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The country finally and officially recognises Ema's competence in forensic investigation.
Kay is so proud of her. It took a lot of work and effort, mentally and emotionally, for Ema to get where she is. And, even through the scary parts where Ema is bed bound for several days and then buzzing around their apartment with zero sleep, Kay is glad to have been by her side through it all.
But it's much easier to soothe and comfort others, than oneself, when they are stuck at the stepping stones around their goal.
Navigating through a professional career path is so much harder than navigating from one physical point to another. The latter has fewer variables, as Ema would say, and she can immediately try again if she fails. Unless there's a drop that is two or more stories high; she'll retry after she's recovered from injury.
Kay feels a light embrace from behind and then hears Ema's soft voice.
"It's 2AM, babe."
Kay sighs at the opened books on their dining table, and then rubs at her heavy eyes. "Is it that late already…"
"You said you'd finish in 30 minutes an hour ago."
"Another 30 minutes."
"Will you be able to wake up by then?"
"Sure I will." Kay's set three alarms for the morning so she doesn't miss the first exam of the day, the first exam of the new semester, the first exam of many more until it's the big bar exam. Sighing, Kay reaches for her mug and finds it empty. "Can you get me some water, my love?"
"Alright."
Kay deeply inhales, loses awareness, and then finds herself startled by a hand on her shoulder. She hears Ema's voice but can't register what she's saying.
"...ay— Kay. Are you okay?" A mug is offered and Kay shakingly takes it.
"Are you okay?" Ema asks again.
Kay nods after a gulp of water, feeling a strange sense of deja vu. She must've had—
"—a seizure," Ema continues. "Please sleep." Her voice is teary.
Kay nods again, because she doesn't want to upset Ema further, and accepts the offered hand to be guided towards their bed.
As Ema lightly snores beside Kay, Kay stares at the ceiling.
She's not going to pass tomorrow's exams if she stops studying now.
And stopping does sound very tempting.
When she's being Ray Shields' assistant in court, she feels the rush, the feeling of being helpful as they plough through and win a 'Not guilty' verdict for their clients.
But when she's helping Shields with the paperwork before and after the case is closed in court, it's torturously boring.
Kay turns onto her side and tries to get herself comfortable with the new position.
Maybe it'll be okay to stop trying to get into law professionally.
Her dad would've been proud of her no matter what.
No matter what…
Right?
Kay deeply sighs.
"Babe…?" It's Ema's sleep-ridden voice. "You can't sleep?"
"Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you."
"'Tis okay." Ema's mumbling something and Kay is about to ask her to repeat herself when Ema gets up and leaves the room. Kay settles back into bed, thinking her girlfriend is just taking a trip to the bathroom.
But Ema returns with her mug of water and a box of unfamiliar medicine, and Kay stares at the latter when she's presented with said items. "What's that?" She then reads what's on the unbranded box — cetirizine hydrochloride? — and misses Ema's answer except the keyword of: "Drowsiness?"
"Yeah. These allergy meds can cause it."
"I'm not allergic to sleep," Kay jokes.
"You might get the drowsy side effect. Just try?"
Ema's voice is gruff, but the fact that she's awake and helping Kay when she could've kept slumbering urges Kay to take the offer.
After Kay has swallowed the allergy meds, she's reminded of her nightly dose that keeps her seizures away. Opening the drawer of her nightstand, she takes out one of the two dosette boxes that Ema got for her a while back — when she wasn't sure if she had taken her morning or nightly doses — and throws Sunday night's tablet into her mouth with a gulp of water.
When she lays back down, Kay feels a kiss on top of her head.
The next time she's startled, she gets the sense that she has snoozed her alarms several times because something is insistently poking her cheek.
"Wake up." Ema's voice.
Kay opens her eyes, sees natural light, and closes them. "What time is it?"
"Eight fifteen."
Kay burrows her head deeper into their pillows. "I'm gonna skip."
"...Skip the exams?"
"Uh huh."
"Are you sure?"
Kay leans over to stop the alarms with half-opened eyes and then falls back into bed after she succeeds. "I'm sure."
"Alright." There's a kiss on her mouth. "I'm gonna go now. Enjoy your day off."
"Thanks, babe. Enjoy work."
Ema giggles. "Oh, I will. I'm going to be reading a handwritten diary and doing an analysis of its authenticity. It may or may not include dusting for fingerprints."
