Breakfast was a silent and miserable affair. Kokichi Ouma didn't crack any jokes. Ibuki Mioda idly stirred her tamago gohan, slowly lifting the spoon up and watching the food fall back down into her bowl before repeating the process. Leon Kuwata got eggs and bacon and ate silently, staring down at his plate. Chihiro played with his chopsticks, pretending to break them apart while his cereal grew soggy. Aoi anxiously pulled her hair up again and again. The two little girls, Kaede and Kiyomi Akamatsu sat there in silence and didn't eat their pancakes until Celestia walked over, all smiles and sweetness, and coaxed them to take a few bites. Kaede especially seemed to cheer up at her attention and even laughed a small bit, and soon the two started to eat like normal. Shuichi briefly thought of taking them aside later and warning them to never trust that smile, but that'd just scare them and what good would that do?

What good would do that was a dangerous way of thinking, it meant Shuichi was starting to accept the place for what it was, and no way could he do something like that. If the little nature-girls were comforted by the attention of the big nature-girl, then maybe that was for the best, but then he thought of those two little girls possibly getting the rectal thermometer or the lights...

"Dude, what's wrong? You look like you ate something spicy," Mondo spoke up from the other side of him.

"I'm thinking about Maizono-san,"

"She's gone for good,"

Shuichi just stared at him.

"It's the truth. You wanna go outside later and play basketball?"

"No."

"Why? You scared I'll beat you?"

"I used to play it with my uncle," Shuichi adjusted his cap and caught Mondo staring at him with an expression that somehow made him feel even worse.

"Shit, man, I'm sorry. I get it. But uh, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me,"

Shuichi wandered around after breakfast and soon caught sight of Kyoko's laundry basket placed outside Chihiro's room and perked up a bit, walking over. He poked his head in and she gave him a small smile as she smoothed down the blankets on Fuji-chan's bed. "You feeling alright?"

Shuichi knew she meant well by asking it; though how he knew that he wasn't sure. He thought Kyoko's face looked even more flushed than it was normally, her eyes darker and her hair messier despite the bows.

This woman is not okay,

"I'm fine. You?"

"Perfectly fine." She was lying, Shuichi somehow knew that for a fact. "Except this one, Fujisaki-chan, wet the bed last night. He is not the first and he won't be the last. Thankfully it didn't go through the mattress. You have a good day now," She continued to make the bed up, a hopeful expression in her eyes. Except it was what was behind them that was hopeful.

They really did change me, Shuichi thought to himself in awe. I don't know how they did it, but they did. Something new has been added. He was suddenly very glad that he lied about the cards, as well as the fact they believed him.

"I got slapped pretty badly the other day and my face is still sore. Think I'll get some ice for it," He commented, and Kyoko nodded as he turned on his heel and left. He grabbed the bucket from his room and dumped the water down the sink, heading to the machine and finding her already there. She had a hand on her chest and was breathing somewhat heavily, though she waved Shuichi away when he started to hurry over to her.

"I just need some rest,"

He nodded and started filling the bucket up. As he did so, he also started to talk. "I read a bit about your grandfather. How he's really strict about his business and how he treats his family," He began, knowing Kyoko was listening. "It's a little bit like my family in a way, except my uncle was genuinely kind to me. He too wished for me to inherit his business once I came of age. My parents were the ones who dumped me on him without a care,"

Kyoko stepped closer.

"But I'm sure if I was in the hospital, they'd want to visit me. And even if they didn't, they wouldn't prevent other people from seeing me. Not even my uncle," He could've just left it at that, but he had an actual purpose this time around. He took the scoop and started pounding at the ice, enjoying the fact it made a loud sound. "Fujisaki-chan said you have a father and that you want him to visit you. It's none of my business, but-"

"That little boy is a mind-reader, isn't he?" Kyoko cut him off, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "He must be extremely powerful, even if he is a bedwetter. No white sticker on his sheet,"

"Yeah, he is," Shuichi started stirring his ice.

"He's right. My father, Kirigiri Jin, had a huge disagreement with my grandfather, his father, years ago. He got kicked out of the family and my grandfather has hated him ever since. He never let me see him, or him see me," She stared at Shuichi. "Do you really care about this?"

