Hinata wakes up after a surprisingly good night of rest following the chaos. She looks around not seeing Luna. "Lu? Where did you go?" No response, though there is a note on the bedside table that states, "Hey Hina, I went to work for the day. I'll see you soon. Byeeeeeee."
"Wait... work? But aaugh, okay okay, why am I here?" She gets up and walks to the living room, curious of the house they're in. It's familar to her, one she never got to go to before, but she's seen pictures of it before. "Krystal's house? What the hell? She wasn’t lying. Maybe this is what she considers home?”
A white jeep with the Solcorp logo on the doors pulls up outside the building and honks once.
"Fuck was that?" Hinata grumbles and prepares herself for anything as she walks out the building.
A darkly complected woman with black hair, in a black business suit, is sitting in the driver's seat. She is wearing aviator shades and shiny, plastic bracelets. She waves Hinata down, as soon as she spots her.
"Hi? Can I help you ma'am?" Hinata asks the driver cautiously. Not having Luna next to her in an unknown place like this is bothering her greatly, not to mention she feels a lot weaker without her moon.
The jeep's windows were down and she easily hears her. "Hey, it's me! Bl-I mean, Jackie Asshawk! You ready for your appointment or what?"
Hinata tilts her head and her heartrate heightens from stress, "My... appointment? Oh wait. The naomi thing right? I was hoping that Luna would've come along. But uh.." She doesn't hear Krystal or ALAIS in her mind, so in a rare twist of fate, she's completely alone. After taking a deep breath, she simply responds, "...ok. This won't hurt will it?"
Jackie reaches over and swings the jeep door open hard enough to cause the jeep to shake a bit. "Nah, it is no biggie! Come on--get in!"
Watching the jeep door open like that causes her to jump, "Gods above! Luna, I'm sorry." Hinata hops into the jeep and closes it up, making sure to buckle up.
Jackie flashes a toothy grin. She then reaches into her blazer pocket and pulls out a pack of Juicy Fruit gum. "Want a gum?"
"No thanks, I'll be ok." Hinata shakes her head. "So Jackie Asshawk isn't your real name then?"
Jackie laughs nervously. "No... Now-uh-where's that card?" She looks away from Hinata, searching each pocket frantically. "You sure you do not want some gum?”
"Nah I'm good," Hinata smiles. For once, she feels at ease, even if the whole situation feel dodgy.
Jackie huffs and then takes a deep breath, giving up on finding the card. "Sorry, I am new at this. I will just have to wing the introduction." Jackie clears her throat for a concerningly long time. She then grabs a wrapped gum from the pack and unwraps it quickly, popping it into her mouth. She chews the gum for a few seconds, then adds another piece. She chews that for a few seconds then adds a third. She then spits the whole wad out the window and mumbles to herself "It is fine, some animal will find it." before returning her attention to Hinata. "So, um... First and foremost, thank you for choosing Naomi. We are happy that you have chosen to become a part of something bigger. Could I start by asking you to list a few weaknesses you might like removed during the process? Naomi is 100% patient compliance. If you say you have no weaknesses, we will not remove anything."
"Weaknesses?? I don't really have any." Hinata shakes her head, "though getting something like what Luna got to help with loud sounds would be nice."
"Noted. Noise sensitivity modification. Anything else?"
Hinata closes her eyes for a few moments. Not having her AIs to help is bothering her. "Not that I can think of?"
"Uh...What about strengths?" Jackie nervously pops another gum into her mouth. "Any abilities you would like enhanced?" She starts the jeep and begins to pull away from the house.
"I wouldn't mind my sword skills leveled up a bit. And my Magic. It would be cool to be on an equal level with Luna." Hinata sighs, realizing exposing Jackie's lie was a bad idea. "And besides, I'll still call you Jackie no matter what. So don't worry."
"Hmm... Arm or detachable?" Jackie ignores the comment about her name.
Hinata tilts her head in blatant confusion, "What??? What do you mean by that?"
