Friday, 7/8

Haru mindlessly watered the plants, entranced by the simplicity of the activity. What snapped her trance was the sound of the door to the roof opening and shutting. She didn't check to see who it was.

"Hi, Haru." Haru recognized Makoto's voice; a pleasant surprise. Haru had wanted to speak with Makoto at least one more time before she was locked away forever. Haru regretted not spending more time with Makoto, not just over the past few months, but during their time at Shujin as well. Haru had been aware of Makoto ever since their first year when Makoto was given the coveted position of treasurer, the entry-level position for the student council.

Haru didn't become more knowledgeable about Makoto until their second year when they shared a class together. They never spoke and sat on opposite sides of the room, but it was still enough for Haru to observe Makoto. Most days, Makoto was quite boring. She was always astute and unflinching in her seat, staying perfectly focused on the teacher.

Even more impressive was that Makoto was able to do exactly that after her father died. It was something that the whole school knew about within days. Haru had heard it in passing when she was on her way to class. When she had opened the door, she found that Makoto was already there, going over her notes from the previous lesson. Haru wanted to say something to her, but it felt wrong. If Makoto was already focused on school and had seemingly moved on, surely she didn't want to be reminded of what had just obliterated her life.

A few minutes later, as class was beginning, Haru watched as the student behind Makoto tapped her on the shoulder. She turned, her face already red, and the student asked for a pencil. Makoto opened her mouth, no sound came out, at least no sound that Haru could hear from where she was sitting, and just turned back around. The student who asked for a pencil dumbfoundedly shook his head before turning to the person to pursue the same goal. It was then that Haru realized that Makoto hadn't moved on in the slightest. She had only gotten to school early and studied her notes before class to gain some semblance of normalcy, not because she was fine.

Haru considered saying something to Makoto after class, again, she decided not to. From Haru's perspective, if she received attention from people she had never spoken with after someone close to her had died, she wouldn't like it. They would only be people who wanted to talk to her because she'd be the topic of school gossip and rumors. And, in the week following Makoto's father's death, she was. At least they moved on to the next topic soon enough.

"Haru? Can we talk?" Makoto said again from behind Haru, dragging her kicking and screaming out of memory lane. Now that Haru had thought about it, she realized what Makoto was doing. She was only visiting the roof to speak with Haru because things had gone wrong. Haru hadn't been to school and wasn't answering her texts, so Makoto just had to see what was going wrong.

It felt wrong to be upset with Makoto. No doubt, her intentions were pure, yet Haru still felt displeasure with Makoto coming to the roof. That didn't change her answer to Makoto's question. "Of course." She set the watering can down and went to the abandoned desks to sit down. When she did so, she noticed that Makoto had brought Ren along. Or perhaps it was the other way around after Haru had been so dismissive to Ren the other day.

Did I hurt his feelings? Haru worried over the possibility. At the time, she was just stating facts and asking Ren not to lie to her. He could understand that, right?

Makoto and Ren took seats next to each other across from Haru. "Haru, I'm sorry about what's happening. Ren and I both want for you to get out of this."

It was the obvious opening, but Haru couldn't blame them. When Makoto was distraught over Ren and Kaneshiro, Haru had very little idea what to say to Makoto. If Haru was being honest with herself, it was like speaking with a wall. Makoto was so caught up in her own emotions that she couldn't internalize anything that Haru was saying.

Now, Haru was in that same position, but it made sense to her. What could be done to prevent the marriage? Have GRAVY attempt to assassinate the parties involved in the marriage? Not even realistic suggestions were plausible.

"I appreciate that." After considering that she may have hurt Ren in their previous action, Haru made an effort to be much friendlier than she was the previous day.

"We just wanted to let you know that we're supporting you, one-hundred percent, through and through," Ren jumped in. Haru genuinely appreciated the sentiment, even if it was wasted on something pointless.

"Thank you, Ren." Haru was thankful that she wasn't leading the conversation. It was obvious that Ren didn't know where to take things. Maybe Makoto did, but it was still unclear.

"Haru, we want you to come with us to the fireworks festival on the eighteenth. Would you be able to do that?" Makoto asked.

