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It’s night after the whole Bringer debacle and Belle and Wise have just returned to Port Elpis after… well after. The sight that greets them…
“There’s no hope keeping our two lives separate now.” Belle states wide-eyed, observing the absolute mix of the various factions they’ve met, both as video store managers and as the legendary proxy Phaethon, most notably Zhu Yuan and Yanagi which is intimidating, Lighter and Anton, not surprising in the least, Lucy and Rina, also not surprising if Belle thinks about it and Nekomata and Jane which is intriguing.
“Yeah.” Wise agrees wholeheartedly, “I guess we’ll have to give up on that rule of Belle and Wise not meeting anyone who knows Phaethon.”
“Well…” Belle lightly bumps her brother, “Problem for another day?”
After a slight hesitation Wise nods, “Go join the party.”
Grabbing his hand, “Nope,” Belle says, “You’re coming with me bro. Relax for a bit, celebrate. We actually learnt some stuff today. Besides,” She glances at the what must be more than twenty people, “I’m not handling all the introductions.”
Only resisting lightly Wise sighs, “I’m sure they can handle it themselves.”
“As the only people here who can say they know everyone it’s our responsibility. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice for friends other than the cunning hares to know about our dual life?” Belle adds on a little wistfully. And before this whole sacrifice thing they still did their best to avoid commissioning Nicole for the hollow missions related to their investigation into hollow zero.
At this Wise stops even pretending to struggle, “Yes, it sounds nice.” His sister always was more social than him it’s why she’s the main face of Phaethon - posting on their account and controlling Eous for the most of the time. It’s no surprise she’d hold on to this group of people who now know their secret identity, he only hopes her trust isn’t misplaced.
*****
A round of introductions later, wherein Belle conducted most of the social parts and Wise simply stood behind her and answered when asked directly, came a round of goodbyes.
“It’s best we leave now.” Lycaon says, carrying a sleeping Ellen on his back, “It’s preferable we report back to our master before the news does.”
“Wait, you think reporters are coming?” Lucy exclaims before shouting, “Caesar let’s go before we turn up on the news!”
“Oh yeah!” Caesar downs her drink and slams the cup on the table before standing up and making her way over, “We told the old man that we wouldn’t go making waves in the city while the Outer Ring’s still settling from the Vanquishers disbanding.” She says by way of explanation, “Burnice! Lighter! We’re leaving!”
As the other two members approach - Piper already waiting by her bike - Caesar turns to Belle and Wise, “It was nice seeing you again Proxies. Stop by the Outer Ring again and we’ll show you a real celebration. And hey!” Now she speaks to the crowd in general “Any of you ever in the Outer Ring be sure to hit the Sons of Calydon up.”
Lucy shakes her head, “Could’ve worded that more diplomatically. But yes, you seem like good business partners so if you’re ever in the area and need help just ask for us and we’ll see what we can do.”
“It’s the same thing.” Caesar defends as they head for their bikes.
Lucy shakes her head again, revving up her engine with one hand and saluting goodbye with the other, “See ya.”
Five motorcycles disappear into the distance as Lycaon, Rina and Corin say their own goodbyes on behalf of Victoria housekeeping before carrying Ellen with them away.
“We should probably go too.” Koleda says pulling Grace away from where she was cuddling an unnerved Eous. “I ditched paperwork for this and the pile is large enough already.”
Belle comes over to help wrest Eous from Grace, “If your desk remains as stuffed as last time I saw it then you really should go, but give us a call when you’re free and we’ll treat you to lunch okay?”
Koleda nods in response as she’s lifted onto the shoulders of Ben, him and Anton getting onto the back of one of Grace’s machines before Grace drives them off.
“So…victory meal manager?” Billy asks the siblings. “It’s customary.”
“One second Billy.” Belle looks to Wise who nods in understanding and approval at what he sees in his sister’s eyes. At that she addresses the remaining crowd, meeting the eyes of Zhu Yuan, Miyabi, Yanagi and Jane, “We’d like to formally apologize for the deception about our identity as Phaethon.”
Wise adds on “It was never our intention to hurt any of you but the fact remains that we made a choice fully aware of the consequences.”
“We’re sorry.” They say as one.
Knowing the prior situation both Yanagi and Miyabi seem to defer to Zhu Yuan, as well as Jane who simply takes a glance to read the room. Zhu Yuan takes some time to gather her thoughts.
In the following silence Nicole’s mutter of “You never apologized to me.” Is especially audible.
“I did.” Belle justifies herself.
At the same time, Wise - in a rare occurrence - snaps. “I’m sorry I was distracted by you dating my sister.”
“Ooh,” Previously solemn in the silence Nekomata visibly perks up, even her ears straighten, “I’ve never heard this story.” The other eight who also don’t know show varying degrees of interest as well.
Belle clamps a hand over her brother’s mouth, “And you never will.”
