Chapter 21
There was a battle being fought on Ikutsuki's desk.
One could make out paperwork scattered across it, pushing pens and pencils to the outer edges and barely kept on the desk's eastern front by a precariously placed pair of scissors and a stapler. Loose-leaf notes were scattered about the battlefield, the illegible handwriting upon it scrawled by a furiously paced mind. Add to that mess a horde of sticky notes stuck everywhere, and it was hard to believe any work (hell, anything at all) was done in this place.
Oblivious to the unmoving mayhem in front of him, Ikutsuki sat with his legs crossed and a finger tapping on one leg. Balanced on his other leg was a dark-hour-proof laptop, its desktop in a similar state of disarray as his real desk (shortcuts and documents absolutely everywhere), humming as its inner motors whirled and clicked together in a mechanical rhythm.
The device beeped once, but the man ignored it. It had been occasionally emitting the same noise for the past half hour since he had turned it on. Instead, he continued to stare at a point on his wall, seemingly uninterested in what was happening on the computer in front of him…
At least, until the minute hand on his wall clock struck 12:00, and the world around him faded to the gorgeous pale green of the dark hour. The man's eyes shot to the monitor and hands jumped to the keyboard, fingers dancing harshly across the keys as the beeping changed frequency from a steady beat to erratic chirps and whistles.
As Ikutsuki's fingers rattled over the keyboard, a map sprang onto the monitor screen. Ikutsuki zoomed and scrolled across the immediate Iwatodai area, the scale of the map changing as the man clicked and flicked his way around the computer. Several dots of various shapes and sizes were scattered across the screen, with a small circle pulsing from each of them in slow rhythm.
The man's eyebrows lowered and knit together. He stopped his tap-tap-tapping at the keys to snag a loose sheet of paper from one side of the desk and a pen from the other, preparing to scribble some notes down… before actually looking down at the paper to realize that it was a prescription from Aohige Pharmacy.
It took him a moment to decide if it was worth the effort to actually find another sheet of paper. He begrudgingly decided that yes, his health was probably more important than a note.
…For now, at least.
After looking at and tossing away an old receipt, a coupon, and a few pages of Mitsuru's school notes (who knows how they got in there, and a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he would probably get yelled at for being so nonchalant with her belongings later, but that was of secondary concern), he finally discovered a (mostly) blank piece of paper. Hastily scrawled and barely legible coordinates flew onto the page, mistakes scratched out next to proper numbers and some lines underlined and emphasized as the man burned through line after line, taking notes that would only make sense to a fully scatterbrained personality like himself.
36.3545, 139.5455
35.3545, 139.4555
35.3544, 138 139.4566
35.3543, 139.5001 002 001
He continued on in this manner for several minutes without interruption. After all, this was not the first time that Ikutsuki had spent his time like this during the Dark Hour (his favorite time of day!). Far from it! For the past month he had spent much of his time holed up in some relatively safe bunker with his face buried in the screen of his dark-hour adjusted computer, scanning his computer while his computer scanned the world.
Having finished writing all the coordinates on the screen, he returned the pen to his shirt's breast pocket and began pacing around the room.
"No clear match… still no clear match," he muttered, rapidly tapping his fingers against his pant leg. "So then where is the signal coming from?"
Ikutsuki was looking for something, clearly. And that something was a persona user.
The technology developed internally by the Kirijo group to find new persona users was originally created under the intention to discover new test subjects to use for shadow research experiments. That policy, unsurprisingly, was terminated as soon as the current Kirijo head, Takeharu, came into power. However, the software still had its uses- especially with the creation of S.E.E.S. The new group certainly needed a recruitment tool, and it would not have been the best look for the Kirijo group if the current heir began questioning people about their potential experiences with "shadows," "personas," and "representations of one's personality manifested into a physical form by use of an evoker". Under this logic, Kirijo Takeharu hesitantly gave the software to Mitsuru after she requested it for S.E.E.S.
The Kirijo Heir may or may not have been influenced to discuss that with her Father after Ikutsuki casually mentioned the software in a conversation… but, that is neither here nor there.
(Ikutsuki never forgot her expression when he mentioned it for the first time. The slightly narrowed eyes, the twisting of her mouth into a thin, stubborn line, and her immediate storming off to ask her father why she hadn't been informed of it sooner... it all reminded Ikutsuki of himself, of a person actually willing to do what they knew would be right, regardless of others' thoughts. It was a shame she ended up with her Father's morals, because having someone like Kirijo Mitsuru on his side would be highly beneficial.)
