Disclaimer: Alright, I've had enough of these, and you all get the point anyway.

A few opening words: Alright, it was noted that the prologue's mood changed from humor to tragedy rather fast, but thats what I was going for, to illustrate how quickly things can take a turn for the worst. And me doing this to Sakaki is to set up for later events. I promise it won't all be doom and gloom for her. There'll be more humor, and happy parts later. Maybe even a few parts worthy of Die Hard, who knows...

"Eh? Sakaki-san isn't here today?"

"No, Kaorin, she didn't even call. We're kinda worried actually, this isn't like her..." Chiyo turned and headed over to the railing. The six of them, Yomi, Tomo, Kagura, Osaka, and Kaorin, had all gone to the roof for lunch, where the topic of Sakaki's absense was brought up. Kaorin joined Chiyo at the railing, and looked out over the town. Osaka broke the silence.

"You know, I heard there was a fire or something in your area last night, Chiyo-chan." Chiyo blinked, and turned to Osaka. "Really? Where?"

"I'm not sure, I just heard about it from my mom, who heard it from her friend, who knows this guy..." Yomi quickly cut her off.

"Alright Osaka, we get it. So it's not a very reliable source."

"Now that you mention it, I'm not even sure that's what she said..." The whole group sighed, and the silence returned. It was some time before Kaorin decided to speak up again.

"We should go see miss Sakaki after school, make sure she's alright." The whole group looked up. In unison, they agreed.

All six girls walked in silence, none willing to speak up. It was as if a dark aura had fallen over the neighborhood as they neared Sakaki's house. They hadn't seen a single stray cat, which was odd for this neighborhood, as there was normally an abundance of them.

"Maybe they know something we don't..." Osaka offered, referring to the alleycats. "Osaka-san...?" Chiyo queried. Osaka ignored her however, and they again walked in silence. They neared the corner to turn onto Sakaki's street, only to find it blocked off by two police cars, and a few officers. One of them approached the group.

"I'm sorry girls, but this area's a crime scene. No non-essential personnel allowed." Kaorin nearly fainted.

"CRIME SCENE?!?" She bolted right by the officer before he could catch her. The rest of the girls followed, except for Chiyo, who instead turned to the officer, with a pained expression on her faced.

"We're friends with a girl on this street. Sakaki. What happened?" He looked back at the other officers. They shrugged.

"Ahhh...might as well tell you, its too late now anyway. There was a suspected mob hit in the neighborhood. Your friend, she wasn't a tall girl, with dark hair was she?" Chiyo's eyes started to water. The officer looked sad. "Well, her family...was involved. It's best not to go into details, we aren't really sure ourselves." He was about to continue, when Tomo ran back, breathing heavily. The others were close behind, being herded along by a group of firemen. Kaorin was crying uncontrollably, muttering Sakaki's name between sobs. The others seemed on the verge of tears as well. Tomo, having regained some of her breath, spoke up.

"All...gone...Sakaki's house, it's...gone." She then began crying too. Chiyo, oddly enough, was the only one not crying She looked back at the officer.

"Where is she?"

Kagura sat in the front seat of a squad car, Chiyo and Osaka were in the back seat. Yomi, Tomo, and Kaorin were all in a second carm right behind them. Two of the officers had agreed to drive them to the hospital where Sakaki was taken. Kagura, who had been the first to regain her composition, now listened as the officer explained what he knew about the incident. She was the only one listening; Osaka was busy comforting a now crying Chiyo.

"Well, when we arrived, the whole house was already burning. The firemen did their best, and managed to contain it and prevent it from spreading. Anyway, we found your friend on the ground outside the house, a little ways from the door. She had a bullet wound to the head, adn from the trail if blood and cuts on her knees and elbows, she managed to drag herself outside after having been shot. It's a miracle she didn't get 3rd degree burns too."

