I wish the world could've been more merciful to me. At least it could've been merciful enough to not put an eight kilo kid riding on my shoulders.

"Onii-chan, you're moving too slow! Yukino might already be out of town by now!", said Haruno, for the tenth time, to be exact. I couldn't believe it – whatever she will become in the future was what she was at that moment. Her phrasing might have changed during all the years due to education, but that attitude of her's remain the same.

"Yeah, yeah. I know", I said.

I was beginning to feel fatigued because of having her riding on my shoulders all this time, and the ice cold temperature doesn't make it any better. The upper part of my arm felt numb, but the other parts were ok. The lower part of my arm was always moving to keep Haruno balanced. As for my shoulders. Well, I got her thigh to warm it up. So in terms of those, there was at least some heat generation. I knew, however, that complaining to a kid wouldn't make the situation any better.

"Hey", I said, "I know this is really none of my business, but why do you think your sister ran away?"

"Exactly, Onii-chan! This is none of your business!", Haruno said cheerfully, piercing my right through my heart that was filled with concern for his acquaintance's younger counterpart.

"But you're helping me out, so why not let you know? Even if it doesn't do any good", she added. The last part wasn't necessary, was it!?

"You see, Onii-chan, Mama wants Yukino to go to an all-girls school, but she doesn't want that. They got into a really big fight"

From that statement I realized that, even before Yukinoshita enters high school, things have been hot between her and the rest of the family. How ironic – a cold personality is always able to turn situations up to such temperature. Maybe it's like a trigger. If you act cold towards someone enough, he or she will get fed up with you. That's the nature of humans.

"But Mama felt really sad after that, you know? She said she would send Yukino to Sobu Middle School instead"

Then I thought, there is always a chance for reconciliation between two warring parties. If two people were to really care for each other, they would eventually lower their guard down, and realize their wrong doing. Of course, we also have to take into the account the uses that those two have for each other. Her mother probably realized she needed emotional support from her child in order to function. But being cynical would make things worse in that case so I basically just threw that thought away completely.

"I see", I said as a response, as I set foot on the ground, continuing with the search for Yukinoshita.

"Onii-chan", she said, "I think I have an idea to where she could be"

"Really?!", I said, but what I really wanted to say was "you could've told me earlier". Had she done that, I wouldn't had to spend the past hour going around in circles. Literally. I was pretty sure I had already walked past the same coffee shop for the tenth time, which was weird and ironic because I was sent back ten years in time.

"There is a park down the corner. It's her favorite place", Haruno said. Need I say more than I had?.. Well, anyway, me being forced to needlessly waste my physical energy aside, I did consider the place a good location for the search, and set my destination to the park.

It wasn't a very long walk – about two blocks away from where Haruno and I last exchanged verbally. Indeed, it looked like a place where a child and a mom would hang out, except, that in Yukinoshita's case, she was most likely not with her mom. That was my first impression.

To avoid making myself sound like a middle schooler, I should avoid phrasing my explanation as such, but that was the only way I could describe it. It was of average size with the typical play thing you would see: swings with flat, rectangular black seat, held to a metal structure by chains; slides that, if I stretch my leg from the ground to the top, it would still have rooms for me to stretch my leg even more; a small dome, most likely made of plastic, that would come in handy in a raining romantic comedy setting.

I asked myself, if I were Yukinoshita, where would I be?

It was a stupid question – of course, I wouldn't know – but I did guessed that it was the dome. Like the question itself, the attempt to answer it was equally stupid, but as much as it was stupid, it was a starting point that I could use.

That decision of my had nothing to do with my obsession with romantic comedy, I swear. It was based on a carefully done processed called "deductive reasoning". Deduction criteria? Of course, it had to be the fact that Yukinoshita usually hangs out by herself, and the only place here where she could do exactly that was the small dome.

"Onii-chan, are you just going to stand there or start looking for Yukino?", Haruno said.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I was spaced out", and there has to be this kid who keeps ruining my thought process, "I'll look for her now. You wait here", I said, putting Haruno down.

I walked toward the dome according to my reasoning.

Its entrance hole was the opposite of the side where I entered the park, meaning I had to walk around the structure in order to actually check its tenant, but I couldn't get myself to make the first step.

I hesitated.

It was a sudden realization of mine, one that hit me right in the face. What if this encounter could change the way things are in the future? I thought. Would meeting me prematurely change how she would view me as a person?

"It doesn't matter", I murmured.

Not like it mattered. "It's not like her view of me was any good in the first place", I held that fact right in my brain and made my steps slowly, anticipating an event that I may regret forever.

As I put my face across the entrance of the dome, a figure starts to come to sight, and it became clearer and clearer on each move. Then finally, the figure was in front of my very eyes, crawling as if finding a lost item. I didn't even had to think for a second to recognize it; the raven hair; the blue and icy cold eyes; and that face. Those are all the features that I know well. They all belong to Yukinoshita.

Yes, Yukinoshita was in front of me. The one and only Yukinoshita.

I couldn't say a thing, not even to at least attempt to greet her. It was the same feeling I had all along, cautiousness. Well, if I were to really be honest with myself, then anxiety was also the thing that got me stoned in position. Even though you know you had no choice but to do it, you still couldn't.