Nekomata turns pleading eyes to Nicole, Anby and Billy. Surprisingly it’s Anby who answers her, “It was six years ago. The Cunning hares had just begun and not even Billy had entered the story yet.” Ignoring Billy’s exclamation of ‘Hey!’ and Nicole’s half-serious attempts at bribery Anby begins the tale, “Nicole was busy advertising us leaving all the hollow commissions to me. One time my leg was cut, deep enough that without stitches I would bleed out but we had run out of first aid supplies.”
“Is that why Nicole prioritizes first aid over the electricity bill now?” Nekomata interjects.
Anby nods then continues, “At the time Nicole had a girlfriend,”
“Girlfriend?!” This time Wise interjects, though his voice is muffled by Belle the indignation in it is obvious.
“We were dating. Casually. No labels.” Belle clarifies as Nicole nods along, though to who isn’t clear.
Anby shrugs, “Nicole called the girl she was dating who offered to let us come over and use her first aid kit since I was ‘scared of hospitals’.” The last three words are said with heavy sarcasm - for Anby at least.
Nicole protests, “I didn’t see you coming up with a better excuse.”
“Well, we went over and I saw Eous.”
Belle takes over the story telling. “And I saw Anby. And that was the end of that.”
Nekomata frowns, “I’m not following.”
Belle elaborates, “Anby had a good reputation for getting things done on inter-knot so for one commission where we needed more than Eous in the hollow we hired her. And so recognized her when she entered the video store.”
“Oh,” Nekomata says with dawning comprehension, “For a moment there it sounded like you dumped Nicole and started dating Anby.”
Billy starts laughing so hard he bends over as Belle drops her hand, staring in shock between Nicole, Anby and Nekomata. “What?! I wouldn’t do that!”
“Then manager,” Qingni interrupts, “why did you and Nicole break it off?”
“Well we grew up I suppose.” Belle replies, throwing a questioning look at Nicole. “Became busier. There wasn’t really a whole conversation about it just tacit agreement.”
Nicole nods, “A more ‘friendship and business’ thing instead of ‘exploring our sexuality’ thing.”
“Yeah.” Belle assents, “Can we go back the original topic now?”
“Yeah, dinner! I vote the starlight knight restaurant.” Billy shouts.
“No.” Five voices shut him down immediately.
“Oh come on.” Billy complains, “When is it gonna be my turn to pick?”
“When you pick a restaurant with good food that has a reasonable price.” Belle replies.
Wise says, “We’ll foot the bill this time.” And then nodding to both the PubSec officers and Section 6, “If any of you would like to join you’re welcome to.”
“Yay! Dinner!” Soukaku cheers, “Can we go to that new hotpot place in Lumina Square?”
“Oh, yeah. I saw that one, it’s got great reviews on inter-knot.” Belle glances at Wise, whispering, “We could afford it too if we take on a few extra commissions after this.”
Wise considers, “One commission could probably cover it, if it’s not Nicole’s of course.”
“Hey!” The leader of the cunning hares in question exclaims.
“Nicole, we love you,” Belle begins, “But you really never pay us.”
While Nicole splutters Wise turns to the other eight, “So, will you join us for dinner?”
Yanagi nods in response for Section 6 as Zhu Yuan questions, “Why invite just us? Why not everyone who was just here?”
“Well for one,” Belle answers her, “they’re all busy. And for two, they hired Phaethon first before meeting Belle and Wise and for some reason the other way around doesn’t cause as much hurt.”
Jane nods, “It’s expected that a seasoned proxy like Phaethon would have a secret identity, less so that two video store managers would.”
“Ah, yeah, that.” Belle twirls her hair nervously.
“And is the dinner an attempt to bribe us into secrecy?”
“What?! No! No, no, no.” Belle denies firmly. “We wouldn’t do that.”
“We know the risks of being a proxy,” Wise supports his sister, “And if you want to arrest us you’re free to do so. But the dinner is really just that, we do it every time after a commission with the cunning hares, and end up footing the bill nine times out of ten.”
Jane keeps up her hostile act for another second before dropping it, “Alright I’ll join you. I have a few questions for Phaethon.”
“Yeah alright.” Belle recalls the situation with Nicole and Anby last time, “We might not answer though.”
Jane smiles slyly, “I won’t trouble you too much.”
“I don’t think-“ Zhu Yuan starts before being cut off by Qingni.
“We’ll join you too, proxy. The paperwork can wait for tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t going to say that.” Zhu Yuan protests. “And you don’t even have to eat Qingni.”
“And yet I understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance. Which means having dinner with friends, so let’s go.”
*****
In the end they get a room at the hotpot restaurant, everyone remaining having joined. Belle and Wise with Nicole and Billy’s occasional chime-ins regal the room with tales of their past commissions. It’s as the pot is boiling and the food is beginning to cook that Jane asks the first difficult question.
