Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ The Dreamer ❯ Among The Tsuwabuki ( Chapter 15 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Serac 
Death. It's come and gone, but the effects of it will linger forever.....
Anime/Manga: Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Romance / Comedy / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 09.26.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.9K | Visits: 271 | Status: Work In Progress
Death. It's come and gone, but the effects of it will linger forever.....
Anime/Manga: Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Romance / Comedy / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 09.26.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.9K | Visits: 271 | Status: Work In Progress
-----Author’s note: Because it took me so long to update last time, I’m gonna hand out another chapter right away! If you have not watched episode 19 of the anime, don’t read this, it will ruin it. Sort of. There’s a powerful warning, right there. I sort of had to skirt around a little bit, and manipulate it a little, diehards will know it when they read it. For people who like Connor, or OCs in general, or people who don’t, there’s gonna be a little of his past somewhere in here, so enjoy/prepare to be bored, respectively! I do not own Negima!, but any other characters and ideas are my own. Enjoy.....-----
“The targeting system is more than just a targeting system. The afterglow of the dream, the aura, it serves as a channel from the afflicted person to the one the copycat referred to as their mother, their messiah. He said that she was from a higher plane of existence, and that she gave him the ability to morph from one person to another.....” Connor let his words trail off as he stared the headmaster dead in the eye, wondering if the old man was listening to him for the answers, or searching his very soul for them.
Shizuna, her eyes bleary and her face moist, waited in silence for Connor to continue, but he didn’t seem to want to. His eyes were dim, his voice was lifeless, and his expression was blank. The room had seemed to drop twenty degrees as he stepped into it, a cloud of restrained emotion trailing after him wherever he went.
“How do you mean? That the aura serves as a channel between the voice and the targets?” The headmaster asked softly, after examining the teacher’s eyes thoroughly and silently. What had happened during the night.....seemed to have killed him inside.
“The aura is a kind of link between the person who has the dream and the messiah. The people who are linked in this way are killed so that she can harvest their energy to sustain herself, and remain in this world. Without that, she would fade away. Once she gets enough, she might become a permanent fixture, I don’t know. The people in masks are her ‘disciples’ I guess. They help her because they believe she will rewrite the world as some kind of utopia.”
“When you say energy, you are referring, of course, to magical energies, correct? I suspect that Chi is also something that is taken into consideration, seeing as how some of the targets are incapable of using magic at all,” The old man wondered aloud, expecting no more than a nod, though he was surprised by more words from the young man before him.
“You’re right, and you’re wrong. Negi thought that it was magical energy that the messiah was after, too, but the copycat said different. He said.....that while the store of magic and Chi was important.....” Connor found himself shaking a little, his hands experiencing a stinging sensation. He could feel liquid heat dripping from his clenched fists to the ground beside him. He glanced down, opening his shaking hand. His nails had dug deep into his palms, leaving four deep gashes which were now bleeding.
Shizuna moved to help him, but quickly stopped herself. She instead decided to fetch bandages, which she would leave to him to take care of. He was hurting, so was she. So was everyone who knew. Connor wasn’t one to accept help, and he never seemed to even want the option of receiving help. She’d allow him the space to handle himself.
“Go on.....” The old man quietly urged.
“He said that.....while the store of magic and Chi is important.....that it’s the souls that she’s after.”
Shizuna dropped the bandages she had been carrying as he spoke these words, and even the somber old man didn’t appear to know what to do with what he had just been told. A sickly despair fell over the room as the words came out of his mouth, and he could feel it. All of the people who had died after having the dream had been stripped of their afterlife, absorbed by the so-called messiah.
“The link between the two, if what the copycat said was true, is the pathway for the soul to the messiah. The aura isn’t just a targeting system.....it’s damnation.”
“But that means that.....Asakura.....” Shizuna whispered as yet another tear broke through the dam and slid down her cheek.
“That’s all I know,” Connor quickly changed the subject, now ready to take his leave of the dismal office.
“I believe.....that we are all in great peril, my young friend,” Wrinkled hands offered a stack of papers to the unwilling teacher, who reluctantly skimmed over the top page. His face darkened as he squinted to make sure he was reading correctly. “Would you know anything of this?”
“Cases of the mysterious aura have exploded in numbers.....afflicting four out of every five people.....causes and effects remain unknown.....” Connor read along, flipping through the pages, catching only the highlighted bits, “On an unrelated note, the recent killings by the group known as ‘The Angels’ has been steadily on the rise, as well.....men and women in black robes and theater masks.....killing without discrimination. Men, women, and children, none appear to be safe from this ironically named terrorist group.....”
Connor raised his eyes from the papers before him, focusing on the old man behind the desk. Sure enough, the black and purple aura encircled him in it’s acrid grip. He held back a grimace as he saw that Shizuna, too, was a target. “But not me.....” He muttered bitterly.
“Do you think you know anything of this? Anything that may be of help?”
Connor’s mind wandered back to the sound of the dying copycat’s voice..... “She doesn’t have the aura for a reason.....Even after the Outbreak happens.....Maybe you should look at who should have it.....b-but doesn’t.....”
“The outbreak.....so this is what he meant. He told Negi that he should look to those who should have the aura, but don’t. Even now after this.....outbreak, there are some people who don’t have the aura. There might be a reason.....you just need to figure it out. Anyway.....there’s something I have to go do,” Connor turned to leave, having said everything he needed to.
“Do you know where it’s going to be held?” Shizuna asked, just barely above a whisper.
“I don’t care,” Connor replied under his breath, slamming the door behind him.
-
Kaede flipped the coin up, watching it spin around in the air before catching it again. The rains had worn away, but the clouds still lingered, hiding the sun behind the veil of gray. She was waiting around the freshly dug grave, as were the others. Ku Fei, Yue, Negi, Asuna, and Ayaka were there, but they were all so filled with tears and quiet that they may as well have not been there at all. Kaede was pretty good at concealing her emotions, and couldn’t help but wonder if she was coming off as cold. The grave was in the tsuwabuki garden beside the abandoned clock tower. No one was likely to find the grave here, and she had seemed to be fond of the place. The kunoichi was sad to see her friend go, but that her eternal resting place was somewhere as peaceful as the garden helped to dull the blow.
