Author note: Ah, feels good to update. And now inflate my ego—I mean, engross the TVTropes article, please :3 C'mon guys this fic is loaded with tropes. I'll draw a free commission for anyone that writes more than five valid new tropes in the article :U


The previous night had ended pretty hectically. For the -what, third time since he arrived to Iwatodai?- Minato had been caught in a rather… romantic attitude with Hamuko. And of course the tall silver head had his reasons to look mad like a bull –what if it was like the last time he'd interrupted them?- however, maybe he was a bit too mad. Not as in 'jealous boyfriend mad' but more like 'overprotective brother mad'.

"You-!" Akihiko yelled, snapping Minato out of his thoughts. Fuck.

He sincerely wouldn't have expected the next part. "Leave my boyfriend alone!" That's the last thing he'd seen coming when Hamuko stood up in front of him. Maybe a scream, maybe a reprimand, maybe a 'go ahead and punch him'… but not being called her boyfriend. She'd called him a boyfriend. Whether it was to stop Akihiko or she really meant it… he wouldn't find out because Akihiko began telling him off for the irresponsibility of leaving for a week without previous notice and dragged him to the dorm saying that Mitsuru would have a word with him. Well uh… way to kill the mood.


And so, after a long lecture the following day… "You should have told us yourself, much earlier, Arisato. What if we had decided to go to Tartarus and you hadn't been present?"

"Yes, my apologies. It'll… never happen again…" Minato bowed once and again until Mitsuru finally walked away of his doorframe. He picked his laptop up and exited his room, closing the door with a sigh. He got to the end of the corridor right in time to being glomped by a cheerful brunette running down stairs. After the initial shock he sat up and ogled the girl crushing his ribs. "Well, hello there… Tackling me so early in the morning…?"

"I'm glad to see you, that's all." She giggled. "I mean, you know that thing of… 'Don't know what you got till it's gone?'"

"You've taken a liking for sayings, haven't you?"

"Maybe, but point is… I'm not gonna wait for you to be gone again to miss you…" A smile broke forth in her face. "So I'm gonna tackle you all I want… and more." She stuck her tongue out.

"Hamuko…"

"That being said…!" She linked her arm with his as they walked downstairs. "I'm gonna keep an eye on you all the time. You make a mistake; go a step back; just gimme a reason to think you're gonna do something like what happened last time, and we'll be done for." The cheerful smile in her face, contrasted her completely serious tune. "Got it?"

"Ah… yeah, of course…" Minato chuckled to himself. No matter the situation, the girl apparently always had some words to completely break the mood. Ah, well… "Hey, did you have breakfast yet?"

"No—oh look at that!" The brunette pointed at the screen of the laptop. "It seems Ms. Toriumi wants to play with yoooou…"

"No. No Hamuko, see this? This is not Miss Toriumi. It's some old guy in the internet. Who fell in love with me. Not Ms. Toriumi. Most definitely not her. Now I'm gonna play for five minutes, then have breakfast, and then go on with my life happily."

"Attention players, although we initially planned to allow 'Innocent Sin' to run indefinitely... recent feedback has shown that player participation is not adequate to continue. We are terribly sorry for any inconvenience this causes for active players. However, the servers will remain open until the official end date. We hope that you understand and that you enjoyed your time with 'Innocent Sin.' The Game Screen: Sincerely, -'Innocent Sin' staff."

"Ohohoh… I mean… Oh no… I'm gone for a week and this happens…" Minato smiled sheepishly at Hamuko.

"...U got that message from teh admins, rite tatsuya? T_T it said their cancelling innocent sin. ...think its for real?"

"Impossible!" Sarcasm overload.

"I know rite! how dare they! =/ i finally found a place to let out my frustation and now this!" Maya stepped closer to Tatsuya. "Tatsuya... do u think we'll still be able to see each other? T_T"

"Errrrrrr…"

Hamuko snatched Minato's laptop. "But of course."

"Yaaaay tatsu! ^_^ well defeat them together!" Maya jumped up victoriously.

"Give me that!" The bluenet stole his laptop back. "Although… I don't think there's anything we can do…"

"Tatsuya, sumtimes in life u have to stand up for urself. times like these." She nodded to herself. "Im gonna send them a log fo the convos we've been havin together here ^_^ if they knwo this game is important to us, maybe they'll reconsider =D"

"I don't think it works that wa—"

"Shush, let Ms. Toriumi dream."

"Even tho tatsuya's just some lonely kid and maya likes to b**ch too much... ;) that shouldn't matter!1 (to tell u the truth, i kinda hope ur a handsome guy tho...)"

