“Here's the guest room!"
“No thanks.” Terra's offer of a warm twin bedroom near the living room of her Year 120 Ring residence met with flat rejection. Diode wandered around, warily scanning the plentiful spacious rooms within the aging colony residence. Venturing deep into the attic, she found a panel in the ceiling that accessed the plumbing space and set her rucksack down. “I'll sleep here.”
“Why here?! It's dark, cramped, and dusty! Huh, to think there's actually a place like this in my home.”
“A space not even the homeowner knew about. It's the perfect hideout.”
“Hideout? But you're a guest...”
“Stop with the guest treatment, please, it's creating a huge burden where there isn't one,” Diode replied with an annoyed tone, her cold gaze locked on Terra. “I'm just a homeless twister freeloading here because there's no other option. You don’t need to provide me with anything except this space and some water.”
“I wouldn’t do something that cruel! Are you a stray cat?!"
“What's a staycat?”
“It's an animal from a long time ago. I'll show you a photo book later.”
“Oh, yeah. Absolutely do.”
“Anyway, I can provide you with three square meals, clothes and a shared shower! Ah, right, the Gendō–” Terra grew nervous as she remembered something. "I heard that instead of having individual rooms, your clan has a custom of... getting into heated pools? As a big naked crowd...? Or something like that. So, I was wondering, perhaps it's the same with you? Like you can’t... Unless you get in with me...?”
Getting into a pool with nude strangers was beyond Terra's experience and for that matter, everyone else's in the Endeavour clan. Whether it was with the same sex, the other sex, or even as parent and child, it just didn’t happen.
Do they really do that kind of thing?
“Thank you for the concern, but that's a misunderstanding,” Diode replied, seemingly uncomfortable with the conversation. "Yes, it's true we have a custom of communal bathing back there, but we don’t need anyone to go in with us. We put up with it because the bathhouse is a convenient structure, really. Don’t worry about it, I don’t do that anywhere else.”
“Ah, so that's how it is?”
So they really do that! They really do that!—Although Terra felt relief, she still had to restrain herself from imagining that unsettling situation.
Diode spoke bluntly. “Basically, I'd like to avoid physical contact as much as possible. I can also use the coin printers in town to get food and a change of fresh clothes outside, and there's probably an exhaust vent with access to the outside passageway buried up here. You can pretend I'm not even here.”
“Whyyy?! OWWW–” Having gotten worked up, Terra bumped her head on the attic's low ceiling and doubled over in pain. “Owww... My head...”
“What are you doing?”
“Why are you avoiding me?” Terra muttered, still crouching and holding her head. “Is it because I'm too big?”
“Huh?”
“Am I scary because I'm big?” She looked at the ceiling, and then at Diode, who was considerably lower than it. “That's why, isn’t it? Even though I'm this big I didn't hesitate to jump into a cramped space like this. Of course that scared you. I cornered you like prey.”
“No, that isn’t...”
“And now that I think about it, the way things went with this wasn’t very good, either. I forcibly dragged you here, pressured you into accepting room and board, and there was that bit about being naked... Ah, this is bad. I kidnapped you. This is abduction and confinement.”
“Kidnapped? No...”
Terra glanced sideways at the bewildered-looking Diode, then backed away and started to make her way back downstairs while pressing her forehead. “I'll go cool my head a bit. Help yourself to anything...”
“Terra-san, wait! Don’t overthink this and go jumping to conclusions, please. Stay!”
“Stay?” Terra suddenly stopped, with only her face visible from the opening. “What is it?”
“Um, well, you see...” Troubled, Diode kneaded her fingertips before she finally sighed and admitted the truth. "It's not like that.”
“Wha?”
“I'm not scared of you. Your size doesn’t scare me, Terra-san. Actually, your being big and soft is really ni...”
“What?”
“Nothing. I'm only asking you not to think of your size as a bad thing. I don’t see this as you kidnapping me or anything, either...”
“Really?! Then come stay downstairs, won’t you?” Terra's face instantly brightened. As she began scrambling back up, Diode pushed her head back down with both hands, fangs bared.
“Distance! DIS! TANCE! Don’t just suddenly corner me like that!"
“Ow! Owww! That hurts, Die-san! It hurts there!"
The Year 120 Ring, as the name implies, was added in CC 120. That meant that it was a very old layer, with 180 years having passed since its construction. The donut-shaped Idaho was constantly spinning, and it was constantly expanding, too. Its expansion proportionately moved full gravity towards the outer floors. The business district had migrated to the 1g floors on the outskirts, far from the Year 120 Ring and its 0.5g environment. The ring had grown quiet as its population declined. Without her family around anymore, Terra's home had grown quiet, too.
“You live alone, Terra-san? In a house this big?”
Diode sat on the living-dining sofa in the living room with a cup in hand, looking around at the furnishings. While Terra was aware this was one of the neighborhood's nicer residences, it wasn’t anything particularly special. Still, Diode was restless, seemingly not used to a space like it.
Terra sat facing the table. She nodded. “Yeah, I am. Nobody's come to chase me out.”
“Well, I'm not too worried about that sort of thing, but your parents... they passed away, didn’t they?” She hesitated a little. "What I mean is, I'm just wondering if it's really okay for me to be here..”
“Ah, you're worried about that? It's fine, it's already been five—no, six years.”
“Terra-san, you shouldn't be worrying about how I feel about this."
Terra watched Diode's face closely as she said that, then quietly nodded. “Then... I'll be honest with you. My parents were a twister and decomper pair like us. While I remember times I made them angry, it never escalated to verbal abuse. They were good parents. They took a weeklong resort trip to FBB's water moon Tova while I holed up to focus on my cruise school graduation and distributor specialization exams. They were struck by ice bombs from a fluke cryovolcanic eruption on their way back.”
“Their kid was going through a critical time like that and they were out goofing off–”
“Ah, you don’t have to get angry about it.” Terra desperately waved her hands around as Diode started standing up. “I suggested it so I could study quietly by myself.”
“Ahh.”
“Since they were fishers, they should have gone in their pillar boat, don’t you think? If they did, ten or even twenty ice bombs could have smashed into them and they'd still be unharmed. But they took a sightseeing ship since it had good service. They were on the kind of ship that has flimsy shielding to look nice.”
“Well, it's not exactly proper to take a fishing boat to a resort, you know...”
“And then—bam! That was how they ended up.”
“My condolences.”
