The Galaxies In Between | Hananene One-shot

― in between.

"So, she did fulfil her promise."

He whispered to the air, to no one in particular. For years, his spiritual body wandered the halls of the old building of Kamome Gakuen. Not as the human Amane Yugi, but as one of the seven mysteries, their leader, also known as―

Toire no Hanako-san.

When everyone died peacefully, and moved on happily to their next lives,. He became a wish granting ghost to repent from his sins of killing his twin brother. His line of work includes granting a single wish, with a price in return.

And it has been like this for the past 50 years.

He had no one by his side, because of his sins, he can't move on to his next life or be reincarnated. He didn't even had any friends to talk to and pass the time. He didn't had enough courage back then to protect the one thing that gave meaning to his unworthy, lonely life.

And by that thought, his mind started to be caught up on to his endless flow of memories when he was still alive in the near shore. The walls that he built around himself always seemed to crumble when she's near. Each kind of love blossomed around them, everything was engraved in his mind and each one he knew by heart. It's kind of funny, really. If you love someone, you've got to protect it right?

But he didn't.

More like, he couldn't.

He didn't even had the chance to explain and tell her how he really felt.

Maybe, that really was her fate. To die at such a young age. To die in his arms. But if he changed his future, why couldn't he change hers? She was bound to die back then, but he wasn't sure if she moved on to her next life.

If she did, then he hoped it wouldn't turn out like her past life.

He hoped too, that she wouldn't be entangled into his mess.

Oh, how naïve he was.

He dreamt of seeing her once more, as his memories replayed over and over, but one thing that he seemed to forgot was her smile. The smile she used to show him only. The smile that he learned to love and yearn for.

Maybe it was because of the time? It has been too long since he last saw her― if ever they'll meet again.

And from there, he started to regret. He regretted not accepting her in his life, he regretted not trusting himself back then, and he regretted not being able to enjoy and move onto the next life with her.

What a shame.
Such a shame it was indeed.

But then, that faithful day, when it only took one chant for his life to take a turn― for him, it was for the better. He remembered it like it was yesterday.

"Hanako-san, Hanako-san, . . Are you there?"

And there, he felt like he had a second life. A second chance to protect her from any kind of danger around her. A second chance to love― her.

He swore to himself that he'll be there when she called for him, in times when supernaturals are harming her, in times when she needed comfort and be the one she would grab her strength to live on another day.

And the smile that he forgot as time passed by, it was became more clearer and brighter in his mind, and it was mesmerizing.

It was because it was Yashiro Nene's.

She was the only one who can make his non beating heart flutter, his breathing faster, his face flushed, his life brighter, no matter what time, consequence or situation,