In front of a “Public Bath” sign hung over an alley, a rather large figure in a duct dress groaned. Kimono-wearing passersby avoided the undeniably suspicious person while side-eyeing them.
“I'm certain Die-san of all people would understand... no, if you think about it, she'd... then again, this isn't a matter of life and death... mmmgh...” the figure anxiously grumbled to itself.
Five days after disembarking, Terra had run into a problem. She already had an idea as to Diode’s whereabouts: the administrative area known as the Typhoon Palace, located near the tip of the fifth petal. Eda had discovered a nearby girls’ school and someone being held captive in the area by infiltrating into their telecommunications systems.
The issue was that the location was on the outer circumference of Fuyō’s five kilometer diameter—or 2500 meters from the spaceport—and she was restricted to using a slow cargo elevator which made it absolutely impossible for Terra to get there and back in a day. For that reason, Terra needed to stay in the urban area near the Typhoon Palace while she pinpointed Diode’s location and planned out her rescue. At some point during day three, though, she had started to hit a limit.
Terra spent all of her time lurking in the shadows or within ducts to avoid being seen by others. Her duct dress’ airtight design even allowed safe entry into ducts with bacterial outbreaks. Even though she only wore hers for the sake of camouflage, it was still awfully stuffy. To put the situation delicately, she hadn’t showered and changed as usual. The Gendō clan didn’t have hotels or the like for tourists in their urban areas, and the only option was the public baths Terra had heard about.
Public bathing. Undressing and rinsing yourself with warm water in the same space as others. It was a custom that Terra’s clan—and the majority of the others, for that matter—didn’t have, and she would much rather avoid it if possible.
If she did, though, she’d be in a rather unsavory condition when she made contact with Diode. While she felt it was a little weird to care that much about appearances in a life-or-death situation, she did not want to meet Diode like that. Her ambience had only gotten worse in the two days since she had started to feel concerned about hygiene, and it finally brought her to the entrance of this establishment.
I’ve been brooding over this for 15 minutes already–Terra thought, as just then she felt something beside her gently make contact with her arm.
“What are ya up to, gaijin-san?”
“S-sorry? Gaijin... me?”
Looking down in surprise, she found what seemed to be an average middle-aged woman. She held a stick resembling a short cane in one hand, but Terra couldn’t tell what it was. The older woman, looking back up at her, smiled at Terra’s response.
“Of course yer a gaijin. Yer from another clan, aren’cha? Gendō don’t helplessly wander around town dressed like that.”
“Ah, right. Well, you’re not wrong...”
“A gaijin-san dawdlin’ about outside the bathhouse? Yeah, I thought so. Ya wanna go in? Don’t know how?”
“It’s not so much about knowing how and more like I’m not mentally prepared to, uh, go in...”
“Nothin’ to it! Drop a coin in, strip, and the water goes fwssssh. Guy like you could just waltz right in without a care in the world.”
“Um.” Without thinking, Terra opened the visor of the duct dress’ unclassy helmet. “I’m a woman.”
“Huuuh, yer a woman? Daaamn, you’re big for one!” She took a step back to appreciate Terra in her entirety, then stepped closer again, impressed. “Well, with yer size, ya wouldn’t have nothin’ ta worry about either. By the way, this is a new-style bath, so it’ll all be fine anyway. I’m goin’ in too, so tag along with me.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Nothin’ ta worry about! It’s just bein’ naked. No one’s gonna run ya out. Come on now.”
The woman gave Terra’s back a push. Instead of a door to conceal the inside, a sheet was hung across the entrance—one of the Gendō clan’s traits, it seemed, was a love of banners. Terra passed through and entered the public bath.
“W-wait, I’m still not–”
She was in an unknown place, receiving encouragement from a stranger, and probably about to get completely naked. Terra timidly inched forward, but she stopped in her tracks the moment she saw inside.
There were two portholes in the wall, and people were popping out of one. Each person wore the same kimono, and they had an air of refreshment in their flushed cheeks and cheerful expressions. With a graceful landing, they made their way to a small room off to the side lined with benches that looked like a breakroom. The people who had entered the bathhouse ahead of Terra thrust themselves head-first into the other porthole. She couldn’t make anything out in the darkness inside of it.
“Do I just go in there?”
“Ya gotta pay first, silly. Ya got any small change?”
Terra did, sort of. She had brought a roll of silicon coins denominated in the Circs’ shared currency, which had a worse exchange rate than the digital currency. Just what am I supposed to do here?
She watched the middle-aged woman, who was going in first, insert three coins into a slot next to the chute. “Come on in, the water’s fine!” She waved her hand and hopped in.
“So this is a public bath...”
Terra was paralyzed, and feeling the presence of other people, turned around to see they had calmly formed a silent line behind her. Panicking, she tried to give up her turn, but no one took her up on the offer.
It seemed a rigid respect for the queue was another Gendō custom.
“I, umm, I... agh, fine!”
She hadn’t even removed her clothes like she thought she was supposed to, but then again, the woman hadn’t either. Partly giving into despair, Terra paid the three coins and jumped into the chute.
As soon as she entered, she was carried off with a firm push. She couldn’t tell if the pressure was compressed air or a water jet. To her surprise, the various fasteners and air seal latches on her duct dress undid themselves, and the detached arm, leg, and torso sections washed away somewhere. Terra thought she might have caught a glimpse of a precision manipulator, but things were moving so quickly she couldn't get a better look.
At that same moment, she came to a stop with a splash of warm water, at which point she realized she had been floating on air. She couldn’t move, though, as nozzles started spraying her from all directions.
“Wait! Wait!”
