Chapter Text
“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?”
—George Eliot, Middlemarch
1 year and 5 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
“…And that should be everything.”
The woman in front of him straightened a stack of papers before she slid them into a manila folder, becoming another one of dozens that lined her desk.
Wise sighed, the bags that lined his eyes maybe a little more accentuated after the three-hour meeting in legalese that he had just endeavored through.
Belle may have been a little overzealous talking her way into an investigator job in Hollow Zero. They had expected to be mingling with only forward scouting staff… not helping Section 6 track down and corner the giant Ethereal known as Nineveh.
Neither of them knew how to do proxy work by halves, so of course the pink-haired office worker with a very sharp weapon arrived at their doorstep not a week later, ‘politely’ asking where she could find the suspiciously talented proxy.
They were almost able to play it off as a fluke. Then Hoshimi Miyabi walked through the door, looked at them both, and said a single word that brooked no argument.
“Proxies.”
The jig was up.
Belle had an urgent commission (of course), so Wise was offered as a sacrifice to the government that was assuring them (not very well) that he was not about to get arrested. The rest was a blur, and suddenly he was sitting in an office, Void Hunter and office worker across from him, being explained the longest, most agonizing NDA he had ever heard.
Something something 50% more effective than all existing personnel.
Something something acceptable risk-benefit analysis.
Something something if he or his sister ever mentioned this agreement, he and his hypothetical firstborn would be in jail forever.
Wise, of course, signed it, and the illegal proxy Phaethon was now an under-the-table liaison for Section 6 (and ONLY Section 6) for Hollow Zero operations.
Anby would’ve thought this was a scene straight out of a movie, not that she would ever know.
“Chief Hoshimi?” Tsukihiro Yanagi said. “Anything else?”
The expression of the fox thiren remained placidly still.
“…Chief?”
One of her long ears suddenly flicked to the side.
“No.”
Tsukihiro blinked, then sighed.
“I’m going to have to explain this whole thing to you again, aren’t I?”
“…Not necessarily.”
Wise almost snorted. He stifled it for his own safety, but it was reassuring that this whole bureaucratic ordeal made a Void Hunter space out.
Luckily, he was released, quickly escorted back from whence he came by one of those nondescript black government cars.
Belle greeted him at the door. By pulling him through it.
“Are you alive? Did they do anything to you? Did you get waterboarded!?”
Wise chuckled as she shook him, though he knew Belle had checked out of his explanation after he said the words ‘not going to get arrested.’
The sun was already down, but they only made it about five minutes into turning down the store when there was knocking on the front door.
The siblings exchanged glances, hoping whatever it was would go away on its own. They had had enough drama for today—
*knock knock knock*
Wise sighed.
“Belle—”
The HDD door slammed shut in the now-missing sister’s wake. Classic.
Wise sighed again, then shuffled to the door and opened it to find a woman on the other side.
“Sorry, ma’am, we’re closed—“
“You’re the proxy Phaethon, right?”
Wow, they really weren’t doing very well today on the secret career front, huh?
Wise just blinked at the cyan-haired, fin-eared woman at their door. She looked… kinda familiar.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, ma’am,“ he said with his firstborn possibly on the line.
“Please, this is an emergency!” the woman blurted. “My name is Cecilia, and I’m the manager of the livehouse down the street. A mutual associate recommended you!”
Even though it was probably more or less an open secret that the two video store owners were proxies to everyone who lived on Sixth Street, there was only one person who both knew they were capital-P Phaethon. And she had pink hair and money problems.
He also knew that said person with pink hair and money problems wouldn’t throw their secrecy to the wind for anything but the most urgent matters.
…Probably.
Wise opened the door a bit wider.
“Alright, let’s talk,” he said. “Come in.”
No sooner had the door closed than words started flowing from the woman like running water.
“There are three girls I’m working with as a vocal coach,” she started. “They’re very hardworking, but their lead vocalist is going through a financial rough spot…”
The metal door behind him suddenly swung back open.
“…And so they took a job and ran into a Hollow?”
Wise turned to find his sister had poked her head out from the now-open doorway.
“How did you know?” Cecilia asked.
“Well, it’s a tale as old as New Eridu,” Belle said plainly. “Which Hollow?”
“Ballet Twins,” the woman said.
“You’re in luck, then,” Wise said. “We just updated our data on that area.”
Wise nodded to Belle, who went to go ready up Eous as the woman began rummaging through her designer pocketbook.