Haru wanted to. She really, really did. What was stopping her from doing so was her father and Sugimura. After finals were over, she was going to be kept in the estate until the marriage, which would result in her just being transferred to the Sugimura estate. Even to just convince her father to let her attend school, she had to pester her father over it, constantly reminding him that an Okumura failing out of high school was not a good look. That would only temporarily work, as Haru would be married by next semester and she could be pulled from Shujin during the break, so she wouldn't technically fail. Going to the fireworks festival was unlikely, maybe impossible. Still, it was more likely than preventing the marriage.

Telling the truth to Ren the day prior had only hurt his feelings. Haru realized that lying, at least on her side of the conversation, was necessary. "I might be able to," she said, before quickly adding, "but I don't think that my father will let me."

"What if you sneak out?" Ren proposed.

"Impossible. Security is around twenty-four-seven."

"Uh… shit…" Makoto lightly smacked Ren's shoulder. "Sorry," he said. "What if you came with Sugimura?"

Haru felt herself cringe at the thought. Speaking to him was inching over the line, and going somewhere publicly with him was long jumping over that line. "Ren, I don't think that-"

"Wait, just hear me out," Ren said, holding his hands up so that Haru wouldn't interrupt. "You ask him to take you, appeal to his arrogance of wanting a submissive wife, he brings you to the festival, and you ditch him!" Ren looked between Haru and Makoto as if he had just come up with a great idea. Sure, it was decent, but the consequences would not be great. Haru would have to face her father, who would… actually, what would he do? Force her to marry Sugimura? Take her phone? Keep her at home? Haru realized how little could be done to punish her if she ditched Sugimura at the festival. If she was going to be locked up until the wedding, she might as well have one final outing, right? Ren's idea sounded more and more appealing as she thought about it.

"Ren, that's not the-" Makoto began, but Haru interrupted her.

"I like your idea, Ren-kun." Haru was feeling more upbeat, now that there was a possibility of her going to the fireworks festival. "There's nothing for me to lose at this point, so abandoning Sugimura for the night wouldn't be that bad." She would be harshly chastised by nearly everyone at her home, but words were words. The fireworks festival outweighed whatever those words would be.

"Okay, great. I'd say that we could figure out the details later, but… no phone," Ren said before beginning to detail a plan. "GRAVY comes to my apartment during the evening. You arrive in Shibuya at seven-thirty. Using the crowd to your advantage, you sneak away from Scumfuck-Grease-Boy, and go in the direction of my apartment building. We'll be waiting out front, and we can go to a different area of the Shibuya station square than the one Sugimura will probably be camped out in. No way that he'll be able to find you in the crowd. Sounds good?"

It sounded more than good. In fact, it sounded too good to be true. It depended on her convincing Sugimura that he should take her, and then being able to successfully sneak away from him. That would be difficult, but was it worth the risk?

"That sounds wonderful, Ren-kun."

Absolutely.

Saturday, 7/9

"No need for any research-related questions on my part today, Amamiya-kun," Maruki said as he flipped through his notes while Ren took a chocolate from the bowl and ate it. "The previous session fulfilled my weekly work standard, so we can spend time however you want today."

Ren had come to the nurse's office to finish the agreement he had made with Maruki last Saturday.

Uh… shit. Probably shouldn't talk about Haru. Maruki would get concerned and want to speak with her, which is a good thing, but with how Haru reacted to me going to her, I don't think she'd want Maruki to approach her. Also, not sure how comfortable she would be with me sharing her personal details without her permission. So… what could I talk about? Futaba? Eh, why not.

Ren hadn't visited Futaba the night before. Sojiro had said that there was an anime premier or something, and Ren had spent the night working in Leblanc. He much preferred the excuse of an anime premier to not visiting Futaba because he triggered her anxiety or whatever it was that he had done that time.

"I got offered a job to, uh, socialize with this girl, who's a complete shut-in, and get her to come out of her room. Just help her adjust to living normally, I guess. I'm in over my head, to be honest."

"A shut-in?" Maruki's curiosity was piqued. "How much of a shut-in are we talking about?"

"Literally doesn't leave her room, and can't even verbally speak with me. Our conversations consist of me talking to a door, and her texting my phone her replies."

"Wow… that's some serious dedication to being anti-social," Maruki said with an awkward chuckle. When Ren didn't laugh, Maruki saw fit to apologize. "Sorry. Completely inappropriate."

"Yeah, anyway, I just worry that I might be making things worse, like worsening her perception of the outside world. I don't think I'm cut out for this shit."

