Sunday, 7/10

Waking up at the clinic had been the worst part of Ren's day, possibly worse than what he saw in his hallucination. He had found out that several hours had passed, and he had felt like horseshit physically and mentally. He only managed to get out of the clinic after remembering that he had agreed to study with Kawakami that evening.

Ren had reluctantly called the maid service that evening. He wondered why he was the one chosen to pay Kawakami, but then remembered that he was the only one who knew her secret. Well, he and Mishima, but Ren figured Mishima didn't have sex worker money, so he let the thought slide.

Kawakami had arrived swiftly and began studying with Ren even faster. It did help that Ren could do most of the material in his sleep thanks to Makoto, but he didn't plan on telling Kawakami that. It had caused unnecessary conflict the previous time, so it was better to just not mention it at all. What did get mentioned was the other schoolwork that Ren had been doing for the past few weeks.

"How's your final project going?" Kawakami curiously asked as Ren filled in a few more answers.

Ren glanced towards Kawakami to check if she was asking casually, or as his teacher. The look on her face leaned towards the former.

To be honest, the maid costume is just kinda blah at this point. Probably not a good thing that I'm used to seeing Kawakami in her maid get-up, but it is what it is.

"It's going great, actually," Ren said enthusiastically, completely confident in him and Ann's project.

"Ren, if your project is just some joke, I swear-"

"Woah, I never said it was. You'll see tomorrow, it's pretty damn good. Just wait. Ann and I worked some serious magic," Ren insistently cut in.

Kawakami eyed Ren, trying to read whether he was lying or not.

I wouldn't trust me to put together a serious final project either.

"If you say so," Kawakami said. "Here, let me check your answers." When Ren handed her the sheet, Kawakami looked past Ren. "Hey, is that a cat?"

Ren turned back. Morgana, for once, was feeling social and had come out of Ren's room. He sauntered up to the couch and jumped up on it to say hi to Kawakami. Ren just shrugged at Kawakami. "Yep."

"He looks… a little big, if you don't mind me saying so," Kawakami commented, a small smirk on her face that she attempted to hide.

Is he? Shit, I guess he might've gained a little weight since I picked him up. He's not fat, but he probably could use more exercise. I wonder if he just does acrobatics around the apartment all day…

Morgana hissed at Kawakami, suddenly backing away from her and into Ren. Ren took the cat, and now knowing that the cat was offended, decided to defend his pet. "Hey, it's not like I can take him to school. Where would I put him? My desk?"

"True," Kawakami concurred. "That'd be pretty dumb. Plus, Ozaki-san would see him."

What an asshole. He's the second-worst person that could've sat behind me, with Mishima obviously coming in first.

"Fuck that guy. He's taken a few pens from my bag," Ren said, forgetting that he was speaking poorly of the student to his teacher.

"Yeah, he's an ass," Kawakami said with a laugh. "Now that I think about it, he might not notice if you kept a cat in your desk. You could probably get away with it for… a month or two?"

"Are you saying you'll let me bring my cat to school if I hide him?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself. This is just a dumb hypothetical."

Fine by me. Morgana would probably hate being in a desk all day.

Shortly after, Kawakami and Ren finished up his studying for the night and Ren sent her on her way. He knew he was prepared to bitch slap his final exams, as well as his final project.

Monday, 7/11

"Amamiya and Takamaki, next," Kawakami announced from the front of the class.

At that point, Ren had already sat through four tedious presentations from other people in his class. One was about baking, another about surfing, another about the film 'My Innocent Sins,' and the most recent one was some ten-minute spiel about how 'Integration' is the best album ever made and Barabara Strawsand is an old hag. Ren enjoyed the last one the most because he had no fucking clue what it was about.

Now, it was Ren and Ann's turn to show people how it was done. They had an obvious advantage of going after a group who bombed, so Ren was thrilled to do the presentation now rather than after a duo who knocked their project out of the park.

Ren and Ann both stood up and went to the front of the room. Ann had brought the poster that she had made, and Ren had brought nothing except his memory of the essay that he wrote for the project. Still, they were both more than prepared. Ann put the poster up on the tray that was at the bottom of the blackboard so that the class could see it. Ren and Ann separated and stood on either side of the poster.

