In a car driving down the street were Ocho and Sifon, who was in the passenger seat; Ocho was driving. "Well, we'll be there soon," said Ocho, driving carefully and taking a few shortcuts.
After a while, they arrived at a restaurant. Ocho parked the car and got out, and Sifon got out too. Sifon was confused that they had arrived at a restaurant and not a house.
"If you're wondering, the restaurant is downstairs, and my house is upstairs," said Eight.
"I see. So that's where you live," said Siphon, looking up at an apartment above.
First, they went to the restaurant, where a man was working. "Hello, Droxel, how are you?" Eight greeted the man working at the restaurant.
"Hello, Keichiro, how are you? I see you brought a friend," said Droxel, the man working at the restaurant.
"And what does that mean?" said Siphon.
"Ah… well, he's a friend of mine since my wife works here at this restaurant," said Eight.
"I see. But he looks very kind—though I can tell he must get melancholy sometimes," said Sifon.
"Don't say that—he's a nice guy," said Ocho.
"Hey, just in case, do you know if she's upstairs today? I wanted to introduce her to my friend," said Ocho.
"Yeah, actually, she's watching the kids up there. She told me to let you know if I saw you," said Droxel.
"Aha."
"Cough… Cough… You damn idiot, you forgot your .30-caliber pistol again!" said Droxel, pointing at Eight.
"One of the kids found it—you'd better take it away from them right away because of your carelessness! The kids will pick up bad habits if you aren't more organized!" shouted Droxel.
"Wow, you're just like him," said Eight, laughing.
"You're right, haha," laughed Droxel as he spoke.
"What's wrong with these guys?" thought Sifon.
"Well, we'd better go right now," said Ocho, grabbing Sifon as they left.
They exited the restaurant through the front door and headed toward the back. As they walked, they came across a staircase and climbed it. "Hey, tell me something," Sifon said to Ocho, who listened intently.
"That man lost an important family member, didn't he?" Sifon asked as they climbed the stairs.
"You noticed, didn't you?" Ocho replied.
"Even though you can't see it in his eyes, you can sense a feeling of melancholy in his personality," Sifon said.
"Droxel lost his daughter when she was a four-year-old girl," said Eight.
"If that's the case, I imagine the man is currently forty years old," said Sifon.
"And that means he had her at thirty, but if I recall correctly, by the year 2063 the Gidril Dynasty War was already underway," said Sifon.
"Because of that family, many countries began to be attacked by people from China, and on top of that, Russia and the United States also joined in on the attacks," said Sifon.
"As the hunt for people began, it was said that in 2067 a peace agreement was being negotiated between countries," said Sifon.
"But in an attack on Japan, a Russian man entered a building and, wearing a vest rigged with explosives, blew himself up, killing everyone else in the building," said Sifon.
"He was with his daughter during that attack, wasn't he?" asked Sifon.
"Yes, you're right. He was one of the few people who survived the explosion, but his daughter didn't make it out alive, nor did his wife," replied Ocho.
"When I found him, I knew he was running the restaurant from his home, which is the apartment above the restaurant," said Ocho.
"I wanted a place to live with my family, so I rented this place from a guy I talk to every now and then so he wouldn't suffer so much," said Ocho.
"Wars and corruption really do ruin a lot of things," said Sifon.
"Well, let's not get all sentimental—we're here," said Ocho as they arrived at the home.
Eight knocks on the door while Siphon takes a moment to arrive (he limps because his leg is still broken and bandaged). The door opens, and what comes out is a clenched fist smashing right into Eight's face.
Sifon dodges Ocho, who stumbles backward, and watches as Ocho falls to the ground with the fist mark on his face. An angry woman comes out of the entrance and heads toward Ocho.
"Why? You left your gun lying on the floor—the kids almost grabbed it!" the woman shouted, hitting Ocho while he was on the ground.
Sifon just watches, unsure whether to speak up or just watch and stay silent (it's a somewhat awkward situation for Sifon). Sifon decides to just stand there, leaning against the wall, as he watches them continue to hit Ocho.
A few minutes later, the woman waves at him while carrying Eight, whose face is covered in bruises, on her shoulder. "How can she look so happy watching this?" Sifon thought, observing the scene.
"Well, hello. Let me introduce myself. I'm Sifon Crawl," said Sifon.
"Hello, I'm Kirara Tawara. By the way, my last name used to be Chikira before I married this idiot," said Kirara, gripping Ocho's face tightly.
"Seriously, I need to stop hanging out with weird people," thought Sifon.
Inside the house, in the living room, Sifon is sitting on the sofa watching as Eight plays with five small children (who are his children, though not by blood), while Kirara serves him some juice to keep him cool.
"Hey, Seven, don't you want to have some fun?" said Eight, approaching Sifon.