"Sometimes, I feel like that too, Amamiya-kun," the counselor who was paid to provide therapy services to teenagers admitted.

"You literally went to college for years so that you could be cut out for this shit," Ren immediately replied.

"Yes, but that's the point I'm trying to make. I, a trained professional, can still be lost when speaking with someone I'm trying to help. It's a difficult thing to do, Amamiya-kun."

"Oh. Well, yeah, that makes sense."

"Back to the girl. Do you feel like you're making progress?"

"It's hard to tell. I learned that I was unknowingly playing video games with her for a while. She already knew that, so it doesn't really improve our relationship enough to make progress."

"I see… Amamiya-kun, would you like for me to help?"

"Um, that's not really for me to dec-"

"Of course, but you could recommend me to the girl or the guardian if you wanted. You don't have to, and I don't want to pressure you, but if this girl is as much of a shut-in as you say… it's serious. She's suffering. I can't allow that."

"Oh… I mean, yeah, I can talk to the girl's guardian about it. I don't know how willing he'll be, but it's worth a shot."

"Please tell him that it'd be a favor, Amamiya-kun. I don't need the money."

Interestingly enough, he sounds like me.

"Sure, we'll see. He might force you to take his money."

"He can try. The only payment I'd take is being able to see that girl happy."

"Do you think we handled things with Haru well?" Ren asked as Makoto checked over his math for errors. She was at his apartment yet again, helping him prepare for exams.

Makoto was confident that they had. Haru had seemed much happier by the end of their conversation on Friday, and the plan of Haru joining the group at the fireworks festival actually seemed plausible. For Makoto, it was a relief that they had succeeded. Failing to help Haru in any way would mean that Makoto failed to pay back the debt that she owed Haru for helping her through the ordeal with Kaneshiro.

"Yes, I believe we did. Ren, inverse tangent only produces values in quad-"

"What if she can't go?" Ren interrupted, though Makoto didn't mind. Haru was more important than Ren's misuse of the inverse tangent function on his calculator. Makoto set down Ren's answer sheet on the coffee table and relaxed on the couch.

"Ren, she'll be able to go. Remember what you said earlier? Appeal to Sugimura's arrogance?" Makoto recalled. "With what I've seen of Sugimura, it doesn't seem that hard to manipulate him."

Ren had a questioning look on his face. In the past few days, Makoto had grown worried about how much Ren doubted anything to do with Haru. For someone who was supposed to be supporting Haru, he leaned toward the negative far too much. Seeing the questioning look on Ren's face told Makoto that she was in for more doubt from the GRAVY leader.

"You gauge how easy it is to manipulate people?" Ren asked, the look still on his face.

Or not, Makoto thought, surprised that Ren wasn't doubting the situation with Haru again.

"Well, I don't make an effort to think about it. It just happens and-"

"How easy am I to manipulate?" Ren asked, a smirk on his face. That smirk was a crossroad for Makoto. She could play along and veer in the opposite direction of the mood that Haru's situation would inevitably bring, or she could steer the conversation back to Haru and wipe the smirk off of Ren's face.

I don't want Ren to be thinking awful things about whatever's going to happen to Haru. And we can't focus on her all the time. She wouldn't want that. Besides, she won't be marrying Sugimura. Things will work out. We can talk more about it at the fireworks festival, Makoto mentally planned.

"I'd say you're… hm… a seven out of ten?"

"Woah, a seven? C'mon, I see through bullshit like it's a window."

"Really, Ren? I could tell you to do practically anything and you would do it, just because I'm me." Makoto didn't believe this, but saying so was the first step in proving her point.

"Well, true, but-"

"See? I manipulated you into thinking that when we both know it's not true," Makoto said assertively, feeling good about herself because her idea had worked. However, something nagged at Makoto. "It's not true, right?"

"I dunno, Makoto, it's hard to say no to you," Ren said, smirking again.

Should I be flattered? Agh, dammit. No point thinking about it. I can feel my face getting red anyway, Makoto thought.

"Really? How so?"

"Well, if you asked me if you could stay the night again, I would have to say yes."

Makoto blushed, remembering when she last had stayed at the apartment. Even if the reason for her staying at Ren's was a horrible memory, staying at Ren's wasn't. Makoto wasn't against the idea of doing so again, especially now that nothing was wrong in their world. Well, nothing between her and Ren. Haru was still in danger.

