A Bond Beyond Blood

The three of us trudged along the road quietly with slumped defeated postures, the only level of interaction between us being the occasional grunt or hiss of pain further cementing my feeling of guilt.

"Hey Sasaki, is the battery still working?"

"Y-yes Ushiro-chan, he battery is still at thirty percent." 

"You know to call if those bastards keep chasing us."

"Y-yes, I will..."

Since they're on a first name basis it confirmed my earlier suspicions. They definitely aren't strangers at least.

After she confirmed that we were safe however, the quiet persisted once again as none of us knew what to talk about. It seemed that 'Ushiro' will be crashing again at my place tonight, which I have no qualms with as long as nobody but us three know about it.

The sun started to set, clearly being able to be seen from the horizon. The soft warmth serving as a small upside, keeping the muscles warm and lessening the aching. 

Though even with that minor upside, we were still walking uphill. Usually a shope like this isn't very noticable, if only maybe a little annoying, today however I wished this slope never existed.

I averted my gaze once more to the ground to prevent myself from tripping on anything, and also to prevent myself from peering over and looking at all the wounds they had thanks to my failure.

"Sasaki-san, watch out for the dogshit in front of you."

"Huh?! Ah. Thank you T-t-takumi." She said as she carefully stepped over it.

"No need for the formalities Taku." Ushiro interjected without elaborating further.

"... It's fine." Sasaki confirmed.

I nodded, and walked on. Maybe it was an attempt from Yamatsu to get me and her closer together, or at least more comfortable. I guess it's not the worst thing in this kind of strange situation. I may not know em, but I did fight alongside and tried to protect them.

...

"Battery?"

"Twenty seven percent..."

"They're probably gone by now though, right?"

"Hopefully they drowned when you pushed them in." She whispered to me while she gently stroked my arm with her finger in a playful gesture. 

"Heh, with my strength? Severely doubt they felt more than a little nudge."

She inched closer to me, and whispered in a flirtish tone "Must be one hell of a nudge then~"

But she should already know I'm not strong. She did all of the heavy lifting, so I wonder why she feels the need to compliment me that much.

I decided to whisper something back at her.

"Thanks for saving my ass back there, I'm glad you made it out alright."

What I didn't expect was for her to start blushing after I said that.

"...I'm just a nuisance to you, you shouldn't be glad about it at all."

"For better or for worse, I worry about you a lot. I hope you'll start doing the same." 

"I'm sorry..."

It makes me feel extremely guilty to lecture her, but I do hope she starts looking out for herself. She definitely can't rely on me. Not the way I am now.

"I'm sorry as well, Ushiro."