Between two flames

Sleepless night

Reichimo was already at the base, near her room. She entered, leaned against the wall, and sighed with relief, instinctively placing her hand on her neck. Then, her eyes widened noticeably as her hand frantically searched for her pendant.

"Nooo!" Astrith groaned in disappointment.

Anger washed over Rei. She swung her leg and kicked the nearby nightstand, which shattered into pieces. The sight of the breaking furniture quickly brought her back to her senses, and a wave of coldness engulfed her.

"You can't do this! It's against the rules!" screamed a female voice.

"If they find out, you're finished! Do you understand?" yelled another, a male voice.

"You can't be defective!"

Rei squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trying to drive away these thoughts that didn't seem to belong to her.

"You won't be able to hide it for long..."

"Just shut up already" the girl growled in response. She was struck by a strong sense of déjà vu, as if she had been in a similar situation before and had heard these exact words in response.

She blinked a few times and ran her hands through her hair.

"Alright, I'll have to go back," she said to herself, already planning a nighttime mission to retrieve the pendant.

Late evening. The door opened, and Reichimo's roommate entered the room. The guy walked down the corridor to the bedroom and stopped: Astrith was sitting on the floor, reassembling the nightstand she had just broken. She was wearing baggy black clothes with numerous belts that gave her form, looking very much like an assassin's uniform, along with high black boots with thick soles and a hip bag. Her hair was loose, cascading down her back and continuing to flow onto the floor.

"What are you doing...?" the guy asked, his tone full of confusion.

Astrith didn't rush to answer as she was almost done with her task. A few seconds later, she finally turned around and looked up at him. A few screws glistened between her lips at the right corner of her mouth.

"The nightstands here are pretty flimsy" Reichimo replied, moving the screws to her hand. "Are you ever going to tell me your name, by the way?" she asked, reminding him that they still hadn't formally met.

"Atsushi... Yamada" the guy introduced himself, locking eyes with her as he said the second word.

The girl stood up, leaving the tools on the now-repaired nightstand.

"Reichimo Astrith" she replied, extending her hand for a handshake.

"Going somewhere?" the guy asked after shaking her hand and threw his backpack onto his bed.

"Why do you care? Nothing serious," she replied, gathering her hair into a low bun.

"They'll kill you if you try to escape" the guy remarked, almost casually.

At these words, Rei turned sharply, locking her gaze directly onto her roommate's eyes.

"In that case, you'll benefit anyway - this room will be all yours" she retorted sarcastically.

She then pulled her hood over her head and left the room.

When she arrived at the scene of the daytime battle, the girl began searching for the pendant everywhere: in the grass, in the bushes, in the fallen leaves, desperately hoping to find it. She circled the area three times but continued her frantic search, no longer even remembering why the pendant was so important to her. Rei combed through the entire place where the brief battle had taken place but found no trace of the jewelry. The feeling that she had lost a part of herself wouldn't leave her. This wasn't like her at all - Astrith couldn't even recall the last time she felt this way, especially over such a trivial thing.

"No, it has to be here... somewhere," she muttered, still searching and cursing herself for acting so obsessively. "It's such a small thing, why am I acting like I'm possessed?"

Suddenly, the girl stopped and seriously thought about what was driving her. It felt like an attachment that had come from outside of her, as if part of her consciousness had been poisoned by a foreign presence. The discord within her own mind deeply troubled her because if this happened again, she wouldn't even be able to trust herself.

She scanned the area once more and took a deep breath. Calming down, Rei thought that the person from earlier had probably taken the pendant.

Around two in the morning, Reichimo sat by a small pond, humming softly. The sound echoed off the crystal-clear water and into the dense foliage of the trees, which the girl found pleasing.

But the peace of nature didn't match Astrith's internal state. "I'm mentally weak, and that's a problem," she kept thinking.

The girl realized she had been wrong to believe her mind was strong while she was in a stable situation. Of course, her hermit lifestyle and constant running didn't exactly fit the definition of stability, but for her, it had been a well-planned and predictable way of life. "As soon as I was thrown into a morally stressful situation that changed my way of living, thrust me into society, and left some questions unanswered, I lost my composure. My moral strength. Which means... I never had it," she concluded, realizing she needed to change this immediately, or she simply wouldn't survive.

Somewhere nearby, in the bushes, there was a rustling noise, immediately followed by the sound of a very sharp knife opening in Reichimo's hand. The girl stood up and tensed, but she didn't intend to attack first. The rustling grew closer, but Astrith still didn't turn to face the source of the noise.

"You really don't fear for your life, do you?" came a raspy, familiar voice, making Reichimo finally turn to face the speaker.

"Well, if I had the sense to join your organization, then no," she said, matching Kevin's tone, who somehow had found himself in front of her.

It was somewhat reckless to respond in such a tone to the head of the organization, but at that moment, she felt like she had nothing left to lose. It was possible that Kevin was checking the surroundings of the headquarters, or perhaps someone had informed him about what had happened during the day...

The man smirked at her response, slightly raising his chin. For the first time, Astrith saw his eyes up close and noticed how light gray they were - almost white. This aspect of Kevin's appearance clearly contributed to his eerie image, though right now, half of that image seemed to have vanished.

"What are you doing here?" the man asked, scanning the area where they stood before focusing his attention on Rei's face.

"Answering your questions..." the girl replied, also looking him in the eyes. "...at this moment," she added after a brief pause, tilting her head to the side.

Kevin smirked again.

"Reckless decision..." the man said.

"As if I didn't know," the girl thought to herself.

"Tomorrow will be... a tough day," he added and began to move slowly toward the trees, soon disappearing from Astrith's sight.

All she could do was watch him go with a look of confusion and a touch of mockery. "Alright, I was leaving anyway," she shrugged and headed back toward the dorm. "I guess the beacons are always active..." she concluded. "But why him? Aren't subordinates supposed to keep track of this?" she wondered. "Or maybe I'm marked for death... but who would want that!?" she suddenly thought, but unfortunately, there was no answer to these questions.

It was curious why Rei suddenly decided that she might be needed by someone, especially dead. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that no one cared about her and reminded herself of the conclusion she had drawn from her past traumas, her subconscious continued to spiral into paranoia. As if someone from her past could suddenly reappear in her present and make their own changes.

It's worth mentioning that Astrith remembered her past very vaguely, which likely contributed to all the emotions described above. Most likely, the amount of stress she had endured had severely impacted her memory. This, of course, worried her, but not enough to spend much time dwelling on her past.