The air in Clitify's War Room was recycled and thin, tasting of electric smoke and the scorched-dust scent of fifty humming cooling fans.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the Tokyo skyline was a jagged neon dream, but inside, the world had narrowed down to the few inches of desk space between Makoto and Yui.
Then, Makoto's voice crackled through the speakers.
"Yui-san, I..." he said, his voice quiet but surprisingly firm. He reached out and gently but decisively removed her hand from his sleeve. "I'm flattered."
"You're an incredible designer. Honestly, having you as a partner was the only thing that kept me sane in this office." He gently but firmly pulled his hand back, placed it on his own lap, reclaiming his space.
Yui's smile faltered, her fingers curling into the empty air of the desk. "What do you mean, senpai?"
"I'm happy hearing that invite," Makoto continued, looking her directly in the eyes. "Truly. You're talented and kind, and any guy would be lucky to have a glass of sake with you on a balcony."
He turned to his phone, glancing at the lockscreen. "But I already had a family waiting for me," he said with a tired smile touching his lips. "A loud and very jealous family."
Yui glanced at the photo, then back at him. "A family? But you said you were focusing on work. You said relationships were complicated."
"They are," Makoto agreed, leaning back in his chair. "My life is a disaster, Yui. My living room looks like a bomb went off in a fabric store. I get yelled at for breathing too loudly. I have someone manage my own sleep schedule."
He let out a genuine laugh. "I spend half my salary on my stepsister's gacha games and the other half on Wagyu beef I don't even get to eat."
"It's a mess, and it's probably insane, Yui." He looked at the photo again, his gaze lingering on Yuna's face. "But I wouldn't trade a single second of that madness for a normal life. Because in that mess, I'm loved. Not as a reliable senpai or a Full-Stack Engineer, but as myself, just a stupid fat pig."
He chuckled, the sound rich with tired but absolute conviction. "They probably have my GPS tracked right now. They're probably analyzing the frequency of my heartbeats. If I went to your room for sake, the door would probably be kicked in by a girl in a trench coat before the cork even popped."
Yui blinked, her expression shifting to one of genuine confusion. "A trench coat? Makoto-senpai, are you… are you okay? Are you dizzy from all that coding?"
"I'm better than okay," Makoto said, standing up and slinging his laptop bag over his shoulder. "I'm claimed. And as much as a quiet night with you sounds like a dream… I think I'd miss the noises too much. I'm a man who needs a little bit of chaos to function."
He stood up, zipping his laptop bag. "The sake sounds great, Yui. But I think I'd rather go home and have my Main Wife tell me I'm a loser later. I'm going to finish the Family Module Prototype right here, in the loud lounge."
He gave her a polite bow. "Take a rest. I'll see you tomorrow morning for the demo, Yui-san."
===
In the living room, the tension broke and evaporated in a sudden, violent rush of air.
Yuna let out a choked, ragged sob and dropped the knife. It hit the floor with a dull thud, forgotten. She collapsed onto her knees, burying her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with the force of her relief.
"He said it," Yuna whispered, her voice rough. "The idiot… he actually said it out loud. Stupid… fat… pig…" she wailed, though the words were thick with agonizing love.
Mafuyu let out a long shuddering breath and slumped back against the sofa cushions. The tears she had been holding back finally spilled over, soaking into the fabric of her nightgown. She reached out blindly, her hand finding Yuna's shoulder, anchoring them both.
Ayane leaned her head against the front door, her eyes closed, her chest heaving as if she'd just run a marathon. "I thought… I really thought he might want a way out," She admitted, her voice dropping to a whisper. "A normal girl, a normal life. Who wouldn't want that after dealing with us?"
"Goddammit, Makoto," she whispered, a hysterical laugh bubbling up in her throat. "You really know how to play the lead, don't you?"
Mika didn't move for a long time. She sat staring at the tablet, at the blue dot that was now staying in the War Room. Slowly, she lifted her hand from the alarm button. Then she reached out and tapped the screen, closing the surveillance app. The red shield icon on the GPS tracker turned grey.
"I'm deleting the remote access," Mika announced, looking at her still shaking hands. "I don't need to hear anymore. He's staying with us."
Mafuyu finally let out a long shuddering sob. She didn't try to hide it, just let the tears flow, her head dropping forward. "He called us his life, Mika," Mafuyu choked out, the words a wet, happy blur. "He told her he wouldn't trade it for anything."
