Deon’s face felt warm despite the crisp morning air.

All eyes were on him.

Waiting. Anticipating.

He’d herded them all this far, standing just outside the doors of Hynes Convention Center. Now it was time to follow through. Now he had to prove that making his whole team wake up early, sneak out of the ship, tiptoe through the tunnel connecting the hidden dock to Hynes Stadium, and slither their way between early Anime Boston workers to get outside was all worthwhile.

“Uh…now what?” wondered Lammy, his voice barely audible over a series of cars rushing by.

By the looks of it, that was the very question on almost everyone else’s mind, too.

“This better be worth our time,” urged Phillip.

Given Deon had begged him to use illusions so they could sneak out undetected, the pressure was on to make his efforts pay off.

“And hopefully it’s worth the trouble we’ll probably be in,” added Otogi—or Alan, as he was currently dressed.

But nobody appeared as perplexed as the still-sleepy Kotono. She blinked, then blinked again, as if she’d just realized they were outside. As far as she knew, they’d gotten up for an emergency meeting with management about their loss.

At least, that was the lie Deon had Skrili tell her. It was the only way he could think to lure her this far.

Only Skrili knew Deon’s plan. Her purple eyes cut through him and pieced him back together all in one.

I still think this is a dumb idea. But…I have your back, they said without words. Don’t bail out now.

Man, I lucked out with her…Deon knew.

He shook himself back, realizing his other teammates still needed an answer.

Deon scanned their surroundings. If his unseen assistant was to be trusted, his next step was close. And given the absent security around Kotono’s room earlier, combined with the ship’s exit gates unlocking on their own, this secret help hadn’t failed him yet.

His TeamTrack buzzed with a message: a simple ‘thumbs up.’

Perfect timing.

“Should be right around the corner,” Deon declared. He marched ahead.

The others sidestepped to let a biker hurry by, and then warily, they followed.

Kotono stirred again, checking back to the convention building just before they turned the street corner. She slowed her pace. “Um…b—but…what about the…?”

“There’s no meeting, Kotono,” Skrili finally admitted.

“Huh? Th—then why…?”

Deon was the first to reach the intersecting street. And with one glance, he turned electric.

It was there.

Chest puffing, he whipped back around to face the others, and he watched their eyes widen when they reached him and shared his view.

“Because, Kotono,” he announced, “we’re doing this!”

Before them, resting in a perfect file on the sidewalk, awaited five gleaming two-wheeled vehicles. Their gloss was dazzling under the rising sun, with helmets to match each finish resting atop their leather seats.

“Our fight’s not until way later,” Deon said. “So let’s ditch this place and see the city!”

All but the expectant Skrili exchanged glances. They had a whole slew of obligations lined up before the fight: warm-ups, a strategy meeting, makeup and clothes, interviews…

So why do this?

But his cousin was the first to meet his eyes with warm resolve. Lammy nodded, and Deon could tell he’d connected the dots.

This was for a purpose.

“We had a bit of a tradition…” Kotono had shared yesterday. “Hiroko liked Normal Country motorcycles, so we’d sneak away and rent them…”

Knowing Deon, Lammy grasped exactly what his plan was now.

Kotono shifted to speak, so everyone turned to her. But though her voice never emerged, her bafflement was obvious.

“Two words:” Deon said. “Fenn Crashings!”

Her eyes widened. All at once, that single name answered every question she had spinning in her head. “Y—you…talked with Fenn?”

“Yep! He pulled the strings! Who would’ve thought your head bodyguard would be so chill, Kotono?” explained Deon.

Then, perhaps too valiantly, he raised a fist. “Now, who’s ready to leave this place in the dust?!”

Otogi couldn’t help but chuckle.

“On scooters?” questioned Phillip.

Deon’s fist dangled. His battle cry didn’t inspire the hearty cheer he’d envisioned.

“What? No, these are those motorcycle things! Finn rented them!” Deon argued. “I don’t know what a ‘scooter’ is, but it sounds dorky. We’re gonna tear up the roads on these guys!”

“Not at the speed they go,” Otogi broke to him. “They’re definitely scooters, man.”

Deon lowered his now-shaking fist. “Fenn…we talked about this! You said you had my back!”

“He probably didn’t want us getting ourselves killed,” pressed Skrili evenly. “I mean, he’s Kotono’s main bodyguard. That’s his whole job.”

“Yeah, true…”

Deon may as well have melted onto the sidewalk before their eyes. Already, his master plan was falling apart?

But Lammy stepped forward.

With a beaming grin, he shot his own fist into the air.

“Seems fun to me!”

The words paused Deon’s waning hope. And it only became easier to rebuild when Phillip stirred to join him, as well:

“Alright…I agree.”

