A/N: I've got a fairly long chapter this time around, but I just wanted to clarify something here as well while it's on my mind. as I've hinted at in Author's Notes before, I've had some difficulties writing this fic. I've looked at some of what I've written in the past, and I feel like I could've done better. Personally, I think the root of the issue is that thus far I've been trying to post weekly, which means I've placed myself on crunch time. In the future, I might relax my schedule a bit, just so I feel more confident with what I put out.

It hadn't been very long since the group vote had been held. The majority of them, or at least of the people that were present at the time, were in general agreement that Haru would be better off in one of their newly-acquired holding cells than in his own room, which wasn't really much of a cell at all. In order to bring him there, Naoko, Yori, Eryu, and Mine met up in the dorms, in front of the door to Haru's room.

Eryu looked at the door before turning his head to look back at the others. "So, is everyone ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Yori responded nonchalantly.

"I'm kind of worried about how Haru might take the news," Naoko admitted. "He doesn't have much in there, but it's still going to be a downgrade."

"Does that mean you're afraid he's gonna become violent?" Mine asked curiously.

"I have my doubts, but I guess it's not impossible," Naoko replied. "If he does, though, I can only hope we'll be able to handle him."

"Well, that's why I'm here, aren't I?" Mine pointed out. "I can probably handle him."

"I'd imagine so, considering the fact that you're a certified martial artist," Yori said.

"Yeah! Exactly!" Mine replied.

"Alright," Naoko said. "So, I guess I'll be here to help him keep calm."

"You two are on good terms still, yes?" Yori asked.

"Yeah, we are," Naoko answered.

"Perfect. Then you know your role," Yori said contentedly.

"So what about you?" Mine asked. "What are you gonna be doing, Yori? No offense, of course."

"None taken," Yori responded. "I suppose I'll be here to keep an eye on everything. Nothing's wrong with having an extra pair of eyes, right?"

"Nope," Eryu replied. "Honestly, though, Naoko and Yori, I also felt it'd just be strange to not have you two here for this."

"You guys have been doing stuff together, right? Just the three of you?" Mine asked, as if seeking confirmation.

"To an extent, yes," Eryu answered. "Though technically not just us three, but that's neither here nor there. At this point we should probably just get started on this." He turned to look at Naoko. "Did you bring his room key?"

Naoko nodded and pulled out Haru's key. "Yeah, I've been holding onto it since yesterday. I wouldn't be able to enter his room otherwise."

Naoko handed the key over to Eryu, who was going to use it to unlock Haru's room before Yori held up a hand to stop him.

"Perhaps we should let him know we're coming in first," she suggested. "He might not know we're coming in."

"Oh," Eryu said, seemingly embarrassed. "You're right, sorry. Naoko, you wanna do the honors?"

"Sure," Naoko replied. He went up to the doorbell and rung it. He heard it ring faintly as he began to speak up to further get Haru's attention. "Haru? It's Naoko. Some friends and I want to talk to you."

"Come on in!" Haru's voice was heard through the door. It sounded like he was a fair distance away from the door as well. Eryu seemed to take that as a good opportunity to unlock the door and open it up.

Watching from just outside the door, they saw as Haru himself exited from his bathroom, aggressively drying his hands with a towel. He still wasn't wearing his apron. It wasn't too different from the first time Naoko visited him like this, or, for that matter, that morning, when Naoko stopped by to give him his breakfast. Clearly, nothing had changed. He seemed content at first, but when he got a good look at them all, he frowned a bit.

"Eryu?" Haru asked annoyedly. "What are you doin' here?"

"I'm here to talk," Eryu replied, sounding similarly annoyed. "And why aren't you wearing your apron?"

"'Cause I'm stuck in here," Haru replied, arms at his sides. "What the hell am I supposed to do, wear the same thing all the time?" He turned to throw the towel back into his bathroom. "Besides, it's gettin' kinda dirty, and I don't wanna even try washin' it in the sink."

He began to move closer to them as he continued to speak.

"So, what's goin' on here, exactly?"

"Did you get a message on your phone earlier?" Yori asked.

"Yeah," Haru replied simply. "I got a message from IMONO itself. Talked about how the third floor's open, plus somethin' about Kimi and...some cartoons or somethin'. It was kinda vague, and whatever the hell Kimi does, it ain't my expertise, so..."

"So, it sounds like you don't know anything about the third floor itself," Naoko inferred.

"Why? Is there somethin' there that's important to me?"

"I'd say so," Eryu replied. "You see, one of the rooms has a couple of holding cells-"

"Woah, woah!" Haru interrupted in bafflement. "Holdin' cells? You mean like in a jail?"

Eryu looked rather annoyed by this. "Yes, like a jail. We decided via a vote that it'd be best if we moved you from here to into one of those. It'd make us feel a lot safer when we're interacting with you like this. Alright?"

Haru gave them all a look of great bemusement. He wasn't looking happy about it at all, and really, this was to be expected. What they wanted him to do wasn't necessarily for his sake, and he clearly picked up on that. Soon, Haru's confusion was replaced with an indignant frown, and he made his thoughts known.

