Chapter 2: Finding One's Feet

Rito felt his heart beating fast and sweat pouring down his face as he ran as fast as his legs could take him… and considering all the running he'd had to do these past years, that was pretty damn fast. He lifted his right leg and… kicked a soccer ball as hard as he could.

"GOAL!" Saruyama cheered as the ball hit the net faster than the goalie could react.

Rito snorted at his friend's enthusiasm, but nonetheless threw his own arms up in celebration with a grin.

To his surprise, the past week or so had been rather peaceful, more so than he could recall over the last few years. While Lala still stuck by his side at all times, she seemed to have eased up a little, throwing herself on him less and less. Everyone had, now that he thought about it.

"E-Eh? Come on, Saruyama, it wasn't that impressive," he sighed, brushing off his cheer.

"Sure it is! How long's it been since you played, man?"

Rito blinked as he thought about the question. "Since… middle school?" His eyes widened. "Wow, it's been a while!"

Saruyama laughed. "Damn right it has. And you're already gettin' right back into it and scorin' goals!"

"Go for it, Rito!" Lala cheered from the sidelines, waving at him. Judging by how into it she was, one would think that she was cheering him on at an actual game, rather than just a casual pickup.

"Heh… heh..." Rito laughed nervously. At the very least, it was better than her declaring that she wanted to join in and demolishing the playing field with her ridiculous alien strength.

Saruyama put a hand on Rito's shoulder. "Ah, how lucky it is to be cheered on by a beautiful woman."

Rito scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Not… uh… not that lucky if I'm honest."

Saruyama sighed quietly. "Don't I know it..."

Rito blinked. "Huh, you say something?"

"Nothing," Saruyama replied without missing a beat. "Are we still up for hanging out at the arcade tomorrow?"

He grimaced, opening his mouth to say that he'd be busy helping…and then he paused, when he realized that nobody actually needed him to help out with anything. "Huh…yeah, sure, I'm free then."

It was extremely odd. No one had needed him for anything the past week. No crazy inventions. No crazy favors out of the blue. No… nothing aside from the basic chores he did around the house. It left him with a lot of free time. Free time that he spent with Saruyama, who aside from Yui's brother, Yū, was his only male friend. And the thing was that… he was feeling a lot better for some reason, things just… felt lighter somehow, he didn't quite understand it himself.

Though things were still rather strange. He still tripped over thin air and got into compromising positions with many of his female friends, much to his embarrassment, but in this one week he hadn't been hit or yelled at.

He was worried about Kotegawa, though. It looked like she was bottling something up so much that she might erupt like a volcano. That couldn't be healthy. But at the very least Yami hadn't tried to kill him again. That was a win in his book.

Rito smiled a bit more earnestly. "Looking forward to it."

Saruyama grinned. "That's what I want to hear!"

SCYR

Rito and Saruyama gave varying degrees of laughter and rage as they crowded around an arcade machine. They practically spent all day playing games and wasting their spare change. Their last stretch of games were some tournament fighters wherein some rather ridiculous fighting game jank occurred.

"No! Stop! Stop stun-locking me! This is bullshit!" Saruyama exclaimed.

"You keep forgetting to block, not my fault you keep getting wall-comboed." Rito snickered. "Annnnd, perfect!"

KO!

Saruyama groaned. "Alright, as much fun as it was to get my ass handed to me all day, it's getting late. We should probably head home."

"Yeah," sighed the ginger boy, stretching his arms over his head with a yawn, "I guess it does get old just winning all the time."

"Oi, don't push it. Next time won't go the same way."

"Yeah, yeah," Rito scoffed, waving him off, "I'd believe that if I didn't hear it about a dozen times today."

Lala giggled, having kept herself uncharacteristically unobtrusive throughout the impromptu bout. While Rito was grateful to have not had his ass kicked in turn by his…well, whatever he and Lala were now, it was strange for her to just watch him play without insisting that she take a turn as well.

However, as the three of them headed down the road and the boy turned to wave his friend goodbye as they parted ways, it just so happened that his foot tread on a discarded soda bottle and he slipped. The world went momentarily weightless as he was practically flung into the air by his own momentum. He groaned mentally, even as he prepared to apologize to Lala. However, even as she cried out in shock and dismay, the feminine body that Rito collided with did not have the same overwhelming feminine softness that the pink-haired girl normally had.

Instead, his hands once more found their way underneath a familiar set of tight black leather to press firmly against a set of leanly-muscled, more subdued curves.

"Hnn…!" A faint growl of frustration from under him made him quickly spring back off the slender blonde.

"Y-Y-Yami-chan!" he squeaked, getting ready to run the moment she began flinging attacks at him as usual.

