1 Kiyoshi (3 Year Time Skip)

Normally, I wouldn't wake Shiro this early, but it was a special day and he would get cranky if I didn't. "Shiro~" I said, rocking him a bit. He opened his eyes. "C'mon, we have to go" He threw the covers off, revealing that he slept in his clothes. Standing up I noticed how tall he was. I remembered the first time we did this, I was a few centimeters taller, but now, he's 185. "Let's go" he said and I followed him out of his room. We both grabbed torches and headed out of the back door making sure to close it quietly behind us. I lit his torch while I walked behind him, then lit mine. Then noticed how flat he has become. It was almost a weird thought to see him smile, since it's been so long since he has. He no longer joked like he used to, he no longer played pranks like he used to, he no longer laughed, smirked, anything. It was almost as if the little child we were going to see was his source of happiness. The memories of when I first met them both circled around my head until we made it to the clearing. We both stopped, as if almost waiting for an invitation. I looked around as if expecting that the scenery had changed. The only difference was the bright yellow flowers growing in the middle, right where Hibiki was killed... right where the spear was impaled into the ground.

After a few minutes we walked to the tiny garden and stuck our burning torches into the ground. Then sat down and allowed ourselves to be enveloped by silence. I don't know why we started doing this, but for some reason Shiro didn't want Mei and Aiko to know about it. We carried on until the sun was peeking over the horizon.

"Time's up" he whispered. I saw the fire about to touch the ground. I extinguished them by making a swirling motion with my finger and watched the smoke rise. I don't know how long we sat there for after that, but the sun was slightly higher in the sky. "I think we should head back" I said.

"You go ahead"

I stood up and put my hand on his shoulder. He shrugged me off, so I just silently turned around and headed back. Luckily, the others weren't awake, but the silence felt like a thick wool blanket, trying to suffocate me, so I decided to do something with myself instead. I went to the kitchen and started making breakfast with what we had. I don't know how long I was concentrating because when I turned around, Shiro was standing right behind me. "AH!" I screamed, almost dropping the boiling pot of miso soup. He grabbed it from me and took it to the living room. I forget that he isn't the one for a spectacular entrance, but he should at least let me know. I shook it off and went on to make rice balls. Each one was placed in a giant platter and had little faces made of seaweed to make it extra cute! Grabbing the plate I walked out of the kitchen to see that Mei, Aiko, and Shiro were already seated around the big wooden table we had with four empty chairs giving me choices on where to sit (that's how big it was). After handing everyone utensils and bowls, we were ready to eat.

"ITADAKIMASU!" Aiko yelled before digging in. Mei, on the other hand, still looked half asleep, so she just mumbled something and began eating. Even though it took me a moment, I noticed that Shiro hadn't touched his soup and was instead nibbling at the rice ball. "Shiro, eat your soup" I said. "If he doesn't want to appreciate such good home cooking, then I'll take it" Aiko said, taking her first moment to breathe. As a response, Shiro stood up and handed her the bowl, much to my dismay. Mei raised her eyebrow.

"Why's he grumpier than usual?" I just shrugged my shoulders at her. Mei placed down her spoon, grabbed the bowl and took it to the kitchen's sink. Aiko slurped up the rest of the bowl and did the same, except this time she went to the door to put on her shoes. "Where are you going?" I asked. "I have to go get a book on herbal medicines" I nodded and then she was gone, Mei on the other hand left through the back door, leaving me there by myself. The silence this time wasn't as overwhelming, so I decided to clean up. I heard a soft giggle, causing me to jump into ready position with my wand materialized in my hand. Quiet. Then again, but there were more. Soon, the giggles started to overlap and steadily get louder and louder. I dropped my wand so I could cover my ears. A voice started yelling over the rest, "Leave me alone", over and over again. Silence. As quickly as it begun, it stopped. My ears were ringing and my scratchy throat indicated I was the one screaming. A soft tap behind me made me turn around. Shiro was there with his brows furrowed. "The bowl is tipped over" he said softly. "Ascuitto" I mumbled, and the soup that was dripping from the table dried up in an instant. "They came back I'm guessing?" I nodded placing the bowl back into its original position. "This time it was children" The furrow in his brow grew deeper. "It should never be children if you were the youngest"

"What do you mean?"

"Only the adults knew about your condition, right?"

"Yeah, wait Shiro, please tell me what it means because you're being more cryptic than usual" I begged. He just shook his head as if signaling it was better that I didn't know. "Then why bring it up!?" He just turned around and walked into his room, locking the door. I sat down and sighed. What did he mean by 'it should never be children'. I sat there trying to come up with something, but eventually just gave up, it was already noon and the garden needs to be harvested.