The rest of your shopping spree went surprisingly well, although it was more due to the fact that Shu was ignoring you than him being cooperative and easygoing. He seemed to be incredibly irritated that you had wandered off on your own despite the fact that he had left you there in the first place. Does he think I'm some kind of pet?

You glanced at the blonde doll that was in his hand. Even though she was a non-sentient being it seemed that her crystal-like eyes had a twinge of sympathy in their depths. Shu got a few glances from people walking by but surprisingly no rambunctious high-schooler made a derogatory remark.

This was the last shop that he had wanted to go in, and he was browsing the fabrics and clothing without so much as glancing your way. The only interaction you two shared was him handing you the bags containing the items he bought. Am I seriously just his baggage porter? Whatever he had said about making you his marionette was starting to seem more and more like a falsity he had spouted in the spur of the moment.

"Itsuki, why am I here? Couldn't you have asked Kagehira to do this instead?"

Considering Mika's adoration for Shu he probably would've been overjoyed to help him out—it seemed like he got some sort of sadistic enjoyment out of Shu degrading him.

Turning to you in a contentious manner, he scowled. "I asked you, did I not? Are you displeased to accompany me?"

"Well...sorta," you muttered, averting your eyes away from his gaze. "It sort of feels like all I'm doing is being your baggage porter which isn't particularly enjoyable."

He blinked in surprise at your words. "You...are not enjoying this? How strange. Kagehira adores this task so I figured that you would as well."

I think it's more that he enjoys being with you.

You decided to leave that unsaid. "Different people enjoy different things. I sort of thought that you were going to talk to me and not just have me follow you around awkwardly."

Shu glanced at Mademoiselle as if he were telepathically asking her a question. Only a moment later did nod to her and cast his gaze back upon you, declaring: "Very well. I suppose I could attempt to make this experience more enjoyable for you. It seems that you require more maintenance than Kagehira."

And then he hastily extended his hand towards you.

"Ah thanks," you handed him some of the bags that he had forced you to carry, and his expression seemed to deflate a bit. "Wait, was that not it?"

"A-ahem. No, I was simply thinking that you gave me one-too-many bags," he turned away and continued down the aisle.

"Uh-huh."

. . .

When you had finally finished your shopping spree you two parted ways, Shu wanting to do another errand whilst you wanted to go back to Yumenosaki. When he asked for the details of why, you told him that it was to go ask a teacher for help on something.

The truth of the matter was that you were going back to the school in an attempt to learn how to sew. Perhaps Shu's adoration for the arts was rubbing off on you, but you had seen so many beautiful designs in the stores that it made you motivated to start something new; maybe this was a way for you to finally break free of your mundane daily cycle and find something to be passionate about.

You tentatively entered Shu's classroom space and placed down the small amount of sewing supplies and fabric you had managed to buy with 2602 yen. His large variety of creations were hung around the room, each possessing a unique style while somehow avoiding being spontaneous. This was the first time you had the time to really look at Shu's creations. You glanced behind you to make sure that no one in the hallway spotted you and shut the large doors that served as the only means to get into the room.

Despite his rather raunchous personality, you couldn't deny that Shu was an artistic genius. To possess such prowess at such a young age was a phenomena that occurred to only one in several thousand people. On top of just being talented at sewing and design, he also had a spectacular singing voice. You had seen a few clips of him online and from that had inferred that there was a reason why Valkyrie had remained the supreme unit in Yumenosaki until Tenshouin Eichi overturned the system.

You didn't want to jump to conclusions and assume that the 'Nito' he had muttered about had been Nito Nazuna, but now there was almost no doubt. It seemed as if the boy had left and formed a different unit with a group of underclassmen, giving up his high position in the rankings for a style that better-suited his personality.

Gazing down at the fabric before you, you weren't entirely sure where exactly to begin. You knew that you had to put the needle through the fabric over and over, but you had essentially no experience otherwise (save for threading a few needles every here and there).

This is going to be a continuous uphill battle, isn't it?

You sighed and sat down, pulling out your phone to look up some basic tutorials. Thirty minutes later you finally managed to grasp the concept and sew a consistent thread through the fabric.

Suddenly the door behind you creaked open, causing you to spring out of your chair and spin towards it.

"Teach, I didn't know you were comin'—" Mika's whole body drooped down in disappointment when he saw that it was you there and not Shu. "Oh, it's you."

Jeez. These two really know how to annihilate someone's self-esteem. You feigned ignorance to his obvious and almost belligerent attitude and greeted him with a smile. "Why are you here so late after school hours, Kagehira? I hope that everything's alright."

Mika rubbed his hand on the back of his head and dodged the question. "I could ask the same thing of you, ya know."

