MHA 1.9999: Prose Edition

The door opened. Behind it was a tall Korean woman, spectacles slightly askew. "Oh," she said, slightly out of breath, "it's you. Sorry. Uh -"

Liam opened his mouth to reply, but was drowned out by the hoarse, high-decibel shriek of a toddler. The woman made a face. "You'd better come in," she continued, raising her voice slightly, and withdrew indoors. Liam followed. The hallway light was on, and when he glanced up, he could see tiny dust motes dancing in the shaft of light that it threw over his face. He looked down, at the well-kept carpet under his shoes, and leaned against the wall to peek into the bathroom. Nothing stood out to him.

The woman's name was Minerva Kim. When she reappeared, it was with the offending toddler on her hip. Liam waited patiently until the little gremlin had been adequately calmed down before he extended his arms. "Let me hold him," he said, pitching his voice in such a way as to sound reassuring. "I'm sure your hands are full with everything else."

She didn't even think to consider his intentions, which Liam supposed he ought to have been grateful for. "If you're sure -"

"Don't worry about it."

A few moments later, she reappeared with her husband and elder son in tow. Bobby Samson - tall, broad, blonde - lit up at the sight of him. "Liam!" he exclaimed. "You made it."

"Wouldn't miss something like this for the world," Liam answered, matching Bobby's grin, and shook his hand. He glanced down, making eye contact with CAIN, and winked. "Merry Christmas, little man. We meet again." (They'd only really met once; CAIN had been an infant at the time, wrinkled and red-faced.)

Instead of responding, CAIN hid behind his father's leg. "Don't worry," Minnie said, hiding a smile behind her manicured hand, "he's just shy."

Liam led the way out into the corridor and watched as Minnie, Bobby and CAIN filed out. Minnie was in charge of managing the boy, leaving Bobby to juggle a truly bewildering panoply of items. Liam thought he recognized a car-seat.

"All right, Liam?"

Liam smiled self-effacingly. "I've almost a dozen nieces and nephews. Don't worry, I can manage." As if to demonstrate, he hefted ABEL on his hip and was rewarded with an excited burble. Once they hit the basement, Minnie pulled out a key-fob from her purse and started thumbing it distractedly, lifting CAIN into her arms to make things faster. They eventually reached a blue Mitsubishi. Liam stood back and waited for them to get everything set up before handing ABEL to Bobby. After both boys had been settled, the blonde man dipped into the front seat and emerged a few seconds later, shaking his head. He'd gotten in on the wrong side.

The Mitsubishi was snug and not terribly well-ventilated. Liam turned the air-conditioning in the back up before buckling his seatbelt, sure that both of the children in the back were bound to start complaining any minute now. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised to note that they remained quiet even as Bobby started the car and drove out into the moderately crowded streets of Kyoto.

As Bobby drove, Liam peered out the window. He'd been shuttling to and from the same few places over the past two days, and hadn't had the opportunity to take in the city where he'd spent close to half a decade, once upon a time. A thin coating of white had descended upon the city, and Christmas decorations had been put up in the more touristy parts, which included their hotel. As they drew further from the city centre, though, the decorations became thinner on the ground, and it got darker, too. They'd left before dusk, but the sun had already been half-obscured by cloud at the time, and it was setting at a rapid clip.

They were passing into the eastern suburbs when Liam decided to try making small talk. He hadn't really had a chance to speak with Bobby and Minnie properly apart from that one brief exchange at the hotel buffet last night; when they'd invited him to Mitsurugi's and he'd accepted. Besides, they were already proceeding into the mountains, and probably didn't need to follow the GPS as slavishly. As far as he could tell, there was only one direction that they could possibly be going in.

"How long are you all going to be here?" he inquired.

"Three days," Bobby said. "We'll be back in Dallas before New Year's Eve." He traded a glance with Minnie. "Our class does this every year. It's something of a mix between a Christmas and New Year's celebration."

Liam had the beginnings of a bad feeling gathering in the back of his head. "Does Mitsurugi know that I'm coming?"

Minnie flapped a hand. "Oh, it's open to everyone. We're just the core attendees. Myoga and Takeda usually drag along a bunch of their friends. And since it's at Mitsurugi's this time, I think she'll have a handful of her students on hand as well."

Liam expelled a soft sigh of relief and pivoted to a less pertinent question. "Do you usually rent a car for these events?"

"No. Bobby decided to switch things up this year." Minnie sighed. "He wanted it to be an adventure."

"You've got to admit that it's a hell of a lot easier than hailing a cab."

"Language," Minnie warned, glancing worriedly back at their two sons. Liam stifled a smile. "And what if we get lost?"

"We have a GPS."

