Crimso's Notes V.2

The moment I walk into school, I forget I was ever away. I wish I had written more over spring break, though. That's my only regret. Well, maybe my other regret would be not having a longer spring break, but I'm not the one in control of that.

~~~~X~~~~

Chapter Twenty-Five: Sunset

All Mion could do was tap her pencil up and down nervously as she carefully watched Rena scribble down a few notes in her workbook as she looked through the pages of her science textbook. A few days had come and passed since she had moved here, and every day, the air around Rena seemed to get more and more uneasy. Mion had to constantly tell herself that there was nothing wrong with Rena and that she was her friend, so she should be happy that she moved here. And indeed she was, she had been hoping that Rena would move here but had brushed off the idea as impossible. However, something about her just seemed… wrong.

It wasn't her personality. Rena acted much like how Rena did act. It was the reason why she was here that was scaring Mion. Rena had problems in the past and moved to Hinamizawa due to her parent's divorce, which was her number one regret. Yet, she had come here for some reason. Another thing that scared Mion was the fact that she had gone ahead and introduced herself as Rena, and not her real name, Reina. While Rena used the nickname Rena, her real name was actually Reina, which she never used because she wanted to create a new version of herself when she moved to Hinamizawa and to forget the horrible things that happened during her parent's divorce. So if she was Rena… then… those things happened?

But it's her regret, Sonozaki Shion! This world has no regrets! …Right?

Mion looked slowly over to Keiichi, who was happily doing his work and not caring about a thing that was going on around him. His great regret of the model gun incident happened, even though that was the one thing that hurt his heart to think about. It nearly drove him to tears whenever he thought about the type of person he was back then, and how much fun he had thought it was to bully children by shooting them. If that happened, then was the thing about the regrets not happening really untrue?

"If you're wondering about the regrets," Rion said as she sat on top of Mion's desk, "they didn't happen in this world. I can assure you of that. The only thing I can think of for Keiichi is that he's hiding a bigger regret that changed." She looked over to Rena, sighing. "And as for her, Shion… I've already explained that I honestly have no idea."

Mion looked at the goddess. "But don't you know the properties of this world? You told me all about them before," she whispered to Rion.

"I knew how things were when you came here," Rion answered, "I can't tell anymore.

Mion sighed and shook her head. Well, if Rion didn't know, there weren't many ways she could figure out why and how Rena moved here. She didn't want to go up and ask her, it would be rude. The subject of her parent's divorce was something that she didn't like to talk about, and something that she was very sensitive about. It wasn't something that you could just talk about casually in any situation.

I don't want Rena to dislike me when we hardly know each other in this world. I want to be her friend, so the last thing I want to do is ask her a question like that and risk her hating me for it. Well, since she's Rena I doubt that she would actually hate me for it, but it's still not a good idea. I don't want to do anything to make her hurt. Her parents must have gotten the divorce recently, too, so it could be fresh in her head.

She tapped her pencil against the desk. Tap, tap, tap. There was nothing she could do right now aside from speculate, and that was exactly what she was going to do, then. There was no reason she should be so worried about it. This was the perfect world, after all, and nothing could ruin it for her.

She turned her head to her math homework, hoping to find some sort of distraction in it. She hated her math, but at least it would keep her mind off of things. As she looked over her sheet, she felt like it had been scribbled out in some sort of foreign language. She knew she had learned these terms at some point, and wasn't it only recently that Keiichi had explained them to her? Yes, she should know these things already. She wondered if she should just go ahead and ask him again. She would feel rude for doing so, and she didn't like the idea of Keiichi getting mad at the fact that she had just learned it from him and he had to explain it to her again. That was the last thing she needed right now.