"Ren… are you asking what I think you're asking?"

"Technically you're the one who's supposed to be asking."

Makoto laughed. "Alright… Ren, can I stay the night?"

"Yes," Ren immediately answered. "But no more studying. I'm gonna ace the exam, it's pointless to waste time on this anymore."

"Ren, it's not pointless. At least, work a little more on your trigonometric identities."

"But Makoto…" Ren complained.

"No complaining!" Makoto ordered, picking the paper up off the table and putting it in Ren's hands along with a pen.

Despite Makoto pushing Ren further than necessary, the studying quickly wound down. Ren put on a movie, Tan Labyrinth, a film about a girl who fantasized about escaping from her mundane life discovering a labyrinth beneath her home. Full of wonders and horrors, the girl explored the labyrinth in hopes of finding the key to her own happiness, as well as a solution to her own loneliness.

Makoto enjoyed the film quite a bit but found herself growing worried as the film began ramping up to what felt like a climactic scene. The music was getting ominous, and the girl on-screen had just walked into a dead-end. Up to that point, the film had only hinted at the evil within the labyrinth. Mentions of a "Bear-y Scary Man" had pervaded exposition about the labyrinth, describing the monster as a child-eating demon. If it was going to be in the film, which it most definitely was, Makoto was not looking forward to it.

To ease the tension that the film was creating, Makoto asked Ren a question. "Have you ever seen this before?"

"Hm? Oh, nah. I chose it because the art for it looked cool," Ren casually answered as he watched the movie.

Makoto alarmedly looked at Ren then turned back to the scream. He's never seen it?! Then neither of us know what's going to happen?! Both her and Ren were in the dark with whatever was going to happen on-screen, and that terrified Makoto.

It didn't take long for her fears to be fulfilled. As the girl reached the end of the dead-end, the wall suddenly faded and a doorway was revealed. Makoto was praying that the girl wouldn't go through the door, but the girl did anyway.

On the other side of the door was a pleasant sight: a dining table adjourned with gold plates and silverware, exquisite-looking food, and an extravagant fireplace made the dining room, or whatever it was, a wonderful thing to look at. There was just one problem: at the head of the table sat what Makoto knew to be the Bear-y Scary Man by the imposing figure that was onscreen. It was humanoid, barely, with no facial features besides two slits for noses. Its blue webbed hands rested on the dining table. From how huge it was when seated, Makoto estimated that the Bear-y Scary Man was at least eight feet tall. Despite its height, its figure was still sickly thin. It was an awful thing to look at.

"WHAT the FUCK is that?!" Ren yelled at the screen, more vocal about his terror than Makoto.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod…" Makoto pulled the blanket that she had been given up to her face but kept her eyes over so she could watch the movie. She had to know the fate of the girl. She put her feet up on the couch so that there was a zero-percent chance of a stray Bear-y Scary Man finding its way into Ren's apartment, crawling under Ren's couch, and grabbing her ankles.

The girl in the movie grabbed some of the incredible food on the table, and that was when Makoto knew that things were going to go bad. That, and she was helped by the orchestral music throbbing in the background. The camera quickly cut to the Bear-y Scary Man, who jerked his hands off of the table. The girl didn't notice the movement, as she was busy eating. The Bear-y Scary Man picked up actual eyeballs off of the table before scooting backward in its chair and standing up. The sound of the chair alerted the girl, who let out a scream as she saw the Bear-y Scary Man in all its glory. But it wasn't done yet.

With the agility of an Olympic diver, the Bear-y Scary Man tossed both eyes into the air while fluidly dropping into a perfectly upright handstand. It caught the eyes in sockets in the bottoms of its feet in one motion. Those eyes were now trained on the girl, who had the right idea by starting to run away.

"Nope. Nope. Nopenopenopenopenope…" Ren said as he scooted closer to Makoto and buried his head under his own blanket. Admittedly, Makoto found it cute, but she was way too terrified by what was going on on-screen to consider Ren's antics.

In what had to be the worst thing she had ever seen, the Bear-y Scary Man let out a squealing roar as it ran on its hands while using its feet to see. The motion was disturbingly sickening and may have been the most unfortunately unique thing Makoto had ever seen in a movie. The Bear-y Scary Man quickly caught up to the girl as they emerged into the labyrinth, and launched a flying kick at her head, which she only dodged by turning a corner.

