Glass Coffin (an Inazuma Eleven f.f.)

No Place Like Home

Time Skip To Next Day

"Wait up, Suishou-san!"

I spun on my toes and turned around, an illuminated smile hanging on my face. The stars reflected in my eyes shone brighter than the shimmering sunlight that bounced off my long silver hair whipping in the wind.

"Hurry up, Hiraga-san!" I laughed and called back, bouncing up and down on my feet in glee.

We had finally made it to Fukuoka after a long car ride. Hiraga didn't bring much: just a medium carry-on for her necessities and a few boxes in the trunk. Gouenji-sensei on the other hand had to relocate his entire family, so I'd been told that he'd arrive the next day in a moving van.

"Help me carry these into the apartment," Hiraga groaned as she hauled the boxes out of the trunk.

After struggling for a few hours and receiving dirty looks from many of Hiraga's new neighbors which I guessed was probably due to the ruckus we made as we hauled her luggage up the stairs, we finally brought all the boxes into her apartment. "Nee," I asked excitedly as I saw the clock and an idea formed in my mind, "Can I go visit Yokato Junior High?"

Hiraga frowned as she started unpacking the boxes. "Don't you want to rest?" she asked, her lips twisting as she strained to scrape away the heavy duty duct tape, "You'll be starting school there again tomorrow anyway, and we've just had a twelve hour ride. Shouldn't you take a nap first?"

Truth be told I had slept through the entire car ride, but because she had been the one pulling an all nighter in the driver's seat, I dared not mention that little tidbit of information. "Please?" I begged, channeling my best inner-Taiyou.

It must have worked, for Hiraga sighed and replied, "Check in to the hospital before it gets dark." I'd nearly dashed out the door before she called after me threateningly, "If you aren't there by the time the sun sets I'll call the police to search for you!" "Okay!" I shouted back, but by then I had already ran down the stairs and out of the building.

Twenty minutes or so later, a looming, dusty orange building came into view. The campus was barren, but a bustling energy radiated from it. Through windows I saw familiar faces and silhouettes, ranging from the girl who was my science lab partner to the one teacher who had still been pregnant when I had last saw her.

What else changed these months while I was gone? Had they been quick to forget me, or are they still waiting for my return? I pushed the doubts out of my mind with the excitement that I'd finally be reunited with my friends, and they for one would definitely have not forgotten me.

I closed my eyes and inhaled the familiar scent that permeated the walls and lingered on the school grounds.

"Home," I whispered. The breeze carried the words from my lips into the sky.

Perfectly on time, a chiming echoed through the building, signalling that the school day had ended. It only struck me now how strange it was that such a simple thing could sound like such a beautiful harmony to ears that have experienced what it felt like to be torn from its own world and thrown into another. This epiphany made me feel like I had perhaps grown up a little from what turn of fate I'd suffered in the last few months.

I moved to the side as thundering footsteps approached and broke the floodgates, filling the anterior school grounds with boys and girls in beige, white, and periwinkle. However, there was a serious shortage of upperclassmen from what I remembered, and a lot of unfamiliar faces all with that unsure, excited expression I knew all too well. I hadn't noticed until now that my first year of junior high had passed while I was stuck in the hospital, and the thought that I'd never experience that romantic cherry blossom filled graduation as a first year made me feel a longing sadness.