Omake Chapter: Serena, bringer of serenity.

1200hrs, 8 January 2012, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

"In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of the Five Rings.

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea." Honore de Balzac.

"Are you sure you want to do this…? I mean, we could be…"

"Amy, give it a rest!" Serena and Amy were in the Takeshita Street, Shibuya Ward of Tokyo, about to visit the variety of shops and gawk at the cosplayers who had gathered there on Sundays, as they usually did. They would then make their way to Omotesando Street and look at all the fancy stores that they would never be able to purchase stuff from. At least they could dream…

"Where is he…where is he…?" Serena fumbled for her mobile phone and entered her password on the welcome screen.

"Oh…looks like Mamoru-chan is going to be a little bit late." She was a little bit disappointed, but with his level of studies, he was always occupied.

"I've never seen this place before…" Amy said in a hushed tone, looking at some cosplayers in Gothic Lolita outfits stroll by.

That snapped Serena out of looking at her phone for a second. "Wait, you've NEVER been here? Amy, you really need to get out more."

"Well, it's just that I study…"

"That's the whole goddamn point," Serena continued. "Next thing you know, half your life is gone and you've studied it all away. Or worse, worked it all away for some massive company. Like the Nakanishi Group or something like that."

Amy looked down at her feet, somewhat embarrassed for Serena. It was good that she took life one step at a time, but she had no plan, no prospect for the future if she continued to act that way. Whatever.

"Okay, well, Mamoru is going to meet us in front of that Gap store or whatever it's called in about hour or so." Serena continued to poke at her smartphone, looking through the barrage of texts. After another minute or so of that, she tossed the phone quite roughly into her purse and grabbed Amy by the hand.

"We won't get anything done standing here, so let's go!"

Serena ran up to the first stall that came to view past the famous Takeshita Dori sign, a minimalist/abstract/weird frog looking thingy. On festivals or important events during the year, the sign would be decorated accordingly; they still hadn't taken down the Christmas decorations, but no one really seemed to care all that much.

"Hey! We've got a great sale on all our stuff today!" a hawker for the stall yelled out of the din of the crowd there.

"Coming through!" Serena yelled at the top of her lungs, steamrolling a couple of cosplay girls dressed in sera fuku uniforms. They looked vaguely similar to Serena and company, but no matter.

"Look at these, Amy!" She held up a couple of SpongeBob Squarepants themed socks. "Aren't they so cute!"

"Uh…" They really weren't Amy's style.

"You don't like?" Serena pouted. "Okay, here's another one!" They were Naruto themed, this time.

"Look, Serena…"

"I know, one of these!"

She spent the next five minutes basically tearing the stall apart until the owner shooed them away, annoyed that practically every item had been displaced in some way, shape or form.

"Serena, you tore up that poor woman's stall!"

"Eh, they'll get over it. I bought, like, 500 yen worth of stuff from there!"

"That's doesn't even begin to cover the cost of labor and restocking and…"

"You see!" Serena poked Amy. "This was what I was talking about! You need to just chill and let go!"

"But I…"

"Stop thinking and let's go!" Before she knew it, Amy was being dragged by Serena to the next stall, which they would invariably trash as well.

After wandering around some more, they ended up arguing which place to eat (and wait for Mamoru) for lunch. It was between McDonalds and the café across from it, Noa Cafe. It was finally decided when they discovered that they had waffles and breakfast hour ended at 1300. It was 1245.

"And what would you like to drink?" the cheery waitress said to them as the two of them perused through the menu. Everything looks so good, Serena thought to herself as pictures of waffles, crepes, sandwiches, desserts and salads greeted her from the menu.

"I'll take the crème coffee," Amy said, looking at the drinks menu. Might as well…mom gave me some extra spending money, so I'll treat myself today.

Serena wasn't feeling all that much in the drinks department, so she decided on something simple. "I think I'll take just the green tea, thanks."

"I'll be right back with those." The waitress scurried off, cheerfully humming the theme from Angel Beats!

