Chapter 11.- Planning ahead

He could see a curse fluttering down the street.

A Fly Head.

Weak, easy to defeat, and incredibly common, to the point that it was impossible to walk more than a few blocks without coming across at least one or two of them. In a city as full of monkeys as Tokyo, low-level curses could be found in basically every corner. Residential areas tended to be less swamped with curses, but the closer you got to the heart of the city, the worse it got. Annoying as it could be, Suguru had gotten so used to that view that he rarely even noticed anymore. No one did. Why would they, when it was a normal sight in this city that didn't really bother anyone who mattered. But that wasn't the same with every cursed spirit found in the city.

He, like every other sorcerer and curse-user knew that unless they stayed away from certain spots that were guaranteed to be breeding grounds for any number of stronger curses, it was impossible to have a peaceful walk throughout suburban capitals. Places where stressed-out monkeys gathered would have stronger curses roaming around. Hospitals, office buildings belonging to bad companies, and the occasional school were all spots he and others would avoid whenever possible. Of course, any famous suicide spot was off the table too.

It was ridiculous once Suguru stopped to think about it.

Sorcerers were the only reason all the stupid animals were able to roam Tokyo. Without sorcerers fighting and dying to protect them, those thoughtless monkeys would be forced to live in fear, huddling together, unable to even see the threats aiming for their necks. And yet, the ones who had to hide, living under strict rules, prioritizing the unintelligent beasts so much that they were restricted from regularly entering parts of the damn city. Hell, Jujutsu High and other clans had to monitor and send someone to exorcise those places with a frankly absurd sense of regularity to ensure everything was kept under control. Not that they managed to nail the timing every time. The many lives that had been surely lost with those types of missions were only one more reason Suguru couldn't afford to back down now, not after how impossible his goals felt at times. Every time he walked down the streets of the toxic cesspool that was Tokyo to see those sights served to strengthen his resolve to do whatever was necessary to protect those who deserved to be protected. The blood of monkeys wasn't something worth crying about.

So he had to get his hands on that.

Money was unfortunately something he couldn't quite ignore yet; for his plans to work he'd swallowed down his bile, taken over that disgusting organization and remained here despite how close he was to the people hunting him down. Sacrifices had to be made, and his comfort was a low price to pay. It was a pity he had to keep the twins here, but they were safe with him, and they were already learning how to fight back to protect themselves. Staying in this location had been a concession that left a bitter taste in his mouth. But it looked like staying here had been the right choice after all. Otherwise, he might've missed the spectacle from well over a week ago.

Looking to get some distance from the greedy sycophants who didn't realize how worthless their lives were, Suguru had chosen to take a walk around the city. So lost in thought he'd been, Suguru hadn't noticed how close he'd gotten to one of Tokyo's bigger hospitals until the curtain around it began to crack, pink spreading over the spell for only an instant before the bright light swallowed the entire area around the hospital. A wave of warmth had washed over him, the sensation struck him in a way he wasn't sure was even possible. His skin felt like it was about to burn, yet no harm was done because it wasn't his skin that light was touching. It wasn't cursed energy. Of that, he was sure, but it had destroyed the curses that had been fluttering around the streets just as easily. It took him far too long to shake off the shock, but eventually, he had no choice but to follow the mass of monkeys chasing the loud sound of an explosion. He'd known he was too late before he started moving, there's no way whoever was responsible for the wave of light would stay behind to be caught in the mess the monkeys would create. But he'd managed to get there soon enough to see the lower-ranked employees of Jujutsu High, desperately trying to stop those beasts from getting close to the dozens of corpses littering the hospital's parking lot as well as a glimpse of Zenin Naoya and Mei Mei, of all people, going into the medical center's main building. Staying there, let alone returning to the area for the next few days was far too risky, but the curse user couldn't bring himself to leave because the whole area felt…

….clean...

Just breathing felt different; it reminded him of what it felt like to get lost in the forest on his own, freed from the oppressiveness of the monkeys' unchecked cursed energy.

