Chapter 12: Subdue, Capure, Contain

Chapter 12: Subdue, Capture, Contain
I
Rika watches and waits. She makes no moves to the opponent across the battlefield, ever vigilant, ever sharp and crisp as the uniform wrapped around her body with no creases or wrinkles. She looked a picturesque model of restraint, a symbol of grace without the pretentiousness, the sophistication without the arrogance. The Psion looking across from her at the battlefield looked toward her curiously, finding her an anomaly. A devastating weapon that might explode.

“You do not explode,” the Psion said.

Rika said nothing, simply let the silence fill in the spaces between them.

The other Psion went silent as well, and when the silence unnerved him, Rika took note of this and would eventually probe him carefully for roots in his psychology that might be useful forinformation later. “You contain yourself well.”

“I have to,” Rika said.

“But you could theoretically do anything that you wanted to, couldn’t you?” the other Psion said. “Reshape this broken world.”

Rika considered, deliberating. True, she could probably break down andd dismantle the system that allowed child soldiers to be appropriate in the first place. She could use her power to solve things that ordinary methods and means wouldn’t. But the threat of power was more potent than the actual power itself, and besides that, she would always use her own powers defensively and as tools, never as a power flex.

“You may not agree with my ideals,” Rika said. “Though my restrain is not weakness or mercy. It is simply the most logical and sensible thing to do out other possibilities and simulations I’ve run through my mind.”

“So you’ve run through the trajectories of possibilities and systems that would happen if you did cause End of the World scenarios?” the Psion said curiously. “How noble for you to sacrifice for you for Psion and Natural alike that don’t trust you.”

Rika remained quiet. There was no flicker of composure, no psychological dissonance. Though there was a hint of meditative reflection, a trick her father taught her a long time ago to keep herself steady if she ever felt the beginning stirrings of anger or irritation.

“Our Master is looking for someone of your skills,” the Psion said while holding out a hand to her. “Your caliber. You could be so much more.”

Rika cut the conversation short.

“I will not accept your offer.”

The Psion stopped short.

“Why not? Don’t you want to be acknowledged for your good work, your deeds? Why must you suffer everything alone?”

“The thing you must realize,” Rika said quietly. “Is that I’m not alone. And that is a treasure that I will never forget.”

“Are you talking about your friends?” The Psion probed.

Rika had a wan smile on her face. “That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?”

The Psion’s gaze narrowed.

“They will abandon you. Or you will outlive them.”

Rika fell silent again. “You came here to recruit me. That is unacceptable. Also, I will not be coerced into something I did not initially agree to. So let me put it this way—I’m not going to use my powers except only in defense, and I will not be recruited into your cult.”

“Have the adults in your life really been all that trustworthy?” the male said.

Rika knew he didn’t acquire information through her own psychic shields in her mind. She could feel him pressing and molding invisible hands on her mind, trying to jar loose an emotion or memory that would push her over the edge, to make her scream and rage or cry or plead and beg. But she wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

“They taught me things,” Rika said. “Maybe not everything was transmitted perfectly, but I still know how to observe. To adapt. To sharpen the knife. But despite wielding that knife, it is merely a tool, rather than something to be used for murder or destruction.”

“What if you could bring her back?” the Psion said.

Rika froze, before her expression turned considerably colder.

“Do not speak her name.”

“But aren’t the dead supposed to be memorialized?” The Psion said.

Though she still felt the invisible probes trying to unlock the secrets of her mind with seductive whispers and lulls, Rika knew she did not slip. Something else happened. This person, or someone else, must’ve used someone else as leverage against her. A failure on her part, she perceived, though she needed to be here right now at the current moment to incise the tumor that is currently wound. He either got it from the other ANGeLS members (unlikely), her father, a Natural (most likely) or…

Rika said in a quiet tone.

“We’re supposed to let the dead rest. No matter how unfair it might’ve been.”

“Don’t you wish it were you?” the voice said seductively.

Rika paused for a micro-second, before she said. “I’m still living because there are things I must do.”

“Like what?” The Psion laughed. “You carry burdens much too heavy for one so young.”

Rika considered a moment.

“I’m not the only special one with such responsibilities.”

“Then?”

Rika kept her silence.

The Psion probed some more, trying to find cracks in her calm, her restraint. “Why won’t you break?”

