Chapter 38

Rio still remembered the first time she and Fuuka went to get ice cream together.

The location, funnily enough, was not immediately coming to Rio's mind - was it the old place on the corner with the antique posters hanging on the walls, or the new one that had just opened up next to it? Either way, Fuuka had been absolutely aghast that Rio was eating lactose-free, tofu ice cream ("Look, I'm trying a lactose-free diet to see what impact it'll have on my performance!"), while Rio's jaw had dropped when Fuuka ordered pizza-flavored ice cream, of all things ("I-I dunno, I thought it might t-taste good...?").

At the end of it all, they'd come to the conclusion that both of their flavors were quite awful, and opted to have a re-do the next week.

And they did. That week, and the next, and the next. In fact, they'd done so all the following weeks… except this one. When Fuuka had suddenly and unexpectedly landed in the hospital.

That was bad enough. What was worse - she thought as she tried (in vain) to sit still at her desk, her gaze shifting from her classwork to the boy sitting to her side - was Minato's reaction.

He was stressed - and that was fine. Rio could see it in the slight tension in his shoulders, and how hard he tried to hide it by consciously relaxing them whenever he noticed Rio glancing his way. He seemed more anxious than normal, too. He bounced his leg like he was sitting on a trampoline, and though he was careful to not jiggle enough to make noise (Minato, as usual, made all attempts to be as silent as a mouse in detention), she half-expected smoke to start erupting from where his pant legs were rubbing together.

Yes, Minato's empathy remained very much intact and alive. Good for him. It sure didn't explain why he was hiding something from her.

Rio hadn't even known people existed that were as bad at lying as Minato. Sure, she had to admit that she had spent a while getting to know him, and maybe if you didn't know him or you weren't looking for it, he could get something by you. In fact, Rio had seen some of his lies actually work on people. But for Rio? He might as well have been firing an airhorn, with fireworks exploding above him, and a freaking electric sign springing up behind him, pointing at him with big, flashing neon letters screaming, "I'M LYING!"

If liar, liar, pants on fire were true, she knew his clean, well-kempt trousers would have gone up in flames ages ago. She was still holding out hope that they would.

…Ok, yeah, Rio was mad. Shut up.

As soon as Rio heard the news (the gossip mill of Gekkoukan was, as ever, exceedingly fast at spreading information), she tracked Minato down, asking how on earth that had happened. But when she asked, he immediately glanced down (since it was Minato, the action may have been barely noticeable to some... but it was clear as day to Rio), then immediately looked back up again and said:

"I don't know for sure."

Rio's eyes had narrowed slightly. "No?"

"No." He shifted quietly under her stare, adjusting one sleeve of his shirt. "But we should go visit her after class."

God, at least he could try to lie better. At least to her. And obviously they should see her after class! She'd almost sent a text to her volleyball team that she wouldn't be able to make it today (before she remembered she didn't need to do that anymore - and she quickly shoved that thought straight out of her head), and she'd already checked the train schedule to see if they could squeak in the time to grab a snack before visiting Fuuka. But the way Minato said that, and with how obviously he'd lied to her-

Ok, she really had to calm down. It looked like the teacher was starting to sweat under her glare.

She glanced to the side, over to the window, to cool her thoughts down to a more reasonable, "only halfway to boiling point" level. Unfortunately, even a change of scenery didn't help - her mind refused to think about anything else.

It didn't even take thirty seconds before she found herself back within the swirling tempest of her thoughts.

The problem was - the more Rio thought, the angrier she became. When it first happened, she was confused, but somewhat numb - the concept of Minato keeping something from her was just too alien. But the more she replayed the scene in her mind, watching the way he acted over and over again, the more frustrated she got. That feeling, combined with her concern over her friend's well-being, shook and rattled within her and demanded to be let out.

Honestly, the strength of her emotions was surprising even to her. Why the hell was she so mad about this? Was she especially mad because she was worried about Fuuka? Was she especially stressed because right after Hamuko stopped coming to practice, her volleyball team had all decided to-

She pushed that thought out of her mind.

