By the time the too-long meeting finally comes to a close, it 's already well past midnight. The nighttime air is cold upon Shiki 's face, and it helps her to become a little more alert, even though part of her feels just about ready to fall asleep standing on her feet like this.

Shiki takes a single step forward, and pauses.

'Something wrong? ' Satoru-niichan looks back over his shoulder towards her.

' ' Not really. ' It 's not something

wrong,

just ' it 's been a really, really long day. Shiki wants to collapse onto her futon and worry about all the problems she 'll have to deal with tomorrow, but '

But it occurs to her that she doesn 't want to return to Kiyohira-sensei 's home, not when Kiyohira-sensei isn 't even there anymore.