His father had just left.

"I hope he's able to find what he's looking for. Please God, guide him to where he needs to be." He prayed.

He headed back to his room and changed outfits. He put on Buddhist clothing consisting of purple and black cloth and grabbed a wood staff with an imitation brass ring head. He wondered the fair until night had truly fallen. After awhile he ended up before a set of stairs leading to a great view of the immense world tree.

"Now that my old man mentions it, it is rather huge now isn't it?" he thought.

"Umm…Hello!"Said a young maiden with elven ears.

"Why hello miss, forgive me for asking, but would you please bear my children?"Said Scott.

"I, um, I…" Said the young maiden. He grabbed her hand and looked longingly into her eyes, she blushed and turned away from him.

"Woah! I'm sorry! I was just trying to act in character!" He said waving his hands in front of himself.

"What if I wanted you to act that way?" She asked, her complexion unchanged.

"Huh?" He said in a surprised tone.

"Scott Cipher, do you remember my name?" She looked into his eyes as she gripped his hand.

"Hmmm…You're Tomino Ai right? The middle schooler from the science club?"

"Yes."

"Sweet." He smiled

"Scott," She grabbed his hand and squeezed as hard as she could for a second before saying, "tell me, how do you feel about me?"

"What?" Now he was blushing, "Well I…"

"Do you like me?" She pressed his hands to her chest so that he could feel her pounding heart.

"I know I shouldn't feel this way, but, but…*gulp*" He thought. Now he was completely beat red, as if steam would blow from his ears at any moment.

"Tell me, please." She looked pleading into his eyes.

That just about knocked him unconscious. His emotions were flaring, causing a rush of indescribable feelings to overtake his body. He knew that if he tried to speak all that would come out would be gibberish. He needed to center himself so he could tell her what he wanted to. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, the rhythm of her heart aiding his attempts. After almost a minute had passed he had regained control of control and said.

"Have you ever heard of Regine Olsen?" His eyes were still closed.

"No. Is she another girl at this school?" He felt her heart sink.

"What? No!" her heart immediately resumed its attempts to burst out of her chest, "She was a girl whose existence changed the life of a philosopher whom I draw a great deal of inspiration from. He was much older than she was, yet they were both attracted to each other from the moment they made eye contact. Though she cared for him as deeply as he cared for her, for some reason he rejected her desperate pleas that he stay with her. In doing so, he shattered both of their hearts."

"So what happened?" She asked.

"The philosopher and the girl went their separate ways. However, he never got over his thoughts of her and what could have been. He had truly loved her, yet he pushed her away for reasons he could not justify to himself."

"But if he loved her, why did he push her away?" Their faces were inches away from each other.

"Nobody really knows for certain. The only man who could tell us for sure is long dead." They stood there frozen for a few seconds before Ai broke the silence.

"If you were him, what would you have done?"

He forced himself to look into her glistening brown eyes, "I wouldn't repeat his mistake." He said as he took her into his arms, grabbed the back of her head and kissed her passionately. She returned the favor.

After a few moments she asked,"Why didn't you tell me you liked me?"

"I didn't know what to say. The first day I saw you in that lab coat working on those equations, I wanted to hold you. Whenever my eyes met yours in passing, I wanted to kiss you. Above all else, I wanted to see you smile for me…yet I couldn't explain why. I didn't even know you, but I couldn't stop thinking about you! I wanted so badly to date you, but I didn't know how to broach the subject with you…so I didn't." He said sorrowfully.

She smiled, grabbed his head and pressed his forehead to hers, looked deep into his eyes and asked, "Why didn't you just come up and try to talk to me?"

"I didn't know what to say. I honestly suck at conversations, especially with girls. I don't know how to start them, I don't know how to keep them going, and I don't even have much to say that'll interest anyone else but myself. Besides, every time I felt like trying I got too nervous and backed off."

"Ok then, why don't you practice with me?"

"Right now?"

"Why not?"

He hugged her tightly, "Ok, just forgive me if I say something offensive."

She squeezed him in return, "I will, don't hold back, just talk about whatever comes to your mind. I'll give you pointers ok?"

"Alright, tell me, what do you think happiness is?"

"Well…"

They spend the rest of their night talking about a great many subjects and learned much about each other. They had a lot in common, goals, motivations, peevs and the like. They also discovered that most of the things one of them loved the other didn't, but they did share some interests, and could tolerate the things they didn't necessarily agree on. All in all, they really hit it off. When they both left each other they were happier than before they had confessed before the World Tree.