I'm going to be introducing some things that I forgot to hint at in the first 16+ chapters. Now that I know WHERE my story will eventually end, and some of the more important things, I'm going to be running through the initial chapters and fixing them silently.

This chapter will come out early and the next chapter will come out next week Wednesday or Saturday to compensate for what will probably be a small pause while I try to edit the previous chapters to match what I feel is the new quality of the writing.

For a while there's nothing but silence and the clicking of chess pieces. Some people are surprisingly noisy while thinking, unconsciously tapping their fingers or sighing softly.

Hanako does neither, remaining perfectly silent as she dedicates her focus to the game, her boxed lunch left forgotten. She hasn't defeated me yet, but she's been getting closer and closer.

I absently place a piece of egg in my mouth while moving my queen four tiles right.

"Check."

She responds instantly, defending with a wayward bishop.

The obvious move is to retreat, or attack from a different angle.

I capture her bishop with my queen, and then her shocked eyes with my own.

"A-Are you…throwing the g-game?" Hanako asks. She seems rather unsettled. There's no trap here, it was what one could call a blunder, but she and I both know that I play far above the level necessary to make such a horrifying 'mistake'.

I'm literally throwing my queen away for absolutely no gain. And I'm doing it on purpose.

"Of course not. I fully intend on winning this." I reply.

There's a fairly awkward silence as Hanako's hand rests frozen on her King.

"Am…Am I n-not good enough…?" Hanako begins, and I rush to cut her off.

"That's not the problem, Hanako, really, don't worry." I say. "Um…how do I put this?"

"Today has, uh…been a very weird day. And I'm just kind of running with it. I mean, what I just did doesn't make sense, but it felt, uh, right. I guess. I'm sorry, I don't even know at this point."

There's a small smile on Hanako's face.

"I, ah, d-don't understand at all, but…"

I gently pat the top of her hand before leaning back in my seat as she resumes play, capturing my queen.

It's just Hanako and I again. Lilly's gone somewhere - something about the festival, according to Hanako.

The clattering of chess pieces resumes. I begin to play defensively, rather than offensively, a style she appears to find some difficulty accounting for, since it is also the style she plays.

With both players playing defensively, the game gradually slows. I continue development as Hanako fortifies her side before tentatively pushing some pawns forward.

I do the same thing, and all we wind up really doing is blocking each other. This is possibly the poorest game of chess I've ever allowed myself to play, but for some reason it's still pretty fun.

And judging by Hanako's gradual relaxation as the game goes on, it may be safe to think that she agrees.

She reminds me of someone else I know. Rei…

"Hisao? Are you o-okay?" Hanako's concerned voice breaks into my thoughts, and I look up to see her looking worriedly at me.

"H-Huh? Yeah." I'm lying and we both know it. But she seems to understand that I don't want to be pressed on this, judging from her quiet nod.

…How long has it been since I've last talked to Rei? Months, I think. I can't help but wonder if she'll attend this school next year - if her parents ever let her out of the house.

Of course, by then I won't be here any longer. I won't be able to guide her through like I want to.

Perhaps she'll never know that a student named Hisao Nakai walked these halls, if I don't tell her.

I sigh. Now is not the time to be distracted by my thoughts. I have a game and a friend in front of me, and I'll be damned if I let them slip away from me.

I revert to an offensive stance and begin ruthlessly hacking away at Hanako's defenses. Pieces are taken and lost as the board rapidly becomes decimated. Hanako promotes a pawn; I box her into a corner.

The warning bell rings. We both ignore it.

Tap. Tap.

"Check." Hanako tells me. In response I maneuver my bishop, deftly slipping away from her planned checkmate three moves in advance.

She captures the bishop with her queen, leaving me with nothing but my knight and king. I stare blankly at her; she's done the same thing that I did early in the beginning.

Are you throwing the game? I want to ask her, but stop myself, because there's really no reason she would. Outside, she's calm, but she's actually startlingly competitive when it comes to games like this.

I don't analyze the reasons too closely. She looks unsurprised when I capture her queen; with no way for me to pin her, the game is a draw.

"Good game." I murmur softly, still somewhat confused. She flashes me a small smile as she stands up, taking the remainders of our food and making her way over to the trash can.

"Good game." She replies cheerfully.

I'm not quite sure what happened, but I don't think anything has gone terribly wrong, so I elect to let it slide.

The last bell rings, and the classroom empties out until it's just myself, Hanako, and the student council. The latter appear to be animatedly discussing some problem that they're having while Hanako and I finish answering the last question on our science homework.

I feel bad for her; I've been drifting in and out of conversation. Despite my best efforts, I've not able to get Rei out of my head.

For some reason, the image of Rei walking through the halls I have with no idea I was here bothers me more than words can express.

This…this feeling…

This must be why…this is the only reason…

Concluding my talk with Hanako, I make my way over to the student council duo.

"Misha, Shizune. Do you have anything I can do?"

That I would willingly walk into Hell.

As Misha translates, Shizune's face openly registers surprise for a fraction of a second before warping into delight.

"Of course! Any help you can offer is welcome!" Misha says.

"Alright, excellent. What are you guys doing today?" I ask.

"We're going to be completing the forms that we sorted out yesterday, and we need to upload them to the online system, so we can use any help that we can get with typing them out. We borrowed a laptop from the Newspaper club some time ago so you'll have something to work on."

Alright, well, that wasn't what I had in mind when I thought about leaving a legacy behind, but I guess that's what I deserve for skipping the festival.

…There's one way I can keep doing minor work like this while leaving a legacy behind, but that's something I wouldn't be able to take back easily…

"That sounds good." At the very least, I'll feel productive doing it, and it's something I'm good at, too.

