Archive of Our Own

July 1st, 2016.

It has been over a month since her 20th birthday. She felt as youthful as ever, and she knew that her best years have yet to come. Life was busy, but she made time for her special people on special days. Her special people also made time for her on her special day, which she thought was extremely sweet of them to do.

Last month, her birthday was celebrated at her own private apartment in Tokyo. No V.I.P. celebrities, no record label executives, no managers, no fans - just her and her special people. As usual, her parents couldn't make it to her birthday party, choosing to throw themselves into more work rather than actually give her a bit of their attention, but that was fine with her. She liked it better without them anyways.

It didn't matter if they were rich enough from the money that she had made from her flourishing career, they still liked working a lot more than they liked her. It was something that she grew used to a long time ago, but she'd be lying if she said that it didn't hurt.

Still, her special people were always the ones to cheer her up, even when she didn't managed to gather energy to put on her smile for the whole world to see. Yukiko, Naoto, Chie, Kanji, Teddie— heck, even Yosuke helped bring her mood back to sky-high levels when she was feeling down. She'd have to be a lot kinder to him, she thinks.

Although, out of all of them, there was one person in particular who - despite bringing her a lot of joy - made her feel a bit... off, at times. She was talking about Yu, her former team leader and one of her closest confidants. Well, he used to be, at least. Nowadays, even Kanji seemed to be her friend, rather than Yu.

It was odd for her. Yu, emotionally constipated as he is, had never made her feel awkward whenever she was around him. If anything, he always made her feel comfortable the most out of all of her male friends.

So, you can imagine her surprise when he suddenly grew distant with her, not talking much and not getting close to her. At first, she thought he may have been going through some personal problems, but a quick ask around with her friends told her that he was completely fine and normal. No problems detected within his life at all. None that they knew of, at least.

She thought that it may be certain relationships that he was having problems with. Though, the problem with that theory was that she knew almost everybody that Yu knew. Nanako is okay. Dojima is still a workaholic. Adachi - last time she checked - was somewhere nobody could possibly reach, nor would they possibly bother even trying to. She was just thankful that he was still in prison, that's all.

That left her with one conclusion: his problem was with her. Well, maybe he was having an issue with his girlfriend, but he doesn't have one. As far as she knew, at least. Their friends didn't even know whether Yu had a girlfriend or not, but they did commented that he had grew a bit more distant with them than usual, so at least she knew that it wasn't just her experiencing this.

Still, even if they were experiencing the same odd treatment from him like her, she was the one who was feeling it the most. With their friends, he could at least play along and behave like how he usually would. In his calm and collected manner, he'd sometimes tell a couple of dry jokes which was in character for him so that they knew he wasn't a clone at least. With her, he was always silent, and chose to stare at her with a certain look in his eyes.

If she was being honest, it was actually kind of creepy. Whenever she'd talk to him (or at least attempt to), he'd always give her short responses and look at her with intense nothingness behind his eyes. She doesn't know if he was hallucinating every time she opened her mouth or something, but it was seriously making her feel awkward and uncomfortable.

And in this case, it was strictly just her who had to be treated to his blank gaze, so she could complain all she wanted. Still, she didn't know what was going on with Yu, but she hoped that it went by quickly. She'd hate for one of her closest friends and crush confidant to grow distant away from her, especially when she didn't know what she did wrong. He was very special to her, and it would suck if their friendship were to end like this.

Although that was one of her main thoughts, that wasn't all that she was thinking about. As a famous idol with a hit album that was released earlier this year, it was a bit of an understatement to say she was very busy. Extremely, to be exact. Her new hit album was played almost everywhere and everyday in the entire country, and that meant she had a lot of work to do.

Now, that wasn't what she was sighing about. She understood that as a famous idol, she'd have to get used to tiring days, sleepless nights, and relentless hard work that had to be exerted into her career. She understood that. What she didn't understood, however, was the odd feeling of dread that she's been having nowadays. Correct her if she was wrong, but she could've sworn that feeling tired did not meant that you'd feel somebody was watching you.

Yes, she was being watched. Or was she? She didn't even know anymore. She thinks she's being watched, but that could also be her exhaustion talking. Whether she was truly being watched or not, one thing that she couldn't deny was that she has been feeling like this for quite some time now. A few months or so, at the very least. If it was just her imagination and she was only feeling it for a few weeks, then she'd understand that. However, she has been feeling this for months now, and it didn't seem to fade away.

