The next time our group got together, Ino didn't mention the incident at the shopping district. Although, she offered a larger share of her lunch, so that was probably her way of thanking me in addition to when it happened. We were getting our high school applications ready for Toriyama High. Ino took the same route that she previously had and was filling one out for the all girls high school before she did her application for where we would be going.

  I'm sure she wanted to stay with the group as much as the group wanted her to stay, but her parents were difficult to sway once they had made up their minds on something. It was hardly the end of the world since we could easily meet up with her when she had time away from school. As far as the Eclipse situation was concerned, Ino was safe since she was a norm as best as I could tell. We focussed on our applications and hardly spoke during that lunch. After school, we sent off our applications and hoped for the best. As intended, I never sent one to Makarov Academy.

  Later that week, Ino asked me to meet up with her after school. We met at the gate, and she motioned to someone else. Her friend, Hojo walked up and joined us.

  "We wanted to go shopping again," Ino said. "And we'd feel better if you came along too in case those guys came back. Would you mind?"

  "Sure, I'll go." I responded happily. I was already ahead of studying, and the weekend was about to start which meant either more ability training or physical training.

  We walked to the shopping district again. Ino did most of the talking either to me or Hojo who seemed too shy to say much to me. She also took on the fashion of a gal, but the rest of her appearance hardly went with her choice. She was shorter than me with fair skin and lavender hair that complemented her bright yellow eyes very well and went just past her shoulders.

  The two of them talked a lot about summer plans and various teenage girl topics like I wasn't even there. It continued when we reached the shopping district, and I almost seemed to blend into the crowd. I didn't mind it, basically playing their bodyguard. They trusted me to protect them which was more than I could have ever done in my previous life. Every shop we would go into, they took their time trying on most every piece of clothing and accessory.

  "What do you think of this, Kaori?" Ino asked as she held a sundress to herself. "Pair it with a cute hat, and I think the boys will go crazy." She held another to herself. "This one is cute too, but I can't decide."

  "Any boy in particular you're trying to drive crazy, Ino?" Hojo asked with a smirk. She knew the answer, and so did I since I came back.

  "N-not really," Ino said shyly as she blushed a bit.

  I stayed silent because it wasn't my place to say or do anything about it. Hopefully, she would realize it herself and have the confidence to confess before we all went our separate ways. She stopped blushing when she turned to Hojo.

  "What about you, huh? Summer's almost here, time to make the boy you have eyes for go crazy."

  Kaori blushed and turned away. "I don't have anyone like that," she mumbled.

  Young girls are so complicated. Then again, so are women when they're adults... and men when they're adults. People in general are complicated, now that I think about it.

  "Kazuma, what do you think of these?" Ino asked as she turned to me holding up two swimsuits. Hojo held up a couple as well.

  Time to show off my complete lack of taste and abysmal fashion sense.

  "Uh... I like that one." I pointed to a black one with white stripes on the rack. "Yours are nice too, though."

  Black and grey were my colors of choice in my previous life with some white. Some of the other Numbers called me Grayscale as a joke.

  "You're absolutely no help, Kazuma." Ino said laughing. "I guess I'll go with this one then." She took one and went to buy it with Kaori.

  After shopping, we went to a cafe. Ino sat with Hojo across from me, and I often found myself looking out the window watching passers by. I couldn't remember the last time before then that I had gone to a restaurant, so I got the same thing I would make in my apartment: black coffee. They looked at me sort of strangely, but they didn't say anything. Ino ordered a latte and a parfait while Hojo got a cappuccino and a tart plate.

  The coffee was good. Strong and hot, yet the true flavors came through without any distracting additions. The drinks that they got looked good also. They were decorated and had nice designs in the foam. Ino's parfait was a colorful mix of various berries mixed with cream. Hojo's tart plate looked like a rainbow. I'm guessing they were both good based on their reactions. They talked among themselves, I went back to people watching.

  People watching was one of my preferred pastimes in my previous life. I really only did it from my apartment window, but seeing people going to and fro living their lives was always interesting to me. I found myself thinking what my life would be like without Eclipse.

  What job would I have had? Would I have had a family? What would I have done in my spare time?

  None of my questions would be answered until I made sure they never got me in their clutches again. The people on this street seemed the same as the people out of my window. Going to and fro living their lives... then my heart stopped for a second. One person stood out from the crowd. A girl. Roughly my age. Pale skin. Long blonde hair. An aloft air around her. Number 12.

  She was with a small group of tourists, likely her family. The woman that killed me was across the street, and she had no idea who I was or what I knew. She stopped and looked over at the cafe. Her sapphire daggers met my eyes, and I quickly looked back to my coffee.

  Why? She has no idea who I am. Why am I freaking out? I'm an assassin. Calm down. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

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  The bell on the door rang, and her group walked into the cafe. They sat down on the opposite end of the restaurant from us, and I knew we needed to leave quickly. I tried to calmly drink my coffee, and the girls carried on none the wiser. We were about to get up to pay and leave when she came over from her table.

  "Excuse me," she started.

  The three of us looked at her, and I saw her eyes looking into my soul again just like that day.

  "Have we met before? I felt a weird sense of deja vu before I saw this cafe and when I looked at you."

