Halo Lagi [Nozomi, Sagumi]

It was difficult to hear the sound of her own breathe over the screeching gale that was biting cold and ever constant in its fury here. It was of no surprise, though, being at a height that just barely was scraping against an elevation of eight-thousand meters. Terrible weather was amplified several fold at statures such as this, and in a part of the world where it was an abnormal day to go without rain, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the current conditions at the top of Gasherbrum IV of the Karakoram. The oddity here was the woman's apparel, an outfit for a sunny day that failed to protect a multitude of areas from the arctic chill of a mountain's pinnacle, or the torrential winds that would threaten to topple a person over the edge of the cliff: The outfit consisted mainly of a thin black overcoat that wasn't remotely suited for this type of environment, and actually appeared to be worn for its appeal to style moreso than any functional application. The coat-tail hung lower than the joint of her knee when she stood up, whipping wildly in the face of the powerful currents without anything to hold it closed. The individual flaps of coat could only be fastened together by strings and a belt from waist up to the bottom of her breast where a convenient opening was located. This created a firm bodice around the stomach that exemplified the unnatural thinness of her form. This article of clothing continued to defy normality as it ran down her arms with flimsy fabric. The ends of the sleeves were loosely frilled while a patch of material happened to be removed from the top of the shoulders where the woman's pale skin could be seen. The strange make-up of this overcoat continued with a rectangular segment of black fabric with a white outline. It had a sizable hole straight through the middle for her head, so that it was worn over the shoulders and around the neck purely as a decorative detail.

And there was still so much more about her outfit to see. The opening at the breast of her overcoat showed a white button shirt that was tucked underneath, and appeared to be sleeveless. It had a folded collar that peaked out over the hood of her coat, while an adorably small tie was fastened to it underneath. There were the snow white silken gloves worn over her hands with a seemingly meaningless logo painted over the back of them, the left hand containing an aquamarine gemstone around the cuff that could easily be concealed by her coat's sleeve. Also uniquely around her left arm but not her right, was a loose red band with black lengthwise stripes and a white circle where this nine-pronged symbol appears again. Then last of all to note were the black boots that she wore, not quite long enough to reach her knees, and thus leaving quite a bit of length of them exposed to the harsh atmosphere. This was what Nozomi had chosen to wore today—a new look for a new age—and she had found the worst occasion to begin it with. Thankfully the masterful woman had a set of skills in her back pocket to take care of it, as an aura of stasis protected her. She was moderating the temperatures and the flow of wind within this area around her to what her body was used to experiencing, rather warm and calm within this bubble of hers. It was a good thing too, because she had been maintaining her seat within the middle of this storm for hours, just waiting.And now it came to the subject of what exactly Nozomi was waiting for, and that answer happened to be situated several thousand meters below her current location.

His name was Sagumi Sumashuu, and he was not only someone that hadseemed defied death, but the only man who had and ever would have the right to call her his wife.

She would wait millenia for this one, and up until now she hadn't even realized that she had been doing just that. It was all a confusing mess to her at first. Confused, a word that almost never would describe her, was now accurate and with good reason. She had witnessed Sagumi's death, been there when he had passed away in his sleep, and was present for his funeral. In another world, the one Nozomi had originated from, the two had been a lawfully-wedded couple whose love had remained firm through old age up until his death. That was the crux of it all—he died, and she didn't. Nozomi hadn't even aged a day older than twenty-one, because of the presence of Xaser within her. She had performed a ritual that had absorbed a beast with so much energy that it would keep her youthful for eternity... and Sagumi never had that chance. The decision to leave that plane was difficult, and painful to make, but without him there she didn't have reason to stay. The world had grown past her, the people she'd come to know all dead, and she was still stuck at twenty-one. She had the power to achieve her departure however, and tear a rift through the fabric of space into another dimension... so she did. She left her home world and ended up here with a promise to herself to start anew, and somehow managed to maintain her sanity through the ages. Now here came this man again, a remnant of her past believed to be gone, threatening that sanity. Had it just been Sagumi alone, back and alive with no explanation, she might have just snapped. However, it wasn't just him. There was a thread, a strand of life she hadn't been capable of seeing until now that she was so close, and it connected him to her. Nozomi had to think, to find the science behind this; and through science, she would find comfort; she would find sanity.

