24 Chapter Twenty-Four: Goodbyes (1/2)

”I've heard about what happened from Rose” Mikoto says, still sitting up on her bed in the hospital room. ”The doctors were already in here earlier too when I woke up”.

As Holly sat down in a chair next to them, she says ”That's good, then there won't be too much to catch up on”.

Mikoto, crossing her arms, replies ”Well- I mean... It was rather hard, understanding anything Rose was saying, and Satomi only added to the confusion with her sudden and extremely tight hugging...”.

”Sorry” Satomi says while lightly laughing and scratching the back of her head.

Mikoto tilts her head slightly to her right and thinks to herself before she asks ”How long was I out anyways?”.

Holly, crossing her legs as she gets more comfortable in her chair, says ”It's now been about a week and a half”.

Mikoto's eyes shoot wide open in disbelief and shock as Holly says ”What? You wanted to know. Don't tell me you'd ask a question you weren't prepared to hear the answer for...”.

Zia jumps into the conversation by saying ”The important part is that we're all still alive. Also, what are we going to do from here?”.

”I'd like to know as well” Siran adds. ”Sure the hard part is over, but there's still more to do. I can come up with a plan, if you can think of anything we would need to do-”.

”Actually” Satomi interrupts, ”I was thinking. Your help was more than vital, and we're more than convinced that you're not just international criminals, but more like miracle workers”.

Giving off a short laugh, Alex then retorts ”That's the worst explanation of us that I've ever heard. I think international criminals fits us better, actually”.

”Anyways” Satomi continues, ”I'm thinking the most productive thing we can do as a team right now is go our separate ways”.

Everyone in the room nearly jumps in surprise at Satomi's proposal as Rose asks ”Wait, why?”.

Crossing her arms and thinking to herself, Satomi replies ”You've already done more than your part. I mean, you guys didn't even have to help Japan to begin with but you did anyways. That's more than enough. The people here have all already discovered who you are and you're all over the news, so it's only a matter of time before The Ly'Lum try to retaliate against you. On the other hand, you've also convinced the whole nation that you're on our side. So it's more than likely that our nation will not only continue to fight for themselves, but they'll also fight for you”.

”And why does this mean we need to part ways?” Finn asks. ”You know you can come with us, right?”.

”Someone has to stay and fight” Satomi says. ”They'll want The Six Guns here to help them in this national crisis, so who better to help than The Six Guns themselves?”. As Satomi says this, she holds up the card Siran gave her. ”We're still members of The Six Guns, you know, and this is our home. But this doesn't have to be goodbye for good”. Satomi hands a business card from the hospital with her phone number written on the back, over to Siran and says ”If you ever need us, just give us a shout and we'll be there”.

Rose starts crying softly as she reaches to try to hug Satomi and Mikoto, completely missing with her reach, saying ”You better promise that we'll see each other again soon!”.

Satomi and Mikoto both lean in to hug Rose back as Rose continues to talk ”Thanks again for the new clothes. I'll never forget you guys!”.

Mikoto, patting Rose on the back, says ”Come on now, you don't have to be so worried, of course we'll see each other again! Besides, you're in a worse condition than we are!”.

After Rose finally stops crying and hugging, Satomi looks up at Siran and says ”Remember, you've still got to teach us more magic some time”.

After a long goodbye, Siran, Alex, Zia, Finn, Rose and Holly all leave the hospital. Satomi stayed in the hospital room with Mikoto, who wouldn't be able to leave the hospital for the next couple days, as she still needs to recover. Rose was given a white walking cane to use to guide her as she walks, as she had to return the hospital's wheelchair. Finn and Holly were trying to help guide her out of the hospital. As they make their way down the steps outside of the front of the building, Finn kept cracking jokes to try to cheer Rose up. ”LOOK at the bright side” Finn says, ”it could've been worse”.

”Please stop it” Rose responds.

”At least you still have your LOOKS” Finn jokes.

”UUUGH!” Rose grunts.

”It doesn't LOOK too bad-” Finn jokes.

Rose interrupts Finn's next joke by hitting him swiftly on the ankles with her cane. Finn grunts in pain, then looks up and says ”Just trying to lighten the mood”.

Holly, not bothering to turn towards Finn, responds ”It's obviously not working”.

The team slowly arrives at the airport near Shibuya, and gets back on a plane heading back towards Balphor. From Balphor, they were to walk back to Seeira. As they sit on the plane, they discuss several things.

”Is anyone else alarmed that Zia learns magic way too fast?” Finn asks. ”I mean, she barely even practices any illusion magic but she is already able to use Shadow Step in combat!”.

Alex, trying his best to relax but failing because of Finn's complaining, responds ”No one else is as bothered by it as you are, I can assure you”.

”Yeah” Siran says, ”it's not surprising to me at all”.

Confused, Zia simply replies ”I've always just been good with learning magic. Besides, once you know enough about illusion magic, the Shadow Step spell isn't THAT hard”.

”That just sounds like boasting” Alex argues. ”It takes me a long time to learn simple elemental magic”.

”Really?” Zia asks, ”sometimes all I need is to see a spell to learn it”.

Crossing his arms in a pouting manner, Finn says ”That's because you're just strange. You and Siran both... speaking of strange, what the hell kind of magic were you and Satomi using during that fight with Amelia? I've never seen that before”.

Raising an eyebrow in disbelief, Siran asks ”Really? You've never heard of Armament magic?”.

The entire team, Zia included, all shook their heads. Siran lets out a sigh and says ”I guess it's a good thing you didn't learn about it before you got a boost in magic. Armament magic usually uses most of your magic to use and is pretty reckless. You don't focus the magic into a spell or effect, you simply pour your magic into an object. It's similar to digital magic in the sense that it forms magic into an actual mass. But instead of a solid mass, like a shield, it appears gaseous but has the same visual properties as light... or rather photon particles. The effect it gives off though, isn't a source of energy, but rather it increases the energy of the object you put the power into. For instance, when we poured our magic into the bat, it increased its momentous force. Depending on how much magic you use, or how much you CAN use at one time, the force is multiplied by that amount. So it-”