Curtain Call
By:
R. V. Grover

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, nor do I own the song I'm quoting (which is an amazing, beautiful song that helped inspire this chapter and the following one, so I highly HIGHLY recommend going and checking it out). All rights go to their respective peoples. I just own my OCs.

Quick Author's Note: Hello, all! Yeah, it's still me - I just changed my username.

Anyway, I apologize for the bit of a wait. Before we get started, I'd like to let y'all know that I went back and edited chapter 6 (again). The end is about all I changed, but I would still recommend everyone go back and give that a read so you're not confused in the coming chapters about a nickname that crops up.

This chapter is admittedly a bit of a filler. There was a time skip here, and I needed to fill in some gaps. I was going to keep going with what I had planned, but the length was getting to be a bit much and everything else I planned to happen could be an entire chapter on its own, so I decided to split it.

Also, please let me know what you think of Eiji. I just spent the day with my seven year-old niece, so his personality was heavily inspired by her. Hunter is a machine of pure energy that DOES NOT STOP. I don't understand how she does it.

Well, without further ado, ENJOY!


Chapter 7: Faith


"The reflection of a lie will keep me waiting
with love gone for so long.

And this day's ending is the proof of time killing all the faith I know,
knowing that faith is all I hold.
"

-Trading Yesterday, "Shattered"


"Hisagi-fukutaichō! Wait a moment!" I cry, speeding up my pace as I clamber down one of the hallways of Division 9, a stack of papers clutched to my chest that's overflowing even as I'm chasing after the lieutenant in search of yet another stack to add to my ever-growing pile. The Shinigami in question pauses as he walks with his co-lieutenant, both individuals turning to look at me as I push past a few other Division 9 members to get to them at the other end of the hall. I'm a bit out of breath by the time I do, though I plaster a small smile on my face to try and take the edge off of my surely disheveled appearance. The green-haired lieutenant gives me a smile and a wave, but murmurs something to Hisagi before leaving the two of us to our conversation. I caught some of it—she probably assumed correctly my reason for seeking out the tattooed man and figured space was necessary considering the nature such things tended to take in the past. Confidential matters and all.

"Kozaki-san," he greets with a polite incline of the head. I've found in these five years of working with him that I would probably get along well with Hisagi Shūhei were he not a lieutenant. His rank alone is enough to make me flinch away from talking to him any more than necessary. "I assume you're here for the reports?"

I give a cheery nod. I've gotten quite good in the past years at hiding my discomfort around ranking officers, what with having to work so closely with them. "Yep! Hitsugaya-taichō sent me over for them."

"The ones from the ground team, correct?" he asks, and I nod again in clarification. "I've got them in my office, but I can't promise you're going to like what they have to say."

My smile turns sad. "They didn't find anything new?"

He sighs, something in the draw of his face making the scars over his right eye more dramatic. "No, I'm afraid not. We thought combing through the sector again would give us something, but it's been five years. I don't know what exactly we were expecting to find in the first place."

"A miracle, I suppose," I chortle bitterly, running a nervous hand through my hair and ignoring the snags through the brown strands my fingers encounter. "I think we're all just desperate at this point." We shuffle into the empty office he shares with Lieutenant Kumo and Captain Muguruma, the door sliding shut with a click! I don't view it as ominous only because I can read in the lines of his face that the other Shinigami has something to say that cannot be overheard by other ears. I may be wary around him, but I can read him rather easily.

"Desperate possibly for good reason. There's talk from Central 46 about disbanding the investigation team if nothing turns up soon. The Captain-Commander is fighting it as well as he can, but even he can't go against their rulings." Hisagi seems stricken under the stoicism he likes to adopt, and I'm sure my face mimics this quite soundly.

"Disband?!" I hiss. "They agreed to the formation of it in the first place! Why do that if they were just going to disband it anyway?"

"They haven't ruled on anything yet, so it's just conjecture at this point," he calmly tries to soothe, but the damage has been done as I feel the rock settling into the pit of my stomach. I grip the pages in my hands tighter, so tight my knuckles blanch and the edges dig into my skin with the threat of cutting.

We've been investigating Tatsuyoru's disappearance, quietly, for the last five years. Except we haven't found anything more than we already knew. To my chagrin, even my theory hasn't produced anything of note. Captain-Commander Kyōraku has been understanding, even as everyone on this special team he formed has become steadily more frustrated with the lack of progress, but no one has become as frustrated, I think, as myself. Although everyone is becoming impatient for differing reasons and to differing extents, the general sense of annoyed helplessness is the same across the board.

