By mutual agreement, Kyoko and Shin decide to keep the challenges at a rate of one per week. It gives Shin some time to think about it and prepare. Like the last challenge, he needs to enlist the aid of other people being not an actor himself. And Kyoko also wants to rest and recuperate after each challenge and maybe put on some fine touches on the role if she wants to.

That morning while Shin is out preparing, Kyoko is munching on some delicious breakfast when the doorbell rings. Kyoko opens the door to find Kotonami Kanae standing there with her eyes closed and a frown on her face.

Kyoko doesn't say anything. They walk in and sit across from each other on the couch. Kyoko decides she won't say anything till Moko-san does. But she doesn't last too long because she blurts out, "Moko-san. I am sorry. I didn't keep in touch. You have every right to be angry."

"I am not angry," says Kanae, " I should be, considering how shoddily you treated your 'best friend'. You fainted, again. I came to ask you face-to-face if you are ok. So this time you cannot lie to me."

Kyoko takes a deep breath and decides to tell Kanae the truth. "I told you about how the president stopped me from taking on acting jobs, right?"

Kanae nods.

"And I followed your advice to create my own roles and tried acting them out. The truth is, he was right. I had started sucking in acting. "

Kanae nods again.

"You knew?" Kyoko asks surprised, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"How do you feel about the president now that you know he was right? "

"I still resent him from not giving me another chance to get better. Maybe this was the best way, but it is also the riskiest and most violent way."

Kanae nods, "It's like throwing a kid in a pool full of sharks to get him to learn to swim."

'Moko-san! that is a very violent analogy', thinks Kyoko.

"That is why" Kanae continues, "I didn't tell you."

"Moko-san!" cries Kyoko, "you didn't want me to resent you. Of course, you care so much about our friendship that you went to great lengths to protect me from the truth. You love me so much Moko-san!" and Kyoko jumps to hug Kanae only to be pushed back.

"You are supposed to say, if you are a good friend to me, tell me the truth next time. It's what I would say," says Kanae brusquely.

"Naruhodo. Yes, that is also right Moko-san" says Kyoko.

"Te, what have you done after that realization? And how did you come to faint?"

"Well, Shin, the boy staying with me after he tried to have my car hit him and missed and I brought him home to save him from committing suicide, tried to help me by pointing out some harsh truths about why I sucked at acting."

Kanae, the speed-reading memory queen, has no trouble following all this. "You almost hit a boy who was trying to commit suicide. So you brought him home and he has been staying with you. He was the one that you said would help you with acting out roles, on the phone.," she summarizes and then asks, "What did he tell you about why you suck at acting?"

"I have been bottling all my emotions because I have been scared of expressing them. So, the only kind of roles I had become good at doing, was cold and unemotional ones. But even those have become hard since my bottled emotions are always threatening to break out and when they do, I am afraid I cannot control them. That's what happened the last time. Everything in the past came back to me in a rush and I fainted.," says Kyoko. "But I am making progress. At least I think so.," she pauses unsure. "I cannot help but think that if I had never become an actress, I might have been happy today."

"It's natural to think that," says Kotonami, "But if you had not joined the industry, you would not have had me as your awesome friend. You would probably have gone back and become an innkeeper in Kyoto or whatever - wallowing in an obscure life. You cannot tell me that since you became an actress, you have not had wonderful and joyful moments in your life."

"I know that in my head Moko-san but not in my heart. My mind keeps going round and round in circles when I think of that time. Did I unconsciously want to... you know? What if what he said was right at some level? What if I can never be a good mother?" Kyoko pushes down the sudden anxiety that seems to grip her and continues, "How am I supposed to get out of this?"

"Even if you ask me that Kyoko, I don't know how to respond. I have had a complicated relationship with my own family, you know that. But, you do have one person in your life who went through a similar situation. Why don't you ask that person?"

"Who are you talking about?" Kyoko asks darkly, thinking of Ren.

Kotonami pauses hesitating. 'If I speak clearly, I could hurt her by bringing it up. But it has to be said.' she thinks.

"Kyoko, what you went through, no one but another woman who has gone through something similar will understand.'

Kyoko relaxes. Not him then.

"Why don't you talk to your mother-in-law?"

"Why is the perfectly handsome Fuwa Sho's face all scrunched up? Women all over Japan would cry if they saw you now." says the woman.

Sho gets up off the couch he was lounging on and puts his hand on the woman's cheeks.

"You are the only woman that matters, Karen-san. As long as you are always smiling," he says.

"Don't ask a woman to smile Fuwa-kun. Learn to change with the times. Also, what do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?"

"Don't act stupid. Whenever you are extra affectionate, you want something."

Before Sho could answer, she continues, "I'll do it. Whatever it is, I'll do it."

He is surprised.

"On one condition. I need you to debut me in your next PV."

"And here I thought," says Fuwa, "that you were with me because you had feelings for me."

"Don't get me wrong. I like you. That's why I'm with you. But a girl's got to move up or get out in this industry. I am not getting any younger and certainly don't look young. Smile, or no smile."

"Ok ok, I get it. God!" says Fuwa walking away. "Fine. Next PV, you're on it."

"Not just on it, the star."

"Fine! The star. Now can you hear me out?"

"Ok," she says sitting down.

"Can you discreetly find that Vie Ghoul fellow's address?"

"Vie Ghoul? Do you mean Reino? Why do you need his address?"

"I just need it, ok."