// 23 February, MC 0076. Public Cemetery, Kiev. 14:00 hours //
It was a cold and snowy day. There was a strange, and yet benevolent, sense of serenity that was enveloping the mausoleum complex. Thick piles of snows were gradually building up, covering most of the land in white, cold blanket that no one wanted to cover their body and soul with. Ravens could be seen perching upon branches of leafless trees, observing the area as if they were the guardians of the deceased.
And he was there, alone, standing in front of the stone slab. He did not bulge, having been stationary for the past one hour, and as he looked down at the plaque there was a low-sounding sigh coming out of his lips.
“…”
He knelt into the snowy ground. Slowly he put the flowers onto the stone slab, swiping some of the snows off with his gloved hands. A faint grin was carved upon his face as he glanced into the name of the deceased, and as softly as he could he traced his finger along the name.
“Looks like this will be my final visit…” He put a locket next to the flowers and positioned it so it stayed aligned with the slab. He, then, turned to another tomb next to it and put what looked like a 50-calibre bullet on the slab. He stood up and looked down at both the tombs.
“Farewell, Yuu, Grandpa Lancelot…” he whispered. “And I’m sorry…”
He turned around and found himself staring into a pair of eyes he had known for very long. He was surprised, as so did the person with the eyeglasses.
Finally, after they were speechless for so long, the spectacled person opened her mouth.
“It’s… been a long time, Hikki…” half-heartedly Claes spoke.
“You surprised me,” he uttered. “What brought you here?”
“I… I mean… we have unfinished errands at Kiev to settle first before we go back to Italy,” she replied. “You’ve… changed since we last met.”
He could only nod. “A lot, to be straight.” He noticed the same flowers she was carrying. “You don’t have to tell me. Go on. I’ll wait here.”
“Thanks.” She approached the gravestones and put the flowers between them, resting the bouquet firmly on the snow. He stood next to her and watched as she murmured something in low breath.
“How are things at your side?”
“Nothing much had changed since,” Claes uttered. “Everyone’s busy with their own works. We still have plans for our summer picnic, though. When things have gone back to normal, this year we’re going to Switzerland.”
“Good for you,” he answered.
“How about you?” Claes asked.
“Me?” He threw his sight into the snowy sky. “You won’t believe what had happened for the past three months. But if I had to tell you something, I just got a new job.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Claes replied.
Later, as the former friends walked down the path that led to the gate, Claes explained how the Bougainvillea Brigade had undergone internal restructuring following his resignation, and how the Ukrainian special operation unit was re-established as a youth training organization. “No longer we have to conceal our presence behind the black curtain and fear our existence will be forgotten, Madam Natalya said to us,” she spoke. “She felt it was time to move forward and embrace the future instead of being tied to the past.”
“Sounds like something I’d tell my friends,” he shrugged.
“So what are you going to do after this?” Claes asked.
“I’ll meet my family; been missing them very much. Wonder how they’re doing here,” he answered. There was a moment of silence as he looked back into the sky and said “strange, isn’t it?”
“Excuse me?”
He halted. Kneeling down to take a pile of snow in his hand, he clenched it and let it melt. “Sometimes ago, we were fighting as an enemy determined to finish off each other. Now, we’re here, reunited as two friends who had been separated for a very long time. Don’t you think it’s strange, when both of us never bear grudge against each other?”
“I never look at you as my enemy,” she said and put her hand on his shoulder as a sign of assurance. “Even when I… had to do it, I just wanted to see you as a friend in need.”
“You weren’t angry at me, were you?”
She merely smiled. “I will never be angry at you for the rest of my life, Hikki,” she answered. “I have long forgiven you, in fact.”
He could only smile as he held the hand in return. “Thanks, Claes. I really appreciate your sincerity,” he said. “Say, I remembered a café we used to hang around. What do you say if we go there and have quick afternoon tea?”
“WAII!!!!”
His attention was disturbed when a pair of arms seized his neck, followed by a rough tackle that pinned him into the snow. “What the hell?!” he barked and gasped when Iriya choked him.
“You’re back!!” the energetic girl exclaimed and tightened her arms. “You didn’t tell me you’d come by!!”
“But I’m on a quick visit!” he cried out.
“Quick visit or not, you aren’t going anywhere else until I say so,” Iriya retorted, even as all the members of the Bougainvillea Brigade and the Section Two were coming to welcome his return. “Where you were planning to go? I know! It’s the Cherry Blossom Café, right? Come on, everyone! Let’s have a welcome party to our sibling in soul!”
“Let go off me first, Iriya-nee!” Hikki screamed.
“Welcome back, Hikki,” Triela greeted with a smile (standing around her, Petrushka, Beatrice, Luke, Rico and Henrietta smiled). The ‘siblings in soul’ also smiled, with Mariel and Elsa the happiest among the children.
“So, Iriya, what’s the plan?” Triela asked.
“The plan is to bash our sibling in soul as much as we want to until we drop!” happily Iriya declared and proceeded to shove his face into the snow. He quickly fled his former adoptive sister’s armlock and tossed snowballs at the young woman. “That is not fair!!”
“Go ahead. Make my day,” he said and flung more snowballs at Iriya; she dodged, and the snowballs hot Triela. The annoyed pigtailed girl cried foul at him and counterattacked with snowball barrage; one of the projectiles hit Claes, and the surprised spectacled girl was caught by the ex-gunslinger boy as she fell onto the ground. The girls cooed at the suddenly romantic scene and began rooting for the unlikely couple.
“Hey! He gets to take Claes-chan in his arms while I don’t? This is blasphemy!” Iriya growled and threw as much snowballs at the boy as she could. Both he and Claes were hit, and their reaction was to return fire at the ‘sister in soul’. Soon all of them were caught in a free-for-all snowball fight, as each of them tried outsmarting each other.
(Not far from the cemetery, the Aces quartet were just watching at the Gale Whistler, not wanting to disturb his reunion with his ‘siblings in soul’. “That looks like fun, though,” Fate commented, “tossing and dodging flying snowballs.”
“Nah, just let him have the fun,” Nanoha said. “We’re just accompanying him here, right?”
“Come on, guys!” Hayate exclaimed and seized Keroko’s arms. “I just saw a Lolita shop at downtown. Who’s coming with me?”)