~Mugen Tenshin~
The two ninjas arrived back home in Japan and everybody was already gathering by the entrance of the village to welcome their Master back. They all bowed and wished Hayate a welcome home. For a while, they had thought he was dead since nobody had heard nor found him, but Kasumi and Ryu refused to believe so until they could find proofs.
"Master Hayate, welcome back."
"We are happy that you're still alive and well."
The villagers greeted and Hayate smiled gratefully to all of them for a warm welcome.
"Thank you everyone." Hayate then looked around his surrounding, it felt strange for him to see his home again after being gone for a while. It was a bittersweet moment for him. He missed Hitomi, but he was also happy to be home.
The clan crowded Hayate and the children were running up to him to greet him, it made Hayate smile since it immediately reminded him of his students in Germany. Ryu only stood on the side letting them all catching up and greet each other.
Suddenly, a woman voice appeared from behind making everyone moved aside to make a way for her. "Hayate? is that really you?"
Hayate turned around, and he knew the voice very well.
"Mother..." He walked over to her and then wrapped his arms around tightly. He didn't realize how much he had missed her.
Hayate's mother Ayame broke the hug first, then placed both her hands on his cheeks to double check if it was truly her son.
"I thought you were..." Her voice trembled.
"I'm really fine, mother." Hayate hugged her again.
Everybody around him shared a warm smile at the sight. Then a hand was placed on Hayate's shoulder. He turned around to look. Hayate bowed respectfully to his father Shiden, the former and current leader of the clan. Hayate was given the leadership at a young age when he was proven to be worthy of his title, but ever since he was gone Shiden had stepped back into the role until they could find another solution. Kasumi would have been the second choice after Hayate, but she was declared a rouge ninja when she left the village without permission to avenge Hayate after her uncle Raidou had come back to steal their secret and hurt Hayate in the process. There was nobody else in line that could take over.
"Well, what are we standing here for? Let's start the feast!" Shiden then said looking at everybody around. They were all cheering and nodding.
"A feast?" Hayate looked confused.
"Yes, of your return of course, this must be celebrated." Shiden explained.
"You should go freshen up Hayate and then come join us when you're ready," Ayame suggested with a loving smile.
"Alright," He then looked over at Ryu.
Ryu pulled himself from where he was leaning and followed Hayate.
They reached the house and walked into Hayate's bedroom. Hayate looked around… it was very strange for him to be in his old room again. Ryu leaned against the wall letting his friend observed, letting it all sink in for his friend because he could see that Hayate was a little confused about being home.
"How are you feeling? Is this too much for you?"
"I'm alright… it's nice to see everyone again." Hayate breathed out a slow sigh, "Ryu?"
"Yeah?"
"How is Kasumi? Does she know of my return?" Hayate curiously asked.
"Kasumi is fine and she misses you. It pains her that she could not see her brother." Ryu then sighed before continuing. "You should thank her, everybody was ready to let you go and assumed that you were dead. I must admit that even I thought you didn't make it. Kasumi however, never gave up hope and she convinced me to help her search for you."
Hayate kept his gaze down as he listened. "Please Ryu, keep looking after her until I can find a solution to this. Until I get the leadership back, there's not much I can do about her situation."
"Don't worry, I will never break my promise. Kasumi is safe where she's at I assure you."
"Good. Alright, let's go meet everyone."
Hours later...
After a long night of celebrating, Hayate had no energy left, so he said his goodnight and headed back to his house. Ryu had gone home to his own clan in the Hayabusa village. When Hayate got back to his bedroom, he laid himself on his comfortable futon. He realized that he had not slept for almost two days…even ninjas have their limits. Even though his body had given up, his mind wasn't ready to let go. Hayate turned his attention to his bag. He sat up and pulled it closer to him, he then searched for an item that he had brought home with him. He took it out and studied the photo of him with Hitomi. He sighed and laid back down holding the picture in front of him getting lost in the memories of them together. He still couldn't believe that he was back home in Japan. Everything was happening so fast that he hadn't had time to miss Hitomi until now. It hadn't fully hit him that Hitomi would no longer be in his life.
He then turned his attention towards the window and stared out at the moon. He missed her terribly… he didn't know how to deal with it yet, even during the feast all he could think about was Hitomi and how he left her heartbroken while he was here celebrating. Hayate was feeling horribly guilty about everything. This was one of the most overwhelming night in his life. He wanted to sleep so badly and hoped that when he woke up, everything would just turn out to be a dream and that he was still in Germany waking up to Hitomi singing while making breakfast. The first thing he usually saw in the morning was Hitomi's beautiful smile that could bright up anyone's day. He was never a morning person not even when he was Ein, but Hitomi had a way of making him look forward to waking up early and start his day. However, he couldn't let his emotions get in the way now since he needed to focus on his mission against the DOATEC for messing with him. But before Hayate knew it, he passed out of exhaustion.
