Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Mother and Daughter

Thea walked out to the balcony and let the cool sea breeze wash over her flush skin.

The hem of her negligee fluttered.

She took a sip of the iced tea she’d ordered from room service. The pleasant taste of Darjeeling filling her mouth didn’t just cool her body; it helped calm her heart, too.

The night skyline lay spread out before her. Hotels sat clustered together, their flickering lights making them look like single massive giants. She doubted you could find anywhere else in the Republic with a view that impressive.

Over on the other side of the balcony, Monika was using a reading light to thumb through a novel. Next to her, there was a stack of other books over a dozen titles high. She clearly intended to spend her entire vacation reading. Every book in the pile was a by-the-numbers romance novel where young men and woman met and fell deeply in love.

Monika snapped at Thea before the latter even had a chance to speak. “It’s intellectual curiosity, that’s all. It’s not like I’m actually into this boy-meets-girl stuff.”

“What? I didn’t say anything.”

“You had a look your eyes.”

“Well, I suppose you have me there.”

“Also,” Monika said, still mostly focused on her book, “put some clothes on before you come out here.”

“Why? It’s not like anyone’s looking.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Hmm-hmm. I could come out naked, if you’d rather?”

“…I hate you so much.”

After assuring Monika that she was just kidding, Thea sat down in the chair beside hers.

Monika snapped her book shut in annoyance. “What? Is this about Matilda?”

“Erna and Annette are asleep now, so I wanted to ask how you really feel.”

“I feel like we should’ve ditched her. It’s not like Annette remembers her or anything.” She gave Thea a reproachful glare. “So why’d you have to go and make that stupid promise?”

Sure enough, Monika was against it.

Thea thought back to the promise she’d made to Annette’s mom…

The woman had introduced herself as Matilda.

She was an engineer from the neighboring Lylat Kingdom, and according to her business card, she worked for a company that produced heavy machinery. Thea recognized the name. The company hadn’t been around for long, but it was a major corporation known globally for its high-quality work. They also had a robust warranty program where they would send out engineers from their headquarters in Lylat to personally deal with any equipment that broke down.

Matilda was one such engineer. She had come to the hotel to fix its fountain, and by the sound of it, she was no stranger to the Din Republic.

“I took her with me to visit the Republic four years ago, but we got in a train accident. They took me to the hospital, but they couldn’t find her anywhere…”

Thea and the other three girls sat by the poolside table as Matilda told them her story. Matilda knew about a mole on the back of Annette’s neck, and when they looked, they could definitely see the resemblance between the two of them. It appeared she was telling the truth about being Annette’s mom.

Miraculous as the reunion was, though, Thea found herself having mixed feelings about the whole thing.

“I had no idea she was still alive. You see, her actual name is—”

Matilda said a name Thea didn’t recognize, but apparently, that was Annette’s real name.

The person in question tilted her head. “Who’s that? I don’t get it, yo.”

“What…?” Matilda’s eyes went wide with shock.

“Annette,” Thea said, “why don’t you go play with Erna?”

“Now that, I get!”

Annette wrapped her arm around Erna’s neck and grinned. “Erna, let’s go play with squirt guns!” she crowed as she dragged the unfortunate blond toward the pool. Erna’s despair-filled eyes stood in sharp contrast to Annette’s gleeful expression. “Please, no. Please, someone save me…,” she begged.

Thea felt sorry for her, but she chose to ignore her pleas.

Once the conversation’s subject was gone, Thea began explaining. “So to make a long story short…she has amnesia.”

She kept her story simple and mixed in lies where she needed to.

It wasn’t clear why, but Annette couldn’t remember anything from more than four years back. In Thea’s version of events, she had been given the name Annette when she was taken in as a ward of the state. From there, she was transferred to a religious boarding school, and Thea and the others were her friends who were out on vacation together.

After laying it all out, she went on. “I’m really sorry, ma’am, but Annette doesn’t remember anything about her mother.”

Matilda covered her mouth with her hands. “It can’t be…”

“Also, we can’t just nod along and hand her over to you. Not to be rude or anything, but we don’t have any actual proof that you’re her mother, and we would have to talk it over with the school before we did anything anyway.”

Matilda hung her head. The situation had finally sunk in. “…So you’re telling me that my daughter lost her memories in that train accident and has been living a whole different life since then?”

Thea wasn’t sure what to say to her.

As far as the law went, the Din Republic would have to return Annette to her mother if Matilda could prove the two of them were related. However, that was only the legal side of the story.

What they really needed to consider was what Annette wanted.

“…Even just getting to see her alive like this feels like a blessing from the heavens.” At that point, Matilda finally smiled. “She seems happy, and that means the world to me.”

She looked lovingly at Annette as she frolicked about in the pool. Annette’s teary-eyed companion didn’t even register to her.

Fortunately for them, Matilda didn’t seem like she was going to assert her parental rights and take Annette from them by force.

She seemed like a quiet, reserved woman—the exact opposite of her brash “Yo”-spouting daughter.

Thea spoke up again. “Has Annette always been such a wild child?”

“Oh, absolutely. I can’t count how many times she sneaked into my workshop and started tinkering with the machines. I didn’t even teach her how, but she took to them like a natural. It was a bit of a headache at the time, but now those are some of my fondest memories.”

“Ah, so that’s where she picked up her skills…”

It all made sense. Sure enough, Annette had picked up her engineering know-how abroad.

“Thea,” Monika interjected. “We gotta go. The pool’s closing soon.”

That was a lie. It was open for another two hours.

However, Thea could tell from the piercing look Monika was giving her that she wanted to cut the conversation short.

Thea suggested to Matilda that they exchange contact information. Matilda was hesitant at first—“I’m afraid it’s not a very nice hotel…”—but she eventually gave in. It turned out that the rate of her hotel room was less than a tenth of what Thea’s was. It was no wonder she was a little embarrassed about it.

“Please!” As they parted ways, Matilda grabbed Thea by the hand. “I know this is selfish to ask, but would it be possible for me to have dinner with my daughter tomorrow night?”

“T-tomorrow…?”

“I want to do what little I can to fill in the four years we’ve lost. Please, is there any way you can help me?”

