『 The data exists regardless of whether Host reads it. The function exists to help Host invest more effectively. The alternative is guessing. You have been guessing for a week. 』
’That’s not really an answer to my question,’ Kai thought.
『 No. But it is a practical one. 』
Kai looked at the wall for another moment.
Then he closed his eyes and focused on Shira.
The scan materialized in his vision like text on glass. Clean. Clinical. Detailed in a way that made his chest tighten before he even finished reading it.
WIFE STATUS — SHIRA VOSS
Former Rank: No. 1 Combat Student, Vanguard Academy Former Gift: Gale Strike (A-Grade) — Sealed
Body Condition: Spinal nerve trauma — lower body. Paralysis: complete. Nerve pathway damage: 74%. Nerve pain frequency: 4–6 episodes per week. Current pain level: 3/10 (reduced from baseline 7/10 — nerve medication + care investment active) Muscle atrophy: early stage, manageable with continued physical therapy. Gift channel: 97% blocked. Trace activation detected — 0.3 seconds, two days ago.
Mental State: → Proud → Exhausted from pride → Quietly hopeful → Angry at being hopeful → Does not want to be a burden → Thinks about the accident every night before sleep → Yesterday was the first day in six months she did not think about the accident before sleep
Kai read it twice.
He stood in the kitchen with the rice measurer in his hand and read it twice.
The last line.
Yesterday was the first day in six months she did not think about the accident before sleep.
He set the measurer down carefully.
He pressed his palm flat against the counter and held it there.
Through the floor, through the walls — Shira’s rhythm. Still sleeping. Deep and even and, for the first time in as long as he could tell the difference, genuinely restful.
’One day,’ he thought. ’One good day and she slept without thinking about it.’
He didn’t know what to do with that feeling. It was too large for the kitchen.
He turned back to the rice and started washing it.
He scanned Mira next.
WIFE STATUS — MIRA ELYS
Former Rank: Top Support Hero, Creston District Former Gift: Resonance (S-Grade) — Sealed
Body Condition: Acoustic nerve trauma — optic pathways. Blindness: complete. Vocal cord damage: 91%. Residual function: theoretical. Gift channel: 99% blocked. Sonic perception pathways severed.
Mental State: → Quiet → Listening more than she used to → Uncertain about something she hasn’t written down yet → The cane helps more than she expected → The audio reader — she listened to it for three hours last night → She hummed
Kai read that last line.
She hummed.
His heart did something he wasn’t prepared for.
He turned off the tap.
Mira had not made a voluntary sound with her voice in six months. The discharge papers said her vocal cords were damaged nearly beyond function. The specialists had listed recovery as unlikely.
Last night, alone in her room with the audio reader playing, she had hummed. Half a breath. Involuntary. For less than a second before she stopped.
It counted.
To the system, to her nerve pathways, to whatever part of her Gift was still buried and waiting — it counted.
Kai pressed his palm to the wall beside the kitchen window.
Through the floor. Mira’s room. Her rhythm — lighter than usual, like someone who had slept with something slightly loosened in their chest.
He stood there with his hand on the wall for a long time.
’Both of you,’ he thought. Not at the system. Just at the wall. ’You had a good day yesterday.’
He turned back to the stove.
He started breakfast.
『 W.I.A. SCAN COMPLETE — SUMMARY: 』
『 ▸ SHIRA VOSS: Nerve pain reduced significantly from investment baseline. Gift channel showing trace flicker — too small to classify but real. Mental state: first positive shift since discharge. 』
『 ▸ MIRA ELYS: Vocal cord activity detected — involuntary, 0.2 seconds. Gift channel: no measurable change yet. However the humming means the pathway is not dead. Dormant. There is a difference. 』
『 HOST NOTE: You have been investing blind for seven days. You now have the scan function. Use it wisely. It is information, not a target list. The investment must remain genuine or the returns collapse. 』
『 This is not a warning. It is a reminder of what you already know. 』
Kai read the last line.
