It was a grim morning at the Gōketsu compound. Mari-sensei had, to give her credit, shambled downstairs in time for breakfast, and could be charitably described as presentable. She had not said a word to anyone, and was now gazing into her bowl of porridge as if wishing it was deep enough to drown herself in.
Keiko was eating her porridge with regular, mechanical precision, one spoonful every eight seconds, while staring into the distance. Noburi was shovelling his down with a minor sense of urgency. And Kagome-sensei was mirroring Mari-sensei, looking as if he was wondering what kind of seal it would take to make his porridge overflow and drown the world, returning him to the quiet, peaceful life of a hermit.
Hazō swallowed. What he was going to do could so easily end badly, but he couldn't stand seeing his family like this a second longer. He'd tried to plan ahead, but when there was so much emotion bound up in your words, sometimes you just had to take the bull by the horns and pray it didn't throw you off and proceed to gore you before you were done.
He stood up. "Everyone, can I please have your attention?"
Mari-sensei and Kagome-sensei suspended their lamentations. Noburi warily lowered his spoon. Keiko withdrew from whatever alien dimension her mind had been occupying. Hazō could only pray that he hadn't miscalculated how they'd react.
He took the plunge.
Up until here, you had me convinced we were doing the Breakfast Rant plan.
"Keiko, congratulations on your new relationship!"
Here is where you lost me.
I can smell the faint scent of KeiTen a mile away. Incidentally, I checked the hyperlink in the chapter title at this time. Mwhaahah. Had I not remembered this was among the lore update options, well.
Incidentally, at this point in time I was fully aware that this would lead to Hazou talking about Shikamaru.
I do have to say though, I echo
@Inferno Vulpix 's sentiments that this does feel like I am being boxed in a bit. In the future, I think it might be a good idea to keep Lore Updates or Interludes such as this isolated from anything the playerbase may want to vote in on Hazou's part.
All eyes swivelled to Keiko. Mari-sensei in appalled shock, probably struggling to figure out how this was her fault. Kagome-sensei with the same expression of "Why would you do that to yourself?" that he'd displayed when Hazō had announced that he was dating Akane. Noburi with... less surprise than he'd expected. Huh.
Keiko herself made a noise like a strangled parakeet.
"I was always worried that you two might end up just spending time together because it was expected of you. I'm so glad I was wrong. Things couldn't have worked out better." Hazō beamed with a combination of genuine happiness and fear of imminent evisceration. "So yeah, congratulations. I hope your love lasts far into the future."
Keiko ran out of parakeet.
"Wh-What evidence do you have that I am in any sort of relationship?"
"I saw you and Shikamaru together the other day, remember? You were acting less emotionle— reserved towards each other than usual, and you were using each other's first names."
Keiko spent a couple of seconds taking this in.
"I fail to see how you could possibly leap to that conclusion!" she snapped. "Our use of first names was merely to reflect our relationship ascending to a new level of intimacy, such that social mores which once enforced a natural level of distance have come to serve as barriers to interaction."
A number of looks were exchanged.
"Sure, Keiko. And I suppose you're going to tell me that it means nothing that you went out with him even though neither Jiraiya nor Mari-sensei could have scheduled an instance of two individuals spending a day together in order to facilitate greater mutual knowledge and familiarity, arranged in anticipation of a potential long-term relationship?"
"Precisely. We have merely decided that our relationship has progressed to such a stage that it is no longer necessary or appropriate for others to be thus involved in our enjoyment of each other's company, and that we should be open to more flexible forms of interaction. I fail to see how there is any room for ambiguity.
"Now if you will excuse me, I have a liaison to attend. Hazō, kindly cease to be Rock Lee before my return."
Snerk.
I appreciate Keiko's civility in this scene, all else equal.
Hazō watched her go, still not sure what he'd done wrong. Mari-sensei returned to her scheduled self-loathing, Kagome-sensei's expression had not changed in any way whatsoever, and Noburi was cracking up with laughter for reasons known only to himself.
None of this boded well.
Looks like everyone is deprssed. Lovely.
-o-
It was late in the morning, but this was Shiori's day off, and at least for a little while, she intended to indulge herself by staying in bed and thinking about Keiko.