Rika let the silence linger as a psyhological tool, to give her presence and intimidation, before she finally let the thought linger, “Perhaps I want to learn more about your psychology.”

The Psion blinked. “My psychology?”

“Yes, because I can see between the negative spaces of your thinking. The unfilled squares on the chessborard. The intention of your Master.”

The Psion flinched, just barely.

“You could end this right now, you know.”

“I could,” Rika said without missing a bit. SHe let the silence fill the space for her, before she added. “But…the most important distinction here is this. That I don’t become the Walking Calamity that everyone views myself as.”

“You will bear such a moniker alone, even if it means Psion and Natural alike hate and resent you?”

Rika tilted her head to the side.

“Perhaps you misunderstand.”

Psion looked toward her, as though trying to see her. “I do?”

“I’m not lonely or broken,” Rika said. “I am merely a work in progress.”

“Something unfinished,” the Psion said smoothly. “Don’t you want to be complete—whole? Perfect, even?”

“If we were perfect, we would stop pursuing,” Rika said. “We would stop striving. That leads to stagnation in societies and civilizations. So without growth, without a Catalyst for change, we aren’t human. Because it’s evolutionarily in our DNA to constantly adapt and evolve.”

“But we’re something above human,” the Psion said. “We’re something better.”

“No,” Rika chided in a gentle tone that was somehow worse than cuttig or sharp, as though she were lecturing a child. “You and I are not special because of our powers.”

“Then…” the Psion said uncertainly. “What makes you so sure that your ideals will hold up under stress and pressure? What if there is a criminal who CAN’T be rehabilitated? What is there is a necessary evil that must be part of the world?”

“Don’t misunderstand,” Rika said. “My mercy is not weakness. Rehabilitation is not a forgiveness. I will terminate those who need to be eliminated—but only if necessary, and as an absolute last resort when there’s nothing else available. If there is a necessary evil that must be part of the world, I will hold onto the ideals I have more strongly and walk alongside that evil.”

The Psion let out a sharp bark of laughter, before Rika watched him with a sharp, silvery blue gaze that observed everything all at once. She saw into his mind a terrified young boy who was trying to escape the Calamity of Tokyo, losing his parents in great devastation and destruction, sobbing and vowing to become strong enough that no one would have to experience such grievances again. Almost, Rika could understand such sentiment. Though what was dangerous with this line of thinking was the fact it led to martyrdom. Sacrificing one’s life for misaligned ideals did not save lives—it merely ended for the sake and grievances of the people who still survived. So Rika, despite still living and harboring the guilt of her sister, Zakuro—would live on and bear her memory, because living on her sister’s legacy and surpassing it is the highest former honor that she could give her.

But even Rika’s thinking could be dangerous in a way as well. Believing that she can bear everything forever, taking on the world’s burdens. But even so…even when she knows that she must stop…Rika continues. Because she doesn’t know any other way. So she suppresses her emotions, keeping, cool, calm, calculating, on edge, on the verge of looking for threats, whether Natural, Psion, or interdimensional coming to her galaxy. If she let’s her emotions go out of control, then the very nature and matrix of reality would distort, and the truth is…she has grown to love this world. No matter how flawed it is. No matter if people, whether Psion or Natural, resented her for being a Walking Calamity. It was the world that Zakuro loved…and Rika wanted to preserve it for her, at least for the time being, until Rika decided there was a better means for the world to evolve and emerge from its growing pains.

“You peered inside my mind, didn’t you?” the Psion said, deadly soft.

Rika let the silence linger.

“They were not yours to take!” the Psion snarled.

Rika quietly said. “I did not intentionally probe your mind against your consent. Though you tried to unlock the secrets of my mind with such heavy handed clumsiness that you merely let the firewalls of your own mind breach through.”

“Then give me the dignity of death,” the Psion said. “I’m as good as dead to him now.”

Rika looked toward the Psion, before shaking her head. “No.”

The Psion laughed, sharp, barking, nasty.

“You won’t even give me the dignity of the death I deserve. Very well, you will regret this. As long as you’re the Walking Calamity on Earth, I will oppose everything that you stand for.”

Rika straightened. “Very well. However, I will not fight. Nor will I kill you. I will merely contain you.”

The Psion attempted to leave though found he was in another dimensional space that Rika created, to which his mouth is agape. “Wha?”