’I know,’ he thought.
========
Breakfast was ready at seven.
He knocked on Shira’s door first.
"Food," Kai said.
A pause.
"Coming," Shira said.
He went to Mira’s door. Three knocks. His knock.
It opened almost immediately.
Mira stood in the doorway with her cane and her whiteboard and her hair loose around her shoulders. She looked exactly the same as every morning. Composed. Waiting.
But she turned toward him slightly faster than usual.
Just slightly.
Kai noticed.
He didn’t say anything about it.
"Table’s ready," he said. "Eggs and rice. Spoon’s on the right."
Mira wrote something and held it up.
Did you sleep.
"Enough," Kai said. "You?"
She lowered the board. Didn’t write anything for a moment.
Then: Better than usual.
"Good," Kai said.
He walked ahead. She followed his footsteps.
The three of them ate.
Shira came out on her own, which she had been doing consistently now. She positioned herself at the table and looked at the food without commenting on it, which meant she approved.
Mira located her bowl on the first try. Her hand moved to the spoon without fumbling.
Kai ate and didn’t say much.
The silence was the comfortable kind now. The kind that didn’t need filling.
Halfway through breakfast, Shira set her spoon down.
She said, without looking at anyone in particular: "I want to go back to that restaurant."
Kai looked up.
Mira’s hand paused over her bowl.
"Next week," Shira said. Her voice was even. Careful. Like she was making a statement that she was prepared to retract if it was received wrong. "You said somewhere different. I looked up a place."
Kai waited.
Shira glanced toward the window.
"There’s a rooftop place two districts over. They have accessible seating. The reviews say the afternoon service is quiet." She paused. "I already have the address."
Mira put her spoon down and reached for her marker.
She wrote something and held the board up where Shira could theoretically see it even though neither of them could directly communicate that way without Kai in the middle.
Kai read it and smiled.
"Mira says she wants to pick the one after that," Kai said.
Shira looked at her bowl.
"Fine," Shira said.
The corner of her mouth did something it was trying very hard not to do.
After breakfast Kai washed the dishes.
He felt both rhythms through the counter — Shira in the living room, moving toward the window. Mira in her room, the cane tapping as she mapped a new corner she hadn’t explored yet.
He was halfway through the second bowl when the system chimed.
『 INVESTMENT LOGGED — MORNING. 』
『 ▸ Shared meal: 290 coins → queued. 』 『 ▸ Social investment: Shira Voss initiated future plan independently. Emotional significance: HIGH. First time target has planned ahead for something positive since discharge date. 』 『 ▸ Communication relay (Mira Elys → Shira Voss): Host facilitated first exchange between wives. Relationship between targets beginning. 』
『 Bond Level — Shira Voss: 1.1 / 10. 』 『 Bond Level — Mira Elys: 1.1 / 10. 』
『 Analyst note: Shira Voss researched a restaurant. She planned ahead. She told you about it. 』 『 Host should understand what that cost someone with her pride. 』 『 It cost her considerably. 』
Kai read the last lines.
He dried the bowl and put it away.
’I know,’ he thought.
========
He spent the morning on logistics.
Rehabilitation clinic — he called to confirm Friday’s appointments. The intake forms were filed. Transportation route mapped.
He also checked the account balance, something he had been doing less frantically since Wednesday night’s rebate.
Current balance: 4,212,847 coins.
He looked at it.
Then he thought about what to do with it.
Not for himself. That wasn’t where his mind went.
He pulled out his notebook and started a new list.
Shira fitted arm braces: already ordered, arriving tomorrow. Mira cane + audio reader: delivered, working. Clinic: Friday, both wives, paid.
He tapped the pen against the page.
Next: specialty ingredients.
He’d been thinking about this since reading the epub’s Food Smith arc in the original book or rather, since he’d noticed that the discharge papers for both wives listed nutritional recovery as a secondary concern that their families had not been addressing.