PTF: Chapter 15

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

…

Mika's shoe locker was filled with things. Mostly sealed letters and flowers, but there were a couple small things. A box of sour candy, a tiny stuffed dog, a bracelet set, matching hair ribbons. Hisako didn't go digging, but it was near her own locker, so she noticed new things every morning. She herself hadn't left anything.

It was strange to think about, in moments when she could detach herself from the situation. She knew Mika hadn't been universally liked. There were large parts of her life that she hadn't known about. Several upperclassmen had been fond of her, as had most of the teachers. Hisako couldn't have guessed about her family. And there were the grieving animals at the pet store she'd worked at.

They had known each other for less than two months. All of the supernatural stuff had happened in less than two months.

It was going to be a rough morning. Hisako spent the time before the bell in the bathroom, wiping at her eyes and trying to compose herself. Most of the girls in their grade had become accustomed to seeing her crying in there. Maybe Suzuka as well. Who knew who else.

The first bell rang. She checked her reflection, making sure her hair was still up and the blue door behind her stayed shut.

Not yet, she told herself for the hundredth time. She couldn't face Igor or the assistants yet. On some level, she felt she'd be scolded for ending up with a dead social link, and she couldn't handle Mika being reduced to just that.

Thoughts of the Velvet Room were pushed out of her mind when she entered the classroom and found a note on her desk. Suzuka had her head down, but her nap was feigned, judging on the grin she was trying to hide. Hisako sat down and looked over the folded paper curiously. It just had her name, in hiragana, on the front.

The letter's handwriting was neat, meticulously so. The contents were also entirely in English.

Hisako twisted around in her seat to look at Mathias. He was staring out the window so she couldn't see his face, but she thought his ears looked a little pink.

She stashed the note when class started. It weighed on her mind, half curiosity, half… she didn't know what. She supposed she still liked him, but it was distant, muffled by layers of sorrow and fear. She didn't know precisely what Haruka had told him, just that he hadn't approached them again about the subject. She hadn't thought about his social link since she'd gotten it.

At lunch, she tore the letter back open and began translating. Suzuka tried reading over the edge of her desk, but Hisako moved so she couldn't. It was her note. "Do you want to study in the library after school together?" was all it said. Very anticlimactic. There was a little heart in place of the dot on the question mark. She was pretty sure her face reddened.

"Gonna eat lunch, or are you going to stare at that all day?" Suzuka teased.

"Did you say something to him?"

"Nothing. Don't think Haruka did, either, since this is new. What is it, a confession?"

"No, just… We're going to study after school together," Hisako told her.

"Study, or study?" she said and waggled her eyebrows.

"Regular study! ...I hope." She didn't see why he'd use the verb as a euphemism. They hardly knew each other, anyway.

"Nothing wrong with some smooching to make yourself feel better."

"I feel fine."

"Okay then, I'll go and study with him and smooch him," Suzuka said.

"I-I thought you said it wasn't a crush!"

"Doesn't mean I wouldn't kiss him."

"I'm going to study with him. Me. Maybe I can find out what Haruka told him."

"Girl with a plan! I like it."

"I like girls with plans as well," came the last voice she wanted to hear right then. She fell into Yuri's seat as she jerked away from Mathias, who had sat down in Haruka's seat. Suzuka snickered. The traitor. "How have you two been feeling?"

He knew about Mika, and he knew they had known before it was announced to the school. Haruka, too. Hopefully he just chalked up their prior knowledge to Yuri texting them or something. It was common knowledge that he'd been with Mika when she'd 'collapsed'. It had to work as a cover story.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Suzuka asked.

"Um, yes. A younger brother and sister. Why?" he asked back.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Gold or teal."

"Did your old school have uniforms?"

"Yes."

"Haruka lied," she muttered. "Okay, moving on, what did Haruka say to you to make you stay up late researching foreign mythology in a foreign language?"

"I did my research in both English and Japanese," Mathias said, offended.

"But why?"

"She… told me it was important. That it would help you both. That it meant a lot to her. She would not speak anything else about it."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing else. She had seemed upset, but I now think that was because of Mika-san, right?"

Suzuka patted Hisako's hand. "There, now we know. Plan taken care of. You can get to smoo—" Hisako clamped her free hand down over her mouth. She felt her smile against her.

