Chapter 26: First Day

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DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN JUJUTSU KAISEN, ALL CREDIT GOES TO GEGE AKUTAMI-SENSEI.  I ONLY OWN THE PLOT OF THIS STORY.

So, here is another chapter.  I have a few more drafts, though they aren't done, they're more like a brainstorming chapter with a rough outline of what I want in the chapter.  Though there are a few parts where I didn't type a section I don't want to forget of the chapter.

I'm trying to get what I can done on this, because I only get to rest tomorrow and then I'm off to work again.  It was nice to rest for an entire week, now I'm just looking forward for Winter break/vacation.

Anyways, sorry for any grammar or spelling errors.

Enjoy.

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She was still in her training when someone had run into the room she was with Yaga and in a hushed tone had told something to Yaga.  At first, she had been confused, but then it set in when she found out that Gojo wasn't around.

'Did it already happen?' She had wondered to herself as she watched Yaga respond back while glancing at her, and that was enough to tell her that something had happened.

She watched quietly as Yaga later on walked over to her and said, "I think it would be best if we postpone this for another day.  You should head to the infirmary, Gojo should be there waiting."

Shina nodded, already knowing what was awaiting her.

She didn't realize how much it hurt to see it in front of her, the reality of it set in once again.

One thing was seeing it on the screen of her laptop, and reading it on her phone and in the pages of the manga that were once on her shelf in the past, but it's a completely different thing seeing the aftermath in person.

She thought she wouldn't be affected by it since she already knew what would happen, but still hearing and seeing the still form of Yuuji under a thin sheet shook her too the core far more than she had thought.

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The moment she had come in her eyes found him, Gojo had seen her gaze shift from him then to the table.  He could see the way her clear eyes had glazed over, and her shoulders began to shake.

"Yuu-nii .... I." He heard her gasp in a shaky voice as she took steps towards the table, "I'm sorry." She faintly said as her lips trembled.

It was enough for Gojo to understand that she felt sorry of not being able to save him even though she had known he would die.  But he was the same as her, she had told him what would happen, yet he was unable to do anything as well.

Gojo watched as she stumbled her way next to the table, her hands gently touching the covered body as if it were going to break with a single touch, and just as she was reaching for the sheets to uncover him, Gojo quickly went and grabbed her hands, his own hands completely encasing her smaller ones, "I think it'd be best if you sit here for a bit." He said as he led her away and onto one of the benches on the far side.

Gently he sat her down and then sat next to her.  He said nothing as he watched her silently cry, an occasional choked sob making its way to her throat.

"Gojo-san .... I, if only I knew when." She choked out as she rubbed her eyes, pressing the heels of her hands hard onto her eyes.

Gojo placed his hand onto her head and that was all it took for her to let more sobs and cries flow out.  She covered her face and cried, and called out to her brother, begging him to get up.

'She can't process this well.' Gojo thought to himself as he watched her breakdown.

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Her chest hurt, it burned.  It felt as if something had lodged itself into her chest and prevented her from breathing.  It felt as if her heart was swelling and ready to explode any second now from how much it hurt.  She clutched a bundle of her white shirt on her chest, almost as if she were trying tear out her own heart to not feel it anymore.

Her throat felt blocked, she couldn't even swallow and felt as if her cries were being muffled by it.

'Why?  Why does it hurt so much?  I know he doesn't die, but it hurts so much.' She cried to herself as she felt a hand on her head.

The only reason she could think of is because Yuuji wasn't just a character anymore, he was her brother.  Her only living family member in this world, and even though he wasn't dead, the thought alone of him dying and having to really see his still and dead form made her cry in fear and pain.  And the thought that once again she would lose her family.  She had left her family in the past, and in this life, they had their parents taken from them, and they lost their grandfather.  She was afraid of losing someone else, and the thought of losing Yuuji as well was too much for her to handle.

Her teeth began to clatter together, she had begun to curl up on herself trying to hug herself, to keep whatever small sanity she had left intact.  Shina's breathing began to increase, and she felt as if her lungs weren't getting enough air in them, her lungs and chest hurt with each breath she took.