The procession had been small. Three teachers, five students. After all, they couldn’t very well tell Asakura’s classmates that she had died, right? No, that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Not with them all in similar danger. It seemed cruel and unfair, but they would have to keep it a secret. They could always say that she had transferred to another school. Maybe she went to study abroad? Explaining why she didn’t even say goodbye to anyone would be tough, but it was their only choice, at the moment. Negi was finding it difficult to sort through all of the details while keeping a cap on his emotions.
Ku Fei looked to see if Negi was alright, but he seemed to be lost in thought. His sleeves were damp from his crying, but he seemed to be finished. She wanted to talk to him, but wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe she wanted him to talk to her, more. She needed someone to tell her that it was going to be alright, but that didn’t seem too likely, right now. But she knew that what she needed to do was make things alright, herself. How to do that, though, was the million dollar question.
Yue sniffed a little, sitting beside her tall friend, who continued to distance herself by playing with the coin containing the ghost from the East wing. After Negi’s return to the mansion, Chamo had tapped into the boy’s recharged energy to complete the seal. She could hardly believe that about twenty feet before her, and six feet below the ground, her friend was lying in a coffin, and that she’d never move again. For someone who was so versed in logic and reasoning, she knew that they would all eventually die, and that when they did, that would be that. The world didn’t stop for just one death, she knew that. But right now it didn’t feel like the world was in much of a moving mood.
It had been an accident. If he had known that something like this would happen, Connor would never have even touched her. Asuna knew that, but still she wanted to blame him. She wanted to blame someone, anyone. Her friend was cold and dead under the ground, and no revenge or solace was within reach. So many thoughts were running through her head she felt like she was going to pass out.
Ayaka was suffering similar feelings, though she was doing her best to remain composed. After all Negi was present, and he needed someone to stay strong, even if only on the outside. He had explained why they needed to keep her death a secret from the others. It was complicated, but she understood enough to comply. Hell, even if she didn’t get it, if it was for her teacher there was no way she’d consider going another way.
None of them, Negi included, seemed to notice Sayo by her friend’s grave. She had sped around the campus in search of her spirit, but couldn’t find her anywhere. Not everyone could be a ghost, it looked. Feeling sad, and rather abandoned, all she could manage was to sit and cry.
One by one, Asakura’s friends left the garden until the ghost was all who remained.
-
“But.....it seems so sudden, and thoughtless.....If you left now, what would your classmates think?”
“They would understand if we could tell them everything. I think.....that I owe it to her to do this. If I had known what I was doing.....things would have been different.”
“None of the blame is yours, Konoka, don’t ever talk as though it were,” The headmaster looked across his desk at his granddaughter, his heart heavy with the prospect of seeing her leave. True, she still didn’t have the aura, but any time she went to sleep.....
“Sorry grandpa, but I have to do this. Would you please tell Negi-kun.....and Asuna.....and everyone, that I said bye, and I’ll miss them all?” Konoka asked, turning around to not only walk away, but also hide her bleary eyes.
“There is much your father can teach you, Konoka. Please, stay safe.....” The headmaster knew he couldn’t stop her from doing something she felt she had to, and didn’t try, “.....And know, that if I shouldn’t see you again, that I love you from the bottom of my heart.”
Konoka paused long enough to look over her shoulder at her grandfather’s somber face, and forced a smile even though she was crying, “Wh-What are you talking about? Don’t say things like that while I’m leaving! I’ll come back sometime, it’s not like this is goodbye forever! Grandpa, y-you nut.....” She stepped out into the hall, and exhaled deeply, waiting for her friend to follow.
Setsuna moved to follow her close friend, but the old man stopped her with his voice, “You’ll protect her?”
“You don’t even need to ask,” Was the calm reply he got before she, too, left his office, pulling the door shut behind her. He listened to the sounds of their footsteps fading down the hall until he could no longer hear them at all.
“You say it isn’t goodbye forever, my granddaughter.....” Konoemon mumbled under his breath, not surprised by the sudden burst of magic which now landed him on a tower above a sandy beach and warm ocean, “.....But I know better.....”
“Hey there, old man,” Evangeline’s voice greeted him, “Did you miss me?”
-
“I need to warn the headmaster about what the copycat said.....about Takamichi and Evangeline-san waking up as our enemies, but I don’t even know if I believe him about that. I just can’t see them turning against us.....” Negi said, glancing across the table at Yue, who nodded a little.
“Connor-sensei already went to fill him in on the details, so he’s probably taken care of that by now.”
The two were in the beef bowl that Connor had taken Ku Fei and Kaede to shortly after his arrival. It was nice, almost always empty. How it stayed in business was a good question, but when you needed to be alone with someone over a cheap dinner, this was the place to go.
“Yeah, you’re right, Yue-san. I know I’m worrying too much.....it’s just with what’s happened.....”
“I-It’s ok, you don’t have to.....”
“I’m just seeing us all in a new light, that’s all. I always knew there were bad people in the world, but there are also good people, like us. Ha, ha, ha.....but in the stories, the good people don’t.....they aren’t supposed to die.....” Negi cleared his throat, and brushed his eyes clear with his sleeves, “Ha, ha, sorry Yue-san, I bring you out here and then start unloading my baggage on you, that’s not fair.”
“It’s alright, Negi-sensei. Talking about how you’re feeling is how a lot of people cope with problems. Granted, our problems are a little more.....well, severe, than most people’s, but you know what I mean.”
“No, you’re a good friend. I shouldn’t take advantage of you like that. If anything, I should be trying to help you, not the other way around. I am, after all, your teacher!”
“Negi-sensei.....did Connor-sensei tell you where he was going to go after he spoke with the headmaster?” Yue asked quietly, watching the waitress as she passed them by. Not that there was anyone for her to assist. It was funny how they were the only ones in the restaurant, but she hadn’t taken their orders yet.
“N-No, why?”
“It’s just that.....he didn’t come to her funeral.....it surprised me.”
“Yeah.....I know. I thought if we waited for him, he’d eventually come, but he didn’t. I don’t know if I’m mad at him.....or if I’m sad for him.”
“Did he.....he loved her, didn’t he?”
“It certainly felt like it, at times. When I first met the copycat.....I feel bad, I don’t even know his name. But when I first met him, he was in Connor’s shape and told me that he experienced the person’s emotions that he was imitating. He told me that he had kissed Asakura-san because of that.....” Negi admitted softly.
“And.....she loved him too, right?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if.....I want to know, at all. Because the ‘what ifs’ can’t ever be anything more than that, now.....”
