Ariyama was glad that the only people going to the abandoned house later that night that were in his class were Yaranagi and Takemichi, both of whom didn't know – as far as he knew – about his talk with Jack. At best, they just were told he was coming along.

Ariyama thought he did a good enough job acting the same way he usually did with Yarangi, their banter mainly unaltered. He didn't ever mention the fact he didn't tell Ariyama he was going to the get-together, but instead focused on the fact Ariyama was now accompanying them. He talked all about the rumors surrounding the place.

Now, Ariyama didn't consider himself a coward, despite what Jack had said previously, but the more and more he learned about the happenings at that dilapidated structure, the more and more he really didn't want to go.

Sightings of ghosts, people supposedly going missing, deathly howls and whispers being heard from there each night? No thanks.

Still, he put up a brave front, and made it all the way through the rest of the day. He packed up, said his goodbyes to Yaranagi, and was just at his locker right inside the front doors, switching to his outdoor shoes, when suddenly a hand patted him on the arm.

He spun around with a cry of surprise, only to look down and see a terrified Takemichi Yuno, his arm still outstretched where he touched Ariyama.

Ariyama laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ah, sorry, Takemichi. Didn't see you there. Do you need something?"

Takemichi cleared his throat before speaking in his quiet voice.

"I… I heard you were going to that abandoned place too? I overheard you and Yaranagi talking about it. Jack also told me."

When he mentioned Yaranagi's name, Takemichi visibly paled a little. As much as Ariyama liked Yaranagi, he couldn't deny the fact he wasn't a perfect guy. His grades were one thing, but he was also a bully. Nowhere near as bad as Jack, or some of the other people in the school, but still the definition of a bully. He always said he was 'just teasing' them, but Ariyama questioned where the line was drawn between teasing and bullying.

"Oh, yeah, I am. I heard you are too. I can't deny I'm a little worried, but what about you?"

Takemichi swallowed slowly, averting his gaze.

"I just feel like something bad is gonna happen. To me or to someone else. And I think Jack will be the cause of it. So, and I know this sounds pathetic… can you protect me? Please?"

Ariyama's face softened at the honesty in Takemichi's words, his hopeful expression making Ariyama's heart swell with sympathy.

"W-well… Of course I can, Takemichi! There's no need to worry. Anyways, nothing will happen…"

He forced a smile.

"But, if something does, you can rely on me, OK buddy?"

Ariyama then saw Takemichi smile for the first time in front of him. He definitely preferred this over him being scared all the time.

"OK then! If you're gonna look out for me, then I'll have nothing to worry about! Thanks again, Ariyama!"

Still with a small but noticeable smile on his round face, Takemichi left through the main doors.

Ariyama couldn't deny that it made him feel a bit better about himself.

He quickly swapped his shoes, picked up his bag, and looked back inside the school one more time before heading towards the large gate at the other side of the large courtyard in front of the school.

The air outside was nice and breezy, a soft cool gale pressing against Ariyama's skin. He was planning on enjoying the last few days where the air was mildly cold as opposed to being absolute zero.

Just as he reached the main gate, letting a few of his fellow students walk ahead of him, another hand touched his arm. This time, he kept his surprise in check, and turned around, expecting to see Takemichi again.

But instead, he saw the smiling face of Odomura looking up at him.

"Oh, Odomura? I didn't know you walked home from school."

Odomura giggled with a hand over her mouth, holding her bag close by her leg.

"I always walk home, silly. It's just sometimes I have practice at a club after school. But apparently that museum trip wasn't the only thing canceled today, so I'm walking home early. Is there anyone walking with you?"

"Not to my knowledge, no."

"Well, if you want me to, I wouldn't mind… accompanying you, if that's OK?"

Ariyama nodded his head in agreement. Honestly, he never really talked to Odomura one on one very often. He was more often talking to either Yaranagi, Kazura or even Matsuragi from time to time. But he wasn't about to pass down an opportunity to get to know her better.

"Of course! Is your house near mine? Mine is just down the street from that little cafe in Lower Sumura."

"Oh, really? Yes, mine is nearby. We can at least walk together for a while."

She gave him a kind smile, full of brightness, then started forward, making him have to catch up to her.

So she can be assertive too? Cool.