Still, despite the strong signal from his computer, he hadn't found-
BEEPBEEPBEEP
BEEPBEEPBEEP
BEEPBEEPBEEP
Ikutsuki's reverie was shattered by the shrill siren of his computer's notification. Which was annoying- he was in the middle of his ponderings, and the only thing that klaxon could mean was that it had found an over 95% match on an unidentified persona user.
…
Ikutsuki blinked.
He tore across the room as fast as his legs could carry him. Eyes wide, he slammed down his hands on either side of the computer, scanning with a near-mad desperation.
There!
The skinny man ripped the pen out of his breast pocket and slammed it to the paper, the page nearly tearing from the force with which he scrawled the coordinates. Just as quickly, he sprinted out of the room, slamming the door behind him with a sharp crack as he shot down the hall, flinging himself around the stairway banister and gaining extra speed.
"Kirijo-san! Kirijo-san!"
The man yelled as he approached the door leading to the control room, banging on it with his open hand. "Let me in, I've found something! Let me in!"
The lock disengaged at his sixth pound at the door, letting him fling the door open and stumble through the doorway. Sitting in the room were Mitsuru and Akihiko, both seated at the control monitors, though only half paying attention to them (the redhead was doing schoolwork, while the silver-haired boy attempted to give the same impression). The Kirijo heir was also dabbing some tea from her shirt as she removed her hand from the 'unlock' switch, giving Ikutsuki a glare for some reason while Akihiko picked up an empty teacup from the floor. Curious, he mused, but irrelevant.
"Look, look, just look at this!"
He scurried into the room, past the duo and slammed his sheet of scrap paper onto the table, jamming his finger at the last coordinate on the list.
"I've been trying to track down a signal from the persona user scanner for a while now with no luck, I mean you know the situation with how hard it is to find persona users with so many shadows around muddling the signals, so for the past several nights I've been trying to cut through all the noise and find the strongest source of the signal in an area where it looks like there was less damage from a shadow and I finally found it!"
Akihiko's eyes glazed over about 3 seconds into the man's excited babbling, but Mitsuru was laser-focused on him, eyes widening at his last remark.
"Ikutsuki-san, are you saying… Do you mean to say there is a new persona use-"
"Yes! That's exactly right!" Fingers already rattling away on the keyboard of the control room's computer, the man barely registered the slight thinning of Mitsuru's lips as he interrupted her (and the look of apprehension on Akihiko's face as he looked to Mitsuru to gauge her reaction).
"A new persona user, and the location is… here!" One pointer finger jutted out at a point on the large monitor above the trio, the coordinates from before neatly written in pixelated scripts above a point on a map… less than a mile away from Iwatodai station.
"That's… really close to here, isn't it?" Akihiko said, rising from his chair. "Who knows, maybe it's someone we know."
"Very astute thought! And in fact…" Ikutsuki hit a keyboard shortcut to bring up a residency record of the Iwatodai area. "If we look this approximate address up in the records…"
The usual sounds of loud clacking filled the air as Ikutsuki typed, hitting the keys with too much excitement as the coordinates popped up on the above monitor.
Ikutsuki grinned. "That is the residence of the Yamagishi family; Yamagishi Syaoran, Sakura, and their daughter Fuuka. That Fuuka girl is in the grade below you two, so you actually might know her."
"Well, how about that." A trademark smirk meandered across Akihiko's face (it was so predictable, Ikutsuki could have written a program to predict it). "I might have to take a closer look and see what's goin' on myself."
He'd only taken a few steps from his chair when a look from Mitsuru froze him (heh) in his tracks. Ikutsuki chuckled to himself at the look on the boxer's face. "I think not, Akihiko," Mitsuru scolded. "I believe you still have quite a bit of work left on your history assignment, do you not?"
The lazy marks on his open notebook and a bookmark alarmingly close to his textbook's front cover spoke for itself. Akihiko resigned himself to scratching his head and took his seat, giving the pages in front of him a glare, as if to say how dare you keep me from snooping around people's houses.
"I shall go myself." The other two S.E.E.S. members in the room glanced in surprise at Mitsuru. "At this hour, it should not be a problem for me to investigate the area. I shall be on call if I encounter any shadows."
"Mitsuru, you aren't serious, are you?"
"And why would I not be?"
"'Cuz you don't usually go for out alone during the dark hour. Let me come along too, at least."
