CHAPTER FIVE: THE JADE FESTIVAL

The waves crash upon the shore on a dim Friday morning at the beach of Coastal Astoria, the ocean sparkling in a wild heartbeat of sun and water. The beach is quiet, and mostly empty - a few surfers out getting a couple of morning waves in before the day starts, a woman walking her dog where the sand meets the ocean, and a man curled up in a blanket, staring out into the infinite horizon in front of him. He shudders and pulls the blanket closer, his scraggly hair pulled into a loose, unpolished bun behind his head. He takes a breath in, feeling the salty air fill his lungs, and breathes out. His eyes open, one blue and one green, each eye decorated with dark exhaustion. He winces and pulls his arms close to his stomach, a quick groan escaping his lips as he curls over tighter. The pain passes, and he slowly slides back up, wiping a trail of blood falling from his mouth, which is now in a wide smile. 

This is perfect, he thinks to himself. This is the perfect place to die. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Across town, within the unkempt edges of The Deep Woods where forest meets the crumbling edge of a city, Carlos Dumaresq is running for his life. He’s panting heavily as he barely squeaks past each tree, each branch, each root ready to trip him up. The thought of sinking into the earth with his Calling crosses his mind, but just as quickly, his energy reserves tell him it’s a bad idea - he’s at the end of his rope. Loud smashing behind him reinvigorates him enough to keep moving, but not to do anything drastic. 

Carlos Dumaresq has died 11 times in the past week. 

Up ahead, he sees shadows start to gain opacity and form into creatures - giant jungle cats and birds with long, crooked beaks, as far as he could tell - but the information barely sticks around in his brain. The shadow creatures begin to head towards him, but all back off upon seeing the monster chasing after Carlos, turning more translucent as he fully passes them by. Finally, and for Carlos, thankfully, he trips on a root, landing face first onto the ground. He forces himself to flip over as fast as he can, but his eyes widen as he sees death in physical form right in his face. 

The fist stops millimeters in front of his nose. 

“That makes twelve.” 

Carlos keeps panting, staring up into the yellow eyes of Abigail O’Hare. 

Abigail’s fist opens into a helpful hand to lift up her friend. “You lasted a lot longer that time, though.” She says, smiling as Carlos weakly takes her hand and accepts the help up. 

“Still can’t land a hit on you,” he says, barely eking out the words through his heavy breath. 

“Didn’t expect you to do that. Right now, what I need you to do most is just not die.” 

Carlos forces a laugh. “Yeah, okay, I’m getting right on that. No dying. I got it.” 

Abigail grins. “You asked for this,” she teases, helping Carlos to a turned over log and gently letting him down to sit, “And you’re still new to this. You managed to last like ten minutes underground, that’s getting a lot better!” 

“But that’s all I can do,” Carlos replies, kicking his shoes off and letting his feet sink into the earth. “Moving myself through the earth is easy, but manipulating the earth to do what I want? It’s so exhausting. Like, it’s like trying to lift an elephant made of slime.” 

Abigail sits down next to Carlos, shrugs, and kicks her shoes off too. “It’ll take time, man. It took me years to find all the ways to use my fire, and even then, I can still surprise myself in a pinch.” She thinks for a moment, and chuckles to herself. “Actually, I find I learn so much more about my Calling when I’m in a dangerous situation.” 

“I must not have that same ability to learn shit,” Carlos mopes. “You’ve gotten me twelve times.”

Abigail shakes her head, and her mouth stretches to a long, playfully insulted frown. “Wow, what an awful teacher I am.” 

“No, no, that’s not - “

“I know, I know, just messin’. As far as I can tell, you’re doing great. We’ll take the next couple days off so we can enjoy the Jade Festival, and then we’ll get right back to it.” 

Carlos looks off towards the Woods, and releases a deep sigh. “Yeah. We’ll enjoy the Jade Festival.” He repeats, feeling a deep pit forming in his stomach. 

Abigail gazes at Carlos for a moment, eyes darting between his eyes and mouth, searching for any hint of changing expression. She breaks her attention and looks to the ground, where her feet are sitting above moss and crumbled earth, and Carlos’ are within the earth, like he’s sitting at the beach and allowing himself to sink. “I want to be at the beach too,” she says, lightly nudging Carlos’ side. “I’m jealous of the scrub your feet are getting. Yours must be smooth as hell.” 

