Please read this before you read the story!
THIS IS A LONG CHAPTER, it may get boring in some parts but it's all important to the storyline there's a little less comedy in this chapter so the next chapter will have quite a bit more. Stick with it please its greatly appreciated!
For the sake of readers who either haven't seen the anime and/or played the visual novel, I transcribed A LOT of what the actual Dialogue is from the anime and Novel. It's just a warning for those of you who have seen/played the CLANNAD anime and visual novel. Once again, please view disclaimer information on the FIRST chapter for information on that please.It may seem like Ichijo is a shadow of Tomoya but I guarantee you that he is not. I have many plans for the future chapters so just hang in there!
Chapter Two:
New Friends
Its the end of the first day and Ichijo was walking out of the main entrance to the school when he saw Tomoya.
"Oi, Okazaki! Where are you headed off to today?" He shouted to the blue haired delinquent.
"Oh, hey Fujihiro. I was just getting ready to go off to bug Sunohara, you wanna come along?" Tomoya responded turning to Ichijo
"Sure, I don't have anything better to do. Let's go."
Hearing a loud ruckus in the dormitory Ichijo and Tomoya looked at each other and walked in the doors. Turning the corner and coming to a scene with Sunohara being held up by the rear belt loop of his pants.
"Is this your doing Fujihiro?" Tomoya asked turning to him.
"I didn't do it this time," Ichijo defended himself, while raising a hand in denial.
"Hey guys come on and help me out here!" Sunohara pleaded still hanging.
"Eh, I'll get infected with your idiocy, so no," Okazaki said, raising his hand.
"Yeah, I'm with him on this one," Ichijo added.
"You guys are heartless!" Sunohara whined.
The rugby player that had been holding Sunohara up threw him down to the end of the line, where, after hitting the floor, the first rugby player kicked him in the face while three others who did the same. Next, was the one at the end who picked up Sunohara and literally punted him to the front of the line again. He was caught by the leader then passed backwards three or four times before the last in line once again grabbed him and slammed him to the floor. The whole time Tomoya and Ichijo were trying hard not to laugh. The scene was then broken up by a female voice yelling loudly at them.
"Stop that right now!" The owner of the voice sprinted down the hallway with a spatula in her hand. "Break it up already!" She spun the spatula at an alarming speed, continuing the charge.
Noticing who it was, the rugby players began to panic and started running to the entrance.
"For crying out loud!" The blue haired woman complained. "I'm the one who has to deal with the complaints from the neighbors!"
"Dorm mother sounds like a tough job," Tomoya said.
"Yeah not a type of job I'd wanna have to do," Ichijo added.
"Misae-san, please come save me earlier," Sunohara whined as he clung to Misae's leg.
"You're the one at fault aren't you? Why don't you learn your lesson?" She asked, lazily kicking him off.
"Because he's an idiot," Tomoya added.
"She has a point, though, Sunohara," Ichijo interjected.
"Yeah, I hear you," Sunohara weakly responded.
The trio then proceeded to Sunohara's room. It was a messy room with clothes strewn everywhere and a couple of dumbbells laying on the floor. A shelf case sat next to an old looking television. In the middle of the room, right next to an unmade bed was a kotatsu. There were books and magazines spread out all over the top of the kotatsu.
"Damn that rugby club," Sunohara moaned to himself.
"They'll never hear you if you mumble" Tomoya said.
"Yeah, Show him an example of how you're supposed to do it!" Ichijo egged Tomoya on.
"Okay, DAMN THAT RUGBY CLUB!" Tomoya shouted.
"YEAH WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS!" Ichijo added to the flame.
"WHO JUST SAID THAT?" Shouted one of the rugby players while hitting the wall hard enough to knock the clock off the wall causing it to fall on to Ichijo's head.
"Ouch..." Ichijo said rubbing his head.
Freaked out, Sunohara rushed to the side of the kotatsu that Ichijo and Tomoya were on and put them in a half head lock.
"Are you guys trying to get me killed?" Sunohara said.
"Dude, stop being a wimp," Ichijo responded to the half headlock while grabbing at Sunohara's wrist.
"Yeah, be a man and stand up for yourself!" Okazaki added.
