Nostalgia Arc
First day
Rono's at the park by himself at a dark and gloomy night. He looks around and sees nothing but the swings which is strangely hovered by lights of the park. Suddenly he feels himself getting shorter as he slowly shrinks down to a kid's average height. Out of no where, a mysterious young girl appears behind him as well.
"Why did you do this to me?" She says while she seems to be sobbing
"W-what did I do?" He asked
"IDIOT! Why did you leave me all alone!" She starts crying
He attempts to look at the girl's face but it's so dark that he couldn't even see a glimpse of the strangers face.
"What did I do to deserve this..."
*Rono gasps*
He gets up and finds out he's on his bed with his new apartment in Japan. The alarm starts buzzing while his eyes adjust because of his dark room.
"So it's just a dream, good." Rono thought
He goes to his kitchen to eat breakfast and cooks up his lunch for his bento (he has time to make up his bento because he put his alarm to wake him up 1 hour earlier to go to school since it was his first day after all). Right when he got to the door, an image flashed in his mind, it was that crying girl in his dream.
"Just..who was that girl, has she known me before." He said in his mind. He closes the door, and goes off to school.
Since it has been a long time since he's been to Japan, he barely remembers what he used to do in his childhood. The only thing he does remember is the cat alley and the school he has to attend to which is named Cherry Blossom High. Then, a strange nostalgic feeling suddenly shows up inside his heart. He walked passed a park which had the same swings he had in his dream last night. It was no doubt that he wants to know what really happened during those years he spent here when he was little kid. But first, he has to get over his first day at school first.
"Man, why am I so worried about anyways. Besides, what can go wrong!" As he rubs the back of his head while giving a big smile full of confidence.
He crosses the street along with those other kids who he assumes to be the students for Cherry Blossom High. Then a bicyclist passes by swiftly past him, she was 3 inches away from colliding into him. The woman on the bicycle said:
"Hey! Watch where you're going pal!" She said angrily
It's her who has to be careful. He thought
A few minutes later, he finds her bending down to looking at her bike. Later, a person with black uniform which looks identical to the one Rono is wearing stops by her. Rono decides to watch how this is going. Just when the female bicyclist steals the bike from the boy, he yells out:
"Hey! Give me back my bike!"
"Sorry kid, I have a class to teach!" She says as she waves good bye to the young boy.
"What the hell just happened here." Rono thought as he sighed
He runs up to the boy and asks him of what had happened.
"That woman just abandoned her old bike and stole mine!"the boy said
"Really!?"
"Yep. Well, what do you expect from an irresponsible teacher?" He sighs
Rono began to get doubts about returning to Japan.
"Wait a minute, are you the new exchanged student for Cherry Blossom High?"
"Yeah, how do you know?" He said in a confused state
"Every staff member of the school has been talking about you, the school hasn't had any exchanged students from other countries before."
"Wait, now that I think about it I haven't introduced my self!"
"My name is Tod Fukushima, nice to meet you."
"My name is Rono Takayama."
They both bow to each other and walk to school together.
They arrive at the school and Rono looks around the school with awe.
"Woah, so the school is that big?"
"Yep, during summer break the school decided to make a remodel. They wanted the school too look better than the other schools somehow. Sure the school back then looked very old and torn down back then which could be the reason why there weren't many kids transferring to this school."
"Well, they sure did an amazing job on this! No wonder they called this school Cherry Blossom High, there's so many from where we're walking!" Rono said
"Well enough sightseeing, we have to get to class." Tod says while walking ahead of Rono.
"Wait Tod! What about the schedules?"
"Oh don't worry, you have the same home room class as me! Your name was the only one on the Transfer Students section!"He smiles
"Ok Tod."
After that, they got inside the school and stopped by the lockers to put on their indoor slippers for school. Rono insisted for both of them to look at the poster with schedule of every student. A good 2 minutes is what took them to finally find both of their names. They were both listed for a certain teacher named , Rono had a bad feeling about this. Maybe this teacher could be one of the strict ones in this school.
*Rono gulps*
"Let's get to class, it's almost 8:30." Tod insisted
"Right." Rono says with a frightened look
They both went up stairs to the 3rd floor of the school, Tod starts to breathe heavily. As Rono notices, he drops a sweat.
"You're tired already?" He grins
"Sorry, it's been a while since I had exercise."
