"Forget about little old me?" A familiar voice says as Mahiru looks up, a smile ready at her lips.

But she sees the edge of steel and cold blade as Rindou sits down on her desk, something cold in her eyes— The familiar gold, Mahiru's gold. The one thing she'd never expected to see in Rindou. Rindou, cheerful Rindou— Who never let anything get the best of her. Who always faced everything with a smile. An unbreakable mask— Oh god. Rindou seems to be burning with a bright toxic flame and just as Mahiru opens her mouth—

"I've waited," Rindou says. "I've waited. And even when you came back, came back with them— I waited. I'm tired of being second best, Mahiru. I'm tired of constantly trying."

Mahiru takes a breath and thumbs the cold glass of the watch. "If I apologized," she says evenly. "Will it change anything?"

Rindou wavers, for a single second. "No," she tells her. "A sorry isn't going to change this. Mahiru, maybe you've never realized but the world doesn't revolve around you!"

"Rindou," she says calmly. "Will you listen to me talk?"

Rindou stands up, chair screeching back. "Cut the bullshit!" she says, heartbreak and rage in her voice. Mahiru remembers herself saying it. And this is different— But at the same time, it is the same. "I know what you did, Mahiru. I know what you're going to do."

"Please, Rindou—"

But without a second word Rindou stalks off and Mahiru's world feels like it's been torn off its axis. I know what you're going to do.

The shares— The Totsuki shares. She already has buyers lining up to buy them. Let them burn, she'd thought when Senzaemon first promised her them. Let them burn.

The ice is spreading through her veins— And too late, she thinks, the fire already being drowned, the lanterns already landing, setting on fire. Drowning as they burn. She grips the table, feeling the smooth surface beneath her palm and her own trembling, pronounced because the table isn't moved by her.

For a second, her eyes are drawn to the liquor cabinet—

No. Mahiru. You're better that.

She sits there for a second, heart pounding before she scrabbles for her phone.

"Hey Eishi," she says, something heavy and cold settling into her. "We should talk."

x

"All in favour?"

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"We have a majority."

x

"Your father's going to be there," Eishi says.

Mahiru looks up from her phone, something misty in her eyes. "I know."

"And Yukihira-kun's going to be fine against Rindou," he continues as he does his tie. Mahiru smiles. It's nice to see him self-assured once in a while, but she waits for it either way and—

"Ma-hi-ru!" he exclaims. "Say something, because oh-my-god I'm so anxious that I'm going to die, maybe it would've been better if I did the Shokugeki with Rindou? I mean technically Yukihira made the Shokugeki but I'm sure Rindou still wanted that—"

She kisses him.

Someone clears their throat. They pull apart, spinning around to come face to face with Senzaemon Nakiri, who looks a bit worse for wear. But mildly amused.

Eishi blushes to the tip of his ears, Mahiru, on the other hand, nods her hair in agreement and gave him a pleasant smile. "Tea?" she offers.

They'd already spoken in Mahiru's panic induced by Rindou's sudden revelation. Mahiru told him about what she did— Amami, the offers — and what she was going to do. Senzaemon took it in a stride. His voice was heavy, commanding and it's a... A static thing that Mahiru found comfort in. As they played chess hours later, him winning, with strategies created from an abundance of years and experiences.

"Eishi—" she begins.

He gives her a smile. "I'll see you later."

"Mahiru-kun," Senzaemon says as he sits down in front of her. "You... Look very much like your mother did, once upon a time."

Mahiru sighs. "Please don't," she says. This ring of evil— This serpent circle. She's ready for it to end.

They stare at each other for a moment— Senzaemon in shock and her, calmly.

Then he laughs, a roaring, thundering sound. "Yes," he agrees. "That's right, isn't it? That's the mistake they all make. Your father, your grandmother, myself. You're right. You're yourself, Mahiru. Yourself. No matter what I think, what your father or anyone else thinks."

She's touched. She truly is.

"I'm..." she begins. "Not sorry for lying to you. For keeping what I wanted to do from you. I won't apologize for that, because I was trying to... Protect myself, just as you were Erina. I hope you can respect that. But frankly, I don't give a fuck if you don't."

He nods with a chuckle. "I can."

