Day 207. 08:00 hours.
The Ground Floor.
The Atrium.
The narra table.
The briefing had moved from the Command Deck to the narra table because the Command Deck couldn't hold forty Asura soldiers, eleven Gedo investigators, the household, the wives, and three misfits.
The narra table was the compound's heart, and the heart was where the introductions needed to happen.
Hua cooked — rice, soup, dried fish, the standard.
The chef who had fed a spy for five months and who had accused the captain of fucking another woman behind her back was now cooking for forty Asura soldiers and eleven Gedo investigators and an Asura captain who was sitting at her table with Ji-yoo on his lap.
The Asura soldiers had removed their balaclavas and goggles.
Forty faces, forty names, forty Enhanced who had walked through a hole in space from a blizzard in Taipei to a dining hall in Manila and who were now eating rice at a narra table in Forbes Park at minus seventy.
The soldiers ate.
The soldiers were hungry.
The soldiers had been on rotating shifts in Taipei for three months, and the compound's rice was the first hot meal some of them had eaten in days.
The household gathered — the full formation.
Jae-min at the head with Alessia on his lap, the vacancy that had not been vacated, her back against his chest, the fundamental glow warm.
Ji-yoo on Min-joo's lap three seats down with her arm around his neck and her hair against his shoulder — the twin who had transferred laps and was not transferring back, and the household who had never seen Ji-yoo on another man's lap was still processing the transfer.
Min-joo sat beside the table with the bruise on his jaw darkening to purple and his black eyes sweeping the room — the dining hall, the narra table, the Steinway in the corner, the frosted skylights, the household that Jae-min had built in five months while Min-joo had been hiding in shadows in Taipei.
Rico is at Jae-min's right with the M4.
Marie beside Rico with the notebook and the six-month belly.
Min-joo's black eyes found Rico — the uncle who had made him do a hundred push-ups, the uncle who was supposed to be in his sixties, the uncle who looked thirty-seven.
"Uncle." Min-joo addressed, his chopsticks pausing mid-bite. "You look different."
"Different how?" Rico questioned, his voice carrying the uncle's warmth.
"You look young." Min-joo observed, studying Rico's face. "The last time I saw you was before the freeze. You were sixty-two. You looked sixty-two. Now you look —"
"Thirty-seven." Rico finished, taking a bite of rice.
"Thirty-seven." Min-joo repeated, his brow furrowing. "You aged backward. How?"
"Time Reversal." Rico explained, setting his chopsticks down. "By Jae-min. Marie and I."
Min-joo's chopsticks stopped.
"Marie." Min-joo echoed, the name unfamiliar. "Who is Marie?"
Marie leaned forward beside Rico with the notebook closed and the pen behind her ear and the six-month belly beneath the tactical shirt.
"Marie Dela Torre." Marie introduced, her voice soft as she rested her hand on her belly. "Rico's wife."
Min-joo's black eyes moved from Marie to Rico — the uncle, the sixty-two-year-old uncle who now looked thirty-seven and who had a wife sitting beside him.
"Wait." Min-joo measured, his eyes narrowing. "Marie Dela Torre. The actress. The one from that drama — the one my mother watched. The one with the —"
"The one with the love triangle and the amnesia and the evil twin." Marie confirmed, the ghost of a smile appearing as she tilted her head. "That was me."
"My mother loved that show." Min-joo breathed, his chopsticks forgotten. "She watched it every week. She cried when your character lost her memory."
"Everyone cried when my character lost her memory." Marie acknowledged, the smile widening. "It was a very good crying scene."
"And now you're here." Min-joo parsed, his tactical mind running the geometry. "Married to Uncle. Pregnant. In a compound in Manila at minus seventy."
"Life is full of surprises." Marie murmured, her hand tightening on her belly. "I was fifty-four when the freeze hit."
"Fifty-four." Min-joo repeated, his jaw loosening.