Yue knew that Asakura had loved him. Not something she was an expert at, herself, but she’d have had to have been blind to have not seen it. Her attention, during the dual pactios in the Yukihiro mansion, had been focused mainly on Negi and Ayaka, but the look on Asakura’s face had been enough of a sign of what she was feeling. Had she ever told Connor she loved him, though? If not, she’d never have the chance, now.
“Negi-sensei.....when you think of the class.....who sticks out the most, for you?” She ventured, hoping she wasn’t too transparent.
“Hm? U-Uh, well.....I really like the baka rangers.....and the library trio. Ha, ha, you’re in both of those, Yue-san! You really should study harder.....” Negi laughed, which was a nice feeling. Buried a friend and student while the day was young, laughing with a friend and student while the day was old. He felt guilty and relieved.
Yue tried to hide her blush, which only made her blush harder, “I-I do study.....sometimes.....a little. Anyway, Negi-sensei.....Asakura-san and Connor-sensei have.....taught me something. About.....love,” Her voice was fading quickly, the blood rushing her face seemed to sap her of her ability to speak. She used the few seconds of Negi speaking to try and regain herself before she lost all strength to continue.
“Love? What could they have possibly taught you about that? I mean, I.....” Negi trailed off as Yue mustered up the courage to tell him how she felt about him. She faltered, turning to look at what he was staring at. Her eyes widened as she saw who was approaching them.
A man in a white suit was making his way casually towards them, a cigarette hanging loosely between his lips. The man adjusted his glasses slightly as he exhaled a stream of smoke, pulling to a stop beside the table Negi and his student were sitting at, frozen in surprise and terror.
“Got room for one more, Negi-kun?” Takamichi asked lightly.
-
“Already left the country.....” Connor muttered, slowly making his way to the decrepit clock tower. It was already nighttime, he could hardly believe it. He took another swig of the bottle in his hand as he continued to grumble, “I can’t believe that bitch.....no, I can’t believe I overlooked it for so long.....” He slowly walked by the clock tower, slowing to a stop before the garden behind it. Small yellow flowers covered the ground, in the center of which was a small gravestone. Nothing large enough to draw attention, but not so small that it would be overlooked by someone who knew what it was. He let out a deep breath as he approached the stone.
Sayo looked up to see the assistant teacher approaching her, but she didn’t move. She was sitting beside the stone, her back set to look as though she were leaning against it. He couldn’t see her anyway, so why bother to move?
Connor stopped short of the grave, looking down at it with sad eyes and a heavy heart. Once again the bottle found its way to his lips. He sat on the other edge of the gravestone, his back to Sayo. “That makes two girls I’ve killed. 0 for 2. There’s a track record worth having.....”
“It was just an accident.....” Sayo whispered, trying more to comfort herself than the assistant teacher near her.
After taking yet another drink, Connor replied, “Really? Most accidents can be fixed with an apology, Casper. This one isn’t as simple.”
Sayo perked up a little, twisting to look at her just-a-sip-away-from-being-drunk company, “You can hear me?”
“Talking with a dead girl while missing another one. Ain’t life full of surprises?”
“You.....how long have you known about me?”
Sayo waited nearly a minute for a response, and started to think that she had simply imagined the teacher talking with her out of loneliness. She nearly cried when he spoke again, “From the first class. I thought everyone just kind of ignored you because you were.....I don’t know, you didn’t fit in, or something. But when my water balloon went right through you, it wasn’t hard to put it all together. The date under your name in the class roster is 1940, anyway,” He paused to finish off the bottle, which he tossed away from the grave, “You’d have to be an idiot to miss that.”
“Negi-sensei didn’t notice it until Asakura-san pointed it out to him.”
“That’s our boy genius! Had to have the redhead show him what was staring him in the face.....some teacher.”
“Call her Asakura.....”
“What the hell are you doing here, anyway?” Connor quickly changed the subject, trying to ignore the moist ground as it chilled his leather coat beneath him, “Shouldn’t you go haunt somewhere else? Like where you died, or something?”
Sayo sniffled returning to her position with her back to him, knees up to her chin and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, “This is where I died.....sixty years ago.”
Wishing he had brought another bottle of booze with him, Connor let the gravestone settle into the center of his back, holding him up as he leaned against it. The clouds above had finally found enough mercy to part enough for moonlight to spill through the dark sky and coat the garden in its dim glow. The small yellow flowers were still dotted with rain from earlier, and shimmered in the low light like diamonds. “Why.....did they choose here, then? If it was already a depressing place, why add to it?”
“They picked here because this place is out of the way, and they have to keep what happened a secret from the others. Because it’s a beautiful place, and she deserves at least that much. Because.....she loved it, here. That’s why, here.”
“Loved it, huh? And why’s that?”
“Not too long ago, I didn’t have anyone I could talk to.....anyone who could see or hear me, even know I existed.....” Connor didn’t ask her if she truly existed or not. Sure, as a ghost her existence must be pretty empty, but right now she was mourning, and in his own way, he was too. That was real enough. Apparently, dead or alive, pain didn’t discriminate. He let her talk, “But Asakura-san ended up trying to find out who I was, and what had happened to me.”
“Looking for a story?”
“Looking for a story.”
“When camera girl’s at her finest. Or so I’d heard.....”
“She found out that I had died, and after reading one of my poems went to the garden by the clock tower, all on a guess about the flower I mentioned. The tsuwabuki,” Sayo looked fondly upon the garden surrounding her. She found that while it filled her with happiness, at the same time it filled her with the longing to go back to before her death, so that she could have helped her sister plant them all.
“Tsuwabuki? So that’s what these are. So.....what do they have to do with you?”
“My little sister planted this garden sixty years ago, because she was told that our mother would come back when the garden was filled with tsuwabuki.”
“Come back from where?”
“I think.....from wherever it is you go after you die. It was a long time ago.....and it wasn’t a nice time. Maybe I forgot because I don’t want to remember.....” Sayo admitted softly.
“That’s cruel.....to tell a little girl that her mom will come back to life if she can grow some flowers.....”
“But she tried her best all the same. But a storm came through, and it would have destroyed the little garden. I couldn’t let that happen.....but I wonder if I’d have done things differently if I’d known what would happen to me.”
“What did happen to you?”
“I don’t know, for sure. I remember covering up the garden, and then that’s all. The next thing I knew, I was a ghost. I don’t really want to know how I died, exactly, anyway. Even the thought scares me.....”
