InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Mind's Eye ❯ A Plea for Help ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

AN: Wow… I suck. I'm really, really sorry about how long this took. Initially, I was taking a small break after finishing another story. Then, I got tons of homework. Then, I was lazy, and then I sprained my finger and couldn't type properly for two weeks 'cause my left ring and middle fingers were taped together. I really didn't mean for this to happen, and you are all justified for hating me now if you do.

Disclaimer: No owner would be HALF as irresponsible as me. I hope.

Responses:

Kathryn Angelle: No sweat! (About reviewing) I'm just glad you've reviewed more than once in the first place… Heh; I've just finished rereading the Dark Is Rising Sequence, myself. It's a great series, isn't it? I can read it over, and over, and over again… Go more in-depth with the characters; I'll keep that in mind, and thanks for pointing it out.

Inuyasha's hun: Heh… Sorry about that cliffie. Well, Kagome wears the glasses because she's uncomfortable with their current disability; metaphorically, she's hiding behind them. Nozomi has the bandana-ish thing for reasons currently unknown. It might come off later; it's not set in stone at the moment.

the color blue: Yeah… sorry about the grammar/spelling mistakes that litter my writing. (Don't have a beta, though I do skim my writing sometimes.) To be honest, we knew that he (the rabbit) was gonna die for a while. He wasn't doing so well, and it was probably for the best. The only thing is, my mom buried him in the back yard. I'm worried that my younger brother might dig him up by accident one day. (!) That would be bad.

Ardent-Amber: (Bows) Thank you!

Summer Whispers: Heh; it's my own way of ensnaring the reader. I kinda got the idea from the DaVinci Code; it was absolutely un-put-downable -and for me- redefined the meaning "Thriller". (Not the Michael Jackson song, of course)

Pawz: (Ch. 1) I'm glad that you like the bunnies! They're very fun to make. (Ch. 2) You're right, though (On the Inuyasha guide-dog thing), albeit a distinctly rude one. XD. (Ch. 3) Questions wll be answered, all in good time… (Ch. 4) Eek! Kagome â‰ Kikyo! No! Wow, I didn't realize that I made Inuyasha seem like that; I was really trying to make it more as if he was trying to help her, rather than see her as a duty… But I'd definitely say that their relationship has endured quite a shock, though not one they can't handle, after all, what with all they've been through up until this point. Kikyo might show up, but she's not too big of a character in it because I have problems writing her without making her pathetically tragic, or some sort of insane murderer. She's gotta be one of the most incredibly complex character in the show. (Ch. 5) I hope you find the answers to your questions in this chapter!

Inu-Hakan the lord of the immortal fire: Thanks! Glad'ja like it!

NewSalemWitch: Thank you! Oh, dear; where did you spot the OOC-ness? I shall find it, and kill it (Or try to). (Sigh) I was worried about that; the Kouga thing was really me just going out on a random whim. I'll go back and fix it, along with the OOC-ness. Thanks for tellin' me!

Inu-ears: Wow! Such high praise! Thank you, very much! And sorry it took so long!

agent-doo: Ooh, very, very close. Kagome can communicate with Nozomi because her powers are open to her, but for a different reason… Very perceptive! As for Miroku and Kaede's conversation… well, we'll see soon.

Kairivoosh: I think I got the general idea, though. ^_^ Thank you!

Inu Kaiba: That kinda makes me guilty. I know it's been forever since I did update, and then there are people like you who are waiting patiently for me to get a move on. But now that I'm practically finished with Haunted, thing'll hopefully be moving faster.

Tiamath: Well, it could really be Nozomi -the one in her dreams- or it could be some sort of mind-reader demon, or an agent of Naraku's, or something to do with the golem-creatures… at this point, there are more than a few possibilities. ^_^ (Sorry, I know that wasn't a very good answer.)

Emerald Fox Fire: O.o I hadn't quite thought of it that way… But you're right, there's quite a similarity there. Heh.

Anonymous: I'm sorry! I know it's been a long wait, and I really do know how you feel, having been in a situation myself when someone has taken forever to update a story. (Of course, coming from the angle of the author…)

Sabrinaw: Thankies! Sorry it took so long…

Priestessxserenity: Sorry sorry sorry! I know how impatient you must be now, and I'm really, really sorry that I put 'cha through all that waiting.

