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He brought the shovel down, severing the stem from the rotten fruit, then struggled as the blade bit too deep and lodged itself in the packed dirt below. He pulled it free with a grunt. The young man took the bandana from his hair and wiped his brow, only to smear damp dirt across his face. He let his forearm rest against the handle and leaned his weight into it, breathing out slowly.
“It does not look good over here either.” Kaji approached from the front, a basket of more spoiled fruit cradled in one hand. His eyes lingered on the man only for a second before drifting past him, drawn to the metallic walls rising beyond the trees. A forest shaped by men. Not long ago, he would have thought a place like this impossible.
“You good there, Neriah?” Kaji asked, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, don't worry. Maybe a pipe broke nearby and all that LCL stuff leaked out here or something.” Neriah said, nudging a pebble with the tip of his boot.
“Do not brood over it, peanut. I should have checked on it sooner; that is on me.”
“Eh, you were busy. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. They would have taken a few weeks to fix it regardless.” He paused, eyes on the ground. “Still, it is a bit of a bummer.”
“Fair enough.” Kaji clicked his tongue as they started toward the truck. “We are still on time to get some red berries by the end of the year. Want to jump in next time?”
“Sure. Hope I can get Shinji to come with us, too much dirt otherwise.” Neriah tossed the shovel into the back of the vehicle, where it landed beside the caskets, then rubbed his hands together.
“Oh. Thought you didn't ask him this time.” Kaji raised an eyebrow.
“Asuka.”
Kaji smirked. “Figured as much. Did she want him to go with her to that conference?”
“I guess you could call it ‘want.’” Neriah smiled to himself. “Yoshiko did not feel like going; Rei had something lined up with the commander, so Shinji did not put up much of a fight.”
“And you? You are kind of not there.”
“Eh, not my thing. I couldn't have gotten a word in anyway; those numbers would have killed me. Poor Shinji.” He glanced back at the truck bed, eyes settling on the heap of spoiled produce. A small disappointment, always one. His lips pressed together for a moment.
“Man… I'm beat.” Neriah stretched into a yawn, then looked sideways at the older man, the cigarette glowing between his fingers. “Give me one of those.”
“Sure. Do not make a habit of it.”
“'Do as I say, not as I do'?”
“So you still remember that. Great.”
Neriah chuckled as he took the cigarette and lit it. A few seconds later, he was coughing hard, bent over for nearly a full minute. Kaji reached out, patting his back until it passed.
“…Never,” he coughed one last time, “again.”
“Sorry, peanut. Thought you would have tried it once already?” Kaji scratched the back of his head.
“And why is that?” Neriah asked, flat.
Kaji lifted his hands in surrender. “Caught Asuka trying it once. Figured you would be more likely.”
“Well, people say they put crap in those things, then lure kids into trying them and then… whatever.” He shrugged. “I dunno. Never risked it.”
Neriah watched him grow quiet for a moment, elbows resting against the side of the truck as he leaned back and stared up. Then Kaji pressed the end of the blunt against the metal, crushing it out, and tossed it inside.
“Well, I'd say we are done here. I will report the problem to Katsuragi later. Let's go."
“What is that one?” Neriah pointed toward the building to the right of the truck, squinting at the sign. “‘Farcicality and…’”
“Scarcity and Botanic,” Kaji corrected, rummaging under his seat. “Still having trouble with Japanese?”
“It is a work in progress.” Neriah snapped his fingers. “Can you drop me here? Yoshi should be somewhere inside.”
“Of course. I have to say, peanut, it is kind of impressive.” With a small grunt, Kaji set a square object, veiled in cloth, on the front of the car.
“Hm?” The younger man hummed as he moved to the back of the truck and pulled out a green jacket, the number 05 stitched on its back.
“I know it can be hard being upfront about relationships, even more at your age.”
Neriah opened his mouth, then closed it again. The question caught in his throat. Your age. What did he mean by that, exactly? What was supposed to change if he were older? The thought felt childish the moment it formed, and yet it lingered. Was that why he kept circling the colonel, never quite stepping in?
“I mean, why shouldn’t I?”
“You really like her, huh.” Kaji smiled, one of the more genuine ones Neriah had seen from him.
He knew he cared for her differently from others. That much was clear from the effect she had on him. The words she used, the dreams she carried, were too complex and outlandish for him to fully grasp, yet he found himself interested enough to give them weight, to give her weight. It felt like chasing a phantom. She saw things he could not, and still, for some reason, he thought he was meant to try to see them too.
“She is funny. Yeah, I think I like her, gonna keep it to myself for now though,” he said with an odd sort of plainness.
Neriah glanced at Kaji again. The smile was still there, but something in it had shifted, a faint confusion slipping through.
“Do you think she feels the same?”
“Well, maybe? I dunno. Have not really thought about that. If she rejects me, then that is it.”
“Hm, I see.” Kaji paused, his expression turning unreadable to Neriah. “Well, then I have a gift for you both.”
Neriah raised an eyebrow as Kaji pulled the veil from the square object. A chuckle escaped him, a grin spreading across his face.
“You are the best, Kaji.”
