Sorry for the late update- I had exams this week. I still have, actually, as there's one more on Friday, but after today's exam I got home somewhat earlier than expected, so I decided to finish and upload this today. But, even though I've been writing (and planning, in the case of later arcs), you're probably not going to get the standard Sunday update this week. But I'm hoping to shift things back so I'm uploading on Sunday afternoons again by the end of next week. So yeah.

Anyway this is a character development filler sort of chapter (and I intend the next one to be that type too, as it happens). Perhaps it's not the punchiest way to return after a week-and-a-half gap but whatever. I think you'll enjoy it- actually, as always, I hope you do. And as usual, please leave feedback!


It was fairly rare for Yukiyama to get to school early. Or rather, it was rare for him to arrive there earlier than Kinomoto, Haru and/or Tsuwabuki, as they were almost always the first people there due to the class flowers. But apparently, he had managed to arrive before them, and that was a very weird realisation for him.

So….what do I do now? Yukiyama turned around in a slow circle to survey his surroundings. A pointless move, but it helped the contemplation. Going inside at this time wasn't very appealing, and he didn't feel like wandering around the forest- he'd most likely end up there during the break times anyway, so that wasn't something he needed to overdo. So Yukiyama sat himself on the step in front of the school entrance, and opened his bag to get his phone so he could listen to music. By now, the music habit was so ingrained in him-after all, it gave him an effective way to avoid interaction-that retrieving his phone from the various items he carried to and from school each day should have been fairly instantaneous. But instead, Yukiyama's hand brushed against something small and cylindrical, and almost instinctively, his fingers closed around it and he pulled it out. Ah.

It turned out to be the bottle of bubble liquid that Hiro had given him during the Kyoto trip. Some images flashed through his mind, of her smiling, blushing, fumbling with her phone to show him pictures from the museum she'd visited, of the straightforward way in which she'd given him the little gifts, all resplendent. Bubbles, huh? He more or less knew what the points of such toys were; for he'd seen plenty of young children fill the air with soap bubbles in previous summers. But he'd never played with such things himself- his father would not have allowed it, and he did not think he would have found the time to do so anyway.

But now I have both the means and the time, because of Chihiro.

He weighed up the little bottle in the palm of his hand for a moment or so, and then he sighed, deeply. There was no use in denying that he wanted to have a go. So he hefted his bag so that it was next to him, and no longer on his lap, and then he unscrewed the lid of the bubble liquid, bringing the wand out too as it was apparently attached to the lid. Making sure the wand had captured the bubble liquid, he brought it to his lips, pursed them…and then blew, gently.

Almost instantly, a stream of shiny, colourful, transparent liquid circles released themselves from the wand and moved forward. A faint breeze picked them up, and so a few flew upwards, while others went outwards in other directions. And soon after that, a few at a time, they popped without a sound, seeming to make little soap sud sparks as they did so. Disappointed that they had gone that quickly, Yukiyama followed up this stream of bubbles by redipping the wand and releasing another, then another, and then more again, always as quickly as possible so that there wasn't a moment where the air was bubble free. A couple of times, he even decided to take the time and make a few large bubbles, and while many popped before they could even be, a good few survived, and floated along jollily amongst the many little ones. It's rather attractive. Now I know the appeal.

"Well now, this is unexpectedly pleasant." Kinomoto commented as he came up the hill, clearly a little surprised at the sight. "Oh, Yukiyama-kun, it's you. Good morning."

Yukiyama simply nodded, for he did not want to disrupt the flow of the bubbles. Kinomoto smiled, and turned to call down the hill that it was Yukiyama who was responsible for the bubbles before going along to gather the watering cans and whatever he needed. And the reason for that was soon fairly clear as Haru and Tsuwabuki came bounding along.

"Woah!" Haru held her hand up to catch one of the fat bubbles, gasping and then laughing when it popped. Turning to Yukiyama, she beamed and bowed to greet him, and again, he nodded politely in return. Tsuwabuki just rotated in a slow, gobsmacked circle before going to find Kinomoto. When the two boys returned to check up upon the first hanging basket, Haru crossed over to join them, her eyes still lit up with laughter.

