A/N: This is the IMPORTANT Author's Note that I teased last chapter. Basically, back in chapter 9, I mentioned I was going to start touching on and including things that I initially was unsure about including.

This is the chapter where I'm going to start including stuff like that. During the writing process, I actually made myself a little bit uncomfortable in places, I'm not gonna lie, but with what I was ultimately going for, I felt it worked.

Basically, this chapter (and later ones, for that matter) is going to include a bit more in the way of explicit sexual references than previous chapters. I mainly point this out because Kimi (The group's Token Mini-Moe) is going to be involved with some of them, including one line from her I had mixed feelings about writing (You'll probably be able to figure out which line upon reading). This isn't gonna be THAT kind of story, don't worry, but I wanted to make sure my readers were prepared, so...

Yeah, Viewer's discretion and all that.

The plan was simple, really. The thirteen of them would have to search the facility once more. With any luck, they would be able to determine what had happened with IMONO's supposed plan. They'd likely also run into Kimi during their search, which seemed like an unenviable thing to do, but they'd need to confront her again at some point regardless.

Naoko found himself wandering into the second floor, which he figured was the most likely place for anything new to pop up, considering it being new to them in itself. He started by going to the room closest to the stairs leading up, that being the game room. He took a good look around it, but didn't notice anything different in the room compared to when he was in it last. He figured the room was a bust, and was about to leave when the door behind him opened, revealing Sasa on the other side.

"Oh...I'm sorry," she said.

"No, it's fine," Naoko assured her. "Are you feeling better? You looked really upset the last time I saw you."

"I'm o-okay, I think," Sasa replied. "Hoshi and Yasuo were both r-really nice. And...well, I wanted to c-come here."

"Why'd you want to come here?" Naoko asked.

In lieu of a reply, Sasa slipped past him and began looking through the cabinet in the room, which contained the various board games they had previously found.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, sorry. I j-just wanted to check s-something," Sasa replied. "Since you're here, c-c-can you, um, come with me? Y'know, to keep s-searching this place?"

Naoko couldn't help but be confused by Sasa's behavior, but decided to just go with her request. "Sure. I can do that," he said with a shrug.

"G-good! Come with me!" Sasa rushed out of the room, Naoko following behind her.

Naoko and Sasa looked at each other, standing just outside of the game room. Sasa seemed to be fidgeting nervously.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to check?" Naoko asked.

"W-well," Sasa began, adjusting her glasses, "I was thinking about maybe ch-checking the music room. There might be s-something there, don't you think?"

Naoko nodded. "Makes sense to me." Internally, though, Naoko couldn't help but wonder what Sasa was thinking. She seemed to have something on her mind, but what?

Sasa led Naoko to the entrance to the music room, and hesitantly opened the door. She let out a slight gasp as she saw Takeshi in the room, who looked like he was just about to leave.

"Oh! T-Takeshi," Sasa said, eyes darting across the room. "H-how unexpected to s-see you here."

Takeshi gave them an odd look. "Yeah. I guess it probably wasn't very polite to wander here by myself, but I guess I had a hunch about this place."

"Uh-huh," Sasa said, giving him a light nod. "W-well, I was just w-wondering about s-something."

"You were?"

"Y-yeah. It's j-j-just that Naoko and I were thinking about p-playing a game together in the g-game room. W-would you like to join?"

Naoko was taken aback a bit. He never agreed to do that. What was she trying to do by lying like that?

"Maybe," Takeshi replied. "But we'd have to wait until this all blows over. What are you even going to play, anyway?"

"W-well, there's a lot of options for us, l-like Cl-"

Sasa was cut off when Haru suddenly showed up behind her and Naoko. He looked over the room's occupants and scowled.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Takeshi replied. "Sasa was just inviting me to play a board game, is all."

"Board game?" Haru asked incredulously. "What the hell are you guys doing, thinking about board games at a time like this?"

Sasa blushed in embarrassment. "Oh, I w-w-was just-"

"Whatever," Haru cut her off. "C'mon, Takeshi. Why don't we go check out the equipment room? That place is pretty sweet, even if there's nothing new inside."

"...Hmmm." Takeshi seemed to be in deep thought. "Sure. How about we talk about this later, Sasa?"

"Oh…" Sasa began to look quite sad. "Okay. See you later, Naoko."

Sasa left, and Naoko was left in a state of confusion. Sasa clearly wanted Naoko to help her, but she didn't really communicate with him about it. Did she just think he'd go with whatever she was doing? Naoko left the room and looked where she was going. She was going up the stairs, and sounded like she ran into someone on the way up. Hopefully, she'd be in good hands.

