Katawa Shoujo Forums

I clap loudly, triumphantly, making that one boy clap along with me. He stands up and claps proudly, giving celebratory whistles as loudly as he can. The girl beside him stands up and enthusiastically claps, bringing along everyone in the row with her. Cheering approvingly, everyone in the enraptured audience rises to a standing ovation.

The cascade of clapping warmly washes onto Eita and his mother, all the lights of heaven reach down and bless them, Tsunade too is revealed clapping her hands. Hinata plays the final triumphant music to complete the scene, beautifully ending Eita's story.



[ED: We Weren't Born To Follow by Bon Jovi]

Interim: “Hydralisks and Zealots! Attacking my base!”



“Nova and Arcturus won't be far away from each other, they'll be safe in some posh fancy room lit by pretty lights, with polished marble floors and big windows. Oooh! And a golden record player!”

As soon as I say it, I eagerly start imagining what that room must look like.

“We won't have that.” Sasha affirms, speaking and signing at the same time for Shizuo's benefit.

Shizuo nods eagerly in agreement.

“Who Cares?” Kaori enthusiastically declares, “We'll ravage that Terran base! Listen up Zealot slaves! Keep charging to your deaths! When you make it inside, be sure to take all the valuables you find in there! Steal everything that isn't bolted down and pry loose everything that is!”

“Errm... Queen Selendis?” Lionel asks, “We're supposed to be proud honourable Protoss warriors, not petty --nor suicidal-- thieves, right?”

“Shut up Lionel! Or I'll throw you into the stockades for inciting a rebellion!” Kaori snaps back, “Iwanako! You and your pet worm-dragon thing go in first and draw their fire! Make sure to reveal their sniper's position with your dying breath! We'll handle the rest!”

“For the last time, Kaori,” Rai mutters coldly, with frustration burning in his voice, “I am not a 'pet worm-dragon thing', I am an elite Hydralisk!”

“Yeah yeah, hydra-boy,” Kaori nonchalantly acknowledges, flippantly waving her hand as she does, “go make me proud.”

Rai takes a deep breath and holds it in.

“Umm, maybe we should do a strafing run first? --or something?” I ask timidly, trying to introduce some sensible strategy into our approach, since the heavily fortified base has crushed wave after wave of Kaori's Protoss units.

“You could call in your Zerg flyers, Hanajima,” Ikezawa says matter-of-factly, through a grave sighing expression. “You are the 'Queen of Blades' after all, it's not like you don't have... your entire Zerg Swarm Right At Their Doorstep.”

“No~” Kaori smiles and says teasingly, coyly holding up a pointed finger for emphasis, “They're my entire Zerg Swarm now, we made a deal; we shook hands on it! --Remember?”

Ikezawa looks at her, his gaze weary with disbelief. Kaori just smiles happily in return.

Ikezawa glances at Lionel who shares a similar expression, before just sighing in defeat.

“Yes.. indeed... the momentous handshake, between the graceful Selendis, who inexplicably went mad with power and declared herself Matriarch of the Protoss; and Kerrigan, the murderous Queen of the Zerg, who had a change of heart and decided she doesn't want to be a 'bad girl' anymore, and seeks to live a quiet life wandering the stars with her pet dragon.”

I think Ikezawa is trying to subtly hint to us again that we're incredibly 'out-of-character'.

“leet.. hydralisk...” Rai mutters under his breath again.

“So the only obstacle remaining between Selendis and total dominance of the sector is Arcturus Mengsk's Terran Dominion. Of course, she immediately and directly lays siege to the Terran capital planet and infests the entire populace. Chasing down and cornering Arcturus and his silent bodyguard Nova in their stronghold, and is now proudly sending wave after wave of Zealots to their glorious deaths, completely ignoring Zeratul's advice to bring their whole Protoss fleet down to bear and neglecting to utilise the entire Zerg Swarm at her command.”