Carlos chuckles. “Like you ever actually go to the beach,” he says. He looks towards Abigail’s feet, and then up to her eyes, which are glowing with a promise and a request. He feels a soft smile form on his lips, and decides to acquiesce. Or at least try. He shifts his right foot slightly, and the earth moves above his foot gently, a soft wave forcing itself across the rising ridge of his ankle. He shifts his foot the opposite direction, the wave crossing his foot again, with slightly more power. He shifts one final time, with a little more force this time, angling his foot to the right and allowing the liquid earth to slide over, watching the wave slowly creep over, slowly, slowly…until it barely grazes the side of Abigail’s left foot. He gasps and leans forward, the earth settling back into its original place. He pants for a moment, surprised at how much energy such a simple action took from him, a headache beginning to sing into his skull. He found himself more surprised looking back up to Abigail, who was positively beaming. 

“If moving the earth is like moving an elephant made of slime, let’s start with a shrew.” She says, peering down at the slight layer of mud on the left side of her foot. 

Carlos permits the praise and allows himself a moment of victory, no matter how slight. Maybe Abigail was just being nice to him, or maybe she could see more in him than he could, but either way, at this moment, he had done something new. And that was enough. 

Their moment of success is sharply interrupted by Abigail’s phone ringing. 

“Who the hell thinks they can call me - oh, it’s Lea.” Abigail says, pulling her phone out and accepting the call. “Yeah, and what do you want?” She playfully asks. 

“Hey. Abby. That guy you’re looking for. Red hair? Looks like he hasn’t slept in a few years?”

Abigail feels an energy surge through her body. “Yeah?”

“Uh. He was just here.”

Abigail bolts up from the log, and Carlos almost gets up too, but can’t muster the energy to stand up straight just yet. 

“You’re kidding. Is he still there? What happened?” Abigail asks, her free hand resting on the side of her head in a contained shock. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In downtown Coastal Astoria, Lea O’Hare is with a slew of bartenders and gardeners as they work on an outdoor stand for Magnolia Street. The Jade Festival, historically, is one of the biggest weekends of the year for her small business, and over her past three years running the place, she’s gone bigger and more bombastic with each Festival. This year was going to be special, though. She’d been planning all year for this one, an entire cacophony of plants in various stages of growth ready for one last push from her Calling to create a magical display of color, blooms, and texture. She had also been working with a series of her fellow small business owners to create a more interconnected experience at the Festival as a whole, each stand and business bleeding into the next - walls adorned with homemade quilts, a series of specially curated cannabis plants placed inside custom painted buckets and pots, entire rows of bar taps with beers from her neighboring breweries, she had thought of it all. 

All this work, however, meant that the morning of the Jade Festival was wrought with problems. Vendors running late, movers and bartenders out with a sudden and mysterious stomach ailment that certainly had nothing to do with late night drinking. A whole shelf of plants had snapped and fallen overnight, leaving her with a pile of dirt, wood, and greenery holding on for dear life. She wanted to take a moment to breathe, but found the best place to do so was right in the heart of the action, amongst her plants - so technical and personal problems be damned, she was going to take a moment for her. 

Or so she thought.

Standing in the center of her greenhouse was a hooded figure, and not one that she knew. All of her employees were certainly in hooded jackets, but all of them had Magnolia written across the back of the jacket. This was a worn down article of clothing, one clearly old and dearly loved, but in desperate need of replacement. While on a normal day she’d be deeply concerned by a strange person in her nursery, she found that she was strangely at ease. Still, this guy needed to be gone. 

“Um…excuse me?” She says, still not daring to get too close to the guy. 

The figure shook, and his head snapped over in Lea’s direction. 

It took everything in her not to react. Red hair. Blue and green eyes with dark circles. Oh, shit. She thinks. “Hey, uh, we’re closed right now.” 

Arihiro stares at her for a second, and then looks to the ground. “Oh. Sorry to bother you, ma’am.” He says, beginning to leave, but returning his gaze to a specific plant on a shelf - a strange specimen with large, shield-like leaves, a dark green on top with randomly placed white circles, and a deep red underneath. “I’m sorry, really, this plant, it’s insane. What is this?” 

Lea feels an internal argument between ‘we need to get this guy out of here’, ‘we need to keep this guy here so Abigail can find him’, and ‘I just want to share my obsession with nature’ forming. “It’s a maculata wightii. Not really that uncommon of a house plant really, it’s one of a million different types of begonia. Come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. That one’s just one of the most striking.” 

Arihiro cocks his head and seems to get lost in the polka dots. “Don’t really shop for house plants often. Or ever.” 

“You just getting into it now?”

“Not really. Don’t have the time,” he says, “but I never really appreciated the plants around me until recently.”

