Heart of the Infiltrators
(Senran Kagura x Male Reader)
Chapter 61: Erosion and Easement (Katsuragi)
Somewhere in the city, Haruo was lazing about in an apartment safehouse that his older brother had arranged for himself and a few other infiltrators. Among them was Lajos, who was diligently cleaning through the small hallways and making the best of a bad situation while his back continued to roar in pain. Eventually, once it became too much to handle, he set aside his mop and lowered his cleaning mask to heave a breath. He had no intention of stopping his chores then but, after his injury during the battle against the Yōma, there would certainly be a need to see a doctor once law enforcement calmed down.
Then, just as the Hungarian man was about to suck it up and continue his mopping, he spotted Haruo sitting upside down on the couch and watching television, wearing shoes and occasionally letting the dirt on the soles sprinkle all over. Having just gone through that area with a furious vengeance against anything filthy less than an hour ago, Lajos clenched his eyes closed for a second before loudly requesting, "Please, sit up?"
"I don't wanna," came a quick and nonchalant reply from Haruo as he kept his gaze fixed on the show he was watching.
If it were anyone else, Lajos would have shouted angrily and rebuked them for his arrogant behavior, especially after the antics from the last couple of days. But, in carrying the amount of respect that he had for Tsao and anyone related to him, the poor man just couldn't bring himself to say anything. But he wouldn't allow himself to go down so easily either. In an effort to remove his verbal opponent from the room, Lajos gestured toward the kitchen, "You've done the washing up?"
"Yup, yup," came a disinterested reply from Harup, "Did it and done." He waved his hand around in the air, "Please, now, go away."
"I know that you lie," grumbled Lajos as he peered through the hallway and spotted the sink peering at him, "considering that I see many dishes over there."
"Those are yours," stated Haruo matter-of-factly as he finally broke his eyes away from the television and sighed loudly without sitting up, "Speaking of, shouldn't you be getting on those?"
Quivering with anger and frustration in the face of personified arrogance, Lajos was about to say something else before he heard the front door to the apartment swing open. Hoping to heaven that it was who he thought it was, he turned and found Tsao ripping off a cleaning mask in one hand and setting down some groceries onto a counter with the other. Of course, in doing so, he spotted the still dirty dishes and remembered vividly how he gave a direct order to his brother to get them done. Tsao stomped toward the living area and spotted both his target and Lajos, who was doing his utmost to hide how pleased he was to see the man. The oldest brother spoke in his subordinate's native tongue, "Leave for now. I'll handle him."
Almost too merry to obey, Lajos gave an exaggerated bow and made for the bedroom to relax his back. Immediately afterward, Tsao stormed toward the couch and found his prodigal brother scratching his filthy shoes together and allowing dirt to drift through the air and floor. So, befitting of someone who was so self-absorbed, the taller man gripped both ankles from behind the couch and promptly shoved them forward to roll Haruo out of place with his body slamming hard against the floor. Lifting himself up with an infuriated groan, he adopted a glare and spouted, "Lajos, you filthy gypsy-," before he confusedly looked up to the expressionless gaze of his older brother. Tightening his face up and keeping himself from blinking for a second, Haruo scratched his neck before murmuring, "I'd better get to those dishes…"
Keeping in mind all of the man's wrongs, both in the immediate moment and in the past week that they'd been staying there, Tsao acted in a way that he deemed just. After storming around the couch and glaring with all that he had, he bent down to grip Haruo by the collar and pulled him up for a second, "You know, after your antics a couple of days ago," before he slammed him back down, "you should really be a bit more respectful to the people around you!"
"Easy, easy!" pleaded the younger brother, "C'mon, I've learned my lesson then and-, of course, you know, I learned my lesson just now. I'm good, I'm good."
"Pardon me if I don't believe you," rumbled Tsao as he released the man and stood up. He pinched the bridge of his nose, turned his gaze back down, "Considering this isn't the first time that I've caught you slacking," and began to shout, "and the fact that I've almost had to slaughter a station of people to get you out of a holding cell-, for exposing yourself again!"
"I've learned, big guy," eased Haruo as he threw up his hands, "I've learned my lesson the other day and now I'm a better man." Then, as a strange bit of humor settled into his mind, he added, "I'll know better and keep my drinking under control now, that way I can be sober enough to see the chick's reaction."
"Quit treating this all like a game," growled Tsao as he refrained from hanging his head in shame of his brother, "It'd be one thing if we were back home and I could just haul you off after paying a fine…" After taking a moment to regather his thoughts, he threw up his hands and stated, "But you can't do any of that shit here. None of it." He gestured to the window, "We are not only in a city that is a filled to the brim with people who want to kill us," before balling up his fists and shaking them, "but our younger brother is out there and we'll only be serving to put his neck on the line if we keep making trouble like this."
Haruo, having already picked himself up from the floor, stared with some mocking interest and nodded his head enthusiastically. He then clicked his finger and then asked, "So, what you're saying is that we're going back home because we've been stuffed here for too long?"
In response, Tsao's face reddened with anger as he took a few steps forward to attack his brother. But in remembering his bond, he could not strike the man with his own fist no matter how large a part of him wanted to. So, where he would have taken the opportunity to punch most others, he instead jabbed two fingers into Haruo's chest, "We won't be leaving until he's done cleaning up after you."
