The Sun Shines Even After Tragedy

In Meadow Central, Chizuru lies still in the hospital bed. Her eyes slowly begin to open. She blinks a bit before sitting up slowly. She rubs her eyes as she looks out the window at the bright, sunny day. She then looks around to see Haru, Lucy, Sugawara and Ryuji all asleep on her lap and at the edge of the bed. She smiles warmly as she looks to her left to see Hikigaya sleeping in a chair. He is covered in bandages and bruises. Shiori, who is sitting on Chizuru's right and is covered in bandages and bruises too, lifts her head a bit to see Chizuru awake. Chizuru gets a big smile on her face but stays quiet.

"Chizuru! You're awake!"

Shiori says loudly. Chizuru smiles warmly in response.

"You guys are all here…" She says.

"Of course we are. We were so worried, you've been asleep for like 2 days!" Shiori says, still anxious.

"Oh, yeah…"

Chizuru looks down at her chest that is covered in bandages almost as if she knew she would be. 

"Well, we never left your side. We came as soon as we heard."

Shiori says. Chizuru smiles warmly at the thought but then looks back at Hikigaya. She gets a sympathetic look as if feeling what he's feeling.

"Is he okay?"

She asks softly. Shiori looks at him and she gets a sad look too. She pauses for a moment before responding.

"Do you… remember anything from that night?"

"... Yes. You were there too, right?"

Shiori nods.

"So much happened that night… He seems okay but I can only imagine what he's feeling."

Chizuru still looks at him as if trying to figure out what he's feeling. Shiori then gets a sad look as she looks down.

"Chizuru… I'm so sorry…"

Chizuru turns and looks at Shiori, surprised. 

"It's my fault you're here. If I didn't let my guard down, if I just tried harder, then everything would've been okay. You wouldn't be here…" She says softly.

"No, Shiori! It isn't your fault! I was there all on my own. I really shouldn't have been there anyway… I just wanted to help and this is what happens…"

They sit in silence for a moment as Shiori hangs her head low. Chizuru stares at her for a moment until she gets a look of surprise when she hears Shiori sniffling as tears form in her eye. 

"I'm just… I'm just so glad you're okay..!"

Chizuru smiles warmly at her as her eyes shine and she hugs Shiori. They hug for a moment and then sit back. Shiori wipes her tears and laughs a little. 

"Sorry… With everything that happened… It makes me happy you're okay."

"Me too."

She says warmly. They sit for a moment as Chizuru smiles.

"So, you guys are like superheroes? You have powers and stuff??" She asks excitedly. 

"No, no haha. We're not heroes. At least I'm not. I just have abilities and decided they could be of use to people. But you can't tell the others, okay? You have to keep it a secret."

She puts her finger to her lips as Chizuru gets upset.

"What? Really? But it's so cool!"

Shiori shakes her head with a smile on her face. Chizuru pouts but nods.

"Alright…"

As she says this, Hikigaya slowly opens his eyes. He yawns and stretches his arm up as he looks at Chizuru and Shiori. His one open eye widens as he smiles widely. 

"Chizuru! You're up! Guys, wake up!"

He shakes Ryuji and slaps Haru on the back of the head. Ryuji slowly opens his eyes and Haru snaps awake, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ow! Hey, that wasn't… Chizuru!"

His anger quickly changes to joy as Ryuji smiles widely. Sugawara and Lucy begin to wake up and smile once they see her awake too. They all start hugging her and expressing their happiness and fears as they cry and laugh.

"We were so worried! When we heard you were in the hospital, we got so scared!"

Sugawara says between sniffles and as tears roll down his face. Haru nods in agreement as he cries too. 

"We're just really glad you're okay."

Ryuji says as he wipes a single tear away.

"Chizuru, I'm so so sorry for yelling at you! I really didn't mean it! Please forgive me!"

Lucy says apologetically as she holds onto her hand and lowers her head in a bow. Chizuru gets a sad look as if not understanding what she's apologizing for.

"Lucy, it's okay! It wasn't your fault. I just thought you were mad and didn't want to talk to me so I was giving you some space..."

"How could I be mad at my best friend?"

She smiles as they hug. 

"I'm glad that's all handled."

