Monday, 9/19

"Bread?"

"I'll pass."

"Suit yourself." Ren enabled his copious carb addiction, settling back into the spot in the alley with Makoto plus the loaf of bread in hand. They'd chosen a narrow street without much traffic that gave them a view of The 953's main entrance, as well as its back exit.

They'd checked the other two clubs, 8-Ball and Swervo Plus Max Shots (Unlimited Gentleman's Pro) Club to no avail. The former didn't get much action after an hour of camping out, and the latter was way, way too crowded for Makoto or Ren to discern anything useful. Their last hope would be The 953, situated on its own little corner of Shinjuku. It attracted the same crowd as the other clubs, only a bit more moderate in its traffic.

Yet for their first few minutes, they'd found nothing. Makoto held down the alley alone while Ren had taken a snack break, expecting her friend to return with something much more appetizing than bread. Frankly, she was a little confused that he'd chosen something so widely available over Shinjuku's varied menu of junk food, but she considered that his pure-bread diet may have extended into an addiction.

Other than her thoughts on Ren's bread habits, Makoto didn't consider Ren all too much while they staked out the clubs. Their first club was mostly silent between the two, with Ren on his phone for most of the time and Makoto being so attentive that she genuinely forgot Ren stood next to her in their little Shinjuku nook. What reminded her of his presence was him getting a call from Ryuji, startling her and ending her focus.

But now, Ren didn't have his phone out to distract him. He looked on at The 953 just as Makoto did, only with different intentions than her. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

"Someone we recognize, or someone with clothing that indicates they're a Shujin student."

"They'd be pretty dumb to go into a red-light district with a school uniform on."

"Well, yes, but they may be carrying the school-issued bag, right?"

"I dunno. These things are pretty unreliable." Ren jostled his own, taking it off his shoulder and opening it. "Honestly, I leave my books at home because the teachers are all too lazy to design their lessons around the actual book material."

"Then what do you carry in there?" Makoto asked, not taking her eyes off the club, searching through thin crowds for anyone their age.

"Bread."

"Just bread?"

"A pencil or two. Maybe a phone charger if I want to feel prepared."

"I never knew that you kept things so simple."

"I'm guessing that you take everything but the kitchen sink with you, right?"

"Close. I leave the oven behind, too."

"Fair, fair." Ren paused, hesitating to continue on their current topic. A moment later, he switched entirely to something Makoto didn't exactly want. "So what've you been up to this past week?"

Small talk, Makoto thought, sighing aloud. It reminded her of Maruki.

"Ren, I'd prefer not to talk about insignificant things while we're doing something important, okay?"

"Who's to say that what you did this week isn't important? You? What if it's important to me?"

"And why is it?"

"I dunno. Curiosity?"

Again, Makoto sighed, but relented to Ren's wish for conversation, though transitioning to something of actual importance to the both of them. "I spoke with Maruki the other day. He thinks you're struggling with Takata's death."

"I am?" Ren sounded surprised.

"I know, I had the same thought. Maruki deliberately lied to me, then proceeded to tell me that happiness should be prioritized over contributing something to the world." Makoto let past bitterness and anger creep into her tone, vividly remembering how sudden her dislike of Maruki grew at that moment.

"The fuck? Makoto, I don't wanna accuse you of anything, but-"

"I know what it sounds like. Maruki is quite kind and I thought him to be valuable to Shujin over the past few months, but…" Makoto stopped there, opting to try and encourage Ren to think. "Has he ever acted strangely around you? Er, have you noticed strange things happening in relation to him?"

Ren hesitated to speak. "Uh… not sure if I should mention this."

"Why not?"

"Because it's devastating to my case!" Ren chuckled at his own reference, but stopped once he noticed Makoto didn't follow. Though, in an unexpected fashion, he followed up with an explanation. "Back in the Spring, I told Maruki about our issues. He told me to forget about you, and, uh… I did. I literally couldn't remember you existed."

That pulled Makoto's eyes away from The 953 and towards Ren on her right. "W-what?"