Yumiko-Emiko: Thanks!

The Mind's Eye

Chapter Six: A Plea for Help

"Why are you here?" Kagome demanded, hands on hips as the thick mist swirled around her. To be honest, it creeped her out. Just like the little girl standing in front of her.

"To h-elp -ou." Nozomi's voice echoed through her mind, but it was almost as if something was blocking it. Like listening to a radio in need of tuning. "This is th-e onl-y way I can speak -ith you. In your subconsiou-" The black-haired girl retched and fell over in the mist.

"Hey!" Kagome forgot her suspicion. "Are you okay?" She tried to help the small girl up, but her hands sank right through her. Nozomi wasn't really there.

"Y-our mind regects me," Nozomi replied in the softest whisper as she struggled to her feet. "B-ut my request is ur-gen-"

Creepy little girl, Kagome thought as she stood back. "What's wrong? I'm not garaunteeing that I'll help you, though." I'm still not sure if you're a demon in disguise, after all…

"It's a lo-sing battle," Nozomi replied cryptically. "I-ve be-en restraining her for cen-turies, but she f-ights-"

Kagome was becoming exasperated. "What are you talking about?"

"M-other. The m-other-" Nozomi was fading from sight, as if Kagome's vision was going blurry. "-disaster. I can no lon-ger hold her in-"

"Hey!" But everything was fading. With a frustrated sigh, Kagome felt everything disintegrate around her. "I'm getting really sick of this," she grumbled.

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"What?"

The others stared at her, askance, and Kagome found herself blushing slightly at the abrupt silence her comment created.

"I'm serious! She said that she was Nozomi, from the legend!" she said defensively, breakfast forgotten.

Miroku looked relieved. "Well, that explains quite a bit… such as how she could access your mind while you were sleeping, for instance."

"Why?" Sango set down her bowl.

"Because Kagome and Nozomi undoubtedly possess similar talents. Nozomi must've been highly sensitive to all manner of spiritual energy. The process that Kagome is going through widens her mind's ability to perceive through her powers."

"I see…" Kagome said slowly. "It's like a filter. The bigger the gaps, the more stuff I can detect, right?"

Miroku nodded in approval. "Exactly." His expression sobered. "However, there're still downsides. Your mind is more accessible. If I understand the mechanics correctly, your powers are acting as a channel between your mind and the world around you, just as your eyes would."

Kagome nodded thoughtfully as she fumbled with her food; another problem with being blind. "That makes sense…"

"Hey Miroku," Inuyasha interrupted, "Why didn't you mention this sooner?"

The monk replied, injury evident in his voice; "I didn't know before. I just started researching this technique." He turned back to his food. With a troubled frown on his face, he asked, "Kagome, what exactly is this?"

"Could you describe it?"

"Well, it's rectangular, and flat, and it's pink on one side…" He broke off a piece. "And there seems to be some strange… jam on the inside."

"Sounds like a pop tart." Kagome shrugged. "My cousin Michiko likes 'em, and she was staying at our house a few weeks ago. We had a bunch of leftovers after she left…"

"Ah." Dubiously, he nibbled at the corner. "It's so sweet."

Shippo perked up at this. "Can I try some, Miroku?"

Distastefully, the monk handed it to him. Shippo enjoyed it immensely. "Do you have any more of these, Kagome?"

The schoolgirl smiled slightly. "They're all yours."

"So you're saying that people'll be able to read my thoughts?" Kagome shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, you're not broadcasting them, if you know what I mean. Mind-reading will just be easier," Miroku explained. "But it's the same as seeing; eyes can be tricked, and so can your powers. There's downsides to both, you see?" He frowned. "The fact that a spirit can access your mind is rather troubling, even if she was once an incredibly powerful miko."

"She's creepy," admitted Kagome. "Kinda like Kanna, actually. She even looks kinda like her."

Kagome could hear alarm in the monk's voice as he replied. "You mean that you can see her?"

