Stepping out of the apartment complex, Shion hesitated for a second. Which way... He stole a glance at Nezumi who looked back as if to challenge him.

"Hm?"

"Oh nothing. Uh... Let's take the path through the park, ok?"

"Really? You don't want to check up on Safu then?" Nezumi asked, cocking his head. Shion flinched a little.

"Ah, so you came that way already, huh." Shion gave a pained laugh. "I suppose... it wouldn't hurt to see how she's doing."

He'd given in enough. In the last years, there had been more and more things that made him feel weak. He gave in to it, doing his best to just avoid any confrontation. Safu was one of them. She was the other person who kept coming into his dreams. But unlike dreams about Nezumi, which made Shion nestle deeper into his bed and sleep through all his alarms, seeing Safu's face, no matter how serene or sweet, made him wake up in a cold sweat. Her voice sounded too real. Sometimes it felt like she wasn't gone at all. Nezumi had set her free back then, because Shion had been too deep in denial. He hadn't been able to do anything for her, he'd let her die without really listening to what she said.

Maybe it would be better now that Nezumi was here. With him by his side, Shion would... His thoughts stopped cold.

What am I doing. Thinking Nezumi will pick me up and carry me over the things that trip me up. All that time, all the stinging words that challenged me to think for myself and take action, did he waste them on me?

In the year after he left, Shion had often heard Nezumi's voice in his mind, challenging him. 'Shoulder it. Bear the weight of it and live on' 'Do you think you can look away from it?' 'What are you doing, idiot'. It pushed him further, to be more decisive. But over time, that voice had gotten quieter. It had morphed back into his own, a kind, but naive whisper. He should have been stronger.

"So where to, Shion?" Nezumi's voice cut through the thick of his thoughts.

He could be stronger now. It wasn't too late. He'd face the days ahead to be equal to Nezumi again. Clinging to him wouldn't do.

"Yes. We should go say hi to Safu." He put on a brave face and walked ahead.

The fall air was clear and the avenue where Safu stood was bustling with people. Two girls were laughing and taking a photo with the statue when Shion and Nezumi walked up to her. Safu stood there in the street, right between all the living people. Her feet were firm on the ground and her face raised to the sky with a defiant smile. She wore her old wool sweater, a gift from her grandmother. A plaque by her feet told her story, or the gist of it, in a few gentle words.

There were other statues like her scattered all through the city and parks. The doctor who had saved Nezumi's life sat at a table in front of where his clinic had been. A statue named "Good Guy Appa" stood by the streetlight near Karan's bakery, waving cheerily at the passersby. To Shion's great distaste, there was even a statue of Yoming, walking up the steps to where the Moondrop had been.

A while after the fall of No. 6, former citizens and 'outsiders' from the Blocks could request or commission the statues. The Memorial Project had been brought up by an artist at an open meeting of the Restructural Committee. They wanted to pay tribute to the people who had been lost to that monster of a city in one way or another. At the peak of his recovery, Shion had latched on to the idea completely.

He had hoped the statues would remind people what had happened here. Not just in facts and figures and history books and ethics classes, but out on the street, right at eye-level, where people lived and died, breathed and suffered. Many people chose to remember their dead colleagues, friends and family members at home, in silence or with simple inscriptions at the new city hall. But a few had taken the chance. Especially after the first statue of Safu, commissioned by Shion and Karan, had taken her place in the middle of a busy street.

To think that he had put her here just to find a hundred ways to avoid her later...

"When passed by here earlier, she almost gave me a heart attack. The street was all empty and I thought I was going insane. You know I only ever met her that one time..." Nezumi chuckled and trailed off.

"I'm sorry about that. It's my fault she's here."

"Your fault?"

"Yes...at least it feels like that."

"Hm. After the initial shock I thought it was nice. I got to touch her face, the person who loved you like that."

"She might hate it here. She wasn't that outgoing, you know."

"Maybe she'd like it if you came here more often. You're the only one she wanted to see, right? You know, I didn't really have time to notice it back then, but she's quite the looker. It's incredible her confession didn't stir your heart. Must be a huge regret for you, huh? Saying no to her back then?" Nezumi said these heavy words with a voice that breathed light and humor into them.

Shion took a few steps toward Safu and leaned his head on her bronze shoulder. Her back, hands and hair were all golden, polished by the casual and heartfelt touch of people who took a moment to stand here with her.

"I don't regret that." Shion said it outright, in a way he hadn't been able to say anything in a long time. 'The answer was always no'. "She was my beloved friend and I don't regret that at all. There's always just one person who I love the way she loved me." He wasn't sure Nezumi had heard him. Peeking over his shoulder, though, Shion saw him standing with his hands in his pockets, smiling gently.

Shion turned back to him and took a step, but then stopped in his tracks. He'd never gotten a chance to ask about that day, had he?

"Nezumi." Shion cast his face down. Is it fair to ask this now? Here? "Back then... when we were escaping. You said you just used me. To get into the Correctional Facility, for your own goals. I never figured it out... if you meant that. I mean...it doesn't really matter in-"

"Yes." Nezumi cut him off. "If you held on to it for so long, it matters. And... yes. I think I meant it."

Shions heart sunk. He shouldn't have brought it up. Nezumi would leave again. No way he came here to be interrogated by some self-righteous kid who only lived in the past. Shion's mind went blank, and he couldn't look up. He couldn't bear to see Nezumi's back turned to him again, never looking back. And without a promise, this time.

But a hand reached out and lifted his face up. Nezumi was right in front of him. Shion also noticed the people on the street around them now, who were giving them a wide berth and concerned looks. Wordlessly, Nezumi put an arm around Shions shoulders and led him into a quiet side street. In the shadow of a residential house, Nezumi leaned against the wall and looked up to the sliver of blue sky between the buildings.

"I didn't care about saving her, because I didn't get what she meant to you. I thought I knew the true shape of the world, but I barely had a hold on my own feelings." He turned to face Shion. "On what you meant to me. We were all kids. I can't understand myself that well anymore. The most I can say is... I said that to give you anything that made sense. Anything to hold on to. So I wouldn't lose any more of you in that place."

Under the shadow of his frown, Nezumi's eyes shone like silver coins. A bit of morning sinlight glinted on his hair. You're still the most beautiful, the most troublesome and the strongest person in the world to me, Nezumi. I'm still struggling to see that you don't think I'm a burden.

"Thank you." Shion whispered, leaning his heavy head on Nezumi's shoulder. He wanted to say a thousand things more. But he'd decided to trust Nezumi. He could tell him later. There'd be a later.