Technically the bonus chapter but also the smaller half of a chapter that just got too long.

Apparently the .doc doesn't work for everyone, so the chapter is also below, the others have been edited to include the actual chapters in the description box.

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“Is that so? And you’re sure that is everything?”

“You don’t believe me do you!? Everything I said was true, we found some strange berries in the forest, chose to eat them as part of a dare, succumb to starvation pains, grabbed a snack and bam we out grew a house… then three or four more houses just now…”

Chrono repeated, not changing a word as he told Kouji the story once again only to be met with the usual monotone voice and stoic expression. One day, that white haired idiot would give him more to work with than a quirk of a brow or a scowling frown.

“I’m sorry Chrono but understand that this is a very difficult matter to comprehend if that is really all there is to the story then it is even more baffling… ”

Mamoru added, still as puzzled as he was a few minutes ago as he looked down at the two teens as confusion met confused stares, along with a rather awkward but anxious silence; the usual supportive and reassuring Mamoru was nowhere to be heard.

“Alright then… saying it is all true; then Mamoru, Satoru and I will go and investigate this matter further.”

“Want us to take you? Bet it’ll be quicker!”

“No!” came the instantaneous response off Kouji, catching the two teens by surprise,

“I’m sensing some uneasiness there Commish is there some sort of problem?”

Kazuma sarcastically replied only to get a stern look in return, not that the dark haired teen cared much for it as he turned away once more, arms crossed as he waited, occasionally glancing up at the balcony, he understood why they did it but even they should have been able to tell how pointless of an idea it was. They disguise it as a precaution, decorated with the concerned welfare of the others but the reality was to simply to try and hide how tall they had become by still looking down on them. While no scenario in the dark haired teens head, did not have the rest of the group painting them as some kind of monstrous freaks to be wary of.

“No! …Ahem… its fine, Taiyou, can show us the way?”

“Of course Ibuki-san!”

“Not that it’s hard to miss, just look for the forty or fifty fruit shells scattered across the ground near a cave.”

“Aw come on, it’ll be so much quicker if we just whoa…”

Chrono found himself being interrupted but not by a person or by a thing but a rather unusually triggered event where he found himself briefly growing taller again. Not just him, Kazuma to as he stared at the other teens surprised expression as the pair found themselves creeping closer to the balcony.

“Will you two stop that!” Shouted a rather exasperated Tokoha.

“Stop what? Growing?” Chrono curiously asked back as he turned to his former team-mate

“If we had any conscious control over this don’t you think we would have stopped growing ages ago…ugh..”

Kazuma snapped back, his hand automatically dropping to his stomach as he looked at Chrono, the pair knowing full well what was coming for a second wave as they glanced up at the top of the balcony and as if on cue their bodies responded as feet slid across sand, the distance between the two teens and balcony decreased by the moment as the crowd on top now watched in surprised horror as red and dark blue hair poked over the top of the balcony, followed by vivid green and steel grey eyes and eventually shoulders and chest to as the two teens returned to looking down on everyone. A group that Chrono honestly would have guessed looked nervous, even tense but that couldn’t be right as quiet chatter broke out between them all but too quiet for Chrono or Kazuma to make out what was being said, much to either boys annoyance.

“Everyone that is enough! We shall discuss this further later; everyone else can wait here in the luxury suite. As for you two, you have caused enough trouble for one day, just stay here until we return; we’ll decide our next move from there.”

“And it seems we have no time to waste, come now Taiyou-kun, we’ll be counting on you…”

Mamoru calmly added as Taiyou simply smiled and nodded, leading the three older guys back the direction he had just come in. If anything, he was relieved to leave, the atmosphere of the place had suddenly become rather restless between everyone.

“Kazuma…?”

“Kazumi! What are you doing there!?”

“I was just in talks with Ibuki and Anjou about becoming the new Nubatama Clan leader at the Dragon Empire Branch as the former one has had to step down…”

“Huh…but what of?”

Kazuma begun but was cut off by Kazumi simply placing his hand in the air, suggesting for the younger boy to shush.

“The family business? I haven’t forgotten, nor has an heir actually been decided on still. It seems Father is going to hold on to the position for as long as he can. Honestly, I’m not interested in the role either.”