“How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing until the girls are out of the Hollow,” Wise said. “We don’t charge upfront. And neighbors get half off.”
They could thank the hefty sum of HAND compensation for their help on the aforementioned Hollow Zero expedition for the continued existence of that last little clause, but he wasn’t going to mention that since he wasn’t keen on bumping up their operation from illegal to ultra-illegal within three hours of signing said 70-page NDA.
And if that spectacled intelligence analyst could figure out who they were in a week, he was taking their mutual agreement to his grave.
“What are their names?” Wise asked.
“Aria, Sunna, and Nangong,” Cecilia said immediately.
“How long ago did they enter?”
“I just found out about their commission two hours ago when a mutual saw them hop the fence onto the bridge that leads to the Hollow Zone.”
“The one closest to that Thinking Man Statue?”
“Yes, that one.”
“How good is their ether aptitude?”
“Aria has really, really high aptitude. The others, I’m not so sure.”
“Are they well-equipped? Do they know how to defend themselves?”
“Aria and Nangong can fight.”
Better than half, but less than whole—he dealt with worse odds. Still, Wise finished stitching the timeline in his head.
“Eous is ready!” Belle announced out the open door. “Can you run him over?”
“Sure thing,” said the brother, grabbing the business car keys from where they hung behind the counter.
“That’s it?” Cecilia asked. “That’s all you need?”
“Yep,” Wise said as a scarfed bangboo marched out of the back room and over to the parking lot door.
Cue the customer service smile.
“Don’t worry, Ms. Cecilia,” he said as he exited the store. “We’re professionals.”
It took thirty minutes to get to the Ballet Twin Road, and only ten more after Eous entered the Hollow for Belle to find their targets.
Two girls and an intelligent construct. Proxies weren’t supposed to ask questions, so he took their combined ’Thank you, Mr. Phaethon!” and let the bushed girls pile into the back of the business car.
Another thirty minutes later, the business car rolled back into the Random Play lot with three additional passengers. The chewing out was legendary—Ms. Cecilia had quite a scolding voice—and the girls ended up forking over half of their substantial earnings to pay Phaethon’s discounted fee despite the big doll eyes from their black-haired captain.
Nonetheless, Wise and Belle were relieved. And quite happy to meet their neighbors from the 404 Livehouse.
But Phaethon…
Phaethon noticed the three girls, armed with nothing but ether aptitude, grit, and makeshift weapons (well, not counting the girl who technically was herself a weapon), had successfully completed two A-Rank commissions. They would have gotten out safely too, if it wasn’t for their faulty carrot.
And, well, people who willingly entered a Hollow and made a lot of money weren’t likely to stay away.
So, a week later, a video store owner, the blue-haired one, walked into 404 with a smile and a simple offer.
“Hey, kiddos,” Belle greeted at the tail end of their dance practice. “Do you want another job?”
Agents were agents, and it turns out Ms. Cecilia took a lot less convincing than either Phaethon thought.
1 year and 4 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
Come to Lumina Square. Help needed.
Given that Belle was in the middle of leading their new group of agents through a tough commission (conveniently, might he add) and that the sender of the abrupt message was none other than the Void Hunter herself, he dropped everything, threw Bangboo 18 onto the counter, and barreled out the door.
Belle could handle the girls. They were something of a bunch of naturals, after all.
Twenty minutes later, he was standing outside Lumina station, approaching an unmistakable fox thiren in conversation with a taller PubSec officer.
He was exactly ten paces away when a pair of red eyes snapped to him.
“Hello, Wise. Tell me, does Officer MewMew look like an otter or a cat to you?”
From the officer’s exasperated sigh, it wasn’t hard to tell which opinion belonged to whom.
“Don’t bring bystanders into this,” the officer said.
“I invited him. He’s not a bystander.”
The officer turned to him briefly in surprise before her expression schooled back into whatever flavor of frustration it was locked into before.
“It’s a cat,” the officer said. “Please tell her Officer MewMew is a cat.”
Maybe Wise would’ve… but he was currently engaged in a 70-page NDA with Ms. Hoshimi. And also, Ms. Hoshimi was implicitly allowing Phaethon’s continued existence…
So his biased hands were bureaucratically tied.
“…Looks like a sea otter…”
The thiren’s ears flicked outward in a pleased manner as the Void Hunter beamed. Wise found it… cute.
“See?” Ms. Hoshimi declared. “Sea otter.”
The police officer sighed. “Look, I bet he’s just trying to be nice.”
