Chapter 18 | The Fall of the Ishiki Clan


"The leader of the Ishiki clan?" queried Mahiro, the subject seeming foreign on his tongue. "I have never encountered him, but it is assumed that he is on the island, yes. Ikki here has had a run-in, scarcely escaped."

The attention fell on Ikki and the young shinobi frowned as if the memory was bitter, though it was impossible to find anything that didn't upset him. Mahiro looked to him with a certain expectation that annoyed Madara, himself reminded of all the explanations that Ikki seemed to always be forced to give.

Always consistent, Ikki spoke with a hint of suppressed reluctance. "His name is Koki. He's strong." He glimpsed at Mahiro, who placed a hand atop his shoulder, giving him a reassuring squeeze and a look that told him Madara could be trusted with his shame. Ikki returned his gaze to Madara. "Turned the ground to quicksand. It swallowed all my comrades. Made me go back to the castle as a message. Said the same would happen to any other scouting teams."

"Given the disappearance rate of your scouting teams," started Seijun, "your story is worth investigating. Right, Madara-sama?"

"You are certain without a doubt that Koki is the leader of the Ishiki clan?" asked Madara. With unknown clans such as the Ishiki, it was hard to know who stood at the forefront of the group.

"Yes," said Ikki, storming away.

"Excuse him," said Mahiro. "He's having a hard time since Rikuto's gone missing."

"Why?" Madara wondered what reason Ikki had to have these strong feelings. "What sort of relationship did he have with Rikuto?"

"He was abandoned to his fate when you, your clan, and his sister fled the Sun Country," said Mahiro pointedly. "Rikuto took him in. Trained him. Ikki idolizes him. That is all."

He supposed he could be satisfied with that response, so he didn't press him for others. It didn't matter if he believed him or not at that point. Madara was exhausted by their activity in the Sun Country that he sought to end things as quickly as possible. The mission that morning would do the trick if everything went according to the plan he reiterated to everyone participating.

Madara wanted to cross the sea of venomous earth to the southern castle where he suspected was the location of the Ishiki clan's base. The problem appeared to be convincing Mahiro that this was true as the current temporary leader of the Mikazuki clan insisted that the ruins of the castle were used as an HQ for his clan. However, that explanation did not sit well with Madara. How could it? He wasn't an idiot. There was a big chunk of story that wasn't being told, but that wouldn't stop him. Why should it? To be deterred by something as simple as a lack of concrete information about his own suspicions. No, he trusted his own instinct.

His gut was telling him that the horde of Ishiki shinobi were pouring out of the southern castle to invade the other parts of the Sun Country. It was an advantageous area with connections to every other part of the island.

If the Ishiki clan had arrived to the Sun Country to invade it, that would be the ideal place to start their conquest.

Madara excluded Mahiro and his shinobi from this plan. This mission would be like every other. They were searching for the missing shinobi from their side and taking care of any Ishiki shinobi that they encountered along the way.

"If we encounter Koki, good for us," said Madara during briefing. "We take him out. Weaken the clan by killing the head. It's a simple strategy, but it will be enough." If there were shinobi in the battlefield, as he knew there were, that fled at the mere sound of his name, then the clan was not stupidly attempting to get themselves killed. "Be mindful of your surroundings, be careful as you walk across the poisoned earth, mind your chakra as you do."

Mahiro mentioned the existence of a place well-hidden enough to provide good coverage for the Ishiki clan and Madara suggested he go forth to explore it, lying about his ten-man team returning to the forest of giant trees in search for clues that he was certain they wouldn't find there.

With everyone split up into six teams of five to ten, Madara ordered them all to move out and everyone went in separate directions in an instant.

He led his team through the most obvious routes and they encountered several enemy shinobi lying in wait, but they slowed them down at best. Not enough to make a significant difference in his plan.

Upon reaching the forest with its high trees, shooting up into the gray sky with their brittle branches and peeling trunks, Madara sent two of his men to relay messages to the other teams. Once Mahiro learned that Madara was requesting aid, he would double back to assist, and this would allow Madara more time to reach the southern castle without interference. At that point, however, even if Mahiro tried to stop him, Madara would have him captured.

