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Countless thoughts and wishes swirled behind those red eyes.

[color=#D8CD9F][i]”I want to get rid of her before she can hurt them!”[/i][/color] Hotaru’s burned bright, with the searing fury of a Sun intent on scorching away all the filth of this world before etching its presence into the surface. None would be left standing if she had her way, or at least they would be walking away with broken bones aplenty.

[color=red][i]”I want to stop her before she kills that girl.”[/i][/color] Ember contrasted greatly, feeling as though one dipped into ice after they had just walked into the fire. Cold, calculating gears intermeshed in this wish, one joining another. Mere fractions of a greater whole.

[color=teal][i]”I want to protect that girl.”[/i][/color] Sylvia remained in the background as always, however the purity, the power of her desire brought it forward. Despite it being rooted in blood, located at the bottom of a lake with murky water, it possessed significance in its simplicity. For there was nothing else. Only the wish to save someone else from harm.

Whatever the case, Hotaru’s hold over Hizuki broke, allowing her to slip out of the body’s grasp. And then, before anyone could react-

Schrade.

The word failed to convey anything, but the shiver running across their spines told everything.

[color=red][i]”’Ru… Why did you do it?”[/i][/color] Ember asked her question in an even voice. It sounded almost like a great church bell in the silence, trying to cut through the darknesss and the distance between the three souls.

[color=#D8CD9F][i]”I couldn’t care less about telling you.”[/i][/color] Hotaru turned back towards Ember. [color=#D8CD9F][i]”Strange, isn’t it? How the dog bites the had that beats it.”[/i][/color]

The schemer paused. She had known Hotaru ever since the moment she came into existence and yet she could not parse what the warrior tried to say. Had she not explained well enough? She could always make another go at it.

[color=red][i]”Hotaru. Please really listen to me this time.”[/i][/color] The warrior snorted, loud and obnoxious. The schemer continued. [color=red][i]”I know why you attacked her. I… I also remember. I could never forget those… vapid bitches.”[/i][/color] Sugarcoating it would have made it infinitely worse. [color=red][i]”Was she amongst them, Hotaru? Did she do anything to hurt us? To hurt Chiaki?”[/i][/color]

[color=#D8CD9F][i]”It doesn’t matter, Ember. I won’t rest until they’re gone from here. Until they can’t fucking step into this place.”[/i][/color] Because it would no longer be safe. Because then it would happen again. Because then there would be no more people surrounding Chiaki. Only empty hands that refused to reach out. [color=#D8CD9F][i]”And before you ask, I don’t regret it. At all. She can go and die in a damned fire.”[/i][/color]

[color=teal][i]”Please… Ember, she isn’t listening,”[/i][/color] Sylvia stepped beside the schemer, looking up at her with her big, green eyes. [color=teal][i]”You’ll only get hurt if you keep talking to her.”[/i][/color] Hotaru shot a betrayed look towards the protector. Her yellow eyes seemed to crackle as she looked before she raised her thumb to her neck and drew it across.

[color=#D8CD9F][i]Hate me for all I care. You’ll bawl your eyes out and thank me later. And don’t expect my help in a fight.[/i][/color] She did not speak those words out loud in their shared mental scape. Instead, she merely kept her eyes locked with that of the protector’s, causing the latter to draw in her shoulders before she stepped away, leaving with what seemed to be her final gesture.

[color=teal][i]”Ember?”[/i][/color] Sylvia clutched her hands and looked at the floor. [color=teal][i]”What happens now?”[/i][/color]

[color=red][i]”First, we apologise… and then, we think.”[/i][/color] And with those words, she took the seat that had been vacated earlier to turn Shatterscape’s body back towards Evil Eye. She thought it would be easy, as she had been in this body plenty of times, but as it turned out, the gauntlets weighed a lot. She almost lost her balance as soon as she started to pivot, then corrected for it; a simple mistake, but one that could have cost her a body in combat. It underlined just how well Hotaru knew their magical girl form.

[color=red]”I… am deeply sorry.”[/color] Ember bowed the body’s head and tilted its body towards Evil Eye and Hizuki.