Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 73: - Temperance, Lovers, Sun

"I made it in time," Akechi's voice claimed. His voice had been rather unexpected, but I suppose that I should get used to him showing up now that he was somewhat friends with Ren, he also made sure to stand in front of Ren which meant he immediately saw me. "I suppose I'm still safe if you and your friend are still here," Akechi commented. He then focused on me and extended his hand towards me. "I know we already meet but I'm Akechi Goro," Akechi greeted.

"Chiba Natsumi," I returned. I reached out and shook his hand and tried very hard not to yank my hand away, his touch wasn't vile or anything as it only seemed to be his voice that set me on edge; there was no reason to be passive-aggressive just because of how much I hated his voice. "You seemed quite distressed until you realised you weren't late," I acknowledged. Which was rather unlike him from what I had overheard.

"Ah, yes. I can't be late today too," Akechi admitted. He looked a little despondent at my reminder of how 'frazzled' he seemed upon arrival, I didn't know if he was actually worried about being late, but I wasn't about to question which of the emotions he displayed were actually real or what he might be simulating to the wider populace. Something about Akechi just unsettled me and it wasn't helped by the utter lack of a Will of Rebellion.

"You seem busy," Ren commented. He was the much better person to continue this conversation, even though with Akechi's position I could not fade back into the background like I would have preferred and moving to do so would most likely draw Akechi's attention since he was routinely flicking his eyes over to me as if being unwilling to lose sight of me.

"Well… I don't deny it," Akechi agreed. I could probably already guess the reason behind him being so busy, especially with our latest stunt. "I have much more work in television because of the Phantoms. I have permission from my school but it's still tough to do both," Akechi explained. He probably needed to be as smart as Sae if he was doing both school and detective work. "Ah, I can't keep complaining. Well, let's both do our best today," Akechi encouraged. The train pulled in and we quickly boarded without the high school detective following.

"I'd do better if he stopped being so fake," I muttered. Seriously, why was he such a weirdo?

*Persona 5 Royal*

Kawakami knew what was coming, it didn't happen every day, but Kawakami had got very good at anticipating when Chiba was going to start bringing her food after the first two times it had occurred. If the Japanese teacher was honest, she didn't quite know what to make of Chiba's continued attentiveness towards how Kawakami was doing physically; she really needed to figure out why Chiba had changed so suddenly.

"Here you are Kawakami-sensei," Chiba stated. The girl had walked up to the desk once everyone had left and started setting boxes on the desk much like she had previously and Kawakami knew she didn't have much time if she wanted to actually speak to Chiba about what she was doing. As the girl finished setting the boxes down, she turned to leave the room but that was when Kawakami spoke up.

"Hold on a moment Chiba-san," Kawakami called. Chiba proceeded to stop in her movements to leave and turned back to face the desk, Kawakami wanted her to be a little more comfortable for the conversation that they were about to have. "Please sit down," Kawakami requested. Chiba looked a little perplexed by the request but did as was asked and sat down in her chair after bringing it over from her desk.

"Is everything alright?" Chiba asked. There didn't seem to be any reason for Kawakami to hold her back, especially since there wasn't any paper on her desk from any of the homework that Kawakami had set recently; Kawakami was a little unnerved about how to start this conversation, so the woman took in a breath to fortify herself before actually speaking.

"I just have to know why you suddenly decided to do this," Kawakami admitted. This whole situation had been puzzling her for some time and after the last time, Kawakami decided that it was probably best to speak to Chiba about this sudden decision to give her food; especially after the last time proved that this was not a one-time thing and Chiba was probably going to get more experimental with the meals.

"Didn't I already tell you that I was worried about you?" Chiba wondered. She seemed genuinely confused by the question that was being posed to her, honestly Kawakami still didn't know what to do about the sudden burst of food giving that was happening – apart from actually eating it to avoid wastage – she just hoped that the girl didn't end up being insulted or upset by the conversation that Kawakami was starting with her.

