Chapter 5: Regionals

Summary: Mizusawa's first team tournament seems to be going smoothly, but Taichi struggles with his leadership of the club and with his insecurities regarding Arata in particular.

Taichi double-checked his bag one more time before heading out to the regional tournament. They wouldn't have a whole lot of time between matches, so he wanted to make sure he had enough food, water, and supplies.

His mother was in the living room, so he called out, "Mom, I'm off."

She appeared in the hallway. "Right, you have that tournament today." She sighed, watching him tie his shoelaces. "When are you going to stop wasting your time on karuta? It's an archaic pastime, and it's not going to help you get into top universities." Did everything have to be about adding another line to his already extensive resume?

He left without a word, regretting his decision to tell her about the tournament. She didn't deserve that courtesy.

If there was one goal he had in life, it was to not be like Mashima Reiko.

At the tournament venue, Kana helped them dress in traditional clothes from her family shop. Apparently, that was part of some deal she had struck with Chihaya when she first joined the club. You had to admire the Oe family's passion for new business opportunities.

The Mizusawa club members were in various states of nervous tension. Well, except Chihaya. The club captain was simply excited at the chance to see karuta players of her own age group. The moment she had gotten dressed, she had rushed out to survey the scene around the tournament.

With the tournament starting soon, Taichi went to retrieve Chihaya for their team meeting. He eventually found her in the corridor, surrounded by a team in red shirts.

It was Hokuo Academy. Out of curiosity, Taichi had been keeping an eye out for the defending champions, but Chihaya had found them first.

"Kimono in your first tournament in high school, huh? As usual, you like to attract attention, don't you, Chihaya?" The skinny, pale boy who was talking to Chihaya looked vaguely familiar. It took Taichi a moment to place him as Kinashi Hiro. He'd been one of the few kids in their age group when they first joined Shiranami Society. As he approached, Hiro said, "Mashima, you too? You and Chihaya are still in the same school." It was a statement, not a question. As the only people wearing kimono, it was obvious they were in the same team even if they didn't have a club uniform.

"Hyoro-kun!" Chihaya exclaimed. "Wow, you go to Hokuo! That's amazing. That makes us rivals then!" She grasped Hiro's hands.

"Rivals?" Hiro scoffed and forcefully pulled his hands back. "Don't make me laugh. Hokuo has won this tournament five consecutive times. We have eight regulars, and two Class A players. Don't compare us to the likes of you, who just opened a new club."

Taken aback by Hiro's animosity, Chihaya spluttered something unintelligible. Taichi was about to say something when Chihaya straightened to her full height, "Don't underestimate us. We have two Class A players too. And even if our club is new, some of us have been practicing karuta for years!" With that comeback, she ran off.

Taichi inwardly sighed. He was hoping their second Class A member would remain a secret, especially since it was unclear if Arata would actually play at the tournament today. They were already attracting a lot of attention due to their kimono. He was eager to fly under the radar so that people would underestimate them. But maybe it wasn't a bad thing to intimidate their opponents instead.

"Mashima, who is your second Class A member?" Hiro demanded.

"What makes you think I'm going to tell you?" He plastered a smile on his face.

Hiro immediately ran after Chihaya, presumably to find out himself. Taichi quickly surveyed the rest of the Hokuo members. Could he spot their Class A members? There was a tall boy who was hanging back – he had been observing the scene with detached interest so far. If he had to guess, he might be Hokuo's ace. He had that sort of air about him. As for the other Class A member, Taichi had no idea. All the members seemed relaxed. One of the boys was even playing on a game console. As defending champions, Hokuo got matched against the lowest seeded schools in the group stage. They could afford to be laidback.

Hiro came running back within moments. "Wataya Arata is in your club? How is it that you and Chihaya always end up hanging around the best players of our age group?! First the Queen, now Wataya." Hiro narrowed his eyes. "Did you orchestrate this somehow?"

Taichi laughed. "You're giving me too much credit. How could I possibly plan this? It's just a coincidence." He politely excused himself.

What was with everyone and their hero worship for Arata when the guy hadn't even been playing for a year? Did his reputation truly precede him, or was it the association with his grandfather?

