What do you think??

Obi pulled out something from his bag.

A slate - the first model. Thick. Scratched. Metal corners dented from living too long. It buzzed in his hands like it wanted to be a fan instead of a screen.

Raizen sat up a little. "That is a weapon?"

"It's something that can also be used as a brick, sure" Obi said. He set it on the table, thumbed the side, and waited. "If it explodes, at least it will be nostalgic"

The slate flickered, whined, then turned on. The light painted both their faces the way campfires do when the best stories start.

Obi tapped it with more speed and force than he needed to. The first photo filled the screen.

A small boy sat on a carpet with a chocolate cake that had already lost the fight. Brown all over his cheeks, his nose, his eyebrows, even his ear. His hands were used instead of a spoon. His mouth was open like a battle shout.

Raizen made a sound that might have been a laugh. It hurt his ribs. He laughed anyway. "You devoured that like it owed you money!"

"I was three" Obi said. "And justice had to be done"

He swiped. The next picture was the same boy midair, falling off a swing that hung from a tree. His legs were straight out, his arms flapped like he wanted to fly. In the background a man was running, hands already out.

Raizen tried not to smile. Failed. "You were committed to gravity"

"It's… A long, complicated relationship" Obi said. "We are still fighting, from time to time"

Swipe.

Little Obi faced the camera, his chin stuck forward. The small punch touched his father's shoulder. His dad leaned, and pretended to stagger and made a face like he had been floored by a champion.

"Form is terrible" Raizen laughed.

"Thank you" Obi replied. "I have improved"

Obi turned the screen away from Raizen a bit. After a few seconds of browsing, he let out a small smile. Now the usual one. Not the mocking one. A real smile.

On the screen, a group photo. Three people in a yard with sun too bright for the cheap lens. The man stood tall, shoulders like a doorframe, eyes warm, pure smile. The woman had wild hair tied back badly, grease on her cheek, something like mischief in her eyes, and a wide, familiar grin. The little boy stood between them, not still at all, one shoe half untied, chocolate on the corner of his mouth that no one had noticed or no one had cared to wipe.

Obi did not talk for a few seconds. The screen hummed. Outside, a nurse's shoes clicked and kept going.

"Those were my parents. My father looked exactly like me" Obi went on. "Which is to say - handsome, confused, taller in photos. My mother was brilliant. Also crazy. She used to fix kettles by redesigning the kitchen. She once replaced a window with a door and said the outside needed better access"

Raizen smiled. "Sounds like you. And it sounds like Cinderette would approve"

"Cinderette would audit" Obi said. He tried to laugh and the sound came out wrong. He swiped again. "There is more, but that is the best one"

After a few minutes of searching, the screen did not show a photo. It showed a document with a faded crest and a stamp that said Classified in a font that thought it was still important.

RECON EXPEDITION - NORTH RANGE

Obi tilted the slate so Raizen could read. His voice dropped.

"Do you remember that woman - the one that I so bravely saved from the Warden? When I introduced his face to a wall"

"I remember" Raizen said.

"He turned out to know a man who knows a man who keeps boxes in a storage unit and sells lies with a few truths in them" Obi said. "I bought the box. Most of it was trash. This was not"

He scrolled. The report had the neat cruelty of official things.

[ Team: 15 people ]

[ Composition: 6 Adventurers, 5 Gravers, 3 Rookies for load and logistics, 1 scientist, Identity: Unknown. ]

[ Casualty: Unknown. Duration: 9 minutes 43 seconds ]

[ Casualties: 14 confirmed dead ]

[ Survivor: Unknown ]

[ Eon readings: None detected ]

[ Nyx signatures: None detected ]

"No Nyxes?" he asked.

"No Nyxes" Obi answered. "No shadows. No screams in the recording. Just pulses that stop. Locations that stop. Screens that show: Terminated. Then one single one that keeps going. The scientist."

Raizen looked at him. "This is the expedition where your parents died"

"Yes" Obi said, simply. He did not add any words after that. The slate's glow made the pause feel like a small room inside the room.

"I am sorry" Raizen said, because there is a right moment for that word and he felt it pass.

