Chapter 3, Part 1 / Shopping Isn't a Break From Work

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Murasame worked the normal hours of an average adult, or so he told himself. In theory, he should have only been given the regular hours of a working employee, that being forty hours spread across five days. It left the rest of his time to do what he pleased or to deal with what must be done outside of working hours. However, Murasame never liked being behind on his work and while he held the motto that work should always stay at work, he did reluctantly head in to work in order to wrap up the loose ends of a project that had its deadline later that day.

Over everything else, he didn't want to intentionally let something slip through because he wanted to be lazy, so that left a single day for him to spend until he went back to work. And even then, Murasame wasn't going to be able to spend it on himself the moment he realized something as Isayuki met up with him in the manor's hallways.

"Hey, kid? You don't have any other clothing, do you?"

"I had that gown I was wearing before you bought me this, but you threw it out when I got changed into this black suit."

"No, I mean for casual wear. Have you been wearing that suit this entire time?"

"What else would I be wearing? I was floating in a river when you found me. This is the only piece of clothing that I own for myself, but it's not like it bothers me. It was a bit stiff when I first got into it, but it's really starting to get comfortable."

"Okay, I think we have a misunderstanding," Murasame sighed, facepalming himself. "You were never supposed to keep wearing the same piece of clothing every second of the day."

"Huh? Hey, I know that I have to take the suit off when I'm bathing. I'm not that clueless."

"I was exaggerating," he groaned. "Anyways, it looks like I found a new problem that we have to take care of. If you're going to be my assistant, you can't forget some basic things like hygiene. It's not good to be wearing the same thing everyday and not have them cleaned."

Murasame did have to take some fault in this dilemma. He made the decision to let Isayuki live with him and Ikaruga, but never thought too far into what might be needed. Since he was rich, he never thought about attending to the simple basics for himself, as that was typically handled without his input. He never thought about Isayuki lacking any other clothes until now.

Isayuki quickly smelt the suit, but slowly let go of it.

"I… I guess it is starting to smell a bit."

"Even if your body is clean, it means nothing if you're immediately re-masking it with dirty laundry. After we have breakfast, we'll head out to grab you some stuff. Well, more stuff, to be correct."

And Isayuki was heading out with him the last few days like that. If Murasame never said anything about it, the odor around them and his office space would have significantly deteriorated. It's a wonder that no one else has mentioned it yet, but maybe they haven't noticed either.

Or that they didn't want to bring it up.

"You're going to need more clothes than just the one set. Even for me, I have multiple sets of this same suit." Murasame tapped on his white jacket. "This style is a bit of a favorite of mine, but I still have different variations for different occasions that I would need to attend to. For important people like me, there is no one size that fits all occasions."

"So I need different suits?"

"No, for you, that black suit is like a uniform. You only need that one style when you're at work." Murasame scratches his head. "That was a bit of a tangent, but digressing aside, you do need to be picking up more clothing for yourself. That's what I'm getting at here, understand?"

Isayuki nodded.

For breakfast, they were served steamed rice, some miso soup, and grilled fish. It wasn't an uncommon morning meal for the everyday folk, but the quality of the food had been significantly elevated to the standards of the Houou Family. The conversation between Ikaruga and Murasame was largely kept to small talk as Isayuki kept trying to keep his eyes away from Ikaruga.

As they went their separate ways, Murasame sat down with Isayuki in the car as it drove off.

"I'm telling you, she doesn't bite. There's no reason to be scared of her."

"Th-That's, uhm…" On the mere thought of Ikaruga, Isayuki was sweating bullets. If he shook any further, he might have made it difficult for the chauffeur to drive in a straight line. "I don't know, she looked pretty scary when she pointed her sword at me…"

"She hasn't done that since you've met, right? She's been telling me how everytime you two would cross paths, or were going to cross paths, in the hallway, you would immediately dart away to the opposite direction like a cat being spooked by a loud noise."