Compared to the dramatic start to the tournament, the group stage of the tournament went smoothly for Mizusawa. They were unseeded, so their group placement was random, but luckily, they weren't in the same group as Hokuo. Arata didn't play, opting to observe the teams in the other groups instead. However, Chihaya, Taichi and Nishida were able to secure three wins against each school without much trouble. By lunch time, they were past the group stage and into the final four.

During lunch, Taichi considered the rest of the team. Kana looked exhausted, which was totally natural at her first tournament. She had done well, even managing to secure a win in one of her matches. Komano was rather spooked by his consecutive losses, but he looked calmer now. He and Arata were poring over the notes Arata had taken on the other teams. Nishida was voraciously enjoying his lunch, already on to his second bento, and Chihaya was deeply immersed in her phone, as she had been throughout all the breaks.

"Chihaya-chan, you've been texting a lot lately. Shouldn't you get started on lunch?" Kana said.

"It's the Queen I bet," Nishida said in between bites.

"Yeah," Chihaya looked up for a moment. "Just giving Shinobu-chan all the updates. If we go to Nationals, maybe I'll even face her in the individual tournament! I've been dreaming of playing her in the National tournament for so long."

Taichi took out his own lunch. "Is she even replying?"

"Only every five to ten texts," Chihaya said mournfully.

"I'm sure she's not waiting around for a minute-by-minute play of what's going on at the tournament. Eat, Chihaya. President's orders."

"I'm so excited about the next round! I'm not sure I can even eat anything other than chocolate."

"You have to eat properly to keep your strength up, Chihaya-chan." Kana scolded. "Eat whatever you can."

"Okay, mom…" Chihaya whined.

"We should talk about team order, guys." Nishida had wiped his box clean. "Now that we're out of the group stage, if we lose once, we're eliminated. We should sacrifice our weakest players against the strong players, so the rest of us can secure wins. I hear Tomihara has one really strong player. We should put Tsukue-kun against her."

Taichi was beginning to nurse a headache. Why did Nishida have to put it like that? Komano was already shaken as it was. Taichi glanced at the bespectacled boy, but he was looking down into his bento, not making eye contact.

"I disagree, Nishida." Taichi said quickly. "I know the strategy you suggested maximizes our chance of winning, but we shouldn't keep pitting Komano and Oe-san against the strongest players. It's brutal facing off against A class players at your first tournament as a beginner. It will damage their confidence. We want to win, but we shouldn't do that at the cost of our own team members."

"It's not a bad thing to face off against strong players!" Chihaya interjected. "The first match I ever played was against Shinobu-chan. To a beginner, her strength was almost god-like. But that only pumped me up to be able to beat her one day. It was also nice to know how far you could go if you kept playing."

"Chihaya, you're not normal when it comes to your delight at facing off against strong opponents-" Taichi started.

"We won't be able to predict the other teams' order anyway." Arata said at the same time, looking apologetically at Taichi about the interruption. "I watched Tomihara and Hokuo in the group stage and they switch things up all the time."

"Excuse me. Is it okay if I go home now?" Komano's quiet voice cut through the debate like a knife.

After a beat of silence, Chihaya got up from her chair and exclaimed, "Eh?! What do you mean, Tsukue-kun? Why would you leave?"

"You don't need me to win anyway. What does it matter if I'm here or not?" Komano said coldly. "If I go home, at least I can study for the upcoming tests."

"Of course, we need you! What are you talking about? You're a valuable member of the team."

"Don't lie to me, Ayase!" Komano snapped. "I'm only on the team because Wataya isn't playing. If he was, I would be benched. And you only want to take our team to Nationals so you can meet the Queen there. You admitted that yourself!"

Chihaya sat back down, as if burned.

"That's not the only reason Chihaya made our club. She wants to see you and Oe-san improve in karuta more than anyone." Taichi intervened. "And I'd rather have someone on the team who actually plays matches." Arata's eyes widened next to Komano and Taichi regretted his choice of words instantly. He wasn't trying to take a jab at Arata, he was only trying to reassure Komano. His unfortunate choice of words had just come out.

"Since you don't want to play in the next match, why don't we swap roles?" Arata handed Komano his notebook.

"I didn't mean-" Taichi started, but Arata didn't seem to hear him, continuing to talk to Komano.

"You should check out Hokuo's next match - the school they're facing has some beginners. It might be helpful for you to see that it's not just you who's struggling. Tournaments are really difficult for new players."

Komano stared at the notebook, hesitating.

