Ah, yes. ‘Alive’ had many shades to it. She had more than enough personal experience to testify to that fact, but she resisted chasing the comment further. At the end of the day, the only important thing to keep in mind was that alive was alive and dead was… well, not. Everything else was just water under the bridge, as she’d told Noriyuki once upon a time.

She had to remember that she was back now. That she was still in the Institute, still a player in the game; there was no room to continue to pick at invisible wounds and sob over her beleaguered fate. The sesshouseki wouldn’t tolerate a weak carrier.

So she smiled a little, smooth and easy. “Oh, I apologize, tough guy. Of course you don’t.” The other questions were a bit harder to address, however--just thinking about them created ripples in waters she’d tried hard to still ever since her awakening in the morgue. “Yes, I was dead… I assume putting my body out of commission was enough to release you all from the arena. Regardless, I don’t know. I haven’t tested my limits, but…” She looked at the fountain, smile thoughtful. I made a wish and the wish came true. That was the easiest answer and closest to the truth, she thought. “I think you must have left my body as it was afterward: intact. Or near enough to it, anyway. That might have done the trick.”

Moving away from him, she stepped into a row and took a seat on one of the pews.

“So… what was the mood like? Did anyone cry? I always imagined attending my own wake and seeing what everyone said about me. Was I cast in a heroic light, after the fact? Spare no details.”