I heave a sigh, slumping in defeat and accepting the stack of apparently useless reports the lieutenant patiently hands me. "You're right. I apologize for getting worked up, Lieutenant."

"It's okay," he gives me a small smile of reassurance. "We all deserve some answers as to what happened that night, you especially."

I notice the gesture doesn't reach his eyes, faked, and I'm sure mine sadly mirrors it as I tuck the reports in with all of the other worthless information on our barely-existent case I have clutched to my chest like the precious treasure I only wish they would be. He really has no idea, and I think he knows that. The platitude is empty on his end. Not for lack of trying, but still hollow. "Thank you, Hisagi-fukutaichō. I'll leave you to your work."

"Of course. Good luck, Kozaki-san." I flinch into my polite bow at the name. He doesn't notice.

"You as well."

I bustle quickly out of Division 9 with more paper than when I went in, but I'm again nowhere closer to solving the mystery that still blankets the night I almost died along with my team. It bothers me to no end. All I want are answers—how did Tatsuyoru survive, why were those Hollows acting the way that they were, why were we singled out, what is going on here? Hisagi's words ring in my head, and I have a sudden, paralyzing fear that I may never get the answers I seek.

The halls of Division 10, to my chagrin, have become familiar over the past five years, almost as familiar as those of Division 5 were before my transfer and promotion. I nod to a few of the Shinigami that I pass, recognizing them from here and there, and them recognizing me from my status as the seated officer who doesn't command a team. It was a shaky decision at first, one I was as unsure of as I was grateful when Captain Hitsugaya made it, but slowly it became accepted. The special investigation team that was formed by Captain-Commander Kyōraku was done so in secret, and as such our activities—and personal involvement—are not publicized for obvious reasons. It's not like my duties looking into Tatsuyoru's disappearance can be announced as the thing that keeps me from leading a squad of my own. Instead, the death of my previous team was used as an excuse, albeit a shaky one. It works, however, so I don't analyze it too much.

A few twists and turns has me sliding the door to Captain Hitsugaya's office open and walking in to a sight that initially used to strike me as very strange. It is, however, fairly commonplace anymore. Lieutenant Matsumoto is slung over the couch in a tangle of limbs, dead and deaf to the world and probably sleeping off her latest round of drinking that was an attempt to avoid the stacks of paperwork around the office. However, Rangiku isn't what first draws my attention. Instead, what I focus on is the sight of my white-haired captain listening intently to the little boy excitedly bouncing around in front of his desk. I have to grin a little, my sour mood and anxiety quickly abating when I spot Eiji's black hair and gangly limbs. That's only further spurred when I catch sight of Haruka's matching dark curls shaking her head at her hyperactive offspring. She's likely wondering for the millionth time in the past five years how in the world she and Tatsuyoru Kohaku managed to produce a tiny being filled with such boundless energy.

"Are you sure she's gonna' be back soon?" the little boy whines adorably up at the usually icy captain. While his stoic demeanor is still present, I can tell it is softened a little bit as he quirks a brow at Tatsuyoru's son.

His lips twitch, refraining from a smile as he has obviously felt my reiatsu long before I entered the room. "Yes. If you'd be patient for a few moments, I'm sure she'll show up far sooner than you think."

Eiji pouts. "But I wanna see her now!"

"Hmm, I don't know. You do need to learn some patience. Maybe I ought to let you stew a bit," I tease lightly, my general conversational awkwardness lacking in the face of the small child. I meander up to my captain's desk to set the large stack of reports on a relatively uncluttered edge with a silent nod. He flicks his turquoise gaze to the papers and then back to my face, inclining his head in understanding at the brief, melancholy look I'm not quite able to repress. They found nothing, I say wordlessly. I'm sorry, he replies.

The five-year-old, however, is not so sensitive to the angst felt by the adults in the room and instead squeals in glee, flinging himself the few feet towards me. "Oba-chan!" He latches onto my hakama and attempts to climb his way up my person. I swoop down before he can do much more than tug at my shihakusho, scooping the giggling child into my arms and swiftly settling him on my hip. Eiji's eyes are purple like his father's, but they are warm and emotive like his mother's.

