A/N: Welcome back to another chapter of Heartbreak Cure! I'm really happy about this one because I've been planning it, I think, even longer than the Ooyama one. Possibly even before Matsushita. I might've even dropped the first bit of foreshadowing over twenty chapters ago. So this is a bit of a fic landmark for me. But I digress! Shoutout to Zain and Shiranai Atsune for the reviews!

Shiranai Atsune: Me too, and I'm determined to keep this the Not-Dead-Yet Fandom. Thank you so much for the encouragement! ZainR: Writing Naoi bonding with Fujimaki and Ooyama was surprisingly fun, so I'm glad you loved that! Good change of pace, don't you think? Haha, and that Fujimaki/Kanade thing was me not being able to get over the fact that their English voice actors were briefly married ^^ If I ever write a living high school fic I should make them buds.

Enjoy!


[Chapter 39]: Laugh About It Later


After getting expressed and enthusiastic permission from Ryou to bring Mitsuo along, the Battlefront walked over to her place. Mitsuo led the charge from his leash in a brisk happy trot; either he knew he was about to meet new friends (including a pet boar, of all things!) or he was enjoying the warm May sun on his fur.

Ayato begrudgingly let Yuri wear his cap for most of the trek. But after a few annoying texting sounds and phone buzzes from a certain duo (it was no business of theirs if he was staring lustfully, which he wasn't!), he started demanding it back. The ornery wench pretended she didn't hear him. She walked just a bit faster whenever he swiped at her head. Apparently amused by her little game, Matsushita the Fifth scooted between them to play bodyguard.

Growling, Ayato fell back after that. She glanced over her shoulder at him and flashed an "innocent" smile that looked much more like a smirk of triumph. Then she sassily adjusted her cap and kept walking.

Damn, he thought, scowling at the back of her head. Did he always look so obnoxious when he did that?

But once they were almost there, she sighed and tossed it back to him like a Frisbee.

"It's too sunny for a black cap," Yuri complained. "Enjoy your burning scalp, ya hothead."

He scoffed but returned it to its rightful place. She probably missed her precious white beret, after all. Despite Kanade regularly keeping hydrated, or the dog breaking into a soft pant, it wasn't actually that hot out this afternoon. It was just dry. There'd been clouds today but still no rain. But of course they were expecting some next week in Akuma. It figured.

(He was happy for his mother's plants. But Kimito didn't deserve the relief.)

Ryou welcomed them in joyfully when they arrived. She was the only one in sight, though they could hear a woman's voice in the distance chattering on the phone in another room. When she asked curiously if they'd enacted the charm yet, Yuri sheepishly explained the situation to her. In an instant, Ryou looked a mixture of surprised and extremely apologetic.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed!" she said, flushing pinker than Yui. "I'm sorry, I was just so excited to see—and when she asked if you'd be in town again—"

"It's fine, Ryou," Yuri insisted, giving the others a quick challenging glower. "Kyou might just be the key. Does she want to go out to eat or something?"

Ryou smiled abashedly. "Sure, maybe for dinner. But we're actually getting pizza right now—"

"Delivery?" Matsushita, Yui, and Hinata inquired at the same time – and shot each other mistrustful electric stares.

"N-no… it's carryout…" Ryou blinked twice at them, nervous. "Kyou's still on the phone with her boyfriend, do you guys… want anything?"

She managed to quickly get the Battlefront's orders and flee to the safety of her sister. Just in time too, because Hinata started weirdly going on about pizza ("You know where you can get really good pizza? Shibuya") and Yui enabled this weirdness by insisting how he'd just forgotten how good Kyuuya's small town pizza was. But Hinata kept running his mouth about how maybe Shibuya pizza tasted so great because it was fresher and something they could share with all their friends.

Ayato glared at him for it. Was this his way of bragging about living close to Otonashi and Kanade? The analogy wasn't appreciated.

Meanwhile, Ooyama meekly said aside to Shiina, "I think Mizuzaka's pizza tastes pretty good." Shiina managed a rare half-smile at him and nodded in approval.

When Ryou came back, she offered them drinks and set out some water for Mitsuo. "Is there anything else I can get you guys?"