Apparently, the reason for him being here was that she had pulled him back. This thread was more or less a leash that forced him out of his sleeping grave and upright into the world of the living. Not only that, but she had pulled him through into this dimension as she herself had traveled it, and now it was her existence that kept him alive. Nozomi held no regrets. Seeing him again in the flesh, so close and so familiar, was a euphoric feeling. She was observing his every movement and reading his every word with inane fascination, as every subtle action pandered to her ancient memories and felt just right. It had took some time, but she had had plenty of time atop the summit of this mountain to watch him and know without doubt that this was the same Sagumi she had come to love. Only out of an unusual spark of politeness did the woman hold herself back from interrupting the little training session he was having with his students, and self-control was something Nozomi had in spades. Now as night had fallen and the moon was working its way to the peak of the sky, the children he had with him were to sleep while he would finally be available to her for the first time this entire day. That's when the intense urge shocked Nozomi into activity, surprising even herself as she stood up and raced forth. In the span of a second her form had descended down the entire mountain, the speed at which she did so ripping through the sound barrier and causing a shockwave at the peak's base as she landed in the middle of a once-calm pond, blasting a good half of the water straight out of it and onto the stony ground around it. The entrance was before her, and Nozomi made her second movement in its direction in quick succession after her first. She was traversing a network of caves and finding her way ever closer to the man she sought as if she knew this place like the back of her hand. She knew Sagumi would be ready for something by the time she reached him, but whether or not he would be prepared for the identity of that something was an entirely different question.

That was irrelevant; Nozomi discarded the sensible and optimal approach to handle the situation, just giving into the desire to see him face to face for the first time in ages. She arrived like booming thunder, her hair and loose fabrics flailing wildly around her for some time even after she stopped on a dime not ten meters from her beloved. The avid motions of her dark blue hair would eventually calm down and fall along the front of her shoulders, revealing a set of powerful red eyes to be staring directly at him. She did not so much as breathe as she slurped his visage in... not with extensive sense her Omnidou eyes provided, but with the purely human vision she had been born with. The feeling was profound; stunning. She wanted to say his name just for the sake of hearing it said, and she opened her mouth to say it but no sound came out. She wanted to force it out but she merely choked deep within her throat to create the first sound between the two. This never happened; Nozomi was always in control of herself, and always knew what to do. But not now; Sagumi broke right through that and Nozomi couldn't find her footing anymore.

She fell on her ass as a result.

Things were going so fast for Nozomi, objects blurring in motion as they sped by. It was as if she herself was going in slow motion, when usually the world around her was going slow in her normal perceptions. The circumstances, however, were far beyond normal, as far as reunions tended to go. Her own all-encompassing vision was failing her; such a usually infallible tool now rendered helpless as a result of Nozomi's skewed emotions. Racing down the tunnels it was surprising she did not hit a wall and break every bone in her body from the force of the impact, but something was leading her by the nose in the correct direction... Every meter she crossed reduced the scope of her vision, until the moment she entered the very room of her target to find his image just standing there, expectant, and she was viewing him only in the narrow perception of the human eyes she was born with. She had but a second of a glimpse of the man of her life, before he vanished entirely to leave nothing but thin air in his wake. At first Nozomi's heart filled with dread, thinking that she—of all people—had been fooled. Despite observing for hours to continually assure herself that this was indeed the man she had left behind, Sagumi, doubt pressured the woman. She was not in the right frame of mind, not thinking straight no matter how prided she was with the sheer power of higher thought she possessed. Then, accentuating this unfortunate belief, the ploy was sprung as Nozomi quickly found herself heels over head and hanging from the roof of the massive cavern. She was about to resign herself to having fallen for a petty trick, and retain control of her thoughts and emotions now that Sagumi wasn't actually here to jumble them up. It wouldn't take too long to escape a pesky trap like this.