"Of course," Shuichi reassured her, though he knew they needed to hurry. They might not be able to hear them, but they could always see them.

"When I was diagnosed, I knew I likely wasn't going to last long. My mother died from a disease, but my grandfather kept me from seeing her, so my only memory of her was a sickly face floating over a hospital bed. And even that memory is fleeting," She explained. "I didn't want to live a life like that, so I got everything I needed in order and prepared to cut myself out of my family's influence. I could make it on my own, but I needed to see my father one last time. I didn't want to be for him what Mother was for me. I wanted him to see me one last time, and I'm determined to find out where he is before I cut them both out of my life forever," Kyoko ran a hand through her hair. "I don't care about my disease or anything like that. All I've ever cared about was my father and reconnecting with him,"

"Take care of yourself," Shuichi finally said, taking the filled bucket in his hands.

"I will," She then suddenly pulled him close to her, and he smelled the sickness on her breath. "My grandfather..I don't care what he says anymore. If I want to see my father, so be it. I can't wait any longer in that area. And Shuichi-chan? Do everything they tell you to do. Do not disobey them, or question their orders. And if you must talk to someone about something, do it here,"

"But aren't there other places where-"

"Do it here," Kyoko repeated, letting go of his arm and rolling her cart away.

[][][][][][]

When Shuichi went back to the playground, he saw Mondo and Leon playing basketball with each other, laughing and clapping each other on the backs like they had been friends for years. Ibuki was sitting at a picnic table with Chihiro beside her, earbuds in one ear each, her laptop in front of her. Shuichi walked over curiously and saw a girl twirling around in a pink Victorian dress. He asked what they were doing.

"We're watching TikToks," Ibuki said happily. "She managed to drag her laptop out here and we started watching some. Ibuki loves a lot of the costume and cosplay ones!"

"She just doesn't want to play with the others, she finds it boring," Chihiro said. "I like the superhero costumes though,"

Shuichi looked around the playground and felt concern bloom in him, taking the form of faint dots in front of his eyes for a few seconds. "Where's Aoi-san? They didn't-"

"She's taking a shower," Ibuki rested her chin in her hand.

"Shuichi-oniichan likes her a lot," Chihiro suddenly spoke up, looking at him. "He likes her a lot a lot,"

"Fujisaki-chan? Ibuki thinks that maybe you should quit down for a bit. Some things should be kept secret,"

"Why?"

"Because some things are just left being secrets," She ran a hand through her dyed hair, trying to hide her frown.

"What's wrong?" Shuichi asked.

"Ask Fujisaki-chan, he's the one that knows everything,"

"She got a thermometer jammed up her..." Chihiro blushed shyly.

"Oh." Was all Shuichi said in response.

"Ibuki thought it was so degrading! Who'd want to do such a thing?!" She carried on.

"It's pretty bad, yeah,"

"But also delightful and delicious,"

Chihiro looked at the two of them. "That doesn't sound delightful and delicious to me,"

"It is if you lick what comes out," Ibuki teased, and soon all three of them were laughing hard, Ibuki hitting the table with her fist before she yanked her earbud out. "Oh God, Ibuki's peeing on herself! Don't watch!" She jumped from the table and ran back inside, nearly barreling into Kokichi who had just come outside, a Hi-Chew in his mouth. He glanced back at her before looking over at Shuichi.

"What's her deal? She knocked me over almost!"

"She peed on herself," Chihiro said in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's okay though. I peed my bed last night so I can relate,"

"Thank you for sharing," Shuichi sighed. "Why don't you go play basketball with Oowada-san and New Kid?"

Chihiro watched them for a few seconds before finally shaking his head. "I-I'd like to, but they're way bigger and tougher than I am. Leon-oniichan already knocked me down once," He pouted.

"Then go jump on the trampoline,"

"That's boring,"

"Play on the jungle-gym,"

"Bored of that too. I always fall down,"

"Do it anyway, I want to talk to Ouma-san," Shuichi gently nudged Chihiro off the bench.

"About the lights you see? What lights are those?"

Shuichi stared at him. He was really super creepy. "Go climb up the monkey-bars and show me how high you can get this time, Fuji-chan,"

"And don't break your neck! Otherwise I'll sing God Save the Queen at your funeral!" Kokichi added, walking over.

