The Rabbit's Diary and the Forgotten Promise

Tomoki's letter remained crumpled in his fist. The words I will save her and Stay in your hole lingered in Ren's head. For the first time in his life, Ren Shinomiya's calculating coldness broke. It didn't crack; it shattered. A rage he had never known took control of his body.

“ Damn it! ” Ren shouted, his voice tearing at his own throat. He cursed his father. He cursed his weakness. He cursed this house that always felt like a mausoleum.

In a fit of rage, he grabbed the old wooden chair where Akira had been sitting minutes before. He spun around, ignoring the pain in his leg, and threw it with all the force of his frustration against the back wall. He expected to hear the sound of wood breaking. But what he heard was different.

What Ren heard was not solid concrete, but rather a hollow sound, followed by a structural creak. The wall, weakened by moisture and neglect in the basement, gave way under the impact. The rotten plaster crumbled, raising a cloud of thick, ancient dust.

Ren waited for the dust to settle. When the gray haze cleared, he saw that he hadn't hit a wall. He had hit a false partition. Behind the rubble, a dark hole opened up. A space that did not appear on the mansion's blueprints.

Intrigued, Ren limped closer. " An exit? "  he thought. He took the oil lamp Akira had left him and entered the secret room.

It wasn't an exit. It was a kind of time capsule. The room was small, barely bigger than a large closet with a low ceiling. Ren raised the lamp. The flickering light illuminated the floor. There, scattered like dry leaves, were dozens of old photographs.

Ren bent down with difficulty and picked up one of the photos. His eyes widened in confusion. It was a photo of a small child. A boy of about six or seven with a smile that Ren didn't remember ever having. That boy was him. But the boy wasn't alone. He was surrounded by people Ren didn't know.

In another photo, little Ren was sitting at a picnic, laughing heartily. There was no sign of Ryōma or his mother. Who are they? he wondered, feeling a chill. Why do I look so happy?

He continued to explore with his eyes until something in the corner caught his attention. Hidden under a pile of blankets that looked like it had been made by a child, there was a curious object.

It was a book. It was dirty, but the hard cover still retained its color. It was dark blue. And in the center, it had a childish sticker, worn by the years, of a white bunny.

Ren felt a tightness in his chest. His hands trembled as he picked up the book. It was a diary. He opened it carefully, afraid the pages would crumble. The handwriting was clumsy, large, and round—the writing of a child just learning to write.

He read the first page: “ Property of Ren. Dad is not allowed to read this! This is my secret hiding place. ”

Ren brought a hand to his forehead. A sharp pain, like a needle piercing his head, suddenly appeared. This place... he thought, as his vision blurred. Fuzzy memories began to flood Ren's mind. He remembered himself as a child. He remembered running through the halls of the mansion, fleeing from his father's screams. He remembered finding this hollow behind an old piece of furniture and making it his base. His sanctuary. A place that hadn't been used in years and that he had claimed as a hiding place for his life.

“ It's my diary... ” she whispered. She continued reading. She turned the pages filled with drawings of monsters and complaints about piano lessons until she reached a specific date. The handwriting changed there. It seemed more excited.

“Today I ran away again. I went to the park to play on the swings. I met someone. A girl. She has pink cotton candy hair. She's weird. She was crying because she dropped her ice cream, so I gave her mine.”

Ren felt the ground shake. The headache intensified, turning into a deafening buzzing sound. He read the following paragraph:

“Her name is Mio. She's my best friend. Today we played families. Her parents are very nice, unlike mine. They bought us balloons. I like it when I'm with them. I feel like I'm part of a real happy family.”

Upon reading this, Ren screamed, dropping the book and clutching his head with both hands. The pain was unbearable. Fragmented images assaulted him: A red slide. The taste of vanilla ice cream. Crystal-clear laughter. Bright pink hair glistening in the evening sun.

Ren dropped the book on the floor. As it fell, something that had been tucked between the back pages slipped out. It was a metal object that bounced on the floor.

Ren, breathing heavily, sweat beading on his forehead, looked down. There, glinting in the lamplight, was a silver pendant. It was shaped like a rabbit.

Ren reached out, trembling violently, and his fingers touched the necklace. The moment his skin made contact with the pendant, the headache vanished, replaced by absolute clarity. The fog lifted. The puzzle came together.

He saw the park. He saw the orange sunset. And he saw himself, small, with dirty clothes. In front of him was her. The girl with pink hair. Mio. She was giving him that pendant. “Here, Ren-kun,” said little Mio, with a sad smile. It's so you won't forget me.“ ”I won't forget you,“ said little Ren, taking her hand. ”When we grow up, I'll find you. And we'll get married. And we'll be free.“ ”Do you promise?“ ”I promise. You're my family, Mio."

Ren stood still for several minutes. Tears ran down his cheeks, washing the dirt from his face. He tried to find more answers in the diary, desperately turning the pages, but realized that the following pages were blank. They were empty. As if something had happened from one moment to the next. As if the trauma of the separation, or some terrible event that his father had caused to distance him from “that bad influence,” had erased everything.

Ren slowly closed the diary. He understood. That girl from his memories, the only one who gave him warmth in his cold childhood... That necklace he kept like a treasure... That feeling of “arrhythmia” in his heart every time he saw her... It all made sense.

“ So it was you, huh ?” whispered Ren, his voice full of amazement. " It was always you."

Mio. She wasn't some stranger he met at Happy Burger. She wasn't a model he fancied on a whim. She was his promise. She was his past and his future. His subconscious had recognized her from the moment he saw her in that alley. That's why he couldn't let her go. That's why he acted differently when she was around.

Slowly, Ren stood up. He squeezed the rabbit pendant in his hand until the metal dug into his palm. The fear disappeared. The doubt disappeared. Even the pain in his leg seemed irrelevant now.

A smile spread across his face. But it wasn't the cold smile of the Ice Prince, nor the sad smile of the prisoner. It was the smile of a man who had just found his reason for breathing.

“ Tomoki... ” he said into the air, thinking of the letter. “ You can try. You can put on the shield and play the hero. But she's not your destiny. She's mine. ”

Ren looked at the closed basement door. He no longer saw an unbreakable barrier. He saw a temporary obstacle. “ Father... you made me forget about her to control me. But you just made your last mistake. " Ren hung the rabbit necklace around his neck, feeling the weight of the promise against his skin.  ”I'm not giving up. I'm getting out of here. And I'm getting my future wife back... no matter what it takes. "