Synopsis: Chilly Eile (a Team Girl Alternative Reality story)

Sunny visits Prof. Eile, a former colleague of her father, to inform her of her father's sudden death. Eile lives alone in a small three-room suite that she almost never leaves. She also uses a refrigeration machine to keep the suite ice-cold. Sunny is so impressed by Eile's courtesy and galant manner that she returns again and again. They become friends, as Eile delights in having an intellectual equal to converse with about art and philosophy, and play chess with, and Sunny delights in having someone who takes her intellect seriously. Sunny soon falls in love. On a hot summer day, however, the refrigeration machine breaks down. Sunny tries to get it repaired, but it cannot be done in time. Eile reveals that she is in fact dead, but using her will to maintain the semblance of life. However, her body has been decaying ever since, just very slowly because of the refrigeration. But in the growing heat the decay is accelerating. Soon she will be unable to remain in the human world. Her only choice is to join the dead, to retreat into the catacombs below the city, where it is perpetually cool. Sunny helps her get to the nearest entrance. Later Sunny returns and finds that the decay has stabilized and Eile still lives, but she has been reduced to a walking nightmare. But Sunny refuses to abandon her. Sunny arranges a mock funeral and burial, then helps Eile turn a crypt into an apartment complete with her books, artwork, and chess set. She keeps her supplied with food and other necessities, and visits her once a week for many years, before she finally joins her permanently.