She just couldn't make herself like her former rival. Keiko had attempted, without hesitation, to forever sacrifice her own happiness for Shikamaru's sake. Shiori had forever sacrificed some of her own happiness in return. A thousand sworn oaths of friendship couldn't have made a truer bond, whether Shiori liked it or not.
And she didn't. She had a grudging respect for Keiko—it was impossible not to, after what they'd shared—but that girl
made no sense. On the face of it, she was all that was wrong with the world. She didn't have a drop of passion in her veins. She was a cunning socialite who trapped the innocent in her complex webs of intrigue even when it turned out she didn't want anything from them. She'd played with Shiori like a toy, alternately exciting and terrifying her, in the full knowledge that no orgy was planned, nor would ever be. She was noble clan malevolence incarnate.
I take solace in the fact that I can add Shiori to the list of "Characters less competent at social interaction than Hazou." What a dummy! Keiko might need to turn down the evil midget act though.
And at the same time, this avatar of evil had championed the cause of some random half-blood who'd just told her she had nothing to offer. She had been ready to abandon her rise to power in the Nara Clan for the sake of love, and love of a common-born at that. That night, she'd talked completely straight, even if Shiori hadn't entirely understood what she was saying, and she'd offered them all intimacy as if it was no big deal.
What the hell was wrong with that girl?
The image of Keiko watching the sunset next to her was stuck in her head, going round and round, a real-life paradox she could not resolve. Oh, yes, Tenten was there as well, because Keiko was still a sexually deviant libertine.
The orgy part had somehow turned out to be a big misunderstanding. The Shikamaru-seducing part even more so. Would it have killed Keiko to go for a hat trick of normality?
Instead… two girls. How would they even… Why would they even… What did they even do together?
Shiori is the biggest perve in this quest, I see.
I suppose I should get around to asking what Hazou knows about "The Orgy Night Misunderstanding."
Clearly him and Keiko talked about it and determined that Hazou was not at fault. Perhaps some preliminary investigation was done?
I find the idea of confronting Shiori about this and pointing out how in no uncertain terms she had managed to kick off a sequence of events that ultimately led to the end result scene, that this has negatively impacted many ongoing Plots of Hazou's that were to come to culmination, and that we would consider some recompense in the form of hours/being given deeper access into the Nara time economy to be fair, a fruitful one.
I will independently note that, this gives any evil QMs an ample reason to keep her around for hijinks. Fancy that.
Not that she was interested as such. The idea of Shiori falling for another girl the way they did was literally unimaginable. It was just another way in which everything about Keiko made her head spin.
Come to think of it, Keiko had been explicit about only having platonic feelings for Shikamaru, but she hadn't never actually denied having designs on Shiori's body. Shiori would have to clear that up, and wouldn't that be the most awkward conversation ever. Still, Shikamaru had now told her about the illusion of transparency, and she could clearly remember the clusterfu—the fiasco that it had caused last time.
"Shiori!" came a call from downstairs. "Gōketsu Keiko wants you!"
WTF.
Oh, right.
Shiori quickly slipped on her clothes, made sure her bed was made according to exacting specifications (it was a nice thing to come home to at the end of the day), and virtually ran downstairs.
"Good morning, Shiori," Keiko gave a shallow bow. "May I speak with you in private?"
"Sure," Shiori said, cursing the world for the next words to come out of her mouth, "why don't we go up to my room?"
Keiko's gaze swept around Shiori's room, stopping on the bookshelves (why hadn't Shiori turned the spines inwards?!), the shuriken scattered in the corner (which Shiori swore she had been going to polish once she was done thinking about Keiko) and the wall painting (would Keiko consider starlit skies too kitschy?), before finally coming to rest on the bed with a faint look of approval.
Shiori suppressed… OK, she wasn't sure exactly what she was suppressing, but she definitely suppressed the hell out of it.
"How can I help you, Keiko?"
Keiko firmly closed the door behind her, which didn't help the vibe any.
"I spoke to Tenten earlier," she said, "and she suggested that we might benefit from an instance of two individuals spending a day together in order to facilitate greater mutual knowledge and familiarity, arranged in anticipation of a potential long-term relationship."
Shiori goggled. "You're asking me on a date?!"
"No! Why does everyone keep assuming that?
"I misspoke," Keiko said more calmly. "The phrase simply rolls off the tongue so easily. I meant an instance of four individuals spending a day together in order to facilitate greater mutual knowledge and familiarity, arranged in anticipation of a potential long-term relationship."