"Even if you tell me to not be scared, I can't help it…"

"My sister isn't really someone to be that scared of. And even if she wanted to kill you, you can easily recover from any injuries she dealt to you. You've already done that back at the Tengu Foundation!"

"Huh? I did?"

Murasame flinched.

"You know, I never did ask about that incident. What the hell happened back there?" Murasame leaned back into his seat, crossing his arms. Isayuki gave a brief rundown immediately after it happened, but Murasame didn't dig any deeper than that at the time. "We were disrupting their plans by breaking whatever experiments they were running, but the moment that we dealt with that weird scythe, you suddenly took control of it and started attacking everything recklessly."

Isayuki furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. I don't remember anything about that."

Murasame narrowed his eyes. "So then, what do you remember?"

"Well, you told me to break the glass, I did so, but that caused an explosion to happen. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground and you were checking up on me."

"And that's all? You don't remember fighting Ikaruga?"

"Your sister was there!?" Isayuki gasped. "And I was fighting her!?"

"Okay, that's a good enough answer."

It wasn't even a fight, being more akin to a single exchange.

"So you know nothing about the scythe. What about the chains? Surely, you remember that."

Isayuki looked down to his hands. "I'm… not sure about that. I have no idea what those chains were and believe me, I've been trying to figure that one out too. They showed up out of nowhere and they ended up disappearing like it was nothing."

"Maybe knowing more about those chains might finally give us a lead on what happened to you before I found you in that river."

"That's…" Isayuki widened his sparkling eyes. "You're absolutely right, Master Murasame! Why didn't I think about that!? Clearly, those chains must have a part in what happened to me!"

"My intellect is obviously far superior to the average person," Murasame scoffed, "so a simple detail like that was only elementary to me."

"Amazing! You're amazing, Master Murasame!"

"Of course I am!"

To what Isayuki had been pondering about when it came to those chains, Murasame could only assume that it was the most basic of ideas. He could already imagine Isayuki trying to see if the chains were somewhere in a hidden pocket that didn't actually exist, but there was a detail that caught his attention. Isayuki couldn't manually bring it out, at least under these current conditions.

"But still…"

What had been the incident that triggered the chains to come out?

That was a simple answer. Their enemy had killed Isayuki moments beforehand, shooting him dead. At least, it would have killed him, if not for his unnatural regeneration, but perhaps, there was a failsafe to that in which if Isayuki was killed before his regeneration could heal him back, those chains would unleash themselves and basically, do something that could revive him.

This was all in theory though. There wasn't any hard evidence that Murasame could use in order to solidify his thoughts and the only way to test that theory out was…

—Murasame didn't want to think about it.

Even if he knew that Isayuki would heal, it didn't feel right to be killing someone to test something out. It didn't mean that Murasame wasn't hoping that they would run into a situation where Isayuki would face death, but that would likely mean that he himself would be in some level of danger.

Maybe it was a good idea to be in the dark on that idea for now.

"Lord Murasame?" the chauffeur called out to him, breaking him out of his thoughts. "We've arrived at your destination. How long are you expecting to be here?"

"A few hours, maybe? I don't know, do whatever you want while we're here. I'll call back when we're almost done."

"As you wish."

The chauffeur opened the door for Murasame and Isayuki, leading them to the entrance of a large shopping district. Isayuki froze in awe, seeing how big the entire area was. Compared to the Phoenix Conglomerate, it was shorter, but much wider. It might have been as wide as six or seven buildings of the Phoenix Conglomerate and that mere measure might have placed Isayuki in a daze.

"How are we supposed to navigate through this?"

"They have infographics at a few key points in the mall, but I've been here many times already. Stick close to me and you won't get lost. Besides, the layout is straight-forward enough. You would have to be a child to get yourself lost in a place like this."

"A child, huh…?" Isayuki grimaced, taking a step closer to Murasame. "Well, someone that is Master Murasame's student can't be seen as a mere child, right?"

