Out of Mia's thirty-five or so classmates (that the plurality of Urasaria students are first-years is a grim fact preferably ignored), only eight attended class with any regularity, all female. There was a message there; modern society is in the process of reasoning it out.

  Mia felt displaced despite being at Urasaria; most students, if they attended class at all, were already on other investigations in other cities; her staying solely at Urasaria for so long dealing with the dreadnought was and will remain unusually long, relative to her next travails.

  A woman Mia had not seen before entered the classroom, then turned to her. "Mia Schultz, please come with me."

  Mia frowned. "Who are you? What is this about?"

  "I'm with Urasaria's upper faculty. Come with me."

  Mia sensed she would not receive any further answers, so followed her out of the building, then to the fourth-year building, up to a room with a curved long table. Twelve people were seated at the other side of her. She recognized only Hirogane among them, who seemed to not take any pleasure at being part of this meeting.

  There was a large man at the center of them who introduced himself as Armstrong, the closest thing Urasaria Academy had to a dean. This was a federal government appointment of so little renown that almost no one but students knew he existed; it was said to be a perpetual source of bitterness within the faculty that there was no recognition for all the work they barely did.

  "On to the purpose of this meeting, Ms. Schultz." said Armstrong. "I regretfully inform you that in the interests of public safety, your Revenant Worldwide is to be removed, then destroyed. After our meeting, Mr. Hirogane will perform a simple surgery, and afterwards, if you are deemed not a threat, then you may continue your studenthood with a different Revenant."

  "Excuse me?" said Mia in disbelief. "Is this some sort of prank again? I-I have nothing to do with - do you - what do you think, that I'm responsible for- what- what the hell do you mean - it's *my* Revenant!"

  "The simple facts of the case, Ms. Schultz, is that the Revenant is not your's." said Armstrong. "We are aware who it belonged to, and we will not tolerate its presence on this campus, not only for your safety, but for the public's as well."

  "So- so what, am I-I just supposed to fucking-"

  "If I were in your position, I would consider that your choice of words now will be the measure of whether this is mere removal or full expulsion."

  The woman spoke. "Armstrong, if I may, I would like to ask Mia a few simple questions before the end of this meeting. Mia, it's correct that you were not able to host a Revenant before you appeared at Urasaria's front gate - is that not true?"

  Mia had her head down. "T-That is true."

  "That seems rather unusual, isn't it? I mean, certainly, someone who would give you a Revenant and not only make you a host - they would certainly be expecting some sort of compensation from you, wouldn't they?"

  Mia recognized the intent of these questions, and she felt what little kindness she had initially hoped for from this woman drain out. She said nothing, but she felt her eyes begin to cradle her own helplessness and revulsion, and began to cry. She recalled how her mother Alina, usually headstrong and stubborn, had not said anything to the police when they had come to put her husband in handcuffs, and yet Mia could tell she was inwardly helpless and pleading. Alina had known what her father had done, of course; she had continued to collect the rest of the money over the years to support Mia and herself, for she could no longer work for long hours after an injury to her hands.

  As they continued to question Mia, Hirogane found himself reminded why he did not interact much with the faculty; he had long considered them failed professional heroes who were here primarily as a bulwark for students rather than any sort of aid or help. He had seen hundreds of students at his time at Urasaria and could remember most high-rank students, as well as their personalities; Magnus Egashira had been one such personality, though he recalled Worldwide's former host had been even less tactful than he, their identities information he could have revealed to the staff yet chose not to, due to how the information might harm Mia.

  Before he could speak up, the doors opened; it was Marisa and Aimee, who said: "What the hell are you doing? I told you that any questions about the investigation go through-"

  "We were conducting a debriefing, notifying Ms. Schultz that, in the interest of public safety, her Revenant will be removed." said Armstrong. "I presume you have come to argue the reverse position in favor of continued civilian endangerment and death, which is precisely why we spoke to her alone. Mia is a new student; she might not have yet lost her sense of empathy."

