"Things are still a little on the hectic side here. I may need you to take over the procedures for Seredy Kreisler."

"Understood. I'll take care of it."

"Thank you."

The line ended as Eva turned to the Russian that came back to the mainland with her. "You heard Yagami-san. Sorry, Nia, but you're gonna have to go on without me."

"Well, that sucks." She clicked her tongue, but gave in. "Fine. I'll see you at dinner then?"

"Yeah, see you!"

~~~~~

Later that night, the blonde arrived at Tiny Orbit just as another car came. Her eyes widening, she ran over to the person who came out of it.

"Jin! You're here!"

He gave her a smile. "Eva, hey."

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but I thought you said you'll take a little longer to get back...?" She said, her head tilting slightly.

"That was before Jiiya called." He seemed a little awkward. "The dinner party Takuya-san invited us all to tonight is apparently a set up by Kirito. As it turns out, he's been the one answering everyone's questions about me and Niara, so he wanted us both to be here for the night to do the explaining ourselves."

"I'll handle the others."

Right. He said that. Eva now felt bad for leaving him alone to take care of it.

"I see. Though, that means you're only here for tonight, huh?"

"Yeah." He then sighed. "Arata was supposed to come with me tonight, but he had some document issues and wasn't allowed to leave the docks. Tomorrow, I'll head back to the island with him."

"Ahaha... I see..." Well, even the people who saved the world can be clumsy at times. "Well, in any case, that means you'll be coming home, right?" She turned away in embarrassment. "The house's been a little empty recently..."

The day she graduated from high school the year before was also the day he had finished his course and came back to Japan. They had been discussing plans to move in together for a while, and that seemed like the best time to do it. And so, with the money they saved up from each of their jobs over the years, along with some of the inheritance money that his late grandfather had apparently wanted to give him for when he turned 17, they bought a little house not too far from their old home. It was also right next to their caretaker's, so they were able to keep him company as he had never married and was living alone.

However, not too long after, he got a call from Reina, who said that she found a clue to the professor's whereabouts on the island after the two had confirmed there were no traces of him on mainland or in Country A. He then made the necessary preparations and headed off.

Because of that, it's hard to say that they've spent some real quality time together since they got... well, together.

Knowing this, Jin gave her a smile. "Sure. It'll be a good chance to catch up since I don't know how long I'll be gone again."

"Great!"

~~~~~

"Jin! You're here!"

"You're okay!"

"Thank goodness!"

The moment they entered, he was immediately swarmed by his friends. He was most surprised to find that even Asuka and Jessica were there. The two were permanent residents of Country A after all.

Still, he was happy to see them all.

"It's about time!" Niara's yell was the loudest among the others. "How long were you planning on making me hold down the fort on my own, huh?!"

"Sorry."

"Don't smile when you're apologizing!"

"Jin."

He turned to the person calling him out, surprised at the voice he recognized. "Reina-san? You're here too?"

She nodded. "I was invited by Uzaki-san. He says that Yagami-san will be here shortly to ask for all the details."

"That would mean I'll need to come too."

"In the first place, it was your idea, after all." She nodded, and then suddenly bowed. "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

He only shook his head, not needing the thanks. Professor Mito was an important presence in his life too. He would've helped even if he wasn't asked to. Speaking of the professor, "How's his condition?"

"The doctors all say he's stable. Give it a few weeks, and everything will be fine."

"I see. Then, that means everything is fine. It's all truly over."

"Yes."

Suddenly, Kazu slung an arm over his shoulder. "But geez, man. Don't scare us like that! We thought you teachers would've been goners too!"

Gouda did the same on his other side. "They only took over for like two days, but it scared the hell out of everyone!"

"Two...?" Jin shrugged them off and narrowed his eyes at them. "How did you know it was two days? The cameras have only been there since yesterday?"

"Kirito told us." Asuka piped from the back of the group.

All eyes turned to the blonde man sitting lazily on one side of the table. He clicked his tongue and gestured his eyes at Eva.

All the attention went to her instead, making her let out an awkward laugh.

"So... I... uh..." She cleared her throat, turning away so as to not meet anyone's eyes. "I... may or may not have been eavesdropping since you first left the island?"