Chihiro stared at Kokichi for a few seconds. "You think that song is annoying,"

"Yeah, I was being ironic. Or was that satire? I can't tell the difference. Whatever. Go off," They watched Chihiro run off to go play before Kokichi turned to look at Shuichi. "He's ten yet he acts like he's six. Fucking eerie,"

"How old are you?" Shuichi asked curiously.

"Thirteen," He was quiet for a time. "Hey, do you think our parents are alright? They keep telling us that, but I think they're lying. Takes one to know one, you know?"

"I'm...not sure. And I'm not sure if I could even handle finding out,"

"I'll never find out! That's not something I wanna know," Kokichi responded happily.

"About that eye thing...did you get it?" Shuichi asked instead, changing the subject. Kokichi nodded.

"Everybody gets it,"

"Did you have a seizure afterwards? I did,"

"Nah. They just sat me down in front of a table and that creepy chick with the weird mask asked me what was on these cards," Kokichi continued. "I'm pretty sure they were Rhine cards. I've been tested on those before, you know. When I told my parents about my ability and showed them, they took me to the Tokyo Institute of Technology to get tested. Turns out there was some professor there who believed in that and did the examination for us. They probably thought I was faking though, since I couldn't even move much stuff that day. But whatever. Even on my best days I can only knock down a block tower. Won't be winning any sweethearts with that!"

"Did they slap you?" Shuichi pressed.

"I got one, courtesy of that bitch Miss Shirogane,"

"She's...pretty mean. I guess you didn't know what was on the cards,"

Kokichi looked at him carefully. "Why would I be able to? I'm TK like you, not TP,"

"Right."

"Anyway, I had already gotten the Rhine cards, so I just decided to lie about what I saw. I said wavy lines, star, and cross. Miss Shirogane got annoyed and told me to stop lying. So I smirked and said the next card was a picture of her tits, and then she slapped me. Then she sent me back up to my room. To me, they didn't seem very interested," Kokichi shrugged.

"Maybe they were just trying to cover all their bases," Shuichi suggested. "Did the lights ever come back for you?"

"No, not once," He looked extremely curious."Did they with you?"

"No." Shuichi answered quickly, suddenly glad Chihiro wasn't around near him. He had no idea how far his 'radio' could broadcast though. "Because of my seizure though...I thought that maybe they could come back,"

"I just don't understand the point of this place," Kokichi sighed. "My mom got a book before we went out to test me, it was about physic powers and other paranormal anomalies like that. I read it after she was done. It talked about tests performed on this very thing, in America and Russia. There was a smaller section about Japan too, talking about 'ki' and how it all flows through us and lets people in control of it heal others or make everyone in a room feel a certain emotion. How they tell people who are telepathic to talk to aliens. There were other tests in other countries too, focusing on stuff like levitation and predicting the future...but a lot of the tests didn't reveal very much. And that's basically us. What could they possibly use us for? World domination?"

"I don't know, I think I'd enjoy seeing Fujisaki-chan try to talk to aliens. Or Mioda-san growing plants with her mind," Shuichi teased, making Kokichi grin.

Before they could say anything else, however, Aoi had run outside and asked if anyone wanted to play a game of kickball.

It turned out that they all did.

[][][][][][]

Shuichi didn't have any tests that day, though the next day he had his blood tested, gave him a shot-luckily it didn't have any reaction-then told him to pee in a cup. Afterwards, he was taken to a pouty woman named Hiyoko whom Shuichi remembered as being one of the mean ones, so he didn't even bother with making conversation with her. She escorted him down to the fourth level and took him to a large MRI-scanner that looked as though it cost a pretty penny.

Shuichi found himself wondering what the average citizen would think about their money being spent like that, only to figure they wouldn't care. The majority of people nowadays still believed in the paranormal and that included telekinetic and telepathic abilities. If it was being used wisely to help study people with those abilities, then why did it matter? They'd likely never even know.

Before Shuichi could get strapped into the machine, Dr. Kimura showed up again and asked him if he had been seeing any more of the coloured lights. He answered that he hadn't, and realized that she had seemed disappointed by that. He surprised himself by realizing he was glad for that.