As they bickered, Liam watched the Kyoto suburbs slide gracefully into wilderness. The car did not protest as Bobby guided it carelessly up into the mountains, but Liam could tell that the ascent was placing it under a certain amount of strain. He tuned out the argument and focused on the warm, velvety voice emanating from the radio.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Liam thought back to his own class. Had anyone ever taken the initiative to organize a get-together in the past few years? Liam didn't remember receiving an invitation. It wasn't as though they'd been particularly close-knit, although Liam distinctly remembered that some of them had died in the interim. He'd sent his condolences, of course, but in the end, he was just a foreign student. He'd not been expecting to stay in Japan. That, Liam reflected, might have been the issue. Bobby and Minnie had gone back to the States, but their ties of sentiment remained strong. McCathy had stayed. Nguyen had stayed. Minnie's other friends - there had been five of them, Liam remembered - they'd stayed too. Idly, he unlocked his phone and flicked through their social media profiles. Yes, they still met often. That was another thing, he noticed. There hadn't been much dating within 1-E, but how many of the 1-D kids had paired up? He remembered the tournament. That was two, he supposed. McCathy, three. Christopher Cain had been in their class as well - four. How many more were there? He couldn't quite recall. It seemed so long ago.

Oh, Liam realized.

1-D had lost some classmates as well, but at a younger age, before they'd even graduated. That whole debacle had been rather public. There was nothing like shared trauma to bind a large group of malleable teenagers together.

Satisfied now that he had solved this mystery to the best of his ability, Liam returned his attention to the world outside his window, but saw only an impenetrable barrier of greenery (albeit lightly dusted with snow). That being said, the road was well-paved. And although the trees were certainly wild, there was clearly someone dropping by regularly to ensure that they weren't encroaching on the main thoroughfare.

It was at this moment that the car turned left and began to manoeuvre its way into a parking lot.

The air this far up was cool and crisp. Liam exhaled, smiling at how his breath was visible, and waited for Bobby and Minnie to finish wrangling their children. As he waited, he took in his surroundings. They were in a large, squarish carpark almost halfway up the mountain, positively packed with cars. Humming under his breath, he took a peek at the neighbouring SUV and noted the rosary dangling from the rearview mirror. The vehicle also boasted a decal that read COME AND TAKE IT atop what Liam took to be a firearm of some kind.

He turned back to see that CAIN and ABEL had finally been cajoled out from within the warm, comfortable confines of the car. They resembled nothing so much as a pair of near-spherical bundles of polyester and nylon, their arms stubby little things protruding from their sides. Bobby's hair was already windswept, his jacket buttoned up to his chin. And Minnie was wearing a long, dark coat that fell to mid-calf, the tip of her nose pink from the cold, a few stray snowflakes caught in her long, dark hair. Unbidden, desire stirred in his khaki trousers.

"Need any help?" he asked, instead.

Minnie looked up and hurriedly lifted ABEL into her arms. She sounded a little guilty when she next spoke, as though she'd been taking her time until Liam had reminded her of his presence. "We're good, Liam." She shot Bobby a side-eye, engaging in a bit of non-verbal communication, and relaxed when her husband cleared his throat.

"Well," Bobby began briskly, "I'm afraid we're a little late to the event." (Minnie mumbled something under her breath.) "It's going to take a while to walk all the way down, but we've already told everyone that you're coming, so if you'd like to hurry on ahead -"

"Oh, it's no trouble at all."

There was a bamboo grove on the opposite side of the road. A steel sign stood a little to the side. MITSURUGI DOJO, it read, and in smaller letters: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING PRIVATE PROPERTY. A temporary facsimile had been attached to this sign, informing all visitors that the dojo was closed for a private event. (There was more in Japanese, but they didn't have the luxury to linger.) As they entered the grove, Liam stared down into the darkness and was relieved to see that the stone path, which led to the dojo proper, boasted a number of small black electric lanterns, set into the ground at regular intervals.

"Does the carpark belong to the dojo?" he asked, after about five minutes.

Bobby looked up from where he was guiding CAIN down yet another step. "I'm not sure," he said honestly. "But I think it must. Chihiro owns this entire plot of land. It's a heritage monument of some sort, I think." Minnie was even more distracted; ABEL was burbling, and possibly on the verge of another meltdown. Liam had experience; he knew the signs.

"I think," Liam said, "that it would be best if I ran on ahead." He saw that he was intruding on this family and felt momentarily ashamed.

Shiketsu had been a wonderfully self-contained period of his life, he reflected later, absently, legs eating up the stone path in great, greedy strides. Now that he was minutes from meeting people whom he'd last seen as teenagers, it occurred to him abruptly that he was faintly anxious about how they'd react to him - and how he'd react to them. His moment of weakness with Minnie did not bode well. But it was too late; the bamboo grove was starting to give way, and the air was coming alive with all manner of scents. Liam's stomach growled.

He emerged into a clearing. It was a very large clearing, and centred on an immense, traditionally-constructed building - the eponymous dojo. A handful of buildings had mushroomed around it; although none of them seemed likely to overshadow the dojo itself, these seemed considerably more modern. An archway beckoned him through into a courtyard, where multicoloured lights had been strung up. There must have been close to two dozen people milling around in there, but by far the loudest of the lot was a humungous mutant on his hands and knees, jeans wet from the snow. A young girl - about CAIN's age - was seated securely atop his back. (In fact, she was cross-legged.) A thick cloud of steam was currently pouring from the mutant's head, which resembled nothing so much as an ancient locomotive, a design which had long since been phased out in Canada, let alone Japan. Liam distinctly remembered seeing him around Shiketsu, but could not for the life of him recall his name.

