“I have struck the sub-units with a negative curvature material film, rendering them invisible to a specific band of frequencies,” Lacia told him solemnly. “They are no longer able to receive command signals or wireless energy transfers from the main unit, and are therefore nullified.”
“I mean, I get that they’re invisible now, but I don’t understand the rest of that...” Reaching out his hand to feel the surface of the road, Arato felt something dry crumble under his touch, and reflexively jerked his hand back with a gasp. But, after steeling himself, he reached out again; he couldn’t see them, but he could feel soft piles of the petals. The flowers were all still there. But, since Lacia had made them invisible, all the wireless signals were passing right through them.
She had hit every single one of the tens of thousands of petals with a single attack. Since she had done it all while remaining perched on Arato’s chest, he had no idea how hard it had been for her.
A gust of wind blew by and, with a dry rustling, an invisible blizzard of flowers was carried away.
Arato was shaking so hard he thought his heart would stop. He may not have been too bright, but he had at least noticed that Lacia was far from normal. A deep, animal part of his brain was telling him that he could not handle the power he had just witnessed.
“What the heck WAS that?” he gasped. “You’re incredible!” His instincts were starting to worry that this ‘girl’ he now owned was incredibly dangerous.
For her part, Lacia simply stood without a word.
Looking up at her, Arato momentarily saw her as a giant monster, towering over him. For just an instant, he saw her as something not beautiful, but terrifying. But, more important than any of that, Arato was on a time limit. He had to get home before Yuka’s ice cream melted.
When they arrived at the entrance to the apartment, Arato asked Lacia how long it’d been since they met. She told him eight minutes. He could hear police sirens off in the distance.
“What took you so long?” Yuka was waiting to rush out and confront him as soon as he signaled the door lock open with his pocket terminal.
“Hey, sometimes shopping is hard,” Arato told her, pulling the package of rice out of the shopping bag. He made sure to check the bag for flowers, just in case.
Yuka was speechless. Clearly in a panic, she pointed at Arato with a shaking finger. “Ah, ah, A-Arato!”
“My name is Lacia,” Lacia said, introducing herself. “Pleased to meet you.”
As Lacia politely bowed her head, all the blood drained from Yuka’s face. Obviously, since Arato was Lacia’s owner now, there was nothing strange about her being there with him. Of course, her having the form of a human made things more complicated.
“Oh my gosh, my brother just bought a girl,” Yuka wailed.
“Hey don’t say it like that,” Arato protested. “I didn’t pay a single cent for her!”
“That’s even worse!” Yuka said accusingly. Of course, Yuka’s reaction was only natural; most people didn’t come home from getting groceries with an unknown girl in tow. Yuka looked like she was seriously about to start crying.
“I’m so sorry for whatever my brother did to you,” Yuka said, her voice shaking and catching as she bowed her head deeply. “I’ll make sure he gets rehabilitated. I think he’s a first time offender, so please go easy on him.”
Arato was about to tell her she was misunderstanding and to raise her head. Before he could, though, Lacia untangled the siblings’ thread of understanding.
“I am not a human,” she explained to Yuka. “I am an hIE. Therefore, taking me home is not a criminal act. I did not have an owner, so Arato Endo agreed to take me in. Despite the circumstances, our contract is official.”
“As expected,” Arato sighed, “an hIE is a heck of a lot better at explaining things.” Lacia’s calm explanation made him forget his nerves. In fact, even the fact that he had just been under attack seemed like a distant memory.
“What?” Yuka said, raising her head. “Seriously?” She was actually sniffling back tears. Arato wasn’t sure whether to be happy that she was so worried about him, or sad that she had suspected him of being a kidnapper.
“So yeah, about that,” he began. “Do you think it would be all right if we let Lacia... -san, crash here?” Arato couldn’t bring himself to drop the respectful honorific.
“Yeah. I understand,” Yuka said, wiping at her eyes.
“Wait, you’re seriously okay with this?” Arato asked.
But Yuka’s smile was quick to return. “You found her and picked her up, right?” she said. “So, I guess she’s yours now.”
Arato felt like he should tell Yuka about everything that happened. Honestly, he just wanted to grab Lacia and his sister and run inside, but he didn’t want to freak Yuka out.
“Listen, Yuka,” he said. “While I was out shopping, a whole bunch of flowers started falling from the sky. Marie, the Yuzawas’ hIE, got broken. I think whoever was doing it might have been targeting Lacia.”
Arato had asked if Lacia knew anything about who was behind the attack, but she didn’t. All she’d said on the way back was that she would make arrangements for patching up the damage that had been done. She could not, however, be more specific about what that meant.
Arato, having just stepped out of a nightmare and back into the real world, was still trying to sort out his concept of reality, and couldn’t give Yuka a very good explanation, either. At a loss for words, he simply rolled up the hem of his shirt and showed her where a large bruise was forming. “Here, look. A car hit me right there. Lacia showed up and protected me.”
“Well that’s good,” Yuka remarked. “She really saved your butt.”
She really had.
“Come to think of it,” Arato admitted, “I really was useless back there.”
“Well there hasn’t been anything on the news about any of that,” Yuka said. “And if you thought she could be dangerous, how come you brought her back?”
Arato smiled, just a little. Yuka didn’t particularly trust in Lacia, but she did trust in her big brother. He wanted to thank her, but Yuka was already digging around in his shopping bag for her ice cream.
“So she’s ours now, right? hIEs cook, don’t they?” Yuka asked with excitement. “So she’s gonna cook for us, right? Sweet, can’t wait!” Without an ounce of hesitation, Yuka was already ordering Lacia around.
“I see,” Lacia said politely. “If you wish for me to cook, I can access the culinary behavior cloud and commence immediately.”
“Is it gonna be good?” Yuka asked.
“The user review average for this behavior cloud is five stars,” Lacia told her.
“Lacia I wuv you,” Yuka said, glomping Lacia with innocent glee. Taking Lacia’s hand, she started to lead her into the house.
“Wait a minute, Yuka,” Arato frowned. “So you’re fine with her as long as she spoils you?” Everything was just going too smoothly; Arato didn’t allow events to just carry him along, though. For some reason, he took Lacia’s other hand and prevented her from following Yuka in.