Author's note: I actually went through a whole night without sleep just writing this so I'd appreciate some kind words for it (honestly just couldn't sleep, especially with summer classes breathing down my neck). Here's hoping this is a good chapter.

Chapter 2

Roof of Shujin Academy

The roar was of the volume that Akira expected everyone from here to Hokkaido would hear. He looked over the fence that enclosed the roof and found that not only was no one reacting.

No one was moving at all?

People stood stock still, many stuck in mid-step. Cars had paused, birds stuck in the air, and other natural movement seemed to have ceased.

His attention returned to the blue door that this Philemon had summoned and saw it creak open.

Standing in the opening was the hunched man he had met in his dreams, only instead of sitting hunched over, he standing straight up, that creepy smile still adorning his face.

"Master Philemon, how may I be of service?"

"Do not try and fool me #$%#% #^. You and I both know that you have over-stacked the odds against our Trickster here. I would normally allow this to play out, but no more. You took his overseer and split her, you released the restraint on the darkest of hearts, and finally, you even manipulated events so that the Trickster here would have just a little bit less time to see his contract out."

Akira didn't quite hear what he called the man from the Velvet Room, but he did catch the rest. This being somehow had influence over what happened to him?

Coming from smiling man, came a slightly less loud growl. "Philemon, I'm afraid I do not understand…"

The pressure suddenly became intense on the rooftop. So much so that it brought Akira to his knees.

"I have allowed much. But no more. You will leave the Velvet room and return Igor. The Tricksters is at enough of a disadvantage as it is. You will go now, or you will see what I can do when I act without restraint…"

A low groan could be heard, as though contemplating something.

And then the glow came. Not from Philemon, but from the smiling man. He lifted up into the air, raising his hands and out came a deep booming voice.

"VERY WELL PHILEMON. I SHALL LEAVE THE VELVET ROOM. AND YOU TRICKSTER. WE SHALL MEET AGAIN."

And with that, the man disappeared.

The glowing blue door then shut closed and a locking sound came from it. Philemon then turned back to Akira, a slight bead of sweat on his forehead forming.

"Forgive me Trickster. I usually allow free will to reign in these games, but your opponent exercised a bit too much in cheating his way here."

Akira was still baffled by what just happened, "Umm, I'm sorry sir, but I don't understand what's happened."

Philemon then simply held out his hand and said "Your phone please Trickster."

After seeing what this man could do, Akira did not want to tempt fate by denying the man access to his phone and handed it over.

"Hmmmm, I was afraid of this. You're a week late trickster, and the awakening did not happen like it was supposed to. I'm afraid this will be the one last act I can impose upon you for the duration of the game."

He seemed to do something on his phone before it began to beep in notification to something being installed on it.

He handed it back to Akira. "One last thing Trickster: Take heart. You humans have always impressed me, and wild cards above all else prove to be among the best humanity has to offer. Great rewards await you Trickster at the end of the game should you succeed on behalf of humanity. The previous wild card is certainly enjoying his rewards. Now then, resume your life Trickster," and with that, he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving behind nothing but a fluttering blue butterfly that flew off into the distance.

Akira took note of his surrounding and noticed the sounds of the city once again pouring out. As though he had not noticed the silence before. Looking at his phone, he saw some kind of app installed on it now, a strange eye being its representation. Turning off the screen, he merely placed in his pocket before heading back down the stairs to find somewhere to eat lunch.

1st Floor, outer areas

The quiet of everyone was getting on Akira's nerves. If they weren't talking about the suicide, they were just keeping their heads down, as the depression was weighing down on them like an invisible force of some sorts. Wanting to get away from it all, Akira found a small area near some vending machines where he could eat in peace…

That was until,

"Come on Ryuji! You hate him the most, why won't you help me out!?"

"You think I don'e t want to Ann!? That I wouldn't give ANYTHING to kill that smug bastard for what we know he did to Shiho! Well guess what? I did try to confront him, and you see what I got for my trouble!"

"We have to try something else then! We have to…"

"STUFF IT ANN!..." a slight choking sound followed, "I already lost so much to this. Not as much as you, but I may as well have. The doctor's say I'll…The point is, he won Ann…HE FUCKING WON!"

SMACK!

"You fucking bastard…"

And just some sniffling was heard and the clacking of shoes sounded. Akira lifted his head from his bento and saw what might've been one of the most beautiful women he ever saw…if it wasn't for eyes swollen from crying and some slightly runny makeup. Upon making eye contact, she merely shook her head and ran off to who knows where.

