It was strange how normalcy stubbornly and unrelentingly continued, even while Yuno felt as though her life was crumbling around her. The world hadn't ended, despite her despair. The sun still came up. She still got dressed in the morning, ate her breakfast, and then made the walk to school. While she walked, she made sure to stick by the other students - who knew if there were other diary owners out there watching her now? She hated feeling so paranoid, like prey on the watch for a predator, but there was nothing she could do about that. Her diary would be totally useless if another diary owner decided to attack her, so she had to be extra vigiliant to make up for it and hope that they wouldn't attack her in plain view. Luckily, the walk to school passed uneventfully, and normalcy continued.

Yuno sat at her desk and watched the door for Amano. She kept checking her diary to make sure nothing awful had happened to him. The entries were showing that all was well and he was on his way, but she felt the tight coils of worry building up in her chest until he physically entered the classroom. Once he was in her line of vision she calmed down, but a pang of sadness replaced the worry she had been feeling moments before. She tried to focus on her schoolwork, but she couldn't help but stare at him instead. How much longer would they have peaceful days like this, just sitting in class - just normal students? For all she knew the next day, one or both of them could be dead.

'No, that's wrong. He won't die. I won't let it happen...'

After their classes ended, Yuno hurried to get outside so that she could catch up with Amano. She had wanted to walk home together with him - it was better to stick together. There was safety in numbers, after all. But he had packed up so fast and walked out, before she had even had the chance to push through the crowd of students congregating in the doorway. She ran down the hall and out the front door to catch up to him. He was already walking out the school gates. It was easy to tell that he was nervous, he kept constantly glancing around him.

"Amano-kun!" She called out to him, "Please, wait up!"

When he looked over his shoulder to see who was calling to him, he practically jumped. His pace picked up, walking more rapidly down the sidewalk. In fact, it was closer to sprinting than walking.. Was...he trying to get away from her?

"...He's scared of me." The awful realization dawned on her, "I guess it makes sense. I'm another diary owner, after all..."

It occurred to her that maybe she she should be a little more uneasy about him too. Was walking home with him really such a good idea? She hadn't even thought about that last night, when she had been so distraught over the thought of hurting him - it never occured to her that he might attack her instead. He was also a diary owner. While Yuno had promised herself that she wouldn't hurt him, he had made no such promise. If Amano wanted to kill her, it would be completely within he rules of the game. He would have the upper hand too, because she wouldn't fight back against him.

'No! No...it's not right to think like this.' Yuno shook her head, as if to clear out the nagging doubts that were invading her mind. It was miserable feeling this way - distrusting the one person who had reached out to her and made her feel like a human being again. Amano wouldn't hurt her, she had to believe that. He was too kind, she couldn't imagine him hurting anyone. Besides, the one person her diary actually was useful against was Amano. If she was wrong, and he turned on her...at least she would have a ten minute warning to escape.

"Wait! Amano-kun, please. I just want to talk to you!" Yuno bolted after him and when she caught up, grabbed onto his hand. He violently wrenched it out of her grasp and backed away.

"Stop! Leave me alone! I didn't even want to be in this game!" Amano shouted, panic clear in his voice. It was clear he was about to take off running.

"I'm not going to hurt you, so can you just relax?" She tried to reassure him. "Please, don't run away. If you're that worried about my intentions, you can take out your diary. That way you'll see if I try something, right? But I won't. I really just wanted to talk to you."

"How do I know that you don't want me to take out my diary so that you can destroy it and kill me?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously, "You were at the meeting. You heard what Deus said, and you saw yourself what happened when a diary was destroyed." It was a good point, even though that wasn't her plan at all...

"I have an idea..." Yuno fished in her pocket and pulled out her own diary, somewhat reluctantly. The more rational side of her begged her to stop, but she slowly held the phone out to him. "Here. This is basically my life, right? You can hold onto it while we walk. That way you know I won't try and kill you, and if I do, you can break it first." So much for having her warning. This was probably the stupidest idea she had ever had, but she had to believe that he wouldn't hurt her. She loved him, right? How could she claim to love him if she thought he would murder her the first chance that he got? Still, she hoped he would accept before her nerves got the better of her and she shoved the phone back into her pocket. She was getting more and more flustered by the second.

Amano looked extraordinarily uncomfortable and stared at the phone. He seemed more reluctant to take it from her than she had been to offer it, if that were possible. "...Are you really sure you want to give that to me? How do you know I won't break it just to take you out of the competition?"

