To say I was a mess was an understatement. I was a complete wreck, crying into my hands. I haven't cried like this in years. Though, I was quiet. I didn't want to bother anyone else on the train and get any unnecessary attention.

"A napkin for the miss."

I looked up and saw one of Nikita's men. "Huh?"

"We can never be too careful."

"Thank you." I took it and wiped my eyes and nose. I felt better, but it didn't make me feel any better about what I read. Kanade wanted me alive to help others like us. That's why she saved me. The train stopped. I got off and saw Kazuma waiting for me.

"Shiori!" Tsubasa ran at me from behind with open arms. She unfortunately hugged me tightly. "It's been forever! Let's go eat! Kazuma wouldn't let me eat until you arrived." She whined, glaring at Kazuma.

"Well, I'm here now."

"Kazuma! Food!" Tsubasa demanded. She held my hand and walked towards Kazuma as if I was a kid.

"It's about time you came, Shiori. Did you read it?" Kazuma asked.

"I just finished it."

"Isn't it beautiful?"

"It is." Tsubasa didn't know what we were talking about. She knew it was about Kanade and choose not to say anything. "Well, let's eat. I'm hungry myself." I said, looking at Tsubasa. Her face lit up immediately.

The three of us went to a restaurant. It was a different establishment than last time. This time, we went to a barbeque place. We ordered a large set for four people. We got different kinds of meats, vegetables, and sides of rice. The three of us were drooling.

"This looks amazing." Tsubasa said, wiping away some drool.

I was the first to put my meat on the grill. "Shiori?"

"I'm hungry."

"Is food all you think of?" Tsubasa asked.

"I think about other things sometimes."

"You're strange."

"I'm just hungry, Tsubasa."

After we ate, we went to our old school. Tsubasa left us half-way there. She had something important to take care of. It was just Kazuma and me. "Before we get there, can I ask you something?" Kazuma asked me.

"Sure."

"Are you mad at Kanade?"

"No. I could never be mad at her. I'm still a little upset, but I can't change what happened."

"You know, Kanade was right about you."

"About what?" I asked as we entered the gates.

"Your presence is calming to be around. No wonder you have stalkers."

"Thankfully, I know both of them and one was Kanade."

"I'm glad you don't have any more stalkers."

"I've gotten used to it." I admitted.

"That's not a good thing to get used to." We walked up to Kanade's grave. "Do you want some alone time?"

"No. I only have a few words." Kazuma quietly chuckled. He knew where I was going with this.

"Give it to her, Shiori."

I knelt down. "You're a creep for stalking me that badly. Standing outside my window? Really? You went and took it farther than Yuko ever did. You should have just come through the front door to begin with. I always knew you were there by the way."

Kazuma started to laugh. "That's all you have to say?" He asked, poorly containing his laughter.

"That's all I have to say for now."

"You're cruel."

"It's punishment."

He laughed even more. "That reminds me of that one time during lunch when you refused to give Kanade a bite of your food because she did something bad."

"She broke someone's arm. She deserved every bit of punishment I gave her. It's not like the school would have done anything. They were too scared of her."

"Guys!" Tsubasa ran to us with her hand in the air. "Let's go inside!"

"Inside?" I questioned.

"That sounds like a good idea. We can go down memory lane." Kazuma said.

I didn't have a choice in the matter. Tsubasa took my hand and happily ran inside. The inside was the same as last time I came here. I didn't expect anything to change. She went into a the old science lab. "Remember when Kyosuke almost blew up everyone and ended up taking his eyebrows off?" Tsubasa questioned.

"That idiot had it coming." Kazuma replied. We went further down.

"Oh! I remember this place pretty well. This is where couples went to have some alone time." It was just a storage closet.

"Tsubasa…"

"What?"

"You do know that makes you seem promiscuous because you knew this place pretty well." I said making her giggle.

"What can I say? I like a good time." I didn't know what to say. I'm not one to judge though.

