The Nogiku Series

The sun sets, lighting the sky in brilliant shades of pink and purple. When we leave the restaurant and come to a main road, the view stretches down the hill to the sea.

By six, we’re all ready to go out again for dinner. “Did you have a good day?”

The next day is rough for Kentaro. He spends the entire morning green and unhappy.

We offer to take Hideki, Kohaku, and Hiro back to Izumo via the shuttle so none of us have to hike. The town is a two-day walk to the north through mountain valleys, but Sakai knows a place outside of town we can land the shuttle and not be seen.

My date night is ruined when everyone else invites themselves along for it. I love my family and friends, but, dammit, I haven’t had a proper date with Jiro since we arrived on Yūsei.

The thunder and lightning pass, and while Jiro takes care of business matters in town, I pull myself into bed under the covers with Momo in my lap to keep warm. I power up my tablet since I have official correspondence to attend to that Jiro forwarded to me: a request for me to come to a restaurant opening, the hospital wants all child-bearing women to come in and have their implants checked, and the fire brigade wants to hold a ball in two months time which makes me laugh.

I run into Kentaro in the hallway on my way back to my quarters. I sat in the multi-purpose room by myself after everyone had left and stared out the window at the world slowly spinning below.