Hisako laughed, bubbly but sad. "They were done," she said with finality. "What was it you told me, Amajiki-san?"
Amajiki shrugged, not recalling his exact words. "The epiphany. You don't need to defeat the fear; you just need to know it and move forward anyway. To brave the fear through epiphany."
"To exhibit control in an environment you cannot," Sasaki echoed–her own version of the same idea, albeit a bit twisted in Hisako's opinion.
Hisako glanced at her sword, mentally sheathing it, and it collapsed into a tangle of black ash on the ground, writhing like a wild rosebush as it faded. From its ashes, her door rose, bubbling up from the ground like all the items and structures had.
Sasaki watched Hisako critically.
Amajiki eyed her with a little more concern. "How are you feeling?"
Hisako spared a glance down her body. The dragon's blood had drenched her, but she wasn't all that outwardly injured otherwise. She had cuts and gashes from her escape and some worse nicks from fleeing the tiger, and if she breathed too hard, she felt herself sway and her vision swam.
Hisako clenched her fists, feeling the fatigue bite through her body now that the adrenaline had stopped pumping. She smiled despite it. "I feel better."
Sasaki shook her head in what, to Hisako, looked a little like amusement. "Felt better, more like."
"It's not my blood, mostly," Hisako replied. "But I do think I might've re-broken some ribs."
Sasaki rolled her eyes and pushed Hisako's door open. "You sure know how to pick them, old man."
Amajiki pouted genuinely. "Hey. I'm clearly two-for-two on great mentees."
Sasaki exited the Door, and Amajiki and then Hisako followed. The sun was ready to rise, peeking over the park's treetops.
Hisako took a moment to stare. The trees in the park were thinner than the jungle's, and the ground was not so heavily populated. She toed at an emerging root with her boot, wondering how much of her fantasy countryside had been real.
"Hey."
Amajiki's hand landed on her shoulder gently. It still twinged something she ought to get checked out, but Hisako recognized the care.
"I'll call Dr. Moon to send us a door. Take a moment, yeah?"
Sasaki led them back to the bench where the night had started, and Hisako nearly collapsed into the seat. Sasaki eyed her cautiously.
"Are you about to faint?" Sasaki asked sharply.
Hisako shook her head. "Naw. Just tired."
Amajiki was on the phone a few steps away, pacing in the grass. Sasaki glanced back at him.
"So that was your second door ever?" Sasaki asked. "After your friend's? Koharu?"
"Kohaku," Hisako corrected gently. "Yeah."
The silence hung between them for a long moment. From the corner of her eye, Hisako could tell Sasaki was still staring.
Before she could help herself, her shame made her blurt: "I'm sorry if I wasn't much help–"
Sasaki cut her off with a raised hand, like a bit of a princess. If she hadn't been so full of shame, Hisako might've giggled.
"It was a good second door," Sasaki said with finality. "Most rookies don't have their weapon or ability in their own door, so they don't fight, and it's usually their first door." She mused silently for a moment, then continued. "You fought in your first door, though, and earned your sword. For someone else."
"Mmhmm." Hisako didn't know where Sasaki was going with the conversation, but the cool dawn air felt nice on her burning wounds.
"You'll be a good Doorkeeper," Sasaki finished.
Hisako looked at her, half in disbelief. She looked serious–she looked a little embarrassed at the admission, even.
Amajiki broke the moment, clapping a hand down on the edge of the bench before joining them, sitting down to Hisako's right with a groan as he got comfy. "Dr. Moon's door will be here shortly."
He glanced between them. Sasaki pointedly looked away.
"You'll be a good rival," Sasaki said bluntly. "I'll be waiting for you in the big leagues, Mochizuki."
"'Hisako' is fine," Hisako hurriedly said. "If we're going to be rivals, we ought to be more casual with each other, no?"
Sasaki glanced at her briefly, watching the arrogant air from the first time they'd met returning. Hisako was starting to think it wasn't arrogance but a well-deserved confidence bordering on overconfidence.
Hisako smiled at her. Sasaki didn't believe she was better than others; she knew it. Hisako appreciated that in people–people who knew what they were and owned it.
Sasaki broke away from her smile with a slight flush. "Then call me 'Nanae.'" She stood abruptly and withdrew a keyring from her pocket. She waved a particularly ornate, old-looking key, and a torii gate clacked loudly into existence before her.