"Oopsy-daisy!" the Bear-y Scary Man screamed before it resumed its pursuit. Just when Makoto thought things couldn't get worse, the Bear-y Scary Man jumped onto a wall and began crawling as if it was a spider after the girl. It was rapidly gaining and it didn't take long before it leaped off the wall and onto the girl. "Bear pile!"

The screen cut to black. After a few seconds, text came on screen. "End of part one." I am never watching part two. I'm never letting Ren pick the movie ever again , Makoto thought before she took a second to consider who was still under the blanket. Actually, I don't think Ren will ever let himself pick a movie after this.

It took time for both of them to recover from the traumatizing scene. Makoto was able to coax Ren into coming out from his blanket hiding place. Too scarred to watch more movies, Ren and Makoto decided it was best to call it quits for the night. Ren had offered to let Makoto take the bed and he would sleep on the couch, but she declined the offer, teasingly reminding him that she was the one who asked to stay over. He had set up a temporary bed on the couch for her. She laid down on it, preparing to go to bed when Ren sat down in one of the chairs that was a few feet away from the couch.

"Do you… wanna talk?" Ren awkwardly asked.

"Talk? About what?" Makoto was confused. Ren spoke as if there was an elephant in the room that needed discussion.

"Well, anything, I dunno. The night feels incomplete," Ren said as he shrugged in his chair.

"It does? How can you tell?" Makoto was even more confused. How was Ren determining such a thing?

"Ryuji sleeps over sometimes. He and I usually talk before we go to sleep."

"What do you guys talk about?"

"Classified GRAVY business."

"Ren…"

"No, it's literally classified GRAVY business. That's how we came up with the idea for the social media page."

"Oh… I thought you meant that you guys were talking about…" Makoto didn't want to finish her sentence after realizing how embarrassing it would be for her to say such a thing.

"About what?"

"Forget about it," Makoto quickly said. She turned her body to face the couch cushions so that Ren couldn't see her.

"Makoto, I'm letting you sleep here tonight. The least you could do is be honest with me…" Ren teased.

Makoto rolled over again to face him. "Well… I just thought that you guys would be talking about girls or things that guys talk about."

"Oh, believe me, I'm not talking about that with Ryuji," Ren said, laughing hard at the idea. "He's not cut out for that. Not yet, anyway. You've seen how he behaves around Ann."

"Ren, he doesn't behave." Makoto laughed at her own joke, with Ren joining in.

"Okay, but you know what I mean. He's got no clue what to say to her, even though it's obvious that he likes her."

That's news to me, Makoto thought, worrying that she was missing some obvious social cues that everyone except her understood.

"How can you tell?"

"It's Ryuji. He wears his emotions on his sleeve while wearing a mood-ring-headband."

"Oh…" That didn't clear up Makoto's confusion over how Ren could tell in the first place. "Is there anyone else that that's obvious with?" Maybe another example would help Makoto find the correlation with Ryuji so she could identify what made it so obvious.

"Uh… I dunno… you?"

What?! Makoto felt panic flare through her, even though this wasn't anything new to her. She had gone on several dates with Ren, as well as stayed at his apartment several times. She shouldn't care if someone pointed out the obvious fact that she liked him. But when Ren himself did it…

"Sorry about that," Ren said, probably noticing how red Makoto's face was getting. "I'm sure there are other examples at Shujin. I'm a bit out of touch, so I don't know what's going on with who, ya know?"

Makoto was thankful that he had changed the subject from her. It let her calm herself down.

"That makes sense. I guess I'm a little out of touch, too," Makoto added. "That's probably not a good thing, right? I'm supposed to be the student council president and I don't even know what's going on between students."

"What? That doesn't mean shit. Makoto, you're a great student council president," Ren said as he pulled out his phone and handed it to her. "Look at this."

Makoto took the phone. A Shujinstagram post was on the screen. It was a photo from last week when Makoto was watering some plants. She didn't know that the photo had been taken of her, but it was a nice photo nonetheless. "Look at our gracious student council president taking the time out of her day to help us with gardening! Way to keep up with the students, Miss President!" Makoto wasn't sure if she liked the post or not.