"Let's keep on going, Tsubasa. Mom wants to see Yona today." Kazuma said as he pushed Tsubasa's back with his foot.

"I'll take my time!" We went up to the floor where our old homeroom classroom was. I could hear people in the distance. It was probably my imagination. We stopped at our classroom. "Wait here." Tsubasa ran in, quickly shutting the door.

"What's up with her?" I asked Kazuma. He smiled, knowing exactly what she was doing.

"It's Tsubasa. That girl is more unpredictable than making a perfect soufflé."

The door opened. "Come see everyone, Shiori."

"Everyone?" I walked into the room and saw it full of people.

"Her hair is short!" One of the guys shouted. I tilted my head, confused. I could hardly remember anyone of these people.

"Don't look confused! I spent weeks getting our class back together." Tsubasa yelled at me.

"Oh. I remember now. No wonder they looked familiar."

"Don't lie to me, Shiori!" Tsubasa said with fake tears running down her face. I noticed how the flowers on Kanade's desk were gone.

"Shut up, Tsubasa. You're annoying as usual." Kyosuke said with a snicker.

"I shouldn't have invited you." She spat.

"I would have heard about this from Hanayo anyway."

Two of the girls walked over to me and held my hands. "This way. We want to show you something." They brought me to my desk. I looked and didn't see the writing.

"It's gone." I said, putting a hand on the clean desk.

"We're sorry, Shiori. Once Kazuma told us it wasn't you and explained everything, we felt stupid. We wanted to apologize, but you disappeared."

"So, we wrote letters and put them in your old shoe locker hoping you'd get them. Unfortunately, you didn't get them until recently." They were all nodding.

"I still got them. That still counts." I said softly.

"It didn't sit right with us. We thought you went and tried to do that again. Even if you didn't see them until recently, it still put a weight on our hearts."

"Kazuma mentioned that you visited a while ago and once word spread about you returning, these crybabies just about lost it."

"Most of us cried because we were relieved you were still alive."

"So, the great Tsubasa organized everyone to see you for one big apology." Tsubasa said in third person. She really was a unique person.

One of the girls, Nozomi, hugged me. "I've wanted to do this for years."

"Nozomi…" I said quietly. I really hated when people touched me like this, but I dealt with it. She's probably regretted a lot of the words she said and wanted to make things right. I remember her being very affectionate with everyone. I slowly wrapped my arms around her. Everyone gasped.

"The old Shiori would never let anyone hug or hug anyone!"

"No! She's still uncomfortable! She's just dealing with it!"

"Me next!" Hanayo pulled Nozomi off me and hugged me next. Soon, one by one, everyone either hugged me or rubbed the top of my head. Kyosuke walked to me and flicked my forehead.

"What's that for?" I asked, holding my forehead.

"Making me cry."

"You're tearing up now." I commented.

"Shut up!"

"Her bluntness didn't go away."

"Some things won't change."

"Shiori, will you forgive us? We're said horrible things and even accused you of something you didn't do. Kazuma really helped us see what really happened. You were suffering too and no one noticed. Instead, you were pushed even further away." Tsubasa asked with her hands clasped together.

"It wasn't anyone's fault. You were all hurt and dealt with it in your own way. Everything is in the past. None of us can change what happened. Besides, reading the apology letters were more than enough for me." I replied.

That's when everyone began to suffocate me with a huge group hug. I hated every second of it, but it wasn't as bad as the initial impact. "You're too kind. You should hate us."

"I don't hate any of you." After a few minutes, everyone let go with tear filled eyes. "I'm making everyone cry again. I'm sorry."

"There's chalk." We turned to Kazuma who was at the chalk board.

"What are you doing?" Kyosuke asked.

Kazuma wrote in big letters 'self'. "I think it's a good idea to write the things we hate about ourselves."

"Why?" I asked him.

"It's part of the healing process. We write the things we don't like about ourselves and then we write the things we like."