Train Man (as Liam had decided to call him) was currently scurrying across the yard at an extremely unsafe speed. This was probably due to his quirk. He ate coal, Liam remembered; that was where the steam was coming from. The girl shrieked with laughter as the two of them disappeared around a corner, and it was then that Liam realized that there was someone approaching him.

"Remember me?" asked the man. His trench coat was not, on the face of it, expensive, but only to those who did not recognize the brand. Liam met his eyes and realized that one was blue and the other red.

"Ōjitsu?"

"Close. It's Ōjijitsu." The two of them shook hands. Surprising even himself, Liam pulled the other man into a brief hug. "Michael, was it?"

"Liam is fine." The other man's face, abruptly, came into much greater focus as Liam finally remembered his given name. "Kuro?"

A crooked smile. "You remembered."

"Which way did they go?" someone interrupted.

Kuro gestured vaguely. "Round that corner." Liam turned, but only managed to catch a glimpse of a pale, round face before the woman who'd accosted them was hurrying after Train Man and his passenger. "That's Maxine Nguyen. Looking for Shinkan Sen."

A dazzling array of names emerged from the ether and snapped neatly into place. 1-D… they'd all been celebrities, every last one, and Liam was unsurprised to realize that he remembered their names rather more vividly than he did any of his actual classmates'. "That's her daughter." He'd slipped back into Japanese without thinking.

"Correct." Kuro eyed him. "You came with Minerva Kim and Bobby Samson."

"Two sons," Liam said. "They're still making their way through the bamboo grove. Where's Mitsurugi? I'd like to say hi."

Kuro guided him indoors and into a churning crowd of people. Liam recognized a handful of teachers from Shiketsu, as well as a number of men and women from Kaylee Suzuki's latest internationalist project. Hifumi Takeda nodded at him from where he was surrounded by a knot of flashily-dressed heroes, and Liam remembered that he'd set up his own agency - bankrolled, of course, by his wife. The thought reminded him of another of his classmates.

"Whatever happened to Tamtamoi?" he asked Kuro, who'd paused to pass him a flute of champagne and introduce him in passing to a gaggle of high-ranking public servants. (He'd helped them all at one point or another in his capacity as a private investigator, and they seemed torn between surprised annoyance at his presence and genuine gratitude at whatever he'd done for them.)

"Oh, he's here too. His shrine's doing great."

Liam glanced around. "I imagine mingling with so many movers and shakers is bound to be beneficial for his brand."

Kuro smirked. "You said it, not me." Then he shushed Liam, and tapped a sober-looking teenager on the shoulder. "Is your sensei somewhere in there?"

Chihiro Mitsurugi was in one of the older adjoining buildings. The stairwell was unlit; perhaps her personal quarters were upstairs. She was wearing a kimono, and as Liam's eyes adjusted to being indoors, he realized that she was surrounded by a group of solemn-looking teenagers dressed as traditionally as she. Those, he assumed, were her students. She greeted them with an unsure smile, which gained some life when she recognized Liam. "McDichael-san," she murmured.

"Mitsurugi-san," Liam returned. They nodded at each other awkwardly. "Thank you for having me. Er, Bobby and Minnie are on their way down."

Chihiro nodded. Kuro coughed. The teenagers glowered at the both of them until they left.

The dojo, despite being the building around which the rest of the compound revolved, was less warm than Liam had been expecting. "Heritage," Kuro explained. "Mitsurugi can't muck with the structure too much." Tamtamoi was there, conversing quietly with a boy - no, a man - who had to be Noah Abrams. He looked up as they approached, recognition flickering in his eyes, and said something to the woman standing in front of him, who was frowning when Liam caught sight of her face. Nevertheless, despite her visible distaste (or perhaps that was just how she normally looked), she shuffled aside, making room for Liam and Kuro.

"Sally," Liam greeted. "Noah."

Noah said something charitable and warm. Sally muttered something under her breath. They looked like they'd coordinated their clothes; Noah was wearing a suit that put Liam in mind of a cassock, while Sally had thrown on a scapular-like sweater-dress that did nothing to conceal the gentle jut of her bump. "Liam," Tamtamoi exclaimed, clapping him on the back. "What brings you to Kyoto? And here?"

"The Maple Leaf Agency has a branch in Kyoto," Liam said. "I dropped by to settle some paperwork and ran into Bobby Samson and Minerva Kim at the hotel buffet last night." He shrugged, smiled. "They invited me, and so here I am."

"Serendipitous," Noah murmured. "Merry Christmas, Liam." His hand was soft and warm. His wife's hand, on the other hand, was cool and dry. She shook Liam's hand like it was a soiled rag.

"Merry Christmas to you too," Liam said. It was the first time that he'd been wished a Merry Christmas since his arrival at the party. Not even Bobby and Minnie had remembered, either last night or just now - but it was forgivable, anyway, since they were young parents and all.

"I'm going to go check on the kids," Sally growled. She pivoted on her heel and stalked away.

"Say, Liam, you got kids?"

"Not for a long while yet," Liam said. He'd gone on a few dates back in Ottawa - mostly girls whom his parents had set him up with, girls with compatible quirks - but there hadn't yet been a spark. Still, he was under no pressure to reproduce, what with his family being as prolific and spread-out as it was. "What about you?"

