Confusion

After Rono had his sleep for the night, he kept on dreaming about the dream he had last time. But this time it was different, out of nowhere he was able to control his own dream. He leaned in closer to the girl but he still wasn't able to get at least one glimpse of her face, instead he saw her white scarf and her hair.

The dream ended, it made Rono wake up causing him to breathe heavily. A few minutes have passed, he went to his kitchen to eat breakfast and make his bento. He also remembered that he agreed to meet up with Chiyo and Sakaki somewhere by the the road where they would always walk to school to. Since he woke up about an hour earlier to make his bento and eat his breakfast, he went his room and watched a bit of t.v until it was time to leave. As soon as he turned it on, it showed a commercial with two kids playing with eachother at the park.

"Something tells me that this commercial could be somewhat similar to my past." He said after experiencing goosebumps.

"Maybe during the weekend I'll try to find out what happened back then"

He looks at his clock and finds out that it was finally time to leave.

"Looks like it time to meet with Sakaki and Chiyo!"

He opens the door and closes it as he goes outside with an excited look on her face.

"Wonder how the day will turn out, I bet it's going to be good!"

A minute had passed and he finally saw Chiyo and Sakaki walking together by the walkway.

"Hey Chiyo!"

"Huh? Hey look it's Rono!" As she pointed towards the direction Rono was running from. As soon as he slowly approaches them, he saw a white cat. Without hesitation he instead ran to it and tried petting it.

"Miss Sakaki, what is he doing?" She tries to face Sakaki but before she knew it, she was gone!

"Ah!" She looks around and finds her where Rono was at.

They were both standing next to eachother looking at the cat with silky white fur. Sakaki blushed when she realized she was beside him(Mainly blushed because of the cat). This gave her a flashback from the past.

*Flashback*

It was a hot and sunny day in Japan, the only time where it was a perfect day to go to the pool, a perfect time where you can spend your time with your family, last but not least it was the perfect time to able to hang out with your friends. Sakaki and Rono were off to go play in the park as always, but something small yet cute blocked their way. It was a cat with white fur along with brown spots, of course it was obvious that it was a female.

"What is it?" Said the young girl

"Hey, it's a cat!" He says with a smile

"I love cats, there so cute!"

"Doesn't look like it wants to be woken up, maybe it'll attack us if we wake it up." She says while hiding behind Rono.

"Don't worry, it won't attack. As long as we don't hurt it, it won't hurt us!"

"Ok, I'll trust you for this time."

As soon as the wind blows, the cat silently woke up and slowly walks toward them. Sakaki shrieked and quickly hid behind Rono's back.

"Yay! It woke up, let's go pet it!" His fist pumps in the air

"No, don't!" Begging Rono as she pulled his shirt.

Rono ignored her and as a surprise, he made the cat purr as he slowly scratches behind the cat's ear. Sakaki was surprised on how the cat went from scary to cute.

"Sakaki, why don't you pet him too?" he asks his now surprised friend.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, trust me you'll like it!"

She slowly walks toward the cat and kneels down close to the cat. She then slowly put her hand out, the cat then stares at her which causes Sakaki to take her hand back in.

"Come on, it won't bite." he insists for her to pet the cat.

She does it again and she puts her hand on the cat's head and starts to scratch behind the cat's ear. She began blushing profusely as it began to purr, Rono chuckled as it continued purring.

"Nice job, we made a friend." he said

"Yeah, I guess we did Rono." she smiles while still petting the cat which Rono was still holding.

"Should we name it?"

"Sure, I think we should call him...Neko-san." Rono insisted.

"Yeah, that's a cute name." She smiles as she looked at the cat.

To Sakaki, this was one of her most precious yet memorable moments of her life. It was also the first time when she actually started having her liking for cats and other animals in the first place. Without Rono, she would of never got her love for animals.