Haru says with relief as he rubs his eyes and tries to stop crying. As they are speaking, the door then opens to reveal Henry and Pastel walking in. As soon as Pastel sees Chizuru awake, she drops the flowers she had in her hands for the empty vase by Chizuru's bed, and runs to her side.

Before the flowers hit the floor, Henry catches them with his right hand as his left hand is full with a plastic bag. He then smiles and rushes to her side too. Pastel hugs her and kisses her on her face and head, tears running down her face. 

"I'm so glad you're okay! I was so scared!"

"I'm sorry to scare you, mom. I won't do it again."

Pastel squishes her cheeks gently and gives her a serious but soft look.

"You better not! I don't know if my heart can handle it again."

She gives her a smile as she kisses her forehead and Chizuru smiles in response. The group smiles as they stare before Henry addresses them.

"Alright, I'm sure you're excited but the doctors have to come check on her, so you guys gotta go home."

They get disappointed but know he's right.

"Get better soon Chizuru!" Sugawara says happily.

"We'll work on getting you all ready for school once you're out, okay?"

Lucy says. She gives them some smiles as they wave and say goodbye. As Shiori and Hikigaya walk down the hall, she looks nervous and slightly looks at Hikigaya who doesn't have any expression. She gets a sad look as they continue.

Eventually, they make it back home. It is still early in the day. When they come through the door, they see Asami holding a warm cup of coffee and in her pajamas. Her eyes have bags under them and her hair is messy. She turns and looks at them, her eyes brighten just a bit.

"Oh, back so early?"

"Yeah, she woke up today!"

She smiles at them.

"I'm glad Chizuru is okay. She is the cutest little thing."

She then turns and heads up the stairs towards her room. On the way up the stairs, Hamasaki comes down, stops and says something kind and gives Asami a kiss on the cheek before letting her continue.

"How is she doing?.." Shiori asks.

"It's been hard… I can't even imagine what she's going through but we're trying to keep her good company."

She presses her lips together then lets out a sigh. Shiori hangs her head down a little as Hikigaya heads upstairs to his room. She turns and sees this with a surprised look.

"Wait, Hikigaya."

She says softly. He turns and looks at her.

"Can we… talk?" She asks softly. His eyes widen a bit.

They go to his room and sit on the floor, his back leaning against his bed. Shiori sits crisscrossed in front of him looking at the ground nervously. He looks at her with confusion.

"What did you want to talk about?"

Shiori grabs onto her shorts tightly, obviously nervous about bringing up the topic.

"You know… About that night and everything that happened. About… Amber…"

Hikigaya looks at her without changing expressions.

"What about her?"

Shiori looks up at him, surprised a bit by his reaction.

"I just wanted to know how your mom is doing, how they told her, if everything is okay, how.. you're doing…"

"Well, Chief told my mom the day we were in the hospital. I wanted to keep it from her a little longer but he said they can't do that. She's probably doing as good as you can imagine she is."

As he says this, we see the night Chief and a few officers came to tell Asami about Amber. Hamasaki and Takanou were with her when they heard the news. Hamasaki covered her mouth in shock as Asami fell to the floor on her knees. Chief kept his head lowered as Takanou tried to comfort her. Later that night, Takanou and Hamasaki sat in bed, holding Asami in between them as she cried through the night.

Back in the room, Hikigaya continues.

"He said he told our parents that we were just sneaking out and got caught up in it like Chizuru did, so that's all taken care of. Everything is as good as they can be right now, I guess."

He says with a neutral tone yet his body and eyes tell something else as he looks away. Shiori looks at him with gentle, anxious eyes.

"And… What about you?"

"I'm fine, Shiori, really. You don't have to worry about me."

He gives her a small smile as if proving he's okay. She looks at him with eyes not believing him before lowering her head. 

"I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

"It's all my fault…"

"Shiori, it isn't your fault. I was there too, I had just as many chances to save her."

He says with frustration in his voice but not directed at her. She lifts her head and looks at him with a confused and worried expression.

"But she was right there… In my hands… If I was stronger I could've-"

"Can we just… Not talk about this? It's not your fault alone. I was there too, so can we talk about something else."

He looks down to the side, obviously frustrated and overwhelmed with emotions. Shiori understands, getting a little overwhelmed herself, and stops talking about it. They sit in silence not looking at each other for a moment before Hikigaya looks at her softly and smiles a little. 