Maybe a bit too close, since their arms were now touching. Murasame was forced to poke him away with a disappointed sigh. "I may have said stick close, but don't forget about my personal space."

"Y-Yes, Master Murasame…"

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The Mitsukoshi Shopping District was one of the largest ones available in Tokyo, not to mention the rest of Japan. There had even been underground tunnels connecting various "landmarks" of the district, allowing for a person to travel from one side to the other with relative ease. As such, it received thousands upon thousands of visitors everyday to spend time or money on the countless stores available for them. Isayuki and Murasame were merely statistics on that count, but Murasame's presence was enough to turn some heads to those who noticed and recognized him.

"Alright, let's head in here."

After walking for a bit, Murasame stopped in front of one of the many clothing stores available, but this one held a refined taste to its interior decoration. Despite the amassed crowd passing through the district, there hadn't been too many people inside. Due to how expensive some of the clothes could get in there, most people simply settle for window shopping, but not for Murasame.

"This is where I usually get my suits and where I had yours ordered. We'll grab a few more duplicates for your own black suit here before branching out to other suits you can pick up. Be lucky that your clothes hadn't been a custom order, so we don't need to wait for them to come in."

"Custom order?" Isayuki tilted his head.

"A special version of the black suit you're wearing. You can spend more money in order to personalize the clothes to your own satisfaction, but that also means they need some time to make it. So not only do you pay more, but you also have to wait more. Although, for me, that's perfectly—"

"That's stupid," Isayuki frowned. "Why would anyone want to get a custom in that case?"

"Because that's the price of getting exactly what someone wants."

Murasame cleared his throat.

"And it's the reason why I make customs orders."

A silence ticked between the two as Isayuki's mind was catching up to his ears.

"I-I mean, did I say stupid?" Isayuki sweated. "I meant that it's, uh, stupidly great!"

"I might have been leading you on with my explanation a bit, but it might help if you wait until I'm finished with what I'm saying before cutting me off. Again."

"I'm sorry," Isayuki immediately murmured.

Murasame sighed. "I don't want to be wearing some generic clothing, after all. Murasame Houou must be wearing specialty-made suits that match his personal tastes. I'm not some plebian to be stepping down to wearing something another person made with their intentions spurred on by their lonesome."

"So we're getting more black suits for me?"

"We'll get some custom-fit ones for you while we're here. If I wanted to grab some more of those generic black suits, I would have been able to do it online like I did for your current set."

"Thanks, Master Murasame! I appreciate it!"

Isayuki had been thrusting his arms up in joy as they walked through the doors. Now that Murasame thought about it, this was the second time that they were heading out to buy Isayuki something. First, it was his bracers, and now it was his clothes. Murasame kept a mental note to not make this a habit, but that was quickly interrupted by one of the employees there.

He was a familiar face here, so it wasn't unpredictable that the staff would already have everything sorted as soon as possible for him. There was always an energetic employee here that would bother dealing with the uncharismatic son of the Houou Family, but it wasn't as if Murasame bothered to remember her face or her name. Even as she had been approaching them.

"Oh? Mister Houou? I'm sorry, but I don't recall seeing any orders currently available for pick-up. Were you here looking to make a brand new custom order for—? Oh my."

The employee's eyes widened as she noticed the unfamiliar party member behind Murasame. Before her mind could ponder at the theories, Murasame answered her unlying questions.

"I'm not here for any of my orders. I'm looking to get some clothes for this kid."

"I remember that you ordered a single black suit a few days ago, but it was clearly too small for you. Seeing that same suit being worn by your friend, I can see the reason behind that order now!" The employee immediately jumped ships, glancing over to Isayuki. Her energy had overwhelmed Isayuki, but he kept a strong front. "Anyways, this is certainly a great surprise, Mister Houou!"

