Chapter Text
38th Chapter
(following anime episodes from 123 to 129)
Knowing You
There is always a way for everyone. Life is not a one-way street. Full of paths to follow and doors to open, its construction is built from various roads. Some have two ways, some only one, others have a dead-end, but regardless of their structure or their purpose, all of them have one thing in common – all of them lead to something. Simple or complicated, easy or hard, there is always a way to follow; way full of anticipation and surprises.
However, not every path is enjoyable to walk through, especially when surrounded by the same environment and knowing the outcome of the journey. Even though it wasn’t always like that for Hanako, her nights became identical with a dose of monotony and sprinkle of stagnancy, as she was resting her body by sitting on one of the tombstones from her nightmare.
“I couldn’t remember a single thing again”, her frowned face sighed, while resting between her palms. The restless mind of a mechanic girl started rewinding the scene from the garage, going over her conversation with Yusei again and again. “I don’t get it! Every time I’m here, I know everything, but the moment I wake up, my memory just goes POOF!”
She imitated disappearance with her hands like a magician, talking to herself, before her eyes landed on the mirror in front of her, but she decided to pay no attention to what was happening around her, until her eyes noticed something worth her effort.
“Crow?” Hanako muttered, seeing her friend in the mirror walking around the garage, so she jumped on her feet and ran towards the glass, hitting her arms against it with the attention of being heard. She knew Crow won’t be able to see her, but pushing her voice to the very edge of her loudest decibel was the only way she found has a possibility to be effective. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing seemed to be working. Crow couldn’t hear her at all!
“He won’t help you, Baby”, the voice she found so similar, yet rigid pierced her heart like a poisonous arrow, as her entire body started shivering, “With whatever you’re trying to do with these ridiculously desperate moves!”
“Trying to understand the things you put me through!” She rolled her eyes through the answer to his assumptions, whilst sighing before turning towards him to scan his presence with her eyes, “What do you want again?”
“When are you going to stop asking me the same question every night?”
“When you stop eating my nerves”, Hanako replied curtly, barely showing any signs of empathy around this version of Yusei, “I already agreed to go to the Future with you after the W.R.G.P. is over, so why keeping me here?”
“How can I be sure you won’t betray me?” He kept his posture, seeming untouched by her behaviour, but there was still something inside of him that was yet unspoken and not shown, something wicked in the way he raised his eyebrow.
“I gave you a promise, haven’t I?” Hanako whispered, keeping their eye contact still and formal, professional to the point even she herself started believing her poker face was a result of highly educated player, “And I never break my promises... Besides, I did it to save Yusei, so you should have it as a guarantee!”
“I still don’t understand what you see in him after everything he has done!”
“He has done nothing wrong!” Hanako raised the tone of her voice, now keeping real Yusei’s side, knowing what was going on, “It was just the story you made up to manipulate my mind!”
“What I told you was true...”
“Liar!”
“I’m not lying... I already told you”, his body formed a shrug and it was hard to tell whether he had nothing else to say or there was really not much more to reveal, “I am Yusei, the real Yusei who came from the Future to warn you!”
“Okay then, if you are the same person, why should I trust you?” She abruptly opened her arms just to fold them into a cross soon after, angrily tapping the ground with her foot, waiting for some reasoning coming her way, but all she received was another wave of excuses.
“Hanako, I’ve changed!” Yusei tried to convince her, as even his face altered; his body obeying his words, manipulated by his feelings, “I became a better person and I learned from my mistakes!”
“Okay... But why me?” The girl was persistent in her idea of making Yusei speak; hoping he will eventually tell her what she wants to hear, “Who am I to you?”
“I care for you more than you think”, he finally spoke his heart, but the only time he did it, Hanako ignored his words.
“He will save me!” Her voice was firm and cold, fully determined in its idea of fighting against the plan Yusei had in his mind. Somehow, Hanako knew that the real Yusei was different and that he will somehow find a way to find her and wake her up from this nightmare.
“You are unbelievably persistent”, Yusei smirked, shaking his head in disbelief, “Sometimes I wonder why you’re never like this with me...”
“Because Yusei helped me thousands of times and even saved me from... drowning”, she stumbled, remembering that night again, before shaking her head, seeing the way this fake Yusei was looking at her, “While all you do is lie and pressure me to do things against my own will!”
