That next morning, Kirumi escorted both Shuichi and Kokichi Ouma to 3-17, where she was replaced with Miu who helped strap the two boys into a driving simulator. She called out numbers that may or may not have had to do with reaction time, and despite causing a lot of carnage and driving through a few traffic signals, Shuichi soon got the hang of it and actually found himself to be having fun, a first for an Institute test.

"So who won?" Kokichi asked after they were done, making Dr. Kimura stare at him.

"Not that...kind of test," She shook her head.

"Well yeah, but still someone's gotta win, you know?"

"Both of you...very fast...once you got used to it. What we expect from TKs. No more tests today," She bowed and left the room, leaving Kirumi to escort them both back upstairs.

"I think I ran over about six people before I got the hang of it, how about you?" Kokichi asked Shuichi, who shrugged.

"Only three, but I also hit a schoolbus and there might've been causalities there,"

"I totally missed the bus," Kokichi chuckled. "Actually, I hit seven people, but the last one was on purpose. I was pretending she was Miss Iruma,"

Kirumi stifled a soft giggle at that, and Shuichi hated that he liked her for that.

"After the dots, they gave you those cards," Shuichi continued. Kokichi nodded. "Do they ever test you for TK? Like asking you to turn on a light or knock over dominoes?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Probably because they know I can do that stuff on my good days. How about you?"

"Nope. I just think it's weird how they keep testing us for stuff they already know we got,"

Kokichi shrugged. "This whole place is strange, Saihara-chan, darling," He stepped off the elevator. "Now come on, we got the dessert buffet today and I want to get something good before the twins and Fuji-chan completely attack it,"

Shuichi just sighed and followed after him, walking into the cafeteria and seeing a majority of the tables put away to make room for covered tables filled with any kind of dessert and sweet known to a child. A separate table sported clear glasses filled with either strawberry milk, strawberry soda, or strawberry smoothies. It was only his second dessert buffet but he was well aware of the routine by then.

"A buffet full of desserts? No shit? We can eat as much as we want?" Leon asked in surprise. Aoi nodded at him.

"Yeah, as much as you can eat. That's the point of a buffet," She herself got two doughnuts and a glass of strawberry milk and sat by herself, nibbling slowly.

"Whoohoo! Now we're talking!" Ibuki gasped, running ahead and getting a slice of cherry pie, two brownies, and a slice of pumpkin pie, all with a heaping spoonful of vanilla ice-cream on top. "Ibuki has been dying for something sweet ever since she got here!"

Shuichi winced a bit as he thought of Mondo giving him his last peanut-butter cup, Sayaka resting her head on his shoulder. Two friends of his, now gone. Taken from him. He had little appetite, but still wanted to be included, so he got a simple slice of blueberry pie and sat at the main table, staring at Aoi. He thought the twins or Chihiro would go sit with her, but the twins sat with Leon and Chihiro sat with Ibuki at the main table.

"This stuff is pretty good, huh?" Kokichi teased, sitting over by Leon and the twins. Kokichi himself had a strawberry smoothie and a few pieces of sakura-mochi; an all-pink flare. Leon had a slice of angel-food cake with frosting on it, and Kaede and Kiyomi were eating from slices of frosted chocolate cake as identical as they were.

"There's so much to eat!" Chihiro's eyes were wide upon entering and they hadn't died down since. In front of him was a big bowl of ice-cream covered in caramel, chocolate, strawberry, gummy bears, nuts, cherries, and gummy worms, which he was currently attacking with a spoon.

"Hey, that's a lot of sugar there," Shuichi tried to coax him away from it, but Chihiro held the bowl closer to his body protectively, making him sigh.

"Just let him have it. It's just some sugar!" Ibuki laughed.

"I don't think you should be the voice of reason on this," Shuichi sighed again and finished his own pie, not going up to get some more. He buried his head in his arms and rested it on the table. The cafeteria continued to roar around him; he heard Kaede and Kiyomi start to bounce up and down on their seats, trying to make their skirts twirl around them. Ibuki and Kokichi had moved closer to each other, trying to make the other snort soda out of their nose. He knew Aoi was still there, watching everyone, and wondered why she didn't just leave. It was clear she still had painful memories seeing everyone together like this, so why keep torturing herself?

"Ibuki-oneechan? Aoi-oneechan? I don't feel so good," Chihiro warned before he suddenly choked and started to throw up on what was presumably the floor judging by the sound of it. Kaede started to ask him if he was okay while Kiyomi screamed and hid behind Leon. Shuichi peeked up through his fingers and saw Kokichi and Ibuki seated just across from him, their eyes wide and mouths open in shock.

