"You're really a troublesome guy, you know that?"

Yuki looked up from his spot in front of the Yagura Branch Office.

He had been planning on getting to his own job while telling the remaining people to finally leave when Arafune had spoken to him. The taller boy had been waiting for some reason, but Yuki thought nothing of it since it was better than the weird sight of Inukai off to the side.

Arafune, along with others like Inukai and Hokari, were still waiting around the branch office. Some others seemed to be loitering just as much, but they seemed more prepared to leave and were only checking on something.

Yuki himself had decided to not tell anyone to leave since he was also waiting for Suzume to come by like she had said she would be.

"You guys have told me so many times by now. How could I not know by now?"

Arafune shook his head before looking over at Inukai.

He could see his schoolmate rubbing his cheek against Oshiro as the younger boy allowed it to happen while having a normal conversation with Suzaku. It was strange, but nothing out of the ordinary.

He turned his head back to Yuki but his eyes trailed to the opposite side of where Inukai was standing. It felt like he was looking for something but found nothing there.

Yuki looked around as well to see if there was anything to note. There was nothing there.

"I feel like you're forgetting something important here."

"No, I know full well about the people who will be getting mad at me. Yuba and Fujimaru already sent me a message of complaint and Tsukimi said she would be coming by later. But that's only because they were apparently there. I don't plan on telling anyone else about what happened. Especially since I wasn't there to begin with."

"You already told the majority of us."

"That's different. Mostly because you all found out through Kimura and not me. I filled in the blanks for you guys, but she had been told by the directors. I had been told by Sensei, Jin filled in things for me, and the fact I know Kushi means I can figure out what happened."

There was a moment of silence.

Arafune filled that in with a glare down towards Yuki.

"Hey, stop that."

Yuki furrowed his brows at the tone Arafune was taking with him.

"You don't like her, right? Your older sister. You always seem to be against her, but the way you speak about her… You never sound like you really hate her. Even when you say you do. You call her by that name. You won't even say anything particular about her."

"That's-"

"You're being a contradiction again. You hate her, but you still can't really say you don't at least like her. Isn't that right? Maybe because she's your sister?"

"She is a part of the job for me. Besides, I always get a bad feeling when I say too much about her. As if she will come after me."

"So you're afraid of her then."

"Am I…?"

Yuki knew he was contradicting himself again.

It was just how he was now.

Ninomiya would point it out by calling him a faker or outright tell him what was a contradiction. It was the truth and he hated it.

"Then again, you have always had issues when it comes to talking about your family. At least the ones who aren't your younger sister."

"I need to not focus on the particulars or I'm going to mess up again. Just drop the conversation, will you? Staying in this mindset will be what helps deal with that woman while also doing the jobs I need to do."

"...Don't change how you address her just because I point it out."

"Testu…"

The squad captain did not flinch under the dull look he got from Yuki. Not again at least.

He had seen that look before and was prepared for it this time. Last time it had been when they went to Germany, but the situation there had been different.

"I need to stay as neutral as possible until all of this is resolved. If I lean towards one side then I'll be easily swayed. You know that."

"Sadly I do…"

It was not the first time Yuki would have been swayed easily over something just because there was a story behind it.

The first time was because a boy could not find anything worth his time.

The second time was because of a girl who was having troubles of her own.

The third time was because a boy had decided to run away from a life he had no choice in.

Those had led to this point where it seemed to work out, but at the cost of a lot of hurt for those three. An attachment had formed that had caused a lot of pain for those three, even if they were now moving forward.

Now that someone so important to Yuki was in such a situation, he had decided to remain neutral to it all and focus more on the statistics than the person involved or the people she knew.

There was no way around this sort of thing when it came to the Yagura Branch Representative and Arafune knew it. He had known for a while now.

Kageura and Hokari had spoken about it before. About how the boy in front of him could never stick to one thing, always trying to do something else as long as it was for the benefit of anyone. Anyone who was not himself at least.

Murakami had solidified it by not even speaking about it.

And now he was seeing it again firsthand.

"…Alright, fine. I guess I really am one of the last people you want to hear this stuff from."

"You're just… You're not as bad as Ōji, but I know what you think of me too. It's fine. Even Kage has his own thoughts about me. I'll just deal with it along with the rest of the thoughts people have."

