I sit up on my bed. The radiant sun blisters my eyes. I'm in a tight spot. One that I never thought would happen, yet here I am. I drop I already know what the right decision is, yet I'm not sure if I really want that to be the decision I'll make. ARRG! All this thinking hurts my head! I'll just go back to sleep...

“YUUUUUUUUUUUUTAAAAAAA!”

Tucked under my sheets I rest, moments before the yelling. My blankets are grabbed and pulled from under me. I’m sent flying into the air spinning akin to a bullet. The only difference is...

OUCH!

I can fall much easier. Groaning on the floor I’m disoriented. I hear a voice from above, but I can’t seem to make it out.

“Let's go somewhere today!"

Ah...

“Hey... Sara...”

“But where to...?"

“Oi...”

I grab onto her leg.

“Wh...What are you doing you weirdo!?”

She kicks me again and I’m sent flying, again. I drop dead onto the floor. I hear Karaka walk into the room. Drinking out of an apple juice box.

“Sis, don’t you think he would hate you when he gets up?”

“Huh?! Well... I-”

“Heh.”

She walks out the room with less than nothing to say. The room goes silent. Sara walks over to my side. I can feel the guilt radiating off of her. She grabs me.

“Yuta... Please wake up, I can’t apologize to you if you’re dead!" Shaking me as she wails on about her apologies.

Ah... God... Is it it my time? I can feel you finally letting me go.

Karaka enters the room agian.

“I guess I should help you now before you die.”

She pours some water on my face and I come back to life gasping for air.

“Thanks.”

Karaka sighs.

“I had better hopes for you. Trying to escape? Just scandalous.”

“You saw what she was doing to me! What choice else would I have?!”

“Live.”

“Whatever.”

We fold our arms and turn from each other. Sara is none the wiser of the reasoning and clearly has other things on her mind.

“Yuta you’re alive again!”

She hugs me tightly.

“Yea....”

I get dressed after they head to get ready themselves. I didn’t pack anything fancy I grab a jacket head downstairs. I didn't think this would be anything special, until I saw her. Stunned as she stood at the bottom of the stairs. Hands behind her back patiently waiting for. Wearing a short red dress with frills all over. A matching pair of sunglasses.

"Wow..."

"So you like it?"

"Wow, I'm not dressed correctly. I'll be right back."

I turn around and try to walk back up stairs.

"Wait! You'll be just fine."

"...are you sure?"

A warm heat presses against my back. I want to turn around to see what the source is, but I already know the answer. Sara comments again.

“Just...Fine....”

Such haunting words. I turn back around and run down the stairs.

“I’ve changed my mind, I look amazing!”

“Hehe... I wouldn’t say that much...””

Please I just want to live! After composing myself, I search for Karaka.

“Is your sister not coming with us.”

“She was excited to come with us, but went right back to sleep.”

“Shouldn’t we wake her up?”

“Nope. Let’s get going before she wakes up!”

“Isn’t that- Hey?!”

She grabs my arm and we rush out of the house. The sun singes my eyes even more than before with its blistering heat anywhere, but far behind. I cover my eyes in an attempt to shield them, only for it all to be in vein. What a shame indeed. We make our way through the beach and find a set of stairs leading back up to the road we came here from. There sat a single bench, surrounded by wooden frame letting of the blazing sun hit us. We take a moment to get ourselves situated as we rest on the bench. I become curious of where we were going.

“Do you have any places in mind?”

“You’ll see.”

She’s more playful than usual today. She’s swinging her legs and curling her hair. Something must have happened yesterday while I was separated from her. Although, looking at her makes me want to smile. I don’t understand why, but something about her has changed. I hope it stays this way.

She falls over onto my shoulder.

“WHA-”

I immediately try and move, but my body prevents me from even lifting a finger. She moves closer to me and sits there quietly. I stare with such confusion to her actions. She looks up at me with a pout.

“Did I do something wrong?”

