Chapter 16: Still Here

Mio

The kitchen floor was ice.

That was the first thing. The cold, seeping through the tile, pressing against her cheek. Everything else came after. The ache in her joints, the crust on her eyelids, the way her hoodie had stiffened with something she didn’t want to think about.

She’d made it home.

She didn’t remember the train. Didn’t remember unlocking the door or kicking off her shoes or collapsing in the kitchen instead of the three extra steps to her futon.

But she’d made it.

The light through the window was wrong. Too bright. Too high. Late morning, at least. She’d left the incursion at dawn. This was—

“—not gonna work. She’s really out.”

Nana’s voice. Close.

“Maybe if we—”

A boot hit her face.

[-2 HP]

[HP: 978/1,420]

“Hey, watch it!” Mio’s eyes snapped open. “Who did that?”

Nana stood by the fridge, still in her pajamas. On the counter next to her, six inches tall:

The knight.

They pointed at each other.

“He did it,” Nana said.

The knight’s visor turned toward Nana. Then back to Mio. His tiny gauntlet still extended, pointing.

“Traitor,” Nana muttered.

Mio stared. At her sister. At the knight. At the boot on the floor.

“…what.”

“He was on your shoulder when you came in,” Nana said. “You collapsed and he just… stood on your head. For like an hour. It was creepy.”

“So you threw a boot at me?”

“I threw a boot near you. To see if you were alive.” Nana crossed her arms. “He’s the one who kicked it.”

Can stood at attention. Visor forward, perfectly still.

“I saw you do it,” Mio said.

The knight didn’t move.

“He’s pretending he can’t hear you,” Nana said. “He did that to me too. I named him Can.”

“…Can?”

“Like a tin can. Because he’s made of metal.” Nana shrugged. “He doesn’t complain.”

Can’s visor turned toward Nana. Then back to the window. No objection.

Mio sat up. Her everything hurt.

“There’s eggs,” Nana said. “I made them. You’re welcome.”

Twenty minutes later, Mio was showered, changed, and sitting across from Nana at the kitchen table. The hoodie was in the trash. No amount of washing would fix it.

Nana slid something across the table. The 2,000-yen note. Still creased from where Mio had left it.

“Didn’t need it,” Nana said. Went back to her eggs.

Mio pocketed it without a word.

She pulled up her inventory while Nana ate.

Mostly junk. Acid cores from the slimes, over a hundred of them, worth a good amount if she stopped by a kiosk to trade them in. Some corroded armor fragments, a few withered cores, crafting materials she’d have to sell or dump.

But two things stood out.

The Putrid Core sat at the bottom of the list. Purple, heavy, crystallized essence of an elite-class entity.

And at the top, Aoi’s hair clip. Still there. Still worth nothing to anyone but her.

She dismissed the window.

Nana was halfway through her egg when she stopped. Pointed her chopsticks at Mio.

“You killed my plant.”

Mio blinked. “What?”

“My succulent. It’s dead. There’s dirt everywhere.” Nana’s eyes narrowed. “You said you’d water it.”

The succulent. The bathroom. The first bloom she’d ever absorbed. One HP, barely visible, the spark that started everything.

“I’ll get you a new one,” Mio said.

“You also forgot my food.”

“There’s plenty of eggs.”

“You said convenience store. You said onigiri.” Nana stabbed her yolk. “You said you’d be back before I woke up.”

The yolk bled across the plate. Nana watched it spread.

“You smell really bad,” she added. Quieter now.

“I showered.”

“Still bad.”

Mio didn’t argue. Some things soap couldn’t fix.

Nana didn’t look up. Pushed egg around with her chopsticks.

“I heard you,” Nana said. “In the kitchen. With those Bureau people.”

Mio’s chopsticks stopped.

“I wasn’t asleep.” Nana still wasn’t looking at her. “You were out here. You thought I was in my room but I heard through the door. I heard everything.”

The kitchen. Segawa’s cigarette smoke. Mori standing by the door like a statue. Your sister’s placement can always be reconsidered.

“Nana—”

“They said they’d take me away.” Nana’s voice was flat. Careful. “If you didn’t do what they wanted. They said I was leverage.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I won’t let it.”

Nana finally looked up. Her eyes were dry.

“Your old party,” she said. “They left you to die.”

Mio’s chopsticks stopped.

The ache was still there. Cuts, bruises, the place where the katana had gone into her arm. She pulled from the Reservoir without thinking.

Vitalize.

[HP: 978 → 1,179]

The healing spread through her. And with it, something else.

The ceiling. Going up forever. Stone and vines and flowers that shouldn’t grow in the dark.

“You talk in your sleep,” Nana said. “You kept saying ’don’t leave me.’ Over and over.”

Vitalize.

[HP: 1,179 → 1,380]

Teeth. White and perfect, in a smile too wide for a human face. An Entity descending from a ceiling that had no end. Silk robes trailing behind it, rotting where they touched the air.

You were the most entertaining.

“And you killed them.”

Vitalize.

[HP: 1,380 → 1,420]

Mend burning through her veins. Screaming until her throat gave out. Her party walking away, one by one, not looking back. The Entity watching.

Smiling.

Clapping.

“That’s not—” Mio’s throat tightened.

“Good.”

The word sat there. Good, from an eleven-year-old girl eating eggs in her pajamas. Her knuckles had gone white around the chopsticks.

Mio grabbed Nana’s shoulders.

It surprised both of them. Mio hadn’t meant to move. Her hands just did it. Nana’s chopsticks clattered against the plate.

“Nana. Listen to me.”

Nana stared at her, brown eyes blank.

“I didn’t kill them. The Entity did. They tried to kill me, and then the Entity killed them, and I just—I survived, okay?”

Nana’s gaze drifted past Mio’s shoulder.

Already moved on.

Mio turned.

Can was trying to break into the cabinet under the sink. His tiny gauntlets wedged into the gap, legs braced against the wood, pulling with everything his six-inch body had.

“What is he doing,” Mio said.

“He’s been doing that for like ten minutes,” Nana said. “I think he wants the cleaning supplies.”

“Why.”

“I don’t know. He’s your knight.”

Mio let go of Nana’s shoulders. The serious moment was gone. Evaporated. Replaced by the sight of a miniature suit of armor trying to burgle her kitchen.

“Can. Stop.”

Can did not stop.

“I think he’s stuck,” Nana said.

He was stuck. His left gauntlet had wedged into the cabinet gap at an angle that wouldn’t come back out.

Mio sighed. Got up. Went to extract her Chimera from the cabinetry.

Behind her, Nana picked up her chopsticks and went back to her eggs.

“Are you still you?” she asked.

Mio paused. Can dangling from her hand by one arm.

The hunger stirred. Are we?

She looked at Nana. At the eggs. At the sunlight coming through the window.

Quiet.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Nana nodded.

“Okay,” she said. “Get me a better plant. The spiky kind.”

Mio set Can on the counter. He immediately started toward the cabinet again.

“No,” Mio said.

Can stopped. Looked at her. Looked at the cabinet.

She held his gaze.

He sat down, crossed his tiny legs, and slouched. Nana was immediately invested—finger tapping against his visor like she was checking if anyone was home.

“He listens to you,” Nana said. “He just ignores me.”

She tapped some more. If anyone was home, it definitely didn’t care for Nana.

“He kicked a boot at my face.”

“That’s different. That’s respect.”

Mio wasn’t sure that was how respect worked.

The notification pulsed at the edge of her vision. Still waiting.

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