Time has passed quickly since that time. Can you already believe it's been ten years?


A loud rap on the door woke Hamuko from her dreamless sleep. Groggily, she shifted up from the bed and stood up, remembering that she was staying at a dorm now. She glanced around drowsily, trying to find the source of the noise.

"It's Yukari. Are you awake yet?"

Oh, the door…

Rubbing her eyes, the auburn-haired girl precariously stepped over the boxes on that were scattered messily around the door. A couple seconds later, after nearly tripping, she opened the door and allowed Yukari to enter her room. The brunette was dressed in the same pink blazer and miniskirt as yesterday, excluding the gun. Hamuko on the other hand, had just noticed that she had fallen asleep while still wearing her school uniform. It the skirt was a bit wrinkly here and there, but hopefully, no one would notice.

"Good morning. Did you sleep okay?" The brunette greeted as she walked into Hamuko's room, glancing at the untouched cardboard boxes that littered her floor.

"Yeah." Hamuko nodded. She then turned her attention to the stack of boxes, and shrugged apologetically. "I haven't gotten a chance to unpack yet. Sorry for the mess."

"It's okay." Yukari giggled. "When you did arrive at the dorm, it was pretty late…so…yeah." Yukari trailed off, giving Hamuko a quizzical look. "Will you need help unpacking later?"

"No worries, I'll be fine." Hamuko replied with a slight smile. "Anyway, what's up?"

"Oh, right." The brunette blinked, remembering her original reason for entering. "Mitsuru-sempai asked me to take you to school. You're all set, right?"

"Totally!"

"Okay." Yukari smiled. "Then let's go."


Hamuko and Yukari boarded the passenger train, Anehazuru. The train car was filled with other students, as well as other people dressed in suits and such.

"It's kind of strange, huh? Having to take the monorail to school." Yukari informed as she gazed beyond the train window. Hamuko followed the same suit, and peered out the window. The wide cerulean ocean greeted her as the monorail roared. "This is my favorite part; it feels like you're gliding over the ocean…" Yukari murmured dreamily. "We're going to Tatsumi Port Island, which is entirely man-made."

"It is?" Hamuko asked wonderingly.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Yukari piped. "Our stop's Port Island Station, which is at the end of the line. From there, we walk." Yukari smiled brightly. "Our school's there; it's right in the middle of the island. Oh, over there! You can see it right now!"

Just as Yukari said that, the famed man-made island came into view, and the school shone in the presence of the morning sun. Hamuko gaped.

Maybe this year won't be so bad after all.


Cherry blossoms littered the pavement while students riding on bikes passed by with a quick chime. The balmy morning was overcome with the chit chat of students as they walked towards the school with open gates. The school was absurdly huge, and much more impressive upfront. Hamuko shrank; she began walking at a slower pace, hoping to burn the scene into her memory.

"Well, this is it!" Yukari began to say as she stopped walking. The brunette then pivoted on her heel, turned towards the auburn-haired girl, and smiled gaily. "Welcome to Gekkoukan High! You're gonna love it here!"

Hamuko smiled vividly in response.


She and Yukari walked through the school gates together. The brunette took lead, and showed Hamuko to the shoe lockers.

"You'll be fine from here, right?" Yukari asked as she slipped off her brown loafers and exchanged them for a pair of slippers she extracted from the locker. Hamuko gave a quick nod. "Okay. You should go see your homeroom teacher first. The faculty office is right there to the left."

"Right to the left… got it." Hamuko nodded.

"…And that concludes the tour." Yukari said with a self-satisfied smile. "Do you have any questions before I go?"

She shook her head. "Nope, I'll be okay."

With another sigh, Yukari's expression quickly became insecure. "Hey…" She whispered furtively. "About last night… don't tell anyone what you saw, okay?" With quick breath, the brunette recomposed herself as she took a couple steps to the right. "See ya later."

Yukari retreated towards the other side of the school. Now alone, Hamuko made her way towards the faculty, somehow doubting that the bulletin board had her name due to her last minute transfer. But she looked anyway for good measure.

The chatter of other students distracted her.

There was a person in a track suit getting yelled at by a tan-skinned girl. Closer to the bulletin board, there were male and female students moping over the classes they had been placed into, particularly a boy with light brown hair and a girl with a long ponytail. Moving closer to the board, she glanced through the lists several times to finally find that her name was on a post-it underneath class Class F. Upon closer inspection, Yukari was in the same class.

She wasn't exactly sure if that was a good or bad thing. Shrugging to herself, she darted away towards the hallway that Yukari had pointed out earlier.