My heart spikes from such a gesture. I have to look away before it’s too much for me!

“N...No”

My body shakes. Huh? Huh??????? My hand was on her head rubbing it with no resistance. I give it a sharp look. It stops and shrugs back at me and continues on. What is happening?! I’m not against it, but... I wasn’t prepared for this!

The bus arrives after a few minutes and we finally head to our destination.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

It’s all coming together. MUHAHAHAHA! Ahem...I’m actually making this work. I get off the bus with him right behind me. There stood in front of us a sign, ‘Trealoop’.

“What kind of name is that?”

Yuta looks at the sign, reading it in a foreign tongue. I laugh a little.

“That’s just the name of the city silly! The original owner didn’t know how to spell his own name, so when it came to naming the town he misspelled it as well.”

“Well that’s dumb.”

Trealoop is a coastal city that’s near where we’re staying. It’s still being built, but there’s already quite the things to do here. The coast line of the city sees right over the sun. The sunset here is wonderful reflecting over the ocean. The city itself has a copious amount of things to do! So, I promise that I won’t let this opportunity go to waste! Nothing will stop me from completing my goal. Operation: Lilly Fire is a go! The name still needs some work though... I grab Yuta’s hand.

“Come on let’s get a move on!”

“We’re already rushing somewhere again?!”

Yume, Eva, and I have been planning this out for me since we came here. I was against it until yesterday. I feel more confident than usual, and ready to try more things. First things on the list, we’re going to an art gallery. I know where everything is by memory. I looked over the map all last night. Not to mention all the different types of pieces were going to be there. Luckily, the city is very easy to travel by walking. It’s quite packed because it’s finally summer. I hang onto him tight so we don’t get separated. It takes no time at all for us to...

I slow down. We get over to the art gallery, the crowd dies down. The streets empty and in front of us is a small boy. He’s wearing a small cat satchel with a little fluffy cat in side it. He’s all alone looking around for something. I sit there for a moment knowing what’s about to transpire. I don’t want it....Please! Loosening my grip on Yuta’s hand, He hesitantly asks me,

“Is...That another ghost?!”

“No, it’s just a child!”

“You can never be too certain.”

As crazy as it sounds, it’s a fair assumption after yesterday’s affair. I approach the boy with caution regardless of my knowledge that he’s alive. I just don’t want to set off the chain of events that’s about to transpire. The cat looks at me and meows, alerting the boy about our presence. He turns to face us. I finally get the words out of my mouth.

“H-Hey there, are you lost?”

His eyes begin to welt up and tears stream with ease. Breaking down into a complete sobbing mess.

“Where did everyone go?! I just went to grab Mr.Truffles...”

“Wait...! It’s....It’s...”

I couldn’t seem to find the right words to comfort him. He just continues to sob and I stare at him. I want to say something to fix his mood, but I start to feel guilty. Then my eyes start to welt up as-well not understanding how to deal with this situation seeing my entire day crumble in front of me. Yuta comes up.

“Hold it!”

The child stops crying.

“Do not fear, because I am here!”

We both look at him with a blank stare.

“Huh? Why are you two looking at me weird?”

The child and I snicker. Yuta kneels down to the child.

“Hopefully, you have a name. Could you tell us that?”

The child sniffles, wiping his tears.

“Pierre...”

“See?! Now we can at least call you something!”

Pierre frowns at Yuta.

“You’re terrible at this mister.”

I stare at the two in awe. Somehow he calmed the child down with his antics. And I suppose me too... When he’s like this, as much as fool as he can be... He could make a good father. My once previously shattered ideal day was just restructured into an amazing idea. Commencing... uhhh I didn’t think this far. Ah! Operation: Light Lilly Wind! That’s perfect! With my newly reformed plan I get to work immediately.

“Ah, we never introduced ourselves. I’m Sara, and that’s Yu!”

“Did you just say my name properly?”