Breathing in and out was the only movement afforded to her, despite the fear she was about to drown. Water jets rolled her around like a ball bearing, but they didn’t knock the wind out of her. Hair spilled out as her helmet came off but fluttered around her head without tangling or wrapping around her neck. Despite her disorientation, she still registered that she was getting an intense cleaning.
The cleaning came to a sudden stop and Terra felt a thud. She was lying on her back, and it was so still that the earlier frenzy almost felt unreal. Her whole body felt like it was wrapped in warm cloth. She let out a momentary sigh of relief, then realized she couldn’t move her limbs.
“Gaijin-san, ya made it! Were ya surprised?”
Terra looked for the voice and found the middle-aged woman from earlier off to the side, laughing. She only saw the woman’s head; nothing below it was in view. The woman looked like she was inside a human-sized water tank, and Terra realized she was also trapped inside the same type of tank. The next thing she knew, other women were dropping into tanks in the narrow room one after another and then were carried deeper inside the bath on a conveyor one-by-one.
Terra looked around incredulously. “Yes, it surprised me. My clothes practically undressed themselves, and I thought I was going to drown.”
“Ahaha, everyone gets a surprise like that with the prewash suddenly kicking on an’ all. But ya don’t gotta worry ‘bout drownin’ since it avoids your face. Be careful though, it’ll do yer head soon!”
“What? That was the prewashing?!”
“Ya get a deep-clean here. Now, when are those bubbles gonna get ta bubblin’? Hm?”
“Bubbling...? Ah, right.” Terra wanted to flee as the tank that hid her body from view quickly came to a simmer. “It’s like I’m in a pot and about to get stewed.”
“Ya ain’t stewin’, it’s just the body wash! Just relax, it’s like gettin’ a massage. Ah, but your hea—” As the woman spoke, Terra felt her head nearly get swept away by the current of the hair wash, which prevented her from talking more.
Even though she had been warned the face wash was coming, it still caught her by surprise, and she ended up choking on swallowed water. However, the equipment seemed capable of detecting if someone was drowning and paused the wash until Terra’s coughing fit finished—along with the entire industrial-scale cleaning line, much to her surprise. Panting, she somehow caught her breath, but once the tank line started to move again she heard another person shout, “Just get used to it already, gaijin-san!”
Afterwards, she was once again tossed around by a violent rinse, then gently swaddled and dried with sponges. This might actually be a lot nicer than I thou—just as she was getting used to it, she suddenly found herself wrapped in the same kimono as the others and sent out through the porthole. She wasn’t ready, though, and stumbled all the way to the bathhouse’s entrance before the middle-aged woman caught her.
“Whoa there, ya can’t leave yet, ya still gotta pick up yer clothes at the back of the breakroom first.”
“This place is really thorough, isn’t it? But if you ask me, it’s also a little intense...”
“That’s right, everything’s finely crafted here on Fuyō. Just relax, gaijin-san, and let yerself enjoy it!” The woman spoke to her in a friendly tone as she got her first full look at Terra. “Wait a sec, don’t I recognize ya from somewhere? Hmm...”
Hearing that, Terra nervously shrank back. “Ah, thank you so much for your help! Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
She grabbed a towel from a pile and hastily escaped as she covered her head. She retrieved her duct dress from the break room and crouched somewhere hidden from view by the rows of benches.
She sniffed under and around her arm. Well, that’s good enough—Nodding to herself, she smiled painfully as she wondered just what it was she was doing in a place like this.
A flat display mounted on the breakroom wall ran Interclan programming. Among the programs: an Itar cooking show introducing the latest trend in printer cooking, the baby fish oil simmer, a QOT Clan Orchestra string concert, and the issuance of a Mother Beach Ball stellar flare warning. At first glance, information from other clans appeared to flow in freely, but in reality, only inoffensive material was being shown.
Terra was certain, if her memory served, that “gaijin” was a Gendō term used solely for the purpose of highlighting and excluding outsiders. Despite that, the woman she had been talking to really didn’t seem to care. Terra wondered if it was because the Gendō were already so familiar with the rest of the Circs that it was hard for them to distinguish themselves from the outside.
Posted next to the display was an impressively old-looking washi paper diagram that carefully listed the various benefits of bathhouses like this one to the general public. Among the points were the importance of hygiene in the prevention of disease outbreaks and the power savings of increased efficiency. It also stated that since the throughput of the tank-conveyor bath was 2.5 people per hour higher than an old-style bath, it was a high-efficiency power saver that any virtuous Gendō was sure to love. The bathhouses were an idiosyncratic custom, but since they were normal if not virtuous for the Gendō, avoiding them wasn’t trivial. They seemed to be a society that fully at ease with the custom.
—So, do they actually bathe together naked in the old-style ones? As that thought distracted Terra while she hid in a corner and cooled off, someone sat down beside her and quietly spoke to her.
“Terra Intercontinental-san.”
Terra’s breath hitched in response. It was a different woman from the middle-aged woman she had been talking to, but Terra hadn’t shared her name with anyone.
Undaunted, the woman continued. “It is you, isn’t it, Terra-san? There’s no point playing deaf.”
“...Who are you?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
Terra looked beside her, and the dark brown woman looked like she had also just gotten out of the bath. Her coarse, brass-colored hair flowed to the back of her seat. She side-eyed Terra. She didn’t seem to be from the Gendō clan.
“Maybe this will help you recognize me.” She grabbed her hair with both hands and held it out beside her. That look, along with the memory of seeing someone with the same cheery behavior, suddenly clicked for Terra.
“...Ah!” Terra exclaimed, her voice rising. “You’re Pri-san, right?! The Trades–”
“Shh!” Pri, or Prizebag Backyard Build Jack-of-All-Trades, covered Terra’s mouth with her hand and winked. “Yes, that’s me, so keep it down, please. It’s not like I’m a wanted criminal or anything, but still, I’d rather not draw attention.”