She clenched Thea’s hand in hers and laid on the pressure. Thea had no way to escape.

Maternal love was a powerful thing.

She was a bit worried about the way Monika was glaring at her—

“…Of course. I’ll go ahead and make a reservation for the two of you.”

—but she didn’t see any choice but to go ahead and nod.

“Oh, thank you so much.”

Matilda gave Thea a deep bow and shook Thea’s hands with astounding vigor.

Monika clicked her tongue. The noise echoed in Thea’s ear.

Thea let out a long sigh as she recalled what had happened.

“What was I supposed to do? Turn her down and ruin that heart-stirring reunion?”

“Heart-stirring? Not to Annette, it wasn’t.”

“Well, what would you have said to her?”

Monika put on a show of thinking for a few seconds. “‘You’ve got the wrong person. Leave us alone, or I’m calling the cops.’”

“That’s horrible!”

“‘I gave birth to her myself. She couldn’t possibly be your daughter.’”

“My, what a twist that would be.”

“‘Yeah, we get this a lot—crazy fans trying to get in with our actresses by pretending to be their estranged mothers.’”

“Please don’t go giving Annette any weird backstories.”

“The point is: You should’ve turned her down.” After finishing her odd skit, Monika shrugged. “She wants to take Annette away from us. You get how dangerous that is, don’t you?”

Thea reflexively glanced back over her shoulder.

On the bed, Annette was sleeping like a log. She’d given up on sleeping suspended, but her bedtime posture was no better than before. One of her legs was stretched all the way to the next bed over, and she was kicking Erna in the face.

“You want to let her quit Lamplight?”

“……………”

Thea had considered the possibility.

If Matilda ended up taking Annette back home with her, Annette wouldn’t be able to stay with Lamplight anymore. She would end up leaving the world of spies behind her and living an ordinary life as a citizen of Lylat.

“Look, that’s obviously off the table.” Monika laughed triumphantly. “The team needs her. Even I have to give her credit, you know?”

She pulled something out of her pocket—a pair of completely identical tawny-brown long wallets.

“It’s a perfect replica.” She gave one of the wallets a shake, and three small balls dropped out. “It only took her one glance at my wallet to make this. It looks exactly like what you can buy off the shelf, but it’s got a trick to it. If you give it a little flick, it shoots out these bouncy balls. They’re a throwing weapon made of metal coated in rubber, and thanks to this, I can carry three of them around with me in a normal old wallet.”

Annette had inherited that engineering prowess from Matilda.

However, would engineering skills alone have been enough to build a copy that perfect?

“That must have taken incredible recall ability,” Thea noted.

“Pretty ironic, having an amnesiac with a great memory. She memorized what it looked like in a single glance, then made a weapon that appeared identical. That’s a damn powerful trick.”

Thea shared Monika’s opinion.

Annette was an invaluable member of Lamplight. They couldn’t afford to lose her.

“By the way,” Monika asked, “what’s the girl of the hour think about all this?”

“She said she was ‘fine with whatever, yo.’”

Thea had explained the situation to Annette as impartially as she could, and Annette’s response had been tepid at best. She hadn’t shown a shred of interest toward her mother.

As far as Annette was concerned, Matilda was just some stranger to her.

“Then that settles it.” Monika clapped her hands together. “Screw the promise. We’re bailing before that woman can put any weird ideas in Annette’s—”

“But the way I see it—this could be a good opportunity for Annette.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m going keep the promise and let Matilda and Annette meet again tomorrow.”

A grim expression flashed across Monika’s face. Her eyes burned with a mixture of disbelief and scorn. “Why? They’re just going to get split up again. What good will letting them get closer do?”

“………”

“Unless, what, you’re seriously thinking of handing her over?”

Thea shook her head. That wasn’t it.

She knew she was being indecisive, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe that tearing that mother and daughter apart was the right thing to do.

“She was empty.”

“What?”

“That’s what I felt when I looked into Annette’s heart. There was nothing there. No reason for wanting to be a spy—and no reason to stay with Lamplight. All she operates on are pleasure and displeasure.”

Thea was the only one who’d seen into Annette’s heart, so only she could understand just how eerie it was to find nothing but that simple, childish desire.

“I want to grow taller.”

“I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty twisted. When we go on missions, we’re putting our lives on the line. But the thing is: She doesn’t have any memories or sense of purpose. Letting someone like her risk her life just to satisfy her curiosity doesn’t sit right with me. She… How do I put it? I want her to have a better foundation than that.”

She thought back to how Annette had replied when the team reunited, how she’d acted back when they all stood in front of Inferno’s grave, and all the times she had said that being with them was “fun.” In retrospect, it all felt so dangerously noncommittal.

“You and I really don’t see eye to eye, do we?” There was a harsh edge to Monika’s voice. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about my teammates’ personal lives. The good of the team should come first.”

In other words, she felt that what the group needed should take priority over its members’ feelings.

That was a perfectly legitimate way of looking at things—a very Monika way of looking at things.

“I’m not asking you to help,” Thea replied. “All you have to do is sit back and watch.”

“Oh yeah?”

“If you think my last reason was hypocritical, then let me rephrase. Don’t you think it would serve Lamplight’s interests if Annette found a proper motive for wanting to be a spy?”

As Annette was now, she was so inscrutable it made her impossible to control.

“………”

Monika went silent. She gazed out at the city lights, then spoke with some reluctance. “…Fine, do what you want. If it’ll help keep her in line, I won’t get in your way.”

“I appreciate it.”

Half-hearted as it was, Thea had Monika’s seal of approval. That was a big relief.

Then Monika raised two fingers. “I’ve got two conditions.”

“Do tell.”

“I’m coming to the dinner, too. I need to make sure you don’t get any funny ideas about handing over Annette.”

“That’s fine. And the other?”

“Strictly speaking, this is more of a request than a condition.”

Monika exasperatedly jabbed her thumb at their two teammates inside the room.

“You need to stay with those two and make sure they don’t embarrass me.”

“GRAAAAH! Quit trying to run away! I picked it for you myself!”

“But I hate it, yo. It makes me look like a kid.”