"'Lord of the Pies' and how anonymity exposes our bad sides," Ren read aloud.

So it begins…

"The pie on a stick symbolizes Piggy's inner turmoil, and how he struggles to not succumb to his vice of furiously loving baked goods…"

It was never-ending. Amamiya and Takamaki's presentation provided endless boredom for Mishima. The only reason that Mishima was still awake was that he had to make sure Amamiya didn't see him asleep. That would mean offending Amamiya, which would mean that Mishima was going to get beat up.

"When Loger drops the King Pie off the cliff onto Piggy, he does it because they've been removed from consequences for too long to remember what they are, and his anger at Piggy for eating the last dessert pie becomes too much for Loger to contain…"

At least all Mishima had to do was keep his eyes open. He didn't have to mentally follow the presentation and could think about other things while he waited for the presentation to end. The first thing he thought about was his own presentation, which he would be giving soon enough to the class. It was an essay that he had poured a month of work into, perfecting it to make sure that everyone in the class would agree with him by the time his presentation was over. Surely he wouldn't fail, and he would show everyone why they should be friends with him, especially with how cool he would look after his presentation.

"Piggy's death means a lot in the book and in the real world. For one, it represents the death and rebirth of the worldwide food industry across the globe. Also, continuing the theme of birth, Piggy's death is the birth of the Lord of the Pies...

Speaking of looking cool, the past month had been an eventful one for Mishima, at least by his standards. He had religiously followed all news on The Prince since the fourteenth of June, patiently waiting for his next target. Unfortunately, the vigilante had stayed quiet since. No major targets and no minor events occurred that could be barely tied to The Prince. It was frustrating, but Mishima had to stay dedicated. He had to be able to say that he was the only one supporting The Prince when everyone was doubting.

"Loger's execution is the most horrifying scene in the book. The boys let loose a flurry of freshly baked pies onto the poor, murderous, boy. All this occurs just a dozen feet away from Piggy's grave, and while all the boys are wearing ritualistic masks…"

Mishima had seen it. Internet forums had had thousands of people calling The Prince a fluke, deeming it a hoax from the police to get rid of Kaneshiro instead of letting him linger in the court system. But the doubters would see that The Prince wasn't just a one-time thing and that they were here to reign. Then Mishima would be cool because he had known the truth all along.

"And so, to summarize, Piggy and Loger never would've died if the boys hadn't worn masks. The masks gave them anonymity and erased their perception of consequences."

To boost this, Mishima had come up with an idea: a forum dedicated to The Prince. Mishima would be the moderator of discourse and discussion surrounding the figure. He would finally obtain actual power in the world, all while standing side-by-side with The Prince as a harbinger of justice. In Mishima's mind, it was full-proof.

"And that's everything. Thanks for listening. Have an awesome day," Ann said, making Mishima actually perk up now that the presentation was over. He watched Ann and Ren walk back to their seats as the class provided obligatory applause for the presentation.

Mishima couldn't help but admire Ann's form as she walked back to her seat. He had always lusted after the blonde but had never been able to work up the courage to talk to her. But now he had a chance. Once he got the forum up and running for The Prince, he would be validated as a good person, maybe even a great one. Girls would be throwing themselves at him, and all Mishima would need to do to make Ann his was say "Yes" to her inevitable proposal.

He had it all worked out.

But first, he had a presentation to do.

Fuck yeah, good job Ren. Kawakami seemed to like it, and that's what matters. The class didn't really care, but that's expected. Don't forget to congratulate Ann when you can.

Ren sat down, ready for the tedium of witnessing the presentations of others to continue.

"Mishima, you're up," Kawakami announced.

This'll be good.

Mishima, in the most Mishima-like fashion possible, awkwardly stood up from his chair, nearly stumbled over his own feet, and walked to the front of the classroom with a few papers in his hand. When he reached the front, he took a few deep breaths. "My essay is about why politics should be kept out of video games."

Really, Mishima? You're one of those people?