You decided that it would be best to just answer his statement that was phrased like an accusation with honesty. If you wanted to get them to participate in this 'SS' ordeal you would have to earn at least a little of their trust. "That's a fair question. I decided that since I had some spare time in my otherwise mundane and repetitive life I would put it to good use and learn how to sew a little. I bought some supplies and came back here to start."

"Yer interested in sewing?" Mika tilted his head to one side. "I thought that you didn't like getting yer hands dirty, or somethin' like that."

Is he trying to test me to see how many insults I can take before I break? "Haha, do I give off that sort of impression?"

"Just heard it somewhere."

"I can't believe some people truly believe such baseless gossip," you shot back at him in exasperation before you could stop yourself. People had constantly backtalked about you and called you 'stuck-up' just because you cared about your academics. Since when was wanting to lead a successful life and participating in school a bad thing? The more irritating aspect of people's gossip was they tried to speculate about your personal life as if they were no-lifes who have nothing to do except speculate about other people and shit-talk them when the recipient never did anything to deserve it. So, to summarize, Mika had hit a nerve.

His heterochromic eyes widened at my retort before his lips spread into a melancholy smile.

 "Yeah. People make up all kinds of rumors about Teach and his world, even though they've never experienced it." Mika glanced at the sewing supplies behind me. "Uhm, what were you trying to do there?"

You quickly stepped to the side to block his view of your rather messy attempt at a running stitch. "Nothing important!"

I didn't really want anyone to see my feeble first attempt at sewing, but I especially didn't want either Itsuki or Kagehira to. They'll definitely use it as blackmail or something.

"'Kay," Mika shrugged and walked over to a rack of clothes, beginning to file through them systematically. 

"U-uhm, Kagehira," you called out to him hesitantly. "Would it be possible for you to help me learn how to sew things better?" 

He stopped fiddling with the clothing and turned to stare at you inquisitively. "Me? Wouldn't you rather have Teach help ya out?"

God forbid.

"I'd much rather have you help me. Itsuki is...well...borderline unapproachable? It feels like he would scoff if I asked for his help and say that I'm a 'peon' or something."

Mika smiled fondly as if reminiscing on past experiences. "Teach is like that, huh?"

Is he actually some sort of masochist? You were somewhat concerned for his mental health considering that he was around Shu all the time, so him developing some weird perspectives on life was really no surprise. "So will you help me?"

He placed a thumb on his chin as he contemplated his response. "I guess I could for a little while."

"Thank you so much!" you smiled at him in a moment of relief. "I really appreciate it."

"Er...it's really not that massive of a favor," Mika muttered a bashful response. He walked over to me and pulled a chair around so that he could sit next to me, gazing thoughtfully at my stitch. "This is pretty good for a beginner, it looks like you understand the general movement of the needle pretty well." He brushed a finger over a few points on the fabric. "It just seems like they're a little uneven in some places but it can be fixed with some practice. Sorry, I'm not as good of a teacher or clothier as Teach is..." He narrowed his gaze. "Also, aren't you Teach's secret fangirl or something?"

"I'm what now?!" your jaw practically hit the floor at his statement. "I'd never be his fangirl. Ever. I'm only here to gain experience. I would've said yes if any other person had asked."

At those words, the tension in his shoulders seemed to relax a bit. "You don't seem to be lyin', so I'll trust ya."

With his original barrier out of the way, Mika was a lot easier to converse with than you would've thought. He didn't look at you like you were imbecilic because of your lack of skill—rather, he pointed out the problems you made and showed you how to do them properly. By the time your hands had grown sore Mika had shown you how to make consistent stitches and shown tricks on efficiency with different types of fabric.

"Well, I should go home," Mika stood up and picked up his bag, making way to leave and head home. "Yer not doing bad for a beginner, so...if you ever need help I could try and fit it in my schedule somewhere or other, I guess."

"Thank you so much!" your expression lit up in delight. "I'll make sure to let you know."
"Well...see ya later."

Once he left you let out a sigh of relief. It was stressful to be around someone when you didn't know if they liked you or not—let alone learning something new. However you still felt satisfied with yourself since it was the first time that you had really branched out into something you weren't used to.

Maybe it isn't impossible for me to find a passion...all I have to do is keep searching. Dreams wouldn't come true unless you worked for it but you believed that the same remained true for creating them. Because in the grand scheme of things, right now you were nothing but a doll with no face. 

Hi guys, I'm sorry this update took so long. T^T I wanted to make sure this chapter would make sense, so I ended up rewriting it a bunch of times (trust me you DO NOT want to see the first draft of this--let's just say it involved a lot of ranting in French..) but I got Valkyrie's first album and it has Shu Itsuki's signature on it and I know it's not actually his signature but omg when I tell you that I SCREAMED when I saw it. I hope you guys have had a great new year ly all <33 thank you for all the reads, votes, and comments on this fanfic.