Chapter 96 | Family having some noodles

Chapter 96: Chapter 96 | Family having some noodles

"Shira," Mira wrote. ’’Not Kai. She always said Dexter ordered it.’’

Shira looked at her.

"Dorothy Callahan’s husband," Shira said. "His name was Dexter."

Mira held the board.

’’How do you know.’’

"She told me," Shira said. "When she came to see the floor joins. Before you moved in."

Mira looked at the board.

She wrote: ’’She never told me his name.’’

"She told me because I asked," Shira said.

Mira looked at the board.

She lowered it.

She looked at the table.

Kai looked at the menu.

He ordered the same thing Dorothy’s husband had ordered for eleven anniversaries because it seemed right and because he did not need a reason beyond that.

---

The food came.

Shira ate with the focused quality that meant she was tasting something and forming an opinion and had not yet decided to share it.

Mira ate her first spoonful and her board appeared.

’’The broth.’’

"Yes," Kai said.

*It’s the same as the specialty rotation.*

Kai looked at her.

"The base," he said. "Same herbs. Different ratio."

’’You knew.’’

"No," he said. "I noticed when we sat down."

She held the board.

She looked at her bowl.

She ate another spoonful.

She held the board up toward Shira.

It said: ’’He made the specialty rotation from a noodle shop recipe.’’

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at her bowl.

She looked at Kai.

"Did you," she said.

"No," he said. "Same herb base. Different origin."

She looked at him.

She looked at her bowl.

She ate.

Her ears went slightly red.

She ate faster.

Mira watched this.

The board came up.

It said: ’’She’s flustered.’’

"I can see that," Kai said.

’’Do you know why.’’

"No," Kai said.

Shira set her spoon down.

"Because," she said, "it means the specialty rotation has been making me feel this way for fifty Chapters."

She picked her spoon up.

She ate.

Mira stared at the board.

She wrote something.

She held it up.

It said: ’’Oh.’’

She ate.

Kai looked at his bowl.

His face was very still.

He was almost entirely unsuccessful.

---

They were halfway through the meal when the table beside them started talking.

Two heroes. Mid-rank by the look of them. They had their phones out. One of them was reading something.

"The canyon record," the first one said. "Forty-one minutes. Solo."

"I know," the second said. "I trained with her at Vanguard. Third year. She was the cleanest wind-type I ever ran drills with."

"She’s still alive," the first said.

"Apparently."

"Did you see the node documentation?"

"The Resonance discovery? Yes. The other one—" The second hero lowered his voice but not enough. "Mira Elys. I heard her Gift in the canyon briefing two years before the incident. Never heard anything like it."

Shira had stopped eating.

Mira had stopped eating.

Kai was looking at his bowl.

The first hero said: "They’re saying the Renmei family set it up deliberately."

"They did," the second said. "The assessor surrendered. It’s all in the prosecution filing."

"Forty-one minutes," the first said again. "And they struck her from the register."

A pause.

"Some things," the second said, "should not happen."

The table went quiet.

Shira picked up her spoon.

She ate.

Mira picked up her spoon.

She ate.

Kai ate.

The table beside them went back to their meal.

Nobody said anything.

The noodle shop did its afternoon things around them — orders called, chairs moving, the particular warmth of a place that has been open long enough to have its own frequency.

Mira’s board appeared.

She held it toward the center of the table.

It said: ’’They remember us.’’

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at the window.

"Yes," she said.

’’The whole world,"the board came back. ’’Not just three sites. The whole world.’’

Shira looked at the window.

She was quiet for a moment.

"Let them say it," she said.

Mira lowered the board.

She ate.

---

Walking back.

Not taking the cab. The medical district was close enough. Shira’s chair handled the pavement. Mira’s cane found the rhythm.

Kai walked beside them.

Nobody ran the form. Nobody timed anything. Nobody tracked a frequency or measured a signal.

They walked.

The afternoon light was doing the specific thing it does in the medical district at two o’clock, the thing where it comes through the gaps between buildings and hits the pavement at an angle that makes everything look more deliberate than it is.

Mira’s board appeared.

She held it toward Kai without looking at him.

It said: ’’The specialty rotation.’’

"Yes," he said.

’’Every morning for fifty Chapters.’’

"Yes."

’’The same herb base as the place Dorothy’s husband went every anniversary.’’

"Yes."

’’Did you know when you started.’’

He looked at the board.

He looked at the pavement.

"No," he said.

She held the board.

She lowered it.

She wrote one more thing and held it without looking at it.

It said: ’’But you kept making it.’’

He looked at the board.

Shira was looking at the pavement ahead.

Her ears had the color they got when she was holding something large.

He looked at the board.

"Yes," he said. "I kept making it."

Mira lowered the board.

She walked.

The three of them walked back through the afternoon light and the medical district did its quiet things around them and nobody said anything else and nobody needed to.

---

That evening the system chimed.

『 Bond Level — Shira Voss: 4.1 / 10. 』

『 Bond Level — Mira Elys: 4.1 / 10. 』

『 MULTIPLIER: ×2,000. ACTIVE. 』

『 The system notes: 』

『 Today the criminal prosecution was confirmed. 』

『 Today both wives’ names went into the hero news cycle. 』

『 Today the world started saying them again. 』

『 The system notes that Shira Voss read the comment sections. All of them. Before eight in the morning. 』

『 The system notes she said: they remember us. 』

『 Not: I am remembered. 』

『 Us. 』

『 Mira Elys wrote: I remember us too. 』

『 The system notes this is the most important thing either wife has said in fifty Chapters. 』

『 Dorothy Callahan called Host by his name for the first time. 』

『 Her husband’s name was Dexter. 』

『 His anniversary noodle shop had the same herb base as the specialty rotation. 』

『 The system did not plan this. 』

『 The system notes it anyway. 』

『 The noodle shop. Green awning. All three of them. First time. 』

『 The board fired twice. 』

『 Shira Voss’s ears were red for most of the meal. 』

『 Mira Elys said: but you kept making it. 』

『 He said yes. 』

『 The system has been running for fifty Chapters. 』

『 The world chants their names now. 』

『 The system is satisfied. 』