A/N: hello again! i'm thinking this is gonna have to be a dual pov fic but i'm gonna refrain from too much natsume because... well... it would give a lot away. in any case this fic will heavily deviate from canon, but not all of it will be immediately clear. since this is not set at alice academy and since this is not an au where i can pick and choose characters as i will, there will be some original characters but they are really not that important lol. do not fret; this is a natsumikan fic and they are the main characters.

anyway, i hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter One.

Tempus edax rerum.

"If I were a seaweed at the bottom of the sea,

I'd find you, you'd find me.

Fishes would see us and shake their heads

approvingly from their submarine beds.

Crabs and sea horses would bid us glad cry,

and sea anemone smile us by.

Sea gulls alone would wing and make moan,

wondering, wondering, where we had gone."

-V.R. Lang, "A Lovely Song for Jackson"

Three years later.

There were some memories, Mikan decided, that were due to be stubborn, that refused to be lost no matter what. She would always remember her first day of kindergarten, for instance, when a food fight broke out among the older kids and a pudding cup smacked against her cheek. Or that time when she did that test of bravery and had a ghost shield her. And there was that time she woke up after apparently suffering a sickness in an entirely new village, her Jii-chan waiting for her with tears in his eyes and a stuffed bear in his arms.

But some memories, apparently, could be fickle.

Like, maybe two years worth.

But the doctor said that kind of thing could happen occasionally after a bout of illness like she'd had, that sometimes a virus could have neurological impact-or something like that-and as a result Mikan had no real memory of graduating elementary school or moving to a new village or her first encounter with that mysterious Mr. Bear…

Or meeting her two best friends.

Her first day of school after waking up from her illness, Mikan remembered being apprehensive and bizarrely insecure, lonely even, but the moment she stepped foot onto campus, two almost identical girls came right up to her and scolded her for missing so much class.

"And when the term's just started too!"

"Do you have no shame?"

"You're not smart enough to be missing this much school."

"How are you gonna catch up, Mikan?"

At the time, Mikan had just stared at them, slack-jawed, until one of them had waved a hand in front of her face. "Wow, I think she's gotten stupider."

That was one of those impenetrable memories, her first meeting with Shi-chan and Sa-chan. Or, at least, the first meeting she remembered. After that day, she couldn't recall a day she didn't spend with her two friends.

That's why it came out of left field when Shi-chan announced that she would be moving.

Random, one might describe the scene.

Mikan was walking home from school with her friends, listening to Sa-chan prattle on about her karate class (though, strangely, Sa-chan and Shi-chan spent most of their free time around Mikan and she couldn't really think of when they could possibly find time to squeeze in extra-curricular classes… perhaps they were just that remarkable, Mikan concluded absently). Mikan liked this path home, by the seaside, where the air was cool and fresh and smelled a bit salty. She felt, as she walked, that everyday she lived here she was fulfilling some kind of lifelong dream she had no memory of having.

A normal school life with normal school friends.

Until Shi-chan spoke up, her voice loud and clear, "I'm leaving."

"Huh?"

"I'm moving away," she elaborated. "I'm not coming back."

"How come?" Mikan asked, blinking rapidly, pausing their walk because she could not move and have this conversation at the same time. "What do you mean? When? What's this about? Huh?"

"My… family… said they don't want me staying here," Shi-chan said, stopping just as Mikan had done. "They say it's not safe, and they don't like the sea."

"But I thought you were one of those emaciated minors…" Shi-chan lived in an apartment of her own just a few blocks away from Mikan's house, and she had a job and a stipend from the government and everything-except, now that Mikan thought about it, she'd never actually seen Shi-chan go to work, and didn't even know what that part-time work was supposed to be in the first place. She'd never heard Shi-chan so much as mention her family before.

"Emancipated, Mikan," Shi-chan corrected. "And, yes, I am. But it doesn't matter. I can't go against their wishes. They don't trust me with-here. They don't trust me here. They want to have a closer eye on me, so I have to go."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Mikan protested. "Tell them you won't go!" Shi-chan smiled sadly. "What? Can't you just tell them to move here or something?"

"I can't make them change their minds, Mikan. It's too late."

"Where will you be going?"

"Think of it as a graduation. I'm just moving on faster than you because I'm smarter and my grades are better." Shi-chan looked away, her eyes moving to gaze at the waves down the cliff at the beach. "Will you miss me?"