The Mikazuki clan wasn't their ally. In fact, he didn't wholly trust them. Mio didn't either. She trusted Rikuto, but Rikuto was likely dead. With time, it was starting to get less and less likely that any of the scouting teams were going to find any information about Rikuto that would lead them to find the man alive. Perhaps, Madara thought from time to time, that Mahiro was a highly ambitious man that would not mind it if that were the case, given that in Rikuto's absence he assumed control of the clan. It appeared more possible that Mahiro was sending scouts out for appearances only, to further gain popularity among his clansmen. That didn't seem too hard a feat for him to accomplish. His shinobi were loyal to him through and through. There was always an admiring look in some when Mahiro was present.

However, Madara played with the idea that it was all a trap as well, another clever plan to exact revenge on Mio for Ayuka's death. She founded the Mikazuki clan after all and after her death, as per Mio's retelling of the story of when she made the trip to the Sun Country on her own to meet the dying priestess, there were many people displeased with her, particularly Mahiro. Mio was blamed for Ayuka's death, for weakening her by stripping her of the artifact that kept her in her prime since Kiyohime's generation, which dated back at least a hundred years.

The reason they came, the Uchiha clan and the Kuronuma clan was because they heard the Ishiki clan were monopolizing the Sun Country, imprisoning the innocent people and the Mikazuki clan that inhabited it, and because that very clan threatened the livelihood of Mio's Guardians, something that she could not forgive. Mio came because she trusted Rikuto (wanted to clear his name) and was visibly displeased to find Mahiro leading the clan while Rikuto was believed to be missing, trapped by the Ishiki clan.

He didn't trust the Mikazuki clan. In fact, he would have preferred to eradicate them as a whole, keep them from causing any more problems. If not for them, the Artifact War would not have happened, Mio wouldn't have had to suffer as she did, and all the shinobi and people that lost their lives would be alive still. Certainly the ones at fault were Ayuka and Nishiki, but the Mikazuki clan did their bidding, led by their eldest son, a monstrous man that he was happy to know was dead, but had raged for years knowing that he did not kill him himself. Mio had. Of course, he was hers to kill.

He realized he never asked about how that came about to be. She never offered any details. He assumed it was difficult for her to say and as per his grandmother's advice, perceived from her silence that she would tell him when she was ready to talk. He was patient. At least, he liked to think he was.

Now was not the time to think himself into a hole. He refocused his attention on the task at hand as he and his team traveled along the edges of the forest. Since the trees dried up as a result of the poisoned earth prevalent in the Sun Country, it made using the forest difficult when they couldn't scale the trees to jump from one branch to the next without the brittle limbs falling apart.

There were more adversaries the closer they were to the southern castle, but his men were worth a hundred each. Madara made quick work of the enemies that he encountered, his eyes steady on the peek of ruins rising in the horizon the closer he moved. He anticipated that he would arrive in ten minutes to the courtyard he had once used to sneak through on his way to kill Jikai, back when he was being used by Ayuka on her quest to change pathways to benefit her plans. He had memorized all the entrances from an old drawn map and was certain in his own ability to recall the layout of the ruined castle.

Madara took his own men aside to explain what he remembered, teaching them as well as he could off the top of his head about all the areas within the castle that should be marked as potential traps. He drew as well a replica as he could, though it was nothing but squares and circles with marks here and there to signal entrances and exits, rooms were pressed inside the large rectangular shapes he painted on the scroll. His men wouldn't be too confused by his failed artistry as they were accustomed to the way he ran things and he didn't always have detailed maps to give them. However, because he wasn't too keen on failure for this mission—quite possibly more than any other—he wished Mio had seen the map before. One complete look over and she would've been able to replicate it exactly within a matter of minutes. It would've been helpful, but that wasn't possible. Ayuka had burned it after allowing him the time to see it.

Nevertheless, his men, now down to eight, himself included, were confident and he understood that those seven shinobi at his side would not fail him. They would die before it.

A horde of Ishiki shinobi were upon them when they were seconds from reaching the courtyard. At once, the battle was upon him and his men, his body moving on instinct as enemies zeroed in on him in pairs and groups of three or more as if there were a target on his back, the murmur passing between their lips, always with a tenor of surprise or a hint of fright was his name. Uchiha Madara. He heard it in whispers and shouts as he took down everyone that openly challenged him, his men pushing ahead, taking down one or several enemies at once. Great fireballs brightened the field before him, the heat wafting to them all in the breeze, towering walls of earth shot up around the southern castle, torrents of baleful wind pierced through them—the jutsu from a Sand Dome clan in the Wind Country mimicked by one of his men who defeated it during the conflicts they faced against them—and the splash of poisoned earth burning through clothes and flesh, demolishing the walls erected to give themselves what little time they had to regroup.