"I wouldn't back out if it were one-on-one! ...But there's too many of them around to handle," Sunohara pulled his arms off the other two's necks. "Just you guys watch! I'll get them back in full when graduation time comes," Sunohara finished, a smug look on his face.
"Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it," Ichijo Snorted which Sunohara only glared for a brief second to before returning his gaze to Tomoya.
"When that time comes guys, I trust you to watch my back," Sunohara finished with a thumbs up.
"Lucky! We'll stab you well!" Tomoya responded with a thumbs up as well as a nod from Ichijo.
"Hey! Don't come after me! Get them!" Sunohara responded.
"Why should we?" Ichijo questioned.
"Yeah, we're on the rugby team's side," Tomoya responded already turned away from the frantic blonde.
"Since when?!" Sunohara responded with the question.
With Sunohara's voice being so loud, it had apparently disturbed one of the rugby players next door prompting them to shout and once again hit the wall prompting Sunohara to do a gravity defying jump backwards to the opposite side of the kotatsu.
"Let's give them a kick back shall we?" Booth Ichijo and Tomoya said in unison.
To which Sunohara only responded with a scream. After the commotion settled down conversation took place.
"Hey guys, I'll be right back I gotta use the wash room," Sunohara said as he walked out of the room.
"Hey Okazaki, You wanna do something fun?" Ichijo asked.
"Sure, what did you have in mind?" Tomoya responded.
"See that tape player over there? I bet that's what the rugby players were complaining about, let's record something on that tape over that horrible music," Ichijo said moving over to the tape player.
"Messing with Sunohara, huh? I think I can do that, what should we record?" Tomoya asked.
"Eh, let's do a rap for him. I'm not much for the stuff myself but think of the look on his face when he hears our voices on the tape! He plays it every morning, so we'll find out tomorrow," Ichijo chuckled.
"Okay, let's do this then," Tomoya was already next to Ichijo ready for it eager to mess with Sunohara.
After clicking the record button, the beat began playing and the two started their 'magic'.
"Yo yo, this is O-ka-za-ki!" Tomoya started.
"And his pal I-chi-jo," Ichijo added.
After saying their first line, the two looked at each other after a few seconds of saying nothing and both made a bored look on their face. Without trading words, the two understood each other's motives, stood up, began to get ready and walk out without a word, and walked their separate ways home.
The next day...
Ichijo was once again late as he reached for the door he heard a clatter of what sounded like cards hitting the floor. Upon opening the door he sees Ryou, the current class Representative of class 3-D was looking to the ground and Tomoya was looking to the ground in the same spot.
"Okazaki-kun you'll be late tomorrow," the slender young girl said causing Tomoya to fall out of his chair and quickly stand back up.
"Are you trying to pick a fight with me?" Tomoya questioned with an partially angry tone.
"I-it's not that!" she whined.
"Yeah let her finish Okazaki," Ichijo added walking up to the two.
"Tomorrow you'll be late because you'll have a romantic meeting with a kind girl. You'll forget about the time and therefore be late," She finished.
"How can you tell that from playing cards?" Tomoya responded obviously not amused.
"HEY YOU GUYS! Don't be picking on my little sister!" Shouted Kyou, threw two rather large dictionaries at Ichijo and Tomoya, who both barely dodged the flying books, which both curved and hit a tree sending birds flying.
"Kyou," Tomoya said in a deadpan voice.
"You guys have a lot of nerve to pick on my sister!" Kyou said stomping forward and grabbing both Ichijo and Tomoya by the tie and holding them up so their feet were barely touching the ground.
"Hey! We were only talking to her! Besides that I just barely got here!" Ichijo defended.
"It's true, Onee-chan. They weren't picking on me or anything," She said in defense of the two.
She gave them a suspicious look before releasing them.
"Alright" She said and looks to the floor noticing the pile of cards.
"I still find it hard to believe that you're that strong Kyou," Ichijo said.
"You had Ryou read your fortune?" Kyou asked.
"I didn't it was just him," Ichijo said pointing to Tomoya.
"Yeah, apparently I'm going to have a romantic meeting with a kind girl tomorrow," Tomoya responded.
Kyou grinned at Tomoya placing her hand on her chin in a curious and devilish grin.
"Well good luck with that one!" Kyou said in a playful tone as she turns around and walks out with an awkward sounding laugh though it was a joyful one.