“It's impossible not to regret sending them, knowing that's how things turned out. But like you said, it would have been silly to go there in a pillar boat. They couldn’t have predicted a cryoeruption. There was nothing they could do, I guess... That's–" Terra cut her sentence short and smiled at Diode, who looked even more downcast than she did. "So, I'm just happy someone else is here now. Really, there's no need to hold yourself back, okay?”
“Got it,” Diode said, looking up. “Still, I thought you'd have someone to rely on. A helper, a robot, or even a man.”
“I'm not married. I don’t know any guys like that.” Terra waved her hand, laughing. Diode gave her an odd look.
“I don’t think that will be completely true from now on.”
“Why? I'm still unmarried.”
“Well, yes, but–” Diode took a sip of her hot cocoa-like, then whispered, “Aren’t you going to try getting married again?”
“Well, I wonder about that...” Terra sharply tilted her neck to the right. “Ah, I only just realized we're famous now thanks to the trial. So, there would be more partner candidates from now on, wouldn’t there?”
“And since that's the case, don’t you think they'll be a bunch of old men just like Clan Chief Xeon?”
“Ugh.” Terra's face stiffened reflexively. “That's... probably the kind of person they'll be.”
“They will,” Diode quickly asserted. “Before now, your partners thought you were undependable because you couldn’t work as a decomper, right? Since that's probably been proven false, you're going to catch attention from prominent twisters. And just who do you think those twisters are? Veterans with plenty of experience—old men, in other words.”
“Nngh...” Terra sharply tilted her neck again, this time to the left. “So, someone like Clan Chief-san. Someone like that is... a bit... I think I'd prefer someone closer to my age if possible...”
“Uh, Terra-san,” Diode said, bringing her knees together and sitting up. “If I'm going to stay here, I'd like you to clear something up for me.”
“What's that?”
“You don’t like men much, do you?”
“Ahh.” Terra laughed evasively and tilted her neck back to the righa. “Ahaha, so that's what you want to know about? Is that what it looks like?”
“It doe—what if I said that was what it looked like? Would I be wrong?”
“Hmm...” Terra tilted her neck to the left again, then suddenly stood and walked around the table. Looking down at Diode she asked, “May I sit next to you?”
“S-sure,” Confused, Diode nodded. She shrunk into the sofa's corner with her cup held in both hands.
Terra started to speak as her large bottom settled beside Diode. “Back when I was still a student, I got touched a lot.”
“...What?”
“By boys. Like, getting slapped on my chest or butt.” Terra tapped her bust and hips on the loose shirt and tights she wore. “I've always had a habit of bumping into things, ever since I was a kid. It's like I'm bigger than my surroundings, so they just end up being in the way. And well, that was fine as a kid, but in middle and high cruise school that habit invited a lot of issues.”
Terra felt like she was talking through a forced smile. Bringing up that issue had been mistaken for boasting before, so she spoke as gently as possible to make it clear she wasn’t. The loud clatter of a cup being set on the table suddenly startled her.
“Woah!"
Diode quickly stood and scanned the room with sharp, watchful eyes before sitting back down and grabbing both of Terra's hands. “Terra-san... Why did you come sit here just now?”
“...Huh?”
“Was it because you would feel uncomfortable if you were being watched or if other people overheard you?” Terra blinked. She realized Diode was right. “You sounded incredibly distressed by what you just said, Terra-san. You know it was absolutely appalling, don’t you?”
Her gaze was gentle, and the care in her look was as if she were asking Terra if she had already forgotten what happened last month. Terra didn’t dwell much on those incidents, so she closed her eyes and tried to recall the past. Was this back during the in-ship warming season? Or had it been the hot season already?
She had a memory of walking around with a crowd during a season for light shirts. There were only two girls, while lots of boys surrounded her on both sides as they played around. She remembered the sticky, sweaty touch of their skin and the overpowering smell of it. Terra gradually recalled the formless weight and pressure that surrounded her in those days, and more than anything, didn’t like the thought of talking about any of this.
“...Ah.” Goosebumps crept across Terra's shoulders and up the nape of her neck. Her smile crumpled. “Maybe that's true, now that you mention it. I don't exactly think they're pleasant memories, but they’re nothing I can't handle–”
“They’re nothing you can't handle, but you think of them as experiences you don’t want to go through again, right?”
“Isn't that just how things are?!”
“That's not how things are.” Terra blinked. Diode's dark blue eyes stared directly at her through narrowed eyelids. “Plenty of women are eager to be involved with men, and they don't exactly hate men touching them. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that there are also women who don’t feel that way but convince themselves that’s only because they don’t know how to deal with men. It would be helpful if they realized that's not the reason. It’s that they're different.” Terra's wide-open green eyes reflected in those dark blue eyes. “Although people might not want to hear you bring this up, it's okay for you to talk about it with me.”
“...”
“Did I miss the mark?”
“No... So, is it something like that? I don’t exactly want to...”
“Could you be more specific?”
“I don’t want to get married.” Terra looked around in surprise at the clarity of her words. They felt like words which had been on the tip of her tongue for 24 years. Now that she had spoken them, she understood the feeling with the same clarity as reading it in print. “I don’t want to get married... Um no, I didn’t mean tha–”
“All right, Terra-san.” Diode lightly patted her lap and asked, “Could you put your head here?”
“Huh?” Confused, Terra timidly curled her large frame to lay down in the tiny lap. “L-like this?”
“Yes.” Her face was firmly pressed against Diode's stomach. “Okay, now say that one more time.”
“I don’t wannaaaa get marriiiiieeed...” Terra said, tightly embracing the slender belly. She somehow grasped that was how she truly felt.
“I understand. There, there.” Diode draped her small body across Terra's shoulder. She was airy, slender, and warm, with only a hint of softness. The smoky, exotic herbal scent Terra always noticed around Diode filled her sinuses. It was an incredibly comforting sensation. Terra gently snuggled closer as her mind buzzed with that sudden new realization. She took a deep breath. One more breath, then another. She relaxed with a deep sigh.
“...Die-fuaan.”
“Yes?”
“This might be a weird request but... Would it be okay to stay like this for just a little longer?” Terra's cheeks resting on Diode's abs in just the right way to feel them tense.
After a moment, Diode slowly contracted her diaphragm before she oozed in a low, controlled voice, “Yes, for as long as you want.”
