Inukashi walked in the familiar path to Memorial Park, along with Renka, Lili, Shionn, Getsuyaku Jr. and Karan. The park was one of the main attractions in the city around the time of the Phoenix Festival. The weather was always wonderful at that time of the year, and if that wasn’t enough of a reason to go on a calming walk just before the great Festival started, the park was decorated especially for the event.

Memorial Park was dedicated to the memory of those who died in the last Holy Day, the one where the Correctional Facility fell, and was appropriately located in the very same location where it once stood. The Phoenix Festival, a tradition that replaced the Holy Day in the past four years, was a symbol for the rebirth of No. 6, but also for the many people who died when the old city fell. That made the event the greatest celebration in the whole world, attracting people from every city with proper transportation to No. 6, as well as a chance to pay respects to loved ones who were killed by No. 6’s evil doings.

For the occasion, every tree in Memorial Park was decorated differently. The trees were considerably small, since they were planted only four years ago—each tree in the memory of one special person. Memorial Park was designed to give every mourning family its own private space; it had huge lawns and the trees were located far away from each other, so even in the most crowded time of the year, Inukashi, Karan, Renka, and the children weren’t even close to the other people who came to mourn.

Inukashi left the others not too far from Getsuyaku’s tree to prepare their picnic, and went to visit it by himself. Inukashi always visited him first, for reasons he didn’t quite understand. After all, Lili and Renka were closer to Getsuyaku than Inukashi, and so was Karan. But still, it was just how their little tradition went, so Inukashi never doubted it. He sat down before the tree and said nothing for a while, just listening to Shionn and Getsuyaku Jr. playing together and Lili yelling at them to be careful.

“Hey there,” he said eventually, “how’s it going?”

Inukashi waited for a second, as if Getsuyaku was really answering him and his voice was just inaudible. “We’ve been doing great,” Inukashi told him, “Lili started going to Lost Town Middle School. She was really excited about it, although there isn’t much difference between her old school and this one. She’s a good girl, as always. Helping Karan and Renka around the bakery, and sometimes comin’ over to the hotel to help me out, too. She still babysits Shionn and Getsuyaku Jr., but now I also ask Nezumi and Shion to babysit sometimes.

“Oh, yeah,” Inukashi suddenly remembered, “I haven’t told you that bastard is back, have I? Well, he’s back, and looking better than ever. Not that that’s a good thing, but it improved Shion’s mood, so I guess it’s fine to have him around again. And the kids love him. I don’t know why, though, because in the first few weeks every time one of them talked to him he looked like they were plotting to kill him or somethin’. It was kinda funny, actually.

“Shionn’s a good kid, too. Always helping his mummy,” Inukashi bragged, “he started helping me washing ‘em dogs now. He loves ‘em a lot, and the dog love him back. They know he’s a good kid, I’m sure. Getsuyaku Jr., too. Fine son you’ve got there. Always worried about others. Very observant. Jus’ few days ago, one of my older dogs died. Your son and Shionn happened to be with Karan and Renka at the bakery that day, and when I came to pick Shionn up, Gets Jr. said, “Is something wrong, Uncle Inu?” Jus’ like that. Haven’t even said anything.

Inukashi stood up and reached for his pocket before continuing, “I brought you some pictures to look at. Thought you’d like that.”

He held one of the pictures in front of the tree, as if showing it to it. “This is Lili on her first day in middle school. You see how excited she looks? She kept jumping around saying “Mrs. Karan! Mrs. Karan! Mom! Mom! Uncle Inu!” It was really cute. Never seen her that excited before.”

Inukashi put the picture of Lili in the end of the stack and show the next one. “This is Shionn’s birthday. It was only a week or so after Nezumi came back, so everyone was really happy. Especially Shion. You see him here, holding Shionn? That’s one of the first times I’ve seen him genuinely happy after Nezumi left. Nezumi’s not in this picture. I think he still felt like he didn’t deserve to be a part of our family at this point. He’s over it now. I bet Shion punched it into his brain that he has a home now.

“This picture is from a week ago. Karan decided to teach Nezumi, Shionn and Gets Jr. how to bake.” In the picture, Karan, Nezumi, Shionn and Getsuyaku Jr., all stood in a row holding trays with pastries. Karan was clean, and her tray contained delicious looking muffins, while Shionn and Getsuyaku Jr. both had their faces covered with chocolate and trays with a little less delicious looking muffins. Nezumi stood beside Karan, his entire body white with flour, and his muffin looking completely inedible.

“That didn’t go very well,” Inukashi admitted. Just as he was about to show Getsuyaku’s tree the next picture, Shionn ran to him yelling, “Mama! Mama!” and hugged him from behind.

“What are you doing, mama? Miss Karan and Miss Renka say the food is ready,” he said happily.

“Just saying hello to Getsuyaku, that’s all,” Inukashi explained.

“Getsuyaku?” Shionn asked. “But Gets is way over there,” he pointed at Getsuyaku Jr., who was running around Lili as she made the last preparations for the picnic.

“Well, Getsuyaku is actually Gets’ father, you see?” he tried to explain.

“Gets’ daddy is a tree?” Shionn asked.