"We've been… we've been so hard on him with all that spying," Mafuyu said, looking at the others. "We were so scared of losing him that we were turning into the very things he should want to run away from."
Ayane walked over and wrapped an arm around Mafuyu's shoulders, pulling her into a side-hug. "Yeah. We're a bunch of psychos, aren't we?"
"Speak for yourself," Yuna muttered from the floor, though she finally pulled her hands away from her face. Her eyes were red-rimmed and watery, but the fire was back. "I'm his cute stepsister. You guys are the psychos who barged in."
Mika took off her glasses, her pink eyes shimmering in the dim light. She looked at the other three women, the women who were her rivals, her sisters, and her co-conspirators. She stood up, her movements wobbly.
She walked over to the sofa and sat down between Yuna and Mafuyu, pulling them both into a tight, silent embrace. "Hug me, Yuna, Mafuyu, I'm tired... so tired!"
The adrenaline began to fade, leaving behind a strange, quiet vulnerability in the room. The four of them sat together in the dark, the only sound the low hum of the refrigerator and the distant city traffic.
"I was so scared, you know," Yuna whispered, her voice small, muffled by Mika's shoulder. "I saw her message, or how she talked and looked up to him. I thought… why would he want to come back here? Why would he want to deal with me when she's so easy?"
"Me too," Ayane admitted, sitting on the floor at their feet. She was hugging her knees, looking smaller than Makoto had ever seen her. "I'm too much. I'm loud and aggressive, and I almost got him arrested in an alley. I thought he'd want someone who wears glasses and stays quiet."
Mika stroked Yuna's hair, her gaze fixed on the wall. "I thought a normal partner would be easier for him," she said softly. "I spent the last hour thinking he might leave. Then I realized I never had a plan for a life without him."
Mafuyu squeezed Mika's hand. "We're all a little broken," she murmured. "That's why we were so afraid."
Mafuyu suddenly winced, her hand flying to her mouth. She stood up and hurried to the kitchen, leaning over the sink.
"Mafuyu-nee?" Yuna asked, looking up.
"I'm fine," Mafuyu gasped, splashing cold water on her face. "Just… the relief. It made my stomach flip."
"My stomach feels weird lately, too," Yuna said suddenly, breaking the silence. She rubbed her belly, a confused look on her face. "I think the adrenaline gave me a cramp."
"Mine too," Ayane said, sitting down on the rug next to Yuna. "I'm starving, but the thought of those wasabi peas makes me want to throw up."
Ayane grunted. She suddenly turned pale, her eyes widening. "Ugh… actually… move over, Mamafu. I think I'm going to join you." She scrambled to the sink, the two of them standing side-by-side as they fought down a sudden, violent wave of nausea.
Yuna watched them, her brow furrowed. She went to stand up, but a wave of dizziness hit her so hard the room tilted. She fell back onto the sofa, her hand pressing into her temple.
"Everything… everything smells like old pennies again," Yuna groaned, her voice thick. "Mika, do you feel that? The air is… it's heavy."
Mika sat perfectly still. She didn't feel nauseated or dizzy, but she could feel a strange pulsing warmth in her lower abdomen, a biological ticking that felt louder than any clock. She looked at Mafuyu and Ayane at the sink, then at Yuna, clutching her head.
Mika's mind, even in its state of emotional exhaustion, began to process the new data: The morning sickness, the smell sensitivity, the sudden fatigue. The timing of their last session with Makoto.
A realization spread across Mika's face, a mixture of shock and triumph. "Oh, so that was it..." she whispered.
"What?" Yuna asked, squinting at her.
Mika didn't answer. She just looked at the front door, the one Makoto would walk through tomorrow.
===
The night deepened. One by one, they drifted off, exhausted by the emotional roller coaster. Too lazy and tired to return to their room, the girls dragged the blankets and pillows into the living room, creating a massive tangled nest of bedding on the floor.
Mafuyu fell asleep first, her head on Mika's lap. Ayane was sprawled across the end of the nest, her feet tangled with Yuna's.
Yuna was the last to close her eyes. "Hurry back, you fat pig," she thought, a fierce protective warmth filling her chest. "You have no idea how much we love you."
She drifted off, dreaming not of gacha pulls but of a house filled with a noise that would never, ever end.