"Your sword. Do you use a blade in your arm or a detachable sword in a scabbard or sheath?"
"Detachable sword in a sheath. I'd like to keep it that way. Somedays I feel spicy and decide to use a warhammer instead." Hinata grins.
"Oh! My sister has one of those. I'll keep that in mind." The jeeps speeds up, continuing to head out of the suburban area.
"Your sister has a warhammer?? Based. Mine's called the MEGABonk." Hinata chuckles
"Good one! Strawberry calls hers the Puree Pulverizer."
Hinata’s eyes glow a deeper green for a couple moments, "coooool."
Jackie realizes that she misspoke and attempts to change the subject. "So, you ever take drugs? I heard that the original appointment process involved a lot of drugs, but they updated it to be more 'ethical' and now they just use paradoxes or something."
"I can't say I have, unless you count weed this one ti-- paradoxes?? How does that work?" Hinata chooses not to comment on Strawberry's name being leaked
"Instead of harsh surgeries and the use of drugs for compliance and mental modification, the good people of Solcorp have advanced the science to no longer require either! Using our patented secret energy source, we can create small paradoxical instances until the desired model is achieved." Jackie spits her gum out the window. It hits a little boy, who is walking with his mother, in the face. "Oh, what colors would you prefer for your skin and hair?"
"Uhhhhh no change, thanks. Wait what do you mean skin??" Hinata asks, always wanting to be tanner than her pasty artificial skin allows.
"Well, your skin and hair would be set to gray by default, but we can change them to match your current color palette."
"Ew gray is so not my color. I would prefer my current looks thanks. Not to mention me and Luna have this opposite colors thing going on with our hair. She's purple themed, I'm more yellow, though I got a red streak to show I was reborn twice." Hinata explains, becoming more and more uncomfortable with this.
"That is very sweet of you. I like it when groups color coordinate. Do you have any bad memories we should know about? It tends to make things complicated when we do not acknowledge those sorts of things prior to the appointment." The jeep speeds up again as it merges onto the highway
Hinata takes a deep breath and thinks everything over. Her eyes dim a fair bit. "Bad memories? I mean there was the time I was separated from Luna 18 years ago against my will. And the two times I was killed. I remember those vividly along with the pain of being shot and the pain of fire engulfing my entire body. I remember waking up from cryogenic sleep after a decade and finding myself in an apocalypse. Being near suicidal at one point after being abandoned.. it scars me. None of my physical scars and body aches affect me nearly as much as these mental scars."
"How much do you want to remember of these?"
Her voice continues to be neutral, "Good memories, bad memories, they're all memories to me. You have to have the good with the bad. I would like to keep these memories."
"I think that is all of the standard questions... I would not know for sure though, since I lost my card." Jackie sighs. "So, uh...how you been?"
She exhales deeply, her tone returning to its usual warm as the sun quality, "I'm okay. We were attacked last night by someone, but we pulled through it well enough. If anything, I miss Luna. Not exactly used to being away from her for this long."
Jackie asks with concern, "Attacked? Was anyone injured?"
"Thankfully no. We were silenced and thus lost our access to our Magical Abilities, but someone.. or something got us out of there before actual harm was done." Hinata sighs, feeling a bit useless.
"Sounds like you could use some help." Jackie's mind wanders off. She snaps back to reality and asks, "Is that why you said yes when I asked you to do this?"
"Correct. I was hoping to increase my own abilities to be able to fight alongside Luna on a more equal plane. She's my everything, but our powers, our Magical Abilities are on completely different levels."
"Okay. We can fix that." The jeep pulls into the parking lot of Prism Flights Airport. Jackie talks to the lady at the flight station and gets two tickets for JMD Unit 46 Street Blvd, in Remnant, Virginia.
"Wait where are we going?" Hinata asks, keeping up with Jackie's pace.
"Your appointment. The local JMD is booked until next month. The JMD in Remnant Virginia had an opening. That's the closest location."
