Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Public Library | Sunday, May 10 2015

Kotori had been just about to say that Alexei didn't have to come by to say his thanks if it was inconvenient when a sudden cry caused her to nearly jump from her chair. She instinctively clutched the hand in hers a little tighter in surprise, looking in the direction of the sound as she did. As it turned out, it had been Shizuka - a fact that, after a moment's thought, became obvious considering it had been her voice after all. Still, the poor girl seemed understandably flustered at the attention her sudden outburst was getting so that Kotori quickly turned away to not put her under any more pressure - even as she herself breathed a small sigh in relief after the initial shock of the surprise wore off.

Her eyes quickly turned back to the girl at the same table as she introduced herself fully; confirming herself to be her brother's sister and to be going to middle school, and a private one at that - though Kotori blinked in surprise mostly at the Elena's surname as she hadn't expected her to have two. "Ah, n-nice to meet you," Kotori said - stuttering just briefly when she realised that she was still clasping Elena's hand from before and weakened her grip. As the other girl however kept her hands on hers, Kotori glanced at it and the girl a little nervously; unsure what to say - when Elena instead spoke up. "Eh?" Kotori looked a little surprised at the question - until she glanced down at the books in front of her. "Oh, ah, no, not first," she then quickly said, shaking her head, "I just thought these might help studying."

Kotoris eyes wandered from the books to the Elena's face - looking at it from just a table away and side by side with her brother's made both some similarities and differences more evident than the first glance had - before quickly turning back down to her hands; still a little unsure about the prolonged contact as she glanced between her hand and the other two table occupants. It was evident that she wasn't entirely comfortable - even whilst trying to think of anything to say. "Uhm... s-so, why are y-you two here?" Kotori finally asked - her voice both quiet as ever and source of her immediate regret at the question, considering that there was really only one thing a student might be doing on a Sunday in the library with midterms coming up.

As the scene before them transpired, Rui listened on... It was beginning to become common-place for him to hear the innermost darkness of people's hearts now, he didn't want to get used to that feeling. As the dialogue came to an end, Akane began to keel over in despair as the shadowy version of her began to take a new form. Rui with the party stepped forward and in front to defend her as her shadow took a new monstrous form, reminiscent of a dark lord.

"Of course... A hero's greatest fear is to become the villain themselves...", he muttered. This shadow, looked far less twisted than the ones they fought before, but it appeared stronger too.

"Megumi, start a scan", he ordered.

"R-r-right!", the shadow began to laugh a sinister tune, a familiar one too. This was most certainly the master of this dungeon.

As Sato was settling onto the table with her, Shizuka gently shoved some of the reading material she had laid before her a little away from the new occupant to give space. "T-That's alright, in fact, I should rather be thankful for your tip. I wouldn't have noticed that missing step by myself, thank you." A soft curve upon her lips formed towards the other before she clicked the mechanical pencil in her hand to revise the steps after the one she had missed, scribbling into her notes about the lacking step. While she was figuring out the new solution to the algebra problem, her attention was turned back towards the two who proclaimed themselves as seniors.

"If I remember correctly, yes it should be about the Monday of next week. Following a study habit is good for any student but do please remember to take breaks from time to time as well," the younger student advised with a concerned tone of her voice after what she had heard from the other two about how hard they were studying. The light voiced maiden usually balanced her time according between studies, break and leisure time, but while feeling down, she had a bad habit of indulging too deep into her otaku interests.

Realizing that she had yet to introduce herself to the other upperclassman, her lips parted to speak once more with a bow of her head, "Oh, pardon me but I've yet to introduce myself to you. My name is Otonashi--" She was cut off mid sentence as another male voice was heard, this time, it was from her foreign classmate scolding them about the noise they-- well, she just made. Wait, what was his name again? Shizuka tried to recall as she started on her apology in a shaky tone, "I-I'm sorry A-A... Aron--...? Ah! Alon-san. P-Please don't include them in the blame, they were merely he-helping me in my studies. I... I shrieked from the shock of their unexpected appearance." She bowed apologetically with a slight frown as she turned back to Sato who had offered to help with her math studies.

"A-Are you certain, Hashimoto-senpai? If... If it won't be too much trouble then I would be delighted to receive your help." The freshman accepted shyly but she truly appreciated it. It would have been embarrassing to ask a classmate for their notes for the reason that she could not take them down while spacing out in class. "Um, we're basically on the topic of algebra this semester. T-Thank you once more for your assistance."

Before Alexei could reply to the query, Elena spoke up quickly "Well my brother always seem to busy himself in some house chore or the other, so I brought him here so that he can study a bit." she said in a proud tone of a parent who had taken a good decision. Alexei just looked away for a moment to hide his embarrassment.

"Ah! and I had some time to kill so I was just revising English." she added.

"Well I missed out of biology because of some work at home so I'm basically making my own notes on the subject. Plus, I'll have to go over and help the other two knuckleheads that hang with me so I am preparing stuff up. Been here since early morning. Did work for the owner a few times so he allowed us in early." Alexei finally added to the conversation.

