[Summary: Chie proves that she's not a prude, the piano is threatened, and a toy is injured.]

[6/29: Wednesday]

Yukiko stopped at Nanako's desk after school, which was fairly unusual for the girl. Chie wasn't around, and when Nanako asked, it turned out she'd gone to a track team meeting.

"You said during the camping trip that Mr. Morooka could help me," Yukiko murmured.

"Oh, yeah!" Nanako said. "I've been meaning to talk to him myself, but I've been so busy with the investigation. You get priority, though! Let's go."

Morooka was alone in the faculty office, sitting at his desk and marking the hell out of someone's paper with a red ink pen. "What do you want, Dojima?" he growled when they approached.

Yukiko flashed an apprehensive look at Nanako.

Nanako stepped forward. "Yukiko here is having some trouble deciding her future, and I thought you might have some advice on that."

His gargoyle-ish face took on a curious cast. His gaze roamed from Nanako to Yukiko. "Well, why didn't you say so sooner? Have a seat, Amagi." He pulled a stool out from under a nearby desk and set it before him.

Nanako grinned at Yukiko in a 'what did I tell you?' way, then asked the girl if she wanted her to stay. Yukiko shook her head, so she dismissed herself from the office. She could wait for them to be done talking, or try to eavesdrop, but that felt unproductive. She decided to head outside to the track team and watch Chie run.

Chie was just pulling up to a stop when she arrived at the track field. Since she was catching her breath, she couldn't speak, so she just waved at Nanako. Then she grabbed a sports drink from a cooler and downed most of it to refresh herself. "What's up Nanako?" she finally gasped out.

"Nothing really," Nanako replied. "Just thought I'd join you because we haven't trained in a while."

"Yeah, we haven't been hanging out as much as we used to, that's for sure. All those boys distracting you, huh?" Chie's tone was light; she was just teasing.

But it was sort of true. Now that Nanako thought about it, she and Chie hadn't spent much meaningful time together in a while. Hadn't the last time been eating out at Aiya? Man, that had been forever ago!

"Wanna walk?" Nanako asked. "Or run, since that's what this club is all about, right? I don't really wanna join the club, but isn't it okay to visit?"

"Yeah! Why don't you go get your P.E. clothes on and join me back here? We can race!"

Nanako lost the race. It wasn't even close. In the hot summer sun, the exertion nearly killed her, or so it felt. But her reward was showering with Chie in the locker room.

Heh heh. That hadn't even been planned!

Chie was a pretty good-looking girl. She didn't have much in the bust department and maybe wasn't all that curvy, but she had shapely, muscular legs and was quite toned overall.

"Pass me a towel, will ya?" Chie asked.

No, I wanna keep looking! Nanako sighed and handed the girl a towel anyway.

"You know, Nanako," Chie remarked while drying herself off, "you can join the track team. Mr. Kondo is the adviser and he's always nice. Works us hard sometimes, but he's a funny guy."

"Ah, I'll think about it," Nanako said. It would be nice to shower regularly with the other track girls, heh heh, but she didn't really want to commit to running in the summer heat on a weekly basis. Her Sundays with Chie were truly enough.

"I can guess your reasons for not wanting to join this club, but..." Chie began. "Why are you so hesitant to join clubs in general? Yosuke told me how you won't join the music club even though you play the piano. It doesn't make any sense, Nanako. You're so sociable and outgoing. You'd fit well in any club."

Perhaps it was telling that Nanako hesitated in answering. "I just find it difficult. You know."

"You don't even have to come every day!" Chie went on, waving her free hand through the air. The other was still drying one of her legs. "It's not a huge commitment or anything. All the track club president wants is for us to run three laps a week, and once a month we have a big meet-up that we have to go to. Sometimes we have sprinting contests there and it's really fun! Though I'm better at endurance running, myself."

Nanako turned off the shower. The knob squeaked as if protesting. Then she grabbed a towel of her own and wrapped her hair in it. With another towel she dried off her body. "I just. Don't like being told what to do," she eventually murmured.

In the middle of putting her clothes back on, Chie frowned at her shorts. "You have a problem with authority?"

"You haven't noticed yet?"

Chie rolled her eyes. "Come on, Nanako! Of course clubs are going to expect you to be at least semi-active. It's not that big a deal."

"It is. For me, it is." Nanako sighed and wrapped the damp towel around her body, not that she minded being exposed in front of Chie, then took a seat on a stool and watched her friend finish changing. "Look, I have a lot going on. I have to fix Souji-kun and solve this case. I have to earn money and deal with people and their problems. I don't want one more teacher bossing me around to do better on this or that."

