RIDA Sr understood Senjen was playing for time and played along beautifully out loud.

“It sometimes takes ten to fifteen minutes to calibrate properly. Can I help you to some refreshments? H-herbal tea, perhaps?”

Meanwhile, her frontal light display said something very different.

”There is a big gun hidden in the white suit directly behind me. There are more weapons for sale on the mezzanine.”

The droid listened to this exchange and studied the partial view they had of Senjen through the aisles of suits. There wasn’t much time left before the rest of their fireteam arrived and they did this the hard way. They locked eyes with RIDA Jr and put a finger to their face in the way Humans did sometimes.

Shhh.

Then they turned back to Light and hauled him back up.
“Last chance, pal. Tell me what your friend is carrying or I kill the girl. Their blood will be on your hands, is that what you want?”

Light shook violently. “Don’t kill her, please! Kill me instead, just please don’t hurt an innocent, she has nothing to do with it please…”

It was at this moment that the droid realised this blubbering QV actually didn’t know what they were carrying. That did make sense; if they were simple couriers, there was no point in giving them potentially dangerous intelligence on their cargo.

The droid sighed, as much as was possible, then pulled Light to the fitting room doorway.

“We’re going to go out and convince your friend to stand down. If they don’t, the girl dies. If you say something stupid or try anything at all, the girl also dies. Got it?”

Light didn’t say anything, and the droid took that for compliance. They maneuvered the reddish QV suit so they were in front of them, stuck the gun into Light’s back and walked out of the room. They turned left and started down the aisle in front towards where Rida Sr was. The floating black disc took up the rear. Rida Jr watched them go.

Senjen gave a laugh. “You know, this isn’t the first time a QV has offered me food today, weirdly enough. No, I’m fine. I’ll just...wait over there.” He answered RIDA aloud, but as soon as the droid returned inside the fitting room, he jumped into action. He did not know how long he would have, so he had to get into position as fast, and as quietly, as possible. RIDA had pointed out a gun, so he grabbed it on the way. He did not know yet what exactly it did or if it would be useful, but better to have it than to not. He took a picture of it and did an image search to try to identify it, but for now his own pistol could handle what he needed. It was quiet, with an armor-piercing projectile that would penetrate rather than flatten, minimizing collateral on impact.

For Senjen’s plan, he floated up above the mezzanine. There were other weapons there, but since he needed to be careful not to make too much noise, he could not waste time with them. He had two ideas of what to do, depending on what the droid did, but both had him taking similar positions. He went up to the ceiling, securing himself in place so that he would be looking straight down on the droid when it came out from under the mezzanine. He had intended to message Light and get him to try to convince the droid to come out to the front, but from what he could see from the daughter’s view, it was doing that on its own.

Senjen, more than ever, needed to be precise. He had never been in a gunfight before, but this was really a lot more like his time at the shooting range. Locked into a stable position, lining up his shot carefully, and shooting a slow moving target at close range. He could do that. With the fact that he could lock his arm, keep it perfectly steady, and shoot with complete stability, he had hit reliably accurate shots at much longer ranges than this. This was all well-within his ability, as long as he kept a cool head and avoided panicking.

The droid moved out towards the front, and through the daughter’s view, he could see it was pushing Light ahead as a hostage. No problem, he could still make the shot at this angle, since the backdrop of the shot was the floor, not his friend. With what he had said to RIDA, the fact that Senjen was not immediately in view would not be instantly alarming, so he would hopefully get a chance to take that shot. Without detailed knowledge of the droid’s internals, he couldn’t know exactly where to aim to drop it in one shot, and he didn’t really want to kill regardless. He just had to stop the threat with the first shot, else Light could end up getting hit.

Since he knew about when the droid was stepping out from under the mezzanine, Senjen was as ready as he could be, his arm locked into place and his pistol on target. From directly above, he took aim at the droid’s gun. Though it was worryingly close to Light’s body, this was close range and he knew he could make the shot, so he took it. By disarming the droid, he hoped to be able to get it to stand down, so as soon as he took the shot, he shouted out. “Hold there! Let’s talk.”

Rewrite

Senjen’s first shot hit the target. The droid’s pistol was pulled from their hand and onto the floor in two pieces. They let go of Light and stepped back under cover of the mezzanine since they had only just emerged from under it.

Undeterred, the droid reached behind them and grabbed a much larger assault weapon which clicked out from inside its back.

