A soft clapping sound reached Twelve from a distance and suddenly, a much louder clapping and cheering rose up all around her. She felt Seren’s hand tighten around hers, but she had no strength left to respond in kind.

“Twelve?” Seren asked in a creaky voice. “Are you alive?”

She chuckled weakly despite herself and he let out a sigh of relief.

“Put her on a stretcher and take her to the infirmary!” A heavy voice yelled from right beside her face and she realized a warm hand other than Seren’s was holding her wrist, checking if her heart was still beating. It was, apparently, or they wouldn’t act as fast as they did to treat her.

She closed her eyes, letting several people pull at her body and lift her up, although she was pretty sure she lost consciousness before she even hit the stretcher. That must be the power of feeling safe, she thought to herself floating somewhere in a comfy darkness. Not a minute ago she had been running and fighting for her life, now she couldn’t even fight to keep her eyes open anymore.

“I’ve just never seen anything like it before. I want to talk to her about it.”

A voice she didn’t recognize woke her up from somewhere nearby. Not very deep, but not as light as Seren’s voice either. A pleasant sound that only made her want to keep her eyes closed and rest as she listened to it.

“Sir, with all due respect, she’s unconscious,” Row answered the stranger standing close to her.

“Find a way to un-unconscious her then,” the man responded as if everyone else in that room was too stupid to think of that easy solution but him. “Have you tried smelling salts?”

“We’re not using smelling salts to wake her up from a coma just so she can talk about something so traumatic for your entertainment!” Seren suddenly snapped and Twelve could hear the sound of chair legs scraping over the ground, followed by the clattering of the chair falling over as Seren jumped up.

“If you wanted her to be un-unconscious so badly, you should have thought of that when you were all just standing there staring at us fighting for our lives,” he added in a low voice.

“Seren!” Row tried to hush him. “Think of who you’re talking t-”

“I don’t care,” Seren cut him off. “I don’t care if he’s the captain or a knight or whatever. None of that means anything to us. Just leave us alone!”

That last part had probably been aimed at the unfamiliar man who wanted her to wake up so badly, and judging from the tense silence that fell over the room, the ice Seren had jumped onto was so thin that she could almost hear it creaking.

She opened her eyes with a repressed sigh. What good was saving his and all of their lives if he was going to do something so clearly dangerous only two minutes later?

“Generally, when a person is in the hospital,” she let them know dryly, “you should all use your inside voices.”

All four of them snapped their heads to her and she noticed an amused, fascinated grin on the face of the man she didn’t recognize, followed by a more than relieved look on Seren’s. He took two big steps towards her and grabbed her hand with both of his, squeezing it tightly.

“Are you okay?” He asked in a soft, trembling voice and she had to suppress the urge to pull her hand back. Wasn’t this guy much more grumpy and distant before? It was true that she had tried to sacrifice herself for him and the others, but was it okay for him to be this attached to her all of a sudden? Why did it make her feel so uncomfortable? As if it was better for her to put some clear distance between them right now? But his hands were so cold around hers that she couldn’t bring herself to pull it away, and so she just nodded and didn’t move.

“All right, all right.” The man she didn’t know pushed Seren aside so he could stand closest to Twelve, staring down at her with sparkling eyes. “Tell me everything.”

She stared back at him stone-faced, not sure what kind of expression to make. This guy behaved rude and selfish and he clearly didn’t have much respect for his fellow humans, but something about that barely contained enthusiasm and strangely sincere smile made her like him. Not to mention that he was probably closer to her age than Seren and not bad to look at either with his pitch black hair, sharp features, and dark, nearly black eyes.

“I lucked out and ended up killing that monster somehow,” she said dryly. “Since I’m guessing that’s the ‘everything’ you want to hear about.”

His smile instantly disappeared. “That’s not everything. That’s barely something.”

“Do you know anything about us?” She asked, ignoring his disappointment. “About who we are and how and why we got here?”

He sighed and plopped down on her bed, forcing her to move her legs to the side so he wouldn’t sit on them. In a second, he had gone from an excited child to a bored, moody teen.

“I guess that’s fair,” he admitted nonetheless, “info in exchange for info, right? Not that I can give you much.” He shrugged and leaned back. “I came here the same way you did thirteen years ago and I still have no idea how or who I used to be before.” He gave her a cheeky grin. “Just pick a personality you like and go with that, that’s what I did.”

“And you chose this?” Seren asked sharply. The man glared up at him for a second and Twelve held her heart, but then he suddenly burst out laughing.

“Why? Are you not enjoying me?” He asked in a sugary sweet tone before turning back to Twelve. “I’m an S-class knight and the captain of this,” he gestured around, “the training base of the Drake Annihilation Force, or D.A.F. for short. The name’s Harumi Ryusuke.”

