The two had lunch a bit later than yesterday in Loter's cottage. Hiroku introduced Loter to some Habanese dishes, and Loter loved every single one of them: raw fish on rice, rice in tofu skin, vegetables in gim cones, another kind of raw fish on rice, cooked fish on rice, octopi on rice, octopi in starch balls, etc.

After lunch, Loter tried to persuade Hiroku to let him use invisible flying so they could peacefully visit every estate without interacting with anyone. At first, Hiroku refused and said it was impolite. Then, he realized Loter had already done it yesterday to see Tori.

Loter admitted it after being busted. Hiroku decided not to care anymore and agreed to let Loter use his power with him.

"Okay, I'm doing it." Loter pressed on the table with one hand and slowly reached his other hand across the table toward Hiroku.

"Wait." Hiroku leaned back slightly, unable to dodge further away since he was sitting on his shanks.

"What?" Loter paused his movement.

"Are you sure about connecting minds with me?" Hiroku asked with a funny expression on his face. Loter could not tell if it was reluctance, distrust, unwillingness, a mix of them all, or other things.

"Yeah, and I think we are only going to feel each other's emotions. 'Minds' would be an exaggeration."

"Only the emotion?"

"Only the emotion."

Hiroku did an inhalation and an exhalation. "Fine, you'll regret it, but just do it, and why are you doing it so slowly, anyway?"

"Oh, I feel like it's an important moment, and I should take my time."

"Just do it—"

Loter suddenly grasped Hiroku's wrist and said, "Okay."

Hiroku's arm rose spontaneously to retrieve his hand, but he controlled himself and stopped the action. For several seconds, they just stared at their overlapped hands to avoid the inevitable awkwardness.

"It's not working, Loter," Hiroku said. His voice was as low as usual and mixed with the earlier funniness.

"It worked last time. Why?" Loter asked, actually curious.

"Maybe you should activate your ability before sharing it."

"Oh yeah. That's right." Loter pulled his hand away, turned invisible, and touched Hiroku's wrist again.

Upon sharing the ability, Loter sensed a pressure on his chest. It was not heavy enough to cause serious pain. Yet, every breath with it felt strenuous and tiring. He made a loud gasp for air subconsciously.

"Is this what you feel every day?" Loter opened his mouth to have an easier time breathing. However, the effect was minimal.

"I'm sorry," Hiroku answered. Loter could feel Hiroku's sense of guilt and tightened his grip before Hiroku could even consider drawing his hand back.

"Don't be. It's just my first time experiencing your feelings. I'll adapt." Loter closed his mouth and suppressed his breathing to the minimum so he did not make any obvious noises. "See," Loter said, "I can adapt."

Hiroku opened his mouth but hesitated before speaking. "I can feel you are concerned." He paused for an instant to search for the right word. "But mostly pleasant." Loter detected a faint feeling of conflict during the hesitation that was similar to the one he sensed from Tori.

Before Loter could ask, Hiroku said, "I can tell you are suddenly curious, and you are probably going to ask me a question now. It feels weird to know your emotion."

"Yeah, I want to ask what were you hesitating about?"

"I was just trying to find the right word. The thing is subtle. I think saying you are happy is too much, but you're feeling positive."

"No, I mean, what were you about to say before saying I'm concerned?"

Hiroku took a few seconds to build his sentence and said, "I was just thinking about what to say. I don't want you to feel worse since you are already feeling bad because of me." He paused, shifted his eyes away, and returned immediately. "Wait, why are you feeling more positive?"

Loter giggled and said, "You know what Key would say if he were here? 'Aw, It's so sweet of you, Hiro!'" He continued chuckling at the gag he just came up with.

Loter still remembered Key saying the line at Loter's first dinner in the school. That was the dinner he truly got to befriend Key.

Although Loter overlooked it back then, he just realized that Hiroku was the one who resolved the conflict between Key and Glacia. Hiroku was much more important to the friend group than he thought he was.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Hiroku joyfully rolled his eyes at Loter's joke and went back to the track. "Why were you asking me about the hesitation?" He lightly tittered again at the end of his sentence. Loter could feel that Hiroku also reminisced about that dinner.

"Oh, I detected the same feeling when Tori told me she did not know any solution. I just want to make sure I did not mistake anything." Loter explained in joy. He had a momentary doubt over the sudden change of mood. However, he decided it was probably something related to his power. Besides, Loter had no problem with being happy whatsoever.

"Um-hum," Hiroku replied naturally without adding new information or guiding the direction of the conversation.

"..." Loter, unable to continue on an "um-hum," stayed quiet and smiled.

"..."

Simultaneously, an identical awkwardness was felt by both ends of the talk. Loter squirmed with an itchiness that came with the awkwardness. He let out a weird chuckle, and the atmosphere fell back into speechlessness.

