In the post-incident interview—yes, there really was one—the second princess of France insisted she’d seen traces of the Shadow Realm War. She said they destroyed the last two cars of the skyrail.

She looked so fragile, like a willow in wind, yet kept working after a scare no one should bear—a buzzing saw jammed against her nape. The investigators from Britain and Mysidia felt pressing her further would slight France. So the matter wrapped clean, and the Shadow Realm War took the blame for all of it.

Which, honestly, wasn’t far from the truth.

After pinballing between two independent city-states in Europe, Yekase finally got the chance to roam an old European city. The world’s first to industrialize. For a mechanic and an Infinite Power engineer, it felt like a pilgrimage, iron and steam humming like a temple bell.

Dorothy got swarmed by interviews, then grilled by her father over the phone; she was wilted like a flower after rain. Yekase dumped her at the inn, and went out with Ling Yi, who joined later.

As for Lu Yao? She hacked the train, refused to linger a second, and headed back to Ivalice.

They spent the afternoon in the People’s History Museum, wading through archives on Britain’s working class, a river of soot and song. At night they soaked at Victoria Baths, tiled echoes and warm fog like drifting clouds.

“We’ve bathed together so many times,” Ling Yi said, voice a playful ripple.

“I’ve bathed with lots of people,” Yekase said, dry as flint.

Ling Yi kicked her under the water, a flick like a fish.

“What was that for?”

“Penalty for being a flirt.”

“…?”

If I tell her I used to hit public bathhouses before I became a girl, will she think I was into swinger parties?

Yekase glanced around. The bath was classical and airy, full of patrons and floating steam. She looked down at herself: not big, but clean lines, a shape that wouldn’t raise legal alarms in this setting.

“Hmm…”

She thought for a beat, then cut the Flash Energy feed to her eyes. Darkness folded in like a velvet curtain.

Ling Yi gave her a strange look, half rain, half sun.

No need to go that far… but the mood tugged a secret grin from her.

“Doc, can you turn off your perception?” Ling Yi asked, voice soft as mist.

“Eh, why? Without perception I’m truly blind.”

“I can hold you.”

“…”

Say no more. Another pervy trick learned from that slacker Jiang Bailu.

Yekase had no doubt. The longer those two stayed together, the more alike they’d become. Even if she watched, the slide wouldn’t slow. In the end they’d compare notes on how to tease her—north and south allied, two fronts, one siege.

She couldn’t see Ling Yi’s face, didn’t know steam and mischief had painted sunset clouds across an eighteen-year-old’s cheeks. Ling Yi checked the room, eyes like swallows, making sure no gaze fell on them. Then she leaned in, a fox on silent paws, toward Yekase’s profile.

She held her breath to stay invisible.

Yekase’s ruby eyes stared hollow into the dark, arms hugging her knees by instinct. The strong, certain Doctor wore, for a heartbeat, the small helpless look of a child. Ling Yi swayed, lightheaded—maybe not just from the soak.

We already kissed, she thought. So what’s left to hesitate over? But that was on a quiet flying platform edge; here, footsteps and chatter and water stirring kept calling: this is a public place.

Her heart tried to break her ribs. Her body mistook this for battle, pumped adrenaline and Mind Energy, sent it roaring through a trained circuit. The tips of her hair flickered with a faint, verdant flame.

Doc will scold me, right? And if a stranger spots us kissing, shame will burn. But… to do nothing is harder than firewalking.

Ling Yi braced her hands on the pool ledge. She wrapped a certain one-meter-sixty person in her arms, leaned down, and kissed, like dusk brushing a window.

“I knew you’d—mm—”

Yekase’s mutter got sealed.

The kiss was short, a comet’s tail. Ling Yi’s skin wasn’t as thick as Jiang Bailu’s; she tasted those soft lips twice, then sat back, cheeks pink with steam and guilt.

For the next ten minutes, they sat still, shoulder to shoulder, silent as stones under water.

Ling Yi was shy, a fawn who’d bolted and now froze.

Yekase was thinking why she hadn’t refused. Was she… the term is what—“permanent bottom”?

She only saw Ling Yi and Jiang Bailu as comrades-in-arms, a bond above romance, iron shared through fire. But they didn’t seem to agree.

She urged herself to clarify, tell them to stop pushing the line. Yet she worried it would hurt them. No—she was certain it would.

It’s not a man-woman thing anyway, she thought. Keeping this as it is… isn’t that fine?

The thought landed and startled her like thunder.

No. Gender isn’t the point.

No, no. Objectively, this is two ships with one pair of feet.