“You died for.....” Connor stopped himself. She was already dead, and ridiculing her for her reasons would be wrong. “What does any of that have to do with Blaze?”
“Asakura-san came here, and this is where she was first able to see me. She became my only friend, after sixty entire years of being alone. After that, she would come here sometimes to be alone, or to do homework, or whatever. She said it was beautiful, even if it was sad.”
Connor could hear the ghost start to get choked up, and initially moved to try and comfort her, but reminded himself that he couldn’t even touch her. Words not particularly his strong suit, he decided she’d just have to cry this one out. That’s what he wanted to do. Yeah.....crying sounded good. He wanted to break down and sob. He wanted to throw restraint to the wind and break things, to punch in windows, bite, scratch, tear, kick. He wanted to scream at the gods, to accuse the demons of something that he knew was his own fault. But he couldn’t. He had to keep it together until he had taken care of everything. There would be time for breakdowns later.
“Y-You said that.....there were two girls that you killed. What did you mean?” Sayo whimpered a little, managing to get her words through her light crying.
“.....I had a talk with Sunshine about girlfriends awhile ago. She asked if I had one, and I said no. I didn’t tell her that I used to have one, because I didn’t want to tell her what had happened to this girl,” The man in black muttered, now deciding that as soon as he found the will to get up and leave this terrible place, the first thing he was going to do was buy enough liquor to kill an elephant.
“Were you in love with her?”
“Was I in love? Ha, ha, ha.....so much meaning in one damned word. Yeah.....I loved her. I loved her.....a lot. I don’t think I’ll ever love anyone like I did her. My life was hell, but she took everything and changed it into something.....alright. But fate had different plans for me, and circumstances got in the way of things.....in the end, I.....killed her, too.”
“B-But you didn’t mean too, right? It was an accident.....like with-”
Connor cut her short, “No, it wasn’t an accident. I meant to kill her, and I did. Negi asked me before, what I did to get my power, what price I paid to be able to tap into black magic. She was the price. I killed her for power, and because of that power, I’ve killed someone else I care about,” He glanced over at the surprised girl behind him, not surprised to find a hint of disgust in her eyes, “Easy to hate, hard to understand. I know.”
“.....What were the circumstances?”
“What?”
“You said there were circumstances, right? What were they?” Connor forced a grin, and turned to face the other way once again. “You say ‘easy to hate, hard to understand’. Maybe that’s because you haven’t told anyone everything, yet!”
“Tell you what, Casper. You tell me exactly how you died, and I’ll tell you why I did it. As far as I can see, right now, we’re even in the back story department.”
“Why would you tell me all of that.....if you won’t even tell Negi or Ku Fei?”
“You saying we aren’t friends?” The teacher asked sarcastically, before continuing, “You show me yours, I’ll show you mine. Guess that’s what I’m thinking. Plus, who are you gonna tell, anyway?”
Sayo saw his point, and stopped talking.
‘I know I should get up and leave.....’ He thought, somberly, ‘Because I know where this goes to, now,’ He pulled the bronze key out of his pocket, looking it over as he slowly fiddled around with it, ‘I didn’t want to think she’d actually pull the trigger, and I wanted to believe even more that she wouldn’t have a part with this Angels group, but now that she’s left the country, it’s pretty clear. This key goes to the Tatsumiya Shrine, and Mana was the one who shot me, that night.’
He recalled seeing Sakurako’s cell phone in Mana’s bag a couple of times, but never really thought about it. It was the same phone that the cheerleader continually bitched to him about losing, but it never registered as important enough for him to bother with it. Of course, maybe he was a little willing to look past the cell phone issue because it had been his water balloon that had ruined Mana’s. But, come on! Who still owned a cell phone that couldn’t take some water? It was her own fault. She hadn’t attended class the next day, she seemed dejected upon finding him alive, and the girl didn’t come off as warm and fuzzy, either. He could see her killing for some cash. He felt like an idiot for ignoring it for so long. Now that she was gone, he wouldn’t be able to confront her about any of it. He’d have to head into the shrine blind.
“Isn’t it beautiful, here?” Sayo asked quietly, watching the moonlight glisten off of the specks of rainwater on the flowers she loved.
Connor looked around, and had to admit it was pretty. But more than anything, he saw this place as full of sadness and gloom. “I hate it here,” He whispered.
“Then why don’t you leave?”
“.....Then who’d keep my dead friends company?” Connor lurched forward as the girl grabbed him from behind, sobbing into his shoulder. He held back a startled gasp at her being able to touch him. Maybe it was because of his twisted magic, maybe it was because she wanted to be held bad enough. Either way didn’t matter to him, right then. He inched around the grave so that he was sitting behind it, and he held her in front of him so he could get his arms around her. She was frigid, but he didn’t care.
“P-Please.....bring her back! Please, bring her back.....” Sayo sobbed into his chest as he tried to soothe her.
“I can’t.....I’m sorry, I can’t.....” He whispered, stroking her hair and holding her close.
“I d-don’t want to be alo.....alone again.....please, please.....just bring her back.....”
-----Author’s other note: Sorry about how long the last update took. I liked getting a chapter out every few days because it kept momentum rolling, helping my thought process and keeping readers interested, so I’m going to try and shell out another chapter by the weekend, we’ll see.
Speaking of thought process, here’s what’s going on right now:
1. Konoka and Setsuna are leaving for Kyoto so Konoka can receive training from her father. I know he was against her finding out about magic, but he’s gonna have to get over it, given the circumstances.
2. The headmaster is screwed. For those of you out there who think he’s going to get out of Evangeline’s resort alive, I’ll save you the time of wondering by saying: We’ll have to wait and see. Wait.....that didn’t really help.....
3. The copycat (whom I would have named Higure, had I taken the path where he joins them) mentioned the ‘Outbreak’, which has now happened. Four out of five people have the aura, and the ‘terrorist’ group, the Angels, have stepped up their appearances and killings. I would have gone with a higher number, like 9 out of 10 or better, but on such a mass scale you can’t have numbers that accurate, so bear with me, that’s just what I went with at the time.....
4. The now ‘evil’ Takamichi has met up with Negi at a beef bowl! An exciting stage, no?
5. Connor now believes he knows where the bronze key goes: The Tatsumiya Shrine. Plus, I sort of inadvertently opened up a new pairing door: Sayo/Connor. Something I never really thought of, because Ku Fei is pretty much the bomb, in my eyes.