Kay gives a short laugh whilst keeping her eyes closed. If only she had the same enthusiasm in her law studies.
→
"This foolish red-tape is beyond foolishness."
Kay watches Franziska tug and pull at her wound up whip. "We can always take matters into our own hands and steal the evidence."
"Trucy Wright is still recovering from her sprained ankle; she cannot provide you cover when the situation degenerates."
"If," Kay stresses with the correction. She only needed backup one out of three times.
"If the situation degenerates, which would be 33.34% of the time."
Kay pouts. "You rounded it up."
"I am not foolishly spending more foolish time using more than two decimal points—" Franziska stops when they both hear knocking on her door. She raises her voice. "Come in."
Simon Blackquill enters with Athena Cykes behind him. Kay remembers Trucy mentioning how Athena's hearing is very keen; she wonders how soundproofed Franziska's office is.
"What is it?" Franziska asks. "And why is a defence attorney with you?"
Kay watches Athena's face go sour. "We were going to get lunch—"
"It's about the Stanley Motel murder case," Simon interrupts, placing a file on Franziska's desk. "Current evidence has more contradictions than the number of my blades. Forensics need to re-examine the scene."
"Granted. Especially since it's the fool at Edgeworth Law Offices as the defence."
Kay's heart sinks. That means she has to help out with paperwork soon.
"Will that be all?" Franziska states in a tone where she wants them to leave already.
"Have you had lunch yet?" Athena pipes up.
"No. Goodbye."
Athena deflates; Simon guffaws. When the door is shut behind them, Franziska browses on her PC. "Detective Skye is available. Kay, are you the other fool at the defence bench?"
Kay glances at her phone for any missed communication. "Ray Shields hasn't called me yet. So maybe not?"
There's several swipes from Franziska's computer mouse before several clicks are executed. "Good. Relis Security Endeavors are having an annual meeting with their stockholders two hours away from here this weekend. I will be at the meeting while you sneak in and get the evidence. We need to plan carefully."
Kay looks over Franziska's shoulder. Franziska has summarised the contents of the company's latest announcement well. "So we have to become one of their stockholders."
Franziska frowns. "Apparently."
"Are they not going to get spooked when they see your name?"
"Then they shall be 'spooked'. They should be perfectly focused on me."
"Perhaps you can ask Trucy for tips."
"I am not doing magic." Franziska wags a finger at Kay. "The Relis brothers and I will just talk."
There's knocking on the door. Franziska sharply inhales instead of sighing and summons them in.
It's Athena again and she looks surprised.
Oh no.
"... I couldn't help but overhear you talking about the Relis brothers," Athena says. Kay tenses, and senses Franziska do the same. "Are you building a case against Relis Security Endeavors?"
"It's none of your concern," Franziska states.
"But it is! We have clients getting accusations of theft and assault on their security team."
"So your law business is flourishing. You fail to bring me valid concerns."
Athena grinds her teeth. "So why do you sound sad?"
Kay leans forward, not sure she's heard it correctly. "Franny sounds sad? Or is the whole situation sad?"
Athena looks elsewhere and taps at the side of her head. When she turns back, Kay sees an earring at said side. "Both. Seriously, if you’re building a case against them, we should work together. Mr Wright and I have been collecting evidence but we can't exactly prosecute them."
"The evidence had better not have been forged, Athena Cykes," Franziska says.
"It's not!"
"Nevertheless, we will not be working together." Franziska leans back in her office chair that's priced in the four digits. "Why did you return?"
"Oh! Simon forgot his file."
Franziska vaguely gestures at said file on her desk. "Then get it and leave."
"Fine," Athena grumbles.
The door is closed with a slam.
"I think Trucy has said that Athena can hear emotions," Kay says.
"Hear … emotions? That is tomfoolery. Perhaps Trucy meant something else."
Later that day, when Trucy has returned from school, Franziska is repeating her disbelieving tone. "Trucy, do be serious."
"Daddy has taught Athena that the world isn't all black and white, Franny!" Trucy chirps as she bounces on the balls of her good foot and ankle brace. "I'm sure she'll be a great advisor. And even if she does try to turn us in, your brother can handle that fallout."
Franziska wags her finger. "It will be too much for him to handle. It would be unwise."
