Say goodbye to long rows of -

"Well?" asked Shin, urging the brown-haired girl to continue.

The girl slowly looked at her friend for some advice, however, her friend was equally distraught.

"You were talking about me, weren't you?" said Shin, stepping forward.

"I wasn't-I mean, I didn't want to- I mean... I'm sorry." she stuttered, her shoulders deflating after her apology.

Shin looked at the girl with mild amusement, and he peered at her friend. Said girl was nervously looking back and forth between Shin and her friend.

"Hm. I'll let it slide this time. I have places to go, people to meet. Bye." he said, lazily waving his hand as he left.

With Shin gone, the brown-haired girl slumped down on the floor, a hand covering her mouth. Seeing her act like that, her friend got worried.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked.

The reply didn't come until a few seconds later.

"He's... really cool up close." muttered the brown-haired girl, slightly dazed.

Her friend facepalmed at that.

"I should've seen that coming..." she muttered.

-INTERMISSION-

Shin went down the stairs to the first floor, as that was where the first-years' classes were. Though unsuccessful in his search for his braided S.I.M.P., he did happen to hear some rather weird rumours going around. Some mentioned how he fought off a group of thugs, all the while protecting an innocent, how he supposedly takes girls into his home regularly to satisfy his needs, or even that he broke into a gang's base to take their money.

'And only one of those is true.'

It was quite a change from the usual intimidated looks, with the few exceptions of people that looked at him in awe, to getting much more fear-stricken looks, while a low number of students gave him lovestruck eyes. Much to Shin's distress, it wasn't solely the girl population that did that.

The challenge came when he tried to ask a student something, only for them to start sweating like crazy and prostrate in front of him. When he asked them to stand up, they immediately sprung up, standing as rigid as a stick. Any further attempt to have a conversation only resulted in him getting mechanical responses, and eventually the student running away.

'The price of fame...' he thought, only half self-deprecatingly.

Through the power of talking to scared stick-people, he eventually found where Saki was. The girl seemed to have dozed off while reading a book with a rather suggestive content in a quiet corner of the library. With a smirk on his face, Shin picked up the book and gently nudged her awake, putting his hands on his hips afterwards.

"This is no place to sleep, miss." he stated, his voice firm, which made the girl stumble back into consciousness. "And this certainly isn't something for a student to read."

He said so while raising the book. In her sleep-addled state, Saki had a hard time differentiating Shin from an actual teacher, making her panic.

"S-Sorry, sir!" she said, and despite the 'shh!' from the other users of the library, she continued, albeit a little less loudly. "I had to stay up last night to make research a project."

"And this book is...?" asked Shin.

"T-That's part of the research, sir." she said, quickly adding. "I couldn't bring it home. My parents tend to check my bag, and they wouldn't react well to finding that."

"I see, I see. Alright, we're cool. You were just stressed because of the project. Case dismissed." exclaimed Shin, merrily.

"Huh?" muttered Saki, and as she took a good look at Shin, she recognized him.

"I said 'Case dismissed' people! Go on with your lives!" shouted Shin, as the students who got closer when they heard Saki talk loudly before scattered away.

-

Confidants:

0. Igor (The Fool) - Rank 2

I. Morgana (The Magician) - Rank 3

1. Takuto Maruki (The Councillor) - Rank 1

II. Makoto Niijima (The Priestess) - Rank 3

IV. Yusuke Kitagawa (The Emperor) - Rank 3

Odd man - Rank 1

V. Sojiro Sakura (The Hierophant) - Rank 3

VI. Ann Takamaki (The Lovers) - Rank 7

VII. Ryuji Sakamoto (The Chariot) - Rank 7

VIII. Goro Akechi (The Justice) - Rank 1

IX. Futaba Sakura (The Hermit) - Rank 3

XI. Caroline & Justine (The Strength) - Rank 10

XIII. Tae Takemi (The Death) - Rank 5

Reaper - Rank 1

XIV. Sadayo Kawakami (The Temperance) - Rank 5

XVIII. Saki Yoshiko (The Moon) - Rank 2

XIX. Sho Minazuki (The Sun) - Rank 2

Toranosuke Yoshida - Rank 1

XX. Sae Niijima (The Judgement) - Rank 2

Shiho Suzui (The Hope) - Rank 8