Against the World
"Have you ever heard the phrase 'there are no psychiatrists'? Here, even after being tortured, there are no psychiatrists."
-x-
"What do you recommend, Yamanaka-san?"
The Yamanaka sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I should clarify that while it seems she has no real loyalty to the village specifically, we can't say anything for sure, as I was unable to make any sense of her mind, and thus unable to properly search through it for more details. Furthermore, our primary source has not indicated any feelings of malevolence towards the village on Hoshino's part.
"I recommend keeping her with her team, and monitoring her closely for any troubling behaviours. Both Aiko-chan and Haruno are loyal to the village, so I do not believe we need to worry as of yet. It is also within our interest to encourage the relationships she's developed with other loyal nin, such as Hatake-san and Uchiha Itachi-san."
The Hokage acknowledged his words with a nod. "I see. Thank you for your input, Yamanaka-san. While it would normally not be terribly concerning that the girl's loyalty is not tied to the village, with our intentions for her, we must remedy that. It's a shame she was so resistant to the academy's conditioning. Perhaps we should have left her there longer."
Yamanaka shook his head, his long hair swishing behind him. "Frankly, Hokage-sama, I doubt that would have helped. From what I could gather, her fondness for the village increased after graduation."
Dan hummed. "Is that so? Then perhaps we are not so worse off as I feared."
-x-
Fifteen
The day after I was released, I went to visit Hanako in the hospice. I signed in as usual and hurried down the familiar halls towards her room. I knocked gently on her door, and opened it when she gave permission.
She looked up from whatever she was working on, and froze. Her brown eyes widened and filled with tears. "S-Sekai-chan?" She whispered, and let out a chocked sob.
"Hanako-baa-san." I said in greeting, addressing her as she preferred. She closed her eyes, and her lips trembled. I walked over to her bedside, and she gestured for me to climb on the bed beside her, which I did without hesitation.
Her good arm wrapped around me, pulling me close to her, and she completely broke down sobbing. The position was awkward, but I did my best to return the hug. Her cries were equal parts pained and relieved, and soon she started speaking between them. Things like "I'm so glad you're okay" and "I thought I lost you" spilled from her lips, but nothing was so frequent as her apologies.
I didn't say anything, just let her hold me and stroke my uneven hair as she cried. When she finally started to calm, I decided to speak.
"The hair clips you gave me... I lost them. I'm sorry." I apologized.
Hanako let out what must have been a cross between laughing and crying, but sounded like something was dying. "It's okay, Sekai-chan. I have a few more pairs lying around. Though I guess you'll need to grow out your hair again before you can use them, hm?"
-x-
"Kushina-sensei, what happened to Kairi-sensei?" I asked over dinner later that day. Ever since I'd returned to the village, the question had been nagging at me, though a large part of me was afraid I didn't want to know.
Sensei's face blanked, and she closed her eyes. "What I know, is second hand or third hand," she started, opening her eyes, which seemed to lose their shine. "But from what I understand, after she sent you ahead while she dealt with the ninja who were approaching you, reinforcements came, and ultimately it turned into a full scale battle. Kairi-chan... she's not really a combat ninja, but she held off nearly two dozen chuunin and genin until ally reinforcements arrived, and the battle only got worse. She collapsed from severe chakra exhaustion, and at first those around had no idea that she had sent you guys ahead." Sensei bit her lip. "They brought her back to the village, when they got the chance, but..."
"But?" I prodded gently.
"She's in a coma. And we're not completely sure why."
-x-
I woke to a blow across the face, and a sore throat. Kushina-sensei was looming over me, hand raised.
"Wh-at?" I rasped, blinking. I looked around the room, and noticed Minato-san hovering nervously by the door, The Nuisance covered in snot and tears hiding behind him.
"You had a nightmare, Sekai-chan." Kushina-sensei murmured soothingly, sitting next to my on my bed and running a hand through my hair. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"
I shook my head stiffly. "I'm fine. I don't—I don't remember anything."