Amy watched the waiter go before launching into idle chatter. "So…how long and Mamoru been going out?"

Serena got a dreamy look in her eyes as she remembered the good times. "It's been about a year or so."

"How did you guys meet…?"

"Hmm…that's a good question," Serena smiled. "Quite honestly, I kinda forgot."

"You forgot?!" Amy exclaimed, almost knocking over the waiter as she returned with the drinks.

"Sorry about that."

"No problem." The waitress had been through worse, and taking care of a bunch of high school girls that behaved themselves was probably the easiest job she could ask for. She put the tea by Serena and the crème coffee by Amy.

"Okay, what would you like to order?"

"Uh…" Serena hadn't had much time to look at the menu despite looking it over beforehand; the conversation with Amy had distracted her from the juicy pictures. It didn't take very long to discover what she wanted.

"I'll take the Chocolate Banana Waffles, please!"

"By itself or the set?"

"The set!"

"No problem. The drink comes with the set, so I'll just add that in there for you. Salad, toasted bread and boiled egg?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" The more food for Serena, the happier she was. She had ways of working off the fat…and all of them involved her boyfriend. The waitress scribbled that down in her notepad.

"And for you…?" She meant Amy.

"I'll take the Strawberry Waffles, please. The set as well."

"Uh-huh." More scribbling in her notepad. "Okay. Same as your friend over there?"

"Yes please."

"Right. I'll have that right out for you."

She scurried off again, this time humming the first theme from Guilty Crown.

"So, what were we talking about…?"

"We were talking about how you don't remember how you and Mamoru met."

"Oh yeah! About that…" Serena gave an embarrassed smile, because she truly forgotten at the moment how they had met. "Oh well."

"Jeez, and they say men have bad memories when it comes to that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, well, that's what you get when you have a friend like me…" Serena's head drooped with that statement.

Amy gave Serena a look. That statement was uncharacteristically out of sync with the normal Serena she had come to know. She tried to recover, giving her apologies.

"Look, I didn't mean anything was wrong..."

"No, it's okay Amy," Serena said back, recovering her spirited self. "Me and Mamoru are doing just fine. We have a bright future together and all. At least, I think."

More self-doubt.
"Is everything alright, Serena?" Amy asked. This was heading into creepy zone, and if something was going on behind the scenes, then she was there to help. And besides, if Serena went bonkers, she would probably lose one of her few friends at the moment.

"Yeah…everything's just fine!" There was something there, but Amy just couldn't get through. Oh well, probably just overthinking it, like I always do, she thought to herself.

"Your waffles, ladies."

That certainly a surprise for the two of them, especially for Serena.

"Wow, that was fast." The kitchen was on a roll today, apparently.

The waitress gave Serena a look, somewhat (mock) insulted that her speed was not appreciated.

"I mean, uh…"

"What she means, is thank you," Amy interrupted.

"Yeah! Thanks!"

"You're certainly most welcome." The plates were set in front of them, and for the last time, the waitress scurried off, humming the theme to Lucky Star.

"Wow, this looks all so delicious!" Serena exclaimed, forgetting her previous faux pas and concentrating on the food in front of them. The Chocolate Banana waffles were drizzled in a light sauce, with a huge dollop of whipped topping almost burying the two waffles submerged in the chocolaty creamy goodness. It was the same case for the Strawberry waffles, except that they were drenched in a heavy berry glaze, topped with the same suffocating whipped topping that was going to be a serious challenge to the two of them.

"Itadakimasu!" Amy and Serena chanted, digging into their meals. There was much chewing and munching, rather than talking. When it came down to devouring the savory goodness that was Chocolate Banana and Strawberry waffles, who wouldn't want to have a nice piece of these anyway?

"That was…"

"…awesome." Serena had to stifle a small belch, but it was totally worth it. The waitress came back, and from the looks of it, the meal had been thoroughly enjoyed.

"Well, would you care for anything else?" she chuckled.

