The room had one wall completely covered by a mirror. Scale recognized it as a one-sided window, but she didn’t particurly care if others were watching her interview. She sat down on the long red couch and Alyssa sat next to her. The two held hands. A gentle white light shined where their hands touched, and Alyssa winced.

  “I warned you,” said Scale, her eyes narrowed. The corner of her mouth had curled up into a slight smile.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” said Alyssa.

  “It makes perfect sense. My skin isn’t really skin—”

  “So let’s start off with that. The elephant in the room,” the Chairman interrupted Scale as he sat in a seat on the opposite side of a small table. While sitting down his suit looked tighter than before. The buttons holding his shirt closed were fighting for dear life.

  “Dragon.” Scale spoke in a level voice.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I’m not an elephant, I’m a dragon. That’s what you wanted to know, right? My skin is actually millions of scales interlocking. They reflect back anything: physical hits, magic, mental attacks, and so on. Often anything that hits me bounces back several times stronger.”

  The Chairman’s eyes opened wide. He whistled and rubbed his chin.

  “You certainly aren’t human, but you definitely look human,” said the Chairman.

  “I can partially undo my human transformation if you’d like,” said Scale.

  “Partially?” Alyssa asked.

  “I’m an adult dragon. Maybe when I was younger I could have shown my full form here, but unless you’re okay being a pancake…” Scale chuckled as her voice trailed off. “It’s just not doable, and if we did it outside there might be a panic.”

  “The people did just come back from an emergency evacuation order.”

  “Exactly. So if a winged godzil appears in the city… Well, you can imagine the fallout yourself. Your hand’s healed now, Lyss, so scoot over a bit.”

  After making room, Scale’s body started to tremble. Her nose and jaw elongated into a pseudo snout as sharp teeth sprouted in her mouth. Her skin whitened and ridge-like scales became visible. Her physique bulked up and she grew almost two feet taller. Two white horns sprouted from her head and a pair of wings ripped through her shirt. Her knees inverted and a tail popped out from behind her at some point.

  “Wait Scale! Your clothes!”

  “Ah!” Scale looked down at her body but realized that the important bits were still covered. She waved her hand dismissively.

  “Why do you still have boobs?”

  Both women turned to look at the Chairman with disgust in their eyes.

  “What?! It’s a legitimate question. They’re definitely smaller but she’s not mammalian so—”

  “I don’t have them in my complete form,” said Scale. “Right now I’m still like 75% human so of course I have human features.”

  Alyssa fiddled with her phone before snapping a quick picture. Then she asked, “What do you think of using this appearance for your public profile?”

  “Oh that’s not a bad idea,” said the Chairman. “As a registered Awakener you’ll be obligated to show up at least a few times a year, especially if we have any S-rank rifts. If you use this form it’d be almost like a superhero costume.”

  “Huh? That’s allowed?”

  “Yeah. Some heroes don’t even have public profiles like—” The Chairman was cut off as a small hole appeared in the air and another set of clothes popped out.

  “Okay pause,” said Scale. “I didn't ask before but what is that?”

  “That’s the power of the hero Portal,” said Alyssa with a grin. “I texted her to ask for some more clothes.”

  “Portal? Isn’t that the made up America’s Secret Weapon?” Scale made air quotes with her fingers as she listed off a title she heard in her past life from one of the more questionable "news" channels.

  “Don’t call her a weapon!” Alyssa snapped. “Besides, you’ve actually met Portal before.”

  “I have? Was she at the gate?”

  “No, umm—”

  “Wait wait wait. What’s her real name?” A strange light sparked in Scale’s eyes. A strong suspicion formed in her heart. Her tail unconsciously started to wag.

  “Ssrrrh,” Alyssa mumbled.

  “Speak up, Watergss.” Scale’s tail wrapped around her sister and pulled the pair together. Sitting side by side it was clear that Scale now had the height advantage in her partial transformed state.

  “Sarah,” said Alyssa sheepishly. She looked down and didn’t meet Scale’s eye.

  “Oh. Oh my god! The girl you brought to st Christma—Five Christmasses ago? My sister was sleeping with America’s Secret Weapon?”

  “DON’T CALL HER A WEAPON!”

  “Your hands! Stop!”

  “Umm,” A new, timid voice interrupted the chaotic sibling fight. A woman’s head popped out of the small ring that had previously spit out the clothes. Sarah had short brown hair and a mousey, narrow face. Scale recognized her immediately. Sarah hadn't changed much. “P-please don’t tease her too much, Jacoby—”

  “Scale. Call me Scale, Sarah. It’s good to see you again.” Scale let go of her sister’s hair that she had been pulling to wave.