Kagome nodded. "She's got long black hair, and she looks about nine or so. Wearing white."

"Of course. Your mind is your domain. You don't need eyes to see there." Miroku sighed. "But what I don't understand is why the Twisted Essences reappeared after so long."

"Oh, I remember!" Kagome sat up straight. "Nozomi said that she needed my help, that some 'Mother' was escaping her, or something." The abrupt, tense silence from the others told her that this was big news.

"…The 'Mother'?" Sango repeated, her tone carefully neutral. "She didn't… elaborate, did she?"

"…No…" Kagome replied thoughtfully, thinking back. "She just said 'Mother'."

"Sango, you've heard of her?" Miroku asked, curious.

"It rings a bell…" the demon exterminator thought for a moment and sighed with frustration. "But I can't remember now. I have a feeling that it's not good, though."

Miroku nodded. "Doubtless, if a priestess is holding her back. And if she's just keeping this 'Mother' in check, then I'd assume that it's a powerful demon."

"Hey-" Kagome stopped abruptly and frowned. "I had it! There's a legend at home." She sighed. "And even if I could find it, I wouldn't be able to read it. But I know what it looks like. It's very, very old, and it's kept in a small black box. I think it's made of granite, and the writing's so archaic that it's almost impossible to read." She picked at her food, her sleepy morning mood soured with yet another reminder of her disability.

There was an awkward silence as everyone thought of what to say in response. Inuyasha finally managed a weak, "Keh."

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"Nozomi?" Kagome stood in the mist, foot tapping impatiently upon the ground. "Where are you?" The mist of the last few nights had disappeared completely, but Kagome was still unable to see her surroundings. If she strained her eyes enough, she could make out dim shapes.

Kagome glanced about uneasily. "Hey, Nozomi?"

"Hello."

Kagome turned with a slight shudder. Somehow, she'd forgotten how creepy the little priestess was. "Oh, hey. Could you finish telling me what you were-"

"I'm afraid that I will not be able to finish explaining. There is very little time." For once, Kagome noticed a flicker of urgency in the otherwise pale and expressionless face. "I need to give you instructions."

Kagome watched her carefully, suspicious. "And what're the instructions for, exact-"

"At the next full moon, Mother will be able to break free. Before that time, I must instruct you how to seal her away. One cannot do it. I can only hold her. But perhaps two…"

Kagome was flung back violently from this other-place -or perhaps dragged away with a frustrated sigh. She broke through a rubbery resistance, and she was rushed through normal space, trees rushing by in a blur. "Whoa!" She put her hands up as a dark trunk approached. She was going to crash-

"Huh? I passed through it…" And another strange thing, Kagome noticed with sudden suspicion and bewilderment. "I can see? What the heck is going on here?"

Her path started to descend closer to the ground, and then jolted as she crashed into something solid.

"Ow!" Kagome sat up and rubbed her head indignantly.

"Kagome!"

"Are you alright?"

"What in all the hells-"

Something small crashed into her shoulder. "Kagome! We thought you were never gonna wake up!"

She couldn't see again, and a small part of her crumpled with disappointment. Every one of these runins with Nozomi left her bitterly feeling her loss.

A clawed hand gripped her shoulder painfully tight. "Kagome?" Beneath the roughness of his tone, she could hear Inuyasha's concern. "Was it Nozomi again? What happened?"

Miroku broke in, sounding tired. "I had to drag your spirit back to your body when you wouldn't wake up. It wasn't easy. Someone had a very strong grip on you."

"So that's why I got dragged out. And it did look different…" the schoolgirl mused. "Usually, the place I saw was all misty. This time it was really blurry, but there was no mist."

Her explanation was received by troubled silence.

Still clinging to her arm, Shippo asked, "Kagome, aren't you worried? We really have no idea who this Nozomi person is! And what if it's one of Naraku's tricks again?"

"It is something he'd do," Sango admitted thoughtfully. "But could he have become strong enough to release those golems?"

"And Kagura was there, remember."

"If only I remembered that legend!" Kagome exclaimed in frustration. "Arg! This is driving me insane!"

