Suichi felt the unwelcome feeling of being teleported suddenly without warning and found himself seated on a bench just outside of his father's shop. He blinked a few times before Whisker yowled loudly and unhappily in his ear causing him to wince and swipe his hand at the cat, but not actually make contact. "Don't do that!" Whisker yowled again as he stood up. "I know you like it up there. Shush." He then entered the shop, which was now closing up. "I'm back."

Dad looked at him with a smile as he worked on closing the register. "Welcome home. Did you have fun?"

Suichi looked around the shop while thinking that it might have been better for his health if he stayed in the shop. "The concert was stopped early, but it was alright until then."

Dad chuckled. "Yeah, that's right the spacequake alarms went off. I'm glad you made it to safety."

Suichi nodded and checked the flowers in the shop for disease as he usually did. "Yeah, so am I."

Dad closed the register with a snap and grabbed a mug from the counter that was steaming with tea. "Don't need to do that, son, I already checked them all." He paused briefly. "Did you meet any girls?"

Suichi began to move for the back of the shop with Dad where the stairs were. "Yeah. There were a couple nice girls. I hope to become friends with them."

Dad gave Suichi a thumbs up. "Good luck."

Suichi chuckled. It felt nice to be able to talk with Dad like this as always. Things that he felt uncomfortable talking with his friends, he knew Dad always would support him. Even nerve-wracking things like girls. "Thanks, Dad. I'm going to be in my room. I'm pretty tired."

Dad nodded once. "I'll let you know when dinner is."

....

Morning was a typical one. Get up. Have breakfast. Go to school after watering the plants. The walk to Raizen High School was uneventful and classes began. The teacher frowned at Whisker and Suichi considering how pets inside school buildings is frowned on, but incidents caused by forcibly separating the cat from the boy caused for an exception in his case. Suichi cringed a bit as he knew the teacher hated cats. Something told him that today would be different from normal.

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Kyoko returned to her apartment after receiving medical treatment for her injury in the battle against the Reaper. She turned on her TV and the flopped onto her bed listening to the noise emanating from the device. She didn't understand why people were trying to protect or care for Spirits. All they did was cause pain, even if they don't want to. Some even loved hurting others. She covered her face with a groan as she gave up even trying to fathom the reasons. Not long after, she fell asleep.

....

She woke up to the sound of an explosion as an early morning cartoon went off with a bang from her TV. The noise caused her to quite literally jump from her bed. She then saw the TV and blushed, embarrassed. She took a shower and got changed after turning the TV off and made herself toast. She checked her injury and sighed. "How am I going to explain that scar when I'm changing for soccer?"

She shook her head and grabbed her backpack before grabbing her toast and heading to her university.