Hello again! And here we are at Chapter Five. I know it's been…way too long, and so I'm going to put here the same notice I put on Tumblr:

As you all know, System Restore hasn't updated since October, which is something I've been super uncomfortable with. A combination of factors have come into the delay - flipflopping between various personal projects, having a ~30 hr/week job, extreme levels of writer's block, and also just Dangan Ronpa not being as much an all-consuming thing for me as it once was. But, believe me. System Restore is my baby. I have always loved this story and it's changed my life in all sorts of positive ways. I want, nay, NEED to step up and give it the ending it deserves. It's been almost three years, after all.

I've been intimidated, I think, by the size of the chapters. I've tried publishing smaller chapters and crashed and burned, but now that I'm in a better place I think I can a) keep up with it and b) actually be spurred on by a deadline now that I'm no longer in school and don't have 40 others. That said, given my track record, I'm going to count on you guys to keep me on track. I have faith in myself, though. And I have faith in all of you. I /may/ have to shorten up some stuff, but I know I'm not on a deadline, so not too much.

So here are my goals!:

A new chapter on May 5, 2016. It, and most future chapters, will be either 10 Word pages or 2 sections long, whichever comes first.

New chapters of a similar length every Thursday thereafter until the story is done.

I cannot thank all of you enough for your patience and enduring love. This story has been a transformative experience for me and I want to give you the ending it deserves.


The Future Foundation, Part One

Hinata-kun.

Hinata's fingers twitched, but he couldn't move any more, no matter how he tried. He was lying on a hard surface again, but this one was even and slick, unlike the rough stone floor of the castle. It didn't feel like the pavement, either, but that was the only other place he could imagine he was.

Hinata-kun, wake up. You can do it…

He didn't want to do it. He couldn't let himself wake up to another sight he couldn't explain. But if he didn't, then he'd be risking Nanami's life with every moment of inaction…

Hinata-kun…!

"Nanami!" he shouted, shocking himself fully awake. He lifted his head and looked from left to right, trying to find Nanami, but she was nowhere to be seen, not even when he tried to twist his body back.

Only then did he realize just how much pain he was in. He didn't think he could feel any blood, but his joints were screaming against any attempt to bend, and every inch of his body was sore on top of sore. But he couldn't let this stop him. If he was already in pain, then a little more pain wouldn't make much more of a difference. He braced himself for the effort, and then slid his forearms under his shoulders to create some leverage.

Once again he couldn't make any sense of his surroundings. He was in a room of some kind, that much he could tell – an enormous, pale-pink room, slightly curved at its edges, the like of which he was sure he'd never seen on the island before. Or, at least, he was sure he'd remember any room that was covered floor to ceiling in strawberries. Not real strawberries, of course, though he would've given anything for a strawberry right then. It was the same cartoon image of a strawberry, repeated again and again…

Hinata didn't have the energy to think of how odd it was. He twisted himself slowly into a sitting position, wincing as his upper body moved. From left to right he saw nothing but more strawberries. No Nanami, no furniture, not even any sign of where he'd come in, or for that matter where he'd be able to leave. Briefly he bent over again, with his head between his knees, taking a few slow breaths to steady himself. Then he turned all the way around, to face the back of the room.

Or was it the front? Either way, he'd never been happier to see an open hallway and a set of stairs leading down. Collected around the hallway was the largest arrangement of junk he'd ever seen, divided from the rest of the room by a series of orange cones and lines of yellow CAUTION tape. Mostly it just looked like a jumble of unrelated parts – cardboard boxes, a line of picket fence, bags on bags of potting soil. But the large, upside-down playground side by the edge of the pile gave Hinata a much better idea of what it was all supposed to have been for. But why would there be a playground inside a building – a building on this island, no less? And why hadn't it been finished?

Most importantly, there was still a clear path to the stairs from where he sat, and lying face-down in the middle of that path was –

"NANAMI!"

Hinata scrambled to his feet with a burst of adrenaline and ran to her side. She was unconscious, and only now could he see the bloodstains on her clothes and the enormous array of half-healed wounds across her arms and legs. Frantically he pressed his fingers against her throat, just as he'd seen others do before.

For a few anxious seconds he was afraid he couldn't feel a pulse, but then he realized he could feel her chest moving up and down against his knees, as well as the flutter of her nose as she exhaled. He relaxed, and as he did he felt a faint, steady rhythm under his fingers.