"A double date?!"
Keiko groaned. "Why am I surrounded by perverts who see infatuation and lechery in every word and action, no matter how innocent? No offence."
Shiori really wished she could deny it, but with their history…
"I meant," Keiko said, "or rather Tenten meant, that given our strange entanglement, we could all benefit from deepening our mutual acquaintance, as opposed to leaving the further development of our relations to the vagaries of a sadistic fate."
"Oh. So what did you have in mind?"
"What else? 2v2 combat!"
HAH!
Yeah, okay. Time to get rekt kids.
Shiori's eyes lit up. Fighting Shikamaru would be good. They didn't do enough of that these days, what with him being involved in mysterious high-level clan projects that even his left-hand woman wasn't cleared for. Fighting Tenten would be interesting as well. She rather liked Tenten after the events of Lovers' Hill, and was looking forward to seeing her in action. And Keiko… being able to strip off the layers of Keiko's arrogance one by one while Shikamaru watched would do her a world of good, and unresolved feelings be damned.
Oh, you poor sweet summer child.
-o-
Kei smiled with relief on the inside, where her limited skill with facial expressions would not risk misleading Shiori. She had been concerned, at first, that the aftermath of Lovers' Hill might result in a complex relationship with Shiori that she lacked the social insight to navigate (especially without Mari-sensei's help). Fortunately, Shiori seemed to have retained the straightforwardly amiable if slightly over-enthusiastic personality she had displayed at the gaming night.
"Keiko…" Shiori said with a curious edge of anxiety as Kei reached for the door handle.
"Yes?"
"Just wondering… please don't take this the wrong way, but do you have any designs on my body?"
For a moment, the question took Kei so off guard that her mind flashed to the literal meaning of "designs", and by extension nude modelling. She found herself blushing before she knew it. However, Kei lacked artistic skill, and more importantly, relationship complexities notwithstanding, there was no possible way Shiori would make such a request when they barely knew each other.
Hence designs in the pragmatic sense. Of course. They were, after all, about to go training together.
Kei studied Shiori's body in detail. It would have been mortifyingly inappropriate in an ordinary social context, but here she was doing it at Shiori's explicit request. Slightly taller than an average sixteen-year-old. Supple. Surprisingly good musculature for a Nara. Little excess weight, which, given the typical Nara lifestyle, suggested not only exercise but dieting. Pleasingly endowed, but not so much so as to inhibit combat performance. Mind out of the gutter, Kei. She could always revisit the matter later if necessary.
She spent several minutes examining an increasingly crimson and curiously silent Shiori from all angles, mindful of the need to live up to her expectations and provide a well-founded answer.
Yes, she decided, she approved of what she saw. Shiori's hourglass figure was sufficiently different to Tenten's straight build that Kei would need to adjust her aiming angles in order to achieve maximum accuracy on the desired body parts, especially given expected variations in stance. She was also keen to see how the larger bust (and corresponding variation in armour type) would alter Shiori's silhouette and weight distribution while in motion.
"I believe your body will serve my purposes very well, Shiori, and likely Tenten's as well. I eagerly anticipate making extensive use of it, in a number of different ways.
"Thank you for being so uninhibited about this," she added. "You truly live up to the Nara reputation for open-mindedness."
With that, Kei left the room to allow Shiori to change into combat gear, quietly relieved at Shiori's continued tendency for open, direct communication.
-o-
Shiori gritted her teeth as another training kunai came within centimetres of severing an elbow tendon before being deflected. Just a few seconds more…
Keiko and Tenten's movement was perfect, a criss-crossing pattern of retreat in which each blurred the other's form even as they fired kunai past each other, inexplicably avoiding friendly fire. Shiori envied their effortless synchronisation compared to her and Shikamaru's need for sometimes detailed hand signals. Someday, she pledged, the two of them would be just as perfectly in sync.
Against any other combo, the tactics being used by the two girls would have been devastating. But right now, they were dealing with not one but two Nara. Shiori and Shikamaru had independently seen through the pattern, and if Shiori could just keep drawing fire for a few seconds longer, Shikamaru would be in position to hit the nearest girl with Shadow Imitation. At that range, with the two defenceless against each other, and Shiori ready to throw the second their perfect guard was broken… could you say "flawless victory"?
