Dashing out of the campus, Kaori headed straight towards the Wind section's dormitory area.
*************************************************
It's been 11 years since Xeno and Zenna had left and now they were finally back to the headquarters again.
The clan residents were informed of their arrival beforehand so they had been waiting eagerly to receive the two famous descendants with grandeur.
As soon as the expected two stepped out of the portal, everyone ran towards them with joyous choruses.
Both Xeno and Zenna were surprised by the unexpected situation but they broke out to laughter right afterwards.
Their respective section members came over with big hugs while members from other sections also whined about how much they missed the two.
Xeno was, as usual, especially famous within his section. He's like the hero of the Wind. All the girls were squealing when he walked over to greet his good old mates of the section. Both the men and the women were very happy for his return.
It wasn't hard to identify Zenna because her face hadn't changed much in all those years. Except her height, hair length โ which grew up even longer to be at the waist length โ and her growth; which did change a lot. She had turned into a fine lady.
While Xeno, on the other hand, had changed gloriously.
His shoulder length, unkempt mane of wavy white hair was chopped shorter to his neck's length. He had straightened them out and parted them stylishly on the left side, leaving a curtain of hair cover both sides of his face handsomely. His shiny, bright, sea blue eyes glistened through the locks of his stylish hair.
Xeno's hands had become long, slender and manly. His shoulders became wider, bold and strong. His body had grown much more sturdy, making the old look of weakness in him to be gone. He had grown a lot taller, too.
And lastly, the way the boy looked at people had changed. Back then, he had this cute, big, doe eye look in them. But now, his gaze became more deeper. With those long eyelashes, they looked like the eyes which held endless stories of a very handsome young man.
Inu, his friend from the wind section had raised his hand in the air for a high five as the group raised some kind of argument which seemed like Xeno and his friends were enjoying.
Xeno clapped his on his friend's while replying to another's question, his set of perfect, white teeth never getting out of the sight.
He missed this feeling โ the feeling of being at home. He was grinning ear to ear from happiness.
*************************************************
Kaori stopped, reaching her destination. She was panting heavily from the exhaustion of running all the way to the other side of the headquarter's ground.
She darted her speedy glances all over, "๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ? ๐๐ข๐ด ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ?"
She pushed into the crowd, being lead towards the middle.
That was when Kaori spotted him โ Xeno Xin.
Kaori's eyes teared up at the sight of him grinning while talking to others.
"๐๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ. ๐๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด."
A tear glided down her cheeks as she smiled, watching him โ still trying to catch some air for breather.
Xeno had glanced at her way but his eyes stopped when he saw her. The smile had vanished from his lips. Now they were just standing apart, both looking at each other.
It was as if time had stopped after they made eye contact. The onlookers started murmuring when they saw them like that.
"Kaori!" A happy voice called, which must be Zenna's โ Kaori guessed. But Kaori didn't look her way, she didn't break the eye contact.
Xeno frowned as if he was trying to identify the girl's face from afar.
Kaori smiled, half crying in happiness. "Xeno!" She ran in full speed, closing the distance between them.
Lunging herself on Xeno's chest, she wrapped her arms around him. Xeno was too taken aback by everything that he just stood there with his hands slightly raised on both sides, frozen and stiff.
Kaori breathed, crying loudly, "It's been so long..."
Xeno looked down at the girl who was hugging him. He asked slowly, hesitantly, "Kao..ri...?
And then came the running Maki, Yamaken, Aoi, Gin and Saki. When they entered the scene, they spotted Xeno very easily.
"Xeno!" They all called, smiling widely at the boy.
Yamaken's eyes widened when he saw Kaori hugging him.
*Pang*
His smile started to disappear.
All the others ran up to Xeno while he stood still. He quietly put his hands into his pockets and watched his friends.
Kaori let go of Xeno and laughed awkwardly at the newcomers.
"๐๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ?" Yamaken scoffed internally, "๐๐ต'๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ ๐ด๐ข๐ธ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ณ๐บ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต...."
๐๐ช๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ?
Upon Zenna's joining the team, they started a delightful conversation, laughing together. They hugged each other as they greeted themselves.
Xeno was finally out of his stiffness and reached out to Kaori, giving her a big hug, "Sorry, I didn't recognize you at first," He smiled, "It's good to see you, too."
Kaori's eyes widened in realization when she heard his words. She was stilled in her position, not smiling anymore.