“I am giving you a better Future, Hanako!” Yusei raised the tone of his voice, feeling anger burning in his veins, disappointed by her decision, “No one knows what is the best for you better than I do... Because I saw your Future!”
“My Future is not written yet, because I am going to write it myself!” She shouted back at him, turning her back and leaving him alone with his thoughts; those painful needles of realisation that started hurting him more as he kept thinking about it. He was able to hold her hostage in here, but now even he himself became aware that his plan won’t work for much longer.
“Is it possible that she actually...?” His voice lolled over his lips, firm tone slowly becoming a whisper, as he was staring at the distance that swallowed Hanako as if she was never here. Mind lost in his thoughts, Z-one started fearing his plan is going to fall apart, because of him, “Damn you, Yusei!”
* * *
The duel between Team Taiyou and Team 5D’s was everything, but ordinary. Even though Team Taiyou possessed only normal monsters, with a strong belief, they were able to summon the mighty Zushin; sleeping giant that no one was ever able to use in battle before. However, Yusei’s sharp mind, with the help of his friends, was able to conquer this challenge and win the duel, getting one step closer to Yliaster. The final and the only Team left standing in their way now was Team Ragnarok, so the guys started working hard on their preparations.
“So... I am all set?” Crow’s wide smile shone through the garage, while looking at Yusei checking his Blackbird.
“Yes”, he nodded, “You are ready to face Team Ragnarok!”
“I don’t know, Yusei”, his friend was able to shrug, “After what they told us”, he started, but wasn’t able to continue for some reason, so Yusei tried to change that.
“Don’t worry! We are a team and we will win this together! In order to defeat Team New World, we have to leave every other team behind!”
“You’re right”, Crow agreed without resistance, but got deeply trapped in his thoughts, “You think... they are really responsible for what is happening to Hanako?”
“I don’t know”, Yusei brushed off, as his entire body froze, stopping every move he was making until now, “There is no other explanation!” He gave powerlessly, “Although something doesn’t fit...”
“What do you mean?”
“Last night”, Yusei replied, moving his eyes to catch Crow’s just to see one of his eyebrows were raised, waiting for an explanation, “I couldn’t sleep and she approached me, asking me if I was hungry...”
“So...?”
“She didn’t hold that attitude against me”, his voice was soft and calm, even though there was fire of hope burning inside of his heart, “It felt like... something inside of her started changing how she feels about all of this!”
“About all of this or only about you?” Crow wasn’t able to stop the smirk from emerging the surface of his face, but despite giving such an obvious reaction, Yusei let the silence take over; but his friend didn’t share the same idea of outcome, “Yusei, you know”, he took a cloth, giving it to Yusei for him to clean his hands, “If you told Hanako about your feelings when you got the chance, I doubt she would have been like this...”
“You mean... before the incident?”
Crow nodded, “Yeah! I mean... If someone enchanted her, it means her mind is under their control, but not her heart... If she knew about your feelings, I doubt her heart would let this happen between the two of you!”
“It’s too late for that, Crow”, Yusei’s face fell, as he started feeling the guilt rising inside of his soul, “Besides, we don’t know what would have happened if things were different between us! We should focus on finding a solution for the current situation rather than grieve upon things we wish we did differently!”
“True, but I still think you should have told her the truth, when you had the chance!”
“Even so”, Yusei bowed his head, looking at Blackbird, searching for any spot to focus on just to brush off that guilt he was feeling, “Hanako would never-“
“Me?” Hanako’s voice came out of the blue, “Is there something I did wrong?”
“No, no, no!” Crow tried to save the situation, “We were just saying how... much better you feel now compared to how you were when you woke up from coma!”
“Is that so?” She raised her eyebrow, crossed her arms and looked at Crow, then moved her eyes to Yusei, waiting to see what he will say or do, but he just excused himself the moment their eyes met and left without a trace, followed by the eyes of both her and their foster brother, “What’s his problem?”
“You!” Crow shoot immediately like it was the most obvious answer in the world.
“What do you mean me?” Hanako narrowed her eyes, approaching her friend, but then the door to the garage opened and Aki rushed in.
“Yusei!”
“Error 404, not found!” Hanako’s voice shouted right back at her, while rolling her eyes, not because it was Aki she didn’t want to see, but because of Yusei’s inexplicable excuse.
“Ahmmm...” The former Black Rose Witch was left powerless before Hanako’s words, not understanding her attitude and even less not knowing what to say or how to react to what she was faced with.