Instead, every time she started to think about that, she prodded Minato about this situation again, and every time she got the same, blatant lies. Not the same words, but all lies. About Fuuka's injury.

If he knew something, why the hell wasn't he sharing? Didn't Rio deserve to know the truth?

Most of class was a struggle for her - she definitely didn't get a single thing that the teacher was talking about. As soon as the bell rang, she grabbed her bag, threw it over her shoulders, and stalked out of the classroom. Once in the hallway, she stopped, hesitated a moment, then stiffly turned back around.

Rio watched as Minato stepped quickly out of the classroom, his backpack only halfway put on. His eyes met Rio's, and he sped towards her.

(Again, "sped" was relative - this was Minato. But Rio could tell he picked up his pace.)

"You ready?" He asked quietly, slipping his other arm through his backpack's remaining strap. "We may have time to grab a-"

"We don't have time. Come on," Rio said, turning on a heel. She heard his footsteps behind her after a brief pause, tip-tapping lightly as he followed.

She strode down the steps, through the main entrance, and past the front doors with wide yet wooden strides. The day greeting her outside was absolutely stunning - the sun sat in the midst of a big, beautifully blue sky, smiling down on Gekkoukan High. A gentle breeze rippled through the flowers and grass of the courtyard, gently tousling Rio's hair and spreading the sweet smell of blossoms past her. Buzzing bumblebees zipped about the array of flowers, whizzing to and fro as they hauled their pollen payloads, paying no heed to the students spilling out of the school, their idle chatter and laughter rising into the air.

Yes, it was a nice day, but the day could shove it. Rio had a friend to see.

Rio's march didn't slow down for anything, neither student, nor adult, nor certain crosswalks. (She wasn't sure, but she might have heard Minato almost get hit by a bus at one of them. When she turned around, though, he was totally unscathed, and she wouldn't feel bad about it until much later.) By the time she made it to a stop light that she couldn't jaywalk across, she was almost sweating through her cardigan, and she tugged at her shirt's collar to let in some air.

A few seconds later, Minato appeared to her side, releasing a quiet breath. She glanced at him sidelong, feeling somewhat… conflicted about how he seemed no worse for the wear, aside from a few hairs out of place.

Her emotions roiled within her and she clenched her fists, trying not to let it show (too much) on her face.

After a few more seconds passed, Minato shuffled next to her.

"Rio-chan."

"What."

"Fuuka-chan's going to be alright," he replied. Rio turned slightly to look at him, and discovered him facing her, slouching only slightly and wearing a small, kind smile. "She'll be fine."

The roaring emotions bottled up within Rio just grew louder at that.

Wow, how kind of you to assuage my fears while you lie to my face. What the hell, Minato-kun.

She turned away, not bothering to give the boy a response. He apparently wasn't expecting that, but out of the corner of her eye, Rio saw he took it in stride, simply turning back around and reaching up to mess with the MP3 player hanging around his neck.

It didn't take much longer for the light to finally change, but it felt interminably long, alone with just her thoughts and standing next to someone she really didn't want to look at.

She moved across the street, along with a decent portion of Gekkoukan High. Minato managed to squeak in right next to her, their shoulders squishing together from the mass of people. Rio ignored it.

Sunlight shone through the buildings, spilling onto the throngs of people below. It glinted off the tops and sides of the metallic buildings standing tall, their tops far above the city street. One ray flew right into Rio's eye, and she glanced away instinctively, eyes landing back on Minato.

He looked calm, moving with confident steps. Not relaxed, exactly, but rather ready. For what, Rio didn't know. He certainly did not seem concerned with her reactions, though.

Rio knew him well enough to guess that, if he knew how mad she was, he would be acting very differently. Even though she was pissed, she knew that he was too damn good natured (despite how much he tried to hide it, or fake otherwise) to not be greatly worried about her current mental state. So, what? Did he think that she was just worried for Fuuka, rather than angry at him?

