That Day

Friday...

It's been three days since Sakaki invited me, time passes by that fast! The tests from our classes have been completed entirely, the last class we have is Physical Education. It's an easy class for me, all you have to do is move around and participate and that's it, nothing related to your mental abilities. After all of this is finished, I'll go home to take a shower and get ready to go hang out with Sakaki and her parents. It isn't everyday that I get nervous for an event like this, I feel if something bad will happen. I think I should really get prepared just in case. Rono thought.

In the girl's locker room...

Sakaki was last to arrive at the girl's locker room, she just came back from the girl's restroom. Due to her chest size which she is ashamed of, she feels uncomfortable in her swim suit. Especially when there are boys included in the classroom. The thought of that made her wonder, does Rono ever focus on stuff like that about girls.

I really do hope that's not one of the reasons why he hangs out with me so much! She thought with an embarrassed face.

Out of nowhere, Tomo ran to Sakaki, filled with curiosity, she asked her a question about yesterday.

"How'd it go!?" She exclaimed.

"How did what go?"

"You know, asking Rono out!"

"Wha- it's not like that." She said in a low tone.

Sakaki was now blushing to the idea of her asking him out and vice versa. To her, she isn't ready for that kind of stuff yet. She wants to wait, if she loves someone truly, then she is ready for a relationship of her own. But that is way too far into the future.

Then Chiyo came jumped right into the conversation.

"I think she meant what did Rono say about getting invited?"

"He accepted."

"That's great!" Chiyo said.

"Well, let's get ready, class is about to start." Chiyo said.

She nods and goes to her locker to put on her swimsuit.

In the boy's locker room...

Things weren't going as planned, during the whole day, he's been feeling nauseous. It is very unlikely for him since he doesn't feel the need to vomit. The only time he gets nauseous is when he gets nervous over something. He thought it could be all of those tests he's been taking in his classes. It couldn't be that, he never gets like that when he's already prepared and knows what's coming up in the test.

Rono is by his locker alongside with Tod, he notices Rono's nausea when he puts his stuff in his locker.

"Rono."

"What?"

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, what makes you say that all of a sudden?"

"The way you look disgusted, are you going to vomit? If you are, stay way from me."

"Don't be absurd, I'm not going to vomit!"

"Good, I don't want the locker room to smell worse than sweaty socks." Tod finished.

They soon ended their 'little' conversation and moved on to changing into their swimming trunks. The girls and the boys move out to the pool and wait patiently for their teacher. Meanwhile, the students start to socialize with one another while the Azu-group talk for a while.

"Miss Sakaki?" Chiyo called.

"Yes?"

"Can we talk in private?"

"Sure."

The tall and quiet student and the little girl leave to a more private place where the two can talk in peace.

"What is it you want to talk about?" Sakaki asked.

"It's about Rono."

She pauses for a minute then continues with her reason of the two being here.

"I know it isn't any of my business...but...I think you need to tell him that you two used to be friends."

"Why?"

"Because..."

Chiyo became hesitant on giving her the reason.

"What if someday he disappears from us."

Sakaki became surprised at Chiyo's sudden answer.

"What do you mean?"

"You told me that the reason he left you was because he had to go with his parents for some job his dad had to do with. What if he decides to go back to America, what will you do then?"

Sakaki's eyes were wide open during Chiyo's response, she wanted to forget the whole thing that she said, but Chiyo was right. What if he really does want to move back to America again?

"You should might as well try telling him, even if he doesn't believe you in the end, at least he'll still be friends with you!"

"You're right, I'll try."

"I'm glad, sorry for causing you trouble."

"No don't worry, you didn't do anything bad."

"Really, I still feel guilty." Chiyo said rubbing the back of her head.

The moment the two girls came back, Rono finally arrived. The strange thing about him this time is that the whole way he was walking, he held his hand on his stomach. Sakaki found something odd about him, she wanted to ask him what was wrong but couldn't because the teacher arrived so everyone had to line up.

"Everyone get in line, I'll take attendance while we're at it!" Ms. Kurosawa said.

When she took attendance, the first thing that caught her sight was Rono. He was found still rubbing his stomach as if his stomach was aching.

"Rono you alright there?" She asked loudly from the front with the clipboard in hand.

"Yes I'm fine."

She took his word still not convinced and proceeds with the attendance sheet. When finished, she announced something different today.

"Alright class, today we are going to do something different."

Kurosawa walks in the storage room and comes out with a box full of used goggles.

"We will have a race. For teams, the boys will go against the girls."

"So the battle between the genders." Rono commented quietly.

"All girls come here to get your goggles, second will be the boys."

