Ranko sat up slowly on the bed as the door to her hospital room opened, holding her throbbing head in her hand. “Akane, I…”

Akane shushed her with a gesture, closing the door behind herself. “How could you? Are you crazy?!”

The redhead managed a weak smile. “Just about you.”

Akane stomped her foot angrily. “It’s not a joke, Ranko! What on Earth would make you decide to do something so mind-bendingly stupid?”

Ranko sighed quietly. “I didn’t have a choice, Akane. I knew I couldn’t avoid him hitting me. He’s too fast. I needed a way to take a hit and not go down. There was no other way.”

“I don’t care, you dummy! You could have died!” Akane wiped the corner of her eye.

Ranko shrugged. “The alternative was worse.”

The patient’s girlfriend sat on the edge of the bed next to her. “I would have been miserable, but I’d have survived, Ranko. You almost didn’t!”

Taking Akane’s hand in hers, Ranko sighed. “Maybe you would have survived if you’d married him, but I wouldn’t have. I don’t want to live without you again. I can’t.”

Akane shook her head. “Don’t you ever do anything this dumb again, do you understand me?! Not ever!”

Out in the hallway, Mei sat on a green vinyl couch, rocking with her head in her hands. Yui sat down next to her, handing her a cup of vending machine coffee. “Here. Doc says she’s gonna be fine; they’re gonna keep her for another hour or so and then send her home.”

Mei nodded, taking the cup of coffee and sipping from it disinterestedly.

Yui put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “You were great back there, you know. You saved her. You knew exactly what to do.”

Shaking her head, Mei bit her lip. “Only because I’ve seen it so many times.”

Yui nodded sadly. “I’m sorry, Mei. Did you… did you lose any of them?”

Mei sipped her coffee, an emptiness in her voice. “Until today, I lost all of them.”

Yui turned, wrapping her arms around her sister’s neck. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. But our sister’s alive today because of you. And that’s something. I know you feel like shit right now, but I can’t tell you how proud of you I am.”

The girls looked up at the sound of boots clacking down the hall. Yui rocketed to her feet as she recognized their owner. “Mama, we…”

Hana threw up her hand to silence her daughters. “Is she gonna be okay?”

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Yui nodded. “She will be, thanks to Mei. Doc says she can come home in an hour or so.”

Hana reached down with both hands, taking one of her girls’ hands in each and giving them a squeeze. “I’m proud of you both. Stay here just a minute.”

Akane and Ranko looked up as Hana stepped into the room. There was a blankness, a hollowness to her that was immediately unsettling to both girls. She spoke quietly and deliberately. “Akane, honey, could you give my daughter and me a moment alone, please?”

Akane stood, giving Ranko a worried look. “Yes, ma’am.” She scurried out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Ranko looked up to her adoptive mother, her eyes filled with remorse. “Mama, I s…”

Hana cut her off with a raised palm and a stern expression.

“Are you alright?”

The redhead nodded, sitting back up on the side of the bed. “Doc says I’m gonna feel like crap for a few days, but then I’ll be fine.”

Hana nodded, walking to the side of the bed. “Can you at least tell me why, Ranko?”

Ranko swallowed hard. She really wanted to. It broke her heart that Hana might think less of her after this. If there was anyone she thought she could trust with the truth – the Cat’s Tongue, the curse, Kuno’s obsession with her and Akane, all of it – Hana would be the most likely. But, if she were wrong, she’d shatter yet another family. Another whole set of people she loved would look at her as the weird kid. The pity case. The broken half-girl.

“I’m sorry, mama, but I can’t. I wish I could.”

Again, Hana nodded quietly. “After we get you home, you’re going to go see somebody, to talk.”

Ranko rolled her eyes. The last thing she needed was some kooky shrink trying to get inside her head. Anybody who did would likely end up crazy themselves. “I don’t need that, honest. This was a one-time thing.”

Hana raised her eyes to her daughter’s, and Ranko saw a desperation in them that she didn’t know was possible in the stalwart barkeep. “I’m not asking, Ranko!”

The sound of her mentor, her savior, her mother yelling at her with such disappointment on her face was too much for Ranko, and she shrank back on the bed. “I… I’m sorry. I…”

Hana shook her head. She’d barely managed to contain herself before, and now that the cork was out of the bottle, it wasn’t going back in.

“You still don’t get it, do you?! I have bailed Ayako out of jail more times than I can count! I slept on the floor at the foot of Yui’s bed for a month until I was sure she wouldn’t try to hurt herself again! I went through everything from postpartum depression to Hoshi’s terrible twos with Izumi! I held Mei’s head in my hands while she cried and screamed and got sick in my lap going through withdrawals, and I fought a man the size of an ox with a fire extinguisher for you!”

Ranko opened her mouth to speak, but Hana continued, her voice a hysterical torrent teetering between rage and despair. Tears rolled down her face, and her yelling was punctuated with shudders in her voice as she cried.

“When are you going to get it through your head that you are my daughter, Ranko?! Not my employee, not my charity case. My little girl, just the same as Ayako or any of the others. If you need me to listen, I will listen. If you need me to hold you, I’ll hold you. If you need me to fight for you, I’ll fight until my last breath. You can come to me with anything. For anything. Always. No strings attached. There is nothing – nothing - - I wouldn’t do for you and your sisters! All you have to do is ask!”

Ranko nodded. “But I…”

“But you will NOT make me bury you! I will NOT lose one of my girls! I can’t. I refuse. I won’t survive it. Don’t you dare do that to me, Ranko!” Her body quaked, giving in to the sobs.

Ranko slipped off the thin hospital mattress to her feet, wrapping her arms tightly around Hana. Hana snatched her into a hug of her own, grabbing fistfuls of the back of her blue silk shirt and holding on as if she feared Ranko would fall off the earth if she let go.

“I won’t, I promise. I love you, ma… mom.”