chain

The lunch period at Tsukiomi High School was beginning, and Narumi Ayumu was settling down for his usual nap on the roof.

It was the beginning of springtime, early March. The air was warm and comforting, and all around the school, cherry blossoms bloomed on trees and dropped their petals onto the grass. It was time for studying for the upperclassmen, who were deep in the midst of entrance exams, and time for the second year students--as Ayumu was, now--to anticipate becoming seniors in a month's time. A year had passed in the blink of an eye, and it was hard for him to believe that it had been so long since he had first entered this school and been caught up in a certain series of events.

Quite some time had passed since the mysterious, dangerous events involving the Blade Children--it had been relatively calm, surprisingly, with very few problems to speak of. Since the previous spring, the Blade Children seemed to have settled down, somewhat: Asazuki Kousuke, Takeuchi Rio, and Takamachi Ryouko continued to study at the school, while Eyes Rutherford continued his piano career, much to the delight of his adoring female fans. Kanone Hilbert had all but vanished, the trouble he caused reduced to a mere memory in the minds of all involved. Ayumu still felt as if forgiving the Blade Children for what they had done was out of the question, but he could at least acknowledge the fact that they were trying their best to live normal lives. He still didn't have answers, still didn't know what they were or why they had come to him, still didn't know where his brother was, but...

He'd become content, somehow. Occasionally Kousuke would make some sort of ominous remark about "testing" him, but Ryouko was usually there to kick him in the back and tell him to shut up, and that those times were in the past now. All of the Blade Children seemed committed to the idea of putting their troubles and murderous deeds behind them, and as each uneventful day passed, Ayumu relaxed more and more. They'd apologized to him several times (well, Rio had, at least--Kousuke would never dare do such a thing), and had even tried, on occasion, to help him locate his brother. But that didn't seem all that important anymore. He'd gone back to being a somewhat normal student in a normal school. It was comforting and he felt content.

Ayumu folded his arms behind his head and closed his eyes, a soft breeze blowing across his face and ruffling his hair. He really hadn't done much in the past year that was worth noting--he'd learned a handful of new recipes, done only the homework assignments he'd found interesting, and spent most of his free time lounging around the Newspaper Club Room with the nonstop chatterbox that was Yuizaki Hiyono. Truthfully, Hiyono had taken up more of his time than anything else, but considering how close they'd become, that wasn't surprising...

"Narumi-saaan, are you up here?"

A familiar voice drifted up the stairway, as if cued--yes, it was about that time, wasn't it? She always came to find him at the same time every day, rain or shine, to bother him and steal his lunch. Ayumu opened his eyes, blinking a few times as the scenery around him became clear. "Ah," he replied, knowing full well that any reply was as good as a "yes" to her. He could have even disguised his voice and shouted "no," and she still would have come tromping up the stairs, just to make sure he wasn't lying. If he was, he would have surely received a barrage from her favorite usagi and kuma--he still couldn't figure out where she kept those things when she wasn't using them--or, at the very least, she would have ignored him for the rest of the day. So what was the use in lying? She would find him anyway.

"I'm coming up," she called, and within a few moments he could hear the sound of her shoes on the rooftop. "Were you sleeping?" she asked, walking towards where he lay stretched out on his back. "I could barely hear you."

"No." He closed his eyes again as she came to a stop just behind the spot where his head lay on the hard surface. "But I'm going to sleep now."

"Now? Mou..." She walked away from him, her voice fading as she did so. "I don't know why I bother..."

Ayumu chuckled. Yuizaki Hiyono was another breed altogether--amidst the hopelessness of the Blade Children and Ayumu's own crushing apathy, she was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. She had resolved herself to stay by him at all times, and he'd begrudgingly accepted the fact that she was now his best (and probably only) friend. He hadn't intended on finding a friend in a loudmouthed, energetic senior, but... When it really came down to it, he thought, he sometimes truly enjoyed her companionship. If anything, it was better than being alone... but that wasn't it, not exactly. He thought that a little of it came out of the way she was always making herself useful. If he asked her for something, even if it meant that she would have to do something sneaky and underhanded or downright illegal, she would do it, no questions asked.

If he thought hard about it, he could occasionally remember times where he'd found her company pleasing, even welcomed. It wasn't as if he minded napping alone on the roof or walking home by himself, but every now and then it was nice to have someone else there. She wasn't necessarily "someone to talk to," since she, admittedly, did most of the talking, but even listening would do. He even enjoyed simply having her by his side as he walked to school in the morning, or--usually only when he wanted to delay getting home so he wouldn't get roped into cooking a long, elaborate meal--when he walked her home in the afternoon. At first he'd found her annoying, he remembered that clearly, but now usually he appreciated the space she filled beside him, and...

