A little cycle of events.
Tsukasa would unintentionally upset Karerin, which brings out Karen-chan. Karen-chan will cause a ruckus, and awakened Tsukasa will stop her. Tsukasa will wake up with a bleeding wound or two, and Karerin feeling nauseous.
Tsukasa fiddles with her mother's necklace as she watches Karerin in front of her eat. Ever since that incident, she's been feeling on edge around Karen, terrified that Karen-chan will suddenly come out and kill her for humiliating her.
But she can't leave the girl alone either, ever since she proposed to her, to stay by her side, to stop her when things go bad, she just felt the need to stay by her, despite the fear.
“Tsukasa-san?”
“Uh, y-yes?”
“You've been staring at me for a while, are you not gonna eat?”
Tsukasa looks down at her food, untouched and cold. She supposed she was too preoccupied staring at Karerin to pay attention to her food.
“Oh, I was…not really hungry.”
“Oh, I see.” Karen looks back down on her food with downcast eyes. She clearly saw into Tsukasa’s lie.
Oh no.
She made Karen upset again. This is bad. If she upsets her further, Karen-chan will appear. And Karen-chan will tear her into shreds.
Tsukasa grips her fork, preparing for the worst. Her eyes looked around, searching for possible weapons Karen-chan might use. No bottles in sight, Karerin isn't using a fork, chopsticks could be used, maybe. The water glass? And the plate, she could smash it to sharp-edged pieces.
Her heart races as she waits nervously. 5 minutes pass, and another 5 minutes. Nothing.
Karen stood up, which made Tsukasa flinch a bit. Oh no oh no oh no—
“Shall we go back to the dorms?”
“Eh?” Karen just smiled at her. A fake smile, even someone as dumb as Tsukasa can tell.
The orange-hooded girl started walking, and the blonde followed suit, feeling guilty. She's definitely upset Karerin this time, but it's kinda strange, Karen-chan wasn't coming for her throat this time.
Tsukasa gulped as she followed Karen quietly, as they approached the dormitories, as they entered their room. Nobody else was home, meaning the two of them were alone again.
She closes the door behind her and breathes out. She turns around, and was surprised to see Karen sit on Tsukasa’s bed, instead of her own at the top bunk. Karen smiles at her and pats the space beside her, holding a gaming switch. “Do you wanna play a racing game with me again, Tsukasa-san?”
“U-uh sure…”
She slowly sits beside her, still a little anxious. Is she still not upset with her? It was hard to read Karerin sometimes, or maybe Tsukasa’s just too clueless.
“Do you wanna try, Tsukasa-san?” Karerin hands her the switch, which she accepts a little hesitantly.
The moment she started the game, her worries disappeared for a moment, as her mind focused on trying not to lose. She sucks at these games so bad, but Karen seems to enjoy watching her a lot.
“Ah! I can't turn in time! Why is this curve so sharp?!”
She swore she could feel Karerin watching her with sparkles in her eyes. Ahh…she crashed again.
“One more time!”
“Tsukasa-san.”
“Yes?!” She answers without looking away from the screen.
“Can you face the opposite direction from me?”
“Sure…?” She turns her body away from Karen, her eyes still on the game. “Ah! I overtook someone! Yay!”
Amidst her little celebration, she froze when a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her back to lean on the girl behind her. The sound of the voice saying “Game over!” from the screen felt like a blur when she felt Karerin breathing against her ear.
“A-Asakura-san??”
“Tsukasa-san…” The orange-hooded girl nuzzles her face on Tsukasa’s cheek, making her face turn red and her heart rate spike up. “You're too tense around me…”
Oh, so she does notice after all. Of course, Karen isn't dense like Tsukasa after all.
Tsukasa’s heart hammered louder against her chest when Karen gently took one of her hands and put it to her face, caressing her cheek. “I don't mean to make you uncomfortable around me, I'm sorry…”
I made her sad.
Tsukasa audibly gulped when Karen kissed the palm of her hand. At this point, she couldn't tell whose heartbeat she's hearing, is it Karen’s or her own?
“A-Asakura-san…” She struggles to speak, feeling the pressure of the tension between them.
“Urk…!” All of a sudden, Karen winces, and pushes Tsukasa away.
“Asakura-san?!”
“Tsukasa-san…I'm sorry…” She grips her chest tightly, fighting for her own body. “Please run! Karen-chan, she's…”
Seemingly out of herself now, the orange-hooded girl dashes to grab the nearest breakable object— Tama’s nightlight —and smashes it to the wall, breaking it to sharp pieces.
Tsukasa grabs her mother’s pendant.
Asakura— no, Karen-chan grabs one of the shards of glass and turns to Toujou with bloodlust in her eyes.
“HEHYAYHEYAEHA, IT'S KAREN-CHANNN.”
“Tsk.”
“YOU'VE AWAKENED. JUST IN TIME, INTEL AGENT! IT'S ABOUT TIME I KILLED AN ACTUAL, REAL HUMAN!”
The awakened Tsukasa squints her eyes at Karen-chan. “Causing a ruckus inside the dorms, how daft of you.”
“MATTERS NOT! I STILL GOTTA KILL YOU FOR HUMILIATING ME!”
Tsk.
Toujou reached for the pocket inside of her blazer, grabbing the perfume atomizer she used against Karen-chan in the cafeteria—
It's gone?!
