That evening, the children were transported to a nearby empty elementary dorm. It was the closest building available to them before business was sorted out, and it was offered to them by the authority of Iwatodai in a gesture of charity.

Miki's funeral was held several days later. It was more improvised than it was formal, but it was heartfelt. Everyone from the orphanage who was old enough to attend did, and paid their respects to the only one of them that was lost in the fire. Since the ceremony was held at the cleared ruins of the orphanage, from which Miki's body had already been retrieved and buried at the site, Akihiko stayed long after the rest of the group left; both Shinji and Satoru stayed behind with him, saying nothing as the youngest boy poured his heart out in quiet words to the sky above, in front of the home that had been ravaged by the very fire that took Miki. He stayed strong. He didn't cry this time. That didn't mean that it no longer felt like his heart had shattered into a million tiny pieces.

But life moved on, taking Akihiko with it.

School began again that April. It was a new school. New kids. A new start.

Since the orphanage's destruction, everyone at the old Kawatani orphanage had been moved further inland to the closest establishment for children of their kind. At first, the whole thing had been an uproar. The flood of new children meshing with the original inhabitants was a difficult experience; at times, fights broke out between the two, and the orphanage tested with varying degrees of segregation between the two factions. In the end, things smoothed over. Satoru and the other caretakers remained in command over the the children that were originally from Kawatani in Iwatodai, and eventually the two groups learned to coexist, either through tolerance or through newly-forged friendships.

It was too far from the school that the Kawatani children originally attended, and so this coming year would be their first attending the school closest to their new location, full of new students and teachers. A completely new and unfamiliar territory. It wasn't in the best neighborhood, but it upheld the standards enough to provide education.

Nothing that any orphan wasn't used to.

Several weeks had passed already. Akihiko's grief might have been less prominent on the surface, but it still weighed heavily in his heart. He had both lost Miki and wedged himself apart from Shinji, all within the same period of time, and the loss was often too much to bear. But being moved to the new orphanage, Akihiko found himself seeking out Shinji for no reason more than he was the most familiar face in the world of strangers. They were still friends, yes. Deep inside, Akihiko knew he never hated Shinji for what happened. That never manifested to words, and thus it was never spoken to Shinji, but both of them knew that regardless of what happened, they were stuck with each other.

There was nothing about the new school that was all too different from the old one, minus a change in faces and scenery. Akihiko stayed on top of his studies and made grades that were average for any ordinary elementary school student; Shinji did the same. They were in the same class. They ate lunch together. They rode to and from the school on the same train, in adjacent seats. Life was monotonous, just like it had been before. There was one difference, and it was one that would always haunt Akihiko. But slowly, one day at a time, it became easier to look away from the hurt and force himself ahead in life.

The earliest days of June had already passed. Today, Akihiko found himself sitting at lunch, digging through his packed meal like he always did. Shinji was less talkative that day - not that he was much of a talker to begin with, neither of them was - but his younger companion wrote that off as normal, taking a fresh orange from his bag to peel. ...Well, he didn't usually eat oranges, but Shinji kept telling him he needed to eat fruit and vegetables more often, so he thought he'd give it a shot. Oranges weren't so bad.

"Shinji?" He tested across the table. "I... I was thinking about something."

Several chews later, the brunette prompted him. "Yeah?"

"...Well, it's something I've been thinking about for a while." He forced a large part of the rind away with his fingers, exposing the white-filmed skin underneath. "I'm not entirely sure about what I want to do, but I want to take up... something. A sport. I was thinking that if I could get into one, I might be able to get a scholarship for a good school."

Some silence. Shinji picked at his cold plate of rice and pork. "Sounds like a good idea. Making plans for the future," He closed his eyes, thoughtful. "That's... unlike you."

"I-It's sudden, but..." He found himself losing courage in his words. "I just... know that I want to make use of myself. I'm here. I'm alive." His lips quivered, but his voice remained strong, "I want to go back to Iwatodai. I'll transfer to a middle school there, and... if I can, I'll start living in the dorms. I'll make it into a good high school, go to college..."

"Do you have any idea what you want to do?"

"I want to be a police officer." He pried off the final piece of orange peel, and started splitting the fruit into sections. "I want... I want to help people."

Shinji's eyes lowered, distant.

"...I bet you can do it, Aki."