Terra shifted her hips and settled her head on Diode's lap. She kept her face buried there for a little bit. Before long, she sat up again sluggishly, straightened her hair, and looked away. She seemed to be stuck in a daze, her mind cluttered with confusing thoughts.
Diode remarked, “I think that clears up one thing.”
“...What's that?”
Terra turned around. Diode was also brushing her silver hair with her hands, like she was trying to hide her emotions. Her eyes met Terra's as she calmly asked, “My touching you wasn’t unpleasant, was it?”
“Ah. N-no. It looks like I don’t mind it, as long as it’s you.”
“That's good,” she said, turning more fully towards Terra. The usual nervousness was gone from the porcelain beauty of her face. She wore an unmistakably cheerful smile. “That's good, Terra-san.”
“Y-yes. Thank... you...?”
Although relieved, Terra remained confused. What was up with me just now? It's li-like I—what was I doing?
“So, if that's how it is, I won’t hold back either.” Diode poked at her palm before she brought the back of her hand to Terra's and tapped. A satisfying metallic chime played. It was the minicell's deposit sound.
Terra looked at her palm in astonishment. “Wh-What's this?! Huh? How many digits was that?”
“Well, since I started feeling okay with accepting your offer to live here, I decided to pay rent.”
“Rent? But isn’t this everything you earned today? You don’t even need to pay like this—wait, is that where things were headed just now?!"
“Yes, it was. For me, at least.” Diode nodded, tucking a sofa cushion under each arm. Before leaving, she said, “I'll be taking these. Good night.”
“Good... night?” Terra was left there in a daze, like she had just woken up from a dream.
They hadn’t discussed cohabitation, only shared a strange moment that ended just as quickly as it began. And yet, Terra understood that discussion wasn’t what they needed, it was a moment like the one that had just passed between them.
Warmth gradually rose in her cheeks and ears.
“Huh? Uhh...?”
Terra hid her face in her hands.
The silver-haired girl, who had looted two cushions for the attic despite her initial reluctance to be taken in, changed her behavior afterwards. She gradually began straying further into the territory downstairs, coming in and going out by way of air vents somewhere.
Her daytime incursions were frequent. Terra was notified about them by minicell while she was at her day job. Much like ships had the Boating System, residences had a Dwelling System with their own sensor interface. The Dwelling System let the owner know if doors opened while the house was supposed to be vacant, reported who walked by in the corridor, and monitored details like electricity and oxygen usage.
The transformation in the notifications recieved by Terra's minicell due to New Resident #01 fascinated her.
For starters, Diode printed 100 meters of nylon, the same length of double-sided tape, and dozens of contraceptives using the dressing room printer. She then watched as Diode printed some recycled cloth scraps, a 15-liter container, water, and ethanol, struggling to piece together what she was doing. Confusing Terra even more, she stole fifteen cushions from various places around the house. In addition to the cushions, Diode also stole shoes, a frame, a pen, an emergency button and an antique tightsuit.
It wasn’t long before Terra figured out how the recycled cloth and container were being used. Diode was soaking the cloth in the water-filled container, wringing it out to remove the excess moisture, and using it to scrub the attic. This ancient method of bucket and cloth cleaning, zoukingake, was something Terra had only seen in photo books. Diode had no choice but to manually clean the attic herself, since she couldn’t get back upstairs with the cleaning tools from downstairs. However, zoukingake struck Terra as the kind of thing Diode would not learn voluntarily, so no doubt she had been forced to learn it.
Terra didn’t know much about contraceptives, so she looked them up in the archive. Diode hadn’t printed the usual seminal duct blockers or meiosis inhibitors, and Terra was shocked to learn that primitive rubber products like that even existed. Diode was going into sketchy places with those contraceptives, and although when and where she used them was up to her, Terra felt a turbulent emotion she didn’t understand when she imagined how they might be used.
No, she's definitely using them for some kind of craftwork! That's what the other print jobs seemed to be for, too, Terra firmly told herself.
Then, one morning on a workday while Terra was preparing breakfast, Diode materialized beside her. “Are you heating that?”
“Ugwah!” Terra looked down at her hip and saw Diode standing there.
She was examining the object in Terra's hand. Diode looked up, greeted her with, “Good morning,” and quietly bowed. She wore a gray sweater and had her hair up. Everything about her gave the strong impression that she actually lived there.
So she can look like that too. While Terra was distracted by watching Diode, her companion focused on something else.
“Kind of a peculiar tool you're using.”
Terra's gaze returned to her hands. She had printed flour paste between two rectangular metal plates held together by a hinge. The tool, which had its own special power cord, was incredibly hot. Savory smoke rose from it as the paste sizzled.
“It's a nichrome hotplate. It uses electricity to heat up. My father refined it himself.”
“Nichrome? You mean nickel and chrome alloy? Woah.”
“Haha, it was a hobby of his.”
Terra couldn’t help but laugh at the shock on Diode's face. Nickel and chrome were both scarce in orbit around the gas giant, and only a miniscule amount was extracted from besshu. In Idaho, one wouldn’t expect to see it outside of the natural history reference room or on the Council of Elders' walls. Put another way, she might as well have been cooking with gold.
“Why do you have that ?”
“So, you know how fire laws limit ovens to restaurants and only allow residences to have dish printers? This was built with the aim of splitting the difference.”
Terra finished cooking and served the crisp, spongy bun on two AMC porcelain plates, steaming hot. Diode's sudden appearance had given Terra cause to cut it in half. She offered it to the girl, who had been salivating from the moment she smelled it.
Diode took one clean bite, then chewed and nodded in approval at the same time. “...Mm diph... is ohwn par wif a rephtwant...”
“It does have that crispy-soft feel to it.”
It wasn’t just bread-like—it also had cheese-like and bacon-like melted between the buns. The ingredients had the characteristic mouthfeel of food from the molecular dish printer, but Terra's cooking at a constant 75°C imparted it with next-level flavor. It helped Terra successfully conquer Diode's stomach. After that, she was much more likely to appear at mealtimes.
Terra was happy Diode was gradually drawing closer. At the same time, though, it made her feel anxious and confused. It was like being lost in a city she was familiar with. —Just what are we doing here? If she had to explain to others, Terra could say she was putting a roof over the head of her boat's pilot because she had nowhere else to go. There was no point in trying to hide it, because the Council of Elders itself made clear it would come out eventually. That being the case, once Terra's boat was taken out of Diode's hands, there would be no reason for her to stay other than the room being available.