"They don't boss you around!" Chie protested. "Not as club advisers, anyway. Honestly, most teachers are rather hands-off as advisers."

"Maybe not, but they give pep talks. Do I look like the kind of person that needs them? I'm the kind of person that gives them!"

"You have a point," Chie admitted. "Still, look at Ai Ebihara. She just loafs around the Balls Club all day doing nothing! You could do way better than her."

Balls Club? Nanako was interested now. "What is rule 2 of the Balls Club?" she asked.

"What?"

"Nevermind. What does this Ebihara girl do?"

"She's the basketball team manager," Chie explained, "but I hear the boys complaining about her a lot... well, some boys. Most just want to date her."

"And you think washing towels and polishing balls is my deal...?"

Well, the latter certainly is, said her inner devil.

Shut up, said her inner angel.

Think on the bright side, the inner devil continued, with some luck, you might get to see them changing!

Good point, the inner angel agreed.

She promptly shut them both up. God, she really needed Igor back...

"Well, the latter certainly is," Chie teased, and Nanako stared at her blankly for a good minute or two.

Nanako cleared her throat. "I suppose I could kick the Ebihara girl out..."

"I hear Ichijo-kun's team is really lazy. You could boss them around and whip them into shape, no problem~"

"Chie, when the heck did you get to know me so well?" Nanako's eyes were wide... and suggestive.

"We got close during the camping trip," Chie said, "don't you remember?"

Nanako was too stunned to respond.

[7/1: Friday]

Yesterday had been a great day to work on the piano because the music club hadn't been in session. Progress was going pretty well, actually, and Nanako had even played it without running into any problems that would make her want to ragequit.

Today, however, was a music club day. Nanako wasn't about to give up her work just because other students were around. Besides, the band wasn't too unpleasant to listen to when they finally got going. The only thing was that she couldn't play the piano until their practice was over, but that wasn't a big deal. She could focus on buffing up the keys. They were a bit discolored, after all. It didn't affect the sound, but appearances were important!

And it was something Yosuke could help with! It was nice that he'd volunteered to join her today. She was tired of having him just watch, so she showed him the proper way to clean the keys and set him to work on the end away from her.

"Never knew pianos were so delicate," he whispered while he buffed a key with toothpaste and a chamois cloth.

The band began to practice, so she could only nod at him in reply.

Today's music selection was traditional-styled pieces. Yeah, they were pretty good, but it was soon obvious that they were missing something.

The band captain called a halt. "Man, where's Takeru? We need that trombone!"

"He was in an accident, senpai, didn't you know?" said a violinist. "His arm's hurt, so he can't play for a while."

"Ooh, dang, we need him! Unless... where's Matsunaga? I know she's practiced a lot since last time. We'll need her to take his place!"

"She's probably practicing by the river as we speak," a flutist contributed. "Want me to go get her?"

"You'll miss a lot of practice yourself," the captain said. "But we do need her."

"I'll go get her," Yosuke spoke up. "That way no one misses out on practice. And I know where she practices."

Well, everyone knew where she practiced; the sound carried over the river. Nanako blinked at him. She hadn't expected him to volunteer like that. Maybe he was bored of cleaning keys. From what she could see, he'd done a passable job at it. She might not even have to go over those keys herself.

"Will you, Hanamura? Thanks."

"I'll be back," Yosuke told Nanako, though it was unnecessary. He winked at her before leaving.

It wasn't like she needed Yosuke or anything. The band provided plenty of company. She was able to get quite a few more keys clean and shining by the time the captain called a close to the club meeting.

Most of the members had filed out of the room for the day when the captain walked over to her. "Excuse me, Nanako-kun."

"Yeah?" she replied neutrally, not looking up from the key she was buffing.

"Your name isn't on the club roster, so you've never officially joined. I'm going to have to ask that you do." She didn't answer, so he went on. "We're all friendly here. We don't bite or anything. And we don't have too many members, so we're always ready to have a new face around."

"I told you that I'll think about it," she said.

"You've been thinking about it for over a month," he pointed out.

"No, I haven't," she retorted, gripping the chamois tightly. "I've been fixing the piano you tossed aside like junk."

"If it's taking this long to fix, maybe it is junk," he countered.

