Warnings: GEN, AU, OC-centric

Author's Notes: we've reached 50,000 words! and to the guest reviewer that asked: jai won't be paired with anyone at all, for one. there will be some extremely small and subtle pairings between side characters (such as ? x deadperson and chrome x yamamoto because wow look at that OTP strolling on by) but either it's not going to matter or it'll only be visible if you squint really hard. so do those pairings even count? NAH! don't worry about it.


7. ORANGE


Jai is young.

She is standing next to Dineva's warm, tan spot of shoulder-skin. Her hands are dirty and rubbed raw by the clay-covered stones, and her back aches from all the crouching and curling in the rocks. Her hair is a wild tangle of seaweed lines.

A long, slender hand reaches around her neck and cradles her cheek. Jai smells blackberries. Blackberries and fresh purple dye. "You're a very strong Sun, my dear," says the man with the cherry-colored eyes.

She feels bad, because her face is covered in clay, but he doesn't seem to mind. In fact, he smiles at her. He has a beautiful smile. So instead of apologizing, she tilts her head down, because she feels so scared and small in front of him and his shiny scarlet eyes.

He clicks his tongue against the top of his mouth. "That won't do, child. Do you look at things? Tell me if you look at things, sweet child."

"I do look at things," she says.

"Well, the gaze of a child is a powerful thing. People bring joy to others with their eyes. Tell me, do you love others?"

"I do love others."

"Whom do you love?"

"My friends, signore."

The cherry-eyed man laughs. The sound is deep, like a mountain song. "That is a fine thing to love. But do you love life, my dear? Do you love the world?"

She smiles at her toes. "I do love the world."

"Then you must look at the world, so that it may meet your gaze and see that love." His fingers tap against her nose. "Will you please give me your love, my dear? I would be honored, so very honored."

Jai tilts her head back up and looks into his shiny, red, kind eyes. "Here you go," she says, feeling a bit silly about it all.

He gasps and clutches his heart. "Why, I am blessed! I am empowered! You have given me such a wondrous gift—oh, how may I repay you, gracious girl?"

She giggles. "You don't—You don't have to repay me." Her chin tips back a little more.

He smiles his pretty smile again. "Thank you, thank you! You will share your gaze with the rest of the world, won't you? I'm sure it will be transformed into a wonderful, beautiful place, right before your eyes." Something old shows itself in the creases of his face. "Yes, you are a big, bright Sun. A mighty healer one day, I believe. Why on earth would you hide such greatness away?"

And when the cherry-eyed man takes his smooth hand away from her clay-covered cheek, Jai is no longer scared, and she is no longer small.


Jai peels her eyes open to a clear view of a clear sky. The sunlight sticking to her eyelashes looks like dragonfly wings. Rainbow-veined. A mild breeze flows in through the window square.

What a vivid dream.

Her whole face feels stiff. She pries her sticky lips apart and drags some loose hair out of her mouth. It feels like she's slept for weeks. The owl clock on the wall looks like the one in Tsuyoshi's guest room—

Actually, this is Tsuyoshi's guest room. Huh. And the clock reads about nine.

"You're awake."

Jai pushes the floral blankets off her shoulders and glances to her right. Reborn stares back at her from his seat against the pillows, a mallet in his hands. His mouth has a rather crisp edge to it, like the edge of a browning leaf.

She grins, ignoring the ache settling in the side of her neck. The morning feels fresh against her skin. It's almost relieving to see him. "Hey, Reborn!"

He slams the mallet into her forehead. Twice.

Nevermind. Nevermind.

"The first one was on Colonnello's behalf. The second was for me."

Jai lets out a short laugh despite the new lump in her forehead. "Reborn! I'm sorry! Really!"

He raises an eyebrow. "No, you're not."

"I am! I'm sorry for making you guys upset."

The handle of the mallet twirls in his stubby fingers. The crinkles in his suit look sharp from up close. "You've been out for about a day and a half. Flame exhaustion, mostly. All your physical wounds are healed, but your Flames seem a bit slower to catch up. Tsuyoshi and Yamamoto took you in, if you haven't noticed already."

She rubs the paste out of the corners of her eyes. Even that motion feels stiff. Awkward. "Oh. Okay. How's everyone else?"

"Yamamoto, Gokudera, Bianchi, and Hibari are mostly healed. Tsuna has a little more time to go. And Viper's just about ready to kill you, by the way." Reborn points at the glass of water behind him. "Drink that first."