But the fact of the matter was that Nozomi was thinking far too fast; she didn't allow her captor long enough to reveal himself and make everything better. She didn't allow him the time to react to the success of his counter ambush, or for him to fly straight up to her and entrap her lips in the first kiss she had received in six-thousand five-hundred and fifty-seven years, one-hundred and eighty-nine days, one hour, nineteen minutes, and forty-seven seconds. Both that last kiss and this very one were bequeathed upon Nozomi by the same man, who now stood before her looking decades younger than she remembered in her previous world... and one-hundred and eighty degrees flipped. He held the upside-down kiss for over a minute, given no retaliation from its recipient besides equally passionate affections. Nozomi's senses and thoughts were all obliterated for the duration of the romance, any that did not pertain to this moment deemed useless and discarded so that she could enjoy it to its fullest. When she closed her eyes... she actually saw darkness instead of the usual omniscient outlook upon her surroundings that assaulted her mind with millions of details, and it was absolutely blissful. But eventually the kiss would end, and Sagumi would back away to witness Nozomi open her familiar crimson eyes to him and look straight into his own darker reds. Both were incapable with words for the time being, with Nozomi giving up far earlier than Sagumi had, but eventually he would push through and finally formulate something intelligible to break the awkward silence between them. He asked 'How', and never before had the blue-haired female wanted to smash her fist into his face than now, for even daring to ask that question, as if the answer to that question even came close to the significance of this moment of reunion. However, she did not wish to ruin it herself, and thus abstained from any sort of physical violence.

So instead, Nozomi's eyes would focus in onto the pupils of her significant other, staring deeply into them and performing a very familiar technique. He would feel the mental prod invade his mind and establish a link between him and her. This telepathic power in itself should have been enough to show that she was precisely who she appeared to be, yet through the link she continued with an assault of thoughts and images that flipped through his mind rapid-fire. It was like watching a movie in which Sagumi was possessing the body of his wife, seeing things through her eyes and blinding him to reality so that the two perceptions didn't clash and confuse him. She began from the very moment that Nozomi had witnessed Sagumi had died, watching him pass away in his sleep and her coming to try to wake him back up again but failing in tragic sadness. She tried her best to suppress the sheer force of the emotional turmoil she had felt that day, and ultimately succeeded, but only to a degree as it still would hit the observer hard. She continued, showing him the events of his funeral, and the vacant years of life that followed that. Nozomi kept on in life at her young age of twenty-one forever, while everyone she had gotten to known would pass away and she could not make anymore acquaintances while knowing she would eventually outlive them all anyways. She came to the decision to leave this world, knowing she had the power to do it, no longer wanting to stay in this type of world where she was the only eternal. The day came when she and Xaser would work together to tear the fabric of reality apart, and with one heavy farewell and a stream of tears, she would walk through.

The story-telling picked up a couple paces after that, compacting Nozomi's experiences in travelling through the rift into another world. He would witness as she became a wanderer who walked the far more expansive lands of this new planet, discovering that although this place was very similar to her old land, there were some significant changes that gave Nozomi hope. At the very least Sagumi would get to watch as this new world was built up from the ground up, as she had arrived in a very early stage of human advancement, but for the most part this section was fast-forwarded for his behalf. She came to a point where Nozomi had begun to discover beings who were not entirely human, such as the warriors of magic that were known presently as Quincy, or the sinister masked beasts that were called Hollows. And she would observe the war between the two forces outside of the knowledge of the human race. She told of how she had discovered that she was in fact the origin point of this new Quincy force. She told of how she joined them in their quest for a short time, training and refining their skills to better battle the insidious waves of soul-consuming Hollows, until finally retiring and allowing her disciples to forge onward for decades against them. Her name would be forgotten in the legacy, but her practices would not, not until the coming of the Shinigami. This was when the majority of the Quincy race was slaughtered, endangering them as a species and upsetting Nozomi as she spectated from the sidelines. Most people to this day knew the reasons behind the actions of the Soul Reapers, but it was still a tragic time in history.

The story was slowly grinding to a halt now as Nozomi continued with her recollection of events, now mostly just sharing random tidbits and details to help fill in the blanks, up until this very point where she had finally found him. Then, the link severed itself, returning Sagumi's consciousness to himself with a flash of white. Not a second had gone by, but this entire story would have inscribed itself into his brain, so much as to tap into the depths of his memory banks to fit it all. She doubted a question would even be needed now with such an expansive story having explained everything to him, leaving the word 'How' as just a wisp in the wind, forgotten. Nozomi's mouth would move, forming the name carefully: "Sa... gu... mi..." she stated, mulling over each syllable with equal emphasis, as if tasting it like a candy with many flavors and finding that she liked all of them. A blush was beyond her, but she could smile here, showing that she was absolutely ecstatic to finally be back with the love of her life. Yes, one of the things Sagumi could be sure of—now that he had felt it from Nozomi's point of view—was just how much love she had for this man. Having reviewed the sheer breadth of passion, she shouldn't have been surprised with how much it had screwed with her mind and body. Her smile grew, showing clean white teeth, while her eyes became live with energy. Her heart swelled with the force of a thousand butterflies, because the reality of the situation was this: They were together again, and nothing was going to keep them apart anymore.