"Fifty-four." Marie confirmed, her voice steady. "Jae-min reversed me to thirty-seven. Same as Rico. The Time Reversal restored everything — the hormonal cycles, the reproductive system. I am six months pregnant with a boy. Rico's child. Named Jae-min Del Rosario — after the captain and the uncle."
Min-joo's jaw dropped.
Not the composure crack — the jaw dropped.
The Asura captain who commanded forty soldiers and who had crossed an ocean and who had hidden in shadows for five months sat at a narra table with his mouth open.
"Fifty-four." Min-joo managed, his black eyes moving from Marie to Rico. "You were fifty-four. Jae-min reversed you to thirty-seven. And you're pregnant."
"Six months." Marie confirmed, patting her belly. "The boy kicks."
"Uncle." Min-joo addressed, his voice carrying the awe of a man who had just processed the impossible. "You hit the jackpot."
Rico's jaw tightened — the Del Rosario jaw — but the corner of the uncle's mouth moved with the ghost of a smile that the uncle did not let surface because the uncle did not smile in public.
"The jackpot." Rico confirmed, the ghost held.
Min-joo's black eyes moved from Rico to the rest of the table. The introductions — the people he had never met, the household that Jae-min had built in five months.
"Introductions." Jae-min declared, his voice the captain's voice as Alessia's weight settled warm against his chest. "Min-joo doesn't know anyone. Let's fix that."
"Marie Dela Torre." Marie continued, her pen tapping the notebook. "Rico's wife. Retired actress. Time Reversed to thirty-seven. Six months pregnant."
Min-joo nodded, filing.
"Alessia Romano Santos." Alessia introduced from Jae-min's lap, her back against his chest. "Chief of Emergency Medicine. Fundamental Enhanced. Creation."
Min-joo's black eyes found Alessia — the woman on Jae-min's lap, the doctor, the fundamental, the glow warming beneath her skin. His chopsticks paused.
"You look familiar." Min-joo observed, his black eyes narrowing as he studied Alessia's face. "But your hair and eyes are not the same. Your hair was lighter. And your eyes were blue. Not black."
"He recognizes me. From before. From the upgrade." Alessia realized, her glow flickering as the doctor processed.
"I was indigo." Alessia confirmed, her voice shifting to the clinical. "Before the upgrade. Indigo hair, blue eyes. The fundamental upgrade changed them both to black."
"Indigo. Blue." Min-joo repeated, his hand going to his back pocket — his wallet, old and worn and cracked, the leather soft from years of carrying. The wallet of a man who had been a surgeon and who had become a soldier and who had kept the wallet through all of it because the wallet held the one thing he had never let go.
Min-joo pulled out a photograph.
The photograph was old — creased, the corners soft, the colors slightly faded but still clear. Three teenagers in PE uniforms. Colegio San Agustin Biñan. The white shirt, the navy shorts, the school crest on the chest.
Three teenagers, sixteen years old.
Ji-yoo on Min-joo's back with her arms around his neck and her lips on his cheek — the cheek-kiss, the sixteen-year-old's version of the kiss that would become the punch-and-kiss in the Gedo headquarters reception eighteen years later.
Ji-yoo's black ponytail swinging, her dark eyes bright, the Del Rosario grin on her face.
Min-joo carrying her with the peace sign — two fingers, the left hand, the sixteen-year-old giving the camera the peace sign while a Del Rosario twin kissed his cheek. The black hair, the black eyes, the face at sixteen — softer, younger, the exhaustion not yet there, the fear not yet there.
Just a kid carrying a girl who was kissing him.
And Jae-min standing beside them with his arms crossed — the cool pose, the lean frame, the black hair, the black eyes, the expression that said I am too cool for this, but I am also enjoying this. The Del Rosario cool before the captain existed.
Three teenagers. The Misfits Trio. Colegio San Agustin Biñan. Sixteen years old.
