Debriefing had been slow and arduous, as a matter of course. Fortunately, it seemed that at least half of the young girls knew how the process went, and that made things go smoother. Mikoto could be counted in with that number, something that Emma was quietly proud of.

The debriefing was dismissed with little commentary, and Emma had headed to the VR Lab to do combat drills with Vivianne and Shoshana. All three of them were experienced enough to have a good general understanding of how these things went, and it was largely a matter of getting used to each other. That process took time, inevitably, but there was no reason for them to drill endlessly as if they were deploying to combat. They ended the sim after an hour and a half of subjective time. Vivianne had immediately invited Emma to a party, but she had politely declined. A text from Anna had arrived during the drills asking if Emma had any free time that afternoon. Emma had replied in the affirmative.

Anna and Ayumi were meeting at Zeus Research Center, where Ayumi worked. The building was just next door to the Church of Hope, towering high above like the skyscraper it was. Emma had expected to be told to go up to the top of the building and the almost-obligatory chuen there, but Ayumi had said to meet them at the ground floor.

"Hey Emma, you're still coming right?" Ayumi texted as Emma walked down the front stairs of the Church.

"Yeah, I'm on my way," Emma replied.

"Where are you now?"

"Just leaving the Church."

"Alright, I'll meet you outside then."

Emma raised an eyebrow as she placed her hands in her hoodie's pockets and kept walking. It seemed a little unusual that she wouldn't wait for Emma inside, especially since Ayumi had always been the more cool-headed person in the little group Emma, Anna, and Ayumi had formed in school.

Well, Ayumi had seemed relatively excited about her new job at Zeus. Maybe she was still just on that kick.

The entrance to Zeus Research was surprisingly unadorned. While the Church of Hope was akin to a cathedral from ancient times, Zeus Research Institute was seemingly no different from any skyscraper in Mitakihara. The only notable feature was how the first ten floors seemed to be paneled only with shining polyglas, with the rest of the floors possessing windows framed in masonry. Like many particularly large and important buildings, the ground floor façade was stylized, in this case with a set of pseudo-Greco-Roman columns standing beside plain sliding doors. A wide patio of terracotta tiles and marble slabs with a short series of shallow steps led up to the doorway, where Ayumi was standing, leaned up against one of the columns.

"Hey Emma," said Ayumi. She was wearing a white polo shirt, tucked into khaki slacks and paired with brown, closed toe shoes made of polished leather. She bobbed restlessly on her toes as she waved Emma over.

"Hey Ayumi," said Emma, waving one hand as she walked up the steps. "What's up? You seem more excited than usual."

"Do I?" asked Ayumi. She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled sheepishly. "Uh, well, I guess the excitement hasn't worn off yet."

Emma shrugged. That seemed about right. "How are things going?"

"Well," said Ayumi. "Nothing too crazy. How about you?"

"I'm alright," said Emma, shrugging again. "I had a demon hunt this morning, but it was pretty routine. You do anything fun?"

"I got a few good jobs, but most of it was kind of routine too," said Ayumi. "No big changes since we talked last week."

"Ah," said Emma, nodding in faux-wisdom. "What's that saying again? Something Chinese about interesting times?"

"I think you've got it confused," said Ayumi with an amused expression. "That's the curse of unending bad fortune."

"Oh, right."

The two girls shared a moment's laughter.

"Ah, I've missed you, Emma," said Ayumi.

"Yeah, you told me that last week," said Emma with a grin. "Life's boring without me, yeah?"

"Yeah," said Ayumi. She sighed. "It's too bad you'll be leaving eventually."

"Hey, we have time," said Emma. "Is Anna already here?"

"No, she's running a little late," said Ayumi. She nodded towards the doors. "We can head in though, if you want, she knows our usual spot."

Emma gave her a questioning look. "I feel like you've got something up your sleeve."

"Well, this is your first time coming to Zeus right?" Ayumi said, grinning. "There is a bit of a party trick I think you'll enjoy."

"Right…"

Emma stepped past her, giving Ayumi a skeptical look, then turned back around and stopped.