Taichi said, "Komano, take a break for the next match to cool your head. If you want to do what Arata suggested, do that. It sounds like it would help both you and the team. But I expect you back for the final."

After that Komano grabbed the notebook and ran out of the classroom without a word.

Taichi sighed into his hand. The team was falling apart, and he was failing as a leader. If he was trying to boost one team member's morale at the expense of another, was he even qualified to lead this club? What was it about Arata that constantly made his nasty side come out?

"Since Komano is out, I'll play in the next match." Arata declared.

Chihaya was still moping from Komano's earlier reprimand but her eyes lit up a little.

"I wasn't trying to pressure you earlier..." Taichi tried, again.

"It's fine," Arata said shortly. "We should talk about Tomihara West though, there's not much time left."

Arata proceeded to explain what he had learned about their opponents from the group stage. Tomihara wasn't particularly strong, but they had a strong team dynamic that they used to intimidate opponents. He suggested they keep up their team spirit to counter the intimidation tactics, but that was a tall order considering how they had had their first major team conflict. Still, they half-heartedly came up with a team cheer at Nishida's suggestion.

Chihaya looked depressed as they entered the tournament room for the semi-final. He was about to say something to her when Arata beat him to it.

"I am going to win no matter what." Arata said. "So, there's less pressure on everyone else. We only need three wins. Just do your best."

"That's confident words from someone who hasn't played in a year." Taichi said before he could stop himself, brushing past the two of them.

What the hell was wrong with him? Why did he say that? That was all he could think of as he faced against Sano, a third-year from Tomihara.

He was so distracted he could barely keep track of the cards that had been read. On top of that, Tomihara's team cheering was so loud, it was unnerving, despite Arata's warning. It only served as a reminder of how their current team dynamics wasn't working.

Taichi finally broke from his stupor when a voice said from his right, "One win for Mizusawa!"

Already? He looked at Arata's play field in amazement. It looked like his opponent, who was in tears, had almost all twenty-five cards on the field. Had it been a perfect victory?

"Only two more wins, Mizusawa!" Nishida said from the other side of Arata.

"Let's go!" Chihaya cheered from the opposite end.

Arata had stayed true to his word. Meanwhile, Taichi was six cards behind. How were the rest of the team doing? Taichi looked over his teammates' progress for the first time that round. Nishida and Chihaya were doing fine. Kana was likely going to lose but she was still putting up a fight.

Taichi took a deep breath and tried to refocus on his match, but he was hyper aware of the fact that Arata was watching him now that his own match was over. He never quite got the flow of the match back.

Mizusawa won 3-2, with Chihaya and Nishida pulling through for the team. He could have kicked himself. How rich of him to rib Arata when he himself couldn't secure a victory. Arata hadn't been overconfident earlier. He had accurately gauged his own strength against the Tomihara team.

Komano sheepishly came up to them after their victory. "Great work, everyone." He didn't meet anyone in the eye. "And Ayase… I'm sorry about earlier. What I said was unfair. You've helped us newbies a lot."

Chihaya slapped Komano in the back playfully, still exuberant from their win. "Don't worry about it! I was feeling down during the match, but then I saw that you were watching Hokuo and taking notes. You were still trying your best for the team the whole time, weren't you?"

Komano had been in the room the whole time? The fact that Chihaya of all people had noticed when Taichi hadn't was just a sign of how distracted he had been. What sort of useless team leader was he shaping up to be?

While the team bantered, he excused himself to go to the bathroom. He didn't really need to go but he wanted to recenter himself. He jumped as a hand grabbed his shoulder in the corridor.

"Matsuge-kun!" said a booming voice from behind him. "I heard Mizusawa is into the finals! Congratulations!"

"Harada-sensei," he acknowledged. "Thank you for coming to support us."

Harada waved his hand. "Don't thank me yet! I haven't even been able to see you play. Hiroshi-kun and I got stuck in the rain. But that is certainly impressive, reaching the final in your first tournament. People are buzzing about Mizusawa in the halls."

"We got pretty lucky with our team lineup. We have two Class A players."

His mentor raised an eyebrow. "Two? Chihaya-chan and? Who's the other one?"

"It's Wataya. Wataya Arata. He recently transferred to our school from Fukui."

"Wataya…" Harada said thoughtfully. "Do I know him?"

