Futoshi lifted his garden hoe, the nth time he'd done so in his job of making new crop fields. A couple feet away, Mitsuru and Zorome were busy with their own rows. Wiping the sweat off his brow, the former stamen looked up at the sky.

The bright light that had appeared after the collapse of Zero Two's statue seemed to have finally died off after shining down on them for three days straight. No one was sure what was the cause of it was, not even Hachi or any other of the surviving supervisors, but everyone who knew them was certain that Hiro and Zero Two were somehow responsible. It was the only explanation.

Under that beautiful luminescence, everyone felt… safe. Peaceful. Memories of a smiling young boy with a name on his lips were recalled, as well as the laughter of a happy girl twirling in the sunlight.

Futoshi smiled.

And dropped his jaw as he spotted something in the sky.

"H-hey, g-guys?" Futoshi stuttered.

"Ugh, what is it now?" Zorome groaned. "We had lunch half an hour ago, ya big lug! Don't tell me you're hungry again already!"

Mitsuru remained silent, eyes focused on the dirt he was digging up.

"G-GUYS! LOOK!" Futoshi yelled, finger pointed up at the sky.

Zorome and Mitsuru looked up. Their jaws dropped.

XXX-XXX-XXX

"Ikuno! Naomi!"

The two looked up from their work to see a sweating Futoshi clutching the doorway, gasping for breath.

"Futoshi…?" Ikuno slowly said. Naomi's brow was furrowed.

"Quick! Come outside! It's a meteor - and it's gonna land right here!"

"What?!"

XXX-XXX-XXX

"Papa, what's going on?"

Mitsuru hefted the small child in his arms as he ran down the hallway, Kokoro and Miku right behind him.

"I don't know, Ai. I don't know," he muttered.

"Mitsuru, what about Ichigo and Goro?" Kokoro frantically asked.

"Zorome's getting them as we speak!"

"Look!" Miku suddenly shouted.

Mitsuru slid to a stop, Kokoro softly bumping into his back with a grunt. Ai laughed in delight. He looked over his shoulder to where Miku was pointing out a window. His eyes followed her finger.

"Oh."

XXX-XXX-XXX

"It landed where?!" Ichigo screamed.

"Yeah! Hurry!" Zorome screamed back.

"Hachi, will you be alright?!" Goro said worriedly, supported the limping older man.

"Go!" Commanded Hachi, his voice like steel as he pushed Goro away. "I'll be fine!"

"I'll stay with him!" Nana shouted, her arm looping underneath Hachi's. "Just go!"

XXX-XXX-XXX

"Guys!"

Ikuno looked behind her, Naomi and Futoshi doing the same. She had been lucky her study was so close, otherwise her limp would've ensured her to be the last member of Squad 13 to reach the hill.

Climbing up the incline as fast as they could was the rest of the squad, Ai held tight in Mitsuru's arms.

"Hurry!" Futoshi called down. He looked at Ikuno in worry. "Will you be alright, Ikuno?"

"I'm fine," she snarled through gritted teeth.

"Don't push yourself," Naomi said gently.

"I'm fine," she repeated, softer this time.

XXX-XXX-XXX

The squad reached the top of the hill together, and froze in tandem at the sight they saw.

A golden Strelizia kneeling over where Zero Two's statue once stood, glowing with some sort of radiant luminescence.

It looked up and smiled at the group, before falling apart to the ground in golden chunks of light.

Like shards of the sun itself, the broken pieces pooled into one singular mass, and slowly shrunk smaller and smaller. Two shapes became clear, gaining more and more detail every second that passed.

Tears came to everyone's eyes, and Ichigo quietly sobbed into her hands.

Two naked figures slowly stood up from the puddle of golden light, joined at the hands.

Two faces greeted them, brighter and warmer than anything they could remember.

…

..

.

"Just like you said, Ichigo."

Hiro smiled. "We came back."

Zero Two grinned and glanced at her darling with all the love in the world.

"Did you miss us?"