Shiori Rin waited in the one place she needed to be. She was wearing a summer one piece white dress with thin straps that left her arms and shoulders mostly bare, a wide brimmed straw hat with a daisy blossom stuck in its headband, wooden sandals with red thongs and thick white socks. It had been five months since the end of wyrd war two. Now that it was summer, Isao would definitely return. She had a lot to tell him.

　　Steps could be heard from behind. "Shiori? Is that you?" Shiori smiled before she even turned around. Kotone had really helped her out this time.

　　"What is it, Isao? Don't tell me you've forgotten my face already." Shiori teased.

　　"It's not that. What did you do with your hair?" Isao asked.

　　"I grew it out a little bit." Shiori passed her fingers through her hair, lifting it up and letting it fall back down over her shoulders. "Is it no good?"

　　"No. It suits you." Isao said. Then he walked by her towards his true destination. The flowers in his hand and the bucket and ladle full of water made his intentions clear. He put the tied together bouquet of three white roses in front of Ryo's grave, and knelt down onto his back heels to pray. He closed his eyes and sat quietly. Shiori sat quietly on a bench nearby. She understood his priorities. She wouldn't have had them any other way. It was a hot day, and the cicadas were still out and about. But there was a refreshing breeze that kept playing with her hair and pushing it in front of her face. Long hair was so troublesome. But he had said it suited her.

　　The two meditated in silence, and then Isao stood up and bowed to his departed friend. He dipped his ladle into his wooden bucket, and then carefully poured the water over his tombstone. The water was instantly sucked into the granite, turning it a darker gray. Isao clapped twice and then bowed again. Shiori didn't dare join in the ritual. It would be presumptuous. Ryo wasn't her friend.

　　Isao stood, his eyes as clear and bright as ever, not showing a hint of pain. "If you wanted to contact me, you could have called." Isao said, walking over to her bench and sitting down beside her.

　　"I could have." Shiori agreed. Isao smiled when she didn't continue.

　　"So? Is something wrong?" Isao asked.

　　"Will you listen to a long story?" Shiori asked him. She stared at her sandals and socks, not wanting to look at him just yet. Her white dress created a sort of unfolding fan around her legs.

　　"I'm free for the day." Isao agreed.

　　"Kotone married just a few days after turning eighteen. I was her best maid. Masanori wanted you to be his best man, but you didn't come. We all missed you." Shiori said.

　　"I was busy." Isao explained.

　　"Was that all?" Shiori asked, her voice rising a bit before she got it back under control. "This Christmas, you were invited again. We all had a great time at Kotone's house. But you weren't there again, even though we had a wonderful surprise to show you. We all missed you."

　　"I was busy." Isao said.

　　"Yes, you were. After that, a lot of crazy things happened. Did you know? We all became billionaires. You did too. Masanori and Kotone promised to give everyone involved in saving the world a hundred million yen every year for the rest of our lives. When we tried to turn her down, she got down on her hands and knees and begged us to take the money. She said we deserved it, and it was the least she could do. Have you thanked Kotone for that?" Shiori asked.

　　Isao shook his head.

　　"Idiot Isao." Shiori said just loudly enough to be heard. "The surprise was that Masanori had perfected his Angle Exile technique. Instead of it just sending things who-knows-where, he could pinpoint where the portal would open up on the other side. He opened up a portal to another world. I ran into it and picked a fern. It's still in my room. You would have been amazed. Rei said it meant 'we won.' That life could never be stopped again, that we've outraced the threat of death forever. I was really happy. We were all really happy."

　　Isao nodded.

　　"After that, we started recruiting people from around the world, with essay tests and scrying, to come populate our new universes. Masanori, Kotone, Chiharu, Rei and me all worked together to filter out the perfect seed stock to people new worlds. We could have used you then too. But you were busy." Shiori said.

　　Isao nodded.

　　"Chiharu's little sister accidentally found Bubbles, and there was a big uproar. She became a magical girl, like us, even though she was still a Dead Ender. Before too long, she started having bad dreams. Dreams of Dead Enders with new plots to destroy the world, plots that didn't even involve confrontations. We never would've noticed these Dead Enders in time if not for Aiko. Masanori was so concerned for our safety, he became our squad leader. Even though we hadn't populated a single new world, he had to fight on the front line for all of us. Because you were busy." Shiori said.

　　Isao winced.

　　"Kotone nearly died in the ensuing fight. Because you were busy." Shiori said, her anger rising despite herself.

　　Isao bit his cheek.

　　"After that, things went a bit better. We bribed a Dead Ender to switch sides, by leveraging all of Masanori's future wealth as well as all the wealth he had, in a direct bidding war with Korea. He found out how to turn wyrds into hybrids, who could be humans or wyrds at will. He cast the spell on each of our wyrds, but not on Black, because you were busy." Shiori said.

　　Isao looked suprised.

　　"Rei, my sister, married Onyx, her wyrd, a few days later. I was her best maid. You would've been invited. But you were busy." Shiori said.

　　"After that, Awesome married Magnolia, because I ordered him to, I'm afraid." Shiori stuck out her tongue and bit it. "But I knew he really wanted to, if he just ever summoned up the courage. I think Kotone may have ordered Magnolia to agree." Shiori giggled.