As said, the girls were first to get the goggles while the boys went last. Both the boys and girls separated from each other now forming separate teams. Rono didn't have a chance to talk to one of his friends in P.e.

Looks like I'm on my own, am I? He thought.

"Now don't be all sad Rono!"

He heard a voice from behind, it was in fact Tod.

"I'm not, it's just been a while that I've been alone at school."

"What?" Tod said.

"Forget it."

All of them waited for Kurosawa's orders. They wait, they wait, until she finally announced what was next to do.

"Okay, first the shortest people will go first and then the tallest people will go last! Those of you who can't swim may use a kick board." She glances at Chiyo and Osaka after she said this.

Chiyo was up first and some other short guy. The boy climbed on top the starting block and readied his starting position. As for Chiyo, she is in the pool with her kick board wrapped around in her arms. Chihiro is in charge on counting off, while Kurosawa watches all the way from under the cool shade with a bench.

"Ready...set...go!" Chihiro yelled.

The boy dives in the pool, the way he dives in for him is like he jumps inside a pool of gelatin. They expected Chiyo to lose, but by surprise, she didn't.

The whole time the two were racing, the boy looked back at his opponent. The first thing that caught him was Chiyo's struggling face, she looked like she was about to cry. He felt so bad for the cute little girl.

"Ugh, damn it." He said.

He now made his decision, he's going to let the little girl win this time, that way she doesn't feel down. It took a minute for her to touch the opposite direction from the starting block. When she was halfway from reaching the starting block, he started swimming again slowly to let the girl win, that way she will think that she actually swam faster than him.

"Wow, great job Chiyo!" Yomi said.

"Awesome job!" Tomo said.

"Congrats!" Kaorin said.

When the boy returned to his team, most of his teammates were chastising him for his actions.

"Sorry I couldn't help it, I can't just let a little girl cry!"

After her, four more boys and girls got their turn to compete. Now it's is Tomo Takino's turn to compete to her fullest. A strange coincidence occurred with her opponent, that one opponent is actually the same boy who helped her out in the hallway! She tries her best to forget what actually happened during the whole incident.

"Hey!" She yelled from the other starting block.

"Huh?"

"You like my body?" She teased.

As soon as she said that, he blushes a shade of pink on his face.

"Tomo!" Yomi yelled.

"Ready...set...go!" Chihiro started the race.

Both swimmers dive in the pool as she said 'go'. At first Tomo was first in the lead, she is the energetic one after all. When she reached to the other wall, the opponent was about to catch up to her when she made it halfway back. With each stroke he took, there was little hope that he could win. Too bad that Tomo actually won the race, he now felt bad that he had let his team down. He gets out of the pool now ashamed.

"Don't worry, you weren't half bad." Rono said to him.

"He's right!" Tod said.

"Thanks."

The boy looked back at Tomo who was now in the middle of the crowd congratulating her on her achievement. The moment he looked at her from afar for a decent amount of time, she noticed him. In return, she winks at him as if she were telling him to come closer. Of course, he blushed and turned back around.

What was that about? Rono thought.

Again, three more boys and girls went on to continue the competion. Now it was Yomi's turn to compete. The opponent barely said anything, he instead said:

"Ready?"

Yomi nods back to him.

After that, Yomi won flawlessly, she might of competed even better than Tomo. At last, there were only a few more competitors after Kaorin and Tod. Both of them climbed on their own starting block.

Seconds before Chihiro started the race, he told Kaorin something.

"Good luck."

"Thanks, you too." She said.

Kaorin did her best this time, it still wasn't enough to beat him. Even though they were both the same size. At that, Osaka lost which caused the girls a point. They were three points above the boys, because of that, the boys scored two more points. Luckily, the girls were one point above the boys. Are the boys going to win this point to make this a tie, or are they going to lose that point which will cause them to go back home with shame?

There are only the last two competitors left to go. Those competitors are the tallest in for their own gender in the class. Those two were Sakaki and Rono.

"Looks like it's my turn."

He walks away until he was grabbed by his arm from Tod's hand.

"Do you promise that you'll win?" Tod asked.

He yanks his hand away from Tod and leaves.

"Can't promise you anything, if I lose, I lose, if I win, I win, it's not a big deal."

Rono gets on his team's starting block, Sakaki gets on her's as well. He breathes in and out before he starts to swim. The first thing he does was look at Sakaki who was doing the same. They both smiled to one another, Rono had something in his mind.

"Sakaki."

"Yes?"

"Even if I win, you won't get mad right?"

"That is if you win." She winked.

"I'm being serious Sakaki, we'll still be friends even if that did happen?"

"Of course, I don't want to lose a friend."

He was now relieved at her response.