She didn’t want Diode to leave, though.
Although Terra was previously living alone, she wasn’t completely isolated. Neighbors and friends from her school days invited her to hang out. Four days after the trial, her aunt and uncle came to visit in person during a day off. They lavished praise on the pair for putting up a good fight with their huge catch and lamented the seizure of the Intercontinentals' pillar boat. Uncle Rubal, speaking outside his official role as Council of Elders clerk, even encouraged the two to keep their hopes up as he departed.
During the chat, Diode maintained the composure of an honor student, only interjecting “true” to maintain her presence. They saw Terra's aunt and her companion off at Main Street, and once back home Diode calmly asked, "Did I treat the guests well?”
Just who do you think you are around here? Diode seemed to have settled in enough to ask that kind of question naturally. She not only decided she could belong at Terra’s house, she also showed no hesitation in behaving like it.
Diode's incursions weren’t just limited to Terra's living area. She made a visit to Terra's workplace while Terra was on shift. Terra's coworker Makia, who had been handling customers out front, came back and called for her.
“Tell-Tale, this one's for you.”
“Again? Is it Dishcrash-san?”
“No, it's Diode-kun—uh, Diode-san?”
“Wuh?” Terra made a weird sound in surprise.
Makia responded with an equally weird and surprised face. “It's your partner, I recognize him the broadcast. He's kinda dressed like a girl.”
“That's because she is a girl...”
“What? She's not a twister?”
“She is a twister.”
“We are talking about a twister, aren’t we? So... wait... no, you didn’t get married?”
“Uhh, well... Die-san is a woman and a twister. We haven’t gotten married.”
Forcing a smile, Makia asked, “How did she even end up like that? Not making a big deal of it would be nice...”
“It's not that big a deal—well, it is but..." She felt the same weariness as when talking with Xeon but decided to try saying now what she couldn’t then. “She's someone who found a place she belongs on her own terms.”
“But doesn’t everyone? Neither of us had to twist arms to work here.” Makia shrugged.
“Yeah, you're right,” Terra replied before heading to the archive's entrance.
She saw Diode through the cracked door. Diode raised a hand and said, “I decided to visit you, Terra-san.”
“Welcome. Why are you here?”
“I'm interested in your work. You're a video distribution officer, right? You watch lots of Content from long ago, and I even hear you get paid to watch it instead of the other way around. Is that true?”
“Well, it is, but I think you're misunderstanding something. Makia! Let her in.”
“Alright, I authorized her pass.” Makia, who had already returned to her desk, replied with her back turned.
Diode held her minicell over the office's entry device before Terra led her to the storage space deeper inside. The media archive was located in the fan-shaped Antiquity District of Idaho's Year 10 Ring; it was a large old storehouse, just like the old transport ship itself. Inside were gates, pillars, and piles of cut stone that looked like a tall parapet.
Some parts had eroded, others were crumbling. Grass grew through cracks, dense trees sprung from the ground, and moss carpeted dark, damp areas. They happened to hear deep, animal-like breathing, and turning around, saw a large four-legged creature with a mane. Its golden tail swayed and then dropped flat as it stood there. "An animal?!" Diode exclaimed, surprised. Terra, enjoying her reaction, whispered into her ear.
“It's a robot horse. Try petting it.”
“Petting it...?”
“Shh, quietly. It'll run away if you startle it. Something nice happens if you pet it.”
At that, Diode warily crept up on the creature from behind while Terra watched with a wide grin. Finally, she she stood on tiptoes to pat the horse's powerfully muscular hindquarters, but as she did—the horse quickly turned and licked her cheek with its long tongue.
“Ewww!" Diode shivered violently and backed away. Terra laughed and wiped her face with a handkerchief.
“Ahaha, it's taken a liking to you! You pass.”
“Why do you call that a pass?!"
“It wouldn’t have let you touch it if you failed. It would have chuffed at you with its nose instead. That's usually what happens. The horse does that to me and the others. It's rare to succeed like you did.”
“Even if I did, I'm not happy about it...”
Terra tried touching the horse too, but the skittish robot quickly evaded her and trotted away off into the deep thicket near the stone wall.
“Why is something like that here?” Diode muttered.
“Who knows. Maybe it was one of our ancestors' hobbies? Or maybe it was an educational model? Or maybe they were planning to use it as a mount if they arrived at a solid planet? I don’t really know, but we leave it be because it's a precious artifact from the past. It even does self-maintenance.”
“Ahh... So it's part of the Content. I see.” Although Diode nodded, she immediately looked around like it still didn’t make sense. “So, where's the Content that doesn’t walk?”
“Here. It's all in Stone State Storage format.” Terra touched the rampart.
Diode's eyes shot open. "Eh?"
That elicited a question from Terra. “So, since you're asking, am I correct to assume Gendō clan doesn’t have a place like this in Fuyō?”
“Well, there is, but it doesn't have much of substance,” Diode replied, subtly nodding to move along. Terra sat on the low stone railing nearby and started to tell her about the archive.
The Circ's ancestors brought an enormous amount of Content with them for entertainment and education when they first left the Galactive Interactive. They were said to have brought between 30,000,000 and 50,000,000 files, but most of them ended up destroyed, stolen, resold, or hidden during the chaos of misrule and rebellion shortly after the Circs arrived at FBB. Restoration efforts began once the rebellion calmed down, and the 3,000,000 files in the media storehouse represented what they had managed to reassemble after 290 years. However, many of the files had degraded over time or were altered to conceal their contents. With the main index out of commission, it wasn’t clear whether a file was a photo book, a movie, or a fairy tale. As a result, the responsibility for looking through the Content and relabeling it had fallen to the people.
“You see, the ones who are responsible for doing that–”
“You.”
“–are us, the public video distribution officers. In six years, I have restored 5000 files.”
From her stone seat, Terra proudly puffed her chest. Diode oohed at her with an admiring look and clapped.
“So, it's like I thought, it's a job where you're paid to look at pictures.”
“Well, yes, but you still don’t get it! You try too. Pick one of the unidentified files.”
“How?”
“The usual way... Ah, right. Here.” Terra showed Diode how to use her minicell's laser head function, since Diode didn’t seem to know about it.
“Like this?” Following Terra's instructions, Diode traced the stone with her nail. A human figure appeared in her palm. It was a stereoscopic video of a half-naked man. His head was covered by a cloth, with both ends tied under his nose. He held some sort of circular device resembling an ancient plate made of plant matter and rhythmically moved it over the ground from left to right as if repeatedly scooping something up.
