Description: Haruto visits the grave of a deceased friend and remembers the special moments shared with him. Heavily inspired by my friend Lady Virgo's Slam Dunk fiction "Frozen Heart", but quite less dramatic.
MORE NOTES: This follows the manga storyline, so it's showing a more mature Haruto and features a HJ episode that wasn't included in the anime. For a brief explanation, check the note at the end of the fic...
"YEAH!", some seniors cheered happily as they grabbed their stuff and headed out, some to their clubs, others to the library or simply to their houses. This was their last year in school, so they were now full of tests and essays to determine which college they'd be able to attend next year.
Hojou Haruto, one of the students and president of the (Holy) student council, didn't immediately react at the teacher's words. Strangely, the usually moody and quick-thinking boy seemed kinda absorbed in his thoughts. He didn't snap out of it until a shorthaired girl, who usually sat next to him, stood by Haruto and tapped the boy on the shoulder, a mop in her other hand.
"Hojou-kun", she said, "class is over. I've gotta clean the room".
"Hmmmm...? Ah, is it?", the blonde fellow airheadedly mused, looking as if he was staring through her. Ryouka sighed and hit him slightly in the forehead.
"Ho-jou-kun-class-is-OVER!!!!".
He got himself back to Earth with this, and added quickly: "Thankya, Ryouka-kun. Watakushigi (as for me), I was having a think".
"Thinking what?", Ryouka asked. "Shouldn't you be organizing the stuff for the tests tomorrow?".
"It's done. I asked Dejichou to do everyhting yesterday. Today I have other things to do".
"Anyway", she snorted, "wise up or you won't let us the claning do our work. Want me to go and hit you with the mop or do everything instead of me?".
She grabbed the mop with both hands and twirled it threateningly as a glaive, stopping few inches ahead of Haruto's head.
"No-no!!! I'm going!!!! Ja ne (see ya), Ryouka-kun!!!!".
Haruto grabbed his bag and hurriedly left the homeroom, dropping two seats to the floor in his race. Ryouka blinked confusedly at the running boy, but then she shrugged and decided to get herself to work.
"Aaaa~h, I'm done!", Mutsuki said stirring as she was over with the homeroom's cleaning. Ninokun wasn't at hand so she had to do it herself along with two of her classmates, Kyoko and Sakuya.
"Yosh Mutsuki-chan", Kyoko laughed, "you really know how to clean and mantain a cute house! We just started five minutes ago and we're already done!".
"I have too many things to do today. Gotta help Mom with the upcoming festival and check the last tidbits 'bout the school tests".
"Ryoudo-kun and Hojou-san won't help you today?", Sakuya inquired.
"Hum, Kaichou?", Mutsuki asked as well, turning to check on her friend. As she imagined, Sakuya had a huge blush over her cheeks.
"Ye-yes... He-hey! Mutsuki-chan!".
"Hihihi, Sakuya-chan, you think we're blind?!", and both Kyoko and Mutsuki put themselves at both sides of Sakuya, each one "fighting" to be the ones in more close contact with her. "We know you're after him ever since you got your cute li'l feet in Saitou!".
* What does she see in the tightass Kaichou, anyway? *, Mutsuki wondered to herself. But she just said, pensatively: "Uhm...., let me remember...., ah!".
She snapped her fingers. "Kazumi will, Sakuya-chan, but Kaichou said he was just too busy. He had errands to run in the afternoon and won't be at school, gomen nasai", the girl added quickly as she saw Sakuya's saddened expression.
"Come to think of it....Why Dejichou agreeded so quickly and easily?", Mutsuki murmured to herself, remembering that when Haruto said what day it was, the old man opened his eyes like saucers and quickly said yes, not even asking what kind of errand were. And Kaichou had a slightly different face today... not weird, but...
Sad?
* This is a full nazo (mystery). Who else will be resolve it, other than me, the beautiful and supersmart Asahina Mutsuki... meaning, ME? *.
"Ehehehe...", the redhead giggled.
