Xerondar stepped out of the car and thanked the driver. His Portuguese was a little rusty– and about three hundred years old-fashioned– but the man smiled and nodded before driving off. He slung his bag over one shoulder and looked up at the tall building in front of him. Fanzou lived in one of these flats.
It had taken Xerondar two weeks to make the decision to go to Brazil. He didn’t feel comfortable going so far away from Nira, but Fanzou had promised to keep her under surveillance while Xerondar was away and to notify him immediately if he detected any problems. He still felt uneasy about it but really, he knew she would be okay. Besides, it would only be a few weeks– maybe a month– and then he would be back.
The front entrance was locked and required a code to get inside. Xerondar put his bag down and began to fumble through his pockets for Fanzou’s apartment number, when the speaker cut on.
“Yo!” a young male voice called over the intercom, “Welcome to my humble abode! I’m buzzing you in now. Third floor, second door on the left. Door’s open!”
Xerondar looked up. He didn’t see any cameras anywhere. He decided they must be very well-concealed. “Thanks!” he called back, then he picked up his things and opened the door. As it closed, a big gray fur-ball darted in behind him and ran up the stairs. He adjusted his bag on his shoulder and marched up three flights of stairs, then turned left. The second flat had an obvious security camera mounted above the door next to an old sticker on the wall that read “HELLO THERE” in what must once have been bright colors. He wiped his feet on a faded blue welcome mat and opened the door.
The place was surprisingly warm and inviting. To his right was a small seating area with a sofa and an overstuffed armchair, across from which sat a huge television and four different gaming systems. To the left was a wall with a closed door, and a beat-up metal sign that read “No foreigners allowed here” in Japanese. Beyond the door the space opened up, and to the right was a small kitchen with a little plastic table and some folding chairs, while to the left was an arrangement of desks and tables, upon which were several computers and various other machines which all seemed to be hooked up to the computers, with one comfortable-looking rolling chair in the middle of it all. Past that area were two more doors and a small room off to the side with a couch and a small table.
The door directly in front of him opened, and out came Fanzou. He was, of course, different from how Xerondar remembered him. He was a slender man with Asian features, and had messy, shaggy dark hair and a few days’ growth around the edges of his chin and the corners of his mouth. He wore a rather worn, loose pair of cargo pants and a faded gray tank-top. Fanzou grinned. “You made it!” he said, “I was almost sure you wouldn’t come.”
Xerondar laughed. “So was I,” he admitted.
“So that room’s yours,” Fanzou said as he gestured toward the doorless room beyond the computers. “That sofa opens up, and there’s drawers in that table where you can stash your stuff. I’ll put some curtains up today so you can have some privacy. I meant to do that before you came but . . .” Fanzou glanced toward his computers and scratched at the back of his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” Xerondar shrugged. He didn’t plan on staying here for very long, so he didn’t see any need for Fanzou to start changing things just for him. His eyes wandered toward the computers again. All of them seemed to be on, and each of them appeared to be running a separate program. Different colored Post-it notes filled with illegible scrawlings covered the edges of the monitors and the walls behind them, and crumpled-up notes littered the floor beneath the desks. “What are you working on?” he asked.
Fanzou shrugged. “Different things,” he said casually. “Nothing really exciting.” He glanced back at his workspace again and added, “Just . . . while you’re here, please don’t turn off anything over here. And don’t touch these two,” he gestured toward two computers in the corner which seemed to be running something complicated– black backgrounds with green and white numbers and letters scrolling up the screens. “It’s a matter of life and death.” Fanzou looked at Xerondar and laughed at his expression, then in a more serious tone added, “Really.”
“Okay,” Xerondar had already assumed that Fanzou’s computers would be off-limits. He removed the bag from his shoulder and entered the room that Fanzou had indicated would be his. Stretched out in the center of the fold-out couch was a hugely fat, long-haired gray cat, which Xerondar recognized as the one he’d seen on his way in. “Is this your cat?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Fanzou replied. “I didn’t tell you about her? Her name is Quistis. She’s an old grouch at first, but once she gets to know you, she’s not bad.”
