“It’s a date.” Whether he was accepting the date or parroting her words in disbelief, the manufactured dissonance between his heart and tongue melted away. Antoine does not believe in love at first sight. The simulacrum of his boss’ constant pestering finally subsided. Megumi’s words echoed for a moment before dying down. And Antoine accepted what was in front of him.

Momo.

The moment.

Nothing else mattered.

Antoine hadn’t realized they had been holding hands still until she released it. With it gone, it felt as though something was missing. His hands weren’t meant to be empty. His cue stick, the pool balls… they were close, but they weren’t the right fit.

“Funny thing about that.” His hands quickly found themselves full. In one hand was the paper, another was the pen. And he started writing, blocking Momo’s view in the process. “I had a wish come true already, too.”

Antoine steps out of the way and slides the paper toward her. On it, his wish, written in sloppy handwriting:

---

“I’m not.” Antoine scratched the back of his head. He remembered when he first arrived in the country and how his life had changed. What was meant to be a brief visit, an opportunity to reconnect with his brother, Emile, had diverged. Now he found himself working as security in a local, burger joint. Despite his chronic adventuring, he still knew nothing of the country. “I’ve been here… a few months? Spend most of my time working.”

Unbeknownst to himself, Antoine had been staring. Momo’s blue eyes were impossible to ignore, but so was the way she eagerly smiled or clapped her hands together. Her energy was infectious and something bubbled inside of him. What is that?


Oh.


It shouldn’t be.


A charismatic bastard at best.



“Lead the way.”

---

Oh, He smiles. She’s funny.

It’s not often that people wholeheartedly lean into the bit. Momo was quick-witted in her own right, not fumbling over the opportunity presented. It felt natural — something Antoine had the luxury of stumbling into only on rare occasions.

She bowed. Antoine followed suit. If you could call awkwardly leaning ‘moving an inch forward at most with stiff arms to the side of him’ a bow. He was done before Momo finished hers.

“Solid is a good thing,” He paused, eyes glancing upward as he second-guessed himself. Being solid was why she fell onto the ground. But if he were any less, then they both might have. “I think?”

A wish. Right.

Truth be told, he had forgotten about the wish. Their interaction, as brief as it may be, provided him solace from the embarrassing gruntwork that Bernie sent him on. A quest to find his true love for reasons beyond him. No matter the explanation, Antoine didn’t understand Bernie’s motivations. It was never as simple as it seemed. Not with him.

“Just Antoine is fine.” Antoine looked around a bit before returning his gaze to her. He found comfort in having someone to talk to — someone familiar. Not that you could call a stranger bumping into you someone familiar. Momo did, however, have that unspeakable thing. That Je ne sais quoi.

They were strangers, but it didn’t feel like it.

It was too easy.

“But yeah, actually.” Sheepishly, he adds. “I just know don’t… how to?”

---

A woman of thought wouldn’t understand. The intelligent are cursed to think everything through — they weigh risk versus reward and make the ‘best’ decisions. Ghouligan understands a few things, but he’s not privy to the same machinations of the world. Even in his native tongue, there are concepts beyond him. Although, it’d be more accurate to say there are things he cares not for. He’s a man of belief, as deluded as they may be, and follows them with unwavering fidelity.

Yamamoto was a series of circumstances. Antoine happened to be in Japan. He happened to catch wind of him. And he happened to find him at his most vulnerable. Antoine had done enough research to understand who they were and why they needed to be taken care of. Once that decision had been made, he was on the hunt. You make some moments. Others offer themselves to you.

He took what he could get.

“Sho was playing dumb — hiding something — then when you questioned his competence, he proved he wasn’t. At the cost of his story.” It tracked. Too well. Everyone has reasons for lying. At some point, they’d all keep something from one another. But as a first impression, Ghouligan wasn’t exactly ecstatic at the prospect.

“If it was up to me, I’d confront him directly.” Being part of a team meant giving up your autonomy for the sake of others. It was unfamiliar territory, but he knew it was right. For now. “But I don’t think that’s your plan. So, what is?”

---

“And that’s why you have to go to the Star Festival.” Bernard said with a clap of his hands. He stood up from the table with unfounded confidence. “Either that or you die alone.”

“Then, I die alone.”

“No one wants to die alone, kid.” A few steps later, he started massaging Antoine’s shoulders. “I know you think you can do everything by yourself. And you’re already making friends—”

“Begrudgingly.”

“And you’re begrudgingly making friends. So, why not add love to that very short to-do list?”

“Because I’m not looking for love?”

“Good!” Bernie takes a step back, pulling on Antoine’s chair. “When you’re looking, you’ll never find it.”

“So, I shouldn’t go to the Star Festival. Because then I’d be looking for love and I won’t find it. Making it a moot point, yeah?”

“You’re going because I told you to. And since you don’t want to go, you’ll definitely find the love of your life.” Bernie said with a shit-eating grin. He respected the attempt but Antoine was an amateur. “Try not to slug on anyone this time, yeah?”

“I won’t slug.” Antoine’s blushing.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” Antoine grabs the ridge of his nose. “Can I go?”

“That’s the spirit!” Bernie laughed. “Enjoy~”

It’s not too long before he’s at the Star Festival. Yeah, he’s heard all about it. He knows about Vega and Altair. He’s learned to say ‘Milky Way’ in Japanese, too. But that doesn’t help with geography. Or the ability to find where the hell you make those wishes. And it definitely doesn’t help with knowing what he’s supposed to put on the paper in the first place. It’s either be here or have Bernie annoy him to death. That doesn’t mean he’s suddenly looking to find his soulmate. Then again, maybe he should. That’ll guarantee this is a waste of time, right?

---

“There’s more to our network than just the technology behind it,” Ghouligan pushed through the awkward tension. Even if he had the knowledge to reciprocate, even if he reciprocated, the act of giving gifts was strange to him. Cognitively, it made sense. But his heart didn’t understand. Gifts were, as well-meaning as they are, temporary.

“We need a way to identify one another. We’re going to independently expand the network. And some people will infiltrate. The more barriers to entry there are, the safer we are.” Antoine passed over some sketched-out references, courtesy of Dion.

“These are some symbols we can use in the wild to identify whether an area is safe or compromised. You’re going to see different symbols all the way from hostile heroes to friendly criminals.” Ghouligan said. “He’s done some of the work but the rest is up to us. Right now, we need to come up with seasonal phrases to verify one another. You up for that?”

Right, he almost forgot.

“Side effect of using my quirk. I turn into the Ghouligan you’re familiar with. But I don’t think you’re going to hurt me, are you?” A genuine question. He didn’t need to transform to kill her, but this was an act of trust. If, for whatever reason, she sought to betray him, then he’d follow through on his promise.

He’d protect the rest of the network.

---