  “L-likewise!” Sarah nodded enthusiastically even as she stuttered. The portal widened enough for her right hand to appear and she waved back.

  “Ah, make sure you don’t accidentally dox Portal,” said the Chairman. “Her powers make her a bit of an international target.”

  “I didn’t realize my sister’s girlfriend was such a big deal. You told me that you worked in logistics for some company called Glitter…”

  “That’s not exactly a lie,” said the Chairman. “Glitter is a sock-puppet company for the Association, and she does do logistics.”

  “I-I’m sorry for ly—” Sarah bit her tongue. Tears welled up in her eyes. Alyssa jumped from the couch and gently consoled the teary-eyed woman.

  “You. Come heal her!”

  “You!? Is that any way to ask for a favor, Watergss? And I'm not some healbot!"

  “I’ll start hitting you again!”

  “Stop threatening to hurt yourself, dammit!”

  -

  The interview proceeded in a more rexed format. Portal didn’t stay long and disappeared to resume her ‘work’. Scale was pretty sure she heard a TV or something in the background, though.

  The questions that followed were fairly standard. The conversation almost took on a rapid-fire format between Scale and the Chairman.

  “Have you ever killed humans or human-adjacent beings before?”

  “Oh yeah, a lot. Though…” Scale paused in thought. “Do you want me to not count the ones I revived afterward?”

  “Yes, that would be ideal.”

  “In that case it’s less than twenty. Heinous people that sold their souls to demons. I won't speak on their crimes here. I don’t want to bring up those memories.”

  “You mentioned before that you saved that world from a Demon King. That’s a fairly common setting for Returnees. So you’ve participated in war?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you okay reminiscing about that? I know it can be hard to talk about—”

  “Why would it be hard to talk about?” Scale tilted her head in genuine confusion.

  “Well, normally seeing comrades dying—”

  “Ah, you’re under a misconception,” Scale interrupted the Chairman with a smile. “Once I joined the war not a single ally died. At least, none on the battlefields where I was.”

  “Your healing powers are that strong, huh?”

  “Holy magic has more than just healing. I can buff my allies, cast protective magic, and enchant their weapons too.”

  “Okay but what about the killing? Surely taking the lives of a sentient race was hard?”

  “The demons probably aren’t like what other returnees faced if they described them as sentient,” said Scale. Her smile went askew and her lip twitched. “They were more like moving rot, like a fungus. They were alien to all other life. Decay and corruption given form. Oddly phallic. Very gross. Having sympathy for them is like having sympathy for mosquitoes.”

  “Ah. Alright,” the Chairman pulled at his colr. “Then onto the next question, did you have any friends in that world? People you might miss or who might miss you?”

  Scale’s body started to shrink. Her transformation undid itself and the small pretty woman with white hair was now sitting in tattered clothes. She smiled but both Alyssa and the Chairman could see it wasn’t genuine.

  “Yeah. My mother probably misses me. She’ll definitely be able to find me here eventually, though. It might take her a while because she’s not as skilled as I am.”

  It was obvious that Scale was avoiding the talk about friends. The Chairman didn’t press the issue.

  “Your mother, was she the only direct family you had in that world?”

  “Yeah. We were the st two dragons.”

  “The st two? What about your father?”

  “No idea. Never asked. Didn’t feel right.”

  -

  “Well alright, we’ve recorded everything. You’re going to be listed as an S-rank Returnee on our official site. We’re going to use a picture of you in your partial form for the profile,” said the Chairman as he guided Scale and Alyssa through the lobby towards a car parked outside.

  “We’ll handle getting you a civilian ID too. It’ll take a few days. In the meantime please consider our offer to work for the Association.”

  Scale shook hands with the Chairman and ughed.

  “I’ll think about it. Lyss will help me decide ter. For now I really just want to rest.”

  “I’ll make sure she stays out of trouble,” said Alyssa.

  The two got into the car. The Chairman stayed behind at the association. The driver was separated from the backseat by a soundproof divider. The two siblings sat in silence. Scale leaned and rested her head on Alyssa’s shoulder.

  Alyssa rubbed Scale’s back.

  “Nervous?” She asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you want me to text Dad ahead of time?”

  “No. I need to face this properly. He’ll probably be confused. If you text him that I’m back and then some woman he’s never met before walks in… I don’t want to get his hopes up just to dash ‘em.”

  “You’re overthinking this.”

  Scale didn’t reply. Her thoughts stormed. She felt guilty. Her father always had hopes for her but now…

  They enjoyed the rest of the ride in silence.