*Flashback ends*

When Sakaki was done day dreaming, Rono was already carrying the cat in his arms. Sakaki blushed at this sight, this really did remind her that Rono really hasn't changed except for his height which this time he was an inch taller.

"I'm guessing that you like cats too, don't you?" He asked

"Y-yeah."

"You want to pet it?"

"O-okay."

As she putts her hand closer to the cat, it looks at her strangely and then as she touches its head it starts to purr. Of course, this caused her to blush. Chiyo then ran up to both of them breathing heavily.

"Guys. We...should start heading back now." she said breathing profusely.

"Oh yeah, I forgot we had school!" he said.

Everybody's sweat dropped. Rono then slowly puts the cat down and goes off to school with Chiyo and Sakaki. Their second day of school begins!

As they started walking closer to the school, they got through the cherry blossom trees. It was a fairly windy day for them, which makes it a perfect moment for the trees to release their pink pedals as they hover through the air carried by the wind. This, truly creates a scenic view from afar.

Now they made it to the school, they all got inside then stopped by the lockers to put on their Uwabakis(indoor shoes). As they closed up their lockers with their outside shoes, they started making their way to class. They made it to the class and then saw Yomi, Tomo, and Osaka talking to eachother. They joined in the conversation that was about Tomo bragging on how she'll look good in the p.e uniform which would cause the boys to get attracted to her.

But the one thing they never knew is how short were the girl's shorts from school. Right before Yomi was about to scold Tomo, the bell rang.

*Bell rings*

Everyone sat down, and waited for the teacher to come in. Unfortunately she was late...again.

"Hey Sakaki!" Rono whispers

"Where's Yukari?"

"She probably late." She says in her calming cool voice.

"I'm not surprised."

"So about yesterday, we didn't go to any of classes except English. Do we start the full schedule today?"

"Yeah, hopefully it'll turn out alright."

Yukari gets in the classroom a few minutes and explains why she was late.

"I am very sorry for the inconvenience, I forgot that this wasn't the weekend!"

Everyone's sweatdropped.

"What's with this teacher." He thought

"Alright class, today we will be reading our first English book for the year to eachother. And by "eachother" I mean go get a partner to read with, each of you will read a paragraph and the other will do the same for the other. This book is some basic stuff that most of you already know." Yukari proclaimed.

"But Miss Yukari!" Chiyo exclaims

"Why won't you read the book to us?"

She thought of an excuse so she can cover her laziness.

"Well...because, my head hurts from last night and I can't think straight. So the only way for curing it is to go to sleep." She slowly puts her head so she could sleep soundly.

"She's just lazy, isn't she?" Yomi said

"Yep, she sure is." Rono said

"Hey! How come she gets to sleep and I can't!" Tomo exclaimed to them.

"Probably because WE'RE AT SCHOOL!" Yomi yelled.

Soon after Yomi and Tomo started fighting, Rono remembers that he needs a partner to read with but the question is, who? Then a girl tapped his shoulder and it turns out it was Sakaki. She wanted to ask Rono a question and she was blushing too.

"Oh it's you Sakaki. What's up?"

"Would you...want to be ...my partner?" She asks

"Yes."

Just a minute there, Rono didn't even think about for even a second. The words just came out of his mouth, it's as if something was controlling him. Before he knew it, he felt something. Something mysterious that always came up in his dreams, it was the past. Although he couldn't remember by mind, but the heart remembers it all. He then shrugged it off, if he hadn't accepted her offer, he would've never got a partner. They both got to their seats and turned them to face eachother in front. Sakaki blushed a bit after she had her first glance at Rono's brown eyes.

"Still have that sparkle in your eyes, don't you?" She thought as she smiled.

"Should I begin Miss Sakaki." He says playfully

She giggles and then they both start to read paragraph by paragraph. Before they knew it, the bell rang for the next class. Which was 's class, this will be a teacher that no one expected him to be. He gets in class and immediately writes his name on the chalkboard. He turns around and suddenly gave Rono the chills up his spine. Kimura's face seemed out of place with his mouth open, his glasses caught reflected the light from the window.