Mathias looked amused, which was a vast improvement from the calculating look he'd been giving her a moment earlier.

Suzuka licked her hand.

"Eww!" Hisako squealed, pulling away at once. Face burning, especially at the way he covered a laugh, she ran off to the bathroom to wash her hands. She hadn't had someone lick her since preschool. She recognized that Suzuka was physical, and silly, and casual, but that was genuinely disgusting.

She made the mistake of looking up at the mirror as she flicked water off her fingers. The blue door was open. She had never wished for it to open, or even to appear, and had left her Velvet Key at home to try to head it off. But it seemed like they really wanted to talk to her about Mika.

If she didn't go in, they'd probably just drag her in that night. That thought, that she didn't have as much say as she wanted, gave her pause. They weren't supposed to influence her or her journey. That was the point of the contract—'I chooseth this fate of my own free will'. Passing judgment would break that rule. They were there to guide her, and be a social link, and answer questions, but to ultimately stand apart from her.

Unconditional neutral regard. Or positive, in the twins' cases, but it helped a bit to think of them in therapist terms. And if they didn't actually do that and tried to say something bad, then she could bring up the contract. With that in mind, she braced herself, and then entered the doorway. The bright, white lights of the bathroom were replaced by the soft, blue tones of the Velvet Room.

And the twins weren't there.

Hisako deflated a little, off-kilter, at finding just Igor sitting behind his desk, shuffling his deck of tarot cards. "Good afternoon, dear guest. I hope you've been as well as you can be, considering the circumstances."

"I. Um. I think I have? Where are…?" she asked uneasily.

"They're busy elsewhere at this moment. I'm sure they'll find you soon enough. But I am glad to have the honor of your visit myself, for this is indeed an auspicious occasion."

"Aus—?"

"I have figured out the means by which the rogue deity targets beings for possession," Igor said happily. At Hisako's surprised silence, he continued, "It may very well be just a confirmation for you, but in circumstances such as these that are already so vague, anything that we know for sure can be a gift."

"No, I mean, I only had guesses… How does she?"

"She is targeting humans who possess latent Persona gifts. Nearly every human has some potential for one, but few have strong enough potential to manifest fully. I believe she is using this ability as a sort of channel to take over her target body. The good news is that triggering the successful first-time manifestation of a Persona forces her out."

Successful first-time manifestation. They had seen Mika's Persona—Ninhursag—but it hadn't been in time, or done correctly, or something else. Hisako nodded. "Thank you." So there was hope each time Ngeshtin-ana kidnapped someone. But she didn't want that to be any more than once more. "But… Why tell me this? I thought you weren't supposed to influence me."

"I don't think it's particularly influential to give you confirmation on something you may have already theorized," he said, tone light. "Moreover, dear guest, the Velvet Room exists to aid its chosen guest. That means helping in whatever capacity we can, even if our current abilities are truncated. We must not choose or manipulate your path, but we may at least help you make an informed decision."

"Thank you, again. Please continue helping me find answers."

"Of course. Please continue on your journey with my best wishes for your future."

She gave him a bow of her head and left, since it didn't seem like the assistants would show up. It was nice to get a straight answer on something, even if it wasn't outright helpful. But it meant that they had a foolproof way to kick Ngeshtin-ana out of someone.

So why did he make that part sound like a decision?

Her foray into the Velvet Room had taken more time than she'd anticipated, since the afternoon classes had already started. She locked herself in the bathroom stall and flipped through emails and texts on her phone, not wanting to leave school grounds, but not having the courage to show up in the classroom late. So it hadn't been her smoothest decision to date. She was surprised by how little she cared about missing class.

Guilt was becoming a fast friend to her. She scrolled past email over email Haruka had sent that she hadn't responded to. Yet. It wasn't as if she meant to ignore her friend, she told herself. She checked stuff on her phone in the mornings, but didn't have time to respond, so in the afternoon when she did, they didn't have the new icon any longer. And with all of the Mika stuff going on…

And I'm not happy she spoke to Mathias-san about this. She would have gotten around to researching things herself at some point. Well-intentioned, but they were three for three on classmates with connections to the group. Well, they're being targeted because they have Personas somewhere in them. So is it a coincidence that they were all classmates? And does being a social link have bearing on that, or not?

