Chapter 7
Mitsuki continued to look at the girl in the tank, ignoring his father's shamelessness. He was used to such displays of affection, but he felt that he didn't need to actually see it to feel the impact of his father's pleading. Also, it was slightly embarrassing to see a renowned researcher using puppy eyes to get what he wanted from his wife. Were their roles reversed?
Behind him, Raze felt her resolve crumbling as she saw her husband's eyes. "Damn it. I lose again." Raze grumbled a little and then nodded slightly. Josuke smiled widely and pulled his wife into his arms. "I love you wifey!" he said as he rubbed his face into her hair. Raze struggled slightly, but gave in eventually to her husband's affections. Who wouldn't want to be spoiled every now and then? Fine, she would just tell the military higher ups that she was injured from the failed assassination and needed time off to recuperate while questioning the girl in the tank.
--
The next day, Mitsuki and Raze sat in the abandoned lab room waiting for the girl to wake up. It had been several hours and while her brain waves were normal, there didn't seem to be any other signs of consciousness. Josuke had gone back to his office and was also watching her readings from his computer. While waiting, Mitsuki had practiced his combat abilities a little more, just to feel the energies of his increased magical abilities. Raze had watched with pride in her eyes, glad that her son had finally achieved some improvement in his abilities. She had seen his frustration at Temple as he was much slower than his classmates and thought to herself that the decision to send him to Saber was a good one after all. He had finally achieved some growth and maybe could be more confident in himself.
Mitsuki didn't have any of those thoughts in his head. He was just proud that he was able to protect his family and knew he needed to keep practicing and meditating to reach complete understanding of his new skills. If he took them for granted, he could regress. So after a couple of hours of practicing both the swords and his guns, he sat cross-legged on the floor to meditate as his mother continued to watch the assassin.
--
It was the end of the day when they finally saw some signal of consciousness. Preparing themselves for anything, they watched as the girl tried to open her eyes in the water. She started to panic, and they could see a whirlpool starting to form in the water, but the tank didn't crack. Still, the girl pushed whatever air she could around in the tank with no success. Mitsuki felt pity for her and reached for the microphone so that she could hear him in the tank.
"Calm down. Breathe. You're in a healing water tank. We're not going to hurt you." He saw the water slowing down, but it still didn't stop. "We want to help you, but you need to calm down so that you can heal."
After a couple of minutes, the water finally stopped swirling in the tank. The girl put her hands against the glass. Mitsuki reached out and put his hand against hers, with the glass in between them. Mitsuki felt that she was scared and confused. He had never done this before, but he had seen comrades sharing auras to help each other in times of stress. Pulling what energy he could, he pushed his aura through the glass so that it could surround the girl in the water.
Hana felt a warmth surround her, starting from her hands. Feeling no malice or anger, she calmed herself, remembering what the voice had told her. She couldn't see much in the water, just blurry shapes. She had panicked before because she was unsure of where she was, only that she had failed her mission. She had been trained to commit suicide in case things went wrong, but she found she couldn't escape from the water no matter how much she tried. Her shoulder was in a lot of pain and she couldn't move much. Then she heard a voice in the tank, and it was comforting to hear. It was warm and deep, and she felt her panic start to die down slowly.
"We can take out some of the water, but we need to keep you in there a little longer to make sure you're completely healed. But you won't need to breathing mask and you'll be able to stand. If we do that, do you promise not to try to escape or hurt anyone?" she heard a different voice ask. It was higher, but more mature than the first voice. It wasn't as nice to hear, but Hana really did want to be able to see again. She nodded slowly and she felt a vacuum under her as the water level decreased and she was able to stand on her feet.