Wise was, in fact, just trying to be nice, but Miyabi remained unfazed. “Your ‘admit-defeat’ training needs work, Officer Zhu Yuan.”
The police officer lingered for a few more minutes before she left for other work duties, leaving Wise and the Section 6 chief to their own devices.
“So, Ms. Hoshimi,” Wise asked, “did you have something you needed?”
“No.”
Wise blinked. “Ah… uh. But you called the store number saying you needed something?”
“Yanagi said that I should spend time ‘reducing the severity of my image’ in the name of ‘fruitful cooperation’ with the Proxies of Phaethon.”
“Ok… next time just say you want to hang out, yeah?” Wise said. “People tend to get a little worried when the Isshin Muga leaves random voicemail telling you to meet her at Lumina Square for help.”
Miyabi blinked. Then her ears somewhat fell flat on her head.
“…My apologies.”
“It’s fine,” Wise assured. “But why me? Belle is Phaethon, too.”
Miyabi’s expression remained neutral as she thought for a second.
“You… seem more manageable.”
Huh. Well.
“Honestly… fair.”
“OH MY GOSH, IS THAT HOSHIMI MIYABI?!”
Ms. Hoshimi’s ears twitched in the direction of absolute, sudden danger.
“LOOK AT THE SWORD! IT TOTALLY IS!”
Red eyes suddenly turned to him again as Wise cringed on her behalf.
“I rescind what I said,” she said gravely. “Help.”
Getting out of rough situations was essentially his job description, so Wise led Miyabi as they dove into Lumina Station, losing their pursuers in a small boba shop.
He learned four things that day.
Ms. Hoshimi had a fan club.
Ms. Hoshimi really didn’t like office work.
Ms. Hoshimi really liked melons.
And that he could just call Ms. Hoshimi…
Miyabi.
1 year and 2 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
Wise perked up from the store counter as the door chime rang across the empty store. When he didn’t recognize the face of the simply dressed, pink-haired girl with wings that had wandered in, he cued the customer service smile.
“Hi, welcome to Random Play,” Wise greeted the newcomer. “Please let me know if you need help finding anything.”
The girl suddenly looked less like a winged thiren… and more like a deer thiren caught in headlights.
“M-Manager?!” she sputtered with wide eyes.
Wise was about to do a little damage control when the door opened and another voice cut across the store.
“Wow, manager~ Don’t recognize your own agent?”
Nangong slid into view and pinched the new girl’s cheeks.
“N-Nangoooooong!”
Wait. Now that Nangong mentioned it…
“Aria?” Wise clarified.
Nangong’s interference must have finally reached a physical threshold of some sort because the pink-haired girl’s figure suddenly fizzled out into a cloud of data particles.
“Neat, right?” Nangong said. “Our Aria is now a real girl!”
Wise chuckled. “I think Aria was always a real girl. But wow, that’s impressive.”
The revealed intelligent construct looked torn halfway between embarrassment and elation.
“T-Thank you, manager,” she said. “It’s been a lot of work reconfiguring my holo function to support something like this…”
“I-Introducing us to Mr. Enzo really helped,” Sunna added. “Aria’s actually even working on, er…”
“You should see what we’re trying to do with Sunna’s Bubblegum,” Nangong picked up where the shyer girl left off. “Our Aria is so talented!”
Aria grabbed one of her head fins, pulled down, and blushed. “Nangoooong!”
“Yeah!” Sunna declared with a bit more pep. “She is!”
“Sunnaaaaaaa!”
“Girls, you’re going to cause her to overheat,” Wise chuckled. “Now, anything we can actually help you with?”
Nangong’s twintails swayed cutely as she batted her eyelashes in a way Wise had long grown used to. “Aw, manager, do we really need a reason to come see you…?”
Wise rolled his eyes. “During store hours? Yes, absolutely.”
Nangong huffed. “Well, we’re here looking for—”
A hand with freshly painted nails suddenly clamped over her mouth.
“W-Wise said no ‘work talk’ in the store,” Sunna stammered. “Don’t get us in trouble.”
“Thank you, Sunna,” Wise said as he paced toward the back door. “Anyway, c’mon. Let’s talk shop.”
Wise opened the door as the manager stepped through, followed by the bevy of girls.
“Oh, by the way,” Wise said as he slid into the seat at the HDD. “Did you guys come up with a group name yet?”
The girls’ eyes widened, then they looked at each other and nodded.
“Yep! We’re—”
They hopped almost in tandem, landing in a group pose they had definitely practiced… and probably needed to practice a little more, given Sunna almost fell over.