“Shaddap! Nobody asked what you want!”

Annette tried her best to flee, but Monika dragged her back kicking and screaming.

They were in their suite, and Monika was on a rampage of epic proportions. The first thing she’d done that morning was call up a clothing store and had them bring over their entire catalog of dresses. When they did, she chose one on the spot and tried to get Annette into it.

The dress suited her; that much was unmistakable. However, its pastel color and frilly design weren’t to her liking, causing it to earn a rare display of resistance out of her.

“I’m a mature adult lady, so I wanna wear something cooler!”

Despite Annette’s insistence, though, Monika showed no mercy. She pinned her teammate down on the bed, stripped off her pajamas, and shoved her into the dress by force.

Thea started to feel kind of bad for Annette.

“You know, Monika… I don’t see why you can’t just let her wear something she likes…”

“Because she’ll pick out something horrible, that’s why.” Monika shot her suggestion down flatly. “If Annette goes out there looking like a mess, it’ll reflect badly on us as her friends.”

“Th-this is about your pride?”

“God dammit, sit still already. We could’ve been done here two hours ago.”

The look on Monika’s face was downright bloodcurdling as she finally wrestled Annette into her dress. Annette kicked her legs back and forth. “That tickles, yo!” It was impossible to tell if she was complaining or enjoying herself.

Over to the side, Erna was wearing a classic black dress and watching their battle in terror. Monika’s heavy-handed behavior had given her such a fright that she’d tucked herself away in a corner of the room. “I—I…I’ll go make breakfast. We have that bread and jam we bought yesterday…”

“Don’t you move an inch,” Monika snapped.

“The jam went flying all over my clothes!”

“That was quick, even for you.” Monika’s tone was tinged with annoyance. She clicked her tongue. “Thea, go wash Erna’s dress. I want it back here and clean in five minutes.”

“…Whatever you say, ma’am.”

Monika had been like that all day, giving the others instructions detailed down to the minute. Every so often, she would end up shouting at them.

“We’re going there to size her up. Don’t you realize she’ll be doing the same thing?”

That was what she’d barked when she woke them all up at five in the morning. Then she got to work preparing outfits and giving them crash courses in table manners so they could avoid embarrassing themselves at the fancy restaurant they were going to.

Thea sighed as she dried Erna’s dress. “You know, I can definitely see why you didn’t fit in at your academy.”

“I told you, I was half-assing it on purpose.”

That was the one point she refused to cede.

In the end, their preparations took up nearly the entire day.

By the time they got to the hotel lobby and called for their taxi, the sun was already making its descent.

“Come on, let’s go. And don’t you dare let your clothes get dirty on the way there. That means you, Erna.”

“The sunset is too bright…” When they got to the taxi stand, Erna squinted. “I need to avoid it.”

“What did I just say?! What do you think you’re doing, beelining straight for that puddle?!”

Monika grabbed Erna by the scruff of her neck and hurled her into the cab.

After a long series of trials and tribulations, Thea and the others finally reached their destination.

The restaurant sat right on the coastline, and the sea-facing wall was made entirely of glass, giving a beautiful view of the sunset. Its interior and tablecloths were almost dazzlingly white. Thea had pored over the guidebook so she could pick out the perfect spot.

Matilda was waiting patiently for them inside, just as arranged. She was wearing the same casual blouse as the day prior, and when she saw them, she bowed. “Ah, hello again.”

Thea gave her an elegant smile and guided the group into the dining area. “Annette and Matilda, you two are at that table there.”

She had called ahead and made sure to reserve two tables.

Matilda froze. “W-we aren’t all together…?”

“Hmm? No, I thought you two would like to have some time to yourselves.”

“Y-yes, I suppose you’re right. I’ll do my best.”

For some reason, she seemed tense.

The whole intent behind the dinner was so Matilda and Annette could spend some time together. Thea knew that if the two tables were joined, they’d just be getting in the way.

She, Monika, and Erna headed to their own table.

“Now we wait,” Thea said. “One side might have amnesia, but they’re still family. I’m interested to see what we can learn from what she and Annette talk about.”

“Yeah…assuming they talk at all,” Monika replied.

Their table was a little ways away from Matilda and Annette’s.

On Monika’s insistence, Annette was wearing her hair down. She usually kept it sloppily tied up, but now it hung down straight with the curls blown out so as to play up her natural charm. She was a perfect, adorable beauty. Just so long as she didn’t talk. Or move.

The hope was that Matilda would compliment her hair and dress, and that would help get the conversation rolling, but—

“…………………………………………”

“…………………………………………”

—instead, they just sat in silence for a terribly long time.

Matilda fidgeted with her hands as she stared at Annette.

Annette sat vacantly with a thin smile plastered on her face.

“…………………………………………”

“…………………………………………”

After another protracted silence, Matilda finally broke the ice.

“So…Annette? That’s what you’re called now, right?”

“Yup.”

“Have you been well? You haven’t been hurt or sick, have you?”

“I’ve been fine, yo.”

“Oh, that’s so good to hear. I’ve been thinking about you ever since last night, you know. It’s been four whole years. I was worried sick that you might have contracted a disease or something.”

“Oh, hey, me too.”

“You were worried about me, too? That’s so sweet to—”

“No, my health.”

“……………………”

“……………………”

“…………………………………………”

“…………………………………………”

Monika tilted her head. “Huh? What’s wrong with them?” she asked quietly.

“They’re nervous. I totally get how they feel,” Erna whispered back.

Thea spoke optimistically. “I think they’ll be getting more comfortable around each other soon, though.”

The appetizers and soup showed up shortly thereafter, but that didn’t do the conversation any good.

Matilda simply ate in silence, not so much as commenting on the food. Annette, for her part, completely disregarded the table manners Monika had drilled into her and picked up her bowl to chug down her soup. However, her mother didn’t so much as scold her.

Then the fish came out, and it was Annette’s turn to speak up.

“I don’t like this fish, yo.”

“…But why?”

“It’s got a defiant look in its eyes.”

“But you used to love fish. You ate it all the time simmered in tomato sauce with shellfi—”

“I don’t remember that.”

“O-oh, right… Well, if you don’t want to eat it, you certainly don’t have to.”