"Auuuugh…"

"Don't worry, maya will protect u! we'll always be partners, k?"

"Alright, that's beautiful, she cares about me, level 9, good…" Minato let out a tired sigh.

"Alrite! i'm gonna go write my email w/ our convo log! ^_^ don't mess w/ maya & friends or u'll regret it! MwahAHaHhaHa! next time we'll celebrate our victory, k? bai!" And with that she signed off.

"Celebrate your victory, huh…?" Hamuko wiggled her eyebrows.

"No more level ten parties ever…" He hid his face in his hands while the girl just looked at him inquisitively. "L-let's just have some breakfast, shall we?"


After a quick breakfast, the Fools headed out of home at Minato's request. Hamuko suggested going to Naganaki Shrine, to see if she could find Akinari. The sick boy wasn't there, but they managed to stumble upon something just as interesting…

"You!" Someone yelled from inside the jungle gym. It was a familiar, childish voice… Kind of like…

"Maiko-chan!" Hamuko yelled as she got up from the bench. "W-what's with that bag?"

"It seems quite heavy…" Minato commented.

"You two forgot about me again! And my parents kept fighting and fighting!" Maiko pouted. "So I decided to skip cram school and finally run away today, but here you guys are!"

"Yeah, it's kinda sarcastic…"

"Ironic Hamuko, this is ironic." He sighed. "So are you sure you want to run away?"

"What he means is…" The brunette glared deadly at him. "That you can't do that…"

"Of course I can!" The little girl smiled victoriously. "I brought a lot of snacks, and my health insurance card!"

"Oh God." Hamuko took a hand to her forehead. "Maiko-chan, you—"

"But this place is too easy to find! I'll have to find somewhere else to hide…" She nodded to herself. "Well, either way, I'm going to try! If I hide very well, my parents will get worried and will have to look for me!" She seemed all fired up. "Well, I'll miss you two! If you find me, bring some Mad Bull, okay?"

Reaching level 6 made the Fools zone out enough time to let Maiko run away. Even though Hamuko managed to convince Minato to help her look for the girl, she was nowhere to be found in Iwatodai… As the evening came, they gave up and decided to come back, ready to resume their search the following day.


"Don't worry…" Minato kissed her forehead. "That child will be fine…"

"Hmm…" Hamuko sighed. "Yeah, she will…"

"Cool, so now we finally have time for ourselves…" After drastically changing the topic, Minato slumped on the sofa and patted it, inviting Hamuko to take a seat by his side. "You know what I want to talk about, right?"

"Yeah …" She bit her lower lip. "Look, that thing of boyfriend… it's um… Pre-empty-whatever." The girl nodded to herself. "I need to spend more time with you before I can really call you anything for sure… But uh… Since we're talking about this… err… now we're maybe kinda sometimes something… and summer is coming to an end and we'll hafta go back to school and…" Hamuko began trailing off. "…What do you think of others knowing about us?"

"…You can't imagine how much I missed you." The bluenet wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I missed you so much that I realized something… I don't give a damn about what others think anymore. I only want to be with you, so if you don't want to hide it when others are around… then we won't hide it."

"R-Really?" Her red eyes were glistening. However, her expression became rather serious as she spoke. "It's better they don't know."

"Huh?" He blinked in surprise.

Red tinted the female's cheeks as she looked up at Minato coyly. "I brought you enough problems last time, 'cos I didn't understand that the others would be mad if they saw me with you. I wanna be happy with you, but not if that brings us trouble... I guess we needn't hide it from everyone, but there's a couple Social Links, both yours and mine who are better off not knowing." She shrugged. "That being said, you seem to have killed my chances to get it on with Senpai and Junpei. You must be proud, man."

"No I didn't, you did…" A smile broke forth in Minato's face. He reached out for her face to put away a few strands of auburn hair. "You aren't the birdbrain I fell in love with..."

"The what-"

He decided to stop the incoming angry words, blocking her mouth with his own. "I didn't think it was possible, but I like you even more now."

"Honest, or you're just playing smooth talker?"

"I'm a honest smooth talker."

She cocked up an eyebrow. "Yanno... I kinda miss that emo prick who didn't know shit of kissing." She grinned devilishly, the corner of her lips perking up in a dangerous way. "Oh, wait, you still don't..."

"Objection…" Minato's hands travelled from her shoulders downwards while their gazes remained locked.