“...Why are you here?”
“You see, I’m quite the fan of how modern Gendō baths work,” Pri calmly responded. “It does make me feel like I’m a vegetable in a soup factory, but I appreciate getting cleaned all the way down to my toes. Cheap, too.”
“No, you and I both know that’s not—”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m here because I was following you.”
“Following me...? Why?!”
“You’re asking the right question, but it’s a long story so I’ll save the explanation for later,” Pri replied, then quickly leaned in close to Terra. “I’m here to collect you. Someone’s looking for you, and that someone is my employer.”
“Who?”
“Someone who really needs you.” Pri narrowed her eyes mischievously. “And someone who is very difficult to chat with, shall we say.”
“Why should I go with you?”
“You can meet up with Diode-san if you do.”
“Lead the way.” Terra had a bad premonition but answered with zero hesitation.
They ascended straight to Fuyō’s central section. It was a 2500-meter trip, but since Terra had boarded the high-speed elevator with Pri, it took no more than 30 minutes. It never would have been available for a suspicious outsider clad in a duct dress to use, but when Pri held her minicell up to it, its gate opened without issue.
By the time Terra noticed they had made it all the way back to the spaceport, she was already passing it and being guided further into the central section. They made their way through zero-g passages, dead quiet after bath and dinnertime. After passing through countless doors labeled “Authorized Personnel Only”, they entered a facility where especially large pipes converged from every direction.
It was the entrance to Fuyō’s air purification center.
Things were moving along too quickly. Terra held her minicell close to her face and repeatedly tried calling Professor Eda as they made their way through the bleak, lifeless passages, but no response came, possibly due to bad connection or a security block. She reluctantly gave up and started asking Pri questions as she led the way.
“Pri-san, how are you able to enter a place like this? It goes without saying you’re from the Trades.”
“It’s curious, innit? How strange!”
The woman, supposedly the inhaler for a helium extractor, laughed it off, but Terra felt uneasy. Her characteristic imagination began to run wild, coming up with even the unlikely scenarios.
“Since you’re letting me meet Diode, then I’m assuming you’ve already secured her? Does that mean you’re trying to get us as a pair to demand a ransom from both the Gendō and Endeavour clans?”
“While my clan does stress the importance of money, we’re not pirates.”
“Then, uhhh... Did you get us swept up in a search for some hidden, ancient treasure locked away within the Gendō clan? And you were able to use the elevator because you’ve got a buddy who’s good at hacking? And you’re planning to team up with Die-san and me to crack the safe? Is that it...?”
“You’re an interesting one, Terra-san. I’m not up to anything like that.” Pri burst into laughter. Opening the door to a room, she said, “Okay, we’re here.”
It was a totally ordinary room about ten paces on a side. It was what one would expect to exist in a purification center. A tangled mess of pipes ran along the walls, splitting away into countless valves, faucets, and tanks of various sizes. A touch-fasten desk for zero-g environments was covered in traditional test tubes, blenders, extractors, extraction containers, reagents, and so on. In other words, the desk was piled with gas analysis tools and equipment.
In front of it stood a small figure that wore a freshly-printed aquatone full-body suit and a face shield, holding eight tubes—one between each finger—and comparing them with a scarily serious expression. The sight reminded Terra of a character that she had seen pop up in old Content: the so-called mad scientist.
What’s up with that person? A bit stumped, she watched without a single word.
The person suddenly looked up at Terra, and surprised, shouted “Whoa! Who’s this lumbering galoot?”
Terra felt a little offended. Her stature surprising others was nothing new, but something like ‘lumbering galoot’ didn’t happen often. No matter how you slice it—she stopped that thought as she had a sudden realization. I forgot I was wearing this overblown disguise.
From the voice and mannerisms, Terra could tell that this other person was probably a man. She looked at Pri standing beside her, but all she did was extend her hand to encourage her with no explanation as usual. If she accepted everything at face value, this guy was just an analytical scientist working at the purification center, but in that case she had no idea what business she might have with him. At any rate, she had no choice but to reveal her face.
Terra opened her duct dress’ visor, then removed her helmet. Her messy blonde hair spilled out, so she brushed it behind her and spoke. “My name is Terra Intercontinental Endeavour. I came because I heard that Diode-san... er, Kanna-san was here.”
“Hah.” The man sighed in admiration at the sight. He gave Terra a careful look and then spoke with absolutely no sign of restraint. “You’ve got a good face, but it’s completely wasted on the rest of your appearance.”
The continuous disrespect finally got under Terra’s skin, so she replied, “Do you go around summoning others just to say things like that?! Well, that might be okay for you—but seriously, why do you have eight test tubes?”
“Oh, funny you should ask.” Impressed, he blinked and looked at all the test tubes he held between the fingers in each of his hands. “There has been a miniscule increase in ozone levels from multiple locations within Fuyō, so I am comparing samples to identify the source, but that is something I can work on later. I’ll deal with you first, Intercontinental. Hrm...”
In one smooth motion, the man returned the eight test tubes to their rack, then approached her by holding the rails leading to the desk. He removed his visor, which was at about chest level on Terra, and looked up at her.
His dark blue eyes had a sharp twinkle to them, and for a moment they almost seemed like a young boy’s—but the wrinkles around his eyes and graying hair showed his real age. Terra could easily tell he was older than her, and guessed he was in his forties.
“So this is the Endeavour’s 58K decomper... You really did come.”
“And you are...?”
“Who I am doesn’t matter right now, what matters is the fact that you’re here. You shouldn’t have come to Fuyō, Intercontinental.”
“What?” Terra asked, taken aback. “What does that mean?”