Next came the clacking of something that Akira couldn't tell, but when this other person came into view, he realized what it was.

Bleached blonde hair, and an open student uniform with a logo shirt revealed with some kind of random word (zomg?). However, what stuck out to him was the crutches the teen was using and the cast on his left leg.

"Oh, hey, sorry if you heard all that. Just a little disagreement with an old friend."

Akira nodded in confirming he understood and offered him a spot to sit.

The blonde teen set aside his crutches and carefully worked his way onto the seat. "Goddamn crutches. I'll never get used to this. Oh, sorry 'bout that. I'm Ryuji Sakamato, just call me Ryuji. 2nd year."

"Um, Akira Kurusu, transfer, 2nd year as well."

"Ah, well welcome to Shit Academy."

That attitude stuck out at him. Surely it wasn't that bad. "Umm, did something happen? It can't be that bad here?"

Ryuji scoffed at that. "You obviously haven't met Kamoshida, the fucking perv."

Candidate found

"Hey did you hear that?"

Akira, looked at his phone and saw the new app was doing something strange. But rather than pay attention to it, he simply put his phone back in his pocket.

"Sorry, just some app on my phone."

"Oh. Well like I was saying, just wait till you meet Kamoshida, he's…"

"He's what Sakamato-kun?"

Akira couldn't quite place it, but there was something in that voice that sounded almost demeaning, as though it were challenging Ryuji to continue.

At that moment a rather tall man walked up their table with a smile on his face, wearing what appeared to be gym clothes, a volleyball tucked under his arms.

Ryuji had this hurt look on his face before recovering, or at least trying to, and said "Nothing Kamoshida-sensei…"

The man looked down at Ryuji and seemed to contemplate what he said. "Well anyways, I was just looking for you Sakamato. I was wondering if you'd like to be the volleyball team's manager?"

Ryuji's face kept a still look, but Akira could hear him grind out his reply.

"Isn't Mishima supposed to be the manager?"

Kamoshida then made what looked like an exaggerated sigh of depression, "Sadly Mishima-kun seems to be a bit out of it since Shiho passed. I'd like to take the stress of management off of him, so I was thinking that since you're no longer with Track, maybe you could give us a hand?"

There was slight edge to his voice there as he mentioned Ryuji not being on track anymore, but Akira couldn't quite verify it.

"Well sensei, the thing is I can't because of my…"

"Oh that's right your injury. I'm sorry, I'd forgotten about that. Well if you change your mind let me know, I might be able to put in some kind words for you for a management scholarship if you do good enough."

Kamoshida then turned to Akira, and had a contemplative look, before snapping his fingers in realization "Ah, you're the transfer student, Akira Kurusu, right?"

"Yes sensei"

"I'm Sugimura Kamoshida, the PE coach. I do hope we get along. I heard you had some upcoming skills in basketball back at your old school."

"Yes I did, but then…well I transferred here sensei."

"Ah yes…Well sadly our basketball team isn't exactly up to any kind of competitive level, but if your looking to put some skills to use, our volleyball team is always open to new talent."

"Umm, thank you sensei, but if it's all the same to you I'm not able to…"

"Ah yes, your situation, well I'm pretty sure we could get some exemptions for that with the right people, so how about it, make a try-out performance after school today?"

"Forgive me sensei, but uhmmm…I'm not looking to do much for athletic competitions this year…"

There was something that seemed to cross Kamoshida's eyes as he said that but it was quickly replaced by him just giving him a wide tooth filled smile.

"Well then, by all means, do what you must. Just remember, you can always ask to tryout if you find you need something else to do."

And with that, he walked away.

Ryuji kept his eye on Kamoshida till he was out of sight before saying "Phew, that was close. But as for you…look Kamoshida is used to getting what he wants. Just be careful around him."

Akira just smiled "Eh, what's the worst that can happen. Besides he's a teacher."

Ryuji just looked down towards his legs and mumbled something.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Nothing man…just…be careful ok?"

Akira merely shrugged and chowed down on his lunch, taking in the solace of the setting, glad for a moment of peace.

Kamoshida's office

"Do you understand Mishima-kun?"

"B-b-b-but sensei, this isn't the kind of thing I should be telling everyone else. Isn't this confidential?"

"Oh Mishima, just because It's confidential doesn't mean we shouldn't have this spread. After all what if people start wrongly associating with him. We wouldn't want him to influence anyone else would we, especially not after what happened to pure Suzui-chan."

