Chapter 6: Lost & found
Atem saw everyone exchange bewildered glances. It came as no surprise when he was the only one to speak.
"I have."
Malik nodded slowly, tiredly, and said, "Why don't you explain, Pharaoh? I think your description will be more accurate than mine."
He sat back and took his coffee cup in his hands, leaving the proverbial stage to Atem.
"Umm... I don't know much, actually," Atem admitted. "I hadn't even heard about it back when I was... alive. Back in Egypt, I mean. I learned about its existence from Bakura, during his shadow RPG."
"Memory World?"
"Yes. I heard Zorc speak about it through Akhenaden's mouth."
"But we were there, too," Jounouchi pointed out. "There was no mention of a book." Yuugi and Honda nodded in confirmation; Ryou just let his gaze drop and glowered at the floor.
"It was before you arrived," Atem explained. "It was even before my memories started playing out. Bakura - I mean, Zorc... He recounted some of the events that happened during my father's reign, events I had never witnessed while alive."
"So you saw this book?"
"I heard them talk about it and I think I might have... caught a glimpse of it."
Atem cleared his throat to earn himself some time. He tried to dive back into his recollections of Memory World, but it wasn't an easy task. Even though it was his last big adventure before leaving for the afterlife - therefore, one of his most 'recent' memories - he found he had a bit trouble recalling the details. He supposed that was how anyone would feel when trying to remember something that happened eleven years ago, regardless of how fast those eleven years had passed. Time was such a tricky thing.
Everyone's attention, even Malik's, was fixed on him, so he tried his best to put shards of recollections into a coherent order.
"If we are to trust Zorc's account, then the book in question was one of powerful dark magic, passed down by the high priests since ancient times. Nobody knew exactly when the book was written, and no one had ever managed to read it. It was written in some ancient language, or in code, perhaps... I don't know for sure, but I know that its contents had remained a mystery for decades."
"Then how did they even know what it was?" Honda asked.
"There had been rumors of its great power. The Spellbook had achieved almost legendary status. You see, it was said to contain the power of the Gods themselves."
"Boy, that sounds familiar," Jounouchi chuckled, earning imperative hushes from the rest.
"We're talking about immense dark power. In fact, it was rumored that the book was written by Zorc himself," Atem said somberly. "Wars were waged for it. Everybody wanted to get their hands on it, so there came a time when our kingdom was crumbling under numerous threats. My father, the Pharaoh, had been on the verge of despair, and that was when High Priest Akhenaden finally had a breakthrough."
"He read the Spellbook?" Yuugi asked.
Atem nodded. "In its pages he found the instructions to create the most powerful objects that ever existed." He made a pause to look them all in the eye, waiting for them to understand. "You know of what I speak. You have all seen those objects."
Realization hit them all simultaneously.
"The Millennium Items!"
Jounouchi and Yuugi shouted the answer, while Honda just gaped.
Ryou lifted his head and frowned at Atem, something odd flickering in his eyes. "So the instructions for the Items were written in a book?" he asked in a cold voice. "Like some kind of twisted recipe? 'Take ninety-nine humans and boil them in pure gold, in low heat, for seven days-'"
"Oh come on, Ryou," Jounouchi moaned; his horrified expression mirrored that of the rest. Ryou stopped talking but kept looking at Atem with a distant anger in his eyes.
They all knew about Kul Elna. They knew about the massacre and the ritual. Atem himself had told them, after Memory World. In the month that intervened between it and the Ceremonial Duel, he had tried to recount everything as faithfully as he could. Giving them a few answers had been the least he could do to thank them after all the years they spent helping him and fighting beside him.
He remembered that day. He had talked for hours, starting from the massacre of Kul Elna and the creation of the Millennium Items-
"But you never mentioned a book," Yuugi said, apparently having followed the same train of thought. "Back when you explained everything to us, you did not mention the Spellbook."
"At the time, it had seemed a minor detail," Atem tried to justify himself. "With everything that followed, I forgot about it myself."
"Oh, of course. 'Hey, we had a freaky recipe book written by Zorc, but I'm sure that's not important,'" Ryou sneered.
It was Atem's turn to glare at him. "I did not withhold information on purpose. I had so much to explain, that this particular detail slipped-"
"It doesn't matter," Malik intervened calmly. "It doesn't change much, anyway. What is important is that, apparently, they found the Spellbook."
