Hideto knelt down at a small roadside memorial, sighing softly and struggling not to cry. He didn't want to cry...it was selfish. Terry wouldn't have wanted him to be sad...not from what he knew of him.

He pulled a single rose made of white silk from a bag, with a light blue ribbon tied around the stem. Sliding his hand across the ribbon, he reread what he had written across it - on one side of the bow, it read "��花��む�����忘れ��ん" ; on the other side, the English translation - "Until this flower wilts, we won't forget."

He couldn't fight it anymore, this place was getting depressing. He closed his eyes as he placed the flower on the memorial, right next to a framed photo of his fallen classmate, then stood up and sighed again.

"I'm sorry," he muttered as he turned and walked away, and began searching for a place to go to clear his head. This whole thing as so strange...and so sudden. Death rarely made sense to him...it was almost absurd. But this time, it somehow seemed even more unusual than most.

But then again, it always felt that way when something like this was just happening.