“I want the loot.” Kaori curtly responds to Ikezawa's sardonic summary, “It's all about the loot, the whole loot, and nothing but the loot.”

“If I may suggest, your highness,” Lionel mockingly asks, “that if we negotiate a surrender, or spread our Zerg infestation far and thorough enough among the human worlds, we will have the entire sector as our-- 'loot'.”

“Lionel, there's nothing more-”

“Zeratul. -- I am.. Zeratul.” Lionel rudely interrupts Kaori.

“Ceratop.. whatever. Look, there's nothing more satisfying, and more rewarding, than slaying your enemies yourself for the experience points, then looting all the special items from their bodies and blowing up their base when you're done.”

“But that doesn't give experience points!” Sasha expresses worriedly.

“No, but it's satisfying.” Kaori generously explains, “Come to think about it... Zordon! Do we have a 'Planet Cracker' powered up?”

“It's been 'powered-up' and ready, my queen, I told you that when you sent the first wave of our Zealots blindly to their deaths.”

“Good! Blow up that base!”

“Noo! We surrender! We Surrender!” Sasha proclaims.

Shizuo nods fearfully in agreement.

“Fire when ready!” Kaori exclaims happily.

“My queen? Shouldn't we--”

“Bring down the thunder of the Apocalypse! We'll reap the loot in the whirlwind!”

“...As you wish.” Lionel weakly agrees.

“Ummm, aren't we a little too close to the Terran base ourselves?” Rai asks me nervously.

“Actually, yes. You all are.” Ikezawa answers with little patience, “The heavens fall. Everyone Dies.”


We all stay silent in the aftermath of what just transpired.


“The End.”



Disclaimer: This meaningless message was brought to you by UNN, which presumably stands for 'Udon News Network'. ..or something. Personally I prefer 'Chicken Noodle News'.

By the way, StarCraft II was just like Katawa Shoujo; “We all got our choices to make.”

“Damn shame.”

Gently strumming on the echoing strings, Rai's fingers press delicately on his guitar, carefully weaving a heavenly melody that catches and pulls at my heart.

“I don't know, if you can see...” Kaori softly sings and catches my enchanted soul.

“the changes that have come over me.”

“In these last few days, I've been afraid,”

“that you might drift away...”


In dark hollowness of cold silence, their melancholic music flickers brightly, shining brilliance from warm memories, against sad sorrows of loss haunting the coffee room.

“You've been hearing old stories, singing songs,” Kaori sings on through the winter in her soul.

“made you think about where you come from.”

“That's the reason, why you seem..”

“so far away.. today.”


Kaori pauses briefly, feeling ever so empty. She looks to his seat, forever left quiet, vacant and inanimate. Painfully she looks out the window, opening brightly into wind-swept plains, her grief tormenting her with cruel glimpses of Scotland, of Lionel's beautiful childhood home, of him returning there and leaving her.


“Let me tell you that I love you, that I'll think about you all the time,”

“Caledonia is calling you, now you're going home.”

“If you should become a stranger...”


“it would make me.. more than.. sad.”

“Caledonia is everything you've ever had.”



[OP: Caledonia by Eileen Laverty]

K-Shounen

One More Act: Graduation (part 3)

Sheltered in the labyrinth of heavy bookshelves, there comes imperceptibly the rising and falling of hushed murmurings, while I flip delicately through vibrant illustrations of a storybook before me, wistfully entranced by words and pictures depicting the children's tale of 'The Ugly Duckling'.

With a sincere smile from my heart as I reach the end of the duckling's journey, I think of a certain someone whose sleeves would flutter so freely with the wind, seemingly ever ready to leave the solid earth and embrace the sky.

My eyes are haunted taut with tears, as the duckling is finally accepted as a truly beautiful being, and for the first time, proudly takes flight from the ripples of murky reflections. A soul reborn through purity, and a heart rising strong on the wing, soaring wonderfully through heavenly clouds and golden skies, flying alongside a flock of graceful swans, flying alongside family, towards the brilliant light of brighter days ahead.

