The next three years passed without a sense of violent upheaval at Kaede House, or at least nothing as violent as the previous three months. Arakawa kept coming to check up on Kaede's recovery, and to inform Kohta of any suspicious activity at the university. There never was any issue of harassment, and not even any police officers arrived at the inn to ask questions. Eventually, Arakawa and Kohta came to a mutual understanding that they were safe. However, Arakawa left the university, deciding to fall back on her degree and work at a biotech company in Tokyo. Kohta withdrew from all of his courses, as a way of coping with his life's recent trauma, thought Yuka. With the permission of his aunt and uncle, Kohta took steps to refurbish Kaede House, making it into a Japanese-style inn once again.
Yuka took her cousin's decision with mixed feelings. After a short time of reflection, she chose to move back into her apartment, taking Mayu to live with her. From then on, Yuka would work alongside Kohta and Kaede to manage the inn, but she seemed resigned to the two living and working together under the same roof. As for Nana, though she was loath to see Mayu and Wanta live separately from her, she saw how cramped Yuka's apartment was becoming, and opted to stay with Kaede and Kohta.
Whether from motivations of guilt or pure benevolence, Arakawa occasionally helped the others with what she could. As Nana grew in height, Arakawa visited to provide extensions for her artificial limbs to match her growth. Kohta, and especially Nana, thanked her warmly, though they did not ask the particulars of where the prosthetics came from. Even after the heavy loss of Kurama, Nana got more and more used to life at Kaede House, working part-time in running the inn to help the adults. Work was Nana's favorite thing, because that was when she got to see Mayu, who was employed there as well.
By her own inclination, Nana became resolved to go to school. Beginning with basic learning that Mayu and Yuka helped her with, Nana's resilience and innate skill paid off. Her remedial education allowed her to eventually enroll in the same high school as Mayu. When she found out she had been accepted, Nana was ecstatic. Kaede House held a party in her honor, and Nana thanked everyone for supporting her. She even embraced Kaede with the others, prompting a blush and weak smile from the latter before she returned the hug.
That night, lying in a futon in a room to herself, Nana wept silently even as her mouth curved into a wide smile.
"Papa… Can you see me, Papa? I've learned so many things already, but now I'm going to learn even more, and make you really proud!" Nana whispered as she finally shut her eyes, hugging herself under the warm quilt.
Even at the age of entering high school, Nana was still fascinated by the everyday things that were denied her for the majority of her life. And clothes were a wonder themselves to put on and wear. The first clothes Nana had ever worn she remembered from her days at the facility. The lady who used to work with her Papa put them on her quickly, but carefully, and though Nana initially felt they were too confining, she got used to them as a proper fit. Besides, that day she had been too happy to mind much, after her Papa gave her clothes of her very own. Though she had paid attention to the way the lady had clothed her with socks, shoes, underwear, and a simple dress, Nana had for some time afterwards trouble dressing herself. Luckily, Mayu was always there to give a helping hand. Putting on a bra took the longest to get used to.
"Mayu, why is your face turning that color?" Nana had asked, the dark-haired girl blushing fiercely as she fidgeted in front of her.
It was not long after Nana came to Kaede House that Yuka had purchased clothes more befitting the adolescent girls now living with her and her cousin. This included brassieres for the younger Diclonius. One of these was held gingerly by Nana as she gave a look of concern at Mayu's discomfort.
"I... need you to turn around, Nana."
"Oh, to put this on, right?" said Nana, putting her back to Mayu. "Why do I need to wear this, anyway? I haven't seen you wear one before."
The redness in Mayu's face deepened as she came close and took the garment from Nana. "Well, I'm... not as... not as..."
Nana looked down, catching on. "...Big?"
"Y-Yes!" Mayu responded, flustered. "And this will help keep them from moving around so much."
"You don't have to feel bad," said Nana, turning around. Her smile was genuine as she appreciated a basic understanding of Mayu's embarrassment. Mayu looked to the ceiling. "My chest wasn't this big about a year ago; we're the same age, so you'll be just as big soon enough."
"N-Nana! You're a year younger than me, got it? You said I could pick your birthday, and the one I picked was…"
Mayu bit her tongue and trailed off when she realized that what she was speaking wasn't helping how she really felt. It was true, though, that Mayu had convinced Nana that she should celebrate her birthday on the same date that the two girls had become friends. And so Nana's fourteenth birthday was celebrated little over a month after Mayu's fifteenth. In truth, from the earliest time of the two knowing each other, Mayu was slightly jealous that a girl almost the same age as her was relatively so well-developed.