She didn't know what to do. She had no proof that she was being watched, and it seemed ridiculous for her to even say it out loud, but her gut instinct was telling her that she was correct. She'd have to deal with it some way or another, but not now. She was still working very hard to milk the success of her newest album, and that meant she had to do concerts and tours to satisfy the demand for Risette. It'd have to wait for now.

When she can, she'll try her best to resolve the situation between her and Yu, and her sense of being watched. Either she was very tired and needed to just get a full night's sleep, or she had developed scopophobia. Those two could be resolved with some adjustments to her schedule and maybe a bit of therapy. If she was actually being watched by some random person, on the other hand, that'd be a lot more than she could handle. Hopefully, she was wrong.

No use thinking about it now. She has a long day ahead of her tomorrow, and she needed as much sleep as she could get. It is literally a few hours until sunrise, and she still hadn't slept yet. She chose to write down her thoughts in her diary instead. Thankfully, she didn't feel like she was currently being watched, but that may change soon.

Well, she'll have to go now. She'll write more in her diary when she can.

August 15th, 2016.

She was a few weeks deep in her tour already. Things were going fine and her performances seemed to have improved over the past few years. There was massive fanfare around her tour and that meant a lot more work to be done. Work seemed to be all that she knew nowadays.

That, and lack of sleep. Combined with an irritating sense of being watched. It has been over a month since her last diary entrance, and she still felt as if there were eyes on her at all times. No, it wasn't because of the thousands of fans that she had to entertain everyday when she knew that all eyes were on her. It was because she still felt that feeling of being watched, even when she was alone.

It was a bit ridiculous, if she had to say so herself. There should be no reason as to why she would be feeling like this for the past few months when she didn't seem to have changed anything about herself. It grated on her nerves and she was genuinely sure that she might just lash out at a wall and dare anyone who was watching her to come out and face her like a real man.

Fortunately, she still had common sense and her autonomy, so she didn't do that. She wanted to, but she couldn't. It'd give Risette a bad publicity if she was caught screaming at a wall, daring someone to appear when there was no one there. The last thing she needed was media attention on her at all times, even in her private life.

Speaking of private life, she didn't know what happened or how it happened, but Yu was speaking to her again. Like, actually communicating and speaking directly to her. He did not act weirdly like how he usually would for the past few months, but he still occasionally had an odd stare at her or two. It couldn't be helped, she supposed, and she'd rather have him back to normal with her with a few oddities than have him almost out of her life.

She wondered if maybe his heart had been changed? She has been hearing a lot about a certain phenomenon going around the entire world, both in real life and on the Internet. Something about 'Phantom Thieves' who 'steals people's hearts' to turn them good, or something. Or maybe turn them back to good, in case they had turned evil before. Whatever the case may be, she kind of doubt that his heart had been changed. Last time she checked, they only went after bad people, and Yu wasn't a bad person. Far from it.

Still, she was kind of curious as to why he had suddenly changed again. He went from being distant and aloof with her, only to revert back to how he was before. Okay, maybe he wasn't exactly as emotionally open before, but at least it was a huge improvement over the weird aura he has displayed to everybody around him for some time now.

Regardless, she was glad to have that sorted out. She didn't know if she could handle a failing friendship on top of a stressed out work life that her career entails. Not to mention that feeling of being watched again - ugh, it was too much for her to handle. At least now she knew that she didn't have to worry about her relationship with Yu.

Well, she'll have to get back to work. It really sucks for her that this was mostly her life now, but she couldn't complain about it. Especially when she was getting paid handsomely for her tiring work.

She just wished that she could have one night of calm and peaceful sleep without feeling as if there was someone there next to her.

September 15th, 2016.

Yu called her today. Admittedly, the last thing she expected this morning was for her longtime crush friend to call her and ask if she wanted to have breakfast together, but the offer was too tempting to pass on. Besides, it was a good opportunity to smoothen any awkward wrinkles in their relationship. Well, the fact he offered to pay for the food helped her make her decision easily.

Still, she was a woman of class. She was technically barely a woman at the age of 20, but a classy woman she still was. She offered to pay for breakfast instead, which lead to a five minute spat between the two over the phone as they argued on who was going to pay the fee. In the end, they agreed to split 50/50 on the bill.