There's knocking on the door, and Kay is starting to recognise the unique cadence of it. It seems that Franziska has too because she continues, "Tell Athena Cykes to go home."
Trucy opens the door and instead grandly gestures Athena to step in. Franziska growls and wringes her whip but doesn't attack.
"Hello again," Athena tentatively greets.
Kay greets back and then turns to Trucy who's taken on a more serious stance. "Why do I feel like you have an announcement to make?"
When Trucy grabs onto Athena's hand, it dawns on Kay on what's coming next. "Remember," Trucy says and then pauses, "...we promised to tell each other whenever there is a — there has to be a better word than 'liability', Franny, let's say — a special someone in our lives?"
Kay watches Franziska tense up further.
A nervous giggle erupts from Trucy, which is saying something because she's performed in front of hundreds of people with confidence. But then again, none of them carried a whip.
"Athena and I are dating," Trucy finishes.
Franziska sharply inhales.
"Congratulations," Kay offers with a grin, hoping to break the ice.
Trucy's back to bouncing, and Athena guides her to the sofa chair at the other corner of the room, and she smoothly slides in to sit. Athena stays standing.
"Sooo," Kay drags out as she watches Franziska, who's been frozen for some time. "Franny, shouldn't we then tell Trucy's special someone the dangers of Trucy's other life?"
Franziska huffs and slams her wound up whip on the desk. "Fine. But you're explaining our general operation, Faraday. Then we must continue with planning."
Fortunately, Athena doesn't seem deterred at what they do. Kay guesses that dating someone who helps steal authentic evidence isn't too far of a stretch of a crime after working for someone who had used forged evidence.
"The security is going to be very tight at the location Relis Security have chosen for this year's annual event," Athena says when they move on to planning their next heist. "There's been a break-in recently so they're extra careful now."
Kay stares at Athena. "How do you know they had a recent break-in?"
"Uh. I cannot say. But trust me on this."
Must be one of the clients she's defending.
"You said that you and Mr Wright have been collecting evidence," Kay says. "What kind of evidence? So I can look at something else to steal."
"Faked criminal records, and testimony of being coerced to sign on a document of confession in assaulting their security team."
"Why would they do that," Franziska mutters under her breath.
"Yes, why would they do that?" Kay asks.
"I personally think it's for human experimentation," Athena replies.
"What??"
"People who have had their criminal records faked, or forced to confess that they did aggravated assault, were physically abused and taken to the hospital. There, they were put under for whatever reason. They don't remember the hospital part though."
"Then how do you know?"
Athena deflates. "We hired a private investigator. They've witnessed it. They also found that Relis have been illegally data mining everyone in California. They have built an algorithm that determines whom to target next."
"An algorithm — that sounds like a good thing to steal," Kay says. "Except how can I haul a mainframe out of their location…."
"You don't. The algorithm should fit in a pocket-sized disk drive."
"How do you know this?" Franziska demands.
"Like I said: we hired a private investigator."
"What is their name? We should rehire them. Interpol is being horrendously useless."
Athena chuckles nervously — probably at the Interpol comment. "Lana Skye."
Kay is shocked. Franziska is too.
"Lana Skye," Franziska repeats. "Do you mean the previous Chief Prosecutor?"
Athena tilts her head. "I don't know; I didn't ask her about her past. But I know she's Detective Skye's sister."
"So it is the previous Chief Prosecutor."
"Huh. Why did she step down?"
"Long story," Kay hurries, "And if you see Ema, please don't ask her about it."
Athena stares and then nods. "Okay. Anyway, I guess we should hire her then. Lana, I mean."
Franziska nods. "Yes. I'll contact her now."
The weekend arrives. And Kay — Mikumo — is stepping out after Franziska — Mei — has left the limousine that had come to fetch them from the closest international airport. They hadn't actually flown; it's under the guise that they have made a long journey.
At Lana's behest, they ought to be under fake identities or their careers would be at risk if the operation were to fail. And security has really tightened — Lana confirmed Athena's statement — so Kay wouldn't be able to sneak around undetected for long. Kay has to be at Franziska's side when she enters and exits the building. This meant they had to invest twice the planned amount to be eligible for an invite each from Relis Security Endeavors, which was one million dollars in total.
"IDs, please," requests one of the security members at the front gate.