...Okay, yeah, maybe that was part of it. But she was still pissed off at him, damn it.

She glanced up as her train of thought reached its station, and she realized that they were already at the hospital. Rio swallowed, one familiar feeling - anxiety - suddenly taking over, overriding the swarm of others clouding her mind and stirring her frenzied thoughts.

Steeling herself as best she could, Rio thrust herself forward, through the automatic doors and into the main lobby. Upon reaching the front desk, she opened her mouth to speak… but the receptionist spoke first.

"Minato-kun," the receptionist said in greeting, just the tiniest smirk in her otherwise polite and friendly smile. "Welcome back to your old haunting grounds."

Rio turned around as Minato walked up behind her, a small smile on his face as he stowed his hands in his pockets. "Aisha-san. We must stop meeting like this."

Aisha the receptionist closed her eyes as she chuckled. "You're tellin' me. But if you're here, I bet idle chatter can wait. Who are you looking for?"

"Yamagishi Fuuka. She was admitted late last night."

As Minato spoke, Aisha typed fast on the keyboard. "I've got her. She's on the fourth floor, room 428." She shook her head. "Minato-kun, I really hope your friends stop getting injured so much."

"Me too," he replied quietly. Then, he turned to Rio, a question in his eyes.

Shall we?

Instead of answering, Rio walked past him, grazing by his shoulder without full-on bumping into him as she walked to the elevator, trying to keep herself from acting out too much in front of Minato's receptionist friend. (Having said that, Rio could have sworn that she felt the gaze of the receptionist on her as she walked away… though something stopped her from actually turning around to check.)

Rio turned a corner and found the elevators. She jammed her finger on the UP button, watching impatiently as the elevator's floor indicator ticked down from floor six all the way down towards the first floor. As soon as the doors dinged open, Rio slid through, not even waiting until they were fully open before hitting the button to get to the fourth floor.

For better and worse, Minato slid in just before the doors closed.

He stood a few feet away from her in the elevator as it traveled up. Both Rio and Minato stared at the wall, silent, before the doors opened and Rio stepped out. She took a brief moment to look at the metal sign on the wall, indicating which direction which rooms lay in, before flying towards room 428 as fast as possible without actually running.

As soon as she arrived, she knocked on the door. Almost immediately came a reply:

"Y-yes, who is it?"

"Fuuka-chan, it's Rio. Can I come in?"

"O-oh! Yes, p-please do!"

Rio opened the door with just a slight hesitation. Upon opening the door wide enough to get a good view inside, she froze… and then relaxed, just a bit.

All things considered, Fuuka really didn't look all that bad. She had bandages wrapping one of her wrists and one of her feet, as well as one expertly attached to one side of her head. However, she was clearly alert, balancing a laptop on her lap, typing away with her free hand while resting her bandaged hand. She sat fully upright, and even had the TV on in the corner of the room.

However, Rio's heart still sank at seeing her friend banged up. Even though it seemed to be mostly scrapes and bruises (since Fuuka had no broken bones and did not seem to be concussed, Rio could affirmatively say that she'd seen people get hurt worse at a volleyball match), the fact was that her friend was at the hospital - and that clearly something bad had happened to cause this.

Rio entered the room slowly as Fuuka turned to look at her, scooting her laptop off her lap and placing it on a small table by the side of her bed. "Rio-ch-chan, M-Minato-kun." She smiled. "How are you both doing?"

"How are we- Fuuka-chan, how are you doing?!" Rio nearly yelled, only managing to calm her voice down into a medium-volume yelp at the last second. "You're in the hospital!"

Fuuka looked vaguely alarmed at Rio's outburst, and Rio had to smack herself inwardly. Don't yell at Fuuka-chan - come on, Iwasaki! What's your problem!?

"To answer your question… we're alright, Fuuka-chan," Minato replied smoothly as he entered the room, a light smile resting on his face. He passed by Rio, moving to the side of Fuuka's bed, though leaving the spot closest to Fuuka open. "You?"

