There's a sexual scene halfway through this chapter. If you would prefer not to read it, I have placed double line markings to tell when it starts and stops so you can skip to the end of it much easier.

"…Rinasa, sweetie. It's…definitely different, and I know that's what I asked for-"

"Then there's no problem." She said as she put the pink fairy outfit in their shopping cart. She was much more reluctant to let go of the wand accessory the costume came with, preferring to hold on to it instead.

"Let her be, 'Saki. If she wants to be a fairy, let her be a fairy. Besides, we have a whole month before Halloween, so we can buy another costume if this one doesn't work out." Hanako said, eyeing a classic nurse outfit for herself.

"That's true." Satori added. "And look on the bright side: at least she didn't choose her police uniform again."

Ikasaki groaned at the memory. "Ugh, I suppose that is something to be happy about. I'm just not so sure a woman of her stature would…not to say she's old…listen, it's immature, okay? I wanted her to go as something more her age, no offense darling. Not to mention about several eons out of fashion. Something like a witch might-"

"Satori, what about this maid outfit?" Rinasa asked him, ignoring Ikasaki completely. Taking a proper look at it, Satori checked the packaging all over.

After turning it this way and that way, he finally found whatever he was looking for and shook his head. "This won't do at all. It's made for children."

"There is hope after all!" Ikasaki breathed a sigh of relief. "You see what I mean?"

"There's no way a Small would fit. Here, this Extra Large should be perfect."

"Thank you. I somehow forgot to check on the sizes."

Ikasaki threw his hands in the air, fed up with them all. "I can't watch this. Just buy whatever you want."

Hanako scoffed at him as she put her nurse uniform inside the shopping cart. "What do you think we've been doing this whole time, listening to you? Shove your opinion where we shove your food. The garbage."

"Be nice." Rinasa scolded her for her harsh attitude. "I know you always lick your plate whenever he cooks."

Hanako's face reddened slightly as Ikasaki smirked at her. "Cleans her plate, huh? Well, I'll start making extra special meals just for you!"

Satori took both the maid and fairy costumes and compared the two. "I think the fairy has more merit than a maid for you. Wouldn't you rather a wand than a feather duster? And besides, you get much more pink colors with the fairy as well."

An older man ran into the same aisle as them, looking frantic until he saw them. Straightening himself out, he walked up to them with a frown on his face and still panting.

"He found us again. Damn, he's pretty good."

"Didn't we leave him at the restaurant? How did he find us?"

He grabbed Rinasa's shoulders, breathing heavily like he'd been running for a while. "You…have to…let me know…when you leave!"

Rinasa took his hands off, the tiniest of smiles on her. "You always find us anyway. There was no harm."

"No harm!? If your father finds out how many times I lose you, he'd…" He shuddered at the thought. "…please stop giving me heart attacks."

Satori held two of the same outfit in front of the older man. "Aki, what size do you think Ranika is? Medium or Large?"

Letting it go, he sighed and thought to himself for a moment. "The girl hasn't let me measure her since middle school, but judging from her lack of growth, I'd wager it is still a medium."

Tossing the maid outfit back onto the store rack, Satori put a second fairy costume inside their shopping cart.

Ikasaki looked very confused for one second, then quickly became alarmed. "Wait, you don't think Ranika would ever…"

"Of course she would. She worships the ground Rinasa stands on, I doubt she wouldn't want to wear the same thing as her. Need I bring up the police uniform again?"

"I hate this holiday so much."

A gunshot was heard inside the mall they were in, and screams quickly followed.

Satori groaned in exasperation. "Of course, here of all places. Sounds like it's in the main plaza. Hanako, how about you-"

"I'm on it." She said, already around the corner before he could finish.

"…watch over the clothes."

Rinasa prepared to unsheathe her knife from its hilt. "I would prefer she stay behind while-"

"While you what, go deal with it yourself?" Ikasaki asked, taking her cheeks in his hands and smushing them. "Aww, don't you just love doing everything? Let her do this, she's been pent up for a while now."

Satori grimaced. "That's what I'm worried about."