Serena was seriously considering it when she felt her mobile buzz. She checked it, and sure enough, it was Mamoru. He was about five minutes out.

"I don't think so," she said politely to the waitress. "Just the bill please." Serena held up the phone to Amy, who nodded

"Sure. I made sure they were separate." She handed them their respective bills.

"Thanks!" They took the separate checks and placed the required cash amount on them. Unlike some other countries, where magical plastic cards made all debts go away (well, at least temporarily), many Japanese people still preferred to use cash rather than to charge it. The reasoning was that you probably shouldn't spend what you don't have, and in the recession economy, that was quite the case. The waitress came back with their paid bills and returned the change to their respective owners.

"Please come and visit us again!" was the typical farewell from a business establishment (especially so in Japan), but Serena and Amy were out the door and down the street before the waitress knew it.

"Mamoru! You're finally here!"

He was walking out of the Harajuku train station entrance, looking as sharp and snazzy as usual. Amy could see why she was dating him; everything about Mamoru seemed completely perfect.

Lucky girl, Amy thought to herself.

Of course, crossing the street anywhere other than the designated crosswalk was highly frowned upon in Japan (except in Osaka, then you could do whatever the hell you wanted to), so there was about another minute where Mamoru made his way through the heavy pedestrian traffic and across the street to where Amy and Serena were standing.

Serena wasted no time jumping into the arms of her beloved. The impact made him stagger for a second, but he quickly recovered. For a quick second, she thought she could smell a different scented perfume on him, but she chalked it up to Amy, who was kinda funky smelling at times…

"I am?" Amy gave a confused look at Serena.

She briefly brought her head up from the massive embrace that she was currently engaged in. "You spend a good amount of time in the pool, Amy, when you're not studying!"

"Oh…well, all that chlorine does tend to…"

"Yeah, anyway…" Serena focused her attention back on Mamoru.

"I'm so glad you could come today."

"Not a problem, babe. Had to get away from that studying, you know? Can't spend my entire life at the books."

"See, Amy? This guy knows what he's talking about."

Mamoru smiled nervously at Amy, who looked kinda dejected at that . "It's okay," he whispered to Amy, trying to cheer her up. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

He pointed a finger down a Serena's head. "Unlike her," he mouthed. That brought a stifled chortle from Amy.

"So…what should we do now, Meatball-head?"

"Mamoru!" She shoved him gently, as the nickname was slightly embarrassing. But like all things, she had grown accustomed to it.

"We should look at the GAP store first, and then…"

The rest of the afternoon was spent window shopping at the fancy places on Ometesando, starting out at the GAP, and moving onto high end shops like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Zara, Prada, and everything in between. It was a girl's best dream come true, minus the actual buying part, but hey, the thrill of the hunt was more important than the kill, right? Of course, that depended on your view of consumerist economy and the "traditional" role of women in society, to which Japan had a spotty reputation on and...

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what…?" Mamoru asked, distractedly.

"Never mind." Serena swore she could hear someone babbling on about the Japanese economy and something or the other. Whatever.

"Hey."

"What?"

Serena turned her head to face Mamoru, to which she was clinging onto tightly. Amy was in the far distance, trying not to become a third wheel, although she figured that point was long past and she was seriously thinking about going home and doing some more studying. It was nice and all, looking at these two lovers, but school was tomorrow after all.

"You good?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

He hugged her a bit tighter, warming her body from the cold air that rushed all around them in the big city. His manliness and strength gave her comfort and happiness, and she was glad for that.

"Hey, Meatball-head."

"Hmm?"

"I'm so glad to have a girl like you."

Serena felt a wave of peace and calm wash over her; whatever doubts she had been having earlier in the day had been swept away in the embrace of her boyfriend. She wished she could stay here forever, clinging onto the warmth, the kindness, the strength of Mamoru Chiba. It was a most glorious feeling, one that brought tranquility and stability to an otherwise hectic and busy life.

It was going to be alright.