He opened one eye and looked at the clouds dangling overhead, squinting at a tiny, faraway object that looked vaguely like a plane. Had he changed, or had she? He wasn't quite sure. He knew of a few changes that he'd made, unconsciously, since the last spring: he'd focused a little more on his schoolwork, since there were no longer any late nights out chasing the Blade Children around; he'd stopped being quite as harsh towards people who asked him strange things (for instance, why did he insist on wearing his hair so long? He didn't really have an answer for that, to be honest); he'd relaxed around the people who wanted to consider him a friend, most notably her, since there really wasn't any use in pushing away those who genuinely cared for his well-being. Really, if he considered it, the changes between them were all his doing... but she'd been a different person last year, too. She didn't quite act any differently now, but something about her had changed. He was sure of it... but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. If he thought about it too much, it would only end up bothering him... so he decided not to pursue it any further than that.

The way things were now were... he remained squinting at the sky with one eye open, struggling to come up with the appropriate word. Things were... agreeable, he thought, and what had bothered him only a few months earlier was no longer even on his mind. His relationship with Madoka had improved substantially since they'd both agreed to go on living their own lives, not lives controlled by the memory of Narumi Kiyotaka. It was an unspoken agreement, one made through actions and not words, but when Kiyotaka's birthday came again and neither of them spent the night moping around the kitchen (or getting drunk, in her case), it had been clear to Ayumu that they'd both made the decision to move on. He wasn't sure if his brother was dead or alive, an ally or an enemy... but what good would come of dwelling on it? Although she didn't like to interfere with things of this nature, Hiyono had once said that lamenting on something you couldn't change was a waste of time. It was sound advice, much unlike the rest of her advice (which was typically useless, if not downright wrong), and he'd decided to follow it.

After all, it had been his brother's decision to leave, not his. It seemed odd to him, to be lying on the roof of the school, his thoughts so changed from the thoughts from twelve months before. Back then, he never would have come to the conclusion that Hiyono had, that thinking so much about the past was useless... but here he was now, looking to the future, to his future. All of them had changed to such a mindset, it seemed, even the Blade Children, who were not to have futures at all. What had convinced them of such a thing? Was it their own actions, or...?

"Ne, Narumi-san." Hiyono suddenly appeared above him, peering down into his face, her braided pigtails hanging low enough to almost brush his nose. "I--"

He closed the eye that had been open, turning his head to the side. "Before you ask, you can have my lunch. It's in my locker."

"Thank you, but I brought my own lunch today." He heard the scuffle of her shoes on the rooftop, and without looking, could tell that she was taking on the pose that she normally took on when she was about to scold him: her feet spread apart, shoulders stiffened, hands on her hips, her normally calm expression ruined by an irritated frown. He sighed, and on cue, she launched into her rant: "Narumi-san, your math teacher is looking for you, you know... he's worried that you haven't been paying attention in class, and--"

"Why do they always go to you with these things?" He sighed again. "I hope you didn't apologize this time."

"They're concerned, that's all... and to someone who doesn't know him very well, Narumi-san is a little intimidating. He's smarter than most of the other students, and I think he knows it, too." She paused. "Your teachers know that I'm always with you, and they're worried that you won't take them seriously, so they come to me instead..."

He snorted. "When do I listen to you?"

"Well, you do sometimes..." Her voice softened. "They're just concerned, that's all. No one wants to see your talent go to waste. Even if you think that you're not good at anything, if you put a little more effort into your schoolwork, you might be able to get into any university in the world..."

"Imazato-sensei said the same thing," he replied nonchalantly, and opened his eyes. "And then we found him murdered in a classroom. Do you want that to happen to you too?"

The expression on Hiyono's face was enough to make even Ayumu laugh. "Narumi-san, I'm quite sure that no one is going to kill me for trying to encourage you to do better in class."

"You say that now, but..."

"I don't know why I bother sometimes..." She sighed dramatically and turned to face away from him, tapping one of her heels against the cement just behind his head. "All I want to do is be useful to you. Your teachers trust me to help you... they must think that you listen to and carefully consider everything that I tell you, since I am your sempai and all. That's far from the truth, though..."

He craned his neck back and looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not going to listen to either of you."

"Mou, why can't you just pay attention?"

"It's boring." He unfolded his arms and pushed himself up into a sitting position, grunting as he stretched his legs out in front of him. "And I already know some of it."

"Couldn't you try to get transferred into a different class, then?" She glanced over her shoulder at him, blinking a few times. "Isn't there a classroom for the advanced students? Or... if you hurried, you could try to get permission to take a university entrance exam now, and if you pass that, you may not have to take your third year..."