Mathias was now the only school social link she had left. She wasn't sure how many there would be, though there were a lot of tarot cards left. But Haruka, with no social link and an ocean between them, was probably safe. Some consolation. Haruka likely didn't see it that way.

Passing time shut in a bathroom stall was boring. Even she ran out of things to think about; she was only running around in mental circles. They simply had to keep an eye out for horns on anyone, and stop Ngeshtin-ana afterward. Everything else was secondary.

When the last bell of the day rang, she ducked out of the bathroom, and ran straight into Suzuka. "I promise I don't have cooties," she said, and it took Hisako a long moment to remember what their conversation had left off on. "Didn't have to ditch class to make a point, I won't do it again."

"Oh, um, well thank you for not, but I accidentally got caught up." She eyed the students all around them. "In the, uh, blue place. That place."

"The—oh! Anything good?"

"Confirmation on something, but nothing pressing."

"Extra good! Because you have a date!" Suzuka exclaimed.

"It's studying!" Hisako insisted.

"And it's not in the hallway!"

"What are you, my escort?"

The girls were halted in their debate by Yuri all but sprinting down the hall from the opposite direction. An upperclassman vaulted down the stairs after him, skidding a bit as he turned, just as Yuri collided with another coming out of their classroom. The class representative squawked as both boys went down. Mathias and another boy, just behind the unfortunate victim, stared down in fascinated horror as they fought to disentangle themselves.

"Wait up!" the upperclassman called from down the hall. Yuri managed to free himself, nearly losing a shoe in the process, and bolted.

"Does that happen often?" Mathias asked. The class representative, red-faced, shook his head from his position on the floor. "He is very strange. I like him."

"Are you one of Yuri-kun's friends?" the upperclassman asked breathlessly as he jogged up. He had a mop of dark auburn hair and glasses he pushed back up onto his nose. He was still wearing a dirty smock.

Mathias cocked his head. "I… Je sais pas. I would like to be," he replied brightly.

"Those two are," the boy beside him said, pointing at Hisako and Suzuka.

The third-year turned on them and they skittered back reflexively. "You two… Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure. If you answer what that scene was about," Suzuka replied. "I'll turn her your way when we're done, Matt-chan!"

"When did you upgrade to that?" Hisako asked, a little jealous. Mathias waved back with another smile.

"Eh, that's what Haruka calls him," she whispered back. They accompanied the upperclassman out into the courtyard. Suzuka hardly waited for him to speak before exclaiming, "What's up with that?! I've never seen anyone who can make that boy run, aside from…"

"Ah, so you knew her too," the boy said sadly. "I'm sorry. My name is Shunya Morimoto. I'm the president of the Art Club. I'd like to think I know Yuri-kun fairly well, and I had seen Mika-san come in from time to time as well."

Suzuka introduced them both while Hisako tried not to think about Mika trailing behind Yuri in the Art room. She willed her mind away from the memory of Yuri with red paint dripping off of him.

"Is he… doing alright?" Shunya asked.

"As well as can be expected, I guess. I thought he was okay the other day when we hung out, didn't you?"

"Yes, he seemed a little… better."

"Any particular reason you ask?" Suzuka prompted.

Shunya rubbed the back of his head. "Um, well, he sort of… He hasn't been to club meetings since then, which is understandable and I'm not faulting him, but he came in today. Asked me if I knew how to make brushes."

"...Do you?"

"Not really, but I can learn new things, can't I? Thought it might be an interesting club activity next week. B-But that's not—he's always been fairly mild, maybe a little antisocial at times, but he's a really great guy!"

"Yeah, we know that," Suzuka said and put a hand on her hip. She raised an eyebrow. "What happened exactly? We're not used to seeing him so spooked."

"I'm not sure myself. It's why I'm asking you. He came in, handed me this bundle of hair, and acted like he'd stay. I thought—hoped he would. But at soon as he pulled out what he'd been working on, he started swearing and shouting. Ended up dumping paint on the canvas and ripped up another. They were his own works, but he's good, y'know? He usually ends up selling things even if he's not happy with them."

"What were the paintings of?" Hisako asked.

