I don't think I've ever genuinely stared at a text for so long before processing it as I do when I see it's Maruki, once more asking me to the nurse's office for a... well. Whatever it ends up being. My heart is beating out of my chest like the traitor it is and I have to suppress the urge to delete the text and pretend it never arrived.

He didn't actually do anything wrong, a voice whispers in my ear, then another materializes the scene between Shibusawa, Maruki, and I, at the buffet, and my throat tightens with suppressed... what? Anger? Desperation?

I recall the giddy butterflies taking over my gut when Maruki asked me to that buffet. Like a naïve idiot I was getting my hopes up, I realize that now. But... nothing happened. Nothing except his college buddy showing and hinting at how Maruki was most likely not over his last girlfriend yet.

I mean... I didn't honestly believe he'd be interested in me, did I?

I clench my teeth and keep staring at my phone. The screen goes black a couple seconds later and I sigh. Honestly, what am I even thinking? I'm not thinking... maybe that's the problem. I shove my books into my bag and exchange a look with Morgana who's still hiding in my desk. He usually disappears about now when I go hang out with people and, as expected, when nobody is looking, he slips out of the classroom window.

I stand up and straighten out. Why am I being such a child? At first, I couldn't even understand why everyone was so into Maruki. He was just another adult who thought he knew how to fix 'problematic' children when in truth he was part of the system that caused the problems... right?

I try to think back and pinpoint when exactly I changed my mind, as I'm making my way out of the classroom and into the hall—towards the nurse's office. Was it when he offered me the deal? No—even then I recall agreeing more out of concern about what would happen if I refused.

It must have happened somewhere along the way. Sometime during one of those stupid, funny, thought-provoking, and completely void of actual counseling sessions he's asked me to attend over and over.

I take out my phone again and barely dodge a couple senior students who snicker back at me. I could have sworn I heard 'delinquent bitch' in that torrent of incomprehensible words. I shove my glasses up and walk faster.

It isn't just that he's genuinely a good person—so much I discovered faster than I was honestly comfortable with—but also... he is someone to talk to.... outside the Phantom Thieves. Even someone who is interested in the concept of cognition and how it may be affected just as much as we... only he isn't one of us.

Involved in topics concerning the Metaverse, yet not a Phantom Thief. A friend, but not a peer. An adult working for the school we so hate, yet one who is truly benevolent. Maruki's walking so many lines that I got tired of counting them.

And then, just when I thought I had finally gotten myself to accept him as a trustworthy ally, perhaps even friend... those other feelings began. The ones that I want to shove down, forget, make disappear—because they're impossible.

Well, technically I did have hope... for a tiny moment, last time, when Maruki asked me to that buffet. For a moment... I recall my own thought and nearly laugh, I thought I could tell him how I feel if we're not at Shujin. If we're somewhere together, without this annoying professional aura the school and the office emit. But then Shibusawa showed and—

Before I can properly finish the thought, I'm looking at the door to Maruki's nurse's office. All I have to do is be a grown-up about this, and everything will be fine. Just act like I always do, and... Screw it. I push the door open with force. If I don't go in now, I'll be standing here until I graduate.

Maruki is at his desk, writing something. He jumps and jerks around and I feel bad immediately. "Amamiya-san—!" Before I can assume he's angry at me for interrupting him, he gives me a smile that has my stomach twist. "You didn't reply to my text, so I thought you couldn't make it... I'm glad you could, after all. Please, let's take a seat." He gestures to the spot where we usually talk and sits across from me. "... There's actually something I wanted to talk to you about."

It's impossible to properly relax in this setting—to disregard the professional air and distance he's keeping. The Maruki I'm talking to now is nothing like the one I was with at the buffet. The one who waited in line for me, shared a sushi roll, and later allowed me to dare him to eat one piece of every cake at the dessert table.

I wonder if I'm ever going to see that Maruki again.

"I know this is a little personal," he starts and I listen up, "but... you remember how my former girlfriend came up the other day? Rumi?"

Despite my best efforts, I feel my smile fall.

"We were even engaged if you can believe that. She was so cheerful. I mean, she could get pretty aggressive—she was always kind of hot-headed—but always so kind, too." His face is as welcoming as ever and he's not done anything wrong, but I suppress the urge to scream at him to change the topic.

"... She..." He pauses and seems to think for a moment, "... she... well, she was the best thing that ever happened to me... at the time."