"Oh, c'mon," rumbled the smaller man as he shrugged up his shoulders and made for the hallway to retreat out the front door, "I don't see why he needs us around-, He owes me this at the least." When Tsao inevitably stopped him, he sighed loudly and waved his hand, "Besides, didn't you see the shinobi that he was working with? They were beauties, right? He should be groveling before me in thanks."
Biting his teeth together and seething something out incoherent, Tsao had to calm down and clench his brother's shoulder before he could say, "Get your ass over to the dishes, clean up after yourself, and do not leave this apartment under any circumstance." He mustered as much seriousness onto his face as he threatened in a low voice, "If you go out and get arrested, I'm leaving you to be turned over to the shinobi."
Haruo made a dismissive sound, "Pah…" and snorted through his nose as he made his way toward the kitchen, "You know, I stopped counting after the eleventh time you told me that."
Despite having a part of his demands met, Tsao felt as though he'd lost the encounter. Something about the uppity attitude that his brother carried through every random charade or reckless whim he obeyed always just made it seem as though he couldn't be worked with on even the most serious of subjects. It was even more infuriating to talk about the matter of their youngest brother since the man still held no responsibility or care for the matter. So, as he heard the bittersweet sound of the faucet running, Tsao wondered how his brother was and pondered if he was truly safe.
At around the same time, the young man was effectively pinned to the floor with his arms stuck at his sides as Katsuragi continued to hug herself into him. Though that wasn't terribly strange in and of itself, considering how handsy the girl could be, the situation was made slightly disturbing by the fact that she had an unreadable expression on her face while doing so. Her mouth didn't curve into a smile or frown nor did her eyes look gleeful or upset. Katsuragi was only holding on for dear life and staring blankly while hooking her chin onto the young man's shoulder.
Having never heard of such a reaction before, the young man considered the aspect that he pulled out from the blonde for a minute and wondered if he had got it right. After connecting a few dots and considering the potential meaning behind her mannerisms, he moved to shrug his shoulders in acceptance before finding that he couldn't move those either. So, once he refocused himself onto the most urgent dilemma he was facing, he used what little of his hand that he could to pat at Katsuragi, "Hey, I'm not sure if you're in a reasonable state but could you let me go? I can't reach your forehead." A few seconds passed and the girl did nothing but turn her head into his for a few seconds before returning to her mindless staring, leaving the young man to slump his head back and grumble, "Ah… crap…"
Looking at his immediate surroundings for some kind of way to pry Katsuragi away from him, he reeled in his legs and tried to push their bodies away towards a lamp on the far end of the room. Yet, due to the downward force of Katsuragi's intense yet painless embrace, they did not move even slightly, though the young man had little faith in his plan to begin with. If he was going to pry the girl away, he would need no less than a crowbar and the ability to suffer some broken bones… and a functioning pair of arms to utilize said tool, which he did not have.
At that moment, Chomubach awoke from her nap on the couch and peered at the two with confused eyes, "Me-r?"
Suddenly, an idea popped into the young man's head and he began to tap his fingers against the floor in as fast a manner as he could while calling, "Chomubach… Here… Here, kitty… Kitty, kitty…" At one point, Katsuragi began to adjust her hug and unintentionally pulled the young man slightly downward toward her cleavage, which turned his calls into more desperate cries as his taps to the floor became more furious, "Kitty…! Chomubach…! Chomubach! Ts-ts-ts-ts-tsp…!"
Hearing the sounds that were often used to summon her presence, the cat took her sweet time and shook her ears before deciding to take a second to make herself a bit more presentable. She licked her paws and wiped her head, stretched her hind legs before patting down any fur that was sticking out, and admired herself in satisfaction when the deed was done. With her appearance handled. Chomubach jumped from the couch to the floor to greet her roommate and the random woman clinging to him.
Then, just as the cat was beginning to consider the fact that she'd slept through greeting Katsuragi's arrival, the blonde felt the her presence and turned at an impossible angle to greet the new arrival. Chomubach froze in fright, having only seen such an image in flashy picture shows on the television. Then, with half of the young man still locked in one arm, Katsuragi proceeded to reach her other arm out and snatched the cat in a split-second by the scruff of her neck. Using what little time that he had, the boy raised one of his newly released arms and, with an unintentional smack in how fast he was, placed it against Katsuragi's head to neutralize the distortion. As if she were unconscious, the blonde rolled off him and onto the floor while being otherwise completely motionless.
Letting out a sigh of relief, the young man turned to Chomubach, "Thanks for the helping hand-, paw."
The cat hissed at him, "Hiiiiic…" and lamented how her hair had gotten all crazed after the quick scuffle, which was a real shame since she'd gone through all that great effort less than a minute before to clean herself up. Frustrated and downtrodden, Chomubach went back onto the couch and stared at the young man angrily.