I tap him playfully on the nose. "Hold up there, spider monkey. What have you been told about climbing people?"

He's not dissuaded by my chiding, and giggles more before chorusing, "Not to."

"Trees are for climbing, people are for hugging," I add, and at the reminder, he tangles his little arms around my neck, squeezing tightly as he buries his face in my shoulder. I allow him his hug before planting a small kiss on the side of his head and patting his back to let him know it's time to get down. He complies wordlessly, happy to have gotten his attention, and resumes his jitteriness once his feet touch the ground again. I curiously raise my brows, as from the mused state of his usually impeccable yukata, he's obviously been fidgeting for a while.

"Someone's excited."

Haruka laughs from behind me, and I turn to give her a nod of greeting. "Yes, well, he woke me up this morning in a tizzy wanting to visit you two. I found I could not dissuade him. It seems you and Hitsugaya-san have quite soundly stolen my son from me." The teasing in her soft voice is plain to hear, and Eiji reacts accordingly. His amethyst eyes bug out of his head, mouth falling open in a perfect o shape as his little legs propel him at his mother with a wail.

"No, Mama! You're my Mama!" Leaning against Captain Hitsugaya's desk, we both laugh lowly at the sight of the little boy clutching at his mother's forest green kimono, obviously fighting the urge to climb her as he is wont to do. My nickname for him is quite apt. If given the opportunity, Eiji will try to climb everything, a little spider monkey. It's adorable.

Haruka herself gives a chuckle, patting her son on the head fondly. "I know, dear. Now, did you not have something you wanted to ask your Oba-chan and Oji-san?"

Eyes going even wider, if that's possible, he gasps, "Oh! I forgot!" Spinning around to face myself and Hitsugaya, he's kept in place only by Haruka's hand lingering on the crown of his head. "Will you come to my birthday?"

I can't help the next chortle that bubbles from me. The fidgeting suddenly makes sense. "Birthday? That's still a whole month and a half away! Bit early for birthdays, little one."

"I am trying to plan it in advance," Haruka frets. "I need to work around everyone's availability. It is…difficult to do last minute. I learned my lesson well enough from last year." Ah, last year. I remember that fiasco fondly. Thankfully, Eiji was oblivious to all of the hiccoughs, or we partygoers would have had a very wail-y toddler on our hands.

"Please?" said little boy begs, and to my (internally squealing) dismay, he pulls that look. Wide, watery purple eyes, chubby cheeks, complete with a little pout. It crumbles my (pathetic, not seriously attempted) defenses rather soundly.

Pretending to adopt a thinking expression, I tap my chin a few times before sighing in exaggerated defeat with a flourished hand motion for the added theatrics. "How could I ever resist such a handsome face? I suppose I haven't a choice but to agree, do I? When is this birthday party of yours?"

"The…," his face does that adorable scrunch-y nose, in-thought thing as he tries to count something on his fingers. "Twenty…fifth?" He looks to his mother for confirmation, which she gives with a gentle, encouraging nod. Bless Tatsuyoru Haruka—I don't know why she deigned it a good idea to befriend me after my stalker-ish appearance on her doorstep after her husband's memorial service, or why she decided I would make a good godmother to her son, but I'm glad she did beyond words. To say the woman is a good soul would be an understatement.

She clarifies, "Yes. The weekend after his actual birthday. I think that is the only time everyone can arrange to be present." I know she speaks of a few members of the Gotei 13 who are family friends, as well as a couple who are distant relatives of hers and Eiji's. Shinigami can have schedules that are notoriously difficult to pin down at the same time.

The boy turns his attention to Captain Hitsugaya with the same puppy-dog expression he pulled on me. "Oji-san?" Like me, Hitsugaya humors him by pretending to think it over, but I quickly see something almost mischievous flash behind his eyes. The faint impish expression on my captain's face is not one I'm used to seeing, but I think I know why it's making an appearance.

"Captain, you're cruel," I mumble just loud enough for him to hear. It's not chiding, not that I would ever dare such with a captain regardless of if we share a godson. It's more amused. His lack of response is all the confirmation I need.

"I may be persuaded to agree, but only if you can wake Matsumoto," he says, about as gleeful as I've ever heard him. Innocently, Eiji quickly agrees and pounces on the sleeping lieutenant (how she managed to not wake at the commotion before, I'll never know) without any hesitation whatsoever. Haruka sidles up to the desk as the three of us watch her son startle the blonde awake in a very loud, very boisterous manner.

