Do Not Spare the Shaman (6)
"For the rest of this trip, I decide the menu. Majority vote? There isn't one."
The meal was over when Guroyuki Sui declared it. Her face was as blank as ever, but her eyes had gone halfway unhinged. Hitomi had watched Rin's streams long enough to read that emotion without the slightest doubt, and Bansei—the one actually caught in the stare—could hardly have been reading it any differently. Streamer cadence was slipping into Guroyuki's speech without her noticing. She was, unmistakably, emotional.
And really, the reaction was only natural. She had picked at the seonji, congealed ox blood, as if she could barely stand to put it in her mouth, and in the end she had fled to the restroom and brought every bite of it back up.
"Well. It is the sort of food people either love or hate..."
"You fed it to me knowing that? Bansei-chan, I told you plainly. First time in Korea. I was really looking forward to it."
"I-I'm sorry."
"Do aegyo for me once, right now, and I'll forgive you."
"...H-huh? Wait. How did the conversation end up there?"
It had taken a sudden, senseless swerve, and Bansei's eyes went perfectly round.
"You thought only of your own tastes and dragged me to a place people are sharply split on. That was wrong. Correct?"
"No, I mean, that part is true, but..."
"Are you denying it?"
"S-still, if we're being precise, I wasn't the only one who agreed..."
"Ninomae-chan gets a pass!"
"Eh?"
Named out of nowhere, Hitomi tilted her head, unable to follow the logic at all. A moment later she caught on. Guroyuki had simply decided this was her chance to tease Bansei. Actress by training, retired or not—a sulk of this caliber would be nothing to her. If she wasn't truly hurt, then that was good enough. Hitomi smiled, small and bright, and abandoned Bansei to her fate, quietly ignoring the rescue signal being beamed her way.
She did feel a little sorry. Honestly, though, she had wanted to see it at least once. What in the world was more entertaining than someone else's aegyo?
So instead she leaned lightly against Han Seoyeon and drew out her smartphone, meaning to upload the photos she had taken over the meal.
It was a little dispatch for the viewers who would be wondering how the trip was going. They had permission to stream from overseas, but with no equipment brought along, any broadcast would be voice alone, and that was bound to feel thin as content. The post was meant to make up, even slightly, for Mary's absence from the screen. She also wanted the images banked in advance, ready for a travel-review stream once they were home.
The Italy retrospective had ended up woefully spare—the Secrecy Protocol on one side, and the fact that they had spent nearly half the trip shut in a hotel on the other. This time Hitomi was out for revenge. A proper overseas-travel review, at last.
"All right. Then... Shion-san?"
Whether the conversation had simply run its course, or Guroyuki had teased her fill and was satisfied, she called for Han Seoyeon. Hitomi was still typing. Seoyeon, who had gathered her in from behind and was nuzzling her cheek, lifted her head at the summons.
"Yes. Guroyuki-san."
"As a Korean, is there anywhere you'd recommend? Somewhere you absolutely have to go if you come to Korea."
A natural question, with a Korean in the party. Han Seoyeon only gave a bitter smile.
"I never came back to Korea all that often myself. And even then it was mostly for work, so as far as sightseeing goes..."
"Ah..."
Seoyeon had wandered the world beside her master since she was small. She had her identity as a Korean, but everyday culture was knowledge she couldn't help lacking. On that score, Japan—where she had lived for three years since coming of age—might well have been the more familiar country of the two.
"What am I supposed to do. I was counting entirely on Shion-san. Bansei-chan, don't you have anything? You've been to Korea, haven't you?"
"That was nearly ten years ago, and I only dropped in briefly for work myself..."
"Ninomae-chan... you said this was your first time in Korea to begin with."
Had they hit a wall? Guroyuki turned that exact look on Seoyeon.
"It's all right. I have contacts on the Church side, so if I ask over there..."
It was the same approach she had taken in Japan. Back when the culture and the ordinary social knowledge were still unfamiliar, she had leaned often on the Church's people, and the others were just starting to relax—so there had been a way after all—when, for some reason, Han Seoyeon let the sentence die and closed her mouth.