They play a round of shogi— Forty minutes until Eishi sends her a text. It's over, it reads. We've won.

Mahiru looks back at the half-unfinished game before nodding at Senzaemon. "It's over," she says. "I hope you're ready to put your shogi strategies to use," she says dryly.

Slinging her coat over her shoulder, she walks out of the door and prepares to face her father, once and for all.

x

"Hello, father," she says.

Shiro turns, grey flecks his hair, wrinkles line his face. For the first time, Mahiru realizes how different this man is from the one in her memory— The man with inky black hair, carefully combed. The man who dressed in the colours of autumn because he loved it, because his daughter loved it. The man who always had a smile playing at his lips, the man who had light in his eyes and fire in his heart.

"Mahiru," he says. Weathered and grey. "Good job."

She hums. "As much as I'd like to enjoy your praise, father. I think there are clarifications that need to be made. I won't, in fact be selling those shares."

Ending the Tetsuya-Nakiri War doesn't really require destroying them... Did it? Would allying with them really be so terrible?

You have nothing to lose.

For a moment, there's thunderous silence. A crease appears between his lines and he seems to grow bigger as a whole, a cold icy rage on his face. "Mahiru Tetsuya," he says. "Exactly what game are you playing?"

"You needn't be angry with me," she snaps right back, something she never did— maybe, perhaps if she fought back a bit more, instead of just wandering off on whims like she did, instead of taking everything in like she did, then maybe something would've changed. But she's tired of taking the blame. "I bought the shares under my personal name. And after that fiasco last summer, I doubt you're willing to beg or bribe to have a say in my business, do you?"

And for the first time, in the reflection of his eyes— The same gold, Mahiru can see herself. She can be proud of what she sees, she can be proud to say that she doesn't see the cause of her mother's death, the cause of her father's inertia, because she wasn't.

"Father," she says. "It's time this ended." Mahiru's voice is stronger with each word. "You can keep mourning. You can keep being angry but that's you, father! Not me! Don't drag me into something I had no control over!"

For the first, he's frozen in her stead and he looks at her like he's a ghost. For all Shiro's prowess as a businessman and as a ruthless tyrant, his weak spot had always been Nao. Always been Nao.

Both of their lives had been dictated by her death.

Mahiru presses on. "I am who I am. I'm not my mother, I'm not the catalyst in her death. Stop making me into it. As for the business. I've spoken with the board of directors as well as all of the potential buyers. We've agreed on a compromise, as for Totsuki's Council and the campus... There's been a winner." She looks up and sees the void of Azami Nakamura's eyes. "It's not him."

And with that she turns away.

Eishi is waiting for her on the other side of the arena.

x

Mahiru spends the next few weeks tidying up the affairs at Totsuki, and trying to work up the courage to talk to Rindou— Who despite everything, kept up her appearances and is bothering everyone from the rebels to the members of Central. Everyone's at ease around her, even if she had been the final obstacle (or in some cases, the final defence) to the rebel's victory.

Totsuki begins to look like the one it did when Mahiru first entered it. There's a fondness in her heart, but she knows that the alliance had played the biggest part in the restoration. Mahiru, for all her genius, had only ever known to break things apart or build the framework.

But in it all— Mahiru's happy. Truly happy for the first time in ten years. Happy at the sight of the sunshine and the laughter, happy at the sight of trouble stirred up by Yukihira and Joichirou. Happy, as Eishi opens her door on a Monday after and tells her that there's someone there to see her.

"Hey," Rindou says. Mahiru picks up some hints of reservation in her tone. But it isn't enough to stop the rush of affection that wells up inside Mahiru as she stands up, chair screeching back and pulling the redhead into a hug, breathing in the spiced vanilla.

For a moment, they stand in silence before Rindou, slowly Rindou's arm comes up and hugs Mahiru just as tightly.

"I'm so sorry," Mahiru says into her neck. "I'm so sorry, and I know it doesn't change anything. And I- I'd do anything to have you back."

Rindou pulls back just enough to look at her. "Sorry isn't enough," she says. "Not right now. But—" She tries her best to beam at Mahiru. "We have time, right?"

"Yeah," Mahiru says. "We do."