"Hah, thanks," The boy gave a jittery smile to his friend, taking one of the many orange pieces into his mouth and savoring the taste on his tongue until he swallowed. "...I'm still not sure what club I want to join, though. None of the sports seem all that interesting."

"Don't worry, you have a lot of time to think about it."

"I mean, do you have any ideas?" The bell rang to dismiss lunch; Akihiko peeled several sections of orange off in one piece and crammed them into his mouth, making an effort to keep it all in and swallow it in a rush. Shinji, more leisurely, began to rearrange his things back into his backpack. "What about you? Would you join with me?"

The brunette smiled with amusement, pulling his bag onto his shoulder. "What, you need me to hold your hand on the way there, too?"

"H-Hey-!" Offense crossed the fair-maned boy's features as he also stood up from the table to pack. "I was just asking! You don't have to be a jerk about it."

"I don't know. Maybe," Shinji turned, taking on an exhausted look, and the two of them began to walk toward the cafeteria's entrance alongside one another. "It sounds like work. ...But if you get any ideas, run them by me. I'll tell you then."

۞

It was something that Akihiko spent days pondering. He had known for some time now that joining a club, even one that he might not find remarkably interesting, and doing well enough at it to be accepted to a good school, was probably his best bet at a decent education and a strong start to a career. It was weird to think about it in that sense - he was only eleven years old, and many adults, while instilling the importance of education and a choice of career in kids as young as him, often reminded them that they had plenty of time to contemplate it - but focusing on what he wanted to do in life... it helped him look forward. It helped him look away from the loss that would otherwise consume him.

But deciding on the sport he was to join was difficult. None of them really piqued his interest. Would he join one in the end, regardless? Yes. But he would prefer to keep contemplating it until he thought of something he found at least remotely interesting. He wouldn't be able to literally join one until next year when he got into middle school, anyway. Until then, he would keep looking, and hopefully come by something.

A week or two later, he finally discovered his answer.

It was another typical day for him. School had ended, and he had just collected all his things together in his backpack to depart - Shinji some business to take care of before they left, and so stayed behind a little after Akihiko did - when he came across a scuffle between two students on his way to the school gates. He didn't pay it any attention at first. But when the younger of the two students, a female, cried out in pain, in need of help, all of Akihiko's attention was trained on them in an instant. Miki.

"Stop!" The girl, looking a grade or two younger than Akihiko and her offender, was cowering back and shielding the bruise beneath her eye. "Stop hitting me! Help!"

"Hey!" The fair-maned boy dropped his school bag off where he stood, darting over to intercept the unfolding scene by forcing his way between the two. The other boy, who's eyes were wide with panic, froze in place. "What the hell is your problem? Don't hit her!"

The boy thoughtlessly retaliated, "What're you going to do about it?"

Akihiko kindly answered this question by dislocating the kid's jaw.

He collapsed after this; Akihiko could imagine that no one had ever stood up to this bully before, considering most kids his age were not the type to fight back. And judging by the way the boy started crying not long after, he was probably right. ...He deserved it. Picking on a girl! How could he do something like that?

Akihiko turned from the miserable heap at his feet, his platinum eyes searching for the girl that had been behind him a moment ago. "Are you oka-?"

But she wasn't there. ...Where did she go?

Instead, he saw the familiar form of Shinji treading toward him from the school doors, a set of papers in hand. "Hey, Aki, I just got-" He, too, stopped dead at the sight of the boy, holding his face and sobbing, on the ground. "-what the? What happened to that kid?"

Akihiko puffed with indignance. "He was picking on a girl!"

"I 'idn't hit her! Sh' took my jack't!" The boy sobbed. "Sh' took it 'nd ran away!"

Wait... what? "I saw you just now! She was yelling at you to stop hitting her!"

"B-But I 'idn't!" He sobbed, "Sh' stole it, an'elled at me, an' ran away!"

"O-Oh." It struck him just then how rashly he had jumped into the situation without making sure what was going on. All he had seen was someone hitting a defenseless girl, and he wanted to help; after seeing the many times Miki had been picked on, it was only second nature. ...So that girl stole his jacket? But she was gone!

Great. He tried to help her out, and she ended up being a thief. "I'm sorry..."

Shinji gave him an irritated look. He shrugged helplessly in reply.

"We'll find her. Do you know her name?"

