Hello,

Here's the sequel for my previous Kampfer fanficiton: Split

I'm glad that you guys enjoyed the previous fanfiction, and I hope to deliver the same quality (or better) as Split. I'll be writing in the first person perspective a lot, as I feel that it adds more of a personal connection with the character. There'll still be action in here, just not the same scale as Kampfer action, but action nonetheless.

So I hope you guys enjoy this prologue and as always, thanks for reading.

Please R&R!

Chapter 1 - Good Morning

The cold morning of Japanese winter can be relentless, permeating even the toughest defenses of blankets and heaters. The body that was wrapped so tightly in the blanket squirmed ever so slightly, curling up into a smaller ball to keep warm. The silence of the room was broken by the buzzing of the alarm clock as it came to life, causing the squirming to intensify. Out of the blanket came an arm that swung for the clock and its infamous snooze button. Success! The monster of noise was slain with a simple press of a button as the arm lazily returned to the confines of the blanket in victory. But that victory was short lived.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

"Hey, wake up Mom! You're gonna be late for work!"

"Yeah come on! Wake up!"

The two new adversaries attacked our heroine with a torrent of nudging and jumping. Would she ever get her extra five minutes? Irritated, she groaned a loud groan under the blanket. She then swiftly pulled open the covers, grabbing the two targets and pulling them into the covers.

"You little!" said Natsume as she counter-attacked. The two children burst into laughter from her tickling onslaught, struggling to escape from her arms.

She continued to tickle them until she was satisfied, releasing her hold on them as they laid on both sides of her. Natsume brought them under her arms and hugged them, kissing both of them on the forehead.

"Morning you two," she said with a smile.

"Good morning Mommy!" said the girl and the boy.

"…Five more minutes?"

"Noo! We're hungry!"

"Okay okay, go get ready then."

It's been nearly seven years since that whole incident. Things haven't been easy for Natsume now that Natsuru was gone, but even with his absence, life goes on. High school came and left with bittersweet memories. Needless to say, it was a difficult senior year having to raise two babies. College life was different, more freedom and more responsibility, she liked it. Eventually, she started up her own restaurant while at the same time worked with the Senou 'family business.' Now that she thought about it, it surprised even her that she was able to come this far.

Natsume entered the kitchen with a yawn, stretching out her limbs as she walked over to the refrigerator.

"Good morning," she said.

"Ah Natsume-chan. Good morning!" said Kotoko as cheerful as ever.

"Yo Natsume!" said Serizawa as he read the newspaper, looking over to greet her.

"It's okay Natsume-chan, I already made breakfast!" said Kotoko.

"Oh," said Natsume as she noticed the food nicely laid out on the table. "You should let me cook sometime, or else I'll feel bad."

"Nonsense, I love to cook! Especially for my grandchildren."

"Is that so?" said Natsume with a chuckle. "Takashi! Ayame! Are you guys done yet?!"

Two children promptly ran into the kitchen at the sound of Natsume's voice. As one would expect, the children always take after their parents. Their blue wavy hair bounced up and down in rhythm with their steps. The boy's hair was much shorter of course, longer than most boys his age, but shorter than Natsuru's. His sister's hair resembled that of her grandmother's, long and silky with bangs that ran across her face, as opposed to Natume's ponytail.

"Good morning grandma, good morning grandpa~" said the both of them.

"Good morning sweeties! Come now, the food is ready," said Kotoko.

"Hmm, I have a feeling Takashi shall take after me when he gets older," said Serizawa, looking at the young boy taking his seat.

"What are you talking about?" said Kotoko. "He'll take after his father of course! They'll grow up to be fine individuals."

"I look like Dad?" asked Takashi with food in his mouth.

"Hey come on now, don't talk with your mouth full," said Natsume.

Kotoko was right though, he did look like Natsuru when he was younger. She watched as he and his sister played around with their food, laughing with smiles on their faces.

"Oi! Stop playing with your food. Now hurry up or else you guys will be late!" scolded Natsume.