Well, it’s almost three in the morning here (that’s how I found the time to finish the chapter!), so I can’t quite remember if that’s everything or not. At any rate, next chapter should take care of the five points I just listed (except the Sayo/Connor thing), and carry me into what I, at the moment, believe will be the final chapter (unless I find something that I missed that needs covering). Thanks for reading.....oh man.....so sleepy.....-----
“The targeting system is more than just a targeting system. The afterglow of the dream, the aura, it serves as a channel from the afflicted person to the one the copycat referred to as their mother, their messiah. He said that she was from a higher plane of existence, and that she gave him the ability to morph from one person to another.....” Connor let his words trail off as he stared the headmaster dead in the eye, wondering if the old man was listening to him for the answers, or searching his very soul for them.
Shizuna, her eyes bleary and her face moist, waited in silence for Connor to continue, but he didn’t seem to want to. His eyes were dim, his voice was lifeless, and his expression was blank. The room had seemed to drop twenty degrees as he stepped into it, a cloud of restrained emotion trailing after him wherever he went.
“How do you mean? That the aura serves as a channel between the voice and the targets?” The headmaster asked softly, after examining the teacher’s eyes thoroughly and silently. What had happened during the night.....seemed to have killed him inside.
“The aura is a kind of link between the person who has the dream and the messiah. The people who are linked in this way are killed so that she can harvest their energy to sustain herself, and remain in this world. Without that, she would fade away. Once she gets enough, she might become a permanent fixture, I don’t know. The people in masks are her ‘disciples’ I guess. They help her because they believe she will rewrite the world as some kind of utopia.”
“When you say energy, you are referring, of course, to magical energies, correct? I suspect that Chi is also something that is taken into consideration, seeing as how some of the targets are incapable of using magic at all,” The old man wondered aloud, expecting no more than a nod, though he was surprised by more words from the young man before him.
“You’re right, and you’re wrong. Negi thought that it was magical energy that the messiah was after, too, but the copycat said different. He said.....that while the store of magic and Chi was important.....” Connor found himself shaking a little, his hands experiencing a stinging sensation. He could feel liquid heat dripping from his clenched fists to the ground beside him. He glanced down, opening his shaking hand. His nails had dug deep into his palms, leaving four deep gashes which were now bleeding.
Shizuna moved to help him, but quickly stopped herself. She instead decided to fetch bandages, which she would leave to him to take care of. He was hurting, so was she. So was everyone who knew. Connor wasn’t one to accept help, and he never seemed to even want the option of receiving help. She’d allow him the space to handle himself.
“Go on.....” The old man quietly urged.
“He said that.....while the store of magic and Chi is important.....that it’s the souls that she’s after.”
Shizuna dropped the bandages she had been carrying as he spoke these words, and even the somber old man didn’t appear to know what to do with what he had just been told. A sickly despair fell over the room as the words came out of his mouth, and he could feel it. All of the people who had died after having the dream had been stripped of their afterlife, absorbed by the so-called messiah.
“The link between the two, if what the copycat said was true, is the pathway for the soul to the messiah. The aura isn’t just a targeting system.....it’s damnation.”
“But that means that.....Asakura.....” Shizuna whispered as yet another tear broke through the dam and slid down her cheek.
“That’s all I know,” Connor quickly changed the subject, now ready to take his leave of the dismal office.
“I believe.....that we are all in great peril, my young friend,” Wrinkled hands offered a stack of papers to the unwilling teacher, who reluctantly skimmed over the top page. His face darkened as he squinted to make sure he was reading correctly. “Would you know anything of this?”
“Cases of the mysterious aura have exploded in numbers.....afflicting four out of every five people.....causes and effects remain unknown.....” Connor read along, flipping through the pages, catching only the highlighted bits, “On an unrelated note, the recent killings by the group known as ‘The Angels’ has been steadily on the rise, as well.....men and women in black robes and theater masks.....killing without discrimination. Men, women, and children, none appear to be safe from this ironically named terrorist group.....”
Connor raised his eyes from the papers before him, focusing on the old man behind the desk. Sure enough, the black and purple aura encircled him in it’s acrid grip. He held back a grimace as he saw that Shizuna, too, was a target. “But not me.....” He muttered bitterly.
“Do you think you know anything of this? Anything that may be of help?”
Connor’s mind wandered back to the sound of the dying copycat’s voice..... “She doesn’t have the aura for a reason.....Even after the Outbreak happens.....Maybe you should look at who should have it.....b-but doesn’t.....”
“The outbreak.....so this is what he meant. He told Negi that he should look to those who should have the aura, but don’t. Even now after this.....outbreak, there are some people who don’t have the aura. There might be a reason.....you just need to figure it out. Anyway.....there’s something I have to go do,” Connor turned to leave, having said everything he needed to.
“Do you know where it’s going to be held?” Shizuna asked, just barely above a whisper.
“I don’t care,” Connor replied under his breath, slamming the door behind him.
-
Kaede flipped the coin up, watching it spin around in the air before catching it again. The rains had worn away, but the clouds still lingered, hiding the sun behind the veil of gray. She was waiting around the freshly dug grave, as were the others. Ku Fei, Yue, Negi, Asuna, and Ayaka were there, but they were all so filled with tears and quiet that they may as well have not been there at all. Kaede was pretty good at concealing her emotions, and couldn’t help but wonder if she was coming off as cold. The grave was in the tsuwabuki garden beside the abandoned clock tower. No one was likely to find the grave here, and she had seemed to be fond of the place. The kunoichi was sad to see her friend go, but that her eternal resting place was somewhere as peaceful as the garden helped to dull the blow.
The procession had been small. Three teachers, five students. After all, they couldn’t very well tell Asakura’s classmates that she had died, right? No, that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Not with them all in similar danger. It seemed cruel and unfair, but they would have to keep it a secret. They could always say that she had transferred to another school. Maybe she went to study abroad? Explaining why she didn’t even say goodbye to anyone would be tough, but it was their only choice, at the moment. Negi was finding it difficult to sort through all of the details while keeping a cap on his emotions.
Ku Fei looked to see if Negi was alright, but he seemed to be lost in thought. His sleeves were damp from his crying, but he seemed to be finished. She wanted to talk to him, but wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe she wanted him to talk to her, more. She needed someone to tell her that it was going to be alright, but that didn’t seem too likely, right now. But she knew that what she needed to do was make things alright, herself. How to do that, though, was the million dollar question.
