Investing In My Crippled Heroine Wives For Infinite Rebate

Chapter 55: Chapter 55 | What Did You Say To Them?!

He had not been paying attention to them specifically.

Then the Resonance Echo caught something.

A voice. The particular pitch of someone not quite lowering it enough when they meant to. Words carried across the rooftop ambient noise and straight to him.

"— isn’t that Shira Voss — the one who — " and then lower, but not low enough: "— heard she can’t even — wheelchair — what a waste — used to be — "

Kai set his chopsticks down.

He finished his sentence to Mira about the sesame noodles. Something about the sauce ratio. He wasn’t sure what he said. He said something.

He picked up his cup.

He set it down.

He stood up.

"I’ll be right back," he said. Conversational. Like he was going to the bathroom.

He walked to the table behind them.

—--

There were four of them. Former Vanguard students, he was fairly sure — the jackets had the faded academy insignia on the collar that second and third years wore. Two men, two women. All of them in their early twenties.

The one who had spoken was the taller of the two men. He had the look of someone who had been moderately good at something for long enough to think that made him important.

Kai pulled out the empty chair at the end of their table.

He sat down.

All four of them looked at him.

He looked at the one who had spoken.

"I heard what you said," Kai said. His voice was exactly the same volume it always was. "About the woman in the wheelchair."

The man’s expression moved through several things in quick succession. Surprise. Mild irritation. The beginning of something defensive.

"We were having a private—"

"Her name is Shira Voss," Kai said. "She cleared the canyon dungeon in forty-one minutes. Solo. Second year. The record says forty-three because the assessment timer started late and nobody corrected it. The correct time is forty-one." He looked at all four of them. "She was the best combat student Vanguard had in a decade. She still is. The fact that she’s in a wheelchair doesn’t change what she built or what she is."

Quiet.

The man’s jaw had done something.

"The woman next to her reads dungeon acoustic frequencies better than any support hero currently licensed in this district," Kai said. "She hasn’t been able to speak in eight months. She communicates through a whiteboard. Last week she looked up combat theory notes for a dungeon run I was doing and spent two hours calibrating a piece of equipment so I’d survive it." He looked at the man directly. "What did you do last week."

Nothing.

"I’m not asking you to apologize," Kai said. "I’m asking you to be careful what you say in public about people whose situation you don’t understand." He stood up. "Enjoy your afternoon."

He walked back to his table.

He sat down.

He picked up his chopsticks.

"The sauce ratio on these," he said to Mira, "is about thirty percent heavier than the noodle shop you and Shira are both thinking about. Sesame-forward. Less acid."

Mira’s hand was on her whiteboard.

She did not write anything for a moment.

Then: You sat down at their table.

"Yes," Kai said.

For how long.

"Two minutes approximately."

What did you say.

"Corrected some information," Kai said. "Finished my sentence."

Mira looked at him for a long moment.

The board came up.

I heard my name.

He looked at her.

"Your record," he said. "I mentioned your record."

She held the board.

She wrote something slowly.

What record.

"The canyon dungeon support assessment," Kai said. "This district. Five years ago. You cleared it in the top ten percent of all support candidates that year. That’s in the Vanguard assessment archive."

Mira was very still.

You looked that up.

"Last week," Kai said. "When I was researching the district for the restaurant booking."

She lowered the board.

She did not write anything else for a while.

She ate the last of her sesame noodles.

Shira had been looking at the city below the glass railing for the past three minutes. Her right hand was on the table surface. The index finger was pressing down.

Not practicing.

Just present.

Kai looked at his food.

’Don’t make it into something,’ he thought. ’She said that. Just let it be.’

He ate.

====

The cab home was quiet.

Mira in the back with Shira. Kai in the front.

Halfway home Mira’s board appeared over the seats.

Kai read it.

He read it again.

Then he read it aloud.

"She says: The rooftop place was good. I’m picking next."

Shira looked at the window.

"Fine," Shira said.

A pause.

"The noodle shop," Shira said. "Green awning. East side of the commercial block."

Mira’s board came back immediately.

Kai read it.

"She says she was already planning the noodle shop. She says you took her choice."

"It was going to be my choice," Shira said. "I suggested it first."

The board: You suggested it three seconds after I thought of it.

"You didn’t say anything."

I was about to.

"You weren’t about to."

I was forming the words.

"That doesn’t count."

It absolutely counts.

Kai looked at the road ahead.

’Both of them,’ he thought. ’Arguing about a noodle shop.’

Something settled in his chest that didn’t have a proper name.

"I’ll book it," he said.

Both of them looked at him.

"Next week," he said. "Green awning. I’ll call ahead."

A pause.

Then Shira said, to the window: "Fine."

Then Mira’s board appeared one more time.

It said: Fine.

Kai faced forward.

’Fine,’ he thought. ’Two of them saying fine about the same noodle shop.’

He looked at the road.

He was smiling. He kept it off his face. He was almost entirely successful.

============

Back at the apartment.

He made tea. Left cups at both room doors. Sat on the couch.

Shira came out briefly , she had changed out of the jacket. She stopped in the hallway and looked at the living room.

"The table at the restaurant," she said.