"Okay~"

I usually tend to forgot how cold it gets around this time of the year. With my hands buried deep in my coat pockets, I tried to think about 'warm' things. Coffee, hot coco, a kotatsu, the desert. I look up and exhale, creating a plume of smoke as my warm breath permeates through the freezing air. As usual, the city was busy with people and cars. Mounds of snow piled up on the sidewalks and corners of buildings. Something about winter just makes me feel warm inside, despite the freezing cold.

And cold it was, my earrings are so cold they feel like something's stabbing my earlobes. Nevertheless, I continue my journey through the metropolitan tundra to my work.

'I'm finally here', I say to myself as I come across a small building with European styled windows and mahogany double doors. I'm still a little bitter about not being able to pick out a name for my own restaurant. Then again, it was one of Dad's conditions to help me get this whole thing running, so I guess it was a good tradeoff. Café Dames was what he named it, I personally wanted to go with Italian instead of French. I shrug it off as I open the doors as the warm heated air along with the aroma of food hit my face.

As soon as I walked in, a certain face caught my attention.

"Yo Natsume!"

"Dad? What are you doing here?!" I asked. That was a bit of a weird question for your dad nonetheless. It's not like he wasn't welcome, this place is his just as much as it is mine, but I just saw him at home about an hour ago.

"Well, we were hungry!" he said with a laugh.

He was sitting with his 'business' buddies, most of which I've met before. I let out an obvious sigh of annoyance and shake my head, deciding not to greet the table. Dad only responded with a smile and a shrug. I turn around and head to the backroom to get changed into my uniform. Maid cafes are pretty common nowadays, and most of them don't survive for long. Maybe it's because of that embarrassing advertisement campaign I did a while back. Oh god why can't I just forget about that?! But anyways, my restaurant is like said maid café, with me as the manager no less! Business has been pretty good all year long, and especially good during the holidays.

"Morning Natsume!" said a familiar voice.

"Hey Akane, good morning!" I said as I get dressed in my uniform. Did I forget to mention that Akane works here? Oh, and Mikoto as well. When they heard about me trying to open a business, they asked if they could help out. Shizuku stops by here once in a while, I guess working at a maid café wouldn't really suit her personality. It surprises me that we all manage to keep in contact through the years. Maybe it's because of all the experiences and crap we've been through together. Whatever it is, I'm just glad that they're still around.

"By the way, I saw Haru-kun when I got here."

Haru was here?! Oh crap, I was too busy being annoyed at my dad. Now he's going to think that I ignored him!

"Did you see him?"

"Eh? Uhh…no, I was talking to my dad…" I say with guilt.

"Oh right, I greeted him too! But I think you should go say hi to Haru-kun, he was waiting for you."

"…I…I don't know…" I say timidly.

"What do you mean you don't know? It's just a 'good morning', right?"

"Yeah I know, but I have a feeling he's going to ask me out soon."

"What's wrong with that?!" said Akane.

What's wrong with that huh…? What is wrong with that? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I've been talking to Haru-kun for a couple months now, but we're just friends right? I met him a while back but we never really got to know each other. But thanks to a certain train incident, we somehow got to know each other better. Strange how some things work. I know he has feelings for me, and I don't want to be that girl that leads him on. But, I always get a really strange feeling whenever I think about these things. It's like old wounds being reopened, it's uncomfortable for me. I can't. I just can't.

"Natsume," said Akane as she grabbed my hand. "It's time to move on."

I simply smile at her and hug her as if to say thank you for worrying about me. I leave the changing room silently. I didn't want to talk about it. Maybe it's just me running away from something, maybe I'm still holding on to something that I'd like to believe was still there. Whatever it was, I knew that I'd have to face it eventually. I walked into my little office where I sat down and rummaged through the pile of mail. I sorted the mail into different sections like bills, statements, applications, and whatnot. I walked to the mirror that sat at the edge of the room, inspecting my uniform. It was the one Natsuru was forced to wear back in high school, with the pink apron and short skirt. Except this one has black thigh-highs and boots to go with it. The pink leggings would have stood out too much. I couldn't help but laugh as I pictured Natsuru wearing this.

