On the day when Oval Tower had collapsed, Clear had recognized that Mink hadn't taken the route the other's were to get away from Platinum Jail afterwards, and that his team members had been frantically looking for him, not knowing where he was and even worrying that he had been buried underneath the rubble. Clear could rule out that possibility though, since his memory had provided him with a picture of all the people of their five-man-group being alive and well, after the tower had collapsed. Noiz had been standing to his left and Aoba had been sitting to his right, while he was supported by Koujaku and cradled Ren in his arms. And Mink had been standing only a little ways off from them and he didn't appear to be hurt at all while he smoked his pipe and his Allmate Tori soared in the sky above the remains of Oval Tower.
Clear's first instinct had been to follow after his master Aoba, because he was crying all the time and not even Ren licking his face or Koujaku patting his back had been able to calm him down then. But when he had heard the members of Scratch desperately yelling their leader's name and attempting to search every piece of debris for him, Clear had decided to help them, evaluating Koujaku's company as enough of a support for his master as of now to get home safely.
To put Mink's worried team members at ease, Clear had offered them to track Mink down and had made use of his extraordinary good hearing abilities. He had found him in a dark corner of Platinum Jail's streets, propped on his knees and holding a hunting knife to his abdomen, likely to strike at himself at any moment. Clear had rushed to his side and prevented Mink from killing himself in an instant, earning himself a harsh beating with fists and was shouted at not to meddle with Mink's affairs since it was absolutely none of his business. Clear had countered that he was sick of people he cared for dying and that Mink should not simply throw away his life like it was nothing. Mink had obviously not understood why Clear would put him in his caring-for-you-category then, but as one of his master's friends, Clear wanted to be friends with Mink, too, and thus he did care about his wellbeing as well. Mink had then tried to get away from Clear, likely to find a more secluded place to commit suicide yet again, but Clear kept following him around and eventually they had met with Mink's team members who had appeared to be more than happy to see him again, thanking Clear and making Mink temporarily forget about his plans to kill himself it seemed.

After the events in Platinum Jail and the collapse of Oval Tower everyone's lives returned pretty much to normal and Clear liked it better that way. The only thing saddening him a little was the fact that even though him, Aoba and his friends had displayed great team play while fighting against Toue, all of Clear's new buddies were scattered all over Midorijima's Old Resident District again without keeping in contact amongst each other much. That didn't prevent Clear from visiting his master and his newly acquired friends occasionally, though. The most important person on his list to look after was Aoba, especially since he seemed to be so down after the collapse of Oval Tower. It had to have to do with his Allmate Ren apparently being broken and Clear could associate with losing somebody close to himself. Clear had of course suggested to let Ren be repaired if he was broken, but Aoba had told him that there wasn't something physically wrong with Ren, it was his personality that was gone and Aoba felt responsible for it for some reason. Maybe their efforts in saving Ren by all of them being drawn inside of Rhyme and protecting Aoba while he tried to scrap Ren had been in vain? Clear didn't really know and whenever the conversation went in that direction, Aoba would refuse to talk about it any further. He seemed to be very hurt indeed. As far as Clear had understood it, Aoba had been with Ren for a very long time so it was no wonder that he missed him exceedingly. The only thing Clear could do was trying to cheer him up by preparing him lunch from time to time, try to invent jokes during conversations or singing him to sleep when he heard Aoba crying in bed without being able to calm down, which sadly happened very often. Other than that he could only attempt to make Aoba not to feel that much alone by keeping him company - at least whenever that spot wasn't filled by his old friend Koujaku already.

Aside from caring for Aoba, Clear still liked to stroll through the Old Resident District a lot, so he used his walks to say hi to Aoba's other friends, too. It was a bit hard to greet Koujaku, the hairdresser, since he was always surrounded by a lot of girls, if not at Aoba's home, and they would get into a slight panic whenever Clear came close to Koujaku to strike up a conversation. They would point fingers at him and screeched until Koujaku assured them that he was no one suspicious just because he kept wearing a gas mask over his face. It was not like Clear wore that mask for fun, though, so he couldn't really do anything about it.
Aoba's strawberry-blonde friend named Noiz could sometimes be found at Rhyme battles that were now owned by another company than Toue's. But since there was no Usui anymore, that popped up at random times and locations, and the battles were now announced properly before starting, Noiz' role as an information broker on Usui's appearance especially, was not needed anymore. It didn't seem to affect him negatively, however, and Clear was sure that somebody with Noiz' skills could do practically anything. He once had asked him whether he would be able to repair Ren, but Noiz had told him that the problem wasn't something he could solve, so there was no use trying.
Aside from that Clear could sometimes hear Noiz' voice from the same place as Koujaku's when he strolled the streets of the Old Resident District at night. They seemed to be in a pretty good mood most of the time, probably because they were engaging in something that made each other feel good and consisted of moaning loudly and creaking bed noises for the most part.