The explosion threw Shikamaru off his feet.
"Time out!" Shiori yelled as she rushed over to him. "Shikamaru, are you all right? What happened?"
Shikamaru grunted with pain. "Own fault. Forgot I was dealing with the worst combo ever. Tenten levels of combat experience, plus Mori plan execution."
Excuse me, that's
not our last name, Shika.
"Tenten levels?"
"I'll tell you later," Shikamaru said, holding out a hand. "Help me up, will you?"
"What happened?" Shiori repeated as she pulled him to his feet.
"A kunai I cast during one of Tenten's barrages was not a miss," Keiko explained as she walked up to them. "I had attached a training tag to it before leaving it in the obvious position."
The obvious position? Oh, that girl just had a gift for making Shiori mad.
"You brought training tags to an informal spar?" Shiori demanded. "Are you so desperate to beat us that you have to throw away expendable equipment?"
"I admit, it is not part of our preferred strategy," Keiko said. "It sacrifices too much precision and control. But as you can see, it has its merits.
"I do apologise, however, for neglecting the unfair competitive advantage. This being a spur-of-the-moment arrangement, I neglected to properly restock in advance, but I should be able to spare a couple of dozen if you want them."
"A couple of dozen?!"
"Just roll with it," Shikamaru said sympathetically. "If you engage emotionally with every instance of Gōketsu madness, your will to live is unlikely to last the day."
I am happy to see that even the Nara consider us the masters of overkill.
They haven't even seen Radvic's Various Bullshit
TM
"Shiori," Keiko said. "As it would be unreasonable to expect you to handle both Tenten and myself simultaneously without adequate physical or mental preparation, may I suggest that we transition to a one-on-one contest? And if so, which of us would you prefer to spar with?"
"You," Shiori said determinedly. "I want you."
She'd been waiting for this all day.
x
Graham's Number.
-o-
It was a very different kind of game now they were alone. Without having to worry about other fighters, Shiori could focus exclusively on Keiko, setting aside every unrelated thought in favour of obliterating her nemesis. Twice now, Shiori had almost cornered Keiko, and twice Keiko had just barely managed to slip out of her clutches, both times with Shikamaru observing their relative prowess from the sidelines. But third time paid for all.
With a few of those wonderful, wonderful training tags, Shiori managed to push Keiko back into the treeline, knowing that the other girl wouldn't be able to resist the opportunity to exploit the height advantage.
Hmm. Wait a second.
And indeed she hadn't. Bouncing between trees to gain height as if through a series of wall jumps, Keiko continued to fire kunai at Shiori's shoulders—a deadly move insofar as a left shoulder wound would render her incapable of throwing anything back. Fortunately, it was all part of Shiori's master plan.
Shiori performed a series of quick throws to embed some kunai in the tree trunks. Keiko, having run out of height and anticipating the use of training tags to flush her out, jumped back down to the ground. Her focus was on not getting too close to the trees, where Shiori's kunai might hold timed-delay explosives.
As Keiko landed, Shiori plunged the second kunai set into the ground next to her, as deep as she could, then ran straight for Keiko.
Keiko moved urgently to open up distance between both them and the trees—and ran straight into the ninja wire strung between the two sets of kunai. That trick never stopped being fun.
Rather than abort her motion or bother with ninjutsu at extreme close range, Shiori covered the remaining few steps between them in a single motion, and threw the other girl down to the ground. Before Keiko could react, Shiori went down on top of her, using her superior mass to pin Keiko down. She savoured the sudden look of panic in those brown eyes as she reached for the kunai holster on her left leg. With Keiko immobilised, even the lightest touch would count as victory.
Yeah, I dare say I've noticed something.
At the last second, with a desperate strength Shiori wouldn't have imagined Keiko had, her nemesis shoved her off sideways, then leapt away with chakra speed as if a giant toad was about to land on top of her.
Out of the corner of her eye, Shiori registered Shikamaru watching the fight with a sharp interest that made her heart beat even faster. Tenten, meanwhile, was giving her and Keiko the oddest look.
"I was unaware…" Keiko panted… "that the Nara made use of grappling… in their arsenal."
"Unlike certain clan heirs I won't name," Shiori said, "I'm ready to admit that a lot of people will want to get up close and personal with me once they've figured out my preferences, so I've at least got the basics down."