  Aimee stepped beside Mia, and she felt angry seeing her tears. "That's what you call empathy? Dragging her out of class and scaring her like this? What the fuck did you tell her?"

  "Nothing but the simple facts of the case and our reasoning behind scheduling to have her Revenant removed, so any fear you're noting is more likely to be her own guilt, or perhaps some other information she's kept hidden to even you. She's suspiciously argumentative for a woman who claims her innocence."

  "Because I know she's innocent. I've been with her since the first day she showed up here." Aimee looked to Mia. "Mia, you don't seriously want your Revenant removed, do you?"

  "It isn't her decision to make, nor should it be your's. Urasaria is beholden to the public and its safety, not dangerous and poorly thought-out gestures of favoritism."

  "So what, you'd just keep her without a fucking Revenant until you could find a replacement? When this fuck is out there hunting her?"

  "Our job is Urasaria's safety, not her's." said one of the security guards. "She has a mentor, no? One who conspicuously hasn't yet spoken up?"

  "Don't worry, Aimee is giving you the censored version of what I would be saying." said Marisa. "But since you asked - how is your fucking job campus security when she gets dropped off here unconscious and nobody even finds the guy who did it for weeks, huh?"

  Aimee looked over Mia, and she felt guilty; she could not but take her hurt upon herself and feel herself the fault of it. "She's not getting her Revenant removed unless she wants to, and she doesn't need to hear any of your dumb bullshit, either."

  "Yes, let us not distract the poor woman with objective fact. The men, women, and dead children had families and friends as well, of course, but all decency should kneel before your little lesbian love affair."

  "Fucking watch it."

  At the mention of civilian death Mia remembered what she had seen in the hospital and on the news; studenthood had encased her in an odd ecosystem to where such things seemed ancillary to the enjoyment of murder and fun of hosthood; that she personally could no longer be inhabited by any trauma due to violence occasionally made her forget that others could be. Yet she had affixed ravenously her identity to her Revenant, more specific than simple hosthood, for the love she felt for Worldwide was deeper in that fighting for it had made it a chosen love, not something deserving of attachment because it existed but because she had deemed it worthy of attachment.

  "I-I'm not having Worldwide removed. I refuse it." she said.

  "Then I presume you'll be willing to accept the public fallout of another hundreds of dead civilians that you could have prevented. Shall I give you the list of names? Will that personify them enough to you?"

  "I told you to fucking knock it off." said Aimee. "We're still investigating and making progress. There's no fucking way giving up Worldwide would make him stop, either, so quit with your bullshit."

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "An investigation that's hardly as serious as you would have us believe. Four hundred dead civilians in the past month, a hospital destroyed, mass host attacks on students every day, yet without evidence nor even a name for the man-"

  Hirogane spoke up: "I don't know what you expect when it's a host that can teleport. Frankly, that they've found any evidence at all is commitment enough. And if his motive is taking Worldwide, s'better if he's forced to attack her for it so she can kill him than destroy it and risk far worse retaliation."

  "Mr. Hirogane, I find your reasoning spurious, though at least not as transparently motivated as those across this table."

  Hirogane thought to add that the threat of a teleporting headless dreadnought; one who knew who Hirogane was, or could at least reasonably assume that Urasaria had not changed medics in the past twenty years; was plenty motivation itself, but did not.

  "So be it. For now, Mia Schultz, you will not have your Revenant removed. But from this point forward, you will be required to check in weekly regarding your progress, and if we deem it unsatisfactory, then we have other methods to force your Revenant out from you -- regardless of your consent."

  "And I've got plenty of methods to force you the fuck away from her." said Aimee. "Doesn't matter to me if I need to do it through words or Revenant. Don't ever fucking talk to her again without me around."

  Armstrong nodded and allowed the three to leave, yet he felt a sense of accomplishment regardless, for she had unknowingly acquiesced to the lesser demand made, enough that he would not be accused of dereliction of duty by those higher than he; he had been appointed to this role primarily because he was always able to argue down students' desires. He was not concerned by Aimee's remarks, for he knew such to be an act; not that she did not feel such emotion, but rather she was a bulldog pissing for her girlfriend. Many lesbians had their own Mia Schultz, a deep composition rendered in romance that at times made their selves only viewable in relation to each other.