Madara saw through all of their tactics. Understood that if they were cornered through the courtyard, they would attempt to exit through the opposite side. Halfway through his fight against three Ishiki shinobi that were proving rather determined to slow him down, he used a cloning jutsu to create enough of a diversion to get through to the other side to intercept the fleeing Ishiki.

The crowd was a distraction. There would be two of them, one on either side, always prepared because the Ishiki clan understood that he would make it across the battlefield, where most of their fights had taken place, to the castle they seized as their hideout. How long did they possible think to evade him?

Madara used their own jutsu against them as the intercepted shinobi attempted to counterattack erecting four tall walls of solid stone, trapping them in place. However, the brown walls fell apart into sand and Madara came face to face with Ishiki Koki, the leader of the Ishiki clan.

Flanked on both sides by two other of his men, who had eliminated several enemies to join him, Madara gave them clear orders to stay out of his way. He targeted Koki and wouldn't be satisfied until he immobilized or killed him.

Koki, like several of his brethren, was quite skilled in taijutsu, but with the Kuronuma clan as allies, he had encountered better practitioners. He used his strange jutsu to turn stone into sand, controlling it as far as making it into quicksand. He tried to limit the amount of ground Madara could use to launch a counterattack, putting more and more distance between them. Koki intended to run.

Madara battled him with projectiles and long-range jutsu that Koki narrowly evaded each time. His reflexes weren't nearly as impressive as Madara initially perceived them. He was young. Too young. Not all used to war. Had his inexperience been the reason he stayed in the southern castle because as Madara tortured the young shinobi leader by prolonging the fight—toying with him—he realized that this man was not capable of taking Rikuto? He never met Rikuto, but he trusted Mio's word when she said he was strong.

Koki didn't measure up to any of the strong opponents Madara had faced in his lifetime. He was certain that this weak boy didn't possess even a quarter of Mahiro's strength in battle. Defeating him was no question, it was a given—a fact—and Madara easily accomplished it as soon as he closed the distance between them, swiftly without holding back an ounce of speed, he streaked across the quicksand faster than it could ever hope to grip at his feet and with Koki's own kunai, stabbed him above the heart. He purposely missed.

All around him the fighting stopped. The Ishiki were so easily defeated that he felt insulted as he seized Koki by the throat, threatening to crush it as the wounded boy choked on his own blood.

"Where is Mikazuki Rikuto?" asked Madara.

Koki offered him a bloody smile. He wouldn't speak.

Madara did not spare his life. He ordered the few shinobi left alive to be taken prisoner, others found he ordered dead.

He entered the castle with Seijun trailing a few steps behind him. He killed two Ishiki that tried to sneak up on him with a swift kunai through the neck. Together, he and Seijun found the captives in a basement, all of them in tatters and the shadows of the men and women they once were, thin and malnourished, they climbed up the few steps with great difficult, stumbling and crawling up the rest, needing their help to stay on their feet. They were all Motou shinobi.

"Has Mikazuki Rikuto been brought here?" asked Madara.

No.

The answer was murmured to him from every direction and it faded like an echo.

"Any Mikazuki shinobi?"

No.

Many were killed.

He didn't assume that he had taken out the entire Ishiki clan. No. However, he did confirm that they had suffered significant loses with Koki and at least fifty other dead and over twenty captured.

Moving the Motou shinobi that had been deteriorating in the basement would be a nightmare, given that many were too weak to move around. He set up what would become a temporary sanctuary, leaving one of his men in charge. He ordered Seijun to go on ahead to inform Mio of the news and he went begrudgingly. He stayed in the southern castle until sunset, listening to what he could from the prisoners and trying to piece together the events that led to the country's current state.

Mahiro waited for him outside of the northern castle, a disgruntled look about him, but before he dared speak a word to Madara, he told him, "You lied about the southern castle."

Ikki stood beside him, appearing a little battered. A small group of Mikazuki shinobi from his team were present, alongside the Kuronuma guarding the castle, and he spotted Yayoi standing beside Sena at the entrance watching with her face twisted in worry.

Mahiro closed his mouth, swallowing hard.