Not paying too much attention to his cat's ire, the boy was working quickly to set up the pillows that would be needed to set up the correction. He threw one flat onto the floor and then carefully placed two heavier ones on opposing sides of it. While it would be trouble if the young man misjudged the potential weight of his and Katsuragi's head along with the potential strength of each pillow, he found it to be a risk worth taking since the human body would not move on its own during a correction unless gravity or some other force were at play. So, determined to see his new strategy through, he dragged Katsuragi by her shoulders and gently placed her head between the two large pillows and onto the smaller pillow. He then stepped to the opposite side and laid flat on his stomach before crawling up to align his head with the girl's. Once there was nothing left to lose, he connected their heads and the world around them glowed familiarly all around them.
Very quickly something apparently wrong struck the young man with a severe case of confusion. While he was going through the surfaces of Katsuragi's memories, he could not find a single place that she deemed to be safe and secure. Certainly, there was an overabundance of happy memories and places that she had fun in but there was nothing that she deemed to be a place of comfort. Confused and wary of any potential error that he could have committed, the young man pondered what sort of place he was meant to summon at that point. Ultimately, the safest option would be the girl's living space but he questioned himself about how that already wasn't a mentally secure place to her and wondered if there something wrong that in her home that would disrupt her thoughts?
Deciding to act with an extreme air of caution, the young man materialized a classroom at Hanzō Academy and waited for the girl to appear before him. Once she began to do so in the seat of one of the desks, the boy approached her slowly and warily as she shot her head up and raised up her arms to hug herself. Raising a hand up in an attempt to ease her, the young man quietly asked, "Katsuragi, are you feeling okay?"
The shinobi jumped upon noticing him and, against the whims of her mind, her body slightly shied away as she unsurely answered, "No-, Well, yes…" She paused for a second to think and stated, "I feel fine but… my chest feels… funky-, no, heavy… Like that feeling you get when you learn that someone died…" After a second, she then raised a hand to her head and grumbled, "…And it feels like a war is being fought up here. Like, as though shards of glass are sword fighting each other."
"Well," started the young man as he stopped in place and considered what she told him, "in a way, that makes sense. We removed an aspect of your mind and, considering this particular one, it's probably leaving a whole lot of conflicting instincts and feelings in you."
Katsuragi tilted her head with some interest as her face looked like it was going to be sick, "What-, oh, I'm not feeling good… What part of me was all screwy?"
"Your desire for connection," said the young man as he took a few more steps forward and extended his hand, "Here-," before he was cut off.
In response to his movement toward her, Katsuragi's body involuntarily stood up from the desk and tried to move away while she threw out her arms in confusion, "Woah-, woah, woah, woah…!" and forced herself to come to a stop. Once she was motionless again and she was sure her body didn't have a mind of its own, she raised a finger into the air, "I didn't mean to move away… And what did I just see…?" before she finally processed what the boy said before and asked, "Wait, what part of me was distorted?"
Not moving any closer to her in fear of another potential reaction, the young man explained, "I had to sever away your desire for connection… You know, your want to socialize, make friends, and that sort of thing." He took a moment to think about her strange movements before thinking aloud, "Now, I'm not terribly familiar with working on this aspect… but I'd think that your movements are mostly a result of an internal… conflict of instincts, I suppose?"
Katsuragi looked confused and scratched her head as she tried to come up with her own thoughts from the young man's words. Yet, when nothing came to her, she shrugged and asked, "Could you explain it to me like I'm five?"
The young man paused and rubbed his chin before explaining, "Well, without that desire for connection, you probably have no real want to be near me, personally." He then raised a finger and said, "But, between knowing what I'm doing here and probably believing that me doing my work here will make you feel better from your sickened state, you also want to come toward me." Dropping his finger and clasping his hands in thought for a second, he said with some finality, "So, it's like being caught in an internal civil war. You want to let me help you but you have no desire to let me near in doing so."
Initially intending to argue, especially since she had many positive memories of the young man, Katsuragi was going to state that she had no such aversion to him. But when she looked in on herself, there was an air of truth to what he was saying. She did not have a real desire to let him near and, if she delved into it further, found that she was feeling physically defensive against him. The only real thing that kept Katsuragi locked and focused on the conversation was the fact that he was capable of fixing her sickened feeling. So, as a strange mix of shame and defiance went through her for mentally turning on a friend, she let her shoulders fall and forcefully said, "I'm… sorry about that…"
"Nothing to be sorry about," said the young man with a few sure nods, "you're not in complete control of yourself right now." He then spaced his arms out and raised his hands in a way of surrender, "So, whenever you're ready, I'll need you to come over here and grab one of my hands."
Katsuragi stared at him blankly for a second before averting her gaze, "Honestly, and this will sound mean, I have no desire to come near you right now…" She then urgently faced him, "I mean, I do- I want to get corrected… but I don't want to walk over there because… You know, those reasons you said… bleh…"
"Well, I'd love to approach you myself," said the young man with some genuine remorse, "but you may only run away. Plus, this process requires you to truly accept back your desire and… chasing you around isn't going to make you willingly do that."
"Then-, ah," Katsuragi began to wildly scratch her head as she tried to work a way around herself. Then, while clasping her hands together pleadingly, she asked, "Could you meet me halfway? I charge you, you charge me, we grab hands, and I get this feeling out of my chest and stomach?"
Nodding along to the idea and giving a clap of his hands, the young man responded, "We can do that," before raising a finger and warily asking, "Just make sure to, you know, focus really hard on keeping yourself open to accepting your aspect." He then thought about another potential factor and continued, "Also, make sure to remind yourself that me running at you is nothing threatening. We don't want to feed the aversion any ammo."