"I suggest that we head back to the Well. Kagome can to her time and search for the legend, and we can consult Kaede." As usual, Miroku had come up with the most logical idea.

"Fine," Inuaysha said grudgingly.

"It's not like we were looking for anything," Sango reprimanded. "Don't sound so sulky."

"You should take your own advice, Sango," Shippo commented frankly.

Sango laughed slightly. "I think you're right," she admitted, standing up and swinging Hiraikotsu over one shoulder. She'd been tense lately, with the three monsters, Kagome's meetings with Nozomi, but most of all, an instinct that constantly nagged her, telling her that she was overlooking something very important.

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After deciding to head back to the village- and the Bone Eater's Well, the next few days were uneventful, besides a minor rainstorm and a run-in with a small band of bandits, who ended up running away from them.

The relatively easy trip should've warned Kagome that something bad was going to happen.

Blearily, the black-haired girl sat up in bed and blew her stuffed nose, tossing the used tissue into the half-full wastepaper basket next to her. "Of all the times to catch a cold…" she muttered grumpily, pounding head falling back on her pillow.

"Kagome?" It was Souta calling from the bottom of the stairs.

Kagome sat up again. "Did Grampa find the legend?" she asked eagerly.

"No," replied the younger sibling, exasperated. "I'll tell you when he finds it! Inuyasha's here, though."

Her door opened with a creak and the hanyou's rough voice said, "So he's still lookin', huh? The old geezer's been down there two days."

"I know," Kagome acknowledged groggily, "but he keeps finding stuff that he forgot we had. He was drooling over some old samurai sword a few hours ago, and before that it was a necklace thing. I wish I could see… it, I mean. I wish I could look for it myself, but 'cause I'm sick-"

"I know," he said flatly. I know that you're suffering. I know you can't stand being blind. "Hey, I could help him look."

"Are you sure?" Kagome replied doubtfully, rubbing her nose and sniffing. "Well, if you want, go ahead." She leaned back against the pillow. "Suit yourself." She listened as his footsteps retreated out of the room and down the stairs and sighed.

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Half an hour of fruitless searching later, the only thing that was keeping Inuyasha from killing Kagome's grandfather was the amount of pain the girl would inflict on him if he did.

Meanwhile, the senior seemed to've made yet another "incredible find".

"Look here, boy!" Excitedly, he held up what appeared to be an old shoe. "Do you know what this is?"

"No," the hanyou replied flatly. "And I don't care, either-"

"It's an ancient artifact from over 800 years ago! It's priceless! How can you say that you don't care?" huffed Mr. Higurashi, brandishing the "priceless artifact". "This is a piece of history, right here in my hand! If I remember correctly, this belonged to a powerful warlord who…"

Fists clenched tightly and trembling with desire to hit the old man, Inuyasha slowly counted to ten. "Let's just find that legend, okay?"

"Ah! Of course." Reverently, Mr. Higurashi placed the shoe down in a steadily growing pile of artifacts. "If I remember correctly, it should be in the corner over there- my goodness! I'd completely forgotten about these!"

"Hey!" Inuyasha finally shouted. "We're looking for the LEGEND, remem-"

"The wedding." The senior smiled fondly. "Under the Go-Shinboku… it was such a happy time."

Curiously, the hanyou peered over his shoulder. "You mean that's Kagome's dad?" he asked, clawed finger indicating a broadly smiling man.

"Yes. His name was Kiyoshi." Mr. Higurashi cleared his throat. "He died before Souta was born in a fire."

"Oh." Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably.

"Anyway…" Mr. Higurashi straightened and put the dusty photo back. "Let's find that legend. Oh! The petrified leg of a bull! What a find!"

Inuyasha sniffed in disgust. "You have a worse attention span than Miroku when pretty women walk by him-"

And sniffed again.

Putting one hand to his nose, he pondered aloud. "Hey, old man, is that leg you found rotting?"

Mr. Higurashi bristled. "How dare you suggest that I'd let something so precious fall into disrepair!"

"No, that's not it…" the hanyou continued, completely ignoring the senior. "It's not like meat rotting…" It was a cloying, thickly sweet smell- like rotting meat- but there was something else there. Like the smell of the black smoke that came from the big metal contraptions that thundered about in this era. Something poisonous and metallic.

