Thank you everyone for reading Puzzles of Life!
Here is finally Chapter 7! This chapter is actually shorter than most chapters, but I thought the ending was perfect. I'll write what happens and everything on Chapter 8. I would feel like it would never end.

I hope you enjoy this chapter! I am very grateful to everyone who read my notice. So without further ado- Chapter 7!


Today was the day I received a red backpack for school. Japan, I learned that kids received different colored backpacks to show the different genders. In high school it was probably different since both gender all had the brown bags. Anyway, red backpacks were for the girls and black for the guys.

My family helped me pack my things inside such as pencils, notebooks and other stationary items. I thought they were going to hand me the scissors until Mia said it was too dangerous for a four year to hold it even if it was only a pair of safety scissors. In my pocket was also a few yen bills because my parents wanted me to go and top the chefs that worked there and made our lunch. I remembered when I spoke in an exaggerated voice that the chefs made Italian food and it was real tasty. My parents, sister and even Mia didn't even look fazed one bit by it. Rather, they smiled and said they were glad I liked the food. Emiko even made a comment that I would have to get used to it and Danielle said that I liked it made it easier for the future. I pushed their voice away and centered my attention on what was happening today instead.

I was dropped off to kindergarten with Emiko and a teacher came to direct us to our individual classrooms. I thought that it was cute for the adults to wear animal printed aprons; it made them feel more friendly and easier to approach.

I arrived in class safely, with the same teacher I had before, Ame-sensei, and she smiled sp radiantly, I couldn't help but smile too.

"Good morning Kyoko-chan!" I called out to the ginger haired girl as I sat in my seat. The thing is, we didn't have desks like those in middle school or high school. Instead we were given a rather large round table that could seat at least four people.

"Good morning Hotaru-chan!" Kyoko said cheerfully and gave me a beaming smile. "Did you have fun yesterday? Okassan and Otousan brought me and Onii-chan to the zoo! We saw so many animals like the bunnies you and I were talking about in the beginning of the school year."

I clapped my hands and cheerfully responded, "That's so cool Kyoko-chan! I want to go the zoo too!"

Kyoko giggled, "Maybe Okkasan and Otousan will allow me to bring you next time!"

I could have cried for her kindness and nodded, "Thank you Kyoko-chan!"

Two girls came by our table and sat down, "Good Morning Kyoko-chan! Hotaru-chan!" They smiled at us and looked over to Ame-sensei. I smiled and greeted the two although I did not remember their names yet.

"You know Christmas is near." Ame-sensei said as she clapped her hands excitedly. "Aren't you kids excited? Christmas is a very fun day for gifts, food, but most of all it's important to spend time with your family!"

Christmas, huh?

"Hotaru-chan?" Someone called my name. It felt so deja-vu like. There were always so many people nowadays that call my name, but only did some sound like they cared. Kyoko was one of them. When I looked at her, her eyebrows furrowed and she looked worried.

How many times did she call me already?

"Hotaru-chan? You okay?" She asked me and waited for an answer.

I laughed it off, the only thing I could do to make her feel better. I couldn't get my mind off Christmas celebration of the past. They were never as happy as in movies or anyhting. I always wanted a big party or something with my parents, but during the holidays, they simply had no time. It felt like their work was more important than me.

I looked at Kyoko, "It's nothing. I was just daydreaming about how hungry I am right now." I patted my stomach to emphasize it and she giggled.

Class started and although it was only kindergarten we were starting to learn things. First thing we learned was math. We were simply learning how to do addition and subtraction. Ame-sensei placed blocks on our desks and told us to all scramble them. Each block was of a different color and she explained that it would represent the number 'one'.

Before we added, we counted numbers all the way to ten. I was bored because this was the most easiest math ever, but it wasn't boring. I thought it was fun to 'learn' it again although counting is a part of my life already.

After that, Ame-sensei would tell us to add or subtract blocks by instructing us to put together specific colored blocks.

"Everyone has a blue block in front?" She questioned and looked around the whole class until she knew all eyes were on her, "Great! Now, take the red block and place it next to the blue one like this." In her hands were the two colored blocks, blue in her left and red in her right. She sticked the two blocks together and said, "Two. Red and Blue are both one. Therefore 1+1 is two." She explained, "Also if everyone ever forgets the numbers you can count them. For example, 1, 2, 3 - then you know that two is greater than 3."

"Oh this is easy! I understand it now." Kyoko said cheerfully as we both shared the blocks with each other. "So if we add yellow to the red and blue, it'll be three."

I nodded, "Un! You're great at this Kyoko-chan!"