"You want some pills before we strap you in there? They taste great and make you fall asleep super quick!" Hiyoko giggled.

He eventually nodded and she gave him some, and Shuichi had fallen asleep for the majority of the MRI-scanner tests. He didn't ask them what they were testing for or trying to find. Maybe they didn't even know themselves. Maybe they were trying to read his brain waves to figure out why some people were born naturally with physic abilities and others weren't.

After several hours of scans, Hiyoko reappeared and helped him up, giving him a handful of tokens. One fell out of her pocket and rolled on the floor. She just snickered. "Pick that one up for yourself, butterfingers!"

Shuichi did so and slipped them all into his own pockets.

"You're a big brave stud, you know. You deserve a break," Hiyoko smiled at him. "How about you get yourself something to drink? I'm a fan of sake myself, but wine isn't that bad. I like the ones made with white grapes the best!" She was wearing a pink outfit styled to resemble a kimono with long sleeves that nearly covered her hands and her blonde hair was pulled into a single ponytail, her large breasts pressed against the fabric. Despite her childish attitude, she was clearly reaching middle-age and was old enough to have one or two kids Shuichi's age. Would she say the same thing to them; suggesting they kick back after a hard day at school with some wine?

"What good would it do?" He finally asked, not looking at her.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Anything. Anything at all, Miss Saionji," He didn't want wine or sake or any other kind of alcohol at all. Hiyoko frowned at him.

"Don't run your stupid smart mouth at me!"

He nodded and recalled he was given nine tokens. He'd give three of them to Chihiro and three each to the Akamatsu twins. Enough for snacks but not enough for that other stuff. He found himself to be extremely hungry and for once didn't care what dinner was as long as there was a bunch of it.

[][][][][]

The next morning Shuichi was brought back to the third floor with Kirumi and Miu who told him to drink a solution made from barium. He eyed them carefully from the top of the cup, soon drinking it all down without much protest. He was then taken to a tiny cubical and given an X-Ray, and that was fine. What wasn't fine was when he felt his stomach painfully flip afterwards, making him double-over and gag.

"You better not fucking hurl on this floor," Miu scolded, but it was too late. Shuichi fell to his knees and threw up his half-digested breakfast with a barium puree, chunks everywhere. She just sighed. "Great, now you gotta clean this shit up. I want this floor to be so clean you can see my panties on it,"

"I'll clean it," Kirumi started to head for the cleaning supplies, but Miu grabbed her wrist.

"Fuck ya will, make him do it. He made the mess,"

She nodded and handed Shuichi the bucket and mop anyway, whispering a 'you're alright' into his ear as she did so. Shuichi filled the bucket up from the sink and tried his hardest to focus and mop despite the clawing pain in his stomach. Every few minutes he had to double-over and grasp at it in pain. As he cleaned, Kirumi and Miu sat on the side and talked about which team in baseball they felt were going to make the finals.

He finished cleaning and handed the supplies back to Kirumi while Miu grinned at him.

"You did a damn fine job, cutiepie! You got any tokens for him, Kirumi-chan? I'm fresh out," She said, and Kirumi nodded and handed him four.

"What are all these tests for?" Shuichi asked as they led him back to the elevator.

"Tons of stuff. Scientific shit ya wouldn't get,"

"Am I ever getting out of here?"

"Of course! You just won't remember being here,"

And somehow, Shuichi knew that she was lying. It wasn't mind-reading in the sense he had always imagined it would be, seeing words inside your head, it was more a general sense of knowing.

He headed back to his room and found a new maid in there vacuuming; she had a row of giant pink bows in her hair and modified her uniform to have a frilly brown miniskirt. Her nametag read Tenko.

"Where's Kyoko-san?" He asked curiously, though he already knew. It was her week off and when she came back, it was possible she'd be working in Back Half for a while. He hoped she was back at home, reconnecting with her father. He'd miss her.

"She's making a movie. A live-action fairy-tale movie those kids all love. And she's playing the princess!" Tenko answered, looking over at him. "Get outta here, I still have a lot of work to do,"

"But my stomach hurts and I need to lie down," He bit his lip.

