"My, my. Has it already been four years? Look at you. You look just like any regular, innocent high-school girl, boyfriend and all." The man's turned upwards into a disturbing grin as he watched the girl's eyes widen.

When she started to panic and shout, his nose made a cracking sound as he was struck by her companion, a boy wearing a sick mask and had a dark look about his eyes, making him stumble back and hold onto his bleeding nose.

Pressing his fingers against his nose, he flicked the blood away, most smearing against his cheek as he took a knife from his jacket, turning it towards the boy with his back towards him. Though, he screamed hoarsely himself as his arms were snapped backwards and his vision blackened as he felt someone with not much weight more than a youth jump onto him.

The excited and happy cheer of, "cousin-dearest!~" was the last thing he heard before a sharp feeling of metal slide into his side.

━━━━

"It's pretty rare to have a transfer student in their third year." A group of girls had gathered around their newcomer, gossiping curiously during their lunch break. Yomi had become quickly popular, not only in the class but throughout the school. "Is it due to family issues?"

Like Himikō, she was the cutesy type of girl with the bonus of being short for her age-group and wore her hair half up and in two ponytails. She placed a hand over her mouth as she giggled at the attention.

"Yes..." She nodded shyly, resulting in a collecting awwing of the class.

"Hourai-chan, you're so cute!"

Himikō frowned slightly at the scene before looking back at Daisuke in attempted discretion. Placing his book down and sliding it into his desk he also seemed to frown at the transfer student but for a reason much different than Himikō's, readjusting his face mask behind his ears and leaving the room without a word to her, heading off to aikidō practice.

She felt her heart hurt a little.

━━━━

Heavy breathing came from in a dark alleyway as a man stumbled and fell against a brick wall of the back of some store, sliding down and pressing his hand against his wound, applying pressure.

"Heh." He chuckled. That Hourai girl hadn't changed one bit since he had first met her back in the days before the Ojōu did that to him and disappeared for the next four years.

Though she was trained to kill her targets, her obsession with her cousin and seeing the object of her infatuation made her too overcome with emotion to pay attention to what she had been trained to do.

"What a useless child."

━━━━

Himikō sighed heavily as she stared at her bento box and then out the window. Though she could very well eat lunch with anyone in the school; her popularity was peerless, not even the cute newcomer reached her admiration levels or had a fan club like her; she didn't have much of an appetite due to her guilt and Daisuke.

She also wouldn't be lying if she said she also felt a slight tinge of annoyance with how many martial arts Daisuke took and that it left her alone for lunch on more than this occasion.

Himikō puffed up her cheeks at being left alone but deflated them, sighing again and looking listlessly out the window.

The transfer student noted this out of the corner of her darkened eye, which twitched at the leaving figure of Daisuke and Himikō's reaction to that.

As soon as the stoic boy left the classroom she stood up, leaving her new group of gossiping friends who blinked in surprise and confusion as she walked over to Himikō, giving her a bright smile and eyes sparkling with a strange adoration.

"Excuse me... may I have my lunch together with you, Kikyō-san?"

━━━━

A gentle breeze blew through the trees, some of the late white petal blossoms falling onto the ground where the two girls were sitting. The grass was still slightly damp from the heavy rainfall of the past two days so they sat on a bench under the school's plum blossom tree.

"It's such a coincidence that we're in the same class, Kikyō-san!" Yomi beamed sunnily, placing a great deal of emphasis on her surname.

"Haha," Himikō laughed hesitantly, moving her rice aimlessly around her bento box. "I don't doubt that."

"Your new name is so pretty! It means a 'bell-flower,' right?" Yomi's eyes were sparkling with an emotion that she had always worn around her and made her incredibly uncomfortable.

When Himikō nodded, the other girl's eyes lit up in complete and unadulterated adoration. "Waah~ As expected of my beloved, peerless cousin to pick such a name befitting of herself!" She clapped her hands together happily.

"I hadn't seen you in four years since you left us and you've become so amazing! Everyone I asked in school knows about you since you're really cute and nice! But of course, you always have been but even more so now! ─" The girl went on for a few more minutes, excitedly showering her dearest cousin in praises befitting of her with idolized devotion.

"Yomi─" Himikō broke her state of revere. She started to say something but quickly changed her mind since she already knew the answer to it. "You've become really cute too. You've changed a lot since we first met, huh?"

"...ng!"

This made the girl immediately go into a state of bright red, mouth agape at the unexpected praise. "...you...kō...prai...me...?!" She seemed to be in a state of medical shock, unable to form proper words before she threw herself at Himikō, clinging onto her tightly and sobbing.

Students walking past didn't comment on the new cute loli girl sobbing on the cute, ditzy girl. Some things were just expected from such characters.

"I was deprived of my beloved cousin for four years! I'm never letting you out of my sight again!" She cried hysterically.

"Ahaha~ That would be a little too much for me," Himikō replied breezily, patting her on the head, which seemed to make her cry more.

━━━━

After she had calmed down some, the bell rang again, signalling the break was over. Himikō tried to rise but Yomi grabbed her hand tightly, holding her back and making Himikō look back down at her with contrasting emotions in her eyes.

"Is that Fūjioka person your lover?" She asked both randomly and bluntly, making her cousin startled in surprise and cough. Himikō's eyes wavered between unmentioned regret and embarrassment but nod in affirmative.

Yomi let go of her hand and watched stood up to return to class with her, watching her back in front of her with darkened eyes and clenched fists.

━━━━

Himikō looked around the school at the end of the day, rubbing the back of her neck as students passed her by, waving goodbye to her, making her in turn smile cutely and wave back, going back to looking for her shut-in looking boy to no avail.

"Kikyō-saaaannn!" A cheerful voice ran at her, waving enthusiastically, arms waving in the air before jumping onto her and wrapping her arms around her waist from behind. "Let's walk home together!" She beamed up at her, eyes sparkling.

"Ah─ well, I..." Himikō started before trailing off as she realized that even if Daisuke finished his club duties soon enough, he probably wouldn't walk back home with her. She bit her lip before smiling hesitantly at her maternal cousin. "...Sure, Yomi."

However, before they started off, they were interrupted by the gasping breaths of a boy, who had to pull his face mask down to breathe properly after having run straight from practice to catch up with them.

"Daisuke?" Himikō blinked at the sight of her frazzled boyfriend; a rare sight to behold as he was usually composed, uncaring and rather mature in his appearance.

Dark underlined eyes, looked up at the two girls, his hands still on his knees as he stopped them from leaving. "Might I walk her home instead, Hourai-san?" He asked Yomi, who had a completely neutral expression on as she watched him carefully for a moment before sighing with a little throw of her shoulders.

"I suppose so. Not like I have much of a choice in what Kikyō-san does."

As the couple walked off, however, Yomi's nonchalant expression turned to one of cool anger as she stared at their figures for a moment before pulling out of her phone and texting someone.