　　"You would've been invited to that wedding too. But you were busy." Shiori got back on track. "Then, an amazing turn of events came about. Oh, before then, I should tell you that I was throwing a bit of a fuss in the winter, because I heard that our wyrds were going to die not in 200 years Earth time, but just fifteen. I didn't want our wyrds to die in fifteen years. So I worked with Awesome, Rei, and Cyan to send a message to the etheric plane. "Fold upwards. It works." That's really the only clue we could give. But it was enough. A couple of months ago, a new wyrd blipped into our dimension with the news. Her name is Capri. She's a bright blue color, and very energetic. She volunteered to come to Earth, because she thought it would be fun. We made her into a hybrid wyrd/human too, but because she was so young, she ended up being just ten years old. She's adorable, you know. Kotone and Masanori agreed to take her in. They said it was 'practice' for their own child. Kotone's pregnant, you see. She's due in a couple months. But she couldn't tell you. Because you were busy." Shiori said.

　　"But I was talking about Capri, wasn't I? Capri told us how the wyrds did it, acting on our clue. They evacuated about one third of their universe, and used it as fuel to launch a single machine to a higher dimension. It wasn't very big. Maybe as big as a pencil eraser. But it still blew up a huge region of space. It sucked out almost all the remaining magic in their plane. It was an all or nothing gambit." Shiori said, her hands pressed tightly against her thighs. She hadn't turned to look at Isao directly once.

　　"The device had a program in it, once it reached the new plane -- its first job was to replicate itself. The energy density up there was far beyond anything the wyrds had ever used or needed. Once it had harvested enough matter and energy, it switched to stage two -- building a folding device. The entire process was input into its memory. When it was done, it folded the original nanite back down to the etheric plane -- opening up a conduit. The wyrds are eating a new energy source now. It will last a long time. And when it runs out, why, they can sacrifice a third of the new universe to fold even higher, and replenish it with energy from even higher. Since scrying shows we're alone in the multiverse, they can harvest as many planes as they want, without ever hurting any other sentient life. They're saved. I was a first rate Choice Giver, you know. I gave hope to an entire species. Everyone will go on living happily, now, because of me. I wanted to tell you. But you were busy." Shiori started crying. She had never been good when it came to crying. She cried over everything.

　　"Idiot Isao." Shiori spun her face up, tears running down her cheeks. "We're your friends, aren't we? Didn't Kotone say we'd be your new friends? Didn't that mean anything to you? Where were you? Where were you, idiot Isao? I missed you so much!" And then Shiori punched him in the chest.

　　"Enough, Shiori." Isao said gently.

　　"I missed you!" Shiori said again, punching him with her other fist.

　　"Enough. It's okay now." Isao said.

　　"It's not okay! Why don't you understand --?" Isao leaned down and sealed her mouth with a kiss. Shiori blushed, not knowing what to do or how to do it. She tried to pull back, but he grabbed the back of her head and leaned even further into her. After a few seconds she wrapped her arms around his back, clutching him with all her strength. The kiss went on and on. She lost track of time, she lost track of space, there was only him. When they parted, Isao had a happy look on his face.

　　"A lot of things happened while I was away, huh?" Isao summed up.

　　"Unn." Shiori nodded, wiping fiercely at her cheeks.

　　"A year here for every year out there. What do you say?" Isao promised.

　　"Unn." Shiori nodded again.

　　"Then, Shiori Rin," Isao slid off the bench and onto one knee on the ground, taking her nearest hand into his and looking up into her eyes. "Will you marry me?"

　　"Unn." Shiori nodded, tears welling back into her eyes. And then she dived into his arms and into another kiss. It was just her second kiss ever. It was the best kiss in her life.

* * *

　　Aiko Sakai was walking back from tennis practice with her friends. She wore her sky blue underwear, like always. Bubbles didn't get many chances to live his own life. But that was okay. Wyrds lived forever compared to humans. He could spare a few years for her sake. And he kept telling her she was so beautiful to scry, and that he was so happy that Mother wouldn't scold him, that she figured she had given back plenty to their relationship. That or she was just too heartless to be fair. Either way. Aiko smiled to herself. Before the next national high school tennis tournament, she had to fight her way into the starting lineup. As a first year who had only just started playing tennis near the end of middle school she hadn't been good enough, but next year it would definitely be her turn. She would play singles, while Sayuri and Mizuki would play doubles together. If they both won, their team would only need one more winner among the remaining three matches to advance each round. The goal was nationals. Why stop at anything short? To reach it, she had to keep getting better. There just wasn't enough time in the day.

　　"See you tomorrow." Aiko waved to Sayuri, turning down the corner that led to her house. It was a long walk, but tennis players needed their exercise. She had given up on riding the bus long ago.

　　"See you tomorrow!" Her friends waved back happily. Once they were alone, Bubbles started blinking.

　　"I feel like we forgot something today." Bubbles said.

　　"Hmm? What is it? I have my school bag." Aiko held it up for Bubbles to see in front of her.

　　"It wasn't school related." Bubbles responded, and then he started silently musing to himself again.

　　"Ohh!" Aiko tapped the bottom of her fist into her open palm, her face brightening. "You're right. Capri was coming over this afternoon, wasn't she? Kotone asked me to take care of her because she had museum work she absolutely couldn't get out of. I totally forgot. Tehee."

　　"Don't Tehee me! Capri's at our house unsupervised! How could you forget something like that and play tennis this late?" Bubbles flashed.

　　"Don't mind don't mind." Aiko waved her hand at Bubble's worries to swish them away. "She'll still be in human form. What could possibly go wrong?"