“So you said you found the man lying face down in the puddle.”

The woman nodded. YF turned to watch the magistrate’s men carrying the body bag to their still-hovering vehicle. He reached a hand to the back of his neck and scratched it as he looked at his notebook. “Are there any more details, ma’am?”

The woman bit her bottom lip, both her upper canines pulling on the skin and threatening to draw blood. “I-I just went straight to the bubble right after and waited.”

YF turned to look at the alert stand, the protective shield dispenser pointed straight at her. “Well that checks out at least.” He flipped his notebook shut. “Listen. As you may have guessed, The Sentinels only gather information for the village magistrate.” YF glanced once at the many high rises housing thousands of people still classified as “villages” all these years later.

“A murder case will have to pull in the county or maybe the provincial magistrate and their police. The good news is the elevation will proceed pretty quickly.”

“How will I step out at night?” the woman demanded, eyes growing wide.

YF looked once more at the alert stand, but the woman shook her head. “There’s too much space between them.”

YF glanced around to check that no one was watching, then quickly took off his glove and handed it to her, using his body to shield them from the cameras. “Give me your ID, quick.”

She raised her wrist to him and he pressed his finger into it, transferring ownership of the glove over to her. “If anyone touches you, stun him. Practice once on a metal table at the hawker center when they close in a few hours.”

The woman nodded.

YF turned and went back toward his car, the windows already tinted black as dawn became day. After climbing inside and starting it, he lifted the vehicle up and merged into the slow-moving morning traffic, heading back the several blocks to his apartment. The jam was moving slow enough to allow him a few quick glances out the window, where the sun touched the surface of the buildings. YF smiled. Driving was his favorite part of the job. As he passed a cluster of shops below, he pressed the button to turn on the comm system.

“Erika,” he called.

He heard a rustling noise on the other end.

“Erika!”

“What!” she demanded.

“Ice cream?”

“...why? I just fell asleep.”

“I have to go into town today.”

"Why? Are you okay?” her tone switched from annoyance to worry.

“Yeah, it’s complicated. I’ll tell you on the way.”

There was a pause and a thud. “Ah shit,” he heard on the other end.

“Are you okay?” asked YF.

“Yeah…” a few seconds passed. “Anyway, I’ll see you out front on 30th.”

“Not 40th?”

“Down six is easier than up four,” she said.

Erika had insisted on using the stairs as part of her fitness regime a year earlier, though he wasn’t sure how effective going down the stairs was. “Fair enough. See you soon,” he said.

YF shut the comm system. “Guess I have to fly lower.”

As he approached the building, he steered the car toward the 30th floor loading dock, where two other cars were already waiting. After approaching sufficiently close, the primary wind barrier lifted, with Erika jogging across the metal toward the car. YF lifted the passenger door, which rose like a gull wing just seconds before she made the short leap into the seat.

“You’re lucky tomorrow’s Earthday,” she grumbled.

Erika could only afford to skip sleep on a weekend of course, something that YF completely forgot to take into consideration. But he simply nodded in agreement, as if that was the plan all along.

“So what happened?” she asked

“Murder.”

“Did you…go?”

“I had to.”

Erika remained silent for some time. “Don’t the cameras catch that type of thing? Why did you have to go down by yourself?”

“The actual attack happened in a blind spot.”

“And the surrounding footage?”

YF’s eyes narrowed. “There wasn’t any.”

Erika blinked. “You mean those cameras were offline too.”

“No, they were on. And they didn’t catch the perpetrator.”

“Were they on a loop?”

“No, the failsafe clocks worked.”

“Couldn’t somebody just fake the clock readings?”

YF shook his head. “No. First of all there are more than one. Second, since all they have to do is sit there and transmit the time, they’re almost tamperproof without physical access, which the camera would pick up. I can’t even change the clocks from the control room.”

“You’re not going there alone again,” she said firmly.

YF slowed the vehicle when they entered the hawker center, which was emptying of the drunken revelers who had just finished satisfying their cravings for oily foods.

“I don’t think I have a choice,” he replied.

“Where’s your glove?”