"Nanami…" No matter how many times Hinata repeated her name, she didn't respond. He looked frantically around at the junk piles, but saw nothing looked like it could be useful in ensuring her safety. But he couldn't just give up hope there – he dived for the nearest stack of boxes, pulling them open at random.

The first two boxes just had a bunch of construction equipment in them, but the third had a cooler inside, stocked full of sealed bread buns and bottles of milk, against all odds. He was so hungry he couldn't even consider whether the food was safe; he tore two of the bread packages open and ate eagerly, sighing as the taste of soft bread and sweet red bean paste filled his mouth. He washed it down with several gulps of the milk (which was cool and fresh, against all odds) and then took a deep breath and finished the bottle.

Within seconds the fog in his mind cleared, and some of the pain in his joints even started to fade. He pulled himself up on his side, just to get a better sense of balance, and then grabbed a bottle of milk and two buns before moving back to Nanami's side.

"Nanami," he repeated, twisting the cap off the milk bottle. "You have to wake up… please…"

He wished he had water on hand instead, but it would have to do. He pulled her up into a sitting position, and tipped some milk into her mouth. Of course this didn't instantly wake her up – she mumbled, and moved to swallow, but didn't open her eyes. Still, he felt like he'd done something right.

"I'm sorry," he said out loud, just so he could keep his voice in her ears. She was still breathing, and her eyelids were fluttering now; he let her head rest against his chest, and in his mind he held on to that movement, to those signs that she was still alive. "I don't know where we are. I don't know how we can get out, and I don't even know what'll happen once we do. But it's okay. You're going to be okay. It's okay…"

You have to go.

"What?" Hinata blinked, and looked down at Nanami. As far as he could tell, she hadn't spoken. She was moving slightly more, and even curling up against his chest (oh jeez, some part of him with its priorities mixed up couldn't help but think), which he hoped meant that she was okay, but not as okay as she should be.

Of course he'd go. But he couldn't do it now, not when Nanami couldn't move or stand –

You're dying as we speak. You're dying of inaction. You're dying to death.

"You're not making any sense," Hinata said, again out loud. But where was the voice coming from? Somewhere in the room? His own head? He couldn't distinguish its tone, or even whether or not it was familiar…

You're wrong about that, you know. You should be worried. You should be running. You're not going to get lazy on me, are you? You're a Super High School Level. You're not supposed to let the common scum down.

He couldn't really justify why they were still sitting on the floor. They needed to go. They needed to get… somewhere. Somewhere safe.

"Nanami," he said, but when he got no answer, he gave up. He stood, took Nanami around the shoulders, and then, with a monumental effort, pulled her up to a standing position.

But then, I know you won't. I know you know what you need to do. You have to go, Hinata-kun. You have to go…

Nanami finally started to stir as he hauled her arm up over his shoulder. First she coughed, and spat some of the milk he'd given her onto the ground, then took some deep breaths, her eyelids fluttering open and closed. "Hinata-kun…?" she said. "What…"

"We have to go," Hinata said. "We have to…" His mind fogged over again, but only for a second. "We have to find somewhere to stay."

"To…stay?" Her voice was dim and faraway, but it was there. "What do you –?"

"We have to." Hinata stood, holding Nanami by the arm, and ignoring the pain in every other part of his body. "We're not safe here," he said, though he couldn't think of why. "We have to find a better place to…"

He couldn't think of how he was going to finish that sentence, and it was the farthest thing from his mind at the moment to find a way. He turned them both around, and started slowly toward the stairs.

At first Nanami didn't seem to be able to walk on her own, but as they approached the stairs he felt a burden lift from his shoulders, as she started doing some of the work herself. She did still feel weary, but he would never call her weak, not even in this state.

"How are you feeling?" he said.

"Hmmmm." Nanami mumbled into his shoulder. "I'm alright."

"Are you sure?"

"No," Nanami said. "Sleepy…"

"You can't go to sleep," Hinata said. "Not until we know where we are."

"I'm fine," Nanami said. "I was fine…"

"Just stay awake," Hinata said, without knowing why. "Let's just keep talking, okay? That should help, right?"

"I don't know," Nanami said, but Hinata still felt a movement against his shoulder that might have been a nod.

"Okay…you told me once about your family," he said. "About your father. He's a computer programmer, right?"

Nanami mumbled an assent. "That's nice," Hinata said. "That's really interesting. Is he why you like video games?"