"You're alright, you're alright," That was Aoi's voice, sounding like her usual motherly self. A trashcan was dragged out of place and was given to him, which he threw up in again. "It's alright, it's alright,"

"Goddamn, they're not seriously going to make us clean up after him, are they?" Leon asked, trying to make a joke, but Shuichi could tell he was worried about him.

"It's alright, he just ate way too much sugar. Get it all out, it's alright," Aoi rubbed his back. Shuichi finally lifted his head up and looked at them, noticing she was smiling yet staring intently at Chihiro. He matched her expression, and he realized whatever they were talking about was far beyond him. He tried to approach her, try to tell her he'd deal with Chihiro himself, but Aoi shook her head at him. "I'll talk to you later," She promised. "At dinner,"

Shuichi nodded, not moving.

"I mean it. Take care of this one when I'm gone," She whispered, staring at him. Shuichi nodded and moved along then, knowing that was what she wanted.

He didn't see her at dinner though, because she skipped it. When he walked back to his room after that fact, he peeked into her room and saw all of the pink frou-frou-ness was gone, as was the portrait of Serena Williams. He blinked a few times, the fact not quite sinking in yet.

If she fought, he wouldn't have known, he'd have no real way of knowing. Still, she wasn't the sort of person who'd go with him willingly, yet there didn't seem to be any other option. The true fact, the one he was currently staring at, was that the girl who had kissed him twice was gone.

He went back to his room and put his face in his pillow.

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

That night, he showed the laptop his token and went to the black website again, sighing in relief that he could still do that, at least. It seemed they were lax about some things, but then again, why wouldn't they be? They weren't dealing with military prisoners or prisoners of war, no matter what Junko tried to tell him. They were all just a bunch of scared, disorientated little kids.

He randomly thought of Hiyoko dropping his token on purpose and telling him to pick it up himself, snidely calling him a 'butterfingers'. Mondo likely wouldn't have done that. He'd have told her to pick it up herself, and earned a slap. But Shuichi Saihara wasn't that kind of kid, was never that kind of kid. He was the average do-gooder who never drew attention to himself in any way. He did what he was told and did his homework and the chores at home. He was teaching himself Portuguese from a textbook which the Internet says is a terrible way to learn a foreign language but he had no other choice since his school only has both Modern and Classical Japanese, English; all required, Latin, French, German, and Italian. He hated learning saxophone because he thought it was an annoying and useless instrument, but his band teacher told him it was required for all first-years to study band, and most of the instruments were too clunky to comfortably carry around, so Shuichi was stuck on saxophone. He much preferred his books; only socializing with people when he really had to, hence why his principal kept calling him into his office to tell him to interact with his peers more so they'd stop thinking he was weird. Was it any wonder he preferred the actions of those who had lived so long ago? Most serial killers were the outgoing variety, the ones nobody ever suspected, so Shuichi figured he had that going for him.

Nobody would suspect him of being a potential murderer.

But what did any of that matter? Here at The Institute, the only possible future for any of them was that of Back Half.

"Screw that,"

He finally went to the Japan Times website and scrolled through their archives, going back several weeks until he found what he was looking for. There wasn't any need to read the headline; the second he saw his old elementary-school photo, he knew exactly what he'd see:

SEARCH IS STILL ONGOING FOR MISSING SON OF STARLET COUPLE; RELATIVE OF THE FAMILY FOUND SLAIN

The coloured lights came back then, making him wince and nearly double-over. He turned the computer off and collapsed into his bed, rolling onto his back.

He knew he had been lied to, but some small part of him had been hoping that there was the possibility that he hadn't been. What he had read had been like a trapdoor finally opening up underneath him. And who would the prime culprit be of the killing? The precocious missing son, of course. He was a quiet antisocial kid who loved reading about brutal killings and murders. It'd surprise nobody that he snapped one day and tried to imitate some crime he read about, like that teenage girl who dismembered a little girl she was babysitting after playing a video game about a group of students forced to kill each other. It was in South Korea or someplace like that. Yes, someone like him snapping wouldn't come as a shock to anyone at all.

Aoi had screamed her defiance, but Shuichi wouldn't, not openly. He'd scream at them all he wanted in his heart, but never openly. He had his own secrets, and wondered then if his secrets could be used to break the whole entire place down. Bring it all down on them in a collapse of fiery glory.

He had fallen asleep at one point, and dreamed he was home again, and his uncle told him to make up his bed and take the trash out, and there was also breakfast waiting for him; a Japanese one that went heavy on the pickled vegetables because Shuichi liked those the best, and his uncle was watching the morning broadcasts as he ate, then before Shuichi headed off to school he handed him some money for the convenience store across the street to get his lunch at, only the money wasn't normal yen but the tokens, and that was when Shuichi woke up and realized someone was in his room.