"You still have that." Ji-yoo murmured from Min-joo's lap, her dark eyes on the photograph as her fingers tightened in his collar.
"I keep everything." Min-joo answered, his thumb tracing the creased edge of the photo.
The household leaned in. The photograph passed from hand to hand — the wives looking, the uncle looking, the household looking at three teenagers who had become three adults who had become the Gedo captain and the Preta captain from the first timeline and the Asura captain.
"Big Bro looks the same. Just smaller." Gabriel observed, tilting the photograph toward the light.
"The arms-crossed pose." Yue noted, her composure cracking slightly at the edges. "He was born with that pose."
"He was." Rico confirmed, leaning back. "Born with the arms crossed. Born with the cool face. The doctor had to uncross his arms to spank him."
"Uncle." Jae-min warned, shifting beneath Alessia.
"What?" Rico deflected, taking a bite of rice.
"Stop." Jae-min ordered, his jaw tightening.
"I'm telling the story." Rico insisted, pointing his chopsticks at Jae-min.
"You're not telling the story." Jae-min countered, his hand tightening on Alessia's waist.
"I'm telling the story." Rico maintained, the chopsticks waving. "Born with the arms crossed. The doctor —"
"Uncle." Jae-min repeated, his voice dropping.
Rico stopped. The ghost of the smile. The uncle who did not smile smiling.
Marie's dark eyes found the photograph — the logger studying the image, the retired actress who had watched a thousand faces on screen studying three real faces. "They look happy." Marie murmured, her hand finding Rico's knee under the table.
"They were happy." Rico answered, his voice carrying the weight of a man who had trained all three of them. "Before the freeze. Before everything. They were kids. They were happy."
The photograph continued around the table — Mark Jordan's amber eyes studying the three teenagers with the same analytical gaze he gave schematics, Aiko's loupe tilted up as she leaned in, Mei's violet-blue eyes scanning the photo as Chocho's tail loosened.
Mei's fingers lingered on the photograph — the boy with the arms crossed, the cool face, the sixteen-year-old who did not know about the void or the regression or the compound or the wives or the war. "Jae-min at sixteen." Mei catalogued, her voice flat. "The data is interesting."
"Give the photo back, Mei." Jae-min ordered, leaning forward.
"One more second." Mei deflected, her violet-blue eyes lingering.
"Mei." Jae-min pressed, his voice flattening.
"Filing." Mei answered, her eyes holding on the photograph for one more second before passing it to Gabby.
Gabby's dark eyes went wide — the apprentice who had learned Ji-yoo's posture and Ji-yoo's almost-smile was now looking at Ji-yoo at sixteen, the girl who would become the master, the girl on the boy's back, the girl kissing the boy's cheek. "You were so happy." Gabby breathed, her voice soft.
"I was." Ji-yoo confirmed from Min-joo's lap, her fingers tightening in his collar. "I was very happy."
The photograph reached Min-joo again. He took it back and looked at it one more time — the three teenagers, the PE uniforms, the peace sign, the kiss, the cool pose. Then he turned the photograph over.
"Jae-min." Min-joo addressed, holding the photo up. "Look."
"Look at what?" Jae-min questioned, leaning forward.
"The background." Min-joo directed, turning the photograph back and pointing behind the three teenagers. "Behind us. In the hallway."
Jae-min leaned forward. Alessia shifted on his lap. Jae-min's dark eyes found the background of the photograph — the Colegio San Agustin hallway behind the three teenagers, the lockers, the students walking to class.
And there — in the background, walking through the hallway with a stack of books in her arms — a girl. Indigo hair. Blue eyes behind thick eyeglasses. A lollipop in her mouth, the stick sticking out, the candy inside. The girl sucking the lollipop while walking with books.
Jae-min's dark eyes found the girl in the background. Then found Alessia on his lap. Then found the girl in the background again. Then found Alessia on his lap.
