NOTES: HELLOOOO new chapter already im pumping these out cuz im very AnR brainrot due to autism right now. ENJOYY

Hanabusa Mansion | Time: 12:10am

"So... y'got a bath right?" Shin'ya asks, turning his head to follow Sumireko as she walks to the bed, sitting on it.

"Of course. Would you like to take one? I can tend to your bandages afterwards if you would want." Sumireko didn't mind one bit, she was good at tending to wounds, it was really out of convenience that Akira took care of such matters.

Shin'ya took some time to think about it, did his body feel in shape enough? A bath is relaxing and stuff but he felt like he might just pass out the moment he relaxes again.

"Mmm.. Yea i'll take the offer" regardless, he thought it could do some good especially for Mahiru when she wakes tomorrow.

"Wonderful!" Sumireko's hands clap together in content. She was more than happy to provide her guest with nice things such as a bed, a bath, and food. Tending to others made her feel some kind of power, in truth.
"Follow me, I'll guide you there myself." She motions her hand towards the door before starting to walk herself, expecting Shin'ya to follow.

She couldn't quite tell if she enjoyed taking care of others or enjoyed the feeling of dependency and reliance she would get from it.
Her hand paused on the doorknob for a second as the thought crossed her mind.
Yet, strangely enough, she didn't want to think about that when it came to Shin'ya. She felt a certain warmth and she didn't desire to overanalyze it and find that her interests were only for a selfish cause.

Shin'ya meanwhile jumped out of bed with more energy than he thought he had left in his body, but that only cheered him on further.
He could feel there was some strange connection to this stranger, and while he didn't feel any immediate danger he couldn't help keeping his guard up.

"Aight lead the way" the words were followed by him pretending to smoke again, an habit that simply follows him anywhere he goes as it's a near unconscious reflex by now.

Sumireko gave a polite smile, although curious of this habit, and simply opened the door to do exactly as Shin'ya said and lead the way.

The walk there was quiet, both seemed focused on their own things. For Sumireko, her thoughts were running in a few different directions that she couldn't quite control even with her best efforts.
For Shin'ya, he was careful to observe every detail of his surroundings leading to the bathroom to make sure he'd find his way back to the initial room afterwards.

This place was huge, so huge in fact that the walk to the bathroom took a solid 5 minutes at an average pace.

"Damn lady, wouldn't ya want your bathroom closer?" he snickers, mocking how ridiculous it is to have such a huge space.

The heiress could see how this would be funny to others, but to her it's just what her whole life was like.

"I suppose I'm just used to it, every floor has 2 bathrooms for staff and guests. My parents' rooms, including mine, have their own personal bathroom attached." she explains just as they arrive at said location.

"I'll run the bath for you, so just sit on the bench for a few alright?" Shin'ya couldn't say no to that, he honestly didn't like making the bath he just liked to get IN the bath so if he could skip that part? Great! But he was caught off guard at the mention of benches, there's places to sit in there? At their apartment the room is so cramped if you wanna sit it's on the toilet bowl and that's it.

As both enter the room, Shin'ya looks around with complete amazement. This was fucking HUGE.
"Holy shit"

Sumireko couldn't help but giggle at the other's reaction. A hum escapes her lips as she walks towards the bath, turning the tap on.

"Do you like it Hot? Warm? Medium? Maybe cold?" There were many ways one could enjoy a bath and she wanted to make sure her guest would have the best experience within her mansion and under her care.

"Heh I'll go with hot." He went and sat down on one of the cozy benches pressed against the left wall. This room truly had everything; a huge bath, a huge shower space, a huge mirror, 2 separate benches, 2 different exit doors, and a dresser filled with various changing outfits and towels. Which Shin'ya only found out from Sumireko walking to it and opening it.

"In here you'll find all you need for after your bath. There is your change of clothes for the night, a clean towel for your hair and body. On the shelf situated on the right wall of the bath are various body wash, shampoos, and conditioners. We have only the best and a wide variety of bathing products you may choose anything within sight. Soap bars, body wash, lotion, jelly soaps, bubbles, bath bombs-" Sumireko started going on a tangent really, Shin'ya wondered if she even took time to breathe or if she had some unlimited access to oxygen at this point.