Just down the hall, there was a blonde guy with a fan talking to a… Teacher? Hamuko stared at the samurai helmet positioned on top of the middle-aged man's head that was incredibly out of place, even if it was a Japanese school. They were having an obviously enthusiastic conversation, so Hamuko decided to stay out of it. Further down the hall, there was a black-haired and dark-eyed girl glancing around, mumbling something about a library. Backtracking, she finally found the aforementioned teachers' lounge.

Taking a deep breath, Hamuko slid the door open and walked in.


A few moments after entering, a woman in a peach pink suit stood up and walked towards her.

"Oh, are you the new student? Hamuko Arisato?" She asked inquisitively, to which Hamuko gave a quick nod of her head. "Let's see, I have your file around here somewhere…" The teacher mumbled as she pulled out a slip of paper from atop a precariously positioned stack of paperwork. "Let's see… wow, you've been all over the country, haven't you?" She asked as she continued glancing through her notes. "And in 1999… what, that was ten years ago? Your family…"

Hamuko steeled herself for the typical reaction she usually got after people learned of her situation. The lady gasped, and turned looked back up at Hamuko with a sorry look.

"I'm sorry… I've been so busy that I haven't gotten the chance to read this beforehand." She began to say. "I'm Ms. Toriumi." She introduced herself. "I teach Composition; welcome to our school."

"I'm pleased to meet you." Hamuko said nonchalantly with a polite bow.

"My, aren't you polite? Girls like you should be an example for others." Ms. Toriumi smiled with an impressed look. "Have you seen the classroom assignments yet?"

Hamuko gave another nod.

"Then you should know that you're in 2-F; that's my class." She explained. "But first, we should go the auditorium. The Welcoming Ceremony will be starting soon… No, wait. Actually, you go on ahead."

"Huh?"

MS. Toriumi hefted a sigh before gesturing to the stack of papers on her desk. "I need to finish all this paperwork before Mr. Ekoda gets back. If you're wondering who he is, he's another teacher who works at this school. He's such a hotshot, just because he teaches Classic literature…"

"So he bosses around all the other teachers?" Hamuko asked curiously.

"No." She said immediately with a frown. "Never mind what I said." Ms. Toriumi waved her hand dismissively, while Hamuko turned towards the door. "Just get to the auditorium, all right? I'll see you later in class."

"Okay."


Upon leaving the teacher's lounge by herself, she noted that the Kabuto helmet-wearing teacher and blonde were no where to be seen. As she walked back into the main lobby, she slapped her hand against her forehead. She had forgotten to ask where the Auditorium was. Pivoting on her heel, Hamuko made a full 180 as she began backtracking towards the office when she bumped into something.

"Oh… pardon me." It was the dark haired, meek girl from earlier. She seemed startled by the sudden bump. The girl stared at Hamuko with a lenient look, as if expecting to be blamed.

"No worries, it's okay." Hamuko replied in a friendly manner, much to the other girl's surprise. Hamuko ignored it and continued. "If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me where the auditorium is?"

"The auditorium? I apologize… I have no idea…" She murmured wistfully. "I was hoping you could tell me."

"Oh. Does that mean you're a new student too?" Hamuko said inquisitively.

With a distant look in her eyes, the girl nodded inanely. "Yes. I'm Saori Hasegawa from class 2-C. I finally came back oversea studies."

"2-C? I'm Hamuko Arisato from 2-F; I had a last minute transfer and just got here yesterday. Oversea studies sound fun… whoops, getting off track here!" She said with an apologetic smile. "Anyway, it's nice to talk to someone in the same age and grade as I am though."

Not counting Yukari. She still pulled a gun on me.

"…Ah."

"Huh? Did I say something wrong?" Hamuko blinked, giving the dark haired girl a questioning look.

"No… it's nothing." Saori mumbled quietly, darting her eyes to the floor. "…Let's go look for the auditorium, Arisato-san."

"No need to be so formal." Hamuko said grinningly. "Just call me Hamuko."

"But we just met…"

"And it's fine unless I say otherwise! C'mon, let's go Saori-san!" Hamuko beamed.

Saori sighed to herself resignedly before looking back at the auburn-haired girl with a slight smile. "Yes. We should hurry… it could start anytime, Hamuko-chan."

"'-chan'?"

"…Is it all right if I call you that?" She asked with an anxious gaze before staring down at her shoes. "I'm sorry if I offended yo-"

"Nope!" Hamuko interrupted. "That's perfectly fine in my book. Let's go!"


Hamuko and Saori had barely made it in time. After saying goodbye, they took their seats with their respective classes. The auburn-haired girl sat through most of the announcements, uninhibited by the tediousness of the principal's speech. He kept repeating lines constantly, consequently causing the majority of the student body to lose interest.

He was spouting uninteresting comparisons on proverbs and quotes, and speaking on how the students standing in the auditorium were talented for making it into such a prestigious school as Gekkoukan. Hamuko scoffed to herself.

