The guards kept coming.
Harumi and I stood back to back, breath ragged, water slicing through the air as she fought. I tried to keep up—reading minds, pulling the trigger before they pulled theirs. But there were too many. My head was splitting from the noise.
We were just kids. Tired. Cornered.
And then, through the chaos, a voice slipped into my mind.
Hiromu. Harumi…
It was him.
The detective's thoughts were steady, sharper than the screams around us.
Fall back. I'll handle it.
He wasn't going to leave us. Even if it killed him.
I looked at Harumi. She met my eyes, fierce and shaking her head.
"No," she breathed.
We weren't letting him fight alone.
I gritted my teeth, forced the noise out. Focused on one guard. Too aggressive. Exposed. I fired. He dropped.
"Cover me!" I shouted.
Harumi's water surged, crashing into the others like a wave of glass. I moved, ducked under a swing, fired twice. The detective was already bleeding, still fighting. Still standing.
Another guard raised a rifle behind him.
I didn't think—I aimed.
One shot. Clean. The guard fell.
The detective turned. Met my eyes.
A pause. Then a nod.
We fought as one after that.
Blood. Water. Steel.
When it was over, the hall was quiet. Broken cages. Wet floors. Empty eyes.
Harumi dropped to her knees, exhausted. I staggered, gun shaking in my hand.
The detective stood in the wreckage like a ghost made of fire and smoke.
He looked at us. Just looked.
Then he said, low and calm, "You did good."
That was all.
But in that moment… it meant everything.