Xeno went over to Saki and hugged the girl, "Hey~" He sang teasingly and Saki kicked him on the leg, making him limp, jumping and yelling in pain.
Finally Xeno noticed Yamaken afar, he waved at the boy, grinning broadly, "Yamaken! Why are you just standing there?"
Yamaken smiled, nodding at his friend. Letting out a sigh alongway, he walked towards them.
*************************************************
Inside the main building of the headquarters, at the lounge room.
All of the old friends โ Xeno, Yamaken, Maki, Gin, Aoi, Saki, Zenna and Kaori engaged their favorite seats on the sofas quickly.
But all of them left the single sofa for Kaori. She didn't sit down, instead, she requested them to excuse her for a moment and went somewhere.
Yamaken sat down on the sofa right next and Xeno sat down beside him.
While the others chattered among themselves, Xeno looked at Yamaken and asked with a smile, "How have you been?"
Yamaken did the same in reply. "Quite well," Said Yamaken, "What about you?"
"Wild," Xeno laughed, "That's what changed me into this," He pointed at himself.
"You look good, to be frank," Yamaken checked Xeno out, "I think you'll gain more fans than before."
Xeno looked amused, "Then maybe I should change back to what I was. I don't really enjoy those squeals."
Kaori entered the lounge room again, being followed by a yellow haired young boy.
The boy's face lit up immediately as he saw the people who were sitting in the louge room.
He exclaimed with joy, "Xeno-senpai! Zenna-senpai!"
The named two also smiled brightly, "Yukine-kun!"
Zenna hurriedly came over and hugged the younger boy, "Oh, it's been so long! Look at how much you've grown!"
Yukine giggled, "Why would you mention my growth when you can see the amount of change in Xeno-senpai?"
Zenna looked over at the shyly smiling Xeno.
"I've been with Xeno as he changed himself little by little," Zenna smiled as if recalling the old memories of their journey, "So it's nothing much to me."
Xeno abruptly asked out of the blue, "Ah right," He said, "We're all here. But where is Haru? Why isn't he coming yet?"
The whole room was engulfed with silence. Everyone remained motionless except Xeno and Zenna, who were looking at the other's faces for some kind of answer which didn't come.
"What's wrong?" Zenna asked.
Xeno shot guesses as he didn't get any answer to his question, "Is he off to somewhere? Or has he become too busy to make some time?"
Xeno looked over at Kaori and was truly surprised to see her on the verge of tears.
All of a sudden, she turned around and dashed out of the place.
The room was wrapped in stillness again. But this time both Zenna and Xeno started to become worried.
Why weren't their friends answering their questions?
Zenna looked at Yamaken, "Did something happen? Why did Kaori run away like that?"
Xeno became desperate and begged, "You guys, please don't stay silent! Answer us! It's starting to get worrisome."
"Haru..."
The two looked at Yamaken who spoke quietly. All the other eyes in the room landed on him, too.
"Haru..." Yamaken gulped, his voice becoming hoarse as he tried to hold his tears back, "Haru left us all... For ever."
*************************************************
Kaori ran out of the building and through the long corridor towards the dormitory building.
She needed to shut herself inside her room and let it out, let the tears out and take off the heaviness that was pressing on her chest.
But as she ran randomly without looking ahead, she clashed into someone.
She was going to bow and apologize but two hands grabbed her arms.
"Kaori? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Willia's voice said.
As Kaori looked up to see her friend Willia, her tears filled her eyes.
Everything ended up with Kaori hugging Willia and crying loudly while the other girl patted her on the back, clueless of what had happened to her friend.
*************************************************
Willia took Kaori to her dorm room, where her other friends โ Robin, Melissa, Wood, Tom and Dylanthy โ hurriedly came over to her and started shooting questions.
Willia told them she would talk to them later and took Kaori to her room. When Kaori finally calmed down, she fell asleep on her bed and Willia quietly came out of the room, closing the door as she did so.
She was at once sorrounded by her friends.
Willia told the others everything that happened on her way and they all ended up falling into their own thoughts.
Wood was the first to ask a question, "Did you see where she came out from?"
Willia thought as she squinted her eyes towards the ceiling โ a process of remembering what had happened.
"I think," She said thoughtfully, "The lounge room?"
"The lounge room?" The others, except Wood repeated.
Wood's brain cells started functioning inside his head, "The lounge room, huh? Can anyone find out anything on that place for me?"