Twelve blinked, trying to process all of that at the same time. “Drake?” She eventually decided to focus on first. “That’s what that monster we fought was?”

“That’s what we call ‘em.” Harumi crossed his legs, leaning back so far that he looked up at the ceiling instead of any of them. “And just so you know, Seren,” he glanced at Seren. “Yes, I remembered your name.” He turned his gaze back up at the ceiling, but Twelve could see Seren unconsciously shuffle back just a little.

“Just so you know,” Harumi repeated, “it’s not that we were just standing there staring at you because we wanted to. That…” he pressed his lips together as if he didn’t actually want to let the words out, “freaking bloodstained battlefield is somehow the only place on this earth that seems to be forever cut off to you once you escape it.”

Seren, who had angrily crossed his arms the moment Harumi had pushed him aside, now let them fall limply next to his body.

“So…”

“So, we weren’t watching you for sport, as you seem to so boldly presume,” Harumi let him know haughtily, “we were trying to tell you to run for your life and make your way over to us. Why the hell do you think we built this base in a way that it connects to that field? Or why we opened that huge door almost all the way?”

Seren swallowed. “I… but you closed it when we…”

“Yeah, well,” Harumi sat up a little straighter, glancing at Twelve, “drakes can move in and out of that field freely, so when the one you impaled called over a bunch of his friends, we couldn’t really keep that door open. It’s hardly worth risking the life of everyone in this base for two people, you know?”

Twelve nodded slowly. She actually had to agree with him, despite her being one of those two people.

“It really was just luck,” she suddenly let Harumi know. She lowered her gaze, plucking at the white blanket covering her legs. “I was lucky the fire slowed it down so I could run away and I was lucky that that beam had been cut so sharply at the top and rusted almost all the way through at the bottom, so I could impale that drake on it. I’m not strong or fast or whatever you were hoping for.” She clenched the sheets in her fists. “Sorry.”

He jumped off her bed without warning and turned to her with a warm smile. “No need to apologize.” He turned to the other three that had pretty much just been standing there listening. “These guys know what’s what, so they’ll inform you about everything you need to know later, but for now, let me tell you this.” His dark eyes pierced into hers. “Luck sure comes in handy, but no one survives fighting a monster like that with luck alone. Enlist.”

With those words, he turned on his heels and left the room with a surprisingly cute little wave.

”Enlist?” Twelve asked the other three with a raised eyebrow.

Row sighed and plopped down on the spot on her bed Harumi had sat in just a moment ago. “Basically, the Drake Annihilation Force is a government funded organization that is solely focused on killing those drakes and apparently the only defense this country has from being overrun by them,” he explained.

”And people who survive that ‘training field’,” Lily added, leaning against Twelve’s bed, “are apparently automatically approved for enlistment.” She crossed her arms, trying too hard to look indifferent. “So, they’re kinda pressuring us into enlisting now. Although apparently, it’s ‘our own choice’.” She raised her hands in the air to make air quotes and Twelve had to hide a little grin. 

Lily had seemed a lot more unapproachable on that training field but now, despite her words, she actually seemed like someone Twelve could feel comfortable around. She didn’t sugarcoat her words, but she was still there. They all were. Each of them could have simply left her alone in that room, they had no real connection to her, after all, but they were all there. And she could see the way they kept glancing at her as if to make sure she was really okay.

“They can pressure us, but they can’t force us,” Seren mumbled in an annoyed tone. “That’s the whole point of them adding the ‘the choice is yours’ bit.” He imitated Lily’s air quotes, although he lacked the actual sarcastic attitude to make them work.

“The moment you’re healed,” he turned to Twelve, “let’s get out of here.”

“And do what?” Twelve asked, trying not to be moved by his words. She hadn’t missed how he had said ‘let’s get out of here’, not ‘you should get out of here’. So far, it seemed like he didn’t have any intention of ever leaving her side again.

“There’s a program for people like us,” Row explained. “People that got reincarnated as themselves and don’t want to enlist. They help you get used to this world and integrate into society. It’s fully funded.”

Twelve narrowed her eyes. “Is that what you’re going to do?”

He lowered his gaze, very obviously this time, although she felt like he had been avoiding her eyes this entire time.

“When Seren ran back out to get you,” he said so softly that she had to lean in to hear him, “I couldn’t move.” He pressed his hands together. “I thought I was someone who was brave enough to move in the face of danger if it were to help others, but when it really came down to it, when I heard those screeches, when I thought about having to go back to face more of those monsters even though we finally got to safety…” A sudden sob made his shoulders shake but he pretended to scrape his throat and turned even farther away from her. “Anyway,” he said hoarsely, glancing at Lily. “I’m thinking about enlisting.”