Chapter Text
The first thing Orie noted about the child was her posture. She walked like someone twice her height. Though her hands were tucked into her yellow hoodie's pockets, she walked straight with her shoulders back, and her light footsteps were evenly measured. Most of all, her gaze was fixed and sharp. Those eyes were far too young to cut so deep.
This poise couldn't have been forged in a year, or even two, or even the years since this infant learned how to speak.
Orie stood before a child who had been fighting since before she could crawl.
True, she herself had started her training young, but not this young. The road to forge a fighter's instincts for her had been long, bitter and painful. Was the Night Blade's even worse? Did Linne ever let her disciples be children? For even five minutes? What kind of life had this child been allowed to live? No life at all.
It was the bitter mix of something so sobering and nauseating that made one ask how they ended up here.
It was because Orie saw an innocent young man's chest cut wide open. His head bloodied against the concrete. And herself to blame. Never again.
Orie Harada, the Fifth Executor, had such a steep path still to climb.
The deepest Hollow Night that Japan had suffered yet had been endured. Paradox was defeated, and Amnesia was in disarray. But the corruption of EXS still filled the air, the Night Blade remained an enigma, and worst of all, a Void had to be judged for murdering her parents. Sometimes, daybreak could be so bittersweet. For the light of day was a bitter reminder of how far away the next shroud of night was, until she could hunt the shadows again.
Then she saw Lex, her closest friend and confidant, whose bond that night had been proven deeper than she ever knew. And then she heard Hyde, the boy she'd hurt. And so there were still gifts sunlight had to give.
The gift of sunlight. It was caressing her head right now, wasn't it? It was. Soft on her eyes and warm on her skin, even the desk she leaned on was warm like a good bed. Her desk. Her classroom desk.
She'd fallen asleep in the classroom, hadn't she?
Oh, grief.
The girl rubbed the embarrassment from her groggy eyes. Only so groggy - despite everything, that really had been the best she felt after a rest since her childhood. Why, she was so rested, that the giggles of classmates she awoke to actually sounded polite; they weren't trying to be noticed, after all. They just couldn't help themselves.
"Guess the class president really does work hard, huh?"
Whichever student quipped that was also being polite; it was far too incredible for her to just leave unnoted. Orie couldn't believe last night, herself.
Lex, she was faintly aware, sat in the desk adjacent her, with a knowing smile as she rocked one leg back and forth. "See you this evening?" She winked before grabbing her bag and walking out. Before Orie could ask where she was going, Hyde suddenly approached.
"Hey Harada, can you hear me now? Sleep well? You're sure looking well."
"Kido..."
There he was. Alive and well. His smile was carefree and indomitable like the rising sun. At the sight of him, she felt her heart soften and sing...Save for a scrap of steel. Or maybe it was a virus, as she could feel its cold vice spread. Orie couldn't help but look to his temple, where a bruise was still healing. There he was, alive and well - despite her.
Her conflict must have been etched onto her face. Hyde held his breath and shook loose some nerves before unclenching his jaw.
"Before anything else - wanna hit up an arcade?"
"An arcade?"
"Yeah. Just to hang out for a bit. While we still can."
Orie's instinct was to scold him. But her eyes winced, torn between two contrasting visions; the healthy boy before her, and the dying one from that bloody memory. If her pain was valid, then perhaps she'd agree that she should trust him just this once.
"That...I don't deserve that."
"Yes you do. It'll be fun, trust me."
Alright, Hyde. Have this one.
They got their favourite hot chocolate. They walked under the bright midday sun. They played games at the arcade - Hyde let her win, she could tell. Except in bowling, when she rolled three gutter balls in a row: that surprised them both too much. All they could do was laugh in good spirit. Just as good as the spirit she tittered in when he was flabbergasted to learn there was an exam this Friday. Oh dear, even more to think about - and by extension, to avoid thinking about. Thankfully, they had money left over for coffee. Admiring the river by his favourite spot in the park was free.
It was a guilt-free date. It made no sense.
In the late afternoon, the sun still shone, caressing the emerald park plants with a serene shimmer. Their empty coffee cups rested on the bench, and they leaned over wooden fences to watch the glistening river. When the sound of gently rolling water tickled his ears just right, Hyde finally let out a long-held sigh.
"Thanks for humouring me, Harada. I hope you had fun."
"It was a great afternoon. You always have the best ideas for afternoons." She meant it.
He allowed himself a smile. "I'm just glad things are okay."
Orie's mouth rushed open to rebuke him, but stopped, with a pensive pause. The sight sent a slight panic up the back of his head.
"We're here." He continued. "You're alive. During our fight, that was all I'd hoped for."
Hyde's ears twitched for solace amidst the faint breeze. The footsteps of some passer-by brushed gravel and crunched fallen leaves. Once those steps were as quiet as the trickling water, he turned to Orie with his fidgeting hands behind his back.
