Ruri fluttered her eyes open, the sun beaming through her window shade. Her room was average, wood panels and painted walls of beige. Her bed was close to the floor and her desk faced the window, where her art supplies and pens sat. Alongside her cell phone, a single roll of paper sat upon the desk, characters and letters strewn across it. She had a single Maschera poster above her bed and a picture of Kirino, Kyosuke, Saori, and herself sitting with her lamp on her nightstand.

Ruri sat up and yawned. She moved a doujin she had been reading the previous night from her bed to her desk and pulled off her nightgown. 'What to wear today?' She pondered. 'It may still rain today. Should I play it safe and wear simple clothes?' She eyed a white jacket and blue jeans. Her eyes then darted to a red dress and jacket. 'Or should I be dangerous and wear that red dress?' She smiled and pulled the dress off its hanger. 'Dress it is.' She set the dress on her bed and retreated to her bathroom. 'I'll take a shower, eat breakfast and the-' Her phone began to ring. She scampered over to it and flipped it open.

[Caller ID: Senpai]

Ruri gasped and smiled. She answered the call and composed herself. "Hello?" She said coldly.

"Yo. It's Kyousuke." Ruri smiled and nodded. "I wanted to know if you'd like to go to the Justeen Cafe with Saori, Kirino, and I."

Ruri grinned but remained standoff-like. "Maybe. I'll have to cancel a thing or two, but I may show up. What time?"

A sigh of despair came from the other side of the call. "Around 11."

"And what time is it now?"

"Ten."

Ruri gasped. "ITS ALREADY TEN?" She shouted into her phone.

A yelp of pain blared through her phone. "Yes, yes it is."

"Shit!" Ruri cried. "I'll be there! Bye, Senpai."

Ruri hung up and dashed to her bathroom.

[] 50 Minutes Later []

Ruri, her hair tied back into a ponytail, walked along the sidewalk to the Justeen Cafe. It was a white building with a large Gundam protruding from the front, with pillars that appeared to hold the building up. 'Its changed a little bit.' Ruri hadn't been to the Justeen Cafe in a whole year, as she had been studying so much. 'Still, it is nice to be back.' She walked into the building to see marble floors and grey walls. Many people moved back and forth, wearing cosplay and casual clothing alike. Ruri smiled and peered into the crowd, looking for any sight of her friends. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Kyosuke, sitting in their usual table next to the wall-mounted television. He was smiling, and she liked that. 'Well then, Kirino. Let the games begin.' Ruri walked over with a kind of swagger that made her look confident. She let out her hair, letting it swing behind her head. Her cheeks flushed and she held one hand to her chest, the other grasping a small purse.

"Kirino! Kyosuke! Saori!" Ruri called, her voice sultry and demanding.

Kyosuke turned his head slightly to his left, his eyes fixed on Ruri. He grinned and stood. "I didn't get a proper welcome last night." He walked to her and opened his arms. "Now can I have a hug?"

Ruri blushed. "If y- you want one." She slipped her arms underneath his and held close to him. His arms wrapped around her neck, one hand resting on the back of her head. "Welcome back, Senpai."

Kyosuke released her and sat down. "Its good to be home." He stretched and moved to the side. "Sit next to me. Saori wanted to talk to us."

Saori, a tall woman with teal hair and odd glasses, stood and placed both hands on the table. She had an evil grin about her face, and her new yellow plaid shirt didn't make things less tense. "So, listen." She drew a peice of paper from her backpack and laid it out, its creases neatly centered. On it read, 'Elizabeth, Booker, Rosalind, The Lady.' She smiled. "There's a cosplay contest out in Akiba focused on gaming. Alongside it, there's a grand prize."

Kirino, her hair pins loosely holding strands of hair, perked up. "Is it figurines?"

"Money?" Kyosuke asked.

Ruri smiled. "Games?"

Saori laughed. "Even better." She leaned in and the others drew close. "It's an opportunity to recieve a piece of collectible wear from any genre you choose, and there are no limits!"

Kirino set her head on the table with a silly grin on her face. "That's fantastic, Saori." She moaned. "Anything from anywhere without limits."

Kyosuke nodded. "What do we wear?"

"I've taken the liberty of picking our outfits from Bioshock: Infinite! It has characters that we can cosplay as and not feel uncomfortable!" Saori stood and picked up her drink. "I'm going to get a fresh drink." She tapped Kirino. "Kiririn, do you mind coming with me?"

Kirino perked up and slid out of her chair. "I suppose so." She darted her eyes to Kyousuke. "I'll be right back, Aniki." She waved and threw a smug grin at Ruri, her hair bobbing with every step.

"Alright, don't take too long!" Kyousuke leaned back and smiled. "Its good to be home, Kuroneko."

Ruri glanced up to see Kyousuke staring at her. She blushed. "I'm sorry I didn't stay to hear about UCLA." She ran one hand through her hair. "Why didn't you go to Tokyo University?"

Kyousuke immediately lost his smile. He looked down at his hands and stared at the wall with contempt. "Manami was going to school there."

"Weren't you childhood friends?"

"Yeah, we were." He sighed. "After she found out about Kirino," He looked around. "And me, we had a falling out." Twirling the straw in his drink, he shook his head. "I couldn't look at her the same after knowing how she was behind my back..."

Ruri nodded. "I see her around sometimes. She still shoots me dirty looks..." She looked at Kyousuke and began to choke up. "I'm sorry."

Kyousuke was taken aback. "What for?"

"...For destroying the Destiny Record all those years ago..."