"I'm not Seven, and by the way, I thought those were your kids," said Sifon.
"But looking at them, it's clear that none of them are actually yours," said Sifon.
"That's because I adopted each one of them," said Eight.
"I see. Is that—" said Sifon, trailing off mid-sentence.
"No, it's not what you think. We decided to adopt them because many weeks ago we lost our son," said Eight.
"He died as a baby from an illness, right?" asked Siphon.
"Yes, it was a difficult time to deal with," replied Eight.
"So you decided to adopt children not because of your grief, but because you also felt they had been abandoned, right?" said Siphon.
"Hey, honestly, I wonder why you're in the surveillance unit instead of the spy unit, since you seem like such a detective," said Eight.
"Well, I actually met each of them, and seeing what they were going through, I adopted them so they wouldn't suffer out there," said Eight.
"Hey, I get it, but what if they ever end up in danger? What would you do?" said Siphon.
"Well, my wife can take care of them," said Eight.
"Hey, but how can you trust her, knowing how dangerous your job is?" said Siphon.
Just as Siphon said that, he felt a hand grab his neck, and then someone stood behind him, holding him in place. "What the hell?" Then a knife was pressed against the side of Siphon's neck.
"I'm also very good at killing people," said Kirara, who was the one holding the knife to Siphon's neck.
"I see, she's an expert assassin too," thought Siphon.
Kirara removed the knife and then let go of Siphon's neck. Siphon grabbed his neck, noticing it was a little red because the grip had been tight. "Wow, I didn't expect this." Siphon thought this was the least of his worries in life anyway.
"Well, I see this protection thing is already taken care of," said Sifon.
"Yeah, she's good at that. She used to work for a group of hired assassins," said Ocho, laughing.
"I'd like to hear the whole story of how you met, but I'd rather skip over a lot of the details," said Siphon.
"But one thing—does that mean you had to quit your job as a hitman?" asked Siphon.
"Actually, I retired a long time ago. I'd been shot on a mission, and the group I was with left me behind," said Kirara.
"Otherwise, if it hadn't been for that very moment, Keichiro wouldn't have met me or helped me," said Kirara.
"And I think what I liked most about him when we got married was that we did some… things," said Kirara, her face flushing bright red as she covered it with her hands.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I just asked you to tell me if you quit, not to tell me your whole life story," said Sifon, slowly backing away, feeling uncomfortable.
A good while passes, and after a few hours it's nighttime. We see Ocho taking Sifon home, and as they walk, Ocho asks Sifon something.
"Hey, Sifon, I've always noticed this, but why are you wearing that necklace around your neck?" asked Ocho out of curiosity.
"It belongs to Ranzo's sister. Her name is Erina Tomoke. She's also the daughter of Councilor Tomoke," said Sifon, holding the necklace in his hands.
"She has this illness—no one knows how to cure it, but they're taking really good care of her," said Sifon.
"When Tomoke found me, I met her for the first time when I was 18, right after I first met Ranzo," said Sifon.
"I get along well with her. She gives me things like this now that we've started getting along and she's gotten to know me better," said Sifon.
"Wait, you two like each other, right? You should go out with her—you've got plenty of chances," said Eight, nudging him in the shoulder with his elbow.
"But I'm already dating her," said Sifon.
"WHAT!?" Eight shouted, nearly crashing the car.
"Well, I didn't know you already had a girlfriend. I thought you were just a loner," said Eight, regaining his composure.
"Yeah, I know, but I realized a long time ago that she liked me, and since I knew about her illness, I asked her out," said Sifon.
"She realized it. She told me yes, but not out of pity, but because she truly loves me," said Sifon.
"But I don't know anything about that. I've never been able to connect with anyone since I'm not very expressive and I've always been a bit lonely," said Siphon.
"But sometimes I could just empathize with some people, I think?" said Siphon.
"Seven, listen to what you said. Even if you don't believe it, you feel pity and you don't love her, right? Those are your feelings," said Eight.
"But deep down inside you, there must be a spark of love, because that's why you asked her out," said Eight.
"That love will gradually flow through you because deep down, you surely do love her, and that will turn into true love," said Eight.
"Look, even if you think it's fake love, true love comes from that fruit. So don't leave her alone; just give it some time before it ends," said Eight.
"Humans aren't predictable; everything changes—even someone who's very quiet and cold. That's what connects us all. Vada Uni, choose what you want," said Eight.
"Yeah, you're right—or at least that's what I want to believe. And one more thing: stop telling me I'm not one, Seven," said Siphon.
Siphon looks out the window, gazing upward at the night that has fallen over the entire city, and also looks at the stars, taking a moment of peace to reflect on what happened while wondering if Eight is truly right about what he said.
"Well, at least I have to believe One," thought Sifon.