Seraphina Vahn was in front of me again. I could feel a warmth rise from within my chest, flushing all the way to my cheeks. I simply turned my head to the side and started walking away.

  “Hey.”

  The car followed. I gripped my purse tighter and just kept walking away.

  “Elara, hey.”

  “What are you doing?” I finally turned back and asked. Was she here to show off her car or something? A sigh almost left me as soon as I thought that. Of course, she wasn’t. Why was I even being bitter? It was just, the frustration of having to hold so many things inside while wishing so many other things were different that was getting to me.

  I couldn’t let these problems taint the world with their color. How would that ever fly?

  “Do you have time?” asked Seraphina. “Will you spend a little bit of it with me?”

  I crossed my arms. This was obvious, she wanted to pay me back for everything that had happened. And well, I wasn’t really interested in taking or spending her money. Don’t get me wrong, I understood the feeling of being repaid for a helpful act, but… I didn’t do it for that. Perhaps, somewhere, indulging in that selflessness, if it could even be called that, was my own form of selfishness.

  “Alright. But we do things on my terms,” I said. “I have a busy day today.”

  “Works,” Seraphina said, nodding. “What are you doing?”

  “Treating myself.”

  “Oh…?”

  “Come with me, we’re going to a restaurant.”

  “Oh, perfect, get in the car—”

  “No Ferraris.”

  ***

  “Spicy Pork Chops?” Seraphina looked at the small establishment in front of us with curiosity in her eyes. She had put on a mask and a cap along with her sunglasses. I also tied her hair into a ponytail. It wasn’t enough to make all the people around stop staring at her, but it was at least working enough to make her a little unrecognizable. No one on these streets would think they were face-to-face with an S-Ranked Hunter anyway.

  “Let’s go in.”

  “This place…? Will it be hygienic?”

  As expected from a girl who had been a hunter since she was a wee child. I simply shook my head and stepped ahead. Seraphina gulped and then followed behind me. The wooden door of the shop creaked, and a bell rang as we stepped inside.

  “Mam!” I shouted.

  “Hey!” Seraphina hissed into my ears. “You shouldn’t just call the staff like that.”

  “How else will she know she has customers?”

  A lady in her middle age came walking out, behind her was an older man with many wrinkles on his scrunchy face. It was a father and daughter pair running this store.

  “Pork Chops?” the old man asked.

  I nodded. “Two plates. Along with some fried rice and some steamed gyoza.”

  “Hmph. You know your stuff.”

  The old man smiled and walked into the kitchen, while the daughter bowed lightly and followed behind him. Seraphina and I took a seat. I fetched us some water and salad from the counter, another thing which made Serpahina a little surprised.

  “Shouldn’t we at least ask, if not let them serve?”

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  “I like that you’re being nice to them, but these restaurants just work like this.”

  “Ah…?”

  It was a new experience for Seraphina. It didn’t take long for our food to arrive at our table. The daughter of shop smiled brightly at us and whispered at the table. “You two look very cute. Are you both celebrities of some kind?”

  I waved my hands in response. “Nothing like that,”

  Seraphina was almost worried her cover was blown. Poor girl had no experience with these things. Since the food was here, we got down to it. I tied my own hair up.

  “What?” I asked, seeing her stare while I pulled my hair back.

  Seraphina shook her head side to side.

  We both got to eating. Seraphina was struggling a little with the food, especially the gyoza. In the end, I decided to mix the sauce for her, dipped a piece in it, and fed her with my own hands.

  Seraphina bit down on the gyoza. I could see her smiling rise as she tasted the dishes. She sure looked cute.

  After enjoying the meal, we got our bill.

  “Ahha, 20. That’s pretty cheap!”

  “20? I’ll use my black card—”

  “What black card will you use for 20 bucks, huh?”

  “20 bucks? Not 20 grand?”

  “Haah…”

  The day was just beginning.