“Senjen watch out!” Light warbled out loud, struggling to break his suit free of the control pad’s vice-like grip.

The droid aimed straight up and fired a spray of thirty thin, high velocity tungsten slivers into the mezzanine floor where they thought Senjen had been. It produced a sound like hail landing on a tin roof. Several suits on a chain at the front of the mezzanine pulled free and floated towards the roof. In the chaos, the black disc floated quickly up and went to hide with a translucent suit between it and the Utaysi.

Rida Sr scrambled for cover. RIDA Jr floated away from the droid to the furthest fitting room while they weren’t looking.

“You still alive, Senjen? I just need that file!” The droid called, looking around quickly only to discover RIDA Jr had disappeared. They stalked towards the back of the warehouse, eyes on a swivel.

The warning from Light ended up being a lot of help, because a moment after Senjen moved out of the way, several shots hit right where he used to be. Aside from fear, there were more than a few frustrated thoughts in his mind. ”Of course it had another gun. Why wouldn’t it? Why couldn’t something just be easy for a change today?”

Senjen scanned the area around the mezzanine. Options, he needed options. The motion of one of the gel suits floating up towards nearby caught his eye. Quickly, he reached out and grabbed it as it passed nearby, its momentum putting him into a slow spin as he pulled it close to himself. These suits had speakers for when QV needed to speak verbally, so he activated and made a connection with them, then pushed the suit somewhere vaguely above the area where he thought the droid had backed off to. Even better than just keeping the droid from tracking his voice, talking through the speakers might trick it into tracking his voice inaccurately.

Senjen himself stabilized his movement with the nearby shelving, then spoke by proxy through the gel suit. “And I was really needing to have a conversation without waving guns at each other. If you’re with who I think you’re with, then I know what you think is in my head, and how valuable that is to your boss. Might be worth considering that, if you hurt anyone here, I can destroy this data in an instant. Your boss will never know if I was carrying what they were looking for, and they’ll have to keep up this expensive manhunt for who knows how long. Might be a lot easier, and a lot cheaper, for them if we discuss this. Politely.”

The droid stopped for a moment at that, before kicking open the door of the last fitting room. As predicted, RIDA Jr was curled up in there with another control pad. She screamed when they reached in to grab her and hit a button.

Light found that the pressure on his body relaxed, and he could move his own suit! He pushed off towards the front door and then hid behind an aisle-end next to RIDA Sr. Poking out onto the adjacent aisle so the droid wouldn’t see, he signed up to Senjen.

“I’m free! Let's get out of here!”

“I’ll offer you a deal right now.” The droid called as he punched the writhing QV suit and pulled RIDA Jr out into the area bordering the garage. They struggled to hold both their hostage and their gun, but managed to get a secure platform then looked up at the ceiling above.

The black disc, which appeared to have successfully hidden near Senjen on the mezzanine, surveyed the area and relayed his position back to the droid. They aimed their gun up above them.

“I’ll swap you the girl for what's in your head. If I don't get it, or I don’t like what I see, she’s dead. Then the rest of my team and I will kill you all. Don't bother calling for help, comms are jammed.”

Light swore. RIDA Sr grabbed him and shook him.

“You have to rescue her, please! This is your fault!”

“Clock’s ticking. Do we have a deal?”

Light looked up at Senjen again, and didn't know what to say or do.

Senjen was still able to see through the daughter’s point of view, and while it was still hard to make out fine details, there were still at least two things he could gather from her perspective. One, he had a good idea of where the droid was standing on the floor below, in relation to him. Two, he could see that the droid was aiming up straight at him, rather than the source of his voice. Aside from how anxious that fact made him, it also implied that the droid had a way to see him. Senjen avoided giving an obvious reaction, but paid attention to try and figure out how.

Letting the QV die was out of the question, obviously, but just doing a handover on the droid’s terms did not seem wise. Not only did he have a responsibility to Light, but doing everything on the droid’s terms would give it the power to kill whoever it wanted, whenever. “I’m willing to make a deal, uh...random droid, but just putting this out there: anyone gets hurt or killed here, and your chance of getting the data disappears forever. I would destroy it before anyone could even have a chance of taking it from me. In fact...I’m putting the data on a dead man’s switch. I start shutting down for any reason, and the last operation my processor performs is to destroy the data. Now, let’s talk counteroffers. See, I always keep my word and never break a contract, but lucky for you, my contract is with Light. Not Light’s employer. If Light says sell, I sell, and we could sell it just for our delivery price. I guarantee that’s cheaper than what your employer would have to pay to smooth things over after shooting up an innocent shopkeeper. Probably the easiest, cheapest option you have.”