Jai does. It washes away the nasty taste in her throat. "How's Fuuta?" she asks after downing half the drink.

"He's fine. Recuperating."

"Whew! That's good!" Needles shoot through her spine as she rests her back against the wall. She laughs. "Ooh, I feel like a brick. Serves me right."

Reborn smirks. "Yes, serves you right for fighting against the Vindice. You're even worse than Dame-Tsuna." The mallet transforms back into a drowsy-eyed, irritated Leon. The chameleon sticks its tongue out at her. "It's time for you to explain."

"About what?"

"What do you think?" He gives her a flat look. "I shouldn't need to give you a starting point. Why did you do it?"

Jai stretches her wrists until they let out satisfying pops. "Do what? Pick a fight with the Vindice?" She frowns. "Basically, I didn't want them to take Rokudo and his pals."

"Don't tell me you took pity on them."

"No, not like that. It's hard to say, you know?" She sips her water. "There's something wrong with them. The Vindice. Their Flames are—scary, really. I didn't know what they were, and they were taking those guys away, so I felt like I needed to step in. Which ended up being a pretty bad idea—"

Reborn makes a sound of impending homicide. "You're on their watch list."

Her water suddenly sours. "What?"

"You're on the Vindice's watch list. Don't look so surprised, Jai. Few people challenge their power and authority, and even fewer get away alive. They're not known for their mercy."

A thought leaps up at her. "Jack didn't finish me off."

"We're calling him an exception." He studies her the same way he usually does. "If you thought you could take on one of their members without facing repercussions, you're naïve. The Vindice are undoubtedly keeping tabs on you now. There's no chance of escape for you. Not from them."

That's nice. Cheers her right up. "I've just pledged the rest of my life to the mafia, haven't I?"

"No, you were already involved. Now you're just in constant danger."

Jai clicks her fingernails against the glass. What a great way to start the morning. "Well, I don't want anything to do with them anymore." She'll have to roll with it, like she always does. "I'll deal with it somehow. Anyway, did Tsuna pass your trial?"

Reborn gives her a long, calculating stare. "He did," he finally replies, "but this isn't about that right now. What's the House of Vernai?"

It takes a moment for her to remember when she even mentioned it. "Oh, that!" She grins at him. "The House of Vernai doesn't exist anymore. It used to, though, and I really was a part of it once, but the whole thing sort of…collapsed, I guess. That was a super long time ago."

He raises an eyebrow. "So this House no longer exists."

"Right! I was winging it the whole time I was talking to those Vindice."

Leon changes into a giant hammer and slams down on her shins. Gosh.

"Hey!"

"That was dangerous. You don't lie so blatantly in front of one of the strongest underground organizations in the world without some sort of backup."

Jai rubs her new bruise. "Actually, I guess the Vernai might still exist! 'Cause they never officially disbanded in the first place. But I don't know if you can have a House with just one person." Yeah, she has no idea. Pir would probably know. "I wasn't lying about me being the inheritor of the House. Since I'm the last living member, I think that makes me the leader by default. So challenging the Vindice was technically within my authority—"

"That's the flimsiest excuse you could possibly give."

She deflates with a laugh. "It is. But you know, the past is the past—"

"Which leads to the present and the future." Reborn shakes his head. He's fed up with her. Clearly. She's feeling kind of bad about it now (eh, not that she wasn't before). "Is Vernai your last name?" he asks.

Jai gives him her best exasperated glance. "I don't have a last name. This is turning into something suspiciously like a questionnaire—"

"Aren't you worried?"

"Huh?"

His eyes go even darker than they usually are. To think she once compared them to black holes. Oh, they're so much warmer than that. "The Vindice will be watching you," he reminds her. "Aren't you worried?"

Is she?

Her head lolls against the wall a little as she stares at him, stiff and aching and kind of bone-weary. She thinks back to Jack's Flames. The rot in his eyes.

Rokudo's laugh. The wild child's story. The mafia.

"You know, Reborn," she says, and pauses, trying to find the right words. "You come from a dark world."

Reborn's gaze darts down to her hair, and then her hands, and then back to her face again. All in a split-second.

She smiles. "You do a good job, you know? With all of them, especially Tsuna. Tsuna's a Sky and he's made a wonderful home, but he isn't so brilliant, really, without you. And we know life's not so kind, not so perfect." The glass of water glimmers in her grasp. "He's going to be a warrior one day—because of what you'll do, and what you've done. That's amazing."