"I killed Koki," said Madara flatly, gesturing to the men behind him to dump the body in front of Mahiro, who took a step back away from it.

"A slippery fiend that one," said Mahiro, not averting his gaze from Madara's, "but I do think this calls for a celebration." A smile split across his face as he turned towards the others, raising his voice for them all to hear. "With Koki's death, the Ishiki clan is in tatters." He looked back to Madara, but his attention was drawn something or someone behind Madara. "Oh, it appears, Shugosha-sama has returned."

Madara had no sooner started to turn when he felt Mio bump hard against his shoulder as she passed in a flurry. Mio took Mahiro by the collar and before the man managed any sort of reaction crushed her fist into his jaw. In the distance behind him, as the Mikazuki present and Ikki made a move to stop her and she repelled them by shoving the black-haired boy into the group coming towards her with a force that knocked them all down, he heard Keigo and Yuzuru calling desperately after her. Seijun trailing after them with a scowl.

"You disgusting slime!" she shouted, infuriated, angrier that he had ever seen her. She punched Mahiro a second time, knocking him down to the ground. His face swelling bright red where she struck. "Why—? Why didn't you—?"

It all happened too fast.

Madara wrapped his arms around her middle and gave her a great tug to pull her back, but she resisted, still throwing punches at Mahiro until Ikki managed to get him out of her reach. She stopped struggling, but the fury was set in her expression.

"What is happening?" demanded Madara.

"Rikuto is dead!" she yelled, looking to him. "He's been dead from the start—he hid this from us, he knew—he—"

"Yes, I lied!" spat Mahiro, bleeding down his chin. "You would not have helped us without the incentive! If I appeared before you requesting your help, you would've ignored us! You're biased!"

"You tried to kill me!" she snapped. "You were one of Gouki's faithful underlings! You supported Ayuka! You supported Nishiki! You were more my enemy than anyone! Who could trust that? I may not have been willing to come for you, but I would have come for Ikki!"

"That was behind us! Rikuto helped us all see reason! We would never lie if we did not think it absolutely necessary! Be happy, Shugosha Mio, your job here is done! If you so desire it, leave this very night!"

"I will!"

"You will have no thanks from me, you screeching—"

Mio made a move to attack him and Madara was certain he saw Mahiro flinch.

Madara left Mio in Yuzuru's care, though she stormed into the castle on her own, ordering the Kuronuma and Uchiha alike to start packing. With a start, even the Uchiha that disliked her, went to gather their things, murmuring to each other. She shouted at Yayoi as well, who looked helplessly at Madara then at her brother before following her inside. Sena at her heels.

Madara approached Mahiro once more.

"Want to have your shot at battering me as well?" asked Mahiro, scowling through the blood.

"You've wasted our time, would you rather we thank you?" asked Madara. He faced Ikki. "If you choose to stay, tell your sister to forget you ever existed or she will not rest until you are at her side."

"Understandable. I don't deny you have a point or that I didn't deserve this. I lied. I wasted your time, yes, but I did it because I thought it was the best thing to do." Mahiro wiped at the blood on his face with the back of his hand, smearing it across his face. He lowered his gaze for the first time in a look of deep shame. "Perhaps, I owe your wife an apology."

"Only if you mean it."

Madara walked to the castle to start packing his belongings. He crossed paths with Eishirou as he smoked a long pipe by an open window overlooking the courtyard where the drama took place, his back turned towards him.

"Oh, Mio, she is truly the loveliest—"

He grabbed the noble, turned him around and punched him so hard he sagged on the ground clutching his broken nose as Madara walked away, feeling slightly satisfied.

Mio was stuffing clothes into a bag, his and hers in an indiscriminate fashion. Her face drawn in a permanent grimace.

"What happened?" asked Madara.

"Kiyo told me that Rikuto was executed when the Ishiki clan invaded the castle," she said, aggravated.

"Kiyo? The old medicine woman?"

"Yes." She stuffed the bag full in her exasperation, sat back on her haunches and acknowledge him standing by the door. He had not moved an inch since he slid it shut behind him. "And I'm not exaggerating because I hate Mahiro because you saw that I have good reason to hate him for being more than a filthy liar! How dare he tell us that Rikuto was captured by the Ishiki clan? He only wanted us to defeat his enemies for him for free! That—that—"

"How do you know Kiyo was telling the truth?"