The droid paused, still holding RIDA Jr still with one hand. Their head swivelled slowly to look towards Light and RIDA Sr, who cowered behind a few layers of floating gel suits.

”The Vermillion Consortium will be furious if we give away their cargo. There goes my treatment plan.” Light sighed and studied Senjen as if he were a mirror. He felt resigned to the situation, despite the dire ramifications for him. He just didn’t have it in him to sacrifice these hapless QV.

”What is going on?” RIDA flashed at him.

”Don’t worry. You and your daughter will be free to go soon.

“What is your delivery fee?” The droid replied eventually.

“Fifty million Galactic credits!” Light called from across the shop, not daring to show his face. That was in fact double what he had agreed with the VC, but he was going to need a bit of ‘danger money’ if this was truly the route they were heading down.

“That is acceptable. We will have to check the file to verify its authenticity. My Monitor will approach you with a drop box. Remain calm and still.” The droid said immediately.

There was a bit of noise from out the front of the shop, like a few sets of feet activating the magnetic pavement nearby. The corrugated side access gate rattled lightly.

The black disc that had been hiding near Senjen emerged from behind a gel suit and floated closer to the Utaysi. It sent a request for him to execute the file in an isolated virtual environment.

The droid was willing to deal, which was more than a bit of a relief. Senjen did not see any other way to save the QV, with the situation as it was. If Light did not agree to take the deal, then he would try, but he would not expect to succeed. Of course, anyone would be a fool to hand over all leverage at once, so he would do his best to approach this with good business sense.

“Alright then, now let’s be honest with each other, the chances that we just happened to land in the same hanger as you with exactly what you’re looking for, out of all the thousands of other places we could have landed, are pretty slim. So, set your expectations. What I’ll do is make a copy of the file and send it for you to verify. If it is what you’re looking for, then we’ll exchange the money for the original. Either the file or the money are worth the same to me, so I don’t care which I walk away with. If it’s not what you’re looking for, then I’ll ask that you destroy the copy, and we forget this ever happened. I’ll even leave you with my business card, if your boss ever wants to work together.” Senjen said, then followed through to make a copy of the file and sent it to the droid’s monitor as requested.

The front door of the warehouse opened, and a chime sounded. Light turned and recoiled at the sight of another identical combat droid pointing a gun at him. RIDA Sr made to run away but he stopped her, then presented a pliant colour display. The robot stalked into the room, quickly surveying it while keeping their weapon trained on the pair of visible QV.

Behind the droid came a Human female in full combat gear. Light didn’t think it was the same one as they’d talked to in the hangar, but frankly they all looked alike to him so he couldn’t be sure.

“Hello gentlemen. Thanks for waiting - I’m Connie." So not the same Human after all.

“Lets have a little chat up there, shall we?” She pointed up to where Senjen was before gracefully lifting off and floated up towards the mezzanine.

“Put the shopkeepers together.” She ordered, and the droid closest to Light grabbed RIDA Sr.

“Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you.” Light tried to look reassuring, even though he was terrified himself. He then made to follow Connie up to the mezzanine. As he did so, he noticed the corrugated side access door rattled open and a third droid padded inside. They were now well and truly surrounded.

“Let's see what we have here, shall we?” The Human said curtly as soon as she landed next to Senjen. She flicked on a wrist readout and studied the copy of the file given to the monitor.

Light gave his assistant a worried look as he arrived too. “You ok? Unhurt?”

“Ok. We’ll take this file off your hands and give you fifty million credits.” Connie started after a pregnant pause.

“But none of us want the VC to know they’ve been cheated. Least of all you. So we’re going to give you a file to deposit with them that looks identical. You can collect your money from them too, and continue working with them. Everybody wins. Alright?”

The arrival of backup for the droid was initially worrying, though thinking about it, Senjen supposed it did not really change much. The first droid already outgunned him, so the only way this would turn out well would be by making a deal. Having more of their guards around did probably cut off the option of being able to run, though if they had been that close before, then fleeing probably would have failed by the time Light was free. At least this way, they were dealing directly with someone who seemed to have some authority in their organization, instead of a foot soldier who may or may not have even been sapient. When it came to alien AI, he had a hard time telling which ones were even truly alive, and which ones just had convincing personality routines.