Rika smiled thinly. “I don’t relish what I must do. But before lives are ruined by your hand, I will put your under a telepathic illusion that you can’t break out of until you consent to reforming your behavior.”

“Couldn’t you use this on the rest of the other Psions with me?” the Psion said.

Rika shook her head. “Telepaths…are a special case. And must be contained quickly. Besides the telepathy illusion I have you under is not punishment, it is merely replaying your life until you come to a decision and see the possibility of you becoming a better person. The choice is yours.”

The Psion snarled.

“And if I refuse?”

Rika looked at him calmly, before saying, “If you refuse rehabilitation, that is your choice. But I thought I would let you know the consequences of your actions if you act up again. Go.”

The Psion, trembling, went to the dimension Portal that Rika left open for him…dignity in tatters.

And somehow…all this was worse than if she forced the Telepathic Obeisance on him instead.

—x--

The rest of the team caught up, with Hina restraining Kanna from going after the Hydrokinetic that slipped through the cracks. The redhead narrowed her eyes and spat furiously, hissing and squalling at the thought of letting a criminal go, though Hina smoothed her down by petting her on the head before saying, “Hey, sometimes letting a criminal go isn’t a loss but a strategic retreat. Nagisa is dangerous in a way you wouldn’t expect—and he takes advantage of psychological blind spots.”

“My powers would’ve been a PERFECT matchup for him,” Kanna said with a certain odd and fierce bloodlust in her eyes, before her eyes flashed into their normal sparkly cerulean blue. “Granted, Hina, you could’ve defeated him on your own. Why didn’t you?”

Hina said, gently. “Our powers aren’t meant to be used irresponsibly. Remember when I said I wouldn’t use my powers to change your body because you’re fine the way you are? Well, this is something like that on a more ethical scale—I do not want to cause undue harm, even if it’s to someone who might be causing trouble, because I will lower myself to that Criminal’s standards.”

“Bawh!” Kanna said, clenching her hands into fists, closing her eyes a moment, before cooling down. “Fine, if we’re not going to chase and pursue, what are we going to do?”

“Check out the loot,” Shizuya said with a grin, gesturing toward the apparent gas container in the trunk that the Psions from before were guarding. “A victory for us, I would say.”

“But what do you think is in it?” Junshin said thoughtfully. “Poison gas?”

Rika remained silent for a moment, observing the conversations around her as people speculated about what to do with the suspicious capsule that was within the truck.

The (Natural) people came out of the truck, holding their hands up.

Rika nodded as she casually made her way to the other side of the truck and told the person inside, “We will be investigating what’s inside the truck. If you cooperate with us we will possibly lessen your sentence. You’re under arrest for suspicious transportation of an unknown material.”

“Think it’s poison gas?” Shizuya said as Hina opened up the back doors and saw a capsule within the back of the truck, silver and chrome with a fine tuned polish that wheezed frigid air.

“The people in the car don’t know what it is they’re even transporting,” Hina said. “Seems suspicious, all right, and worth investigating.”

“Ha!” Kanna said, before she grinned rather manicly. “I knew I could smell out a criminal when I see one. We’re onto something here.”

“We’ll take the container back to SeRAPH, have the scientist investigate, and then tell Reito about what happened,” Shizuya said while rubbing the back of his head again. “I kinda broke protocol there.”

“You know that I can’t shoulder responsibility for you forever,” Rika said slightly sternly. “But you decision to act has led to something that will give us further clues to our factor ‘x’.”

“Just wish there was another way without the adults coddling us,” Shizuya said with a snort. “We’re not stupid.”

Kanna looked off into the direction where the Hydrokinetic went, narrowing her eyes and flexing her gloves, but decided to stay with the group. “Damn it all! Well, Rika and Shizuya at least caught two criminals, and I bagged none of ‘em.”

“This isn’t a contest,” Rika said gently, before she said to ease Kanna’s nerves. “We will have use for you later, Kanna.”

“Oh? And what is that?”

“We need you to compile the investigative reports to Reito about our battles and the information extracted from these two criminals here.”

“Oh?” Kanna said with a smirk. “Well, look what we have here. Some fresh meat.”