Shina grabbed a fist full of her hair, she would have rather felt physical pain than the pain she was feeling in her heart, but her fingers were pried open, and she was pulled into someone's arms.  She could hear faint words being said, she knew it was Gojo, but she couldn't understand him because all she could hear was the roaring sound of her heartbeat in her ears.  All she could feel was the numbing pain, and Gojo's arms around her trying to console her.

As her head leaned against a firm chest, Shina turned her head towards the table where Yuuji was and felt a small whine leave her throat as she closed her eyes wishing she could forget it all.

Everything was a blur; all she knew was that someone had led her away.

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Gojo watched as Shina was led away, her gaze fixed on nothing in particular as if her mind had completely shut down and refused to focus on anything anymore.

She seemed like a small child being led away by the hand, just walking with silent tears trailing down her cheeks.  Her breathing hitching every now and then.

He couldn't lie, Gojo felt horrible, guilty and sad for Shina.  It wasn't uncommon for a family of sorcerers to have a family member dying, but it wasn't every day when there was someone who saw their sibling die in their dreams, and then see their body under a white sheet.

He felt sorry that what she had been so desperately trying to save was taken from her in such an underhanded and devious way.  He had promised to keep him safe, but he failed.  He knew that there was a chance that he could have failed, but it seemed that he didn't think it was possible for such a thing to happen.

Once she was gone, Gojo placed his elbows on his thighs as he hunched over a bit.  He could still feel the lingering sensation of when he held Shina.  He could almost feel the shaking against his hands from holding her shaking figure, even his uniform was slightly damp from where she had placed her head when crying.  All of that was enough to leave a sour and bitter taste in his mouth the more he thought of what had happened to Yuuji.

"It was on purpose, wasn't it?" Gojo asked already knowing the answer, "Dispatching first years to rescue people with unclear information on whether they were alive or dead.  And on top of that, making them go up against a high-grade spirit." Gojo rubbed the back of his head.

Ijichi listened quietly as Gojo kept talking, "I did the impossible and granted Yuuji an indefinite postponement on his execution.  What's really messed up is that they disposed of him in my absence, with the help of a high-grade curse." He began to get angrier the more he talked.  He couldn't believe, yet he wasn't surprised at the audacity they had to do such an underhanded thing.  Especially since not only Yuuji died, but the other two could have gotten hurt or died as well.  And now at having seen Shina breakdown in front of him angered him more, he wouldn't be surprised if she was unstable for the following days or weeks.

"No, but when the dispatch was decided .... no one expected it to become a high-grade spirit." Ijichi said as he covered his mouth with trembling hands.

Gojo looked up at Ijichi, "Finding the perpetrator is also troublesome." He stated, "Shall I go ahead and kill all those guys at the top?" Gojo suggested, seeming more than happy to do so.

"It's so rare to see you so emotional." A voice followed with the clacking of heels came into the infirmary, "You were really fond of him, huh." Ieiri said as she walked in.

Gojo pointed a finger at her, "Well, I'm a nice guy who's always fond of his students."

She twirled a strand of hair around her index finger, "Also don't pick on Ijichi too much.  It's hard having to stand between us and the higher-ups."

"I don't give a damn about a guy's hardships." He said with a shrug not caring.

Ieiri glanced at Ijichi, "Is that so." She then lifted the sheet covering Yuuji, "This is Sukuna's host.  I can dissect him however I want, right?"

A momentary pause, "Make use of him."

Ieiri threw a fleeting glance to Gojo, "Who do you think you're talking to?"

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She didn't know how much time passed, but by the time she came to she was in her bedroom.

"He's not dead.  He's not dead." She muttered.  She knew for a fact, yet she had to say it out loud to make it feel more real, that he wasn't dead.  If anyone had heard her, they would have thought she was in denial, and that's just what happened with the person standing on the other side of the door.

Fushiguro had been trying to knock on her door for the longest time, but when he heard her mutter those words, he decided it would be best to give her some space.