"Ugh, you boys are so spoiled rotten nowadays. Think that just because you were raised by a woman means you can push her around constantly. You think us girls have that luxury? We still have to work, work, work!" She scolded him.

"Well here, we all swallow barium and then puke it up. You could try it," He realized he was starting to sound more and more like Kokichi or Mondo with every passing day but found he was fine with that. It couldn't hurt to have positive role models.

"You want me to hit you?" She challenged, taking a fighting stance. Shuichi took the hint and left, scaling the walls and clutching his stomach every so often. He found a random empty room and collapsed on the mattress, sleeping heavily. For the first time since his arrival he woke up fully expecting he wouldn't see the houses of his neighbors out the window, and decided that was the step in the exact wrong direction.

[][][][][][]

After a simple blood test Shuichi was drinking his orange juice when a tall man dressed in a long coat and distinctive green hair came out of a nearby door and crossed his arms in front of his chest, staring Shuichi down. He said in simple terms that Shuichi should think about not emulating peers of his who give hardworking men and women a hard time when they're just trying to do their jobs. He then added that Shuichi should stay out of empty rooms on the west side of the building and just stick to his own. Before he left, he then introduced himself as Juuzou Sakakura and told Shuichi to never get on his bad side. Shuichi promised that he wouldn't.

[][][][][][]

The Akamatsu twins had finally started to adjust, especially after Leon Kuwata befriended the two of them. He was a TK and boasted that he could move tons of stuff, but according to Chihiro, that was a whole pack of lies.

"He has even less than you do, Shuichi-oniichan,"

"Don't be so diplomatic, Fujisaki-chan," Shuichi teased him.

"What's that word mean?"

"Spend a token on your computer and look it up yourself,"

"Memekagi, memekagi," Chihiro recited, blowing a spit bubble, giggling. At least Shuichi's own computer had finally replaced the greeting from Maki's name to his own.

Leon was good to Kaede and Kiyomi, that much was obvious. Everytime he saw them, he'd grin hugely and stop what he was doing, running over to them with his arms spread out wide. The girls would giggle and allow themselves to be hugged tightly by him.

One evening after dinner, the children were told to get dressed in the yukata provided in their closet and head outside once it was dark. The children did so and found a brown box filled with blue fireworks.

"They look like rockets!" Ibuki gasped.

"Fireworks...but is it a good idea to set them off by ourselves?" Shuichi questioned, wearing his spring-green yukata trimmed with white.

"I can do it," Mondo said, wearing a blue yukata trimmed with red. He walked over to the box and started pulling out the fireworks, also taking out the box of matches. "But you guys should probably get closer to the shade,"

"I wonder who set this up for us," Aoi blinked, wearing a red yukata patterned with sun-rays trimmed with orange. Her hair had an orange ribbon in it, similar to how she looked when Shuichi first met her.

"My first thought was Kyoko-san, but she's not here at the moment," Shuichi said.

"Well maybe she managed to do this for us before she left!"

"Ibuki wants to help! I could do a great job with fireworks, I reckon!" Ibuki said, wearing a blue yukata patterned with white and pink flowers. Hers had a long slit cut up one side that Shuichi assumed was self-made.

"Get into the shade," He scolded, and everyone complied.

"Man, you're still gonna wear your emo hat even now? It clashes with literally everything," Kokichi teased, wearing a tan yukata trimmed with yellow.

"It keeps the sun off my face," Shuichi blushed, pulling the brim down to hide his eyes.

Kaede and Kiyomi remained next to Leon, both wearing soft carnation pink kimono with a sprig of cherry blossoms tucked into their ponytails. Leon wore an unassuming brown yukata trimmed with tan and Shuichi thought the trio looked like a cherry-blossom tree themselves.

"Here we go!" Mondo lit the first one up and ducked away from it, watching as it soared into the dark sky and exploded into a violet shower. The little kids and Ibuki stared in fascination, their eyes wide. Mondo lit up the second, then the third, then the fourth.

"Can Ibuki help?" She asked again, walking over to Mondo and watched curiously.

"No, you should go back with the others, chick. You don't know how to set these off properly,"

She pouted in annoyance but still hurried back over to the others. "Ibuki thinks she should make note of these for later..."

