An Eventful Move

James Cain set down the last box with a huff. “I think that’s everything!”

Christopher Cain, a tall, good-looking, and broad-shouldered young man (which wasn’t just James’s bias as a parent talking he was sure), set down a bag on his bed. “Yeah, I think it is.”

James smiled at his son. It was hard to believe his moody little man was leaving the nest to attend school. It was a few years earlier than he’d expected and the circumstances were more dire than he’d hoped, but it was still a happy occasion. If only Hitomi was here to see this….

“You good dad?”

“Of course, why do you ask?”

“You’re tearing up.”

James wiped his eye with his thumb; it came away wet. “So I am….” Christopher’s little black dragon formed into a handkerchief and set herself on James’s hand.

“Thank you, sweetie.” James smiled at the dragon whom Christopher never named. He’d tried to help Christopher name the little dear, but he’d refused all suggestions.

James dabbed his eyes with the black handkerchief. “I’m sorry son, I’m just a little emotional.” He smiled at his young man. “If only your mother could see you.”

Christopher averted his eyes, as he often did when his mother was brought up. James sighed. He let go of the handkerchief; it turned back into a dragon which fluttered to Christopher’s shoulder. The construct stroked Christopher's hair lightly. It reminded James of how Hitomi comforted their son when he first had the flu. She had no idea what to do while her baby was sick. She spent every waking moment standing over the boy’s bed, hovering, being a nuisance. The idiot caught the flu herself and James was left to take care of two massive babies for a fortnight. She even had the gall to demand he stay in the guest room so she could recover together with Christopher in the master bedroom.

He missed her.

James missed Christopher too. He didn’t miss Christopher just because he was moving out; he missed the little boy Christopher was before Hitomi died.

Christopher continued to avoid his father’s gaze, trying not to give away what he was feeling. It hurt James to see him like this. Chris had never been the most expressive person, but he never used to be embarrassed of his feelings. He’d gotten that confidence from his mother. He’d lost it the day she died. A lot of behaviors and tics he’d picked up from his mother, Christopher abruptly abandoned in the wake of her death.

James wasn’t a psychiatrist, but it didn’t take one to guess that Christopher tried to mitigate the damage her death caused by dropping the behaviors that reminded him of her. He never made puns like she did anymore. He wasn’t obsessed with one-liners like he used to be. He’d even replaced Sun Man as his favorite hero, probably unable to cope with the reminder of his mom.

Christopher had lost a lot of his mother in the years since her death. Yet… not everything. Some things he couldn’t get rid of. Things so ingrained in him he probably didn’t realize he’d gotten them from Hitomi. His courage. His sense of justice. His selflessness. The things that made a hero a hero, all came from his mother. Even his brilliant little boy, trying to forget his mom, couldn’t erase everything.

The best things about Christopher were all from his mother and they were still there.

… Besides it’s not like every behavior Christopher had dropped was an irreplaceable treasure. James was glad he’d stopped with the one-liners. He was awful at them. Not as bad as Hitomi’d been, but NO ONE was THAT bad.

“She’d be proud of you.” James finally finished his thought.

“Thanks…” Christopher finally looked at his father. His expression was warm, but drawn, like he wanted to say something more, but that damn shame that hung over him like a cloud held him back. James smiled reassuringly.

“It’s alright son, I shouldn’t have brought her up.” James didn’t know what Christopher was feeling; if it was anything like when he lost his own parents, it’d still be Hell.

“No, it’s not that. I just… would she? Be proud I mean. She never wanted me to be a hero.” James’s eyes widened for a moment before he remembered he’d spilled the beans on Hitomi’s reluctance to see him become a hero. He’d shared that nugget so Christopher wouldn’t feel compelled to follow in her footsteps and let himself quit hero school. He hadn’t meant to make it seem like Hitomi would be disappointed in him for trying anyway.

The little black dragon shot James an almost familiar look.

“OH! No, she’d love that you're trying to be like her.” James corrected. “She was just worried.”

“Worried?”

“Hero work takes something away from you son. There are a lot of stats that track impact and even when you’re doing great, it can kill you. Some of those statistics really got to Hit– your mom.”

“Yeah, I know it tracks 'a lot of' stats,” Christopher almost rolled his eyes. Sometimes his little man was such a teenager.

“Right, but have you ever thought about what the ‘violent crime impact’ stat does to a hero?”

Christopher paused. Violent crime impact (VCI) measures how much a hero’s patrol reduced violent crime in their area. It was essentially the difference between violent crime while a hero was on patrol versus off. It was a vital statistic that was considered, by some, the best indication of a hero’s effectiveness. A low VCI meant you weren’t doing much. A high VCI meant you were doing great. A negative VCI meant you had a crime wave or were somehow a detriment to public safety.

“No, I don’t know what it does to a hero. I know it’s important to the rankings, but…”

“Oh, your mom never cared about rankings. The only reason she wasn’t underground is because Mrs. Samson insisted.”

‘Mrs. Samson–?’

James continued, oblivious to Christopher’s unasked question. “She said it was important for heroes to have their activities tracked closely so that they could see their impact. However, she didn’t quite account for how responsibility-driven Hitomi was. While most heroes look at a positive VCI and say ‘I’m doing a good job’ your mother looked at it and felt guilty about taking time off.”