"Yes, you did," Kawakami confirmed. It had truly warmed Kawakami to know that someone was worrying about her enough to end up deciding to make meals for her. "However, it was only very recently that you started to do this and I can't help but wonder why you've suddenly become so invested in my health," Kawakami explained. That had been the surprising thing, that something had happened in April, or maybe earlier but it became really obvious to Kawakami in April, to cause Chiba to start opening herself up to others.

"I… I don't want to talk about what I went through; I've already spoken to plenty of others about it that are helping me. But the basics is that I ended up realising I was blinding myself to what was really happening," Chiba admitted. When Chiba had started talking, Kawakami had been deeply worried since it seemed like something had happened to Chiba, all Kawakami could hope was that she was seeing Maruki in order to help her.

However, when Chiba said 'what was really happening', Kawakami feared for a moment that somehow Chiba had managed to figure out that Kawakami was moonlighting as a maid! It was bad enough that Amamiya had figured it out! The only boon was that Kawakami had managed to convince Amamiya not to say anything by promising free time in her lessons and she was getting paid for going over to help him. But what could she possibly offer to Chiba to keep it quiet, Amamiya had saved Kawakami from Chouno, but there was nothing indicating that Chiba would even agree to keep silent if she did know.

"Your health was one of the things I began to notice and nobody else seemed to care," Chiba admitted. Kawakami tried very hard not to end up deflating in relief at the words that Chiba had spoken, even if Chiba did know about the maid thing, that at least implied she wasn't saying anything about it to anyone. "So, I decided somebody should and that it might as well be me," Chiba carried on. That was quite a choice that Chiba had made, to decide to care about her teacher.

"I see," Kawakami stated. She was so relieved to know that Chiba hadn't figured out her secret that it was all she could think to say in the moment, it seemed that Chiba took her lacking response as a sign of dismissal, since the girl began to rise from her seat. "You don't have to keep doing this," Kawakami insisted. That caused Chiba to stop in her motions to leave the desk, although she did not sit back down.

"Do you not like the food?" Chiba asked. She even tilted her head to the side as she asked that, no doubt trying every manner to express her confusion as to why this would be true; since she had plenty of evidence that Kawakami did enjoy the food given the empty bentō boxes that she had to collect near the end of the break. Kawakami rose to her feet, suddenly feeling much better about talking to Chiba like this rather than sat down.

"No, it's not that. It's just that if you're forcing yourself to go through this when you don't need to, because somehow you think you're guilty, then you can stop," Kawakami explained. She did not like the idea of Chiba feeling like she had to shoulder any of the burden for Kawakami's condition; that was all the teacher's fault, for what she did to Takase-kun, she was nothing but bad luck.

"I'm not forcing myself to do anything," Chiba stated. Kawakami snapped out of her reverie as she focused on Chiba who was giving her a look that the teacher couldn't quite decipher but it was rather intense. "I'm doing this because I want to help you, you look like you're about to drop dead most days even if you do seem to be doing slightly better recently," Chiba pointed out. Well, Chiba wasn't wrong as she'd been requested a few times by Amamiya since he found out back in May and it had allowed Kawakami to actually rest in some manner instead of grinding away all the time.

"Yes, well, things have been marginally better for me recently by some good luck," Kawakami agreed. Never would Kawakami had imagined that she'd be grateful one of her students had found out her secret, even if she felt horrible that she was basically scamming him out of five thousand yen every time he asked for help with laundry or whatever other housework, he might need on any particular night.

"And I'm glad, but it is pretty obvious that something else needs to change in your lifestyle. You insisted there was nothing wrong, but I don't believe that. Please just think about how to take care of yourself," Chiba insisted. Kawakami felt like she was doing a fish impersonation from how she kept opening and closing her mouth as she tried to formulate some kind of response; not that Chiba was going to let her do such a thing.

Instead, the girl seized her chair and put it back at her desk, then swept out the room before Kawakami could even make her response, which meant all the teacher could do was grumble as she proceeded to eat the food that had been brought today by her very stubborn student.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Ann was pretty glad that the school day had ended, because she really needed to get out of the building, she needed to clear some thoughts which bounced about in her head and there were only two people who Ann could open up to, especially since Ann didn't want to distract Shiho from her recovery. But Ren darted off suddenly without waiting for anyone which made it very obvious who she had to talk to.