“What is this?”
“Our job is to find an explanation and enter it in the telop.”
“...That's certainly admirable.”
“Isn’t it? Isn’t it?” From her stone seat, Terra proudly puffed her chest again. Diode applauded.
“Well, let's put the loach scooping aside. I came here with a goal in mind.”
“Huh? What did you just say? You know what that primitive dance was?”
“It's probably something that was only passed down through my clan. Forget it. To be precise, I'm here to see the records dating from around the rebellion. Terra-san, are there any records from the very beginning, before CC 10?”
“There probably are. But tell me about that dance from where you came from first, please!"
“Okay, okay.”
They negotiated a trade—Terra learned about a shanty from an island country in a time back when boats sailed instead of flying. Diode received permission to examine the logbook.
“The logbook is one of the archived official documents regarding us Circs. Those documents are duplicated in other sources, so even though the logbook is reliable, it's not interesting. Is that a problem?”
“Not at all. That's actually a good thing. It means the logs were personally written by Magiri.”
“I mean, couldn’t you just access the logs from home with your public database connection?”
“It won’t connect through my account. I'm from Gendō, so " Diode raised a hand as she spoke calmly. Terra found it weird.
“It shouldn’t matter if you're from Gendō or any other clan. You don’t have any access limits on the Endeavour DB.”
“No, that's not it. Gendō places restrictions on women's minicells.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“Women will become stupid and indecent if they're allowed to access information streams that aren’t carefully vetted.”
“...What? Not the other way around? Like, not having access instead?”
“They allow us access to information through an institution instead. You have to show gratitude for a curriculum that was carefully selected by our clan's governing body for the sake of raising modest, obedient women. They call it a girls' school, though. I was in that kuso, crappy, merdique, shitty, dàbiàn institution for two years—from the moment I turned 16 to just before the Bow-Awow.”
Looking relieved, Diode stood in front of Terra, who had been left slackjawed. She picked up a baton-like pumice rock which had fallen near the building stones and flung it at the thicket with a big swing.
It made a nice, dry sound.
“Thankfully, since I'm not there anymore, I can come here with you instead. It seems like I have access to a lot of files here, but is that really okay?”
Terra nodded without hesitation. “Yes, of course! Go ahead and look at as many as you want!"
Diode settled into a pattern where she spent a third of the day resting at Terra's house and another third hanging around her workplace. The remaining third, however, was still a mystery. Her whereabouts were unknown, but at the very least, Terra knew she wasn’t at home thanks to the Dwelling System. Diode didn’t tell Terra anything. Terra could imagine it to some extent, but didn’t ask.
It was only once, but while Terra was looking around for handmade items in the Year 240 Ring shopping district, she saw a small, masked figure dressed in black jumping from roof to roof. The figure jumped down to a bay window and scaled its decorative eaves. As they passed through, they spun around the railing before tumbling into the outer passageways. They completely ignored the road as they jumped from building to building.
Terra noticed the figure because the people around her were looking up in surprise. Whoever it was moved deliberately, relying on their grip, leg power, and the weaker 0.8G gravity of the Year 240 Ring, not on any special technique or tooling. It didn’t look like they were out to shock people. They ignored everyone's attention and carried on with the risky-looking acrobatic challenge.
Terra made an unplanned purchase afterwards. Once they finished dinner that evening, she pulled Diode aside.
“Die-san, would you take this?”
“What is it?” She opened the bag to reveal a sparkling blue clasp decorated with a shippō pattern.
“...A barrette?”
Terra moved behind the standing girl and gathered her silver hair, fixing it in a diagonal twist at her crown. “Your hair sticks out in back if you only wear a turban and mask. Using this to hide it should work.”
“...Thank you.” With that, Diode returned to her room.
Later, a series of columns about a black-clad figure started to appear in the clan's journal, but Terra sadly never personally witnessed the sight a second time. Not that it mattered much. When Diode visited the archive, she responded to Terra's efforts to talk with her. Their conversations were entirely concerned with old Content. Diode helped identify uncertain pieces, since coming from another clan gave her knowledge that an Endeavour didn’t necessarily have. (Example: ‘The snowman in this one has a thick neck and wide base, so the work is probably from around the era of the daruma archetype.’). She had been such a great help to Terra and her coworkers that it wasn’t long before her stay was officially authorized.
“Going by everything you've told me, you seem to have learned a lot at the school you attended. Was it really that much of a shi... cruel place?” Terra asked, seated in a corner of the archive's grass garden.
Diode replied, "Everything I’ve been telling you is something I’ve gotten a rough idea of from underground Content I saw with my mother when I lived on the Tsunami Search or when I cut class.”
“Ooh, underground... Uh, do you mean Content like callouts, fights, and.... even pervy stuff?”
“Stuff like ‘S, D, and V’, or ‘A and G,’ there's almost ten thousand years' worth of underground material. Or are you not able to handle that sort of thing, Terra-san?”
“Uh, it's not that I can't handle it, it's more like... I don’t know enough about it.”
“Hmm. Well, let's stop talking about it if you don’t know about it.”
“Ah, I don’t think I'd hate it! It's just that I've never really had many chances to see it...” Terra blushed, noticing that despite having six years on Diode, she was somehow less knowledgeable about the world.
“It's stuff that the Council of Elders strictly prohibit–” Diode cut herself short and quickly glanced towards the office. Terra laughed.
“You don’t need to worry. No one's going to arrest you for what you say here.”
“Even if it's about Magiri and Eda?”
“Magiri? You briefly mentioned them before. Who's that?” Terra asked innocently.
Diode let out a weak sigh. "Those are names they won’t tell you about, at the very least.”
“...Were they the kind of people they would normally teach us about?”
“Hm..." Unusually, Diode folded her arms with deep, genuine anxiety. “Ah well, the Council of Elders here would have arrested me a long time ago if they were planning to...” she muttered. "Gendō Magiri was the first Great Chief of the Circ fleet, from CC 3 until CC 18.”
“The first... really? Wasn’t it C.B. Endeavour?”
“There aren’t any documents written by Sivi Endeavour dating to that time. They were the Great Chief after CC 18, but there's nothing from what's called the early period. Look, it's the same here, too.” Diode rubbed a single stone state and brought up the log from Month 8, Day 1 of CC 10 in her palm, then pointed to the empty space in the lower left. “It's been erased. Beginning in CC 18, Sivi Endeavour's signature is there, but everything before that was erased like this. I wonder if the Endeavours are the only ones still openly displaying the altered logs.”
