So before the chapter begins I wanted to thank for all the people reading this story (๑>◡<๑). I saw how many people read this and I know it's not really much compared to some other great stories but I am happy that there are so many people interested in this story.
Maybe because of the anime, Naka no Hito Genome, or just because you like Utaite stories. Either way I'm very happy that people share the same interest like me in this and I know I'm saying too much and I know that you might not even be reading this right now and just jump to the chapter because this is really getting too long and I'm just talking to myself which would be a bit embarrassing :;(∩///'﹏'///∩);:. Wwwww.
So thanks if you even read this long passage here www. Also I wanted to thank all the readers that are commenting in here because I'm always very happy about reading your comments! So thank you!
╰(* ' ▽ ' *)╯♡
Now enough with the talking. Have fun reading the chapter!

"Are you kidding me?!", Urata shouted as Shima and Senra flinched hearing that almost tearing up. Shima hugged Senra trying to calm him down even though he was scared as well.

Urata felt guilty as he was about to apologize but Sakata was faster to speak than him.

"You scared them, Ura-san. We're their parents now so take responsibility!", Sakata said as Urata's guilty expression changed to one of embarrassment and annoyance. "Huh?!

What do you mean we're their parents? We are just playing this game to clear this stage!", Urata said as Sakata ignored him and walked to both Senra and Shima hugging them.

"There, there. He looks quite scary, doesn't he? Ura-san might look scary but he's really nice actually. You just have to get to know him more to see that!", Sakata assured them as he patted their heads and they understood nodding.

Sakata smiled at that turning towards Urata his smile brightening even more of possible.

"Ura-san! They understood! They know your true kindness!", Sakata said smiling brightly at Urata who felt his face becoming the same color as Sakata's hair. He turned away nodding.

"Good for you...", he said trying to hide his face. Sakata frowned as he walked to Urata.

"Ura-san! Look at meeeee!", Sakata said throwing himself on Urata as Urata just became redder trying to push him off. "L-let go of me!", Urata demanded trying to pry Sakata off who just laughed in response tightening his hug.

Shima and Senra who watched this scene playing before them started laughing as Sakata smiled even more. "Look! Even they're on my side!", Sakata said not letting go of the brunette who slowly gave up and trying to pry Sakata off.

Will you still smile at me when you find out the truth? I can't bear to leave you again... Will you be as devastated as you were like when you were before? I don't want to hurt you again.

Would it be better to leave you now before you can get hurt even more or should I stay? Will you forget me again like you did before?

Those questions would always hunt Urata whenever he saw Sakata but when he saw Sakata smiling at him he just couldn't bring himself to leave him. This is just not fair... How come you can forget me but I can't forget you?

Urata thought as he smiled bitterly. Sakata who noticed that Urata stayed motionless furrowed his eyebrows in worry. "Ura-san?", he called out as Urata snapped out of his thoughts again.

"Just let go of me.", he said in his usual annoyance as he didn't want to worry Sakata even more.

Sakata pouted as he refused to let go and they just kept bickering as the two kids watched them laughing with each other.

Mafumafu stared at Soraru who just stared back before smiling sleepily as Mafumafu felt an arrow shoot through his heart. Why do you have to be so adorable, Soraru-san?!

Mafumafu asked himself as he squeezed Soraru rubbing his cheek against Soraru's hair. "You're so adorable!", Mafumafu squealed.

Soraru was feeling tired but still hugged back making Mafumafu smile brightly.

"Kashi, come here.", Amatsuki said waving. Kashitaro did as told but he did so without saying anything which worried Amatsuki.

Instead of the cheerful and always smiling Kashitaro this child was just sitting there like a doll not showing any emotions.

Amatsuki was used to having Kashitaro support him so having the roles switched was a bit unusual for him but he still decided to do his best. Kashi always helped me through hard times so now it's my turn to return the favor. Amatsuki thought determined to be the one helping his friends.

"Naka no Hito Genome?", Rib asked as he set the cups of coffee down on the desk before sitting down himself. "Yeah, do you know if Kashitaro-san has been playing this game?", Hashiyan asked as he took the cup and took a small sip from it.

"I don't really know. He played many games but all of them were Sengoku games so... yeah, I guess if Naka no Hito whatever was a Sengoku game then he probably played it before.

He was really obsessed with those games. Those games, music and his friend were his only distraction.", Rib said and they could see he was sad to tell them that. Eve just sipped on his coffee when he noticed a small tablet on the piano.

Seeing that the other two were talking he stood up and walked towards the piano lifting the tablet and widened his eyes when he saw the notification lightning up the tablet.

