Well, here it is; the final chapter. Wow, I'm not sure whether I should be jumping for joy or staring at the computer screen with a faraway look in my eyes… Well, please enjoy regardless.

Chapter Five: To Recall

Yomi strode down the hallway, barely managing to stifle a yawn. Between trying to help an amnesiac recover her memories and having to endure Tomo's shoving of a disturbing photograph in her face the night previous, she had slept little and, at that, restlessly. If she would have to put up with this torture every evening in order to get Chiyo to remember, Yomi couldn't help but wonder if her sacrifice of a good night's sleep was worth her recollection.

"Hey, Mizuhara!" A taller figure made her way toward Yomi, who said, "Hello, Kurosawa-sensei. How are y…"

"Good, I'm good. Has Chiyo-chan gotten her memory back?"

"What? Uh… no, I don't think so…"

"Thanks, Mizuhara!" Minamo wasted no time in streaking down the hall, a determined look briefly crossing her face. Yomi stood blinking for a moment before she opened the door to her homeroom, not even stopping to ponder how Minamo knew that Chiyo had forgotten her past.

"And this is one of Osaka snorkeling!" Tomo exclaimed, bringing a finger down upon the picture in question.

"That is pretty funny, actually," Kagura said as she rifled through the photos Tomo had brought her, most of which depicted her friends in strange or awkward situations; Yomi getting chased by an animal of some sort, Chiyo and Sakaki exercising, Yukari drooling on a midterm she was supposed to be grading, Kagura undressing…

"Hey, wait, who took this one?" Kagura picked up the racy photograph and squinted at it.

In the meantime, Sakaki and Chiyo entered the classroom together, and Yomi walked in less than a minute later. "Tomo, you're here early," said the tawny-haired girl. "What's up?"

"Nothing," the wildcat replied, leaving the flushing Kagura's side. "I came here a few minutes early to make some… preparations."

"Prepar… I'm not even going to ask; I don't want to kn…"

"I figured I would attempt the prank on Yukari again," Tomo cut off, "And so I brought the bucket back. I just need to fill it with water and…"

"You're impossible, you know that?" Whirling around in a blatant move to ignore her friend, Yomi turned her attentions elsewhere. "So… Sakaki! Any luck in getting Chiyo-chan's memory back?"
"No," she replied, watching as Chiyo made her way over to Tomo and Kagura—Osaka had yet to arrive, as usual.

"I see. Do you have any more ideas about what we can do for her?"

This time, her response was nonverbal. Sakaki shook her head in the negative, bowing it slightly afterward. Yomi nodded, understanding. "I think this situation's out of our hands now. Chiyo-chan may need professional help."

Sakaki blinked. "A… alright…" Truth be told, she wanted to be the one to get Chiyo to remember. She felt it was her duty as her friend. However, at the same time, Sakaki knew that being selfish like this wouldn't get Chiyo anywhere. Perhaps later, she'd talk with the school nurse, or tell a teacher or…

"And down it comes!"

Sakaki's interests were immediately torn from her dilemma to a scene playing out in front of her. At some point in the past minute, Tomo had picked up her gigantic bucket and proceeded to whack Chiyo over the head again. The little girl remained standing, mouth agape, emitting a squeak like a boot's on a tile floor, before she collapsed in a heap upon the ground near Kagura's desk.

Yomi, Kagura, and Sakaki's jaws dropped, their pupils contracting. The empty-headed Tomo considered making a crack about how they all looked like female Kimuras, but decided against it, as all three were now staring at her with a mixture of surprise, rage, and perplexity playing in their eyes.

Yomi herself looked positively homicidal. Ever since she'd known her, Tomo had never gone a day when she hadn't done something stupid. Every idiotic thing robbed her from her bank of lucidity, making her more and more insane with each action. But with this… with this…

Yomi could almost feel her brain plummet and hit the ground, as though an enormous hand had ripped it from her skull and hurled it there.

And so, Yomi threw her hands in the air, her bottom lip still quivering at a distance four inches below where it normally rested. "What in hell was that? Why did you…"

"I told you before," Tomo said all-too-calmly, shrugging as though her reasons for striking Chiyo upon the head were obvious. "We just had to hit her in the same place as we did yesterday and that should reverse the effects of the memory loss."

"…that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Where did you come up with that?"

"It's common sense, my dear Koyomi, common sense."

Yomi couldn't even begin to suppress a grunt. "The only sensible thing to do is to throw you out the window, bucket behind you!"

"Yomi, your words burn me to the core," she said, playfully clutching her chest and moaning. "They hurt…"

The infuriated female began to make her way over to Tomo, her eyebrows narrowed in two perfect forty-five degree angles. "Oh, that's nothing compared to the hurt you're going to…"

"Yomi, chill," Kagura said, holding her back. "Tomo, I'm going to have to agree with her when she said that was stupid. Heck, you're stupid yourself…"

"What was that, Miss Forty-One-In-Math-Last-Semester?"

Kagura flinched but pretended to ignore that comment. "Look, I guess what's done is done; we can't go back and have you not hit Chiyo-chan… but shouldn't we at least check to see if she's still breathing?"

A black-and-red blur flew past the girls, and they all turned their heads to see that Sakaki had (hopefully) gotten over her shock and rushed to Chiyo's side. Placing her ear by Chiyo's lips, she declared, "She's breathing." Even though she was the one who had announced this, there was no doubt that a look of relief had been plastered onto Sakaki's face. "Maybe we should take her to the nurse…"

"I'm right here!"