"Watch those hands, hon…" Despite these words, Hamuko couldn't prevent herself from smirking as he licked his lips seductively. She was being frank when she said she missed the old Minato; that guy who didn't start any romantic move without stuttering and blushing, now scared her, inspired few to no trust in her, and reminded her of previous bad experiences with him; however, she knew that deep down he was still the same asocial and perfectionist sap she'd met months prior. And she was still the same at the core, not the somewhat constant teenager she'd learnt to be, but just a crazy big girl. The real question was, how really dee- Oh look, Koro!

He claimed another kiss, way sultrier than the previous. He roughly sucked, almost bit, her lower lip while his hands settled on her hips, moving carefully not to startle her. That was really the last thing he wanted, kill the trust he earned through trying to become a nicer person. A good boy, as he'd called it. Funny, he had always been one of those, straight-laced and upright, look, don't touch, and overall don't become attached to anyone… and there he was now, an unwilling chick magnet, still yet to find what the hell made him act like that… but Hamuko had definitely been a horrible influence. However, hearing her moan at whatever he did always used to pay off for all that, and it still di—oh wait, she wasn't...

Minato moved his head back, concerned about the unexpected lack of response. "Sorry, d-did I scare you? Am I going too fast?"

"No, it's just… Koromaru..." The dog was staring at them with those big red eyes of him. It was a tad awkward, but... "We… shouldn't kiss in front of him."

"Why?" Minato couldn't help but ask. She had never had any problem or whatsoever trying to kiss him with people around.

"He's a Social Link of mine."

"A Social Link." Minato stared at her with a blank face. He eventually rose an eyebrow. "What?"

"I fed him some hyper frozen dog food I cooked ages ago and he's been your replacement since then." She giggled as she scratched the dog's head. "Ain't that so, Koro-chaaaan?"

"Arf!" The dog wagged its tail happily.

Minato looked at the dog. Then at Hamuko. The dog. Hamuko. "It's not even a 'he'. It's a DOG. It's a fucking dog, you can't tell me you have that kind of bond with a dog. That's just wrong."

Hamuko shot him an incensed glare. "If that's what you think of my friends, you can go bite yourself." With that, she grabbed Koromaru and walked out of the lounge.

"W-wait! I didn't really mean that! I-I was just surprised! That's all!" He got tired of yelling and slumped on the sofa. "Cock-blocked by a dog. Yeah, okay, whatever, it's still better than getting interrupted by Junpei." Minato released a tired sigh and walked into the kitchen, where Hamuko had last gone. She was staring at Koromaru as he scratched his ear with his hind leg.

"You have itches, Koro-chan?" She asked, concerned. "…Wait here, I'll go get Fuuka-chan!"

"Woof!" The dog perked up his ears as she walked upstairs. He then turned his head to Minato and barked.

"You did it on purpose." Minato's statement was answered with a pleading look. "Oh, come on, I look dumb enough talking to a dog about girls! Quit doing that puppy eyes thing! We all know you're really cute, you don't have to prove it!" He narrowed his eyes at the dog. "You're good. …Too good."


"So you think he might have fleas?" Hamuko furrowed her eyebrows.

"As a matter of fact, the inverse case would be the most correct way to put it." Aigis stated.

"…Was that a joke, Aigis?" She asked excitedly.

"Do you think she can joke?" Fuuka did that derpy cross-eyed expression she always did when she was confused. "Anyway, if he does have fleas, it'll probably be enough with brushing his fur and… Oh?" The teal haired girl halted, a surprised look on her face.

"Ahaha! Stop licking my face! No Koro—Pfft…! You're cute, but not that cute!" Minato kept yelling at the dog while he tried to sit up from the sofa where the canine had cornered him.

"Hamuko-san, help him." Aigis requested with her robotic voice. "Koromaru-san claims that Minato-san should not bite his new friends."

"Bite his new friends?" Fuuka asked confused.

"I believe he refers to—"

"Oh, Aigis, honey, it's a bit too late to translate dog-speak, you should go recharge your batteries..." The brunette laughed awkwardly as she pushed the robot away. "Koro-chan, stop that." The dog whimpered a bit as he walked back to Hamuko. "Awww, who's a good dog? You! Who's gonna get a nice fur brushing? You, yes, you!"

"Who's gonna take a shower to cleanse all this mutt drool? Me!" Minato stomped his way away from the lounge.

"Ignore that grumpy guy, you're a great, not drooly dog… " Hamuko tried to scratch Koromaru's belly, but he growled at her. "Huh…?"

"He doesn't seem to like that…" Fuuka's observation was followed by the boring Social Link voice informing of how the Strength Social Link had reached level 2. "Oh well, let's brush him!"


