Deeply rich cyan light shines down through a wide window, radiating the room on the other side, which is otherwise enclosed by white walls that have a soft, almost fabric texture. The floor has a soft royal purple carpet, and above that carpet are two long black leathery sofas hovering off the ground, sitting across from each other with a hovering rectangular table in between with a marble-esc texture.

The warmth of the sunlight indicates that the day is drawing towards its end, for the sun is setting towards the climax of the evening. Even with the room’s own lighting system, the powerful sun rays overwhelm the otherwise white light, turning the entire room cyan too.

Seated on the left couch are Ekitai and Kokei, with Ekitai leaning back on the couch with his feet kicked up on the table, and Kokei playing with her pink hair, twirling her fingers inside.

On the other couch in the middle sits Dana, who leans forward, her elbows touching her knees and her chin resting on her fingers. She hums softly, gazing at both of the guests, whose eyes are anywhere but her, leaping around the walls as though catching something interesting about the minimalist interior design of the lounge.

Chilling air exudes from Dana after releasing a breath, her gaze remaining on the two, which has begun to feel more like a glare given a growing hostility in her green eyes. Her humming crescendos, as though explicitly trying to seize the attention of the two.

However, on the other side, Kokei continues twirling her fingers in her hair, her bangs covering her eyes with her head angled down. However, while her face is mostly obstructed, the visible regions of her cheeks are noticeably hot red. She begins twirling her fingers faster, making knots in her fair with greater haste.

Beside her, Ekitai tilts his head from side to side, staring at the ceiling. He takes a deep breath and begins blowing air outward, as though desperately attempting to whistle, although he seems untrained, resulting in him simply making blowing sounds. Regardless of his failure, he continues blowing, tilting his head faster, which is noticeably red as well, albeit not as much as Kokei. His mouth opens and contracts as though attempting different pitches, yet all the sounds are released with similar tunes no different from the other.

“So, who wants to explain what happened first?” interrogates Dana in a deep, foreboding tone, one that sends shivers through both Ekitai and Kokei’s spines.

At first, the two continue their routine, as Kokei twirls her fingers and Ekitai blows out hair. “Ekitai,” declares Dana, which immediately halts Ekitai’s attempted whistling, forcing him to lower his gaze to Dana, unable to avoid the confrontation. All he can do is give an innocent grin before childishly asking, “What’s up?”

“My tolerance. Explain what you were trying to do back there in the rink,” harshly shoves Dana verbiosly, her voice only intensifying from the innocent response.

Ekitai shuts his mouth, raising his head as he deeply ponders for the best answer. Thinking between potential answers in search for the best one, he figures it would be best to continue walking around the problem, fearful of direct contact. The best way to do that was to act dumb, and hopefully deter attention from himself.

“What’s a rink?”

Choosing the dumbest possible response may have not been the most ideal strategy.

“Ekitai, I swear to god we BOTH know I don’t need to answer that question!” scolds Dana with an aggressive voice, as Ekitai’s response only made her attitude far worse.

Ekitai lowers his head as his cheeks redden more in greater embarrassment, unable to speak back from the increased shame.

Exercising all the willpower and control from within her heart, Kokei battles the devils within her soul to stay silent. She grips her lips with her teeth, holding it closed as hard as possible regardless of the pain it sends her. Her hands grip her hair as well, pulling it in an attempt to seek any self control she can, grounding her to herself. Her lips move like a wave, warring against the primitive human within her, battling against her id, raging in a fight of epic proportions as her ego competes for dominance.

The heat of her boiling blood can be felt in her head like lava sloshing within an active volcano, the blazing depths of the world’s core thrashing, fighting to escape, only held back by the world’s own grasp, begging for mercy for the life on the surface. Sweat drips down the side of her face like the thunderstorm in her mind, as she stands before the open field, flashes of lightning surrounding her at every second as she commands herself to stay grounded against the odds while the heavy shower pours down on her body, fogging the world around her.

Her pink eyes become watery from such strain, as tears well up from within the apertures of her soul, like an immense tide growing greater and greater, a rumbling horde rising higher off the surface as it charges towards an unsuspecting city, its body climbing heights above entire buildings.

The tears grow in her eyes, becoming larger like the tsunami that effortlessly annihilates any ships in its path as it approaches the harbor of screaming civilians, sprinting for their lives towards their buildings in hopes that their city’s architectural prowess can save it from nature, only for them to be proven otherwise when the wave inevitably sweeps the skyscrapers, leveling the towering city to the earth, absorbing it into the sea itself. As those citizens gasp for their final breaths, drowning in their own flooded homes, the last thoughts they have are not the warmth of their love and achievements, but rather the brutal frigids of hopelessness and despair.