Otogi glanced between all of his teammates, pausing on Kotono. Deon could sense it: the air was shifting. Perhaps Otogi was feeling it, too.

“Hey, I never said scooters weren’t cool,” he said. “Count me in.”

Deon’s heart pulsed. His teammates were reading between the lines. They got it.

And despite his fumble, they were willing to trust him on this.

You guys…he celebrated, eyes shining.

It was time.

Time to bond as a team, and more importantly:

Time to lift Kotono’s spirits.

As Otogi approached the scooters with the others, Skrili waited behind with Kotono.

“What do you think?” Skrili invited softly.

The star consciousness looked small under their careful eyes. She fiddled with her sleeve.

“Um…” came her eventual utterance. “A—alright.”

“YES!!” boomed Deon. “Then today: WE RIDE!!”

~

“Ay, watch it!”

Deon skirted his scooter to the side, its rising buzz soft—even cute—as he did so. He alerted his companions, and they all maneuvered to allow a much faster few cars zoom past them to beat a traffic light.

“No, YOU watch it!!” retorted Deon.

“Ha. You already sound Bostonian!” congratulated Otogi from the front of the pack. As the most experienced with such machines and driving rules, he and Kotono led the steady way.

Contrary to the fantasy Deon had played out in his head last night, he learned Team Hiroko weren’t quite dominating the streets. Their chorus of scooter hums and rainbow of colors caught the attention of countless pedestrians on their way to work, eliciting a laugh on one street, and a photo taken on the next.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He had to admit, though, the breeze felt nice. And something about riding with a group of friends made him feel like they could traverse the whole planet.

Deon prayed Kotono was feeling the same way.

He steadied his balance on their next turn around the corner. Ahead of him, Lammy checked back from the pillion of Skrili’s bright blue scooter, and then shot him an encouraging thumbs-up. Between Deon’s total lack of experience and—according to Skrili—his tendency for recklessness, she'd refused to trust him with carrying Lammy. She’d immediately opted to do it herself, shepherding Lammy her way.

But now, smiling at the sight, Deon accepted it. While he was beginning to get a hang of this thing, watching her ride with Lammy was a view he wouldn’t trade.

They all paused for a moment at a red light, which Deon could only assume meant to stop.

“Did that Fenn guy make us all fake licenses or something?” Skrili asked beside him. “How did this even happen?”

Deon simply shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s a mysterious dude…”

To the other side of his scooter, a giggle rang out—one he hadn’t heard since before the fight in Azvaylen.

Kotono’s.

“Fenn always has his ways,” she shared from her pink scooter. “Like—always.”

The light turned green before them.

“Only a few more minutes!” announced Otogi.

With a not-so-grand reprise of thin hums, the team puttered forward to resume their excursion. Otogi had a favorite coffee spot he hadn’t hit up since fame sucked his time away, so they'd picked it as the perfect first destination.

But even with Kotono pulling ahead, Deon could still hear her giggle ring in his mind.

It’s working. She’s perking up already.

Soon, they reached the café safely—though they orbited around it for a bit to find parking. The group removed their helmets and herded around Otogi, who waited by the ramp of a quaint structure tucked into the corner of a much larger brick complex.

“Here we are: Gracenote Coffee!” he announced. “There’s one rule: you have to try their pastries. Any of them.”

Everyone began filing in. But Lammy paused, inching closer to Deon.

“‘Fenn Crashings…’ you know, I was trying to figure out why that sounded familiar…” he uttered. “That was the same name on the order we got working for the Phoenix—the one Hiroko and Kotono placed so they could see Zayza.”

“Huh…” Deon learned. “It’s starting to sound like he’s the reason they always got away with stuff.”

The bitter and sweet scent of gourmet caffeine embraced them the moment they stepped in together, and Deon was quick to find that despite the lack of dragons, the secrecy about consciousnesses, and—especially—the grumpy city folk, Boston wasn’t so bad.

Not with breakfast like this.

The latte art in his steaming beverage and the pure sugar rush from his pain au chocolat proved that perhaps Normal Country harbored some fantasy of its own.

But nobody seemed to understand that as much as Kotono. She sat across from him with five different pastries, half of which the petite pro had already plowed through by herself.

“Uh…I h—have a sweet-tooth,” came her timid reasoning.

“And apparently, a remarkable metabolism,” added Phillip.

Their caffeine-infused teammates filled the café with laughter.

~

The team was back on the road within minutes, their scooter gang garnering even more attention from the awakening city. Otogi, Satisfied with his fulfilled recommendation, had insisted Kotono take the reins of the agenda from there.

