Mirai felt his greed rise up. Obvious ploy or not, Miyume was cleverly giving him exactly the image he wanted, and seemed to understand. She believed a little tenderness was something he needed. He went cheerfully into the bleachers, with quite a nice smile on his face as he sat down next to her, one hand on his side.

"Is that what you think?"

Underneath his smile, not for the first time, was something deviant. "Sounds like you've listened to your mother. She's right, I'll admit that. But... the truth is she's not here. My feeling is you can do it if you want it," he said encouragingly.