Mondo set off the final five at the same time, releasing an explosion of greens, reds, purples, yellows, and whites; some even in the shape of flowers. The children applauded for him.

"Can you do something like that again?" Chihiro asked nicely, his eyes sparkling. He wore green hair clips to match his green yukata patterned with fish trimmed with blue.

"Maybe, if they give me more fireworks," He shrugged. "Don't even know why they let us have these. Maybe they expected us to kill ourselves trying to light them,"

"No, they wouldn't. We're more valuable alive," Shuichi shook his head, but nobody seemed to hear him.

"Regardless, it was sweet of you to light them like that. The twins and Fujisaki-chan especially loved them," Aoi gave him a smile, and Mondo cleared his throat to hide a blush.

"Nobody else could light 'em so I did so. I wasn't about to let a little kid hurt themselves," He shrugged.

It wasn't until dinner the next night that Mondo brought up the possibility that Leon was only so close to the Akamatsu twins because he was having sex with them.

"Ya know, he just gives off that vibe of being a womanizer. And nobody's gonna tell him 'no' here. And they're cute and naive enough," He pointed over to where Leon sat at his own table along with the nature-girls, who had insisted on joining him that night.

"You've been watching too many dramas," Ibuki rolled her eyes.

"He's not," Chihiro said, eating a Popsicle and getting red syrup all over his mouth. "He doesn't want to..." Instead of continuing, Chihiro grabbed his crotch and thrust his hips a few times. Shuichi realized that was why telepathy was all wrong; you knew way too much and way too soon.

"Eww! Don't make Ibuki wish she were blind, Fuji-chan!" Ibuki scolded, covering them. Chihiro just shrugged.

"He had two Shibas at home...those girls are like his dogs kinda,"

"Well, I don't know how that dude was with his dogs, but those chicks basically own him. It's like he's a new doll to them, see?" Mondo pointed over again to their table, where Kaede and Kiyomi sat on either side of Leon, feeding him long slurps of noodles from their chopsticks.

"I don't know, I think it's kinda cute," Aoi shrugged. Mondo looked over at her and smiled, giving her that smile that lit up his whole face including his black eye.

"You would, Hina,"

She smiled back at him, and beside himself, Shuichi felt the smallest twinge of jealousy.

[][][][][][][]

The next afternoon, Shuichi was led down to the previously-unexplored fifth floor by Tsumugi and hooked up to an IV she said would make him feel a bit drowsy. What it actually did was knock him out, making him wake up some hours later shivering and completely naked on an examination table, his right leg, right side, and abdomen bandaged up. Tsumugi was staring at him, backing off a bit once seeing he was awake.g

"What did you do to me?" He demanded weakly, coughing. He figured something had been shoved down his throat as well. He put his hands over his crotch.

"Nothing much, just samples. We didn't sell your organs on the black market," Tsumugi giggled strangely. "Here, take these," She handed him a small brown bottle with a few pills inside, leaving and being replaced by Miu, who was holding his clothing.

"Dress when ya can walk," She threw his clothes down on the floor, always the considerate one.

Shuichi very slowly sat up on the table and shivered again, gingerly slipping on his clothes. Once he had done so, Tsumugi and Celestia arrived to escort him back down to his room. It had been daylight when he went upstairs, and now it was dark out.

"Are you able to walk the rest of the way to your room by yourself?" Celestia asked curiously, not smiling.

"Yes," He nodded.

"Perfect. Then do so. And take those pills Tsumugi-san gave you. They not only help with pain but make you feel wonderful. Is that not nice?"

Shuichi wandered down the hall, heading to his own room and turning the knob when he heard crying. He glanced around and figured it was likely coming from Aoi's room. He silently debated with himself, not feeling up for comforting anyone, but it was still her, so he closed his own door and went to hers, knocking and then poking his head in. "Aoi-san?"

She was lying on her bed, a hand over her eyes. "Go away...I don't want you to see me like this,"

He instead sat at the foot of her bed, knowing that she didn't really want him to leave. He also knew what was wrong with her, though not the details. She then began to talk.

Everyone was out on the playground, except for Shuichi, because he was getting his tests done by Tsumugi. Two men dressed in red scrubs with no nametags emerged from the lounge, and her, Kokichi, and Mondo, the old-timers, knew exactly what that meant.