Jujutsu High was incompetent when they had to protect the lives of their own sorcerers, but they were quick to move when what was on the line was the lifestyles of non-sorcerers. His time with them had taught him what to expect, he'd known there was no way he could get his hands on the CCTV footage from the day, but while Headquarters could control the official channels and media, they couldn't stop the brainless masses from posting everything they saw online. Scanning through hours upon hours of a mix of photos and videos had been a mind-numbing experience, but Suguru couldn't trust anyone else with something this important. Especially when he went back to the area, what he saw was exactly the same. No curses; not a single one had gotten anywhere close to the hospital for days on end, and even now, he could only see one Fly Head a few streets away from the hospital. This power, whatever it was, was what he needed to move his plans forward.

Forcing himself to turn around, Suguru began to make his way back to his building, fist clenching for an instant before taking out his phone. It took a while, but he'd finally found his lead. A few swipes brought up the cleanest shot he'd managed to get. They weren't the focus of the photo, still they were the only thing Suguru cared about; the two figures that were worth any level of attention were somewhere in the background, a bit obscured by the silhouettes of other people crowding the parking lot. One woman and a man. She was young, a petite thing that almost managed to clean all the blood off of her, a sliver of fragility slipping through her tired posture, and it would've been so damn easy to dismiss her if not for the person she was leaning on.

Gojo Satoru.

Of course, Satoru was here, an arm around her waist, leading her away from the chaos.

The one good thing about power-hungry monkeys was that they were ready to jump at a minute's notice; just a snap of his fingers was all he needed to make them dance. And some of them had a semblance of utility. It only took a couple of rings before the one in charge of their tech picked up.

"Did you find it?" He didn't bother with a greeting.

"Find wha…?" And even the semi-useful ones were slow. "Ah, the car!"

"Yes, the car. Did you find it?" He really wasn't in the mood to deal with their idiocy.

"It was tricky. Lots of footage to comb through and with a lot of chaos around it." Whining was the only thing these animals knew how to do. "I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I think I've got it."

Pointless words spewed out one after another, and the curse user was already tuning him out. He didn't care about how hard it was to find out what car Satoru was riding and where he drove to. Long-winded explanations weren't what he asked for, yet they could ramble for hours, asking to be praised. Rolling his eyes, the man kept walking, letting the mindless drivel go on.

Two years were not enough for the old men in charge to have a miraculous change of heart and suddenly decided to welcome a foreign, clearly unknown power. That woman wasn't a sorcerer, and the Council could not be happy about her presence in this city or in this country at all. There's no way the old bastards allowed Satoru to hang around her without getting an execution mission out of him in case she refused to be controlled. Being behind Jujutsu High and Satoru was infuriating, but it didn't mean there was nothing he could do. She'd be used and sacrificed for the sake of the less worthy, just like every other sorcerer under that organization. She was just another victim waiting to happen. And Suguru could use that reality to his advantage. No matter what deal had been made between her, Satoru, and the Council, there's no doubt that woman's freedom had been taken away in some form or another, and nobody enjoyed living in chains. He'd be the one to offer her a way out.

Unbidden, the images of those two flashed before his mind, his arm around her waist, the slight way she leaned on him…there was blood on her dress; there was a very real possibility she'd simply gotten injured and needed help walking back to the car.

Then again, he'd never seen the white-haired sorcerer be that attentive to anyone, not even Iori. If Mr. Strongest Sorcerer's relationship with her was more intimate than he'd originally thought, things would get annoyingly troublesome. That said, the idea itself felt way too alien. Because Satoru didn't really care for anyone. Oh, the man acted like it, but Suguru had been his partner for years. He'd seen how little his friend was affected by the deaths of other, weaker sorcerers. Once upon a time, the curse user thought of it as strength perhaps pushing his own grief over to the white-haired sorcerer, thinking he was simply pushing it down, but now it felt like nothing but indifference. Cold, heartless, and careless indifference. Sorcerers learned to become apathetic, clinging to a certain type of madness as they could live surrounded by death. It couldn't be helped, that's just the way things were, and no one could do a damn thing about it except to accept it while grinding their teeth and pretending not to notice the insanity they lived in. Suguru had lived that way for most of his life until he couldn't keep going through it just because his strength alone wasn't enough.

Gojo Satoru could've done it, though.

On his own, any day he wanted to, Satoru could've put an end to all the senseless deaths their society sacrificed. There's no way the Strongest Sorcerer truly cared if he allowed all those lives to be lost without loosing sleep. If Satoru couldn't bring himself to care about the people he'd worked with for years, then it was hard to believe such a man would genuinely care for a woman he couldn't have met more than two years ago…and that was another thing he could use.

