Chapter 150 – Small Breathing. A Sound Somehow Familiar.

Pale blue eyes so light they seemed to draw you in. At that fragile, unreadable expression, Letaria caught her breath without meaning to. She could not say why, but for the briefest moment it reminded her of her younger sister Rutiel, left behind in her distant homeland.

Before she knew it, her body had moved ahead of reason, and she was walking up to the girl.

"...Um, are you all right? ...Have you lost your way, may I ask... I mean, are you lost?"

Matching her blond disguise, she tried asking in the unfamiliar casual way, but the girl neither nodded nor shook her head -- she only tilted her head slightly. The vague response left her baffled for an instant, but her nature, that she could not leave someone in trouble alone, won out, and Letaria found she couldn't leave the spot.

"I'm... uh, I am-- no, I mean, I'm Ria. And you are...?"

She couldn't give her real name, and the awkward alias that tumbled out on the spur of the moment made Letaria break into a cold sweat inside. The girl gazed fixedly at Letaria's face for a while. It was a gaze as though searching for something, yet somehow hollow. Then, at last, her small lips moved a little.

"...Rofi."

"Rofi? Is that your name?"

At the question, the girl herself gave a small nod, but her eyes only blinked vaguely.

It seemed there was something going on with her, but...

There were mountains of suspicious points and questions, but sensing that pressing her would only trouble the girl, Letaria decided not to dig any deeper and let it pass.

"Well, never mind. Okay, then, Rofi, shall we go together? Even if we're going to look for your friends or whoever you're with, if you sit alone in a place like this, you'll just get cold."

For the time being, the two set off walking side by side. They spoke little. Letaria tried bringing up topics, but Rofi's replies were vague.

"That glowing sign over there is pretty, isn't it. You don't see many like that in Seldia... I mean, where I live."

"...Yeah. It's shining."

Rofi gazed at the stalls' gaudy holographic signs and the display windows lined with colorful goods. But her gaze was somehow absent, and didn't seem to be focused on anything. It seemed she was reacting not out of interest in the goods themselves, but merely to the brightness and darkness of the light falling on her retinas.

At such a strangely otherworldly manner, Letaria felt a small ache deep in her chest. But she did not take on any pitying attitude; she simply accepted it naturally, as a matter of course, and matched her stride to walk gently beside her.

"Do you come around here a lot, Rofi? It's awfully quiet, and there aren't many people."

"...Sometimes. When I... can get out... of my room."

"Your room? I see, so you're usually inside the house a lot."

"...No. It's not... a home. ...A white... place."

"A white place...?"

The instant she tried to ask again, Rofi herself tugged faintly at Letaria's sleeve and stopped walking. Then, as though remembering something, she pointed with a small hand.

"...This way."

"Huh? Oh, hey, Rofi?"

Led along by Rofi, the two slipped past the side of a no-entry fence and into a darkness where the industrial district's enormous pipes and exhaust ducts were tangled together intricately. A narrow gap surrounded by rugged metal structures. But when they reached its end, there was a spot where just one part of the space overhead was open in a perfect circle.

Looking up, through a seam in Coroshe's heavy, rugged outer shell, real space and shining stars peeked through.

"Wow... amazing. I never knew a place like this existed."

"...You can see stars here. It's quiet."

"It really is... It's lovely."

The two sat down side by side on an old metal supply crate. The rumble of exhaust echoed low in the distance, but only this narrow gap was hushed as though it were a separate world, cut off from everything.

"I love the starry sky I saw from the ship on the way here. The stars were amazing from inside a Makina too, but it was the first time I'd ever just sat and watched stars drift quietly by like that... somehow I felt very small, but strangely, gentle, too."

Letaria chose her words carefully as she told Rofi about her memories of Seldia and the ship journey, and Rofi, hugging her knees, quietly answered, "Mm."

"...Is that... fun?"

Rofi returned a pure, simple question. Letaria smiled softly.

"Yes, it is truly enjoyable. Though it can be a little frightening, and painful at times."

"...I see."

Rofi gazed back up at the starry sky above with her pale blue eyes.

As that peaceful time passed, just then--

--Grrrmph.

In the quiet space, Rofi's small stomach rumbled, with a cute sound. Rofi herself, perhaps not even quite understanding the sensation of hunger, showed no sign of embarrassment, and remained blankly expressionless as ever.

She must be hungry. And dressed like that, she might not have been given anything decent to eat.

Letaria slipped her fingers into her pocket. Inside was the small package Milea had given her as a "good-luck charm" when she left.

Forgive me, Milea -- she apologized silently in her heart. It was the precious item Milea had sent her off with for her own sake, but she would be putting it to use now. She took out the neatly folded small package and held it out in front of Rofi.

"Try eating this. It's only a little, but it should be really tasty."

Rofi looked at the offered package curiously. She did not reach for it at first; she brought her face close and sniffed at it, then took it with both hands, gingerly, and turned it over and over clumsily to examine it.

It was an unnatural gesture, as though she did not know the very concept of "food," or the act of opening wrapping and putting something in her mouth.

"...You open it?"

"Yes. You unwrap it like that and eat what's inside."

Rofi said nothing, and as taught, gripped the package gently with her small fingertips. She did not try to eat it; instead she pulled it close against her chest, carefully, as though she'd acquired a treasure.

"Rofi!"

Suddenly, cutting through the stillness, a carrying voice rang out from an alley a little way off. Startled, Letaria turned and saw a woman running from the dark. She was a little older than Letaria, with light-brown hair tied up high in a ponytail, and a crisp, sharp bearing.

The instant that voice reached her -- the air around Rofi switched, suddenly and dramatically.

The aimless innocence of a moment ago, and the soft atmosphere of gazing at the starry sky, vanished in an instant. Like a precisely programmed machine, she shifted into a quiet, obedient posture. She straightened her back and turned toward the woman, her eyes completely suppressing all emotion.

"So this is where you were... I was looking for you. It's time to go back, so let's go."

"...Yes. Carol."

The woman -- the one called Carol -- checked on Letaria's presence for just an instant with a stern gaze, but asked no intrusive questions, and gripped Rofi's wrist gently but firmly.

"Let's go."

"...Yes."

Rofi stood and walked off, led by Carol. As she left, she looked back just once, and in her small hand she gripped the ration package she had received from Letaria tightly, squeezing it.

There were no words. But Letaria did not miss the way those pale blue eyes wavered for an instant. Letaria could do nothing but watch that small back grow smaller, without a word.

It was then that Letaria felt she heard it -- a small breathing. A sound somehow familiar.

◆◆◆

"Hey! Letaria! So this is where you were!"

As if trading places, Grain and Merry came dashing in from behind a pipe, out of breath.

"Honestly, you vanished so suddenly, I was really panicking! Are you hurt?! I'm glad you're safe, but..."

Merry pressed in with worry, a hand on her chest in relief, while Grain pushed up his hat and sighed in exasperation.

"S-sorry... I got a little lost... But I am perfectly all right... no, I mean, I'm fine."

"Honestly, I'm begging you -- stay where we can see you. ...So, what were you doing in a tucked-away spot like this?"

At Grain's question, Letaria glanced up at the gap overhead, then looked down at her own hands.

"...No, it's nothing. I was just looking at the stars for a bit."

Smiling as she said so, Letaria had completely, cleanly forgotten about the "slender Makina," the very reason she had come here in the first place.