Mio
Mori was slumped in the backseat, wearing a mask. Sniffing and coughing like a terminal patient.
"Couldn't you have just stayed home?" Kaito said, one hand on the wheel.
It was rush hour. Cars honking, the smell of rubber through the cracked window.
"And miss your first squad deployment?" Mori's voice came through the mask wet and nasal. "Segawa would reassign me."
"To bed rest."
"To someone else's squad." She blew her nose into a tissue and tossed it into a plastic bag between the seats. The bag was already half full. "He's been looking for an excuse since the block-leveler."
Kaito didn't argue. He merged into the left lane and let a delivery truck pass.
Mio sat in the passenger seat. Jii had found a spot in her jacket pocket, cross-legged with the daggers across her knees. Her yellow eyes stayed on Mori.
"So the knight is your arm now," Kaito said.
"Yeah." Mio flexed the fingers. They responded faster than her real hand ever had. "It's heavy."
"How heavy?"
