When finally, they could leave, Janus stormed ahead to his room. Nobody bothered to stop him, or persuade him to do any different, or even follow him.

Except for Akihito.

He quietly followed Janus, always stepping out of sight when he turned around, until they got to his room. Then, he used his impressive agility and speed to get into Janus's room before he locked the door.

Janus stared at him stonily.

"Get out." He said. "Now."

Akihito ignored him, and went to sit at Janus's desk. He studied the items on the desk, then turned the chair around and stared at Janus.

"I asked you to leave." Janus pointed to the door, shaking.

"Mate, the door's locked." Akihito grinned cheekily at him. Janus stared at him like he didn't know what he was on about, and then just sat down on his bed, utterly defeated.

Neither of them said anything for a while. Akihito cast his gaze around the room. He was surprised to see just how many traces of Suzu he was able to find. A pair of slippers peeking out from under the bed. A Jodi Picoult novel with translation notes on the bedside table. Pictures on the wall. A few items of clothing that could be seen through the half-open door of the wardrobe. And there were the things that could not be seen, such as a faint, feminine scent in the air.

"So." Janus eventually asked. "What do you want?"

Akihito shrugged. "I honestly do not have a clue. "

"Well then." Janus said. He looked as if he was to say something else, and then he stopped, and reached into his pocket for the note Suzu had given him. He unfolded it slowly, and looked at it.

"I can read it." He murmured.

"What does it say?" Akihito asked like the bigmouth he was. He fully expected to get berated, but Janus simply smoothed out the paper and showed him.

"No touching." Janus said.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Akihito responded as he took in the words on the paper. Written on it was 3 words in curly, slightly wobbly handwriting. The first letter of each word was decorated with an elaborate pattern of vines, flowers, stars and ribbons.

Love Beyond Words

"Lo…what?"

"You don't need to get it." Janus said mildly, putting the note back into his pocket.

"Speaking of getting things, what did she tell you earlier? You know, Maeda-kun had to translate, but he only let you hear it."

Janus gave him a long, hard look. Then it softened at the edges.

"She thought that I would hate her." He whispered.

Akihito could only nod sympathetically, having not expected Janus to reveal this to him.

"But in reality, you would have covered for her, had you known." It wasn't a question. Janus nodded in reply.

"If the situation had been reversed, if it had been Kiyomizu-san who had done what Isaki-san did…I wonder, would I have been prepared to do the same thing?" Akihito mused.

"We can never know these things. But I think you would." Janus said. "I wish that this hadn't happened though, that we didn't need to think about these things. I was going to introduce her to Nonno when we escaped. .."

"Nonno?" Akihito queried.

Janus made a dismissive gesture.

"Well, he isn't by blood but he might as well be so that is what I call him. But either way, these dreams will never happen. "

Akihito decided not to point out that Janus hadn't actually cleared up who Nonno was.

"I'm guessing your Nonno is important to you, then."

"Hmm…." Janus appeared deep in thought, and then said "Why are you asking me all this stuff anyway?"

Akihito waggled his eyebrows and shrugged.

"I don't know. Making friends?"

Janus rolled his eyes, and smiled thinly.

"Ah! That's more like it. "Akihito felt somewhat satisfied at getting a smile out of Janus.

"Excuse me, what?"

"Never mind. " Janus briefly smiled again, and then got up. "I need to clear out Suzu's things, bring them here now rather than put it off. Cut the Gordian knot, if you will. "

"I have no idea what you are on, but do you want me to help?" From Janus's look, he might as well have asked him to build a nuclear reactor from scratch.

"Relax kiddo. I don't steal from the dead. "

"We are about the same age, but whatever. Come if you must. "Janus went to his door, unlocked it and left. Akihito followed.

Suzu's room had been left unlocked, and the two boys entered. Akihito hung back, and took in all the different things. Janus had no such qualms, and located the suitcase and bags Suzu had used to bring her stuff to Hope's Peak. Then, he began packing her clothes into the suitcase.