"Got it, got it," nodded Katsuragi as she hunkered her body down, "Call it when you're ready."
"On three," called the young man as he adopted a similar pose and raised his fingers into the air to count down, "One – two – three!" and started forward before quickly coming to a stop.
At the very moment he started to move, Katsuragi had instead scrambled away a few paces. Realizing the error quickly, she threw up a hand, "Sorry… I-, I wasn't ready… for… I saw something-," before turning away while feeling lesser about herself, "I'm an idiot…"
The young man raised a hand, "You're not an idiot," before stepping away, "Here, you count down when you're ready. After all, you're the one who'll need to muster more energy for this sort of thing."
"Right," muttered Katsuragi before she started to pump herself up with a few steps in place, "Right, right, right… I can do this…" before she raised her fingers into the air, "On three," and screeched in a cracked voice, "THREE!" before charging forward. In the back of her mind, something was ripping away at her to try and get her to change course away from the young man. But, when she spotted the boy running at her with one arm extended forward, she emptied all of her thoughts and instincts and focused on the sole goal of grabbing ahold. They weren't very distant from one another and their path was not obscured by any desks but it was still one of the most difficult things that Katsuragi had ever brought herself to do. Especially as images of memories from her life began to flash in front of her in as aggressive away as possible.
Then, by some miracle, they connected their palms together and the shinobi opened herself up to her crucial missing piece. The entire act left the girl drained and would have left her falling forward but, fortunately, the young man was holding on for dear life and pulled her close. As the momentum began to drag them towards a topple, he knelt down, clasped his free hand onto her shoulder, and dragged the girl right with him so that she could rest and regain her bearings on her knees. From there, he sat silently as Katsuragi integrated the aspect of herself in its entirety.
A few seconds went by, the girl blinked, and then she let out a long sigh before mumbling, "Oh, that feels much better…" Once the sickening feeling throughout her body disappeared, she looked up to the young man and commented, "You know, the mind is kind of like-, kind of like this computer that Kiriya had in our common room at Hanzō Academy. It's all fine and dandy until someone pushes a few wrong buttons in the settings and screws it up…" Katsuragi paused for a few seconds before adding, "By the way, before you ask, that someone was definitely me. I don't know computers too well."
Biting back a more serious comment on how the human mind was much more complicated than any computer, the young man simply nodded his head, "Well, that's what diagnostic programs like me are for."
"Well, you do good work," commented Katsuragi as she released her hand from his and patted him on the shoulder, "I don't feel like I'm at war with myself anymore," before resting it back onto her chest and adopting a conflicted expression, "though…"
Concerned about the sullen tone that the girl was taking on, the young man straightened a bit and asked, "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah," said Katsuragi as she lowered her gaze and tried to force on a smile. But when that inevitably fell away a few short seconds later, she gloomily said, "Actually, no-, Wait," and held up a hand. She sucked in some air and blew it out in an attempt to feel better though, in the end, she only felt a bit lower than she did before. Still, she stubbornly held onto some pride and said, "No, I'm fine. Let's finish up and go do… I dunno, things other than this."
Getting the feeling that he was about to encroach on a deeply personal matter, the young man mustered his courage and asked frankly, "Is there something… bothering you?"
Katsuragi looked like she wanted to speak and she opened her mouth quick after the prompt before pausing as her first syllable was about to come out. She then stammered a few excuses, "No, it's nothing-, I just-, during the correction, I just saw things-, memories or whatever as you approached and they made me…" Eventually, she pulled away from the young man's grip on her shoulder and stood up onto her legs, "Look, I'm good and dandy. Give me some time and I'll be fine."
Standing up but not taking any potentially intrusive steps after her, the young man said in a straight tone tinged with sympathy, "If you'd like to talk about it, I'd be more than happy to listen. You'll get no judgment or anything of the like from me."
A mock laugh came from Katsuragi's throat, "Ha!" before pointing a finger and saying, "Oh, you say that now but, by the time we're done talking, I'll go from 'Katsuragi the Predator' to 'Katsuragi the Pitiful' in a few seconds." She made an X with her arms, "Nope, I'm good. I can handle it."
The young man kept his gaze fixed on her and kept his expression controlled, letting out only some warmth through a soft look from his eyes, "I remember you saying something about images when you approached me during the correction." He looked away for a second to consider his words before looking back, "If you'd like to handle it on your own, I'll back off and leave it to you. But if you'd like help or another perspective on it, I can offer that too." In an effort to convey a sense of control to the girl, he raised his hands and took a step back, "Ultimately, it's up to you and, whatever you decide, I won't object or think any lesser of you."
Again, the words almost came babbling from Katsuragi's throat on the spot. She wanted to vent her woes in the same way she used to with Ikaruga but, with the same fear that she would only be needlessly sharing a burden, she hesitated again. After a few moments of inner turmoil, Katsuragi began to pace around the classroom and pondered her thoughts while the young man patiently looked on. In the end, it was some words from Asuka that weighed Katsuragi into saying, "So… you're something like a therapist, right? You make people feel good about themselves?"