Noting the silence from the shivering young man, Kamoshida took a harsher tone "Do you understand Mishima?!"

Gulp.

"Y-y-yes sensei. I'll have it spread by the end of the day."

Kamoshida then took a wide smile and said "Excellent Mishima. Now, why don't you take a day off from training today as well. I'll see you tomorrow,"

"Y-yes sensei," and with that Mishima left the office.

After sitting for a while and taking a moment to admire some of his personal trophies in his office, he sighed in bliss. "Ah, it's good to be king!"

After school, School Entrace

Akira walked down the steps of the school entrance and stretched as he tried to get the kinks out from sitting at a desk for most of the day.

"Hey isn't that him?"

"Yeah, I heard he killed someone in his old school!"

"I heard he did actual time in jail"

"Doesn't he always carry a knife on him?"

"Careful around him, I heard he beats up anyone who annoys him."

?

Where was all this coming?

"Why did they allow him in anyways?"

"I kinda hope something happens to him. I don't feel safe with him here."

What happened? Who were they talking about?

"That transfer student, I hope he gets lost and doesn't come back"

"Maybe his past will catch up to him and somebody will do him in?"

"You think? I don't know if he's that bad"

"Are you kidding, have you seen how quiet he is, I bet he's just ready to pop at any moment. I've already let Kawakami-sensei know how unsafe I feel about this."

Akira had to stop and contemplate for a bit.

They were talking about him? And what was this overexaggerated nonsense they were going on about? And wasn't it supposed to be a secret as to what he did? It was supposed to be a sealed case for crying out loud!

He tried walking down the main pathways to get to the subways but he could hear whispers from some of the other students…Finally he broke into a sprint, hoping no one saw his own tears of frustration…

Underground subway station

Akira leaned against one of the support pillars, panting as he hadn't run like that in quite some time. He was tired, exhausted, but most of all frustrated.

He was hoping for a clean slate here. A chance to ingratiate himself to his peers and hopefully make a slow comeback to his confidence. Now it was all shattered.

The stares.

The rumors.

The whispers.

The judgement.

It was all coming back now….

If asked at that moment, he didn't know what happened, but the next thing he knew, he was next to a trash can vomiting what little contents his stomach had.

He started flashing back to the events at school.

Name-calling, threats, even defamation of his desk and locker. He remembered someone even stuffing a dead animal or two into his desk and locker with notes for him to kill himself.

He never told his dad, but he had more than once sat at the dinner table with a chef's knife and contemplated the edge and how easy it might've been to end it all. It was only the photo he had taken with him that had saved him. The love of his mother to birth him to the world and his father to go as far as he did to not only support him, but believe in him as well.

Now here he was though, miles away from Inaba, in the big city, and no one to open up to…

"Hey, you ok?"

Looking he up, he recognized the girl from earlier. The one that had slapped Ryuji. Akira blushed, realizing what a mess he must've looked like.

"Yeah," NO!

"I'll be ok." PLEASE! HELP ME!"You sure?" she asked, her nose crinkling, most likely from the smell of the vomit he released into the trash can.

"Yeah, just the city air. It's a bit stuffier compared to the countryside I'm used to."

"Ok then…Um, say how about I treat you to a drink if you have a moment?"

"You sure. Isn't it usually the guy who's supposed to treat a pretty lady?"

Said lady blushed at his insinuation, but she just continued "Well you can owe me. But…Well I know that look…and I've heard the rumors. I thought maybe you'd like to talk to someone who's willing to give you a shot."

He certainly didn't know what look she was talking about, but the idea that she wanted to extend a hand of friendship to him was nice. It certainly did a lot to soothe his otherwise frayed nerves now.

"Ok then, thanks"

Local Café

The dashing beauty sat across from Akira, her hair glistening in the sunlight giving her quite the image. In her hands was a glass of some kind of fruit juice specialty of the house, and in Akira's was just a plain glass of orange juice (pulp free).

Since she treated him to the drink, he figured maybe he should start off the conversation.

"So, I'm Akira Kurusu, 2nd year. I'm originally from a small town called Inaba."

She looked up from the glass she had been contemplating and replied,

"Ann Takamaki, same year. I was born here but raised all around the world. My parents travel a lot and for a while, so did I…So how did you end up transferring here from the sticks, no offense?"

"None taken but…I'd rather not talk about it if it's all the same to you."

Ann then looked down at her drink and a frown formed. She swirled her straw a bit in the juice as though in deep thought for a while.

