Aftermath

After all of the events that occurred after the resurrection, memories were finally recovered once again since all of those years. As soon as Rono woke up from his long and deep slumber, everything got explained to Yuudai, the doctors and the nurses. They stood in utter silence during the whole time. They thought it was an absolute miracle that he came back to life thirty seconds later! After the whole explanation, the doctors became fully aware of his condition. They decided to be extra observant with him by sending more than one nurse at a time in his room. Because of the wounds he has and the blood loss, he'll have to stay for two more days in the hospital room until he can go back to school. Ronin never came back that day because he had to sign documents from work, so he never had time to visit.

Now that he remembers, Sakaki doesn't have to keep secrets from him any longer! She can finally talk to his child hood friend once again without him forgetting about the times they played with each other when they were little kids.

When it began to get dark, Mrs. Fukushima told Rono that he should start to prepare on going to sleep. He felt a bit uneasy when he heard her, this was his first time sleeping in the hospital. After all of the following events that happened before, he was unsure about the situation. Sakaki was oddly the first one to notice him acting strange. When the nurse left, she came up to him asked him what was wrong while her parents were discussing things with the doctors outside of the room.

"Rono, anything the matter?" She asked.

"Oh, uh." He wasn't too sure how to answer her, so he tried lying to her.

"N-nothing at all." He said while rubbing the side of his elbow.

She wasn't convinced from his answer.

"I know there's something." She said.

"Uh, w-what makes you say that?" Rono asked.

"Ever since we were little kids, you always had the habit to rubbing the side of your elbow whenever you're lying!" She said.

He sighs, she caught him red handed.

"You got me." He said.

She had a concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong? You can tell me anything."

"You sure you won't tell anyone?"

"We pinky promised remember?"

He thinks about it for a while and remembers how it went.

Flashback to the year 1997...

It was a nice and bright evening at the park, there were gentle breezes from the wind, the sun was close to setting and the sun shines over the park. At this time, Rono and Sakaki would prepare to sit down on the highest hill of the park before the sun would set. Something came up in his mind, he was well aware that his friend was taller than him. He thought because of his size, he would get in Sakaki's way.

"Sakaki?"

"Mhm?" She nods.

"Am...I..annoying?" Rono asked.

She was confused on why Rono would ask that.

"What makes you say that?" She asked.

"I thought that since I'm shorter than you, maybe I would get in your way of things."

"Rono, height doesn't matter, you're fine just the way you are."

"You're not lying?"

"I'm not lying." Sakaki said.

"Really?" Rono said as he looked up to her face.

This caused Sakaki to sigh. She stood up and then squats down to tell him something face to face.

"Let's do this, let's promise to never keep secrets from each other again, sound good?"

"Okay."

"Pinkie promise?" She said with her pinkie poking out.

"Pinkie promise!" Rono said happily as his pinkie hugs her's, now meaning that they'll keep the promise.

Flashback ends...

"Wow, I forgot about that. You really remember that?" Rono asked her.

"Always have, always will."

She made him chuckle, it then ended with the both of them laughing it out.

"I'm glad that I'm friends with you." Rono said causing her to blush.

"Um, anyways, why did you look so worried?" Sakaki changed the subject.

"Oh, well, you see, this is my first time sleeping in a hospital. So, erm, I'm a little, um...nervous." He gulped.

"Oh, nothing to be ashamed about." Sakaki responded.

"Easy for you to say! You never slept in a hospital alone before!" Rono said.

"I guess so."

She tries thinking a way that would make things easier for him. After a few seconds of brainstorming, a new idea popped up.

"How about if I sleep here for the night?" Sakaki exclaimed.

"Sleep here? I don't think that's a great idea, you need your beauty sleep, don't you?" Rono said.

"Don't worry about it, I'll sleep as soon as I crawl in to bed."

"If you say so."

"Great! I'll ask my parents."

She walks out of the room and looks for her parents. They are found talking to one of the doctors, her father was the one doing most of the talking while her mother back him up. She runs up to them and asks her mother first.

"Mother, can I sleep over with Rono for the night?" She asked.

Ayano fully surprised at the sudden question, replies to her immediately.

"As long as he's okay with it." Ayano said.

"He's fine with it."