"Of course!" Mikan exclaimed resolutely. "Won't you come visit sometime?"

"I'll see," Shi-chan said vaguely, moving her eyes back to Mikan.

Somehow, the walk continued, and the conversation continued, and Mikan even allowed herself to forget that Shi-chan was leaving. She was dropped off at her house and waved to her friends like usual, feeling as euphoric and normal as she always did, day in and day out.

It did not occur to her that Sa-chan hadn't said a single thing about Shi-chan moving.

Mikan woke up the next morning with a lurch, her stomach flipping anxiously. She jumped out of bed and checked her phone and sighed in relief to see no texts or calls from Shi-chan. That must mean that the move was later on, on a different day.

Mikan got dressed in her uniform and ate breakfast with Jii-chan, courtesy of Mr. Bear, who was quite the excellent homemaker, even though he pretended to be a normal stuffed animal whenever anybody else stepped foot into the house (and somehow, by doing so, convinced everyone in town that she was a space case at best and a lunatic at worst).

Usually, Shi-chan and Sa-chan picked her up on their way to school, so they could all walk together. But the clock moved eerily along with no knock at the door, no wave through the window.

"You'll be late for class at this rate, Mikan," Jii-chan said gently, so Mikan gathered her books in her bag and left the house, resigned to being ditched. She'd see her friends at school.

But as she walked along the normal path, kicking the occasional rock as she went, she overheard two neighborhood women gossiping, probably thinking they were much quieter than they actually were.

"Well, there she goes, that girl."

"She's bizarre. Do you remember when she swore up and down that her stuffed animal was a real bear?"

"My cousin is a psychologist and he said that kind of behavior was what he called arrested development. She's a teenager now but she still acts like a toddler!"

Mikan hunched, suddenly self-conscious.

"And she's so loud!" one of the women hissed.

"Her voice certainly does carry…"

Mikan looked in their direction and grinned. The women gave her nervous smiles of their own, but as soon as her back was to them again, one of them seemingly couldn't stop herself from whispering, "She just doesn't fit in, does she?"

Instead of heading straight to school, Mikan took a sharp right at the end of the street. She walked a few minutes off-route until she reached Shi-chan's apartment building.

It was a white, bland, concrete building, guarded off with a wrought iron fence. Apparently, it was for younger single people and newlyweds. Their village was a tiny place on the coast, and mainly families and the elderly lived here. So apartments like these were often the only option for young adults and couples starting off their married lives, who couldn't afford a house quite yet.

The apartment was only two stories tall, and Shi-chan's place was on the second floor, all the way at the end, her bedroom window facing the cliffs. Mikan had visited countless times over the years, to watch TV or study or play a board game.

Mikan reached the second floor and knocked on Shi-chan's door, to no answer. She tried again and again and then one more time before she tried to peer in through the window by the door. The breeze was a bit stronger today than usual, so her hair kept flying into her face, but one thing was clear from the tiny glimpses she got of the inside of the apartment.

Shi-chan's place had always been concerningly bare.

But it had never been this bare.

Mikan backed away from the window, suddenly feeling sick.

Shi-chan had already left. She hadn't even said good-bye. Had she told Sa-chan?

Mikan exhaled shakily and then headed down the steps. She would go to school and ask Sa-chan if she knew what was going on. Maybe they still had time to call Shi-chan? Where was she even going? Mikan couldn't remember a single detail about the move except that Shi-chan's family had suddenly appeared in her life again.

When had Shi-chan gotten emancipated in the first place?

By the time she reached the sidewalk again, Mikan's eyes were already flooding with tears, and the wind certainly wasn't helping. She sniffled and told herself to buck up already-resolutely crossing the street like she always did.

Then she heard a furious honk and when she looked up, she could see the headlights of a car-way too close and getting closer ever faster-through her bleary vision. She gasped-this early in the morning, and in such a small town, there usually wasn't any traffic on this road. Just her luck that the one day she wasn't paying attention, a car was speeding down the street.

She shut her eyes tight, heard the angry squealing of tires against the asphalt, and felt herself move backwards, as if moved by a warm breeze, not by hundreds of pounds of metal and force. Somehow, despite the warmth, she could also feel a slight twinge of electricity, a gentle current running up and down her arm where someone was holding her.