Kazumi calmly spoke; he seemed to be taking this rather well, well on the surface at least. Looking up at the other boy with a content smile, after everything that had happened between the pair, he was certain that nothing else could surprise him but here he was proven wrong after all.

“But enough of that; what a turn of events this is… the idea of you growing taller than me was to be expected but never did I imagine my little brother to end up so towering in size…”

“Ugh… Kazu…”

“Ah…we said we would be less formal with each other.”

“mmm…big bro”

Kazumi simply chuckled as he watched the dark haired teen start to turn red as he looked away from him, still after all this time, it was amusing how the teen still got flustered but it served little purpose at his current size, there was hardly an angle he wouldn’t be able to see him from. A quick glance over at Chrono, Kazumi noted the curious look he gave Kazuma before quickly turning away again, nor was it the red heads first time as he returned to his conversation with the former Try3 members.

“And what do you want me to tell your mother?”

“Don’t tell Mum anything! Just think up an excuse, she doesn’t need the extra worry…”

“Then what of the other matter? Any updates there?”

Kazumi calmly questioned but his little brothers awkward and delayed response told him plenty as he looked up at the towering teen with a calm and reassuring smile.

“Eugh…it’s a mess, I don’t want to talk about it…”

Having loosely paid attention to the two brothers as well as Chrono’s not so subtle behaviour, Tokoha decided upon herself that it was her time to step in and help these two along. As Tokoha glanced at Kazuma and then back at Chrono, it was time to shake the situation up a little after all they were idiots, the pair of them, of course they were meant to be together, now if only they weren’t so stubborn and actually tried talking to each other but first a new hurdle to pass, the one that they put their themselves.

“Hey Chrono! If you insist on being ludicrously tall, then you may as well make yourself useful!”

“Huh!? What!?”

“I need you to fetch my hat, it blew away when you nearly stepped on us before…I thought that was it, there be no way to get from the tree tops but you should be able to reach just fine, right?”

Tokoha smiled, even though she was shouting at Chrono just to be sure he heard her; dumbfounded Chrono just stared at her, blinking, was she being serious right now?

“Well, go on then, before it blows away and I lose it to the sea! It is brand new; it’d be a waste if that happened…”

“Eh…Fine I’m going…I’ll be right back…see Kouji and that should had just let me give them a lift after all…”

Chrono shrugged as he fell into a mutter to himself as he walked away, a sight which was a little too surreal for everyone else watching, even Kazuma as the group were almost awe-stricken at the distance he covered in a single step, the distance between strides and the complete disregard to the smaller objects by his feet as he stepped on his second row of decking chairs, breaking each one without a single noticeable acknowledgement.

Having slid down the cliff edge and back onto the beach with a thud with Kazumi held firmly in his hands, Kazuma brought his knee up as Kazumi sat on top of it reluctantly, using his little bro’s hand as a backboard. Looking up at the balcony to smile at Tokoha, no words needing to be said to understand what just went down as the green haired girl simply gave a thumbs up as her and Shion started to clear everyone off the balcony, the next step was in Kazumi’s hands.

“I wouldn’t give up on the matter just yet Kazuma…”

“And just what would you know?”

“Let’s simply call it big brother intuition… knowing you, you let your emotions get the better of you again”

“What are you trying to say!?”

“Kazuma, you may fool the others but you can’t fool me, I’m your brother and the reality is that you’re quite an emotional individual, not that different than Shindou-kun really, you two are also equally bad at dealing with them….”

Kazumi simply smirked back as he watched the younger boy’s face change from annoyance to flat out denial to the eventual expected stare that told Kazumi to get to his point.

“And…”

“You said Shindou-kun has never dated before correct?”

“As far as I’m aware…”

“Nor has he ever shown interest in the idea of dating before?”

“Well…no… he’s always so wrapped up with his Cardfighting, nothing else comes close…”

“And then you, in a round-about way confessed which must have led him to even more confusion…”

“Confusion?”

“Kazuma, you may have given Shindou-kun’s a rather brutal awakening and he’s still trying to process it all. Things he likely never thought about, new feelings he’s trying to make sense of…. ”

“You think it’s a case he’s trying to come to terms with everything?”