Breakfast was... good, she supposed. There wasn't much to comment on in terms of the dishes served to her, but the conversation between her and Yu was the more interesting part of the entire breakfast debacle.

They talked to each other about one another. Okay, maybe not exactly about one another as the majority of the conversation was merely him asking her questions about her life and how her career was going, to which she tried to answer his inquiries to the best of her abilities. He was oddly insistent on getting to know about every single thing that she has been doing for the past few months, including trivial stuff such as how she slept at night. The answer was that she didn't, by the way.

She knew that the last time they've spoken to one another privately was probably around her birthday, but it was still kind of strange for him to be very interested in her personal life. It was almost as if he had been rebooted or something. Now, instead of being cool as a cucumber on a daily basis like how he always was, he now had an avid interest in her. Specifically her, by the way. She highly doubted that Teddie or Yosuke was getting the same treatment as she was.

Although it felt off for her, it wasn't too bad. Heck, if anything, she actually welcomed the change of pace for once. It was kind of cute seeing him actually talk to her with a lot of enthusiasm that he would rarely show to anyone else, barring the very few people that he trusted with his life. It actually made her feel a bit giddy on the inside when she saw how expressive he was being.

Unfortunately, breakfast was simply just that: breakfast. After they finished eating and splitting the bill, they had to go their separate ways as Yu had to go to work while she had to prepare herself for tonight's concert. Now that she was thinking about it, she realized that she never knew what Yu's line of work was.

It disappeared from her thoughts almost immediately since Yu had told her that he'd be interested in hanging out with her again as soon as possible. Since she was of the same opinion, she agreed and asked if there was any particular time that he'd like to set as an official date for their next hangout session.

You can imagine her surprise when he replied with 'tonight, after your performance ends.' She blinked at the unexpected answer, but awkwardly agreed on it. Usually, she'd head straight to her apartment and rest after a long night of performing, but she supposed that a change of pace wouldn't hurt anyone. Her next performance after tonight was scheduled to be in around two days anyway, so she had time to spare for him.

After her concert was finished, she quickly changed and went out of the venue where she was performing, telling her crew to celebrate without her. She had raised a few eyebrows from her team, but they allowed her to go on, believing that she was either too tired to celebrate or was meeting up with a friend.

Once she was outside, she saw Yu standing at a vacant parking lot, leaning against his car in an all white outfit. He looked very fluffy and huggable, if she had to describe him. A quick greeting with each other, and they were now in his car as he drove her around Tokyo at late night. She was surprised to hear that he actually watched her whole performance by using a ticket that Teddie had won. She told him that he could've had free tickets whenever he wanted to.

He chuckled, but didn't say anything to that. His deep chuckle was oddly therapeutic, and maybe that was just her exhaustion speaking, but she felt as if she could fall asleep just from hearing his voice. Oh, a full night's sleep was all that she craved for nowadays, and if Yu were to be the one who'd give that to her, she'd honestly send him a blank cheque in gratitude for allowing her to finally have some peace of mind.

Their hangout session was a bit more tame and relaxing than she thought. Just driving around Tokyo at night in his car, visiting places that they've never been to, getting a couple of soft drinks and snacks at a gas station before filling up his car and going on the road again, stopping at a few places to get some photos together - you get the gesture.

For the first time in quite a while, she honestly felt alive. It was very fun for her to experience, and if she was being honest, she'd honestly prefer late night drives with Yu over any crazy stuff, such as going to the carnival or something. It was just her and Yu, no one else.

Their hangout/driving session lasted for a few hours and by the end of it, she was more than happy and content. He seemed to be of the same opinion as he was smiling a lot easier than a few years ago. It was a very good time for them both, and she might actually just send him that blank cheque regardless of whether or not she gets a full night's sleep.

It had to have been around three in the morning by the time that he drove her back to her apartment because the streets was almost empty and there was barely anyone awake at around this time. For a city that never sleeps no matter what time is it, it sure had quite a sizable percentage of the population who actually went to sleep on time.

They bid farewell to one another and she promised to make their hangout sessions as often as possible, to which he accepted with grace. He gave her a hug, which she totally wasn't expecting, and told her to stay safe. She smiled and told him to do the same, to which he winked before leaving her at her apartment.

