Chapter 54 | If We Ever Go Back, I’ll Know Which Direction To Walk!

Chapter 54: Chapter 54 | If We Ever Go Back, I’ll Know Which Direction To Walk!

’She planned this three weeks ago,’ he thought. ’Before the Foundation visit. Before the assessment runs. She looked up a restaurant with accessible seating and memorized the address and brought it up at breakfast like it cost her nothing.’

’It cost her a lot.’

He closed the notebook.

He started breakfast.

====

Morning.

The specialty rotation , Shira’s spinal blend. He had the preparation memorized now. The market woman’s handwritten schedule was still pinned inside the cabinet door but he hadn’t looked at it in a week.

Shira came out first. Positioned herself. Looked at her bowl.

Then she looked at Kai.

"Today," she said.

"Today," he confirmed.

She picked up her spoon.

Mira came out seven minutes later. Navigated to her chair. Found the bowl. Sat.

She had the whiteboard already uncapped.

The board came up immediately.

What time.

"Noon," Kai said. "The rooftop opens at eleven-thirty. Two districts by accessible cab."

She wrote: Accessible cab already arranged.

"I arranged it yesterday," Kai said.

I know, she wrote. I’m confirming you didn’t forget.

"I didn’t forget."

You forgot the ice pack.

Kai looked at her.

She was eating. Completely neutral. The board was back in her lap.

Shira made a sound that was not quite a laugh.

"Eat your breakfast," Kai said.

That’s Shira’s line, the board appeared.

"Then I’m borrowing it."

The board: You can’t borrow lines. You have to earn them.

Shira’s mouth moved. She looked at the window.

Kai ate his rice.

’Both of them are nervous about going out,’ he thought. ’They’re covering it differently. Shira goes quiet. Mira gets faster.’

He finished his bowl.

"One hour," he said. "Then we leave."

==========

The cab arrived at eleven-fifteen.

Ramp, like last time. The driver had confirmed it twice when Kai called.

Shira was already in the hallway when Kai came out of the kitchen. Jacket on. Bag on her lap. She had been ready for twelve minutes. He had heard the jacket zipper at eleven-oh-three.

He didn’t say anything about the twelve minutes.

She didn’t either.

Mira came out of her room with the cane and the whiteboard and her hair up, which she had not worn up since the restaurant three weeks ago. Kai noticed this and immediately noticed something in the kitchen that needed checking.

’The stove is off,’ he thought. ’I know it’s off. I turned it off. Stop looking at the stove.’

He looked at the stove. It was off.

"Ready," he said, to the apartment in general.

====

The cab.

Mira in the back with Shira. Kai in the front. The driver pulled into traffic and for a while nobody said anything.

Then Mira’s whiteboard appeared in the gap between the front seats.

Kai read it.

"Mira asks if you’ve been to this district before," Kai said.

Shira looked at the window.

"Once," she said. "Third year. Regional assessment circuit. The canyon dungeon is in this district."

Silence.

Mira’s board appeared again.

Kai read it. He turned slightly to pass it back to Shira’s angle.

"She says she ran a B-rank support assessment in this district. Five years ago. She says the noodle shop on the east side of the commercial block was the best noodle shop she’d ever had and she’s thought about it twice a month since."

Shira looked at the board.

"The one with the green awning," Shira said.

Mira’s hand appeared for the board. She wrote. Held it up toward the back of Kai’s seat.

He read it.

"Yes," he said. "She says yes. How do you know it."

Shira looked at the window.

"We ran a joint expedition assessment out of this district," Shira said. Quiet. "Before the incident. A Vanguard training evaluation. I don’t remember who was in it." A pause. "I remember the noodle shop."

The cab moved through traffic.

Mira’s board came over the seats one more time.

Kai read it.

He read it again.

He didn’t say anything for a second.

"What does it say," Shira said.

Kai read it aloud.

"She says: If we ever go back, I’ll know which direction to walk."

The cab was quiet.

Shira looked at the window.

The line of her jaw was the soft version.

Mira lowered the board.

Nobody said anything else until they arrived.

====

The rooftop restaurant was on the fourth floor of a glass building that looked like it had been designed by someone who genuinely believed in the combination of good food and natural light.

The accessible seating was in the far corner — a section with lower tables, good sightlines, enough space for a wheelchair to maneuver. Nobody had arranged it apologetically. It was just there, like all the other seating, as if it had always been the plan.

Shira noticed this.

Kai noticed her noticing.

He looked at the menu.

The afternoon service was quiet, like the reviews had said. Three other tables occupied. No loud music. The city spread out below the glass railing in the particular way that cities look peaceful from above.

Mira found her chair with the cane and sat. She had her whiteboard on the table and was already reading the menu with her fingers — he had gotten a Braille menu version when he’d called to confirm the reservation, and the restaurant had produced one without making anything of it.

She ran her fingers across the raised text.

The board came up.

They have the cold sesame noodles.

"Do you want that," Kai said.

Obviously, she wrote.

Shira was reading the regular menu. She set it down.

"The braised pork," she said. "With the fermented vegetable side."

"Done," Kai said.

He flagged the server. Ordered for all three of them without asking again because they had both already said what they wanted. The server wrote it down and left.

It was a good afternoon.

===

Halfway through the meal the table behind them got louder.

Kai had been half-tracking them since they sat down — the Nerve Sense catching eight presences on the rooftop, cataloguing them the way it catalogued everything now. The table behind them: four people, around twenty, the particular energy of a group that had known each other for years.