Chapter 12: And Then I Woke Up

The night looked more lively than ever, as people exited the theater after The x*'s show had ended. Hayate and Hinagiku walked out in the city streets along with the busy crowd. They still held each other's hand.

"Hayate-kun... thank you."

He nodded to her, welcoming her, still speechless from the performance that the band has given them, and for some reason, he felt really good right now. He subtly squeezed his right hand holding her left. She responded by squeezing his hand back.

Hayate suddenly felt his ears get hot, as her soft hand warmed up with his on this refreshing night on the way back home.

Days go by when he would hold her hand again. This time, they stood together at the top balcony of Hakou's tower, right out of Hinagiku's office. Hayate held her closely by the shoulder and her right hand, as they watched the orange sky engulf the city in front of their view together.

"Thanks for helping me come here again..." she said.

"No problem, Hinagiku-san," he replied. "I've done very well this semester because of you."

He heard her whisper something softly. "If only I could stay..."

"W-what?"

"Nothing!" she exclaimed. She turned her head away and looked down and over the rail, seeing how high they must be from the balcony.

'I've gotten used to holding a lot women's hands...' he thought. 'But just being close to you lately...'

He felt lost, yet didn't mind, afraid of the real answers to what he's been wanting to ask her. Was this simply a service for the student council president after she helped him with school? Or was she just as happy as he was whenever they're together? His trail of thoughts were interrupted when he felt her grip tighten around his hand. She gulped at their view from up high.

"How scary would it be if we fell from here?" she asked.

Hayate felt her hand shaking vigorously. He laughed. "Well, it almost happened before with your sister," he said. "So, it would be extremely scary, right?"

"Yeah... right..."

She continued to look worried, until she felt his grip tighten as well. He smiled to her, spreading warmth throughout her body. Her hands no longer shook as she gave in to lean against his shoulder, reassured and feeling safe with him, as they continued to stay on the balcony for the rest of that evening.

Hayate then knew the answer to his questions. He was just waiting for her to tell him. And when she did...

"Hayate-kun... stay..."

It was that on that special night. He laid next to her, comfortably embracing her underneath the blankets as she buried her head on top of his chest. Nothing but the sound of smooth breathing could be heard. Hinagiku had her ear against his chest. She chuckled.

"Your hearts beating faster," she whispered to him.

"Aha... I can feel your heart beating too!"Hayate replied. Hinagiku froze when she suddenly realized that her chest wasn't pressed against her futon.

SLAP.

Hayate laid down ten inches away from her then, with a big glowing hand mark on his confused face. He looked to his left to see Hinagiku's back turned to him. Her fully flushed face stayed hidden from his sight as she silently damned herself, not wanting to end their night like this.

"You're gonna leave now, aren't you...?"she asked him, still embarrassed of the incident and the dream she had earlier, both relating of her figure. "You probably felt like you were embracing a washboard!"

Someone sleeping in her closet snickered.

She closed her eyes shut, just wanting to sleep right away. But they opened out of surprise, when she felt Hayate's arms wrap against her waist, pulling her body against him once more, with her back against his torso. She gave in immediately, just wanting to feel more of his warmth.

And they laid like this quietly for a couple of minutes, deeply sharing their intimacy under moonlight. The sound of deeper breathing could be heard as Hinagiku slowly began to fall asleep.

"Don't let go..." she whispered. Hayate leaned his head against the back of her's, once more familiarized with her strawberry scent.

"I wish I could stay..."

Hayate smiled. 'Of course you can,' he thought. 'Even after A-Tan gets her power back...'

"But I can't..."

He stopped his thoughts and carefully listened to her.

"Wha.. what do you mean?" he asked her.

She couldn't respond. She fell asleep.

Hayate's surroundings then suddenly vanished to black. He started to panic, but couldn't move. His body still laid down and he had trouble breathing. He turned his eyes to where Hinagiku was, but she disappeared. But he could hear her from somewhere, yelling and crying.

"Stop! Please!" he heard her cry louder. "He's not worth it, Otou-san, please..."

His visions blurred when a male figure appeared right in front of him, with his arm reach out to his body, where Hayate guessed that he was choking from this man's grasp.

"Okay... I'll go. Please..."

'Go...? Go where?' he asked her.

"I'll go to Harvard."

'Wha...'

"Just don't kill him!"

"GASP!"

Hayate immediately woke up, gasping for air as he produced a lot of cold sweat. His visions were still blurry until he was finally able to breath. He looked at his surroundings. He was in a hospital room, on a hospital bed. As his visions continued to fixate, he noticed a body resting against the side of the hospital bed. It was Nagi, sleeping and drooling by his side.

"Ojou-sama..." he muttered. 'She must have been worried sick...'

Having heard the familiar voice, her eyes popped open. She looked up to see Hayate awakened and immediately jumped to hug him.

