Sona Nyl: Cocktail

It goes without saying on what the trigger may have been.

It was the usual normal night.

An anecdote on the surface as usual.

Nighttime. On the Sole Subway Car. Lily the Stranger, who was in a bad mood after being forced to change from her green clothes to her white nightgown, was sitting on the modified bed that rose on the floor while the conductor opens up a thick book that gave off an air similar to an old grimoire and attempts to read it to her. It was after a while that she got interested in their voice.

"Cocktail?"

Lily spoke up.

That was the first time she spoke in about 15 minutes.

With her face partially buried into the pillow, she looks to the tall conductor and says, "hey, A. Does it taste good?" with her eyes sparkling.

"There are a variety of flavors," The tall conductor nods. "It's a state-of-the-art mixed drink that creates aromas and flavors by mixing various alcoholic drinks, fruit juices, syrups, and so on before drinking. Depending on the combination, you can enjoy many different flavors."

"Hmm. Can you enjoy it too, A?"

"I don't know. I do not feel like a Human does."

"But me!?"

"You are permitted to do anything you want."

"I don't understand that," Said Lily. "Tell me something that I can understand."

"Your radiance is quite young. Yes, the consumption of alcohol is quite discouraged. For instance, it was tailored to young children..."

"But I'm not a child though!?"

As expected, Lily was indignant, thinking it was rude of them to not refer to her as a lady. But when she glared at him, it was the same as usual. The conductor's mask-like face had no expression, which made Lily's mood even worse. But it wasn't like he was truly emotionless either. He truly did think and feel something about her. Perhaps they weren't emotions like the ones Humans have, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything in them. He just had no expression on him---as if he were saying "Like a machine, I do not feel".

---Wait a minute. If he can do it, so can I!

"Do you kiss children?"

---I remember asking him something like that before.

"I'm an adult, right. An adult. Is that right?"

"..."

"A."

"..."

"Turn this way."

"..."

"Hey. I'm telling you to turn this way so I can hit you."

"Violence is not permitted. Above all, your hands will hurt. My body is sturdy. Though the conceptual armor have fallen off when we moved out of the Underground World, my defense is still effective."

"Conceptual armor...ugh, it's fine. A cocktail is a cocktail. Are there any cocktails that I can drink?"

"There is."

"That's right! I wish you'd have told me that from the beginning!"

"It's a drink. You can drink it, but depending how you mix it, it could turn into a cocktail with a high alcohol content. You probably don't have complete control over your body yet so for your safety, a non-alcoholic drink will be ideal."

The conductor says this and that, but she didn't care.

Lily, who was in a good mood, smiled and said---

"There's many types of cocktails out there, huh?"

"Yes. There are some even named after people or places."

"So what about my cocktail?"

"Here."

The conductor seemed to have thought about for a moment.

It was in such a short of a time that Lily, whom had been with him for a while, would notice it. Something that would not even called as an error in machine terms. His thinking speed was shorter than the time lag of a telegraph transmition. He thought not what was appropriate for Lily, but of what were the most suitable for Lily in his empty conceptual brain.

"Okay, let's get started."

Instantly, a new device rises from the subway's floor.

Lily probably wasn't aware of the name Bar Counter.

"Shaker."

A silver-colored, cylindrical metal shaker automatically fits into the conductor's hand, as well as the recipes that emerged from blue Cracking light---

"Stir."

As Lily lets out, the body of the shaker was covered in ice and the base, Dry gin, was poured inside. After that was brandy. Then there was caloric punch, lemon juice, orange juice, and grenadine syrup. The conductor was waving it back and forth in a fluid motion, doing a special kind of shake with a unique smoothness to it. The ice contained inside the metal containers body gave it a light sound.

Everything was over before Lily could see it.

The shake was done.

The liquid was poured from the open container into a small glass on the counter. Its color was between red and orange.

"Beautiful."

"Finished. Welcome Stranger. Enjoy."

 "Yeah."

She got off the bed and stood barefooted before the counter.

After gingerly picking up the glass, she gently places it to her lips.

Gulp. A sip.

"Delicious..."

Gulp.

Gulp gulp.

"That isn't something you should be drinking all at once like that."

"Eh?"

It was already too late.

The cocktail, which had an alcohol content of 15%, quickly vanished down Lily the Stranger's white throat.

"It contained orange, lemon, and grenadine. It probably tastes sweet, but what do you think of it?"

"Yeah. It was delicious. It was sweet...sweet and sour. yes. Plus, it was cold and easy to take in. Why is it cold?"

"I've filled the shaker with ice and shook it."

"Hmm?"

"The trick is to shake the ice cubes so they don't melt, and to cool down the liquid so it doesn't become too watery."

"Then, A, hehe, you're pretty good? At making cocktails, that is."

"I'm fairly accurate with them."

"Hehe. Indeed."

Whether or not she was aware of it---

Perhaps it shouldn't have been directed to young people. Or perhaps she shouldn't have taken it all in at once? In any case, by this time, most of Lily's thoughts have already started to become blurred and she had already started to lose her ability to make her judgment. Normally, one would think the conductor would not have noticed this, but right after that, the bright-eyed conductor operating the sole subway car said this---

"This is a cocktail that represents the meeting between you and Millia at Verrazano. Next up is a cocktail that represents the meeting between you and me. Take The A Train. This cocktail has the same name as mine, the 8th Avenue Express 'A' Subway that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan."

"Hehe. That's so cool!"

"It's a sweet cocktail."

There was no one to stop it at that point.

The night had just started.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Naturally, the next morning, Lily was extremely ashamed of her actions last night and told the conductor that she will surely be careful to not drink too many cocktails from then on. It was even said that the sole subway car often held evening cocktail parties.

At times, cats would wander in from the gaps in time. Other times, the people from the Underground World that should have vanished would come. Even more were the people of the surface world, who they never would have met---

(FIN)