In the silence that follows, he gives her a deliberate blink. Completely unfazed. He might've expected those words to come straight out of her mouth right from the start. "Flattery gets you nowhere, Jai. We weren't even talking about me. How did you get so side-tracked?"

Jai splutters with laughter. "What I'm trying to lead up to is that I'm—not prepared, but I'm capable of handling the mafia and all the dangerous people in it, like what you do! I'm really not all that worried!"

"Why aren't you?"

She shrugs. Helplessly. "What do you want me to do, have a breakdown? Maybe they'll come for me one day. Maybe they won't. Either way, I'm going to avoid them like the plague and keep on going, like I've always done."

Life moves on. Time is ticking. Jai came to that understanding a long time ago.

Her life has always been full of adventure.

But if the Vindice do show up again, she really is going to run like hell. She doesn't want anything to do with those Flames of theirs. Not ever.

"You're too carefree," Reborn scolds.

"No, I'm not! My logic's sound!"

A contemplative silence. "True. You're not going to get anywhere by panicking over the inevitable. You should tell that to Dame-Tsuna." He taps the hammer against her thigh. "Really, go talk to Dame-Tsuna sometime. His emotions have been all over the place ever since your little duel, and it's your fault. You should be the one to fix it."

Jai frowns. "Yeah, okay. I need to thank him, too. And then I need to thank Viper for putting up the barrier, and the other guys—" She stares down at the cup of water in her hands.

Oh. Oh, wow.

This is the best thing. The greatest joke in the history of existence. She's so proud of herself. It's going to be worth a thousand years of pain.

A giddy grin spreads across her cheeks. "Hey! Hey, Reborn!"

"Wh—" He narrows his eyes at her. Impending disgust is etched into every line, every eyelash. "Don't."

She tips the glass of water in his direction, hard-pressed not to laugh her way into the stars. "Water the other guys up to?"

As the birds sing morning-songs outside the window and sunlight bathes the street clean, Reborn smashes his hammer into her face with the force and fury of an elephant stampede.


The hitman tells her the others are angry. This turns out to be an understatement of massive proportions.

"Who, exactly, is supposed to teach me anything about my Flames if you go and kill yourself off before I'm done learning, you brain-dead fool of a girl?!" Viper hisses. There's a swarm of illusionary wasps buzzing beneath his cloak, poised to strike. Jai regrets telling him how much she dislikes those things.

Fon isn't much better. "Please do not risk your head over reckless performances ever again," he says. Or else, she hears unsaid after a thunderous pause, and shudders.

Colonnello's sniper rifle shoots foam, but the stinging impact makes those bullets feel like diamonds. He looks ready to throttle her the moment she enters his line of sight. "You're a complete idiot! How is it physically possible for someone's brain to be so small? Didn't you hear us telling you not to pick a fight with those guys?!"

"W-What those guys said! I mean—you numbskull!" Skull shouts, fury plain in his voice. Still, he hops onto her shoulder and digs his fingers into her hair until they brush against her scalp. That just makes her feel even guiltier.

Eventually, Jai collapses into one of the chairs at the bar. She huffs a laugh. "I'm sorry."

A broad hand clasps her shoulder. "It's nice that you are," Tsuyoshi says mildly as he takes a seat next to her. "Just…Why did you do it? What reason did you have for fighting the Vindice, of all people?"

She entwines her fingers atop her head, presses her cheekbone against the counter. Behind her, the infants stall in the middle of their discussion on how moronic she is in favor of listening to her reply. "I got desperate, I guess? I mean, there were two options—try to stop Rokudo from getting taken away, or let Rokudo get taken away. And I didn't want them to take him, or his kids. Those Vindice don't sit right with me, you know? I get this horrible feeling just by looking at them."

She got desperate, in the end. The duel was a bad decision.

Tsuyoshi watches her with half-lidded eyes. The grip on her shoulder tightens. "Even so, thinking you were able to take on the Vindice is more than overestimating yourself." He pauses. "I didn't know you could kill."

That's right. Jai can kill. He didn't know.

Because being in a duel means being prepared to take your opponent's life, but Jai—she never even told Tsuyoshi she knew how to fight.

He probably knew, of course. He would've assumed that she could, given her skill with Flames. But still, she never told him she's not so young, not so innocent.

