Hey all... I'm earlier than usual, but it's probably about time I was...

In any case, here's chapter 12... honestly, I both love and hate this chapter... I loved how it turned out, but I hate the fact that I took a detour and didn't get to where I needed to... Still, I should definitely get there next chapter, so I apologize.

I hope you enjoy this chapter

"I remember this address…" Keima glanced at the apartment number, "you gave me this address yesterday. Isn't this Ayumi's place?"

"Yeah, hers and mine," Chihiro corrected while slipping the door key in, "I asked Ayumi to come home early, so she'll be here soon…"

It wasn't necessary however, because the door wasn't locked with the key. One push told her that the chain bolt was on.

"Okay, she'd already here," Chihiro amended, before manoeuvring her left hand through the small gap. After a few moments of fidgeting, she opened the door. Keima just watched with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't that lock supposed to stop people from doing that?" He asked. Chihiro shrugged.

"The locks here are kinda crappy. I figured how to get around the chain about three weeks into the year…" Keima felt the sides of his mouth turn up at the crafty look on her face.

"You are really… something…" he commented. Chihiro didn't really care to categorise it into an insult or a compliment, because she had better stuff to think about.

"I am… now keep quiet… let's scare Ayumi…" she tiptoed into the room. Keima, while incredulous at the whole thing, walked in. His natural gait was silent, so it didn't make a difference.

It didn't take long to find Ayumi in the living room, watching TV. That made Chihiro's plan a lot easier to put into action. Outside the room, Chihiro nudged him to speak, before moving a bit further from the door, her hand on her mouth to stop herself from snickering.

"Yo..." Keima greeted. Ayumi yelped, and by the sound of it, she knocked her glass of whatever on the table.

"Wahahaha!" Chihiro laughed herself into the room, where Ayumi was cowering behind the table. Luckily, her glass had been empty, and it had just fallen over when she jumped, "man, if you could just see your face…"

"Oh, you're here as well…" a somewhat unfamiliar voice came from behind Chihiro's ear. The normal girl scrambled forward, suddenly alarmed.

Now it was Ayumi's turn to laugh raucously at her friend and flatmate.

"You're right… if it was anywhere as funny as yours, I would have loved to see it," she grinned, "serves you right…"

"Eeeh!"

Keima's eyes drifted back to the person who'd spoken. Clearly, they were a guest of Ayumi's which Chihiro hadn't been expecting.

However, glancing into the slightly less lit up area outside the room, he noted the mouse-brown male who was walking toward them. As he stepped into the room, Keima realised that he knew that guy as well.

"Y-yuuta-kun?" Keima's eyes widened. What the hell was he doing here?

"So you know him, Katsuragi?" Ayumi replied. This was the first time she'd ever seen him acknowledge any male.

"Wow, that's surprising… I assumed all the people Katsuragi knew were affiliated with his games…" Chihiro straightened up, "so that's what your name is…"

"Eh, isn't he your friend?" Ayumi stood up.

"No… he said he's yours," Chihiro replied. Keima glanced between the three people, annoyed at why he had no idea what was happening. It was about time he got some exposition on why the hell Chihiro's old crush was waiting in her corridor.

"Umm… can someone tell me why Yuuta-kun is in this story?" Keima poked his thumb toward the boy, who was now subtly moving backward towards the door. Chihiro's eyes narrowed at that sight. She gave a glance to Ayumi, who also had the same determined look. She nodded once in agreement.

"Katsuragi, can you grab a hold of him so he doesn't leave…"

At that point, Yuuta made a break for it, knowing the gig was up. He was certain he could outrun that other guy anyway.

What he did not expect was Keima to be at the door already. The bespectacled guy held onto his arm with a surprisingly firm grip.

"Dude, it's just sugar!" he yelled as Keima dragged him back to the room. Both Chihiro and Ayumi were seated, with evil looks on their faces.

Keima seriously wondered what Yuuta could have done to earn their ire… even if he did feel bad for the guy; he had a lot more reason to want to stay in Chihiro's good books.

"So… Yuuta-kun, was it?" Chihiro was the first one to speak, "can you remind us which one of us you are you friends with?"

He looked at both girls, who seemed to have no mercy on their mind. His face started dripping with sweat.

"The… the other one?" he answered uncertainly. Surprisingly, Chihiro seemed placated by the answer.

