A/N: This Author's Note is an IMPORTANT one, I believe.

So, yeah, thus far, progress on this story is at a good pace, and for the most part, I like how this one turned out. However, there's a part near the end I was actually pretty worried about, simply because I felt if I wasn't careful, I could offend people. You can probably figure out which part yourself, but yeah, I was worried, and considered delaying the posting of this chapter. Fortunately, I was able to talk to my friend Dan (I mentioned him in the A/N of the prologue), and after some light conversation, I'm actually feeling pretty good about it. So, here it is: Chapter 28, AKA the flashback chapter.

"I wouldn't say I came here to talk to you about what happened," Naoko insisted. "I guess if you're comfortable doing so, you can. Haru's been really difficult. He hasn't really explained what happened between you two very well."

"With someone as belligerent as him, I can't say I'm entirely surprised," Bankei said. "But, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly would I be uncomfortable speaking to you about it?"

"Because you were attacked," Naoko replied confusedly.

"Well, yes," Bankei responded nonchalantly. "It was terrible, definitely. But that doesn't mean I can't keep a stiff upper lip if it means I can sate your thirst for knowledge. Please, ask me anything you want."

Naoko was baffled by this. It hadn't even been an hour since she was attacked, and yet she was perfectly open to discussing it? He was sure that at the very least, someone in her position would need a few hours before being able to comfortably relay information about it. And yet here she was, perfectly content to describe the circumstances surrounding her being assaulted. Why?

"I don't think it'd be a particularly good idea for you to speak at length right now," Mareo weighed in. "Perhaps you can do so later, after some rest."

"Now, now, Mareo. No need to worry," Bankei assured him gently. "I can handle speaking. Besides, if Haru has yet to give an explanation as to what he did, I suppose the responsibility falls upon myself."

Mareo looked at her worriedly and motioned at her bed-bound form. "We still don't know to what extent you've been-"

Bankei silenced him with a weak hand motion with her free arm. "Please," she said assuredly. "I'd like to tell Naoko what he wants to know."

Mareo took a moment to think about it, bringing a hand to the bottom of his helmeted head. He gently began tapping the helmet with his hand for a few moments, which produced very quiet metal-on-metal tapping sounds which Bankei seemed to be strangely uncomfortable with, as she looked at where he was tapping quite annoyedly. Once Mareo picked up on this, he very quickly stopped, and stepped back a bit.

"Alright. Just take it easy," he acquiesced.

Bankei smiled. "Good. Thank you. Now, Naoko, our conversation..."

Naoko stepped forward a little bit more, until they were less than a foot apart. "Tell me about Haru visiting your room, please."

From there, Bankei complied, giving an overview of what had occurred just around a half hour ago.

Bankei got up slowly and confusedly as a firm knocking sound was coming from the door. There had been no announcement, she was sure of it, and though she didn't know the time yet, she had a feeling she couldn't have just slept in. This was confirmed as she got up and opened the door to greet whoever was on the other side. Said individual was tall and muscular, with bland clothing underneath a dark, leathery-looking apron. Their identity was unmistakable.

"Sorry for wakin' you up so soon," he said, not seeming like he really meant it. There was just too much venom in his voice. "We need to talk."

"We do?" Bankei asked curiously. "Eh-heh. Well, that's an interesting surprise. What about me has happened to catch your interest?"

Haru looked down at her disgustedly, as he took his opportunity to force himself into the room, closing the door behind him. "Cut the bullshit already. You know why I'm here."

"Oh. Oh dear, this is quite the development," she responded, still sounding calm as ever. "I have a distinct feeling now. You're going to...Hm. Are you going to, say, ravish me? Or perhaps threaten my life? Or both?"

"What the fuck are you even talkin' about?"

Bankei tilted her head oddly and began to fiddle with some loose hair strands with her fingers. "You don't understand? Well, I'm sorry. You see, the word ravish has a few different meanings, but in this case-"

"Here's another question: What makes you think I give a fuck?"

Bankei put an end to her previous body language and began to become a lot more rigid in her posture. Doing so didn't do much in regards to their height disparity, but it certainly did make it seem like she wasn't happy.

"You're being very unpleasant, you know. If you're not here for what I initially thought, then that's fine by me. Please, explain why you're actually here, before the morning has even technically begun."

*Dong, ding, dong!*

The sudden interruption caused the both of them to break eye contact briefly. It definitely came a lot quicker than either of them expected.