Hanako walked into the main plaza and was greeted with four armed men wearing ski masks holding a group of hostages at gunpoint. The rest of the civilians had thankfully fled the scene, but there was a man with a chest wound lying on the ground, shouting in pain.

Alright, what do we got? 4, 6, 7…7 total hostages, with 4 aggressors. Looks like only three have guns, so it's likely the one who's without has a quirk that will cover him. Safe to assume the ones standing closest to the hostages are using them as shields, while the two standing out in the open away from them have competent quirks.

"Cake." Hanako stretched her arms out in front of her. The left expanded into a large, grotesque growth of flesh that quickly rushed towards the outlying men while the right became a bunch of elongated fingers that snatched away four of the hostages to her side. The men didn't see what was happening until they were smashed into a nearby wall and knocked to the floor stunned.

"What the- Who's there?! We'll shoot right now! Show yourself unless you want the kid to fucking get it in the head!" The man near the remaining three hostages took a little girl and rubbed the barrel of his gun into her head. "Don't think I will?! Try me!"

Crap, I meant to grab her too. This mucks up things a bit.

"Mommy! Help me! AHH!" He jammed the gun into her open mouth. She cried for her life as she struggled to breath with it blocking her air way.

"PLEASE DON'T! DON'T KILL MY BABY, PLEASE!" A woman by Hanako's side screamed while struggling to break free of Hanako's mass of skin and reach her child.

And this happens to be her mother. This makes things a little trickier. I could easily just rush in and end this quickly, though a reckless assault would get me into hot water with the public again, probably for much longer this time.

Still having some distance from the gunmen, Hanako brought thepeople she'd saved to her face. "Get out of here. If I see you before I'm finished, I'll treat you like an accomplice and I won't hold back."

She threw them to the ground and watched as they climbed to their feet and made a run for the exit behind her. The mother stayed with a determined expression.

"I'm not leaving here without Tamari! I need to save-"

"Get. Out." She showed no emotion, but the pure vitriol in her voice made it clear she wasn't having any of it.

"…please save her. I love her, you have to save her!"

"…what do you think the police are for?" Taking a moment to breathe, the woman then ran off to join the others who'd already made their way out.

"HEY! I SAID SHOW YOURSELF! I'M GONNA COUNT TO THREE! IF YOU'RE NOT IN FRONT OF ME BY THE TIME I REACH THREE, SHE'S A GONER!"

He was getting irritated with her, and aggravated hostiles made it more dangerous to approach safely. She saw one of the two men she knocked down earlier start rising to his feet.

Not good. Wasting my time with her is biting me back. It's time to take the rest of them out now. If I put myself in the middle of the mall's main area, I should be able to get every one of them at once with a quick impale of my nails. Just have to keep my cool and act like I've surrendered. Catching them off guard now is my best shot.

"Alright, you win. Here I am." She announced herself. She strolled into the middle of the plaza so they could see her. Observing the situation, she placed her hands above her head to show she wouldn't resist.

"You! On your knees, dumb bitch!"

…on second thought.

Hanako's hands morphed into claws in an instant, and she expanded her legs on the ground at high speed to launch herself into the man holding the girl. She heard a gunshot go off but thought nothing of it as she tore into his face like a wild animal. She stopped once he looked unrecognizable and turned towards the helper, who'd backed away and dropped his weapon on eye contact. She wiped the blood off her face to see him better and smiled at him in an unnerving way.

"Good boy, you get the picture. If you could just fall to the floor and lick the dirt off it for a while, I might let you keep your ears even."

Emitting a squeal, he dropped and did exactly as he was told without hesitation. Hanako turned her attention to the assumed quirk user who had recovered. Judging from his on-guard stance, he was ready to put up a fight.

"…rrrrrRRAGH! WHAT ARE YOU STANDING AROUND FOR!? GO!?" She raged out at the three hostages, who were still sitting around watching her in all her fury. "Unless you want to be NEXT?!"

Horrified, they fled the plaza without turning back. The masked criminal showed no interest in the two as they ran off, keeping a close eye on her.

And that takes care of the last three hostages. Wait…two. Where's the girl…oh.

