Compared to the bone-deep chill of Snowpeak, even winter in Japan seems positively balmy. Yumi is glad of the chance to warm up, doubly so on a swift train back to Natsuto. It's a welcome respite; she's going to have to go back in a few days to help them all get set up. She's been hoping the white noise of the Shinkansen would lull her to a doze until she gets there, but there's been no luck on that front.

    Her mind keeps coming back to the fight in the master bedroom. Zelda, ablaze with a divine radiance that seared the monster foolhardy enough to hold her. Cecil, flooding himself and his sword with dark power. Link, lunging in with all the power of a supernatural wolf. And Rydia. Rydia, calling forth that strange, vast being. That wizened old god of thunder. A sight enough to leave her awestruck.

    And there she was, with her tiny little baseball bat. All set to lunge in and smack a shadow beast with several pounds of heavy hardwood.

    Yumi's fingers curl. A frown pulls onto her face. She knows, intellectually, she's weak. She doesn't have the power all these other people do - she might stand a chance against a random tough guy on the street, but even something like a trained soldier is too much. She knows that. But yesterday was the first time she really /felt/ it. The first time she really, instinctively felt her own powerlessness. Every part of her was screaming that she needed to help, that she needed to smash that thing that was hurting Zelda. But she'd have been a liability. No worse, she'd have been in the way. Running in there with nothing but a bat and Rydia's dagger, she'd have been more of a detriment than doing nothing at all, and could have gotten herself killed besides.

    It's been that way for everything she's gone out to help with so far. But this is the first time it's really hit home; someone she respects, someone she's starting to consider a /friend/, was in mortal danger, and she couldn't do anything about it. Nothing at all. Nothing but just sit there and-

    The soft clunk of the bullet train jars Yumi from her own thoughts. Her teeth are clenched. So are her fists. Slowly, she forces herself to relax. Deep breath. Slow, deep breath. It's fine. It's okay. Zelda's fine now. She can't fight monsters, but others can. And they still need her for things that none of /them/ can do. Like navigating the more high-tech worlds. And securing food and supplies from those worlds. Even if she can't fight herself, she can make sure the front line is still capable of doing so. That's just as important.

    Yumi wishes that tiny, nagging voice in the back of her mind could buy that.

--------------------

    As the Shinkansen passes over the Natsuto city line, the soft rumble of the train masks a quieter mechanical noise, somewhere near the back of the mostly-empty car. Gemstone eyes briefly focus on the girl with the orange hair, a clockwork tail twitches; and then with a soft clatter-clack, the observer turns and disappears.