And definitely not good.

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"Hey Sango, Inuyasha's been gone a long time, huh?"

Shippo sat down on the ground by the demon exterminator's feet as she kept a wary eye on a certain wayward monk as he flirted shamelessly with two women.

"Kagome's there. It's like he's being drawn by a magnet." She smiled slightly as a woman slapped Miroku for putting his hands where they didn't belong. "Bet he didn't know she was engaged."

"No, he knew," Shippo replied. "He knows about all the village women. He just couldn't keep away- Ouch. That looked pretty painful." The fox demon's green eyes widened as Miroku reeled back, eyes slightly out of focus.

"He deserved it." Sango smiled in satisfaction. "He's always standing around women, and it's time he learned his lesso-"

She swung round, brown eyes searching intently for something in the forest behind her, immediately falling into a defensive posture.

"Sango?"

Nothing but silence and the quiet rustling of the trees. After a moment, she sighed and lowered her arm. "There's something out there," she said. "And it's watching us."

Shippo shuddered. "Stoppit. You're scaring me." With a paranoid glance behind his shoulder, he scampered up to Sango and tugged on the hem of her clothes. He was feeling uneasy all of a sudden."C'mon. Let's go!" His voice rose to a shrill note, because he suddenly realized that Sango was right; he could've sworn that he'd seen someone running away.

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Inuyasha was pushing through heaps of junk. "No, no, no…"

Mr. Higurashi was almost in tears. "What're you doing? That's a priceless mask from Bejing, imported by the- no! Don't tip that upside down! Those are the ashes of the famous warrior Tsuitoku of-"

"Never heard of 'im. Now shut up, I'm trying to concentrate- ah! Here it is!"

"What?" Mr. Higurashi set the rescued urn on the floor and stepped over the mess the hanyou had made. "Ah! You found it!"

"I think you should step back, old man." Inuyasha set the small black box on the floor. Smoke was wafting from beneath the lid, but instead of rising into the air, it gathered around the floor in little plumes, bringing with it that same thick smell.

"It's been cursed!" The senior recoiled in horror. Gathering he wits, he continued; "Don't worry, I'll exorcise it in a moment. I'll go assemble some things-"

"No time for that," Inuyasha replied tersely as the smoke -or was it mist?- started to ebb. Grabbing a long pole (with great protest from Mr. Higurashi), he gingerly lifted the lid.

"Dammit!"

The box was empty. Nozomi's legend was gone, except for a few fragments of ash. It had burned to a crisp. The small black box slipped from between Inuyasha's fingers as he turned and stalked out of the basement, Mr. Higurashi close behind him.

Neither of them noticed the strange pattern left by the ash on the bottom of the box; a circle with a two lines cutting across the center in a cross.

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Upstairs, Kagome was sitting upright in bed, despite a pounding headache that urged her to lie down. As Inuyasha's footsteps stomped up the stairs and the door to her bedroom crashed open, she asked, "What happened? There was a strange surge of energy from the basement."

With a low, bad-tempered growl underlying his words, the hanyou briefly explained what happened.

"Huh," commented Kagome. "That was bad timing."

"Obviously," snorted Inuyasha in reply. "Someone -or something doesn't want to find something out about Nozomi. Especially not why she suddenly disappeared. Something probably took her away, and doesn't want us to know what it is."

"Maybe Miroku found out some other stuff," Kagome responded sleepily.

"I'll go check." The door slammed shut and footsteps echoed on the stairs.

"He's taking this too personally," Kagome commented, blowing her nose. She paused to throw the tissue in a steadily-filling garbage basket by her bed. "I wonder why?"

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"Kagome!"

It was Eri, and she was standing right outside of Kagome's bedroom.

Kagome moved away from her desk- she was thoroughly sick of stumbling over Braille- and opened the door to her room. "Hi, Eri!"

"Are you okay?" It was Ayumi. "Your Grandfather said that you were in the hospital since…"

"…since your accident," concluded Eri, eager to break in. "Why were you there so long?"