“Tha...That’s not important right now! We’ll help you find whomever you’re looking for.”

Pierre’s eyes brighten.

“Really?! Thank you mam!”

He hugs me. I almost want to squeal because of how cute it is. His cat looks over at me and stares. Giving a meow. I give it a thumbs up, signaling we’re going to take care of this. It looks at it and goes back inside the satchel.

Yuta gets back up.

“Alright, let’s start searching!”

I get up as well. Pierre grabs onto our hands and we all cheer pumping ourselves for this search.

“Since we’re already here, let’s go to the art gallery first.”

“Huh? They’re clearly not going to be in there!”

“Awwww, you don’t know that until we try!”

I roll my eyes as he’s just trying to go see the art. Pierre tugs on my arm.

“Miss can we please go see the art?”

His eyes...too...cute...Arrrrggggg!

“Fine! We’ll go there first.”

They both are excited for some art.

“Wahoooooo!”

They do know what an art gallery is like right? We enter in the air contrasting the heat from outside. The boys look around with amazement and wonder. Hopping from exhibit to exhibit. Examining each one as if they know exactly what the artist meant by it. I’m off put by how in sync they are. It’s almost like Pierre is a smaller version of Yu... I can see the resemblance just a bit. His short brown hair is similar to mine, yet his personality is more based off of Yu. He probably has a more skeptical side somewhere in there aswell... My face steams up red hot. I really need to stop thinking about it like that. The boys come back up with me and we head out. We grab each other’s hands and continue on.

“Ah~ What wonderful paintings!”

“Yea! They were so cool!”

They look so astonished by them. I’m kind of jealous...

“Where should we look next?”

“Hmmm... I like going to the arcade!”

This- Is he just using us to get whatever he wants? He is a child afterall...

“Alright, but we better not go for too long.”

Yuta backs me up.

“Yea! I’m sure your parents are worried sick.”

Pierre is irked. Mumbling under his breath.

“Father would never want me to do this.”

We continue to head over to the arcade. Tons of bright lights, loud sounds, and colourful cabinets.

“Yea... I see why he picked this place.”

Pierre is geared up and runs straight in. Yuta doesn’t follow.

“Huh? Why aren’t you going with him?”

“Well I need you to have some fun too. Or this day would be a waste!”

“Me...?!”

“Yea? Who else?”

I punch him on the shoulder. He gives me an awkward laugh. Grabbing my hand, he leads me in.

“We better hurry up before he gets lots again!”

“That would be a problem!”

We rush off to catch up to Pierre. He seems to be infatuated with a FFR machine whatever that is. While Yuta and I are next him trying out a shooter.

“Hmph. This should be a piece of cake!”

Yuta rolls up his selves and grabs some sunglasses.

“I’m back baby.”

He looks so stupid I can’t help but laugh. That was until he actually started playing.

First minute: 1 Enemy

Five Minutes: 4 Enemies

Twenty minutes: 10 Enemies

To say he was terrible was an horrid understatement. He could barely amied. Whenever he try and fire he would close his eyes and flail his gun all over the place. I checked over to Pierre who was still heavily intertwined with the game he was playing. Then I took my move.

“You can’t play that bad!”

“Huh? It wasn’t that bad!”

“You barely are even aiming at the screen.”

“That’s... I just don’t have my glasses on!”

“We’re far past the original draft for this series Yuta!”

“I got them back for this volume, so I do have them!”

“Whatever, let me help you.”

I get up from behind him and grab the gun.

“Hey...Don’t you think you’re too close?”

“Do you want to at least look like you have skill or not?!”

“Ye-Yes Mam!”

“Look, all you have to do is this.”

I lift his arm and aim at the enemies.

“Fire.”

He pulls the trigger as I guide him. Mowing down them one by one. Together, we get triple his hits when he was alone.

“There! See it’s not that hard.”

“Hey uh,”

“Don’t interrupt me you need to learn how...to...”