Eventually, Hiroku had something to say. Loter sensed it and leaned forward in anticipation.

"You can start teaching me the flying part now."

"Yeah! We can do the flying now!"

They walked out of the cottage together with Loter still holding Hiroku by the wrist. None of them worried about the hands-holding.

Hiroku was not the type to feel his masculinity threatened by physical contact.

Loter was never socialized enough to fully understand the concept of masculinity and how friendly action between males might undermine that.

"Okay, Hiro. Three, two, one."

As the countdown ended, the two began ascending from the ground. Hiroku maintained his standing position as if he were stepping on the air. Loter naturally rotated his body horizontally and raised his feet to the head level like swimming in freestyle.

"Do you feel anything?" Loter asked while floating steadily in the air, slowly shifting up and down.

"No, I think you are in control of the flying?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't feel anything."

"Me neither."

"Hm? Then why would you—" Hiroku abruptly let out a short laugh. "I'm not surprised anymore. Let me ask you this."

"Yeah?"

"Do you start flying when you decide to fly?"

Loter scratched his head without answering. He was evidently struggling to process this question. Hiroku just calmly waited there, and Loter eventually said, "How do you define 'decide'?"

Totally unsurprised, Hiroku replied immediately, "Do you fly on command?"

"Yeah."

"Then, you fly when you decide to fly. That means you are in charge of the flying. I can only follow you."

"So you can not land until I decide to land?"

"Yes, I can't do that."

"How do you know so much about my power?"

"I also have a superpower, and they basically work the same way. I'm sure Dowii will teach you more when we are back in HueCam."

"Yay."

The two first flew past the estate closest to Yotan's since Loter did not want to meet Tori until after Hiroku's duel. They had a short stop at the one neighboring it. Hiroku explained it probably belonged to another uncle of his. Loter asked if any of his aunts got an estate, and the answer was an obvious "no."

They visited several more estates that looked just like most other estates owned by Hiroku's uncles. As a kid from the MU branch, Hiroku had no idea who each of these uncles was. The repetitive activity got boring fairly quickly.

Right after Loter felt a sense of boredom, Hiroku told him that they would go find the girls' school on Cho-san Island.

Loter lightly pulled Hiroku's wrist and asked him to explain what that was, and Hiroku told him it was a place where teachers taught Kayama girls "stuff." There was no further elaboration on the "stuff" part. Loter decided to just wait to see.

The girls' school looked almost exactly like other estates: wooden cottages, outer walls made of stone bricks and timber planks, and courtyards with strict rules. The only distinguishable factor of the girls' school would be the three-story house in the center of the estate. It was the first building that Loter had seen with more than one floor.

When the two arrived, the girls were having their traditional cloth-washing class. A row of a dozen or so girls in white kimonos sat in the courtyard. Each had a bucket of water, some clothes, and a wooden washboard. A teacher in a similar white kimono stood before them and watched quietly.

For a minute, the two just watched them from above, not talking or having any interaction between them. They could feel each other's emotions, and that was enough. Loter's dejection was evident, and the earlier joy in Hiroku's head had fully disappeared.

After a while, Loter asked, "What would they be doing in the future?" He was still staring at the courtyard.

"The fortunate ones may become heads of servants or teachers just like her." Hiroku pointed at the only standing woman in the courtyard. "The less fortunate ones would be sent to people outside Tribe Kayama as wives and concubines."

"That's legal?" Loter exclaimed in surprise, abruptly turning toward Hiroku. His mouth gaped.

"Not in most places, but according to Tribe Kayama, yes," Hiroku answered without giving Loter a glance.

Loter turned back toward the estate below them and suddenly realized an important thing. Hiroku sensed this tremendous change in Loter's mood. Startled, he faced Loter, watching his visage frozen in the air.

"That's why they teach Tori English!" Loter said in a low tone. His voice trembled by the end of the sentence, and tears began raining down his face. He was not sure why, yet the idea of Tori being forced into another man's spouse put an overwhelming sadness in his mind.

This sadness was different from the numbness of his father's death. It was a much more desperate one.

Loter's father was already released from suffering when Loter arrived, yet Tori had to wait for years to meet her fate. The long-term despair pained Loter more than a dead body.

Pulled out of his own mind, Loter heard Hiroku speaking.

"It's fine, Loter. You will prove you are capable of helping her, alright? Don't worry." Before Loter noticed, Hiroku already had Loter embraced in his arms.

Loter could sense Hiroku's radiating care for him. This warmth from his teammate only made Loter cry harder as it contrasted Tori and all the other Kayama girls' destinies.

Loter buried his face in Hiroku's purple crop top. He sobbed, cried, shouted, and yelled as loud as he physically could.

Hiroku patted him on the back.