Atem almost jumped in alarm. He sat up so quickly that his knee hit the coffee table; the cups rattled and coffee flew all around.
"They found it?" he gasped, ignoring the pain in his knee. Malik just nodded.
"Is that so bad?" Jounouchi asked, looking from Atem's anguished face to Malik's solemn one.
"It is a collection of powerful dark magic," Atem said. "Magic that we know for a fact that it works. If that book falls in the wrong hands..." He trailed off and turned to Malik again. His heart was thrumming against his rib cage. "Are you sure it's the Spellbook?" he asked, his voice resounding loud and sharp.
Malik seemed to regret the words he was about to say even before saying them. "I am afraid so. They are not one-hundred-per-cent sure yet, but... Ishizu is positive that it's the Millennium Spellbook."
"How did they... How?" Atem stammered. "I know that, when I was the pharaoh, the book wasn't around. I figured that it was either lost or destroyed."
"They found it in an excavation site near Thebes. It was hidden deep in an underground shrine. And, apparently, someone had went to great lengths to keep it safe. The place was full of traps."
"Could it be that Akhenaden hid it there? After creating the Items?" Yuugi mused.
Atem did not reply. His mind was racing back to his time as pharaoh, to his memories of sand and gold and sunburnt days. He tried to remember Akhenaden - the Akhenaden of his youth, not the one Bakura had showed him in Memory World. He tried to remember his uncle.
He recalled an image: a lanky body clad in the white robes of the court sorcerer, a small pointy beard, piercing eyes. Too piercing. One regular and one of gold. With this image came the memory of his voice, his character, his mannerisms. His uncle had always been secretive and taciturn, but to have kept the book for himself, to have created a hiding place for the book without the knowledge of the pharaoh...?
Atem's heart sank.
Of course. They were talking about the man who created the Items without the pharaoh ever knowing what actually went into making them. The man who kept so many secrets that, when the inevitable revelations came, pharaoh Akhenamkhanen's heart could not take it. A man who had always had his own agenda, his own reasons and hidden motives. Of course he could have kept the book for himself without anyone ever knowing.
"...Other-me?" Yuugi murmured, gently shaking him. Atem returned to the present to find his partner looking at him with eyes wide in concern. A few black tufts had escaped his hair tie, messing up the look of his neat ponytail.
He placed a reassuring hand on Yuugi's, but the frown did not leave his face. He shook his head. "This is not good," he said in a grave voice.
Ryou sat up straight and asked with voice quivering in anger, "Is that why he is back? Is he after the Spellbook? And you," he snapped at Atem, "are you here to stop him?" He was playing the pronoun game again, but it did not take much imagination to realize he was referring to Bakura.
Atem frowned at Ryou. "I already told you, I don't know how or why I'm back," he said sharply; he might not find it so easy to be harsh towards him if Ryou did not resemble his darker half so uncannily, both in looks and in traits.
"So, you weren't sent by the Gods to make things right once more, then?" Ryou persisted with a slight sneer in his voice.
"Ryou, lay off him. He already told us he doesn't know," Yuugi said. "And you said that Bakura told you he doesn't know a thing, either."
Ryou dismissed this with a scoff and went on. "But the two have to be connected, right? The book and their return? It can't be just a coincidence."
All pairs of eyes settled on Malik, who sighed heavily.
"It is possible that the two are connected. I mean, Ryou's right: this can't be pure coincidence. On the other hand..." He sighed again and looked at them with the face of a man who is reluctant to go on. "The book was found a month ago, more or less, and the spirits only came back yesterday."
"...A month ago?" Yuugi gasped.
"Why did it take so long for Ishizu to inform you?" Jounouchi asked almost accusingly.
Malik looked exasperated. "Well, she does not inform me of everything they unearth! It's her job, you know. They discover things all the time. She doesn't call me about every piece of jewelry or ceramic pot or-"
"But it's the Millennium Spellbook!" Jounouchi stressed the name. "Every Millennium thingy concerns us in one way or another!"
"But they did not know what it was at first! It took them weeks of studying-"
"So Ishizu has the book?" Atem interjected.
If Malik looked reluctant before, now he looked as if he'd prefer to do anything but answer this question. "Unfortunately... No. She is not even allowed near it."
"Then who has it?" Atem asked, trying to keep his mounting panic out of his voice.