Christopher frowned. He didn’t need to ask why. He’d think the same thing. If you saw a positive VCI, a real measurable impact between your on and off-duty hours… could you take a break? If someone was alive at the end of the day because you were on patrol, what right did you have to a vacation?

“She wanted you to have a life beyond just hero work. She saw herself in you, and didn’t want you to feel guilty for taking days off.”

“… is that why we only ever took vacations in winter?” It was when violent crime rates were the lowest, typically.

“Yup! I had to drag her to even those, on the bright side you two had a lot of fun skiing and ice skating.”

Christopher couldn't believe that. He always hated the winter. The cold never agreed with him, although he did like skating. Though… he couldn’t remember whether he liked skiing. He only ever remembered hitting his rump every time he tried; except when he was going very slow, with his arms over his head.

“I remember.” Christopher lied.

James smiled sadly. He felt the tears come. Chris didn’t need to see him like this. He swallowed a sob and declared, with a slight tremble. “I-I should head out.”

“You don’t have to…”

“I know, but I’m going to start crying if I stay here any longer and I don’t think you want to explain to your friends why you have a blubbering old man in your dorm.”

Christopher smiled. “Fair, I love you dad.”

“Love you too son, I’ll see you for Sunday dinners?”

Christopher smiled. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

James squeezed his son’s shoulder one last time and left.

Christopher watched his father go feeling a pang of… something. He couldn’t place it. It couldn’t be loneliness, his dad was rarely around even when they lived together. He felt the same gaping hole in his chest that he felt when he was lonely, but… not quite the same. Was it sadness? Regret? No, it was some cousin of guilt…. Was he in mourning? For what? His life at his dad’s apartment?

Hitomi stirred.

Christopher shook his head as he turned to look at his room festooned with unopened boxes. The room was split symmetrically. Each side had its own bed, desk, bookshelf, and wardrobe. The room was joined together by a modest common area. He shook his head. There was no point in putting his move off or dwelling on this strange feeling. He unpacked. First, he put his clothes in the wardrobe. Then he set about filling the bookshelf. In all, it was a faster process than he thought it would be. He’d thought he was in for an onerous struggle, something that would flay his patience to the bone. Instead, it was… just a mildly unpleasant chore. He pulled his laptop from its bag and knew why. He’d left the binders at home.

Those binders, which had once held the only record of Christopher’s life, had long since ballooned to become the majority of his worldly possessions. Possessions which he’d rendered extraneous by digitizing their contents. His life was now in this laptop, this little box that could be held in one hand.

Christopher looked at the laptop, feeling a cold fist rest in his stomach. If he lost this… if it was hacked or stolen, he’d lose everything. Sure, his binders were still at home, resting forgotten on their shelves, however, as life went on, more and more of his life would be unrecoverable without this laptop. The simple solution was to buy an external hard drive and backup the files regularly, but that brought up a different issue. An external hard drive was easier to misplace or steal. Did he dare make stealing his life easier on any would-be culprit?

Christopher frowned as he considered a thousand ways his world could crumble. He was unaware, or unwilling to accept, that this was always a danger. Even before he digitized everything, a fire would have taken his memories in a puff of smoke.

As soon as he made a decision. He texted the one person on this earth he thought could help him keep his laptop safe. A knock at the door came. The answer to his text was immediate, but for now, unseen.

The knock broke Christopher’s stupor. He frowned as he turned towards the door. Who’d be knocking? Imai would just come in, this was his room too –

Before he could approach the door Hitomi flew off his shoulder and raced for it.

“Hitomi –”

Before the words left Christopher’s lips Hitomi jumped on the handle. The door flew open revealing a familiar grinning blond young man.

“Hey, bro!”

“…” Despite himself, despite the anxiety that had so recently infested his every thought, Christopher smiled. “Hey, Inigo.”

Without waiting for an invitation, Inigo strode in; his little green dragon stood on his shoulder. He looked around the room, surprised by how barren it was.

“Dude, where’s your stuff? Don’t you have like 30 shelves in your room?”

“I downsized.”

“What about your…” Inigo gestured to his head. He was referring to Christopher’s quirk drawback, the thing he’d kept secret from Inigo for most of their first year… the thing he hadn’t been able to keep secret forever.

Christopher gestured to the laptop, sitting on his desk. “I digitized.”

“Cool! Did you use one of those apps?”

Christopher blinked. “What app?”

“You know, take a picture of a page and upload your notes to a doc. Hoge uses one for her notes.”

Christopher froze. He saw, flashing before his eyes, that literal WEEK he’d spent transcribing every single note by hand. A week he could’ve spent taking a few hundred pictures instead. Hitomi face palmed.

“Dude?”

“Yeah… those apps, real godsend!”

“… you typed it all out by hand didn’t you?”

“Every. Fucking. Word.”

Inigo laughed.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s pretty fucking funny.”

“Easy for you to say you didn’t sit in front of a computer for a week typing out entire conversations about Love is Blind!”

“Oh! You typed out our conversations?!”

“Yes.”

“… don’t glare at me like that.”

“I don’t know how else to glare.”

“It’s not my fault! You played the entire game without understanding the subtle nuances of Himorogi’s choices. How even leaving for school at a different time changed his relationship with Shinobu! If you leave first thing in the morning she thinks he’s just another stick in the mud like what her parents want her to be and you’re doomed to the bad end. If you leave late she’ll be disgusted at his laziness at first, but realize he’s still successful despite his foibles. It helps her to understand that everyone makes mistakes. We’re all flawed! Thus when she catches Himorogi in Kaminari’s embrace she doesn’t immediately assume he’s cheating on her and listens to his side of the story!”