Sensei shot me a disbelieving look. "You screamed your throat raw, Sekai-chan."
I shrugged in response. What was there to say? I was telling the truth. If she hadn't woken me I probably wouldn't have noticed. I likely would have dismissed my sore throat in the morning as getting sick.
She sighed, and motioned towards the door. Minato-san gave me a smile and pulled his son away, closing the door behind them.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"I really don't remember, sensei."
She didn't believe me.
-x-
The room they kept her in was small, but there were still five others in the same room, separated by nothing but thin curtains.
Kairi-sensei lay on a small hospital bed, looking more fragile than I'd ever seen her. Her hair, which usually covered the right side of her face, was shaved off, revealing not only fresh, precise scars across her head, but also older ones covering the portion of her face she usually kept hidden.
They looked like scars from acid attacks.
She was missing an eye.
Did Aiko know that? Did Sakura?
Did it matter?
Why wasn't she waking up?
The scars on her head, the fresh ones, looked too neat to be from an attack. Brain surgery, perhaps.
Did they have that here?
Was something so wrong she required brain surgery? Did they mess up? Is that why she won't wake up?
Why wasn't she—
A hand shook my shoulder.
I blinked, and looked up, seeing Itachi-senpai eyeing me cautiously. I blinked again, and my surroundings snapped into place. I was no longer in the hospital, but in the training ground where we met for genjutsu lessons.
How did that happen?
"Itachi-senpai?"
"Sekai-kun?" he asked gently. "Are you alright?"
At a loss, I shrugged. He sighed in response, and lowered himself to the ground, gesturing for me to sit beside him. For what seemed like hours, but could have been just a moment, we sat together in silence.
"I thought you were dead," he commented casually, as if discussing the weather.
"I'm not."
"Clearly. How are you?"
I exhaled forcibly through my nose. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
Itachi-senpai gave me a look. "Perhaps because you were held captive for weeks and tortured. Or maybe because you look like you haven't been sleeping. It could also be that you wandered into the training ground and didn't respond when I called your name."
"Then you clearly know the answer." I grumbled.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
I glared at him. "No, I do not want to discuss how I was held captive and tortured for weeks, thanks for asking."
Itachi-senpai shook his head. "Apologies, that was phrased wrong. I meant about what just happened—how you seemed not to notice me or your surroundings."
"I don't know." I admitted. "I... I was visiting Kairi-sensei. And then I was here."
Senpai stood, and held out a hand in front of me. "Let's go somewhere a bit more comfortable, alright?" Ignoring how that could be taken as a come on, I grabbed his hand and let him pull me to my feet.
His grip on my hand was immediately replaced with a grip on my shoulder, and he led me through the streets of the Uchiha district, until we reached what must have been his home.
"Mother, can you set an extra place for dinner tonight?" he called as he stepped inside.
"Is Shisui joining us again?" a woman, presumably his mother, replied from the other room. "I thought he was still out on a mission?"
I slipped on the oversized guest slippers, and followed Itachi as he walked though the entry into the kitchen, where I saw a beautiful woman with blue hair so dark it was nearly black.
"Not exactly. Mother, I don't believe you've met Sekai-kun?"
"I don't believe so. You must be Kushina-chan's student, yes?" The woman smiled at me. It was warm and soft, and reminded me of my own mother.
"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you, Uchiha-san."
"Ah, please call me Mikoto-san." She requested with a smile. She glanced towards my feet and frowned. "Oh dear, those simply won't do. Let me find a pair of Sasuke's old slippers for you, okay, Sekai-chan?"
"Ah, that's... you don't have to do that Mikoto-san. I don't wish to trouble you." I protested.
"It's no trouble!" she assured me and bustled out of the kitchen.
"Sekai-kun and I will be in my room, mother."
"Alright, dears!"