Tamtamoi smiled thinly and shrugged, his pale, pointy face unreadable. "Not the marrying sort," he replied. (This was, if anything, an understatement. Liam had thought him abrasive in Shiketsu.) "You ought to ask Noah, though. Be fruitful and multiply, eh?"

Noah had gone pink. Kuro and Tamtamoi laughed at him for a bit before clamming back up when Sally let herself back indoors. After that, they excused themselves and dragged Liam along with them towards the exit.

"They've been multiplying like there's no tomorrow," Kuro told Liam. "Abrams and McCathy? They're the worst offenders. But you should've seen Ashleigh and Imai - they had quads."

"Wow," Liam said faintly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another woman appear in the doorway and march in their direction. "And they're still -"

"Probably not until the quads're in junior high," Tamtamoi cackled, tugging at the hem of his fleece jacket. "At least, that's what she said. And if Soujyuuro knows what's good for him -"

"Have you seen Hifumi?" Hailey Chang demanded.

Liam turned to look at her. The dojo was well-lit, and he could distinctly see a sprig of mistletoe hovering in the air above her head. Oh, right, he thought. Telekinesis.

Tamtamoi and Kuro were shaking their heads, and now she was glaring expectantly at him. Liam shrugged. "Haven't seen him," he said easily. "I just got here. Best of luck, though." It was surprising how they all looked basically the same. Liam had thought that they'd all be unrecognizable, but he could still see the girl whom she'd once been as clear as day. Tamtamoi had filled out some, and Hifumi Takeda - Hailey's boyfriend, now husband, he remembered with a jolt - had lost the pompadour. It suited him.

The next building was considerably more crowded. It was both warmer and more humid than the dojo - almost tropical. Tables and chairs had been spread out across the room, possibly in deference to the more westernized sensibilities of the attendees. None of them would be sitting cross-legged to eat. He was grateful.

"- since graduation," Kuro was saying. He was counting off their former classmates on his fingers. "Not a word."

"Really," Liam cut in. "Not even Victor and, er, Genma? They were in 1-D for a while before transferring over."

"Victor's off in Oceania," Kuro replied. "I suppose it's less far-flung than wherever Johnny, Damien and the rest are."

"Definitely closer than England," Tamtamoi said. At Liam's questioning look, he added, "Joan."

"Genma's in Japan, but he's too busy to meet. Something about his brother. Long story." Kuro leaned in. "But," he continued, voice lowered, "if you want an in with 1-D, Kaga's your man."

"Really. Kaga?"

"Hey!" someone cried. Liam stepped neatly to the side as Inigo Myoga squeezed in between him and Kuro. "I heard someone mention my man Kaga. You looking for him?" He peered at Liam, then grinned. "Canadaman! You made it!"

"Not Canadaman," Liam said, still smiling. "No, that was only for Shiketsu. I'm just Liam now."

Inigo pumped his hand exuberantly. "Well, it's nice to meet you." His dragon flapped over, a tray clutched in its claws. "Finger food, anyone?"

There was a brief lull in the conversation as the three of them leaned in to snatch up a morsel or two.

"So," Inigo continued, after they'd all downed another flute of champagne, "Canadaman. How's that work?"

Liam hummed, catching Imai Soujyuuro's eye from across the room and shooting him a quick smile of acknowledgement. "Well, it's tied in with the nation's image. My family's fortunes have closely bound to Canada for over a century. Canadaman's a title, a legacy. We don't hand those out willy-nilly. But I was the only member of my family going to school in Japan, so they allowed me to call myself Canadaman for that duration." He went through his mental rolodex. "I have a cousin who went to school in, I think, Italy. She got to call herself Canadagal. And my brother was in Australia. Brisbane. He called himself Canadaman until he graduated."

"Who's the one true Canadaman, then?" Kuro asked curiously.

"My uncle. And after him, probably one of my cousins."

"I didn't know that." Inigo's expression was thoughtful but open. He was still wearing that same Western-style suit, Liam noticed - red tie, white shirt, black jacket. His hair was the exact same shade of blonde that he'd maintained in Shiketsu. He was, Liam thought, very well-preserved, because if he'd looked just a little bit older, he'd have gotten the impression that the other man was trying to relive past glories. They chatted for a bit more before Inigo caught a glimpse of someone else and waved them over. "Oh, hey! Hey! Liam, I wanted to introduce you to my wife -"

"Oh, god," Kuro mumbled.

Liam shook the other woman's hand. The edges of her silhouette seemed a little blurry - a little insubstantial - but she had a steely, solid stare, and her grip was firm. "Pleasure," he said. "Liam McDichael. 1-E."

Inigo opened his mouth, but his wife beat him to it. "Nyoro Hoge," she replied. "1-D."

"She was also our class rep," Inigo cut in, cheerfully ignoring the deadpan stare that his wife levelled at him. "Who was your class rep, actually?"

Liam, Kuro and Tamtamoi looked at one another, racking their brains. The seconds ticked by until they realized simultaneously that they could not remember.

"Tetsuko Tenshi," Hoge volunteered, and transferred her gaze between their dumbfounded faces calmly. "We spoke once. I don't think I came across her after she graduated."

"Hoge has eyes and ears everywhere," Inigo added, beaming. "So it's a big deal, that she couldn't find this Tenshi girl."