Tada was the next to arrive, along with the little entourage that tended to accompany Fuyumi each morning, and they, too, were entranced by the bubbles, constantly turning to try and capture or gaze at the bubbles, even as the wheelchair was set down and Fuyumi helped back into it. Once she was settled, she wheeled over near to the steps, and parked the wheelchair so that she was facing the same direction that Yukiyama was.

"I think I'll watch from this side of things, if you don't mind. The bubbles are a bit like my ribbons today." Fuyumi remarked. Yukiyama snuck a glance and noted that the ribbons tied around her two ponytails were an opal type of shade- white, but with many different colours embedded within it. And as if to provide further evidence towards that point, he sent out another stream of bubbles, watching their slick rainbow shades change under the sky.

The others drifted in in dribs and drabs, and all had their own reactions to the bubbles. A few went to a side to stand (or sit cross-legged on the grass) and just watch, whether with the wary air Kitabayashi had about him, the impressed approval Jori showed, the entranced wide eyes of Reimiya and Akira, Yamada's open-mouthed gawp, the calm observation that Eriko and Kaori made or the more far-off (but clearly pleased) regard Reno displayed. Tada and Tsukuda stood close together, laughing and pointing out bubbles to each other, and occasionally trying to catch some with both their hands. Azama flopped to lie down in the middle of the grass, arms stretched out as he regarded the bubbles in his usual manner, and Koujiro, Hirigi and Ruko somehow got themselves into some sort of chasing game, running around through the bubble streams while dodging the relaxed Azama.

Kuroba came to sit down near to Yukiyama and Fuyumi, but at a distance from them, resting his hands on his knees as he did so. No doubt that the reason he stayed out in the first was Izzy-who had been dragged into spinning around into what was almost (but not quite) a dance amongst the bubbles with Hana, who looked utterly ecstatic. Kinomoto, Haru and Tsuwabuki continued their progression with the plants, but they, too, watched and exclaimed at the proceedings. And Ayako filmed it all on her phone, adding in some random commentary as she did so, but mostly just giggling and calling things out to her classmates.

Eventually, Yukiyama's hand started to ache from having been in similar positions for such a long time, and Izzy, Hana, Ruko, Hirigi and Koujiro all seemed to tire, so he let out a few more long streams of bubbles, and then closed the bottle. When Tsuwabuki next came past, he remarked to them all that it was soon approaching the time they should really be inside the classroom, and Ayako stopped her filming. Kuroba took the moment to disappear inside, and Yukiyama thought he should do the same when a thought came and threw itself at him. I wish Chihiro had been here to see all of this.

With that realisation, he didn't move for a while, and instead let everyone else flit by as they chatted, or dusted themselves off, or gulped large sips of water from water bottles (or, in the case of Ruko, gobbled down a packet of Maryland cookies). But since the stillness didn't bring any kind of answer with it, he decided to just head in. And as he did so, and headed to his seat, he heard Ayako proclaim that she was going to send around the video so everyone had a copy of the memory, before then putting it on the blog and the other pages for Ending the End Class. Ah, there's my answer.

"Hey, Takashita."

"Huh, what, oh, right!" Ayako blinked confusedly, and although the gesture was irritating, Yukiyama supposed that he couldn't blame her. He couldn't bring to mind a single occasion where he had directly interacted with the over-friendly girl. Probably on account of her being over-friendly, but still.

"That video," he got straight to the point. "Can you do something with it for me?"

"Like….could it be that you're not happy with me having filmed it, Yukiyama-san?"

He shook his head.

"Nothing like that. Just…before you put it up to the blog, could you….." he gritted his teeth, hating the 'over-sharing alert' feeling he was getting, but he pushed through. "Could you send it onto Chihiro as well, and then pass on a message to her from me with the video?"

"Chihiro…Chihiro….oh! Hiro-san! I'm a dope!" A nickname is all very well, but how does it help when you end up forgetting their given name?! "Right, sorry. I suppose that makes sense given everything between you two…which is why I have to say no."

When Yukiyama narrowed his eyes at her she flailed and hurried to explain herself.