-x-
"They thought we had something, a... a key to their code, or whatever. We didn't, but we also knew if they knew that, they'd just kill us. So we pretended we did." I began.
The whole story came pouring out as I sat on Itachi-senpai's bed, clutching a pillow, while he was seated on the chair by his desk across the room.
I told him the basics of our plan and how we escaped. I told him what they did to us, to me.
"I had it the worst," I admitted. "They needed me specifically. I'm—we were just lucky that they didn't kill Aiko or Sakura. Because I was the one who has the information. I mean, we made them think that." My words were clumsy, coming out quickly, as I just wanted to get it out already. I was in a hurry because I wanted this to be over, I didn't want to talk about it anymore. Except I did. I wanted to tell someone. I needed to.
So I told senpai how they stripped us, how they kept ripping out my nails and regrowing them, how they beat me. I told him about how they loved electrocuting me, and showed him the fading Lichtenberg lines scarring my skin. I told him how I hated those days, but I preferred them to the waterboarding.
"I kept reciting the Fibonacci sequence, over and over, to myself whenever... whenever. It was easy enough up until about the twentieth term, then things got harder to keep track of. It calmed me. I don't think I'd have made it through without it."
By the time I'd finished, I was crying. The older ninja looked horrified. I couldn't say if it was at what had happened to me, or at the fact that I was crying.
He walked over to his bed and sat on the opposite end, opening his arm awkwardly. I bit my lip, and scooted over, burying my face in his side, and let him hold me.
-x-
Dinner was a traditional affair. I was seated next to Itachi at the low table, who was seated to the right of his father at the head.
Despite the traditional set up, it was a warm affair. Itachi-senpai's younger brother rambled about his day at the academy, his mother asked questions, and the clan head, Fugaku-sama, and senpai smiled slightly, but indulgently.
Mikoto-san and Fugaku-sama carefully kept Sasuke's focus off of me, deflecting any questions he had for me. Aside from a murmured blessing at the beginning of the meal, I didn't speak. I'd used up all the words I had for the day.
After dinner was over, Itachi-senpai walked me back to sensei's house, where I promptly excused myself and went to my room. Nearly three quarters of an hour later, I heard the door close, and Itachi-senpai leave.
-x-
The next morning I lingered in bed. I woke up early enough, but I was exhausted from the previous day, despite sleeping through the night. I tossed and turned, but didn't get out of bed until I could no longer ignore my bladder.
When I opened the door to exit the bathroom, Kushina-sensei was standing outside of it.
"Come on." She said, gently grabbing my hand. She led me up the stairs to the fourth floor. I hadn't been up here much, but I knew Minato's office was up there, and Kushina's was too. Or at least, I'd thought it was an office until she opened the door.
The room had large windows covered with flowing curtains, which sensei pushed aside, letting in natural light. The rest of the walls are covered with dozens of paintings and drawings of various mediums. There was a large desk in the corner, covered with pencils and charcoal. Several easels were spread out over the room, holding oil paintings in various stages of completion.
Sensei dragged me into the room, and pushed me into a chair before pulling up another one. "The life of a ninja is hard. Sometimes people you care about are hurt, and sometimes you are. And as you move up the ranks, it only gets worse. Some people break. Others find ways to cope. This," her arm swooped out, gesturing to the room. "This is how I cope. I create. I channel my feelings into something productive. I thought you might like to try. If you want, you can use anything here."
I bit my lip, and nodded. I wasn't sure if it would help, but I was interested. Back in The Before, I had dabbled a bit in art. I wasn't amazing or anything, but I was better than average. Supplies were expensive though, even basic paper, due to the war driving prices up, so I hadn't bothered with art in this life. There was too much to do, besides. But maybe it would help.
Under Kushina-sensei's encouraging gaze, I wandered around the room, opening drawers and cupboards, taking stock of what she had. Finally, I grabbed a loose stack of paper, some pencils of various hardness and an eraser, deciding it was best to start with the basics. I wandered over to one the desks, absently pulling my chair over, and tried to decide what to draw.