"All right, we'll go home to prepare your clothes."

"Thank you mother!" Sakaki said as she hugged her mother.

"You're welcome, sweet heart." She hugged back.

She then goes back to the room and tells him the news. Rono surprised at her mother's response, he gladly accepts her accompany for the night.

"I'll be back." Sakaki said.

"I'll be waiting." Rono said to Sakaki with a smile as she returns it too.

She leaves the room once again and waits for her parents to finish up the conversation with the doctors. After a long while of talking, Yuudai and Ayano finally wrapped it up and left with Sakaki. Yuudai drove Sakaki and Ayano back to their home. When they made it home, Sakaki would go to the shower room to cleanse herself, washing off all of that emotional pain she had for the day. When she takes a bath, she would think about her childhood friend, looking up at the ceiling in the bathtub.

"Thank goodness, Rono has finally recovered his memories again. Which means we can finally go back how we used to." A tear ran down her right cheek.

Without realizing, she began to shed tears, but these weren't just any kind of tears, but tears of joy. She starts chuckling on how she suddenly started crying.

"I'm just glad you're back Rono." She said.

When done taking a shower and a bath, she walks to her room upstairs to change into her pajamas and then covering herself with a jacket on her upper body while she wears sweatpants to cover the lower part of her body. The next step she has to do is to get some spare clothes for the next day and place it in a small suitcase. When that is done, she walks downstairs and tells her father that she is now ready to leave. Her father decides to drive her to the hospital to Rono.

"I'll drive you there, just let me go get my keys. I'll be back honey." Yuudai told Ayano.

"Bye sweetie." Ayano responded while blowing a kiss to him which caused him to chuckle. Sakaki blushes at the scene between her mother and father.

Yuudai goes to the front door where he left his car keys by a table beside the door. He opens the door, walks to his small car which is able to hold four people, opens the car door, sits down, puts on his seatbelt and starts the engine. Sakaki on the other hand opens the gate and waits for her father to drive the car out of the gate and then closes the gates as he gets out. She then opens the right door of the car, sits down in her car seat, closes the door and puts on her seat belt.

"Ready?" Yuudai said.

"Ready." Sakaki responded.

And that, Yuudai drives Sakaki to the hospital.

Things went on a different turn, it was 1am in the morning. When outside, the bright moon shines on the city, barely any cars in the city's streets, few people walking on the side walks. Stores, family restaurants, bars and grocery stores were closed, except for the convenience stores. Things were calmer for the people in Tokyo now that there is no major danger. However for Sakaki, she began to get worried that Rono might of fallen asleep on her. She thought with Rono's condition, he would likely be.

The ride was shorter than expected when they made it to the hospital in 7 minutes. To make sure things didn't go wrong, Yuudai accompanied Sakaki to Rono's room. When they both made it to the door where Rono was in, Sakaki hopes for the best.

"I'm guessing that this is the part where I leave, right?"

"Oh no, you don't have to!" Sakaki said in her usual quiet tone.

"Nah, it's okay. I'm tired anyways." He turns around and tells her one more thing.

"Don't be too lovey-dovey with each other."

This caused Sakaki to blush.

"It's not like that!" She responded.

"Ha ha, just kidding. Good night." He said to his daughter.

"Good night." She said.

Yuudai walks our of the exit and leaves to home. Sakaki takes a deep breathe before she opens the door. Her tension started to increase as the door knob slowly twists. She opens the door then closes it quietly. The curtains were still in the way, so the nurse recently came here to do something with the IV. She decides to open the curtains slowly to avoid any noise that would wake up Rono. To her surprise, Rono was up and awake looking outside the window in the dark room. He then took notice of her arrival.

"Welcome back." He said.

"You're still awake?"

"Yeah."

"But you need your sleep." Sakaki said.

"I was waiting for you, I wanted to at least see you one more time before I sleep."

She smiles at her friend and sits on the small couch in the room to sleep on. She takes off her jacket and sweatpants to reveal her pajamas.

"Still like those cat pajamas huh?"

"Yeah, I sometimes wear it." Sakaki said with a blush of embarrassment.

Sakaki takes out her blanket out of her bag and covers herself with it.

"Good night Rono." She said.

"Good night Sakaki." Rono said.

