No excuses. I's a terrible author. I stopped posting for too long. I sowy. Enjoy more chapters.

"Argh!" Kokona groaned. She paced the room, additionally kicking over any objects that happen to be in her way.

Ayato sighed. "Yes, keep stomping. That will definitely help."

Konoha whipped around and menacingly pointed a finger his way. "You. Shut up."

She continued to stomp around for a moment longer before finally calming down. Kokona slid to the floor, crossing her legs.

"Its fine," she muttered. "Everything's just fine."

Ayato raised an eyebrow. "Everything's fine?"

"NO!" Kokona snapped. She stood back up and punched the window curtains. It made a cute woosh sound.

"My plan is falling apart. I was going to snoop around Osana's place after she left for the party. You know, for clues and stuff," Kokona said. "So we could prove her guilty. That's the whole reason we were going to go! I was going to have you be the lookout. It was a full proof plan!"

Ayato found many faults in this plan. "So?"

"So?! Osana's still at her house," Kokona hissed, throwing another punch. "She's been crying on the front porch for half an hour. Probably feeling the guilt of MURDER!"

"Probably," Ayato responded. "Does this mean we don't have to attend the party?"

Ayato had assumed that something was up when he'd suddenly received a text instructing him to meet at Kokona's place. Though, he didn't think that she was willing to go as far as breaking into someone's house.

"Don't you have anything helpful to contribute?" Kokona sighed.

Ayato turned to her. "I'm here, aren't I?"

The comment seemed to enrage her. "That's not enough! You're just…" Kokona fumbled for words. "...reacting! You're just listening to what I'm saying and reacting! This is important Ayato! Don't you care about justice for Saki? For Koharu Hinata?"

"Kokona," Ayato began, "you're being very hysterical right now."

She was slowly starting to become less of an annoyance, and more of an inconvenience. If he'd known that Kokona was as close as she was to Saki, then he would've had Saki get rid of her too. Unfortunately, Saki was dead, so it was too late for that, and as much as Ayato wanted to toss Kokona into his basement and lock her up for good, he couldn't have too many student deaths all happening back to back.

He took a deep breath. "In dire situations like these, it's important that someone is there to keep things calm and under control."

"..." Kokona sniffed.

"If both of us are frantic and panicky, then no real progress will ever be made," Ayato continued. "So, seeing as you are obviously in a constant state of high emotion, it is up to me to remain seemingly apathetic. I have no choice here."

Kokona remained silent. She stared Ayato, trying desperately to search for any sign of emotion. After a long and hard search she finally turned away.

"So what?" She said. "You're just pretending to not care?"

Ayato nodded. "For your sake."

"That sounds stupid."

"It's the truth. On the inside I'm completely flooded with feels," Ayato said.

Kokona frowned. "Flooded with feels?"

"Yep. Very emotional. It's difficult to talk about without tearing up," Ayato said with a deadpan expression.

"..."

"I'm very good at keeping it all in."

"..."

"Blessing and a curse."

"..."

"I'm serious Kokona."

"..." Kokona glared at him for a second more, then headed for her room. She stormed inside and slammed the door behind her.

Ayato thought about going after her, but he really didn't care about her problems. Instead, he leaned back on the couch and scrolled through his phone. He'd gotten a new message.

InfoCreep: Are you going to the event tonight?

Ayato stifled a sigh. The information broker was texting him? Out of the blue?

A.A.: Why do you care?

InfoCreep: I suggest that you go. I've heard some things. You're going to want to see it for yourself.

A.A.: That sounds very suspicious.

InfoCreep: I'm sure it does.

InfoCreep: And change my contact name. It's distasteful.

A.A.: You're distasteful.

InfoCreep: Touché.

Ayato turned to face the hall behind him. Kokona still hadn't left her room.

A.A.: I'm at Kokona's house. She's having a hissy fit.

InfoCreep: Sounds fun. I'll be looking forward to your reaction tonight at the party.

That definitely sounded concerning. Ayato couldn't help but wonder what she meant by it.

"Kokona?" He called out.

There was no response. Ayato groaned. Maybe he could just leave without her. Then again, he'd no doubt be forced to listen to her whines and cries about it for days after. Her companionship was tiring, but it also had its perks.