"I knew of you, but everything that I thought about you? The crush I had, the studying we'd done, the alcohol fiasco—poof, gone."

"Are you saying that Maruki can…"

"Who knows." Ren paused, inhaling deeply without stopping, almost like he forgot to breathe. Seconds of nothingness passed, both of them hesitating to continue conversing about something that should've been impossible.

Suddenly, Ren literally jumped, scaring Makoto into flinching yet again. "Ren, could you ple-"

"I figured it out! I figured that fucker out!" Ren jumped for joy again, finally settling his feet on the ground only to grab Makoto by the shoulders and shake her. When he finally let go, he unleashed his crazed explanation onto her. "Futaba's seeing Maruki, right? But before that, when I was the only one talking to her, I couldn't make any progress. Then Maruki comes in and boom! She talks, comes out of her room, and acts like a normal person by the time we're back from Iwatodai!"

"But… what?"

Ren had gotten so far ahead of himself that he didn't slow down to explain his original point. "And you know who else is seeing Maruki for counseling? Yoshizawa!" Ren excitedly looked Makoto in the eye, smiling like a madman. "You know who I just spoke to the other day, and they didn't remember me? Yoshi-motherfucking-zawa"

Still confused, Makoto tried to get her question answered. "But I thought she had a crush on you?"

"Yes! She did!" Ren grabbed Makoto by the shoulders again. "But Maruki made her forget, just like he did to me for you!"

The final piece fell into place for Makoto. "He's… brainwashing us?" It wasn't like she hadn't accused him of something similar. 'Encouraging apathy' may as well have been brainwashing in Makoto's eyes, but completely rewiring the way someone thinks? Changing their memories? With Ren's experiences becoming more and more believable every day for her, brainwashing didn't sound too far-fetched.

"Yes!" Ren jumped again, clapping his hands in excitement. His antics drew eyes from the crowd on the street, but neither he nor Makoto cared. When his rush finally subsided and he stood still for the first time in a minute, Ren spoke cautiously. "Then… what the fuck do we do?"

"We confront him about it, take it to adm-"

"No, like, what if he brainwashes us? What if he's brainwashed all the faculty, even Kawakami?"

"That sounds a li-"

"Does it? Makoto, if he really can change the way someone thinks as easily as we think he can, why wouldn't he use it? No one's caught on so far and if they have… I think we know what happened to them."

"So we're stuck."

"No. We're not stuck. We have the advantage." Ren smirked, showing off the charm that Makoto found inescapable in Ren's finer moments. "He doesn't know that we know. I mean, there isn't much I can think of to do with that, but it's still an advantage."

"Hm…" Makoto hummed as she thought to herself. If they were right and Maruki did possess the power to brainwash anyone, what was his goal? The most apparent goal was to give students all the happiness they ever wanted, as he had stated to Makoto. "We obviously can't deal with conventional means. Send the police after him, he brainwashes them."

"What about someone other than the police? Someone less limited?"

Makoto caught the implication of Ren's suggestion before he even had to say it. "No. Absolutely not."

"But…" Ren sighed, acceptance coming over his face. Not bitter or reluctant acceptance, but something new, like Ren had a personal realization for himself. "You're right. Fuck the Prince, we'll stop Maruki ourselves. Or, uh, do we even need to?"

That suggestion upset Makoto more than the last. Feeling cross, she challenged Ren. "Why wouldn't we?"

"Well, he's gone in a month, so the issue of him brainwashing students ends there. I agree, it's screwed up what he's doing, but where would Futaba be without him? She'd be nothing like she was before him. Just a lonely girl trapped in her own mind. Without him, she ceases to exist to everyone but herself."

Makoto hated it, but Ren had a point. If they were to stop Maruki, what would happen to Futaba? Would his alterations remain no matter what or would she revert into her old habits of isolation? Neither scenario was ideal. Honestly, Makoto preferred to leave Futaba the way she was: annoying but endearing and full of life.

"So we do nothing?"