After that, the two friends sleep at the same time. Sakaki now had a calmer dream while Rono dreams of one of the memories he had with Sakaki during their childhood. Sakaki has nothing to worry now, with her friend on her side, she can feel a bit more confident in most situations now. Friends really are a special kind of relationship in life.

The next day which then transitioned to Sunday morning, Sakaki was first to wake up, Rono was still asleep. She lifts up her head and then her upper body to check if Rono was awake. Since he wasn't, she takes out a magazine from the small coffee table beside her and reads while she waits for Rono's awakening. It took at least an hour for him to wake, Sakaki finished reading most of the magazine while she was waiting.

Rono turns his body to the right and slowly opens his eyes. The first sight he sees is Sakaki reading a magazine on the couch.

"Morning Sakaki." Rono said in a tired voice.

"Morning." Sakaki said.

"What are you reading there?"

Sakaki started to think of excuses of telling him she wasn't reading any cat magazines. But she remembered that he was her friend that she had trusted fully since back in the day. There was nothing to be ashamed of anyways, so she told him.

"A cat magazine." Sakaki said in her usual voice used at school.

"That's cute, can I see?" He said.

Sakaki sighed in relief, it was a good thing that he liked cats too. She stood up and dragged her seat close to Rono's right side of the bed to show him the cat pictures. They both shared a friendly moment with each other, Sakaki would show him her personal favorites and she would talk about one of the articles that the magazine had to him. This was something they had in common for a long time.

This reminded Sakaki of the time when they both had a sleep over at her house. For half of the day, they would either play on her back yard or stay in her room all day looking at cute animal pictures in the magazine. Both had a long history together as best friends. As the conversations ended, the nurse who had the name tag that said 'Fukushima' came inside the room with a tray of breakfast.

"Good morning Rono." The nurse said.

She looked at the tall girl in the room.

"Oh I didn't know that there was going to be guests here, I'll bring up another tray of breakfast!" She said.

"Oh no you don't have to."

"Not so fast young lady, you need your energy for the day, I'll be back with your food."

And thus, she places the tray on Rono's bed and leaves the room to get Sakaki's plate.

"A girl like you shouldn't delay breakfast, you know. You need it as much as I do." Rono said.

"I know, sorry." Sakaki said.

"No need to apologize, the least you can do is eat breakfast with me." He insisted.

"If you say so." She waits patiently for the nurse to arrive with her tray.

Later, the nurse came back with Sakaki's food.

"Here you go."

"Thank you so much." Sakaki said.

"You're welcome, tell me if you need anything, okay Rono?"

"Right." Rono said.

"I'll be off, have a nice breakfast you two." The nurse said.

She then leaves the room leaving the two alone again.

"Alright time to dig in." Rono said.

But as always, they were thanked for the food.

"Thank you for the food!" Said Rono and Sakaki as they clapped their own hands together. They then begin to eat, as they progressed, a new topic has been brought up.

"I had a question in mind for a while now."

"What is it?"

"Where's Neko-san." He blurted out.

This surprised Sakaki and stopped her from eating any more.

"What about her?"

"Where is she?"

"S-she." She hesitated to tell him the answer, but it was no good to keep anything from him, especially the promise they both made.

"She's been sent to an animal shelter." She said.

His eyes widen in shock, this was a sad thing for him too. Stray animals would have to stay in the cage for a long while, maybe their whole lives. But what made him worry more was how the animal shelter would treat the animals, they could treat them carefully or become extremely cruel to them.

"Do you know of her condition?" Rono asked.

"I'm not sure." Sakaki said.

"I miss her, I remember how she would always sleep at the park and we would pet her while she was asleep." He smiled as he thought about the memory.

"What should we do?" Sakaki asked.

He starts brainstorming for any idea that would set Neko-san free. But he had his own ideas.

"Aha, you said that your mother was allergic to cats, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"How about if I adopt Neko-san?"

"You really think you can do that?" Sakaki asked.

"The landlord of my apartment building allows pets."

"That's great news!" Sakaki said in delight.

"That means I can finally give her a nice home." Rono said.

"She won't have to suffer anymore, when are you planning to adopt him?" Sakaki said.

"Probably tomorrow."

"You're leaving tomorrow?" Sakaki asked.

