Life, Death, Joy, Sorrow; these factors serve as both the causes and effects of our Decisions.

read.

Makoto stared daggers at Sekai; his words awkward, muffled grunts under the cloth and tape.

"Hey Makoto," her words echoed through the dank, disheveled warehouse. "Wanna know what the gardening shears are for?"

Makoto became white with fear. It was obvious what she was going to do.

"I'm gonna cut it off." She smirked as she pointed her finger at his crotch. His fear became her ecstasy as she grabbed the shears and began to walk closer and closer.

Makoto's heart was racing. A torrent of sweat ran down his neck.

She was up close to him now, and ready to rid him of his manhood once and for all. Makoto tried to close his eyes. They stayed open; unable to look away from what she was about to do.

"Just kidding." Sekai said with a rather large grin. She began to laugh while stroking the would-be weapon. "The look on your face..." Her laughter broke through her sentence as she fell to her knees holding her sides. "This thing was...totally worth buying!"

Sekai continued to giggle as she placed the shears on one of the boxes behind Makoto. "I love the fear in your eyes." Sekai cackled while mounting him.

"Now," she said as she began to sink her hand down his pants. "Let's put this thing to good use."

Her hand felt warm; too warm. He was burning. Flames shot up from the floor and covered the walls. He was on his back now. Black smoke filled his lungs and Sekai, who was once caressing him, was repeatedly and violently stabbing him through the chest.

"You only cared about your own happiness...with Katsura!"

His blood began to pool around them, the smell of burning flesh permeated the room.

Makoto woke up in a feverish sweat. His body wanted to sit up, but the pain became too much for him to bear. He was breathing heavily now. His throat began to ache and burn as he started coughing from the sudden over-activity of his weak lungs.

"Makoto-kun!" he heard a gleeful voice to the right of him. Makoto turned to see Kotonoha jumping up from her chair and holding him in a suprsingly tight embrace. Tears of joy rolled down her cheeks and soaked the top of his head; his face pressed into her soft, voluptuous bosom.

"Ko-kotonoha," Makoto wheezed, astonished at his current state. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You're in the hospital, Makoto-kun. You were burned in a few places,"

Makoto worriedly checked his chest for wounds and then, showing even more concern, looked down his pants, causing Kotonoha to shyly turn her beet-red face away from him.

"Thank goodness." He was fine there.

"Th-they said the main problem is your lungs, but they're working on that."

"B-but, how did I-? How did you-?"

"How did you survive?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, the thing is," Kotonoha looked embarassed and ashamed. "It-it's a long story, you should rest now. I'll tell you later."

"Tell me now." he said in agitation.

"Well, I- I found you...on my way to my boat. I was going to drown myself out there, or starve myself...I was... still deciding."

Makoto looked at Kotonoha with contempt. "Why?"

"Well, it's just, you weren't there and life just didn't seem... well, anyway, I was going out on my boat... so I could die in my favorite place, when all of the sudden, I looked back one last time and saw this fire."

Kotonoha, deciding to investigate this odd occurrence, began to walk toward the bright orange glow. It was one of the warehouses that her father's company was tearing down. She walked closer still, curious as to why it would be burning. As she finally got to the building, she heard a loud THUD.

"What was that?" she asked herself, running around to the back of the warehouse.

Panting, she saw a body collapsed on the floor.

"I didn't see your face from that distance, but I knew it was you. It just had to be."

"Then what happened?" Makoto asked.

"Then I called for an ambulance and gave you CPR until they got there."

"I didn't know you knew CPR."

"Yeah," she said. "but I usually don't push hard enough when it comes to the chest compressions."

"Well, you must've done something right because I'm alive." They shared a laugh, adding a bit of noise to the quiet hospital room.

Kotonoha's face became serious once again. "But, Makoto-kun, what happened to you? Was it Saionji? Did she kidnap you? Did she try to kill you?"

"Y-yeah." Makoto replied. He knew that wasn't the whole truth. The weight of the guilt was crushing him. He couldn't keep this a secret any longer. He had to tell her.

"That bitch!" Kotonoha yelled furiously. "I swear I'll fucking kill her. I mean it! She'll die!" Tears came down her face once more.

Makoto couldn't take it anymore. "It was my fault." he muttered; head facing downward. "I had sex with her. That's how she trapped me. She held a knife to me and led me to the warehouse. She asked me to sleep with her. I could've said no, but I didn't."

Kotonoha just stared at Makoto; her lifeless eyes fixed on his guilt-ridden face. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, she finally spoke. "Damn her." Kotonoha whispered. "No matter what I do, she's always there. Always there to take you away from me, but in a way, I guess It's my fault too."

"Kotonoha, no." Makoto cried.

"I should've been more sensitive to your feelings. You love sex. It's the most important thing to you. You're willing to get it from any girl you can, but that's going to change." Kotonoha removed her blazer and began unbuttoning her shirt. "I'm different from all the other girls you've slept with. I can do things they won't do." She held her large breasts in her hands, now the only things covering them. "I can do things they can't do."She then removed her skirt and proceeded to straddle Makoto. "How do you want to do it, Makoto-kun? I'll do whatever you want me to."