"It's still in Egypt. You see, they figured out what they had in their hands just a few days ago. Excitement went over the roof. 'The discovery of the century' and all that," he huffed, a look of frustration crossing his face. "They assembled a team of the best linguists, restorers and historians in the world in order to study and translate it. It's a classified and top security project. No one besides the special team has access to the book, and Ishizu is not in it."
"How can this be?" Honda asked. "Ishizu is like the Egyptian government itself! There's nothing she can't have access to!"
"She is not the Egyptian government, though. She might have been able to... exploit her position while having the Millennium Necklace, but without it, she has as much power as the next government employee."
"She's the head of the Council of Antiquities!"
"She is the head of the Department for Public Relations," Malik corrected him, "and they don't really need her help right now."
"Isn't she, like, a master in hieroglyphs and hieratic? She grew up reading ancient texts," Ryou said.
"She is, but there are much better linguists than her, and they have hired them instead."
Honda shook his head. "This is absurd!"
"Yeah!" Jounouchi butted in, "Ishizu knows things the others can't even dream of!"
"But she can't reveal these things, can she?" Malik said tiredly. "The same way I can't. The same way none of us can."
Silence followed this statement, broken only by the sounds little Miko was making as she played in a nearby room. Outside, the birds' chirping was disrupted by the sound of cars and honks. The sun was high, filling the living room with ample light, but that wasn't nearly enough to brighten the look on their faces.
"Still, the book is safe, right?" Yuugi said after a while, looking at Malik with imploring eyes. "It's in the hands of the Council of Antiquities, and they are just studying it. If no one else has access to it, then this is as safe as it gets, right?"
"Even deciphering it could prove to be very dangerous," Atem said before Malik had a chance to reply.
"Yes, but it's safe there, isn't it?" Yuugi pressed on.
"Perhaps," Malik said. He lowered his gaze, seeming to be lost in thought. His lilac eyes were unfocused as he stared at the mug in his hands.
"...Perhaps?" Jounouchi repeated.
"Look," Malik said, blinking his eyes back into focus and lifting his head. "The truth is, they have never before denied Ishizu involvement with the artifacts they discover. They know she has vast knowledge and she's always been a huge help to them. So... She is really, really worried right now. She is afraid that there might be more behind the whole thing. It could be that it's just Ishizu freaking out over nothing, but..."
"If Ishizu thinks their attitude is suspicious, then it might very well be," Atem said.
"But Malik said that she's in charge of public relations, not a researcher," Honda pointed out.
"Guys, let's say there is more behind this whole affair," Jounouchi said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, "...what's the big deal about someone else having the Spellbook? I mean, the Items have been in the hands of the Council for years and there's been no problem."
"The Spellbook contains numerous spells of the darkest magic - not just instructions about how to make the Millennium Items," Atem said. "And we don't even know how powerful the rest of its spells are."
"If Zorc wrote it, then... Pretty powerful, I guess," Malik said with a humorless smirk.
"Still, you are fussing over some kind of worst possible scenario," Jounouchi remarked with a look that made him seem like a teacher scolding his students. "It could be that nothing is suspicious and that nothing will happen."
"Can we take such a risk?" Yuugi asked.
Malik shook his head. "I don't think we can, that's why Ishizu is so worried. But, on a brighter note: she is trying to find a way in the team. She assured me she'll try anything and everyone she knows. She is determined to make it and, once she is in, she will be able to keep an eye both on the book and on the people around it."
"Really? You think she can make it?" Yuugi asked, his morale somewhat increased.
"She will try her best, which is good enough for me," Malik replied. A small smile curved his lips. "I know sis can be pretty persevering when she wants to."
Atem allowed himself to breathe. "Alright then," he said. "Is there anything we can do to help her? Anything."
"I don't think so. It will take connections and a lot of paperwork, so... Just leave it up to her."
"Oh man," Honda whined. "You come here and drop that bomb and then you say 'chill, don't worry, Ishizu got this'?!"
Malik chuckled and shrugged. "Well, would you prefer it if I'd said nothing?"
"No," Yuugi said hastily. "No, it was right of you to inform us. Plus, this might help us understand why Atem is..." He trailed off and looked at Atem.
Of course. An explanation about his reappearance.
Atem was curious, too, but at the same time he was satisfied with not having a reason. Preferred it, even. He would very much like to spend a few more mornings waking up without some kind of fate or mission hanging heavy over his head.