The Fools were walking together around the Iwatodai Strip Mall the following day…

"…So by that logic if I called Yukari a 'mutt' it wouldn't be an insult?" Hamuko sneered.

"Hamuko, stop calling Yukari things. She's got more things to call you back." Minato reprimanded her.

"I'd like to see her try." She snorted. "Well, actually not, I still have to make up with her or something…"

"I seriously wonder how you didn't manage to reverse or break it earlier." He sighed. He soon stopped walking and slumped on a bench. "Well, yet another day of no luck finding that girl…"

"We should bring Aigis or something. She'd probably use some kind of crazy Shadows radar to detect her if we brought her some kinda clue…" She pondered aloud, making Minato laugh.

"Hamuko, she's not a sleuth..."

"OOH! Reminds me…!" Hamuko ran to Minato's side. "So did you get the Junior Detective's contact info?"

"I did." Indeed, that was the little autograph Naoto had given him—the number of her mobile phone, and an order to call whenever he needed her. Minato knitted his eyebrows together, seeing that her eyes were gleaming with excitement at the thought. "I'm pretty sure you're not… his kind of person."

"But! But! Risette! And him! And you!" She whined nonsensically. "I mean c'mon, you're my boyfriend! Share the good stuff, man!"

"…You don't really get the concepts of 'boyfriend' and 'love' yet, do you?" He rose an eyebrow.

"Of course I do! A boyfriend's a guy who's your friend, and whom you love! And love is… that weird thing which tickles you pink, makes you sigh like you were completely bored when you're not and stirs your stomach worse than five extra big ramen bowls."

"…Are you sure you aren't mistaking indigestion for love?"

"Ha-ha." She laughed sarcastically. "Only for that, you're gonna hafta buy me something."

"And now you're mistaking boyfriend for credit card."

"Now, now, we both know that the only difference between those two is that I'd kiss one of them…" She winked at him. "Now seriously, you shoulda explain me what a boyfriend's supposed to do. But, first, credit card function!"

Fortunately for Minato, the only thing Hamuko wanted to buy was something new to read in Bookworms. He didn't say anything while she ran around the store trying to dig up some cheap manga, not to keen on having to spend yet another day looking for Maiko if he reminded her.

"So Minato-chan, did you hear the news? Lots of ex-students have gathered during the vacations to demand that the Persimmon Tree wasn't cut! One of the organizers came by earlier today and said 'Let's protect the tree together!' and he's got a lot of signatures! My dear son was so loved…"

"That's really great, Bunkichi-san!" Minato was genuinely happy about them. They had indeed gone a long way trying to protect the tree…

"And it's all thanks to you, Minato-chan! You're such a nice boy!"

"Ahaha… uh… yeah… about that-"

"Woooow, for real?" Hamuko didn't so much 'jump into the conversation' as 'almost crash against the till'. "That's awesome, Bunkichi-san! Oh! Oh! I bet they even took out those cartels saying it'd be cut down!" The brunette hopped happily while her boyfriend stared at her with a bemused expression. The power of insistence, as it seemed, actually had rewards. It also brought a very nice Hierophant level 8.

"We should go check it out." He suggested, a bit too cheerfully for his usual calmness. "I guess the school should be opened for those going to cram school."

"Neeeat! This means I get two hit two birds with one stone! Wait for me at the Station!" And with that, she ran off.


"…Two birds with one stone?" Minato spoke calmly with Bunkichi while they waited for Hamuko. "I wonder what she was talking about…"

"Ah, youth. I remember when my Mitsuko was that energetic." Bunkichi chuckled happily. "She used to always drag me here and there, making all the girls jealous, since I was quite popular."

"You know, I can kind of relate to that… Oh look, there she is… Wait, who's that-"

"Sorry for being late!" Hamuko excused herself as she reached the station. She smiled at Minato's shocked face.

"Our arrival was delayed because Hamuko-san had problems adjusting her winter uniform to my body shape." Aigis explained, unaware of the odd looks she was receiving from both males.

"Winter uniform? But, today is very hot—um, what was your name, dear?" The old man asked politely.

"I am Aigis, an anti-shad—"

"An American transfer student!" Minato quickly interrupted her, at the same time he glared at Hamuko.

"Yeah! That's why she speaks weird! S-So if she says anything bizarre, it's because she doesn't speak Japanese too well." She forced a smile while Minato pushed her into the train.

"What the hell, Hamuko? What is she doing here?"