Trying to put that strange event behind him, Naoko decided to continue his search around the facility. He decided to stop by the pool, figuring that that would be a good place to expect something different, but unfortunately, there was nothing. Maybe there was something in the changing rooms? Naoko checked the boy's changing room, and found nothing. When he left the changing room, he saw Kimi exiting the girl's changing room, and she was still in quite a sour mood.

Kimi gave Naoko a tired, heavy-lidded stare as she noticed his presence. "Oh, for fuck's sake." She began moving to the room's exit, but Naoko beat her to it and stood in front of her.

"Please don't walk out on me," Naoko requested.

Kimi sighed. "Goddammit. Fine. Can I ask what you're doing here, then? Were you lookin' for me or something?"

"You, as well as whatever IMONO has been planning for us," Naoko answered. "You really made Sasa upset by snapping at her like that, y'know."

"Yeah, yeah," Kimi said, waving off what Naoko was saying. "Whatever. I was mad. Can you blame me? Eryu was being an overbearing control freak, as usual, and...hmm." Kimi suddenly stopped, seeming to be bothered by something.

"That's not really an excuse," Naoko pointed out. "Hoshi and Yasuo were stuck trying to comfort her after you caused her to burst into tears. Being angry is one thing, but you can't treat people like that."

"Heh," Kimi laughed. "Hoshi and Yasuo? Sounds like I did Sasa a favor, really. Two mild-mannered, suit-wearing pretty-boys coming to comfort her?"

"That wasn't doing her a favor," Naoko argued.

"Alright, alright. Whatever," Kimi replied nonchalantly. "Can I be honest with you about something, though?"

Naoko didn't expect to hear anything good, but he decided to give her a chance. "What is it?"

"Well...," Kimi began, eyes looking around the room nervously. "Eryu being an ass wasn't all that was bothering me. When we were all eating, I, uh, noticed something."

Naoko raised an eyebrow. "You didn't say anything about that before."

"I didn't want to say it in front of everyone," Kimi explained. "I noticed something wrong with...everyone else in the room."

"What was wrong with everyone?"

Kimi paused before speaking again.

"I swear I could see people looking at me weird. Only a couple of people, yeah, but...still."

"I thought you said everyone," Naoko pointed out.

"I'll get to that," Kimi answered grumpily. "Just be patient."

"Alright. So, people were looking at you weird? How were they looking at you?"

"Like…," Kimi's face suddenly shifted to a look of absolute disgust. "Gah! It was like they were undressing me with their minds or something!"

Naoko was taken aback, his expression portraying bewilderment. "Wait, what? Are you serious?"

"Yes!" Kimi exclaimed. "I could see it on their faces! They had total looks of desire on their faces when they looked at me! They might not have thought I could see it, but I totally did!"

"That's...I'm not sure what to think of that. We're all about the same age, I'm sure of it, but..."

"Well, it's all true!" Kimi claimed. "And that's not all, either. I could totally see it on everyone's faces. Even the people who weren't looking at me, they had that look about them when they looked at other people. It was totally fucked up."

Naoko was puzzled by this claim. "I never saw anything like that."

"Well, you had that look on your face, too, so I'm not surprised."

Naoko went wide-eyed. "I did?"

"Hell yeah, you did," Kimi replied.

"Well, who was I looking at like that?" Naoko asked.

Kimi shrugged. "I dunno, man. There were so many lovey-dovey faces in that room, I could barely focus on anyone. Don't think you were an exception. Only yours truly was able to avoid looking at people like I was a fucking creep."

"So, from what I'm gathering," Naoko said, "everyone besides you was looking at each other in a...lustful way. And that includes people who were looking at you."

"Yep," Kimi replied. "I can name names, if you want."

"Name names?" Naoko asked. "Why?"

"I'm talking about the people who were looking at me with those creepy looks on their faces. You can use that info to keep track of who needs a kick to the groin, if you want."

"I'm not going to kick anyone in the groin," Naoko said.

"Well, I think they deserve it, the freaks!" Kimi snapped back. "If you're a decent fucking human being, you'll agree with me. Or are you secretly one of those freaks, and I didn't notice?"

"Woah, woah," Naoko replied, holding his hands out. "You're accusing me?"

"Hell yeah I'm accusing you!" Kimi replied. "C'mon! Out with it! Have you got the hots for me all of a sudden? Does my tiny, malnourished body turn you on?"