The violent smell of burning rubber and the fact that she'd felt no pain a good twenty seconds later gave her some reassurance that she could open her eyes.

The car was askew, clearly having swerved to avoid hitting her. But she would have surely been hit if not for…

If not for the boy next to her, who had a warm hand on her arm after pulling her backward and was resolutely facing the driver of the car, who was stumbling out the door, already swearing.

"OF COURSE IT'S THE SAKURA GIRL, YOU FREAK!" the driver yelled. Mikan flinched. She knew him. He lived at the end of the road and worked at a company in the nearest city. Although she always forgot his name, she knew she wasn't exactly his favorite person on account of being a spaz most of the time. "HAVE YOU EVER PAID ATTENTION TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS IN YOUR LIFE? MY TIRES!"

"I'm sorry!" Mikan said, her eyes still watery, now from the extra scare of nearly getting killed. "It's my bad-"

"Why were you driving so fast?" the boy asked. Mikan's heart skipped a beat. His voice was almost familiar, but she knew it wasn't the voice of anyone she knew. It was almost as if she'd heard his voice in a distorted form, like on TV or the radio. Deep, steady, and deceptively calm. Somehow, though, she knew he was mad.

"I was running late," the driver spat. "To work! And can you imagine how much later I'll be now? Of course it was you, Sakura! I'll be giving your grandfather a call, you know! Your behavior is unacceptable! This is the tenth time this year you've given me trouble!"

"Why were you driving so fast?" the boy asked again. His grip was still on her arm, but it had tightened just a bit.

"You have a hearing problem, pal? I said-" The driver looked him up and down and narrowed his eyes. "I don't think I've seen you around…"

Mikan didn't think so either. The boy had dark hair and was quite a bit taller than her, wearing a coat over his school uniform and carrying a bag not unlike hers. She couldn't really see his face, but his voice and build wasn't one she recognized as belonging to any of her male classmates, even though he was wearing the school uniform.

"You could have killed her," the boy said. "You should've been paying attention."

The driver balked, affronted. "W-She flew out of nowhere!"

"Drive the speed limit," the boy said. "I'm thinking it wouldn't be a complete waste of time to swing by the police department and let them know that…" He stuck his head out a bit to read out loud the man's license plate number. "...Has been speeding down a residential road."

"No!" the man said. "No, you don't have to…" He threw one more glare in Mikan's direction and then scoffed. "Whatever. Forget it." He got back in his car and drove off, notably slower than he had been before.

Mikan turned back to the boy, hoping to thank her savior, but as soon as she looked at him, her breath caught in her throat.

He had red eyes and short eyebrows and his mouth was set in a frown, but what stood out to her more than anything was that he looked strangely familiar. Just like his voice had the strange quality of hearing a song live instead of over a recording, he appeared like a celebrity she'd seen countless times on TV but was only seeing in person now. Only she couldn't remember which celebrity he was supposed to be or where she would have known his face or voice from.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice just as calm as it had been before but now stripped of that subtle rage.

Instead of answering, she blurted out, "Are you a model?"

He blinked. Then, slowly, he straightened, his gaze intensifying somehow, some mysterious emotion crossing his eyes before he said, "You should take better care of yourself."

Then he crossed the street and headed down the road. Mikan started to run to catch up to him, but at that moment another car flew down the street and she stayed clear of it. The dust that the car kicked up, the hard breeze, and the persistent smell of burning rubber from the near-accident all caused Mikan to shut her eyes tight. The car left, she opened her eyes again, but the boy had vanished.

It's not like Mikan forgot about Shi-chan. It's just that nearly getting killed in a car accident and being saved by the handy appearance of a random, mysterious boy was a bit of a distraction. She walked the rest of the way to school in a daze, though she did stick to the sidewalks.

Luckily, she wasn't late. She stepped onto campus and suddenly remembered her friends and this morning's ordeal with the apartment. She looked all around herself for Shi-chan or Sa-chan, but she spotted neither, not even at their usual spot by the school's entrance. All she did see were a few of her classmates giving her uncomfortable, lingering looks, but that wasn't so unusual. No sight of her friends or that mysterious boy.