"You know, I had a friend who…she'd say the same thing."

?

"She was so strong I thought. And I was a coward. I did everything I could to help her from the shadows…but never once did I come forward and tell her I'd help her…"

A small tear escaped one of her eyes.

"Finally something happened to her one day when I…well I didn't help her for once. The next day…She was…she was gone. I made a horrible mistake and now…now my friend is gone."

A few more tears.

"I saw you and you had the same look in your eyes as she did before…Look, if you don't want to talk about it with me that's fine. But please, promise me you won't…promise me you'll be in school tomorrow? Promise me you won't do anything drastic please?"

She set her drink down and clasped her hands around Akira's, causing him to blush, but he thinks she didn't quite register it.

"I don't think you're what all those rumors say you are. I don't know how, but I can just tell. I think if anything you might be a bit of a gentle person. I don't want to see you beaten down by the school like that. Not when it's taken one of my friends and it's…sunk it's teeth into an old one."

Akira didn't know when he started crying, or rather when he started to shed tears, but he removed his hands to wipe them away and leaned back in his chair, but never once did he lose eye contact with Ann.

Finally after a few minutes of silence he said "Ok. I promise I'll be in school tomorrow."

She gave him a smile, and it made Akira's heart flutter and his stomach do a bit of a churn…or that may still be recovering from his earlier upheaval.

He looked out of the window and saw the sun beginning to set.

"Crap! I'm really sorry, but I have to go. If I don't get back to my place before dark I'll be in trouble."

And with that he ran off to get back to his subway platform, all the while Ann just waved bye to him.

LeBlanc Café

Akira arrived just in time.

The sun was beginning to set and while there was still light out, it was clear that people were preparing for the night to come.

As he entered, he saw another striking figure sitting at one of the booths.

A beautiful young woman in a punk looking outfit with stocking and heels that made her legs seem to go on forever…

'Is Tokyo just filled with women who look like supermodels or am I just cursed to meet them but not touch 'em?'

"I'm sorry if I'm late Sakura-sama."

"Boss."

"Ummm…excuse me?"

"Call me Boss. Calling me -sama makes me feel old. Besides everyone calls me Boss, ain't that right Dr. Takemi?"

The woman from the booth looked up from her plate and coffee and said "Listen to him kid. He'll just get meaner if you don't listen to him. And who is this Boss? An apprentice?"

"No. But I'm kind of letting him stay in the room upstairs due to some circumstances."

The woman gave him a once over before noting something. She got up from her booth and walked over to Akira and lifted his chin so he could meet her eyes. She then grabbed his wrist and looked at her wristwatch as though checking something.

"Boss do you mind if I take him to my clinic for a bit?"

Akira flinched at this, and Sojiro asked "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know, but there's something I'd like to check with him."

"Hmmm, fine. Just try not to keep him too long."

"Don't worry. This shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Alright then. Kid, you wanna leave your stuff upstairs first?"

"That won't be necessary Boss."

And with that she took/dragged Akira with her out the door, leaving a few yen notes on the countertop, paying for her food and coffee apparently.

Takemi clinic, exam room

She may have been among the hottest women he had ever met, but now she put him on edge with the way she was ruffling through his backpack.

"Hmmm, no drugs, no self-harm implements that I can tell…"

She finally set the bag down and looked at him before making a few notes on her notepad.

"Did you vomit today?"

Given the way she was talking to him, he felt it best not to lie.

"Y-y-yes."

"Any new stressors lately?"

NEW stressors? New city, new life, rumors abound about him, unfair treatment, and now being interrogated by this doctor(?)

"Yes. Quite a few actually."

Again with a few notes.

"Ever commit acts of self-harm?"

"No."

…

She didn't write anything this time…but she looked at him dead in the eyes.

"Ever THINK about it?"

"N-n-"

"Lie to me, and I can make the rest of this exam EXTREMELY uncomfortable for you."

"I d-d-don't know what y-y-you're…"

"The indents on your left wrist."

Akira turned his wrists over and looked down and saw the ever so small indent of a line on his wrist.

"You haven't ever made any cuts, but you've come close. Probably had the blade just flat on your wrist for minutes at a time before. There's no scarring, but based on its fading, you've probably done it quite a few times within the last few days. One last time. Have you ever considered self-harm?"

Akira looked down, doing his best to hold in the oncoming tears.

No! No one was supposed to be able to even come close to making that deduction. And this doctor did within minutes of meeting him.

