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Zen raving about Iori to the old man's grave. 😂

We get to see Iori and Reo's first encounter. Iori answered his calls for help and then took him in.

Whenever his mother was around, he was selfish and spoiled to a fault, wanting to reaffirm that she cared about him despite her absence. Eventually, she stopped coming home altogether; then, his father vanished, too, and when he did, he left behind a mountain of debt with which Reo got saddled. Reo was the only one left, and he soon spent his days being hounded by debt collectors.

Damn...

Back then, Iori hadn't started using the phony kansai-ben in imitation of the boss

That's why he uses it?? Makes sense.

I understand why Reo and Satsuki get along the least now. They started off on the wrong foot and have different ways of communicating. But it seems Satsuki managed to draw Reo out of his shell.

LOL Zen getting jealous over Iori looking at a picture of himself and Yohei.

One of the reasons Zen got into training so much is because of a scar? Whooa what? Zen was a straight-laced police officer who went undercover in the Suiseki?! He couldn't lie to save his life so they knew, but they took a shining to him and he learned their principles, and he ended up taking a bullet for Iori...

"Aniki, you think of me as a partner," Zen said. "Even after Yohei-san is gone, you've accepted me as your new--"

"Why do I feel like I'm dealing with a chick who's jealous of my ex-girlfriend..." Iori muttered.

He said it!

Aw, the part with Hokusai, everyone loved him in the Suiseki group.

Reo was at a loss for words. He was good at people-pleasing; he had learned how to flirt and sweet talk from his father, and while that was certainly a method of winning over young people and pretty girls, it wasn't exactly how you attracted people to a festival.

Hokusai saving the day as always...

Aw, the Suiseki old man listened to Yohei's music after he left to start rapping. 😭

Hokusai's great at drawing, somehow not surprised. Reo opens up a little. They'll think we're just freeloaders. And if I can't do anything on my own, if I'm a freeloader, then there's no way I'll be able to stay here...

So the Suiseki were giving money to Alter Trigger because it was supposedly going into researching ways to use phantometal to help the heard-of-hearing communicate?? Iori had doubts though.

"Zen... you can't tell him everything or else he'll go run off and blab, but if you just tell him one thing at a time, he'll go all-out to do whatever you tell him. And he's got a whole lot of faith in me, too... he's a real interesting guy,"

Such an apt description.

So Hokusai's rap name comes from what Iori calls him, Satsuki just heard 'Gaia' from somewhere and liked it, I'm surprised Reo was able to hold back from laughing his ass off.

Satsuki rushing ahead to save Reo, my heart. 😭❤️️ And I'm even more sad about Old Man Suiseki and the others deaths now.

Reo imagining seeing all of those who died around Suiseki's grave made me tear up like daamn.

Thanks to this story I learned that yakuza are involved in summer festivals.

Akan Yatsura comes from Old Man Suiseki commenting on how the boys are. I need a bandaid for my heart now. Really good story.

(Did Alter Trigger take out Reo's dad or did he really just run off?)