"But I am surprised Shirohane-san, you seem to be someone who is exceptional at studies so why start with a subject that not's on the roster on the first day. You need any help in English? I'm sure we can help you out if we are capable. Elena loves reading up these archaic plays and War era playwrights and authors. English is her strong point I think." he looked over at Elena who had a surprised look to her eyes for mentioning it, he realized from the expression the error he had done. Insinuating that the middleclassmen was better than the senior.

"I don't mean any offense. I meant she can partner you if you like."

Sato nodded to what the others said, spinning the pencil in his fingers around. He listened to Otonashi introduce herself to Sieghardt only by what Sato assumed was her last name. The idea of her being the cosplay café girl was still in the back of his mind, but he'd already decided to drop it, so Sato just eyed the things Otonashi had written down on her notes. That is, until someone came up to their table to tell them off for making a bit of noise. Sato had to suppress a laugh with Sieghardt as he watched the random younger teen walk back to his table. They were hardly being boisterous.

"I'm pretty done with studying for now, but it's not like reviewing first year material is a strain." Sato said, reassuring Otonashi that it wasn't any bother to help her out. "Besides, I've been helping someone with math for a while now, it's not much of a change of pace."

Otonashi told them that they were largely focused on algebra. Well, that made it definitely easier in two ways: one, anyone was easier to teach math to than Rokurou. And two, there was no way he could fuck up algebra like he had a few times with their own material a few nights ago. That was a wild ride trying to salvage after doing it all wrong for at least an hour.

Regardless, Sato pulled over some of Otonashi's notes and quickly read through them to get a grasp on where she was. What she was doing was definitely further ahead than what he had done in his old school as a first year, but that was hardly a problem for a plethora of reasons. The two students went through some questions, Sato explaining anything she didn't fully get with a frustrating lack of confidence in his own words. It didn't take long before he got burnt out with helping Otonashi as well, aggressively writing numbers and letters down on a piece of loose leaf he'd taken from someone at the table.

"I think I'm done. I've had enough math to last me a lifetime now. " Sato said, putting down his pencil with a shred of gentleness and running a hand through his bangs. "Though…now that I've helped you, do you think you could return the favor? It's just a question." Maybe that came off as some kind of manipulation, the way he segwayed into it, but it had been on his mind the whole day. The indirect source of his frustration with all the math he'd been forcing himself through recently.

"If you didn't like someone, but liked being with them… what would you do?" Sato asked, looking directly at Otonashi for a few seconds before returning his glance to the notes before him, shaking his head a little. "I'm sorry. That was a weird question. Never mind. Is there anything you're not clear on? The math, I mean."

Theme: I Will Face Myself

With Rui at the head the party charged and took up standard formation. Unlike enemies before, this shadow didn't seem to project any kind of weakness or niche. Though soon he would realize that playing passively early was a mistake. With a sinister laugh the shadow blasted the entire field in a wave of dark energy, and with its float arms would immediately aim for Leiko amidst the chaos. Rui couldn't act quickly enough and she was captured, but now he knew the arms were separable. He made a signal to open fire, and Chiaki and Matthew blasted the shadow with everything they had, while Rui using Sukukaja moved to the side where Leiko was captured, and struck the energy that seeped between the arm and main body. This seemed to be successful in partially disarming the mage, but it didn't seem to do any damage. On the other hand Leiko was now free.

After yet another wave of magic, word came in from Megumi.

"It seems to exert power from every pore of its body, and when its not attacking it uses that energy as a thinly coated shield. It should be vulnerable when it attacks",

"When it attacks...", this was going to be difficult, considering it blasted energy all over the place. He looked at the party, only Matthew seemed to be faring okay... Well, these were fire moves after all... Wait.

"Matthew, use Agi in a fireball when it attacks again", he ordered. After a few claw attacks, Rui managing to shrug the brunt of it away from the party with the help of Leiko's healing, the big wave sure enough was on its way. On signal, Matthew fired a fireball styled Agi, and using it as cover, Rui charged.

The Agi was destroyed rather quickly, but what it did was open a small spot for Rui to move through. With the help of Sukukaja, he was able to close the distance fast enough, and just before the shadow could bring its shield back, its heart was struck. A clear crack appeared in the armor as Rui slashed through, and dark energy seeped out from within the shadow. As soon as he landed... The shriek of agony began to become almost joyful laughter as he turned. The energy seepeing from the shadow's chest was forming into a gigantic ball of energy, and it was rapidly increasing in size, it was like looking at a miniature black-red sun.

"No! Get out of there! You can't survive that!", but in this room, there was nowhere to run... There was only one thing to do... Rui slipped his sword back into its sheath, and took a stance. As readily as he did, his Persona also appeared behind him in stance. The shadow let loose its ball of energy, hurtling slowly towards Rui.