“How about you tell us what you need, Aki?” Crow smiled through a sweat-drop, trying to hide the awkwardness that arose between the girls “Maybe we can help you”.
“I just wanted to go for a ride and practice a little”, she explained in a low tone, now losing that excitement after finding out Yusei wasn’t here.
Her words awakened the sleeping giant of the ideas inside of both Hanako and Crow’s mind, so they looked at each other, searching for a confirmation that the other one had the same thing in mind, but soon Hanako’s quick-wittedness proved her friend wrong, “You know what, Aki?”
“Huh?” The Witch blinked her eyes at the girl, who now had her full attention.
“Crow can help!” Hanako chuckled, approaching Aki and gently placing hands around her shoulders, connecting her presence with Crow’s, “He’s not Yusei, but he is a better teacher than him!”
“Really?”
“Mhm!” Another sweet murmur came from Hanako, as she kept showering Aki with her smile, doing her job as she planned, “All of the kids say that! Plus, he always teaches them the fastest and the best! Better than anyone I know... even me!”
As Hanako kept blabbering praises about Crow’s skills, his cheeks couldn’t fight the embarrassment, now obviously showing it to everyone around, making it clear for Aki to see his face turning red like an apple, “Well... I’m not that good”.
“Oh, come on, Crow!” Hanako sighed, rolling her eyes, before moving towards him, tapping his back in a friendly manner, “Just like our kids, Aki is family too and as a family, we help each other!”
“I know, but”, he tried to protest, doing his best to keep his cool, but once Hanako sent him a secret wink, he lost the focus and the blush on his cheeks went out of control, “But I don’t want to leave you alone with-“
“I’m a big girl, Crow!” Hanako fought back, knowing Yusei is still somewhere in the house, but somehow the wish for Crow and Aki to have some alone time together was stronger than her fear of Yusei. After all, she knew how much he liked the girl and she wanted to help her foster brother. “Besides, this is a great opportunity for you to test Blackbird after Yusei improved its constructions”.
“Baby, that’s a great idea, but I really don’t want to bother Crow with my amateur skills”, Aki soon interrupted, awkwardly smiling at the two and trying to back away, so Hanako lost her hope, thinking Aki will just leave the garage, but to her surprise, Crow interrupted that intent.
“No, wait!” He froze in place, realising he jumped in front before thinking about it or even preparing the reasons why or giving any explanations, now caught unprepared by his own actions, “I’ll... help you...”
“Have fun!” Hanako chuckled in the intent to speed up the process of joining them together, as she was slowly guiding their bodies towards the exit. Once there, she just waved her hands, while Crow grabbed his runner and accompanied Aki outside, where she had parked her own D-Wheel, as they were discussing their route and creating a practice plan together.
With them leaving the garage, Hanako was left alone yet again, what reminded her that she should start doing something useful in order to be and feel productive, because it was making her feel good about spending her days in the garage, especially now when she wasn’t participating in the W.R.G.P. and she wanted to fill in that hole in her soul by doing something she is passionate about.
“Huh?” Her eyes blinked few times, when her runner started communicating with her through short beeps, showing an error on the screen, “What happened, Sweetie?” Her face frowned, while she was trying to figure out what her D-Wheel was trying to tell her through the signals and signs, recalling the last time she used her runner or did any changes to it, “It must be the chip Bruno gave me!”
Shrug was the only thing her body could think of expressing, while feeling powerless and cornered by her own uneducated mind, wishing she could be more like Yusei. His name came to her so naturally, she didn’t even realise at first that her heart spoke instead, trying to let her see the truth or at least foresee the blindness of her own brainwashed mind, but as soon as the information her heart sent reached her thoughts, she shook her head, denying her own hunches. The toolbox she was sitting on only made her feel worse, because evening her status with the ground just left the feeling of complete bottom, even her cheeks chose to be placed between her palms to hide away from shame.
“Baby?”
“Yusei?” She turned immediately, chasing the sound of his voice, while sitting on the toolbox.
“Is something wrong?”
“No!”
“I know you too well to be lied to”, his reply was unobstructed, keeping the tone calm, but still able to show apparent smile.
“It’s nothing”, she gave sharply, showing disinterest in his proffer of aid, “I’m just waiting for Bruno”. Giving an explanation, but avoiding to tell the whole truth, Hanako still felt like she didn’t lie, even thought to Yusei it seemed that way and he was willing to let it slide, but then the error on her runner started seeking attention again, forcing Yusei’s senses to change his focus’ target.