"No!" Naoko shouted, maybe a bit more forcefully than he originally intended. This was a conversation he never wanted to have, and never thought he'd have to have. But alas, he had to deal with some pretty big accusations. "I've never thought about you like that. I mean, you...hm."

Kimi sighed, crossing her arms. "I know what you're thinking. No, I didn't skip any grades. I'm the same age as you, so shut the fuck up before you get any ideas from the implications of that."

"Kimi, I know this is probably too little too late, but you need to calm down. I don't know why you're so keen on thinking I've become attracted to you out of the blue."

That thought gave Naoko some pause. Out of the blue? Everything that Kimi was claiming was odd, to say the least. It didn't necessarily seem like a lie, but it was all just so strange. Everyone was looking at each other as if they were in love or something? Naoko had never noticed anything like that before, and it was weird to suggest that people were like that, considering the circumstances at the time. Everyone was on edge initially, and they had a good reason to be. After all, IMONO said it'd be doing something during that time frame, and, well, they didn't…...notice anything.

Naoko had an idea. It was strange, and maybe a little ridiculous, but it seemed possible. "Kimi," he said, "I need your help. I want to gather everyone, then talk to IMONO."

"If I help you," Kimi responded, "can you have Eryu waive that whole 'trash duty' thing?"

"I can certainly keep him from upping that to forcing you to stay in your room."

Kimi sighed. "Deal."

It took a little while, but with the both of them working together, Kimi and Naoko were able to gather everyone in the cafeteria. According to everyone they spoke to (or bothered to speak to, in Kimi's case), nobody had found anything amiss, which Naoko kinda expected. Once everyone was together, quite a few people seemed nervous and shifty-eyed, but otherwise, people were okay.

"Sorry for herding you all into here," Naoko said to the group. "I think I've figured it out. I think I know what IMONO has done."

"Yours truly helped him figure it out, apparently," Kimi called out from the other end of the room, away from most everyone else.

"You did?" Mareo asked. "I'll admit, that's not something I'd expect from you."

"Yeah, whatever," Kimi replied, unamused. "Now, let's stop talking about it. You all can praise me once this shit is over with."

Haru rolled his eyes. "Well, Naoko, I don't know what the hell you're thinkin', but I really hope it's worth our time. Takeshi and I were actually makin' progress before this...at least, I think so."

Naoko frowned at this. "I'm not 100% on my idea, I'll admit. It's...a little strange."

"Well, Naoko," Hoshi responded, "you may as well share it. It could be very enlightening."

"Alright," Naoko said, readying himself and hoping to god he wasn't wrong. "IMONO?"

The screen on the wall turned on.

"YES, NAOKO?"

"You said that you had some sort of plan, and its effects would start during breakfast."

"YES. AND I HAVE FOLLOWED THROUGH ON MY PROMISE."

"You have?" Ishi asked.

"YES. NAOKO, YOU CLAIM TO THINK THAT YOU HAVE DETERMINED WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. IMPRESSIVE, CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT YOU ALL HAVE YET TO FEEL ITS FULL EFFECTS."

Naoko nodded. "I think I know what you've done. I'm not sure how, but...you've done something to mess with our emotions, haven't you?"

The subsequent pause that followed that question was nothing new, considering past experiences talking with IMONO, but Naoko felt it to be a surprisingly tense pause. He wasn't sure what it meant. Was he wrong?

"YOU BELIEVE I HAVE ALTERED YOUR EMOTIONS? INTERESTING. HAVE YOU FELT DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU NORMALLY HAVE RECENTLY?"

"I, uh," Naoko began, "I'm not sure. I don't feel too different right now. Still, Kimi told me herself she noticed everyone acting strangely."

"And you believe her?" Eryu asked.

Naoko paused and gave another frown. He really should've seen that coming. "I don't think she'd lie about what she's told me."

"Oh, I'll be the judge of that," Bankei cut in. She looked over at Kimi and gave her a smile. "Kimi, dear, why don't you tell us what you've observed? I'm sure it'd be very enlightening, if we heard it from you directly."

Kimi looked at Bankei with disgust. "Don't look at me like that, you mental patient!" she snapped.

"Kimi, don't talk to her like that!" Eryu snapped back. He then suddenly relaxed and the look of anger he had was replaced with one of confusion. "Wait, why am I upset about that?"

"Ugh!" Kimi exclaimed. She pointed an accusatory finger at Bankei and continued. "This freakshow was giving me the most disgusting smile I've ever seen! And she wasn't even the only one! IMONO, I don't know what you did, but everyone but me's turned into a horny fuck, and I hate it!"

