THE PROMISE WITH AURELIA

In the heat of battle with the Bio-Police, James had off-handedly promised five of something. Tonight, Aurelia came to collect.

It was after James had managed to determine the location for their meeting with the Bio-Police, that Aurelia came through the window. Her heels were on the window sill, and she was crouched like a certain friendly neighbor from a comic. The lights were off, so only her silhouette could be seen.

"Can I come in now?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm done. Come in."

He'd nearly shot her the first time she came in this way, but this was a semi-regular occurrence for them now.

Aurelia had actually tried to come in earlier, about an hour ago, but James was busy. Now that he was done, he was resting on the bed.

"The stuff's in a plastic bag on my desk."

James offhandedly pointed at it. In this darkness, though, only Aurelia could actually properly see. Aurelia checked the contents of the bag and breathed a sigh of relief.

—Five! Five new shirts!

Indeed, with the sheer frequency that her clothes were destroyed—by bullet, blade, or teeth—something like five perfectly-sized shirts was as good a gift as any.

The operative term here, though, was perfectly-sized*—this guy had to *perfectly know those sizes.

"Hey… James, can I—"

"Geez, why do you even still ask?" James sighed, "Just—change over there."

There was a divider in the corner. Aurelia went there and changed into a set of clean clothes. She wiped her face with a hand towel and walked to James' side, sitting on the bed.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

She was tired—of being unique, of being "set aside" from the rest. That James and the other Scouts were nice enough to accommodate her was one thing, but James said, "Anyone else who encountered you, without explanation, might be afraid of you."

He was afraid that others would feel that way towards her, so he made her agree not to show up publicly. He used his own Scout Group as a way to gauge people's reactions towards her, introducing them one by one when the occasion allowed it.

It was comforting to know that not everyone would reject her for her "inhumanity", and that she was still recognized as "Aurelia" and not "monster". Still, when she pressed James to finally let her walk openly in Diliman, he said that it "still wasn't enough".

Of course, she was upset. She couldn't disagree.

James was only confident that only the rest of the Scout Group would accept Aurelia. In the first place, James only accepted those with talent and flexible thinking into the Scout Group, so if anyone outside of it were to accept Aurelia, they should also likewise be flexible thinkers, or else they might come to fear her instead.

The day that she would be accepted as one of those who walked the light was still far off.

She laid down beside James. He pulled a blanket over the both of them.

Aurelia was cold to the touch. At the same time, she wasn't quite dead. It was a surreal sensation, really.

"At last, my free air-conditioning is here," James said, laughing. Aurelia flicked him in the forehead. "Oof, why?! It's a good thing!"

"Hmph."

"And don't you get me as a free warmer?"

"…Hmh."

"I see, I see."

They were facing each other. Carefully, he snuggled up closer to her so that their foreheads were touching. Their arms intertwined.

"People could have the wrong idea if they saw us like this, you know?" Aurelia teased.

"Heh, only if their immunity to women's pitifully low."

"And yours isn't?"

"It's not!"

They shared a chuckle. They closed their eyes.

"I know you don't think of me that way," Aurelia said with a mellow voice.

"I can't see you that way at all," James replied, "But even then, it's nice when you're around, and it's nice when you're happy."

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"You sure you're not in love with me?"

"If I were, I would be having rude thoughts about you right now, and I would be more than happy to talk about them."

"Never had rude thoughts about me then? My confidence as a girl has fallen to new lows."

"…I'm not that sort of saint, damn."

"Ah? Do I have hope?"

"It just… doesn't feel right."

A bit of silence passed between them.

"You there?" James called.

"Yeah."

"How do you feel about it?"

"…Much the same, really. It doesn't feel right to look at you that way."

She squeezed his hand.

"But at the same time… being like this feels just about right."

"Nice to know we're on the same page."

"Nice to know you feel the same…"

The night passed, and James woke up without his free air-conditioning.

TALI'S WENT

She would leave the Scouts.

Tali wanted to help, but she didn't want to fight. She was only dragged into James' selfishness, and so she had no space to think about it at the time, but now that she was at home, she was finally aware of it.

I almost died.

James was a good guy, but she didn't have some strange sense of diehard loyalty. How should I tell him? That I want to leave? Her mind was made up that she would leave, but how to actually do it, she didn't know.

Rather, she knew, but she was hesitant. Just one word in with James would do it. But she couldn't.

Her room was in the Library—all the Scouts' rooms were in the Library. Though it was a "room", it was really just a small space of about 8 square meters, with a bed and cloth dividers on three sides. There were six such "rooms" in the actual, original room that they were set up in.

Much of the Library was set up in this way. Those with reservations about being with strangers of the opposite sex were given peace of mind in men- and women-only rooms, which were further divided with paper or cloth dividers to afford more privacy.