"What the fuck." Jae-min breathed, his hands freezing on Alessia's waist.
Ji-yoo leaned forward, her dark eyes finding the background — the indigo-haired girl with the books and the lollipop and the eyeglasses. Her dark eyes moved from the photograph to Alessia on Jae-min's lap, then back to the photograph, then back to Alessia.
"What the fuck." Ji-yoo echoed, her mouth falling open.
Then Ji-yoo laughed.
Not the polite laugh, not the Preta captain's controlled laugh — the full laugh that came from the belly and shook the shoulders and made the dark hair fly and made Min-joo's lap vibrate with the force of it.
The laugh of a woman who had just realized that the woman her brother married and impregnated was in the background of a photograph taken eighteen years ago at the same school they all attended.
Ji-yoo laughed so hard she was crying — the tears running down her face, not grief tears but laugh tears, the tears of a woman who could not stop because the coincidence was too perfect and the universe was too absurd and Alessia — the indigo-haired nerdy girl with the lollipop and the eyeglasses — had been right there, in the background, for eighteen years. And nobody knew.
"Oppa." Ji-yoo gasped between laughs, her hand on Min-joo's chest, her body shaking. "Alessia became your wife. You made her pregnant. We were neighbors with her for eight months — Unit 1419, right next door. And now we discover she also studied at Colegio San Agustin as our underclassman."
Ji-yoo stopped laughing long enough to wipe her eyes, then started again.
"The indigo-haired girl with the lollipop in the background of our misfit photo became your wife." Ji-yoo wheezed, the tears still running. "The universe is a comedian."
"She was right there. Eighteen years. In the background. And I didn't know." Jae-min registered, the captain who had built a compound and five Heracles frames and a baryonic defect decay generator, sitting dumbfounded on a chair with his wife on his lap because a lollipop had broken his brain.
"She was right there." Jae-min murmured, his voice flat. "In the background. Eighteen years ago. At the same school. And I didn't know."
"Nobody knew." Min-joo confirmed, tucking the photograph back into his wallet. "I've had this photo for eighteen years. I never looked at the background."
"Eighteen years." Alessia breathed from Jae-min's lap, her glow flickering — not alarm, not amusement, processing.
The doctor was processing the fact that she was in the background of a photograph taken at a school she attended with three people she did not know were three people she would eventually marry into, fight beside, and live with in a compound at the end of the world.
Alessia leaned forward, her dark eyes finding the photograph.
The indigo-haired girl with the books and the lollipop and the eyeglasses — the girl she had been at fifteen, walking through a hallway carrying books and sucking a lollipop and not knowing that the three teenagers in the foreground would become her husband and her sister-in-law and her sister-in-law's man.
"Wait." Alessia breathed, her glow going still — the doctor's voice shifting, not clinical, not the wife's voice, the voice of a woman who was remembering. "That photo — Colegio San Agustin. The hallway. I remember that hallway. I remember —" Alessia's dark eyes widened. "I remember the three idiots."
The table went quiet.
"The three what?" Jae-min questioned, his hands stilling on Alessia's waist.
"The three idiots." Alessia repeated, her voice carrying the weight of a memory surfacing after eighteen years. "That's what the school called them. Three juniors who were always together — always arguing, always fighting, always causing trouble. The twins and the kid who couldn't do a push-up. The teachers called them the three idiots. The students called them the misfits. I called them the three idiots because I was an underclassman and underclassmen called them what the teachers called them."
"You called us the three idiots." Min-joo measured, his brow furrowing.
"Everyone called you the three idiots." Alessia confirmed, shifting onto Jae-min's lap. "You three were infamous. The twins who argued about everything and the kid who followed them around and who got beaten up by the upperclassmen until the twins beat up the upperclassmen back. You were the school legend."
"The school legend." Ji-yoo echoed, the laugh returning. "We were the school legend."