Rib who was just about to pour another cup of coffee for Hashiyan stopped when Eve called Hashiyan. "Hashiyan-san! This is!", Eve said showing Hashiyan the tablet.

"Congratulations!
We are offering you, a charismatic uploader that we've chosen to play in the closed beta of "The Ones Within Genome". Furthermore, this privilege cannot be rejected or transferred. We look forward to meeting you!"

"Naka no Hito Genome... Hidden Stage... We look forward to meeting you?", Hashiyan asked as he took the tablet inspecting the site.

"Rib-san! Is this from...", Eve started as Rib nodded. "This is Kashitaro's...", Rib answered not believing it himself. "When did this screen appear?", Hashiyan asked.

"Eh?", Rib was still at a loss for words as Hashiyan bombarded him with another question. "Has it been like this since he went missing?", Hashiyan asked as Rib just stood there shaking his head.

"I don't know! I never touch Kashitaro's belongings and his games. I, at least, wanted to give him the privacy he deserves!", Rib said as the other two just looked at him wordlessly.

Time skip
"It's here. Sou has that game too.", Eve said as he scrolled through the phone showing the account of Sou. "It claims to be a simulation game...

Amatsuki always plays nurturing games so I thought Naka no Hito Genome would be one.", Hashiyan said as he looked at the screen.

"No, Naka no Hito Genome is, in fact, a mixture of genres. You have to pick an observer to choose your desired game type. Unlock the story by clearing stages. The ending will be unlocked once all of the 22 Chromosomes have been gathered.

But it seems that there hasn't been any real information about the true ending of the game. The live streams and online guides all stopped updating right before the ending.", Tomohisa explained as he focused on the street driving.

"A game that causes people to go missing...", Hashiyan said thinking back to the time where Amatsuki, Hashiyan and Tomohisa would always joke around them teasing Amatsuki about his possible crush on his gamer friend.

Amatsuki would always turn red and then deny it before trying to change the topic. How he missed those times when they would joke around and tease each other. "...Should we play it?", Hashiyan asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Are you serious about that?", Tomohisa asked turning serious looking at Hashiyan through the mirror. "According to the information we received 40% of the missing people have interacted with the game. It's a connection we can no longer ignore.", Hashiyan said. "But, Hashiyan—".

"My job as a investigator is to check all different possibilities.", Hashiyan interrupted Tomohisa and there was a short moment of an uncomfortable silence before Eve decided to break it.

"But... isn't the game quite complicated? Sou has gotten over 60 Episodes of it and I even thought he would get bored of it soon. Wh-what I want to say is that it's very time consuming to clear all the stages.", Eve added when he saw that Hashiyan just smiled tiredly at him.

"Yup, that's why... I wanted to use a shortcut. Right, To-mo-hi-sa?", he asked stretching every syllable of Tomohisa's name who just sighed.

"...It is possible to change the coding of the game. There's no evidence saying it can't be done but I've never really tried it out before so I can't know for sure.", Tomohisa reasoned as Hashiyan just nodded smiling. "That's fine.

Leave everything after the ending to me.", Hashiyan said as Tomohisa just looked at him with an Are you Serious-expression before nodding.

"You're lucky that we're childhood friends.", Tomohisa muttered before he stomped into the office as Hashiyan just waved smiling.

"Isn't he a great friend?", Hashiyan asked as he turned towards Eve.

Eve just nodded wordlessly finding the interaction between the two strange yet admirable. "I guess he is.", Eve smiled sadly remembering that Sou's not with him right now.

Hashiyan noticed as he quickly changed the topic still keeping his smile on and pretending not to notice the sad smile on Eve's face.

It was better not to mention it now. "An-y-waaays! Eve-kun, do you want to accompany me to one more family?", Hashiyan asked as Eve nodded. "Sure.", he accepted going into the car once again as Hashiyan stared driving.

"So where are we going?", Eve asked as Hashiyan focused his attention on the street before answering. "Well, there is this one high school student who went missing around the time Amatsuki went missing. They went to the same school but other classes. You said Sou-kun went missing for about a year, right? They went missing a bit after.

Just a month or two. Though I have talked to his classmates already, I just can't get into contact with his family as well.", Hashiyan said as he gave Eve a file which he took and opened.

"He looks.... quite unique.", Eve said as he looked at the boy with white hair and red eyes. There was even a barcode on his cheek. "He does right? Even his name is unique. Mafumafu.", Hashiyan said as they arrived and stepped out of the car.

"Alright, everyone! Clasp your hands together like this. Father. Mother. Retrodot.