"Hey Natsu-chan," Ann called. Natsumi lifted her bag up and gave Ann a smile, somehow Natsumi's smiles seemed brighter than they used to, Ann might not have eyes that see another world but Ann was starting to learn how to read her friend pretty well and the model believed that something had happened which caused Natsumi to become much happier; perhaps the chance to reconnect with her lost friend was lightening her heart. "Would it be alright if we talk?" Ann asked.

"What's wrong?" Natsumi asked. Ann motioned for them to get out of the school for a bit since she didn't want to start a whole conversation like this surrounded by gossip mongers who were probably going to jump at any bit to cause chaos; she'd dealt with that enough regarding the whole damned thing with Kamoshida and didn't want to give them any more fuel. Ann kept her silence all the way to the train station and bless Natsumi because she didn't push for answers until they reached the station and even then, she waited for Ann to speak up.

"Something just happened the other day and it keeps bugging me for some reason," Ann admitted. She just couldn't keep the words that had been said to her at the photoshoot by the other model from haunting her, it had been a few days before Ann decided to seek another perspective to try and put these darn thoughts into proper order, even though she had already spoken to Shiho about it.

"Is it Shiho?" Natsumi asked. Her expression was concerned, likely because she hadn't been able to visit her recently – or at least that was what Shiho had implied – so Ann could understand; but if Shiho had any kind of bad turn then Ann would have called Natsumi up instantly to let her know, just like she knew Natsumi would do the same for her if she had been present and such a thing happened.

"No, no, Shiho's fine," Ann reassured. Natsumi visibly relaxed knowing that Shiho was still as she had been when Natsumi last saw her. "I just went to a photoshoot the other day and there was this model there called Mika, she… she kept asking me all these things about how I worked out, what I ate. Stuff like that," Ann explained. Natsumi furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, no doubt a little confused by the issue that Ann was talking about.

"Okay, sorry if I'm not seeing the issue," Natsumi admitted. Ann reached up to scrape her nails lightly against her neck as she tried to find some way to explain it to Natsumi so that she could ensure that Natsumi understood what about this entire situation was bugging her so much; Natsumi gently pressed a hand against Ann's shoulder, attempting to reassure her that Ann could take all the time she needed instead of rushing out a jumble of words.

"It's alright, the thing is, I don't know why this is bothering me, I'm a model because it's a hobby. I'm just doing it because I can, not out of any real desire. I'm more interested in starring in action movies," Ann admitted. However, when she mentioned the decision that she had made, Ann had to watch as a funny expression start to form on Natsumi's face and she even started to fidget slightly in place.

"Ann, regarding the movies, are you sure that's wise?" Natsumi hesitantly asked. She seemed really uncomfortable which surprised Ann as Natsumi really only seemed to be uncomfortable when she was in situations that were distressing, but then that was the same thing all of them felt; plus, this seemed to be a different type of uncomfortable to the one that normally appeared with higher stress situations.

"Why?" Ann wondered. She was really confused as to why Natsumi didn't seem to think it was a good idea, Ann really wanted to strengthen her heart and it seemed like doing this was the best way for her to go about doing such a thing; Ren hadn't seemed to find it weird that she wanted to take part in movies, he'd even been encouraging.

"Well… you kind of flip flop as an actor," Natsumi admitted. Okay, Ann wasn't completely unaware that she wasn't the greatest at acting, it had been really hard for her to do the distraction against Yusuke and then trying to get Iida to open up about the whole Kaneshiro thing; but she hadn't been totally incapable as she'd managed to get Iida to crack a little before Ren and Natsumi had decided to take over.

"I can get better," Ann protested. She even pouted slightly as she said those words, it might take a bit of work but Ann was confident that she could improve her skills in acting, that would ensure that she was ready for the day that she would be able to take part in movies; she just had to figure out how to actually go about doing sure a thing, maybe there were self-help books or something like that.

