Usagi held on to her school bag, blue eyes fixed up at the intimidating number of stairs. Her lips quirked as she glanced at her watch and realized she was late, as usual. With her heart full of will power, she took the first step, and began the long climb up to the Cherry Hill Temple.

As she reached the top, her feet guided her toward the all too familiar meeting place. She heard the cheerful laughter on the other side of the threshold. Her heart clenched. A flurry of memories assaulted her as she reached for the door. Senshi battles, her adoptive parents, her mother, Hatsuharu, Yuki. For some reason, as she slid the door open and the room went quiet, she thought of Rin.

"Hello," she greeted, trying to sound genuinely cheerful. The four girls stared up at her, blinking. Her best friends, the ones she shared so much with. She felt like crying, or at least turning and running away.

Then, the most unexpected thing happened. The raven haired priestess rose from her seat and walked right up to the silver haired girl, facing her head on with the oddest expression. Without a word she enveloped Usagi in a hug, and a wave of emotion washed over her, her breathing stopped for a moment, preventing her from speaking.

"Usagi-chan," Rei's voice drowned her, and the tears came so quickly she couldn't hope to ebb them. The other girls quickly joined around her, and for all the heart ache of the last week, Usagi thought she may never have felt this happy in her entire life.

"B-But Hatori, Setsuna told me," the silver haired girl began, her thoughts rushing forward all at once. She pulled back, ever reluctantly, and looked her senshi in the face. "You acted like you didn't know me. How did you get your memories back?"

"Luna." Minako chose to answer that question first. "The Luna Mind Meld, remember? Luna and Artemis both witnessed that guy erase my memories, so after he got all of us they went back and undid it."

"We acted like we didn't know you because we thought you may be in danger." Ami spoke next. "With that guy's power we had no way of knowing about whoever else you were staying with. Therefore, we waited for an opportunity to get you alone."

"I told Setsuna to play along." Usagi turned as the black feline jumped on the table. Her ruby eyes looked on her charge with mixed emotions, her tail flicking back and forth gently. "She told me the truth about the Sohmas, and I thought it best to keep things the way they were. I can see how much you've changed already, Usagi."

The rabbit felt fresh tears sting at her eyes. Makoto placed a hand on her shoulder, "Yeah, Usa, you've done some growing up on us. What gives?"

Pain. Heartbreak. She wanted to say it, to be straightforward. Only the sting of tragedy had matured her the past months apart from her dear friends. Instead, she laughed softly. They took their seats. Usagi explained her family, the Sohmas, almost all that had happened. She listened as her beloved senshi did the same. They discussed what this new enemy meant for them.

It felt like home again.

xXx

Between Shigure and Hatori, more the latter she supposed, they managed to get the two girls transferred into Hatsuharu and Momiji's class. Before when she protested, it was unnecessary for her to do so. Now Haru needed her. She shared a quiet word with the teacher, and then slid into the seat in front of Hatsuharu. Momiji smiled at her, but even her fellow rabbit couldn't quite achieve cheeriness.

"Morning!" Hotaru claimed the seat beside hers, in front of Momiji. The positive effect of the girl's good mood set Usagi upright in her seat. She could already hear the disgruntled muttering of the girls on the opposite side of the room. As suspected, the fan girls in Hatsuharu and Momiji's class proved more avid than the others.

They don't mean any harm, Usagi told herself, sending a sideways glance at the glaring girls. Shifting in her desk, she looked at Hatsuharu. His chin propped in his hand, it seemed like nothing could tear his chocolate eyes from the classroom wall. He insisted on coming to school so soon. I wonder why?

The teacher called their attentions, so Usagi twisted in her seat to face the front once more. Class scarcely provided distraction from her thoughts. She ambled through the day almost like a half-asleep drone. Almost too suddenly, lunch came around.

She held back, letting the others fall ahead. As soon as they moved on she headed to the restroom. It was while washing her hands that the incident begun. Her blue eyes moved past her reflection, to the taller dark haired girl standing akimbo behind her. Moving to the side, she dried her hands on a paper towel and faced the challenge head on.

"You," the girl accused, pointing her long, bony finger at Usagi's chest. The silver haired girl looked at it, and then the girl, calm under the circumstances. "You have some nerve. We all know why you transferred classes."

