A world of peace

Summary: Kamado Sumihiko, aged fifteen, opened his eyes as his alarm went off. (Part 3 of The Sun Pillar AU)
Notes: Third and final part of the Sun Pillar AU. Slightly tweaked the manga's final chapter. I wasn't sure how to close the fanfic –and by extension the series– but leaving it like this, an open-ended conclusion, feels nice and hopeful. By the way, Momo is Makomo and Sato is Sabito, just in case I confused anyone.


Kamado Sumihiko, aged fifteen, opened his eyes as his alarm went off.

He sat up and opened his mouth, about to wake the others up, only to stop and realise he was an only child.

'Did I have that dream again?' he wondered, yawning and stretching, before standing up, 'Better start getting ready.'

He looked at the framed photo on his desk and smiled.

Then he started getting dressed.

"Sumihiko! You'll be late!" his mother called out.

"I'm almost ready!" he called back.

"Do you have time for breakfast?"

Sumihiko looked at the time.

"Nope, sorry!" he called out, opening his room's window, "I'll see you after school!" he called out, jumping off, and down to the street level.

He ran towards his school, jumping over fences, apologising for interrupting two elderly men –both of them looked oddly familiar– and across cars, scaring people and pissing off an officer, who quickly made attempts to park the police car.

There are six children that lived in his neighborhood, that greeted him as he passed them by, him being in too much hurry to do anything more than wave at them.

"Sumihiko-san! Catch!" Giichi-kun threw him something, that he managed to catch in the air.

"Thanks, Giichi-kun!" he called back.

Momo and Sato waved at him.

As he ran past the triplets, who called after him to be careful, Sumihiko looked at the item Giichi-kun had given him.

It was a miniature fox mask, but the pattern was oddly familiar. He was sure he had seen it somewhere before.

He wasn't paying any attention to the road as he ran, until a hand reached out, grabbed him and pulled him back, hard.

Sumihiko found himself falling down on top of someone, presumably the one who pulled him.

"You should be more careful when running like that, runner-kun." a sweetly gentle, female voice said, amused, "You could get hurt."

Sumihiko looked up and into a pair of beautiful purple eyes.

"A-ah, thank you." he stammered with a blush, getting up and pulling the girl to her feet.

"Sumihiko-kun!" a voice called out.

Sumihiko looked at his right.

"Good morning, Yoshiteru-san! How are you?" he smiled, still holding the girl's hand.

"How am I?! How are you? You were almost ran over by a car!"

"I had a guardian angel looking out for me today." Sumihiko grinned at the girl, letting her hand go at last, before bowing, "Thank you very much."

"Have we met before?"

"I would've remembered it." he replied. Then he looked at his watch, "Ah, oh no, I am going to be late."

"Then you should probably get going, Sumihiko-kun." the girl smiled, as she too turned to leave, "I, too, need to get to school. Maybe we'll meet again?"

Yoshiteru watched with envy.

"She is from the all-girl Sekirei Academy." he said, dreamily.

"I am aware, cousin." Sumihiko smiled, grabbing his relative's hand and started running again, "Touko-san is with Kanata-san?"

Yoshiteru groaned.

"Don't remind me."

"Sumihiko! Good morning! You're late again!" Toujurou-kun joined them on their mad dash to the school.

"You, too, Toujurou!" Sumihiko smiled at his best friend.

"True, true!" the other boy laughed, "I got carried away with practice!"

"We really should pick up our pace." Sumihiko hummed.

"Oh, no." Yoshiteru groaned, "Not again!"

"Come on, cousin! You'll be late otherwise!" Sumihiko laughed.

"HEY YOU!" an officer screamed from behind them, panting, his partner equally out of breath.

The three boys ran, two of them laughing, one begging for forgiveness, while the two officers gave chase, one screaming profanities, the other silently following.

To the absolute surprised delight of Sumihiko, Yoshiteru sped off faster than Toujurou and him could catch up to him.

"I wasn't aware that your cousin practiced, too." Toujurou said.

"He doesn't." Sumihiko laughed.

"OI! GET BACK HERE, YOU SHITHEADS!"

Laughing harder, the two boys sped up.

Soon, their school came in view and the Headmaster turned to stare at them with a look of horror, as he motioned for the gate to close.

Sumihiko and Toujurou jumped over it, to the older man's groans, as they caught up with Yoshiteru who had hang back to make sure they made it.

"You two cut it too close again." he said.

"It could have been worse." Sumihiko smiled, "The officer could have caught us." he chuckled.

Yoshiteru blanched.

"That's no laughing matter!"

"Besides, you weren't that much better than us today." Sumihiko chuckled, "See you at recess, cousin!" he waved.

Toujurou waved as well, following his best friend.

And with that school was out for summer.

Afterwards, Sumihiko, Toujurou, Yoshiteru, Touko and Kanata gathered at the nearby park to wind down before making their way back to their homes.

"Summer at last!" Sumihiko sighed, sprawling on the grass.

"Sumihiko, you'll dirty your uniform." Kanata said.

"We don't have school tomorrow, Kanata-san." he smiled, "I think I can get away with it today."

"Did you see the news about Uzui Tenma, winning another gold medal?" Touko said, dreamily.

"That guy's way too flashy." Yoshiteru grumbled, "And his attitude is horrible. Just because he is famous, doesn't mean he can act like that."

Sumihiko hummed.

"I think it's just who he is…" he yawned, losing interest in his cousin's complains about famous people and their entitled behavior.

Not that he didn't have a point, but because Sumihiko didn't really care. They weren't going to affect his everyday life, after all.

It was while Sumihiko stared at the clouds, using his relatives' and best friend's voices as white noise, that he noticed the lonely guy at the park bench a little ways away.

He thought he looked pretty, but lonely.

He hopped to his feet, wiped his uniform down and walked over.

"Sumihiko?"

"Sumihiko-kun?"

"Hey. You alright?" he smiled at the guy.

To the utter shock of everyone present, the young man burst into tears. All five young teens gathered around him and calmed him down, then listened to his troubles –he was some renowned scientist, but he had managed out of nervousness, to destroy his own experiment– and once he had finished his tale, remembered to introduce himself.

Sumihiko had a moment of déjà vu.

He smiled kindly at the young man, speaking softly, reaching out his hand to him.

"It is nice meeting you, Hashibira Aoba. Wanna be friends?"