"What's up, Mutsuki-chan...?".
"Oh ho ho ho ho ho!!!!".
Sakuya and Kyoko saw their friend suddenly burst into the traditional anime villainess laugh, but at such a volume, that it could surely be heard in the whole school wing.
"Uh oh", both girls muttered. "This will mean problem".
"Sakuya-chan", Kyoko added as low as she could, "you better don't give her still the love letter you've written for Hojou-san, or else..."
"GIMME, GIMME!!!", Mutsuki practically tore off a pink envelope from Sakuya's hand (she just had gotten it out of her bag), grabbed her own stuff and ran away still laughing.
"Eeek! My letter!", Sakuya shrieked as she got herself back from the shock.
"You paid her to do that, didn't you?", Kyoko said raising an eyebrow.
Mutsuki had practically forgotten about Haruto's former change of moods and was dashing at full speed down the stairs, just to go and give to Haruto the love letter from Sakuya, and planning how to do it with *style*.
* Let's see... I can pass it to him saying that it's mine... just to see the helluva face he's gonna put upon hearing... Wah! That'll be something to behold!! And then... *
And then, she didn't see the blue-haired boy just getting out of his own classroom.
* BANG!!!! *
"Ow ow ow... Hey, you moron!! Can't you see when a lady comes your way!?".
"Funny, where's the lady?!".
* POW* Kazumi landed on the lockers after the kick Mutsuki threw at him.
"Fuck you very little, moron", she murmured, rubbing her mistreated bottom as she got up. "You've just ruined all the show I was settling up".
Kazumi saw the envelope in her hand. It was pink and smelled nice, like sweet jasmine parfum. "Love letters from sempai? Wow, wow! And just who's the unlucky man, er, kid? One of the second elementary school you still check on from the north building's fourth floor boy bathroom whenever Hanako-san is distracted?".
Mutsuki groaned before answering: "It's for Kaichou".
"NANIIIIIII?!", and Kazumi squeaked while jumping about twenty feet in the air, his head hitting the ceiling. He landed on his own ass but for once, he didn't feel the pain, as he stared at Mutsuki with eyes wide open. "Kaichou and you...? No fucking way...".
"WHAT THE...?!".
Mutsuki realized what he was thinking and threw her bag at his head. Kazumi barely ducked.
"No, Kazumi-baka, NEVER!!! Not even in another life!! UNDER 12, OR ELSE!!!".
"Then sempai, who's that letter from anyway?", Kazumi asked blinking.
"From my friend Sakuya-chan", she answered dryly, "and she wanted me to give it to Kaichou... Where's Kaichou, also? Is he already gone?".
"Weird, I wanted to find him also and ask him why he has been down the whole day...".
The sadness in Haruto's eyes flashed in Mutsuki's mind again. "Wah, that's true! It's not usual to see Kaichou so depressed for something outside of being in the Holy student council. Femenine intuition tells me that his low mood isn't related to his deeds".
"For once, I hope you're right, Mutsuki-sempai... Hey, look at there!".
"Where?!".
"Isn't Kaichou going out of the school rite now?", Kazumi loudly asked while pointing at a tall boy who was walking out of the gates.
"Who'd miss a tall blonde guy in Japan? Let's find out ourselves, otherwise Sakuya-chan's love letter won't reach its destiny!!".
With that, Mutsuki grabbed Kazumi by the arm and dragged him out of there, not giving heed to his protests, nor seeing the Dejichou few meters ahead.
"Children those days", he sighed, maybe remembering his own times as a student. "If they don't get their noses out of this... but maybe, it can be for Haruto-kun's sake. Whatever!", and the old man went back to his office, a weird expression on his face.
Haruto never turned or stopped short in his track out of school, those being signs that he completely missed the two deck bunnies following him close as they could.
"Where the fuck's he going now?", Mutsuki murmured. "I can't guess!!".
"What the hell's the nature of the errand he said that he'd run?!", Kazumi wondered. "Ah... he stopped!".