"If you want..."
He'd trusted his instinct just as he did in battle to almost tell Orie what he thought she wanted: 'we can leave this until later'. But he saw her open mouth, how in its frown she almost looked too ready to jump and say something. Her wilted brow pressed on her blue eyes, and just as he once saw sincere joy and serenity reflected in those cerulean irises, he now saw pain. Hyde had so much to learn still.
"Right, I'm done running. Harada, I am so sorry."
"I was the aggressor, Kido. You gave me an olive branch, and in return I gave you pain. The fault is mine."
"I don't care. I should have been strong enough to find a better way."
"What better way?"
"...That I'm stumped by that question is part of the problem. If I was strong enough, I'd know. This Hollow Night crap's been ruining lives for years the world over - I've only had a month to catch up. If it could've waited just another month, then I'd be twice the man to stop it. And if it could've waited even more..."
Hyde was far too young to be putting the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"Why are you being like this?" Orie pleaded.
"Do you want me to be mad at you, Harada? Well I can't be. You can tell me it'd make you feel better and I won't. You can fight with me again and I still won't. This isn't easy to say. But anything else just isn't worth it."
"You're just beating yourself up here and it hurts to see."
"I have a lot of people to save."
"So do I."
The way they looked at each other wasn't quite a glare, but too desperate to be simply a stare. Pleadingly. This time, there were no swords to draw to turn it hostile.
"...You can't take responsibility for the Hollow Night out of my hands, Harada."
"Nor you out of mine."
"Then can we agree to split the burden?"
Orie felt her heart and her head trembling again. Last time, the head won out, and she would forever regret the result. So, the heart would have a chance. Its one chance.
"It's our mess to fix, then."
"Fair."
As his frown lifted into a smile, something deep inside his gut seemed to heal. They both let that healing settle for a peaceful moment, hoping they weren't about to rip the wound open anew.
"Well," Hyde scratched his head, "that's the main thing. Next, let's figure out factions."
The beating heart of this wicked issue. The Licht Kreis and the Night Blade. They stood on opposite sides of two factions still at war, and had been for centuries.
"Harada, are you sure we can't work together in the next Night?"
"You can't formally join the Licht Kreis, but if you forego the Night Blade and share the Insulator, then I might be able to argue you're an exception. But you can't, can you?"
Hyde's mind flashed back to that bitter song and dance. Despite their feelings, that fight had not happened without reason. A girl from the Licht Kreis. A boy from the Night Blade. It can't work. It was forbidden.
"I still can't. Okay...what if we tried just avoiding each other? Or you can do one mission while I do the other?"
"Paradox may be beaten, but the last Hollow Night cast so much energy - the next Nights are set to be even worse. The mysteries behind Amnesia's benefactors are still unsolved, and the Licht Kreis will expand our operation. With so much at stake, Kido...we can't count on just avoiding each other."
So quick to shoot down Hyde's ideas, yet so slow to suggest her own. Orie's knuckles twitched on the fence in disgust at herself.
"Well what if the Night Blade and Licht Kreis got along?"
"Kido?"
Hyde honestly only said that because that was his last option he hadn't reasoned himself out of yet.
"I'm not just helping Linne; I'm really close to her. I can get you a face-to-face meeting. That's basically as big as it gets, isn't it? If you bring Adelheid or someone, we can all talk this out."
As important as it was to keep Hyde's spirits high, he basically asked a policewoman to bring a world leader to parlay with a terrorist.
"That is an incredibly big offer, Kido - but do you even know what happened between the two?"
"Not much. Linne told me they had a war for Japan five hundred years ago that ended with the Licht Kreis' retreat."
"Give or take a historian's bias, that's as much as I know too. But Kido, the Licht Kreis consider all EXS use outside its regulation to be forbidden. Treating the Night Blade as anything besides criminals and heretics flies in my superiors' teachings. I can't even suggest this idea without being taken off the Japan operation completely. Just speaking with you now is dangerous enough."
If Hyde was ever identified as the wielder of the Insulator, he'd never know peace again.
"Sheesh...Don't big factions and stuff at least humour diplomacy? For the appearance of it if nothing else?"
"In a fair world, with humans. But we're not really human anymore, Hyde. The Hollow Night is always a power struggle. Everywhere I've been, every conflict I've found, it's just never been in the nature of those involved." She chewed on that bitter truth. "They want to be at each other's throats."
"We're not, are we?"
"Hm?"
"People keep saying that to me, that I'm not really human any more, but I just don't get it. I have power now, yeah, and I gotta use it...But I still feel like me. Like doing good with it. I don't wanna hurt anybody, Harada. My dad would yell at me as a kid not to get into fights unless I had no other option. I can get other people forgetting that, sure, but I just don't think whatever part of our souls we lost was tied to that. Mine sure wasn't. It's probably for the same reasons normal people forget themselves, but the normal world isn't hopeless just yet. So we can't be either."
