The silence was too much to bear, well almost silence. There were the odd sounds of heavy breathing, running water and birds tweeting, but none of them paid any attention. Kido stared at Shintaro, unblinking. Shintaro looked at the photo, lips unable to part, but somehow, he found the courage to utter a single word of his best friend, and he hadn't said a thing about her since her death.

"Ayano..." He said, looking at Kido. "She... I knew her."

Kido blinked, wanting more information. "H-how did you know her?" Shintaro tensed his body, biting his lip. "Shintaro?"

The door flew open as Momo swarmed in with Kano. "This guy was trying to run away! I stopped him thought!" She laughed. Kano however, noticed the awkward air in the room, but thought he shouldn't ask.

"Oh, they were just leaving anyway." Shintaro said, plopping himself on the chair. "Bye, see you at school tomorrow." Kido stood there, staring at him. "Shintaro, why aren't you telling me?" She asked, and Shintaro in reply, slammed his hands on the table.

"I said you were leaving." He didn't even look up at them, staring only at the floor, tears soon to spill over his dark eyes. Momo looked at them both, worried for her brother, and her 'danchou'. "Brother, are you okay?" He laughed. "Just when I thought...It's was time to move on..." Momo began to piece the pieces together, but Kano didn't understand anything, but still stayed quiet.

"Shintaro! Please just tell me!" Kido said, voice so full of emotion. He shook his head. "No, get out now." Kido exhaled loudly and picked up her school bag, scowling back at Shintaro. "You know, real friends tell each other everything, they open up to people! You should know that!" she rushed out, Kano following after many apologies. "After all this time..." Shintaro sighed.

"What was that about?" Kano asked Kido, walking in front of her. She growled at him. "he knows Ayano, but he won't admit it! How could he dismiss this so easily!? He knows what kind of person she is, she would have asked him too! She would have." Kano put his hands up. "I don't know what you're talkin' about. Can you explain?" She sighed, dragging his head while she moved to the side of the street, stopping.

"There was a girl called Ayano. I knew her, and she was really kind, such a nice, kind heart. I had no friends so, after my parents died, I felt kind of... lonely." Kano nodded his head, concern enveloping his face. "So that's when she came to me and asked if I was okay, and I was stubborn and cruel to her, but she just smiled, putting so much determination into her words. It was, funny so I started laughing, but... I also sort of cried, and she was so nice to me... how could I know what she would do!? It... It wasn't my fault..." she wiped her running nose.

"She killed herself. threw herself right off the building of her school, heh heh... I was going to tell her something, after school. God, what I had to say to her... It looks so childish now. She fell from the building and went splattering everywhere, that's what the doctor said. Her guts were everywhere! how could she do that!?" Kido stopped talking and looked up at the sky. "I wanted to know why..." Kano wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay, you're okay."

Tuesday, 14th August

Ene's Pov

"What's wrong with Shintaro?" I asked Momo, arched awkwardly on my stupid chair. "I don't know... Kido and him looked like they were talking about... her." I turned round to him, but he was scribbling away at his paper, as he always did when we were in class. "Ayano? Kido knows Ayano?" Momo smiled weakly. "Looks like it, I wonder how she knew her," she sighed.

"How is that possible? Kido and Ayano differ from each other so much, just like Ayano and Shintaro." My voice cracked, and I blushed. Really I didn't like to talk about this, it affected my closest friends, Shintaro, Haruka and Takane. Oh god, now I was thinking about how my sister cried that night, not in front of us but you could hear it, from her room.

She had been found asleep again that day, and didn't seem to remember anything from that day, she was really defensive, but why wouldn't she be? we really asked her many questions, and she had just found out her best friend had died. Oh god, now I was about to cry!

"huh? Ene? are you okay?" I pouted. "Yes, I'm fine, I just wonder what Haruka and Takane will say."

"Takane..." I tapped her shoulder, when we had a break from class. "If you're here just to joke about me and Haruka, I swear you'll regret it." she picked up some of her things, Haruka helping, which made her angry, oh this was going to be hard. "No, it's not that... it's something else. I waited for her reply, but she just stared at me. "Momo said that Shintaro and Kido had been saying something about... Ayano."

She just looked at me, lips slightly parted, Haruka behind her however, he was shaking his head. "No way, how could Kido know abo- I mean, How could Kido have known about Ayano?" Takane picked up the rest of her belongings and grabbed Haruka along, and I was left to follow.

