The light on Matoi's scar had grown as they drove in to Nigeria, and while Mia & Samuel searched with her, the otaku couple went out to a Lagos cafe. Yuruko set her laptop on the table as they sat down, disintegrating the armor she'd formed over the keyboard.

"Least the internet's better here." she muttered and started typing.

"Yeah, but Matoi probably hates us now." mumbled Serena, $30 richer than yesterday.

She saw Yuruko smile a little. It wouldn't matter whether Matoi actually disliked them or not; defensive over the maturity of her hobbies, Yuruko never cared about the opinion of anyone disparaging of them.

"More time to study." Yuruko laid her head on Serena's shoulder, closing her eyes. "Gonna do a few hundred today."

Serena read off the screen. "Um, Parker-Lang hypothesis."

"…assumes that the, um… resistance of FNI fragments and mitochondrial genes to free radical damage is due to Vol-3 proteins that allow normal function to continue even when parts of the colony are heavily damaged by age-related degeneration."

Yuruko shrugged.

"Except it's total bullshit, because damage theory makes way more sense, but nobody ever thinks about looking at other fields besides Revenant research. I mean, biogerontology treats aging according to damage theory. I guess it's not as bad as programmed theory, but still. Programmed theory of aging is what happens when you get autistic dudes who think everything is a computer."

Serena nodded, utterly clueless. "That's right. Um, what difficulties do researchers face in creating artificial Volgari proteins?"

"Actual Volgari proteins don't denature at any consistent temperature and they're not composed of the twenty amino acids. They convert lysine in to xenosine, which is, um… two-five-six-triaminohexanoic acid, basic, charged. Racemic, except in hosts without the DeGrey Cycle like Luna. Then it's S-favored. Um. And it's assumed we'll need to know the actual process how it converts lysine."

"Why were hosts originally quarantined under the assumption they were radioactive?"

"Initial tests showed that they had twenty times the level of lethal radiation in their bodies. Until they realized it was only concentrated in the, um, heart."

"Why doesn't it harm hosts or… um, Viscera…?"

"Because they have multiple DNA repair mechanisms in their genome. Compared to non-hosts, um…"

Yuruko held her breath as she heard the cafe's door open. She squeezed Serena's hand.

"It's okay." whispered Serena. "They're not coming near us."

For all the time she'd known Yuruko, she was always nervous about something. Serena sometimes worried she had developed it in to a need to feel anxious - a constant she refused to go to therapy for.

"It has its case, right?" whispered Yuruko.

"Yeah. And I have Blackburn, um."

"Okay."

"Do you want to keep going?"

"…um, repeat it."

"Why doesn't radiation harm hosts?"

"Hosts can repair their DNA through single-strand annealing or homologous recombination. It's why we don't develop cancer and we can break Vijg's 115-year limit."

"Right." nodded Serena. "And if you wanted to develop a way for hosts to -"

" - you use something like Scourge or find a host durable enough that you can rip their heart out and still examine it, then proceed from there."

"Um, is he going to accept that?"

Yuruko shrugged as she opened her eyes and sat up. "It's the only way proven to work. I'm not going to bother coming up with some stupid experiment when I still haven't even gotten to examine an actual Revenant, especially when -" - she frowned as a waiter came up to them. Serena gave one order and he walked away.

"Um, did you want anything?" said Serena.

Yuruko shook her head. "No, I just - I don't want to try anything new. I actually just want to go home, but… Having to fucking deal with mosquitoes, everywhere smells so fucking bad, our air conditioning barely works, riding in that stupid Jeep every day, the internet sucks and everybody looks at us like we're fucking freaks, and…" (Streams of fog drew 'I love you.' on her arm and she smiled a little.) "I love you too."

Serena kissed Yuruko's cheek. It was normally Yuruko's best trait that she never concealed her emotions, but she still hoped she could keep Yuruko's fuse dimmed until they got back home. The past few months had been trimming it down to the scalp.

"At least we have Blackburn-food."

"At least we have Blackburn-food." muttered Yuruko. She saw another table glaring at them and frowned.

"Just ignore them." mumbled Serena.

Yuruko just shrugged and started typing. Funny how President Swarm could kill another student and get away with it, but she'd likely be the first to bitch if they disturbed anybody in precious Nigeria. She saw Serena glaring back and flashing her Urasaria badge. When they didn't stop, Yuruko held her hand out and her revolver formed, and Serena laughed as they looked away.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Great." muttered Yuruko. "Probably some religious dipshits."

To her, religion's continuation in a society with Revenants proved people would choose God over the truth. She could turn water to wine, too - so far she had no apostles. Sketchy as Revenant science was, she knew there was a logical explanation for everything.

"You know, it's really nice that Timepact got to visit Japan and we get to visit fucking Nigeria." She closed her eyes. "Go."

"What's the half-life of Viscera exspiravit?"

"…thirty days to decay fully, it's… Mean lifetime is 1.433 times… uh, twenty-one days."

"...um. Remember that it's -"

" - thirty days because - fuck. Because the Hao Complex degrades quicker."

Somehow, it aggravated her worse that she answered the difficult cards correct and the easiest wrong.

And deeper down, she knew Mia would've cheered her if she shot them, but she needed someone to anchor her frustrations to. Most people used their boss for this, so she wasn't different in that regard. In her worst moments, she despised Mia for saddling her with both schoolwork & hunting. Funny how no one but Serena gave any care about her career.

◆◆◆

With the light on Matoi's scar growing, the Elite Three had trouble sleeping in one room that night.

"…Matoi." winced Mia, one eye opening in bed. "Is there - there has to be some better way to hide that. I-I can barely fall asleep with that in the same room."