Immediately, the young man said with two raised palms, "Definitely not a proper therapist. I have no license and I've read no large textbooks," before he dropped his arms and said, "But I do have two open ears that're willing to listen."
"Eh, close enough for me," commented Katsuragi before she gestured to the space around them, "By the way, why're we here? Can we be somewhere comfortable? Preferably where I can lay down?"
"Just a second," said the young man as he mindlessly wiggled his fingers into the air for the sake of humoring the girl, "Abracadabra-do, this room is just for you."
With warning and much to Katsuragi's surprise, the space around them began to shift and she watched in awe as a flash of white amidst some twisting shapes had brought her into her living room. Immediately, she dropped her sulky attitude and threw her arms into the air, "Woah!" and proceeded to spout, "That was awesome!" After a second, she threw herself onto the couch and nuzzled the pillows comfortably. Then a lightbulb went over Katsuragi's head and she faced the young man, "Okay, do that again but can you bring us to the Millennium Festival Resort? That place had beds that were designed for the most absolute of queens."
Again, as though he were some mystic, the young man wiggled his fingers into the air as he felt some joy for the girl's cheerful turn, "Magic~, whisk me-, us away."
Same as before, the room shifted and changed in a bright glow and they were suddenly in a luxurious hotel room with a massive bed and a comfortable carpet. Suppressing an excited laugh and doing her utmost to pick her jaw up from the floor, Katsuragi couldn't help but say, "Alright, anytime a day goes bad for me is going to be the same day I come to you for this kind of thing. This is too cool."
Not wanting to encourage the thought of misusing a corrective procedure but also not wanting to bring the girl's mood down, the young man scratched the back of his head and asked, "Is this place pretty comfortable?"
Katsuragi threw herself onto the large and absorbent bed before bouncing into the air with a small cheer. Once she was finally laid flat on her stomach, a purr came from her throat, "Oh, this place was so fantastic. I still kind of regret leaving it behind." She then rolled over and responded, "Yeah, this place is perfect. Thank you and thank you." After a moment of thought, Katsuragi then patted the bed next to her and asked with a sly grin, "Come join me here. Let's get comfortable."
Having a feeling that he knew where she was going, the young man contemplated his options before ultimately shrugging. He didn't believe that Katsuragi would force herself on him nor did he think that she was try to coerce him into cheating. So, while keeping his eyes warily locked on her, he sat on the bed and nodded in approval, "Indeed, this is cozy."
Taking some joy in the look he was giving her, seeing as it was the same that everyone gave whenever she got too grabby for comfort, Katsuragi leaned up to grab his arm and proceeded to pull him from the edge of the bed, "I mean let's lay together." Before any protest could be offered, they were laying on their backs with their sides together. After a second of taking in the young man's uncomfortable look, Katsuragi let out a mumble as she crossed her hands over her stomach, "There, ain't that better?"
Though he was initially alarmed by the grab and he was still eying the girl with some suspicion, the young man laid himself further into the bed, ignored his instinct to distance himself from the potential predator, and commented, "Yeah, this is comfortable," before he turned his head to look at her, "Is this where you'd like to talk or would you rather relax?"
Immediately, Katsuragi grumbled, "Party-pooper…" before slightly rolling away, "Honestly… I would much rather relax…"
"Then we can relax," said the young man with an affirmative nod as he faced the ceiling.
Time began to quietly go by as the two continued to lay on the bed. The once warm atmosphere of the room began to grow heavy and the expression on Katsuragi's face began to steadily twist more and more somberly. Then, after more than a minute, she whipped herself around and asked in a frank but also slightly panicked tone, "Have you ever done something-, been forced into something where you're kind of disappointed but you're also pretty happy-, very happy?"
Taking a moment to think about it, the young man's mind was brought to think about his circumstances in meeting all of the girl's and befriending them. But before he would allow himself to dwell on it too much, lest his own mood would suffer for it, he simply nodded, "I think I know what you're talking about."
Katsuragi let out a sigh mixed between conflict and relief before she was about to continue speaking. But something else caught her first and she couldn't help but ask, "And… for clarity's sake, do you know what happened to everyone at PBS-, that is, Peach Beach Splash?"
In response, the young man gave a slight shake of his head as he mumbled, "Unfortunately, I've only heard snippets. I know it affected Ayame in some way."
"Hoo…" sighed Katsuragi as she shook her head, "Yeah, Ayame definitely received the brunt of it…" before she began to roll over again, "Honestly, it makes me feel bad for… well, feeling bad about myself."
As the blonde's back was to him, the young man stated softly, "You know, even if you weren't hit the worst by something, it's okay to still feel bad about it."
"I know…" rumbled Katsuragi hesitantly before she tilted her head back to him, "It just seems… petty by comparison… Do you know what I mean?"
"I know what you mean," said the young man before he sat up and raised an easing hand, "but you don't need to feel guilty about it. If you were affected by whatever bad thing that happened, you were also a victim."
Turning away from him briefly, Katsuragi mulled over his words and considered her feelings on the matter. She then rolled back over and faced him, "Well… to explain something in a sentence, Peach Beach Splash was an event held by some wacko shinobi guy who wanted to keep everyone on some private island for water gun tournaments for all eternity so he wouldn't have to-," before her face suddenly recoiled in shock, "Wow, that sounds crazy to say even by our own standards."
