Some things never change. It felt like a lifetime ago since the last time they performed seriously, but on the stage tonight, Alice’s band would shine like never before. Perhaps it came down to the clarity in Alice’s heart, or the calm of the storm in Yui’s head. Maybe Kiyoshi fit in more naturally in this environment than he once thought. The relative roar of the crowd in The Smile is enough to keep them collectively in the clouds for a moment longer. Of course, not even stars last forever.

Once the crowd showed signs of finally calming down, Alice would begin gathering the band’s equipment. Kiyoshi looked out of place, but after a moment, he would begin to help her. Yui, meanwhile, slips seamlessly into the crowd, parking at an empty stool at the bar. Beside her, another empty seat, which Yui promptly addresses.

Yui: <Y’know… the part I really don’t get is how you know what I want to drink. You got my coffee, like, perfect, and last time, you even got my booze right. I’m gonna assume you got a different drink this time, which is also somehow right, and that all of this is a red herring in your little game.> Am I in the ballpark here, Diana?

Diana: (She doesn’t merely materialize, but rather, it’s as if she was always there, sitting beside Yui, two drinks at the bar) <I’ve long since stopped wondering how you get a beat on me, y’know. We both know where this is ending up. But if you don’t mind—>

Yui: <Script, got it. Just, you kinda stand out when you’re not hiding or whatever. I saw you most of the night.> …So anyway, I looked up that “Doodlebug Disaster” thing, and compared notes in the other stories you told me. It’s, uh… I gotta be honest, Diana, it’s not filling me with confidence here.

Diana: <…It’s not supposed to.>

Yui: Yeah… I know. I get that, it’s just—

Diana: (With a heavy, annoyed sigh, Diana sets another quarter on the bar beside her. This one’s year is 1940.) <First one of these I witnessed from the outside.>

Yui: …And the Puella or Puellae getting Balanced?

Diana: <Six of them.> Trying to form some sort of invincible group. Their powers made it possible, too. They got close. <They got cocky.> 

Yui: They got Balanced.

Diana: <Now you’re getting it.> Kyubey doesn’t like it when someone doesn’t play by its rules. Especially when ‘mad science’ is involved. So a couple of Scout-types went in. They got found out, so they blew up a train. <Well… Technically speaking, they just made sure the train didn’t pull off to a side rail to let another freighter pull past it. So they collided.>

Yui: …Assassination? Or Erasure?

Diana: <Both, kinda. Like I said, Kyubey leaves that classification stuff to the people it brings into the fold.> All it wanted was six dead Puellae before their little team became untouchable. It didn’t care how the job got done. Nor did it care that the two scouts it sent didn’t make it back. A Balancer that’s only used for recon jobs is next to worthless for Kyubey anyway, since it usually watches these firsthand. If it doesn’t, it typically doesn’t care about the results. 

Yui: …Something I gotta ask.

Diana: <Took your sweet ass time with this one, Yui.> (A drink)

Yui: …This was the first you witnessed… “from the outside.”

Diana: (She lets herself visibly tense, but pulls out another quarter from the pocket of her sky blue coat. This coin is much older now, and sets it on the bar, sliding it towards Yui as she takes a drink. The year on it reads 1919)

Yui: …I suppose this one comes with a story, too.

Diana: <It does.> (Another drink)

Yui: Feel like tellin’ it?

Diana: <Not really.> (Another drink)

Yui: Personally painful? (Her eyes flash as she scans the coin)

Diana: <…Yeah.> (Another drink)

Yui: …You slipped up, y’know, ‘disaster tourist’. I know this year. Someone who comes into the gym to train now and again talks about something that happened that year from time to time. <“The Great Molasses Flood”> in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Diana: (The look on her face as she stares down into her drink is a cross between a wounded animal and a cornered one.)

Yui: <…Bingo.> The other thread in these stories is that they were all Balancings you just so happened to witness. …Mind clearing that up for me?

Diana: <You don’t need to insult me by playing dumb, Yui Arashi, I’ve said this a bunch of fucking times now. You just read it. The part of my soul attached to the coin I kept with me ever since that fucking god-awful morning.>

Yui: …It’s the day you quit, isn’t it? 