"Oh, you mean our third flatmate?" she brightened up. Ayumi nodded as well. Yuuta started to look a bit relieved.

"Yeah, her…" Chihiro brought down her hand noisily, making Yuuta jump again.

"We don't have a third flatmate!" she yelled, and Yuuta cowered, before quickly lowering into a dogeza position.

Keima had to hide a laugh. Chihiro was really vindictive when she wanted to be… not that he disliked that quality in her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he lifted and lowered his head with each apology, "It was Yamazaki's idea, not mine… spare me!"

"Look, before you do anything, can someone explain what heinous crime this guy was responsible for?" Keima asked cautiously. Chihiro seemed more interested in glaring down the guy every time he glanced up to see whether he was forgiven, so Ayumi did the honours.

"This guy and his roommate are too lazy to go grocery shopping, so they come here and ask for our stuff, pretending that they're friends with one of us, and that they just came to borrow some."

"By the way, you guys have never paid us nor given us anything back…" Chihiro reminded Yuuta, causing the guy to shrink down further.

"I-if you ran out and came to us, we would have given you some…" Yuuta replied in a small voice

"No you wouldn't… BECAUSE YOU'D BE OUT OF BLOODY STUFF AS WELL!" Chihiro shouted back. Keima found himself rolling his eyes at this absurd scene.

"Yuuta-kun, just shut up and take your punishment…" Keima spoke. Chihiro looked up for the first time since she started giving Yuuta hell.

"Come to think of it, how do you know Yuuta?" Chihiro's head tilted to the side… She knew this guy lived two rooms down, but Katsuragi…

Keima was at a loss on how to tell her that he actually learnt about him through her conquest…

Yuuta (Keima still didn't know his first name) was the only male he ever had to look through with his conquest lens, and even that was so he could get the loose spirit out of Chihiro, who had had a crush on him. He still remembered his parameters.

Description: 5'8" and thin with brown eyes and light brown hair

Class: 2-C (in their second year)

Likes: manga and basketball

Dislikes: Locker rooms and bullies

He suddenly chortled at that thought… not only was Chihiro a good five inches shorter than him, but now she's bullying the shit out of him…

"He was in our school, remember?" Keima reminded them.

"What high school did you go to!?" Chihiro asked harshly.

"Maijima Academy…" Yuuta answered. So Keima had been right about that.

"He was in 2-C…" Keima added. Chihiro figured she'd made her point by now, so she returned back to her seat. Besides, Keima had introduced a much more interesting topic now.

"Eh, then I guess you studied next door to us for at least a whole year…" Chihiro held her hand out, "Kosaka Chihiro…"

Yuuta looked at it cautiously, like she was going to do some kind of wrestling move on him if he shook it.

"Chihiro, are you done lecturing him?" Ayumi asked, figuring that was why he was holding back.

"Yeah, for now," she gave him a stern look, "I still want payment for all the milk, sugar, coffee and other crap you've taken from us…"

Yuuta-kun reached for his back pocket to pull out his wallet, before Chihiro stopped him.

"How about we deal with that later, and you join the mini school reunion for now," she offered her hand out again, this time with a smile. He figured it was in his best interest to play along.

"Well, you know I'm Yuuta," he shook her hand, before turning to Ayumi, "You're Takahara, right?"

Ayumi nodded. Yuuta pulled a face.

"How the hell did I forget you? The basketball club used to talk about you so much…"

For the first time since Keima had entered, he actually noted Ayumi's appearance. Her hair hadn't grown much, but she'd left the head band, and the spikier part of her hair had calmed down a little, giving her a more mature look, somewhat different from the look she sported in school.

Yuuta turned to Keima, who responded before he asked anything.

"Katsuragi Keima," Keima nodded, "you may have known me as Otamega…"

"Oh yeah… you dated Nakagawa Kanon," he remembered bluntly. The air suddenly became colder from Ayumi's side, while Chihiro watched with a blank face.

Keima could see the tension that sentence had brought on, so he attempted to diffuse it.

"No way," he flapped his hand, "I'm just an Otamega… those were rumours that blew out of proportion."

"Really?" one of Yuuta's eyebrows rose, "so she didn't confess to you during one of our exams?"

Ayumi's eyes fell into shadow. Even if Keima hadn't given her a look, Chihiro knew that he needed to talk to Ayumi alone.

