National Hymn

  Finishing their meal, or rather, after Luis and Vanessa finished eating, they watched Fox eat. Luis stood up and walked away without saying a thing, taking some photos with the people in the restaurant and shaking hands with the owners before leaving. Fox continued eating, giving not a shit.

  Vanessa calmly waited until Fox finished his meal, looking at him as he drank tons of water before looking at her. “What do you have in mind?”

  Fox never felt strange about Vanessa, and adding the fact that she is but considerate with him in their small meetings, like not even Luis bothers with small details, was enough to not feel weird for going out with her. Those 100 million funds to the restaurant chain were something else, too, but he hardly thought about them when he thought of her, and she wouldn’t get to manage any.

  Vanessa opened her lips, drawing a bit of breath into her lungs before lowly muttering, “I have something planned out… This is… something I imagined. I hope you don’t feel it’s too strong.”

  “Eh. Those are stupid words,” Fox thought, blinked, and lightly smacked his lips open before speaking in under a second. “Even if you gave me a billion and 200 million credits to pay off my debt— if I don’t like you, nobody can make me go meet someone anywhere.”

  “Hmf~. Debt?” Vanessa was a little surprised to have this dialect thrown to her. Not even when she was a young kid would she hear someone speak to her like this, it was quite a first. It also didn’t come from a raging civilian, but a person whom she esteemed.

  She asked with a confused arch in her left eyebrow. Fox nodded but offered no explanation on the subject. He picked one of his glasses with some water left in it before standing up. Vanessa spoke while her head to look up at him, “Then I’m glad I somehow made it into the other zone in your heart.”

  Vanessa stood up, pushing her chair below the table before turning to him again, saying before nodding, “I can’t even fathom how many few ever got close to that barrier, and I seem to be in it.”

  “Mn, some died before anything could be done in respect to that as a relationship,” Fox nodded a little, walking forth. Vanessa was dazed a bit before hurrying up in a flurry of footsteps, walking side by side with him. Fox added, “Most of those didn’t even have a chance to be in a peaceful environment with me, before dying. But it’s been long past that to think about it, or them.”

  “If it seems to be that way.” Vanessa said before trailing off a little. They arrived at the sidewalk, where Fox’s Myertha was parked. She pointed at it and spoke, “Is it okay if it’s left here? I’d rather drive in tranquility in a little moving cage for this meeting. Would you?”

  “It’s fine. Whoever tries to steal it might get electrocuted at best.” Fox nodded, eyeing his beautiful Myertha with all black paint, so much it should be illegal, and was. Vanessa nodded before inquiring, “At best?”

  “Mn, there are eyes I brought with me to check in my Myertha,” Fox lowered his head a bit and flicked under his nose. His eyes upturned towards a few top corners of the buildings before them. Vanessa gently raised her eyebrows, “Eyes? How many?”

  “The President left with some, although yours are still around, and will follow until you get wherever you rest, and they’ll rest nearby.” Fox patiently said before to Vanessa’s minivan, cozy, armored, and rather fast from the many family cars one could get, and obviously safer, too.

  Vanessa wasn’t even half surprised to see he knew where her car was and just walked there with him, pondering on the fact she already had such protection. She looked at Fox’s shoulders a little from the back and wondered if it was him who put those eyes on duty to protect her.

  Of course, Fox didn’t, as it was one of the terms allocated by Luis after he and Vanessa ‘talked’ after the trial. However, what she didn’t know under 2 layers of misunderstandings was that she actually got 4 extra Red Bloods to protect her against any situation in the daily life wherever she went, and counter-assassination and espionage, by Fox’s orders.

  They went into the minivan and drove somewhere more towards the places with high flow of people at almost every hour of every day in Proteros City. There was an infinitude of buildings, with only a few taller than most, and even fewer belonging to companies or branch businesses.

  … There was one such building Vanessa brought Fox to. It was an open rooftop where they served tea, some pastries, and offered a wonderful look to the southern skies where the ocean reflected most beautifully in every night.

  When they went up, only Fox was a surprise, with the 2 owners knowing Vanessa somewhat, inviting her in warmly and calmly, like she wasn’t some supreme power in the country. They sat around an edge, although they were about 4 meters from it, and enjoyed the scenery in silence.

