That night was one that neither of the boys spoke of again. They didn't even tell Miki about it; both of them were afraid that mentioning any fighting going on between them would upset her. They had argued before, after all. At first she would tell them to stop, then she would try getting in between them, and if that didn't work, she would cry. That always worked. Neither of them ever got angry enough at the other to carry such petty grudges against one another, especially when it hurt her. So as smoothly as if 'that night at the toy store' never happened, their lives went on. Never mentioned, but never forgotten, either.

Finally, as more weeks passed and each of them dealt with the turmoils of daily school life, March came. Spring arrived, and awakened the frozen world as it did. It brought a new life and hope to all of them, not just in the form of fresh blooms and warm weather, but in the relief that came with ending the school year. Now that Koume and Yuna had turned their backs on her, Miki found herself as lonely and lacking anyone to talk to as before. But that was okay. She had her older brother. Or, brothers. Shinji was as special to her as if she had known him her whole life, and honestly, it felt like she had.

But they weren't quite free yet. There was one final conclusion to those last six months, one last hardship that they had to trudge through, in that single harsh year that was likely the hardest they had ever experienced during their short lives.

That was when the early springtime downpours began, bringing floods in their wake.

The torrential rain that day had started while they were all in school. When the bell rang to dismiss them, Natsuo was at the front doorstep with Hania and a few others in the faction. "We need to go straight home, okay?" He was shouting to be heard over the drum of the rain and thunder. Miki was glued to her brother's side; Shinji was on the end opposite of her, which proved to be their default formation when in a crisis. "Stay close to us!"

They didn't have to be told more than once. All three of them huddled near one another, running with the rest of the faction toward the train station. They boarded, drenched and shivering from the rain, and found a group of unoccupied seats near one another. Miki cuddled against her brother for warmth, and Akihiko gave his jacket - soaking, but hopefully good for giving some kind of relief from the cold - to Shinji.

Natsuo was trying to assess everyone as the train started up. "Is everyone here?"

"Hinatea and Fumito both went home before the rest of us," Hania told him. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Everyone else is here, just a bit... wet."

"It's raining like crazy! I didn't think it'd be this bad."

Everyone else hugged into themselves. Shinji sneezed. In response to this, Natsuo stood up and walked across the aisle, seating himself next to the brunette and hugging the boy to himself similar to how Akihiko and Miki were lending heat to one another.

The ride there was quiet, and a mood of anxiety seemed to hang over all of them. The windows were black with the darkened world outside, and the train echoed with the rattle of raindrops on the metal ceiling. The trip passed by quickly; once they pulled into the station on Iwatodai, they all filed out of the monorail and started on their run back to the orphanage for shelter. When they reached the plains, Shinji kept trying to steer off in another direction, but Natsuo refused to let him. "Where do you think you're going?" Natsuo kept shouting after him, giving chase and grabbing his arm. "We have to get back inside, now!"

"But-!" The brunette choked on his words. Akihiko was occupied with trying to get Miki and himself inside - he was oblivious to the concerns of his friend.

The door slammed shut once they were all inside. Natsuo ran off to fetch a towel, while Satoru immediately came and checked up on all of them. Shinji kept sneezing, but he was equally determined to go back outside, much to the confusion of everyone else.

"Shinji, you are to stay indoors, do you hear me?"

"I have to go back out there! I forgot something!"

He managed to get the door open, but the black-haired adult caught him before he could flee. "Shinji! We don't need you getting sick! Stay inside!"

Natsuo had returned by then. Satoru ordered him to keep an eye on the brunette, which he did, trying to keep him busy by drying him off with towels and get him out of all of his soaking clothes. Miki, too, started sneezing, but Akihiko sat her and himself down and Satoru handed him one of the towels to start trying to dry her off.

The man stopped in his rush to check up on everyone to ask the siblings, specifically, "Are you two okay?" It was probably one of the first acts of open concern he had bothered to show since the falling out several months ago. Akihiko, shaking, nodded and said that they were fine - just a little cold. They had been pretty safe on their way home.

Not more than ten minutes after they got back, everyone in the faction was rallied up and sent to their sleeping room. Satoru closed the blinds in there and kept the lights off, instead using a few small lanterns to illuminate the area. "Everyone stay calm, okay? This storm is supposed to be pretty bad, but it should pass by late tonight. We're going to be safe and stay inside, in here, until it does, so no one leave."

