Fade To Black

The morning light filtered softly through the rooftop, its warmth pushing back the mild chill.

A playful grin stretched across Crow’s face. He slapped the training pads together with a sharp smack.

“Let’s go, kid!” he called out to Hinata.

Hinata tightened the bandages wrapped around her fists and arms. “You’re too much into this, are you sure you’ll be fine?”

“What do you mean? I eat nails for breakfast.” Crow joked.

She rolled her eyes. With a deep breath, her stance tightened, her fists rose, and her expression sharpened.

The first jab cracked clean and fast. The mitt and fist collided with a satisfying whack.

“Oh! That blasts,” he quipped. “Again.”

Crow’s mitts met each of Hinata’s strikes. His hands moved in sync, snapping back in place with the same crisp sound. Between strikes, he offered praise, keeping the energy flowing and her engaged.

“Nice one! That’s clean. Faster!” Crow called, his movements fluid as he mirrored hers, building an easy rhythm.

Hinata’s punches came faster, sharper. Each of her hits had more power than the last. Crow kept up: it was clear that she was locked in and confident.

Then, something shifted.

The force of her punches began to push back on him. Crow could feel the weight of each blow deep in his bones. His breathing felt like being underwater.

The gloves suddenly felt like shackles. The pressure of her strikes didn’t just rattle him; it trapped him like chains.

Crow’s smile faltered. Everything began to swirl. His hands, once steady, trembled. The cold crept over him. The air left his lungs in a wheeze. His eyes widened—not in pain, but in terror.

Hinata’s final punch landed with a thunderous crack, sending Crow reeling. He stumbled off balance, his breath sharp, uneven, and shallow. The mitts dropped from his hands with a dull thud.

Hinata froze as he fell.

“Crap, I overdid it.”

She knelt beside him. She looked into his eyes. They were blank—hollow.

She reluctantly shook his shoulder, tapping firmly on his cheek.

“Hey, Crow!” she said, trying to get him back to himself. “Crow! It’s me! I’m here.”

She’d seen him fight, push through everything with a smile, without breaking. But this… this was different.

Then she remembered. He had wrestled with the same demon that fateful night.

The rooftop went cold, still. Crow’s ragged breath continued. Hinata tried every word she could to bring him back, to pull him from wherever his mind had gone.

Nothing. Only silence.

— • —

The hospital hallway murmured with distant voices, echoing against the walls. Hinata sat on a hard-backed bench near a window, elbows resting on her knees, head lowered.

Dylan emerged from Crow’s room, hands in his pockets, moving with his usual casual slouch. He walked past Hinata and sat at the other end of the bench.

"You did well. Calling me was the right move,” he told Hinata without looking at her.

Hinata didn’t answer. Instead, her mind spun back to that moment—hands trembling, rifling through his pockets. She’d found his phone, swiping it from the memory of how he used it.

She tapped the green icon. Call log. Names she didn’t recognize.

She pressed the first number. It rang. Someone answered: not a familiar voice.

The second number: Dylan. This time, she knew it was him.

Back in the present, Hinata exhaled with slight relief.

"It’s an emergency," she muttered.

Dylan chuckled, easing the tension with his usual cool composure.

“You’re lucky Crow didn’t have a lot of people to call. The number you’ll see on his phone will mostly be mine.”

Dylan crossed his arms behind his head. "Don’t worry too much. Crow’s a tough guy. You know that."

Hinata’s shoulders dropped, relaxed. Still, she couldn’t shake off what happened.

“I should have been careful.”

Her mind refused to settle.

She recalled how the desk attendant handed her papers. The woman spoke too fast. Hinata caught maybe half of it. Dylan took over instead.

She could have managed this problem on her own. But with Crow, it’s different. The feeling of helplessness grated on her quite deeply.

Hinata’s gaze drifted to the window. The world calmly moved around her. But inside her, everything is in chaos.

And then—

“Hey, Dylan! I told you to wait for me, right?!”

Hinata’s head tilted slightly toward the sound. Dylan sighed, hand sliding down his face.

“Ah… Here we go.”

Around the corner came a girl—short, sharp-tongued, snappy. She wasn’t running, but her energy projected it. She stopped beside Dylan, pouting dramatically.

“I just blinked and you were gone. Rude.”

“Yuzu, you were holding two identical jackets,” Dylan replied smugly. “I thought you’d need an hour. It’s an emergency.”

She rolled her eyes, hands on her hips like she owned the hallway. “Ugh. Your excuses. You just want to leave me behind.”

Then, her gaze flicked past Dylan towards Hinata.

She squinted at her, her brows furrowing as curiosity sparked in her eyes. She leaned forward slightly, stroking her chin.

“…Wait a second—”

Before she could finish, Dylan stepped in, a hand quickly covering her mouth.

“Nope. Nope nope nope,” he whispered, voice frantic as he glanced at Hinata. “Not now, Yuzu.”

Yuzu made a muffled protest.

Hinata turned her head away, trying not to get more stressed.

Yuzu yanked Dylan’s hand off with a loud “bleh,” wiping her face dramatically.

“Okay, okay,” she said, waving him off. “Hospital zone. I get it.” Straightened her posture, dusting off her jacket aggressively.

Hinata kept quiet. Crow slept. The tension lingered in the air, this time awkward yet strangely lighter.