"Yeah," Haruto says. "It is," he continues, more firmly. "Amazing."

He frowns, considering this cover story, and nods, once. "Sounds good to me," he says, "means I get to make you do the talking." Not that Nitoh didn't always try to do all the talking. Haruto is half worried. But if he's a guard then he can loom at people--much easier than having to worry about history. "I'm thinking we find a place to stay, where we're not going to be worrying so much about someone getting into our stuff," he says, "and then we case the city. The PlaMonsters'll have to be careful..."

He's not used to doing much detective work without his familiars. They'd grown used to being careful, though.