The three exchanged confused looks briefly and cleaned up the card mess as the bell began to ring. Sunohara finally shows up at the beginning of third period, slams his books down on his desk, and glares at Tomoya and Ichijo.
"What?" Ichijo questioned with a confused look.
"Oh nothing it's just that a couple of someones ruined my favorite tape. I went to click play on it and all I heard were two voices and then silence the rest of the tape. You two wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" He asked.
"Nope" Tomoya responded without a moment's hesitation.
"Not a thing," Ichijo added not allowing any pause between his statement and Tomoya's as he smiled innocently.
"Bull! I heard your voices!" Sunohara now pointing at them sounded irritated.
"I still say it wasn't us," Ichijo once again responded as Tomoya nodded in agreement.
"You guys even said your names at the beginning of the tape," Sunohara groaned in a low accusing voice.
The subject was dropped quickly when the bell rang for the start of the class period.
It was finally lunchtime and the three had set out to buy bread from the school store for lunch. After getting the bread, Tomoya separated from the other two after looking out the window. It wasn't long after that Ichijo and Sunohara finished their lunch in the classroom.
"Hey where did Okazaki run off to?" Ichijo asked.
"I don't know. Why don't you look for him if you're concerned," Sunohara jested.
Without hesitation or even listening to Sunohara speak, Ichijo was already gone in the blink of an eye. After a short time, Ichijo finally found Tomoya out in the courtyard next to that girl that he was talking to two days ago. Walking quietly up behind the two, he listened in on the conversation.
"If you always look sad you'll never make any friends. Smile and wave your hand. Come on, with a big smile," He said after pointing out two female students on the roof.
Looking back as though she were stunned, she turned back around and attempted to wave but as she started to wave the two girls had already turned around and started to walk away.
"I guess they didn't notice," Tomoya said in a slightly disappointed voice.
"I don't have much presence in class either," the frail looking girl said.
In the distance, the sound of a motor could be heard causing students to begin to flood over to the source of the noise.
"Oi, Okazaki, I hate to interrupt but let's go check out that sound," Ichijo finally said.
Snapping around after being caught off guard, and not knowing how long Ichijo had been standing there he nodded.
"Come on," He gestured the girl to follow along. Obeying she stood up and followed.
Coming up to the fields Sunohara is already sitting on the side watching the two bikes wheel around in circles.
"Wow! So cool! They're wheeling around!" Sunohara yells excitedly.
"Sunohara, what's going on here?" Tomoya said after having climbed on Sunohara's shoulders without anyone but the girl from the courtyard noticing.
"I think they're here for a fight. Guys from another school are here on their bikes," Sunohara said with anticipation in his voice.
After looking up, Sunohara finally noticed that Tomoya was actually sitting on his shoulders.
"Hey what are you doing on my shoulders?" Sunohara asked beginning to spaz out.
A cry from various girls around caught the attention of the three. As they looked over they noticed a girl walking out, she was slender with long silver hair.
"Is she going to lecture them?" Sunohara asked eagerly.
Skidding to a halt in front of the girl the bikers stop. The girl continues to walk forward without yielding. Finally stopping a good 20-25 feet away and begins to lecture them. Though her words could not be heard, you could tell she was really hitting on their nerves. Noticing the annoyance of the bikers Tomoya and Ichijo both take off their jackets and Ichijo starts cracking his knuckles.
"You guys are going out to help?" Sunohara asked.
"I can't just sit and watch," Tomoya said in response to the obviously rhetorical question.
"Yeah, I'm not gonna let it be a three on one fight you know," Ichijo said in a level voice.
"You don't have to worry about Tomoyo-san," a random girl from the crowd said.
"Tomoyo?" Both Tomoya and Ichijo say in unison.
"You don't know her? She transferred in as a junior this spring. Tomoyo Sakagami-san" The girl continued excitedly.
"She's really strong, you might just get in her way if you guys go out there now," A different girl in the group added.
Tomoyo finally started to speak louder so she could be heard, as though to make a point to the students watching and the bikers in front of her.
"I don't want to cause an unnecessary disturbance. Get lost before you get hurt. If you do, I'll let you all go," She said to the bikers. "You don't want to deliberately ask for pain do you?"
"Don't screw with us!" The lead Biker said he said as he revved his bike and took off after Tomoyo.