“Iwanako? --Is that you?”

Flowing vistas of my peaceful daydreams veil away into mere watercolour illustrations again, my misted sight springs up, and I behold my dear friend Lionel, smiling curiously and expectantly.

Lionel..; tall, bright, and handsome as always, with his cropped, wavy blond hair uncombed and shaping into adorable, droopy 'dog-ears' (or “scraggly air-intakes”, as Ikezawa once tauntingly described). He pats and perceives the chair and table gently with one hand, while gripping a noticeably thick book with the other.

“Lionel! It's you!” I say a bit too loudly.

I realise my raised voice too late and quickly cover my mouth, hoping Yukio the Librarian didn't hear me.

“Shh.. not so loud.” Lionel hushes me softly, as he drags the chair out and seats himself opposite of me.

“Sorry.. I didn't hear-- ..umm, ..sorry.”

Lionel listens intently, before warmly giving a small smile, and saying “I startled you, didn't I?”

“No.. I..... yeah, a little.”

“I'd turn on my clicker like I always do-- when moving around, but it's the library. Annnd that scary Yukio guy is on duty.”

Lionel fiddles a little with the echolocation toy looped on his belt, before quietly thudding his book onto the table. ..Hmm, it's a historical fiction set in America's Old West, based on a country song by a singer from Newcastle. --The book's in Braille, of course.

“How did you know.. that it's me?” hesitatingly I ask, almost wishing I didn't; somehow I fear it might offend Lionel.

“Hmm? Oh.., I picked up your scent. I thought it was you.”

“Err..” I utter awkwardly, not voicing the thought that him, 'picking up my scent', is a little unsettling.

“I meant-- I caught a whiff, of the shampoo in your hair, it smells just like.. Kaori's.”

Sadness of the long farewell between us suddenly swells in our hearts again, at the soft ringing of his estranged beloved's name. In a shining moment ever fleeting, every happy memory we made together is with us again, and we feel ever helpless as they rush by so slowly, brightly crushing our voices.

“I share things with Kaori, things like shampoo.. she asked very nicely for it.”

Lionel tightens his lips, drawing a small but sincere smile, and continues on.

“I thought as much.., I think there's a bit of a story actually. Kaori once asked me how I can tell who someone is when they're not talking, like how I know when Shizuo is right in front of me or just around the corner.”

“I told her how everybody has a 'tempo', a natural.. 'music' or 'pace' that they conduct themselves with. A 'signature way of moving', or 'body language by sound', you know?”

“Everybody's tempo is unique; Shizuo's is perfect, Kaori's is “far-reaching”, Ikezawa's is... “evil”, ...well, “malevolent”, ...I don't know how else to describe it, no offence to him.”

“And then there was the new class rep of 3-3, the 'Fragile Snow Angel' Iwanako, whose tempo is so 'careful and concealing', that I couldn't even hear it sometimes. The gentle, fragrant hint of your hair became how I recognised you by instead. And then Kaori must have gotten jealous, she muttered and complained that I never said anything nice about her hair.”

I chuckle a bit, and add “Her hair is always dishevelled. She says it's fine, but.. I don't think she can see how messy it is every morning. She doesn't even think her apricot-maroon striped stockings are-- gaudy.”

Lionel lightly chuckles and agrees, “Yeah, she's all about character, that girl.”

Without saying it, Lionel is telling me how dearly he loves Kaori, how much my best friend means to him, and how much pain he felt when his father finally accepted him, to finally be let back into Scotland, to go back home, to graduate there and become a fine young man, far away from us. To start a new life in loneliness, to be torn half a world away from Kaori's embrace.

“Have you said your goodbyes yet?”

“S-Say what? Iwanako?” Lionel asks confusedly, abruptly lifting his hand from tracing and reading the preface.