Arafune let out a sigh while crossing his arms. His eyes looked from side to side again as he spoke.

This time his eyes had caught sight of something.

"Just make sure you're ready to handle what comes next."

"What comes next…"

Yuki looked over to where Arafune had his sights focused on and saw the same thing he did.

A body.

A fast moving body going in their direction.

"So he found out then…"

Arafune could only nod as Yuki straightened himself up in preparation for what was to come.

A loud voice came soon after. It went along with the pounding of footsteps.

"You!"

.

Yuki wiped all emotion from his face as the moving body finally reached him.

To the side, he could see Arafune take a step back but prepare in case something happened. Behind him Inukai could be seen doing the same thing, except taking a step forward instead.

It took only a hand grabbing Yuki by the front of his shirt for the two of them to lean forward.

"Explain yourself."

Yuki glanced towards the two leaning forward as if to tell them to keep their distance. The hand that continued to tighten around his shirt and the tone taken with him were opposing in a way that only the people who knew this body could say anything about.

The body belonged to a boy a bit taller than Yuki and with rage clear in his eyes.

"What do you want me to explain, Minoru?"

"Don't give me that crap! You know what I'm talking about here! And if you start lying to me, even you won't be getting off so easily!"

"Have I ever 'lied' to you before?"

"Don't start with me! Tell me why I heard about that bitch of a sister messed up Fuji!"

"I have no control over that woman. And besides that, I had nothing to do with that. Mei had gone out to find that woman along with Jin and the others. I had no time to even try to find her. You know that as well as I do since we had been with the sponsors until late last night."

There was an audible noise as Yuki was pushed down onto the steps leading to the Yagura Branch's entrance.

Minoru had used force to push the weak body onto those steps, but saw that such an act had no effect on the smaller boy. Yuki had not winced or even registered what had happened as the grip on his shirt only tightened.

At this point more people than just Arafune and Inukai had gotten closer. By now even Suzaku and Hokari had moved closer in order to see what was happening. The latter of the two seemed more ready to step between them once he saw the cut Yuki had gotten from the landing.

"I left her in your care! You were supposed to help her, make sure things like this don't happen… You were supposed to be that pillar… But what about now!? How the fuck are you doing anything resembling help!?"

"…I can't say."

"Why the fuck not!?"

At this point Yuki had grabbed a hold of that hand gripping his shirt. The knuckles were turning white and the cloth was beginning to tear from the grip.

They could all clearly see just how enraged Minoru was at the moment and yet Yuki gave nothing away with his expression. No regret, no sadness, no anger of his own. The plain and blank expression he wore did not even give off the same sly feeling usually coming from him.

"Because I have my job to do. That event last night added to my job and now I need to focus on what can happen without being able to see it."

"Your job…?"

He saw it.

Yuki saw the moment when all of the collective anger building up within Minoru reached a critical point.

A point where it was not shown and instead left only something blank. A devastating calm that could only be described as "the calm before the storm".

"Hey, Yuki… Shouldn't you explain it better than that?"

Inukai's voice sounded shaky from his position in front of Oshiro.

He seemed to be blocking the younger boy from seeing what was happening as others tried to usher him away from the scene before anything bad happened.

In response to those words, Yuki turned this head - no, he let his head fall. The same blank expression on his face.

.

"Inu, this isn't something I will just be saying out loud. Don't try and say something while thinking it will be helpful. Mei took her chance against Kushikage and lost. Jin was there and she lost. Kanzaki attacked and she lost as well. That woman is on a different level and they knew that. They lost and now have to think about that."

A shudder ran down all of their spines at the monotone voice coming from the usually tricky person. There was nothing in his tone to give away how he felt about the matter. This kind of thing had been seen by some of them before, but they had forgotten about it after having wiped it from their memories.

During that time there had been some people who went by different names. Those names were ones that should have also been forgotten, but no one could forget them due to having been lost and given up on.

Those people who had different names had been rough to deal with since their personalities were selfish and undefined by normal standards.

One of those people was what others could see right now. A boy who had an undefined personality that was trying his best not to fight back against the clear offense from Minoru.