Nanako was stunned into silence because he really didn't just say that! How the hell did this guy become band captain if he—

"And since we didn't—and don't—have a member who plays the piano," he went on, "there was—is—no reason to have it out here in the music room."

"That's not fair and you know it," she said, voice quivering in anger. "I said I'm thinking about it, and that should be good enough until I'm done fixing the damned thing! Because if I can't fix it, there's no point in me joining, is there?"

"I'm under the impression that it's pretty much fixed," he said, looking askance at the piano. "Otherwise you wouldn't be on the cleaning stage. Nanako-kun, I want a decision before the summer break, okay? If you don't join, we'll have to either put the piano away, or find someone else who will play it with us."

Nanako barked out some humorless laughter. "Fat chance! You said yourself that you don't have enough members as is. Put the piano away and I'll keep working on it in the storeroom. Or I'll take it outside and practice with Ayane-chan!"

"What is your problem?" he asked with a frown. "I'm not trying to be mean, but that piano is here for the music club, regardless of its condition. The school owns it. You should be in the music club to use it. That makes perfect sense to me. You even had it brought in here, into the club room..."

Their argument was cut short by Ayane squeaking from the doorway. "S-s-senpai! I'm so sorry I wasn't here for practice! I, I heard you needed me?"

"Ah, Matsunaga!"

While the club leader told Ayane about Takeru's condition, Nanako picked up her cleaning supplies and left the room. She stood just outside the door and fumed over the club leader's ultimatum. She'd never wanted to join band, and now she had a tangible reason why: that guy was a dick! On some level, she knew she was being stubborn and unreasonable about this, but...

Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder. She almost flinched and swatted it away in her anger, but it was just Yosuke. "It'll be okay," he said. "Don't force yourself to join if you don't want to."

Had he heard all that?

"But the piano," she muttered. "I don't want them to move it back into the storeroom. That'd be such a pain."

"Don't worry about it. Really. It won't happen." She had no idea how he could assure her of this, but he just said, "Trust me," and she decided what the hell, let him handle it.

[7/2: Saturday]

The kids were having fun playing kickball in the field outside the daycare building. Well, most of them were. A pair of boys were playing on the sidelines with a plush toy, one gray-haired and one brown-haired. Souji and a boy named Yuuta.

Nanako had almost forced the two of them to join the kickball game, but Souji playing with someone was something she'd never interrupt. And Yuuta was a pretty good kid, in her meager experience. Cheerful and outgoing, he tried to make friends with everyone. He could be a good influence on Souji-kun!

Let them play, she thought, and so she supervised the kickball game instead. As 'the Boss,' she made sure as best she could that every kid was included in the game and had the ball for a time. A little girl tripped and skinned her knee at one point, so Nanako had to send her inside the daycare building to get a bandage since she couldn't leave the rest of the kids unsupervised. She vowed to have one of her first aid kits on hand next time.

And before she knew it, the manager came out with the first set of parents; it was already time for the kids to go home. Nanako saw them off with hugs and smiles until suddenly an anguished cry rang out across the field. It had come from... Souji-kun?

He was crying. The sound wrenched her heart, and she immediately ordered the daycare manager to take care of the rest of the kids as she dashed over there to see what had happened to her darling cousin. The two boys were sitting on the ground, and between them was...

Foxie, missing a leg and a tail.

Nanako swallowed her own desire to howl. She'd had Foxie for as long as she could remember, and to see the toy like this...!

Yuuta was looking up at her with both guilt and tears. "It, it was an accident!"

She worked her mouth for a bit before speaking. "You know, it's okay. Souji-kun, Yuuta-kun, it's..." Then an idea sprang to mind. "We'll take her to the hospital, stat! Come along, both of you!"

She gently pulled Souji up and whispered against his ear that everything would be okay. He looked doubtful, but he stopped crying.

Then she gingerly picked up Foxie and her... her missing limbs... and put the animal in her school bag and hefted it over her shoulder. She took Souji with one hand and Yuuta with the other and marched them right out of the daycare, ignoring the manager who was yelling at her for taking Yuuta despite not being the child's emergency contact. Yuuta's mom was perpetually late, anyway. With luck, they'd be back before she arrived.

"Wh-where are we going, Miss?" Yuuta asked, holding onto her hand for dear life because she wasn't letting go.

She didn't answer, nor did she look at the boy, knowing she might end up glaring at him for being complicit in hurting her toy. Hell, it had been hard enough simply to give Foxie away to Souji-kun like she had. To have this happen...!

