A/N: This chapter's a day later than normal, but like I said last time, I wanted to take my time with this. After writing it, I went back, looked it over, and made some additions and alterations here and there. As I've said, I've worried quite a bit about how my work turns out, not to mention the possibility of people taking things the wrong way (especially in regards to what the lads over at TV Tropes call "Unfortunate Implications"). That being said, I think creating a looser schedule for posting should help with both. Granted, I want to finish this fic at some point, so I may need to find some balance, but we'll just have to see.

Eryu didn't much care for the explanation that Bankei had passed onto Mine. Granted, given their relationship, it seemed doubtful that he'd really be trustful of anything Bankei said, and hearing it indirectly didn't help much, it seemed. As far as he was concerned, Bankei was basically just hand-waving her previous actions. Naoko couldn't say he disagreed with this opinion, per say. The two of them knew quite well what she had said in the past. Naoko still had a very vivid memory of her provoking Eryu, and making some rather concerning statements in private conversation.

Still, it wasn't like they could just opt out of making sure she was taken care of. It'd be awful to do something like that, considering the fact that she was, in her current state, more or less bedridden. Besides, it was still possible that they could gain some further insight into her if Mine could keep in touch with her. It was already something she'd been tasked with, so it was pretty simple to have her keep it up.

As for Bankei and Haru, it seemed safe to say that by the next day, they'd have had all the time they needed to formulate a solid plan on how both of them would be taken care of. For Naoko, that meant a lot of free time on his hands. Still, he wasn't sure if that meant he'd just do what he normally did in that scenario, but he figured he'd go out and see who he could interact with.

Hours later, his search for interaction led him into the library, which he felt would likely contain some interesting stuff. He had yet to really examine the room's contents, after all. Clearly, though, he wasn't the only one who had the veritable treasure trove of books on their mind, as two people were already there. The first was Hoshi, which didn't surprise Naoko very much at all, but the second was a bit unexpected.

"Oh hey, it's Naoko," Mariko said, half-smiling as she looked his way. Yes, it was Hoshi and Mariko, sitting down on the couch in the room, seemingly in the middle of some sort of discussion as Naoko entered. Seeing this was actually fairly nice, considering the fact that Hoshi hadn't seemed very happy last time he saw him in the library, but Naoko also got the distinct feeling that he was interrupting them.

"Hey," Naoko replied. "Were you two talking about something in private just now, or…?"

"All things considered, yes, we were," Hoshi answered. "Still, there's no need to feel bad about prying. If you'd like, you could sit down with us for a bit."

"Really?" Naoko asked. "Okay." Taking Hoshi up on his offer, Naoko walked towards them and sat down on the couch with them, next to Hoshi and opposite to Mariko. When he actually sat down, he glanced at the two and noticed that there seemed to be a book lying there in-between them, the cover of which seemed familiar. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the book.

"Oh, this?" Hoshi responded. He grabbed the book and showed it to Naoko.

Seeing it right in front of his face, he was sure he knew just what it was supposed to be. Right on the front, there was a very visceral image of zombie-like monsters in an urban environment that he recognized very well. Oh, and the book title above it helped too. "Dark Cataclysm: Book One," it read.

Naoko's eyes widened. "Holy crap, that's your book," he said.

"It is," Hoshi replied. "Mariko found it on one of the shelves. Apparently, all four books have been stored here. A mildly interesting discovery, I suppose."

"Well, I think it's great," Mariko beamed. "We have some of your own literature here with us, and damn good literature at that."

"I know, right?" Naoko added, similarly enthused.

Hoshi chuckled as he waved off their compliments. "Thank you, but I'm not here to be praised. Besides, like I said, Mariko, I'd rather not dwell on those books. It doesn't help me very much thinking that while I'm stuck in here, the fifth book won't be able to see the light of day."

Mariko suddenly stopped looking enthused, and instead seemed rather guilty. "Oh. I'm really sorry."

"No, no, it's fine," Hoshi insisted. "You're trying to help, and I can appreciate that."

"What do you mean by that?" Naoko inquired.

"Well, you see, I felt like Hoshi had been feeling down recently," Mariko explained. "He didn't even say anything earlier, when we all met up with each other to talk. I met him here, and, well, we've just been sort of talking."

Naoko frowned emphatically. "I see. Well, I think I know why he'd be feeling that way."

Hoshi cleared his throat. "Right, yes. I definitely appreciate the helping hand, though I must admit that, at the same time, I don't want to be the cause of any emotional strife here, even if I have my own issues at the moment. I suppose you could say I'm a bit conflicted."

"Well...that's okay," Mariko replied. "I know I can only help you so much right now, so I'm just trying to be here for you. Y'know, as a friend?"

"I understand completely," Hoshi said. "Reaching out to me like this, I'd say you've shown yourself to be a good friend."

"Aww," Mariko responded in a touched manner. "Hoshi, that's really sweet of you to say. C'mere."

With that, Mariko leaned over and wrapped Hoshi in a tight hug. He seemed a bit off-put by it at first, but he eventually reciprocated it. Naoko honestly thought it was pretty cute, but kept himself from saying so for fear of spoiling the moment.

