Sometimes he wondered if Keiwa ever realised how much his presence really affected the people around them. How important their existence truly is, even if no one really acknowledged it aloud about their true feelings about that man.

If only he could make Keiwa understand, how truly irreplaceable they were that the moment Keiwa's path had started to go astray... that would be when everything else around them would start to fall apart...

I started noticing, my unchanging world,

Began to warp and distort—

My hands trembling hard, out of the blue

Burst out inside of me, strength than empowers me~

Just be a Tycoon!

He should have noticed the signs much earlier and taken better actions to ease the deep sorrow Keiwa was feeling inside him. When Nadge-Sparrow suddenly broke the truth of his mother's true identity to him, he was at a loss for what to do with that knowledge. And then Keiwa just had to be there and hear all of that raw information unprepared.

It hurt him so much to see Keiwa cry their heart out in absolute pain, finding out that the death of the Sakurai couple had some connection to his mother. It was as bad as the time he heard Keiwa sing a song in the style of a ballad for the first time. Then again, it was probably because the original lyrics for Izanagi were already so sad... so when Keiwa sang the song in a slow and melancholic way, it awoke so many different emotions inside of him that he thought had long disappeared.

Therefore the next time he caught Keiwa singing a ballad song all by himself, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to shower his love for Keiwa and comfort their heart. Because he didn't like seeing Keiwa sad or dejected... thinking that they were nothing compared to the other DGP players. It made him want to let Keiwa know how precious they were to him. How irreplaceable was Keiwa's presence to him in his life...

Yet that time, he wasn't able to fully ease the pain that Keiwa was feeling nor comfort their heart properly. As much as he tried to tell Keiwa that there must be a good explanation for everything, it was still too much for Keiwa to deal with by himself. And he couldn't even blame Keiwa for feeling that way; how could he deny Keiwa's feelings after finding out that his mother might have been responsible for the death of their parents? How could he even ask that person to calm down and think rationally, when it was about something so personal? It would have been insensitive of him and selfish to ignore Keiwa's feelings about his mother even if he wanted his lover to know that it's impossible for his mother to be such a cruel hateful figure!

He could have tried to talk to Keiwa even more afterwards, once he had rescued his mother and discerned the truth from the lies Nadge-Sparrow might have told them when the person had revealed the information about his mother much earlier. But before he could do that, he was killed untimely due to his own foolishness and the cunningness of his many enemies...

xxx

JUST GO as your heart desired!

To that desired world, far from the gloom and struggles

Someone needing help right before me, don't tell me to abandon them,

I can't just look away now!

There's so much for just him to have to deal with everything, all by himself. So when he comes back to the land of the living, all he can think of is to find ways where he could try to rescue his mother... as well as change that other person's mind to try finding another way towards their own salvation, without hurting anyone else including Keiwa. After all, deep inside... he could tell that Buffa wasn't a bad person.

Since he saw that Keiwa seemed fine by himself, trying to protect his sister who had somehow joined the DesiGra themselves for some kind of reason... he thought that Keiwa should be able to take care of himself, alongside his sister and Na-go. Yet, how could he anticipate... that something crucial might have changed inside of Keiwa, due to their past experience and heartache while being involved in the DesiGra?

How could he know... that shortly after he had fallen in the midst of his battle with Gazer during the last Jyamato Grand Prix, Keiwa had also died during that round and now revived again for some reason—And somehow that experience altered Keiwa's perception of what kind of reality they're facing inside the DGP?

Had he known—

Different wishes comes together, clashing against one another

Let me look for the shining wish where I... will be able to recover my Peace!

After losing his mother... he vowed to himself that he'd do all that he could to fix all of the wrongs that had happened due to the management's manipulation of his mother's powers. And he had also wanted to protect and give back some happiness to Keiwa, who kept on receiving so much pain and hurt due to being dragged into the DGP... partly because of his actions. The wishes he had were so simple—or could it be even grander than anything Keiwa could've thought of—yet why was it so hard to keep pursuing that goal without having things end up going sideways?

"Where have you taken Tsumuri—? What are you planning to do with her...?"

"This is your fault for not atoning for your mother's sins properly! This is your fault for allowing my sister to die—!"

That brief period when the distance between him and Keiwa had grown bigger had been the most painful experience he had ever had to endure. Yet he still wanted to believe that he'd be able to recover his loved one's heart again and grant them their happiness again.

To that end, Ace would do all he can to make sure that wish comes into bloom...

Even if it meant sacrificing himself in the process.

To make sure that Sakurai Keiwa wouldn't have to cry by himself anymore...

A/N: Smh I felt like I'm speedrunning the plot here... heh. Ah well.