Sleep came to her naturally, and before she even realized it, she actually managed to sleep a full eight hours. Sure, she woke up at around 11:00, but it was one of the days when she wasn't performing so she'd gladly sleep in a lot more if she wanted to. She already made up her mind to send that blank cheque to Yu next time she saw him, and she gave him a quick text when she woke up to express her gratitude.

He was confused, which was understandable, but she told him not to worry about it. They shared the next hour or so talking to each other before her team came knocking on her apartment's door, telling her that there was some work needed to be done for the next performance. She sighed, but reluctantly agreed.

As she left her apartment, she realized that she hadn't felt that feeling of being watched when she was with Yu yesterday.

October 6th, 2016.

About a few weeks after their last hangout session, she planned another one with Yu. She may or may not have started to look forward to their hangout sessions again, especially when her schedule was filled to the brim with nothing but work, work, work. If she were to be honest, her concerts and countrywide tour was taking a toll on her mental, emotional, and physical state. She needed some form of escapism, and Yu was glad to hand her one.

Just a few more months and she'll be able to take a break. A long, long break. For now, she'll have to settle for hanging out with Yu until her tour ends. It wasn't bad, mind you, but the sooner she could take a break from her career, the sooner her life would be able to be back to normality.

Speaking of normality, that fucking freaking feeling of being watched was back again. Hooray. It was a normality for her to feel as if there was someone watching her, as sad as that sounded. She had thought about actually reporting to either a psychiatrist or the police station about it, but refrained from doing so. She could deal with it in a few months. Right now, she had a tour to perform.

She had gotten used to the feeling of being watched for a few weeks already. It wasn't something that she should be getting used to, but she did, and there wasn't much that she could do about it. She could tell someone about her problems, but with no proof to back her claims up, it'd probably be dismissed.

She used to feel creeped out, unsettled, and even scared at times whenever she would feel someone watching her again - but now, she was almost apathetic towards it. If anybody were to look in her mental condition for one day, they'd be surprised that this was the mind of a bubbly pop idol who sings and dances for a living.

With all of this pent up emotions inside of her, she wouldn't be surprised if she were to just explode one day. Her smile wasn't as bright as it used to be, her eyebags have gotten worse, she was a lot more prone to mistakes during performances, she felt lifeless, and the deteriorating happiness on her face more or less summarized her entire state as of now: purely tired.

She kept repeating 'only a few months left' in her head like a mantra, choosing to use that as motivation. It sort of worked, considering the fact that she actually managed to go day in and day out on tour without stopping, and sooner or later, she'll reach her goal. Just needed to be patient for a little longer.

Patience was something that she learned to have a lot of control with as she grew older and matured throughout her life. She wasn't a temperamental person in the first place, but having a deeper sense of control over your emotions was better than to have none. It kind of sucks that her patience wasn't rewarded because she still felt the same feeling of being watched.

She was being stalked, wasn't she? No point in sugarcoating it anymore - that's probably the only reasonable conclusion to come to after months of feeling the same thing over and over again. This kind of reminded her of that one famous song from the 80s about always feeling like somebody's watching you, but she can't exactly compare her life to a song.

Her entire mental state was heading one way on a downwards spiral, and she was sure that she was heading down a bottomless pit by the looks of it. There may be light at the end of the tunnel soon, but if there was, she sure as hell wasn't seeing any.

It was no use trying to think about this. It's an endless repeated cycle of nothing but sensing someone was stalking her, looking around and seeing nobody, continuing on with her life, only to end up with the same feeling again. She decided that she'll meet up with a therapist soon to talk about this, because a police report would only overcomplicate things as it stands right now.

She'll distract herself by going out with Yu. He seems to always give her comfort and a peace of mind whenever he was around, so she would have to cling on to him for as long as she could. She silently apologized to him for being a burden, but everything was too much for her to handle right now.

Let's see how things with Yu goes.

November 5th, 2016.

She has gotten some help with her... you know... current situation. She did have her therapist on speed dial now, but hectic work schedule meant that she could barely have any time to herself. And any time that she could get to herself, she'd spend it with Yu instead.

Ah, yes, Yu. Yu Narukami: her pillar of hope, beacon of light, and semblance of peace during her current rough patch. They've been getting closer and closer each hangout session, and if she was being honest, he was probably the only person she ever talks to nowadays. It was an ironic change of pace, considering that just a few months ago she was thinking that he may not be her friend anymore, but now he was back to being number one in her life, like how he always was.

