[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NHixdpw.png[/img]

[color=firebrick][b]"Something's rotten in the state of Being."[/b][/color][/center]

Kiyo was off the hook—for now—but it was clear that Michi still wanted to talk to her. [color=firebrick][b][i]An inconclusive result. Perhaps our clashing desires caused a diminishing effect, or...[/i][/b][/color] Perhaps she was simply paranoid. It was that unrelenting distrust masquerading as her own curiosity that caused her fall to darkness in the first place. A world where everything went the Club's way, even for half a day, was too good for her to believe. One or two wins in a day—even big ones, certainly—but they and the little incidents kept piling up relentlessly. She looked at the textbook in her hand, considering if she should open up the letter or not. [color=firebrick][b][i]If I open it, and it's my handwriting...[/i][/b][/color] But it was impossible. It was written in calligraphy, that much was established. It couldn't even possibly be a forgery. The fact that she believed a prank was the most likely possibility didn't make her any happier than Suki probably was—as if she herself considered it impossible that someone could actually fall for her—but the cold reality was that this was most likely Willow's doing.

Kiyo spent the entirety of her next class thinking about that rather than focusing on English. Certainly Suki's case was readily explainable. Kiyo's research bearing fruit today of all days could be a coincidence, but why had her search results changed so radically overnight? Add on to that the miraculous healing, the appearance of beloved substitute teachers and other strangeness—something was amiss. Or was it? Was it her heart that was amiss? She wanted them to be happy, didn't she? [color=firebrick][b][i]My parents would say that when enough unlikely coincidences converge, God is at work—but that can't be true. He would never reward us seekers of darkness with His favor. This would surely be someone else's handiwork—but who would even be capable of something like this? A pocket dimension, or mass delusion that reacts to our desires in real time... That would be a God-like power.[/i][/b][/color]

She simply must be paranoid, she thought as she walked to the cafeteria—yet she couldn't let it go. Her hypothesis could not be left untested. [color=firebrick][b][i]I need something concrete. Something I want, strongly, just for me.[/i][/b][/color] That was certainly not a lot of criteria. She only needed to reconcile the two. She could think of plenty of things that would be nice to have, but not strictly necessary, and plenty of things that would be great, but were, ultimately, in service of the Club—things like her healed ankle, the project coming to fruition, becoming strong enough to be self-sufficient... [color=firebrick][b][i]There has to be something I really want, right? Something selfish, anything. That's the basics of being a kurai majokko—to exercise your will, justice and peace be damned.[/i][/b][/color] Kiyo sat at the table, stirring her scrambled eggs with a fork as though she were still whisking them herself at home. Yet no matter how much she obsessed for an answer, nothing came to her.

All of a sudden, she seemed to notice how quiet the Club was in general once Haruna spoke up. It was then that she remembered that Haruna could apparently "hear" desires, and wondered what she might be hearing now: did it sound like this uncomfortable silence, or closer to something like white noise? [color=firebrick][b]"There might be trouble later,"[/b][/color] Kiyo mused—sounding almost hopeful, somehow, that something would go wrong, and she would get to kick someone's ass for it. Yes, she felt a kind of violent urge rising, as if she could punish someone tangibly responsible for this false peace that caused her to ask herself uncomfortable questions she had nothing to show for—questions like, why does something always have to be going wrong for her to feel like her life is real? Or why, if there is a problem, or a conspiracy, does she alone have to be the one to solve the case?