One hand creeps up over her heart, while the other winds around Tsuyoshi's arm. "I'm not from the mafia and I don't like to fight," she explains, "but I've killed a person. Several people, actually. Like, six or seven, somewhere around there. But Tsuyoshi, I'm never going to—" Her words run out in the same way air might bleed from her lungs.

She promised she'd never hurt them. It was silent, but she swore. He should remember.

"I know," he murmurs. Thank the stars, he does. "But don't do that again, Jai."

"Do what?"

A crinkling smile and a snort. "At least warn people before you do something rash. Also, don't jump into fights without getting an idea of your enemy's strength first, understand?"

Jai dissolves into laughter. Her relief doesn't show.

She loves these people with all her heart.

"I'm back!"

They all turn around as Takeshi enters the shop. His brilliant laugh pierces right through the air. He sounds excited. "Jai! You're awake! How're you feeling?"

She grins back. "Stiff and sore all over! What about you?"

He launches himself into the chair on her other side. "Great, actually! I heard you were the one who healed my arm—so thanks for that! It would've sucked if I couldn't make the autumn games." His eyes seem to twinkle. The ocean inside of him is a comforting presence. "I heard you fought some pretty tough guys, though. The mafia game can be rough sometimes."

She gives him a casual high-five. "Yeah, well—I say it's still pretty fun!"

The choking noise that follows comes from Colonnello. Fon pounds the Rain on the back a few times to no avail.

Viper actually groans. That's a first. She wants a recording of it. "Alright, that's enough! Woman, it's time you start explaining yourself." His black glove almost smacks her across the nose. "What is this 'House of Vernai'? And what was the whole thing about claiming guardianship over Rokudo Mukuro and those boys?"

"Aha. Well." Jai twists her head around to look at him. "I was completely fibbing!"

He twitches. Violently. And—oh, no.

His illusionary wasps chase her back into the safety of the guest room.


Tsuna almost bumps into her on a bland grey sidewalk of a bland grey street. It turns out that he was heading to Takesushi to visit her, while she was heading to his house to visit him. Coincidences.

His eyes are brown, not gold, and they look…crackly. There's a sallowness to his skin that wasn't there before. Nightmare signs. "Um," he says, and falters.

Jai whisks him away.

They go to a red wooden bridge across a tiny green river. The water sparkles with the facets of emeralds. She leans on the railings next to him, searches out the tiny fish swimming near the surface, and says, "Thanks for earlier, Tsuna."

He jolts a little. "Huh? For what?"

"Rooting for me during the battle! That's what you were doing, right? I couldn't really hear you too well, but the fact that you were there was enough to get me back on my feet again. So, thank you!"

His jaw drops a centimeter or so as he fumbles for words. "I—well, you're welcome, I guess? But I really don't think I did much…" He cringes slightly. "Wait, you mean if I hadn't been there, you—you wouldn't have…"

"Gotten back up?" And here lies the root of Tsuna's troubles. "No, I probably would've eventually. Even so, you still helped. But why would you put it that way?"

Tsuna stares straight ahead. "I…I don't know?"

Jai laughs. The sky is a nice, pearly color today. "What're you thinking about?"

The rippling of the water doesn't seem to soothe any of the tension in his body. "Why…Why did you scream when you were healing the Vindice's face?" he finally asks.

"My healing was being rejected, for one. I don't know how, and I don't know why. Maybe Jack was doing that on purpose." She watches the swooping crows overhead. "His Flames weren't all that nice, either. I guess that's another reason."

Tsuna rubs one thumb over another. "Oh." His eyes darken to amber. "Jai?"

"Yeah?"

"Why aren't you scared? I mean, that guy could've killed you! You were so close to—" He cuts himself off. "How come you're still…"

She can think of a thousand ways to finish that sentence. "I'm still a bit scared," she admits, "mainly because I'm not looking forward to meeting those guys again. But it's not too bad."

"Wh-What do you mean, 'not too bad'? They hurt you!"

It probably wasn't all that pleasant for him, to see someone almost die like that. He would've seen her wounds. "Hey, Tsuna. There's this saying in Japanese that goes like, fall down six times and stand up seven. Something like that, right?"

"Fall seven times and stand up eight—but you're not supposed to take that literally!"