"Y-y-y-yes."

She made a few notes again.

"This may be a strange question, but when you vomited, do you know if it was just your lunch, or was it also anything you may have had before that?"

It was weird, but he did remember the distinct background taste of curry, disgusting though it was.

"It was lunch and breakfast."

More notes.

"Based on your complexion, I guess you've been stressed for a while now. Probably had a few days were you barely ate?"

A nod for confirmation.

After a few notes, she stood up and rummaged through one of her cabinets before pulling out two small bottles. She marked them and handed them over to Akira.

"One of those is for stress. It's a 'take as needed' pill and could take a few minutes to take effect so I recommend maybe taking it before arriving to school. Make sure you take it with water. If you need to, you can take another one after 3 hours, but no more than 3 doses within 24 hours. The other is an anti-depressant. Make sure you take it first thing in the morning with food. Boss' curry will be fine if he offers it. Otherwise, make sure you at least have a sandwich and some water with it. And I want to see you again in 30 days. Understand?"

"Umm, but why Takemi-san?"

"You're my patient and that medicine is made in house. I HAVE to check up on you. If there's anything that makes you think you're suffering from detrimental side effects, let me know asap. Understood?"

Akira nodded his head, looking down at the bottles as though in shame.

Looking at the way he was looking at the bottles, Takemi sighed and set down her note pad before lifting his head.

"I know it's embarrassing to be told this and may even be upsetting to do this. But this WILL help. Promise me you're going to take the medicine…"

Akira gulped and looked at the bottles. He squeezed them as though wanting them to disappear. However, at that moment, he remembered the image of Ann's face and the grip of her hands, and her begging him.

"Ok. I promise to take them."

"Good. Now go on. I'm sure Boss wants to shut down for the night by now."

Leblanc Café

"Ah, you're back. Everything ok?"

"Um, yeah. Dr. Takemi just noted that I looked a bit pale and thought I might be sick. Just gave me something to sleep better tonight."

Boss looked at him suspiciously, before letting it go.

"Well since she gave you that, I'm leaving a container of curry for you in the morning to take to school with you. I want that container back though."

"Yes Boss. Anything else?"

"No…Look kid, I know this has been difficult for you but as long as you keep your head down everything will be fine. I promise you that."

With that, Akira made his way upstairs, and prepared to settle in for the night. Before tucking in though, he looked at his phone and saw that the creep app had opened up.

Candidate found. Awaiting Keywords.

He just closed the app, no idea as to what it wanted. He just wanted to forget today EVER happened, as weird as it had been earlier.

He was about to turn in when a call started to come in.

It was an unknown number, but he answered it all the same.

"Hello?"

"Yes hello, is this Akira Kurusu?" a male voice, older from the sounds of it.

"Yes this is. May I ask who's calling?"

"Ah yes, apologies. I'm Zenkichi Hasegawa. I'm a friend of your fathers from his days as a chief investigator. I'm helping him in finding some info and he gave me your number. I'm sorry this is so late, but can you give me a description of the man again? The one you claim fell on his own?"

"Umm sure. He was bald, a small goatee just on his chin and I think he usually wears some kind of designer glasses."

"Hmmm…anything else? How about what he was wearing?"

"Umm. It was a bit dark, but I think it was just some kind of black and white suit. Something very government looking."

"…"

"Hasegawa-san?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Kurusu-san. Umm…Thank you for the information. I'm going to look over some profiles and get back to your father. Please, have a good night."

"And you as well Hasegawa-san."

Once he hung up, Akira made with his nightly routine of offering a silent prayer to his mother before once more falling asleep, afraid of what tomorrow would bring.

He had no way of knowing just how bad things were about to get.

SIU Investgation Building

"Look I need an investigation ran on Masoyoshi Shido!"

"*sigh* Look, Zenkichi this is the second time you've tried to run an investigation into someone this high up and I don't think you learned a thing. We can't just run an investigation into someone running for Prime Minister without some more reliable proof than just some punk's word."

"That 'punk' is my friend's son and if he has even a fraction of his morals and ethics, we can trust him. Everything around his hearing is suspicious and I think Shido is the missing piece!"

"Zenkichi, I'll make this as clear as possible. Drop this case and get your friend to drop it as well. Otherwise, his son won't be the only one in trouble. I hear your daughter is doing quite well all things considered."

At that, Zenkichi's grip on his phone threatened to snap it in half.

"Yes. She's doing fine given that her mother is gone."