"Where is it?" Tired of it, Suguru cut off the pointless complaints.

"Ah, yes," startled out of his rambling, the monkey seemed to finally understand the point. "They went straight to a residential area, a really fancy place, couldn't get through the security at the actual house, but they didn't leave until yesterday morning. They did go to the address you gave me, though."

"Nowhere else, are you sure?"

"Completely." And now, the idiot sounded proud. "I went through the backlog; they went out before, but I lost them after they got closer to downtown."

"And she was with him all those times?" If it was, then they were living in the same place and that'd be one more hurdle in his path.

"Yeah." There was a sound of typing on the other side before he continued. "Footage ain't that great, but there was a girl in the passenger's seat every time he came back."

"Do you have an ID on her?" He continued.

"Not yet. It'd be easier with a cleaner shot, but even with it…well, there's an awful lot of young women in Tokyo." And that's why mundane methods could be so stupidly slow. "She's not in any of the usual lists either."

Of course, she wouldn't

The elders were too conservative to ever use her even if they'd had her from the moment she was born; she must've either been able to hide all these until now, or she only acquired that power recently. And now they were desperately trying to hide her existence…the Council…and Satoru.

Mei Mei had been there, and there was nothing that woman loved more than money, and right now, nothing offered more money than even a scrap of information about what happened in the hospital over a week ago. Those bastards at Jujutsu High were too cheap to afford his former senpai's wages, yet not even the whispers of a rumor had slipped by. Satoru must've paid quite the sum to keep Mei Mei quiet. Searching for her would take quite a while, with blurry photos as his only lead. There were way too many monkeys in this city, and she could've always come from a different place. Which would make looking for her on his own more difficult.

He could always attempt to approach her without any background info. If this girl was sticking with Satoru, then he technically already knew where she was and where she'd be. All he really needed now was to find a way to separate her from the sorcerer, and it wouldn't take him long to gather the type of curses that'd allow him to make contact. Improvisation had always been a strong suit of his; after all, Suguru had always been the one who had to smooth things over whenever Satoru's rude mouth got them in trouble. But depending on what deal had been agreed upon, what her relationship with the white-haired sorcerer was like, and the amount of control she had over her power, things could derail in a heartbeat. He knew she could be the key to his ambitions, so he had to convince her to join him. Willingly at that. A botched first impression could prove way more difficult to fix. Especially because while it wouldn't be hard to get Satoru away from her once, it'd become almost impossible to repeat the same trick if the girl refused to help him and told the sorcerer Suguru had been trying to get close to her. He wouldn't get a second chance. For their first meeting to work, he'd need to have as much background info on her as he could, knowing who she was, what her life had been like, and her current situation could make a massive difference.

"Keep looking. There has to be a lead somewhere." It's not like she popped out of nowhere; it would just take some time."And don't let p on the surveillance."

"Understood."

"And keep monitoring those sites," he added, almost like an afterthought. "If anyone suddenly withdraws their petitions, I want to know."

"Should I try to hack into them?" These people just couldn't think on their own, could they?

"No, outside monitoring is enough." Those in charge of their private websites wouldn't take well to being attacked."Don't do anything without my approval."

Without waiting for any response, the curse user hung up.

Even the somewhat useful monkeys were exhausting to deal with.

All of Tokyo had seen what happened. There's no way he was the only person who'd hidden among the masses and returned to the hospital the next day and the day after. Curse users and sorcerers alike had probably swarmed the area that afternoon, looking for answers; windows, and members of non-sorcerer organizations had flooded every website. At first, it was only speculation and demand for information. But now that everyone had confirmed that the effects of her power lingered for this long without any adverse effects, people had tried to cover the gaps with wild imaginations. From the most ridiculously absurd rumors he'd ever heard to some that weren't that far off from his own.

The most infuriating ones, however, were the ones that likened the power to Tengen-sama's barrier.

Suguru spent years going to and from Tengen-sama's barrier; he knew what that power felt like, and that bright pink light was definitely not it. Perhaps that power hadn't covered the massive area that Tengen-sama could, but this was so incredibly different. While the barriers sorcerers placed kept curses out, it didn't clean the filth in the same way. That light that had eaten through the curses, turned them into ash. Even if the scope of her power wasn't as massive as Tengen-sama's, it pierced deeper than anything he'd ever seen. Sooner or later, all those other organizations would notice too and they'd go through a lot more of effort to get to her. Dealing with Jujutsu High was already annoying as it was, having to swat away flies at the same time would be impossible if he didn't know who to look out for. The silver lining of having Satoru involved was that he clearly wanted to keep her hidden.