Finding the pool of blood below her to not only be from the man, she stepped back and saw the blown-out head of the child beneath her.

"Didn't think that bastard would go that far." The man said to her, still checking her every movement. "I just needed some cash, never intended for that to happen. If it means anything, I'm glad you tore his face open. Serves him right."

"So you do have some morals, huh…I actually appreciate a guy like you. Would you mind groveling on the ground for me like your friend here? Promise I'll give you a lighter sentence if you do."

"I'll have to decline your offer. I can't afford to go to jail. Not when I have a mouth to feed back home."

"Well, perhaps she can just take your share from now on, considering there's going to be one less mouth after today."

He lowered himself to the ground in a stance similar to an Olympian runner's. He had a piercing gaze that was unwavering, dedicated to focusing on her body.

I'm out the element of surprise now. I've shown him my quirk, so even if he doesn't understand it completely, he knows what to look out for. I still don't know what his power is, and I can't count on it to be weaker than mine just because it's the norm.

"You're pretty good with that quirk of yours. You must be Hanako then. I've heard of your exploits, even saw you on the news a couple times. You're damn good, and damn crazy. The things they say you've done, I swear they could make musical theatre out of."

"Theatre, huh? Like a stage filled with screams of torture and cries of pain? That would be pretty good, no?"

"Again, I'll pass. Mia!"

The man who had been on the ground unconscious the whole time phased out of existence, alarming Hanako greatly. She tried to stab the criminal with her nails, but found he too had faded away. She grabbed the man still licking the ground and the dying child close to her body and temporarily fused her skin with theirs to make sure she knew where they were.

I did not think of this! I don't think the one I was talking to even had a quirk. He was just stalling! But that's not important right now. What kind of a quirk could have this much power? This isn't manipulating the ground or environment, and I'm certain I hit his body when he escaped. This is absolutely an illusion. Someone who can make illusions…you're kidding me. What would she be doing here? There's no way-

"It's been quite a while, hasn't it Hanako?" A voice from her right called out. She extended a mass of flesh in its general direction hoping to hit something. The arm found nothing but a concrete wall.

"That was a bit close. You're still as scary as ever. I didn't expect to see you for a long time. How is Rinasa? I hope she's doing all right."

"Lumia…that's how he knew my name. And you probably told them about the rest of us too. Where have you been? What are you doing hanging with these losers? I would've thought this sort of thing to be way below you."

A woman materialized in front of her, kneeling to eye level. "You sure you don't want to heal the girl now? It's starting to make me sick looking at her…eugh." She shivered in disgust.

Hanako reached out to grab her throat with her claw. The woman's face was shocked as she wrapped her hands around the skin and choked with all her strength.

"Gotcha!"

The woman faded and in her place was the man who's face she had shredded earlier. A heel came down on her head and smashed it into the floor.

"AHH!"

"You haven't changed much. Still so violent. I actually enjoy that part of you. It's so cool. Wish I could channel that innate evil inside myself sometimes. God knows this world deserves it."

Hanako tried to lift the foot off of her to no avail. She was planted firmly onto the ground. She turned her hand upwards only to have it impaled on the end of a large blade.

"Ow! What…what is-"

"None of that now. I wouldn't make any more moves if I were you. If you'd like, I'll leave peacefully with what we came for and let you be. I had no intention of hurting anyone today."

"LUMIA!" A bunch of wires shot across the area in a spray, and a man's shriek of pain let them know it had found one of them. The illusion began to dissipate and revealed it to be the man Hanako was talking with earlier. He was pulled across the plaza to the other side of the room and Satori quickly handcuffed him.

"Aww, bother. Shame we have to end this reunion so quickly. I would've loved to talk to you some more. Maybe another day?"

The moment her blade was removed from her hand, Hanako swiped as fast as she could above her, but came up empty.

"Damn it all! Hanako, are you okay?" Satori gently placed the man down on his knees before rushing over to her.

"She completely blindsided me. I feel like an idiot." She unfused the man and child from her sides, finally healing her wounds. "I got these two, and the rest of the hostages made it out fine. I had it all under control, but then she just started tapdancing all over me! She even pretended to be another man like the rest of them."