Lea laughs. “Gotta smell the roses, and all that, right?” She says. Should I try and hold him here and get Abigail on the line…? That’s way too risky. But… “If you’re looking to see the real power and beauty of your photosynthetic friends, you should come back later tonight for the actual Grand Opening.” 

Arihiro looks back at Lea, and she can feel him studying her. “Yeah. Maybe. Sorry again for bothering you.” He says, and he makes his way toward the exit. 

Lea winces as he passes. Guess I came on too strong, she thinks, but Arihiro stops before he makes it to the doorway. 

“When tonight?”

Lea smiles. “Probably starting around 7pm.”

Arihiro stares back at her, just for a moment, and nods to himself in concession. “Cool. Might pop by then.” 

And with that, he was gone. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“...and then, he dipped out.”

By this point, Abigail had turned the speaker on for the call, allowing Carlos to listen while he slowly slunk from sitting on the log to laying on the ground, body wobbly like jelly. While her friend was barely absorbing information, Abigail was buzzing with thought. “Good move to tell him to come back. There’s no way we could’ve made it there fast enough for it to not seem suspicious.” 

Lea sighs in relief. “I thought you were going to be upset that I lost him.”

“Nah, we haven’t seen hide or tail of him in a couple weeks, which means he doesn’t really want to be seen. This was for the best.” She says, biting her thumb while she thinks. He snuck into Magnolia without raising attention to himself, and is keeping a hood up to hide. Certainly trying to keep a low profile…but why…? 

“Do we even know that he’ll come back?” Lea asks, “He seemed very tentative about it.” 

“Better than nothing. We’ll head over to Magnolia in a few -” 

“NO, no, no, don’t come by here. Not yet. It’s not ready.” 

Abigail scoffs. “So Arihiro gets to see things early, but not me?? Wow, what a sister you are.” 

“Eat a dick. I’ll see you guys later tonight.” Lea says, hanging up the phone.
“I can never tell if you two are fighting or not.” Carlos mumbles into the dirt. 

“95% of the time, we’re just joking,” Abigail replies, barely moving or shifting her attention. “Looks like tonight is our best chance of finding our new friend.” 

Carlos grunts. “What do you think he was hiding from?” 

Abigail’s train of thought stumbles. “Hiding from?” She asks, gently lowering herself to Carlos’ level and helping him slump back up onto the log. 

“Thanks. Yeah. I mean, Lea just finds him in the middle of her closed nursery?” 

Abigail furrows her brow. “Huh. Like he wasn’t actually interested in the plants, but needed to stall for a couple minutes?” 

Carlos shrugs. “Maybe both? The vibe I’m getting is weird there.” 

“Hmm. If he really was a growing plant aficionado, he would’ve jumped at the Grand Opening instead of limping towards deciding to go?” She ponders aloud. “Either way, he said he doesn’t have time to get into plants. That leads me to believe he won’t be sticking around here much longer. And given how he snuck into Magnolia so inconspicuously and is keeping his face hidden…”

“...Finding him might still be a pain in the ass?” Carlos says, finishing her thought. 

Abigail nods. “We either find him tonight, or we never will.” 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, Abigail is back at her apartment, getting ready for her evening at the Jade Festival. Freshly showered and freshly dressed in a Magnolia Street T-shirt, a light grey cardigan overtop, and black tights, she was ready to go, but needed to wait for both Carlos to be ready (which she assumed would take a while, given his exhaustion his morning) and for her to get her fill of spending time with Miki (which she would never get her fill of). They were currently sitting on the floor, knocking a small wicker ball back and forth, with the ball spending more time on Miki’s side so she could nibble and bite at the weaved wood. 

“You’re going to pick me up something nice tonight, right?” Miki asks, in between frustrated chomps. “Why do you always get me balls bigger than I can bite??”

“Because you destroy anything smaller than that and my wicker ball budget goes through the roof,” Abigail replies, her head cradled in her hand, admiring her rabbit. “And of course I’m grabbing you something nice. You know my existence revolves around you, right?”

“Ugh. You orbiting hanger-on,” Miki mutters, getting annoyed and nudging the ball back across the room. “Get yourself something nice too.” 

Abigail smiles. “Oh, do I have your permission? What may I purchase myself, Queen Miki?” She asks, nudging the ball back to Miki. While her rabbit could talk, hop through the air, and was currently made of fire, she was still a rabbit, and could be easily entertained by something this simple. 

Then again, so could Abigail.

