While the wind played with her hair, Akira stood at the rail and stared out in the distance, a sad look on her face. Haku, behind her, shut the door to the roof then asked, "Why have you called me out here?"

She turned to face him and gave him the same apologetic expression she'd given him before, in the classroom.

"Ichikawa-san," she started, "This may be your first day here, but by the way you acted you obviously know Chihiro. I believe you, when you say that you were childhood friends and that you parted at the age of ten."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do. And it makes sense why she doesn't remember you, but you clearly remember her and even appear to have been looking for her."

Drawing a deep, shaky breath, Akira put her hand up to her mouth and closed her eyes for a minute. When she opened her eyes and began to speak again, Haku could feel the pain etched in every single word she spoke.

"I've known Chihiro since she and her family moved here, seven years ago. When we were twelve, her family got into a car accident that resulted in her father's death and put her mother into a coma. Chihiro was gravely injured in the head, and for a while everyone thought she was going to die when the surgery pulled through.

"Kei and I were so happy to have our friend back…but when we went to visit her that first day in the hospital she had no idea where she was or who we were. She couldn't even remember her own parents. The doctor told us it was amnesia, and that it was due in part to her injury and in part to the shock of the accident.

"She was so wary of us at first…and she acted differently at first too. We couldn't even get her to speak to us, and she seemed to negative until we finally convinced her that we really were her friends. Either way, it took months for Kei and I to help her remember us, and it took even longer for us to help her get over the shock of receiving her memories back only to get the news that her father was dead and her mother was in a coma.

"I think that because you were part of her memories from before the accident, she can't remember you. She doesn't remember anything before that day at all, so it's the only explanation I can give you. I'm sorry, Ichikawa-san, but Chihiro has no memories of you at all. To her, your friendship never existed."

Akira, her story finally finished and the burden of telling it off her shoulders, glanced up to see Haku's pitiful expression.

The boy had gone even paler than he already was, and his lips trembled as he looked down, clutching at the amulet around his neck tightly.

"So all her memories of me…are gone?" he murmured, his voice breaking on the word 'gone'.

In that moment, Akira had never felt sorrier for anyone in her entire life; the way he looked right now was enough to break anyone's heart.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked him with a concerned tone, reaching a hand forward to tap his shoulder lightly. Haku avoided her hand and clutched the amulet even tighter as Akira gave a heavy sigh.

"It's a lot to take in, I know. And on top of that it's your first time seeing her in how long? Seven years? I can imagine it seems a bit a far-fetched but it's the truth. I can talk to Chihiro if you like and fix up whatever misunderstanding seems to be going on between you two."

Haku shook his head, frowning.

"I'll befriend her again on my own. But to think…I never knew about this at all." His eyes widened for a second before narrowing, and he made a 'tch' sound as he muttered, "Damn old hag. She never mentioned this."

Akira watched as he straightened up and seemed to become surer of himself.

"Thank you…?"

"You can call me Akira. Any friend of Chihiro's is most definitely a friend of mine!"