It takes me a moment to notice the odd undertone in his still collected voice. Only then do I note the word choice.

"... At the time?"

> "She isn't anymore?"

To my utmost surprise, Maruki shakes his head. "Well, I suppose if we'd had our shot, my life would have been happy. Happier than it has been so far, but... But reality's never that simple."

He's smiling, and I note an odd mix between melancholy and hope in that smile.

"... A burglar broke into her family's home. Rumi and I had been visiting. We were there to see what he'd done to them. It was... just bad luck. But it didn't end there. He must have been desperate to escape... He attacked Rumi on his way out."

I suddenly feel terrible for being so self-absorbed, earlier. Guilt for my own hostile thoughts gnaws on me and I swallow a lump. I have no right to dismiss someone's pain for my petty jealousy.

Instead of retreating, I lean forward and put as much sincere care into my expression as I can.

Maruki smiles back. "I was right there with her, and... I couldn't do anything. Haha..." He turns from me and I cannot help but feel a sting. "Pathetic, right?"

I want to say something, to protest—but he speaks on. "We were lucky Rumi's injuries weren't more severe. Her physical ones, at least."

He suddenly stands and brushes past me to move towards the bed in the back of the room. He's turning his back on me as he speaks on. "But the shock of the incident was too much. She had a mental breakdown." He turns a few inches, but not so much he'd be facing me again. "... We talked about that, didn't we? How wounds of the heart aren't as straightforward as physical ones? She never really recovered from what happened. Even after all this time."

I stand up as well. Not exactly with any plan or incentive, but suddenly I want Maruki to look at me. To look at me and know that it wasn't a mistake to share something so personal. That it doesn't matter whether he's supposed to be the counselor—I'll also always listen when he needs me to. I take a few steps in his direction, but he doesn't turn.

"I... kind of lost myself in that pain for a while, too. She didn't deserve that..." Without warning, he twirls around and I wince when he suddenly has me by the shoulders. "None of them did. None of them did anything wrong!"

I let Maruki shake me, and despite the force, he'd not gripping me with violence—more like someone desperately clutching the last crutch that keeps them standing.

A mere moment later he releases me abruptly, eyes widened in apologetic shock. "... Sorry, that was... inappropriate."

I shake my head and give him a small grin. I've had worse. Maruki's not been around Ryuji when his favorite sports teams lose an important game. He'll be doing this, and more, for an entire evening, and I've never even thought of complaining.

Maruki takes a step back, nearly running into the metal frame of the bed. "... It's just... when I saw her in that hospital bed, I made a vow. I swore that I'd do all I could to fight back against the unfairness of reality. If someone suffered like that, I'd help. Still..." He gives me a look from the corner of his eye, "I feel like I have to say this... before you came along, I didn't have much hope."

I blink, trying to calm the sudden awful hammering of my heart. He's complimented and thanked me so many times, and I really should stop getting my hopes up from those.

"I'd honestly not thought I'd find someone so eager and passionate to share these thoughts with... least of all here, at Shujin. I didn't know what to think when they offered me the spot here... I mean," he laughs, "it's always a bit odd to return to a school as something other than a student. It's not even been that long for me, and yet, here I am, trying to be the trustworthy adult for a bunch of young people who are only marginally younger than my own peer group. Don't think I haven't caught onto what they say about me."

He's so calm about it. I know what rumors he's talking about—and I wonder if he is really so unfazed, or whether he's putting on a strong face. Be it one or the other, I wish I had the guts to be this confident in dealing with rumors. I'm pretty good at hiding how I feel, but it doesn't make it all hurt less.

"In... any case," Maruki shakes his head, "you've truly surprised me. Typically, people get irritated or lose interest when I stray off-topic too much, but... could it be you honestly find all of what I say interesting?"

I give it a thought. Whether and why I am enjoying our conversations so much—and it's not a hard to reach conclusion.

"Since when have we had a proper topic to stray from?"

> "Nothing is off-topic unless that is our cognition of it."

For a moment, Maruki looks surprised, then he breaks with laughter. "That is one of the best answers I ever received—to anything. No wonder these conversations with you inspire me. You're like the breath of fresh air I've been waiting for, to...!"

Suddenly, he interrupts himself and I freeze.

"... You know," he continues more calmly, "as I've said before... Rumi is in a better mental place now. She's happy." His eyes remain on me. "And..." he hesitates, "I am too. There was a time when I thought I would carry my own sorrow over losing her for the rest of my days... and honestly, I had already accepted that to be my fate. After all, that pain—that's how this project was born. But then..."

