Hi everyone.
Let me just say first of all how terribly sorry I am that this chapter has been so delayed in getting posted. I ended up having to move in the past couple of weeks, and that turned my life upside down, or at least more so than I expected.
Anyway, to make up for it, there will be another update this Friday! Once again, I'm very sorry for how long it took for this chapter to come out. Either way, I hope you guys still enjoy it nevertheless.
I hope everyone is doing well and keeping cool on these hot days.
Please enjoy!
Everything around me has been swallowed in chaos. Even though the room was deadly silent when I entered, a roaring drowns my hearing, making my head feel full enough to burst. There he is, standing in front of me, so different than I last remembered, but it's unquestionably him, my brother. He's grown taller, fuller than the lanky, bony I used to know and more like the father I vaguely remember. His hair is thick and black and doesn't lay quite as flat as it should, but his face is soft and kind, just like I remember it. It's clear that he's long past the days of starvation we suffered together, eating every bug we scraped up from the dirt. No, he's been fed and has grown well, healthy as he should be. In his eyes, I spot the same dark irises that match mine. Looking past the armor and the complexion tanned from days in the sun, I can see him clearly as day.
Even if he hadn't looked like himself, what he had signed to me was more than enough proof. It was the gesture we made when we had successfully pulled off a thievery or had escaped the whip of those who knew that we had stolen from them. I would look up at him, my eyes questioning, and he would answer with his hands to keep the words from alerting others to our position.
Safe.
My hands shake as I drop to the ground, scrambling to pick up the shards of the shattered teapot. It's odd that now my mind is reeling, the first thing I can manage to squeak out is, "I'm sorry, milord. Fumino will be furious, I'm sure. Please forgive me. I have gold to pay you–"
My brother drops to my side and catches my clammy, trembling hands in his warm, steady ones. "Rin, don't pick up any of this. You'll cut yourself. Here," he says as he slides the tray away from me on which I've been piling the pieces and pulls me into a hug. "You don't have to be afraid anymore. You don't have to be alone."
My arms fall to my side and I collapse into him, crying uncontrollably. It's so hard to breathe. I feel like I'm choking on air.
"Y-you were dead. Y-you were g-gone. Where w-were you?"
His eyes scan mine, full of pity. "It's a long story I'll have to tell you later. But you're safe now. I'm here for you." After stroking my hair a few more times, he lifts my head so that he can look at me. "Rin, why in the world are you at a demon lord's palace?"
"K-Katsuko, you know, the woman that adopted me, s-she got remarried and a lot of things happened, and–" The dry sobs are racking my body so hard that I can't finish my sentence, and my brother simply hushes my words with soft shh shhs.
After several long moments, I slide out of his embrace and start to pick up the pieces of the cups and teapot despite my brother's protests. My heart feels like it's going to jump out of my chest, and this is the only thing my mind can process doing at the moment. My hands are still fluttering too rapidly, though, and a shard of porcelain slices through the soft flesh of my palm. I look down when I see the blood on the white porcelain, confused that I don't seem to be feeling any pain. A half-second later, a tall shadow looms over me, and it's just then that I remember that Sesshomaru is still in the room.
My brother seems to have just taken notice of that fact too. As I cradle my bleeding hand, he pulls out a handkerchief and wraps it around, tying it a little too tightly to staunch the flow of blood before turning to Lord Sesshomaru, his expression uncharacteristically hard. "I think you understand why I must regretfully decline your offer." He grabs my hand and leads me to the door. He pauses in the frame for a moment. I glance around, confused. Sesshomaru's face is dark, his brow furrowed in a way I'm unfamiliar with. "This discussion was… interesting. I look forward to meeting you again upon humanity's victory." He turns to leave, but seems to think twice and faces Sesshomaru once more. "I don't know what you did to my sister for her to end up as your slave, but trust me when I say that I won't stand for it. You and your kind deserve to pay for all your crimes, but I will personally make sure you suffer for this."
My brother grabs my non-injured hand and tugs me out of the room. I cast one last brief look of confusion back towards Sesshomaru before I follow, running to catch up. "What's going on?"
But my brother remains silent until we reach the grand entrance to the palace. Here, two men in identical, regal suits of armor with decorative swords at their sides salute him before turning with him.
"Rin, I can't tell you any more here, but I will meet you in the town. Can you be there tomorrow night?"
I look around at the two men. This is all too sudden, too unexpected. I deserve to know and not tomorrow night. "You mean Saido? Why can't you tell me now? I want answers," I plead with him defiantly.
