After Story: Resolve

Chapter Twenty-Two: Mission Accomplished

"Done!" I exclaimed as I held up the last page of the last form.

"Jeez Okazaki, you almost gave me a heart attack!" I tuned to find Yohei, who had been reading a manga while lying on the floor, sitting up and holding his chest as Mei sat nearby, giggling. "I mean, all of a sudden like that..."

"Sorry about that, Yohei," I said as I handed him the form. "But it seems like I've been doing this forever!"

He looked over the form. "I don't get any of this. But it's the last one?"

"Yeah," I replied, closing my eyes and stretching my arms over my head. "And I am glad to be done!"

I felt a soft touch on my outstretched arms and smiled as I turned to Mei standing before me. "We did it, Mei."

She shook her head. "No, you did it, Tomoya. I got the information, but you filled out all of those forms."

"All right! All right! It was a team effort, okay?!" Yohei said as he stood, waving his arms.

Mei and I looked at each other and exchanged smiles. "Okay, Onii-chan," she said.

He rubbed at the back of his head. "Listen, I uh...I wanna thank you for doing all this for me. Mei, thanks for believing in me. You too, Okazaki. I don't think you would have done all this if you didn't think I stood a chance." He was quiet for a minute, then stuck his hand out towards me. "Thanks, Okazaki."

I looked at his hand and thought about everything we had gone through to get to this point. We had a long way to go, sure, but...we'd still worked hard, all three of us.

I reached out and shook his hand. "Call me 'Tomoya' from now on."

His face broke into a broad smile. "Sure...I'll do that."

"I think this calls for a party!" Mei suddenly piped up. "We could get the Furukawas, and the twins, and the student body president, and-"

"That's gonna be quite the party," Yohei interrupted as we released our handshake. "What do you think, Tomoya? Feel like a party?"

I chuckled. "I feel more like a train wreck, to be honest. But a party does sound good; we did do a lot here. Do you feel ready for the professional level?"

He thumped his chest. "You bet!"

I looked over at Mei. "And I think we're ready to deal with the responses from the teams."

Mei nodded emphatically. "You bet!" She was Yohei's sister for sure.

"Then let's party!" Yohei decided.

After mailing off the final form we set off for Furukawa Bakery.

***

"No can do," Akio declared as the three of us stood in the shop. "I'm busy that weekend."

"Dad..." Nagisa complained as she hugged Yohei's arm.

"Wait; we haven't even given you a date!" I protested.

"Doesn't matter," he said, looking at Yohei. "I'm all out of meat, anyway."

"We have plenty of meat," Sanae's voice interrupted, and we looked to see her at the entryway to their home. Uh-oh; her fists were on her hips. "Akio-san, are you giving Nagisa's boyfriend trouble again?"

"GGKK!" Akio almost swallowed his cigarette. "D-Don't call him that! I'll never give her to that brat!"

"Akio-san..."

I couldn't help it; I watched with a smile as Nagisa's dad grabbed at his head. "Fine! Fine! Just stop with the honorifics, please!"

Sanae shook her head with a small smile as she descended into the shop. "When would you like to have this celebration?" she asked. "And what are we celebrating? Has Yohei-kun been accepted to a team?"