"GOOD MORNING. IT IS NOW 8AM. IF YOU ARE ALREADY AWAKE, THEN HELLO. LET US ALL WORK TOWARDS MUTUAL HARMONY TODAY."

"Well, great," Haru said. "It looks like pretty soon, everyone's gonna be headin' outta their rooms to go get breakfast."

"Meaning they'll be far away from us, unable to hear any commotion that occurs between us," Bankei responded. "Was that a part of your plan all along? Was my original hypothesis correct? Or, perhaps…"

Bankei glared upwards into Haru's eyes, a look of muted displeasure on her face.

"...Perhaps you're here to kill me. I must say, that would be quite devious. However, if your intent is to kill me without any chance of eavesdropping, I'm afraid doing so would remove your alibi. You'd die with me."

Haru gritted his teeth as he glared back. "I'm not gonna be killin' ya. Damn if I don't want to, but if there's one thing that I'm passionate about, it's that I refuse to stoop to your level."

Bankei suddenly tilted her head yet again. "Pardon?"

"Admit it: 'Sasa's' letter? A fake. I'm lookin' at the...thing that wrote it, and made Yasuo fuckin' kill 'er. You're a goddamn murderer, you scum-suckin' bitch."

Bankei's eyes widened, albeit slightly. "My, my, Haru. I hope you don't mind me saying, but this is all rather mean-spirited, even for you. Are you feeling alright?"

"I'd be feelin' better if you admitted it, freak," Haru shot back with abhorrence.

"Admitted what?" Bankei asked as if legitimately unknowing. "You really believe that Hoshi was correct in his assumption? As effective as they have been for us, assumptions are not by themselves particularly useful. Besides, what if I did? Does that really excuse your terrible behavior?"

"What, you think you deserve to be treated nice after the way you've been actin'?" Haru scoffed. "If I were nice to you, I'd be...I dunno, an enabler, or somethin' like that."

"An enabler?" Bankei asked. "That's an odd choice of words. In what way would showing some basic manners be enabling anything?"

"If you were stabbed in the chest by someone, you wouldn't be nice to 'em, would ya'?" Haru asked rhetorically.

"Eh-heh. Of course not, that'd be silly," Bankei said amusedly.

"Well, I'm goin' off the same principle," Haru explained. "Only instead of talkin' to my stabber, I'm lookin' into the eyes of a freak who caused Sasa to get fuckin' killed."

"You keep saying that, but that doesn't make it true in the slightest," Bankei insisted. "Besides, I can't help but find a hidden layer of hypocrisy in what you're insinuating."

"What the hell are you talkin' about now?"

"You say my actions led to another committing murder," Bankei explained. "However, I could say the same thing about you. Think back to a few days ago. Keiko's murder. What happened with her?"

"Michio killed 'er and tried to frame me for it when he was gonna get caught," Haru answered.

"True, true," Bankei nodded. "But why did he kill her in the first place?"

"'Cause she had a secret of 'is that 'e didn't want anyone else knowin'," Haru answered. "That, and 'e wanted to see 'is family, I guess."

"Those were certainly the excuses he gave, yes," Bankei responded. "But there was a reason why she knew in the first place."

"'Cause IMONO told us all about each other's dirty secrets," Haru said before pointing angrily at her chest. "And you tricked us into readin' 'em!"

Bankei gently brushed aside Haru's arm. "I see. So both I and that monotone voice are our group's personal scapegoats. And yes, I did indeed lie about the message I received. I had my reasons for doing so, of course, but that's a conversation for another time. However, I did not believe that doing so would lead to any of us murdering one another. I'm sure IMONO felt similarly."

Haru rubbed his shoulder as he began to think. "Well, I'm not too sure about that," he mumbled to himself angrily.

"Excuse me?" Bankei asked.

"Nothin'," Haru forcefully insisted. "Even if that wasn't what you wanted, that doesn't mean it's not your fault."

"The reason why that seems like the case to you is because we're not examining the full story yet. All of what I've been speaking to you about? That was all a preface. Everything that occurred then had a specific starting point that you seem to have forgotten about. And that was before then, on our first day together. The incident that made IMONO think we needed assistance in order to get along with one another."

"Ya mean what Eryu did?" Haru asked. "Y'know, 'cause you were makin' 'im angry?"

"Eh-heheh," Bankei chuckled. "No, silly. What happened between the two of us is not what I am referring to. Rather, what happened between yourself and Kimi is the key to all of this. Everything leads back to your clumsiness. IMONO certainly thought so."