"Hmm... You say it's a miracle about the burns, huh? Will she even live long enough to realize what happened?"" Kagura was almost yelling at the end of her sentence, and calmed herself. It's not his fault.. she thought.

"Well, she had almost no pulse when we found her, but the paramedics managed to get there fast enough and took her to the hospital. They were more surprised by her condition than we were."

"But, she's alright now, right?"

"Well, they operated all night long, and most of the day today. Last I heard she was in intensive care, under the eye of the hospital's best doctors and surgeons." He sighed. "From the sound of it, the prognosis wasn't good." Kagura nodded, and looked out the window at nothing in particular. The policeman spoke up again.

"Was there anyone you can think of who would want to do this to her, and her family?"

"Everyone either loved her or admired her, there was no one who would ever hurt her purposefully. Except maybe that damn grey cat..."

"Cat...?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Just some random alley cat that never liked her. Always bit her when she tried to pet him. Which is odd, cause she seemed to like animals so much."

No one spoke for the rest of the trip. The silence was only broken by the occasional sob from Chiyo in the backseat.

They arrived at the hospital and immediately headed up to the intensive care ward. With a little persuation from the police officer, they were let through. A nurse took them to Sakaki's room, where a octor with a worried expression on his face was waiting outside, looking through the contents of a clipboard. He looked up as the girls approached. He raised his hand in protest but was cut off by the officer.

"They're close friends of the girl. Let them by." The doctor sighed, adn opened the door. He entered first, and held it open for the others. The officer waited outside. All six girls looked on their friend, who was lying on the bed, a mass of bandages around the top right side of her head. She seemed to be sleeping, but her breathing was slow. Her hair had also been cut very short as well. All started to silently cry, except one. The least likely of all, Chiyo, simply swallowed her grief and spoke up, however broken her speech was.

"Sakaki..." She wiped her eyes dry, and looked up at the doctor. "What happened to her hair?"

"We had to cut it in order to tend to the wound."

"Will she be alright? How is she now?"

"Well...she's stable," he looked at his clipboard, "somewhat. We managed to stop the bleeding and stitch up the damage done by the bullet. We still need to do surgery to reconstrust her skull. So far though, she's pulled through. Unfortunately, there is some bad news..." The doctor sighed, and seemed quite sad as well. The rest of the group was now listening intently, and silently wondering how Chiyo, usually the most emotional of the group, had got the guts to speak up first. The doctor looked over the group, and down at the clipboard again, as if not beliving what was written.

"She's in a coma. We're not sure how long it will last, or even if," he coughed, trying to cover up the fact that he was also on the verge of tears. "Or even if she will ever wake up." The whole group gasped, now too scared to cry.

"You mean we might never speak to her again?!?" Tomo yelled at the doctor.

"Tomo, yelling isn't going to help..." Tomo glanced over at Yomi, and collapsed into her, crying. Yomi held her, and tried to comfort her.

"There is a chance she could wake up. As far as she's come, I wouldn't be surprised. Not many people survive a gunshot to the head, let alone stay concious long enough to drag themselves out of the building. That was bo doubt attributed to her state of fitness as well. Though, there is one last thing. Should she wake up... she might not be the same girl you knew." He took a moment to wipe sweat off his forehead.

"The part of her brain that was hit controls her long-term memory. She may not remember any of you."

After speaking with the dovtor, whose name they found was Hayate, the girls were granted permission to Sakaki's room whenever they pleased. They agreed that they would meet there at least twice a week, if not more.

The next two months saw the girls finish their third year of highschool, all passing the entrance exams, Chiyo included. Her father had pulled some strings, and got Tokyo U to allow her to try out, even though she had skipped grades. Needless to say she passed with flying colors, and decided on taking Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Yomi and Tomo got accepted into a local College, both still unsure of what they wanted to do. Kagura and Osaka got into a different college, also local. Kagura made it in with a sports scholorship, intent on pursuing a career in athletics. Osaka had chosen the school because of the philosophy programs it offered. It seemed fitting for her. Lastly, Kaorin also managed to get accepted by Tokyo U, into their Astrology/Astronomy program.