"Anyway, the stuff this Mika said, for some reason it's not going away," Natsumi reminded. Ann got the distinct sense that Natsumi was changing topic, but it was technically the topic that they were actually meant to be focusing on so Ann decided to let it go, she definitely needed an answer to her issue with the whole Mika incident lingering on her mind so heavily. It was really annoying to be honest that it kept pestering her.

"Yeah, I just don't know why it would be doing something like this. I can't understand why the words just keep running around and around in my head like they do," Ann admitted. She kept thinking about the whole thing despite the fact it made no sense, Ann really hoped that her friend would be able to untangle the snare her mind seemed to have fallen into just because of a little incident.

"Maybe it's because the modelling means more than you realise," Natsumi suggested. At those words, Ann's attention focused upon Natsumi, stunned beyond words at the suggestion that had been put forward, especially since it wasn't something that the model had even considered being a possibility given the decision she had made thanks to Ren.

"You think?" Ann wondered. It was such a surprising suggestion that Ann really was having trouble wrapping her mind around if such a thing was actually possible; Ann had only really got into modelling as a hobby after being around it so much thanks to her parents; did it really matter more than Ann thought? The model didn't quite understand how such a thing was possible given her rather lackadaisical attitude towards it, which had seemed to annoy Mika a little bit.

"Well, it's the only logical conclusion to draw when you say you aren't interested but the subject is obviously weighing on you more than it realistically should," Natsumi explained. Natsumi's shoulders moved up as she spoke before moving back down, indicating she wasn't entirely sure about her own suggestion.

"Yeah, I guess," Ann agreed. Not that she could think of any meaning that modelling happened to have that could be significant to Ann, it was a weird suggestion if the model was honest, even just in her own mind; Natsumi's expression didn't change as she turned to look around them in order to make sure that they didn't miss the train, thankfully it hadn't shown up yet from the way Natsumi turned back to them.

"Have you spoken to Shiho about this?" Natsumi asked. That caused Ann to focus on the conversation as the memory of her most recent visit with Shiho burst into her mind, which caused a smile to break onto Ann's face; that caused a smile all her own to blossom on Natsumi's face, clearly responding to the emotion that Ann was projecting.

"Yeah, she laughed," Ann cheerfully admitted. Natsumi unleashed a short light laugh before covering her mouth with her hand, but Ann still saw how her shoulders were jumping up and down still. "She liked how Mika sounded, like someone who worked hard," Ann added on. Natsumi recovered from her laughter, but she was still smiling with eyes that almost seemed to be sparkling.

"I'm sure someone like Shiho would appreciate hard work," Natsumi agreed. That was really true, Shiho new exactly what it meant for someone to work hard at any sort of goals, so she definitely had a high amount of respect for people who really knuckled down and did their work; even though Mika had tricked the men at the shoot into letting Ann go, the crocodile tears she'd used had been pretty amazing.

"It actually made me feel better, seeing Shiho laugh," Ann spoke. It had been the only thing that actually relieved Ann about the whole incident, along with figuring out a way to use the crocodile tears in the Metaverse. "I just wish these thoughts would get off my mind already," Ann admitted. Seriously, it hadn't helped to clear the thoughts at all, despite the fact that chatting with Natsumi usually helped a lot.

"Why don't we go back to my house and practice some of those recipes we learned, like the cookies," Natsumi suggested. A smile that was slightly coy came onto Natsumi's lips as she made the suggestion, clearly showing that she clearly knew exactly what she was talking about; not that Ann had anything against the suggestion that had just been made to her.

"Absolutely!" Ann cheered. The model even did a little jump for joy at the suggestion, she was always looking forward to any kind of treats and to be fair, ever since the cooking class, Ann had actually got rather interested in the whole cooking aspect and she'd actually looked up a few more recipes, one of which were the cookies that Natsumi had suggested.

"Come on, I still need to pick up some ingredients for it," Natsumi insisted. The train pulled into the station at that moment, they quickly walked towards it and got on board.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Rise walked through the corridor that they were heading down; it led towards the rooms that were used by the idols to practice their dance routines before their live performances. The building was still very similar to how it has been when the whole Midnight Stage incident had gone down, although at least the whole place was much brighter almost in the atmosphere that surrounded the building.