“Is there something wrong with your D-Wheel?” With his eyebrows narrowed and with the intent to check what was happening, he approached her runner, but then Hanako jumped in front of him and spread her arms, trying to cover the truth she avoided to share with Yusei.
“No, no, no!” Her head started moving left to right, emphasising her words, as she bit her lip, feeling guilt for fleeing, “Bruno gave me a new acceleration chip and I changed it, so it’s nothing!”
“It says error, Baby”, he chuckled, seeing the runner screen over her left shoulder, while keeping his hands hidden in the pockets.
“It doesn’t!”
“Can I check it?”
Hanako hesitated for a moment, biting her lip and looking away, knowing she needs help, but accepting it and openly talking about it was too embarrassing for her, “I think... it's configuration, but... I am not sure...”
“Do you mind?” Softening his voice, Yusei smiled, while slowly approaching her runner, whilst checking her every move, every reaction she was giving in return, wanting to avoid any unnecessary arguments between them. But all she gave him was just a short nod with the shy look under the eyebrows, while her body opened the path towards her runner. She said nothing nor gave him any unwanted, uncomfortable reactions; rather just kept standing there close to her runner, whilst studying his moves, keeping her hands hidden behind her back and swinging softly left to right and back.
“Do you think it’s something serious?” Hanako finally spoke, biting her lips, while trying to decide within herself how she was truly feeling about this situation.
“As you said, it’s only configuration problem”, his voice seemed distant and indifferent, while his eyes kept the focus on the runner screen, without looking at her, “But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed, I’ll just adjust your D-Wheel’s programme, so that it can communicate with the chip Bruno gave you”.
“You can do that?” Her voice felt amazed and illuminated by the pleasant surprised she heard, while her lips were left parted, staring at his face in order to catch his reaction, desperately wishing for those words to be true and confirmed one more time by him.
“Yes”, Yusei chuckled, as he turned to her, because his heart wished to see this innocent side of her; the one he used to have for himself a while ago, before she lost her memory.
“Is it going to take long?”
“No”, he gave her hope, as his body moved to the laptop, connecting it with her runner with the help of a few wires, as he finally sat down, opening his programme, “I just have to change the code in your programme a little and we’re done!”
“Does it hurt?”
“Huh?” His eyes were shocked by that melody of her question, blinking in confusion at her concerned face, while trying to realise the meaning behind it and as they did, laughter took over the garage, “No, it’s like a tap on the back”. Even though her question sounded silly, he still wanted to assure her that her runner is going to be alright and nothing will happen to it. However, stopping their conversation at this point somehow seemed too sudden and incomplete, so Yusei decided to speak again. “You hating me hurts a lot more than this...”
“I’m sorry”.
“You don’t have to be”, he said, while trying to remain calm, despite the wild storm of emotions demolishing him on the inside, “It’s not your fault”.
“No, it’s just...” She stopped for a while, being lost in her thoughts and feelings, trying to understand her own confusion, “How come I can remember everything and everyone except you? I know where I grew up... I know everyone and everything... I know how to fix a runner... I have my deck and my runner”, she tried to string all those facts together, before she looked at him again, “It’s like you are completely erased from my life... Don’t you find it strange?”
“Crow and I were talking about it already and we don’t know what exactly happened but it all started when we came back from that other dimension”.
“You mean when Sherry died?”
“Yeah”, he cooperated now, taking this one time opportunity to finally talk to her like they used to, “You went to save her and disappeared together with her be then we found you unconscious when we got back”.
“I remember what happened”, nodding her head, she moved her focus onto her runner, diving into the memories again, “And then, I was trapped in some nightmares by that guy that looked like you and...”
“Did he ever tell you his name?”
“No”, sense of guilty lightly shivered her body, “Maybe he did but I don’t remember. It all looks just like a dream, so it’s pretty blurry”.
“I see...”
“It just makes me sad, you know”, her eyes met his in the end, giving him this piece of information; at least he deserved some kind of an explanation.
“Why?”
“You really look like a kind person, Yusei and I find you very noble”, at least she tried to explain how she was feeling, but all of those words she kept saying were coming from somewhere else other than her brain; it was like her heart spoke for her now, “And that’s why, not being able to remember the moments I spent with you, makes me so...”