"Hayate!" she shouted. Tears fell onto his shoulder. "I thought you'd be gone forever!"

"How long... was I out?" he asked, still adjusting his mind to his current state.

Another voice was heard in the room. "Twelve days."

Hayate and Nagi both glanced upon the lady in a black dress who just entered the room. Next to her was a shorter girl in an old fashioned kimono dress.

"A-Tan?"

"Isumi-san?"

"Hayate-kun, were you dreaming while you were out?" Athena asked him.

His mind suddenly popped an image of him sleeping with a pink-haired girl as he remembered in his dreams. "Y-yeah..." he responded, slightly blushing. "It was like an exact flashback of my recent events... then everything around turned black, then I..." He paused, almost choking from remembering the pain from suffocating.

"I see," Isumi commented. "That was no coma you were in then, otherwise you shouldn't have dreamed or even remember any of them."

"What was it then?" Nagi asked.

"Dark magic," Athena said. "Someone must have used the same powers I used to have on Hayate-kun." She glanced over at him with a little sad smile. "Whoever casted that spell on you didn't finish you off properly. Otherwise, you'd be... you'd be..."

Hayate watched her eyes glisten as she couldn't finish her sentence. "A-Tan..." He wanted to get up to to comfort her, but he felt weak, still unable to move like he wanted to. Just when he pushed his body to move, he felt a sharp pain throughout his entire body.

"Ah!" he yelled.

"Hayate-kun! Don't push yourself!" Nagi screamed out of worry. She watched as her butler panted as he still struggled to move. Hayate kept struggling until he slowly sat himself up.

"I need to..." he grunted. "Need to save... Hinagiku-san..." Right when he finally sat up, he struggled out of the hospital bed and began to fall to the floor. Athena quickly caught him to her arms.

"Baka! What are you doing?!" Athena yelled as well. "And what do you mean you need to save Katsura-san?"

"Her father..."he lowly muttered, unable to talk louder due to the amount of energy he was losing so fast. Athena blinked to his response.

"Isumi-san! Can't you heal him to make him stronger?!" Nagi shouted.

"I've already used most of my powers to bring Hayate-kun back over the past twelve days," she replied. "Combined with Tennousu-sama's powers, this is the best we can do."

Athena turned around and marched out of the door.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

"I think I know who hurt Hayate. I need to get to that person before he hurts anyone else."

She exited the room, fasting her pace as more fear rushed into her mind.

'Mr. Katsura was the one who brought Hayate-kun here,' she thought. 'But he never explained what exactly happened. Something's awfully strange and familiar about that man...'

The sun began to set over Hakou Academy. Students happily walked out of the school buildings as the buildings kept on getting quieter. Hinagiku sat alone in the quiet tower, resting her head on her arms put on the table. Her table was a mess; papers everywhere along with a couple empty boxes of P*cky laid on top. She lazily watched the sunset over the open balcony.

"I'm such a fool..." she said to herself. After what she has been through, from seeing the the butler close to his ex-girlriend, to seeing him suffer close to his death, it was not what she wanted to happen. She continued to watch the sunset from her desk, unable to get on the balcony without his assistance.

She wanted to see him again, but couldn't out of embarrassment and fear, especially when she knew her father would not approve of her visit.

She felt dumb. "Hayate is an idiot!" she yelled out of her mind. "And yet, I still love him..."

A knock on her door was heard. She quickly sat up properly and organized her papers in just a few seconds. "C-come in!" she shouted.

The doors opened to reveal her father. "Hina-chan, it's getting late," Mr. Katsura said. "So I came here out of curiosity on my way home from the store."

"S-sorry, Otou-san..." she muttered. She couldn't look straight into her father's eye. Ever since he almost killed Hayate, Hinagiku felt something strange about her father, which overwhelmed her with fear.

He slowly walked to her desk as he gazed around the room. "Not bad for my daughter..." he said. "I'm sure you'll like it better over at Harvard."

She saddened when she heard that last word. It used to make her so excited whenever she heard it, but now, after making so many friends, and then meeting him...

"I'm... I don't know if I want to go anymore..." she said. He glanced at her from the front of her desk. She trembled and looked away from his glance. His hands reached over the desk and laid on top her shoulders. She closed her eyes, fearing something might happen.

"It's okay, Hina-chan," he said. "I respect whatever decision you will make. You are my incredibly intelligent daughter, after all."

She opened her eyes to her father, feeling reassured by his comfort. She gasped when his eyes glowed bright purple and his face growled at her. She pushed him away and ran towards the balcony door.

"Otou-san!" she shouted. "What's happening to you?"

Suddenly, the entrance door was kicked opened. "Stop right there!" Athena shouted as she ran into the room.

"Tennousu-san?"

"Stay away from him, Katsura! That is not your father!"

'As I thought.'