He shakes his head, glancing furtively around the corridors. "Saido, yes. Can you meet me? There are too many ears here that will listen."
Without thinking twice, I say, "Yes. Of course, yes. Where, though?"
"There's a small inn on the far edge of Saido. That's where I'm staying. I can put off leaving for a day or two, I'm sure. I'll see you there, right?"
I nod.
He reaches up and taps two fingers to his temple before pulling them into a sort of salute. Our way of saying goodbye. I mimic the gesture faintly. He turns and the two men follow at him, one on each side.
Tomorrow, I remind myself. Tomorrow.
(¯`*•.¸,¤°´-`°¤,¸.•*´¯)
But tomorrow won't come quickly enough, not for me, at least. I make so many mistakes that with an annoyed glare, Itoko sends me from the sewing room early, shooing me out with her sweeping hands. I feel a burning urge to talk to someone, anyone, but I don't know to whom. Minako is out in the gardens, nowhere to be found, and Akahito must be off on some sort of errand. I wouldn't even mind Sesshomaru except for the fact that my brother is his number one human enemy and I'm sure all he'd be interested in is gathering intel against him. Maybe he'd even take me hostage. But hey, at least that way I'd get to talk to him more, right? The thought makes me snort with laughter, and I'm thankful for the brief respite from the stress and worry that's plagued me all night. To my disappointed relief, however, Sesshomaru does not ask me to bring him tea that evening.
I slip out of my futon that night the second the maids' snores fill the room, wide awake even though I only managed to scrape together three hours of sleep the night before. Sliding quietly through the hallways, I scurry through the front door and out of the gates. I'm within sight of the outer white walls before I remember that there are guards on duty. I slap my forehead with the heel of my hand. In the midst of all the confusion, I had completely forgotten to plan on how to get past the guards. It seems as if the gods are on my side this evening, though, because the guards are nowhere to be found having apparently abandoned their posts in favor for drinking as they sometimes did.
I approach the stable with slow, soft footsteps, thankful that the surrounding loose hay softens my approach. When I slide the door open, I find Shunya the stable boy curled up with a blanket on a nearby pile of hay. The second I take a second step forward, however, his eyes snap open and he blinks to me.
"Rin-san, what are you doing here?"
I smile as sweetly as I can, even though my nerves are on a knife's edge. "Shunya, I need your help."
He rubs his eyes with the back of his hand and stares at me with bleary drowsiness. "Fumino-san said I can't let anyone take the horses out after dark. Too dangerous. Demons might get them," he mumbles.
"Shunya-kun, this is for something very, very important. You have to understand that, okay?"
"But Fumino-"
"This will be our little secret, okay?"
Shunya looks worried and confused, that is until I pull out several pork buns I had sneaked down to the kitchen to grab that evening. Shunya stares at them, looks to me, then back to the buns.
"You wouldn't be in trouble if someone happened to steal one of the horses away while you were say, going to investigate a suspicious noise, right?"
He looks to me, then to the horses, then back at the pork buns in my hand. "No… I guess not…"
"Well, then, don't you hear something rather odd coming from the other side of the stable? I think there might be something out there." I hand him the pork buns wrapped in a handkerchief. He shoots me one quick look before darting out the other side of the stable, leaving me alone with the horses.
Ume is in the stall second from the door and has already been woken by the sound of my voice. She nuzzles my hand as I grab her bridle and saddle her up. Within five minutes, I'm at the front iron gates. The reins cut right into the middle of my hand where the shard had sliced it open last night, but I readjust my grip and try to ignore the pain of that and my recently-healed shoulder.
The moon is still full and bright in the sky by the time I reach the edge of the village. I slow down to a trot, pacing through the dirt streets, trying to find which hotel my brother could possibly be staying at. After ten minutes' search and a sinking feeling growing in the pit of my stomach, I finally see him waving to me, directing me to an inn on the side of the street. To my surprise, I recognize it as the inn that I stayed my first night in Saido on the way to work for Sesshomaru, the place where I first met Akahito.
As I slide off of Ume, my legs sore and my eyes heavy from lack of sleep, my brother pulls me into a full embrace, much tighter than the tentative one the night before. "Rin-chan! I was afraid you might not be able to make it, being in that filthy demon's grasp."
It takes a moment to register that he's talking about Sesshomaru. I open my mouth to contradict him, but he's already pulling me inside the inn's adjoining restaurant.
