Value

Early morning at April's estate was an arctic wonderland, where delicate snowflakes would gently collide with spruce dew leaves. Blades of grass were individually dampened with dewdrops from the cherry orchard trees, and April's crops were crisp and refreshed from nature's hydration. Aries's moist atmosphere in the morning, fueled by its artificial weather power systems, would always make mornings colder than Earth's inhabitants would expect on a summer morning.

When Ryo had awoken early in the morning to see Sumire off to Sunlight on her motorbike, he lavishly cherished his time at April's cherry garden by standing underneath the stone archway. The joyous feeling of snowflakes coming in contact with Ryo's skin was an endearing feeling, where ticklish sensations brought amusement and joy. He hadn't recalled entering such a pleasant environment until Sumire returned to his life and brought him to the Mountains Jazz Club and heard April's serene and divine singing voice.

As he placed his arms over a snow-covered railing, Ryo's gratitude and appreciation for Sumire's frequent acts of kindness made his heart flourish in desperate times of danger. Dressed with his white tiger sweater and black chained leather pants, he imagined how closely he had bonded with Sumire, and he wanted to cherish every last part of it.

The situation with the forced heist at Genesis Laboratories was still unheard of. There were no signs of news regarding the break-in, and even the Yakuza hadn't contacted Ryo ever since. Understanding the overarching mystery behind Sez's actions against Genesis Laboratories irked Ryo to find an answer to the threat, and he believed that Sunlight would create this opportunity for him to discover it for himself.

When a massive breeze struck the garden, snowflakes and decomposed Galanthus snowdrop flowers ran wild through the air. Ryo spun around to witness them traveling in the direction of where April stood, entering the garden wearing a light creme brulee turtleneck ribbed sweater with a long white scarf. She held a pink and white teacup with a small floral saucer plate held underneath it, and a lavender aroma emitted from within.

"Hey," April greeted after taking a sip of her tea. Her skin's complexion and cleanliness made it seem like she had a well-deserved rest and pampered night for beauty sleep. Her nostrils were faded with light red from a distance from where Ryo perceived it, and he wanted to ask about her health. "How are you feeling now? Did you have a nice rest?"

"I did," Ryo said, remembering his comfortable sleeping quarters. April's guest room was filled with another queen-sized bedroom with fluffy covers. The scent of gardenia lingered in the room through the open window, leading to a beautiful sight of the private garden. In contrast with sleeping outside with his wound, the guest room was a delight that Ryo wanted to savor in. "I think it's healing well, thanks to you."

"Glad to hear it," April chuckled, standing beside him to relinquish her time to relax in her garden's wake. She took another sip before breathing deeply for fresh air. "Where's Sumire?" She asked.

"She went to Sunlight to talk about their plans," Ryo explained. "She said she'd be back soon to pick me up, so I can meet with them."

"Mmm," April uttered, sipping her tea once more. "Are you nervous?"

"A little bit," Ryo admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I haven't met anyone new for a while. I don't know the ins and outs of how the police operate. I should just be careful about what I say."

"I see," April said, setting her teacup and saucer plate on a nearby white wooden pedestal. She wrapped her white scarf around her neck and flipped her blonde hair back to adjust herself for comfortability. Ryo peered into her emerald eyes from a distance, which gleamed with the sun about to shine on the colossal piles of snow upon her garden.

"You know... watching you and your sister's eyes tense up when you talk about yourselves just makes my heartache," April described, gently placing her hands on her chest. "I could sense the truth inside her voice, and I knew she was suffering on the inside after watching your sister speak about her past. But she has you. To her, you are the beacon to her happiness," She turned to Ryo with concerned eyes. "Do you know that?"

"Yeah. I do," Ryo confirmed. "Sumire and I, um... have been through quite a lot."

"I see."

Ryo wanted to move forward from talking about the past, curious about what April's status and personality were like. He turned to face her, watching her peer endlessly in the wintry beauty of her cherry orchards. "So... how exactly do you see the truth through people's eyes? I've noticed you've been using it quite a lot on me."

April giggled, gently parting the right side of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Well, it largely has to do with that secret I told you two to keep quiet about," She explained while daydreaming. "If you think about it, I'm kind of like a portable lie detector, which is silly to say. Oh! For example, if I look into your eyes right now..." April slowly pushed her face towards Ryo's view to examine his eyes. "I can tell you're happy and at peace. That has largely to do with the snow, I presume?"

"Wow," Ryo smirked and turned away to soak in her ability's results, remembering her observation of his eyes at the jazz club. "You're spot on again. I haven't seen snow in a while," He took a deep breath to take in the beauty of the wintery environment. "Especially combined with your garden. It's absolutely beautiful. It's like a winter wonderland, only... it feels like I'm at home." Ryo closed his eyes to appreciate the view.