“So why Phaethon?”
“Um,” Sharing a glance with Wise acknowledges the fact that they can’t share the truest reason but… “Well, when we created the account I was in a bit of a mythology phase. And naming a proxy account after a hero didn’t make much sense, neither did naming it after a villain, so I picked Phaethon.”
“Wait, who’s Phaethon?” Billy asks, “In mythology I mean.”
Wise answers this time, “According to the story, Phaethon was the son of Helios,” Miyabi’s ears stiffen imperceptibly at this, “who died when driving the sun chariot in an attempt to prove himself a demigod.”
Billy frowns “So you named your account after a dude who died?”
“We named our main account after a dude who died in a blaze of glory.” Belle corrects, “That’s the fate of Phaethon.”
Nekomata mutters, “It doesn’t sound like a good fate.”
Belle shrugs, “The Phaethon account was always gonna be our main one, the one we used with the HDD. The high profile Legendary Proxy and so in a sense the one most likely to get caught.” If they didn’t "retire" first by going out in a blaze of glory by posting the truth of their investigation into the fall of the old capital.
Well, that was the plan at least back when they were fourteen and twelve living in one of the homeless shelters for refugees after the hollow zero disaster: Fix the HDD, create a proxy account, use it to investigate and when they have enough evidence to prove what actually happened post it all on inter-knot for the world to see, then retire from being a proxy. Now, ten years later, Belle thinks being a proxy isn’t just a necessary evil or a part-time job for her, it’s something she’s good at, something she enjoys and something she’d like to continue doing even after their work as Phaethon is done.
And, if he ignores the criminal part because her brother is nothing if not protective of her (even going so far as to keeping his salvaging of the HDD secret from her when they first begun all those years ago), she thinks Wise might like to too.
Something to talk about later.
Back in the present, Zhu Yuan latches on and questions, “Your main account? You have more than one?”
“Well…yeah. A few others.” Belle admits, “It’s what we used before the video store to make a living and we’re using one now since the Phaethon account was hacked.”
“Cool!” Soukaku exclaims, swallowing a piece of meat, “What’d you name them?”
“Well, there are a few from what I call our ‘Pre-HDD era’.” Belle begins, “One was 0407.” she sees some of the others react to that - Miyabi in particular - the numbers recognizable as the date the fall of the old capital occurred, it was the first account they made that was fully theirs just two days after the dust settled.
“Another was 30U5#1,” an allusion to Eous, “and also Lil’0110 and #10010,” the numbers binary code for Six and Eighteen because they couldn’t leave them out.
“From after we fixed up the HDD there’s Wise’s account Plato-CA, which he uses for some commissions where he’ll take control of Eous.” Plato’s a famous greek philosopher and also teacher’s old nickname for Wise; the initials CA explain themselves.
“You forgot the weird ‘anonymous’ accounts you used for some commissions with us.” Nicole points out, “I mean IAmUnhackable? And ***?”
“Okay, that account was un-hackable.” Belle retorts, she spent a long time using it as a test subject for implementing security for the Phaethon account, “At the time at least. And the anonymity worked, you didn’t figure out it was us for weeks.”
Nicole mock gasps. “Excuse you, it was just two and a half weeks.”
"And it was Anby that figured it out."
“Okay,” Nekomata interjects, “Do I want to know this story?”
“There’s not much of a story,” Wise says, “Just that Belle in lo- in like can be protective.”
“I’m the protective one?” Belle asks sarcastically to the room in general as Nicole elaborates, “We hired different proxies after we found out but a lot of them were ‘busy’ and so recommended us to a friend, who turned out to be the proxy using a different account.”
Anby nods, “It was cute. I’ve never seen Belle protective before.”
“I wasn’t- It’s not-“ Belle sighs deeply, “Look, I’d just prefer to be the proxy guiding you through the hollow during your commission rather than the friend patching you up with a first aid kit after it okay?” She then looks around the table, “That goes for all of you.”
“Yeah,” Wise voices his assent, “We’ll always have time for a commission if it’s for friends.”
That solemn promise brings some seriousness to the room only broken when Billy raises his glass, “Great speech manager, almost as good as the one way back then!”
“I made a speech?” Belle asks confusedly.
“Ahem.” Anby clears her throat, then mimicking Belle, “‘I’m your proxy.’”
“Oh, that.” Belle shrugs, “It was - and still is - true.” Then in a more shocked tone, “Can’t believe that was only six months ago.”
“Five and a bit.” Wise corrects her.
“Still though, quite a lot has happened.” Belle twirls her chopsticks, “In all our years of being proxies, this has to be the most action filled one yet.”
Zhu Yuan sits back in her seat, asking “And just how long have you been a proxy?”