I stared at the paper blankly for what seemed like ages, gripping a 2H pencil in my hand. Finally, I began to draw.
I started out sketching vague outlines, then adding detail, but it was hard. In The Before, if I was trying to draw something specific, I often used reference photos, but that wasn't an option, so I was drawing from memory. I crumpled up more papers than I could count, unhappy with each sketch. The images in my mind's eye were faded, but I did my best, and even used my reflection for reference.
By the end of the day, I had a sketch that reasonably resembled mother.
The next day I returned to the art room and transferred the sketch to canvas. I scuttled around the room, searching for any acrylic paints, but found only watercolours and oils, so I decided to try painting with the latter.
I'd never tried oils in The Before, so it was a new experience, and I messed up and had to restart a lot over the next few days. Once sensei caught me with the oils, she showed me a simple jutsu to make the paints dry faster, went over some safety precautions I hadn't initially known about and showed me a handful of techniques and tips, like painting thin to thick, how to mix paint, some different ways to blend, and effects you could get with a pallet knife and different sorts of paintbrushes.
It was a lot of fun, and I felt closer to Kushina-sensei than I ever had before. It felt like she was sharing a piece of herself with me.
-x-
I was half done my eleventh attempt at painting mother when I felt a wet sensation on my ankle. Squeaking, I leapt to my feet and looked down, only to find Pakkun.
"Ah, Pakkun-chan. What are you doing here?" I asked as I bent down to pet him.
"Kakashi wants to know how you're doing. It's been two weeks since you got back and he's worried."
"Why hasn't he come over and asked me himself then?" Kakashi-senpai had a standing invitation to dinner whenever he was in the village, and since he was still on medical leave, he had every chance to come over, but hadn't.
Pakkun shifted, and I was pretty sure it was supposed to be a shrug. "He wasn't sure if you were comfortable seeing him."
My eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"We don't know what happened to you while you were... away. He doesn't want to intrude." Pakkun explained patiently.
"So why send you?"
"He knows how much you liked us dogs. Kakashi figured that you would be okay with seeing one of us, at least, and I could pass on the message."
Reading between the lines, my heart melted. Kakashi-senpai was worried about me, but was concerned that I'd been sexually assaulted and would be uncomfortable around men, so he stayed away to give me space. It was so sweet of him.
"I'd like to see him, if that's okay."
Pakkun nodded, and jumped up to my shoulder, then climbed onto my head. After cleaning up my work area, I slipped on my shoes and headed to Kakashi-senpai's apartment.
I was going to knock on the door, but Pakkun told me to just go right in, so I did. "You lived here for a couple months, after all," he said, and jumped down.
Kakashi-senpai was sitting on the couch reading a familiar orange book. He looked up when the door opened, and quickly stashed the book away, rising to his feet. "Sekai-chan, it's good to see you again." His arms rose a bit, but quickly fell back to his sides, like he was about to reach out for me but thought better of it.
Hoping I was reading him right, I strode over and wrapped my arms around his middle. "Good to see you too, senpai."
Gently, he wrapped an arm around me, and used the other to pat my head. "I was worried."
Pulling back, I looked up at him. "Thank you. For being considerate." I paused awkwardly for a moment, unsure of how to say that his worries had been for nothing. "I'm okay though. You... didn't need to stay away."
My former roommate eye-smiled, and ruffled my hair.
-x-
While art did actually help me cope, it wasn't the only thing to help. After a the kick start it gave me, I fell back on my first love, math.
Sadly, I was (temporarily, they assured me) banned from the D archives, but I had enough content copied to keep myself busy, especially once I pulled out the math texts I'd liberated for myself back in November.
