"...Eh? What did you just say?" I barely manage to mumble out the words, completely surprised by Ayame's sudden confession.

"E-eh..A-aaaahhh! I-i d-didn't---" Ayame looked away and covered her face as she continued whimpering.

"..Uhm..sure." I say.

She stops and looks at me, her face a deep red color. "W-what..?" she says.

"How can I refuse such a cute girl..of course I'll go out with you, how about we go tom---"

"How about today at 6pm! We can go to Bosco's!" She blurts out.

"That's a bit sudden but...sure, I'll meet you there" I say, smiling. I was completely confused and caught off guard by this but still calm enough to handle the situation..I hope.

"G-great! Bye!" She bows and runs away...Well that's that.

I never expected Ayame to do such a thing, she was always rather shy. We know eachother since we were kids and we hung out a lot but I never noticed she had such feelings for me.

It's gonna be a drag but I can't deny she's cute. Having a girl just ask you out like that...It's every guy's dream right?

I walk home and relax a bit, the time passes rather fast and to be honest, I was kinda excited...Oh it's about time.

I get ready, putting on some comfy clothes and heading for the door.

"Where are you going young man?" I hear the familiar voice of a short old lady behind me.

"Uh...I was just going out for a walk Baba.." I say as I turn to her.

"You? A walk? My my is it gonna start snowing in October?" She says as she smirks.

I sigh "I was...just going out to meet up with a friend and---" I try to lie my way out of there but get interrupted

"Is it maybe that Ayame girl?" She smirks to me.

"What? No! I...uhm I have other friends too you know.." I say.

"Of course you do...but she's a different kind of friend isn't she?" Her smirk grew wider.

"Listen, I just...I gotta go or I'll be late to the...uhm"

"Date?" She says.

"No! Come on Baba."

"What's the noise about?" Oroshi says as he enters the room.

"Great.." I mumble.

"Oh, nothing, your grandson was just about to go on a date so we shouldn't hold him off." Baba says.

"A date? That's my grandson!" Oroshi says. "You know I was a ladies man myself back in my days, I got any lady I wanted!" Oroshi continues proudly.

Baba glares at him.

"Eheh...that was of course before I met the love of my life, your grandmother heheh.." He says nervously.

"Right...Bye." I try to ignore what I just heard and exit the house.

"Don't forget the protection Kazuki!" Baba shouts after.

"Baba!" I jump and just hurry out of the yard so I don't have to hear another "tip"...

We said we'd meet at Bosco's right? I head to the place. I was 2 minutes late and as I entered the restaurant I saw he sitting alone at a table. She was wearing a casual dark blue dress and her hair was even shinier than usually.

Her cute little dog ears were sticking out of her hair. I got so used to them that I always forget she's a dog humanimal.

As I walk towards the table she notices me and jumps slightly. She smiles nervously as I sit down with her.

"I-i thought you wouldn't come.." She says.

"Sorry, it's my family..." I answer.

"It's fine. I'm just glad y-you came."

"Yup..." I look at her, then around us. The restaurant was rather full, I felt like some people were even looking at us...of course they were.

"What is he doing here?" or "The Hatagano child eating here??" and things like that were probably what they were thinking.

"So...uhm...are we going to order something..?" I hear Ayame say, it snaps me out of my thoughts about those people.

"Ah, sorry- let's." I say as we stop a waiter and order food.

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Silence

After the waiter we didn't talk at all. A minute passed already...maybe even two? Feels like an hour.

She was fidgeting with her hair and looking down, she didn't look at me once. Am I doing something wrong here? Is this a date..? Maybe I should try breaking the ice with a question..

"So.." I say

"U-uh, yes??" She immediately looks up, waiting for me to say something.

I don't know where I was going with this...I need an universal question or something. Well, here goes nothing.

"Uhm...how long..have you been a girl?" I ask.

"E-eh?" She looks at me confused.

What is wrong with me?! Out of all the stupid word combinations that can form a questions I could think of my brain chose this one???

"Well...as far as I know for about 15 years now ehehee.." She smiles nervously. God this is embarassing.

"Uh Ayame I'm sorry I was just---"

"Don't worry, I'm nervous as well, this is my first d-date too you know.." She says. This made me feel a bit better.

Soon the food arrives and we eat. The mood changes a lot during the date and we go from awkward silence to actually talking. I'm a bad listener and kinda boring to talk to but she seemed to be enjoying herself so I went with it.

After we have dessert and notice that 2 hours passed already. We pay the bill and head outside. As we do, I notice that the shy introvert Ayame had a big smile on her face.

"Kazuki, before we go home I wanna visit another place!" She grabs my hand and pulls me with her. This is too stereotypical..

On the way we run into 2 guys...out of everyone we could run into it had to be them.

Her brother Kiba and his sidekick Chris.

"Ayame! What are you doing with that trash?? I told you to stay away from him!" Kiba says, looking rather angry. Chris was just standing next to him.

"He's not trash and this is none of your business Kiba! I can hang out with anyone I want, I'm not a child anymore and I don't need you protecting me!" Ayame shouts back.

"But Ayame...he's a Hatagano..you can't..." Kiba looks down like a puppy that's just been scolded.

"I can. And I will~ Let's go Kazuki!" Ayame says, walking away and pulling me with her. I look back to Kiba who glares at me. I don't say anything.

