Dates were difficult things to dress for.

Emma wasn't entirely sure why she kept thinking about this, but it was certainly true. She didn't own any dresses or skirts, and Goddess forbid she start wearing those for something as trivial as picking up Ayane from the train station. They had plans, yes, and these plans were certainly of a date-like nature, but they had time between Ayane's arrival and any actual activities to change, if indeed that was necessary. Which, well, going to a fancy restaurant had seemed sort of overblown for the two of them, since they'd been fighting together for a long time already, so Emma hadn't made any reservations for any place in particular. There were a few bars they could wander around to that might need them to change, but maybe it would be best to take it more slowly at first? But then if they did that it was probably best for Emma to just wear her usual clothing since, well, it just wasn't necessary, and she didn't want to make Ayane feel out of place.

Emma sighed and kicked a foot against the floor of the Arrivals Lounge. The room wasn't much of a lounge, with only generic, rigid-backed benches arranged in a block in the center. It opened at one end to the train platforms and connected directly to the Departures Lounge and Ticketing Area on the other. A mural was painted across the walls depicting some sort of magical girl scene, which contributed slightly to offsetting the room's otherwise monotonous appearance. It was clearly not a place that the designers had imagined anyone would spend any significant amount of time in.

In hindsight, showing up as early as she had was probably a bit overkill.

Emma was sitting in the first row of benches, near the right edge. It had seemed just as good as any other place in the lounge, though now she wondered if it might have been better to stand, back against the wall somewhere. She wasn't sure if that mattered.

She had ended up wearing a sort of variation on her usual clothes. Emma hadn't done much with her pants, except switch out for a pair of jeans that showed off her legs a little more than usual. She had also gone with a dark red long-sleeved shirt that fit close to her body, extending to hug her hips from underneath a white t-shirt with black at the cuffs and the collar. Her customary hoodie was black as well, with white strings.

It was definitely bolder than Emma typically dressed herself. She didn't want to overdo it, but it somehow seemed improper not to put at least a little effort in for Ayane. Hopefully she'd like it.

The room was relatively empty. Mitakihara's train station was mostly used by commuters to get to the surrounding cities. It was usually busy, since people were up at all hours working on things, but traffic slowed down around meal times, since everyone was busy eating instead of going places. For the unlucky souls that did end up traveling during meal times, the trip was usually short enough to not be too much of an impediment.

The sound of shoes clicking against the floor made Emma look up hurriedly. She had half risen from her seat before she realized it was just another commuter.

The lack of people, unfortunately, made it easy for Emma to dwell on her thoughts. She really hoped she wasn't being weird. Or that she was forgetting something. Were there special rules Emma should have looked up about this sort of thing? Maybe she should have brought flowers? No, that was one of those cheesy romantic things that only happened in vids. But maybe…

Emma made a bothered noise and fiddled with her hoodie's strings. Getting to the station extra early was definitely a mistake. But being late would probably have been worse.

Emma's plans for the evening were actually very open. She wasn't terribly sure what was appropriate and what wasn't. She had a list, at least, of possible things to do. There were several vids playing in theaters that Emma knew Ayane would probably like. There were also some neat VR lounges that had special packages for couples, which was probably valid for Emma and Ayane. Emma planned to talk it through with Ayane when she got here, which according to Emma's implants was actually about now.

A wave of butterflies went through Emma as she fidgeted in her seat. Honestly it was a little ridiculous how nervous she was getting. This was Ayane after all. It would be more reasonable to be nervous about meeting Ryouta, or something. Rationally speaking, Emma should be quite calm about the whole thing.

Then again, if she was rational about everything, she'd be making contracts, not in one.

"Hey Emma!" Ayane texted, the message popping up in the corner of Emma's vision. "I've just got here. I'll be out in a few minutes, where are we meeting?"

"I'm in the Arrivals Lounge," Emma texted back.

"Oh, okay. Give me just one moment!"

Emma swallowed and got up to pace in a swift circle before sitting back down again. Goddess, nerves were terrible things to have. She would have had her TacComp use some emotional suppression, if it weren't also incredibly lame to do so.

The sound of feet made Emma look up. The train's occupants emerged from the platform and streamed around her towards the exits. One of them paused, then came over.

Ayane had thankfully worn clothing in the same vein as Emma. She was wearing a wavy, dark brown skirt with white lace across the bottom. Its hem was just short enough that Emma found herself briefly distracted before hurriedly looking away. A white t-shirt, with an amber-yellow hummingbird screen printed into the bottom right corner, hugged Ayane's body, emphasizing the curve of her hip just before the shirt ended. Her hair was done up in her usual braid, and Emma could smell the slightest hint of some sort of perfume.