"A surprise? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, it's a surprise that you would be bringing someone in with you, no?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Murasame scoffed, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, don't toughen up," the employee giggled, waving a hand playfully. "You can't argue with the fact that every other time you've been here, it has always been by yourself, a family member, or a bodyguard. This is the first time you came in with someone that doesn't fit into any of those categories."

Murasame clicked his tongue. "Cut the small talk already and do your job."

"Alright, on it~!" the employee sang. "A custom order for your friend? I'll take the measurements, if you don't mind."

The employee pulled out a ribbon-like measuring tape, prompting Isayuki to the side after handing his bracers for Murasame to hold. With a subtle nod from Murasame, Isayuki waddled over and stuck his arms out to the side like instructed.

After wrapping the tool all over Isayuki's body, the employee diligently noted it all on a piece of paper. Although she looked like she was working hard, her mouth was still moving as freely as ever.

"You said you wanted to give your friend a suit, Mister Houou?"

"The kid's my student, my disciple, not a friend," Murasame firmly corrected, crossing his arms on the sidelines. "That aside, yeah. I'd like a custom suit made with the measurement you get there. Let the color be in a similar vein to what the kid is wearing right now, but I'll look and see on the cutting room floor if there needs to be any changes."

"That's a bit of a shame."

Murasame frowned. "Why? What's wrong with that?"

"I mean, she's such a gorgeous girl! It feels like a waste to give her a suit!"

Murasame felt like correcting the woman once again, but since she was measuring Isayuki, it was more than likely that she would discover not before long what the truth had been.

"I know you're most familiar with custom order suits, but if you say the word, I'd be happy to direct your friend to the world of custom dresses and—"

And there it was.

The woman blinked as she looked at the measurements once again.

While Isayuki looked feminine from a mere glance at his head, his body was most certainly one belonging to a male. Murasame assumed that the employee was smart enough to realize that the measurements were adding up properly to the likeness of a woman.

She glanced up to Isayuki who had a troubled look on his face the entire conversation.

"Oh, I apologize for the assumption."

"I, uhm, should have said something…"

Isayuki looked over to Murasame at the corner of his eyes.

"Master Murasame?" he whispered. "Do I really look like a girl?"

"Don't ask me," Murasame shrugged. "I really don't care about those types of things. I did suggest you cut your hair when I was getting you that first suit, but you were the one to refuse."

"I… like my hair though…"

"In that case, you deal with it if people mistake your gender."

Though Murasame said that, he wasn't entirely sure if cutting Isayuki's hair would lessen the effect of people mistaking his gender, mainly due to that perplexing androgyny of his face. There were guys with hair as long as Isayuki's and there were girls with hair as short as Murasame's.

"It would be awfully terrible if this hair was cut, if I have to say something about it," the employee interjected, still in the midst of taking numbers and jotting them down. "Every girl would love to have beautiful hair like yours!"

"I'm not sure… how to feel about that."

"Take it as a compliment! It wouldn't hurt to do so!" The employee stole a bit of the time to run her fingers through Isayuki's ponytail. "Like, how smooth and soft this feels, all while feeling so natural! It's like your hair has never had any turmoil of any sort!"

Murasame frowned, remembering the state that he found Isayuki. The helmet that had been latching onto Isayuki's head might have been able to protect his hair to end up like that, but he wasn't so sure if that was its original intention. It was more like a side-effect to something that felt more nefarious, but it was already shattered into pieces, so it wasn't like Murasame could dive deeper into that matter.

"You should style your hair one day! I promise you'll love it!"

"I-I… Uh-Uhm…"

With how much the employee had been focusing on Isayuki's hair, the victim looked too flustered to even do anything about her friendly advances. Murasame sighed from the sidelines.

"Focus on your job. You should already have the measurements by now, right?"

"Heh. Guilty as charged."

The moment the employee released Isayuki from her domain, he bounced right back to Murasame's side. He wasn't fully hiding from the employee, since he knew the conversation was in good intentions, but Murasame couldn't help himself in comparing Isayuki to a skittish cat once again. Isayuki quickly took back his bracers.