"This seems like a nice place," Natsumi acknowledged. The young girl was trailing behind Rise, taking in the look of the professional building, Rise had been really happy when Natsumi had taken the offer to come and visit Takura Productions, Rise knew that being here was really the only way she had to hopefully encourage Natsumi to open herself up some more… Rise was wondering if isolation before meeting the Wildcard was a common problem for the Betwixt.

"It's more than the nice building. Takura Productions is one of the leading studios in trying to ensure idols have a better life than most in the industry typically allow," Rise admitted. This admission caused Natsumi to stop looking around as she focused on the idol speaking to her, Rise knew that many people didn't know what was going on in the darker parts of the idol world; Rise herself hadn't known but everything was changing for the better, at least here it was.

"How do you mean?" Natsumi asked. There was no surprise there for Rise, but she immediately saw that Natsumi seemed rather tense when she said those words; Rise smiled at the young girl, hoping that she would be able to reassure Natsumi so that she would know that nothing bad was happening to the idols after everything that she had been through.

"It all started when I went on hiatus due to the reasons I told you, but not too long after that, when I was going to make my return, Kanami and the others went through something pretty terrible and it caused our managers to realise that we really needed to focus on our mental health. That was the start of it," Rise explained. Natsumi's eyes widened when she heard those words, but she also seemed to be relaxing just a little. "After that our agent started to look into everything that might cause some kind of damage to us and that led to a massive overhaul of all the idols' contracts with many changes to try and make things much better for us," Rise continued on.

"What were these changes?" Natsumi questioned. She seemed very interested in what Rise was saying which to be fair was exactly what Rise wanted, Rise needed Natsumi to know that there were people who had overcome suffering because of their voices and managed to keep singing. Rise wasn't sure if she wanted Natsumi to sing again, but the idol was ironclad in her certainty that she wanted Natsumi to be able to at least think about singing in a positive light again.

"Well, like I said our mental health was the main concern, so therapy became enforced in the contracts we got, as a pretty well-known professional was brought in. The sessions are to be a minimum of once at least every two weeks, if there's any danger then that gets increased at our therapist's discretion. It quickly became apparent that our images caused the most trouble, so we now have full control and ownership of those images, also the over-sexualisation of idols have stopped from the agency's side, if the idols themselves want to be seen that way, then so be it," Rise explained. It always made her happy to know this change had come about.

"Is that all?" Natsumi asked. The girl's green eyes were rather focused on Rise as they kept moving and Rise was happy to see that the girl was rather invested in the conversation that they were having; this was what Rise needed to see more off, Natsumi completely engaging with the conversation, hopefully meeting the others would also help to bringing Natsumi out a little bit more.

"Nope, those were the snowball events though. You know how there used to be child idols?" Rise asked. Natsumi nodded, a displeased look on her face, Rise agreed. "Well, that was stopped too, you can debut at fifteen but only if the idol really wants to, the training can be done at any age but we're trying to keep younger people insulated from this life more. Our managers also have started to recruit from the underground idol world to try and give them a better life than they have in their old studios," Rise carried on. This was something that had happened more by chance than intent. "For example, everyone has at least one week break after concerts are done, so we'll all get to rest up afterwards to get back to full strength, we're not allowed to perform at all, we can still practice if we really want to but no performing for fans at all. They've also made sure to give us plenty of time for a private life in order to let us do what we want with our friends, family, even school. Oh, did you know the underground idols don't get paid?" Rise asked.

"I did not," Natsumi admitted. She also looked quite horrified by the revelation that Rise had given her, not that Rise argued as it was quite an unsettling piece of information, Rise was still sickened to think that some people were putting so much effort into making their performances as perfect as possible; some more work needed to be done to ensure things like that were obliterated.

"Well, obviously here they do. There's also the fact that any merchandise that is sold is split sixty-to-forty, with the sixty going to the idols, it was apparently the other way around for the underground idols and more unbalanced. We don't work on our birthdays at all, depending on how idols are doing we can work other jobs if it's necessary. Oh, social media is totally optional and we control it as well since it's part of our image, there's an increase in security and protection for idols due to… creepy fans let's say, especially after it came out that we can date at this agency," Rise continued on.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Natsumi asked. It made sense that Natsumi would ask such a thing since it seemed that the contracts were rather open and free in what it allowed the idols to do; there were some restrictions that still applied but none of them had really argued with those restrictions since it was much better than what they had previously been forced to agree to, the underground idols got it even worse though.