Emma thought she smelled tangerines.

"Hi," said Emma.

"Hi," said Ayane. Her luggage wheeled up behind her. "Um. I'm here, I guess."

"Yeah," Emma replied, nodding intelligently. "I— yeah. Hi."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I'm not actually sure what to do here," said Emma, licking her lips. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry. "Everything I can think of is super cheesy."

"Yeah, I can see you went without flowers," said Ayane, glancing around Emma's bench.

"Oh, er, no, I thought they'd be—"

"Cheesy, yeah," said Ayane, giggling. "Do you have something planned? I already booked a hotel, and the station has a service that can send it ahead for me."

"Well, I did have an idea to start with," said Emma, grinning.

"Wow," Ayane gasped as they stepped out of their transport tube. "This is fantastic!"

"Yeah, I figured we could start here," said Emma as she led Ayane into the farmer's market. It was situated on the roofs of several buildings, linked by wide overpasses lined with arbors of flowering vines. "There were a few different things I had in mind for after, but I figured we could decide when you felt like leaving?"

"Sure, that sounds fine," said Ayane, looking around excitedly. "What's that over there?"

Emma was pretty sure she felt Ayane use a little bit of magic to leap over to the stand and its small, blown glass figurines.

"Don't you have any farmer's markets in Osaka?" asked Emma as she jogged over with an amused grin.

"Oh sure," said Ayane as she inspected the figurines carefully. It seemed the stand also sold necklaces. "But Mitakihara's is totally different."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the one in Osaka is mostly food," said Ayane as she picked up a small bird necklace and gave it a considering look. Clear glass was formed around a small, blue marble that glittered in the sunlight. She held it up to her neck. "What do you think?"

Emma tilted her head to one side thoughtfully.

"It looks good on you," she said with a smile. "Do you want it?"

"Yeah, why not?" said Ayane, turning back to the stand owner. "Can I—?"

"Your friend's already paid for it," the stand owner said with an air of amusement. "Thanks for your patronage."

Ayane turned back to Emma, flushed. "Emma, you didn't need to do that!"

"Well, I mean, I kind of did," said Emma, shrugging.

"But we— you—!"

"Oh put on your necklace and get going," said Emma, rolling her eyes. She reached out and took the necklace from Ayane. "Turn around."

Emma received an extremely amused look from the stand owner as she fastened the necklace's clasp behind Ayane's neck.

"She looks nice, right?" Emma asked the stand owner.

"Absolutely," said the shopkeeper. "I regret charging you full price for that now, you two are cute enough together to warrant a discount."

"Oh Goddess," groaned Ayane, hiding behind her hands again. "I can't believe you're doing this Emma."

"Well honestly I'm not sure where I'm getting the confidence from," Emma admitted, nodding in thanks to the stand owner as she took Ayane's hand to continue walking through the farmer's market.

"R-really?" asked Ayane as Emma led her off. "Your heartbeat is going pretty quick…"

"Maybe it's just combat training helping me out," Emma speculated. "Anything else catch your eye?"

As it turned out, many things caught Ayane's eye. The farmer's market was really more of an arts and crafts market, with a wide variety of expertly made wares available for purchase at somewhat alarmingly high prices. Even on Earth, where scarcity had supposedly been eliminated, there were some things that just weren't that common. Even so, Emma and Ayane had a significant amount of pay saved up that neither had been able to spend until now, so cost wasn't really an object. They had ended up being very popular with the shopkeepers and had to send a small stack of wares back to their respective residences.

"Do you want to get dinner?" Emma asked after the drones had departed with their packages. "I'm starved."

"Let's see what the food stands have to offer," said Ayane. "I've been smelling them this entire time from a distance."

"Sure," said Emma, smiling at Ayane and taking the other girl's hand again. "Anything you smell that's particularly inviting?"

"You know, I think I smell yakitori," said Ayane, flushing a little but smiling happily back at Emma. "Let's get that, and maybe some… hmm… I think that's taiyaki?"

Emma sniffed the air carefully. "…Yeah, I don't know my Japanese food well enough. I'll follow your lead."

"Okay, then let's go!" Ayane said cheerfully, taking the lead as the couple made their way towards the food stands. "Do you have any idea what to do after we eat?"