Both bikes were full in full motion. One of the bikers had a frying pan and he was dragging it on the ground during the approach.
With a sigh Tomoyo jumped up and kicked the lead biker in the face knocking him clean off his bike which then flipped from the force, after landing solidly Tomoyo began to unleash a flurry of kicks to the man who was swinging his frying pan at her dealing damage to both the rider and the biker with every kick causing the second biker and his bike to fly up in pieces, while waiting for them to hit the ground Tomoyo stood up and straightened her hair by flipping it back into proper position.
Though most of the crowd only saw a fraction of the scene, Ichijo and Tomoya both saw the full thing.
"So cool!" The girls from the group next to the trio began to rejoice in happiness.
"What is she?" Sunohara asked incredulously.
"I'm curious too," Ichijo said with a stern face.
Later back in the courtyard...
"So she's a transfer student..," The frail girl trailed off.
"She's in a similar situation as you, and yet she's so popular. So everything depends on the individual," Tomoya lectured the girl.
"Yeah, but I don't think you should do something reckless like that though to get popular," Ichijo added.
"Maybe you're right," The girl responded looking slightly down.
"Well we'll be going now," Tomoya announced to the girl.
"Ah, yes. Thank you very much," She thanked the two but mainly Tomoya.
"I'm Tomoya Okazaki from class D," Tomoya finally introduced himself.
"And I'm Ichijo Fujihiro," Ichijo also introduced himself.
"I'm Nagisa Furukawa from class B," She introduced herself.
"Nice to make your acquaintance," Tomoya responded.
'Wow, he does have some manners.'Ichijo thought to himself.
"Yeah nice to meet you," Ichijo added his salutations.
"Nice to make your acquaintance as well, Okazaki-san Fujihiro-san," The girl smiled in response.
Back in class...
"Hey, guys," Sunohara whispered while throwing small wads of torn paper at both Tomoya and Ichijo who were both deep in thought paying absolutely no attention to the teacher's lecture.
"Come with me later," He finished still whispering.
After the end of the class period, the three began to walk towards the 2nd year classes.
"What's this all about Sunohara?" Ichijo, who sounded quite obviously annoyed, asked.
"You'll see, just wait," Sunohara responded.
Arriving at the classroom, they were destined for, Sunohara asked a girl from the class to bring someone out. A few moments later the sliver haired beauty, Tomoyo came out.
"What do you want? I'm kinda busy right now," She bluntly asked.
"I'm confronting you about that little show earlier, I think it was a set up," Sunohara said in an accusing tone.
"A set up?" Tomoyo looked puzzled.
"Yeah, there's no way a girl can beat up guys," Sunohara said smugly.
"Man, you gotta be kidding Sunohara? Is that what this is all about?" Ichijo more irritated than before asked making it known he did not want anything to do with this.
Tomoya was looking just as irritated with the situation as Ichijo was but was looking in a different direction to throw any questions or comments off him that Sunohara might throw at him.
"You paid them or something, asking them to lose, right?" Sunohara continues while looking back to Tomoyo.
"If it's not money, would it be the other something? Girls are lucky, since stupid guys will listen to that," Sunohara said keeping with his smug tone and expression.
Some girls in the background began asking who the trio were and like a wildfire the rumor of the three being a gang from the senior class began. As Tomoyo over heard this, she glared at Ichijo and Sunohara, mainly because they were the only ones looking at Tomoyo at the time. Unfortunately, Tomoya noticed the glare, looked her dead in the eye, and took a step back at the same time that Ichijo did.
"Rejoice. I was thinking I wouldn't hurt those in the same school, but I will make an exception and specially fight you," She said in a threatening yet calm voice
"You're so cute acting tough. I bet your knees are shaking," Sunohara said in an insulting voice.
"Uh, no thanks. I try not to fight any more if I can help it," Ichijo said while taking a step to the side.
"Yeah count me out too," Tomoya adds.
"That's fine. I want this to be as close to a fair fight as possible," Sunohara continues keeping the tone that he has.
"I would like to make this self defense," She Clearly stated.
"Would you two be my witnesses?" She asked.
"Sure" Tomoya and Ichijo say once again in unison.
"Come at me then," She finished gesturing Sunohara to begin his assault.
"Don't be so full of yourself," Sunohara smugly said as he scratches his nose trying to look cool.
