"Be together?" said Miyabi, her face hot, her body hot, her own pulse tangible in her throat.

Her luck must be increasing exponentially in this moment. This was how one of her steamy dreams had begun once- but surely Wise was not insinuating that!

"W- we're together right now, Wise."

Wise blinked and he looked surprised, and then pained expression. "Miyabi, I mean… I mean let's date."

"We're on a date. You asked me on a date this morning."

"I mean-!" said Wise, his hand going to forehead.

Was he getting frustrated? Had Yanagi's misgivings been correct? Wise closed his eyes and sighed, then his blue eyes locked onto her.

"Sorry, Miyabi. Maybe this is a bit… junior high, but what I mean is: I don't want to just be your proxy. I want to be your boyfriend. And I want you… to be my girlfriend."

"Oh, I see.' Miyabi's heart descending back into her chest, still thumping but calming itself.

She was relieved that her faith in Wise was justified: he had not been talking about the… mating process. Miyabi certainly wasn't ready for that! Well… most of her wasn't. Maybe except that part of her that became much more insistent as winter faded.

Home-schooled by private tutors, Miyabi had no real experience with being in junior high, but she'd watched plenty of movies and television programs. She was somewhat surprised this sort of thing happened in real life, and she'd never dreamed that she would experience it herself. But here it was: a handsome boy she liked was confessing his interest in her.

Was… was she herself less different and strange than she thought? Wise stared at her with serious trepidation. His jaw was clenched, giving his face an interesting and attractive slight change in shape. Miyabi's heart continued its excited thumping

"Yes," said Miyabi. "I agree to be your girlfriend. And you are my boyfriend."

Wise's face became an expression that Miyabi could not interpret: happy? Relieved? He opened his arms and stepped towards her. Instinctively, Miyabi recoiled slightly- all of her combat-trained senses tingling from the sudden threat of a grapple.

Wise's eyes widened as she flinched back. He halted, hesitated, his expression changed to… worry? Fear? Embarrassment? All three mixed together?

They both stood looking at each other, wide-eyed, blushing. The wind of the sea suddenly felt strangely chill. Miyabi's ear twitched once. Twice. Wise rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.

Miyabi did not go out of her way to seek out romantic movies and books, but those she had seen, she could not remember any of the romantic couples starting exactly like this. She must have done something wrong. Miyabi had no idea what the moment of… of… boy/girl-friending?... was supposed to be like, but she sensed like it should not be like this.

Wise rubbed the back of his head, almost said something, hesitated, then lightly scratched at his cheek in thought. "Uh.. well... How about we get something to eat?"

Miyabi was not hungry. "I'm not hungry."

Wise ran his hand through his hair, his blue eyes flickered away from her to the horizon and then back. "Well, the only thing here is french fries. It might still be nice?"

Miyabi was about to decline, but as she watched Wise's fearful look, she instinctively felt like she should accept. "Yes. It would be nice to eat french fries with you."

"Great," said Wise with a smile.

But Miyabi thought it didn't look like a full real smile. She watched Wise turn towards the nearby french fry cart. The single employee had her head propped in one hand while she stared at her cell phone. She seemed to be the most bored person on the entire planet. No wonder, as Port Elpis was empty at this time during the work week. At least their food would be ready quickly, assuming the oil was even hot.

Still, a nagging feeling: this wasn't right. Miyabi's ear twitched. It was like how a sword maneuver could feel odd sometimes- odd because she had executed it poorly. And one could not ignore oddities. If one repeats oddities, they become bad habits. And bad habits gradually eroded all efforts toward improvement. And then you died in battle.

"Wise, wait," said Miyabi, her heart gone slightly chill with anxiety. Whatever was wrong, she needed to stop and correct it. It was important. "This isn't how we should begin."

He turned back towards her, a curious look on his face. "Begin?"

Miyabi wondered if he couldn't feel it, but he must have. He was behaving differently. He felt it, too. She was sure of it. "Wise, you moved towards me, and I flinched. What were you going to do?"

"Oh, huh," the sheepish smile. "I was going to hug you."

"Oh," said Miyabi.

A hug. That seemed somewhat innocuous. She had recoiled from a hug? To be wrapped in Wise's arms? That was a lot of body contact. But… that might be nice. Her face began feeling a little hot again. Why had she flinched away from that?

"Oh! Well… try it again," said Miyabi. "I'm ready now."

Wise gave her another curious look, but after a moment, he opened his arms slightly and moved in her direction. Rather than wait,Miyabi was ready and prepared this time. She stepped into his chest.