"Imagine how I feel." winced Matoi, shoving her glowing scar under her blanket, green light still emanating through the covers.

"…let me ask Yuruko for something." muttered Mia, setting off to Serena & Yuruko's room. She came back after a minute with a Vantablack set of gloves, and Matoi nodded as she put them on.

Mia glanced at Samuel on the floor and frowned to find him sleeping. "How does he do it?"

Matoi laughed as she sat up. "He was going to join the military before Urasaria - he already learned how to fall asleep quickly."

"He's mentioned that before, but…" Mia's head shook. She never had any admiration for the military like she had Urasaria students. "I still can't believe that he would want to join."

"There's a lot of lesbians that would say the same about Urasaria."

"You know there's a difference."

Matoi smirked. "I do, but I assume you've already received your monthly hatemail."

"I don't even bother reading it anymore." muttered Mia. Though she didn't like to admit it, there were still a few fragments of low self-esteem from when she was eighteen in her. Matoi had kept all of her own hatemail for motivation.

Matoi shrugged. "If you ever saw what the people who send that mail are like, you wouldn't be bothered by it again. Most of the people who lash out against us have their own problems. They latch on to hating Urasaria as some…" She trailed off.

"…I suppose." said Mia, thinking about Kirihara. So far as she knew, she never complained about her family, but had been just as mean before Jeanne as after her. This still confused her - Mia always believed that evil could be written in one narrative in a person's life. "It's… some focal point for them to feel superior about."

"Mmhm. But he was never very serious about it, regardless - joining the military. I believe he could tell he needed something to … guide him, I suppose. If he had a less strict mentor, he probably would have dropped out."

Mia laughed. "He's - and he's still adjusting to having me as a squadron leader. I can't put Serena and Yuruko on the same schedule as last year, and I already know Serena doesn't do well with orders, and Yuruko, well…"

"She's studying to be a Revenant researcher."

"She is. I… I give her as much time away from hunting as she asks me for, and she doesn't - she's never mentioned it being too much for her, but…" Mia frowned. "…it bothers me a little. She doesn't really talk to anyone but Serena, and I want to make sure that we're good friends, but…"

"I'm surprised you chose her."

A little defensively, Mia said: "Well, Serena wanted me to, but -"

" - no, I was going to ask why you didn't think one otaku was enough." said Matoi and Mia nervously laughed. "I still don't understand why an adult would read manga. It's a sign of immaturity at that point."

"Doesn't Rin read it?"

"That's different." muttered Matoi, though Mia saw her smile a little.

"Serena's always been a little immature. I just wish I knew what Yuruko thinks of me or Samuel."

Matoi yawned, part of her green light shining underneath her glove on to Samuel's head. "…I never understand how he sleeps like that."

"On the floor?"

"Yes. I remember in our first year, whenever it was raining, he refused to use an umbrella because he told me he needed to be used to discomfort. I don't think he's ever found a situation he can't make more pointlessly difficult."

The two laughed, but Mia nodded. "Someone sent an entire box of desserts to our office, and even after Serena checked it for poison, he refused to eat it -" - she laughed - " - he just fucking sat there and watched us go through all of them -"

" - he lives like a fucking ascetic." laughed Matoi, relevantly. "Even I can't understand him sometimes."

Mia glanced at Samuel and checked he was sleeping before saying: "He's never had a girlfriend, either, has he?"

"Another pointless difficulty."

Mia nodded. Though she, obviously, had no attraction to men, she knew he was good-looking as far as they went. "I told Serena I thought he was asexual. Serena's protege even has a crush on him, but…"

"I thought her ... isn't her protege female?"

"She's straight." said Mia. "Er, somehow."

Matoi nodded. Some dark alignment with Satan, if the truth be known. "He's never talked about women - even when we were living together."

"It doesn't affect men, does it?" laughed Mia, tapping her heart.

Matoi paused and the two realized they didn't know. "… he's … never mentioned anything about men, either, regardless."

"…ah." nodded Mia, Matoi stifling her smirk. "I suppose he probably would… do well. As a bear -"

- Matoi burst in to laughter - " - stop - don't even -"

" - isn't - isn't that what they're called?" laughed Mia -

" - you're expecting a lesbian to know?" laughed Matoi. "He's not that masculine, regardless - he would never last."

"I - what?" laughed Mia. "Are you joking?"

"He did his own housework, can control his emotions, and he can talk to a woman without trying to fuck her." shrugged Matoi. "Most of the other men on campus dislike him."

"…he's never mentioned that."

"He's never mentioned it to me either - but it's what I heard when I was his mentor."

Mia paused.

In the beginning she had laughed about his propensity for extremity, both in appetite & violence, but the two had found over the summer they likely had the most in common out of any pair in the Elite Four. Samuel had come from a Texas family whose money was cut off at the pockets - Mia's had moved near Urasaria for the low rent. One experience they shared, common to many latchkey children, was an overbearing elderly figure who knew when their parents were working, choosing then to affectionately pat their hair & try conversation with them. Mia often asked the first student she saw to walk her home, and Samuel had attended a school with hosts.

Though she knew enough to say the two weren't linked, one event she was never able to get out of him was what caused his Revenant to activate. She doubted she ever would - he was a man who you took as he wanted it or left him. He unraveled himself slowly and was enigmatic in a real way, not how some men used cliche mysteries to paper over their banal realities. Archetypically masculine in appearance & interests, he nonetheless almost solely interacted with women, and had told Mia that he believed that, while women drawn to work for Urasaria were usually fangirls, men were often the type that filled other authoritarian jobs like civilian police. This was another point of connection for the two - both considered themselves separate from that type of work.

She sighed as he started snoring.