His expression lightens and softens for a moment, and my heart skips an involuntary beat. "Thanks to you, I've finally found the true goal of that research... and maybe at some point, this will lead to happiness again. I don't care how long it takes me. I will make my dream come true. For Rumi's sake, of course... but for you too, Amamiya-san." He shifts his weight and smiles... the kind of smile that emits so much warmth it is practically melting me from the inside.

"I... honestly don't have the words to say what all this means to me... what you mean to me." He clears his throat, "But I can at least say this. Thank you... so much. For everything. Thanks to you, I found my answer. And... well." Maruki shakes his head. "You're very special. The fact that you have the potential to help others the way you did me... please promise me that you'll make use of this gift as often as you can. It'll make many people very happy, I assure you."

A warm tingle creeps up my spine at the kind words and I fear my face may resemble a tomato at this point, but I nod adamantly.

"And once everything's ready..." his smile widens, "I hope you'll let me use it to help you find the happiness you deserve."

I blink once, twice... but his words still make little sense. Not that I care much. What interests me more is how I know exactly that he doesn't need anything more than he already has to bring happiness... to others, and especially to me. Being here—I take a look around—with him, like this... I couldn't be happier.

"What if I told you that... this is enough?"

> "I'm quite happy... here, with you."

Maruki startles a little, I can't help but feel a little proud of actually having surprised him. "You know," he laughs, "you really should be more careful with your words." He thinks for a moment, then he suddenly grows serious. "Or... are you trying to tell me something?" He looks at me like he already knows, and I have to swallow down the rising panic.

Of course, I'm trying to tell him something—but the question is, should I? I'm pretty sure he doesn't feel the same way about me, even if he says I'm... special.

I look at him and honestly can't bring myself to picture him liking me as anything more than a friend. I'm a student, for goodness sake! And even if he's not exactly old, who knows what he does in his spare time... what kinds of girls—women—he's got interested in him. Considering practically every female at the school is swooning over him, I can't imagine it to be any different with the women who are closer to his age. Can I really compare to those?

I swallow again and look up—then make a decision. All I have to do is choose my next words carefully.

"Not anything I haven't told you yet."

> "I have... a different kind of feelings for you."

There's no real reason—beyond my own cowardice—to not come clean. From the look he gave me earlier, and the unfazed way he keeps his eyes on me, he probably already guessed it.

It's the mature thing to do, and, for as hopeless as they are, I feel like he deserves to hear how I feel from my own mouth if anything. I still have a hard time looking him in the eyes, the time he makes me wait for a reaction feels like ten whole years—a long, arduous lifetime that passes me by before he finally speaks.

"Don't be offended, but I guessed as much." Maruki is not smiling, which is irritating me more than his words. Is he disliking the idea so much that he can't even take it as a compliment?

"... And I am honestly beyond grateful you're being so honest with me." Finally, a smile appears on his face but the melancholy note in it causes my heart to plummet. For a few moments, our gazes lock, and, in that time, my conviction that he could never return my feelings wavers for the first time. As, for a split second, I think I spot something like affection—the same type I feel—in his eyes.

The longer Maruki doesn't speak, the greater my fear grows—that I may have made a terrible mistake. I'm seconds from turning on my heel and running, getting the hell out of here before I embarrass myself even further when he finally sighs.

"I... was going to tell you this anyway, but now more than ever, so... I think this'll be the last time I come to you about the paper."

He might as well have stabbed me in the chest. As much as I attempted to steel myself for this kind of reaction, I still sense tears well up in my eyes... Maybe he is right. If that's how it is, maybe it's better if he doesn't see me at all anymore.

"It's not what you think!" The almost panicked tone in Maruki's voice has me blink the tears away for the sake of looking at him. He's taken a step closer now, and his arm is raised, hovering, as though eager yet hesitant to comfort me.

"It really isn't that I..." For the first time since I met him, I witness Maruki struggling for words. "You don't understand," he says almost dejectedly, "you're very important to me too. Perhaps even... the most important person in my life, right now." A strained smile appears on his face. "After what happened to Rumi, I told myself I would never feel that way about anyone ever again—she can never be replaced, after all. But maybe I shouldn't have assumed... whoever it was would be... replacing her in the first place."