Hinata tilts her head, "what's Virginia?"
"It is where people eat lasagna and play in the woods. It is no New Cleveland, but it will have to do."
"Uhm. Okay?" Hinata shakes her head. She's learning so much today. The two board the plane after some time. The seats are comfy and the temperature is controlled. Various people are scattered throughout the cabin but it is surprisingly sparsely occupied. Maybe a fourth of the seats are taken. It smells like a nice hotel inside.
"Whoa, first plane trip ever. Gonna need to check that off my bucket list." Hinata hums to herself while vibing. The only thing that would make this better is for Luna to be next to her instead of Jackie, but she takes what she can.
Hinata has the window seat, Jackie keeps her eyes ahead, mentioning that looking out during air travel makes her sick. The captain announces their take-off and the engines whir to life. The plane jostles a bit as it builds up speed and takes off. Once they reach a steady altitude, the flight attendants emerge from a door at the front of the cabin. One of them seems familiar.
Hinata is watching out the window, genuinely confused about where they are and where they're going. Watching the earth become smaller and smaller while the plane becomes engulfed in clouds and sky causes her tail to wag.
As one of the flight attendants walks down the aisles, they pause and double take unbeknownst to Hinata. Then they continue walking thinking this is just part of some dream.
On her left wrist, her jade friendship bracelet glows. "Wait. Why is it glowing? That means... Luna?"
Jackie looks toward Hinata, having heard her mention the bracelet glowing. "Luna? Like from Twitter?"
"Yeah the same. She's my girlfriend!" Hinata clambers on her seat to look for Luna's iconic purple hair and tail, "wait yeah I see her. Oh dang that suit is kind of cute. I like the skirt." She chooses not to flag her down, letting her do her job.
"I wonder if she will recognize me," Jackie says. She spots Luna and does that annoying whistle that all service industry workers hate.
Luna's ears flatten and she grumbles for a half moment. Then she summons the fakest smile imaginable and asks the two, "can I help you?" She looks down at her own friendship bracelet, one also on her left wrist with a glowing sapphire. "Hinata? What are you doing here?" The fake smile turned into a real one insantly.
"Uh I'm going to that appointment. Remember?" Hinata sheepishly smiles.
"Right. The naomi thing." And then she looks at the other person and she doesn't recognize them. "Can I help you ma'am?" She looks extremely tired. And extremely furry too, almost like a bipedal cat. She has purple fur with black stripes with clawed paws instead of hands. Her limbs are all digitigrade. Her tail is somehow longer than it is in her usual form and much bushier as a result.
"Oh... Where are my manners?" She offers a handshake. "You may call me Jackie." Jackie pauses to see if Luna will recognize that name.
"Jackie.. Jackie.. uhh Asshawk? Wait didn't I give you that name?" Luna asks as she gently takes her hand. Her fur is super super soft and the pawpads are squishy.
Hinata seems confused by this revelation, "You did? Oh yeah on twitter right?"
"A fine name indeed. Good for undercover work." Jackie shakes Luna's hand firmly. She then reaches into her pocket. "Care for a gum?"
Luna shakes her head. "I'm not allowed to take items from patrons, sorry. Not to mention Juicy Fruit usually loses its flavor instantly. I can't believe we're going to same place! What a stroke of luck."
"See? I told you it's not a dream." Hinata smiles from her seat.
"Then why am I furry???" Luna seems confused.
"You probably have the ability to change forms still Lu. Just don't do it here." she giggles.
Jackie pops a gum into her mouth.
"Well hopefully I can get off after this flight and come with you to your appointment. Would you like that Hinata?" Luna asks.
"If you're allowed to, sure." Hinata feels relieved hearing that.
"You will have to wait in the waiting room during the procedure, but you can come along." Jackie nods.
Luna nods with a smile. "I accept those terms. I gotta finish the flight, so I'll tlak to y'all soon." Luna waves and walks off to continue her shift.
