This is an one shot after I wactched a video on Youtube. Noted that Hamuko is slightly younger than Makoto.
Theme song: Suzaku no Sora
The clear sky, an ominous red
The sun, melting its way down the sky
The last smile you left me
Is so transparent. It's distorted
This was the world of death.
No sense of life, or the electrical equipments were allowed to function, this was a completely silence world.
Bloody water splashed on the ground, staining the wall with its sharp crimson red. Coffins stood on the streets, with the light of the gigantic full moon shined on them, they reflected and bathed under it.
This was an absolute death world.
However, when a girl took step into this world, and walked through the street in dancing pace, eerily seemed to mix with a hint strangeness.
"…W-Who are you? W-Where am I!?"
"…I should be the one to ask question. You're stepping into my realm."
She dressed in her usual casual uniform, which a light orange sweater and red skirt with black legging and high knee boot. The only missing was her scarf she used to hang on her neck.
That's her first time stepping into this unknown world. She didn't even know how she stepped in…she's pretty sure she's asleep a while ago.
"I-I don't know." As if a kid who had done something wrong, she started to get stammered.
He raised his brow, and sighed.
"…Come over here…well, you can explore the place if you want." He wanted to offer her to come over, but immediately changed after seeing her expression. "Make sure you won't get lost."
Her auburn hair tied into a short pony tail, and use clips to clip her hair up, forming her signature mark: XXII on her left side of head. Her eyes were as red as the bloody water on the ground.
"I-I don't want!" She obliged his words by staying his side. How the hell she would wonder in this ghostly place all by herself?
"…Whatever you want."
He walked to one of the benches in this mall and simply lay down. Placing his earphone, he activated his MP3 in front of his chest.
She wondered who he was, and why he's here. She watched his MP3, and surprisingly found his was the same module as hers. But hers couldn't get on, why his could?
Though the module was same, his was blue color, while hers was red color. She tried to activate hers, but no matter how she tried, she just couldn't make it out.
"Because mine is special."
He told her so. At the end she gave up on trying, instead she went and shared with him. She thought someone as cool as him wouldn't share the same taste of music as her. However, he proofed her wrong. Those songs were all her most favorite.
"My name is Arisato Hamuko. What about you?"
He took a quick glance on her, didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked up to the full moon on top of his head, and slowly revealed to her.
"…Yuki Makoto, the only resident in this realm."
Since then, she visited this strange place everyday after she fell asleep. Although she thought this place was strange, but after few times she had visited, she immediately recognized this place was actually the copy of the town she lived, Tatsumi Port Island.
She simply took a corner and walked straight to her destination, to where they usually met.
She had visited this place a year before…no. More correctly, she had visited this place in her past ten years, until it disappeared a year ago. Strangely, she visited this place again now.
Here in this place, now without those black scary creatures. The only one here was Yuki Makoto, the blue haired and sliver eyed boy.
"So, you're the only one in this place? What about the others?"
"…I'm not exactly the only one. The goddess is here too." He pointed to the moon.
"Goddess?"
"The goddess of night, Nyx."
"…I don't understand."
He simply raised a smile.
She left the mall, and decided to head to Iwatodai Station. From there, she walked to a fifth tiers building. If he wasn't at the mall, he would always be there.
"What is this place?"
"A dorm I had stayed before…though it should have been shut down for now."
Well, there's truly a same building in reality. But it's shut down for the moment.
She noticed the difference in his tone - so empty and full of emotion. His pair of silver seemed to shine with the emotion she hadn't seen before.
For a moment, he seemed to be distanced.
She opened the door and straight away up to the second floor to the room at the end of the hallway. He told her once before that this was the room he stayed back then.
"…There's too many memories left in this dorm. To move on to tomorrow, they had no choice but to leave."
"What about you?"
"I have no tomorrow."
Taking a deep breathe, she turned the knob and pushed the door opened. As expected, he's lying on the bed lazily.
"Hey."
"I should have known you're here if you aren't at the mall."