  It was quiet, and few people came, with some thin, patterned, and hardly see-thru curtains covering the booths from each other except towards the views. There were hushes, words, exclamations, twinkles of giggles, and the occasional raspy chuckle.

  Old and young were here, lovers, and family. It was an all-rounder business, small but good, and simple. Something Fox could never live with alone. That didn’t stop him from enjoying the tranquility.

  Looking around made him realize it was a really good place, which also showed Vanessa’s casual image more. Fox realized it wasn’t just him who wished for peace and solitude, at least when considering the noise and bustling that could be everywhere.

  The world was big, but why couldn’t it be small? For some… at least.

  They spent a good late evening there, just looking around, even changing views to the northwest, where the presidential precinct’s tower stood tall, only used by the public servants. It garnered their attention more than they thought it would. And then, they focused more on each other.

  “There’s something I have always thought about and never really had the chance… to ask someone to investigate it.” Vanessa spoke first, gently inquiring after touring around bushes. Fox looked at the side, replying similar to a commentary before she asked anything, “Most records at Preut were disorganized in the hurricane-tornado phenomenon. Only the government has it.”

  “Mn.” Vanessa nodded, exclaiming a bit before asking, “How was your mother like? I figure she had to treat you in a way, and that you grew in another.”

  “Why do you say so?” Fox lifted his left eyebrow, keeping a straight, almost steeled face. Vanessa swung her head a bit, shaking her hair before looking at him, “I see things in ways that suit me, I suppose.”

  Fox looked down, thinking for a bit. He felt some things, but these were even farther than those things he cared about in the past but could no longer touch with even his memory and not insult them in the process.

  “She wasn’t good, but she was a mother. I don’t blame her for not trying earlier, mostly because she did when I no longer cared and had grown too tired of masquerading a life. All in all, I don’t blame her.” Fox said, caressing his left arm a bit. His polycoria eyes remained in the 7 impenetrable black pools, and his gaze softened, albeit lost.

  “I can see some of that in your eyes.” Vanessa looked at Fox and said, lifting a glass before drinking from it.

  Fox twitched his eyebrows a bit, frowning them for a moment before facing her in his seat. Vanessa looked at him, awaiting. Fox articulated, “Vanessa, you are a young woman still, but you are more experienced in the world of the ordinary. Did you never think of… leaving a mark on the world that isn’t from your work?”

  “Are you asking me about having children?” She smiled a little after a surprised pause. She wigged her glass a bit and looked at Fox, slightly narrowing her obscured azure eyes into small smiles. Fox fell pensive before lowly uttering, “It felt fitting for me to ask that.”

  “I never gave it a chance. I’m still young, so if I ever become interested, there’s a multitude of ways to make it happen. But… I think… I also have not met my chance. Be it unfortunate or undeserved.” Vanessa quietly echoed, lowering her head every time a bit more.

  “…” Fox looked at her in silence. Vanessa peacefully looked back, not driving her eyes away before adding, “I guess I was too aware of myself. Me, becoming an unfit mother when all I can do is machinate for the sake of money was never a good curriculum. No matter when I thought about it.”

  “Simply put, I am not capable of putting my arms around a baby safely, but I think…” Vanessa’s eyelids drooped, and they showed sadness. But then, she lifted them up bit by bit, as if frame by frame, and stared at Fox’s polycoria, attentive eyes. “Maybe I wouldn’t be so bad for an adult.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “An adult baby?” Fox was leaning on his chair. He tilted his head a lot to the left and asked, lifting an eyebrow and twisting his lips. Vanessa drew her head backwards and slightly hung it to the side, sticking her chest out a bit. Her eyes were comical, and before long, she burst out in laughter with her mouth opening wide in a beautiful smile.

  “When I think about it, it doesn’t feel wrong. I guess that’s it.” Vanessa nodded, thinking her thoughts out loud. She returned her eyes to Fox and expressed, “Whenever I think about it in that manner, I feel a bit… warm. It’s similar to how other things feel in my grasp. When I know I can make it.”

  She grasped the air with her left hand, showing an encouraging, self-encouraging for that matter, strong smile that thinned her lips. But Vanessa’s azure in her eyes remained bright and… hopeful. “I know I can make it, so I want to make it happen. But… I’m just not sure if it’s valid.”

  Vanessa reclined in her seat, her eyes a little lost but focused on Fox. “It’s far-fetched, unconventional, and my target candidate might not be in the mood for a fake mother after a family tragedy.”