"... You planted a bug in my CCM?"

"...Something like that..." She sighed in defeat. "I knew I was gonna miss hearing your voice, okay? And since the island is remote, I can't just call you whenever I want. I have to go through the headmaster or something and that's just too much of a hassle, so..."

"So, you decide to listen in on everything Jin's doing." Ran snickered.

"Not everything! Just your classes! I swear!" She finally admitted with a clear voice. "Though, when things turned from bad to awful, I tried to listen more often so I could understand the situation better, rather than trusting what Seredy Kreisler showed us."

"Then, you shouldn't mind being there while we report to Yagami-san." Reina suddenly said. "He's going to need to note a lot of things down, so it would help if someone who understood the situation better could do it for him."

"Ahaha..." She should've just kept her mouth shut. "Overtime work, huh..."

"Now, now, we can continue this while we eat." Takuya stated. "Gather around, everyone!"

The party was held in Tiny Orbit's cafeteria. It had been cleared out so that there was only a single row of tables for them to sit around. With the food already prepared, they said their thanks and began digging in.

"Oh yeah." Ami suddenly turned to face the blonde girl. "Eva, your day off got cancelled because of this incident, didn't it?"

"It's fine. Yagami-san already promised to give me the rest of the week off. And I explained it to Kousuke too, so we're postponing some of our projects."

"And the stuff with Seredy?" Niara asked.

"That's all for me to handle on my own." She explained. "The whole world's pretty hectic right now, and Tougou Giichi is... yeah... So, Zaizen-san and Yagami-san will be extremely busy. I wanted to help out at least a little, so they let me take care of all matters regarding Seredy. From his capture to interrogations, and others."

"Make sure to keep your guard up, Eva." Ban reminded.

"I will. Don't worry."

"Hey, speaking of which..." Hiro looked around. "Where is Kousuke? Didn't we invite him too?"

"He said he wasn't interested." Kirito replied. "The world's saved and no one there died, so that's all he needed to know."

"Still, it was a pretty scary incident..." Yuuya muttered. "Are the three of you sure you're okay?"

"Above anything else, my cousin's alive and smiling and doing his part in creating his dream school, so yeah."

"I finally found my father after three years so I can't say that I'm not happy."

"And Jin?" Jessica turned to the black and white haired man when he didn't give a reply.

"All the children are safe, but that doesn't mean everything is alright." He finally responded. "There's still lots of work to be done on the island, and I want to make sure for myself that none of the kids are suffering from anything as an after-effect of this incident."

"Then, why don't you become a teacher permanently?" Reina suggested. "Instructor Saruta took over Jenock for me, but Harness is now back in Miss Higurashi's hands, right? She'll need that help again."

"... I'm not promising anything."

"You've been awfully quiet, Sendou." Asuka nudged the purple haired man. "If you got something on your mind, just say it!"

Sendou glared at her before sighing and pulling out a card. "The Sun. Achievement, productivity, and success. This was the card I pulled when the footage cut out in the middle of the fight this morning. Still, that doesn't mean I could get any sleep in."

"You spent all night worrying about Kiyoka, huh..."

"No wonder you look so exhausted..." Ran muttered. "But then again, we all kind of do."

"Who here hasn't slept for the past 24 hours?" Eva asked with a hand up. Almost everyone around the table lifted theirs too. Reina was the only one who didn't, but they could all guess she probably fell asleep in her father's hospital room. "Guess that means that everyone's going to want to go straight home as soon as dinner's over."

Niara yawned at the mention of home. "Hope Yagami-san won't take too long."

~~~~~

When the, thankfully short, briefing was done, the four headed their separate ways. Reina back to the hospital, Niara to the dorms, where Jessica and Asuka were staying along with her, Kirito, and Yuuya, and Jin and Eva to their own home.

They were greeted by their old caretaker who had let himself in with the spare keys they provided for him. After a short conversation, confirming each other's conditions and well beings, the older man left, leaving the two alone.

It was very late, so they were physically unable to stay up and talk like they wanted to. But that was fine. At that moment, they were by each other's side.

That was all they needed.