She blushed, clearly embarrassed of my compliment. We discussed math for about an hour or two and later we moved on to Japanese. This was going to be perhaps one of the hardest things I will be learning, since it'll take me a while to learn how to write the characters. Since I was born I could strangely understand Japanese, that was a gift. Right now; however, I have to learn it using my own effort. I shouldn't depend on something that was given to me so much. I have make an effort.

Today were learning the sounds for hiragana. A,E,I,O,U. They were rather similar with the English vowels. We were learning the characters for them and not romaji letters which consisted English letters. Ame-sensei explained all this so easily like a flow of water; I was then glad she was my teacher.

"So today we're learning Hiragana. I'm sure everyone has seen them before around. We all speak the same language therefore it shan't be that hard." She explained, "Now there are three main compounds for Japanese. Hiragana, the one we are going to learn this year, Katakana and Kanji." She wrote the letters there in a few examples on the chalkboard. "Don't worry about the other characters. They'll come to you slowly in the future. As of now, to recognize hiragana characters, just see how round they are. They seem to have circles. See?"

The class 'ohh'-ed and 'ah'-ed in amazement. Then we were given some whiteboards and practice writing the first few syllables by ourselves. "It's like a puzzle." I said grinning, "Each syllable is a piece. For example, we can add ねand こ to get "neko" which meant cat."

I looked at the hiragana characters happily as if these new words had shed some new light to my view of the world.

When lunch came around the corner, it was only 12:00 o' clock, but my stomach rumbled; I was hungry and so were the other kids in the class. Again, we lined up and went to the restroom to wash our hands. I sniffed my hand after I put the soap on and smiled, it had a fruity smell.

"What do you think it smells like?" Kyoko asked me as she held out her hands. "It's sweet and tangy. I think it's a strawberry."

I thought about it for a short while and then spoke, "I think it smells like citrus fruits." I think after I said the word 'citrus', I lost Kyoko because she tilted her head to the side and stared at me in questions. "Fruits that have seeds and our sour like, oranges, tangerines, and lemons for example."

"Oh I get it now!" Kyoko said, "It smells really nice! Maybe okksan will know where to get it."

A girl came around from the corner and started to talk to us after hearing the conversation of a wonderful smelling soap. "I know where it came from. My mom told me the adults take fruits and squeeze them to make the soap." She explained, "That's why we can always eat the soap!"

My eyes widened so much when I heard the girl say that. We can't eat soap! We'll die from poisoning from all these chemicals! I need to warn Kyoko-chan before she gets persuaded.

I looked to my friend and flinched to her sparkling eyes. I wanted to scream at her from eating soap, but she spoke before I could. "Hm, if I eat it now then I can't eat other things and I need to save it for everyone else right?"

I don't know if Kyoko had just saved her health with her kindness which is weird but it at least worked.

The girl who told us about the 'edible' soap smiled widely, "You're sure nice Kyoko-chan!"

Kyoko just smiled brightly and after that, the soap fiasco was over.

Now, today was special. It was an exception because we didn't have to sit in grade order. Instead, we mingled with the other grades and I excitedly asked Kyoko if we could go sit with Ryohei. I would have offered to sit with Emiko, but I had spotted my sister sitting afar with many kids around her. She was smiling so happily that I didn't want to bother her. I felt like she should have a good time without her younger sister bothering her. I saw what some kids acted like when they got furious, there would always be a lot of crying involved.

"Hi Ryohei." I greeted the boy whom is now almost like an older brother figure to me. I inspected him now as Kyoko and I placed our trays on the table. The two Sasagawa siblings were having their own discussion while I was just staring at the brother intently. He still looked meek like the first time I laid my eyes on him. I can tell he is still the Ryohei I had admired from the anime, but really his face had no bandages and his hair wasn't that all spiky. Instead it was flatter almost like Kyoya's and it just looked so smooth. His actions were also a bit different because he didn't have a fighter's personality. Maybe he grew into that personality as he grew older.

Now this thought felt like deja-vu. Did I already discuss this with my brain already?

"Hotaru-chan, are you listening?"

I snapped out of my thoughts, again, and gave Kyoko an apoligetic smile. "I'm sorry Kyoko-chan. I'm just a bit sleepy that I can't concentrate much."

Kyoko nodded as if to show that she understood my excuse. She smiled, "I'm sleepy most of the times too! I always go take a nap at home with Onii-chan."

I smiled, Kyoko was just so nice! I would have loved to have a friend like her with me before. She was always supportive and attentive to whatever others say.

Lunch went on happily. I was rather sad that it ended faster than I would have liked it to. So once again, all the students were back in their classrooms learning- kind of. Ame-sensei explained that we were going to be given the rest of the day's time to play because it was necessary for kids to not be cooped up in a room for too long.