"Akane, we all make mistakes, its natural. To realize you made that mistake means to grow as a person, but you can't grow as long as you let it bother you. Shed the person you are today, and become a person who learned through those experiences tomorrow", he directed the comment at Akane herself, but now he no longer had time to keep talking. It was time.

He couldn't go for the shadow directly, he'd get struck by the ball before he could close the distance, and going for the ball of energy was madness, but at the very least, it was aimed only at him as he stood behind the shadow who turned to him, while the party was on the other side, while the blast would still hit them, they weren't going to get downed unless it was aimed at them directly... So he slid under it.

As the ball of energy landed, and the explosion began to expand, Rui with his Persona was already behind the shadow, and a single horizontal slash dealt a fatal blow, but even then they had to contend with the blast. As soon as the blast cleared, the shadow while damaged, had its shield again, likely absorbing some of the energy from the earlier attack, but it was far slower than before.

A barrage of attacks both magical and physical rained upon the shadow, and soon enough the shadow crumpled to the floor, and transformed back into its more familiar form as Akane.

Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Public Library | Sunday, May 10 2015

Glancing between the two siblings - and betraying her slight discomfort with an occasional one to her still-clasped hand in between - it was the younger who spoke up first. Elena seemed to be beaming as she explained that it was mostly because of her that the two were at the library - learning English herself was her reason, being dragged by his sister as a change of pace was Alexei's. The latter faced elsewhere as his sister spoke; only speaking up himself when she was finished. He in turn explained that he was catching up on some biology for both himself and his friends - and that they'd been here since early in the morning as a favour. A faint "ah" was all Kotori could say to that - for a moment, she'd wanted to suggest he simply ask a classmate to lend him their notes on the subject. The next, she realised that she would probably have had trouble doing the same herself, so it would be rather hypocritical to try and suggest it; leaving her to instead say nothing before Alexei went on.

As he mentioned her, Kotori quickly brought her free hand up almost defensively at the thought of her being exceptional at studies with a small "ah, n-no, I..." before turning her eyes downward; unsure what to ultimately say. Alexei meanwhile went on, wondering why she would choose to study English rather than any of the more immediate subjects - and furthermore offering to help out, seeing as Elena was enraptured by English books. Kotori meanwhile looked up again and at the girl in surprise - and then Alexei, when he apologised for any would-be offense.

A second time Kotori's hand waved off the words quickly, a shake of her head added for emphasis. "Ah, no, not at all," she said to alleviate any guilt over the words. "A-and I've been studying the other subjects for a while, s-so I thought doing s-something else... might be a good idea..." she said before looking up again. "S-so, I don't want to disturb either of y-you two's studying just to help m-me, really," Kotori added, truthfully - she'd already taken enough of their time just by taking a seat, so she could hardly ask for even more. Furthermore, it would have meant asking the aid of Elena without being able to help out Alexei in return, given that she still had second year biology courses and thus little knowledge of the parts of the subject he was likely covering.

Akane Hanazawa // Manor Of Creation

What.....what is this....is...is that really....'me'? She looked on with widened things at the monstrous being that came out of her. If she had anything to compare it's form to, it would be what one would expect a dark/demon lord to look like. No, I refuse to believe that...that 'thing' is apart of me. Glancing up, she finally notices Rui and the others. What are they... Not given time to finish her thought, she notices the growing dark energy surrounding the shadow. Alarmed she moved to try to warn the others but her voice couldn't be heard nor was she able to move her hands to signal them of the impending threat. She couldn't do anything but observe and hope they make it through this.

The monster than released the energy all over field and used its detachable arms to capture one of the girls that were in the group. Though, it seems that the group knew what they were doing and actually fought back with....magic? Strangely, Even though it was certainly bizarre, she wasn't exactly as surprised as she would've thought. But despite all they did, they weren't able to damage 'it', though they did manage to save the girl, at least. The more she watches that 'thing' fight, the more she recalls that 'fight' and the worse she felt. Am I truly that horrible? Is helping others really not of my own will? Is hurting and causing others suffering what I truly enjoy doing? I--it can't be...

Just when she was about to give up completely, Rui's voice snapped her out of it. It's natural.... that's right, mistakes are common, everyone has them. How could she forget something so simple. Especially after saying it to others.... Shed the person I am today and learn from my experiences... Turning her focus onto the monstrosity, she looked on as it fought and struggled on. Even though it was delivered a fatal blow, it still tried to continue the fight. "How foolish..." she muttered, surprising herself that she managed to speak again. Maybe her voice and movements were bound by it's power and now that it was hurt so badly, it didn't have enough left to bind her?

Continuing to struggle in vain, the shadow finally crumpled to the floor, not getting up. It was then where the 'monster' shrank and transformed back into 'her'. Having the ability to move again, she approached the fallen shadow...no...approached 'herself'. Stopping right in front of 'her' she looked down, clenched her fists and gritted her teeth and then....closed her eyes and extended it a hand, helping her up, with the being itself looking bewildered.