"I could tell by your size." He teases
"Shut up." Tod says in an annoyed manner
Finally, they arrived to the classroom. It was now full of students talking to eachother before the teacher arrives. Rono notices someone sitting alone at her desk looking out the window, it was a tall girl with the same height as him. She had long soft black hair which reaches half of her back, she also had beautiful eyes. Tod then noticed him looking at the girl
"Well well, have a crush already?" He grins
"Ugh no! Sure she looks pretty but...somehow she looks...familiar." Rono says while tilting his head to right.
By the time he was looking at her for a minute, the teacher arrived. Everyone but Rono and a little girl stood up by the chalk board. Then the moment of truth happened, it was the same lady who stole Tod's bike! The teacher spoke:
"Hello class my name is and I will be your English home room teacher." As she announces to class. She sees red orange pigtails and she try's pulling it, she then remembers something.
"Oh wait I forgot, the two exchange students."
"Moving right along, let me introduce two of our new transfer students. First is Chiyo Mihama ."
"I'm Chiyo Mihama, thank you for having me in your class." Said the small pig-tailed girl.
"As you can tell, Chiyo is only 10 years old. But because of her unique gift, the school decided to let her go to high school. So none of you better pick on her just because she's better than all of you!"
Everybody's sweat dropped
"Next, is our American-Japanese transfer student Rono Takayama."
"Hello my name is Rono Takayama, it's nice to meet you all." Said the tall guy as he bowed down.
"Ok it's time to begin our assignment for our first day. Today we will be filling out our career forms. You will be required to write down three things that you want be in the future."
"Rono, Chiyo, go and take a seat on any of the remaining desks left."
Chiyo and Rono then walk to their desired seats. Chiyo picks the seat closest to the front of the room. She smiles at Rono before she sat down, he does the same too. Rono however decides to sit on the desk in the back of the room which is next to the right of the girl he was staring. He sat down and then sees Tod giving him an evil grin, Tod had the wrong idea for the reason why Rono sat there in the first place. It wasn't because he wanted to sit next to the pretty girl, it was because of one problem he had his whole life...it was shyness. If he sat in the back, maybe the teacher wouldn't call him up to the board. Sure he gets the answers right everytime, but he starts losing some of his confidence when everyone stares at him. Now that he thinks about it, he starts getting stressed out. Imagining how the kids in his class would treat him.
He imagines:
"Haha, this kid doesn't have the guts to say anything!"
"Why even go back to Japan if you don't even talk much?"
"Go back to America where kids like you should be!"
"Get out."
"Nobody needs you."
"Rono!" he hears an echo
"Rono!" It starts getting louder
"Rono !"
He then snaps out of it and gasps. It was Chiyo who was calling him.
"Oh sorry did I scare you, do you have the career form? I'm collecting them for the class."
"Oh, h-here you go."
"Thanks, are..you okay?"said the curious young girl.
"Y-yeah, I..just need some air."
He quickly gets out of the classroom and goes to the rooftop of the school(at this point it's when the lunch period finally begins). The tall girl who sat next to Rono became curios of what just happened, the same with the little girl as they both watched Rono go.
"I feel I should check on him." Chiyo thought as she made her way to collect the last career form which was tall girl.
"Excuse me, May I please collect your career form?"
The tall girl gives her the form.
"Hmm, so her name is Sakaki. She seems a bit scary. She wants to be a veterinarian, a florist or a stuffed animal boutique owner? Looks like she's a nice person after all!" She thought.
"Hey Chiyo." Asked the tall girl.
"You know what's going on with him?"
"Not a clue, should I check on him?"
"Yeah, let me come too."
As they both made their way to the roof top they met up with him. He was just sitting down on the bench gazing up at the sky.
"If only.. I had friend here before." He thought
"Why was I even shy in the first place, what even caused me to become the person I am."
"I'm just hopeless." He said out loud.
"Hey Rono!" Chiyo said
"Huh? Oh hey Chiyo."
"What happened back there, are you ok?"
"Yeah, I just...panicked out of nowhere."
"How come?" Asked the curious Chiyo
"Well, I'll tell you if you both keep this a secret."
They both nod and decide to safely secure the secret for their ears only.
"Ok, I might not look like it but I easily get nervous when it comes to talking socially with other people. I got stressed by imagining how the teacher will call me up the board and answer a question. Let's just say, that I...have stage fright."
A moment of silence occurred for a few seconds.
"Wait, I don't seem to know your name. Mind if I ask for your name miss?" He asked the tall girl.
"My..name is..Sa...kaki." She said
"Sakaki, huh? That's a nice name!"
The girl then blushed, but then something came up in her mind. She feels something as if she got that response before, but she can't put her finger on it. Same with Rono he has the nostalgic feeling again, the same one from this morning!