Mitsuru arched one eyebrow. "Akihiko, I believe you were about to venture out alone during the dark hour yourself."
He had the presence to at least look a bit sheepish about that. "Alright, sure. But I have experience, since I do it all the damn time. Just let me come with-"
"I have made myself very clear Akihiko. Remain here, and that is an order."
The silver-haired boy's protests flowed off the redhead like rain on an umbrella. However, the older man in the room shared similar thoughts.
"Kirijo-san, I too would strongly recommend waiting until the morning to go scouting. As well as perhaps discussing this with the team at large. The dark hour will be over soon, and I would be worried about you going out at this hour."
He wasn't lying. A pointless death is worth less than nothing, and Mitsuru dying at the current time would be incredibly detrimental.
The Kirijo heir brushed by him. "Thank you for your concern, Ikutsuki-san, but I believe I have proven more than capable of handling myself. I must take the initiative to scout now, while less prying eyes would gossip about the current Kirijo heir scouring the grounds of a person's house."
"Kirijo-sama."
Mitsuru jerked to a halt at the formal title (Akihiko looked up in surprise too), pausing for a moment before turning with a slightly raised eyebrow (something Ikutsuki recognized from Akihiko's Top Ten Rules for Dealing with a Kirijo as Kirijo-speak for"What did you just say?!").
"I know I am unable to stop you, but please do be careful." He pushed up his glasses. "You are not invincible, and I would deign to remind you that you remind the other members of S.E.E.S. to proceed with caution during the dark hour at all times."
Ikutsuki adjusted his head, looking down at Mitsuru and meeting her narrowed eyes. "Further, while our focus is the supernatural, do remember that shadows are not always the most dangerous concern for a young lady at night."
A blink was the girl's response, followed by silence as the girl mulled over his words. Her lips twisted like she'd eaten something unpleasant. "I… do see the wisdom in your words. That would likely be… reckless of me. I will wait until I have discussed this with the rest of the team and determine what the best course of action is at that time." She glanced up at the two others, eyes narrowing once again. "However, I shall still determine what I believe the correct course of action is at that time."
And with that, Mitsuru dipped her head in a farewell as she exited out of the room in a graceful huff, closing the door behind her with a click.
The blond man cast his eyes to the ceiling with a light sigh. Truly, that girl is stubborn. A small, wry smile snaked its way onto his face. Just like her Father. Unsurprisingly.
"I don't like that. And by the way, Ikutsuki, that last comment didn't make sense."
Meanwhile, Akihiko's brows were furrowed in full-blown confusion, his mind apparently working overtime parsing through the man's words. And the older man just couldn't help himself. A snort escaped from his nose, bubbling into chuckles as the younger boy looked up.
"Hey, what? I'm being serious here! What the hell's so funny? Ikutsuki?! Hello!?"
Needless to say, the boy's flustered objections didn't help his situation, and Ikutsuki laughed his way out of the room.
Fuuka just could not shake these people following her.
At this point, she didn't feel particularly worried. She'd been bullied enough to be used to it to some degree, and while she didn't enjoy it, it was more like an unpleasant appointment. Just another thing to get through each day.
And honestly, she was fairly good at hiding herself as well. She had a very slight figure to begin with, and her general dislike of being noticed (being called on by the teacher in class was bad enough, she really wished she could just melt into the seat whenever that happened) gave her the natural inclination to just… disappear, if possible.
Yet this situation was different. Partially because, for once, her followers weren't being very stealthy, and…
"Remind me why we're doing this, Minato-kun?"
"'Cause I told you to."
"Alright, look: you'd better start explaining why we're going on this wild goose chase, before I call it quits. And by the way, I do not buy your explanation for getting injured last week was due to slipping in a puddle and-"
"Left."
"Oh, now we're going left, huh?"
A grunt, apparently in the positive.
"Ok, ok, sure. No really, that's totally cool. Just take me along for the ride, don't worry, I didn't have anything to do on our day off of volleyball practice."
"Doesn't feel good, does it?"
"Is this payback?! Minato-kun, I swear to-!"
…they weren't exactly menacing.
Yes, somehow Fuuka found herself being chased by the new transfer student and his new friend, both of whom sat very close to her in her homeroom class. And despite the duo's comedy routine, the transfer student was uncannily good at following her trail. His companion was too busy… voicing her grievances to pay attention to the fact that he was leading her on a manhunt, though Fuuka also had the semi-crowded streets to thank for that.
