My God, it's been a while... I don't even have any stories in my waiting list.

As a writer, I do owe an apology to the people who have been following this story, and I truly am sorry. I've written this chapter thrice already, and each time, I've just hated and scrapped every draft. This weekend, I plowed through this chapter, and I figured I'd post it up before the day is over.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chihiro was the ultimate ray of sunshine today… there was nothing wrong with the world at all…

Katsuragi confessing his feeling when she still wasn't sure… Great!

Her staying up half the night wondering if he was telling the truth or not… Just how she wanted to spend the night!

Her being forced to question the last four years of her life, trying to find an answer of why she wasn't able to move on… Splendid!

Fan-frickin'-tastic!

To say Chihiro was a grump today was utterly wrong… 'Sick and tired of the world' was the more correct way of putting it.

Honestly, all she wanted to do was sleep, but she'd made a promise to Kako that they'd meet up before class… it was for the best too, coz she'd just end up dwelling at home, and Lord knows, she did not need any more of that.

So currently, she was waiting in line for coffee to try and make her brain work again.

"Come on, honey!" A male voice from the front of the line spoke, "what did you say you wanted, again?"

"We've been coming here together for three weeks already… you should know how I like my coffee…" a female voice replied.

Chihiro rolled her eyes… teenagers…

"But honey, you change your order every third day…" the boy countered, "Please tell me what you want, so I can order it…"

"Guess…" the girl replied coldly. While Chihiro couldn't see the boyfriend's face, she could only imagine the terror he'd be going through. This was going to go badly, no matter what he chose.

"For God's sake, just tell the cashier your order and stop playing mind games on him…" Chihiro found herself calling out. Maybe it was her wanting her coffee, or the fact she felt bad for the guy, but somehow, she interrupted them, leading to a few murmurs of agreement from the people in line.

The girl humphed, but gave her order. However, as they were walking back to wait for their coffee, they paused by Chihiro.

"Were you the one who said that?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" That girl probably did not expect the stand-offish tone Chihiro was using.

"H-hiroshi, tell her off for me…" Before the boy could say anything, Chihiro had her reply already.

"Why, because I spoke the truth?" Chihiro smirked, "if anything, it's probably best that someone told you that your boyfriend can't read your mind, and unless you're willing to communicate about what you want, you'll just end up doing yourself a disservice…"

As the words came off her tongue, she realised the hypocrisy behind them…

Who the hell was she to tell off some stranger, when she was guilty of the same crime just yesterday… and she was an adult, dammit!

"Look, he seems like a nice guy…" Chihiro spoke more humbly this time, "be sure to treasure him and treat him well, so you don't have any regrets…"

Without waiting for a reply, or even to get coffee, Chihiro ducked out of line and left the shop.

"W-was that Nee-san just hitting on me?" The guy asked, his head cocked to the side.

"Dream on," the girl said with a laugh, "she probably said that to make a point…"

The girl was right too. Finally, Chihiro's brain was starting to clear up a little. Since that time four years ago, she found it hard to be honest with anyone… maybe it was because she didn't want to share her feelings… maybe it was just pride… but in any case, if she wanted any peace of mind, she knew she had to address Keima's confession and her own feelings from before, and she had to do it to him.

It didn't stop her fingers from trembling as she found Keima in her contacts in her phone… still, she knew she had to do it.

It rang for three bells before Keima picked up.

"Hi," Keima greeted, and a wave of relief and dread came to her stomach. It was all good and well that she wanted to talk about it, but this was going to be even harder than when she stayed to talk to him after that last verbal bashing she'd sent his way.

God, she was a horrible person…

"Ch-chihiro?" Keima pulled the phone away from his ear, wondering if she'd accidentally dialled him or something.

"Y-yes, I'm here," Chihiro took a deep breath, "I-I was wondering if we could meet up today…"

"Of course…" Keima readily agreed. With all that had happened after Chihiro had left the café, he had been hoping to discuss it with her before he met up with the other Goddess Hosts. He still had no clue how to break the news to the girls that Dokuro had mentioned.

"When are you free today?" Chihiro asked.

"My job is pretty flexible, so I can come now, if you'd like…"

Suddenly, her heart went into overdrive with anxiety.

"I-I'm actually heading to class now… maybe later in the afternoon…" she replied hastily, a notion that Keima didn't miss.

