The attack on Terra's house and the combined efforts of the Endeavour clan's guards and a private citizen to drive the invaders out became huge news. The invaders' identities were publicly stated to be unknown. While the reality was that Terra had run them off on her own, with no help from the guards, it was the type of detail that was sure to be classified immediately after an incident like that. Terra agreed to keep her mouth shut once the guards promised to reinforce security to prevent a repeat occurrence.
Terra's silence had also been exchanged for her pillar boat's return.
She was disheartened when she saw the ship's logs. There were signs several other fishermen had been allowed to fly it as they pleased, which suggested the Council of Elders had challenged others to achieve the same results as Terra and Diode. In other words, they seemed to believe the boat was special, not the two of them.
Unfortunately for the Council, that wasn't the case at all. Terra's pillar boat wasn't any different from the others, so naturally, the fishers using it didn't achieve any different results. Ultimately, that seemed to be the reason why the Council had given it back—since it was just an ordinary boat, they decided it was best to leave it with Terra and Diode. Terra detested the lengths they'd gone to for that conclusion, but she forced herself to make peace with it.
Well, I'm glad they gave it back, at least.
The pillar boat operated by the unusual pair of novices began descending to FBB once again. They quietly set sail, without any grand ceremonies or public announcements.
That's not to say the two conducted themselves quietly. The two worked on new fishing methods on one flight after another. At night, they emitted an intense light that lured a multitude of besshu. Splitting the pillar boat in two, the decompa sat in a larger part that flew in a holding pattern while the twister deftly caught besshu with the smaller part. In a mere two months, the two main pillars of their techniques—exceptional piloting and a 500-meter-wide form with a high glide ratio—allowed them to catch roughly 1,525,000 tonnes. Those entirely unrookielike numbers not only made Terra and Diode famous among all sixteen clans, but it also ranked them on par with the top three fishers for the first quarter of CC 304.
The fishing industry criticized the abnormal fishers' chaotic operational behavior while spying on the details of their new techniques. The economic sphere demanded the two control themselves, citing concerns about a price collapse from overfishing. The scientists were thrilled to finally learn about species that, up until then, had remained full of enigmas. The Council of Elders lamented that the two hadn't promptly caught the requested ten heads of gigantic bachi orca (it was extremely difficult, as expected) but, unable to ignore their splendid numbers, the good offices of the Council introduced them to potential spouses with strong pedigrees.
"If this is what praise brings, I'm in trouble..."Terra spread the profiles of suitors recommended by the Council of Elders across her table and sighed. "This really didn't turn out to be a favor. I guess it wasn't actually meant to be one from the start."
"Are you checking to see if there are any good men, Terra-san?" Diode asked. She was wearing tight fitwear and was darting around on the monkey bars in the ceiling. She had also been graced by the Council's good offices but had wordlessly threw their profiles away without a second thought.
Terra shook her head. "It doesn't matter if there's a good one or not. I'm not interested in marriage anymore."
"Sorry, Terra-san."
"Why?"
"It's because I said too much before, isn't it?"
"You didn't say too much. All you did was notice."
Terra looked up at the monkey bars and saw Diode hanging there with both hands. The bars had been installed indoors to put an end to the matter of the suspicious person running around town. Diode basically turned into a monkey whenever she felt like doing a training exercise in what she called "three-dimensional kinesthesia".
Diode grabbed the monkey bars with her toes, and dangling upside down, said, "If you turn down the marriage proposals, there probably won't be a next time."
"Yeah, about that... Would a single, firm rejection be a good idea?"
"...If you're unsure, it's fine to accept, isn't it? You can save the rejection for when you meet up."
Diode's silver hair was hanging at the tip of Terra's nose. What she'd said made sense, but she said it with a tone colder than a comet.
It was a terrifying sight. If she fell, she'd break her neck. Diode herself had assured her, "It's really not as dangerous as it looks, it's only half gravity here," but Terra couldn't help but think that depended on how she fell.
"Should I really accept the favor?"
Terra stood up and cradled Diode's scalp in both hands. Diode blinked in surprise, and her toes quickly let go of the bars a moment later. Her entire weight, supported by her surprisingly strong skull and neck muscles, was suddenly concentrated in Terra's hands—but it was like she had entrusted herself to two cushions.