“Or should I say, I wonder if there’s a way to make you vanish from here?” The man grabbed a different test tube with a yellow toxic substance label attached. “It would be much simpler if you just vanished.”
“What?!” Feeling danger, Terra protected herself and looked at Pri. “What is he doing? Is he a murderer? Was this all a set-up?”
“No, no, it’s nothing. He’s just like that.” Pri also seemed baffled. She turned to the man and spoke.
“Chief, you make it sound like you want Terra to sock it to you. You sure about that?”
“What? Is she a person who puts socks on others?”
“That was just a figure of speech. She wouldn’t do that... probably... Anyway, what I mean is, are you trying to make an enemy of Terra-san?”
“I was doing nothing of the sort. Merely thinking of a plan,” he replied indifferently, placing the toxic substance back on the desk. “All I want is this woman called Terra Intercontinental to answer my questions. So, what are you doing taking a girl belonging to my family around with you?”
“Family?” Several words came together in Terra’s mind. Chief wasn’t used much casually these days, although long ago it was an idiom referring to a fleet captain. So, if he was saying Diode, who belonged to the Gendō, was family, that meant... “Are you the Clan Chief?!”
“I’m the one asking questions here, Intercontinental,” he replied in annoyance. “Why did you try to take Kanna away? She’s a Gendō, and she belongs here.”
“I didn’t take anyone away or anything else of the sort!”
If he really was the Clan Chief, then Pri’s earlier insinuations made total sense. Maybe he was here because he wanted an off-the-record meeting, but in that case, it also meant Terra had no reason to respect his position. If anything, it allowed her to speak her mind.
“Wasn’t it the Gendō who took her away?! Weren’t you the ones to kidnap her?! You tied her up and dragged her back here despite her leaving on her own volition to pilot a boat like she wanted to. You aren’t even calling Die-san by her name. Die. San. She wants to be called Diode, so call her that! Even if it is a weird name!”
“You still haven’t answered my question! You’re giving the same excuses a wicked mindcracker or ancient cult leader would,” the man calmly responded. “You lure your victims in with pretty words and convince them that your desires are their desires, so they ignore everything their family and people from their hometown say. What makes you any different?”
“I’m a fisher! A decomper!” Terra looked down and made sure she was firmly hooked on the footbar before resuming the argument. “What’s so strange about a decomper coming to rescue her twister?!”
“I’ve never heard of anything as outrageous as a decomper doing everything in her power to get a young girl aboard a boat with her!” His reply matched Terra’s level of anger. “A person from the Gendō clan doing something like that is unheard of! Are there any other Endeavour like that? I dare you to answer that there are! Just what sort of fishing are they doing over there?!”
“Um... No, there’s nobody else at the Endeavour clan like that.” The conversation had entered difficult territory, and Terra struggled for an answer. “I want to fly with Die-san’s piloting and Die-san told me herself she wants me to make her nets. Is it really that beyond the pale...?”
“Are you that set on stressing that point? So what you’re saying is, it’s for the sake of your fishing results. Hm, that’s a practical–” He stopped to think for a moment, and in a slightly calmer tone, continued, “Let me ask you a different question, then. What are you planning to do out in the GI?”
“G–” A chill ran down her spine. “GI... w-what are you talking about?”
“What are you and Kanna planning to do, running off to the Galactive Interactive. That’s what I want to know.” He glared as he spoke the full name. “That’s a reckless plan. You don’t know what will happen to you if you go to the GI with no plan. Anyone would tell you that. Have you thought about that yourself? Have you?!”
“How do you know about that?!”
“This again? I loathe people who won’t give a straight answer to my questions!”
“Well, you’re doing the same thing, aren’t you?!” Terra frantically shouted. “Please answer me, where is Die-san? Let me talk about this together with her!”
“Heeeey, excuse me you two, but may I ask something?” Pri cut in with a sour face as their argument was crossing a boiling point. “Since this is a private matter, I’ve avoided butting in as much as possible, but this conversation has gotten weird... So wait, Terra-san, you want to go to the GI? And you want to take Diode with you?”
“...”
“You really do, huh? You’re thinking of doing something crazy difficult, which reminds me, how you got all the way over to Fuyō is also still a mystery. So, I’m safe in assuming you’ve got some sort of trump card, yeah?”
“...” Terra remained silent, but her face was dripping with cold sweat. She was the kind of person who was better off not lying her way out.
The corner of Pri’s mouth slightly curled upwards. “Looks like you do—so, Chief,” she said, turning to look at the man. “That’s what’s worrying you, yes?”
“Of course. Someone here is trying to force Kanna to go to some far away place she doesn’t know a thing about, and that person’s motives are incomprehensible. So, I thought maybe she had some sort of plan I didn’t know about, and I’d be able to understand it if she explained.”
“Of course, of course. Well, um...”
“What is it, Backyard Build?”
“Please, just call me Pri. Never mind, what I mean is, do you reeeaaaally not understand the relationship between Terra-san and Diode-san?”
“You mean there’s a relationship beyond just fraud?”
Pri made another face like she had just swallowed something unpleasant. Then she turned apologetically to Terra. “I’m sorry. I kept quiet because I wanted to see the surprised look on his face, but I didn’t expect him to be this clueless. Well, this doesn’t make any sense to you either, huh?”
“Nope. I don’t understand a thing at all...”
“Then, let me clear one thing up. This guy’s not the Clan Chief.”
“Huh?”
“He’s Ozuno Ishidōrō Gendō-san.”
“Huh?” Terra blinked four times and took another good look at him. The man made a face as if to say, “So what if I am?” Terra took a firm hold of both his shoulders and looked even more closely. For the first time, the man’s face visibly lost its composure.
“What? Hey, too close!”
“...That reaction!” Terra’s sensor, which had lately gotten finely tuned, detected a familiar pattern. “Are you Die-san’s father?!”