"Ready yourself, woman!" Sunohara begins his charge yelling.
At this point Tomoya remembered a tale of a strong beautiful girl in the city who went around beating up people who caused trouble for the ordinary folk.
Unfortunately, he remembered this a little too late as Sunohara receives a rather painful looking kick to the face, which sends him flying back.
"Tell me before I start the fight," Sunohara said weakly.
"Please don't stop by again," She said while turning to go back into the class.
Later...
Tomoya remembered where the liberal arts wing of the school was and remembered that Nagisa would be there checking on the theater club as he crested the corner Tomoya saw Nagisa standing in front of the door of the theater club and notices she said something.
"Hamburger?" Tomoya said with a puzzled look on his face.
"Excuse me," Nagisa said as she opens the door and puts on a shocked and puzzled face.
Realizing something is wrong Tomoya runs up next to Nagisa and looks in seeing an empty room with nothing but boxes in it. He then places a hand on Nagisa's head.
"Okazaki-san. I didn't know you were there," She said have shocked and still puzzled from the hand on her head.
"Yeah," Tomoya said blankly.
"What is this hand for?" She asked while attempting to look up at his hand still resting on her head.
"No real reason," He said in response.
Apparently, he had forgotten that the theater club had shut down in March.
Later outside on one of the patches of grass Tomoya was laying down and Nagisa had been staring idly at the ground for some time now.
"I heard the number of members was small to begin with," Nagisa said in a down and disappointed tone.
"But they're only closed, once conditions are met..," Tomoya started.
"It can start up again," Ichijo finished Tomoya's sentence.
"Fujihiro-san," Nagisa perked up a little bit, noticing there was someone new in the conversation but then resumed her gloomy look.
"Yo. Sorry to just cut in, but I overheard your conversation," Ichijo added.
"Its fine. But do you really think it can be brought back?" Nagisa asked.
"So why don't you give it a try? I'll help you too," Tomoya asked sounding optimistic.
"Okazaki-san, why are you being so kind to me even though we've just met?" Nagisa asked looking to Tomoya.
"Why? I wonder why too," Tomoya said to which Nagisa only gives a big smile.
"Good luck to you guys then," Ichijo said with a wave as he starts to walk off.
"Thank you Fujihiro-san," Nagisa said with a bow and a small smile.
Ichijo doesn't bother turning around and lazily waves in response.
Later that night...
Tomoya after walking around and burning time off until the sunset found himself walking towards a bakery that Nagisa had said her parents own.
"Hello," Tomoya said while walking in noticing there's no one around.
After walking in a bit farther Tomoya stops at some of the bread on display and looks down at it. As he continues to look at it, a feminine voice speaks out.
"That's this week's new release," Said the voice.
Looking up at the source of the voice is a woman who looks strikingly like Nagisa.
'Furukawa's older sister? Or Mother?' He thought to himself.
"Please try one if you'd like," she said in a heavenly voice.
"You don't have to worry about paying, since it's a leftover," She continued with a smile while slightly tilting her head.
"The concept for that is 'soothing'" She finished.
"Soothing...Then I'll take the offer," Tomoya said as he bites into the bread.
"There's a rice cracker inside, its rice cracker bread," She said cheerfully.
"The naming sense is amazing, but your sense for making bread is amazing too," He said in an almost sarcastic tone.
"You think so too?" she asked then proceeding to step down from the step, she was on.
"It's a victory from an idea!" She said. After a short pause, "Um, is there a problem?" She asked noticing the look on his face.
"You want to hear it? Frankly, this bread is a failure," He said in a more blunt than usual tone.
"It wasn't good?" She said still shocked from what Tomoya said.
"There's a problem with the taste, but first of all, it's too difficult to eat. It's natural that you get leftovers," He finished.
The woman starts to get teary-eyed and begins to sob.
"So my bread was... It was natural there would be leftovers?" She shouts as she runs out the door crying.
"Man I hope the father is more sane," He said as he goes to take another bite.
Much to his dismay, he feels a light kick to his rear and hears a rather manly voice.
"Oi!" Said the manly voice.
Turning around Tomoya sees the man who looks extremely pissed off and thinks to himself. 'Man, this sucks.'
"You said what you're not supposed to say!" The man said holding a baseball bat standing tall above Tomoya. "You should have kept eating and said its good!" The man pointed the bat at Tomoya's chest.