Yoshiko watched his face tighten with quiet discomfort, fixed on the stretch of flowers ahead. For a moment, he seemed unaware of her presence, caught somewhere else, before he drew in a breath. He lowered himself to the floor beside her. The lights from the closed complex cast an unnatural glow over the field.
“You alright?” he asked. “You have been here all afternoon.”
Yoshiko looked out over the field again. Hundreds of lycoris flowers stretched before them, white petals and red stems swaying in unison, their shape and scent unmistakably otherworldly. If she let her thoughts wander, they began to resemble wings, the same geometry as their foes. The smell carried a constant chill against her skin, something that never faded.
In all honesty, it was beautiful. Everything he made was beautiful.
“This was one of Dad’s last projects.” A small smile crept onto her face as she looked down at the remnants of his work. “He managed to remove the angelic component from the blooms. They are almost like regular flowers. It is amazing.”
“…It sure is.” His voice came low, subdued. He leaned closer and plucked one from the cluster.
“Hey, you cannot touch them yet!” Yoshiko exclaimed, lunging to snatch it back. She was stopped short when his hand met her face, gentle but firm. He kept his arm extended, eyes fixed on the flower, while Yoshiko flailed blindly, arms waving around Neriah’s head in a clumsy attempt to reach it. “Come on!”
“Just give me a second.” He lowered his arm and stepped aside, letting her stumble forward under her own momentum. “My bad. You fine?”
“…Ow.” She rubbed her nose. “Jerk, you could have asked.”
“Eh, you would not have let me.”
“What, no, I would not… agh.” She groaned, then snatched the plant at breakneck speed. “Ha. Take that.”
He rolled his tongue out at her, to which she groaned again.
“Why are you so interested in them? It is not like you have not seen the normal ones on the surface.”
She caught the fleeting flinch in his expression, a small needle in her gut as his brows furrowed and his lips pressed together. He then took a breath and answered.
“Pretty sure I told you a bunch about my old place, didn't I?” His voice carried a note of disappointment. She did not know what to do with it, especially when it was aimed at her.
Yoshiko mouthed a reply, but nothing came out right.
“I am sorry— I did not mean it.”
“…Yeah, I know.” He sighed and looked at her directly. “Forget it. Are there any plans to replace the ones that murder people with these, then?”
The question weighted some level of… expectation? on what exactly, she did not know, either the answer or herself.
“No, uh, the project has been low priority for a few years now.” She hesitated. “Dr. Ibuki has not figured out how to produce this version on a wide scale yet. Maybe if my… You know.”
“Great, so all of this for nothing?”
Yoshiko pressed her lips together, her fists curling tight. “That was cruel.”
Neriah averted his gaze. “Fine, sorry about that, but what do you want me to say?”
“I do not know! just do not do that, please.” Her voice wavered. “He cared about this a lot. I still do.”
“You are doing the face,” he pointed out.
Yoshiko raised an eyebrow. “The what now?”
“The face you make when you think you are failing, or when Asuka beats you to the last frozen cake in the fridge.”
“…Am I that easy to read?”
“I wish, but nah. I just like looking at you; it ends up sticking,” he said, almost deadpan. “Are we gonna talk about it, or…?”
“Maybe later, okay?” she pleaded. Her mind did a good job skirting around the elephant in the room, what his words actually meant, even if she still caught the slight disappointment in his eyes.
“Fine by me. Let's go home.” He glanced away, already moving. “I got a surprise.”
"…what?"
In front of them sat a square melon, pristine and deliberate, a melon shaped into a perfect cube.
“There is no way.” Yoshiko brought her hands to her head, eyes locked on the impossible geometry.
“You are not the only one with cool plants. See?” He smiled, smug and satisfied. “Kaji got it from another central.”
“I cannot believe it. It is like a watermelon and a cube. A watercube.”
“No.”
“Aw.” Yoshiko’s face fell.
They admired it for a while, long enough to draw the attention of Pen Pen from the fridge. The penguin waddled over to the table where the cube rested.
“Wark…” He stared up at it, just as transfixed as they were.
“True… true…” Yoshiko nodded. “We should put it in resin. It has to be immortalized.”
“Are you insane? We have to eat it. Who knows how it tastes.”
“Wark.” Pen Pen slapped the young man with a flipper.
“Alright, alright, you have a point. We cannot just destroy it… hm.”
“What if we cut it in half? We eat one half, then we hollow out the other, keep the rind, and coat that in resin.” Her eyes lit up. “A melon bowl.”
Neriah and Pen Pen shared a look, then nodded in quiet agreement.
“A melon bowl. Truly remarkable, Yoshi.” He smiled at the blonde.
“Wark!”
“Oh…” She blushed, returning the smile. “Thank you one thousand times. Let's do it!.”
They got to work at once, focused and unaware of the two gazes watching them from just beyond their improvised workshop.
“Can you remind me again how those two managed to become pilots?” Asuka peeked in through the door, whispering to Shinji.
“Meloncube… wow—hey!.” Shinji winced as Asuka tugged his ear.
“Not you too.” She pressed her fingers to her temple, then glanced back at the cube, the ultimate fruit. She paused, considering it.
“…Watercube is a better name.”