Soon after, his bedroom door slowly slid opened. His mother, Ayame wanted to say goodnight but saw that Hayate had already fallen asleep with his boots and clothes still on, she smiled as she looked him. She then walked over to cover her son with the blanket. The photo in his hand caught her attention, she carefully took the photo from his hand and looked at it closer. She knew right away that Hayate must have really adored the girl in the photo since he was looking at it before he had fallen asleep. They looked so happy, and the girl was beautiful she thought. It made Ayame happy thinking that Hayate was found by good people who gave him a home and that it wasn't DOATEC. There had been rumored amongst the clans during his absence that DOATEC had manage to find his body and took him back to their secret location and kept on going with their inhuman experiment, but that didn't seem the be case and she felt a slight relief lifting off her chest now that she knew. Ayame then put the photo back next to Hayate and let him rest. She walked out the room gently closing the door behind her.
~Germany~
Hitomi laid in her bed with her eyes still wide open. She was a mess, as she had been crying all night. She felt truly empty inside… she couldn't stop staring at the picture of her and Ein on the nightstand. The longer she stared at it the more she wanted to cry... it was beginning to make her mad at the sight. After staring at it for a good while, Hitomi got out of her bed, grabbed the photo and threw it on the wall shattering the frame in anger. She then threw herself back onto her bed and continued sobbing until she got tired of crying and fell asleep.
The next day, Hitomi was still in bed. Her father had tried to wake her up for school but Hitomi didn't want to go, she didn't even want to make breakfast nor go to the dojo for karate lessons because everything would just have reminded her of Ein. Everything was making her too depressed. Her father had left a plate of breakfast on her nightstand and he saw the shattered photo frame on the floor. He just let her be and cope, not pushing her to do anything for that day. It was not typical of Hitomi to be this way but he understood her sadness. He knew what it was like to lose someone precious to him, and plus he had to go work so there wasn't much her father could do. Hitomi ignored the food and just laid in the same position for hours, she only got up if she needed to use the bathroom. In her head, she replayed their last conversation repeatedly.
Later that day…
"Hitomi, there is someone here to see you..." Her father said from the outside of her bedroom door. No response, so he went ahead and let the person in the room by gently opening the door.
"Hitomi?" Carla softly called as she approached closer to the bed.
Hitomi turned to look.
"Carla, what are you doing here?" she asked in her tired voice. There were also shadows under her eyes, her hair was messy, her nose red and puffy. Used tissues were scattered all over the bed. The shattered photo frame still on the floor.
Carla looked at the mess with a frown and then looked back at broken Hitomi sitting on the bed with a blank facial expression.
"You look like you're dying..." Carla didn't waste any time, she walked over to Hitomi, sat on the bed next to her and then hugged her friend tightly.
"He's gone, Carla…" Hitomi got teary again, the hug was affecting her since she needed that. She had been avoiding her father and everyone all day but she didn't want to be alone anymore.
"I know sweetie, your father told me. I'm sorry to hear about Ein...it's too bad that he couldn't stay. We're all going to miss him." The only thing Carla could do was just being there for her friend. She knew that Hitomi was in love with Ein, even though she had never admitted it loudly. It was too obvious every time she saw them together.
"He's an IDIOT!" Hitomi shouted in anger and broke away from the hug. "He just gave up…he didn't even try to fight after everything, he just simply gave up…this is the last time I'm going to let any boys ruin me like this, look at me... I'm a mess, and for what?" She was letting out the frustration that had bottled up over the night.
"Where did he gone home to?" Carla asked.
"Japan..."
"Man, that's far away. Well, that explains his handsome Asian looks then." Carla added.
"Did he say that he was not into you anymore? I mean, since his memory has returned and that could happen you know, that he doesn't see you the way Ein did..." Carla tried to get more information of what happened, since Hitomi's father only told her that Ein's memories had recovered and that he had to leave for good.
"That's the thing, his feeling hadn't changed at all but he..." Hitomi stopped herself, she remembered Hayate's secret and she didn't want to tell anyone. "Um, never mind, my head hurts just trying to figure things out. He won't come back I'm sure of that."
Her voice trembled little. "I'll be fine you know, I just need time..." Hitomi assured herself.
"I know you will Hitomi, you're the strongest person I know. I'm here for you and anything you need you let me know, okay?"
Hitomi nodded gratefully.
"Hey, maybe this weekend you could join us on a camping trip? take your mind off things and get away from here for a few days, what do you say? You can watch Kurt trying to build fire without matches..." Carla suggested trying to cheer her friend up.
They then looked at each other, and then burst into laughter at the image of Kurt failing in their minds. It felt good for Hitomi to laugh even though she didn't want to. It didn't heal much but she did feel a little better. After a long depressing night, she really needed that.
"That sounds like fun. I'll think about it, thanks Carla." Hitomi gave her friend another hug. They spend the rest of the day together, Carla managed to pull Hitomi out of bed and made her shower. She even went downstairs to join her father for dinner.
