In the middle of the night, Mia was awoken by Aimee nudging her shoulder. She drowsily pressed her fingers against Aimee's lips, who blushed before telling her to get dressed, as her & Makoto needed to tell her something. After the two were clothed, Makoto stepped inside.

  "You ever hear of a nightlight?" she yawned, flipping the light on.

  Mia snuffed her flaming orange hand out. "What is it?"

  "One sec. Makoto." said Aimee, gesturing to her.

  Makoto took Mia & Aimee's phones off the nightstand and tapped them. "Symphony: Tone Deaf."

  "You didn't wake Matoi up, right?" said Aimee and she shrugged.

  "The chick sleeps like she's a fucking vampire, so I dunno." Makoto sat down. "Thanks for pairing me with her too, dick. I wouldn't have minded Marisa, you know. At least then I'd have something to look at."

  "A certain somebody requested Aimee not place you with her." chimed Mia.

  Makoto shrugged. She figured Marisa was just a few well-placed jokes away from letting her taste under the rainbow anyhow. "Anyway, I just made it so your phone won't make any noise or send any audio. No FBI, no CIA, no secret state shit."

  Mia looked at Aimee, who nodded reassuringly to her. "Mia, I can trust you to keep a secret, right?"

  "…of course." She placed her hands on Aimee's. "What is it?"

  "So, the... Revenant that you fought with Makoto. It sounded familiar to me when you were describing the ability, so I went back through my presidential reports. Like I said a few months ago, I get reports of Revenants of other countries' professionals. Whether that's to keep students aware for any tourists or to know if someone is where they shouldn't be. The Revenant you fought is from Ningsing Academy. China's professionals."

  Mia frowned, and a cold feeling sat in her stomach. "And I assume you're telling me this because China knows he attacked us."

  "Can't say for certain. But the Revenant Marisa described in the plane, too. What little I saw of the second host. There was a string of assassinations in a few African countries a year or so back involving a corrosive mist decaying them from the inside-out. Dunno if you know, but China does a lot of business with Africa these days, too."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Colonization by debts and Revenants instead of germs and guns." muttered Mia. "There were passages alluding to it on the book on Ningsing you bought for me, but I thought that perhaps... and attacking this girl Lanara... If it does turn out to be their professionals, then what should we do?"

  Aimee looked to Makoto and gestured to their phones and tablets. "Check again?"

  "I did it."

  "I said check again."

  "Bitch, I swear..." Makoto took their phones again. "Symphony: Tone Deaf." She threw them down. "I already told you they can't listen, motherfucker!"

  "Fine." said Aimee. "Destroy their Revenants."

  Mia frowned. "But we can't just let them get away with it. Isn't there something we can do?"

  "Uh, like report it to staff?" said Makoto. "They'd probably say Aimee is a Chinese spy and then remove Saya's Revenant for some fucking reason."

  "Yeah." said Aimee. "I just… I don't think it's a good idea to get involved. At all. This is a government job, too. Even just scanning one of these Revenants can tell somebody that we ran into professional Chinese Revenants. One of us gets brought in for questioning and - I don't know what kind of political chaos plays out from there. Especially when if they're doing it to us, we're probably doing it to them, too."

  "That reminds me of something." muttered Makoto. "Lemme see your phone, I gotta look something up."

  Aimee handed Makoto her phone. After a minute, Makoto showed them an image of someone using a block of dry ramen as a rubber stamp, captioned "HOW TO WRITE IN CHINESE". Neither laughed.

  "You should show that to Matoi." said Aimee. "Bet she would really find it funny."

  Thinking of that, Mia smiled a little. "…I suppose there's not much we can do, then."

  "Just do the same shit we do to every other host." said Makoto. "Plaster their guts down six different avenues and then get bitched out by civilians because you didn't do it fast enough. God, I can't wait until we're back in New York. Every other state is just a bunch of ungrateful fucking gutter trash."

  "Do you think it has anything to do with Lanara?" said Mia to Aimee.

  "Uh, then they'd be sending them to attack her." said Makoto. "I mean, c'mon, really-"

  "Not if they know we're on our way, dumbass." said Aimee. "Not like our flight records aren't public. And they could make a reasonable guess at the route we're taking from here. S'why I'm going to take some backroads on our way." She sighed. "Might give Atori some time to help clear her family's debt, too. Can't get her in to witness protection otherwise."

  "He should just rob a bank, I heard that works for some people." yawned Makoto.

  Aimee looked to Mia as if an attack hound awaiting command, who yawned and placed her hand to muzzle Aimee's mouth. "Mmm... I'm tired. You can deal with the little bitch tomorrow when I'm alert enough to enjoy it."