Yue sniffed a little, sitting beside her tall friend, who continued to distance herself by playing with the coin containing the ghost from the East wing. After Negi’s return to the mansion, Chamo had tapped into the boy’s recharged energy to complete the seal. She could hardly believe that about twenty feet before her, and six feet below the ground, her friend was lying in a coffin, and that she’d never move again. For someone who was so versed in logic and reasoning, she knew that they would all eventually die, and that when they did, that would be that. The world didn’t stop for just one death, she knew that. But right now it didn’t feel like the world was in much of a moving mood.
It had been an accident. If he had known that something like this would happen, Connor would never have even touched her. Asuna knew that, but still she wanted to blame him. She wanted to blame someone, anyone. Her friend was cold and dead under the ground, and no revenge or solace was within reach. So many thoughts were running through her head she felt like she was going to pass out.
Ayaka was suffering similar feelings, though she was doing her best to remain composed. After all Negi was present, and he needed someone to stay strong, even if only on the outside. He had explained why they needed to keep her death a secret from the others. It was complicated, but she understood enough to comply. Hell, even if she didn’t get it, if it was for her teacher there was no way she’d consider going another way.
None of them, Negi included, seemed to notice Sayo by her friend’s grave. She had sped around the campus in search of her spirit, but couldn’t find her anywhere. Not everyone could be a ghost, it looked. Feeling sad, and rather abandoned, all she could manage was to sit and cry.
One by one, Asakura’s friends left the garden until the ghost was all who remained.
-
“But.....it seems so sudden, and thoughtless.....If you left now, what would your classmates think?”
“They would understand if we could tell them everything. I think.....that I owe it to her to do this. If I had known what I was doing.....things would have been different.”
“None of the blame is yours, Konoka, don’t ever talk as though it were,” The headmaster looked across his desk at his granddaughter, his heart heavy with the prospect of seeing her leave. True, she still didn’t have the aura, but any time she went to sleep.....
“Sorry grandpa, but I have to do this. Would you please tell Negi-kun.....and Asuna.....and everyone, that I said bye, and I’ll miss them all?” Konoka asked, turning around to not only walk away, but also hide her bleary eyes.
“There is much your father can teach you, Konoka. Please, stay safe.....” The headmaster knew he couldn’t stop her from doing something she felt she had to, and didn’t try, “.....And know, that if I shouldn’t see you again, that I love you from the bottom of my heart.”
Konoka paused long enough to look over her shoulder at her grandfather’s somber face, and forced a smile even though she was crying, “Wh-What are you talking about? Don’t say things like that while I’m leaving! I’ll come back sometime, it’s not like this is goodbye forever! Grandpa, y-you nut.....” She stepped out into the hall, and exhaled deeply, waiting for her friend to follow.
Setsuna moved to follow her close friend, but the old man stopped her with his voice, “You’ll protect her?”
“You don’t even need to ask,” Was the calm reply he got before she, too, left his office, pulling the door shut behind her. He listened to the sounds of their footsteps fading down the hall until he could no longer hear them at all.
“You say it isn’t goodbye forever, my granddaughter.....” Konoemon mumbled under his breath, not surprised by the sudden burst of magic which now landed him on a tower above a sandy beach and warm ocean, “.....But I know better.....”
“Hey there, old man,” Evangeline’s voice greeted him, “Did you miss me?”
-
“I need to warn the headmaster about what the copycat said.....about Takamichi and Evangeline-san waking up as our enemies, but I don’t even know if I believe him about that. I just can’t see them turning against us.....” Negi said, glancing across the table at Yue, who nodded a little.
“Connor-sensei already went to fill him in on the details, so he’s probably taken care of that by now.”
The two were in the beef bowl that Connor had taken Ku Fei and Kaede to shortly after his arrival. It was nice, almost always empty. How it stayed in business was a good question, but when you needed to be alone with someone over a cheap dinner, this was the place to go.
“Yeah, you’re right, Yue-san. I know I’m worrying too much.....it’s just with what’s happened.....”
“I-It’s ok, you don’t have to.....”
“I’m just seeing us all in a new light, that’s all. I always knew there were bad people in the world, but there are also good people, like us. Ha, ha, ha.....but in the stories, the good people don’t.....they aren’t supposed to die.....” Negi cleared his throat, and brushed his eyes clear with his sleeves, “Ha, ha, sorry Yue-san, I bring you out here and then start unloading my baggage on you, that’s not fair.”
“It’s alright, Negi-sensei. Talking about how you’re feeling is how a lot of people cope with problems. Granted, our problems are a little more.....well, severe, than most people’s, but you know what I mean.”
“No, you’re a good friend. I shouldn’t take advantage of you like that. If anything, I should be trying to help you, not the other way around. I am, after all, your teacher!”
“Negi-sensei.....did Connor-sensei tell you where he was going to go after he spoke with the headmaster?” Yue asked quietly, watching the waitress as she passed them by. Not that there was anyone for her to assist. It was funny how they were the only ones in the restaurant, but she hadn’t taken their orders yet.
“N-No, why?”
“It’s just that.....he didn’t come to her funeral.....it surprised me.”
“Yeah.....I know. I thought if we waited for him, he’d eventually come, but he didn’t. I don’t know if I’m mad at him.....or if I’m sad for him.”
“Did he.....he loved her, didn’t he?”
“It certainly felt like it, at times. When I first met the copycat.....I feel bad, I don’t even know his name. But when I first met him, he was in Connor’s shape and told me that he experienced the person’s emotions that he was imitating. He told me that he had kissed Asakura-san because of that.....” Negi admitted softly.
“And.....she loved him too, right?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if.....I want to know, at all. Because the ‘what ifs’ can’t ever be anything more than that, now.....”
Yue knew that Asakura had loved him. Not something she was an expert at, herself, but she’d have had to have been blind to have not seen it. Her attention, during the dual pactios in the Yukihiro mansion, had been focused mainly on Negi and Ayaka, but the look on Asakura’s face had been enough of a sign of what she was feeling. Had she ever told Connor she loved him, though? If not, she’d never have the chance, now.
“Negi-sensei.....when you think of the class.....who sticks out the most, for you?” She ventured, hoping she wasn’t too transparent.
