Hey. This story is completed already but I decided to go back and correct all my typographical errors, correctsome information and add a little more depth to the plot. I didnt change it, i just made it better. So...to any who will read, read, review and relax. It'll be worth it.

Chapter I

Some Life This Is!

Am I the only one who remembers or is it that no one else wants to remember? To remember what happened that day. Maybe they chose to block their memories, so long that they eventually just went away.

I don't want to remember either but I can't escape my memories. The thoughts are stuck in my head and they just won't go away. I remember well.

My life had been hard before and continues to be hard after but it was simple then, before Haruko came. But a year has passed since then. Our town has been rebuilt and after Canti disappeared everything went back to normal, plain and ordinary.

But some things never change.

/\

"Like I said, yours is the only head that works right Ta-Kun." A soft, familiar voice rang in my mind while I slept; like a tape playing over and over in my ear, night after night I'd have this same dream.

I would usually stay silent looking around in my little dream world. I look left and I see a clear white void. If I looked up or right I would see the same. Looking down I wouldn't even see myself. I would sometimes wonder if I were even there.

"Where are you?" I said hesitantly. As faded and echoed as the voice seemed, I knew it was mine. I knew I was there. I would ask the same question over and over and never get an answer. Not too long after, I would wake.

I would grumble and gripe. Almost every morning I would be awoken the same way, violently shaken. If not by my father complaining about my breakfast getting cold, then by Ninamori, shaking and all too often smacking me in the face with books because I was late for school. She was a bit of a pest.

I would tell her to forget me and just go since whenever she came to get me, I would make her late for school too but she was just too stubborn. Regardless of what I said, she just does what she wants, just like my father. I tell him not to let her in in the morning, so he leaves the door open at night. No one ever listens to me.

I turned in the bed to face the wall and the on to my back trying to get comfortable. Since I didn't feel any books smashing against my head yet I assumed that it was just Kamon trying to wake me for breakfast and since I wasn't that hungry anyway, I figured that I had an extra few minutes before I needed to wake. So I pulled my arms up from under the covers and folded my hands underneath the pillow and gave off a little smirk. No sooner did I crack the slightest of a smile though, a heavy book came crashing down, landing hard and flat on my face which caused my nose to make a cracking sound as it moved when the book slid off.

I grunted and balled my fists, un-squinted my eyes and in the most calm voice I could faint said, "You know, there are easier ways to wake people up."

"Yeah," She said. "But none of the other ways seem to work very well on you, Naota." I sat up and yawned, averting her gaze while I examined her. Again she wore the overly plain uniform the school assigned to us, black and white, this time accessorizing with a dark colored headband pushing back her newly regrown hair. There was nothing special though. It was typical.

"What time is it?" I asked with a yawn.

She began her answer with the start of a smart remark but stopped before she got the whole thing out, slapped her hands over her mouth and gasped saying, "Oh my God". I glared at her in confusion while she blinked with the real nervous look in her eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"Your nose."

"My….nose?"

"It's bleeding." She said pointing with a trembling finger. I ran a finger under my nose to check and looked at the blood that started coming out. I never pictured Ninamori to be the type of person to be squeamish at the sight of blood but I realized that it wasn't the blood that made her act so frantic, it was the thought of what I'd do. She expected me to snap and that's exactly what I did.

"This is great." I said with sarcastic fury. "Now my nose if gonna be red all day!"

"Don't yell at me." Ninamori complained.

"Why not? It's your fault!" I stood up and threw a sock off the floor over my nose to catch the blood as it started running faster. "Dif dood dus wade be ub dike dorbal peoble bould!"

"Sorry. I just don't want you to be late for school all the time."

Not like this was going to help any, I thought to myself since there was no point in speaking. Talking just made my throat hurt and my words weren't coming out right anyway. I just glared at her the whole way downstairs and on my way into the kitchen to get some ice from the freezer.

/\

For the first time in a long time was able to walk to school in silence. Usually, Ninamori would be bugging me with questions about school, how her uniform looks on her or whether or not I think she looks better with or without her glasses. I would always answer by saying that I didn't care, not that it matted since she never wore the glasses anyway.

Today was special however. She didn't bug my like she normally does. She stayed silent and walked beside me, watching me with a careful gaze. I ignored it and walked silently as well

"I'm really sorry, Naota." She said finally.

"Forget it. It's not the end of the world."

Thanks to my injury it took me much longer than usual to dress with my having to hold the ice over my nose. She offered to hold it for me but it only took a glare from my end to remind her that I didn't need her in the room while I dressed.

Fortunately, as Ninamori may put it, we made it out in time enough to make it to school before first bell if we hurried. But I never hurried to school and I didn't really care if I were late or not. We made it just in time to be late, not a bother to Ninamori but I always hated going into class late because the teachers would always get on this whole responsibility trip and just never stop.

"Now go straight to class this time, Naota." Ninamori said as she opened the door to her class. "I don't want to have to pick you out of detention again."

"Okay mom." I said sarcastically. She patted me on the head and smiled at me like I was a child and kissed me on the cheek in the same manner; then she dashed off into her class without a word.

For the moment I just stood where with my hand on the side on the side of my face, staring blankly down the hall. There were no thoughts except the leftover frustration from this morning and the reminder of my cherry tip nose. Besides the fact that I really didn't want to be here, I didn't want anyone to see. I decided that it was best I just go home.

But I couldn't just waltz out the front door. They wouldn't let me out. There was only one way I could escape without being caught, not that I really cared too much but I didn't want to hear it from my dad when I got home who just recently got on this whole 'being responsible' thing. If I got caught, they'd call him and then I'd be in for a long boring speech that would have nothing to do with nothing. He wouldn't ground me or send me back to school, just talk, which I believe was punishment enough in itself.

If I wanted to get out I would have to go downstairs into the basement and use the old and broken emergency exit.

When I got there the door was closed for once but all I'd have to do would be to give it a little kick to open it. It would be easy to do but I never made it to the door. I stopped in the dark hall when I noticed a poster hanging off the wall there, something I hadn't seen before.

I lifted it up and gave it a look-over. It was a poster with a picture of Mamimi on it, posing with a camera. She had a weird smile on and a strange gaze. I know it was just a picture but it felt like she were actually looking at me and I couldn't shake the feeling. Looking at that poster made me thing about her. I hadn't seen her since that day. She said goodbye to me and left school. I'd heard that she went to America to become a photographer.

Thinking about her now made all the memories of that day come rushing back to me; memories of her and memories of Haruko. The thoughts alone were enough to actually give me a headache but I was so mad at Haruko that I actually cursed her as I stood in that hallway.

And that was the last thing I remember doing. As I stood there my head began throbbing and my whole body felt hot. The world around me seemed to disappear until there was nothing but this pain. I'd felt this way before. It was a feeling I didn't miss.

"Yours is the only head that works right Ta-." A voice rang out in my head. That was the last thing I heard before I fell forward and passed out.