A/N: Not much to say here aside for thanks once again to my lovely beta. I would have updates sooner but I could have sworn I put this in here already...

'20…19…18...17…16…'

The numbers in my head couldn't help but ring with anticipation of the future.

Correction, the near future.

My eyes wouldn't blink as I stared intently at the large and plain clock looming ahead of me, above a certain person. The normally silent movement of the time recorder was suddenly so loud, with the ticks and tocks going by swiftly.

"…And so girls, I hope that when you leave us-"

'15…14…13…12…11…'

The lady before me and my best friend was literally speaking to air. I pried my eyes away from the clock to glance at Coral, only to see that she was mimicking my previous actions. Her eyes were glued to the long hand of the clock as it clicked to the right ongoing and slowly.

'10…9…8…7…6…'

My face was serious, trying not to show any part of my anxious thoughts on my face. My lips strained into a grim line and I turned back to the lady in front of me and looked up, respectfully. I could hear Coral besides me, drumming her fingers patiently on the top of her wooden her desk as the woman droned on.

"…And remember what happened here. Most importantly, remember why you came here. Keep your heads out of the clouds, girls. Do that and I'm sure-"

'5…4…3…2…1…'

The countdown in my head was never so loud and passionate. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for some sort of strong impact. My two fists clenched tightly on my lap and I could almost smell the freedom ahead of me.

"-you'll be sucessful in-"

'ZERO!!'

"FOUR O'CLOCK! WE'RE FREE!" At that exact moment, Coral and I synched together in both thoughts and actions. We could both hardly contain the excitement.

'And goooood-bye hell!'

Without a moment's hesitation, Coral and I both stood up from our stiff seats and practically bolted for the door. My hands were already on the knob, eager and shaking as I forced them to turn. The door sharply clicked open and Coral behind me whistled in approval. With wide grins plastered on both our faces, we turned around one last time to scream, "BYE, MRS. STEIN! HAVE A NICE LIFE!"

I couldn't help but try and act the nice girl with my last closing sentence, "We'll miss you!"

The door closed behind us soon after we heard Mrs. Stein sigh. It was then Coral rolled her eyes and muttered, "Pssh. Not."

I peeked into the detention room one last time to see Mrs. Stein shake her head and mutter something. No sign of her following us out the room. Noting that it was now safe to rampage the building, I gave a thumbs up to Coral. Soon enough, we were running down the stairs, arm in arm, to the reclaiming box down in the office. We quickly presented the officers our "Official Dismissal" slips and after a few moments of hesitation and weird looks, they turned around, seemingly taking their sweet time to get the few things that were taken away from us upon arrival in Juvie.

Yeah. That's right. Juvie.

Why was I, Raven, stuck in Juvie for? Why, what a good question. Its something I should answer another time.

As for now, I desperately needed to shave. Lousy thing is, in Juvie, razors were considered dangerous and "non-necessities" that could be abused. So simply, they were banned. And upon my arrival in Juvie awhile back, I was sadly stuck with stubby legs.

After shuffling things in one of the backrooms of the office, I could see two men grumbling about labeled names. They stood around and finally handed both me and Coral an identical cardboard box, each, with our own names written in marker and in sloppy handwriting.

As one of the two boxes were handed over to me, I looked down to see a few of my personal things in it. The clothes I had worn when I entered juvie, such as my favorite pair of jeans, a black cami, worn out Converse, and a Aerosmith hoodie, were all stacked up nicely on top of eachother.

Next to the stack of clothes, my backpack sat dutifully. I raised up my right eyebrow in curiousity, wondering what I might've packed in. It was hard to believe I had forgotten about my own belongings. If my arms weren't so preoccupied with holding the cardboard box, I would've smacked myself in the forehead.

I carefully zipped up the zipper to the other side and peeked into the open bag. Still holding my box, I sifted it so that it its weight could rest upon my left arm entirely. I had to find someplace to lay down the box soon. I could already imagine my left air sore from fatigue.

With my free right arm, I reached into my bag and miraculously lifted up a razor, a pack of gum, and a thick envelope. When my eyes fell upon the razor, I could hear myself laughing, first out of bewilderness, and then of joy. Nearby, the officers were suddenly nervous and doubtful on my release. I guess my cackling was a bit loud.

I looked away and snorted. Coral's fit of giggles were also loud as she plunged into her own world and memories of her own box. I smirked and looked down once more and question about the envelope.

The edges were bent and the entire whiteness of the case was tainted. I couldn't help myself as my fingers unfolded the envelope and brought up photos.

"Huh?" My mouth nearly dropped open. Out of everything in my backpack, I had photos? I looked closer at one of them, immediately recognizing Coral in one of her parties. My lips twitched into a bitter smile. It was about a month earlier before her bust.

My eyes wandered over the photo. I could see that her long auburn hair was high up in the air and swinging as she danced. You didn't exactly have to see her eyes to know that she was having fun that night.

'The music must've been pretty wild.' I chuckled softly to myself, already nostalgic.

I moved on to the next photo, which was of little Aimee. Her figure was petite and her hair was barely past her shoulders. Being a shy little schoolgirl, she was also the typical nerd. The neat ribbons in her hair enchanced her innocent eyes to a good extent, but they could also be very misleading.