“Do the Gendō keep those documents private?”
“Either that, or more likely, they're missing.”
“Huuuh...” Terra was surprised but didn't fully grasp her meaning. "Why's that? Did that person do underground things, too?”
“In the underground, there's a legend that's believed to be true.”
“What kind of legend?”
“Back in CC 3, Magiri had a partner in starting the rebellion and assuming power after purging the old leadership. That partner's full name isn’t known, but she had the nickname of The Exceptional Eda. She was some sort of genius scientist, apparently. She studied the composition and properties of the bake floating around FBB, and she was the one who put the fleet on the road to self-sufficiency after she succeeded in converting bake into a usable resource.”
“We learned about someone like that in our clan, too. That's the first time hearing the name Eda, though.”
“Yeah, that kind of breakthrough is too big to be erased completely. Anyway, Eda was the one responsible. She passed away in CC 8.”
“Did she get sick?”
“She fell into FBB due to a boating accident. She saved others but couldn’t manage to save herself. That's where the legend started: Eda was the one who gave birth to the besshu. There are a range of opinions as to how she did that.”
“...Gave birth to the besshu?”
“Yes.”
“How? That's... you don’t mean that literally, right?”
“Of course they didn’t come from her belly. I meant in the sense they were a scientific innovation.”
“Did she raise them in a test tube and then spread them from orbit?”
“Who knows. I don’t really know how she did it. She died in CC 8, but the besshu didn’t appear until CC 16. Whatever Eda set off when she died took eight years to spread. But by making what we now call besshu take the form of fish, she made it possible for us to harvest it. At least, that's what the legend says.”
“Woah, now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure that besshu aren’t found anywhere else in the Galactive Interactive. They're endemic to FBB. That's why we can make a profit exporting the AMC clay through the Dàxúnniǎo. Doesn’t that make a huge amount of sense?” Terra suddenly got enthusiastic. "Isn’t that great? Our ancestor created the besshu! And thanks to her, the Circs make their living fishing for them, even now!"
“Well, that might be true, but from an academic perspective, learning a completely new form of life was entirely engineered by a human is a really unsatisfying explanation.” Diode looked through the stone state storage Content as it displayed in fragments. "At least as far as I've gotten with my investigation, there isn’t a single scholar in any clan that takes it seriously.”
“Is that so...? I do like how the besshu resemble Earth animals, but have their own quirks... Ah? But wait, isn’t that weird?”
“What's weird?”
“Doesn’t an achievement like that make Exceptional Eda a notable person? Why wasn’t her name preserved?” Terra asked, before adding, "Besides, what does Magiri have to do with this?”
“Eda and Magiri were a couple.”
“A couple?” Terra narrowed her eyes. "But you said Eda was a woman, right? So Magiri was a man?”
“She was a woman.”
“What?” She asked as comprehension dawned on her.
Diode indifferently explained. "They were a same-sex couple. It was a pair of married women who provided fierce guidance and leadership to the Circs back then, and who laid the cornerstone of our lifestyle by giving birth to the besshu. The Circs couldn’t bring themselves to accept that, so once there were only couples between men and women, they erased the records of those two. According to legend, anyway.” Diode turned off the Content she was showing Terra, who was now breathless, and peeked around the corner. “I wanted to find proof, so that's why I asked to see the logs.”
Ten days passed, then twenty, then thirty. Idaho and the other base ships continued to spin, the water miners worked the icy moons, the outboard workers quietly repaired the exterior of the ship here and there, and twisters flew their boats while decompers spread their nets. Diode continued her usual routine of disappearing only to reappear in Terra's dining room at mealtimes for a chat before she returned to the attic.
The days passed with a mood somewhere between that of watering a freshly-planted seed and counting seconds with a bomb timer. Terra felt a sense of patience with her impatience. Although she looked forward to her pillar boat's return, she also wished the strange but calming interlude with Diode could continue.
Diode also felt that sense of patience with impatience, but her concerns were entirely different from Terra's.
Beep, beep, beep—The moment she heard the sound of an alarm go off, as piercing as a shattering glass window, Terra's bed shook. The nightlight suddenly flickered and died.
“Wh-what?” Terra climbed out of bed, still half-asleep. She shoved her hand under the bed without a thought and retrieved her quickmask. It was a habit drilled into every Circ from childhood..
You hear me, Terra? Mask first, even if the air leak alarm is blaring, and even if you hear banging or feel air rushing in. Put your mask on before you try to save anyone or hug any cushions. If there really is an airtightness breach, that's when you run to the rescue ball or go to a printer pod.
As she remembered her father teaching her as a kid, she put on an oxygen mask that covered her head and used the minicell to light the surroundings with her palm. She scanned the room. Soft, dark green curtains. Portrait of her parents. A quiet row of figurines on the curio shelf. Apatosaurus, morpho butterfly, cat, and gulguiuli (the red ones from planet Coubingar, not the three-legged kind from Mock). Nothing looked out of place at the moment.
In the first place, nothing could damage the residential district in Idaho's innermost section enough to cause an emergency, save for an extremely high velocity meteorite coming in from space. Besides, the alarm that had just sounded was different. Terra kicked herself for not noticing that alarm was something else.
Her next actions after donning the mask were something her parents hadn’t taught her.
Terra shouted into her minicell, “Die-san! I just heard something. Are you okay?!" She felt vaguely apprehensive as she thought about what to do if she didn’t get a response. It came unexpectedly quick, and was a bizarre one at that.
“Terra-san, please run! Get to Clan Security!"
“What?! Why–”
“It's definitely the trackers! The intruder alarm I installed on the hatch above us went off! The Gendō trackers are—Bam!“ There was the sound of an explosion, followed by a groan.
Terra felt a chill rush down her spine, followed by a flood of adrenaline a moment later. She shoved her hand back under the bed and grabbed a tool made of hardened AMC clay. Terra's mother had given it to her as a kid. She threw the door open and rushed to the corridor. Once her hands were on the stairs leading to the attic, she took a second to calmly adjust her mask before climbing to open the trapdoor.
“Die-san!"
The scene was almost like she had imagined.