The stoic assassin, however, only gave him a disgruntled look, and although her long, golden locks of hair began to rise up for a moment, it then fell limp. "...Please watch where you're going, Yuuki Rito," she told him stiffly, crossing her arms.

"R…Right," mumbled Rito, although he blinked in some befuddlement at her. "I… I'm sorry..."

Yami shifted her weight slightly, eyeing him in return, her mind awhirl with thoughts and emotions that frankly, she was not equipped to deal with right now. She opened her mouth to give him the usual 'you are my target,' but Saruyama's words remained firmly ensconced in her mind.

"...Goodbye."

Rito just stared as she unceremoniously walked away, completely bewildered, missing Lala's knowing look.

"That was…odd - I think?" The poor boy didn't know what to make of what just happened, "That…that wasn't normal at all."

Lala sighed, pressing her hands together and trying to think of what to say without just giving things away. "Yami-chan has…a lot of things on her mind, lately," she said slowly, "But it's good that she's not chasing you around, isn't it?"

"Yeah!" he groaned, wiping the sweat from his brow, "I thought I was done for just then, but I guess she's finally tired of trying to kill me."

"Hmm…" the pink-haired princess hummed, knowing the real reason for Yami's hesitation, "You think so?"

"Eh?"

"Ah!" Lala flinched as she realized that she was only making him worried. "No, nothing! It's probably just that she's gotten used to the idea that it's not your fault!"

He sighed. "Well…even if I really can't help it, I can't help but feel bad that I keep falling into girls like that…"

Lala patted his back. "Don't worry, you'll get better soon."

"You'd think I'd learn to watch where I'm going so that it stops happening, but no…" groaned Rito, "It's no wonder every girl around me thinks that I'm the worst…"

"That's not true, Rito!" protested the princess earnestly, "None of them truly think of you like that!"

Rito sighed, his posture slouching noticeably as he walked. "It has to be… they've been calling me 'the worst' for years. If it's not true… then why do they keep saying it?"

"They don't know what they're talking about," groused Lala, "You've always done everything that you can to help them out! They're just…" She grimaced, as if it hurt to say such things about girls that she considered friends. "They're just awful at admitting it! Even if you keep tripping up, it's not your fault, but it's like they can't even acknowledge that you can do both those things!"

Rito shook his head, unconvinced. "Lala, that's..." He let out a breath. "That just feels more like an excuse. It's..." his mood plummeted further. "It's just been so long… they can't mean anything other than what they say."

Lala bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes at the sight of the boy she loved being so sad. She took his hand in hers, squeezing tightly. "Then…you can believe me when I say that I still love you," she murmured.

He looked away, unable to meet her sincere gaze. How could he answer such a declaration when his heart already belonged to Haruna?

"Let's just…go home."

Just around the corner, Yami was leaning up against a wall, looking down at the ground with a conflicted look on her normally emotionless face.

"I wonder if this is the first time you've been tricked into killing an innocent person!"

Her fingers curled, digging into the brick behind her. Of course it isn't…someone like me, who's gotten so much blood on my hands…why does he keep treating me like another person? What am I supposed to do?!

SCYR

"He's almost like another person," Mikan murmured to herself, watching as her brother headed out the backdoor to play with Celine along with Lala. The tiny green plant-baby had been just as much a boon to Rito's emotional state as everyone else's actions over the past few weeks.

Three more weeks had passed, and it shocked everyone how rapidly Rito's mood had improved. Even Momo hadn't expected things to go this well, but instead of relaxing, the young princess stayed cautious; it would not do for him to backslide into depression.

Kotegawa Yui, one of the biggest contributors to that old mindset, had largely retreated into herself at school. It was pretty noticeable, as she went from the Disciplinary Committee's most ardent, staunch representative to near total silence.

In the beginning, she had ignored Rito, preferring to instead bark out demerits of 'shamelessness' for pretty much everyone else. Too-short skirts, 'unauthorized' accessories and the like; things that quite honestly, no one really cared about.

"Are you seriously saying that a damn hair clip leads to a breakdown of morals in society?" Momioka Risa, an attractive girl with wavy, dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes who might as well have been Yui's nemesis in shamelessness, finally told her, "Girl, I don't even wanna know what kinda morals you think are worth supporting."

This, combined with Saruyama's dressing down, had sent her into a spiral of self-introspection. Why was it so important to her? Was she really so out of touch with people her own age that she was just a nuisance to them rather than an example of morality?

