“I’m not a hero,” Aquila said.  “I’ll never be a hero.  I just...couldn’t leave them suffering like that, that’s all.”

    “I know,” Cap said.  “One day, I hope you’re able to realize what that means about you.”

    “Cap,” Yuri said, sliding up beside him.  “I need to...I’m...I’m really not okay with this.”

    “I’ll leave you two to talk,” Aquila said, stepping away.

    Cap blinked.  “What do you mean?  With rescuing them?”

    “No...with rescuing her,” Yuri said, pointing to Angelika.

    Cap nodded.  “I see.  I understand how you feel, but she’s harmless now.  She can’t hurt any of us.”

    “But, what she was going to do to Natsuki, to us...”

    Cap sighed.  “Yuri, I know what you saw was bad, but you’re travelling with people who have done far worse.  Aquila and I...you know what Aquila did during her war, and during mine thousands of children lost their fathers at my hands.  I summarily executed dozens of captured Nazis, because we were ordered to take no SS prisoners.”

    “But that’s different!” Yuri protested.  “Both of you...you...”

    “The difference is that you only heard about the terrible things that Aquila and I did,” Cap stated.  “And you saw what she did.  Aquila’s my best friend – I trust her judgement.  If she thinks that Angelika is worth saving, then I’ve got to assume she’s right.”

    Yuri shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek.  “I don’t like any of this!  You’re better than her, I know it!”

    “I know,” Cap said.

    “Can you hold me for a moment, please?” Yuri asked.

    “Okay,” Cap said, taking Yuri into his arms.

    Kasumi turned her attention back to the kettle as Yukari spooned hot chocolate powder into four mugs.  The other school girls had taken a position at the fire opposite Angelika, staring at her.

    “How could you do that to us?” Monica finally said.

    Angelika shook her head.  “You don’t understand.  It was all a simulation, in a repeating loop.  Just the same three weeks over and over again.”

    “And we’re supposed to believe that?” Sarah said, leaning forward.

    Angelika blinked.  “You have to believe it.  Please...you don’t understand how bad it was, how long we were in it, how much it needed to end...”

    Kasumi glanced at Amy and blinked.  Amy was just staring at the fire while her friends challenged Angelika.

    “The year!” Angelika declared.  “We were repeating the three weeks before club night 2016.  I lost track after about fifty repetitions.  What year is it now?”  She glanced at Sayori and Kasumi.  “Please, tell us what year it is!”

    Sayori glanced at Yukari.  “We left Blue Lotus Academy at the end of 2022, and that was a couple of years ago so...”

    “It would be 2024 or 2025 now, I guess,” Yukari said, pouring the water into the mugs and starting to stir the hot chocolate in them.

    Sayori nodded.  “That sounds right to me.”

    Angelika nodded, her eyes wide.  “There, see?  We were in it for over eight years.  The same three weeks, over and over.”

    “So what?” Monica demanded.  “That gives you the right to torture us?  To make me cut somebody’s eyes and tongue out?  To make Amy try to bash her head in?  What’s so bad and unbearable about repeating three weeks of anime club?”

    Sarah glared at her.  “Yeah.  Was running out of anime to watch that bad?”

    Angelika stared at them.  “You don’t understand!  Club night...it ends in a school shooting!  At 7:07 a gunman walks into the gym with an assault rifle and he starts killing people.  He kills everybody!  I watched you all die so many times!  I searched the simulation trying to find him, but he doesn’t exist before he walks into that gym!  I tried to cancel our table, make sure we weren’t there, but as soon as club night starts the simulation contracts so that the gym is the only thing in it – there’s no escaping it!  So, the only thing I could do was try to break it somehow!  I learned how it works, I took control of it, but...I couldn’t stop club night from happening, ever.  All I could do was try to find ways to screw it up so that whoever is running the simulation decides it’s buggy and turns its off...and I was the only one of you who knew!  I was alone!  I just didn’t want to see you get murdered anymore!  And, somehow, I...I...”

    “You weren’t alone,” Amy said at last, still staring into the fire.  “You were never alone.”

    Angelika blinked and stared at her.  “What?  You...you knew?”

    Amy nodded, her gaze locked on the fire.  “I knew about the loops from the beginning.  But by the time I figured out that you were remembering them too...you’d gotten lost.  I tried to find ways to reach you, but everything I did just seemed to make things worse.  Finally, I just spent my time trying to avoid being hurt by you before...before club night.”

    “I wasn’t alone?” Angelica said, blinking.  “All that time, I wasn’t alone...and I...I...”  She buried her face in her hands and started sobbing.  “I’m sorry.  Oh God, what have I done?  I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

    Sarah looked at Kasumi, her red hair glinting in the flickering light of the fire.  “What’s happening?”

    “She’s not lost anymore,” Kasumi replied.  “All the bad things she’s done, they’re sinking in.”  She glanced at Aquila, being comforted by Cap and Yuri.  “I’ve seen it before.  She’s going to be in her own personal hell for quite a while.”

    “Good,” Monica said.

    “The hot chocolate is ready,” Sayori said, handing cups to Monica, Sarah, and Amy.