"You might be thinking of his grandfather. He's the grandson of the eternal Meijin Wataya Hajime."

Taichi felt rather than saw the glint in Harada's eye before the older man pounced on him. "Well, why haven't you brought him to the Shiranami Society yet?!"

Sometimes Taichi wondered if Harada was Chihaya's actual father. They certainly had a striking resemblance when it came to their boundless energy for karuta. Although, the way Chihaya pounced was more like a cheetah. Harada was clearly a bear.

"All in good time, Harada-sensei. Arata recently got back to karuta after taking a break. I'll bring him along next time."

"Speaking of breaks, it's good to see you sticking to karuta after you almost quit. Now that you've started a club with Chihaya-chan, I'm looking forward to seeing you grow as a leader!"

Taichi looked away from Harada's intense gaze. "I don't know about that sensei. Today I rubbed salt on a teammate's sore spot, just because of my own insecurity. I have a lot to learn." He bowed. "I'll have to head back to the team now."

When he returned, Nishida and Chihaya were arguing about team order with the others listening in. Arata was standing slightly off to the side. It was now or never.

He swallowed his pride and said, "I'm sorry about earlier."

Arata turned and just looked at him, not saying anything. He wasn't going to make this any easier, was he?

"For ribbing you before the match, I mean."

Arata shrugged. "What you said is true. I did take a break for a year."

"Still. It was petty of me. Especially when I know the reasons behind it." Not to mention, he also knew that Arata had been practicing by himself at home.

"It's okay. I know we were all tense because of what happened before the match." He subtly nudged his head toward Komano who was now in conversation with Chihaya and Nishida, notebook in hand.

The fact that Arata was being nice about it made him feel worse.

"Just make it up to me at the next tournament," Arata said.

"Make it up, how?"

"I don't know." The bespectacled boy smiled. "That's your problem."

They were called into a team meeting to finalize their order soon after that. Before they joined the group, Arata said. "In the last round, you were up against Tomihara's strongest player. But I think if you were playing like you normally do, you could have won."

In that last match, Taichi wasn't really playing against the Tomihara senior. He was battling himself.

Based on Komano and Arata's observations, Hokuo had some sort of sixth sense when it came to predicting opponent order. With a reputation like that, even if it was a myth, it was best for Mizusawa to go with an order than made their team shine, without worrying about who each player might be up against. Chihaya and Nishida were at the ends, Taichi was in the middle, and Arata was in the fourth seat to throw people off.

Taichi had been sure Hiro would want to play against him, given their previous rivalry. To his surprise, Hiro was matched against Arata. Either Hokuo's order prediction sixth sense was bogus, or they were deliberately trying to throw the game with Arata. The latter was more likely, given that Hokuo's two Class A players were matched against Taichi and Chihaya, respectively. Hokuo was probably banking on both of their Class A players winning, plus at least one of the remaining two outside of Hiro.

Well. Taichi was certainly not going to make it easy for them. He was up against a short boy called Amakasu, the one with the gaming console earlier. Amakasu's general air was that of boredom, but when cards were called, he would suddenly come alive. His skinny frame made him lithe and fast on his feet. Taichi couldn't keep up with the other boy's speed but he tried to make it up with his accuracy. Like Chihaya, Amakasu's speed was a double-edged sword. He made a lot of faults.

Arata, once again, won before anyone else with a nearly perfect game. Hiro might have willingly acted as a sacrificial lamb for his team, but he looked crushed.

"Let's go, Mizusawa," Taichi cheered immediately when Arata announced his win. He was anxious to make up for his earlier antagonism.

"We only need three wins, Hokuo," said the Hokuo club president Sudo. "Which team picks up the first win is irrelevant."

Chihaya was having a hard time against Sudo's play style, which involved playing mind games with his opponent. She was flustered and breathing heavily.

Taichi made a show of sweeping his next card, just so he could squeeze Komano's shoulder and stop by Chihaya to whisper in her ear. "Just play like you normally do, don't go at his pace."

"Referee, Mashima is colluding with his teammates." Sudo said coolly. "Is that legal?"

The referee looked startled. "Er… teammate cheers of support are okay as long as you don't delay the reader. I didn't see anything this time so I will leave Mizusawa with a warning."

Wow. Sudo was vicious. Taichi had to respect the other president's ability to mess with his opponents. It was not sportsmanlike, but it was still within the rules. He could also see why Hokuo was so successful as a team. They had an overall team strategy which they stuck to and good rapport between the players.