The criminals said nothing in turn, accepting their defeat gracefully while also revealing none of their emotional weather or plans. Junshin found this rather disturbing, that they could remain so calm even after having been captured—was the person that they worked underneath so confident that they could escape or they would survive, or was there something else in store that even the ANGeLS couldn’t foresee? It was said that the ANGeLS could do anything—it was a reputation as leverage that meant to instill fear in the hearts of criminals from doing any wrong doing, though sometimes Junshin wondered what the cost of power and responsibility was. This was his first battle, and though it wasn’t a clean victory like Rika and Shizuya, at least Hina and him survived to live another day. To regroup. To strategize.

“Damn it, if only I could’ve been there to handle the Hydrokinetic guy!” Kanna said with a curse as she kicked a pebble with a shoe. “I would’ve made short work of him. Damn it, Hina, you’re too gentle. Why don’t you use your powers to overwhelm you opponents? You could, but you don’t.”

“Yes,” Hina said gently. ‘That is the reason why I don’t.”

“Haa?” Kanna said with a furrowed brow. “I don’t get it. But whatever, what’s done is done. At least we have two bagged criminals that Reito-sensei is gonna have some fun extracting information with.”

Junshin nodded uneasily, before he looked toward the direction where the Hydrokinetic went. There was something especially bothering him about the Hydrokinetic rather than the other two that they've captured, though even if he were stuck in a fight with Barrier Man and the Telepath Psion, he felt that going to pursue the Hydrokinetic should take priority rather than letting the Hydrokinetic report to his master about important intel about the ANGeLS and SeRAPH to his master.

He voiced this thought aloud. “Is it really all right to let the Hydrokinetic go?”

Rika considered for a moment, before she said, “He could have extracted intel about us in a fight, true. Though we should cut our losses here and put these criminals back to SeRAPH and contain them. We can always strategize and regroup.”

“Why not listen to Junshin?” Kanna said, surprising everyone by agreeing with Junshin for once. “I can take care of that asshole no problem.”

“Originally we were not supposed to do this in the first place,” Rika said with a hint of slight guilt on her face. “And a report to the adults is important, especially since they can be important backup should things escalate for us.”

“Yeah, my bad, Rika,” Shizuya said, waving a hand. “But at least we got two criminals out of it.”

“True, we did see results,” Rika said thoughtfully. “However, we have to be careful and methodical and not overreach. I’m certain that the Hydrokinetic is licking his wounds as we speak from his battle and won’t attack anytime soon. Do not overreach.”

“But I didn’t get to see any of the action!” Kanna complained, before she muttered. “You and Shizuya always hog all the glory.”

“Besides,” Rika said calmly. “We still need to investigate what is in that container.”

Kanna seemed to be intrigued by this part of the puzzle, before she poked and prodded at the container. “Think we can handle this one ourselves?”

“It would be worth having an investigation first,” Rika said warily. “I don’t sense anything particularly noteworthy in this container. And that’s what bothers me.”

"Well,” Shizuya said. “You heard her, guys.”

Junshin mused for a moment thoughtfully, before he said uneasily. “I have a bad feeling about that Hydrokinetic guy.”

“Is there a reason you’re so focused on him, Junshin?” Rika said gently, looking into his green gaze.

Junshin turned away first, unable to say a word.

Hina stood up for Junshin, saying, “Junshin-kun is wary from his battle. I’m sure that he’s disappointed he didn’t catch the criminal like he wanted. I personally think he did a great job and should be proud that he managed to have that guy run away with his tail tucked between his legs!”

“Yeah,” Junshin said softly, even though everyone knew she was lying.

That’s what hurt the most. That he was keeping something secret from his own team. The Hydrokinetic not only pummeled a few teeth loose, he also did something very, intimately disturbing—burrowing into the psychology of Junshin’s psyche, worming into the places that gnaw and hurt the most in his hollowed heart from the grieving and pain the Tokyo Calamity involved. If anyone else knew…would they still accept him? If they knew…would they…ever forgive him?

Rika settled her gaze on Junshin for a few seconds longer, before she turned away as though the case is dismissed. “It’s not my place to interrogate your backstory, Junshin. Though…you will find that you and I are more similar than you think.”

Junshin looked up, startled.

“What do you mean by that?”

Rika put a finger to her lip before she telekinetically hauled the white container easily above her head as though it weighed nothing. It seemed when it came to ordinary uses of her powers, she was willing to manifest them in this way.

“Later, Junshin. We report to Reito first.”

“I…” Junshin said, stepping forward, then stopping. “I want to go back and catch the Hydro kinetic.”

