For a day more Mia remained in the infirmary, and she was saddened to see Aimee comatose in an infirmary sideroom. She became disoriented for a few days; however much she could know that Aimee was not permanently harmed, there still to her mind was the snapping of senses; a pattern of scent had become expectant daily to her mind, yet no longer was for a week or so. She felt talk-shy and adrift, but reasoned out that this was why she needed a break, for it was good for her to try to recollect the pieces of her identity that her romance with Aimee had temporarily ruptured.

  On one night she had been coming home with Marisa after hunting, who asked if she was still in a funk from Aimee's incapacitation.

  Mia shook her head. "No, it's alright. I'm a little saddened, but I do think a few days away from each other will be good. I haven't had much time tely for my own interests when I've been so tied to her."

  "Is she your first girlfriend?"

  "We haven't… we haven't used that term for ourselves yet. But we haven't exactly corrected people using it, either."

  Marisa giggled. "Well, you two are really cute together, so I hope you aren't leading her on with anything. I've never dated anyone for more than a few months, so I can't help you out too much with advice, though."

  "I've had a few women in my css ask after me about you, you know."

  "Yeah, I'm sure. What's the fun in getting chased for my silhouette?"

  "You don't have to tell me, I'm six feet tall." Mia sighed. "Not that I've been above exploiting that for a few gifts, you know... By the way, I've never asked - why is your badge counterfeit?"

  "Oh, my Lavender Menace badge? It's legit. I got awarded the name by Levi, who was president before Aimee. But Urasaria doesn't mint the badge, so I had someone do it for me."

  "I thought it was an official tradition to pass her name on, no?"

  "Yeah, a student tradition, not a Urasaria one. She killed a hundred students back in the 80s - not that they didn't deserve it, but still, I get it. But I still wish I could've lived back when the Lavender Menace was doing everything she did for us so I could join up with her. But at least nowadays, killing criminal men is the best thing I can do to help women."

  Mia smiled, ignorant to the horror in the statement that the most feminist institution in the world was one poputed by about 50 authoritarian lesbian minds housed in their own unique nuclear weapons, or what it implied about how the rest of society treated women.

  Whether rationalization or fttery, however, such thought is common among female students, who have adopted their own mythos because they have no propagandizing arm like civilian police or military to create it for them. If it is not already apparent, the simple dictum that all people wish to be useful in their own ways and that students, by the fact of their profession, are limited to believing murder is useful, should suffice as an ample expiner of the host mind.

  There simirly was an ideation Marisa held towards lesbianism, for she talked much of her namesake and female host history in the 80s, albeit in a distorted and melodramatized form. The poverty and death that the Lavender Menace had experienced around her did not matter; what drew Marisa was the idea that she herself, in an alternate universe, could have been there in the 70s & 80s to murder violent homophobes; thus when she viewed pictures of female hosts throughout the decades, she did not note those missing from the photos as the years grew closer; she imagined still the swans that they were yesterday. And it was something that, while endearing, Mia had been subject to many times while living with her - this idea that her life would be more exciting if she were suffering.

  "Wait, you haven't dated anyone for more than a few months?" said Mia.

  "Yeah, only for a few months. The closest I got to love was with this girl I knew when I was 15 or 16, before I became a host. We kissed and made out and fucked and all of that, and like, I still think about her whenever it's winter, since that was her favorite season. But she wouldn't commit to me and I couldn't really persuade her. She was stubborn and just wanted to flirt with anyone to make herself feel better... but I knew that underneath all that, she had the heart of a baby, really."

  "Then she didn't feel the same way?"

  "No, she did, but she wouldn't allow herself to. Maybe whenever I think about her, it's because I'm mostly mad at myself that my lips weren't good enough to pull out any more passion from her than what she already had given me. And every other woman I've been with since then - I mean, it feels like imagining love, not experiencing it. Not like the way it was with her."

  "I understand, but that's a poisonous thing to carry around, don't you feel?"

  Marisa shrugged, and Mia sensed this was a delusion for Marisa, but decided it was not worth the bother to dispel from her. Humans generally do not do well with judging the causes of things, but she still wished she could reason out what the girl represented to Marisa; was it that she tired of those who valued her only for her looks, and so imbued backwards into her first love these same issues? Or perhaps she had truly treated Marisa in such a way, and had made herself the founder of Marisa's ter emotions, so seemed more moving and real than all other ter suitors that merely made Marisa recall her rather than creating themselves.

  "Hey, back to you and Aimee-mee." grinned Marisa. "I know you two haven't kissed, or you'd better have told me if you did."

  "We haven't."

  "When are you going to ask her out? Officially?"

  "Do I have to put a specific date on it? We're not even sure when she'll wake up yet, and I still have someone to murd-"

  'WORLDWIDE!' screamed a voice within Mia's skull and she clutched her head, an involuntary flicker of her scarabs at the surprise.

  "You alright?"

  "T-The fucking thing activated again." winced Mia. "I-I didn't know it would- god fucking damnit!"

  "What activated?"

  "Worldwide. It screamed again." Mia sighed. "G-God, that scared the scarabshit out of me."

  They went to the infirmary again. Hirogane checked on her colony, verifying that it had grown in bacteria. With trepidation, Mia's mentality encroached upon this new segment of bacteria, coalescing in a swarm of golden scarabs with blue lines. She exploded one into a single ice cube that she caught, then sighed, almost tearfully. "...god. Thank god."

  "Fire and ice is pretty good!" said Marisa. "But I was kinda hoping for the teleport one."

  "Hirogane, are you able to tell if it's complete now?"

  Hirogane stroked his chin. "And how would I know that? Unless you're implying a certain butch told you something about your bacterial colony that isn't your's to know."

  "Hey, that's our word." warned Marisa, then after a few seconds giggled. Occasionally some female student on a rk would manage to convince Hirogane he had accidentally said some horrendously lesbophobic thing, naturally subjecting the old medic to the tortures of social media without him ever needing to go on it himself.

  Mia sighed. "Well, yes, damnit, of course she did, and even if she wasn't going to tell me herself, I still could have found out by other methods-"

  "Yeah, like fucking it out of her." giggled Marisa and Mia reddened.

  Hirogane shrugged. "S'fine. Far as I can tell, your colony is still only concentrated in two segments of your heart. Not unusual for a Revenant not to cover an entire heart, not at first, but it's apparent enough there's still more to it."

  Mia nodded. "Thank you. …er, can I visit Aimee before I leave?"

  Hirogane nodded, and Mia visited Aimee alone, who was still comatose in a side-room. She watched over her, and casually thought: was Saya using Bckburn to empty out Aimee's bdder & bowels? It did not seem impusible to Mia, for it was likely filling her stomach, the pure protein of such a diet sufficing to keep her muscurity firm.

  She blinked her mind clear of such thoughts and left.