April agreed, nodding and soaking in nature's horizon along with Ryo. The breeze's cold touch felt more heavenly than usual, where it would be an endless bitter nuisance to wait for to end. "To be honest, I don't know if my secret has to do with me being able to read people's eyes. Maybe it's a sixth sense I was born with. Who knows." She proposed a possibility, placing her slim finger on her freckled cheeks.

"April," Ryo interrupted, opening his eyes and turning to her to catch her attention.

"Hmm?" April's eyebrows lifted themselves with her pupils shrinking.

"I never apologized for what I did the night before. You must have been so scared to see an intruder on your estate," Ryo's guilt arose once more. "So, I'm sorry for-"

"You really have a habit of apologizing, don't you?" April interrupted, turning her head to the side like a curious cat bobbing its head. "That's the thing with you. I said it before. You're technically a criminal, but you treat others with mutual respect and love. What really is it with you? And what is this disorderly path you're always walking on? Your eyes are just so... sad."

"I can't tell you," Ryo abruptly stated. To dump all of his guilt and pent-up agony from the past while it's still an ongoing issue would prove to be too much for April to handle, Ryo thought. Having him speak about the pain he had caused his family, especially Ash, would definitely have her mind changed about his entire personality. "I just... it's just not a good time right now."

April placed both of her hands together and closed them, lifting them up to her chest. "That's okay. I don't want you to do something you don't want to do," She clarified. "But you don't need to keep apologizing. I value you and your sister's happiness, and I'll help you guys in any way I can."

"Thank you, but I don't think we'll-"

"Hey, what's that over there?" April pointed forwards. From the distance, Ryo caught the rest of his belongings laying in the wintery grass. His nanosuit and weapons were caught and iced underneath slabs of snow and stone. "Are those the things that you dropped yesterday when you came into my estate?"

"Oh. I guess I didn't have time to bring them in," Ryo noted, stepping out from underneath April's porch. "I'll go grab them right now."

"Okay, in the meantime, I'll go get more tea for us. See you soon." April said, grabbing her teacup and saucer plate. She hummed merrily before skipping inside her estate, closing the door on the way inside to preserve the warmth within.

Ryo caught his nanosuit and his weapons buried underneath the snow, forcing him to crouch down and sway away the debris to retrieve it. After grabbing his pistol, he dusted off the snow piled up within its chambers and placed it in a holster beside his hip. An unusual radio static interference transmitted through his nanosuit's chest area. As Ryo dusted off the remaining tufts of snow, the static interference increased in volume. He picked up the nanosuit and saw that the individual nanomachines of the suit had repaired its torn fibers. Yet he didn't know of a radio feature integrated inside the armor itself.

"Nice suit." The suit transmitted a low-pitched voice to shroud the speaker's identity.

"SHIT!" Ryo dropped the suit and kicked it back after being startled by the radio's unknown voice.

"Where'd you get it?" The suit's voice picked up once again, having a threatening intonation. "Surely not from us, thief."

"Who are you?" Ryo asked it, hoping it could reveal itself. When he peeked inward to see if his suit was still active, the suit's dark blue fibers drastically changed in colors, resembling a neon rainbow style that imitated a Japanese idol pop style. 8-bit stickers and pins of overly cutesy animals popped through his nanosuit like a slideshow projecting on a screen, while rainbow-colored stars and stripes decked the torso area's fibers. Ryo couldn't help but watch the nanosuit's programming go haywire, possibly from being hacked, he thought.

"No... who are you?" The suit replied with the same low and monotone voice. "What makes you think you can take our technology and use it however you want? Do you see what I've done to this thing? This proves that this belongs to us. Don't you feel bad about yourself yet?"

A holographic sticker titled "M3L0DIE" transitioned through the suit's fibers. Ryo's mind was racing through to gather as much evidence as he could. An organization, perhaps?

"Why aren't you saying anything?" The suit's voice continued, egging on Ryo's hesitation. "Are you afraid of me? Sad to know that your life won't be the same anymore after we're done with you?"

"What the hell are you talking about-"

"I want this suit back," The voice interrupted with a cold demeanor. "You're going to give it to me sooner or later, and you're going to tell me who you work for. To get your filthy hands on my crazy baby hurts my soul. To think there would be someone in Aries as disgusting as you."

"Crazy... baby...?" Ryo muttered in confusion. "Look, unless you want to start explaining yourself first, then I suggest you-"

"I don't think so. Not unless you talk first. But don't worry. We can talk later once you've decided to turn yourself in. But don't keep me waiting for long, because I'll know."