  Deja vu? It's a pretty common experience, but to get it looking at me? Is it possible that some part of her remembers?

  "No, I don't think we've met," I responded.

  "Ah, sorry, my name is Angelica Grey. I'm hoping to come here next school year to study abroad. Your city is very beautiful."

  "Thank you, I hope things go well for you," I responded hesitantly. She walked back to her table, and we left the cafe. Ino was the first to say anything.

  "She was cute, Kazuma, too bad you didn't know her. I hope she comes to my school if she gets to study abroad."

  I hope she doesn't, honestly. Having Number 12 around would make things significantly more difficult.

  Suddenly, I remembered the other operatives. There were twelve of us in total at the time that I was hunted. All of them had powers that could be used to drag me back. I need to do everything to either avoid them or keep them out of Eclipse.

  I got home late that night almost completely exhausted. All of the exhaustion left when I walked into the living room and saw my father.

  "Dad, you're home."

  "Surprise, Kazuma, although a little late, did you have fun?" He responded with a smile.

  The overwhelming emotion I felt when I saw my mother and sister was there, but with everything that has happened since then, all I could muster was content happiness. I walked over and hugged him.

  "Welcome home, dad."

  "Yeah, I'm home," he responded, hugging me back.

  "What's this? Giving out hugs without me?" my sister chimed in and pounced on me. "How dare you not come straight home to me, Zuzu. I missed you so much!"

  "Now, Yui, don't give him a hard time. He has a life too, you know."

  "Fine," she said sadly as she let go.

  We shared more coffee and talked about everything that had happened.

  "I have to say, I'm proud of you for standing up to bullies and delinquents, Kazuma, but don't let it become all you are," Father said with an insightful yet stern voice.

  "Yes sir," I responded.

  "I kind of think it's perfect, my Zuzu fighting off everyone to protect his beloved sister," Yui chimed in.

  "Again, Yui, don't tease your brother."

  "Everyone in this house is no fun." She pouted.

  I spent the first part of the weekend working on controlling my powers as a sort of muscle instead of extreme concentration. It proved difficult to undo years of conditioning, so there were understandably setbacks. Once I felt comfortable enough with it, I tried moving to things that I had only experimented with in my previous life.

  I grabbed my watch and froze time to see if it would continue ticking. To no avail. I unfroze time and thought of ways to get around the restriction. I tried to go back to concentration, but that didn't work either, then I had to deal with the headaches. Once they subsided, I rewound and started again; I wanted to master this skill and one other before the weekend was over.

  The day went on as I froze, failed, unfroze, and repeated the process. After two or three "days," I finally got it. I took the watch in as a part of my being, and it continued ticking after I froze time. This would be the foundation of other experiments that I would need to do. After I unfroze, I went downstairs and spent time with my family.

  I couldn't tell them why I was so happy or why I seemed so exhausted. I told them about how I had turned in my applications for high school - I left out the fact that Toriyama High was the only one I applied to. Yui's face lit up with joy when her high school made the list of schools I applied to. Thankfully, mother caught her before she jumped on me and took her away to the kitchen.

  The rest of the weekend was dedicated to one experiment: sleeping while frozen. I went on a run that morning but didn't see Chika walking her dog. When I came home, I made everyone breakfast and spent time with them again. Being with my family gave me a sense of peace that I had not had in a long time. Everyone went out to shop and I stayed home to "study."

  I sat in my room and meditated. Time stood still. It was early enough to go for an afternoon nap. With my watch still working, I could both keep track of the time that had really passed and compare it to the clock on my wall. Once I finally got comfortable, it didn't take long to go to sleep.

  I woke up some time later and checked my watch. An hour and a half had passed, but there was no noise coming from outside or in the house. The clock on my wall read that fifteen minutes had passed. By sleeping, my freezing either wore down to slowing or stopped working all together after an hour and fifteen minutes of being asleep.

  I looked outside to see any signs of life, nothing. I watched the clock on my wall to see that it was completely frozen again. When I was awake, the muscle kicked in again and so did my powers. I unfroze and made notes. I would need to do more experiments in the future, but these results were sufficient for the first attempt.

  The remaining weeks went by before summer break, and we took our term exams. Thankfully, everyone pulled together and pulled through with passing grades for all. I took the top of the class again, but it was so common for me by that point that I thought nothing of it. Toshinori continued to be a part of our group, and Hojo came around with Ino from time to time. We all made plans to get together at various times throughout the break. We all had high hopes that we all would see each other again in the fall at Toriyama High.

  School years for transitioning students in my country were similarly filled with both memories and high tensions in that regard. I spent the first week of break entertaining my sister's brother obsession before my group's first meeting. We went shopping somewhat and spent most of the time at home. We went for walks most every day. We came home from one such walk, and mother was making a snack in the kitchen.

  "Oh, Kazuma, the schools you applied to mailed you back, let us know what they said."

  Schools? I only applied to one.

  My suspicions quickly rose. I took the letters and went to my room. The first one was a recruitment letter from some school abroad made to look like an acceptance letter in some sort of advertisement attempt. The second came from Toriyama High: I had been accepted. That was all I cared about, but the third still had my curiosity. I turned it over, and my heart stopped again. Makarov Academy.

  How? They didn't do things like that like the school abroad did.

  I opened it; I had been accepted.