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[IamanElfCollaborator]

Is that right? Satoshi, you sap.

"I wasn't in my room that long, sheesh. But...that's all in the past now. And....yeah, I suppose we're....things have changed, Hanako."

Satoshi nods.

"I promise you this, Hanako. However we can help you, we'll help you. Takeo and I....no, all of us....we have your back."
Hanako chuckles.
"Well. I've never known you to make a promise you couldn't keep, Satoshi. I'm holding you to it."

"Heh. Always, Hana-chan."
That being said, I might have some ideas as to why I'm here. I think.

A pause.

Can ghosts get hungry? I feel hungry. We can discuss this when I have something to eat.
"Oh! Uh...I can cook, if you guys want! Um....y'know, I should probably get you guys something to eat. Least I can do, getting you guys over here."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"I'll help." Minato said, getting up. He needed something else to focus on.

[SeriousConcentrate]

"I don't know when you left your room, Satoshi. Sometime after I skipped town. I'm just giving the facts."

Takeo returned his attention to his floating phone. He didn't know where Hanako 'was', exactly, but he knew she was holding it up, so it was good enough.

"He isn't lying. I want things to go back to how they were. Whatever I gotta do for you, I'll do it. Except cooking. Those two can handle that."

His stomach rumbled and he smiled ruefully.

"I don't remember the last time I had something someone cooked. I've just been eating... protein bars and whatever else I could grab."

[Gaterhyme]

"It's been two years. I have other friends, you know?"

Minato wasn't paying attention anymore as the conversation moved to cooking, and Ran was glad for it because she didn't actually want to hurt him or the rest of them. She just hated how he had so casually suggested she was lying in front of everyone as if to strip her defenses away from her. She could take genuine straightforwardness from Satoshi, but this from Minato... She couldn't accept it yet.

After all, she hadn't moved on either. She just didn't think it'd be that easy to go back to the way things were.

"Of course I'm helping her too, you don't have to volunteer me."

[ctsun]

This was roughly the point when Yayoi finally arrived, panting with exertion from her mad dash. She took one look at the floating phone and recoiled, screaming.

"Aargh! A ghost?!"

Leaning closer to take a closer look at the phone, Yayoi began to mutter, nodding thoughtfully to herself.

"Oh, I see. Your phone must have fulfilled its hundred years and become a tsukumogami." , she concluded, tapping her fingers against her face in a manner that seemed as though she was adjusting her glasses, completely ignoring the fact that she wasn't wearing glasses anymore or how likely it was it hasn't even been half that long since the phone's manufacture.

"Never fear! Magical Devil Lily Dusk is here! Now, all we need is a little zing and a-" She declared, striking a pose and reaching a hand out for the 'floating' phone before she abruptly noticed everyone standing nearby, freezing in place with her fingers bare inches from the phone's surface. "Oh, uh, h-hi, everyone? L-long t-time n-no see?"

[SirAston]

Upon seeing Yayoi and taking a moment to realize who she was, Kogen let out a defeated sigh.
"Wow... That's a lot of transformation at once to get used to..."

She nodded once, as if to motivate herself.

"Then again, in a way, that's still soo you, Yayoi... Alright! Everyone who wants to cook, cook. I'd like to help, but right now I need to catch up with you guys, hearing what you've been up to. So everyone not doing work in the kitchen, ya gotta tell me everything that happened since I was away."
"I won't take 'no' for an answer, by the way. We've been given a literal miracle, no way we'll let that go to waste!"

[SeriousConcentrate]

Takeo shrugged.

"I'm not sure how much there is to tell. Hanako died. Minato stopped being Minato and started being an overachiever. Yayoi did the opposite. Satoshi didn't seem to want to talk to anyone, Ran started hanging out with her other friends, and Kaya got into theater. It's not like it's all their fault I stopped talking to them, though. I was... well, I'm still not in a good place, but I was a lot worse at the time."

"I just stopped giving a shit. Didn't answer calls or texts. Spent most of my time picking fights just to let out the anger, so I could get hurt and feel something. Started smoking and drinking to try to take my mind off of it. Didn't work. Everywhere in this damn town reminded me of her, our entire group. So I fucked off, went to a few different cities. Probably easier on my parents having one less person around anyway."

Takeo finished his cigarette and, not seeing an ashtray around to put it in, placed the stub behind his right ear.

"I tried a lot of different things out. Maybe I'll show you one day. Also did some part time work, just enough to put myself up in a PC cafe every night. Did some petty crimes, never got caught. Probably should have. Eventually I came back, been hanging around town for a few months. People still got grudges and I've still got two fists so I've been getting into fights fairly regularly. That's me, anyway. You, Kogen?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Yayoi feels a light slap around the back of her head.
Please don't exorcise me. I'd rather like it if I could figure out why I came back first.

Then Takeo talks.

I see you guys really fell apart without me and Satoshi holding the fort, huh?
"That doesn't sound like you, Satoshi."

"That's because it wasn't. But uh....it's all in the past now, right?"
Then Takeo also gets a slap around the head.
Don't think you're getting away. Well, quit that. You're not some delinquent. You're our Takeo. You and Satoshi were like brothers back in the day.

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Ow. Fuck's sake."

Takeo's grousing as he rubbed his head wasn't serious, though. Being slapped by Hanako meant she had some sort of presence. She was here. Getting her visible was just the next step. He'd figure out the step after that when it was time for it. But he'd fix this.

"...Any of you guys going to answer Kogen? I'm sure the last two years went better for some of you than it did for me. Or at least differently."

[Gaterhyme]

"Yeah, well, that 'all in the past' is really messing with my present day right now."

Ran's eyes flickered briefly towards Satoshi before she sighed and crossed her arms, considering Kogen and Takeo's prompting.

"I mean, what more is there to say? Takeo's right, that's basically what I did. After... it happened, I did whatever I could, I tried to get back to normal. And I did, before" - she gestured at the phone with her palm open and facing upwards - "this happened."

"We've all changed." If her next words caught in her throat, she didn't let on. "Are we going to pretend like we're going to deal with it?"

[notquitethere]

: "What was that line from last year's play... 'Friends, Long United, Must Divide; Long Divided, Must Unite', or something like that. It's the way of things... but we're back now! You're back now!"

Kaya would rather not dwell on the painful falling apart of his friend group... not when there's the miracle of Hanoka's return.

[SeriousConcentrate]

"You're not wrong, Ran. We aren't who we were before. Dunno if some of us will ever be. But we're all here, and I'm in a good mood for the first time in a long time, so let's try to make the most of it."

He nodded to Kaya.

"Recapture some of that old 'youth in summer' magic."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Satoshi laughs.
"Yeah. That's the Takeo I know. It's good to see you guys again after so long."
He stretches his arms.
"Let's go inside, get some food, and then we can figure out how we get on from here. That sound good?"

[Smoke Mirrors]

"I didn't stop being me." Minato replied to Takeo, "Come on, I wasn't going to believe in spirits forever."

He shot a quick glance at the floating phone.


"Present company excluded, of course." he added, "...actually, speaking of spirits, Hanako, do you want me to make you a plate? I'm not sure if you can eat, but we do leave food for the spirits, so do you want some?

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Good for you. I'm sure you're happier being a normal person."

Takeo's tone wasn't entirely sarcastic. There was something else in it, but it was an emotion that was hard to pin down to a name.

"...Good idea though. Hanako, can we leave you offerings? Maybe I could find a phone somewhere for you to use. You can hold on to it for now, but I kinda wanna keep my phone. It's important to me."