But she really needed some sort of distraction from something right now, and Keiichi was a good way to distract her. Even if it meant using him for help again, she really did need the time to get her mind off of things. His voice was oddly helpful in soothing her a lot of the time, too. She glanced down again at her math work and cringed. Yes, she needed to get this review sheet done soon, anyways. Chie had been mad enough at her as it was, and if she waited too much longer, she didn't want to know what would happen. Perhaps the wrath of Chie she had faced before was only the beginning of something terrible…

However, when Mion looked towards her side to talk to her boyfriend, she noticed that he had gotten up from his seat some time ago. She scratched her head, wondering when he had left. She should have noticed. Quickly scanning the room for her boyfriend, she soon noticed that he was at Rena's desk, helping her with some work. She lifted herself up from her chair just so slightly and then craned her neck and twisted it a little uncomfortably so that she could get a look at what he was doing.

"You see what this chemical formula is? Well the reaction goes a little like that," Keiichi said as he tapped a picture with his pencil. "And you see what changes?"

Rena looked down at her book, nodding. "It's a little hard to do sometimes, though," she remarked. "It's not always a matter of remembering what to do…"

"Yeah, but I've only met you a few days ago, and from that I know that you're very smart and you could probably pick this up in a little bit! It's not that hard at all." He poked the page once again. "Now tell me, can you do this?" he asked, then moving his pencil over to another point on the paper while allowing a finger to rest on the picture above.

Rena nodded and began to work out whatever it was that she had issues with, and when Keiichi looked down, he let out a large grin. "Heh, good job, Rena! That's exactly what you do and you did it right, too. So I think that your science skills are looking up. If you know how to do that, then you can probably solve a lot of things." He poked another point on the page with the tip of his pencil. "Now write down this and work it out."
Rena began loudly scribbling down on the paper, and Keiichi looked down upon her and watched her every action with great interest. "Yeah, you're doing it just right. That's exactly the answer. If you were able to do that, I'm sure you could do anything. There are a bunch of other problems down there. Do you think that you can work them out on your own now?" he asked her.

Rena looked down at the sheet, a puzzled expression on her face. "Um… I think so. I don't want to waste anymore of your time, Keiichi-kun," she responded, turning to look up at the boy.

But Keiichi just grinned his normal grin. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I'm really doing nothing right now. Just some extra credit work in math or something like that, and to be honest, I really don't need the extra credit." He tapped a finger to a point on the paper, then circling it. "Okay, so do this part and I'll watch you do this one, and if you're good with it, I think I can leave you on your own."

When Rena began to scribble, Keiichi shook his head. "You're doing it wrong, Rena. What you do is this." Keiichi tapped a point on the page. "Not that."

"Oh, yes," Rena responded. She flipped her pencil over to the other end and began to erase the spot on the paper. "Sorry about that! I guess I just wasn't thinking!" she replied cheerfully and a tad apologetically.

"It's fine, I'll just stay here and watch you do the rest then. So, problem number six…"

Rena scribbled down the answer, earning an approving nod from Keiichi. "That's right!"

"Thank you, Keiichi-kun!" Rena responded, looking at the boy with a cheerful glint in those sapphire eyes of hers. "I really appreciate this! You're a great teacher, you know that, right?"

Keiichi rubbed the back of his head. "I guess so. Thanks, Rena. Let's just do one more…"

Mion clenched her fists. For some reason, the scene before her was making her a little angry. She looked away from it and stared at her math homework intently, as if looking at it would soothe her anger. She tried to figure out just what the homework was saying in her head, blocking out the chattering with a string of long math problems. She still had no idea what she was doing, but that didn't matter. So long as she wasn't paying attention to Rena and Keiichi, perhaps she would calm down a bit. Maybe all she had been feeling recently was just her, and there was nothing bad going on.

Yeah, the world was perfect now. There was no way that something was off or funny about Rena. Nothing bad would happen from now on, and Rena would just be good old Rena no matter what. She didn't need to be so worried or angry. So why was the scene before her so… irritating?

