A/N: It's been five months but I'm back, hat in hand! Just like Naoi in the last chapter. (Yeah, I probably should have composed a "previously, on...")

Exploring TPS has been fun and useful, and I love my dumb Akuma kids, but I miss writing the Battlefront. So while struggling through TPS Chapter 35 is a temptation, I'd much rather struggle through HC Chapter 32. Especially while I have the time and brainpower. I've finally hit a stride, so I'll be working hard! Many thanks to the reviews, follows, and faves that have been left waiting.

Moedernaaier, never fear, I haven't given up on this story. Too many important scenes to get to! Speaking of which, really interesting theory in that scientific study. True or not, a GlDeMo Battlefront reunion concert is sure to be life-changing. :D And you can at least be certain you'll see TK there dancing like he's never danced before! ZainR, I probably responded on twitter months ago, but I still get a kick out of the fact that your lights went out at the Chitose part. How's that for dramatic irony? Hope TPS has answered the rest of your questions. And as for when we find GlDeMo? Well, that's up to Yui. As you'll see in this chapter. Hehe...

Anyways, enjoy! I'll do my best to ride this writing wave.


[Chapter 30]: Know Thine Enemy


As per Hinata's suggestion, they went to the high school baseball field to take this week's Battlefront picture. Yui recognized a woman who used to be their upperclassman and got her to snap the photo for them. Such was life in a small town.

Save for Matsushita the Fifth, who did a dramatic salute, at first glance the shot generally looked the same. The scenery was different, though, and Shiina took advantage of it by balancing precariously on top of a bench. Ayato was the last one to take a look at the camera, and couldn't help but notice what a simple picture could divulge. It showed him, looking much more like himself, his chin lifted defiantly as if daring the stranger to take a deity's picture. Kanade and Yuri were once again standing side by side with intertwined fingers, but Yuri's eyes were closed almost deliberately like she'd blocked everyone out. Like she was in her own little world.

"I'll take that," said a distinctively shrill voice.

When Ayato looked back up from the camera, Yui was standing in front of him, one hand on her hip and the other outstretched expectantly. He stared at her empty palm, then glanced over her shoulder. The group was some ways away from the dugout where he was sitting, and were enjoying the fresh air and chatting amongst themselves. He hadn't realized how long he'd been studying that photo.

With an uncaring grunt, he handed over the camera. But it didn't make her go away.

"Look, Prince Charming, we need to talk," said Yui.

Prince Charming? That was certainly different from "God guy." He studied her features with a bit of scorn but contained curiosity. Despite their solidarity back at the restaurant, he and Yui weren't exactly the pair most known for their heart-to-hearts.

"About what," he said, lifting an eyebrow.

The rest of their group had gathered out in the field now. Why wasn't she going over to join them? With Otonashi, Hinata, Shiina, and Matsushita the Fifth, they almost had their old team back together. They were only missing Noda and some NPCs…

He eyed Yuri musingly as she muttered something aside to Fujimaki while leaning against the fence. Well, perhaps they had at least one.

"About the way you've been treating Yurippe lately." Arms folded, Yui leaned the weight of her leg on one of the lower bleachers, then gave him a good long appraising look. "I never thought I'd say this, but you're a moron."

"You actually said it last week," he said dryly.

Yui huffed, sizing him up once more with a decisive smile. "I can tell you're still in love with her."

"Oh?" he humored her with a snort. "What gives you that idea?"

"Call it a romantic's intuition." Then, leaning in, she added in a singsong voice, "And I may have something that you wa-ant!"

"I honestly doubt that," Ayato said, but he couldn't help feeling a sense of intrigue to go along with his suspicions. What could she possibly have that he'd want? Especially if it had to do with his feelings for Yuri.

He had a sudden vision of something gold and heart-shaped, a vision he immediately wiped from his mind. Yui was remarkably mischievous and a clever trickster, but she wasn't THAT clever. Not clever enough to steal from this Rumpelstiltskin character.