Wise let out a soft gasp of surprise as she thumped into his body with her own. His hot breath gusted onto the sensitive interior of her right ear, causing it to twitch along his face, the inner part of her ear rubbing against the smoothness of his cheek. For Miyabi, It was an overload of unexpected physical stimuli. She grabbed Wise around the back of his waist in surprise, and his arms closed around her upper back. Small, pleasant shivers rolled up and down her body as her face pressed into his shirt. He smelled good, really good: a little like juniper and something Miyabi could only assume was Wise himself.

Miyabi heard Wise inhale deeply. Did she smell good to him? She must, as she always bathed after training. And Yanagi had spritzed her with something from a flowery bottle and winked. So that probably helped, whatever it was.

"You were right, Miyabi," said Wise softly, almost directly into her ear. "This was a good call."

At some unspoken signal, they let go of each other, as if resynchronized. The sun felt warm again, and Miyabi caught the scent of fry oil on the air, mixing attractively with the smell of the sea. There was satisfaction and excitement within her again. She was someone's girlfriend. She had a boyfriend. And it was starting off in a good way.

"So? How about some fries?" said Wise with his full smile. His true smile.

"Yes, I want some."

They ordered a double plate of fries and the fry cook looked marginally less bored as she worked her magic. In short order, they had their little tins of fries and sauces. Wise inhaled deeply and seemed excited for the food.

"Sometimes simple is best," he said.

"Yes," said Miyabi with approval. Simplicity made things fast and easy, and that tended to keep you alive.

"Let's go up on that balcony and eat."

At the top of two flights of stairs, a small landing looked out over the port and the distant city. Wise sat at the edge, his chest against the lower bar of the railing, his long legs dangling in empty air. Miyabi initially hesitated, but then remembered she wasn't weaning her usual skirt and tights and there was no reason she couldn't sit the same way. She settled next to him and they ate their fries precariously, legs kicking and dangling like those of children.

The expanse of the bay undulated before them, the water under only gentle swell. A large cargo ship was sailing towards the city skyline in the distance, presumably heading for a larger cargo port in the… Vulcan Quarter? Miyabi was pretty sure that was the Vulcan Quarter over there, with its companion hollow amidst the buildings. To their right, the massive bay hollow loomed into the sky like a lonely, spherical mountain.

Much of that giant hollow contained the old cargo shipyard and a fair amount of ocean. Until recently, H.A.N.D. had not spent much effort containing it, as it was so far away from the in-use infrastructure of the city. An utter lack of routine ethereal culling was the sure cause of its extreme state of bloat.

Miyabi subconsciously reached for her sword, and remembered that it was in the blueprint case at her side. She wished she was allowed to just go into hollows and kill ethereals, but H.A.N.D. regulations forbade her from unilateral action- so she needed to honor the rules enough of the time so she could get away with taking unilateral action when she really needed to. Anyway: despite the cathartic nature of the act, going into a hollow and mindlessly killing small ethereals was practically useless since the small fry had little impact on the hollow's size. Meanwhile, the beasts which did matter were unwise to tackle alone. Even Miyabi's successful destruction of the ethereal Lerna was only possible because H.A.N.D. dropped her in via helicopter.

"That one is getting pretty fat, isn't it?" said Wise, following the angle of her gaze.

"Yes. The Bringer operation was the first time I'd been in that one," said Miyabi. "I'd like to destroy it, but it is not regarded as an immediate threat."

Wise shook his head and ate a fry. "Well, when they come to their senses, I'll be your proxy during the operation, Miyabi. Heck. Any operation to take out any hollow.. They all need to go."

Miyabi liked the offer, but she also wondered at the apparent self-defeating nature of Wise's position. "Wise, if you are a proxy, why do you want to destroy the hollows? Will that not make proxy-work unnecessary?"

"I hope so," said Wise. "Belle and I began Phaethon by accident, actually. We didn't even think about making money off of it- not when we started anyway."

Miyabi forgot her fries in her hands and looked attentively at Wise. This was interesting. He hoped to not need to do proxy work in the future? That was like how she hoped to one day not need her sword.

"No?" said Miyabi.

"Nah," said Wise, munching away, his eyes sparkling. "We thought there might be a core to hollows: an inanimate object at the center, a nexus… or something. If we found it, then maybe we could destroy the hollow, or at least weaken it."

Miyabi had not heard of this theory. In all her classes, training, and self study, nothing like a nexus or inanimate core to a hollow was ever mentioned. In fact, many of her textbooks advised that, due to dimensional bending, hollows didn't actually have a centerpoint. The environment on the other side of the event horizon defied such a 'normal' way of looking at space and relative positioning.