The first floor atrium was ten stories tall. The windows— which, from outside, were merely ten stories of polyglas paneling —turned out to be a subtle sort of one-way mirror and lit the atrium as if the Sun's light was filtered through forest leaves. All along the perimeter, low couches of slate-gray leather bracketed varnished wood tables, spaced wide enough apart that no one conversation would interfere with its neighbors. The floor was made of craggy marble, streaked through with dark veins and intentionally left unfinished. At either side of the main entrance, two sections of the atrium had been cordoned off for visitor information and souvenirs.

In the center of all this was a colossal oak tree, spanning nearly the entire atrium and brushing the ceiling. Its trunk was over two meters across, with roots that seemed to grow into and through the marble floor.

"What the hell," Emma said.

"It's cool isn't it?" asked Ayumi, poking Emma in the back to make her get out of the doorway. "I said the same thing when I showed up for my interview."

"Is it real?"

"Yes. Also magical," said Ayumi. She led Emma towards the tree and pointed up at the branches. "See how they're glowing, just a little? During the day you can't see it that well, but during the night it actually is enough light to read a tablet easily."

Emma squinted. The tree limbs and leaves did indeed shimmer with an ever-shifting rainbow of colors. New growth, by now starting to mature, glowed the brightest, while the oldest branches seemed to vibrate with magic. It almost felt like the tree had a soul gem to Emma, though that was of course impossible.

"It's enchanted then, I assume?" Emma said. "To make it grow this big, quickly?"

"And to keep it permanently healthy, grow through the floor, and on and on," said Ayumi, nodding. "It's a masterpiece of enchantment, made by an entire team of Zeus' most accomplished magical girls."

"Is it permanent?"

"Yep."

"Is it just enchanted for aesthetics, or does the tree do other things too?"

"As far as I know, it's just aesthetics," said Ayumi. "It's also just super intricate and inherently unstable, so it's a pretty big achievement."

Emma nodded. She turned and grinned at Ayumi. "It's pretty cool, I agree. I should bring Mikoto here some time to check it out."

"Heh, sure, sounds reasonable," said Ayumi. "I'll send you a list of days we're open to the public, and you guys can come see some of the cooler stuff we do."

"Sure."

"But we should get going," Ayumi said, flushing a little. "I uh, actually did tell someone I'd meet them at the café we're going to, and I don't want to be late."

Emma raised her eyebrow again, but shrugged. "Sure, let's get going."

Ayumi almost skipped as she set off, holding herself back just enough to affect the cool demeanor she usually carried. Emma watched, bemused, as Ayumi kept up a quiet commentary as they walked through the Atrium and into the first floor of Zeus Research Center.

The offices they passed were apparently dedicated to ZRC Procurement and Requisitions, Ayumi's department. Access was granted through implant based digital keys, with visitors automatically keyed to the person responsible for them. All Emma could see from the hallway was the silhouettes of things moving back and forth behind frosted glass. Her TacComp informed her that the glass was bulletproofed up to anti-materiel rifle rounds, with a variety of hidden magical components that were unwise to test. The hallway itself was unremarkable, and lit with lamps tuned to match the outside sun.

"You're very quiet," Ayumi said as they reached an intersection and turned left. "Is something bothering you?"

"No?" Emma asked, scratching her cheek. "I don't talk that much, do I?"

"Well, the only time you've been this quiet is when you've been ignoring me in favor of a football game," said Ayumi. She gave Emma an appraising look. "But you don't seem like you're watching a game. Usually you make weird expressions."

"I do not make weird expressions when watching games on my implants," said Emma with a mulish frown. "I'm totally capable of keeping my face absolutely still!"

"Uh huh," said Ayumi skeptically. "Which explains why you got kicked out of class, what, twenty times in the semester before you left?"

"Eighteen and that was completely unrelated!"

"Uh… huh."

"Ayumi!"

"Anyway, here we are," said Ayumi, waving an arm at their surrounds. It was a small place, mostly taken up by plastered brick walls, and opening out onto a terracotta tiled veranda. Wooden tables and chairs were scattered about the veranda in an artfully messy way. Customers, ranging in apparent age from eight to twenty-eight, ordered at a counter, then sat down. A drone served them a few minutes later.

"This is the Thunderhead Café," said Ayumi. "We're in the 'official' one, but there are stands scattered throughout the building. The restaurant serves handmade Greek food, but they have a synthesizer in the back if you really insist. And I believe… ah there he is!"