"Who the hell is he? Why does he look so...hostile and somewhat creepy. Maybe because of his opened mouth, maybe that'll make him less creepy." He imagines the teacher with his mouth closed and he still finds him creepy.

"Dang it, he still looks the same." He looks to see right into Kimura's eyes.

"He looks like he has the eyes of a peculiar trait, hmm...maybe he's a pervert? Nah I highly doubt it, maybe it's my imagination. He could be a nice and cool guy on the inside!"

When class starts to progress slowly, he soon started to talk about...well "forks". What he actually meant is about the many paths in life. All of it went fine until Tomo asked the wrong and regrettable question to Kimura.

"Mr. Kimura! Why did you decide to become a Highschool teacher?"

"Because I like Highschool girls that's why!" He answered loudly.

A moment of silence occurred. Little did Kimura knew, he lost all trust from his students.

"Oh my god, I knew it. He was a pervert!" Rono thought

The bell rang, all the students got up and went out the door to the next class which was P.e. All the girls except Chiyo walked faster than the boys. Chiyo didn't know why the girls were so afraid of Kimura, she thought that he meant that he liked Highschool girls as in a good way instead of a perverted way. Rono came out last and found the girls walking to the P.e locker rooms.

"Hey guys, where's the boys locker room?" Rono questioned.

"Oh, that's on the other side of the building." Yomi said.

"Really...I came all the way here for nothing."

"What did you expect? Although, maybe the real reason why you came here is to take a peek at the girls in here." Tomo said with an evil grin on her face.

"What do you mean by take a peek?" It took a moment for Rono to process this in his head, then it hit him.

"GAH! No, Im not that perverted!" he says while blushing.

"Oh, so you ARE a pervert."

"No, that's not what I mean..er... I think I should go now." He leaves to the boy's locker room as he slouches a bit to the floor.

"I think I'm starting to find out why Yomi despises Tomo so much now." He sighs

He enters the locker room, just as he got inside he saw Tod by Rono's new locker.

"Hey Rono, it's been a while!"

"No it hasn't, we didn't talk for one day."

"Well yeah, it's all because you were hanging out with those girls."

Tod gets close to Rono's right ear and whispers:

"I heard that you tried to peek in the girls locker room."

"What! No I wasn't, wait a minute. How did you know about that so quickly?"

"Some dude told everyone in here, but I gotta admit it takes guts to try to peek in there. Congratulations, every one now knows you better!"

"Grr, shut up!"

Right after Rono punched Tod on his arm, they were now ready to go to their first P.e class! When they arrived, they noticed the guys staring at something. They weren't staring at anything amazing, they were just looking at the girls in their P.e shorts that were as short as bloomers. Apparently someone had a nosebleed so bad that he had to go to the nurse's office.

"Oh my, this is like heaven."

"What's so amazing about that?"

Every guy including Tod looked at him with confused faces.

"What?" Rono said

Then the P.e teacher arrived, every one has split up into two groups, one for the boys, one for the girls.

"Hello class, my name is . From now on, I will be your P.e teacher! Today we are going to test eachother on our physical test. First off, you all need a partner. The reason is because you two have to time eachother on how fast you can sprint on a 50-meter track. Now then, who's first?"

"Hey Chiyo, care to be my partner?"

Rono decided to be Chiyo's partner, while Osaka asked Sakaki to be her partner. It was odd of Osaka to be able ask someone to be her partner for the others. Yomi on the other hand became partners with Tomo. Tomo was somehow begging Yomi to be her partner. Tod noticed a girl with short hair going down to the level of her chin,it was Kaorin. He had the urge to be her partner out of no choice. He then came up to her and asked her.

"H-hello, would..you...like to be..my part..ner?" Tod had no idea why he had trouble making out those words.

Kaorin was surprised from this question, no boy had asked her to be their partner before! She had no choice but to accept.

