AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just can't work out a few kinks in this story and it bothers the hell outta me because each time I update, it's one chapter less for me to write the development. I feel like I'm wasting time... sorry, pals.
– Explanation for Rin's eye condition at the bottom AN of the chapter –
DISCLAIMER: This story has no other purpose than me stealing the characters and general plot of Bleach by Kobu-sensei and use them for my own entertainment. Yeah, I know, I have no life. So what?
She did not bother opening her eyes "My favourite blond in the whole of Seireitei comes and disturbs me. Lovely," she responded before opening her eyes and staring at the grinning Shinigami standing on the ground below her. He sent her a queer look.
"What's up with ya'n trees?" He gesture in her direction and she bit back a scoff.
"Do you have a problem with trees, Goldilocks?" she raised a dark red eyebrow at him "Scared you'll fall off and get leaves in your hair?"
"Ya little-" Rin caught the shoe that had been sent hurling her way and wrinkled her nose in distaste. Shinji jumped up at the branch she had been sitting on and gave her a dirty look, in response to which Rin casually handed the shoes back. Muttering curses under his breath, the other gave her a harsh glare before snatching the piece of footwear from her and put it back on.
"Sure you don't want to throw both at the same time instead? Then you might actually hit," she offered with no attempt at hiding her amusement and she let out a chuckle when Shinji raised his hand as if to hit her before lowering it and letting out a sharp breath.
"I don't need ta lower m'self to yer level," he turned his head away with mock arrogance laced between his words. That idiot.
"And what level would that be, hm?"
"A pretty low one."
"Compared to what, yours? Are you sure?"
"Didn't I tell ya not to answer a with a que- gah!"
Rin held back a loud burst of laughter when the part of the branch Shinji had been sitting on fell down, taking the blond Taichō with it. She looked down to see Shinji spewing curses before kicking the thick branch a good distance away "And exactly how is you level?"
"Why do ya always go cuttin' off the branches I'm sittin' on, huh? I could've died, yer crazy strawberry!"
Rin narrowed her eyes and resisted the urge to sneer at him "Call me that one more time. I dare you."
There was a few seconds of complete silence before Shinji let his Cheshire grin out, "Straw-" he cut off his own sentence when he saw the murderous look sent in his direction and raised his palms "Jeez, chill. I'll stop."
He crossed his arms and leaned against the trunk of the tree and for a while, neither of them spoke, merely enjoying the comfortable silence which had fallen upon them. Rin let her eyes turn upwards and looked at the starless skies above, the shining lights hidden by the current clouds that had been hanging over the Seireitei and first few districts of Rukongai for the past couple of days. The wind made a particularly strong gust, pulling the leaves of the large trees and Rin closed her eyes, immersing herself in the feel of the cool wind brushing over the uncovered parts of her body. Her long locks danced from the high ponytail like the never-ending movements of a running creek, steadily flowing with a subtle but naturalistic form of gracefulness.
"Did you find the note I left?" she asked and Shinji made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat.
"Y' mean when ya left for eight years without sayin' anythin' about it? Yeah, I got it."
"Shinji..." Rin trailed off, not knowing quite what to say. He sounded disappointed and he had the right to be. They were... what were they, actually? Rin had never given much thought about defining their relationship because, well, for one, she had no idea what they actually were and also, she had never had the need to do so for a very long time since most people she met ended up dead. Her and Shinji, they were more than acquaintances but friends? She pondered for a bit. What was a friend even? She couldn't recall ever having one, it had always been enemies or comrades with her, the only exception being Haku and Zabuza, who along with her had been more of a dysfunctional family united together for survival more than anything else. But her and Shinji... they were more like allied than much else really. Maybe they were friends but how could she know when she had never had to deal with that kind of thing before? No, scratch that, allies did not even cover it. What were they?
"I know ya have trust issues 'n all that, but really? I get some strange note 'n you just disappear?" Shinji scoffed and his voice had an edge to it she had not heard before.
"Shinji, it was-"
"Rin, I don't care what it was," he snapped at her and suddenly he was sitting on the same branch as her, staring at her with angry eyes and Rin's hand instinctively formed a hand sign at his sudden movement. Shinji noticed and his expression stiffened. He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply before turning his head away from her.