That evening, Ren stayed at Leblanc for his usual shift. Futaba was apparently busy with something important to her, though it wasn't an anime premier this time. Ren didn't really care what it was, so long as the girl was alright. He would blame himself if he wasn't, and that reminded him of the offer that Maruki had proposed. While he was washing dishes and Sojiro was reading the newspaper, Ren threw the idea out there.

"So I was talking to my school counselor, and I mentioned that I've been helping Futaba." Ren saw that Sojiro set his newspaper down, and knew he was in for an actual conversation with the man. "I didn't go into detail, but I just explained how I feel like I'm not making much progress and that she's a shut-in."

Sojiro didn't seem frustrated or upset that Ren shared those minor details, but he didn't seem happy about it either. "Kid, what are you saying?"

"Well, the counselor said that he could help, if you wanted. And he offered to do it free of charge. And he has a degree, so he's-" Ren was cut off his boss.

"Qualified? You don't think you are?" Sojiro asked before net letting Ren answer. "You're about her age, and you're willing to talk to her. That's qualified. People with a decade of training couldn't get her to respond, but you're actually going back and forth with her. It's progress in my book."

"She just doesn't speak to me. It's hard. I don't think that I'm good enough to actually get farther than just her texting replies to me."

"Kid…" Sojiro paused, looking around the room and then directly into Ren's eyes as he considered what Ren had said. "You really believe that you can't help, can you?"

Well, yeah, but hearing someone else say it still hurts like hell.

"I've barely made any progress, but I do like talking to her, and I think she likes talking to me. I just think that a professional should take over to make sure that I don't fuck up." Ren could tell that Sojiro wasn't very fond of the idea. "And I'm still willing to continue talking to Futaba. She's cool. I could even help with the counselor and her, if necessary."

Sojiro sighed. "Fine. I'll think about it."

"Alright…" Ren was not expecting that, and he wasn't sure if he liked it. Yes, Maruki speaking to Futaba was definitely more helpful than Ren speaking to her, but he felt as though his pride had been wounded as if he had surrendered. He knew it was best for Futaba, so he told his ego to shut the fuck up so he could get back to work.

Tuesday, 7/12

Ren arrived at detention for what would be one of the last few times this year. During exams, there was no detention, and there was only a week left in school after testing was done. Knowing that he was basically at the finish line, but wasn't actually there was maddening, but there was nothing Ren could do besides go to detention. At least it had turned into only thirty minutes to an hour of light studying, which was far better than Ryuji being sexually assaulted by a teacher.

When Ren and Ryuji sat down, Yuriko made it clear that things were different. "I have an announcement: today will be your guys' last day of detention," she announced, much to Ren and Ryuji's surprise.

"What about next wee-" Ren stopped because Ryuji smacked his arm hard.

"That's awesome. Thanks, Kuramoto-sensei." Ren would've laughed at Ryuji sucking up if his arm wasn't hurting so much.

"We obviously can't have detention while exams are happening, so you get this week off, and I'm not trying to have to teach you guys next week when there's nothing to teach," Yuriko elaborated.

Fair enough. I'd be lazy too if I had to put up with Ryuji and me every day for weeks.

"Gotcha…" Ren said before he considered Yuriko's words more. "But I have detention until the beginning of summer break. Don't I still have to go?"

"Nah, who cares. I'll just say you went and we'll call it even."

Oh… that's nice of her.

"Thanks."

"You're the best, Kuramoto-sensei."

"I know. Just don't forget about me over the summer, okay?"

To be honest, I will probably not be hanging out with Yuriko over the summer. No offense to her, but are we really friends? Not really. We're on good terms now, but we're still not friends. I'll hang out with Yuriko if it's what Makoto wants to do, but am I inviting her to GRAVY stuff? No.

"Like we could. You're awesome," Ryuji said, continuing to suck up to Yuriko.

Holy shit, Ryuji, just quit at this point. I'm willing to bet that sucking up to Yuriko probably annoys her.

"Uh-huh," Yuriko said, a little aggravatedly, proving Ren's bet correct. "Anyway, let's just study for a bit then we can get outta here."