Of course, Satoru wasn't that good at protection details.

Fingers clenched around his phone as he shoved it back into his pocket.

Maybe he could try to contact Mei Mei, while Jujutsu High had placed a price on his head that woman's loyalty was easy to sway. Even if he couldn't convince her to reveal something, he could probably keep her from ratting him out to the school while gleaming something from her responses; the one good thing that came from taking over that fucking cult was that he now had quite a bit of cash to throw around. If the Gojo coffers were into play, however, the story would be different. And honestly, Suguru wasn't sure how likely it was for his friend to be actively hunting him.

Appearing in front of Satoru after he'd been declared a curse user had been quite the risk.

Years of friendship hadn't been enough to sway the white-haired sorcerer to join him, but he'd let him walk away once.

Would Satoru try to kill him if their paths crossed on the street?

Would he pretend he didn't know him?'

No…whatever it was that signed his death warrant in his friend's eyes didn't make a difference.

Because no matter how extreme his plans were, Suguru wasn't that good at doing the right thing. Even if it meant he'd have to fight those he'd thought of as friends, the man couldn't back down. The idea of spilling another sorcerer's blood with his own hands was hateful, but to spare future lives, he'd had no choice but to do so. Sorcerers liked tradition, changing their minds was difficult, but he'd do it even if his odds were almost hopeless because the cause was worthwhile…of course, just how hopeless it actually was might change depending on the mysterious girl who'd caused such a headache for Headquarters.

Old traditions could be worthwhile at times.

The history and importance of his clan were certainly valuable enough to be worthy of preserving, but there were others that served no other purpose than to protect the weak masses that polluted even a society like theirs. The Zenin were an important family for a reason, yes, but there were plenty of embarrassments all over his family; even some of his brothers were embarrassingly pathetic. After all, the only one who knew how to recognize true strength was Naoya himself. They were so blinded by antiquated rules that they'd driven away the only other worthwhile member of their clan.

But Naoya was different.

Unlike everyone else, he was born special, with the sort of innate talents that gave him the right to stand above the rest. Naoya knew what true strength looked like and wasn't afraid to acknowledge it, even if it meant disregarding the traditions that had stood in place for generations. Cursed power wasn't the sole indicator of strength; it could help, but it wasn't truly necessary. Of course, with or without cursed energy, the chosen ones were few and far in between. That's why he hadn't given it much thought when Jujutsu High contacted him and asked him to act as a special examiner. He'd had half a mind to refuse; whatever plain, unimportant woman they'd found couldn't be that important. Even the admission that this mysterious person was a non-sorcerer hadn't been quite enough to convince him to jump in. But the one sponsoring her was the star of the Gojo clan, the so-called strongest sorcerer in the world.

His family's preference for Kyoto meant that despite their closeness in age, his path hadn't really crossed with that of Gojo Satoru, so this gave him the chance for a proper interaction. Not to mention, if such a renowned sorcerer was willing to stand behind her, perhaps there might be worth something.

So he agreed.

All things considered, the new Head of the Gojo clan wasn't exactly what Naoya would call a disappointment, but he wasn't sure he was all that impressed. Not with his apparent strength and not with the man's judgment. The woman (girl, really) hadn't been much to look at. Compared to Zenin Toji, his clan's so-called disgrace, there was no finesse in her motions, no quiet lethality in her gaze, and even the rude temper she'd shown before barging into the curtain hadn't been particularly remarkable. That power of hers had seen curious while watching through the TV screens, but it hadn't seen all that different from cursed energy. As interesting as a new shiny bauble could be, there was no point in it if it didn't have an important purpose. Naoya wasn't someone who'd get distracted by a new, ultimately useless toy, and if Gojo Satoru couldn't see that, then it meant the sorcerer's intellect couldn't really measure up.

Well, it's not like the girl was entirely useless. If a bauble was pretty enough, interesting enough, it could still have some value by being displayed as a nice ornament. Still, the Zenin wasn't sure any adornment was within the efforts Satoru was making.

Until he felt her power on his skin.