"Well, I got a guy for this." Ren paused, playing up his own drama because of how he loved it so. "Think Goro Akechi could help?"

"Help with what?"

"He probably couldn't do anything to limit or stop Maruki, right? But he could look into his past, see if we can find something there."

"Fine. Talk to Akechi, then we'll figure things out from there. And we'll have to stay away from Maruki, right?"

"Absolutely. We can't risk it, now that we know."

"Then…" Makoto paused. "What do we tell the others?"

"Can we tell them? I mean, I'm ninety-nine percent sure that Futaba is…" Ren's eyes cowered from Makoto's and he gestured with his hand. Makoto went through the same realization as him, feeling dour that the Futaba she'd just hung out with a day prior may have been a lie, albeit a partial one, but still a lie. "I say we wait. We talk to Akechi, assess the situation, then we can tell the others."

Makoto nodded. "Got it. So then…" She looked back over to the club, remembering what they'd come there to do. She'd been so caught up in the revelation of Maruki being a part of the supernatural events of the year that she'd forgotten about her original task. "Let's get back to it."

"Right."

Worried that they may have missed something while they discussed Maruki, both Ren and Makoto focused on the club for the next few minutes. They'd come to a silent agreement to not have any conversation, as Ren felt a little bad for distracting Makoto from her task. To make it up to her, he would spot whichever Shujin girl entered or exited the club as soon as it happened.

Thin crowds grew skinnier as more time passed into the evening, reminding Ren that he missed work for the stakeout. Sojiro had been reluctant until Ren told him it was for a girl, at which point Sojiro went on a long spiel about how being a lady's man took discipline and balance. Ren never listened when Sojiro got into his tangents, only remembering the bits he found amusing.

He applied that philosophy to his people watching. Every last person who walked past blurred together into one big blur. The same boring haircuts, same cooly-colored outfits, same self-serious patterns of walking; the only thing that could possibly stand out would be a Shujin fish out of water.

Finally, after what felt like forever without actually being too long, Makoto and Ren spotted what they wanted. A girl, obviously too young for Shinjuku's usual crowd, emerged from the back entrance of the club. Bright pink, heart-shaped earrings matched the pink boy in her ponytail, unmistakably similar to-

"That's Eiko," Makoto said, looking on as the girl made herself scarce among the crowds. She quickly turned a corner and left their view, leaving Makoto too stunned to actually do anything.

She's probably just too surprised to do anything. I don't think she expected to find anything.

Devoid of emotion except some dull excitement to go home, Ren tried to conclude things. "Well, that's that. Great job to the both of us, huzzah." He began to walk forward to leave the alley, but Makoto grabbed his wrist.

"Ren," she hissed. "Don't let her see you!"

"What? If I remember correctly, Eiko was the one dumb enough to fall for Dai earlier this year." Despite objecting, he did obey Makoto and stayed back in the alley. "If she saw me, she'd put two and two together and get an elephant."

"That's mean."

"I'm right, though."

"She still deserves our respect."

"Maybe just yours. You're the student council president, I'm someone who her caveman boyfriend tried to fight."

"Okay, fine. She only deserves my respect," Makoto said, conceding to Ren with a dissatisfied look on her face. "But you're here on my behalf, so you're acting under me. Doesn't that mean you owe your respect towards Eiko to me?"

Ren sighed. "Maybe."

"Great. Glad we can agree," Makoto smugly concluded. "Plus, instead of just leaving, shouldn't we discuss what to do?"

"We can do it on the way back, can't we?"

Makoto looked surprised, but quickly hid the expression with a red-faced laugh. "I literally just forgot we live in the same building."

"We don't walk home together enough, do we?"

"Maybe," Makoto said. She peeked out the alley corner, turning back to Ren with a smile once she finished. "Walk me home?"

Ren romanticized his words with the gleaming sheen of playful sarcasm. "Gladly, Miss President."

They exited the alley and entered the crowd, moving with them towards the station. Between the city ambiance and the people surrounding them, Ren and Makoto managed to speak with one another. "So what are you gonna do about Eiko?" Ren asked.