  “Target candidates can only be good and not wrong when the sharp mind behind it has set their minds into it. Mmn,” Fox softly shook his head after those words, further adding, “Trying won’t hurt. And it brings a good feeling to… life. It just won’t happen as fast as it is thought.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” Vanessa spoke in a breathless, whimsically tender way, making Fox blow a tiny bit of air from his nostrils.

  … They didn’t overextend their stay at the nice, comfortable, silent place. Even when she laughed, it hardly made a noise in the heads of the other clients who were there to spend a good time.

  Taking a small stroll on the sidewalk, with Fox calling a White Blood out to slowly drive Vanessa’s minivan for them, they looked at the streetlights gaining more and more brightness and power. The few patrolling community security, backed by the police, and with direct communication with the National Guard should anything happened, were surprised, of course, but they also nodded respectfully at Fox.

  Vanessa was a strange sight, more so beside the Chief Secretary of Security, but it wasn’t their place to gossip then and there. Thus, after 50 minutes exchanged between comfortable silence and good-humored chatter, she drove him to a helitaxi tour service.

  They boarded one, wearing parachutes; small but immediate, with adaptable and quick-action gliders, firstly approved in Lymoca world-wide after the cleansing operation. Many criminals from the OCs tried to escape, taking hostages from helitaxis at certain points during the operation.

  This resulted in unnecessary casualties from civilians after they felt too flustered. Very few ‘fought’ off the criminals, while most suffered tragic accidents, be it by malfunction or damaging the controls inside the small cabins.

  Not only are the doors escape-proof, both ways, now. The parachutes are mandatory for all passengers. It was such a good business that Fox once considered it, but he hated helitaxis as of late… Maybe a late-blooming, hateable remembrance.

  However, this time, when using the helitaxi service for a slow, scenic tour with Vanessa, Fox felt incomparably calm. It was a strange, ephemeral sensation, but he felt back to when he fled and was helped up by some people into a helitaxi, where a mother of a baby worried for him back then. He later found her when he was walking alone through the fields of war in Preut…

  Just how many people did he just leave behind then? There? And… how many more recently? And in the future?

  In the helitaxi, flying over a large park with unique pink colored trees and some warm, orange lights illuminating the kids and some families playing, walking, and picnics below. Fox blinked. His motion was slow; before looking at the Supreme Justice Minister.

  She was just looking below at the people, at the contrast of the dark between the warm orange, and vice versa. Her azure eyes narrowed, just a bit. Fox saw it at last. At least he knew life existed within everybody, for the beats in her heart were as sad as her sky-heaven eyes.

  Vanessa noticed his stare and looked at him, with the old pilot calmly flying slowly over the park, knowing it was always a good source of sound. Fox saw her; Vanessa saw him. Their eyes were asking one another.

  In her, Fox saw the equivalent to the potential of the love of a mother he could never feel, not even when it was finally there. It was just before him now, once again; just there, and it gazed into him like no other.

  In him, Vanessa found the instinct she never thought she could ever trigger. The necessity to see for a living being, not only of unconditional love, but also the fear of losing bits from it, let alone it all. Her motherly instincts, which she thought would never appear in her life, which pointed to be long, surfaced!

  Now, Vanessa had gone through things she put herself through. Other than tired, she didn’t want to anymore. If she could, like it is at the moment, why wouldn’t she step aside from it and hold to a son?

  … When the helitaxi returned them to the services, Fox drove for Vanessa, dropping her at her mansion. Throughout the way there, Vanessa sat in the co-driver’s seat, sometimes glancing in Fox’s direction, who clearly hated driving vehicles with 4 wheels or more.

  She felt at ease, calm, relaxed. Not because work was over, or there was no more such stress in a while. There was just nothing weighing on her shoulders, and if there was lingering worry, they were gone the moment she connected with Fox; Phesx Caolia.

  After dropping Vanessa, who flashed him a little smile before entering her mansion’s main gate entrance. Fox watched her walk all the way to the main building, with the shadows of his Bloods to protect her already having ensured everything and around, everywhere.

  Fox blinked before turning around just in time to see a seconder White Blood bring his Myertha at a slow pace. He didn’t give the young man another look and walked to his baby. The young man parked the perfect motorcycle and presented it to Raging Blood.