"I'm not refusing you, no, no, no, that isn't it at all! But really, as much as your impending romance interests me, that doesn't mean I want to interfere. Plus, I'm sending the video around to everyone so that we can all have it personally."

Ayako tilted her head and scrutinised Yukiyama, before continuing to talk.

"How about this? I'll send it to just you for now…." She took out her phone and fiddled with it for a moment, before her face lit up with achievement. "There. Now, I'll go make sure everyone else gets it, and now you can tell Hiro-san whatever you want with the video, okay?"

"Okay." Then, because it was the polite thing to do: "Thank you, Takashita."

"No problem-o, Yukiyama-san! I'm fully supportive of your blossoming relationship!"

Idiot, Yukiyama thought, shaking his head in annoyance as he retrieved his phone and checked the message. Still, she had delivered on her promise, so he shoved aside the irritation for the present, and saved the video to his gallery before opening up a new message, putting Hiro's name in the 'To' section, and attaching the video. Then, he tapped on the message box, and thought for a while.

When it came to it, he was not too sure what to say, but in the end, he went for the original sentiment that had made him decide to want to share the video of the moment with her in the first place. So it was those words he tapped out before he sent off the message, and as he watched the screen flash with the confirmation message, he felt inordinately content.

Since she was, for all intents and purposes, scoffing down a quick lunch before rushing off to squeeze in another dance practise, Hiro grabbed a random bench in the corner of the playground, and proceeded to look through her phone while doing so. As tended to be routine, she had some email alerts telling her that the Ending the End Class blog had new posts, a couple of messages from Megu and Rio, another message from Sugaya telling her that the new bolts of material she'd ordered in had arrived at All is Possible, lots of randomness from Kou, an update-style message from Irina (her mother's other former teacher, who was now by Karasuma's comatose side daily) and various bits and pieces from her Riverside friends. What was more unusual was a message from Yukiyama, sent at some point that morning. Even more unusual was the fact that it seemed to have a video attached to it. Curious, she chose to open that message first.

When this happened, I watched it unfold, and, more than anything, wished that you had been there to watch it unfold with me. I hope that could be an answer for you. Could it be an answer for you?

The words jumped out at her, and Hiro found that she could picture Yukiyama, so, so vividly. She could so easily imagine the way he would have frowned over his phone as he thought of what to type. She blushed a little at the thought, and then searched around in her bag for her headphones, which she used when she wanted to listen to something when she could not play it aloud. Once she had found them, she plugged them into her phone, put the headphones over her ears, and watched the video.

It appeared to be a scene just outside the 3E building, and everyone seemed to be gathered outside, some standing or sitting around the sides, others running and spinning (or, in the case of Azama, lying down) in the grass. The reason for this gathering was obviously the multitude of pretty bubbles that were spinning around in the air, getting replaced by new ones as soon as they popped. From the sounds of it, Ayako was the one who was filming, for although Hiro heard her voice, she didn't see her. Hiro wrinkled her brow a little at the scene, for although it was really sweet she didn't quite….oh. When Ayako swung around a little, suddenly, she comprehended. Ah, Saito. The choice to give him the soap bubbles bottle had been more of an impulse than the cherry blossom tree statue had been. Apparently, it had been the correct impulse.

She downloaded the video so she could watch it all fully later, and then took off her headphones. She needed to hurry, so she would send her reply and then finish her lunch before heading off. It was a solid plan, but one that suddenly wavered when she noticed a fellow third-year student standing in front of her, looking rather nervous.

"Erm….did you need something?"

The boy shuffled from foot to foot, and Hiro frowned. The boy was definitely not in her class, because she'd know, but yet he seemed so…..Ah. Oh, great. All of a sudden, she recognised what his nervousness could be a result of, as she'd experienced something similar herself, not too long ago. She looked down at her phone, and the blank message space waiting for a reply. Right, let's get this over and done with.

"What's your name? I don't think we've met before?" she asked calmly, betraying nothing. The boy nodded furiously.