Rather than be reassured by this girl's encouragement, Mayu quailed more under Nana's words. She didn't have the heart to tell Nana that her feelings about her own body weren't the entire issue. Steeling herself, Mayu grabbed Nana's bare shoulders and pivoted her around to face the mirror.
"Okay! I'll show you how to put one on."
Nana watched intently as Mayu put the bra on her, feeling a slight trembling when her instructor touched her. Speaking the steps aloud, Mayu inwardly thought about how nice it would be if Nana could put it on her next. Knowing that her usual camisole would do for the time being, Mayu brushed aside the silly thought as she stepped away from her friend.
"How does it feel?"
"Tight," said Nana, staring wondrously at her reflection as she tried to see herself from all angles.
"Yuka measured you, so it should be the right size. I think it's important to wear one if you're moving a lot, so you should get used to it."
"Do I look okay? I've never seen anyone wear a bra before."
"You look..." Mayu felt a fresh wave of affection for Nana fall over her, and she couldn't help but smile. "You look cute! I think you look really cute." It was true, though Mayu couldn't explain why she felt differently about Nana than she would about any other cute thing. It was the way that the Diclonius girl was beaming back at her, dressed in a smart, white bra and panties, that made her look so special.
"Aw, Mayu!" said Nana, and threw her arms around Mayu's waist. Mayu wondered whether Nana could hear her hammering heart as she hugged her back, enjoying the warmth of the larger-chested girl.
"Thank you for showing me how to put it on. I promise I'll practice doing it lots!"
It wasn't until years later that Mayu would convince herself that she wasn't in love with Nana. Noticing how the other girls at her school would talk about boys, and seeing less and less of Nana as they lived with different people, Mayu fell back into thinking of Nana as a friend. A special friend, but a friend nevertheless. Mayu even went on a few dates with male classmates once she entered high school, though no serious relationships came of it. In quiet moments, she might have considered her past abuse playing a role in this, but Mayu always shifted that dark chapter of her life to the back of her mind.
Now that Nana was going to the same school as her, though one grade behind, Mayu felt the joy that came with seeing a valued friend regularly once more. Of course, with the passage of time and enrollment in school came the normalcy of everyday tasks that seemed totally alien to Nana at the time she was first set free. In this way, Nana and Mayu felt like they could relate to one another slightly better. Dressing and cooking came fairly smoothly to the Diclonius girl, and eventually school was something Nana developed a great passion for. Part of her enthusiasm came from going with Mayu to learn interesting things she had never heard of before, but the happiness was also borne out of a feeling of fitting in with others her age, feeling normal and unafraid.
"As long as my horns are hidden," Nana thought naively, "everyone will be nice to me."
So, on that chilly morning that Nana set out from Kaede House, the teenage girl was grinning and humming tunelessly in spite of the cold. As she walked the now-familiar path to her school, the Sun appeared and warmed Kamakura considerably, like it was Nana's mood that called forth the warmth. The looming Japanese test of that day was becoming more distant from her mind, as Nana thought only of the coming end of the day, when she was used to walking home with Mayu.
"So many beautiful things in this world," Nana said to herself, swinging her school bag back and forth. Looking toward the sparkling sea, and then to the fragrant blossoms opposite, she inhaled and sighed. "Papa, I'll see you again, but I'm going to spend as long as I can right here. Okay?"
Homeroom for Nana's class began a little later than usual. She made a habit of adjusting and securing her ribbons in the girls' washroom after arriving. But even spending an extra moment admiring her scarlet uniform did not make Nana late today. She was going to review her notes while she had time, but then homeroom began.
"Everyone, we have a new student joining us," intoned the teacher at the front. "He should be joining us in just a moment or–"
The classroom door slid crisply, though not quickly. In stepped a handsome youth with medium-length black hair, tousled oddly for a boy his age. Standing next to the teacher, he put a hand on his hip and smiled at the gaping mouths of the girls in the front row. Noting peripherally that Nana was staring too, a seatmate turned her head and was shocked by a look of utmost horror on Nana's face.
"Hello, everyone," said the boy, his red eyes glittering. "My name is Shin Kakuzawa. But I prefer to be called Shin, please."