Shina didn't know if it was because it was still hard for her to process everything, but the next thing she knew it had already been three days since the incident.  It was then she realized that she hadn't eaten or drank anything in those three days, she was even surprised that she hadn't dirtied her pants since she didn't remember if she even went to the bathroom in those days.

By the time that she came out of her room and was met with everyone else, they threw her looks of pity, some even came to give their condolences.  Condolences that made her want to cry.  Nobara had been one of the first people to give her condolences, trying to cheer her up in any way she could think of.  She had even offered to take Shina out to get her mind off things, but Shina refused all offers.

'Stop crying!' She scolded herself.  It was more of a body reaction to remembering the pain she had felt.

"Thank you." She didn't know how many times she had thanked people.  Though the one person she knew gave the most heartfelt condolence was the very person who saw Yuuji die.  Fushiguro.  It wasn't that the condolences from the others were meaningless, but she felt that Fushiguro was the one who understood well enough, because he had seen Yuuji died in front of him.

"I'm sorry." It seemed like he had so much more to say, but couldn't find the right words, "I wish that I could take your pain away." His eyebrows furrowed, "I'm sorry you .... that he left in this way."

His eyes said all that he wanted to say even though he couldn't really come up with all the words he wanted to say.

Shina nodded and without much thought she hugged Fushiguro, "Thank you." She muttered out, "I know it was also hard for you to see Yuu-nii .... when it happened." She continued on because she knew that it would have impacted him hard at having to see someone die in front of him.

Slowly his hands wrapped around her small shoulders for a few seconds before he pulled away.

"I'm sorry for hugging you so suddenly." Shina apologized, but she felt it was appropriate, she knew for a fact that she needed that, but it looked as if Fushiguro needed it as well.

Fushiguro shook his head, "It's alright."

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Even though she knew that Yuuji was alive, she still couldn't help herself but go into his room just to sit there as if just being in his room made it feel like he was there.

Shina could still smell the faint scent of the detergent on his sheets from where she sat on the bed.  She could almost see him toss his dirty clothes into the empty hamper.  She was there for comfort and to clear her mind, but for those who had seen her, it seemed as if she was missing him and still couldn't process things.

That no matter how well she looked, she was still hurting inside.  Which was partially true, she was feeling better, but there was still an ache.  A burning ache in her chest as she remembered.

'When are they planning to tell me that he's still alive?' She wondered to herself as she laid on the bed facing the ceiling.

Though she ended up covering her face in embarrassment once she remembered what happened in the infirmary.

'I can't believe Gojo held me!  And that I cried on his chest!' She internally screamed.  She had done what some dreamed of doing, and she couldn't even relish the moment because of how distraught she was, 'How am I going to face him.  I probably left snot on him too.'

If she had been conscious of her surroundings, she was pretty sure that she would have engraved that embrace into her mind forever.

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"When can I tell her that I'm alive?" Yuuji asked from his seat on the couch.  He had been told that Shina often spends time in his room, and that pained Yuuji.

It hurt him so much to know that Shina thought he was dead and was trying to cope with it in her own way.  From what Gojo had told him, Shina didn't speak to anyone about Yuuji, she didn't ask anything.  The only time she openly asked anything was to ask Fushiguro of what happened.  But other than that, she never asked nor said anything of how she felt.

"I don't want her to suffer thinking that I'm dead." Yuuji said as he pleaded for Gojo to take into consideration what he was asking for.

"Just wait for a little bit.  Let's wait for the shock of everything to settle down a little, it would be too much for her to handle at this moment."

Yuuji nodded finding it to make sense, "You're right." He frowned, "Can you keep me updated on how she's doing?"

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It had already been a week since the incident, and Shina couldn't sit still any longer, she needed to know how Yuuji was, so one day when she could, she searched for Gojo.

"Gojo-san, can I ask you a question?" She asked one day she managed to catch sight of him.  She cornered him, though it looked as if he was the one who cornered her with the size difference.

"Sure, go ahead."

Taking her chance she asked, "I don't know if maybe it's my wishful thinking, but is Yuu-nii alive?"

"Why do you think so?" He asked his own question.