She was near certain that the coldness in the room didn't have to do will the chilly October air.

Before she could say a word, Yuuta's phone rang.

"I should get that…" he spoke. While Chihiro couldn't be certain, but she swore he seemed relieved at the opportunity to leave the room. She should probably leave as well.

"I'll go get us drinks," Chihiro gave Keima a nod before leaving. With any luck, Keima wouldn't have forgotten his promise to Ayumi. Yuuta was on his phone, sitting on one of the stools in front of the kitchen counters.

As soon as he saw her enter, he stood up to leave, before Chihiro motioned him to stay seated. She pulled some glasses from the cabinet and set them on the counter in front of her.

"Why do I have to do this?"

Chihiro started pouring some ice tea into them, as Yuuta chortled.

"You shouldn't say that about your friends, Nii-chan… look, fine, I'll see if I can find someone… for maths, right?"

There was a moment of silence as the person on the other side spoke.

"I got it, they should be a girl, okay… can I go now? I'm at a friend's place…"

Chihiro gave him a raised eyebrow… friend?

Well, if he wanted that so much…

"Yuuta, pass the bong here!" Chihiro called, a cat smile coming on her face. As she expected, Yuuta gave her a dirty look.

"Nii-chan, obviously that was a joke!" another pause, "I did not come to university to do drugs!"

"No, I am not with a girl!" he yelled. Chihiro's smile only got broader at that.

"I'm going now! Bye!" he cut the call, and Chihiro started snickering.

"How old are you, even?" Yuuta shot at her.

"Physically, 21… Mentally, probably 12…" she pushed a glass to him, "consider that payback for the last month of you stealing our crap…"

"Nah, I'll still pay you back," Yuuta stretched in his seat, "so… Kosaka, was it?"

Chihiro nodded, grabbing her own glass grabbing the seat next to Yuuta.

"Did I say something wrong while I was in there?" he indicated to the general location of where they were in before.

"Not really…" Chihiro took a sip, "those two were due to have a talk for a long time, so it was going to happen sooner or later…"

"So… I guess we wait here?" he said after a small pause.

"I guess we do…"

On the other side of the flat, Keima was watching Ayumi nervously. He knew Yuuta inadvertently bringing up the Goddesses had a negative reaction on her, but he couldn't quite explain what the reaction was… or what part rubbed against her.

"Ayumi?"

"If you're here to talk about what happened before, please stop…" she said simply. All Keima could detect was the tiredness behind it.

"Didn't you say you wanted answers?" Keima pressed on. Ayumi shot him an irritated look.

"Do you read forums?" she asked randomly.

"Huh?"

"I'm trying to put this in terms you'll understand… so do you ever go on forums… for your games, or whatever?"

For the life of him, Keima couldn't understand what she was getting at.

"Yeah, sometimes…" he replied cautiously.

"Then how would you feel if someone revived a four year old conversation of yours?" she shot. Keima's eyebrows furrowed. So she didn't want him to keep his promise of telling her everything?

But it wasn't like he could avoid it. Dokuro's entire plan revolved around removing the Goddesses, and the only starting point Keima had is to gather information about the girls.

"So what do you want, Ayumi?" he asked.

"I want this whole Goddess business to end already!" she yelled, loud enough that Chihiro would need to make some kind of excuse to Yuuta.

"Perfect," Keima pushed up his glasses, "then I believe I came at the right time."

Honestly, that wasn't how he would have wanted to say it, but saying that he was a godsend would probably get him beat up, and he wasn't used to Ayumi's kicks anymore.

"Wasn't this due a long time ago?" she rightfully asked, but Keima ignored it.

"Actually, I have a gift for you…" he spoke, digging into his pocket, "I believe this will take us to the end…"

From his pocket, he brought out the old-fashioned watch Dokuro had given him yesterday. Ayumi took one look at it.

"Nope," she rejected it. Keima's face fell.

"How can you say that before you even know what it does?"

"Fine, what does it do!?"

"It's supposed t-"

"Geez, shut up!" Ayumi interrupted, her hands going into her hair with obvious frustration, "this isn't supposed to be how this conversation goes!"

Keima, who'd been bracing himself for some kind of kick under the table as soon as he'd been interrupted, opened his eyes. She didn't hit him at all.

Clearly, he wasn't getting anywhere like this… maybe he should just let her set the pace, and interject his information when the opportunity came up.