"Come!" he says, his eyes bright with enthusiasm. "I've got a whole feast laid out for us. God only knows what they try to feed you there."
I'm a bit winded, but trembling with anticipation. My brother is here, right before me. Last night hadn't been a dream after all.
He sits me down at a low table laden with more food than I think I ever ate with him all our time together when we were living as thieves. Plates of oily noodles, soups, sauces, grilled meats, and steamed vegetables glisten before us. The platters of roasted fish and chicken line the table so full that they're in danger of toppling off.
"Although I have quite a bit of money of my own now, I can never bring myself to spend it on the usual riches like the other generals do. Food, however, is one area I never skimp out on." He grins at me and hands me a pair of chopsticks. "Dig in!"
I take the chopsticks from him, but even with all these delectable foods in front of me, I can't seem to find the appetite to actually eat anything. "Hirano Toshiyuki? Since when has that been your name, onii-chan?" I attempt to say it teasingly, but the word "brother" on my tongue feels oddly foreign.
He laughs. "They thought it would sound more official if I had a proper name, rather than 'Toshi the Orphan'." He smiles. "Now come on, eat up! There's more than enough food to go around," he says with a conspicuous chuckle. The rest of the restaurant is nearly empty, save for a couple of cloaked travelers sipping tea and murmuring in hushed tones.
I set down my chopsticks after a moment, food for once not consuming all my thoughts. "Where were you? They told us you were dead."
The smile fades from his lips and his expression grows sober. "The time they told you I was dead, I very well thought I was going to be." He takes a deep breath, apparently preparing himself. "Several other soldiers and I were sent out on a recon mission in the mountains at one point. There were people in a nearby village who were being terrorized by bird demons, and I'm not just talking crow demons. I'm talking gigantic birds with humanlike faces. Absolutely terrifying," he says with a shudder. "Anyway, every few days, a flock would swoop down and scoop up as many people as they could catch. Men, women, children, whatever. They didn't have much of a preference.
"The day we were planning to ride back to camp and report what we had seen, hopefully to get enough men to attack some of these monsters, me and two other men were snatched by these birds, horses and all." He swallows hard. The memory is clearly painful to him. "One of the men was dropped on the way over and just left to fall to his death. Later, during my capture, I would look back and wish that I had been him, the lucky one."
He shakes his head and clears his throat, dismissing the thought. "Anyway, we were taken to the nests of these creatures, all filled with eggs as big as you or me. The nests were sizes of houses," he gestures with his arms, spreading them wide. "They were perched on what seemed like the peaks of mountains. We were far away from everything, apparently, but close enough to the other nests to hear feeding time. Apparently we were food for the young. The larger ones preferred the horses," he says with a grimace. "The nest I was taken to had two other people already inside, one older man and a young miko. The man's leg was broken and he slept most of the day. The miko, on the other hand, became my friend. Days went by and we were left untouched. At first, I thought it was the gods' salvation. It was a while before I realized that we were meant for the eggs that had yet to hatch.
"It was a little bit like a lottery. Each day, we could hear the birds breaking out of their shells and the screams of the unlucky people being eaten. It only took a couple of days before the miko and I began to plan our escape, knowing that we probably didn't have a lot of time left before it would be our turn.
"On the fourth day, a crack formed in the largest egg in the nest, and we knew it was time to go. She and I had planned to escape and take the elderly man with us, but he was just too weak. His leg had become infected, and he said he wouldn't make it down. So, the second that the adults left to go hunting for more humans, the miko and I scrambled down the mountain peaks. Neither of us had eaten for days nor had a clue to where we were, but had we stayed, it would've been certain death.
"So we worked out way south, hiding in forests as we could and eating what little we came across. It was a week before we found any other humans, but they took us in and bit by bit we regained out strength. In that time, I learned a lot. As it turns out, the miko was quite familiar with demons and was used to purifying them and making protecting spells for different villages. As we travelled together, me trying to find my regiment and she trying to a way back to her own village, she taught me everything she knew about demons, which was quite a lot. Much more than the military had cared to teach me, at the least," he says with a dark chuckle. "Eventually, we went our separate ways, and I found my way back to the military."
My throat hardens, still trying to process his story. "So if you found your way back, why didn't you bother telling me that you were still alive? Do you know even for a moment how I felt when I was told you were dead?" My voice is rising in pitch from anger. "I lost everything that meant anything to me in that moment!"