"Ren, what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Makoto, people liked that photo. Twenty-four out of the twenty-seven who saw it, in fact. That's quadrupled what the other post on the GRAVY Shujinstagram. People think you're a good president."

"Well, I don't know. This is just a social media post."

"Yeah, but people are choosing to like it. It doesn't matter if you don't understand the intricacies of the student body, because that's probably impossible. What does matter is that you're not neglecting the student body."

Ren was right. By his reasoning, Makoto was good at being student council president. The biggest example of her not neglecting the student body was sitting a few feet away from her.

"Thanks, Ren."

"No problem, Makoto." He took back his phone, checking the time as he did so. "Oh, shit. Looks like the night is complete." He stood up from the chair and began walking to his room. "G'night, Makoto."

"Goodnight, Ren."

Sunday, 7/10

Ren awoke naturally, with the light of Sunday morning peeking in through the blinds. He groggily sat up in bed, Morgana yawning beside him while stretching out.

Fuck… I slept great. What time did I go to bed? I stopped talking to Makoto at- Makoto! Makoto's here! Shit, I slept in!

Ren jumped out of bed, threw on some presentable clothes, and left his room. He expected to see the student council president gone from his apartment, but he was surprised to find her in his apartment kitchen making… Ren walked closer so he could actually see what she was preparing.

Omelets! What luck. I don't even keep eggs in my fridge. Makoto is just so perfect that she can conjure food out of thin air.

"Morning," Ren said. Makoto looked up, and that took Ren even more by surprise. She didn't look like she slept on a couch the previous night, she looked like she normally did. It was like she had had a fair amount of time to consider her appearance. "How long have you been up?"

"Good morning, Ren," Makoto said with a friendly smile. "I actually slept in today, but I've been up for a few hours."

Up for a few hours?! It's eleven in the morning on a Sunday.

"Sorry about that…" Ren felt the need to apologize after leaving his guest bored for what must have been hours.

"Don't worry about it. I actually went down to the gym and went back to my place to get an actual outfit. And I thought that omelets sounded fun, so I just brought some stuff from my apartment over here," she explained before worry was plastered across her face. "Is that alright?"

"Perfect. Absolutely perfect."

Within a few minutes, they were both eating omelets at Ren's kitchen counter, bantering back and forth. While this was happening, Ren detached himself from the conversation. He would reply to Makoto, of course, but his thoughts were distant.

After this, after Makoto leaves… what does that mean? Is that the end of the good times before Haru is sent away? Was it right to even do this? Just forget about Haru for a night and have fun? Not even Haru, but Futaba? I'm supposed to be helping her, and I am failing miserably. I'm even considering letting Maruki do it for me. Fuck, I shouldn't be here right now. Makoto shouldn't be here. We should be helping Haru and Futaba.

Ren went over those same ideas over and over until it reached a point where he wasn't even replying to Makoto anymore. She took notice and called him out. "Ren, is everything alright? You're getting quiet."

"Yeah, I'm fi-" he started but stopped.

Don't just act like you have nothing on your mind, Ren. Don't lie to Makoto.

"Actually," he continued, "I'm thinking about Haru again." He looked at her to gauge her reaction. The smile that she had soured. "I mean, are we even supposed to be enjoying life right now? Haru is about to have her life ruined and we just had a movie night!"

"Ren, Haru wouldn't want us to put our lives on hold for her." As she had the past few times where Ren had vented, Makoto remained calm and respectful.

"But we should! How the hell would we stop the marriage without putting our lives on hold to figure things out?!"

"Ren…" Makoto paused, her eyes darting around as she obviously thought about what she wanted to say. "As you said, we can think about ideas more at the fireworks festival. If that doesn't pan out, we can at least help her have a fun night, right?"

What? If we can't think of anything that can be done for Haru, we just say "Fuck it" and forget about the marriage for the remainder of the fireworks festival? Fuck that. Still, if we were going to come up with something, it would've happened by now. We've known about the marriage for long enough.

"I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the marriage won't happen, Ren," Makoto added.

Ren knew that he was far too stubborn with this issue. He couldn't even convince himself otherwise, and he was the most persuasive person that he knew. Opting to just end the pointless debate, Ren agreed with Makoto. "Alright. I trust that."

"Good. Now finish your omelet. I worked hard on it," Makoto teased in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood.

Not long after Makoto left, Ren's phone buzzed.

