Sen smiles as she is pulled away from me, hidden forever by darkening mists...

I fight for her, fighting my way to her, ever harder,

But I stumble into the bright ceiling lights of the hospital.

The world I knew dimmed and I opened my eyes anew.

My head aches as my heart weighs heavy, in trying to sit up on the sterile bed.

But the nurses restrain me, effortlessly keeping me down... The Twins?

Are they masquerading as nurses again? Did Shaga set me up?

But the pillow gently caught my head as I fell from helplessness, my body was wracked with weakness.

It's hard to even breathe, when my muscles feel atrophied and spindly.

That's when I knew, I was tied once again to reality's unbreakable chains.

Ben-To

- Life became a tasteless bento, but she still has the sweetest smile -

The dream I always knew slipped out of reach, like a kite I once let flew into the heavens on a beach.

Last my memory was clear, I was grabbing a half-priced ben-to for a shy quirky classmate.

But I slighted some Yakuza punk and his gang, and standing up to him was the worst idea that gave me the Best dream of my life.

There was this girl who fought valiantly, as a Mother Wolf of Howling Blizzards.

Fearless against all manner of Boars and Storms, tenderly raised by a great Wizard.

And she looked after me as I died on the cold supermarket floor of my reality and fell awake in the lap of her dream.

I remember her haunting red eyes, softly brushed with fury under a bluish hair of icy snow.

Calling me out for my foolery, asking me to accept her and join the fray.

Under the guidance of soft night skies and white-cold stars, in the realm of the Ice Witch.

But the mirror of illusions cracks easily, when shone on inevitably by the piercing light of reality.

The shards of love so tender cuts ever deeper, by the betrayal of it never ever being real.

I want it back, the dream of the Ice Witch, the love I felt in my heart for a fleeting figment of imagination. I want it all back.

"Hold me Sen", I whispered such words unheard whenever the Twins help me to learn to walk again.

I imagine it's her in front of me, beckoning for another step I take towards her open, caring arms.

Only voiceless tears was all I could utter when I made it back on my feet, ever closer to finding her smile once again.

Yet the truth is still a sickening question I've refused to treat with an answer,

of whether Sen was actually real or no...

No. She is real. I know it. I Believe it. And I will find her to prove it.

Dazing under the unforgiving sun, I fought my way back to my old school,

wandering from face to unfamiliar face, asking for the way to a familiar smile.

I found my quirky germaphobic friend again, but she less than enthusiastic about novelising my tragedies.

The far cry of what was once real and what never was, splits my fragile heart so carelessly apart.

There was never a Shiraume, it was a sad sayonara to someone I never knew I cared for so much.

A grief-filled goodbye to gentle Sandra Dee, so ironically named "Bai Bai".

The puzzle is missing so many pieces, the album in my heart has lost so many faces.

What am I if not a ghost? Dying from the loss of a life no one knew.

So what if I become a ghost? Will the world miss me as much as I miss my Sen?

Don't call me a coward, I will fight with all my might for what is right,

But this world has wronged me with a treacherous dream of sadistic beauty,

The burning curse of a love frozen in icy darkness, a pain that melts this ugly reality into a collage of foreign colours.

The apple of my eye is poisoned by truth, as I take my first bite and final breath of the night,

The Ben-To I bought for her but never could offer to her is getting cold in the moonlight,

The chaotic world stops moving as I fall deeply into harmony, as Sen kisses me goodnight.

... the end.

You make me want to call you, in the middle of the night,

You make me want to hold you, until the morning light.

I know this is a feeling that I just can't fight.

You're the First and Last thing on my mind.

You make me want to Love, You make me want to Fall.

You make me want to... Surrender my Soul.

"Hey Sen,"

"What is it Sato?"

"What if I was never real? What if I was just a dream?"

"A dream?"

"What if I was just a random face you fell in love with, but you know you can never find me again."

"I ... , I... don't understand."

"... never mind, Sen."

"I would die. Sato. That is how far I've come to care for you."

"... , I would do no less for you.