“Woohoo!” Kanna said as she fist-pumped in the air and bumped hips with Junshin. “Now we’re talking! So! Who we gonna beat the ever living shit out of?”

“Hold on,” Rika said calmly, still keeping the container floating above her head. “Let us consider for a moment.”

“Kanna could take him on, right, in his weakened state?” Junshin noted.

Kanna smirked. “Exactly!”

“Even if she could…” Rika said in a patient tone. “Should she?”

“You and Shizuya can go back and report back to Reito while delivering the two criminals you’ve dagged to SeRAPH quarters,” Junshin reasoned. “Hina, Kanna, and I will track down the Hydrokinetic and work on capturing him together.”

“Sounds plausible…” Rika mused. “But the answer is still no.”

Kanna opened her jaw wide. “Haa???”

“I sense there’s something more to this than just ‘bad guys causing a conundrum with crime and mayhem in our beloved Tokyo’” Rika said. “If we act too soon or carelessly, we can ruin the reputation of the ANGeLS, a psychological namesake that was meant to instill fear into them. We shouldn’t be careless.”

“But just…letting them go??”

Rika looked tired. “I know. It is regrettable. But maybe we’ll catch bigger fish.”

“Man, I want to kick some more ass,” Shizuya said. “These two bozos locked up here? They were lame.”

“Which is why,” Rika said as she closed her eyes. “If…you were to break protocol…hypothetically..you need to know something important.”

Hina’s eyes widened. “You’re letting us go, Rika-chan?”

Rika opened her eyes and gazed toward Hina.

“I was never intending on stopping you. That would require force, and that goes against my principles of restraint.”

Hina’s eyes shimmered with grateful tears. “But, Rika-chan…wouldn’t responsibility fall on you?”

Rika held up a hand. “I’m willing to risk it. Besides, having trust I my teammates has led me to not rely on just myself alone…I want to create teams of people that can function independently of me and stand on their own two feet alongside me, or perhaps, even surpass me.”

She gave a meaningful look at Junshin at that, to which Junshin felt quite flustered. How much did she know? How much did she see? Despite her fourteen years of age, Rika was far more mature than one would’ve believed for her biological age, though intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, Rika was perhaps a Grandmaster Sage cultivating decades upon decades of cultivation energy. She didn’t flaunt her psi pressure—it wasn’t restrained, exactly, though it was regulated liked a normal part of her. Noticeable enough to be detected, but not violent enough to be soul crushing and devastating. It’s almost as if she wanted the scientists to keep her under constant vigilance, day and night, as though she feared that one day she might explode and cause a Calamity of the World, like she mentioned.

“I will take responsibility,” Junshin said firmly, to which he put a hand on Rika’s shoulder and looked into her cool, silvery blue hues. “Not you. It shouldn’t be you all the time.”

This time it was Rika who glanced away.

“That’s just the way that it always was,” Rika murmured.

“Well,” Junshin said. “You are strong and competent. I admire that aboutt you. Though sometimes…you simply have to trust in others more, Rika.”

Rika nodded reluctantly. “When I bore responsibility for a mistake that shouldn’t have happened…it weighs heavily upon your shoulders. Be prepared for that, Junshin.”

Shizuya folded his arms, before he floated close to Junshin’s face and peered really close.

“Junshin, if you make Rika cry…”

Junshin glanced toward Shizuya and nodded in understanding. “You can kick my ass in a spar later. Right now, though, we have a criminal to catch.”

“Hell yes!” Kanna said as she fist-pumped the air and started to fly off in the general direction where the Hydrokinetic was hiding. “This will be my first good catch in a while!”

“Don’t forget about us too!” Hina said cheerfully, creating pink atomokinetic wings on her body to fly easier and faster.

“Trying to upstage me, Hina?” Kanna said with a mishcevious grin, before she propelled herself with Calokinetic temperature heat bursts from her feet and rocketed through the air and spiraled and raced with Hina while Junshin and Shizuya hung back watching the two girls not really competing but playfully contesting one another in a game.

Junshin watched with Shizuya, shrugging, while Shizuya grinned and bumped into Junshin while they were flying.

“Wanna try something like that out?” Shizuya said in a playful taunt or challenge.

“Heh…that is so careless…” Junshin said with a small grin. “We’re supposed to focus on the mission, remember?”