His eyes soften, and he puts down the cabbage dumpling he had just raised to his mouth. "I tried, Rin. I really did."
"What do you mean, 'tried'?" I ask, my tone icy.
"I sent letters to you every day the moment I could, but Katsuko wouldn't allow it. She told me that she didn't want me to have contact with you anymore, that I was a 'bad influence'. She said you were moving on with your life, finally starting to speak again, and my coming back into it would just ruin all the progress that you had made. She worried that you would go back to sitting by the door, waiting for me to come home."
I'm silent. All those years and I never knew, not a breath of it from her. Well, maybe I shouldn't have expected anything from a woman who helped conspire in my marriage to Kento.
"If she hadn't convinced me that it was in your best interest, I wouldn't have ever stopped sending you letters, not ever. Do you hear me?" The severity in his tone makes me meet his eyes which are hard with determination. I didn't understand until this moment how my brother, so young and soft and so kind, would have made a good general, but the look in his eye finally explains to me how it's possible. It's a fierceness that I've seen rivaled only by Lord Sesshomaru.
"So what happened after that? How did you end up as general?"
"Well, with the knowledge that the miko had given me about demons, I was able to work my way up through the ranks slowly. None of the leading generals really knew what demons were like face-to-face. And, as it turns out, I'm not such a bad tactician." He says this with a somewhat embarrassed but proud grin. "Anyway, I eventually reached the rank of captain and was given my own troops to command. I didn't really have a chance to climb up the ladder any further until a few months ago when I led an attack on the Eastern Lands controlled by the inuyoukai."
My blood turns to ice at his words. "You… what?"
He leans in and starts to talk in hushed tones. "You see, the inuyoukai are the most powerful and most strongly organized of the demons. Over the past few decades, all the demon alliances have started to fall to pieces, but the inuyoukai have not been as susceptible to change. The only demons that have the chance to fight them and win are the dragons. They have in the past. It was they who killed Lord Sesshomaru's father in fact, I believe. So, I made a few deals and gained their help. With the dragons on our side, there's no way we can lose now!" He says this triumphantly, but all I can register is stomach-curdling nausea.
"Rin?" he says after a moment, confused. "Is something wrong?"
I take a deep breath. "I… I know the girl, the daughter of the family the human army slaughtered. She made it out alive. She's my friend."
My brother looks startled. "W-what? Your friend?"
"Yes, my friend," I repeat. "I accompanied her to safety. Do you realize that they killed her parents and siblings in front of her very eyes? Just like our own father and eldest brother?"
His expression softens, but I can tell something inside him is cold. "You've been around them for too long, Rin. I don't think you understand."
Something snaps. "I do understand though!" I cry, slamming my fists on the table, breaking the very conspicuous silence of the restaurant. "She and I were found by human soldiers! They were going to rape us, kill us! She has been through everything that I went through. Do you not realize what that means?! She watched her family get murdered just as I watched the robbers kill our family!"
"Rin, you were too young to remember–"
"No I wasn't!" I scream over him, but he cuts me off once more with his own cry.
"You were too young to remember who it was that killed dad and brother!"
"I'm not! It was robbers."
"No," he says softly. "The men that killed them were demons."
I feel my pulse slow as time comes to a halt.
"Inuyoukai, to be exact, he says slowly.
No, not inuyoukai. Not the demons I had come to trust. It couldn't have been them. Not Akahito, not Minako, not Hatsuriko, not even Sesshomaru. They weren't like that. No inuyoukai I had met was like that. I knew no one who would kill over the silver and gold that we didn't have.
"How… how do you know? How can you know it was dog demons?"
"We used to live on the edges of inuyoukai territory. You're too young to remember, but every now and then they would raid the edge villages. One night, it happened to be us."
The silence chills me. "Why wasn't it some other kind of robber? It didn't necessarily have to be inuyoukai," I protest.
He sighs. "The marks on their throats were teeth marks, not knives'."
I scoot away from the table, pushing myself to my feet, feeling sick even though I haven't touched the food. "I can't be here right now. They're going to be looking for me, wondering where I've gone, and if I don't get back soon Shunya will get punished and Minako will be worried and–"
My brother grabs my arm, but not painfully. "Look, Rin, I didn't want to make you relive bad memories. That's not what I asked you here for tonight. You just need to know that these demons are monsters to the core. They will kill you when they don't need you anymore. It's not safe to be with them. I want you to come with me. I'll take you some place safe, somewhere where you'll be far away from the war and these demons. The war is coming to the Western Lands soon, and it's best if you're not here when it arrives. I don't know how you came to work for Lord Sesshomaru, but you have to get out of it. Now."
