Chapter 46 | Sudden Visit

Chapter 46: Chapter 46 | Sudden Visit

The knock came at two in the afternoon on a Tuesday.

Kai was at the kitchen table going through Han Dori’s run three briefing notes. Three days until the final assessment dungeon. He had the notebook open and a cup of tea going cold beside it.

The knock was different from the Foundation rep’s knock. That one had been heavy and deliberate. This one was a single knock followed by a pause followed by two more. Like someone who started confidently and then wasn’t sure they should have.

Kai pressed his palm to the table.

One presence outside the door. Familiar rhythm in a way he couldn’t place immediately. Then he placed it.

’Oh,’ he thought. ’No.’

He got up and opened the door.

Denko Renmei was standing in the hallway in his hero agency jacket with his hands in his pockets looking like a man who had taken three trains to arrive somewhere and was now questioning every decision that had led him here.

He was twenty-four. Taller than Kai. The same silver eyes. The family resemblance was strong enough that strangers had always assumed they were close.

They were not close.

"Hey," Denko said.

"Hey," Kai said.

They looked at each other for a moment.

"You going to let me in," Denko said.

Kai stepped back from the door.

—------------

Denko walked into the apartment and stopped in the living room.

He looked at the table. The specialty ingredient jars on the counter. The physio sheet in the corner. The two cups on the kitchen shelf positioned where two specific people could reach them easily. The cardboard strip under the table leg.

He took all of it in with the particular silence of someone recalibrating what they had expected to find.

Shira was by the window.

She looked at Denko when he entered. Her eyes went to the hero agency jacket. Then to his face. Then back to Kai.

"Shira Voss," Denko said. Not a greeting exactly. More like confirming something to himself.

"Yes," Shira said. Her voice was flat in the way it got when she was deciding how much to give someone.

Denko looked at her for a moment.

Then he looked around the apartment again.

"It’s small," he said.

"Yes," Kai said.

"But it’s—" Denko stopped.

"Clean," Kai said.

"I was going to say something else," Denko said.

"What were you going to say," Kai said.

Denko looked at the specialty ingredient jars again.

"Organised," he said. "It looks organised."

’He’s been here for forty seconds and he has already run out of things to say,’ Kai thought. ’This is going well.’

"Sit down," Kai said.

Denko sat at the table.

Kai put the kettle on.

From her room Kai felt Mira’s rhythm shift. She had heard a new voice. She was listening.

=====

Mira came out three minutes later.

She navigated the hallway to the kitchen doorway with the cane, located the table, and stood at the edge of it with her whiteboard ready.

She aimed toward the new voice’s location without knowing exactly where it was yet.

Denko looked at her.

He looked at Kai.

He looked at her again.

He opened his mouth.

Mira’s board went up before he could speak.

It said: You look like him but taller. You must be the brother.

Denko read it.

He closed his mouth.

"Yes," he said. "Denko. I’m—"

I know who you are, she wrote. Sit down. You’re making the room feel crowded.

Denko sat down faster than seemed entirely voluntary.

Kai set a cup in front of him.

Denko looked at the cup. Looked at Kai. Looked at the cup again.

"You made me tea," he said.

"You’re a guest," Kai said.

Denko wrapped both hands around the cup with the expression of someone who had not expected to feel guilty about a cup of tea and was now feeling guilty about a cup of tea.

—---------

They sat.

Shira had wheeled closer to the table. Not at it. Near it. The way she positioned herself when she wanted to hear something without appearing to be listening.

Kai did not comment on this.

Denko drank his tea.

"How are you doing," Denko said.

"Fine," Kai said.

"The apartment—"

"Is fine," Kai said.

"Are you—"

"Fine," Kai said.

Denko looked at him.

’He came here to ask if I’m fine,’ Kai thought. ’He has asked three times in different ways and gotten the same answer three times.’

"Why are you here Denko," Kai said.

Denko put the cup down.

He looked at the table.

"I heard about the Foundation visit," he said. "The representative. The man they sent."

Kai said nothing.

"Word gets around in the hero network," Denko said. "The Calloway Foundation flagging a welfare check on a registered dependent. It came through the district hero liaison office. I saw it."

"You saw it," Kai said.

"I have access to district liaison records," Denko said. "Part of the agency contract."

Kai looked at him.

"You’ve had access to district liaison records for how long," Kai said.

"Eight months," Denko said.

"And you checked the records," Kai said.

Denko was quiet for a moment.

"I check them sometimes," he said. "For your address."

The kitchen was very still.

Mira’s marker was in her hand but she was not writing anything.

Shira by the window was looking at the wall with the expression she used when she was very carefully not reacting to something.

Kai looked at his brother.

’He’s been checking the district records for my address,’ Kai thought. ’For eight months. Since before I knew where I was going to end up.’

He did not say anything about this.

"The Foundation visit," Kai said. "It’s handled."

"I know," Denko said. "I saw the filing. Civil affairs response. You handled it correctly." He paused. "Better than correctly."

"But," Kai said.

Denko looked at his cup.

"They’re going to try again," he said. "The Foundation. What they want is not a welfare check. What they want is to establish that Mira Elys is not being adequately cared for in a private arrangement. If they can establish that they can apply for custodial reassignment through the civil welfare board."