Tamtamoi shook his head. "You know," he said slowly, "I really, truly, completely forgot about her. Did she ever speak up in class?"

Kuro shrugged. Liam shook his head.

He was aware that Hoge was watching their exchange with an intense look in her eyes. (Or perhaps that was just how she normally was.) Thinking back, he ran through what he could remember of 1-D and came up short. There had been twenty-four students, he recalled, but even though his memory had recently been refreshed, he could only remember around twenty names. Hoge must have been one of the quieter ones. "So, what do you do, Hoge?" he asked courteously.

Hoge opened her mouth, caught her husband's eye, and forged on. "I'm a network administrator," she said, unruffled. "And Inigo, as you know, is a rescue hero."

"They live next door to Noah and Sally," Kuro wisecracked. Liam could tell that he was guiding the conversation away from the topic of what, precisely, Hoge did. "Did I ever tell you about their beef?"

"All in the past," Hoge said quickly, and shortly thereafter found an excuse to leave. Inigo followed.

They were silent for a while. Liam glanced between Kuro and Tamtamoi. "Where's the loo?"

He was washing his hands when a man came to the sink beside him and remarked, conversationally, "You know Inigo and Hoge are involved in organized crime, right?"

Liam met the other man's eyes in the mirror. He was fairly nondescript, this man, and dressed in a shirt and slacks. All very normal. "Yakuza," he said, voice rising at the end questioningly.

"Oh, yes." The man shook his hands out into the sink, then turned to lean against it, gripping the sides of it with his still-wet hands. "They run the underworld here. And Inigo's a professional hero. They're playing both sides so that they always come out on top."

"But isn't -"

"Hifumi's a hero, yes," the man continued smoothly, "and doing very well for himself by all accounts, even if you ignore the fact that Hailey's pockets are bottomless. But of course he knows. So does Bobby. So does Christopher. So do their wives."

Liam went to the paper towel dispenser and wiped his hands down. "They do things differently in Japan," he said, voice measured.

The man barked out a short, derisive laugh and left. Liam hadn't even had time to ask him for his name. When he left the bathroom, he linked back up with Kuro and Tamtamoi and exchanged phone numbers. "Let's go out for drinks before you head back," Kuro suggested, eyes glittering. "C'mon. We'll take you back to Shiketsu. We have alumni cards. They'll let us in."

Liam liked the sound of that very much. As they ambled towards the exit, a number of droids emerged from the wings and started to lay out food on the tables. "Faith Kang made those," Tamtamoi told him. "They're autonomous. She's not controlling them." She was just next door, apparently.

The neighbouring building contained several dozen children. Liam caught sight of Minnie's retreating back before the door slid shut behind her. Standing on tiptoes, he could just barely make out CAIN and ABEL. The former was busy playing with Maxine Nguyen's daughter - evidently retrieved safely from Shinkan Sen's back - while the latter was crawling around aimlessly. They were surrounded by adults, chattering merrily away. Liam followed Tamtamoi and Kuro to a gathering of unfamiliar faces and discreetly slipped away after a few minutes of small talk.

He seated himself on a nearby couch and tugged at his collar. It wasn't that he was concerned about Inigo and Hoge doing something (what?) to him. As far as he was concerned, as long as whatever they were doing continued to remain within Japan and didn't intrude on his life in Canada, he didn't care. No, it was just… disorienting. 1-D had been spotless, untouchable. Things kept happening to them, but they always came out clean as a whistle. Their time at Shiketsu must have been much more eventful than his; but eventful did not always mean enjoyable. Not after what had happened to Sandatsu Owari and Son Jugo.

"Can you get me a flute of champagne?" someone asked.

Liam moved without thinking. The other woman thanked him and took a sip, and it was then that he realized she was pregnant. His eyes flicked up to her face, taking her in, and that was when he realized that he was speaking to Edith Lee. It was too late, though; she'd already emptied the flute. Smacking her lips, she leaned forward with a grunt and slid it over to him. "They'll never suspect a thing," she said, quietly, and smirked at the dumbfounded expression on his face.

Liam knew Edith Lee. Well, "knew" was an overstatement. He knew that she'd done some sort of modelling campaign for an Italian high fashion brand, and that the results of said campaign had been plastered over the walls of his favourite shopping mall for a month. Last year, his cousin, Clarisse, had come back from France with dozens of outlandish stories to tell. I saw Edith Lee in the Louvre, she'd told them, and turned to him as an afterthought. You went to school with her, didn't you? He'd stammered out a half-denial, and everyone had moved on, but the encounter loomed up in his mind again and loosened his tongue.

"You're pregnant," he blurted.

Edith raised an eyebrow. "Yes," she said, unimpressed. One hand drifted to the curve of her womb protectively. "Do I know you?"

"I'm Liam," Liam said. His split-second lapse had been a mistake, but there was no way out but through. "I was in 1-E. At Shiketsu." Her expression didn't change. "Congratulations."

"I'm feeling very congratulated," Edith muttered. She turned away - a clear dismissal. Liam stood and left.

Tamtamoi and Kuro had been looking for him. Kaga was with them, Kaga Mirokazu, who looked exactly as he had over a decade ago. Liam had been a full head taller than him back in Shiketsu; Kaga now came up to his chest. He was wearing a tuxedo. "There you are," Kuro exclaimed, looping one long arm around his shoulders, dragging him over. "Liam, Kaga. Kaga, Liam."