Ryo grabbed the suit and shook it gratingly. "Wait. Wait!" He shouted.

The radiofrequency ceased, and the suit's 8-bit cutesy holographic skin vanished from plain sight, reverting the suit's status back to normal. Ryo knew this wasn't normal, but he caught onto one particular facet from the hacker's ambiguous tirade; the owner of the nanosuit was possibly its creator, for its allegiance and usage for the Asahikawa Yakuza was only temporary. Ryo deduced that because Sez and his loyal followers pillaged the nanosuit equipment from an unknown territory, its peeved owner longed to gain possession of what was once theirs.

"Damn it," Ryo said under his breath.

"Hey!" April's voice called from behind his position. She waved at him after setting down both cups of lavender hinted tea. "Are you okay over there? I made some tea for you!"

Ryo chose not to get April involved, for it would provide nothing but an inconvenience. Getting her involved in any outsider situation had unpropitious chances of having an asset or a pleasing end result. Even if April pledged her respect and patience like a firebrand would for a noble cause, preservation of her secret and innocence was recommended. He turned around to wave at her to ensure the situation was handled, but an incoming juddering sound of a fiery exhaust pipe surged on the streets behind him. Sumire had returned. She slipped off her sleek motorcycle and removed her cat-themed helmet and Yoshimura-themed motorcycle glove, separating and swaying her long black hair with multiple hairs flips. Her tight black and pink-themed winter sweater and pants kept her warm from the artificial weather plants.

"I'm back," Sumire stepped into April's front gate and leaped over it, utilizing her heightened acrobatic training to vault over. She examined Ryo's bothered face over the nanosuit's situation but was clueless about what had happened. "Yo. What the hell happened to you? See a ghost or something?"

"No, I..." Ryo began, clearing his throat as the winter's frigidness suddenly returned to ice his skin. He had previously been too nervous from the nanosuit's unexpected mishappenings to understand what had happened.

"Sumire, I made some lavender tea! Had I known you were coming back so soon, I would have made some orange juice! Do you want some? It's getting pretty cold!" April asked, waving over to greet her new friend.

Sumire nodded and smiled with excitement, pulling down her pom-pom red scarf. "Don't worry about the juice! That sounds wonderful, thank you!" She desired, turning to Ryo's stunned kneeling position. "Come on, Ryo, don't just sit there. I'll be taking you to see the rest of Sunlight soon after."

"Wait, I need to tell you something about this thing," Ryo reached over and latched onto Sumire's fuzzy shoulder to stop her from moving forward. "I wore this suit on the night of the heist. It's a-"

"Nanosuit..." Sumire finished his sentence, kneeling down with him to examine the item of significance. "Except... this one's a newer model. This can't be... the V2? It has the dome in the center of its chassis... and the helmet outline is more regal-like..."

"It has some kind of radio transmission system too," Ryo added, wanting to inform his sister about the hacking event. "Someone just spoke to me earlier about the nanosuit through this frequency. He or she didn't sound too happy about it."

"Really? What did they say?" Sumire asked.

"They called the suit their "crazy baby." Told me that sooner or later I would have to return it, as if I was the one who stole it. The suit started acting all strange too. There were neon lights and stickers flashing all over the suit. The person also said they'll know my exact movements." Ryo explained.

"Interesting..." Sumire nodded, studying the dome-shaped center of the V2 nanosuit. "There's wiring in here that receives frequencies from artificial databases, and that includes radio waves. This person must have hacked a radio to transmit a signal to your suit to avoid being caught. How smart of them. But it sounds like they've got beef with the original owners. Maybe they are the owners, who knows."

"How the hell do you come up with this stuff?" Ryo asked his sister with his eyebrows raised.

"These types of nanosuits are illegal technology, Ryo," Sumire explained. "Only someone who had the balls to raid a compound manufacturing these could get ahold of them. At Sunlight, we use combat variations of modified nanosuits to give us an edge in tactical combat. Fully legal, so don't worry about that. But this suit is in its purest form, unaltered, and it's the latest model. Don't tell me you wore this," She hoped, thinking her brother might have been improvident. "Who gave you this thing?"

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about," Ryo intervened, touching the fibers of the V2 nanosuit. "When Sezan took me to the underground, he forced me into this suit before we left for the heist. I never knew about its specifications. I just know they stole it from somewhere. He has one of his own. He showed me while he was ranting about how he wanted to liberate Japan of all the aliens and get rid of them."