Curtains weren't supposed to be easily broken, even when erected by a weak sorcerer, but that barrier didn't just shatter. Her energy hadn't simply taken out the curses; he'd felt it delving into his very soul. The heat had been almost unbearable. It overwhelmed his senses and for the first time since he was a child, Naoya wasn't someone who'd stunned, unable to process a single thought. It was different from what he felt when he came face to face with Toji; it didn't have that feral kind of quality, yet only a fool could cling to the idea that her strength was in any way inferior to cursed energy Higurashi Kagome was well worth the effort of antagonizing Headquarters to get his hands on her, Satoru had to have felt this before. For once, Naoya had been too quick to judge; that girl had the potential to be more than a precious ornament. And just like with Toji, those idiots who called themselves the authority in their society failed to see her value.

Instructing him to take away any weapon she might've carried was a very unsubtle way to tell him what fate they wanted for her. Preferably, there'd be one more corpse on the hospital grounds by the time the day was over; if not, then pushing Satoru not intervening with the test would give them the opportunity to give her a low rank and keep her there. The old men were too attached to their flawed version of strength to see reality for what it was, too scared to recognize their own weakness. They would chain her down as well.

Failures, all of them.

Now that he'd seen her strength, however, Naoya wouldn't let the same fate that befell his fellow clan member push her into obscurity. In the Jujutsu world, women were expected to fade in the background, to be seen not heard. For the most part, Naoya agreed, so few people deserved to be in the spotlight. But he wasn't as rigid as Headquarters; he could acknowledge that exceptions could be made for the sake of exceptional people. That woman was exceptional, and the only one she should be bowing down to was Naoya himself.

"Zenin-sama…" A low, polite voice came from the other side of the shoji screens.

"What?" From where he sat, he could see the maid fiddling, annoyance bled into his voice. "Open the damn door."

"My apologies, Zenin-sama." There was a legitimate reason for those below him to be nervous, but this was ridiculous.

"Just speak." His time was too precious to be wasted on useless servants' feelings. "What do you want?"

"There's a new report from the Higurashi shrine…!" She yelped when he turned toward her, arm swinging towards her.

"Bring it here, now!" Irritated, he snatched the file of papers offered to him. "What the hell were you waiting for?!"

Gods, weak people were so damn incompetent.

Anger-fueled motions began to tear away at the documents.

Finding out who she was had been his first priority, and it hadn't been a particularly complicated task. Her name was as unusual as she was. Anticipation had made him sloppy, trying to send someone to make contact with the girl's family. He should've known there'd be Gojo grunts all over that place. Satoru clearly knew she was an exception to the rule and only a fool would be careless when they found such a treasure. It was fine. According to the long-distance monitoring he'd set up, it looked like she didn't have much of an interest in going back to her family house, even though records showed she'd been living there until recently. It made sense, really; what could she ever have in common with the unimportant rabble in that place. Not being able to collect something from her was a pity, but even if she wasn't going back there, and he couldn't send someone to retrieve a possession of hers, there were still other ways to go about it.

Unbidden memories came rushing back.

Gojo Satoru had been quite friendly with her, touching her constantly, and she'd never pushed him away. Now, he didn't know what the other sorcerer's behavior was usually like; perhaps he was always that annoyingly touchy with others. Maybe the guy was simply jumping ahead, trying to mark his territory as loud as he could precisely because nothing was going on yet. Of course, there was always a chance Satoru had already had her. The white-haired sorcerer had been the first to find her, and he was in the most convenient position there could be by being the only one she could rely on.

In any other situation, Naoya could never consider touching someone who'd already been tainted by the touch of another, but again, she was an exception.

Besides, knowing when to forgive someone who deserved it was a sign of wisdom.

Not that every mistake should be forgiven. Flaws needed to be corrected, imperfections should be pruned. That temper of hers and that rude behavior couldn't be tolerated at his side, so those errors would have to be fixed. It was for her own good, really. Useless traditions should be thrown out when necessary, but things like decorum still had to be kept. It'd take some work; their first meeting had been far from perfect, but every relationship had kinks to be worked out. There was no one who knew what was needed to stand at the top better than him; he'd teach her the right lessons, and he could be patient. And if she was too stubborn to accept her new place willingly, well, everyone had a breaking point. By pushing in the right places and tearing at the right seams, it shouldn't be impossible to break her in and mold her into a polished image of perfection. It would be irritating and annoying at first, but Naoya could be patient and take his time. All he needed was the right tool for the job.