"Well, there's a rec center in the area," said Emma, swinging their entwined hands back and forth a little as they walked. "The place's brochure says that they do little VR adventuring scenarios for couples to work through. Other than that, there's also a few vids you might like that are playing in theaters."

"Actually, could we go to the Church?" asked Ayane.

Emma blinked.

"Seriously? I thought you said you weren't interested in religion?"

"Well, I wasn't," said Ayane. "But this vision you mentioned has me thinking, you know?"

"Ah," said Emma, taken aback. "Well, uh, sure, I can show you around or something. Unless you want to, like, do a guided tour?"

"No, you showing me around is fine," said Ayane. "And don't forget that you promised to tell me about your vision."

"Yeah, of course. After we visit the Church, I guess? We can go down to my room to talk."

"Alright," said Ayane. She seemed to go a little redder at the suggestion, but Emma wasn't sure if it was because she was embarrassed or because of the convenient beam of sunlight that they passed through at that moment. "Anyway, we're here. It looks like it is a yakitori stand."

"An… all-natural yakitori stand?" Emma asked, looking over the signage. "What does that mean?"

"It means murder!" shouted the stand owner across the way. He seemed to be selling grilled tofu. "She—"

"Oh piss off you twatwaffle!" the yakitori stand owner shouted back. "If they head your direction you can proselytize your crock all you want!"

The tofu stand owner returned an obscene hand gesture but turned away in a furious silence.

"Sorry you had to see that, girls," said the yakitori stand owner. "Name's Ishikawa Chiyoko. Welcome to my yakitori stand."

"Good evening, Miss Ishikawa," Emma and Ayane said together, bowing slightly.

"You're uh, very passionate," said Ayane.

"Yes, well, I try not to be a dick about it," said Chiyoko. "But yeah, I think it's pretty important for us to remember what it used to be like to eat meat."

"What does that mean?" Emma asked, feeling suddenly wary of the situation.

"Well when I say 'all natural', I mean that I raise and slaughter my own chickens," said Chiyoko. She nodded as Emma and Ayane both blanched at the implications. "Yes yes, but hear me out. In my opinion, we, as a society, are too disconnected from what we eat. We push a button and don't think about what we're putting in our mouths. It's just a bundle of calories and nutrients, and we may as well all just eat the ration bars the Military hands out in long sieges. Er, no offense."

"None taken," said Emma and Ayane.

"Thanks. So going down that route, I sought to find out what it really means to eat yakitori," Chiyoko continued. "Like, we take these things for granted as Japanese people, right, but by eating all this synthesizer food, we don't realize what food really is any more. In the Colonies it's completely different, and they treat food with respect, because for a lot of them, they know where it comes from and what went into making it."

Emma gave Ayane a vaguely distressed look, but found that the other girl was nodding along.

"I see what you mean," said Ayane. "I'm a biologist by training, with a focus on migratory birds, so I've seen a lot about the food chain and energy cycles. If you think about it, modern society on Earth is actually super wasteful. It just gets recycled much better these days than it ever did in the ages past."

"Exactly! Our understanding of the food we eat and how it gets to our plate is so much more limited than it was even in the 2000s or during the Unification Wars. It's important to reconnect to that."

Emma coughed. "Er, I'm not sure I follow," she said. "Why is that so important?"

"Well, think about where we come from," said Chiyoko. She gestured at the space around them. "We're a technological society, yeah? Where does all this come from?"

Emma blinked and looked about awkwardly. "Er, a factory?"

"No, it comes from the Earth," said Chiyoko, pointing downwards vigorously. "Or rather, the planets and asteroids of the universe that we harvest raw materials from, made by stars that forged the same elements that exist in us. All of us are made of matter, and the biological processes that sustain us are near accidents created by circumstance."

"O-okay?"

"In the face of this," continued Chiyoko. "We cannot claim that we are somehow divorced from the cycles that surround us. The wind and the rain that we say we control are natural processes, processes that we merely believe to be things we understand. Your friend— sorry what's your name?"

"Nakamura Ayane."

"Nakamura-san can attest that even for all we claim to know, there is yet so much more we do not even know we do not know. For us as a society to try and become more… more artificial and to ignore these processes is to fail to understand the very nature of Life, and the pursuit of it. It is absolutely necessary that we find again these processes and allow ourselves to be part of them, even a little, so that we may understand what it truly means to be Human, and to be Alive."

"W-what does that have to do with food though?" Emma asked cautiously. Ayane was carefully running her thumb across the top of Emma's hand in a soothing gesture.