Wednesday, 7/13

"How's Blastoid Effect been?" Ren asked to the door. Sojiro was still considering the proposition from Maruki, so Ren had gone to talk with Futaba yet again. He still didn't have much of an approach that he could take with her, except video games and Ryuji's many flaws. Ren considered himself a halfway decent friend, so the latter was out of the question.

Unknown Number:

-Pretty good, could use a few tweaks. The binary morality system that the game uses is really dumb.

"Really? What's bad about it?" From Ren's limited knowledge of Blastoid Effect, he knew that the game was famous for its morality system.

Unknown Number:

-Not picking one or the other option and sticking with it inadvertently punishes the player. Bad game design!

"Eh, doesn't sound like that big of a deal."

Unknown Number:

-That's something that Ryuji would say.

"Ryuji's a pro-gamer, so that's a great comparison, Futaba," Ren said sarcastically, while knowingly slipping in Futaba's name. Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn't. Someone who spent all their time online hearing their username instead of their real name would have to have some sort of reaction to their actual name.

Unknown Number:

-Pro-gamer my ass. Check this clip: 4

Ren opened the file. It was a video of a ranked Rash Toes match, with Ryuji as one of the fighters. Ranks were at the top of the screen. Ryuji had somehow made it to silver and was currently fighting a bronze-ranked player.

Within a minute, Ryuji got absolutely humiliated by the opposing player. He couldn't even recover properly because the other player was countering him so perfectly. The clip didn't even end with a loss screen, it ended with the video going black, meaning only one thing: Ryuji had ragequit and turned off his console.

Ren chuckled at the video. "Okay, he's not very good, but at least he tries."

Unknown Number:

-Do or do not, there is no try. Even that one friend that you have who looks like a fox beat Ryuji.

Okay, what? I'm assuming she's talking about Yusuke because he beat Ryuji in Rash Toes that one time, but how the hell does she know what he looks like?

"How do you know that?"

Unknown Number:

-Ryuji's disabled a lot of the security on his phone for… reasons. I can get in and see through his camera.

Ugh… gross.

"So you were spying on us before I was even talking to you here?" Ren asked.

Unknown Number:

-Yep.

"So you know about Kaneshiro?"

Unknown Number:

-Yep.

Fuck… that's a bad thing, right? Is it? Maybe not. If she's just watching and listening to all of our group gatherings through Ryuji's phone, the only thing stopping her from joining GRAVY is a door.

"I guess you know us pretty well then. You could hang out with us if you wanted. If you came out of our room, six very eager people will be friends with you."

Unknown Number:

-Even Inari?

"Who's that?"

Unknown Number:

-The one who looks like a fox, duh.

Now that I think about it, Yusuke kinda does look like a fox. His head is shaped pretty weirdly, so that contributes to it.

"Well, he's a little weird, but I'm sure he'd want to be friends with you, too."

Unknown Number:

-No shit he's weird. I checked his music streaming data and, of all genres, he listens to something called shoegaze! It's ridiculous.

Unknown Number:

-I tried listening to one of the songs, and it went like dut dut dut dut vwowowoww vreereeree!

Ren had no clue what shoegaze was, but knowing what it was wasn't relevant. If Yusuke listened to it, it was definitely weird. "Hah, he's got some weird music. Did you see that karaoke performance he did?"

Unknown Number:

-Yeah, that was alright. I'm surprised you guys didn't question him more after that.

"We've gotten used to it. Yusuke is Yusuke." Ren wanted to move on from the subject. "But would you ever be willing to hang out with us?"

Unknown Number:

-That's a lot to ask, Renny Ren.

"Don't call me Renny Ren."

Unknown Number:

-If I verbally speak to you, can I call you Renny Ren?

Er… progress? That'd be one step forward, and one step back at the same time. Futaba would be talking to me, but she'd be calling me Renny Ren… fuck it, whatever.

"Fine."

"Hah, I knew you'd agree, Renny Ren!" Futaba said in the Alibaba voice from the other side of the door, laughing more after she said it.

