How Did It All End Up Like This?!

Sakamoto finally woke up in the hospital. It had been three days since Meteron's last defeat, and Sakamoto had been knocked out ever since. My daily routine had been altered slightly by the incident, with me leaving an hour early to visit Sakamoto every day before work. I felt like I had to… His current condition was basically my fault anyways…

“Ayame…?” Sakamoto sleepily asked me. “Where am I?”

“You're in the hospital,” I explained. “That Meteron guy was bad news. He cast a very powerful mind control spell on you and escaped from prison. It did a lot of damage to your brain.”

“How many days of work did I miss?” Sakamoto then asked.

“You'll be out for a bit, unfortunately,” I continued. “The doctors will be happy to hear that you even woke up.”

Sakamoto held a hand to his head. “Ah… What happened? Why does my head hurt so badly?”

“A combination of the mind control spell and you hitting your head on the concrete floor when Meteron was done playing with you,” I explained further.

With a sigh, Sakamoto whined, “I swear this job is going to kill me one of these days…”

“I wouldn't worry too much about it,” I told him. “I heard a witch defeated that Meteron guy, and he hasn't been seen since.” I even showed him the headline from the Journal: Mystery Witch Saves Susaki. “Even the Journal is saying nice things about the witch now!”

He then realized something was very wrong. It seemed to me like all that time asleep finally caught up with him. Sakamoto tried to get out of bed, but every movement he tried to make only caused him more pain. “I gotta get back to work! Mr. Kaneko is going to be so mad I never told him -”

“Don't worry, Sakamoto,” I assured him. “I told Mr. Kaneko about the whole thing. He just wants you to rest and get well.”

“Well, I… What about the… Did he ask about…” Sakamoto couldn't find any words to say. Under that serious and super chill facade, Hiroki Sakamoto became little more than a stuttering mess once he realized he was no longer in complete control over his current situation.

I smiled at him, and giggled a bit at his flustered image. “Everyone at the Journal is really happy with everything you do. You deserve some rest. Speaking of the Journal, I gotta be heading there in a little bit. I'll see you later!”

“See you later, Ayame.”

Ayame... Sakamoto had never called me by my first name before today, and now he had done it twice. I had to admit, it was weird hearing my name come out of his mouth. Were we becoming friends?!

As I exited the room, I accidentally bumped into someone! His body was as hard as a rock, so the recoil from the impact knocked me down to the ground! Ow! I wasn't sure where or how I landed, but a lot of me was hurting all at once.

And then… that voice…

“I'm very sorry, Miss Ayame,” a deep baritone voice said to me. It was him… I recognized that face anywhere! That curly, golden tabby-colored hair… Ah-CHOO! Sorry… Just thinking about cats made me want to go into a sneezing fit. Those sparkling green eyes… Did I mention that deep baritone voice, striking, dramatic, masterfully crafted through years and years of practice of getting ready for the opera. The shimmering tanned complexion… This was Kenichi Ishida, the cutest boy in school!

Senpai…

He then offered me his hand… “May I help you?”

I could feel the blood rushing to my face. My heart fluttered so fast, I thought it was going to sprout wings and fly out my body. I struggled to answer his offer. Instead, I just reached out for it with my own hand… Dummy! You weren't supposed to do that! I could feel him lifting me up off the floor. His hands… so graceful… so neat!

“Ishida… I…”

“It's okay, Ayame,” he reassured me. “I should really be more careful with where I stand in the hallway.”

Why was he still holding onto my hand?!

It was like he was staring longingly into my eyes… Did… did he know…?!

“It… it's no problem at all, Ishida…” I stuttered and stumbled through my words. “So, uh… what brings you out here?”

“I'm visiting my grandmother,” Ishida answered me. “She's got a nasty stomach bug, and I thought I'd stop by to comfort her. How about you?”

I was actually having a conversation with Kenichi Ishida! My heart flew around the world and back so fast. And he was helping out his ailing grandmother?! What a hero…

“My coworker and I got caught in some… weird happenings around town,” I explained. “Sakamoto had a pretty nasty fall, so I've been visiting him while he recovers.”

Our hands then slipped apart. He began to walk away…

“I'll see you around, Ayame.”

I just stared at my hand as he left. He… we… We held hands!

“He… He knows my name… Kenichi Ishida knows my name…”

Little did I know, however, but Aichi had found me once again. He was right behind me, watching as I was reduced to little more than a blushing mess.

“So that's that boy you like, huh, ~woof?” Aichi asked me.

“What?!” I was shocked to hear him right behind me. “Aichi! You're supposed to be home!”

“Hey, cut me some slack, alright?” Aichi retorted. “Hollows need time with their humans, too, you know!” He then began to mimic Ishida's deep, baritone voice. “Oh, Aya-chan! Let's get married right away! Let me sweep you away and fly you to the moon ~woof!”

“Hey! Who said you could read my diary!” I shouted at him.

In response, he began to mimic my voice: “Oh, Ishida-senpai! Mwah! Mwah! My life is yours, senpai! Let's run away together ~woof!”

I was so embarrassed to hear Aichi reading excerpts from my diary! I dared not even respond to his teasing to avoid the risk of even more teasing. Maybe if I ignored him, he would go away, I thought.

“Ayame, do you write fanfiction of this guy, ~woof?” Aichi asked me. “Judging by your description of this guy, he doesn't seem so hot.”

“That's none of your business!” I scolded him. “That's MY diary!”

Aichi only teased me even further: “Dear Diary, every time I see Ishida-senpai at school, my heart flutters so badly I think I'm having a panic attack ~woof. It's gotten to the point where I can literally hear the doki-doki of my heartbeat! Oh, gods, I'm already thinking about where we're gonna get married ~woof! Paris? Bora Bora? Brisbane? I haven't even had a chance to ask him out yet, ~woof! Aaaaaaa, what am I going to do?!”

I cried, “Why are you doing this to me??”

Aichi then got really close to me. Returning to his normal voice, he answered, “Don't play silly goose with me, Ayame. I need to know how you invented your own spell, ~woof.”

“My… what?!”

“Nobody, human or Hollow has been able to invent their own spells in over four hundred years ~woof,” Aichi explained. “And I should know, I was just a little baby the last time I saw someone invent their own spells. So how'd ya do it, ~woof?”

I had to get away from this pooch quickly. He was asking about and saying weird lore stuff again. I couldn't handle it. Conveniently, it was 8:45. Work started in fifteen minutes, and I had to hurry over there.

“Oh, would you look at the time?” I asked. “I gotta be running to work. Sorry, Aichi, but I gotta go!”

As I ran down the main hallway of the hospital in search of an escape, Aichi shouted, “Don't think you get to run away from this just because you humans have jobs! I will figure you out, Ayame Tanaka, if it's the last thing I do!”