Heroes

Next up, the Kondas. (They also said yes. It was easy to find her house since it had a giant sign with their name on the garden, decorated with aesthetically pleasing cartoons of various animals).

The girl with horns also claimed to be supporting Stella, who believed her once the girl informed that the pie had been very tasty. (It was also easy to find her house because the roof had also been customized to have horns.)

That left Kou, Asaba, Irina, and Mrs. Aoyama as suspects. Rebecca didn't count since she'd just returned, and Stella would obviously say yes. Out of the four of them, which one was most likely to say no? (Kou.) Mrs. Aoyama had allegedly defended her back during the failed tea party, as had Asaba, so that ruled them out. (It was Kou.) Irina and Stella had bonded through underwear, peach pie and the mushroom mafia. (So it was Kou.) Then, who was left?

An enemy drone followed Stella on her way to Kou's house. She'd left Islazarus under Tsukiko's care. Why had Shigure passively-aggressively complained about being a social worker in the past? It seemed as though they got paid for doing nothing all day.

Before Stella could knock, Kou opened the door. He wore the trenchcoat and hat again. "No," he said.

Stella tried an Asaba glare. "Why not?"

"Becca's cheating on me. If you help me kill her, then I'll say yes." Since Stella didn't reply for obvious reasons, Kou added, "I know you can do it. You're a war machine, right? Or did you lie? No, you did not. So help me or else."

"Or else?"

Kou tried an Asaba glare of his own. If it looked that ridiculous, then Stella would never try it again. "Right," he said. "You're on their side. I thought you were one of the good ones."

"I... am one of the good ones?"

Before Kou slammed the door shut, Stella used her arm as a stopper. It 'hurt'. "Oh, fuck," was Kou's opinion on the subject, after which he opened the door again. "What's... what... will it fall off?"

"Yes," lied Stella. "System detects critical failure. Please let me in to rest while I attempt self-repair."

Kou leered at her.

Stella collapsed, gripping her arm. Perhaps it'd be more convincing if she pretended like she was in the battlefield, with no hope, no backup plan, no barrier between herself and the end of things... like when she'd 'died', essentially. She collapsed.

"You're so dramatic!" Kou accused, heartlessly. "I know you're lying now! I thought you were one of the good ones. I ca..." He shriveled.

Why? Because Shigure approached them—hastily so. Of course he had to show up NOW of all times. Stella should've scanned her surroundings. She would've, in the past. All this lollygagging was making her listless, and silly. Bob would be shocked. Everyone would. What a terrible fall from grace...

Then Shigure picked her up and all of Stella's regrets vanished. "What did you do?" He asked Kou, whose fight or flight response had activated (and who'd then proceeded to choose 'freeze'). "Why is she... Stella? Can you hear me?"

Stella had turned her eyes off for realism purposes. 

"She... she's..." That was Kou. "I wasn't...  she..." He ran off, into his home, leaving the door open.

Meanwhile, at the front steps, Shigure not-so-gently patted her cheek. "What are you doing? I can see you smiling. Looks creepy as fuck. I know you didn't die or whatever, just so you know."

Stella turned her eyes back on, then closed them.

"Stella."

He sounded more annoyed than concerned. Rude. Against her best interest, Stella opened her eyes, pouting at him. "At least sound concerned," she mumbled. "Don't look at me like that. I hate the dog piss stare."

So then he just looked confused. "The what."

"That's the why-are-you-silly stare."

"That's because you are!"

"Hmph." Admittedly, she was.

When Shigure attempted to let her go, Stella clung to him, which surprised even her. It'd happened without 'thinking'. It didn't matter why, really, or how. It felt nice. It felt safe. But he gently placed her down again, and this time, Stella did not resist. "What were you doing?" He asked, softly.

"...you might judge me." Shigure gestured for her to go on, so she did. "I strongly believe Koufern is the one who's saying no to the coffee shop. Thus, I came here to persuade him. Then I was attacked and suffered critical damage."

"...right."

"Wrong." Kou's voice came not from him, but a dr*ne, hovering above them. "You demand favors yet refuse to return them, and now it's two against one. It's not fair. Tell your yakuza husband to leave. Or else."

...so Kou... had been the original drone owner... 

Shigure had the restraint not to tell Kou not to screw himself, though with his sniper stare, words were unnecessary. "It's one of those days," he mumbled, "Again." Out loud, he said, "Fine," and then, "Gray can probably solve this, anyw—"

"NO! Fine, fine, you can come in." The drone hovered inside the house. "Hurry."

"Hurry," Shigure told Stella. 

"Hurry," Stella told Shigure. 

They stared at each other until, wordlessly, he walked in. Not even three steps later, something crunched: a half-full bag of potato chips. When Shigure stepped back, he knocked a half-empty bottle of soda over, staining the pile of clothes next to it. He clenched his jaw. 

"Unfortunate," Stella said as she walked in, only to slip on another bag of chips.

"Unfortunate," Shigure said as he caught her. He smiled, smugly so. 

The drone, floating in the middle of the living room, 'spoke' with Kou's voice once again. "Close the door," it said. Stella did so using her tail, for she didn't feel like stepping anywhere any more than necessary. "Good. Since it has come to this, I suppose your husband can also be part of the plan. If either of you say anything... say goodbye to your shop."

"Understood." Shigure said this right as Stella opened her mouth. She got it now. Whenever he was in a foul mood, he'd take it out on her. He even snorted when she whipped him with her tail again. Villain.

"Good," continued the drone. "What you guys need to do is quite simple: stalk Becca. Once you see her with the other guy, compile evidence, and bring it to me. I'll say yes to the survey IF you manage to do this."

Why had he changed the terms of their contract? Not that Stella would've fulfilled it either way, but still. "Und—ow." Shigure winced this time. Stella stepped away immediately. No more tail-whipping. Bad Stella.

"Under... stood," she replied. "I'm sorry."

"Eh. Don't worry."

But it'd hurt and it showed, whether he meant it or not. This happened whenever Stella got too comfortable with people. Unaware of the heartless, bloodthirsty killing machine he'd invited into his home, Kou went on: "I hope you two understand how bad cheating is. It ruins lives."

"Mhm," said...? Shigure.

"Good." There was a pause, some scrambling behind the scenes. Did Kou not know that one could mute drones? Another one emerged from the hallway, with a scrap of paper attached to its spidery 'legs'. "I got an invoice from this place earlier. She'll go to the building that has a red cross in, uh... fifty minutes I think. So go there and collect evidence. And remember, cheating is very bad and if you do it you're bad."

"Mhm."

"Say it," Kou demanded.

"Cheating is very bad and if you do it you're bad."

Stella repeated it, too. The drone slammed itself against the door until it opened. "Now go," said Kou. "Time is money."

Shigure's I-yearn-to-be-disassembled face was back. Stella had bought a skirt with pockets specifically to be able to mimic him. Whether he noticed this or not was a mystery, though she kind of hoped he would. "Just in case," he hold her once he'd guided Stella to her house, "Assuming he's the asshole who's been spying on you, he probably thinks that you're cheating on me too, and that's why he's saying all of this. If Rebecca is actually doing it, then... yeah, I don't know. Sucks. The system will flag me if I stalk anyone, though, so."

"I'm not cheating on you," Stella replied.

"I—I know. We're not even..." He trailed off. "I'll think of something. You go do that. Or we could just, I don't know, convince somebody else? Why not just bribe some other neighbor?"

"Understood."

After a pause, Shigure said, "I didn't think you'd agree."

"I normally would not, but I'd rather commit a crime than commit... another crime."

"Well, great. It's settled, then."

It didn't work.