The boy had not gone looking for fights but would not back down from one. It did not matter what kind of fight it was so long as he had a chance to fight back. The hand holding onto his shirt right now was a clear indicator that he should fight the boy in front of him, but he seemed to be holding back from doing so in front of everyone else.

"Kiyoshi!"

"What?"

The boy had not said a simple "Yes?" or even tried to calm the taller boy down. Instead he was taking the challenge with his words while keeping his body from reacting in any way.

"What did you do to my cousin!?"

"I let her do as she wanted. What, do you want me to take that away from her?"

"You are supposed to protect her! To take care of her and make sure she is safe! You need to take responsibility after changing her so much!"

Inukai knew that getting between the two of them was not a good idea and so pulled out his phone instead.

There was someone else who he could ask for in this situation. The risk of them starting something was very high, but it would have been better than anything he could do at the moment.

Haru: "Ninomiya-san, there's a problem here and we need you over here now!"

Ninomiya: "Is it Minoru or the faker?"

The fact he immediately goes to one of those two…

It was to be expected with him, but that still did not make things any less strange.

Haru: "Both actually. I know you hate Yuki a lot, but you also love Mino! Please help out over here! We're in front of the Yagura Branch."

Ninomiya: "I was already making my way over there. I should be there in a bit, so hold things off until I get there."

Looking back to the blank boy and the angered boy, he saw that the two had been separated by the Arafune Squad duo. Hokari takes a close position to Yuki and Arafune looking to Minoru with some worry. Suzaku seemed to be inching towards the center of the two sides to keep them from going back near each other.

This seemed fine enough, both Minoru and Yuki were kept apart from each other. Neither one was being left alone at the moment, but…

"Oh, no…"

He could see it from where he stood.

Everything that had built up over this short amount of time had created an ominous calm within Minoru before it had burst. That had been the reason the Arafune Squad duo had stepped in a moment ago.

But that was also the wrong choice.

It was no longer the anger that was building up from within Minoru, but something else entirely.

.

Minoru could feel so many things all at once.

He had felt the moment Arafune pulled him back and Hokari had grabbed hold of Yuki. Both had used enough force to keep them apart, but not enough to hurt them.

From there he could only feel terrible things.

He felt his blood start pounding in his ears.

He felt his heart pound against his chest.

He felt his hands shake uncontrollably .

He felt the need to get away.

"Where will you go? Who would even take you at this point?"

A voice echoed in his mind.

The voice sounded all too familiar. It was the same one he always heard when it was all too much for him. When his inner demons came to the surface.

"You keep being this way and you know you are just being a burden to them all. Who would want that exactly? No one."

He could feel a burning sensation as the words came in. His arms burned. To be exact: his wrists burned. The same ones that had taken abuse before and had marks to show it.

Each scar that was left on those wrists were hot. He became much more aware of them as the seconds went on.

His body began to bend forward as a hand was placed on his shoulder, something he did not notice. He began to curl in on himself.

"You think you can be helpful, but you know that's not possible. Just look at Fuji. You couldn't do anything for her."

He had left it to someone else because he could do nothing for her.

He left it to the boy in front of him, yet that boy seemed to only harm her more.

Why had he left her to him?

"Mirai… Fuji… Your family just leaves you behind. Because they know you aren't needed. You didn't leave Fuji with him. She knew you couldn't help her and so left to find someone else."

This boy in front of him who could only hurt her. Hurt some of the remaining family he has left with him.

The heat coming from his body seemed to only grow as the thoughts grew louder and louder. Each one invading his mind even deeper than the last.

He felt his body heating up and his stomach quickly turning into knots, yet he shook. His body shook even as it felt like he was burning.

Flashes of previous events came flooding into his mind. What had he done then? What had made things better?

"…"

No noise came out as he continued to bend forward. Someone had been trying to right him into standing up, but he just continued forward.

He continued to bend forward as his arms started to reach for each other. Each one pushing up their sleeves to reach the skin under them.

Two sharp sounds were carried in the wind as he reached for his arms. His nails touching the skin roughly instead of with care.

This was the way he could feel better. There was nothing he could use except his own nails right now. Nothing but that could tea into him like those blades had done before.

And yet…

"Minoru…!"

He was stopped from doing that.

A pair of arms had reached out to grab his own. They felt rather weak in comparison to everyone else's, but they were enough to hold his arms in place. Rather, he was allowing them to hold his arms in place.