“I already called her family, didn’t I?”
“I mean, that’s an expression a Clan Chief would use–” The situation caught up to her mid-speech, and still grasping his shoulders, lowered her head dejectedly. “...I get it now. It wasn’t family in the formal sense, but literally family. So, you’re actually her parent.”
“Yes, it is in the genetic sense.”
“I’m sorry, this was all a big misunderstanding. Since that’s what you meant, then you’re just worried about Die-san as a daughter, so now I understand the things you were asking. I’m sorry.”
Terra reflecting and apologizing to the man—Ozuno Ishidōrō Gendō—caused him to raise his eyebrows in surprise.
“If you understand, good, but it would be even better if you answered... No.” Ozuno abruptly looked away and began mumbling something. “I’m not a good enough father to have the right to scold others like that.”
“...What?”
“When it comes to Kanna, I’m not really...” He looked at Terra for a moment. “Haven’t you heard anything about this from her?”
“Ah, a little, yes.” Terra recalled their conversation on the harvesting ship. “Uhh, she told me that she was thrown out before she could understand what was happening, but that she doesn’t feel like anything’s missing.”
“S-she doesn’t miss me?”
Ozuno was visibly shaken, so Terra clarified. “She doesn’t hold a grudge or anything like that. She said she thinks of it as a normal father-child relationship.”
“Ah, is that so?” Ozuno sighed and his chest relaxed. He now seemed a lot more human. “That’s fine, then... Or, I’m glad, I should say. I haven’t been able to do a thing for her.”
“Is that why you’ve gotten so worried about this situation?”
“It’s not that, really... no, maybe it is? It might be.” He started to mumble as he thought to himself. “Maybe I was feeling like a guilty parent when she came asking for my help, and it being such a critical moment has gotten me all wound up? So, I’m doing this to make it up to her, meaning I’m still not selfless enough.”
“Die-san came asking for help?” Terra wasn’t very interested in listening to a parent reflect on himself, but that point got her attention. “How did she contact you? What did she say?”
“By scent.”
“Scent?”
“Yes, scent. As you can see, I’m the director of this center, and I monitor the air composition for the entirety of Fuyō, down to the last nanogram. Noxious substances are the main target of monitoring, but it can detect any substance if the compositional data is available beforehand. That’s how I found Kanna’s distinctive scent.”
“Ahh, yeah! That herbal smell—” Terra suddenly made a weird face. “Sir, do you regularly look for her scent?”
“It’s not like I was looking on purpose. That terpene scent was something Iwana originally used herself long ago, and that’s all there is to it. I did get its data while it was still lingering in my room, but starting about two years ago, it started getting detected within this ship again. Looking into its source revealed it was coming from inside the ducts at the girls’ school.”
“Ducts?”
“That girl really seems to like that sort of place.”
“...Ahaha, she does tend to slip into cramped spaces, doesn’t she?”
“She does. So, after she disappeared again, the smell did too for a while. But yesterday, it was detected in the ducts again.”
Diode lurked in the ducts. For some reason, that made sense to Terra. Ozuno made a face like they had a mutual understanding, and they nodded at each other. However, aware that was as far as their agreement went, she refocused.
“So, um, anyway, I came here to run away with Die-san!” She gave Ozuno a sharp look as she spoke firmly, then immediately noticed she had said too much.
His reply, which Terra expected, drew attention to a point she really hadn’t wanted anyone to notice. “Die-san this, Die-san that. You keep asking for her like you’re her girlfriend.”
“Girl–” Terra froze for a moment, her need to deny it and her desire to affirm it in conflict. It’s not like that—it clearly wouldn’t work if she said that. That’s impossible—the only option seemed to be saying something that extreme. Why make things this complicated—Terra remembered what her coworker said before, and knew it was representative of how Circ society thought.
So, Terra said it. “A girlfriend...? Something like that is... impossible.” She forcibly shut out her own feelings, despite how painful it was to say. She didn’t expect the response that followed.
“It’s not impossible. At the very least, Kanna has dated a girl before.”
“W-what?”
“As a parent, I can hardly say I approve, but I can’t deny it happened, either. It seems it was a classmate she got together with, but Kanna leaving here was apparently her moving on after she ended that relationship–”
“W-wait, could you slow down for a second, Ozuno-san?” Terra gestured at him with both hands, and he stopped. The fear of being found out she had been feeling moments earlier completely flipped. “Are you seriously telling me that?! And so casually?!”
“What? You won’t understand what I mean unless I explain.”
“It isn’t good to tell others that Die-san dated a girl without her knowledge, wouldn’t you agree?! You’re also exposing her classmate!”
“Hmm? You’re probably right. Well, I’m sorry, could you forget that?”
“You can’t really fix that by apologizing... but I already knew about it, so I guess it’s fine...”
“What? So, you already knew about it anyway?” Ozuno responded in disappointment. “So you did come chasing after Kanna because you like her? If that’s the case, you should have just said so from the start. We traded too many pointless words.”
“We wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble if I’d been able to...” Terra let out an exhausted sigh. “Then, Ozuno-san, would you at least... approve... of our relationship?”
“I repeat myself, but I can hardly approve of it. I’d much rather my daughter to have kids of her own.”
We should be the ones to get the final say on that—Terra thought, but bit her tongue for the moment. It wasn’t possible to resolve everything in one go.
“But you’ll allow it over your disagreement, then? Thank you. Now—” She quickly bowed and turned to her side to deal with another matter. “Sorry, Pri-san, could you excuse yourself for a moment if possible? I’d be very thankful if you did...”
The inhaler, who had been watching with great interest from near the wall, smiled ruefully at being roped in. “Nope, I already heard everything. Besides, I know the gist of what you two were just talking about.”