"Okay, whatever. Can we talk like this from now on?" Ren was hopeful that he had actually done something good, even though she wasn't using her actual voice. His hopes were crushed when he felt his phone vibrate in his hand yet again.

Unknown Number:

-Nope! I actually recorded that while you weren't here.

"So will you ever actually talk to me?" When there was no response, even on the phone, Ren spoke with more harshness in his voice. "Futaba, if you ever want to get out of there, you gotta talk to me. If you wanna hang out with my friends, Yusuke included, you gotta talk. Can you at least try?"

Unknown Number:

-But texting is so much easier!

"Yeah, I know, but it's not actual communication. Even you can understand that, right?"

Unknown Number:

-Yeah…

Ren felt like a parent disciplining a guilty child. "So can you please just help me out, and help yourself?" There was no response from the phone or from the other side of the door. Maybe Ren had pushed too hard. "Alright, I get it. I'll give it some time. I'll be back another time. Futaba, it would be awesome if you were willing to talk by then. See you then."

Nearly tripping over his own failure as he turned away from the door, Ren left Sojiro's, now thinking much more positively of Maruki's offer. He had made progress, only for it to be wiped away. He feared that the rest of his conversations with Futaba would go the same way unless he tried something new, and Maruki was that something new.

However, it was still up to Sojiro.

Thursday, 7/14

Ren made his way away from the bread store with his newly acquired lunch. He would usually be with Ann at the moment, but she had chosen to stay in classroom 2-D to study. Ren was surprised at her perseverance with exams because she had made it sound like she didn't care that much what score she got.

Good for her. I should probably be studying with her, but it's fine. I studied with the student council president and one of the teachers, so I've gotta already be as prepared as possible. Yesterday kinda proved that. The exam was pretty easy, and I didn't have any questions that really stumped me. I can't relax yet. I still have two and a half days of exams to get through before I can quit worrying. Well, I'll have to wait for scores to come out, but that won't be too bad.

Ren was too busy comparing Ann and his study habits that he didn't notice the first tap on his shoulder. It was only when there was a second, slightly harsher one that was accompanied by a voice did he notice. "Hi, senpai!"

Ren turned around to see the familiar red hair of Kasumi. Ren felt awkward just looking at her and remembering how things had gone between them, but he couldn't just stand there like an idiot. "Oh, hey. What's up?"

"Would you like to eat lunch together?" Kasumi asked, holding up a bento with her eyes full of optimism. Ren couldn't say no to that.

"Sure, let's do it. Courtyard?" he suggested but regretted almost instantly. Whenever he ate in the courtyard, the whispers were overpoweringly loud. Maybe it was a good thing that he was starting to care more about them.

"That'd be great," Kasumi agreed. Ren led the way for the short walk that they had before they emerged into the sunny courtyard. Ren was never a fan of extreme heat, but today wasn't too bad. His t-shirt uniform made it tolerable.

Kasumi and Ren found an unoccupied bench and sat down together. Ren began eating his usual bread, which he still hadn't grown sick of, surprisingly. Kasumi got to work on voraciously devouring her own meal.

Eating with Kasumi felt wrong. Spending time with her felt wrong. Being within a few feet of her felt wrong.

Shit, when did I last talk to her… the cleanup?! Oh fuck, it's been a month. I abandoned her. I just completely ditched her. I mean, that can't be all my fault. She never reached out! Actually, Ren, don't justify this. You're a fucking cunt for that. Now you want to ditch Futaba and you only came up with the plan of Haru coming to the fireworks festival so you feel less horrible about abandoning her. Just be honest with yourself for once, okay?

"It's been a bit since we last talked," Ren said, understating the thought that was currently torturing him. "What've you been up to?"

"Has it?" Kasumi said with a mouth full of noodles. She immediately realized her poor manners, which Ren didn't really mind in the first place, and swallowed her food. "Sorry. I was training for a meet for all of June, so I didn't notice."

"Oh? How'd the meet go?"

"Um…" Ren had his question answered before Kasumi had properly spoken. "Not great. I've been in a slump for a while, and it's only getting worse." Her dejection only made Ren feel worse about not speaking to her for a month. He had abandoned her, left her alone to deal with her problems without assistance, and she had failed. Ren hadn't even tried to help her. Thinking optimistically, Ren hoped he could right his wrong, at least temporarily.