"Because I captured an Ishiki and tortured her until she felt like talking," said Mio, looking away. That explained the blood underneath her fingernails and the blotches of red across her neck. "I was fortunate she was a coward."

Madara too had suspicions in his mind concerning the situation, but he resolved that leaving was the best thing they could do. Mio needed to rest. She might have been in good enough health to go out that morning, but she needed to rest. He didn't want her here. Capable as she was, healthy or not, he didn't want her there in this country surrounded by the Mikazuki clan. He didn't trust them from the start and time had not made things better. She didn't either, he knew that she didn't, but she felt that she owed Rikuto the benefit of the doubt, trusting that he didn't ally with the Ishiki clan (which their time in the Sun Country proved he hadn't) and that he had not been spilling Kuronuma clan secrets to them. He was gone. It was over. The end was so close that he shook the thoughts from his mind.

"Kiyo told me that they spotted a beast swimming around the island. A tailed beast." Mio calmed enough to speak normally. "I think it might be the one that you released. The Sanbi."

"Near the island?" he asked, interest piqued.

She nodded. "Close enough to see. It's been spooking the fish."

She stopped shoving things into their bags, her shoulders drooping as a calm thought invaded her mind.

"The people can't stay here."

"I killed the Ishiki clan's leader," said Madara, or rather he killed the person that Mahiro and Ikki told him was the leader. How could he know if Koki was the Ishiki clan's actual leader when they had been lied to from the start. "We weakened their numbers. It is little comfort for us here, but we have Izuna and Takuto in the Earth Country ridding them of the rest of their numbers. Whatever remnants remain, the Mikazuki clan can handle them. The people will be fine."

"Did the Ishiki have prisoners?"

Madara explained that they were mostly Motou shinobi and that according to them, the Mikazuki captured were killed.

"Are we to assume that they freely gave up the secret of the artifacts?" asked Mio.

"Yes."

"This isn't going to stop."

"We should just get rid of the Mikazuki clan," suggested Madara.

Mio glared at him and resumed stuffing the second bag near her lap. He thought he angered her by making the suggestion, but she said, "It would probably be prudent, but the future could change drastically if we do. With our numbers and the artifacts on us, we could take them on no problem, too. We probably won't have another opportunity like this. They trust us…a little, I guess."

The thought lingered between them, but only as a thought.

Eishirou was recaptured to be used in their crossing of the sea back to the Lightning Country. Their things, as every shinobi had only a bag with all of their necessities, were already packed away safely inside the ship. The wounded were being carried on board on stretchers or being helped by the medics that were in nursing them all back to health. Madara and Mio took their dead with them as well, though they lost a few shinobi on both sides, and planned to bury them among their own clansmen, not on some island far from their homeland.

Yayoi was weeping inconsolably because her brother refused to leave with them. Keigo picked another fight with Ikki that ended when Mao and Yuzuru separated them from each other, bruised and bloody, shouting at one another from across the semi-crowded courtyard.

Mio carried the Fate Sphere underneath her pack, strapping it on tightly as she watched the scene unfold. Sena appeared a moment later carrying a young boy in her arms with short unkempt hair and bright green eyes and Mio moved to meet the servant halfway. She calmly called out to the boy, who shyly clung to the servant's kimono, but his watery eyes staring interestingly at Mio before he reached out his hand, accepting her. She pulled him into her arms as Mahiro emerged, flanked by two equally large shinobi, and stalked across the courtyard to speak with Mio, at which point, Madara moved back to her side.

He didn't trust she wouldn't try to break Mahiro's face.

Mahiro stopped, leaving a wide distance between himself and Mio, and inclined his head apologetically. Mio stared at him defiantly as the toddler in her arms, appearing younger than the girls she was raising with Takuto, touched her face, his eyes were a startling green shade that reminded him of someone that he couldn't concentrate long enough to figure out given the situation.

The ambience between his wife and Mahiro was highly charged with strong emotions, but the older man came subdued and with a hint of regret. "I understand that my words mean nothing to you, but I humbly request that you listen to what I have to say."

Mio said nothing, staring at him as she waited for him to continue.

"I am sorry. I had no right lying to you about Rikuto." He raised his red eyes to meet hers. "The truth is he died. Several of our shinobi and kunoichi were captured during the invasion that claimed his life. We managed to rescue one group. Ikki was among them. It is assumed that many of them were tortured until they revealed our secrets—your secrets."