There was still the fact that he was missing a lot of information on his side as well… Dokuro had given him the watches, but other than the small hand moving and the Goddess-Human power ratio being shown on it, he didn't know much…

Like what made it move… or what kind of powers the hosts had… or how the watch found out how the power distribution within the host's body…

No, he should let her begin. He set the watch down on the table.

"Okay, that's fair enough…" he spoke calmly, "how do you want to go about this?"

"How about you tell me about what you're doing now?"

"Well, the plan is-"

"Not the plan! Like are you studying or working now?"

Keima's eyebrow rose up… that didn't have much to do with anything… suddenly, a wave of understanding hit him, followed by a pang of guilt.

He'd been going at it like his conquests, skipping out on the small talk and jumping straight to the exposition and information gathering… he'd even said that he'd considered the hosts to be his friends, but it was Ayumi reminding him that he had to act like one…

While he knew he lived in the real world, he sometimes needed a kickstart in remembering that people had a past, present and future, and that no one's lives revolved around him, so he'd have to ask to get answers.

"I'm working," Keima nodded slightly, "I'm a scenario writer and beta tester to a few different game companies," Ayumi groaned at the obviousness of that. He couldn't help but notice that Chihiro had had the exact same reaction to hearing about his job.

"How about you?" he added. He was curious about her answer, considering that it would give some more insight into Ayumi's character as she was now, and because he wanted to know where she was shining now. She seemed to be a bit more cheerful following that.

"I'm a Phys Ed teacher at one of the Elementary Schools around here… and I'm studying for an Education degree part time…"

"Oh…" Keima wasn't sure what else to say. Ayumi was pretty outgoing and friendly, so it was a fitting career choice for her… also, she'd get to share her passion for running with all her students. Keima could actually imagine her being a damn good teacher.

"How is that like?" he asked, genuinely curious. Her smile got bigger.

"It's the best… not only do I very rarely get marking, but I get to motivate children and teach them to enjoy sports…" she beamed, "and of course, there's a lot of great people, so I really do love it."

Keima nodded, now a little less on edge, now that Ayumi was in a better mood. He should keep this up and find out a bit more.

"What about the 2B Pencils… do you girls still play?"

Ayumi's face faltered for a second. She shrugged.

"We played until the end of high school… but with all of us going our separate ways and Miyako being all the way in Tokyo, we decided to call it quits then…" she said in a slightly sadder sounding voice, "but we're not completely done with music… Yui is still part of a band, and me and Chihiro always take our guitars when we go to karaoke."

Keima felt a little pang at that… while he was never particularly interested in music, he did sometimes attend their practices, and all of them were really passionate about it. It was a little sad to think that they gave up on that after two years of playing. Even Ayumi looked a bit glum at the thought.

"Do you miss playing in the band?" Keima asked sympathetically.

"It couldn't be helped," Ayumi sighed, "we had a good run at school, and we'd become pretty popular as well… it just sucks we couldn't go any further than that…"

Keima cringed a bit at the mention of being popular, but he moved the conversation along.

"Though how has Yu-"

"Actually, I have a question too…" Ayumi interjected, "why did you leave so suddenly?"

Keima froze. The change wasn't lost on Ayumi, but she definitely wanted an answer for that question. It had been eating at her for nearly four years now. She quickly glanced toward the door to make sure it was still closed.

"When you came back, you told all of us that you were going to confess to Chihiro… why didn't you then?"

Keima cleared his throat, but the heaviness that was starting to weigh there didn't disappear. That memory wasn't going to leave as easily as that.

"It was just something I decided," he spoke firmly, "so how has Yui been doing lately?" Ayumi's eyes narrowed at that unsatisfactory answer.

"Then you're a bloody coward," she glared, "'If you have someone you like, go ahead and confess!'"

While those words were said a lot more spite than the original speaker, the memory hit him like a tonne of bricks. The sight of Chihiro, right hand up in a 'V sign', with a cheerful smile that probably didn't go to her eyes, considering they were squeezed shut… the kind of smiles she sported while the loose spirit occupied the gap in her heart.

"All of us girls gathered that courage and told you, so why couldn't you?" Ayumi finished, the question piercing his heart like an arrow. With his voice and his resolve wavering, he started speaking.

"I learnt something that day…"

Keima couldn't help it… his fingers kept drifting to his neck, which, after eight months, was finally collarless… he'd done it… the contract was finally over.