Christopher and Gigan stared at Inigo like he was speaking in tongues. Hitomi’s eyes sparkled as she drank in every word. She couldn’t believe there was such a subtle difference that Christopher had failed to explore in his play through.

“Seriously bro,” Inigo continued, gently. “As smart as you are you’d think you’d have caught on to how the little choices changed the outcome the most.” Inigo’s eyes shined as he imparted his nugget of wisdom gleaned from a fantastic visual novel.

“I never saw a bad end.”

“Wow! You got lucky! There are landmines all over that game! How’d you do it? I mean, I know you’re good at reading people but–”

“I used a guide.”

Inigo’s face went blank as something precious inside him shattered.

“You… what?”

“You told me I had to play until I saw the best ending. So I looked it up.”

“I… uh…” Inigo tried to process the depths of his best friend’s betrayal. Hitomi looked away from Christopher, ashamed. Gigan… gave a thumbs up.

Inigo, lost in the memories of his countless hours exploring every possible path trying to achieve the perfect ending to Love is Blind! managed to stammer out a sentence. “Y-you just… looked it up?”

“Yeah.”

“But then you missed so much!” Inigo exclaimed. “You probably don’t even know about Hitsuguri’s tragic backstory!”

“Who?”

Inigo tasted bile. “What do you mean ‘who’?!”

“I don’t remember a character named Hitsuguri.”

Inigo’s mind reeled. Hitsuguri, the kuudere class president, the obligatory best girl who is not the main girl that every visual novel was obligated to have, had three lines in the perfect route. Christopher… would not have seen her as anything other than one of the MC’s classmates. He didn’t know that her family had died when she was young. That she was taken in by her abusive shithead of an uncle. That she’d set fire to her uncle’s house and willingly let the flames scar her so that she’d not be suspected of the arson and her uncle’s murder. He didn’t know how the MC reminded Hitsuguri of her deceased brother and that had blossomed into a fucked up yandere romance that Inigo couldn’t get enough of!

That her route ended in murder-suicide was beside the point. The ride was awesome! And Christopher didn’t know about it… HE NEEDED TO KNOW!

Inigo made for Christopher’s laptop!

“What’re you doing?”

Inigo opened the laptop! He found Christopher’s game library and opened Love is Blind!

“Inigo?”

“Sit down!” Inigo commanded, turning the laptop screen towards Christopher.

Christopher and the two dragons sat immediately. The tone of command in Inigo’s voice left no room for argument.

Inigo sat beside Christopher and handed him a wireless mouse and keyboard that seemingly materialized from Gigan. He looked at his friend with crazed eyes.

“You’re playing it right this time!”

Christopher knew better than to argue when Inigo was like this. He waited for the opening scene to finish playing. He’d only watched it once before, but he was already bored. His mouse moved. Inigo froze. The cursor floated over the skip button. Inigo’s eyes widened. He tried to speak. To stop Christopher! Too late!

Christopher pressed skip. The game fast-forwarded heartlessly to the first choice of the game. The cruel machine stampeded through crucial dialogue and character moments with the compassion of a bullet. It was a tragedy. A blasphemy. An affront to the very order of the universe! And no man could stop it. Skip had been pressed.

Inigo looked away. He tried not to cry as the first option came up and Christopher mercilessly asked the question he dreaded to hear: “Now what?”

After countless hours of refusing to help Christopher find ‘the route you want me to find,’ and enduring his liberal use of the skip button, Inigo sighed in relief as Christopher stumbled upon Hitsuguri’s opening flag. Hitsuguri’s route, the best route, was nearly inescapable.

The cute blank-faced class president stood in the school hallway. She was holding boxes. While her face remained stoic, adorable little squiggles hovering around her hands made it clear she struggled with the weight. The text box read a simple ‘hello.’ Now, Christopher was trapped. There was only one choice left and Hitsuguri’s route was sealed. Christopher would see the obsessive love story that made Inigo’s heart race.

Christopher clicked next. The choice popped up on the screen.

It was a false choice. The route was locked at the moment you said ‘Let me help you with that;’ and what man could resist the urge to help such a cute class –

Christopher’s cursor went down one.

Inigo’s jaw hit the floor.

Christopher made his choice. The scene continued with the MC saying ‘excuse me’ as he slid around Hitsuguri.

“Of course,” the struggling girl responded stoically as ever. Now she’d never think of the MC and her beloved brother in the same breath. The route was avoided. Inigo looked at the monster next to him.

“What the Hell?!”

“What?”

“How could you not help her?”

“Because I don’t want to end up bound, gagged, and stabbed in a basement?”

“How’d you know that– I thought you said you didn’t know her route!”

“I don’t, but she’s obviously a psychopath.”

“What’s so obvious about it?!”

Christopher counted off the reasons on one hand: “1. In the other routes, you forced me to play today, she only smiles when someone’s in pain. 2. The heroine’s missing cat from the main route was found dead in the alley that Hitsuguri uses to walk home. 3. All the girls you befriend ask you to stick around if they have class duty with the president.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of obvious.” A voice from behind Inigo sounded. Inigo reeled forward with a strangled squawk. He looked behind him. There, a handsome young man with three eyes looked down at Inigo.

