Summary: A follow-up to A Bird in Chains, in which Kozue and Shiori find an interesting way to deal with letting their loved ones go.

New Possibilities in the Wake of the Old

“Say, say, have you heard?”  Kozue heard some girls speaking amongst themselves, loud girls unconcerned about being overheard.  “They're saying Juri and Miki are dating now!”

“What??”  Another girl replied.  “No way, they're just friends, they just work together on the Student Council!”

“And besides, Juri is way too cold and off putting for Miki, he needs someone warm and nurturing.”

“Oh yeah?  Miki's too much of a little boy for Juri, she needs someone reliable and dependable.”

The first girl harrumphed in a self-satisfied way.  “Oh yeah?  Well, why don't you look where I'm looking, hmm?”  The girls turned where she pointed, and all their jaws dropped; there they were, Miki and Juri, walking together, holding hands.  Apparently her advice to her brother had worked out, Kozue half cursed herself for it.  He was smiling, she was smiling, they were smiling and talking about nothing in particular, couple stuff, the kind of stuff she'd prattled on about with countless boy's whose faces she never memorized and whose names she never bothered listening to.

Kozue walked past them to where they'd come from and drew no attention to herself, she'd made her bed and had to lie in it, Miki was human and she was still a wild animal and that was fine by her; the whole point had to safeguard Miki, that had been her purpose in life, to keep him pure so she and she alone could truly appreciate him for who he was...and now that was over; she'd given him away to the one person that she could trust him with, and so she was free.

Kozue stopped, she heard crying, whimpering in the bushes like a wounded dog.  “Oh dear.”  Wild animals had to look out for one another, no one else would.  “Are you okay...?”  It wasn't a dog, it was a girl, not much older than herself.

“You!”  The girl looked up at her, purple haired and purple eyed, her glare was intense.  “Oh.”  She looked down, wiped the tears from her cheeks.  “I thought you were someone else, coming back to gloat.”

“You must be talking about my brother.”  Now why would she think that Miki would gloat?  Kozue tried to imagine such a thing, it came out jagged and broken.  “I'm Kozue.”

“Shiori Takatsuki.”  She stood up, brushed herself off.  “I imagine you must be proud of your brother; there's a lot of people who would do terrible things to be with Juri you know.”

“Nothing so terrible as what happens to people who would hurt Miki, I can assure you.”  There was a strange energy to this Shiori, a restrained hostility and yet sympathy to her.  “So tell me, are you someone who would hurt Miki?”

“Honestly, I'm much more likely to hurt Juri.”  Shiori looked away from her.  “It's funny, I yelled at her for hiding and bottling her feelings up, but that's exactly what I'm doing right now.”

“Well...”  Kozue put her hand on Shiori's shoulders.  “Why don't we go somewhere else, and let these feelings out like wild animals?”

“Wild animals?”  Shiori looked at her.  “You're strange.”  Even so, they walked away together, picked up the pieces together.