No, no, no! Sonozaki Shion! Think about something else, right now! Okay, so twelve times five is equal to sixty…

Mion looked at Keiichi and Rena out of the corner of her eye. They were laughing happily with each other, smiling like old friends even though they had just met. Mion felt her grip on her pencil tighten, to the point where there were small sounds from the pencil, as if it were crying out to tell her it was about to break in half. The pencil did not break, though it did come close.

She turned her head away. This was not helping her and it almost caused her to destroy a perfectly good pencil. She needed to focus on something else, and the math wasn't something that would cool her head off.

Her eyes trailed over to Shion and Satoshi, who were also studying with each other. Shion was laughing happily as she pointed to a certain point in the problem, while Satoshi just rubbed his forehead with an extremely confused look on his face as he tried to make sense of what was written down on the paper and why Shion found it so funny. He shook his head, clearly a little bit frustrated with his work. Of course, Satoshi didn't tend to show it when he was frustrated.

"You're so silly, Satoshi-kun!" Shion said cheerfully. "You just have to do this and then that, and everything makes sense!"

Satoshi shook his head. "But what about this part? Why did you multiply the three there?" he asked. "It doesn't make sense!"

"Yes it does! Look over to this part of the problem and think hard about it. Don't you think that multiplying by three is the right thing to do there?" she asked the boy.

Satoshi nodded slowly. "Ah, yes. It sort of makes some sense…"

Shion smiled. "I'm glad that you're getting it! I may not be very good at math, but I do know a thing or two about this part of what you're learning, and I'm just happy to help out." She looked towards the boy, and when she did, Mion spotted clear affection in those emerald green eyes. "I would do anything to help you, Satoshi-kun. So please, whenever you have trouble with anything… please come to me. No matter what it is and no matter what I'm doing."

The blonde-haired boy simply responded with his usual gentle smile. "Thank you, Mion. You've done a lot for my grade these last few days. I think that Chie would leave me out on the street of Hinamizawa and lock the doors before I could walk in the classroom if you hadn't explained that to me..."

"Well, I don't think that she would do something that extreme," Shion responded, "but it's close. She is scary when she's mad. I am used to it, though." Her fingers reached for the book, running themselves down the massive amounts of sheets that it contained. "And now, we turn to the next page and figure out the next concept. This is one that I'm really bad at , so I hope I don't explain anything wrong…"

Satoshi smiled. "Anything you do is fine for me, Mion. I'm just happy that you're helping me out like this."

"Thank you so much, Satoshi-kun," Shion replied. "You don't know how much that means to me." There was a relieved smile on her face, and the affection and love in her eyes returned as she look amount to look at the boy in front of her, the boy that she had loved for a very, very long time. Both her and Mion knew that it wouldn't be very long before the two of them became girlfriend and boyfriend, and then they would be happy forever.

In fat, Shion had talked to her a few nights ago, and then last night too, about how she thought that Satoshi would ask her out soon. She was so happy when she spoke those words, and it seemed like all the joy in the world would soon become hers. She had waited forever for the moment to tell Satoshi that she loved him, and she would do it soon. She was hoping that he would admit it to her first, but she knew that Satoshi was a little shy when it came to that. If she had to admit it herself, then that was fine. She was the braver of the two of them when it came to that sort of thing, Mion figured.

Of course, she had never seen Satoshi when it came to love, so anything could happen. If he gained sudden bravery and asked Shion out, then that wouldn't be too strange. But whatever the case was, they would be a couple soon. Satoshi would stare at her blushing, and she would look at him with love. It was impossible to deny that the two of them were both deeply in love with each other. Mion could see it, Shion could see it, and everyone else could see it.

Mion smiled to herself. She was so happy for her sister. She already had the boy that she loved, but Shion had not yet gotten Satoshi. She had been hoping for a long time that they would get together, and it seemed that they finally would. Perhaps her sister could finally be truly happy, then.

After all, when her sister was happy, Mion was the most joyous person in the world.

