Ch. 8 Unexpected Mishap

The weeks after the festival, not much changes aside from the addition of feeding and caring for Terry the goldfish. They both worried they would die soon like most fish from festivals but they held on strong and the two enjoyed visiting the little creature every day.

Hana stands outside of an apartment door with a folder pressed to her chest. Single person who has been isolated for a year, severe depression. It was one of her more difficult jobs but she’s dealt with ones like this before. People who have given up on life and need a helping hand to get their lives back in shape. There have been a few like this that Kenta insisted on taking, but after succeeding in a few like this, Hana proved she can handle it as well. He said he would monitor remotely, she has no clue if he has access to the cameras in this place or what but it made doing these rougher jobs a bit less stressful.

She knocks on the door, and after no answer she knocks again. A lock clicks and the door opens a few inches. A middle aged woman stands in the doorway, tall, but with unkempt hair, her eyes hollow and shoulders sunken beneath an overstretched sweatshirt, likely fitting at one time. “What.” Her voice was flat.

Hana offers a gentle smile. “Hi. I’m from the community outreach program. I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re doing alright.”

“I’m not.”

The honesty causes Hana's eyes to widen, but then her expression softens. “I’m sorry to hear that, maybe I can listen?”

They stare at her before letting her in, when she steps inside there is trash everywhere from takeout boxes to beer cans. The curtains were drawn and the dishes were stacked and molding. The air felt stale, but pungent, likely from the mold.

“You’re young.”

Hana laughs softly. “I’m older than I look.”

“Good for you.” They responded sharply and Hana tried to redirect the conversation.

“What’s your name?”

“Shizuka.” They reply flatly.

“I’m Hana, would you like to talk about-”

“You think you know how to fix anything, don’t you?” They narrow their eyes and Hana swallows hard.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I know what you mean.”

“Pretty dolls like you have it easy in life, all you gotta do is bat your pretty little lashes and people will treat you like a princess.” They spit, clearly jealous of Hana's appearance.

“That’s not-” she tries to diffuse the situation but the woman growls at her.

“You probably go around pretending to help people because it makes you feel better knowing you’re above them huh? Makes you look like a goody two shoes when you’re probably just a manipulative bitch!” They spit out the last word and Hana puts her hands up defensively.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel that way, I’m really here to listen-”

“Bullshit!” They grab Hana by the hair and she grabs their arm as her eyes widen with panic.

—-----

Kenta is sitting at his desk when he senses a change in the atmosphere, standing right away. The soul that Hana was managing went from a depressive state to an unstable and dangerous state. This has never happened before.

“Hana…” He looks around, his eyes scanning around, through the walls to find the location of the soul, as soon as he spots it he takes off in a sprint.

“Hana!” He runs in a panic, fear fueling him with adrenaline as he jumps over fences to get to her as soon as possible. He focuses on the souls, his eyes wide as he keeps track, seeing Hanas change color in fear. He grits his teeth at the sight and pushes himself to run faster, cursing at himself for letting her take on this job by herself.

“Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit!” He runs through flowerbeds, knocks over outdoor furniture and nearly gets hit by cars, jumping onto their hoods as he runs. He reaches the apartment and skips the door, jumping off of a trash bin to grab onto an arm rail to get to the stairs faster, climbing before taking the stairs four at a time.

—----

“Let go! I’m here to help! I’m not here to harm you!”

“Too late! I already decided to end it today because of hussies like you with your fair skin and soft voices! My man left me because of women like you!”

Hana struggles, wincing in pain as she feels some strands of hair being torn from her scalp. “They were a bad man! You’ll find someone better! I can help you do that!”

The woman cries as she shouts. “You CAN’T! I’m UGLY! I’m ANNOYING! I’m USELESS! So I might as well help other women like me by taking you with me so nobody else loses their man to a pretty face!”

They take out a knife from their pocket and Hana kicks and struggles as hard as she can against their grip on her, her heart pounding so hard that it hurts. She places the knife to Hana's cheek and she freezes.

“Please, stop…” Hana pleads, tears streaming down her cheeks. “My life hasn’t been as easy as you think…”

“LIER!” The woman swung her arm back and at that moment, the apartment door exploded inward, shattered wood flying as Kenta stood there, leg outstretched from kicking it in.