Rin blinked rapidly and wrinkled her nose as she felt a strange feeling come over her, dragging her down and she wanted to reach out the the blond, the only one who never failed her in all the years she had been in Soul Society, somehow wanting to apologize or just make the uncharacteristically stiff expression go away. The moment Rin had finished the thought, she scowled. As if that was even possible for her to feel those kind of weak things. The moment she opened her mouth to snap at him for sticking his nose into her business, he raised his hand and she shut it.
Shinji lowered his head and sighed, "I thought Aizen'd killed ya."
"... You thought what?"
"I thought that you- well, that... I could sense yer reiatsu in m' office, mixed with Aizen's 'n when I couldn't find ya..." he trailed off and swung one of his legs up, resting his arm on his knee "Ya could've given me a warnin', y'know."
Rin looked at him and stayed quiet. He seemed like he had been genuinely concerned or suspicious at the very least. Knowing that made her feel... appreciated? She mentally shook her head. She needed to focus.
"What's Aizen been up to while I was... away?" she asked, changing the subject in a direction she felt more capable of handling than the somewhat mushy-feely stuff Shinji kept blubbering. She heard Shinji chuckle a bit, knowing her motive behind the sudden change in topic. He then turned to her, his expression serious.
"Somethin's up with him, I know it. He does his duties like he's s'pposed to but I just get the feelin' that I'm missin' something. Like..."
"Puzzle pieces," Rin ended the conversation for him, briefly thinking back at how similar the conversation had gone between her and Yoruichi
"Yeah, puzzle pieces," the blond agreed, nodding his head before making a frustrated grimace "I just can't seem to find anythin'... he acts too damn proper all the time."
"He's a smart man," Rin muttered and Shinji made a grumbling sound of agreement. She turned her had and looked out over the landscape around them, her mind working at insane speed. She kept getting ideas and plans for how to get solid proof of their suspicions but each and every one was discarded since it seemed highly unlikely that Aizen would fall into any traps made by them. From what she had heard and seen, his intelligence was above the average genius.
"We have to wait for him to make a mistake..."
"So we wait?" Shinji gave her a look that was both resigned and questioning at the same time. Rin gave a small nod at him.
"Yeah, we wait."
Rin was looking through some particularly boring papers when she felt a small flutter of reiatsu approach with high speed in her direction. Sighing in annoyance, she placed the papers down and got up from her chair, walking towards the steel door. She opened it and waited for a few seconds before a Shinigami clad in the standard Keigun outfit appeared in front of her. He immediately dropped down on his right knee and bowed his head.
"What is it?" she asked, tucking a rebellious strand of hair behind her ear.
"Rin-Gundanchō, the Sōshireikan requests all of the Gundanchōs and their Fukugundanchōs to report to her office within the hour."
"Thanks," Rin told the kneeling officer. When he didn't move, she felt like rolling her eyes "Dismissed, officer."
"Yes, Gundanchō," came the reply before he disappeared in the direction he had come from. She rolled her shoulders in an attempt to get rid of the stiffness which had crept into the muscles from hours of reading and signing papers before she began strolling down the corridors. The officer had said an hour and since she already knew where Takeda was, she could just take her sweet time. Not that she particularly cared about being on time or not.
There was a momentary lull in the discussion which had been rolling back and forth for the past few hours between the highest ranking in the Onmitsukidō. Rin resisted the urge to massage her temples to get rid of the drilling headache which had crept up on her during the course of the day and the seemingly endless talks did not do much to improve anything, neither did the brightly lit room. Yoruichi had finally revealed the finalized plan for the merging of the Second Division and the Onmitsukidō and so far, the response had not been very good. However, she had – with the aid of Rin, that Urahara guy and a few other supporters, she had convinced the other Gundanchōs of ht necessity of the merging.
And, almost as expected, now that they were about to finalize the document, the smaller fish began speaking up. Tch. As if they had any say in anything; they served nothing more than dragging out the time.
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do? I mean there should-" one of the Fukugundanchōs began but was cut off by Rin halfway through his sentence, who had heard more than enough of his useless chatter over the past few hours to bother hearing him out.
"The Sōshireikan would not carry through with this if it wasn't thought through. Everything has already been discussed so I suggest you close your mouth and keep it that way. Also, you should not doubt the Sōshireikan. Keep your rank in mind, Fukugundanchō," the red-head opened her eyes and sent a cold look in the direction of the lower-ranking officer, efficiently quenched his lust for speaking and made him take a short step back to stand more behind in the cover of his Gundanchō.