Shina rubbed her forehead, "I had a dream that he was alive." She tilted her head further back to see him better, "For some reason in the dream he was watching some movie.  I know everyone was told that Yuu-nii's .... body was still being examined to find more about Sukuna but is it possible if I can see him.  Or at least be able to give him a proper burial now?" She said trying to sound as believable as possible.

'I should definitely get an Oscar for this.' She thought as she waited for Gojo's response.

Gojo stood silent for a few seconds before he nodded, "Follow me." Was all he said as he walked away with Shina following after him.

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After seeing that Yuuji had been missing his heart, and from Fushiguro's testimony, Yuuji had his heart torn out just as Shina had said, he had more proof that Shina really was seeing what she saw.  And now that she had mentioned Yuuji watching a movie, was too much to be a simple dream of some "wishful" thinking.

There was no use in hiding it anymore if her dreams would be showing her what was really happening.  So, he decided to take her to where Yuuji was at the moment.

He could see the way that Shina nervously shifted on her feet as he stood at the door of where he had brought her to.  He opened the door and led her in, following in after him the sound of a t.v on was heard.

The light of the t.v in a dark room was enough to light it up and see a figure sitting on a couch.

Gojo glanced at Shina who was now walking beside him, he could see the way her eyes widened, her mouth fell open as she took in a shaky breath and whispered out, "Gojo-san, is that .... Yuu-nii?" She turned her gaze to him.

He nodded, "Yes." He breathed out.  And that was all it took for her to turn away from him and run the rest of the way further into the room and hug him from behind.  Her arms wrapped around his neck as she buried her head against his own head.

"Yuu-nii!" She sobbed out.

Yuuji was on his feet within seconds after hearing her voice.

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It took a few minutes for both Shina and Yuuji to settle down after finally seeing each other after a week.  The two seemed as if they hadn't seen each other in years by the way they acted, the two of them sat together on the couch not wanting to be separated.

Gojo began to explain to Shina what had happened with Yuuji after she had left the infirmary, and at the same time Yuuji was told what had happened with Shina and her breakdown.  Something that Shina would have wanted to keep quiet about.

Yuuji gave Shina a sideways hug as he heard what happened to her, it hurt to hear how hurt she was.  The pain she had gone through to hear and see that he had "died" and being left in the dark about it until now.

"I'm sorry Shi-chan." Yuuji said just loud enough for all three of them to hear, the t.v had been turned off so it was clear enough to hear what he said, "We should have told you sooner, but we couldn't."

Shina shook her head, her loose hair falling over her shoulder, "No, it's okay." She reassured him, "It's true that I would have liked to have been told about you being alive, but I can understand why it was kept a secret.  But I'm just glad that you're alive." Shina smiled.  Her hand reached up and firmly gripped Yuuji's hand which was still on her shoulder.

"I'm really glad." She repeated as she looked at Gojo, "Thank you for keeping him safe.  By hiding him, you're keeping him safe from them." She sincerely smiled at Gojo.

All three of them continued to talk about the future plans, and how Shina couldn't tell anyone about Yuuji being alive.  She had to go back to acting as if Yuuji were dead, and it would been best if she didn't meet him again, or at least one in a while to keep the fact he is alive a secret.

"The best I can do is keep you both updated on each other and what's happening." Gojo compromised, "That's all I can do right now to not arise any suspicions."

That was the only thing that they could all do at the moment to keep each other safe.  They were taking a huge risk with just having Shina and even Gojo there with Yuuji.  It's not surprising for Gojo to just leave at random, but why would Shina have left Jujutsu tech?  She couldn't really leave at any random time she wanted just to see Yuuji.

Yes, she could lie, but there was a limit to that.

They had all agreed that they won't be seeing each other, nor any form of contact.  Their only contact would be through Gojo, and that was merely with updates of how the other was.

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The days that followed were boring, she had nothing to do aside form training, watching Nobara and Fushiguro train, and ready her things for school which was to start in a couple days.