"You don't gotta explain all this, I don't even know what half these things yer talkin' bout are" he decided to just interrupt her.

"Oh my." she brings her hand to her mouth, giggling a bit.

"Then just take what you want, I'll be handling my own business in my room. There is a button you may press if you need any kind of assistance. This will let staff know and someone will come."

"Neat. Alright see ya then" she waved her hand and immediately started to undress- to Sumireko's surprise. This caused the heiress' heart to pick a just slightly faster pace. Quickly, she turned around and walked to the door.

"Enjoy." and with that she left Shin'ya to his bath. He wasted no time, almost jumping into it. He reached for the various different products Sumireko had listed, getting nearly overwhelmed from all the options but throwing in some bubbles and a bath bomb.

It felt nice. Warm and hot. He let himself sink as he watched the fizzing from the bomb release more and more color into the water.
He finally felt safe.
Fully relaxed.

Baths were a very positive and safe experience, they always made him and Mahiru feel better.
It was actually a positive trigger for the mentioned girl.

'Warm..'

Hearing Mahiru's thought only helped that feeling of safety and relaxation really settle in.
He couldn't lie, he was so used to sharing co-consciousness with Mahiru that it was strange and destabilizing when she wasn't there at all for long periods of time.

'Whe- where... where are we..?' Mahiru's voice was quiet and soft, contrasting Shin'ya's rough and almost hoarse voice. Although it could only be heard from within their shared mind.

'Thatsa loong story'

And so, Shin'ya started filling Mahiru in.

!*!*!*!*!*!
Inukai Residence | Time: 12:35am

The cleanup was mostly silent, something surprising.
The only time there had been silence while both of them stood in the same room was earlier during their made up 'nothing' game.
Which.. had only lasted 15 minutes.

This silence wasn't comfortable in any way, it felt heavy. Like a weight crushing you and pushing onto your shoulders to bring you to your knees.

"..." Isuke couldn't lie, she wasn't exactly the best at doing chores or cleaning or any of it. She didn't want to be some housewife or maid, and she had the privilege to never lift a finger.

But it felt like that luxury flew right out the broken window this... thing got in from.

She was honestly getting frustrated, feeling like no matter how much she swept more and more glass shards and dust just appeared out of thin air.

"UGH" groaning in frustration she throws the broom and lets herself fall onto the couch, laying down and stretching her legs onto it with her arm hanging form the side.

"Isuke is Done " she states, which earns a slight half hearted chuckle from Haruki.
It didn't matter.
Nothing really did right now.

She looked at her hands, and then at the motion she kept doing with the mop.
None of it felt like her.
Like she was doing it.

But she was.
And she had to, because Isuke wouldn't.

"It's fine. I got it." she mumbles, stealing a glance over at the dead body. She froze if only for a second, the memory of it running at her full speed replaying in her mind.

"... " Isuke noticed, but held off saying anything. Why would she anyway? It's not like she cared. Ugh.

"What are you going to do about Isuke's window mmh?" she asks in a near nonchalant manner. She looked over at her nails, they were still looking sharp and nicely maintained. Good.

Haruki let out a sigh at the question. Well, at least it was clear Isuke had no intent on helping any further. Still, she was surprised she offered to help in the first place. She swept up fairly nicely.
Not exactly the most efficient but at this point it was better than nothing.
She looked over the the broken window, pondering.
"Board it up I guess. We don't want any more of..." what were those things even..

"Those... to come in. What's with you rich people and houses made of glass?" Haruki couldn't help but grumble under her breath, she felt it was stupid and unsafe to live in places with so many windows.

"You are Not boarding up my window!" Isuke sat up with a dramatic gasp, showing offense at the idea. It startled Haruki who, almost on reflex, reached for her knife.
As she feels her hand rest on it, she stops.
God. She's.. on edge.
Lucky for her, Isuke didn't notice, far too busy throwing a tantrum.

