The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction

The shopping center was notably fuller this time. As in, there were more than twenty people. The teashop was open, with an android clerk and a single customer: one of the mushroom mafia members. Stella would've said hi, but he was... reading... a book... 

For the meantime, they sat on a bench at the main lobby.

Since Rebecca wasn't an enemy, Stella told her about her scheme. "I know," was Rebecca's response. "I figured that's the reason why you told me to come with you." The real reason was that Stella wanted to be pretty like Rebecca, but to find the person sabotaging Stella's coffee shop plans would also be nice. "So? Divide and conquer or what? To be honest with you, I get along with Irina, but her friend... I dunno... I've heard bad things about him."

"So you're saying Asaba is the villain?"

Rebecca smiled, but while it was sincere, it... wasn't? Her eyebrows disappeared into her fringe. Condescending was more like it. Or familiarity? "Nope. I'm not saying that. If he's one of the, uh, heroes, then that means you know him already, soo... how about you talk to him and I talk to Irina?"

"One of the heroes... but you treat him like a villain?"

"I just don't like the guy. I don't wanna see him. Happy?"

She could've just said that from the start, but Stella digressed. Even Rebecca could be silly outside of catgirl scenarios. "Understood," replied Stella. "I kindly request fashion advice once our mission ends, though."

"Of course." Rebecca winked.

Stella tried to wink back, but it just looked as though she'd blinked very hard.

Naturally, Rebecca snorted. "I'll be at Irina's shop once you're done. It's the big lingerie store on the second floor."

"Und..." Shigure's balls buzzed. Stella look out the holo-screen from the pocket of her skirt. "Shigure sent a message. Wait. It says 'how is everything going'... how... how do I reply..."

"Show me." Rebecca stood beside her, then tapped tapped tapped. "Here. Just type out the response. Or you can send a voicemail if you press the microphone on the right."

Stella pressed it. "Yes," she replied, then sent it. For some reason, Rebecca's ears flattened. "Did I do something wrong?" She shook her head. "Did it send?" She nodded. "Then why do you react that way? Would you like to say hi?"

"Um. Sure." Rebecca pressed the button this time. "Hello, Fuyukawa. Stella and I went shopping. Everything's going fine."

The screen showed 'seen' below the message almost immediately. When a voice mail from him showed up, Stella tapped at it. "Hello, Rebecca. Thank you for taking care of her. Yeah, I figured things would end up like this. Have fun, Stella, and remember to message me once you want to buy something. See you."

"Ah." How... short. But she couldn't tell him to talk again, could she? That would be silly. Stella played it again anyway.

When she came to, Rebecca wasn't smiling anymore. In fact, from the corners of her eyes, she leered at Stella. It wasn't nice. "You told me he'd just found out. So he doesn't mind, or...?"

"I'm not sure," Stella replied. "Do you think he would?"

"I don't know the guy. Do you think he would?"

"Unsure." Stella pressed the microphone icon anyway. Might as well try. "Hello. Talk to me again. Please."

"You're asking him now!?"

"You told me to."

Another voicemail from Shigure. It said: "I'm kind of busy right now, but I guess... give me five. I'll call you in a bit."

To which Rebecca said, "Kou would never. You know what he'd say? 'Talk to yourself'. But yeah, I'll... give you two privacy. I'll be at Irina's place for the meantime. See ya."

"Chair in Spanish?"

Rebecca waved at her, then left. Stella stared at the holo-screen for five minutes. No call. It made sense, though, if Shigure was busy. It'd be fine. She had a mission to complete.

She didn't feel like treating Asaba as a villain. Regardless of impressions, he'd been nothing but nice to her so far. He'd defended her from both the neighbors and the mushroom mafia. He'd given her fashion advice. None of that struck her as particularly villainous. His past? To judge someone based on their past made sense unless this clashed with their present. 

To ignore someone's efforts to improve based on something they couldn't change was, by itself, evil, but Stella digressed. She could just be putting herself in Asabob's shoes. To humans, that was empathy. To robots, it was mimicry.

She almost dropped the holo-screen when Shigure called her. Thankfully, another of society's unchanging pattern was green good, red bad, so Stella just had to press on the 'good' button. "Yes," she greeted.

"No," replied Shigure. "What is it? Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to hear you."

"Oh." Hopefully the following silence wasn't him being mean on purpose. "I'm kind of, um. Would... wouldn't you want to talk to Gray instead?"

"Hmph. Why does everyone keep bringing Isla up lately?"

"I mean." Another pause. "Aren't you two a thing?"

"...yes?"

"Well, there you go. Talk to him, not me."

Stella was baffled. "I don't... but you're also a thing?"

"Sometimes I wonder if you're obtuse on purpose."

Shigure was making NO sense. None. Nobody was. This was like solving a crossword puzzle with the lights off. Like teaching a guppy to play tennis. Like using underwear over the... wear. "And you're acute," she grumbled, then hung up.

When she saw Asaba sitting on the bench next to hers, she almost dropped Sh*gure's balls. He played on a game console of sorts, not a phone, though based on the way he waved once she hung up, he must've been waiting for her. "Yo. Irina and her friend told me you wanted to talk to me."

Stella held the 'closed' holo-screen to herself for some reason. She nodded.

"By the way, if I were you, I'd clear that mess as soon as possible."

"Mess?"

"Just to clarify, who are you with? Romantically?"

Stella almost said 'no one'. "Shigure."

"Only him?"

"I... suppose?"

"Then why not just say that?"

"Please," Stella said. "You're the only one who isn't silly. Please. Rebecca and Shigure are mad at me but I don't understand why. They make no sense. Are you saying 'no' to the survey? Is it you? Are you a villain? You're not, right? Because you're the only one who isn't silly."

Asaba smiled but, while this reached his eyes, it didn't. "Trust me, I've been saying 'yes' every day. Pretty sure Aoyama and Irina are the same. I don't know about the rest, since most of them don't talk to me."

"Why?"

"Why do you think? You talked to Irina for more than thirty seconds, so I know you know."

Was it possible that Asaba's poor reputation could be due to Irina's Islaesque babbling? But they were friends. Why would she do something like that?

"Aaanyway, if that's what you wanted to talk about then... yeah. I've been supporting you from the start."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Why not?"

Why?

Why help a stranger out?

Why see one similarity over a hundred differences?

Why not?

"I understand," Stella replied. "Thank you."

"Thank you."

He'd said that in a very similar intonation to Rei back during the pie-mushroom incident. Why? Because familiarity did that. There was a reason why Shigure could predict Stella's responses and viceversa. "I can help, too," she said. "If... once... I open the coffee, milk, and peach pie shop, I want everyone there to be happy. I want everyone to feel safe and warm. It's nice. It's nice to belong. That's what I think."

"Me too," Asaba replied. "It's a good aspiration to have."

Stella squished her cheeks to hold back the grin.

Asaba stole it. "I'm sure you'll open it. I mean. Um. Between the two of us, I really think that if I talked it out with the others, we'd be able to understand each other better, but... I mean... Irina yapping everything I tell her really doesn't help. Rei and his sycophants aren't exactly trustworthy, and then there's nobody else, you get me?"

"I do," Stella said.

This made Asaba hesitate for some reason. "Sorry. Weird tangent. Back to the shop. What I've been wondering for some time now is... did YOU say yes to the survey?"

Something in Stella short-circuited.

"...well, there you go."