"Did you have a particular style in mind?"

"I don't know," Isayuki shrugged. "Whatever Master Murasame wants me to wear, I'll wear it."

"Even if it's a dress?"

Isayuki froze in a monochromatic light.

"Don't even think about…"

While Murasame wanted to dismiss the idea entirely, the phrasing caused him to briefly imagine Isayuki in a dress. For some reason, it looked very fitting, but very cursed at the same time. He shook those thoughts out of his head.

"D-Don't tease the kid. I wouldn't ask him to do anything like that."

"Y-Yeah, I trust Master Murasame enough that he wouldn't put me in a dress!"

"Not even an a-line skirt?"

Once again, that image flashed into his mind. His hand instinctively held his chin, seeing how much it blended well with Isayuki's general aesthetic. If there were to be a moment where he did need to dress up as a girl, giving him an a-line would have been the best option without demoralizing the kid.

"Master Murasame! I don't know what an a-line skirt is, but please stop thinking about it!"

Maybe not though.

"Calm down. I wasn't thinking about that."

"Are you telling the truth?"

"... Anyways, I have an idea of what type of custom orders I want for the kid. It's a slight variant of some of my older suits that I bought here, so if you can bring up the past purchases from your database, I can show you what I'm talking about."

"Master Murasame…!"

As Isayuki was crying out behind him while the employee snickered behind her hand, Murasame came up and got the clothing situation sorted out for Isayuki, including identical sets to his current suit. They were able to get Isayuki changed out to one of them. The old suit was folded up and given in a separate bag from the others, to which Isayuki was made to hold on the excuse that it was his stuff, so he needed to take care of it.

Of course, Murasame Houou doesn't hold any bags regardless.

"The custom orders will be done in a few days. We'll have them shipped over to your address and if there's any problems, please don't hesitate to come back. We'll have the situation fixed in no time."

"Alright, appreciate it. You can put the total on the tab."

"Thank you for your patronage!"

Once they left the store, Isayuki turned to Murasame.

"Okay, where do we go next?"

Considering how they only bought professional-setting clothing, since that was the focus of that store, they still needed to account for the casual clothes that Isayuki would need to wear around the manor. The wardrobe was looking very empty, not that Murasame needed to even look in there to know that, but this area had plentiful stores for those sort of shopping sprees.

"Another clothing store."

"Please announce that I'm a boy when we enter."

"What? No, I refuse. If you want something, you have to do it for yourself. When things all boil down to it, you're the only person you can depend on to get something you want to be done. You can't just keep depending on me for everything."

Isayuki whimpered as they walked down the pathway.

|-|/ 3 \|-|

"I never thought shopping would be this tiring."

"My head's spinning from everything…"

Murasame groaned as he leaned back against a chair while Isayuki had been practically passed out on the table. They were currently in the food court and just like the rest of the shopping district, it was quite busy here. Parents were out taking care of children's appetite, couples were sharing meals and generally being all lovey-dovey, and friends were hanging out in order to pass the time somehow.

Anyways, Murasame sorely underestimated the amount of effort that goes into shopping for clothes, especially when a wardrobe had to be bought from the ground up. Isayuki must have been holding about eleven bags filled with shirts, pants, underwear, and jackets. While it was simply enough to locate them, it wasn't as simple to escape from the apparent staff.

Was it in his head that everyone looked like they were surprised at what he had been doing? It wasn't on the level as the store where they bought the suits, but on some scale, that was something that they had to deal with every time. Murasame didn't stray too far from simple purchases for himself, so this was another world of unfamiliarity that he was forced to face.

"I was sure that Ikaruga could go off like this like it was nothing, even if it wasn't frequent…" Murasame groaned as his head rolled back onto the seat. "Heading out with her friends and all, I have to admit her stamina is better than mine. You've won this round, my dear sister."

Somewhere far away, Ikaruga felt the need to sneeze.

