[START OF URASARIA ACADEMY: YEAR SIX]
[ARC 34: IN THE MOOD OF ANOTHER]
Before beginning the rest of these internal sojourns, for all good novels are essentially the exploration of minds, first there will be the answer to one of the lingering questions from Iris Valentine's first-year: the origin of her dual-Revenant of time & weather, Kairos.
In June, Iris had consented to be operated on by Hirogane and this *doctor* Yuruko (as she called her), and was annoyed that Yuruko was not there when she was put under. As she awoke from surgery, she frowned to again see no new faces. Where was that goddamn government doctor?
"I couldn't get her to stay." Hirogane shrugged as Olivia helped Iris up, and Emilia gave her some water. He waited until she was a bit more conscious, then said: "But we mostly figured it out."
"What is it?"
"Has to do with your scorch mark, as you might've guessed." He sat down across her. "Normally, removing a Revenant is done using this machine, combined with... manually swabbing the excess out. There's a chemical that attracts the bacteria onto the swab; acts a bit like Revenant sugar. When I first tried to remove Phantom, there were sections of its colony I couldn't get to leave your heart. Tried manually swabbing it, and dark hands tried to rip my fingers apart."
Iris frowned. "Dark hands isn't Phantom's ability. That's the scorch mark." She showed the black scorch mark on her right hand.
"S'right. But, as I said, Revenants attacking the surgeon isn't unusual. It's usually weak enough to barely harm civilians, let alone a host. I figured I'd just implant Meteorology's colony anyway, and what happens with two Revenants is one out-competes the other for nutrients. Meteorology's colony is bigger, so it should've had the same effect as removing Phantom anyhow."
"You know, this really isn't making me trust surgeons any more."
"You'd be surprised how little we understand why medicine works how it does. It's mostly creativity, not intelligence. But obviously, it didn't work. Phantom's colony and Meteorology's colony are co-existing. Yuruko tried luring Phantom using a pure isotope of the sugar I was mentioning, and those dark hands came out again to stop the bacteria from leaving your heart. She was about to try Xenocyclin before I stopped her."
"...then you're saying I can't lose Phantom."
"S'right. It's weaker than Meteorology, so it won't out-compete it. As for the scorch mark: Yuruko mentioned a friend of her's once fought somebody with that scorch mark -- when they died, those hands came out to claim the heart. Pulled it away to somewhere."
"I've fought those Revenants before. I understand the idea."
"What happens if she loses the scorch mark?" said Olivia.
"Does anything I've said so far make you think I can answer that confidently?"
"Not really."
Hirogane shrugged. "That's mine and Yuruko's theory. You can't lose Phantom because somebody's already claimed it for if you die. Still, I'd like to do a monthly checkup to see if anything changes."
"Has it changed any since January?" said Iris a little worriedly.
"Only that both colonies have grown as expected. You aren't going to lose Meteorology."
This intentional sympathy still vaguely irritated Iris; even when she herself invited it she did not like it.
She made note in her head to notify her handler before the end of the week: unsurprisingly this was the theory they had as well. Still she had no government work available, and would not for months. She was not frustrated, however, for while one might be tempted to compare Urasaria to the rest of the world in that nepotism is supreme, the truth is that professional hosts are in far more demand than their supply; thus there is ample room for advancement even among those who do not deserve it.
===
In early August, Olivia decided to move out of her & Iris's home into Naomi's mansion, whose help she enlisted for this.
"And the convenience is that if you ever want to move back in, it'll take me two seconds." said Iris. "Unless someone gets in the way, in which case it's three seconds and a trip to the infirmary."
At Naomi's mansion they finished moving Olivia's things into her bedroom, as well as a few things that she had asked Naomi to encase in stone so as not to reveal what they were (including a full drawer). Behind Iris's back, Naomi had glanced several times to Iris & to Olivia, who looked down and smally shook her head.
Naomi gave an exasperated look, and as they finished up, she told them that she needed to go sit in her new office to be there for any student complaints. Throughout the year, the most common complaint would be from lesbians pissed that straights already owned everything else and had now decided to steal their presidency as well.
