“You guys are late,” she said before slowly getting up on her feet. “Well, well, well, Kousei… let’s talk about punctuality, ay?”

He suddenly bent over, his hands on the sides of his legs, bowing his head so low that he almost crashed his forehead into his shins. Kanae’s gaze penetrated the back of his head like she tried to push him down. She gracefully raised her hand until its backside was placed in front of her mouth, taking a stance that would be hard to surpass in arrogance.

“Oh high and mighty Kanae,” Kousei sang. “Please forgive the rudeness of me and my lowly subordinate. It is a shame to have wasted your precious time and kept you waiting here in this lonely and soiled place. In order to make up for our grave mistake, I have my dear subordinate pay for ONE lunch.”

All of a sudden, her pinning gaze panned over to me.

“Is that so?” she pointed her finger at me. “Will you, Chroma, pay for ONE of my future lunches?”

My view alternated between them for a few seconds, before I too, bowed down as far as I could.

“High and mighty Kanae, yes I will.”

A few seconds passed, in which we held our positions without moving a muscle before we three began to laugh so loud, I was worried someone might hear us. Kanae spread her arms and hugged us tightly.

“You guys are so funny,” she said laughingly. “Kousei how’s it been? We didn’t see each other for months. I thought you were dead. Where have you been?”

“Not quite,” he made some space between us. “I was sent to a mission on one of the UGF’s cargo ships to stop a raid on which we had some insider information. Nothing special.”

“Did you find out who was behind it?” I asked, surprised.

“Ah, not really. I was just there so that everything would work out smoothly, but no one told me that a few council members of the EIG were also on the ship, so… let’s just say they were replaced quickly after that.”

Kanae laughed. “So another inside job.”

Kousei laughed too. “Seems like it.”

“Okay then, Mr. Tanaka,” she saluted. “What’s the plan for now?”

“I’ll tell you both everything you need to know on the way to Mars,” one of Kousei’s eyes blinked for a moment. “We have around an hour left until we need to be inside our shuttle’s capsule. For now, let’s change and then head towards the starting platform.”

“Okay boss,” Kanae said loudly.

Behind one of the doors of the corridor was a small changing room with an even smaller bath. There were just ten lockers cramped into the small space of which three were open, filled with a small package, containing nothing but a dark blue bodysuit made from synthetic material, a small towel – as well as a capsule filled with a hand of pills.

“Uhm… Kousei, what are these for?”

“Oh, they’re your preparation for the flight? They stabilize your heart rate, blood pressure and your brain and lung functions.”

“Are they really necessary?”

“Of course. The start will put you under extreme forces. It just garantees that you don’t die.”

“But it’s not necessary for normal passengers. Why do we need to take it?”

“Because we’re not flying with a normal shuttle, buddy,” he said calmly as he probably noticed the nervous undertone of my voice. “You don’t have to worry. We will fly with a cargo shuttle. That means we get shot into orbit by the cargo launcher.”

“Oh…” I whispered, before closing my eyes trying to swallow the pills dry.

While I was still busy with the last pill, Kanae had already finished undressing and walked past me into the shower. There was a second I would’ve seen her naked, but I managed to close my eyes right before she wandered into my field of view.

“Did you guys never had sex?”

I let my gaze snap into my locker like I was searching for the reason to answer his inadequate question.

“No… I don’t see Kanae this way,” I muttered.

“Oh, so you like men? Well, if that’s the case, I know a few– ”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just that I don’t want to… can’t see her in that way. She’s a really close friend, almost like a sister.”

“… and there was nothing ever between you two? In all the times you’ve lived together? You two never had feelings for each other?”

“… it’s nothing I can really describe… I would do anything for her, but it just feels off to see or think about her in any other way than a friend.”

“Hmm… you know what, Chroma? I think that’s really romantic.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just think that it sounds romantic. Maybe friendships are the most romantic form of relations… makes me a bit jealous.”

“I don’t think too much about it,” I answered, finally making eye contact with him, seeing him sit and think in front of his locker with only his towel wrapped around his hip. It is just now that I see the body he had hidden underneath his suit. The upper half of his torso, except for his arms, was completely augmented. It looked like some had stuck a pair of fresh, fleshy arms into a futuristic, stylized trash bin – in a way it looked uncomfortable and unwieldy, but on the other hand, it was one of the most interesting things I had ever seen. His torso was decorated with this smooth, alloyed metal, which too, was ornamented with a red graph that probably showed some information about his vital signs.

It took a few more minutes before Kanae was finished showering. Kousei and I didn’t talk for that time as he was still thinking about what we talked about and I also didn’t get to talk to Kanae as she too was reasoning about something. The next time we spoke was the moment we stood in front of the prepared shuttle in which we should get shot into orbit in a few minutes.