Page 82 of Pandion

Kagesawa didn’t have the greatest faith in the vetting process, but while Yajima did have a lax sense of ethics, he wasn’t heartless. Him seeking revenge was not surprising.

“If I let you in, what’s the likelihood of you getting carried away and causing trouble for someone unrelated?”

“There might be some collateral damage, but I do generally try to be mindful of that. It’s not like I could be stuck with you for five years and not have something rub off on me.” Yajima chuckled.

“You make it sound like I’m hell-bent on morals for trying to be a semi-decent human being.”

“From my perspective, it’s an exhausting nuisance, but I guess it’s better than to have any of your DEFD symptoms passed on to me.”

There was plenty of anecdotal evidence for picking up habits from your link, but research suggested the difference between working together with or without a link was negligible, excluding a few rare exceptions. The acquired similarities were likely anexpected result of spending so much time with the other person and had very little to do with the link.

“Was that what you were worried about?” Kagesawa didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“No, of course not. I told you, I was worried about you. I don’t say shit like this often, so the least you could do is appreciate it when I do. Now, give me what you’ve got.” He tossed Kagesawa the palm reader.

It was so heavy Kagesawa almost dropped it. “What the hell did you add to this thing? It weighs a ton.”

“I needed more scope and range. And some other useful features.”

“What period is the hardware from, Yayoi? Sheesh… you’ve added a CX2k series module instead of just about anything after gen5? What’s the latency on this thing…”

“Probably ghastly, according to you, but can you please concentrate? I’d like to get this done while I still have a couple of hours left to sleep.”

“Right.” Kagesawa inserted his port extension and connected to the reader. “Oh Lord, the firmware is ancient! Let me fix that for you real qui—”

“Tsuyoshi-kun, I swear to God.”

“It’ll only take a second.”

How about we leave a present while we’re at it?

What a splendid idea. Yajima would probably notice it eventually, so better leave a fun little note along with it.

With a smiley face?

Oh, yes. Definitely with a smiley face. “I should add that if you make trouble for me or for Satoru, I will have to deal with you.” Kagesawa tossed the reader back to Yajima and removed his extension. Yajima set the reader aside and climbed up onto the bed.

“You’re really fond of your new link friend, aren’t you? Is he nicer than I was?” In typical Yajima-fashion, he wore an amused smile when, in reality, he was probably jealous. Kagesawa could almost feel it even with the link long gone.

“Yes.” Kagesawa smiled back.

“How much does he know?”

“About what?”

“You.”

“We’ve been linked for months, and I’m not exactly secretive with him, so I suppose there’s not much he doesn’t know.” This statement seemed to take Yajima aback.

“You told him about us? I would have thought a straight arrow like him would have withdrawn at that.”

“Actually, now that you mention it, I was probably a bit vague…” It hadn’t been completely intentional, though. Sometimes the details slipped his mind when he was busy trying to remember the general gist of what he was about to say. “But I doubt that would faze him much.”

“Oh? Interesting. I thought all SEU graduates had the minimum of one mace lodged up their ass at all times. Didn’t think that type could accept anything outside their traditional, narrow worldview.”

“I thought you were in a hurry to get a hold of the student records?”

“I’ll get to that.” Yajima fell silent for a moment. “Can’t I enjoy a moment chatting with you? I missed you.”

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