The wall light Diode had taken from downstairs illuminated the tight passageway of the attic. Two figures wearing skintight gray suits stood still. They were in spacesuits, meaning that they had entered through the exterior walls. They held the girl between them by the arms as tears fell from her fluttering eyes.
They have Die-san!
One of the intruders turned in response to Terra's voice and, with a subtle movement, threw something shaped like a cup onto the floor.
Bam! An intense flash of light flooded the room as it exploded. The intruders had likely planned to use it to cover their escape, but Terra activated the mask's anti-starglare dimming mode. The figures were clearly visible to Terra inside the burst of light. Terra pointed the deadly tool, which she performed weekly maintenance on, in their direction, took aim, and fired.
There was a quick one-two-three burst of eardrum-tearing explosions. The first shot had been aimed at the intruder to Diode's right. It blasted the figure off Diode and knocked them to the floor. The intruder on her left still stood after taking the second shot, but the third hit their suit's visor and cracked it.
"I'm sorry!" Terra apologized, using the opportunity to take another shot. The invader collapsed where they stood, their face covered in blood.
“Die-san!"
Terra rushed into the attic. She held Diode in her arms, more worried than anything. "Are you okay? Did any of the bullets hit you just now?”
Diode squirmed, momentarily resisting. "Woah, i-is that you, Terra-san?” She still couldn’t see, and her ears were blown out by the explosion. Terra pulled Diode into her chest and hugged as tightly as she could.
“Yes, it's me!"
“Ah...these are...” Diode nervously caressed Terra's large breasts and quickly relaxed. "So it really is you. These are Terra-san's...”
“That's right. Can you hear me? Does it hurt anywhere?”
“Ah...Yes, my hearing is slow in coming back, but I can hear you.” Terra placed her hand on the girl's forehead and gently wiped her eyes. Diode's dark blue eyes appeared. "I should be asking if you're okay, Terra-san. What the hell happened?”
“I dealt with them using this.”
Diode's eyes shot open when she caught sight of the long, smooth, and deadly-looking thing in Terra's hand. “A-a gun?! That's a gun, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it's a shotgun my mother gave me.”
“Why do you have a gun?”
“Why? There's usually one in every home, right?” As she said that, Terra realized it might be another difference between them. "Or does Gendō prohibit guns, too?!"
“That's obvious, isn’t it...” Diode started to cry-laugh. Her voice tightened into a cackle.
Terra pulled Diode back into her arms and, holding her tight, went downstairs to report the situation to Clan Security. Due to her ongoing dispute with the Council of Elders, she was doubtful as to whether they'd come to help. That turned out to be a baseless worry. Armed guards rushed in less than two and a half minutes later.
“They're up there! The strange people in the attic who tried to kidnap Die-san!"
The squad cautiously ventured upstairs but eventually returned empty-handed. “We couldn’t ID any intruders. There was no one up there.”
“Huh?! But there were two people wearing tight suits! They threw a light grenade, so I did what we're trained to do in high cruise school!"
“Chill, I wasn’t callin' ya a liar. We found blood and evidence of the fight,” the squad member replied, pointing at the other guards looking over the house's entrance and surroundings. "That said, looks like those guys got away. Took all their gear with them too, so they're probably professional infiltrators.”
“They escaped?” Terra was dumbfounded. "Even after being shot like that? I'm pretty sure I even shot one of them right in the face, too "
“Those were resin bullets, yeah? Won’t stop 'em. We're talkin' real pros here. Oh, you're Terra Intercontinental-san, aren’t ya? The fisher who bagged that enormous fish.” The male squad member raised his goggles and grinned. "You did pretty good for a woman. Took some guts. But you should know when to call it quits, this was a close shave.”
“Uh... Thanks.” Terra replied bluntly, disliking the sentiment. Diode was in danger, so she had acted in desperation. That was all there was to it. She was sure that any person, man or woman, would react to the situation the same way.
And... and, there's something else, but I don’t know how to describe it.
Shortly after, the Rescue Squad arrived and quickly began tending to Diode. An unexpected person showed up alongside them.
“Are you two all right? I received word of an attack.”
“Dishcrash-san...!"
“Good, it appears you are both unharmed.” The Council liaison with the soft, puffy sideburns adorning his cheeks looked down on the two with eyes that always seemed to smile.
A fog filled Terra's mind, and she replied without thinking. "We aren’t unharmed at all. Die-san went through something awful. They tried to kidnap her! And it's terrifying to think of my own home being invaded like this. Really, it's too much...”
“I am sorry to hear that.” Dishcrash said, bowing. "Just now, a construction boat departed from the work pier without authorization, headed for territory outside of Idaho's jurisdiction. However, the two exterior workers who boarded it were identified as citizens who migrated here from Fuyо̄ during the Bow Awow. There are official actions which can taken in regard to this matter, but they are unlikely to return. I believe the Gendō reserve a trump card for mischief like this, and it has been played tonight,” Dishcrash said. He stared pointedly at Terra. "—You do understand, correct? This situation resulted from your own decision to shelter Diode-san.”
“You make it sound like it's my fault! Don’t say that... please.” Terra started with a raised voice but trailed off. In truth, was that fear was in the back of her mind the whole time she was living with Diode, and she did nothing about it. If I had taken that fear seriously, then maybe I could have trusted Security Squad with the matter before the break-in happened.
“It would have been useful to secure the burglars for the coming negotiations. It is truly a shame we failed to do so.”
Dishcrash touched on something Terra felt like she was trying unusually hard to tolerate. The fog shrouding that feeling suddenly lifted—she wasn’t satisfied with simply being saved. The truth was she wanted everyone to see the clear righteousness in the act of exposing the people who attacked them.
“If we did happen to catch them... Would I get my pillar boat back, by any chance?” Terra asked.
Dishcrash shook his head and responded with a silence that meant ‘I don’t know’ and shook his head. Maybe he's not really as good-natured as he seems? Just the thought made her sad.
“Dishcrash-san, may I say something?” Diode cut in, her examination finished. She thanked the doctors with a silent nod, then returned her attention to Dishcrash. "You expected this and kept quiet, huh? How do you plan to take responsibility?”
“What leads you to believe I could have expected this?”
“Why would a fully armed platoon rush in because of a mere report from a panicked citizen? Do the Endeavours always react that way?”
Dishcrash warded off her glare with a disinterested expression. “There have been previous instances.”
