Love Far Beyond the Ashes

Intern's Idea

Chloe pov: My head is foggy. I sort of remember Koyori and Iroha betraying us, and then I was knocked out, but I could have just been dreaming it since Lui is awake.

"You feeling okay?" Lui asked me to put her hand on my head to feel my temperature.

I nodded in order to reassure her. "I'm okay, I'm just thinking about things," I told her.

"You thinking? That's a new development," Lui laughed. I glared at her, not in the mood to really argue back against that claim.

"Did Koyori and Iroha betray us?" I asked, getting glances from all three girls. Koyori was about to speak, but Lui spoke first.

"No, they didn't," Lui told me.

I looked at Koyori, who seemed like she had a sense of relief, but then I saw that Iroha had just given her a bottle of mayonnaise to drink, so that is what she was so happy about.

"Can we trust you?" I asked Iroha, who seemed a little thrown off by my question, but she answered accordingly.

"You can trust us after all; we all share common interests, correct?" She asked me, and her reply was a little too good, since she is supposed to be a blockhead.

"Glug-Sakamata quit bothering her." Koyori sighed as she downed half the bottle of mayonnaise.

"How can you drink that straight from the bottle?" I asked her, not sure if I should be disgusted or fascinated by her pallet.

"It's good you want some." She asked me before flaunting the bottle before me. I can't lie, I was a little enticed by it since she really likes mayonnaise.

"Don't give Sakamata the mayonnaise." Iroha sighed She seemed saddened that Koyori would offer me that.

"I was joking!" Koyori said loudly:

"To be honest, I have been wondering why you have been calling me Sakamata recently and not Chloe." I asked

Sorry, Chloe, we just wanted to change it up a little bit," Koyori told me.

That added up since I'm really the only one that has a last name that really sounds decent if I were called it, and Sakamata is fun to say.

"I'm still a little worried about you betraying us; I just don't want to lose my friends," I mentioned.

Koyori glanced at Iroha and then at me, saying, "Don't worry, you won't lose us." I was told by the pink-haired coyote

"I'm still not sure you are telling the truth, but I'm not going to really push you and bother you," I stated.

Koyori forced a faux smile and nodded slowly, "You aren't bothering us..." She stated she sounded like she was in visibal pain having to say that so clearly. She lied to me about that.

"Let's just discuss financial details." Lui groaned, trying to change the conversation from the possible betrayal.

"But Laplus isn't awake yet!" Iroha pointed out

"And?" Koyori replied, trying to speed this up so we could at least get some ideas out there before Laplus woke up.

Mumei-senpai approached us and looked around at the area that was somewhat destroyed. "How are you four doing?" She asked happily, giving me the feeling that she felt pride about something.

"We're doing fine, Mumei-chan, but aren't you in a race right now?" Lui asked

"I am, but I'm far ahead, like one whole lap ahead, so I just decided to take a breather," Mumei-senpai said.

"You're so great, Mumei-chan!" Lui stated, causing me to feel a little jealous.

"Mumei-senpai, you've seen happy!" Koyori spoke suddenly, as if something had prompted her to speak.

"I wonder why that is?" Mumei-senpai said with a shrug, pretending that she didn't know why.

"Mumei-senpai, you probably should get back to your race, Iroha stated. Mumei-senpai looked up in the sky and nodded.

"I'll see you later, especially you, Koyori, I'm sure," Mumei-senpai said softly before flying up.

"What did she mean by that?" I asked

Koyori shrugged. "Who knows?" She then stated:

"You should know!" I told the woman, and she didn't even reply to me; she just began to chug the rest of the mayonnaise bottle audibly, making as much noise as possible.

"Iroha, this is the woman you are dating." Lui pointed it out in disgust.

"I know, isn't she cute?" Iroha asked, not sensing the malice in Lui's voice.

"Shut up..." Koyori sighed before chucking the empty bottle at Lui's head. My beloved hawk swatted the bottle to the ground.

"Nice try," Lui-nee sarcastically said.

I couldn't help but feel like there was suddenly unwanted tension between everyone, like something happened between us but we didn't get betrayed. I looked at Koyori and saw a bloody vile suddenly roll out of her pocket.

"What is that for?" I asked the scientist. She looked at the blood, and her face darkened before lighting up once again.

"Blood transplants" Is all she said. I looked at Lui-nee, who had rolled her eyes as Koyori said those words.

"Is she lying?" I asked Lui; she looked at me and shook her head.

"Not entirely," I was told.

I was confused by this because how could she not entirely be using the blood for blood transplants? She must have another use that I don't know about.

"Please, let's discuss how we're getting money!" Koyori yelled

"How about bounty hunting?" I suggested

The three girls looked at me and then at each other; they didn't seem opposed to the idea, but surely it would be difficult unless Koyori had machines that could do the dirty work for us.

Since we're all set on that idea, all we need to do is implement it. How will we begin our jobs? We looked at Laplus and had an idea, but first we would need her to commit something that would put a target on her head.

What we do is capture her, turn her in, break her out of prison, and then we can redo the whole process. This is how we will get cash quick.