After everything had settled, Fumi and Suu helped to pull Hideki out of the muddy pit, and out the front door of the inn.  Hideki stumbled into the street, huffing, before taking a look around.  There was not a demon to be seen, and the streets had gone quiet.  More importantly, a bank of old fashioned payphones stood across the street where there had been none before, and there were precisely three phones.

Hideki turned to look at Suu, and saw the pair of white headphones, decorated with small pink and pale green flowers, and bearing a pair of angelic wings off of the back.  He smirked weakly and asked, “So you’ve got them now too?”

Suu nodded with a small smile, and said, “It seems that way.”

Fumi stood back, watching Suu and Hideki.  While the two of them talked, they were overshadowed by figures that seemed to stand in almost perfect contrast to one another; a dark shadow, only vaguely taking masculine form, unclear in its vision, standing across from a pristinely shining woman, who seemed almost too clear for this vaguely hazy world.

“You called her Shamhat?” Hideki asked, looking cautiously up at the woman, who’s eyes remained serenely closed; “How do you know that’s her name?”

“I’m not really sure,” Suu said with a sheepish smile.  She looked up at Shamhat, smiling peacefully, and said, “I just… know, somehow.”

Hideki looked up at the black shadow over himself, which vaguely tilted its head to look back down at him.  Even though the figure grew from Hideki’s own shadow, Hideki didn’t feel the same ‘calm’ that Shamhat brought to Suu.   Hideki didn’t seem to know where to look to meet its unseen ‘eyes’, or even how to approach a creature that only seemed as though it were making a cursory attempt at appearing human.

“Who are you?” Hideki asked, in a quiet whisper.

No sound carried in the air, and Hideki heard not through his earphones, but seemingly from the very base of his skull, reverberating through his head.  A sound like a hundred voices speaking in unison, replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

“Legion,” Hideki whispered, staggering a bit from the overwhelming cacophony.

Suu smiled softly and said, “Legion… I suppose that makes sense.  It’s almost like you fought with an army at your side.”

“I was fighting a losing battle,” said Hideki, “You’re the one who turned things around.”

Suu’s face reddened, and she looked away shyly, before she turned her attention to Fumi approaching them.

“I believe our exit has appeared to us,” Fumi said, motioning toward the bank of old-fashioned payphones.

The three of them approached the phones, each taking a place in front of them.  They looked at one another, before picking the receivers up from the boxes.  Before they even lifted them to their ears, they heard the phones began to ring, and their perception of the world began to blur.

The ‘falling’ feeling hit them all, before they found themselves standing on the street from the FamilyMart.  Suu was the first to look around in confusion, before she asked, “How did I get here? This isn’t where I was before…”

“This is where we called from,” Hideki said.

Fumi pulled her cellphone from her pocket, and turned it on.  Surprised, she said, “It’s only 12:01… We must’ve been in there for hours, but only a minute has passed.”

“How could only a minute pass when Suu was gone for an entire day?” Hideki asked.

“My family has to be worried sick,” Suu whimpered, as she pulled out her own cellphone.

Hideki grimaced, remembering that his cellphone was left on the floor in the attic of that monstrous family’s home.  Still, he reached into his back pocket, and his hand found something hard and rectangular.  He slowly pulled out his phone, staring at it, before smirking.

“Hey Suu-chan, instead of calling them, how about we just walk you home?” Hideki asked, “I think they’d be happy to see you.”

Hideki and Fumi walked with Suu for a few blocks, until they reached an old, somewhat run-down apartment building.  Hideki and Fumi stood back across the street, watching Suu go to the door, before knocking.  When Suu’s mother opened the door, she grabbed hold of her daughter in a desperate hug and quickly brought her inside.

Hideki walked Fumi for a few more blocks, before she assured him that she could make it the rest of the way home on her own.  After some convincing, they parted ways, and Hideki headed back to his Aunt Shion’s home.

Foregoing a morning jog for an extra hour and a half of sleep, Hideki prepared breakfast while Shion went over papers from work at the kitchen table.  The morning news was on the living room TV for background noise, but a particular story caught Hideki’s attention.

“A local high school student miraculously returned home after being missing for roughly twenty-four hours,” the reporter said, “According to neighbors, the girl was a victim of bullying for her weight.  In a statement from the student’s family, she explained that she went out for a late night jog, hoping not to be seen by classmates, and became lost in the woods on the east side of the city.  Though badly dehydrated, she was not injured and did not require hospitalization.”

