Disclaimer: I don't own Deadman Wonderland.
Deadman Wonderland: The Sleeping Beauty
"Igarashi!" came the angry yell. Ganta ignored the teacher, instead laughing and continuing to run across the school yard to the front gate. He didn't notice as his cell phone fell out of his pocket and landed on the ground. As he exited the school yard and turned to the right, a young girl walked over and picked up the fallen phone. Hana looked over the phone, noting the strange symbol drawn on it in permanent marker. She recognized it as Ganta's personal symbol, a cut log; he drew it on everything he owned.
The moment seemed almost too perfect to her. She'd been fascinated with Ganta since he'd transferred in a month prior. For the past week she'd promised herself to go up and talk to him. Izumi kept urging her to just go up to him. Mayuri on the other hand had told her straight out to just put a letter in Ganta's locker and ask him out. Hana had turned bright red in embarrassment at the thought and told Mayuri in no uncertain terms that she couldn't do that. At least, not yet.
But now she had an excuse to go up and talk to Ganta. Hesitating for a moment, she started to run across the school yard. She turned right outside of the gate, following where she'd seen Ganta go. Now outside of the school he'd stopped running and was instead walking down the street. She saw him turn the corner away from the school. Following, she turned the corner herself and caught sight on Ganta again. She slowed down to a walk and kept a set distance between them. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she held his cell phone close to her.
As she followed behind Ganta, Hana's mind went back to the first time she'd seen Ganta. She'd heard the rumor that morning from an excited Mayuri that they'd be having a new transfer student arriving at their class. She'd been busy wondering excitedly if the transfer was going to be a boy or a girl, and whether they would be hot or cute. Izumi had commented that she hoped for a cute girl. Hana had stayed out of the conversation, just laughing at her friends' speculations. When the teacher had walked in everyone had stood and bowed. As they'd taken their seats Hana had caught her first glimpse of Ganta waiting in the doorway. He hadn't stood out too much from a distance, being of slightly below average height and rather plain looking.
"Come on in and introduce yourself," the teacher had said with a smile at Ganta. The boy had walked in to stand next to the teacher. Slightly closer now Hana had been able to see that the boy seemed to be well muscled, something that seemed at odds with the slightly worried expression on his face. Hana had noticed that a large scar ran across his cheek. Ganta had faced the class and scanned over everyone. He'd then taken a deep breath, letting it out slowly before digging something out of his pocket. Hana had caught a glimpse of something shiny right before Ganta threw it into the air. He deftly caught it in his fist and slapped it on top of his other hand, keeping it covered. He'd flashed a big smile at the class.
"My name is Ganta Igarashi," he'd introduced. "If this is heads, then we're all going to be good friends." Then he'd lifted up his hand and shown the coin to the class. A lizard was clearly visible on the face of the coin, but if it was heads or tails was lost on Hana. Ganta just smiled at the result. "Heads! Now, let's all get along well!" Then he'd made a theatrical, sweeping bow towards the class, drawing laughter and even some clapping.
The teacher had given a chuckle of his own before directing Ganta to an empty seat in the back and starting to call roll. As Ganta passed by Hana he'd been called out to by the boy next to her and the two had exchanged a high five and smiles.
Her first impression of Ganta had been of a happy, easy going person. Her gaze had fallen on him during lunch, surrounded by a large group of people laughing and asking him questions. It had only been for a moment but she'd glimpsed a look of uncertainty and pain pass across his face before disappearing once more behind a smile. After that she'd found her gaze drawn to him more and more.
On closer examination she'd noticed scars crisscrossing his arms. Once, when he'd been stretching in between classes she'd noticed even more scars on his chest and sides. She didn't doubt that scars such as those were everywhere on the boy. It had dawned on her that Ganta's life had clearly been harder than she'd ever thought. The scars were large, not the type you picked up over an easygoing, carefree life. As if in connection, her own back had tingled, from shoulder blade to hip, the feeling traced her own scar. Was that when she'd really felt connected to the boy?
