It was an ordinary September school day. The sun shone into the hallway through the arched windows, and the garden outside was still filled with students' garbage, no matter how many times they had promised B not to leave their trash there. Some students were eating in the cafeteria; others talked about pasta or anime. The English teacher was chasing the French teacher this time instead of the other way around, and claimed that he desperately needed 'toe of frog' for a potion, which the French teacher appeared to find rather alarming. Roderich and Elisaveta were still dating, but they had been arguing more often (which Vash supposed was a healthy thing in their case), and Ivan had formed an alliance with Herakles and Kiku to play with the cats together. Alfred had started to hang out with Lovino during break to see if they could make friends, and it appeared that it could easily go either way: on the one hand, they found each other unbearably annoying, but on the other hand, Lovino's desire for compliments seemed to match Alfred's need to express positivity, so no one knew what would happen there. The gym teacher was helping the art teacher put all the Viking art projects on display next to the wall with all the portraits on it, and to their amazement, they found that they had ended up with one project too many compared to the amount of working pairs: who did this mystery art piece belong to?

The Wallflower Pact, meanwhile, had found their balance. Vash and Matthew had gotten used to Gilbert's talkativeness and although it still annoyed the hell out of them, it was at the same time a great source of entertainment when they were bored or in want of a conversation topic. All three of them shared an interest in nature and invisible things, and although he was very different from the two of them, Gilbert had found his place in their friends' group and they valued his presence. As for Vash and Matthew's philosophical conversations, those could continue in peace now that certain things were settled. Gilbert's interruptions had grown less frequent since he'd taken to writing on the walls as a hobby again, and when he did interrupt them, they let him join the conversation. Also, Emma occasionally sat with them during break, which brought more variation into their conversation patterns. Whenever Emma was there, everyone had a chance to talk. Perhaps one time Flanny and Matthew would whisper together and Wally and Gilbert would tease each other, and Vash could finally have some time on his own, perhaps sacrificing a few minutes to give B some financial advice, or, more likely, he would go visit the middle school grounds to see his sister and her friends. And then the next time, Wally and Matthew would have a contest in telling jokes about themselves, while Vash shared recipes with Flanny and Gilbert talked to himself. And the time after that, Flanny and Gilbert would talk about history, Matthew would talk endlessly to the Exchange Machine, who never responded, but was a great listener, and Vash would enjoy arguing with Wally about which country had the best chocolate and which had the best cheese. Today, however, Wally and Flanny were both keeping Gilbert entertained, while Vash and Matthew discussed one small detail about the previous events that still confused them.

"I wonder why the Machine gave us Gilbert for free," Vash said, "or almost for free, to be more precise... I don't suppose Arthur Kirkland was correct that it was the spell's doing: after all, I don't believe in magic..."

"Even if you believe in magic, like I do," said Matthew, "it couldn't have been the spell. The spell was to bring someone back from the dead, and Gilbert wasn't dead."

Vash nodded in agreement, and they were silent for a moment.

"It did have a strange way of estimating values at times..." Vash muttered. "There was the time it gave Ivan all that money for his 'feeding time', and it also overpaid for my marker..."

Matthew nodded and remained silent as Vash put his thoughts together.

"I have a theory," Vash said finally. "The Machine was supposed to judge values all by itself, wasn't it? But I don't think it did. I think that once Gilbert entered the Machine, his mind began to take over its rankings: food and drink were worth extra, because those kept him alive, and the marker too, because it gave him a voice... That explains why even seven living things couldn't get him out of the Machine: in Gilbert's mindset, nothing could possibly be worth as much as his awesome self. But then we gave him something that meant a lot to him: our friendship, in the form of the note, and the hug, and the recognition he always wanted. We even told him we thought he was awesome. Friendship, as Herakles said, was the key to freedom, because it was the only thing that Gilbert could value just as highly as himself, or at least close enough to make the trade possible."

"That's a really interesting idea," said Matthew softly.

"Do you agree that it is the most plausible possibility?" Vash asked his friend.

"I'm not sure," said Matthew. "It's a good theory, but I have my own idea of what happened..." He paused, humming softly, and then continued with a smile. "I think it was the Machine who valued our friendship so high, Vash. No one ever recognized him as a someone before we did, and... I think he really wanted a hug."

"That doesn't explain its earlier overpays, though," said Vash. "They were clearly linked to what Gilbert needed, not the Machine."

"Every theory has its flaws," said Matthew, "but yours doesn't explain the hug. I don't think Gilbert could feel the hug though the thick walls of the Machine..."

Vash shrugged. Perhaps both theories were equally plausible.

At that moment, Feliks and Toris walked by, and Feliks looked appalled to see his friend Emma sitting with them during break yet again.

"What's the deal here?!" he exclaimed. "Why do you sit with Vash so often all of a sudden? Are you like a couple or something?"

At this question, Gilbert jumped forward and shouted defensively:

"Excuse me! There's four of us here, you know!"

"Six," said Vash and Emma at the same time.

"Seven," said Matthew, gazing dreamily towards the Machine, and Vash could have sworn he heard it ticking in approval, but he knew that could only be his imagination...