Not As Alone As You Think

[Kurusu Akira]

Mr. Hanekoma shrugged in response to Medusa's question. "The number changes. Sometimes people vanish, but nobody knows where they go. New people show up all the time. There's a bunch of people you don't want to mess with, too many to list, and that group changes quite a bit, too. The standing rules in Coruscant; don't attack Palpatine, don't mess up the library, and don't get on Dredd's bad side. If you go to the dunes, don't antagonize Roland. If you see a turtle smoking a cigar, run. That's the basic survival guide, anyway. Nobody really knows exactly where Omnilium comes from. You can extract it from objects if you take time, but sometimes you just end up with more of it inside you. As for getting stronger, you probably could get a little better, but Omnilium's going to level the playing field with everyone else real fast. Not using it is practically suicide if you plan on getting into trouble, and trouble likes to find Primes here." The end of this little lecture was punctuated by the delivery of a cup of coffee, black, and a bowl of sugars for Medusa to add if she wished.

For Neku's part, he drank his coffee in silence until the woman introduced herself and called him Phones. He choked a bit on his drink and set the paper cup down gently. "Just Neku is fine, really." Mr. Hanekoma chimed in at the worst moment for the boy, as usual. "Aww, is Phones flustered by a pretty face?" He gave Medusa a smile and chuckled a bit. "My name's Sanae Hanekoma, but Mr. H. is fine."