The interruption from Taichi helped Chihaya; her breathing had improved a little. Reassured, Taichi went back to his own match.

The rest of the round went by in a blur. Komano fell to his opponent soon after, but Nishida pulled through to a win, leaving Mizusawa with a 2-1 lead. The championship rested on his and Chihaya's shoulders.

The pressure and tension were almost too much for him. He was doing his best, but he was falling behind. Was that the skill gap between him and a Class A player?

When he eventually succumbed to Amakasu, he bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Chihaya. It's all you now."

Chihaya jumped up, surveying the field below, like Sudo had been continuously doing throughout the match. "Don't worry, I got this!"

Sudo, who was seated, looked bemused (or amused?) at Chihaya following his tactics. "You got what now?"

The match was very close. Between the two of them, there were five cards on the field. Sudo had a one-card lead.

The joke was on Sudo though because Chihaya had been listening to the same reader throughout the whole tournament, and the remaining cards were all one-syllable cards. She didn't let him take any more cards.

When Chihaya took the last card, there was a stunned pause from the Mizusawa members. She took the card so silently, the win almost didn't seem real. Then they burst into a collective group hug, with some tears exchanged in the process.

For Taichi, the win felt bittersweet. The team had won, but he had not. He told himself that it didn't matter. It was the team's win that was important.

He caught himself. Even if the team hadn't won, it would have been fine. It wasn't the victory that mattered, but the experience of fighting together as a team.

The words felt hollow.

It wasn't so easy to undo sixteen years' worth of upbringing.

After the ceremony, their celebration was cut short because Hiro launched himself at them to nab the trophy. Apparently, he had some sort of deep attachment to the trophy because it had been in his clubroom since he entered Hokuo's middle school.

Eventually, Sudo pried Hiro away. Considering his dominance from earlier, the third-year was strangely gentle with Hiro. Taichi was surprised by how much respect Sudo commanded from his teammates. They kept apologizing to him for losing.

"Don't apologize. I lost too." Sudo said, looking at Chihaya. He turned to the rest of Mizusawa. "We'll support you at Nationals, but you guys better not disgrace the Tokyo region."

With those parting words, Hokuo made their exit.

"Wow," Kana huffed. "How is pressuring us like that going to help?"

"I get it…" Chihaya said slowly. "I don't blame them. We have the weight of all the Tokyo teams on our shoulders now. We'll be playing on their behalf."

On that solemn note, they ended their first tournament as a team.

By 4pm, Taichi was home. He wouldn't say he was moping exactly, but he was restless. To distract himself, he started studying for an upcoming test. That kept him busy for a while.

He finally got up to check his phone, which had been buzzing incessantly from his bag for the better part of an hour. As he thought, it was Chihaya updating Shinobu about the tournament on their group chat, complete with the group photo they had taken at the trophy ceremony. Considering how sour Shinobu was about their club the last time they spoke, he guessed the Queen didn't particularly care about the updates. But Chihaya didn't know about that.

"Isn't it a waste of time, training newbies? Can you get stronger that way?" Shinobu had said over the phone.

What she said was so unlike Shinobu that he had been shocked into silence for a few moments. He had realized earlier today why that comment had stung so much.

It was like something his mom would say.

But Shinobu was NOT his mother. In fact, one of the things he liked about her was that she wasn't obsessed with winning. She didn't become Queen because she liked to be at the top, but rather her love for karuta had gotten her there. She had trained him and Chihaya for no reason other than to have people her age to play karuta with. How was that different from what he and Chihaya were doing? It didn't make any sense.

The past week had been so busy, he hadn't had a chance to ask her about it. On a whim, he decided to call her now. He was done with studying for the day, and he knew the conversation would keep niggling at him until he figured it out.

"I heard you won the tournament. Congratulations." Shinobu said when she picked up.

"Oh, that's not what I was calling about."

"Then?"

"I can't call you for no reason?"

"..." He could almost hear her glaring at him through the phone.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" He said quickly. Shinobu wasn't above hanging up on him if she got annoyed with the conversation. She didn't exactly follow social etiquette when it came to him and Chihaya. "I promised you a discussion about the karuta club last time we talked, remember? You seemed upset at Chihaya and I for starting the club, can you tell me why?"