Still, the abundant finger heart and peace signs definitely made it idol enough.
“The Angels of Delusion!”
That certainly explained why Aria’s projection had wings that matched Nangong’s. Either way, Wise just smiled as Belle laughed from the door behind them.
“Managers!” Nangong groaned as the girls broke form. “You’re supposed to clap and shower us with your adoration.”
“You’ll get your adoration after you make us all a little less poor,” Belle said as she joined Wise at the HDD.
Wise booted up the console screens, already loaded with this afternoon’s commission: a notable step-up from the work they had been giving them.
“Well, Angels, ready to get to work?”
1 year and 1 month before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
“Proxy, are you ready?”
“Yeah, yeah,” said a female voice from the Bangboo at the Void Hunter’s heels. “This Hollow is so creepy.”
The colorless Hollow of Melinoe had quickly become one of Belle’s least favorite places. Ever. Second only to the New Eridu DMV.
“Hence the reason why we are relying on your expertise, Phaethon,” Yanagi said simply.
“Yeah!” the blue oni, Soukaku, shouted. “We get lost a whole lot less with you around!”
The archer among them, Harumasa, just shook his head. “That’s probably putting it lightly. No, definitely putting it lightly.”
Then he stood up a bit straighter.
“Actually, how come we’ve got you today?” Harumasa said as he kicked a piece of pale trash off an equally pale bridge and into whatever was below. “Wasn’t it the bro’s turn?”
“Wise had to take one of our agents to the hospital after one of their partners pushed her off a roof.”
Section 6 paused, then all collectively turned to the Bangboo.
“Excuse me?” Yanagi said.
Eous shrugged his tiny shoulders.
“They were testing some new aerial equipment, and they can be… overzealous.”
Calling the Angels’ brainlet idea of the month overzealous was like calling Section 6’s blue oni peckish… but it got the point across.
Still, Belle had hardly seen Wise that mad after a panicked group of Angels had burst into the HDD with a pretty bruised Sunna. And no amount of Nangong’s pleading that Sunna’s new angel wing backpack had technically broken her fall was going to get her out of Cecilia’s clutches when Wise inevitably told her why one of her girls was in the ER.
“It doesn’t matter. Both of you are capable,” Miyabi said as she strode forward.
Belle believed that. Belle also caught the slightest of frowns on the thiren’s face as she turned away.
There was nothing wrong with having a preference… but Belle knew it probably was related to why Wise was out of Random Play more often these days…
Something was afoot, and it made her sister sense tingle—
“Hey, Proxy!” Soukaku shouted from ahead. “Keep up!”
“Coming!” Belle yelled back as she tripped over Eous’s legs.
She’d sort out what was going on after she got out of this forsaken place, short stubby limbs be damned.
1 year before the loss of Phaethon’s account...
It really shouldn’t be easy to talk to a government agent, much less a Void Hunter.
“So you’re investigating Carole Arna,” Miyabi said, then punctuated her statement with a slurping straw.
He hadn’t meant to come this clean with Phaethon’s raison d’être, but there was something so simple about talking with Miyabi that Wise found refreshing, if only because his chosen profession (or at least one of them) was practically synonymous with the word ‘complicated’.
Then again… there was still a nonzero chance Belle was probably-maybe-actually-definitely going to kill him.
“Yeah,” Wise admitted behind his coffee. “She… raised us.”
“And you wish to clear her name because you don’t think she is responsible for the fall of the Old Capital?”
Wise nodded. Slowly. Very slowly.
“I see.” Followed by another rather unceremonious slurping noise.
A rather lengthy pause stretched between them. Wise couldn’t exactly call it awkward, since it was Miyabi, but he knew she was thinking from the way her ears twitched every now and then.
Then, after another straw sip:
“You have a car, yes?”
“Uh,” Wise stammered. “Yeah?”
“Then come with me.”
And suddenly they were on the highway, sitting in comfortable silence interrupted only by the Void Hunter’s intermittent directions.
Wise found he didn’t need them about halfway through.
Sure enough, he was pulling into the Old Capital memorial, the monument and chain-link fence separating what was left of their old home from the rest of the world.
Miyabi strode up the steps, took two more paces that were too measured to be anything but purposeful, and lingered at a particular section of the wall of names.
Wise didn’t need to follow her gaze, look at her ears, or let her trailing hand guide him to know someone’s name up there ended in Hoshimi.
“There are many reasons why I founded Section 6,” Miyabi said quietly. “One of those reasons is to bring justice to those responsible for the fall of the Old Capital.”