We all ran outside like a mob, Ame-sensei watched us from behind patiently. As soon as we got outside, everyone ran off to their friends. There were all the necessary obstacles children could play on. Monkey bars, sandboxes, swings, slides etc... However some of these were too dangerous for the kids. Like some would slip right off the slides if they didn't and there were other examples that kids may jump towards the monkey bars and just outright miss them.

The day passed by fast, but there was a very important event that took place. I think from then on, that was the changing point.

Right after school, I was going to walk with Kyoko home. I couldn't find her anywhere though. I checked the classrooms and even the bathroom. She wasn't there. I was worried that maybe something happened to her. My mind then wandered off topic. What if she left me on purpose? She got tired of waiting and-!

I shook my head. There was no way she would do something like that.

I became determined to look for her again. My close friend. One of the very few people I felt like I had opened my hearts to.

I heard a shout and followed the noise. It got louder and louder until the event is right in front of me. A bunch of boys were teasing Kyoko, and pulling her hair. I looked around, no one was there to help her.

"Ouch! Let me go!" Kyoko shouted as she tried to claw at the boys.

The boys snickered, as if bullying was the most enjoyable act a kid could do. I couldn't take it anymore. I can't stand back and watch her get hurt. Although I was a coward (awkward from interactions), I could still cough up courage to do something right.

"Let her go!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and literally lunged at the boy who was pulling Kyoko's hair.

I got mentally ready for the impact of falling on the ground. That never came though. I looked to that I had only bumped into the boy. I didn't have enough power to push him down. I brought my hand up ready to punch, but nstead I felt myself become stiff. I was stuck like a rusted metal. I glanced up to see my hand was caught by another kid. They grinned and stuck their tongue at me. As if saying that I was a girl and could do less.

These kids were fueling my anger. I didn't care how lowly I was getting at by trying to hit kids. They were evil kids.

Kyoko squeaked as I saw her being pushed down by a brunette. I rushed to help her; only to be pulled back. Someone was pulling my hair, causing it to have an unruly appearance.

"Haha! What's with this weird colored hair?" The boy was snickering at his own comment. "It's so ugly on you!"

I stepped forcibly on the predator's feet. He yelped as a result. I took this chance to flee to Kyoko's side.

I ducked under a overstretched arm and skidded to Kyoko. I stood next to her, keeping a steady gaze at all the boys. There was a scream. One boy, the same bruneete as before, decided to hurl his arm right in my direction. His fist got closer and closer to my face. I got ready for the impact. From that second forth, I squeezed my eyes shut.

The hit never came.

I peeked my eyes open, and saw the brunette's fist become swatted aside. I recognized the white, spiky hair. The one I have been seeing almost every day.

"Onii-san!" Kyoko's voice shouted to her older brother. Her eyes were tearing up and she gripped my hands in hers. We were only girls at the age of five. There was no way we would be okay after being beaten up by a group of boys.

I hardly recognized any of the bullies. Were they from our class or not?

"Ryohei." I let out a whisper. For some reason I also to start to tear up from the emotions that was building up. For what reason can I allow myself to cry? I feel like crying was a strange coincidence. I haven't cried in a long time. Hotaru was a nice kid. She was cheerful and very friendly. Just look at all the people and friends she met up with in only a time range of five years.

Ryohei glared at the boys, his expression was furious. "What are you doing to them!" He shouted and he started to land a punch at the brunette. He knocked the boy down and looked in the direction of the other boys. They were trying to win a losing battle.

I could see that Ryohei's boxing training paid off. But who knew it was needed for a situation like this.

"HAH!" Someone shouted; their voice increasing in scale.

"Onii-san!" Kyoko shouted, "WATCH OUT!"

Red splashed on me a little. The iron smell went to my nostrils. Kyoko looked almost hysterical. She was crying so much. It took my a few seconds to process everything, and when I did I knew I was too late. Ryohei just got knocked in the head with a rock. A rather large one like the size of my palm; about four-five inches in diameter. I looked down at Ryohei who was luckily still conscious. He was bleeding to much.

I took a hankerchief from my pocket and pressed it on his head. "Take this and keep it on your head. Add pressure." I instructed the steps and quickly pulled the two along. I both their hands in mine and quickly walked. I tried to walk fast, but my short legs couldn't do so.

"I'll do it." Ryohei said. He took the lead, and dragged Kyoko and I instead. "I'll protect you both."


Thanks again for reading sunflowers !
(I thought everyone should have a nickname, what do you guys prefer?)
I know this chapter was mainly centered around the Sasagawa siblings. I had originally planned to put Tsuna and Yamamoto. However that didn't work out and by the time I finished writing, everything just turned out differently.

I also wanted to get the chapter out as soon as I can. It's been a while since I've updated anything actually, I didn't want the ideas to go to waste so I tried to write them as fast as I can.

I hope you guys look forward to future chapters!

~Yuka Hara