"No tattoos since they are technically illegal. No alcohol since it's not healthy and you know it could put us in vulnerable positions. We are allowed to have piercings and dye our hair so it's whatever colour we want. Some idols are only good at selling their image but here the singing and dancing are just as important if not more so," Rise admitted. That seemed to surprise Natsumi, but it had been something that was an issue. "Everyone's trying really hard to get things changed, but it's a tough fight. Ochimizu-san thinks it'll take years to make any real head way, but that woman is ferocious when it comes to a fight," Rise added on.

"It sounds like things are as good as they could possibly get here," Natsumi commented. Rise smiled as they reached the door, she pushed it open and was glad to see that there were five people all gathered within the room like she had been promised; they turned to look at Rise as she stepped into the room but their attention moved to Natsumi once the girl moved in as rise shut the door.

"Well, Natsu-kun. These are my friends Mashita Kanami, Ujima Sumomo, Sayama Tomoe, Uesugi Tamami, and Nakahara Nozomi," Rise introduced. Rise was actually really glad that the girls of Kanamin Kitchen had been able to hang around in order to meet Natsumi; plus, it being without Inoue-san or Ochimizu-san made it better, Natsumi was more likely to be comfortable talking only to the idols.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Natsumi spoke. She bowed a little to them, Rise kept her eye on the girls, hoping that none of them would react oddly to Natsumi's mannerisms; the other idols all exchanged looks before Sumomo proceeded to bounce forward as Natsumi rose up. Sumono leaned a little close to Natsumi but the taller girl remained stationary as she looked at the shorter idol.

"Hm, you look a little pale, are you sure you're okay?" Sumomo asked. Her eyes were filled with concern as she stared at Natsumi, Rise focused on the young girl upon hearing Sumomo's words and found that Natsumi to be slightly paler than normal; Rise didn't know what could be causing such a change in her pallor, which prevented the idol from reaching out to try and get some answers from the girl.

"Yes, I'm fine Ujima-san. I just never expected to be in the same room as all of you, who I have admired for a while," Natsumi admitted. Sumomo pulled back at Natsumi's words, as if she didn't know how she was actually meant to react to the message that had been given to her; however, it seemed there was someone who did actually have a reaction to what had been said.

"Oh, you're so cute!" Tomoe exclaimed. She had erupted into one of her laughing fits, which caused everyone to look at the older idol, but the laughter wasn't cruel at all, just regular enjoyment; Rise looked over at Natsumi and saw that there was a faint pink blush upon her cheeks and her head was ducked down slightly as if embarrassed by having caused the laughing fit.

"Come on guys!" Kanami called. Someone had managed to silence Tomoe – Rise spotted Nozomi covering the other woman's mouth – as Kanami pushed herself to the forefront of the group. "Just be nice," Kanami insisting. All the other idols nodded their heads in agreements to the words, Natsumi lifted her head up as Kanami turned to look at Rise. "Hey Rise-senpai, how come you brought this girl here?" Kanami wondered. Rise hoped that they'd be able to listen to her and Natsumi.

"Well…," Rise spoke. She looked at Natsumi, not willing to speak without the girl's permission about Natsumi's condition, Natsumi looked nervous, but she nodded her head, allowing Rise to breathe a sigh of relief. "Natsu-kun here was trained to sing, but her singing instructor was a vicious person and now Natsu-kun can't sing," Rise explained. The reactions were pretty much what Rise had anticipated.

"That's awful!" Nozomi exclaimed. She seemed to be one of the few who could actually speak, at the explanation Rise had given, Kanami had covered her mouth and flinched backwards, most likely having terrible flashbacks to the whole incident with Osada Yuko, which made Rise feel horrible for doing that to her.