"At this point, I'm willing to believe anything you guys have to say," said the young man as he tapped his head a few times, "It took a month but I'm willing to believe that literally anything can happen with all of you."
"Good mindset," commended Katsuragi before she closed her eyes, "Where was I-, oh." She then sat up and faced the young man, "So, like the badasses we are, we beat that guy at his own game and we were free to go without much consequence…" Her gaze then fell away as she scratched the back of her head, "Except… we actually did have to face some consequences for it…" Putting on a false smile and faking some cheer with a waggle of her fingers, Katsuragi explained, "See, as it would turn out, time flowed pretty differently in that wacko shinobi's world. Before we could all guess what was happening, we were back-, quick note, we left just as the chilly weather was setting in for the year. We came back and there were a lot of confused shinobi adults because, lo and behold, we've been gone for months and it was January."
Not entirely familiar with the concept of jumping time, the young man nodded, "I think I see where that could be problematic…"
Not really paying much attention to him as she mentally relived the events, Katsuragi said, "So, next thing we all know, we're caught in a bureaucratic civil war. Oda, Hanzō, and-, I dunno-, some other guys were advocating for us and some other old farts were against us. Basically, we missed the final shinobi exams for the year and all of the third-years, myself included, missed the graduating exam." Standing up from the bed and stomping around the room as she spoke, Katsuragi continued, "A compromise was met but, oh-ho, nobody was happy about it. Ayame was dropped from the elites and had to go to corrections for a while so that she wouldn't be dropped out, though Oda made sure it went soft on her, and the rest of us were to act like an entire year of our lives never happened." She then whipped her head around and raised a finger to the young man, "In fact, and you'll love this, they went so far as to legally seize our birth certificates and change our ages. I, who should be a an eighteen-year-old going on nineteen this year, am legally seventeen going on eighteen again. It's the same situation for everyone-, though I'm not too aware of how that works for the renegades."
The young man nodded his head and pondered all of the new information that he was hit with. He scratched his chin and then faced Katsuragi, "I don't really know what to say other than I'm extremely sorry that happened to all of you." He stood up and approached her, "I can only imagine it's like watching a year's worth of work being tossed aside and unacknowledged…"
Katsuragi nodded gloomily before her eyes locked onto him, "Which, by the sound of it, is something that you can empathize with." She then shrunk a bit and wearily mumbled, "Except you lost five years' worth in trying to escape-," before she was suddenly cut off by the young man.
"I know what you're about to say next," came his stern voice with no room for argument, "and I won't tolerate it. Your problems aren't any less painful to you just because someone else experienced a similar thing." Katsuragi was about to speak but, reading her defiant body language's intent to argue, she was interrupted, "I'm not budging on that. Forget anyone else's problem and focus on yourself for now."
Frustrated by being denied the opportunity to talk, the blonde threw her hands into the air and growled, "Well, fortunately for me, what happened actually isn't a big problems at all!" Her lips danced and mouthed some random words silently before she finally found what she wanted to say and shouted, "In all honesty, I'd welcome what happened to us again and again!" before clapping her fist into a palm, "How about that!? Does that lessen my-, your-, my issues any…!" and felt herself collapse on the inside, "…I don't know…"
While Katsuragi began to cover her face in humiliation for her babbling, the young man stared at her and pondered what she was saying for a second before tilting his head and asking, "So, you were referring to the incident as a whole when you said you were both happy and disappointed?" When he saw her nod, there was a bit of confusion running through his head before he reminded himself of how complicated the situation was. So, after a few nods of thought and consideration on the matter, he said, "Well, if that's the case, I'd say that I'm happy you found some positivity in it."
"Oh, don't go down that route," grumbled Katsuragi into her hands.
The boy reeled back his head in anticipation for a blowup, "What route?"
Immediately, the girl threw her hands away from her face and angrily hissed, "The 'make Katsuragi feel better about reacting to something shittily' route." She thumped a fist to her chest, "I'm not an idiot. I know that this whole incident has pretty much uprooted everyone's lives in some way." As the pitch of her voice and anger rose more and more, she clenched her hands onto the side of her bangs and shouted, "I SHOULDN'T BE AS GLAD ABOUT IT AS I AM!"
At that point, the young man decided to make a bold move and began to approach the girl while asking, "Well, what makes you happy about it?"
"I DON'T HAVE TO SAY GOODBYE, THAT'S WHAT!" screeched Katsuragi at the top of her lungs. At that point, as the guilt for her own joy began to eat at her and as the pressure of opening up finally weighed in, she moved her hands toward her nose and mouth to try and stifle sob. Unfortunately for her, the small choked sound still came out and she could only lower her head to try and hide herself away. Were it not for the young man as he closed the distance between the two and wrapped her into a warm hug, she would have caught herself and stopped there. Instead, despite being a bit taller than the boy, Katsuragi slightly craned herself over and buried her face into his shoulder as she grabbed onto him and cried out, "I'm sorry…! I know it hurt everyone and I know it makes me horrible…!"