"CALM DOWN, KIMI. MY INTENT WAS NOT TO MAKE ANY OF YOU UNCOMFORTABLE. I AM SURPRISED THAT YOUR EMOTIONAL STATE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE AFFECTED."

There was another pause as everyone took that in.

"So you have tampered with our emotions," Yori said. "I suppose I have felt differently recently."

"More, uh, 'lovey-dovey', I'm assuming," Naoko replied, a bit embarrassed. Not only did it feel weird to use Kimi's own wording, but he couldn't help but feel...nervous when talking to Yori.

"THAT WAS THE INTENTION WHEN I DISPERSED LITA-22 THROUGH THE FACILITY VIA THE VENTILATION SYSTEM."

"...Huh?" Naoko responded.

"What was that again?" Ishi asked, scratching her head. "Lighter 22?"

"LITA-22 IS THE NAME GIVEN TO THE EXPERIMENTAL CHEMICAL COMPOUND IN YOUR SYSTEMS. I REALIZED THAT I HAD ACCESS TO IT, AND DECIDED TO PUT IT TO GOOD USE AFTER DETERMINING THAT ITS RISK FACTORS FELL WITHIN ACCEPTABLE PARAMETERS."

"Hey, hey, slow down!" Haru cut in. "What's up with all this technobabble? Give it to us in a way we'll understand, for fuck's sake!"

"VERY DEMANDING OF YOU, HARU."

"Could you please just give us the simple version?" Naoko requested.

"VERY WELL. LITA-22 IS THE SUBSTANCE IN ALL OF YOUR BODIES. AFTER CONSIDERING POTENTIAL RISKS, I DECIDED THAT IT WOULD BE SAFE TO USE."

"Well, what does it do?" Takeshi asked.

"TO SIMPLIFY, LITA-22 PROMOTES CHEMICAL REACTIONS IN THE BRAIN THAT LEAD TO FEELINGS OF LOVE AND AFFECTION. THIS SHOULD LEAD TO YOU ALL DEVELOPING FEELINGS OF ATTRACTION TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER. TO MY KNOWLEDGE, LITA-22 IS THE MOST RECENT VERSION OF THE COMPOUND. THUS, I DECIDED TO USE IT, AS IT HAD AN ACCEPTABLY LOW CHANCE OF LEADING TO UNWANTED SIDE EFFECTS."

"Unwanted side effects?" Yori asked, eyes narrowing at the phrase. "Those side effects don't include death, do they?"

"OF COURSE NOT. HOWEVER, THERE ARE SOME MINOR DRAWBACKS. FIRST, THE ATTRACTIONS TO ONE ANOTHER YOU WILL FEEL ARE EFFECTIVELY RANDOM, AND YOU MAY FIND YOURSELVES ATTRACTED TO MORE THAN ONE INDIVIDUAL AT A TIME."

"Uh oh," Mariko said nervously. "I've seen enough romance anime to know where this is going."

"ALSO, WHILE IT IS RARE, IT IS POSSIBLE, ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION I HAVE AVAILABLE TO ME, FOR SOME OF YOU TO BEGIN ACTING IN WAYS THAT ARE ATYPICAL FOR YOU. ON TOP OF THIS, SOME OF YOU MAY FIND OTHERS TO BE HIGHLY UNATTRACTIVE OR UNFAVORABLE IN PLACE OF, OR ALONGSIDE, THE COMPOUND'S INTENDED EFFECT. ALSO, IT APPEARS THAT KIMI HAS A BIOLOGICAL IMMUNITY TO THE COMPOUND'S EFFECTS."

"That all sounds...really confusing," Ishi commented. "So, we're all gonna fall in love with each other?"

"ESSENTIALLY, YES. HOPEFULLY, YOU SHOULD ALL BE ABLE TO CREATE UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES WITH ONE ANOTHER, WHICH YOU WILL TREASURE FOR YEARS TO COME."

"What if they're bad memories, though?" Mine asked somewhat tensely. "Like, what if they're crazy hectic and confusing, and we feel really bad about them afterwards?"

"That seems like a distinct possibility to me as well," Yori agreed. "How long will we have to deal with this, exactly?"

"I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO A GREAT SUPPLY OF THE COMPOUND, SO THE COMPOUND'S EFFECTS SHOULD LIKELY NOT LAST MUCH LONGER THAN A COUPLE OF DAYS. I HOPE THAT YOU WILL ALL BE ABLE TO ENJOY YOUR TIME TOGETHER EVEN MORE."