"You're sayin' Keiko's murder wasn't your fault?!" Haru snarled. "It was mine?!"

"Not quite," Bankei said with a grin. "After you kickstarted that chain of events, that led the entire group to distrust and shun IMONO, and led Eryu and his two, um, good friends to decide that they needed to act independently of it. This prompted IMONO to attempt to show that they were wrong, and that we could all enjoy our time together even more if it intervened."

"What the hell's your point?!" Haru snapped.

"It's obvious at this point, isn't it?" Bankei asked. "If you had simply minded your footing, and avoided stumbling into Kimi, of all people, four murders would have been avoided. You may place the blame on me, or IMONO, or both of us together, but I'm afraid that's just not the proper thing to do at all. Doing so would be deflecting blame off of the only truly guilty party: you."

Haru balled his fists, and looked as though his anger was only escalating with each second. Bankei took clear note of this, and began to frown.

"I have the distinct feeling that you may have made a rather questionable claim."

"'Scuse me?" Haru growled.

"You made it clear you wouldn't kill me," Bankei explained.

"What, and let you be the cause of another murder? No thanks," Haru said half-sarcastically through clenched teeth.

"Eh-heh," Bankei chuckled in spite of the tension. "You really think if you were to murder me right now, it'd somehow be my fault? You really are obstinate in your thought processes, aren't you? Then again, based on some of your own testimony, that's nothing new."

Haru's eyebrows raised a bit. "What d'you mean?"

"Obstinate? Difficult to change? Stubborn?" Bankei attempted to clarify. "That describes you well, doesn't it? You and your strange, antiquated beliefs on craftsmanship."

Haru's eyes widened in shock. "The fuck?"

"I've overheard some interesting things you've said, you see," Bankei explained. "Just here and there. Do you have some sort of issue with technology?"

"What?!" Haru shouted incredulously. "I don't have a problem with it, no! I just have a problem with how people are tryin' to use it! Y'know, like in automation, and assembly lines! Those big robot conveyor belts that pump out total garbage and could put honest men like me out onto the streets!"

Bankei scoffed. "Seriously? I'm surprised someone our age would say something like that. Talk like that may have had some meaning during the industrial revolution, but now? The only reason a young man such as yourself would have to worry about being made obsolete is because you are unable to accept change. If you're so worried, why not cease complaining and instead change your ways?"

Haru's increasingly angry gaze bore into Bankei, as their conversation had clearly managed to strike a particularly sensitive nerve for Haru. "How dare you?! I happen to come from a long line of traditional craftsmen! You think I'm just gonna throw that all away?! Me?!"

"Perhaps you should," Bankei suggested nonchalantly. "If and when we return to our normal lives, you could take up a new calling. That should allow you to rip off the band-aid, as one might say. After all, it's not like such a legacy can last forever."

"Why are you even sayin' all this crap?!" Haru shouted impatiently. "This is not what I came here to talk about!"

"I know it's not," Bankei replied. "But I think it highlights something very important: Haru, it seems to me you simply cannot accept the way that things are. That is why you came here, is it not? You were unhappy seeing that only Yasuo was punished, and that I was not as well, simply because you believe I too deserve punishment. Even after everything I've told you, you still are too stubborn to accept it."

"You're lyin'! I know you are!" Haru shouted.

"Does it really matter if I am at this point?" Bankei asked. "Reopening an old wound will not do any of us any good. The others would likely agree with me. Another two deaths, another tragedy for us to cope with. Why return to that? Thusly, what is required of you is that you need to do the one thing you have thus far refused to do: You need to let go."

"SHUT UP!" Haru bellowed forcefully. "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

He followed up his string of furious exclamations with the first strike he would deal to Bankei, that being a hard punch to the stomach.

"Ooh!" Bankei let out. She put her right hand to her stomach while making a motion to stop with her left hand. "Haru, stop, what-"

Haru seemed merely annoyed by this, and grabbed her left hand in midair with one hand. With the other hand, he delivered a forceful hook to her wrist, causing it to leave his grasp and causing a light cracking sound to become audible.

Bankei recoiled strongly, looking at Haru with clenched teeth and wary eyes. She held her left hand in her right. "Haru, you...you're attacking me," she said uneasily. "You said that-"

"-I wouldn't kill ya," Haru said, his voice practically overflowing with hatred. "I ain't killin' ya. Once I'm done with ya, though, you'll prefer it, that's for sure."