Hana had continued watching Ganta from that point on, never quite managing to speak to him, despite the urging of her friends. She asked people questions about him, carefully constructing a portfolio for the mysterious transfer. She didn't fail to miss the fact that what she was doing was clearly stalking. She was being creepy and desperate, but despite knowing this, she couldn't get herself to stop. She needed to know the truth.
Ganta had turned out to be extremely athletic. He'd managed to play circles around regulars from the various sports teams. He'd even been invited to join the basketball team. When he'd been asked how he was so good, he'd laughed and claimed that he'd had a tough teacher.
Hana found herself attracted to Ganta the more she watched him. He seemed to be hiding a trove of secrets, one that got even more interesting when she'd tried to search for him on the internet. He was like a ghost. He'd never existed online, despite having a phone, marked with his distinctive symbol. Nothing came up, and while she tried to not jump to conclusions, it was almost like someone had systematically erased everything relating to the boy Ganta Igarashi.
Despite how friendly Ganta was though he never hung out with anyone or stayed afterschool on Thursdays unless forced to by a teacher. Even then, he'd rush with amazing speed and get done whatever it was he was ordered to do then bolt out of the building. Once Ganta had apparently been in such a hurry that he hadn't hesitated to jump out of a second story window. He'd landed, rolled then jumped onto his feet, apparently oblivious to the crowd of stunned onlookers. He'd then headed out of the school grounds to whatever mysterious place it was he went, opening up yet another mystery for Hana to solve.
Now though, Hana had in her hands a grand opportunity. She had Ganta's phone, and giving it back to him would give her a great excuse to talk to him. It would also give a favorable first impression, which was also important. Now she just had to psych herself up to actually giving him the phone.
Come on, you can do this, she urged herself. Just run over there and hand him the phone. It's that easy! But she didn't act on the encouragement, instead continuing to keep her distance as she carefully followed Ganta. As she did so a faint tune reached her. It sounded like a lullaby of some type, but she could only catch every couple of words. She caught the words "woodpecker, poison, and dead" and she wondered who would create such a gruesome tune. As Ganta turned the corner once more she caught sight of his face and realized that he was the one singing the haunting lullaby. The observation just added another component to the mystery that was Ganata Igarashi and Hana picked up her pace, determined even more to talk to him.
She stopped as soon as she turned the corner though. In front of her was a large stone building. The whole building was surrounded by a metal gate, spikes at top making in difficult to climb. Ganta walked casually through the gate, waving to a person relaxing inside of a booth. He walked across the grounds to the building and went into a door.
Curiosity peaked, Hana still hesitated to move forward. She took a deep breath, let it out and lightly slapped her face with both hands. "You can do this!" she muttered to herself. She took another breath, released it and stepped forward as confidently as she could. She put a smile on her face as she approached the guard booth. The man inside frowned at her as he lowered the book he'd been reading.
"You're new," he commented. "Name?"
"Hana Ikari," she replied.
"Business here?" asked the guard lazily.
Hana hedged her bets on the familiarity Ganta had seemed to greet the guard with. "I'm supposed to meet up with Ganta Igarashi here. I was running a little behind," and then almost as an afterthought she added, "we're friends."
"Got it," said the guard, making a note. He waved her through. "Come on in. Enjoy your visit."
"Thank you," said Hana with a small bow and a smile. The guard smiled back and then leaned back to continue reading. Hana noticed that the book was apparently a collection of western fairy tales. It was the last book she'd expected to see in such a situation but the guard seemed immersed in it, so who was she to judge someone else's tastes?
Hana moved away from the gate to the building she'd seen Ganta enter. She pushed open the bar on the door and entered, immediately struck by a blast of cold air. Whoever was inside, they apparently liked to keep cold and were blasting the air conditioning. She walked down the hall, resisting the urge to shiver. The hall let out into a reception desk, another guard sitting at it behind a pane of glass. He looked at her in surprise.
"Another visitor?" he asked.
Hana walked up and smiled at him, giving a slightly bow. "Yes sir. I'm a friend of Ganta Igarashi's," she lied, "I was to meet him here but was running late."
"Strange meeting place," commented the guard. A friendly smile appeared on his face. "Although that kid's a strange one himself, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He visits Sleeping Beauty every Thursday like clockwork. I'm assuming you're here to meet her too?"