"I don't know that." Yuno shrugged, managing to smile anyway, "But I trust you. You saved me on the roof the other day, right? How could I not trust you after we went through that together?"

Amano shook his head. "That was before we knew about the game, though... Things are different now. You shouldn't be so irresponsible with your life!"

"Please take it," Yuno persisted and pressed the phone into his hand, "I don't want you to be scared of me. I'm on your side. Just hold onto it while we walk, all right?"

Amano looked like he was debating between handing it back to her and keeping it. Eventually, he came to his decision - he gave a defeated sigh and slipped the phone into his pocket. Panic immediately flowed through her. She was about to ask why he had done that, but her alarm must have been visible, because he hurriedly explained, "For safe keeping. I don't want to be responsible for killing you if I accidentally drop it and break it or something..."

"Oh."

Yuno gave a surprised giggle. Out of all the things he could have been thinking about at that moment (like for instance, weighing the pros and cons of taking her out while he had the chance, or stealing her diary and blackmailing her) he was worried about accidentally dropping her phone? It was unexpected, but it was just like him to be concerned over something like that. "Well, I guess my life is in good hands then!"

Even Amano couldn't help himself - his face cracked into a sheepish smile. Yuno felt like the ice between them had been broken. Thank goodness. Offering her phone had been a good move.

"Look, I was thinking that we should work together. We already know each other and we made a great team on the roof the other day," Yuno explained. "Our diaries seem to complement each other too. Yours tells you what's going on in general, but from what I saw of it when we last met, it doesn't have any entries about you, right? Well, mine tells me what happens to you every ten minutes in the future, so if someone attacks you, I can give you a warning and you can get away, or we can fight them off together."

"Actually about that, I want to ask you something..." Amano cut in, "Why exactly does your diary give you entries about me? And...every ten minutes? I thought it was strange when you mentioned that your diary told you the future about me back when the serial killer was chasing us, but I didn't have time to ask you then. " He paused, "Didn't Deus say that our diaries were just modified diaries we were using before?"

Yuno could feel her face going bright red. She thought about lying and saying that the diary wasn't just about him, but then she realized he could just pull out her phone and see for himself if he wanted to, "W-well... um..." What could she possibly say to get out of this situation? "I...I was writing about school and my c-classmates, and uh.. I w-wrote about you a few times, and when my diary became a diary that could tell the future, the latest two entries were about you, and they were ten minutes apart, so... I guess it just so happened that the diary became completely about you." The answer came out in a rush of air. That had been some quick thinking on her part.

"Hm, really? I can't imagine what you wrote about me." Ah, he seemed to believe it! Yuno let out a relieved puff of air, "Still, it's weird that it doesn't give you updates about anyone else. I guess Deus did it on purpose since he knew we'd both be in the game. He probably thought it would be more interesting."

"Y-yeah, it is weird. It would have been more useful to me if it had mentioned other people, since I can't see who's coming after me with the way it is now..." Yuno wouldn't have changed her diary for the world, but Amano didn't need to know that.

"Oh... that's true. I guess you're at a pretty big disadvantage." He sounded genuinely sympathetic. "...Honestly, I don't know what I should do. Your diary does cover my weaknesses pretty well, but... I don't know. It doesn't seem like a good idea to team up in a game where only one of us can live. " Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his own phone and looked at it contemplatively while they walked. Or maybe he was just checking his entries? Yuno wasn't sure. They were getting close to his house though, and once they reached his driveway they stopped.

"I just don't know." Amano put a hand to his head, his tone conflicted. "...Since your diary gives you entries about me, it's probably the right move for us to work together. At least for a while. I can help you out too, since I can see entries about you on my diary. That way you wouldn't be such an easy target either."

"Really?" Yuno's eyes lit up.

"Yeah. You're right. If we stick together I think we could last longer than if we were just on our own. Here..." He handed her phone back to her.

"Thank you for taking such good care of me~" She accepted it back with a smile and a mental sigh of relief. "You won't regret your decision either. I promise I'll keep you safe no matter what." Feeling a little daring all of a sudden, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. It was his turn to go bright red.

"W-what was that for?"

She laughed without answering, then started running on ahead in the direction of her house. She turned back and waved at him.

"See you at school tomorrow, Amano-kun!" She called. He waved back shyly and hurried to get inside his house.

She was feeling better about the game already.

A/N: Yuno sure has a long way to go, huh? At this point in time, kissing Yuki on the cheek is a bold move for her! If only she could see the kiss she'll give him in the future, when she reintroduces herself to him in the second timeline.