To their shock, she nearly opted for more sweets by picking a bakery they passed. But ultimately, Kotono chose to show them the castle-like architecture of the Trinity Church, where Deon and Lammy almost felt like they were back in Azvaylen. Then she guided them to the city’s dedicated Museum of Fine Arts, and Deon and Phillip debated if a series of white blobs could count as art at all.

But eventually, the group settled down to a simple walk in the city garden.

A hint of panic set in every time Deon felt his TeamTrack vibrate—at last, it seemed the agency had realized they were gone, as everyone’s devices were lighting up with messages and calls. But one look at Kotono quelled his concern every time.

She was glowing—not due to her powers, and certainly not due to the makeup Volona hadn’t the chance to paint onto her yet. It was a natural, soft glow.

Life had reemerged from deep within her, as if to peak out its head in curiosity.

Kotono stopped to admire several of the flowers and fountains, and especially the fat squirrels, even sharing a brief memory they triggered of Hiroko and Zayza.

Deon was certain: no matter how much trouble they were in now, this made it more than worth it.

“So, what’s next?” he prompted Kotono. “Do we have time for any more hotspots?”

She shrugged shyly. “Y—you guys can decide…”

“Well,” mentioned Otogi, “there’s the Freedom Trail, if you guys are interested in American history.”

“What’s America?” Deon and Lammy asked.

Otogi considered it for a moment. “Eh…actually, you don’t wanna know.”

“If we want to do lunch soon,” offered Skrili, “I heard there’s—”

A harsh buzz cut her off. All of their TeamTracks went off at once, this time louder than usual.

Deon whipped his out.

Fenn:

“MAYDAY.”

“Mayday?” he wondered.

“Uh-oh.”

Everyone turned to Kotono.

“G—guys,” she uttered, “we should p—probably—”

“FRIENDS! THERE YOU ARE!”

Deon couldn’t think of any ‘friends’ who would greet him so stiffly. The team turned to find a group of a dozen locals rushing their way.

No–they were all tall and burly…and the city clothes seemed…unnatural on them somehow…

Now that they were a bit closer, Deon finally recognized their faces.

“Crap.”

“Team, what are you doing out here? We need you back in the ship!” the front-running guard whisper-shouted once he was certain no locals were close enough to hear.

Deon glanced between his teammates, only to receive the same uncertain glances back.

“Come with us,” the guard pressed.

Then, Deon’s eyes landed on Kotono. The tiniest shiver of red flickered from her body.

That was all he needed to motivate his next move.

“Uh, we’ll be back later,” he promised the guards. “Guys…RUN!!”

“HUH?!”

Even amongst the confusion—or partially because of it—Deon was joined by all five of his companions as their lightning-speed steps tossed grass in their wake.

“Hey!”

Deon imagined a wooden plank to scoop up Lammy and fly him behind the much-faster pros, just before a guard was able to reach him.

There was quite a hole in logic having bodyguards oversee some of the strongest consciousnesses in the Multiverse, as Deon quickly found. They were fast—but only fast enough to barely keep up.

“Just go! They won’t attack us!” Skrili encouraged the group.

It made sense: though all the guards had some sort of consciousness abilities (otherwise they couldn’t have traveled here), they wouldn’t use force on their own clients.

Otogi laughed at the front of the pack. “You guys are a riot! I picked the right team!”

“Otogi! Sir!”

They all skidded to a halt. In similarly awkward disguises, Otogi’s own bodyguards stood waiting for them at the entrance of the garden.

“Whoops.”

Deon scanned the perimeter. “There! The scooters!” he found. “LET’S RIDE!!”

“We’re literally faster without them!!” protested Skrili.

“Alright, fine…”

She pushed him along, now leading the way towards the bustling city streets.

But she didn’t hold the lead for long.

A giggle passed her by, evolving into a full belly-laugh. And with it, came a glorious golden glow.

Kotono flew at the front of the group, her powers glittering like the sun. Deon figured she’s soar even more gracefully if she wasn’t laughing so hard.

“Come on!” she beamed after a snort. “Th—this is the best part!”

“THIS IS THE BEST PART?!” boomed Deon.

Her utter glee at their predicament was unwavering, like they’d just pulled off the ultimate prank.

Man, she’s a lot more mischievous than she looks, Deon realized.

“Step it up, Stutter!” Otogi shouted back at him, sidestepping cars to cross the speeding traffic like it was an afterthought.

“But don’t worry. My illusion is in place,” declared Phillip not far behind.

“One of my guards is an Illusionist, though!”

In that case, the chase was still on. Deon snapped himself back into the task at hand and imagined another plank for himself. Flying over the cars, he and Lammy chased after the others towards the towering downtown buildings.

Soon the exasperated bodyguards’ shouts faded into the city noise behind them. The people they whizzed by went about their business, oblivious to their extravagant forms of travel and speed thanks to Phillip’s quick work.