“I just hate its eyes. I never said I wasn’t gonna eat it.”

“……………………”

“……………………”

“…………………………………………”

“…………………………………………”

“It’s kind of scary how out of sync they are,” Erna murmured.

Monika agreed. “I’m getting secondhand anxiety just listening to them.”

Thea squeezed her fists tight. “L-let’s give them a little longer. Maybe they just need some time.”

In what seemed like no time at all, the lamb steak main course came out.

The moment Thea took her first bite, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “This is fantastic!” No matter how glum someone felt, eating something that delicious would be sure to evoke a reaction. And yet—

“…………………………………………”

“…………………………………………”

—just like before, Matilda and Annette ate in silence.

Halfway through the meal, Annette got up and went toward them. “Erna, gimme half your meat.”

Erna trembled. “She’s coming to shake me down…” Aside from that, though, Annette said nothing.

“…………………………………………”

“…………………………………………”

The long, long silence continued all the way up until dessert.

Monika sneered as she munched on her bread. “Looks like Mom’s given up on even talking to her.”

“You’re horrible, you know that? After watching that, your first thought is about how to keep Annette?” Thea protested reflexively, although Monika had a point.

Sure, Thea could probably go over there and get the conversation flowing. However, having a third party step in to push things along would defeat the entire point.

The whole idea behind the dinner was to give mother and child a chance to see each other one-on-one.

Thea had gone out of her way to set the whole thing up, but it looked like her efforts had been for naught.

“I suppose you’re right, though. Once our dessert comes, we should—”

She was going to say Just go ahead and get going.

Before she could, though, Erna’s nose twitched.

Nothing got by Monika. “Erna?”

“…I can smell misfortune.”

She had already figured out the source, too. She surreptitiously pointed at the entrance.

“We’re surrounded.”

Thea shot Monika a signal with her eyes.

Using the last of her steak sauce, she drew a map on her plate of their escape route and the formation they would take.

Monika gave her a disapproving frown, but she tossed her something under the table all the same.

The transceiver landed perfectly in Thea’s lap. As she hid it in a handkerchief, she rose from her seat and headed for the other table.

“Matilda, we’re going to pretend to use the toilet and sneak out the back.”

When Thea whispered in her ear, Matilda looked at her with a start. She seemed to realize that something was up.

The restaurant had grown crowded, and they used that to their advantage to move stealthily across the room. There was a male waiter blocking the back exit, so Thea pretended to be drunk and flirted with him to divert his attention. As she did, she shot Matilda the go-ahead with her eyes and gave her an opportunity to slip outside.

From there, Thea headed to the bathroom for real and escaped out the window.

“There are three suspicious guys out front.” Monika’s voice crackled through the transceiver. “They realized you weren’t coming back. They’re on the move.”

“Can you tell who they are?”

“No one good, that’s for sure. Now hurry, or they’ll catch you. You’ve got forty seconds left.”

Thea scanned her surroundings.

The restaurant sat on the coastline, and it was far enough from the hotels that they’d had to take a taxi to get there. Escaping out the back was only the first step. Now they needed to contend with the fact that they had the sizable highway on one side of them and a cliff face that towered above them like a castle’s ramparts on the other. That much made sense, given that the region was sandwiched between a mountain and the sea, but it meant they had nowhere to hide.

“Monika, can you get them off our tail?”

“I could, but it’d be a bad move. I don’t want to make a scene right next to the restaurant.”

Monika could drive off any but the most trained of opponents. However, making a commotion in public like that was an absolute last resort.

“For now, follow the cliffside and head toward the ringing sound.”

“The what?”

“Just do it.”

Thea circled around to the back exit and joined up with Matilda, who looked as pale as a sheet. Thea pulled her along by the arm. As she ran, her thoughts turned.

Should I try to negotiate with them? No, given the situation, that’s far too risky…

The highway was almost empty of cars, and Thea headed across it toward the light from the hotels.

“They’re over there! Don’t let ’em get away!”

She could hear a group of adults shouting angrily and running toward them from behind. They sounded murderous. If nothing else, they clearly weren’t going to let her and Matilda escape without a fight.

Thea didn’t know what they were after, but she didn’t plan on sticking around to find out. “A little faster would be nice, Matilda!”

“Th-this is…as fast as I can go…!”

The response Thea got back was hardly heartening, but as luck would have it, Matilda was actually a decent walker. Despite Thea’s daily training, Matilda was actually managing to keep pace with her as she ran. However, her stamina was a different story. She started slowing down.

The men’s shouting grew nearer by the moment.

“______!”

Thea felt something hit her shoulder.

Based on the impact, they must have thrown a rock at her. It hurt, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her.

“Get the other one, too!”

Thea clutched her shoulder as she fled from the angry cries.

“Don’t worry. I sent someone on ahead of you.”

All of a sudden, Thea heard the high-pitched ringing of a bell echoing through the night.

Thea didn’t hesitate. She headed straight toward it.

“An assassin so overpowered she can bury her foes with no weapon and without letting them sense a lick of hostility.”

As she listened to Monika’s explanation, the source of the noise came into view.

A blond girl as beautiful as a doll stood by the base of the cliffside.

“How unlucky…”

As she rang her handbell, she let out a low murmur.

“I’m code name Fool—and it’s time to kill with everything.”

Thea couldn’t help but gawk at how impossible the sight before her was.

Monika had called the girl overpowered, and Thea had to agree. She defied all reason. In a sense, she was a better assassin than even Corpse.

Erna looked quietly up the cliff.

As she did, boulders the size of human heads started raining from the sky.

The girls rendezvoused at a park full of fountains.

Thea gave her report first: how one of their pursuers had taken a hit, how it hadn’t been fatal, and how she and Matilda had been able to use that opening to hail a taxi and escape.

Then Monika filled in the other side of the story: how the noise from the falling rocks had reached the restaurant, but how it hadn’t been enough to cause a panic, and how all the suspicious people had left.

After they finished exchanging information, Thea walked over to Matilda, who was hanging her head.

She cut to the chase. “Are you being followed?”