The question that remained now was where he would go from here… he'd already played with some of his consoles and he had his PFP out, but the usual comfort he got from them was overshadowed byhis anxiousness as he approached his impending destination, Chihiro's house…

After all this was over, Keima had a few questions of his own that he wanted answered… like whether a memory wipe would be possible at this time… like whether his life could return to the point it was before he replied to the contract email… like whether he actually wanted to return to that time…

Keima would be lying if he said he hadn't changed during the last eight months… it was part of the job description, after all: boy meets troubled girl… boy discovers what's troubling them… boy helps girl… girl falls in love with boy… girl forgets boy… boy watches from afar as girl moves on with her life…

Keima never fell in love with any of the girls, considering the memory wipe… but he couldn't deny the fondness he did feel toward watching them grow and aim for a goal that had nothing to do with him. They were different from his 2D Heroines, considering that code limited them to staying in his orbit…

Real girls made their own decisions… found their own passions… were the protagonist to their own game… if anything, he gained a lot of respect for those girls who struggled, and still continue to struggle, for what they wanted…

And Chihiro… she wanted him.

Keima, for the life of him, could not put a word to what he felt towards that girl. She was too noisy to be an NPC, made too many events to be a mob character, but her involvement and events were so subtle that there was no way she could be a main heroine… there were no game terms that could begin to describe her.

Real life terms weren't any better. He knew too much about her to just consider her a classmate. They conversed too much to be considered acquaintances. They bickered way too much to be friends, but those small moments of kindness stopped her from falling onto enemy territory.

Then she confessed that she loved him, blowing all those words into space. While he struggled to find words to find their relationship, she struggled to change their relationship to the word she wanted.

Even now, Keima was uncertain what he felt about her… he respected her fierce independence and her sharp tongue… he'd felt the butterflies when she held onto his hand… against his own will, he wanted to know why she loved him… he wished he knew why he had been curious about that, or why he sat there, listening to her on the sidelines, instead of returning to the fray of the battle to find the Goddesses.

The real life love that Chihiro had admitted to was different than what he'd experienced in games; it was a lot less magical, it took no consideration for timing, it came out of nowhere, and it ultimately hurt her.

Loving without needing a reason didn't make any sense to him… he had reasons for feeling differently toward her… so did it mean he didn't love her?

He wanted answers, but somehow, he expected they lay with her, which was why he was going to get to the bottom of this now.

A deep feeling of dread settled into his stomach as soon as her house came into sight, not unlike the time when him, Chihiro and Ayumi were nearly captured by Vintage.

He couldn't understand why he was so scared… it wasn't Vintage whose door he'd be knocking on… it was a girl…

"I'm the God of Conquest," he reminded himself out loud, "I'm the God of Conquest…"

Yeah, why was he so scared? Talking to girls was the thing Keima did best…

"You're the God of Conquest?" A male voice asked behind him, making Keima jump, "you're the Fallen God from the website, right?"

Keima's eyes widened. This was the first time anyone had mentioned his small website to him in a while… aside from Elsie… Eri?

"What of it?" Keima frowned, "I'm not getting myself involved in the industry…"

(Keima scoffed… so much for that…)

"No," the boy shook his arms furiously. Now that Keima got a good look at him, he was a nondescript high school student from the public school a few dozen blocks away from here, "I'm not involved in anything… I just wanted to ask you a few questions…"

Keima felt himself shrug, but his eyes were following the name plate on Chihiro's house… his stomach did mad flips, which he tried to not let show in his voice.

"Okay, what is it?"

"I want to know… can galge help you with real life romances?" the boy scratched his head nervously, "there's a girl I like, and I want to ask her out…"

Keima's eyes darkened and he stopped walking… this was what got him into this shit in the first place.

"Don't assume games and real life to be the same," Keima said so softly that the boy nearly missed it, "galge work to a certain point, then they start hurting your progress…"

"So that's a no…" the boy concluded, paying no mind to Keima's sudden mood change, "that's a bummer…"

Keima continued walking… even if he wanted to talk to Chihiro, he knew he couldn't do it with that face.

"Trust the Fallen God to know about this…" the boy spoke cheerfully, pulling his phone from his pocket, "have you ever liked a real girl, Kami-sama?"

That was the question, wasn't it?