"The completed one was a bust of this man in a headdress and cloak, something he'd been working on in between activities. I was surprised because he doesn't usually draw or paint men unless it's a commission for someone, and even then, he moans and groans all the while," he responded, head tilted in thought. "The other, the new one, I'm not fully sure. It wasn't, uh, Mika-san, that's what I thought it'd have to be to upset him so much, but it wasn't. A woman, dark-skinned, and she had this reddish or purplish hair, and I don't think that was his palette. I'm not sure if it's some anime character or some sort of new idol, but I was just wondering if…" His shoulders slumped and he wrung his hands. "Okay, now I'm just sounding like a worrywart. It was probably just stress. I'm trying to keep things light between us and with the club, but when he acts like that..."

"No, that's probably a reason to worry," Suzuka agreed. "Not that I have any real clue what specifically that was about, but in general, I think he'll be okay? I mean. I'm not actually, uh…" She looked over at Hisako for help.

With a small sigh, she said, "I'm a little closer with him. I don't think I can answer your question, since I haven't seen any of his artworks, but I'll keep an eye on him. I'm sure he's just stressed." I hope it's just stress. But why was he painting Inanna? Enlil is his own, but Inanna isn't, she wondered.

"You've never seen any of his paintings?" Shunya asked in surprise.

"It's just… never come up." Now that she thought about it, they hardly interacted at school, aside from sitting together at lunch. She was curious, that much was true, but she had never thought to bring it up with him. She didn't want to take advantage of how poorly he reacted to being pressured.

"What are you doing next Monday?" he asked, tone abruptly shifting into seriousness. He grasped Hisako's hands and she jumped, then wondered how to pull away without seeming rude.

"I, um, n-nothing, I don't think?"

"Please, come to the Art Club meeting. Ask him to show you his paintings. He usually likes showing them to pretty girls, and you're his friend, so please. I just want him to feel welcome there again, but he won't talk to me anymore."

He released her hands and she quickly folded them behind her back to prevent future touching. Hisako nodded. "I could try. I'll ask him tomorrow or Monday, so it doesn't seem so suspicious." Sure, she didn't even go to her own club meetings, but she could stand to try to help Yuri with whatever had upset him, but she had a bad feeling that it wouldn't be as simply fixed as the third-year thought. And the poor guy wasn't prepared to deal with any issues regarding Personas, either.

"Thank you! I know this all sounds so weird, or nosy, but thank you for bearing with me. I'll see you on Monday!"

As Shunya left them, Suzuka shook her head in disbelief. "Man, I want a cool senpai like that. All the upperclassmen I know are from the team, and they don't worry about me like that."

"I'm sure they care about you."

She grinned, a little evilly. "Hisako-chan, the first time I get a sweet guy like that chase me halfway across the school because he's worried about me, you will be the first to know. After I'm done with him."

"Even before Haruka-chan?" she asked mildly.

"Sure. She'd probably throttle me for scoring a boyfriend before her, anyway. And speaking of scoring boyfriends, you still have your study date!"

"It's not that kind of studying!"

-.-.-

Saturday, June 14th, 2014

…

"Ma-chan."

Hisako continued scrolling. All of the foreign names were beginning to blur together.

"Ma-chan?"

She found an ancient statuette of Inanna and Ereshkigal. Strange to see them depicted like that, but she could see the similarities. It was also not what she was looking for.

"Hisako," he father said and touched her shoulder. She jumped and nearly shoved her laptop off her lap. Koichi stared at her, troubled, from behind his reading glasses. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes, sorry. I was just reading something. Studying."

"It's the weekend. You could take a break for dinner," he suggested. "We could pick something up before it gets dark. Whatever you'd like."

She looked away from the worry in those eyes. He was still walking on eggshells around her. She still hadn't spoken to him about her, about the money, or about anything. And the more time that elapsed, the guiltier she felt about it, so the more she put it off. "I'm not really hungry. Go ahead and eat without me," she mumbled.

He sighed, heavily and sadly. The guilt worsened. "Hisako…"

"You can go back to the nickname if you like," she told him, tucking hair behind her ear nervously, "I didn't mean to ignore—"

He cut her off with a hug. He was an affectionate, doting father, but it still caught her off guard. Emotional strain combined with physical shock soon had tears she struggled to keep silent. He let her go after a squeeze and didn't seem particularly surprised to see her crying. "I'm here for you, remember? Through anything."