Matilda averted her eyes. “I…”

“If you don’t tell us what’s going on, I can’t let you see Annette anymore.”

It was harsh, but she had to do it. She couldn’t trust Annette with someone sketchy.

Matilda bit her lip in resignation. “They were debt collectors.”

“What do you mean?”

“…It all started two days ago.”

Matilda went on to apologetically tell her tale.

“After I finished the job, I went to a park to rest for a bit, and before I knew it, someone stole my toolbox. I looked everywhere for it, but it turned out they’d already pawned it. That was when I panicked… I needed to buy it back, so I used my passport as collateral to borrow some money and tried to gamble my way for the rest. But I lost big…”

Monika cut in, her voice thick with exasperation. “Yeah, of course you did. Just go to the police.”

Although it was true that there were plenty of casinos in the area, all of them were run by people who operated on the shady side of the law. An amateur going to one with some chump change would just end up as a feast for the wolves.

“Once you do, you’ll be able to forget the stupid toolbox and go home.”

Matilda clenched her fists in frustration. “But…there are really important things in there.”

“Thea, I’m pulling the plug.” Monika sounded completely fed up. “You think being with a mom like that’s gonna make Annette happy? She couldn’t hold a decent conversation with her own daughter, and she’s loaded with debt. We’re dropping her off at the embassy, and that’ll be that.”

Tears began welling up in Matilda’s eyes. Perhaps she, too, was lamenting how poorly her conversation with Annette had gone. It was heartrending.

“Hey, keep your voice down. Matilda was the victim here, you know.”

“And?” Monika shrugged. She didn’t look the slightest bit fazed.

Suddenly, they heard a confident voice. “That girl is an angel.”

At first, they didn’t even realize it was Matilda’s. Unlike her usual lifeless speech, her voice now rang with will and drive.

Monika scoffed. “Say what?”

Matilda’s shoulders quivered. “When I was fleeing from those debt collectors and about to fall into despair, she appeared before me… like a glittering angel… I thought my daughter was dead, but I was reunited with her. What could you call that other than a miracle…? I was nervous up until now, but I truly do love her.”

She bowed so low her waist seemed liable to snap.

“All I want is to live with my daughter again. Please, let me have this second chance…”

Thea’s breath caught in her throat.

The woman before them was bowing to a group of girls over a decade her juniors.

Monika, ever the stubborn one, replied in a voice dripping with contempt. “You still haven’t given us a good excuse for why you can’t go to the embassy or the cops…”

After sinking into contemplative silence for a moment, though, she relaxed her tense shoulders. Something had just clicked for her.

“…But I can tell you’ve got your reasons.” She shifted her gaze.

“Annette, why don’t you make the call? What do you really think of Matilda?”

Everyone turned to look at Annette, who’d been wordlessly watching the whole scene play out.

“…………………………………………”

The ensuing silence seemed to last an eternity.

Eventually, though, Annette spoke. “I’ve seen it before.”

Thea tilted her head. “Annette?”

“That toolbox… It’s cobalt blue, like the color of the sky…”

Matilda covered her mouth with her hands.

Annette gazed vacantly at the sky. Her eyes were so out of focus it was like she was trying to stare at the whole of the atmosphere hanging above them.

“Someone used to carry it around so proudly…”

“Wait, are your memories—?”

“But back then, it was so big, and so heavy, and so hard, and so close, and it hurt…”

She trailed off.

Her shoulders slumped, and she let out a long exhale. A cheerful smile spread across her face. “Nope! I can’t remember anything, yo.”

And with that, Annette had nothing left to say, apparently.

Was she starting to change?

Thea got a vague feeling she was.

Had something taken root in that emptiness she’d sensed in Annette? Had meeting Matilda triggered that?

That was something to be celebrated. She couldn’t afford to let this opportunity pass them by.

“Here’s a question for you, Matilda.” Thea laid her hand atop her chest. “Would you mind if I went and retrieved your toolbox for you?”

Matilda stared at her in complete astonishment.

Later that night, Thea quietly slipped out of their hotel dressed in her mission gear. The black of her outfit melted into the night, all but erasing her from sight. She slunk through darkened alleyways to avoid drawing attention.

Even at night, the city’s lights burned bright.

Tourists strutted their way down the main drag in hopes of checking out the fountains and catching the light shows. Thea saw them and anxiously quickened her pace. The Din Republic was a relatively safe place, but even it had its share of gangs and other criminals—especially in a city as full of easy marks as this one.

A twinge ran through her shoulder.

She had her earlier rock injury to thank for that, no doubt. She was just lucky it had been a rock and not a bullet.

Thea didn’t know what kind of group it was that had ripped Matilda off. If things turned violent, there was a fair chance she wouldn’t get off so easy a second time.

However, she was the one who had decided to go in alone. She didn’t want to get the others caught up in all this.

Right as she thought back to that decision, a familiar figure stood blocking her way.

It was Monika.

“What? Are you here to stop me?”

“Are you serious about all this?” Monika asked. She, too, was wearing her mission gear. “Why go out of your way to help her? There’s no way it’s worth the risk.”

“I told you, didn’t I? Annette’s heart is empty. I want to help her.”

“And what if doing that makes her want to stop being a spy?”

“Then Annette”—Thea gave her a small smile—“can go back to being a normal teenage girl.”

“………”

“Monika?”

Monika raised her hand to her mouth and sank into thought. On second glance, Thea noticed the mirror she was holding. It looked like she was checking her backside.

“There’s a big army presence here,” Monika murmured quietly. “It’s been bothering me for a while. Ever since this afternoon, there’ve been a bunch of soldiers milling about. Too many.”

“But why?”

“Probably ’cause of some sort of mess that’s going on. A mess that we don’t want to get involved in.”

Ever since the end of the war, the bulk of the army’s duties had been in border control, disaster relief, training, and helping out the police when things got too big for them to handle—namely, in situations involving terrorists and spies.

Thea, too, had gotten the feeling that something was off. However…

“You sure you don’t want to back out?”

Thea nodded. “Certain.”

“You really are an idiot. And after you took that hit earlier, too.”

Monika sounded exasperated, but she was smirking as she pointed at Thea’s shoulder.