"Yeah, but I won't be able to go to school though. The nurse told me I'll be out sometime around 3pm."

"Oh that's good news."

"I guess, but I really want to see Yomi, Tomo, Chiyo and Osaka again!" He said.

"I know, but your health comes first. You just have to stay here one more day and we'll reunite again. Seem like a plan?"

"Yeah, let's do that. On the day I come back to school, maybe you and the others can come visit my place for a small reunion."

She chuckles at how they're already making plans for each other so fast.

"Sure, I'd like that." She smiled.

The next day...

It was now Monday, which meant it is now a school day for most of the kids. Even though Rono was now capable to go to school now, he still couldn't go back home yet. It was planned that he would be leaving sometime at 3pm, school would already be over anyways. He was told that his dad had to sign a few papers regarding his medical information. It's been a long while since he's seen his dad in person again.

While Rono's dad was in one of the hospital's offices, he began signing some of the papers. Meanwhile, Ms. Fukushima was sent some of Rono's clothes from his dad, they were brand new, recently bought from the store. This allowed Rono to finally take a shower, so he takes one in the bathroom which also was a shower head on the wall.

After all of his time in bed, it has been a while since he actually walked on the ground. The legs felt a tad weak at first, but his legs were soon adjusted after a few stand ups. On the first drop of water from the shower, chills went down his spine, after so long, he felt truly relaxed and purified. He was happy to live again.

When done taking a shower, he would opens the door slightly to tell the nurse that he was going to change. The nurse nods, gets up, closes the curtains from the window, walks behind the others curtains that was located beside the door and closes it to give Rono privacy. As everyone would do, he dries every part of his body up, then he puts a leg through the holes of the boxers one leg at a time, puts on his jeans, next he puts on his fresh and white shirt. He looks through the bag that came with the clothes to see if there was a deodorant. Indeed there was, there was a note attached with it too, it said this.

Thought you might need this

-Ronin

"Thanks dad." Rono said.

He opens up the deodorant and uses it, after finishing, he tells the nurse that he was now packed up and ready to go.

"Good, I'll lead you to your father downstairs, he should probably be finished by now."

She walks with him to the elevator and presses the floor 1 button. As the number gets close from 22 to 1, she tells him one last thing before he leaves.

"Rono."

"Yes?"

"You go to Cherry Blossom Highschool, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Any chance that you know a student named Tod Fukushima?" she asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know!"

"He's my son."

"Oh, no wonder."

"Do you any chance talk to him too?"

"In fact, I do, we sometimes talk and help each other out on some things." Rono said.

"That's nice, tell him I said hi when you go back to school."

This gave Rono a new question to ask.

"Oh, aren't you going back home with him?"

"No, I have to stay here for a few days. It's sad really." Said the Ms. Fukushima.

"Do you stay here often?" Rono asked.

"Yes I do."

"That explains." He muttered.

"What do you mean by that?"

"The day I bumped into Tod at the mall that day, he told me he had to go to a convenience store to buy some groceries for his little sister. I was wondering why he would do that. Speaking of it, where's his father?"

"We...divorced." She said in a depressed tone.

"Oh...I'm sorry that I brought that up." Rono apologized.

"It's alright really, that was way long ago."

"But still, I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about, it was all in the past."

Before they knew it, they made it to the first floor. The moment the elevator slid open, Ronin was in front.

"Have a nice day." Ms. Fukushima said with a warm smile.

"Thank you, you too."

He runs to his dad that was standing by the counter.

"Dad!" Rono yelled out.

"Rono!" Ronin said.

They both join in a heartwarming father and son hug.

"It's been so long!" Rono said.

"It has been." Ronin said.

They both hugged each other tighter until they finally departed.

"I heard what happened, that was way too close. All of that could of been avoided if you hadn't ran to the street to save that cat."

"Speaking of the cat, there's something I want to do first."

"What is it?" Ronin asked.

"This might take a while, let's sit down for a minute." Rono said.

He leads his father to the waiting seats and tells him the whole story. Ronin was told about the whole situation regarding Neko-san. All about how she was with him since he was little kid and the fact about adopting her.

"I see, so this cat has been with you since the beginning."

"Correct."