In those days she had been taken around town to familiarize herself with the areas around the school, and which bus to take if in case she had to take the bus back to the dorms or to school.  Though the bus didn't even stop near jujutsu tech, but it was fairly close.  If a ten-minute walk was close, then it was close.

It was near the end of July when she finally went to school after her transfer. * Though she wouldn't be going to class for long since summer break was to start soon.  She would only be going to class for roughly a week before a break.

"This is our new transfer student Itadori Shina." The teacher said as they walked over to the front of the room with Shina right next to them.

Shina slightly bowed for a few seconds, "Hello, I'm Itadori Shina.  I recently moved here from Sendai, pleased to meet you all." Her hands felt clammy at being at a new school.  She never transferred schools, not in her previous life either, so moving to a new school made her nervous.

"Okay, you can sit next to Shimada-san." The teacher said, "Shimada can you raise your hand."

A hand rose in the far back of the class, to which Shina nodded and walked down to.

Once she sat down, Shimada smiled at her, "Nice to meet you.  I'm Shimada Kenji." He introduced himself.

Shina smiled, "Nice to meet you."

"You transferred pretty late into the school year." He said as he placed his elbow on his table and his chin onto the palm of his hand as he faced her.

Shina nodded slowly, "Yeah." That was all she said, she hoped he didn't ask for more information.  And it seemed that he understood that she didn't want to tell him more with her one response.

The two settled into silence as they listened to the lecture, though at one point Shina had to scoot her desk over next to Shimada who offered his book after he noticed that she was missing one of her books.

Shina didn't really like math, she wasn't the best at it in her past life and well enough in this one, but if she were to take an exam right this moment, she would barely pass it.  She had been doing fairly well in Sendai, but after taking a long break after the move to Tokyo and not revising any notes, Shina had fallen behind quite a bit and forgot some of the basic formulas.

'I should really look for my notes once I get back to my room.' She thought about the notes she had brought with her.  She was pretty sure that it was in the unboxed box in her closet.

Shina wrote down every single note the teacher wrote on the board and talked about, though she was slightly lost with having missed so many days of school.

Shimada noticed the detailed notes she had taken and leaned over to the side and whispered, "If you need it, I can let you borrow my notes so you can copy them." He offered.

Shina's hand paused from writing and looked up at him, "Are you sure?" He nodded, "Thank you.  I'd really appreciate it."

He reached into his desk and pulled out a few notebooks, each labeled with different subjects.  And one of the was labeled as 'Math 1" and his current notebook was 'Math 2'.

"I named it Math 1 and Math 2 because I used up all the space on the other one and didn't want to confuse the notebooks." He told her, "Here, this has most of the notes from the beginning of the semester." He handed her the notebook labeled Math 1.

"Thank you so much." She smiled, "I'll give them back as soon as I can." She promised.

When lunch came around, Shina wished she had left the room because soon enough she had a small group of people around her desk.  All asking her questions.

"Which school were you from?"

"Why did you move?"

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Do you want to have lunch with us?"

"Do you need any help around the school?"

It was one question after the other, ones that she tried to answer one at a time.

"I'm from Sugisawa West Junior High.  My brother and I moved in with a .... family member." She elaborated, "I'd appreciate some help around school, I don't really know my way around yet.  I brought my own lunch." She said hoping that they won't ask any more questions.  Especially asking about that "family member" she had mentioned.  In a way Gojo could be considered as their new family member, considering that he's now their legal guardian.  So, it isn't necessarily a lie.

But she just hoped they didn't ask the reason for moving in with a family member, 'Someone please make them stop.' She pleaded to no one.  But it seemed as if her neighbor noticed her distress.

"Why don't you guys give her some space.  You'll end up scaring her." Shimada said as he walked into the class, he had left earlier to go buy his food for lunch.  And the first thing he had come into was to see a hoard of students surrounding Shina.

"We're just trying to get to know her." One student said.

"We're not trying to scare her." Another said.

Shimada walked over to his own desk, "I know, but one at a time." He made a pointed look at Shina who looked as if she were to break her pencil in her hands at how she was holding it in-between her hands.