Every night when the clock marked the time to twelve in the midnight, she would come here in instant. As time flew by, she found that chatting with him was interesting than chatting with other people. It had turned to be her habit, and something she looked forward the most in a day.
He still lay there, so she walked to him and sat down.
"Here, this is the leaf you requested from me." She took out something from the pocket and handed to him.
That's the leaf of persimmon tree.
He told her many stories. One of them was the story about a persimmon tree in her school, and a pair of old couple.
He took over the leaf. "…Thanks."
Today he seemed strange. Though it's not like he talked a lot, but he would whenever he found a topic.
He told stories, one of them was a story of a little boy, who had met Death on his early age, and how he ended up fighting Death after ten years, and how he died at the end.
She knew. Although he didn't speak it out loud, she's kinda sure the boy in the story was him.
"Makoto-kun, are you alright?"
Since when she started to get drew by his every motion? He didn't use to smile a lot, but his smile was charming. Since when her heart would race when she met his smile?
He sat up, but still with his back facing her.
"…When you're there…are you getting more and more sleepy?"
'There' was the short cut of the reality. They came up with this short after they met.
Now she thought about it.
Perhaps it's merely coincidence that she would come here, but their meeting would absolutely bound by fate.
"Well…I'll fall asleep during the lecture, that's it."
Of course this was a lie. Indeed like he said, she got sleepier whenever she's back to her world. Despite during the lecture, she would lose consciousness when meeting with friends or even during the club activities. The worst was, she didn't know when she fell asleep or losing consciousness.
She had never thought this had something to do with him.
"…Don't come here ever again."
She never thought she would hear this from him.
"…Stop joking."
"I'm not joking." He finally turned and looked at her. However, all she could see was the cold determination. "Arisato Hamuko, don't step into my realm ever again."
What's the reason she's so attached to him? She couldn't tell. But she knew she could never ignore his lonely figure.
He was too lonely.
"…Reason. At least give me a reason." Her heart was breaking. She couldn't understand the reason he pushed her away.
"…Because you hold the same power and possibilities as mine." This time, he moved away his gaze. "If you stay here, you wouldn't be able to go back to your world."
Again.
Again he turned to be lonely person. After pushing her away, he would turned back to the lonely Yuki Makoto.
No…she didn't want to see that lonely figure again.
"I refuse." She answered stubbornly. No matter what's the reason it would be, she refused to listen to him. "I don't wan -"
"I won't let you stay here. I told you." He acted stubbornly too.
"No -"
She opened her eyes in instant, meeting the familiarity of the decoration in sight. That's her room.
She sat up from the bed, tears rolling down to her cheek.
He want to protect her, even the cost was to stay alone forever. He didn't want to involve her in this.
But he didn't know, was that since the first day they met, he had involved her into his world, and she's attached to him.
"…Baka…"
There's an aching rush in my heart that won't go away
It swells break with rough noise
Stronger than my surging blood
The next few days, she failed to go into that green world, just exactly like he said; he wouldn't allow her to step into his realm.
A week had passed, and then two weeks, finally a month had gone.
She seemed to stay sober often than before. She wouldn't lose consciousness all of the sudden, or just fainted without knowing reason. Even Rio was happy for the turning of her condition.
"…You know, you really shocked me back then."
"Sorry." But she didn't feel happy at all. Didn't this tell that her previous sickness was because of Makoto? Now she only felt that he became so distance from her.
"I was worried if you'll never wake up." Rio giggled, half joking.
Now she thought about it…what if she truly never woke up one day?
"Hey Rio…what would you do if I never wake up from sleep?"
Rio stared at her back and forth. She could saw Rio's face filled with terror and shock.
"W-What are you talking about? I-I'm just joking, don't t-take it serious okay?" It seemed her question had shocked her to hell.
"Err…no, sorry, I shouldn't joke about thing like this. Forget what I said." She thought of the uniform Makoto wore, and obviously that's the uniform of Gekkoukan High. Was he too, the student of this school? "Rio, do you know someone named Yuki Makoto?"
"Yuki Makoto…?" Rio's face tensed up. "Wasn't that's the person that fell comatose one year ago…?"