“It isn’t an area everyone feels comfortable about, especially at first. How long did it take you to come to terms with everything and accept it?”

“A few months I guess…accept it… I’m not even sure if I’ve reached that stage yet…”

“And yet you only gave Shindou-kun a few minutes?”

“Argh…I get it…I screwed up again…”

Kazuma groaned, resting his fore head on his knee next to his brother who simply patted him on the head, even if the other couldn’t quite feel it.

“Not necessarily. Give each other some space, some time to cool off and speak to each other about the matter later this evening with a fresh mind and perspective…if nothing else, you need to resolve this misunderstanding or you’ll be here in awkward silence and drive each other crazy.”

“Alright…big bro…wha…no, not again…”

Kazuma started, instantly lifting his head up as he brought his spare hand to his chest, gripping his top tightly all while securing his grip around Kazumi as the pair could feel the unusual vibrations, almost like shivers as they ran through Kazuma’s body or rather tremors to the much smaller Kazumi as the jagged and jolted process was nothing like the smooth change from before as the dark haired teen felt his feet slide further across the sand, his limbs lengthen and body expand as he felt himself nudge and break away various trees by his hips, his back scraping along the wall as with every inch he pushed himself forward, seconds later he was back to square one, back firmly against the cliff face. However, just as quickly as the moment appeared, it was gone again, leaving the two brothers to stare at each other awkwardly as Kazumi fell into a sympathetic smile, placing his hand on his younger brothers finger as a sign of support, even if said finger was almost as big as he was now.

“It has become rather sporadic hasn’t it…hang in there Kazuma…”

Elsewhere on the island roughly the same time, Chrono found himself staring up at one of the few trees that were still towering over him, even on tip toes the red head couldn’t quite reach Tokoha’s hat but on the plus side, at least it was still there and hadn’t blown away into the sea yet as his former team-mate had feared.

Grimacing, Chrono placed a hand on his stomach as his whole body tensed for just a moment, as if something was building up inside up to the point where a loud gasp escaped the red head as he could not only feel but see first-hand, thanks to the surrounding trees that once again he was growing taller.

The distance from the floor increased slowly, while gradually the top of the trees that were a bother to him moments before came to align with the top of his head, his shoulders, his chest before finally stopping around his stomach as the feeling subsided as quickly as it came. Blinking a few times, Chrono tried to take in his new surroundings, even though he felt like he couldn’t keep up; as soon as he was familiar with one perspective his body seemed to say no and he was forced to readjust all over again.

“Still…that was rather exhilarating…” Chrono casually spoke to thin air as he checked himself over, everything still looked ok “I wonder if Kazuma grew any bigger to, I hope so, it’d be creepy for one of us to end up bigger than the other now…”

The red head quietly thought to himself, letting out a small nervous laugh, they were kind of in this together now and part of him didn’t want it any other way. The idea made the teen a smile as he brought his hand to his lips, thinking, he still needed to give Kazuma an answer, a proper, genuine one. The fact he couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss off the dark haired teen was just more proof towards Taiyou’s theory, why couldn’t he get the idea out of his head? On the other hand, did he really want to, nothing had felt so right in sometime par that moment where he screwed up again because he spoke first without thinking…?

“Arrgh…this is so frustrating, how am I supposed to even fix it if Kazuma keeps ignoring me…! ”

But it wasn’t just the kiss from before, if he was being honest with himself, he wanted more, the idea of kissing Kazuma again, the closeness of being chest to chest, a simple heartfelt hug or successfully holding hands with interlocking fingers to simply passing the time by idly doing nothing as long as Kazuma was there with him were all thoughts that brought a smile to Chrono’s face and a visible dusting of red to his cheeks; even Chrono could feel them warming up the more he thought about it.

Smacking the side of his face to regain focus that was all a matter for later as he reached over with ease now to pick up the hat he was after this whole time and just stared at it momentarily in bemusement as it sat comfortably on top of his little finger. He’d seen doll hats that looked bigger; for now though, he needed to get back to the others and see what their next move was, he had to get back to Kazuma and finally sit him down to talk, even if he had to use force to do it.