“Hm? U-Uh, well.....I really like the baka rangers.....and the library trio. Ha, ha, you’re in both of those, Yue-san! You really should study harder.....” Negi laughed, which was a nice feeling. Buried a friend and student while the day was young, laughing with a friend and student while the day was old. He felt guilty and relieved.
Yue tried to hide her blush, which only made her blush harder, “I-I do study.....sometimes.....a little. Anyway, Negi-sensei.....Asakura-san and Connor-sensei have.....taught me something. About.....love,” Her voice was fading quickly, the blood rushing her face seemed to sap her of her ability to speak. She used the few seconds of Negi speaking to try and regain herself before she lost all strength to continue.
“Love? What could they have possibly taught you about that? I mean, I.....” Negi trailed off as Yue mustered up the courage to tell him how she felt about him. She faltered, turning to look at what he was staring at. Her eyes widened as she saw who was approaching them.
A man in a white suit was making his way casually towards them, a cigarette hanging loosely between his lips. The man adjusted his glasses slightly as he exhaled a stream of smoke, pulling to a stop beside the table Negi and his student were sitting at, frozen in surprise and terror.
“Got room for one more, Negi-kun?” Takamichi asked lightly.
-
“Already left the country.....” Connor muttered, slowly making his way to the decrepit clock tower. It was already nighttime, he could hardly believe it. He took another swig of the bottle in his hand as he continued to grumble, “I can’t believe that bitch.....no, I can’t believe I overlooked it for so long.....” He slowly walked by the clock tower, slowing to a stop before the garden behind it. Small yellow flowers covered the ground, in the center of which was a small gravestone. Nothing large enough to draw attention, but not so small that it would be overlooked by someone who knew what it was. He let out a deep breath as he approached the stone.
Sayo looked up to see the assistant teacher approaching her, but she didn’t move. She was sitting beside the stone, her back set to look as though she were leaning against it. He couldn’t see her anyway, so why bother to move?
Connor stopped short of the grave, looking down at it with sad eyes and a heavy heart. Once again the bottle found its way to his lips. He sat on the other edge of the gravestone, his back to Sayo. “That makes two girls I’ve killed. 0 for 2. There’s a track record worth having.....”
“It was just an accident.....” Sayo whispered, trying more to comfort herself than the assistant teacher near her.
After taking yet another drink, Connor replied, “Really? Most accidents can be fixed with an apology, Casper. This one isn’t as simple.”
Sayo perked up a little, twisting to look at her just-a-sip-away-from-being-drunk company, “You can hear me?”
“Talking with a dead girl while missing another one. Ain’t life full of surprises?”
“You.....how long have you known about me?”
Sayo waited nearly a minute for a response, and started to think that she had simply imagined the teacher talking with her out of loneliness. She nearly cried when he spoke again, “From the first class. I thought everyone just kind of ignored you because you were.....I don’t know, you didn’t fit in, or something. But when my water balloon went right through you, it wasn’t hard to put it all together. The date under your name in the class roster is 1940, anyway,” He paused to finish off the bottle, which he tossed away from the grave, “You’d have to be an idiot to miss that.”
“Negi-sensei didn’t notice it until Asakura-san pointed it out to him.”
“That’s our boy genius! Had to have the redhead show him what was staring him in the face.....some teacher.”
“Call her Asakura.....”
“What the hell are you doing here, anyway?” Connor quickly changed the subject, trying to ignore the moist ground as it chilled his leather coat beneath him, “Shouldn’t you go haunt somewhere else? Like where you died, or something?”
Sayo sniffled returning to her position with her back to him, knees up to her chin and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, “This is where I died.....sixty years ago.”
Wishing he had brought another bottle of booze with him, Connor let the gravestone settle into the center of his back, holding him up as he leaned against it. The clouds above had finally found enough mercy to part enough for moonlight to spill through the dark sky and coat the garden in its dim glow. The small yellow flowers were still dotted with rain from earlier, and shimmered in the low light like diamonds. “Why.....did they choose here, then? If it was already a depressing place, why add to it?”
“They picked here because this place is out of the way, and they have to keep what happened a secret from the others. Because it’s a beautiful place, and she deserves at least that much. Because.....she loved it, here. That’s why, here.”
“Loved it, huh? And why’s that?”
“Not too long ago, I didn’t have anyone I could talk to.....anyone who could see or hear me, even know I existed.....” Connor didn’t ask her if she truly existed or not. Sure, as a ghost her existence must be pretty empty, but right now she was mourning, and in his own way, he was too. That was real enough. Apparently, dead or alive, pain didn’t discriminate. He let her talk, “But Asakura-san ended up trying to find out who I was, and what had happened to me.”
“Looking for a story?”
“Looking for a story.”
“When camera girl’s at her finest. Or so I’d heard.....”
“She found out that I had died, and after reading one of my poems went to the garden by the clock tower, all on a guess about the flower I mentioned. The tsuwabuki,” Sayo looked fondly upon the garden surrounding her. She found that while it filled her with happiness, at the same time it filled her with the longing to go back to before her death, so that she could have helped her sister plant them all.
“Tsuwabuki? So that’s what these are. So.....what do they have to do with you?”
“My little sister planted this garden sixty years ago, because she was told that our mother would come back when the garden was filled with tsuwabuki.”
“Come back from where?”
“I think.....from wherever it is you go after you die. It was a long time ago.....and it wasn’t a nice time. Maybe I forgot because I don’t want to remember.....” Sayo admitted softly.
“That’s cruel.....to tell a little girl that her mom will come back to life if she can grow some flowers.....”
“But she tried her best all the same. But a storm came through, and it would have destroyed the little garden. I couldn’t let that happen.....but I wonder if I’d have done things differently if I’d known what would happen to me.”
“What did happen to you?”
“I don’t know, for sure. I remember covering up the garden, and then that’s all. The next thing I knew, I was a ghost. I don’t really want to know how I died, exactly, anyway. Even the thought scares me.....”
“You died for.....” Connor stopped himself. She was already dead, and ridiculing her for her reasons would be wrong. “What does any of that have to do with Blaze?”
“Asakura-san came here, and this is where she was first able to see me. She became my only friend, after sixty entire years of being alone. After that, she would come here sometimes to be alone, or to do homework, or whatever. She said it was beautiful, even if it was sad.”