For the past few years - ever since their adventures in Inaba, to be exact - she had thought about Yu for a long, long time. It wasn't exactly a random occasional passing thought either, it was a full blown daily 'man, I wonder if he slept well today' type of thoughts. Funnily enough, he had also asked her that same question, which made her laugh now that she's looking back on it.

If she was being honest, she tried her best to forget about her feelings for him when she returned back to her career a few years ago. She threw herself in her career and just kept going and going until she reached the point where she currently was. For a brief period of time, it had worked out for her and she could actually distract herself from thoughts of him by working.

Now, in an ironic twist of fate, she was needing him for every single second possible to stay sane until the end of her tour. He was her crutch, in a mental, spiritual, and emotional way. It couldn't be helped that the more that she hung out with him, the harder her feelings came back. Heck, if anything, she felt as if her feelings deepened the more that she spent time with him.

So, as a girl with a... crush would do when she was stressed out, she told him about what had been bothering her lately. As she expected, his reaction was one of care, anger, protectiveness, compassion, and worry. She nearly shed a tear when she heard how worried he was and how he demanded to see her supposed stalker for himself, even when she hadn't given him a single proof of the supposed stalker's existence.

Naturally, with no proof to back up her claims other than a bunch of repeated 'I'm telling you the truth,' he eased up on the subject, but would still be on guard whenever he was around her; constantly keeping an eye out at all times. Whenever he would do so, she'd actually feel a lot safer, as if he was actually scaring off the 'stalker' with just his mere presence.

He pressured her to file a police report, but she told him that she couldn't. Not now, at least. As expected, it didn't exactly put a smile on his face when she said that, but she quickly explained her reasonings as to why she wouldn't want to do so for now. He backed off from the topic after a bunch of pleas from her to keep quiet for now, but he told her that it wasn't over yet.

So, their hangout session turned from one of close friendship into a 'bodyguard protecting a celebrity' type of thing, much to her dismay. Whenever he'd drive her around the city, he'd constantly look everywhere before focusing on the road. As if he was checking for someone. She knew that it was her fault that he turned paranoid, but she couldn't help but feel disheartened that their hangout sessions now turned into a one-sided constant protection from the silver-haired man.

Still, he made her feel safe. Safer than her bodyguards and crew could actually ever hope to do - no offense to them, of course. Whenever she was around him, she felt as if that feeling was gone. Whenever she hung out with him, she was guaranteed to have at least a full night's rest after returning home. Was this his specialty? Making people feel safer and comfortable? If so, he may either be a secret bodyguard, or an undercover therapist who was assigned to her.

The thought of that made her smile. Yu, as her own personal therapist, bodyguard, and close friend. Everything in her heart told her to drop the constant second-guessing and pursue him relentlessly, but she couldn't do that for now. It seems as if her work had done nothing but give her extreme unhappiness, no matter what she did to make it right.

Speaking of personal therapist, her actual therapist was also doing a decent job at keeping her stable and grounded. Like others, they suggested that she filed a police report, but she told them of her reasons as to why she couldn't do so for now. They made an interesting argument when they said that if she filed a police report, they'd at least know what to expect in case she went missing out of nowhere.

The thought of that was pretty damn scary, and to be honest, she was genuinely in a constant state of paranoia and insomnia from the feeling. She just wanted it to stop. She didn't know who exactly did she pissed off, or if she had maybe done an extremely huge sin to the point that this was her divine punishment, but she just wanted to run away from it all.

She might ask Yu to move in with her, damn the consequences and media reports about it.

December 12th, 2016.

Just end her, already. Just kill her. She'd honestly prefer if the sick bastard who was stalking her actually went out and shot her right in her forehead, because at least her suffering would end. Concerts, therapy, hangout sessions, speaking to Yu - it was all an endless repeated cycle and nothing ever fucking worked for her anymore. She's done. She's through with everything.

Not even Yu could make her feel safe anymore, and that was one hell of an accomplishment for the bastard to achieve. Her own private bodyguard, therapist, and closest confidant for the past few months couldn't relieve any of her anguish. She didn't blame him for even a single second, because she knew that she was a lost cause from the moment that she received therapy sessions.