The feeling was disturbingly familiar. It dragged Atem months - no, years, it had been years - ago; back to seaside strolls in Domino, and sleepless nights, and hours and hours of gazing at the Tablet of Memories...
"Meanwhile, I think we should make sure that Ryou remains safe," Malik said.
That remark was enough for Ryou to bolt upright and glower at his friend.
"Safe from what?" he hissed.
"You know who I'm talking about, Ryou," Malik retained his composure with commendable patience. "Bakura is a potential threat to you, especially since we don't know why he is back."
"I don't need protection! I can handle him!" Ryou said in a tone that suggested he'd bite the tongue off anyone who'd claim otherwise.
"Malik's right," Jounouchi piped up, earning one of Ryou's murderous glowers. "I don't think it's safe for you to stay alone. At least, not until we know what Bakura's up to."
"I don't need a baby-sitter!" Ryou yelled. "And if he comes near me again, I swear I'll crack his skull open, so there's no need to-!"
"See, we can't have you going to jail over an asshole like Bakura," Jounouchi said with a small grin. "I think you qualify for a bodyguard, or at least some company. What do you say, guys?"
"What about Malik, then?" Ryou said in an effort to turn the attention of the group away from him.
"What about me?" Malik frowned.
Ryou eyed Malik with a rather stern expression. "What about your yami? We still don't know whether he's around or not. If I need a bodyguard, then so do you!"
Malik shrugged.
"I'll keep an eye out for him, but I think he'd have shown himself by now. You met your yamis within five minutes from their return, tops. And I can't see Mariku intentionally refraining from meeting me... If he really is back."
"I don't care," Ryou said stubbornly. "We should make sure. If he's back, then you're in more danger than I am."
Malik's shoulders slouched. "Really, I... I don't think he's back."
For the first time something in his calm facade cracked, revealing the anguish underneath. He must have realized it, for he squared his shoulders again and flashed them an undeniably dazzling smile. He pushed his hair out of his face with the charm and the nonchalance of a rock star.
"Anyway, I have to be back to Tokyo by tomorrow, and it's not like any of you can follow me there. Don't worry. I promise to keep an eye out and inform you the minute I notice something suspicious."
Ryou scoffed and tried to argue further, but Malik interrupted him with a huge yawn and a stretch of his body. He pointedly ignored Ryou's objections by discussing sleeping arrangements for the night and train schedules. It wasn't until Honda asked whether they wanted him to drop them off somewhere that Jounouchi cut them off in a low voice.
"Guys, wait... What about Anzu?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Atem saw Yuugi's posture stiffen.
"I know you won't like it, Yuug," Jounouchi went on, "but... Shouldn't she at least know what's going on?"
It was impossible to miss the change in the mood and the uncomfortable tension that filled the room. Malik suddenly decided to focus on his coffee cup and lowered his gaze; Ryou withdrew into himself and scowled at his knees, while Honda cast furtive glances from Yuugi to Jounouchi and, for some reason, Atem.
Yuugi pressed his lips in a thin line and simply stared at Jounouchi.
"I don't see how any of this concerns her," he said at long last. His voice was so devoid of emotion that it was unrecognizable.
"Come on, Yuug..." Jounouchi said quietly. "She deserves to know at least the gist of the situation. I mean... She doesn't even know Atem is back."
Yuugi shuffled in his seat, his body jerking in an awkward and mechanical way. "There's no reason to involve her in this. There is nothing she can do, after all."
"That's not what I'm saying and you know it. Atem was her friend, too. You might not like it, but it's not right to-"
"I won't talk about Anzu. Not now. If you guys want to inform her, go ahead," Yuugi snapped, whipping his head around to look at the trio on the couch; Malik, Ryou and Honda all but cowered under the look Yuugi shot them. "Just... Do it without me."
Nobody moved. Jounouchi managed to catch Atem's eye and made an apologetic face to him, but Atem did not react. He did not know how. If there was something they expected him to say and make this situation better, they were out of luck because he really had no idea how to deal with this. Especially since he did not really know what he was dealing with.
Apparently, no one else knew what to do or say, until Jounouchi sighed and said in a hesitant voice, "Hey, Yuug, umm... I'm sorry for bringing it up, pal."
Yuugi shook his head. "No, no, it's okay. I'm sorry for..." He trailed off, looking rather ashamed of himself. He cleared his throat and turned to Malik, putting on as much of a cool expression as possible. "Please keep us updated on Ishizu's progress. And if there is anything we can do to help, let us know."