Liam shook Kaga's hand, doing his best not to bend down too obviously. "It's good to see you. Merry Christmas."

"Likewise," Kaga said gravely. His voice still hadn't cracked.

Kaga worked in the agency that Inigo had set up with Noah. Things were going well, he said. Inigo rarely showed up nowadays, and handled most of the behind-the-scenes stuff, instead. Was he married? No. Was he dating someone? Yes, but it was a girl whom Inigo had set him up with, and it was too early to tell. They spoke for a few more minutes before Kaga murmured something about checking on someone and left.

"Poor Kaga," Kuro said, once they were sure that he was no longer in earshot.

Tamtamoi sniggered. "Poor Kaga. Did you see how flummoxed he was by you, Liam?"

Liam hadn't noticed. "Does he have a condition of some sort?" he asked.

Neither of them knew. They reminisced about Kamome Kūindō for a while, whom Val Lugosi had tricked into using a tampon to wipe her mouth for two whole weeks before Koukoka Fuhayai took pity on her. At some point, Liam glanced over his shoulder and saw Edith talking to a white-haired Japanese girl. They were leaning too close together to be proper, and Liam thought he might have seen something scaly rear up right before turning back, but he couldn't be sure.

Kuro whistled lowly and jerked his chin to the left. There was another white-haired woman standing over there (but her hair was shorter than the other white-haired woman, the one talking to Edith Lee). She was bouncing a baby on the mountainous swell of her belly, and Liam turned back before she caught him staring. "Yui Sagara," Tamtamoi muttered. "You know who knocked her up?"

Liam didn't know. Tamtamoi told him. "You're kidding me," he said.

"No," Tamtamoi replied, a slow smile spreading over his face, thin and mean, like the two (well, three) of them were in on one big private joke. "No, I'm serious. It's like a schoolyard here, man. Hey, if Koukoka and Kaga had hooked up, do you think they'd have turned out a litter like," he gestured at the churning mass of preschoolers, "that?"

"It's probably a 1-D thing," Kuro opined. "Oh, but Ashleigh, though." His eyes flicked right, and Liam caught a quick glimpse of Ashleigh Katsuragi seated cross-legged on the floor, entertaining a whole panel of toddlers with everything she had. "Man, she got fit. Remember when we were at Shiketsu? She always covered up good. But now -"

"Just saying," Liam muttered, "but maybe you shouldn't be creeping on a woman whose husband can read minds."

Kuro winced for a beat, but turned it smoothly into a smile. Instead of responding, he checked his watch. "We'd better get back," he said.

The droids from earlier had finished setting up in the dining hall. It was free seating, but at the last minute, it turned out that Christopher Cain and Imai Soujyuuro had been saving a space for their wives. Liam looked around, but could only count two nearby seats that were vacant. "It's okay," Tamtamoi said, fingers digging into Liam's arm. "Network. Socialize. Reconnect! We'll catch up later."

His tablemates introduced themselves as the sushi arrived. Whether through happenstance or not, everyone at this table was from Shiketsu. Liam learned a lot of things over dinner.

1. Max (Maxine Nguyen) was pregnant.
2. Hailey was also pregnant, but wasn't showing yet.
3. Inigo had started this yearly tradition. It was Chihiro's first time hosting such a gathering.
4. 1-D had a groupchat. (1-E also had a groupchat, but it had been silent since graduation. Liam checked furtively under the table in between courses.)
5. Ashleigh and Imai were struggling with rearing four toddlers simultaneously.
6. Imai was struggling with not reading his own children's minds.
7. Imai most probably knew why Tamtamoi and Kuro hadn't stuck around.
8. Faith and Genma worked together on-and-off on various "classified projects".
9. Two of the students from 1-C were at his table. Their names were Okimoto Chisaka and Lilinah Inoue. Liam hadn't known that they'd existed until tonight.
10. Shiketsu was working on establishing a more regular exchange programme with at least a hundred different high schools across the world. (It was Christopher's opinion that this was merely another volley in Shiketsu's ongoing war with UA.)
11. Faith and her friends had a "Mom Podcast".
12. Ashleigh's older sister had been caught up in whatever had happened with Owari. (Liam was fairly sure that he wasn't meant to know this, but he was more observant than he let on, and sharper too.)
13. Christopher taught at a university and was wavering over whether to stay part-time or transition to full-time.
14. Faith and Christopher were thinking of traveling overseas next year. (Liam recommended Toronto and told them that he would be available to show them around, no questions asked. They said they'd put that down as a point in favour of Canada.)
15. The Chisaka family was, if anything, even more prolific than Liam's own family, but nowhere near as prominent.
16. 1-C had been very, very chaotic. (Liam wondered how none of this had come up on his radar. He should have kept his eyes and ears open back when he was at Shiketsu.)

When the last course had been delivered (some kind of green tea-infused cake), his tablemates started to drift away. Liam could tell that he was likely to be the last person sitting at this table, and so elected to head off to the bathroom. His plan, such as it was, was to mingle for an hour or so, at which point he'd gravitate to the playroom and wait for Minnie and Bobby to show up so he could hitch a ride with them back to the hotel. Instead, someone did a double-take as he washed his hands at the sink.