Her friends tried to help, but it just wouldn't matter anymore at this point. Chie offered to be her constant bodyguard, working for free and quitting her own job, but she declined her friend's offers of services. Kanji and Naoto offered similar help, but those she declined as well. It was to the point that Yu had actually shouted at her to actually accept some help, but as a stray tear escaped her apathetic eyes, he realized that she was probably not going to do anything about it.

Why? Because she was a coward. She couldn't confront her stalker, couldn't file a police report out of fear for the media's constant attention, initially was skeptical on therapy, denied her friends' help because she was scared of them being treated to the same feeling, didn't want Yu to be involved too much in her problems, lest he became a victim of circumstances as well. She was a coward through and through, and maybe she deserved this.

There was nothing more that she wanted other than for the paranoia to leave her body forever. Neverending anxious emotions bubbled up within her everyday, and she wouldn't be surprised if it all exploded soon. She had predicted it would do so one day, but never would she think that it'd be on the final month of her tour.

She had one last chance. One last hope of making it away from her suffering, sleepless nights, and paranoia. As soon as her tour ended, she'd announce a break from her career and silently take her leave. She had a destination in mind, which is where her grandmother was staying at: Inaba.

As much fucked up memories she had of that place, she'd rather leave the city for that place as she wouldn't need to do too much adjusting. Her grandmother was also there, so that was another huge incentive to escape to Inaba.

She already planned her escape away from everything, she just needed to pull it off. Her friends couldn't know about it because they'd convince her to not run away like a coward, but they wouldn't know how having the feeling of some creepy fuck watching you everywhere you went for 24/7 and 365 days felt. Her friends had great intentions, but for now, she wanted nothing more than to escape from the sickening dread she was always feeling.

And Yu... oh, Yu. She was genuinely upset that she had to waste his time by hanging out with him constantly and making a nuisance out of herself whenever she was with him, but she was selfish like that. She need an out, and Yu, the kind person that he was, would be able to give her that. It was horrible that she would leave him out of nowhere for an undisclosed amount of time, especially when their bond has deepened and grew stronger than ever before, but she had no other choice.

She couldn't fight because she was a coward, and she couldn't use her friends to fight her own battles, so that meant she'd have to go and run away like how she usually would. Even when she was at her 'bravest' with their former Investigation Team back in 2011, she never experienced combat; only lazily analyzing their foes while her friends would do all the hard work.

A few more weeks to go, and she'd be free. Assuming everything went to plan, she may be able to make her return in a year or two after she leaves. She just hoped for two things; one being that her stalker would disappear forever, along with her insomnia and paranoia.

And two, she hoped that Yu and her friends would be able to forgive her for running.

January 4th, 2017.

Today was the day that her tour ended. She went from feeling neutral and somewhat happy about the tour, to feeling the utmost relief as soon as the crowd cheered at her performance for the final time. She could cry on stage, she could jump off the stage - she could do anything that she wanted, but she wasn't going to.

A speech that she prepared for a long time ensued, and she addressed the crowd about everything going on. Excluding the stalking sensation, insomniac frenzy, extreme paranoia, and about a million other things in her life that was happening, of course. She told them of their decision to take a break from her career, but not of her plan to ditch the city and go to Inaba.

It elicited the expected responses, and she was more than glad with that. It was probably a dumb idea to let everybody know her next move, but at least she didn't let them know that she was merely days away from escaping the city and never coming back until probably a year or two had passed. Maybe more, if she felt things still weren't safe in the city.

She thanked everyone and they all left the venue, more than happy to have seen Risette's final performance as of now. As this was her final performance of the tour - and potentially her career - a compulsory celebration of the performance were to be enjoyed, and since she was secretly leaving them all in a few days for an indefinite amount of time, she accepted the offer of celebration from her crew.

It was a crazy night, but not for her. Although she was participating in the celebrations, she wasn't talking to anyone, unlike her team. While they all busily chattered around each other, she was too busy thinking about packing all of her bags and essentials, wondering how much a train ticket to Inaba costs nowadays. It wouldn't matter, though, since she'd be able to afford a thousand train tickets if it meant that she could finally have some peace of mind.

Her friends congratulated her over the phone on a tour well done. She kept the conversations as brief as possible, and since she only had Yu's circle as the only people she could genuinely call as friends, it didn't take too long for her to get through them all one by one.