Connor could hear the ghost start to get choked up, and initially moved to try and comfort her, but reminded himself that he couldn’t even touch her. Words not particularly his strong suit, he decided she’d just have to cry this one out. That’s what he wanted to do. Yeah.....crying sounded good. He wanted to break down and sob. He wanted to throw restraint to the wind and break things, to punch in windows, bite, scratch, tear, kick. He wanted to scream at the gods, to accuse the demons of something that he knew was his own fault. But he couldn’t. He had to keep it together until he had taken care of everything. There would be time for breakdowns later.
“Y-You said that.....there were two girls that you killed. What did you mean?” Sayo whimpered a little, managing to get her words through her light crying.
“.....I had a talk with Sunshine about girlfriends awhile ago. She asked if I had one, and I said no. I didn’t tell her that I used to have one, because I didn’t want to tell her what had happened to this girl,” The man in black muttered, now deciding that as soon as he found the will to get up and leave this terrible place, the first thing he was going to do was buy enough liquor to kill an elephant.
“Were you in love with her?”
“Was I in love? Ha, ha, ha.....so much meaning in one damned word. Yeah.....I loved her. I loved her.....a lot. I don’t think I’ll ever love anyone like I did her. My life was hell, but she took everything and changed it into something.....alright. But fate had different plans for me, and circumstances got in the way of things.....in the end, I.....killed her, too.”
“B-But you didn’t mean too, right? It was an accident.....like with-”
Connor cut her short, “No, it wasn’t an accident. I meant to kill her, and I did. Negi asked me before, what I did to get my power, what price I paid to be able to tap into black magic. She was the price. I killed her for power, and because of that power, I’ve killed someone else I care about,” He glanced over at the surprised girl behind him, not surprised to find a hint of disgust in her eyes, “Easy to hate, hard to understand. I know.”
“.....What were the circumstances?”
“What?”
“You said there were circumstances, right? What were they?” Connor forced a grin, and turned to face the other way once again. “You say ‘easy to hate, hard to understand’. Maybe that’s because you haven’t told anyone everything, yet!”
“Tell you what, Casper. You tell me exactly how you died, and I’ll tell you why I did it. As far as I can see, right now, we’re even in the back story department.”
“Why would you tell me all of that.....if you won’t even tell Negi or Ku Fei?”
“You saying we aren’t friends?” The teacher asked sarcastically, before continuing, “You show me yours, I’ll show you mine. Guess that’s what I’m thinking. Plus, who are you gonna tell, anyway?”
Sayo saw his point, and stopped talking.
‘I know I should get up and leave.....’ He thought, somberly, ‘Because I know where this goes to, now,’ He pulled the bronze key out of his pocket, looking it over as he slowly fiddled around with it, ‘I didn’t want to think she’d actually pull the trigger, and I wanted to believe even more that she wouldn’t have a part with this Angels group, but now that she’s left the country, it’s pretty clear. This key goes to the Tatsumiya Shrine, and Mana was the one who shot me, that night.’
He recalled seeing Sakurako’s cell phone in Mana’s bag a couple of times, but never really thought about it. It was the same phone that the cheerleader continually bitched to him about losing, but it never registered as important enough for him to bother with it. Of course, maybe he was a little willing to look past the cell phone issue because it had been his water balloon that had ruined Mana’s. But, come on! Who still owned a cell phone that couldn’t take some water? It was her own fault. She hadn’t attended class the next day, she seemed dejected upon finding him alive, and the girl didn’t come off as warm and fuzzy, either. He could see her killing for some cash. He felt like an idiot for ignoring it for so long. Now that she was gone, he wouldn’t be able to confront her about any of it. He’d have to head into the shrine blind.
“Isn’t it beautiful, here?” Sayo asked quietly, watching the moonlight glisten off of the specks of rainwater on the flowers she loved.
Connor looked around, and had to admit it was pretty. But more than anything, he saw this place as full of sadness and gloom. “I hate it here,” He whispered.
“Then why don’t you leave?”
“.....Then who’d keep my dead friends company?” Connor lurched forward as the girl grabbed him from behind, sobbing into his shoulder. He held back a startled gasp at her being able to touch him. Maybe it was because of his twisted magic, maybe it was because she wanted to be held bad enough. Either way didn’t matter to him, right then. He inched around the grave so that he was sitting behind it, and he held her in front of him so he could get his arms around her. She was frigid, but he didn’t care.
“P-Please.....bring her back! Please, bring her back.....” Sayo sobbed into his chest as he tried to soothe her.
“I can’t.....I’m sorry, I can’t.....” He whispered, stroking her hair and holding her close.
“I d-don’t want to be alo.....alone again.....please, please.....just bring her back.....”
-----Author’s other note: Sorry about how long the last update took. I liked getting a chapter out every few days because it kept momentum rolling, helping my thought process and keeping readers interested, so I’m going to try and shell out another chapter by the weekend, we’ll see.
Speaking of thought process, here’s what’s going on right now:
1. Konoka and Setsuna are leaving for Kyoto so Konoka can receive training from her father. I know he was against her finding out about magic, but he’s gonna have to get over it, given the circumstances.
2. The headmaster is screwed. For those of you out there who think he’s going to get out of Evangeline’s resort alive, I’ll save you the time of wondering by saying: We’ll have to wait and see. Wait.....that didn’t really help.....
3. The copycat (whom I would have named Higure, had I taken the path where he joins them) mentioned the ‘Outbreak’, which has now happened. Four out of five people have the aura, and the ‘terrorist’ group, the Angels, have stepped up their appearances and killings. I would have gone with a higher number, like 9 out of 10 or better, but on such a mass scale you can’t have numbers that accurate, so bear with me, that’s just what I went with at the time.....
4. The now ‘evil’ Takamichi has met up with Negi at a beef bowl! An exciting stage, no?
5. Connor now believes he knows where the bronze key goes: The Tatsumiya Shrine. Plus, I sort of inadvertently opened up a new pairing door: Sayo/Connor. Something I never really thought of, because Ku Fei is pretty much the bomb, in my eyes.
Well, it’s almost three in the morning here (that’s how I found the time to finish the chapter!), so I can’t quite remember if that’s everything or not. At any rate, next chapter should take care of the five points I just listed (except the Sayo/Connor thing), and carry me into what I, at the moment, believe will be the final chapter (unless I find something that I missed that needs covering). Thanks for reading.....oh man.....so sleepy.....-----