Page 22 of Light Leech

“I thought your Bite mod wasn’t working?”

“First of all, that is not why I couldn’t find anything about the therapist. Without the mod I am just fine. I don’t need that crutch all the time. I’m–”

“Rest up, girl. I have my coercion mod–”

“Which is also buggy, right?”

“Fine. Oldschool interrogation, it is.”

“Just say what you were going to say,” I said. “Ral, if we need anything from you, we’ll be in touch. I’m sure we can link you up to any database we need through the neuroset you have to someone else, right?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Tell me, how much can you do right now without that mod?” Boyband asked.

“I didn’t lose my knowledge, only my personal touch.”

“You can just touch yourself into the neuronet?“ Denji asked.

“Kinda, but it’s more… intimate. My mod lets me… it’s like being able to move your hand in water to reach a rock where most people are using chopsticks. Intimate precision.”

“But you don’t have your mod,” Boyband said, “so you’re just as good remote as in person?”

She glared at Boyband.

He smirked. “Trust me. The numbers matter.”

“How so?”

“You want to march a bunch of freaks into a school? Let alone an uptight private school? I had to fight my parents when they tried to send me there with the uniforms and mod regulations. They had to prove their worth with everyone still looking down on us for being SocStans, but that’s beside the point. Everyone there has a skyscraper up their ass and the school administration has zero toleration for loitering. The only way we’re getting in is by having a successful graduate—me—show a pair of young parents and their son what the school has to offer before committing. Ral, you good to work their application into the system?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to crack.”

“Great!” Boyband clapped. “Kuni, you’ve just arrived from Arabasia–”

“Yes.” The boy nodded. “This is true.”

“No, I mean, you have to act the part.”

“Why act it when it is already true?”

“Because Petya and Naoma aren’t your parents! Look, kid…”

Naoma looked at me as Boyband continued to argue with Kuni.

“Should be fun, huh?” Naoma asked.

I smirked. “I guess so.” I almost asked her about her school years. Keeping that back, I found it hard to maintain a smile. My school years weren’t the best of my childhood memories, but I looked back on them with fondness. Pain and joy, they were foundational to who I had become.

What was Naoma’s foundation?

“You good?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s a lot to take in.”

“Need a longer rest?”

I shook my head. None of us had the time. Each moment wasted the Luxists extraction efforts.