Disclaimer- Oh gosh, Jin is just too amazing for words. I could fan-girl for hours! (Just saying)

"Anyways, Kagerou Project will always belong to Jin! And of course, the manga will always belong to Shizen no Teki-P and Satou Mahiro. So excited to be writing a fan-fiction of this! And so excited for the anime to come out as well! I hope you enjoy our fanfic of Ayano and Shintaro's feelings during the fleeting moments that they both shared together. Well, that AND what they went through as well during the whole suicide thing. Truthfully, there are many things that I want to say about it but if I ramble on any longer this story won't go anywhere... Hahah." ~Ariah

-Ayano's Prologue-

"If I had those red eyes, could I save someone's future?"

I sat with my back to the wall, my hands covered over my eyes as I slowly counted to ten.

"One..." I began, the sounds of familiar laughter echoing into my ears.

"...Two..." I could feel little Kano's footsteps approach me and I vaguely felt him wave his hands in front of my face to make sure I truly couldn't see through the cracks of my fingers.

"...Three..." He giggles and warns me not to peek, then runs off somewhere.

"...Four..." Little Seto trips, and now he's crying. But he's a big boy now, so he quickly gets up again and wipes his tears away as he joins the other two.

"...Five..." Kido is yelling at Kano because he hid in the same spot as she is. From the way their voices are echoing, I can tell they're in the kitchen.

"...Six..." I'm at the 'more-than-half-way' mark, and Seto is panicking to find a place to hide. I can tell from the light tapping of his small footsteps as he travels from one side of the room to the other, that he's running out of ideas.

"...Seven..." Kido kicked Kano out of the hiding spot, so now Kano has to find somewhere else to hide. I'm assuming he found one since he 'half-yelled-half-whispered' for Seto to follow him somewhere.

"...Eight..." It gets quiet for about one-point-five seconds until Seto lets out a loud "Ow!" and Kano quickly shushes him by covering his mouth and chuckling to himself.

"...Nine..." Nothing. I don't hear anything. I'm afraid to open my eyes. What is it that could possibly be out there, that could scare me so much to the point where I have to conceal myself in this facade? I'm so scared. I'm so... so afraid. Dad...Mom!

Shin-!

"Ayano!"

My eyes shoot open and I instinctively blurted out; "Seven times seven is sixty-four!"

Haruka stared at me surprised, a mental sweat drop forming at the side of his head as I glanced over to see a rather exhausted looking Takane roll her eyes at me.

"Ehehe, sorry..." I apologized, giving my head a small scratch. "...So, um... you were saying?"

"Don't give me that 'ehehe'-stuff!" Takane retorted, slamming her hands down onto the table. "And you totally got the math question wrong! It's forty-nine! Four-tee-nine! What the heck are you teaching her these days, Haruka?!"

"Uhh..." I quietly slunk in my chair as Shintaro quickly shot down Takane's accusation and the conversation turned into another daily argument between the two with Haruka trying to calm them down. I watched the daily exchange between them as Haruka pulled me along, hoping I could help him stop them before the four person study session ended. But truth be told, all I could do was laugh at them. And that had made Takane even more mad at me after I had told her that I was laughing because I was happy.

I was so happy. I really was. This was the source of my happiness after all. All of this, and...

Kido shoved her hands into the pocket of the sweater I had given her, and glared at Kano, who was imitating the man in one of the few dramatic romance movies we had all watched last night.

"Aw, c'mon!" Kano smirked, resting his hands behind his head and walking backwards. "You've gotta admit, that scene was pretty pathetic! No one in the real world falls in love with a girl in less than two days!"

"Yet you're the one who wanted to watch the movie..." Kido shot back, silently sighing to herself. "...and because of that, we were punished by Ayaka..."

"You know you wanted to watch the movie~" Kano sing-songed, turning around to walk forward again. "Besides, cleaning up the hallways is so boring. There's no point in it, it's just going to get dirty again~"

"We've got twice the cleaning duty to do now, and it's all your fault!" With a quick movement from her leg, Kido gave Kano a small but deadly kick to the shin and continued on her way.

"O-ow..." Kano whimpered, hopping on one leg. "..What was THAT for?!"

"...You made her sit down to watch a four-hour long movie AND got her in trouble..." Seto responded casually, tapping his chin as if in thought. "...If I was her, I'd be mad too!" He ended his comment with a carefree smile, which sent Kano into a rage of 'Whose side are you on anyway?!'.

I closed my eyes again, this time returning back to where I had fallen into. The count of hide-and-go-seek ended at nine. I never made it to ten. I don't want to count to ten. In this darkness that I was concealed in, I don't want to continue counting. I had already made the decision during the night of my mother's death. In order to protect those smiles, I would find this 'Heat Haze' and save them. Because...that's what a hero does, right?