Most of the older members of the faction retired to sleep. Some others sat on each others' beds, conversing, and Natsuo sat on his own, next to Satoru's, looking tired but alert. Being their parent's esteemed "helper" meant that he had to stay on his toes.

Shinji, however, was pacing around the room, casting glances toward the doorway.

Miki swept dull pieces of silver hair from her face, which was still damp with moisture from their race through the outdoors. "Shinii-chan, what's wrong?"

The boy cast a glance toward both siblings, but only glared and shook his head.

Akihiko was extremely puzzled by his friend's behavior. Had they done something to upset him? Shinji might have been irritable sometimes, but he almost never got angry with them. Slipping out from under the blankets of his bed, he ran over to the brunette, and it was in mid-stride that the realization suddenly crashed down on him; Hideharu!

That was it! That must have been what Shinji was worried about! The Kawatani plains were extremely prone to flooding during heavy rainfall, and Hideharu would have no idea to keep away from it in the case that there was a flash flood...

Akihiko, too, felt his heart plunge. What could they possibly do for him? Trying to escape outside in this weather was not only dangerous, but would probably incur the anger of Satoru, not to mention everyone else; in addition, as soon as Satoru realized that they were risking their lives to save a dog, Hideharu would no longer be secret, and would likely be sent to the pound faster than any of the trio could squeak a word of protest.

The brunette's hand clenching on the fabric of his sleeve was what brought him from his thoughts. "I have to check on Hideharu! He needs to stay on higher ground!"

"But we can't leave!" Akihiko argued back, just as urgent, despite the hushed volume of his voice. "You think Satoru is going to let us out? It's dangerous outside!"

They both stood still, rigid, their eyes searching one another for the answers that neither of them could provide. Akihiko was the one to break that eye contact, clenching his fists, "I know you're worried about him, but there's nothing we can do!" When Shinji seemed to slouch, his eyes blank, the boy went on, "Besides, he might be okay! He's a smart dog!"

He wasn't sure if Shinji heard him. He had never seen the brunette look so lost.

۞

Like Satoru predicted, the storm took place for several long, drawing hours. Shinji eventually stopped pacing to sit on the edge of his bed, but he never once succumbed to sleep, unlike the many others in the faction who took advantage of the opportunity to rest. Miki fell asleep, more or less against her will. Even Akihiko found himself becoming drowsy. But he didn't lie down or shut his eyes, because he was afraid that if he did, Shinji would escape. More still, he, too, was afraid for Hideharu, trapped outdoors, and what might have become of him in the aftermath of this long and ruthless storm.

The instant Satoru told them that the storm was starting to clear, Shinji took off. This was of course met with the adult's shouting after him, but he never paused in stride; Akihiko took off after him, and Miki, stirred to awareness, meandered after them with Natsuo in tow.

The whole time the two boys ran, their feet smacking in the saturated, muddy grasses of the Kawatani plain, Akihiko kept praying. Please let him be okay. Please, let Hideharu be okay. When he caught up with Shinji, who was winding around every tree and every bush in search of a single trace of the autumnal coat of fur, Akihiko did whatever he could to sound calm and certain of the fact that Hideharu would be perfectly fine.

He wanted to be right. He wanted to be right so, so much.

But if Shinji's outcry, if the way he fell to his knees, shaking, slowly bending over in the boggy ground that was so littered with leaves and moss, was any indication...

He hadn't been right.

"Hideharu!" Akihiko darted over to the brunette's side, around the bend, and clenched when his blood turned to ice at the sight of the dog. "H-Hideharu?"

He was sprawled out across the ground, covered in leaves and debris picked up from the river. This, and the fact that the water-line loomed just a foot away, made it easy to piece together what had brought the dog to this fate. His jaws were open, his tongue lolling, his eyes wide and blank and staring at nothing. ...Akihiko had never seen anything so chilling, so upsetting. The tears that came to his eyes fell in silence, and yet the pain that speared his heart at the sight of both the dog and Shinji, bending over him, was the most immense he had ever felt. How could this happen? Why couldn't he have escaped to higher ground...?

It dawned on Akihiko just as Shinji reached up and clicked off his collar.

"I forgot to untie the leash..."

No. The boy kneeled at his friend's side. No...