It took some time even at her brisk pace to make it to her destination. She opened the door and a little bell rang. "Tatsumi-san?" she addressed the lady seated on a cushion in the store. "Please tell me Kanji-kun is in."

Because... if anyone could save Foxie, it'd be Kanji!

Kanji's mother nodded. "Do you need to see him? I see you've brought some friends today!" Then she noted Nanako's serious face and the worried looks on boys' faces and said that they were free to go in the back and see him.

Nanako dragged the boys along into the Tatsumi family's living room, where they found Kanji hard at work on some sort of crochet project.

"Senpai?" he said upon looking up from his work. "Is something up? Huh, you brought Souji-kun and, err..."

Nanako brought out the torn plush toy for his inspection. His curious expression turned into one of empathy when he saw what had happened.

"Can you... can you repair her, Kanji-kun?" Nanako asked.

He was already opening a sewing box—possibly the one that had once broken his finger—and looking for thread that would match the plush's fabric.

"It'll take some time, Senpai," Kanji said softly. "Why don't you and the kids wait in the shop, yeah?"

She herded the boys into the store, and Tatsumi-san offered them refreshments while they waited. Nanako chewed one of her fingernails. It was about time to trim them again, really. She'd never been a fan of long nails, despite thinking they were really pretty and being a bit jealous of those who had them—they just got in the way too much!

Souji tugged at her skirt. "B-big sis... Mama's supposed to..."

It was past time for their ride home, and the boy knew it. Nanako shook her head. "I'm supposed to bring you home today. Your mom left a voice message." Well, she hadn't checked the content of the message on her phone, but she was pretty sure that's what it was.

"Oh..." The boy's disappointed face made her pull him into a hug. Then she noticed Yuuta watching, so she sighed and pulled him against her hip, too. Now it was a group hug.

After a moment, she tried to withdraw, but Yuuta was still clinging to her. Instead of breaking away, she indulged him and rubbed his back. Obviously both of these boys needed more physical attention than they got at home, and she was totally okay with providing it, though it was sad that she had to.

"You can keep hugging me," she told him, "but I gotta let the daycare know where you are," – she shifted enough to free her cell phone – "in case your mom gets there and wonders why you're not there."

Yuuta made an unpleasant sound similar to a cough. "I don't have a mom."

"You do too," Nanako replied. "I've seen her!"

"She's not my real mom..."

"I-is that so...?" She sighed. If it's not one thing, it's another. "Well, she'll still want to know where you are—"

"I wanna stay with Souji-kun! Can I, can I?" Yuuta looked up at her, but all Nanako could think about was her other stuffed animals and the danger they'd be in. It was an awful thought and she knew she was awful for thinking it, especially in face of the boy's hope, but...

"Sorry, Yuuta-kun," she said, "but I need to know what happened to Foxie first."

The boy looked down. "Sh-she was caught under my foot, and I tried to pull her out from under it, and... I'm s-sorry!" Yuuta was clinging to her skirt much like Souji was prone to do.

"Yeah," she said in a low voice. "Yeah, I ripped a blanket that way, too. Cloth isn't as strong as it looks, sometimes. Do you know now? Not to pull on it when it's caught?" Yuuta assured her that he wouldn't do it again. "All right, well, I can't take you home with me today, but I think maybe Souji-kun will have a sleepover sometime. Would you like that, Souji-kun?"

Souji had been quietly watching them talk. "S-sleepover?" By the questioning quality in his voice, he'd probably never had one before, nor even thought of it.

"Yeah," said Nanako, making it sound like it was nothing special. "But anyway, let me call the daycare, okay?"

Yuuta finally stepped away. He looked happier than he'd been a moment ago, so that was a small victory, at least. She was able to call the daycare, and indeed, Yuuta's stepmom, Eri Minami, was there and wondering where the boy was. The daycare manager put her on the line so that Nanako could explain. "We had an accident with a toy and I'm getting the toy fixed. I brought Yuuta-kun along since he was a key witness. I'll bring him back soon, is that all right?"

"Yes, take your time," Minami said. "I'm sure Yuu-kun doesn't want to go home, anyway..."

Nanako ground her teeth. She'd have to get down to the bottom of this, too, huh? She looked at Yuuta, who looked back evenly. He knew she was talking to his stepmom, even if he couldn't hear the words.

"You could even let him come home on his own," the woman continued. "He sometimes does that when I'm running late. I try to pick him up on time, but..."

"I'll take him home," Nanako said abruptly before hanging up.