Haruto had stopped, effectively, in front of a flower shop. He briefly talked to the girl and she went in, going out minutes later with two bouquets in her hands.
"White lilies...?", Kazumi said a little out loud. Mutsuki elbowed him. "Ow!".
"Shut up or else...!".
"Hum, sempai", Kazumi asked this time much lower. "In the flower code, white lillies are sign of purity and often used in bride bouquets and in Christian churchs' decoration, aren't they?".
"Now that you say it... yep", Mutsuki told him. "But those bluish flowers of the other bouquet... what are those called...? Ah! Forget-me-not! Don't they clash, however?"
"Hey! He's paying right now! And it means he's going! Hurry up!".
As Haruto said goodbye to the flower girl and walked away, Mutsuki and Kazumi kept following him, hiding behind bushes, buildings and the people. Again, he entered a shop after few minutes and went out soon with a small package in a hand.
*sniff* "What's this smell?! Irk, it's so sweet!", Kazumi whined as they passed in front of the second shop. Mutsuki stared at it: one of those popular stores selling Hindu scents and antiques. An exotic-looking woman was selling flower incense to two schoolgirls.
"He may have brought some of those...", and in a flash, Mutsuki was inside. Kazumi saw her talk to the Hindu shop assistant for some moments...
"As I thought", Mutsuki triumphantlly told him after she got out of the shop. "She sold him some flower incense bars".
Then she opened her schoolbag and placed another tiny package inside. Kazumi stared. "And what's that, sempai? It smells sweet too... urgh!"
"Moron, who could I miss the chance? I brought some musky incense bars for myself!". She got it out and inspired the sweet and at the same spicey parfum. "It's delicious!! Jasmine and cedar, my favourites!".
Now it was Kazumi who hit Mutsuki in the head. "Sempai! Now with all that loss of time, we lost him for good! And youre damn incense suck! I hate such cloying fragances, damnit!".
BANG! Mutsuki connected the uppercut right in Kazumi's lower jaw.
"Nope!", the redhead shook her head as Kazumi's senses were back to normal. "Flowers and incense together have just one destination... Come with me!!!".
"See? I told you!".
"He... HERE?! You sure?".
Kazumi stared again at the huge gates. "The graveyard?".
"Stupid, what's the use of flowers and incense together in rituals of death? You lit up the incense, deck out the gravestone with the flowers, and pray!".
"I know it all, of course!", Kazumi retorted acidly. "But *what* is Kaichou doing in such a place? Whom is he visiting today? As long as I know his parents are still alive...".
"And if they were dead, surely they'd be buried in a Christian graveyard", Mutsuki countered, stomping her foot on the floor. "I know, I know. But the question is, as you've said, *whom* is he visiting. And I", she pointed at the skies, a hand up and the other on her hip with stars and hearts dancing around her, "the Priestess of Asahina-jinja Asahina Mutsuki, will get the truth of this case, no matter who and no matter what!".
"Yeah, whatever, BUT LET'S GET IN AND FIND KAICHOU!!!".
After few minutes, thanks to the musky scent in the air, they found him. Haruto was sitting besides of a tombstone, the incense burning placidly, the lilies and forget-me-not artistically placed around the molded stones. Kazumi and Mutsuki, ducking behind two close graves, silently stared at their friend, whose blue eyes were full of sweet sadness as he sighed and stared at the grave.
"... Hello", he finally mused. "Hello, Tomoyuki-san".
* To... Tomoyuki?! *, they thought in shock.
In his first junior high day, Haruto still was quite longing for the fresh air of the seaside at Okinawa where he spent his school vacation. He had gotten into a good school, however, and the thought of being now in junior high kinda scared and excited him at the same time. Being a quiet and slightly shy boy, he still blushed as some of his female new peers giggled upon seeing him pass by them, and he stared throught the window at the senior's section with half envy, half admiration.
Now the bell rings indicating that it's time to go. He gets his stuff and walks away distractedly, the fill-in sheet for the clubs in his hands, thinking which one would be the best club for him.