"You were the school nightmare." Alessia corrected, her dark eyes narrowing with the memory. "The teachers had to assign extra homework because you three kept disrupting class. The principal called your parents — your mother, Jae-min. Your mother came in. She was very nice. She made the principal cry."
"Mom made the principal cry." Ji-yoo confirmed, nodding. "That was a good day."
"It was not a good day for the principal." Alessia countered, tilting her head.
The room processed — the household processing, the wives processing, the forty Asura soldiers processing, the eleven Gedo investigators processing. The compound processing the fact that the compound's doctor had been an underclassman at the same school as the three misfits and had called them the three idiots.
Then Alessia's dark eyes narrowed further — the doctor's eyes, the remembering eyes, the eyes that were putting pieces together.
"You two." Alessia declared, pointing at Ji-yoo and Min-joo. "You two are the ones who got caught by school security behind the gym."
The room went very quiet.
"Caught." Min-joo deflected, his voice strangled. "We were not — we were —"
"You were behind the gym." Alessia pressed, her glow pulsing with the remembering. "The security guard found you. The security guard reported you. The report went to the principal. The principal called your parents — your mother, Ji-yoo. And your father, Min-joo. The surgeon."
"You remember that." Min-joo managed, his face reddening.
"Everyone remembers that." Alessia confirmed, leaning forward. "It was the biggest scandal of the school year. The two misfits caught behind the gym, eating each other's faces. The security guard said — and I am quoting — 'I thought they were fighting. Then I realized they were kissing. Then I wished they were fighting.'"
Min-joo's face went red.
The Asura captain, the Shadow Specters, the man who had crossed an ocean and hidden in shadows and commanded forty soldiers — his face went red. The composure was gone. The embarrassment was complete.
Ji-yoo was laughing again — the full laugh, the laugh that shook the table and made the rice bowls rattle.
"We were sixteen." Ji-yoo gasped between laughs, her hand on Min-joo's chest. "We were sixteen, and we were —"
"Eating each other's faces behind the gym." Alessia finished, crossing her arms. "Yes. I know. The whole school knew."
"The whole school." Min-joo buried his face in his hands — the Asura captain burying his face because the doctor on his best friend's lap had just told the entire compound about the time he got caught kissing behind the gym.
Gabriel's golden eyes went wide — the flyer who had been processing Ji-yoo having "a man" for the last hour now connecting dots.
"Wait." Gabriel blurted, her golden eyes snapping to Min-joo. "You're that Min-joo? The one Ji-yoo —"
"Shut up, bitch." Ji-yoo cut her off, the words carrying the Del Rosario version of please stop talking which was shut up, bitch — the term of endearment Ji-yoo used with Gabriel because Gabriel was Gabriel and Ji-yoo was Ji-yoo.
Gabriel shut up.
But Gabriel's golden eyes were still wide, the flyer filing — Min-joo was the boy Ji-yoo got caught kissing behind the gym, the boy from high school, the boy who had been in Ji-yoo's life since before the compound, before the freeze, before everything.
"I'm not saying anything." Gabriel offered, raising both hands.
"Good." Ji-yoo confirmed, wiping her eyes.
"I'm just filing." Gabriel added, lowering her hands.
"File quietly." Ji-yoo ordered, pointing at her.
"Filing." Gabriel confirmed, her golden eyes still wide.
Yue's composure was gone. The screamer was laughing — the face that did not move was moving, the jaw, the eyes, the mouth open.
"The three idiots." Yue wheezed, the screamer's voice raw. "The compound's doctor called her husband, his twin, and the Asura captain 'the three idiots.' And she has photographic evidence."
"Photographic evidence." Jennifer confirmed, her blue eyes bright as the Omni-Mind buzzed with the joy of the room. "The photograph. The background. The lollipop. The eyeglasses. The three idiots."
"I was not an idiot." Jae-min declared from his dumbfounded position. "I was the cool one."