Malik seemed a little disconcerted from this sudden change of subject, but he just nodded and said, "I will."
The silence that followed was even more uncomfortable than the previous one. No one could come up with anything more to say, so they all focused on emptying their mugs.
Atem wondered whether it would help if he tried to initiate some small talk again, but he dismissed the idea, even if there were still many things to ask. The mood did not seem appropriate. Yuugi's shoulders were tense, even though he was managing to keep his face impassive.
Thankfully, Honda took it upon him to break the silence. "I'd better get going. Shizuka has given me a huge grocery list."
The rest grabbed this chance with gratefulness and soon they were all standing up and getting their coats. Malik helped Yuugi pick up the empty coffee mugs and take them to the kitchen while Honda went to collect Miko from whenever she was holed up.
They put on their shoes and bid them goodbye with several hugs and pats on the back for Atem.
"Man, it's good to see you again," Jounouchi said. "I'd be nice if we didn't... have to worry about dark magic again and stuff."
"Then he probably wouldn't even be here, Jou," Ryou said coldly. That killed what little of their good mood had remained, so they took off without further ado.
Once the last one of the group left and the front door closed behind them, Yuugi sighed deeply. He leaned with his back against the door and let his body relax. His eyes searched for Atem and locked on him.
He looked worn out to the point of crumbling. There was no spirit left in his eyes. The dark bags under them made everything worse; made his irises look lifeless. He looked at Atem, lost and despondent.
"So... The Spellbook." He shook his head and let out a humorless chuckle. "What a mess, huh?"
Atem wanted to respond, but his mind was blank once more. The conversation about Anzu was too recent, the tension still buzzing in the air. Atem stood silent and stared, and his eyes traveled across Yuugi's figure of their own accord.
His partner's image was a sum of smaller, unsettling elements. Tired eyes; wild tufts of black hair falling in his facw; a golden band glittering on his left ring finger; tremulous corners of the mouth, unable to keep the smile they were trying to form; traces of anger left on his cheeks.
Atem's eyes found their way to Yuugi's neck and remained there. He noticed that it stood in a quite odd angle, as if there was something heavy hanging from it. It gave the impression that he stood constantly hunched, even when his back was straight.
He hadn't picked that up before but, once he did, Atem was unable to tear his gaze away from that sight. He couldn't help but wonder whether this slouch was a defect caused by Yuugi wearing the Puzzle around his neck for years. The idea made something in him clench tightly. It made him feel responsible. Guilty.
The Puzzle was gone now, but its presence was still haunting Yuugi, probably earning him stiff back muscles and the equivalent discomfort. One more thing to add to the sum of traits that made up his ran-down image.
"Atem?"
His eyes flicked upwards to meet Yuugi's. Upon seeing these dimmed violet irises again, he could not hold back.
"Aibou," he said in deep and somber tones. He felt his own brow scrunch up in concern. "What is wrong?"
Yuugi seemed puzzled. "You mean besides what Malik just-?"
He stopped talking under the look that Atem gave him.
"You know I am not talking about the book."
Yuugi's look hardened. He lowered his head; more black tufts slipped out of his hairband and fell in front of his face, obscuring it from Atem. "You already know," he murmured.
"No, aibou, I don't! All you've given me are vague answers, and I-"
"Why do you need to know more, anyway?" Yuugi snapped, raising his head to shoot a glower at Atem.
If his answer was intended to hurt, then it achieved just that. Still, Atem stood his ground. "Because if I don't know what is going on, how will I be able to help you? Please, Yuugi, I-"
Yuugi let out a sarcastic chuckle, and the sound was so uncharacteristic of him that Atem's plea died in his throat.
"Help me...?" he whispered. His eyes narrowed into slits. "You want to help me? Alright then... Let's see. A book of dark magic is discovered, my yami comes back from the dead, I don't know how or why any of this is happening, my marriage is failing and I have to think of what to say to Anzu while the reason that my marriage is failing is standing right before my eyes!"
He glared at his dumbstruck yami, panting heavily, his face flushed and glowing red.
"So there you have it!" he yelled. "Think you can help with that?"
Atem stared back stupidly, trying to process what he had just heard.
'... standing right before his eyes'.
He felt the blood leave his face.
'The reason his marriage is failing.'
Yuugi could not really mean that - he couldn't.
