"Oh... Hi, Ryumi." She says, a hint of sadness showing in her voice.

"Hey, Hinami. You wanna go do something?" I ask, putting on a bright smile for the girl.

"I don't know..."

I can tell that she's sad and not in the mood for talking. Her brown eyes are now looking towards the ground, avoiding my own.

You're sad about Touka, aren't you?

"Do you wanna go to the park or something?"

"The park? But...I don't-"

"I'll watch over you. I won't let anything happen to you. Let's go have some fun, ok? Besides...you don't have to worry about Touka. She was the tougher one out of the three of us."

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asks, her face now full of curiosity.

Crap... Well, maybe this slip up isn't so bad...

"Maybe I'll tell you more about it when we get to the park." I say.

After a bit of silence, she finally gives a simple response.

"Ok."

And with that, we walk out of the doors of Anteiku.

"The sky looks beautiful." She says.

I look up at the sky and see it's usual blue color mixed in with hints of pink and orange along with fluffy looking clouds. It's almost like the Sun's light is being spread all throughout the clouds, changing their color in the process.

"Yeah, it is..." I say. For some reason, it's hard to take my eyes off of it. It's as if they were glued to the sky.

"Mommy, look! Don't you think it's pretty?"

The sudden recollection of a memory shocks me a bit. I take hold of Hinami's hand.

"Don't leave my side." I say, tightening my grip.

"I won't. I promise." She says.

That was me... We were outside on a walk and I said that. I was sitting on my dad's shoulders and I wanted mom to look up at the sky. It was my first one...the first time I saw a sunset.

"The park's not far ahead." Hinami says, pointing. She points in the direction of a blue slide with a small dome, swing set, red monkey bars, and crawl tunnels that connect to multiple platforms.

"Alright." I say, looking back in the direction of Anteiku.

I can barely even see it anymore. I didn't realize how long we'd been walking.

"Can you tell me now?" She asks.

"We're at the park now. Don't you want to play?"

"You said that once we got to the park you'd tell me more about you and Touka."

I did say that...

"Fine. But let's sit down somewhere first. How about the swings?"

"Sure!" Hinami runs toward the swing set and her hand slips out of mine. I run behind her and sit on a swing a bit after she does. "Tell me, please!" She yells.

"Ok, but first let me tell you about the third person. His name's Ayato and he's Touka brother. All three of us would play together." I back up and I swing my legs back and forth, making me go up into the air and then down again in a repeating pattern.

"I didn't know Touka had a brother..." Hinami says. She's just sitting on the swing not doing anything, letting her feet dangle a few inches above the ground.

Wait, what?

"Where were you whe-" I stop myself and don't bother saying anything about it to Hinami. "Yeah, well, she does. He was pretty nice when I first met him."

She doesn't know about Kaneki, does she? But where the heck could she have been if she wasn't with everyone else?

"What's he like now?" She asks.

He's an a**...

"Right now, I don't even wanna see his face. He's not a very good person anymore. Ha, who would've thought little Ayato who used to be scared of bugs would turn out so bad?"

But for some reason there's a part of me that wants to snap him out of it... And another part that wants to beat the sh*t out him.

"Hey, do you know how to swing?" I ask. "You've just been sitting there."

"Huh? Uh, no..." She says.

"Alright." I press my feet against the ground and bring myself to a stop, getting up from the swing. "I'll push you."

"Thank you... Ryumi, could you tell me more about him?"

"Well, to be honest he was kinda a baby." I pull the swing back and as soon as I let go, the weight of it brings it forward and then backward again. Each time it goes back, I push Hinami. "The second he saw a bug he'd get scared and Touka would pick it up and put it somewhere else. Man, it was fun seeing him freak out like that. Sometimes, I'd play a prank or two on him. But, yeah, he was still a pretty normal kid. He liked to have fun but he never wanted to get dirty. He liked some animals too. I know he liked rabbits... And now that I think about it, they had a bird too. He liked the bird but his fear of worms and other bugs prevented him from feeding it. So, of course, Touka was the one to go get the worms to feed it if I wasn't around to help."

"What about you?" Hinami says.

"Huh? What did you wanna know?" I ask.

"You said Touka was stronger than you and Ayato... How?"

"Well, Ayato is obvious." I laugh. "As for me, Touka would always do certain things better than I would."

I look up at the sky and notice that it's darker than it was before. The light blue, pink, and orange have vanished from the sky.

"I think we should get going." I say, grabbing the chain part of the swing. It slowly stops moving and Hinami jumps off the swing.