All the same, he stood up from the bleachers and narrowed his eyes at her, trying to scare the honesty out of her. "What exactly do you have for me?"

She waggled a finger in his face. "I'll tell you, and I'll give it to you… but I'll only help you if you admit it."

"Admit what?"

"Your feelings for her!"

"Not a chance," Ayato said.

Yui whined at him, looking quite dismayed that whatever she was trying to pull on him hadn't worked. "Not even to me? I won't tell!"

Please. She had something for him he was supposed to trust that he wanted, but she wouldn't even tell him what it was until he confessed his love? Why would he uphold his end of such a bargain without the ability to make an informed decision?

It was better for him to make an offer of something valuable that he was willing to part with. That was just good business. And lucky for him, he might have just what she wanted.

"Why don't I sweeten the deal for both of us?" Ayato said smoothly, rubbing his chin. "I have other information to share."

Yui lifted an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

He felt his mouth curve into a deliciously devious smirk, even better than when he'd mentioned Chitose.

"Last week, Kanade enacted the charm, yes?" he reminded her. "And she found Fujimaki. Do you remember who she bet on the week before?"

From her harsh gasp of indignant realization, the meaning behind his words had begun to dawn on her. "…Fujimaki!"

"That's correct," Ayato said with a nod. "She made a bet. Locus Felicis must have made her lucky enough to win it. And you may have enacted the charm this time, but in all of last weekend's… chaos… we forgot to make a bet for this week."

He fought back a cringe. Or had they? They might've just done it without him.

No. They wouldn't dare exclude God.

Instead, as Yui's awestruck look of epiphany hadn't wavered with guilt, he simply leaned forward and flashed her a grin mischievous enough to rival many of her own.

"So if you've staked your claim to the charm, why don't you and I go ahead and bet on Iwasawa from now on?" he said, with an encouraging lift of his hat. "At the very least, it must increase your chances."

There was a long silence as Yui took in his words.

"That's corrupt…" she said after a moment. Her eyes glittered. "I love it."

Ayato snorted, and they shook hands. Then Yui clamped ahold of his wrist and started leading him across the field towards the sidewalk.

"This is an opportune moment, anyway," she said cheerfully. "Part of the reason we're in Kyuuya."

His head couldn't keep up with Yui's feet. "I don't understand, what—"

"Hinakins!" she shouted as they passed the group. "Meet us back at my mom's?"

"That was the plan," Hinata called over his shoulder, although he did a double-take when he saw who she was dragging with her.

She led him past the school, down a few blocks to Hinata's parents' house, and then a couple more blocks in a different direction. Then she slowed to a stop in front of a moderately-sized one-level house surrounded by a brick wall and marched straight through the gates.

His senses were engulfed in a sugary vanilla scent as soon as he stepped foot into the foyer. No wonder Yui was always so hyped up; she was raised in a house that smelled like a damn bakery. Not that he was complaining. It was actually a very familiar and comforting smell. He would have stopped to appreciate the sweet aroma of nostalgia if Yui didn't have such a secure hold on his arm.

"Mom?" Yui called, letting her voice echo through the halls. "Hey, it's me!"

There was a hastening of footsteps, and then a woman of unexpectedly young age appeared in the hallway. She had soft indigo eyes and long fuchsia hair in a ponytail, the color only barely faded. Ayato would put her in her late forties at most, which was something compared to his borderline elderly parents. Maybe mothers aged slower without a Kimito in their lives.

"Yui!" she said, looking pleasantly surprised as she wiped purple-stained fingers off on a dirty towel. "What brings you by so early?"

Yui punched the air in determination. "I'm on a mission to help a man in love!"

Aghast, he wrenched free of her other hand. "I am NOT in love!"

Yui ignored him.

"Mom," she said, dancing on the balls of her feet, "where's Once Upon A Time?"