After another few minutes of pulling we stop in front of an old dirt trail going into a small forest, this was a bit away from the other houses so it was rather quiet.

"Oh...Why are we here..?" I say surprised.

"Just wait a bit more okay.." She says as we walk into the forest. It isn't even a forest really, just a few trees. We follow the trail and end up on a field.

It was evening and there was barely enough light to see but I knew where we were going. As we walked up a small hill on the field the only thing that could be heard are our faint footsteps and the sound of the wind blowing through the tree leaves.

We walked to the top of the hill to a single old tree.

"You're always so down Kazuki...you seem depressed so I thought I could cheer you up a bit!" Ayame says.

I do? I don't think I am...wow.

"Remember this place Kazu..?" She continues.

"Of course. We played on this field a lot. I climbed this tree so many times!" I say as the memories hit me.

"Yes...b-but it's also the place where I-i met you for the first time....." Ayame mumbles.

"Hm? You said something Ayame?"

"A-ah! No!" She shouts.

"I see...okay.." I say, confused by her reaction.

"Even after you guys stopped coming here and playing I kept coming sometimes, this place holds so many valuable memories for me...And it's really pretty during night." She smiles.

"It is? I can barely see a thing." I answer confused.

"That's because you're looking the wrong way silly! Here." She turned me slightly to the direction we came from.

"And now? You can see the whole village from here. Naofuma might not be large, but there are many houses and street lights, almost like stars...I always feel so peaceful here~" She says.

It really does look great. I know exactly what light belongs to what house...there's our house...And the store...And...Eh..?

I get pulled out of my thoughts about the village as I feel a small weight on my shoulder..Ayame rested her head on it, almost clinging onto me...this is cliché....

"I feel so safe when I'm with you..." She whispers softly.

Way too cliché...and this feeling...

This was wrong.

I can't do this.

"Listen, Ayame..I..." I try to say but am stopped by a warm sensation on my lips.

Ayame kissed me, Her lips were as soft as they looked and...and...I can't.

I pull away from the kiss. Ayame looks at me, I could see her green eyes shine in the dark, did this really just happen?

"Ayame..I can't...I'm sorry...I have problems...this is..."

"I-i see...I'm sorry I rushed things...I just thought you wanted this as well...I...I.." She says as I can almost feel her tear up, about to run away.

She in fact tries to do so but I grab her hand.

"Hey...you don't have to do this Ayame..we had fun tonight didn't we?" I say.

"W-we did..." She answers.

"And nothing has to change..I'm just a difficult person..how about we just enjoy the view? The fun doesn't have to end yet." I smile to her.

She wipes off her tears "O-okay.." She says.

I handled this rather well if I may say so. We spent some more time enjoying the view. She eventually calmed down and we headed home

"I had a great time Ayame." I say

"Me too...sorry about what happened..." She looked down depressed. "T-thanks for walking me home, bye Kazuki.." She bowed and headed into her house.

I headed home myself. There was no one on the streets. The moon was bright. By the looks of it, it was almost midnight...

Still...it was way too silent.

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"...You're home late Ayame.." A familiar voice said as Ayame entered her house.

"A-ah, father...I was.."

"With Oroshi's grandson, a Hatagano." The voice said. "And I think I was pretty clear about that boy Ayame."

"Yes but I...It doesn't matter, it's over..." Ayame looked down.

"What are you saying? It does matter. I allow you to be friends with that Hatagano boy so you don't have to hide anything Ayame." The man says.

"Friends..." Ayame mumbles.

"Yes...Now go to bed daughter..It's late."

Without saying a word, Ayame does so.

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.

Today was nice, the end was a bit strange but I'm glad I did this with Ayame today...I had no idea she actually wanted...that kind of relationship though..

As I'm walking home and thinking about todays events I don't notice a single person...It was Friday and no one was out...and this silence, it was almost painful

Suddenly my vision disappears as I feel a massive force hit my stomach, sending me flying into the forest next to the street. I hit a few trees and as I hit the ground I find myself barely conscious.

I didn't have time to rest, immediately after that happened the painful silence disappeared and I sensed several bodies move towards me.

I barely stood up, getting the Sun's Mirror Tarot card I always had with me ready to repell whatever the hell just hit me.

I am met by 4 men completely covered in black, one of them had some sort of oversized energy armour around his hand...so that's what hit me.

"W-who the hell are you bastards...?" I say as I glare to the one that just hit me.

"You have to die Keeper, I'm here to make sure that happens." He says and immediately after 2 of them run and me, forming similar energy fists but slightly smaller.

I react as fast as I can, pulling out my tarot card.

"Sun's mirror!" I grab the oversized fist while having the tarot card in the palm of my hand, it stops it...it doesn't repell it...why..?

I can't think about that, while I was holding his fist with my left hand, out of my right sleeve a tarot card flies out right into my hand. I hold it into a fist as I punch the guy in front of me.

The enhanced punch sends him flying to a nearby tree, taking him out.

But I was too injured and unprepared to react to anything else, as soon as I did that the other guy landed a blow, I was on the ground.

"There we go." Their leader says as 4 energy orbs come ouf of his hand and land on my wrists and feet, immobilizing me. "Still just to be on the safe side...now, farewell Keeper"

Is this it...is this how my story ends..? I've never felt such a fear...I can't do anything...I completely lost control over this...

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