"Now, now, no need to be so harsh, Shinmongun-gundanchō," the light, forever semi-serious voice of Urahara came from the other side of the table. Rin wrinkled her nose and ignored the blond him.
"Well, now that that's been decided," Yoruichi stood up from where she had been sitting by the head of the table and everyone followed suit "I look forward to see how you all will manage this adjustment. Now go, dismissed."
"Gundanchō, we should get back," Takeda quietly told the red-head who had not moved an inch, still sitting with her head resting on her palm and seemingly had no intention of doing so.
"Actually, I have to borrow your superior for a bit, Takeda-san. You're free to leave," Yoruichi spoke up, directing a brief glance at the Fukugundanchō. Takeda nodded but did not move, instead turning to look at Rin.
"Make sure to get the inventory reports are finished and on my desk when I return," she answered his unasked question and with a nod, he disappeared in a brief flicker of shunpo.
"Now that that's taken care off..." Yoruichi sighed before she placed her legs atop of the table "Kisuke and I have something to ask of you."
"Sensei, even though I congratulate you and all that, I'm not really fond of weddings..." Rin trailed off and she heard some chuckling come from the blond next to her. Yoruichi, however, did not seem amused.
"This isn't the time for joking," her harsh brought on a wave of tension the room and the ambiance turned from light to serious in the blink of an eye. Urahara's smile disappeared from his face and his eyes turned hard and cold, looking every bit like the Gundanchō he was beneath that forever-jesting front of his.
"The number of missing from Rukongai have continued to increase and we can't keep it under wraps any longer," he began, his matching the serious mood "The Gotei 13 needs to get involved if we can't get any further information on all these... incidents."
"So we really do have nothing..." Rin mused aloud and received two sounds of agreement. She turned to look at the two others "How much longer can this go on before the Gotei has to step in?"
"I don't know..." the shorter of the two women present answered, her eyes turning distant "Let's hope it won't be necessary."
"How much do we tell them?"
"For now, nothing." Yoruichi had a ring of finality in her voice and Rin nodded, not pushing the conversation further.
There was a heavy silence laying over them for a few minutes, each of the three caught up in their own thoughts and speculations until Urahara broke the quiet"The patrol you sent out a week ago, have they gathered anything new?"
Yoruichi shook her had with a grimace "Not a thing."
"And that has nothing to do with the fact that that little delinquent Suì-Fēng is in charge," Rin muttered under her breath, her upper lip twitching in distaste, making her scar looked even more pronounced than usual.
"Are we really doing this again?" Yoruichi sounded exasperated and raised her eyebrows at the red-head who only scoffed at the unspoken reprimand.
"I wouldn't have to be bothered by this if only you had chosen a more competent head of your personal guard."
"Rin, that isn't your place to talk."
"Fine then. What kind of candles would you like for your funeral when you die because the head of guard was too busy staring at you to do her job? I might get a good price if I order in advance, you see."
"Oh, would you at least trust my personal opinion?" Yoruichi was beginning to grow annoyed with the repetition of the argument she and her student
"I'd love to but it's hard when you're picking people who aren't ready for their positions. That Suì-Fēng is far too controlled by her emotions to be fitting for the position of head of the guard."
"Kisuke, please tell my loud-mouthed student to shut up before I steal her entire supply of those bandages."
Rin's eyes narrowed dangerously and Urahara looked between the two women, his eyes darting from left to right at high speed before giving a nervous laugh. When he saw the unamused expression directed at him, however, he let out a small sigh and ran his through his hair, "Rin-chan does have a point you know, Yoruichi-san."
"Well, would you look at that. The mad genius agrees with me," Rin commented in a voice laced with feigned shock and innocence, cleverly choosing to overlook .
"Who are you calling mad..." the blond muttered under his breath but was ignored.
"Enough," Yoruichi efficiently ended all joking around and gave both of her subordinates a pissed off glare "This wasn't what we were supposed to talk about."
"Then what was it?"
"You see, Kisuke has been doing well, whatever it is that he does, and now we need a test-"
"You're learning Bankai," Urahara cut in and Rin's expression immediately stiffened.
