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Keiko

It\'s them!  The Zayama thought as she saw Kaori running towards her, kicking snow up into the air with every step.  It\'s actually them! I made it! Naturally, Keiko ran after her too. 

"Kaori!" She yelled into the woman\'s armor, ignoring the coldness of it pressing against her cheek as she grinned. "I missed you so much!" 

"Hahaha, me too!" Kaori hugged her tighter and, well, now her armor was actually starting to hurt a little, so Keiko pulled back. Then, she saw Ash standing by Satsuhiro and a particularly large man that she didn\'t know. 

She walked up to Ash and found the half-demon holding back a smile. Her arms were crossed as Keiko went up to her. Knowing what she was like, Keiko didn\'t expect a hug back from her, so she wrapped her own arms around the hybrid fully thinking her embrace would go unreturned. 

However, a pair of strong arms soon, almost bashfully, came around her back. Keiko looked up, still in Ash\'s space. The half-demon\'s cheeks held a hint of red that made Keiko chuckle. 

"I was wondering when you\'d show up," Ash told her. 

"A few things held me up, oof," she was pushed forwards slightly as Kaori came and joined the hug. "But, I\'m here." 

"I\'m so glad! Well, I mean, kinda," Kaori said. "We are going to be fighting soon, after all, but uh, we\'re here now, at least!" Kaori grinned and looked back between Ash and Keiko. 

Ash nodded and walked back as the man Keiko didn\'t know walked up. He extended a hand and Keiko quickly shook it. 

"A Zayama?" He asked. 

"Y-Yes, sir," Keiko bowed when she noticed that his armor. although it had a slightly more bared design, was still that of a Savior. 

"Ah, then we are in good company. Name\'s Ren."

"K-Keiko."

"I haven\'t met many from your clan, but the few I have left me in awe with their prowess." 

"I\'m, uh, not..." Keiko scratched behind her head. 

"This place though," he cut her off, "is not the best for the reunion the three of you seem to be having. How about we all go for some drinks, on me, of course!" 

Keiko looked back at the other two. 

"Um... If you want to, I suppose." 

"Sure," Ash shrugged. 

"That would be great!" Kaori nodded eagerly. 

"Alright then, come on!" Ren waved for them to follow. 

Keiko\'s first impression of Sapphire was that it was a cold, gentle place. As opposed to the crowded Jade or Onyx where everyone seemed to move frantically from one grey building to another, here, while there were far fewer people around, Keiko saw that there was also a stronger sense of community. There were no loners, everyone was either chatting or laughing with someone. The buildings were also smaller, but from what Keiko could see of the parts that weren\'t covered in snow, they also had a lot of personality drawn into the signs outside that labeled them. This one inn to the right showed the image of a couple of maids attending a thin traveler, what looked like a bank at the center of the city carried multiple symbols of different coins. 

Little things like that were on almost every building. It made each one feel at least mostly distinct. 

The group ended up at a tavern where, as soon as Ren walked in, he stretched his arms out and said:

"GREETINGS, WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR DIVINE BEVERAGES!" Two barkeeps chuckled as Ren walked over to them, while the others found two tables to the left. Satsuhiro pulled back two chairs on the one to the right while the other three girls sat at the one to the left. 

"I\'ll be back in a moment, I want to order some food," Satsuhiro said. He then walked towards the bar where Ren was laughing so loudly about something, the entire tavern could hear him. 

Finally, Keiko set her weapons aside and put her hands on her lap. 

This feels... It\'s only been a week or two and yet, I feel so relieved seeing everyone again. 

"So," Ash said, leaning on the table and putting a hand on her chin, "how\'d your thing go?" 

"Uhm... It went well." 

There were so many emotions swirling in Keiko\'s chest that it made it hard to speak. 

"The castle had the spirits of recent legendary warriors from my clan. I had to fight them through five floors, and at the end, I," Keiko\'s throat was slightly tight due to her excitement, "I ended up fighting a man named Musano Hasashi, who was a Savior and... I passed the tests." 

She ignored the brief flicker of pain she felt when she thought of her parents\' floor. 

"Damn," Ash smiled. "Sounds cool. What did you get at the end?" 