"Where did you get this idea?"

Wise smiled sheepishly and grinned at her. "We.. uh… saw it in a movie."

"A documentary?"

"Heh, no. An action movie. A really bad action movie called 'Hollow Slayers 3'"

Miyabi must have looked surprised because Wise laughed. "We didn't know very much back then, Miyabi. We were kids."

"I see."

"Anyway," said Wise. "While we were looking for this thing that doesn't exist, we stumbled upon two H.I.A. people who had lost their bangboo. We used our carrot data to get them out and one of them sent Belle and I a tip for the help. And it was more money than either Belle or I made at our retail jobs in an entire week!'

Miyabi didn't fully grasp the implication of minimum wage. "What about your video store? Didn't you inherit that from your parents?"

Wise shook his head with a bemused and confused expression. "No. We bought Random Play with lots of proxy money because we needed a way to legitimize our income. The vets said that PubSec and the government could out us if we had lots of unexplained money. So.. yeah…"

"Oh. Well, what is your inheritance then?" said Miyabi, who was the heiress of a multigenerational fortune consisting of bank accounts, investments, real estate, and myriad business and political interests. And wasn't everybody?

"Uh," said Wise, his expression changing as he gave her a look that Miyabi couldn't interpret. "I didn't have one, Miyabi. Whatever my parents had, the hollow took when it took them."

"Oh," said Miyabi, feeling foolish. She was unsure of what to say now.. "Sorry."

Wise's expression looked slightly pained. "You don't need to apologize. It's not… ((deep breath)) Belle and I managed. We are doing fine."

They sat in silence for a moment. Miyabi watched Wise eat the last of his fries. So his parents had died in a hollowfall, too?

"Is that why you want to find the culprit, Wise?" said Miyabi. "Because they killed your parents?"

Wise blinked at her in small surprise. Then his nose wrinkled slightly and he nodded. "Yes."

Miyabi hadn't told anyone this before: "My mother, too."

Wise blinked and then he nodded slowly. As one, they both looked at the hollow looming distantly amidst the skyscrapers of the Vulcan District. There wasn't anything more to say- each feeling a solidifying alliance.

"Belle and I think the culprit will know a better way to destroy them," said Wise, still looking at the distant hollow.

"They better," said Miyabi darkly.

Movement on the long jetty road caught Miyabi's attention. A sleek black car was driving towards Port Elpis with the speed of urgency. She thought she recognized the car, and a small bit of dread built in her gut.

"Whoa, that guy is in a hurry," said Wise, also noticing the car's approach.

Miyabi pressed her lips together, hoping she was wrong, but the closer the car came, the more that hope died. She did recognize the car. It was one of the armored sedans that Victoria Housekeeping used to transport their clients through New Eridu. And she knew exactly which client of theirs would have urgent business in Port Eridu… where she also happened to be.

With a man.

The car didn't skid to a stop below them, but it was a near thing. The front passenger door opened and a large wolf thiren stepped out, his white fur and tail billowing in the sea wind. He looked around Port Elpis and then upwards at Miyabi. She felt his eyes lock on her, which reconfirmed Miyabi's suspicions.

To Miyabi's surprise, Wise waved down at the thiren bodyguard. He seemed to sense Miyabi's wondering glance and Wise smiled at her.

"I know that guy! I've worked with him before. His name is-"

"Lycaon," finished Miyabi.

Wise blinked. "Yeah! You've met him, too?"

"Yes," said Miyabi, the dread now overwhelming her, and a little bit of simmering indignation joined it. This was unacceptable. Entirely untenable! The mix of emotions was giving her a headache. "We should go down, Wise."

"Huh? Allright," said Wise, following her lead and climbing back to his feet. "I wonder who Lycaon is working for today…? Whoa, that guy is wearing a fancy kimono. What's he doing out here dressed like that?"

"He's looking for me," said Miyabi, frowning down at said man in the fancy kimono as he stepped out of the backseat of the car.

The thin and otherwise unassuming man spoke briefly with Lycaon and then looked upwards, his dark eyes meeting Miyabi's gaze. Their eyes locked. The man's displeasure blew over her like the wind before a coastal storm. Maybe that would have cowed her in the past, and she would go down these stairs filled with guilt and repentance with what she had done to deserve such a look.

But not anymore. Miyabi raised her nose slightly and flung her anger back in his direction. She saw the man grimace under the gale of her ire.

Wise was looking at her, seemingly oblivious to the battle of wills going on right beside him.

"What? For you? Why? Who is he?"

"That's my father," said Miyabi.

"...Oh."