The hand that had been on his shoulder before was now moving in front of him, where his arms were being held. It reached for his sleeves and began to tug them down.

.

Yuki had covered the distance between him and Minoru in an instant.

Even without his trion body, he was rather fast on his feet. Without his illness he would easily be able to cover the ground with no issue at all, but that was not the case. It was not the past, a time when he could do so freely and without any reservation. Now he could feel a pain in his legs from only that short distance and his own heartbeat pounding against this chest as coughs threatened to come out.

But it was no time to think of those things.

He had seen something that made him disregard his own pain. The pain that was only affecting him physically and could be tossed aside so long as he took medicine later on. It had been something that even he did not fully think about until he felt his own body move forward.

Scars.

Inukai had been the closest Minoru, but Yuki had the best view of what was happening.

From his perspective, Minoru was closing himself off from everything. Curling in on himself as if shutting down and not noticing anything around him. It had been more than enough to make him lose his facade in favor of worrying about Minoru.

Once Minoru had started to move his arms closer to each other, Yuki made sure to pay attention. He had brushed off Hokari's hand and instinctively leaned forward.

It was when he was not paying attention to himself that his Side Effect began to force his body to move in the same way that Minoru was. His body began to curl up and his arms started to move closer to each other. The position of his fingers, his legs, his body, and his head were all starting to mirror that of Minoru. Once his fingers started brushing up his arms he fully noticed what was going on.

The moment those sleeves moved up his body pushed forward.

He knew that he had let out a small gasp when he saw the scars, but it was blown away along with Inukai's.

He reached out his own hands in order to grab Minoru's before they could do any damage. He made sure to position himself close so that others around them could not see those scars. Only Inukai, who was just as close, could see those scars and began to cover them up again.

His own physical strength was nothing when compared to Minoru's, especially with the way his body currently was, so he had fully expected to be pushed off instantly.

Instead, he was met with little resistance.

Minoru only stood there, seemingly allowing Yuki to hold his arms and Inukai to pull down the sleeves.

He could say that this was not the first time he had seen something similar happen, but that did not mean he was any more prepared for it. This was still something new to him, both in terms of what was happening and who it was happening to.

He turned to Inukai, expecting him to tell him what to do next.

But that seemed to be unnecessary.

"Move aside."

A voice that could only make him angry in an instant soon came through.

The footsteps that followed were quick, yet steady. They were moving in their direction and Yuki knew to let upon his hold of Minoru's arms. Even if it meant turning to the person he hated the most.

"You move aside too, idiotic faker."

"Don't tell me what-"

The words for his retort were caught in his throat as he stared up at a cold glare.

Unlike anything ever sent his way, the glare he was getting from his only true enemy was not one of hatred or loathing. Those ones were usually followed by an insult meant to rile him up so that they could begin their arguments. It has become a constant for them and something that only happens when around each other. This one particular glare was one meant to keep Yuki in place and prevent him from moving. Something that was far more harsh than any insult thrown out or any hit to his body.

It sent a chill down his spine.

Being kept in place by the glare and with what had just happened, Yuki could only watch as Ninomiya held Minoru close before turning to Inukai, completely ignoring him standing there or the onlookers.

"I'll take him back for now. You do whatever you need to do here and come by later."

"Right…"

Ninomiya only nodded in response, ignoring how Inukai turned towards Yuki with a worried expression of his own.

"Um…"

Everyone heard the sudden voice that came from the side.

Yuki recognized the voice instantly. It belonged to the girl who had said she would be coming over.

.

Suzume was at a loss for words upon coming to the odd scene in front of the Yagura Branch.

She had decided to visit the branch office in order to see what Yuki had to say about Mei and to see the older girl herself. It had been on her mind since she had been told the vague details about what was happening.

Something she had not expected to come to was the heavy atmosphere around the entrance of the Yagura Branch.

Moving closer had brought her to where everyone had been standing, watching the center of the small crowd they had formed.

In the middle were four people. Two were standing there while the last two were walking away.

Due to the nature of her Side Effect, she automatically began to watch everything with keen perception to determine the state of everything. What she saw was a mess. Most of the people standing around had a similar Rhythm at the moment with the only real different ones being the two standing in the middle of it all and one of the two walking away.