“Imai? What’re you doing here?!” Inigo asked, trying to calm his racing heart.

“I think you were on Chosuke’s route.”

“That was two routes ago!”

“He tried to say hi,” Christopher interjected. “You just kept rambling about the origins of Chosuke’s ‘otaku nature.’”

“Oh.” Inigo had to admit that sounded like him. Then he remembered what Imai had said. “What do you mean it’s obvious?!”

“She has menhera eyes.”

Inigo took a closer look at Hitsuguri’s avatar. Her eyes weren’t the typical definition of menhera; the tips of her irises did touch her bottom eyelids, but there was more sclera visible at the bottom than at the top. Thus, TECHNICALLY her eyes were menhera… Inigo had never noticed that. He felt ashamed that there was something about his waifu he didn’t notice.

“You guys just don’t understand her charm! I bet you like Shinobu!”

“What’s wrong with Shinobu?”

“I like Chosuke personally.”

Inigo looked between the two Philistines in growing rage. He couldn’t stay in this room! He needed to go be among those with CULTURE! He wondered whether Junichi had moved in yet. He stood.

“Good day sirs!” Inigo left the room.

Gigan sighed but didn’t bother to follow. Hitomi looked at him curiously.

Imai looked at Christopher with a raised eyebrow. Inigo’s tastes probably weren’t limited to the virtual world. “When Hoge locks him in the basement, do we call the police?”

“No, it’s how he’d want to go.”

Gigan chirped in agreement.

“Gigan? What’re you still doing here?” Christopher asked.

Gigan held up three claws. ‘3’

“… uh…”

He lowered one claw. ‘2’

“What’re you counting down to?”

‘1’

Inigo burst back into the room. “Right! I forgot!”

Gigan flew to Inigo’s shoulder and disgorged a rolled-up poster into his master’s hand.

“The Hell is that?”

“You’ll see!” Grinning, Inigo unrolled the poster.

Christopher blanched as the poster turned out to be one depicting him and Faith kissing during his birthday celebration last year. Christopher remembered the incident well. Inigo had coaxed them into a photo booth whereupon he showed them a slideshow of their relationship. However, Inigo didn’t have much in his slideshow. They’d only been dating two months at the time, he didn’t even have an image of the two kissing. When Inigo’d tried to trick them into giving him one they saw through it... but Faith never needed an excuse.

“Think of it as a housewarming gift!”

There was only one problem…

“Faith confiscated those!”

“She confiscated some.” Inigo corrected. Gigan coughed up a dozen more photos from that day. Every angle of that booth had been covered. Christopher’s cheeks colored as one of the photos landed on his lap. He looked down… his brows furrowed. That wasn’t a picture of him and Faith. He picked up the photo.

“Wait! No!” Inigo cried. Too late. There was Inigo, locked in… what looked like a kiss with a blur.

“…”

“Stop!” Inigo pleaded. “I promised!” The green dragon tried, the room echoed with the sounds of his gagging attempt to arrest the flood; his struggle was in vain. The deluge continued until Christopher and Imai’s room was covered with photos of Inigo kissing, leaning against, and holding hands with a blur. It finally ended as Gigan hacked up one last image which fluttered lazily through the air before Inigo snatched it and shoved it back into the dragon’s mouth.

Christopher examined the picture on his lap. The photo presumably depicted Inigo kissing Hoge. He couldn’t be sure. As far as he could tell Inigo was having a moment with the photo’s bokeh.

Inigo, red-faced, scrambled to gather pictures. “You saw nothing!”

“Accurate.” Imai agreed. Even with three eyes, he couldn’t see shit in these pictures.

Hitomi helped Inigo gather the discarded photos while Christopher stared thoughtfully at the picture in his hand. A thought occurred to him as Inigo finished collecting the photographs and shoved them back into poor Gigan.

Inigo looked at Christopher. He noticed the photo still in his friend’s hands. He froze.

Christopher met Inigo’s eyes.

“No.” Inigo pleaded.

Christopher looked at the discarded poster of him kissing his girlfriend. He looked back at Inigo. A decision was made. He got out his phone and opened the camera app pointing it at the picture.

Inigo lunged!

Imai watched the two struggle for the last photo with a frown. He looked over at Gigan, still struggling to choke down those reams of photos he’d so recently disgorged. Hitomi was on top of the pile jumping up and down, trying to stamp the heap down Gigan’s throat. There were dozens of them stuffed inside that little dragon, who knew how many more photos of Hoge Inigo had squirreled away? He idly wondered if Hoge was the Hitsurugi of their relationship or if it was the other way around...

---

Faith Kang waited on the school’s roof. She fiddled with her phone. Chris was late. Well… not really. They were supposed to meet at 7:15 and it was 7:00, but they always got to their date locations 20 minutes early which left her in an awkward position. She couldn’t text asking where he was because he wasn’t late. However, he WAS late for them, so she was upset and worried. All she felt like she could do was stand here awkwardly, which sucked! They’d missed the last date night because Christopher had work. Yet, if she texted now, she’d come off as impatient, maybe even overbearing…

7:01.

Fuck it, Chris knew who she was. She pulled up his contact information and fired off a quick text only to hear the school’s roof access door open behind her.

She whirled. There, standing in the doorway, was a slightly disheveled Christopher breathing heavily. His shirt's collar was loose. His hoodie was torn. There were scratches on his arm.

