~*~ fuwa fuwa ~*~

"The electricity?"

"Yes. With it, we should be able to play video games."

Ne, I didn’t think there would still be useful toys or stuff like that around. We should take it back with us.

"Agreed! Would you mind if I took the candy with me, Taro-san?"

Maybe we should open it, there might be something special inside!

"Oh, look! Marbles. And some jacks. A bouncy ball. There's all sorts of treasures in here. I think there might even be a piece of candy."

[And then he’s going, going, already heading in the direction he pointed seemingly without a care in the world. He’s paying far more attention than his closed eyes would suggest.]

"Hmhmhm~ Oh? What are these? Taro-san, come look at this box."

Where should we go first, Clear-san? There’s a lot of buildings out here…

"The rarest finds are electrical equipment, like batteries or wiring. If we could find a rechargeable set, we'd be the heroes of the city! So maybe we could poke around the old houses? I bet all the stores are already empty."

"I believe I'm in a trailer~! All the way in G-10. There isn't a whole lot of space in Vermille that's safe, but I think it's really cozy being packed like little sardines."

"That’s just asking for the impossible."

"This may sound a little off-putting, but I'm happy to be here. I've made friends here, and that makes me really happy."

In that case, I’ll stay back here until we’re ready to go.

"Taro-san, let's go!" Clear scuttles past the gate and into the wilderness beyond. Time to go exploring.

"Ah, yes.  Research on monsters, people, fonons, fonon frequencies and the various other components of such, biochemistry, physics.  In my more early years I tried dabbling in technology, but grew disgusted rather quickly. I believe there was a rumor that I collected the bodies of those killed in war to run tests on~"

Clear lapses into silence. He isn't used to Jade's sing-song tone and has no idea if the man is only joking or if he's completely serious. Whatever the case may be, he's too shy to ask for the truth. "........"

"No….which makes it a bit impossible."

"Maybe we should try to fix it!"

"There are a bunch of them where I live…….we just need a system."

"And electricity! Which... which we don't have, huh?"

This is only twice as awkward because he can’t even tell if Clear is looking at him. “… Yeah.”

"Neku-san, do you feel... homesick? I mean, our living conditions aren't very good."

"Oh, no, no, nothing like that.  I did dabble in a few research fields in my youth, though.”

"Research fields?"

I think you’ll be fine, Clear-san! I’ll tag along, I don’t see why I shouldn’t in the first place.

"Who knows. They might think it's too dangerous for you since you're so small."

"I don’t think anyone is ugly enough to kill another person with just their looks. Like, I don’t even think that level of ugly is even attainable."

"..............."

Say! Do you want to go first, Clear-san? They’ll probably listen to you more since you’re older.

"Maybe they will. Okay! I'll go ahead and ask them first. Would you like to wait here or come with me?"