“I can only hold an illusion this broad for so long…” he warned, sprinting down the alley they’d found themselves speeding through.

Deon checked backwards. “That’s fine! I think we lost them! Where’s a place we can lay low?”

Kotono seemed to be ahead of them in that regard: she shot straight upward along the skyscraper’s wall. Taking the hint, Deon imagined flying platforms for the rest of his team.

Together, they ascended until they cleared the endless windows and reached the roof. The tops of other buildings passed beneath them as they reached the apex of the surrounding Boston skyline.

Deon dismissed his imaginings, and the six consciousnesses tumbled to the floor. The high breeze brushing through their hair, they toppled to their knees in heaps of gasps.

Or, most of them did.

Kotono’s laughter still hadn’t ceased, though her golden energy lowered to dustings of light.

“Their faces…” she wheezed. “That…that was…”

Phillip was the next to crack. Then, in a chorus, the whole team burst into a clamor.

“We’re in so much trouble,” Otogi predicted without a care.

They all gradually fell silent, their bliss vastly overshadowing any fear of consequences. The clouds were closer all the way up here, and the aging afternoon sun cast a brilliance on the endless metallic structures shaping this quirky city.

“So…Fenn p—put you up to this?”

Kotono’s wavering voice finally broke the stillness. Her ecstasy had died down, softening back to the smile she’d grown in the garden.

“It was actually Deon’s idea,” Skrili credited.

“Well…yeah,” Deon explained. “I’ve been wanting to do…well, something for you, Kotono. Then you told us the story about the motorcycles, and it clicked. But it was weird…’cuz once I thought of it, Fenn actually came to me first.”

Kotono watched him knowingly.

“He said if I wanted, he’d make it happen,” Deon recounted. “It was like he already knew. It was crazy…”

“Well,” Kotono said plainly, “h—he’s a Thoughtreader. So Fenn always knew when Hiroko and I were gonna pull a f—fast one on management. But then he’d help us get away with it every time.”

“So I was right…” Lammy connected.

“Whatever he read in your mind, Deon,” Kotono added, “it m—made him trust you with me.”

Her shy smile warmed. And at last, Deon could shed a sigh of sheer relief.

He had no doubt anymore: it really worked.

“So…” he asked, “do you feel at least a little better now?”

A breeze swept through Kotono’s strawberry blonde curls. Her smile remained.

But then, blending into the subtle gold around her body, grayness spread around her.

And to Deon’s shock, still smiling, she shook her head.

“N—no…” she finally muttered.

Deon felt himself freeze for a moment. “No?” he repeated, beginning to stand so he could approach her. “Then Kotono, what can we do to help—”

Skrili’s hand reached up to his chest. Despite her lack of pressure, it calmed him to a stop.

With a smile much like Kotono’s—paper-thin as it was strong—she shook her head at him.

“That’s not how it works,” Skrili uttered gently. “Deon…when you lose someone so special to you like that…that’s just…not how it works. You can’t just feel ‘better.’ But—”

“B—but now…” Kotono concluded, “I’m starting to realize…that’s okay. It’s okay to not feel better. B—because…”

A brilliance emanated from her. Everyone’s eyes would have shot wide, if not for its sheer intensity. The energy wasn’t gray, or a pale, lifeless shade that sucked color from everything around her.

It was white. Pure white.

And with it, as a perfect companion, came tears. They streamed down Kotono’s face, glistening on her quivering chin.

“Because…” she struggled out, “I…I have friends who wish they could help. I’m still totally lost. Every day hurts so much without her. I’m so lonely. But…I have friends who don’t want me to be. Friends who understand what I lost. What we lost. And…what she did for us.”

The pure white swirled against her. With the sky as its backdrop, it framed her like she was a being of the heavens.

“Maybe…” she decided, “for now, that’s enough.”

As one, Deon and his teammates rushed to their feet. Within a moment, Kotono was enveloped in their embrace.

Her white energy was cool against Deon’s skin and clothes. And from the instant he reached it, whether it was the energy itself or Kotono, he felt the unquenchable need to cry.

He wasn’t alone: tears flooded from the whole group. They embraced tighter, and Deon could feel Skrili beside him.

You knew, he realized. That’s why you went along with my dumb plan, isn’t it? I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I was just cheering her up.

But Skrili…you knew what this would REALLY mean to Kotono, didn’t you?

He didn’t need her confirmation, just her warmth—everyone’s warmth—to know it was true.

Their embrace atop the skyscraper lasted longer than they all cared to count. Deon had no idea how much time remained before tonight’s fight.

All he knew was that whatever this collective was before, it wasn’t yet a team.

But today, on this roof, that changed.

Today, for the first time, they became Team Hiroko.