"…did you see what she was using? What she stabbed your hand with? It was a scythe."

Hanako froze in place. "What? A whole scythe? A scythe scythe?"

He nodded as he began writing his report on the incident. "Yeah, it was shaped like one, at least. I'm thinking this is her "revenge" she was talking about for-"

"I get it, I get it. It's one thing after another with all this crap."

Finishing her repair of the little girl, she resuscitated her to help regain her consciousness. When she started coming to, she handed her off to Satori while she fixed the criminal whose face she'd mauled back together.

The handcuffed man observed with an unreadable expression as she did. "Yet you still show mercy when even I would not. That is…"

"As funny as he looks now – actually I'd call it an improvement – we still need his mugshot. Don't get it twisted. I'm not forgiving this piece of trash for what he did."

He chuckled at her reasoning. "I see. Then I suppose it would be foolish to ask you to forgive me."

Satori picked up on his change in tone and whipped around to see the man change into a small bluebird and fly free of his cuffs. He aimed for the animal with his hands, preparing to snag it back down, when Hanako grabbed his arm and lowered it.

"…Hanako?"

"Don't make any moves while she's in the area. For all we know, she could have one of the hostages in your way to help him escape. We can't risk it."

"…damn it. She got away without us even putting up a fight." Satori pulled out his camera and took photographs of the scene. "Shouldn't have sent you alone. If one more person was here with you-"

"She might have fled even sooner if she saw one of us. With this, we at least know something about her whereabouts."

"Everything peachy?" Ikasaki emerged from the clothing shop with a cart full of costumes. "Little baby here insisted she put hers on now to see how it fits. Isn't she just-"

"We saw Lumia. She got away with one of the others, but I got all the hostages safe and sound." Hanako handed the unconscious criminal off to Rinasa, and the one who was licking the floor for her quietly followed him.

Ikasaki dropped his smile upon hearing the news. "I take it that girl's one of the hostages? Return her as soon as possible. We'll take care of these two ourselves. Satori, if you could surveil the area for a bit and try to see where she went to, it'd be best to do so now. Unless she uses a car, she couldn't have gotten far."

"Don't engage if you see her." Rinasa warned. "Your only goal is to find out where it is she's staying right now. And she's highly sensitive to light thanks to her quirk, so no pictures."

"I'll do my best." Satori ran up the stairs towards the rooftop exit in the building. "If I'm not back in three hours, you have my body tracker."

As he left, the sound of sirens wailed outside. Hanako crossed her arms in anger. "Oh yeah, now's the time they show up."

"This just in, another round of calls for Officer Hanako's firing today. This comes after she handled a major shopping mall incident all on her own with 0 casualties, but witnesses say she went way too far with her aggression and should be dismissed. The surveillance video has been taken in by the authorities who claim they will check the footage and review her conduct thoroughly. In other news, the Nomura high school festival is a mere 3 days away, and the perceived economic impact on the-"

Ranika turned off the television, bored out of her mind. Suiiki had decided to stay at his house to train, which she was highly suspect of. Most likely, he had actually gone to the arcade again after school, as he did the previous three days in a row. Tsubame was becoming more busy than usual with student council work with the date closing in, and Genso had started hanging out with some friends he'd made in his own class.

"Buncha eggheads. Pfft. What do they do that's so fun anyway? And he never tells me! It's always 'sorry, but you probably wouldn't like what we do, so maybe some other time.' What wouldn't I like? How do you know? Augh! That nerd." She splayed out on her bed in the station, talking to no one but herself. With the majority of Rinasa's group patrolling, she had lots of time to spare, and not many people to spend it with and as such, began talking to herself for entertainment.

"I can get into smart people stuff! And it might still be cool to watch! Or listen to! Or whatever the hell you geeks do with yourselves! God damn it, why is this pissing me off?"

She pushed herself to the edge of her bed, until only the lower half of her body was still on top of the mattress, while her head was touching the floor looking at the wall. "I feel like a slug. My mind wants to do all sorts of things, like more training, but my muscles won't be able to recover in time for this Friday. What am I supposed to do all alone until then?"