"Hm?"

"How are you going to convince a girl who doesn't know nouns from verbs to stop working at the club?"

"I…" Makoto paused, subtly telling Ren that she hadn't thought about that yet. "I'll call her into the student council room. Ask her why she's working there, find the root of the problem, then figure out how to pull the root."

"And when she says no?"

"I don't think it'll come to that."

"I don't think she'll even come to the student council room."

"Could you have a little faith in people that you don't know for once?"

"I know Eiko enough. I'm telling you if she didn't cooperate with you during the Yoshiro shit, how're you going to stop her from making money from something she does willingly? Plus, her friends are doing it too, right?"

Makoto sighed. "I don't know. I don't have a solution to anything, but I have to try to find one, don't I? Asking how is pointless, I just need to find a way. I'm not settling for letting these girls throw their lives away"

Ren had any retorts pulled from his mouth before he could even speak. Makoto handled the question so well, he couldn't do anything but tell her she was correct. "Right. I respect that," Ren said, relinquishing his questioning assault. He felt a little bad for pushing Makoto like he did, but they were important questions. If Makoto blew the conversation with Eiko, she risked losing that lead and would have to find another one of the girls working at the club.

Satisfied, Makoto smirked as they continued their trek. "Thank you."

Not wanting the conversation to end, Ren moved on to a much easier subject. "What've you been up to outside of, you know, student council shit and school?"

"Well, there was the meeting with Maruki. I hung out with the girls yesterday, and… I didn't do much else. Lots of studying to do for entrance exams."

"Has Sae been nice?"

"Quite. She's been in a good mood lately."

Ren saw the opportunity for a joke. "Maybe because I'm around less." Instead of receiving a laugh, he was surprised by a contradiction.

"Actually, she asked to have you over for dinner."

"Oh… oh no."

"What's the problem? Not open to it?"

"No, it's just that first, we're not dating right now. Second, the last one was the hardest thing I've ever done and I mean that with zero irony."

Ren saw Makoto's lips smirk at the memory. She'd nearly caught him having a mental breakdown in the bathroom. "I never found out what you were doing in that bathroom."

"Ungodly things that make church cardinals cry, that keep children up at night, that make yakuza bosses hug their stuffed animals, that make-"

"I get the point. What was once curiosity has turned into…" Makoto tried her hand at Ren's game of coming up with out-there terminology but came up blank. "I'll call it content ignorance." She remembered the actual point of the conversation. "But you do have to come over for dinner, even if it's just as a friend. Okay?"

"Really? Just a friend? You don't have anyone else from GRAVY over for dinner."

"Well, that's true, but…" Makoto trailed off without any actual reason. Ren was sure she still had strong feelings for him, which she'd practically admitted by referring to their break up as a break, and insisting that he come over for dinner reaffirmed his assuredness.

"I'm just joking. I'm a little busy with schoolwork for the rest of the month, but we can do something in October. Sound good?"

Makoto turned and looked him in the eye as they walked like she'd remembered something even more important. "You're not working on Saturday, right?" she asked with urgency, her voice propelled with actual reason rather than just time-passing obligation.

Ren rattled off his days at Leblanc. "Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Why?"

"Oh… no reason!" Makoto looked ahead into the crowd and kept walking with renewed speed until she turned back to Ren with even more newfound remembrance. "I mean, I think we should hang out on Saturday. Er, would you like to hang out on Saturday?"

Awfully suspicious. Does she know about my birthday? I was planning on bouncing off the walls all afternoon and including a cake in there somewhere but if Makoto wants to change that, I won't stop her.

"Uh… yeah, I'm free."

"Great! It's a date!"

Ren smirked, embarrassing Makoto by subtly pointing out her poor choice of words. "I bet."

"It's set then, is what I meant."

"I'm sure." Makoto pushed Ren's shoulder, getting frustrated that he didn't take her seriously. He chuckled. "We'll call it a date."

