As the years went by, the day for Ushio to start middle school eventually arrived. The now twelve year old girl was nervous about her first day of going to middle school (well, first day after the entrance ceremony). Tomoya, doing his best to help his nervous daughter, is walking next to her, as they head for school, and work respectively. Ushio was now wearing her black Hikarizaka Middle School uniform, with a white skirt, black shoes, and white socks. The girl now had long hair, going down past her shoulders to the top of her back.
"Shio, I just want to let you know, that I'm so proud of you, and that Sanae-san, and Akki are proud of you too." Tomoya tells the girl. "I know that your mother is very proud of you as well. She might not be here with us, but I know she's just as proud of you as we are." the man tells the middle school girl, who takes a few seconds before saying anything.
"Thanks Dad." Ushio thanks, smiling at her father, before she continues to speak. "Its thanks to you, Sanae-san, and Akki, that I became the person that I am today. It really means a lot to me that you came back into my life as my father, and that, despite my health problems, you didn't give up on me, and continued to love, and take care of me." The young girl says, pulling at Tomoya's heart strings. "I really am grateful for everything you, Sanae-san, and Akki have done for me over the years. I know it wasn't easy for the three of you, but, despite you not being there for me for those five years of my life, I didn't feel any spite towards you, I think I was able to tell you were in a lot of pain back then, even before we had gone on that trip. I remember that I had once told Sanae-san, that I wanted to help Daddy." Ushio continues to tell her father, with Tomoya silently listening to what the twelve year old was telling him. "When we went on that first trip together, and I asked if you could tell me about Mom, that was when I had really realized just how much pain you were in Dad. Looking back at it now, I can tell you did your best to just forget about what had happened. That's why you barely ever looked at me back then, right? Because it reminded you of what happened to Mom, and brought all the pain back, all over again, am I right?"
"... Yeah, that's pretty much it." Tomoya confirms, his head held low, shameful of how he had acted back then. He really wished his own daughter, as well as Nagisa's parents, hadn't seen him in the state he had been in back then.
"When I had realized just how much pain you were in from just remembering Mom, I just couldn't hate you, instead, I felt sorry, it hurt me to see my own father being in that much pain." Ushio says, as both Okazaki stop walking, with Tomoya standing outside of his work. The blue haired Okazaki gives Ushio a hug, and tells her to have a good day, with Ushio saying the same to her father, with Tomoya saying one last thing before parting ways with the young Okazaki girl.
"One last thing Ushio, thanks for not giving up on me back then." Tomoya thanks Ushio, who answers with a warm smile, reminiscent of one of Sanae's smiles, and the two go their separate ways. Tomoya watches his daughter walk off into the distance before walking inside of his work and greeting his fellow co-workers with a 'good morning'. Once he got ready, he went off to do his job at today's work sites.
Ushio had butterflies in her stomach from how nervous she was. Talking with her dad had helped a little bit, but it kept progressively becoming worse, with each step she took towards her new school. She was starting to consider just turning back now, she had almost done so, when she remembered something her dad had once told her about her mother, with Tomoya's words echoing in her thoughts.
"I remember she was standing at the bottom of the hill at our high school. Do you know what she did when she was standing there that morning? She closed her eyes, and she said, anpan." That was what Tomoya had told Ushio back when the girl was five years old, that her mother would say the name of something she wanted to eat in order to help give herself courage. Ushio, not having any better ideas at the moment, decides to give it a shot. So, the middle school girl closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, slowly exhales, and says the name of something she wanted to eat, with the fried rice her father makes coming to mind.
"Fried rice!" the middle school girl exclaims out loud, and much to her own surprise, it seems to have worked, and she continues to walk to her school, earning a few curious glances from adults that were passing by while on their way to work, making Ushio blush as she continues to walk to her school, she hadn't meant to say that loud enough for other people to hear her, but despite her embarrassment, she was quite happy that what she did had actually worked, with the Okazaki girl thanking both of her parents in her thoughts, while she starts walking faster as to not be late for her first day of middle school. Once she reaches the entrance of her new school, she is greeted by a brunette, who was the same age as her. The brunette was a friend of Ushio from back in kindergarten, the girl was Sakura Tomoe.
"Good morning Ushio-chan!" Sakura greets, running up to her friend.
"Good morning Sakura!" Ushio returns the greeting, "We haven't seen each other in so long! How was America?" she asks her old friend. The two girls haven't seen each other in years, as Sakura's family had moved to America for business related reasons, sometime before Ushio and Tomoya had become a family again. Despite not seeing each other for so many years, the two girls were still very close friends.
"It was great! How has your family been doing?" Sakura replies to Ushio, with Ushio answering with 'they've been doing great'.
"How about we hang out at my place after school? We have a lot of catching up to do." Ushio asks Sakura, who agrees.
"Yeah, it'll be nice to see Sanae-san, and Akio-san again after such a long time."
"Actually, I don't live with Sanae-san, and Akki anymore, I've been living with my dad for years now." Ushio tells her friend, now realizing that she probably should've mentioned that earlier.