A question Hiro always had in the back of her mind was, "What would happen if I were to run into Jomei again?"

What would it feel like to see him again? What would she say? How would her son respond? Those questions were just a few that reflected the mixed feelings she felt just by thinking about the possibility.

Calling him meet however caused even more questions to the surface. She wanted to ask them all, but for now, she had to focus on the really important ones; the ones that caused her to consider reaching out to Jomei in the first place.

"You look good, Hiro," he said.

"Oh, thank you," she replied, flustered. "You seem to be holding up well yourself."

"I get by."

Small talk: the part of a conversation with the potential to be the most uncomfortable. With Jomei being a man of few words regarding anything out of his interests, it was inevitable.

"I must admit, when you reached out to me out of the blue, I assumed that it had something to do with Shujinkou and sure enough it was," he continued.

"Yeah, well… I'm not sure you know but a lot has happened and now he's in a coma," Hiro informed him.

"The result from his run in with Akui right? I can only assume he was torturing him as some kind of attempt to draw me out."

"Right…"

Hiro was discomfited by the matter of fact manner Jomei responded to her. Expected, but still discomfiting.

"Is it safe to say you answering me so fast was because you were already around checking things out?" she asked.

"I had to see what that man was planning," Jomei admitted. "What he would do when all was said and done."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

"Oh…"

Hiro solemnly tapped on the table. No matter how expected his responses were and prepared for them she was, they still stung a little. She feared she may not be able to handle this reunion and her already feeling the way she did filled made her wonder if there was some truth to her doubts.

"Hiro… What's the reason you called me here?" Jomei queried. "I know it's not to give me an update on Shujinkou's health."

"I… I just wanted to know if you would happen to know if there was more to come from all of this."

Jomei quietly stared at Hiro. For the first time since he showed up, his eyes displayed a hint of interest.

"How much of this situation do you understand?" he quizzed.

"About as much as anyone else I suppose."

"What anyone would know varies. I require you be more specific."

Hiro closed her eyes and recalled what she had been told since the night Shujinkou fell into a coma.

"I know Akuma was after Yuri and Akui was after Shujinkou and their friends got caught in the crossfire. That's all I know. Understandably, I was only given the cliff notes version from those who were there."

"And you knew they were holding out on you?"

"I didn't want to force them to relive such a traumatic experience."

"Hm…" Jomei's eyes shifted for a brief moment. "Well then, let me walk you through the beginning.

Akuma was a teacher at their school and was suspended for reasons of misconduct. Given what happened not too long ago, I assume you can imagine what the kind of misconduct took place."

Hiro nodded her head.

"Thing is, nothing more happened because Yuri didn't say anything. I can only assume that she was desperately hoping that the situation would just vanish, but she didn't know who she was dealing with. Is she did, she would have known that saying nothing left the door open for Akuma to return if he wanted to and naturally he did this very year.

Knowing him, he'd probably try and apologize for past behavior even though that wouldn't be the best thing to do then which would have likely caused him to run into Shujinkou.

Now from what I saw from the field trip to your mother's resort, Yuri among his other friends seemed to have become at least somewhat infatuated at a speed similar to how Sayori fell for him. So with Akuma returning with potentially less than savory intentions, Shujinkou unintentionally attracting Yuri led to him unknowingly getting involved in something more dangerous than either of them would have realized.

Now from then to Devil's Night, it seemed like nothing much happened right? Well, neither of them realized that something sinister was going on behind their backs.

I'm not too sure whether Yuri had given Akuma a second chance or Akuma kept his distance, but it seems that he figure that if he couldn't finish what he started in person then, and I can only imagine the mental gymnastics that went on in his head for him to decide, 'I won't touch her again. But stalking and taking photos is okay.'

"I remember finding that out. It was very alarming, to say the least," Hiro confessed. "I could only imagine what was going through her mind when she found out."

"Here's the thing however. You would think he would get someone to do it for him, someone who can blend into a crowd and wouldn't be recognizable to his target. It'd be the smart thing to do, but instead, he took them all himself."

Hiro felt a chill crawl down her back as she pondered Jomei's words. "How do know for sure that it wasn't the former?"

Jomei once again stared at her in silence. Unlike before however, his eyes were dull and lacked any discernible emotions. "Because I saw him take a few during their summer vacation."

"What?"

"While I was around during the summer, I caught a glimpse of him in action while Shujinkou and his friends were at the beach, which led me to consider the possibility that he saw me with Shujinkou earlier. Since Shujinkou takes after you more in the looks department, it could be safely assumed that he didn't know that he was related to me, but seeing us together, he could have put it together if he didn't outright overhear us together. And that's just assuming he wasn't around during their first trip to your mother's resort."