A piano melody erupts all of a sudden...
"Sometimes thereŽs a time when you must say goodbye
Though it hurts you must learn to try
I know IŽve got to let you go
But I know anywhere you go..."
He stops dead in his tracks, straining his ears to listen better. The voice was the one of a boy, not terribly beautiful but filled with melancholy and emotion.
"YouŽll never be far
ŽCoz like the light of a bright star
YouŽll keep shining in my life
YouŽre gonna be right...".
Haruto has reached the voice's source. The music room. The door's open, and Haruto pops his head in. All alone, a boy is playing the piano there, and he softly sings.
"Here in my heart
ThatŽs where youŽll be
YouŽll be with me
Here in my heart
No distance can keep us apart
Long as youŽre here in my heart...".
Haruto seems enraptured by the boy's soulful song. He loved music, and in the Saint Mary church he used to sing gospel and the like, so he was used to such things. He could nearly *touch* the feelings that the boy was projecting in his song.
The magic broke, however, as he suddenly stopped and grabbed his chest, his breath laboured. At the same time, Haruto was pushed away by a girl who had been casually passing and saw what was happening.
"Tomoyuki-kun! Tomoyuki-kun!", she screamed upon seeing the singer collapse, crouching by him.
"You, boy!", she turned to Haruto, "please call the nurse quickly! Tomoyuki-kun has a heart attack! RUN!!"
"Ye... yes sempai!!", and Haruto ran as quick as his new shoes would let him.
Tomoyuki was sent to the nearest hospital and for three days everyone thought that he'd die. Miraculously, he survived. And about a week later, he was back to school, and to the music club.
"This is Hojou Haruto!", Kitaura Sachiko, the girl who helped to save him, said out loud the same day Tomoyuki returned. "He's a junior and wants to be in the music club. He helped me to save you, you know?".
"The nurse told me about it, Sachiko-chan", Tomoyuki replied before he stared at Haruto. "So, you want to be with us as well?".
"Ha-hai, Tomoyuki-san", Haruto murmured, feeling the color raise to his cheeks.
"Ain't he a cutie?", Sachiko swooned. Haruto blushed even more.
"While he can play an instrument and sing...", somebody said from the last row.
"I sing gospel and can play the piano", Haruto replied irritably. "Enough for you?".
"Why you little...?", the older boy stood up, but Tomoyuki made a gesture and he shut up. He stared at Ukai-sensei, the music teacher. "Well, Ukai-sensei, you have the word...".
"Haruto-kun", the female teacher said. "You told us that you can play the piano. Play something for us, then".
Haruto, still beet red, sat down in front of the piano and placed his hand on the white and black keys. He helplessly looked around, and fixed his eyes on Tomoyuki. He cutely smiled at his underclassman.
"You can do it!", and Tomoyuki gave Haruto a thumbsup. The younger boy smiled back and timidly started with Beethoven's "Appassionata"...
As he was over, Ukai-sensei nodded and said, "Okay, Haruto-kun. You're accepted in the club. Fill in the form and tomorrow at three PM we have a session. So be here punctually".
Haruto stared at Sachiko and Tomoyuki. They both grinned at him again, and Haruto returned the smile.
Haruto soon was a full-time member of the school's music club, a sorta "pet" of the first violinist Sachiko and the chorus girls as he was a very cute kid and they were all in the "kawaii-loving" age. But he kinda kept looking up at Tomoyuki, the official pianist and a boy who could even enter the music room in total darkness; a little great deed that made everybody see the petit and frail senior with a new light, as they knew.
However, upon the midterms and the highschool admission tests were coming, Tomoyuki was coming less and less. Sachiko herself was caught with time, but she came much more frequently than him. Haruto wondered why; however, he soon remembered the incident of the first day, and kept his mouth shut.
Two days before the highschool admission tests, Haruto was talking with some Christian friends from other junior high, and they asked him to see the school. As he was showing them the central wing, one of the boys asked, "Where's that melody coming from?".