“Uh…we’ve done it on and off since before the fall of the old capital.” Belle confesses, “But it’s only really become a part time job since Phaethon.”
Yanagi frowns minutely, “You must have been teenagers back then. Why would you-“
“Well, for one it made money, but mostly we became proxies because of Eous.” Wise pats the bangboo in the chair between him and Belle, only partially lying by keeping out Eous’s technological half the HDD. “We couldn’t let him fall into disrepair.”
“Yeah.” Belle agrees, “He’s family.” And not only because he’s one of the one of the few things they have left from their teacher.
“Speaking of, Proxy I’m curious, how do you connect to Eous? And stay connected in the hollows?” Qingni asks.
“Trade secret.” Belle and Wise say simultaneously.
Qingni shrugs at the rebuff, “Fair enough. And I’m assuming you’re not willing to replicate it?”
They shake their heads in unison. Wise stating “We can’t replicate it.” And Belle adding on dryly, “Believe me, we’ve tried.”
There were a few attempts early on to write down everything they knew about their eye implants and the building of the HDD and Eous but even after all that they barely have a clue as to the materials let alone how to put them all together.
Miyabi frowns, “How do you have this technology then if you didn’t make it?”
“It’s a…legacy passed down to us.” Belle says finally, her tone solemn, leaving the rest of the explanation unsaid. A legacy that they’ll do their best to redeem.
*****
Once dinner’s finished and Wise and Belle have painfully paid the bill (the price nearly double what they expected with Soukaku’s portion) and made plans to definitely accept another few commissions, the group separates outside of the restaurant.
Nicole and the cunning hares return to the minimal-rent apartment they’re staying in for now, Zhu Yuan, Qingni and Seth head back to the precinct with Jane slinking off into the shadows and Yanagi herds Soukaku and Asaba to their own car to head home.
At last it’s just Belle, Wise and Miyabi standing in the street. “You’re not going with them?” Belle asks her.
Miyabi shakes her head, “I plan to return to the Hoshimi estate for tonight. I have some questions for my father and I’m sure he’d like to examine Tailless.”
“Okay…” Belle observes how she doesn’t make a move to leave, “…Did you have something you wanted to ask us?”
“Yes. Why Phaethon?”
“Um.” She shares a glance with Wise, “Why do you think?”
Miyabi simply stares silently at them. And fair, Belle winces, it was a fairly redundant question. Unfortunately Miyabi seems to take that the wrong way, turning around and leaving.
Belle watches her go, feeling a tug of guilt at her heart. Turning to Wise, “Can I…?”
Her brother looks at her “You trust her.” He states.
She recalls a pointed katana leading the charge against bringer, she thinks of the void hunter slashing blindly at ethereals, she remembers helping Miyabi with tailless in the hollow. “Yes.” Belle answers simply.
Wise sighs then chuckles softly, “That’s my sister. Go ahead.” He gestures to the thiren.
Belle beams at him, then turns and calls out, “Miss Miyabi! Wait!” Miyabi pauses for the time it takes for Belle to catch up to her. “Ask again.” Belle urges her, catching her breath. “Please.”
“Why Phaethon?” Finally she does so, looking at Belle guardedly.
“Because, eleven years ago, our home was in the old Minerva Quarter of Eridu, at the end of Main road No. 7, the Helios Academy. We are the children of Helios.” She takes a deep breath before continuing, not looking at Miyabi instead staring at a point over her shoulder. “And also the ‘students of the guilty’ because the person who raised us…her name was Carole Arna.”
She hears Miyabi’s shocked intake of air as she continues frantically. “But that’s not the whole story! Our teacher is innocent!”
Miyabi crosses her arms, “What do you mean?”
“On the night of the disaster Helios academy was attacked by unknown forces. Armed groups we’ve never seen before, monsters, and…a giant white hand almost identical to the one Bringer summoned.” Belle relaxes once she sees Miyabi’s guard dropped a touch, her words becoming less urgent, “I know this is hard to believe but it’s really true. That’s the whole reason we became Phaethon: to find out what really happened.” Here she hesitates, “Will you- Would you be willing to continue working with us?”
Belle fidgets with herself as Miyabi considers, staring down at the ground so much so that she’s completely shocked when Miyabi presses her hairpin into her palm. “What’s-“ Belle looks up, involuntarily meeting the eyes of the void hunter.
“Take this. It’s a token proving you’re under the protection of the Hoshimi family.” Miyabi’s hand awkwardly clasps her other arm as she says this, adding on after a pause. “I…trust you too.”
“Thank you.” Belle’s voice is reverent with the worth of that trust, but she still can’t resist asking again, “You really don’t mind our identity?”
“…Even if you’re proxies you’re my proxies. And you’re my…partner, so we’ll continue our investigation together.”
“Okay,” Belle gives her a soft smile, “Partners.”
“Partners.” Miyabi repeats, returning her smile.