Higuchi tapped down on his keys, the computer screen illuminating his face and the sound of typing from his coworkers bouncing all over the room. It was music to his ears.

He pushed his glasses up and rubbed his eyes. He looked up at the time. "Oh. It's already lunchtime." He raised his hands over his head and stretched.

Someone caught his wrists.

Immediately, Higuchi swiveled out of his chair, flipped over, and pinned the person to the wall, his gun out of his pocket and its safety off.

Although he did gain a few inches in height and shoulder width, he was not sure if he would win against an attacker without a gun so he always kept on around... His seat was also near the back door, so if someone wanted to sneak in and destroy the data in the computers, he was the main target.

He looked up. "Who are you and why did you-"

Yako blinked, both hands up and one of them clutching an envelope. "Eh... Hi?"

Higuchi found a blush working up his face. "Katsuragi. God, I'm sorry. Don't sneak up to me like that. I thought... You were..." A stranger.

Yako kissed him on the lips before he could finish. Higuchi's eyes widened and his gun slipped out of his slackened hand and clattered on the floor, for a moment he was lost. And then his eyes narrowed again, noticing something wrong.

Higuchi pushed Yako away. "What's wrong with you?" He wiped his mouth. "This... Katsuragi wouldn't act like this, however much I want her to... Are you drunk?"

Yako tossed the envelope to his computer and tried to hug him. "No! I love you, Higuchi!" Higuchi stopped her at arm's length.

Higuchi sniffed her mouth. "You smell like sickly-sweet lemons, Katsuragi. You usually smell like limes. What happened? Don't get into the habit of drinking, Katsuragi."

As Yako started to protest against his assumption that she was drunk, Higuchi carefully looked into her mouth. "No dehydration signs, no remains of a powder."

Yako walked up to him and pulled on his hoodie string. "You're so mean, Higuchi! Why don't you believe me?! Well! If you're going to be like that... I have other things to do!" Yako then turned on her heels and stomped straight out of the room.

His coworkers snickered at him. Higuchi sat back down and started to open the envelope.

"Oi, aren't you going after your wife?" Someone called from the other side of the room. More laughing. Higuchi flushed.

"She isn't my wife! And besides, I have work." The female coworkers booed.

"Your lunch break is fifteen minutes away. Usually you'd be gone by now."

Higuchi ignored them and slid the note out from the envelope. "Neuro..."

"Katsuragi has eaten something that has changed her personality. Do not mind her. It's an aftereffect of yesterday's mystery. Okay..."

Higuchi straightened his back and stared down at the sheet of paper, his eyes running over the characters. He looked at the time. "Twelve and a half minutes to find the source of this particular sickly sweet lemony and purple-colored flower."

He cracked his knuckles. "Ten minutes, tops."

Yako opened the door to Godai's office on the top floor of the company. "Godai~! Why don't you visit anymore? I missed you!" Godai didn't look up from the mountains of paper on his desk.

Yako's eyes, which were formerly clouded and unfocused, were now a bit more of its former clear shade of brown. "What's wrong? Why do you have so much paper?"

Godai tossed a stack into the trash bin. "The computer I had crashed down. So for now, it's paper and ink for me until the shipment of the new computer finally checks in. A bloody bother. Why are you here? Neuro got something for me?"

Yako rubbed her eyes. "I dunno. I have this headache, and I feel like I've acted stupid all day."

Godai raised his eyebrows, not really listening.

Behind him, Yako's hand covered her mouth. Something flashed over her eyes and they became cloudy again. Her stance was once again slightly slumped. She turned around and hugged Godai, sloppily kissing him on the cheek. "O-oi! Yako, what are you doing?"

Yako leaned against the back of Godai's chair, giggling. Godai swiveled around. "Hey, if you lean on that too hard..."

Godai's chair tilted back sharply and he toppled backwards, taking Yako with him. At the last second, he quickly held out a hand behind him, grabbing Yako, flipping her on top and managed to land on his back, without squashing his partner. "Damn." He's going to feel that bruise twice next morning.

He looked down on his chest, where Yako was. "You okay?" He shook her shoulder. "Oi, I said if you were okay. Get offa me, Katsuragi! I'm not joking..."

Behind them, a tiny eyeball clattered quietly around on its thin metal legs. Tiny holograms flickered through its pupil, and it twitched as it downloaded and sorted through the other side of the connection, Neuro's eye glowed bright green. "Trust Yako to stray off my errand and end up on top of Godai. The tramp."

Neuro snapped his fingers. "I'm tired of this Love Tool. You have failed, Yako. And I thought you would be able to clear your mind be yourself. I have overestimated you."

He looked at the clock. "Time's up. Give her the antidote."

The eyeball froze as it was, under Godai's desk. It twitched just the slightest bit... And then a tiny needle burst out of its pupil, foul-smelling liquid splashing on the floor.

It clambered up the side of the table, where Godai was helping Yako up.

It attached itself on the side of Yako's blouse, hiding under her collar as Godai leaned closer to take her temperature. Godai took out his phone and opened it, calling Neuro. No one answered.

The eyeball leaped from Yako's collar to her hair. It burrowed into hair and reached for her neck...

Outside, Yako had been kicked out of Godai's office, told to return to Neuro. The eyeball crawled down her neck and was just about to inject the solution when...

Its existence flickered out.

Neuro blinked.

Yako held up two fingers, an inch apart, green slime dripping from them. She tilted her head and looked at the droplets as it fell towards the floor. Her left was still cloudy but her right eye was bright and clear as it used to be.

She forced her breathing to become regular.

"Neuro..."

"I can break the spell by myself..."

"... So I don't need your help..."

Her right arm twitched, but her left arm shot out and grabbed it before it could put the last drops of the antidote into her mouth.

Her left eye began to clear.

She held herself still and tense for a long time. Neuro watched from the eyes of another one of his spies.

Her left eye began to clear. Yako began to smile, shakily.

"And, besides..." She brushed her fingers on her skirt and straightened up, eyes both clear brown and focused.

"... The antidote was probably poison, anyway, wasn't it..."

"... Neuro?"