~~~~X~~~~

For whatever reason, Mion found it worthwhile to spend the second half of the day taking a good, long walk around the paths of Hinamizawa. It was pleasant outside, and the weather was not too hot. The songs the cicadas sang as they buzzed around from tree to tree were peaceful and not annoying, and they went well with the backdrop of the sun disappearing from sight, clearing an array of colors that painted the world around her.

Mion kicked a rock as she went along, thinking about noting in particular. For some reason, thinking about nothing was much more calming than thinking about something. There was just too much on her mind as of recently and a good walk, which involved spacing out as well as thinking about nothing at all was something that she really could use right now.

"Isn't the sky pretty today?" Rion observed. "Back when I was alive, I enjoyed the sunset. I found it very peaceful. I would wait every day for the sun to go down, and then I would feel ten times more relaxed. It was a wonderful feeling."

"Doesn't it still have that effect, though?" Mion asked, eyeing the goddess. "I think the sunset is very peaceful and calming too. It adds something to the sky that it probably would be missing otherwise, doesn't it?"

Rion nodded. "Of course!" she replied. "I love the sunset still. You know, when I was in this world without you, I would sit up on the overlook every day and just watch as the sun went down. It was my favorite thing to do, since there wasn't much else. The sun always made me smile, even though those times were very long and boring for me because I had no one to talk with or interact with." She looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath of the air around her as her eyes rested on the array of colors. "It's just so pretty today."

"It's just what I need right now," Mion replied as she twisted her body around to look behind her, at the clearer view of the sunset. There were a few trees scraping the sky directly in front of her, so the view wasn't the best over there. "A good sunset to keep my mind off of things."

"That's exactly what a sunset does, doesn't it? I think everyone thinks the same thing about the sunset," Rion replied. "Everyone I knew back when I was alive agreed that the sunset was the best time of day. My sister in particular enjoyed the way it reflected against the farm fields and the streams. That was her favorite time of day."

Mion looked at Rion, blinking. "You had a sister?" she asked the goddess.

Rion nodded. "Yeah, but that was a long time ago," she replied. "But I still think of the her when I look at the sunset sometimes. It's really a peaceful thing to do. So I enjoy walking out like this, and I'm sure you do, too!"

That was an interesting bit of information about Rion. She hadn't known that before. Perhaps that was why she could understand her attachment to Shion, then. Having a sister was one of the best things in the world. Even the sunset couldn't compare. "Yes, I do enjoy the sunset. I'm just going to walk around for a little while longer, perhaps enjoy it a little longer before dinner."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll walk and watch the sky with you," Rion replied as she focused her dark yellow eyes on the sky above.

Mion smiled at the goddess before continuing on her way. This time of day was really relaxing, wasn't it? It was the perfect way for her to forget about what had been causing her so much trouble. There were times where people just had to relax and spend some time to get their mind off of things, and this was certainly one of them. These times were sometimes the most enjoyable, even if it didn't involve spending time with friends.

She let out a large sigh. Yes, she should just forget about everything right now and walk on. That was the best thing that she could do right now.

However, it wasn't even seconds later that she spotted a familiar figure in the distance. She blinked a few times, wondering what the boy she recognized as being Satoshi was doing right now. He seemed to be a little lost in thought too, and his wandering seemed a little aimless. Was he too out here to enjoy the sunset and just take a quick walk around the village?

She waved to him, and he waved right back. The two of them began to approach each other. Well, this was supposed to be a walk to spend some time mostly by herself, but it was fine if she got caught in a small conversation with Satoshi. They usually weren't about much, anyways, and conversations like that were good to take her mind off of things.

"Hello, Shion!" greeted Satoshi as he approached. "What are you doing out here?"

Mion smiled at the boy. "Well, not much. I just went out here to take a small walk and relax for a moment," she answered, briefly glancing to the side as a cicada began to fly off a nearby tree, buzzing and singing loudly as it did so. "That's really it."

"How funny, I came out here to do the same thing," Satoshi responded, wearing his usual gentle smile. "I wanted to see the sunset, too. It's nice and relaxing." He looked up at the sky, nodding as he took a moment to enjoy the beauty of the colors hanging above him, reflecting down on the world below. "It's a good way to take your mind off of things. Just look up at the sunset and enjoy how beautiful it is, and then suddenly, everything seems better."

"It's probably because of how pretty the colors are," Mion remarked as she too focused her gaze on the sky. "I don't know how that makes sense, but for some reason, it… just does. Doesn't it?"

Satoshi nodded. "The colors of the sunset are beautiful. They're really strong today, and the cicadas are particularly loud." He looked at a tree out of the corner of his eye, where a cicada was buzzing about happily as it clung to the trunk. "It's just a nice way to think about other things. Life hasn't been too bad for me recently, though."

"Really?" Mion asked him. "Things have been like that for me too, I think," she responded. "Everything seems to be going in the right direction. I mean, we have a new transfer student, I'm with Kei-chan, everyone's getting along… what more can I ask for?" she responded. She didn't mention the part about how she was uneasy about Rena, because that wasn't needed in a conversation like this. Besides, there was no way that she could explain why she would feel uneasy about her.