"This person sounds like a horrid individual!" Tamami snarled. Her lips were twisted into an angry, harsh line, Sumomo looked like she was about to burst into tears at the issues I had mentioned, Tomoe moved over and pulled Kanami into a hug while soothing the younger idol; Nozomi had settled her hands on Sumomo to keep the girl from crying, but it wasn't like she looked any better to be honest.

"Yeah, I pretty much had the same thoughts as you guys. That's why I came up with probably a crazy idea," Rise admitted. They all had their own issues in the idol world before they started to get help to keep going in this world, which is why Rise believed the six of them were the best bet to help Natsumi. "I was hoping she'd be able to watch us practicing for our new releases," Rise revealed.

"Now hold on a minute Rise-senpai!" Tamami yelled. She had dropped her anger at Ouvrard in an instant as she glared at Rise, not that Rise was intimidated since she was used to Tamami's combative personality. "Why should we allow some girl to watch us practice?!" Tamami questioned. She even leaned in close to Natsumi, likely thinking she was going to be intimidating the black haired girl but Rise bit her lip to suppress her smile at how Tamami would have the rug pulled out from underneath her.

"I don't need to watch you," Natsumi cut across. Tamami's eyes widened in shock while the jaws of the other Kanamin Kitchen fell open in shock. "I'll be fine watching Rise-san, she's the one who's looking out for me and being kind enough to do this for me," Natsumi stated. She had her shoulders thrown back and head held so that her and Tamami were starting directly at each other, a hand propped on one of Natsumi's hips as her eyes were narrowed into a fierce gaze.

"Well, I don't think I've ever seen someone show that much backbone in front of Tamami," Nozomi stated. It seemed the others had recovered from their shock as Rise finally allowed her grin to curve across her face; Rise didn't let on how warmed she was by the words that Natsumi had said, about being fine only watching her, even if Rise did want her to listen to everyone's story to help her.

"Yeah, most people wilt when faced with Tamami yelling like that," Sumomo agreed. It was certainly something that had been common, though it was normally directed at creepy fans that might try to get close to the others or any other person who wanted to find some way to exploit them; but Natsumi was certainly made of sterner stuff than the usual rabble that got Tamami's sharp tongue.

"Geez, alright," Tamami muttered. Tamami seemed to have relaxed and pulled back from Natsumi, likely knowing that Natsumi wasn't going to be intimidated by her aggressive front. "Look, I'm sorry about that, it's just our releases are putting plenty of pressure on all of us so we're kind of stressed out a little," Tamami apologised. Well, that might explain what was running through Tamami's head, it was a rather pressurised time for the lot of them.

"I understand, if you really think I'll be in the way then I won't intrude," Natsumi agreed. Rise wanted to argue about that, but suddenly Natsumi pointed a finger very sharply at Tamami who jolted back in surprise. "But you don't need to be so aggressive, if you weren't Rise-san's friend, I'd have lashed out on instinct!" Natsumi pointed out. Her voice very cutting as she said those words which caused Tamami to stare at her in surprise at the words.

"Ooh, it seems you've found quite the spirited young girl, Rise-senpai," Kanami cheered. Rise couldn't help but laugh at the words since it was definitely a fact that Natsumi had quite the fire inside of her; no doubt her rebellious spirit definitely helped with that, but Rise figured that there had to be something more than what she did know about Natsumi that made it so that she was much stronger than most thought.

"Yeah, she can be pretty reserved, but at the same time I think she's more than meets the eye," Rise admitted. That was an inside joke that Rise was making and it seemed Natsumi had noticed from the look that she shot the idol but Rise just smiled broadly at Natsumi, she didn't know that the girls knew about the Other World thanks to the Midnight Stage incident, even if some of them had difficulty remembering it at times,

"Well, I have no issue with her watching us, what about everyone else?" Tomoe wondered. In response to Tomoe's request, there was a resounding agreement, even from Tamami, which caused Rise to greatly relax knowing that they were willing to accept Natsumi's presence to watching them practice; Kanami seemed especially energised from the small jump that she performed upon seeing the acceptance.