One was an algebra text, which covered groups, rings, and fields. It was good review of topics I'd learned back in Algebra I and II. It turned out I'd forgotten a lot, especially since I'd been focusing on calculus and analysis in this life. The other two were combinatorics texts, which ew, but I was sort of desperate. (Combinatorics really wasn't my thing, aside from the glorious, simplistic beauty of the pigeon hole principle. And I suppose the Birthday Paradox, which wasn't really a paradox, was pretty cool too.)
A lot of algebra proofs, especially things I learned in Algebra I, were very straightforward and relaxing, such as proving all cyclic groups of order n were isomorphic to Z mod n.
The combinatorics work I did though, was frustrating and infuriating because I was making myself do it even though I just didn't give a flying fuck how many ways you could do this or that or about generating functions or WHATEVER, but it was a good distraction late at night when I couldn't sleep. Minato-san and Kushina-sensei were subjected to more than a few rants about how much I hated the subject when they felt the need to check in on me at three in the morning.
So between speaking to Itachi and Kakashi, taking up art, and studying math, by the end of the month off I was given, I was... not great, or even okay, but I was getting there.
And the fact that the mandatory leave ending meant I could see my team again? That was the biggest relief.
-x-
Our first day of training after returning was in early July. We were set to meet at seven in the morning, but all three of us arrived closer to five.
Words were unnecessary for those first two hours, waiting for our sensei to arrive. We just sat huddled together, basking in the closeness.
The logic behind keeping us apart for the past month had something to do with preventing us from becoming codependent, preventing us from collaborating if we'd been compromised, and some other bullshit reasoning I didn't particularly pay attention to. If sensei hadn't assured me it was standard protocol, and gave some examples of how things went wrong before they'd started doing that, I probably would have mutinied.
When seven o'clock rolled around, a woman I hadn't seen before approached us. She had brown hair, green eyes, and wore light makeup. She was relatively petite, and reminded me of a doll. An overall average appearance. She looked less like a ninja and more like a civilian, except for the way she moved, gracefully and without a sound. "Good morning, girls. I am Maki Asami. I have already met Aiko-chan, but I am pleased to meet the rest of the team as well."
"Why are you here?" I demanded bluntly, though I had a feeling I knew why. One that she confirmed the next time she spoke.
"I am filling in for Kojima-san until she is able to return to her duties."
"So she's expected to recover?" Sakura interjected, worrying her lip between her teeth. I was a bit surprised that she didn't already know, but upon thinking about it I realized despite her status as a medic, they probably wouldn't have told her anything while we were on mandatory leave.
"We're optimistic." she replied diplomatically. "Now, I'm aware that this is your first time seeing each other after being held captive in Earth Country. During the past month, many decisions have been made regarding your team."
"Like what?" Sakura asked, continuing to nibble on her lip. The way she kept biting it convinced me that if she weren't able to heal herself, it would be scabbed over and raw.
"Like the fact that the three of you will remain as a team permanently." The brunette smiled kindly.
My lips thinned and eyes narrowed. Aiko, who's gaze had been on her ragged nails, snapped her head up to look at her temporary mentor. "You mean we weren't before?"
"No. Previously, it was intended that you would be placed together only to learn to work with others and complete missions. Eventually, you would have been seperated. However after reviewing recent events and your history together, it was decided that the three of you have a great deal of potential as a team, and it would be in the village's best interest to keep you together." The three of us relaxed, and the woman, who I mentally dubbed Dollface, paused for a moment. "This requires some changes in the way you three will be trained, starting today. Aiko-chan has underwent much of this training in the past, to prepare her for future missions that we initially did not intend to send the two of you on, Sakura-chan, Sekai-chan. That has changed, now, so you must learn, as Aiko-chan has, the art of infiltration."
-x-
What followed was like the girls-only classes of the academy on steroids.
In the academy, we had learned the basics of applying makeup and disguising ourselves, but what Dollface taught us went far beyond anything we learned there. She showed us how to contour with makeup to alter our features without the use of ninjutsu, how to emphasize certain features and distract from others. We learned how to use common objects combined with E-rank fire ninjutsu to approximate a curling iron and straightener. She taught us how to extract pigments from various flora to create dyes, and which were temporary or permanent.