  "God, I fucking hate staff." said Marisa out in the hall. "Bunch of dicks. Ugh. I'm sorry, Mia-Mia."

  "How did you know to come get me?" said Mia, wiping her eyes.

  "Julia was outside smoking. She saw you getting led out and texted me."

  "Likely place for her to be." nodded Aimee sagely.

  "Yeah, smoking nicotine and begging for someone to talk to her." said Marisa. "At least it wasn't the types of texts she usually sends me. Ugh. Anyway, like, I went and got Aimee first."

  "T-Thank you." said Mia and the three hugged.

  "Yeah." muttered Aimee. "Just a bunch of…" With some embarrassment, she realized Mia might not have liked seeing her angry, and attempted to suppress herself. "…um. Just let me know if they try that again."

  "Thank you." Mia smiled. She brushed her fingers along Aimee's back. "Can we go get something to eat?"

  Marisa grinned to the two. "Let’s go see Luna."

  Luna was the infirmary’s brown-haired and freckled chef. She did not typically speak to students or staff besides her close friend Saya, but usually Aimee was able to peel some socializing out of her. She was predisposed to social deference; she was sensitive and tended to withdraw into herself when others were speaking, as if she felt the need to allow their thoughts to push her own aside.

  A large black cube was sat in the corner of her office, stacked on top of several cookbooks. As Luna crouched down to it, one of its faces turned into the lid of a waffle maker. She opened it and pulled out several blueberry waffles with tongs that she had pulled out from the skin of the cube, then served the waffles, the cube returning to its normal appearance once completed.

  Mia looked over to it, and gestured to it to Luna, who nodded. "It's my- my Revenant, Flashbulb. One of its abil- abilities is to 3D-print food."

  "One of?"

  Luna nodded, but Aimee changed the discussion: it was not to be known by anyone besides infirmary staff that Luna had no combat ability, a request Saya had placed with Aimee as she worried how others might exploit Luna if they knew.

  The four sat around her desk, though Luna never spoke much. Out of her eyes' corners, Mia noticed Luna's phone was set to a picture of her & Saya, the former wearing a white dress & the latter black. Luna was wearing that same dress now; Saya & her dressed similarly in general, though who had begun it first was never certain. Mia did not interact with them much, but she began to assume the same what many female student did; that Saya & Luna were dating but did not wish to disclose it for whatever reason.

  Mia sighed, dulling her anger some so as not to unintentionally upset Luna with its miasma. "So, this is what I have to deal with now? These interrogations?"

  Aimee winced. "I'm sorry that I can't do anything to prevent those. Staff is just - they're separate and above me. Supposed to be hands-off considering the academy practically runs itself, but... yeah."

  Mia reached over and stroked Aimee's hands. "I'm sorry, too. I'm not mad at you."

  Aimee nodded and allowed her hands to rest in Mia's; though she still did not understand Mia's attraction to her, she had at least somewhat seated it as a material fact to her mind, even if the pull of her hope or drag of despair could not make much more from it. It had simply froze in a piece of her mind where she preferred to not thaw it through thought.

  "Hey, you know what they say, if the academy is on fire we're only saving the infirmary." chimed Marisa. "Ugh. I'm sorry, Mia-Mia. I think from now on, it'd be best if you're always with either me or Aimee. At least until this is over. I don't want them, like, ambushing you again."

  "I was thinking the same." muttered Mia. "Even if I could still host a Revenant afterwards, I... don't think I could allow anything to happen to Worldwide. It's *my* Revenant. I don't want anything else."

  "Yeah. Plus, he must be giving it to you for a reason. It's not like he'd be interested in you giving it back to him. Fuck, if he can host multiple Revenants, why would he even want Worldwide? ... Uh. No offense, Mia-Mia."

  "Er, it's alright."