"Okay! It's agreed! Natsu-kun can watch us!" Kanami decided. However, she suddenly froze up as if thinking something over and turned to look at Natsumi with a small frown on her lips. "Oops, are we allowed to call you Natsu-kun?" Kanami asked. Rise looked at Natsumi wondering what the girl's response would be to someone calling her that.

"My name's Chiba Natsumi, but you guys can call me whatever you feel comfortable with," Natsumi responded. She even shrugged her shoulders as if to say that she truly wasn't bothered by what anyone wanted to call her, though she suspected that some kind of insulting nickname would definitely be out of the question.

"Natsu-chan it is then!" Sumomo cheered. Rise snorted out a laugh at her words while Natsumi seemed incredibly accepting of what Sumomo had called her, since it wasn't that much different to what Rise had elected to call her; the others proceeded to giggle at the happiness that Sumomo was exuding at the name she had decided to call Natsumi.

"We do need to practice our routines, so just take a seat Natsumi-san and watch us work," Nozomi insisted. Natsumi nodded her head and moved over to the side where a chair was folded up, Rise proceeded to join her and they both sat down to watch the performance that Kanamin Kitchen were preparing to show to everyone.

The music player was activated and soon Kanamin Kitchen started to perform, five of them were really good, there were still a few moves that they needed to polish up, but that was probably also true of Rise herself. Instead, Rise focused on Natsumi, as the young girl watched the performance there was a relaxed expression that came over her face. It was something that Rise didn't see much of, but she was glad to see the girl seemingly relaxed. The performance ended and Natsumi clapped with a smile on her face, meanwhile Kanami moved over to the music player in order to switch the songs to Rise.

"Alright, it's my turn," Rise decided. With the song over, Rise happily jumped to her feet as she moved towards the centre of the room, the other idols proceeded to drift over to the sides so that they could take their seats. "Watch closely!" Rise happily encouraged. Her words were primarily for Natsumi as she wanted to find a way to break through the shield that was wrapped around Natsumi.

As the song started, Rise threw herself into the music as she usually did, she let it encompassed her as she proceeded to dance to the musical beats, she knew moves that she messed up and carefully catalogued them in her mind to improve on before Inoue-san or Ochimizu-san saw this. When she eventually stopped, Rise focused on Natsumi as the others applauded, Rise saw what could have almost been a sparkle resting in Natsumi's eyes as a small smile came across her mouth as she looked at Rise. With the performances over, the idols quickly refreshed themselves as Natsumi rose from her seat and came to stand beside Rise.

"Thank you all for letting me watch, it was… certainly something else," Natsumi admitted. Rise didn't know what to make of Natsumi at the moment, nor did she really want to push Natsumi into expressing something she didn't feel like speaking about in front of people since she barely knew them; Rise gently guided Natsumi out of the room as the others proceeded to depart to wherever they had to go now.

"How do you feel?" Rise asked. Since they were alone now, Rise was hoping that Natsumi would be able to open up to her about if the performances had any effect on Natsumi; there were physical expressions on her face, but Natsumi was still rather hard to read as to how she was feeling in certain situations.

"Different… I can't put it into actual words. But, when I was watching you and Kanamin Kitchen, I didn't even think about what I went through. I think there something happening," Natsumi admitted. It wasn't quite what Rise had been hoping for, but at least Natsumi had been affected in some manner after seeing all of them perform, Rise could only hope that it would keep having an effect on her.

"Do you think that coming some more will help?" Rise wondered. Rise wanted to avoid pushing Natsumi into a choice that she didn't want to engage with, they left the building and Natsumi paused; the younger girl turned to look at the production studio, as if mulling over the words that Rise had spoken to her before turning her green gaze back to the idol.

"Well… it's better than doing what I have been doing," Natsumi agreed. Not a positive, nor a negative, but Rise would take the small victory she had at knowing Natsumi would come with her again; that was the best step to get Natsumi to open herself up fully. "Rise-san, can I ask you for a favour?" Natsumi wondered. This surprised Rise and she looked at the girl.

"Sure, what do you need?" Rise wondered. What followed stunned Rise so much that she couldn't quite articulate any words beyond agreement to the request.