The girls turned and saw a woman clad in a large white jacket in the doorway, striding toward them rapidly. Her hospital-esque garb and pale, cheery face made it obvious that she was the school's nurse.

"Wait, but…" Kagura started. "How did you…"

"I got a call from Kurosawa Minamo that a certain twelve-year-old genius might need medical attention," she explained. "I got held up in the hall, but arrived as quickly as I could… oh, what a nasty bump!" The nurse pointed to a raised lump upon Chiyo's crown. "And… there's another one! Goodness, this girl should wear a helmet to school!"

"You got that right," the now-subdued Yomi said whilst giving Tomo a poisonous sidelong glance.

"I'll head back to my office to get some ice. Be sure not to move her even if she wakes up, and, when I come back, you can tell me exactly what she needs."

"Yes, ma'am," every unconscious girl intoned, the ones on their feet bowing in her direction as the nurse waddled out of the classroom. Perhaps ten seconds later, Osaka appeared in the doorframe, on time for once. "G'mornin'!" she cried, jovial and bubbly as always. "What's up?"

"Not Chiyo-chan," Tomo said, pointing downward at the torpid prodigy.

Kagura rolled her eyes, explaining, "She was hit by the bucket again."

Osaka nodded. "Oh, so now her memory's doubly lost?"

"Oh, Kami-sama, I hope not," Yomi groaned.

"'Cuz if it is, I could teach her how to break apart her chopsticks again."

"I hope that's not necessary."

"Nn…"

An, "Eh?" sounded from the mouths of the girls, and they looked toward the ground to see Chiyo stir. The pigtailed girl held a hand to her bruised cranium and blinked tiredly. After a yawn, she mumbled, "Eh… what… happened?"

"Chiyo-chan's memory's gone again!" Osaka declared, looking as though she was about to bolt from the room to find a pair of chopsticks.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Miss Osaka?"

A collective gasp was taken. Miss Osaka? If Chiyo knew one name, could that mean…

"Chiyo-chan!" Yomi said. "Quick; who am I?"

"Yomi," she stated simply, "And that's Miss Tomo and Miss Kagura and Miss Sakaki."

The bespectacled girl knelt to Chiyo's level. "What's your favorite food?"

"Meatballs."

"What was your last test score?"

"A one hundred."

"Yukari-sensei's going to drive you home from school today!"

Someone standing fifteen feet away could have seen Chiyo shiver.

Yomi rose, slowly, and adjusted her glasses, blinking in stunned silence. "She… remembered…"

The group stood still for a moment. Then, Tomo thumped the child genius on her back and said, "Good to have you back, ol' friend! And to think that my hit got her memory back in the end!"

"If you hadn't tried to prank Yukari to begin with, she never would have lost it," Yomi murmured.

Chiyo cocked her head at this. "I… what?"

Now it was Sakaki's turn to speak. "Chiyo-chan… you don't remember what happened yesterday?"
"No… well, I remember waking up and eating breakfast and walking to school… but that's it…"

"So she really doesn't remember all that…" Kagura said.

"Yeah…" Yomi agreed.

"But that can't be!" Tomo cried, sounding frantic.

"What?" Now, as usual, all eyes were fixed upon the wildcat.

"Chiyo-chan, if you've forgotten that… could it be that you don't remember… your unconditional worship of me! You don't recall how you used to follow me around wherever I went, saying…"

Yomi promptly covered Tomo's mouth with her hand. Until she could get a hold of some tape of a stapler, the appendage would have to do. "She's lying," Yomi stated. "Just… don't listen to her."

Yomi proceeded to drag her friend to the other side of the room. After Kagura and Osaka exchanged a few words with Chiyo—nonsensical, chopstick-related, or otherwise—they followed after their squabbling companions, leaving Chiyo and Sakaki alone yet again. A moment's paused ensued, and then… "Miss Sakaki?"

"…yes?"

Chiyo hesitated for a little while longer now. "Yesterday, when I lost my memory… nothing… happened… that I should know about… right?"

Sakaki took a moment to mull her question over. There had been that interlude between the two of them in Chiyo's room… but, then and again, neither of them had really been themselves that night. And, seeing as no one but herself knew about it, the memory couldn't do much harm. No; instead, Sakaki would carry it with her on her own, cherishing it like a little girl would a beloved doll. And so, she said, "No; I can't think of anything."

And so, Chiyo smiled. "Thank you, Miss Sakaki!" And so, "Miss Sakaki" smiled back.

Moments later, the nurse scurried back into the room, ice pack in hand, pressing the coldness to Chiyo's lumps. Yukari stumbled in soon after, mumbling something about "all-nighters", "saké", and "Final Fantasy XII". And, as the tall girl took a seat behind Chiyo, she got the notion that, now that "amnesiac Chiyo-chan" was gone for good, everything would be alright.

And, truth be told, Sakaki couldn't have been happier.

…and that's it! End fic. My thanks goes out to all of my readers and reviewers for staying with this fic for so long. Your support really helped me plunk myself down to write it, and the constructive criticism I received got me inspired to try to make this the best it could be. Thank you all so much. If you could review for once last time to tell me of your final thoughts, that would be appreciated. Arigatou! ((bows))