Mikumo holds her breath as she hands over her document, which has been faked by Lana, and makes an attempt to look like she belongs here. Mei, meanwhile, coolly presents her document as if she should totally be here.
"I don't see your names on the list…"
Mikumo opens her mouth but Mei beats her to it. "We joined at the last minute. Our useless brother didn't tell us about this opportunity until yesterday."
Said useless brother paid Kay's admission fee to the party; she stops herself from saying anything in his defence lest their cover is blown.
"Ah yes. I see you now. Please, this way."
Mei smirks, and Mikumo tries to copy her.
"So far, so good," Trucy says via their earpieces. It's a strange experience; it had always been Franziska in Kay's and Trucy's ears as they snuck around, avoiding to be seen. Now Kay is hiding in plain sight - a misdirection, Trucy would say.
Up ahead, by the front door of the Relis family lake house, stands the CEO.
"That's Nathan, right?" Mikumo mutters.
Mei makes an affirmative noise. When Nathan notices them, his eyes brighten in recognition and Mikumo gulps.
"Mei and Mikumo Ichijou, is it? Sun Simulations?"
"Yup. That's us," Mikumo replies.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Nathan Relis," Mei says, after a pointed look at Mikumo.
"Likewise. I haven't heard of Sun Simulations so I did a bit of research."
"Oh?" Mikumo says without thinking. She hopes that the backdated articles that Athena and Lana have written are convincing enough.
"Yes. Providing AR solutions to AEC industries via handheld devices? Very intriguing."
Mikumo grins. "I can show our best model to you later if we have time."
"I'll make time. Excuse me," Nathan nods and greets the guests behind them.
Mikumo is pushed from behind by what feels like Mei's hand. "Good talk, but remember that you are an Ichijou. Be humble."
"How do you know how an Ichi—" Mikumo recognises the face of their target, Steven Relis, and remembers that they ought to use another language whenever they are being sneaky. She mentally counts from one, nudges Mei and verbally points in Japanese, "10 o'clock."
"I see him," Mei replies. And then says something that Mikumo doesn't catch so she says so. Mei sighs and switches back to English. "Let's talk when everyone's settled down."
"Okay."
When everyone has settled down, Nathan stands in the middle of the huge sitting room and makes eye contact with every person closest to him. Steven is nowhere to be found.
"Thank you for making the time to come here. We could have made this a teleconference but where would the fun in that be? This is a chance for all of you to share knowledge, know each other, and hunt. And we shall be doing those activities in reverse order."
"Reverse order," Mikumo mutters. "So … 'hunt' is first? What's the corporate meaning of that?"
Several huge bags are brought out, and one is brought over to the Ichijou sisters. When the security guard opens it to reveal hunting guns, Mikumo's blood goes cold.
"Thank you," Mei says curtly.
"No, thank you," Mikumo whispers when the security guard has left. "I am not hunting."
Mei is unfazed. "I'll hunt."
"You're on your own."
There's several claps; heads turn to see Nathan was the one who made the sound. He smiles. "Relis will give one million dollars worth of today's stocks to the one who shoots the most birds."
"I hate him," Mikumo hisses. There's a sharp jab at her ribs and she stares down at Mei, who flounders for a moment. "You talk with the bird killer, I'll talk with the invisible man."
"Mikumo. Compose yourself." Mikumo clenches and unclenches her jaws and takes a deep breath. Franziska places a hand on her whip, which she would not part with but to be allowed to do so, she had to wear an undistinguished wig over her distinctive hair to avoid recognition. Using German, which Kay is actually fluent in, she continues with conviction, "We will destroy the brothers' company."
Kay focuses on the end goal. She nods and goes back to being Mikumo, the sister who is overshadowed by Mei the business woman. Mikumo, the daughter who knows the ins and outs of her personal AR device.
It's around ten minutes after the majority have left to hunt that Mikumo spots Steven again. He's making his way to the bar so Mikumo slowly joins him. When the bartender is done with his drink, they look expectedly at her and Mikumo shakes her head with an apology. She turns to Steven who's taken a few sips.
"Hi. Steven? Mikumo Ichijou from Sun Simulations."
The man looks like a deer caught by headlights. "Oh, uh, hello."
"It's great to finally meet you. I've been meaning to talk to you."
"...On what matters?"