"You were the one with the arms crossed." Alessia corrected, tilting her head back against his chest. "That's not cool. That's a pose."
"I was not posing." Jae-min deflected, his jaw tightening.
"You were posing." Ji-yoo and Min-joo declared at the same time.
"I hate both of you." Jae-min fired back, shifting beneath Alessia.
"You love both of us." Ji-yoo corrected, poking his arm.
"I tolerate both of you." Jae-min corrected back, crossing his arms.
"Same thing." Ji-yoo dismissed, waving her hand.
"It is not the same thing." Jae-min insisted, uncrossing his arms to gesture.
"It is the same thing." Min-joo weighed in, his face still red.
"I hate both of you." Jae-min repeated, throwing his hands up.
The table was laughing — the household laughing, the three idiots arguing at a narra table in Forbes Park at minus seventy while forty Asura soldiers ate rice and eleven Gedo investigators tried to understand what was happening and the five wives watched their husband get roasted by his best friend and his twin.
Hua's voice from the stove cut through the laughter. "Continue the introductions. The rice is getting cold and the pregnant women need to eat." Hua commanded, flipping the dried fish on the cutting board.
"Pregnant women." Min-joo repeated, his tactical mind shifting. "How many pregnant women are in this compound?"
The table went quiet. The counting.
"Marie." Marie announced, raising her hand. "Six months. Rico's."
"Hua." Hua called from the stove. "Four months. Jae-min's. A girl. Eun-hae."
"Alessia." Alessia added from Jae-min's lap. "Early. Jae-min's. The fundamental baby."
"Elaine." Elaine said from the table, her voice quiet. "Twelve weeks. Jae-min's."
"Carmen." Carmen announced from behind Paolo. "Five months. Paolo's."
"Esperanza." Esperanza followed. "Four months. Paolo's."
"Sofia." Sofia added. "Three months. Paolo's."
"Lina." Lina finished. "Two months. Paolo's."
Eight hands. Eight pregnant women. The table looked at the eight hands and the eight bellies and the eight women who were carrying children in a compound at minus seventy at the end of the world.
"Eight." Min-joo measured, his black eyes sweeping the bellies. "Eight pregnant women."
"Eight." Jae-min confirmed, nodding.
"Four of them are the twenty-year-old gate guard's." Min-joo observed, his black eyes finding Paolo at the door.
"Four of them are mine." Paolo confirmed, shifting the ice spear in his hand.
"And three are yours." Min-joo continued, his black eyes finding Jae-min. "Hua. Alessia. Elaine."
"Three are mine." Jae-min confirmed.
"Three children by three different women in five months." Min-joo calculated, his black eyes locking on Jae-min with the particular gleam of a best friend who had found ammunition. "And Elaine is twenty-four. Ten years younger than you. A spy. Planted in the compound by her father. She reported everything you did to the Federation for five months. And you didn't just catch the spy — you impregnated the spy."
"You're a cradle robber now?" Min-joo pressed, leaning forward with the ghost of a grin. "The kid who couldn't talk to girls in high school is now a cradle robber. The kid who was too shy to ask Kiara to prom is now —"
"Fuck you." Jae-min fired back, the words carrying the weight of a man whose best friend had just roasted him in front of his entire household. "Fuck you. You and Ji-yoo are the same."
Ji-yoo laughed — the full laugh, the laugh from the belly, the laugh of a woman who had been carrying grief for five months and who was now laughing because her man was roasting her brother and her brother was saying fuck you and the whole thing was the most normal thing that had happened in five months.
Then Ji-yoo kissed Min-joo — hard, the kiss that was the laugh and the happiness and the fuck you and the you and Ji-yoo are the same all compressed into one kiss that landed on Min-joo's mouth with the force of a woman who had been carrying the love for five months.
The room went quiet.