"Right! Let's do our best!"

Before they even started, Miss Kurosawa interrupted them.

"Wait! I think we should do something different this time. How about if you two swim two fifties."

"You mean four laps?" Rono asked.

"Yes Rono." Kurosawa responded.

"Fine."

"You may start Chihiro."

"Okay!" Chihiro said.

"On your mark...get set!"

Everyone thought that this would be just a normal match. Sakaki has the best natural athletic ability, so they thought Rono had no chances on beating her. What they didn't know is how much he has improved over the years.

"Go!" Chihiro yelled out.

The two tallest people of their own genders dove in the pool swiftly as a launching missle. Under the water, they both kicked their feet up and down in the butterfly swimming style. That ways they can get a quick boost from the opposite wall. As both of them had stuck their heads out of the surface of the water, everyone out of the pool gasped that they were even matched on the distance. Sakaki and Rono both swam at the same speed, but this speed isn't what anyone has ever seen! No body ever knew that Rono would be this fast, he's going against the most fastest girl in the whole school!

Already this early, they were on their third lap halfway to the opposite side. For Rono, he thought he was swimming an average speed as everyone else. Just because Sakaki is going the same speed as him doesn't mean that they are not fast.

If I win this one then we'll win a point right? We just need one more to catch up with the girls and it will later be called a tie. Sorry Sakaki but I need to win this for the boys, you don't mind, right? He thought.

After that thought, he increased his speed. He was now three feet ahead of Sakaki. As time progressed on their fourth and final lap, his whole body was now in front of Sakaki. With each powerful stroke he took, it was enough to get more speed. He may not be as muscular as many of the boys who work out in the gym, but what they don't notice is how amazing is his agility. He's the guy you don't want to challenge on a race along with Sakaki. Before he knew it, he touched the wall now causing him to win the race. The boys are now tied with the girls, so in reality, everybody won! The boys were now screaming in joy, some of the girls were had their mouth wide open on how he won in the last lap.

Rono gets out of the pool, water was dripping from his soaked body, he was breathing heavily from all the swimming he's done in the pool. The boys were now congratulating on his race.

"That..was..amazing!" Tod said.

"Are you even human?" One of the boys said.

"Thanks, and yes I'm human." Rono replied back.

He turns around to find Sakaki still in the pool, she was about to get out of the pool from the edge. Rono came up to her and offered her his hand.

"That was amazing, Sakaki."

She blushes from his compliment and takes his hand now lifting her up.

"Thank you." She said.

"Great job guys, class dismissed! Have a safe weekend!"

"You too." Everyone said back.

All the students went to their locker rooms to first take a short shower in the bathroom at the shower section of the locker room and then change into their uniform again. After that race had occurred, Rono is now became more well known that he had ever been. All they talked about was his speed, now all they wanted to see was how good he is on a different kind of sport.

When Rono got out of the building, he went to the front school gates as always just to find his tall and patient friend waiting for him with her suitcase. He gets closer and Sakaki immediately finds him.

"Hey." He held up his hand waving at her.

"Hey."

"You tired?" Rono asked.

"A little." She responded.

"Me too, but it's not enough to prevent me from going to that little event you and your parents are having."

"Yeah."

"Are we just going to walk around the city and maybe go shop around in a few stores?"

"Mhm." She nods.

"What are you love birds talking about?" Tomo exclaimed from afar.

Sakaki blushed as she heard her. Her friends were with Tomo as well.

"Huh?" Rono wondered.

"Oh hey Tomo, ready to to home?"

They all nod yes and get off of the school campus.

Just like everyday, Yomi, Osaka and Tomo split apart in a group from Rono, Sakaki and Chiyo to go to their neighborhood. Along the way back to home, they bumped into one of Chiyo's friends from grade school.

"Chiyo is that you?" Said one of the girls.

"Yuka, Miruchi!" Chiyo runs up and greets them.

"It's been a long while!" Chiyo said.

"It sure has" Yuka said.

Sakaki and Rono wanted to see who were these little girls that Chiyo was talking to. As they walk closer and closer to them, a turn of events had occurred. Rono finds something familiar with one of the girls. It's the girl beside Chiyo's right side, the one with long and brown hair which almost reached her back. When Yuka found Rono in her sight, she instantly recognized him.

"Have we met before?" Rono asked Yuka.

"Wait, are you the one who helped me out at the mall?" Yuka asked Rono.

"So we have indeed. Yes that was me."

"He's the helpful person you were talking about before?" Miruchi asked Yuka.

"Yeah he is!"

"So I'm assuming that you already met Yuka before?" Chiyo asked.

"We have but...we don't exactly know each other's names." He rubs the back of his head.