Haruto listened. Again, the piano was playing. * Tomoyuki-san...*
"Let's listen!", and they all stood by the half open door. A male voice sang tenderly.
As Haruto thought, Tomoyuki was again playing the piano and singing alone, like in the first day.
"WonŽt be any tears falling from those eyes
ŽCos when true love never dies
It says alive forever
Time canŽt take away what we have
I will remember our time together
You may think our time is through
But IŽll still have you
Here in my heart...".
"So sweet!", a girl sighed, her eyes in heartshape. But the song wasn't the same anymore, in Haruto's view. There was sadness, one that wasn't there before.
* Maybe because he'll leave this school soon.... *, he thinks as he listens to the now darker, melancholic song.
"I know youŽll be back again
And Žtill then
My love is waiting
Here in my heart
ThatŽs where youŽll be
YouŽll be with me
Here in my heart
No distance can keep us apart
Long as youŽre here in my heart...".
He ends up and laids his hands on the keys, sighing. But spontaneously, the Christian children start clapping and cheering him.
"Beautiful!".
"Sugoi (great)!".
"Kakkoi (phenominal)!".
Confused, Tomoyuki just stares, then he blushes and thanks the kids with a smile. However, he glances at Haruto with an unreadable expression in his face, and as the younger boy extends his hand, he softly shakes it and murmurs.
"Haruto-kun... remember me...".
He quickly got out of the place.
Haruto never saw him again.
For the following junior high years, he waited for news about his friend, but never got anything satisfactory. The few times he could talk to the now HS-aged Sachiko, every time he asked about Tomoyuki, she saddened and changed the subject. Haruto learned, then, to hide the bad feelings it brought to him, and sealed it in silence and just evoke them as what he thought it was. A memory.
Eventually, Hojou Haruto moved on. He grew up into the handsome and, though kinda unwilling, sweet Kaichou of the Holy Student Council of Saitou Highschool, by a petition of the Dejichou. He befriended the redhead priestess of Asahina-jinja, Mutsuki, and the bluehaired novice of Senryou-san, Kazumi, along with the seven ghosts of Saitou. It was in between that he had to organize and help with the newbies' admission tests, and while at it...
"Hey!", Haruto called upon a lost-looking boy standing outside of the music room. He shrieked and turned back.
"You're coming for the admission exam?", Haruto friendly asked. "That's the music room. The gym's right there... I'm going there too, so we can walk together if you like".
"Thank you a lot", the boy said. Short, sweet-looking, and the uniform...
"Hey...", Haruto pensatively mused. "Seems I've seen you before... Funny... Your uniform's the one from Nerima Junior High".
"Ye, yeah", his new friend said.
"That's my former junior high".
"Really...? Ouch!!!".
To Haruto's worry, the kid flinched and paled, seemingly in great pain. "What's up? You don't feel well?".
"No... nope, it's nothing. Just that I caught a terrible hedeache", he babbled, giving it less importance than Haruto did.
"Need medical help?", the older boy insisted firmly but sweetly. The reply was a sweet smile.
"Nope, I'm already used to it. It's a chronic sickness".
"You're serious?".
"Yeah. I have a heart disease since birth".
"EEEEH?! You have a HEART disease?!".
Haruto found himself taking the boy's hands in his own while the other stared at him like he had two heads or something. "Then... you better *don't* try to take on this test, boy. I say it for your own good... It could be too much for you".
It was hard for the boy to disengage his hands from Haruto's and get the Kaichou to lead him to the gym..., at the same time that a gigantic old man head started a speech scaring the hell out of the aspirants already in, until Mutsuki smacked him and Kazumi calmed some kids down.
"You see now which class of school is this?", Haruto told his younger friend.
"Yeah...".
The boy bowed at him. "Thanks a lot for helping me?", and he went into the crowd.
* Hum, this boy really is worrying me... *, Haruto murmured softly, but then Kazumi called on him.
Some hours later...