"Not a date," Makoto immediately corrected with annoyed reluctance. She knew it was her fault he had to joke around like that and she couldn't do anything about it.

"A… marriage of our schedules?"

"Er, no."

Ren decided to test his hunch. If successful, it would reveal Makoto's intentions or shift them into focusing on him more than she planned. "A… birthday surprise?"

"Why would you think that?"

She doesn't think I'm that stupid, does she?

Confused, Ren posed fact as a question. "Because my birthday is on Saturday?"

"Oh… I didn't know."

"Sure."

"I swear I didn't know!"

"You don't need to be so defensive."

"Who said I'm being defensive?!"

"Me, the birthday boy."

"You're impossible."

Ren could never let someone else get the last words. It defied his programming. Naturally, he had a retort ready for Makoto to silence her once and for all. "Impossible to throw a birthday surprise for?"

Makoto kept walking alongside him and didn't respond.

Tuesday, 9/20

"Fried chicken tonight?" Ann asked, walking side by side with Haru as they exited Shujin's front entrance. "Or we could do pizza again. Up to you."

"Perhaps we should try to eat a bit healthier."

"No chance!"

"Well, I'll try to-" Haru stopped in her tracks. Directly in front of them, on the other side of Shujin's main gate, a black limo was parked. Shujin's departing students all awkwardly stepped around the limo as they went down the street to the station. Haru wished she could be one of them. Instead, her last name came calling.

"Haru? Are we going, or what?" Ann asked, waving a hand in front of Haru's face.

"I'll catch up." Without Ann's approval or even disapproval, Haru opened the door and got in the limo.

"Good afternoon, Haru. How was your day?" Kunikazu asked, comfortably sitting on the other side of the limo's padded seats. The limo began to move, setting off Haru's nerves even more.

She couldn't go home. Not even with her father would she willingly go home. "Are you taking me home?" she said, giving her father a glare that he'd certainly grown accustomed to.

Kunikazu raised an eyebrow. "I assume you've been living with that girl you were walking with." Haru didn't respond and her father took that as confirmation. "Well, I have no problem with it. You're nearly a grown woman; you can make your own decisions."

"You realized that a few months too late."

"I admit I may have been… stubborn when it came to your future. For that, I am sorry." Kunikazu laid his hands out across his lap, palms facing up. "I don't expect you to accept. I don't much anything, really. I just want you to know that you have my approval for whatever you're up to these days. Do you understand?"

Haru couldn't give her father the satisfaction of getting something right, even if he actually did what she wanted. "Fine."

"But this approval comes with a caveat, of course." Kunikazu took his formerly open hands and folded them across his chest, shielding them from Haru with his suit. Haru felt a particularly powerful breath rising in her chest. "Haru, don't use your newfound freedom to embarrass me."

"Embarrass you? Father, I do not care ab-"

"It's the least you can do."

In one second, Haru let out the breath. "Fuck off." Kunikazu's forever-stern expression was broken, if only for that one moment, but Haru savored every millisecond before she shoved the limo door open.

As her rough exit was nearly complete. "P-please stay safe, Har-" She slammed the limo door, capping off a tremendously proud moment. Haru had shattered her father's eternal shield of seriousness; that was enough to bring a smile to her face. Even better was the limo beginning to move again as it drove away from Haru.

"Haru!" a voice called from behind. Haru turned, seeing Ann walking towards her. "You okay?" she asked, panting as she stopped in front of Haru.

"I'm great, actually." Upon seeing Ann's confused frown, Haru elaborated to alleviate her friend's ignorance. "It was my father. He didn't have a lot to say; just to not mess things up for his campaign."

"What a douche." Ann leaned to her left, looking over Haru's shoulder. "He's driving pretty slow. Wanna catch up and key his car?"

"Tempting…" Haru smirked as she and Ann made eye contact again. "But I'll have to pass." Assuming that was that and they were ready to leave, Haru walked past Ann towards the subway station. As Ann speed-walked to keep pace, Haru concluded things by recommitting herself to living with Ann. "Fried chicken sounds great."