"I'm Hidaka, from 3D. We were in the same class last year, but maybe you don't remember because that was only a short while. But….I always thought that you were, you know, pretty cute, and well….this year, everyone talks about you since you're in 3A, and you've just become even cooler in my eyes so I was wondering….would it trouble you too much if I asked you to start dating me?"

The tips of Hidaka's ears flamed red, and Hiro felt just a little sorry for him. Especially as his humiliation would, in the end, be for nothing.

"I'm sorry." She apologised, shaking her head solemnly. "I cannot. "

"Oh…uh…right. Is it because of studying, or that you just don't know me yet? I don't mind it if we just act more like friends, first. I know some girls prefer it like that. Or….could it be Kitakawa-san is already dating someone else?"

Saito. Hiro thought of the bubbles in the sky, of an answer sought and hopefully found. Of the future.

"All those reasons are correct." She told him. "I'm sorry to take up your time like that, Hidaka-kun, but I can't go out with you."

"No, no, I'm the one who inconvenienced you, even though you're already taken…well, sorry, Kitakawa-san!"

Chastened, the poor boy rushed off, no doubt to go and sulk somewhere. Hiro sighed and shook her head in amazement. She somehow couldn't imagine that everyone in the year talked about her…then again, she could see why they would, especially because she had decided to be honest. Oh well. She figured that now was not the time to think upon such things, and so she put it out of her mind. Holding the phone, she pondered the best way to answer Yukiyama, then figured that keeping it simple would be best.

Yes.

Although it was just the one word, she looked it over, and over, and when she was sure she hadn't mistakenly typed something else, she sent her response, and smiled to herself.

It was tempting to take a hard-line on Izzy's attachment to his laptop, but the weather was nice and at least when he had asked, Izzy had come to sit with him, so Kuroba declined the temptation. Still, the clack-clack of the keyboard keys did not allow him to enjoy the bliss of lying under the sun. Instead, he thought of the things he'd helped Izzy find out so far. Sure, they were nowhere near to finding the answers to 30 years ago behind the various government firewalls, but little by little, things were becoming clear. And the more titbits of information they'd come across, the more Kuroba admitted they were very interesting. More interesting than what he'd come here to find out, surprisingly enough.

"What section of all this are you following up this time, Izzy?" Kuroba asked lazily, turning his head slightly to regard his friend. Izzy looked down at him and stuck his tongue out cheekily before answering.

"The murder of that scientist from about 13 years back." He said. "Although, to be honest, online is proving to be as much of a black hole as the papers on the microfiche."

"I thought you were following the name of the murderer." Kuroba pointed out.

"Ah, that's a point. The trouble is….Kaede Kayano doesn't seem to exist. "

"I'm sorry, what?"

"She's listed as being a member of Kunugigaoka Junior High 30 years back, as you know. There are basic records for her, she clearly attended high school and university….but apart from the early articles, and the brief one that announced her life sentence, there's nothing. A black hole. I can't find anything about family- she doesn't seem to have any next-of-kin or family to speak of, and the guy who was her boyfriend at the time seems to have gone AWOL since the sentencing. "

Izzy had mentioned the boyfriend before, so Kuroba shunted that aside for the moment, and instead focussed on the main issue at hand.

"So you think she had another identity. "

"Yeah….but it doesn't make much sense to me. There are no clues here as to who she could have possibly been before."

"Generally speaking, that's the point of getting a new identity." Kuroba pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Sei-Chan." Izzy dead-panned. "The point is, if you look deep enough, you can usually find the information. But there's nothing here, nothing at all. Perhaps…. there are birth records and the like in the town hall. I'm wondering if maybe I should look there to solve this mystery."

"It's worth a try. Aoshima's idea about the library netted you this new line of inquiry in the first place. "

"Yeah, Li'l Aoshima-Chan's cool like that." Izzy tapped and clicked a little more. "Oh! Yes….no, wait, dammit. I hit another wall. God, what could it be about this murder that they needed to try and erase from the collective memory?"

"Maybe it was related in some way to thirty years ago." Kuroba suggested. "After all, did that not receive a similar sort of treatment in the media?"

"Yeah…" Izzy looked unconvinced. He sighed, and rubbed his hands. "It might be easier to just dig through the rest of the school security and see what everybody's records say. It'd be more entertaining."