He didn't bat an eye or avert his gaze. "Understand our viewpoint, Shugosha-sama. You despised the Mikazuki clan, with good reason too, and it took many of us a lot of time to break free of Ayuka's manipulation. Without Rikuto we would've devolved back into our old ways, I don't deny that—Ayuka and Nishiki taught us that we were the rightful owners of the spheres, but the truth is they belong to the Kuronuma clan, always had and no one else should hold them. However, when we were cornered by the Ishiki clan, after Rikuto's death, we could do nothing but hope for your aid, so when you arrived here demanding answers, I could not say that Rikuto was dead. I felt he was the only way you would trust us. For that, I am sorry."

Mahiro shocked them all when he got down on one knee into a deep bow.

"Forgive my thoughtlessness, Shugosha-sama."

"Okay," said Mio, surprising Madara, "but I want something in return."

"Anything," said Mahiro, raising his head to look into her expressionless face.

"This boy and that boy," said Mio, pointing from the green-eyed boy to Ikki. "I want them."

Mahiro's mouth dropped a little, his composure shaken, and he pressed his lips together, gearing to answer, but a sudden rumbling swept the ground and from the distance, Madara heard one of his shinobi shout, "There's a giant shadow over out at sea!"

Following his shout, there was a booming roar careening across the courtyard with a force that shook the very foundation of the castle. Several grappled with one another's limbs attempting to stay standing. Sena fell on Madara with a yelp and she clung to him. Mahiro lost his footing as he tried to stand and fell on his backside.

Mio held onto the child protectively and in the glimpse he caught of her, he saw the mist of her Time Sphere turn a violent red. It only did so in times of great danger.

Was it the beast? Had this happened before?

The tremors stopped after several minutes of steadily growing stronger when the roar disappeared completely.

Mahiro got on his feet, dusting himself off same as the others that had fallen too, and looked to Mio pleadingly. "Reconsider your leave. If that beast is near enough that we felt the force of its chakra shake this very mountain to the core, there is no telling what it will do to you if you encounter it at sea."

"You have not considered my condition," said Mio referring to the toddler and Ikki.

"I did say anything," replied Mahiro. "Take them."

Mio turned to Sena as she shyly bowed her head apologetically in Madara's direction. "Have the boy packed."

"Yes, Mio-sama."

"We'll leave tomorrow morning, hopefully that will allow the beast enough time to retreat."

Ikki looked scandalized as Mio approached him and told him simply, "Pack."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you old bat," spat Ikki.

"Don't talk to Mio like that!" shouted Keigo defensively.

"I'll talk to her however I want!"

Keigo lunged himself at him, but Mao grabbed him around the middle and hoisted him up off the ground. He kicked his feet, agitated, as he shouted, "Lemme just punch him a little!"

Uninterested in the turn of events, Mio continued to walk towards the castle, beckoning Yayoi to follow her. Madara stormed after her.

"What are you doing?" he asked, overtaking her in the hallway to stop her. "You can't just go around picking up strange children! What about his parents?"

"Dead," said Mio firmly. "Both of them. Without Rikuto's guidance, he has no one."

"He's a Mikazuki! He needs to stay here!"

Mio stepped forward, leveling with Madara. "If I don't take this boy, we will have a dangerous enemy to worry about in fifteen years. I will not do this to my children."

"And raising him will make all the difference?" snapped Madara.

Mio moved past him, choosing not to answer. Yayoi stopped him from going after her and he rounded on her.

"Talk to her!"

Yayoi frowned. "Don't yell at me! I can't talk her out of it any more than you can!"

He calmed. "She doesn't honestly believe that I'm going to just let her pick up orphaned children left and right."

"She's not asking for permission," grumbled Yayoi, side eying him.

"I know that!"

"And he isn't just any orphaned child," said Yayoi. "That's the real shock, really."

"What?"

"His parents."

"What about them? Spill it," he responded, agitated.

"Susumu is Gouki's son with Kikumi."


xl: I don't know why I even bother anymore. Outlines, oh how I ignore your wise guidance.

I'm working hard to get the next 2 chapters done before I disappear under a mountain of schoolwork.

Thank you taran taran for reviewing the last update!

Thank you everyone else for reading. I'm going to go pack now.