Tsubasa ran up to the front and started to write. "Wait! You can't hate that you're not famous, idiot. It has to be a trait of yours." Kazuma lectured.

"Let a girl live!"

"No!"

I walked up to the bored. I wrote down 'past self'. "Shiori?"

"I'll try anything once."

Nozomi and Hanayo ran up behind me and started writing their own things. I added 'not open' and 'dependent'. "Dependent? How is that a bad thing?" Hanayo asked me.

"I feel like I'm too dependent on people where I can't do things myself." I explained.

"Oh! I get it! Though, it's good to have people you can be dependent on from time to time."

After we were all done, the entire board was filled. "Do we erase it all?" Another student asked. "No. We'll go to our desk and write what we like about ourselves. Whether that be you're trying to be an idol or you like you hair, it can be anything."

"Yes!" Tsubasa cheered.

Kazuma handed me a marker. I looked at my desk. It was still weird to see my desk completely empty. We all sat down and started writing. I was still trying to figure out what to put. A hand came from above my shoulder and wrote down 'ribbon'.

"Huh?"

I looked and saw Kyosuke. "It's a start. Ribbons look cute on you then and now. It's almost part of your identity." Tsubasa came over and wrote 'stomach'.

"You don't need to know why I put that." She said with a snicker. I pouted, getting her to laugh.

"Smart is another one to put, miss I made it to the best high school in the country." Kazuma said with a sly smirk.

"You made it to that fancy one in Tokyo?!" They all shouted.

"Yes."

"I can finally say I know someone smart!"

"Does what I have to write have to be what I like about me? Can it be about other things and people?" I asked Kazuma.

"It can be whatever makes you happy, Shiori." I nodded and wrote 'X'.

"Huh? Do you like pirates?"

"It's…a person." I said.

"Boyfriend?" Tsubasa, Hanayo, and Nozomi asked.

"It's someone I met. He gives me the same feeling Kanade gave me."

Kyosuke started to sniff me an ended up at the feather in my ear. "This smells like a man. Did he give you this?"

"Y-yes." I said nervously. How the hell could he sniff that out? It didn't smell like his cologne at all.

"And you're not dating?!"

"He lives in Italy."

"Foreign?!"

"This is straight from a manga!"

I sighed from the girls' reactions. "I'll be living with him after I graduate." The girls squealed.

"Do you have a picture?!" I took my phone out and found one of the pictures Lussuria took in secret.

"Here." I'd probably regret this. Everyone surrounded the phone.

"He's hot!" The girls said.

"He looks dangerous. Shiori, are you fine with him?" One of the guys asked.

"He hates everyone but seems to be protective over me."

"Just one look at you makes anyone want to protect you." Hanayo said, pinching my cheek.

"You have that innocent look of a fawn."

"Thank you, Nozomi." I said with no appreciation for the comment.

I wrote a few more things. Sure, most wasn't about me, but they were still things that made me happy. "Done?" Kazuma asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. Let's go back outside. It is summer after all. We shouldn't be kept inside." After that was said, I was dragged outside and brought to Kanade's grave. A woman was there with flowers.

"Mom! Shiori is here!" Tsubasa shouted.

"I can see that. It's wonderful to see you, dear. I brought flowers for everyone to plant."

"Thanks, mom."

"No problem. It's rare for everyone to be here all at once." Tsubasa's mother handed me a plant. It was a small rose bush. "You should plant the first one." I went behind the stone and dug a hole big enough for the plant. I put it in and put the dirt back over to fill in the hole.

After everyone was done, we were all tired. Kanade's grave looked almost complete. When the flowers grow more, it'll look better. "I'm exhausted." Tsubasa whined.

"Who wants to go swimming?" Everyone but me cheered.

"What's wrong, Shiori? Don't you want to go?" Nozomi asked.

"I'll skip. Kazuma's mom still wanted to see me." They'd ask me too many questions when they saw. It'll be too uncomfortable. I couldn't even let Xanxus see any of my scars.

