(First year of high school)

Syo stared at his image in the mirror. The scars were getting fainter. Why did he do this to himself in the first place? It was a stupid thing to do. He sighed and began to button up his shirt, and did his tie. His arms were truly an ugly sight. He hoped they would somehow manage to vanish before summer. However, it was highly unlikely.

"Syo, hurry up, or we'll be late...!" Shoya opened the door to his room, without knocking, of course. "Eh..." Shoya recoiled slightly at the sight of his arms. "Hurry up." He turned around and walked out of the room immediately, closing the door behind him.

Syo stood blankly for a second, then smiled. He pulled down his sweater and looked at himself one last time. His impression was definitely going to be scary. He seemed to get more and more intimidating as he grew older. His face was the idol of innocence when he was little. Shoya was always the hard-expressioned one. Speaking of which, what would Shoya's smile be like?

Syo shook his head. Smiling would be a much more difficult task for Shoya then it would be for him. 

"Okay." Syo tried smiling. He looked kinder, and that made him happy. "That's good."

"You narcissist," Souta said suddenly, leaning against his door frame. "Stop admiring your face and get your butt out of here."

"Sure." Syo nodded. "Later, Aniki."

"See ya," Souta said, nodding as well.

"Onii left?" Syo asked, as he pulled on his shoes.

Sora was resting her head on the counter, admiring her engagement ring. "He said he wasn't waiting anymore. Rude, right? That too his own little brother..."

 "Well, that's what Onii is like, after all." Syo said, smiling to himself.

"A ball of depression?" Sora asked, slipping off her ring and rolling it between her fingers. This was a habit of hers. "He'll ruin the mood at my wedding, you know? I'd rather not have a haunting figure in all my wedding pictures."

"Aneki..."

"I'm kidding, okay? I know!" Sora snapped, but there was nothing really threatening about it.

"I'm off." Syo smiled at her.

"Have a safe trip." Sora called back.

As the door shut behind him, Syo heard someone yell his name.

"Syo-chan, 'morning!"

"Morning, Haruna." Syo said, turning to acknowledge her. Then he stifled a laugh. "Your uniform looks weird. Sailor suits you better."

"Shut up," Haruna scoffed with a dignified look on her face. "I'm still mad at you."

"Now, now..."

"How could you go to a different high school from me!" Haruna screeched, attacking him.

"Sorry, sorry," Syo laughed, shielding himself.

"You both are lively in the morning."

They both froze and turned. Katashi, Riku and Mirai were staring at them, smirking.

"Ah! Katashi-chan!" Haruna yelled, stomping over. She held him in a chokehold. "You're going to a different high school from me too!"

"I'm in the same school as Syo, though." Katashi said, laughing.

"Ricchan and Hattori are in my school, but you two went off to some other school!" Haruna huffed, letting him go.

"Syo, now we've been in the same school since kindergarten!" Katashi said, smiling and making the victory sign.

"Don't ignore me!" Haruna yelled.

"Come on, we can walk together as far as the station, right?" Mirai said nervously.

"Fair enough..." Haruna sighed. "You guys are still unforgiven though."

***

"See ya after school!" Haruna yelled, waving at them. Riku and Mirai raised their hands in farewell too.

"Bye bye!" Syo waved back along with Katashi. It was a straight road to their school now. They followed the flow of students beetling their way to the school, and joined the struggle of seeing their classes.

"Syo." Katashi tugged on his sleeve, trying to get his attention. Syo reacted instinctively, stiffening and pulling his arm away. Katashi looked around at him, seeing him on guard. "Ah, sorry..."

"It's okay," Syo said, calming his heartbeat and unconsciously pulling the sleeve down. "What is it?" 

"Um," Katashi turned back to the board and pointed at 1-D's class list. "Your name's there. So is mine. We're in the same class."

"Wow, really? That's great!" Syo said happily, going through the list. "Oh, wow, Serizawa applied to this school too? She's in our class too!"

"Eh... I didn't know..." Katashi said, also going through the list again.

"Pikariiii!"

Syo and Katashi jumped at the sound of the familiar name. They both turned to look at their right, where a black-haired boy taller than Katashi but shorter than Syo was supposedly crying, while hanging onto the girl named Pikari's arm. The girl was unamused.

"Pikari, we aren't in the same claaaaass! Do you know how sad that is?!" the boy cried.

"Calm down, Ashikaga-kun." Pikari replied.

"How can I be calm? You're all the way in 1-A, and I'm in 1-D." Ashikaga-kun sniffed.

"At least you're not in 1-F, so that's something." Pikari shrugged.

Ashikaga huffed and turned away from her, and was a little surprised seeing Syo and Katashi staring at them.

Aw man, Syo thought dully. They'll probably get spooked or something...

When Pikari turned and looked at them, she looked a little scared, but Ashikaga smiled and held out his hand. "Ashikaga Isao, and this is Sakura Hikari. Nice to meet you! Which class are you in?"

"Hang on, Ashikaga!" Hikari hissed, pulling his sleeve. "What are you doing? He looks like he's gonna kill us!"

Syo, on the other hand, smiled, making the girl named Hikari freeze. "I'm in 1-D," he told them.

"Eh? Really?" Isao looked ecstatic. "Isn't that nice! What's your name?"

"Teruya Syo," Syo replied. "And this is Sonoda Katashi. He's in 1-D as well." 

"Oh, nice to meet you!" Isao shook both of their hands. "Pikari's in 1-A, so I thought I was going to be lonely. Not many people from our school applied to this school. Right, Pikacchi?"

"Ah, no..." Hikari replied, not looking them in the eye. She had a slightly guilty look on her face.

Syo and Katashi had to stifle their laugh on hearing 'Pikacchi'.