Diode spread her arms and legs wide, keeping her frame balanced upside-down. She began to wobble all four of her thin, flexible limbs like a spring toy. However, she didn't have much practice doing that, so after several seconds she grabbed Terra's wrists and spun to land on her feet.
"Hahaa," she sighed, sounding impressed. "I made it down."
"What was that all about?" Terra giggled. The girl's face, which looked like an artisan's handiwork, was covered in sweat.
Her head had just happened to be at the right height to make Terra want to pet her. She wasn't expecting Diode to take a break by climbing on her.
What if I dropped her? Was she really that certain she wouldn't fall?
"You're just like an arboreal animal, Die-san."
"Arboreal? What's that mean? Oh, trees? If that's true, then you must be the tree."
"Rude, much...?"
A small hand, still warm from exercise, caught Terra's wrist. Terra tried to grab Diode's wrist in return, but she evaded the attempt. Then she left, saying she was taking a bath. For a brief moment, the smell of sweat mixed with her usual smoky botanical scent and left a peculiar, invisible trail in her wake.
Diode had received that burnt, aromatic fragrance from her mother. It meant the two hadn't necessarily cut ties, but Terra had yet to even glimpse the face of the woman who traveled through the edges of the gas giant's storms while living aboard a Tsunami Search. She was also in the dark as to why Diode had left, or how she'd ended up in the all-girls' school. (Based on Diode's tone while recounting her story, Terra had the impression she'd been captured and forced to enroll.)
Terra still didn't know why she was steadily working to fish up records from the past, either.
However, Terra let her have free rein of the house, allowing Diode to learn everything from the monthly printer cartridge replacement to her parents' funerary number. From the beginning, Diode had avoided learning those kinds of details, but her behavior completely changed after their boat was returned. She was actively asking about Terra's life. Terra answered all of Diode's questions, not hiding anything. If Diode happened to be an elaborate scam of some sort, she had gotten the means to suddenly run off with everything. Terra had completely forgotten to even have that kind of doubt about her.
Still, Diode maintained some distance—like she had a moment earlier, casually drawing an invisible line between herself and Terra that was as impassable as a mountain border. Terra was aware she was doing that, and she knew with certainty what lay on the other side of that mountain pass was incredibly vast.
To Terra, it seemed like Diode was also aware of that and was only watching her behavior to determine whether or not to cut her loose. She already presumed Diode felt the same way she did.
It made her feel nice when Diode touched her. Much more importantly, Diode had become someone she wanted to be touched by. Diode wasn't just simply being allowed to remain in the house; Terra was enjoying her stay. Savoring it. She was the first person Terra ever wanted to let within touching range.
There could be no mistake that Diode felt the same way—Or maybe not? Maybe I'm just telling myself that.
Terra wasn't sure. All of her doubts began churning in her chest. She went to the dressing room uninvited and called into the bathroom.
"Die-san, should I really accept a marriage proposal?!"
"You're welcome to accept at any time as long as you have the resolve to do it. By the way, when are you going to stop camping out by the door? Peeking in by yourself isn't how group bathing works, so if you want to look you're going to have to come in. Are you ready for that?!"
"I'm not ready to do either of those things, I'm sooorrryyy!"
Terra went back to the living room and immediately, with a single swipe, threw the profiles burying the table in details regarding families and personal histories into the trash.
The situation hadn’t improved as much outside her house as it had inside. Everyone—her aunt, her uncle, the people she ran into at the fishing harbor— worried about how long she'd keep up her eccentric behavior of fishing with another woman. Whenever they asked Terra about it, she'd reply ‘It's fine.’ She repeated ‘It's fine’ almost like a mantra, as if it would eventually be made true by saying it. She had a sudden realization in the following days.
Living with Diode made her feel safe. It was more than a feeling of safety that came from everything being in its right place. It was the kind that would let her be okay even at the cost of everything else. She couldn't tell where that strange sense of certainty came from, but from that day forward, it seemed to her that ‘It's fine’ would inevitably bear fruit.
She started to feel if things continued as they were for half a year, for a year, then ‘It's fine’ would be a reality. Then the storm happened. It had only been 93 days since they met.