The woman murmurs, "Hitsugaya-san, Kozaki-chan, thank you again for agreeing to be his godparents. I feel better knowing that if something…something happens to me, that…well, he will be taken care of." I sigh only because every time she sees myself, Captain Hitsugaya, or both of us at the same time, she feels the need to thank us for agreeing to the offer she made five years ago. As with her motives for befriending me, I don't really know why she chose the Captain and myself, of all people, to be Eiji's godparents, another Western tradition favored by her family and one I myself find I don't mind overmuch. But she did.

It unfortunately means that I do have somewhat of a relationship with Captain Hitsugaya outside of strict professionalism, which is…trying, but I take the whole thing in small strides. As my zanpakuto is quick to remind me, Captain Hitsugaya is not Aizen. The betrayal of one superior does not dictate the actions of all superiors thereof. I'm still slow to trust ranking officers, if at all, but Fūmittsu gloats about making progress often enough that I almost find myself believing her.

"You don't have to thank me," I say.

Hitsugaya nods. "I agree with Kozaki. Thanks aren't necessary." She just smiles her small, gentle smile, eyes crinkling warmly at the corners.

"Thank you, still. You will be coming, then? I know it will mean the world to him."

"Of course." I laugh as Rangiku manages to groggily wrestle Eiji into a tickle fight, her mild hangover apparent but foregone in favor of playing with her errant alarm clock courtesy of our captain. "You know I wouldn't miss it."

"I shouldn't be busy, either," adds Hitsugaya.

We are silent for a few moments, watching the lieutenant wrangle the little boy before she looks up with wide blue eyes and whines, "Captain, Kozaki-chan, I was having a good dream! Who decided to sic the monkey on me?" My nickname for the hellion managed to catch on with Matsumoto, who thinks it as cute as I do.

My captain rolls his eyes. "Maybe if you spent less time sleeping and more time working, Eiji wouldn't have had to wake you."

"But Ran-chan, Oji-san promised to go to my birthday party if I woke you up!" Eiji snickers, completely unrepentant like the sneaky brat he sometimes is. In that regard, according to Haruka, he takes after his father.

Lieutenant Matsumoto exaggeratedly gasps in mock offense at the child clumsily situated in her lap. "I can't believe you not only didn't invite me, but you sold me out for a birthday party!"

"No, I sold you out for Oji-san!"

I snort in laughter as their banter continues, a little ritual almost between the two of them. Finally, Eiji appears to lose this particular battle of wits, as he turns to his mother with big eyes and rosy cheeks. "Mama, can we invite Ran-chan, too?"

"Of course! Matsumoto-fukutaichō is welcome to come as well."

Captain Hitsugaya gives a dry, sarcastic sigh as he takes some papers from his desk and stands to cross the room to drop them in front of Matsumoto on the coffee table. The child prodigy is not so much a child anymore, not that I'd really so much as been in his general vicinity before being transferred. He stands shy of a head taller than me, a result of something to do with his bankai, or so I'd heard. "A shame. That's time she could have spent actually getting some work done for a change." She in response slaps a hand over her ample chest in forced offense, face looking the definition of fake innocence.

"But Captain, I work very hard! It's not my fault all this paperwork is so boring!" she whines. Hitsugaya just rolls his eyes and fixes his lieutenant with an annoyed glare. I'm entirely unfazed by this as it's a relatively common sight, however Haruka and Eiji are lost to humor as it is not quite so familiar to them.

"Matsumoto," Captain Hitsugaya grumbles warningly, but there's really no venom to it.

She puffs her cheeks out, looking more like a petulant child than the one actually sitting on her lap. "Oh, fine. You don't give Kozaki-san this much grief." There's a glint to her eyes I don't like, one Haruka is prone to getting, and usually some form of teasing follows. If I had known what would ensue by agreeing to be godparent alongside my captain, I would have considered more carefully. The familiar, token thought passes with amusement because I know full well I never would have denied Haruka's request for anything.

"Kozaki actually does her work, and yours and Akiyama's," our Captain grits in retaliation. He knows, too, what usually follows that look.

He's not wrong, though, I think. Akiyama is as bad at ignoring paperwork as the lieutenant. I don't understand why. There's a lot of it, but it's mostly just signing off on requests and mission reports. Bland stuff with not much going on, but not difficult.

