The rooftop sat three levels above the noise. Not above the city— just… slightly out of sync with it. --- The rain didn’t reach this high the same way. It fell. But softer. Like it had less reason to be here. --- Ace leaned back in the chair. Didn’t fidget. Didn’t scan every corner. Didn’t— react. --- That alone was wrong. --- Mai noticed it. Didn’t comment. --- Shammy stretched out across the third chair like gravity had decided to cooperate for once. The air didn’t tighten around her. Didn’t stabilize anything. --- It just… stayed. --- “That’s it,” Ace said. --- Mai glanced at her. --- “That’s what.” --- Ace gestured vaguely at everything. --- “This.” --- Not helpful. --- Mai followed the motion anyway. --- Lights. City. People moving below in predictable flows. No anomalies. No distortions. No— interruptions. --- “…yes,” she said. --- Ace frowned. --- “You don’t feel that.” --- Mai tilted her head slightly. --- “I feel that nothing is happening.” --- A beat. --- “That’s accurate.” --- That was the problem. --- Shammy shifted slightly. Not to adjust. Just because she could. --- “It’s quiet,” she said. --- Ace snorted once. --- “This city isn’t quiet.” --- “No,” Shammy agreed. --- A pause. --- “It is right now.” --- They let that sit. --- A server drifted past their table. No hesitation. No double-take. Placed three glasses down. Exactly what they had ordered. --- Ace stared at hers. --- “…we didn’t repeat that.” --- Mai picked hers up. Examined it. --- “No,” she said. --- Shammy didn’t even look. Just reached and took a sip. --- Correct temperature. Correct balance. --- Nothing off. --- Ace didn’t drink. --- “Okay,” she said slowly. --- “That’s two.” --- Mai didn’t ask. --- Ace counted on her fingers anyway. --- “Service works. Orders match. No delay.” She glanced over the edge of the rooftop. --- “Traffic’s clean. No weird routing.” --- Shammy added quietly: --- “Air’s stable.” --- That one landed. --- Mai’s eyes narrowed slightly. --- “Too stable,” she said. --- Ace pointed at her. --- “Yeah. That.” --- They sat in silence again. --- It wasn’t uncomfortable. --- That was new too. --- Below them, someone laughed. Not forced. Not too loud. --- Normal. --- Ace leaned forward slightly. --- “…when was the last time that happened.” --- Mai didn’t answer. --- Because she didn’t know. --- Shammy’s gaze drifted across the skyline. --- Not searching. --- Just— tracking something that wasn’t there. --- “There’s no correction,” she said. --- Ace blinked. --- “What.” --- Shammy didn’t look at her. --- “When something moves wrong, the air adjusts,” she said. --- A small pause. --- “Nothing’s moving wrong.” --- That should have been good. --- It wasn’t. --- Mai set her glass down. Slowly. --- “…there’s no noise,” she said. --- Ace frowned. --- “There’s plenty of noise.” --- “No,” Mai said. --- “Not sound.” --- A beat. --- “Variance.” --- That clicked. --- Not fully. --- Enough. --- Ace leaned back again. --- “…so everything’s just behaving.” --- Mai nodded once. --- “Yes.” --- Shammy added, almost absently: --- “Perfectly.” --- That word stayed. --- Perfect. --- Nothing in their world was ever perfect. --- Ace let out a short breath. --- “Okay,” she said. --- “Now I don’t like it.” --- A pause. --- Then— movement. --- A couple at the far edge of the rooftop. Standing too close. Talking. --- One of them shifted. Half-step forward— --- Almost collided with a passing server. --- Almost. --- They both adjusted. Cleanly. No stumble. No contact. --- Nothing happened. --- Ace was already halfway out of her chair— --- —and stopped. --- Sat back down. --- Mai noticed that. Didn’t say anything. --- That mattered more than the almost-collision. --- Ace exhaled once. --- “…that should’ve gone wrong.” --- Mai nodded. --- “Yes.” --- Shammy tilted her head slightly. --- “It didn’t.” --- Silence again. --- The city moved. --- Everything worked. --- Nothing broke. --- No friction. No interruption. No correction. --- Just— flow. --- Ace picked up her glass. Finally. Took a sip. --- “…this isn’t normal,” she said. --- Mai didn’t argue. --- “No.” --- A beat. --- “It’s just not broken.” --- That didn’t help. --- Shammy’s gaze shifted again. Further this time. Past the skyline. --- “There’s no pushback,” she said. --- Ace looked at her. --- “What does that mean.” --- Shammy didn’t answer immediately. --- Because the answer wasn’t local. --- “It means nothing is resisting anything,” she said. --- A pause. --- “Everything is already where it’s supposed to be.” --- That— felt worse than any anomaly they’d seen. --- Ace leaned back again. Didn’t move this time. --- Didn’t reach for anything. Didn’t scan. --- Just— sat. --- “…I hate this more than the fights,” she muttered. --- Mai allowed herself the smallest shift of expression. --- “Of course you do.” --- A beat. --- Ace didn’t respond. --- Because for once— there was nothing to react to. --- And that left her with nothing to cut. --- Shammy finally looked back at them. --- Soft. Calm. --- “This won’t last,” she said. --- Ace didn’t ask how she knew. --- Mai didn’t either. --- They didn’t need to. --- Because something like this— --- never did. --- Below them, the city kept moving. --- Perfectly.