"Let's see... Ninokun, the Giant, Akamanto Kamen... yep, they're ready...".
"Kaichou-san. Hanako-san's done, too!", Ninokun told him.
"Yep? Thanks, Ninokun. Seems all of the answers have been given; everything's done. It'll be all ready when Beethoven's over at the music room...".
His eyes set, suddenly, on a familiar figure. "Hey, aren't you... the boy of before?".
"Uhm, yeah", the other said. "Sorry, I got lost again".
"Seems the other guys are already taking the tests at the Chairman's office...".
"Well... uhm...", the younger boy murmured, blushing in embarrassment, "I dun have anything".
"What do you say?... Well, it seems", Haruto replied worriedly, "that this is the only open room".
The younger boy sighed sadly.
"But don't worry!", Haruto told him in a much lighter tone. "By now, go into the music room and ask Beethoven for the History test. I'll give you the rest".
"Ain't it cheat?", Ninokun asked.
Haruto sweatdropped, but he turned to the aspirant and smiled. "A little. But if you get the test from the History room, then it'll be okay".
"'Kay, then!", and the boy handed Haruto his bag.
"I'll wait here with your stuff".
"Thanks, I'm not afraid. I was a member of the music club at junior high, so I'm used... I've even entered our room in the dark".
At that, Haruto could name the feeling that has been lingering within.
Recognition.
"The music club... Wait a little!!!".
He stared at the ID written on the bag. "Okada Tomoyuki... Born in 1977... Hey, he's two years older than me!".
//...Here in my heart
ThatŽs where youŽll be
YouŽll be with me...//
He could nearly hear it again.
//...Here in my heart
No distance can keep us apart...//
"What's up, Kaichou-san?".
"I... I also was in the music club....".
//...Long as youŽre here in my heart...//
"Tomoyuki-san... Can't be truth!".
//...Long as youŽre here in my heart...//.
He opened his lips.
//Here in my heart...//
"Tomoyuki-san!!!!".
Tomoyuki turned. And stared. A long moment.
"Whoa!", Tomoyuki said, eyes wide in amazement and pointing at his friend. "I never thought I'd find Haruto-kun here!...".
"Nope", he mused to himself, staring at his own hands. Like forgetting about Haruto.
"The strange thing is, that *I am here*...
To Haruto's surprise, Tomoyuki's figure slowly starts to become ethereal.
"I only remember being in the hospital...".
His hands are now nearly ethereal.
"Ah! I get it..."
His voice is barely audible, and Haruto saw his former friend fade away in the air...
Disappear. And this time, for good.
//Here in my heart....//
Haruto now stands in front of the grave. The incense is burning low. And his eyes are full of tears.
"You know, Tomoyuki-san... Beethoven, the living painting that guards the room, told me the truth. You died the same day of the tests and couldn't give it. So every year, you'd take your human form again and come to Saitou High to give the tests. You couldn't rest and accept your death, you wanted so much to give the test and be a highschool student... be someone in life...".
He gets near to out one of the white lilies straight and in place. Then he dries away a runaway tear going down his cheek. "But seeing somebody whom you knew in life, it got you in the right way again. Your endless ring was broken, so you now are in Heavens and can rest in peace. And since then, a year has passed".
The emotion doesn't let Haruto talk for some moments. And when he does, he speaks very low, like he didn't really want to hear his own voice.
"Tomoyuki-san, I knew of your grave thanks to Sachiko-san. She has never forgotten you. And I never will, too. You supported me the few time we got to know each other, you trusted me deeply. As the song you liked so much says, you'll always be here in my heart, and the memories of you will be always engraved in it, until we're all together in Heavens. I know we all will... You... Sachiko-san... I...".
Haruto wiped away the remaining moisture in his sky-like eyes, and bowed his head slightly. Moments later, a huge vein appeared in his forehead as he said aloud...
"And so will Asahina-kun and Kazumi-kun, WHOM I KNOW THAT HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING ME ALL THE FREAKING TIME!! GET OUT OF YOUR HIDING PLACE, DARNIT!!!".