However Orie frowned, she couldn't really refute him without refuting herself. Or their bond.
"I wish I could show you the minds of every in-birth I've fought, Kido. I wish they thought more like you. That's as easy an answer as I can give."
"Well I wish more people thought like you, Harada. A real paragon of justice. I bet deep down, people feel that when they see you."
Now she was smiling, leaning her head over one shoulder and looking away to hide the sudden warmth dancing on it. Some hope to draw from. If she went any longer without saying something, Hyde would stop admiring the slant of her long blue hair at this angle, then start leaning in with a growing smile.
"--Anyway," she shook her head, "I don't know a single Licht Kreis official who'd not just try to dismantle the Night Blade. Sorry."
"Damn, not even you?" Hyde asked on reflex.
"M-me?" That was a sudden question. "Well I only lead a squad, but if I--wait, what are you saying?"
"I mean, us and Linne talk it out. This has to start somewhere, doesn't it?"
"If it starts at all, yes..."
"Hell, I'm okay if it's just you and Linne who get along. That should be enough, right?"
Maybe. But perhaps Hyde didn't realise just how serious a question he'd asked. Orie sure didn't. Even now, something twitched in the corner of her mind, a dark corner at that. It'd be fine if they could get along - if. And Hyde was taking for granted that they would. Or should. But that was Hyde's nature, to see the best in those he could help. Orie's was to seize each sinner's shadow by its throat and make it writhe under righteous light.
What would Linne say about the Night Blade? Were they innocent? In their unfettered rule of five hundred years over this land?
Even just ten years ago? Would she swear that to Orie's face? Would she swear it to Merkava's face? Would an immortal Re-birth think herself above accountability?
That was worth judging. That needed judging.
"Are you ok, Harada?" Hyde leaned in.
She'd blinked out of her sudden trance. But Hyde seemed too relaxed to have sensed her dark thoughts.
"Kido, could you make it happen?"
"You'll try? Of course I will! Excellent!" He pumped his fists as if his war was won. "Fair warning, Linne can be a biiit prickly when things get serious, but she means well. She taught me everything I know, and she's been working so hard to stop the Voids. You'll like her, I really think so."
Orie would be the judge of that.
"I'll...do my best to prepare." Orie gradually made her posture more composed.
"Don't worry, it'll be great. I'll cook dinner for everyone."
"You're cooking?" Her eyes suddenly glimmered.
"Your favourite, even. Mixed with a Kido household classic. Leave it to me, Harada, I'll see you tomorrow! I'm gonna do some swordtraining this evening and get started with--"
Hyde was so excited to be in control again, he almost ran off there and then. But as he turned, Orie suddenly grabbed his sleeve.
"Hold on, Kido. Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Am I? Is there anything more to say?"
"About the Night Blade, no. But did you forget again?" She shook his sleeve ever so playfully, as if just to expose how much cloth she could shake. "We have a math test Friday."
"Ah...yeah...I won't make you beat an admission out of me, I'm pretty far behind."
"I hadn't intended to, it's perfectly understandable. You've had far too much on your plate to manage it alone. So let's do a study night tonight, like we used to."
She took his wrist in her hand and started walking toward the nearby library. For however firm Hyde's legs stayed anchored, he didn't shake her off him.
"Tonight? But I've training, Harada, that comes first."
"You were training hard to be in shape to fight in the Night. You made the right choice for your goals, even if I wish you hadn't. Thankfully, with a bit of extra work now, your grades won't have to suffer for it."
"I can't miss training tonight, you know why."
"You have to find the right balance in these things. It's hard, I know, I've been there."
"Don't worry, it's just one exam."
"Exactly, so we'll cram for it now. None of the material is going to be new, we can get it all done between the two of us."
Hyde softly put his free hand on Orie's wrist.
"Harada, I wish I could be a simple student. But I'm an in-birth now. And I'm not a very ready one. I have to give my training my all, or else who knows what will happen because I wasn't strong enough. Given everything I'm scared of losing, my grades really don't matter--"
"Kido."
Orie's grip on Hyde's wrist came very close to a painful pinch.
"That is why you have to study. Because of what you can lose - when this madness is all behind us, what world do you want to return to? One where your parents are disappointed and you can't get the career you wanted? One where you've lost years of your life because you spent too much time fighting the Abyss? You can't lose that. You don't have to lose that. Do you understand?"
In truth, Hyde had little clue why Orie said what she did. But even if her speech left him uncomfortable, he was starting to understand her glares weren't always the same. This didn't hold the Executor's wrath. There was a lot of warmth and worry behind her eyes - a familiar warmth, and an almost comforting worry.
"I do. Let's do this."
With a humbled sigh and a beaten smile, Hyde let himself be marched to a study room, prepared for an evening of misery.
It wasn't that bad.