What was hard, however, was for her to actually talk to Yu for the final time in quite a while. Although she knew that this would probably be her last conversation with him in a quite some time, he didn't know that. He probably thought that she was very relieved that her tour was finished, but that was as far as he knew, she believed.

She decided to let him know of how she truly felt on the inside. She let him knew of every single exhausting and painful days that she experienced for the past half-a-year or so. It took quite some time, but she finally told him of everything that he wanted to know.

He was speechless, which was an odd look on him. After she told him everything - excluding her plans to escape to Inaba - she decided that a final hug would be a proper send off. He reciprocated almost immediately, much to her surprise. It was as if he was eagerly anticipating for such thing, but she knew that she was just kidding herself. Still, she didn't expect for him to actually hug her back, though.

She told him that she needed some rest, and he allowed her to go back to her apartment without much of a fuss. As if her guardian had left her, the moment that she stepped inside of her apartment, she felt that feeling again. Frankly, maybe this apartment was haunted, or maybe there hidden cameras scattered everywhere which was why she was feeling like this for almost an entire year, but she didn't care. Not anymore.

Packing up everything she needed, she bought a train ticket to Inaba and left a letter on her apartment for her team to discover. She wouldn't tell them her future whereabouts, but she'd explain everything in full detail.

A few days later, and she was at the train station, waiting to be liberated. It was dark outside since she decided to go at night, but she felt calm for some reason. She should be feeling scared, being all alone and nobody else to know where she was and where she'd go, but she didn't. She thought that having Yu being clueless on where she'd go would make this experience a lot more terrifying, and it was, but she didn't feel the feeling of being stalked anymore.

When the final train arrived, she boarded it and sat down on her designated seat. It was probably going to be a long journey through the night, and she had a lot of time to spare. Maybe she could get some rest or something. She already told her grandmother of her plans to come back to help with her tofu shop, and warned her to not mention anything about this to anyone else, which she agreed to upon hearing that her granddaughter was coming back to Inaba after five years.

Opening her diary, she read through all of her entries by the months and years that had passed. She couldn't help but feel sadness, but quickly tried to wipe her stray tears away when she realized the train was moving.

January 4th, 2017; the day that she left everyone in Tokyo for a fresh start and a peace of mind in Inaba.

July 1st, 2017.

"Rise! Can you go and buy some sugar for us? We ran out, and I need some for tonight's dinner!"

"Sure, Grandma!" Rise shouted back, closing her book and going downstairs to see her grandmother.

Her life had been going pretty smoothly so far. She was with her grandmother, there was no one to bother her, and no creepy imaginary asshole to stare at her. Life was going... well, she wouldn't say good, but it has been okay so far.

She could only assume that her friends were calling her everyday, and guilt ate her up on the inside when she thought about it. She had to ditch her phone and clear every single history on there before she left it at her previous apartment, but it was well worth it. She bought a new phone in Inaba anyway, so it didn't matter to her.

It wasn't as if her crew members and friends didn't know whether she was alive or not; she literally sent them a couple of messages each month, telling them how she has been doing and whatnot. She wouldn't tell them where she was currently living at - that was one thing that she wouldn't want to reveal for now.

She didn't know how, but for some reason, news of her arrival in Inaba did not make waves throughout the entire town, reaching outside to the city. It was as if they knew that she was residing here, and didn't care much as long as she behaved. It was weird for her, especially since the last time she checked on Tokyo, a lot of people were wondering where she went.

Well, you know what they say: don't look a gift horse in the mouth. If the people of Inaba couldn't care less that she was actually staying here, despite being known as one of Japan's current most famous celebrities, then she would comply with their expectation and kept quiet.

She reached downstairs and saw her grandmother in the kitchen, washing something at the sink. There was a pot of... something on top a stove, slowly boiling until it'll eventually pick up its pace. Tonight's dinner was going to be a bit of surprise, wasn't it? Well, she doesn't mind. Anything that her grandmother made, it was bound to be good.

Her grandmother turned around briefly and smiled, pointing at a table. "The money's right there, sweetheart. Go and fetch a couple of bags for me, will you?"

Rise nods. "Sure, Grandma. I'll be back in a few."

"Alright, make sure to be careful, please!" She turned around and began to look over the boiling pot. "You know how things are nowadays. When it's dark out and it's nighttime, that's when the devil comes out. That, and devilish men."

She snorted. "Ain't that the truth..."