"I have no right to look down on you and deny your existence, deny that you're a part of me. I'm a fake and I'm quite the hypocrite, I know that now. No, I've known from the beginning but hated myself, not because I couldn't stop but that I wouldn't stop. At that time, hitting another....being in a position of power....felt...good. Of course, that doesn't mean that I didn't regret it, because I did, truly, but I was afraid that if I admitted that I enjoyed hitting him....no...that I enjoyed fighting him, that would be the same as saying that I intended to kill him."

Taking a momentary pause, she took a deep breath before continuing, "I felt horrified....disgusted in myself for having such a thought...that feeling at that time that I refused to accept it. Seeing my brother jump in like that, like he always does whenever im in trouble, and prevent me from doing something that would I would definitely regret, something un-reversable that I could never be forgiven for. I understand that's what created my 'Hero Complex' and why I started 'saving' people. It wasn't because I truly wanted to save anyone, it was all simply for self-satisfaction...solely to make it seem like I'm actually a good person....to make the persona of 'Akane Hanazawa' seem like a nice, cheerful and energetic person who will always help and save others when in need, just like my older brother."

"I refused to believe that I was the complete opposite, that I was all that you said and actually enjoyed my family's 'world'. I'm, by all matters of the word, a 'fake'. But while that was how it started, I believe that it all slowly became apart of me, like how you're apart of me. It was wrong of me to deny you and pretend like you didn't exist. I'm sorry, from here on, I promise to be more honest with myself and show the real me and will no longer be ashamed of who I am and shackled by what I've done. I'll accept it all, I'll accept you, let's start over and be a new me, yea?"

"Who knew you'd turn into such a softy!"
"Ah, Shut the hell up."
Sharing a laugh, the shadow took Akane's hand as she started fading away. "Don't let 'us' down, ya hear?" With a grin, the shadow was gone. It was then a card floated down and right into her hands, breaking into pieces upon contact. Appearing in front of her was a tall and mysterious warrior carrying a massive Halberd, covered in black and red and donning a cape while covering its face with a 'mask'. It had demon like hands and feminine like qualities. "Persona"

It soon faded away, enveloping Akane in it's light. Body feeling heavy with fatigue and consciousness fading. "Ahh, I think I'm just.....going....to....lay down for a-"
Collapsing onto the ground, she was out like a light.

With that settled, he took a moment to relax as he listened to Akane speak with her shadow. Yet another aspect of a person he knew that he didn't know... Well, some of the people they rescued before he didn't know, but he began to think... Does everyone have something like this within them? He put his sword away and readied himself, any moment now she was going to collapse from exhaustion like everyone before, and then there it was. Rui was easily in position to catch her from falling. He turned to everyone else.

"Alright, we should head back", he ordered. Everyone agreed and headed back the way they came.

---

"Good work, good work... I must say, impressive work", Kazuki seemed pleased, although... Well, the way he was about it didn't seem to be all that sincere. He wasn't sure why.

"W-well, we should take her to the hospital, Akane that is... We'll talk another time, I don't think there's anything particularly pressing at the moment",

"Yeah, I haven't turned up anything good in my investigation yet, so there's not much to do just yet...", with this agreed, everyone headed home after they admitted Akane to the hospital. Looks like they just had to keep doing their thing for now, what with no new leads after today. They might ask Akane if she had anything to say though, but so far the people they've rescued haven't exactly given the most helpful information...

After some period of time full of puzzled expression, aggressive scribbles of math solutions, and finally understanding the concepts she had missed during class, Shizuka released a short sigh of relief, a little more confident about taking the exams the week after the oncoming one. Feeling a little strain on her lower back and stiffness on her shoulders for leaning forward while the study session, the female student straightened out her posture and stretched her shoulders backward slightly. "T-That's alright, I suppose we've covered most of what I haven't gotten on my own. I'm truly grateful for the time you've given to help me, Hashimoto-senpai!" While she herself was exhausted from the long session of math, she properly bowed a bow of appreciation, with a flash of smile a little more expressive than her usual soft, shy one.

As she finalized some notes that the boy had passed to her by writing her own little note onto it, her attention was turned back towards the upperclassman with a pique of interest. Wondering what sort of question he was going to throw at her, her hidden gaze focused to the other until he ended his statement, just to be disregarded by the male himself. Letting out a thoughtful hum as she pondered on the confusing statement, Shizuka took a pause of silence despite Sato's change of topic.

"Hm... That sounds like an... unusual case. I myself haven't experienced such so, hy-hypothetically speaking, if I enjoy their company, could it not lead to liking the person at some point in time? But if it was at the point of simply tolerating them, I suppose, ....I-I'm not sure what I would do for myself but, I wouldn't recommend pursuing such relationship." Tilting her head in thought, her voice sounded unsure throughout her response but sounded confident at the last phrase. Since it would be rude or inappropriate to pry into private matters that had caused him to ask such questions, she withheld the questions at the back of her mind.

