Cutscene: Every Day the Sun Shines Upon a New World (End)

Yuigahama Yui had thought she could become stronger. Perhaps not in the way Hikki-kun or Yukinon were. She could not imagine a world where she had to carry everything by herself in the light, having to put up her best face to look unshakable, but she imagined something would rub off on her so that was fine with her.

Then the two of them were gone, and everything spiralled out of her grasp as suddenly as she met her clubmates.

The days went in a daze. Her classroom was not the same when Hayama Hayato stopped attending too, and her group of friends had… Become different, to say the least.

Three very important lights in her life had been blown just like that, and Yui was not too sure if something important within her had not gone out alongside Hikki and Yukinon's…

Anyways.

Life went on even if she was not wholly there, none of her friends were anyway. And so the world kept spinning and day came, then left. Night came, and then left. She realized she was a little dead inside, but there was little she could do about it. Yui was basically prisoner in her own body, unable to grasp enough of her will to snap out of her stupor and do something about the way her life was crashing.

If only Yukinon and Hikki were there, she could at least pretend to be strong.

She knew it was pointless going to see them at the hospital. Nothing would change. No magical solution would bring back her friends, because mysterious turns of events were always for the worse. Miracles only existed in stories, and Yui would have chuckled at the thought that was so Hikki to have come from her if only the boy would open his eyes again and comment on it.

And he did.

Now a third year at Sobu High, Yui went to see him again. Only to be met by chaos, sobbing, and a lot of screaming. The boy was way too frail, his body had withered with the absolute stillness it had been subjected to, and Hikki had this glint in his eyes that just made Yui know something really awful had happened.

The rest of their meeting was a bit blurry in her mind. They hugged and he was so frail Yui felt as if he would break under the strength of her arms. They cried and he had never seen Hachiman so blatantly unprotected, so genuinely devastated as to scream until his voice left him.

It would have been heartening, if Hayato and Yukinon had not died the same day.

"Ah, Yui-san." Hikigaya Komachi grew up in the last year. She now resembled her brother an awful lot closer, with the bags under her eyes and general grogginess that came with being woken up in the middle of the night on a semi-regular basis.

"H-Hi." Yui studied her. At least she looked at ease for now, so Hikki was probably stable and out of his room "May I come in?"

"Come, come. Make yourself at home." The younger girl stepped out of the way and led her in. Yui already knew the general layout of the house, though it looked a lot more barren after the Hikigaya parents had to sell things to cover the expenses of Hikki's comma.

And speaking of which, the teen in question was sitting on the couch with Yukinoshita Haruno beside him.

"Eh?" They were both engrossed each in a figurine that they were stroking with small brushes to paint them. They shared a blanket on their laps, and Yui could not help noticing the elder woman also looked rather thin.

And it hit her: Haruno had been put to sleep as well.

"Ah, Gahama-chan." Haruno placed her figurine down and greeted her rather hollowly. Her usual smile was in place, but she looked even more tired the moment she laid her eyes on Yui "Came to visit?"

"Huh… Hi, Haruno-san. Hikki…" Her greeting was met with a curt nod from her former clubmate, but he chose not to stop his work. He had become distant, not in the usual Hikki way, but rather… Disconnected. Like Yui herself had been.

Then his eyes wandered to the small box she held in her hands.

"Cake?" His question made Yui blink, who forgot for a moment she was indeed carrying cake.

"Oh! Yes! It's chocolate, would you like to…?"

"Yes, please." That got a reaction out of him.

Hikki placed his stuff down on the table quickly, his eyes darting around the house in quick succession as if he was waiting for something to jump out of the edges of his vision.

"Don't overdo it." Haruno warned him "You just ate something, there's no need to eat right now."

"Onii-chan is doing his exercises, he's not going to get fat… Probably." Komachi scratched her cheeks, pensive. Hikki was already strong enough to stand with his own strength and wander around the house unsupervised. Yui had helped him move up or downstairs a couple of times, but he probably did it by himself already too.

Hikki stopped for a moment, his eyes squarely on Haruno's before looking at Yui and his sister. He placed a hand on his stomach.

"I'm full." He sighed.

"Then don't eat, of course." Haruno-san replied calmly. Hikki nodded again.

"I'll take this to the fridge, then." Komachi wasn't too worried about the exchange either… Was this the usual thing? Had Haruno-san been visiting Hikki too? Why?

She had to miss Yukinon too, they were sisters after all. Was this her way of mourning? If so, Yui would respect it. Although she had her issues with the elder woman, the truth was Hikki seemed oddly at ease around her.

Hikki's safety and rehabilitation should be her top priority. What kind of friend would she be putting her feelings before his well-being?

She would ask Hikki if he was alright with that, though. In private, hopefully he would be just as calm when Haruno-san left. He probably would, since Hikki had always been strong like that.

After that, Yui sat down to Hikki's left and began talking about her day.