"So, you got powers too?"

She looks up, surprised a little then smiling embarrassedly.

"Yeah…"

"What can you do?"

Shiori looks at him, now more enthusiastic about the conversation.

"I'm not sure if I can describe it really. Like, there doesn't seem to be any kind of theme to what I can do. What about you?"

"Well, I can manipulate my body, that's for sure. Like harden my blood if I get a cut or make bones from my hands and stuff. Like this."

He lifts his hand towards her with an open palm before stretching and growing it slowly. His hand grows to be a little bigger than her head.

"Woah, that's really cool haha! I wonder…"

She then lifts her hand and sticks her tongue out, focusing on growing her hand the same way. After a moment of trying, she succeeds. Her face lights up.

"Haha, I did it!"

"You did! Okay, now give me something to try."

He says with an excitedly ready look. Shiori thinks for a moment as her hand goes back to normal. She then gets an idea. She opens her hand in front of her with the palm facing up. Suddenly, steam starts to come from her hand as she drops the temperature of her hand making it really cold. Hikigaya stares in awe.

"How'd you do that?.."

"I don't know, I just kinda thought about making my hand cold then used my power to do it. It felt the same as growing my hand except cold haha. You try."

Hikigaya puts his hand out the same way she did and closes his eyes. He obviously struggles for a moment but nothing happens. Shiori looks at his hand confused as he looks too.

"Well, I guess I'm not meant to have cold hands."

"I'm sure we'll think of other things to try."

They laugh about it a little. Once they stop, Hikigaya looks at her a little. His attention is then shifted to her eyepatch.

"Shiori… Why are you still wearing that eyepatch?"

He asks gently. Shiori gets a surprised look before blushing a little from embarrassment.

"I… I'm just used to wearing it all the time…" She says with a soft voice.

"Could you.. take it off for me?"

He asks, blushing a little and embarrassed too. Shiori pulls back a little.

"Why should I?.."

"I've seen what's under it. I just never thought-"

"What? That I'd be some freak?.."

She has a look of hesitation combined with slight anger and fear of betrayal. Hikigaya is a little shocked by her reaction.

"No, that's not what I meant."

"I know, I know…"

She sighs and calms down, still very anxious about her eyepatch.

"...I just haven't shown anyone in a long time…"

She looks down, worried about what he's going to think. He leans forward and puts his hand gently on hers.

"It's okay, Shiori. I promise, I'll still be right here no matter what. We've gone through worse together, haven't we?"

He gives her a smile as she blushes. He quickly removes his hand when he thinks about what he was doing. She sits up and gets ready.

"Okay… Here it is…"

She lifts her hands up and goes behind her ears, grabbing the straps of the eyepatch. She slowly pulls the straps down as the eyepatch that has been covering her left eye this whole time, slowly lowers. Hikigaya watches with anticipation and adoration. He then notices the small scar under her left eye, the same one he noticed the first night he met Fullsky. He thinks back on that night, a little over a year ago. 

He was out in a park as some jerks punched a passing runner then proceeded to take his wallet and other belongings. They laughed with each other when suddenly, Watchdog stepped in front of them. He is not in his current attire of trenchcoat and cargo pants but instead, a black hoodie and blue jeans. They gave him a disapproving look as they eye him up and down.

"What are you supposed to be? The Nightguard or something like that?"

"Yeah, something like that."

He proceeded to beat them up while they try to attack back. It wasn't hard for him at all and as the runner sat up, he returned the items. 

"Thank you…"

The runner says, appreciative. Watchdog gave a warm smile to the runner, as warm as a mask will allow, before jumping away. As he landed a couple streets over, he heard a voice come from atop a lamp post.

"Those guys didn't seem to give you any trouble."

He quickly turned and looked up to see Fullsky crouched on a lamp post before she hopped down and landed without making a single sound. He was surprised at how quiet she was.

"Following me so far so fast is no easy feat either. You are..?"

She stood up from the crouched position and looked him in the eyes. He examined at her, starting from the tabi boots to her red sweatpants up to her black and red striped hoodie. He then noticed the scar under her left eye and the face covering over her right eye.

"You can call me Fullsky. If you plan on fighting bad guys too, we should team up!"

She gave him an excited, proud smile as his memory of that night fades back to current time.