They were at the stairs, now, and heading down. "He was," Nanami said. "And my brother, too. He's… a lot like my father was."

He didn't like her melancholy tone of voice at all – or, for that matter, her past tense. But he couldn't push her farther, not without making everything bleaker, and going places that were already too far gone. "Wow," he said. "That's amazing. No one in my family was nearly that interesting."

"What were they like?" Nanami said.

He answered her question as they reached the end of the stairs. They'd landed at a low, narrow hallway, with two doors on either side, next to a large, yellow barrier of CAUTION tape that obscured Hinata's view of the rest of the hallway. He thought he could see another door beyond it, so he assumed there must be more, but for now the two in front of him were the only ones that were accessible. There was another set of stairs to their right that seemed to lead further down.

"I'm going to try the doors," Hinata told Nanami. "Are you okay to stand, or…"

"I'll sit," Nanami said.

"Are you sure?" Hinata said, and Nanami only murmured in response. Reluctantly, Hinata knelt to the ground, allowing Nanami to slide off and lean against the wall closest to the door on the left. She felt weaker than ever, and her eyelids were fluttering – open, closed, open, closed. Frankly he didn't know what to do about it, beyond checking her forehead (thankfully she wasn't feverish) and leaving the red bean bread and milk with her.

"I'll be right back," he said, and approached the door. Nanami murmured again. Immediately Hinata felt a pang of regret, but if there was something that would help him beyond the doors that he could access… then he owed it to Nanami to find it for her. As scared and confused as he was, he wasn't about to give up. Especially not on her.

He opened the door, but didn't quite know what to do when he had. He would never have guessed it was a bedroom, much less the most ridiculous and garish-looking bedroom he'd ever seen. He didn't know what was weirder: the enormous fireplace, the four-poster bed, the decorative human skull with lollipops sticking out of its eyes, or….well, any number of things. But he didn't have time to ogle – he knew at a glance it was exactly what he needed.

He knelt down by Nanami again, and put her arm back over his shoulder. "There's a…bed in there," he said. "I'm gonna…you need to rest…"

"A bed?" Nanami said. "But…"

"I don't know," Hinata said. He led her through the door and towards the bed, shoving a lamp out of the way in the process. He couldn't tell what Nanami thought about the room, because she hadn't said anything. But at least her eyes were open, and she did manage to get into the bed under her own power. She even pulled the covers up over her head.

"Is that better?" Hinata said.

"It's… yeah." Nanami nodded. "Hinata-kun… I…"

She stopped, and bit her lip. Hinata knew in an instant what she was about to say. "No, no, please. Don't worry about it. Not now."

"I'm…" Nanami sighed. "Do you…know where this is?"

"No," Hinata said, placing the red bean bread and milk by her side. "I still don't have my Electronic Student ID. Ah…" He hesitated. "Do you?"

Nanami's eyes went wide, and she shook her head. Hinata noticed a slight smear of blood on the pillow where her forehead had touched it. "Well… wherever it is, I don't remember getting here." Hinata looked warily at Nanami. "Do…you?"

Nanami stared at Hinata for several seconds. "Hinata-kun…why do you think this is happening?"

A dull throbbing filled the back of Hinata's head. "Happening…? I…"

You need to go. I told you.

Hinata froze. It was the same voice as before, he could tell. He didn't think that was Nanami's, but…

"Did you just tell me if I needed to go?" he said.

At his words, Nanami was suddenly more alert than ever. She pushed herself up on her hands, and looked him directly in the eye. "Hinata-kun," she said, "We need to stay here. Do you understand?"

We can't let anything stand in our way. We hold the future in our hands, Hinata-kun.

"I… that's… I know, but…" Hinata balled his hands into fists, and turned toward the door. "I… I need to see if I can find an exit."

"Hinata-kun!" In his peripheral vision, Hinata could see Nanami trying and failing to sit up. Something in the back of his mind told him to run back to her, but it was as though his body wasn't obeying his thoughts. "We don't know anything about this place. If the Impostor –"

The Impostor is not here, a voice told Hinata in his mind. "I'll be fine," he said. "I'll take care of it…"

"You can't think like that, Hinata-kun," Nanami said, her voice strained and desperate. "They sent Ta – I mean that robot. They were looking to kill us –"

"I'll be fine," he said, though it came out quite a lot louder than he'd intended…

And the next thing he knew, he was outside the room. He pressed his ear against the door, waiting to hear some kind of protest from the other side of the wall, but he heard nothing. Was Nanami really not going to call after him? The thought scared him more than the prospect of being lost or hurt. He reached back for the knob.

