Ever since she disappeared, he's been keeping himself busy. I see him around every once and a while yet he makes no effort to speak to me. I can't blame him. Then again, I'm quite curious. The feelings that he had for her. Do they still exist ? And if so, what is he planning do to ?
Life is too short to waste on brooding. What do you hope to accomplish by doing nothing?
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"You wanted to talk to me ?", he asked after I managed to find him. To my luck, I found him wandering around the outskirts of the city. It was early morning, around 4:45. He was all alone. "Yes, that's right", I replied with a sigh. "It seems that finding you was a bit more challenging than I thought." I recognized his feign smile. "And so?", he said. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about." "I want to talk to you about Shiori", I replied. His smile slowly began to fade and soon enough, we were staring at each other with blank expressions. "What about her?", he said to me after a while. His voice was dull and his expression was cold. Hmm... "Is it possible that the topic is too much for you ?", I asked. "Whether it does or doesn't has nothing to do with you", he replied. I grinned at him, amused with the way he was acting. He was defensive about anything that involved Shiori. I couldn't blame him. "Indeed, it is none of my concern", I chuckled, "However I'm quite interested by something that has been bothering me for a while now." "And that is?", he nonchalantly said. "Do you think she's dead?" A look of remorse appeared on his face as he averted his gaze. "What kind of question is that?", he dry said. "Of course she is." "Is that so...", I mumbled with a slight smirk. Shuichi looked over his shoulder and glared at me. His composure was gone. "This conversation is over", he said. "Whatever you were hoping to accomplish.. it's too late for it now. I have no interest to talk to you anymore." I took a deep breath and sighed as the sun began to rise into the morning sky.
"So you're just going to run away ?" It seemed to have stopped him from leaving. "Shiori would be sad to hear that the person she cared for the most was going to leave her behind." "What would you know ?" I looked over my shoulder and sympathetically smiled at him. "..More than you think", I mumbled. "For so long time, I've been watching over Shiori. And for the first time, she was really smiling. Especially after she met you." "Your point ?", he said. I turned to him and smiled at him. "Are you going to let her go because of something like this ?", I nonchalantly asked. "Are you really just going to let her... disappear ?" A conflicted expression appeared on his face as I turned away. "Think about it", I said as I began to walk off.
"If you were in Shiori's place.. do you really think that she would have just given up on you?"
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(Shuichi P.O.V.)
Her words left an unsettling feeling in my heart. As she disappeared from sight, I remained there thinking about what she said. "If you were in Shiori's place.. do you really think that she would have just given up on you?" What she had said was true. If that idiot was here now.. she wouldn't have left me alone. She would have died for me. But what more could I do in a situation like this ? Shiori was gone. It wasn't like we could simply bring her back and look past what happened. Maybe I really was just trying to run away. She was right. I couldn't bring myself to believe that Shiori was dead. I cared for her too much to accept the fact that she wasn't around anymore. I hated this feeling. Whenever I think about her, my chest hurts.
Shiori you idiot... Why did you leave me behind?
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(Oka P.O.V.)
After Kana mentioned the Guardian Stones, I decided that I would do a little investigation myself. It didn't seem fair that Kana was going to do all the work. I was planning to mention it to Ciel, but she didn't want anything that had to do with Kana. It was reasonable for her to feel that way towards Kana, but there was nothing she could do. Ciel would eventually have to change her mind about helping Kana sooner or later. Kana was the last link we had to Shiori. If we want to see Shiori as soon as possible, she has to realize that she has no choice but to aide Kana.
"Oka-chan~"
I slowly looked up to see Senri suddenly standing by the door. There was a manila envelope in his hand. "What's the matter? There's a sad expression on your face. Did something happen?" I shook my head and stood up from the cushion that I was sitting on. After all, I was at the Nakanishi Household today. "Is that...?" "..The thing that you were asking about?", Senri finished with a smile. I nodded my head as he walked into the room. "It is indeed", he mumbled as he handed it over to me. "It holds everything that you should be looking for", he said, "But if not, then I suggest talking to Grandfather about it. He should know." "Thanks you", I said with a smile. "No problem", Senri sighed as he reached over and patted my head. It was like when we were children. "You left this place a little while ago", he began to say, "However that does not mean that this place won't help you. I'm surprised that you don't hate it as much as Ciel." I stared at him and feigned my smile. "What are you talking about?", I asked. A mischievous yet stern expression appeared on Senri's face. "Didn't you come to despise this place because of what happened between you and Mitsuru?" I tightly held onto the envelope as I thought of a response. "Don't you think despise is a strong word?", I asked with a frown. "Of course", Senri chuckled. "It's just as strong as the word hate." "I don't hate this place", I said. A questionable expression appeared on Senri's face. Before I knew it, he was smirking. "Liar", he chuckled as he started walking to the door. That was when he stopped and looked over his shoulder at me. Was he taunting me? "Oh and Oka?", he said. "Did you know that he's getting married?"
Senri closed the door behind him and left me there on purpose. I didn't understand what he was trying to do. I slowly placed a hand over my head and sighed in dismay. Memories that I had wished I had forgotten slowly began to come back to me. I walked towards the door and opened it to see the garden. It was nostalgic, reminding me of the time when we were children. To when Senri, Mitsuru, and I were running along, completely unaware of the harshness of reality. Senri had done this all on purpose. Now, I couldn't think about the stones.
"So he's.. getting married huh..?", I quietly said to myself. I sighed in dismay. It was good that he was going to move on from what happened to us back then. However, once again it felt like I was being left behind. I didn't want to remember this feeling. I left the room and wandering into the garden. It had been a while, but I remembered that there was a pond somewhere. When I finally found it, I set the envelope down by the maple trees and slightly grinned to myself. This was a bad idea, but I wanted to distract myself. I walked over to the pond and turned around. Afterwords, I fell back and felt myself be engulfed by the cold water. That was when I heard frantic footsteps coming towards me. I sat up in the pond and looked up to see someone suddenly looming over me. When I saw who it was, my eyes widened in surprise.
"What the hell are you doing!?", Mitsuru shouted as he stared at me with a worried expression. I glanced away from him and looked towards the bridge that went over the water. "Oh you know..", I mumbled with a slight smile. "I'm.. cooling off." From the corner of my eye, I could see Mitsuru frowning. "Liar", he replied. I looked back at him and grinned. "What're you trying to do Oka..", he mumbled and reached his hand out towards me. I reached over for it and when it seemed like I was going to get up, I pulled him in. He landed beside me. I started laughing. Mitsuru glared at me. "Seriously?", he said, "We're not children anymore. What's gotten into you?" The koi fish that were in the pond were beginning to swim closer to us. I watched as one of them swam in front of me. "Nee", I mumbled. "Why did you come here ?" "What?" There was confusion in his voice. "Why didn't you ignore me like you always do ?" There was no response. I began to remember the first time I willingly jumped into the pond.
"Why didn't you just... forget?"