"It is difficult to understand wind and rain," said Chiyoko, "or the passage of birds and animals, or the workings deep within the Earth's mantle. Through careful study, some of us who choose to do so can of course learn many things, but the rest of us cannot grasp these things."

Chiyoko placed her hands on the counter before her, leaning forward now in excitement. Emma instinctively leaned away.

"But food!" Chiyoko said rapturously. "Food on the other hand, we all can experience equally! Of course, there are those who have talent who can experience on a deeper level, but even the layman can understand a piece of chicken which is delicious and tender versus a piece of chicken that has no substance and is overcooked. The small differences, any set of tastebuds can comprehend. It is this very basic thing that I sought to bring to everyone, but I realized I had to go deeper. Just the taste and texture of a food is not the core of our society's disconnect, after all. What matters is the cycle of life and death that we have divorced ourselves so distantly from. And so I resolved that I must raise my own chickens, feed them food that is healthy for them and raise them carefully, to be happy and free chickens, and then, when the time came, to slaughter them humanely and personally. To take responsibility for the food that I eat and that I serve, and by doing so reconnect myself and my customers to the greater universe around us."

Chiyoko leaned back, the area around them oddly silent.

"Are we sure she's not crazy?" Emma muttered to Ayane over telepathy.

"It makes some sense to me," Ayane replied. "Don't discount her too much."

Emma struggled to maintain a normal facial expression and nodded. "I uh, I see. I think."

"You should come down to the farm to see more clearly," said Chiyoko. "The chickens are raised in pasture. I work with a number of other growers who raise cattle and such, and we're able to imitate fairly closely an entire ecosystem on the property we've rented from Governance. Just seeing it all would be good for you, I've even had a number of people come down and kill a chicken. It's really a transformative experience."

"I uh, I've had a few of those recently," said Emma. "I'll um, pass for now, I think."

"Could we buy some yakitori though?" said Ayane. "It really smells great."

"Absolutely!" said Chiyoko. "Just two skewers, or do you want to do a meal each?"

"What's in a meal?"

"You get two skewers with a bowl of egg yakisoba and a drink," said Chiyoko. She shrugged apologetically. "It's not fancy, but the goal is to let the ingredients show through."

"Alright, then—" Emma and Ayane said simultaneously.

"Oh, sorry," said Emma. "Go ahead."

"Oh I was going to say, two meals please," said Ayane. Emma paled minutely.

"Very cool, I'll have those right up for you," said Chiyoko. "You can pick a drink from the dispenser over here."

Ayane almost skipped over to the drinks dispenser. "It's really very interesting, don't you think?"

"Yeah, sure," Emma said dimly.

Ayane turned. "What's wrong?"

"I just… I'm not sure I can eat meat that's been slaughtered," said Emma, making a disturbed expression.

"Oh, jeez, I'm sorry, Emma," Ayane said with a wince. "I can ask her to make something else really quick, I bet—"

"It's fine," said Emma, swallowing. "I… well it's nothing like combat, so I'll just deal with it."

"Yeah, but—"

"Look, if I can't handle it, you can just eat my skewers," said Emma. "I can handle the eggs easy enough."

"Okay…"

"Don't worry about it, okay?" said Emma, stepping forward to pat Ayane's shoulder comfortingly. "It'll be fine."

"Yeah, okay," said Ayane, nodding. She turned back to the drink dispenser. "What do you want to drink?"

"Uh, how about iced barley tea?"

"Okay. I'll have one too actually. Here you go."

"Thanks."

The two of them stood idly by the dispenser, sipping their teas. Emma found the drink pleasant, with a slightly different taste from synthesizer tea in a way she couldn't quite place. She wasn't sure if it was a placebo effect, but it was nice regardless.

"Here you go," said Chiyoko, appearing again at the counter. "Two meals, ready and waiting. I made sure to cook the chicken rare for you two."

"Thank you!" said Ayane as she scooped up the boxed meals. "Have a nice day!"

"You too!"

Emma and Ayane ignored the dirty looks the tofu stand owner sent their direction and went off to find a place to eat.

There were a variety of secluded gardens available in the area. They found one with a nice view of the city, near the edge of the roof and shrouded behind a series of arbors. Rose vines twined through the frames, reaching up and spreading out over the top of the arbor, shrouding Emma and Ayane in the scent of roses.

"This is nice," Emma said, looking up at the flowers blossoming overhead. "I wonder if there are any in the Church."