My head is reeling from all the information. I don't if I can handle anything else.
"We got separated once, but I'm never going to let it happen again. Not ever."
His words are echoing in my brain, turning my mind into a din of chaos and confusion.
"I-I… I don't know…" is all I can muster sense enough to say. Everyone's faces are flashing through my mind at rapid speed. I thought I had found a new life here, but it seems as if I'm going to be uprooted yet again.
"At least go back to Shiramura, Rin. Be with your own kind. I just need to know where you are, that you're safe, somewhere where you'll be protected."
"I'm safe here," I say instinctively. "Sesshomaru's protected me more times than I can count, now." I know the second that I've let the words escape my lips that they're the wrong ones.
"Oh, Rin," my brother says, pity soaking his voice, "He may have convinced you to think that, but we both know it's not true. Demons can never be trusted. He's got you thinking all wrong."
I wrench my wrists away from him, my mind becoming frighteningly clear. "What do you mean, he's got me thinking all wrong? Do you not think that I have a brain of my own to think with? That I can't make my own decisions?"
He seems bewildered by the turn of events. "That's not what I meant at all, Rin. I just mean that demons will manipulate the people around them. I'm doing what's right for you Rin. I'm going to be the one to protect you from now on. You can trust me when I say that."
"I'm not a little child anymore," I spit. "I can make decisions for myself, you know."
He looks hurt and I instantly regret what I said. "I'm just trying to do what's best for you, Rin. You don't know what's coming. You can't know what's coming. The demons will collapse, and anyone who's associated them will fall with them. We're entering a new world."
"I… I have to go."
"Look, I don't know what spell they've put on you, but I'll give you a chance to make up your mind for yourself. I have to leave Saido tomorrow evening. I can stay until then, but no longer. After that, if you want to leave, you'll have to go to Shiramura." He wraps me up in his arms one last time, but I can't bring myself to meet his gaze. "I know you'll make the right choice."
The moment he lets me go, I race out of the restaurant and find Ume. I fumble for several minutes with the reigns, trying to unknot them from the standing post. My hands are too weak, too exhausted. I try to take deep breaths as I mount Ume and lead her back through Saido, back to the castle. No matter what my decision is, I have to go back first to at least say my goodbyes.
Usually, when I'm on horseback, my thoughts untangle themselves, organizing themselves into an orderly pattern, but tonight, there's no such cooperation. Instead, by the time I reach the iron gates and Ume's pounding gallop slows, my head is throbbing harder than ever before. I don't know what to do or who to ask. Before I can consider what I'm about to do, I call out the first name that comes to mind, the one of the person who would know exactly what to do. "Akahito-san!"
My voice doesn't go far in the dark night, but I know that if he's around, he'll come soon. He always does.
"Akahito-san!"
I don't care who can hear me at this point. I don't care one bit. Fumino is sure to kill me, and the guards might pull themselves away from their drinks long enough to track me down, but I simply don't care.
"Akahito-san!" I scream, my voice growing hoarse. I spin around frantically, searching for any speck in the night sky that might be him.
From behind me, I hear the soft crunch of gravel and I breathe a heaving sigh of relief. "Akahito-san, I–" As I spin to meet him, the words in my mouth shrivel up. Sesshomaru is standing behind me, his expression cool as ever.
"Why are you calling for my cousin."
"I… I needed to talk to him."
His gaze is fixed on mine evenly, holding it steady. My heart starts to race a little against my better judgment. "Concerning?"
"There's a difficult decision I have to make… And I don't know what the right way is."
He doesn't say anything, so I fold onto the bench, exhausted, and rest my head between my knees. "My damned head… it won't stop throbbing." He says nothing, but surprises me nonetheless by taking the seat next to mine.
I don't know what else to do, so I tell him everything. He doesn't say anything as I ramble, and I don't lift my gaze even once to look at his expression. I don't care who it is anymore. I just need someone, anyone at all, even if it is my employer who will most likely fire me after knowing that I am supposed to leave.
Silence falls around us once my words stop, and I feel more emotionally drained than before I told him everything. The horizon of the sky is starting to fade into turquoise, and I know only a couple of hours remain before I must begin my day. I bury my face into my hands and sigh, hoping for a stroke of clarity.
"It seems as if every pivotal point in my life is decided by someone else, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being carried around on the waves of others' whims."