Everyone raised their hands in an instant.
Wood smiled, "All of you can? Good. But, I need only one of you. Robin," He called the good-looking brown haired boy, "You must go and find out."
"Okay," Robin nodded.
"Girls, you stay by Kaori's side," Wood instructed again, "She might need someone by her side.
The girls smiled, "๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ."
Willia nodded, "Got it."
Tom asked eagerly, "What about us?"
"For now," Wood replied, "You have no work. But I," He pulled on his fringes, "Have to think what could have happened to make Kaori like this."
*************************************************
When she woke up, the first thing Kaori felt like doing was getting out to have some fresh air.
She got out of the comforter that was most probably what Willia pulled over her when she had fallen asleep.
Then, as soon as she opened the door, she saw Willia, Dylanthy and Melissa standing outside.
"Did you have a good sleep?" Melissa asked with a smile.
Kaori looked at Melissa in confusion so Willia quickly wrapped her arm around her dear friend, "Do you feel better now?"
Kaori then remembered what had happened earlier. She flushed in embarrassment.
"Yeah, I'm good," She squeaked.
Willia smiled as she noticed Kaori's change of behaviour.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต'๐ท๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ.
Dylanthy asked softly, "Do you want something to eat?"
"Uh, no," Kaori rejected politely, "Where are the boys?"
"Ah, they..." Willia searched for an excuse and said quickly, "They went out for a walk around the headquarters."
"Oh," Kaori nodded.
She then recalled how she had run away from her old friends. A sense of guilt hit her.
She let out a sigh of sorrow and stretched her hands, "Girls, I'm going out for a bit. You can do whatever you want, don't just sit here."
Seeing her friends' worried expressions, she smiled, "I'm okay now. I just need some air. You guys go out and enjoy yourselves, too. Everyone is friendly here so you can do anything you want to. You can even go to a stroll in the town with someone. But don't do that without me, okay? You need to ensure your safety. So for now, stay inside the headquarters and look around."
"I'll go now, okay?" She drank some water before walking out of the door after directing her friends.
"Okay.... That was unexpected," Willia muttered, "What do we do now?"
"Follow her?" Dylanthy suggested.
Melissa shook her head, "I don't think that's a nice idea. She'll find us burdensome."
Willia bit her lips, "Let's inform Wood about this."
*************************************************
Dusk had fallen and covered the world with a gray blanket.
The moon shone in its full form, looking like a silver disk, illuminating the universe with a milky velvet light.
The ponds had the beautiful sight reflecting on their open bosoms.
Butterflies were flying here to there, sitting somewhere sometimes and then starting to fly again.
Kaori was sitting on the shore of a big pond on the west side of the headquarter ground. Her gaze was fixed on the pond's water but her mind was lost.
She let out a sigh, taking a pebble from the grassy ground and throwing it in the water. As she watched the stone drown with a dull sound of water splashing, she let out another sigh.
There were too many things in her mind right now and it all seemed to make her do the same thing - heave deep sighs.
She took another pebble to throw in the pond but then she felt someone's presence next to her.
"I finally found you," Said the voice of Xeno.
Kaori looked up at him with her mouth agape.
"Can I sit next to you?"
Kaori nodded, looking away back at the water.
Xeno sat himself down comfortably. "It's a nice moonlit night, no?" He asked softly, taking in the graceful view of nature.
Kaori nodded, "Yeah."
Xeno went straight to the point, "I heard what happened. Everything about Haru.."
Kaori remained silent but her heart started beating faster.
"So it all ended up like that after all," He sighed, "Somehow, I was afraid of something bad happeningโ"
"Regarding Haru?" Kaori cut in.
Xeno shook his head, "No, just had apprehended of something."
"The way you had changed towards everyone," He continued, "It could easily be told that nothing would go good like this. Everyone needed the old Kaori, not the one you had become at that time."
Kaori finally let out the heaviest sigh, "I thought... That Haru was acting out of jealousy..."
It was now Xeno's time to remain silent.
"The reason I had changed was because of that," Kaori confessed.
"I was happy with Fujinuma, because he was someone I gained by myself. But then, Kazuma-sensei wanted me to take Yamaken in as my shinki.. I couldn't help thinking about Haru. Ever since I started taking Fujinuma in daily missions, he dropped out of the group and decided to be my guide. He started to train Yukine-kun so that he could take Haru's place. All his strange behaviours wondered me and then came that order. I instantly thought that Haru could be behind it."