"She's kissing him. In front of everyone. The way she kisses Jae-min — no. Not the way she kisses Jae-min. Different. This kiss is different. This kiss is the one that got them caught behind the gym." Alessia processed, her glow flickering as the doctor who had been the indigo-haired girl with the lollipop watched the boy from the gym scandal get kissed by the girl from the gym scandal in front of the entire household.
"Ji-yoo's mind. The grief is gone. The grief that sat in her mind for five months — gone. Replaced. Replaced by him. By the kiss. By the happiness." Jennifer registered, her blue eyes wide as the Omni-Mind picked up the shift.
"My composure cannot hold this. My composure cannot hold the kiss and the laughter and the three idiots and the lollipop. My composure is gone." Yue shattered, the screamer laughing, the face that did not move was moving.
"Filed. Ji-yoo has a man. The man is the boy from the gym. The man is Ji-yoo's first kiss. The man is fundamental. Filed." Gabriel catalogued, the golden eyes saucers.
Hua's hand tightened on her belly — the chef processing the kiss the way the chef processed all things, with the hand on the belly and the measuring of the geometry.
Rico's jaw tightened, his eyes wet — the uncle who had trained all three of them watching the two kids he had trained fall in love in front of him.
Marie's hand found Rico's knee — the logger's hand on the colonel's knee, the touch that said I know. I know them. I know this.
Mark Jordan looked at the ceiling — the professor counting cracks because counting cracks was better than watching the kiss.
Aiko's loupe tilted down — the weapons specialist looking very intently at her plate of rice.
Mei's violet-blue eyes were on the monitors — the data genius looking at data because data did not kiss people. Chocho's tail tightened on Mei's waist. "Perceptive. Watch closer." Mei catalogued, the yandere filing Min-joo's observation about the wheelchair and the fear and the shadow.
Gabby at the door — the apprentice's dark eyes the size of saucers, the Glock heavy on her hip, the apprentice who had just learned that the master was the girl from the gym scandal.
The forty Asura soldiers ate rice and tried not to stare.
The eleven Gedo investigators ate rice and did not understand but the rice was good.
The kiss broke. Ji-yoo pulled back with her dark eyes on Min-joo's black eyes and the smile — the fierce, consuming, total smile of a woman who had just kissed the man she loved in front of everyone.
"My point exactly." Ji-yoo declared, turning to Jae-min with the smile still blazing.
"Fuck you too." Jae-min fired back, pointing at her.
"I love you, Oppa." Ji-yoo answered, the smile widening.
"I know." Jae-min conceded, leaning back.
Min-joo's black eyes moved between the twins. "These two have not changed." Min-joo observed, shaking his head.
"No." Rico confirmed, taking a bite of rice. "They have not."
"Good." Min-joo murmured, his arm tightening around Ji-yoo. "I was worried they'd changed. They haven't. They're still the same idiots."
"Idiots." Ji-yoo and Jae-min declared at the same time.
"The same idiots." Min-joo confirmed, the tired smile appearing. "The three idiots. That's what the school called us. And now the three idiots are sitting at a narra table in a compound at the end of the world with eight pregnant women and forty soldiers eating rice."
"Continue the introductions." Min-joo directed, turning to the table. "I need to know everyone."
"Yue Shang." Yue introduced from the far end, her composure reforming as she straightened. "Algorithm professor. Space Authority. Not pregnant."
"Yet." Gabriel muttered under her breath.
"Shut up." Yue fired back, her composure cracking at the edges.
"Gabriel Abadia." Gabriel announced, bouncing in her seat. "Fighter pilot. Solar wind. Cosmic tier. Not pregnant either."
"Yet." Yue added, tilting her chin.
"Shut up." Gabriel deflected, pointing at Yue.
"Jennifer Avante." Jennifer introduced, her blue eyes bright. "Customer representative. Omni-Mind. Telekinesis. Not pregnant."
"Yet." Yue and Gabriel declared in unison.