Miki ponders the question as the ball comes close, and she goes back to nibbling at the ball instinctually. “Seriously, what’s the point if I can’t…break…this thing?!” She asks, making a few furious and futile bites before jump-kicking the ball away. “A nice sweater. Something I can curl up in.” 

“Ah, and what gift for myself would be better than a gift for you?” 

“Something super soft. And warm.” 

“Coated in fur and fire and it’s still not enough heat?” 

“Big words from the giant naked rabbit.” 

Abigail shrugs. “Touche. I’ll find the softest, warmest, most Miki-friendly sweater I can find.” 

Miki nods in approval. “Oh, and take pictures of Lea’s thing.” 

“You don’t want me to summon you to watch?” 

Miki shrugs. “I can only last a few minutes outside my body, and then I pass out. I’d rather live vicariously through you. And pictures.” 

“Fair enough,” Abigail replies. She suddenly freezes, and then raises an eyebrow at Miki. 

“Oh, no. Nope, don’t give me that look.” 

“What look?” 

“The, ‘I have a hare-brained scheme and it involves my hare’ look.” 

Abigail returns with an expression that’s somewhere between an embarrassed smile and a wince. “Actually, I might have to ask you a huge favor.” 

Miki groans. 

“You know that guy we’ve been trying to find?”
“Yeah, the guy you’re suddenly in love with?” 

Abigail recoils. “Huh? No, I was hired to find -” 

“You get hired to find lots of people. This one’s different,” Miki says, hopping up to Abigail’s face and giving her a smug grin, “You’re desperate to find him.” 

Abigail pauses, and thinks on it for a moment. She’s right, she thinks, I am desperate to find this guy. “That’s not it, it’s just…” she begins to say, then holding in and releasing a soft sigh. “That’s not it at all. I…I just think he needs help.” 

Miki mimics Abigail’s eyebrow raise. “Really.” 

“I don’t know what it is. I…” She shakes her head and looks away. “So this dude rolls into town. He tangoes with the Roku’kus, multiple times, and bare minimum is exploded on. Twice. And he kept trying to fight. Carlos said he kept trying to stop Ryu’Djin. And then, he vanishes. No trace of him. But he sneaks into Magnolia, clearly trying to hide his appearance. Why? Why is he even here, in Coastal Astoria, and immediately getting neck-deep in danger, only to then need to hide in plain sight? He’s strong enough to take on the Roku’kus without thinking, but still needs to wear a hood?” 

“How does any of this mean he needs help?”

“All of this says to me that he’s alone,” Abigail replies, “I don’t think he has a Carlos, or a Lea, and certainly not a Miki. Both Carlos and Lea said he looks exhausted. Everytime they say that, all I can think is how I want to give him someplace safe to lay his head for a moment.” 

Miki pulls back from Abigail’s face, feeling Abigail’s emotions crashing over and through her in a thick, quick moving smoke. “...So what do you need me to do?” 

Abigail gently smiles. “Let me summon you for a few minutes of Lea’s Grand Opening, and tell me if there’s anyone with a hood and red hair. I’ll take video of the opening itself so you can watch it later, and get you a few extra little surprises,” she offers, “That sound like a deal?” She raises her hand up for a handshake, a binding agreement. 

Miki looks at Abigail’s hand, and then up to her. “Why him?” She asks, shaking Abigail’s hand with her paw. 

Abigail just laughs. “I don’t know.” 

Miki scoffs, and hops over to her wicker ball. “Well, I can’t wait to find out. And I can’t wait to see what surprises you get me.” 

“Yeah, same here.” Abigail replies, pulling her phone out and checking for messages from Carlos. Damn, I might’ve pushed him too hard today. She pulls up her text chain with Carlos, hesitates for a moment, and calls him. 

The phone rings for a moment, and when the call goes through, Abigail is jolted by a woman’s voice coming through the line instead of Carlos’. Oh, yeah, I messed up. 

“Abigail O’Hare,” the voice says. 

“Cassandra!” 

“Hmm. Don’t get so friendly, now.” Cassandra replies, her tone dry and curt. 

“Oh. Um. Okay. Sorry. Is, uh, is Carlos - “

“He’s fine,” Cassandra interjects, “Fell asleep the second he got home. And I mean that literally - he opened the front door, and went straight down.” 

Abigail grimaces. “Ahhhh. Shit, I should’ve - “

“When he told me he quit all his jobs and joined your little…thing you do…I was apprehensive, but I said, ‘sure bro, you got me through law school, I’ll support you, on one condition’ - do you know what that condition was, Abigail?”