"It angered me," Kaori scoffed, "It angered me then, when I thought that Haru was being this unfair to Fujinuma. What did that poor boy ever do wrong? And then I also caught him being hard on Fujinuma. Overall, I blamed Haru for everything that happened and my grudge against him grew. As time passed by, I linked everyone else with him, too. Thus, I turned into that person who felt insecurity all the time and was suspicious of everyone. So I shut you all out with only Fujinuma by me..."
"But I guess that was a wrong choice," Kaori sighed again, tears starting to form, "Even when I knew about his abilities, I trusted him. But it turned out that I put all of my faith in the wrong person."
A long silence followed Kaori's confession before Xeno broke it.
"You really are an idiot," He laughed half heartedly, "When I said that I heard about everything, I meant everything."
Kaori met Xeno's cold eyes โ the ones she saw for the first time โ and then her eyes widened in surprise.
๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฆ๐ด?
"The way you treated Haru was beyond unfair. It was heartless," Xeno said bluntly, "I didn't expect this from you, Kaori. It was Haru, the person you cared for the most in this world. How could you do that to him? Have you ever thought about how he could have been feeling when you were like that to him?"
Kaori's eyes widened for a second time.
He was right. She never thought about that. She always acted selfishly in that time.
"Xeno..." She called in a broken voice, "How do I atone for my sins?" Kaori barely said.
With a deep sigh, Xeno suddenly stood up. "Come with me," He said.
Kaori looked up at him, "What? Where?"
As Kaori had also stood up, Xeno took her hand, "Let's go."
*************************************************
The moonlight was guiding them on their path while Xeno lead Kaori, still holding her hand.
Kaori was feeling down so she just casted her head towards the ground and didn't even care where Xeno was taking her to.
Finally when the wind boy announced that they had reached their destination, Kaori looked up to be astounded.
They were standing a feet distant from the tomb of Haru, which was under a big cherry blossom tree on the north-east side of the headquarters.
In the honour of his name โ which meant spring and spring was the season when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom โ Kaori planted a cherry blossom tree here and they buried him at the same place, near the tree.
The white tomb had no sign of dust on it, the informations engraved on it was glistening in the moonlight. There were some fresh flowers lying before the tomb.
Kaori asked slowly, "Why did you bring me here?"
"To atone for your sins," Xeno said simply, "You wanted to do that, right?"
As Kaori nodded in reply, Xeno said, "You don't have any other ways to do it anymore. So I thought maybe if you apologized to him, that'd be enough. And I only had this option at hand."
Kaori looked back at the tomb.
The name 'Houtarou Haru' made her heart squeeze and she couldn't keep it in anymore.
*************************************************
Hearing the sound of sobs and cries, a frown appeared between Yamaken's eyebrows.
He walked carefully without making any noise and quickly hid himself behind a tree.
Then he peeped cautiously and instantly, his heart leapt.
๐๐ข๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช?
But he was surprised to see that it was Kaori who was crying.
He was about to walk up to her but he stopped when he saw a pair of hand wrap around her and pull her towards its owner's chest - Xeno.
*Pang*
Yamaken flinched.
๐๐ข๐ฏ๐จ? ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด '๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ' ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ? ๐๐ต'๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข ๐ด๐ถ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ? ๐๐ฎ ๐ ๐ด๐ช๐ค๐ฌ?
He watched as Xeno comforted Kaori, hugging her. He continued watching the same thing for a few minutes before Kaori finally seemed to have calmed down.
When pulled Kaori away from him, he seemed to mutter something to Kaori and then he planted a kiss on top of her hair.
Yamaken's blood boiled at the sight, "What the hell does he think he's doing?!" He mumbled aggressively to himself.
But his rage vanished when he saw Kaori's slightly blushed face.
Xeno laughed when he noticed her face, too but he didn't raise any conversation about it.
The girl however, got bothered about the unknown reason of his laugh and started bickering with Xeno.
Yamaken watched them quietly for a moment before looking away.
He ruffled his hair and mumbled again, "What are you doing, Yamaken?"
He walked away from the place, leaving Kaori and Xeno to stand there and continue bickering โ unknown of Yamaken's presence or absence.
*Pang*
โญโคโคโญ๐โค๐โญโคโคโญ๐โค๐โญโคโคโญ