Author's Note: And here begins the next arc, being the arc of seeing whats been happening to Hashira all this time afterall this is a Hashira x BEN fanfiction and we can't just have BEN's descent into madness. Please enjoy and leave a review.

Hashira Akana sighed as she left her apartment and went to go shopping. It had been 5 years since she last saw Ben, and she was saving up money ever since to take a trip back to her old town in hopes of surprising her nerdling with a visit. Hopefully those bullies got stopped by the teachers while she was gone. She always regretted not responding back to Ben, but by the time she had got to her new home, and worked up the courage to talk to him again and read his messages, he never once responded back to her. It hurt and still she gave him his space, and hoped he didn't hate her but she never once got any response from him to confirm anything.

She never wanted to really admit it at the time, but she did have a crush on Ben back then, but always thought it was just a silly little crush because they were both kids. Ben's proclamation of love was too much for her at the time so she had to get out of there, she knew the relationship wouldn't work out and couldn't handle it, especially since she already had to deal with moving. While his proclamation was touching back then, it was only the last drop of water for the dam to break. Ben had been through everything with her, when her cat died he was there with her as they gave a mini funeral despite not getting the body or the ashes back from the vet, Ben had been with her to bring her to safety when she was bullied for crying. Ben was always there and she ran from him.

That was why she wanted to go back, now that she was old enough and had a job, she wanted to go back and see him again, to tell him she was sorry. It had been hard, the first few months, him not responding to her messages but after meeting Janina it got easier. Their stories often distracted her enough to temporarily forget the fact that Ben never responded.

Speaking of them there they are, waving at her from the other side of the street, once again wearing their standard attire of blue shirt and black gym pants, not to mention their red shoes that clash with the rest of their clothes, their short black hair that frames their face hiding their brown eyes. Hashira smiled and waved at them as she ran over to the cross walk so she could get over there.

"Hey! Didn't think I see you out here today."

"Hey Janina!" Hashira smiled as she finally got to her friend, "I'm just out here shopping. I almost have enough money to go visit Ben for the first time in years."

"That's great to hear! Must have taken a while to get so much money." They grinned at that. "Think you can raise enough and more before the garage sales happen in the suburbs? You can get him a present there too."

"Hopefully! I am going to go looking for a new game too, but old Legend of Zelda stuff will definitely be the best present I could get for him."

"That's hard to find these days. Most of them gotten corrupted thanks to kids back then not handling them right."

"Yeah and all the glitches and hacking too. Ben never glitched his games, it would be hard to find one unglitched for him." Hashira sighed, "Which is why I'm going to get him a brand new game too, just in case."

"Good idea, better to be safe than sorry. We can test it out if it's on a system I got, can't guarantee though that my systems work, but I doubt that one can find both the games and system on the same day."

"Yeah, I used to have my brother's N64 before I gave it to Ben before the whole..incident.."

"Still not even on read status with the messages?"

"I showed you his last messages before he stopped responding all together."

They put a hand on her shoulder. "He probably got a new phone after dropping it. You did say that he's clumsy."

"Yeah but still... He knew my number by heart, he would've tried texting me again.." She looked down with a sigh.

"Tell you what, I'll pay for your groceries so you can see him even sooner without worrying over food. If he somehow turned into a jerk you can just push him nicely down the stairs."

Hashira smiled a bit then, "Thanks Janina, I doubt it'll come to that, the lil nerdling and I hate jerks with a passion."

"Peer Pressure is a horrible thing Hashira, if that's the case you can set him straight again." They giggle at that wordplay.

"I will Janina don't worry." She grinned a bit, "maybe after grocery shopping we can stop by the coffee shop since it's still early?"

"Great idea. I need some coffee in me before I can pull an all nighter again."

"Janina, those all nighters will be the death of you one day"

"You say that as if it's a bad thing. One day the sun comes crashing down and you know what I do? Pull an all nighter and attempt to play Icarus."

"Which one? the old one or the 3DS version?"

"I mean the actual Greek myth with it. This is what happens when game companies use existing name, always have to clarify things."

"Oh yeah." Hashira smiled, "well when you grow up being best friends with a gamer always assume video game."

"Good tactic. Next time I clarify it first." They grin then. "Now come on, we're wasting daylight."

"Yeah!"

It had been a few weeks, but Hashira finally arrived by bus to her old town. She felt nostalgia as she walked past the garage sales looking for her old friend's house. She remembered always walking home from school with Ben and wished desperately that he would still be home playing his games like normal.

As she approached the address she looked up, her green eyed contacts still in as she was suddenly confused. There was a garage sale at Ben's house but an old man was there instead. That was weird, she didn't even recognize the guy meaning he wasn't from around here, but maybe he had a clue of where Ben was. She approached the old man's table and shivered at the glare he gave her, maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"How may I help you today miss?" The old man asked as his expression went from hate to happy in less than a split second.

"I'm just passing through and looking for an old friend who used to live at this house. But it looks like he isn't here?"

"The old owners of this house were shot down and the son was never found. The people killed the owners were never caught either." The old man flat out said, "I don't need all this stuff that was left here so it's being given away."

Hashira could feel her heart and world shattering upon his words, why didn't they just ask around for Ben's friend aka or give the stuff to other relatives. Why wasn't there anything about this on the news? On other news, Ben was gone and either dead or in danger?! Tears started to form in her eyes, as her grip on her bag, which held a wrapped up present for Ben that held a Wii U and Hyrule Warriors, tightened.

"If you used to know him, it's probably for the best you get the last game still here from the kid." The old man leaned down and rumbled through a box pulling out an old N64 that still had Majora's Mask inside, Ben's console and game, the game he was playing when she rejected him.

"For free?" She asked, she knew exactly how old that system and game were, such things were priceless to her and worth a lot for many others. She's certain that others would have paid at most one grand for a N64 which still works perfectly.

"For free. Now it's probably best you get going miss, it's not safe out here after dark nowadays." The old man chuckled a little too darkly for Hashira's taste.

"Alright, goodbye then. Thank you for giving me this." She said as she walked away but not before hearing a 'Goodbye Ben' but she thought it was just a mishearing of Ben.

She wouldn't put that past her, now everything reminds her of Ben, from the way she's walking on the sidewalk where they had always ran and even just looking at the street where they once lost a nerf dart, everything reminds her of him. She gripped the game tightly, as if it were Ben, and didn't want to let go for fear of it disappearing into dust.