"I want you to stop this." Makoto pleaded. "We can do it another time; when the mood is right and you really want to."

"It's okay, Makoto-kun." she declared in mono-tone. "I know you're in pain. I'll do everything. Just sit back and enjoy it."

"No, you're not lis-" Makoto's words were muffled by a sudden kiss from Kotonoha. Her body pressed up against his. In his condition, he knew he couldn't do any thing to stop her.

Makoto stared at the sleeping girl next to him; her nude body pressed against him under the covers, her head rested gently on his chest.

"Kotonoha, please," Makoto whispered. "I just want you to be normal again. I know that I've hurt you, but that doesn't mean that you should blame yourself." Makoto slowly inched his bandaged arms around her. They began to shake from the pain. "It's all my fault. I did this. Please, just be angry with me. Break up with me. Hate me. I don't care. You have to stop doing this to yourself."

"Makoto-kun," Kotonoha muttered, opening eyes as bright and lifelike as ever. Her joyful visage was soon replaced with a more stern one. Makoto felt a sharp pain on his left cheek. Shocked, he realized she slapped him. "This is the last time I'll forgive you for this. Got it?" she asked as she hopped out of bed and began to redress.

"Sure." Makoto was releived . She was finally back to normal.

"I love you, Makoto-kun." she replied joyfully.

Things seemed to be going alright now. After a few seconds of silence, she looked at him expectantly. All he had to do was say it back. It would be easy. That was how he felt. Wasn't it? Of course. Or maybe not. But after what just happened, there was no telling how she would react if he didn't say it back.

"I love you too, Kotonoha." Makoto's gut sank and he began to sweat. He felt like he was lying.

"Look, I know she's your girlfriend, but do you have to bring her here all the time?" whispered the short, black haired woman in front of him.

"But, Mom-" Makoto started to say.

"Makoto, please don't bring her here anymore. She's so creepy. You should have seen the way she was when you were missing. She kept coming by the house asking if you were back; acting like she didn't hear me when I told her to leave. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've had to call the police. She just scares me. That's all." Makoto's mother had a very worried look on her face.

"Fine." Makoto said as he walked back into the living room. "Kotonoha, uh, come on. Lets go out to eat somewhere."

"Would you like to join us, Mrs. Itou?" Kotonoha asked gingerly.

"No thanks." Mrs. Itou replied with an air of uncomfortability unnoticed by Kotonoha.

"Well, see you later, Mom." Makoto said anxiously as he herded Kotonoha out of the apartment.

It had been several months since the incident with Sekai. His wounds were long since healed and things were more or less back to normal. The second term had started and their anniversary was fast approaching. Makoto felt a sudden calm as he walked with his girlfriend; kissed by the warm September sun.

"Your mother's really nice, Makoto-kun." Kotonoha said, breaking him away from his thoughts. "I think she likes me a lot."

"Yeah," Makoto falsely agreed. "but maybe you shouldn't come by so often."

"Don't be silly, I love your house. It's such a relaxing place." she said, once again missing the point.

Should he have just come out and said it? No. That wasn't a good idea. Besides, She had gotten a bit better. She was basically the same girl he'd started out with except for one monumental difference.

"Makoto-kun, are you okay? Your face is all red and your nose is bleeding."

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said, embarassedly wiping the blood away.

Everything had fallen into place. Life still had it's inconveniences every once in a while like the unsightly scars on his hands, knees, and back or the occasional kid at school gawking and asking 'If you were strapped to a chair for two months, how did you use the bathroom?'

A detail he'd rather not speak of.

By then, he was used to it; all of the stupid questions and dirty looks, like he deserved what happened to him. He was even used to being shunned by the people he believed to be his friends. That was fine with him. He didn't need Taisuke or any of them as long as he had Sekai.

Sekai?

No, no, Kotonoha. He meant Kotonoha. Sekai was the bitch who kidnapped him and tried to kill him. Why was he thinking about her?

Makoto sighed. Despite a few...lingering thoughts, life was great and nothing could possibly change that.

"Makoto-kun! Are you even listening?" Kotonoha asked, clearly annoyed.

"Of course I am. Don't be silly." Makoto said under a false smile.

"Well, then answer it."

Of course. It was his cell phone. How did he not notice his loud, chiming ringtone?

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Mr. Makoto Itou?" the female voice inquired.

'Yes." he replied.

"I'm Yuriko Kaname from Takahashi General Hospital. Due to the current mental state of Ms. Saionji, her child has been placed into your custody."

"What?"

"You are the child's father, aren't you?"

Not to insult your intelligence, but I'm sure there might be at least one of you out there wondering why it's the second term when the preceding action of School Days was set during the second term. Well, Decisions as of now, is currently set about one year after episode 1 and therefore, nine months after Sekai's pregnancy.