Rio narrowed her eyes at the back of his head. I just asked that!

Meanwhile, Fuuka quietly laughed. "I'm doing alright, th-thank you. Really, the physical injuries are not too bad." She glanced up at Rio, taking in Rio's narrowed eyes and tense body, before her eyes widened and she sat up straight.

Rio cursed inwardly, again. And now I've made her anxious. Fantastic work, Rio. Truly stunning.

Shoving her negative feelings and expressions as far down as they would go, Rio tried to clear her face. "Don't mind me, I'm just worried about you, Fuuka-chan," she said. But even as she told the white lie, she wanted to take it back, her anger at Minato's lies making her own hypocritical lie hurt even worse as it escaped into the air, enraging all her recently-buried emotions.

It was at this moment that Fuuka, staring right at Rio's face, took charge.

"Minato-kun, could you leave Rio-chan and I alone for a bit? I've got something that I want to ask her in private. You can go check on Yukari-chan, if you'd like. I think it's been a few days since you last saw her."

Minato looked vaguely taken aback (as much as the normally-unflappable boy ever did), but he still took it in stride, taking a brief moment to collect himself and nodding. "Okay. Can you text me when you're done? I still want to chat."

Fuuka nodded, eyes only leaving Rio to briefly meet Minato's and give him a nod and a small smile. "I'll tell you when you can return."

Minato nodded again, turning and leaving the room before closing the door behind him with a click.

A few seconds after the door was shut, Fuuka looked back over to Rio, who promptly said:

"I'm going to kill him, but I'll need your help to hide the body."

Fuuka's mouth dropped wide open. "R-R-Rio-chan!" She exclaimed in a half gasp, half giggle.

"So, I'm guessing that means you're out? Don't make me go to Hamuko-chan - that just seems wrong."

Fuuka laughed out loud that time, and the sound warmed Rio's heart. She somewhat hated to admit it, but the combination of seeing Fuuka doing so well and having Minato not right next to her immediately made her stomach relax from its tense coil, and she felt her shoulders automatically lower from their hunch. (How long had they been hunched, anyways?)

Fuuka calmed down from her laughter, and looked at Rio. "No, sadly I will not b-become an a-accomplice to your attempted m-murder," she said, smiling. And then, although the smile did not disappear, Fuuka's eyes ever so slightly narrowed, and she moved her hands to her lap, neatly folding her unbandaged hand over her bandaged one as her back straightened. "At least, not until you tell me what he did wrong."

Rio hesitated. "I'm… I'm really just here to help you, Fuuka-chan. I can worry about him later."

"As you can see, I'm doing fine, Rio-chan. And I would prefer it if my two closest friends were not fighting." She paused. "Or, at least, if one of my closest friends was not angry with the other. Minato-kun does not seem to know you're angry."

Rio huffed out a laugh. "I… yeah, that's fair." Her look soured. "Though I can't believe he doesn't realize I'm pissed at him," she muttered.

Fuuka, maybe due to one of the medications she took, or just the new confidence she was showing, actually giggled at Rio's annoyance. Rio raised an eyebrow.

"Rio-chan, you're not exactly opening yourself up for him to ask you about it." Fuuka said, continuing to smile. "Not to mention, he won't want to question someone's emotions, especially not someone who's so clearly stressed and anxious."

Rio huffed. "Alright, fair." Then she stopped, trying to formulate her thoughts into words, and finding both frustratingly out of reach.

"As for the reason why he's dead meat, it's…" Rio sighed. "It shouldn't really be that big a deal. But I asked him if he knew what happened to you, and… he does. But he said he didn't. He straight up lied to me. Multiple times." Looking up at Fuuka, Rio found her companion's face unreadable. However, unlike with Minato, Rio wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to crack Fuuka - not while Fuuka was at her best.