"Can't say," Keima said with a shrug, "there's a difference with 'like' in games and 'like' in real life, and I don't know what it is…" The boy suddenly got excited.

"I was reading up on it on the internet..." he pulled out his phone again, "apparently being in love is supposed to be one of the most beautiful thing in the world… like everything changes, and all their flaws become things you appreciate about them, and it takes forever to fall out of love with them…" he seemingly scrolled down, "oh, and their happiness becomes your biggest priority…"

Keima, despite his apprehension at this weirdly talkative boy, listened to his words… he started an internal checklist on Chihiro.

Beautiful- while he didn't have much to think about that, he definitely considered those tears to be that…

Everything changes- more toward the annoying, but yeah…

Appreciating flaws- heck, he'd been doing that from the first time he kissed her… who admires someone's skill to bring down a person with words?

He hadn't thought of the last two points, but just being able to tick off 3 out of 5 points with minimal thought… maybe it was love?

Keima suddenly felt himself become frantic. What about Chihiro's point?

"Do you need a reason to love?" Keima shot at the boy. The boy gave him a concerned look.

"I don't know," he straightened his tie, "maybe you don't need a reason, but you'll still find a lot of them anyway…"

Keima's eyes widened… this boy had bridged Chihiro's logic to his… he really was in love with her.

"I have to go," Keima turned around.

"Kami-sama, please help me before you go…" the boy called. Keima fell back.

"Oh yes, you needed some help with a real life conquest," Keima stopped. The boy gave him a confused look.

"Isn't it only called a 'Conquest' when it refers to galge?" the boy shrugged, not realising the spear of guilt he'd inadvertently thrown at Keima with that question, "never mind about that… so I have this girl I like, and I want to confess to her. What should I say to her?"

"What do you know about her?" Keima asked. The boy's forehead scrunched as he thought about it.

"Umm… she's from your school…" he indicated to Keima's uniform, "I met her at the Mai High Fest, and got her email… she plays guitar for her band… she says she hates loud alarms, so she always puts it at the lowest volume, then sleeps through them by mistake… she mentioned a little brother in one of our conversations as well…"

Keima felt his stomach sinking slightly.

"Oh, I have a picture of her as well…" the boy quickly pulled up a picture. Keima barely had to glance down to see that he was very well acquainted with her, "oh, and last night, she was telling me about her favourite meat bun…"

Keima felt his stomach sink to the floor… this guy, who'd met Chihiro one week ago, had even more information about her than Keima picked up in seven months of interacting with her… and even now, he was using those kinds of words…

As much as it hurt him, Keima had to put his foot down.

"Look… umm…"

"Ishigami," the boy interjected, "that's my name… Hiroyuki Ishigami…"

"Then, Ishigami-kun…" Keima put his hands in his pocket, "were you up late talking to Ch-Kosaka?"

"You know Kosaka-san?" Hiroyuki's eyes widened. He hadn't mentioned her name at all.

"Answer the question," Keima tried to say, as detached as he possibly could.

"Y-yeah… I stopped talking to her this morning…"

Keima pulled his PFP, glancing at the time… it was half an hour before school was due to start.

"I have an idea for you then," Keima held out a hand, "can I have your phone?"

The confused boy handed it over. Once Keima got used to the buttons, he typed in a quick email into the phone and passed it back.

"Put in Kosaka's email address and come with me," Keima ordered, before briskly walking back to Chihiro's house. It was a lot easier to approach it now.

"Nee, what are you doing, Kami-sama?" Keima turned around and shushed him.

The problem started there… it was a double storey house, so he was forced to circle the perimeter. Only the front terrace had its blinds drawn, so Keima was certain that was her room. He picked up a few smaller gravel pieces from the drive.

"Send it," he whispered. When he heard the beep, he threw them onto the terrace with all of his strength… majority of them rained in front of the door, but a few reached the door, creating enough of a racket to wake Chihiro up. He backed away toward the still bewildered boy.

"Best of luck, Ishigami-kun… if anyone asks, I wasn't here…"

And he split, only stopping when he was far enough and behind a tree. He begged himself to not glance back at the house, but his heart got the upper hand against his brain, and he looked back.

Chihiro clambered onto the terrace, clad in green pyjamas and bleary-eyed… then she noticed the boy waiting by her gate, and she turned red, running back into the house. Keima smiled at the sight.

