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“Hey, Akira... um... do you feel any better?”
Sumire's question makes you want to laugh. You do! You feel so much better! You have a plan now! A goal! You aren't just sitting in your own skin, watching as things repeat themselves over and over again. And isn't that wonderful?!
But that's not why you're here. You have a job to do. A King to kill.
You had forgotten to tell her about her usual shield skill earlier when she had woken you up, but that's fine. The one she learns after you help her will work just fine.
“Do you need help with your routine?”
Sumire looks stunned. “M-my what?”
“Your gymnastics routine. That's why you're stretching, isn't it?” It's why you always find her out here, in the middle of a small clearing right outside the village.
“Oh. Oh! Um, sure? I mean, I suppose a second set of eyes wouldn't hurt? If you're willing to, of course!”
You're not. Her routine always takes forever. You can't afford to waste that kind of time right now. You have to get to The King.
You nod.
“R-right!” She quickly unclips her skirt from her waist, revealing the built in leotard underneath. “So, uh, my sister was actually the one who came up with this routine, so I'm... I'm still not super confident with it.”
You know. Stars you know.
“But I really want to have it figured out when we rescue her because I want to try and honor her memory and I—”
This is taking too long. She's talking too much. You don't have time for this.
You want to scream.
“What makes you think that learning this routine will make her happy?”
She stumbles, caught off guard by your interruption.
“W-what?”
“I mean, learning it isn't going to magically Change you into your sister, right?”
She's staring at you now. You don't think she knows what to say.
“Wouldn't it be easier to stop trying?”
“Stop... stop trying to what...?”
“Stop trying to act like you're ever going to be anything like Kasumi!”
The world freezes around you. Sumire takes a step back. She looks horrified. She looks angry.
Weird. You don't remember this ever happening in the script before.
Oh well. The show must go on, right? It's fine. It's fine .
“You... you think I don't know that already?”
Huh?
“You really think that I don't know that?! I know that I'm nothing like my sister! I know that I’m a terrible leader and that the entire crabbing country would be better off if Kasumi had been the one to make it out instead of me, I crabbing know that!”
Uh oh. This isn't going well. You open your mouth to try and respond. She doesn't let you.
“Is that why you're here?! To rub it in my face?!” She storms up to you. She looks like she's ready to cry. “‘Oh, look at Sumire, look how sad and pathetic she is, can't even pretend to be her twin sister correctly.’”
“That's not what I—”
“Then what did you mean?! Are you going to tell me? Because you've clearly been thinking about this for a while.”
Oh. You don't know what to say to that. What are you supposed to say to that?
She scoffs. “Right. That's what I thought. You know, I always knew that you liked to keep to yourself, and that was fine! Some people just have a harder time opening up. So that was fine . But we had agreed that you would come and talk to me if you really needed to!”
Did you? You can't remember.
“But I guess all of that is out the window now, isn't it?” She sounds so resigned. She sounds so tired .
You hope it won't impact her performance too much.
She waits a beat for a response. You don't know what she wants you to say. You stay quiet.
“Right. That's what I thought...” She lets out a sigh and moves to clip her skirt back to her dress. “I'm going to the clocktower. Don't follow me.”
There's nothing you can do as she walks away.
Oh. That didn't go well, now did it? You completely screwed it up! Now Sumire is mad at you and probably doesn't ever want to see you again and—
No.
That's not the problem here, now is it?
Sumire will be fine. She'll get over it eventually. She always does.
But...
She didn't learn the shield spell. How are you supposed to beat The King without her shield spell?
Whatever. You'll figure it out. You can always just bring her to the secret library and have her learn the normal shield spell.
Yeah. That'll be fine. It'll be fine.
...
Back to it.