Kaelan was alone in the hallway of Building C when Issei appeared around the corner with two cans of cold coffee and the expression of someone who had arrived somewhere by accident but decided to stay anyway.

  —Hyoudou —Kaelan said.

  —Arverth —Issei replied, in the same tone. As if they were marking positions in a match whose rules neither of them fully understood.

  He held one of the cans out to him. Kaelan took it without asking.

  They sat on the edge of the building steps. Below them, the courtyard was still the courtyard—

  students, noise, the world deciding it was a normal Tuesday.

  —I’ve seen the way you look at him —Issei said after a while.

  —At who?

  —Kiba.

  Kaelan didn’t answer.

  —It’s not the way the rest of us look at him —Issei continued, with the deliberate tone of someone thinking while he spoke.— We look at him and see Kiba. You look at him and see something else. —He paused.— What do you see?

  It was the kind of direct question most people avoided because an honest answer required more than most people were willing to give.

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  Issei had asked it without anesthesia, not because he lacked tact, but because that was simply how he was:

  if something mattered to him, he asked.

  —I see someone who is going to make a decision —Kaelan said— that he shouldn’t make alone.

  Issei processed that.

  —Then why don’t you tell him that directly?

  —I did.

  —And?

  —He said yes. —A pause.— But “yes” and “he’s going to do it anyway” are two different things.

  Issei took a long drink of the coffee. Lowered it. Looked out at the courtyard.

  —Do you know what I did when I found out Kiba was going out alone to look for the Excaliburs? —he said.

  Kaelan looked at him.

  —Nothing, for an entire day. I sat there thinking about whether getting involved was the right thing. Whether it was his issue and I’d just be in the way. —Issei shook the can lightly between his fingers.— Then I realized that was the wrong question. The right question wasn’t whether I had the right to get involved. It was whether I could stay still knowing what was going to happen.

  Kaelan said nothing.

  —I couldn’t —Issei said.— So I’m going. Whenever it happens, wherever it happens. Rias already knows, even if she hasn’t said it yet. —A pause.— I’m only telling you because you’re going too, right?

  Kaelan looked at him for a second.

  —Yes.

  Issei nodded as if that had confirmed something he already knew.

  —Good. —He stood up, finished the can, and crushed it in one hand with more force than necessary.— Then when it happens, I’m not going to have to go looking for you.

  He left without adding anything else.

  Kaelan remained on the steps with the cold coffee in his hand, watching Issei’s back disappear into the crowd of students.

  There was something about that guy that did not fit with the image canon had built of him.

  Or maybe it did fit, and Kaelan had read too quickly.

  Issei Hyoudou was not impulsive.

  He was someone who felt quickly and acted accordingly.

  The difference between those two things seemed small.

  It wasn’t.

  Kaelan slipped the empty can into his pocket because there was nowhere to throw it away, and thought that canon had done a mediocre job with that character.