The headquarters was quiet at 11 PM.

  Suzume sat on the floor of the training room, surrounded by textbooks, practice exams, and handwritten notes. Her VR headset lay beside her, still warm from her latest simulation run. Empty coffee cups formed a small army near her elbow. The status window floated in the corner of her vision.

  Level 9

  EXP: 385/400

  Fifteen XP away from Level 10. So close she could taste it. But there was no time for another teaching session. The exam was in ten hours, and she needed every remaining minute for review.

  Two weeks of grinding had brought her here. Teaching sessions with Honoka, Rina, Kasumi. VR simulations until her brain felt like mush. Legal textbooks until she could recite liability clauses in her sleep.

  She flipped to a new page of practice questions. Her eyes burned. The words blurred together.

  What if she forgot everything tomorrow? What if her mind went blank the moment she sat down? What if two weeks of preparation vanished the second the proctor said "begin"?

  The door opened.

  Suzume looked up. Yumi stood in the doorway, holding two plastic bags and a six-pack of beer.

  "Heeeyyyy." She walked in, dropping the bags on the nearest table. "Figured you'd be here cramming."

  "How did you—"

  "Hikari texted me. Said you've been here for six hours straight." Yumi cracked open a beer and took a long drink. "She was worried."

  "I need to be ready."

  "You ARE ready. You've been ready for days." Yumi started unpacking the bags. Takeout containers, chopsticks, napkins. "Now you're just psyching yourself out."

  "I'm not—"

  "When's the last time you ate?"

  Suzume opened her mouth to answer. Then, she promptly closed it again when she realized she couldn't remember.

  "That's what I thought." Yumi pushed a container of fried rice toward her. "Eat. Then we're doing something that isn't studying."

  "I really should keep—"

  Her stomach growled. Loud enough that Yumi heard it from across the room.

  Yumi raised an eyebrow.

  Suzume grabbed the container.

  The food was good. Some hole-in-the-wall place Yumi knew, the kind that didn't look like much but had been perfecting the same recipes for forty years. Suzume inhaled the fried rice, then moved on to gyoza, then karaage. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until she started eating.

  Yumi watched her, drinking her beer slowly.

  "You know," Yumi said, "Hikari told me you scored ninety-three percent on your last practice exam."

  Suzume swallowed a mouthful of chicken.

  "Ninety-four."

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  "My mistake. Ninety-four." Yumi took another sip. "The passing score is seventy. You're going to destroy this thing."

  "Anything could happen. I could blank. I could misread a question. I could—"

  "You could get hit by a meteor on the way there. Doesn't mean you should plan for it."

  Suzume shoved more rice into her mouth instead of answering.

  "When's the last time you slept?"

  She paused mid-bite.

  "...I don't remember."

  "Jesus, Suzu."

  "There's been a lot to do."

  "There's always a lot to do. That's not an excuse to run yourself into the ground." Yumi finished her beer and reached for another. "You're going to walk into that exam tomorrow looking like a zombie and fail because you fell asleep during the written portion."

  "I won't fall asleep."

  "You literally have dark circles so deep they look like bruises."

  Suzume touched her face self-consciously. She hadn't looked in a mirror in... a while.

  "You've done the work," Yumi said, her voice softer now. "You've put in the hours. At some point, you have to trust that it's enough."

  Suzume stared at her empty container. Trust. That was the hard part, wasn't it? Trusting herself. Trusting that all the preparation would pay off when it mattered.

  After the food was gone, Yumi stood and grabbed Suzume's arm.

  "Come on."

  "Where—"

  "Couch. We're watching something stupid as fuck. Your brain needs a break."

  "Yumi, I really should—"

  "Nope." Yumi pulled her up with surprising strength. "Non-negotiable. Doctor's orders."

  "You're not a doctor."

  "I'm a journalist. Close enough."

  She dragged Suzume to the small lounge area they'd set up in the corner of the main office, a beat-up couch they'd bought secondhand, a TV mounted on the wall, and a coffee table covered in old magazines nobody ever read. Yumi grabbed the remote and started scrolling through streaming options.

  "Perfect. Action movie. Lots of explosions and no plot."

  She picked something Suzume had never heard of. Some American film with a generic title and a poster featuring a man holding two guns. The opening scene featured a car chase and three explosions in the first two minutes.

  They sat on the couch. Not touching, but close. Suzume was hyperaware of the space between them. Maybe six inches of cushion separated her thigh from Yumi's.

  The air conditioning hummed. Outside, a car honked somewhere in the distance. Normal nighttime sounds of the city.

  On screen, the protagonist punched someone through a wall.

  Suzume tried to focus on the movie, though her brain was too fried to follow the actual plot. Whatever. She focused on the explosions and the fight scenes that required zero intellectual investment.

  Halfway through, Yumi shifted. She stretched her legs out, crossing them at the ankle on the coffee table. She was wearing shorts and a loose tank top, something she'd probably changed into after work, casual and comfortable.

  Suzume's eyes tracked the line of her thigh before she caught herself.

  [Movie. Watch the movie.]

  The protagonist was now fighting on top of a moving train. There were more explosions. Someone yelled something dramatic in English.

  Yumi shifted again. This time she stretched her arm along the back of the couch, behind Suzume's shoulders. Not quite touching. Just... there. Close enough that Suzume could feel the warmth radiating from her skin.

  Suzume's heart rate picked up.

  On screen, something exploded. A helicopter, maybe. Suzume had lost track.

  Her eyes felt heavy. The warmth of the room, the full stomach, the two weeks of sleep deprivation. It all caught up to her at once. The couch was comfortable. Yumi's presence beside her was comfortable.

  She blinked. The movie had jumped ahead somehow. Had she dozed off?

  The protagonist was kissing someone now. When did that happen?

  Her head felt heavy. She should sit up straighter. She should...

  ---

  Suzume woke up to morning light.

  She was lying on the couch, a pillow tucked under her head and a light blanket draped over her body. The TV was off. The takeout containers had been cleaned up. Someone had even folded her scattered notes into a neat pile on the coffee table.

  A note sat on top of them, written in Yumi's messy handwriting.

  You fell asleep twenty minutes in. Didn't have the heart to wake you. Good luck tomorrow—you'll do great!

  P.S. You snore.

  Suzume's face went warm.

  She tried to remember falling asleep. The last thing she recalled was the movie—explosions, a train, Yumi's arm behind her shoulders. Then nothing.

  Twenty minutes in. She'd barely lasted twenty minutes.

  Yumi had stayed. Had cleaned up. Had found a pillow and blanket from somewhere and tucked her in like she was a child who'd passed out after a long day.

  Suzume sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. Sunlight streamed through the windows. According to her phone, it was 7:30 AM. The exam started at 10.

  She had time.

  Her phone buzzed with a new message. Kasumi.

  Good luck tomorrow. Not that you need it. You've got this. ??

  Suzume stared at the heart emoji.

  She read the message again. Then again. Her thumb traced over the small red shape on the screen. She typed back:

  Thanks. That means a lot.