Bright lights of crystal formed into a sword to the pink-haired warrior's left hand. Hinagiku positioned herself in battle mode, facing the figure of her father glowing in violet energy. Before she could even charge, the figure glowed blindly bright before revealing a different form. A large floating skeletal figure appeared behind the possessed father figure.

"King Midas..." Athena muttered, just as she knew since she left the hospital.

"Fools," King Midas said through Mr. Katsura's body, followed by his dreaded laughter. "I now have you both where I want..."

Hayate ran towards the student council room along with Isumi, still processing his treatment, just when an explosion was heard just behind the door he now stood in front of. He gulped, fearing that the worst may have happened.

He opened the door and gasped. Gone were half the walls and the entire ceiling of the student council room, revealing the entire sunset shining its orange color on what's left of this room. Broken furniture, piles of wood all over the floor, and two girls laying on the floor unconsciously, covered in dust and bruises. His eyes widened when he saw neither of them barely move an inch.

"A-Tan! Hinagiku-san!" he shouted. He ran first to Athena, who was closer to the door he came through as Hinagiku laid by the balcony. He picked Athena off the floor and sat her upright against a broken shelf.

"Wake up, A-Tan! Wake up!"

He gently shook her by the shoulders, desperately wanting her to wake up. It was no use. Her eyes were barely open, staring right through the butler. Blood slipped out of her mouth and rolled down her chin.

"A-Tan...? A-Tan..."

Hinagiku began to hear that familiar voice. She knew exactly who that was, and it excited her to slowly regain her conscious. But as she heard more of his voice...

"A-Tan, please... please wake up... A-Tan..."

Why must he say her name instead? Why couldn't he see the one who's actually breathing and has a chance to live?

Hinagiku's eyes opened wide at such a thought. 'No wonder why... he wouldn't choose me,' she thought. 'I'm such a horrible person...' She stayed laying against the floor full of shame, watching Hayate cry and embrace a dead girl in his arms. Hinagiku wished that she was the one dead and closed her eyes, just wanting to go to sleep. As she laid still on the floor, she heard footsteps coming towards her.

"Hinagiku-san?"

She kept her eyes closed, wondering what the butler would do. She felt her body getting picked up, then was put against something to keep her sitting upright. She felt his strong hands on her shoulders as he gently shook her. As he shook her more, Hinagiku felt happy to be in his care, yet slowly felt her consciousness slip away.

She could no longer open her eyes. This was it. To be in Hayate's arms during her final moment. Hinagiku formed a smile.

'Dying doesn't seem that bad... when I'm with you...'

She felt her heart beat slower by the second as she felt coldness all over her body. It was painful, but she still felt some kind of warmth around her heart.

Specifically, her chest.

"It's beating."

Hinagiku widened her eyes opened and glanced down at Hayate's head firmly against her chest, pressed to his ear. Her entire body fired up, flowing all the energy put into her left hand and smacked Hayate so hard, it flew him three meters away from her.

"H-h-he-hen-hentai!" she shouted, furiously blushing as she covered her chest with her arms.

Hayate rubbed his face, feeling the sting from her hand. He immediately forgot the pain, as he felt really relieved.

"Hinagiku-san, you're alive," he said. "Thank goodness..."

She blinked. She forgot that she was almost dying!

"Ah, yeah. I guess I am..." she said, rubbing the back of her head. She glanced over his shoulder, looking at Athena laying still, as Isumi next to her was casting some spell on her.

'Tennousu-san...' she thought. 'She died protecting me...' Hinagiku's mind replayed the moment when Athena jumped right in front of her, right before King Midas caused an explosion and disappeared.

"Hayate-kun..." she said. "I'm going to find that bastard and kill him."

"Well then, go ahead and kill me."

Hinagiku and Hayate both glanced up to see King Midas and Mr. Katsura's body floating over the room, preparing a giant glowing violet bomb in his hand.

"Not again!" Hinagiku said. There was no time to react, as Mr. Katsura's body threw the bomb towards them.

Hayate stood still at awe as he felt a huge amount of energy come their way. It felt the same as before, when Mr. Katsura was strangling him. His body couldn't move again at such a thought. Suddenly, he felt his arms being grabbed by Hinagiku, who pulled the both of them out of the way with nowhere in the room to dodge, so she quickly jumped out of the balcony with Hayate.

The entire balcony was obliterated as Hayate and Hinagiku flew high from the impact of the second explosion. Hinagiku clung to Hayate, arms and legs locked around his body, with acrophobia hitting her to the fullest as she their bodies quickly fell down from the top of the tower.

Hayate snapped back to his senses, as Hinagiku uncontrollably screamed into his ear. They were falling. They were falling very fast over the sunset. He came up with a quick idea.

"Hinagiku-san! I need you to-!"

"Ahhh! We're gonna dieee!" she cried.

"You need to-!"

"I love you! I love you, Hayate-kun!"