She glanced over her shoulder, blushed when she saw Hisako gazing at her with wonder, and passed through, disappearing into a wave of haze. The gate snapped away in a blink the second she passed through.
Hisako turned to look at Amajiki in shock so fast that she pulled something in her neck. "What was that?"
"I think she doesn't know if she wants to beat you into a pulp or marry you," Amajiki said with a casual shrug.
"N-no! The gate! But, also that!" She slapped his shoulder gently. "Don't say things like that! We only just met."
Amajiki shrugged again. "She has a type, I suppose."
Hisako swatted at his arm again. "The gate!"
Amajiki retrieved his own keyring and showed her an identical key. "More Doorkeeper stuff. You can study up when you're recovering from your latest…" He trailed off with another shrug. "Did you have a habit of getting injured before this?"
Hisako rolled her eyes. "I didn't fight giant monsters before this, so no."
Amajiki sighed and rubbed his face. He missed the sudden pearly glow of a door appearing across the path, but he must've heard it because he groaned.
"Moon is going to kill me if I keep bringing you back so beat up," he moaned.
Hisako pushed herself to her feet as the door slipped open and Dr. Moon appeared. She certainly didn't look amused to see them, but her face was the same gentle calm as before. Maybe she always looked like that, and she really was furious this time?
Amajiki certainly acted like it. He bowed deeply as he stood and escorted Hisako forth. "Dr. Moon! Thank you for coming so quickly. I'm afraid Mochizuki-san has likely broken her ribs again."
Dr. Moon didn't say a word. She simply moved aside and let them in. She herded them down the familiar path in the sky to the same examination room. With a subtle gesture of her hands, the curtains appeared around them.
"Please seat yourselves," she said gently.
Amajiki sat quietly on the couch, making himself small and compact. He looked rather cowed.
Hisako sprawled out on the examination bed and relaxed against it. Moon immediately began examining her visually, then with her stethoscope.
After her initial investigation, she turned to Amajiki. "Masaru," she said quietly. "It's never you," she scolded. "It's always your mentees."
Amajiki smiled nervously. "Aw, it's not me, Doctor. It's them. I have horrible taste in mentees."
Moon took a long moment to consider him. Hisako couldn't tell what she was thinking behind her still, dark eyes.
"The Captain left a message for you should you return successfully," she said finally. She turned back to Hisako and began cleaning the myriad of cuts.
Hisako flinched at the burn of the touch but didn't tense up. Staying melted against the table was the only plausible option in her exhausted state.
"We were successful," Amajiki promised.
Moon lifted a brow, and he shut his mouth.
"Akabane-san will confirm the clearing of the door to Iwamoto-san, and Mochizuki-san will be scheduled for testing into F-Grade," Moon relayed. "That will wait, however, until Mochizuki-san can pass the full physical, which she will not in this state."
"Ahh. I really apologize for that. A minor Doorwalker sort of flew off with her," Amajiki said.
"Your gambling on the combat capabilities of your subordinates will continue to bite you in the back," Moon scolded, soft as a lamb. "Reckless mentee or not, you need to be more careful."
"Sorry, Mochizuki-san," Amajiki said.
Hisako shrugged. "You've been good to me. I don't want my hand held; I want to be pushed out of my comfort zone and grow from it."
Moon's face finally changed, if only briefly. She chuckled near-silently and smiled so minimally that it might've been a minor facial spasm. "You really do know how to choose them, Masaru-kun."
Amajiki offered another nervous smile. "I have faith in her."
Moon looked back at Hisako. Hisako couldn't read her face–it'd shifted back to that impenetrable business-kindness. "You're a lucky man. You always choose the right person to bet on."
Amajiki's face also softened. Hisako got the feeling they were discussing something she had no part of. Something more raw than just a few scrapes and broken bones.
"Mochizuki-san will be even better," Amajiki said absently.
Moon's eyebrows both raised in unsuppressible surprise. "Better is quite the claim." She smiled down warmly at Hisako. "Amajiki-san is too lucky to be wrong," she sighed. "But he's no superhuman. You'll be assigned a mentor to train your swordsmanship–someone with a similarly unique blade."
Hisako nodded carefully as Moon wiped down and glued shut a cut on her collar.
"You remember what the doctor told you last time you broke your ribs?" she asked.
"And the PT to recover from it."
"Very good. You'll come in weekly so I can monitor your recovery. You should recover far quicker now that you're fully Awakened."