Kyousuke recalled a night in the street. They stood there, two years and a month ago, as Kyousuke announced his feelings for Kirino to Kuroneko, even denying a future relationship, only because he felt he loved his sister as a lover would. When he had finished, Kuroneko screamed and destroyed the Destiny Record, a book whose contents were mostly unknown to Kyousuke, but he knew most of them had to do with him. When she destroyed it, he remembered feeling destroyed as well, almost on the verge of tears. She didn't talk to him for nearly a month, but he understood why. Still, the destruction of that book haunted him all through College, right up to getting his Associates Degree.

"Ruri, its okay." He spoke softly, sliding his hands into hers. "I know why you did what you did, and there's no way we can change it, but that was years ago. We were kids."

Ruri let only three tears stream down her cheeks before she shook them away. "But I destroyed who we were."

Kyousuke straightened up. "Who we were," He pointed at his chest. "And who we are, those are separate realities. We are here now, and that's what matters."

Ruri smiled, her eyes in tune with his. She went to speak, but was cut off. She slid her hands away from Kyousuke's.

"Kyousuke! Kuroneko!" Saori called. "Ready to go over our cosplay?"

Kirino rushed up to meet them. "But what ever happened to Michi Arai?" She sat next to Saori and looked to her. "Wasn't she in our circle as well?"

Saori laughed. "Yes, well, when we...sort of...stopped meeting for a while, she moved to another circle."

Kyousuke sighed. "What the hell happened to you guys when I left?"

All three girls looked at Kyousuke with pained eyes. "What happened?" They said in unison.

Kyouske backed against the low wall, scared. "I only asked a question!"

Saori took off her glasses and looked at her plate. "Well, to be honest, it was a similar effect as to when my sister left." She sipped on her soda.

"I went back to hard study and track, and even though I still played eroge, I never really had time anymore." Kirino said. A sorrow look embraced her face, and she rested her chin on the table. "I slowly lost all we had built."

Ruri leaned on her hands. "I've had to take care of my sisters since my father went to work in Nagoya." She ran her hands through her hair. "My sisters and I couldn't pack up and leave everything, so he asked me to watch over them for a while. He came home a few weeks ago, but now they want him to work in Seattle." She leaned back. "He never really gets a break."

"My story is just like the one I told before." Saori fiddled with her glasses as she spoke. "I lost all my closest friends and returned to being a shut in." She rolled her head as Kirino stroked it. "The only one I could talk to was Ayase, but she didn't share the interests I did, so it was lonely. As soon as Michi left, I went back to writing and the Internet."

Kyousuke looked at the girls one by one, each with their own pained face. He sighed. "I lost something while I was away too." All three of them looked up. "I lost my best friends. I grew to love each and every one of you in a unique way, and you all impacted my life in such a beautiful way." He rubbed the back of his head. "Over there, I didn't understand English so well, so I had a hard time making friends. The only two I met who I thoroughly enjoyed talking to were Caster and Richard." He leaned back. "They went to a different school, but they and their friend didn't live far from me, and I met them one day coming back from a movie." He smiled and Kirino leaned in closer. "They both spoke Japanese and helped me learn English a bit better, and I taught them Japanese a little better. We played games and whatnot, but they weren't as dependable as you, Saori. They weren't as interesting as you, Kirino. They weren't as playful as you, Kuroneko." He smiled a dark smile. "I lost my best friends, but I'm happy I'm back home with you."

Kirino and Saori teared up as Ruri pulled Kyousuke in for a hug. The other two stood and embraced him from behind as Ruri began to sing into his ear.

"Nobody's gonna love you if
You can't display a way to capture this
Nobody's gonna hold your hand
And guide you through
No it's up for you to understand
Nobody's gonna feel your pain
When all is done
And it's time for you to walk away
So when you have today
You should say all that you have to say"

Ruri sang as the other two wept a little. Kirino kissed her brothers cheek as he leaned back. "Thank you, guys. I think I needed that."

Kirino looked at Ruri. "That was beautiful, Kuroneko."

She beamed. "Thank you, Kirino."

Saori wiped her eyes clean and sighed. "Alright, then. Ready for your cosplay assignment?"

Kirino and Kyousuke nodded. Ruri laughed. "Leave it to us!" They cried in unison.

Saori smiled. "As excited as ever." She flipped the peice of paper that sat on the table and pointed at a blue and white dress with a short tie. There was a ponytail flowing behind it and a pair of black leather heels. "Kuroneko, you will wear this outfit to cosplay the daring Elizabeth Comstock." She then pointed at a beige dress-suit with its hair tied back. Once again, a short tie sat upon the neck. "Kirino, you will wear this one, as Rosalind Lutece." She then stroked a long dress, reminiscent of Elizabeth's. "This is mine. I will be Lady Comstock." She then touched on a final suit, open at the center, and once more, a tie hung loosely around his neck. It was brown in color, with accents of blue. "Kyousuke, I want you to use this one and play Booker DeWitt!"

The four sat around the table, laughing and talking about their cosplay. Kyousuke, for once, seemed genuinely interested in his outfit, and Kirino smiled at her own. Ruri shook out her hair and wrapped it up in a bow to see how it'd look, and she loved it. As the time throughout the day wound down, the four continued to catch up and talk.

'This is what I came back for.' Kyousuke thought.

'I'm so glad we're a group again.' Saori thought.

'I wonder how handsome he's going to look in that cosplay.' Kirino pondered.

Ruri just sat there, smiling. 'Listen to your own song, Ruri.'