About a week after Oval Tower had collapsed and Platinum Jail, including its airports, had been opened to more or less everyone on Midorijima now, Clear had met with Mink without intending to do so this time. Clear had just been trying to get a better look at the new areas accessible for strolls now and Mink seemed to be on his way to the airport, so he greeted him cheerfully.
"Mink-san! What a coincidence! Taking a walk, too?"

If the bag Mink carried under his arm was any indication, the taller man probably was about to embark on a journey rather than leisurely walking around without a concrete goal in mind like Clear was. Mink looked back at the man clad in white grimly, but then decided to answer his question in hope that he would get rid of him that way.
"I'm going to visit my home country."

Clear's face brightened up like that of a little kid you just had offered candy to. It was hidden below his mask, but the onlooker might swear to see some mysterious, pink flowers pop up next to his face.
"Oh! Mink-san is going on a journey? Will you visit your family and friends over there?"

Mink's face that always looked rather moody took a turn for the worse and he answered Clear only after a long pause.
"Thanks to that bastard Toue, I'll be visiting their graves rather than their homes."
Before Clear could utter words of consolation, though, Mink gave him a fierce look and gave his voice a sterner tone than usual.
"Don't you dare getting in my way this time, Gas Mask."

Clear blinked underneath his mask and didn't understand why he would even try to keep Mink from paying his respects towards his deceased family members. But then he gasped as he slowly came up with the answer to the question what might follow Mink's visit to his beloveds' graves: faced with what he had lost and probably feeling lonely beyond compare, he might come to the point of wanting to throw away his life all over again. The fact that the cheerful look on Clear's face had fallen as his mind worked in rapid succession was only noticeable from the outside by him lowering his head, since pretty much all of Clear's emotions kept being hidden behind the leathery item he wore constantly. Still, his voice could be heard and he sounded upset, balling his fists while he spoke.
"I am sorry to hear that Mink-san has nobody to return to at the place he comes from. Please forgive my insensitivity concerning that matter, but..."
He looked back up to Mink, took a step towards the other man and grabbed his hand in an effort to make him listen - his hand was slapped away immediately, though and Mink was about to bark a curse at him but Clear interrupted him by continuing to speak.
"Even though your loss must have been very great, when you are done paying your respects to your people, please think about the people you still have left over here and who are concerned for your wellbeing even if they aren't related to you by blood, Mink-san!"

Mink looked at him like he didn't know what Clear was going on about and gave off an annoyed, grumbled reply.
"What are you even talking about, Gas Mask?"

Clear took another step towards Mink, this time grabbing both his hands and staring him directly in the eye and Mink could swear to see a flash of pink from behind the see-through parts of the other's mask covering the area around his eyes.

The taller man, who was much more muscular than the more slender framed Clear, became more and more enraged by the other guy's renewed violation of his privacy - mind- and body-wise. His brows furrowed even deeper and his blueish tinted eyes grew colder. Of course he had tried to free his hands immediately yet again, but this time he had failed. Even if he had seen him fight, Mink had trouble to believe how easy it was for this gas mask guy to take hold of him this firmly without even so much as breaking into a sweat. His patience running thinner by the minute as Clear would neither ease his grip on him, nor come to the point, made him growl darkly as if to give the other a last warning.
"Let go."

"Not before you listen to me properly, Mink-san! It's important!", Clear was very insistent on this and it looked like he wouldn't back off until he was able to say his piece, so Mink bit down on his pride unwillingly with clenched teeth and then gave off a snort to signalize that Clear should get this over with finally, before Mink exploded.
"Thank you. Now, to explain further. The members of your Rib team are your friends, right? Maybe they even feel like a family to you. They definitely care for you deeply, Mink-san! Please consider returning to them after you have paid your respects to your late relatives since your team-mates will surely miss you dearly when you're gone as much as you are missing your family right now!"

Mink was bewildered beyond compare, even if it didn't show on his face other than to take on a stunned look now. How did this gas mask type dare to butt into his affairs so much and tell him what to do? He felt deeply seated furry rise from within himself and gathered all of his strength to headbutt the hell out of Clear, who let go off his hands then. Surprised about Clear's head feeling even harder than he had thought he would, he briefly rubbed his forehead before turning around on his heels and continuing to walk to the airport.