"I guess I just… I thought that he would tell me, if he knew," Rio continued. "I can't even imagine why he'd lie, but I thought that he knew how important that would be to me, to...I dunno, to us." Rio's fists clenched by her sides, and she tilted her face down, looking at the floor. "I thought that us - the three of us - meant more to him."

Fuuka was quiet for a long moment. When she finally responded, her words were slow, calm, and collected.

"First off, I feel I should say, Rio-chan, that I would prefer to not talk about what happened last night. I will be fine - I promise you that - but I-I do not wish to go into the details."

Rio hesitated, then nodded.

"As for Minato-k-kun… he truly does mean well." Fuuka paused, searching for words. "As I understand it, the way he's grown up, and the experiences he's had… they've trained him to have a less concrete notion of lies. For better and worse, he doesn't always have a hard line on what truths - or lies - to tell people, if he thinks the outcome is beneficial."

"...That doesn't really excuse what he's done," Rio replied.

"I…" Fuuka's expression twisted, and so did Rio's heart, as she watched her friend's previously sunny expression darken with storm clouds of Rio's own creation. "I know it doesn't. I just want you to understand that not everyone has the same clear lines between acceptable and unacceptable behavior as you do - and especially so with lying. Or neglecting to tell you all the facts."

"...I get that." Rio's frown deepened, her thoughts clashing together. "I guess I'm just so used to knowing everything about him. He's such an open book, y' know? And I'm used to sharing things with him, and just..." She didn't realize she was picking at the hem of her cardigan until a thread came loose. "It came as such a shock, I think. To have him lie to me."

"I see," Fuuka said. "Rio-chan… You said that you thought the three of us meant more to him than that. I can guarantee that we do mean a lot to him. I know it hurts that he's lied, but… please don't think that he does not care."

"...How do you know, Fuuka-chan?" Rio asked. "For sure?"

Fuuka's expression froze as Rio felt the words, nearly unbidden, fling themselves from her mouth. But she couldn't take them back - though part of her did want to snatch up each individual word and shove them back into her mind to die a horrible death.

"How…" Fuuka repeated, sounding dazed. "How do I know if he cares?"

Rio almost gulped. Here she was, talking to the girl who had been saved from bullying by the person she had just accused of not caring. Still, she raised her chin up and met Fuuka's eyes dead on. (Even though her fight or flight reflex was smashing repeatedly on the flight button for all it was worth.)

"Yeah," she said, almost trembling. "How do you know he's not just like my team, who lie about doing their drills at home, and pretend to care. How do you know that one day he's not just going to get up and leave when he's had enough."

Fuuka stayed quiet as Rio clammed up, damming (and damning) her traitorous mouth so no more words would leak out. Though she was quiet, Fuuka's eyes were full of intent, scanning Rio's face as if solving a puzzle.

"Rio-chan," Fuuka eventually said. "Do… d-do you trust me?"

Rio's heart twisted again, and she nodded once stiffly.

"I know that Minato-kun cares," Fuuka said, and Rio could tell she was pouring earnestness and feeling into every word. "I know he cares for… for us." Her hands balled into fists, curling the blanket wrapped around her waist. "I know that he would do so much for us. I know he's the type of person who would comfort us, and protect us, and heal us. The type of person who'd… put a coat around us if we're cold."

She continued looking at Rio, as if trying to transfix her (it was working). "I know because he has done those things. That doesn't mean he's perfect, or that he always makes choices that we agree with, but just that he cares. I completely understand that you're angry, but don't mistake his actions for not caring."

Rio held onto Fuuka's gaze a bit longer, drinking in the complete, wholesome trust that Fuuka had in Minato. And maybe trying to steal a little bit for herself.

"...Okay. Okay." Rio at last turned away from Fuuka for a moment, her long ponytail sweeping behind her. "I'll try to take your word for it, Fuuka-chan. As much as I can."

She turned her head back around, casting a glance back at Fuuka. "But I'm still gonna make his life suck for a little bit. He deserves that."