“Really?”
“Well, between the mood you two had going back on the Insolvent and how broken up you were at Johore...” Pri blushed slightly and turned her head. “I could tell what was going on. Got me a little bothered, honestly.”
“Oh, right... Sorry,” Terra instinctively apologized.
Pri shrugged and looked at her again. “Anyway, let’s save that conversation for later. More importantly, I want you to tell me a bit more about this going to the GI thing.”
“You want to know more about that? Umm...”
"Not to alarm you, but talking about the GI anywhere else is going to get you in trouble. Not with me, though." Pri's wording got her intentions across.
Terra yielded and agreed to talk, “Got it, but please don’t tell anyone else about it.”
“I also want to know. Let me in too!” Ozuno chimed in, and Terra ended up speaking with both of them. She told them she had already discussed wanting to leave the isolation of FBB and continuing to fish out in the GI with Diode.
“I think we’ll start by arriving in the Zugspitze star system. I wanted to look into what we’d do afterwards in more detail, but I didn’t have the time to do that properly back at Idaho, so I’m going to have to do that before I leave here...”
“And the transport? What are you going to use for your spaceship?” Pri bent forward to get to the point.
“I’ll only say more when I see Diode,” Terra replied.
“Seems that’s how it’s gonna be, Chief.”
“Indeed. We can’t go on too much longer before the Bureau of Protocol finds her.” As Pri changed gears, Ozuno floated to a corner of the room and put his hand on a switchboard. “Now is probably as good a time as any. Intercontinental—sorry, Terra-san, you will promise to talk to me about this later, yes?”
“I promise! Are you going to take me to her?”
“No, we don’t have to go anywhere. She’s already here,” Ozuno said, removing the panel. It wasn’t a switchboard, but a cover for a section of ductwork that a silver-haired girl wearing a kimono came tumbling out of.
“Die-san?!”
“It’s been a while, Terra-sa—okay, wait, wait! Stop!” Terra reached out to hug Diode the moment she set eyes on her, but Diode calmly resisted her with both arms.
Terra, tearing up, complained, “Why? I can’t control myself anymore!”
“Did you forget there are two people who don’t need to be here?!”
“It’s fine even if they are here! I mean, it’s already been like, twenty days! Are you saying you were fine?”
“Fine... no, I wasn’t. I was worried.” Diode was slowly being constricted, so she kept pushing against Terra’s arms while she spoke. “I was worried that things could get bad after you arrived on Fuyō, that you’d get caught, and that your fight with my pig-headed father would escalate. I was extremely worried watching from inside there.”
“So, what you’re saying is that you were also controlling yourself?”
“No—I mean—”
“You were, weren’t you?”
Terra pulled closer. Diode looked down, nodded, and responded, “...Yes.” Her arms stopped resisting and Terra held up her small, dainty body.
“Die-san...!” Terra rubbed their cheeks together. “I wanted to see you!”
“—”
If Diode said anything, Terra couldn’t hear. But she did feel that Diode had stopped resisting a little. Overwhelmed with happiness, she hugged Diode again, then—
“Excuse me, but the Bureau of Protocol is already on the hunt for you,” Pri said, as she approached them and looked at her minicell.
“Does it–”
“Does it really have to be now?!” Terra’s words were completely drowned out by Diode’s shout.
“Well, when else would they come?” the woman who supposedly worked as a Trade crew member asked with terrific bluntness. “This ‘Bureau of Protocol’ seems to work in a similar way to the Safety Insurance Department back at my clan. I guess it’s also similar to the Endeavour Council of Elders’ intelligence service? Anyway, they’re coming for Diode scary fast. Chief Ozuno, did you properly cover Die-san’s trail when you helped her escape?”
“Hm? I didn’t do anything of the sort,” Ozuno replied in as blunt terms as Pri. “All I did was send Kanna an electric key for the Gendō domestic use elevator. Beyond that, she got up here by herself.”
“What?! You can’t be serious...” Pri’s voice rose in surprise as her eyes looked towards Diode. “Then, I don’t need to say another word, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Diode reluctantly climbed out of Terra’s arms. “I did at least try using a route Meika shouldn’t know about, but since this was the only place I’d go, it’s only a matter of time before we get cornered.”
“What, you came here without a plan, Kanna?”
“I’m fairly certain I said I’d be in a hurry, you ignorant, uncultured fossil of a father!” Diode shouted as she faced Ozuno. She pointed at Terra and continued, “I said she was going to sneak into Fuyō somewhere soon, and if she was found it was going to be way worse than if I was found!”
“Oh, so that’s what you meant.”
“That is what I meant! So... bringing her here before she could get caught was also good.” She looked away.
Diode being that direct was unthinkable to Terra. She knew meekness wasn’t really in Diode’s nature, but she couldn’t tell at which point it crossed from her simply being rebellious to being something else. She could also sense this wasn’t the time to worry about figuring that out.
“Pri-san, so this means we should run?”
“Uhh, I wonder. If you hid inside Chief’s trash heap, I don’t think they’d find you, but leaving is going to get difficult, fast. Would you rather make your escape now, Terra-san? That is, if you’ve got a way to do so.”
“Yes–” She noticed Pri was grinning, which gave her pause, but without any more time to hesitate, she went all in. “We’re escaping. I have a way!”
“The trump card, right? Where is it?”
“At port. Die-san, let’s hurry there!”
“Wait,” Ozuno said, fishing for something in his desk drawer. “Terra-san, are you heading straight to the GI once you get out of here?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“How? No, never mind that, now’s not the time to ask. Anyway, I suggest you take this,” he said, handing Terra a golden cube the size of a pinky nail. It was something she was very familiar with as a video distribution officer. Stone state storage.
“What’s on it?”
