... It's been more than 6 minutes! :D

*face palm* I am so sorry.

Interlude

...

"Gunma- chan, don't do that!- "

All too late.

For just as 'that' left Chiba's tongue, a blast of freshener- scented air was bombarded down his throat. Gunma, having just successfully thrown her futon across her brother's, regarded him with a quizzical frown.

"I can't take out my futon?" She questioned.

"You can't just throw it on the floor", Chiba rolled his eyes.

"Who says?" Gunma countered, "but I'm to tired to be bickering with you, so I'm going to let you win this time."

"Don't you mean- "

"End of discussion!"

And to Gunma, when it's the end of discussion, it's the end of discussion. But it still took some willpower on her part to avoid launching into another squabble at the sound of Chiba's exasperated grunts.

It was jut her nature that way.

Not that she cared to admit it.

"Knock it off! Knock it off!"

"This isn't funny, let us go!"

The prefectures' heads swiveled in unison to the direction of the open doorway to their temporary quarters at Beijing's house, where they instantly caught sight of their brother flouncing into the room with a maniac- like grin etched into his face (a sight that, to Gunma's reluctant admittance, still sent her skin crawling even after many years of knowing Saitama), dragging a boy and girl by the arm behind him.

"Chiba-kun! Gunma- chan! Look!" Saitama cheered, waving his hostages' arms wildly in the air and provoking another round of protests from his captives.

"Yes I look! Saitama-kun, let them go!" Gunma demanded, jumping to her feet off her futon.

The mad grin instantly faded into a perfect 'o'-shaped gape. The grip on the arms loosened, the captor's own hands falling with a muffled 'thump' against his sides. The children wasted no time in scooting out of the quarters.

"Oh… But why Gunma- chan?" Saitama watched as the boy's orange jumper sleeves tugged the girl away, her plait disappeared through the doorway after him, "they were a match…"

"Ah, so you're at it again aren't you Saitama-kun?" Chiba grinned, rising from his futon as well.

"Wha- don't encourage him Chiba- kun!" Gunma shot a glare in Chiba's direction, before shifting her attention back to Saitama, "Saitama, you shouldn't go dragging other people about even if they are… Well… A 'match'."

At this, Saitama's face completely fell. "But wouldn't they be happy if I brought them together Gunma- chan? Chiba- kun?" Saitama frowned, "won't I save them a lot of trouble trying to figure out their strings if I told them who was on the other side now? Don't others like playing my favourite game too?"

"Um… Well- look here Saitama- kun", Chiba sighed, sitting atop the coffee table at the corner of the room.

Gunma wanted to point out to her brother that planting your rear end atop a table was bad manners. However, she decided against it for now; who was going to give Saitama the lecture if Chiba decides to withdraw from the face of Earth in his sulkiness? Certainly not her- for now, for this subject, she was out of words, and Chiba was better at these matters than she was.

Not that she cared to admit it.

It's because Chiba- kun's a crybaby.

Saitama shuffled closer towards them, his eyes stuck on Chiba expectantly.

"Let me put it this way", Chiba began, "you do know that you're the only one who can see the string, right Saitama- kun?"

Saitama nodded, the cap atop his ruffled brown hair tilting to one side of his head as he did so.

"Well, there's a reason for this Saitama- kun. There is a reason why the rest of us can't see it like you can… But first, I think it's about time I tell you what the string does. Would you like to know Saitama- kun?"

At this Saitama nodded eagerly, and the cap tilted to fall over his eyes. With a chuckle, Chiba propped the hat back up properly atop his brother's head and proceeded with the lecture.

"You see Chiba- kun, the string is there to connect us to one other person; and only one other person. This person is your destined other and somehow, somewhere out there, and someday, the string will bring you to that other person, where you will remain by his- or her- side for the rest of time until death do you apart", Chiba explained.

"Ohhh...

"But now you've just made it more complicated Chiba- kun!" Saitama groaned, "b-because wouldn't they be happy if I told them who their-um- other person- is? Wouldn't it make them happy? Wouldn't it be much easier if everyone could see the string and find their destined other person too?"

"And that brings me to my other points Saitama-kun", Chiba beamed, "the gods tie the string around our little finger and the little finger of our other person, but they make it so that the string is invisible to us because they want us to figure out that other person ourselves. Sure, the strings get tangled, and sometimes people have to try more than once and get hurt in the process, but the gods want this to happen too. Think of it as- "

"A favorite game?"

"… Yes Saitama- kun. Think of it as a favourite game. You have to play it yourself, but the string is there to prevent you from getting too lost."

"But… Why?" Saitama gasped, "why do the gods want to be mean and make things hard? Why the obstacles?"

Answer the question Chiba- kun, Gunma begged silently, sitting back down atop her futon.