"Yeah, everything has been really great, hasn't it?" Satoshi commented. He looked away from Mion, to the distance. He stuffed his hands into the depths of his pockets as he began to scrape the ground with the tip of his shoe, creating a grinding sound as small pebbles began to rub into the surface below. "Satoko has been a lot better, of course. At home she's doing fine, too. She keeps talking about her traps and her plans for new traps, but of course she never tells me where she's going to set them or who she's going to play them on. And the ones that she plays on me… well, she doesn't even mention them in the first place!" He smiled at the thought. "She's still a tad arrogant about it, but that's fine. I don't mind. It's fun to listen to her talk about traps, anyways. It's her specialty and we should let her have something to brag about."

"I agree. Her traps are a lot of fun, even though they happen to me, too! You should have seen how long it took for me to pour out the dirt she stuffed into my shoes yesterday," Mion responded, recalling the memory with a small giggle. It did take a long amount of time, but for some reason, she didn't care all that much. It was actually more entertaining than anything, looking back on the incident.

"And she enjoys them a lot more, too." Satoshi paused for a moment, shifting about. His gaze remained locked on the sky, showing no indication of turning back to Mion. He placed the tip of his shoe against a rock and began to rub it against the path, the dirt escaping from the ground directly below the rock. "I know I already said this before, but I really thank you for everything you did. I know the whole club helped out, but if it weren't for you bringing her to the table with that idea of yours, she would still be like she used to be. So I want to thank you again."

Mion giggled. "You're welcome, Satoshi-kun, but you've already said that before," she replied.

"I know," he responded. "I just wanted to thank you again, because I truly am grateful and I could never speak enough words to thank you as much as I want to. You've done a huge favor not only to me, but to Satoko as well." He turned ever so slightly to her, looking at her out of the corner of his purple eyes and letting out a small smile. "You have no idea how much that means to me. You never gave up on Satoko, and you worked hard to get her to the group for me. I… I really thank you for that. Again… and again… and a thousand times over…"

"You don't have to thank me that much," Mion responded, smiling. She felt touched that he would say all that, but there was really no need to anymore. "I know how you feel about it, and you shouldn't have to thank me this much. You thanked me before, don't you remember? Just that is enough to make me happy."

Satoshi nodded. "But I'm not satisfied with just thanking you once. I don't know, I had to thank you again," he responded. His gaze shifted back to the sky as the heel of his right shoe began to grind against the path, shaking up dirt and tiny pebbles. "So…"

Mion smiled. "I'm glad that I could help you, Satoshi-kun," she responded.

There was a moment of silence after that, and Satoshi did nothing to try to break it. He just stared at the sky, kicking up dirt with his heels and the tip of his shoe as he did so. Mion wondered if she should say something, but he seemed to be intrigued by the sky and she didn't want to interrupt him. She settled for just smiling at him, feeling warm from all the thanks that he had given her. He definitely didn't need to thank her again, but it made her feel happy. Knowing that she had changed things made her overjoyed.

Satoshi tapped the ground with the tip of his shoe. Every once in a while, he would switch which foot he was using to tap the ground. His arms were behind his back, his hands meeting together and his fingers twiddling about with each other. She didn't know what he was doing. Perhaps she should interrupt his gazing and start up a new topic or something. He was acting strangely.

"Satoshi-kun—" Mion began to speak.

But before she could get another word out, his head turned around to look at her. "Shion," he breathed.

"Yes?" she responded.

His body flipped around completely so that his whole body was now facing her. In a flash, he grabbed her by the shoulders, and looked into her eyes for about two seconds. Then, before any of them knew what was happening, his lips founds hers and his arms wrapped tighter around her, to the point where he was practically squeezing the life out of the stunned girl.

Mion's eyes opened up wide and she had no idea how to react. She took a few seconds to process what was going on, and then when she realized that he was kissing her, she began to struggle in the embrace. Fear escalated in her heart, as well as shock, and she allowed her body to react naturally to the situation. Her body forced her arms to find his chest and quickly push against it, causing the arms chained around her to unlock and his body to stumble backwards, his lips releasing hers.

Mion stood there, stunned as she blinked at him. She tried to find her voice, to move, to change her expression, but she couldn't. She looked absolutely horrified.