In her awkward position, she glanced downwards – upwards in this case – to her pants and sighed loudly. "Not again. I've done it twice now. Any more and I'll have to spray my room. Again."

Genso's face popped into her mind. I bet he'd have no experience with that type of stuff. Maybe he'd act like a robot and do whatever you tell him? That'd be funny. Or he'd use…what was it? The science method? Yeah, he'd use all the steps and just fumble his way through?

"How stupid, heh. He'd definitely do it that way." She pretended to push up her non-existent glasses and proceeded with an overexaggerated inflection of her friend. "'With my current knowledge of women's anatomy, I hypothesize that stimulating these areas should provide adequate pleasure sensations to cause the…blah blah to react and start to secrete whatever blah blah! And if that is the case, then with enough time, these stimulations would…heighten up to a certain point…'"

Feeling herself go flush, she sat up. "Shit, thinking about it, I'm actually…not laughing. More like I kinda dig it, the hell's that about?"

After just listening for a moment to make sure no one was walking around the station, she laid back over the bedside and continued, having a back and forth with herself and the imagined Genso in her head.

"…what would happen after we reach that certain point?"

"Well, then you would enter a state where pleasure begins to grow exponentially. At that point, normal stimulation of the vagina won't work anymore, and we'd have to start incorporating the clitoris as well to continue our rising pleasure.

"Oh god, you sound w-weirdly hot when you talk like that." She noticed her hand had snuck its way lower, startling herself and removing it quickly. Seeing the strands of liquid in between each finger made her gasp.

"Whoa, that's a lot. Am I really pent up or something?"

"Would you like to try ingesting it?"

"Hey, that's dirty! You wouldn't…really say something like that. I think…"

"Realistically, you shouldn't taste anything as the arousal fluids tend to only have an odor associated with them. But, for science, you could check if you want."

"Yeah, for science…"

Placing her dripping hand in her mouth, she moaned ever so slightly as she pictured Genso getting close to her face.

"Seems you're enjoying yourself. May I conduct a little more…research?"

"Genso…" He rubbed his tongue on her hand, slurping up all the juices left behind. Their tongues inevitably touched between her fingers, and she kept them there as they started to lick at each other between each gap. Ranika felt the sensation was overall ticklish, but she was so turned on that her pleasure overrode her laughter.

"Now, do you remember what I said about the clitoris?"

In a shaky breath, she answered. "Yes?"

"Let's see how much some light teasing does for you. We must remove these pants, they'll interfere with the experiment."

She removed her jeans and flung them across the room, then started to remove her panties. She was beside herself when she saw how stained they had become. She wondered how much she had leaked into their fabric.

"Also, when I do this, you might let out some noises that people outside might hear. We could easily fix that if you placed those in your mouth."

"B-but they're…why would I put these in my mouth?"

"We must keep you muffled somehow. Would you prefer we use a rag or towel?"

"I'll use them." Losing her sense of reason, she placed the wet panties in her mouth and started sucking on them, getting a salty flavor.

"Good girl." He would never say that, but I'm really horny right now. "Now, I'm going to start by rubbing your clit lightly. I'll increase pressure and speed as time goes on. Tell me when you're almost at peak sensation."

"Yes, I will." She brought her hand down and slowly stroked the lining of her opening, tracing around the edges until she found her clit. The sensation increased threefold, flooding her mind with images of her white-haired friend.

"Genso! Oh my god, right there is so good!"

"Of course, it is one of the most sensitive spots on your body, after all. I'm going to increase the pressure. Ready?"

Pushing slightly on her clit, she moaned loudly, letting her panties slip out.

"Hey now, we can't have you messing up any variables! Make sure you keep these inside your mouth. Here, I'll give you an incentive…"

Taking the panties, now soaked in her spit, they were rubbed against her lower stomach gathering all the juices and absorbing them into her underwear. The fluid had started running down her stomach and across her navel.

"Now, maybe you'll keep them in this time."

Stuffing them in her mouth, she almost coughed at the thick scent on them, but it brought her to the edge even more, sucking it all out.

