Ain't nobody messin' with Mama Muffin

don't kick again. just don't.

"I understand," he stated, although a bit saddened by the fact that your memories were associated with something negative, "Does that mean you will stop meeting us?"

His question was answered with silence. You wanted to meet them, sure, but would it be worth your mental health? While you were tempted to say yes, the answer was no.

"I don't know, I'm not sure. I'd have to ask someone else," you finally said.

Now the atmosphere was heavy, and you probably needed to leave, but Inui just wanted to stay with you a bit more, so he asked if you knew why it wasn't working.

Also wanting to stay longer, you went along with his attempt at solving the problem, "I don't. That part of me was just never supposed to wake up ever again."

"Were you taking medication?" he tried, not being able to help if he didn't know how you had forgotten everything.

"Oh no, I first lost my memory because of a car accident, but that was two years ago. Then I reinforced, or kinda, the memory loss, with-hum- with another -huh- near death experience...?", hearing it said out loud was really different from how it played in your mind, to the point you had to add, "It wasn't suicide I swear..."

However, by how troubled Inui looked, you could tell he was not convinced at all, "It sounds way worse than it was, everything was under control," you insisted, feeling somehow embarrassed, and increasingly doubtful about your methods.

"Your memory loss was not medically induced then?" he asked, figuring out that you did not erase your memories on purpose, that you did not erase them on purpose.

A bit thankful he wasn't questioning your actions like you were already doing, you explained that it started with a car accident, which made you lose your memories but not the fact you were feeling down, however the second time you lost your depression, which was this afternoon.

"What?" he exclaimed, feeling like things made less and less sense,"You should be resting then!".

"No, I'm good, don't worry," you reassured, "What I mean is that I woke up this afternoon, but like the fever was yesterday."

"Did a doctor said you were alright?" he asked.

"Well no," you admitted, "but I do feel good and there was an emergency going on apparently."

Inui's face tensed as he guessed that the emergency question was them, and that they were once again being a burden to you. And in less than a second he made a healthier decision for you than you ever did since you woke up.

"Go back to rest and call for a doctor," he commanded, "I will convince everyone to give up for tonight and we can start again when you're actually feeling better." Then, having said what he needed to say, he stood up and walked towards the door.

"But I'm fine!", you protested, standing up as well. However you did so slightly stumbling, unvoluntarily exposing your state of weakness. You ignored it, but Inui had already noticed your frail state, ignoring your affirmation and closing the door as he left the room. Unbeknownst to you, he held on to the door knob, worried and hesitant about that last action. Was it too rude? Did that seem mean? What if you misinterpreted it? Would you come to dislike him? Was it even the right thing to do?

On the other side of the door, you called his name again, explaining you were fine for now, that maybe later you would need to rest but that was not the priority. You explained you needed to speak with them since that was their request after giving away the notebooks, right? So it would be easier to do it while you had energy, which meant like, right now.

But he refused, stating that he had thought you were fine and healthy when he made the choice, and that your wellbeing was a priority. He knew everything he wanted to know, and he would tell the others what he knew so they would be satisfied as well, or at least understanding of your situation. 

"But I'm able to speak, I can talk with all of you!", you insisted, unsucessfully trying to turn the doorknob, "Aw, come on!", you sighed.

Clearly Inui wasn't going to spend any more time with you, and trying to talk him out of that would probably end up in him convincing you to go back to bed and rest. That, of course, was a good idea, but just like when it's one in the morning and you should go to sleep, you told yourself that it would be no big deal if you waited just a bit more.

You decided to go back to your room through the weird onsen path, check on your sister and talk with your uncle, maybe talk to the next person, and now that you were thinking of it, eat something, who knew?

You pushed the door to the corridor and walked towards room 618. You began wondering if it was really the right course of action. Keeping on talking to them in your state was basically asking tem to pity you wasn't it- oh wow there was someone actually using the onsen corridors. Said person had just turned around a corner down the hallway, and halted as they detected your presence, 'which is understandable, i'm fully dressed', you thought as you squinted your eyes. 

Oh wait

You knew that person!

Oh right.

Oh shit.

Rindou.

Splendid.

The way your body froze was enough to tell him you had noticed him. Without breaking eye contact, still trying to look unbothered, you took one step back, then another, and then a third one, all while being relieved you had not walked too far away from room 620. 

Strangely enough, Rindou was ... not moving? He was looking at you in such a way, clearly hurt but also furious, his immobility was scarier than if he had launched an attack on you.

Hoping Inui had stopped blocking the door, you turned around and reached for the doorknob of the room you had just left. 

And you saw Hanma.

Even better!

fucking hell