Nozomi could pinpoint the exact moment that it occurred; shortly after the stream of information had been closed, there was a subtle indication in his eyes as he looked up at her. He had his time to acquit himself with the millenia old story, and then came the assurance that struck his mind and erased any doubt he may have had as to who she was. That was what Nozomi wanted most, knowing him and his antics—He was not one for the miracles or magic that brought the two back together under such improbable circumstances, and knew deep down something would have been badgering him and telling him that this was nothing more than a trick of the mind. There was something about Nozomi's mind that couldn't simply be reproduced, that Sagumi would sense through the link as she told her tale... He would know. Her smile grew, but her eyes closed, an expression of patience as she waited for the man's trap to disengage. She soon felt gravity take hold again, her body downward in motion with nothing left to hold her up. Then, the gracious man he was, Sagumi would catch the light woman and turn her back right side up, placing her upon her feet with regular ease. In defiance of his attempt to stand her up, she would only fall right back into his chest while he wrapped his arms around her. She was at the perfect height to lay her head within the crook of his neck, and she sure did, smelling the familiar scent of her hero.

Oh boy, was he right about his statement—after this long, she'd spend the living daylights out of every moment they had. Damned be his arguments, she was going to find a way to keep an eye on him at the very least, if her presence in person couldn't be achieved. Contrary to what he may have believed, one kiss was simply not going to settle all that has been missed out on since they've been apart. That aside, Nozomi was already thinking ahead. Her mind was getting back into gear, finally moving at a speed acceptable to its owner's desires. Her omniscient sense of sight was returning to her, empowering her vision back to its normal state. And as this happened, she once again noticed the infinitesimal strand linking her to him, causing her to smile. Sagumi couldn't see it, but Nozomi could, and realizing just how sturdy this bond was was enough to elicit a chuckle from the woman. He might ask why she laughed, but she wouldn't respond with anything more than tightening their embrace together. She wanted to hold this moment, silent, just appreciating the fact that she could hold him once more. It would be longer than ten minutes like this, before she would come out of this tranquil state. It was just something that she needed to do, submerging into the depths of her thought...

''You have a class,'' were the first words out of her mouth when she resurfaced from serenity, fairly abrupt. It was not a question, just a statement; an observation muttered into the flesh of Sagumi's neck. Following that, her lips were already there, so her sentence would devolve into a light kiss upon his neck. It was probably not a remark that needed to be uttered, but it was worth noting that Sagumi indeed tasted like he had before—there was a unique flavor about him, mind you. She rather enjoyed recouping with all the little facets of her husband, reestablishing what was once lost. Back to matters however, and there were new bits and parts about his life that she had yet to be introduced to, such as the two he had brought along with him to this mountain range... and the fact that he had an entire network of caverns dug out within. If Nozomi could guess, she'd guess right, in that he wanted his own dojo and following. It had come up in conversations before in the past world, but had never quite been capitalized on. Now here he was, beginning that dream of his and passing on his skills to those of a weaker stature. It was admirable, certainly, especially considering how much more dangerous this world could be than their last. And it was only getting more dangerous... Nozomi was following the wars and could see what everything was leading up to. Calamity was knocking on the door and any preparation toward the moment it finally came in would help.

She would drift away from the dark thoughts, pushing them to the back of her mind as something to worry about on her own personal time. Now was an occasion to congratulate Sagumi and celebrate him on his own personal quest. She didn't dare let an ounce of tension spawn between the two of them, practically radiating contentedness like a fat cat on her back. She would lean back in his grasp, opening her eyes to look at him again, and definitely still smiling. ''Congratzi, my love, you're finally doing it. Apparently, when whatever god sentenced you to death and told you you can't follow your dreams, you weren't listening. Exactly how dense are your muscles now?'' She laughed aloud at the last quip, even wrapping her hand around his bicep and squeezing weakly to find out. It was actually another thing Nozomi was curious about. When she had come here, her powers had improved drastically beyond what she had been able to do before, and she wondered if Sagumi had changed likewise. Previously—and this had been well calculated between the two of them—it had been determined that he could hypothetically throw a punch with so much force behind it that he could effectively knock the planet out of orbit. Given, Ingoo was a much smaller world than Earth, but that was not to take away from him.