"Probably," said Ayane. She smoothed out her skirt and handed one of the two boxes to Emma. "We should go look for one later."

"It'd be nice, yeah," Emma said thoughtfully. "The view probably isn't as good though."

"No, probably not."

"Anyway, let's eat," said Emma. She looked down at the food in her lap and swallowed. "I uh… could you go first and tell me what it's like?"

Ayane nodded, opening her box of food a little nervously. "The truth is, now that it's here, I'm a little nervous myself," she admitted.

"Ah, yeah, that's understandable…"

The smell of the food drifted up and around them.

"It smells a little different," said Emma, leaning over to peer at the food. The two skewers of meat had been brushed with some sort of sauce that had cooked to a shimmering amber, while the edges of each cube of meat had browned into a deep, dark brown. "Looks just like normal yakitori though."

"I think they used miso instead of soy for the tare sauce," said Ayane, picking up one of the skewers and giving it another sniff. "You're right, it smells a little like grass."

"That's kind of weird."

"Well I mean, green tea smells a little like grass."

"True."

"Anyway, let's see how it tastes," Ayane said. She took a deep breath, then bit into the first piece of meat.

"…this is really good."

"Really?" Emma asked as Ayane swallowed and took another bite of yakitori. "It's not just the uh, the implant modifications acting up?"

"No, no, it really is good," said Ayane brightly. "The sauce is light and sweet, and the crust from the sear is really uniform and just dark enough to be tasty without being dry or charred."

Emma blinked. "You seem to know a lot about this sort of thing."

"Ah, well, everyone's like this in Osaka," said Ayane, flushing a little.

"Don't they say you're supposed to eat till you drop in Osaka?" Emma asked with a teasing grin. "I guess you must have been pretty good at that before you contracted."

"It's a cultural thing, okay?" Ayane said, going deeper red and looking away.

"Okay," said Emma, grinning more broadly and turning to her own food. "If you say so."

Ayane stuck her tongue out at Emma. "Mleh!"

"Anyway, I guess I should try this out," Emma said as she opened her box. She picked up a skewer and looked at carefully. "It looks so normal."

"It's just like regular chicken," said Ayane. "Just with a different recipe, maybe."

"I guess," said Emma. She licked her lips nervously and took a deep breath. "Well, down the hatch, I suppose."

The first bite was both better and worse than Emma had expected. On the one hand, it was definitely well made, and if nothing else the texture and aroma were excellent. On the other, the dysgeusia from when she'd first gotten her military implants seemed to be back in full force. It was probably psychosomatic, but Emma couldn't reasonably enjoy it knowing exactly what it was that she was eating.

"Goddess, that's…" Emma said, grimacing as she swallowed. "That's unique."

"Have another bite, seriously," encouraged Ayane. "It was a little weird for me the first bite, but it really does taste different the second time."

"I'm not sure that'll work for me," Emma said sheepishly. "Maybe I should just give my skewers to you…"

"No don't do that!" Ayane said quickly. "Just trust me, okay? Try closing your eyes, so you can focus just on the smell and the taste."

"Er, but then I can't eat," Emma said. "I kind of need to see the skewer."

"Well then I'll help," said Ayane firmly. She set her box of food aside and took the skewer from Emma's hand. "Here, close your eyes."

Emma felt herself go red. "Er— seriously?"

"Yeah! Trust me!"

"O-okay," said Emma, swallowing. She put her box of food to the side and closed her eyes, her hands balled into tight fists on her knees.

"What are you so nervous for?" Ayane said into Emma's ear as she slid over. "It's just some chicken. Now open up."

The second bite was completely different from the first. It came as a surprise, and maybe as a result of that Emma wasn't able to think too hard about what she was eating. Her first taste was of the sauce and how it had been reduced and caramelized on the grill into a nutty, slightly sticky layer on the surface of the meat. Then came the flavor of the chicken itself, just a little more vibrantly "chicken-like" than the usual synthesizer recipe, and with a slight aftertaste of green tea.

"Wow, that's amazing," said Emma, opening her eyes and blinking. She turned to Ayane excitedly. "You're right, it does taste different!"

"Just a little right?" asked Ayane. She grinned and pulled another piece of meat off the skewer. "Here, have another."

Emma smiled back and opened her mouth obediently.

"You look like a little bird," Ayane giggled as she popped the piece of chicken into Emma's mouth.

"Should I make noises?" Emma asked as she chewed. "Though, maybe not. It'd be super embarrassing."