"S-sure."

"My name is Tod, nice to meet you" he bowed.

"Mine is Kaorin, nice to meet you too. She bows too.

First up were Rono vs. Sakaki. Kurosawa raises her hand as she says:

"Ready, set."

She quickly puts her hand down then says:

"Go!"

They both start sprinting with astounding speed. Rono was so focused on his sprinting that he didn't noticed that Sakaki was right beside him! As they both got closer to the finish line, some of the girls were cheering for Sakaki, and some of the guys were cheering for Rono. When they got to the finished line, Chiyo and Osaka stopped the timers and then Chiyo gasped as she compared the time of Rono and Sakaki. Their times were both 3.01 seconds!

"Oh my gosh, they both tied and got the same time too!"

"Is that good?" Osaka questioned Chiyo

"Of course! It's really good!"

Rono and Sakaki both came up to their partners and asked them who won.

"So Chiyo, who had the fastest time?" Rono said

"Both of you!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" He had a confused face just like Sakaki's.

This showed Chiyo the resemblance of Rono and Sakaki when they were childhood friends.

"You both had the same time!

"Wow really?!"

"Yeah! Apparently, you both were tied to eachother when you got to the finish line!"

"Wow, I never thought that I'd improved all this time."

This gave Sakaki a short flashback.

*Flashback*

(Sakaki's point of view)

"Hurry Rono! The fireworks are about to start!"

"Sakaki! Can you slow down a bit, I getting tired!

At this time, I remember when Rono and I always went to the school festivals. We would go to the school and watch the fireworks. As always, Rono was always the one running behind me whenever I was running in a hurry. I would wait for him to catch his breath and run again. When he ran behind me, I would always look back at him to see if he was still there. I wouldn't leave my friend alone, we were always in this together. The thing I noticed is whenever he began breathing heavily, he looked kind of cute to be honest.

When we finally made it to our main location, we would sit down, put a blanket on the floor and wait patiently for the fireworks. One of my happiest and embarrassing times. I remember this embarrassing moment when we were looking at the fireworks.

Somehow, I accidentally put my hand on top of Rono's. He looked at me and smiled, that's when he decided to hold my hand, I was stunned at this for a second but then I shrugged it off. I always felt warm inside when ever I was with him.

Now that he improved today, it's like he starting to change since the last time I saw him. The horrible thing is that he doesn't remember me, I felt heartbroken when I first found out. I will make sure, that Rono gets his memories back again!

*Flashback ends*

"Alright Chiyo, now it's just you and Osaka! Good luck!" Rono said.

"I'll give it my all!" She pumps her fist in the air.

Chiyo and Osaka then go to the starting line. They both get on their starting poses before Kurosawa says go.

"Ready, set, Go!"

The two kids start dashing through the track, surprisingly Chiyo was taking the lead. Osaka on the other hand was struggling at first but then she got focused right away and continued on. In the end, Chiyo took first place.

"I can't believe Osaka lost to a 10-year old." Tomo sighs.

"I know right." Yomi sighs too.

Osaka and Chiyo go up to their partners to ask what was their fastest time.

"Osaka, yours was 13 seconds. Good job." Sakaki says as she tries to make her feel happy.

"Thanks Miss Sakaki!" Osaka said in a cheerful way

"Chiyo, yours is..8.57 seconds. Great job Chiyo! You were even faster than I was back when I was little." Rono said

As Sakaki and Chiyo heard this, their eyes both widened.

"Rono, what do you mean by that? Do you remember your childhood memories again?" Said the curios pigtailed girl.

"Huh? Somehow, that's all I remember for now. Strange, how come just now I started to remember that?"

A moment of silence occurred as Sakaki and Chiyo both stared at Rono thinking. All but Osaka were staring, she was off in her own world.

"Well, never mind that. I'm sure I'll remember someday, if that even happens." He sighs.