However the boy answered, his words were nearly undecipherable given the state of his jaw. Shinji crouched over in noticing the damage done to his mouth and touched the swollen skin, afterwards shooting a glare up to Akihiko once more. "What did you do to him?"

"I-I just punched him a little..."

The brunette muttered something under his breath that Akihiko could not hear. He prompted the wounded boy again, who finally provided a mangled explanation that no, he didn't know the girl's name, but he knew that she usually hung out behind the school.

"All right. Can you stand up?" Though wounded, the boy nodded and started to sit himself back up, his face slick with tears. Akihiko floundered nearby, clueless and awkward in the situation, until Shinji had sent the boy back off into the school on his own to get some help with his jaw. "He said that she hung out behind the school a lot. Let's go check it out."

Navigating their way through the after-school crowd wasn't too difficult. Most students their age were picked up from the front of the building by their parents, so as long as soon as they broke from that crowd, making their way around the sideroads to the back of the school was a trip uninterrupted by anything more than a couple of chatting friends.

The back of the school, in contrast to the front, was very run-down in appearance, and reeked of a musty scent. The cement sidewalk was taken over by patches of dirt, upturned and kicked onto it by the rain and weather; stepping around the corner to the literal back of the school, up against a fence that separated it from a residential area, there was not even so much as a sidewalk, and both Shinji and Akihiko had to take careful steps to avoid sinking into the rank mud that composed most of the ground. Why would she hang out back here? Either of the boys would have asked if they didn't already know. While it was a bit early to jump to conclusions, it wasn't hard to believe that she might be like them.

"Hello?" Akihiko was the first to call out into the silence. "Is anyone out there?"

Shinji trekked past him without breaking stride, his voice hushed. "Keep your mouth shut. She'll probably run if she hears us."

Akihiko grudgingly obeyed this, following the brunette step for step.

Just as he had guessed, though, they had little luck finding the girl. They had almost walked the entire distance from one end of the back to the other when they both heard something rush behind them. They each looked back just in time to see the same little girl that Akihiko encountered earlier darting from her place between two garbage dumpsters toward the fence that stretched skyward, a good few feet from the back of the school; without giving either of the boys a second glance, she jumped onto the metal, diamond-mesh fence and began to scale it in her rush to escape.

"Wait!" Both of them broke toward her as fast as they could. "Don't run!"

She had no intention of listening to them - but, unfortunately for her, her shoe snagged on one of the unclipped scraps of metal that jutted out from the damaged fence, and by the time she struggled free from it, both of the boys were close enough to catch her.

"Let me go!" She was shivering when they caught hold of her. "I-I'll scream!"

"We don't want to hurt you." Whereas Akihiko made sure she was dropped safely back to the ground on their side of the fence, Shinji grabbed either of her shoulders to hold her still. "We just want to know what you're doing. You shouldn't be back here."

"Sh-Shut up!" She kicked a leg out in an attempt to injure the brunette. "Let me go!"

Akihiko ventured, "Did you steal that kid's jacket before?"

Then, she actually scored a kick against the brunette's shin. "Let me go!"

Swearing, he refused to let her go, but instead clutched harder at her shoulders and jolted her with a quick back-and-forward shaking motion. "Stop being a brat and talk to us!"

If she meant to yell at him again following this, it hiccupped in her throat, and the girl cracked under the urge to begin sobbing. Neither of the boys said anything to interrupt this brief episode; they remained solemnly quiet, while Akihiko took special note of the thick-material jacket that she was wearing. It definitely looked more expensive than the other clothes she had on. ...It had to be that other kid's jacket. He didn't blame her for wanting to steal it, either. The nights around here could get really cold, and if she didn't have anywhere else to sleep, she must have wanted anything that would help keep her warm...

"I'm sorry!" She cried between sniffles. "I didn't mean to make anyone mad...!"

"We're not mad," Shinji was calm in reassuring her. "We just want to talk."

Both of them patiently waited for her to recompose herself. They had wandered back over to the dumpsters and trashbins from before, seating themselves in various positions on whatever objects were available. The girl perched herself on the closed dumpster while Shinji sat beside her, and Akihiko instead took his seat by kicking over one of the empty garbage cans and sitting on it as it lied sideways on the ground.

"You stole that boy's jacket back there, didn't you?"

The girl gave a whimper. "...Yeah."

"You have to know that's wrong. Why did you do it?"

She brought her sleeves up to her eyes, soaking up the tears there. "I... I was cold."