Regardless, Olivia was nervous, but she sat down beside Iris on the couch.
"…you know, you haven't mentioned dating anyone this year besides Amelie." said Olivia.
Iris shook her head. "I took some time away from that after that contract we had with her. Felt there was still some parts of myself I needed to bring to the fore. We still talk, and I value her friendship, but both of us know there can't be any return to romanticism there."
"Are you interested in anyone?"
"Not romantically, no." Iris rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't know. I'll date eventually. Suppose I've just been caught up in enough of this year that I hadn't thought of much else."
"Mm. You know, and with August coming up, I won't be... well. We won't be tied together more, i-is what I mean."
"I suppose we won't, but I still enjoy your company."
"Me too."
Iris sighed. "Still, I imagine I'll be mighty busy once I have my protege. They usually match genders, don't they?"
"Umm... usually, yeah."
"I suppose I would prefer a female protege, although... I don't know. I almost wish I didn't have to have one."
"You don't have to be as close with them as Natasha was you. Some mentors don't even live with their proteges."
"It's more that I know my stubbornness'll become an issue. I've never been good at compromise: I usually made it superfluous with violence."
"You can't punch someone's character better."
Iris sighed. "Maybeso. I remember Natasha did threaten to punch me, once... but I deserved it. She was harsh enough to criticize me when I was an asshole and kind enough to tell me when I wasn't."
Olivia snickered. "I just think it's funny when you're a dick."
"Not exactly a quality you should be encouraging in me."
"Maybe I like a few calluses."
"I've already grown enough of them." Iris shook her head. "Hopefully it'll be alright. I've been thinking about it more over the past few months: how closely I should emulate that mentorship or divert myself away from her mistakes. I've always tried to prioritize myself, but... maybe a bit of responsibility'll be a good thing to have."
"Iris, do you want to go out for dinner sometime?"
Iris shrugged. "I could go for something tonight, if you wanted to. I haven't cheated yet this week."
"That's not how I meant it."
"How did you... I-... o-oh. O-Oh."
"…you know what I mean. Right?"
"I-I think I do."
"I don't want to pressure you, okay? That's why I wanted to wait until..."
"R-Right."
"You can't say you weren't expecting that, can you?"
"Uhm, I suppose I-I can't."
Of late they had flirted more often: whenever Iris would be laying down on the couch, Olivia would often come over and hang over her to talk, nearly kissing her... but always had they pulled back before the need for consummation. She tried to reexamine how much of this flirtation with Olivia had been part of her own unconscious habits; that tendency to still prove that she was attractive and could attract, detached from any physical followup. She had repeated that pattern of flirtation with Emilia, civilian women, even occasionally with Amelie; and yet it had only been with Olivia that she now felt frightened at having done so.
In large part, these bits of Iris ran on different calculations: therefore it is no surprise to see such seemingly inconsistent rumination from her. Again she was taken by that fear of investment, to allow others to better her own emotions and to place any dependence in her emotional well-being upon another. Several times she had done this and it had not gone so well...
But there was no use to intelligence if she was only to replicate past patterns.
"I'd love to, Olivia." she said.
Olivia seemed happy. "Yay. How about next Friday? That'll give you some time to think it over, too, where you want to take me."
"Alright." said Iris, unwittingly signing up for a role she did not necessarily want.
For the next week she tried to reconfigure her thinking around Olivia to view her as a potential partner rather than a friend. She worried if it would be a good relationship, and she was not sure it would be right to inflict herself upon her good friend. But she was excited for her date, and tried to remember again Natasha's advice with Amelie.
In a part of herself she was now forced to venture she still hoped for a romantic reconciliation with Amelie, regardless of its division from probability. It was not because she preferred Amelie, merely that she better knew her romantic neuroses than whatever Olivia might have. She remembered times where Amelie had told her not to come over because she felt 'too ugly', that she would be shaming Iris by letting her look at her nude. Occasionally Iris would come over regardless and find Amelie sat in the shower, agitated if anyone were to notice her, moving about afterwards as if hands had sprouted from the hallway.
So again she was taken by that fear of investment into Olivia, though she sublimated it as she could.