Haruna, on the other hand, began trying to approach Rito more often. She could hang around the young man easily, but whenever she thought of confessing her feelings for him, she choked. Everyone knew that Rito liked her, and basically everyone, aside from Rito, knew she liked him too. The irony of her having the same nervousness as her crush wasn't lost on her, but it made things feel worse for her. It made her feel like she was failing him. She wanted to let him know that it wasn't just Lala who cared about him, that she wanted to make him happy too.

Her friends could tease her about her inability to spit it out as much as they liked, but no one hated her recalcitrance more than herself.

It really was ironic how similar the two were. Both just wanted to admit their feelings for each other, yet had absolutely no idea about the other's reciprocation, and neither could so much as even think of admitting them.

Lala did her best, trying to encourage them to finally confess, but they both dug their heels in in identical bouts of shyness-induced stubbornness.

Even Momo, the instigator of these interactive changes, was overjoyed at Rito's steady improvements. On some occasions, when she didn't notice that she wasn't alone, she could be heard muttering something about how some plan of hers was coming together smoothly.

Well, not entirely smoothly. Getting the more troublesome girls to rethink their behaviors was definitely a good thing, but if they were too self-conscious to interact with Rito altogether, that could end up hindering their chances for properly acknowledging their feelings for him.

But that was a problem that could wait. Rito's mental health took priority above all else. Sadly, as much as she wanted to comfort him herself, considering her previously-established proclivities for sneaking into his bed, she'd probably be found out as having ulterior motives. Ironically, her big sister's longer-standing habit would prove to do the job just as well.

And so it was that for the past few days, Rito awoke to find Lala snuggling up with him in his bed. However, unlike all the times she'd done this over the past few years, he was absolutely shocked to find that the pink-haired alien had actually agreed to do so while clothed! In fact, seeing her sweeping, voluptuous curves wrapped up in soft pink flannel was almost even more alluring at this point.

Today was no different. The ginger boy awoke to find the princess with her arms wrapped around him in a gentle embrace, her face pressed into the crook of his neck. On any other day, Rito would have protested and yelled, but today, he was so used to the occurrence that he decided that he might as well just let it lie. Lala would never yell at him even if she hadn't meant to hug him so closely, so why not just let her for now?

Hesitantly, Rito slowly wrapped his arms around the princess and pulled her closer. It felt… nice - great even. It just seemed… right. He didn't really understand it.

In the peace and quiet of the morning (and how long had it been since he'd enjoyed that?), he ended up thinking. What's going on with me? he wondered. Should I really just…let this happen? Haruna-chan is the one that I like…

He blushed, his breathing becoming ragged as his mind treacherously drifted to imagining embracing his crush like this.

But that's not fair to Lala, he thought guiltily, She's always been here, trying to make me feel better when all I can do is spin my wheels and feel sorry for myself.

"Nnnn…" The pink-haired girl squeezed him in her sleep, mumbling, "Ri…to…"

He blinked at her sleepy utterance, and unwittingly a smile crossed his face. She's always looking out for me and trying to make me happy. More guilt flared in his gut; even Yuuki Rito, hopeless in the ways of romance, knew full well just how much Lala loved him. She'd spent the better part of the last few years making it absolutely clear that she would always support him, even in his own love for Haruna. It was almost like she didn't care that he might not be able to reciprocate those feelings.

But can't I? Not for the first time, Rito considered how he felt. It would be an absolute lie to say that he didn't feel anything positive for Lala; she'd simply done too much for him, been a part of the most positive experiences he'd had, for him to even consider being neutral to her.

His feelings for Haruna were as strong as ever, and wouldn't be going away anytime soon. However, the feelings that he had for Lala, which he had never been able to fully identify, were growing stronger in his heart. Over the past few weeks in particular, it felt like…they were growing closer.

As Rito thought and thought, eventually, Lala stirred. "Mmn…good morning, Rito," she said gently, differently from her usual bright and cheery exuberance.

"Yeah…" he mumbled, puzzling over the changes overtaking his already tumultuous life, "Morning."

It felt almost like a dream, being able to go through the morning without getting into some sort of ecchi incident and getting yelled at by Nana, or scolded (however lightheartedly) by Mikan. The more…petite, of the Devilukean sisters had said barely a word to him in close to a month. Mikan's quietness, however, had him worried. What on earth could have her so preoccupied that she wasn't even snarking at him like usual?

He frowned worriedly as he wondered whether she might have found a boy that she was interested in. Well, she'd never shown any indication of thinking about that sort of thing before, but he supposed that she was well past the point of starting to, at this point.

Well, whatever it was, it certainly didn't diminish her cooking skills; if they didn't need to hurry up and head to school, Rito would have eagerly asked for seconds. He envied Lala's ability to scarf hers down so quickly.