"You certainly took me by surprise," Keiko admitted. "What kind of paint do you use to prevent the ninja wire from glinting in the light?"
"It's a Nara special," Shiori said. "I'll teach you how to use it once we're married."
Once "we're" married? Huh.
I'll wait til the end of this section to dispense my revelation.
Shikamaru opened his mouth, but apparently decided it was too troublesome to say whatever he was thinking.
Shiori gave an adrenaline-fuelled predatory grin. "Let's get back to it. This time you'll be mine for sure."
Ahem.
This scene...
It is not pornographic in any way, and contains zero nudity. Nonetheless
This is a "sex scene"! Somehow it is, despite it not being one in any way in actuality. Marvelous.
You are a genius. I am humbled before your mastery.
Carry on.
-o-
Much though it pained Kei to admit it, both she and Shikamaru were well aware of the one place in Leaf where the group's privacy would be absolutely guaranteed.
"Your function room, if you please," she said to an ashen-faced Yabai Café waiter. "Terms and conditions apply."
"Terms and conditions?" Shiori asked.
"The usual," Kei said casually. "Should I be given the most insignificant reason to suspect eavesdropping, summoned giant pangolins will eradicate everyone in any way affiliated with this establishment while wiping its physical structure from the face of the earth."
"A reasonable response to civilians spying on great clan heirs," Shikamaru agreed. "I should add that any survivors will find the full weight of the law brought down upon them by the Nara Clan, and can expect a lengthy stay at the Torture and Interrogation Department while Leaf's finest interrogators attempt to establish which hostile power they serve."
"Of course, sir," the waiter said with admirable smoothness. "Would you like to hear about the dish of the day?"
We should promote this guy to leader of one of our spy network cells.
-o-
"I must admit this place is beginning to grow on me," Shikamaru said, "rather like this mysterious fungus occupying half my plate."
"Oh, yes," Kei said, "you ordered chicken. If it is any consolation, that species of fungus is wholly edible, and an entirely viable option when the alternative is death by starvation in the wilderness."
"So, Keiko," Shiori said cheerfully, "how does it feel to be handed an overwhelming defeat?"
"I would hardly call four in six overwhelming," Kei observed. "If you wanted an impressive ratio, you should have accepted victory while you were ahead, instead of demanding rematch after rematch. I will admit, however, that your use of ninja wire to bind me head to toe was rather inspired."
"Yeah. I can't believe you got out of that before I could lay hands on you."
"I practice every day," Kei said wryly.
"Why are you all giving me those looks?
"In any case," she hurried on, "it was a remarkable performance against a chūnin candidate."
Shiori's eyes flashed. "I
am a chūnin candidate."
"You… are?"
"This was going to be
my year," Shiori glowered. "I'd finally hit the minimum mission count. I'd learned techniques I'm not allowed to tell you about yet. I was ready in every possible way. And then politics happened and all the elite genin teams got sent off instead and somebody had to stay behind and manage Shikamaru's projects for him. So don't you
dare imply that you're better than me just because you were allowed to go and I wasn't."
Oh. We are quite sorry kid. Well. We can make it up to you in six months?
Kei flinched. "I—I apologise. I had no idea."
"Shiori," Shikamaru said placatingly, "you know I would much rather have stayed at home while you travelled to Mist and suffered through all the tedious posturing and pointless arbitrary challenges in my place. And you know I couldn't have had the time to train another assistant to your level of capability during the brief interval between announcement and departure. It is only as a result of your efforts that Gamma through Epsilon remained on track without issues, and Mother didn't find out about Zeta."
We need a secretary.
Kei could not begin to imagine why Shiori was looking at her with an expression of triumph.
"Perhaps you are unaware," Shikamaru continued, "that I have been forced to endure any number of applications for your post. Shirayuki alone has made at least six, many of them with additional information sheets explaining in detail why you were unfit for it."
"Shirayuki," Shiori said definitively, "is a raging bitch who spends most of her time out with her friends because her ego won't fit within the compound."
We should get one of these folks as a secretary.
"Is that so?" Shikamaru asked neutrally.
Shiori blinked. "Wait. If you didn't know she was a raging bitch, why did you pick me instead of her? I know she scored higher than me in the graduation tests, for obvious reasons."
"Obvious reasons?" Kei asked.