Obi clicked his tongue. "Don't apologize, man! You weren't there. If you had been there, you would have survived and scolded everyone for doing something wrong"

"I might have done something wrong, too"

"But you would have kept everyone alive. You already proved that many times" Obi concluded. He rubbed his thumb along the edge of the slate. "I always thought it was a bad day that went loud. This says it went quiet. Clean. Too clean. I hate that"

He tapped the line that said unknown.

"I want to find this one. The scientist. Not to break them. Not today. To ask them why my father did not come home. To ask them why my mother did not get to be old and annoying. To ask them if the quiet was real or if reports are lying. I have no idea where that Warden got this classified document from. But he uploaded it to this old slate, and the file signatures are legit."

Raizen nodded. He felt the urge to stand and go somewhere, which was ridiculous while sitting under a blanket. "We will find him"

Obi looked up. "You say that like you are still allowed to leave this bed"

"I'm allowed to walk to the window" Raizen contradicted him. "And take very long walks in my mind"

Obi snorted. "I have no clearance. No contacts. I can buy boxes of trash and hit people who deserve it. That is my skill tree. You - you are Neoshima's favorite headache. You talk to the people with fancy offices. They sigh and slide you folders. Maybe we can use that"

"I can do stuff. Maybe ask Kori" Raizen continued. "Maybe ask Alteea. I'll ask - no - I'll order the Wardens to pretend not to know me for a few minutes"

"Good" Obi said. He leaned back in the chair until it creaked. He stared at the family photo again and let it sit on the screen. "I am not looking for revenge. Already learned that lesson. I am looking for the truth. Revenge is heavy and slow. Truth is sharp and fits in a pocket"

Raizen remembered the small boy between the two adults. He had not known these people and still felt like he had. He imagined the father's hands lifting metal and bread. He imagined the mother's hands inked with grease and notes. He imagined both pairs of hands reaching and not finding anything to hold.

"Do you think the scientist was from here" Raizen asked. "Or from outside?"

"From the inside" Obi said, almost instantly. "That's my gut. But the report keeps saying identity withheld instead of classified internal. Easy way to shift attention."

"Interesting" Raizen mumbled.

They sat with the photo a little longer. The lab light and the screen light drew soft shadows at the corners of the room. The book about fishing on the bed looked stupid now.

"Obi" Raizen nudged him. "Thank you for bringing this to me"

Obi shrugged, but it was the kind of shrug that hides something beating hard. "You are the person I know who hears and then does something. Also - if I tell Saffi first, she'll invent a device that finds scientists, and then Hikari will scold us all"

"Probably true"

"Definitely true"

Raizen touched the screen where the father's shoulder was. He didn't know why he did it.

"Do you remember them?" he asked. "Not just pictures. Memory"

"Yes" Obi said. "My father taught me to swing the hammer with my whole back. My mother taught me to steal pies by pretending to sneeze very loudly. She said life is science and a little crime. I miss them like a tired muscle"

Raizen smiled. "I miss people like that too"

"Good" Obi said softly. "Then you know why I cannot leave this alone"

"Of course."

Obi turned the old slate back on, and opened the report again. He scrolled with careful fingers, like the screen could bruise. He pointed at a tiny map inset. A red dot blinked at the end of a line that ended in nothing.

"This is the last ping from the survivor" he said. "Nine minutes and forty three seconds. Then dark. No follow up. No retrieval. Just a note that said "pending" and then nothing for years. We are very good, as a city, at putting chaotic boxes on shelves and telling ourselves we are tidy"

"They are. Not we. We'll be the ones to change that"

Obi set the slate down. The room felt a little different now - heavier, but not cruel. The kind of heavy you get when you pick up a bag you mean to carry a long time.

"I will help you"

"Neoshima has tons of secrets and things under that some powerful people don't want to be found. I trust that we'll bring the truth to light." Obi breathed in. The grin came back like a mask that still fit and also did not. "But first, you will learn to fish so you can feed me when I am old and dramatic"

"What do you mean? You're already very dramatic"

"I'm just practicing for being old"

Raizen reached for the book and rested his hand on the cover, while Obi tried not to make another stupid joke.

"Yo, Raizen?"

"Yea?"

"Thanks, man"

"You didn't even have to ask-"

The door snapped open. Another… Unexpected visitor.

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