Abigail felt a shiver go down her spine. “I - “

“‘Don’t go dyin’ out there for no reason’,” she replies, “and then he comes home today, and can’t even make it through the door? And that was just training? What the hell you doin’ to my brother, Abigail?” 

“He - I - “ She stammers. Her and Cassandra have never necessarily been on bad terms, but they rarely saw eye-to-eye, either. But this wasn’t the time to get defensive or feel intimidated. She knew Cassandra only got this steely when it came to her brother, and Abigail knew that feeling well. “The only thing he can do with his Calling is move himself through the ground, and while we could both be okay with that, he isn’t. And while I’d like to say moving through the ground will be enough to keep him safe out here, it isn’t. It’s just hard to train yourself to use your Calling in new ways.” 

A brief silence filled Abigail with an oxymoronic combination of dread and relief. 

“Abigail, I know I’m not good at showin’ it, but you know I care about you, right?”

“...Yeah?”

“So know that I care about you when I say that you are an anomaly. Normal people, normal Called Upon, aren’t quite so…self-sacrificing as yourself. I admire that about you, even if it’s stupid as hell. And I don’t want my brother to learn the wrong lessons. You understand what I’m saying?” 

Abigail feels a knot in her throat. “Yeah. I get it.” 

“As long as we have an understanding,” Cassandra says, “Carlos is in the shower now. I’ll tell him you called.” 

“Okay. Thanks.” 

An awkward pause, and the call ends, leaving Abigail suddenly feeling very small. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another hour or so later, reaching 5:30pm, Abigail and Carlos finally meet downtown outside of Magnolia Street, which is still locked and closed with a flurry of movement inside. It’s starting to approach Fall, and the Sun is already showing signs of falling from the sky in favor of the Moon even this early in the evening, the Moon hovering in translucence on the horizon. A crisp breeze is coasting through the city, blowing the early dying leaves off the trees lining the sidewalks. Abigail takes a sniff in and smiles - nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon are the prevailing scents in the air, a tent selling apple cider across the street being the most likely culprit. “We’re definitely starting there,” Abigail says, already starting to move that direction. 

“Should we be keeping our eyes peeled for - “ 

Abigail shoots Carlos a ‘hush’ look. 

“For, uh…’you-know-who’?” 

Abigail rolls her eyes. “Nah, not right now. When I said we should enjoy the Jade Festival, I meant it.” 

Carlos shrugs. “Whatever you say. Oh, uh, sorry if Cas gave you a hard time.” 

Abigail feels the shiver down her spine again. “Ah, it was nothing. She just cares about you.” She says, nodding in acknowledgement to the purveyor of the Apple Cider stand. 

“Ahhh, the Little Rabbit!” The man says, a wide grin across his wrinkled face. He’s an older man, but time has been as kind to him as he’s been to the world around him - crows feet on his eyes and smile lines across his cheeks, his bright smile shining through a dark grayed beard. “Head Honcho Hare told me to make sure I gave these to you,” he adds, pulling out a small container of chopped and dried apples. “She said they were ‘for the queen’.” 

Abigail’s smile could’ve split her face in joy. “This is why we love you, Mr. Henry. You wanna grab a glass of the spiked stuff for me, and…” she says, turning to Carlos, “anything for you? My treat for breaking you.” 

Carlos enthusiastically nods. “A mi también.” 

Henry grins and grabs them each a glass, filling it up from a barrel of cider as Abigail reaches behind the counter and rings up the drinks. “No, no, Little Rabbit, this one’s on the house.” 

“No, no, Mr. Henry, let me pay you for your services, for once, please.” She says, running her card through the system before Mr. Henry can stop her. 

“You know I’m just gonna delete the charge later, right?”

“Come on, we do this dance every time I drop by. Not planning on stopping now.” 

Henry laughs a hearty laugh, and passes the two their drinks. “Enjoy the Festival, you two. Expect to see ya back for your sister’s big reveal?”

“Duh,” Abigail says, giving a wave as she starts to move down the street, “See you then, good sir.” 

The two make their way down 3rd Street, making sure to hit a litany of booths along the way - while the weekend in store was filled to the brim with events, parades, parties, and after parties all across town, the big deal on Friday night was on the streets. Businesses and artists took over 3rd Street, with a few bars and galleries already on the street expanding their storefronts to join the tented flock of visitors. Each year, a business would get to host the Grand Opening, and this year, Magnolia Street had finally garnered the attention of the committee to take charge of the event - but before the Opening, the storefronts were the star. Carlos and Abigail dropped by a number of them, grabbing trinkets and jewelry at one shop while playing darts to win discounts on clothing at another. Traveling down the street was like a walk across the world, with several vendors choosing to bring food trucks instead of setting up booths - while these would be getting business now, they knew to save their staff and energy for after the Grand Opening, when the booze started flowing and the bars took over as the star of the show. 