I bit my lip, and stared harder, trying to sense any changes of her in this photo and of her after Juvie with us. Where was she, anyway?

"Raven?" A high-pitched voice interrupted my question and I turn towards it.

"Yes?" I look up from the photo of Aimee and turn my attention to Coral, still clutching the photos in my hand.

"You there?" Though she tried to repress it, I could see a frown forming on her face. Her concerned expression suddenly annoyed me.

"Uh, why wouldn't I be? I'm speaking to you right now, aren't I?" I throw her an amused look.

Now it was her turn to be irritated. She rolled her eyes and huffed, "No shit, Sherlock..but you kinda looked like you spaced out for a moment. You looked..."

When her eyes widened to emphasize the slang "kinda", I suddenly knew what she was implying about me.

"Don't. Just don't. And I'm not." I turned away, hoping that my tone was calm and carefree. The officials behind both of us were nosy and inquisitive. I sighed, hoping Coral took the hint. The last thing I needed was more months in this dreary hellhole.

Seconds passed and I finally heard her voice again.

"I know."

I nod in acknowledgement as she quickly catches on. I can see her, her pretty face showing how skeptical she felt in the situation. What were the chances that the officials would take our freedom from us again, no matter what we say?

Though I see her expression clearly, I still send her a warning look. She wants freedom as much as I do, and she better not jepordize it. I glared at her, intent on silently getting that point through to her.

"So where's Aimee?" I lightly try and steer a nice conversation again, full of wonder and excitement. Sadly, my tone is still cold and a bit defensive.

Coral realizes how tense I am and acts along with me. She sighed in mock boredom and I smiled a bit. She was born to be a great actress.

"What? I want to know!"

"Don't you pay attention?"

"Huh?"

"Andrew said he found out that she had some family back in Japan!"

"No way!"

"Uh-huh!"

"So she's coming with us?"

"Hell yeah!"

"AWESOME!" I looked around and smirked. I was no longer pretending my excitement in front of the officers. Boldly, I walked side by side with Coral and out of the office, boxes in our possession.

Once out of the door, we squealed, completely thrilled that the three of us wouldn't be seperated. A new surge of happiness pumped through my veins as me and Coral headed off to go find Andrew, who was further inside the building. He was in the main office, the sign in/out guy.

"Kyoyama? Never heard of them," Aimee sighed, tiredly. Finding her family was such a hassle. Extra stress she didn't need, actually.

She then turned her petite little body to both me and Coral - a heart wrenching expression of grief and worry drawn on her face.

"Do either of you know of a Kyoyama family?" Her voice was hopeful, already calculating the posibilities. She knew that since both me and Coral were Japanese, we'd be good to ask.

"Hm…I think I do." The name did ring a bell or two in my mind. I just couldn't figure out from where.

"Really?" She looked up at me eager and helpless at the same time. I just couldn't say no to her.

"Er…yeah... I think so." My tone wasn't as confident as I liked it to be and I looked away, defeated.

Coral nodded instead in my place, and placed her hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry kiddo, we'll help you find your family." If I focused hard enough, I could've sworn she was lying inbetween her teeth. Before I could say anything, Coral turned to Andrew, suddenly in charge of the three of us.

"Is there an address?" Her tone was demanding and she posed with authority, which would've been quite hilarious if I wasn't so sympathetic to Aimee.

Andrew nodded in to reply, "Yeah... but I can't read it...it seems to be in Japanese."

Aimee abruptly snatched it with a tender 'Ooh. Let me see!' expression and handed it to me. "Raven, could you read it?"
"Are you doubting my literacy skills?" I cast her a half-playful look and laugh. My fingers slid down the slip of paper and my eyes scanned the foreign address. "Hey, read this," Out of confusion, I look at Coral and hand her the slip.

Coral carefully read over the adress after me and glanced back at me. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, it couldn't be right. Why would Aimee's family be there?"

Aimee stood up straighter as she heard her name. "Why would my family be where?"

Coral cleared her throat, determined to see some sort of mistake. Her voice was clear and plain as she declared outloud, "Flame Inn Road, Funbari Hill. Nothing wrong with that."

"Yeah, but I just wondered why her family ran an Inn." Pfft. No offence to Aimee and all, but that seemed a bit far-fetched and odd.

Which lead to my other doubts, How on earth did Coral even buy that?

The wind blows slightly, and I see Aimee adjusting her bangs and tangled strands on her face. She moves to stand in front of me and locks my gaze. For once, her voice is steady and strong: "But do you know where that is, Raven?"

Excuse me? Was that a challenge? I blink, unmistakenably perplexed. It doesn't take long for all of it to sink in though, since I promptly answer back.

"Of course I do! We can all go there."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Definitely."

Both Coral and me grin at her and I can easily see Andrew's happy for her. I look up at the tiled ceiling of the hellhole and my mind is already outside, swimming in endless freedom. Despite my hopes, I couldn't help but get a nagging from the back of my head. I should've warned cousin Yoh in Japan that I'd be visiting with friends. I look back down at Aimee, her cheeks flushed and face beaming, and sigh.

Oh well.

If luck's on my side, then Yoh loves surprises.