Promise

Qing Qing doubled over, nearly choking on her noodles. "Did you see Fang's face when you came back?" She grabbed her chopsticks, pressing them against her cheeks and made a stern expression. "Where is your esteemed Feilong Corps uniform? Why do you reek of sewage? And what do you mean you have nothing to show for your investigation?"

I snorted, spraying bits of food across the table. "That's exactly how he sounded! Complete with that twitching vein in his forehead."

"Oh, he gets that whenever something doesn't go according to plan."

"Speaking of which..." I stabbed my chopsticks into a piece of meat. "What's the deal with you two anyway? How'd you end up engaged to that stuck-up?"

"Ah, that." Qing Qing's smile faded as she pushed her food around. "Our families go way back. His father and mine were close friends in the Corps. So naturally Fang and I grew up together. And when you grow up together in Longfeng, marriage just sort of... happens.""

"Just happens?"

"Yeah. Welcome to Longfeng City." Qing Qing's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Where tradition suffocates you more than Black Legs."

I watched her push rice around her bowl, thinking about the vial hidden in my borrowed clothes. After what that kid said about people wanting Lung dead, something felt off about, well, everything.

"Hey. You went quiet."

I shrugged, pushing rice around my bowl. "Just tired from crawling through sewers all day."

"Uh huh." Qing Qing's eyes narrowed. "And that has nothing to do with whatever you found down there? Well, didn't find?"

"Nope." I stuffed my face with rice to avoid her suspicious stare. Until I got some real answers about what was going on with Lung and these assassination attempts, the vial was staying right where it was - far away from Feilong Corps headquarters.

Qing Qing reached for more pickled vegetables. "You know you can trust me, right?"

"'Course I do." The words came easily, but the vial felt like it was burning through my pocket, a reminder of my lie.

She then jabbed her chopsticks at my bowl. "Anyway, eat up before the food gets cold! I spent hours running around the marketplace after my shift to make this."

"Hours? For one dish?"

"Had to get the perfect mix of spices. Come on, try it already! I'm dying to hear what you think."

I scooped up a spoonful of the stew. Rich broth and vegetables I didn't recognize swirled together. The moment it hit my tongue, memories flooded back.

That flavor. Just like...

Inorin...

Between this and the natto back in Ten's realm, I was reminded of her cooking. The way she spent whole weekends experimenting with new recipes. How she'd force-fed me vegetables hidden in the food. Her proud grin whenever I cleaned my plate.

"Hey, are you really alright?"

I touched my face, surprised to find it wet. Shit. The tears had snuck up without warning.

"Sorry you had to see that." I scrubbed at my face with my sleeve. "Not exactly the tough Dragon's Eye image Lung wants, huh?"

"Forget that stuffy old man's rules! Qing Qing slammed her palm on the table, making the bowls jump. "My place is a judgment-free tear zone. You want to cry? Cry! Want to scream into a pillow? I've got plenty! Need to punch something? Well, maybe not that last one. But you get the point!"

A laugh bubbled up through my tears. "You're good at this."

"At what?"

"Cheering people up. Just like... someone I miss."

Qing Qing's expression softened. "Is that what the tears are for?"

I nodded, fingers curling around the vial again. "She's the reason I'm even here. I've been searching for her."

Qing Qing's stared into her stew. "I get it. More than you know. I'm searching for someone too. My sister."

"Your sister?"

"Sis is... amazing. First female Dragon's Eye ever. I wanted to be just like her. She could take down three Black Legs without breaking a sweat. And her wings? Twice as big as mine."

I nearly choked on my rice. "Wait, what? Old man Pei said there hadn't been any female Dragon's Eyes before me."

"Because they erased her!" Qing Qing's wings flared out, knocking over a cup. "Sorry, sorry. It just makes me so angry. After she vanished, the Corps acted like she never existed. Like all her achievements meant nothing. Even the people who used to praise her started saying things like 'Oh, maybe you're mistaken' or 'Are you sure about that?'"

"That's messed up. Is that why you joined? To figure out what happened?"

"From the inside, yeah. Because sometimes I wonder if-"

"If the Corps did something to her?"

Qing Qing went still, her wings pulling tight against her back. The silence stretched until I thought I'd gone too far. Then she lunged across the table, grabbing my hands and squeezing them between hers.

"Kuroha, let's make a promise. You find who you're looking for, and I'll find my sister. Neither of us is allowed to give up. Promise me!

Something about her desperate optimism, that refusal to back down - it reminded me of myself.

I squeezed her hands back. "Promise."

***

I crashed face-first into the floor, my blanket coiled around my legs.

"Peng, what time is it?" I mumbled into the floorboards, waiting for a response that- wait, why was I expecting a penguin to tell time?

I lifted my head, spotting Peng by the clothes rack where I'd hung yesterday's new borrowed uniform. Its round body kept swaying back and forth.

"Peng, what's wrong?"

Peng's flippers shot up, waving frantically in the air like some deranged airport worker directing planes. I dragged myself up, following its gestures to where I hung yesterday's borrowed uniform. Where I'd hidden the vial of Black Leg blood.

"No no no..." I scrambled up, nearly faceplanting again as the blanket clung to my ankle. My hands dove into the pockets, finding nothing but lint and empty space where the vial should have been.

I turned to Peng, snatching it up. "You were watching the whole time, weren't you? Who took it? Who came in here?" I shook it like a magic 8 ball as if that would make answers fall out of its beak.

"Peng..." it wheezed, its eyes rolling back.

I stopped shaking him, realization hitting. There was only one person who could've gotten in here. Only one person who about the vial, who'd cooked me dinner and shared laughs with.

"Qing Qing..."