Both boys were quiet for lack of words again. It was Akihiko that spoke up; "You sleep back here behind the school, then, don't you?"

"Y-Yeah." She lowered her head, her hair veiling her eyes. "I bet... you think I'm weird, huh? I bet you want to know why I don't go home after school?"

Both of them shook their heads. No, she was no weirder than they were. But their natural inclination to secrecy about the matter - you didn't just go around telling anybody you were an orphan, people didn't always take kindly to it - prevented them from saying.

"...My daddy hits me." The girl sniffled, shaking her head to scatter the tears that still speckled her face. "Mommy is never home. Neither of them love me. They don't care that I left... they even said so. I never want to go back. But out here I'm cold, and hungry..."

Akihiko stood up, stern-faced. "Does that make it okay to steal?"

"Give her a break, Aki. She needs it more than that other kid does."

"No. She-" He cut himself off awkwardly. "-what's your name?"

"Y-Yuzuki," She kneaded at the fabric of her uniform skirt.

"Yuzuki." The boy placed a fist against his chest, speaking with a sudden conviction. "I know that it's hard to have nothing. You see so many other kids with so many things that you don't have, things that you can never have, because you don't have the money or the means to get them. But that doesn't make stealing right. Maybe you do need it more than that boy does - but if you start to think that it's okay to steal, no matter what the reason, what's left to prevent you from becoming a criminal? You might have to work harder to get the same things that other kids have. And maybe that's not fair. But I think, if you stay strong and do your best to gain those things through honest and trustworthy means, in the end, it makes you that much stronger than everyone else. You'll become a great person instead."

Shinji couldn't withhold a scoff. "Get off your high horse."

The hostility didn't sting him. "You know I'm right, Shinji."

Yuzuki did not speak for some time after Akihiko gave his virtuous lecture; he almost began to think that she wouldn't, until she again parted her pink, chapped lips. "It's not fair. Nothing in life is fair." Her body trembled. "...Momma was right. Being alive is a sin."

But those words... those stung him.

"...I'll try. I... I don't wanna give it back, but... I think you're right, too." The small light-haired female slipped off of the dumpster she had been seated on, bringing her eyes up to meet with the younger of the two boys. She watched him for a long, lingering moment; he blinked and looked down, nervously, unused to the intensity of eye contact.

Looking up to her again when she turned away, he realized how much of him wanted to help her, if only because her likeness reminded him slightly of what he so sorely missed. Was that... wrong? To attach himself to someone if only because it comforted him to protect something on which he projected the image of Miki, who he could no longer keep safe?

"Will you come with me?" She looked from Akihiko to Shinji and back, silently pleading them. Of course, both boys agreed, and they walked at either side of the girl on her way back around to the front of the school to find the boy and return the jacket that she had earlier stolen from him. Was it hard for her? Yes. But before they parted ways, she told them that despite it all, Akihiko had given her a newfound faith in herself.

۞

The next day at lunch, Akihiko and Shinji practiced their usual routine of silence. After yesterday evening's events, neither of them seemed able to find much to say. It wasn't that it had wedged them apart, no - it had just given them a lot to think about. After helping the girl, of course the school authorities had decided to bring Akihiko in for a 'stern talking to' for nailing some kid across the jaw, but what greatly frustrated him about the matter was that they did not give the slightest bit of mind to the explanation he gave for his actions, instead writing them off as those of an unruly child. 'Tell his parents,' they kept muttering amongst one another. So he was inclined to remind them that he didn't have any.

Well, they didn't have much to say about that. Just, 'oh, that must be why.'

It was his second time ever having gotten in trouble before - the first had never been his fault. So he didn't understand; what did his lack of parents have anything to do with his trying to protect a girl he thought to be innocent? He had heard the same nonsensical excuse back then, too. In the end, he told them whatever they wanted to hear so that he was released, but left the office practically boiling with anger over the matter. They didn't know anything! He would have done the same thing even if he had parents!

But this, along with similar instances in being discriminated against by his fellow students, only added to his insecurity. Did being an orphan really make him so different...?

He had pushed the thought away by now - the most he could, anyway. He spoke his mind just to initiate conversation. "...How do you think Yuzuki is doing?"

"I don't know," was Shinji's honest reply. "She never promised to go to the orphanage. But... whatever she decides, I hope things work out for her."

Some silence. Akihiko didn't have much of an appetite. "...Yeah. Me too."