After a few words of "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask us" and "I can show you a nice cafe around if you're interested one day" after that, the students left and leaving Shina sitting at her desk with a sigh of relief.

"Thank you." Shina sighed out as she leaned back on her seat, "You really saved me there.  For the second time today."

"No problem."

It could be said that after the first day of class, Shimada and Shina seemed to be on the road to friendship.  Well at least Shina believed so, she didn't mind since he was nice and really helpful.

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As she walked in through the main doors of jujutsu tech after being dropped off in front, she made her way to the dorms, though on the way she met someone she had been itching to meet.

'No way.' She thought as she slowed her place and watched as the person continued walking closer and closer.

Once he was closer, Shina quickly greeted him, "Hello."

He stopped and looked at her, "Hello.  You must be Itadori Shina." He said as he fixed his glasses with his finger.

Shina nodded while she took in a deep breath.

"Nice to meet you.  I'm Nanami Kento." He introduced himself.

Once again Shina nodded, "Nice to meet you too." And with that Nanami excused himself and left.  She stayed in place and watched him leave.

She placed her hand over her chest as she let out a deep breath, one she didn't even know she had been holding.  The people she had been hoping to meet when she arrived to Tokyo were Nanami, Fushiguro and Choso and Toji.

She had met Gojo when she was a toddler so she only needed and wanted to meet the others.  By seeing Gojo she figured she was ready to meet the others, though seeing his eyes still did thing to her heart.  She couldn't deny that his eyes were beautiful, and he was very handsome himself.

Meeting Fushiguro was different but at the same time what she had expected.  He seemed like the most relatable person out of everyone, and she wanted to meet him, and she got her wish.

But now at seeing Nanami, one of the people she loved, she knew for sure that she wouldn't be able to handle meeting anyone else.

If she were to see Choso right now she wouldn't know what to do.  She found him attractive and liked his whole persona, but at the same time it was a real conflict at the moment. **

'If I had met Toji .... I think I would have died.' She thought, 'Just seeing him in the manga was enough for me to almost fall in love and feel like I'd get a heart attack.'

But at the same time, 'It's a pity that he's not here.' ***

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"So how was your first day of school?" Gojo had asked later on that day when he saw her.

Shina thought for a bit, "For being the first day, it was really good.  I think I might have made a friend.  He's really nice."

"Oh, is this young love I see coming." He teased as he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against.

Shina scoffed, "Seriously." She shook her head, "Enough of that.  How's Yuu-nii?" She asked in a whisper.

"Pretty good, his training is going well."

Shina nodded, "That's good."

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* I don't know if it's true or not, but I saw that school semesters are different in Japan.  That their summer break starts at the end of July.  Don't know, but I went with that especially since I didn't know what I would come up for an entire month to pass by until she went to school in August for the fall semester.

** I won't really go into detail about that since it would be involving the future chapters of the manga, and maybe some of you haven't read the manga yet.  I'm the anime watcher and manga reader type of person, and maybe there are only anime watchers, so I don't want to ruin anything.

Like I left off on chapter 180, so I have well off 20+ chapters to read, and I ended up coming across a spoiler of the manga, which happens not far from where I left off, but it was still a huge shock to me because I wasn't expecting that to happen.  I don't really care for spoilers are dropped for me, but when it comes to any certain series, I will not be looking up spoilers.  Like with JJK, I really like it, and I don't want any spoilers because I want to experience that first initial surprise ect.

So, anything that could be manga related will be left alone and will be mentioned more in the other book of this.  Like I mentioned before that the second book, that will be published separately, will deal from where the anime left off, so it will be manga based.

The second season of JJK will be airing next year, so maybe some of you will hold off on reading the next book.  But like I mentioned before that the first few chapters will be on their childhood.

*** Toji isn't much of a spoiler since he isn't really related to the anime or manga much.  Well not even mentioned, hardly.  But still rather keep it low since he's only shown in the manga so far.

This is the longest chapter I've typed up so far, not counting the author's notes at the beginning and the end.  But it was worth it, for me at least.

So, that's it for now.  Hope you enjoyed it.






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