"You're pissing me off "

"Yeah well you're not a ray of sunshine either, Your Highness" Haruki scoffs, relaxing her hand and walking towards the priorly thrown broom.

Well, the silence no longer was a worry, it was now instead filled with bickering and arguing.

Lucky for the both of them, Haruki is a fast and hardworking person and the scene was cleaned up in the next hour, now moving onto the next step in their plan.

"I am telling you- if you put a single wooden plank on the window, Isuke is killing you."

"Well i'm telling you that if we don't do shit something is gonna come kill the BOTH of us."

"Hmph. Good luck finding a wooden plank around here anyways "

Shit. That's true. There wasn't anything good enough to plank the window up.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Haruki felt a bit panicked, but quickly took a deep breath.
Think Haruki Think. You're a handy butch. You'll come up with something... come on think... plan B...

"Take all the shit you want from this floor, we're barricading the stairs instead until we find a new safer location to go to."

!*!*!*!*!*!
Hanabusa Mansion | Time: 1:20am

Shin'ya and Mahiru had been talking, resting in the bath and washing themselves while going over everything.
They didn't even notice the time pass by so quickly.
It'd been 45 minutes they were in there by now.

What was keeping them there for so long was concern, a fear that when they wake tomorrow and Mahiru is the one front... a fear that she'll be in danger.
Sumireko seems safe, but is she?

'If she tries anythin' i'll punch her into the ground.' Shin'ya promises, wanting nothing more than to protect Mahiru.
A sigh from the body.
Tired.
He finally felt all of the exhaustion hit.

"Time to get out..." his tone came off as annoyed, as he didnt want to leave the warmth and comfiness of the bath but knew he had to part ways.

He quickly started getting dressed up in some comfy clothes and a robe the moment he was dry, wanting to just jump in bed and sleep and hope for the best when it comes to the morning.
He did his best to avoid the mirror as he gathered his clothes he had thrown a bit everywhere, knowing how it can easily destabilize their system.

"Let's go."

With that, he left the bathroom and made his way back to his room.
Or well, started to.
Loud noises from outside stole his attention, and he couldn't help but steal a peek from the window.

Something he regretted immediately.
His head felt buzzy and for a moment he couldn't tell whether or not they had switched from the pure shock.

"What the fuck..." the words were whispered with genuine horror.
Just out there, right out the window, there was someone cannibalizing another person. Hands deep into their guts, bringing handfuls of mush and flesh to their blood dripping mouth.
Disgusting.
It made him sick.
Sumireko.
He had to find her, he had to tell her there was some god damn insane cannibal fucker right outside.

He couldn't even focus on front, he wasn't even sure he was front.
Maybe this was some sort of autopilot, or another alter.
Maybe it wasn't him, he felt like he was taking a seat and watching a movie but the body was still moving.

'Gotta find her right now' is all he could hear, over and over the only thought he could focus on amongst the near ringing of overlapping thoughts yet complete silence.
It was a strange feeling to experience a total disconnect from your own mind just from how overloaded you got.

His body had already ran to the third floor by the time he felt slightly more present within their own body.

"Fuckin' hell which room... SUMIREKO!?" the shout was loud, and some staff came out of their rooms in immediate concern, followed by the heiress in her sleeping gown.

"Shin'ya-kun? Are you quite alrig-"

"Look out your damn window right now"

NOTES: Hope this chapter was to your enjoyment and liking, im working on creating an AnR discord, although i'll be strict on some rules due to the show having questionable tropes or content that I personally don't want to engage with and so created a space reflective of that. But when it's ready i'll link it on the tumblr i made for my fandom stuff desmonethewolf.

I hope you guys enjoy seeing the growth in my writing as much as I do, i realized i've turned 210 words into 1160 and was amazed with how far i've come. But it does come with the price of the pace being slowed down a little, which is honestly a good exchange for more depth and interaction and... just more sense overall than whatever rushed writing i used to do.