    Yukari sat beside Angelika with a steaming cup.  “There some for you too.”

    Angelika looked up, her eyes bloodshot and her cheeks wet with tears.  “Why?  After what I was going to do to you and your friends...”

    “Do you know what a yandere is?” Yukari asked.

    Angelika nodded.  “She’s the girl in a harem comedy who goes psycho.”

    “I used to be one,” Yukari said.  “I have some idea of what it’s like to have that madness in you.”

    Angelika blinked.  “Did you...did you hurt...?”

    Yukari shook her head and handed her the cup.  “We were rescued just in time.”

    Angelika gave her a sad smile and stared down at the hot chocolate.  “I think I might be jealous.”

    Kasumi turned away and stepped over to where Aquila, Cap, and Yuri were standing.  “We need a plan,” she said in Japanese.  “We can’t take them with us, so what do we do with...for them?”

    “The only thing we can do,” Cap said.  “We send them to some story world where they can live in peace, and give them what they need to do it.  And then we let them get a fresh start and...”  He glanced at where Angelika sipped her drink beside Yukari.  “...and go their separate ways.”

    Aquila nodded in agreement.  “It’s the best we can do for them.”

    “Okay,” Kasumi said.  “I’ll get started drawing what they need.”

    “We’re going to send you to another world,” Aquila said.  “An America in an alternate Earth where your simulation doesn’t exist.  And then, what happens next is up to you.”

    “What about our families?” Sarah asked.  “Our parents, our...”

    “I’m sorry,” Aquila said.  “The simulation needs you to be there, so as soon as I extracted you it made replacement versions of you.  It’s as though you never left.  And, we’re pretty sure that it wouldn’t tolerate duplicates if we sent you back.  The replacement versions of you who are back there...they’re suffering and they probably need all the support they can get.  And, given the nature of the...simulation...it’s probably quite dangerous to try to extract anybody else.”

    “We went through the same thing when we were rescued from our world,” Sayori said.  “It’s not easy, but what you lost stops hurting so much after a while.”

    “Each of these envelopes contains around five thousand in cash, and a cashier’s cheque for half a million dollars,” Kasumi said.  “There’s also the paperwork you’ll need to get the government to issue you new birth certificates and the documents you’ll need to live there.  You’ll have everything you need to start a new life.  There’s also a smart phone.  The ones for Sarah, Monica, and Amy have Angelika’s number in the address book, so that if you ever decide that you’re ready to let her make amends, you can reach out to her.”

    Amy took a deep breath.  “And Angelika’s phone, does it have our phone numbers?”

    Kasumi shook her head.  “No.  We’re also sending her to a different city.  She’ll have no way of finding you unless you decide to reach out.”

    “Good,” Sarah said.  Angelika stared at the fire.

    “Alright, time for everybody to go,” Aquila said.  “Please stand up.”

    The four high school girls stood and took hold of their envelopes.  Angelika quietly thanked Yukari as she examined the one Yukari had handed her.  Aquila waved her arm, and Sarah, Monica, and Amy disappeared in an inrush of air.

    Angelika opened her envelope and took out the phone, staring at it.  “This is never going to ring, is it?” she said.

    “Probably not,” Kasumi stated.  “But, miracles do happen.  You’re here, after all, so...so it’s not impossible.”

    Angelika turned to look at Aquila.  “Why?  Why didn’t you just extract them and leave me there?  That’s what I deserved after what I did to them, isn’t it?  Why are you doing this for me?”

    Aquila took a deep breath.  “Because the villain inside me was wrong.  I’ve done far worse than you...I have no right to judge or punish you.  And I was given the opportunity to atone – nearly died doing it, too – and if I got that chance to make things right, then you deserve it too.”

    “So that thing with your leg, that was–”

    “I got hit in the femoral artery,” Aquila said.  “My leg is stiff every morning when I wake up.”

    Angelika stared at the envelope again.  “So, atonement is possible.  That’s good, I guess.  And being forgiven, is that...?”

    Aquila shook her head.  “I’m sorry.  After the things that you and I have done, that’s not something we can ever have.”

    Angelika swallowed.  “Will I ever see any of you again?”

    “No,” Aquila said, and waved her hand.  Angelika disappeared in an inrush of air.

    There was a moment of silence, and then Cap and the others sat down by the fire.  Aquila sighed and stepped out of the clearing, leaning against a tree and staring into the darkness of the forest.  She felt more than heard Kasumi come up beside her.

    “Are you okay?” Kasumi asked.

    Aquila shook her head.

    “You know, we told the others everything,” Kasumi said.  “They know what you did, and how bad it was.  And they’re still here – they’re still your friends, and they still care about you.  They’re not going to leave you.”

    “We told them about it, Kasumi,” Aquila said.  “They didn’t see it.  They didn’t see me torture or kill somebody they care about, and if they had...if they had I don’t think even Cap would–”

    Kasumi gave Aquila’s shoulder a squeeze.  “You’re wrong.  And one day I hope I can make you realize that.”  She looked back.  “Come on.  Our friends are waiting for us.”

    With that, Kasumi led Aquila back to the campfire.

NEXT: A special preview of Re:Apotheosis - Metamophosis, Chapter I.