Rangiku smirks like the cat that got into the cream, and…I squint. Is it just me, or does the captain actually look a little panicked? "Are you sure it's not because—"

Suddenly, Eiji, perhaps tired of being ignored, gasps with the most perfect timing I've ever seen. He fists Matsumoto's pink scarf in urgency, a set look on his face. "Ran-chan, don't! I want you to come to my party, but if I'm not allowed to come see Oba-chan or Oji-san if I don't finish my lessons, then…then you're not allowed to come to my party unless you finish your paperwor…paperw…" His brow furrows cutely as he flounders for pronunciation he's only ever heard bandied once or twice.

"Paperwork," I supply breathlessly as I try not to laugh openly at my superior.

Eiji nods with an adorable level of finality. "Paperwork! You can't come unless you finish that!"

"Tatsuyoru-san, I'm keeping him," Captain Hitsugaya says plainly to a laughing Haruka, clearly as amused as I am as he plucks Eiji off of his lieutenant's lap. He must be in a fairly good mood today, I think. He's rather playful compared to his typical seriousness. I suppose I'm not the only one whose mood improves in Eiji's presence.

Matsumoto, however, is gaping. "Ei-chan, how could you betray me like that! That's it, you've been spending too much time with your Oji-san! He's turning you boring!"

"Nuh-uh!" he says even as he cuddles into the captain's side, little body shaking with barely-restrained snickers. He's definitely feeding off of the mirth and attention, that's for sure. Bright amethyst eyes peek out at the world from the corners, his head buried into Hitsugaya's shoulder. The contrast of Eiji's black hair on the white haori is almost striking.

Haruka snickers. "I told you, Hitsugaya-san—you and Kozaki-chan are stealing away my son!"

"Don't point fingers at me, Haru-chan," I say wryly, my hands held in mock surrender as I use the nickname the woman herself kept asking me to until I finally relented. "I'm the one always trying to get him to stop climbing me."

The captain chuckles. "If he can actually get Matsumoto to do her work, then you'll have something to worry about. I have enough trouble getting her do to what little she already does." Rangiku grumbles something about being right here, but even so, she pulls the stack of documents towards her, glowering glumly, albeit halfheartedly, at Eiji. My lip twitches into a smirk because the child's innocent manipulations trap even the most unsuspecting victims.

"Hmm, I am afraid I cannot let you have him quite yet," Haruka hums as her dark eyes glance quickly at the clock on the wall. "We have more stops to make before the day is through."

"Aww, but Mama!" Eiji whines, face puffing up into that expression of pleading that I, admittedly, have a far harder time saying no to than I should.

His mother, however, seems to have no such issue and fixes him with a stern look that somehow still manages to be gentle. "Eiji. We still have your cousins and Hinamori-san to invite to your birthday party. We cannot do that if we are here all day."

"Can't you go?"

"It is not my party, little dove!" she exclaims, brow raising incredulously though I think she also expected this token reluctance from him. "It would be rude for anyone else but yourself to extend the invitations."

Eiji whines even as he gives Captain Hitsugaya one last hug before the Shinigami sets him down. "Okay…" Once on the floor, Rangiku is the first to receive a lackluster hug goodbye. It doesn't stop her from enveloping the boy in one of her signature bear grabs, but it only gets a slight laugh from him where it usually sends him into another round of hysterics. Finally, he shuffles to me and wraps his arms around my hips.

My heart whimpers when he looks up at me with that teary, disappointed face. I tell myself to just hold it together as I return his weak hug with a stronger one of my own, and I almost make it, until…

"I love you, Oba-chan."

my heart fucking shatters.

Blinking back a few sentimental tears of my own, I give up all pretenses and crouch down to his level, all but crushing my godson to me and burrowing my face in his hair. Why this child can play me like a fiddle, I'll never understand. "I love you, too, spider monkey. Tell you what—you go help your Mama with the rest of your errands and promise to be extra good, and we can go get ice cream this weekend. How's that sound?"

If someone would have told me six years ago that I would be a Fourth Seat, crouching in Captain Hitsugaya's office hugging our shared godson, the child of my missing former commanding officer and his wife who somehow became one of my best friends, and promising to take this little boy whom I so fiercely adore to get ice cream over the weekend, I would have smacked them upside the head with Fūmittsu and deemed them insane. Yet, here I am.