"Techniques. Uh, p-powers too, and stuff... Haha, sorry, I just..." Keiko took a deep breath, "it\'s kind of surreal seeing you, both of you, again after a while." 

"We still need training and all that so we were never going to stay apart for too long..." Ash muttered. 

"Can you show us any of those techniques!?" Kaori asked, leaning forwards. 

"Uh, maybe later? This... this place isn\'t exactly open enough, haha." 

As Ren and Satsuhiro returned with drinks in their hands, they were given a few different mugs and Keiko looked down at a cup filled with black liquid that was placed in front of her. She tentatively lifted it up to her lips and took a sip, then poked her tongue out to wipe it across what remained on her upper lip. 

She caught Ash staring at her the entire time and tilted her head. 

"Ash? Is, um, something up?" 

"Hm? No, I was just thinking that you seem even hotter now," Ash said, blankly. 

Keiko blinked. 

Then, her cheeks slowly got redder and redder as Ash realized what she said. 

"Oh. Sorry, I was kind of thinking out loud there." 

---

An Hour Later

Keiko wasn\'t much of a drinker, so she mostly just took a few sips of the slightly sour, but also sweet, drink that she\'d been given. The others though were different. Kaori and Ren gulped their drinks down enthusiastically, eventually ending up with red hues on their cheeks, while Satsuhiro and Ash both emptied their own mugs casually, seeming entirely unaffected at the same time. 

As Satsuhiro and Ren discussed some old memories, Kaori let go of her drink and stood up, walking to where Keiko was sitting, wrapping an arm around her back, and sitting next to her. 

"Ah! I\'m so glad!" Kaori said between drunken giggles. "It sort of felt like a little piece was missing but you\'re here now!" 

"Uh, yeah," Keiko replied shyly. 

"But... I don\'t know, you kind of need to learn some manners, Keiko." Kaori said, fairly cheekily. Keiko\'s eyes widened. 

"What!?" 

Then, Kaori got closer, whispering into her ear. 

"You haven\'t even given us a kiss yet, where\'s the love?" 

And then, before Keiko could respond, Kaori lightly pulled her in and took the kiss she\'d asked for. Keiko could barely process what was happening. Her mind was blank as Kaori then pulled away, a thin strand of saliva connecting them as she started cackling. 

"Moments like these, I kind of wish I could get drunk," Keiko heard Ash mutter. 

"You can be drunk on more than just alcohol, Ash," Kaori told her. "Love, life, friendship! You can be drunk on whatever you want to be!" 

"I think you have a really loose definition of what being drunk is, but okay." 

Kaori shrugged as Keiko shrunk a little, smiling. 

I really did miss them. 

By the time the festivities were over, it was already nighttime. The cold city had turned downright freezing and so, the group had to go back home. Keiko didn\'t know what that "home" was, but she walked by their side happily, with Kaori snaking an arm around her waist the whole way until they reached a fairly large bathhouse. 

Walking in, Keiko\'s eyes landed on a woman who was standing at the center of the main room.  Huh?  She was thin, to the point of looking sickly, with pale skin and dry black hair that ran down her back over a suit of black feathers. 

In front of her was a skeleton holding up a bottle of something. 

"Hm... No, a different one. There has to be something worth drinking in this place." 

The skeleton nodded and its bones clinked against each other as it walked over to the kitchen. The woman turned around and saw them all entering. 

"Ah... I suppose it\'s time for me to retire," Ren said. "I\'ll see you all tomorrow!" 

Before Keiko even turned around, he was gone. 

The woman ahead grinned at them. 

"Ah. You reek of the exact thing I was looking for. No worries though, I\'ll get out of your way." 

No one addressed her. The woman simply called her skeleton over and walked off to some other room to the left side of the building, without anyone speaking to her.  Who was that? 

"U-Uwah!" She was then harshly pulled aside by Kaori. The blonde all but dragged her to one of the rooms to the right side of the building. She was taken to a large grey bed which Kaori gently pushed her onto. "W-What\'s...?" 

But, once Keiko saw Kaori\'s face, she understood. 

Oh.  She said, seeing the woman grinning with her face fully flushed.  She\'s beyond drunk. 

"Did I mention that I kind of missed you?" Kaori asked. "Because I did." 

"I-I can tell..." 

"So..." She leaned in. "You want me to show you how much?"