"Okay, let me know the place and the time and I'll be there…" Keima replied.

"Sure, I'll send you a message… bye…"

"Later, then…"

As Keima stared at his screen, he wondered why she was the one who called… true, she had missed a few calls from him, but she didn't mention them, and she'd been the one to invite him… given the weird way she was acting now, it looks like he wasn't the only one with something to say…

It was much later in the day when Chihiro plopped herself into a booth at the family restaurant where she was going to meet Keima, about twenty minutes before the meeting up time.

Honestly, she nervous as hell… she promised herself she'd be as honest as she could be, and they'd get down to the bottom of this… but that also meant she had no clue where this conversation would go…

Come to think of it, where was the line between being truthful and saying too much? She wanted them to get to the same page, but what if she went too far and said something that she'd regret… or if she hurt him again?

If anything, she needed to get her thoughts in order before she spoke. She pulled out a post-its pad from her bag.

Before she could write anything, or even think something of substance, a new presence made itself known next to her. She hastily covered the empty paper out of habit.

"K-katsuragi…" Chihiro stuttered. Keima wondered why she was so surprised at him being here, given she invited him in the first place.

"Yo…" he greeted, "I'm a little early, so sorry about that…"

He sat down opposite her, and both of them sized the other, and the situation as a whole. Keima knew for a fact that his situation with the goddesses wasn't the main topic of discussion, but she hadn't given any context, except that she didn't really want to discuss it that much, either…

Chihiro, on the other hand, was noting his facial features… not that he was an eyesore before, but did he get better-looking in the four years they didn't have any contact?

No, why the hell was she checking him out!?

After they'd placed their orders, Chihiro was staring at her empty pastel yellow pad, her brain drawing a complete blank as what to write… or what even to say…

Still, she had to bring up his confession if she wanted to get to the bottom of this…

"So Chihiro-"

"Do you want to go out with me?" Chihiro asked, her voice a tad hysterical. Keima's eyes widened as the words slowly entered his head.

"W-what?" he asked, near certain he heard it wrong… or that she was on the phone or something… Chihiro's face only got redder at the thought of repeating that. She really shouldn't have phrased it like that.

"I'm asking about your confession yesterday! Do you want anything to come of it?"

Chihiro cursed her mouth… there was no subtleness or small talk to absorb the shock of what she wanted to talk about.

Still, Keima's face became one of confusion.

"My… confession… yesterday?" he repeated. Like he thought it wouldn't come up again…

"Duh…"

What else would keep Chihiro up half the night, wondering why he would do that, or whether he meant it, and where he stood in her eyes? As much as Chihiro wanted to just push it under the carpet and not deal with it, she knew that lump would only get bigger and more thought-consuming the longer she sat on it.

She wanted to be honest about it, and she wanted his honestly as well, so they could get a damn conclusion on it.

"I confessed yesterday?" he asked again. When did he do it again?

"Unless 'the one I like is you', means something else…" Chihiro replied, incredulously. This topic was difficult enough without him acting ignorant.

"When did I say that?" Keima wondered out loud. Chihiro could feel the urge to just kick him under the table, but she kept her frustration under wraps… kinda…

"Just before Tenri came in when I was about to leave..." Chihiro replied impatiently. Keima was scratching his head, trying to recall what had happened the day before, which really felt like it had happened last year or something… suddenly, it clicked.

"Oh, shit…" he remembered, "Tenri came in, so I thought she'd interrupted me before I'd said it…"

While collected on the outside, Keima could feel a twinge of anxiousness, knowing that he had not prepared for whatever change of status quo was coming with this kind of conversation. Despite the fact that he'd run through all the consequences yesterday, he still felt underprepared.

My God, he really had forgotten it… Chihiro felt her nails dig into her palms… she didn't even need to think so hard about it, when he hadn't been expecting an answer…

Because he'd freaking forgotten about it!

Though this wouldn't be the first time Katsuragi missed important words being spoken…

She snorted at that thought.

"Wh-what's with that?" Keima asked. She switched from irritation to being amused way too fast… what about what she was saying before?

"You know, when I con-" she suddenly cut herself off… was it fine telling him what happened outside his room that time he'd been sick?

Well, considering she confessed properly the day after that, it wouldn't surprise him… she did promise she'd be more honest, anyway… maybe he'd take it as funny trivia.