Her mother regarded her with a look of sentimental fondness. It occurred to Ayato that this was the mother who read to Yui when she was a child, just as Hinata told him in the bookstore. She certainly seemed the type. He had a feeling Hinata and Yui must have spent most of their courtship at her house rather than his.

"It's on the bookshelf in your old room." She gestured down the hall to their left, a twinkle in her eye. "Just so you know, I did lend it to someone after you moved out. But as soon as she returned it, I put it right back where you left it."

Yui yipped in excitement. After distractedly introducing him to her mother (Ms. Masayo Kitamura) and vice versa, she skipped merrily into her old room with Ayato in tow.

Her room was rather nice. Not as extravagant as Yuri's room back in Akuma, but a far cry better than his. It had a large side window that gave her a good view of the trees, a dresser with a small TV, and a pearl pink single bed with a shelf full of plush animals within reaching distance.

Against her wall to the right of the dresser and TV, there was a tall rose-colored bookshelf that looked rather thinned out. Most of the shelves were only half-filled, manga precariously propping each other up. Yui probably combed through them all when she moved out and these were all she'd left behind. Skinny little hardback children's books, collections of ghost stories, creepy legends, fairytales. There was only one thing on that shelf that truly seemed out of place, and it was there Yui's searching fingers stopped.

She carefully pulled out a thick, wide brown hardcover from the shelf and grunted just a little bit as she shifted its weight in her arms. It must have been as heavy as it looked. On the cover, in fancy gold lettering, read the words Once Upon A Time.

"Okay," she said triumphantly, shoving it toward him. "Here it is."

Ayato stared at it for a moment, then at her with a skeptical frown. "A book?"

This was what she had that he wanted? Was this some sort of joke? He considered himself an avid reader, yes, but a book never would've been fair trade for a love confession.

"It's more than just a book!" she insisted, her eyes going starry.

Ms. Kitamura peeked in from the doorway at them, a smile gracing her features.

"That's exactly what I said once." She propped herself against the wall and shook her head with a little laugh. "The girl I lent it to, I overheard her talking about magic and told her I had just the book for her. And then I didn't get it back for three weeks. If I didn't think it would break your heart, I'd donate it to a library."

Yui hugged the book to her chest and gawked at her mother like she'd threatened to burn it. "That can never happen!"

"I know, I know," Ms. Kitamura said. "Honestly, dear, will you ever learn to share?"

Yui frowned stubbornly, then looked briefly at Ayato and opened her mouth to say something – but out in the foyer, there was a barrage of knocking and the creak of the front door opening.

"Masayo?" Hinata's voice called.

"Ms. Kitamura?" Oddly enough, a rare occurrence of Shiina being vocal.

Yui's mother beamed, because for some reason she seemed to enjoy the sound of her son-in-law's voice. "I'll go get that." She scurried out into the hall to welcome the rest of the group inside.

When she was gone, Ayato turned back to Yui.

"And why," he said slowly, "should I care about your silly childhood book?"

She'd cracked it open by now and was thumbing heatedly through the pages like a woman on a mission. Elegant script and pictures of figures royal and ragged flashed by, some admittedly catching his interest. If he'd been in a better mood, he'd read it instead of ridicule it. But how could fairytales be of any help to him?

"Because this potion thing? It's happened before." She held the book up, shoving it in his face. "And it's right in here."

He backed away, but grabbed the book from her and sat down on the edge of her bed with it resting in his lap. The right page had a picture of a young woman with raven black hair and snow white skin resting in bed. The real focus, however, was on the nightstand to her left. There, an uncapped glass vial lay on its side. It was empty. The woman had a serene smile on her rose red lips.

Underneath the picture, the caption read: "Who?" asked Snow, looking quite lost.

Ayato couldn't believe his eyes.

It was right there. Right there in Yui's stupid storybook! Right down to the blissfully vacant stare!

"You mean you've read about this before?" he growled in disbelief, grazing his fingertips along the illustration. "Why didn't you tell me about it sooner?!"