(It would only occur to her much later to question why she could hear both of them so well from a distance away, when she couldn't have done so just a few months prior.)
She ducked herself into a back alley and scuttled forward hastily. She really wanted to escape from her two followers, which she realized may be a bit irrational, especially since previously that boy helped her escape from-
"Well, hey. Who's this here?"
Ah.
She'd been so busy avoiding a potential threat, she forgot about the actual one she had.
Standing in a small huddle behind another corner were Fuuka's usual companions: Moriyama Natsuki and two of her friends (Sasaki was one of their names), doing… something, presumably making plans given that all their phones were out. They seemed genuinely surprised to see her, at least, meaning they probably hadn't planned this as a sneak attack.
Well, too late now to escape it. And speaking of which, why did Natsuki look annoyed?
"…even listening, Fuuka?!"
Fuuka cringed.
"S-sorry, Moriyama-s-san-"
"Yeah, I bet you are. What's the weather like up there, with your head in the clouds?"
Fuuka didn't really know how to reply to that, but she didn't need to. For right at that moment, the other people she'd been avoiding came onto the scene. With all the grace and stealth of a hippopotamus.
"…and now you're taking me into an alley. Really, Minato-kun? Is this why you can't seem to pick up a girl?"
A brief pause.
"Oh, do not give me that look, I absolutely deserve some friend-of-the-year award for letting you drag me all around town for some unknown reason, the least you can do is let me get a few digs in at your expen- oh."
At that moment, the duo turned a corner and appeared in the line of sight of Moriyama-san and her friends. Fuuka could almost hear the recognition of the situation in the voice of Minato's companion (Rio, her name is Rio), suddenly becoming aware that perhaps the point of this trip wasn't just to take her on "a wild goose chase."
"Hey… you're that kid from the other day!"
There was a different recognition in Sasaki's voice. More loud, accusatory. Which actually was called for, since what Minato had done a few weeks prior, helping her escape from Natsuki and her crew, was so out of the blue and unexpected that Fuuka was likely having similar thoughts to her tormentors:
Firstly, what? Who does that?
And then, why? Why her?
Sure, Fuuka knew in the back of her head that there was something inherently sad about being so surprised that someone would help her, but her analytical mind thought that something else was going on. In her view, no one just helped people because it was "the right thing to do," so there was likely some other motive going on. But what? What about Yamagishi Fuuka of all people would make this transfer student take an interest?
During Fuuka's speculations, one of Moriyama-san's friends (not Sasaki, Fuuka couldn't remember her name) had continued speaking.
"The hell's your deal, huh? Think you're some kind of White Knight?"
That got an interesting reaction. Not out of the transfer student, but out of Rio. The girl's grey eyes immediately leapt to the side, narrowing in on Minato, who remained quiet and still.
Too still, in fact. Like a dam waiting to burst.
The boy cocked his head, and the girl by his side took a slight step sideways.
"No. Too much work." He stepped forward, bringing himself even with Fuuka. "What's your deal?"
The whole group blinked. "Uh, what?" said Moriyama, the first to recover.
"Why Fuuka?"
And Fuuka stared at the boy next to her, mouth slightly agape. That was the question she'd asked herself plenty of times (logically, the answer was very simple: anyone with a more timid personality would be more susceptible to being picked on, especially by people who were undergoing enough personal trauma in their life to want to mess with someone), and now here was this crazy transfer student asking it too.
…Also, was he using her first name?
This was the most baffling thing to ever happen to Fuuka. And that's including many of Ounishi-sensei's lectures.
Moriyama and her cohort had similar thoughts. "Huh?" the lead girl sputtered. "We asked our question first!"
Minato didn't respond nor react to the other girls' comments.
"Moriyama? Why Fuuka?"
Natsuki visibly jerked her head back at hearing her name from the boy. Her companions exchanged bewildered looks behind their leader's back. "Y' know…" Natsuki started slowly, fully facing Minato for the first time. "It's really only polite that if you're going to use my name I know yours."
"Why Fuuka?"
"You're awfully fixated on this. I could ask you the same question: why do you care so much? If you're not a White Knight, do you have a cru-"
"Do you have a reason?"
The four girls not taking part in the verbal volley watched with rapt attention, heads whipping back and forth as each participant sent their rebuttals flying. Minato's final comment gave Moriyama pause, and she sunk back onto a hip when presented with his last question. She smirked.
"Yeah, I've got a reason. Too bad I'm not telling just anyone who walks up to me with the balls to ask. So you can- uh… wait, what are you-?"