“That’s good to hear,” Shion said offhandedly, as she straightened her clipped stacks of papers and slid them into a green folder.

“Yeah it is,” Hideki said with a smirk, before setting a plate of omurice in front of Shion, and then sitting down with his own, significantly larger portion; “I’m glad she’s safe.”

“Is she a classmate of yours?” Shion asked, surprised by his fond tone.

Hideki grinned at her and said, “Yeah, Suu-chan had us all worried sick.”

Later that day at school, Suu sat in her chair, fidgeting shyly as other students passed by.  People who never even said ‘hi’ to her before were telling her they were glad to see her back, and relieved she was okay.  Nara-sensei welcomed her back during the class announcements at the start of the day, but tried not to embarrass her with too much attention.

When lunchtime came around, Suu reached down next to her desk, and picked up a large cloth-wrapped package.  She glanced over to Fumi’s table, and watched her chatting with Nara-sensei, who offered her a book.  When Nara-sensei left the classroom, she left the door open, and Suu could see several familiar faces in the hall.  She looked at the girls she usually had lunch with, before turning around in her seat.  Suu smiled softly at Hideki and asked, “Um… would you and Fumi-chan have lunch with me?”

Instead of having lunch in the classroom, Hideki, Suu, and Fumi left the building to go outside and have lunch under a tree near the track field.  They sat on the grass under the shade of the tree’s gently swaying limbs, and Suu unwrapped the bento she packed.

“These look amazing,” Fumi said, eyes wide as Suu presented her with a colorful boxed lunch.   There were fresh cut veggies, sausages sliced to look like little octopuses, rolled omelet, grilled teriyaki chicken, and a formed ball of rice decorated with strips of nori to look like a panda.

“Did you make this?” Hideki asked, staring at Fumi’s lunch before he was handed his own.  Though the ingredients were much the same, his bento was packed with even more food, including two formed piles of rice.   Furthermore, the rice in Hideki’s bento was dyed pink, and decorated with cut pieces of ham to resemble the faces of two little piggies.  Hideki sputtered a laugh as he looked at the two little pig faces, and said, “It’s almost too cute to eat, but at this point, I’m not exactly in love with pigs.”

Suu giggled softly and said, “I know what you mean.   I hope that you enjoy them… I really like to cook and make bento, so… I want to share them with friends that I know will actually appreciate them.”

Hideki was surprised by her statement, but faintly smiled. He bowed his head, and said a word of thanks for the meal; “Itadakimasu!”

The three of them began to eat their lunches.  Suu’s face reddened with every compliment, and it was nearly glowing as she watched the way Hideki voraciously consumed every bite, not letting a single pink grain of rice escape him.   After they were roughly half way through their bento, however, Suu glanced at the book that Fumi had gotten from Nara-sensei, and asked, “What’s that about?”

Fumi looked at the book, while chewing and swallowing a bite, before she set the bento down and picked up the book instead.  She looked at Hideki and Suu and asked, “Have you heard of a man named Carl Gustav Jung?”

“No,” Suu said, with a mild look of concern, as though worried she should’ve.

“He was a Swiss psychologist and psychoanalyst,” Fumi said, as she opened up the book, “He did a lot of research and proposed theories about the importance of dreams, and the structure of the human psyche.  There was something that pig-woman said that stuck in my mind, the way she compared herself to Onishi-kun… no… The way she claimed that she was Onishi-kun.”

“Well we know that wasn’t true,” said Hideki.

“I’m not so sure about that,” said Fumi, “Please, hear me out.”

Hideki’s eyes narrowed at Fumi, while Suu looked down at the ground quietly.

Fumi flipped through the pages, before her finger fell on a particular line, that she began to recite aloud, “‘The Shadow’ is formed when, over the course of one's life, certain personality traits elicit negative feedback or even punishment from others.  This negative feedback creates anxiety, and the Ego pushes these traits into the unconscious in order to regain balance.  In the unconscious, they form a shadow.”

“Shadow?” Hideki asked, raising an eyebrow.

Fumi lowered the book and nodded, saying, “I believe that ‘sow’, was in fact a shadow of Onishi-kun.  It was an overwhelming desperation to be needed, something she could never show on the surface because it would push others away.   It was all of the things that Onishi-kun perceived about herself and hated… That’s why she resembled a pig.”

