The great laggard

The older man looked on as the red-haired girl dragged the giant bag after her.

A brief thought flashed through Sojiro's mind at that moment.

'If I were to swipe some things off of her, I'm sure she wouldn't notice.' he reasoned, though he was quick to shake his head from things like these thoughts. He was a gentleman, after all.

And speaking of gentlemen...

Sojiro headed back to the cafe as if on auto-pilot, while he thought about the problematic kid he took in more than a month ago. Despite the fact that his record said that he had violently assaulted a man in the dead of the night, his behavior didn't seem to match what was described there.

He had excellent grades, perfect attendance, no altercations even before transferring to Shujin, and he didn't go out late.

What made it even weirder was that, no matter what contact of his he asked, no one seemed to know who, exactly, was the victim in that case.

Of course, that didn't mean that Shin was an excellent but nonetheless normal student either. Sojiro distinctively remembered the time when he came back to LeBlanc... with a girl on his shoulder. He was mildly concerned and explicitly shocked at the time.

Besides that interesting event, he knew of several others through Shin's diary. The boy kept noting every day in it, and while Sojiro felt that there was something being left out every now and then, what was written was quite detailed..

Sojiro felt a twinge of pride as he observed the boy's flirting skill, but he never commented on that subject to the teen himself. Part of the reason why was because if he knew that much, that meant there were other rather personal things he knew.

In spite of the fact that he was supposed to keep the diary as a way for Sojiro to monitor him, the depth to which he described every scene was incredible, and it made the older man a bit guilty for reading it.

One guilt-triggering event that took place not even one week after Shin arrived was when he interrupted that coach from what he presumed to be an attempted rape.

He intended to warn Shin to not let the girl get attached to him thoughtlessly, lest she wants to be hurt by his rejection in the future, but the boy seemed to handle it.

And Shin's capability aside, it'd be noticeably rude to simply butt in the teen's life problems.

At the same time, in another place.

"I'm back!" shouted the same red-haired girl that Sojiro saw carrying a giant bag as she entered through a door.

However, no one replied.

"Hmm." the girl left the bag near the door, which she closer after she entered, and went down the hall and into the room at the end.

She knocked 3 times on the door, but nothing happened. She knocked again, a little harder this time. As she was about to simply bust in the room, the door opened on its own.

In the doorway now stood a tall, slender boy with a mop of purple hair on his head. The boy was very pale, as if the sun hadn't touched his skin for ages, despite his youth. From beneath his sleep mask, a pair of magenta-colored eyes peeked at the person who was currently bothering him in his free time.

"What is it?" he asked.

If the boy's lack of interest bothered the girl, she didn't show it.

"I bought groceries. Come cook." she replied, casually.

With a sigh, the boy pulled the sleep mask down entirely, leaving it just dangling off his neck.

Contrary to what one might expect when looking at such a lethargic being, the purple-haired teen moved dexterously around the kitchen, while the girl watched with starry eyes.

"Done." said the boy as he set the last plate of food on the table.

"Ooh!" exclaimed the girl.

She immediately rushed to the table and begun eating with hunger. What might've been a large meal even for a normal family, was quickly finished by the girl alone.

On the side, leaning on a kitchen counter, was the boy, who was eating a sandwich.

"Next time," he paused to take another bite, and looked at the pile of groceries who was as daunting as ever. " don't buy so much food stuff. I'll have to cook all that before it goes bad."

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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 2

IV. Yusuke Kitagawa (The Emperor) - Rank 3

V. Sojiro Sakura (The Hierophant) - Rank 3

VI. Ann Takamaki (The Lovers) - Rank 7

VII. Ryuji Sakamoto (The Chariot) - Rank 6

IX. Futaba Sakura (The Hermit) - Rank 3

XIII. Tae Takemi (The Death) - Rank 4

XVIII. Saki Yoshiko (The Moon) - Rank 2

XIX. Sho Minazuki (The Sun) - Rank 2

XX. Sae Niijima (The Judgement) - Rank 1

Shiho Suzui (The Hope) - Rank 8