“But.” Julie stares me in the eyes with an intensity I’ve never seen. “We’re definitely going to fail.”

“You really think so?” I ask.

“Yes. And I need you to understand what that means.”

“It’s not good?”

“It means they’ll find Esther,” Julie says. “They’ll take my daughter and use her for God knows what. I’d be dooming her to the worst possible existence. They’ll kill the rest of us. But not her. For Esther’s sake, we have to know what failure really means.”

“Why are you so certain of this?” I ask.

“Master Keitou’s plan is so straightforward, so easy, isn’t it? Hop around the multiverse undetected, gather a misfit army of rebels, and then what? Face the might of the U.S. military and all its unwilling allies head-on? What are our real chances?”

“Well, I suspected a little sabotage on Mystix would help.”

“If we get crushed, my family is at stake. Yes, I care about Earth, and I care about peace and freedom, but if my family is destroyed, my full fury will be unleashed. And I think you understand what that means.”

I nod, slowly, uncertainly.

“There’s a power deep inside me,” Julie says. “You’ve felt it during our training, surely. I don’t know the extent of it, but... I know that if I unleash it all, bad things will happen. And I’m not sure I want to find out the truth.”

“That won’t happen,” I say. “Your family will be fine. I’m here, and I won’t fail.”

“That’s what you said about Santa Barbara.”

Stunned silence.

The rest of the bar and its non-English-speaking elderly patrons carry on as normal, but I’m speechless.

“Sorry to be harsh,” Julie says. “But you went head-on against the bad guys already. And you didn’t even come close to victory. What’s going to be different now?”

“W-well, we’re training so much, and...”

“Eryk, there’s a reason that the U.S. military hasn’t discovered us yet. It’s not because they’re so inept and clueless that they’ve just lost track of the biggest warship on the planet. They’re not even bothering to make finding us a priority. They don’t even consider us a big enough threat anymore.”

“...”

“So when I say that Master Keitou is going to lead us to failure, I say it only because I know the strength of what we’re up against. We need a backup plan, we need a fallback. We need anything but complete destruction.”

“I see. Julie, my dear North Spiran comrade, I believe I agree.”

“That’s why I wanted to ask you out here tonight,” she says. “Sorry. Not friendship or anything. Just for a promise.”

“I see. Our compatibility as friends is probably not particularly high, now that I think about it.”

“No, but Delta likes you, so it’s fine.” I finish my lemon sour, but Julie has already finished her next whiskey. As soon as we get our refills, I chug my next drink down so I can keep up with her progress towards intoxication. She does not remark on that at all. “So, Eryk? Promise me this. You’ll use your idiocy to make sure we don’t fail. Come up with something so off-kilter, so unexpected, that not even the greatest chessmaster genius could counter it. You’re the only one dumb enough to pull it off.”

“Me? Really?”

“If what Delta tells me is true? Absolutely.”

“Well then. .. I’ll do my absolute best. Absolutely.”

Julie stands up and sets two 10,000 yen bills on the countertop. When the bartender protests, she waves her away and says it’s fine. She’ll pay for the next drink for everyone else. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“I did want another lemon sour...”

But she’s already out the door, so I follow.

We’re back out in the cool night, the stars obscured by light pollution and the quiet scene disrupted by loud drunken laughter and excited shouting in the distance.

“I’m going to go train some more,” Julie says. “You don’t need to come.”

“I’m a fair bit too tired to do it, honestly.”

“Have a nice rest, and remember your promise.”

“I’ll make sure our main plan doesn’t fail,” I say. “But even if it does, we’ll still defeat the Americans.”

“See you around.” She puts two fingers to her forehead and adds, “By the way. I found a new power.”

Thwoop.

Suddenly, she’s gone.

My eyes pop open.

“Teleportation!!!”

But no one is around to hear it.

...

So I head back to the Mutsu Grand Hotel, with alcohol fuzzing up my brain and the weight of Julie’s words bringing great clarity at once. A mix of feelings that do not go well together.

Francis is still in the computer room, watching the Streamy Awards. He waves to me, but then turns and glues himself back to his screen, so I suppose he will be occupied for a while yet.

I head upstairs to the room, but instead of going in, something takes me. A sense of extroverted curiosity in social activity. I knock on the door next to mine, and look who answers it? It’s Delta!

“Yeah?” Delta, wearing pajamas and holding a tub of peach flavored ice cream asks.

“I just wanted to stop by and say hi.”

“Uh, hi.” She glares at me. “You’re interrupting my me time.”

“I had drinks with your wife. She’s quite an interesting fellow.”

“Yeah, I know. She told me. And yeah, I know. That’s why I married her.”

“Because she’s interesting?”

“Yes.”

“Fair enough.”

We stand in awkward silence for a moment, before Delta finally says, “Want to watch a movie? That’s all I’ve been doing since I put Esther to bed.”

“Oh, Esther gets her own room?”

“Well, these rooms only get one bed,” Delta says. “As seems to be our curse while we travel.”

“Very true. Sure thing, my friend. Let’s watch a movie.”

I step into the hotel room and sit on the empty chair beside the bed. I don’t feel particularly comfortable in sharing a hotel bed with Delta alone when I recall how strange it was to share the bed as a trio back in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara.

It’s simply a bit odd.

“What movies were you watching?”

“Well, I just finished Call My By—Uh, some weird romance movie. You wouldn’t care about it.”

“I see,” I say. “And what do you want to watch next?”

“I don’t know. What’s on TV?”

We flip through the channels, but everything is in Japanese, so it’s hard to tell what it is.

“Uh, how about this?” she asks. It shows a scene of two mothers and their children. “This movie just started according to the TV guide. I can’t read what it is, but it’s got gay moms, so it can’t be too bad.”

“I await to see the gay moms,” I say. “Let us watch!”

The title card to the movie flashes by a few scenes later—it’s called The Kids Are All Right.

“Never heard of it,” Delta says. “You?”

“No, I didn’t watch many movies in my captivity. It was almost entirely video games.”

“A fate worse than death, then.” Delta looks at me and her normal glare softens. “You know, I’m glad you and Francis finally got together. You suit each other well.”

“Really? Even if I’m a very dumb and rude person?”

“You balance each other’s flaws out, and whatever. I don’t know, don’t ask me. I’m not your relationship therapist.”

“You are merely our third wheel on the bicycle we call love.”

“Don’t call me that ever again.”

“Sorry.”

“And don’t forget, I was your matchmaker. I’m the one who said he was into you, and I will take all credit if you ever get married someday.”

“I believe you are overstating your influence somewhat.”

“I believe you should shut up and watch this movie with me.”

I smile. “Will do, Delta.”

We watch The Kids Are All Right for a while. It’s a good movie, featuring charismatic actors who...

Hmm.

Oh.

Well, then.

After the movie ends, I stand up and go back to my room without another word exchanged between us. It’s better that way.