A/N: ATTENTION FUTURE GENERATIONS NOT READING THIS AS IT UPDATES: That last chapter was an April Fool's joke.

ATTENTION FURTHER FUTURE GENERATIONS: April Fool's was this thing we used to do. Do you still have April in your future?

It felt like forever before Maiko finally found the Mankanshoku household, and when she did, no one of importance was anywhere to be found. Barazo and his son were waiting at the front door, apparently for Ryuko and Mako's safe return, but when they saw Maiko staggering in their direction, they knew she needed their help.

"Mataro," he said, "go inside and get my equipment. I'll bring her in."

Once that was done, they bandaged her arm and allowed her to rest, and she soon gave them the story Ragyo had come up with for her. She particularly enjoyed the sympathy it earned her, not to mention the admiration for supposedly having escaped a COVER with no outside assistance.

"Let me tell you two useful pieces of information."

Although nobody noticed him coming in, all attention was soon drawn towards Tsumugu, who was leaning against a wall and defiantly smoking a cigarette.

"One," he continued, "this particular girl is known among members of Nudist Beach. Two, she is not known for being very trustworthy."

"And what," Mataro said, "you think she's working for the person even Satsuki can't stand?"

"It may not be that simple," Tsumugu said. "All I'm saying is that you should stay on your guard." He left the room, and Barazo quickly chased out any leftover smoke, leaving Mataro and Maiko alone together.

During the many minutes of awkward silence that followed, Maiko felt a strong urge to say something, but kept insisting to herself that it was completely unnecessary. Ragyo's threatening smile was still visible to her mind's eye, reminding her that, like it or not, she had a job to do. So what was the next step?

Upon realizing that her best bet was to simply wait until she was completely alone, she frowned inwardly, but somehow Mataro still noticed.

"You okay?" He said. "Do you want me to get something, or…"

"Thanks for sticking up for me earlier."

That was it. She'd said it, despite repeatedly telling herself it wasn't at all necessary to do so. The awkward silence had returned with a vengeance, and…

Oh my god, she thought, is he blushing?

"How old are you?" She said for no reason.

Mataro looked down and shuffled his feet. "Thirteen."

"Seriously?" She raised an eyebrow. "You look like you're half that age!"

"I know," he said. "I… I have to go now." He hurried out of the room.

Right then… Maiko thought to herself as she looked around the room. ...plan A?

"Ryuko?" Mako spoke with concern. "...Ryuko!"

"...wha?" Ryuko blinked a couple of times to ensure her eyes were still open. "Sorry, I must have zoned out for a few minutes there."

"I think it was more than a few minutes," Mako said.

Hearing that gave Ryuko the strangest feeling of Deja Vu. "I guess I'm more tired than I thought I was. So, was there something you wanted to say to me?"

Soichiro pointed straight ahead. "Look up there."

Ryuko did so, and while she had to squint, she could make out several humanoid silhouettes in the sky gathering into one place.

"Out in the sky isn't exactly the stealthiest place for them to be," Mako said. "You think she wants us to find them or something?"

"I have no idea why she might," Soichiro said. "She must know by now about the Scissor Blades and what they're capable of. If her little abomination didn't warn her about them when she lost her eyes, she must have brought it up by now."

Ryuko's eyebrows moved slightly upward. Even when talking about Ragyo with her, he'd never used a word as hateful as 'abomination', and that made her wonder why he'd saved it for Nui instead. It brought to mind Sanageyama's account of how she'd stolen his eyes, with Life Fibers crawling from her empty sockets as though each one had a mind of its own. The already stressful situation didn't give her time to consider the implications back then, and when she finally did have that time, she'd just woken up from a coma, with even more stressful things on her mind than before.

"About her," Ryuko finally spoke up. "Is there something you know about her? Like where she came from, or anything like that?"

"The question isn't so much 'where' as it is 'what'," Soichiro said. "When you and I were both thought to be dead…" He paused and sighed. "The first time you and I were thought to be dead, over ten years ago, Ragyo was already suspecting that Satsuki wouldn't be completely loyal to her, and so she decided to create a new heir."

"Hold on," Mako said. "She's not another robot, is she?"

Soichiro laughed bitterly. "I wish it was as simple as that. No, Ragyo's insane plan was to create an artificial womb from Life Fibers and make her monster with that."

"Gross," Mako said. "This person is officially the second grossest person I know."

"But how did you find out?" Ryuko said.

"Die Todten reiten schnell," Soichiro answered. "Ghosts are often thought to be invisible and intangible. While I was dead, I used both of those things to my advantage."

"But that raises even more questions!" Mako said. "Light needs to hit something in order to be seen, and if ghosts have transparent eyes then the light will just go through them! That's how it works, right?"

Ryuko couldn't help but feel that they were getting a little sidetracked. "So anyway, the obvious trap just ahead. Do we spring it and see what happens, or what?"

When Nonon woke up, her surroundings quickly reminded her of the situation she and the others were in, and so she thought, they must have been planning something important while I was wasting all that time in dreamland. I mean, at a time like this, every moment's precious, so I'd better make sure the next thing I say contributes something very important to whatever it is they're talking about.

"Mmmbgnr," she grumbled.

Perfect.

"Oh," Satsuki said as she turned towards her. "I didn't realize you'd awoken."

"I guess you could call it that," Nonon said. "Anything interesting happen while I was out?"

"Well," Inumuta said, "Iori managed to find us."

"Right." Nonon looked directly at Satsuki. "Anything interesting happen while I was out?"

"Not by your definition, it would seem," Satsuki said. "I've really driven myself into a corner here. The battle I've fought for most of my life is turning into a full-on war, and I've already betrayed both sides."

"Sucks to be those sides then," Nonon said casually. "What's important is that we're still on your side. Anyone who's against us can go straight to hell."

Satsuki looked unsure for a moment, but eventually managed a small smile. "You know, while you were asleep, we were trying to plan our next move, but we weren't really getting anywhere. I think what we needed all this time was your unique input."

Nonon wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. She figured blushing was a good start, but there was still the matter of a verbal response.

"...Grrnblt?"

Okay, she thought. Satsuki's beginning to second-guess herself and when she turns to me for help I can't even get my brain and my mouth to cooperate. We're doomed.

A/N: I was determined to get at least one more done after that last chapter. You all deserve to know the what's up: since October-ish, I've been feeling constantly exhausted no matter how much rest I get, and it may even be a depression of some kind. Whether it's as bad as that or not, being unable to consistently update this has been the worst part of it for me. I may not know much about where I want to go in life, but I know I want to keep writing fiction, and my time feels most wasted when I'm not doing that. I promise to keep trying to keep this updated, but it may not be easy.

Well when I'm reading fanfictions I know I tend to skip over author's noteses that big so I guess the world will never know my story whoops