The Long Holiday in May... (by Neerix) {Chapter 1: Balance}

The Journey has been long, our hero, Souji is looking apon his friends Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Teddie, and Naoto. No words need to be transfered, emotions and expresions float around the train as Souji takes his first step on the train. Looking back, Rise looks quite content, Yosuke is mindlessly fiddleing with his headphones while looking at Souji. Which seemed like hours to Souji, was only meer minutes to his friends, as he took his last step on Inaba for a while. The doors shut, and emediatly Rise looked like she was going to burst. Kanji tried his best to confort her by rubbing her back. The train started pulling away. And as if everyone was tied to a string attached to the train, they followed the train, to the end to say their last words before Souji took off. "Thank you for everything" Yukiko shouted through the glass. "stay well intill we meet again someday." Souji's blankless expression lit up seeing his friends faces. Everyone progressed into a mild jog. "You'll always be my sensei forever!" Teddie shouted with happiness. "Please don't forget about us over there!" Naoto hoped as she was tryng her hardest to hold on to her hat. "I love you senpai!" Rise shouted, feeling satisfied, regardless if she didn't say much. "I'll do my best!" Kanji hestitated with his arm up ready to say farewell to Souji. "You better not run away too senpai!". Everyone progressed into a much greater run. "I'll always remember our times together!" Chie shouted as she tries catching up. "Distance dosen't matter to us!" Yosuke shouting, trying to get his words in,"even if we're seperated, we're still friends!" Souji made one well placed head nod, and that sealed the promise, that he would in fact, return. As Souji's friends, the ones he had made incredible bonds with, panted trying to keep up with the image of the very person, that had changed their lives, till the end of the train station platform. At last, Souji was out of sight.

Souji, feeling full of memories, mindlessly sat down in his designated seat towards the back for the train, alone. He packed his bags above him, and sat down. He emediatly took out a picture of him and his friends, he turned it over, and wrote...

"Don't Forget: 3/21/2012"

About 8 minutes of sitting alone, Souji finally realized a boy sitting next to him across the lane of the train. His hair was quite like Yosuke's, but blonder and a little longer and crazier. He was a bit shorter than Kanji, but not by was wearing a bright blue t-shirt with black strips of material at the end of each opening of the shirt. His arm warmers, being black and bright blue striped, complemented his shirt, as well as his pants, which were black entirely. His blue eyes hit Souji with relief, his eyes reminded him of Teddie's. "That was quite the Farewell crowd you had there" He said with a faint smile. Souji gave a brief nod. The boy came and sat in Souji's section uninvited, and sat across from him. "You just came from..." he stopped. "Inaba, I came from Inaba" Souji filled in. The boy redirected his attention to Souji."Inaba?, wasn't that the place that was foggy for almost a year?" Souji gave a gentle nod. "what happened to it all?" The boy tilted his head. "I mean, did it just...disappear?" Souji's eyes opened in remark that he asked such a question. Souji couldn't help it but to notice he was constantly shifting his attention to the picture of his friends.

"Oh, I was so caught up in conversation, I forgot to tell you my name" He said panicking, thinking thats what Souji wanted out of the conversation. "My name is Nearu Kanamo" He said nodding his head. Souji introduced himself. Time pasted about a hour, as Nearu progressed back to his baggage and pull out a drawing pad, and some pencils, and started drawing a picture. Souji's attention constantly switched from the passing by trees, to his picture of his friends, and to Nearu's drawing. Another hour passed as, Nearu and Souji continued the same thing. Until Souji broke the silence, "May I ask what you are drawing?" Nearu hesitated a little, he quickly put his supplies down and handed the folded notebook to Souji, he briefly scaned every detail. Nearu had been drawing, three sections, all labeled different things.

One section was labeled "Past" which was a drawing of Souji's Photo of his friends. Which he figured symbolized his past, which was the only thing Nearu really knew about him. The middle section showed a picture of Souji and Nearu talking, it was labeled "Present", symbolizing what was happening now. The final section, labeled "Future" was a picture of him and Nearu getting off the train together, to a place that looked quite like Inaba. Souji looked surprised at Nearu's developing determination to get to know him better. "Your good" Souji managed to squeak out. Nearu let out a breif smile, and continued drawing. Nearu's determined face was interruppted by a halting screach, indicating that the train had finally stopped. The Train operator yelled out a location, and Nearu got up and proceeded to pack his bags. "Well, this is my stop, it was nice meeting you Souji, i hope we meet again." Nearu started walking out of sight, before Souji shouted his name, and he packed his bags as well as fast as he got on the train. "Im coming with" Souji said looking at Nearu's suprised face. "Besides, this is my stop as well."

Nearu was delighted to see Souji wanting to stay with him, To have a new bond, with a new person, the one with no balance.