"Shion? Is something the matter?"
"No. Another thought just occurred to me."
The same policy as Japan. But there was no need to follow it here as well. Back then she had possessed no other choice. In Korea, even Han Seoyeon's painfully narrow circle of acquaintances offered one option more.
"Please wait a moment. I'll find us a guide."
Seoyeon took out her phone.
Ten minutes after lunch, back at her desk, the post-meal drowsiness was just beginning to settle in, and Yu Hyena reached for her coffee. She had stopped at a café on the way back to buy it. Half-melted ice clinked inside the cup. She took a sip, stared at the monitor, and immediately set to hammering the keyboard—writing code as if possessed, pausing to think, then deleting the last few lines without hesitation and racing on again.
"—Director Yu!"
"...Yes?"
She had been at it for a long stretch when a voice calling her made her whip her head around. From the raised volume, she had been concentrating too hard to hear the first several tries. It happened often, to her and to her colleagues alike.
"You've got a call."
"Ah... sorry. I had no idea."
At the follow-up she picked up her phone, looking sheepish.
"Huh."
She realized almost at once that it wasn't a phone call. A song was ringing out, but it wasn't the ringtone she ordinarily used. It was the default incoming tone on her voice-chat app, and the name on the screen belonged to an internet friend. Even so, it was strange. They talked now and then about games, or about VTubers, but a sudden contact on a weekday afternoon was difficult to account for. The other party knew she had a job. This, at least, was clearly not a let's-play-something call.
"Hello. What's going on, calling out of nowhere at this hour?"
Yu Hyena stepped away from her desk and accepted. What came through was a voice she had grown reasonably used to.
"Ah. Have you been well, Furry?"
"No—never mind that. What are you doing right now?"
"The company, obviously."
"I was wondering if you could step out."
"No, I'm telling you, I'm at the company. ...Hold on."
What on earth was she saying? Yu Hyena had started to press her on it when something felt off, and she asked again.
"Step out? To where? Don't tell me you're in Korea right now?"
"Yes. So I was hoping you could guide us a little. I'll buy you a meal."
"Have you lost it? You think you can just spring that on someone? What do you even take a working adult for..."
"Do you still not know why I'm in Korea?"
"What?"
An absurd demand. And yet the Holy Knight—Han Seoyeon—answered with perfect confidence. At that attitude, Yu Hyena paused to think. Under any other circumstances she would have torn into her for the sheer nerve of it, but she knew this was not a person who did things for no reason at all.
Why had Han Seoyeon come to Korea? Had it been simple sightseeing, she would never have bothered with a question like that. So there was some errand. Official business? And it was information Yu Hyena was in a position to come across, enough that Seoyeon could ask whether she still didn't know. Han Seoyeon. Baptismal name, Margarita. Usually called Sister, and for the time being she had even been given a virtual name on top of the rest: Hinata Shion.
"...Wait. Don't tell me."
"I'd say that 'don't tell me' is probably the right one."
If that official business concerned Anathema Production, then of the Korea-related matters already released to viewers, there was only one.
"She's here right n— no. Better this way than if I say it. ...Would you say a word? Japanese is fine."
Han Seoyeon murmured something. Then, through the call, came the sound of her calling someone over. A moment later—
"I-It's a pleasure to meet you...?"
"...So. Where are you right now?"
Less than a minute after that, Yu Hyena was back in the office, regarding her staff, and announcing it with perfect composure.
"I'm taking a half-day starting now, so take note!"
"You walk in out of nowhere and what are you even saying, Director?!"
"Objections will not be heard! I'm clocking out!"
"Hey, will somebody stop her?! She was perfectly normal, so why is she suddenly like this?!"
"You can't talk her down once she gets like that. I've been watching the director since way back. I know. That was her face right before she bailed on the company and built this place."
There were times, Yu Hyena was certain, when a person simply had to grind her whole life away for the sake of her oshi.