“You haven't told Kaori yet, how much you've longed to go home, and how much she still means to you... you've been ignoring her for so long, Lionel. It's hurting both of you deeply.”

Lionel's handsome face falls into sorrowful regret, his hand still hovering over the page. A dark storm passes in his mind, before the shining ray of his smile banishes the sadness, and his hand rests again carelessly on the book.

“Love is a matter of circumstance, Iwanako.”

..What?

“Life isn't a fairytale, we have to wake up on our own, when the dream is over.”

“How can you say that, Lionel?”

“I don't pretend that her love for me didn't matter, I would never do that. And because I loved her just as much, I can't... 'say goodbye'. As if it's alright to hurt each other, and then, just-- move on with our lives. I can't.. I can't just 'move on'.”

“But.. that's what you're doing, and Kaori too. Saying goodbye won't..”

“Won't what? Won't simplify it? Won't neatly end our relationship? As if it was a mistake in the first place?”

“No... Lionel, no.”

My voice falls and ceases on the verge of crying, listening to Lionel's tone rise and straining on the verge of shouting.

He hears the sadness welling in my eyes, through the fog of silence between us. He stops clenching his fist on the book, and calms himself. He sighs so softly, and begins to say “Iwanako... I-”

“~Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!~” Celtic Woman is singing proudly out of Lionel's loudly ringing phone, the dramatic suddenness of majestic bagpipes comically petrifies the both of us. He scrambles to pull his phone out of his pocket, unmuffling the sharp ringtone and abruptly revealing the huge orchestra that was in his pants. Dreadfully shocking Lionel with booming volume and the subsequent consequences, it leaps and darts out of his grasp a few times, before he manages to grip the phone properly and quickly answers the call.

“Ah, dammit.” Lionel spits out, realising the caller has given up. He hastily presses a few buttons in beeping order, repeatedly cutting off the deadpan narration, and making it speak the caller's number.

“Uhh.. Lionel?”

“I-I can't understand, why people don't just-- train dogs anymore, you know? To run and fetch messages for them? Or carrier pigeons that can translate and peck out basic Braille? Or bloody hell, why not a messenger parrot? They got a smart mouth, right?”

“Lionel, maybe we better-”

“Huh, it wasn't Kaori calling me. It was the principal. It's been a while, I keep forgetting to name her number and make it easier to-”

“Lionel!”

“What?”

“H-h-he's.. behind you..”

“Who's behind... oh no..”

“ I AM. Yukio Shirakawa. THE LIBRARIAN.”

Lionel yelps in fear and horror, I whimper across the floor, for our world ends not with a bang, but in the abject twilight of death's dusty bells raised and rang. Warmth of day fades and dies to reveal the insane illuminations of dark stars, looming closer with each step that infernal creature takes. Yukio the Librarian, unholy guardian of the Necronomicon, manifests his malevolent presence, damning the very soils on which he stands and shades. We try to escape, but it is futile, it is hopeless.

I feel not regret nor fright, for my mind is torn thin by the madness of reality twisting wild and strange, my soul rusts and disintegrates upon witnessing cackling abominations, wandering aimlessly beyond the dark stars. The last spindles of my sanity snap and splinter, the mind unravels and echoes of screams are all that remains. Nothing is left, nothing would be coherent, not one thing, except perhaps the glimpses. Those horrid glimpses, infecting the essence; those unbearable glimpses, squirming into the senses; those screeching glimpses, of the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.


“I'll talk to you later, Iwanako. I think the principal wants to see me.”

“Okay..”

His slow, even footsteps and chirping echolocation-toy noisily clatter together, fading away into the hallways, disappearing at the turn of a corner. I sometimes wonder why Lionel never uses a cane, or is fond of using the word 'see', even though he has no idea what sight is.

I turn my head around and look back into the library, and unnervingly, I find Yukio is still staring back at me.

I... decide to just do my homework in the coffee room instead, since none of us seem to go there anymore.