“Yeah, I know, but letting loose and all is sometimes good too, Shizuya said as he streaked on further ahead past Hina and Kanna, who whirled backwards in the air as Hina caught Kanna in a half-hugging, half-grasping posture.

“Shizuya-kun!” Hina said. “Be careful out there!”

“Ha!” Shizuya said as he cycled on back, arms folded and looking clearly smug. “They don’t call me the Second Ace of SeRAPH Academy for nothing. Now let me get something straight for you before you two try to do something dangerous.”

“Shizuya you’re giving US a lecture?” Kanna said while raising a brow. “When you went into a full on brawl yourself?”

“Nawh, just don’t want to make things harder on Rika, that’s all,” Shizuya said as he punched one hand into an open palm. “Firstly…we can beat em to a near pulp…but make them identifiable enough that they’re the people we’re looking for in the bingo book. And two…make sure that we don’t kill ‘em. That’s the rule that SeRAPH tries to go by.”

“Yes, of course,” Hina said as she bowed her head, and Kanna looked up—only to get a faceful of Hina’s chest in her face.

“Damn it, Kihara!” Kanna said, as Hina giggled and let Kanna go. “Do you mind not shoving your chest in my face every time you hold me?”

“But Kanna-chan, you’re so small and adorable,” Hina said as she giggled and floated closer toward Kanna, who took on the posture and aggression of an agitated cat.

"You may touch,” Kanna said. “But DON’T for the love of GOD suffocate me with that chest of yours!”

“Awh, Kanna-chan, I know you don’t really mean that~” Hina said playfully as she winked with a stuck out tongue and floated closer, gesturing with her fingers that she was ready to tickle the redhead in midair. Junshin and Shizuya watched the spectacle, wondering what the hell was going on, as Hina tickled Kanna’s sides furiously as the normally sharp and austere Carnelian crimson hued redhead laughed genuinely from the belly gasping heehaws and chortles of laughter that nearly suffocated her more than Hina’s chest ever did.

“Hina…” Shizuya said.

“Did you…” Junshin said, despite not having known Kanna long, got the vibe that this didn’t happen often.

“Actually make Kanna laugh?” Shizuya and Junshin chorused together.

Hina continued to tickle Kanna, who was laughing and laughing at Hina’s playful and gentle tickles, before she winked toward the boys and said, “I know everyone’s secrets and weak points. You never know when you’re encountering me…or someone else, you know.”

“Man, you just like to mind fuck us, don’t you, Hina?” Shizuya said.

“I just gather interesting information and secrets among the SeRAPH population to better understand people’s hearts and my collective family,” Hina said earnestly. “To work as a functioning unit, we have to better understand one another through empathy and trust—and I’m the Secret Keeper of many.”

“So…” Junshin said. “How’d you find out that Kanna had so many ticklish spots?”

“Oh, I experimented, much like when I’m testing out medicines and vaccines for Dr. Gin,” Hina said with a cheerful smile, grinning wider as Kanna continued to laugh and clasp at her stomach. “It was just the two of us in her room while we were studying homework together. And then…I decide to test a few boundaries here and there, and noticed that she would visibly react when touched and make out the cutest of little squeaks~”

“Hina,” Kanna said, laughing and moaning at the same time. “You’re too much, you know that? Hahaha!”

“And when you get her really going, she flares up her top at you but forgives you later when you give her spicy ramen bowls from the cafeteria to make up for it. So I’ve got this arrangement to do whatever I want to Kanna-chan within permission of course and then buy her a double spicy ramen bowl to eat together!”

Junshin and Shizuya looked toward one another, exchanging a mutual look that said that, “Hina was incredibly scary when she wanted to be.”

“Well,” Junshin said. “What information have you gotten out of Shizuya and I?”

“That, my friends, is something that I will keep as leverage for today,” Hina said with a wink. “Though in exchange, I can tell you a few secrets of my own.”

Shizuya and Junshin looked closer.

“So…”

“You know…”

“How did you get those boobs?” Shizuya asked.

Hina laughed.

“Ehe. Genetic lottery?”

Junshin became flustered a bit, putting a hand to his cheek and murmuring to himself. “Some things in life really are unfair.”

“Eh?” Hina said as she leaned closer to him with an innocent and adorable look on her face.

“You’ve got everything going for you, Hina,” Junshin said with a small smile. “You really could ride a giraffe or unicorn to the moon if you wanted to.”

Hina beamed at him brighter than the sun at that.