Faith's heart sank. She rushed over! “What happened?!” Did he find Desolator again?!

Christopher grinned. “I wrestled a picture from Inigo. Sent it to Hifumi.”

Faith stopped short and stared at him. She felt stupid for feeling worried. “… why?”

“He deserved it.”

“…” She didn’t doubt that. With a sigh, she reached up to fix Christopher’s clothes. It irked her that he was only 14 minutes early to their date because he needed to mess around with Inigo. “Hope it was worth it.” Faith grumbled.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Christopher whispered as she fixed his collar.

“You aren’t late.”

“I am for us.”

Faith smiled. “It’s fine.” It was. “Just have a better reason next time.”

“I’ll add it to my schedule.”

“Please do. So, what was it you wanted to talk about anyway?”

“I have some questions about computer security…” Christopher began. He was worried that Faith would pout at the idea he wanted to see her for a reason other than to be around her, but, instead of pouting, her face lit up.

“Absolutely! So what do you need? Personal? Your dad’s? Did you download software you’re worried about? Wait! Knowing you, you want to hunt down De–a villain. You’re in luck! I got bored during break so I did some poking around and managed to find an undiscovered catastrophic, like create admin-user, level vulnerability in the HA’s servers. I patched it up for them while I was poking around, but I don’t think they’ve found it yet. They haven’t removed my patch to put their own in anyway. So I could–”

“–before you commit a felony for me–” Christopher interrupted, trying to ignore the tightness in his... chest. It was strangely hot when she talked about something she was good at.

“It’s only a felony because white hatting for the government is a gray area.”

“–I’m just looking for some help securing my laptop.”

“Oh!” Faith giggled. “Yeah, I can help with that. You need me to do it or…?”

“I just have some questions to start with.”

“Sure! Shoot.”

“How do I make sure people can’t hack me?”

“Live in a science fiction fantasy world?

“Eh?”

“I mean, you can’t make a computer hackproof. Give someone competent enough time and resources, they can break into anything. Businesses and governments usually handle that by finding ways to trace the guy trying to break into their shit, but that’s not really doable for you unless you want to pay.”

“So, what can I do?”

“I mean, despite what they show in the movies, your computer’s pretty safe. Most black hats aren’t going to use their Mindow Day 0 vulnerability to hack a high schooler’s computer. They’re gonna hold multinational corporations hostage with something like that and they gotta do it quick; the longer they wait the more likely Mindow’s gonna find the same vulnerability and there’ll be a patch out in a few days.”

“… so, your advice is to do nothing?”

“No, there’s some stuff we can do. The biggest vulnerability you’d have right now is that you’re on a network with a couple dozen other people. I don’t really like the school’s wifi anyway, it’s slow, so we can get you on a secure network. I customized my phone’s hotspot to hook up to a server in Seoul that my dad runs. You want that?”

“Would that be okay?”

“Sure! I can set your phone's hotspot to connect to my server. In the meantime, want my hotspot’s password?”

“Please.”

Faith hummed as she remembered her mnemonic devices:

ugly chickens 2-step to Egypt 4 times.
Wolves fly down south like birds(})
37 pirates with 8Yaks` eggs.
Elves **** ^carrots!
Does the Queen of parenthesis juggle Umbrellas @ Gothic castles?
Clowns bake 8% of cookies.
greater Dragons 5-step on Log Trees.
Zebras Vomit 9 times.

“‘uc2E4Wfds}37,8Y`e*^q(jU@G?Cb8%>D5LTzV9,’ you get that?”

“Yes.”

“Cool! That’ll take you to a screen where you’ll have to answer personal questions. Then I have to approve you.”

“… what kind of personal questions?”

“Who’s the prettiest girl in the world, best female singer, smartest girl in the world, sweetest smile…”

“… I feel like I'll be giving the same answer to all these questions.”

Faith grinned. “Just remember I have to approve your answers~”

“Scary.”

“It shouldn’t be, the answers are obvious after all.”

“Fair.”

Faith frowned. He was getting terse. He usually did that when he wanted to talk about something else, but didn’t want to interrupt her. “What’s on your mind?”

Christopher shifted. “Backups.”

“Backups?”

“I’d like to keep a physical copy of my files, external hard drive, and all that, but I’m worried what’ll happen if it gets stolen.”

“Well, physical security’s not as fun, but we can buy you a safe, or I can make you one.”

“I don’t want you to put in that much effort, I’m probably being paranoid.”

“No,” Faith shook her head, in her mind this was the bare minimum. “losing both your laptop and backup really sucks. We’ll go shopping tomorrow.”

“Thanks… you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to go on a date?”

Faith turned around to look out at Kyoto’s skyline then leaned back against Chris’s chest. “I mean, you missed Saturday’s.”

“Sorry, there was a lot of work to do before I moved.”

“I get it.” She didn’t. Faith had seen Christopher arrive with his dad from her room. It didn’t look like he’d had that many boxes. There’d been a sinking feeling when she’d seen him so spartanly packed. Like maybe he missed last week’s date just because. That doubt hadn’t really survived their reunion. He seemed just as attentive as ever. So now she wondered what exactly he’d been so distracted by last Saturday. She got a feeling it had to do with his laptop. He’d never worried about cyber security before….

Christopher, sensing Faith drifting off, hugged her from behind. “Where do you want to go tomorrow?”

“How about that weird place?”