"I didn't know for sure!" Yui said defensively. "Not until I saw Rumpelstiltskin. As far as I knew it was just amnesia, not fairytales!"

Despite all the magic they'd been exposed to in this life, if prior to Rumpelstiltskin she'd started insisting Yuri's amnesia came from a magic potion in one of her childhood fairytales, he would have tuned out every word she said. He couldn't argue with her about that, which frustrated him. So instead he stood up with the book and started pacing around her room, studying the story.

"Where did you get this?" he demanded, electing to change the subject.

Yui hopped off the bed and followed him, like a mother cat making sure he was playing nice with her kitten. All the same, she softened at the memory. "It's actually a cool origin story. When I was really young, I think six or seven, Mom and I were going to the bookstore when this funny old man offered it to me." She stroked the pages lovingly. "He didn't even want anything for it, he was just happy to make a little girl's day."

A funny old man… Ayato squinted suspiciously at the book, then turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure it wasn't—"

"No, no, it was definitely someone else!" said Yui, shaking her head. "He was old and had kinder eyes."

She snatched the book away, bookmarked the spot with her finger, and flipped backward through the pages. Then she nodded in satisfaction and showed him the page's illustration. It was abstract, but he'd recognize the scaly skin anywhere. It was Rumpelstiltskin, facing the cloaked raven-haired woman with a sneer on his face and a glowing vial in his spindly fingers.

Underneath the image: "You won't even remember who he is."

"This is where the potion story starts," Yui said earnestly, as if sharing some juicy gossip. "Snow loved Prince Charming, but he was supposed to marry King Midas's daughter and she knew she had to get him out of her head. So her friend Red told her that Rumpelstiltskin could do what she asked."

Ayato's throat tightened as the caption and her words sunk in. I gave her what she asked for. Even after a week, the man's sneers still left irritating echoes in his head. He scanned the story, gritting his teeth as the contents taunted him. Had it gone exactly like this? When Rumpelstiltskin told Yuri what it would do, had she even hesitated like Snow did? Did it even matter that—

"But when she gets the potion, she doesn't drink it right away!" Yui trotted absentmindedly towards the door, peeling through pages so fast he was surprised that she didn't get a papercut.

"Hey, I was reading that-!"

"Charming sends her a letter admitting his feelings—" she gave him a pointed look that he'd rather do without, "—but when she goes to meet him, his father King George finds her and forces her to tell Charming she doesn't love him and he has to go through with the wedding. Or else—"

"He'll kill her?" he guessed.

"He'll kill him."

Ayato raised an eyebrow, regarding the book a bit more thoughtfully.

"Charming's the replacement twin brother of his dead adopted son, so George doesn't care what happens to him," Yui said absently, "as long as he gets rich and powerful. Cruel, right?"

"Not unheard of."

He paused then; something had creaked out in the hall, unsettled by a slight shift in weight. A quick glance towards the hallway showed nothing. The noise didn't continue, but it did remind him that the Battlefront members had rejoined them. Sighing, he turned to Yui once more.

"I didn't come here for a book report—"

"So Snow White does what the King says, and it hurts her so much to turn her back on him that she drinks the potion!" Yui went on like she didn't even hear him. Rolling his eyes, he tried to bury his ears under his cap. To give her credit, she was giving quite a theatrical recount. "But the sad thing is, she erases more than just her memories."

After breezing through a few more pages, she held the book up for display. It showed Snow waving a broom threateningly at an alarmed little bird, a predatory sneer on her lips. Upon a closer inspection of the text on the left page, apparently she was also threatening to punch a dwarf in the face.

Ayato blinked. Alright, this variation certainly took its creative liberties with the original story.

"The potion leaves a big hole in Snow's heart," Yui explained, leaning her weight against the doorframe. "She gets all bitter and violent and murderous." There was a lull as her features twisted into a thoughtful frown. "Honestly with Yurippe I don't think you'll be able to tell the difference."

