Fusako wrapped her arms around Egwene and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she pushed herself away without breaking their embrace, just far enough to look up into the face of the one she loved. Her heart sank when she could see his displeasure.
"Ryuki, don't be mad. I know you disapprove of soul transfers, but I thought you could be happy for me at least."
"Fusako, there was nothing wrong with your old body. You always want to change things just for the sake of change."
"It's not like that! This body is better. We've been apprenticing together for almost two years now. I could feel my old body already starting to give out under the daily stress. But overnight that's all gone away. I went for a run this morning before anyone got up and I felt so good when I got back I got an early start on the day's work. I'm already done half of what I did yesterday and the rest of you are just waking up."
"But there was nothing wrong with your old body, you just convinced yourself it was breaking when you saw everyone else getting shiny new ones. Just like when you tried to convince master that we should switch to a modern all-in-one stainless steel brewing system like they use to make beer."
"Well, why not? These old ways are so much work and there's nothing different about the end product."
"That's where you're wrong, Fusako. There's something special about sake that's made by hand in the old ways. Just like there's something special about the body you were born with."
Fusako rolled her eyes. Then a tense moment passed before she stuck out her tongue at him. He sighed, then laughed.
"You know I can't stay mad at you."
"I do. And I know that you'll come around eventually. I hear there's a traditional sake brewery out in the mountains that is about to go under. We have enough saved up that we could buy the old place and modernize it. We could automate everything and wouldn't need a steady stream of apprentices to provide cheap labour just to keep the place afloat."
"Fusako..."
"Fine, maybe we don't have to automate everything. But I'm telling you, YE 08 is going to be the year where everything turns around for us."
Fusako leaned forward and closed her eyes again. She knew it was just a memory, but it was one she couldn't bear to think about for the last 35 years. When she found herself in Egwene's arms, it came back to her all at once. With her eyes still closed, she knew that she was back to the present when she could smell Egwene's metallic scent. She breathed it deeply as the cybernetic woman stroked her head.
When the older woman opened her eyes again, she looked up at Egwene and her expression clearly showed her child-like wonder at the cyborg. She was no longer restrained by her desire to be in absolute control of herself and the social situation. Instead, she allowed herself to show how she actually felt. She turned to the hand that was stroking her, grasped it gently as she had done upon greeting Egwene, and gave it a soft kiss.