“… the one with the wasabi milkshake?”

“Yeah!”

“…” Christopher’s face fell. He really didn’t want to go back to that fusion monstrosity they’d stumbled upon during their first date. Faith looked up at him with those big brown eyes. The crown of her head rested on his chest. She pouted. He folded. “Alright.”

Faith grinned. Chris looked like a reluctant puppy. Adorable. She stood on her toes and kissed his chin. “We’ll have fun, I promise.”

“I know,” Chris said with a sigh, looking up.

“And hey! After we eat we can–” Chris’s eyes widened.

The night sky lit up. Both Christopher and Faith cast their eyes toward the horizon. A large plume of fire erupted in the distance.

“Wh–” Chris pulled her to the ground and crouched over her seconds before a roaring–

‘BOOM!’

–hit the building. The earth moved. The windows rattled. Faith pulled out her phone.

YOU ARE NOW ON A SECURE NETWORK.
DESIGNATE: ~ Made by Drone! <3 ~

fides1104: Check in. Chris and I are fine.
sugrjangz: Hifumi and I are fine. Getting on the class group chat.
not_ur_power_bank: Chris is with you? Darn. I owe Edie 5 bucks.
THUNDERDOME: Pay up bitch!
fides1104: wdym?
not_ur_power_bank: Edie and I are fine, texting Bobby.
spookyscaryskeletons: I’m fine.
not_ur_power_bank: Bobby’s fine. @THUNDERDOME language.
not_ur_power_bank: @fides1104 I bet Edie that Chris was off getting hospitalized again.
fides1104: Don’t joke, he’s next to me and I thought that for a sec.
fides1104: @spookyscaryskeletons what about Junichi?
sugrjangz: Class chat’s up, I checked in for us. Looks like everyone’s accounted for.
spookyscaryskeletons: @fides1104 how should I know?
not_ur_power_bank: … Max…
THUNDERDOME: lmao
fides1104: ykw
sugrjangz: I’m literally looking at his message in the class chat checking in for both of you.
spookyscaryskeletons: We’re just smoking.
fides1104: suuuuuuure
spookyscaryskeletons: Shut the fuck up Faith!

Christopher slowly rose, satisfied there wouldn’t be any follow-up shock waves. “Everybody okay?”

Faith nodded and held up her phone. “Yeah, everybody’s checked in.” She followed Chris’s gaze back to the horizon. The fireball that’d briefly filled the night sky was gone now, just black smoke upon a black sky. Faith fancied she could see the contours of the flames roiling against the rolling clouds, but she couldn’t say whether that was reality or just her mind’s eye. There was a part of her, a well-trained part, screaming at her to get over there and do a damage assessment. But… there was the other part of her brain, the reasonable part that knew why she wasn’t moving –

“Too far,” Christopher mumbled more to himself than her. Faith stood beside him nodding. That explosion looked like it came from Otsu. By the time they got there, the area would be flooded with pros.

“Buuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

Faith and Christopher’s phones screamed in unison as an emergency alert popped up on the screen.

“… I feel seen,” Christopher mumbled.

Faith laughed nervously. It was probably, definitely, at least half his fault that the administration sent out that message. “I mean, it’s for everyone now that we have our licenses.”

“True.”

“What do you think happened?” Faith asked idly as she stood next to Chris, tracing the faint outlines of what could be smoke with her eyes.

“Endeavor,” Christopher answered automatically.

“Seriously?”

“I saw a streak of light go in the sky a split second before the explosion.”

Faith nodded. That made sense. He did react awfully fast.

“Endeavor’s been known to tackle his opponent into the air to end fights without worrying about civilian casualties.”

“… you don’t think it was…” Faith couldn’t finish the question. She didn’t need to. Chris knew who she was asking about.

“Impossible to know.” Chris held her hand without thinking. “Though, if it were HIM, I’d think Karaburan would’ve put out a lockdown alert as soon as Endeavor made contact.”

As if to punctuate the point the roof’s door slammed open. Faith whirled. She saw a man with long blonde hair and a phone to his ear. Ian, HN Rush, the classmate who replaced Sandatsu.

Ian nodded at the two and spoke into his phone. “Yes, I’m staring at him. He’s with his ‘friend.’ No, it doesn’t look like he’s about to bolt. … Do I have to? I’m kindof third-wheeling here. … Fine, I’ll keep an eye on him.” Ian hung up. “Sorry to interrupt, you two mind if I hang out?”

“…”

“Sounds like it doesn’t matter if we do,” Faith answered icily for her boyfriend.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Whatever.” Faith sighed. Chris changed the subject. “Was that Rosethorn?”

“She’s sitting on Bobby,” Ian answered. Faith noticed he didn’t actually say whether it was her on the phone. Was it not Rosethorn? Or was he just avoiding the question out of habit? Ian either didn’t notice the wheels turning in her head or pretended not to. He continued. “Teel’s in the common area with everyone else.”

“So, Teel called everyone to the common room, and when we didn’t show she sent you?” Faith asked.

“Yeah.” Ian nodded as he joined the pair at the railing. “And with Chris’s history…”

“Get hospitalized twice and they never let you hear the end of it.”

“Almost three times,” Faith mumbled.

“Almost doesn’t count.”

“It does when it was the same guy every time.”

“… fair.”

Ian stared off into space as Desolator was indirectly brought up. Faith noticed, but didn’t comment, she regretted even referencing that son of a bitch. Chris noticed her expression and followed her gaze to Ian. She wished she had a better poker face.