If nothing else, this weekend was predictable for the locals of Coastal Astoria, even if the players changed names, shape, and form. 

A little while later, Abigail had her mouth full of chicken teriyaki when a familiar voice called out to her. 

“We just keep running into each other this month, huh?” 

Abigail whips her head over, and gives a surprised snort. “Michael? You get to have fun sometimes?”

Michael sighs, and looks away. “Eh, not really. Kinda though.” 

“Hmm. Oh, come to think of it, hey, this is Carlos.” She says, motioning towards her friend. “Carlos, this is Michael.”

Carlos snorts too. “Crazy we haven’t met yet!” 

Michael could feel the air turning to a playful animosity. “Yeah, real weird. Hey, uh, so about, the um…the other day…” He begins to say, looking at Abigail with an expression she couldn’t decipher. “You…” He shakes his head. “Never mind. You guys have fun, or whatever.” 

“Uh…okay.” Abigail says, watching as Michael awkwardly nods and walks off. 

“I thought you said he was like a cocky little shit?” Carlos asks. 

“Yeah…” Abigail says, her eyes thinning slightly. She turns around and takes a second to think. “We’ve got competition.” 

“What?” 

Abigail motions for him to follow, and they go to sit at a bench that’s slightly more secluded. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Why are the Peacekeepers here?”

“You don’t think he’s here for leisure?”

“No way. He had a jacket on, but it was covering a part of his uniform. I’ve seen that casual wear before on Peacekeepers, they can just tap a panel on the front and it covers them like nano-tech.” 

“Maybe he’s just security?”
Abigail considers the possibility. “Could be. But one of Ian Crowley’s top dogs?”

Carlos recoils. “Is he really? Isn’t he, like, fifteen?”

“Yeah, it’s him and this girl Maya. There might be more, but those are the two I’ve seen with him, and the two that come to the Coast the most often.”

“Even so, why would they be here for….red head?”

“Who else would he be trying to hide from?” 

“You realize it’s probably a bad thing if the Peacekeepers are after him, right? Like, he might be a terrorist or something?” 

“Then why would he fight the Roku’kus?”

“I don’t know, Abby, I’m just trying to keep my facts straight. I get that you want this dude to be good, and trust me, he seems like he is, but we can’t just ignore it if the Peacekeepers want him, okay?”

“Screw the Peacekeepers.” 

Carlos twists to fully face Abigail. “Hey.” He says, lifting both his hands in front of him. “We can’t just ignore it, okay?” 

Abigail glares at him. 

“We’re a team now, okay, right? And I’m not going to jail for some dude I don’t know, even if he is a good dude. And picking a fight with the Peacekeepers is a really great way to do that. Okay?” 

“Fine.” 

“Okay. Cool. Alright.” 

Abigail keeps up her glare for a moment, but her face softens as she really takes in Carlos’ words. “Fine. Yeah. Let’s not have you dying for no reason, right?” 

Carlos winces. “Yeah. That one.” 

Abigail nods and motions for Carlos to join. “We’ve got like fifteen more minutes. Let’s get back to Magnolia.” 

Carlos hesitates before following behind.

When the Roku’kus took Arihiro, he had thought of Abigail, and how he wanted to see how it felt to be like her, going out guns blazing. 

But it hadn’t fully occurred to him until now that there was a chance that her guns were a bomb waiting to go off. 

It just needed the right catalyst.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they approached Magnolia Street, Abigail could feel a bundle of nerves forming in the pit of her stomach. She looks over to Carlos, and could see a similar restless feeling in his eyes. 

“Don’t stress too hard over this,” Abigail says. “We need to look and feel natural.”

Carlos nods. “Yeah. Yeah. How should, like…how should we stand?” 

Abigail pauses. “With…our legs on the ground, and arms - “

“No, like, where? How do we scan the crowd without making it obvious we’re looking around?”

“Oh. Wherever you want. I don’t plan on either of us being the one to find him.” 

Carlos nods again. “Right.” He pauses. “Wait, what?” 

“Nah. We just enjoy the show.” 

He stares at Abigail, almost incredulous. “Then how the hell -?”

Abigail grins back at him. “I’ve got an invisible drone that’ll be able to find him.” 