Comatose. Rio's word hit her hardly in her head.
"…So, how is he?" She noticed her best friend used past tense instead of present tense. Was that meant…? She suddenly recalled the story he once told her. She knew the boy in the story was he, but was he truly died at the end?
"Hmm…some said fell comatose, but some said…he's dead."
"…I-I see…" She pressed a hand on her chest, trying to ease the pain. As if she saw his lonely figure, she wanted to run to his side and hold him into her arm. She wanted to see him…what she should do? "…Rio, if someone important to you protect you by pushing you away…what would you do?"
"Someone important?" Rio stared at her with spark shined in her eyes. "Hamuko, is that someone you like…or someone you love?"
Love.
It's so straight forward, but told her emotion clearly.
Now she finally realized…all the feeling she had to him was love.
She loved him.
"Yes, I love him." She nodded hardly, and seemed pretty shock to Rio. This could be the first time Rio saw the stubbornness in her crimson eyes.
"Well Hamuko, you should know what to do then." Rio shook her head. "I bet you would stay by his side, despite what is going to happen after that, right?"
She burst out a small laugh. Yeah, that's just how she was, wasn't it?
"Rio, you're the only one that understand me the most!" She jumped up and hugged Rio from the back.
"Oh hey Hamuko, where are you touching!?" Rio screamed and laughed. "Ne hamuko, who's the guy?"
"No, I can't tell you." She bet Rio would faint if she told her the guy was no other than that Yuki Makoto.
"Hey you're tricky! Tell me already!"
"No way! Let's guess!"
On that night, she managed to step in, but another world that was only void around her.
"What is… this place?"
The sparkling particles as if some kind of star on top of her head. It's so beautiful, and she almost lost herself into them.
"Welcome to the Sea of Souls, Hamuko-sama." A girl with light yellow short hair approached her from other side. She dressed in velvet uniform and was holding a tome in here arm.
"Who are you? And how did you know my name?"
"My name is Elizabeth, and I know you from Makoto-sama, of course." Elizabeth raised a smile and examined her. "Indeed Makoto-sama is right. You're holding the same power and possibility as him, but yet awaken."
"…What are you talking about?" She shook her head. "Where's Makoto-kun?"
"Makoto-sama is here…don't you realize?" Elizabeth waved her hand and showing her to the person she wanted to see the most.
She gazes to the pointed direction, and surprisingly found a door that was guarded by a chained figure. The figure was no other than Makoto.
"Makoto-kun! What had happened to him!?"
"…He's holding the door, as a seal. Didn't he tell you the story of a goddess?" Elizabeth closed her eyes for a while, trying to hide the emotion swelled from inside.
"Goddess…" Now she remembered the Goddess of Night, Nyx, and the story of the boy had sacrificed himself for some purposes…
"Behind the door is Nyx. Once she descends the world, the end would approach. This happened a year before…finally remember?"
Something rang a bell and connected everything. So it was Makoto had put an end to the strange green hour in the reality by becoming a seal. Her heart filled with sorrow. He had scarified, or perhaps had died to protect the world. He had to live in that cold realm forever, alone.
Oh no…she clutched her chest and cried out. That's why he looked so lonely. That's why his sliver orbs shook when he talked about his friend in that dorm. That's why he said he had no tomorrow.
Now all these made sense.
"Makoto-kun…" She called his name, hoping her feeling would reach to him somehow. She wanted to see him, now! She would stay with him, no matter what the cost would be.
"Hamuko-sama, maybe you're yet realized, but the reason you would come to touch his world is because you heard his voice. Though he thought he would be alright all by himself, but his inner feeling had betrayed him. You heard his call, and accidentally step into his realm." Elizabeth explained to her. Her beautiful golden eyes shined with water.
"…Where is he? I want to see him."
"Hamuko-sama, may I remind you that, you would not be able to return to reality once you stay with Makoto-sama. This is something you have to decide by your own." Elizabeth stopped and looked to the other side when she heard the rumble sounded.
"What is this…?" Hamuko heard it too, and followed the gaze of the girl.