If there was one thing that could be looked upon as positive about their prolonged separation, it was that they certainly would have plenty to converse about now that they were back together.

Oh now wasn't this just the most adorable of excursions, as Nozomi was swept straight off of her feet and into the arms she had only moments ago been joking about. She'd let out a light bout of laughter like she never had before, so out of place for someone like her. Happiness radiated off of her face as she looked up at her lover, moreso than any of the exhibits of his special underground base. Again, it should have been noted now that with her vision back, Nozomi didn't need to swivel her head around to observe her surroundings. She had this power back on the world of Ingoo, having come into the form of the Byakugan, but it was not quite as extensive as she had it now. Still, even with her all-sight, almost one-hundred percent of her focus was on Sagumi. She just couldn't divide her attention without repugnant amounts of bias after all the time she hadn't been able to see him at all. But, at the very least the woman tried, taking in what she could of the place and committing it to memory for her to inspect later. She almost lost her dignity as a tolerable lady by cracking up at his jokes. Thankfully, she managed to keep it down to low chuckle and a red tint in her cheeks. And for someone like Nozomi Sumashuu—using the surname given to her by her husband appropriately now that he had him back—something as simple as a blush... was an absolute loss of self-control and completely offbeat. There was a higher chance of a meteor crashing down onto the surface of the Earth than there was for anyone to ever catch the blue-haired beauty blushing, unless your name was Sagumi Sumashuu.

After a long stretch of idle walking in silence, where there was a stagnation in his rather detailed tour, Nozomi felt like the time couldn't be better to intervene. While Sagumi's hands were preoccupied in holding her frail body aloft with him, her own be fiddling around over the cradle of her stomach, the right hand pulling the snow white glove off of the left. ''Love...'' she hummed out melodically, her chime-like voice uttering the pet name she used most for him, simple and sweet. Had he not been already looking at her, his attention would probably be gathered by her call. He would see her raising her exposed hand up to him, showing off a rather familiar aquamarine gem lodged into a thin golden ring. As eternal as the bearer, the ring looked as elegant and beautiful as the day it had been crafted, and through the years the two had lived happily together. Nozomi had kept it on her almost entirely all this time, even though it was always covered by a glove. The one exception to it was a time of depression when Sagumi had first died, but in time she had come to the conclusion that she would never take it off again, in memory of him. Albeit he was no longer a memory, but a person in the flesh with her, still she wanted to show him that she had never forgotten him. ''It's the very same one from before,'' she would assure him. ''Sorry I don't have yours... it was buried along with you back then. I could replicate it, but I fell as though it wouldn't be the same to you.'' Either way he took it, it was something Nozomi wanted to bring up, and after the subject was closed they would proceed with the tour.

The next time she spoke, it was when they were much farther away from the sleeping quarters of his two students. With the great proximity, the coming of a loud crashing sound would probably not wake the poor younglings. She shift herself into a more flexible position within his arms, sitting up a little more to face Sagumi more properly. ''I want to help you with your dojo idea,'' she stated bluntly, waiting for it to process through his head. If he looked at Nozomi he'd see her expression was rather serious about it. ''I can help you expand it beyond some secret underground base in some mountain in the middle of the wastelands. Two students is a start, but you can do more if you factor a teeny bit of my help into the equation.'' Her left hand, still uncovered, was held out from her body. She snapped her fingers briskly, and the room was soon disturbed by a ripping of the fabric of space. Casually, Nozomi just watched Sagumi's eyes as the space in front of him underwent spacial reconfiguration, opening up to a darkness known as the Throat of the World. A dark metal mass came out of rift and crashed into the ground with a tremor, before the Garganta sealed back up with a whine and the atmosphere returned to normal. Slowly rising up from a crouch was a massive humanoid figure, looking much like an animate suit of armor inspired by the medieval ages than anything else. It towered over Sagumi, and appeared incredibly threatening with its cold steel mask and the various spikes decorating it. Then, the tension was finally broken when a rather effeminate teenage voice came muffled through the iron shell, breaking the menacing illusion in an instant.

''Hadelinde, at your service, master Sagumi.''