"We'll catch up. Let's go, Shiori." I followed Kazuma out from the school and to his house. His mother probably wanted to check up on my body. She was the school nurse and knew my history out of necessity. Kazuma's mother greeted us.

"This way, Shiori."

"Yes, ma'am." She brought me to a back room where no one could see in. She used to be my doctor when I moved to Kyoto. So, she knew my body pretty well.

"May I take a look?"

"Sure."

She lifted my shirt and looked at my back. "Everything looks great. The smaller ones are just about faded. You'd have to really stare to see them and that can be difficult."

"What about the largest one?" There was one large scar on my back. It was still in the process of healing. It's been like this since I was a kid. Falling off a building definitely didn't help.

"I'm afraid this is one that might never fade."

"I figured as much."

She then checked the rest of my body. "I'm really happy with how you've healed. There's a few that are still prevalent, but the rest are going away or have faded completely. You're lucky."

"They sometimes come back when I'm stressed." I pointed out.

"Do they go away after?" I nodded. "You have nothing to worry about then."

"How was the check up?" Kazuma asked as we walked into the living room.

"It was great. Shiori is all clear for now."

"That's good. So, do you want to go to the beach? I'm sure my mom has a swimsuit for you to borrow." Kazuma suggested.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Actually, Shiori, I might have a swimsuit for you that'll cover." Kazuma's mom said.

"Huh?"

"This way, dear." I was led to her room. She opened a drawer and held up a long sleeved bathing suit. The top half was a dark blue color that could be mistaken for black while the bottom half had geometric shapes in white, gold, and peach. "The sleeves won't go fully cover your arms and I don't have anything to cover your legs, but you do have the excuse of the injuries you got from the fall."

"Do you think they'd believe it?"

"Those idiots aren't experts on anything."

I tried the bathing suit. My legs were bare for the first time in a long time. The majority of the scars were faded with a few larger ones still viable. Despite that, it looked good. "It's been years since I wore a bathing suit." I said quietly.

"It looks perfect on you." She put her hands on my shoulders. "I just found a beach skirt you can wear if you feel anxious."

"Thank you."

After getting dressed, we walked out again. "Ready?" Kazuma asked.

"She's ready, but don't pressure her to do anything. I will not hesitate to send you to your grandparents." Kazuma instantly paled.

"I won't do anything!"

"Good. Have fun you two."

Kazuma and I went and took a bus to the beach. We could see everyone setting up. "There's even food. I hope they have enough for your stomach." Kazuma teased.

"You better get some before I do then." I retorted.

"You're not going to hold back?"

"I'm getting hungry."

"What?!"

"Ah! Shiori is here!" Tsubasa yelled, waving at us.

Everyone turned their attention to us. We got onto the sand. It was weird to feel sand for the first time in a while. I took my sandals off and fully emerged my feet into the sand. I wiggled my toes. It felt warm and calming. "Come on, Shiori. You can do that with everyone."

"Okay."

"I thought you would never show." Nozomi said.

"Kazuma's mom talked me into it."

"We bought all this food for you." Kyosuke and the guys showed me the large table full of food. My stomach clenched.

"You should have said there was food to begin with. I would have come bathing suit or not."

"See? All you have to do is bribe Shiori with a feast and she'll do anything." Tsubasa said, proud of herself. It wasn't a big secret I loved food and I didn't make it a secret either. We all started doing our own thing. Some went into the water while some stayed back to either cook or stay in the shade. As for me, I sat in the sand and played with it.

"You look like a child." Kazuma sat next to me.

"I haven't been to a beach since I was a kid."

"Really?"

"I grew up in Tokyo and only been to the beach once before moving to Kyoto."

"No wonder you're playing with the sand."

"Hey, Kazuma, can I ask you something?"

"What's up?"