Wise’s heart… didn’t really know whether to drop or not. Nonetheless, the Void Hunter turned to him to meet his eyes.
“In some ways, our goals are aligned. We both seek truth.”
Wise blinked.
“You believe us?”
“I believe in your mission because of the sheer lengths you have gone to see it through,” Miyabi clarified. “Whether Carole Arna is truly guilty or not… a sword should not… and will not fall on someone unproven.”
Wise was the one digesting words for once. Then he sighed at the enormous Hollow in the distance as something inside him relented.
“I’m surprised you’re taking this so…” he searched for a word and found the lamest one, “…well?”
Miyabi frowned slightly, ears flicking almost indignantly as she made the quietest of ‘hmphs.’
“It’s discretion training.”
Suddenly, something was being shoved into his field of view. It was an ornate hairpin in the shape of a torii gate, almost hard to see on the black gauntlet it was presented on.
“Uh…” Wise said elegantly.
“Take it,” Miyabi said, her hair swaying just a little looser than before. “This will prove that you and your sister are under the protection of the Hoshimi family, should you need to use it.”
Wise wanted to refuse it, for all the same reasons why Phaethon was (supposed to be) a secret. He also knew refusing it would basically be spitting in a Void Hunter’s face.
So he took it with a simple, “Thanks.”
They lingered for a while, just talking. Probably longer than either intended.
He learned three more things about Hoshimi Miyabi.
Her mother died in Old Eridu, slain by her own hand during the Fall.
Her family estate was really big (since he dropped her off on her doorstep).
And that her hairpin did not, in fact, save him from the wrath of Belle Arna.
“You gave him your hairpin?!”
“Yes. I have many of them.”
“But do you know what that means?!”
“Yes.”
A sigh.
“No, I mean. Do you know what that means specifically? Symbolically? Family protection notwithstanding.”
“Yes, Father. We also live in a modern age where that meaning doesn’t necessarily apply.”
“To you, maybe. So again, why did you give him your hairpin?”
“It was a small, personal item that most people who matter will recognize.”
Another sigh. This one longer than the last.
“Your ‘appropriateness training’ might need work.”
A pair of ears flicked in silence, and that was that.
10 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
“A hammer? Don’t take this the wrong way, but that’s a bit unexpected.”
Sunna hefted the very idol-colored collapsible bludgeon with surprising ease.
“I think it’s cute.”
The Angels had recently gotten an upgrade to their equipment. Phaethon, being Phaethon, had wanted to see it firsthand so they knew what it could do, and Sunna was second up to drop by the HDD room.
“It IS cute,” Belle agreed. “But I was just thinking it was a bit… big.”
“Have you seen the new hammers Xiao’yu just bought?” Sunna defended. “And we want to be idols… good fitness is kinda required.”
Belle had, in fact, seen the oversized twin meteor hammers the captain now favored and similarly agreed only someone as crazy/talented/crazy-talented as Nangong Yu could even think about using them without turning themselves into paste.
“Make sure it syncs with your W-Engine before the warranty period expires,” Belle added. “Seen a lot of agents bit by that one, and yours is pretty unique.”
“Xiao’yu said it was all custom-made and that I shouldn’t worry about it too much…”
Belle paused.
“Custom-made?” Belle repeated. “Isn’t that, like, really, really expensive?”
“Well, er, uh…” Sunna suddenly stammered, almost dropping her own hammer.
Belle grinned. Then she wiggled an eyebrow for good measure.
Caught.
“Well, er, uh?” Belle repeated.
Sunna sighed in defeat.
“Xiao’yu has money…” she admitted. “She just… doesn’t want us to know.”
Belle tilted her head. “You obviously know.”
“Yeah, we do. Because she sucks at lying to us,” Sunna said. “So Aria and I just kinda pretend.”
“If she had money, why didn’t she help out from the get-go?” Belle said. “Y’know, like back when we pulled you out of the Ballet Twins?”
“We didn’t just want to be agents for the money. We thought it would be fun… team-building.”
Belle tilted her head further. Sunna flustered further.
“Look. The Angels are an us thing, not a Xiao’yu thing, and we like working to keep it like that,” Sunna said. “The only reason why I think she went and got us all custom equipment is because Coach must have really gotten to her after the whole ‘we threw me off the roof’ thing.”
“That makes sense,” Belle said. “Anyway, what’s Aria getting? I thought she was already… optimal?”
Sunna let out a breath of relief at the change of topic.