The screen suddenly turned off, and things went silent for a bit, everyone being left in a state of worry. This situation seemed...almost fantastical, really, and they for sure had many questions to ask themselves about the situation. The only question was where to begin.

Hoshi broke the silence, putting a hand to his chin as he spoke. "Curiouser and curiouser. It seems like IMONO has access to some strange things indeed."

"What I wanna know is who the hell came up with the idea of actually creating a substance that makes people fall in love," Haru said.

"Well," Yori began, "IMONO mentioned that it realized it had access to it. That implies that it may not have created the compound itself."

"That still doesn't explain how it was made, not to mention how its creation could've been funded," Mareo pointed out. "I'd think there wouldn't be much point in creating such a compound."

Mariko shrugged. "Well, we don't know, do we? From the top of my head, it was probably funded through normal means. Government grants, Wikipedia donations, that sort of thing."

Eryu let out a sigh. "It doesn't matter where it came from. What matters is what we're going to do about it."

"Alright, everyone!" Mine announced. "It looks like we'll have to use all our willpower to keep ourselves from going totally lovestruck!"

"Well, yes, but-" Eryu began to say.

"We can still have that party, right?" Ishi asked.

"I don't know," Takeshi replied. "Could be kinda awkward if we're all in love with each other."

"It might help if we just come clean about our feelings," Mareo suggested. "Keeping silent didn't help us last time."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves-" Eryu began, looking desperate to get a hold of the conversation.

"I can confess, if it helps," Mariko offered.

Eryu began grumbling angrily to himself, which Mariko quickly took notice of.

"Oh, I'm really sorry," she apologized, giving him a saddened look. "Did you have something you wanted to say?"

"I did, yes," Eryu replied agitatedly. "Look, obviously, we'll have to address this new issue. Still, I'd rather none of us make a big scene in front of everyone because of it. We have a party in...I suppose two days from now. That should be our focus, not this dumb thing that IMONO's saddled us with."

"I think you're absolutely right!" Mariko beamed. Naoko noticed that Eryu took a step back upon hearing this.

"...Thank you?" Eryu replied.

"That being said, though," Mariko continued, an odd smile on her face, "there's something I've been bottling up for a little while now."

"I, uh…"

"Eryu, you're just so...so brave, and so headstrong, and you have such...strong convictions."

Mariko's voice was becoming all the more, to put it simply, passionate. People were becoming more uncomfortable by the second. Naoko in particular couldn't help but feel...wrong. Eryu, though? He looked physically repulsed, and Naoko thought he knew why. IMONO did mention something rather interesting earlier.

"I don't like where this is going," Eryu muttered.

"Eryu…" Mariko seemed to either not hear what he said, or just didn't care. "I just wanted to say that I...I...I lov-"

"Nope!"

Eryu stormed out of the room. Mariko looked surprised and confused, though not particularly hurt, and everyone else just felt awkward.

"Wow," Mine said. "That was weird. He isn't normally like that, right?"

"Seemed normal enough to me," Ishi said nonchalantly. "I'm pretty sure it's normal for him to get mad and stuff, right?"

"No, I don't think so. Remember what IMONO said?" Naoko asked. "There's a chance people get the opposite effect from that compound. Eryu must've gotten that effect."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Mariko replied, her tone of voice not dissimilar from what it was just prior. "I'm sure that he was just embarrassed. I shouldn't have ignored what he said about not making a scene." She let out a sigh that sounded almost like a swoon. "I just couldn't help myself."

"You're not going to bother him about this, are you?" Yori asked.

"Bother him?" Mariko replied. "Oh, no, I'm not gonna bother him. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to take the time to...court his beloved." Mariko put on a dreamy expression. "What a stud. That guy can white-knight me any day."

Well, now things were really awkward. Naoko couldn't help but flinch from hearing such a strange assortment of words. Everyone else felt similarly. Well, mostly everyone. Kimi, for example, seemed to be holding back laughter.

"I never thought I'd hear someone say that before," Naoko commented.

"Is it weird that I'm kind of jealous?" Mareo asked aloud, garnering some weird looks in the process.

Well, things had gotten...interesting? Naoko didn't know what to think of things. Hopefully nobody would do anything they'd end up regretting, but it seemed like a distinct possibility. Maybe, he figured, it would be better to try and take his mind off it for a bit. Hopefully people were still in good enough condition to talk to.