"Kyou came to visit you, now where's Nagisa?" Yui asked hopefully.

"Where's Botan?" Ooyama and Shiina chorused.

Yuri and Otonashi simultaneously face-palmed at their possible rudeness, but Ryou gave a patient, understanding smile.

"She went with Kiritsugu to get the pizza, but she'll be back soon!" Yui perked all the way up. Ryou blushed. "Botan, I mean." Aaaand back down again.

Feeling snoopy, Ayato wandered around and inspected the place. No red bandanas lying around, no earpiece or microphone in sight, no drumsticks on the coffee table. Just some books and knick-knacks, a Newton's Cradle toy on the shelf, a few music albums, a CD marked "Iwasawa." Over in the kitchen, an old-fashioned pendulum clock ticking away each second, and beneath it, a bag of coffee on the counter.

Ayato narrowed his eyes at the bag, its Yuri-personalized siren call. Seemed the Fujibayashi sisters would be the ones serving it tomorrow. He spitefully pulled at a silver Newton ball and let it fly.

Overhearing the series of noisy clicks, Yuri whipped around to look at him. "Naoi! Hands off her stuff!"

"It's okay, Yuri, it's just a toy," Ryou assured her.

Yuri settled down, but her wary frown remained as she scrutinized Ryou's politeness. "Isn't it Kyou's? I've never seen it before."

Ryou beamed. "Yeah, her boyfriend got it for her! She usually keeps it on her desk at school, but it was the first special present he ever gave her. So she wanted to bring it here and show it to me."

"Hmph. How sweet," Ayato drawled, eyeing the toy. Was this the same boyfriend Sunohara was terrified of? He snorted and bent to scratch underneath Mitsuo's chin.

"Kyou's infamous boyfriend, huh?" said Yuri, smirking. "Are things getting serious? What's he like, anyway?"

"Oh, well…" She looked thoughtful as she took a sip of soda. "To be honest, he's actually kind of intense like her. She first met him when he was bullying one of her students."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Hinata gave her a weird look from his spot by the wall. "Wait, doesn't your sister teach kindergarten?"

Ryou sweated nervously. "Yeah."

While Otonashi and Kanade looked vaguely concerned, Ayato just shook his head and laughed quietly under his breath. All child harassment aside, what didn't surprise him was the fact that meek Nurse Ryou had a sister who educated small children.

How very fitting, he thought with a smirk as the Battlefront conversed with each other and their hostess in the background. He heard Ooyama revisiting the subject of a picnic, Fujimaki joking about Ayato having a specific request for nattō, and a door squeaking open somewhere down the hall.

So tender and nurturing. This Kyou must be just as delicate and gentle as her sister—

"HYAAAAAAAH!"

An ungodly roar assaulted his eardrums – and not a second later, when he turned to the source, a hardcover book launched across the room and struck him square in the face. Before he'd fully staggered backwards with a startled cry, the book was replaced by a nasty kick that sent him crashing to the floor.

His face and skull throbbed from the impact; there may have been gasps of his name from the Battlefront but his ears were still ringing too loud to discern anything.

"What the hell!" he shouted from the ground, still blinking away the stars.

"SIS!" Ryou's voice cried out in an awful horrified squeal. "You can't just attack strangers like that!"

"I heard his name and I recognize him from the pictures!" the attacker said. His vision cleared, and a purple-eyed woman with long lavender hair was standing directly over him with her hands on her hips. "That's for dumping Yuri and breaking her heart, and for being the reason she mooched off my sister!" She briefly lifted her eyes away from him and added, "No offense, Yuri."

After Hinata and Otonashi helped pull Ayato to his feet, he steadied himself and rubbed the back of his head in numb bewilderment. He'd been through worse blows physically, but it was certainly more damaging than one of Yuri's pillow attacks. One would think a nurse's sister would know better than to give someone a concussion! And he didn't appreciate her adding insult to injury either.

He snuck a glance over his shoulder, remembering something from her outburst. Yuri was standing there with a troubled frown, his black cap retrieved from the ground and secure in her firm grip.