Clear, left dizzy for a moment and seeing stars, tried to gather his marbles again and shouted after Mink: "At least think about it!" before he gave up his pursuit and went back to take the route he had originally intended for his walk.
Clear walked around with his view directed towards the concrete as he wondered whether his words had reached Mink at all. But then again he was a firm believer in the fact that once somebody planted a thought inside of you, you at least started thinking about it. So whatever the outcome of Mink's journey would be, at the very least Clear had tried to convince him that his life was important for other people, even if it didn't seem to be important to himself. With that in mind he tried to draw a line under the subject, lifted his head up again and continued his exploration of the airport.

But even though Clear told himself in his head that Mink probably would be fine over and over again, he caught himself following the tall man, before he even recognized that he was doing it after having made a u-turn at the previous corner. At first he tried to convince himself that he had wanted to visit the airport to widen his walking territory anyway and Mink and him just happened to share the same way to walk around, but then he had followed Mink not only in the same direction but up to the terminals that were crowded with people.
It looked like half of Midorijima's residents wanted to get off the island as soon as possible for whatever reason. Clear had trouble following Mink's figure, even though he was tall, and then he lost track of his footsteps, since they mingled too much with the noise of the crowd even though his hearing was excellent. He tried to look over the heads of various people that blocked his path but it was hard not to loose Mink's back amidst hundreds of others. Still, Clear was able to follow Mink somehow, until he reached the terminal counters and heard him swear loudly as the nice lady at the counter talked to him in the most composed tone she could muster in front of a brutish looking hunk like Mink, who had just slammed his heavy fist down in front of her. Then he turned on his heels with another curse under his breath and headed over to the airport's waiting area.
Clear headed over to the counter and, after waiting in line patiently, asked the lady where the tall man with the dark overcoat and the pink headband had wanted to go that he was so upset. He was told that Mink was headed to a place roughly 10 hours on plane away from Midorijima and that said plane was delayed by at least two hours since the airport simply hadn't been ready to deal with as many passengers as they were currently overflowing every nook and cranny of the place and there were other flights before Mink's plane could even be rolled to the gates. The lady asked if Clear wanted to go to the same destination and after a pause, Clear simply said yes, but being told the ticket price, he recognized that he didn't have enough money on himself right now to pay for the flight, and since he didn't own a coil either to make cashless payments, there was no way for Clear to follow Mink further.

Going back from where he had come from, Clear pondered if it would be a good or bad idea to keep track of Mink further, aside from the monetary aspect that stood between him and his goal. Mink was a man with a strong will, so he probably would do what he had tried to do before, meaning taking his own life after having paid his respects to his dead family members. Even though Clear had spoken to him, he was very unsure whether his words had actually reached Mink and he felt his chest grow tight when he thought about what might happen if Mink wouldn't consider living on. For some reason Clear felt the sudden urge to make sure Mink wouldn't take his life as soon as he arrived at his destination. He just wanted to watch over him for a while after he would arrive at his home country, and if Mink really wanted to go through with what Clear feared him to to do, then maybe he could talk to him again. Maybe Mink would have settled down a little after having time to think on his own and going through with facing his past. But Clear was also quite sure that Mink would be very hurt upon being reminded of his loss, the loss of people important to him.
Clear had suffered that kind of loss once already, when the gentle old man that had taken him in years ago would just simply stop breathing in his his sleep to never wake up again. It had been a terrible kind of pain to be felt and when Clear considered the possibility to have to go through that kind of pain more than once he was at a complete loss of how to deal with it. Mink had said he had lost his family and a family usually consisted of a father, a mother, a child and some grandparents. Maybe Mink had been in the position of the child or of the father, but whatever role he had played in his family and however big it might have been, to loose all of their members must have felt beyond painful for Mink. And now Mink wanted to follow them and join them in death as well.

Suddenly Clear's mind was completely made up. He would follow Mink to his home and prevent him from taking his life. It might be an egoistic thing since Clear seemed to rate life higher than Mink, but he still wanted Mink to stay alive, even if it might be painful. Taking your own life after having lost so many living beings already just felt so wrong to Clear.

But there was still the issue of getting a flight ticket without any money to spent. Clear sighed and thought about how he might get his hands on something, but the only thing he knew that would earn him money was working, but two hours were probably not enough time to achieve this goal. Then he remembered that he had gotten monthly pocket money from his grandfather when the old man had still been alive and Clear had never used it much for anything. Clear had no memory of how much money he might have collected over the years, only remembering a few jars of cash money in his old room at his grandfather's house. Without any other option, though, it seemed the best idea to just go back and count it. The next best idea was to try passing himself as an item of luggage and to stow away on board, but Clear felt bad about that, because it would be kind of like lying - not to mention that nobody would take a human sized piece of luggage an board of a plane anyway.

Clear worriedly looked at the old wristwatch he had inherited from his grandfather and which still ticked on despite its old master's time having come to a halt already. Two hours weren't much to make the distance between Platinum Jail's airport and his home twice. Clear would have to hurry. The rooftops of Midorijima would have to help him make his way around.

