YF slurped then gulped down the seafood noodles, the drinking of soup broth and cold buckwheat tea the only thing slowing him down.

“You’re inhaling that,” said Eiji, looking up from his bowl.

“Didn’t have breakfast,” said YF after swallowing once more.

Eiji stirred the noodles with his chopsticks slowly, half of it still swimming in the broth. “Is the stuff here really that much better than in Itsugo?” He slowly slurped a mouthful.

“Yeah,” YF confirmed. He looked down to see that the noodles, squid bits, and oyster meat was mostly gone, much to his disappointment. Setting his chopsticks down, he picked up the bowl by the sides and started drinking from the lip.

Eiji swallowed the bit he had been chewing. “Since you’re moving, I guess it won’t really matter.”

YF smacked his lips, wiping his brow with a napkin placed to the side. “So how is Uraga going to get me? Was he going to make me fill out a bunch of paperwork or something?”

“He’ll tell you the details. But essentially yes.”

The cab ride to the ward office was longer than YF had remembered. He looked out the window at the stylish, newly constructed apartments and shops that increased in density as they approached the city center. Nishida was still a ways off from the capital city of Akeha, but YF was sure Erika would have liked to live there rather than Itsugo. Those — very tentative — plans were shot when moving to Nishida meant that he had to enter the academy, or work in Uraga’s office.

“So what’s changed?” asked YF.

“Kaede moved in.”

“Oh? Our Eiji is going steady?”

“I’m not getting any younger.”

“That’s what Erika said about us having kids.”

“That, I hope to push off for a while,” said Eiji.

“Can’t remember when I last saw her. How is she?” asked YF.

“Fine. She’s asked a few times when we were going to visit Itsugo.”

“Yeah but Erika doesn’t like her,” thought YF.

“Think she might want to ask about wedding planning,” said Eiji.

“Erika definitely doesn’t want to talk about that.” “That’s fast,” YF said instead.

“I haven’t said anything about it.”

“But she’s pushing for it?”

Eiji nodded. “Right. But I just don’t know…it’s hard to describe.”

Saying Eiji was unsure about a girl was like saying night follows day. Personally, YF felt that Eiji had missed the opportunity of a lifetime when his best friend, whom YF was sure liked him, ended up marrying somebody else.

“You remember Lana,” said YF.

“What about her?”

“What do you think I’m going to say about her?”

“Come on, you know it’s too late to talk about that shit,” Eiji grumbled.

“Indulge me for a few minutes,” YF insisted.

“I told you we lost contact after I started going out with Kaede.”

“Why her over Lana?”

“It was hard to see Lana as someone other than a friend.”

“Is Kaede your friend?”

“I suppose so.”

“Do you have friends closer than Kaede now?”

“Other than you, no,” said Eiji, continuing to stare out the window.

“Do you trust her?”

“Yes.”

“Does she care about you? Do you care about her?”

“Yes, and yes.”

YF shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head, drawing his lips into a straight line.

“Aren’t you just projecting what happened to you and Erika on to me?”

“Well it’s worked out, right?”

“I’ll think about it. Right now we have more immediate problems to think about.”

Eiji gestured forward, where the car approached the landing platform to the Ward Office. Unlike the Itsugo Office, the Nishida Ward Office was newly renovated and polished on the outside. There was no trash flying about when the wind barrier opened, nor homeless people laying on the steps. Though the building had been erected at least one hundred years ago, it somehow still felt right in place, with architecture mirroring ancient Reo traditions and modern structures, just like Nishida City in general.

Eiji stepped out of the car first, then waited for YF to get out on the same side before closing the cab door shut. “Come on, let’s go,” said Eiji.

***

“Good work, Sakai-san,” said Magistrate Uraga in a flat, emotionless tone. He looked as if he were reviewing YF’s documents, though YF could tell he had already reviewed them much earlier. “But your report only contained video surveillance of the victim post-mortem, and not of any of the events surrounding his unfortunate passing.”

“There weren’t any, sir,” YF replied.

“Huh. Then either the Itsugo Office is working with multiple dysfunctional or inoperational cameras, or Reoa forbid they are hiding something.” Uraga then held his silence for a few seconds.

“Sir, I can assure you neither is true.”