"Mou, Kaichou... How did you know?", Mutsuki groaned as she uncovered herself, followed suit by Kazumi.
"How would I *not* know you're in my surroundings, Asahina-kun? I *told* you I had to run my own bussiness", he suddenly went SD and tears ran down again, now a tragicomic river flowing from his eyes. "yet I could *bet* you two would meddle in! Don't you know the meaning of the word *private bussinesses*?".
"Kaichou, that's how you thank us for being worried about you?", Kazumi broke in. "We wanted to know what was troubling you. We were really concerned, Kaichou...", he softened his tone. "You're our friend".
Haruto stared at him, his eyes reflecting many mixed emotions. "You... you really...".
"Of coz we mean it!!!", Mutsuki replied fierily, her eyes bright. "We're all in this gang, all together. You, Kazumi, all the ghosts, aren't we like a family since the Kaichou brought us to Saitou and we fought the Evil ones?".
After some minutes, Haruto opened his lips. A sweet smile formed in them. "Thank you".
To his astonishment, Mutsuki grabbed him by an arm, and Kazumi by the other.
"Now, Kaichou, let's get out of this graveyard which brings you bad memories, and let us pull the broomstick out of your ass!!".
"But...".
"You make it sound SO ecchi, sempai!".
"Kazumi-kun...! *blush*".
"NANIIIIII?!".
If it wasn't for the fact of being at Haruto's other side, Mutsuki would've kicked the hell out of Kazumi already.
"Kazumi no baka! Omae o korosu (I'll kill ya)!".
"Asahina-kun! Kazumi-kun!", Haruto pleaded.
"Ah", and Mutsuki got the envelope out of her bag and handed it to Haruto, "Sakuya-chan sends you *this*... *beam*".
"*bluuuuuush*".
"Is it from you and you're lying about the sender?!".
"KA-ZU-MIIIIIIII!!!".
At this rate, the three friends were already heading to the gates. They missed the fact that, for a moment, an ethereal figure stood by the grave.
The one of a young boy, smiling sweetly at the three.
//Haruto-kun... We'll always be in each other's heart, will we? //
Tomoyuki sighed, and he went back to Heavens by melting with the lights again
//Arigato (thank you)... //, he whispered. //Minna-san, arigato (everybody, thank you)//
"Huh?", and Haruto turned for a moment, thinking that he may have seen things.
"Kaichou--!", and his underclassmen pulled him out of the graveyard by the arms, laughing all the way back home.
Here's the note I promised. But are you sure you wanna keep on reading? Coz it has...
*
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In the fifth chapter of the manga version of Haunted Junction, we find ourselves with the Saitou High admission tests. Haruto, Mutsuki and Kazumi have to supervise everything's okay, while the main ghosts give the questions to the future highschoolers. Hanako-san is in charge of the Japanese questions, Red Mantle of the English questions, Ninokun and CIA of the Maths tests...
In between all of this, Haruto befriends a boy named Okada Tomoyuki, who comes from his same former junior high. Haruto senses something familiar within him. Later they re-meet in front of the Music room, and Tomoyuki mentions something about being a member of his school's music club. This startles Haruto, who was in the school's music club too... and recognizes Tomoyuki as his former friend and upperclassman.
Haruto calls the boy by name, and Tomoyuki also recognizes him: "Whoa! I never thought I'd find Haruto-kun here!... Nope. The strange thing is, that *I am here*... I only remember being in the hospital... Ah! I get it...", and he vanishes away to Haruto's shock. Beethoven, the ghost who guards the music room and gave the History querstions to the students, explains that Tomoyuki had a heart disease and died just before the Saitou HS admission tests, about two/three years ago. He couldn't accept his own death and at every test, he appeared in Saitou. But the fact of seeing Haruto, whom he knew while he was alive, broke this viscious circle, made Tomoyuki recognize himself as dead, and allowed him to rest in peace.