The table Ayumi set out towards was occupied by a boy their age, wearing a simple outfit of dress shirt with black trousers. Emma's nomenclator displayed his name as "Giovanni Fabbro", and noted that he was a production AI specializing in small batch, high precision manufacturing. On second glance, Emma spotted the I/O tattoo across Giovanni's iris. His eyes and hair were a deep black that shimmered silvery-gray in the sun as he stood to greet Ayumi.

"You haven't been waiting too long, Gio-k—Giovanni?" asked Ayumi, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear as she spoke. Emma narrowed her eyes slightly. Was Ayumi blushing?

"No, no, I only just got here," said Giovanni, smiling broadly and pushing his hands into his pockets. Emma was fairly certain he was blushing too, but the lighting made it difficult to tell. "I had a few simulations to run anyway."

"Ah, jeez, did I pull you away from work—?" Ayumi was definitely blushing.

"No no no, it's fine, I have subprocesses that can take care of it!" Giovanni quickly reassured, waving his hands. "It's fine, don't worry."

"Well, alright," said Ayumi. She went to brush her hair back again, then stopped and pulled her hand down behind her back. "Ah, I should introduce you two. Giovanni, this is Emma Sinclair. She used to be my classmate back in school. Emma, this is Giovanni Fabbro. He's one of the production AIs who works in our machine shop."

"Hello!" said Giovanni, waving. "It's nice to meet you, Sinclair-san!"

"Same to you," said Emma, nodding back. "You two work together?"

"Yes, that's right," said Giovanni as a serving drone flew over with a tray full of food. "Ayumi's part of Logistics Group Four. They deal with the labs that have wide-ranging needs, so I end up working with them a lot."

"What do you guys work on?" Emma asked as the drone laid a tiny cup of coffee in front of her. The liquid was so dark, it seemed to look more like deep space than a beverage. Emma gave it a cautious sniff before she continued. "Ayumi's in Procurement, I thought?"

"Yes," said Giovanni. "Procurement and Requisitions actually encompasses the Zeus Research Machine Shop, which is where I work. The research labs in Zeus have a lot of different requirements, and often there's nothing available that matches those requirements. When that happens, the requisition ticket gets passed to me or one of the other machinists."

Emma nodded and contemplated the coffee. She could only imagine it was produced by carefully distilling a mug of coffee into a shot glass, perhaps with one of the percolators that had been in secondary school chemistry. She wasn't entirely sure it was safe to drink it.

Eh, well, her implants could deal with it.

"Have you worked on anything interesting recently?" Emma asked as she picked up her cup. The smell was making her nose itch.

"Well, they're all usually interesting," said Giovanni. "I recently was asked to make a sword out of carbon-fiber and epoxy sandwiching a very thin sheet of battlecruiser armor. That was a strange build, but kind of fun."

Emma took a sip of the coffee and suppressed a horrified spit-take. It was impossibly bitter. The sugar and creamer immediately slid themselves over.

"What was the sword for?" Emma asked as she dropped two sugar cubes into the small glass of coffee and began stirring.

"Ah, well, it was a very unusual experiment," said Giovanni. He gestured with a hand to make a hologram of the sword appear in miniature over the table. "Apparently, it was an attempt to see if it was possible to enchant a slab of industrial material into an actual weapon usable by magical girls. Have you heard anything from the Lu Lab since, Ayumi?"

Ayumi shook her head and swallowed a mouthful of cheese. "No. They haven't sent another requisition down yet though, so they must be having some success."

"Or they've gotten distracted."

Ayumi sighed. "Yes, well, we must have realistic expectations about the Lu Lab."

Emma blinked as Ayumi and Giovanni chuckled to themselves. Clearly, there was some sort of inside joke she wasn't a part of. She took the moment to stir a bit of cream into her coffee and take another sip. Much better.

A text from Anna blinked across Emma's interface. She had arrived at Zeus and would be there in a few minutes.

"Have you started classes yet, Emma?" asked Ayumi after she had finished laughing. "You said you were going to take some when we met last week."

"My schedule's not yet settled, but I'll probably start within the next few days," said Emma. She tugged a small plate towards her with her magic and contemplated the baklava plated nearby. It seemed to be drizzled in some sort of fragrant syrup. "How do you eat that?"

"You accept the fact that it will be a mess and pick it up with your fingers," said Ayumi. "The best part is licking the syrup off."

Emma paused as she suddenly imagined Ayane licking syrup off her fingers, and then abandoned the train of thought as quickly as possible.