"YUI!"

The girl screamed in fear and jumped behind Ayato, gripping his shoulders with sharp black fingernails. Yuri was standing in front of the doorway, ready to spit green fire from her eyes and obliterate her on the spot. Her stare met his for one second – one short, scrutinizing second – then she frowned and averted it to Yui. She sent the girl one more withering glare before storming off.

Yui's nails were still digging into his arms like relentless kitten claws, even after Yuri had left.

"You have terrifying taste in women," she mused.

"Look who's talking," Ayato said with a scoff – and yelped in pain when Yui pinched him hard on the arm. "Hey!"

"Let's take this somewhere private."


Frankly, Ayato thought Yui's old room was still private enough, but when Yui yanked open her window and climbed outside, he begrudgingly decided to humor her. Now they were standing on the patio, both leaning against the house siding. He appreciated the trees' shade and the soft breeze, but even more enjoyable was Yui's furious determination to get the fluttering pages under control.

Still, despite her struggles, she was telling him more about Snow and the potion. Since the nature was calming him, he allowed her the privilege of his attention.

"Love was a big part of who Snow was," Yui said softly. "When she erased it, it made room inside her for a lot of resentment. Towards her evil stepmother and the loss of her parents. So since she forgot her true self, it was even harder for her to remember Charming. That's why when he found her and kissed her, it didn't work."

She looked up from her book, frowning pensively at him.

"So even if you kiss her, it might be just as ineffective as hypnotism."

Ayato broke his composure and scowled back at her.

"Because it's not true love," he said impatiently. "We covered that. If that's why you gave me this book…"

"No, THIS is why."

Yui fought the pages valiantly in the wind until she stopped on a page with an illustration of a rather… human-looking Rumpelstiltskin. He had a young boy at his side and a walking stick in his hand. Going by context clues, Ayato suspected the story to be his origins. Yui held the book out to him like a gift.

"Kanade told me you used to keep a very close eye on the Battlefront," she said, her tone almost cheeky. "Close enough that you knew some of our backstories."

He smiled smugly. God was omniscient; did she expect anything less from him?

"I thought you'd like to do the same thing with Rumpelstiltskin." She winked for effect, practically bursting with conspiratorial eagerness. "Know thine enemy, if you will."

Ayato stared at the book in her outstretched hands. Truth be told, it would be an understatement to say that he was a little intrigued. Any other normal human outside of this Battlefront would be skeptical to take a storybook like this at face value. But the potion was in there. The scaly face of one Rumpelstiltskin was in there. And if this held the wretched thief's own tragic backstory, he was sure he could find some way to use it to his advantage.

True love's kiss between him and Yuri… that wasn't going to happen. Yui as much as said so herself, and Yuri had made it quite clear last week. He had no intention on fighting her on it, or stupidly forcing his lips on hers as Charming had done in the story. But if this Rumpelstiltskin kept popping up and causing chaos, he might as well know what it was exactly about ruining lives that made him giggle like a goddamn demon.

He accepted the book into his arms, making a note of the page number before closing it. He traced the gold lettering on the cover: Once Upon A Time. OUAT for short. It was in very good condition considering Yui must've had it for almost two decades. And she was just handing it over?

"Thanks," Ayato said, trying to mask his confusion. Yui shrugged it off with a grin.

"Consider it a peace offering," she replied, then pulled the window open and swung herself back inside. She poked her head out at him, face alight with mischief. "Now, c'mon! Let's go swindle our friends out of money."

Baffled, he followed after her, climbing back into the room with OUAT under his arm. Peace offering…

Maybe in the eyes of the Battlefront, he wasn't as damned as he thought.


Preview:

"What did we miss?"

"It might not happen right away."

"I'm your leader."

"You're an NPC."

"Go out there and apologize!"

"You've been taking it too far ever since you found out."

"I need my son to do this."

"A twin brother?"

[Chapter 31]: Close to Home.