"This is about Hatsuharu." The rabbit turned her solemn eyes to the girl's slightly startled brown. She kept her voice steady, but her hands clenched into fists. They shook with fury at her sides. "You could never understand what he's going through right now. You're a blind fool not to see it."

"I--" the girl didn't know what to retort. Dark brown eyes shifted back, then forth, and then back again. Her lips parted, closed, flailing to produce words but unsuccessful. Usagi's hand slackened and she looked at the girl with a bit of different emotion.

"For your sake, I hope you never have to understand that kind of pain." The words were soft, sincere. They struck the girl dumb, and Usagi stood there for several moments before she turned to exit the bathroom.

"Akiko." Pausing, the rabbit turned to look at the other girl, her eyebrow arched in confusion. The dark haired girl glanced at her shoes, the softest hue of pink across her cheeks. "My name is Akiko."

"Usagi," she smiled gently before turning and leaving for good this time. Akiko stood in the bathroom, waiting, until the two stalls at the end opened and two freshmen girls appeared from them.

"Aki-senpai, what are we going to do now?" The first asked. The second nodded, emphasizing she was just as curious. Akiko smiled and walked for the door.

"Absolutely nothing."

xXx

Tohru had to work, and Yuki had after school activities with the student council that he said would run late. Usagi pleaded with Kyou to cook her something for dinner and by the time she wore him down, she really was starving. She sat at the table, her lips puckered into a frown as she tried to decipher the string of numbers in her math textbook while the tantalizing odor of dinner wafted around her workspace.

"It's wrong." The rabbit jumped as Kyou's voice cut through her thoughts. She blinked her eyes at him, and then looked at the single problem on her sheet of paper. With a sigh, she shut the book.

"This situation is irritably familiar," she mused, glaring at her paper before tucking it away and welcoming the meal that the orange haired teen presented her with. Wasting no time, she dove right in with a cheerful smile.

"What, you sucking at math?" Kyou asked. Usagi glowered at him over her next bite of food, poised halfway between the plate and her mouth. The situation proved more comical than menacing due to the smear of rice on her cheek that she was unaware of. Too hungry to start an argument, she left it at that and returned to devouring her dinner.

They ate together in silence. When Usagi finished she took her plate to the sink and started on the dishes, figuring it was only fair since Kyou cooked for her. After a while he brought his plate over as well, and began drying the dishes. She thought it a bit odd of him, assisting her willingly, but certainly didn't protest. It took only a minute for his motivation to become known.

"How's Haru?" Usagi's hand paused in the middle of scrubbing his plate. Her blue eyes found his red, startled. For a moment, she held her breath, uncertain of why. Then she turned back to the sink and finished the last dirty dish without speaking. When her hands had nothing left to distract her mind, she placed them palm flat against the counter.

"He's," she let the silence hang, until Kyou finally finished his dish and put it away. Before she knew, she was blinking back tears. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

Wiping hastily at her eyes, Usagi pushed away from the counter and collected her math homework, mumbling about failing. Kyou stood by the counter and watched her flustered movements, feeling he should do something. He stayed still while she finally lifted her full bag, but she didn't make a step from the table before her tears overwhelmed her.

Kyou panicked. By some miracle, he heard the front door open and close. Yet when the voices of Yuki and Tohru filtered from the hall, Usagi turned, grabbed his hand, and dragged him out the backdoor with her before he could react. When the blue eyed girl was assured they went undetected, she dropped his hand suddenly and wiped furiously at her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Kyou said firmly, his red eyes fixed on her, annoyance their clear sentiment. Usagi paused, her lips still parted with the words she intended to speak next. Not intent on upsetting her further, he softened a bit when he said, "You act like everything's your fault. It's not."

"I--" The silver haired girl opened her mouth, then shut it again and gave him a watery smile. "Thanks. That means a lot." She enveloped him in a hug, and pulled away quickly when she felt him tense up. She then fled back inside, leaving him standing alone in the darkness, wondering.

xXx

Usagi sat in her last period, her least favorite, math, letting her eyes droop as she wrote down the night's homework in a half alert state. Her gaze caught with that of Akiko, the girl who tried to corner her in the restroom a few days ago, and the dark haired girl smiled hesitantly. The blue eyed teenager returned the gesture, but found her attention absorbed on the teacher a few seconds later when he announced their tests were graded.