Hana looks over to see him breathing hard, shirt half buttoned, shoes untied, hair disheveled and clothes torn from branches and whatever else stood in his way. His eyes were blazing with fury, his brows furrowed together as he glared, his teeth grit so hard that you could see his muscles straining in his neck. For the first time since she met him, there was no composure left. Just pure, unbridled rage.

He snatches the knife from the woman's hand and pulls Hana to him, his grip tight but she could feel him trembling.

The woman starts laughing, an empty laugh with no humor nor joy behind it. “Oh look! I was right! Prince Charming is here to rescue his pretty princess, it just makes me SICK!” They lunge, trying to grab Hana again.

Kenta takes a step, pulling Hana with him as he dodges before he growls. “Stop.”

The one word is low and sharp, and the air pressure in the room feels as if it’s shifted. Kenta has one hand up, outstretched to the woman who has now frozen in place. Hana's eyes widen as Kenta's dark hair shimmers before draining into silver. Not as if it was dyed silver, as if it was luminous, like each strand held moonlight. His eyes sharpened, his pupils now white as he glared at the women.

“Kenta…” Hana barely whispers, mouth stuck agape.

He didn’t look at her, focused on Shizuka. “Your soul is contaminated beyond self-correction.”

He lets go of Hana, stepping forward slowly until his hand is placed upon the woman's forehead before giving a single word as a command.

“Heal.”

Silver light bursts forth from his palm like water, pouring over Shizuka, but it does not act like water, leaving her perfectly dry. Darkness can be seen in the light, like ink being pulled out of her into the watery light, causing her to tremble before collapsing onto her knees, sobbing. Every hateful thought, every twisted impulse, every destructive urge dragged to the surface and whisked away.

The light fades and Kenta looks over to Hana with hazy eyes, panting hard. He takes a step to her but staggering. “Hana…”

The silver vanishes from his hair in an instant and his knees buckle.

“Kenta!” Hana lunges to catch him, but lacking the strength to hold him they both hit the floor hard.

She scrambled onto her knees and pulls Kenta's head into her lap, gently slapping his cheek. “Kenta, hey!” She shakes him a bit, tears welling in her eyes.

“What the hell was that?! Wake up and answer me!!” She trembles as she checks his pulse and looks over him for any injuries. She picks up her phone and nearly drops it with how hard she’s shaking.

“Come on… come on…” Daichi answered on the second ring.

“Hana my-” He answers with a smile but it drops the second he hears Hana's sniffling.

“He won’t wake up! His hair turned white and he saved me and he collapsed and I don’t know what to do, there was a knife and-”

“Hana.” His voice is sharp and steady.

“Breathe, now tell me is he breathing?”

“Yes!” She nods, sniffling as she tries to calm herself down.

“Good, I’m coming, just stay with him.”

The call ends and Hana looks down, Kenta's face was pale, more than she was comfortable with. She touches his cheek with trembling fingers before she leans her forehead to his, her tears dripping onto his cheeks.

“You idiot…” She whispers as she cries.

Daichi arrived and with one look, plus with that Hana said, he knows. “He used purification.”

Hana blinks at him. “What does that-”

“He purified their soul, and with how corrupt it was, it took a lot out of him.” Daichi kneels down and pats Hana on the back. “You did good, I’ll take him home.”

He picks up his son and takes him back to the office, knowing that it was just a matter of rest, leaving the woman to pick up the pieces of her broken life back together herself.

—-------------

Kenta woke hours later in his bed, ceiling above him, body heavy. He turned to see Hana sitting in a chair beside him, her eyes red. The moment she saw him awake she smacked him across the shoulder. Not hard, but with feeling.

“You absolute idiot!”

She hits him again, weaker this time.

“You can’t scare me like that!”

She tries to hit him again but she just sets her hand against him, trembling. “I was so scared…”

Kenta pushes himself upright, his heart tightening at the sight of her like this.

“I apologize. I misjudged the assignment.” He looks away from her, as if he doesn’t deserve to. “I failed.”

Hana feels her anger fade and she leans her head on his shoulder, surprising him. “No…”

She speaks with a shaky voice. “You saved me.”