"Hm, what's wrong?" Isao asked. Then he grinned. "Yes, Pikari has a cute name, doesn't she?"

"Ashikaga-kun!" Hikari said warningly. Then she diverted her eyes and mumbled. "Ah, sorry, Teruya-san. For immediately making an assumption about you..."

"Huh? No, it's totally okay!" Syo told her reproachfully. 

"Really? Thank goodness..." Hikari sighed in relief. Then she glanced at the time. "I'll be going then."

"See you later, Pikari!" Isao called after her. Hikari merely waved as she left. Isao suddenly glanced at his phone. "Oh, a text from Hamaguchi-chan~" 

Syo and Katashi glanced at each other. He seemed to have got back together with his girlfriend again. They saw his smile as he read and replied to the message.

Ah, Syo thought. That is the happiness I wanted.

***

Ever since becoming friends with Isao, Syo found himself to be laughing more. He didn't really feel like he was anybody to be afraid of. He felt like a normal high school student just getting along with his life. Isao had a lot of moderation. He seemed to be a very balanced out person. He never seemed to be too much nor too little. With all the time he spent with him and Katashi, Syo pretty much forgot that he looked scary, and was convinced he looked more normal.

Isao's relationship with Hikari turned out to be not what they thought it was. To be frank, sometimes he seemed like a downright bully when it came to her.

One time, Isao and Syo were asked to take some notebooks to the staffroom, and they encountered Hikari along the way. She seemed to be taking some books to the staffroom as well, and a boy from her class had plopped his load into her arms as well.

"Sorry, Sakura-san! This is a real emergency!" he was telling her, hands clasped together apologetically. "I'm really, really sorry about this, but I really need to go."

"It's okay." Hikari told him in reply. "I understand. You better get going."

"Thanks a lot, Sakura!" the boy told her, as he dashed away. "I'll swap with you for cleaning duty sometime or something!"

Isao suddenly grinned, and he told Syo to give him his load of notebooks as well. Confused, Syo gave it to him, and Isao ran over to Hikari.

"Hey there, Pikari," Isao told her, dropping the notebooks in her arms and making her knees buckle. "You're going to the staffroom as well, right? So you can take this to the staffroom for us too, right?"

"Hang on, Ashikaga-kun–" Hikari gasped. "I can't carry this all by myself!"

"I'm counting on you!" Isao said, ignoring her. "Come on, Syo. Pikari's got this."

"Wai-" Syo was starting to say, but Isao grabbed his arm and pulled him along. 

"Ashikaga-kun! Get your a** back here!" Hikari was yelling.

"Come on, you helped that guy too!" Isao complained.

"He had a genuine reason!" Hikari retaliated.

"Sorry, Sakura-san!" Syo called.

Hikari sighed. "Never mind... I'm gonna beat the crap out of you later!" she yelled.

Syo glanced back at Isao, to see that he was grinning. He caught Syo's eye, and he had a softer expression. "Let's get strawberry rolls!" he told him cheerily.

One day they spotted her while P.E. class was going on. Isao had run to the cage around the field and yelled, "Heyyy, Pikariiii!"

Hikari, who was talking with one of her friends, a short, irritable looking girl, turned around and yelled back. "What do you want?"

"Nothing! Just making sure you didn't forget about me!" Isao told her cheerily.

"Bye!" Hikari turned away from him.

"Pikarin! I'm talking to you!" Isao called reproachfully, but Hikari didn't reply. "Honestly..." he sighed.

Syo and Katashi glanced at each other. 

"Hey, Isao," Katashi began, and Isao looked around. "Why exactly do you call Sakura-san 'Pikari'? I mean, it doesn't suit her at all, you know."

Isao stared at them for some time, then laughed. "That's what everyone called her in junior high! As to why..." Isao rummaged through his pocket and got out his phone. He swiped through it for a while, until he found what he was looking for. He grinned, and showed it to them. It was a picture of him and Hikari, in junior high. "This is Pikari, age 13. Height: 138 cm."

Syo and Katashi could not believe the sight before them. Hikari was so very tiny, they could hardly believe she was the same person standing in front of them. 

"Isn't the average height of a 13-year-old girl 150 cm or something?" Katashi asked, staring.

"I guess..." Isao shrugged. "At 14, she was still 140 cm. Then at age 15, she magically shot up to a whopping 159 cm, about the same as an average 17-year-old."

Syo and Katashi blinked. They never heard of a girl who could grow 19 cm in a single year. The most they heard was Sora growing 12 cm in a single year.

"Now I can see how it fits..." Syo said quietly, observing the picture.

"Right?" Isao laughed, putting his phone away. "A senpai she confessed to gave her that name."

Isao said it so casually, they didn't catch it at first, but then Syo and Katashi did a double-take.

"She confessed to?!" 

"Well, yeah." Isao looked hardly bothered. "Isn't that what all girls at that age would do?"

"No, not all, but..." Syo and Katashi glanced at each other. "So she has a boyfriend?"

"Nononononono," Isao shook his head vigorously. "No way. Confessing was probably the biggest mistake of her life. See, this Senpai was like huge. Like REALLY tall. And a b*stard to boot. So imagine tiny little Pikacchi going up against him? Therefore, Pikari's junior high life of bullying began."

"Oh..." Syo mumbled.

"But she doesn't seem like somebody who would be bullied." Katashi piped up. "I mean, Sakura-san seems like a person who can handle anything, right?"

Isao stared at him, then smiled. "Yeah...she does."

Syo and Katashi merely stared at him. Despite the fact that Isao seemed to be bullying her, the two of them were still friends. Even though Isao would usually be the first to start teasing her, he smiled like proud father. 

Isao suddenly sighed. "I'll be forgotten at this rate...!"

What a strange person.