This would probably be the last time he saw her for a while, but he was weirdly okay with that…

'Her happiness, huh?' he repeated as he put his hands in his pocket.

"I hope you're happy, Idiot," Keima said with a smile, walking away. He was certain Ishigami would do a better job anyway.

"Despite all we'd been though, I never was that close to Chihiro… I figured it would be alright to help Ishigami, and then I left…"

He glanced up, suddenly surprised that Ayumi was towering over him, given he was seated, and she'd gotten up at some time during his story.

"W-what kind of reason is that!?" Ayumi yelled. Keima noticed the slightest hint of tears in her eyes.

"It was what I decided…" Keima looked up, his eyes firm, "I stepped down… it wasn't a matter of cowardice that stopped me from speaking…"

"Yes it was!" Ayumi grabbed him by the shirt, hoisting him up, "you loved her, but you didn't want to get hurt, so you ran away… how is that not cowardice?"

Ayumi let go, where Keima fell to the wooden floor noisily. Both of them glanced to the door, remembering that Chihiro and Yuuta were in this house right now. After a moment, there were no sounds of approaching footsteps.

"No… if you were brave, you would have stayed and let Chihiro make the choice…" Ayumi hissed, but the anger fizzled out and the tears became more obvious, "she would have picked you…"

Her voice broke at the end as she started crying in earnest.

Keima knew he should comfort her, but her words were starting to settle into his heart, weighing it down to the ground. He lifted his hand and stroked Ayumi's hair, hoping it would make her feel a bit better…

Besides, Chihiro had picked him now, right?

Chihiro could feel her grip tightening on the glass, turning her knuckles white. When her grip refused to loosen, she forced herself up and went back to the kitchen, now completely empty, because she'd let Yuuta go home… Being away from the tense atmosphere helped her loosen up, but it didn't make her feel significantly better at all, considering what she'd heard.

She quickly brought out her phone, opening her email and searching for the name that she hadn't thought of for a good three years.

It only took a little digging to find the odd message out, being the only one Ishigami-kun ever sent her with a subject line

Subj: Wake up call

Sorry for keeping you up late last night… I figured I should make up for it and surprise you awake…

I love you…

Now that you're up properly, I'll speak to you outside :)

Chihiro shakily sat down on the stool she'd been sitting on before… Keima had sent her that… Keima had been outside her house… Keima had liked her since that day…

The urge to cry at realisation was intense, but Chihiro knew there wasn't any point. This happened four years ago, and they couldn't rewind back to that time. The milk was long since spilt, and all she could do was mop up the mess and never allow it to spill again.

Honestly, she couldn't be happier that they were dating now… this time, she wouldn't hurt him, nor would she let him hurt himself with any stupid stunts like that one.

Can I bring your attention to the fact that Chihiro cared more about Keima getting hurt than the fact that his disappearance hurt her too... that is someone who is actually trying to be serious about this relationship.

That... was some real whiplash, jumping between Yuuta stealing their food and Keima explaining what made him leave... I really did like how the last part of this chapter turned out. I'd actually planned on continuing to the part where I wanted to go, but this felt like a better point to end for the meantime.

Next up- the actual bloody plot of this story!

I'll be back in a few days, either with this story or Overboard, which you guys have been pretty great about.

Review Time:

xellos540- I probably responded to most of the points by PM... but Eri colouring is a pretty adorable picture... but nah, that was the girl from first chapter... I'm pretty sure restaurants don't give adults colouring material to keep them quiet. They really should, though.

Also, I see your point about the casualness of the waitress. I might change it at a later point, but for the meantime, it's fine.

ala000p- Thanks. I hope you enjoyed this.

Shawn Raven- Yo yo... indeed, Chihiro is a matured adult... it is very visible by her scaring the shit out of Ayumi and telling Yuuta to pass her the bong to get him in trouble on the phone.

Also, I love your comment about the girl... I totally get what you're getting at, but I WILL NOT MENTION IT IN THIS REPLY EITHER. Feel free to daydream about it however much you want.

EXPERIMENT 2.0- I'm so sorry. I'm just the kind of writer who disappears for a while and then comes back. I should have responded to your PM, but around that time, I was feeling so insanely guilty about not updating this that I decided I'd reply once I got over that guilt and started writing chapter 11.

sparkly-refreshing14- thank you so much. I'll try to keep up with this story more in the future.