Eventually, Akihito went over and decided to take care of the books and other items on the desk. He did not feel comfortable with touching a girl's intimate belongings, especially when said girl already belonged to another guy.

Together, they cleared the room quickly, and it looked as bare as it must have done when they had first arrived at the school. Akihito checked any nooks and crannies for things that could have been left behind, and then they went back to Janus's room.

Janus put the bags he had taken into his cupboard, and then took the bags Akihito had brought in and put those in too. Then, as an afterthought, he opened one of the bags, took out a few things, and then closed it again, before shutting the cupboard. He put the items on his bedside table, and Akihito could see that they were photos in frames. Taking a look, he presumed that the people were members of Suzu's family. Studying them for a moment, he came to the conclusion that the only people who were still alive in Suzu's family were two girls who were presumably her older sisters. He turned away.

Janus flopped onto his bed again, startling Akihito out of his reverie.

"I suppose the others are exploring the new floor. "He said.

"Yes, they are. " Akihito replied.

"Ah…I do not know if I feel like helping. "

"Mate, nobody expects you to. It's fine. "

"Hmm….." Janus closed his eyes, as if he was going to sleep. Then, suddenly he opened them again. The glass eye he had chosen to wear was a purply colour, which was a contrast to his natural eye colour, and so Akihito was mildly startled.

"Suzu would want me to help out. And the faster we can escape, the faster I can give her a funeral. "

Janus got up and left the room faster than what Akihito was capable of keeping up with. But he didn't mind.

By the time they had actually got there, it turned out that everyone had already made their findings and were heading to the canteen to pool them. So Akihito and Janus took a quick look around and came back to hear what the others had to say.

"There's a data processing room, whatever that is, and the principals' office. But both are locked. I'm guessing that Monobear doesn't want us to get to them. "Emi said from where she was sitting with Arisa and Shika. Janus was grateful that she had gone straight into the facts, rather than leaving room for useless condolences he didn't need to be uttered.

"And there's a room for printing things too!" Mirai said.

"It's called a reprographics room." Chihiro said. "But I can't see where anything would be printed from. I've not seen any printers in other parts of the school. Or any computers. "

"Hmm…I am thinking that the computers are all in the data processing room. " Kyouko mused. "Or maybe the AV room. If there is one. I am guessing that it is on the next floor. "

"But hopefully we'll never have to go there." Arisa said bitterly.

Everyone nodded their assent.

"So…"Akihito said eventually. "Anything else worth mentioning?"

"A few classrooms, a tennis court, another recreation room. Nothing else, really. "Makoto replied.

"Another one? Really?" Janus asked. Everyone stared at him for a moment, but then Kyouko gave a casual shrug and said.

"Apparently yes. "

"How does this help us though?" Kosuke asked. "The useful rooms are locked. "

"Oh, I don't know. The karaoke room held some useful secrets. "Makoto said.

"Which only raised more questions." Kosuke countered.

"True…"

Everyone lapsed into a silence. There was nothing more to say. And now they had stopped talking business, suddenly they found it unbearable to be in each other's company. In dribs and drabs, they all filed out and went their own ways. It seemed as if the group cohesion they'd had was close to breaking, if it hadn't broken already.

That evening, nobody made dinner for the rest of them, the way they had done so before. Instead, they all came in, got their own food, and sat down in silence. They didn't try to make any sort of conversation, and didn't even look each other in the eye.

Until Chihiro came to the front of the canteen and asked for everyone's attention.

Everyone stared at her, and she went slightly red.

"Even…even though I dress like this…I'm actu-actu-actually a boy. That is, I was born male."

She paused, and went redder but she continued to stay up there and tell them the truth, all her words coming out as just a few very long sentences. At the end of it all, she blushed even harder, and looked down at the floor.

The silence that followed was stunned, rather than smothering. Everyone tried to process what Chihiro had just said. Then Eirik started to clap.