"Actually, I was laughing that this wasn't the first time you missed hearing a confession…" she shrugged, "the first time I confessed to you, you nodded off on me, and didn't hear what I said…"

Keima's eyes widened.

She laughed, but part of her was nervous about how he'd react… or if he'd ask more questions.

Keima wasn't planning to ask questions, though… what Chihiro didn't know was that he'd been lying about being asleep, and he'd heard her confession, loud and clear… just, with Ayumi sitting right next to him in his bed, and the last Goddess being on the loose, with Keima not knowing whether it was in Ayumi or Chihiro, he opted to leaving it in the air.

Not that he made the right decision with regards to that. After that confession, he'd been near certain that Chihiro remembered it all, which was why he chose her as his date…

"That's… uhh… very honest of you to tell me…" Keima replied. Honestly, he was more shocked than anything that she brought that up. Not only did that detail make no difference, but if he truly had known nothing about it, all he would have done was ask questions that he knew Chihiro would not have wanted to give responses to.

More than that, wasn't she avoiding using the word "like" to describe her feelings from before? This was pretty much an 180 from where she was yesterday.

Still, he wouldn't complain. Considering she'd jumped into the deep end just now, she seemed to be wading into shallower water, which gave him time to think about what he could say.

"Yeah… well, I realised that things seem to go south for everyone when I hold back… that's why I decided I would be honest about everything and hopefully, everything else will fall into place."

"Is that so?" Keima wondered. While Chihiro wasn't a consummate liar like him, she was an ace at holding into things without saying a word, and whenever she did let it go, it went off in a completely volatile, yet still aesthetically pleasing manner.

Still, if she was willing to open up, Keima could think of a few questions he'd want answers to…

"Rather, why are you so blasé about this?" Chihiro asked with narrow eyes, "you're not gonna even ask when that happened?"

"When I was sick, right?" Keima replied with an intentionally flat voice. As he expected, her face darkened. Keima could feel a smirk come on his face…

If she was going to play with fire, she'd better expect him to have a few matches in his arsenal.

"How do you know about that!?"

"I joined the dots after you left…" he smoothly lied. Chihiro's eyes narrowed.

"You weren't asleep, were you?" she concluded. Keima had to hand it to her inference skills, but he was not going to admit to anything.

"You have no proof, you know…" Chihiro smirked right back at that remark.

"Why would you call me ten minutes later?" she countered, "it was soon enough that you were addressing something that we talked about, yet enough time to put some distance between you and Ayumi, who was somewhere around your house…"

In Keima was shocked before, now his jaw was hanging to the floor. Chihiro's smirk only grew bigger.

"I joined the dots after I left…" she echoed. Keima was looking for the part where she would blow up, but she didn't appear mad at all…

"Did you seriously figure that out, or is there some manga series somewhere that has my exploits recorded down for the world to see?" Chihiro shrugged.

"It was an educated guess… which I assume hit the mark…" she let out an exaggerated sigh, "it didn't matter anyway, because I told you properly the next day…"

Her face fell back into a serious expression. Honestly, as much as the last few minutes reminded her of the spats they used to have in class, she was still going in circles. The whole point of this was to address his confession, and she needed to get back on track.

Still, this honestly thing wasn't as difficult as she'd expected… though that may have been because she went at it in a very familiar way.

"Look, to the point I was supposed to be getting at," she hit her hand on the table top, "do you actually like me, or did you mean to say something else?"

Keima was a little taken aback at the aggressiveness, but that was kind of her style… other than the wording, this was almost exactly like how she asked him to the campfire.

He snapped out of the nostalgia and shook his head. It was more important how he answered this question, because Chihiro had basically given him a way out of this difficult conversation.

He could go for the Copernican revolution and project his feelings elsewhere… he could even say that Tenri was lying, and he didn't like anyone… not only would he get out of the bind, but Chihiro, who was still uncomfortable talking about this, would be relieved as well.

Or he could throw caution to the wind and tell her it was those red-faced glares that made him like her in the first place.

"What is going to happen if I say that I like you?" Keima asked, not backing down or looking away. Chihiro faltered.