Now getting to his home hadn't been a problem for Clear, neither had been finding the half a dozen jars filled to the brim with pocket money, even if their bottles had gotten a bit dusty over the years. But Clear presumed he was low on time to count all of it and therefore decided to just bring all of the money with him. Each jar the seize of a small barrel corked tightly and packed into a large cloth to be thrown over his shoulder Clear looked like some out-of-season Santa Claus as he made his back back over the rooftops of Midorijima - the added weight making for a lot of noise and slowed him down a little.

The lady behind the airport counter didn't know if she should be delighted to see the white-haired man with the gas mask on his face but a gentle voice from before, back upon having decided to buy a ticket after all, or if she should be utterly terrified at the fact that he intended to pay in cash stashed in half a dozen oversized glass jars. The business-like smile she had plastered on her face was about to break at any given moment, leaving her either laughing hysterically at the sheer idea to be expected to count this insane amount of pocket change, or for her to end up in a crying fit, because money was money, no matter how small the yen coins were and she had to take it if the customer wanted to pay with it.
Clear didn't really understand the problem and tried to reassure her that, according to his estimation concerning the volume of the containers he had brought the money in with him and even under the assumption that all of the coins stashed in there might be worth the smallest amount possible - meaning 1 Yen - it should mathematically still be enough money to buy the ticket. And he wouldn't mind leaving her with the rest of the money for her troubles at all.

The people in line behind Clear began to get unsettled and to complain that they, too, wanted to buy tickets and to catch their flight and the poor woman's facial expression began to slip towards sheer panic, before a coworker of hers excused herself from her place for a moment and headed over towards her. Having seen the problem from her own seat behind the neighboring counter already, she tried to shake some sense back into her colleague and told her to get a certain something from the backroom behind the counters. Springing back to life as if redeemed from all evil, the lady hurried to get what she had been told and returned a moment later with a machine originating from ancient times when most people still carried hard cash around with them instead of simply paying with their coils - it was a thing designed to exchange money. When Platinum Jail had been built over a decade ago, Toue probably had ordered for at least a few of those machines to be set up for the richer residents of Midorijima, who hadn't been fond of the idea to place all their hard earned money to be exchanged for virtual currency yet. The airport staff lady explained to Clear that he machine's usage was simple: Just put your money in the form of either coins or paper inside the right slot of the machine and it would count it and then give out a plastic card where the money would be stashed on virtually for the time being. Those credit cards still could be used instead of coils to pay with even now, working similar to prepaid cards. The poor woman had difficulties lifting up the heavy jars filled up with hard currency however, so Clear assisted her in feeding the machine.
It took a while until the display of the machine hit a number high enough to cover the costs of Clear's flight and the woman just trying to do her job had to feel stabbed to death by glares of the people still waiting in line behind Clear more than once. Some men even got verbally abusive towards the lady, but Clear indicated to be polite towards each other instead and when somebody tried to hit him, he caught the man's fist swung at him with ease and made it pretty clear who was the stronger one between the two of them by just squeezing down tightly a bit - well a little more then just a bit, just enough until the other party cried out in pain and drew back his hand, cursing at Clear, but then keeping his distance in line behind him.

The amount of money being transferred to Clear's temporary card being enough to buy the ticket, he ensured the woman she could keep the rest as change, but she told him that she was instructed never to take any tips, so she kept up pouring in the coins into the money exchange machine down to the last one of them. Clear might have spotted sweat having broken out on her forehead, but he thought it might be due to her being under too much stress from taking so long to serve him as a customer. He never would have contemplated for the lady to simply being scared out of her wits due to a weird gas mask wearing man displaying his strength towards another customer who had tried to strike at him earlier.

Not having any hand luggage to check in, Clear could finally leave the counter with his hard earned flight ticket in one hand and quite a bit of pocket money to spent later on his newly acquired prepaid credit card in the other. He would have preferred to search for Mink first instead, but the time left until his plane would leave had dwindled considerably and Clear thought it more possible to find Mink in a shut-off surrounding like a plane than in an open area of the airport with these many other people all around him.

When Clear's turn came to go through the security control, a man told him to remove his gas mask before he would be willing to feel him up for dangerous items he might carry so he could pass through.

Clear was devastated at the sole idea of revealing his face to others, even more so to a random stranger just demanding it.

He looked at his wristwatch again. He didn't have much time to finish boarding the plane if he still wanted to go after Mink. But if he wanted to follow Mink further he would have to bare his face, the only thing he had been told never to reveal to others by his grandfather.

Clear swallowed hard.

He hadn't been prepared to make such a decision.