Mrs. Kuwata cut off Mitsui's panicked rambling with a soothing touch on Mitsui's arm, "Calm down, Hisashi-kun."

"But-"

"It's alright," the woman said softly, her eyes casted down, not looking at Mitsui in the face, "It's all over."

Mitsui stared at Mrs. Kuwata in puzzlement. "What do you mean?"

"Toki is... over there..." the woman replied, looking to her left side. Mitsui stood up from his position on the couch and looked over to where she was looking at. What he saw was Kuwata beside the window, sitting on the floor like a puppet propped up on the wall after its strings were cut off. Beside the boy was the puppy, barking in a surprisingly subdued manner as if knowing that its master was not all there.

"Kuwata?"

The boy beside the window did not reply but kept staring ahead, giving no indication that he has heard anything.

"Ku-"

"He can't hear you."

"What?" Mitsui turned towards the woman behind him in surprise.

"Our voice, our form and our feelings cannot reach him anymore," the woman told him quietly.

Mitsui suddenly felt a headache coming on as he tried to remember what has happened last.
We went to the villa... Kill Kuwata... He opened his eyes... Hurt... I'm sorry... Then, nothingness...

"Your conciousness was forced to sleep by Toki-kun. You were controlled by him," Mrs Kuwata continued as Mitsui began to grasp what had gone on that night at the villa.

"He used his powers on me?" Mitsui breathed in disbelief.

The woman nodded. "He cares for you more than anything. He cares for you enough to want to monopolise you..."

"I know," Mitsui said, "That's why I..." I needed to end it. He killed my parents, Miyagi and Ayako and others for me. I needed to stop it.
"I brought him to my parent's villa to kill him. I made him rest his guard, then-" Mitsui shut his eyes to try shut out the memory of the feeling of fear and grief of having to kill the person that held a special place in his life.

"I know..." Mrs. Kuwata said, her tone full of regret, "That was why he used his powers on you. To be with you."

Mitsui looked back towards Kuwata for a moment before he asked her, "But why am I back? What happened?"

The woman crossed her arms as if to hold her feelings at bay. With a hushed voice she replied, "He saw your tears."

Mitsui looked at her in confusion.

"He saw your tears and he realised...." Mrs. Kuwata turned her head away and continued with a quiver in her voice, "... he realised that what he was doing was the same crime that I have done to him since the death of his father."

From the expression and tone coming from the woman a few metres away from him, Mitsui knew that Mrs. Kuwata finally realised the wrong that she has done to her son.

"Troubles can be made to disappear but if you alter the person's memories to destroy it, the person will lose himself..."

"The real me is lost. Who I was is not who I really am."

"The power which was supposed to be used to protect you was actually making you disappear. He knew then that what he was doing was the same thing I did to him before..."



--------------

Kuwata held his left wrist with his right hand and concentrated on the pulse beating there. The blood flowing through there will surely reach his heart and his brain and with that he knew where to direct the powers which will conceal his conciousness. His mother watched on with sorrow on her face and tears in her eyes, wishing that there was something else that could be done instead of this death-like sentence but knowing that there was not any other option. She and Toki knew that as such.
--------------

"So... since he is the only person powerful enough to control him, he used his powers on himself..."

Mitsui turned back to look at the still form of Kuwata in disbelief. He could still hear the soft voice of the boy's mother reaching his ears, "...He is gone. Even farther then I can reach him..."

A hand touched his arm and his head turned a bit to see a wrapped up bundle held up at his side.

"He told me of his feelings for you. And he asked me to give you this at the end..." Mitsui wordlessly accepted the bundle before he heard the woman walk away and the door to the living room swing shut with restrained force.

Behind the closed door, Mrs Kuwata fell to her knees, her shoulders shaking from muffled cries and the grief of a mother who lost her only child.

Mitsui slowly unwrapped the bundle and was shocked to discover the knife that he had used during the failed attempt to kill Kuwata sitting now on his sweaty palm. Around the handle of the hunting knife was a folded piece of paper and upon opening it, Mitsui was startled to find out that it was a note addressed to him.

Wordlessly, Mitsui read the note and a few seconds later, he looked up, the expression on his face showing that he was fighting on maintaining his composure. Slowly, he took a step towards the young boy sitting on the floor, letting the piece of paper fall from his fingers. As he came closer to Kuwata, the grip on the knife of his other hand tightened and finally when he was but a feet away from the brown-haired boy, he stopped. The puppy beside Kuwata barked once in echo of the finality Mitsui felt in his heart.

With gentle fingers, Mitsui held out his free hand and cupped Kuwata's face to tilt the boy's face upwards. The brown eyes seemed as if the young boy was looking at him but Mitsui knew even if without being told earlier that those dull eyes can see nothing and show nothing except the absence of comprehension and life.

Mitsui shut his eyes as he felt a surge of sorrow explode from his heart and before he knew what he was doing he was holding Kuwata tightly in his arms in fear of fully losing the boy with his existence.

The note that earlier fell from Mitsui's hands lay still on the floor, facing upwards. The words that affected the scarred-face boy so much was clearly visible against the starkness of the white paper on which it was written:

'So that you can be yourself'

OWARI


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