And then, ten feet from Ayumu's door, her courage gave out. It wasn't exactly that Chiyo was scared to see her old friend again, but... it had been four years since they had last seen each other in person, three since they had had any meaningful contact. The last letter she had gotten from Ayumu was just after the older girl had dropped out of college, which wasn't exactly the best life decision you could make.

Truth be told, Chiyo had always worried about her friend. Though Ayumu Kasuga had most assuredly not been stupid, hers was a type of intelligence that the world had a hard time gauging and didn't always appreciate. To Chiyo's knowledge, Ayumu had never found anything that she was particularly good at, apart from yawning. (Not exactly a marketable skill.)

Chiyo stared at the door and wondered just what lay behind it. She didn't think she would be able to handle it if she found her friend in desperate straits. It had been a long and difficult search to find this small apartment in Sapporo, but now that she actually stood before it... well...

Before her mind could change, Chiyo hurled herself at the door. Raprapraprap! Even the knock sounded nervous to her. She slid back from the door and shifted her weight from foot to foot and waited... waited... just as it seemed that nobody was home and she could leave, the door softly opened.

"Oh!" Chiyo said in surprise. "I didn't expect you to be in! Hi, Ayumu-san!"

It was a truly surreal experience to see Ayumu again. Chiyo had picked up a few inches in America and now the other only stood up to her chin, but apart from the change in perspective, it was just like old times... almost.

Ayumu stepped back awkwardly. "Oh... um, hello..."

Well, this was amusing. Chiyo should have expected as much. "Hey, c'mon! Don't you recognize me? I came all this way to see you, and I even remembered to bring a present!" Since her return to Japan, old customs had come back surprisingly easily. Chiyo was glad that living in America for three years hadn't turned her (completely) into a barbarian.

Ayumu looked a little confused, "I, um... wait a second..." Chiyo smirked a little as Ayumu took handfuls of her hair and held them up. The old pigtails. The shorter woman stood on her toes and searched her face minutely.

"No way!"

A wave of relief rolled through Chiyo. After all, what could be worse than being forgotten? "Now she sees!"

"It can't be...! Wow, you're so... I mean... come in! Come on in, Chiyo-chan!"

Chiyo threw her arms around Ayumu, eliciting a startled "gumph!" from the force of her mighty hug. The visitor was surprised herself, for Ayumu was a little more solid than she remembered. She wasn't exactly an athlete, but... she lost the train of thought when she noticed that Ayumu was tapping out on the doorframe.

"Oh, sorry... it's just... wow!" She held her friend out at arm's length. "How have you been? It's been such a long time!"

"Yeah..." Ayumu finally really smiled. Chiyo noticed that while her eyes were as big and mellow as ever, they were also subtly different. Sharper. More present. But they had the same old deep, dreamy look as well. "How'd you get so tall? Have you been snorting Miracle-Gro or something?"

Chiyo laughed. "No, but my friends from college would probably try to put me up to it."

"Well come in, here, take the couch! Want something to drink?"

"No, no thank you," Chiyo gratefully sank onto one side of the couch and leaned way back. "Ah... I'm so tired! Been here a week and I'm still jet-lagged like you wouldn't believe..." she sat up a little and looked around, pulling a parcel from her pocket. "Nice place, by the way."

"You sound surprised," Ayumu said, sitting on the other end of the couch with a glass.

Chiyo mentally kicked herself. What right did she have to expect anything less of her friend? Time to change the subject. "I tried to read one of your books on the flight over. I'm sorry to admit it, but I didn't get it at all."

"Nobody really does," Ayumu replied easily. "That isn't the point."

"Oh?"

"You're supposed to try and figure it out. The whole point is to make you think, but... you know, I wrote the stupid thing and I don't quite understand it. But enough about me—how was America? Did you make a lot of friends? How're classes goin'? Did you get a PhD yet?"

"A PhD?" Chiyo smiled and shook her head. "What expectations! No, my parents limited how many credit hours I could take a year, so I'm still on my way to my first degree."

"In?"

"I don't know yet. I have all of the liberal studies credits I need... and most of the classes for about three degrees... in fact, this is the year that I'll have to buckle down and choose. Part of the reason I'm taking a break now."

"What's the rest of it?"

"To avoid becoming a vegetable." Ayumu's expression of bafflement was priceless. The brilliant Chiyo-chan brought low by college? "I was getting really tired. They warned me that it wasn't a good idea to take all the most advanced classes I could, but I felt invincible."

CHIYO-CHAN'S COLLEGE LIFECYCLE IN SEVEN PHASES
Phase 1: Chiyo sits in her desk, eyes bright and attentive, back straight. Enthusiasm for learning is glowing from every line of her young face.
Phase 2: Chiyo sits, a little haggard, but still perfectly happy.
Phase 3: The subject is now definitely worse for the wear. Her eyes droop, she slouches in her chair, but keeps soldiering on.
Phase 4: The subject is seriously waning, her attention jumping randomly around the room. She keeps taking notes, but the handwriting is awful.
Phase 5: The subject beats her head on the desk repeatedly.
Phase 6: The subject is now face-down on her desk. The professor calls, "Maybe you can answer this one, Chiyo. Er, Chiyo? Hello?"
Phase 7 (projected): The subject is dead.

"Between that and the people around there... I think the longer you stay in college, the dumber you get," Chiyo explained. "So I'm taking a semester off, visiting all my old friends, resting a little. I just really needed a vacation."

"Who else did you see?"

"I visited Sakaki-san first. She's a vet back down in Tokyo; just got her own practice, did you know? It's so awesome! Everybody in our old neighborhood goes to her now for their pets, and she's really good to them. But I guess some people think that she's too cold—to the owners, I mean."

"Sakaki-san? Cold? She's one of the sweetest people we know!"

"You have to admit, if you don't know her, she is kind of imposing."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I always knew she'd make it, though."

"And Sakaki-san wanted me to tell you that yes, they do in fact take beetles. So then I went to see Kaori-san. She lives in Yokohama with her girlfriend and..."

"What?"

"Oh... right, you didn't know. Don't worry, I'd never have guessed either. Akemi-san's really nice, though. I think they make a perfect couple. They both work at the Motomachi Plaza together and when I was visiting, they were real busy. She didn't have time to play host, so the experience was sort of like '23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds in the life of Karoin.'"

"Huh?"

"I mean, like 'A Day in the Life of,' but with a sidereal day, because she's interested in astronomy? It was a joke, get it?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Never mind. Anyway, they're pretty happy there, even talking about getting married, if they can. You're my third target... and you know, you were really hard to track down. It was almost like you didn't want to be found."

"Maybe I didn't." There was absolutely nothing amiss in Ayumu's expression or tone of voice, but nevertheless, Chiyo felt a chill. Perhaps her dire predictions hadn't been so far off after all...