"Though," Murasame continued, "I'm sure she didn't have to go through the problematic staff that we were faced with. Damn it, kid. Why do you keep attracting people, particularly the female staff, over to play dress-up with you?"

"You think I do it on purpose!?" Isayuki cried. Even the happy-go-lucky boy sounded frustrated by how tired they were, as Murasame watched him slamming his hand on the table repeatedly. "Even though I tell them that I'm a guy, they keep trying to slip in things that girls would wear! I'm not a doll! Why are they treating me like one!?"

"They were certainly less conservative when I came with you, rather than all the other times I've been to those places, but if this is how they really are, I'd rather go off by myself." Murasame pulled out his phone, opening up a text document. "I'll make note of the stores that didn't overreact, so I can avoid them if I'm heading somewhere with you as my company…"

Murasame could see Isayuki's spirit flying away as he finally slammed his head against the table.

"Master Murasame…? Are we done yet…?"

"With clothes shopping, at the very least."

"There's more!?" Isayuki stiffened up in a whimper.

"Nothing that you need to worry about. The rest of your necessities can be ordered online." Murasame rested his phone down and sighed. "For now, they're things that I need to pick up. Normally, I'd have someone from the house staff to do it for me, but as I'm already here, I might as well get them for myself."

"What are you picking up?"

"A custom laptop. I've been using a regular one during work for the time being, but it doesn't have the specifications that I need for the higher-end tasks and greater built-in security while I'm on the move. If you remember, those bastards from the Tengu Foundation smashed my old one while they were trying to grab data off of it."

Even so, he would still have to recover as much information as he could onto the machine. The smashed SD card was home to some of those important documents, so he actually kept some of those pieces in a ziplock bag and brought it along with him today. Not that he was thinking they could do anything about it, but it was still worth a try if they asked him to bring it in for a closer inspection.

Isayuki wagged his feet back and forth.

"So, should we head out now? I'd rather get it over with sooner than later."

"Not yet. The scheduled meeting time is in an hour, but maybe showing up early would be a fair thing to do." Murasame took a deep breath. "Though, you might want to stay out of this one. You look like you're about to collapse from mental exhaustion."

"What should I do in the meantime?"

"There's a candy store near the food court. I'll give you four thousand yen to buy whatever you want there. Maybe some sugar in your body might wake you up a bit, or at the very least, give you enough energy to last the rest of the day. I don't trust you enough to make it to the computer store by yourself, so I'll wait here for you to get back."

"But all I have to do is follow the map, right?"

"And can you do that?"

"..."

"..."

"I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Take your time."

If anything, Murasame was thankful for this excuse. He was just as tired as Isayuki and wanted to take a few minutes as a break, but once Isayuki said he wanted to get it over with already, Murasame knew he couldn't exactly keep up. This was the best way to hide his face while staying on top.

"Here you go."

Murasame pulled out two bills and handed them to Isayuki.

However, Isayuki merely stared at it and started to sweat.

"Wait a minute, this is a lot."

"What? It's four thousand yen. Two bills of two thousand yen."

"But I'm only getting candy!?"

"Yeah? Keep the change for pocket allowance, I don't know."

"That's… a lot of money…"

"Huh? Hey, kid?" Murasame raised his eyebrow. "Do you know how much money we've already spent on your clothes…?"

"I mean, I didn't see you take out your wallet at any moment."

"Because they've all been forwarding the receipt to a tab which is paid for all together at the end of the month. It's far easier like that for myself. I know my sister prefers to buy things upfront, but that's not my style to do things."

"How much have we spent already…?"

"I don't know. I'll figure it out when I get home."

Isayuki gasped. "It must be wonderful to spend money like that without a care in the world..."

"Like it matters to me. I see it as an investment, but what am I to say?" Murasame started shooing Isayuki away. "Now, get going. The candy shop is that way and if you miss it, there's something seriously wrong with you. You can leave the bags on the table in the meantime."