She frustratedly clicked her tongue. Did her other self leave it somewhere?!
She was about to make a dive to her bunk bed to quickly search her stuff, but she was blocked by a flash of orange as she dodged a slash attack.
“DON'T THINK YOU CAN JUST TAKE ASAKURA SO EASILY! ASAKURA AND I ARE THE SAME, IF YOU WANT HER YOU HAVE TO GET THROUGH ME FIRST!”
Worded like an overprotective mother-in-law.
She has to find a way to fend off Karen-chan for a moment. She didn't want to fight back because that meant damaging Asakura’s body, which she wanted to avoid as much as possible.
In the corner of her eye, she noticed that Karen-chan bumped into the leather bag on her bed. The bag fell, and there rolled off a small perfume bottle.
Toujou took the chance, and pushed Karen-chan out of the way, grabbing the perfume atomizer on the floor.
Now, she would spray it at the serial killer Karen right now, but inside this small air-conditioned room, there would be a stronger effect on Karen-chan, and the same goes for her too.
She goes for the door knob and dashed out, Karen-chan quickly following behind.
“DON'T THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE THIS TIME, INTEL AGENT!!”
The squad members in the common area screamed as they avoided the out-of-control serial killer chasing a seraph squadron member clad in a blue blazer.
Toujou led her to the hallway at the left wing, and sprayed. They continue their chase of cat-and-mouse, the intel agent spraying here and there, rationing the little amount of perfume left on her.
Though it seems Karen-chan has already caught up to her perfume tactic, and covered her nose during the times she sprays. That didn't really stop her from inhaling some of it, but it sure lessened the effect.
Tsk, she has no other choice then.
They went around the dorm building, until they're back at the right wing, where the 31-A dorms are located. Toujou barged in the room, with Karen-chan following shortly behind.
The serial killer locked the door and gave her a sinister smile. “ENOUGH RUNNING, INTEL AGENT!”
Toujou didn't falter. “I could say the same to you.”
With all the remaining perfume she had left, she sprayed it around the room.
“YOUR CHEAP TACTICS DON'T WORK ON ME ANYMORE!”
“I know.”
In a blink of an eye, she ran front into Karen-chan, and slapped the shard of glass out of her already bleeding hand.
“?!”
With all the remaining strength she has left, she grabs both of the other girl’s arms, and pushed her to her bed, straddling her and preventing her from moving.
“YOU—”
Both of them inhaled the smell of the mist, and Tsukasa could feel the girl under her struggling less and less. She admits she herself is losing strength too.
She loosens her grip on Karen-chan’s wrists, trying to recollect all her remaining consciousness. It was too late before she realized this mistake.
Toujou was caught off guard when Karen-chan forcefully grabbed her shoulders and flipped her over, straddling her body and restricting her.
“I'll…let this time slip, but…”
Tsukasa’s eyes widened when Karen-chan took out another shard of glass from her left pocket. She had another one?!
And before she could fight back—
“!!”
Toujou couldn't help but wince, feeling a sharp pain on her hand. Karen-chan stabbed her left hand, but…
Karen-chan’s right hand was tightly holding onto her left, meaning she just stabbed the both of them. Is she out of her mind?
“I'll…get you next time…”
For a quick second, the red eyes glaring down at her returned to its original yellow, before the orange-hooded body collapsed on top of her.
Their bleeding hands remained intertwined with each other, a glass shard penetrating both of them, their blood mixing with each other.
“...” Toujou was left speechless, as she felt her consciousness slipping away. She can't help but wonder, why did Karen-chan stab herself too?
Tsk. She lost far more blood than she planned. She's sure her other self will freak the hell out seeing her sheets covered in blood.
~
Tsukasa woke up to a blinding light. Her eyes adjusted for a second, before she jolted up.
What just happened? Where is she?
The last thing she remembered was…
Tsukasa audibly gulped when Karen kissed the palm of her hand. At this point, she couldn't tell whose heartbeat she's hearing, is it Karen’s or her own?
“A-Asakura-san…” She struggles to speak, feeling the pressure of the tension between them.
Tsukasa felt her cheeks heat up. Did that really happen?!
She brought her hand up to cover her face, before wincing at the moment she moved it. That when she realized her left hand was bandaged.
Eh?!
That’s when she also realized she was in the infirmary. Seriously, what the hell happened?! Her hand hurts so much.
“Tsukasa-san.”
That's when she also realized that there was Karen, sitting on a chair beside the bed she was on. She too, has her hand bandaged.
“A-Asakura-san…?”
Karen smiled at her for a moment, before that smile turned into a look of guilt. “I know what happened, Karen-chan told me…”
There she filled her in on the events that happened before they got here and what happened to their hands. Karen of course didn't leave out Karen-chan’s ending threat, in which Tsukasa rightfully screamed in fear.
“I'm sorry, Tsukasa-san…” The orange-hooded girl looks down on her hands. Tsukasa gulps, before hesitantly and gently taking her injured hand with her own bandaged one, gently intertwining them.
“I…vowed…to stay by your side, so…” She trailed off her words as she blushed, making Karen chuckle lightly, bringing their interlocked hands to her face.
“Thank you always, Tsukasa-san.”
…
“I forgot to mention, Yuki-san doesn't really look happy about this, Commander Tezuka too.”
“Eeek!”