There wasn't much in the way of personal belongings to protect, anyway. Tali stashed away her inner reservations in a journal in a lockbox under her sleeping bag. She decorated the paper walls with colored sketches of landscapes and objects around Diliman. It wasn't much, but it kept her from going insane in a paper box.

The best way to not go insane was to not get cooped up in the first place. She set out, intending to get some fresh air out in the forested promenade in front of the Library. If the back of the Library was a wide open field called the Garden, the front, beyond the driveway, was an arboretum that surrounded a promenade. Beyond the end of the promenade was even more arboretum, in which one could find dirt trails that led to moss-covered concrete tables and benches in obscure places.

One would only go there to be mischievous with a partner, or to seek refuge from the liveliness of the community.

She walked down the promenade and found herself at the entrance of one such trail.

There was a stick there, just sticking out of the dirt. It didn't have anything hanging on it. She tied a white ribbon around it, then followed the trail.

A white ribbon meant that someone ahead was having a solemn alone moment. A red ribbon meant that two such people were having a moment.

This sort of system arose naturally when too many times someone walked into such moments.

Tali reached the end of the trail. There were two benches and a concrete table under the shade of a tarpaulin stretched taut between a nearby tree and some anchors nailed into the ground.

She sat on the table, letting time flow.

Empty mind. Leaves rustle. Whoosh.

Crack.

"Who's over there?" someone called out.

Tali snapped out of her trance. Some time must have already gone by, since the shadows weren't in the same place anymore. She turned to face the voice, which had come from the trail.

"Ah, there you are," James said.

"H-Hello, Mr. James. You were looking for me?"

"Can I sit with you for a bit?"

"Sure?"

Any outside observer would see this as a college student hitting on a high school girl, or a superior abusing their position to take advantage of their subordinate—which was why James sat at arm's length from her, placing his bag between them.

"I wasn't really looking for you, though," James continued, "I just meant to bring something up eventually, and you were conveniently here."

He said that, but it was strange that he knew that it was her, specifically, who'd tied a white ribbon in front of the trail. There weren't many people out and about today, so it was unlikely that there were any witnesses.

"Aurelia dropped by, told me you'd gone out here," he said.

"That's terrifying…" —Just like that, my privacy disappeared.

"Hey now, she doesn't bite, you know?"

He'd tried to joke, but he'd only managed to wring out a wry smile from her.

"I know I put you through something difficult," he continued.

She didn't say anything.

"Which is why, I just wanted to say, that I'll understand if you'll want to leave the Scouts for a while. Or forever."

She still didn't say anything.

Seeing that she was ruminating, or more likely, hesitating, James took out a travel flask and two cups from his bag. He uncapped the flask and poured Tali a cup of hot tea, wordlessly offering it to her.

She looked down at the cup then at James, gauging his intent, at least as best as a 17-year-old could. All she saw, however, was a dude offering her a cup of tea. She accepted it with two hands.

"Weird," she remarked.

"What is it?"

"I thought you were a coffee person."

"I don't want to be high-strung 24/7 too, y'know."

They shared a chuckle and a bit of quiet. Neither of them knew how much time actually passed—though, the amount of tea remaining served as a yardstick. It was when James sipped out the last drop when Tali broke the silence.

"Yeah. I want to leave."

Just about what I thought, huh— "Got an idea on what you'll do next?" James asked.

"…That was quick."

"I gotta think about it too, you know? I won't be the Scout Group's leader for long too, after all."

"Wait, really?" —This guy? Unbelievable.

"Uh-huh. On the other hand, looks like I'll still be running coordinator for a while longer."

"Is… that why you asked? So you can work me to death on another job?" was what she said, but Wait! I didn't mean it like that!

James just laughed it off.

"We might not be close, but I still worry about you, you know?" —So yeah, I want to give you a job, at least.

"Coz both my parents died, is that it?" —Because you pity me? Do I look like I need that?

James was a bit taken aback at what her eyes said.

"Don't bare your teeth on me."

"S-Sorry…"

James was her superior. During and between missions, in or out of the Scout Group, he would never stop being her superior.

"Emotions run out of control often, I understand," James continued, "But this is the worst situation for you to push absolutely everyone away."

"I… I know…"

James hopped off the table and began packing up the cups and the tea flask. It wouldn't be good to chew her out for more than a few sentences.

—Tali's a smart girl, after all. She'd have done her own thinking.

"That said, I get that you still need to process things. I'll only ask that you make the bare minimum effort to check in with me, Dianne, or Maria, every day."

"That's a lot, you know…" Tali replied with aloof eyes directed someplace else.

"You just need to leave a thread of connection, is what I'm trying to say."

James put his backpack on before he continued.

"When you're ready to have at it again, follow the threads you've left. It'll save you the trouble of getting back up on your own."

With that, he left Tali to meet up with Karlson and Aurelia. Tali herself stayed there until the sun went down. She later dropped by to say hi to Maria by the Scouts' Cage, acquiring a star apple from the nice lady.