Though, after a while her thoughts began straying from the principal's speech. She began thinking about the car crash all those years ago. They day her family perished. Her thoughts however, were scrambled. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember the details, or how it had happened in the first place. All she remembered was the wreckage of the car, the screech of the ambulance, and two dancing figures in the moonlight…

"Hey, did you hear that we've got a transfer student?"

The sudden chatter broke her train of thought. She began listening to the outside voices.

"Yep. I've seen her too. She came to school with Yukari." Were they talking about her?

"I hear talking." A smart-looking teacher walked closer to her class, glancing around stiffly. "I believe it's someone from Ms. Toriumi's class…"

"Shh! Be quiet!" Ms. Toriumi immediately came onto the scene, and into Hamuko's peripheral vision. "You're going to get me in trouble!"

Still, the rumors kept coming despite Ms. Toriumi's attempts to shut up the majority of the class. Hamuko decided to do herself a favor and keep her mouth shut until the school assembly ended.

After the assembly, Hamuko went to her classroom. Ms. Toriumi let the class representative and students decide their seating arrangements by numbering the desks and making the number choosing process random.

In the end, Hamuko was placed in a seat in the middle of the classroom. Not that she minded. Yukari, she noted, had the seat right in front of her. A cap-wearing boy groaned loudly as he made his way to his seat, which was just over to Hamuko's right side. More or less, the other students had no qualms with their seats.

Finally, Ms. Toriumi nodded to herself with a smile of complacency, and started the lecture.


School was over before she knew it. It wasn't exactly boring, but it wasn't too interesting either. She had found herself nodding off several times before the bell rang out, signifying the beginning of after school. Hamuko bent over the side of her desk and began packing her things away.

"'Sup, dude?"

Lifting her head up with a confused look, her gaze was met by the cap wearing boy from earlier.

"Haha, you look like a deer in the headlights." The boy chuckled.

Hamuko raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

"Oh, come on. Let me introduce myself, at least." Tilting his cap forward, he plastered a goofy grin on his face. "I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya."

"Nice to meet you too." Hamuko said with a friendlier look, much to the boy's delight. "I'm Hamuko Arisato."

"Haha, thanks." He grinned sheepishly. "Anyway, I transferred here when I was in the 8th grade. I know how tough it is bein' the new kid… So I thought I'd check up on you, make sure you weren't freaking out on your first day."

"At it again, huh?" A new voice cut in; it was unmistakably Yukari's. Turning her way, Hamuko could see that the brunette was exasperated from Junpei's antics. What did she have against him? "Honestly, is there any girl you wouldn't hit on?" Hamuko hadn't even noticed. "Did you ever think you might be bothering someone?"

"What? But I was just bein' friendly." Junpei protested.

Yukari rolled her eyes. "If you say so."

"Do you two know each other?" Hamuko asked curiously. Yukari made an elegant shrug of her shoulders.

"For the record, Yuka-tan and I have been in the same class before." Junpei answered.

"Would you stop calling me that?" Yukari grimaced, before looking over to Hamuko. "Anyway, some coincidence we're in the same homeroom, huh?"

"Yeah, I know." Hamuko replied.

Smiling, Yukari chuckled to herself. "Funny, huh?"

"Um, hello? Did you forget that I'm in this class too? C'mon, lemme in on the fun!" He gave an annoyed look before putting on a devious grin. "By the way, do you guys know each other? I heard you two came to school together this morning. A couple of cuties like you walking side by side… the whole class is buzzing about you."

"Ugh… could you just cut it out? I hate dealing with rumors like that." Yukari scowled at Junpei, before giving an uncertain side-glance to Hamuko. "I mean, I'm used to it, but she just got here, you know? Don't you feel bad, spreading rumors like that?"

"Jeez, calm down Yuka-tan. It's not like rumors actually come true…" Junpei groaned.

"Anyway." Yukari flat out ignored him. "I've gotta take care of some stuff for the archery team. Don't try anything funny, you got that Junpei?" Giving a menacing stare to the cap-wearing boy, the brunette retreated out of the classroom.

"…What is she, your nanny?" Junpei sighed exasperatedly before looking over to the side. "Well, just to clear something up, I seriously didn't come over here to hit on you or anything."

"Then why?"

"Why? Well…" Clearing his throat, Junpei stood tall and grinned. "If you ever have a problem, just tell your ol' pal Junpei about it!"

"I'll remember that." Hamuko smiled slightly at his antics. His grin only grew wider.

"Heh, cool. I'll be seeing you around, then."

And as it turned out, just a few minutes after that whole business, Junpei caught her walking out of the school. He somehow managed to persuade her to let him walk her home. Not that she minded.

"So, you live at a dorm?" He asked inquisitively.

