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My best friend, Kazuma Asougi...
“Ryuunosuke.”
I try to dig through my mind for an explanation but none comes. Something to help me understand how we all ended up in this situation. Nothing. Everything seems lost in time and Susato's worried tone next to me doesn't help my heart relax.
My best friend, Kazuma Asougi... Isn't dead.
Why isn't he? He's supposed to be dead. For a year now, even! Ever since that day...
~~~
“He has suffered great injuries in his head and has been unconscious for quite a while. I'm sorry...”
“You mean he's....”
“Mr. Naruhodou, Kazuma Asougi won't make it. Consider him dead already.”
“.....”
“I'm sorry.”
~~~
I've always wondered how one can announce someone's death so bluntly.
I tried to look over my friend's eyes, searching for an answer in there. Again, I found none. I didn't expect me to. He seemed to have lost his memory ever since the incident.
But now it had somehow returned?
Yes, I could see the difference. The way his dark eyes had suddenly light up as if escaping a forever long darkness. The way he looked so scared... So confused when he took off that mask and turned around to see me. He was searching for my image. His shoulders seemed to visibly relax once he had spotted me and the only thing I could do was smile. Smile to reassure him and to also calm my own self from this sudden situation.
“Asougi...”
“Welcome home.” I whispered and everything went silent for more than a few moments. Susato, thankfully, thought of breaking this spell of silence.
“Kazuma-sama, you're.. Back! You're alive!”
Anything after that was a blur. I didn't need to hear anything else. He was here. He was alive. But I could never be sure until I held his own hand in mine. Felt his cold fingertips against my warm ones and felt his shuddering breath against my ear. He was a broken man. A broken man with sins to bare down his back. But I'd be damned if I didn't help those poor, lost eyes that searched for a home.
I'd be his home.
Because I knew those eyes and those eyes belonged to Kazuma Asougi.
My lover.
~~~
That night, we talked again like acquaintances. That night, we hugged again like friends. That night, we kissed again like lovers.
It was a dream. Surely it must be. Either that or I'm dead myself and this is heaven. Because a world with Kazuma could be nothing but heaven.
Ryuunosuke... He kept calling to me and I could do nothing but gasp in his hold. I was shaking like a leaf this whole time, singing out songs to him, songs sweet to his ears as his lips hushed me once more. Only he could hear those sounds. Only him...
His gaze fell on me and I found myself shuddering. He no longer looked scared or melancholic. He looked asserting yet warm. He looked...
He looked like Kazuma.
I know those eyes.
That same day earlier, I believed my best friend to be dead. And when I found out he wasn't, I thought his memories were locked away, hidden, never to be seen again.
But he was here. My Kazuma was here. Not the masked apprentice. Not the man that looked at me ever so coldly when I entered the courtroom. That wasnt Kazuma.
This man is dead.