Quietly wandering amidst echoes of emptiness in the long lonely corridors, I question myself if I'm hearing-- music?

I peek into the coffee room, suddenly remembering how I've peeked in like this before; I was spying on Rai and Shizuo performing the English version of the Speed Racer song. Together with Hanzou, we were curiously poking our heads out of the corner, with him slightly pressing his weight on me. It was a warmly pleasant feeling.. almost like a hug, a tiny little happiness that I never noticed I was feeling.

I give an earnest smile at the fond memory, as I wistfully remember again how close Hanzou and I were..

As I return to reality, I..... umm, well, Hanzou is in the coffee room, the lights are off and the curtains are drawn, and he's wickedly pleasing himself all alone in the dark, with a grand karaoke session.

“-it was more than any laws allow~! Baby! Baby! If I- kiss you like this! And if you whisper like that! It was lost long ago~ but it's all coming back to me! If you want me like this! And if you need me like that! It was dead long ago, but it's all coming back to me! It's so hard to resist, and it's all coming back to me. I can barely recall, but it's ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW~!”

Errm... he's.. really.. singing woefully with all his heart, while gesturing overdramatically, or.. just really swooning passionately. Maybe he's trying to match the-- “feminine power”, in Celine Dion's version of 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now'.

“There were those empty threats and hollow lies! And whenever you tried to help me, I just hurt you even worse and so much deeper...”

Should I say something? --Or just leave quietly?

“There were hours that just went on for days! When alone at last we'd count up all the chances that were lost to us forever...”

Without reason, I stay. ..I decide to stay, and listen. Because somehow, somewhere, deep down inside, I can hear him crying, even when he hides half his heart away. I can hear him cry, and I want to cry with him.

Is this what it's like? To simply lose someone you love so dearly? Just because our wills and our fates do so contrary run? That our devices, are overthrown? --Hanzou absentmindedly yanks at the microphone cord, almost pulling over the A/V Club's equipment.

'Our thoughts are our own. Their ends, none of our own.' I've never really understood Hamlet, but I know how our broken lives can seem insignificant, how the world turns and everyone moves on in disregard. Lionel seems to think as much, he must feel helpless because of it, how his heart is cruelly toyed with, how he refuses to see reason and find his strength in love.

Hanzou must feel the same way, ..I feel the same way. Everyone in this school must feel the same way. We all feel helpless, ...we all feel worthless inside. What is 'choice'? If the lives we choose can be taken away from us? What good is 'hope'? If the loves we cherish comes and goes by random fate?

I felt like this once, I felt angry and bitter when my boyfriend left me. He left me, he just suddenly abandoned me, leaving me to wake up alone with only a memory of our first kiss, lying on a hospital bed in the white shadows of winter, feeling cold and lost by the frozen window, quietly crying beside falling ashes of snow.

I never blamed myself for having a faulty heart. I thought maybe he was scared, maybe he felt guilty. It turned out that my foster parents blamed him, my weak heart never faltered before, not until he kissed me on the darkened edge of the icy forest, and I fell in love with him, before falling to my knees and fainting in his arms.


I was happy when I came to Yamaku, it meant I didn't have to put up with my foster parents anymore. I was free to live my life, no matter how broken I was. Though I chose to push everyone away and keep my heart to myself. Thusly I ignored my hallmate Kaori, I avoided Hanzou who was class rep before me. I stayed alone, and intended to graduate on my own.

But Hanzou never gave up on me, he wanted me to have friends, to share smiles and laughter with him, ..to just be happy. He told me how he felt the same, how he and Lionel and Kaori, all feel the same; I wasn't alone. I didn't have to cry tears and bear burdens on my own.

Hanzou told me the story, of how they became family. He was a very different person, violent and unsociable, unkind and volatile. Idly walking by the gardens when he chanced upon her then, Kaori was saddened and crying on a bench, overcome with grief, shaking and afraid; she will completely lose her sight one day.