Ariyama always felt like Odomura Airi was a gentle person, but to the degree that she was a bit of a pushover. But clearly not.

Less than a minute after talking with her properly, he was already learning new things about her. This was ideal.

Maybe it was an opportunity for him to make another 'real' friend.

But then again, after tonight, he hoped there wouldn't need to be a division of fake and real friends.

As Odomura walked beside him as they exited school grounds, he had a weird sense of thankfulness. He was thankful for someone to be accompanying him on his walk home for once. He was never lonely before, when walking home after school every day, since he refused to allow his mother to hire a personal driver to bring him.

'It's not that long of a walk, anyways,' he'd always tell her, much to her detest.

But she didn't understand him, not really.

She thought his refusal to use his father's accumulated wealth was being disingenuous and disrespectful of his father's supposed 'hard work'. But the truth was that he refused to use the wealth, because he knew he shouldn't have it. Yes, there was also the fact of Ariyama not wanting to stand out too much being a part of it, but his point still stood.

He would make his own path and show his old man, in whatever small way he could, that he was going to be different. Better was a hard thing to promise, but different, for sure. For one, he'd make his own money, without causing the downfall of others.

Ariyama continuously assumed his father was only removing people from their careers who were also lowlife scumbags like him, but Ariyama knew deep down that some of them were probably genuine people who wanted nothing more than money for their families.

One more reason why to resent his father.

"Ariyama-kun, is everything OK? Are you usually this quiet on walks home?"

Odomura's voice snapped Ariyama out of his deep thoughts, and he looked down at her with wild eyes. Picking himself back up, he rubbed the back of his head, chuckling awkwardly.

"Ahaha… Sorry if that was weird, Odomura. I just… zone out every now and then…"

Odomura just shook her head.

"No, it's OK, Ariyama-kun. Everyone has their own little quirks to them, don't they? We're all our own people after all, so everyone's 'weird' in their own way."

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A little taken aback from the sincerity of her words, Ariyama stuttered to find words of his own.

"Ah, um… Woah, that was very sentimental of you, Odomura. I think I felt something in my heart with that one. Genuinely."

Odomura just laughed gently again. She had such a pretty laugh.

"Sorry, Ariyama-kun. I suppose that's my weird quirk."

"What, the ability to speak meaningful words to people?"

"I wish it was that, haha! No, I think it's more like saying stuff I don't want to say, instead of keeping that stuff to myself. It's caused some problems with friends in the past… Now I'm down to my last two, Kento-kun and Machi-chan."

She looked up into Ariyama's eyes, a hopeful glint in her own eyes.

"And I was just wondering… Maybe you'd like to be… my friend too? Not acquaintances like we were up till now. I mean proper and actual friends."

Well, she really did speak their thoughts, even when she didn't want to, huh? Still, Ariyama found it very endearing to hear, so he couldn't help but return a smile.

"Odomura, I'd love to be your friend, full-time."

Odomura's smile could've lit up the whole of Shinkai City. She looked so relieved and happy that she might explode.

"Really? Oh, yes! OK, one more thing. You can call me Airi-chan if you want… All my friends call me that. Except for Kento-kun, of course, but he's always being too formal."

Thinking back to his talk with Matsune earlier that day, Ariyama winced slightly, ready to kindly reject her, based on what was expected of him: to allow her to call him Saato.

He knew he was being extremely unfair, keeping his first name locked up behind a wall, while they seem much more open and willing to me called by their first name.

But Odomura didn't do what he expected whatsoever. Her smile widened, with a sense of understanding.

"You see, I'm a bit of an eavesdropper, so I may have unintentionally heard snippets of your little chat with Mastune-chan at lunch. You mentioned the fact you didn't want to be called by your first name, for personal reasons. So I understand why you'd be apprehensive about my deal, but I can make a simple change. You can call me Airi, but I'll keep calling you Ariyama-kun. How does that sound?"

Ariyama faltered, the feeling of remorseful acceptance over what was to come being washed away by a wave of thought.

"But Odomura… Isn't it odd for you to call me by my family name, but for me to call you by your first name?"

"Ah, Ariyama, there you go again."

"What do you mean?"