What would happen? If she was being perfectly honest, she couldn't say that she liked him back… after she got over him, her heart just closed off to any kind of romantic love, and even though she'd tried dating, it had never changed anything…

Still, if she could fix the problem at the source…

A sly look came on Chihiro's face.

"I'll have you take responsibility for it…"

Keima smiled. That was what she'd said when they'd met up on the train.

"I like you…" he said softly. Chihiro's face faltered slightly and her eyes trailed down to her fingers, which were uneasily playing with the pad of post-its

"Look, at this moment, I can't say the same," she replied with that same tone, before her resolve strengthened it, "but that's because I've stopped trusting people in that sense… if being with you can change that, I would like to take that opportunity…"

In a bold move, he grabbed her closest hand. She looked up in surprise.

"I told you that I'd take responsibility, didn't I?" he spoke kindly, "and if you're willing, I'll do everything in my power to make you happy…"

'And to make you fall in love with me…' he added in his head. Chihiro's eyes were narrowed on his hands, however.

"Umm… you guys…" a voice from outside the two intruded. They both looked up to see a slightly sheepish waitress with their food, "I know you're having a moment and all, but I've already passed this table up twice, and I'd really like to do my job…"

Both of them apologised with bowed heads, before making enough space for the waitress to put down their food.

"I would like to make a comment…" Keima spoke once they were alone again, "not that this wasn't great and all, but for such status quo breaking conversations, can we have them in more personally relevant places…"

"Like where, exactly?" Chihiro wondered, picking up her chopsticks.

"I dunno… like the Akanemaru, or the school roof…" he squeezed his hand into a fist, "my gamer pride is in shambles at the thought that this event happened at some family restaurant I don't even remember the name of…"

Chihiro laughed.

"There it is…" she indicated to him, "I was just waiting till your otaku persona would show itself…"

Still, there was nothing malicious about that laugh… it was almost as if she was happy that it came up. With a fond smile, she grabbed her pen off her lap and put it to the slightly crumpled post-it.

"Note to self: when I confess to Katsuragi for real, it has to be on the Akanemaru…" she giggled. Keima was more pleased that she used 'when', instead of 'if'.

Things were going to go alright for them…

"But in that case, I'd like to make a comment as well…" Chihiro brought up a finger, "it's about the way you hold hands…"

Keima raised an eyebrow… what criticism could she have on something as simple as hand holding?

"What of it?" he asked. Chihiro brought her closed hand to her mouth thoughtfully as she thought of how to phrase it.

"Well…" she paused, "you always grab the wrong hand…"

"The wrong hand?"

"Yeah… you're supposed to grab the other hand…" Chihiro shrugged, "like if you're using your right hand, you need to hold onto my left hand…"

"Oh…" Keima held up his right hand, trying to remember which hand he'd held onto just now. Suddenly she grabbed onto it. As he followed down her arm, he noticed that it was her right hand as well.

"See, this is not hand holding," she adjusted her hands slightly, "this is a hand shake…"

True to her words, their hands were positioned in a classic hand shake, which she then shook jovially. Had he not had a good grip, her hand would have slipped from his.

"What, did we just sign an agreement?" Keima asked.

"Ya bet," Chihiro said with a laugh, "I'd say we've reached an agreement now."

"Yeah…" Keima put more weight in his hand to stop her from shaking it anymore. Suddenly, the mood changed a little.

Chihiro remembered holding his hand a few times… when they had been chasing after Ayumi while invisible… when Keima was dragging her to his house to protect her… even now as she shook her hand how a little kid would do to their father…

Still, her ultimate favourite was that time she slid her fingers into his before they went up to the roof… true, her hand sweated like crazy, and there were no words on how awkward and uncertain she had been… then, and even now, he held on with a determined resolve.

This time, he wouldn't mess this up.

"I'll be in your care then," he said softly. Chihiro broke eye contact.

"Yeah, I'll be in your care…"

Chihiro had held hands with other people, but she had never forgotten that warmth, even after all that time it had disappeared.

From the next booth, a menu was propped up on the table, and other than the small legs that could be seen underneath the table, she was pretty much out of view, especially to the two adults who she was listening on with a smile.

"Nii-san did it properly," she spoke with a smile as she coloured in her castle picture from her colouring book.

Her parents, who were in the seats opposite her, looked up over their own menus.

"What was that, Erika?" her father asked. She picked up the menu and laid it on top of her head.