"A slump? I've got a good slump story if you wanna hear it."

"I'd love to." Kasumi sounded much more excited to hear about her senpai's past than talk about her failings. Ren hated that she was this caring about him and he hadn't even paid her attention for a whole month.

"Well, I used to play baseball when I was a kid. When I was, uh, eleven or twelve, I kinda had a slump of my own," Ren began to explain. He saw that Kasumi was already very interested, so he chose to go into a bit more detail. "I was coming off of a minor shoulder injury, and just starting to play again, but I wasn't playing well. I was getting struck out like there was no tomorrow. I was having a horrible season, and so was my team. Playing horrible only made me lose confidence, and that only made me play worse. It was a shitty cycle. In a game towards the end of the season, I wasn't even in the starting lineup. When my team was down about thirteen-nothing, I was subbed-in to pinch-hit. There was a runner on second, and two outs. Because we were down so much, it didn't really matter how my at-bat went. I was able to recognize that, and before I stepped up to the plate, I thought to myself 'Who the hell cares if I strikeout?'"

"And you struck out?" Kasumi guessed, though not in a mean-spirited way.

"Nope. I knocked that fucker over the left-field fence, took a nice, long home-run trot, and went on to lose the game. I quit baseball after that."

"I don't get it," Kasumi said flatly.

I don't blame you. To be honest, I was just missing baseball for a second.

"The point is that I was able to disconnect from how horrible I was playing during a crucial moment. I was just bagging on myself for months, and that only made my slump worse. I realized how dumb that was, just for a second, and hit a home run. The point is that you shouldn't beat yourself up over failing because it'll only make things worse."

"Oh… that makes sense."

"You're already competing at a high level. You know that you're physically capable of doing better, so your slump is just a mental thing."

"Thank you, senpai."

Yeah, as if that helped. What a load of bullshit, Ren. Go up to the roof and try that shit on Haru. "Hey, Haru. You can get out of your marriage with Sugimura if you believe in yourself! Trust me, I hit a home run in little league once!" You idiot.

"No problem."

As they kept eating, Ren kept painfully reminiscing on his unfair treatment of Kasumi. He had used her as a temporary replacement for Makoto, told her that, reminded her of her dead sister, talked to her once more, and then dropped her. The complete lack of sense and care that Ren had displayed baffled him, and it was even more confusing why Kasumi was still interested in speaking to him.

Maybe she doesn't mind that I didn't talk to her for a month. Maybe it's not that big of a deal. Or maybe she's just lonely and I'm the only person who's actually been interested in conversing with her outside of school… but wait, that was just so I could replace Makoto. Fuck.

Ren had to do something to ease his mind. Apologize? Absolutely not. Ren was too embarrassed by his own idiocy to remind her of it. Instead, he would try to make up for his mistakes while leaving them unmentioned.

"I know that we haven't really spent time together in a while, but you wanna hang out this summer? Hell, you can join my club too."

"I'd like to hang out, but I'm unable to join your club, senpai. I'd be too busy with gymnastics to be actively involved in another club, but hanging out is doable."

"Awesome. I still have your number, so I can text you. Does that work?"

"Yes. I'm looking forward to whatever we end up doing."

"Hah, same here." Ren wasn't. He dreaded that it would make him feel worse for his treatment of this girl.

One half of the pair seemingly enjoyed the rest of lunch, the other pretended to.

Haru left her room for the first time since she had gotten home earlier in the afternoon. During her grounding, she would rarely leave her room. Haru would read books, watch TV, and do homework in her room pretty much all the time that she wasn't in school, though exams had left her tired and she had left studying out of her routine. The exams were going fine, but it was nice that it gave her a few hours to focus on something other than Sugimura. That's what she would try to do at home by staying in her room, but she was constantly reminded of the manchild by his constant yelling at servants echoing through the home.