Through anything. With those words, the dam broke, and Hisako couldn't hide her shame, her grief, her guilt, anything. She fell into a sobbing half-coherent explanation, and she was positive she was telling him more than she should, but she also doubted he was able to understand her. Koichi seemed content to let her cry herself out, and she small, selfishly logical part of her brain was thankful he seemed to take it all at face value.

She soon cried herself into small hiccups and exhaustion while he rubbed small circles on her back. "Hiding things within you is not always a sign of strength. It's okay to rely on others at times if you can't handle it," he said gently.

"I-I know."

"And I'm your father. I'll worry no matter what, and I know you're strong enough to face whatever comes your way, but I can be here for you, too. Let me be."

She nodded again. "It's just… Mika-chan."

"Losing a friend is always difficult, and I'm sorry she was so young."

"I was… I knew, the day it happened," she said delicately. It was his turn to nod; he probably puzzled that much out from her behavior or her incomprehensible crying. "I knew, but we agreed—we thought it would be better not to—Yuri-kun, he—"

"You don't have to tell me everything if it will upset you again." He took off his glasses and something subtle shifted in his expression. Hisako watched him, half wary, half hopeful. Hoping he'd be able to say some sort of magical father word and she'd feel better. Stupid, she knew, and she really shouldn't be delving too deep into that mess when speaking to him, but…

"I… actually didn't attend the wake," Hisako said awkwardly.

His expression remained neutral, but he arched an eyebrow.

"Yuri-kun and I sat out on the lawn. He and Mika-chan's mother didn't get along."

"It always frustrates me to hear of such things going on during funerals," Koichi said. "You… remember your grandfather's funeral, right?"

"Yes."

She thought he would tell her something about her mother—she had already left them by that point, but had come back for the funeral, to attend with them and to be there for them—but he surprised her. "Your grandmother didn't want any of us there at first."

"But she was…" Her memories of all of the services had been colored by her mother's presence, but she didn't remember anything specific happening otherwise. Her grandmother had been polite, if sad, and had been one of relatives who hadn't skirted around her or her mother.

"It was actually your mother and your aunt Ayuri who convinced her to let us all come together. Families should be together, especially in times of grief. And your grandmother eventually realized that it was about all of us, and your grandfather—not just her feelings."

One of her clearest memories of those few days spent in Otaru was her grandmother telling her how pretty her dress was, and how much she was starting to look like her mother, though she had her father's thick, wavy hair. Something her grandfather had apparently shared in his youth. She didn't recall any sort of strain at the time, but she had been young…

"Does she… still think that way?"

Her father tried to smile, and it came out as a grimace. "No one's perfect, Ma-chan. Not me, your grandmother, your mother, or even you. You just happen to come the closest."

"I had no idea she felt that way," she muttered, unswayed by his words.

"She looked at me and saw her husband and Shoji, and she looked at Ryozo and saw someone who'd escaped. Grief is never pretty, but it can help to share it with people you care about. Your grandmother saw that and let your mother and aunt help her. And, to let you know this story has a happy ending, she's come to terms with a lot of things, and she's told me that she's glad she didn't try to say or do anything at the funeral."

"Is it bad that I want Mika-chan's mother to regret her words?"

"It's human," he replied diplomatically. "I'm proud of you for staying by your friend, though. And I'm always here for you, but know also that these feelings will soften with time."

She only blinked at the flare of light, too tired to be surprised. Hisako shifted to make sure the card wouldn't get crumpled in her pocket, and asked, "Will you tell me more about our family?"

"Of course, Ma-chan," Koichi said and smiled.

"And can I finally get a part-time job?"

"...Yes, so long as you put your schoolwork first. And don't try to sneak money into my wallet anymore."

She wondered if she could use magic to cover her tracks. "Alright."

-.-.-

Monday, June 16th, 2014

…

"...What are you doing here," Yuri asked with a frustrated, tight scowl.

Hisako beamed up at him, already seated at an easel. She had forgotten to bring it up with him, but she had a back-up plan. "My father suggested I pick up something to do after school to keep myself busy, and since I can't play any sports, I figured a cultural club was the way to go. A-And I already knew someone in this one!" He didn't need to know of her almost-joining the Cooking Club.