Sesshomaru finally opens his mouth. "And, what is your choice?"
I bite my lip and look up at Sesshomaru. His expression is even as ever, but his eyes seem warm like they were the night by the sea. It seems so long ago, but the familiar desire rises in the pit of my stomach. Why is it that my brother and Kohaku and Mika always assume that I'm going to do what they and everyone else think I should? Why is Sesshomaru the only one asking me what I want?
"I… I don't know anymore." The response leaves my lips as a whisper. "I owe my brother my life. He only thinks of what is right for me, but then there's Minako, and Akahito, and Hatsuriko, and everyone else." I hesitate. I hate how being this close to him is making my mind go fuzzy with disquieting thoughts. More than anything, though, I'm sick of the chaos, the noise of my thoughts, and the hurricane of change around me. I don't know what I want anymore, except for the one, small, dark, dangerous thing. In the midst of this discord, there is only the one, constant, humming wish, the one has been following me like a close companion for quite some time now, that clearly tells me what it wants.
"And you." The words escape in a sigh, perhaps quietly enough that even Sesshomaru doesn't hear them. And before I can say another word, I shut out all the turmoil, all the pain, all the rage and the fury and the fear, and I listen to the only clear thought in my head, the one thing that has become my constant desire, and I press my lips to his.
I hope you guys liked the chapter! Sorry for the lack of Rin/Sess interaction, but as you can tell… there will definitely be some sort of interaction next chapter, hahaha.
Also, before anyone asks, no, the miko Toshi met was not any miko that we know of. She's an unimportant character everywhere except her small role in this chapter.
As always, if you have the time, please leave a review! It means the world to me to hear your comments, criticism, feelings on anything! Hell, tell me about what's going on in your life! I simply love hearing from you guys :)
To the guest reviewers of the previous chapter:
GladApple – Once again, I'm terribly sorry about the delay, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter all the same! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! I hope all is well with you.
Happytello98 – He definitely won't accept is, so it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to what happened at the end of the chapter! Thank you so much as always for taking the time to review!
LEGNA – I'm so sorry that the update took so long! I hope that you liked the update, even though it wasn't as Sesshomaru-centered. Thank you so, so much for taking the time to review as always, and I hope everything's going well with you!
Zaku – I'm so happy that you like it, especially the way she's getting developed! It's a relief to hear that. I always worry so much about the mushiness factor. It's a balance between keeping people interested and keeping it in character. After what happened at the end of this chapter, though… we'll just see haha. Once again, I'm so sorry about the delayed update, and I hope you liked the latest chapter all the same. Thank you so very much for leaving a review!
Flowergirl25 – I understand the business with schoolwork. I hope everything is going well for you! I'm so, so happy to hear that you liked the chapters! Thank you so much for the compliments X.x you're making me blush so much! I'm so, so sorry for the delayed update and I hope you liked it nevertheless! Thank you very much as always for taking the time to review!
Andreatc – Hahaha that is very true, and yes, he is quite adorable. I am so sorry about the delayed update, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same! Thank you so much as always for taking the time to leave a review! I hope all is well with you :)
Mirja – There will definitely be more scenes, naturally. I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed them! I can't say much right now, but she will be seeing Kohaku and Mika sometime in the near future. I'm happy that you liked the twist, though I did leave you guys on the cliff for quite a long time… :( Anyway, I hope you liked the update nevertheless! Thank you as always for taking the time to review!
Gingersnaps – A lot is definitely coming up, and you're asking all the right questions! I'm so sorry that it took so long for me to update, I really am! But I hope you liked the new chapter anyway. Thank you so, so much for your patience and for taking the time to review!
Gin – I'm definitely trying my best! The hardest part is for sure making myself sit down and get it all out. Your first language is Spanish? Wow! Your English is so beautiful, I would've never guessed :) Haha I didn't know that! What word is it, if you don't mind my asking? I did not know that about sakana, but thank you so much. I can't express how much it means to me :) I hope you are doing well yourself, and thank you so much as always for taking the time to leave a review! It really does mean the world to me.
Guest – Thank you so much for all of your compliments, and even more so for all the errors you pointed out. I'll be sure to go back and fix those up. I've been meaning to get around to it, but I haven't taken the time yet. Thank you once again for taking the time to point these issues out to me! It is very helpful for me to have a second pair of eyes look at the story more critically. I'm terribly sorry for the long wait, and I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless. Thank you very much as well for taking the time to review :)