She made her way to her classroom and settled into her seat morosely, deep in the miserable daydream of having to walk to school by herself for the rest of her life. Would she never make another friend again? Shi-chan and Sa-chan would tease her sometimes, sure, but they seemed to be the only to tolerate Mikan's idiosyncrasies. Everyone else thought she was a weirdo. She cast a glance around the classroom as it slowly filled up, but both Shi-chan and Sa-chan desks remained empty. She sighed, leaning her cheek against her open notebook. Her only friends would be Jii-chan and Mr. Bear…

Mikan was in no rush to lift her head off the table, not even when the homeroom teacher, Gori-sensei, entered the classroom.

"Good morning, everyone," he called out, but Mikan just buried her head in her notebook. She'd always been put off by how much extra attention he paid her. "We should start with some housekeeping. Two of your classmates have transferred schools-"

Mikan would've lifted her head off the desk if it weren't for the whisper she overheard a few rows over.

"Yeah, I'd have run away if I had to be Sakura-san's friend too."

She kept her head down. So both of her friends had left? And neither had bothered to say a proper farewell? At least Shi-chan had warned her. Why hadn't Sa-chan said anything?

"-but some luck has come our way, as we have a new student transferring into class!"

Someone shuffled into the classroom, and Mikan only looked up when she heard a chorus of awed gasps from her classmates. She glanced at the front of the room, only to see her red-eyed savior standing at the front.

So he was in her class after all!

"Please introduce yourself," Gori-sensei prompted, but the boy just turned to him wordlessly and narrowed his eyes. "Uh… okay… uhh… Well, students, this is Igarashi Kintarou. He will be in our class from now on so please be kind to him and help him learn the ropes around here. Right, so, Igarashi-kun, please take a seat. We have two empty desks, so choose whichever you'd like."

Mikan couldn't help it; she sat up straight, her face flushing. Sa-chan's desk had been on the other end of the room, but Shi-chan's desk was next to Mikan's. Part of her wanted this new kid to recognize her and sit next to her (maybe they could even be friends!) but another part of her was humiliated by how stupid she'd been this morning and hoped he'd pretend like nothing happened.

"Okay."

He started to move, and it was hard to miss her classmates swooning and staring starstruck at him. It's not like she could blame them. He was very pretty…

Her heart-rate sped up incrementally until he sat down, in the desk right next to hers. He didn't even look at her, though. Maybe she could have it both ways, she thought to herself. Maybe she could have him as a deskmate and then a friend once he completely forgot about her nearly getting hit by a car and asking him if he was a model.

Class started and the day passed, teachers flitting in and out of the room with each passing course, but Mikan found herself staring in Igarashi's direction more often than she did at the board. He didn't seem to notice, just took notes in his notebook diligently, like a good student.

He was left-handed, she noticed as he wrote. She couldn't see what he was writing, but he wrote fast. His eyelashes were long. Where had she seen him before? Maybe she'd glimpsed him when he'd registered for classes yesterday? Maybe on her walk home? She'd met him in front of Shi-chan's apartment, so maybe he lived around there?

It took Mikan about a half hour to realize that she was not the only person taken in by Igarashi-kun. Admiring and adoring gazes were thrown in his direction by girls and boys alike. Mikan only noticed when the girl sitting behind her (Saki-chan, Mikan remembered) sighed happily while staring hard in his direction. He didn't seem to notice any of the attention.

Mikan's daze was disrupted abruptly when Igarashi snapped his notebook closed and started to put his things away. She blinked and looked around herself, only to see her other classmates doing the same. Oh, lunchtime.

Mikan put her notebook away too, though she hadn't written a single word in it all day, and then turned to the new transfer. "Uh-excuse me," she started to say. He was new, after all. Embarrassing first impressions aside, Gori-sensei had requested they all be kind to him. Besides, it's not like she had anyone to eat lunch with anymore anyway.

He immediately looked up at her, the red of his eyes burning, and she couldn't help but doubt that he recognized her, even though his gaze was strangely intense.

"I was wondering if-"

"Igarashi-san!" another girl-Aiko, not one of Mikan's biggest fans, for sure-said cheerily. "Welcome to our class!" His attention temporarily-and apparently reluctantly-moved to her. "My name is Aiko. I hope you've been finding your way around the village okay. As class president, I thought it was kinda my duty to show you around the school. I can show you the best places to have lunch, if you'd like!"