Silence took over and she wasn’t able to continue. The quiet moment between them started taking over Yusei’s thoughts that slowly began to analyse her words, rewinding them over and over again. Even though his heart wanted to know the rest of her words just to keep that hope flickering inside of his heart, he decided not to push her any farther than this, “It doesn’t matter!” Although hurting himself with that decision, he smiled at her, “Let’s finish with your runner first then we can talk about anything you want...”
“Sure!”
“This may take a few hours, but it’s doable”, Yusei tried to keep the conversation going, now avoiding the silence between them only because he didn’t want to lead his mind into over-thinking, “But we have to check the status of your D-Wheel”.
“I know!” Hanako smiled, thrilled at the brilliant idea that popped up, as she ran to her runner, jumping onto it and preparing the pedal for some action, “Keep your eyes on the computer, while I test the engine!”
“Great!” He replied, giving back a smile, but she was already too consumed by the joy of feeling her runner below her nothing else was capturing her attention.
Yusei decided to leave her that way, letting her test the speed and engine, while he was checking the progress on the laptop screen, guiding her in the process, not even paying attention to the time that passed by so quickly.
“Your D-Wheel is in a perfect state”, he said lastly, moving away from the laptop in order to approach her, “Only configuration has to be done now!”
“Does that mean I can keep Bruno’s acceleration chip?”
“Yes, but first we have to make your runner’s programme compatible with the chip”.
“I thought Bruno already took care of that”, she started wandering through her thoughts, staring at Yusei, but looking through him.
“He did, actually”, chuckle escaped his lips once more, as he watched Hanako’s pupils focusing onto his presence again, “But he forgot that he is dealing with your runner!”
“What do you mean dealing with my runner?” She raised an eyebrow at him, curving her lips into a pout.
“It’s a compliment”.
“I don’t believe you”, with her hands crossed, she pouted her lips more, looking at him from below, as seeking for an explanation.
“Your hybrid is different from other duel runners around town”, Yusei started, slowly getting to the point behind his joke, “Even if you have a home-made chip, you still have to design it specifically for the D-Wheel otherwise it won’t work”.
“I see”, she muttered into her chin, relaxing her body.
“It’s similar to shoes. We all have different types of feet and need different kinds of shoes or models that fit us and make us comfortable when walking”, he smiled, feeling a bit silly for finding such a simple and almost naïve explanation, but he decided to end it anyway, “The same is with hybrid runners and their acceleration chips!”
“I understand now! Thank you...”
“And because you have a hybrid, there are a lot of things you can do directly through the runner itself”, he added to her words, leaning over her arm and pressing few buttons on her D-Wheel’s screen.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to enter your system”, he said calmly, while his eyes and his movements were focused on her runner, but soon a soft smile appeared on his features, “Let’s see how good I know you!”
Although silent, Hanako wasn’t left indifferent by his words, while her eyes just kept studying his moves, moving her focus from his hands up his arms to his face. The way he smiled seemed so different from what she could remember from her nightmares and it suddenly looked like she knew nothing about this Yusei, because he was nothing like the one she keeps meeting at night. “Well?” She whispered, slowly leaning towards the front, passing over his arm and getting her face into the runner screen, exploring what was happening. Being so lost in her thoughts, she became completely unaware of her surroundings and therefore, lost the feeling of Yusei’s presence next to her.
“Looks like I made it”, the happiness he was feeling got him a tad more excited than he hoped to be, so he rushed with his moves when looking at Hanako, not realising she already had her face leaned so close to his, when he did the same what caused her twitched backwards completely caught unprepared and losing her balance in the process, “Baby!”
His hand reached for her, grabbing her waist to prevent her body from falling off the runner, as he was now having his entire front body over hers to shield her. In the heat of the moment, Yusei didn’t even feel Hanako’s hands that rushed for his shirt, hurriedly seeking support preventing her body from falling. Her breathing was heavy and warm; he could tell that much because the closeness of their faces was allowing him to feel her in this way, while their noses tried to connect like Adam’s finger with God on Michelangelo’s fresco painting.