"Right, of course," he said, in a tone that suggested some very bitter sarcasm. "I have zero qualms with bein' taken outta my room, and my comfy bed, to stay in an actual jail cell. Geez, you guys, why don'cha just hogtie me if you're so afraid of me?"

"I'm really sorry, Haru," Naoko said in an attempt to placate him. "I knew you wouldn't like this. I'll be honest, I was pretty hesitant to agree with this."

This seemed to work to some extent, as Haru shifted his attention to him, and soon gained a somewhat more curious look. "You were, huh?"

"Uh huh," Naoko nodded. "It's not like we want you to be unhappy."

Mine eyed him a bit awkwardly, distracting him for a moment. Nonetheless, he continued.

"Still, I don't think it'd work out to have me help you out every time you need help. I know we're on good terms, but everyone else? I don't know how they'd fare."

Haru let out a rather sudden chuckle. "Heh. I definitely wouldn't want Kimi to be showin' up, that's for sure. Anyone else? Eh. Depends."

"Depends on what?" Naoko asked.

"On whether they'd be able to keep 'emselves from givin' me attitude," Haru explained. "Safe to say Kimi wouldn't be able to do that."

"I doubt we'll be having Kimi do anything for you," Eryu responded. "We're going to be working on figuring out who'll be helping take care of you and Bankei, since you both need taking care of and all. Now that I think about it, though, Kimi would be a bad choice for both of you."

"Damn straight," Haru replied, already seeming to be in a better mood than previously. "Alright. But you guys better not just leave me there. I gotta have somethin' to do to pass the time, sittin' around in my personal prison cell. Like, uh...Do we have books?"

"There's a library on the third floor," Yori answered.

"Good! Then you can bring me books. I mean, prisoners get books, don't they?" Haru asked.

"I think they do," Naoko replied. "Even if they don't, I think it'd be pretty crappy of us to keep you in there and not give you something to do."

"You think?" Haru replied bemusedly. "Not much room for subjectivity there, really. It'd be cruel and unusual, that's what it'd be."

"Then we'll get you some things," Yori offered. "Does that make the prospect more tolerable?"

"It's better than bein' locked up with nothin' to do, that's for damn sure," Haru said.

"I guess downtime isn't really your thing, huh?" Mine asked. "Because I get that."

"Yep," Haru said simply. "So now what? You guys gonna take me there, then?"

"That's the idea, yeah," Naoko replied rather apologetically.

Haru looked at Naoko a bit oddly, as if he were feeling conflicted. Nevertheless, he eventually let out a sigh and nodded his head slowly. "Alright. C'mon, then. We don't have all day for you all to fuck around in front of my door."

Leading Haru out of his room and down the third floor was not necessarily a tense experience. As unhappy as he seemed to be, Haru was by no means acting hostile towards them, and followed them around well enough. Still, it wasn't exactly a happy experience, either. The group passed by a couple of other people as they travelled through the halls on their way down, and each bystander let them pass without incident, though they didn't really seem ecstatic about what was happening. It helped that Kimi wasn't among them.

They passed through the third floor, which Haru took the opportunity to get a good look at. Unfortunately, they weren't there to give him a tour, so they didn't go through any of the rooms on their way. Instead, they went straight through the nearest hallway and towards the room containing the holding cells. Once inside, Haru stepped forward and inspected the leftmost cell, looking straight through the bars and into its interior.

"Holy hell," he said to himself. "This is a jail cell."

Eryu began to step towards him. "I know. It's not something we really expected."

"Ditto," Haru said, stepping forward and gripping the bars. "I mean, this place is already a goddamn prison, so somethin' like this is just fuckin' redundant."

"That's...That's not what I meant," Eryu replied, looking at him weirdly.

"Well, this is fuckin' weird, is what I'm sayin'," Haru retorted frustratedly. He looked like he was trying to rattle the bars, but they didn't seem to budge.

"You're not the only one to think that," Naoko chimed in. "Takeshi said something along those lines just a little bit earlier."

"Well, then 'e knows what 'e's talkin' about, then," Haru replied. He seemed to be over the bars of the cell and instead started to examine the cell's door. By simply pulling on it a bit, he was able to open it up, which seemed to catch him off guard. "The hell? It's already unlocked, huh? That, or it's shoddily-made, but I don't think that's it."

"It was unlocked when we first came in," Yori explained. "It appears to be locked by a key contained in a box."

"Huh. Weird," Haru replied, slipping into the cell. "So, now what? You gonna lock it, then?"

"We really should at this point," Eryu said, looking over at Yori. "We just need the key."

"Okay. Hang on a moment." Yori, being the closest to the desk in the room, began to move towards it to retrieve the key from the box. Naoko kept his eyes on Yori as she did so, only to eventually notice something out of the left-hand corner of his eye. Mine was standing by the door, and looked as though she were afraid. Naoko, obviously worried, went over to her.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

"Huh?" Mine responded, darting her eyes at him. "I'm fine, I just had something pop in my head, and...yeah."