As they walked to school, he jumped when he felt the pinkette's soft hand interlace with his, and blushed deeply. However, thinking back on the warm embrace they'd shared that morning, for once he decided that it couldn't hurt to let her hold his hand. So, he only smoldered gently, face bright red and steaming as they continued on, Lala humming cheerily beside him.

…it felt nice.

Soon enough, Rito and Lala arrived at their school.

"G-Good morning, Ri...Y-Yuuki-kun!" Haruna greeted them, having just arrived herself, as they began changing into their school shoes. She cursed herself, having wanted to call him by his given name just to see if that was fine by him, only to chicken out.

"Eh, ah, h-hi, Haruna-chan!" he replied, blushing as usual.

As the two of them slowly gravitated towards each other, fidgeting shyly, Lala watched the two of them eagerly. Haruna glanced nervously at her, only for the curvy pinkette to give her an encouraging thumbs up. For some reason, it baffled her how the alien princess could be so eager for Haruna to confess her feelings to her own fiance. But as it was, even with Rito's vastly improved mentality, it didn't seem like either of them were ready to talk about their feelings.

Persevere, you two! Lala thought at them, pumping her fist as they ended up separating, You'll get through to each other in the end!

The three of them were halfway toward class before Haruna suddenly remembered that she had to stop by the student council room to pick up some papers, as the class representative. Embarrassed at her forgetfulness, she ran off abruptly, leaving Rito feeling befuddled at her departure. Turning to watch her leave, he thus was unable to see an equally inattentive Kotegawa Yui turning the corner.

"Ah, look out!" cried Lala, but it was too late.

Like clockwork, Rito's uncanny knack for tripping into people was activated once again… and into the second worst person he could've tripped into, Yui. And as usual, the two of them toppled to the floor, and in the process, in some way that defied all logic, Rito's hands slid right up her shirt, grabbing two handfuls of her large breasts. The breath whooshed out of her lungs as she landed on her front, pressing his hands into her tits, while he pressed down on her from above. In the ensuing scuffle, as he attempted to pry his fingers out from under her, her plaid skirt rode up, pressing her soft, panty-clad butt right against his crotch.

"Y...Yuuki-kun!" she gasped, growing progressively more red as she realized who had crashed into her, where his hands were and what position they were in. "Y-You…! This! G-Get...off...me!" she hissed through her teeth like an angry kettle, trying to hold back an even more furious diatribe like she normally did.

"K-Kotegawa-san?!" Rito quickly extricated himself from her, making her whimper when his fingertips dragged heavily across her sensitive flesh, flicking along her nipples. "I-I'm so sorry!" he cried, just as humiliated as he stumbled to his feet.

"It's…" Yui struggled with herself for a moment as she raised herself up into a kneeling position, still red and teary-eyed as she hugged her bosom. "It's…fine. I…I wasn't looking where I was going," she gritted out.

He gave her a slightly confused look, but accepted the fact that she wasn't going to blame him. It was getting easier to do that. Rito didn't notice the approving nod that Lala gave Yui, but she only glanced away after acknowledging it. "...We should go. Class is starting soon," she muttered darkly.

Class, as usual, was boring, but it did give Rito time to think. Sure, he had been enjoying himself immensely the past few weeks but… it felt so odd. The way everyone acted, the fact that tripping into people didn't leave him either running for his life or nursing a hit with an ice pack…

Rito sighed, he couldn't read the situation for the life of him, and he knew it. He didn't even have anyone he could talk about it with. Everyone was so evasive about the topic it was almost even more alarming than the sudden changes. Well… there was one person he hadn't tried talking to yet…

SCYR

"Well well, Yuuki-kun! I was beginning to think you were avoiding me," chuckled the sensual school nurse, Mikado Ryouko. She turned in her chair to face him, crossing one of her shapely, stocking-clad legs over the other, smirking playfully at him. Her full, sumptuous lips were painted a bright, eye-catching red, and her short brown hair fell about her heart-shaped face in an almost messy, yet alluring way, her green eyes glinted with mischief.

Rito blushed at the unobstructed view he had of her cleavage, her white coat left open to show her low-cut pink top. "W-well, I haven't been getting hurt lately, so I didn't really think there was a need, sensei," he mumbled.

She hummed. "Well, that's certainly good to hear, even if it's surprising coming from you, Yuuki-kun."

Rito winced, knowing that he definitely had a track record for winding up in her care.

"Well, even if something was wrong, I would have had to leave you in Oshizu-chan's care," she continued, waving a hand at her assistant. The younger girl, who was in actuality a four hundred year old ghost possessing a gynoid body, looked up at her name being mentioned and gave a smile of greeting at Rito. "Truth be told, I'm going to be…out of town, for a little while."

