.

'Do what you want,' Yuina said, completely tired now. 'I don't even care anymore.' Maybe she didn't even want to get home so she could live her suffocating life again. She didn't want to sit beside her father's bedside table to act like she cared about his well-being, because why should she? Her parents never cared about hers.

'You got outside when the train stopped,' Lemon eventually said. 'You went looking for someone who would leave the train with the case so you could stop them.' He didn't say it as a question; he already knew it was true. Yet she nodded. 'Yes, I did, and I don't even fucking know why.' She didn't know if the presence of The Twins got to her, her scolding more than ever now, or that this was just the real Yuina coming out to play. Either way, she started to like this version of her more and more. Was she depraved for it?

'Where do you think the case is?' Lemon asked her, to which she would crack her brain. 'If it isn't already off the train, I think it's in one of the wagons in that direction,' she replied whilst nodding into the direction she first saw the man walk when she just sat with the others, 'because I haven't seen him coming back with the case in his hands anymore. Then again I wasn't always in here, so I can't know for sure.'

'The fucker took my phone,' Lemon said annoyed, 'and my favourite gun, Lucille.'

'If Glasses really isn't our guy...' Tangerine mumbled. 'Then there must be another person doing a job here.' How many psychopaths did Yuina had to deal with here? And why did she find herself getting more and more thrilled by the minute, now that she was sitting with those strangers that looked like they finally included her in their plans, because they couldn't take it back anymore. She was just in too deep. That fact made Tangerine feel very guilty and disgusted in himself, but Yuina found herself feeling more alive with the second. What was this strange feeling? Why didn't it bother her so much that she would now be implied in this mission, causing her to die also if they would fail? Guess she would do her outmost to not fail, then.

Yuina felt a sudden strength appear in her body, as if she wasn't just some helpless girl anymore. She was now involved in something highly dangerous and she would do her best to not only get out of it alive herself, but to make sure these people sitting across from her would as well. Why she didn't know, but she wanted to protect them, Tangerine especially. She felt strangely connected to her surroundings once again. She was ready to assist those psychopaths.

She wasn't sure she loathed this change in her.