"I know that you want to adopt this cat, but that cat is way older than its lifespan you know?"

"I know."

"Fine, I'll let's you adopt it. But since this is an old cat, you do know what's to come, right?"

"I know what's to come. But the least I could do, is repay her with a cozy home instead of her sleeping on the cold and dangerous streets."

Ronin sighs, he is left with no choice but to accept.

"Alright, where's the animal shelter?"

"It's close to my local convenience store." Rono said.

"Then off we go." Ronin said.

They both go to the animal shelter where Neko-san was located. Since they both came from the hospital, it took them 10 minutes to get there. When Ronin parked his police car, they both get out of the car and enter the building. On the first sight, they encounter a receptionist on the counter, it was a male that looked like he was in his thirties. He had glasses, little strains of white hair because of his age showed up, he was seen looking through one of the documents on his desk. When the door closed, he looked up at them.

"Welcome, what can I do for you today?"

"We would like to adopt a pet." Rono said.

"You sure about that, are you responsible enough?"

"Yes I am." Rono replied.

The receptionist turned his face towards Rono's father.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he's a responsible person."

"Alrighty then, what kind of pet do you want?" The receptionist asked.

"A cat."

"Oh, we just got a new one delivered here just three days ago!"

"Is the cat's fur white and covered with brown spots!?" Rono exclaimed.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"That's the one I'm adopting!"

"Wow, made your choice already huh? You two come with me, just to make you sure about your choice."

The receptionist lead the two through the door where all the pets were located. All of them were placed in a cage individually. The part of the room where Neko-san was located was way farther from where they had entered.

"This is the one." Said the receptionist as he pointed at the cage which was at the lower level.

Rono looks through the cage and sees Neko-san again, but something was off. She was lying in the ground looking at the opposite side of the metal wall. She was depressed, depressed of not being able to go outside again, or is that what she thought?

"Hey, Neko-san." Rono said.

She immediately recognized the voice and turned her head around right away.

"It is you, I knew it. Come on you're living with me now." He smiled.

She runs to the exit of the cage and waits for it to open.

"All right then, I'll open this cage, but after that." The receptionist said.

The receptionist turns his head to Ronin.

"You need to fill in some papers."

"As expected." Ronin commented.

"I'll open this cage for ya." He said to Rono.

The moment the cage opened, Neko-san jumps inside Rono's arms.

"He he he, glad you're back." He chuckles.

Ronin went to the office to fill some papers involving the insurance, the agreement of taking care of the cat and filling in an application about your living quarters.

Once that was done, Rono is now the official pet owner of Neko-san. Leaving the animal shelter, Ronin asks his son if he has something else to do.

"Anything else you have in mind?"

"Actually, yes I do, can you please take me to the pet store?"

"Sure, you buying food and supplies for the cat?"

"Exactly."

And thus, they visit the pet store, along with Neko-san. They go to every aisle to buy his cat a scratching post, a litter box, a bowl and a bag full of cat food. Ronin suggested that he would buy them instead, but Rono declined. When they acquired them, Rono buys all of it with his own money. That was all it for Rono's errands for the day. He asks his father one more favor which is to take him to his apartment building.

When arriving, Rono and Ronin get out of the car while Rono has Neko-san in his arms. Soon, Ronin tells Rono that he wouldn't be coming back to see him again because he had to go wrap up some things at the station and then leave to America again.

"It's been nice seeing you again, dad."

"It sure has, too bad I can't stay for a while longer. I have to go back to the police station and wrap things up. But hey, maybe your mom and I will someday visit you?"

"Yeah, I'll be waiting." Rono said.

"Sure thing." Ronin replied.

Ronin turns around and walks to his car, then he suddenly stops.

"Oh, and one more thing." Ronin said.

"Make sure to take care of Sakaki. I'm sure you wouldn't want her to be hurt, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be sure to take care of her!"

Ronin chuckles.

"Right, goodbye."

"Bye, tell mom that I said hi!"

"Sure thing." He waved at him before he got inside the car.

Rono watches his father drive the car out of the parking area and watches him drive until he drives out of his sight,

He looks at his apartment building and smiles.

"This is your new home, welcome home Neko-san." He whispered.

The end of the Nostagia Arc

Takino Arc coming soon...