"Then let me introduce them to you two." Chiyo said.

"This is Miruchi and this is Yuka."

"Hello, it's very nice to meet you all." Yuka and Miruchi said as they bow down to Sakaki and Rono.

"And these are my friends from high school." Chiyo informed.

"This is Miss Sakaki, and that is Rono." She points to each of them.

"It's nice to you meet you." They bow down to Yuka and Miruchi.

"Are these your friends Chiyo?" Rono asked.

"Yes they are, from my grade school to be exact." Chiyo said.

"Nice, how are things for the both of you?"

"Pretty great great if you ask me." Yuka said.

"Same here." Miruchi said.

"That's good."

"I was wondering, what's popular in school now?" Chiyo asked to both Miruchi and Yuka.

"Jump roping, all the kids are doing it!" Yuka said.

"It's really fun." Miruchi added.

"Wow, how I miss those days." Chiyo said looking up to the sky.

"You sound so mature Chiyo!" Miruchi exclaimed to Chiyo.

"You really think so? I still feel the same as back then."

"Nah, you're still the same old crying 10 year old." Rono said.

"Hey!" Chiyo pouts in annoyance as she looks at Rono.

His statement made everyone except Chiyo chuckle.

"Hehe, you know I'm kidding." He smiles to her.

"Oh good."

She carries on and says good bye to her friends.

"It's been good seeing you guys again." Chiyo said.

"It really has, let's hang out with each other sometime." Yuka said.

"Like a movie?" Miruchi said.

"Sounds great!" Chiyo said.

"Goodbye." Said Yuka and Miruchi as they walked away and waved bye at the same time facing at them.

Chiyo, Rono and Sakaki waved back as they continue to walk home.

During their walk home, Chiyo brought up something to both of her tall friends.

"So, I heard that the two of you are going to the mall, along with Sakaki's parents."

"Yes, what about it?" Sakaki asked the curious little girl.

"Oh nothing particular, it just would be fun if all of us could bond by doing an activity of some kind."

"We could if we planned it out." Rono said.

"What do you want to do?" Sakaki asked.

"Anything, as long as we enjoy the activity, together!" Chiyo added.

"Hmm, maybe someday we'll plan out something." Rono told her.

"Really!? That would be great!"

He chuckles as he rubs the top of Chiyo's head.

The further they walked, the closer they were to Rono's apartment building. He tells Sakaki and Chiyo that he'll be off to his house to get readied up before the trip to the city. He waves them good bye and runs off to his apartment.

After taking a shower, he prepares his stuff he needs for shopping. Like the his wallet and his phone. Then he puts on his deodorant under his now cleansed armpit, sprays on his cologne on his shirt and under his arm sleeves. After that, he brushes his teeth and gargles with his mouth with mouth wash. Now he combs his brown hair back and forth, then the last thing he's done was wash his face throughly. Now he is ready to go. The moment he gets out, he is wearing nothing fancy nor delicate but he's wearing casual clothes for any kind of day. This time he leaves the building and walks to Sakaki's house.

After ten minutes of waiting, Rono finally made it to the house. He presses on the intercom button and asks if there was anybody at the house. Indeed there was, instead of letting him in the house, they all came out at once and told him to get in the car parked in the garage. He does as he's told and opens the right door of the back seat of the car. Although there were two more cars, they decided to take the one where it had enough seats for five people. By car, it didn't take long to get to the nearest parking garage in the city of Tokyo.

First stop was to go to a sushi restaurant, the thing is, the sushi the restaurant serves there have different kind of varieties. Sushi with beef on top, sausage on top, bacon on top, chicken on top, you name it. The way you get your food is by waiting on your seats. On your table, there are these tablets that have the menu with you, with that you can choose your desired sushi. On each table, there are small tread mills with plates of one sushi on top which you can pick up. The yellow plates are the ones you've ordered, as usual they are warm, fresh and ready. As for the normal plates, those have been out since ten minutes ago, it isn't a wise choice to eat those. Later, the chefs will dispose of those sushi.

While you waited for your order to arrive, a waitress asks you what drink you would like. Everyone else asked for their desired beverage. Of course, Rono would ask for green tea.

Right when the waitress left, a question came up to him.

"So you like green tea huh?" Sakaki's dad said.

"Yeah, it's my favorite drink after all."

"Ahem."

It was clear that Sakaki and her mother knew that that was their cue for their next step to the plan.

"I'll be going to the ladies' room, come with me Sakaki."

"Oh, okay."

The two females walk towards the bathrooms leaving the two men at the table waiting for the meals.

"So...what's your relationship with my daughter?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what do you two do during school?"