"Good. Now then, drop the case, and move on to helping Niijima-san with those mental shutdowns."

"I understand sir."

"Excellent, goodnight"

Sigh.

Zenkichi looked down at his phone in anger, knowing what he was going to have to do next. Clicking into his contacts, he reached his old friend's contact.

Ren Kurusu. He sincerely hoped his friend would forgive him.

"…Hello? Zenkichi-kun?"

"Hey Kurusu-kun. How's country life treating you?"

"Hey, just cause it's not the big city, doesn't mean it's the country. But enough banter. Anything?"

"…"

"Zenkichi? You there."

"I'm dropping the case Kurusu."

"WHAT! WHY!?"

He gulped and uttered out his prepared lie "I can't find anything here. Your son gave me his description, but I can't find anything. I can email you my research and you can do more digging, but from here on out, you might not have official resources to look into this anymore."

"Zenkichi, you know my son. You know he wouldn't lie! You had to have found something."

"Good night Kurusu-san. I hope you find more than I could."

And with that he hung up, knowing he most likely just burned another metaphorical bridge.

'I wonder if this is what it feels like. Being alone.'

Kurusu Residence. Late night. Inaba

Ren Kurusu was perusing through EVERYTHING Zenkichi sent him.

And he found it. There was no way Zenkichi actually missed this. Someone was trying to steer him off the trail. But then again it wouldn't be too surprising given who it was.

Masoyoshi Shido, candidate for Prime Minister.

If this was the case, then almost every member of the SIU would be told to hush up about this.

But there may be ONE person he could reach out to. The one investigator who was usually give a lot more leeway given his prodigious talents and skills.

Dialing the number he knew it may be late in Tokyo, but he hoped the person would answer.

"Good Evening, this is Goro Akechi speaking."

"Good evening Akechi-san. This is Ren Kurusu of Inaba"

"Ah, I've heard of you. You're Zenkichi's friend right, from his early days with the investigations unit."

"Yes, that's me. Listen, my son was recently put on trial and put on probation for an assault that he did NOT commit. I'm fairly certain it's an actual cover up from someone else and given who I think it is, I need your particular assistance."

"Oh, may I ask who it is you think is responsible for this?"

"I'd rather not say over the phone. If you could come down to Inaba, I can show you a bunch of the info I have to support it."

"Very well, I'll be over tomorrow. The SIU doesn't seem to have much need for me at the moment anyways."

"Thank you Akechi-san, I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it Kurusu-san. Anything to help someone find justice."

Akechi's apartment

After hanging up with Kurusu, Akechi let out a growl of frustration.

"God Dammit. I have a feeling I know just who it is too."

He dialed a number from his phone, knowing it was most likely this person.

"Yes, what do you want?"

"Inaba, an assault charge?"

"…Someone's asking around?"

"I think someone's found you out on this incident?"

"Is it anyone important?"

"No. Just some cop out in the sticks."

"Get rid of him. Use your discretion on how to get it done."

"Very well then. And the kid you framed?"

"Find him. If he seems like the type to go looking for answers, put him down too. If not, best to leave it alone."

"Understood. The father will be taken care of tomorrow if he proves to be too knowledgeable."

?

"Good night then,"

After hanging up, he sat at his desk contemplating what to do now.

Perhaps some acceleration on that other project may be an order.

He dialed another number in his phone, and an older tired voice answered.

"Ughh, Good evening sir, how can I help you?"

"Tell MADDICE we're moving up the timetable. I want EMMA out to the public as soon as possible."

"Are you sure sir?"

"Yes I'm positive."

"Very well sir. It shall be done."

"Good."

Hanging up the phone, he turned to look out of the window from his office, overlooking the cityscape and the nightlife crawling beneath him.

"I will steer this country back to greatness. And if that means cleaning out some trash, so be it."

He would never know the influence being exerted over him by the force of not just one, but TWO gods.

Author's notes: I hope I did chapter 2 some justice. It's a bit longer but I felt it was lacking in some places. Anyways, I hope everyone who reads it, enjoys it.

Also, if you have a timeline, or know of a timeline that highlights all the major events of 5 and scramble, I'd appreciate it (by major events, I also mean some of the influencing events that effect scramble like when the statue falls on the girl and when Alice's rise begins).

Keep telling me what pairings you'd LIKE to see (I'm working on it already, I'm just curious. The major ones seem to be Makoto and Sumire. The other girls don't seem to get a lot love, though I understand why with Futaba).

I urged me a badly oath