Wednesday, 9/21

Ann opened her eyes to the worst irritation imaginable: the alarm on her phone. In vivid, unimaginable pain, Ann rolled over in her bed and grabbed the phone, tapping her fingers randomly across the screen until the alarm finally went off.

One more minute, Ann thought to herself as she pushed her face into the pillow and curled her arms under it. The early morning light barely managed its way into her room, slipping through cracked curtains to give Ann enough light to see her room. Ann felt her mind fading back into the clutches of sleep, but she was smart enough to will it away. You'll be late, she reminded herself as she sat up in bed, stretching her arms with a yawn to top it all off.

Ann stretched her legs as well before she dropped them to the carpeted floor. The first few steps after a great night of sleep were always tough, but a shower would wash all the rust away with ease. Ann left her bedroom, going down the hall to the closed bathroom door. She grabbed and turned the knob, only for it to click and stay shut. Locked, Ann thought as her senses slowly woke up with her body. Oh… that's right! Ann heard the shower on the other side of the door. I forgot that Haru's living here.

It had been a bit of an adjustment, but they got along well. Ann's house offered enough room for both of them to easily manage and keep to themselves, but they rarely needed to do so. They'd ended up doing some midterm studying together. Haru even helped with cleaning, which was completely unnecessary due to the Takamakis' employed servants. Nonetheless, Haru did her part in keeping the house in tip-top form.

Ann, still standing outside the bathroom door, picked up on another noise from the other side. A voice, pristine and beautiful, talking rapidly atop the rushing shower water. "Yusuke, Yusuke, Yusuke just fucked over art, man! Yusuke, Yusuke, Yusuke, I feel so amazing. I done talked a lot of shit but I just did the paintings!"

To Ann's own surprise, she found herself bobbing her head along to Haru's rapping. Wherever the heiress learned to rap, she must've had a good teacher. "If you ain't poppin' shit then why you paint for, huh? Plus Sayuri just shut down the rate board, ah!" Haru made no mistakes, perfectly balancing her own aggressiveness with enough energy to keep her flow moving. "Do anybody feel bad for Sugimura? Did he kill himself just to fuck Shibuya? Tell Ren I need a few million in bluff-funding. I done told him that we ain't even trust-bunting! Now we hottest in Shujin, it ain't no discussion. Ryu-Ann and Mako-Ren running up the budget!"

Ann feigned ignorance of the name ship to keep herself sane by not thinking of Ryuji. Ryu-Ann? What's that supposed to mean? She held in a laugh, replacing it with a wholesome smile. Haru was happy enough to rap, and it was none of Ann's business why. She opted to have breakfast while waiting for her roommate to finish in the bathroom.

"You really think she'll come?"

"Surely the student body has some respect for their glorious president."

"Doesn't sound like you do."

"I have more respect for you than anyone. You managed to date a guy who owns Risette's live album! All the fish in the sea and you-"

A knock at the door interrupted Yuriko and Makoto's conversation. Their expected guest, Eiko Takao, was walking into something like a trap in every way except name. Makoto called the girl to the student council office that lunch to discuss "grades," which was partially true. Based on Eiko's lack of submitted classwork, her academics were suffering from her part-time job.

"Come in, please," Makoto said as she stood up from her chair. Eiko opened the door, prompting a bow from Makoto. Yuriko did nothing of the sort, as she considered bowing wasted effort. Plus, she wasn't exactly fond of Eiko. Funnily enough, Yuriko and Ren possessed matching dispositions towards the girl.

"Ugh, hey guys," Eiko said, not returning the bow and popping a bubble of gum instead. Makoto felt her face flush a little at not receiving the respect she showed, but she could handle that. She gestured for Eiko to sit down at the table before she did the same. Eiko nodded over to Yuriko but didn't look. "I thought this was about my grades?"