“Oh. Mr. Enzo is recommissioning her plasma emitters. He’s even doing it for free since we helped him recover that shipment of parts that got lost in 14th Street.”
Belle’s mouth parted open. Only a little.
“Is that… er, legal?”
Sunna clutched her new hammer in thought.
“…Is anything we’re doing legal, manager?”
Ah. Right.
“Point,” conceded Belle. “But hey, at least you guys have official agent licenses now!”
9 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account...
Miyabi started coming to Random Play.
That wasn’t a bad thing. Far from it, actually.
Until inevitably…
“Hey, Wise—!”
Said Wise startled, then realized the pink-haired woman that entered the store was not staring at him but the fox thiren in front of his counter.
“Demara,” Miyabi greeted. Curtly by her already curt standards.
“Oh! Ms. Hoshimi! Hi~”
Wise’s eyes darted between the two women several times.
“You two know each other?” “Wow, you two know each other?”
The Void Hunter, the only one that hadn’t spoken, let out a huff of amusement at the other two in verbal deadlock.
Then she swiftly broke it.
“Demara scammed me when I was a rookie.”
Nicole let out a scandalized shriek.
“It was a misunderstanding!”
“Yes,” Miyabi deadpanned. “As in the only one that was misunderstanding was me.”
Wise decided to look unconvinced.
“MOVING ON!” the not-so-Cunning Hare declared loud enough for Miyabi’s ears to flatten in defense, then pointed at the video store owner. “Now YOU get to answer MY question!”
Wise had prepared for this ever since he signed that god-awful NDA. He had practiced it, rehearsed it even.
He was ready.
“I met her—“
Then Miyabi’s voice fell upon him like a sword.
“I know the proxies.”
…Welp. There goes his firstborn. And from the look of it, a good portion of Nicole’s neurons.
“Ok, ok, ok, wait, wait, wait, so how exactly does the super illegal and mysterious Phaethon get in cahoots with the Isshin freakin’ Muga?”
“We got involved with a—“
“They lied their way into Hollow Zero.”
Wise closed his eyes and turned his internal screaming into a sigh. Between the Angels and the Fox, he was doing that a lot more lately.
“Are you… doing this on purpose?”
Miyabi’s ears flicked. Wise read it clearly as a shrug.
“This is telling-the-truth training.”
“Hey!” Nicole protested. “Don’t ignore me!”
Both Wise and Miyabi turned to Nicole. Then stared at her for four whole seconds.
“W-Well, why are you at Random Play?” she asked, the first thing she could think of so they would just stop doing that.
“Am I not allowed to be?” Miyabi countered.
“I mean, sure, but do you have to come in uniform? It attracts a lot of attention,” Nicole pointed out.
“It’s after work.”
From the scowl, Wise knew Nicole gave up. It was probably for the best.
Nonetheless, the next time the Void Hunter showed up at his counter, she was wearing a turtleneck sweater and had a shinai bag over her shoulder.
She called it camouflage training. Wise still counted it as a win.
8 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account...
Eous stepped aside to avoid being crushed by the dissolving Ethereal remnant that sported a new, basketball-sized hole through its midsection. A few steps away, two giant flails fell to rest on the asphalt from their owner’s slackened grip.
“Holy shit!” Nangong sputtered as Aria landed from her aerial firing run.
“Language.” “Language, Xiao’yu!” said Wise and Sunna in tandem, though Sunna quickly apologized as she had blasted that through her hybrid sound sampler plus gun.
“But… yeah,” Wise continued as Eous zoomed in on the scorch mark on the far building that had taken the penetrating bolt of pink plasma. “Impressive.”
Nangong’s hammers and Sunna’s support potential were impressive, but Aria suddenly made the Angels viable for several new types of commission categories in Phaethon’s mind.
Aria’s idol image flickered briefly, revealing the flustered construct beneath for a split second.
“Guys, please, it’s nothing!”
She usually didn’t ‘wear’ her hologram on commissions, but she was training to maintain it in any situation… and there was really nothing else that topped stage fright other than life-or-death combat.
“I mean, I knew you said you were military grade…” Nangong mused as she kicked the rest of the corpse to dissolve it faster into ether particles. “But, wow, super cool.”
“Alright,” Wise cut in. “What have we said about overheating Aria?”
“She shoots plasma from her fingers now,” Nangong countered. “Doubt anything we say can bug her now, right?”
“C-Can it,” Sunna said in protest. “We’re working.”