Fuuka gave a quiet little sigh of disapproval, but otherwise didn't respond verbally, instead just shaking her head, and rustling her blankets as she shifted.

The two lingered in silence for a while after that point, only the TV in the background quietly talking.

"...the general consensus is that the people of Port Island are starting to get uneasy. Starting first with the Phantom Train incident, and moving into the mysterious damage done to the intersection of 5th and Sumire street much more recently, it seems that something odd is happening in Port Island. When questioned, the Kirijo Group had somewhat reasonable explanations for these events, but I've spoken to more than one person who agrees that they just don't quite add up…"

Rio found herself watching the TV, listening to the reporter (one she happened to know rather well) continue to yammer about the people she'd interviewed.

"Those are odd situations," Rio remarked. "The Kirijo Group's got some weird stuff going on."

She saw Fuuka slowly nod out of the corner of her eye, but Rio still kept her focus on the TV until it cut to commercial, and the sickly sweet Junes jingle wormed its way into her brain through the old TV's tinny speakers.

"That's gonna be in my head for days now," Rio groaned, reaching for the remote and shutting off the TV halfway through the ad.

Fuuka chuckled quietly, but didn't respond. Rio turned back around to discover that Fuuka's focus was back on her laptop, and she was working on-

"Homework?" Rio demanded, perhaps slightly louder than she intended as Fuuka jumped in her seat (and instinctively hit a keyboard shortcut to minimize all windows). "You're working on homework?!"

"I-It's important!" Fuuka weakly defended. "We've gotta… y'know, keep up…"

Rio gave her a look. "You're in the hospital. I'm not letting you work on that - whatever that is."

"It's just fourth year calculus-"

"You should be resting," Rio continued, unabashed. "The work will be there later."

"That's the problem, genius," came the muttered reply.

Fuuka's response made Rio straighten her back, like someone had slipped an ice cube down her shirt. She held still for another moment. Then, slowly, she raised one eyebrow and looked directly at Fuuka's face, a grin growing wide across her lips. "Did you just get sassy with me?"

Fuuka suddenly looked like the floor beneath her had dropped. Her head snapped to the side and her expression was brimming with horror, for she knew that she had just committed a grave sin, an unholy act.

"Er, u-uh, I-I-I-I'm so sorry, I don't know where that came from-"

Unable to hold it any longer, Rio cracked up. Fuuka's apology died on her lips and her horrified look softened into mere embarrassment as her friend collapsed, leaning into the side of her bed. Rio's head actually landed onto Fuuka's shoulder for a brief moment before she pulled back.

"Oh gosh, sorry Fuuka-chan, I-I… I didn't mean to do that," she said, with one last deep breath full of gusto. "I was not expecting you to say that!"

"If a-all goes as planned, I n-never will again," came the meek reply, Fuuka still looking away from Rio, bravely pretending that all was well and that she totally hadn't sassed Rio fifteen seconds ago.

Rio, deciding to be momentarily merciful, left it at that and relaxed. Fuuka quietly collected herself and eventually settled down.

"Hey, Fuuka-chan?"

"Y-yes?"

Rio grinned one final grin, one that she knew was bordering on wicked. "I'm not gonna let you forget that for a looong time."

Even though she pulled her blankets over her head to hide her face, Fuuka couldn't hide from Rio's cackles, eventually turning into peels of good-natured chuckles. And even though, under the covers, her cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment, Fuuka couldn't help joining in too.

Shout-outs to:

chrismurraycm7043276, Overlord0007, crackheadmiller, FanficFemale, swordfish333, Lockir, Teamnightmare101, and Matias Teran Salazar for following;

chrismurraycm7043276, Overlord0007, crackheadmiller, Red Acnologia, Lockir, Teamnightmare101, and Matias Teran Salazar for fav'ing;

CereysKerrigan and guest for reviewing;

and as always, my incredible beta Disasternoj for beta'ing!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!

[Next chapter drops on July 16th, 2024!]