Next team was Kaorin and Tod against Yomi and Tomo. The first people who came up to versus eachother were Yomi vs. Tod. The two walk over to to the starting line and shook each others hands.

"Just to make you be sure, this isn't anything serious. Let's try our best!" He smiled.

"Same to you."

"Ok! Ready, set, Go!

The two start sprinting halfway, then they start jogging. Yomi started getting closer to the finish line, it was a close win for her until Tod started sprinting again. When they both made it on the finish line, they once again shook hands with eachother and received the stop watches from their partners. Yomi's time was 5.37 seconds while Tod's was 5.10 seconds. Tomo came over to the starting line as Kaorin stood by Tod in a frozen state.

Tod had the feeling that Kaorin was nervous, he felt the need to help. And so he did, he came face to face with Kaorin and said:

"Kaorin, I know that you're nervous about this. As you can see, I'm not really athletic. If I can do it, then you can too. I know you can!"

Kaorin felt better to these kind words.

"Thank you Tod, you really do know how to make a girl feel better."

"Uh, you're welcome." Tod blushed at this.

Tomo and Kaorin went to the finish line and turned to their starting poses as well.

"Ready, set, Go!" Kurosawa said

Tomo started first as for Kaorin, she started second of course. She ran as fast as she could but she was no where near to Tomo. She was soon about to give up but then she saw Tod by the side of the track.

He said "Come on Kaorin, you can do it. Your almost there, I know you can do it!"

She smiled and ran faster, the thing she'd noticed is that Tomo began to slow down. All of her energy was starting to fade away. In matter of seconds, Kaorin caught up to her and finally crossed the finished line. At the end she saw Tod at then end of the finish line.

"You did it!" He said as Kaorin ran to him as she gave a him a big hug, he span Kaorin around in his shoulders. They finally noticed what they were doing, this caused them to blush and separate.

"Uh, good job."

"Thanks." She giggled a bit.

After a long day of school the, Azu-group got out of school and walked home with eachother.

They were walking close to a park, this caught Rono's attention. He stopped in place and took a long look at the park. If someone stopped everyone stopped, they all look over at Rono just as they saw him by a a couple of swings. He touched one of the swings and he immediately gets his mind flooded with images. These images was him in his younger days. The last image to appear in his mind, was a girl with Raven-black hair along with a white scarf around her neck. This troubled Rono for a bit, he snaps back to reality when Yomi yells his name.

"Rono!"

*He gasps*

As he turned around to Yomi's direction, the group noticed something.

"Rono, are..you crying?"

"What?" He reached for his eyes and without notice, he crying uncontrollably without making a sound.

"Haha! He's crying like a baby!" Tomo exclaimed as she gets punched by Yomi.

Yomi got close to him face to face and asked him:

"Hey, are you okay?" She smiled

He looked at everyone who were now staring at him with confusion.

"Y-yeah...I'm okay."

As they continued on with their conversation they had before, Rono began to think what caused him to cry uncontrollably. Thus, he had no luck on finding out so he listened to the group. For the rest of the walk, he didn't say anything at all. Two of the reasons was that he wasn't a conversationalist and still stunned from the incident. After a few moments, the girls had to split up so they could go home. All who's left were Chiyo, Sakaki and Rono.

"So..Rono what happened back there?" Sakaki questioned.

"Oh that, I don't actually know to be honest."

"All I did was touch the swings and something happened."

"Like what?"

"Well for example, when I touched one of the swings a handful of images began flashing in my head!"

"What were the images of?" Chiyo asked

"Well..I can't really make it out that good but all I know is that last image I saw. It was a picture of this little girl with a white scarf. I couldn't make out her face because it was covered with darkness." Suddenly his head started hurting.

"Gah!"

*They both gasped as he screamed*

"Rono!" They both said

He fell down on his knees and started grabbing his head because of the unbearable pain. Both of the girls went towards him to help, but before they did Rono looked up at the sky. All they could notice different of him was his cold and lifeless eyes.