“No there haven’t. You expected this, and you could have assigned the relevant authorities to prevent it. Instead, you people kept quiet and let the trackers do this, because you also wanted this. If Gendō's trackers had captured us during this incident, you would have a bargaining chip for negotiations with them. That was the outcome you aimed for, wasn’t it?”
“Was it? You can prove this accusation?”
“I put these on the residence's windows and doorways.” Diode pulled out a small bundle of fine thread.
Ah, Terra recognized it. That's probably in the print log.
“There was one place where it was cut, then put back by stretching it. The trackers didn’t do this tonight, and they couldn’t have noticed it because they tripped my alarm. So, someone must have entered earlier, but–” Diode quickly glanced at the Security Squad as they prepared to leave. "–Even though this is supposedly the first time they've been here, they didn’t break any of them.”
Terra's breath hitched. "So those people have been wandering around my house?”
“Terra-san, lean down here for a second.”
“Yeah?” Terra did as she was asked without a second thought. She jumped back when Diode tightly pinched her nose. "Agh?!"
“I'm sorry, I don’t want you raising a fuss right now. Dishcrash-san, there's no point in keeping score here. How about we skip to the heart of the matter?”
“And that, meaning?”
“By that, I mean Terra is an asset to the Endeavours. Isn’t that right? She's one of the clan's elite decompers.”
“Yes, that is true. That has always been true.”
“She’s very important to me, too. I’m vowing to wager a lifetime’s worth of maydays by saying this, but Terra-san standing here right now is more important to me than the Gendō who just showed up. We have a common goal.”
“Hmm, I see, I see...” Dishcrash closed his eyes and pinched his chin, then finally spoke in a serious tone. "Although there may be no point in keeping track of our score, as you say, one may also expect to know I cannot ignore the matter of a suspicious person skill training in both the new and old town districts for the past half month. Additionally, this very same person is known to frequent back alleys in the Year 25 Ring, actively seeking drug and crack specialists. Those are points I cannot turn a bli–”
“Die-sa–” Terra started to shout, but quickly covered her mouth with both hands. The liaison's narrow eyes and Diode's cold look stabbed her from both sides.
“...turn a blind eye to.” Dishcrash said, returning his gaze to Diode. "In short, these events are connected. If there is an issue requiring more suitable management on my part, then there is an issue that also requires correction on your part. Would you agree, Diode-san?”
“I hope we are on the same page, but probably.”
“And regarding the matter of our inheritance?”
“At any rate, that can wait two years, can’t it?”
“So, you do not oppose a temporary arrangement?”
“I'm not that greedy.”
“Hmm, I see. Hm.” As he thought, Dishcrash twirled the fuzz on his right cheek. Then he suddenly spoke, full of cheer. "As an aside, I have not yet spoken of the business I have concerning the both of you.”
“Huh?” "Ah, right.”
“I am here with regard to your appeal with the Council of Elders. Your method of hauling extra-large bachi orca has been deemed a matter of exceptional importance. Thus, they have ordered Terra of the Intercontinental family and self-proclaimed Diode of the Gendō clan to establish its continuation. You are to report to the Council with a total of ten specimens. Both of you, please raise your left and right hands.”
They extended their hands a little as they were told. He knocked on the back of their hands, sending a message that likely contained the same content to their minicells. Diode clicked her tongue, but she was too late.
“I was dispatched to deliver this message in person. Just now, you have received a code to erase the access lock on your pillar boat. Do not forget the conditions and do your best from now on. His Excellency, the Clan Chief, looks forward to the next Bow Awow.” Dishcrash bowed sharply and left.
“Ahh... Wha?”
Terra was in a daze, not quite understanding the direction the conversation had taken or how it reached the conclusion it did. So, she was startled when Diode suddenly kicked the chair beside her and yelled, "Shit, that hurt!"
“W-what's wrong? Die-san...” Terra asked nervously.
“We got played. He meant to tell us about the boat from the very start, but he made us think this was a pointless discussion and waited for us to back down. He was smiling about his true intentions the whole time.”
“Meaning?”
“They returned your boat!"
“Really?!" Although Diode had angrily raised her voice, Terra's own shout of happiness drowned it out. She jumped to her feet, eyes sparkling.
“Then—then that means I can go fishing with you again, right?”
“Yes, but did you not hear the part about catching ten heads of that monster bachi?!"
“Isn’t that basically saying we can do whatever?! Huh, is this really okay?!" Terra started to glow in amazement. She grasped Diode's hands.
Diode was dumbfounded, but eventually sighed and responded with a blunt, "Yeah.”
“Huh? What's with that reaction? Shouldn’t we both be happy about this?”
“We're going to divide the workload. I'll trust you to handle the happiness. I'll be busy with the resentment.”
“What's there to feel resentful—Ahh, right, you did ask me to overlook something earlier.” Terra grew curious about it as she thought back to the conversation. "It was about that, right? Running around... searching for some sort of specialist... Do you mind if I ask what you were up to?”
“Well, the running around was just training. My reflexes will get duller and duller if I stay at home doing nothing.”
“What was that about drugs and crack, then?”
“One frees the mind, the other frees the machine.”
“And you were trying to get your hands on those? Why?”
“To take the pillar boat back.”
“Urk, taking it back?!" Terra was genuinely surprised. "You wanted to take the boat out without permission from the Council of Elders? That's impossible!"
“It's not impossible, it just would have taken a while. Only, I ran out of time to do it. My search was in vain, since they gave it back before I could follow through with my plan.”
“You don’t think they returned the boat to keep you away from a life of crime?”
Diode made a face like she had just watched someone eat toast through their nose. "No way. From now on, they're going to use the boat as leverage for all the shady things they're planning. It's not like this outcome was to our advantage. Besides, right up to the very end, he never said ‘you can be fishers’, did he?”
“That's okay as long as we can board together, isn’t it?”
Diode rested her chin in her hand and sighed, "Ahh, I'm over it. Sure. It's okay.”
Following the liaision, the security and rescue squads withdrew from the residence. Terra waited for the same calmness of the preceding days to return as the turbulent atmosphere in her residence dissipated, but it never did. Their wait was over. Now that they were certain they were able to board again, their everyday life as fishers could resume.
Before the last voice out front faded, Terra slightly leaned towards the girl beside her and whispered. "Can I ask you something?”
“Hm?”
“That was the first time I heard the expression ‘I’m vowing to wager a lifetime's worth of maydays’ How serious is that?”
“Good night.”
Diode abruptly stood and left.