“The outcome required an unacceptable cost, danger should not have befallen you.”

She grabs the front of his shirt to make him look at her. “Then tell me about everything! I know only bits and pieces so I don’t know how to help you!”

Kenta nods and she uncurls her fists to let him go. “I see souls, no ghosts or any of those creatures.” His gaze lowers to his bedsheets. “I see the emotional structure of the soul. They have different colors, textures, I can tell when parts need repairing, it all has a visual shape.”

Hana listens, keeping her eyes on him as he speaks.

“It scared me as a child, I kept asking about them but nobody knew what I was talking about.” His hands tighten on his blanket. “So I began to document it all.”

“The files?” She asks and he nods.

“The categories, priority levels, I’m typing to document everything to see if there are patterns.”

“The system…”

“There is no higher authority.” He says. “No strange organization, just me trying to understand this ability, and why I might have it.”

Hana stares at him, her chest tight as she thinks about how he must have suffered through this alone.

“I built the system because…” He swallowed. “I’m not normal… and if I didn’t try to make any sense of it, I would have…” He stops himself, thinking of how to put it lightly. “I would not be here.”

“So you’ve… why have you been trying to save people all by yourself?”

He went silent for a while, but when he responds his voice is the smallest she’s ever heard from him. “Because if I’m useful… there is a reason to remain.”

Hana feels her chest ache as if she's been stabbed with a spear. She understood there was more beneath that sentence than he could say yet. Getting to that point emotionally… there was no one reason for it, but rather mountains.

She climbs onto the bed and wraps her arms around his neck, holding him gently.

He stiffens in shock. “H-Hana-”

“Quiet.”

He obeys and slowly, awkwardly, brings his arms up to wrap around her. Very light at first, uncertain as if it wasn’t allowed, but then he holds tighter, as if for the first time in years, he lets someone hold the weight he’s borne on his own with him. They stay like this for a while, and Kenta tries speaking, softly since he was so close to her ear.

“I was afraid…”

Her expression softens and she hugs him a bit tighter. “Yeah… me too.”

There is a knock on the door and the two split immediately, Hana sitting back on her chair and Kenta smoothing out the blankets before sitting up with his posture straight.

Daichi then opens the door, taking one step in he sees Kenta and sighs with relief. “Good.” Is all he says before looking over to Hana.

“You okay?”

Hana nods, a bit too eagerly. Daichi hums but doesn’t push before he walks over to Kenta, flicking him on the forehead.

Kenta doesn’t react, he just looks up to his father.

“I told you not to use that.”

“It was necessary.”

Daichi sighs. “Fine. I’ll accept that answer this time and this time only.”

He leans down and gives his son a hug, who looks to Hana with wide eyes for help and she just stares at him, hugging the air and pointing at him to tell him to hug back so he does, giving Daichi a few awkward pats on the back.

“Tamaki wanted to come but he has a big modeling gig right now pretty far away.” He chuckles. “I heard his manager yelling at him for crying since it makes more work for the makeup department.”

Hana laughs softly, and the three talk a little bit, just to return to some kind of normal. Daichi leaves after a while to get food and the two settle into a comfortable silence.

“I think I get it now.”

Kenta looks at her. “Get what.”

“This.” She gestures vaguely. “It’s not just your job, it’s… it’s how you survive.”

Kenta looks down at his hands resting on the blanket and nods, speaking quietly. “Yes.”

“When you ran in, you looked kind of scary.” She says gently and he stiffens slightly.

“I apologize."

She shakes her head. “No, not like that.” She smiles at him. “You looked like you were going to destroy anything that touched me.”

“I could not hold my composure, it was… inefficient.”

She laughs softly. “It was kind of nice, you looked cool.”

Kenta feels his ears burn and she grins.

When night settles, Hana turns the lights off as she stands in the doorway, about to go to her room.

“Kenta.”

“Yes?”

“Just make sure… you don’t die.”

There is a pause and then he speaks gently. “I understand.” He then speaks quieter, more to himself. “I will try harder not to fail.”

Hana wishes him goodnight, and he says it back, but continues to lie in bed for a bit, thinking about the day.