You need to go. She already has hope. Make sure that hope stays alive.

No… he couldn't concern himself with her anymore, and didn't even question his line of thinking as he set his hand back at his side. She was safe. He didn't know why he knew she was safe… but she was. She had to be.

So he set off back down the hall, towards the second set of stairs.


Every time Saionji opened her eyes, she relived the moment she'd been thrown against the wall.

So she just kept them shut. Darkness was easier to handle than pain, and she had enough of that already, in every corner of her body. Pain, blood, pain. She should have died, she could have died. But what was it that kept her alive? Was it luck? Was it spite? She didn't have the spare brainpower to think on it; it was enough just to keep herself conscious.

But she had to remember she was safe now. She was safe, she was safe, she was safe… After all, Big Sis Koizumi had her.

Even if she was mad at Saionji – even if she was mad at her a lot – she still loved her. Saionji was sure of it. If she didn't, then it wouldn't make any sense. She'd been the only one who'd really defended Koizumi when Sonia had tried to frame her for murder. She was the only one who ever defended or cared about her at all. Didn't that mean more than just one stupid argument? Or even a lot of them?

If she had even the slightest ability to talk she would. But she didn't. She could feel pain and she could feel running. Big Sis Koizumi had her. She'd run and picked her up off the floor after the burst of unimaginable pain, and she'd screamed and thought she was dead. But then Saionji had coughed – she could remember coughing, and screaming herself – and Big Sis Koizumi had cried, and started running faster. She hadn't felt any change since. For all she knew this was the rest of her life. It wasn't as though she had the strength to resist.

"I don't understand." Koizumi's voice pounded against Saionji's eardrums, creating even more pain. "We should've been back to the path by now!"

"You don't…. know that," another voice said. She couldn't see the speaker, but it was a disgusting voice, from a shitstain that should've died long ago. "Just… keep going –"

"If we don't get Hiyoko-chan to the hospital she's going to die," Big Sis interrupted.

"That's not my fucking fault!" the shitstain shouted back.

"I didn't say it was."

"I'm looking, okay?" The sound of his steps grew fainter, hopefully as he moved further away. "It's an island. We'll get to the coast if we go in a straight line."

"We could be going in circles."

"We're not."

"And how do you know that?"

"I – we'd know, okay? We're not gonna get there any faster by arguing. Come on."

Saionji wished she could shout at Kuzuryuu, and make him crumble and cower and run away just like he always had. But her mouth was so dry that she couldn't make anything come out. She just made a rough, sputtering sound that nobody heard.

"So I'm arguing," Big Sis Koizumi said.

"Yeah. You are."

"Then I'll just stop talking."

"Yeah. Go ahead. Not like you were talking much before."

Big Sis didn't respond. All that Saionji could feel from her was the endless rocking motion of her arms as she carried her, only interrupted when she stumbled, probably over twigs and rocks.

Some level of worry must have compelled her to open her eyes. When she did the boundaries of her reality expanded to include the sight of Koizumi's hands on her waist, and the endless blurry rows of pine trees, and the back of Kuzuryuu's suit as he walked further and further ahead. There was a buzzing noise coming from somewhere around him – he was mumbling something she could just barely hear. Only a few phrases came up that she understood – like "stupid", and "no point even trying".

"What was that?" Big Sis said.

"Nothing. Never mind."

"No. You were saying something."

"It was nothing," he repeated. "It was me being stupid. There's no point getting mad about it."

"Look, whatever it is, I don't care," Koizumi said. "Not right now. Maybe when I'm not being hunted by –"

"No, I get that. I said I was being stupid."

"Then why'd you say it?"

"It doesn't matter."

Big Sis sighed. In front of her, Kuzuryuu seemed to slow down – or was Big Sis catching up? Either way, within a few seconds they were walking next to each other and Saionji was about level with Kuzuryuu's blurry head. "If it doesn't matter, why do you want to talk about it so badly?"

"No, that's not…" Kuzuryuu paused. "I meant all that stuff… you know, in the game… with my sister..."

Saionji felt her big sis's chest grow hot, and her heart beat faster. "Y-You're not the one who gets to say that doesn't matter –!"