Kokona was a very effective social shield. Whenever he didn't feel like talking with the other students, he'd just place her in front of him and she'd activate. An automatic chatterbox.

He'd also gotten many hall passes from her and her club. They were very useful for following his lover around the school without consequences.

And possibly the greatest perk of all: Whenever Junzo would come by to talk to him, all he had to do was turn to Kokona and act completely engaged in the conversation, and Junzo, not wanting to interrupt, would be gone in seconds. It was amazing.

"Kokona?" He called out once more. "Let's go to the party."

All he got was silence in return.

"Kokona? If you keep ignoring me, you're going to make me cry." Ayato said.

It was a lie, but it was worth a shot. He'd spent enough time with her to know that she was a sucker for sentimentalism.

The door creaked open. She'd opened it enough for him to see a single eye peeping through the crack.

"...you wouldn't," she muttered.

"Wouldn't what?"

"Cry," she said. "You wouldn't cry. You don't care."

"Kokona I-"

"You don't care! Saki died and you didn't care, so why would you care about me?! I'm doing all of this because I care! I care Ayato! I care so much it hurts! It hurts, and you don't care!"

"Kokona-" Ayato paused. Their eyes met. His mind flashed back to Saki, her agony filled expression. Kokona's eyes seemed to match that pain somehow. It didn't make much sense to him. Kokona wasn't tortured, so why did she look that way? Why would she say something like that? Something so stupid. So unthinkably stupid.

This was different. Her words had affected him, but not in the way he expected. There was a tingling in his chest. It spread throughout his body, causing his hands to shake, and starting a slight twitch in his eye. This was stupid. This was nonsense. This was… This was…

Hilarious.

The whole situation. Her anger, Saki's tears, Koharu Hinata's demise, Osana's suffering. It was all so redundant and ridiculous, and even then, Kokona was just standing there… Hurt. Sad. Offended? Had he offended her? If so, that was even more amusing.

A small laugh escaped his lips. He quickly covered his mouth, but that just resulted in a series of strange distorted sounds filling the room.

"A..Ayato?" Kokona leaned out of the doorway.

He didn't care. He hadn't cared when Saki begged for mercy. He hadn't cared when he watched her go to carry out her orders. He didn't think twice when he fed into the rumors on Osana. He hadn't cared at all, and he still didn't.

But Kokona did.

It was funny watching her care. It was even funnier knowing that it was all in vain. She'd never avenge anyone, she'd never find out the truth. And if she ever did, she'd be disposed of. Her efforts were meaningless, but she still continued to squirm.

He doubled over, choking on his own laughter. He had to bite his tongue to push it back down.

Was this normal? To find this much humor in this sort of thing? Maybe. Probably not. But since when was anything Ayato felt normal? He didn't mind this feeling. This drunken bliss that blurred his vision and brought pain to his chest.

He couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. Ayato slid off the couch, cackling to himself, tears rolling down his eyes.

"Ayato!" Kokona rushed out of her room and knelt down in front of him. "The heck is wrong with you?!"

"I-" Ayato coughed, struggling to catch his breath.

"Is this some sort of seizure?! Are you dying?! I didn't mean to kill you! I was just going to give you the cold shoulder for a bit! Please don't die!"

Ayato shook his head, breathing heavily. As the fit ended, the crazed feeling inside him quickly faded. His eyes were wet, but focused. He gazed at Kokona with a crooked grin. "I want you… to come with me tonight."

Kokona looked taken aback. "Ah! I-I mean.. are you sure you don't need rest? We don't have to-"

"No," Ayato said. He stood and stretched out. "I'm fine. Are you ready to go? We can get some intel on Osana from the other students, instead of illegally breaking into her house."

Kokona hesitated before nodding in agreement. She produced a small cloth from her pocket and rose up to wipe his face. "I'm sorry for snapping at you like that. I didn't mean any of it, I know you're not heartless. I didn't expect you to just break down all of a sudden."

All of a sudden? No. This wasn't some sudden, random thing. Ayato realized that he'd been holding that in for a while. It'd been slowly building up ever since he'd kidnapped that girl.

"Let's go," he said. That was something he'd have to manage. If not, it would only be a matter of time before he snapped. And if that were to happen…

Moving past that, he was still very curious as to what Info-chan knew about this party. It must've been pretty special for her to go out of her way to message him about it. Ayato was ready to find out.