“Ahmmm”, Hanako murmured something into his lips, something barely audible and soft, while looking at his lips, before giving him a fragile look with shy glow sparkling in her eyes. She was looking at his face, exploring every inch of his features with hope they will tell her something more about him. She was endlessly trying to remember something about him, any moment they shared, any time they spent together... He was so close to her now, closer than ever and somehow this scene felt so familiar. Even though she couldn’t remember any similar things ever happening between them, her feelings were telling her differently. Was it something they shared that she just couldn’t remember? There was just something about him that felt too real and too familiar; but the more she was digging into the backlog of her memories, the more she was losing her breath. Suddenly, something started choking her, something like water drowning her in her desperate tried to remember and if it wasn’t for Yusei breaking their moment, she would have start losing her consciousness.
“You should be more careful”, he tried to break the awkwardness, but she said nothing. The gaze between them slowly started being so comfortable and warm, so comforting, he just let himself in and let her look at his eyes for as long as she wanted to, hoping that she maybe sees the truth in his shimmering lapis lazuli crystals.
Nod was chosen by Hanako to finally break their moment, “Sorry about that”. Although weak, her voice was warm and soft, hiding a chuckle locked inside of her throat, “I suppose you know I can be very clumsy...”
“Yeah”, Yusei gave the nod back, as his hands slowly pulled her up and made sure she regains her balance, while sitting on the runner, “Are you okay?”
“I am”, she breathed out, releasing the nervousness and finally catching her breath again, feeling so alive; like she was reborn again.
“Good”, he just threw at her coldly and turned his back, walking towards his computer, while Hanako’s eyes were following his steps. He seemed so cold, but deep inside she knew he didn’t mean it and that it he was just being his usual self, probably caught in his own thoughts and she paid it no mind. What intrigued her more was the fact she was feeling so confident about knowing him that she started questioning the assurance of knowing her own self.
What’s wrong with me? She thought, while staring at Yusei, who was by now already working on the programme for her D-Wheel. Just few days ago, I was afraid of this guy and now I’m falling for him?! Confusion was never so strong like this moment of pure epiphany that was forcing Hanako to start questioning not only her seeing of Yusei, but her entire existence and her role in this life. This Yusei she was seeing, unlike the one from her nightmares, was so confident, intelligent, caring, kind and warm-hearted. His ability to stay calm even in the most fearsome situations was something she slowly started to admire... and with every second, with time passing by so quickly, she started implementing his personality into her inner circle of friends.
“This may take a while”, his warm, comforting voice travelled to her ears to let her body shiver for a moment, before she was completely returned to reality.
“I’ll wait here... with you”.
“Just a few hours and I’m done”, he added again, while his eyes were refusing to leave the screen. Even his hands cooperated, as he was skilfully changing the programme on her D-Wheel and making sure the configuration is at its highest level. His mind was fully focused on the task, because his heart wished to be done with it as soon as possible, just so that Hanako can have her runner. The only little detail he forgot was to check on her and what she was doing.
Maybe it was because she was no disturbance to him during those few hours or because her silence was so comfortable and familiar; he forgot about their arguments and her memory loss. In reality, the true reason behind it didn’t matter. For the first time ever since she woke up from coma, Yusei felt like they are yet again the same two people from before, same two orphaned kids who now grew into mature and responsible people; understanding and supporting each other in their own, unique way.
“I’m don-“ Smile that could outshine even the sun was now sparkling through the garage, his eyes seeking hers, searching for that braided hair, but when he finally found her, his face fell into confusion. It wasn’t sadness that struck him, it was that silent happiness he missed experience around her. Seeing her sleeping on the garage floor, Yusei stifled his chuckle and silently stood on his feet, unable to admit he got caught into his work again, he forgot it was already 3 o’clock in the morning. Approaching her fragile body, he picked her up just like he always used to, carrying her in his arms up to his room to let her rest. Her face looked so calm and peaceful when it lit the hope in Yusei’s heart again, as he was wishing to be the very reason behind her comfort. Wishing it was for him she smiles and feels safe, wanting for her to give him all her trust and see his arms as her unbreakable, indestructible fortress.
In that moment, when he gently let her body rest on his bed, she became all he ever wanted in his life. Even when everything ends and things come to an end, he desired for her to stay, leaning his cheek against the top of her head, while her hair was tickling his skin. He smiled, feeling its flowery scent mixing with his bitter metal, creating something new, yet old and familiar, but unknown. The comfort this creation was giving him made him close his eyes and before he could know it, sleep vested his body and cradled Hanako into his embrace, as they both entered the sleeping rapture where their hearts met between their dreams and reality.