To be honest, the interruption was absolutely planned. As much love as Nozomi had in this man, sometimes he had it in his head that every occasion was a good occasion for a sex adventure, which she could predict with one-hundred percent accuracy was the reason he was headed in the direction of a conveniently located personal quarters; they were just before an imposing set of thick iron doors of a medieval-era fashion, reinforced further by a multitude of metal strips lined up in rows along the front and back. Additionally, even more iron outlined the edges of the double doors, a baroque arc accentuating the top with a series of sharp teeth and gentle curves, and all of this was decorated with flower-like studs every few centimeters apart. Adjoining the two halves of the door was one column thicker than any other strip of metal, which was there to more securely seal the entrance when it was closed. It was both ornate and imposing, very reminiscent of old age architecture, just as the room beyond it. Still, it was not nearly advanced enough to block out Nozomi's true sight as it pierced straight through and observed the exquisite chamber being kept by the doors. Chiseled finely out of the mountain itself was a grandiose cavern that was crafted painstakingly to resemble a bedroom one would find in a typical property. The stone walls were surprisingly smooth, only broken up by a couple of aged paintings and the various white banners of what would appear to be a combination of Hindu symbolism and her husband's face. The plain floor was also garnished up by humble rugs and an exquisitely designed pattern made of a very fine powder. Nozomi knew of the art style as Rangoli, an unorthodox style of Indian descent. The ceiling was the only facet of the room that did not reveal any of the stone of the cavern, covered completely by wood from wall to wall. There was a criss-cross pattern of beams across the design, forming a checkerboard of indents within the architecture, and within each one was a wooden flower etched in place. This symbol was thematically placed throughout the room from the door, to the Rangoli art, and the banners. The Hindu influence here was clear—Nozomi was just about to figure the reality of the situation out, albeit she was still on about their first subject of conversation. As it was plainly obvious what Sagumi intended to do, what with the only object of intrigue being the king-sized bed within, she would be sure to interrupt him before he tried to get into her pants after just having reunited. By the snap of her fingers, she saw herself saving him from himself, giving him another thought to focus on.

Hadelinde was most flustered over the intrusion of her helmet, certainly finding it rude for some being to just stick their head inside and peer at her innards. Nozomi merely laughed aloud, still boisterous after discovering Sagumi alive and well, and otherwise ignored the complaints of her metallic servant. It was true, when he looked within, he would find nothing inhabiting it but chill air. Hadelinde was a walking suit of armor with a voice, and there were no mechanisms to be seen powering the thing. ''Every good business needs its supervisor, and I'm going to be making Hadelinde yours,'' Nozomi said after she had recovered from her fit of giddiness. By now the blue-haired woman was standing fine all by her own, having been set up by her husband so that he could fool around with his new toy. She holstered one of her elbows in her hand over her chest, prodding it up as she brought the other hand to her mouth. Her crimson eyes were directly on Sagumi's crouched form, and she opened her mouth to bite on the crook of her forefinger while she watched. Oh, the incredible power behind his every movement was still there, just like before. She had seen strength before, and had seen speed before, but the way he was capable of displaying it was on a level beyond anyone else she had known; it's own tier. Past the bias that came with loving this man, Nozomi knew that he could fight like no other. However, Nozomi was sly—he wouldn't notice this movement, and by the time he took his attention off of Hadelinde's insides, there would be no indication that she had ever moved after being set down. Her hands were relaxed at her sides, not a sound, not a mark; mystical. She continued speaking to answer his question, a smile present over her face. ''Surely you don't want to have to skip across the continent toting your students like luggage every time? Hadelinde can help you with that. Need a sparring partner or other sort of assistance in your training regimen? Hadelinde can help you with that. Need to contact me? Well... Actually I'll be there before you call. You know me.'' She was rather content with herself, brushing her finger against the side of her nose in a small gesture as she uttered her last quip.

The ghost in the shell among them was still quite perturbed at Sagumi to be honest, now beginning to reach up with her hulking hands to grasp at his petite waist, like a twig in her hands. ''Master Sagumi, I was told by my creator to serve you as well as I do her, treat you as well as I do her, but surely you do not have to stand on my back too much longer?'' Granted, if he didn't exactly react to her, then she'd just grab him in her hands and gently set him back down on the ground. Hadelinde was all too aware of the man's strength, but he was light as a feather to contrast that, at least in her hands. She also was rather formidable in physical combat, able to pry the man out of her with ease and let her helmet's visor fall back in place. Once the situation was sorted out, Hadelinde would feel much more comfortable now. She would stand up proud and straight, once again situated as the highest in the immediate area. Nozomi would ask how Sagumi felt about the proposal, but the question had already been implied as she waited in silence.