Once she deemed our efforts satisfactory "for now," she moved onto acting lessons.
She made us practice walking over and over. A person's gait, the way they walked, was distinctive, and she called out orders to stand straighter, take shorter steps, to sway our hips more, to loosen our shoulders. She poked and prodded at us, physically adjusting us when we didn't move the way she wanted us to. I hated it, the way she just placed her hands all over us, but it was incentive to do it right.
We each were given a set of gaits to practice, and we would be expected to fall into them at a moment's notice.
For each gait, she slowly developed a persona we were to slip into.
It started with pitching our voices a different way, and then changing the cadence of our speech.
Each persona had preferences. Some liked tea, others preferred coffee. We had to keep likes and dislikes straight. Prejudices, mannerisms. She tested us on it daily. Soon, we learned to become different people.
The process took months, and Dollface was especially displeased with me. While I had an excellent poker face, my lack of expression was a hindrance in all of this. She spent hours with me, forcing me to copy expressions. They were stiff and plastic at first, and her fingers pulled and pinched at my face, constantly rearranging it.
My hatred for her touch spurned me on until she deemed me passable, but decided to keep my roles as shy and reserved as possible.
"You were never pegged for infiltration work," Dollface told me. "In fact, it was specifically recommended that you're kept away from it. But circumstances must, and I will not let you shame me by performing poorly, understood?"
She was an exacting, merciless mistress, and once she declared us fit, all I could feel was relief.
-x-
I almost wished to return to the infiltration lessons, however, when I discovered what we'd be doing next.
Interrogation.
It was a good thing that shortly after I returned to active duty, I was able to move back into the dorms. By luck, I even got my old one back, as it hadn't be reassigned yet.
The dorms had excellent sound proofing, and so whenever I woke with a sore throat from screaming myself raw, no one heard.
It got easier though, and I came to realize that the interrogation lessons were being used to desensitize us to our trauma.
The three of us learned to work an interrogation as a team.
Aiko did soft interrogations, mostly. She would ask questions, and even if they didn't answer, they frequently thought it. When they did speak, she could tell when they were lying. It was fascinating to see her in her element, and horrifying as well. She could lead a conversation exactly where she wanted it, and the subject didn't even realize they were being lead to think about specific things, or that they were giving anything up.
Sakura, too, took surprisingly well to interrogations. Unlike Aiko, she got physical. With her medical knowledge, she knew precisely how to inflict minimum damage while causing maximum pain. She was capable of pushing the limits of how much damage she could inflict beyond what your average interrogator could, since she could heal them right up before it got life threatening. Furthermore, she was an expert at causing permanent, career ending injuries. It was almost surprising how many people crumbled at the thought of never being able to be a ninja again.
As for myself... I was also taught physical torture, we all were. But what I learned to do was play with their heads. Genjutsu was a powerful interrogation technique, but few beyond the Uchiha clan, who were best served elsewhere, were capable of the subtle touch necessary for it to be the most effective. It was best, after all, if the subject had no idea they were under a genjutsu. No, it was best they believed they were hallucinating, going crazy. They had me amp up feelings of paranoia and panic. I made their skin crawl. They heard things, saw things. I stuck them in loops, making them think the interrogation had already happened, over and over until they couldn't tell when the real one started. I played on their fears. I broke people.
It was hard not putting myself in their place. There were times one of the three of us had to stop, being overwhelmed by flashbacks. But we learned to cover each other, and the more we did it the less it happened.
A dark part of me wondered if this was the village's sick form of therapy for us, but I dismissed it.
I doubted they cared enough to do even that.
-x-
In November, Team 4 was summoned to the Hokage tower. Not just Aiko, Sakura, and me, but all there of our mentors as well.
Neither of the older girls had any idea why we were summoned—this sort of summon wasn't common, but Kushina-sensei, Tsunade-sensei, and Dollface all seemed to know what was going on.
