“Sir? Sir?”

YF opened his eyes to see a young woman shaking his shoulder gently.

“Sir, we’ve reached Ikusayama Terminal.”

YF took a deep breath and brushed the drool that had been trickling down the side of his mouth. “Oh...thank you.”

The attendant smiled politely. “Yes sir. Do you require any assistance? Do you have any luggage?”

YF glanced over to the luggage racks, which were completely empty. As his eyes scanned the area, YF could see that all the other people in his shared cabin had already left. YF raised his head from his pillow slowly until he was sitting about level with the crouched attendant. “No I’m fine, thank you. I’ll be going soon.”

The attendant nodded and stood up. “Please have a good morning. The first sun shouldn’t rise for another hour so you won’t need your visor.” She bowed and then exited the cabin.

YF was still in a daze as he stood up off the mat and shuffled over to the exit. Normally he could never sleep in the shared cabin. There were always people snoring, conversing late into the night — and on one occasion, a lady cursing over and over again as the boat rocked with the storm waves. But this time YF barely remembered anything before he had completely knocked out. He vaguely recalled seeing an old man with his grandchild and a young family but didn’t bother to greet them before falling asleep.

As he stepped out onto the deck, YF was greeted by the fresh summer air of Ikusayama. It was one of his favorite parts about visiting Erika’s family. Ikusayama could be brutally humid, but even then the air was clean, something hard to come by near the capital.

Thoughts of Erika’s family reminded him that he should probably greet his father-in-law first. YF already knew how to get to Erika’s dad’s house from the terminal so that wouldn’t be an issue. As he descended the steps, he took out his receiver and searched through his contacts to look for the local taxi company. Unable to find the number, he sighed in frustration and went onto the network to find it. But as he reached the parking lot, he noticed that there was only one vehicle — a light truck — parked very close to the steps. YF looked through the window of the truck to see a woman wearing a one-piece construction suit asleep in the driver’s seat, a construction hat covering her face. Something about her seemed familiar to YF, but it was a few moments longer before he realized who she was.

YF walked up to the driver side door and tapped his knuckle on the glass gently. The woman jolted up, the construction hat smacking into the steering wheel before falling in her lap. It was then YF found himself staring into the eyes of Erika.

Erika pushed open the door forcefully, almost hitting YF in the process. She then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, the warmth of her lips mixing with the tears that fell straight from her eyes to his cheeks. YF wrapped his arms around her torso and crouched slightly to keep himself from falling over. He pulled his head back, smiled, and kissed her back. Erika wiped her tears sloppily with the back of her hand and smiled softly, holding an expression somewhere between joy and anger.

“You could’ve called,” she said. “I came here every day.”

“I got in a bit of trouble,” said YF. “I made it out. But I’m also not really supposed to be here either.”

Erika seemed to ignore his comment, planting the side of her head in his chest for a few seconds before pulling back. “Come on, I have a place reserved.”

***

YF turned to see Erika pressed up against him, her long inhales and exhales indicating she was still asleep. She was wearing his dress shirt, the bottom of which barely covered the phoenix wing and fire patterns on her thighs. With whole teams of Viper Sect now relocated to Ikusayama, YF wondered what the others thought about Erika having a full mark of a rival sect. He was sure that most of them knew she bore it to save Reina. But it still must’ve been uncomfortable to look at. YF had heard that sectarians didn’t expose their marks for any reason nowadays, not even for matsuri or for security purposes at high level meetings. At the same time most of the home island including Ikusayama held onto all sorts of archaic traditions. He supposed he would find out how she would deal with it at the end-of-summer festival.

YF could see goosebumps beginning to form on her arms. Erika had complained during the day that it was too hot to use the covers, opting to use his shirt instead. But as the sun set once more, the temperature dropped, presumably bringing her close to him with it. He inched slowly away from her side and then took the kakefuton, draping it over her as gently as possible. The ryokan they were staying in had its own private rotenburo — an open air bath. Such luxuries were things Itsugo boys could only dream of. But space was more plentiful in Erika’s hometown — looking through the back door at the steaming bath was enough to make him not want to go back to the capital.

YF walked over to the back entrance and slid open the paper door, revealing perfectly trimmed kaede trees illuminated by the full moonlight. Though they wouldn’t start to change color anytime soon, the green leaves lent a cool feeling to the warm summer evening.

YF stepped onto the rocks and walked carefully toward the bath. When he reached the water, he sat down next to it and dipped his legs inside, kicking a few times to disturb the surface. YF was never much of a swimmer, unlike his brother. He eventually passed a test for the Sentinels, but it was not something he particularly liked or enjoyed. Whenever Hiroyuki wanted to visit the ocean, YF would usually just wade up to his knees and wait nearby, moving his hands and legs idly as he did now. YF slid his full body into the water, raising his arms to keep them on the surface until the water rose to his chest. He then waded over to the furthest kaede tree, raising his hand to touch its trunk.

“It’s a lot colder without you.”