“On a client-not-present commission, what happens in the Hollow stays in the Hollow,” Nangong said breezily as she threw her hands behind her head. “Speaking of, Man-ager~?”
Eous stiffened because his pilot knew what that tone meant and he really didn’t like it.
“Who’s that fox girl you’re bringing around the store?” Nangong teased. “Don’t think we haven’t noticed.”
“Only Nangong did,” Aria unhelpfully affirmed. Sunna’s frantic nodding didn’t make it any more convincing.
Either way, Wise had an answer for this, and no fox around to ruin it.
“Classified.”
“Aw, c’mon, manager,” Nangong prodded. “We won’t tell.”
“My firstborn is on the line. Classified.”
Then, before Nangong could press any further, he attempted laser-guided ‘Nangong derailment training’ that was freshly inspired by a play-by-play explanation of ‘Soukaku-derailment training’ from a primary source.
“Anyway, I think I figured out the best angle for your agent branding.
Suddenly, the Angels forgot all about the weird fox lady in favor of Wise’s impromptu lecture on Hollows and vertical movement.
Said weird fox lady would be proud.
8-ish months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
“That secretary or something made me sign a 70-page NDA. 70! Pages! And she read it to me out loud!”
Belle blinked at the morose leader of the Cunning Hares with sympathy, but definitely not empathy given she had lovingly subjected her brother to that nonsense.
(It was also the only reason she had forgiven him for telling the fox about their purpose, but whatever… there were worse things in the world than hush-hush Hoshimi protection.)
“Oof,” Belle said lazily, her idle spinning in the HDD chair powered by Nicole’s venting.
“Also, is it just me, or is your brother spending an awful lot of time with Hoshimi?”
Belle’s rotations were halted by sudden vindication. But she couldn’t show her hand just yet.
“…Are you stalking my bro? Not cool. Not cool.”
“I’m not stalking him—”
Nicole took a sharp breath, almost like she had hit her own reset button.
“I saw Hoshimi in the store the other day. I know you guys are working together, but isn’t that…”
“Sus?” Belle offered.
Nicole didn’t commit to nodding, but Belle read what she needed to right off her face.
And so, the female half of Phaethon came to a crossroads: Sisterly Mercy, or Sisterly Judgement?
After deliberating for a whole two seconds, she decided.
Mercy. Because she did, in fact, want nieces one day.
“I guess. I mean, that’s mostly that NDA secretary using him as a glorified babysitter,” Belle said. “Wouldn’t think too much about it.”
Belle watched as Nicole deflated, though for once she couldn’t quite tell what puff of emotion she released.
“If you say so,” said Nicole. “Anyway, commissions? I heard through the grapevine that General Chop lost some supplies.”
“The Angels picked that one up already.”
And suddenly Nicole was puffing up again.
“Really? What happened to saving us the best?”
“The best commissions for the Cunning Hares, per agent compatibility,” Belle clarified. “These were perishable goods in a Hollow. The Angels have much better mobility than you do.”
“We have a car!”
Belle raised an eyebrow. “And they have wings. All of them.”
Nicole simmered. Belle rolled her eyes.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. I have a few high-roller commissions that might interest you—“
“GIMME GIMME!”
Nicole left happily full of work as usual.
Now if only convincing her idiot brother that the Void Hunter was probably crushing on him was just as easy.
7 and a half months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
“Hello, have I reached Wise Arna?”
Wise paused his movement through Lumina Square, only because the voice from the other end of the line was not one that he ever hoped to hear outside of the Phaethon burner phone.
“Speaking,” Wise answered promptly.
“Splendid,” said Ms. Tsukihiro. “In case you were wondering, I got your number through your manager bangboo.”
Wise was wondering, in fact, and it seemed like 18 was due a lecture.
“Is there something I can help you with?” Wise asked. “Sounds pretty important.”
“There is,” Tsukihiro confirmed. “Are you near the Square by any chance?”
“There now, actually.”
“Oh, then do you mind keeping an eye out for the Chief? She left after her morning training session for lunch, but she hasn’t come back yet. I’d go myself, but I have to cover a press conference she’s currently in the middle of missing.”
“My condolences. What time?”
“Around noon.”
Wise checked his watch. It was 2 PM, which lined up with his growing hunch.
“She had training this morning?”
“She did. A high-intensity Hollow clearance exercise.”
The hunch graduated into a working theory.
“Will do. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Thank you.”
Then Section 6’s true workhorse hung up.
Wise texted Miyabi. When he didn’t get an answer, he got to work.