Alexei Dragunov | Warakuma Public Library

"Oh!..didn't think it that way, usually I don't study that long to get fatigued." Alexei said thoughtfully after hearing Kotori's reply.

"Ni-san!, i don't think you study at all! I am still surprised everytime your scorecard comes home. I need some of your miraculous talent." Elena replied to Alexei's reply. She also released Kotori's hand from her grip seeing how guarded the senior looked.

"Ah! I am sorry. I didn't want to bother you. But just so you know, it won't be any trouble to study with you. I am done for the day and brother hardly looks at books for a long time." he giggled lightly, Alexei motioned at her but she continued to have a muffled laugh.

"We don't want to bother you, Kotori-chan. Self-study is very important and rewarding, so I understand." Alexei said before turning to his book and gesturing at Elena to do the same. She made faces at him for some moments before settling down. Soon, the voice died down at their table and hopefully Kotori could find enough calm to concentrate.

"Welcome, to the Velvet Room",

These words woke Akane as she came to... What was the last thing she saw? Herself...? Rui? There were others too, and a battle. As those thoughts were shoved aside she noticed the room she was in had an unearthly presence. Seated upon a long dining table, walls draped in a brilliant dark blue, despite the colour, this looked like a kind of dining room. She looked before herself to see something inscribed in front of her on the table. "Chariot". Then she noticed she wasn't in her usual clothes... It looked a lot like the suits her father's subordinates wore, though a different colour. Dress shirt with suit jacket and pants. The dress shirt unbuttoned enough to see the gauze wrap around her breasts like a makeshift bra. She really looked the part of a mafia of sorts. Then she remembered... There was a voice, and it would speak again.

"My name is Igor, and this is Henrietta", he said, he must be talking about the blonde girl next to him.

You are a guest in this room. This is a place between dream and reality, mind and matter... Now then, you appear to have awoken to a rather hot-headed arcana, don't mind me saying...", Akane immediately knew which he was talking about. Chariot.

"To have the drive to go forth in your endeavours with spirit and vigor, is a magnificent trait to have, however if not careful, you may... Trodden... Some things you may regret having done so. I'm sure I don't need to tell you about that", he continued. Akane looked around a bit, and saw that there were others in the other seats, though they were but phantoms, and most seats were still empty. Some were recognizeable, like Matthew, Chiaki, Noboru, Rui, Kami... They were all in the 'place' earlier... With the fighting and everything.

"Your friends have after all saved you from a most unfortunate fate... There are many yet more to come, and you will soon meet them... But for now, I will leave you with this key, so that you may return of your own accord", as he finished talking, the girl Henrietta was already walking up to her, and presented her with a key.

"Well, until then... Farewell". As he finished those words, Akane's vision faded once more.



It was another normal day at school today, Akane's disappearance and return wasn't mentioned, likely because she was found last night. In any case, Rui headed up to the hospital not long after school. Akane didn't have a lot of friends in class, but she was in the same year as him, so he was given today's notes to hand her too. In any case he was here now, surprisingly unlike before, he didn't see any police, even more surprising, he saw some... Really friendly men, in suits. They looked scary.

They seemed to be talking with Akane though, one of which he identified was her father based on the conversation taking place. He decided to wait just outside before going in...

Sunday, May 10^th - 2015

Itoshi residence - Algebra

"The answer is either 75, 1, 185, or 43, and I got 72, so..." Gen gazed down from the equation to the textbook intermittently, nibbling his pencil absentmindedly while attentively listening to the clock ticking and tocking the day away. Suddenly, the solution dawned on him. "Well, 75 is the closest, so it has to be that one." He circled the supposedly-correct answer, a satisfied smile on his face. He could have gone to the public library, but what was the point? Granted, he could find someone he could study with, but what if he got behind and had to trouble the other one into helping him? No, Gen was better off studying on his own. At least that way he could understand things at his own pace.

The next problem proved to be more... problematic. Not the best word choice on that remark, but this was not Japanese, but Algebra. There was no choice to make, only add, substract, divide, and multiply as many times as were necesary, and compare answers. It was just rules, theorems, angles, and some more rules. Precise, with no room for creativity, with only one solution and one solution only for a single problem, and if you got it wrong you had to start over. Gen looked through the window. There was still daylight. It was probably half-past four; a glance at the clock confirmed that it was actually 5:11. Definitively a time for a snack! And on an unrelated note, Gen associated that hour with the fact that the next day, according to the American date format, it would be May 11th, or 5/11. It was obviously a coincidence, and it had nothing to do with anything, but it was one of those things that often one found themselves thinking about.

"Ugh, I've only done like four problems." His father would definitively not approved of such progress. Gen had been at it for almost three hours. Maybe he should put a little more effort and avoid drifting away. He climbed down to the living-room where his mother was watching television. After exchanging some pleasantries and asking her if she wanted something - yes, a coffee, please - Gen motioned to the kitchen (undivided from the living-room) and opened a bag of chips and poured some coffee for her mother. Thanks, dear, she said, and that was all their interaction. No questions about his studiess, no offering to help him, nothing. Gen went to his room. He probably would not get into the top ten scores, but he was determined not to fail.