  Fox grabbed his Myertha’s handlebars and slowly turned it before driving it away. Her engines resonated, making Vanessa, who was just about to shower, look in a random direction when the noise reached her mansion. She couldn’t help feel a bit contented…

  ***

  A few days later, in a secret underground managed by PSD alone.

  Fox was invited to this precinct by the President, who wanted ‘his help’ with something. Fox didn’t think much of it, spending a few hours with Nala, dating and spending heavy sums of credits before going to the meeting in time, using a subterranean quick route from PSD facilities.

  He was guided through a long corridor by various firsters acting as clerks, showing the buyers that there is no more stock in their grocery shop after a heated debate. Patiently, Fox walked into a small door, considering the dimension of the wide, slightly too tall, final corridor he walked.

  As soon as he went in, Fox saw darkness. There was actually harmless poison in the air that dropped intelligently towards him, similar to in Riverlye, only this wasn’t purely organic. Moreover, Fox wasn’t affected for a millisecond.

  Fox looked at the last guide to walk him through, who breathed unevenly for 2 seconds before recuperating her senses. Not only her sight, but smell and touch were gone from her system. Her brain was fooled exquisitely, even as she expected and experienced it before.

  Returning his attention to the door, Fox looked at the darkness inside, of which some flashes of green and exotic pale blue dashed here and there, revealing figures working on niche worktables. The door was small, but it revealed several floors standing outside, with a depth of several short levels extending over dozens of meters long.

  “What are you waiting for?” Butler’s voice sounded from the inside. Fox casually blinked and darted his polycoria impenetrable black eyes in the direction where the voice came from before it sounded, making Butler a bit awkward in his speech.

  Fox smiled before stepping in. Butler wordlessly walked towards a ‘booth’, where Fox saw Luis’s back. When he stepped into the booth, separated by a thin glass of intricate processing and materials from ordinary sources, the sound leveled down to an almost null. Fox could still hear everything in the gigantic room, but a normal person might lose their balance and drop unconscious in a few seconds by just stepping in.

  A light above the booth illuminated his surroundings, showing a high biotech workshop with a seemingly finished product atop. Beside him, a few steps to the front, Luis crossed his left arm with his right elbow supported on it. Luis looked back at Fox, smugly smiling, “What do you think? I have been reading about you from Miros. While you cannot help with our most recent project… helping in this is up to your level, isn’t it?”

  “You want me… to help with this?” Fox walked to the worktable, looking at the thing atop it. Luis stepped a few times forward, nodding, “Aye. This is something troubling the intricacies of the next generation of technology in the army. I wanted an expert, and Miros refuses to make a weapon if it isn’t just its intelligence. So… will you?”

  Luis looked intently at Fox. Fox looked at the thing still, asking out loud in a hushed tone, “What type of ‘ownership’ will I have once I help in its development?”

  “You can have the honors— as long as you do your part in this, and it is good enough, nobody I know alive would frown at any proposal you’d like.” Luis declared, looking at the thing atop the worktable with serene confidence and a complicated emotion of unwillingness.

  “I see…” Fox half stepped forth again and caressed the object, looking down at it with fully open eyes, intrigued. He turned his head to Luis, “I’ll get to it.”

  “Mn!” Luis nodded, strongly reacting to Fox before both returned to look at it, marvel and calmness appearing in their eyes respectively. Butler walked beside them to stare down at the thing, commenting, “Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined these would become true… If only I was in my prime to have them growl in my old own hands.”

  “Don’t you have to train my baby sister?” Fox looked at Butler with side, upturned eyes. Butler slowly glanced at Fox, giving him nasty stares before looking at the thing again, feeling envy. Not only was he not going to use this regularly as Fox and the other PSD SAs would, he also didn’t have qualities to help in its development beyond the basics.

  ***

  Year 1,026, 10th month, 3rd week, 6th day. Around the presidential precinct. Early evening.

  The President would re-enter office in the first day of the next month, along the new majority of senators, deputies, and soon, the Supreme Court Justice’s judicial branch after some first moves…

  About 10 days were needed for the celebrations of the President’s 3rd term, and 2nd consecutive term, to be prepared. The event would only last about 6 hours, but a couple million people arrived since noon. It’s predicted they would remain here even until the deep of the night.

  After several months, not as many to call them years dryly; the country, Lymoca, and Lys; were celebrating big time. Their hymn would sound, and their voices would reach the skies.

  …