Immediately after finishing his sentence, Haru stepped back a bit, winding up for another hard strike.

"And that was about the time that his assault truly began," Bankei said, beginning to wind down after her lengthy exposition. "Once he finished, he left as quickly as he arrived, and I was left incapacitated by pain."

Mareo stepped back, seeming satisfied by the cast he had made for Bankei's arm. Though he originally was just going to step back and let her say what she wanted to say, partway through he began looking concerned, and maybe a little impatient, and after a while he decided to close the distance between him and Bankei and continue applying bandaging. She didn't seem to mind.

"There. I've finished up. You should heal up significantly better now," Mareo said.

"Very good, Mareo. Thank you," Bankei said sweetly before looking back to Naoko and softly clearing her throat. "After some time, of course, I was able to force myself onto my feet long enough to make my way to where everyone else was. The rest should be obvious enough."

"I'm surprised you were even able to get up at all," Naoko said.

"Eh-heh," Bankei chuckled. "Is that supposed to be a jab at my own frailty?"

"W-what?" Naoko hesitated.

"I'd have to assume it has to do with your injuries more than anything," Mareo cut in. "As you said, Haru himself said he was going to make you wish you were dead. That sounds to me like it would lead to some very debilitating injuries."

"Well, he must have been exaggerating," Bankei reasoned. "In any case, the pain has subsided. At least, it somewhat has."

"That may be because of the painkillers I gave you," Mareo said. "It's a fast-acting opioid. You should feel a lot better in just a little while."

"Wonderful," Bankei said. "So, Naoko, are you satisfied with my story?"

"Well," Naoko replied, "I actually have a question for you. It's about what you did near the end of your story."

"And what would that be?"

"I couldn't help but find it weird that you made such a drastic topic-change near the end," Naoko explained. "You were talking about how he was the one at fault for what's happened to us so far, and then you started telling him that his views were wrong. That's...That's weird to me. I can't be alone in thinking that, right?"

"No, I see where you're coming from," Mareo said. "It's an abrupt shift, and based off of what she's told us, Haru was very sensitive about it."

"I'll tell you what I told him at the time," Bankei responded. "I brought it up to prove a point. Nothing more. It illustrates quite well how Haru is stubborn to a fault. He wasn't willing to accept the way things were, you see. He perceived injustice, and became a merciless brute in an attempt to make things the way he wanted it to be."

"I understand your logic, I think," Naoko admitted. "Still, that seems like something I'd avoid bringing up. Just yesterday, Kimi poked fun at Haru and his talent, and he yelled at her. He was already really angry with you, so it just seems like you'd…"

Naoko paused as he saw that Bankei was beginning to look at him with her eyebrows furrowed, making an expression as if he were seriously offending her. He was initially a bit confused as to why she would be feeling that way. After all, he was just making an observation, and he thought it made sense. He just didn't understand until she responded to what he was saying.

"Naoko, what exactly are you trying to say?" Bankei asked unamusedly. "Are you attempting to insinuate that Haru brutally assaulting me was my own fault? That's...That's absurd."

"Oh," Naoko said in understanding. It was at that point he knew what she was driving at, and it wasn't good. "No, that's...That's not what I was trying to say."

"That's what it sounded like to me," Bankei replied, giving Naoko a harsh glare. "It's the same logic that Haru attempted to use. As if he could assign blame to me for becoming victimized as a result of his own actions."

"I'm sorry," Naoko relented. "I didn't mean to upset you."

Bankei kept her eyes on Naoko, her expression still very discontent. "I see. Be careful what you say, Naoko."

"Perhaps it would be best if you two speak to each other at a later time," Mareo advised, seeming like he was trying to diffuse things. "You said that you came here to check on her, and, well, you have. Why not inform the others that she's okay?"

Naoko nodded. "Okay, that'd be fine. I suppose if I wanna talk to Bankei more, it can wait. I'm actually kinda worried. I left the group at an awkward time."

"Tensions are high?" Mareo asked directly.

"I guess so," Naoko replied.

"Okay. Say hi to everyone for me," Mareo said, picking up the ice pack.

"Oh, and if it's alright, perhaps you can ask Mine to stop by," Bankei requested, seeming to be back to her usual demeanor. "We've become quite close, she and I, if I say so myself. I'd imagine she's quite worried about me."

"Yeah, I, uh, think she is. At least she was the last time I saw her," Naoko said hesitantly as he opened the door to leave.