Alright, I guess it's time to start the work day! I make my way to the floor, surveying the room full of customers and other maids walking past. I spot Haru-kun sitting by himself in the far corner, sipping at a cup of coffee. He had fair skin and wavy brown hair that seemed to lag behind his every movement.

"Hey you," I said.

"Good morning Natsume, you're looking good today," said Haru.

"Thank you," I say with a smile. "So, what'll you have today?"

"Ah I'm good, I just wanted to talk to you for a bit, is that fine?"

"Oh," I look back at the other tables, it wasn't as busy as lunch or dinner, but things were starting to pick up. I didn't want to be rude to him though, and I have a good idea of what he wants to talk about. "Sure, what's up?"

He smiles, "Are you doing anything tonight?"

"Not particularly," I say. I tilt my head to the side and cross my arms, smiling as I do so to give off a presence of superiority. I'm not sure what possessed me to do that, I was just going with the flow.

"Dinner on me?"

"Sure."

"Alright, I'll text you."

We smile at each other as I turn around to get back to work with a small spring in my step. I walk over to the table my dad was sitting at with his buddies. I had to look away as he obnoxiously gestured me over to him.

"Hey hey, who's that?" he asked.

"That was Haru-kun, Dad. He asked me out to dinner tonight," I say in a reassuring tone.

"Haru huh? Are you guys just friends…or…"

"Yeah, I guess we're friends." Of course we're friends, right?

"Are you sure you two are just friends?" Yes! No doubt.

"Well yeah, I mean I think we are." We are just friends!

"Mmm, I see. I suppose that's fine then."

You know when you don't worry about something until you actually start thinking about it? Well that's me right about now. I can't believe I'm actually going out on a legitimate date with Haru-kun. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just that I've never really thought about it before. Geez, I'm almost as dense as Natsuru right now. I try to focus on something else, it was closing time anyway, so there were a number of things that needed to be done. I busied myself with cleaning the tables. Wiping the towel in a circular motion, I force myself to stop thinking. But…I'm still thinking about it…

I jerk towards the door from the sound of the bells as they opened. It was Haru-kun. He smiled at me and took off his scarf, walking over to me as he did so.

"Need any help?"

"Nah, I think I'll be fine," I say as I waved him off.

"Okay then," he shrugs.

Now the air was getting heavy, at least for me. I continued to do my side work in silence, too scared to open up a conversation to fill up this awkwardness. Come on, I gotta do something about this.

"S-So, where are we going tonight?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it, it's a surprise," he chuckled.

"Okay…Well wha-"

I was interrupted by the sound of the door hitting the bells as it swung open once again. Can't people read the sign I put outside that says 'Closed'? I sigh as I leave what I am doing and make my way to the floor. I take out my phone to check the time and fidget with it for a little while as I make my way over.

"Sorry sir, but we're closed for the day," I say politely.

"Oh really? I see, sorry for the intrusion then."

My eyes widen and my gut sinks into my stomach from that voice. That voice was more than just similar, it was the exact same. In my panic, I quickly look up to see a man with blue hair turning his back towards me, headed towards the door. Am I seeing things?

"Wait…"

Why is my voice so small and pathetic? Say it louder! Say it! Just get his attention!

My head is in a daze, my lips and teeth go numb with a strange tingling, followed by my arms and legs. I try to move, but I'm stuck frozen.

No…wait. Please don't go! Please! Not again…Natsuru!

A/N: Sure didn't see that one coming from a mile away, eh?

Anyways, I kind of wanted to draw a rendition of her kids. So we'll see how that goes.

Also please bear with me on first person descriptions. I'm writing from my point of view as to how I would describe certain feelings and whatnot, so suggestions or whatever would be highly appreciated.

Thank you for reading!