Hanzou “comforted” or “encouraged” her, by telling her she still had her family, and luxuries and choices he never could achieve, heartlessly demanding she agree that she didn't deserve to cry.

Lionel came and heard him and went to sock his face, unknowingly knocking off the half-mask hiding Hanzou's scars. The three of them became best friends ever since, as Kaori was always there to “stop those two stooges from going nuts and beating each other silly.”

She put up with their constant ridiculous arguing, even as the School Doctor tended to the cuts and bruises they clawed into each other. Even when the School Doctor punished them with cleaning duty in the medical rooms, Kaori still had to witness them turn their chore into some kind of competition, stupidly boasting “my powers of cleaning are better than your powers of cleaning.”

Eventually, through deep devotion and honest friendship with each other, they changed themselves for the better; Kaori proudly became class rep of 2-2 (with Lionel as her unwilling assistant), and Hanzou of 2-3. They formed the new Student Council as the “Three Musketeers Trio”, an amusing title of which Kaori felt strongly to be utterly redundant. When Shizuo and Sasha joined their group, Kaori lamented that her “fellowship” was sadly no longer the “One Musketeer plus Two Idiots” team, but instead the “Drink Coffee, Play Board Games, And Talk Nonsense All Day Long Band”.

With a small chuckle, I remember sharing a little laugh with Kaori about it, much to the boys' expense and chagrin.

The film of happy memories fade brightly into my heart, as I am once again with reality and sitting on the floor beside the door, hugging my school bag close to me. It sounds like Hanzou's done abusing his power as student council president and is finally ready to return the “borrowed” A/V equipment.

Briefly, I wonder what Kaori is doing, --how she's coping, with Lionel leaving.

With a smile, I make up my mind, and lift myself up. Quickly dusting my skirt, I eagerly knock on the door.

“WAAhh-h-h-hello! Miss Hanajima!”

“Hi Hanzou! Can I ask if you know where Kaori is? I don't think she's in her room at this time of day.”

“Now just where did this ultra-high-fidelity audio-visual system set come from I wonder? I suspect perhaps maybe someone in the A/V Club left them here carelessly quite possibly by silly mistake? Along with this limited edition Celine Dion CD which I am only now confiscating just recently and have never ever once listened to such tawdry sentiments before in my life when I go to bed at night. Certainly I am not one for such effusive manners of vocal entertainment, I am much more refined than I let on-- you do so believe me when I say so, don't you? Class Representative Iwanako Hanajima?”

“...I believe you, President Hanzou Ikezawa. --I'm going to go look for Kaori, but I was wondering if you might know where she would be..”

“Setou? ..She won't like me telling you, but, Kaori is passing her days alone on the school roof.”

“The roof?”

“It's a special place to us, for her. ..It's also a vantage point, and she is fond of staring over wide expanses.”

“I see..”

“The two of them are drifting away, aren't they?”

“.., they still have time, to say goodbye.”

Through the sadness of losing both his cherished friends, Hanzou suddenly brightens with an idea in his eyes, and regards me with a smile.

“Iwanako, I have a cunning plan.”

I tilt my head questioningly.

Minutes later, after agreeing on the details of 'Operation Kiss-and-Make Up Already U2', we set our identical (but differently coloured) phones to just vibrate instead of ringing, so when one of us finds our intended target, we'll slyly call the other as a signal, and drag Setou and Satou out of their stubbornness and have them meet at their “Bridge of Tears”, and help them hug each other and say goodbye. --Hanzou is an evil genius!

“Okay.., I'll see if she's on the roof, if not, I'll check her room.”

“Approach her gently, Iwanako. Setou can be.. fragile. Be there for her, do not force her.”

I empathically nod and agree, softly saying “I know.”

“I will seek out Satou. That cotter should be done talking to the principal about now.”

I nod again and smile, quickly setting out the door to find Kaori, while Hanzou takes a more relaxed manner of exiting the coffee room.