"He was tied down..." The pitch of Shinji's voice had become so high that it was heart-wrenching to listen to, "I knew there was no way he could have..."

"Shinji, this isn't-"

"God damn it!" His screams echoed in the forest, thrown back to him in the form of a rumbling thunder that roared from a distance, and the drizzle that remained from the earlier downpour hid the tears that cascaded past his cheeks. "This is my fault! If I had just...! If I had just remembered to untie him... if I had just come out here when I had the chance, he...!"

Miki and Natsuo came running up, eyes wide and panicked. Akihiko was hardly conscious of their arrival, numbed by the sight in front of him, deaf to everything, from the heavens' bellowing to the obscenities that Shinji spat out in his despair.

Natsuo was completely taken aback. "What is-?"

But he, too, stopped when he saw the body. Miki walked forward, reclining next to her brother, her eyes becoming glassy at the sight of the poor dog, soaking wet and plastered with mud. Never had his underfed body looked so gaunt, or his eyes looked so empty. "Haruharu," she whispered his name, reaching a hand forward and resting it on his shoulder. But he didn't stir in the slightest; not a single flick of the ear, or a twitch of the tail. All the life contained in such a majestic beast was gone, just like that. "Get up, Haruharu..."

It was like he was sleeping. Forever. He was gone, and he would never wake up. Akihiko felt something inside of him stir, something repulsed, something angry and unable to understand - why did these things happen? Why did things... die? He could not grasp the concept. Death was horrible. He hated it, and all the same, it terrified him. He had skirted around it many times, but had never realized the gravity of it. If he had died, is this what would have become of him? Would he only be a shadow of what he was when alive, like this limp body, sprawled in disarray with such cold, staring eyes?

It was hard to understand... Hideharu was never coming back. He was really gone, forever. They would never see him wagging his tail, all excited to see them; they would never race him through the fields, or see who could jump the farthest over the stream...

With all three children sitting, watching, teary-eyed, almost like willing the poor dog to stand up just one last time to give them a proper chance at saying goodbye, Natsuo was the one who finally walked forward. He might have been oblivious to this dog's existence, nor could he feel the extent of their shock and pain, but he could understand it. He knew that feeling, that shock confusion that made it so difficult to comprehend the finality of death. He felt for them, because he knew what it felt like to lose someone.

He stepped forward in that quiet. His feet squelched in the mud, and when he lowered himself down to pick up the dog's body - cold and growing rigid in his arms - the children did nothing to stop him. Shinji wouldn't even lift himself from the ground.

"Come on." The teen ushered them. "Let's give him a proper burial."

۞

Akihiko felt like he had forgotten how to talk. He wasn't sure why, except that he couldn't think of words appropriate enough to be spoken. Natsuo took them deeper into the woods than they had ever been, and toiled to dig a hole in the boggy ground, using little more than a makeshift branch; Shinji and the Sanadas stood off to the side, stiff and speechless alongside one another. That in itself took the better part of an hour. But when Natsuo finally did it, his hands and feet and cheeks all painted in mud, he picked Hideharu back up, set him down next to the hole, and told them all to say goodbye.

Miki went first. She walked forward, sat next to his body, and just... talked to him. Why? Akihiko couldn't understand why. Hideharu couldn't hear her. Her words fell on deaf ears, and even had they not, there was no chance of the dog waking up at them. Maybe that wasn't the point, though. Something about the way she spoke with him, like he was still there, made it easier to cope with. Maybe somewhere in there, Hideharu could still hear her. Or maybe he was watching them now, sitting and mourning right alongside them.

When she stood back up and returned to Akihiko's side, he remained standing, glued to his place, and closed his eyes to envision him, bounding through the fields with them.

"You were a good dog, Hideharu." He muttered finally. "...I'll miss you."

Shinji never budged, his eyes cast sidelong away from the body. Noticing his silence, Natsuo turned to him and prompted, "...Shinji? Have anything to say?"

The brunette refused to speak, his eyes red and glaring into the sky.

With nothing else to be done, Natsuo picked Hideharu back up for one last time. Miki ran forward to give him one more hug, trying so hard to hold in the tears, and gave him a kiss on the bridge of his snout. "Be a good boy," She told him. "We'll meet again someday."

He was lowered into his grave, and Natsuo buried him back into the earth.