She couldn't take it anymore. Mikasa sat outside the hospital door, her face clouded in despair. She couldn't bring herself to visit Nishiya. It was her fault. It was all her fault. If she did not run into the street, if she did not go to meet him...

She ran, not giving a single thought about the pouring rain mixing with her tears.

If she never was in his life in the first place...

Aurora stood in front of the statue of Admiral Togo, a slight frown on her face. The Russian navy was still restoring her hull, so she had a lot of time off. Aurora took a look around again, past the few foreign tourists milling around, past the gift shop near the shore, past the bus stop, and past the last pre-dreadnought battleship in existence.

She walked aboard the ship and entered the ship's superstructure. She moved a staff-only sign out of her way and walked down to the lower levels. Within the depths of the ship's hull lay its magazines. There was no ammunition on board, as the ship was a memorial ship. When Aurora turned the corner which lead to the forward turret magazine, she sighed.

"Finally found you," she said emotionlessly. Mikasa looked up at Aurora, her Type 26 revolver clattering to the ground.

"Oh, hey," she said emotionlessly. "When did you get here?" Aurora sat down next to Mikasa.

"Just now." She sighed. "Verniy was right. You are a wreck." She noticed some deformed bullets on the floor.

"It's ridiculous, right?" Mikasa said. She managed a forced laugh. "I can't even shoot myself properly." She emptied her revolver of empty casings. Aurora pulled out her Nagant revolver and leveled it at Mikasa's head. She pulled the trigger, and a deafening bang echoed through the room. What followed was silence, only broken by the deformed bullet clattering to the ground.

"Told you," Mikasa said. Aurora swore and returned her revolver to its original place.

"It was worth a try,"she said.

"It's my fault he got hurt," Mikasa said to herself. "It's my fault he died."

Aurora remained silent, aware Mikasa was talking about two different people.

"You had no control over any of that," Aurora replied. Mikasa shifted her gaze away from her revolver, reaching for the deformed bullets on the ground.

"What happened to you were accidents. You killed no one," Aurora continued. Her gaze shifted to her own revolver.

"You didn't have to shoot your own men..."

Mikasa remained silent. Aurora fired on White forces during the October Revolution as part of the Red Army.

"Point is," Aurora began. "None of what happened was your fault. Stop acting like you can control everything around you as if you are some almighty being, because you're not."

Mikasa narrowed her eyes.

"Still..."

Aurora sighed.

"You're going to need to face him at some point." She smiled. "At least you can see him again."

Mikasa nodded as Aurora walked out of the room. Mikasa's hand reached for her revolver again as she got up. When she arrived at her quarters, she tossed the revolver onto her bed as she collapsed on top of her pillow.

"'Do you believe in reincarnation?' huh," Mikasa muttered. She smiled as her tears stained her pillow.

"What do you think?"

Nishiya yawned.

Fortunately, the accident did not kill him, but left some lasting effects. His right leg was broken and his left arm was temporarily paralyzed. He lay there in his bed with nothing to do.

Nishiya glanced over at the door, as if he waited for someone.

Plenty of people had visited him after the accident, particularly his friends. A tank shaped cake sat on the table next to him. Nishiya chuckled at it.

"How the hell am I going to eat that?" he joked. Nishiya set the cake back on the table.

He sighed.

Nishiya knew Mikasa wouldn't visit him.

"Hope she didn't take anything personally," he said to himself. "She did nothing wrong..."

There was a knock at the door.

Noriyuki walked in.

"Hey there cripple," he said playfully, his mouth in a wide teasing smile. "I got some questions for ya."

Nishiya groaned.

"Dear God no..."

Noriyuki chuckled at Nishiya's response.

"Jokes aside," he continued. "You alright there? I heard you bounced off the road after the damn car hit you."

Nishiya nodded in reply, though he winced slightly as a sudden spike of pain zipped through his body.

"Yeah," said he. "I'm fine."

Noriyuki sighed at this fairly easy-to-read lie. He then proceeded to place a stack of papers onto the table next to Nishiya.

"Homework," Noriyuki said, at which Nishiya groaned.

"When am I supposed to finish this by?" Nishiya asked. Noriyuki shrugged his shoulders.

"End of the month, I guess?" he tried. "You don't need to do it all in a hurry."

Noriyuki would have continued if not for the fact that Nishiya had already begun work.

Latorre entered the apartment once school ended for the day. She went through her usual routine of dropping her bag off near the door, washing her hands, and checking Mikasa's room. As she entered the dark room, the lights had been turned off for some reason, Mikasa raised her body up from her bed to look up at the person who entered.

"Oh," Mikasa said. "Hi Canada."

Latorre found no point in complaining about what Mikasa called her at this point. She noted a few wet spots on Mikasa's pillow. Tear stains, perhaps.

"How long were you crying?" Latorre asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

Mikasa, seeing no point in denying what she had been doing, simply replied with a "No idea."

Latorre sighed. She sat down next to Mikasa, pulling out her phone as she did so. The light from the screen glowed dimly in the darkness as Latorre subconsciously scrolled through the gallery.

Photos of people she knew reflected from her now seemingly lifeless eyes.

"I saw Kongo and the others earlier," Latorre mentioned. Mikasa perked her ears up at this, as if it was something very much out of the ordinary.

"You did?" she asked. Latorre nodded in reply.

"Yep," said she. Latorre paused for a moment before continuing.

"I saw Asahi as well."

Latorre could hear Mikasa's audible gasp in response.

Battleship Asahi came into the world roughly around the time Mikasa did. They journeyed together. They fought together. They cried together. When Mikasa became a memorial ship, Asahi promised to carry on in the navy. She became a training ship in the 1920s, then as a submarine salvage ship. In '37, she became a temporary troop transport ship, then a torpedo depot ship in '39.

The old battleship, her hull aged 44, and Mikasa's last friend from the pre-dreadnought days, was sunk by the submarine USS Salmon on May 22nd, 1942.

Mikasa pulled her covers closer as she remembered. Noting this, Latorre put her phone back into her pocket before getting up from the bed.

"You aren't the only one who sees ghosts," said she. Then she left the room.

Author's notes: Long wait was long. Yes. I am aware of that. I guess I just ran out of steam for a bit lol.

Please rate and review. It motivates me to write more.

-SPSH Karl