"This guy confessed to me right before school ended." He gasped from sheer shock. "He said I was beautiful and he loved me, but I hardly know him. I didn't take it too well."

"Oh no."

I nodded. "I hit him and ran. He found me again and said he wouldn't give up."

"That's cute."

"That kind of persistence is annoying." I drew multiple lines and circles in the sand. "I said I was already with someone."

"Shiori, you didn't." Kazuma already had a good idea what I did.

"I used Kanade."

"Why?"

"I panicked."

"You could have told them about this X person."

"Things are a lot more complicated than you know, Kazuma." I groaned and hugged my knees. If Gokudera saw me, he'd be yelling and throwing a tantrum.

"How complicated are we talking?"

"We're talking Tsubasa kind of complicated."

"That complicated? Well, you got yourself into this mess."

"I know. What do I do?"

"Don't let him know as long as possible."

"Okay."

Kazuma rubbed the top of my head the same way Kanade used to. "Kanade would have beaten the ever living shit out of him."

"She would probably put him in the hospital for even confessing without her permission." I could see Kanade pounding her fist into Gokudera's head over and over. She'd throw him to the ground and stomp until he bled. I'm glad she wasn't there to see. "My head is spinning."

"It's probably the heat."

"Probably."

When lunch was ready, I was given three plates full of grilled food. It all looked delicious. Some of my classmates stared at me. As I ate, the more they either ate or stared. When I was done the three plates, I went to get more. "You're eating more?!"

"Are you guys done?" I asked them.

"We're full."

"You won't mind if I take the rest?"

They all paled. "Go ahead."

"Can you even eat that much?"

I hummed and looked at the mountain of food. "I've eaten more than this before."

"Where do you put it all?!" I shrugged and began to fill my plate full again. For the next twenty minutes, they all watched me eat the pile of food left over.

"You're a monster." Someone commented.

"I was just hungry."

"What about dessert?" Someone asked.

"What's for dessert?" I asked in hopes there would be some kind of dessert.

"Her eyes are sparkling."

"There's an ice cream stand a few yards away. Do you want to go?" Kazuma asked me.

"Can I?"

"You can. Does anyone else want ice cream?" He asked, but everyone shook their heads. I guess they were too full from lunch. Kazuma led me to the ice cream stand. There was a large list of almost endless choices.

"There are so many options." We commented.

"What do you want?" Kazuma asked me.

"I'm still looking." They had just about every flavor.

"I don't think I could ever pick." Kazuma said. It was our turn to order.

"What can I get you two?" The owner asked us.

"What's your recommendation?" Kazuma asked as I kept staring at the menu.

"The hazelnut coffee ice cream is wonderful for this heat."

"I'll take that. Did you make up your mind, Shiori?" I hummed. The owner smiled at me.

"Would you like the strawberry special?" He asked.

"What makes it special?" I asked.

"I put toppings that aren't advertised."

"I'll take it." He handed Kazuma his ice cream and then mine. My ice cream was pink with swirls of vanilla ice cream mixed in. For toppings, there were small pieces of freeze dried strawberries and nuts.

"Yours look delicious. Can I try some?" Kazuma asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Mine."

Kazuma sighed. "I should know you put food before everything."

We walked back to the group. However, my good day turned sour when someone ended up tripping me on purpose. I couldn't exactly see what he looked like before I fell. All I saw was black hair and a sadistic smile. I didn't fall, but it was enough to unbalance my ice cream. The strawberry goodness fell onto the sand. Kazuma audibly gasped. Why was I getting so upset over ice cream? I picked up the cold pink ball.

"Kazuma. My ice cream fell. Someone did this on purpose."

"It's fine. We can get more." I stood up and saw a group of men from the shadows laughing. They were staring right at me. "Shiori?"

"Coming. I'm just thinking about what to do if I ever find out who tripped me."

"Please don't hurt anyone over ice cream. It isn't worth it."

"It's worth it, Kazuma."

He sighed. "Only to you, Shiori."