The figure looked up to me suddenly, as if realizing that somebody else was there. She stopped what she had been doing, which I assumed was searching for something, and gave me a stare for a few seconds.

"Who are you?", Yukinoshita said.

"Ah, me?", I replied not very confidently, "Uh, no.. I'm just some random Nii-san"

"Are you a kidnapper?", she asked, but with a face that didn't express any hint of fear. It was unlike other kid's, where it would be full of tears by now.

She has been cold from a very young age, huh?

"No, no! I was just walking around the park, and I just found you here", I said, "Are you finding something?"

"I'm finding my Kuma-san right now", she said.

"Oh, I see. Then I'll help you find your bear"

"You don't have to, but thanks, Nii-san."

It was such a cold appreciation, so much that it didn't looked like she was at all appreciated. But then, why would a kid have that kind of feeling for a stranger?

I didn't know how the teddy bear had anything to do with the situation at all. My goal was met; I found her, so all I had to do was bring her to Haruno, didn't I? Apparently, I was wrong. Even if it doesn't help with anything, I felt the need to find that bear for her. It was a strange sense of duty that had never entered my consciousness before.

I couldn't have Yukinoshita meet her sister, or else things may have turned out a lot worse. The last people who you would want to meet after running away are those who you ran away from. That's common knowledge.

I went from the dome to the entrance and told Haruno, "I couldn't find your sister here".

"It's also getting late. We all should go home", I said.

I brought Haruno back to the school gate where Hiratsuka was waiting.

"You know your way back home, right?", Hiratsuka said, "Do you need us to go with you?"

"Yeah! Don't worry about me, I am almost ten!", Haruno said, assuring us childishly. The smile the had on the face, it was what I thought was the only thing absent on Yukinoshita's face. I don't know what kind of impact it had on me, but impact me it did. "In the first place, the reason why we couldn't find Yukino wasn't found was because Onii-chan was walking too slow!".

It wasn't my fault!

"Then, bye bye! Onii-chan, Hiratsuka-neechan!", Haruno said her goodbye and walked away, hopefully trying to get back home.

"So, how did it go?", Hiratsuka asked.

"Her sister was in the park", I said.

"Eh? Then.. why isn't she with Haruno-chan?"

I explained to Hiratsuka all of my thoughts I had earlier about an attitude of a person who runs away from home.

Initially, she didn't seem to agree with it, but she eventually went along with it and followed me to the playground.

"Do you trust me on this", I asked Hiratsuka, but all she did was shrug. "I don't know – not like I have any choice – I'm already following you and all", Hiratsuka said, "Do you think she will still be there?"

"We won't know until we see for ourselves", I said as I walked toward the dome. Not surprisingly, she was still there, sitting alone against the dome wall, hugging her crossed legs. She really was able to stay there by herself, I thought.

"Hey, I'm back", I said.

She slowly raised her gaze up to me then said, "It's Nii-san from earlier. How did finding Kuma-san go?"

"I couldn't find him anywhere", I said, "it was as if he was really hiding from me. Maybe I really do have dead fish eyes"

Yukinoshita giggled from that statement I made. I had no idea which part of what I said was any funny, in fact half of it was a lie, but at least I did feel at ease on how she was able to smile.

It looked genuine.

"Do you remember the place where you might have dropped it?", I asked"

"I'm sure I've dropped somewhere in the park. I tried to look for him here, but couldn't find him, though", she said.

"Well then, will you give me another chance to help you look for him?", I lied, I hadn't started.

"Of course!"

With unusual enthusiasm, I clenched my fist, and started looking for the bear.

We waited for several hours the day before at the police station, trying our best to persuade the officers to continue looking for Hikki. But at last, the officer who went to our apartment told us, "Commissioner wouldn't accept any more meeting", so we had no choice but to go home. It was unbelievable, how the commissioner would stop the search for the citizen of his administrative area. Even if he wasn't a police officer, wouldn't helping your fellow human being something of default?

Nevertheless, we went home disappointed.

The day after, Yukinon didn't say anything about Hikki whatsoever. No, that was incorrect; in this case, I should say something like, "Yukinon didn't say anything whatsoever". Even that, I knew that Hikki was probably the only thing on her mind right now.

That's because he was the only thing on my mind too.

Usually, we don't talk that much when we're on our own, and with Hikki around, things doesn't feel awkward. Now that he's gone, things just felt strange, and because of that, I tried to break the atmosphere.

"Yukinon, why do you like Pan-san?", I asked.

"Hmm? What's with the sudden question, Yuigahama-san?", she said.

"Uh, no.. I guess I'm just curious. Haha"

"Well, it's not a problem", she said, "When I was younger, I got into a fight with my mother and ran away from home I brought my Kuma bear with me. I lost the doll on the way, though, so I began searching"

"Then? What happened next? Did you find your bear in the end?", I expressed my curiosity.

"I couldn't remember much, but a stranger helped me with the search – he didn't find the doll, though. He said something along the lines of 'Sorry, I couldn't find your bear. But well, you can have this, if you're okay with it', and handed me a Pan-san plushie"