"I thought I was such a big shot," Kuzuryuu interrupted. "That my way was the only way that meant anything. I thought I didn't have to care about anyone else… and then Peko, and Sonia, they… All because I had to play that god damn game…"

Again Big Sis Koizumi was silent. Saoinji always hated these moments; she always wanted to be able to count on her big sis to defend herself. And when she couldn't… that was a sign that she needed to defend her. But she couldn't. She could hardly squirm, let alone kick him in his lying mouth.

"I'm sorry," Kuzuryuu said. "I don't know if it means anything. Or even if you care. But I'm telling the truth. If I could go back in time, and… well, no point in that. I can't."

"It's alright."

Kuzuryuu stopped short – or so Saionji assumed, given she should no longer see him. "Wh-"

"I know what you're trying to do," Koizumi mumbled. Her voice was so faint in Saionji's ears that she could not determine her emotion. "It's not… I know you wish it hadn't happened as much as I do."

He grunted. "Guess that's good enough."

"You blamed me because you needed someone to blame. Can't say I haven't done that."

"You haven't gotten anyone killed over it."

Koizumi sighed. "Look… I know what I wanted to know. We really can stop before we forget what we're supposed to be doing."

Kuzuryuu grumbled again, but didn't protest – perhaps his silence was a manner of agreement. But even in the haze of her pain Saionji wasn't about to let that rest. She could recognize remorse when she saw it, and she'd seen it many times, but it wasn't remotely within the scope of her abilities to care. How she wished she could kick him. But then of course Big Sis Koizumi would be angry, and that was the kind of thing that did her feel remorse, even when she was certain she was right –

CRACK.

The sound stopped Koizumi so abruptly that she very nearly dropped Saionji. Saionji could barely process the world as it was, especially as pain filled every inch of her body, but there was something cold about what she'd just heard, something that was more than a sound.

"Mmmmnnnhhh!" she groaned, trying to fight against the pain.

"Hiyoko-chan…!" Koizumi steadied her grip on Saionji's tiny body, but stayed on her knees, unwilling to take the risk of jostling her any more. Saionji could see Koizumi's arms stained with her blood, out of the corner of her eye. "Did you hear that?"

"Did I hear – of course I heard that!" Kuzuryuu barked. "What are we supposed to-?"

CRACK.

Now Saionji could process just what was happening. The world really had gone cold, because time had stopped for a moment in its tracks. Her blood no longer flowed, her wounds no longer festered and her head no longer throbbed. For that matter she no longer moved or breathed, and neither did anyone else. All there was in the world was stillness, punctuated by the reverberation of a noise that never seemed to end.

Reality righted itself within seconds, just as it had the last time. But before she could be surprised or even scared, she heard a voice she didn't recognize – something she never thought she'd hear again – close by and clear as day.

"Whoa, hey, I made it! And all my limbs are here, too."

Kuzuryuu's eyes went wide with terror. "Who was that," he said. "I don't know who that is…"

"It's… that's not Souda, right?" Koizumi slowly lowered Saionji onto the ground, as Saionji struggled to keep her eyes open. "Or Hinata? Or…"

"Hey, hello?" the voice interrupted. "Fukawa-chi? You in yet?"

Fukawa-chi?! Saionji only had enough time to process her disgust at the regionalism when she heard a rustling in the trees, and a low, keening sound, as though someone were in distress. "Oh, there you are!" the voice continued. "What are you doing up there?"

"H-How do you think I would know?!" a new voice said. This one was high, and thin, and it stumbled over its words. "Just get me d-down before anyone sees!"

"I'm… not really sure how I'd do that, Fukawa-chi…"

Without another word to Kuzuryuu, Koizumi scooped Saionji back into her arms and together they broke into a run, going closer and closer to the voice. Part of Saionji's semi-conscious wanted to leap out of Koizumi's arms and run, or possibly grab Koizumi and take her as far away as she could, but the only thing she could do was find comfort in the fact that she was alive. Alive, alive, alive…

"Y-You can't just leave me up here!" the second voice keened.

"Hmmm…well, if I had a knife or a pair of scissors, I could –"

"Y-YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CUT OFF MY HAIR!"

