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Nene awoke with a jolt. “Sakura-chan! What do you—” she broke off as soon as she saw the familiar bathroom sinks that she’d scrubbed many times before and the familiar tile she’d had spent these past few months mopping. She was no longer in the Far Shore. She was back in the realm of the living.
And she saw him—translucent and gazing out the window as orange and purple sunset hues ran through him, ethereally. Or perhaps it was sunrise, Nene had lost all concept of time after her venture into the Far Shore.
Hanako looked over his shoulder at her. “Oh,” he said, “you’re awake, Yashiro.” The sound of her name—no, it was the sound of his voice calling her Yashiro—her stomach fluttered. And her eyes softened. She loved how he was the only one to call her that. Not Nene and no honorifics. Just Yashiro.
“Hanako-kun,” she said, her voice breathless. “We’re back?” She stood up, her legs were like jello and she leaned back against the door to a stall.
“We are,” he said.
She started to speak, there was so much she wanted to say—to confess—to apologize how nonchalantly she tried to act about staying in the Far Shore. She could remember the cruelty in his voice as he told her she knew nothing of what she was saying. That she was careless and reckless as always. And what hurt the most? He was right. She never thought of how it would have made him feel, especially since he spent all this time trying to get her to live.
She could remember the way he told her on the cloud how desperately he wanted her to live—so desperate he tried to leave her in a fictional world—even tried to have her best friend sacrificed in her place—
And that’s when it hit her. She remembered everything Sakura had answered.
That Hanako had known…
“You knew,” she said slowly. “You knew what would happen to me if I destroyed all the yorishiros.”
His lips tilted downwards and his eyes held a look of regret—but they said everything she needed to know. That what Sakura had said was the truth.
He knew.
He really knew.
Which meant…
“You…You…knew that if I destroyed all the yorishiros I would die.” The world spun and she clenched her hands into fists.
It couldn’t be, could it?
But as much as she hoped against hope, she couldn’t hide where her brain was going with all of this. “You…you planned it all. From the start.”
Hanako ducked his head, his hat covered his moonlit eyes.
And that was all the confirmation she needed.
Nene’s vision blurred. And her lower lip trembled—the very lip Hanako had kissed. “You knew I would swallow the mermaid scale…You purposely told me it was called ‘Matchmaking’ and how to use it without explaining what the consequences would be. You knew I would run off with it!” She sunk back to the floor and covered her mouth with her shaking hands.
“Yashiro,” he said.
“You…knew…” Hot tears rolled down her cheek. It was as if her world was shattering—her heart, and the very foundations she had so strongly believed in. “I was...” Her voice broke off and a sob escaped cutting off the very words she didn’t want to voice.
I was the sacrifice.
And she sobbed and wailed into the palm of her hands.
Suddenly she felt his cool hands pressed against her shoulders. “Yashiro,” he said, his voice filled with something, she wasn’t quite sure what. “Yashiro, please!”
“H-how could you do this to me?”
His hands moved over hers, trying to pull them away from her face—to get her to look at him. “Yashiro,” he said again, this time managing to pull her hands away, but she clamped her eyes shut. “Please look at me. ” She heard him swallow, and his voice barely a whisper, she heard him say, “…Please.”
And she listened.
She opened her eyes and gasped—she’d never seen him look this way—this broken. A tear trailed down his ghostly cheek. He sat on his knees right in front of her, his hat clenched in his right hand.
“Everything is true, you’re right. I planned everything and for all these years I waited for someone like you. Someone I could use to get my own wish finally granted but…but I never meant for any of this.”
He looked up at her and the look in his amber eyes was so raw.
So…broken.
“I never meant to fall in love with you.”
Nene’s heart skipped.
“I regret it—I regret everything, and I’ve been trying to find a loophole—to undo everything and I am sorry. I am so sorry. Nothing I can say will ever make this right.” He buried his own face in his hands. “Everything I’ve done to you…”
She stared for a moment, taking in this weeping ghost—a morally grey supernatural who had murdered his own brother—who had become the fearsome leader of the Seven Mysteries, and here he was crying…crying because of her. And she realized that this was all she had ever wanted. To see him sincere and true.
“Silly, Hanako-kun,” she said, gently patting his soft hair. “That’s all you had to say.”
“What?” He looked up and she threw herself against his chest and hugged him. And he stiffened in her arms.
“That you’re sorry,” she said, and what surprised her most—she was smiling despite the tears.
And he sunk against her and hugged her tightly back, his mouth against her neck. “I am. I am so sorry, Yashiro.” His cool breath sent shivers down her spine.
“We can’t change the past, but let's change the future together, okay?” Nene said, pulling hack.
He smiled softly and gently traced his fingers along her cheek, brushing away her stray tears. “Okay,”
And while she didn’t say it, she knew deep in her heart, that despite everything, she had fallen in love with him too.