After passing by a few of her usual haunts, Wise actually found the errant Void Hunter pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, so had someone else.
“Miss Miyabi, have you ever considered going into politics?” said a woman who was obviously a lobbyist of some sort. “Parliament needs a new force to represent the people… or at least some of them. Would you consider running in the election?”
Her ears didn’t twitch. Her expression didn’t change. Her eyes didn’t even meet the lobbyist’s.
All she said was a single word—low and monotone.
“…election.”
And thus Wise’s theory was confirmed.
This was one of Miyabi’s exhaustion ‘flow’ states. Which would be harmless if the Void Hunter didn’t repeat the last word of each sentence that reached her ears, and Wise hedged his bets that the lobbyist currently accosting her had plenty of sentences.
“That’s right! I can already see it… countless young people who have no interest in politics will enter the voter booth for you… I’m sure of it!”
“Excuse me,” Wise cut in before the lobbyist could get even more transparently predatory. “Let’s hold on for a moment.”
The lobbyist whirled—and he meant that in the truest sense of the word—toward him.
“Wh-When did you show up?! And who are you anyway?”
“Close friend of Miss Hoshimi.”
“Please don’t underestimate our ability to gather information. Some of my investors come from long-established families, and others have great technical abilities. Nothing that happens under the sun and moon of New Eridu goes unnoticed by them. So I’m certain there’s no such person among Miss Miyabi’s circle.”
One: rude. Two: that was wrong. Three: whatever other disparaging remarks she started saying failed to get past Phaethon’s operational filter.
The last time this had happened, Wise had stood next to the Void Hunter for nine hours before she came back. Strategically, escalation was necessary, and that meant one thing.
Start thinking like Belle.
One thing came to mind immediately, and given Miyabi was about to be scammed into becoming a political figurehead… Wise decided to be a little unwise.
Well, here it was, for all the marbles. Or the melons, as Miyabi would say.
“Miss Miyabi! I LOVE YOU!”
The unresponsive thiren remained… disappointingly unresponsive.
“Wow. That’s sad. Really, I’m tearing up,” the lobbyist said. “Your attempts at whatever you’re doing are futile, y’know? You delusional people just don’t give up.”
Well, it was worth a shot—
“Wise, I…”
Wise suddenly tensed when he realized the thiren’s red eyes were much wider than before.
Then they narrowed. At the lobbyist.
“You. Leave us.”
“B-But—”
“Ms. Miyabi is tired,” Wise cut in, maybe a bit too forcefully. “Pick another day, please. Or I’ll be calling PubSec for harassment.”
Even if her mind seemed to still be a bit elsewhere, Miyabi didn’t protest. Which was tantamount to her decision.
“Tch…” the lobbyist muttered before her expression artificially brightened as she turned to the Void Hunter. “Another time then, Ms. Hoshimi.”
The lobbyist then skulked off, leaving the pair alone again.
“Well, crisis averted—”
“Did you mean it?”
Wise blinked. Then his eyes widened and his hand went to scratch the back of his head.
“Well… I was just trying to get through to you—”
Miyabi’s gaze remained fixed on him.
“Do you appreciate my company?”
“I do!” he said, probably a lot faster than he intended.
“Then did you mean it?”
Wise wished he had an extra second to think, but slowing time didn’t come with the Phaethon package.
“Love is a strong word…”
Her expression remained stoic as ever, but her ears began a slight downward trajectory.
“But yeah, I like you. A lot.”
Her ears perked straight up to the sky.
Then they stood there. For a whole fifteen seconds. Staring at each other.
Wise averted his eyes, eventually finding Officer MewMew to stare at. Miyabi coughed into her gauntlet.
“Would you like to get lunch?”
“Like, now?” Wise asked.“…Don’t you have a conference?”
“That should be half-done by now,” she said almost proudly.
Wise conceded another win for Hoshimi Miyabi with a chuckle.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because you like me.”
“…That was rhetorical.”
And that’s how Wise Arna started dating Hoshimi Miyabi.
7 months before the loss of Phaethon’s account…
Eventually, Belle decided to go with the sledgehammer approach.
“Hey, Wise.”
“Yeah?”
“You know Miyabi’s crushing on you, right?”
“Uh. Yeah. We kinda started dating two weeks ago.”
“No, I really mean it—EXCUSE ME, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?”
And that’s how Belle Arna realized that Hoshimi Miyabi was the one woman in the planet that could probably get through to her dense idiot of a brother (unassisted).
Truly, a match made in New Eridu.