"I hate both of you." Jennifer sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Mark Jordan Carillo." Mark Jordan reported from the wall, his amber eyes steady. "Mechanical engineering professor. Ifrit's Hell Katana. Black Hell Flame. Builder of the Heracles frames."
"Aiko Tanaka." Aiko introduced, her loupe tilting up. "Weapons specialist. Workshop partner. Not pregnant."
"Yet." Gabriel offered from across the table.
"I will end you." Aiko threatened, her hand drifting toward her pistol.
"Mei Lian Santos." Mei announced from the console, her voice flat and clinical. "Data engineer. Divine fundamental. Summoner. Mind control. Not pregnant."
"Divine." Min-joo repeated, his black eyes finding Mei. "The tier above fundamental."
"The tier above fundamental." Mei confirmed, Chocho's tail loosening on her waist. "The wheelchair is the origin. Not the limitation."
"The wheelchair is the origin." Min-joo echoed, his voice quiet. "The fear is the origin. The shadow is the origin. The wheelchair is the origin. We are all the thing we tried to hide."
"Perceptive. Watch closer." Mei catalogued, her violet-blue eyes narrowing.
"Paolo Villanueva." Paolo introduced from the door, shifting the ice spear. "General relativity student. Spear expert. Gate guard."
"You look good." Min-joo observed, studying Paolo's frame.
"He was chubby." Ji-yoo explained, patting Min-joo's chest. "Before the boot camp. Now we call him Chubby because —"
"Because you're mean." Paolo interrupted, his grip tightening on the spear.
"Because we love you." Ji-yoo corrected, blowing him a kiss.
"The rescued women." Jae-min continued, gesturing around the table. "Twelve survivors. Gabby — Ji-yoo's apprentice. Rosa. Daniela. Lena. Belle. Ana. Lourdes. Mira. Plus Paolo's four — Carmen, Esperanza, Sofia, Lina. All pregnant. Except Gabby, Rosa, Daniela, Lena, Belle, Ana, Lourdes, and Mira."
"Twelve rescued women. Four of them pregnant by the twenty-year-old gate guard." Min-joo summarized, his black eyes moving from Paolo to Jae-min. "This compound is —"
"A nursery." Hua called from the stove, not turning around. "The compound is a nursery with a war attached."
"The coalition." Jae-min continued, counting on his fingers. "Captain Vasquez and Corporal Reyes — Vanguard Six. Diaz and the ridge group — 143 soldiers. Bert and Tessa — the Hearth. Twelve groups, twenty-five fighters. The compound's external defense."
"The compound's external defense is a retired actress, a data genius in a wheelchair, a gate guard with a doll on his belt, and a coalition of survivors." Min-joo summarized, his voice carrying the awe of a man who was hearing the inventory of a fortress built from scraps and people and willpower.
"Don't forget the five wives and the eight children." Gabriel added, bouncing.
"Five wives and eight children." Min-joo corrected, nodding. "And a Gedo captain who is supposed to be dead. And an Asura captain who is supposed to be in Taipei. And a man who can reverse time. And a divine fundamental in a wheelchair. And forty Asura soldiers eating rice in a dining hall in Manila. And a photograph of three idiots in PE uniforms with a lollipop-sucking doctor in the background."
"That's the compound." Jae-min stated, spreading his hands.
"That's insane." Min-joo declared, leaning back.
"That's home." Jae-min corrected, his dark eyes holding Min-joo's.
"Home." Min-joo breathed, his arm tightening around Ji-yoo.
"Home." Ji-yoo whispered from his lap, her fingers curling into his collar.
"Home." Min-joo confirmed, the word settling into him like warmth.
The snow fell against the skylights. The rice was eaten. The soup was drunk. The introductions were done. The household was known. The compound was known. The war was known.
And Min-joo Kim — the Asura captain, the third misfit, the kid from Portofino who couldn't do a push-up and who had become a shadow-wielding army captain who had been caught kissing behind the gym — Min-joo Kim was home.