Isayuki paused for a moment before smiling, nervously taking the money.

"Thank you, Master Murasame!"

He rushed off in the right direction, finally giving Murasame some time to breathe. It wasn't as if he was tired by Isayuki's presence, but other than his family members, he hadn't recounted a time where he was spending this much time with another person.

Having a student was more trouble than he originally assumed, but for some reason, Murasame found himself smirking by the end of it. He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes a bit to rest while being unaware of the problematic thugs that were about to approach him.

|-|/ 4 \|-|

"There's so much candy here…"

Isayuki looked back and forth between the arrays of sweets and confectionery lined up before him. He wasn't sure where to begin, but the prices were rather low for what his spending limit was. He walked over to see the first set, glancing at what the labels were.

"... Wait, I can't read."

Indeed, it was all gibberish to Isayuki.

No matter how much he squinted, Isayuki never learned how to read apparently, so he wasn't able to figure out what each product had been. Despite that, they were all so colorful and attractive that he was tempted to pick up a few from piles that caught his attention and deal with it as he went through his stash.

However, how was he supposed to buy these?

They were all left in bulk inside of containers and if he picked some up into his hands, they would get the sugar onto his hands. He looked around for a bit to notice a roll of plastic bags as his solution.

Now that he was equipped for the job, he glanced back at the candy to see what he liked, but the idea of candy seemed to be a vague sense to him. He knew that he tasted some before, but due to his forgotten memories, he couldn't figure out which ones. If he could start at the candies that he already tried, it might have been easier, but with nothing else to go off from, perhaps randomness might have been what he must adhere to.

As he reached out for a container though, his spine started trembling.

He could hear his heart pounding through his ears all of a sudden, as if fear possessed him in a split second.

"H… Huh…?"

Isayuki didn't know what was going on, but it felt like there was some heavy weight crushing against him. He turned his head over to the supposed source, only to be surprised.

A girl with pink hair and unusual flower-shaped pupils.

Another girl with white hair in twintails and an eyepatch over an eye.

Both of whom were in a school uniform.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Was I disturbing you?"

"There wasn't any need to bother him."

"He looked like he was deep in thought, trying to figure out what sweets were the best! He had that sort of expression on his face!"

"I suppose it wouldn't be out of the question to see you helping someone over candy."

What was this feeling?

It was familiar.

Isayuki's mind immediately flashed back to when he met Ikaruga for the first time. No matter what Murasame tried to say in convincing Isayuki that Ikaruga wanted to be on good terms, it wasn't as simple as making it so. There was something inherent about Ikaruga that scared Isayuki to the core, something that he was somehow feeling from these two girls.

He couldn't put it into words himself, but there was a term for it…

"Was there… Was there something you needed from me?"

"You look like you're having problems choosing which candy you wanted to get! As someone who has tried out all the candy here, I can give you the suggestions that you need!"

"Please don't forget the main reason why we're here, Hibari. We ended up getting some candy for you while we were waiting around for our objective, but with this…"

"Don't worry, Yagyū. I haven't forgotten!"

—It was the sense of overwhelming strength.

[Author's Notes]

While the story is focused mainly on Murasame, that isn't to say that a few familiar faces won't be showing. However, please note that these familiar faces may be subjugated to brief appearances because, well, this is still a story about Murasame and many of the existing shinobis in Senran Kagura are not even involved with Murasame on a surface level. It's still fun to have these familiar girls show up from time to time though and I'll see how much of them can show up without ruining the focus of the narrative. In fact, weaving their brief appearances into the story might be a fun task for me...

I did want to reiterate the idea that this story is trying to take the concept of a Senran Kagura fanfic into a different direction. The obvious realization should being sinking right about the end, where instead of the original character being taken back by the girls' appearances, he's legitimately frightened of what's underneath, but that has its importance in the plot for later.

For what, you may ask...? Well, we'll have to get there to find out, won't we...?