Pierre stands there in awe.

“Woaaah. You two are close.”

I retract myself from behind him. Looking away trying to not pay attention to what he said.

“We’re just friends- Hey where are you going?!”

Pierre runs over to a crane game. His eyes are glued onto a certain present, a gray, fluffy, cat plush. Despite him already having a real cat, he wants a fake one too?

“Mister Yu, could you please get it for me?”

Yuta looks awkwardly away.

“Ahaha... I don’t know how to play crane games that well.”

Is it really that hard?! Pierre turns to me beckoning me with his eyes. I have never been more happy for one of Yume’s phases to finally pay off.

“Fine then I’ll do it.”

Both of their faces change to a hope filled expression. I grab the joystick, and begin to watch the crane move. I sense of the world around me as I focus on that cat. The sounds of the arcade fade. Only the crane itself moving give me an indication of any sounds to come. It’s right over the plush. The sounds all come to a jolting halt. I stare through the glass one more time. Pressing the release button. The crane drops down deceptively slow, clutching onto it.

“Come on...”

Easing it self back up, it begins to move back to the drop position. Taking its precious time. The plush loses a bit of grip onto the area.

It drops.

“HURAAAAY!”

The boys cheer as I’m relieved. One try and we have it.

“Thank you!”

Pierre hugs me.

“Yea I agree!”

Yuta hugs me as well. I would shout something, but I’m kinda proud how easy that was... So I deserve it!

*~Growl~*

The two of them look at me.

“What?! We haven’t eaten all day!”

“Then let’s head there next!”

We go grab some food and sit down outside. Enjoying the summer heat while we eat. I guess this would be a good time to ask some questions about his family.

“What does your Mom look like anyways?”

“My mom? Well she’s just a bit taller than you, and she’s super nice.”

Ah right.... I shouldn’t expect anything helpful out of him. Yuta chimes in on learning more about him.

“How far is your home away from here?”

Pierre goes silent again.

“I don’t... wanna go home...”

“Huh, but you can’t just stay here forever! You won’t ever be able to read any manga.”

Is that all that Yuta ever thinks about??? Pierre raises his voice.

“I don’t want to go back! It’s not fun there. I just want to be with my friends...”

Both of us are stunned by Pierre’s words. We look at one another. I take a deep breath.

“Pierre, if you ever have any issues, just tell us and we’ll take care of it ok?”

“Like I said before, Don’t fear because I am here!”

“You mean, We?”

“Whatever, it’s the same thing.”

We laugh. Pierre joins in too. He smiles knowing his fate is just a bit... safer.

“Thank you.”

His cat finally comes back out of the bag, and meows behind him. There stood a woman and two children. The children shout out towards him.

“Pierre!”

The boy ecstatic to see them again rushes over as they all hug each other. His mother is overjoyed. Thanking us. We politely bow. Pierre turns back to us as they start to walk away.

“Thanks Auntie Sara and Uncle Yu!”

Auntie and Uncle?! Those are such... Closer than expected! Yuta cheerfully waves off as they fade off into the distance. He clasps himself onto my hand.

“Fwueh?!”

“We didn’t get to spend our day together alone, so I at least owe you this.”

“Oh...Thank you.”

We begin to walk back to the bus. With each others hand connected closely, we pass by all the unfinished buildings we noticed earlier. Then, Yuta decides to say something even more unexpected than his actions.

“Hey, I’m sorry for you having to deal with us today...”

“Huh? I still had a lot of fun!”

“Ah in that case I’m glad.”

I smile. He turns to me staring into me. Meaning every word that came out of his mouth next.

“You made me realize, how good of a mother you would be.”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I want to melt! I can’t face him nor think of a good reply. So once again, we silently go back home holding hands. I wish it could be like this forever.

Too bad that wasn’t the case.

When I entered back into the villa and went to my room, Yume who had a serious face was there to greet me.

“Sara... We’ve got a problem.”