"I…Is there something…I can do to h-help?" A timid voice asks from behind me. I glance behind me to see Hanako, hands fidgeting nervously at her side.

She followed me?

"Y-Yes." Misha replies, her voice carrying a tone of surprise. And she's lowered her volume too, weird. Nice, though. "You can help Hisao type up the documents, but we'd need to get you a laptop."

"N-No need. I…have one."

Huh? I've been running under the assumption that Hanako is a ward of the state; how did she afford the money necessary to purchase a laptop? Those are pretty expensive!

From her bag, she extracts a laptop with an undecorated deep blue case; and I recognize the brand, too, that's a quality computer. I have more than enough funds to purchase it, but that's still a lot, objectively, and - how does Hanako even have money beyond the necessities? The government will only pay for so much…

"Great!" Misha chirps.

I have many questions, but ask none, only offering a smile to Hanako as we pack up our things and depart from the classroom.

Outside in the still-crowded hall, Hanako quietly positions herself behind me, to avoid as many gazes as possible. I slow my walk slightly to match her pace; Shizune and Misha, apparently unaware that their workers are lagging behind, continue to move ahead.

This would usually be a good time to ask Hanako the questions I desire to know the answers to, but she's preoccupied with maintaining the perfect position between the wall and myself. I leave her to it, trying to keep a steady pace myself.

It's been a few days, but I'm still overwhelmed by how much sensory information I get from having my tactile ability back. It shocks me when someone accidentally brushes past me in the hallway. It's unpleasantly warm outside and a bit too chilly inside, too, but I'm glad that I'm at least able to feel these things.

It doesn't take too long for the masses of humanity to trickle away; soon it's mostly Hanako and I, alone in the corridor. She relaxes, then, drifting slightly away from me.

It feels a little emptier to have this distance between us, but I can't possibly say anything about it without embarrassing myself, so I don't.

When her footsteps become somewhat erratic, I glance at her out of the corner of my eye.

She notices, of course - she's rather too good at searching for people looking at her - and immediately returns to walking normally, blushing.

"What were you doing?" I ask, impulsively. There's been a lot of things that we haven't been telling each other, I think, and I don't like that. I want that to stop.

"A-Ah…just, a, a game…" She stammers.

My gaze falls to the floor, white with the occasional colored tiles.

Oh, I think I know what she was doing - I've done this myself, too, when I was a small child and had the opportunity. I'll admit that I still do it once in a while, when there's no one around and I'm struck by the whim.

"Are you playing the tile game, by any chance?" I ask innocently.

Her blush deepens as she averts her eyes away from me.

"Y-Yes."

I nod in acknowledgement and we continue onward. At some point she goes back to playing her game, and I carefully don't make any mention of it.

It's nice to see her enjoying herself. I wouldn't say she's completely relaxed by now, but there have been precious few moments where she's allowed her guard to slip a little and I'm happy that she trusts me enough to do so around me.

That being said, it's still exceedingly amusing to slightly divert my path to block her from her next tile.

"Okay, Student Council. Lay it on us." I say, as the four of us reconvene in the unused classroom, filled with board games. The desks have been thoughtfully pushed together to form a larger table by Shizune and Misha, and the sorted(?) paperwork placed in front of us.

"Here's the laptop you will be using for the type-ups. Don't worry about uploading the documents or anything, Shizune and I will take care of that. There is a naming system, though, so be sure to follow all the rules or you'll have to do it again!" Misha says brightly, placing a simple laptop in front of me. It's a little old, but should more than suffice for my purposes.

Next to me, Hanako pulls out her own blue laptop; it took her some time to deliberate on where to sit before ultimately deciding that she rather wouldn't sit next to Shizune or Misha.

"Hanako, we'll need to set up the document format so that you don't have to manually drag all the boxes into place; it's a standardized form, so it will be easy." Misha continues.

"A-Actually…um, it might be f-faster to send the template over the Internet…" Hanako says meekly, shrinking into herself when she earns Misha's interest.

A quick sign language conversation follows. Shizune sends Hanako a speculative glance before nodding once, and the two cross to the opposite side of the classroom, apparently having decided on something to do.

I slide my laptop over to Hanako - she clearly knows what she's doing, and I don't. I know enough technology to type up notes, research, and locate chess programs; Hanako clearly understands whatever she needs to do better than I do, and I'd just get in her way.

Her finger strokes are quick and confident - I notice that, like me, she doesn't use a formal system of typing. Rather, her hands and fingers dance across the keyboard.

She seems to rely more on her left hand, though. Is her right hand damaged in more way than the obvious, or is this a symptom of her shyness? From where I'm sitting to the left of her I can see a hint of the burn scars that reach to the back of her hand.

That injury may be restricting her movement enough to force her on relying on her left hand.

Her typing slows to a crawl and I avert my eyes. Guess she noticed my stare.

"Sorry." I murmur. Hanako just nods, somewhat shakily, and her typing starts up again.

I hate that I'm so indifferent to the feelings of others like that. It's…pathetic.

Underneath the table, my hands grip tightly, fingernails stabbing into my skin. The pain gives me the chance to focus once more on what's important.

Okay. I think those thoughts are locked away again.

Thankfully, no one else has noticed. With a few more decisive taps, Hanako slides the laptop back to me as Misha walks over with a stack of paper.

"Here are the first sets!" She says, in a voice far too cheerful considering the enormity of the task. I'll take great pleasure in hearing that spark utterly crushed in, say, four hours.

Hanako and I nod, and then, with a sense of grim determination, begin typing out the first sheets out.