“What’s that look for?” Chris asked.

Instead of answering, Ian looked at Faith. “Can I borrow him for a minute?”

Faith’s jaw clenched. Was this cunt seriously asking if he could get Chris involved with the Five again?! They’d just set a record 8 months without hospitalization, and 4 without a major injury. She wouldn’t give him permission to do that, but she would answer his question. “Only if I can leak your search history.”

Ian blanched. Chris laughed nervously. “Faith, it’s fine.”

“Bull shit it’s fine.” Faith grumbled. Her grip on the railing tightened. She poured her quirk into the rail without the other two noticing. “Let the government do its job for once.”

“I’m just gonna ask a question, nothing more.” Ian tried to reassure her.

“Fine.” Faith pulled away from the railing and shot a glare at Chris. “I-I’m not visiting if you get put in the Hospital.” She lied.

“Liar.”

“Shut up!”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.” She pouted as she walked away.

---

Chris looked at Ian. Ian scratched his cheek. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. She’s just worried.”

“I’ll bet.” Ian took a deep breath. “So, as you guessed, it’s a question about Desolator.”

Chris nodded his attention fully on Ian.

“The Hero Agency recently obtained a new source of information.”

“A mole?”

“Classified.”

“Of course.”

“Anyway, this source claims that Desolator has offered his services as Sandatsu’s ‘consultant.’”

Chris didn’t even blink.

“The HA’s experts called it unlikely given the wanton destruction Sandatsu caused in Europe but–”

“Why’d they think that made it unlikely?”

Ian frowned. He’d assumed Chris was an expert on Desolator. “Well, they think he wouldn’t work with someone that… indiscriminate.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “He wouldn’t give a shit.”

“…?”

“Desolator’s not some noble thief with an actual code. He’s a murderer who hopes his selective scruples will get him a nicer spot in Hell.”

Ian felt that that statement came from bias rather than knowledge. He felt a little silly now, asking a kid to double-check the experts’ notes, but Chris continued undaunted by Ian’s skepticism.

“Just off the top of my head: Desolator had no issue working with Bicorn. Her villainous debut left 40 civilians dead and twice that number maimed. He, for 20 years, worked with a bastard named Commander Slaughter! Even Jabberwocky destroyed communities during the Warlord era.” Chris ranted. “And that’s just other members of the Five! I haven’t even STARTED on the monsters he’s worked for over the decades!” He looked at Ian who was… considerably less skeptical. “Even respected experts can get distracted by the manners, the personal code, the fact that he’s an underdog in every battle. They forget that at the end of the day, he’s just a killer. That the only difference between him and Sandatsu is that he’s shameless enough to get paid for his ‘work.’”

Ian collected his thoughts as he processed Chris’s words. It WAS easy to forget that Desolator had filled graveyards. His kills were spread out over decades. Even in his short career, Sandatsu had probably killed more people than Desolator, but at the end of the day, those were numbers; their actions were the same.

He hadn’t thought of it that way.

“… so you don’t think he’d have a problem? Working with Sandatsu I mean?”

Chris sighed. There was something he hadn’t brought up. He’d been so incensed by the ‘experts’ reason for thinking Desolator wouldn’t work with Sandatsu that he’d neglected to bring up the reason HE had doubts. He’d unwittingly defended a position he wasn’t convinced of.

“Desolator wouldn’t work with a madman,” Chris answered. “He can’t rely on them. If Sandatsu’s anything like he was during the tournament, Desolator wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole.”

“… and if he’s changed?”

“People don’t change.” Christopher felt a hole in his chest. He didn’t believe that. He’d changed a lot over the last year. Not even he knew how much he changed in the last three. He swallowed bile. “Not that fast anyway.”

“But hypothetically…”

“IF, hypothetically, Sandatsu’s no longer a drooling psychotic son of a bitch…” Christopher allowed sarcastically. That damn hold in chest persisted. It was like that feeling he’d had when his dad left, the one Christopher couldn’t name. It was almost like he’d lost something. Why would he feel that? He never liked Sandatsu. Was he empathizing with that asshole?! Impossible. Sandatsu’d always been fucked up. Hadn’t he? Even if he hadn’t why the Hell would wondering if Sandatsu’d changed to be like he was bring up that same feeling he’d had when he said bye to his dad?! The Hell was he reacting to? Hitomi, in the form of a watch, squeezed. “… then SURE!” Christopher concluded bitterly. “Desolator wouldn’t have an issue.”

---

Faith at the bottom of the stairwell was white as a ghost as she listened to Chris’s conversation with Ian through the drone she’d made from the railing. She hadn’t meant to hear that. She only wanted to make sure Ian wasn’t dragging her boyfriend off on some suicide mission to get his ass kicked by Desolator again. But she couldn’t undo the past. She couldn’t forget what Ian had just said.