Kay leans forward. "I've heard of your amazing improvements to Relis' tech stack. I'm looking into bringing my company out of legacy software, and I would love to hear how you did it."
Steven looks to be silently reading her face, and then he stares elsewhere. "Sorry, you've got the wrong brother. The one you’re looking for is outside." He then walks away and Kay cringes inwardly; she probably went too hard on that one.
"That is a lot of sadness and anger that I heard in his voice," says Kay's earpiece. From the words, it must be Athena.
"Then our suspicions are correct?"
"Most likely," says someone who sounds like either Lana or Athena. But Lana has stated that she'll be out of comms to avoid noise in their ears. Trucy and Athena will be enough, she explained along with what her role would be: being their gateaway; she'll be on standby not too far from where the annual meeting is at, so they can escape as soon as they have secured the drive.
An hour or so later, Mei and the other stakeholders return along with Nathan Relis. Mikumo is the only one left in the sitting room, besides the bartender, but she didn't hear him behind her until he speaks, "Hi Mikumo."
Mikumo turns and plasters a smile on her face. "Hi Nathan. Good hunt?"
"Indeed it was. I didn’t see you out there, though. Is something wrong?"
Mikumo's smile falters. "I … love birds a lot so I couldn't join. Fishing, now that's something I'd do."
Nathan laughs. "I'll consider fishing for next time. I'll see you at dinner."
"Yes, see you then."
Seconds later, someone else appears by her side, "Mikumo Ichijou—"
Kay turns towards Franziska and, in doing so, catches Steven nearby. "Did you have to fullname me?" she says loudly. "We're sisters."
Mei seethes. "Only by blood. In a professional setting, we must be appropriate."
"Says the one carrying a whip—" said item almost snaps at her body and Mikumo jumps. "Fr—Mei!"
"Do not backtalk me," Mei says over her shoulder as she leaves.
Mikumo is jaw slackened.
"Sorry," Trucy says in her ear, "We reckon the sibling abuse will make Steven empathize with you and open up. We overheard from Franny's side that Nathan has a sadistic side to him when 'disciplining' Steven."
"Could have warned me," Mikumo mutters as she walks away from the scene because people nearby have stopped talking and are staring at her.
"Sorry." It's a different voice so it must be Athena. "You’re not great at acting your persona."
Mikumo sighs. "Fair."
"Mikumo?"
Mikumo is startled and finds Steven looking at her with worry. "Sorry, were you on a call?" he asks.
"N-no. Just talking to myself." Mikumo stares at her feet and realises how easily she answers to her middle name. It feels as if her maternal grandparents are here, proud that she's working for the government as a police officer. She has tried to correct them that she is a detective and police officers actually report to her. But they didn’t see the difference, or didn't understand her due to her thick accent.
Steven is speaking. " — It'll be quieter there and it'll be just us."
Mikumo looks up. "Come again? Sorry, I kind of spaced out there."
"That's okay … there's a library upstairs that should be empty. Nathan told me you have an AR device that you wanted to show him? If you don't mind, I would like to see it on his behalf."
"I don't mind at all. I actually prefer showing it to you." Kay grins. "Lead the way!"
"Auf geht!" Athena loudly cheers in her ear.
As Steven has said, no one else is in the library. "I know that it sucks to have a sibling treat you like you're lesser than."
"Yeah. It does suck. I didn't expect my sister would do that in public though."
"She probably thinks no one would tell. No one really says anything when Nathan does it."
"...Do you mind saying what he did?"
"...Said he mistook me for a bird at the last annual meeting's hunt."
Mikumo gapes. "That's horrible."
Steven clears his throat. "I'm surprised you knew I was the one that implemented Relis' new tech stack and not him, because it's publicized that it's him."
"Well … I've been a fan of yours. You have a small community of supporters, you know? It didn’t sit with us right that Nathan always evaded the technical questions at conferences. And he would look at you whenever it happened." Mikumo smiles, proud that she remembers the script for her persona.
"T-there's a community?"
"Oh. So you don't know."
"I'm … actually happy some people do think I did the tech work. Because I did. And it took me years and sleepless nights to make it production ready."
"The tech stack?"
"Our data mining and recommendation algorithm. My algorithm. It's entirely in JavaScript and can be integrated to almost every system."
