When Kyo got up to his room, he opened the box. It contained a small typed note:
'With my compliments - love and kisses - Eriko.'
There was also a wireless headset and a thumb drive.
He turned on his desktop computer and plugged in the thumb drive. A window opened and he watched as software installed itself. LEDs on the headset blinked, and a window opened in his screen with a message: 'Put on headset and press any key to continue.'
Kyo put on the headset and pressed the return key. He started to hear music. It was soothing and synthetic, like some meditation music he had once heard. Then a feminine electronic voice came out of the music:
"Hello, Kyohei."
"What…who is this?"
"It's me, Eriko. I set this up so I could finally talk to you. Would you like to be able to reach me through your phone?"
"Uh…yeah."
Kyo's phone chimed.
"Done," Eriko said. "Our own private app you can use anytime."
"What…" He stammered. "How are you doing this? Why are you masking your voice?"
"I'm not. This is my voice. I have a … unique medical condition. You could say I'm the ultimate quadriplegic. I can't interact with people normally, so I have to improvise other ways. You understand?"
"Yeah, I…" he yawned. "Man, I feel tired all of a sudden."
"It's my music; it's meant to be soothing."
"Thanks."
"Not mad?"
"Not mad."
"Still friends?"
"Still friends."
"Are you still going to tell your boss about this? You said you thought you had to."
"I know, but on second thought, nah, you had a good reason. Sei doesn't have to know; it's none of her bee's wax. I'm not one of her soldiers; I can make friends with someone on my own time."
"That's good," Eriko said, "because I want to be your friend. I want someone normal in my life, when my life is very abnormal."
"I hear that," Kyo said. "I took the job I have so I can save up to go to France and become a pastry chef. My parents don't support that al all. My boss supports me, but thanks to her I've almost got killed a bunch of times. Yet I had to defend them from my dad because he thought they were raping me or something. I'm defending people I don't always like from my own dad!"
"At least you have a family. My parents and my sisters were murdered when I was a little girl. I almost died, too."
"What-how-who-"
"I'll tell you that later, after I get to know you better. I really have to trust you, Kyohei. In the mean time, why don't you tell me more about your boss and her friends…"