Diana: <Bold of you to assume that an Incubator could ever let someone just leave the Balancers.> Better question. Why are you still talking to me civilly, if you figured this out already?

Yui: You haven’t admitted it directly. It’s the, uh… loophole I’m using, in the interest of learning more about Balancers. So long as you don’t tell me directly what you used to do a century ago, I don’t have to accept it. My mind can continue to believe I’m being toyed with. (Sip.) …You were here, bein’ the “disaster tourist” to the most recent Balancing attempt, and you sought me out because I survived it.

Diana: <…I hate you, Yui. You know that, right? I really fucking hate people like you. It reminds me how fucking dull time can really be between these rare moments. Moments that don’t last nearly long enough. …I’d be fine hanging it up for good if people like you weren’t so fucking rare.>

Yui: Only thing I haven’t figured out is… why a former Balancer, hypothetically, would keep coming back to the scene of the crimes afterward. 

Diana: <Maybe they lived too long. Simple as that. ‘Til someone can take ‘em out, all someone like that can do is retrace their steps and walk down old, familiar paths.>

Yui: And play these insane games.

Diana: <It’s how things stay interesting, when people that aren’t as interesting as you or my old friends are all I have for company.>

Yui: …Old friends?

Diana shakes her head with a sad little chuckle. Yui wasn’t going to get the answer to that one just yet.

Yui: <…You know it’s going to come to another fight someday, right? A real one, I mean.>

Diana: <Why do you think I’m stalling? Once we fight for real, our game is really over. I’m not ready to go back to decades of fucking dull noise and dim… people. I have to savor times like these. I was ready to end it at New Eden before, but… you sparked something. So I had to follow through on it. But you read me every step of the way without even realizing it. I haven’t had a game like this in almost a full century. …So I’ll stall a little longer.> (She swirls the half-empty cup in her hand) <…Problem is, the other game I’m playing is about to end. That’s gonna make it harder for us to talk. Not impossible, though. I know you better than that. What a fucking pain, though… right when I was actually having fun.>

Yui: As hot on your trail as I was, it wasn’t gonna last, anyway.

Diana: <…I know, Yui. Your heart is far too good, and you’re far too young to get caught up playing in a game like this. Maybe I should’ve waited another couple decades.>

Yui: <Bold of you to assume I’ll even live that long, as interesting as my life is.> …So what happens now?

Diana: <You get one question, one that I’ll answer next time we meet. The last time we’ll probably meet under the pretense of civility.>

Yui: …Your callsign.

Diana: Pardon?

Yui: …You’ll tell me the callsign you went by as a Balancer. …Or you won’t.

Diana: … 

She laughs. A real, genuine expression, possibly the first she’s felt in years. Despite how loud she’s being, no one around them seems to react at all, as if no one aside from Yui can even hear her. As if no one else knows she’s even there. After a minute or two, she wipes a tear from her eye and takes the 1919 quarter, leaving her drink and the 1940 quarter behind as she stands up fully. 

Diana: <Whew… I’ll see you soon, Yui. Don’t get caught while chasing after me, now. Prison bars don’t suit a punk like you, despite how you want people to perceive you. When all’s said and done, you’re better off on this side of the tracks. God willing, you stay that way.> 

Diana leaves, but this time, Yui watches as she simply walks away, slipping through the crowd. Unlike their previous encounters, the evidence of Diana’s presence remains. The crowd, however, shows no evidence of observing any conversation taking place between one of The Smile’s most prominent guests and the most eccentric American woman to ever visit Mitakihara.

Yui is given next to no time to ponder these events, however, as Diana’s seat is quickly taken by someone Yui recognizes. At least this long overdue, yet comparably painful conversation will serve as a distraction.

Kiyoshi: Drinkin’ alone, huh? That ain’t usually a good sign.

Yui: …Nah man, I’m just trying to clear my head, that’s all.

Kiyoshi: (he orders a beer at the bar) Don’t mind if I join ya, then.