"I thought they were coming for me. I haven't had any tests done in over ten days, not counting my strep throat. I've been here the longest, and they haven't even taken my blood, and you know how much they like testing our blood, but it was Oowada-san they came for! Oowada-san!" She sobbed, her voice breaking. Shuichi knew he was pretty crazy about Aoi, but that didn't surprise him. Ibuki always stared at him as if he were a compass and she was lost in the forest; Sayaka did the very same thing too, even Kaede and Kiyomi stared at him in admiration whenever he passed. But Aoi was the one who had been with him the longest, and they were roughly about the same age. They were possible as a couple. "He fought them, you know. He fought them hard," She sat up suddenly, her fist clenched above her expansive bosom. "I should've fought them too! We all should've!"

"But it happened too fast, didn't it?"

"He punched one of them in the throat, and the other one zapped him on his hip. He managed to grab onto the monkey bars to prevent himself from falling over, then he kicked at that one with his good leg,"

"He knocked it right out of his hand," Shuichi said, being able to clearly see it. Saying so was a mistake, as it suggested something about himself he didn't want Aoi to know, but she hadn't seemed to notice.

"Yeah. But then the other one, the one he punched, zapped him in the side, and it was turned all the way up because I could hear it, and Oowada-san fell down and they just kept on zapping him, and he jumped despite being knocked out. And Mioda-chan ran over and started crying that they were killing him, and one of them kicked her down to the ground and started laughing about it, and then they took him away," She said, and Shuichi waited. He already knew what she was going to say, but he wanted her to say it, because none of them could ever know what he had become, least of all her.

"He came around a bit," Tears formed in her eyes. "Enough to see us. He looked back at us, gave us a huge grin, and then gave us a thumbs-up. He gave us a thumbs-up! That's how brave he was," They were rolling down her cheeks now.

"Yeah," Shuichi nodded, thinking: And we'll see him no more.

"Don't you dare say that!" Aoi scolded suddenly, staring at him.

"I'm sorry," He bowed his head, wondering what else she had seen in there. He hoped she was still too upset over what happened to consider searching around in his mind for more.

"They took samples from you, didn't they?" She asked instead.

"Yes,"

"It was that chick with the blue hair Miss Shirogane, huh? How much?"

"Just three. One from my leg, one from my stomach, and one from my ribs I think,"

"They took one from my breast once. That hurt pretty bad. But what if they're not taking stuff out but putting stuff in us? They always lie to us,"

"Like trackers? Why would they even need to?" He motioned to the one in his ear.

"I don't know," Aoi sighed. Shuichi reached into his pocket and held out the bottle of pills.

"They gave me these, but I don't mind sharing if you need them to sleep,"

Aoi reached for the bottle, stopped, and pulled her hand away. "I don't just want one or two though, I want them all. But at the same time, I know that I should be feeling what I'm feeling, that that's the right thing. You know?"

"I don't know," Shuichi said, and that was the truth.

"Please go away...I want to be alone now,"

He nodded.

"If they come for me tomorrow..."

"They won't," Shuichi tried to reassure her, knowing that was a lie. She was practically overdue at that point.

"If they do, then please be a friend to Fujisaki-chan. He's the one here who needs it the most,"

He nodded. "Alright,"

She smiled at him. "You're a great friend," She moved closer to him and kissed him once on the cheek, then once on his lips. Hers tasted salty but he found he didn't mind.

As Shuichi opened the door to leave, Aoi said: "It should've been me, you know. Or Ouma-san. Not Oowada-san. He was the only one of us who was always fighting and never gave into them. He never gave up," She started crying again and yelled: "I hope you're listening to me, because I hate you! I want you to know how much I hate you! I hate you!" She fell back onto her bed and continued crying.

Shuichi went to his own room and sat on his bed, considering the pills but ultimately not taking any. Instead he thought of Mondo Oowada. Mondo, the heartthrob of all the girls. Mondo, who first put Leon Kuwata into his place and then made friends with him, which was far bolder than just beating him up. Mondo, who thought Monopoly was an intense game and set off fireworks for the little kids. Mondo, who had fought their tests, and fought the men from Back Half who had come to get him. Mondo, the one who never gave up.