"Genso, I'm…getting close." She panted, slightly muffled.

"Oh? That's faster than normal. When you think about Tsubame, it lasts a lot longer, doesn't it? Odd. No matter, I'm going to start speeding up."

Rubbing herself faster, juices started to spray onto her body and face, which she didn't mind at all. In fact, she was enjoying the feeling. Her moans became loud enough to get past the panties, so now they weren't even silencing her anymore, yet still she kept them in, sucking whatever was left inside them and rapidly intensifying her efforts.

"Fuck. Fuck. Genso, I'm close. I'm so…"

"I see. I'm almost done with my research, thanks to your appreciated cooperation. You've been most helpful. For that, I think you've earned yourself a special reward. But what, I wonder? We've already played around with the outside a lot, and we've thoroughly stimulated your clitoris. What else can I do?"

Ranika could barely speak due to the panting and moaning she was doing, along with the intense rubbing that she had begun to use her entire arm to do, taking the wrist and forearms down the regions as well.

"…inside."

"Please do speak up, Ranika. You want what again?"

"I want you to stick your fingers deep inside! Genso, plunge your fingers inside my pussy as hard as you can!"

"Ah, but of course. How could I forget such an obvious place? Well, excuse the intrusion."

She kept one hand on her clit, no longer stroking it as she had gotten so close anything more would push her over the edge. She simply pressed her left hand against the small nub repeatedly, and each time she did her back arched in anticipation of her climax. With her right hand, she pictured Genso tormenting her by tapping the opening with just his finger without inserting it.

"Please…just…let me cum." She begged.

He kissed her as she stuck her finger inside in sync with her hand pressing firmly on her clit, making her have an orgasm that beat any she'd ever had in recent memory. The room was filled with her cries, calling out Genso's name as she came from the image of him kissing her forcefully. She sucked on her left hand while her right stopped moving. She feared any stimulation right now would make her go insane. Each cry was accompanied by a squirt of water from her crevice, splattering on her face and giving her even more to drink than she'd already had.

A full minute passed before she finally calmed down, her imagination letting go of her temporary lover and bringing her back down to earth from Cloud 9.

"Wow, holy shit." Still twitching, she reoriented herself upright, laughing as liquid dripped off her body onto the carpeted floor. "I actually just drank it. Never mind that, I used Genso for masturbation fuel. I feel a bit guilty, but hot damn, he was making an excellent case for himself. Scientific method for the win."

Now that she'd calmed down after her intense session, she realized the horrible state her room was in. The timing couldn't have been worse as a knock on her door made her let out a small yelp. She covered her mouth quickly and stared wide-eyed at the door.

Please go away, I'm not in any condition to see people! I've gotta wash up and everything, not to mention this room is practically bathed in my own musk.

"Ranika, it's just Daisuke. You remember me?"

She didn't reply, still hoping to get out of this without anyone seeing her like this.

Daisuke, that's Suiiki's scaredy cat friend, right? What's he doing over here? Does he have business with my sister?

"I just wanted to say that if you're going to keep going, you should try to keep it down. I told the woman in the other room you were playing a game. I think she was still sleepy, so she didn't question me."

Kill me.

"…you heard everything?"

"Not everything, only like the last three minutes. Though the smell is starting to seep out here a bit."

She curled in a ball on the floor, cringing at herself. "This is ass baskets. Guess there's no point in acting modest." She opened the door, revealing her naked body to him, which wasn't actually that hard for her. She usually got undressed in front of everyone in class for gym, and since she was flat as most of the boys, they never noticed when she did, though Erina sometimes got on her case for it.

"Well, I'm all done now, what do you want?" She asked.

"For you to put some clothes on."

"You heard all that, doesn't make much of a difference now."

"Yeah, guess not, but I still want you to do it anyway." Taking a look behind her, he saw the stains from her activities all across the carpet and bed. "Probably should clean up all that too. I'll help you. It's not like I've got anything better to do around this town."

She cocked her head at his somewhat biting tone. "What do you mean?"