Chris wouldn’t stop going after Desolator and if Desolator was working with Sandatsu… Her jaw clenched. … then Chris would run into Sandatsu sooner or later. Her stomach squirmed. The only question now was… what should she do about it? She looked at her phone:

YOU ARE NOW ON A SECURE NETWORK.
DESIGNATE: ~ Made by Drone! <3 ~

not_ur_power_bank: Maybe they’re even KISSING!!!
spookyscaryskeletons: omfg just grow up.
spookyscaryskeletons: Y’know what? Sure, we’re making out furiously behind the science building rn.
THUNDERDOME: I KNEW IT
spookyscaryskeletons: K ¬¬/¯
not_ur_power_bank: I
sugrjangz: S
THUNDERDOME: S
spookyscaryskeletons: SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
sugrjangz: I
THUNDERDOME: N
not_ur_power_bank: Language!
not_ur_power_bank: G

Faith smiled despite herself. It was a breath of normalcy to see her friends making fun of Max for her not-so-secret crush/ relationship. Though, in all honesty, there was nothing new or weird about Chris’s obsession with Desolator either. Just a new wrinkle she wasn’t ready for. She scrolled towards the bottom.

spookyscaryskeletons: Ugh, can we just make sun of Faith instead? I mean she’s probably making out with Chris rn.
sugrjangz: She’s not here, besides, she’d brag.
THUNDERDOME: No joke, you didn’t live with her when they started dating. I still have nightmares.
THUNDERDOME: wait, ‘sun’ of? Did you type while making out?
spookyscaryskeletons: omfg.
not_ur_power_bank: Bobby got caught trying to sneak out.
spookyscaryskeletons: <.<
THUNDERDOME: <.<
sugrjangz: <.<
not_ur_power_bank: He thought the explosion might’ve been Endeavor fighting Reaper. Rosethorn caught him trying to sneak out.
THUNDERDOME: Damn.
sugrjangz: Damn.
spookyscaryskeletons: Fuck.
THUNDERDOME: He in trouble?
not_ur_power_bank: I don’t know yet. Rosethorn just brought him back to the dorm.
not_ur_power_bank: It’s night. I don’t know what the Hell he was thinking…

Faith frowned as she scrolled past the conversation. Bobby’s quirk fed on sunlight. A few hours after the sun went down he might as well be quirkless. Given the time, he MIGHT have another 20 minutes of strength, not enough time to run to Otsu, let alone fight Reaper… assuming that was Reaper. Chris didn’t think it was, so it probably wasn’t.

sugrjangz: You need us over?
not_ur_power_bank: … I’m gonna talk to him first. Make sure he’s not gonna get himself killed.
THUNDERDOME: It’ll have to wait, Teel’s calling everybody to the common area.
spookyscaryskeletons: Ugh, I’ll head back.
THUNDERDOME: Bring Jun.
spookyscaryskeletons: ┌∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐
THUNDERDOME: The spook’s not here. Whatshisname? Ian?
not_ur_power_bank: Neither is Chris or Faith.
THUNDERDOME: You don’t think…
sugrjangz: Chris is one thing, but Faith isn’t stupid. She’d drag his ass back if he tried.
THUNDERDOME: True.

The rest of the conversation was just complaining about Teel’s safety lecture and fretting over Minnie’s side conversation with Bobby. Faith finally rejoined the conversation.

fides1104: Bobby okay?
spookyscaryskeletons: The prodigal bitch returns!
fides1104: (ㅠ﹏ㅠ)
spookyscaryskeletons: <3
not_ur_power_bank: Yeah, just stupid. Sweet, but a dumbass.
fides1104: iktf
sugrjangz: sweet?
not_ur_power_bank: l8r.
THUNDERDOME: Oh, @ fides1104: Did you hear what it was?
fides1104: No
THUNDERDOME: Apparently, Endeavor got in a fight with Maddox and blew her into Lake Biwa. They’re still looking for her, but they think she got away.
fides1104: So it wasn’t…
spookyscaryskeletons: Yeah, different psycho.
sugrjangz: Or a coverup.
not_ur_power_bank: Don’t start again, please.
sugrjangz: sorz
THUNDERDOME: Also, you should give Chris a heads-up that he’s not supposed to talk about this tomorrow when the freshies move in.
fides1104: ?
sugrjangz: We decided as a class. We don’t need the first years panicking about villain attacks more than they already are.
spookyscaryskeletons: The majority decided. I still think it’s the perfect episode to get them ready for life at Shiketsu.
sugrjangz: Moving on, we should probably figure out what we’re going to do about the boyfriends.
sugrjangz: It was just Bobby today but Hifumi’d been gone too if I weren’t with him.
THUNDERDOME: Chip them.
spookyscaryskeletons: lmao
not_ur_power_bank: not funny
sugrjangz: As soon as I can get him into a surgeon’s office
spookyscaryskeletons: wat
not_ur_power_bank: wat
THUNDERDOME: wat?
sugrjangz: What?
fides1104: Get Chris too?
sugrjangz: @fides1104: I gotchu.
not_ur_power_bank: Putting aside the controlling behavior
THUNDERDOME: No, we need to focus on this for a sec.
not_ur_power_bank: We probably do need a plan to keep Hifumi and Bobby from running off to confront Reaper.
sugrjangz: It’s weird to have a problem boyfriend for once. Was getting used to Faith having the issue.
not_ur_power_bank: Time makes fools of us all.
THUNDERDOME: Hello?
spookyscaryskeletons: Yeah, not like Chris has a reason to give a fuck about Reaper.
fides1104: Yeah…
sugrjangz: Dots?
THUNDERDOME: Is no one gonna talk about the chip thing? I was joking!
fides1104: I’ll talk later.
not_ur_power_bank: ominous
THUNDERDOME: Oh, I get it, boyfriends make you selectively blind.