Hana was confused by the guard's words for a moment but she quickly collected herself. "Uh, yes! Do I, uh, need to sign in or something?"
The guard pointed to an open notebook on the desk in front of him. "Yes, sign your name there." Hana walked up and after fumbling picking up the pen in nervousness signed her name right below Ganta's. She was surprised to see only a few names written in the notebook. In the last three months, only three people had come and visited this "Sleeping Beauty". Only twice had someone besides Ganta visited, each only coming once. She didn't recognize either name.
When she finished writing the guard pointed down the right corridor. "Okay, head right down that way. Room three, on your left."
"Thank you," replied Hana, already turning away to move quickly down the corridor.
She found her way to room three and stopped in front of it. The door was already slid partially open and she could her Ganta's voice coming from inside. "And then…they asked me to join the basketball team!" exclaimed Ganta, sounding like he was making an effort to sound happy. "You know, cuz I've gotten taller."
Hana carefully peeked through the crack in the door in time to catch the smile disappearing off of Ganta's face. He stared solemnly and silently at a figure that lay still on a bed in the middle of the room. Medical equipment was attached to the person and a nightstand held a large bag of sweets and snacks but otherwise the room was completely bare. She also briefly noticed the strange fact that there were bars covering the one window of the room.
"The nurse called you Sleeping Beauty," laughed Ganta, forcing a smile onto his face. "Even though you're no Princess." He became silent once again, taking a seat by the bed and just watching the person.
Hana's gaze also fell to the person on the bed. The person had pure white hair and the whitest skin she'd ever seen. They looked just like a doll. The "Sleeping Beauty". She realized the person was a young girl, probably no older than her or Ganta. Stitching and scars marred her beautiful skin, giving her a strange combination of sleeping princess and Frankenstein's monster. Her gaze went back up to Ganta and she couldn't help but be moved to tears by the look on his face. It somehow combined deep sadness and deep love at the same time. Whoever this was, they were important to Ganta, important in a way few people were to each other.
Once more her gaze fell down to the person, this time working her way down one of the scarred arms, an IV inserted right below the inside of her elbow. Hana's gaze finally stopped at the girl's hand and widened at what she saw there. Drawn in marker was the familiar sight of a cut log, the very same symbol on the cell phone held in her clenched grip.
Ganta stretched after having sat staring at Shiro's still form for the last hour. Every time he came here time slipped away from him. Never did it give him the answer he wanted though. He smiled at Shiro, taking in her frail form once more. "See you next week Shiro. I'll make sure to bring more snacks, ok?" Like usual there was no response but Ganta hadn't been expecting one anyways.
He walked out of the room, sticking his hand into his pocket to fish out his cell phone so that he could inform his father that he was on his way home. He closed the door behind him, like he did every week, but was surprised to find his pocket unusually empty. He stuck his hand in every other pocket in his pants and shirt but still he failed to come up with his phone.
"Oh no…" muttered Ganta, looking in his bag in vain. "Aw come on! Don't tell me I lost it! Let's see…I had when final period ended, so it has to be somewhere between here and school. I'm going to be so late getting home!"
Ganta walked quickly down the corridor, absent mindedly greeting the guard at the desk. "I'll be heading out now!" he said quickly, his mind focused on his phone.
"Wait a second!" cried the guard, drawing Ganta's attention. He turned around to see the guard smiling at him, sliding something through the gap in the protective glass. "Don't forget this." The guard's hand lifted away to reveal the familiar form of Ganta's phone.
A bright smile appeared on Ganta's face. "My phone! Where'd you find it?"
"A friend of yours dropped it off," replied the guard. She'd come to meet up with you or something I guess but instead just walked down the hall, came back, dropped off the phone saying it was yours and left. Strange girl if you ask me."
"A friend of mine?" asked Ganta, running through the list of who it could have possibly been.
"That's what she said." The guard pointed to the sign-in log. "Here's her name right here."
Ganta looked down at the log, his face scrunching up in confusion. "Hana Ikari? Doesn't ring a bell."