"Hmph, fucking racist douchebag," Sumire scoffed in response to Sezan's ignorance. "Sounds like nothing's changed about his mentality. So the prick decides he can just use the shit he steals from others. He truly is pathetic."

Ryo found enjoyment in hearing his sister insult his illegal gatekeeper with an impertinent and ribald sense of humor. Holding a grudge against the aliens was something Ryo wanted to get over, but after reminding himself of the grotesque sights of experimented humans trapped in liquid pods at Genesis Laboratories, he wanted to rethink it over. Sumire's vocabulary and time at Sunlight made Ryo even more disoriented on the truth of this nanosuit technology. He was gradually impressed that Sumire had expertise in technical analysis, along with police work. Journalist, my ass, he thought.

"I hope he didn't hurt you, Ryo." Sumire wanted to know.

"He didn't... but he might have hurt my friend," Ryo remembered.

"Your friend? You had another friend in the Yakuza? I told you to stay away from-"

"No, he's a good person, trust me. I've known him since middle school. His name's Chiaki Sasaku. He was the person that Sezan threatened to kill if I didn't participate in the heist. I think he used Chiaki somehow to get ahold of the nanosuits in the first place," Ryo glanced away from Sumire, gazing into the snow with his heart tingling in regret. "I don't know if he's alive or not."

"Let's not think about that for now," Sumire wanted to get Ryo's mind off of negativity. She stood up while holding the nanosuit closely to her face to examine the dome shape closely. "So, this person decided that they would know your exact movement, is that right? Let's see how they like this..." She opened the dome in the center of the nanosuit and clipped the wires inside with a pocket knife stored in her back pocket. "There we go, they won't bother us anymore. Asshole thinks we're amateurs."

"Hey," April approached both Ryo and Sumire, holding the cups of warm lavender tea. "Are you two doing okay? Your tea's about to get cold, so you should drink it soon."

"Yeah, we're doing fine," Sumire dialed down the situation as she approached April's teacup. Ryo stood up along with her. "Ooh, this tea smells amazing. We'd love to stay, but we've got some errands to run over at Sunlight HQ. It'll be Ryo's first time meeting everyone."

April smiled brightly, handing Ryo and Sumire their cups of lavender tea. "Don't be nervous, Ryo. Everything will be okay, right, Sumire?"

"Yeah, big bro," Sumire slapped Ryo's back with firmness. "Everything will be fine and dandy, hehe," Ryo could tell she was exaggerating Sunlight's harshness with icebreakers and introductions. "Grab the suit, Ryo. The crystal's at HQ. We've got work to do."

Ryo finished drinking April's lavender tea. The warmth of the heat and the taste of the lavender extract temporarily calmed down his nerves. The fear from the unknown hacker of his nanosuit slowly deteriorated, especially when Sumire arrived with her expertise and skills to ensure everything was settled. "Time to hit the road," Ryo said, returning the cup to April. "Thanks again, April."

"Mhm, no problem," April cheered. "Come back to visit soon, okay? I'll be waiting!"

Ryo followed Sumire out of April's estate onto her Yoshimura motorbike. As Sumire placed her cat-themed helmet over her head and her motorcycle glove, she revved up the engine while rolling her shoulders for a light stretch. "She offered me some orange juice. What a nice girl. Only... I already know her," She muttered.

"What do you mean?" Ryo asked.

Sumire shook her head and refused to answer properly. "She did something in the past when I knew her back then. My memory's kind of vague about it. But I'll remember it sooner or later and tell you."

"Okay." Ryo agreed. There was something beautiful about April that Ryo came to appreciate, and that was how she could sense the levity in serious situations. She knew the values and limitations of the human heart, and she knew how to be compassionate to others through powerful expression in actions. Sumire's contentment with her orange juice only made her more mentally resilient, and Ryo came to understand why April was such an amiable individual. However, this secret that Sumire was refusing to tell made him slightly suspicious; not all perfectly appeared beings were perfect.

"Ready?" Sumire asked.

"Eh. Still a bit nervous," Ryo admitted.

"You'll get used to it." Sumire shrugged off.

She pressed down on her motorbike's pedal as April watched them soar away. The bike sped down the wet asphalt, leaving behind a trail of fallen sakura leaves and smoke from the bike's exhaust pipe. After they had left, April's face slowly dialed down from a hopeful smile into a neutral expression as her face grew unusually and ghastly pale. Her eyes nearly sunk down like the oceans as her cold, lifeless expression was brimming with precariousness. She returned back to her estate, walking sluggishly with one hand placed carefully on her stomach.

"If you continue on like this, she may never forgive you..." April whispered as the door to her estate slammed shut.