The Takamori Story

Friends

The years went by. Time was meaningless for Calliope if she did the same thing over and over again, but she remembered when something abnormal happened, and that's why she only ever remembered what happened in every encounter she had with Kiara. But now, like never before, she felt the years go by slowly. Day by day she'd go back home only to look at the pristine feather and wonder just when she'd meet the pseudo-phoenix once again.

Thus, one day she did. This time in the middle of a big forest, Kiara had been waiting for her sitting on a stump with her head hanging from her shoulders.
Calliope's wait seemed pointless to her now, and she just kept her cool.

-"Hi again"

Kiara didn't look up.

"How did that friends thing go?"

She asked. But not a single word came from her, and Calli wasn't having any of it. She hadn't waited that long only for that.

"HEY, SHITBIRD, ANSWER ME!"

-"You don't have to care..."

Kiara muttered under her breath.

-"What?"

She looked up to look at her with a pained expression poorly hidden by her frail smile.

-"You don't have to care, Mori-san"

She said with a voice oscillating between happy and sad.

"I wouldn't want to stall you any further, and it's not like you have to care about me anyways!"

Calliope took a step back. Did it really have to be like that after helping her for so long?

-"And... I don't care"

She said with an annoyed voice as she looked to the side.

"But..."

As her voice went lower, she thought of the time she had spent with that stupid bird, the effort they both put in something and how they finally achieved it. It couldn't have all been for nothing, and if it was, she had to know.

"If something's bothering you, It'll bother me too"

Kiara's eyes lit up in a second.

-"Mori-san..."

Calliope noticed how her phrase came out. She crossed her arms and raised her voice again.

-"I-I mean, I'm stuck with your immortality right?! I can't stand seeing you all bummed out! It's annoying!"

Kiara simply smiled and jiggled, but she put her head down again.

-"It's my friends..."

Calliope's complaints didn't stand, and she followed what Kiara said with interest.

-"Were you still not able to make any?"

-"No, that's not it..."

She raised her knees up on the stump, keeping her head up but looking away.

"I did make friends..."

-"So what's the problem then?"

Silence.

"Shitb-... Takanashi?"

Kiara glanced at Calli when she noticed her actual name being said, but she kept talking.

-"They... They're all..."

She looked up to her again with a soulless face.

"Dead..."