Atem gulped down a dry lump of nothing and tried to talk past the numbness that had set in his tongue.
"I... What...? What do you mean, aib-?"
"Can't you see?" Yuugi kept shouting, his voice cracking and peeling as its harsh tones scraped his throat. "I was never the one she loved! The one she wanted, the one she was in love with, was you! It's always been you! Never me - you!"
Atem could not breathe in. The weight that had settled in his chest prevented his lungs from expanding.
"This can't be. I... Anzu never-"
"You never had a clue, right?" Yuugi chortled. He took a deep breath to calm himself and raked a hand through his hair; the already loose hair tie slipped off and his hair flew freely.
The weight in Atem's chest was threatening to crush his heart.
"You... You must have made a mistake..."
Yuugi's face contorted into an expression of anger and pain and jealousy and a dozen more emotions that Atem would have never ever wished to see on his partner's face.
"You wanna know what was the last thing Anzu told me before asking for a divorce? You wanna know her exact words? She said, 'you are nothing like him'. Wanna venture a guess as to whom she was referring?"
He tried to chuckle again, but the sound was small and pitiful. When he spoke again, his voice was strangled.
"She looked at me as if I were a piece of dirt, and told me that I am nothing like you before slamming a door to my face. Does that sound like a mistake to you? Like a misunderstanding?"
Atem opened his mouth to speak, but the air of the room was too thick. He was drowning in it.
Yuugi went on mercilessly, either unaware of or indifferent towards Atem's distress.
"Do you get it? She never wanted me. I was a substitute. The best one that she could get, but a substitute nonetheless. Perhaps she hoped that I'd grow up to be like you. But I am not you. I am not like you. And after so many years, she finally understood it, too."
He covered his face with his hands. There was a pause for a few seconds, in which the silence was broken only by his ragged and muffled breaths. Then Yuugi's hands slipped off his face and back into his hair.
His fists curled into his wild black tufts, his knuckles turned white. He laughed and it sounded so distorted, so wrong, that Atem's blood froze.
"And now you're back!" he said in a shrill voice. He was smiling, but the expression looked desperate and pained. "You're back and, god, I've missed you so much and for so long that I can't even begin to describe how I feel! But then I look at you and remember her, I remember what she said and just... I can't help feeling..."
Tears started leaking out of his eyes, leaving shimmering trails on his red cheeks. The last traces of anger were wiped from his face, leaving behind a desolate landscape of hurt and anguish.
"I know it's not your fault," he whispered. "I know you never did anything to encourage it. I know you didn't. But I can't help but look at you and feel so... bitter. And I hate it. I hate it. I hate it that you're back and I feel like this. I hate it that I look at you and instead of being happy, I keep hearing her words in my head. I hate it!"
Tears kept streaking down his face.
"I'm sorry, Atem. I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry. I hate it, I do, and I'm so sorry-"
Atem covered the distance between them with two decisive strides and pulled Yuugi into a tight hug.
Yuugi's stream of apologies was muffled as he hid his face in Atem's shoulder, but he kept on whispering them. Atem tightened his grip on him because there was nothing more that he could do. No words could come out of the knot his throat had become. No more commands could come out of his pathetically numb brain.
He clutched at Yuugi, hoping that it would be enough to compensate for his astounding uselessness, and hoping that the gesture would say all that his voice could not.
His eyes stung, but he kept them dry, because one of them had to. One of them had to remain steady for the other to lean on. And he would be the one to do it. For his partner. For Yuugi. He might have left him to struggle alone all these years, but he would let him do it no longer.
He placed one hand on the back of Yuugi's head, right on the odd crook of his neck. Right over the constant hunch caused by the Millennium Puzzle. And he understood why he had felt so guilty about this.
It wasn't just the weight of gold that had made Yuugi's shoulders bow. It had been the weight of the soul that it carried - a weight that had never left him.
.
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Whoah, you guys! Three months since the last update!
First off, sorry for the wait! I took a break from this fic to do some research (that is, to re-read the whole manga :P) so... Yeah, that was one of the reasons for the delay. The second reason is that I've had lots of things going on lately - things that have been nice and creative but also very time (and energy) consuming.
Your comments and your support have been amazing, though! Thank you so much for that!
And, as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, too. ^_^
I promise the next chapter won't take this long!
(and, if you see me dawdling again, feel free to remind me of my promise)