"To tell you the truth I'm bored. Seriously bored. I'm so bored, I'm actually getting annoyed. I've been training for the last few weeks after school, and now Erina's been telling me to rest my body before the tournament Friday. I'm fine with that, but now Suiiki's off at the arcade all the time playing with the other gamers. The one time I want to have some fun with him, off he goes. I hate that place."

"Color me shocked. Didn't know people like you got bored. Thought you guys liked alone time and quieter activities."

He chuckled at the description. "We love having our personal time to ourselves, but it doesn't mean we like being in our rooms staring at a wall all day. We have to be doing something during that time." He sniffed the air and recoiled. "Whoa, that's heavy. I'll prepare some buckets of soap and water. You go take a shower and put on some proper clothes."

She wondered who else was still at the station, since everyone should've still been on duty. "Daisuke, when you said you saw a woman earlier, what did she look like?"

He cupped his hands around his chest in an exaggerated manner with his eyes wide open.

"Coriette."

The constant sound of the shower provided a gentle ambience for Daisuke as he scrubbed away at the carpet stains with a scrub brush. Because they were in a police station, there was no shortage of cleaning chemicals lying around in the storage lockers, and most of the smell had been thoroughly wiped out, though you could still notice if you were sniffing for it.

"A good spray will probably do the trick, just have to get all these stains out. Phew. If anything, it's better than it was." Wiping some sweat off his forehead, he heard the shower turn off. Soon, Ranika emerged from her bathroom, wearing jeans and a towel on her head.

"Whoa there! Get a shirt on!"

"You've seen me naked. Is that really a big deal? Or are you gonna pop a stiffie looking at my chest that's flatter than the Earth?"

"The Earth isn't…oh, don't tell me you believe-"

"Of course I don't! Both you and Genso get so uppity about that." She jumped on her bed and let a large sigh escape her. "Man, it feels much better in here. Gets stuffy doing that type of thing, huh?"

Daisuke didn't know what to say, so he didn't reply to her.

"Say, you do it too, right? Do you have anyone you think about?"

"No, and don't ask those types of things to people! Besides, I barely know you, why would I tell you?"

"Well, you came over here." Thinking about what she said, she giggled. "And I came over there."

"Ew, stop it! I came over because there's no one to hang out with…plus I didn't want you to get caught by anyone who happened to walk inside."

"Aren't you considerate? I think it's clean now, you can stop scrubbing. If you keep going, my room's going to smell like carpet cleaner instead."

"Ah, sorry! I wasn't paying attention…oh no, I did kind of rub too hard over here. Maybe if I soak it with water and then re-wash it lightly, it'll- whaa! Hey!"

Ranika picked him up with one arm and pulled him onto the bed with her. "Don't worry about it! I'm sure my sister knows, so don't fret. And considering how much I sweat anyway, I bet this is the best my room has smelled in a while. But enough of that. I want to ask you something since you're here." Ranika threw her towel on his face.

"Wmmph!" Daisuke sat upright on the bed, using the towel to dry off his hands. He was becoming more comfortable with seeing her without a shirt now, no doubt helped because she looked more like a boy besides her hair. "Okay, what were you wondering about?"

"Well, I think since you heard me…thinking about Genso, I figured it's only fair you tell me who you think of."

"I didn't mean to…well I guess I could've left, but I wanted to…doesn't matter, you just want an answer, don't you?"

Ranika nodded firmly. "You're not leaving until you tell me. Spill it."

Daisuke closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and just spat it out.

"No one."

"…eh?"

"I don't like anyone like that."

"The hell you don't! There's gotta be someone out there that you think about!"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Never really saw a girl that actually caught my interest."

Ranika was a little confused by his answer. "But you wanted me to put clothes on?"

"Wear clothes around other people! I shouldn't have to tell you that!"

"No, I mean like, do you get turned on if I don't?"

"Oh, not really. I mean naturally, of course I get aroused if a girl is nude and close to me. But I don't have a specific girl in mind I find particularly attractive."

"How about boys? Perhaps they're more your speed?"

"Unfortunately, no."

"Unfortunately?"

Daisuke covered his mouth with his hand, as if he was trying to keep the words that had already escaped inside. Shaking his head, he grunted while leaning back onto the bed.