"It is, in a way." Makoto opened a randomly selected folder that contained papers with no relevance to Eiko. She only did it to convey more understanding of the situation to Eiko, which seemingly worked. The girl perked up and looked down at the folder, though Makoto propped it up in a way so that only she could see the contents. "In the past month, you have submitted only four assignments in all of your classes."

Eiko shrugged. "Not all of us are goodie-two-shoes. Some of us have lives."

Excuse me then, Makoto thought, not liking the sass at all. It encouraged her to get to her point sooner and put pressure on Eiko.

"Well, it seems that you and a few others are preoccupied with new jobs." Makoto and Yuriko planned their segue out beforehand. Makoto would lead, and Yuriko would humanize the situation to Eiko.

"I'm sure you know the rumors that are going around," Yuriko continued, setting her forearms on the table and leaning towards Eiko. "People are saying that your group of friends is working in Shinjuku."

"Yeah? What about it?" Eiko didn't care. She looked at her pink nails instead of giving Makoto or Yuriko the time of day. "Not like it's hurting anyone or anything."

Makoto took her turn. "You realize you're hurting your own future, don't you?"

"Future? Before I stopped turning my schoolwork in, you know what I was doing?" Eiko looked up from her nails to stare Makoto down. "I was cheating on every. Last. Assignment. I couldn't care less about my future with this school."

"Oh my god! Cheating!" Yuriko held her hand to her own forehead. "I could faint! Anything but cheating!" Eiko glared through a side-eye but didn't comment. Makoto felt herself getting a little angry at Yuriko as well, as poking fun at Eiko would risk the whole meeting.

"Yet you gave up an easy way through school to work for clubs with your friends? For what? Money?"

"The money's nice, but…" The widest, most surprising smile Makoto ever saw came out of nowhere. "It's for my boyfriend!"

Makoto didn't know what to say. "Um…"

Without being prompted, Eiko filled in the gaps from her own sheer excitement. "He's, like, the best! He brings flowers to me every day, and takes me out to dinner after every shift!" She reached under the table and grabbed her bag. She set it atop the table for all to see. "And he bought me this bag! Look at it; that's real alligator skin, you know!"

That is artificial fur and looks nothing like alligator skin, but I'm not going to ruin Eiko's day by telling her that, Makoto decided. On the other side of the table, Yuriko nearly fainted from disbelief at Eiko's gullibility. Her double-take went unnoticed by Eiko, who continued to rave about her boyfriend.

"And he's, like, super, super sweet! If you met him you would under- oh my god, I should have you meet him!"

"No, that's-"

"He should meet your boyfriend, too!"

"I don't thi-"

"We can do a double date!"

"I'm rather busy the-"

"Oh my god, it'll be so fun!" Eiko pulled at her phone and immediately started tapping away at it. Makoto cringed from the embarrassment and the harsh clicks that came from Eiko's fake nails hitting the screen. "Message sent!"

With one last hope to get out of the double date while keeping her only lead, Makoto spoke firmly. "Eiko, don't you have a bad history with Ren?"

"What? You mean the volleyball fiasco?" Eiko waved off Makoto and laughed. "That was so three months ago."

Yuriko couldn't keep herself in check. "Pfft, yeah. Assault is, like, so lame! Honestly, anyone who remembers that stuff is, like, a total dud!" she said, jazzing up her voice with enough entitlement to make a retail worker cry.

As always, Eiko missed the point. "I know, right?" She finally smiled at Yuriko after they accidentally came to an agreement on something. Turning back to Makoto, Yuriko checked her phone again. "Ooh, he said yes!" Not giving Makoto a chance to protest, Eiko stood up with her bag in hand. "I'll text you the deats, 'kay?" Without any confirmation, Eiko rushed out the door, not realizing that she didn't have Makoto's number.

Makoto buried her face in her hands as a detox from the overload that was Eiko Takao. Yuriko had a different way of coping.

"That dumb bitch!" Yuriko yelled in the enclosed walls of the student council room at full volume. It would only be heard by the two, but Yuriko's ear-piercing catharsis wasn't appreciated by Makoto, who sank further into her hands.

