Captain Vinanna searches her face, though Luluci doesn't know what for. "What would you suggest?" Luluci rocks back on her heels, keeping a tight grip on her pennant. She hadn't expected to be heard; perks of the new position, she supposes. "A selective wipe for the daughter," she says, and ignores the sharp whimper behind her, the way Tetia starts sobbing again. "Erase her mother."

“Tetia, please don’t talk yourself into doing something you don’t want to," Qifrey says, an intensity she doesn't see often settling into his expression. "I support you, of course, I know you only want to make people happy, but I cannot condone it if the price is your own happiness.” She shakes her head — she doesn’t want to cry any more today, but she can feel the ache in the back of her throat again — and she says, “I think something’s wrong with me.”

"Yuki," Kōhei calls from the hospital bed and she jolts out of her thoughts, still just standing in the doorway. "Ya look like ya've seen a ghost." Not quite, she thinks. Close, though.

Mer Sulatha makes another thoughtful face, and asks, “Which way did your horse run?” Immediately, she thinks he must have taken a funny turn, or perhaps become hopped up on adrenaline or pride, to think that could ever be a sensible course of action. Still, she points down the road, opposite from where he came from, and says, “That way, though we doubt you’ll find him. T’was a good two hours hence at least, and the storm probably scared him even more.” Dailan peers at him as he squints into the darkness she's pointing at. “Knowest not to approach a startled horse, yes? You’ll get your head bashed in, and we don’t have clerical know-how with which to patch you up.”

“We confess shock. Maz is a gift, Mer Sulatha." His ears flick a little. "We earn enough for room and board, and nought much else, Merrem. An we could afford a maz tutor, we could also afford a permit to cross into Barizhan and passage to Pelanra. Even Solunee, given how expensive maz tutors are purported to be."

The first time Maia Drazhar shows any aptitude at maz, he is five years old. His mother, the only witness to this rare and sudden feat, whispers something in Barizhin under her breath and due to her inattention, drops her teacup off its saucer. She never tells anyone of his ability; she has no reason to believe it would change anything. (It changes everything.)

“Possessed?” Hikaru says. “I’m not possessed!” He looks between their flat expressions and realises they definitely know something’s up, and there’s no way he’s going to get out of this without fessing up. “Okay, so I might be a little possessed,” he admits. “A little?” Yoshiki repeats. Asako looks grimly satisfied.

The boy is too small. Even taking into account his elvish blood, an eight year old should stand taller and have more meat on his bones than Maia does. Likely he's not been fed as well as he ought to have been; likely he's been too grieved to eat, lately. Thever certainly knows the feeling.

It’s an undeniably good strategy. Yoshiki should be glad that Shame’s working for Public Safety, instead of prowling the streets finding human victims for itself, since the powers it just used to weaken a Devil would absolutely kill a regular person. All he can really think, though, is that Hikaru’s body was apparently prime real estate for the Shame Devil to seek shelter in, and he hadn’t been there to stop it.

Hikaru words his wish differently, and leaves the mountain alive and wholly himself as a result. He leaves with a tag-along, though.

"If somethin’ happens to me, you’ll look out for Yuki an’ Hik, won’t ya?” Toshi stares at him for a long, long moment. His dark eyes are narrow and searching, mouth downturned. “Nothin’ is gonna happen to ya, though, right?” Kōhei plasters on a smile he can’t muster naturally, and says, “’Course not. Everythin’s fine.”

“I just got it. Why I’m still here an’ like this, an’ feel the way I do about ya, even though I broke my promise an' went away.” “Promise?” Yoshiki repeats, lost. He nods, hand dropping, “Hikaru’s wish.” The red in his pupil flickers a little bit. “He asked me to stay by ya, an’ I didn’t, an’ I always thought that shoulda broken somethin’, changed me back or whatever, but it never did. I get why now.”

“Yesterday you said that name didn’t sound familiar to you.” “Well, I lied. The things this company deals with are very high security, Tsujinaka-kun, so I couldn’t just tell some random civilian over the phone that Indō Hikaru is one of our most valuable field operatives, now could I? That’s why I asked you to come in for an official meeting. The fact that you yourself were involved in this case also gives you a bit of leeway.” “Field operative,” he repeats, the words sour in his mouth. “So Hikaru is alive.”

'Hikaru' leaves without saying goodbye. They report him as a runaway. Yoshiki spends the rest of summer in bed.

“I thought ya might be angry at me forever.” “I don’t hold grudges that long,” he says, rolling his eyes.