He could tell Shinji didn't have much of one, either. But despite that, the brunette was always one of those people who took their health seriously, and so forced down every bite. "Hey. Have you decided what club you're going to join?"

Akihiko ripped open the milk carton he had sitting on the edge of the table. "Club?"

"You know, like, a sport. You were telling me about it earlier this month."

"Oh, right. ...No, I still don't have any idea."

The brunette perked up, pointing his fork to his friend. "Why don't you try boxing?"

Boxing? The sport had never even come to mind, considering how it wasn't exactly mainstream. Most kids were always discussing baseball, or basketball, maybe soccer. But boxing? ...You know, thinking about it, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. Taking on boxing would teach him how to fight. If he learned how to fight, he could protect people...

Immediately, the idea greatly appealed to him. He couldn't stop the smile from curling the edges of his lips. "You know, that's a good idea, Shinji. I think I'll do that."

The brunette nodded as if satisfied with himself. "You'd be pretty good at it."

Akihiko's curiosity sparked. "What gave you that idea?"

"Yesterday, you nailed that guy across the face pretty hard."

"Oh." The boy shrugged nonchalantly, though he could not prevent the undertone of blush from coloring his face at a mixture of embarrassment and pride in himself. "W-Well, it was nothing. I'm sure anyone could have done it."

"Too bad the kid was innocent, and you just ended up looking like an ass."

Akihiko made a face across the table.

"Anyway, it reminded me of that time that you bloodied my nose for stealing that doll from the toy store. You always had a mean punch. So, I thought, why not try making use of a talent you already have?" He shrugged, taking another bite from the food on his plate. "You don't have to do it or nothing. But if you do, you know, good luck to you."

He was starting to struggle to resist showing his mounting excitement. Boxing sounded perfect for him! And if he was good enough at it, he really would have a chance at getting into good schools! "Will you help me practice?"

But Shinji always knew the quickest way to kill his moods. "...Not my thing."

"Shinji! Why do you have to be like that? If you joined with me, I bet you'd get all of the same scholarships I would! Everything would work out great!"

"So we can grow up and be police officers together?" One of those bitter smiles returned to his face. "Aki... you're a great kid, you know? You'll grow up and do great things, and help a lot of people on the way. You don't always have your head on straight, but people like you anyway. You have a good heart. You'll be successful. And you deserve to be."

The brunette slowly shook his head, his eyes returning to his plate. "I... don't."

"...What do you mean by that?"

"I'm just... not like you. I fuck stuff up. You'd be better off on your own."

The tension in the silence that followed was thick enough to cut with a knife. But even so, Akihiko gave his following actions no second thought, slamming his fork back onto the table with a clink. "That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard come out of your mouth." When the brunette looked up, the younger of the two met his eyes with unmatched resolve. "It's because of you that I even have a life to do something with, Shinji. Back when the fire happened... I didn't think I would ever forgive you for what you did. But I realized - no, I always knew, I think - that you... you were just as much a victim as the rest of us. I was just so angry, so lost, that I didn't know how to control what I was feeling." He took a labored breath before he went on, "Later, I realized just how grateful I should be for having a friend that refused to let me throw my life away. I know Miki wouldn't have wanted me to die, too. She would have wanted me to make something of myself, and be happy with what I had..."

The underlying emotion that so often plagued him began to bleed into his voice, but he kept himself level-headed, never wavering his eyes from Shinji's. "I want to do all of this not just for me and Miki, but because of what you did for me, too. And if you won't go, then neither will I. I'm not leaving you behind."

When all was said, Akihiko reached a hand forward.

"So, what is it going to be? Are you in this with me, or not?"

Heh. Always so stubborn. Shinji lowered his eyes. But he smiled, too. "...Yeah." He reached over to hold a strong grip on the hand his friend extended to him. "Someone's gotta keep you in line. I guess that's my job, whether I like it or not, eh?"

Akihiko couldn't contain his giddiness. "Does this mean you'll join boxing with me?"

Shinji pretended to think for a minute. "No."

"Wha- why not?"

"Because I'd kick your ass."

"Oh yeah?" At the goading remark, Akihiko stood and veered around the table.

"Hey, dude, watch it! I was just kidding!"

۞

"Me, you, and Miki... we used to run around here until the sun went down.

Back then, it was like we had all the time in the world."

fin