"That doesn't sound good," Naoko commented. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well, sure, Naoko," she said. "It's not like we haven't talked about this before, right?"

Naoko was beginning to have an idea as to what was bothering her. There was just the matter of what they were there for. Naoko turned to see Eryu locking Haru's cell. He could see Haru looking at him doing so with visible discontent.

"Damn. That's it, huh?" Haru said aloud.

"Yeah, it is," Eryu replied.

"Alright," Naoko said. "If it's okay, I'd like to talk to Mine about something."

"Oh?" Yori said curiously. "Well, if it's privacy you want, you can go outside to talk."

"Cool cool," Mine said quickly, grabbing Naoko's arm. "C'mon, let's go."

As soon as the door was closed, Mine leaned her body against a nearby wall and let out a relieved sigh. She really looked like she had just been put through the wringer, emotionally speaking. Naoko still felt like he had an idea of what was going on, and felt like he had to be a bit careful with how he approached the topic.

"Did that freak you out?" he inquired.

"Totally," Mine replied, still looking rather frazzled. "I don't know if it's stupid or what, but I just started thinking, and…"

"And what?" Naoko asked gently.

"Right, sorry," Mine apologized quickly. She kicked herself away from the wall and stepped forward a bit. "When I saw Haru in that cell, I started to think about how small it was. Then I caught myself wondering what'd it be like if I were in it."

"Really?" Naoko responded concernedly. "That sounds awful."

"It was!" Mine replied almost dramatically. "But then it was all I could think about. I'm sorry, it's just...after what happened earlier today, with Kimi and all, it's been hard to keep my mind off that sorta stuff."

"Oh," Naoko said understandingly. "So, has she not apologized to you yet?"

"Was she supposed to?" Mine asked, clearly puzzled.

"I asked her if she could, and she said she'd consider it," Naoko explained. "Apparently, she didn't know how much that sort of talk bothered you."

"Well, I get that," Mine replied. "It's not like I told her or anything. But, I mean, I'd appreciate it if she apologized. If she didn't now, that'd be rude to me and you."

"Why me?" Naoko asked.

"Because," Mine emphasized, "if she didn't, she'd be letting you down."

"I see. Well, let's hang onto hope that she will."

"I dunno," Mine replied. "She hasn't really been apologizing, has she? She's just so…" Mine looked like she was keeping herself from saying something. "...You know."

"I guess I do," Naoko said reluctantly. "But now what? Are you feeling better?"

"A little?" Mine said unsuredly. "I could be worse off. But y'know what? I think I'll be okay. I just need time, y'know?"

"I get it. What you're going through is totally understandable. You'll get no judgement from me."

"Sweet!" Mine said, just a bit happier than she was before. "So, now what?"

"Hmmm…" Naoko began to think. "Well, now that we're alone, there's something I've been thinking about. I remember you said something interesting earlier. When IMONO was talking about what happened on our second day here, you said something about how it did have consequences after all."

"Ooh," Mine responded. "That, yeah. Thing is, I actually did talk to Bankei last night, like you wanted me to."

"Good. So, what'd she say?"

"Okay, okay, lemme think," Mine said, bringing a hand up to her chin. "When she talked about saying those things about Sasa, she thinks that she actually was affected by the gas, or chemical, or whatever."

"Technically, it was both of those things," Naoko pointed out.

"Right, yeah. And as for that thing she did when she lied? She said that she did it because she was worried about how IMONO would've reacted if we had refused. As she said, we hadn't been there long enough to know what to expect."

"I guess that makes sense, to a certain extent," Naoko reasoned. "Still, why didn't she say that before?"

"Apparently, because IMONO is watching us, or something like that?" Mine said, seeming like she didn't fully understand herself. "Still, she's told us now, so...I mean, if there's anything else you want to know from her, I guess I could try and, uh, weasel a question or two into a conversation."

"That sounds great," Naoko replied. "Thank you."

After he said this, the door to the holding cell room opened up, and Yori and Eryu walked out. The two pairs of people turned to each other very quickly, with Yori in particular looking at Naoko and Mine with a particular amount of interest.

"Are we interrupting something?" Yori asked.

"I don't think so," Naoko replied. "We were just discussing some things. Is everything under control in there?"

"Pretty much," Eryu answered. "He's in his cell, so things should be just fine from here on."

"Mhm," Yori nodded. "That's right. By tomorrow, though, we should talk about how we'll be taking care of Bankei and Haru." She made eye contact with Naoko briefly. "You and Mareo have both done your part, but it'd be wise to make sure you weren't saddled with all of the work."

"Cool cool," Mine replied. "So, we'll have to figure out who does what?"

"Pretty much," Yori replied. "We should have time, but we should still figure things out fairly soon. From what I understand, Mareo has had to do a lot for Bankei already. I'd rather not get into the specifics."

"Ah," Naoko said, worried that he knew exactly what that meant. "Well, how about I share something with the two of you, right now?" He glanced over to Mine, who luckily seemed all for it.

"Share something?" Eryu asked. "What are you talking about?"