"That wasn't necessary, Kyou," she said sternly. He stared at her for a moment, wondering – had she rushed to his aid as well?

"Wasn't necessary?" Kyou echoed, eyes wide with disbelief. "You cried for weeks because of this jerk. I should know, I practically had to babysit you! He divorced you and then he toyed with your feelings afterwards when he kept—"

She paused, making a face, then turned to Ryou with a thought.

"Wait. She knows that, right?" she asked, and gestured to Ayato. "I mean he's right here, so we can talk about it now. You know about all that, don't you?"

"Yes, Kyou," Yuri stressed, her expression dour as she cut her eyes to the side.

"Okay. I'm just still a little fuzzy on the potion thing…"

"I'd love to talk about something else, anything else!" Yuri said shrilly, in a forced cheerful tone, and tossed his cap unceremoniously onto the couch for good measure. "We haven't seen each other in a while, so how have you been?"

While Ayato had Ryou check him for a concussion ("Oh, don't be a baby!" Kyou had said severely, and then eyed Yuri with a touch of uncertainty like she was the one she'd offended), Yuri and Kyou chatted about the latter's kindergarten students and the cute drawings they made for her. The abrupt change in demeanor made him furious. For someone nearly identical to Ryou to be so different, so vicious and violent…!

Though, he supposed assuming otherwise made him a bit of a hypocrite.

"Hey, are you okay? You're zoning out," said Otonashi.

Ayato blinked. They were sitting on the couch, where he'd plopped down with an ice pack on his forehead that Ryou had insisted upon him. "I'm fine. It's no big deal."

"You sure? I haven't seen you go flying like that since Otonashi saved you from the shadow," Hinata teased. Then he sobered, and threw a look over the back of the couch at Kyou. "In all seriousness, no one's allowed to kick Naoi's ass except me."

"You're all talk. Name one time you've ever kicked my ass," he sniffed when Kyou did a double-take at Hinata but shrugged him off. Lying back, he rolled his eyes under the ice. "Otonashi's gotten me more than you."

"What? Oh, come on…"

"Punched me in the face when I hypnotized Yuri, smacked me over the head for yelling at her, knocked me free of the shadow…" Ayato counted them off on his fingers, bored. "That's three for him. What've you got?"

Otonashi grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck guiltily. "I'm not sure I like this competition…"

"Obviously you've never had a brother," said Matsushita the Fifth. Kanade and Ooyama glanced at him in slight concern, and he shrugged in response. "What? I've got two. Why do you think I had to learn judo locks?"

Otonashi still seemed vaguely uncomfortable, so Ayato elected to put an end to the subject.

"Whatever. Point is, I'm fine," he told them. A few of his dreams from this past week wormed back into his mind; he heaved a sigh as he stared dispassionately at his ice pack. "I've survived worse."

This actually made Otonashi look more upset, but then Kanade squeezed his hand and gave him one of her soft marriage telepathy looks. Soothed, he leaned into her and rested his head on hers.

Those two… such a peaceful couple…

That's for dumping Yuri and breaking her heart!

You cried for weeks because of this jerk! He divorced you and then he toyed with your feelings…

Ayato closed his eyes and returned the ice to his head with a muted groan.

Eventually Yuri and Kyou took a break from their catching up to get a drink. Then Kyou realized that there was an entire living room of people she hadn't met yet, and proper introductions were made – without attacking anyone else. Apparently either Ryou or Yuri had informed her a little bit about their Afterlife connection (possibly Ryou, who didn't seem like the type to keep things from her sister), and she seemed reasonably skeptical but was taking it in stride. She was especially charmed by a certain four-legged recruit scampering around.

"Well, hello, who is this?" Kyou cooed at Mitsuo when he came to greet her, kneeling to pet him. "Won't Botan be happy to have a little friend to play with when she gets back?"

"I'm still amazed you let her go alone with him in the car," said Ryou, fearfully pale. "Sis, a boar and a butcher? That's a terrible road trip!"

"But one I'd pay to watch," Hinata noted with a grin.

Standing up, Kyou played coyly with the white ribbon in her hair. "Well, I trust him! I wanted to give them the bonding time," she said. Then she added with a laugh, "Besides, you're just jealous she's still too scared to be around you after that stewing incident."