"Darn..." Jackie says. "I forgot to give her my used gum to toss out." Jackie spits the gum into her hand and angrily stares at it. Jackie waits a while then, very discreetly, she sticks it to the underside of her seat. The plane lands and both Jackie and Hinata exit the terminal. Soon they are outside. It's more humid here and the smell of dirt lingers in the air.
"So this is what Virginia's like. Gods, it's warm here." Hinata is now regretting wearing a yukata out here.
"It is 'aight' but again... No New Cleveland." An identical white jeep to Jackie's back in Ohio pulls up and a man steps out. He hands Jackie the keys. "Thank you very much, good sir." She shakes his hand firmly. Afterwards she opens the passenger door forcefully enough to shake the vehicle. "After you."
"Gods, why do you pull it open so harshly?" Hinata gets inside. "Can we wait for Luna to come along?"
"It is hard for me to move gently when it requires shoulder movement."
"Ah that's fair then. My apologies."
"I was built to-I was born to a strong mother. Grace was not her strong suit." Jackie goes to the driver's side, ignoring the comment about Luna.
Hinata notices Jackie nearly ready to drive towards their destination and stops her, "Wait hang on Jackie. I'm waiting for Luna to join us."
"When does she get off? Did you ask?"
Hinata texts Luna. Then she puts away her phone. "She'll be out in a minute or two. Just changing into something a lot cooler cuz it's too hot.”
"Oh, okay."
On that cue, Luna walks out of the airport wearing a blue tank top with a yellow star on it, black athletic shorts, and sneakers. She's still furry and has her messenger bag on hand. "Gods thanks for letting me come along Jackie." She gets in the back seat.
Jackie gives a thumbs up. "All ready to go then? Need to get anything to eat or drink first?"
"Nope, I'm good. I had a couple of the leftover snacks from the last flight. Doubt they'll miss a bag of pretzels missing." Luna smiles.
"I had lunch earlier." Hinata nods as the two sapphics take each others’ hands.
"Okay, straight to JMD then!" Jackie drives off south-bound. After 20 minutes they arrive in a small-town city. Located at the center is a large, matte gray building with no windows. It is possibly three stories high, but very wide, covering a lot of ground. It reminds one of a warehouse. Atop the structure is a single sign with this symbol: 🏩
"So this is JMD? Never heard of a hospital using an emoji for its signage." Hinata mutters.
"Hm. That's interesting." Luna's taking in the sights and sounds of the city.
"It is from what was before. M0TH3R had not yet become accustomed to-Yeah, it's a weird corporate thing." Jackie nervously laughed.
"Why can I not hold my tongue today?" She mumbles.
Hinata takes a deep breath and turns to Jackie. "MOTH3R. Jackie, you know you can talk straight with us right? We're not gonna snitch on ya to the Accord. We want to help y'all so much. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to become a Naomi, to be able to fight from the inside."
Luna continues, taking Hinata’s cue. "And that's why I'm working for Solcorp, even if it's against my will. I came to this world to help y'all push back the Neon Accord."
"Do not say that. DO. NOT. SAY. THAT. OUTLOUD. AGAIN!" Jackie is breathing heavily. "Sorry...let us just...go inside."
"Ri-right." Luna goes completely silent, her ears ringing and flattened against her skull.
"Gods-- erm. Noted. You good Jackie?" Hinata looks scared all of a sudden. The reality of the situation combined with her outburst is starting to overwhelm her. Luna catches onto this and holds Hinata's hands when they get out of the car.
"I am functioning. Please, just let me get this referral. It is important." She says "important" funny
Hinata squints at Jackie and Luna notes the odd inflection.
Jackie seems to wink then turns to face the building before completing it. She starts walking toward a blank wall. As she gets close, the wall slides open and Jackie enters.
The two follow suit, walking towards the blank wall and hoping it slides open for them as well. It doesn't at first, but then reluctantly slides open. A sterile, chill flows over their bodies accompanied by the smell of disinfectant.