It was a routine now. She would talk and tell him about the things he had missed while he stayed unconscious. Yui would talk in great length about the new trends and stuff that became popular, and Hikki listened to her with great perplexion. Not for kindness' sake as before, but actually following along even though he did not understand half of what Yui was saying.

Haruno-san chimed in to fill in information for Yui and the conversation moved along. Komachi-chan fell asleep on the other couch and the girls lowered their voice so as to not disturb the younger Hikigaya.

Things were… Alright. Not good, since they would never be again without Yukinon. But Yui felt as if the worst of all of this mass comatose incident was well behind them. She could picture herself doing this. Going every weekend to see how Hikki was doing, and when he got healthy again she would help him catch up to his studies. He would maybe lose a year and be her kouhai when he got to college but… He would make it.

The would both come out on top of, in the end. Perhaps that was the least she could do in Yukinon's memory: Do her best, and never give up on what she wanted. Hikki agreed to it, albeit with a bittersweet feeling to it. Yui did not understand it.

"Shall we go visit her?" Haruno-san asked once it looked like the sun would start setting "I meant to go alone, but this is a great opportunity. Do you want to, Gahama-chan?"

Of course she wanted to. Well, not really but she did. Ugh… Visiting the dead was always this difficult, right? Besides, Yui doubted Hikki had gone to see Yukinon's grave. She did not know how he would react, but her mom said it was an important part of accepting death. If something went wrong, Yui wanted to be there to help.

"Yes."

"...Okay." Hikki nodded as well, prompting Haruno-san to make a call to her driver.

The ride went on in silence, although Yui was too busy dealing with her mixed feelings to mind. She needed to be strong for Hikki's sake, so she had to get herself together or else she would burst out crying there and then.

Hayato's grave was close by too, and Hikki was honestly interested in going too. So they did. It was only then that the silence became too much to Yui.

"I miss him." She didn't really know what else to say, so she conveyed her feelings.

"Bet he's happy now." What the hell, Haruno-san?

"Mhm." Hikki too? What… Was that why he wanted to come? To badmouth him? "Bastard came out on top, huh."

"I'm a bit jealous." Haruno-san replied "Bet he's all smug now too!"

Hikki looked at the sky "Nah, bet he's babysitting those idiot now."

"True, true…"

"Huh… What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, Gahama-chan." Haruno chuckled.

"Something I dreamed of." Hikki looked away from her.

Weird. And worrisome. If they were like this in Hayato's presence… Well, they had to behave in Yukinon's, right?

"...I miss her too." Okay, what was she expecting? The moment they moved to Yukinon's, the two of them became as silent as ghosts. Yui honestly would have rather had them fool around a bit "Sometimes I see her in my dreams."

"What does she tell you?" Hikki closed his eyes while asking.

"Eh? Ah… She wants to see me." Yui looked at her feet "I wish I could hug her for real. But I… I…"

"Perhaps it's for the best." Haruno-san chimed in "If no one told her to keep going forward, perhaps she would break."

"I… See?" Yui turned back to look at Haruno-san. Her face was unreadable and… "Huh? Hikki?"

The teen was covering one of his eyes while staring at Yukinon's picture in stoic silence. He changed sides and kept staring without minding Yui at all.

"Stop that." Haruno-san's face was still neutral, but she sounded really annoyed "They're gone. She's gone. It's not going to change."

Hikki dropped his hands "Don't talk about things you can't see as if you did."

Haruno's answer was to crouch down and touch the stone in front of her, caressing it with her whole palm as if she was trying to get it to sparkle. She stood up, actually vexed for once.

"You're messing with me, stop messing with me."

Hikki just shrugged.

"Uh…"

"Yui-san." Hikki addressed her, making Yui stand to attention as if she was in the army.

"Y-Yes?!"

"If you want to know." He licked her lips, as if he really needed to drink something "Ask Yukino the next time she visits you in dreams."

"Eh?! Hikki you're being mean!" Yui came moments away from hitting her former clubmate, but she stopped short. Maybe he was not strong enough to shrug a punch off like before. And that would be uncalled for "Mou! You should have stayed home!"

Hikki turned to her, the light of the last sun rays obscuring half of his face while Haruno-san stared a bit warily at him.

He snapped his fingers, and Yui would have swore she saw a small spark come out between them.

"I'm just trying to lighten up the mood."

They left after that. Yui would totally report back to Komachi than Hachiman was even having his usual bad sense of humor back. Which was good, because it meant progress. But bad, because Hikki's sense of humor was just awful.

But Yui would not forget. These two knew something, and if the Yukinon in her mind knew something… No, that could not be. She was a part of her imagination, of her desire to not let go. She was not real.

In the same way the motes of light were not real at all.

The End.

A/N

Alright, we're done! Thanks to everyone that stuck with me until the bitter end. This is my very first finished story, and I know things went south really fast but that's how we learn, right? Besides, I want to think the story did its work for someone out there.

Maybe see you in the review section of my other stuff. Bye~!