"Um… They had to do tests on my eyes," Kagome replied. "And stuff."

"Oh. Here; we brought you flowers! And Hojo-" Ayumi giggled slightly- "asked us to give you this."

Eri put a bag in Kagome's lap. Her hands traced the object carefully. "What is it?"

"Oh! Here!" There was a rustling sound as Ayumi unwrapped the present. "It's a book in Braille; a really simple one, so that you can practice reading with it."

Kagome sighed.

"What? You don't like it?" Eri asked anxiously. "I'm sure he didn't mean anything-"

"No, it's not that!" Kagome hastily assured them. "It's a great idea. I've been doing a lot of work with Braille. It's impossible!" She set the book on the table and wrinkled her nose. "What's that smell?"

"What smelll? I don't smell anything…"

"It's like…" weird. She picked up the flowers and sniffed. "It's the flowers."

Eri picked them up. "Wow, you have a really good sense of smell, Kagome. I couldn't smell them at all. They're lavendar."

They were. But there was something else there, too. Something that wasn't like flowers at all… She sniffed again and frowned. "Eri, these flowers. Do you notice anything weird about them?"

"Whaddaya mean?" The other schoolgirl was puzzled. "They're just flowers. Is there something wrong, Kagome?"

"No. I was just wondering."

If only she could see for herself. Why did she have to become blind now, when all these monsters were running around and a dead girl popped in and out of her dreams?

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"… said… the…cat… to … the …dog. If… they… both… worked… to-together… the… work… would… go… faster." Kagome slammed the book closed and flopped back on her bed. Hojo's book may have been a good idea, but his choice of reading could use some work.

Okay, a lot of work.

And Inuyasha -despite good intentions, and because of curiousity- kept peering over her shoulder when she was trying to read, and making all sorts of comments on the funny bumps on the paper when he was there. As he was doing now.

"Hey! Why'd you close it? I was looking at it. Wouldn't closing it smash all the little bumps? Seems pretty stupid, if you ask me. They should be made out of wood. Then they could get squished."

"It's also be a lot more expensive," Kagome interrupited. "Besides, paper is wood."

"Does it matter?" The hanyou snorted. "It's still a stupid idea, if you ask-"

"…ask?" Kagome concluded. "Well, I didn't ask you, did I?" When Inuyasha didn't reply, Kagome concentrated. With an odd twinging feeling that she was starting to get used to, she scanned the room. He'd left.

"Well, that's rude."

After a few minutes in which Kagome actually got some work accomplished, Inuyasha returned, grumbling under his breath.

"What was that all about?"

"Nothing," the hanyou replied sourly. "Absolutely nothing."

"If you say so," Kagome said dubiously. "But if you're just gonna sit and grumble, you can do it somewhere else."

"What's that smell?" Inuyasha sounded anxious.

"Oh, you mean these?" She groped for the vase that her mother had put the flowers in. "They smell pretty weird, don't they? But I dunno what it is. Do they look funny to you?"

Inuyasha didn't reply. He pulled one of the stems from the vase, amber eyes hostile. He sniffed.

"Yeck!"

"What's wrong?" Kagome demanded as he gagged. "Are you alright?"

Hastily returning the flower to it's vase, he replied. "It's the same smell as that box!"

"What box?"

"The one with the legend in it! Or, the one that used to have the legend in it. Before it burned."

Kagome frowned. "That's weird. I'll hafta ask Ayumi and Eri where they got these." She indicated the vase. "Because I didn't think they smelled right when they brought them in- hey! I wonder if they have an aura!" A twinge, and then…

"They do!"

"Well, don't just sit there! Describe it!"

"Okay! You don't hafta get so crazy about it! It's kinda like a normal plant, and kinda like those golem-things. But not like it. It's weird like it."

"Then I'm taking them to Kaede." He grabbed the vase and strode out of the room.

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AN: I'M SO SORRY! (Again). I PROMISE THAT THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL NOT TAKE FOUR MONTHS TO WRITE!

Questions and comments are welcome. And criticism is more than welcome; I encourage it! (Reading over bits of Haunted, I realized that I don't like my writing).

Thanks for reading!