"Me?" Ayano scooted away from Tsuruzo. "My parents are out of town! They're not- how- you think I worry about domestic abuse?" Ayano turned away in disgust. "This is absurd..."

"Well... I was phrasing it vaguely to get your attention," Tsuruzo admitted. His voice sounded so weird without his lilting intonation. "Maybe it's a bit forward of me."

"You think?" Ayano hissed.

"This... is the real reason Doll House got cancelled."

Ayano turned to face Tsuruzo again, curiosity piqued.

"Kizana and I knew that the lead actress in Doll House died in high school." Tsuruzo fiddled with his sleeve. "The ah... details seem to have been hushed up but when the Headmaster called me to his office this morning he was a little more... transparent."

"I found the tape," Ayano said bluntly. "I know."

Tsuruzo looked at her in alarm. "I-I had no- I'm sorry! I didn't think-"

"Don't be sorry." Ayano looked at the ground.

What was this tight feeling in her throat as she thought about the video tape again?

"Your mother- she k-kept that." Tsuruzo swallowed. "Where you could find it. And she still thought it was funny, when she messaged me I mean... does that seem normal?"

Ayano sorted her muddled thoughts. Tsuruzo probably didn't know that Ryoba was directly responsible for the lead actress's death- he probably just thought Ryoba had a morbid sense of humor about it. He wasn't concerned that Ayano had watched a tape of a murder or had learned that Ryoba was a murderer... he probably thought Ryoba was holding on to footage of a tragic accident, and Ayano was just upset about watching someone die.

"Whatever." Ayano waved her hand idly. "It's not her fault that I watched the tape; it's mine."

"That's not true!" Tsuruzo grabbed Ayano's shoulder.

Ayano squirmed out of his grip. "Don't. Touch. Me."

Tsuruzo drew back his hand. "S-sorry... but it's not your fault! Ryoba baited you... baited me. Does... does she always think this kind of thing is funny?"

"Pretty much." Ayano laced her fingers together in her lap. "She jokes about death and crime... and killing... she laughs at all kinds of things. It's just always been this way so it doesn't bother me..." She stared into the distance. "But... but it bothers my dad, and that... that's what bothers me." She shook her head emphatically. "But my mom never hurts me or my dad, so it's not a big deal."

"Do you really believe that?" Tsuruzo leaned closer.

Ayano didn't know how to answer that. "This conversation is stupid. Why do you need to know?"

"I don't need to," Tsuruzo said. "I just wanted you to know... that you're not alone. Even if your parents left you."

"I don't care." Ayano scooted to the edge of the bench. "Look, do you feel like you owe me because I'm helping you with the Sports Club? Because you don't. Kizana already promised me lessons, so you don't need to help me. You can't help me anyway. It's not like you can stop my mom from telling tasteless jokes."

Tsuruzo didn't reply. Ayano stood up to leave.

"Kizana..." Tsuruzo muttered.

Ayano turned around, hand on her hip. "What about her?"

Tsuruzo brushed a strand of purple hair behind his ear. "What do you know about Kizana's parents?"

"Basically nothing. Why?"

Tsuruzo sighed. "They are also famous actors. Incredibly wealthy. Household names, in fact. And my parents are very much... not."

"That's right," Ayano said. "I was wondering how you were accepted into Akademi... not that you don't deserve to be here."

"No, it's a fair question," Tsuruzo said. "Kizana wanted me here. ...Always wanted me here."

"What do you mean always?"

Tsuruzo smiled wistfully. "We first met when Kizana's family held a charity event for underprivileged kids, and I was there as a beneficiary. I was attractive enough for the photo shoots, I suppose. Well, Kizana already had a mind of her own, even when she was ten. She commandeered one of the cameramen to shoot some pictures of her, and then she dragged me into it as a living prop- the prince to her princess in her fairytale photos.."

"You're kidding." Ayano could easily see her own mom doing something like that.

"It was fun though. We played off each other well, and Kizana demanded that I attend her acting school with her because apparently there weren't any boys she wanted to star opposite of." Tsuruzo had stars in his eyes. "Her parents paid my way in, of course. It was nothing for them. It was... completely life changing. I strove to do my best for her."

"And she's done that ever since?" Ayano waved a hand at the school building. "She pays your tuition?

"Our chemistry has only grown in potency in the years we've worked together!" Tsuruzo's voice was squeaking into his dramatic acting range again, and then he caught himself. "Our stage chemistry, I mean- we're not like that."