Mikumo chuckles. "Maybe it can be integrated with Little Th—Sun."
"Come again? Little teeth?"
"Little Sun." Mikumo takes out Little Thief and switches to the look of the big sitting room she was waiting in earlier.
Steven stares around him in wonder. "That … is amazing." He wanders towards the nearest sofa, reaches out and continues to meet air. "Did you just build this today?"
"Yup. What do you think?"
"It's amazing," he repeats. "How did you do it?"
"I just have to scan the room for this one," Mikumo says, and then remembers she's meant to pitch her product. "But adjustments can be made for a more unique design. Our clients are mostly architects."
"If we integrate it with my algorithm, you wouldn't need to actually be in the room to build this initial state. You can cater to customers other than architects."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Wait here, I'll go fetch it. It's going to be great."
"You’re doing great, Kay," Trucy whispers. "I'll start recording now. Ask him what they've used the algorithm so far."
"Yeah..."
Mikumo waits with a thumping heart. In minutes, Steven rushes back with a pocket sized drive in his hands and turns off the lights so they could see the AR better.
"I didn’t bring any cables," Mikumo says sheepishly. "So I don't know how we can integrate it."
"What kind of ports does it have?"
"Uh, USB."
"USB-C?"
"Yeah."
"I have one nearby. Give me a moment."
As Steven leaves the room yet again, but with the drive with him. Mikumo takes the time to check the sash window nearby: locked. She slips out her tools, and jiggles the lock with the most commonly used pick. As she does so, she adds pressure in pushing the bottom panel up. It opens.
There's movement outside so Mikumo hides her tools and plays with the buttons of Little Thief but not pressing any of them.
"Got them. Also got my laptop here for the interface. Let's hook them up."
"Let's."
As they wait for the laptop to boot, Mikumo asks, "So what else have you used this system for?"
"The state police has been using it so we find criminals before the crime happens. Isn't that amazing?"
"O-oh. How does that even work?"
"We have security cameras everywhere in Los Angeles. Combine that with my algorithm where it goes through every data warehouse connected to the Internet — it can jump through almost every firewall — and we have enough information to find these criminals."
"How's the success rate so far?"
"Uh, I... I don't know. Nathan handles all of the QA for that project. I just develop."
The laptop finally boots to a login screen, and Steven plugs in a tiny device and then his desktop appears. While he is busy finding something on it, Kay changes stance, ready to action her attack. She turns off Little Thief and snatches the drive from the desk before Steven can reach for it.
"Wh—"
Kay runs out of the room and frantically looks for a window, mentally beating herself up for not using the one she just opened. Luckily there's another window not too far off. She dashes towards it, hoping against hope that it's not locked because it'll be seconds before Steven is after her and she doesn't have time.
Fortunately the lock doesn't require a key. She lifts it up, and sticks out her head. The ground is clear and she can't see anyone nearby.
"Mikumo! What are you doing?!"
Kay doesn't look back. She climbs out, holds onto the window jam with her hands so she's dangling and removing half a storey from the drop. She spins around and softly touches the ground with the front of her feet and with bent knees. She smoothly rolls out the pressure and lands on her feet again to run without a stop in flow.
"Wait!"
Kay doesn't look back. It's when she's sure she's hidden amongst the trees and bushes that Kay's stomach drops and she skids to a stop. "Mei. I-I left Franny behind."
"Don't worry!" says her earpiece. "Way before you stole the drive, Athena told her to hightail it when Nathan was starting to sound suspicious of her. And! Franny is with Lana at the meeting point. They're waiting for you."
Kay remembers to breathe again and hurries.
"You have the drive?" Lana asks as soon as Kay appears within her line of sight.
"Yup," Kay says as she jumps into the front passenger seat of the car, because for some reason Franziska prefers to sit at the back, and closes the door. And because the engine is already running, Lana immediately accelerates them out of the location. "That was a close call," she huffs heavily.
"But we succeeded," Lana remarks. "That's what counts."
"Yeah."
"Excellent job on your first undercover."
Kay laughs in a way that it sounds as if she's coughing. And she may as well be; it's like talking with Ema's mother — technically, she was Ema's guardian for many years — and meeting the parents or guardians is always nerve wracking. "Thanks."
"Kay." And Kay looks over her shoulder to see Franziska staring at a spot between the front seats. "I didn't want to whip you."