Yui: Sure, I don’t mind. (She drinks from her now half-empty cup, then swirls it)

Kiyoshi: Sound like you’ve seen a ghost.

Yui: …You’d know, wouldn’t you?

Kiyoshi: Dunno. Unless it’s this kinda spirit you’re talking about. (he raises his glass)

Yui: Heh. Sure. Nothin’ chases away the ghosts of the past like a good spirit. Right? (She gently taps her glass to his, then finishes the contents in one smooth gulp)

Kiyoshi: As if you’ve been drinking for longer than a few months.

Yui: Why, what’s your high score here?

Kiyoshi: (he scoffs) Longer than yours in any case, Miss College Sophomore.

Yui: …We both knew her. But I guess you’re the only one who was actually with her, so I guess I can’t beat you no matter what, huh? (She orders another drink, the same kind Diana had bought for her. There’s a little confusion from the bartender at first, but eventually, Yui is given another glass) … Couldn’t have been any easier for you to hear about it, I guess.

Kiyoshi: Honestly, it’s… kinda hard to even think about it. How absurd it is. Though I guess there’s a part o’ me that would always’ve believed you right away if you told him Shiori’d kill her dad and go Rambo one day. That girl could’ve done anything she wanted to. Gone anywhere.

Yui: (She stares at her glass) …If only. 

Kiyoshi: I should’ve realized sooner she needed more than a buddy. Not just someone who’d indulge all of her antics, but who could teach her the difference between authority and, y’know, concern.

Yui: …I didn’t catch it in time. I tried, man. I really did. But it was too late, y’know?

Kiyoshi: We all were. I mean, what were you gonna do, confront a killer?

Yui: …Yeah, probably.

Kiyoshi: You might’ve, huh… I dunno, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to deal with any o’ this kinda stuff. Where I met Shiori… it was kind of a rule you didn’t talk about your past, or your damage. You just kinda… looked past everything, you know, you don’t pry into other people’s business and they don’t pry into yours. But Shiori… she was what? Fourteen? When she came in? She made it real hard. She was pretty sold on the whole “sex, drugs ‘n’ rock ‘n’ roll” thing… it was fucked up. Probably wasn’t mature enough myself to realize that a fuckin’ middle schooler huffin’ glue and sucking old guys off for money isn’t cool, it’s fucking pathetic. I was pathetic for lettin’ it happen.

Yui: (She takes a long drink, and is otherwise quiet for a long moment) …I can’t judge. I can’t relate, o’ course, but it’d be fucked up for someone with baggage to judge. But I looked past it with my dad… kinda anyway. But secondhand moral grandstanding? That’s for people with normal lives, not me. I pin all of that shit on her dad, at the end of the day, and… well, you didn’t hear me say this, but he got what was comin’ to him. (Another drink, muttering) …Tch… right side of the tracks my ass, I’m still not there…

Kiyoshi: I dunno, maybe it’s easy to pin it all on her old man. If it’s all his fault… I wouldn’t be sitting here.

Yui: I mean… he was responsible for all this. He was a bastard, ‘til the end. I should’ve broken his jaw while I had the chance.

Kiyoshi: Would’ve loved to see that. I couldn’t even raise my voice at the guys who were whoring her out. All I could do was offer her a place to stay and a guitar, and she made the last good decision she’s ever made. Even if it cost me my own relationship — but that’s a whole other story. 

Yui: …You’re talkin’ to someone who was raised in a fighting cage, dude. Frying pan to fire, eh? ‘Least I got a head on my shoulders now. …More or less.

Kiyoshi: Forgot how fucked up this town is.

Yui: My point is, it’s baggage you’re gonna carry. I still carry that regret, and I would give quite a lot to have her alive again. But reality ain’t that kind. …So all we can do is move forward. Moral is, I don’t hold it against you or anything. All havin’ you around in our band means is I think about her more often, and we have a kick-ass drummer. That’s all. (She finishes her drink without so much as flinching) 

Kiyoshi: Heh… Might come to the same conclusion myself, one day.

Yui: Let’s hope so, eh? I kinda like this bein’ where my life’s goin’ right now. …Oi, bartender. Two more, eh?