Senjen stayed calm and quiet at first while the Human examined the copy, at least outwardly. He did find that trying to think rationally about the situation had something of a calming effect, but he could not deny feeling much of the same fear that Light was showing outwardly. QV had a harder time hiding their emotions than even most organics, which Senjen supposed could let himself seem more cool-headed by comparison. True or not, it was useful.

“No damage here.” Senjen answered to Light while they waited, before giving his new suit a look over from top to bottom. “Hmm, so you went with red. Neat.”

In any case, Senjen’s gaze snapped back onto the Human once she spoke up again, and the offer she made did actually help to genuinely calm him, to an extent. The kind of offer she was making was the sort where they would actually want the two of them to walk away for practical reasons aside from cost-effectiveness. “So, the file was actually what you were looking for. Wild that we ended up in the same hangar.” He shrugged. “Well, personally, I think that is a deal I would agree to: the original file for the money and a fake.” He said, taking a moment to set up a trade for his file. “I’m ready to make the exchange, as long as you agree, Light.”

Light undulated gladly upon learning Senjen was unhurt.

“I’m about ready to live as a desert hermit after this.” was the wry retort to the Utaysi’s comment about his suit. Light felt bad for mocking the elder QV’s choice of suit considering all the distress they’d caused. He was just desperate to relieve the nervous tension while Connie examined the file.

Connie gave Senjen a stiff smile when he commented on the outrageously unlikely odds of their meeting.

“Our job is to make the impossible a reality.”

Light slouched when it came for him to make the big decision.

“I have worked for the VC for a long time, and had no intention of betraying them. But I don’t see we have much of a choice, thanks to you.” He gave the Human a flash of anger, hurt. Connie didn’t react.

“Make the exchange, let's get this over with.” He said resignedly.

She immediately extended a hand for Senjen to touch. Contact between them would pass 50m GC and a small data packet in exchange for the correct file from Senjen’s memory.

“And your business card, so we can contact you.” Connie said once it was done.

“Now, conclude the drop as normal. We will monitor you until it is complete, for your safety.”

Senjen held up one hand and retracted its claws, then gave the Human his handshake to trigger the trade. On his part, there were no tricks. It had probably been wise for him to keep leverage up to this point, but at some point, they had to carry out the deal. In this case, a mutual exchange of his file for the money and the fake was rather secure. He tucked away the new file in the same place as the old, then passed along a digital business card containing his public contact address, as requested. To be honest, he was not sure how he felt about this organization considering the way their droid was willing to act, but it could not be denied that they more than had the ability to pay. Besides, if this file was really as important as they were saying, maybe some of their more desperate actions were at least understandable.

“Alright, I have it.” Senjen confirmed. He gave a glance back down to the ground floor, towards the shop’s entrance. He wanted to get moving as soon as they could, if for no other reason than to finally let the shopkeepers have some peace and quiet. They really did not deserve the trouble that had been brought to their doorstep. Now that he had the payment, Senjen connected to Light’s implant to confirm a transfer to him for most of what he had been given. Despite them having been paid quite a bit more than their expected delivery fee, Senjen still only kept his originally agreed-upon payment. “Are we good to go? Do you have everything taken care of for your new suit, Light?”

Connie shook Senjen’s hand, then grasped it tightly when he made to move away and leaned in ever so slightly.

“Remember. Make sure you drop this off without raising suspicion.” Then she leaned out again and smiled.

“You’re free to go, gentlemen. Safe travels.” She released Senjen’s hand, and gave Light a casual salute.

Light shivered as he looked from the Human to down on the mezzanine floor. His suit could make out tiny holes all over the deck where tungsten bolts had pierced just minutes ago. He dragged his gaze out over the shop too. The only thing he could see was the droid by the door looking directly back at him.

“There’s just one thing I need to do, Senjen…Can I go see the owners of this shop?” He directed the last bit back to Connie. She pursed her lips then nodded.

“Make it quick.”

The QV floated down from the mezzanine and headed to outside the fitting rooms. The mother and daughter combination had been joined by a strapping young son huddled on the floor. He must have come out of the staff area when he heard the commotion. Two droids stood over them.