Natsuki's confusion was palpable… and Fuuka couldn't blame her. At some point in the middle of her sentence, Minato had lost interest in the conversation, completely turned away from Natsuki, twisting towards Fuuka, and-
Ah!
Minato grabbed Fuuka by the wrist and began dragging her backwards, away from Moriyama and her friends and towards Rio. He let go of Fuuka as he passed by, ignoring Rio's 'Are you actually serious right now, you are so unbelievably dead later' look.
"Too much talking. Take care of it."
"Oh, no. Minato-kun, do not walk away, don't you dare walk away!"
And yet, the boy kept walking, slowly, stowing his hands comfortably away in his pockets. His unwilling companion just groaned, turning her eyes skyward.
"If anyone tells you that you're any less evil than your sister, they have no idea what they're talking about."
Protests were also erupting from the other side of the street.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?!"
"Uh, did he just…?"
"Fuuka, get the hell back over here with your real friends!"
At the last demand, Minato paused for a moment and slightly turned his head, navy-blue hair concealing his normally-visible eye from Fuuka. And yet, she watched him with laser focus, noticing that the girl next to her did the same (although Rio did so with a huff, like oh no now what?)
"Up to you."
Fuuka just blinked at the boy's proclamation. She did have a choice now. Should she go with her old "friends," or with these new people?
"One of these days, I'm going to figure out why I hang out with Minato-kun. Then I'm going to find a different person to fill that purpose, and my life will be so much easier."
Annoyed mumblings from the girl next to her distracted Fuuka from her thoughts, and Rio's annoyed expression caught her attention, the volleyball captain's eyes slicing into the boy's head as he retreated.
If looks could kill, they'd need a homicide unit.
Then Rio sighed, expression clearing like thunderclouds after a storm, and she turned her gaze on Fuuka.
"Okay, despite his nonsense, I agree: you're coming with us." She held her hand out to Fuuka, raising her eyebrow. "Unless you want to go with your… friends."
Apparently Rio had heard that comment from the other day, too.
And to be honest, Fuuka had been considering it. She knew it was stupid, to continue going down that track. Nothing good could ever come from doing nothing about her tormentors bullying her, shoving her, insulting her, turning her life into an even more miserable experience than it already was. But who would she tell? Certainly not her parents, they had enough trouble as it was. The teachers at the school were more than likely going to do nothing unless whatever happened to her affected them. And to be honest, she didn't really have any friends at school who she could talk to.
But now she had another option. And it scared her.
Fuuka was a habit-driven person, and this wasn't how things usually went in her life. And the more analytical part of her mind, once again, began churning out questions. Why were these two students helping her? Why did the boy in particular seem to have some obsession with helping her? Why did the boy's companion let him drag her along on his adventures?
Why was said companion wrapping her hand around Fuuka's and dragging her away?
Before Fuuka had the time to say a word, Rio had already snagged Fuuka's wrist (Seriously? Again?) and started dragging her towards where the lone boy was walking away. He turned when they grew near, staring at the girls as they strode right past him, Rio's irked wide strides easily surpassing Minato's small, lazy ones.
"Come on, Minato-kun. You dragged me out here, so I expect you to at least keep up with me now."
The boy's eyes followed the volleyball captain as she spoke, before his attention slid over to her captive, still being dragged behind and in full-blown [PROCESSING ERROR] mode. He blinked (Fuuka guessed that it would've been a shrug had he been a different person) and followed.
Fuuka chanced a glance back. The other group stood stupefied, jaws swung open as their old quarry was dragged away by the unexpected duo, and the situation completely fell through their grasp.
"U-uh…Huh?"
A confused stutter was all that Fuuka's old friends could get out before she rounded the corner and they were whisked away from her sight like a bad dream.
"I'm impressed, Minato-kun. Expected you to get much madder about the whole 'White Knight' thing."
Fuuka swiveled her attention to her two new companions. At Rio's comment, Minato slowly clicked one of his headphones into place around his right ear (the other headphone remained dangled around his neck, clipped in place on his jacket to prevent bouncing), his visible eye glancing at the duo's new companion before focusing back on the path ahead. "I'm just prioritizing."
"Ugh, you and your ambiguity." The ravenette rolled her eyes before turning to Fuuka. "Don't mind him, he's an odd one. He's Arisato Minato, and my name's Iwasaki Rio. What's yours?"
