Who's This?

Hannah looked down at the blue dress in her hands. It was ornately patterned. Mikara said it came from Hanashi, but Hannah could only tell it definitely wasn’t Entelan. “Are you sure it’s not too much? We’re not really doing anything special, it’s just dinner.” She looked back up at Mikara, who was presently sitting on Hannah’s bed, looking up at her.

“I’d say it’s not enough. You don’t see her every day, so you’ve got to take these opportunities to try.” Mikara stared at the dress deeply, watching the patterns. “You know, maybe we could go find a hat, and—”

“No, no hats.” Hannah’s gaze looked up to the wall behind Mikara, though Mikara’s confused expression caught her attention. “It’s a long story, you can ask her about it later. Are you sure she’ll like the blue one more than, iunno…”

“It’ll look great, trust me. Or maybe—” Both Hannah and Mikara caught the shift in aether that indicated a nearby planeswalk. “That’ll be her. You duck into the bathroom and get changed, I’ll keep her busy.”

Hannah looked nervously at the door to both the outside and the bathroom. “Okay, okay.” She took the dress and hid herself in her bathroom, changing as quickly as she could into the confusing dress.

Mikara watched with a smile as the door opened. Karina seemed… tired, probably from a day of work. Hannah talked about her job in exceptional detail whenever she got the chance. Like everyone else in Entela, Karina wore a transceiver, though she kept hers on her left arm. She wasn’t particularly well dressed. Her short hair was messed up, almost like she hadn’t combed it between her work and the present. Even so, Mikara could tell why Hannah was so attracted to her. She was definitely in for a surprise when Hannah came back out.

“Who are you?” Karina asked. Her voice quickly escalated, “Where’s Hannah? What are you doing here?” Before Mikara had a chance to respond, a brightly glowing spear materialized itself into Karina’s hands, and she held it across her body. Mikara stepped back, instinctively telling Karina to relax in her native Hanago tongue. She watched Karina’s eyes, considering how to keep Hannah’s surprise a surprise.

“Where is she?” Karina repeated.

Mikara’s eyes shot to the door, then jumped back to the spear. The tip of the spear glowed with a brightness Mikara hadn’t seen before. “Those’re some quick reactions. You’re the one that’s supposed to protect my sister, right?”

“... Sister?” Karina’s eyes connected with Mikara’s. That was long enough for Hannah to push her way back into the room. Karina’s breath stopped for a moment as she gazed at Hannah in her dress, and both Mikara and Hannah breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay,” Hannah finally said with a smile. She made an exaggerated motion to Mikara. “This is my sister Mikara. She was helping me figure out what to wear, and, well…” Hannah stepped forward and grabbed Karina’s hand, lightly looking up into her eyes. “I’m glad you were worried about me though.”

Karina lightly leaned her spear against the wall while Mikara continued. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Didn’t expect you to actually be like everything I’ve heard about you.”

“I, um…” Karina looked at Mikara. Was that supposed to be a compliment? “Sorry I—”

“Don’t worry about it, that’s a good thing.” Mikara winked at Hannah. “Anyways, I’ll let you two get on with it. You didn’t come here to talk to me, you came here to be with your adorable girlfriend.” Mikara saw herself out, smiling as she left the two.