Light approached gingerly, aware all three of them were staring balefully at him for apparently causing so much trouble. He detached a small blob of gel from his suit about the mass of the access card they’d been given earlier. He then loaded two million credits onto it and flicked it over to them. The daughter hesitantly grabbed it up.

“For the damage. Sorry.” Light said bluntly, before scurrying away and out the front door as quickly as possible.

“Is it terrible that I feel relieved to be alive? That was strange, right? Those poor people…” He blabbed to Senjen as they fled down Tanguska Boulevard.

“I don’t know how we can lie to the VC. They find out everything eventually.”

“Well, no one died, right? I think that’s something that makes sense to be relieved about.” Senjen answered. Thinking back on it, he honestly felt that he should have been even more terrified in the moment than he had been. The droid had shot at him, and without Light’s warning, he would have been hit. The true extent of the danger had not really occurred to him while his mind was caught in the moment. He supposed that was a good thing, else panic could have caused the situation to end up much worse. Although, now, the possibilities of what could have happened were weighing on his mind the more he imagined them. It would have been even worse if they had not been able to save the shopkeepers. He was glad Light had been the one to face them, because he was already guilty for how much trouble they had caused them.

After a few moments of silence, Senjen tried to focus back in on the here-and-now. “I mean, maybe they’re not infallible? This group seems pretty serious, so I imagine they’ve got the resources to make a good fake. Besides, even if they do learn it isn’t the right file, they might not know where along the way they got tricked. The file passed through more hands than ours before we got it, and it could always have been that the whole thing was a setup, from the VC’s perspective. They could have stolen a fake file from the beginning.”

Senjen shrugged. “I’ll admit, you know them better than I do. Who are the VC, anyway?”

Light hummed in general acquiescence at what Senjen said.

“Perhaps you’re right. We may have to plead ignorance and throw ourselves on their mercy.”

The QV did find he was warming to the Utaysi a little more after their shared experience. He had given away that they were carrying precious cargo, but had the nous to negotiate with the strangers and extricate themselves from the situation. Senjen seemed like a practical, useful sort of assistant to keep around right now.

“The VC is a bit of a mystery to me, quite frankly. I never deal with them directly, just through intermediaries like this restaurant we’re heading to. l I get the sense they have interests in a great many areas, as they’ve had me transport things from all over this sector. So perhaps the VC is a group of different businesses with a common goal?”

“Hmm, I’ve read that laws on Korit are pretty loose; I’m surprised the VC even bother hiding themselves like that. Though, I guess they still have competition and such.” Senjen shrugged. By this point, they had moved beyond the market and were ready to get back on-track to the restaurant. Business in the world outside was still marching on, unaware of anything that had just transpired. Even if they had been, would they even have cared? Korit was a world run by what most of the rest of the galaxy would consider criminal organizations, so how rare was that sort of danger and violence, really? Looking out over the bustling crowds of this massive city all around him, it still did not feel that way on the surface. He could not imagine that they could create a place as impressive as this while living in fear.

With the pedestrian lines above them, Senjen stopped and gestured for Light to hold on to him like before. They probably did not need to waste any more time getting to the drop-off. “You know, you’re going to be getting quite a bit more of a payday than you thought, and you’ve just been through a lot. Maybe after this, we should just head down to the surface? Relax a while. I think you deserve a break. Both of us, really, and I would love to see Korit.”

“In a place with no law, anonymity is the next best thing. You can’t retaliate against something that doesn’t really have a presence. I thought I had that anonymity too, but it seems no longer…Serves me right for not bringing my BangStick with me.”

Light was quite pleased to be able to grasp onto Senjen’s tail again. His new suit made him feel a lot better, but that ordeal had still taken quite a lot out of him. He could still feel the pressure on his respiratory system where the droid had been choking him.

“Hmm, perhaps. I’m not sure I can really ‘relax’ until this thing inside me is gone. But I suppose a couple of days wouldn’t hurt. I hear there is a full QV hunting park somewhere. And a beach! I could test out my new suit…For now though, let's just focus on getting this job done. Then we can take stock.”

The rest of the journey to the Guangzhou restaurant took about half an hour. It was a tall, thin building at the end of a terraced street with more tall buildings either side. It had a large neon sign at the top, and five floors with plenty of windows. A magnetised walkway led down the street towards it with bollards either side to encourage walking over floating.