The next morning doesn’t feel like a normal morning. Despite everything being the same as it always was, except Kenta was already working. He was dressed up, a few bandaids on, but working hard even though he’s usually waiting for everyone to wake and begin breakfast.

“Morning.” She offers, hoping to get him to stop but he doesn't look up when he responds.

“Good morning. You only slept three hours and forty three minutes.’

Hana squints. “How do you even measure that?”

“It is an estimation based on how much you toss and turn.”

“Did you even sleep?”

He pauses for a moment. “I did.”

Daichi walks over with plates and slides them across the table. “Eat. Both of you.”

Right after he finishes his food, he pushes the plate aside rather than cleaning it and goes right back to work. Hana watches him for a while before asking.

“Are you okay?”

He opens his mouth to answer before he looks up at her, and seeing her concern he closes it again.

“I am stable.”

Hana frowns. “Not what I asked.”

Kenta goes quiet, his eyes shifting slightly as he looks back down at the papers. “No.” Then he adds more quietly. “I am not okay.”

She looks at him, letting him continue. “I misclassified the risk.”

“You didn’t.” Hana states.

“But-”

Hana crosses her arms. “You can see souls but it doesn’t show off someone's entire personality. You can see that someone's depressed and some of the situation that revolves around it but there’s no way you could have known that she hated pretty women and I happened to fall into that category and made her feel worse.”

He doesn’t answer, thinking and she sighs. “You can’t take responsibility for everything.”

“It is my function.” He answers and Hana frowns, getting closer.

“No.”

He stiffens as she stops just in front of him, any closer and he would be able to feel her breath. “Nobody is born with a singular function.”

Kenta doesn’t respond, averting his gaze.

Hana sighs. “Daichi told me something.”

His eyes go back to meeting hers. “What.”

She hesitates. “He said you were different after your brother.”

There’s a long pause and Kenta speaks quietly. “That is not relevant.”

Hana leans back and crosses her arms. “You don’t get to choose what parts of you don’t matter.”

Kenta’s eyes widened slightly, as if it wasn’t something he thought about before. Everything was separated and organized and categorized but he forgot that it was all connected together, all part of a whole that was him.

Quietly, almost as if automatically he says. “That is inefficient.”

She smiles softly. “Yeah, well so is liking you.”

This causes him to freeze, and the two stare at each other as Hana takes a moment to process what she’s just said.

She points to him, defending herself. “I- I mean you! Your personality is inefficient! That’s what I meant!”

From the garden, Daichi is watering the plants and shouts. “IS THAT ROMANITIC BICKERING I HEAR?!”

“NO IT ISN’T!” Hana yells back.

Daichi's laughter can be heard and Kenta is still frozen in place, the gears in his head turning at full capacity. Despite all of the effort Tamaki and his father went through to get the two together, this was never a possibility that came across his mind. “You like me?”

Hana covers her face, embarrassed. “I hate all of you.”

“That is contradictory.”

“I KNOW!” She shouts into her hands, and Kenta feels his gaze soften as he spots how red her ears were.

Softly, ever so carefully he asks. “Why?”

Hana lowers her hands a little, the embarrassment is still there but underneath it is sincerity. “There’s not just one reason but… because you’re trying.” She avoids his gaze. “You stopped pretending like you didn’t need anyone and you… you trusted me… entirely.”

Daichi peeks in through the window, whispering. “Son, now's your chance, propose!”

Hana covers her face again and Kenta stands up. “I will assist my father in the garden as he clearly is incapable of focusing on his task.”

“You do that.” Hana laughs, glad that she managed to lift him into a better mood.

Kenta takes a week to rest, after his initial panic to work harder than ever, Hana convinces him to rest and spend time with her watching movies and playing games. Tamaki managed to convince him to get a game console at some point so they could ‘increase their efficiency’ with strategy games but wound up getting him ones that he just liked instead. After playing different types, Kenta has grown to accept that he isn’t the best at everything, especially when the game had cosmetics that got in the way of efficiency.

“Why is there a chicken statue there?” He asks.

“It looks nice.” Hana smiles.

“It is in the way of getting to the chickens.”

“You can go around it.”