Throughout the summer, the girls met on the predetermined dates to visit Sakaki, often getting together other times as well. It seemed that Sakaki's tragedy had brought them all closer together. After the reconstructive surgery to repair Sakaki's skull, she was taken out of itensive care, and put into a normal room. Soon after the room change, Chiyo managed to convince the nurses to allow Maya into the room, to visit his 'mother'. After many attempts to remove Maya from the room, the girls and the nurses gave up, and allowed Maya to live there by Sakaki's side. Chiyo made sure they knew to feed him every day, but not to try to pet him, or get too close to Sakaki. It took some time before Maya got comfortable around Dr. Hayate, and they didn't want to have to go through the process again.

Two months passed by, and with two weeks left of summer vacation, the six girls met up yet again to visit their friend.

"Ah! Good morning, Maya!" Chiyo stepped into the room, and closed the door behind her Tadakichi-san. Maya allowed her to pet him, before he hopped back up onto the bed to snuggle Sakaki's limp form. The operations had all been successful, and her bandages had all been removed. All that remained of the wound was a thin scar going across the top-left sied of her head, just above her hairline. Her hair had alos begun to grow back, and was now about 3/4s the way to her shoulders. Chiyo took the flowers out of the vase they had left there a while ago, and refilled it. She returned it to its place, and sat down in a chair beside Sakaki's bed, with Tadakichi-san beside her, and Maya curled up in a ball on Sakaki's chest.

Chiyo had changed her hairstyle over the summer, opting to let it fall naturally instead of tying it into pigtails. The red hair fell slightly past her shoulders, and she felt as if it made her look older and more mature, which it did. Her attitude had changed a bit since Sakaki's tragedy as well, as had all of theirs. They were still all themselves, but the incident had hardened them. Chiyo heard voices outside the door, and the rest of the gang entered. They spread out and chatted sheerfully, all including Sakaki in their greetings. They grabbed a chair each, the nurses had left a bunch of folding chairs in the room for them, and Tomo turned on the television.

They talked for what seemed like hours, over a variety of subjects, from their future plans to what they had for dinner last night. Just as Chiyo was about to add something to the conversation, she noticed Maya was acting strangely. He was now actively rubbing against Sakaki's face, mewing softly. Chiyo watched for a moment, intrigued, when she noticed Sakaki's eyelids flutter. She stood up, and bolted to the bedside. Maya began to mew louder, and rub harder, and Sakaki seemed to squint.

"Everyone, quick! She's waking up!"

Author's notes: Alright, a long first chapter yay! Well, as you can see, things aren't perfect yet. Don't worry too much. Some good things will happen, as will some more bad things. They always do. But I promise it will end well. When I plan a story, I normally end up with the beginning and end, with the middle to be decided as the story is written. When I write a story, no matter how dark I make it, I always have wto types of endings. Either it's suspenseful, with room for a sequel, or its happy. I hate tragic endings. Makes me fell like "What was the point of all that, just to hve the main character die in the end?" or something to that effect. I'll admit that most of the storyies with those endings (the Romeo&Juliet ending I call it), all have a bit of good come from it. But I call this bull, I like fully happy endings.

And about some Out-of-character-ness on any of them, I have a reason now! You will soon see why I had to make this happen. I will try to keep them in character for the most part, but there will be a few noticable changes here and there. Artistic license. If you don't like it, no one's forcing you to read.

On a side note, I will be going away for a few days in a few days, so in the next few days I will be writing as much as possible. Hope you stay with me! Till next time!

Also, same rule as always goes for errors. The time right now is 5:06am, and I'm somewhat tired, so at least try to be nice when pointing them out. I know there are a few. I promise, tomorrow...er, today I will get the Word problem squared away. I wish I had a brother or sister or something, then I could put them to work as proofreaders...