At the exact same time, the two yelp, "cold!" while still holding each others hands.
"Ugh, I hate the scent of disinfectant." Luna groans.
"I'm just really glad I wore a Yukata all of a sudden," Hinata jokes as they enter.
Inside is nothing extravagant. In fact, it doesn't look dissimilar to every other hospital. The only thing of note is the attire of the staff. They all wear white jumpsuits and black old fashioned nurses caps with that emoji symbol on it.
"Huh. At least they got an easier uniform than what we got." Luna mutters and sighs.
Hinata's feeling nervous and is squeezing Luna's hand harder and harder. If her hand wasn’t strong enough, it would probably shatter bone.
Jackie walks up to the receptionist and mentions that she has a referral. The receptionist smiles and hands her a clipboard with paperwork. Jackie fills in some of the blanks and then she hands the clipboard to Hinata. "Fill this out carefully. It will ask you questions about your hobbies, favorite foods, personal beliefs and things like that." Jackie notices that Hinata seems nervous. "You know of instances, right? How we used to travel using memories? This is like that. The more accurate the answers the more favorable your adaptations and enhancements will be."
Hinata takes a deep breath and focuses herself and her mana. "I'm not super knowledgable of instances honestly, but I think I can figure it out."
Jackie feels Hinata's mana shift. "Oh, no... You do not need to do that now. The 'procedure' is similar to instances."
"I-- I see." She defocuses her mana, unsure what she did wrong. Then Hinata begins to write for a concerningly long amount of time, trying to be as honest as possible about everything. Her relationships with Luna and Viper, her beliefs in the Many Gods Above, her Magical Abilities, hobbies, and the fact that she is an assassin. The fact that she was never born and instead created. A former CEO of Solaire. Everything in detail. None of these things are secret, due to how Luna's mind works unfortunately, so often times, her life is an open book. With a final deep breath taken, she hands it back fully completed to Jackie. "I’m ready.”
Jackie checks the work and then hands the clipboard to the receptionist. A few minutes later, a man in a white lab coat walks into the waiting room and calls Jackie's name.
The two look up, still holding hands.
He calls again.
"Hey Jackie? Are you gonna go see what he wants?" Luna asks.
Jackie was zoned out. She snaps into focus. "Oh, yeah..." She walks over to the man and he tells her to enter the hallway. The door closes behind them. They both return a few moments later. "I will be able to join you Hinata. Let us proceed. It is time to start the next chapter of your life."
"Okay." Hinata gets up.
Luna gets up as well and gives Hinata the biggest hug of her life. The friendship bracelets on them glow brightly. As Hinata releases and follows Jackie, the glow dims and fades away causing her to go completely silent. Hinata follows Jackie, nearly tearing up, but knowing this is for the best. Luna returns to her seat, slouching and browsing social media to keep herself calmed.
The three of them head down a long hallway with many doors. They enter the last one on the left. Hinata is guided to a private room to change. Everything must be removed but the garments they gave her. When she is done she is led to a room with a clear tube at the center and a tv screen suspended above it. The far side of the room is a glass wall with a control panel. Several people in the hospital uniforms are stationed there. Hinata is instructed to enter the tube, and stare at the screen while the man in a lab coat and Jackie enter the area at the far end. "Stay brave. I will be just over there." Jackie reassures her.
Her tone is as dim as the lessened glow in her eyes. "I understand." She does as instructed.
The tube closes around her slowly. On the screen a faint outline of a moth appears amongst a sea of static. It changes to a picture of a flowery field. "How does this make you feel?" The man in a lab coat asks over a speaker.
Hinata doesn't know how to respond to that. "I.. don't know. I do like sunflowers. But what was the moth?"
It switches to a video of maggots on raw meat. "How does this make you feel?"
Hinata looks visibly ill and is about to throw up, "I'm going to ask that you remove that from my screen at once, holy fuck what the fuck is wrong with y'all???"