Light studied the building and shivered once they were within line of sight. Despite it being the middle of the day, he couldn’t see anyone outside on this street.

“I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

Senjen had no idea what a QV hunting park was, but he would be glad to try anything to explore a new planet. Alien cultures and experiences, that was why he had taken this job to begin with, and it would be much easier to enjoy it outside the stress of this job in particular. For most of their trip across the station, he was searching through the net for interesting attractions on Korit, and imagining what even more interesting options might only be familiar to locals.

Upon their arrival at the restaurant, Senjen was distracted enough that he might not have noticed anything was amiss had Light not spoken up. He closed out his searches and took a look around, quickly piecing together what Light was probably talking about. “I’ll be honest, clearing out a street seems like a pretty awful way to stay anonymous.”

Instead of heading inside right away, Senjen paused, trying his best to quickly consider the situation, but he really did not have much to compare this to. Was this normal or expected in some way? He had never dealt with a group like the VC, but his first instinct was that there was someone else involved here. Light had just made a point a few minutes ago about the fact that the VC preferred to operate without a traceable presence, so going out of their way to clear out a public street seemed to be just about as strongly opposed to that goal as could be. He sent a quick message to Light, rather than speaking aloud. “I need to trust your judgment on this; you’re way more experienced with them than I am. Is this something they would normally do?”

“Hmmm. Not really. I haven’t come this far off my ship on a job before, but most drops are somewhere with lots of people. Maybe the restaurant just isn’t…doing well?” The concept of having food prepared and delivered to your table didn’t appeal to Light much. Some QV still had a deep-seated desire to capture or cultivate their own food. Hence why he had his own little aquarium farm on the ship. That tube of paste earlier was obligatory nerve-sustenance, not a happy choice.

“I think if they were suspicious they probably would have dealt with us before we got here. Let's go to the front and use the handshake I was given. Remain vigilant of our surroundings and be ready to flee.”

It wasn’t until they got closer to the front of the building that you saw it was all shielded. They passed through an almost imperceptible barrier just before vaulting a short set of steps to the doors. They slid open for them, and a comfortable warm breeze rippled Light’s suit as they ventured inside.

They were in a well-appointed reception chamber. Seats for various species littered the walls, soft rugs covered the floor and sumptuous artworks in relief laden the ceiling. They mostly depicted Humans and other unrecognisable organics.

A Human man and a woman stood magnetised to the floor. They were dressed in what Light presumed were smart suits of this particular style. They both had their heads bowed when they entered, but the woman looked up and offered a friendly smile as they approached.

“Welcome to the Guangzhou club and restaurant. How may I help you?”

“Only if the cherry blossom is in full bloom?” Light replied, repeating the phrase he’d been told.

“Very well, sir. My colleague will show you to your table.” The woman replied, her smile not faltering. The man looked up and nodded to them both, gesturing for them to follow.

Light looked at Senjen and gave the QV-equivalent of a shrug, then followed.

The building was roughly rectangular, with an enormous atrium in the middle. Four more floors opened out above them, with guide ropes for diners to safely navigate between them. Attached to the ceiling of this atrium was an object that at first glance looked to be a giant chandelier. But it didn't look quite right somehow. It was gunmetal grey and too bulky to just be a set of lamps; some of the appendages weren’t even emitting anything perceivable. Light pointed it out to Senjen.

“That's how I know we’re in the right place.” He said, cryptically referring to the VC. There was always some strange, dangerous looking tech hanging around where they were involved.

The waiter took them up a guide rope to the top floor at the back. Dining areas ringed the atrium, all with large plate windows out over the city and numerous different seating configurations. Light did spot people of different species eating, but only enough to fill one in every twenty tables. All the wait staff were Humans dressed in smart red waistcoats over crisp white shirts and dress trousers.

On the back of each floor was an expansive open kitchen ringed by VIP seating and more large windows. The receptionist led them towards the chef’s pass, where another man in a dark suit, white bowtie and white straw hat ate hungrily from a bowl. He looked up as they touched down nearby.

“Notice anything untoward yet?” Light messaged Senjen privately.

“Help you?” The man asked, putting the lid on his bowl. He had slicked back hair and a small growth of hair around his mouthparts.

“Umm…Only if the cherry blossom is in full bloom?”

The man laughed.

“Hand it over.”