Tae Takemi:

-It's been too long, my guinea pig.

God damn right.

Within minutes, Ren was out the door and on his way to the clinic.

For once, Ren actually had a decent reason to test shady drugs for Tae: they might help him come up with an idea of how to help Haru. The chance of Ren tripping hard enough that he discovered how to halt an arranged marriage was low, but it wasn't zero, and that's what mattered.

"Alright, Ren, are you ready?" Tae asked as she finished preparing the substance and turned around from her desk to face Ren. She smiled. "What am I saying, of course you're ready. You're my guinea pig."

"Do you have to use that nickname?"

"Actually, it'd be a pet name," Tae said flatly. "Because, well, you're my guinea pig."

Are you fucking kidding me?

Ren's displeasure with the remark was apparent enough that Tae laughed. "Only joking. Here." She handed him the cup.

This is a bad idea.

Ren chugged it anyway. As usual, the effects weren't immediate. He sat around for a few minutes, with Tae sitting at her desks and jotting notes based on Ren's behavior. He didn't do much besides glance around the room and kick his legs back and forth like a hyper child.

"Feeling anything?" Tae asked as she stood up from her chair.

"Nah. You gotta try harder with these. Your stuff has been weak lately, Tae," Ren remarked as Tae went to the room's sole window, which had its blinds down.

"Oh really?" Tae said. Ren could hear the smugness seeping into her tone. If Ren was being honest with himself, the drugs were probably as effective as ever. It was just a matter of time.

It didn't take long. Tae pulled the blinds up, letting the moonlight of the night shine into the clinic exam room.

Moonlight? It's noon. Oh, so it's working. I guess that's a good thing. Alright, Ren, try to relax, don't panic, just let-

The window shattered loudly, making Ren jump. Tae didn't even flinch. Ren felt the air being sucked out of the clinic as if it was a breached airlock. Just as suddenly as the window shattered, everything stopped. The air, the noise of Tae's equipment, everything. What cut through the silence was Tae herself.

"Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yusuke, Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yusuke, Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yusuke" she chanted, getting louder each time.

"Okay, Tae, good one. I'd rather not have to deal with Yusuke dressed as Bob Ross again." Ren shuddered at the memory. At least it was better than goth doctor Ryuji.

A silhouette blocked the moonlight that was coming into the exam room. Ren squinted as if it would create more light for him to see, but it didn't matter. The figure moved closer until it was through the window and set down in the room with Ren and Tae, who was still chanting. Now that it was close enough to see, Ren was able to identify the figure.

Whaddya know, Yusuke isn't dressed as Bob Ross. Lucky me.

"Silence," Yusuke broadly ordered at Tae. She immediately stopped chanting and literally faded out of existence before Ren's eyes. Yusuke turned his emotionless gaze to Ren. "Come." He extended a hand.

"Uh… no."

Yusuke flicked his head and Ren's body was dragged by nothing from the examination table until he was standing a foot away from Yusuke, who was towering above Ren by at least three feet.

Eh, nine-foot-Yusuke is better than Bob Ross Yusuke.

Ren got the message that was sent when Yusuke seemingly used The Force as if he were a character in Earth Harmony: it was pointless to resist Yusuke's commands. Ren took hold of Yusuke's hand, and began levitating, beginning to float towards the window. Ren felt himself being lifted off the ground. Not dragged by Yusuke, but he was floating off of the floor on his own.

"When'd you learn to fly?"

Yusuke solemnly turned back to Ren, smirked, and answered the question. "Yeezy taught me."

Yusuke and Ren shot out of the window like a bullet, flying straight through the air. There should've been wind resistance, but Ren felt nothing. It was quite a relief, considering that traveling at that speed would result in unbearable wind resistance.

Ren looked back down at Tokyo below him. Every street he could see was filled with people, thousands upon thousands, all looking up at Ren. In total, there were probably millions of people gazing at the sky. For once, he liked being the center of attention. Soon enough, it was gone. Yusuke and Ren had traveled fast enough that Ren couldn't see the crowds after a few seconds.

Ren looked straight up in the sky. They were flying straight to… the moon? Was it the moon? Sure, it had all the same details as the normal moon, but now it was green and unreasonably massive.

Eh, whatever. I wonder what I look like in Tae's clinic right now. Maybe I'm reciting math questions to Tae or some shit. I'm sure she'd like that.