"Right, anyway," Emma said as she ordered the plate of baklava to scoot itself towards her. "All of my classes are doable in time-dilated sim, so they shouldn't take too much time."

"Will you still be taking Mikoto around the city?" Ayumi asked, scooping a few olives out of a bowl and putting them on her plate. "Or has she started classes already?"

"She started today," said Emma. The baklava stuck to itself, forcing Emma to use both hands to pry it apart and transfer it hurriedly to her plate. Her plate scooted itself back to Emma as she sat back and sucked the syrup off of her fingers. It tasted of roses and honey.

"Hey everyone!" Anna called out as she hurried up to the table. Her heels clicked against the tiles. "Sorry for being late, the meeting was hell."

"It's fine," said Ayumi. "I hope you don't mind that we started without you."

"No, no, of course," said Anna, taking a seat and accepting a cup of coffee from a serving drone. "Hey Emma, glad you could come."

"Hey Anna," said Emma, smiling at her sister. "You're alright then?"

"Yeah, yeah, just people being idiots," said Anna, sipping her coffee straight. "Worked out in the end though, just needed a little patience."

Emma chuckled. "This is why you're the one in business and not me."

"God knows you'd have smacked their heads together," said Anna, smiling over the rim of her cup. "How are things with you?"

"Good enough. Went on a demon hunt today, had a few team exercises."

"Routine then?" Anna asked as she called a serving platter of goat cheeses and marmalades towards her.

"Yeah. Pretty boring to be honest, and I didn't have much planned until later."

"Ah, yes, that date you failed to mention to any of us," said Anna, smiling smugly as Ayumi's eyebrows shot up. "I suppose Emma hasn't told you either, Ayumi?"

"Emma's dating someone?" Ayumi asked incredulously. "My God I thought the day would never come? Who is he?"

"She's a magical girl actually," said Emma, sipping from her coffee with a miffed expression and fighting off her blush.

"Oooh, really?" asked Ayumi. "So it's true that making a contract turns you gay?"

"It does not turn you gay," said Emma with a disbelieving look at Ayumi. "Where the hell did you hear that?"

"It's just a rumor the non-contracted around here toss around," said Ayumi, raising her hands placatingly. "Well, sort of a rumor. More like a joke."

"Some joke," Emma snorted, downing her coffee and eyeing her baklava. "In any case, she's taking the train and showing up around dinner, so I figured I'd take her out somewhere."

"Well make sure to take her shopping," said Anna pointedly. "You still haven't ordered any formal wear for the art show we're going to later this week."

"Is that the one with Ryouta Shizuki?" asked Giovanni.

"Yes, how do you know about it?"

"Well, I follow art and design blogs with some of my subprocesses," said Giovanni, looking vaguely embarrassed. "It helps for some of the things I'm asked to do for the labs here. If you'd like, I could design something for you?"

Emma raised an eyebrow and glanced at Anna, who looked thoughtful.

"Won't you need more time for that sort of thing?" Ayumi asked skeptically. "We've still got work to do, after all."

"Oh it's just some milling," said Giovanni. "I've already finished most of it!"

Ayumi made a displeased face. "You're going to only get part of it done and I'll have to stay overnight to help you. Again."

"Yes, but think of it this way," said Giovanni with a conspiratorial grin, "if that's the case, then you'll get to help me design more clothes! It'll be fun!"

Ayumi made another displeased face and tried very hard to pretend she wasn't blushing. "You say that now, idiot…"

"So, you two designing clothes together is a regular thing is it?" asked Emma, drily, propping her head up on one hand. "You know, Ayumi, you've been blushing an awful lot during this conversation. Is there something we should know?"

"Emma!"

"I can see how that would work," said Anna consideringly. "Though it's a little difficult, since Giovanni's an AI."

"May as well try for it," said Emma with a bland expression as she drank her coffee.

"Seriously though, do consider it," Giovanni said to Emma as Ayumi combusted in the background. "If you can tell me by later this evening, we can work something out over VR."

"Are you sure?" asked Emma. "I don't want to be too much trouble."

"No, no, like I said, it'll be fun!"

"Well, alright then," said Emma as she carefully picked up her baklava. "I'll think about it and get back to you."

Emma bit into her baklava with a crunch. The syrup tasted of tangerines.

"Thanks."