When Shinobu didn't say anything, he continued. "I thought you'd be happy that we're staying active in karuta and even teaching other people, like you did for us. I'm learning a lot from teaching the beginners, since you have to break down conventions that are normally taken for granted. It may not be the most direct training approach, but you can still learn a lot and question your assumptions."

"You keep mentioning the beginners, but you have Arata in the club too."

Taichi blinked. "Right… Because you seemed bothered that we're wasting time training the beginners."

If time wasted on beginners was the problem, Arata was a good balancing force. As an experienced player, he had a thing or two he could teach Taichi, Chihaya and the others.

Wait a second.

This was never about the beginners at all, was it? He was so focused on that he was missing something obvious.

The first time Shinobu was ever upset about the club was on Chihaya's birthday, when they were throwing her a surprise party with all the club members, including Arata. At that point in time, Shinobu's childhood friends had just opened a karuta club with her long-time rival, the one person that could consistently beat her. Not only that, he was hanging out with them too while she was hundreds of miles away.

Taichi almost laughed at the irony of Arata driving the two of them to jealousy, for different reasons.

"Shinobu, you know, Chihaya and I aren't trying to replace you with Arata. Not at all. It's quite the opposite. Chihaya's main goal is still to meet you in a Queen match, and that's part of the reason she's so passionate about the club. If we didn't have a club, our school wouldn't have even funded us to go Nationals for the individual tournament, and we wouldn't be able to meet you there. As for Arata, he just happened to be the strongest player around and Chihaya is simply taking advantage of it." He was exaggerating a bit there since Chihaya did seem to genuinely like Arata, but it was true that the only reason she took notice of him is because of karuta and his connection to Shinobu.

"I know."

"Do you really?" He was a bit exasperated at her reticence, even if it was anything out of the ordinary for her. She was twice as hard to read on the phone - this would have been way easier in person. "It's normal to be jealous in this situation. You're really far away from your two best friends, but your rival is spending a lot of time with us."

"He is not my rival," Shinobu said flatly.

Taichi sighed and massaged his temples. "Sure, and I suppose Chihaya and I aren't your best friends, either, right?"

"I won't refute that," she sounded amused now. Finally. He'd gotten through to her.

"I'm often jealous of Arata too, so I get it. I behaved poorly with him for no reason today, just because of my insecurity. And I'm supposed to be setting an example as the president of the club."

"Arata does have that effect on people," Shinobu said dryly.

"He does, doesn't he? One of our club members, Nishida, quit karuta before because he got spooked by Arata. The sad thing is Arata probably doesn't have a clue about the effect he has on other players."

"He doesn't."

Having finally broken past Shinobu's shell, they chitchatted some more. Well, it was mostly him chatting. He told her about how Kana placed cards based on the poems' content rather than any strategic reason, just like Shinobu did. They had tried to beat it out of her, but they had realized the futility and hypocrisy of trying to convince Kana that she couldn't win with such an eccentric placement when the reigning Queen followed the same methods. Taichi even tried to convince Shinobu that she should join a society or club, so she had community support around her. He thought she would benefit from that given how isolated she was, but he didn't make much headway with her on that front.

"Having people around you is helpful, you know. For example, Arata is as strong as you, but if it hadn't been for Chihaya and I and our persistence, he would probably still be on a break from karuta."

"He is not as strong as me," Shinobu said immediately.

"Right," Taichi laughed. "My mistake."

He was glad he had managed to clear up the miscommunication and alleviate Shinobu's jealousy, at least a little. It wouldn't have been good to let her stew. She was definitely the type to hold grudges, even if it had been caused by a misunderstanding.

After all that excitement, he finally took a break. He thought he would read a book or watch something, but he was so tired from the events of the day, he fell asleep before he could even decide what to do.

Notes: I am a month late with my update! Until this point, I was able to post one chapter a month. I really struggled with this chapter because it felt more filler-y before I get to the main part of the story which will diverge from canon quite a bit. But I couldn't skip much either because the subtle differences were important for the rest of the story. Hence, the great struggle. Hopefully, the next chapter will be faster. Thanks for sticking with me! Please let me know about your thoughts on the story so far 😊. It's always nice to know I'm not writing into a void.

You can find me on Twitter (SabishiTomo) and Tumblr (sabishi-tomo)!