Chapter 269: 7: Independence

Danika woke up reluctantly, and her first thought wasn't of Shinichi, or the new enchanted stone that Logical Heart had designed. It wasn't even about what to have for breakfast.

The first thing she thought of, was that right after the marriage had been dissolved, the traveling merchant had said, "my dearest friend, Kit." He hadn't acted as though he'd had his relationship with her inverted. And he'd departed as calmly and quickly as he normally did, when he wasn't around his wife, or in a major town's square, or had waiting customers.

The first thing that occurred to her was that maybe Myles Blue hadn't dissolved the marriage as properly as Lin Hao had assumed. The second thing that occurred to her was that if she reported it, what got fixed might be the relationship level inversion, rather than the marriage.

Danika stared blindly at the cute kitten and dragon sticker that covered the warning labels on the surface of her VR-medi pod. She silently debated the possible consequences of not reporting it versus reporting it. If she reported it things might become even worse for Kit, but if she didn't report it, it wasn't like it would go unnoticed.

She was pretty certain that Lin Hao would see it as soon as he got cleared to log into his work account again, because he'd definitely review the visual log. Josh had reviewed the visual log without apparently noticing that detail, but Danika was sure that Lin Hao wouldn't overlook it.

Her eyes focused on the kitten's face and she thought about how Lin Hao had been monitoring the snow leopard. She didn't know any details about it, but she knew that he'd been very interested in why the King of Cats had reincarnated himself as the guardian's child.

The King of Cats had seemed to be avoiding his role, until her demand that he save as many as he could from the destruction of the desert expansion had forced him to use his full power. She hadn't been successful in finding him since he'd restored himself to being the true incarnation of the King of Cats. He'd vanished from her friend list where he'd been listed as just 'a snow leopard'.

His cute little messenger avatar version had vanished too, despite his request that she make it so that he could choose what messages to carry. She didn't know his name so she couldn't use ZipZing or Aishin's skills to track him. Like a real cat, his independent actions were difficult to predict, or even comprehend.

The traveling merchant by comparison was much more predictable, because he was designed to seem human. But while a human might have to change their behavior to suit the arbitrary rules imposed upon them, they wouldn't be able to change their emotions to match, and they would protest the change. The Traveling Merchant wasn't any more human than the King of Cats, but Danika wondered if maybe, just maybe, he could be just as independent.

Danika threw back the cover of the VR-medi pod and lowered herself to the floor. She asked her LJECD assistant, "Has Lin Hao been cleared to return to work?"

"Not yet," her assistant reported promptly. It added helpfully, "But Magna Silvam has messaged ZipZing and Josh Beagle has messaged your work account. Josh Beagle has been promoted to the position of the seventh department's second, because Myles Blue was demoted this morning."

"Um, are the messages urgent?" Danika asked.

"They are not marked as urgent, but they all include questions," her assistant reported.

"Ok, I'll look at them right after breakfast," Danika replied. She hurried through her morning preparations, and replied swiftly to Shinichi's morning greeting which had sounded both somewhat apologetic and scolding with: "Morning! I was glad to see you for any reason, and it was cool! I am worried about Kit, but I don't have any idea about what I can do this time. I just need to check a few things, and try to communicate them so that no one will make the situation worse. I won't spend all day working."

She was unwrapping a nutrition bar for a quicker breakfast when someone pounded on her door. Danika laid the bar on the counter and scooted over to her door. She opened it cautiously, and then pushed it wide open and stared at her cousin in blank surprise.

Mei glared at her and demanded, "You forgot didn't you?!"

"Your calendar invitation is for next Sunday!" Danika protested. She quickly pulled her phone out of her shirt pocket and flicked over to the calendar display, she was a little relieved to see that her memory was accurate, and held the screen up as proof.

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"I sent an update yesterday," Mei complained.

As soon as her cousin said that, Danika saw the notification. She glared at her cousin and pointed out, "The fact that I didn't respond could be considered a clue that I might be busy?"

"Good, I want to meet him," Mei replied smugly.

"Um what?" Danika asked.

"Your pop star look-alike guy," Mei explained.

She crawled onto the floor beside Danika and looked around before saying, "Good, it doesn't look like you're cohabiting yet."

"Oy, none of your business!" Danika protested. "And he does have a futon here," she added, pointing at the padded dragon on the wall. She didn't add that Shinichi hadn't actually used it yet.

Mei surveyed her critically, with almost the same expression their aunt Hati had used the last time Danika had seen her. Danika lifted her chin and gazed back at her.

"You look good, but tired. You shouldn't look so tired on your day off?" Mei questioned. She spotted the nutrition bar on the counter and declared, "We're going out for breakfast!"

Danika protested, "I have something that I need to look into, and messages waiting that I need to answer for work!"

"Are you scheduled to be working right now?" Mei questioned sharply. "It doesn't show on your calendar."

"No, but it's important to my friend," Danika explained quickly.

"It can wait," Mei declared. "I'm sure your friend will understand." She slid off the floor again and patted Danika's chair. "C'mon. The faster you give in, the sooner I'll let you go after you meet up with your guy," she said sweetly.

Danika put her foot down, figuratively, and pointed at the floor beside her. "You, wait here, while I at least go through my messages and check on a couple of things. Then we can go out to eat. But I seriously doubt that you're staying until my next date with Shinichi in two weeks."

She scooted over to the VR-medi pod and pulled herself over the edge as Mei frowned and protested, "Two weeks?"

"Yeah, because his band is on tour," Danika replied dryly as she closed the pod.

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