Hi! I've been working on this for a minute. This takes place after Seclusion Stories chapters 16 and 17 (which happened back to back) but you don't have to read those to know what's going on. As is the norm these days, super special thanks to my de facto editor, David Tai, who has been kind enough to help me deal with my own neuroses! Thank youuuuuu~!

Anyway!

Let's goooooo~!

Chizuru Kagura usually didn't have trouble sleeping, but her instincts left her with an intense feeling of restlessness that resulted in a fair amount of tossing and turning throughout the night. She finally fell asleep at around two AM… only to wake up again at 3:20, 4:56, and, finally, 7:23.

She didn't know why she was so out of sorts about the conversation she tried to have with King the night before. It wasn't like people were obligated to tell her things — especially people whom she had neglected to keep in contact with. But… the way King suddenly ended things only confirmed to Chizuru that something somewhere changed. What it was, she didn't know, but she was certain that it was tied to a lie Mai told her some time ago about King catching mono from sharing a straw with her during a night of drinking. The illness knocked the bartender flat for a full month and was so bad that she was barely able to even speak.

It was a good story, Chizuru had to admit. Believable, sure, but absolutely untrue. She did try to contact King directly after hearing that she was "ill", and while she received a quick response, there was something in the text correspondence that was… off. But, Chizuru decided to leave it alone and check in on another occasion.

Time passed, and that occasion never came, as Chizuru had simply been too busy. It was only when she watched King nearly kill Athena Asamiya on live television that she began to think that she should have tried to reconnect all that time ago. She resolved to try again… and never did, because, once again, she was just too. damn. busy.

Then the pandemic hit, and Chizuru was actually afforded some time to just... sit and think. Think about things she had pushed to the back burner for far too long. She started thinking about her last meeting with Mai, which, in turn, got her thinking about the mysterious cover story for King, which resulted in even more thinking (namely about the ferocity of what King did to Athena), which then resulted in the previous night's somewhat bizarre phone call.

She supposed she couldn't blame King. They hadn't talked in so long… but for her to shut down the way she did simply didn't feel right. Hell, from the start, Chizuru sensed that something about the other woman was different.

She would have to mull it over later, though, because she had to get ready for work (which, thankfully, she was able to do from home).

So Chizuru showered, dressed, and sat down for her morning coffee. She scrolled through the latest news around the world, looking for anything that could indicate any otherworldly problems, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief when her search turned up nothing out of the ordinary — meaning she had one less thing to worry about for the time being. However, there were still plenty of other things that required her attention:

Her 9:00AM Marketing and Communications meeting...

And then her 10:00AM with the head of HR to go over diversity training...

Not to mention the 10:45AM with Content and Strategy….

And then…

...Then there was the fact that something happened with King that Mai felt the need to hide. Something that was somehow linked to the fight with Athena — and maybe even the fight after that, as King hadn't seemed completely like herself then, either. But what could it have been? What would Mai need to cover up and why?

With a sigh Chizuru rubbed her temples before taking a glance at her phone. She supposed she could just call Mai and ask her point blank why she lied so long ago, but that would probably make her look like a crazy person. Instead, she pulled up her calendar to see if she could move or cancel any of her meetings, as she knew she was going to spend the better part of her day preoccupied by this mystery.

What's in the box? Let's see:

* So! As we should all know by now (unless you're new here, then you should maybe play a little bit of catch up...) something terrible did happen to King. If you're new here, I'm not gonna tell you. MLS is a few clicks that way.
* King's ordeal left her so fucked up that she needed as much time as possible to try to recover.
* Previously mentioned, but for any n00bs here: King faced Athena in a tournament match and, after doing poorly, gets the opportunity to sink her with a liver shot before breaking her spine with Silent Flash and finishing her off with a Venom Shot. (Despite her healing abilities, Athena needed to be hospitalized.)
* HR = Human Resources (for anyone overseas, or?)
* Obviously, Chiz has been out of the picture because of all of her numerous responsibilities but, at the end of the day, still cares for her former teammates. I mean... clearly. That's just who she is.

Alright, I think that's all. What, if anything, will Chizuru learn? Hopefully you'll tune in next time to find out how this will unfold! Cheers!