YF turned around to see Erika standing at the top of the steps, undoing the last button to his dress shirt. A light summer breeze was blowing continuously through the area, causing the shirt to wave to one side and press against her body. Though YF still felt uncomfortable whenever he saw sectarian marks, particularly on her, he had to admit that the beautiful red and black phoenix patterns visible through the shirt looked good on her.

Erika raised her arms up to tie her hair in a high ponytail. She then stepped onto the first step, dipping her toes into the water as she pulled the shirt off her torso. After taking the second step, she draped the shirt onto the railing and then leaned forward into the water, taking light breast strokes over to him. When she arrived, she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing herself against him.

“That’s better,” she said.

“I did use the kakefuton,” said YF.

“There’s something lacking about it.”

YF brought one arm across her back and then lowered his nose to her hair.

“I said I love you,” Erika growled in annoyance.

“I love you too,” said YF.

When Erika brought her head back to look at him, YF leaned down for a kiss.

***

YF watched as Erika took the curious watch looking device she had worn since he saw her in the parking lot and raised it to the scanner.

“Ueno Erika detected,” the scanner said.

“Must be what Toa gave her.”

YF followed Erika across the open gathering area and past the men securing their harnesses, many of them bowing low and shouting “Ohayou-gozaimasu” as Erika passed.

“Looks like aniki got laid,” YF could hear from far down the line, multiple bursts of laughter following. Erika blushed.

YF turned to her, smirking. “You a guy now?”

“Don’t think aneki has the same ring to it,” Erika replied.

“If they call you aniki, do they call Reina oyaji?” asked YF.

Erika laughed. “Some of the guys do. She hates it.”

She climbed up on to the platform and took the megaphone, pointing it out toward the crowd. “All right come on boys, let’s start with the stretches.”

Idyllic music then played from the overhead loudspeakers followed by a male voice leading them in morning stretches. The workers and Erika followed the instructions, stretching to the left and to the right as directed. YF copied Erika half-heartedly. He had heard that some of the more traditional offices like the Ward Office still did morning stretches like these but Kuroda and the Sentinels were not big on such ritualistic activities.

“Shin-kokyu!” the announcer yelled out.

YF took a deep breath and exhaled, just as the music and the voice stopped. YF’s mind wandered off as Erika gave a speech about safety and tying off at heights as well as a brief overview of the previous and coming days’ tasks before the workers scattered to their various duties.

When they reached Erika’s office, Erika dropped her hard hat onto her desk and sighed in relief, pulling out multiple stacks of long-standard paper.

“Doesn’t look like a residential building,” said YF.

“That’s because it isn’t. It’s a research center.”

“Part of the whole rural revitalization thing the Kirga is always talking about?”

Erika nodded absentmindedly. “That very one…”

“So you’re cooperating with the government now?” he wanted to ask. But he also didn’t want to ruin what had been a perfect evening.

“So that’s it?” he asked instead. “You don’t have to direct them or anything?”

“Construction manager does that,” said Erika. “I’m just an engineer, and the engineering phase was done before I got here. Some parts have started commissioning though, so I’ll be called out probably in the afternoon.”

YF frowned. “Shouldn’t be any issues with safety right?”

Erika looked up and smiled. “You’re cute when you worry about me. But I’ll be fine.”

“So you’re going to be here all day?”

Erika nodded. “I’m on call of course. It’s unlikely they’ll need me for anything, but just in case.”

“So I can hang out here a bit before seeing your old man?”

“I don’t get why you’re so intimidated by him,” Erika teased, setting aside two papers.

“Father-in-laws are always tricky.”

“You’re saying that like you’ve had more than one.”

“It’s an assumption,” said YF.”

Erika shook her head. “But no, you’re going to have to see Reina first. She’s going to want to know everything that happened. I’m sure she left you alone a few days out of respect for me, but there’s much business to attend to unfortunately.”

“Well I’m going to delay that as long as I can,” said YF.

Erika picked up her receiver and bit her lip. “Reina already called, left a message saying you should see her as soon as possible.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Yasu,” Erika admonished. “Please just go see her.”

“And where the hell does the princess live now?”

“She’s living in the old manor on the hilltop a few li out, you remember that one?”

“The abandoned one?” asked YF.

“Right, the kyodais are restoring it for her and she’s staying there.”

“You going to give me ceremonial clothing to go greet the oyaji?”

“Just go Yasu,” said Erika. “It’s still early in the night. She’ll probably feed you some breakfast or something.”

“Yes, aniki.”

Erika tsked.

YF opened the door to the office and exited onto the construction site, crossing where they had just done the exercises.

“My man!” he could hear the same voice from before shouting.

YF turned to see a fat work leader in a blue construction hat, standing a safe distance away from an excavator that was digging a trench.

“Hey!” YF shouted back.

“You did good!” the man yelled out.

“She’s my wife!”

“Even better!”

“Sakai!”

“Okubo!”

YF nodded to Okubo before continuing across the construction site, exiting under the large makeshift gate with the characters “Safety First” blazed across the banner. When he reached the road, a long, grey car was already hovering there, with the man whose gun he had used, Maeda, waiting in front of it.

Maeda opened the door and bowed. “Please come with me Mr. Sakai. The kaicho is waiting for you.”