  Aimee frowned. She too had been caught up on the dreadnought's ability to host multiple Revenants, though not in the scientific sense, rather spiritually. She felt it too coincidental that a woman who was attracted to her was simultaneously beset upon constant potential death; he seemed to Aimee not a man but rather a wraith to deny by supernatural force any love to her. This was why, years on, she could never seat into herself the humanity Mia had of him.

  "Aimee, are there any Revenant research students we can ask?" said Marisa.

  Aimee shook her head. "Nobody besides first-years. Mia's got four in her class. Yuruko's probably the smartest, but she already went through some shit this year with her mentor, and..."

  "Yuruko?" Mia recalled her vaguely, only there for the first week of class before being shunted off with the other phantasmology students into their own program, a mix of chemistry & microbiology & phantasmology itself. Yuruko had seemed unusually stiff, as if she needed to manually press her breath into the movement of her limbs. "What happened with her?"

  "Just her mentor harassing her." said Aimee as Luna suddenly stood and went to the door. "Only thing I could do is keep the two away from each other, but she didn't seem bothered by it. Just told me matter-of-fact that's what she wanted and nothing else."

  A knock came at the door and Luna opened it. It was Saya wearing a black dress, whose mouth stiffened as she saw the others. "Luna, we should be going. Yes?"

  Luna nodded, turned to the others to ask if there was anything else they needed, then left when they answered no. As they left Mia wondered at their relationship; Saya seemed jealous Luna was spending time with anyone else. Mia herself had felt that same need to be needed, and part of why she liked Aimee so was that she was needy. But if unchecked their relationship would, as they often do, sink to the level of their participants' insecurities.

  After an hour together, the three left the infirmary. Mia hugged Aimee again, and Marisa knew this was not the type of hug Mia did with anyone else; it was something deep and long. Occasionally she would see the two intermixed in an embrace like this, the movement of their cheeks brushing against each other as one of them spoke. As Mia turned to her, she gave her a vague gesture that communicated something she had many times in the past months; that she would be staying the night at Aimee's and would see Marisa in the morning for training.

  Marisa wondered when the two would just fuck already.

  As Mia & Aimee walked down to Aimee's house, Mia entwined her arm with Aimee's. In the beginning it had been the talk between them that mattered to Mia, but for now it was the silence when she was with Aimee that she found most attractive. It was not awkward or stagnant; she was reminded of what her father had told her, that she should judge a potential woman by how it felt to be silent with her, not talking, for life is far more made up of silence than it is speech.

  When they returned home, they sat together and cuddled on Aimee's couch, as Mia stroked her hair. Eventually they talked of anything but the interrogation itself, at least until Mia could seriously deny any emotional harm had taken place to her, and soon they were both hungry for dinner. Aimee got up to make it, but Mia pressed her hand against Aimee's back, saying she would cook it tonight instead. Aimee did not want Mia to cook, partially because almost nobody else could get her necessary proportions of protein to carbs right, but she sensed that Mia needed to temporarily inhabit Aimee's mood and not her own; that to care for another was to temporarily place oneself in the mood of another.

  Throughout dinner Mia was on her phone, occasionally showing Aimee some stupid thing a civilian had said online or the hateful reply she was typing out to such, and the warmth of their shared laughter melted any anger the day had built up in Mia. They continued work on a mutual, recent project; a combination of Mia's student drawings collaged with photographs either of the two took of recent fights; and Aimee enjoyed when Mia would pluck away a few photos of Aimee to keep for herself. They sat together closely, and as Mia's gaze kept downward for long stretches, Aimee's eyes would fixate on her.

  Mia glanced up at Aimee, noticed herself being watched, then smiled. Silence seeped. Yet the more Aimee gazed, the more Mia's face became suffused with Aimee's own limitations, the notch of Mia's eye sockets and the flare of her cheeks anonymizing into something ungraspable and abstract, a non-face beyond the grasp of Aimee's hope, until even the sliver of its suggested appearance passed and its memory dulled into the stage of her idle emotion.