Tsubaki watched on, lips parted. Somehow, with the Institute’s madness breathing down their necks, just saying the words didn’t seem enough to express what she wanted to express. That she wanted to do absolutely everything to make sure Landel’s experiment didn’t reach completion, that she would protect what friends she had left within the Institute’s walls.

But the meaning was there, she knew. And she was glad if Leanne’s resolve was strengthened by knowing she had a friend to rely in.

She moved closer impulsively, because a conversation couldn’t really get more intimate when it was about Leanne’s health. “Does that mean you’re looking for a surgeon, too?” Tsubaki couldn’t hide how nervous that made her, the thought of Sora and Leanne and countless others trying to get at whatever was (or wasn’t in their stomachs.