The brunette swiped the money from the table before heading for the door, putting on some sandals and making her way out of the house. Since it was night outside, a full moon was visible and the chilly wind graced her skin as the smell of nature invaded her nose. It was kind of a nice feeling, if she's being honest.

She began walking to the store and whistled a tune to herself, walking somewhat happily. Man, she missed the feeling of being able to go out without feeling as if some random weirdo was watching her. If it was only in public spaces, then maybe she could understand, but the problem was that she used to feel as if she was being watched even when she was alone in the comfort of her own apartment! That wasn't something she could tolerate.

The trip to the store was uneventful, which was refreshing. The last thing she needed in her very much currently peaceful life was for some thing crazy to happen, effectively disrupting the peace. Although she hadn't felt as if her break from her career was permanent, she felt as if she should honestly consider buying a house in Inaba for retirement measures in the future.

Suddenly, when she was walking back home, she heard a rapid shift and shuffling behind her. Turning around, she saw a bald man of average height standing there, covered in the shadows of the darkness. Automatically, every instinct in her that had sounded out told her to run, but she just stood still, wondering if this may be the one who's been stalking her for over an entire year.

When he stepped forward, she could get a clearer look of his face. He was bearded, had a scar over his right eyebrow, and looked disgustingly menacing and lustful. She kind of damned herself for not bringing her phone with her, because at least she could call the cops - or even better, Dojima - and get this stalker weirdo out of her way already. Swallowing heavily, she took a step back, only for him to smirk at her action.

"...Would you mind spending a night with me, ma'am?"

She took a deep breath, nearly choking on her own air before she exhaled slowly. Her heart was pounding, and she wasn't sure what line of action she should choose to prevent getting assaulted - or even worse by this... guy. Closing her eyes, she counted to five before opening them again and picking her response.

"...No, thank you. I'd really like to be on my own, and I'd appreciate it if you could stop bothering me."

He chuckled, stepping forward again with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "...Heh, now that won't do. I guess the hard way it is for tonight... damn, and I was hoping for a clean record today."

What the hell is he talking about...?

Instinctively stepping back, her heart dropped when she saw him immediately rush after her. She froze, fight-or-flight instincts going haywire as time seemed to have stopped for her and she had to make her choice fast. She wasn't a fighter - not even for a second could she delude herself into thinking that, which meant that her only option was to run.

Making up her mind within a split second, she chose to turn and run, only to abruptly stop as the sprinting bald man was tackled out of nowhere by an extremely familiar figure. She covered her mouth in shock and widened her eyes, knowing who exactly it was that had tackled him.

The two struggled on the ground before the familiar man overpowered the bald man and began striking him repeatedly with his fists, crunching noises echoing loudly as he broke the man's nose and wouldn't stop relentlessly punching him. The bald man tried to defend himself by pushing the other guy away, but he was too strong to be overpowered, and he kept hitting him again and again.

Rapid and powerful punches were thrown to the bald man's face, injuring him quite badly as his face was slowly being disfigured while blood splattered everywhere. The man's knuckles were a mixture of purple and red from hitting the man continuously, but he wouldn't stop, no matter how much the bald man pleaded him to do so.

She wanted to throw up when she saw the bald man's face actually start caving in under the other man's fist. There was almost no way to describe what she was seeing other than for you actually see it for yourself. His face was nothing but a beaten pulp, as if he had been hit by a metal baseball bat for twenty times from someone using full power. His teeth was missing, his lips was cracked and split open as blood came gushing out of the orifice, and his eyes seemed to be swollen purple from the hard hits he was being treated to.

Eventually, after what probably felt like eternity for the bald man, the familiar man stopped. He slowly got up from the disfigured man below, knuckles tightly shaking as cuts was present on his fist. She didn't know if she was hallucinating or not, but she could swear that one of the man's teeth was imbedded inside of his knuckles from how hard he had punched him.

When the familiar man looked at her, she stumbled on a rock and fell on her back, looking up at him while feeling horrified. She tried to crawl away from him, but seeing his familiar silver hair and tall figure made her stop abruptly as she froze, realizing that this may be the person who was behind her endless misery.

Yu Narukami looked at her with a look of love, lust, madness, jealousy, happiness, and possessiveness. He cracked a wicked smile as he extended his hand out to her, turning his smile into an chilling grin. What he said next, made her want to scream forever.

"I finally found you."