Continuing with his speech that he seemed obligated to give, and finishing the lecture holding the top of Tomoya's head and pressing the baseball bat into his chin, the man finally stops and realizes that Tomoya is wearing the same uniform as 'his daughter' he eases up a little bit.
"Hey you're wearing the same uniform as my daughter, don't tell me you're one of Nagisa's friends," The man finished his sentence sounding disappointed.
After the misunderstanding cleared up Tomoya was invited up into the living area of the bakery.
"So why didn't you say so earlier, idiot?" the loud man said
"I'm sorry I presented myself so shamefully in front of my daughter's friend," The woman said with a apologetic bow.
"Don't worry about it Sanae. He looks dumb, so I bet he forgot about it already!" The man said cheerfully while rubbing Tomoya's head.
"You shouldn't say something like that to our guest," Sanae corrects the man.
"Oh well, at least Nagisa brought home a friend just after the new semester started," The large man rejoiced.
"Yes, it's great Akio-san! And a boy even too!" Sanae also rejoiced
"Wait, what? A boy?" Akio said narrowing his gaze on Tomoya as though something had finally clicked in his brain.
After friendly conversations, introductions, and dinner it was finally time for Tomoya to leave. Standing in the street Tomoya and Nagisa get ready to part ways, but not before a conversation.
"So there are families like that. You guys get along so well," Tomoya said to Nagisa.
"You think so?" She questions as Tomoya begins to walk down the street.
Before going home Tomoya decides to make a stop by a place that he normally doesn't stop at very often, Fujihiro's apartment. He knocks on the door and wait a couple minutes before Ichijo comes to the door.
"Oh hey Okazaki, what brings you to this part of town?" Ichijo asked.
"Oh I was in the area so I thought I'd drop by, is it alright if I come in?" Tomoya asked.
"Yeah, sure come on in," Ichijo responded.
Walking into the dimly lit apartment Tomoya looks around. After all, he hadn't been here in just about eight months, when he came over during summer vacation. It was very neat and well organized. With the amount of books around, one would almost wonder if it was a library. Hanging on the walls were five guitars and a violin, each one shining with a brilliant luster to them that made it obvious they were well taken care of. It was a small apartment, but one that a person could live in as long as they were by themselves.
"Wow, you have so many books," Tomoya said with an impressed tone.
"Well Okazaki, I'm not stupid and I like to read so if I have any hope of passing with all the goofing off I do in school I have to fill the grade gap somehow," Ichijo responded.
Its true Ichijo wasn't exactly the dumbest person in the school but his grades weren't something to be proud of. Just barely below average. Looking to the north wall where some pictures hung there were three medals: two silver and one gold.
"Hey what did you say those medals were from again?" Tomoya asked.
"Wow, I've told you seven times now, my father put me through martial arts when I was younger and I participated in tournaments. But that was a long time ago I don't know if I could still compete," Ichijo finished.
"Oh yeah, sorry. So, what have you been doing tonight," Tomoya asked.
"Mostly just reading. Tea?" Ichijo offered a cup of steaming tea.
"Oh, thank you," Tomoya thanked him for the tea.
"So where did just come from. You smell like a bakery," Ichijo said with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh... Somewhere. Don't worry about it. Thanks for the tea, but I've gotta get going," Tomoya said getting ready to rush out the door.
"Alright, stop by any time, dude. And I'll see you tomorrow," Ichijo yielded giving up on finding out where Tomoya had been earlier.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Tomoya waved before disappearing for the night.
Laying down in his bed Ichijo thinks and ponders about the day's events and begins to laugh, remembering Sunohara getting his face stomped. Laying there for a while he finally drifts off to sleep.
Continued in the next chapter.
A/N: So if you made it down this far without skipping everything I only have one thing to say. THANK YOU. No seriously, this is honestly the most boring chapter of the story because of the huge introductions I'm going to be abbreviating them from now on. I also wanted to get 5000 words into this one. It gets hard after 3000 so I appreciate you reading it! I'm still learning with this fanfiction stuff so please. There are going to be plot deviations next time! (I only know this because I've started to write chapter 3 already.)
Shadic The Hedgehog: And I'll be beta-ing for him, so blame me if anything's wrong.