I blink up at him, completely speechless.

Maruki shakes his head, but in his eyes, I see overwhelming warmth. "You truly don't realize what... having you around—not as a student or patient, but as an equal partner with whom I can see eye to eye, share and discuss all this personal stuff that I've honestly never shared with anyone before—meant and did for me, no?"

I still cannot speak.

"Before I came here," his eyes darken slightly, "there was no hope for me. I had already lost Rumi, and I was on the brink of giving up on my research, the last thread that gave me a direction in life. You..." his smile widens again, "you helped me see the truth. You gave me what nobody else could. Amamiya... Rin—if it were that simple, I wouldn't hesitate to proclaim to you, and anyone it may interest, that I feel the same way you do."

He raises his hand further and the tips of his fingers graze my cheek. I feel electrified. As though I'm about to lift off the ground and begin walking on air.

"You... really do?"

> "Why isn't it that simple?"

"Is it because I'm a student?"

Maruki averts his gaze. "Well, there is the fact that you're a student at this school. I'm not your teacher per se, but considering what happened with Kamoshida and a female student, right here at Shujin, it may not be such a good idea to give people more reasons to... talk. I would lose my job, too."

I grit my teeth. I hadn't considered this, and I suddenly feel very stupid about it.

"But... that's not the actual reason for why it's not so simple," Maruki continues, "I won't be here for that much longer, and you won't be a student forever, either. It wouldn't be that long a wait for either of us. But..." He turns and shakes his head, "I cannot allow myself yet another distraction. Not now that I finally know what I must do. Besides..." he turns to me with a melancholy smile, "it would be beyond selfish to focus my energy on my own happiness if there are so many people out there who need my help."

I frown. What he's saying is only making partial sense, but I have a feeling he's being vague on purpose. If he won't share it on his own, he won't answer any potential questions I may ask, so I refrain.

"I... will let you know when I finish the paper, though. When I do, I'll have to thank you one last time. Perhaps," his smile widens, "I can allow myself one moment of happiness before it begins. I believe I owe this to you, after everything you've done."

My heart skips a beat and I can't suppress a smile. I'm picturing another buffet day, and already I cannot wait. Whatever obstacle he is talking about... maybe it will resolve itself in due time as well. I can't help but hope.

"But for now, I should uphold my end of the deal." Maruki extends his hand in my direction and I take it with only the slightest hesitation. He leads me back to the table where we usually sit. "I've got a really special one for you today. I think you're ready for something on another level now!"

I grip his hand tighter and hope to convey what I cannot in words. How I feel—and how much I care about him, in every conceivable way. I've... committed myself to Maruki... there's no going back now.

He squeezes my hand back and gives me a warm smile. I can sense a strong bond with Maruki...

RANK UP!

CONFIDANT: Takuto Maruki | COUNCILOR ^ RANK 9

NEW ABILITY: Detox DX [Raises the chance of Detox X succeeding.]

~

[You will now earn more EXP from Arcana Burst when fusing Personas of the Councilor arcana!]

Maruki doesn't release my hand for a moment, I'm acutely aware of this, and it gives me hope—be it unjustified or not.

"Also... there's one more thing I want to tell you," he smiles, "but I'll save it until I finish my paper."

Tell me now, I want to scream. My eyes fixate on the clock in the corner and read the time without wanting to comprehend it. Don't give me a reason to leave yet. Not if I don't get to come back in so long. But of course, I don't say it out loud.

Suddenly, Maruki hangs his head. "I just hope you can forgive me for it..."

I look up in alert. A million possibilities, questions, clog my head and I'm about to ask if I have any reason to be concerned when he speaks on his own.

"Oh, uh—don't mind me! Sorry, that came out way too ominous! I assure you, you have no reason for concern!"

Well, it sounds easy when he says it like that... Still, I squeeze his hand to assure him I'm fine. For a final moment, we lock gazes... then he releases me. I know what this means, I have seen the time.

"Oh, and here. Never a bad time for a snack, right?"

We laugh together as I take a whole pack of cookies he conveniently pulls out of his desk drawer. Where does he keep producing all this food from, anyway?

"Well then, see you!"

I will wait for you. I hope the look I throw back conveys what I can't bring myself to say. Thanks to Maruki's mental training, my mind feels stronger... and my desire to see him again, to be there for him the way I was up until now, is already pounding at the gates of my heart.

I just hope I can keep it contained until the time will come.