Now, Haru had to leave her room. Her friends were depending on her to make it to the fireworks festival, and letting them down was unbearable to Haru. To not let them down, she had to leave her comfort zone, her room, and venture downstairs to one of the guest rooms. Haru had to convince Sugimura to take her to the fireworks festival.

She carefully walked down the stairs, hoping to go unnoticed by anyone in the house. They would question why she was leaving her room for once, and that would create unnecessary problems.

Haru managed to reach the bottom of the staircase without running into anyone, Sugimuras and servants included. Father wasn't home, but that was expected at this point. Haru hadn't seen him in days and had heard little about him from the servants. He was gearing up to accelerate his political campaign, and that demanded all of his time. It was better this way because now Haru didn't have to look into her father's cold, emotionless eyes and ask herself how he could marry her off without batting an eye or even thinking of her mother.

Haru went down the hallway that was home to the multiple guest rooms and knocked on the one that she knew to be Nobuo's.

"Enter." Haru recognized the voice not as Nobuo's, but as Hajime's. She opened the door and went inside. The room had a coffee table that had several chairs around it, and both Sugimuras occupied two chairs opposite of each other. It looked like Haru had interrupted something, but neither Sugimura seemed to care. Hajime even seemed pleasantly surprised to see Haru. "Ah, Haru. It's good to see you. Stopping by for a chat?" he asked, though his rude eyes betrayed his respectful tone, going up and down Haru's body. She wanted to turn around and leave instantly, but she had an objective.

"Sort of, Sugimura-san. I was actually hoping that Nobuo would be willing to take me to the fireworks festival that is happening on the eighteenth in Shibuya."

Hajime raised an eyebrow and turned to Nobuo, who was smugly, yet lustfully, gazing at Haru. "How does that sound, Nobuo?"

"Bah, it sounds like something that the common people worry over. I can't be troubled to-" Nobuo spat.

"Nobuo." Hajime's tone had darkened, and he had sat forward in his seat. Haru could feel the authority he exerted and was thankful that she wasn't the one being chastised. "Your wife-to-be has made one request of you in your time here. Be a gentleman, no, be a Sugimura, and kindly accept."

Nobuo, the mental child that he was, pouted like he was being told to put a toy back in a store. Despite his obvious discomfort, he still obeyed his father. "Haru, we may go to the festival."

Hajime relaxed in his chair and nodded to Haru. From the look he gave her, she assumed that she was supposed to speak. "Oh, er, thank you, Nobuo. I look forward to it."

"Tch." Nobuo still wasn't happy about it. Haru couldn't care less, because Nobuo would be even unhappier when she ditched him during the festival. It was a shame that she wasn't going to be able to see the look on his face when he lost her.

Friday, 7/15

Akechi dropped a fucking meteor on the poor, poor shadow. It hadn't done anything to Akechi except exist near the entrance to Mementos. Akechi swiftly moved from one shadow to another, using obscenely powerful spells to vent his anger. The call he got that afternoon, and had received every day for the past week, was infuriating.

"Wait." That idiot! He does nothing but waste time, Akechi thought as he split the ground open to swallow up one shadow. That 'idiot' did have nothing but time to waste for now, but that didn't make it any less insufferable. Akechi's timeline followed the idiots, and the completion of Akechi's own plan depended on the idiot succeeding, which happened to depend on Akechi. It was a loop of dependency that pissed off Akechi. Technically, he didn't have to wait, but waiting would sweeten the inevitable moment.

Akechi had gotten through the newest palace within a day and was ready to complete the job last Saturday. That call had told him that he needed to wait and that holding out was necessary to the news cycle. Akechi didn't doubt this, as the plan had been very thoroughly thought out for months at this point, but waiting was not something that he liked. He had waited for years at this point, and he only had months left. It was agonizing.

Now, he only had a few days until he was able to complete this job. Sunday, to be specific, was when Akechi could make his move, and what a move it would be. Akechi had his own personal hall of fame for the more spectacular jobs he had done, but all of them were made to look like accidents or received little attention outside of one-off news reports.

This would be different. This would be Akechi's crown jewel, at least for now. Akechi had planned his actual crown jewel for years at this point.

But for now, he was stuck killing lowly shadows to waste time.