She feels her skin begin to tingle. "That is the correct response." The screen now shows a couple laughing while walking on the beach. "How does this make you feel?"
"I've never been to the beach before. I wanted my first trip to be with Luna. So... hopeful?"
Her mind feels...heavy...and her skin hurts a bit, like a light sunburn. A video of a starving child begging for food appears on the screen.
"How does this make you feel?"
Feeling the pain and her mind become foggy causes her to react suddenly, "What the fuck was that? Why did you hurt me?" Hinata growls not even paying attention to the current screen. "And why is my mind... what are you doing?"
The screen suddenly starts flashing with depictions of happy and awful things. Her whole body aches. These are all moments from her life now. The good and the bad. Hinata is trying to ignore everything, pushing her mind into her happy place, but it doesn't work. Trying to ignore the pain doesn't work. Her life flashes before her very eyes; her experiences with Viper, Luna, Elara, Spark, and Tsukuyomi, all comes at her at once. The pains of struggling to be her own person, but always being reminded of her captivity. The pains of death and torture. The many enemies she's fought in her life. The love from her friends and partners, contradicting everything. Everything is wrong. Instead of taking it, however, she's physically trying to fight it off, swiping her now elongated claws at whatever she can reach even if it does nothing to help. She screams but no one can hear it.
All of Hinata's humanity suddenly vanishes. There is no feeling. There is nothing. Then, with the force of a hurricane wind, all of her emotions are slammed back into her. Painfully. It feels as though Hinata had been slammed against the back wall of the tube, possibly crushing some bones, but no physical damage has been done to her. She screams in pain regardless. The process repeats, her mind becoming nothing more than a lifeless unthinking ooze. This time, Hinata's body begins to change. Parts liquefy and fall off in bloody pools around her. Distortions painfully warp her limbs and create new ones that fall off to make way for more. The distortions increase in speed and volume. Everything blurs. Then, a small hatch opens at the top of the tube and a metallic centipede-like creature stretches down toward Hinata.
Hinata is completely out of her mind and is nearly mentally and physically dead. She doesn't even notice the centipede.
It leaps down upon her distorted form and merges with it. Suddenly everything stops. The distortions, the pain, the memories... All is still. The tube is clean. It is as if nothing happened. Did it?
The memories of what happened in the tube begin to fade.
Not entirely, but they are very dulled and continue to fade.
The tube opens up.
She feels disoriented, but also feeling stronger somehow. Much stronger.
Despite the apparent power increase, Hinata is more confused than anything else. Confused about what happened. Confused about her body. Confused. Her eyes are closed and she is unsure how to proceed while curled up in a ball on the ground.
Jackie exits the room in the back and approaches Hinata. "See, that was not so bad, was it?"
She knows it was, but she also...believes that it wasn't at the same time. "I... I don't know? I don't even remember what happened?" Hinata's voice sounds tired.
"You need to get some rest. Let us get you back to Luna and then get you home. Your metamorphosis can be very draining on the mind and body. Just wait for when you wake up though! You will have never felt better."
"Metamorphosis? Am I a butterfly now?" Hinata asks weakly.
Jackie laughs, "Even better. You are Naomi."
"No? I'm Hinata. Hinata Aurora Solaire"
"Of course you are. Just as I am...Jackie Asshawk...and also Naomi. Consider it an extra last name and a new additional heritage."
"So......... Hinata Aurora Solaire Naomi then?"
Jackie laughs again. "Think of it more like a tribe name. Every Navajo is both themselves and Navajo."
Hinata yawns a bit. "Oh.. okay. So uh can I see myself in the mirror? I have no idea what happened."
"Sure." Jackie reaches into her pocket and retrieves a compact mirror.
Hinata looks at herself in it and sees no notable changes other than feeling tired."Okay? I can't wait to get my normal clothes on." Hinata sighs. "Thanks Jackie."