Why am I suddenly so intrigued?...

Memories, dark and assumed to have been long forgotten, resurfaced and trotted about her mind, but she willed herself to concentrate. Gunma needed the answer, and she was hanging onto every word Chiba uttered.

Not that she cared to admit it.

"Because these obstacles are what makes the final results optimal", answered Chiba, with a brief glance in Gunma's direction, "imagine what love would mean if everyone could get their hands on it so easily? Without obstacles- without having to fight to acquire- love would be something without any meaning, a disposable matter not worth treasuring."

"Oh… So if I go about telling people who they're supposed to be with, I won't make them happy?"

"Not in the long run you won't", Chiba shook his head.

"Right… That explains everything then!" Saitama chuckled, bouncing on the toes of his shoes, "because earlier today I told China- san his string connected him to onii- chan and he looked like he was about to faint- "

"What!"

At this, Gunma's head perked up. At the corner of her eye, she saw Chiba fall off the coffee table.

Saitama became as still as stone, the colour draining from his face, "Was… was that wrong?" He wanted to know, glancing from Chiba to Gunma fearfully.

Standing up slowly, Gunma took slow steps towards him, all too aware of her expression that might as well have been carved in granite as she narrowed her eyes at her brother.

"Saitama- kun? Can you… Can you repeat that?"

"Um… Was that wrong?- "

"No, I- I mean what you said before that! A-about onii- chan and China- san? The string?" Gunma tried again, this time not bothering to hide the tone of desperateness from her voice.

"Oh, you mean that! Oh yes!" Saitama was gushing once more, "the string connects China- san and onii- chan! They are- "

"A match…" Gunma's voice trailed off.

"Right as rain!" Saitama cheered, oblivious to his sister's pale complexion.

Just like that, the dark memories of the past completely engulfed her. Gunma felt the floor sway under her feet as she struggled to retain any logical reasoning she had left in her. It was as if the world had suddenly perched itself atop her shoulders, causing her knees to buckle under the extra weight.

"Gunma- chan?"

Now Chiba was crouching before her, regarding her with concerned pupils. Saitama was doing a jig around the room, humming at the top of his lungs.

"Oh… Yes, I'm alright", Gunma waved away, "you should probably get Saitama- kun to stop that before he wakes up the whole house…"

The look on Chiba's face was enough for Gunma to ascertain that she wasn't fooling anyone.

And from the looks of it, not ever her other brother's impudence was going to be a good enough reason for Chiba to leave matters with loose ends.

"… Fine!" Gunma sighed, "Well, maybe I'm just- um- maybe the news that onii- chan are China- san are… That, well, it just shocked me-"

"As to me!" Chiba laughed.

Gunma wasn't sure whether to be relieved that no more questions would be launched at her, or peeved that not even Chiba, the crybaby, knew that the words that have just escaped her throat were none but white lies.

"Hey… But now that we actually consider the prospect of it… I'm actually not that surprised of the turn of events", Chiba smiled, "I mean… Judging from recent events and such- "

"And China- san often spacing out with his eyes locked on onii- chan", Gunma muttered.

"Yes, and that too", Chiba agreed, "But didn't all that made it pretty clear what the string was trying to do?"

"Yes!" Saitama quipped, skipping in a circle around the other two, "and I think the string chose well! The string chose well!"

Gunma simply shrugged, before crawling into the futon with a sigh; crawling away from the gloomy visions of history that seemed to pull at her insides.

China and onii- chan are a match, a voice inside her sang, they will be happy together for sure... China and onii- chan are a match...

They will be happy together for sure...

But why was there a siren wailing fervently at the back of her mind? A siren that have saved her from completely vanishing off the face of Earth on multiple accounts in the past? Would she have to be the antagonist in this love story?

Not that she wanted to think about it.

A little something about Gunma-chan; with a little bit of research, Gunma actually has a pretty rough time in the past. Prior to the Tokugawa period, she was united with Tochigi- kun as the Kenu Province, and was the centre of horse breeding (which actually makes sense, considering that the 'Ma' (馬) in 'Gunma' means 'horse' in Japanese) ('Ma' is also 'horse' in Chinese, only it is written '马' instead of '馬') (CHUNIIIII! XD) in ancient Japan. However, her people were also one of the first victims of the curse of modernization. Ever heard of the 'Gunma incident' (circa 1880's)? Well, apparently, there were some who weren't very happy with the way Japan is modernizing. These included the farmers of the Gunma prefecture- and they had to pay a bloody price for being rebels. To put it bluntly, they were shot to death by repeating rifles- all made in Japan :( Poor Gunma-chan...

We'll see how she copes with onii- chan finding love, 'kay? :)

With promises that I'll make things happy for Gunma- chan... In a bit.

-Plumeria hi