“It has information about the GI.”
“Huh? Why do you have something like this?” Terra asked in surprise.
Ozuno looked up, his face grave. “You want to know how I obtained the information? Or my reason for giving it to you?”
“I... I think either way...”
“Either way, we don’t have the time for that. If I had to explain quickly, it’s because I’m a researcher. At one point, I looked into Circ history and our relationship with the GI.”
“Ahh, so you’re not handing us something you looked up for our sake, are you?”
“Obviously not. It’s just a mix of documents, but it’s better than nothing.”
“It’s absolutely better than nothing! Thank you so much!”
“And my reason is—” Ozuno turned to look at Diode, who was snuggled up to Terra. “Kanna.”
“What it is, you bickering, pain-in-the-ass father?”
“Thank you for relying on me.”
“Guh.” Diode frowned deeply and looked away. “Terra-san, let’s get out of here already...”
“What? Ah, I get it, you’re—”
“You don’t have to read anything into it!”
“This way!” Pri invited them to a passage. Diode lunged towards it with a face like the room had just been flooded with poison gas, and Terra turned to bow.
The man who gave the impression of being a young boy raised two fingers.
The three left the purification center, moving forward using zero gravity handrails as stepping stones. Since it was well into the resting period for the night, the passage leading to the spaceport was even quieter than when they entered. They passed the occasional uncrewed cargo train, trash and liquid vacuum robots, and other machines. There was no sign of pursuers, so Terra relaxed a little and started to talk.
“Your father’s nice.”
“Don’t you mean lethally hopeless?”
“Yeah, I thought that for a moment too, but didn’t he help us out in the end? Wouldn’t you say that was him showing who he really is, deep down?”
“And once what’s deep down reveals itself, it gets unbearable within two days.”
“Oh, so there was a period you lived with him, huh?”
“Let’s drop this topic,” Diode said, waving a hand in irritation. She pointed at a pocket on Terra’s overalls. “Right now, there are three things we need to worry about, like whether we can use the information contained on the stone storage or if we can safely escape from here.”
“Right.”
“And finally, just who are you? Prizebag Backyard Build JT.” Diode frowned at Pri, tagged along wearing an expression like she was part of a trio. “What is an outsider like you doing associating with my annoying, ignorant hermit of a father?”
“Oops, you can’t ask that, Terra-san already promised me.”
“I’m not the one who made the promise.”
“How about you tell me a little more about yourselves, then.”
“Mgh.” Diode sealed her lips.
Pri gave her a cheerful smile. “We Trades value the exchange of information. We don't get wealthy by keeping quiet, we get wealthy by building networks, so–”
“...Then, I’ll talk a little, if you tell me a little about yourself in exchange.”
“Die-san?!” Terra exclaimed, surprised by Diode’s proposal. “You want her to talk? It bothers you that much?
“Despite how he is, even my father should be able to pick up on the tension between the clans. And yet, here he is bringing an outsider into Fuyō to do work. It’s strange. That’s seriously difficult to do for the Gendō, so he must have an important reason for it.”
“Really...?” Terra and Diode turned to look at the woman beside them. They exited the winding passages, passed by a bunch of jumbo bags latched to the wall near the huge, wide-open gate to the port area.
“You’re quite perceptive, Die-san.” Diode felt like she could feel Pri staring through her smiling eyes. “I’m impressed with the caution you took when you fled the Typhoon Palace, and also how you suddenly broke down in tears on the harvester ship. You’re a tough nut to crack, I like that.”
“Flattery will get you nowhe–”
Just then, it suddenly got bright. They were trapped by brilliant light coming from every which way.
“Guh!”
Terra and Diode reflexively shielded their faces, but Pri did something different. She drew a handy thruster from her hip and abruptly flew backwards at full force, making an amazing escape through a gap between the jumbo bags.
“Follow that one, Chūya!” A voice came from the light, and a young man in black shot past them like an arrow. Terra couldn’t tell who he was, but she had a feeling she didn’t need an introduction to the woman who stepped out of the spotlight’s shadow like a stage actress.
“You two stay right here. Kanna-san and the Insomnia’s owner, Terra of the Endeavour, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Meika Shikiriyōni Keiwaku.”
The light swiveled out of their faces, and Terra finally saw the speaker. It was a girl who looked to be the same age as Diode, wearing a matching kimono to hers. Her midnight blue hair had a flashy style, done up with an electric pink ribbon. She was taller than Diode, and while she gracefully clasped her hands in front of her, she stuck her chest out confidently. The adults surrounding her wore dark clothes and appeared to be servants, not guards. It was also possible they were members of the Bureau of Protocol.
Terra tried to reply. “You have the wrong person. My name’s Prizebag.”
“That is the name listed on your ship registration records, but perhaps you have taken that name from someone else, hm? I do believe any further lying would not be to your benefit, so please, go on.”
Meika extended an elegant hand and smiled. It was pointless to keep playing ignorant, so Terra reintroduced herself.
“I am Terra Intercontinental Endeavour. It is my pleasure to meet you, Meika-san.”
“Welcome, Terra-san. And what brings you to Fuyō? Business? Pleasure?”
“The reason’s exactly what it looks like.”
“It may be as you say, but I confess I’m having a little trouble understanding. Could it be you’re retrieving Kanna-san for me after she misplaced herself?”
“No, it isn’t. Besides, Kanna-san—and by that, I mean Die-san—is my partner now.”
“Ah yes, you’re the unusual pair of women who work together as twister and decomper, hm? So, what you mean to say is that you are work colleagues, correct?”
“Well, of course.”
“I envy you. Despite living together for over a year while training to become decompers at the girls’ school, I never once had the opportunity to fish with her in the same boat.”
