It was almost a year after Chouko sacrificed herself to save me and the world, and none of us have forgotten what she did to save us. I was cleaning tables when Keiichiro walked out of the kitchen with a plate of food.
"Is that for Ryou?" I asked walking over to him.
"Yeah, he still won't come out of his room." He said glancing up the stairs.
"What Chouko did wasn't his fault." I said. "Here, why don't I bring that to him?"
Keiichiro nodded and handed me the plate. I walked upstairs to Ryou's room. That was something I forgot to mention, ever since Chouko died, Ryou wouldn't come out of his room.
Flashback1 week after Chouko's death
"Ryou come on, open up!" I said banging on his door. He didn't answer. "Ryou, what happened—what Chouko did was her choice, there was nothing you could've done to stop her!"
Still he didn't answer. "Listen, things happen for a reason, it doesn't matter whether we want them to happen or not, they just do!"
End Flashback
I knocked on the door to Ryou's room. No answer. I put the plate on the floor next to the door and headed back downstairs. I stopped halfway down the stairs and ran back to Ryou's room.
"Ryou, open up! Please!" I said knocking on the door. "Please, Ryou, just open the door!" I started banging on the door as tears formed in my eyes.
I kept banging on the door for a few minutes before falling to my knees, tears streaming down my face, my fists still on the door. "Please Ryou, just open up and come out for a minute." I cried. "Please… YOU'RE JUST KILLING YOURSELF BY DOING THIS!" I screamed with another bang on the door. "Locking yourself up in your room isn't going to bring Chouko back! I can't stand it! I can't stand you blaming yourself! It's… it's not fair! IT WAS MY FAULT THAT SHE DIED! I SHOULD BE THE ONE LOCKING MYSELF UP IN MY ROOM!"
I sat there crying for a few minutes before forcing myself to get up, wipe off my face, and go back downstairs. When I passed by the calendar hanging up next to the kitchen door, I stopped.
"Is something wrong Ichigo?" Lettuce asked walking over to me.
"It's tomorrow…" I said.
"What's tomorrow?" she asked looking at the calendar. "There's nothing written there."
"It's tomorrow…" I repeated. "…it's been a year already."
She instantly knew what I was talking about. "Oh, that. I can't believe it's been a year since… since it happened." She said softly.
I heard a crash behind me and turned to see that Keiichiro had dropped a plate that he was drying. "Oh, sorry about that." He said as he picked it up.
"Poor Keiichiro." I said as we went back to work. "Chouko was his family. Aside from Ryou, he was the last to recover from shock."
"Yeah, I feel bad for him." Lettuce said. "We should do something for him."
"I understand what you're saying Lettuce… but what can we do? I mean, I don't think having a party to celebrate the death of his niece is going to cheer him up." I said.
"I wasn't thinking about a party, but what about if we went to visit her grave?"
I thought about it for a minute. It sounded like a good idea, except that I was pretty sure that he visited her grave often. But maybe it would be nice if we all went together and had a picnic there.
"Okay, let's do it!" I said. "Let's all meet up together tomorrow."
The Next Day
Masaya and I were standing at the entrance to the café waiting for everyone else to get there. We were both wearing all black to show respect to Chouko and I was carrying a picnic basket that I had prepared last night.
"Ah, you're already here." Keiichiro said walking out of the café and over to us. He was also wearing all black.
"Where's Ryou?" I asked.
"He refused to come out of his room." Keiichiro replied.
"Oh, I see…" I said glancing up at Ryou's window. His curtain was drawn so I couldn't see inside. My heart ached to see him acting this way. But I guess it's better than when he found out Chouko died…
Flashback
There were smashes coming from Ryou's room. We just told him what had happened and he ran up to his room and locked it. We tried to calm him down, but to no avail.
"It's not fair!" Ryou yelled. "It's—not—fair! This isn't how things were supposed to end up!"
We sat downstairs. Pudding was bawling her eyes out, Mint was sitting alone crying silently, Lettuce was sitting at a table with her face buried in her arms, and Zakuro, who I'd never seen cry before, was wiping her face off with a handkerchief.
"Why... why did things have to end up this way?" Ryou yelled from upstairs. He seemed to be expressing how we all felt. "How could she leave us like that!?" there was another smash from upstairs.
End Flashback
Zakuro, Lettuce, Mint, and Pudding all walked over wearing all black. Mint was even carrying flowers to place on the grave.
"Come on everybody, let's go." I said.
Kishu POV
I was standing in front of the tube while Pai typed something into the machine attached to it.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready." I replied.
"It's finally time." Kira said behind Pai. "It is finally time…"
The liquid slowly drained out of the tube and then the tube started to melt into the floor. The body fell and I caught it in my arms. Chouko's soul appeared in front of me and looked worried.
"Don't worry." I reassured her. "You'll be fine."
She nodded and slowly merged with the body. Her eyes slowly opened up and she looked up at me. Chouko's body had been awakened once again.