"It was a hot bath!" Ryou squeaked.

"That's not the way she remembers it!" Kyou singsonged. While her sister fretted about the past, she rubbed her chin and swept a thoughtful scan around the room at everyone. "Hey, when Botan and Kiritsugu get back, what do you say we take the pizza to the park? I heard one of you mention something about a picnic."

"Yeah?" said Fujimaki, while Ooyama perked up considerably. Hinata and Yuri exchanged glances over the couch – hers was decidedly smug.

"I think it's a great idea." Kyou took Mitsuo's muzzle in her fingers, scratching under his chin, and cooed, "More room for new friends to run around and play."

"And for old friends to play music!" Yui blurted in a whispered fangirl scream, jostling Ooyama's arm.

Ayato's shoulders tensed, and it wasn't from muscle ache or rug burn. The park was a pretty fateful place, after all… Maybe Yuri was right and that phone call's timing was just a silly coincidence. Maybe they were about to meet someone. His eyes darted from Yui to Yuri, contemplating the twin gleeful expressions on their faces.

Maybe she's about to get the one she wants…

But which one…?

A loud, clumsy thump of a knock sounded at the door, startling him out of his thoughts, and Kyou brightened with hearts in her eyes (which were a stark contrast from the demonic inferno he'd seen in them earlier).

"Oh, it's about time!" she said blithely, and headed for the door. "Kiritsugu, do you need me to open it for you?"

"Nah, I've got it!" came a male voice.

"Puhi-puhi!"

There was a muffled sound of cardboard shifting, and then a click as the door opened to reveal a man holding a tower of pizza boxes. Before he could step through, a brown boar scrambled over his feet and raced inside first with an excited squeal.

"Agh!" He quickly saved half the boxes from toppling. "Botan! Unless you wanna be lunch instead—"

"Careful!" Kyou warned, beaming as she sidled up to him. "Let me take some of those for you, macho man."

Seeing as the tower of boxes was stacked up to his eyes, he begrudgingly slid half of them into her awaiting arms. Then he used his unblocked field of vision to regard her fondly. Shifting the rest of the pizzas in his arm, he ran his free hand through his dark purple hair.

The entire Battlefront stared, jaws dropped. The only sound in the room was a tiny choked squawk of disbelief. Oblivious, Kyou turned to her audience with a beatific smile.

"Yuri, I don't believe you've ever met my boyfriend?" She nodded to the man beside her. "Kiritsugu Noda."

Boyfriend… Kyou's boyfriend!

As Yui collapsed to the ground with a plaintive sigh (and Botan and Mitsuo both ran to sniff her), Ayato snapped his attention to Yuri, tingling with an unbearable desire to see her reaction. Wide-eyed like the rest of them, features struck with pure incredulity, she stood there with a dumbfounded look on her face.

And then she started cracking up.

A facepalm, a shake of the head and a small breathy chuckle at first, but within seconds she'd melted into giggles that rippled through her whole body. Noda, who'd arched his eyebrows curiously at her like she had a familiar face, now looked hugely offended. Yuri noticed this and laughed even harder, falling into an armchair as she wiped tears of mirth from her eyes.

Dropping the boxes on the coffee table, Kyou shot Yuri a baffled nervous half-smile. "What the hell is so funny?"

Ryou looked just as bewildered when Yuri did nothing but giggle in response. She turned to Otonashi for help, and when she saw all the frozen astonishment on the Battlefront's faces, realization sparked in her round eyes.

"No!" Ryou exclaimed, pointing to Noda in shock. "Him?!"

Yuri wheezed with laughter, barely managing to confirm it with a nod.

"Yurippe, it's not that funny," Fujimaki told her, though a tickled smirk had crept across his lips.

"Oh, yes it is," Ayato replied, snickering.

Well, well, well! Who was she going to threaten him with now? She'd won the bet this week, good for her, but now her devoted Noda had been delivered to the Battlefront by his charming girlfriend. The sheer satisfaction warmed him, relaxing his muscles more pleasantly than any pain medicine, and he flashed her a winning smile. She would just have to think of someone new to bet on.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" Kyou asked, still eyeing Yuri a bit warily even as her laughter died down.