"Sorry. Are you Liam Mc -"

"That's me." Liam regarded the other man. He was leaning on a cane of some sort, a walking stick; he had less muscle mass than was probably healthy, but his eyes were bright. "And you are…"

"Kyoda Hiro." Weak grip. Scar tissue. Scar tissue everywhere, actually. Liam connected the dots and felt some segment of his brain light up with muted horror at what Sandatsu Owari had done to him. "I couldn't help but notice - you used to be classmates with Stephan Gunn, correct?"

"Yes. Yes, I did." Liam handed the other man a few sheets of paper towel to wipe his hands with and received a nod for his troubles. "Nice to meet you."

"Yes, well…" Hiro eyed him. "Come with me."

It was even colder, this late at night, but Hiro didn't seem to notice. Liam followed him as they retraced Shinkan Sen's path. There was an immense Zen garden just east of the main building, but as Liam's eyes adjusted to the dim light, he realized that the Zen garden was actually just a small component of some much larger creature. There was a whole universe lurking just outside of what he could see that was illuminated by the lanterns hanging from the porch. Hiro's cane tapped against the footpath as he led Liam into the darkness. The breeze gave him goosebumps; Liam rubbed his hands together, coaxing moisture out of his pores, the sensation familiar against his skin.

There was still some light, this far out, but much less than was available at the dojo. Liam was just about to open his mouth when Hiro's cane went silent all of a sudden. Then:

"Liam?"

It turned out that there was a little cottage tucked away in the corner. Liam could just barely make out a thin crack of light. He had to shield his eyes as the crack rapidly blossomed into a rectangular portal that hung as if suspended in mid-air. In the doorway stood Stephan Gunn. "Stephan," Liam said. "You work here?"

"Yes," Stephan said shortly, and stood aside. His voice still sounded the same, brighter and more resonant than it had any right to be, especially coming from someone who looked like him. Liam waited to be invited in, but Hiro swept in regardless, and so he followed. The interior of the cottage was nothing unexpected; there was a table, of course, and a bed in the corner, and a desk burdened with technical drawings and doodads and little flowerpots. A map of the dojo had been affixed to the wall above the desk. Stephan poured them green tea; Liam sat and drank.

"How have you been?"

"Good."

"Do you work as a professional hero now?"

"No."

The conversation carried on in much the same vein for the next few minutes. Eventually, Liam let it be. The three of them sat in silence for some time before Stephan next spoke. He smelled the same - bitter and tangy, a smell which Liam irreverently remembered had something to do with copper and human sweat.

"You're wondering why I didn't come to the dojo," Stephan eventually said.

"Yes."

"You know."

"What?" Liam shook his head, genuinely confused, but Stephan's gaze was steady, and after a few moments he realized that he did know, actually, he just didn't want to admit it to himself. "Oh. It's Kuro and Tamtamoi, isn't it."

Stephan didn't say anything, but Liam had the sense that he'd answered correctly. "We're not friends either," he said, trying to justify himself. "We're cordial. Acquaintances, I suppose you could say. Anyway, Kuro's the one who approached me when I first arrived, and then he dragged me to meet Tamtamoi. I wasn't planning to hang around them after dinner. You know me. Back in Shiketsu, I was neutral. Friends with all, enemies with none. Switzerland."

"Everyone was neutral," Stephan said haltingly. "At best."

This was not untrue. There were a few people who had stood up for Stephan and the rest of the slightly less popular kids against the likes of Haruka Akairo and Haruka Mizuiro, but Liam knew as well as Stephan did that none of them had done it out of the goodness of their heart. Nekketsu Atsuini came the closest, and look what happened to him. Kiba Jūi was another one, but he was all ego, and Tetsuko Tenshi - ah, now Liam remembered her - she'd only stepped in when things were about to pass the point of no return.

But at least they weren't as bad as 1-C.

It was Stephan who punctured the uncomfortable silence that had settled over the room. His head - still the same odd, malformed shape, albeit slightly more dented, slightly more stylized, slightly more elaborate - snapped up, and he rose to his feet with a clang. "Someone's smoking," he said, as if to explain, and banged out of the cottage. Liam and Hiro looked at each other, and then they, too, stood to leave.

It was much easier to walk to the dojo than it was to walk from the dojo. Liam quickly outpaced Hiro, jogging up to Stephan easily, and followed him all the way up to the porch, where an ember was distinctly visible against the dark wood paneling. "No smoking," Stephan was saying reproachfully.

"Give me a break," the other guy groaned. His hair was long, not quite shoulder-length but shaggy, and his eyes gleamed violet in what little light his cigarette was emitting. "I haven't had a smoke in days."

"Smoke somewhere else," Stephan said. "Not here."

"No one's supposed to know that I'm smoking."

"Then put it out."

The man rolled his eyes and tossed the cigarette. But instead of it falling to the floor, Stephan lurched forward and caught it. It left a small scorch mark on his bronze-covered palm before he dropped it into his pocket.

"You're the guy that hitched a ride with Bobby and Minnie," the man said, and Liam jerked in surprise to be addressed. "They'll be leaving soon. You can catch them in the courtyard, I think." With that, he left.