"Can I have milkshake?" Erika asked, her fluffy pigtails bobbing in excitement. Of course, no one could say no to that.

Did... I just have them start a relationship? That did not happen in any of the drafts of this chapter at all...

I'll admit that this wasn't even my idea. Day before yesterday, I found this really nice eyelis song called "Kagayaki no Kakera", and after that I discovered the lyrics were written by frickin' TAMIKI WAKAKI! Because he was the one who wrote this manga, I couldn't rest until I at least had a rough translation on it, and I was so super amped to find that it actually could work for Chihiro in this story.

I know that he didn't intend for it to be used like that, but I was so excited that I just put that song on loop for most of the weekend and just wrote about how it made me feel, and honestly, I'm pretty happy about the result. It didn't even throw off my original planning for the rest of the story.

In any case, I'll try and keep this momentum going. Once I've done this, I'll go and continue writing the next chapter.

Review Time:

Qruis- Yay for your achievement... though I kinda messed it up for disappearing for six months, so sorry about that.

Though actually, Chihiro has the most amount of stories on this site, I think... but I get ya. I will try my hardest to give this the best ending that I can...

xellos540- honestly, this chapter was actually supposed to cover what Keima's mission entailed, but then I somehow went down this route... which turned out to be 'Chihiro thinking alone', followed by... well, you saw...

Though from next chapter onwards, the story will kick into full gear, and you'll get to find out the general direction this story is gonna go. Hopefully you'll like it.

Also, your last thought is totally coming in play in this story. I have no clue how, but I will make that happen!

Aika- thanks for the short and sweet messages. Sorry this updating is taking so long, but I'll try my best. Next time should hopefully be a lot closer than six months.

Shawn Raven- I've decided to be nice and not end on a cliffhanger... but if I got you excited for this story again, I think every chapter ending is a cliffhanger.

But yeah, all the hosts will show some kind of supernatural abilities... of course, as they come in, there'll be more interesting shenanigans to follow.

Though Chihiro took a lesson in honestly... from herself, none the less. In any case, that should put an end to the worst of her stubbornness, coz hell, she is stubborn!

EXPERIMENT 2.0- I totally spoiled the manga for you. Wow, sorry...

I don't remember when exactly, but it was near the end of the Jupiter arc, when Dokuro says goodbye to Keima in the past... again, I'm sorry I spoiled that for you

sparkly-refreshing14- well, I guess now... though I'm so sorry, because that review was older than 2 months by this point.

Laialot Siedenumi- Thanks... I especially don't deserve it after making ya'll wait six months for a fricking update... I'll try my hardest to be more on top of this story now.

Also, between the time of my last chapter and this one, I got a few new story followers, and I'm really grateful. Thanks, you guys. It's always nice to see your emails telling me that I still do something in this world. I'll try to make more time for writing.

Though on a completely different note, I haven't been completely cut off from writing these last few months, but rather, I've been writing this fanfiction I haven't posted yet, because it's also a multi-chapter one, and I'm nowhere near finishing...

God, what is wrong with me? I already have two ongoing stories!

But in any case, I'm about 7 or 8 chapters in, and even though it takes forever to update my other stories, it is still content that I feel proud of and I'd want to share, if people are interested in it.

I know why I wrote it though... I really just wanted something that was a traditional romantic comedy, and it has some of the greatest Chihiro and Keima interactions that I've written... and unlike the rest of my stories, there is no supernatural elements at all...

So this story is called 'Overboard'...

Chihiro is normal... her confessing habit may be pushing the line... then she completely fell over edge when confessing to Otamega, the Grade A Nerd Extraordinaire.

Keima is normal (for an otaku)... him trying to convince that Real that games were helpful in real romances may have been pushing the lines... him actually trying to prove it is completely nuts!

Two teens enter an outrageous bet, armed only with their wits and their favourite pastimes, to try to push the limits of their popularity and get a date, while making sure that the other can't hold onto theirs...

The whole story goes way too far, but isn't that the best way to spend your youth?

Yeah, it's pretty much insane, but it has been lots of fun to write, and if you're fond of character development and Keima's interactions with the other second year girls, I think you'll like this.

In any case, if you are curious about this premise, I've put a poll on my account, so if you want me to start posting it up, be sure to vote, or just tell me in your reviews.

Bye bye