"Yep. It's a pretty interesting place." Hamuko replied. She wasn't exactly lying, but she was keeping what happened to herself.

"Heh, that sounds pretty cool. Wish I could live at a dorm… it sure as hell beats living at my place…" Junpei mumbled absentmindedly. He inadvertently scowled, much to Hamuko's notice and worry. It faded a moment later after the track team ran past the both of them. The cap-wearing boy turned towards Hamuko and grinned. "Whoa, check out the jocks on their run… Oh, that reminds me. Did anyone tell you about the school clubs yet?" Hamuko shook her head. "Well, girls can join too, so why not do it if you're interested?"

Hamuko gave him a curious look. "What kind of club would you join, Junpei-kun?"

"'-kun'? Whoa, whoa, I'm not too into honorifics. Just stick to calling me Junpei, all right?" Junpei shrugged. Hamuko held up her hand, gesturing for a high-five. He gave it to her with another goofy grin. "You too, huh? Well, if there's any team I'd try joining, I'd say it'd be the baseball team."

"You like baseball?"

"Well, yeah." He shrugged. "I had a thing for it back when I was a kid. Anyway, if you decide to join any clubs, you'd be joining as a new member, so they won't let you apply for a little while."

"Gotcha." Hamuko nodded, as they walked out of the school together.

Junpei ended up walking with her until the dorm came into view.

"See ya tomorrow!" He yelled, making his way in the opposite direction. Hamuko frowned to herself as she watched his retreating back.

Judging by his pace, she could tell he wasn't in any rush to get home. Moreover, when he talked about going home, he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it. It was the complete opposite, actually. She began walking after him, but stopped. She remembered that she still had to unpack her things… But what was more important? With a sigh, she ran after him.

She caught up to him, and excused herself by asking him to help her pick out a couple of things she still needed.

"What? Well why didn't you just say so earlier?" He groaned loudly, feigning false annoyance. Still, he grinned with delight a moment later as he tilted his cap forward. "Whatever. I know the perfect place to go. It's got just about everything, so why don't we go there?"

"Sounds good to me. And I'm sorry for bothering you, Junpei." She said quickly, with an apologetic smile.

"Nah, don't be." He said dismissively. "C'mon, let's go."


Junpei ended up taking her to the Paulownia Mall. As he said before, it really did have everything. Hamuko ended up getting assorted things Junpei thought she would need; whether she needed it or not, she would eventually find out.

As they walked through the mall, Junpei seemed to be having fun. He showed her the various stores, until they reached Power Records. It was a music store of sorts. When Junpei found out that she had a thing for J-Pop and J-Rock, they high-fived again, and began exchanging their musical preferences.

"Whoa. This is what you listen to?" He said as he grabbed on of her headphones and held it up to his ear.

She gave a confused look. "What, is something wrong?"

"Nah." He shrugged, lifting his hand to his chin. "It sounds kinda… I dunno, too guy-ish for a girl?"

This irked her to some extent, but she got over it. "Then what do you suggest?" She asked quizzically.

"Hey, hey, I never said it was bad or anything…" He said as he began shuffling around the music rack. "I mean, Lotus Juice and Yumi Kawamura? They've got some pretty good tracks, but you strike me as someone who'd be more of a Mayumi fan. Y'know, Mayumi Fujita? Maybe Shuuhei, but that'd be stretching it. Huh." Finally, he pulled out a disk from the shelf and held it out to her with a playful grin. "Seriously, try it out. Think it of it as a recommendation from yours truly."

She ended up buying it. Pleased with his achievement, Junpei invited her for coffee at the café across the store. They sat and made small talk for a while, before leaving the mall and parting ways. As Hamuko waved him goodbye, she realized it was getting dark. Hurriedly, she began making her way back to the dorm.


It was already dark. As Hamuko let herself into the complex, she could have sworn she had broken the dorm's curfew. Thankfully, she hadn't.

"Welcome back." Mitsuru said, lifting her face out of her book out of politeness.

"Good evening." Hamuko murmured as she slipped off her loafers.

"…You must be tired." The red-head said calculatingly, sizing up Hamuko as she walked by. "Go get some sleep; you have school tomorrow."

"…Right. I just have to take care of some things first." Hamuko looked back and nodded slowly before beginning her slow lumber up the stairs.

As she walked, she nodded a grayish, white-haired boy walking down the stairs just as she was going up. On a positive note, he was rather good-looking and wore a confident, close to smug look on his face. He didn't seem to notice her as he went downstairs, so she continued her task.

When she finally made it to her room, she finally took the time to unpack and put away the items she had bought earlier today. By the time she was done, it was late; she was also tired from the day's activities. Changing into her pajamas, she pulled over her comforter over herself and fell into a deep slumber.