Her laughter comes out wicked. "No, no, that's true! But it's a good lesson, don't you think?" She notices the way his eyes widen. "If you can keep standing up, and fighting against the obstacles life throws your way, you can accomplish anything! So long as you push forward and your will is strong enough—"

"But…" Tsuna bites his lip. "But that's…"

Jai's heart aches for him. "Tsuna, really. What're you thinking about?"

His mouth opens and closes. She hopes he decides to share his thoughts with her. Tsuna is an ever-expanding Sky, but he's also a kind boy with a working mind, facing an unkind world. She forgets that sometimes.

"The Vindice makes me sick," he says. His voice is haunted. "They're…They're enforcers of the mafia laws. But what they did to you, it was…horrible. It was too much, it was…"

"So what are you scared of?"

Tsuna's knuckles bleach white. "I'm scared of the mafia! Of people like them! I'm scared of seeing people I know get hurt, like—like you! I don't want to see my friends and family end up—" His face pinches with horror. "This is exactly why I don't want to be a mafia boss!"

Jai laughs, captivated by his round, brown-orange eyes.

"Jai, I-I really don't think this is funny!"

"No, you're right, it's just…" Her heart swells with something like delight. "The mafia isn't so bad, is it? It gave you Reborn, anyway."

He winces. "Th-There's nothing great about having a Spartan tutor hanging around…"

"It gave you Gokudera. He's one of your best friends, isn't he? But he's also a hitman." She tilts her head. "It gave you Takeshi. He has the makings of a natural assassin."

Tsuna squints at her. "I know! And it's horrible!"

"The mafia's given you two best friends. And then it gave you Fuuta, who looks up to you like a little brother. It gave you Bianchi, who watches over you and Gokudera. Hmm…oh! It gave you Dino, too! He thinks of you as family!" Jai grins at the bewilderment on his face. "The mafia gave me Tsuyoshi, Fon, Colonnello, Viper, Skull—and do you really think I'd have it any other way?"

"I…"

She laughs. "Tsuna, look at what you have! You have so many wonderful people around you, you have a family, your circle is almost complete—this is what the mafia can be!"

"I…I know that, and I really care about my friends, but…people kill in the mafia! And after seeing what the Vindice can do, I'm just—I'm worried…" He shakes his head. His brown hair floats feather-like. "Aren't you scared of what people like them can do?"

Jai nudges him gently with an elbow. "It's about being brave. It's about keeping your head up and never letting anything bring your friends down—not death, not pain, not anything."

"I'm not brave," Tsuna whispers.

For a moment, she thinks about kneeling right there, right in front of him. He really doesn't know how great he is. It makes her want to punch through a wall. "You're everything, Tsuna. You are bravery." She runs back through her memories, thinking of the words Pir once told them as they took a walk along the seaside. "Hey, do you want to hear a story?"

"Um, okay?"

She tugs him down. They sit with their legs dangling over the bridge, arms folded over the bottom half of the wooden rails.

"Once upon a time, there were two brothers," she says, "who had big, lovely hearts and souls. They were always nice to everyone, and they accepted people no matter what their backgrounds were. Lots of people liked them.

"Now, the older brother was a bit more adventurous than the younger brother, so he liked to go around and explore places and find new civilizations—that sort of thing. The younger brother liked staying in one place, the paradise they called home, where it was basically secure and comfortable.

"So, one day, the older brother came across this gigantic apple tree sitting smack dab in the middle of a really, really nice forest. And this forest was pretty great, you know? All the animals were thriving and the people living in the nearby villages were more than happy. Anyway, he found this apple tree, and since it was so cool, he plucked an apple off one of the branches and took a bite. Then, the tree said—"

"Wait, the tree can talk?!"

"Yeah, it can! It's a powerful tree! Okay, so the tree told the older brother that it was happy to see him. Since, you know, not many travelers really came across those parts. But the tree was already thousands of years old, and it was worried it wouldn't produce good fruit anymore in a couple of centuries. So when the older brother finished off this amazing apple right down to the core and was ready to leave, it asked for a favor.

"'Do you think you can take the seeds in that apple you just ate and plant them somewhere nice?' it asked. And the older brother was like, 'Yeah, sure, I'll do it!' But then the tree stopped him again, because he really wanted those seeds to grow well and feed lots of people, so he said, 'Make sure they're planted someplace where they're loved more than any other trees in the world, alright? I'll give you a rad present if you do.' And the older brother was like, 'Nice!'"