“In a professional capacity I can only make one proper decision, and that is to recommend a full audit of the Itsugo Office security systems, to ensure the safety of all the good citizens of Nishida Ward.”

YF inhaled deeply. A full audit, depending on the time frame needed to complete it, would mean longer hours and disruption in his usual work. He needed to find a proper way to protest.

“Such an audit is reasonable as long as we still devote the necessary man hours for Sentinel patrols,” said YF.

“I already thought of that problem,” said Uraga. “Auditor Honda will brief you on the details.”

Honda Junko was a tough talking, no-nonsense veteran of the Nishida Office. In her younger years she was part of the Armed Police division in the Public Security Wing of Akeha. YF had heard that her fall from grace in the capital involved her legendary incorruptibility, on account of some questionable finance records she dug up at Public Security. How a person like that ended up under Uraga, YF could only guess. But if she stuck around so long, there must have been something about the Ward Magistrate that YF was missing.

“Yes sir,” said YF.

YF bowed once, turned around, and walked to the hall outside. To the left was the elevator, and right in front of him was a set of stairs. Thinking of Erika, he smiled sadly to himself and started down the stairs, continuing until he reached the ground floor, where the main meeting room was. When YF entered the room, the short, heavyset, fearsome Honda was already seated with a stack of binders piled next to her. “You ever done one of these before?” she asked, tapping a finger on the top one.

“No, Honda-san,” YF replied.

“Save the ‘san’ bullshit for somewhere else. Feudalism died a long time ago. How long have you been a Sentinel?”

YF thought of his exchange with Reina where they spoke in honorifics. That thought led to the image of her, with dilated pupils and long fangs leaning in close to him, resurfacing in his mind. “Uh…”

“You don’t know!” she demanded.

“Five...years ma’am.”

“Then I trust you to figure it out on your own.” Honda pushed the pile of binders across the table, several of the ones on top falling over and scattering across the wood. “Read it all. I’ll be out there by Wood Day.”

YF inhaled as he looked down at the first binder, with enough papers to keep him occupied for a week. “Yes ma’am.”

***

YF downed his fourth beer of the night, bobbing his head lightly with the music. He hated clubs, loud music, and bars. But the exception was when he was with Eiji. It started as him feeling bad for Eiji going to such places alone. But in the end, he simply came to accept that hanging out with Eiji meant getting plastered for at least one night. Eiji was at least eight shots in, his head swinging back and forth in sync with his oscillating hand.

“Fucking Uraga,” YF groaned.

“Y-y-yeah! Fuck him!” Eiji shouted, his voice drowned out by the music.

“And Honda. What an asshole.”

“Y-y-y-y-yeeehh! Fuck Honda! A-ah wait a second…”

“I feel like Uraga figured this all out a long time ago, and was waiting for the right moment to spring this shit on me,” said YF.

“Fuck Uraga!”

“Think that’s all I’m going to get out of him now.” But despite obviously being drunk, YF could tell that his friend was distracted by something. He rolled his eyes over to see Eiji stealing glances at the girl in the fitted black dress and stockings sitting in the corner of the bar.

“Eiji…” YF said in a low voice.

Eiji looked over to him. YF shook his head slowly. Eiji raised both his hands palms out and then pushed the air, as if to dismiss YF. “W-what a square. Just cause you ordered doesn’t mean you can’t look at the menu.”

“Wonder what Kaede would think of that.”

As if on cue, the woman in question sauntered over to them, planting herself right in front of Eiji. Close up, YF could tell that she was their age, if not slightly older, though that did nothing to dent her attractiveness. Her makeup was expertly done so that it looked like she hadn’t done it at all; Erika had told him that was very hard to pull off. YF glanced down once at the bottom of her dress hugging her hips, her legs disappearing into the opening.

“Gentlemen?” she asked in a deep voice that somehow emerged clear over the music.

“Ma’am my buddy here is just a few too many in,” said YF, instinctively putting his arm across Eiji’s torso.

“I’m...f-f-fine…” Eiji slurred.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I came to say hi and chat for a few minutes. He says he’s fine,” she said.

“Lady, please.” YF looked around. His eyes stopped on the corner where she had emerged from. “Why do you come here with your friend?” YF pointed to an equally attractive woman still sitting there. She stood up and started making her way toward them.