Hoshi broke off from the hug soon after. "Well, thank you very much for that," he said, seeming a bit embarrassed. "That wasn't something I was expecting, to be honest."

"Was it not comfortable for you?" Mariko asked.

"No, it was fine," Hoshi responded. "It was, um...soft?"

Mariko laughed a bit at this. "Yeah, I know. I guess being a big girl has its advantages."

"What, like heart disease?"

That rather taunting question brought the mood of the room down several notches very quickly. It didn't help matters that it wasn't any of the three that said it. It was someone else by the door to their left, and their voice and face were both unmistakable.

It was Kimi. Because of course it was. As the three craned their heads to look at her, she wasn't doing much, other than leaning on the doorframe and holding what looked like a lollipop in one of her hands. Her rather mischievous expression, however, spoke volumes about what they could expect from her.

Mariko instantly shifted to a rather pained expression. "What? Kimi? What are you doing here...And where did you get that?"

Kimi waved the lollipop in her hand. "This? Got it from the storage room. That place has everything, really. I'd imagine you've been spending a lot of time there yourself."

Naoko looked at Kimi frustratedly. "Kimi, we're in the middle of something here."

"You think I don't know that?" Kimi asked rhetorically. "I've been looking for you, Naoko. Not my fault you got entangled in conversation with these two."

Hoshi sighed heavily and donned a more relaxed look. "It's fine that you wish to speak to him, but you've come at a bad time."

"Maybe we should take this somewhere else," Mariko suggested.

"Yes, that seems like the most rational option at this point," Hoshi agreed.

The two got up from the couch and headed for the door, as Naoko and Kimi eyed them with concern and apathy respectively. Mariko left the room first as Hoshi followed behind, but before he left their sight, he stopped to look back at Naoko.

"Oh, Naoko, perhaps this isn't the best time, but I've put some thought into something I mentioned to you earlier."

"What's that?" Naoko asked.

"I said I had something to mull over, remember? Well, I'm interested in working on something over the next few days. I don't mean to get your hopes up, but I think you'll all be quite interested in it."

"Really? Well, that sounds great. Let me know once you're ready to show us," Naoko requested.

"Of course," Hoshi replied. He turned back after this, closing the door behind him, leaving Naoko and Kimi alone in the room. The latter began to nonchalantly step towards the couch Naoko was seated in, and once she was close enough, she practically jumped into a lying position on the opposite side of the couch from where Naoko was.

"So," Kimi said, placing the lollipop in her mouth as she began to speak. "I'm guessing you wanna know what this is all about."

"Very much so, yes," Naoko responded unamusedly.

"Alright, well, here's the thing," Kimi began. "Yours truly has both good news and bad news. You want the good news first?"

"Sure," Naoko replied. This seemed to him like it could be pretty interesting.

"Okay, good news: I went to apologize to Mine."

Naoko's eyes widened at what was, to him, a pleasant surprise. "You did?"

"Yep," Kimi replied. "Of course, when I went to talk to her, she had just come out of the medical room, 'cause she had just visited Bankei again. I'm just glad I didn't have to drag her out of there myself."

"What happened once you met up with her?" Naoko asked.

"Okay, this is where the bad news comes in," Kimi said. "I kinda just tried to say I was sorry to her, and, well, she didn't take it too well. I dunno why she got all upset, it just sort of happened."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm telling you what I mean," Kimi responded annoyedly, flipping herself over on the couch. "I tried to apologize to her, and she got mad at me for it. Then she stormed off to go and...I dunno, talk to someone else?"

"Well, that did you say?" Naoko asked.

"I dunno, stuff about how I didn't know about her mental problems, and that I wasn't trying to freak her out. I was just telling her the truth."

Naoko looked at her skeptically. While he didn't know what happened between them, so he couldn't be sure, he had the distinct feeling that Kimi's explanation was severely lacking in specific details. Then again, what she was saying seemed like it could contain some insight.

"Well, if I had to guess what went wrong, you probably just...I don't know, phrased your apology poorly," Naoko surmised.

"Phrased it poorly?" Kimi repeated back bemusedly. "Seriously? I mean, that's possible, maybe. It's not like I'm an expert apologist, or anything like that."

"That's, uh, not what that word means," Naoko pointed out.

"Whatever. You know what I mean," Kimi said.

"Maybe you should look into improving your ability to apologize to people?" Naoko hesitantly suggested. "I think people would like you a lot more if you apologized more often."

"Eh," Kimi responded. "Apologies always felt kinda corny, y'know what I mean?"

"That doesn't mean that you shouldn't," Naoko replied. "I think you have a lot to apologize for. For example, Mariko. You just insulted her weight to her face again. I have to be honest, I really don't like it when you do that."

"If you're so upset by me doing it, why haven't you chastised me for it more often?" Kimi asked.

"It's not like I don't want to," Naoko explained. "But, well, it's not like she's the only one you've targeted with insults and ridicule. Eryu tried to chastise you for doing that a while ago, and I'm pretty sure you accused him of being a chubby chaser."