  Seraphina and I went from the restaurant for a walk. We got some ice cream after the meal, and then got atop a pulled cart to get to the Aversque market. It was one of the cheapest places to get the fits down for most people in the city. A crowded place in between the many tall skyscrapers, with street vendors and stalls put up on every single step, each competing with the other.

  It was an off-time and a weekday, so the crowd was quite small. We got the chance to stop about and not worry about Seraphina being found out. Some earrings, a few necklaces, and clothes. I posed, and Seraphina complimented me. She hesitated, and I forced some on her. She tried to pay over and over, but she was carrying no cash, and places like these operated on avoiding taxes.

  I paid for everything, and then as we got out, we stopped for a beer.

  Evening was rolling up. The two of us were carrying a bunch of bags and going near my house. The single pint of beer had done nothing but make the exhaustion fly away a little and my body cool down. The many lights and sounds all around were a little more bearable with the tiniest bit of alcohol in my system.

  “Wait here,” I said to Seraphina. She stood still on the sidewalk while I dashed off to a convenience store and returned with a small pack of cigarettes and a matchbox.

  “One?” I asked.

  Seraphina tilted her head, surprised.

  “You smoke?” she asked.

  “Nope. But I have tried it before. Maybe like, once or twice a year, I’d put a cigarette on my lips.”

  “Why?” she asked. “Isn’t it harmful?”

  “It is,” I said. “I would recommend against it. Especially if you’re prone to addiction.”

  I pulled a cigarette out and clasped it with my lips. Seraphina suddenly walked over and snatched the box from my hands. I didn’t react, only lit mine up and watched her as she lowered her mask and took one too. She leaned closer to the flame and lit her cigarette as well.

  “Ahem.”

  She quickly pulled it out and coughed. I watched, amused.

  What had made her touch it, I didn’t know. What all could someone know about a girl who was living with the knowledge of dying any day? Who had just, barely, received an extension.

  That’s when I noticed.

  In her palm, where she coughed, bits of Ice came out. The ice was colored slightly red. It must be abnormal already to cough out ice, let alone bloodied ice.

  A chill ran down my spine.

  She really… wasn’t going to live long, was she? Thinking of it again, there was only 15% and a level one bond. I thought we were tied together for life, but the bond was quite small. Maybe even if she didn’t die, what if she couldn’t live either? Would… increasing the bond in any way increase the synchronization?

  “Elara…” Seraphina said. “I want to talk to you about something—”

  “You’re mouthing it,” I said. “Try to hiss it in after a drag.”

  “Oh?” Seraphina saw me smoke and followed. She was like a little puppy following after its master. She took a drag, a good puff, then lowered the cigarette.

  “I want you to work in the Ashen Gryphon.”

  I pursed my lips. I thought this was coming.

  Seraphina reached into her pocket and showed me her phone. It was a contract sent to my email.

  “Work directly as my partner, not an assistant or any other role. My partner. You will get a good pay, it will have to go slow and would be around the amount a B-Ranker makes, and you might have to go into some dungeons with me, but I thought you were the type to want that. For how much you have helped me… I think it would be nice if we worked together?”

  I looked at Seraphina in the eyes.

  To work with her…

  For the payment and all the compensation. Seraphina must have been thinking I had already done more than enough for her to warrant—

  “I don’t,” Seraphina spoke up just then. She took another drag. “I don’t want to do this because of any payback. I genuinely think you are someone I’d like to work with. And your symbiotic bond is already keeping me alive.”

  I nodded.

  Perhaps.

  Today. I could think of this too.

  That a life with this S-Ranked Hunter was not so bad either. If I had kept her alive.

  Why shouldn’t I take responsibility and keep her alive for longer yet? Perhaps… that was the way I could use my powers.

  “I’ll do it,” I said. “And in return. I think if the Symbiotic Bond strengthens… then you will be able to go back to normal too…”

  Seraphina looked back at me.

  There was no dramatic declaration, nor any big moment as we reached this sudden, new arrangement.

  There was only some smoke, dancing between us.