"You keep going on about these 'odd' things and 'weird' things, but don't forget about my first statement. I think everyone is weird, since no one is 'normal' or 'regular'. We're all individuals with our own quirks. What will a little name change do to anyone? If it won't physically harm them in any way, why bother thinking about them and what they think? Just focus on yourself, because if you don't care for yourself, who will? It's your life, not anyone else's."

Ariyama could only stare in disbelief at the pure brilliance radiating off of Odomura. Was this the girl he'd known for the past two years, who always struck him as a pushover, too meek and timid to do anything of substance?

Well whatever he had thought, he was way off.

Just then, they reached the foot of the path that looped around the mountain Sasaru Academy was built on.

Every student had to follow the same path to at least here, where the rest of the city opened up to them.

"I usually take a shortcut here back home, so I suppose I'll be leaving you earlier than expected. I'm excited for that get-together tonight too. Even if Jack is the ringleader, we shouldn't let him bring us down. Let's all have fun, OK?"

Ariyama felt his grip tighten on his bag. Finally, he returned the smile Odomura had been wearing all the walk.

"OK then, I'll make sure to do that. Thank you, Odomur–"

He caught himself, breathing a silent chuckle before correcting himself.

"Thank you, Airi."

Odomura seemed to beam even brighter at the use of her first name, and she left to go towards her supposed shortcut, with nothing more than a departing nod of her head.

The goodbye was brief, but Ariyama was glad.

He never was good at saying goodbye.

Still, despite everything, he smiled to himself as he turned to head down the Easternmost road towards Lower Sumura.

As he walked, he kept thinking back to the conversation he just had, and one thing kept coming into mind: Wow, Odomura Airi sure was a fantastic girl...

The city Ariyama lived in, went to school in, and had spent his whole life in, was known as Shinkai City.

The city itself had the shape of a wrinkly potato, with its lower half – full of cottages, small farms, and woodland – being known as Sumura. On the other hand, the upper portion of the city, with more big buildings and run down houses, was known as Junou. Sumura and Jonou themselves were split into an Upper and a Lower section.

The Ariyama residence resided at the very southern point of the city, in Lower Sumura, while the school and the shopping district Ariyama and Yaranagi would often frequent, were in Upper Sumura.

Due to his family's wealth, as well as the increased crime rates in all parts of Junou, especially Upper Junou, Ariyama didn't visit there very often.

In fact, the last time he remembered visiting that crime-infested place was when he was twelve, around five years ago. He wasn't exactly the main guest of the visit, however.

It was one of the times his father, Ariyama Gotou, had returned from overseas. Ariyama's mother and her advisors put together a little tour of the city for Ariyama's father, who had gotten so used to foreign towns that he barely remembered the place he raised his son in.

But 'raised' was a very delicate word to use.

As it was so long ago, Ariyama didn't really remember much of the northern half of the city, except for the rampant squalor he experienced.

Impoverished men and women and children, begging, even to throw their lives away, as long as their families were given food and drink to survive. Thinking back, it was probably around them that Ariyama began to despise his wealth.

All these people, so dirty and pained and homeless, without even a penny to their name… Then he compared them to someone like his father.

All this wealth, without as much as a callous. Clearly not through hard manual labor did he achieve this state. No, it was his manipulation of others and usage of others that got him to where he was.

All these poor people, dead and buried, poor but motivated, likely from a burning feeling of desperation.

Then there was Ariyama's father, on the other side of the coin, who hadn't done an honest day's work in the years since Ariyama was born, finding loophole after loophole to rise to the top.

But clearly he was doing something right, because rise to the top he did.

Ariyama let a car zoom past before crossing the street, moving to the footpath that was just outside a large park. This was another place he and Yaranagi would often go to, usually late at night, where Yaranagi would try to get him to drink a beer with him.

Ariyama didn't drink alcohol, so he'd always decline. But he never told Yaranagi that the reason why was that he was terrible at taking alcohol, often getting extremely drunk off of one or two drinks.

Ariyama chuckled to himself at the memory. He missed those days, when I'd be just himself and Yaranagi, together wherever they went.

But then his mind flashed back to what Jack had said earlier.

Had Yaranagi really planned on not telling Ariyama about going to that meetup?

No, he doubted it. But yet he still pondered. Ariyama knew this was the type of situation where one was supposed to go talk to their friend one-on-one, about the truth. Communication, and all that.

