Midori Kasugano looked up in awe at her beloved Seiji. His rough face looked onward, distracted, not noticing her small frail body in place of his right hand.

I'm so glad to be with my beloved Seiji. I wish we could stay like this forever...

She looked down, her hand-knitted T-shirt with "I love Seiji" embroidered on it waved gently with the wind as the two of them made it to school. In her mind, Seiji's voice echoed "But you know... it can't be like this forever."

Her eyes drifted into the distance blandly. She really didn't want that reality to come to pass. Her old life was shy, reserved, boring and pathetic. She knew it. She hardly had the courage to do anything more than look at him. Anytime she tried to use her words to reach out to him, some invisible force stopped her.

But now...

But now she was a part of him. It was great. She could cook, clean, and care for her beloved Seiji. So long as the two of them kept it secret, nothing would get in the way of her perfect little world.

Midori smiled widely.

Yes, this is really wonderful.

It was, until the world blurred out into darkness, leaving her in a void with nothing but Seiji. She looked at him and tried to speak, but nothing came out. She felt herself detach from him, her legs coming back and her body reforming. She looked for him, but he was gone.

Midori woke in a pool of her own sweat. It had been 3 days since she managed to finally confess her love to Seiji for real, and he promised to meet with her after school for a few hours every day.

Life was pretty good. Seiji was everything she ever dreamed of in person. He always looked distant though. It felt familiar and tugged at her in ways she couldn't fully understand. But these thoughts troubled her and today was special. It was the first weekend since she confessed, and Seiji told her he wanted to do something special. So she pushed the uneasy thoughts from her mind. She looked herself over in the mirror and slapped her face.

"Ok! Today's the day. My beloved Seiji is going to take me out on a date." Midori understood it in principle, but saying that word out loud had an effect on her. Her face fully flushed and she felt her temperature rising.

She slapped her face again and tried to focus. She went into her wardrobe and tried to find something warm to wear. It was getting cold and she was very cognizant of the temperature outside. She didn't want to get sick on her first date after all!

Midori settled for a simple pink sweater and a longer-than-usual skirt. A voice echoed in her mind "It could use a highlight." In an instant, an image of her hands, her tiny, tiny hands working on an scarf with "LOVE" stitched into it. It made her head hurt.

No, no, this is fine. I'll meet up with Seiji in this!

The green-haired girl bid farewell to her mother and dashed off to the park where she finally confessed to her beloved.

True to his word, Seiji sat on the bench in his black jacket, waiting for his new girlfriend.

"Ah, Midori, you showed up." He smiled, but Midori could tell something was off somehow.

"Yes! Of course I would show up for you! You're my beloved Seiji after all!" She smiled and looked up at him. Seiji walked in closer and gave her a hug. She could feel her temperature rising again.

Seiji took note "Hey, hey! Are you ok? You look feverish. You're not going to catch a cold already are you?"

She blushed harder "No! I'm fine, it's just that... you're very close." They let go of each other for a moment and gazed at the other's face. Midori paused. It felt, familiar somehow.

"So where would you like to take me, Seiji?" Midori smiled, and offered her arm to him.

"Listen, Midori," Seiji began, opening his mouth to finish his thought, "about you waking up..."

Midori listened intently. She always listened intently where Seiji spoke, but she was even more attentive now.

"Yes?"

"I... uh... never mind it isn't that important." Seiji was fiddling with something in his jacket, but just released his hand. The two set off arm in arm to their next destination.

The day went on happily, stopping by a few good spots. Seiji treated her to ice-cream, somehow knowing her favorite flavor was chocolate-banana, and took her to go see a movie. All throughout the day, the two were inseparable. But why can't I help but feel a little distant from him? Midori muttered internally. Normally she'd be overjoyed about this day, after all, it was just her and Seiji from the morning to now the evening. But it was just missing something special, something nostalgic.

On their way back to her house, Seiji tensed up.

"Oh my! Look who it freakin' is! Seiji Sawamura!" One, no, two - four - a group of gang-member types appeared out of seemingly nowhere only a few blocks from Midori's home.

"Looks like the mad-dog is getting soft! Who's the girl Sawamura?" "Yeah, she's cute!" "Once we get rid of Seiji, we she take her as our prize!"

That last one made Seiji snap. "You morons! I'll knock you all out!" He let go of Midori's arm and took a step in front of her. Midori felt scared, but somehow she knew it would be alright. Her heart throbbed just a little at the thought of him protecting her. "Midori, we're only a few blocks from your house, right? Get going - I'll be fine. I don't want you to get involved with this crowd."

"Seiji..." Midori mumbled in admiration as she stood, just a little dumbstruck at him.

One of the gang members running at Seiji with a bat snapped her out of it. Midori quickly ran ahead to take cover. But she didn't run away fully; part of her really wanted to see Seiji win.