Man, this was turning out to be the worst day. Really, how many awful parents did this town have!?

Tatsumi-san was looking at her. "Is everything all right, dear?" the older lady asked. "You're welcome to sit down anywhere."

Well, at least there was one parent who was awesome.

Half of the textiles shop was on a raised area covered in tatami room flooring. Nanako sat on the edge to this area and invited the boys to sit with her. She looked around the store idly and pointed out the array of colorful fabrics on display. "Souji-kun, did you ever decide your favorite color?"

She'd asked that so long ago. He had to have figured it out by now, right?

He looked down at his feet. After a long moment, he muttered, "I don't know..."

"Yuuta-kun, what's your favorite?"

"Huh? Uh, uh, blue!" Yuuta declared.

If it was blue, why was he completely ignoring the intricate blue banner hanging on the table just to their left? And why did he keep stealing glances at the flower display next to it?

She fixed him with her unamused DEATH stare, and he seemed quite surprised to receive it. "M-miss!?"

"What's your favorite?" she repeated in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

"Miss!" he wailed, blushing, but then he finally relented. "It's... it's pink..."

She grinned at him victoriously. "Pink is a good color," she assured him. "Don't be afraid to like it! You know, Souji-kun has a pink umbrella and it's his favorite!"

"Big sis...!" Souji whined. But Yuuta was looking at him with awe, so he whispered that he could bring it to the daycare next week.

The door to the back finally opened with a loud sliding sound. "Senpai!" Kanji called.

Nanako immediately stood up. "Kanji-kun?"

He walked over to her and presented the fox plush. She carefully took it in hand and looked it over. Foxie's tail and missing leg had been reattached. They were stitched so neatly that she had to look closely to even notice that they had ever been separated.

Foxie was also now wearing a miniature red bib. Nanako thumbed it and then gave Kanji a questioning look. He shrugged nonchalantly. "Just something a li'l extra I thought to add."

"Kids!" she announced with a grand smile. "Foxie's all better, come and see!"

The two boys rushed to her side. She held Foxie towards Yuuta, whose look of relief made her forgive him for the accident, and then gave the plush to Souji, who hugged it so tightly that he was probably wasn't going to let it go anytime soon.

"Heh heh. And we all have to thank Kanji-kun. Kanji-kun! You're amazing, you know that?"

"Was nothin'," he said, his face turning as pink as the flowers Yuuta had been looking at earlier.

"Give us all a hug!" Nanako demanded. "A group hug. I know you can wrap your arms around all of us at once!"

"Wha?" Kanji emitted in complete surprise.

"And your mom, too! Come on, Tatsumi-san!" Nanako waved her over.

The bun-haired older lady walked stately over with a big smile of her own, catching their good spirits. Now Kanji really couldn't refuse. He shook his head, then opened his arms wide. The kids cuddled right up against his legs. Nanako put her arm around his right side, with his mom taking the left.

"Kanji-kun, you made my day," Nanako murmured into his ear. Maybe her admission was a bit louder than planned—

"And mine," said a voice from the shop's front door.

Kanji immediately withdrew from the hug, which almost unbalanced him since the boys were still holding onto him. Nanako frowned at the door and then laughed. Saki was standing there with her phone held up to her face, its camera aimed at them.

"Senpai!" Kanji protested.

"Send me a copy!" Nanako demanded. Then she laughed again. "Man, Saki-senpai, that's some perfect timing."

Saki spread her arms in a shrug. "I was waiting just outside for the right moment."

"Come on," said Nanako. "I expect that from Shirogane-san, not you!"

The wavy-haired upperclassman stuck her tongue out at Nanako and then left the store, looking at the picture on her camera with satisfaction.

[AN: Foxie is taking the place of the shrine fox in this story, hehe. With the bib, all she's missing now is Macca leaves.

What is Yosuke's plan with the piano?

Some comments for my lovely reviewers:

Dusk Clark - Saki kind of deserves to know, since her brother died and all, but I think she'll be the last person that Nanako spills the beans to.

Gilgamesh The King of Heroes - Souji's probably not going to be wandering around outside the house to crash social link events like child Nanako. He's either at home at cram school-though I guess he could run across a social link event when he's on the way home from cram school. Hmm...!

kuroXIII - ahh, finally someone mentions Souji's dad! But that mystery will be a while still, hehe. I'm sorry ;_;

Next Chapter: Detectoring

Kanji learns some detective rules from a detective's daughter. Among other things, hehe.]