Jomei took a breath as he observed Hiro's face, still frozen in shock from his earlier admission.

"…You saw Akuma doing what exposed him not too long ago during their vacation? Why didn't you tell anyone about that?" she questioned.

"I didn't want to assure that someone connected to Akui saw me."

"But you still could have told someone."

"If I told someone, and Akuma knew I was there, then he would have known who turned him in."

"But that's…"

"A measure to keep Akui from starting something that would have dragged me in it again."

"But that's…" for a moment, Hiro felt something bubble up inside her. It was something she hadn't felt in years. "You said yourself that Shujinkou might have unknowingly gotten involved in something and you had to have had an idea of what that might have been then if you saw Akuma. Something could have happened to everyone then."

"Unlikely, Akuma likes keeping his life together, which is evidenced by the fact that nothing happened until Shujinkou stumbled upon his secret hobby," Jomei continued. "I don't know why he would have proof of his deeds at a school, but at the same time, I'd expect nothing less from Akuma. You know the results from there."

Hiro wistfully shook her head.

"It turns out that Akuma tried to get out of the country using one of many personas Akui created for them, but something convinced him to stay. Afterwards, he was haphazardly moving around. His movements were sloppy, erratic and easy to trace, so when he was finally caught by the authorities, he shot one in the face and escaped."

That right there shocked me. He had a warped sense of morality, but I always figured actually murdering someone was a line he wouldn't cross. In the past, I felt like at times, he was genuinely remorseful for some of his actions, but maybe those times were a lie. Either way, once he crossed that line, there was only one choice he could make."

"He called his brother…" Hiro solemnly interjected. "He called his brother to do… something.

"I don't know what series of events could have transpired to lead to the Devil's Night Incident, but whether Akui saw an opportunity or Akuma saw that there was no coming back and wanted revenge or both, Shujinkou ended up becoming a prime target himself."

"And so did Sayori and Monika and Natsuki…"

"Akui loves playing games. He loves making a production of everything and most of all, he loves making moves that directly torture a person's psyche. Because of those three facets of his personality, Akui and his wife, Nivia, systematically kidnapped their Literature Club buddies to instill a sense a fear and powerlessness in them, mostly Shujinkou. If given time, he may have taken more of his friends and even you and your mother. But he had a time table set in his mind and successfully captured everyone before the night was done.

But what happened for sure after that is a bit foggy."

"What happened next…" Hiro fell silent for a moment. "All I was told was that Shujinkou saved everyone."

"I heard that too, but are you really telling me that Shujinkou somehow managed to beat Akui?" Jomei queried.

"That was what I was told. I don't think anyone was lying and the Akui and Akuma were found down so…"

"And Shujinkou fell into a coma. It sounds like he had no choice but to perform something that could have been suicidal and a coma is him being lucky."

For the second time, Hiro felt something bubbling up inside of her.

"So now that we're caught up, I can finally get to answering your question," Jomei continued. "You wanted to know if there was something else coming; I did too since I know Akui cannot take a loss even if his own life depended on it.

And losing to Shujinkou, someone he considered to be easy prey would have definitely been a blow to his pride. There was no way he would take it lying down and may have foregone any showmanship and just tracked Shujinkou down to shove a sword down his throat like this lying down."

Hiro winced. Not only because of the horrifying imagery Jomei had provided but also due to how easy it was to say it.

"So, what did you find?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Stuff like this… In order to avoid trouble, the ones who commit these act set safeguards to keep their presence from being known. And if they were discovered, then they would have safeguards to erase their presence and any trail they may have left behind."

"But Akui and Akuma were caught."

"Yes, but now that's no longer escaped. They're gone."

"They escaped?" Hiro worriedly questioned.

Jomei shook his head. "I don't know. From what I've heard, Akui was in a very unpleasant to look at state when he was found and Akuma wasn't that much better. They weren't in any position to do anything on their own, so I assumed they had some outside and inside help, but that wasn't the case either."

"Then what happened?"

"I don't know. I asked around but no one knows anything. Akuma, Akui, anyone related to them and any equipment that was used is gone without a trace. It's as if they just vanished."

"So…"

Hiro was unsure what to feel or what Jomei was trying to say.