At this point, Fuuka definitely remembered both of their names, but she bobbed her head in a little bow anyways. "E-erm, I'm Yamagishi Fuuka."
"Well, Fuuka-chan, I don't think it'd be very wise to leave you alone after all that stuff in the alley. Why don't you come with us for today?"
It took Fuuka several seconds to realize that someone was inviting her to join them. "…Sure?"
Internally, she winced. Why, oh why had she just said that like a question?
However, her new companions didn't react to the tone at all (although admittedly, one of them never reacted to anything). Rio just smiled.
"Great! Then let's get going. I believe a certain transfer student owes me something for sending me on this journey all across town. And if he tried to get out of it," Rio turned to give a pointed look at said student, whose visible eye was still looking steadfastly forward, "I'll tell his sister that his brother was very bad today and-"
"1000 yen. Maximum."
"Oh no, 1500 at least. How cheap do you think I am?"
"1000 yen cheap."
"Well, then you're wrong, Minato-kun. I hope you can get that through your head before we get to wherever I choose, 'cuz otherwise Hamuko-chan's not going to be very happy."
"Maybe let Fuuka go first."
"Oh, right." Rio let Fuuka's arm go, having forgotten she was dragging someone during her argument with Minato. "Sorry about that."
"I-it's fine, r-really."
Rio accepted that with another smile, before she turned back to her arguing partner. They kept up their verbal duel as they strolled down the strip mall, and in this way Fuuka found herself following her two new allies as they continued their unique bickering. The trio passed by a number of shops and restaurants before Rio yanked Minato inside one of them (more or less literally), before beckoning Fuuka to follow.
She followed the gestures, finding herself quite content just listening to the duo's verbal interplay. And as she sat at the seat of the burger shop, she found herself wondering, just a bit, if this was what it felt like to relax with friends.
Meanwhile, in the chatter and clatter of the mid-afternoon rush, no one noticed the quiet contentment humming in Minato's chest. For from the corner of his eye, he watched a new motion emerge on the face of his once and hopefully future support scanner:
A tremulous and wavering smile.
AN:
(Updated on Oct. 20, 2018 to add my beta's username/links, which are respectively Disasternoj, and:
www(point)disasternoj(point)tumblr(point)com
www(point)archiveofourown(point)org/users/Disasternoj
Look up his stuff! It's good and awesome!)
QUICK DISCLAIMER FOR PEOPLE CURRENTLY BEING BULLIED:
DO NOT do what Fuuka does! Hopefully it's pretty clear, but Fuuka is a very unreliable narrator when it comes to her attitude about being bullied. Her inner monologue here is my explanation of why she wouldn't tell anyone or get any help in the original story (and thankfully here she has bullheaded people like Minato and Rio to help her), but: if you are being bullied in real life, please, please tell a parent or trusted adult about this stuff. Do NOT just suffer in silence!
Alright, moving on:
What? A Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle reference with Fuuka's parents names? I would never! (It feels a bit odd for me to name two neglectful parents after two CLAMP characters who are pretty much the opposite of that, but oh well!)
Yes, apparently it is now Lateral canon that Akihiko has spoken to others (At least Ikutsuki) about his "Top Ten Rules of Dealing With a Kirijo."
Shout-outs time!
Thank you to:
username7410, otakuteru, Pharos666, Keisuke Daichi, hyhy, Toffeecat15, EyelessEmpire13, Da Etan, Grimmauld, Beastmaster2611, BladeRunner43, bheelers, Maxxus Herald, and Alsenir for following;
username7410, otakuteru, Namelesskid123, Kuunokuu, Keisuke Daichi, Biscione, EyelessEmpire13, nick0calus123, and BladeRunner43 for faving;
and Rayify, KageFuego4, Lief 17, MagatsuIza, llat-2, Krysvun, Ect0Gh0st, paradoxjr, Welcome Back, Guest, Biscione, Lerobin, blarg7865, Guest, YuukiAsuna-Chan, and Mikiri's Revenge for reviewing!
And last, thank you so much to my beta Master-Noj, who in this chapter had to deal with far too many phrasing errors and me misspelling "Ikutsuki" every other sentence.
I know I haven't replied to a few reviewers currently, and I've run out of time to reply to my guest reviewers from last chapter, but I'll reply to the guest reviewers in the next chapter, and I'll reply to the others soon!
As usual, I'm writing this up right before work, so apologies if I missed anything! Just let me know if I did.
I've gotta dash now. Lateral goes on break next week, so hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll post another chapter on 2/5/2018!