"You can't be serious," she looked from between two out of the very few people she had come to somewhat trust and was not calmed by their determined faces "You are serious."
"So what we want you to do-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said I'm participating in any of the crazy inventor's experiments? Urahara, as much as I support freedom of creativity, I've ground quite fond of being alive. Or well, dead but alive... you know."
"Rin."
"Fine..." the red-head hung her head for a few seconds before looking up at the blond Shinigami next to her "What do you want me to do?"
"You see, I've always wondered if there was a way to speed up the learning process of Bankai. You know how only a few Shinigami in each generation can manage to learn it and that these usually "
takes on the highest positions. But it takes a lot of time and time is precious, so... I've found a way to speed it up."
"How much 'speeding up' are we talking about here?" Rin inquired, giving him her full attention. There was no way she was going to get herself killed in one of the infamous creations of Urahara Kisuke simply because she had not been attentive enough. That would be beyond foolish.
"Around a few days, I suspect," he answered airily as if it was of little importance. Rin knew him too well to be fooled by it, though.
"You haven't tested it, have you?"
"Since both Yoruichi-san and I have learned Bankai, we can't use it. And this is where you're needed."
"So I'm going to be the first to test out your – possibly not even working – invention, not knowing whether or not it will take an hour or a year?"
Urahara rubbed his chin thoughtfully and sent her a grin "Well yes, I suppose so."
"And if I know your little experiments correctly, I could possibly die whenever I do this Bankai... training thing."
A nod.
"The two of you..." Rin rubbed her temple as her headache had grown to epic proportions. She rolled her neck from side to side before shrugging "Fine. I'll do it."
"Excellent," Urahara's eyes lit up with that glint he always got when thing went according to his plans and it served no other purpose than making Rin feel like the blond had actually planned this all along. Which he probably had. That deranged inventor.
"So when are we going to do this very safe and simple training procedure? I can hardly wait," Rin asked, her words dripping with sarcasm.
"We begin tomorrow morning so I suggest both of you get your paperwork done for the next few days and make a valid excuse for why you won't be around in your division," Yoruichi commented from the end of the table and received nods in reply from the two others.
"Shouldn't we wait until we've finished this whole merging with the Second Division thing? Since the genius doesn't know how long it will last."
"There's no need to get personal, Rin-cha-" Kisuke stopped himself when the red-head smacked the back of his head with a speed invisible to the naked eye. He rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head and gave her a sad look "How can such a pretty lady be so violent?"
"Kisuke, stop baiting her before I hit you too," the Sōshireikan gave him a harsh look but the amused glint and twitch of her lip gave her away. Rin scoffed.
"We're doing this tomorrow because we're running out of time. So I'll see the both of you at the secret training grounds tomorrow at dawn."
Understanding it was the cue to leave, Rin bowed at her superior before shunpoing back to the Shinmongun where a lovely pile of papers were waiting for her. How absolutely delighting.
"You will not be able to beat me with your distrust either," Kuraimaru flatly commented as he effortlessly cut through the sword Rin had tried to block his attack with, sending her flying far off into a boulder. She let out a grunt at the impact and felt how blood began running from yet another wound. She rolled to the side and narrowly avoided getting cleaved in two. She had long ago switched from ordinary Shunpo to mixing it with Body Flickering to keep from dying before she had learned her Bankai. There was no way she was going to be killed by her own soul; that would be as anti-climatic as it could possibly be. Refusing to slow down, Rin grabbed another sword from the hundreds that were stuck in the ground around the desert-like plains of the training ground.
"Too slow," a voice sounded next to her and even though she instinctively reached up and blocked the black-haired spirit's swing in time, her blade shattered between her hands and yet another cut was added to the vast and still rapidly growing collection "That was sword number one hundred and sixty-seven, Rin."