"Why not?"

"That would be unprofessional," Tsuruzo said, bluntly and unconvincingly. "Anyway I didn't really want to talk about Kizana and me. I wanted to explain that... even though my parents are very plainly mutually abusive, I assumed that rich parents weren't like that. But after befriending Kizana, well... I saw a side of the Sinobus that they don't normally allow on camera." He studied the grass. "They weren't loud, they didn't throw things, they didn't hit each other, like my parents do. But I slowly came to realize that's because... they're actors."

"And?"

"There are... thousands of ways to destroy someone without laying a finger on them," Tsuruzo said. "They could quietly and calmly dig their words into each other's skulls. They had no respect, no love. Everything the other person did was wrong, and everything the other said was ignorant. Kizana grew to be as bossy as she did because if she didn't insist on anything, they didn't treat her seriously. They wanted to ignore her, but she didn't let them. They had no love to give her because she was just an heir, a camera prop, bait for paparazzi- not a dearly beloved human being. And so she demanded whatever they had- money, time, even their anger. To make up for what she wanted but they didn't have for her."

Ayano shuffled her feet impatiently.

"I'm rambling aren't I?" Tsuruzo smiled weakly. "I just wanted to say... it helps to have a friend who knows what it's like. Domestic abuse... doesn't always look like what you think it does. Maybe I can't do anything to stop your parents, but you don't have to do anything to justify them."

"...Ah." A long story for a very simple point. She should just say something trite, like "Great, thanks for listening" and then go home. Talking solved nothing and Ayano's family didn't need to be solved. Couldn't be solved. Ryoba was too powerful for Ayano to change; she was a venomous snake wrapped around the Aishis, holding them in her deadly embrace whispering words of love...

...love...

Ayano's eyes felt wet; she blinked in alarm.

"Are you ok?" Tsuruzo asked.

Ayano's throat hurt too much to talk. What was wrong with her? Life was supposed to be easy. Find her senpai, run away with him, live in perfect bliss. She shouldn't need anything else. Want anything else.

Tsuruzo stood up and grabbed both of Ayano's hands in his own. "Don't make any more excuses. Feel your feelings! Speak your truth!"

His energy was infectious. Warm tears rolled down Ayano's cheeks, but she swallowed hard and searched for words. She felt like she was trying to describe a color after being color-blind her whole life; she knew words like 'happy' and 'angry' but she never really knew what they felt like. What was this new emotion, his painful feeling, this suffocation? It wasn't sorrow. It wasn't panic.

"I'm... afraid." Just saying it was a new level of terror. Aishis were strong. Aishis took what they wanted. And Ayano was an Aishi. But now she suddenly faced the realization that there was someone just like her, but stronger, smarter. Someone who wasn't necessarily going to be her friend. "I'm afraid of my mom. You..." Ayano pulled her hands out of Tsuruzo's. "You have. No idea what she's capable of. You don't want to know."

Tsuruzo slowly lowered his own hands. He didn't look convinced. "My mom set fire to a car once."

Ayano laughed shakily. He didn't understand. He didn't need to understand. This new feeling of fear was too raw right now; Tsuruzo had woken something in her she hadn't known she could experience. And now all she wanted to do was back off, and go back to pretending to be normal for a little while.

She let Tsuruzo tell her the story of his mom's exploits, only half listening. She let him believe that was, indeed, the craziest story she could imagine.

The sun was setting and soon the teachers would kick them off Akademi grounds, so she gave Tsuruzo a one-armed hug and told him this helped a lot.

"Anytime," he reassured her. "This helped me a lot too."

Ayano walked home alone under the orange sky, one slow foot after the other. This kind of fear... it was more than being nervous around police. This wasn't fear of something tangible; it was fear of some strange black cloud on the horizon. And since she didn't know what she was afraid of, she couldn't do anything about it. Dread was probably the more accurate word here.

She was worrying about nothing. Her mom would never hurt her. Her mom loved her... just like she loved Ayano's father...

Ayano shook her head emphatically to herself. No time for that! Her mom was still out of the country. There was plenty of time to worry about this later. Kokona's bully was a problem now.

It was time to take action. To feel powerful again.

AN: Sorry everyone... I wanted this chapter to make more progress on the main storyline but it turned out to just be a detour and I just wanted to release something. I really appreciate all the favs and follows and reviews; I'm just bad at expressing it. Love you all!