"Where are we going?" I asked, running along to keep up with my sister and her fast walking pace. "We are going to find Kido, That's what we are doing."

"Takane! that hurts!" Haruka complained.

We eventually found Kido and Takane wasted no time. "How did you know her?" Kido squinted her eyes. "Sorry, what are you saying?" Takane clenched her fists, I had never seen her like this before. "Ayano. Tateyama Ayano. You know her, how?" Kido gulped, and smiled. "She was my friend. I knew her because our parents died in the same fire, well both mine died and her mother, so we knew each other from there, and I was so rude to her, but she really is the nicest person you could ever meet. She was my best friend, well, that's what she said. I knew she had other friends, I knew about one, Someone that sat next to her in school, I think she said something about two others, but not as much as that boy. well, anyway that's how I knew her."

Takane buried her face into Haruka's sleeve. "That's... Shintaro..." She said, tearful. Haruka clarified this. "Yeah, Shintaro was the boy she sat next to, an we are the two other friends. Shintaro sort of... uhh... liked her, he had a crush for her."

I shouted at him. "It's a crush on her. Stupid!" Kido grinned and looked at Kano. "This is so weird." She then looked at all of us. "I think that Ayano liked him too. She talked about him so much, it's almost weird how much she did."

And just After she said that, I turned around and saw Shintaro.

Shintaro's Pov

What was happening? they were talking about Ayano, no this isn't right. She... talked about me? no way. "Shintaro! I..." Ene. That was Ene. they stared at me. "No, this isn't supposed to happen. this wasn't right..." I said, more like gargled, because I was crying, like a weak, pathetic fool.

"Shintaro!" Haruka cried, running towards me. "I want to forget, and you all come here and try so hard to remind me... I hate this!" I was just saying what I felt, and it hurt. "I could have saved her! I have an I.Q of what... 168? If I couldn't have seen what she was going to do... then I..." I couldn't say any more. the last couple of days had been so happy, until yesterday when Kido reminded me of her... She reminded me of my lack of compassion. My coldness towards her must have made her feel even worse that what she already felt, right?

"You didn't do anything wrong!" Takane slapped me, right across my cheek. "She killed herself because of Kenjiro!" She gasped, she had said too much and she knew it, but now I wanted to know.

"Auntie... where are we going now!?" Hibiya moaned as Momo dragged him. "We are going to find my phone because I dropped it, get it? And stop calling me that!"

He groaned loudly, overreacting again. "I have no time for this! Agh!" She let go of his hand and his face had a brief encounter with the floor. "What the hell was that!?" Momo smlied, leaning down to give him help to stand up. "Hey, hey, don't be a baby, Hibiya!" He growled. "why do you always have to say my name? it's always 'do this, Hibiya!' or 'don't be a baby, Hibiya.' or 'don't call me that, Hibiya.' It really is annoying! I'm getting real tired of your shi-" Momo covered his mouth. "Don't swear! you're too young to swear!"

"I'm the same age as you!" he shrieked when Momo moved her hand. "Oh... right..."

"What do you mean 'Because of Kenjiro?' what are you talking about?" Shintaro said, staring at her intensely. "Her father? why because of Him?" Kido asked, and even Haruka was confused.

"It... It's a secret. She told me not to tell anyone..." Takane mumbled, clutching at the base of her shirt. "what was a secret, you have to tell us. Please." Kido was desperate now. "Takane?" Ene looked at her, wondering what secret she could have kept.

"I... can't... I promised..." Shintaro snorted. "She's dead now, so you can tell us." Everyone was a little surprised by his bluntly put words, but there were more important things to worry about right now. "A-alright then, but you can never tell anyone else, Kenjiro died anyway, so you don't have to worry about him, but you can't tell Momo, Konoha or Kuroha. Right?" They agreed, reluctantly.

"Kenjiro... he started the fire, that killed Ayaka, Ayano's mother... and your parents." Everyone went silent, and kido tightened her grip on Kano's hand.
"Ayano told me, and she said that she wanted to find out why, so I helped her. But she... found out research about something... a power. the rules say that you have to die on the fifteenth of August and you would come back, with a power." She took a deep breath.

"She... found out that... Kenjiro was going to... kill me and Haruka." She looked at her boyfriend, and continued. "It was a way to get Ayaka back or something. But, then Ayano told me what he did. she told me that he hit her. All the time, ever since her mother died, he was like that. I tried to help her, and when she said that it didn't matter, she said she had a plan." Shintaro was breathing heavily now, but Takane continued.