Not like that time.

Akane Hanazawa // Warakuma Hospital
Monday, May 11th, 2015

Waking up, thinking of last night as a strange dream, especially that weird room with the strange man, she found herself in a place that was not her own yet...familiar? The hospital? Again? Not given much time to dwell on it, her thought process was interrupted by a voice "She's up...." and then another voice, "Sir, Akane-sama is now awake." Akane-sama? Just what... Looking around she was met with several familiar men dressed in suits. "Don't tell me..." Trailing off as a figure walked through the door, causing her to be at a loss for words.

"Akane...." the figure, eyes closed, began in a scolding tone.
"So you've heard. Shouldn't be too surprised." she sighed, referring to the fight in the mall. Given what happened a few years, and her relocation here, drawing attention to herself wasn't exactly the best of moves. Somethings just can't be helped, right?

Looking at her, he answered her with a slight not before she asked, "Though, you're not here for that, are you? Then why--?"

Looking at her with hard eyes, "Isn't it obvious?" He sighed as his gazed softened, "What parent wouldn't worry about their child's well-being?"

"Sorry..." she apologized. She did promise she would try not to draw attention before coming here. "I guess I didn't expect you to show up in person, usually it's Akito..." She paused before going back to normal, "But don't worry about me. You trained me to take on just about anything, after all..." she grinned.

"Though," she trailed off before her expression turned serious. "I have no idea who those people were..." They chased and abducted me yet....they just vanished. There was a long pause in the room, as if thinking on it. After a few more moments, they said their farewells, her father left with his men following suit. Stopping just outside, his father glanced at the boy before continuing on his way.

After a short while the room emptied. He felt the man in charge, who he assumed was Akane's father, gave him a brief look, before leaving. It looked like he knew something about him... Considering he was one of the people who brought Akane to the hospital in the first place... Well that was probably the reason. In any case he entered the hospital room, and handed Akane the papers.

"I'd go to club, but the president wasn't there", he started.

"And you'll probably need these for next week", she knew he was referring to the midterms next week. She would have questions for him about everything that had happened, but all the same they would have questions for her in case she had some vital information.

"Also... Don't worry about everything for now... We'll talk about that later when we have everyone present".

MAY 11TH 2015, MONDAY
Afterschool

The familiar sounds of the archery range. The hum of dull, quiet conversation. Maybe it was the attachment Sato felt to the archery club, a symbol of personal freedom perhaps, but it felt, in a way, relaxing. There was still a subtle air around certain members that managed to bother him ever so slightly, but it was easy to forget when you're focusing on getting the perfect shot. Sato doubted that-- no, he knew that he would never pursue archery after he graduated, but he was okay with it. It wasn't his passion. It didn't actually mean much to him. Not much actually did matter to him outside of getting good grades. Perhaps... that was the reason Sato felt so out of place around the other archery kids. They all had a purpose after the school bell tolled, somewhere to be, while Sato didn't want to get out of his desk. He didn't even want to go home; there was nothing waiting for him there. Nothing to do. And... maybe... that was why his mind was fixated on Rokurou. Except Rokurou had a passion; music. Sato could play the piano, maybe they could play together some time? There was a keyboard in his room… but the time would be better spent studying than flailing about on some instruments. But, perhaps Otonashi was right. Perhaps it would be best to stop hanging out with Rokurou.

Sato scoffed, lowering the bow. He was so lost in thought he'd forgotten to let go of the bowstring. He couldn't even focus on the shot. It was ok to lose yourself sometimes. But lately, the only thing Sato had been able to focus on was his schoolwork. Everything else, the same kind of thoughts intruded, like a leech you can't pull off.

With a classic angsty sigh, Sato stepped away from the firing line and made his way back over to the equipment locker, tossing the bow and arrows he had borrowed into the one they came from. He'd forgotten his own equipment back at home again, so the crappy school-supplied ones had to make do. Shoving his hands into his pockets and eyes drawn to the floor, Sato made his way over to the exit, but upon pulling open the door and taking a step to leave, the boy stumbled backwards, clutching his nose. He'd walked straight into someone, and they recoiled similarly, people around them making soft alarmed noises. Sato looked over at who he had collided with, taking a second to recognize Mika followed by her squad.

After a few moments of swearing and greeting, Mika grabbed Sato's hand and pulled him outside, shutting the door behind them. Nobody else was around besides Mika's group and him besides the distant students headed out into the town. "You've been hanging out with Rokurou a lot recently?" Rento asked, hands subtly flexing in and out of fists.

Sato frowned. "Why is it an issue? I was just talking to him."

"I thought you said you wanted him out of the club," Mika said, adjusting her hair like she was trying to balance out the aggressiveness Rento was radiating. "He's a pretty shitty club prez."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why are you fucking around with him?"