“Quistis? That’s an unusual name.”
“Yeah, I got it from a video game.”
Xerondar stared at the giant fuzzball. Something about her demeanor made it very clear that this was her room that he was taking over. “I’m sorry,” he told her, “I won’t be here long, I promise.” He moved to pet her, but she swatted his hand away with her paw, glared at him for a moment, then marched snootily from the room to wrap herself around Fanzou’s feet.
He tossed his bag onto the table and looked out the window. Fanzou’s was a corner apartment, so it had more windows than most of his neighbors’ homes. The view wasn’t the greatest– just a lot of tall buildings and a bit of sky– but it was nicer than what he had expected from the home of such a notorious recluse.
He stepped out of the room. Fanzou was busily typing away at one of his computers. Xerondar tried the door next to his room. It had a shower, a sink, and a toilet. A small window with some potted plants on the sill. Gray and white tile. Modest, but clean. The next door opened into a sparse bedroom with a small single bed, a little chest of drawers, and a side table with a lamp. Above the bed hung a framed charcoal sketch of a beautiful young woman whom Xerondar assumed was a recent incarnation of Xiaoli. Fanzou had thick curtains on the windows in that room. Xerondar guessed that he must sleep during the day a lot. He closed that door and went to check out the room near the front door. That door wouldn’t open.
“I keep that one locked,” Fanzou said without turning away from his computer. “It’s dangerous, and I don’t want Quistis going in there and getting hurt.”
Ah. So Fanzou did still keep up some of his old hobbies. Xerondar had wondered if he’d given them up to spend all of his time on his computers, but apparently he hadn’t. Suddenly he was really glad that he’d decided to pursue a friendship with this guy.
Xerondar planted himself on the small sofa near the front door and looked around. It was very comfortable.
“You can watch TV or play whatever you like. The games are in the cabinet under the TV. I’ll be done here in about an hour, and then we can order pizza or go out, or whatever.”
“Okay.” Xerondar had never really played video games, so he decided instead to just relax and soak in his surroundings. It felt strange, knowing that Nira was here in this world, knowing exactly where she was, and yet willingly being thousands of miles away from her. He almost felt like he was shirking in his duty to her somehow. Even though he knew she shouldn’t need him until she awakened, which wouldn’t be for another twelve years or so. He sighed. He had promised Fanzou that he would try not to dwell on such thoughts while he was in Brazil. He was here to try and distance himself.
It would be good for her. He knew that the closer he was to her– the more carefully he watched over her– the harder it was for him to stay away from her. And being too close to her while she was still dormant could be bad for her. It could cause serious problems. That was the main reason that he had agreed to visit Fanzou in Sao Paulo. It was for her own good.
A little over an hour later, Fanzou got up, stretched, and disappeared into his bedroom. He came out again after a minute wearing a faded t-shirt and a pair of flip-flop sandals. “Dude, I am craving takoyaki right now. You like Japanese?”
Xerondar shrugged. “Sure.”
“Awesome. Liberdade is like three blocks from here. It is like the mecca of all things delicious.”
Xerondar laughed and followed him out of the apartment. As they left the building, he once again glanced around at the entrance.
“What is it?” Fanzou asked.
“I was just wondering where the cameras are.”
“Cameras?”
“Yeah, don’t you have some out here?”
Fanzou gave him a strange look. “Dude, unlike some guys I know, I don’t spy on my neighbors. That would be creepy.”
Xerondar rolled his eyes, then frowned. “Then, how did you know when I got here?”
Fanzou laughed. “Um . . . not sure if you know this, but they’ve invented these things called windows. You can use them to see what’s outside without even leaving your house. Amazing, right?”
Xerondar grinned and shook his head. Part of him felt silly, but with Fanzou’s reputation, who could blame him for making the assumption that there were spy-cameras rigged outside the front door?