"It wouldn't be cute either," said Ayane, handing Emma back her skewer and turning to pick up her food again. "Baby birds are actually super annoying. If I didn't know better I'd use my powers to tell them to shut up."

"Heh, doesn't it work?" Emma asked as they began eating in earnest. "Isn't your main power talking to birds?"

"Yeah, but baby animals only speak baby," said Ayane with a miffed expression. "You'd think they'd at least shout 'food' or something, but it's just loud babble."

"That's too bad," said Emma, nudging Ayane gently. "But hey, you got flying powers too."

"That's true," said Ayane, grinning back. "And I met you, which is good."

"Bleh, that's so corny," Emma said. She bit into her yakitori and looked away to hide her blush. "…though I'm happy I met you too."

Emma glanced over to see Ayane blush and break into a silly grin.

"Thanks."

They continued eating in silence, looking out over the city.

"I should tell you about my vision," said Emma as she finished her second skewer. She tossed the stick over the edge and toyed with her chopsticks. "If uh, you think this is a good time?"

"Sure," said Ayane, blinking to attention and setting her food to the side. "As long as you're comfortable with talking about it."

"You can keep eating," said Emma. She snapped open her chopsticks and poked at her yakisoba. "It's like I said, I can't remember all that much of it."

"Is that normal?"

"Apparently so," said Emma, shrugging. She picked up a bite of yakisoba and looked at it consideringly. "But Kyouko says that I should talk to people about it anyway."

"Sakura Kyouko?" Ayane gaped. "She talked to you personally?"

"Oh sure, she's head of the Theological Council after all," said Emma. She took a bite of yakisoba. "Huh, that's really good egg too."

"I guess that makes sense," Ayane said, taking her own bite of yakisoba. "Did Sakura-sama say anything in particular about your vision?"

"Not really," said Emma with a shrug. "She just said that I should make sure to talk about it."

"I guess that makes sense."

"The… the big thing about my vision was about me dying," said Emma. She took a deep breath and looked down at her food, suddenly no longer feeling hungry. "I don't remember the exact words the Goddess said to me, but she said something. I saw two versions of myself standing in front of me. One version died in battle, the other I… I think she spiraled into despair."

"That's horrifying," Ayane said, scooting over so that their hips were touching. She put her food down to place a comforting hand on Emma's shoulder.

"It's… it's pretty freaky, yeah," said Emma. She smiled slightly at Ayane. "It gets better with time, even if it's only been like a day."

"That's good."

"The Goddess said I had to choose," said Emma, looking away towards the soaring view of Mitakihara. "But that in order to fulfill my wish, I had to use both hands."

Ayane blinked. "That's… really confusing."

"Yeah," said Emma. She put her food aside and looked down at her hands. "Just before the vision ended, I remember the one who died in battle grabbed my right hand, and the one who despaired grabbed my left hand. Maybe it has something to do with that?"

"Maybe," said Ayane, rubbing Emma's shoulder slowly. "I… think that maybe she's trying to say you have to balance your life? That if you try too hard to be one or the other, you'll end up failing?"

Emma nodded. "I can see that. I'm not sure how I'd do that though."

"Maybe you're not supposed to," said Ayane. "I know it sounds weird, but my guess is that you're supposed to do the best you can with what's happening around you."

Emma hummed thoughtfully but didn't say anything. Maybe. It was funny how having different perspectives helped with this sort of thing. Then again, that was probably why Kyouko had wanted Emma to talk to her friends and family about her vision.

"Thanks," said Emma, looking over to Ayane and smiling more fully. "For listening, I mean. It helps a lot."

"Ah, well, it's no big deal," said Ayane, smiling back. "It's only natural."

"Still," said Emma. She reached up to hold Ayane's hand. "Thanks. Really."

"W-well, you're welcome," said Ayane bashfully.

They paused. The moment stretched strangely, as if it had some secret significance that neither of them had quite picked up on.

"So uh, you're supposed to kiss me right now," said Ayane with a small, nervous laugh. "According to the soap operas at least."

"Oh, er, am I?" Emma asked, hand tightening on Ayane's. "I uh, well, if you want…?"

"You don't have to," said Ayane, leaning towards Emma slowly. "I just thought it was kind of funny."

Emma leaned towards Ayane as well. "It's pretty corny too."

"Yeah it is. But that's…"

"…a good thing?"

Emma could smell Ayane's perfume. It definitely had tangerines in it.

"Yeah."

Their lips met.