Then a battle followed. Hikaru fought all of them. One by one they fell.

But…

“H-Hikaru!!! Watch out!!!” I warned him. Too late.

The guy with a steel pipe in his hand hit Hikaru in the head from behind. Hikaru fell to ground, unconscious. Blood was coming out from the back of his head. I screamed. “H-HIKARU!!!!!!!!!”

The other guys panicked. “Damn it!” “Crap! Let’s get out of here!!!” They all ran away.

I screamed for help. 10 minutes later, an ambulance came.

The next day, Hikaru was absent from school. I became more and more worried about him. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened the night before.

I walked through the hallways.

“Ne, ne, did you hear? One of the Hitachiin brothers got into a battle last night! He fought with Tachibana Seiji from class 3-B…” “Yes I heard. They said it was pretty violent. He’s in the hospital isn’t he? He was absent from class today. I heard he started the fight.” “Really?! They did say he was a delinquent in his previous school. That’s terrible isn’t it? Also…Fujioka from his class was with him during that time…! Could they be going out?! I’d be surprised if that were true!!!” “The lawyer and the delinquent? Haha…Then Fujioka would just defend him in court!”

Laughter followed the conversation I heard from two girls and two guys that were gossiping.

I just ignored them. The truth will come out when the time comes.

“Ah…! Haruhi-san!” Someone called me from behind. I turned around. “Koaru!” “Long time no see, Haruhi-san. How are you?”

We continued to walk.

I tried to smile. “I’m fine…Dai jo bu desu…” Koaru looked thoughtful for a moment. “Don’t lie to me. I could tell you’re not.” He smiled. “It must have been a terrible experience.” “Y-Yeah. How’s Hikaru?”

“To tell you the truth, not really well.” Koaru said sadly.

We stopped walking.

“The doctor said that if he wakes up, there could be a possibility…”

“Possibility of what…?”

…

“He could suffer from memory loss.”