“Wouldn’t have happened if we’d taken another approach, you know. If I’d taken Matilda, and you’d handled comms, we could’ve gotten out of there without screwing up like that.”

“Maybe, but I’m the one who got us into this. I can’t have other people taking on all the danger for me.”

Thea had noticed Monika’s disapproval when she’d given the order earlier.

She also knew full well that Monika could have gotten rid of the hoodlums on her own.

“It’s the same deal this time around. I’m the one who offered to help, so I have to take responsibility for my decision.”

“…There you go again with the idiocy.”

“Wha—?”

When Thea tried to demonstrate her resolve, Monika shot her right down. She seemed even more exasperated than before.

“When you get hurt, it makes me look like I’m not doing my job.”

“But that’s just not true. And if anyone thinks that, I’ll be sure to explain what really—”

“Our teammates might not see it that way. In the end, I’m gonna take the heat for letting you make such dumb choices.”

“Ah—”

Thea couldn’t come up with a rebuttal. That possibility had completely slipped her mind.

“I—I am sorry about that, but I can’t just leave Matilda to—”

“That’s why I’m here to help.” Monika gave Thea a soft clap on the arm.

Thea stared at her in shock.

“You’re really…”

“Geez, just take a hint. Look, you know how I am about pride. If one of my teammates gets hurt, it reflects badly on me. If you’re not gonna back down, what choice do I have?” Monika let out a protracted sigh. “Just this once, I’ll be one of your good little girls.”

When she did, another pair of people popped out of the shadows.

“I’m coming, too.”

“Me too, yo.”

It was Erna and Annette, both clad in their mission gear.

“………”

Thea’s lips trembled.

Her body suddenly felt hot all over. She unconsciously took in a big breath and filled her lungs to the brim.

Monika raised an eyebrow in distaste. “What?”

“I just can’t believe it. I was so sure you were coming here to shout at me. ‘Get your ass back in line, slut.’”

“You don’t think very highly of me, do you?”

“And also…I feel so encouraged.”

At long last, the four of them were finally working together.

Unable to stop a smile from spreading across her face, Thea combed back her hair. “Now, let’s do this! With the four of us together, there’s nothing we can’t—”

“Yeah, no.” Monika shut her rousing speech down cold. “We’re not those four from the unchosen squad, so we don’t need to pretend to be all buddy-buddy.”

After ungraciously referring to Lily, Grete, Sybilla, and Sara as the unchosen squad, Monika rolled her shoulders. It was pompous as hell, but that was Monika for you.

“We’re gonna cooperate our way, and we’re gonna do it with the pride of knowing we were the chosen ones.”

There seemed to be no end to her arrogance.

However, it would be a lie to say that her words didn’t fill Thea’s heart with excitement.

The first ones into the fray were Thea and Erna.

They found the store they were looking for directly off the road leading to the station and managed to slip inside right before closing. The store was cramped and filled with glass showcases featuring everything from gemstones to brand-name leather accessories.

The lighting in here is so poor… It’s like they aren’t interested in actually selling anything.

Spies had keen intuitions for those sorts of discrepancies.

Annette had scoped out the pawnshop ahead of time, and when Thea and Erna went to a specific shelf, they found a cobalt-blue toolbox sitting there just like she said they would. It was placed in a conspicuous spot visible even from outside.

Thea looked at the price tag, then did a double take. That was almost twice what the average adult man made in a month.

Something is definitely up. No normal toolbox would command a price like that.

Matilda had given up on buying it straight up and gone to the casino to try to earn more, and with a price like that, Thea could understand why.

She was starting to see the malicious trap Matilda had gotten caught in.

“Excuse me, but I have something I’d like to sell. Do you have a moment?”

The shopkeeper, a gaunt young man wearing glasses, was in the back.

He looked harmless enough at first glance, but he had the hungry, overpowering eyes of a predator.

“Would you be willing to buy this from me?” Thea took out a different toolbox and offered it to the man.

It was a perfect replica of the one Matilda had stolen from her.

“I can give you…” The man scribbled his fountain pen across a piece of paper as he stared drearily at her. “…this much.”

His offer was mind-bogglingly paltry.

“Oh dear.” Thea’s eyes went wide with surprise the very way a naive, sheltered young lady’s would. “But it’s exactly the same as that one over in the showcase, isn’t it? Can’t you give me at least seventy percent of the selling price?”

From the outside, Thea’s toolbox looked like a perfect copy of Matilda’s stolen one.

Not only had Annette whipped it up, she had done so in less than an hour. A single glance at the one in the showcase had been enough for her to memorize its appearance, and from there, she’d modified a store-bought toolbox until it looked identical.

The shopkeeper raised his glasses in shock.

“E-exactly the same?”

He couldn’t believe his eyes. That was just how elaborate Annette’s counterfeit was.

The two boxes were identical, inside and out. There was no good excuse he could give to justify valuing them differently.

Thea gave him a smile as sweet as sugar and lightly placed her hand on Erna’s back.

“Please, sir. It was very precious to her father, you know.”

“Look, I’d love to help you, but my hands are tied.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do? If we don’t get that money soon…”

Thea clutched the shopkeeper’s hands and looked deep into his eyes. His face went flush as he stared back at her.

She held his gaze for exactly three seconds. That was all she needed.

“…I’m sorry for asking so much of you.” She let go of his hands and gave him a delicate smile. “This is the hotel we’re staying at. If you change your mind, please don’t hesitate to call.”

She pressed the note into the shopkeeper’s hand and left the store alongside Erna. As they left, she made sure to brush Erna’s hair back over her ear, just in case. Her luscious blond locks gleamed as they caught the light.

The shopkeeper was sure to remember that hair, if nothing else.

Once they were out, Thea spoke into her transceiver.

“This is Dreamspeaker. Stage one is complete. I saw right through the shopkeeper’s desires—he’s a money-grubber, that’s for dang sure. Our suspicions were right on the money.”

She knew exactly what the man was going to do next.

“I’m sending Fool to walk to the false hotel site. This part might take a while, so just hold your position.”

As Monika held her position in the back alley, her transceiver buzzed a second time.

“This is Fool. Stage two is finished.”