"Anytime. Feel free to get into contact with me if you have any questions or concerns." After changing, Jackie leads Hinata back through the hallway and to the awaiting Luna in the waiting room.
Hinata walks back out wearing the same outfit from before. Physically, she looks no different than before, though Luna can tell her mana has increased by a fair amount. "Whoa, you look... the same."
Hinata and Luna tackle hug to the ground, "I'm so glad that went well!" Luna says, on the bottom as per usual.
Jackie waits patiently for the two to have their reunion, then directs them out of the JMD and they drive back to the airport to wait for the return flight. It is set for two hours from when they arrive. This gives them time to explore the various kiosks and pop-up shops located throughout the airport. There are an exorbitant amount of Solcorp products and posters.
They are genuinely just happy to be with one another. Their friendship bracelets glow heavily, perhaps due to the increase in magical power between the two.
"That's a lot of Solcorp. I wonder if the stuff that Happy guy promotes is here?"
As if she summoned him, a commercial for face cream, with Happy as the actor, plays on an overhead tv screen.
"Good gods Hinata, did you do that?" Luna asks while watching the advert and chuckling.
"No idea, but I do believe in weird happenstances." Hinata giggles.
Happy winks, seemingly at Hinata, but again... it could be a happenstance.
"Fuck was that?" Hinata looks nervous. "Happy?? Why did you wink at me???" The commercial ends.
"He did? But it's a TV screen." Luna looks concerned.
Jackie is buying several packs of gum at a distant kiosk. A commercial for some pizza chain is playing now.
Hinata tilts her head. "Man, I could really go for some pizza right now." Her stomach grumbles.
"Located here at the Prism Flights Airport in Remnant Virginia!" The commercial finishes.
Luna turns her head towards Hinata, "Did you do that?"
"No! It can't be. It's an advertisement for the airport, of course it'd say where it is." Hinata seems really nervous about this. "Uhh wanna check it out? We got some time before flying home.”
"S-sure." Luna cautiously accepts as they walk hand-in-hand to the pizza place.
The pizza is authentic, brick oven Italian style. There are various options to choose from when it comes to toppings, some they recognize and some they don't.
"Holy crap, jackpot. Lemme see here, should we just go with pepperoni Lu?" Hinata asks.
"Yeah I'm buying. One of the perks of working for Solcorp is having money." Luna grins. Luna is asked to place her paw upon a scanner at the counter after ordering. They give her a whole pie free of charge as a perk of working as a flight attendant. "What. That was easy." Luna looks shocked. "I wasn't aware of the perks."
"Let's go eat." They head to the table and open the box up. Everything is fresh and flavorful with a crisp yet not overdone crust.
"Daaaaaaang, this is good." Luna eats, finally able to relax for the first time all night.
"Yeah I know right!" Hinata leans next to Luna while eating.
Jackie sees the two together and allows them some privacy. She eats her pink lemons at a nearby table alone, while on Twitter.
After some time, they board the return flight and arrive back in Ohio. Jackie drives the two back to Luna's place. "Well, thank you all for everything today. You made a big difference for me...for us... And you will not regret this, Hinata."
"I hope not. What was that out there? I said Happy's name and he not only appeared on the screen, he also winked at me." Hinata asks, still confused.
Luna shrugs. "They were Solcorp ads."
"Uh... A coincidence, I guess? Or maybe it is some fancy, new advertising program that listens and gives you relevant ads."
"Hm. Well, I'll let you know if something comes up." Hinata smiles to Jackie. "And thank you for helping me with this."
Luna yawns heavily, "ready to head back whenever you are Hina."
"Of course, I am your li-your friend."
"My li?"
Jackie just smiles and gets back into her jeep silently. She waves at the two before speeding off.
Hinata groans after she leaves. "Right. So you're aware this isn't a dream now right?"
"yeah. In fact, I set the anchor in case we need to return. Ready Hina?"
"oooh let me!" Hinata takes Luna's hand and on saying "teleport" they disappear.