"Fujiwara!!"
From behind her, someone shouted her name. The voice sounded happy and excited compared to her voice.
"Shouta?"
"Don't call me that!!"
"But it's your name?"
"We just met today!"
A black haired. Taller than her. His face has more expressions than her. Before stopping behind her, he ran like he was thrilled.
"I have a question for you, Fujiwara"
"What?"
Before giving the question, Shouta gave her a big smile. All while she tilted her head in confusion.
"Do you have a dream?"
"A dream?"
"Yeah! Like… eh… what do you want to be when you grow up?"
"When I grow up?"
"..."
"I want to be like you"
"wh-why?!"
"..."
"wh-why do you want to be like me?"
"——————"
Shouta couldn't remember what Sara was saying.
.
.
—The sun was blaring at Shouta as he watered his plants in front of his house. The road near his house was quiet, even though it was already 12 pm.
"Summer came early, huh?"
Time flew since Shouta and Ichika last met. Though they meet every time school starts and when school ends. But It has been a long time since the last time they talked about something other than lessons.
"Brother! I'm going now!"
"Sure, have a safe trip!"
"Yeah, definitely"
Mia left the house and walked to the station wearing a cute teal dress, carrying a white small bag she'd carried around her arm. Shouta watched his adorable sister walking and turning her back, waving cutely to him.
As Mia disappeared, turning to a corner leading to the station. Shouta had a feeling he couldn't hold inside of him.
With his hand, he put on his red face. He kneeled down with a water hose in his other hand. In his mind, he proudly asked.
Why do I have such a cute little sister?!
"—Sho!! The water is still running!!"
"Eh?"
As his eyes opened, looking at his feet. He noticed his pants were soaked.
"AHG!!"
.
"Sorry for that, mum"
"It's okay. What were we doing anyway? You looked like a dumb highschooler crying at the ground"
"Don't call me that!!"
"Pfft"
Shouta's mother laughed.
They were inside of his room. Shouta sat on his bed as his mother looked inside his closet to search for something.
"What're you searching for?"
"Mmm… don't know?"
His mother, Kazehaya Tohru, chuckled as she continued to search her son's closet.
"Seriously, what're you searching for?"
"For a boy at your age, there's probably something that you hide from your mother"
"Are you suggesting I have an adult comic?"
"No, not only a comic… Maybe a magazine?"
"That's ridiculous!!"
.
"So mum, school's onn holiday and I got nothing to do. Want me to do something?"
Shouta asked while he ate a bowl of soup and meat with rice.
"I don't know, what do you want to do?"
"...I don't know too"
"You're useless"
"That was random!"
"But it's not a joke, Sho"
"Hm?"
"If you can't think of a plan for your future, that is tomorrow and or next year. You'll feel useless and can't help it and ask what you want to do"
"What're you saying…?"
"Why don't you get a half-time job? Just to do some activity"
"But… where?"
"A local cafe, Kaede worked there before"
"Miss Yamamoto?"
"She quit her job after getting informed to work as a maid in a wealthy family"
"Is that the reason she works here?"
"No"
Tohru paused, bringing a plate of fried rice to the dining table for her to eat. Shouta watched his mother as she sat down in front of him, looking at him with a lovable face.
"Ever since she was a young kid—"
—The young Kaede was trained to be a trained little girl with a good attitude.
She was trained to do taekwondo and how to defend herself from people trying to do something to her. She was trained to treat guests with all her energy, treating their meeting like it's their last.
"You know how she acts around us, right?"
"Yeah"
Everytime she walks, if someone looks at her, it is like looking at an angel walking through the streets. Her long hair danced in the wind. Her head was looking a little downwards.
"She is special"
"Is she from some kind of… farmer family?"
"Yeah—"
—she was born in Kyoto. Her family owned one of the largest rice fields in Kyoto. She moved to Tokyo to pursue higher education. Her family funded her with more than a million yen, but she didn't want to use the money her father gave to her.
When she was walking back from her campus, she found a "hiring" poster on a tree. It was the poster of the cafe, Tohru recommended Shouta to work at. To make money, she waltzed into the cafe and made everyone's jaws drop the moment they laid eyes on her.
"She nailed the interview too"
"Mum, how do you know this story?"
"It's cause I was there when she did the interview"
"How?! Aren't interviews supposed to be in some private place"
"Yeah, it is"
Tohru was visiting her friend who works at the cafe. She sat down and ordered a black coffee. She and her friend were planning to talk about the old times, catching up with each other. The last time they met was well over 9 years ago.
As Tohru drank her coffee, she caught a glimpse. At the very corner of her eye, a black haired angel walked gracefully out of the cafe, smiling while holding a piece of paper.
As she walked along the sidewalk of Shichirigahama, she frowned and looked down at the concrete floor. The calm and cold wind breeze and the quiet waves hitting the shore, the night was somewhat perfect for her.
She was a young university student. Her hair was long, reaching to her waist. She wore a pink cardigan and under that, a white shirt. And a short black skirt and thigh high socks.
"Hm?"
She felt her phone vibrating in her hand and then a soft ding followed. She stopped near the shichirigahama station to check her phone. She'd received an email about two minutes ago and just now. One was from a friend and one was from the Cafe.
She opens the email from her friend. It says:
"Good evening, Kaede-chan. How's your day? Are you free this evening? If so, do you want to meet up?"
—Reina
"Meetup…? But where?"
Near a thick forest where not many people pass by. Kaede, tired from searching, breathed as she sat down on a nearby rock.
"I told you to give me the location!! Not some treasure hunt hint stuff!!"
"Sorry-sorry. I should've just give you the exact spot"
"Well anyways, where are we?"
"Don't you notice? Just look to your right"
"Huh?"
Kaede looked to her right, it was nothing more than trees and bushes. But at the very back, she saw something big and gray.
"What's that?"
Suddenly, her hand was yanked by Reina and she immediately ran so fast, Kaede couldn't comprehend what was happening.
"Reina-chan! W-wait!"
Reina came to a halt in front of a gray abandoned structure, allowing Kaede to take a deep breath. The structure was large, standing three floors tall, and there was some residual paint on the ground near the front door.
"Reina-chan, whose paint does this belong to?"
"Hehe, it's mine of course!"
As Reina said that, Kaede looked at the walls near the doorless front door. There was paint all over it, splashes of every color.
"Reina-chan… are you trying to—"
"—yes! I'm trying to rebuild this school!"
"School?"
"Yeah, it was an old school that was destroyed when a debri flew and hit the building"
"Do you mean… this is where the Tonde Iru Hanen happened?"
Tonde Iru Hanen, an accident that happened because of the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The shockwave threw a large debri over a mountain and hit a highschool when they were in the middle of class. Students and teachers were killed thanks to the falling debri, and then the shockwave and then the heat followed.
"They said that this building is haunted by the ghosts of the teachers and the students. But I'm not scared. In fact, I feel like they want to finish their lesson before leaving this life"
"Are you saying that you want to rebuild this abandoned school?"
"It may seem to be a dream too big for a girl like me. But if I make it big in the entertainment world, I would definitely make this school function like it used to"
"That's a big dream you got there, Reina-chan"
"Yeah! Hihi, and it's a big dream that I have to achieve!"