“Ah...right...I left it in the camera room. I’ll go get it before I head into town.”

Erika pushed the release button to swing up the gull wing door. “You’re a horrible liar.”

“Hey!”

YF finished the docking process and lowered the center module between their seats, climbing over Erika’s seat and onto the metal platform. He caught up to her right as she was ordering for him.

“One vanilla, single scoop. Double coffee scoop,” she said.

YF raised an eyebrow. “What if I wanted a double cherry?”

“You want a single vanilla,” she said flatly.

The ice cream man did not react to the exchange, probably used to it in couples much younger than them.

“Thank you, sir!” Erika exclaimed while taking the cones. “Come on,” she urged YF.

The two of them sat and ate the ice cream in silence, YF gazing out the wind barrier window at the multiple hovercraft passing in the distance.

“I can take the bike,” he said.

“I’m dropping you off at the station,” she said.

Thoughts of the morning rush on the train sent a shiver down YF’s spine. “Can you just send me this morning then? I’ll stay with Eiji until dusk, then get to the center.”

Erika lifted her eyes to him. “You woke me up and now you’re going to leave early?” they seemed to say.

“Actually, let’s go walk by the lake. I will just take the first train,” he said.

“No no, I can send you after this if you want.”

“It’ll be nice. Think we can use the time.”

But the damage was already done. Erika continued to eat while staring into her receiver, scrolling through bits of news and her multiple chatrooms.

“I’m sure she’ll be all right once we get home.”

Right as YF finished his cone, Erika stood up, wiping her hands on a napkin. “I need to take a piss and get some strong coffee.”

“I’ll wait.”

YF took one of the leftover napkins and wiped the table with it as he watched Erika disappear through the automatic steel doors. When she came back, the two of them returned to the dock and drove further south toward the lake.

“I was thinking we could move to Ikusayama,” said Erika, sipping on her coffee.

YF engaged the autopilot and turned to face her, the vehicle slowing down as it approached the car in front. “What?”

“Things aren’t really working out at our branch.”

“You mean they won’t move you to Akeha?”

YF had been dreading such a move for the past year, thinking about how he was going to afford housing in the capital city proper.

“Actually, they’d do it. But we can’t afford it and there won’t be much change in pay.”

“Or we could go once I graduate from the academy.”

Erika looked at him sideways. “Your number hasn’t even come up to start the academy. Then after that it’s four years. At which point we’ll have a kid and our combined pay will ensure we can’t leave Itsugo.”

“We could always wait on the kid.”

“I’m not getting any younger.”

“Or get a loan from Hiroyuki.”

“No.” Erika narrowed her eyes. “We’re not doing that.”

Eiji told YF a year ago that the security cameras picked up Erika and YF’s brother, Hiroyuki, entering a cafe near the Kiryu High Tech Square. The two then emerged shortly after, with Erika storming off the platform and Hiroyuki leaving in his wide luxury car. Apparently they had talked without the presence of his usual bodyguards. Eiji urged YF to get a family tracking system on the pretense of safety to see what she was up to. Family tracking was commonly used all across Kazen and shouldn’t have aroused any suspicion, but YF refused, figuring there was no need to distrust her. She had never given him a reason to think she did not love him. Even if he were suspicious, though, there was not much he could do with Erika’s income holding the house together. The few times Hiroyuki ever came up in conversation afterward, Erika’s face contorted and she instantly switched topics, silencing further discussion.

The matter was further complicated by YF’s own feelings toward his brother. While Hiroyuki was an arrogant pain, without him the family would not have survived after their father’s sudden disappearance. His brother’s quest to pull their family back into what he believed was their rightful place in society and take revenge through monetary success on all those who turned their backs on them drove him to the man he had become today. By extension, the rest of YF’s childhood was very comfortable – until he decided he no longer wanted to live under Hiroyuki’s shadow. Even after YF moved out, Hiroyuki offered him an instant pass to any career institution he chose, though YF refused.

“I don’t mind,” said YF.

“I don’t feel like walking, let’s go home,” said Erika.

YF sighed and looked for an exit, engaging the vehicle’s U-turn routine when he found one.

