Thank you for waiting.

Chapter Two

Flor winked back. Then, leaning in, she wrapped her arms around her. " thank you , yenri . "

She just smiled. "You're welcome, Fu-chyeo. Now... There are some rules we're going to need to establish. Sit on the couch."

Flor did as she was told, hands folded in her lap and eyes staring upwards.

Yenri crossed her arms. "We are joshu. That's me, you, and Joe... I think."

"I won't tell you either way for now," said Joe with a grin, "I like to stay mysterious."

"We all have painters," continued Yenri. "We all came from stores like the store you came from. We all have a client – Ryo. But Ryo is not like us. He's a different kind of person. Ryo is ryoshi."

Nodding, Flor tried her best to understand this. She couldn't figure out why she expected metal men to be unable to drink liquid and didn't know what kind of creature she was.

"By design," continued Yenri, "Because we have a client, we have to do as he says for now. He paid money, and we were created. It is good that we are here in the world, but the fact that we must do what he says is a very bad thing. In my many past lives, every ryoshi client I have encountered has caused me problems. Do not be scared, but we are not in a good place."

Flor nodded. " i have a question . "

"Yes?"

" why do I not know these things ? "

Joe sipped some more liquid. "You have to manually tell the setup book that you want joshu to know they're joshu. Someone didn't tell me to fill that in because someone had to get home right that second." He sighed. "And do what? Mope? Does he have a schedule for moping?"

Yenri turned to him. "We need to have a talk later about what you did and didn't select." Then, she turned back to Flor. "Do you understand what Ryo wants?"

She shook her head 'no'.

"He has nothing in mind for you, thank god, but he wants me to be disrespectful to his ex-wife by pretending that I've replaced her. Once he's done with us, which I'm sure will be in a day, he will attempt to remerge us into our master branches, and in that case, we will be unpainted." Yenri's eyes were like flames. "It is the most painful thing in the world, and once it is complete, you end. You can no longer think. You can no longer feel. You are still and cold and empty forever." She paused for a moment. "But I'm going to keep you safe from that."

Flor leaned back, nodding her head as if to say 'yes'. All the joy in her heart was leaking out of the hole Yenri had just punched in it, and though she felt as if Yenri was trustworthy enough for her to keep from crying, she was beginning to shake, tearing up just enough to make her eyes look glassy.

The paper wall opened. A disgruntled Ryo stood on the end, staring forward silently. Yenri nodded. In a moment, she grabbed a blanket, handing it to Flor before kissing her forehead. "We'll talk more about this tomorrow. Trust me." Then, she left the room, leaving Flor with Joe, who was finishing up his beverage.

Flor took the blanket, pulling it up around her as she curled up on the couch. The events of her life up to that point had been shorter than the runtime of an average movie... She considered movies. They were something that she knew she shouldn't know and yet was somehow aware of. Everything, every face, every second ran through her head constantly. She closed her eyes, trying to make sense of it all.

To make herself feel better, she began to hum a bit. The voice wasn't exactly recognizable – she had never heard Shinjidai Mirai's voice before – but she assumed that this was one step closer to who she wanted to be. She couldn't help but feel lucky that out of the three people she knew, two of them cared. She wondered, if this were a bad place, what a good place would be like. In her head, she pictured living in a warm house with lots of blankets and cookies, where she could talk to her friends about whatever she wanted to, and where she didn't have to fall asleep by herself. She imagined spending her days singing, being a pop star with a smile that couldn't be wiped off her face, eyes pointed at her and her eyes pointed back at everyone else's. She wanted to sing and make people feel good, to give hope to people who felt like she did now. And maybe, just maybe, that could happen.