Hisako hummed in acknowledgement; Moon's treatments had gotten to her face, pulling together a nastier tree-gash on her cheek.
"Very good."
After several silent minutes, Moon got to the cut across her lips and the tiger-clawings on her legs. She numbed the wounds and stitched them, but Hisako could feel the tug of the stitches being sewn in, and it made her a bit queasy.
"Like I explained earlier," Amajiki explained, "Akabane-san is captain of the Enforcement Division. My captain is Iwamoto-san. He will be your captain, unless Akabane-san steals my poor mentee away from me again."
Hisako chuckled, moving her newly stitched face as little as possible. "I'll try to be loyal."
"Iwamoto-san is good," Moon offered. "Anyone would have to be to deal with Amajiki-san."
It was hard to tell when she was joking and when she was just saying it straight. Either way, she meant it.
"You'll understand our division soon enough," Amajiki chuckled. "We have a reputation for being a little less uptight than everyone else."
"And you, Doctor? What division are you part of?" Hisako asked. "Who is your captain?"
"The Medical Division is its own division of Doorkeepers. I am currently assigned to the Chubu region, though," Moon explained. "And we are currently in the process of choosing our captain, so I cannot offer that information yet."
"Choosing?" Hisako echoed. "Is it a voting process?"
A pause fell in the air. Hisako caught Amajiki and Moon exchanging a hesitant glance. Finally, Amajiki explained carefully.
"Candidates must first qualify for captaincy, and then they're selected by the Head Captain following a council with the other Captains and the division's vice captain."
"It's a new process," Moon countered. "The Medical Division is relatively new, and thus it's being used as a guinea pig for the new system."
The two fell silent, eying each other. If they were having a silent conversation, it was the most obscure one Hisako had ever seen. Neither's face moved a muscle. A silent conversation with Kohaku was akin to reading a picture book.
"The Doorkeepers as an organization are undergoing a shift in governing style," Amajiki finally said. "The selection of the Medical Division's new captain will be a sign of how the organization will work going forward."
"It's tense, then," Hisako murmured.
"Yes," Moon agreed. "It'll be the biggest step forward or the biggest step back in decades."
"And you two… Do you agree with each other? On what's 'right', I mean?"
"We do," Amajiki admitted. "Most Doorkeepers agree."
"Most," Hisako echoed.
"The two main ideologies are that of traditionalism and that of, well, progressivism," Moon explained. "The traditionalists are the family clans and those supported by them. They may make up a minority of the Doorkeepers, but they have held the power and the current system helps them keep it."
Hisako nodded in understanding. She wasn't a big politics nut, but she was no stranger to power dynamics, especially stupid societal ones.
"Who are these families?"
"People whose great-great-great-yada-yada grandparents were Doorkeepers and every member of their family since has been a Doorkeeper," Amajiki replied.
Hisako almost held her tongue at the thought his words triggered. "Like Nanae?"
Moon nodded gravely. "Exactly like Sasaki-san. The Sasaki Clan is one of the most powerful clans–they are one of the original six clans to form the Doorkeepers."
Hisako glanced at Amajiki. He didn't seem bothered. She trusted him not to trust someone who opposed him ideologically to have gone through her door with them, but she also found it too much of a coincidence.
"It feels like you're up to something," she grumbled.
Moon tied off a long ladder of stitches on her leg and laughed pleasantly. "Ah, she's certainly sharper than your last mentee."
Amajiki flushed a bit at being caught. "Perhaps."
"He is too ashamed to let you know that you've been placed in the crosshairs of our little alliance by being associated with him. He's something of a rebel, if you hadn't noticed," Moon chuckled. "It's nothing to be concerned with. As long as you remain outside of a clan-controlled division, you will be perfectly fine. At worst, it'll be a bit of bureaucratic red tape to get you up the ranks as quickly as you should."
"I feel like I should really educate myself during my recovery," Hisako sighed. "I suppose it would never be so easy."
She was never good at RPGs that required a clever tongue in dialogue choices. She preferred to cut down evil with her overleveled stats. She imagined that wouldn't work too well in real life.
"Hm, but nothing worth fighting for is easy," Amajiki remarked, pulling her from her gloomy thoughts. "The game wouldn't be fun without the risk."
Hisako chuckled and smiled. "No. Easy games are always boring, and you don't get the bragging rights of beating them."
Moon laughed again, more genuinely than before. "Poor Iwamoto-san is going to have his hands full with you two."