From there, the girl simply sobbed into him as the young man waited for her to let out what she needed to. In the meantime, he rubbed the back of her head and patted her back with as much warmth as he could possibly convey. Whenever there was a brief bit of silence in the girl's crying, the young man would turn to her ear and say in a voice that held more gentleness that even he was aware of, "You're not a horrible person by any means. It's okay."
For the first few times that he said that, it would mostly incite another round of sobs while Katsuragi sputtered an argument of gibberish. But, with his response being solid and seemingly impossible to deny each time, the girl was eventually quieted. Some seconds passed as the young man continued to rub the back of her head while her red eyes envisioned the angry expressions of all her friends, who she believed would be disgusted if they knew how she felt about their poor circumstance. After all, they'd complained about the results from the beginning of the year all the way until just before the young man's arrival and she had joined in along with them each time it was brought up. She would not only seem devilish for enjoying a circumstance that caused so much suffering, Katsuragi believed that she'd also come off as completely two-faced for going against her own words in the past. Still, in spite of all that, she couldn't help but mutter for the young man to hear, "I don't want to say goodbye… Not to Ikaruga, not to Asuka, Hibari, and Yagyū… Not to anyone…"
"Are you referring to your graduation?" asked the young man quietly, hoping to understand fully what upset the girl.
Katsuragi answered him by bobbing her head up and down onto his shoulder. She then said, "I've already seen too many people walk away… From Mom to Dad to Choco… To every mentor or caretaker that I've had growing up…" A squelched sound came from her throat before she continued, "If Peach Beach Splash didn't restart the year, I'd have to graduate and walk away from everyone else myself…" She sucked in a shaky breath and continued, "I honestly didn't fully consider that until Ikaruga brought it up during the event… Then it hit me and everyone else, we cried like a bunch babies, and we kind of… I think that Ikaruga found peace… but it got stuck in my mind and I just couldn't…"
"Don't ever call yourself a horrible person for finding some joy in what happened," whispered the young man. He offered a few sound pats to her back before pulling away so that he could look up into her eye, "What happened does suck for everyone, you and every person involved. If you're disappointed about it, embrace those feelings and work with them to move forward." His expression became much more solid and he said in as hard and inarguable a voice as humanly possible, "But don't feel two-faced or call yourself horrible because you found a positive light to the whole scenario." When Katsuragi started to look away, he moved his hands to her shoulders and stated, "If you don't believe me, you could ask anyone else. Though there could be some varied amount of sass, especially from Ryōbi and Mirai-, just a feeling… they'll all look you in the eye and tell you that, if nothing else, they're glad to be with you for another year too."
Katsuragi had the same argument against herself a thousand times, doing her utmost to justify her feelings while fighting what she felt were stalwart principles. Each time, it only resulted in more inner-turmoil and she would mostly just shove it off to the backside of her mind to ignore until another day. But whether it was how sure he sounded or how much faith she put into his word, there was something assuring about hearing it from the young man. She considered the whole situation and gave a dry snort before she fully realized that she'd been crying. She raised a hand to wipe some tears and snot away before stretching it away in disgust, "Uck…" In act to try and regain some control for herself, she then wiped her hand against the young man's chest and said, "Look at me, becoming the mess over here…"
Only mildly put off by being used as a makeshift tissue, the young man quickly thanked the fact that they were still in Katsuragi's head before nodding his head, "Well, we all need a good cry every now and then…"
"Maybe," said Katsuragi as she craned her head down to wipe away all of the remaining tears with the collar of her shirt. When that was done and she stood up straight again, the girl shook her head with a forced grin, "But, you know, I'm supposed to be Big Sister Kat. I'm the one that others come to when they need advice or a good kick in the ass for motivation's sake."
"Doesn't mean you can't cry," stated the young man.
"Hey," rumbled Katsuragi with a tired smile before she flicked the young man's head, "Sir Dickhead the Humorless…"
"That's me."
"…I was trying to lighten the mood and break away from the serious subject."
To that, the young man shrugged, "Even so, I thought it might do well for you to hear those words…"
Katsuragi stared at him for a second before averting her gaze in thought, dropping her smile and considering a request. Her mouth straightened and her eyes narrowed in paranoid worry at the thought of opening up more but, at the same time, she didn't feel as relieved as she did after several months of sitting on the topic. So, unwilling to let the opportunity slip by, she hesitantly asked, "So… I know the correction is done and that you probably want to relax for the day… But…"
When the girl paused, the young man responded in a friendly voice, "Speak frankly. I'm listening and won't think negative of you for it-," before whispering off to the side, "At least, not as negative as I do a predator."
"Oh, you'd be asking for a punch to the groin if you weren't speaking the truth," barked Katsuragi before she wiped a hand across her forehead with a smile. After a final shake throughout her body as she dismissed her worries, the girl asked, "Want to… head back to reality or wherever and… Could I talk to you about other stuff…?"
"I'm all for it," was the young man's immediate reply.
So, once Katsuragi was properly ready, the world around them broke away with a hopeful glow.
A mind at peace and a heart's yearning beginning to bud…
With the correction of a desire to bond bringing tranquility to a clouded heart, you have saved a young woman from the fate of a lonely and dysfunctional life.
For this, she looks to you and sees the young man who has endured through physical and mental punishment in order to save her. From this, respect is born. And from this respect, the seeds of a love to come will blossom.