"Have...we...meet before?" Sakaki said
"Ugh, I don't think so. Why do you ask?" Says the confused Rono
"Oh, nothing...you..just remind me of someone."
"Hey guys, we should probably go back to class. It's almost time for lunch, we can also introduce Rono to our friends. I'm figuring you don't have many friends do you?"
"Well, not really."
Right after that, they all went down from the stairs right to the third floor of the school. At first it felt scary to go on a school where he doesn't know anybody, but when you get some friends, then you feel yourself getting your confidence back on track. He now feels safe with Chiyo and Sakaki, mostly Sakaki for some strange reason. Everytime he gets near her, it always causes Rono to have this nostalgic feeling in his heart. It's as if it is telling to get his memories back when he was still living in Japan as a kid. Soon before they made it to the Classroom door, Sakaki suddenly stopped in front of Chiyo and Rono.
"Hey, why are we stopping for?" He asks
"Before we go inside, I just want to tell you that...if you ever need help or have any problems, then tell me. Friends help eachother out, that's what friends are for." Sakaki says while looking down.
"You can also ask Yomi and me, but don't tell Osaka and Tomo. Well, especially Tomo." Chiyo says
"Why not?" Rono says
"Ugh, you'll see."
They all got in the classroom and then the lunch bell rang. immediately went to the teachers lounge to start up her meal. Then the kids in the classroom now began eating their food from their bentos, other kids went downstairs to eat at the cafeteria. Rono, Chiyo, and Sakaki went to meet up with Yomi and the others.
"Oh hey, Chiyo." Says the girl with the glasses
"Hi !" She smiles
"Wait a minute, isn't this the new American exchange students?"
"Yes I am, but I'm actually Japanese."
"Really?! I have a question though, are Schools in America different than the school in Japan?"
"Yes they are, but they are similar in some ways."
"You seem to get along with people well enough! Now it's time to introduce them."
"This is Koyomi Mizuhara, but we call her Yomi." She moves walks over to the next girl.
"This is Tomo Takino, she is mostly the highly energetic one of the group!"
"That's right I am!" Tomo says
Chiyo moves on to the girl who seems to be spacing out.
"This is Ayumu Kasuga, but we call her Osaka."
"Why Osaka?"
Chiyo's sweat dropped
"Ugh, Tomo made it up."
"Why would you call her Osaka?"
"Because, she's from Osaka." Said Tomo
A moment of silence occurred.
"Oh, that makes sense."
Everybody's sweat dropped.
After that first long school day, it was finally the moment to go home. The group went out of the school and continued to walk home, they've asked Rono what it was like in America. Until one of them asked him how was his life here in Japan when he was little. This troubled Rono a bit because he doesn't remember any childhood memories.
"Actually, I don't remember anything at all."
*Everyone gasps*
"What! There's no possible way that you can forget your own childhood!" Yomi says
"I've been living in America for so long that I forgot my memories here, except for one thing. That thing was the alley of cats!"
Everyone but Sakaki who blushed sweat dropped.
After a few minutes Tomo, Osaka, and Yomi told eachother good bye as they left to their houses. All that was left were Rono, Chiyo, and Sakaki. They both asked Rono where he lived and it turns out tha they actually live close to eachother!
"Hey, there's my apartment building. Are we going to walk to school together tomorrow morning?"
"Sure, that a great idea!" Said Chiyo
Right when Rono left, Sakaki said something that Chiyo wouldn't expect."
"He's still the same as always, I'm glad." she smiles as she blushes
"What do you mean Miss Sakaki?"
"We were friends back when we were kids."
"Really!? Why didn't you tell him?"
"I think it's better if he figures it out on his own."
"But it hurts me that he doesn't remember me at all." a tear runs down her face.
"He was my one and only friend I had who understands me from the inside."
"Don't worry Miss Sakaki, I'm sure that he'll someday remember you again. As long as we spend much more time with him, then it'll be fast!"
*Sakaki sobs*
"Thank you Chiyo, your a good friend." She smiles
They both continue walking again to go back home.
Rono gets out shower and then dresses up to go to bed. As soon as he lays down, he starts to think about Chiyo and the others. But his thought stopped after he imagines Sakaki.
"That girl... I know her from somewhere. Why does she look so familiar? I really want to know why I keep having this feeling to find out what I did before I moved to America! Well it can't be helped, I'll think about it tomorrow. Thank you Mom and Dad for letting me go back to Japan. Today was a good day!"