"Is…Is that really what they said, or—"

"That's the general gist of it! Anyway, the older brother found two seeds in each little section of the apple core. Since there're five pocket-hole-things in the core of your average apple, that makes ten seeds. He took them back home to paradise where his brother was and told him all about it. The younger brother was like, 'Okay, that's cool, do you mind if I take half these seeds and plant them myself?' 'Cause he figured it'd be pretty fun to help out! And the older brother said, 'Hey, why not?'

"The younger brother got his five seeds. The big tree wanted them to be planted in places where they'd be loved the most, so he planted them in their home, in paradise. They grew pretty quickly, and the people living there appreciated them a lot. They got lots of great soil and good water, so they ended up being these cool, pretty-looking trees.

"Meanwhile, the older brother went outside paradise and traveled over to the different lands. He finally chose to plant these five seeds in this one particular village that nobody liked. The village was poor and violent, and it had a really bad reputation, no allies, constant food shortages—it was basically the one place you didn't want to live in. Tons of people died and got mugged around there. But the older brother went and planted those seeds all around that village.

"Since the soil was practically dead and it hardly ever rained, the older brother had to do tons of work to keep them alive and growing. He started enlisting the thieves and orphans that were hanging around to help him with watering and stuff—which wasn't really hard for him to do, since these brothers were likeable guys. Pretty soon, he had the entire village working to keep these trees growing.

"It paid off, in the end! The trees were beautiful, and they grew so many apples that nobody needed to go hungry! The leftover ones were sold to the other villages, and since they were tasted so good, they went for tons and tons of money. People got so inspired that they stopped focusing on wars and started planting trees of their own, taking care of them, things like that!

"By the time his work was done and he was satisfied with what he accomplished, the older brother had aged almost a century—unlike his younger brother, who didn't really spend a lot of time taking care of his trees. They both had children and grandchildren, and around the time when their deaths were drawing near, the big apple tree that gave them the original ten seeds was also ready to die, and pass its gift off to them.

"So the tree said to itself, 'Those brothers did a really good job planting those seeds! But I can only give this gift to one person, not two. I'd better choose the guy that planted his trees in a place that let them be loved more than the others.'

"Which brother do you think it picked?"

Tsuna fidgets in place. "Uhhh…the older one?"

She gives him a high-five. "You got it! How come, d'you think?"

He scratches a spot next to his ear. Sheepish smile, but thoughtful eyes. "I…I think it's because he planted those trees in a place that sort of…needed them, in a way. The younger brother planted the trees in paradise, where people already had everything. The older brother's trees actually did things, like feeding people and making them happier when their lives were harder, so it fixed up the village. That…That probably made people, uh, love them harder, I guess?" He frowns. "What was the gift the tree was going to give them?"

It's been ages since Pir last told that tale. Jai doesn't really remember. "I forget," she says.

"Seriously?!"

"But you know…" she adds, and laughs. "Do you really think it matters? The older brother's family got to live in a nice village. He made everyone happy, and I bet he died pretty happy, too. That sounds like a fine present to me!"

Jai came up with that satisfying statement on the spot. She feels rather proud of herself.

Tsuna lets out a startled laugh of his own. "Y-Yeah, I guess so, huh?"

"Hey, Tsuna?"

"What?"

"You and your friends should never, ever plant your trees in paradise." She smiles at the sky above her head, and then at the even bigger one sitting next to her. "You get that, right? Plant them where they're needed. You're more than brave enough."

He gives all of them courage. Herself, his friends—Reborn, even. All of them.

His eyes spit fire. Bright, soul-deep resolve. The crackly feel to them is gone, and his lit face burns its way into her memory. "I…I don't know if I can, but…but I'll try. I promise I'll try."

They sit on a ruby bridge above an emerald river beneath a pearly sky, surrounded by worldly gems.

Jai is lucky to know him.


Rokudo is in Vendicare. She regrets the duel.

But she will never regret trying.


. . .


Endnotes: so, the constant references to people like dineva and aiva and the rest (who are a part of jai's ambiguous past) might be becoming kind of a bore, since you don't really know who they are. so! now you're going to get snippets of her backstory-in-the-form-of-memories at the beginning of each chapter from here on out. CHEERS HAHA (at the same time i hope nobody catches onto the big secrets too quickly uaghh)

thank you guys for reading! reviews, follows, and favorites are appreciated!