"Oh that! Let me think."

It wasn't long until he finally said what was done before.

"Sometimes when school ends, we go to the vending machines to drink some juice. We would sit and chat on the benches. But most of the time, we hang out with our friends too."

"Oh you have more, do you mind if you tell me a bit about them?"

"Not at all. First up Tomo, she's the most energetic girl out of the whole group. She could be teasing or annoying you at times, but she's still bearable. Then Ayumu A.K.A Osaka."

"Why would she be named Osaka?" Sakaki's father asked.

"She is from Osaka."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"Yeah, anyways."

Rono continues after his comment.

"She can't be described in words to be honest, but I'll try my best. She can be easily distracted by the smallest of things, sometimes can be spaced out during class, oddly creepy but in an innocent way."

"Interesting."

"Next is Koyomi, A.K.A Yomi. She's the most mature one in the group, she focuses on her studies and everything. Fun fact about her is that she was friends with Tomo ever since grade school!"

"Really? That's one interesting group of friends you got their, anyone else?"

"That's all besides Chiyo, you know the child prodigy you met last weekend?"

"Yep can't forget that girl." Sakaki's dad chuckles along with Rono.

After the heart warming chat they had, Sakaki and her mother arrive by the table.

"I see that you're having fun without us huh?"

"Seems like it." Sakaki said.

Soon after that, everyone ate the delicious varieties of sushi. The restaurant was once again filled up with more customers than before! The family leaves the restaurant and carry on to their plans of shopping through out the city.

The sky began to blacken, the gentle breeze of the wind blew on every person in Tokyo's streets. The owners from every store turned on the outside lights so it can be easier to walk on the sidewalk. It was now time for everyone to go home, but for people who want to stay up a little longer, they stay and carry on.

Rono has never been outside in the busy streets of Tokyo at night. This was his first time doing this kind of thing, usually he would go to bed at this time of 9pm, but since he's with his friend, he can stay up a bit longer.

Something strange happened, he felt that paranoid feeling again. He began to breathe in and out very quickly. He observed his surroundings in case if there was anyone suspicious-looking. No one was there, but something caught his sight.

There was a cat in the street in his left side. Luckily it was safe because the drivers drove around it. Suddenly the unthinkable happened, from very far, sirens are heard by the nearby citizens from where Rono is standing. Those sirens were coming from five police cars, they were chasing a sky blue car. What was odd is that one police car turned left to a different street leaving it separated from the other police cars. All the cars that were in the street next to Rono have moved to the side of street to let the police pass. The most worrying part was that car that the police was chasing is going to run over the cat!

Rono decides to save the cat from getting run over, he then jumps over the little fence that separates the side walk from the street. As soon as he looked at the cat from afar, something came in his mind, it was a name, a name that he had forgotten until now.

Why is that cat so familiar? He kind...of..looks like-. Sakaki thought until Rono said something out loud that completely shocked her.

"NEKO-SAN!" Rono shouted.

No way! Sakaki and her parents thought.

Rono runs as fast as he can, with his impressive athletic abilities, it was enough to catch her, but it wasn't enough to out run a car. The moment he picked up the cat, the car was already ten feet from where Rono was standing.

"Out of the way!" Said the man inside the sky blue car while sticking his head and left arm out of the window.

What Rono didn't notice was fact that the driver had a gun in his hand. When he felt that something worse was going to happen, he lightly tossed the cat on the ground to make it escape. Shortly, the driver shot Rono on his right shoulder leaving him to fall on the ground. It was then that the driver bumped into him with his car, leaving Rono to have minor injuries. Luckily the speed of the car was just 20 mph, it wasn't enough to leave Rono with major injuries. Immediately the driver comes out of the car and walk to him. He takes out his gun now with his right hand.

Wait...that scar on his right hand...it can't be. He thought.

"You shouldn't of interfered with my plans, kid." He said the serial killer now pointing his gun at Rono's head.

Rono thought this was the end of the line for him, he really felt bad that he was going to get killed in front of many people, including Sakaki. But then, something happened.

"RONO!" Said someone from the left side of the sidewalk.

A gun shot is heard, the bullet went straight to the gun that the killer was holding. Now the gun fell of of his hand. When Rono turned his head to the left sidewalk, he noticed that it was an policeman. When he looked at the officer's face, he immediately recognized him, it was his dad.

His dad took out his taser gun and shot it at the most wanted person in Japan. The killer fell to the ground now stunned from the electricity. He then handcuffed the killer in the end.

"Thank god." Rono said before he fell unconscious.

The last thing that he saw with his eyes were Sakaki and her parents and Rono's dad running over to him before he closed his eyes.