"Then maybe…" Kuroba paused. He had not told Izzy who he was looking for but why, despite the fact that he'd be more than able to help him. In fact, since he'd been doing pretty well at looking into the school records, Kuroba knew that if he provided the name he'd coaxed from his father, as well as the two possible years the person may have been in 3E, then he'd be able to narrow things down for him. But….do I want to do that?

"What is it, Sei-Chan?"

"Nah, nothing. I'll ask you later." He said. I don't want anyone else to overhear what is essentially my purpose, and even better, this buys me a little time. "Maybe if you step back from the Yanagisawa murder for now and go back to the general articles about anything to do with thirty years ago, then we can visit the town hall this weekend."

"Sounds like a plan." Izzy flashed a grin at him. "Are we inviting Li'l Aoshima-Chan?"

"Why, do you want to?"

"Hmm…..maybe."

"Well, you'd better make your mind up soon. You need to inform her if she's going to come, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Sei-Chan. I've got it, don't worry."

"You're a dolt. How can I not worry?"

"Haha, you're funny." Izzy laughed. A semi-silence fell on them for a while as Izzy tapped at the keys of his laptop and Kuroba closed his eyes to better feel the sun on his face. He could also hear the sounds of his various classmates fooling around, and although some of the antics he could hear made him want to open his eyes just to roll them in disapproval, he found that the events were not so unpleasant. Huh, perhaps they're growing on me. How bizarre.

"Hey, Hey, Sei-Chan, did I ever tell you that my mother was part of 3E once, a long time ago?"

Kuroba sat up at the random non-sequitur, trying to hide the fact it made his heart race.

"No, you didn' she ever talk about it?" Did it make as much of a difference to her life the way it seems to have done for Tada's mother?

"If she does, then not to me." Izzy looked wistfully at the sky, his eyes seeming to snag on an aeroplane that was so high in the sky it looked little more than a splodge moving against the sky. Kuroba regarded him curiously, surprised at the vulnerability. When Izzy caught Kuroba's eye, he grinned resignedly and reached over to pat his hand.

"She dumped me at my grandparents when I was four and buggered off overseas. Somewhere European, if I recall the folklore. No big deal. "

Except such a thing was a big deal. Losing a mother was a big deal. Hell, their own male Class Representative was a walking example. Then again, it sounds like Izzy's mother didn't care much for him. I suppose the grief comes from when you lose someone, and there was a love in both directions.

"But you know she was in 3E?"

Izzy shrugged.

"It was mentioned off-hand to me from time to time." He evaded. "Not that it matters, anyway. I don't think of her much, and even when I do….well, to be honest, I prefer both this 3E, and the one of thirty years ago."

"Fair enough." I wonder….I wonder if it is possible that…. "So what 3E was she in? Before, or after our big mystery?"

"After. I think it was about 22 or 23 years ago. One of those 3Es. I'd probably be able to find out using the Class Registers if I was so inclined….but I'm not, so I haven't."

"Actually, I might have to ask you to do that." Kuroba put in.

"Eh?"

Kuroba sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead. Then, he looked Izzy solidly in the eye and began to explain his own personal mystery, the one he had come here to solve in the first place. Even if one of the others did stumble by and overhear, he could easily send them away again. At this moment in time, the revelation he'd just been handed was far more important.

Asami yawned. It had been a long, long day, and she really wanted to get home, but her teacher had asked her to hand some things over to the staff room, then one of the physics teachers had wanted her to help him carry some other things back to his own classroom….and then the favours had piled up. Now, most people were leaving their club rooms, and the school library was closing for the day. She would have joined them, especially as one of her classmates was also just leaving the library, when she remembered that she had left her bag in her maths classroom. Great, brilliant, wonderful. As she had a bunch of new homework assignments and a pop quiz to study for, and her phone was still in the bag, she could hardly leave it there and retrieve it the next day. So with a heavy sigh; she headed back upstairs to find it. As she did, she could hear the sounds of talking drift towards her. No doubt it was the students on cleaning duty attempting to pass the time.