"I draw too much attention to myself as it is--the others still gossip about that Shiranagatani Sayoko event, no thanks to you. Trying either of those things would make it worse, especially if I failed the exam." He cringed inwardly at the thought. "I don't know enough for such a thing. I'd fail the English portion immediately."

She smiled. "Your English really isn't very good..."

"That's why I have a tutor," he replied, and her smile widened--she, after all, was his tutor. Sometimes, when she wasn't sticking her nose into his business (or the business of others), she really could be helpful. "Anyway," he said, and pushed himself to his feet, "switching classes wouldn't be worth it. I have no intention to go to a university, either. I don't like coming to school now, so I doubt I would like going to another."

"That may be true..." She shook her head. "It still seems like such a waste, though... if I had Narumi-san's brain, I'd do so much more with it..."

"Hn." He brushed off the front of his uniform with both hands. "I'm not as smart as you make me out to be."

"Narumi-san... even though your math teacher is worried about the amount of attention you've been devoting to the class, I think he knows as well as I do that you could pass all the tests with the highest marks in the class if you really wanted to." Her voice dropped. "But you don't want to, I guess."

"I don't know where you got that idea." He stretched his arms above his head, pausing to yawn. "I'm not good at anything at all," he continued, "except sleeping on the roof during lunch. If there was a class for that kind of thing, I'd pass with the highest marks."

Hiyono turned around to face him, her expression comical again--she could never look convincingly annoyed. "You'd also excel at the class for stubbornness, and for making mean faces at friendly schoolgirls..."

He reached out and bopped her lightly on the top of her head with a closed fist, his lips curving slightly into a smile as she squeaked. "Stupid. I only look at you like that. No one else gets on my nerves in quite the same way."

She balled her hands up into fists and glared at him. "I've been nothing but nice to you, Narumi-san! I don't even steal your lunch anymore!"

"What was it that you were eating yesterday?"

"But--but you said I could have it!"

"Only because you were drooling over it. After seeing that, I lost my appetite."

"I was not! And you said you weren't hungry!!"

"Like I said, I lost my appetite. It's hard to eat after someone's been slobbering all over your food."

"Hi--HIYONO-CHAN PUNCH!"

Out came the puppets. Ayumu fled across the roof with Hiyono in hot pursuit, the latter waving a stuffed rabbit and bear wildly around over her head and screaming various insults at the former as he hurried down the stairs. For any of the students who happened to pass them as Ayumu was chased all the way to the Newspaper Club room on the second floor, this was a normal thing--that was just how Narumi and Yuizaki were, and you had to take it in stride. Anyone who tried to figure out their relationship usually ended up with a headache... so it was best just not to think about it for too long.

"Tadaima."

"Okaeri nasai, Madoka-oneesan!"

"Ah, Hiyono-chan's here again?" Narumi Madoka poked her head into the kitchen of the apartment she shared with her brother-in-law and was greeted by one cheerful face and one sullen one. Hiyono sat at the kitchen table, a textbook open in front of her, and she smiled before raising a hand to wave at the older woman. Ayumu, meanwhile, stood sulking over the stove, apparently only partially engrossed in the meal he was making. "Well," Madoka mused, stepping into the room, "for someone who has a pretty girl sitting at their kitchen table, Ayumu, you look very unhappy."

Ayumu snorted. "I don't know where you're looking, neesan. I see no such thing."

Hiyono seemed completely unaffected by this remark. "Narumi-san is just upset because he didn't listen to my advice again."

"Oh? What advice was that?" Madoka removed her suit coat and slung it over the back of another kitchen chair, tossing her car keys and purse to the floor. On some days, the detective clearly couldn't be bothered to maintain her "kirei oneesan" image, even if the usually starry-eyed Hiyono was around. "What did he do this time?"

"Well," and Hiyono leaned forward, whispering loudly as if she was disclosing a secret, "his math teacher asked him to pay more attention in class, and he refused, so he failed a test."

"Failed?" Madoka sat down, leaning forward as well, clearly torn between genuine concern and apparent amusement. This wasn't the first time they'd done this sort of thing, after all. "By how much?"

"Hmmm... I think he said the grade was a thirty percent..."

"A--a thirty?!" Now the amusement was gone; Madoka's head turned rapidly in the direction of the student in front of the stove, whose shoulders seemed to have stiffened somewhat. "Ayumu, you got a thirty on a math exam?!"