"I'm a half-blood," Shiori said impatiently.
"You also said this on Lovers' Hill. Why is it so important? In my former clan, half-bloods are considered useful for a variety of tasks which would be less appropriate for an ordinary Mori."
From Shiori's expression, Kei had spoken with her usual diplomatic skill.
We should make a blood pact with Keiko about trying to learn to be better at dealing with people.
"Less appropriate for an ordinary Mori," Shiori said. "Yes, it's exactly like that. I don't have the genius of a real Nara, and I don't have whatever it is ordinary people get instead. I… I'm happy being Shikamaru's assistant, but with my ability, that's as far as I could ever get. Someone like you would never understand."
Her gaze drifted down to her plate, and she half-heartedly stabbed through the core of the wild cabbage, just as Kei had taught her, before it could escape.
Heh. Before it can escape indeed.
"People think being a half-blood means the two halves add together," Shiori said, still looking down. "They don't. They cancel out."
In the melancholy silence, Kei, who lacked skill through her own failure rather than being doomed to it from birth, had no idea what to say. She understood what it meant to have no agency, but as a Mori at least that was expected of her. If anything, it was a reason to be accepted by her family and peers (if one cancelled out by absolutely everything else).
Shiori said nothing more.
Then, in a motion that startled everyone in the room, Tenten placed her hand over Shiori's. As Shiori looked up at her uncertainly, Tenten spoke softly.
"I watched you grow."
The words transformed the atmosphere of the room. After a few seconds to comprehend, Shiori, with glistening eyes, placed her other hand on top of Tenten's.
Kei, who should have been—and was—touched by the warmth of the moment, found herself feeling a stab of jealousy as well. That Tenten should so easily touch hands with another girl, a gift denied to Kei being freely given to another…
Tenten, with that damnable perceptiveness she had honed in lieu of self-expression, noticed at once. So did Shiori, following her gaze.
Oh. Keiko.
Tenten placed her other hand lightly, briefly, on Shiori's, as if it was a parting word, then disengaged completely.
Kei was a selfish idiot who had disrupted the normal communion of normal people with her pathetic insecurity, stealing something meaningful from those she was supposed to care about. Her very presence here was a disruption, which she should have understood from the beginning yet had chosen to ignore. She should leave at once so they could begin to repair the damage.
Kei rose from her seat.
As she turned away, she registered a rapidly changing series of expressions on Shiori's face. Kei should leave swiftly, before Shiori settled on whatever she considered the most effective form of condemnation.
"Please don't go."
Kei stopped warily. It was not the traditional way to begin a litany of contempt.
"I'm sorry," Shiori said. "I should have realised you'd feel jealous. I mean, you remember how I was so jealous of you and Shikamaru that I challenged you to battle over it."
Kei turned back around. "You were jealous?" she asked bemusedly. "When did this happen?"
Tenten looked between them helplessly.
Yeah, I feel the same way girl.
Shikamaru sighed. "Everybody who no longer has any idea what's going on, please raise your hand."
Three hands simultaneously rose to join his own.
Despite misgivings about how grating Shika can be (Hey! He gets to be arbitrarily smarter than 'Zou and makes 'Zou look like a dumbass all the time! Grawr!), I quite enjoy his character.
It's a shame he didn't make it to game night.
"You know what," Shikamaru said, "If I am to be a protagonist in one of the Hokage's novels, I require much more sugar in my bloodstream. Somebody kindly slay my side dish while I go to retrieve the dessert menu."
Yeah I find myself agreeing.
-o-
You have received 0 XP and 0 FP.
-o-
What do you do?
Voting ends on Saturday 27th of October, 9 a.m. New York Time.
Very good! This is definitely a well written love quadrilateral in my opinion (I make no assumptions on the side lengths.
Stop it Mari.) This really underlines Keiko's complete inability to understand anything social dynamic wise. Shiori is apparently on the same boat on that, yet perhaps she's standing on the crow's nest while Keiko is clinging to the rudder for dear life.
I find myself wanting to spend more effort on romance pairings for Hazou despite the many voices who will undoubtedly quote this and yell at me for saying so. It would be great to have one of these chapters with the player character. Undoubtedly a lot of the magic here comes from your own enjoyment at writing this particular subplot, but if we find someone with a suitably interesting romantic dynamic maybe that can help on that front.