When they successfully merged into traffic, Erika continued. “I mind, so we’re not taking his money. We’re not staying here. My parents are getting old and there’s no wait list for anything back in Ikusayama. Once I transfer our residence you could do whatever you want. Don’t work if you don’t want. We could afford it. Could be better for the baby anyway.”

“I’m gonna work.”

“Yeah that’s fine. I’m sure we could arrange something.”

“I’ll find it on my own.”

“That’s fine too.”

When they arrived back at the apartment tower, Erika got out of the car at the 40th floor platform silently, walking over to the vending machine in the waiting hall and pulling out her receiver. YF could still see her scrolling through something as he drove into the parking garage opening below. Inside the narrow passageway there were only dim lights to illuminate the path, forcing YF to slow down as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was not until he was already a few shaku from the first walkway that he could make out the figure of a woman in a dark jacket crossing the path to the stairs. YF stopped the car, putting it in park. The woman paused for a moment, then approached the driver side window, which YF promptly lowered.

“Sakai-san!” she said in a cheery voice.

“Hayashi-san,” YF acknowledged. He added a half smile to his half-hearted greeting, slowly shifting his eyes to look at her.

“How’s Erika?” she asked with a smile, revealing her long fangs. Long fanged Reo were relatively rare, and generally considered to be more “pure blooded” than people such as YF and Erika. Their cat like eyes adjusted faster and more aggressively to changes in light, and in the dark parking garage, YF could tell her pupils were completely dilated, giving her a less sinister appearance than usual.

“She’s…well she needs to send me to the station tonight,” he said.

“Cool!” she leaned in until her face was past the window, resting her arms on the door. “I guess that means I’ll be hanging out with her today.”

“Probably.” YF moved slightly away from the window. “She’s a bit worn out though. Think she’ll take a nap after I go. Try calling two ish hours after.”

“Worn out eh?” Reina smiled widely. “I got it.” She stood up straight, crossing her arms. “Well anyway, do let her know I will call. Have a nice trip.”

YF nodded and raised the window, continuing down the garage. When he looked up at the rear-view camera a few seconds later, she was already gone. He engaged the auto parking mechanism as he approached his spot and took his hands off the wheel. When the car finished parking, he opened the door and stepped out into the dimly lit area. Though he knew Erika was waiting for him, he decided to stand there a few moments more. Thoughts of moving to the smaller island – and not even its capital city – suddenly sank in. Everything he knew, everyone he knew, would be replaced by a complete unknown. But continuing to work as a Sentinel was no long-term plan, and being closer to Erika’s parents would definitely help if they had a child. Transferring occupation credentials from the provinces to the capital was difficult but not unheard of. Perhaps, one day they would be back.

“What took you so long?” he heard Erika ask as he stepped into the waiting hall. He did not even remember walking there.

“Reina wants to hang out with you.”

Erika raised an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t talking to her the whole time,” he continued.

“You can talk to her more if you want.”

YF shook his head. “I’m good. Let’s get some sleep.”

YF followed her down the stairs to the 36th floor and waved his hand at the door to their apartment. When he stepped in, he noticed the air was noticeably fresher, an inward tilting window in the living room open halfway.

“Thanks for vacuuming,” he said.

“Yeah, I got it done before I fell asleep the first time.”

YF looked at Erika to gauge her mood as she typed away at her receiver. She looked up. “What?”

“Mad?”

Erika tsked. “Used to it by now.”

YF yawned, fatigue from the day’s activities setting in. “I’m going to go to sleep. Tell Reina not to wake you up till midnight or something.”

“I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”

YF opened his arms. Erika set her receiver down on the counter and hugged him around the waist before pecking him on the cheek. “Oyasumi.”

YF nodded. “Oyasumi.”

Shortly after YF pulled the covers over himself, he could hear the TV turning on and some sort of comedy show playing on low volume. He hit the controller to fully tint the bedroom windows, plunging the room into darkness. When he closed his eyes, his mind reformed an image of Reina standing at a distance, pupils dilated and long fangs visible behind her smile.