"I wish you two wouldn't talk about me while I'm still in the room." He looked over his shoulder at them, clearly not happy with a certain pigtailed girl. "And it wasn't an exam. It was a surprise quiz on today's material only, and it won't count for anything." He looked back to the stove. "It did, however, result in me getting lectured for twenty minutes."

"By your teacher?" Madoka sighed, leaning back in her chair. "Ayumu, honestly, if he asked you to pay more attention--"

"Not by him." He glanced over his shoulder again as Hiyono began to giggle. "By her."

"Well, I think Hiyono-chan has every right to lecture you if I'm not here." The detective crossed her arms. "And now that I'm home, I suppose it's my duty to lecture you as well."

There was an audible groan from the direction of the stove. Hiyono giggled again, and after a moment, Madoka's face broke into a smile. "Fine," she said, and nodded at the blonde at the other end of the small table, "I won't. But we're just trying to help you. I know how much you hate going to school, but Kiyotaka-san was very enthusiastic about you attending Tsukiomi when you were old enough. There's only one more year left, and after that..." She shrugged her shoulders. "Maa, you can do what you like then."

"I fully intend on it."

"Ayumu..." She sighed, then looked back to Hiyono, shaking her head. "Are you going to tutor him in math as well?"

"I don't think I'll be of much help, but I can always try." Hiyono smiled, glancing down at the textbook in front of her. "To be honest, after I took my entrance exams, I forgot almost everything I learned... and math was never my strong point to begin with. But because it's Narumi-san, I want to do my best to help."

Madoka sat quietly for a moment, then stood, yawning loudly. "Ayumu," she began, turning her head towards her brother-in-law, "call me when dinner's ready, okay?"

"Ah."

The detective picked up her discarded purse, keys, and jacket, and headed out of the kitchen in the direction of her bedroom. Hiyono watched her leave, then bit down on her bottom lip, watching as Ayumu left the stove and began walking towards the table where she still sat. "You aren't really mad at me, are you...?" she asked.

Ayumu sighed, sinking heavily onto the chair closest to her. Truthfully, he wasn't mad at her, even frustrated or annoyed with her--he was upset with himself for having done so badly. He usually didn't have to pay full attention to anyone to grasp a subject, and anything he missed, he could usually easily learn on his own. But now it seemed that he'd come to take these skills for granted. He never wanted to score perfectly on exams, because he didn't want to be singled out as some sort of genius, but failing was something he simply hadn't done before. "No," he said, and turned his eyes onto the math book in front of her. "Not at you."

"At yourself, then?"

He frowned. She really needed to stop being able to do that--was he really so easy to read? "Maybe," he responded, and watched as she flipped through a few pages, familiar equations and problems passing before his eyes. "I don't usually fail."

"I know that..." Her hands stopped moving. "And truthfully, Narumi-san, I know that you could easily learn this material yourself. I think the same thing could probably be said for your English. But I think..." Her voice softened. "I think that unless someone tries to push you to do better, even a little, you won't succeed. It's not that I'm trying to force you to do something you don't want to, but..."

"You think too much of me."

She shook her head at that remark, then continued. "I think... even if I push you, or Madoka-oneesan pushes you, Narumi-san has to want to do this before he succeeds." Her tone brightened slightly. "That's just how you are. You really have to want to do something yourself before you can do it. So what I can do is help you until you decide on your own to do it. Even if that means annoying you, or following you home every single day... I'll do it." She laughed. "And even if it means you'll get tired of my company and never want to see me again, I'll bother you until you become convinced that the only way to get rid of me is to study harder."

Ayumu studied her profile for a moment, the words he wanted to say taking a long time to form in his mouth. "I don't understand," he forced out, finally, "why you care so much."

She laughed again, winking at him. "I'm probably the only thing that Narumi-san can't figure out, right?"

He blinked. It was true. "... ah."

"Well, that's fine. It's good if there's a little mystery involved--that way you can use your brilliant reasoning skills to figure me out!"

"... stupid girl." He rolled his eyes, reaching for the textbook in front of her. "Give me this, and go check on the food. Don't burn anything this time."

She rose from her seat and hurried into the kitchen, calling cheerfully out to him. "Hai! And don't forget to take one of the practice tests in the back of the book, Narumi-san! I'll check your answers after we eat!"

He tried to frown, but it was becoming hard to do that around her. Not even he was immune to her blinding enthusiasm, it seemed. And to add to his conflicting emotions, what she'd said was true, after all--Yuizaki Hiyono was the one great mystery he couldn't quite figure out. Why she cared, why she went to great lengths to be useful to him, why she devoted so much time to him and satisfied his every whim... he couldn't understand. But if it would make her happy (and god only knew why that was), he would study a little harder... just a little.