Thanks for the meal!", Mafumafu said clasping his hands together. "Thank you for the meal!", the kids repeated after him. Urata just wanted to eat his food when he noticed that all the caretakers including him had a kid meal as well.

"Ok, why do the we all have kid meals?", Urata asked. "I-if we drink and eat like the kids then we can understand the kids better.", Mafumafu reasoned as Sakata nodded.

"We will have the mind of them!", Sakata argued as Urata just sighed muttering something about Sakata already having the mind of a kid.

But before Sakata could protest Amatsuki started speaking. "You just want the toys from the meal, don't you?", Amatsuki teased.

"Of course! I'm just missing one more toy and I have the whole collection of the Retrodot's set.", Sakata said as Mafumafu nodded.

"Here, Ura-san! I'll give my extra set of Retrodot-ears to you! We can go in partner look.", Sakata said as he pulled a pair out wanting to put it on Urata's head. "If you put those on my head we're not friends anymore!", Urata threatened as Sakata stopped pouting.

"But you're gonna be his boyfriend or what?", Amatsuki teased as Urata blushed. "Of course not!", Urata shouted but the blush on his face was still clearly visible. "Un, un~! Although I'm missing a bit more than Sakata. Like his pen...", Mafumafu said as he counted them.

Soraru, who listened to the conversation, pulled slightly on Mafumafu's sleeve as the albino turned his attention to the small child.

"What is it, Soraru-san?", Mafumafu asked smiling warmly at Soraru who just held out his toy to him. "Eh?", Mafumafu tilted his head in confusion as Soraru tilted it as well.

"Mafu... wants pen. Sowawu has pen. Sowawu wants Mafu to have it so Mafu is happy.", he explained sleepily as he smiled back at Mafu and all of them felt an arrow get shot through their hearts. "Why is Soraru-san just so precious and cute right now?!", Amatsuki asked.

Soraru smiled sleepily before suddenly sneezing while Mafumafu just squealed at that.

They then looked at Senra and Shima who were interacting with each other.

Senra was eating his food as Shima held out a piece of tamagoyaki. "Here! You can have mine! It's your favorite after all!", Shima said feeding it to Senra as his plant blossomed a bit.

Shima saw Senra smiling as his starting blooming a bit as well. "Yay! It blossomed a bit!", Sakata cheered as he lifted both of them spinning them around. Are they doing our job or is that just my imagination? Urata thought as he shrugged it off. At least we got further. "I think... the first step to building a relationship is smiling.

Almost everyone can do that except Urata-san maybe. You only get annoyed and smile really rare right?", Mafumafu asked as Urata just shrugged. "Children are actually very observant to our expressions so a smile is very important!", Mafumafu said as he smiled at Soraru.

"Like hell am I going to smile!", Urata said slamming his hands on the desk as the kids flinched. He looked at them guiltily before trying to give them a small smile.

"Look. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you.", he said awkwardly smiling but Senra and Shima just nodded walking to him and giving him a hug. Urata was surprised but his heart squeezed a bit as he hugged them back.

"Damn it.... why're you guys so cute as kids?", Urata muttered as he patted their heads. "It's getting late so we should put the futons out.", Amatsuki said as he looked at the watch.

So they were all doing so as the kids were playing with each other. Amatsuki just carried a futon when he noticed Kashitaro sitting against the wall just staring into the space so he sat next to him as Kashitaro just stayed silent.

Time Skip
"Kashitaro-san is acting strange?", Mafumafu asked confused as they sat there with just the caretakers. "Yes. He is suddenly very silent and just talks when he has to. He does what you tell him to but he never says anything about what he wants.", Amatsuki explained as the others just looked at him with a pitying look. "Kashi has always helped me out so I want to help him now as well. Him being like this worries me a bit...", Amatsuki confessed.

As Hashiyan and Eve arrived the ringed the door and a woman with long blonde hair and red eyes opened the door. She looked like she was the mother of Hashiyan.

"I'm sorry for intruding but I'm Detective Hashiyan from Tokyo Prefecture.", Hashiyan introduced himself as he gave her a card. "Detective...", the woman took the card and tilted her head.

"I'm here to investigate the matter regarding to your son and the serial disappearances.", Hashiyan explained to her as she widened her eyes in understanding. "Ah! I saw it on the television. It was very unsettling, right?", the woman said and Hashiyan widened his eyes in confusion.

Wait... something "I just talked about it with Mafumafu and told him to be careful." Something is wrong... This sense of calmness...

"Um, about Mafumafu-kun...", Hashiyan started as the woman just smiled in response widening her eyes. "Oh? Do you need to talk to him? I'll call him down.", she said as she walked into her house. Shouldn't he have been kidnapped as well?