"Well," Liam told Stephan, "it was good to see you. Really."

Stephan inclined his head and said nothing. Liam hurried into the courtyard and almost collided with the man from the bathroom.

"I never got your name," he said.

The man from the bathroom shrugged, lifting his chin. A cool, disdainful smile flickered over his lips, and Liam realized that he was buckling a cloak over his shoulders. "I'm nobody," he said, dropping a hood over his head such that his face flickered into shadow, and rose into the air, ascending so rapidly that he'd disappeared into the night sky before Liam had a chance to react.

"Oh," Liam heard, and turned around to see Minnie and Bobby with their two sons in tow.

"Hello," he said. "Heard you were leaving?"

"Yes," Minnie said. "Yes, actually. D'you want to -" and she gestured over her shoulder. Liam got the hint, hustled in past a nine-foot-tall amazon with green hair, and babbled thanks to someone whom he thought was Chihiro, and then it was up, up along the stone path, back into the carpark, back into the car, back into peace and quiet.

Except it wasn't peace and quiet because CAIN and ABEL had been silent on the way to the dojo but were most definitely not silent now. Liam wasn't in the mood to take in Kyoto at night; there were far too many things buzzing around in his head, and for the first time he understood what Oliver had told him about that melancholic mood that overtakes someone when they're on their way back from a high school reunion. He sat with the feeling for a few moments, tipped his head back against his seat, and unlocked his phone when it buzzed.

Kuro and Tamtamoi had sent him one message each. The content was roughly the same; good talk, see you around, let us know if you want to sneak into Shiketsu before you fly back. Liam spent the rest of the drive back drafting a response to the two of them, then replied to both while Minnie and Bobby were wrestling CAIN and ABEL back out into the musty, grey light of the hotel basement. He helped to hold ABEL as they argued over whether to keep the car-seat in the car or not.

When they were done, he held the lift doors for them. His room was two floors above theirs, so Bobby left first. For a few moments, it was only Minnie in the lift with him. (Well, Minnie and ABEL.)

"I don't know what we would've done without you tonight," she told him. She sounded earnest. Bobby had said something to this effect on the way back, and Liam had responded graciously enough.

"It was no trouble," Liam replied, gracious as always, gracious this time too, and waved as she retreated back out into the hallway, lift doors sliding shut.

He waited until he was back in his hotel room before unlocking his phone and dialing a number.

There was a very simple lesson that had been drilled into the heads of every member of the McDichael family from childhood: their public personas had to be squeaky-clean. The elders taught them how to smile, how to charm, how to exude that apologetic aw-shucks decency that had become a cornerstone of their brand as a family, their brand as Canada's protectors, from Victoria to Halifax, the Great White North. And when they hit puberty and their fallible human natures started to metastasize and mutate like they always did, they imparted the second half of that lesson. And it was this proverbial second half that Liam was now taking advantage of.

Hi, Gideon Solutions, how may I help you?

"It's Liam McCrae," Liam said.

The receptionist's bright tone was replaced with a man's voice, thick and cloyingly familiar. Liam. Always good to hear from you. The usual?

"No, actually." His voice was impressively steady. "I want a Korean this time. Vancouver. Around my age, give or take a couple of years. Send me a list of options."

Budget? This was why Liam liked Greg. He didn't mess around. No beating about the bush, no taunting, no teasing: just business.

Liam provided a number.

Thirty minutes.

He ran himself a bath and immersed himself in the hot water. It was heavenly after a full day of braving the cold. Liam sank like a stone, exhaling gustily, and palmed himself with a grunt.

It was a schoolboy's crush, teenage hormones run rampant. He hadn't even noticed Minnie Kim until he'd turned around on a hunch, halfway into the showers, and seen her hurtle into Bobby Samson like a wild animal, hair streaming behind her, crackling with electricity. But after that, after the tournament, he'd wanted her for all of sophomore year - and most of senior year, too. When they'd graduated he'd thought about her a few times, back in Ottawa, but after a while he'd forgotten. Now it was all back, and more fool him for it.

Ah well. A good fuck would get it out of his system.

There was a blank book in his luggage, and Liam took it out now, sliding a pair of spectacles on. They weren't actually spectacles, but contained miniaturized holographic projectors. (His eyesight was perfect.) As he leaned against his pillow and struggled to relax, the face of a girl appeared before his eyes, projected onto the paper. Full frontal, profile, social media. Full body, too. Fully-clothed, underwear, nothing. Measurements if he wanted them.

She was attractive enough, but missing something. Tip of her nose too upturned. Lips too pouty. Liam got up, rummaged in his luggage for a while, and pulled out his portable speaker. He connected it to his phone and put on some music.

Santa baby, just slip a Sable under the tree for me
Been an awful good girl
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Liam licked the tip of his index finger and turned the page. He imagined Minnie Kim singing to him, voice low and husky, palm warm on his thigh, breath warm on his ear.

Santa baby, a '54 convertible too, light blue
I'll wait up for you, dear
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Next girl squinted too much. The third one had track marks on her arms. Liam frowned and jotted down a note on his phone. Note to Greg: no druggies, how many times do I have to say this.

Think of all the fun I've missed
Think of all the fella's that I haven't kissed
Next year I could be just as good
If you check off my Christmas list