Barely any time had passed since Thea had called in. This time, the voice on the other end was Erna’s.

“They stole the toolbox, just like we planned.”

That was fast. Things were moving along swifter than they’d expected.

“Good, that means we were right about the pawnshop and the thieves working together.”

Delighted that he’d found an easy mark, the man from the pawnshop must have gotten in touch with his buddies and told them to lie in wait on the path between the pawnshop and the hotel Thea mentioned so they could steal a toolbox from a girl with blond hair. There was no way it was all a coincidence.

“…Still, that was weirdly fast.”

“They got away while I was distracted by a water show.”

“You’re like a pickpocket’s wet dream.”

“That reminds me, I haven’t seen my purse in a few—”

Monika stowed her transceiver in her pocket. It sounded like Erna had run into some trouble of her own, but Monika decided to leave that for Thea to deal with.

“Annette, what’s the status on the homing device?”

“Working like a charm, yo. And it’s pretty close.”

Annette danced around holding a locator. They had placed its homing device inside Annette’s counterfeit toolbox.

She followed the beacon and led Monika to a small building sandwiched between a pair of mega-hotels. A group of suit-wearing men with wicked smiles on their faces milled about the seedy-looking office in the building’s semibasement.

“These punks aren’t even a proper gang. Where’s the fun in that?” Monika slumped her shoulders as she peeked in through the window. “Well, whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

She pulled a mask down over her face, kicked in the window, and leaped through it.

Inside, a woman let out a scream. “Wh-who are you?!”

“Just a tourist passing through.”

As Monika gave her a listless reply, she looked around the room.

There were five people in the semibasement room: one woman and four men. A stack of backpacks and other stolen goods sat piled around the room, and over in the back, she saw a safe. It had a cylinder lock rather than a combination lock, and it was dirt cheap. Monika could have it open in seconds.

Annette’s counterfeit toolbox sat right beside it.

“This is a pretty messed-up operation you’ve got going on. You steal valuables from tourists, sell ’em to that pawnshop, and then what? You have the pawnshop put the goods up for exorbitant prices, then lend money to the marks and lead them to your casino? Not bad, not bad. Been a while since I ran into any scumbags that thorough.” Monika started riffling through the items strewn haphazardly across the room’s table. “Lotta collateral passports you’ve got, huh?”

She flipped through the passports, checking each one’s contents as she went.

Upon finding the one she was looking for, she chuckled. “…Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

One of the men shouted in anger. “Hands off the merch!”

He grabbed a lead pipe lying nearby and charged at Monika.

She deftly sidestepped the attack, and when he came back for round two, she swept his legs out from under him. His momentum sent him crashing right into the safe, where he hit his head and fell unconscious.

That was enough for the others to realize that there was more to their intruder than met the eye. They drew their knives and moved to surround her.

However, it would take a lot more than that to shake Monika.

“Look, I’d be happy to take you all down myself…but this time, I’m handing off the honors,” she said, sounding almost bored. She snapped her fingers.

“Yo, is this where I come in?”

Annette poked her head in through the broken window. Her purehearted smile seemed wildly out of place in a situation as tense as the one going on inside.

As the men stared at her in shocked disbelief, Monika pulled a pair of goggles out of her pocket.

The men had no way of knowing what was about to happen.

The toolbox may have looked perfectly innocent, but the moment they carelessly accepted one of Annette’s inventions into their hideout was the moment they sealed their own defeats.

“I’m code name Forgetter—and it’s time to put it all together, yo.”

Tear gas began billowing from the toolbox.

The meeting spot was a grassy park.

When they showed up the next afternoon with the toolbox, Matilda’s eyes went wide.

“…How did you get it back? Who exactly are you all?”

Thea dodged the question with a quick lie. “One of my relatives is a cop. I just called them up and asked them to do me a favor.”

The truth was that Monika had stolen the thieves’ ledger from the tear gas–filled room and used it to blackmail the pawnshop owner into giving back the toolbox. They would have liked to get Matilda’s passport back as well, but Monika had said she couldn’t find it in the room.

However, telling Matilda what had actually gone down wasn’t on their agenda for the day.

Beside them, Annette was hyperventilating.

“Hey, let’s focus!” She hopped up and down. “I wanna see what’s inside there, yo!”

“Of course, if you want…”

“I was so excited for this, I couldn’t sleep last night!” Annette tugged on Matilda’s shirt and forced her to take a seat atop the lawn. “I wanna make it so that only my targets fall for my traps. The other day, I set a trap for Bro, but then Erna fell for it like a big old klutz. What should I do?”

“Hmm? You mean, for pranks? Um… What about using this paint, then?”

“What’s it do, what’s it do?”

“It’s a new water-soluble paint we just developed. It dissolves in water, so you can use it to differentiate real things and their copies. You could try only teaching the trick to your friends, maybe?”

“Ooh! I’m blown away, yo!”

By the look of it, Matilda’s toolbox was full of the materials she was researching. The pawnshop owner hadn’t been able to sell them because he hadn’t known what he was looking at.

Mother and daughter sat together in the park under the afternoon sun and exchanged a lively conversation with an array of machine parts and blueprints spread out before them.

It made for a rather odd sight, but the two of them seemed to be enjoying themselves.

“Wow! Now I want this toolbox and everything in it, yo!”

“I—I’m sorry, but you can’t have it. I need it for my work.”

Whenever Annette dragged the conversation in a new direction, Matilda would be left hurriedly having to catch up.

Unlike at the restaurant, though, both of them were being perfectly eloquent.

“You know, I bet that’s what their conversations were like before, too,” Thea remarked.

“Yeah,” Erna agreed.

The two of them nodded in perfect sync as they watched Annette and Matilda from a distance.

Annette’s expression was like that of a child who’d just found a wonderful new toy. In all their time together at Lamplight, Thea had never seen her like that before. That interaction right there was moving Annette’s heart more than a thousand fancy dinners ever could have.

Thea felt a profound sense of accomplishment, but at the same time, she got a twinge in her heart.

What if Annette really does decide she wants to go live with Matilda?

It was gauche of her to be regretful after coming this far. She knew that.

But at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel conflicted.