"It's okay. Your whip didn't hit me. And Steven did get to talk to me after."
"However, I did hurt you emotionally. And I apologize for that."
Kay doesn't know what else to say other than repeating that it's okay, but she means it this time.
When they are near the suburbs, Lana pulls over, jumps out and fiddles with something at the front of the car and at the back. When Lana returns to her seat, Kay asks, "What happened?"
"Changed the fake number plates to the real plates. There's a chance they got footage of my car back there and I don't want to leave traces."
"Oh, wow. I hadn't thought of that."
"You learn from experience."
"You were traced down before?"
"Unfortunately."
Until they reach the Prosecutor's Office, Kay bombards Lana with further questions.
→
"Looks like you can steal my medicine now," Ema says whilst sliding her opened boxes of lamotrigine towards Kay across the kitchen bench.
"Huh? Why?"
"Talked to the psychiatrist. She upped the dosage when I told her I had two cycles in the past six months."
Kay stares down at the boxes half-filled with 100mg tablets that is her current dosage. Now she doesn't feel as bad for postponing her doctor visit again for a repeat prescription. "Thanks, my love."
Ema smiles. "Always good to not waste medicine."
"Yeah…"
"What's wrong?"
"I'm going to drop out of college. It isn't for me."
Ema comes around the kitchen bench and hugs Kay. "That's okay."
"And I'm thinking of quitting the LAPD."
Ema straightens her back and rocks back and forth before she says, "Okay."
Kay stares. "That's it? No objections?"
"I assume you’re taking another paying job. I did get a big salary increase, and it can support both of us. But I can't see you becoming a housewife."
"Ehh … " Kay rolls her neck as she thinks of Ema's reaction. She registers Ema mentioning the Yatagarasu, but what Ema's already said caught her attention and hence demands her focus. "'Housewife'?"
"Yes? I can't see you as a housewife."
Kay pouts. "I can clean and cook."
But I'm so bad with laundry.
"That's not the point. We don't have kids so whatever's left of your responsibilities are going to bore you."
"Do you want kids?"
Ema looks to the side. "Maybe? Right now, no."
"Do you want to marry me?"
That gets Ema to look at Kay. "What?"
"Do you want to marry me?"
Ema returns to staring elsewhere. "That has got to be the most unromantic ask for marriage, ever."
Kay nervously laughs. "Uh, kinda waiting for an answer."
"You were being serious?"
"Yes?"
"...Sure."
"Really? You sound unsure."
"I'm just going with the casual tone you're setting, my love." Ema shortly laughs. "Did you want me to scream 'yes' and cry or something?"
"It'd be nice," Kay jokes. "You were such a cute mess when I asked you to be my girlfriend so this is—"
"Shut up." Ema's cheeks are pink and Kay smiles.
When they're watching YouTube on TV and an advertisement of private health insurance interrupts the trailer of an upcoming game they're looking forward to, Kay wonders aloud, "How much cheaper would it be when we finally change to a household package."
Ema hums in a way as if recalling something. "It'll be about five dollars cheaper for each of us. If we split the cost evenly."
"You … looked it up already?"
Ema flushes. "I was curious!"
"I feel so used," Kay jokes.
Ema looks solemn. "I love you, and I do want to marry you."
Heat slaps Kay across the face. "Really?"
"Really." Ema's eyes are narrowed in annoyance. "Why do you doubt me?"
Kay shakes her head. "I don't. Us being wives would be amazing."
"Amazing."
"Our wedding would be fabulous."
"Fabulous."
Kay pouts at the words that are parroted with Ema's unimpressed tone. "What do you want me to say?"
Ema grins. "Just teasing you."
Kay quickly engulfs Ema, who's giggling away, with her arms, not letting her escape. She kisses her on the mouth and Ema stops struggling to return the movement. When they part, Kay whispers, "You’re such a rascal. I love you."
Ema relaxes against Kay's body. "I learned from the best."
When the trailer ends, Ema pipes up, "So because you're not going to become a housewife — forever — what are you planning to do next?"
"Do private investigation."
"...Huh. Like my sis."
"Yeah. I talked to her about it, actually. She'll help me get started as soon as I resign."
"That's good. …You won't be working together, right…?"
"Don't worry, she already showed me your baby photos."
"Nooo!"