"I have to go on a double date with her, her sleazy boyfriend, and pretend that I'm still dating Ren…"

"Could be worse. You could be Eiko Takao." Yuriko reached out to Makoto, pressing an encouraging hand to Makoto's wrist. "That girl's poor mother… I feel for her."

"Of all the girls in this school, did it have to be her that we found working at the club?"

"We could always call her friends in, if you want." Yuriko realized the flaw in that logic almost instantly. "I mean, if they're friends with her, they're probably getting the same scores on tests, so I dunno how much help they'd be."

"Right."

"Well, better start getting ready for that double date then!"

Thursday, 9/22

With confidence, Ren pushed the clinic door open. "Tae, my friend, my beloved doctor. How've you been?"

Tae sat up in her chair, a slight smile (that the doctor would most definitely deny) formed at the sight of her favorite patient."What's got you in a good mood?"

"Pre-trial jitters. Nothing more."

What actually had Ren in a good mood was that he had a theory. With the revelation of Maruki's alleged powers, Ren's subconscious distrust had been validated. He spent his time in Tokyo being lied to without even knowing it, so why should he ever accept what he was told as the truth anymore? The hallucinated version of Yusuke manipulated him to his own goals; who was to say that he wasn't lying about Ren not being able to use the hallucinations anymore? Ren figured it couldn't hurt to test.

"Really?" Tae leaned forward over her desk. "There's nothing that you're hiding from me?"

"Tae, I could never hide anything from you. You know how to make me talk like a celebrity in court."

"That's true…" Tae sat back in her chair, relaxing the tension that'd been built up for no apparent reason. "You're here for a trial?"

"Yep."

"May I ask why you're actually eager for them nowadays?"

"Chemical dependence."

"Good one, but I need an actual answer."

"They make me see cool shit."

Tae shrugged. "Good enough for me. Come on, we'll get you conked out in no time." She went into the back room, with Ren following closely behind. Getting to work on the mixture immediately, Tae continued the conversation as well. "It doesn't seem like that long ago when you were reluctant to come here."

Ren sat on the examination table and kicked his legs back and forth. He felt a bit like an immature kid doing so, but it was the natural thing for his legs to do. "I dunno. I think I liked it all along and just realized how cool it is now, you know? It's like undergoing a life-changing experience without having to worry about physical harm."

"Life-changing? Seriously?"

"Have you not tested your own drugs?"

"Should I?"

"Absolutely. Whatever you put in there…" Ren shook his head as Tae walked over to him. She handed him the cup of the mixture. "It's some crazy stuff."

Tae contently smiled. "I'll take your word for it." Ren took the cup and quickly swallowed it down. Tae retreated to her usual chair, grabbing the clipboard off the desk to take notes when the effects began to kick in.

That is, if they kick in. I wouldn't count on it. Hell, maybe I'll get lucky.

Ren kicked his legs up onto the table and laid back. There was no legitimate way to force the drugs to kick in, they just made their entrance when they felt like it. Ren had a feeling that they wouldn't actually work, but he didn't know that for sure. That was why he went to the clinic, after all.

Ren laid his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes, ready for whatever decided to embrace him.

A/N: Hope everyone had a good two weeks. I had to take a lot of nights off while writing this because I've actually been struggling with getting decent sleep for the past few months, since about chapter 59 specifically. I physically could not sleep for more than 6 hours every night, and it would leave me drained for the rest of the day. I managed to work through this to keep writing while getting one or two nights of good sleep per week, but things got pretty bad last week. I was exhausted every day, but couldn't fall asleep or stay asleep. Now that you guys have the chapter, I am doing better, but I'm worried that I'm at an unstable place. I'm not going to impose a deadline on myself for the next chapter, it'll be done when it's done. As always, thanks for reading. I appreciate it.

Next chapter will be Ren's birthday along with a few other things. More Yusuke, which is always good. Might be a bit on the longer side.

Have a great Monday. I'll update the fic's summary with chapter 68's status once I begin working on it.