The more Terra heard Meika talk, the less she could stand it. The way she was flaunting their closeness with Diode got under her skin. Without thinking, she said, “Was it because you couldn’t make nets that were any good?”
That was the best response Terra could give. She was more than certain that a girl who had gone to school to become a proper decomper was much better with nets than herself, whose history of failed marriage trials screamed ‘bad at nets’. And yet, Meika’s face stiffened.
“Good nets—I make those, of course I do. It’s one of my strongest subjects, and I even ranked third in my year. Kanna-san is certain to be aware of that herse–” She made eye contact with Diode as she spoke quickly, only to see her coldly turn her face away.
“Anyway, Terra-san, your doubts are unfounded.” Terra gave Meika a blank look. Meika gently cleared her throat and continued. “Enough about me for the moment. More importantly, aren’t you curious to learn what will happen to you from now on, Terra-san?”
The change in Meika’s attitude left Terra feeling uneasy, and she couldn’t think of a quick reply. Diode spoke up instead.
“Knock it off. You’re the one making the capture, Meika, so what happens is whatever you’re in the mood for. Could you stop talking like you’re above it all?”
“I am not trying to act above it all; I’m only ensuring that Terra-san is aware of the delicate position she is in.” For some reason, she sounded pleased as she turned back to Terra. “Are you, Terra-san? You’re suspected of jumping ship, falsifying your boat’s nationality, trespassing, and abducting a minor. Every one of these charges are all but confirmed. However, my father Nurude has taken an interest in you, and would like to extend an invitation to you to come aboard as a decomper. At any rate, you can’t go around doing whatever you like anymore, okay?”
Terra wanted to ask if a Clan Chief really had the right to invite a suspected criminal aboard like that, but remained silent. She was already thinking of how they could leave.
Meika continued. “One more thing, that ship of yours... the Insomnia has already been seized by the port guards, so you are no longer free to depart. The ship is quite interesting. At first glance, it appears to be a mere fishbone-type cargo ship, but the security is unusually strong. Not even the Guards’ Minister of Justice key can open its airlock. It also appears to be carrying the control pits of a pillar boat. What is really going on?”
“Well... um...” Terra spoke evasively, like she had been cornered, but she was counting her blessings. They had found the control pits she brought with her, and she was certain the strong security was Eda blocking entry to the ship. This might just work—if she could feign innocence, she might be able to trick Meika.
Without any apparent ill will, she smiled and replied, “It was done with decomping... Oh, was it hard for you to understand?”
“What?”
“The reason it won’t open is because I locked it up through decomping. It’s a general-purpose safety measure. Any decomper could get in.”
“...I have never heard of such a thing.”
“Ah, perhaps they don’t teach that in the Gendō school. Still, just a glance could tell you the fishbone parts were made by decomping, you know?” The last part was true, but the locking mechanism was a lie. Terra hoped Meika wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.
Meika quickly got daggers in her eyes. “That another clan would not teach the criminal falsification of a boat’s appearance is completely normal. But I suppose the Endeavour are taught to view criminality as something wondrous.”
That worked better than expected, surprisingly!—Terra seized onto the worsening mood and pressed the advantage.
“The Endeavour didn’t teach me about the disguise, I came up with that myself. My strange methods aren’t really all that great, you know, but Die-san has praised them. Why not look at the ship yourself? Since you ranked third, Meika-san, I believe you’d have no trouble understanding.”
Hopefully, that should make Meika totally lose it.
“Have a look at–” Meika cut herself off and shut her mouth. She looked at Terra and Diode, then at the servants quietly watching over the situation, and nodded decisively. “Aha, I see.”
“Pardon?”
“Could it be you were attempting to scheme your way aboard the Insomnia just now?”
“...No.”
“Tell me, did your plan involve wounding a young girl’s pride as a decomper to anger her into taking you to your impounded ship, and somehow locking her in while you fled with the control pits?”
“No, I would never think of doing such a thing! Absolutely not!”
“You are very good at decomping, are you not? Your 58K title is something I am aware of, Terra-san. If you truly are that skilled, then you have the capacity rebuild a pillar boat using the Gendo clay reserves before fleeing, no? I am even sure that you believed that idea would work!”
“No, really I—seriously, I really didn’t think of–”
Terra waved her hands around, confused. Diode, of all people, spoke up.
“Was that really your plan? Sorry, but I think you overestimated how much of the idiot treatment Meika could take.”
Meika was pleased to hear that, and she spoke with a smile. “Terra-san, I am a little—just a little—angry.”
“Sorry...”
“It was already decided that you would be taken to see my father, but before that, I have a little job for you. You love fishing, do you not?”
“Ye—what?” Terra was already nodding along before the surprise caught up.
Meika used both hands to make the outline of a besshu with her fingers. “How about we go nishikigoi fishing.”
“Why?!”
“Well, I was thinking that maybe you’d want to see whether or not I, the third best of my year, could make a good net.”
“I’ve never fished for nishikigoi, though!”
“I think it would be nice if you showed me these strange methods of yours that aren’t really all that great, as Kanna-san has put it.”
“But you aren’t even married?”
“That’s my concern, so please don’t worry yourself with it.”
“But–” Terra fumbled for a response, but Meika’s expression turned serious again.
She continued, “Please allow me to say something if you are not feeling up to it. My father Nurude sets men up with women from other clans who work as decompers so they might have children, of course. There are three women here, but if my father decides he only wants two of us, who do you think he’ll find the most suitable?”
The moment Diode heard that, she cut in, “Terra-san, that’s not something you need to worry about!”
Terra looked at Meika, then at Diode, then back to Meika. “Understood. We’ll go along with your fishing.”
“I’m happy to hear that. I really am.” Meika was beaming, and Terra felt like she had come to understand her a little better.