“Why don’t you tell me why I came with her?” she countered.

“You know that both her and I are walking, talking stupidity insurance.”

The woman frowned.

YF got up and formed his lips in a line, reaching his hand out to shake that of the newcomer before she could say anything. The woman raised an eyebrow and then extended her hand slowly, smirking at the awkwardness. “Nice...to meet you?”

“I suspect you and I are here for the same reasons,” said YF.

“Well I think you need to do better than that if you want—”

“I can assure you, that’s not what I meant,” said YF. YF glanced down to the large jade ring on his right hand, now sitting in the palm of hers.

“Okay?” she asked, withdrawing her hand.

“The man is spoken for.”

“That’s usually the girl’s line,” said the first woman.

YF had told Eiji he should wear the jade ring — but he still had not.

“Fuck.”

At that moment, Eiji suddenly threw up, chunks of pork and pork’s blood mixed with alcohol pouring out onto the counter.

YF smiled widely. “Ladies, I think that’s our signal that another time would be better for casual conversation.”

The second woman grabbed the arm of the first. “I think he’s right.”

The first woman tsked loudly, her face contorting to one of disgust as she made her way back to their corner with her friend. “Men always have such shit timing…” YF could hear as she left.

“Couldn’t agree more,” YF whispered. He turned as the bartender, beet red in the face, somehow arrived standing where the first woman did.

“The two of you had better clean this up, and then get the fuck out!” the man yelled.

He threw a rag in Eiji’s face, who barely reacted, the side of his head slowly descending to the counter and making a splash in his own vomit as it landed.

YF sighed. “All right, let’s get this done with.”

YF pulled the rag from under Eiji’s head and wiped up as much as he could, heading for the bathroom afterward. He picked up a spray bottle of detergent sitting on the floor next to a toilet and sprayed the substance into the rag, folding it in half and massaging the mess out of it under hot water. He then grabbed at least ten paper towels and returned to the bar counter, continuing to wipe up Eiji’s half digested dinner.

When YF finished, he waved his hand at the trash bin to get it to open and threw the paper towels inside. He then flagged down the bartender. “Can you help me get him in the cab? It’ll get us out quicker and prevent the ladies from having to do it.”

YF gestured with his head to the women, who by now were intentionally avoiding eye contact. The bartender frowned a deep frown, and without a word made his way around the counter to Eiji, locking Eiji’s shoulders from underneath the latter’s armpits with his forearms.

“I’ll get the legs,” YF said to no one in particular.

When they reached the platform, the bartender dropped Eiji in a way that displayed his contempt yet somehow didn’t hurt him. Before YF could react, the man had already disappeared back into the building.

“Guess I need to get the cab driver to help.”

While he was waiting, YF texted Erika to let her know that he would be about an hour and a half late.

***

After YF dumped Eiji in his own shower stall, he started to undo his friend’s dress shirt and pants, leaving his underwear on before turning on the water.

“You do this a lot?” asked YF.

“N-n-nope…” Eiji responded.

“When was the last time you went out to the bar?”

“Not...not since…” Eiji hiccupped. “Not since...”

“Good,” said YF, cutting him off.

“I told you...I’m...I’m getting too old…”

“Too old to fool around? Yeah you are,” YF finished.

“I...I...trust you bro...that’s...that’s why…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Eiji’s head had lulled to the side and he fell asleep.

“Yeah. I know.”

YF waited until Eiji looked decently clean, then removed one of the larger bath towels to wipe him down. YF took a dry bath towel and draped it over his friend to keep him warm. “You...are going to wake up with a massive headache.”

He stood up slowly, his knees cracking as he did from crouching next to Eiji so long. YF then walked slowly to Eiji’s bedroom, where a framed picture of Eiji and Kaede sat on the nightstand. Kaede was supposed to return in two days, plenty of time for Eiji to get in trouble. And yet the expression Kaede wore in the picture suggested she either didn’t think Eiji would do anything that crossed the line — wherever that line happened to be — or she had decided not to think about it. As he turned to look out of Eiji’s bedroom window to the city below, YF thought about Erika sitting in the driver’s seat as she drove him to the station. He thought about Hiroyuki.

“Do I know?”