But was it really plausible to assume some level of communication from Yaranagi?

Ariyama knew the guy better than anyone at the school, so he'd have the best shot, sure. But as he knew so much about him, he also knew that Yaranagi wasn't the type of person to talk about his feelings. Even his hiding behind his tough-guy persona persisted when with close friends.

But just asking him whether he meant to tell him or not wouldn't be too hard, right?

But what would he say realistically? 'Oh yeah, Ariyama, I wasn't going to tell you anything and go enough this outing without my best friend, because suppose I'm still an asshole, like I am to all the others in the class. Especially that twerp Takemichi. He wasn't even part of the conversation, but screw him anyways'?

Would he tell the truth? Would he lie? Would Ariyama be able to figure out the difference?

As he questioned himself further, he reached the edge of the park, and stared out across the wide road that separated the park and residential area from the more countryside-like South of Lower Sumura.

There were no cars in sight, but the sun was high in the sky, unperturbed by clouds. It cast a bright glow that illuminated the area, igniting the shining metals of the bus stop to Ariyama's right, the pole of the traffic lights to his left, and the rack for parked bikes on the footpath across the street.

Ariyama just stood there a moment, closing his eyes and letting his breathing level. It wasn't usually this sunny in Lower Sumura, especially when Upper Sumura, where his school was, was always breezy at best. Not to mention the fact it was winter by now. It was almost like the climate had done a full 180 in response to his mood. This was the perfect way to calm himself after overthinking, as he always did.

Let all the bad thoughts wash away, Saato.

Before his itching uniform made him tear his skin off, Ariyama briskly crossed the street, and as he reached the other side, made a break for the short hill that he used as a shortcut to his countryside house.

The upward passage was narrow, so narrow his shoulders brushed against the thorns and bushes on either side of him, the ground beneath him rocky and uneven.

With his years of experience in traversing the hill helping him refrain from tripping, Ariyama reached the top, noting mentally how much cooler it was now, hidden away from the rays of the sun, the higher elevation making the air crisper.

The space opened out into a large flat area with lush, short grass beneath his feet, the area dotted with trees that formed a shroud of bark and leaves that cut off his vision of his house.

Rolling his shoulder against the ache of holding his bag for so long, Ariyama made quick work in racing through the trees, missing each unearthed root or low-hanging branch with ease.

Eventually, he broke the treeline and breathed a sigh of relief as he finally saw his house in view, as if he was worried it might not be there when he returned.

He was elevated on a short overhang of earth and rock and grass, and between the overhang and the front driveway of his house was a smoothly-tarmacked road, its onyx color a stark contrast to the bright browns and greens of the nature around it, and the dark reds and oranges that made up the color palette of his family's mansion.

Ariyama slid down the short incline, hitting the road with a dull thud.

He jogged into the driveway, his hands fishing through his pockets for his keys.

One rule he'd always been told by his parents, usually his mother, was to never leave the house unlocked. And why would he? Sure, he hated the wealth his father had made, but that didn't make him stupid enough to leave the place vulnerable to random burglars who would steal everything.

And yet, for a moment, Ariyama had a depraved thought. What if he did? Sure, there was little chance for any robbers to raid a place this far into the countryside – that had been the main reason for it being built there in the first place – but if it did happen, maybe losing some objects could ruin his family's reputation as wealthy people.

No, even if they stole the whole house, his father would have billions saved in his bank as spare change. And even worse, it could even lead to more spotlight being put on Ariyama in particular. From 'that one guy who's really rich and only has friends because they want his money', to 'that one guy who's really rich and only has friends because they want his money, but also he got robbed last week so oh no, let's all pity him because it's so heartbreaking to lose your million yen door stopper'."

Ariyama scoffed to himself at the absurdity of the thought, and shook away and other dumb idea he might have conjured in his mind, as he opened the door and entered the house, the main hallway smelling of sawdust and a faint strawberry scent, probably off his mother's abundance of perfume.

And sure enough, Ariyama heard light footsteps as he turned to lock the door.

Turning back, he saw a woman peeking her head around the corner, her raven black hair falling like a waterfall to frame her pale face and narrow eyes, with irises cut from obsidian.

Ariyama Harumi.

"Hey, Mom."