"Eh? Why's that?" he asked, distracted from what he'd meant to ask her about the strange behaviors lately. "Is something wrong?"

She gave him a sidelong look, as if debating on telling him, before sighing. "I wouldn't necessarily say that it's anything bad, but it's too soon to call it good either."

Rito frowned. A few weeks ago, he would have just accepted that vague answer and contented himself with potentially never knowing, but he was starting to get tired of being left in the dark. "What is it?" he insisted firmly.

Mikado raised her eyebrows at his persistence, before smiling amusedly; it seemed that without her knowing, Rito had become just a little more manly. "Well, if you really want to know, I suppose there's no harm in telling you," she sighed, "I may have tracked down an old colleague of mine: Doctor Tearju Lunatique."

"EHHH!?"

Rito jumped in his seat (and poor Shimizu jumped clean out of her body from shock) as Lala slammed the door open with an exclamation.

"You don't mean the Doctor Tearju Lunatique, do you?" the pink princess all but yelled, "The same one that advanced the field of Biotechnology practically centuries ahead!?"

Mikado leaned back in her chair, inadvertently drawing Rito's eyes momentarily to the bouncing of her well-endowed chest. "Well, hello to you too, princess. Yes, I am indeed referring to that same Tearju. However, her significance is more than that." She withdrew a device from her cleavage and pressed a button, causing a holographic image to appear. Both Rito and Lala gasped as a picture of a woman with long, blonde hair and brilliant green eyes, along with a pair of glasses.

"She looks…just like Yami-chan," Rito observed, shocked.

"That's right," agreed the nurse, stowing away the projector, "Tearju was originally involved in the project which gave birth to Golden Darkness; she even donated her own genetic materials to create her directly. In a way, she's like Yami-chan's mother. Or perhaps her sisters? Well, that's a debate for another time. When the Eden organization revealed their true colors, she ended up fleeing for her life, and unfortunately was forced to leave Yami-chan behind. The rest is history." She sighed heavily. "It took a lot of hard work and research to track her down, not that I blame her for hiding herself so thoroughly."

"You're…going to go to her," realized Lala, comprehension dawning, "And bring her to Earth, aren't you?"

"That's right!" said the mature woman cheerfully, reaching over to pinch Lala's cheek and making her groan at the gesture, "Earth is a pretty safe place, even for infamous people in the galactic community. Well, relatively, at least. I'm betting that Tearju just wants to live a quiet life, away from all that science stuff." Her expression softened. "As her friend, I want to give her that."

Similarly, Rito and Lala both thought about their own friend. They both knew at least a little of what Yami had gone through at the hands of the Eden organization. They were the ones who had turned her into the assassin that had nearly killed Rito so many times.

"I have so much blood on my hands…I don't know what happiness feels like. Do I even deserve to know?"

"Sensei," he began, looking her in the eye, "If it's alright with you, I'd like to come with you."

Lala gasped and looked at him in astonishment, having just been about to suggest the same thing.

"You what?" asked Mikado, just as thrown as the pinkette.

"Bringing Tearju-san to earth means that Yami-chan can be reunited with her mother," he said lowly, "I obviously don't think that's going to fix everything that was done to her, or if I can even help with that in some way, but even so, I feel like I should do whatever I can to help. If it means that Yami-chan might finally get some happiness, I want to make sure that it happens." He clasped his hands and bowed his head. "So, please! Take me with you!"

"I'm going too!" declared Lala, putting her hand on his shoulder, "I'll go wherever Rito goes!"

He gave her an appreciative look.

The nurse stared at the both of them, utterly shocked by this turn of events. "Both of you…" Then she sighed, chuckling. "Heh. Well, alright, then. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to help me talk some sense into that scaredy cat. I'll talk to your teachers and come up with an excuse; we'll set out in a few days."

"Right!" said Rito fiercely, a fire burning in his chest. This definitely felt familiar; that desire to help those around them and to do whatever it took to make them happy.

No matter how much things had changed lately, that much had remained the same, at least.

SCYR

AN: Well, that took me a while to get through. Thanks to Jackie Avocado for helping me every step of the way.

Review replies (FF-only):

Mae: It's rather likely that they will, sure.

Jax: Ah…well, crap. I'll make sure to correct the honorific usage in future chapters, then.

Dean: Yes. Yes it does.

...Well, that didn't take long to get through by comparison! XD

This was yet another setup chapter. The next one (whenever the hell it comes) is when things will finally kick into action and the real premise of this fic can get started.

Until next time!

North South out.