He couldn't tell who it was, since he had turned his lamp off, but he heard the soft shuffle of feet near his desk and felt rage fill him as he realized they were coming to take away his computer. Of course they were, they were monitoring him, and he had been stupid to think otherwise. Well, let them try and take it. He'd get a few good hits in at them, and even if they didn't know why he was hitting, Shuichi would know. That was good enough.

He jumped from his bed and threw himself at the shadow, realizing too late when he collided that it wasn't an adult in his room at all, but another kid. He accidentally knocked them sprawling on the floor.

"O-Owwww! Don't h-hurt me like that, Shuichi-oniichan!"

Chihiro Fujisaki. Fuji-chan.

Shuichi felt around and grabbed his arm, gently picking him up and leading him over to the bed, turning the light on. Chihiro looked terrified, trembling.

"Jeezh, what are you doing here?" Shuichi scolded.

"I woke up a-and I got scared...I w-wanted to be with Aoi-oneechan, but they've taken her away, s-so I came to you instead. P-Please can I stay here?"

All of that was true, but it wasn't the whole truth. Shuichi understood this better than he had all the other stuff he had a hunch about, likely because Chihiro was a strong TP, way stronger than Aoi was, and at the moment, he was 'broadcasting'.

"You can stay," Shuichi finally said, nodding. Chihiro started to crawl into bed with him, but he gently nudged him out, shaking his head. "No way, not until you go to the bathroom first. I don't want you peeing in my bed,"

Chihiro just nodded without protest and hurried into the bathroom, and soon Shuichi heard the sound of urine splattering into the bowl. Quite a lot of it. Chihiro then came back and snuggled up close to him once he turned the light off. Shuichi stared down at him, feeling how warm he was. It felt nice to not be alone for once, it felt downright wonderful, in fact.

Shuichi laid down next to him and pulled him close, and after a while Chihiro whispered to him: "I'm really sorry about your uncle, Shuichi-oniichan,"

Shuichi was quiet for a while before eventually whispering back: "You two were talking about me at the buffet earlier, weren't you? You and Aoi-san,"

"Y-Yeah! She told me to come. She wants to send you letters through me. She also said you can tell Kokichi-oniichan and Ibuki-oneechan if you think it's safe,"

He knew it wouldn't ever be safe though, since nothing there was ever safe, not even thinking it was safe. He recalled what Aoi said to him when she was recounting Mondo fighting off the caretakers; 'knocked it out of his hand'. Meaning one of the zap-sticks. She hadn't asked Shuichi how he knew that, because she likely knew already. Had he really thought he could keep his newfound TP ability a secret from her? Maybe a secret from the others, but not from her, and definitely not from Chihiro.

"Look," Chihiro whispered suddenly, and despite everything in the room being completely dark, he looked ahead and thought he saw Aoi.

"Is she all right?" He whispered back, and Chihiro nodded.

"What about Oowada-san? Is he alright?"

"Uh-huh," Chihiro nodded again. "Sayaka-oneechan is there too, and she's okay, but sometimes she gets headaches. Some of the others do too, and Aoi-oneechan thinks it's from the movies they watch,"

"What movies?"

"I dunno. Aoi-oneechan hasn't seen any yet, but she says Mondo-oniichan has. So has Sayaka-oneechan. They say that there's only a few kids where they are right now, like Maki-oneechan,"

Maki was the girl whose laptop he had inherited.

"Fuyuhiko-oniichan was there at first too, but he's gone now. Sayaka-oneechan told Aoi-oneechan all about it,"

"I don't know those kids,"

"Aoi-oneechan says Maki-oneechan went to Back Half just a few days before you got here. That's why they gave you her laptop,"

"You know, you're really creepy," Shuichi jabbed, but Chihiro ignored him, likely already knowing he was creepy.

"They get the hurty shots there a lot. Shots for dots, dots and shots. Aoi-oneechan says she thinks something really bad is going to happen, that Back Half is something really bad. But she thinks you can do something. She thinks..." Chihiro trailed off and didn't finish, but Shuichi didn't need him to. He had a brief but blindingly clear image, surely sent his way by Aoi Asahina by way of Chihiro Fujisaki, of a crane kept in a cage. The door swung open and the crane flew out. "She says you're the only one smart enough,"

"I will if I can. What else did she tell you?" Shuichi asked, but he received no answer. Chihiro had fallen asleep.