Carlos gives her a confused stare. 

“Don’t worry about it.” She assures him, Magnolia Street coming into view. The only people who can see Miki in her true form are Abigail and Lea - for this reason, she keeps the truth about Miki a closely guarded secret, even from the Dumaresqs. 

As far as Abigail is concerned, it’s the least she owes her. 

The storefront of Magnolia Street has come to life, the regular front door blocked by a makeshift stage where musicians were making final last second audio checks and electrical swaparoos. The large garage door that took the place of the wall of the nursery facing the street was open, but a massive curtain covered the plants held inside. As the clock neared 7pm, the dark hue of night was overtaking the final wails of sunshine, reflected by the dissipating sunset. Abigail was tapping her thumb to each of her fingers furiously - she had been trying to keep her cool in front of Carlos, but her spits at the Peacekeepers might’ve revealed her passion for this search more than she wanted. 

Miki’s line of questioning was still floating through her mind as the action started to settle in front of her, the quiet before the night truly kicked off. 

The speakers squealed with momentary interference, and the microphone went live as Lea O’Hare walked out onto the stage. “Good Evening, Astoria!” She says, and the crowd cheers along with a warm welcome. “Thank you all for coming out here tonight, on this most beautiful of Fall nights, to celebrate the opening of the 42nd Jade Festival!” 

The crowd cheers again. Abigail’s finger tapping quickens, but she snaps in shock as she remembers her deal with Miki, and pulls out her phone, starting a video recording. 

“Tonight, we here at Magnolia Street have been given the incredible honor to open things up with a little show and presentation.” As Lea speaks, her nursery employees and a swath of volunteers begin pulling up the curtain in front of the building, nimbly gliding through the increasing darkness to relocate plants and lights to their proper locations around the stage. “Now, the Jade Festival was named after an Astral Event that happened right around here, 42 years ago, when the Aurora Borealis inexplicably appeared in our sky, with a series of green lights shining through the atmosphere right on our shores. The Jade, however, can also refer to a plant - the Jade Plant, which is its common name, scientific name Crassula ovata, and its nickname? The Friendship Plant. Which I think is a perfect encapsulation of our lovely city, don’t you think? Just look around you! Everything coming to you this weekend is because of the bonds our people share, our desire to help our common man to become the people they deserve to be. So, tonight, I want to bring you something that symbolizes the Jade Festival, and by extension, Coastal Astoria, in every sense - as a beautiful shining city, glazed in the green of life, the roots of friendship and camaraderie forming a foundation for our future.” 

All the lights go out. A group of people twelve strong take the stage, and a light harmonization sounds from the speakers as they begin to sing. There are no words to this song, only vocals rising and falling in intensity, starting off as a slow rise as each singer, one by one, repeats a simple sonic refrain. As each voice joins the chorus, another light turns on, each a different shade of green, and plants begin to twirl and vine around the stadium and storefront.

Once six voices were in the chorus, they all suddenly stop, the seventh singer coming up for a solo as the six lights all shut off - but bioluminescent flowers were starting to bloom along the vines. The remaining five singers join in one-by-one as well, lighting a different set of lights and allowing different plants to grow. The original sets of plants hadn’t stopped growing - they were continuing to loop around, the tips of the vines touching the bottoms of each singer's dress, causing small buds to form along the intricate patterns of the cloth. One all of the second half of singers had begun to sing, the original six joined back in, and the lights all ignited at once. Four techs, all dressed in black, rolled out a massive box of intricately carved wood, a series of terracotta pots hidden to display a large series of plants, all with buds on the verge of bursting into flowers. The plants in the planter were the same that Abigail had seen a few weeks prior - all different breeds and varieties, all requiring different types of soil, amounts of water and sun, and kind of attention. But here they were, all ready to go at once. 

Abigail could barely contain her smile, and as she felt the climax coming, she closed her eyes. 

Hey, Miki, you awake?

A brilliant flash of purple that only Abigail and Lea could see shone above Abigail’s head as Miki hopped out, her purple flames shining more brilliantly than they do at the apartment. She gives Abigail a nod, and hops above the crowd, peering through all the faces. 

The singers all started singing at once, twelve voices in perfect harmony with each other, back to repeating their original refrain, growing in intensity with each repeated round. As they approached maximum volume, they all dropped their voices to a near-whisper, the lights all dimming down to near blackness. 

Miki thins her eyes. Made of fire, has the ability to talk, can astral project. 

Still not the greatest eyesight. 

I can’t tell if he’s here, she thinks. 