Kenta's brows furrow. “It is ine-”

“It’s pretty!” Hana puffs her cheeks out and he meets her eyes, feeling his annoyance melt away, he continues, going around the statue to feed the chickens.

Once the week is up they go out for an assignment together, Hana following Kenta down the street. They decided to do assignments with each other from now on so another incident doesn’t happen again. If Hana is better for the job, he’ll wait nearby so he can act right away when he senses danger.

“This one is normal right?” She asks as she stretches her arms above her head.

“Low-risk.” Kenta nods. “It is a follow up from a prior job as per request of the client.”

Hana tiles her head. “We do those?”

He nods. “I have a business card.”

She frowns. “Why don’t I have one?”

He thinks for a moment, realizing there is no reason why. “We will get you one.”

They go up to an apartment and Hana knocks on the door. When it opens there is a middle aged man standing there in wrinkled clothes, eyes tired but not empty. He raises a brow seeing her then spots Kenta.

“Who is she?”

“My employee.” Kenta says and the man opens the door, letting them in. When they go in the house it isn’t dirty, it is well organized and neat but without much of anything. Just whats needed with no personality.

They all sit and the man crosses his arms. “Do you know what I’ve been thinking since you left?”

“No.”

“I should’ve ignored you.”

A hint of hurt flickers in Kenta's eyes. That’s the opposite of what he wants. “I see.”

“No, you don’t.” The man leans forward. “You came in here last month like you had all the answers but my wife still left and my son still won’t talk to me.”

Kenta doesn’t say anything.

“What was even worse, you talked to me like I was some problem to solve.” They snicker. “You must love your job, playing a hero without actually being one.” They shove Kenta in the shoulder and he doesn’t resist, he barely even moves.

Hana stands up and places herself in between the two. “Please stop.”

The man froze, not expecting her to butt in. “Just because your family decided to move on despite you starting to change, doesn’t mean the advice Kenta gave was bad. They have every right to decide what their boundaries are and if they want to let you back into their hearts or not.”

The man stared at her. “You don’t know anything.”

“I don’t. But you called him and he still came. To help YOU.” She glares, typically she would be kind but hurting someone close to her was one of the few things that made her blood boil.

The man is quiet for a moment. “Then why doesn’t he say that instead of having you do it?” He looks at Kenta. “Why don’t you defend yourself?”

“If my actions caused suffering, accepting consequences is appropriate."

The man frowns. “You shouldn’t accept something when it’s unfair. Who taught you something like that?”

Kenta goes still, but still answers. “It was how things were handled.”

The man's anger drains away, replaced by discomfort. He leans back with a sigh. “I called because I wanted to blame someone, I know I’m just being an asshole.”

“It is understandable.” Kenta says.

“It’s pathetic.” The man lets out a shaky breath. “I hate my life.”

“That can change.”

The man raised a brow. “You said that last time.”

Hana took this as an opening. “What changed since then?”

“Nothing.” They look at the floor. “I’ve just been wallowing in self pity.”

“That sounds fixable.” She smiles and the two spend the next hour helping him take small steps. No grand speeches, no homework. They helped him cook one proper meal, helped him text his son without expecting an answer, just small things. When they were done, the man stood in the doorway awkwardly.

“I’m… sorry I shoved you.”

“Acknowledged.” He nods.

“That’s not how that works.” Hana mutters and the man smiles ever so slightly before closing the door.

The two begin their walk home and she looks up to him. “Kenta, why did you let him hit you?”

“It was a shove.”

“You know what I mean.”

“He was distressed, I did not want to escalate. It did not cause damage.”

Hana frowns. “That doesn’t make it any better, you looked like you were used to that.”

He doesn’t say anything and Hana feels her heart sink. “Someone… made you think that way didn’t they?”

After a pause. “Some environments reward usefulness over personhood.”

“That sounds lonely.”

“It was efficient.”

Hana reaches up and straightens the collar he hadn’t realized had twisted from the shove. “You say that whenever something hurts.”

He doesn’t say anything, just watches her before they get back to walking in a comfortable silence. At home, Hana begins to cook as Kenta writes a report on the assignment they completed today. She could feel his eyes occasionally flick toward her and away again.

“You’re staring.”