Mikan wasn't usually shy. People didn't hate her that much; there just seemed to be something about her that weirded people out, and made them stay away. When that oddness was coupled with her outspoken personality, it only annoyed her classmates more. Mikan had long ago learned to stop fighting a losing battle. She'd learned to be content with two great friends.

It's just that now she had no friends.

And this new boy was her only chance to avoid being alone, and now pretty and brilliant and normal Aiko would snatch him up.

Mikan sighed with frustration. She should've known. Picking up her bag, she stood up, ready to eat lunch by herself.

"Hey."

She whirled around to see Igarashi eyeing her.

"What were you saying?"

Mikan pointed to herself in question, but he just kept looking at her. She glanced from him to a bewildered Aiko back to him. "Uh, right, well… I guess I was just wondering if you needed someone to eat lunch with, but…" She glanced at Aiko, whose look of confusion had transformed into disdain. "It seems like someone's already volunteered!"

Aiko raised her eyebrows in triumph, a haughty smile returned to her face.

Igarashi-kun stood up, hoisting his bag over his shoulder. "Alright."

"Huh?"

He was still looking at her.

"Me?" she asked, just as Aiko began to speak, "But, Igarashi-san, as nice as Sakura-san can be, I really do know everything about this school!"

"You almost died this morning," Igarashi-kun said, his gaze stubbornly on Mikan. It wasn't just Aiko anymore. Many of the girls around them were glaring dangerously in her direction. She'd somehow made herself an enemy by avoiding a car accident. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yeah, totally fine," Mikan said, trying to keep her tone casual. She was nervous for about a thousand reasons.

"Okay. Let's go."

Me? Me? Are you sure? But Mikan didn't voice that question. She wasn't on the student council and she wasn't president of anything. She wasn't particularly pretty and she was an awful student. She couldn't even remember what their last lecture had been on. The only reason Igarashi-kun had for picking her company over Aiko's or some other kid's was because he recognized her from her embarrassing near-death experience.

And then it all made sense.

He was shy!

He was one of those kids who clung to familiarity in new settings, and since Mikan was the only familiar face in class, he clung to her. Just her luck!

Suddenly, the fact that he'd walked away from her abruptly this morning and hadn't even noticed the attention he received in class made sense. It was because he was shy!

"Okay!"

Ignoring the daggers everyone in class was staring at her, Mikan led Igarashi-kun out of the classroom.

"So that was homeroom," she said awkwardly. "Which you already know… Uh… those are the bathrooms. You should know about those because you never know. Hehe. Sometimes you need those. You know… for bathroom purposes. And this is the hallway…" Was she supposed to give him a tour? How was she supposed to treat a shy kid? Most people didn't really wanna hang out with her at all. What did one talk about with new friends?

"Where do you eat lunch?" he asked, and Mikan bit her lip because he hadn't looked away from her once since they'd left the room.

"Uh, usually outside, unless the weather's bad."

"Take me there."

Mikan nodded. Though his bluntness wasn't exactly what she expected from a shy kid, she was relieved that he didn't want her to emulate an Aiko-style tour, especially because she would really have no idea how to do that. She still got lost in this building sometimes, and it wasn't even that big.

They walked, and Mikan pretended not to notice that he was still looking at her. "Um, I just want you to know… about this morning. I don't usually almost get hit by cars. In fact, that has never happened to me before today."

"I'd hope not."

"It's 'cause I was distracted. I cross that street almost every day and there's never been any cars but all of a sudden, today…" He was making her nervous. He was still looking at her.

Luckily, it didn't take a long time to reach her usual lunch spot. It was at the back of the school, close to the garden. If it had been a bright, sunny day, she'd have boasted about how beautiful the spot was and maybe he'd even be impressed ("Wow, you sure know how to pick a good spot!"), but the day was still overcast and gloomy, the wind only a little less ruthless than it had been this morning.

"We don't have to eat here," Mikan said. "I'm sure I can find a nicer place-"

But Igarashi was already sitting down against the wall. He only waited a moment before raising one of his short eyebrows and saying, "Sit."

She did, struck by his command, dropping into a cross-legged position in front of him. She immediately regretted this since it meant that there was very little distance between them. Again, Igarashi did not seem to notice.

"Do you have a lunch?" he asked.

"Yes!" Mikan fumbled with her bag, rustling through it to find her bento. She pulled it out victoriously and then lamely showed it off. "Seeee? I always have lunch, because my bear-I mean, my grandpa always makes lunches for me."