Sure enough, in a matter of minutes the crowd of twelve was down to just one guy, and Seiji stood above the falled goons, tired but triumphant.

"Screw this, you're goin' down Sawamura!" The last gang member pulled a knife and charged. Shocked, Seiji tried to stop it, but got his face cut in the process.

"Ackkk!" He yelped as he felt down. Something flew from his jacket and his head hit the ground hard. In the confusion, the knife was wrenched from the delinquent's hand and landed near Seiji's face.

Midori was fed up at this point and took a step out. "Don't hurt my beloved Seiji!" She lunged towards the last gang member and through a powerful kick to his jaw. The goon fell, and Midori jumped to Seiji's side.

"Seiji, are you ok?"

"Idiot, I told you to *cough* run." Seiji sat up and looked around. "Where'd you learn to kick like that?"

Midori blushed "I saw you do it once or twice, and my family has a dojo in the basement. I've been practicing..." She stuck her tongue out and smiled. Seiji reciprocated.

Suddenly he looked shocked and confused, and looked across the battled field. "Where is it? What happened to it?" He reached his right hand into his pocket and pulled out nothing. "Oh no... that's not good..."

Midori looked around and saw a little pink book with hearts on it. "This doesn't look like Seiji's..." she muttered as she knealt down to pick it up.

"Oh! You found it! Uh... Could you... please..." Seiji's words gradually puttered out and fizzled to nothing.

Midori ignored him for a second, and opened the book. October 05, When I woke up this morning, I had become my beloved Seiji's right hand... She blinked. Twice. Hard. A pulsing in her chest became so unbearably hard to deal with she fell to her knees.

"I..." she flipped through the book. "I was little. I was your hand... for almost two months..." She looked at Seiji, wide-eyed and incredible. "H-how is that possible?"

"I dunno. But it definitely happened. That's how I knew you liked me... you told me it a lot over those two month - whoa! Wh-why are you crying? Jeez Midori! Don't cry!" He sat up and held her gently.

"I guess... I am just sad. I don't really remember it all. Everything is so fuzzy and blank. I can't help but feel like I was such a burden to you!"

Seiji looked away sheepishly. "Yeah, it kinda was annoying. But when you left... well..." He looked away, his blond hair swaying just a little bit in the evening breeze. "I missed you a lot."

Tears flowed openly from Midori as she flipped through the diary. Her mind recollecting lost memories with increasing intensity. "Y-you really mean it?"

"Hey, I'm here now, right? I guess I coulda' left you once my hand became normal again, but... I really wanted to..." Seiji looked down, realizing how sappy he sounded, "wanted to hear your voice again."

Midori smiled. She smiled really wide. Even though tears were cascading down her facing endlessly, her smile grew bigger. She stood up, and Seiji did as well. The two embraced tightly over the battlefield of foolish goons and Midori let herself cry even more.

"Thank you Seiji. I really needed to see this. I've been having dreams about, but now... well, it feels like I am less crazy! I love you so much, my beloved Seiji!" She burrowed her head into his toughened chest and let herself feel his warmth.

"Aw shut up. You're makin' me blush." He smiled too.

*Achoo* Midor sneezed. Perhaps her skirt was still too short for the colder weather. If only I had a...

"Here." Seiji wrapped a muffler around her neck, It was red and had "LOVE" embroidered on it.

Midori held it up and looked at Seiji. "When did... how?"

"I guess I have a really talented right hand." He smiled at looked at Midori. "I love you, ya know." His face flushed red, but somehow it didn't matter to him.

Midori beamed. She stepped up onto her tippy-toes and leaned into Seiji. It was a small kiss - their lips only breifly touched. But it was their first one of many more to come. Midori wrapped the rest of the muffler around Seiji's neck and held onto his right hand tightly.

"Let's go my beloved Seiji. We can walk a little more before we go back to my house, right?"

"Ha. Sure thing my little Midori. No problem." He tightened his right hand around her grasp, and they continued their walk.

In her other hand, Midor grasped onto the diary she wrote not too long ago with fierce happiness. She may not be his right hand anymore, but she was certain to still be a part of her beloved Seiji.

Well, I am buzzed enough to try my hand and just marathoned this darn show. Man was it cute. To my loyal followers who have somehow stuck with me over the years "Hi, I'm still alive! Life has caught up with me and I don't write as much anymore, but I still think about it a lot and I guess I still do sometimes." To anyone new "Hi, I'm XT-421. I'm a little nuts. I do a lot of random things and used to be quite the powerhouse writer - in a way. Feel free to read some of my other work! Leave a comment if you'd like! Maybe you'll be the spark that inspires me to start these old engines back up."

That said, some drinks do work wonders on taming my mind, so maybe that's the untapped (get it?) trick to this system. Ah well, this was a one-off. I hope I did the series justice. I liked the ending, but felt it could use a little more... me. :P

Until next time!