Sato swallowed. Why were they so pissed off about Rokurou? A month ago they were totally fine with each other, if not flirting around. "I was just talking to him. About becoming club president. I didn't like creeping around behind him like we were going to Julius Caesar him, so I talked to him directly about how we're not happy with his management."

"Wait," Rento said, "you want to be prez?"

Maybe. "Yeah." But it's not like anything's going to change if he is or isn't. Probably just some minor influx in popularity around the range. More responsibility...

"Well," Mika opened the door to the range, taking a step in before continuing. "At least that's settled." As she and her followers entered, Rokurou quietly slipped around and out, that 'archery yellow' sweater on. It was loose around his frame, a size too big perhaps. It was a sunny day again, and Rokurou blended in with the rays of the sun beaming down on them. He gave a friendly smile to Sato, the trademark Rokurou greeting at this point, before approaching the slightly shorter male.

"How ya doing?" Rokurou asked, standing between Sato and the sun. "Wanna go study later?"

"I was just about to ask the same." Sato replied. "Is it okay to ditch practice so soon? This is the kind of thing is why Mika and Co. are outing you. And, what you off to do?"

"Ehhh… A prez's job is to take care of the club and do all that paperwork shit. I make sure it stays up and running. Do they want me to babysit everyone or something? I'm sure highschoolers can handle practice on their owns. I really only need to show up for a couple minutes; those guys have some sticks up their asses if you ask me." Rokurou sighed, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. "I'm just going out for a jog before heading home. Just meet me up at my place later."

Rokurou brushed past Sato, increasing his pace a little. "Wait," Sato blurted out, swiveling around to face Rokurou again. "I'll go with you."

He scoffed. "In your uniform? And carrying your bag? I won't stop you, but that'd be pretty stupid"

"Whatever," Sato shifted his weight onto his hip, "it doesn't matter. The faster I get to your house the sooner we can get started, right?" Rokurou snorted, turning around to get going again. Sato clutched his school bag under his arm and started to catch up, but as soon as he started to catch up, Rokurou took off running. It basically just became a game of chase.

[. . . . .]

While running across town to in his uniform and school bag in tow sucked enough for the obviously more academic boy, the rain that suddenly started up did not help at all. They were drenched when they burst through the front door of Sato's house. The heavy rain appeared out of nowhere, and running half-way across the town wasn't much of an option to Sato. Sato's mother immediately scolded the two for tracking in mud and water, though she immediately switched over to fawning over Rokurou for some reason. Now that he thought about, it was rare for Sato to bring company over. Or rather, it was rare for anyone to come over.

"A friend from school," Sato quickly explained. His mother fetched them a few towels from wherever, Sato drying himself off just enough to avoid tracking much rain in. "We're just here to study."

"Oh, I won't keep you away from the books then! Get lots of work done, ok?" She said, waving them away. It was the perfect method to get pestering parents off your back. The two made it only a few steps up, however, before his mom popped back in. "Say, is your friend staying for dinner? I can make whatever you kids want today."

Before Sato could answer, Rokurou chimed in. "Nabemono. I'm really feeling that right now. Make plenty too, I missed lunch today." Sato pulled Rokurou up the stairs, both boys muttering some kind of thanks before absconding to Sato's room. The first order of business for Sato was to get out of his wet clothes, but Rokurou was already on it. Rokurou peeled off his sweater before they even got into the room, tossing it onto the floor by the door. Sato blinked, staring at him until Rokurou noticed him looking. "Something wrong?"

Sato looked away immediately, drawing his attention to the basket of laundry beside the door. "No, nothing. Cover yourself please." Sato fished a pair of grey shorts and a plain shirt from the basket before slipping into his room and changing, closing the door behind him. Rokurou barged in just as he slid into the navy blue shirt, plopping down on the chair by Sato's desk, towel hanging around his neck.

"With what? None of your shit fits me." He replied, the delay between the two points in conversation tangibly awkward. "Throw my clothes into the drier for me if it bugs you so much."

"I'm not having you lounging around my house in your boxers for an hour, Roku." Sato shook his head, pulling his textbooks out of his school bag. "Whatever. Let's just get started. Pick, English or Chem?" He held the two books like an assistant on a game show displaying the contestant's fabulous prizes.

"What were you talking to Mika about?" Rokurou asked, reclining in the wooden chair, displaying his torso more clearly, hopefully not intentionally Rokurou's abs were clearly defined, though not lean like one would see on a model or something. A muscular-by-necessity kind of fit, you could say.

"Huh?" Wait why the hell am I studying his muscles oh no did he notice "Oh, what's with you people and questioning who I'm with? They were bugging me about you. I told them that they were being stupid, since you're doing fine as club prez."