They can’t see you, get close to their faces. Abigail mentally responds. 

The twelve voices all go back down to one. 

The final drop. 

Her voice trails off, the lights go out completely. 

Miki hops past the faces of the surrounding crowd, not sure exactly what she was looking for. 

All twelve voices roar back to life, the lights flashing in a wild pattern as the buds in the box and the buds on the dresses all bloom at once, blooming multiple times over and showering the crowd with petals that seemed to catch a wind that didn’t exist. The flowers on the dresses were all the glowing variety, making it appear as if the world around them had burst into a living Aurora Borealis. 

Miki freezes when she experiences something brand new. 

A flood of emotion hit her. 

But it wasn’t Abigail’s. 

She could feel Abigail’s emotions, mind you - she could feel her anxiety, but also her pride. That pride made her smile. It was pride in Lea, for creating something incredible. 

But something else hit her, too. She glanced to her left, and saw a hooded figure quickly walking away, a certain haste to his step that felt…

…embarrassed? No. 

Three o’clock. I think I’ve got him. Miki thinks. 

Did you see his face? Abigail asks. 

No, but it’s him. 

…afraid? No. 

Miki hops forward, trying to get ahead of the hooded figure, but starts to feel herself fade. 

How do you know?

…heartbroken?

Miki gives it one last burst of speed, rushing ahead to try and see his face. 

Her eyes widen. 

She has time to say one more thing to Abigail, and it’ll be all the energy she has left. At this moment, she had a thousand things she could think of, and she contemplated them all in a second.

But what she decided to say was the thing that she knew would spur the correct actions. 

He’s crying.

Abigail’s eyes mimic Miki’s. She feels her rabbit disappear, and feels her go back home. Carlos can sense the change in her momentum as she immediately turns on her heels and follows after who she hopes is Arihiro. 

“Abby…?”

“Stay here, Carlos.” Abigail says, marching forward without looking back. 

She only knew vaguely which direction he was headed, and even then, if he decided to make a random turn down an alleyway, she’d have no way of knowing. 

And yet, she did. 

She rounds a corner and follows the sidewalk to the Riverwalk, where she sees him crumpled and laying down on a bench, staring off into the water. 

A shock flies through her. What do I even say…? She thinks, but her body keeps moving. She figures the words will come to her when it’s time. As she approaches the figure, it barely even moves as it registers someone getting close. She kneels next to the bench, and lays a hand on his head from atop the hood, sliding her legs and sitting on the ground in front of his face. 

Tired eyes stare back at her, one blue, one green. 

“Hey. Are you okay?” Abigail asks. 

Arihiro just stares for a moment, and a tear escapes his blue eye. “I’m just tired.” 

Abigail smiles lightly and nods. “Long day?” 

“Sorta.” 

Abigail lets a silence fill the air, and pulls her hand away from his head. She pulls herself back, curling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them, and stares out to the water, allowing Arihiro a moment to do the same. 

“Who are you? What do you want?” Arihiro weakly asks. 

“My name’s Abigail.” 

“And what do you want?” 

Abigail takes a second to decide how to proceed. “Mostly to talk to you. But we don’t have to do that right now.” 

“You’re already talking. Might as well keep going.” 

Abigail scoffs. “Okay, then,” she says. “A few weeks ago, a couple of women were going down Oleander late at night. Ladies of the night, if you will. They run into some pretty gnarly dudes - from what the women said, they were going to get kidnapped. But then, someone showed up. They couldn’t see the guy, hell, they were barely awake, but she still ended up calling me, and asking me to find him - because whatever he did, he saved them. They wanted to say ‘thank you’ to whoever it was that went out of their way to save them, when a lot of people would’ve turned around and said, ‘not my problem’”. She explains, looking back towards Arihiro. “Would that happen to be you?” 

Arihiro’s eyes were wide, his bangs covering just how sad and surprised his eyebrows were. He pauses and closes his eyes, opening them back up slowly, unsure of what emotion to feel. 

“Well, if it was you, I’ve gotta give you some points. I’m a Freelancer in this neck of the woods, and my reception ain’t always so cheery. As far as these two are concerned, you are a hero.” 

“That’s right,” he weakly replies, “Me Arihiro.” 

Abigail just stares at him for a moment. 

She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but as the corner of his lips curved into a frail smile, she felt herself smile too. 

“That’s pretty stupid,” she says. 

Arihiro’s smile fully formed. “It’s nice to meet you, Abigail.” 

And his voice sounded like it had been waiting his entire life to say that.