Page 12 of Pandion

“Has he treated you well?”

“What sort of work do you do?”

The questions followed one another before Satoru had a chance to answer them. With some of the confusion trickling through the link, Kagesawa felt an overwhelming urge to shield him from the interrogation.

“Give the poor boy some room to breathe!” Noguchi-san said with the authority of someone with years of experience of unruly and inconsiderate people and very little patience left to deal withthe lot of them. “Have some pie.” She offered Satoru the whole pie she’d brought.

Satoru took it, didn’t know what to do with it and turned to stare at Kagesawa.Help. What do I do?

Kagesawa shrugged. “Plates, probably we need plates and something… dessert forks, maybe?” These did not come with the apartment, so there probably weren’t any.

“Yes, of course.” Noguchi-san turned to Kato-san behind her, and Kato-san provided her with dessert plates and little forks. This seemed the cue to start filling the coffee table with the other snacks and drinks they’d brought and to distribute them to the uninvited guests, who were making themselves very comfortable in Kagesawa’s modest-sized living room.

He had had this happen enough times before to be used to it and even appreciate the unconventional ease with which his neighbours were always willing to welcome new people into their midst, but the same could not be said about Satoru.

He was still holding the pie. Beginning to look somewhat distressed, he closed his eyes.Green, red, 27, 27, blue, red.

“You can sit back down,” Kagesawa told him gently. “I’ll take the pie.” He set it on the table to slice it with a knife that was ever so conveniently placed in his hand by Kato-san. Since Satoru was struggling to answer their questions, the neighbours were redirecting most of them to Kagesawa.

“Why didn’t you tell us? When did you link?” Nishimura had had the chance to chat with Kagesawa several times in the past week or so. He seemed especially disappointed that Kagesawa hadn’t mentioned anything.

“You know me. It’s hardly newsworthy at this point,” Kagesawa tried to smooth it over. He’d somehow managed to keep the last three under wraps and had hoped to do the same again in case it didn’t last. “What has it been, a little over a week?” He glanced at Satoru. Satoru nodded.

“He’s much younger than the previous ones. What happened to the last one, Hayasomething, no, was it matsu, machi…?” Nishimura asked.

“You’re probably thinking of Hashimoto, but there was one after him, Shimizu, I believe. He was the tall one with glasses.” Takazaki was disappointingly good at keeping track, but then again, he wasn’t actively trying to forget some of them.

“That was a link? Odd. Didn’t give off the same vibe. Can’t say I was fond of him. This one seems nice though.” Nishimura gave Satoru a friendly smile and stepped away to grab a slice of pie. It was still steaming as it was cut. Kagesawa had the feeling it had hit the oven the second he had ushered the landlord out of the apartment. They’d wasted no time.

“Hashimoto retired. Shimizu had his licence suspended.” Kagesawa hoped he wouldn’t have to recount any more of the details.

“Do you still keep in touch?” Nishimura offered Kagesawa a can of beer from a cooler he’d brought with him.

“Thanks. No. We weren’t that close. This reminds me: Takazaki, I got you the data I promised!” Kagesawa was glad to have a reason to change the subject. “It’s in the other room.” He’d had it lying around for a while now. He bounced to go get it, and Takazaki followed him to the bedroom.

Since the man was a bit of a tech geek, Kagesawa enjoyed sharing some of the tools of his trade with him. While this stuff was largely inaccessible to a layman, it was not strictly classified, so there was no reason not to satisfy Takazaki’s abundant curiosity. Hence, the detour led to a small host of other conversation points before the data card finally reached Takazaki’s hand.

By the time the two of them got back, the people in the living room were happily chatting away in small groups, eating, drinking and enjoying their impromptu house party. By a strokeof luck, Satoru was engaged in conversation with Kato-san who, out of the people present, was the most harmless and easy to chat with. Despite the poor timing, Satoru seemed to be dealing with all of this reasonably well.

“There you are. I was beginning to think you ran off.” Nishimura made space for Kagesawa and Takazaki beside him on the floor.

“I showed him the new P4 connector for my ‘Osprey’.”

The Osprey was an old-school extension for the wireless connector Kagesawa used to connect to the BCI—the brain–computer interface—mainly to access data, run rehabilitation programs, take on commissions and train occasionally. He liked the design of the older model because it was a more snug fit compared to the others he’d tried. He periodically refurbished it to keep up with the demands of the latest software.

Tech stuff was probably the only topic Nishimura wasn’t keen on, so he usually seemed to abandon his resentment of being left behind at the mentioning of anything technical.

The subject was promptly changed to something else, and some of the other neighbours joined the conversation. A few of them, including Noguchi-san and the landlord, excused themselves after about half an hour. When they left, they took their rubbish along with them and the temperature and noise were brought down to a more reasonable level. Kato-san opened one of the windows to let in some fresh air.

This was the best part about these spontaneous house parties: they were often abrupt and unannounced, but even without anyone taking the lead, everything took care of itself as if by magic. The neighbourhood wasn’t great, but the people in it, at least in this building, were a wonderful mix of returned expats, second-generation immigrants and weirdos with unconventional customs and habits. They could sometimesbe pushy and butt into Kagesawa’s business, but they were also considerate and caring in their own ways.

“Did you ask Noguchi-san to make the cake?” Takazaki brought up the preparations for the birthday party with Nishimura.

“Not yet. I was hoping Kato-san would do it. How about it?”

“Really? What sort of a cake? If it’s not too complicated…” Kato-san then consulted her next-door neighbour, and the two of them started discussing what sizes and shapes of cake pans they had between them.

Red… uh… red, blue… um, uhh… f— five, 527…As soon as Kagesawa turned to look, Satoru fell over sideways on the sofa.Five… uh…

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