Igarashi didn't say anything.

"Did you bring a lunch?" Mikan asked, since he sat still, his bag untouched at his side. "Won't you be hungry?"

"Where are your friends?" he asked.

Mikan frowned. Starting off heavy, then. "Um, I guess I don't really have any." When he didn't reply, she flushed, suddenly embarrassed. "I mean, I used to have friends, but they both moved, I guess. Just today. Without saying goodbye."

A shadow passed over Igarashi's face, and Mikan wondered if she'd said something to put him off.

"But it's not like I'm some weird loner or anything! I just have to start over now, that's all!" Except if you ask literally anybody in town, they'll tell you I am indeed a freak.

"There's nothing wrong with being weird," he said, and Mikan's eyes widened in realization. Stupid Mikan! He's shy! He probably saw himself as a weirdo loner! Of course he took that personally!

"Not you!" Mikan said in a rush. "You're not weird! Everyone seems to really like you!" His expression did not change at all. "Uh, anyway… Igarashi-kun…"

"You don't have to use honorifics with me," he said.

"Oh… Okay… well, uh, Igarashi, do you like the village so far? It's nice to live by the sea, huh?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I haven't exactly gone sight-seeing."

"When did you move here?"

He looked away for the first time, his eyes darting to her still unopened bento. "Aren't you going to eat?"

At his prompting, Mikan opened her box and started to eat, occasionally glancing up at him. He did end up pulling out some granola-bar-looking thing, but he'd gone back to staring at her.

The rest of their lunch period passed this way, with Igarashi staring at her and not answering any of her questions, and with her blabbering to fill the silence. The bell rang, but for some reason Mikan wasn't relieved to leave the bizarre situation.

Normally, if Mikan had spent forty-five minutes yapping at someone who didn't say a word, she'd assume the person hated her, but Igarashi seemed… different somehow. He didn't seem to dislike her at all. But it would also be a stretch to assume he liked her.

"So, Igarashi-kun-or, uh, Igarashi…," she said as they stood up, ready to head back to class. "You don't have to agree, of course, but I just thought I'd ask, 'cause you're new and all… Did you maybe wanna walk home together?"

His features softened a fraction, and the smallest smile manifested on his mouth. "Okay."

He turned to go back into the building and Mikan lingered behind him, her heart hammering hard in her chest and her cheeks lighting on fire.

What the heck was that?

Mikan. Mikan. Mikan.

From the moment he'd arrived in this godforsaken place, he'd only had one word on his mind, blaring on repeat.

He hadn't expected to see her so soon either. He'd only just emerged from the place he'd be calling home for the unforeseeable future and there she was. Immediately.

The love of his life, his fiancee, the girl he did and would again die for.

Crossing a street.

As a car raced down the road.

Goshima had only hours ago vacated his position. Was she really so reckless that she needed 24/7 supervision? He did not complain though, because he hadn't had the hope to expect he could touch her right away.

Yanking her out of the way of the car right as it skidded to a stop gave him the chance to hold her again, even if just to grip her arm.

She was warm, even through the light sweater she wore. He hadn't wanted to let go.

She'd immediately asked for his attention during lunch too. He'd initially planned to turn and ask her to show him around (he really hadn't been anticipating that other people would offer first), but she'd beaten him to it.

And he'd gotten to spend the entire lunch period listening to her voice, hearing her ramble about her grandpa's baldness and the bad weather and how she'd slept last night.

She was just as stupid and annoying and wonderful as she'd always been.

It was good to know some things never changed.

Black Cat: Permission to kill the reckless driver.

Shiki: Permission denied.

Shiki: You knew you wouldn't get permission for that.

Shiki: Don't ask stupid questions.

Black Cat: Permission to injure the reckless driver.

Shiki: … Natsume.

A/N: the last three chapters of ga posited that mikan is mysterious and odd and kinda looked at strangely by people and i kinda thought that was an interesting premise so im gonna play it up. the fact that boys are attracted to this mystery of hers will also be present, though it hasnt shown up yet.

i know goshima went by shi-chan for a while but i genuinely dont know what sa-chan was supposed to be but also i dont care so i just put her in the same camp. if you're wondering why it took natsume 3 years to get here... well... i'll save that for next chapter.

and ooof calling natsume "igarashi" is gonna be soooo hard!