"Oh, well, you see, she'd asked me several questions about school, and Ikutsuki-san said she was ready to go out, and…" Her words died as the bluenet's glare intensified. "…I wanted to see what happened if she met someone who didn't live in the dorm, okay? It's not just for my curiosity, it's for the benefit of science!"

The boy let out a tired sigh. "Okay, whatever, but you have to keep an eye on her the whole time, got it?"

"Yay, thanks!"

"So American, huh…?" Bunkichi asked with curiosity as he and the robot entered the wagon. "What zone are you from, A-e-guess-chan?"

"I was manufactured in Yakushima." The blonde robot explained calmly.

"Yakuahima? But aren't you Ameri—"

"S-She is American! Well, her parents are, but she was born in Japan!" Hamuko intervened. "Y-You know, like that one famous kung-fu fighter? Err… Lisa 'Ginko' dunno what?"

"Ooh, I see…" Bunkichi nodded to himself, fortunately oblivious to the fact that that didn't explain why she couldn't speak Japanese properly.


When they arrived to Gekkoukan, the gate had already closed. However, Hamuko and Bunkichi had absolutely no reservations or whatsoever about jumping it to get in.

"Is this not unlawful entry?" Aigis asked as she stared at Minato while he helped the old man to sneak in.

"It's not when it's for a good thing!"

"Hamuko, don't say that! Unlawful entry is never good!" Minato retorted. "We're doing it because… uh… we were allowed to do this, hence it's not unlawful entry."

"Then why are you not in possession of keys?"

"Err… Because… Oh Aigis, don't you want to see a really pretty tree?" Hamuko ran across the gardens of the school, looking for the gym.

There it was, the persimmon tree, growing solemnly in its place as usual. Bunkichi and Hamuko were really happy to see that they had indeed removed the warning signs, and even Minato seemed rather glad. Aigis couldn't understand the beauty of the moment, comprehensively, but her words cheered them up, nonetheless. "This tree seems about to bear fruit."

And so, with the promise of seeing the persimmon tree grow even more, visiting school another time –opened, preferably- and after Bunkichi had told his son how beloved he was, they parted ways –Bunkichi decided to go back to his house, whereas the Fools and their robot headed to Paulownia, as it was already time for Hamuko to attend her job.


"Aaalright, two chocolates!" Hamuko left the cups on the table and then held the tray against her chest with a smile. "Enjoy it! Oh, and Aigis, don't forget that you hafta brush your teeth once you get back home to keep them clean, or you'll get caries!"

"I do not suffer from that kind of human afflictions, Hamuko-san."

"Brush them anyway." Hamuko huffed and left to go on with her job.

Minato chuckled as he drank his cup, seeing that Aigis looked rather dumbfounded. "I do not understand why Hamuko-san behaves in such a way. I am the one supposed to protect both of you, so obviously I am capable to protect myself and determine when I need maintenance."

"I don't know either." He shrugged. "I guess that she just really likes you, but I'll ask her some other time."

They continued drinking calmly, albeit Minato was a bit worried about Aigis's capability to ingest drinks. She explained that she was given a pyrolysis system which allowed her to imitate human eating habits without having to worry about the food remains getting stuck in any mechanical parts. …Nice.

"Oooh heeey!" That voice. Oh God. "What's a boy like you doing with a girl like her…?"

"U-Usagi-san, was it?" Minato asked while the waitress smiled knowingly at him. "J-Just having some chocolate with a friend."

"Chocolate? Aww, a good looking young boy shouldn't have chocolate… or at least not in a cup…" Mimi chuckled haughtily. "Ah, just kidding…" That was not what her tune said. "So how's the chocolate, hm?"

"My gustative sensors indicate that it has got a worrying amount of sugar." Aigis stated dryly.

"Huh?" Mimi's chuckles turned into loud laughs. "Oh my gosh, where did you get this girl? Ahaha…!"

"A-America…" The bluenet hid his face with the cup of chocolate.

"American? Oooooh that's so cool! And she's really cute, too!" The waitress seemed euphoric. "Oh! Would you be interested in getting a job here, dear? An American maid would attract lots of consumers! Or you could cook something American in the kitchen! Kokku-san would love that! Or-"

Mimi's offerings came to an end when Hamuko dragged her away. Knowing that there were crazier people than her always reassured Minato…

And so the day came to an end… not without a previous scolding from Mitsuru after the robot informed her of that day's activities, and her wish to go back to school to inspect it better.


This chapter is kinda like 'this happened' and then 'this happened' and then people did shit. Aka I don't think anything really happens.