Satoshi looked startled. "I-I'm sorry, Shion!" he cried out. "I know you like Keiichi and he's your boyfriend and all that! I know that! B-But even so…!" He buried his face into his hands, shaking his head into them. "I still like you…!"

Mion couldn't react. She couldn't think. What in the world had just happened there? One moment she was sure that Satoshi was in love with her sister, and then the next moment he goes and kisses her. How? How was he in love with her? Why? Why did he suddenly love her and not Shion? What did those looks of affection he gave Shion mean, then? Were they not what she thought they were?"

"I'm sorry, I really like you…" he replied. "And I know you're dating Keiichi, but I want to be your boyfriend…"

She tried to choke out a response, but nothing came out, so she settled for just standing there, stunned.

He sighed, shaking his head. "I knew it. I shouldn't have asked, and I shouldn't have kissed you like that." He looked down at the ground, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he drew patterns on the ground with his shoe. "I… I'm sorry."

"D-Don't you like Onee?" Mion finally managed to croak out.

Slowly, Satoshi shook his head. "No. I like Mion, but only as a friend," he answered, his gaze still pointed to the ground.

Mion fidgeted. She had no idea what to make of this. She was sure that he liked Shion, and so was Shion! And Shion had been so happy about the idea of them going out… Oh god, what was she going to tell Shion? How in the world was she going to react to this? She looked up at Satoshi, a stunned look in her eye. "I'm sorry," was all she was able to speak out, "I love Keiichi."

"Of course," he replied. He looked down at the patterns he had drawn below, nodding to himself. "I… I thought you would say that."

His head jerked away, and Mion could see a tear began to roll down his face. He faced his fears and looked Mion directly in the eyes with his tear-filled ones, which were slowly beginning to produce more and more tears that streamed down. The moment their eyes met, Mion instantly felt like a horrible person. A pain struck her in the chest and caused her body to become tense and shaky, realizing that she had just made Satoshi cry. What was she supposed to do? Pretend that she liked him? She told herself that there was no way around it, and that she had to say no either way and cause tears.

But… Satoshi… he was so sad. Mion knew the fear of being rejected. She felt it in her heart several times, and it was one of the things that pulled her back from screaming out her love for Keiichi to the whole world. Cruel pain continued to twist about in her heart. She hated this. She hated that Satoshi was crying over her, and that she had made him cry. She hated causing him pain. But what was she supposed to do? Guilt washed over her. She suddenly began wishing that she could just disappear in a puff of smoke. Perhaps then Satoshi wouldn't be so heartbroken.

"Well then…" Satoshi said, his voice shaky from the tears. "I'm going home. S-Satoko is going to be worried…"

He didn't even bother to say goodbye as he whipped around and dashed off into the other direction, tears flying behind him. A drop hit the ground near Mion, and she looked at the stain it caused to appear on the dirt, another surge of guilt twisted inside of her. She turned to look at the retreating boy, and it only caused that new pain to hurt more.

Sonozaki Shion… She told herself, come on. You don't love him. You couldn't lie. You couldn't avoid heartbreak. You did what you had to do.

She nodded to herself as she turned in the opposite direction and walked back to her house. The peaceful sunset shined above her, but the only thing that she could think about was how torn Satoshi's heart must have been, and the guilt in her chest only grew with every second. Not even the sunset could distract her from those thoughts.

It's okay, Shion. He'll get over you soon…

But on the inside, she doubted it.

~~~~X~~~~

Crimso's Corner V.3

Yay for reusing chapter titles! …That shouldn't be what's on my mind after writing this, huh? Well, I just went up there and changed it so I guess that's why I said that first. Anyways, yeah. SatoshiXMion. It's a bit of a sudden change of events, but that's what I wanted it to come off as. A huge painful slap in the face. I hope that worked out.

On another note, I shouldn't be up this late doing writing when it's Tuesday. A school night, no less. But let's admit it, even if I went to bed at twelve instead of one, I wouldn't even fall asleep until about the same time I manage to fall asleep after writing this late. But then again… waking up at seven AM is extremely painful. I should get back into the habit of writing during the day. Plus I need to move one of my cats. I don't like it when he steals my bed.

~Crimso