Within a minute, Yusuke had brought Ren to space. They touched down on the moon shortly, with Ren attempting to take advantage of less gravity to no avail. Apparently, his hallucinations weren't of a high enough quality to properly simulate gravity.

"Chairs," Yusuke said, clapping twice. Just as Tae had vanished from existence in the clinic, two chairs faded into existence. "Take a seat," Yusuke instructed.

Ren sat in the leather chair, admiring its comfiness. He looked at Earth, appreciating the view. It was much closer to Yusuke's moon than it was in reality, but Ren didn't mind. It made for a better view.

"Observe," Yusuke ordered as he extended a hand in the direction of Earth and, as if he were using a tablet, made a motion with his fingers to zoom in. Earth shifted and morphed until Ren and Yusuke were viewing Tokyo from the sky, just sitting on some leather chairs on the moon. Ren could again see the crowds, who were now not focused on Ren, and had turned their attention to a singular building in the center of the city. Ren wasn't sure if it was a building in reality or just a figment of the hallucination, but he looked to see what the crowds were looking at.

Yusuke zoomed in a little more. Ren could see a figure emerge onto the rooftop of the building. It carried a giant L-shaped post with it, which shouldn't have been possible with its size, but then again, Ren was sitting on the moon. It placed the L-post straight up on top of the building and then threw a rope over the top of the post. Ren couldn't see what that was for, but he would understand in time.

The figure turned to the sky and raised its hands in the air as if speaking with a god. Suddenly, four black horizontal lines burned themselves into the skyline and Ren realized what was happening.

It was a game of Hangman.

The crowd cheered, with Ren being too far to make out what they said, but the figure atop the building heard it clearly enough. It gestured to the sky again, and the first of the four black lines was occupied with an H.

Four letter word… starting with an H… wait… oh fuck. It's Haru. I'm not watching this.

Thinking that he had the same power as Yusuke, Ren reached out to interact with Earth as if it was a tablet. He swiped left, hoping that it would at least skip ahead. He was surprised when it did, but realized his mistake as soon as he did it.

He had skipped into the action. The figure had strung itself up and was spasming as it dangled from the rope. The four black lines had been replaced with the name that Ren had guessed, and the crowd below was cheering as if it was New Year's. Ren couldn't believe what he was watching. He tried to skip forward again, but Yusuke snatched his hand and held it in place.

Ren watched as the figure's body became limp, swaying ominously from the post. The crowd stopped cheering. The lifelessness continued for seconds, until the body exploded into blood, more than could be contained in someone's body, and spread across Ren's hallucination of Tokyo. Buildings were covered, the crowd was soaked, and some even splattered in front of Yusuke and Ren.

"That concludes our program," Yusuke said as he looked at his wrist even though he had no watch. "Ah, it is time."

Feeling the worst he had since the Kaneshiro business, Ren was too upset to think about just what it could be time for. "Time for what?" he aggressively asked.

Ren heard the cracking of rock and felt rumbling beneath his chair. Just as quickly as the clinic window had shattered, an explosion of moon rock sent Ren flying, along with him being dragged by a familiar face: Haru, executioner outfit and all, was carrying him back to earth.

"Good to see y-" Ren was cut off as Haru flung him so hard that he crossed the East China Sea and some land after until he literally went through a mountain, only to end up in another one. Strangely, he didn't feel any pain from the incredible feat. The only punishment he endured was getting the wind knocked out of him, which was still horrible. Just as quickly as he had been thrown, Haru was assertively standing in front of him.

"Think, Ren! If you let me do it, I won't have to marry Sugimura! You wouldn't have to worry about the marriage, or how to save my summer, you could just move on! You could be happy with Makoto without me dragging you down! You could save yourself!"

Gasping for air, Ren uttered a few words to Haru. "But wha… about… you…?" he barely spat out through choked breaths.

Haru sighed. "The axe to the head left him dead, now your failure to glean will rupture your spleen." Haru jumped in the air and came crashing down into Ren. He felt his body implode and his vision went black.

A/N: Sorry that this is late. Because summer just started, I forgot what day it was and only realized that I had to finish the chapter on Monday, when I had nothing written. My bad. It's also much more difficult to write now that I'm not adhering to a routine, but I'll figure something out. Next chapter will be out on time, I promise. Thanks for reading.