"Good on you, Chihiro-Chan! I didn't think you would actually be able to tell everyone else. "He said.

Chihiro looked up and smiled a little at that.

"Woah, Woah! You already knew that Fujisaki-san is actually a boy?" Arisa asked.

"I knew too!" Mirai said, bouncing in her seat for no apparent reason.

"I can't believe it, I swear to god I can't. I mean, you're the most girl-like girl here. "Akihito said, gaining evil looks from both Emi and Arisa.

"But why tell us all now?" Makoto asked.

Chihiro shrugged. She went to sit down next to Eirik.

"I think that was brave of you." Shika spoke up suddenly and unexpectedly. "Whatever your reason, that was so brave of you, Fujisaki-san…it's OK to keep calling you that, right?"

"Y-yeah. I was always happier as a girl…apart from the fear of being caught, of c-course. "

"Hmm…" Kosuke looked at her contemplatively. "Have you ever considered making the change physical? Legally, you would either have to wait until you are an adult, or get parental permission if you couldn't wait that long, but it is possible. "

"Erm..." Chihiro looked just a bit confused.

"I have leaflets and the like on the subject. If you would like, I'll give them to you after dinner, and we can have a proper discussion in the infirmary. "Kosuke said.

"Erm. Thank you, Kobayashi-kun."

"Hey, hey, can I interview you later as well? I'm going to write up the most awesome blog post about all this madness for sure…as soon as I can get outta here. I think it'd be really great to get your story too…we could raise awareness about transgender kids…or something."

Chihiro laughed at that,

"Of course. "

And from there, although things were still fragile, the tension left the room, and the warmth made its return.

At least, it did until they were all cleaning up (together) and Monobear decided to make another announcement, summoning them to the canteen.

Janus's response was extraordinarily fast.

"We're not coming!" he declared, yelling in the general direction of the screens Monobear's face was projected on.

"Oh?"

Suddenly, Monobear was in front of them, sitting on a kitchen worktop. Arisa shrieked in surprise.

"Oh?" Monobear asked again. "And why would that be?"

"We refuse to participate in this any longer. We will no longer listen to your motives or whatever it is you have planned. The game is over. "Kyouko had caught on to what Janus was thinking very quickly.

"Oh….is that so? Disappointing, disappointing. Upupu…so, how you gonna escape, huh?" When Kyouko didn't answer at first, Monobear took this as a sign of cluelessness and laughed at her. But then Kyouko spoke again.

"By solving the mysteries of this school. And figuring out who is behind all of this."

This put Monobear into a tailspin, and he began moving randomly across the worktop.

Everyone stared at him for a while.

"Is…is he dancing?" Makoto asked incredulously.

"Hah! View my multi-purpose-awesome!" Monobear declared "You have utterly messed things up for me, Kirigiri-san…I shall have to think on this….I really, really shall. But my answer will be cooked and ready to eat by the morning, so I will depart! Upupupu! "

"He's getting way too good at this disappearing act." Emi commented eventually.

"Not sure that's the real issue here. What I am worried about is what he could possibly be up to." Kyouko said.

"Well, it's no use worrying now, is it? " Makoto pointed out. "We're only going to find out in the morning anyway."

"I guess so. But the worst thing is, once again we're helpless." Akihito said.

"Well, that appears to be the story of our lives right now, doesn't it?" Emi retorted.

"Yeah…"

He lies in bed; her note folded and kept in the breast pocket of his silk pyjamas. He stays strictly to the left side of his bed, although he could spread out again if he so wished to. But he won't. He never will.

Love Beyond Words

That's about right. It sums up everything that ever was and will be. But it is not just love that is beyond words, it's everything. Everything that he knows thinks and believes in. All of it is beyond words.

As he falls asleep, he presses his hands to his chest, to where his heart is. If the action doesn't prevent his heart from breaking this lonely night, then at least it will keep the pieces close together.

I felt like ending this chapter on an introspective feel , but consider this a cliffhanger. Please leave feedback!