When I'm almost out of earshot, I catch him playfully teasing to himself.

“Karaoke; definitely my scene.”


Echoes of memory dance around me in the softness of darkness, as I climb the dusty stairwell up the roof.

“Kaori.. can I ask you a question?”

The voices are hushed and indistinct, but the shining light of her lovely smile come vividly back to me.

“Sure Iwanako...”

“Why does Hanzou want me to be class rep of 3-3 so badly? ..Is it because I always sneak off and skip cleaning duty?”

Kaori fell silent, idly twirling her long, unkempt, dishevelled hair. She looked up to the sky for the complex answer to my simple question.

Then she looked back at me, smiling brilliantly, and cheerfully said “Don't know!”

“You don't know?”

“All I can say is... you matter to him. The two of you are very precious to each other...”

“What do you mean by that?”

She shrugged, trying to feign ignorance and end the conversation. Sasha “accidentally” interrupted her with his electric fan, blowing and tussling her hair even wilder than it needed to be.

Kaori was very upset with that, straightening and untangling herself while shouting to Sasha that giving her a blow was “not his job.” Sasha though, said he enthusiastically starts every morning with a gratifying “power blow”, it's the real job that his electric fan does, setting his modest brown hair into its handsome “natural wind-swept look”.

“Gal pal, you think I maintain this natural wind-swept look, na~tu~rally?”

I vaguely remember Kaori growling like a ruffled jaguar, ready to pounce on Sasha and devour him whole, suave smile and golden earring and all.

The groaning hinges turns and roars just like an aroused jaguar, as the dark metal door swings and sweeps itself away from the brightness, revealing the stark white sunlight bathing on the open roof.

I shield my squinting eyes with my hand, and step boldly into the brilliant warmth.

'Where is she?' I wonder, looking around slowly. I scan along the fence, and her slender figure slides suddenly into view, her long dark hair captures my focus, enveloping and contrasting her white radiant uniform.

With one hand clung at the cyclone fence, she stands still and lifeless, staring out at the distant blue in the horizon. She must have heard the groaning door, but she stays motionless as I softly approach, the gravel harshly crunching my every footstep. Not the slightest acknowledgement at all, not even a hint of movement from her, when I come so close and quietly call to her. ..I almost cry thinking she's petrified in waving goodbye.

“..Kaori.....”

I softly hold her hand, intertwining with her fingers, gently coaxing her to let go of the sharp hot fence.

She shouldn't be out here, her sight could get worse from the strong sunlight, and the heat is going to make her ill.

Gingerly, she turns to me, tenderly pulling and guiding my hand. Smoothly, my fingers brush against silky velvet from her uniform's butterfly bow, and press warmly on the honest beating in her chest. She leans in closer to me, her eyes staring still into mine, only inches from delicately kissing me.

I almost touch her lips, my own lips tingling under each hot breath we take together.

But I take no action, ..I let the moment slip pass us.

She seems to understand, and the brightness between us slowly dims, as we wistfully pull away from each other.

I stare into her, as she looks down on herself.

I give a reassuring smile, and a friendly hand on her shoulder. She raises herself in surprise, before her spirits slowly fall away again, but I catch her hand, and tenderly pull her along with me, back into joyful reality and familial friendship, carefully down through the dusty stairwell together, and freely running out to the fresh gardens to look for Lionel.

“So.. will you be picking up a broadsword when you return? And start shaving sheep with it?”

Hanzou already has Lionel with him, as they evenly walk together by the garden path. Despite stiffly maintaining the gentlemanly posture, Hanzou seems to have a little bit more cheer in his tone than usual.

“Oh yeah~ Every man, woman and child in Scotland is born with the natural instinct to just pick up a claymore and shave the fluff off of sheep with it. It's in our blood to be so manly, try not to envy.”

“I don't believe I'll be trying, Satou.”