Inukai held his body in a much different way than she had seen before. The changes from his usual stance showed in the way he sagged his shoulders and the frown on his face gave away that everything was not okay. The fact he was not grabbing hold of Hogo, who was only a few feet away, also gave her more than enough of an understanding of the situation. Even his breathing seemed different and out of place compared to all of the times she had interacted with him.

Near him was her former captain and one of the reasons she was here in the first place.

Unlike Inukai, who she could clearly tell there was a difference with, Yuki gave nothing away.

It was not in the same way as hiding something though. Quite the opposite.

Instead of hiding anything behind false motions or forced ones, he seemed to be trying to make multiple motions all at once. His hands moved from one side to the other, his fingers twitched constantly, his feet shifted quickly, his knees seemed to be buckling, his head shook at times, and his breathing was erratic. It was something she had never seen from her usually composed and kind former captain.

But it isn't honestly the first time this has happened…

Mei had told her before about some occurrences in the past.

The past that Kotowari Squad knew so little about.

She had been told how Yuki's Side Effect forced him to constantly maintain a focus on his own body's movements. If he allowed his body to act upon what his Side Effect wanted then he would be stuck trying to move like everything he was seeing. There would be no choice for him to move how he wanted since his body would only take in the movements of those around him.

It is honestly sad, she thought. For someone who moved as freely as she did it was nothing but sad to know he would not be able to do the same. I'm sure Toby feels the same way considering how he does things.

But what had gotten her former captain to this point?

As far as any Kotowari Squad member knew, Yuki had a rather composed concentration and seemed to always be in charge of himself. Even with his own quirks, there had never been a time when he had gotten to the point of having his Side Effect be in control of his actions.

That had been when he attention had been drawn to the two walking away.

What she saw was…

"…What?"

One of the two was Ninomiya, someone who's Rhythm had long since been categorized in her mind. It had its own uniqueness to it and continued to remain that way. There was a bit of something else there, but that was likely due to her former captain being so close to him.

No, what had gotten her attention was the one next to him.

The one who had a Rhythm so unlike what she was seeing that she could not believe it was who she thought it was.

But…

"It's best not to look, Suzu…"

"Yuki, you can't just-"

"I know. But remember that Suzu and I tend to find things out by a person's movement."

"…"

The silence from Inukai only brought about curiosity from her. Yuki was against her seeing that person walking away while Inukai was against Yuki at the moment. No one else was making any particular movement, so she was unsure as to what she should do or what was the right thing to do here.

Normally she found that person's Rhythm rather nice and had no issue with it. There had always been times when there was static with it, but nothing she thought too deeply about. There had never been too much of a reason to worry. If there was, she knew that there were better people to handle the job.

Like the two boys in front of her who seemed to also be rather reserved for the moment.

"Alright… That's enough. All of you can leave now. Rather, I would appreciate it if you did. Suzu, I still need to talk to you though."

.

Everyone who was standing in front of the Yagura Branch began to slowly walk away. Some were much more reluctant than others though.

Yuki ignored them all as he slowly flexed his fingers, eyes closed and breathing a bit erratic. He knew that Hokari was nearby, ready in case he needed something while his teammate had moved over to Inukai and Oshiro. The duo separating to their respective schoolmates had made sense, so no one thought anything about it.

As he took his leave, Suzaku called out, "I'll organize the data from the sponsors for the time being." It had mostly been waved off, but some of the people nodded in his direction.

Yuki took a long breath as he opened his eyes.

He looked over to the side to see that most of the people had left. That included Inukai and his small trio. Hokari being nearby was the only other person there now besides him and Suzume.

There were no words coming from either of them. The only thing giving anything away was the way Yuki began to move his body again. They were slow movements, but enough to get the point across.

Hokari nodded towards him before taking his own leave. There would need to be some messages sent, but it was not something that they should say out loud at the moment.

Being glad that everyone had left, Yuki finally turned to Suzume.

The girl had remained quiet as everyone left. The reason for that was obvious to everyone, even more so to Yuki who had spent a good amount of time with her.

He let out a sigh as he began to make his way to the Yagura Branch's office.

"Let's go inside. I'll tell you as much as I am allowed to say."