Kimi shrugged. "If the shoe fits."

Naoko was a bit confused by this. Did she really think that sticking up for someone was the same as being in love with them? Well, whatever she was saying, he felt tempted to try and correct her, but decided against it for fear of being overly harsh.

"All I'm saying is that you should try being a little nicer to people," he said. "Otherwise, you'll be throwing away our trash forever."

"It's not like I want to do that," Kimi replied. "And sure, I can try, but I can't guarantee that that'll be the key to making them like me."

"Well, it's better than nothing, right?" Naoko asked in a somewhat rhetorical manner.

"Mmm. Maybe," Kimi said, seeming only half-convinced. She began to get up from the couch. "Something to think about. But, y'know, that's not all I'll be thinkin' about. Remember what that monotone fuck said earlier?"

Naoko sighed annoyedly. "Its name is IMONO, but yes. We can expect to be shown some of your work tonight."

"And the night after that, presumably," Kimi said happily. "And, hell, maybe the night after that, too. In any case, you know I'm down with that, so you better not miss it, alright?"

"I don't plan to," Naoko said, shrugging.

"Nice," Kimi responded, walking out of the room.

Well, that whole thing could have gone better, indeed. It seemed to Naoko like Kimi's behavior couldn't just be given a quick fix. Until that matter was settled, she seemed like she could very well get herself into more trouble. For the time being, though? Well, there was the upcoming entertainment. Whatever form it would take.

Once the time came, Naoko was alone in his room. Really, he just wanted to see just what was going to be shown to them. If it was indeed something made by Kimi, he wasn't sure what to expect. He didn't actually know much of anything about her work. He may have seen some of it, but if he did, he wouldn't have known that she made it.

The time was approaching 9:30, which meant that nighttime was going to be relatively soon. Still, it occurred to Naoko that they technically weren't told exactly when they'd be shown it. Really, he would just have to wait and see.

*Ding!*

Oh. Well, Naoko thought, that was quick. It was exactly 9:30, and he'd just been given a notification on his phone. Opening it up, it was a message that contained a single attached file. From what he could see, it appeared to be a video file of some kind. Probably an MP4 file or something. He noticed that he could access it straight from the message, so he tapped it on, brought it to full screen, and sat back to see just what he'd been given.

As he expected, the video was fully animated, and appeared to depict a rather cartoony-looking ghost, not too dissimilar to the classic bedsheet ghost, with big black eyes and a dot for a mouth. The only particularly interesting detail about their appearance was that they had a bit of a purple tinge to it. The background had the appearance of an old house's interior, though it was pretty simplistically-drawn. The music was simple and cutesy, and actually sounded kind of familiar to Naoko, interestingly enough, though he had the distinct feeling that it was probably just some sort of stock music one could find on the internet. All in all, it seemed a bit amateurish at the outset, but once it got moving, Naoko was surprised by how fluid the animation was. Perhaps this was where a lot of the effort went into, he thought.

The basic premise seemed to be that the ghostly main character was interacting with different items. Once they were done interacting with an item, the scene would fade into a new scene with a new item for them to mess around with. First it was a ball that the ghost tried and failed to pick up due to a lack of hands, to their dismay. Then it was a vacuum cleaner which they tried to poke at, only to accidentally turn it on and get sucked in, the last few seconds of the scene being dedicated to the vacuum rocking back and forth, like they were trying to get out. Next came a scene with a coat on a rack, which they attempted to wear. Much like the ball, however, it didn't work out, as they lacked any limbs. The ghost put it on, and tried to move the sleeves, but without any arms, all it did was cause the coat to fall off. Again, the ghost looked sad.

Then, there was a small piano, which the ghost initially tried to play by banging on the keys with the top of their head. After a few seconds of this, they stopped, and tried something else. Apparently, the ghost could actually do stuff with their mouth, as before, the only way they emoted was with their eyes. The ghost's mouth became slightly bigger, and a tongue flopped out. The ghost used their tongue to try and play the piano, and funnily enough, the ghost was actually able to hit individual notes with it. This seemed to give the ghost an idea, and the scene immediately cut back to the ball from the first scene. The ghost bent down and stuck out their tongue, grabbing the ball with it before holding it in their mouth, seemingly happy.

Okay. That was a bit strange. Admittedly, it was kind of a cute animation, but given just how weird it was, Naoko just wasn't sure what to think about it. He figured maybe this was one of Kimi's earlier works. After all, if this was what she normally made, then her work was only so much to write home about. Sure enough, the video ended from there with a simple end card.

"Paku the Purple Poltergeist: Episode 0. Created by Kimi Tamura, age 10."

Age 10? Well, it seemed like his assumption was correct. In fact, if this was supposed to be the start of a series, like the end card suggested…

Naoko remembered something Kimi had told him when they first met. If what she had told him was true, then what he had just seen could have been the first piece of animation Kimi had ever created. Or, at least, the first she ever shared online. Perhaps this was something he could talk to her about in the morning? It wasn't like she wouldn't be happy to talk about her own work, right?