Beside her, Erna spoke quietly. “…There’s something I want to say for the record.” She stuffed one of the donuts she was snacking on into her mouth and frowned. “I hate her.”

“What?”

“I hate Annette.”

“B-but why?” Thea responded to the sudden confession with shock, and Erna stamped her feet.

“Because she always bullies me, that’s why!”

“Oh. Right.”

Out of all the girls, Erna was the one who most often found herself on the receiving end of Annette’s mayhem. If it wasn’t a squirt gun attack, it was a nighttime kick to the face, and if it wasn’t that, it was something else.

Erna’s voice grew quieter. “…But I’ll still miss her if she leaves.”

In a way, it sounded like she was indirectly blaming Thea. To her, it probably looked like Thea was trying to drive Annette away from the group.

“Please, Erna, don’t get me wrong.” Thea stroked Erna’s head. “I don’t think Matilda would make a very good mother at all. She doesn’t seem one bit reliable, and if Annette says she wants to go live with her, I’m going to do my best to try to talk her out of it.”

“Huh?”

“But if that’s what Annette really wants, then she’ll have my blessing.”

The most important thing was what Annette wanted.

All Thea was doing was laying out her options to try to foster her emotional growth. She didn’t want Annette to go live with Matilda. Far from it.

Her hope was that Annette would choose Lamplight of her own free will. That was the only stake she had in this.

“I think that’s very noble of you, Big Sis Thea.”

“Why, thank you.”

Hearing her teammate’s praise filled Thea with satisfaction all over again.

Her heart was full of thoughts of the spy she was trying to emulate.

Surely, the hero she so admired would have made the same decision she had.

Annette continued peppering her mother with questions until well into the evening.

By the end of it, Matilda looked bone-tired. By the time Annette finally chirped “I learned a lot, yo!” and released her, she looked to be on the verge of passing out.

Matilda staggered unsteadily over to Thea—

“She’s incredible… It took us years to develop those materials and devices, and she was able to understand how they worked like it was nothing…”

—and let out a sigh of amazement.

There was a hint of pride lurking in her expression. Spending time with her daughter like that must have been just as fulfilling as it looked.

Thea promised to get in touch soon, and the two parties went their separate ways. The next time they met, they would need to make sure to consult with Klaus first and make a final decision.

As they headed back to the hotel, Annette murmured in a voice that sounded rather moved. “So that’s what a mom is.” It would seem that the daughter had gotten a lot out of the exchange, too.

Annette was all smiles the entire way back to the hotel. When they returned to their room, Monika greeted them with a book in one hand.

“Heya.”

She had insisted she had something she needed to do alone, so she had spent the day separate from Thea and the others. Thea had given her the go-ahead. She knew how loath Monika was to work with others, and she was impressed she’d put up with it for so long.

That was right—today was the last full day of their vacation.

Tomorrow night, they would have to head back to Heat Haze Palace. Realizing that made Thea feel a touch of melancholy.

“Likewise to you,” Thea replied. “Matilda was thrilled, and it was all thanks to you.”

“Nah, I barely did anything. If anyone should take the credit, it’s Annette.”

“Heh. I told you, didn’t I? Together, we’re unbeatable.”

“And I told you, I’m plenty unbeatable on my— Ah, forget it. It’s exhausting, constantly having to make comebacks.”

Monika gave a vaguely vexed wave. She was being her usual blunt self, but her heart wasn’t really in it.

“You know, Monika, our vacation’s over tomorrow. What say we spend tonight cutting loose? We can all hit the town together,” Thea suggested.

She and Monika had been fighting like cats and dogs throughout the entire trip, but she felt like this was her chance to finally deepen their bond. It would be nice to spend time with her outside of a mission for once.

“Feels like if I hang out with you, it’ll put my wallet in danger,” Monika retorted. “But I guess just this once can’t hurt.”

“Then, it’s decided. Come on, everyone, to the casino!”

“Hold up,” Monika replied. “You and I are one thing, but it’ll look like we have two kids in tow. They’ll kick us out in a heartbeat.”

Erna raised her hand. “…I’ve always wondered what casinos are like. I want to go!”

Monika threw a pillow at Erna to make her be quiet. “You, of all people, are not allowed to gamble.” Then she gave them all a cheery smile. “But hey, we can worry about all that once we’re off the clock.”

“What do you mean?” Thea asked.

“We gotta report in to Klaus. About Matilda.”

“Ah, right…”

What would Klaus decide to do?

They had spent nearly three months with the man, but none of them could claim to understand him in any real capacity.

“I wonder what Teach will say… Honestly, I’m a little bit scared to find out. Maybe he’ll say I was wrong to even let Annette and Matilda meet in the first place.”

Their suite was equipped with a direct-dial phone. If they put in their special number and gave the right password to the operator, they could connect directly to Heat Haze Palace.

Thea’s expression darkened as she looked at the phone.

Monika laughed. “Well, the good news is you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is: The situation is bigger than that.”

Thea didn’t follow.

Beside her, Erna gave Monika a quizzical look, and Annette wore an innocent smile.

With all eyes on her, Monika began explaining herself with great amusement.

“None of it added up. She hesitated before giving out the name of her hotel, she got mugged and wouldn’t go to the cops… A little digging, and there it was. I found a passport with Matilda’s photo in it, but a totally different name. And I bet that’s why there was such a big military presence here, too.”

Apparently, Monika had found Matilda’s passport.

Why had she hidden that from them? And what was it she’d spent the entire day investigating?

“What are you saying…?”

“I’m saying thanks. Thanks to you guys, I was able to crack the case.”

As Thea looked at her, flustered, Monika delivered her conclusion.

“Matilda is an Imperial spy.”

And that was that.

Upon seeing Monika’s triumphant smile, Thea finally realized what she’d been up to.

That was why she’d been so oddly cooperative.

She had seen this development coming, and she’d used Thea and the others to achieve her own ends. That team unity she’d displayed? All an act.

“Here, let me go ahead and report in to Klaus.” Monika walked over to the phone and began spinning the dial. “After all, it’s our job to hand her over to the military, right?”

Her smile was as cruel as the reaper’s.