"Please pick it up on your way out of class. If your mark was too low, you know you have to get a parent or guardian to sign." The rabbit wanted to bang her head against the desk as she remembered her last score around the 30-40 range. She looked around for some moral support, but since their schedules had been jumbled around so they could switch into Hatsuharu's class, Hotaru no longer had the last two classes with her, and this was the only one she had alone.

The bell rang, and Usagi moved sluggishly as she stuffed her books and other supplies away. The class slowly streamed out into the hall, retrieving their papers from the teacher. When the silver haired girl was satisfied the only paper clutched in the teacher's hand was hers, she rose and walked to the front of the room.

"You know, Miss Sohma, when your former teacher spoke to me about your performance in his class I was hesitant about taking you on." Usagi cringed as she reached the desk, but said nothing in response. She placed her open palm in front of her and waited. "But he must have been mistaken, hm? Good job."

The rabbit blinked as the paper rested in her hand, and looked at her teacher with a strange expression. He only smiled back at her, and inclined his head toward the test. Usagi obliged, and looked down at the large red mark in the corner of the page. Her eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. '80?! I got a B?!'

Without any warning she jumped in the air, throwing her arms up and shouting. Her teacher looked slightly startled, but still amused as she thanked him a hundred times over and sprinted from the classroom. She knew Yuki didn't have student council this evening, so she hoped to catch him by the school gates. When she finally spotted his crown of silver hair over the crowd, she pounced through the fan girls 'discreetly' following him and launched on his back, much like she did on a separate occasion.

"YUKI!!" Usagi shouted, right into the poor boy's eardrum as she waved the paper frantically in his face. "Look, Oniisan, look!"

"I can't look with you choking me, or when you wave it around like that." Yuki managed to say even while being half strangled. Usagi climbed off of him and held the paper still, right under his nose. Shaking his head, he grabbed the paper from her and held it a fair distance away while she bubbled with excitement.

"I got a B!" The rabbit announced, not intent on waiting for him to figure it out for himself. She bounced from foot to foot, grinning, "I've never gotten higher than a D on a math test before! And it's all because you helped me."

Usagi pulled her brother into a hug, smiling, before he could say anything. The she readjusted her grip on her school bag and grabbed her math test back, saying, "By the way, I wanted to let you know I was going out. I might not be home until late, okay?"

Yuki caught her arm before she got away, giving her a look. She only smiled in return. "Don't worry, I'm not going to the main house. I promise. It's just somewhere I need to go alone."

"Alright." He released her then, and Usagi smiled with gratitude before she quickly walked off, just as Tohru appeared and joined him for his walk home. They shared a bit of pleasant conversation, but Yuki found his mind wandering to where his younger sister might be going.

xXx

Usagi took each step slowly, her determination wavering but never abandoning her as she walked. Her subconscious led her on to her destination, though she wouldn't admit she knew the path by heart. She'd traveled it in her mind so many times since the day.

Isuzu "Rin" Sohma

The silver haired girl sat cross legged in front of the stone, her deep blue eyes fixed on the arrangement of fresh flowers already there. Someone had visited today, before her, already. She placed the single lily to the side of this bouquet and placed her palm flat against the cool, smooth surface, her fingers brushing the light ridge of the engraved name.

"Rin," she whispered, not able to raise her tone any louder. How could the death of someone she hardly knew affect her so hard? "Rin, I wonder, is the Haru I know and the one you knew the same person?"

A slight breeze stirred, blowing a few strands of silver in her eyes. She wondered if this was an answer. She wondered if she was losing her mind. "I know I might just be your replacement, but I swear I'll take care of him."

The wind picked up, tousling her hair even more, brushing at the tears that now lined her cheeks. Usagi felt a sudden warmth in her heart, and hoped that wherever Rin was, she heard her and knew the words were a promise.

xXx

Ahoy! The progression of this chapter came very slowly, but still steady. I'm happy with the ending of it, though. I can't believe how fortunate I've been with this story. I find it hard to accept that the reviews have passed three hundred, that so many people like it. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Rin's presence in the story will continue, though maybe not as heavily as the past two chapters. I hope you enjoyed this installment, and see you all next chapter!

♥SachiNyoko♥