"But I thought you said you wanted to get down, right? It'd just be a little bit off the ends, and besides, it's not like it's really -"

A guttural scream cut the first voice off. "Okay, okay, no cutting!" he said. "First we'll wait until Naegi-chi gets here. And then –"

The voice stopped short as Koizumi broke through a layer of leaves, and entered an enormous clearing in the woods. At first, disoriented glance it seemed like the kind of place Saionji would've found on some feudal woodcut - overgrown, underpopulated, and all in all too boring to care about. But then she saw the tree in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a series of gnarled and overgrown roots, and the unfamiliar person at the foot of that tree.

He was the ugliest, scruffiest, most disgusting-looking man Saionji had ever seen in her life - and she'd seen a whole lot of ugly, scruffy, disgusting-looking men. He did have a decent enough black suit on, which was more than she might've expected. But the tops of his hands were hairy, his face was stubbly and unkempt, and his hair – she couldn't even find the words to describe it.

Next to him, but a few feet higher in the air, was a woman – still older than Saionji, but not as old as the man. She also wore a black suit, with a much more feminine cut, and a knee-length skirt instead of slacks. By herself she wouldn't have been remarkable at all – she was plain bordering on ugly in Saionji's view. But here she was, dangling ten feet off the ground, kicking her legs and swaying back and forth by her ridiculously long braids, which had somehow gotten tangled in the high branches.

If she'd had the energy she would've laughed. However she'd gotten herself caught there, it must've been stupid. The absolutely livid expression on the woman's face made it all the better – or was she terrified? Either way, it was enough to make Saionji feel like she was going to make it.

The man did a double take at Saionji, Koizumi, and Kuzuryuu, and after a second's delay he ran back towards the tree, holding his hands up over his head. "G-GYAHHH!" he shouted. "You! What are you doing here?"

"What are we doing here?" Kuzuryuu took several steps back. "What are YOU doing here?! You…you're not-"

"Rrrrraaaggghhhhh!" the woman shrieked, cutting Kuzuryuu off. Her braids were pulling heavily at the sides of her head, and her face was turning a strange shade of purple. "N-now you've done it… they think I'm some kind of circus f-freak…it's all your f-fault for just standing around…"

"Ah, no-!" Saionji could tell from the way Big Sis Koizumi spoke that she was concerned about this strange screaming woman, for some reason. "We definitely don't think you're a freak – look, we'll find a way to get you down!"

"Hey, I was gettin' to that when you showed up!" The man stumbled back to his feet, now apparently perfectly calm. "Uh… any of you guys got a knife?" He turned to Kuzuryuu. "Shrimpy Yakuza guy, 'right? Kuzuryuu-chi?"

"Shrimpy?" Kuzuryuu stomped in front of Saionji, looking and sounding a lot more shocked than he was angry. "Shrimpy?!"

"Yep, it's Kuzuryuu-chi!" The man's voice was just as ugly as his face, and Saionji could barely understand what he was saying through his thick Kansai accent and dialect. "You kinda look familiar, but it's been a while since I've seen ya. And the, uh…" He paused, probably to give the broken and rusty gears in his brain some time to turn, before he pointed up at Big Sis Koizumi. "The photographer! Koi-chi!"

"Koichi," Koizumi said, with a similar level of disbelief – but not as much shock. If Saionji could see Koizumi's face, she was sure she had to be righteously, viciously outraged.

"Yeah, that's what I said!" The man gave Koizumi a casual, vulgar thumbs-up. "S'your name, right? And that's…uh… that's whatsherface! I don't actually remember that one, right?"

Saionji screamed at loudly as she could muster when she couldn't form words – which was only loud enough for this man to give her an uncertain look. "That doesn't sound like a name…"

"Q-Quit wasting time!" the woman shouted. "We already know what they are!"

"And I think we already know who you are," Koizumi said. Saionji felt herself being lowered down to the ground again, and then heard Koizumi's soft footfalls against the grass, followed by several grunts and crunching noises as, for all Saionji could assume, she ascended the tree. "You're the Future Foundation. Aren't you?"

"Oh, well…" The man's face fell, but only for a second, before he put his hand to his chin and grinned. "Yup! We sure are! Two of them, anyway."

"Two of them…" Kuzuryuu still sounded furious, but in a calmer, stiller way. "What do you mean, two of them? There's supposed to be six of you!"

"Well, they're coming, right? But I dunno yet where the others ended up. Anyway…" The man pointed to himself. "Name's Yasuhiro Hagakure, and that's Touko Fukawa-chi in the tree. S'nice to finally meet you guys, 'right?"


See you guys next Thursday, then? :D

Carth