“Oh but you will, you're struggling desperately to not beg on your knees, to have me take you along with me. Oh how you've been keeping secret your desire to be a part of Scotland pride. And though I may not be able to bring you to the Highlands, I can still send you a bagpipe and a little girl's skirt. You can wear it proudly as a kilt, marching in the dorms and waking everybody up on time, maybe with an 'Auld Lang Syne' solo.”

“Your brutish broadsword of a mind has pierced through my careful composure, Satou. I suppose there is no need to keep secret anymore that I've been practising my sheep-summoning yodle.”

“Why you... Oh have you now? What, does karaoke not do it for you anymore?”

“Who told-- Lies, slander, obloquy and calumny. You insinuate that this 'karaoke' you speak of to be of passionate interest to me? I declare not! It is falsehood! High perjury! I am far too refined to be so inclined. My true musical talents lie in the holy art of sheep yodling.”

“NOBODY summons their SHEEP with a YODLE!”

“Is yodling a Scottish thing?” I ask considerately, letting Lionel know I'm here, and by the stronger fragrance in her hair; so is Kaori.

“N-no, Iwanako. It's.. more of a.. an Austrian thing.” Lionel almost stutters as he replies.

“I was led to believe it was a Ricola thing.” Hanzou comments, I think he means that.. yodling is a Swedish thing? --Is that right?

“Err, yeah.. Yeah, I'll send you some Ricola too Ikezawa, we'll see if we can't smoothen that rasp in your voice, or would you rather remain the Rod Stewart of amateur karaoke?”

“Amateur?!-- No, no, no, you shouldn't Satou, sheep-yodling is but a hobby for me, a mere pastime. For you, it's a culture. A tradition, that you must proudly practice every day. You'll need all the Ricola you can get to call home your wayward sheep. --You sheepherder.”

“Oh don't start being so considerate NOW~, you have your whole future in karaoke, don't you know!? And it's not like I can't send you a more natural brand of Ricola, that comes straight out the bunghole of any sheep I happen to come across!”

“You would, Satou? How very thoughtful! I am certain you would EAT IT YORUSELF otherwise.”

“If someone tied me to a chair and tortured me and threatened me on pain of death! Yeah! Maybe THEN I'll bring myself to eat what God surely had made with YOUR TASTES in mind.”

“You understand me so well, Satou! I am grateful to have met and befriended you for SO LONG! It is a pity I will not be SEEING you, after you return to Scotland. But I surmise you will not feel too lonely, after all, you can always have a Ricola melting in your mouth and your sheep to PLEASURE yourself with!”

“OH~! But I'll still miss you and your damningly BAD TASTE, Ikezawa! If there is but one thing that would unhappily remind me of you, is when I would unfortunately step on a FILTHY LOAD that some Godforsaken animal dropped on my front lawn!”

“Indeed? I am proud to be remembered so! By someone who yodles for and FINGERS SHEEP in the ALPS! For a steaming helping of confections! And by “finger” and “Alps”, I actually mean 'pointing a direction', and the Alpine highland.”

“Wha-- No you DON'T!”

“Are you two done yet?” Kaori asks bitterly through weariness.

“..sorry, ..Setou.” Hanzou apologises, while Lionel stays silent.

“What are you waiting for? ...Lionel?” Hanzou speaks up, surprising all of us with the last word.

“Errh, aheh.. I guess I'm...” Lionel doesn't finish his sentence, flustered and rubbing the back of his neck, taken aback by Hanzou addressing his first name, likely for the very first time.

“It's fine Hanzou.” Kaori answers coldly, “I'm not good with goodbyes either.”

“Kaori..” Lionel whispers and tries to reach to her.

But she sullenly pulls away, keeping Lionel from holding her.

“I don't want to say goodbye,” Kaori calmly declares on the verge of tears, “if it only hurts Lionel. I want to be alone, so just go. …..just go.”

She turns slowly away from us, her hand slipping out of my grasp. Hanzou calls to her, but she quietly walks away.