"It's Erebus." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. The footsteps were getting closer and closer, finally a large monster with dual-faced came into sight. "This is the manifestation of human's negative emotion. Once it comes in touch with Nyx, it will awaken her and bring down the Fall to the world."
Hamuko almost lost balance when Erebus appeared in front of her. She screamed out, never had she seen something like this in her life. Despite the black creatures that lurked during the green hour, she hadn't faced something large and terrible as this one.
"What is this thing!?"
Elizabeth shielded her and opened the tome in her arm. "This is what Makoto-sama is sealing. The seal isn't used to seal Nyx, but to block the human's negative emotion to reach Nyx. Hamuko-sama, please stay back. I'll defeat it here."
She saw blue light illuminated under the girl, and then she heard the name Odin being called. The chief god in Norse mythology materialized in front of Elizabeth, as Elizabeth ordered him to charge out.
"Hamuko-sama, have you made your decision?" Elizabeth slightly turned her head to her with smile, as if already knowing her decision.
She remembered what Rio said, and lifted up a smile. Yeah, that's just how she was, right? All she needed to do was following her wish. If she turned her back and ran away now, she would forever regret it.
No, she's not going to let that happened. Even the cost was her life, she would stay with her. After all, that's why she came here.
"…Yes, can you help me?"
"Of course, Hamuko-sama." Waving her hand, Elizabeth opened up a light path in front of her. "Thank you, Hamuko-sama."
She closed her eyes. She apologized to Rio by putting her into this. But she believed Rio would understand her.
"…Sorry Rio." She muttered softly, and brought herself into the light path.
The curtain comes down on the peaceful horizon
The wind has burned me to the spot, I can't move
The last feeling you left me
I can't peel off the lukewarm sun
She met the yellow full moon when she opened her eyes. It's been a month she saw this eerily moon. Though she thought it's scary, but for now she only felt peace in her. It's just like meeting a friend you had not seen for the last few months. It's surprisingly peaceful.
She brought herself to the spot where they always met, the Paulownia Mall. He seemed to be waiting for her, as he turned around to see her as soon as she reached.
"Hey." She greeted, and was shocked on how calm she was in this moment.
His silver orbs were as cold as the day he pushed her away. But she wouldn't give up now, no matter what he said.
"…I told you not to come here again."
"No, I'm not backing down this time." She walked to her and ignored his cold glare. "Elizabeth told me everything. It's my decision to stay."
"…You'll lose everything."
"You lost everything too, Makoto-kun." She held both of his hands. "You scarified to protect the world, and pray for change of human's heart. If so, I'll protect you, and pray for you…only for you."
"Hamuko…" His eyes finally softened, showing his true feeling. "…You shouldn't be here if I didn't call…"
"I'm glad you call so I can stay with you. Being alone is terrible, Makoto-kun. I've experienced it too." She held his cheek, and slowly pressed her lips on his. "I wanted to let you that, I love you, Makoto-kun."
He broke down into small cry and hugged her tightly in arms. This time, he wouldn't let her go away again. He didn't want to feel the loneliness again. It's too terrible to stay alone.
"…I love you too, Hamuko…don't leave me again…"
"No, I won't leave you…never again."
My freezing, burning, helpless shadow
Is crying, abandoned
The buzzing of my endless love
Is much redder than the panting sky
She felt the swelled energy inside her as she released it. A gold and red body woman with heart shaped lyre appeared from deep of her heart. She knew what this was, and she swore she would use this power to protect the one she loved.
"…Stupid Hamuko…"
Rio cried out loud, couldn't stop the flowing of her tears from coming down. The auburn haired girl had fallen comatose since a week ago. Not even the doctor could check out the cause of her condition.
But somehow, Rio had a feeling that Hamuko was staying with the one she loved. She had accomplished her wish.
If so, she shouldn't cry. Wiping her tears, she closed her eyes and wished her to stay happiness with her love.
She indeed was the happiest person. Watching his sleeping face in her arm, she knew she had made a wise decision. By holding him in her arm, she felt she had owned the world.
"I love you…Makoto."