The six of us were led to the Hokage's office, a room that I'd never actually been in before. While it wasn't a restricted area like most of the tower, genin rarely had reason to meet with the Hokage.
His office was at the top of the tower, and was a large, circular room. It was mostly empty, save for a large desk and chair set in front of windows with a view of the mountain. Above the windows, were four portaits, one of each Hokage. The desk itself was covered with scrolls and papers, and a nondescript man stood beside the desk with a filing cart. Sitting behind the desk, was Kato Dan, garbed in the traditional robes.
"Welcome. I'm sure the three of you are wondering why you have been summoned here." He began with a kind smile that instincts honed over months of interrogations told me was false. "First of all, I would like to thank the three of you for your service to the village. Despite your age and rank, you performed better than the village could ever have expected while in enemy hands, and even managed to eliminate a major military base deep within Earth Country. Our reports in the following months show that this move has crippled the Satoi clan, as they lost the clan head and several other members. Shortly after your return, it was decided that these actions merit a promotion. In the past few months we have been preparing the three of you, and ensuring that your time in captivity will not hinder you in your new role. Congratulations, Team 4. You are now proud chuunin of the Village Hidden in Leaves."
I felt sensei give my shoulder a proud squeeze. "Thank you, Hokage-sama." Sakura spoke up for us. "We are truly honoured that you have seen to our promotions personally." She bowed, and Aiko and I followed her example.
"It was my pleasure," The man replied. "Now, I believe my assistant has some papers for the three of you to fill out and file. You are dismissed."
We gave a final bow, but he was no longer paying us any mind, instead focusing on the documents on his desk.
-x-
Notes: I accidentally deleted the sekai-against-the-world-tumblr. Oops. I'm posting image things there, but everything else is being moved to AO3, under a fic in the series titled "Against the World: Databook." It also has some new content/notes that weren't previously on the tumblr, so check that out. In other news, I have finished plotting up to chapter 25, but depending on things the events may stretch out a bit further, as is prone to happening. Currently, this is the end of arc 2, and I'm thinking arc 3 will end about there.
From my plans so far, arc 3 is action packed, and arc 4 will continue in that vein, methinks. How many arcs will there be? No idea. So far I have arc 3 planned in detail, arc 4 roughly outlined, and arc 5 vaguely outlined, with plans for their to be a 6th arc as well. There will be an interlude in between each. Question: What do you want to see in the third interlude? And would you be interested in more frequent interludes?
Also, yay I found another timeline mistake I made. I decided that they graduated in april of the year 72, and Aiko was born sept 61. Then I said she turned 12 in October 72. Likely because I decided when her birthday was after I decided the year, and wanted her to be 11 when she graduated. Like the same fucking thing I did with Sekai. Oops. I fixed it in the A03 version. I think. Might have missed a spot. The benefits of going over the fic and creating a month by month timeline!
I think I mentioned that I'd decided on ships for the fic, however plotting things out, they won't be happening until arc 4. I don't plan to tag them until they are relevant, however. That said, Sekai's ship will be plot relevant, so it's not up for debate at this point. How it ends, on the other hand, is. (i.e. is it endgame? I don't know yet.) At least one of the other ships is purely self indulgent, but barring difficulty writing it, it's fixed, as it is my OTP. I will promise though that romance isn't going to be the focus of this fic. If you really want to know, I may respond privately if you ask. In related news, I have closed the poll on my fanfiction dot net profile.
I went into a bit more detail about what, exactly, happened to Sekai while she was held captive, which was purposely glossed over before.
No, Sekai is not okay, thank you for asking.
You now know what happened to Kairi. Will she recover...? Who knows.
Thank you all for your kind comments/reviews, and all the kudos, favourites and follows/subscriptions. Again, please forgive mistakes and typos. I wrote about 3K of this from two a.m. on.
All the best,
The Mathemagician