Work Text:
Yoshiki looked at the boy standing beside him, scuffing his toe on the pavement. Hikaru; 光 .
Well, it was Hikaru; ヒカル. He had the same dandelion hair, the same curve to his eyes when he smiled. He had the same body. It was Hikaru’s body. But Hikaru had died.
The boy standing beside him wasn’t Hikaru, he knew it wasn’t. It was as simple as that.
But sometimes thoughts entered his mind. Thoughts about why exactly that was. The- ‘thing Hikaru’ had said that he had no personality of his own, no experiences of his own.
Before Hikaru, the ヒカル Hikaru didn’t truly exist. So, in terms of technicality, the person standing beside him was 光 Hikaru.
But Hikaru didn’t have tears in his skin, and he didn’t feel like cold chicken.
But then, what really made a person themselves?If you asked Yoshiki, it was two things: 1) Being alive. 2) Having distinct memories and personalities.
Both of which ヒカル Hikaru had. So the problem wasn’t that Hikaru wasn’t alive. He was.
The problem was that he was dead at the same time.
And Yoshiki couldn’t accept that. He would do anything to keep Hikaru alive, he realised. Maybe he was selfish in thinking that, because 光 Hikaru clearly offered himself off.
So, in this way, wasn’t Hikaru no better than… a vegetable right now? One of those people in the hospitals whose bodies work, but everything that makes them human, is gone. They’re gone. And their bodies are here. Just like Hikaru.
No. But Hikaru was still here. Maybe it wasn’t the same person. It wasn’t even a person. But it wasn’t a vegetable either. He could breathe, and talk. He liked the same games and played the same pranks. But he wasn’t scared of ghosts anymore. And he cried at boring movies. And.. told Yoshihiki that he liked him.
He was here and he wasn’t.
He was Hikaru 光, but he was also Hikaru ヒカル. And that was enough.