Yuri looked around the room, but whether he was looking for someone else to blame or a way to escape, she couldn't be certain. Shunya was deep in conversation with a first-year on the other side of the semicircle of easels, and the handful of other club members already present were busy getting things ready or pulling out projects to work on.

He didn't reply and instead stood behind her, looking at the sketchpad she'd been doodling on while she'd waited. Hisako fought the urge to cover her work, but she managed to meet his eye. "I-I know I'm not very good. But that's why I'm here, right? To learn a couple things."

"Poirier said you had joined the Cooking Club," he replied tonelessly.

How could he—how does he know I'm in that?! she thought in a panic, and then, Did he remember when I mentioned it to him?

She must have gotten a look on her face (her crush remembered a throwaway detail!) because he groaned and pointed at the piece of charcoal she'd picked up. Shunya had just seated her near where Yuri normally sat and dumped a small collection of supplies she could not fully identify in front of her. "You're holding that wrong. You're not a very good spy, are you?"

"I've never had to have a cover story before," she muttered rebelliously.

He showed her how to fix her grip, despite the fact that it blackened even more of her hand, and told her, "You probably shouldn't be sketching with charcoal, anyway. Start with a pencil next time. We have more of those. I'm sure you have enough practice doodling hearts in the margins of your notes from class."

"That's a little mean."

"Then don't intrude on my territory."

"Territory? I came here, wanting to see some of your works, and I'm intruding?"

He flinched back as though struck. "Sorry. Knee-jerk reaction from when Mika would crash meetings. Um, so, really, why are you…?"

"I…" The truth and her cover story warred within her. They sounded like Octavia and Atticus again. "I wanted to check in on you. This seemed like a neutral way of doing it."

"Check on me," he repeated like it left a sour taste in his mouth.

"Yes, well, we are friends. And I've been curious about your hobbies for awhile!" She poked his arm with her cleaner hand. He kindly did not roll his eyes. She risked a glance over at Shunya, who had gotten a little closer but still did a good job at talking to someone else.

"Check on me for yourself? Not anyone else?" Yuri pressed.

"Check on you!"

"We both know I know that Shunya-senpai sent you. I'm just trying to figure out why."

"Because you were painting Personas and got mad at them and an upperclassman chased you across half the building to try to see what was wrong," Hisako said flatly.

"It's not his responsibility—or yours—" he peeked over the easel frame, narrowed his eyes at the club president, then turned the same suspicious look back down on Hisako, "—nevermind. We were friends first, so I'm claiming first rights your loyalty. Please leave."

"That's not how that works!" Hisako exclaimed.

"He's just nosy. Sort of like Sakuraba, except he drags others into it. Don't mind him."

"You were painting, or drawing, or whatever-ing Personas," she said in a low voice. She pointed to a stick figure drawing of Inanna she'd made. "I have a vested interest in making sure you're okay."

"It's nothing Persona-related. All stress, I can assure you."

"That doesn't make me feel better. Is this a part of the grieving process? Is Enlil giving you trouble? And I'd still like to see your paintings, if I may."

"You sound like a shrink," Yuri accused, just as Shunya bobbed up over the edge of the paper.

"Hisako-san, so glad to—"

"Senpai, don't bring my classmates into this."

"You know me, I always want to show off your works!" Shunya replied without missing a beat. "Or I suppose the remaining ones. There's only two left here now, right?"

"I'm entitled to doing what I want with my own—"

"Hisako-san, have you ever painted before? Any sort?" he happily interrupted.

"Um, only in class at my previous schools. It was watercolor."

"Want to see what acrylics look like on a canvas?"

"Don't I get a say in this anymore?" Yuri groused, folding his arms.

"It's my solemn duty as a third-year to make sure my cute underclassmen get all the attention they deserve," he replied and patted him on the shoulder. Yuri glared at him until he retracted his hand. "Right! So, Hisako-san, if you'd follow me to our storage room…"

Yuri didn't follow them; he sat down and petulantly poked at his own canvas as Shunya led Hisako away. She knew he was prone to being a little grumpy, but Shunya seemed to clash against so much of what she knew of him. She didn't know what to think of the situation, or whose side to take, if she was being honest with herself. She was worried about Yuri, for a number of reasons, and Shunya seemed to be caring enough. But he seemed a little pushy and she didn't want to get in the middle of that.