"Do you think 'being on top of the world' is really a good thing?"

Asami stopped, stock still. That's Hana. She tipped her head, and noticed the sound came from her own homeroom. It took her a moment to remember that 3E had been tasked with some of the main building's cleaning duty, including homerooms. She remembered how pissed she'd been when she'd found out about it from overhearing some 3C boys bellyaching about things, and also how, rather embarrassingly, she'd vented about both her own sister's irresponsibility and Tada's to Hiro. Luckily, Hiro hadn't been too annoyed her, and had explained some of it, but even so. Then, there was the entire debacle about the 'rule' Okikura had announced. Everyone seemed to take it as something so dramatic, but what school would seriously imply to their students it was okay to pretty much murder each other? Unless it was some sort of assassin's school, and that sort of thing was the stuff of fiction anyway. She was sure that what Okikura meant had to be something different, something…less awful. What would it mean if it didn't? Yet, after that rule announcement, Hana seemed to drift further from her. And despite everything, despite how utterly different they were, she could not stand that. She just couldn't. We're still siblings. I still need to look out for her. So I need to understand where she stands now.

So, instead of striding onwards to her maths class, she moved closer to the door, made sure they wouldn't see her if they looked through the small window, and eavesdropped.

"Well, of course it is." Asami didn't recognise the male voice who replied. "Surely the expression itself answers that. And isn't it great to be the best, the winner, the most respected, whatever?"

"I suppose it is nice to be important in the scheme of the world. Asami-Chan…..she places a lot of importance on success, on winning. It works for her, and I like seeing that she has something to work for…."

"But?"

"Eh?"

"Ah come on, Li'l Aoshima-Chan. I can hear that 'but' as clear as day."

"….it's lonely at the top, is it not? And the only way to go from the top is down. So is there even any point in trying? I can't imagine there being any point in doing such a thing."

Asami wasn't sure how to react to all of that. She wasn't sure whether she should go in and shake the defeatist attitude out of Hana or if she should go in and hug her and apologise for the sadness that she could so clearly hear in her voice. She didn't know whether to be touched at Hana's concern for her, or to be embarrassed by it all. And she certainly didn't know what to make of what this all meant in the grand scheme, whether Hana was heading towards the same ruination that Kei had, and if there was any way to halt that inevitability apart from getting her out of 3E- or even whether Hana would be able to get out of 3E if these words were anything to go by. Not to mention….Li'l Aoshima-Chan? Who calls Hana that, and since when?

"Ahhh." The male voice said sagely. There seemed to be a silence where presumably the boy was contemplating what to say. Then, he spoke.

"I guess it is a bit lonely to be the best. Because by definition, you're the only one there, and there isn't much wiggle room in that sort of definition. But we could always punch a hole through the sky, you know?"

I'm sorry, what?

"Mhm….a hole, through the sky….." The sounds of tables and chairs being rearranged obscured some of the words Hana said, but the final part of it was clear.

"That's what we're doing, isn't it?"

It was at that stage that Asami decided that she'd had enough, and so she moved away from the door and strode down the corridor as quickly as possible, and entered her maths classroom. Mercifully, it was empty, and after checking that nobody had stolen anything in her bag, she quickly hitched it on her shoulder and rushed back out again, this time not bothering to stop and see if Hana and her classmate were still there. She didn't want to hear any more, and wasn't even sure that there was any point. None of what she had heard made sense, and all it proved was that Hana had just gone even further. Perhaps, when the end-of-terms got closer, she'd try again, she would reach out; help Hana to study so that maybe she'd get to start the new term in the main campus. But for now….I can't. I just can't.

And knowing that she couldn't made it even more of a relief when she finally, finally got out of the school building.


This was meant to be 'character filler' but I ended up throwing a couple more clues about a mystery and then went all abstract-concept near the end there. Clearly I have weird definitions for things. Meh.

A note about the chapter title: It's taken from the translation of lines from the first and last chorus of the song 'Wareta Ringo' by Risa Taneda. It's the first ending song of Shin Sekai Yori and well...both the song and the anime are top-notch. Seriously recommended.