Suu fidgeted, poking at her food but not picking up another bite.

“Hey!” Hideki said, leaning toward Suu, “Don’t act like that.   You’re not ‘fat’, you’re a marshmallow girl.”

Suu looked up at him, surprised; “Eeh?   What’s a… marshmallow girl?”

“Marshmallow girls are extra soft and warm and feminine,” Hideki said, taking on an authoritative tone, “They’re not ‘slobs’, they’re just curvy and they really enjoy good food.  There was even a pop idol group that formed a few years ago called ‘Chubbiness’. and all of the singers were marshmallow girls!”

Suu’s face turned deep red, and she poked at her food a little more, before taking another bite of her own rolled omelet.

Fumi watched their exchange, faintly smirking.   She sat the book aside, and picked up her bento, but before she resumed eating, she paused and said, “Don’t think of your shadow as a source of shame.  Everyone has one, just like the shadows we cast on the ground in the real world.  The more we hide it away, the darker and heavier the shadow becomes.  No human being is ever as good a person as they think they are... But you’ve done something most people never manage.  You’ve confronted your shadow, you understand what it is, and now, you have the ability to address it and overcome those flaws.  I think you’ve done something you should be proud of, Onishi-kun.”

When Fumi looked up from her food, she realized Suu and Hideki were staring at her.

“What?” Fumi asked, quietly.

“Don’t you think it’s time you quit using our surnames?” Hideki asked with a grin.

“Just call me Suu-chan!” Suu said with a bright smile, “I’d really like that.”

“Yeah, and quit calling me Sorato already,” said Hideki, “We’ve been through enough together that we should be on a first-name basis by now, Fumi-chan.”

Fumi huffed faintly, her own cheeks flushing a bit as he addressed her by her given name, something she was wildly unaccustomed to.  She nodded a bit, and resumed eating her lunch, rather than having to respond directly.

After lunch was over, Suu packed the bento boxes back up.  Hers and Hideki’s were empty, but Fumi was forced to leave a little of her food, lest she have to return to class whilst uncomfortably stuffed. With only a few minutes left before they’d need to return, Suu said quietly, “Um…”

“Mn?” Hideki grunted, glancing at Suu.

Suu looked up at them, and asked, “Have you noticed anything… strange, on your cellphones?”

“On my phone?” Fumi asked, “No, not at all.”

Hideki, however, was quiet.  He knew exactly what Suu meant.  He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cellphone, turning it on and holding it out on the palm of his hand.  Suu looked at his phone, and then presented hers the same way.  Both phones displayed the typical modern ‘Call’ buttons, but beside them, were the same rotary dial symbols.

“What app is that?” Fumi asked.

“I don’t know,” said Suu.

“This appeared on my phone after the first time I contacted the operators,” said Hideki, “I tried dialing their number this morning, just to see what happened, but they never picked up.  I don’t know if they only offer their services when I’m in an emergency, or what, but there seems to be a lot to learn about how this works and I’m less than enthused to start exploring it.”

“Well, we can figure it out together,” Suu said with a soft smile.

Fumi smirked at them and nodded, dusting off the back of her skirt and saying, “I don’t envy either of you.”

Suu and Hideki both stood, and once more, Suu muttered, “Umm…”

“You don’t have to keep doing that,” said Fumi, “Every time you say ‘umm’, it’s like you’re asking for permission to speak.  You’re among friends now, so just say it.”

Suu blushed at Fumi’s words, but smiled brightly, and asked, “Can we… Take a selfie together?”

On the walk back to class, Hideki had many thoughts playing on his mind.  He had no idea where Shamhat or Legion came from, or who the operators were or what involvement they had in all of this.  He was also reminded again, as he passed by Classroom 1-A, that he had seen Mitsuyama Eri alive before the police found her.  For all of his questions, and all of his uncertainty, he still felt a sense of calm.  His phone dinged with a notification, and Hideki paused in the hallway outside of 1-B.  When he opened his phone, he saw that Suu had texted him a copy of her picture.   Hideki grinned, and tapped on his options, to set it as his lock screen.   For a moment, he just stood in the hall, looking at the image of Suu, Fumi, and himself standing under the tree.  For at least that moment, all three of them were smiling, and happy.

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." ~ Carl Gustav Jung