She followed him to a disorganized room full of materials, unused easels, and cupboards. They had to squeeze past a pair of filing cabinets to get to a pile of what turned out to be an array of finished artworks. Shunya carefully lifted a stack of papers off the top, then what seemed to be a painted sheet of glass, and finally reached the canvases beneath.

"So, he normally stores works he doesn't want or hasn't sold yet here—everyone does, if they want to. A lot of them are stored just until the next show."

Hisako gasped as he began lifting the topmost off of the stack. The first was a stunning cityscape against the night sky, with the moon and clouds stealing the attention in the piece. The second and third were both still lives, but one was done entirely in vivid reds and the other in pastels. The fourth seemed to be a remake of something familiar, though she couldn't quite place it, a woman in a lovely gold and white kimono with blossoms as a frame. "These are all so good!" she told him enthusiastically.

Shunya paused, regarding the small canvas he was holding (a high-contrast portrait of a girl she thought she'd seen in the club room earlier) with a thoughtful air. "Yes, they are. Sometimes, it's nice to hear that from someone new, though."

"Sometimes I wish I could draw, especially if it meant I could create such pretty things."

"You could always actually join the Art Club," he said with a grin.

"Thank you, but I'm not sure I could handle Yuri-kun glaring at me the entire time."

"How did your talk with him go?"

"He figured it out pretty much right away. Another friend of ours told him I was in the Cooking Club… Sorry."

"It was a long shot anyway. Thank you for trying, at any rate." He pulled another smaller canvas out of the pile, pausing at it. It was a watercolor, or something similar, that depicted a willow tree overlooking a brightly colored pond.

Shunya looked at it for so long Hisako had to say, "It's very pretty. Is that one of Yuri-kun's?"

"This one was done by Mika-san." He set it down, apart from the others, and gave it one last look before brightening into a smile for her. "I honestly have no idea what to do with it. I'm not sure if I should ask Yuri-kun about it, or if I should try to contact her parents. I'd feel disingenuous entering it into any shows, even under her name, and I must admit, I worry about Yuri-kun finding it without warning. Such are the worries of a club president!"

"I think she would've liked to compete against Yuri-kun in an art show," Hisako said with half a grin.

"I like to think that, too," he admitted. "But the next show our school usually participates in isn't for another two months, so maybe something will happen in that time frame. Sorry—back to digging! That's what you're here for, after all!"

"That, and my failed attempt at being a covert operative."

"If it makes you feel any better, this is actually my Plan B," Shunya said with a laugh in his voice. Hisako peered over his shoulder as he continued sorting through the art.

"What do you mean?"

"He's, ah, a little easy to mess with at times. And if we take long enough in here, he's sure to come in and blurt out something."

A tiny alarm bell sounded in her head. Yes, that was exactly what Yuri would do, but she dreaded his outburst tendency when he was even the tiniest bit worried about supernatural things. For now, they had their secret contained. But she worried about her father, and Suzuka was zero for two on keeping secrets, and Yuri was a walking time bomb…

"Here we go! This is the more recent of the two—he was trying for an art nouveau look, but as I understand it, this was still just an exercise for him, not a commission or anyone specific."

Shunya turned around and proudly offered a larger canvas with a woman in profile on it. She was haloed in blue and gold, and wore long, dripping robes that pooled at her small, blackened feet. She was sure there were layers of meaning she was missing, but she was far from an art critic; she just knew it was beautiful, and she understood why people would want him to paint them.

Yuri barged into the room and said in one, breathless rush, "I've been having nightmares about Enlil and Dumuzi and what we're going to find in Mika's section of Irkalla."

"See? I knew it wouldn't be that hard," Shunya said pleasantly and set the painting back down on the stack. Hisako eyed him nervously out of the corner of her eye, already sweating as she struggled not to show outward panic signs. Yuri's face had drained of color. So much for containment.

-.-.-

Knowledge: ★★★☆☆ (+4)
-Studious

Confidence: ★★☆☆☆ (+0)
-Secure

Charm: ★☆☆☆☆ (+2)
-Awkward

Empathy: ★★★☆☆ (+2)
-Commiserative

Hisako Fujihara's Single Father social link has ranked up! The Star arcana has reached rank 2.