"How kind of you to keep count," she growled at him, moving far out of range. She barely had time to finish her hand sign before Kuraimaru has struck at her but all he was met with was a large rock. Rin used the momentary opportunity to swipe at him with yet another sword. She moved towards him with invisible speed and aimed directly towards his heart, killing intent fully activated to strike her target. However, the moment the sword touched his body, it stopped moving and disappeared in a puff of black smoke and Rin wanted to scream in frustration. She jumped away and gathered reiatsu under her feet in a stable stream in order to stay in the air, only to get back on the ground when Kuraimaru was less than a heartbeat from ending her existence. As she continued fighting and her body continued to tire, she divided her consciousness and mentally went through all of her so far failed plans, hoping to get some sort of revelation or even just a hint of what to do. She had been going through the swords in different patters, first in order of shape, then in size, then in lengths, then from left working towards the right but it had done nothing more than fail each time. She grit her teeth as yet another sword came apart after she had landed a strike against Kuraimaru to no purpose. Dodging and deflecting the rapidly incoming attacks from the bone white spirit, she let her eyes scan over the landscape yet again but just like it had for the past two days, nothing seemed to be of any help to her; there was nothing but swords, sand and rocks.
"You will not be able to figure out which sword is the right one by looking at them," he directed at her before he aimed against her side only to be blocked by a well-placed foot from Rin "You always took such pride in being able to fight without your vision. Now stop trying to determine based on the appearance."
Rin let out a frustrated sound as she bent over backwards to make sure her head stayed on her shoulders before jumping away. She landed atop the hilt of a sword, perfectly balanced on the sword guard. Kuraimaru stopped advancing as well and the two kept quiet, staring at each other. Simultaneously, Rin smirked and Kuraimaru's red eyes narrowed and the two were off so fast that the clouds of moving dust were the only evidence they had ever been there.
Rin was moving towards the right, her eyes only focused on one sword and one sword only. She had no idea why but it had suddenly seemed like she just knew it was the one she needed to take. Pushing herself beyond her already demolished limits, she began using even more of her normally dormant chakra stash to increase the distance between her and her chaser. Even though she was dangerously close to use up all of her reserves, Rin let out one strong burst of energy and was projected forward with insane speed. The landscape flew past her faster than she could keep up with but with extreme precision, she reached her right hand out to grab that one sword and the moment she felt her hand close around the hilt, she knew she had been right.
It was the most intense feeling she had ever experienced, both as a shinobi and as a Shinigami. It was like every cell in her body was electrocuted, induced with immense levels of power before being doused in freezing water. It was like her being expanded, was ripped apart then stitched together all in the matter of a split second. Every nerve in her body screamed in protest yet at the same time embraced the feeling as if it was the key to survival. With a piercing shout, she spun around and blocked the incoming strike from Kuraimaru. His expression did not change the slightest but he jumped back and regarded her in silence.
Watching him with determination burning in her eyes, she embraced both the pain and the power and darks threads seemed to appear from all around her, gathering in a large layer around her form. Her eyes closed and the wakizashi disappeared from between her hands to join the shadows.
As quickly as they had come, the shadows disappeared and Rin hung her head, frozen and unmoving while the spirit remained a passive observer to the scene unfolding.
She looked much the same as ever, wearing the same clothes and physically appearing the same but there was a feeling around her, like a volcano on the verge of explosion, the power contained within but just barely.
Rin moved her head up and opened her eyes, their hauntingly red shade now matching Kuraimaru's own and her voice was barely beyond a whisper.
"Bankai."
Then everything was covered in darkness.
Rin walked through the gates to the newly established Second Division and lazily strolled down the paths and hallways.
"Hello, Fourth seat."
"Goodafternoon, Rin-senpai."
"Hello, Rin-san."
Rin gave short nods in response to the stream of greeting that were directed at her and kept her urge to tell each of them to can it down. She mentally sighed at the difference in atmosphere around the Division barracks as opposed to the Shinmongun's underground base, certainly preferring the latter. She turned a corner and was about to open the screen to a certain feline-like woman's quarters when an arm was placed in her way.
"No one is to enter."
Rin's fingers twitched and she wrinkled her nose in disgust "And then there's you. It must be my lucky day," she said with acidic sarcasm and gave an annoyed look to the owner of the arm, who was standing a few heads lower than Rin.
The shorter of the two's face contorted in an angry grimace "She does not receive visitors at the moment, so please, go back to whatever uncivilized little speck of land you came from, Rin-san."
Rin took a deep breath and closed her eyes before exhaling heavily. She then gripped the other's interfering arm with force close enough to break the bone "Move your arm or lose it," the red-head calmly stated in a monotone voice followed by look much like a teacher explaining something to an incredibly dumb student. The arm was lowered and Rin let go, giving a small smirk. That arm was going to have a nice, blue-ish black colour tomorrow.