"Vanishing from the world is like a form of art, Hiro. There are prerequisites in place that need to be readied if someone goes down that route. Akui always has the preliminaries readied but there are two factors afterwards that need to be done in the moment. One, you need to be in a position where your compromised persona can convincingly disappear, whether by death or other methods and two, you need to make sure that you leave no connections between those two personas."

"That doesn't sound like that's all there is to it."

"I'm greatly oversimplifying the steps just to give you a glimpse of what is needed. Perhaps, I should just give you assurance that no one can vanish like that of their own free will. Someone disappearing like that usually involves another party that usually doesn't have the person's they take best interests. Whatever the case, it's very unlikely Akui or Akuma bother anyone you know anymore."

"Oh…"

"You don't seem too pleased."

"I'm happy no one's in danger anymore but I'm not really thrilled of the prospect of vanishing people."

"You should get over that. Why feel sympathy for those who wronged you?"

Why fell sympathy for those who wrong you? Hearing those words come from Jomei's mouth was like a punch in the gut for Hiro. It actually felt like three, her taking the taking the additional hits for Hiroko and Shujinkou.

"Well, if you don't need anything else…"

Jomei took note of the dark look that fell on Hiro's face as he stood up. It was both fetching and uncanny, but most importantly, it was an expression he never expect her to make.

Still…

He was only able to take one step forward, before being stopped by-

"Jomei."

He looked down at Hiro, intrigued by the seriousness in her voice.

"The school trip… The first trip to mom's resort. You and Shujinkou bumped into each other right?"

Remaining silent, Jomei looked ahead. "…Yes."

"What were you even doing there? You know how my mother feels about you."

"No real reason. I was just in the area and decided to go to the best place to stay."

"But then you spent the day with him and he asked you whether or not he was the real reason you left. You told him he was."

"I did."

Hiro looked up at Jomei. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a visage that resembled a wounded animal.

"Why?" she asked. "We all spent years trying to get Shujinkou to realize that Hiroko's death and you leaving wasn't his fault and you didn't hesitate to validate his fears."

"… He asked me a question, I answered. After that, he ran. Besides, he seemed fine the next time I saw him, so clearly it didn't rattle him too much."

"Now, that was just luck or maybe him not wanting him to go back, but he did briefly revert back to the state he was left in after you left. And on the subject of the next time you met him, he told me that you gave him a fatherly pat on the head."

"I did."

"And yet, you didn't do anything when he was in a dangerous person's line of sight."

"What are you getting at, Hiro?"

"What I'm trying to say is I don't want you to get Shujinkou's hopes up for something that may not happen. If you two want something to happen that's fine, but if not… I just don't want you to continue hurting him."

Jomei did not say a word. The man walked forward and as he passed Hiro, he muttered, "At this point… He's only hurting himself."

There were times where words can trigger something in someone. It could bring out a nasty repressed side or cause the receiver great sorrow. It can also force someone into a state of self-reflection.

It didn't change how hurtful those words were, but-

"He's a real charmer, huh?"

A familiar voice shattered through her reflective state like glass. Turning around, Hiro found her house guests sitting in the booth behind her. Fuyu, with a red face, had her hand tightly covering Mali's mouth.

"I'm very sorry for all of this…" Fuyu apologized.

Mali suddenly slipped away from her captor and shook her head.

"I'm not. I'm Senpai's Kōhai and as such, it's my duty to look after his mother while he's asleep. With Senpai's mother heading off in such a hurry, it was safe to assume that it wasn't for something pleasant. So, to make sure nothing would happen to Senpai's mother, I followed her," she succinctly explained. "The others followed me because they thought I was just being nosy."

"Realistically, it could have been both, which I think goes for all of us since we stuck around," Kiyoko admitted. "Or at least three of us."

"I honestly thought it could have been something that threatened Senpai's mom's life," Mali insisted. "Instead it was something far more unpleasant."

"So… You all heard everything?" Hiro asked.

The four students nodded their heads.

"So, that was Senpai's dad, huh…" Mali curiously turned towards the entrance then looked back at Hiro with a bright smile. "He's like Senpai's complete opposite. Senpai clearly didn't get anything from him personality wise."

"Yeah, I kinda get why seeing made Shujinkou hide in a cardboard box…" Fuyu sympathized. "I'd honestly do the same."

"Jomei's presence had that affect on him…?" Hiro muttered.

"The first time they reunited! The first time!" Fuyu hastily assured her.

"Wow, not exactly something you should've said in front of Senpai's mother," Mali teased.

"It's okay," Hiro assured Fuyu. "I'm fine."

"So… What are you going to do now?" Fuyu asked.