Once the two were grounded back into the young man's apartment, Katsuragi was the first to launch herself up and stretch while the young man wobblily gained his bearings. Remembering past experiences, the shinobi quickly turned herself toward him and asked with some concern, "Hey, you're not going to puke… right? Everything went well with your pillow idea?"
Sticking a thumb into the air as his eyes still spun tiredly, the young man responded, "Yup, I'm good. Our heads remained connected and our bodies didn't shift."
Katsuragi pumped a fist, "Alright!" before she realized that she had, in fact, vocalized her request back in her mind. So, hoping to break the ice first and keep herself reigned in, she asked in as confident a voice as possible, "So, doc, is there a place for you to hear my woes or… you know… Hear me out…?" Very quickly, Katsuragi realized that she didn't sound nearly as in control as she wanted to and she immediately began to say in a hushed voice, "Actually, I should go…"
Not acknowledging her last words, the young man gestured to the couch, "Would this be okay or did you have something else in mind?"
Katsuragi straightened up and skittishly said, "What-, oh no. That'll do… That'll do…" Taking her place on the furniture and laying herself out like a patient at the therapist's office, the girl was speaking loudly to assure herself, "No, I'm cozy. I'm good."
Keeping himself seated on the floor, the young man started to say, "Well, was there something in particular-," before he was interrupted.
"Hold up," said Katsuragi with a palm in the air, "I can't get comfortable here while you're on the floor."
The boy paused and tilted his head before shrugging and standing up, "In… that case, I'll go pull up a chair."
"No, I'll need you closer," came the straight rebuttal.
Feeling a familiar sense of suspicion, the young man narrowed his eyes and slowly asked, "What did you have in mind…?"
The devilish grin that spread across the shinobi's face told far more than it ever should have.
2:00 P.M.
Laying her head in the boy's lap, Katsuragi was speaking in a quiet and chipper voice, "So, you know… I don't fully-, I understand that people get uncomfortable when I'm near but it always kind of hurts when they're like," before throwing up her hands in the air to recreate the scenario she was describing, "Eek~! Here comes that perverted freak, Katsuragi! Hide your body away from her!"
Having already adjusted to the position that she demanded of him, the young man was nodding his head along, "I do understand why that would hurt," before he raised a pointed finger as he continued to rub her head, "though their reaction is reasonable. Though everyone's grown used to what even you admit to be harassment, it's still something that's going to be uncomfortable them. If you don't want those harsher reactions, you'd have to cut out your groping entirely since they're what instigates that sort of thing."
Katsuragi sighed, "I guess I'll need to toughen up…" before smirking, "…because that's something I'll never say goodbye to…"
3:00 PM
"…Then, from there, we were pretty much the winners of that Royale and my parents were free to go…" The blonde let out a tired sigh and nuzzled her face towards the young man's stomach, "It's just… I've waited for them but they haven't reached out to me."
"Permission to speak freely?"
"Please…?"
The young man considered his words for a second before stating frankly, "It's pretty shitty of them to not be reaching out, I won't deny that, though they may just be afraid to come for you. It's been some years and they may fear that you blame them entirely for leaving." He thought for a second more before asking, "Have you considered reaching out to them to find out for yourself?"
Katsuragi shook her head, "I was waiting until I could become a powerful shinobi before…" as her voice died in her throat.
"Well, after all of the circumstances you've gotten through, I don't see how you're not."
"Don't butter me up."
"You know I can't lie… at least, not in a convincing manner."
"…You're not wrong there…"
4:00 PM
"At that point, Ikaruga insisted on the red curtains and tossed aside the pink one. Of course, I called bullshit because that would deny me the ability to say that it matched the pink carpet. Seriously! She knows me and how much joy dirty jokes bring me! The nerve!"
"The things that you say amaze me for reasons that I have trouble deeming right and wrong…"
5:00 PM
"Then Asuka says something about futomaki needed to be long and big enough while Ikaruga's talking about accidentally cracking her lips, Yomi starts panicking, Mirai's confused, and I'm sitting there laughing my ass off in the background. The best part? It wasn't the first time this kind of thing happened! How could I not laugh?"
"I would too."
6:00 PM
The hours of their long talk passed by, holding little actually meaning in its contents beyond some of the earlier things that Katsuragi brought up, before it finally came to an end. As the two hands of the clock in the young man's apartment were completely opposite of one another, she was merrily walking down the sidewalk with a sheepish grin on her face, ringing loudly of an awkward joy in her circumstances. Through every heavy or menial subject that she brought up, the boy listened and offered either insightful or humored comments. Best of all, he offered up his coveted lap with little resistance.
Having lived up to her end of the offer that Homura extended, Katsuragi grinned widely as she considered her final decision. Aside from the more obvious benefits regarding everyone else, the young man certainly made it all too enticing. Between correcting her, their chemistry and banter, his lap, and the ever so grabbable butt that she remembered he had, it would have been impossible for a predator like her to not go along with the plan. So, while considering her own alterations and surprises, Katsuragi brought out her phone and conveyed her approval.
From there, it all fell on the plan that Yumi and Miyabi had formulated, though it was mostly the former. While it was almost too extreme for everyone in the know, results were certainly going to be produced the following day.