Ryou grabbed her twin's arm. "Kyou, he's one of them!"

"What?" Stunned, Kyou looked from her to Noda while nudging Botan away from an attempted pizza raid. "You don't mean he used to be part of their little…"

"Yes! Exactly!"

"I'm… going to go put these in the kitchen, if you guys don't mind," Noda said, still furrowing his eyebrows at them as he walked away. Understandably shooting weird looks over his shoulder every few seconds.

When he was gone, Ryou turned to the group expectantly. "So are you going to give him back his memories?" she asked, sounding terribly intrigued.

"Yes," Yuri said, at the same time that Ayato and Yui uttered an emphatic, "No."

The Fujibayashi sisters exchanged glances, then frowned at the Battlefront in confusion. A straight answer would indeed be nice in a situation such as this.

Standing up, Yuri turned to the group and placed her hands on her hips.

"What else are we going to do? Make Kyou bring him down here every weekend?" Yuri demanded, ignoring the hopeful smile Ryou sent her sister. "We still haven't found Iwasawa yet, alright? Is it really fair to keep Noda out of the loop until we do?"

Yui gave a dispirited whine from the floor.

Seeing as she wasn't going to give much of an argument besides that, Ayato stood up too, stepping around her listless form. He met Yuri's sharp green eyes with suspicion narrowing his own. So now she was suddenly a big fan of his powers… Was that really all of it, or did she just want Noda to remember his passion for her?

He'd hate to be a homewrecker with his hypnotic abilities. He had no intention of being used like that.

"It's more than fair," Ayato reasoned, and pursed his lips for a moment to gather his thoughts. "He's gotten on just fine in his life so far, even found himself a pretty girlfriend who loves him. And since she's Ryou's sister, I'm sure she wouldn't mind bringing him to Mizuzaka to visit. Isn't that right?"

Kyou, who'd reddened at the mention of love, startled out of her stupor and looked to her sister with a nod and smile. Ryou looked happy with this. Satisfied, Ayato turned back to Yuri.

"There you go, problem solved," he said, keeping his voice cool. "Going by experience, his subconscious does know us, so he'll warm up to us eventually."

Yuri scoffed, tilting her head at him in an unconvinced fashion as she crossed her arms. "Why are you suddenly against using your own hypnotism?"

"I have many reasons." He maintained eye contact, letting a smirk tug at the corners of his mouth. "First of all, I agree with Yui that we should wait for our opportune moment. The grand finale she suggested. Even if we don't find Iwasawa right away, that doesn't mean we shouldn't save their… enlightenment, for her performance." Then he pointed a finger at her in recollection. "I seem to remember you calling it the more efficient method anyway."

"It would be so fun…" Yui wailed into the carpet. "Please, Commander? The rest of them, all at once… that kind of magic could be so much purer than plain old hypnotism."

That earned her a scoff from Ayato.

"See, Nakamura?" he said, gesturing to Yui. "Not everyone here is a fan of my work." He shot Ryou a knowing sneer and she ruffled at him indignantly.

Yuri still looked doubtful. She stared at the ground and prodded at Yui's fallen body with her foot.

"For another thing," Ayato said, clearing his throat to get her attention. "I seem to remember a certain detail about Noda from Battlefront times—concerning a certain someone—that would not make Kyou happy if he were to regain it." Kyou instantly looked suspicious and opened her mouth to demand answers. He ignored her in favor of Yuri, leaning forward with a saccharine smile. "Sometimes, with memories, it's best to do without them. Don't you agree?"

Her eyes briefly widened at what he was saying, then she narrowed them with a scowl. His point had been painfully and obviously made.

Pleased that he'd made his jab as well as his argument, he backed away and smiled smugly down at Yui. She was sitting up now, and looked moderately impressed with him as she took Hinata's hand and let him bring her to her feet.

"Besides," Ayato finished as an afterthought, "Noda is hilarious when he's clueless."

"I can attest to that," said Hinata.