"I got the answers I came for so there's really nothing else for me to do but return to Shujinkou."

Hiro stood up and walked in front of their table. "Thank you all for your concern."

With those parting words, she left the restaurant.

"She just thanked us for following her and she just did something super uncomfortable for her child… She's as interesting as Senpai," Mali praised.

"She's certainly as forgiving as Shujinkou…" Fuyu marveled. "The maiden side of his family is really the pinnacle of human decency."

"You know what one of the interesting points of their conversation was: the whole Devil Brothers vanishing thing."

"You think that it's more likely they did so of their own violation?"

Mali shook her head. "Nope. I think the chances of us seeing them or anyone connected to them again is almost impossible. In fact, I bet they're getting their just desserts wherever they're at now. It's really something I wish 'I' could assure you of personally though."

"Mali, why do keep emphasizing personal pronouns?" Fuyu questioned.

"Is that really what you should be asking right now? Shouldn't you instead be asking what to do regarding the Literature Club?"

Before she could get a response out, the group heard something vibrate against the table. In a split second, Kiyoko picked up her phone and read the notification on her screen.

"Welp, I gotta go," she said with a shrug.

"Eh? But where are you going during such an important time, Kiyoko?"

"Truthfully, I have a few chores at home that I gotta get done. Especially making sure there's food in the birdhouse. See you guys later."

Curiosity hung on Mali's face as she watched Kiyoko leave. As it slowly turned into interest, she was soon brought back to reality by Fuyu.

"We gotta head home too," she said. "Are you ready, Rei?"

Rei slowly nodded her head.

"Are I and Senpai's mother the only ones who cares about the other people that were involved in the Devil's Night scenario?" Mali asked aloud.

"We care, but I doubt anyone is interested in scheming and manipulating everyone like you're playing a game of chess," Fuyu rebuked.

"But I haven't done any scheming. All I've done is watch and talk to everyone like Senpai would. But no one listen to his malevolent Kōhai.

Honestly, the way things are right now, things seem utterly hopeless. I mean, wouldn't times like these be the best time for true friends to come together and support one another? And yet despite that, they're all separate. It really seems like Senpai was the only thing holding them together. And not only because they hopelessly fawn over him but because Senpai just has a magnetic trait to him. Without him, things seem fruitless."

"Mali…"

"At least, that's how it appears on the surface, but you and I know better don't we, Madame President. You know just as well as I do what needs to be done."

"Convince them to see my mother?" Fuyu proposed.

"Wow, you really think I'm trying to manipulate everyone and now you want to offer another solution," Mali giggled.

"Because, I really don't want you to do anything that will make them feel worse."

"Hmm… I don't think I would have a chance to do anything even if I wanted too. With how their responding to everything, they may actually bite my head off… or slice it off. Besides, thinking about it, mending things isn't my role nor anywhere near my specialty. That someone else's."

"You're not talking about Shujinkou… are you?"

Mali playfully scratched her right cheek. "Senpai would definitely be a great choice. The 'Heart' of the club would most certainly be able to effortlessly get the job done especially since the trust they put in him is extends beyond their infatuation with him after all. But that really goes beyond his supporting role. After all, what's there to support if there's nothing there at all? Though given your doubtful tone, you already knew I wasn't referring to Senpai."

No… The fact of the matter is, if the 'Heart' and the 'Moral Guiding Hand' are out of commission, then shouldn't we appeal to the essence? But that essence is in a funk just everyone else, meaning no one in the Literature Club is able to do anything. Some of them don't want to do want to do anything for a variety of reasons. And there's everyone else that wants to give them their requested space because they went through something traumatic.

So when it comes down to it, Senpai's Kōhai who is far from being equipped from the job and really has no reason to do anything is the only one who's doing anything at all. I'm sure everyone knows what needs to be done, but are too busy walking on egg shells around everyone."

Mali took note of the internal conflict Fuyu expressed on her face.

"You asked me earlier if I felt any empathy for anyone. And yet the one who probably has less than you is doing more. Is empathy the very thing holding you back from doing anymore? Or do you just worry that you'll make things worse?"

"…What could I do that wouldn't make things worse?" Fuyu wondered aloud.

"That's for a question everyone has to figure out for themselves," the first-year student answered. "Though I would suggest you focus your attentions to Monika since she looks like she's going to fall apart at any moment."

Mali giggled as she stepped past Fuyu and walked out of the restaurant. She looked up at the sky, watching as the clouds overtake the orange sea above her.

"After all, if the 'Soul' of the club is unable to be roused from her despair, then all is truly lost."