"Yoruichi-sama has requested not to be disturbed."
Now there was a hole person blocking the entry way and Rin was fighting the urge to induce some permanent damage.
"Listen here, my dear Suì-Fēng-chan," Rin bend down to be on eye level with the comically shorter woman "I suggest you move that lovely little body of yours out of the way. That is, unless you have a wish to be a cripple and do paper work for the rest of your depressingly mediocre career. Now, while paper work is not exactly the most common aspiration, I suppose it would make sense for one such as you. Perhaps then you could spent your entire staring longingly at a certain Sōshireikan. It seems like you've already begun on that by now, though."
Suì-Fēng's cheeks reddened and her eyes burned "Don't act so sacred. I'll never understand why Yoruichi-sama would chose someone like you to be her personal student. You've done nothing but taint the name of the Onmitsukidō and Yoruichi-sama."
"Which is exactly why you will remain forever second to me. You are simply lacking the basic ability to comprehend. Comprehend means to understand, by the way."
The shorter took a step forward, her hands fisted by her side "Listen here, you-"
"No, you listen," Rin cut her off with unbending authority ringing clearly "Remember who's the Gundanchō and who's the guard, Suì-Fēng," Rin's zanpakutō, albeit still in it's sheath, was suddenly pressing against Suì-Fēng's jugular and it was more than obvious she would have been dead if Rin had wanted it so. The black-haired Shinigami gulped and tried to suppress the fear which had come over her.
Rin gave her a pathetic look and curled her lip in distaste before speaking "The reason why she requested not to be disturbed was because she and I have a meeting, one that should not be disturbed. However, what you are doing now is exactly that, so looking at it, aren't you working against orders? I would never have expected you to be such a rebel."
"Just shut up and get in," the petite, black-haired woman growled and pulled the screen open. Rin took one step through before turning to look at the other "You should be more careful of what you say. You can easily be replaced if you can't show proper respect and discipline around your superiors."
Sparing Suì-Fēng a final glance much like an insect under one's shoe, Rin closed the screen behind her and entered Yoruichi's new headquarters. As she had expected, Urahara was there as well.
Rin had barely bowed before Yoruichi dropped the bomb.
"One of the patrols found a survivor... we finally have a witness."
A/N: So here's another chapter, not proofread as usual. Sorry. Someone get me a beta.
Anyways, here comes the question of the chapter: I've considered picking up the pace so we make it to the Hollowfication parts in the next chapter. Would that be okay with you? Otherwise, it will be in chapter 12 and if it's the latter, it gives me more space to focus on developing some sort of relationship between Rin and the exiled group before the events set in – also, it'll leave room for some Aizen/Rin interaction, which I know a lot of you are saying you would find entertaining. So would I. I don't know, though. If you guys have an opinion on this or you're just like whatever, IDGAF, then that's cool. You can let me know the same ways as usual if you want. You know what to do~
Random thought of the day: I've been toying with the idea of adding some sexual tension between Aizen and Rin... now, while unlikely, it would be fun ass hell. Teehee.
Questions from the last chapter:
What's up with Rin's eye?
I had actually planned on explaining that in the last chapter but I thought I would bore everyone to death with medical talk. Now, however, I think I might just as well give the explanation.
Tapedum Lucidum Development
(First of all, let me say that this is not an actual human disease but one I've sort of invented. It's surprisingly logical, though, so don't think I'm a complete fraud)
For those of you that don't know, the tapedum lucidum is that little layer of tissue in the eye that gives night vision. Humans don't have this but some animals do, which is why they can see so well in the dark and it's why you can see that sort of bright eyeshine in their eyes when they're reflecting the light. I sort of played with the idea of what would happen if a human somehow managed to develop some of this tissue. Now, this has never happened so no one knows, but I just gave some side-effects I believe are plausible, such as how bright light irritates her, gives her headache, she can see very well in the dark and all that jazz.
This was a short explanation and I don't think much more is necessary.
Now, I want to thank each reader, whether you comment or not, I'm happy that you've somehow managed to make it so far through all my strange updating habits and fail English. So yeah, readers are great and reviewers make me dance around crazily in my room.
So, until next time!
- C