“I am observing.”

She shakes her head. “You have learned nothing from movies.”

He thinks for a moment. “I learned several things.”

Hana crosses her arms. “Yeah? Name one.”

“People often communicate indirectly, then resent being misunderstood.”

Hana snorts with laughter. “That is… annoyingly accurate.”

“I know.”

The confidence of the statement startled them both and Hana smiles. “Look at you.”

“What?”

“You just said ‘I know’ like a normal smug person.”

“I was stating a fact.”

“Still counts.”

They sit next to each other and begin to eat, after a bit Hana asks carefully. “I know we already went over it but… I still don’t see why you didn’t dodge the man when he tried to shove you.”

“When people are upset, I prefer resolution. History indicates explanation often worsens outcomes.”

Her hand stops, her fork halfway though a piece of chicken. “History with who?” As soon as she asked, she regretted how direct it sounded.

Kenta plays with his food as he looks down at his plate. “With someone… difficult.”

No name or details, like he wanted to go around the truth. Hana feels her chest tighten and asks gently. “Were you a kid?”

His grip tightens on his fork. “Yes.”

The room went quiet except for the ticking of the clock on the wall. Hana reaches out slowly and places her hand on his before he could realize that he was trembling. He let her, showing that despite his usual rejection of comfort, if it was her, he would let her comfort him just a little.

“You know, most people get rebellious in their teenage years, you don’t seem like the type to have had that phase.” She says lightly.

“I exercised rebellion once.”

She blinked. “Once?”

“I was fourteen, I purchased fried chicken without permission.” His expression remains flat which causes Hana to burst laughing so hard she bends forward a bit.

“You absolute criminal.”

“I was grounded for two months.”

This made her laugh harder but she finally recovered. “Wow, that is not normal at all.”

“I am increasingly aware.”

“I mean what happened to you.”

His voice softens. “I know.”

The softness broke her heart a little so she takes his hand, not just placing it on top, just taking it to hold. His hand was warm, larger than hers and callused. He did not pull away.

“You didn’t deserve weird punishments like that as a child.”

He thinks for a moment, squeezing her hand softly. “I was often told discipline was necessary because I had to justify…”

He trails off and Hana stays silent letting him continue when he’s ready.

“...to justify remaining.” He chooses and now it’s her grip that tightens as she feels anger well up in her chest. She was a peaceful woman, and she liked to believe in talking things out. But hearing that made her wish to curbstomp someone's head into mush for making such a kind man think such a thing, especially at a young age after losing someone so close. It disgusted her.

Kenta notices her change in expression. “You appear upset.”

“I am.”

“That is not desirable.”

She grits her teeth. “Too bad.” She then exhales, shifting close so their shoulders touched as they held hands. “Listen.”

He nods.

“You do not have to earn existing, nor do you have to be a certain level of useful to deserve being here.”

His throat moves as he swallows hard. He opens his mouth to speak but closes it again, no words came. She leans her head gently on his shoulder and they stayed like that for a bit. Finally Kenta finds the words.

“I do not know how to believe it.”

Hana closes her eyes. “That’s okay… I’ll help you until you do.”

They stay like this for a while, just sitting together in front of mostly eaten meals, now cold. They relish the comfort of being next to each other, close like this, to the point that Hana nearly drifts off before Kenta speaks again.

“You are heavy.”

Her eyes snap open and she looks at him, sitting upright immediately. “Excuse me?”

“My arm was going numb.”

She stares at him in disbelief. “You were doing so well.”

“I merely stated data.”

“Too late, damage sustained.” She huffs, puffing her cheeks out cutely.

Kenta’s eyes look around nervously as if an answer to fix this is somewhere. “I apologize. How do I proceed with repairs?”

“You buy me snacks tomorrow.”

He nods his head. “Understood.”

She pushes him up. “No you go shower, I’ll clean up here.”

He nods once more, heading for the hallway before stopping.

“Hana.”

She looks up to him as she collects their dishes. “Yes?”

“Thank you.”

His words were soft, less mechanical than usual. Her eyes soften and she smiles at him. “You’re welcome.”

He then goes down the hall and she continues collecting plates to do the dishes, humming as she scrubbed.