Splash!

Yekase shot up out of the water.

“I—I don’t want to kiss you anymore!”

…

No no no—what kind of line is that?

Steam-dazed brain, wake up!

“D-Doctor?!”

Ling Yi cried out, grabbed Yekase’s hips in a desperate hug. Her damp hair brushed between Yekase’s thighs like the tail of a river cat.

Yekase’s legs slackened. She sat back down, water blooming.

“Doc, you’re so soft.”

“Where did you learn those filthy lines… ok, don’t answer, I already know.”

“Actually, I called Bailu-jie. She said, as long as I don’t touch below, she doesn’t mind sharing you.”

“Great powers carving up colonies? What about my consent?!”

And with Jiang Bailu off in another city to “study,” you call her and blow the one-night, part-ways atmosphere to dust!

Ling Yi took that chicken feather for an imperial edict. A thought flashed—messing around above water is risky. So under water, no eyes will catch us.

Balafaruth drew a deep breath…

Then pounced on Yekase like a hunting beast.

The poor blind girl didn’t even know what hit her. A surge pinned her under, and bathwater rushed into nose and ears like cold rivers.

She tried to open her mouth to shout, but another mouth sealed her tight… and breath came from there, warm and stolen.

Touch was already sharp; without sight it multiplied. Even the tongue’s tastebuds felt mapped and lit.

Her struggle did nothing, like reeds in a current. She could only feel heat wrap her body, and limbs softer and hotter than the pool twine around her.

They hit the tile at the bottom. No breath left—lungs like hammered drums.

Why does it always turn into a choking play? As she considered this solemn question, gill-like slits opened along her neck. Through them, she drew water’s thin breath, aquatic as a carp.

They held each other on the bottom, out of every gaze, silent as stones under silt. Ling Yi noticed the underwater breathing trick, then stole the not-yet-spent oxygen from Yekase’s mouth on purpose. Yekase nearly blacked out, stars spinning in a green sky.

Ten minutes later, Ling Yi guided her gently to the surface.

“Doc, you must be tired from soaking. Let’s rest.”

“Because of… you.”

Ling Yi led the unseeing Doc with a calm air, like a guide with a night lamp, and brought her into the lounge.

Inside the room, Yekase finally exhaled. She reloaded the eye modules, and vision swam back with soft halos.

Then she saw Ling Yi in a pink bathrobe.

The bath’s robe was thin. It framed her budding curves and pale shoulders and neck like moonlight on porcelain. Yekase jolted on the spot, almost killed the screen again.

“Doctor?”

When Ling Yi called Jiang Bailu, she learned Yekase had no real concept of love, but her body reacted normally to women’s bodies. Thinking back—at home baths and massage parlors, Yekase’s gaze always kept a respectful distance. She never stared just because she was also a girl. So… that confirms Ling Yi has “female” charm, right?

Joy bloomed in her chest, a peony opening at dusk. She lunged, wrapping Yekase in a hug, pressing her arm between two soft hills.

“Doc, do you think I’m pretty?”

“…Why ask that out of nowhere?”

“Girlfriends ask each other. It’s normal.”

“Bullying me because I don’t get what girlfriends do?”

“So, am I pretty?”

Ling Yi tilted her head up under Yekase’s cheekbone. Steam had painted blush on her face; wet hair clung to her temples and neck like ink strokes. The youth Yekase knew wore, tonight, a playful, coy glow.

“Ling Yi, are you…”

“Mm?”

“Are you seducing me?”

…

Ling Yi blinked, lost, surprised the question turned back on her.

Yekase slipped free of the hug, set her hands on Ling Yi’s shoulders, and rested her forehead to hers. Their breaths met like two warm currents.

“Listen. You’re an adult. I’m not your parent. I don’t mind, and can’t stop you, from learning and trying things. Whether Bailu ‘led you astray’ or not—if you can tell your targets apart, it’s fine. I’m always on your side. Whatever you do to me is fine.”

In Yekase’s ruby eyes, Ling Yi saw her own reflection, small and bright.

As Yekase spoke, her breath brushed Ling Yi’s lips, held tight with nerves, like wind over a reed.

“But I—and all of us—don’t want you turning your body into a weapon. Don’t become a girl who clings to and pleases others just to survive.”

“…”

Yekase eased her hands off Ling Yi’s shoulders, worried she’d gripped too hard, stroked lightly in apology, then turned and clicked on the TV with the remote.

Ling Yi folded her arms, pouted, a cat with its tail up. “It’s all your fault.”

“…Is it my fault?”