Noda overheard this as he returned to the room with a slice of pizza. "Clueless about what?" he demanded, distracted from his attempts to catch a strand of drooling cheese. It landed on Mitsuo's head.

Most of the guys snorted with laughter, Yui giggling right along with them now that she'd cheered up. Kyou just heaved a weary, adoring sigh and stared at him while she rested her chin in her palm. Ayato's grin slowly faded when he saw this; he huffed and looked away.

There really was someone for everyone, wasn't there…

Yuri closed her eyes, mulling everything over, then released a short breath as she opened them again. She walked over to Noda, and the rest of the Battlefront got up to join her. Noda searched their faces, hints of frustration creasing his forehead as the gears of his memory repeatedly tried and failed to click in his head. His gaze lingered on Yuri's face most of all. And that might've been because she was the one standing straight in front of him, but Ayato clenched his teeth all the same.

Then he felt heat pooling in his eyes, and hurriedly blinked the feeling away. Damn emotions triggering his hypnotism.

"Here's a fun hypothetical for you," Yuri said, her lilt smooth and breezy enough that the next thing she said could almost be considered casual. "If you had memories of a past life just waiting to be uncovered, how would you choose to regain them?" She gestured behind herself, towards Ayato. "Have this guy hypnotize you, or listen to a girl's magic song?"

Noda squinted distrustfully.

"…Am I dreaming or something?" he asked, awkwardly scratching at his hair. He studied her face some more. "Is this a video game?"

"He's on about that again?" Ooyama whispered to Hinata.

"Probably believes he's the male lead too."

Ayato grinned. "Even he thinks you're an NPC—"

"Answer the question!" Yuri interrupted, probably a little more harshly than she'd intended.

Blinking, Noda considered her for a moment. He looked to Ayato afterwards, scrutinizing him too, then flicked his attention back to Yuri. His very close attention.

"Fine, the song," he said, and added with a suspect frown, "I don't want some smart-mouthed stranger playing mind games with me."

Yuri broke into a scoff of laughter.

"Noda, I think we understand each other perfectly." She extended her hand, more cheerful now. "I'm Yuri. Welcome back to the Battlefront – you'll remember us soon enough."

Still confused, he accepted the handshake. "I don't understand, but alright."

"That's normal for you," Hinata assured him with a grin.

Noda growled back at him, but Ayato laughed and—not thinking—held up his hand for a side high-five, which Hinata instinctively returned. If he realized what he did, he didn't acknowledge it, while Ayato let his arm fall and stared skeptically at his traitorous hand.

So that Akuma memory was still part of him, then? Stupid blue-haired idiots being high-five magnets…

Content with the recruitment, Yuri pivoted sharply to address the rest of the Battlefront.

"Now, obviously it would make this operation a whole lot easier if the Iwasawa part was a sure thing." She nodded in Hinata's direction, looking over his shoulder. "Yui, you're enacting the charm next."

Yui immediately saluted, starry-eyed. "Yes, Commander! I won't let you down this time!"

Noda stared at her for a moment, visibly disturbed by the way her devil tail twitched in excitement. Then he flicked an inquisitive frown across the room. "Ryou, where did you find these people?"

"They're not so bad once you get to know them," Ryou said politely.

"Yeah." Kyou came up beside her boyfriend with Botan secured in her arms. "Compared to our old drama club friends, they're relatively normal!"

"Really?" Hinata asked, a curious chuckle in his voice.

"No, not really," Kyou said sweetly. She gave Noda an affectionate hip-bump. "Come on, let's take those pizzas to the park!"

Botan waved her legs in happiness. "Puhi-puhi!"

While they gathered up the pizza boxes, some drinks, and other supplies for the picnic, Ayato smirked as Noda stayed particularly close to Kyou's side and continued to give everyone else wary looks. This weekend was off to an excellent start.


A/N: Kyoda ftw, honestly.


Preview:

"So where are you all from?"

"I didn't know it was him!"

"It's almost like some people's paths are meant to cross."

"Why do you have a tail?"

"He loves me already."

"Stop trying to see what isn't there."

"Won't that make the sleeping arrangement awkward?"

"I'll think about it."

[Chapter 40]: What You Want.