A short giggle is released from Kokei’s mouth, to which her pupils immediately shrivel.

However, just like those innocent civilians drenched in the tide, Kokei’s end has been predetermined from the very beginning, as Dana’s head slowly turns to her with rigid movements like a rusty robot. Her green eyes glare with hell’s fury as she simply asks, “What’s so funny?”

The only verbal response is a squeal as Kokei immediately grabs fluffs of her hair and uses it as a curtain to cover her face, as though attempting to hide from someone a few feet from her who very much knew where she was despite her feeble attempts to conceal herself.

Letting out a sigh with the titanic magnitude of a mother’s disappointment, Dana reprimands, “Let me remind you, Kokei, that you very much played a part in this mess! You too equipped hockey suits you are not properly trained in, used it without permission, and refused to stop when I told you to! And now because of everything, there are multiple walls with holes, and a lot of expensive equipment that is probably going to need to be replaced! I am very-, uh-, unhappy with you! Both of you! Hmph!”

Dana buries her pout beneath her fists, her beration harsh albeit for the ending which was oddly endearing, but regardless put Kokei to great shame.

Kokei lets go of her hair and stands up to her feet before placing her hands by her side and rapidly bowing in repension, repeatedly chanting, “I’m sorry!” over and over again.

Ekitai turns around to see Kokei’s abrupt actions, to which he concludes that they’re better than all the ideas he was attempting to formulate. Immediately following suite, Ekitai stands up and begins bowing as well while repeating, “I’m sorry!” alongside Kokei, albeit at an offset timing that becomes a painful tune.

“Enough! Okay okay, I get it, you’re sorry! Apology accepted!!” cries out Dana, standing up with each of her hands cupping the apologist’s foreheads in an attempt to prevent them from further bowing, as though the site discomforted her.

Both Kokei and Ekitai stop, raising themselves one more time but remaining standing straight, both facing Dana in anxious anticipation, still dreading any potential punishments she has lined up their way. Both of them understood that they’d likely deserve it anyways, for they did brutally hurt her, which would’ve led to drastic unspeakable injuries if it hadn’t been for the protection granted by the suits.

Instead, Dana lets out a soft sigh before lowering her hands and softly liberating, “It’s okay, I was mostly worried that you both would get yourselves hurt, you were moving so fast that the thought of any of you crashing terrified me. I’m glad that neither of you were badly hurt in the end, and don’t worry, I’ll be fine, I mean being entirely honest my back kind of hurts but I’m sure it’ll go away in a day! Just promise me that from now on, you’ll at least listen to me if I tell you not to do something, and be more careful. Can you please just do that?”

She then softly smiles with an angelic grace, as in that moment, both Kokei and Ekitai felt as though they had been transported to heaven, and were face to face with the concept of divinity itself. While the room’s lighting hasn’t changed, it’s as though a grand golden light shined from the skies above, a heavenly spotlight placed on her, illuminating her tender face in such fashion that she seemed impossible to exist as a creature as fundamentally flawed as a human. Her gentle smile melts both of their hearts, as now they were the ones feeling disappointed with themselves for troubling such a benevolent woman, someone who only wanted their companions to be safe and happy and risked their life to save those friends.

Without another second, Kokei immediately appears over Dana, her arms wrapped around her and her feet off the ground as she tackles her in an embrace. The sudden pounce staggers Dana and causes her to yelp, whose eyes shoot wide open in instant petrification as she sways back and forth to gain balance.

Sobbing loudly, Kokei vows, “I’m so sorry for scaring you, I promise I’ll never hurt you like that again!! Please don’t hate me!! Please!!”

“Wait what? I don’t- did I say something wrong? I swear I didn’t mean to make it sound like I hate either of you, I don’t! I don’t have either of you, don’t worry!” cries Dana in disorientation while she still struggles to gain balance, Kokei’s weight pushing her back as she clings to her.

During this heart touching moment between friends, as Kokei wails on a bewildered Dana, Ekitai tilts his head to the side with a peculiar expression upon suddenly receiving a rather delayed revelation. He brings his hand up to his chin in cerebration, placing his thumb against his cheek, tuning out the emotional scene in front of him.

Sharing the thought, he mentions curiously, “Wait, do we have to tell Rohan about this?”

Across from Ekitai, Kokei freezes, her bawling abruptly halting while still clinging on Dana, however her gaze is turned to Ekitai. Dana, standing straight after managing now to reclaim her balance in a brief moment of peace, also stares straight at Ekitai, her pupils shrunk below her amber bangs. Her jaw drops, as she delivers a simple response:

“Oh fu-.”