As if some magic word was spoken—which, indeed, "ice cream" may well be such—shining excitement begins to slowly overtake the disappointment in Eiji's eyes. "Really? You promise?"

I tap his nose. "Promise."

"Yay!" he giggles, tightening his grip on me for a final fraction of a second and zipping off towards Haruka. "Mama! Did you hear that? Oba-chan is gonna take me to get ice cream!"

"Yes, I heard, but we need to finish our errands first." She sets a hand on his shoulder before looking up at me as I stand again. "Now, tell everyone goodbye."

Eiji's grin is earsplitting, and his waving is energetic with expectation. I ought to promise this boy ice cream more often. "Bye Oba-chan, Oji-san, Ran-chan!"

A chorus of reciprocation follows the two out the door, and as soon as it slides shut behind them, I slump into myself. I love Eiji to death, but his energy is exhausting to simply be around. Lieutenant Matsumoto makes a gesture of agreement as she returns to her neglected, Eiji-mandated paperwork, and Captain Hitsugaya resituates himself behind his desk.

"I apologize if I inadvertently kept him waiting for too long," I say quietly. Matsumoto makes a poor attempt at looking preoccupied with her work, but I and Hitsugaya know that she's listening to our conversation. She has a bad habit of that.

We both ignore her with practiced ease. "It's fine, Kozaki. I asked you to retrieve the reports from Hisagi-fukutaichō. Am I safe in assuming that nothing of note came from Division 9's investigation?" My sigh probably tells him all he needs to know, and I steady myself inconspicuously against the desk.

"No, they found nothing. The scans from Division 12 and the supplemental reports from Division 5 all turned up empty, as well."

Hitsugaya rests his chin on his steepled fingers, whatever softness Eiji's visit had instilled in his eyes leaking away at the weighty discussion upon which we are encroaching. "I see. How many reports are we still waiting for?"

He knows the answer, but I humor him anyway with a clenched jaw. "None, sir." A breath escapes him in a hiss as his hands move to scrub across his temples.

"Dammit."

I quite agree.

"I…," starting, my eyes flash with confliction. I shuffle nervously on my feet as I try to decide whether to voice the thought lingering on the back of my tongue. I'm fairly certain Hisagi was not supposed to know the information he divulged to me earlier, and even if he was, I doubt it was supposed to be spread. "I'm beginning to worry. I've heard there's…talk. From Central 46, that they're going to disband us if we don't make progress, and I—" Shrugging, I swallow hard to try and clear the lump rising in my throat. The sound of Rangiku's pen scribbling on paper ceases as she at my words gives up all pretenses of looking busy.

My captain frowns. "Muguruma must have told Hisagi. It's just talk right now. A few of the judges are becoming vocal, but beyond that there's just grumbling. There's a captain's meeting scheduled in a week, though I wouldn't expect them to have any deliberation before then. Having one at the meeting would be a stretch."

"I-I…y-yes, I know, it's just…," I frown, deflating some more as I fiddle with my sleeves. "I suppose all the secrecy behind their proceedings just never bothered me so much before."

He shrugs, nudging a few papers towards himself to scan through. "It's just their way. Don't worry so much, Kozaki." The words are hollow enough for me to be able to tell he doesn't buy them any more than I do, but I on some level can appreciate the effort.

Rangiku chimes, "Yeah, Kozaki-chan, It'll turn out fine! All those stuffy old guys can be reasonable when they want to be." Matsumoto learned rather quickly upon my first week in the division of my hatred for my given name. Worse, she'd tried to call me "Yoshi-chan". It took me almost having a nervous breakdown right in front of her for her to stick to using my surname, a feat many mired in mystery due to my and her reluctance to divulge the real reason behind it.

Smiling weakly at my lieutenant, I take a few steps back before giving my customary polite bow of farewell. "I-I'm sure you're both right. Only…do you ever get the feeling that something's about to go horribly wrong?"

They don't need to give me a verbal answer.

Their faces as I turn and walk out of the office tell me all I need to know, and the answer is a resounding, terrifying, unspoken yes.


Final Words:

Oba-chan: Aunt

Oji-san: Uncle

Well. There we have it. I think I managed to say everything of import in the beginning note. I also hope you all liked the interactions between Eiji and everyone else - I was trying for something lighthearted. I myself actually am not fond of children, so capturing that was a bit difficult. I hope I did it justice.

R&R!

~Grover