Since her past was undeniably worthless, what he had to get his hands on now was current information.

"Tell them to keep the observation going." Even if the odds weren't high, he couldn't be too quick to make a decision once more. "What about the background reports?"

"Naoya-sama, if Zenin-sama asks…" Now, the maid wasn't even trying to hide her nervousness.

"Has my father said anything?" A spasmodic shake of the head was his answer. "Then what gives you the right to question me?"

"M-my apologies…"

"Just give me the reports!" These people couldn't think on their own. "Gods, so many useless people around here."

It's not like he didn't know what his father would think of Higurashi Kagome.

Brown eyes glanced down at the files his people took an entire damn week to gather. Nothing at all seemed remarkable, and he was perhaps a little mollified that this explained why he hadn't realized that girl was in any way special. An old but unremarkable family in a boringly average neighborhood and an aggressively non-noteworthy life…or maybe…Naoya flipped back to the last few pages. There really wasn't anything that even hinted at how much of an exception she was. Not particularly smart or talented enough to stand out from the others. But there was something different here. For someone with such a mind-numbingly dull life, that girl had acquired quite a large number of hospital visits during the last three years. Her medical records were decidedly inconclusive, only mentioning chronic migraines and a series of repetitive studies that showed no abnormalities whatsoever.

Migraines that were supposed to be debilitating enough to warrant all this.

Except…that could easily be nonsense.

At the very least, she certainly didn't seem to be in any pain when she was fighting. Whether she hadn't acquired that special power until three years ago or she'd been born with it, but if it only manifested after fifteen years, it didn't make a difference. Her movements may not be refined or hinted at any type of mastery; Naoya supposed the girl wasn't a complete novice. The Zenin had seen inexperienced and weak sorcerers panic even when confronted with low-level curses, and of course, it was always a pain when non-sorcerers actually managed to survive being stuck inside a territorial domain they would always freeze or pointlessly trying to run away, wailing and crying like toddlers. And yet, despite how lacking in training she was, he supposed she wasn't a lost cause. She had to have some level of training, lackluster as it had been. Sure, the Gojo Head could've been the one who started her training, but she did seem a little too used to facing curses, and he refused to believe Satoru could've found her three years ago and kept her hidden for that long. After all there was no reason to be so cautious just to throw that away by letting her loose in that mall and having to deal with Headquarters. Whenever those two met had to have been recently, so there had to be another reason.

And headaches were quite the convenient lie.

Exceptions and mysteries seemed to be what she was made of. Naoya had never been that fond of puzzles, but there were always ways of getting what he wanted.

Ordering a tail on the Head of the Gojo clan could be problematic. The Zenins were one of the three Great Houses, but so were the Gojos. Customs said that interfering with another clan's internal affairs wasn't allowed, and since the strongest sorcerer had declared that the girl was under his family's protection, putting a finger on Higurashi Kagome would absolutely count as messing with another clan's internal affairs. His father would never approve of any action that might start an outright war between them. Old coward. No one else would understand why it was important to take her.

Should he try to come up with an excuse to have a stronger watch on Gojo Satoru?

He could always ask one of his own people to try and tail him.

Then again, if Satoru spotted the plant, he'd be back to square one, and that's what he wanted to avoid in the first place. If he waited, Naoya would be able to find her easily through Jujutsu High. She was supposed to start teaching at the Tokyo location with the Gojo Head in only a few months, and it wouldn't be hard to invent an excuse to watch Headquarters. He could time a visit for a perfect encounter. Patience wasn't exactly something he was good at. When he wanted something, he took it, simple as that. Gojo Satoru might just be strong enough to merit some caution…

Decisions, decisions…

"Leave," he waved the papers. "You're bothering me."

"My apologies."

"Wait," he snapped right before the door closed. "Call Natsuhiko here, now."

"At once."

Caution was all well and good, but there were more than two options.

There was nothing wrong with some calculated risks.

A/N: And here we go, bit of change in PoV but I do think they were needed. They'll show up less often but this isn't the last we'll have, especially Suguru's…hope there aren't too many errors here, got sick last week and I was still a bit out of it while editing this chapter….

Anyway, thank you guys for reading and any review/comment/criticism is greatly appreciated.