"I followed her, and she went to the top of the school, and her father was there. I hid behind the door and she tried to get him to stop, she begged him to, but he was such a... He just laughed at her. He said that she was stupid for just thinking she could change his mind, but then... she put her 'plan' into action. I ran to her, I didn't want her to jump! She said she was sorry, but this plan would work. I grabbed hold of her hand, I didn't want her to die! that's when he said, two people had to die, If one died then it wouldn't work. he knew I couldn't hold on, you see, he wanted me to jump as well, because he knew Ayano would send me back." Her hands shook, but she still tried to speak.

"She told me never to tell anyone... about that, about all of it she told me to go. I said I wouldn't, but she said she would stay there, she wasn't going to leave. So I agreed, but she also told me that... she was sorry, she told me to tell you she was sorry, Shintaro. She did love you, but she was far too scared to tell you. I woke up, and I was fine. I knew that Ayano was gone, and there was no way I could bring her back now."

"I went to see Kenjiro, a few weeks later, but he had been killed, I hated him, for what he did to Ayano, for what he caused her to do, what he made me do. He was a monster, and I was the one that should have killed him, but it was too late for that. I pretended that everything was Okay, but I had a power now, I could control electrical things. I don't know why, but I could. At first I hated it, it reminded me of everything, but it's not so bad really. Anyway, that's what happened to Ayano and to me. that's the secret."

Everyone was silent, before Shintaro shouted at her. "You expect us to buy that!? show us then, show us your power, go on, if it really is true!" She took her phone out and started talking through it, buy her actual body did no talking. Shintaro,Ene and Kano's phones also began to ring. "See?" she said as Haruka, Ene and Shintaro stared in disbelief, Kano and Kido however, knew that things such as that were possible.

"No way.. so it's all true? she... was trying to protect you?" Shintaro asked, feeling like a fool, he never knew anything about her. "that... bastard... how could he do that to her? she was so..." "Fragile." Haruka finished.

"Why didn't you tell anyone!? you could have avoided her dying!" Shintaro screamed. "It wasn't her fault, she would have did it even if people knew." Kido replied. "No...It is my fault... I could have stopped her... I could have let her go instead of me... I'm selfish... I'm sorry, Haruka, Kido... Shintaro." She started sobbing. "You could have let her live. You could have saved her. YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Shintaro growled. Kano pushed him against the door, grabbing his shirt.

"How dare you! who the hell do you think you are!? can't you see that Takane blames herself for this? She is crying and you scream at her!?" Takane wiped the tears from her eyes, but they kept coming.

"No, it is my fault... he should be angry at me... I chose to let him suffer in the loss of Ayano... and it must have hurt when I was around haruka... because I got to be with the one I love, why don't you? I'm sorry Shintaro..."

"Takane! Don't say that! you had to live with that decision, that must have been painful! you couldn't tell anyone, but he... thinks he has the right to shout at you, to blame you for what happened! It wasn't her fault! it's instinct to survive! Takane had to choose that, and live with guilt, live with that! do you think you could do that!?"

haruka grabbed kano and took him away from Shintaro. "Please don't shout at him." He mumbled, patting the blond boy's hair. "Shintaro, Ayano wasn't only your friend, she was our friend too." he said, moving to hug Takane. "She didn't deserve to die like that, but are you saying that Takane deserved that?" Shintaro exhaled loudly, staring at her.

"What happened, was terrible for all of us, especially Takane." He rubbed her cheek. "But you don't have to live in the past like that anymore, Takane, Shintaro. you both found new friends, ones that we will have many happy times with." he held out his hands to Them. "Please, overcome this sadness, you don't need to have that burden! You can be happy too! Ayano would have wanted it."

Shintaro stared at him. "Haruka..." Takane took his hand. "Shintaro..." he said in response. he took his other hand, smiling. "Yeah, she would have... I'm sorry Kano, Haruka. Takane. Forgive me." Haruka smiled back at him, pulling him towards Ene. "Come on, let's go."

Always Momo and Hibiya for some happiness. well this was fun, Not really much to say about it, but it's sort of like what happened with Kano and Ayano, but it's Takane not Kano, you know? well, I hope you enjoyed reading this, Thank you!