"Cool," Rokurou said, in that 'ok sure alright honey' kind of way. Sato got lost in his thoughts for a second, but Rokurou jabbing a finger at his face brought his attention back quickly. "Look, if it's bothering you so much, I'll put on something." It was only then did Sato notice his face was starting to burn red. He wanted to say it was alright, but the way he was acting, it was for the best if they wanted to get any studying done.

Rokurou pulled on some random white shirt that Sato had hanging off the back of the door. It was a bit of a tight fit but it accomplished the job of a shirt well enough. Having chosen English on his own, Sato set up the books like they usually did, except Rokurou didn't have any of his books so Rokurou just sat down next to Sato and ripped out a piece of paper from one of Sato's notebooks.

[. . . . .]

"You're so embarassing!"

"What? In some places, it's considered polite to burp after a meal."

Sato sighed. "Not in this house. And not while I'm still eating."

"Then you need to hurry up. We're already done." Rokurou rose from his seat, tossing the still damp sweater onto his shoulder. "I need to get going. I never told my dad that I was staying here. I can already tell you he's gonna be pissed."

Rokurou and Sato's mother exchanged formalities quickly before he bolted out of the house and down the street. It took him a moment, but Sato took after Rokurou as soon as he realized it. Rokurou was already half way down the block when Sato got out of the door. "Wait! My shirt!"

Rokurou stopped and turned back towards him, pedaling backwards as he shouted back. "I'll give it back at school!"

Sato watched Rokurou run down the street for a bit, not caring that he was running through every puddle he came across. Sato's mother stepped out beside Sato, looking up at the sky before the teen that was running away. The sun was peaking out from behind the clouds. "What an interesting young man." She simply said.

"Yeah... interesting."

Scouring some of the deeper parts of the library, Ayano took it upon herself to take her time and explore the settlement, nabbing various references books and the occasional novel/light novel along the way. In a matter of minutes, she's already piled up her own mini-tower of all kinds of books...Mostly ones about mathematics, science, and English...She had to admit, her poor social skills are going to be the bane of her one day, as if it wasn't already...The least she could do is read about it for the upcoming exams...When she thought about it, she can't deny how awfully cliche' her situation is right now...That shy girl who's holding a pile of books, bumps into Main Character, she drops her books and they pick up a book only to have them touch hands, instantly falling for each other at that exact moment. What kind of an idiot would even fall for that?

"Ugh, horrible..."

She muttered under her breath, how can people spiral into love so easily and find themselves spiral out of just as quick? All that nonsense made her puzzled, probably more so than the subjects she's studying right now.

Managing to scoot on such shaky legs, Ayano began to set her tower of books on the table she was previously working on, stretching and arching her back before sitting down, grabbing the first book she can.

"English, huh?"

Flipping through the pages, the young girl stared intently on the book, her eyes practically glued on it. Needless to say, her English is less than stellar...It always surprised her that there was so many abbreviations they had, and that's not even including the fact that they can pretty much come up with anything and make it seem as if it was actually a word in the English dictionary with a little help from social media...Her experience with English is pretty much limited to all those translations she sees that keep popping out in image boards. It must be unfortunate that they sometimes have to pirate a work of art when it usually says on the cover to not redistribute it anywhere else.

Ryan walked around the school with a frown on his face. Midterms were coming up soon and he still wasn't completely ready for them. More studying would be needed. Looks like he would have to skip Anime and Manga club, he was really behind. He actually got questions wrong when the teacher called on him in class! Absolutely disgraceful. He would have to make it up by studying even more. Ryan walked out of the school and headed to the library to study some more.



Ryan walked into the library and sat down at the nearest table. He took out his book on Japanese and began studying hard. He looked around and saw a few people, nobody too special. Ryan shook his head and got back to studying. This was his toughest subject after all.

Akane Hanazawa // Warakuma Hospital
Monday, May 11th, 2015

"Thank you..." she said in a low voice as she took the papers. She attempted to put on her usual smile but upon remembering last night's 'dream', she stopped. "Next Week...." Next week....Oh, that's right....midterms. Something that is definitely not high on her list of priorities....especially after what happened. I wonder if... While the part of the strange creature in that strange room might be a dream, why would her dream include Rui, that jackass and people she doesn't know nor seen before?...It's all....so....strange.

Might come off as crazy, but it's definitely something she needs to get out of the way, maybe she would stop thinking such things actually happened. "Um, About last night..." As she struggled to find the right words, she was taken completely off guard by Rui's comments. Definitely not a coincidence....So that 'did' happen... I guess that's as good of a confirmation that i'll be getting for now...

Everyone huh....left without much else to say, she simply nodded her head in agreement and thanked Rui once more.

Rui could hear the groans throughout the whole school day. This was going to be the last weekend before exams start for the whole of next week. By now, Rui was fairly solid on most subjects and only had to review a little. Since he always listened in class, he didn't have to do a lot of remedial studying like a lot of students did. Noboru already left, leaving behind a yell of despair. He knew he was going to fail if he didn't do anything about it.

In any case, today was just going to be another standard day otherwise. He wondered what he should do today...