Title: Miracles
Author: jordannamorgan
Fandom: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
Characters: Ikoma, Takumi, Mumei, others looking on.
Setting: At the end of the series, as the Kotetsujo is escaping from Kongokaku.
Rating: G.
Length: 1,003 words.
Summary: After Kongokaku, Ikoma wakes to more than one welcome surprise.



Honestly, it was all rather ridiculous.

It was ridiculous that Ikoma woke up once again to Mumei violently shaking him, babbling tearfully about promises and shields and trying to order him to get up. It was ridiculous that their friends were gathered around to watch, their anxious expressions warming into relieved smiles when he opened his eyes. It was ridiculous that he felt much more than half-dead, his head hazy with exhaustion and pain, a heavy ache in his body and a furious itch in his right hand that no longer existed.

It was ridiculous that he woke up at all after what he’d done to himself, gambling all the humanity he had left on the chance to save a girl already consumed by the same poison he’d injected into his veins. After feeling it at work in his own brain and body, so swiftly eroding away everything that was him as he struggled to hold on just long enough to use its strength, he’d felt little hope that he could truly drag her back from the place where she was even more lost; and yet here she was now, yammering hysterically and pawing at his all-over bruises.

Torn between wanting to hug her, or just push her away and sleep for a million years, his inclination started to lean toward the latter…

Until a low croak of a voice that sounded no better than his own spoke up, forcing his very sentiment through Mumei’s incessant wall of high-pitched nattering.

“C’mon, can’t ya let a guy get any peace and quiet around here?”

Ikoma hadn’t even been sure his heart was still beating until that moment when it thudded against his heart cage, his instincts recognizing the voice and the dire importance of it before his fuddled mind could follow.

Takumi…

He remembered. The gunshot, the blood, the weight of his best friend’s body in his arms.

Somehow he managed to hurl himself upward, to get from where he was sitting to the bunk where the voice originated. His body was so stiff and hurt so much that he simply collapsed in a pile on top of the figure who lay there, before he could even see their face; but the warm familiar scent that slammed into him was unmistakable, even if it was still worryingly tainted with blood.

“Oof!—Careful, will ya?” the voice half-laughed and half-groaned at the impact. One arm caught Ikoma to wrap tightly around his shoulders, even as the other moved beneath him to hug protectively against a bandaged chest. “You’re gonna bust my stitches.”

Everything felt weightless and dreamlike as Ikoma raised his head, looking up to meet Takumi’s soft eyes and crooked smile.

“Takumi… you’re alive!”

“Hey, back at ya, man.” Takumi gave Ikoma a feeble push that was enough to flop the slighter Kabaneri over next to him on the bunk, leaving the two very injured friends sprawled side by side in the too-narrow space. “I thought you were gonna die too, so… you know. Glad you didn’t.”

Tears of joy and wonder brimmed in Ikoma’s eyes. “But how? I thought…”

“We all did at first,” Kajika offered from where she stood off to the side, solemn yet smiling. “But after you fell off the train, we found out Takumi was still just barely breathing. The Hunters wanted to throw him off too—but Biba got angry at them for that. He made them take him to his doctors instead. They performed surgery to stop his bleeding, and saved him… but none of us understands why.”

“Takumi put Ikoma’s life before his own—even knowing he was a Kabaneri,” Mumei mused, her expression thoughtful and somber. “Big Brother… no, Biba… he would’ve respected that. I think that must be why he wanted Takumi to live.”

In the shadows that briefly flitted across Mumei’s face, there was a suggestion of something complicated that Ikoma knew he should ask her about later—if he remembered. If this entire miraculous reunion didn’t get swallowed up in the tempting darkness of the sleep he would have to surrender to before long. …Really, it would be quite a thing if he woke up tomorrow to enjoy the discovery of his best friend’s survival a second time.

“You gonna be okay?” Takumi asked, nudging Ikoma’s left shoulder very gently.

“I will be now.” Ikoma shamelessly allowed himself to snuggle against Takumi’s warmth. The smile that crossed his lips was exhausted but genuine. “What about you?”

“Yeah. I think so.” A helpless grin. “After a while, anyway.”

“…Thank you, Takumi.”

“Well, I mean. It’s not like I really decided I was gonna stand in front of a bullet.” The bigger steamsmith smiled wanly. “It just kinda happened.”

From across the train car, even the bedraggled Kurusu graced them with a smile. “It happened because that is who you are, Takumi—even if you’re not fully aware of it.”

Takumi still must not have had much blood in him to blush with, but his chubby cheeks made an effort to do so, all the same.

Bright-eyed, Mumei opened her mouth to speak, but Miss Ayame laid a firm hand on her shoulder. “Now now, Mumei. It seems Ikoma and Takumi are both far worse off than you. Let’s allow them to rest and heal before we put them through any more excitement.”

As Mumei slumped in childish disappointment, Takumi favored Ikoma with a grin. “Sounds good to me. I’m sure this guy’s gonna be up and around before I am—but I gotta hurry and heal too.” He cast a rueful glance at the exposed stump of his friend’s right forearm. “After all, you’re gonna need my help building something to replace that hand of yours.”

This time Mumei would not be silenced. She leaned forward, giving Takumi a look of incredulous disgust.

“What are you even talking about? Ikoma’s a Kabaneri,” she huffed. “By the time you’re all better, his hand will have grown back as good as new.”

Both young men could only stare at her as a long beat of silence ensued.

“…What?”

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2022 Jordanna Morgan