Sara shakily smiled up at Hayasegawa as the woman came over. At least the proper Shinigami wasn’t chiding her for crying again. The younger girl wasn’t sure that the older woman was being honest or not, but the twins were okay and both Hollows were dead. That would have to be enough for now. Sara stemmed the last of her tears with her sleeves as she contemplated going to bed. Yes, they still had to go see Tatsuha to debrief, but hopefully that wouldn’t take too long. She wanted to wash her face and crawl into bed, maybe even wake up in time to join the Tachibanas for breakfast, that would be two days in a row. Himari, her stepmother, would probably a. be excited. and b. concerned about the sudden change in character and routine. But Sara wanted some normalcy after two difficult Hollow fights, two days in a row.

Then her Soul Pager buzzed and Sara read the message with some sort of cross of horror and exhaustion. She couldn’t … she didn’t … she wouldn’t. She couldn’t go! She was exhausted, burnt out, she had used too much Reiatsu during that last fight, and her bones felt like jelly. There was no way that she would be of any kind of use in a fight. She would probably just get in the way. She didn’t’ want to! She was tired, she felt terrible after crying, not to mention drained. Crying never really solved anything, and right now she could fathom moving from this spot on the curb, unless it was to go to bed. She wouldn’t … she wouldn’t … she wouldn’t. She suddenly stood. Sara’s grip on her Zanpakutō tightened. She squared her shoulders. She would! She could barely fight. She could barely even stand; she didn’t want to stand, but she would.

That voice in the back of her mind, her Zanpakutō spirit, gave calm reassurance, [color=311815][i]“It’s just another fight. Just another dance. You can do this. I’ll be right here. We can do this. Together.”[/i][/color]

Sara’s voice was shaky, but still left no room for doubt, [color=e4a683]“I’m still in okayish condition. I’ll go on a head while the rest of you get patched up.”[/color] She nodded once, [color=e4a683]“I’ll meet you there.”[/color]

Then she turned to hurry off. She didn’t run. If she wanted any energy at all by the time she got there, she couldn’t afford to run, but she didn’t lollygag either. She had made her decision. It was probably a stupid decision, but Sara could feel it in her bones, her heart, her soul, that it was the right decision to make. There was no time to question, no time to doubt, no time to give herself a chance to talk herself out of it. She was scared, yes, she wanted nothing more than to run far, far away, maybe even all the way back home to the States with the too hot pavement and lack of shade. But she couldn’t run now. She didn’t even really want to run now. She wouldn’t run now. One careful step at a time she headed towards the park and whatever disaster waited there.