"No secrets! You listened to me, and that was private. You can tell me a little somethin' somethin' in exchange."

He groaned at her weird logic. "…do you promise to keep it to yourself?"

"I promise, I won't tell anyone."

He stared at her with uncertainty.

"Come on, I wouldn't mess around with this type of thing. If I do, you can tell everyone what you just saw. You can even tell them who's name I was calling."

"No, I'd never do that even if you did." He took a deep breath. "…it feels wrong because it's not really my secret but…Suiiki asked the same thing you did."

"If you were into guys?"

"Yeah. I told him I don't think so." His voice got quieter as the conversation went on. "Just like I told you, I said I never felt something like love for anyone."

"Hmm."

"Then he asked me if I felt love for him."

Ranika didn't say anything. She only tilted her head towards him, waiting for him to continue.

"I said no, same as I'd tell anyone else. He didn't take it that way, though. He holed himself in his room for a month and wouldn't talk to me. Took a while to clear things up properly, but that really sucked. I thought I lost him. Sometimes, I wonder if I should've just said yes. To make him happy."

Ranika thought to herself about this new information. Admittedly, she had barely known Suiiki for more than three months. "So even he gets genuine feelings like that. I know he's not a robot, but he didn't seem to be the type to get into that lovey-dovey stuff with anyone."

"Me neither, it caught me off guard when he asked. I think that's when I realized how I feel – or rather, don't feel – about love in general. But, that time apart also helped me see how much I value him as a friend. Like, he's obnoxious for sure, and…"

He paused for a second, biting his lip. It seemed he really didn't want to finish his sentence, but he found it in him to continue. "…and to Tsubame's credit, I agree with her one hundred percent. He's very oblivious to people around him, and it comes off as very inconsiderate at times because it is."

Ranika huffed. "Maybe, but she could've shown more…tact."

"Your Genso is showing."

"I try not to, but he knows some really helpful words."

"Either way, I acknowledge his flaws, he's got a lot of them. But I also enjoy it wholeheartedly. All the goofing off, the disregard for common sense and just taking everything in stride with a smile on his face. Makes me feel a little more confident in myself when I'm next to him. For that feeling, I wouldn't mind taking a few hits for him to protect that smile."

"…that was gay. Not like, "you like guys" gay, but "that was really sappy" gay."

Daisuke almost laughed at her uncouth way of putting it. "Can't you just say sappy then?" Feeling much more relaxed now that it was out, he had to keep himself from staring in awe at Ranika. "You know, I'm surprised I was able to talk to you like this. No offense, I thought you'd hate introspection and the like."

"I don't really know what that means, but I'm assuming it's similar to an inspection, which I can't blame you for thinking that then. I definitely live life in the fast lane. However, it's nice to get to know the more intimate parts of people too. And to be fair, I'm the one who asked in the first place, so…"

"You sure did, and I'm glad for it. We should hang out a lot more. I'm sorry, I've misjudged you for the longest."

"It's whatever. I don't mind what people think about me. Most of it's true, so I usually don't go around correcting them. Now enough of all this sappy talk. I want to put you to the test."

Ranika leaned over his body, placing her arms on either side of his head. Daisuke immediately tensed up, seeing as she was back to her usual self. "W-what do you mean, test?"

"You said you don't find people attractive, so I'm gonna see if I can break through that little barrier."

"I told you I still react in a natural way!"

"Well, now I wanna see it!"

"Is this some sort of challenge for you!?"

The door to the bedroom opened, and in the doorway stood a blank faced Tsubame, holding a small binder under her arm. Daisuke tried to stammer out an explanation.

"Y-It's not what it…well in a way-no it's-! I had nothing to…"

She barely changed expression while she put her binder in a drawer next to the desk. "Don't worry. Considering Ranika's antics, I can more or less make an educated guess about this. I'm more surprised you're even over here, Daisuke. Sniff…sniff…interesting." Tsubame perked her head, trying to get a better whiff of something.

"Thanks, Daisuke! It doesn't smell like musk for once."

Ranika hung her head dejectedly. "So you did notice."