The room was silent with only the rustle of leaves and chatter of distant maids to be heard from outside the open window. Occasionally, a small gust of wind would give life to the room by blowing the light chiffon curtains, but other than that, the room was dead with no movement from inside. Miyuki's eyes started to wet from a mixture of guilt and grief, knowing why Masaki was like this. She was to blame. Tears escaped her pools of eyes and the usually proud magician bowed her head in submission to her emotion, allowing her trapped tears to fall freely. She was sat next to a sterile white bed where the red-headed youth laid batted and kept alive only by an IV drip and advanced medicine that only the most important of people even knew existed. But even that didn't work well enough. Miyuki inwardly cursed herself for her weakness. If she didn't follow Masaki into the school, would he be alive and well? The thought plagued the girl's mind by day and was forced to watch the hopeless accident by night in her dreams. She could never escape from her torment. Although Miyuki believed she deserved this. It was her fault. Nothing could ever change that.

"We don't know whether he'll wake up," The doctor had said, but that was last week and Miyuki knew she was sugar coating the truth for the family at the time, before Masaki's condition started to decline. The raven-haired girl staggered a sob and the steady streams of tears were flooded, transformed into big, ugly, messy rivers that blurred her vision.

"I'm sorry," she whispered between ragged breaths. "I'm so sorry. It's all my fault."

She gently reached out to the boy and cupped his face in her hand, feeling how cold his skin was. Miyuki feared touching him because he looked so fragile; as if he'd break and crumble if she did. But at the same time, if she didn't she felt like he would fade away. Miyuki slowly brushed the hair from Masaki's face, admiring his perfect features that the girl had failed to ever notice until now. How could she live as a protected princess, shielded from all negativity and harm by her brother? Until now, she never even noticed just how naïve she was. She had never understood that the world was cruel. That the moment you become attached to someone, the world can rip them away. She had never known loss since she was too young to know the permanence of death when her mother passed and only really attached herself to Tatsuya. Even when she heard news about the missing persons in school she was ignorant. That pain paled in comparison to now and she was so rude to the maids, it was unacceptable. Miyuki was determined to change, to change her selfish ways and to stop distancing herself from everyone and to stop living under her brother's protection. She wanted to be 'whole,' to be an individual.

But that wouldn't bring Masaki back.

Miyuki stared at his face once more and pictured his bright smile on his face. He was so pale and lifeless now; it was almost difficult to imagine him as anything but. The girl slowly lent over the bed and placed an affectionate kiss on Masaki's forehead. Small wet droplets landed on his cheeks, giving his stoic face a sad expression which made Miyuki feel sick to her stomach and quickly wiped them off. Even if he wasn't crying, it pained her deeply to see him like that. She placed her small hand over Masaki's larger one that lay beside him, cold and limp and brought over her other to clasp it tight. She drew circles on his hand to occupy her time for a few hours until the door opened and Midori came in.

"Oh my poor, sweet boy," she breathed when she saw his face.

The woman sat on the other side of Masaki's bed and smoothed his hair like Miyuki did. The two of them frequently visited him as the medical room was in the house so neither were surprised to see the other sat by the magician's side when they came.

"Do you want to be alone with him?" Miyuki asked. The woman gave her a short nod.

"Yes please. Is your foot getting better?"

Miyuki looked down at her swollen ankle she got from rescuing Masaki. It was nothing compared to that injury. "Yes, thank you, it's healing quickly"

"Good."

Miyuki felt reluctant to leave his side, but it would be wrong to stay, so she grabbed the pair of crutches next to her and hobbled towards the door. She stopped mid-way and glanced back at the two behind her. One with the complexion of a corpse, and the other with red eyes from crying and bags from lack of sleep. Regret nagged at her heart and she always wanted to say something, to apologize, but she never had the courage and would leave without a word. Miyuki bit her lip and clenched her fists on her hand grip. She knew she had to take the first step if she ever wanted to change. She didn't want to run away and not say anything to the mother of the boy she had caused the suffrage of, that would be so low. She let out a resolute huff and swung herself back around to face the woman. She couldn't ask for her forgiveness, that was impossible, but she had to confess.

"I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed loud enough to be heard clearly but still quiet to not disturb the wounded. Midori looked at her bewildered, and the girl pressed on. "It's my fault that Masaki's in this condition. I selfishly followed after him and didn't think of the consequences. He risked his life protecting me... If he didn't... If I wasn't there. None of this would have happened, and now I've hurt you and your family!"

Midori's gaze hardened as she looked at her son and back up to Miyuki before she spoke.

"Yes... it is your fault that my son is here," she spoke hoarsely. Her words wounded the girl and her heart felt as if it was stabbed, but concealed her hurt and braced herself for more. "If it weren't for you, he would have died instead and more casualties would surely follow."

Miyuki stared in awe at the woman in front of her, she couldn't have meant what she said but would allow her to finish before protesting.

"You may have gone in there out of selfishness, but if it wasn't for your attacks, the thing would have..." The woman stopped for a moment, pained, "...It would have cut him down before he even had a chance to attack it. You both worked together to stop it when individually, you both would have died. Remember that you were the one who actually stopped it!"

Miyuki didn't remember much after Masaki sacrificed himself and blasted them both because she had hit her head at some point after. But apparently it was frozen in place and she blew it up somehow, although she didn't know how since her inferno wasn't strong enough before, and it couldn't have been fuel that blew up as Masaki's rapture didn't work, so there couldn't have been fuel in it.

"But it should have been me that was injured. The robot attacked me but he..." Miyuki couldn't stop the tears from flowing. It would have been so much easier if Midori hated her, but instead, she was showing her the same kindness she always gave her even though she was suffering as much as Miyuki. Midori stood up curtly, tears running down her face too, and advanced over to the tortured girl. She took Miyuki in her arms and cradled her head lovingly.

"Yes he saved you. That doesn't make it your fault! He's always been selfless, putting the welfare others before himself and that's what makes him who he is. It's his best and worst trait that makes me so worried but so proud. You know he wouldn't want you to feel so guilty so stop blaming yourself." She went on holding Miyuki protectively and continued in a voice as sweet as honey. "Besides, my boy's a fighter; whenever he's in a risky situation, he fights until the end. He always returns."

"Don't you hate me?" Miyuki questioned, still sceptical.

"Certainly not. I love you, dear." She reassured her and planted a kiss on the crown of her head. "You live under our roof so you're a daughter to me and I could never blame you for what happened."

A mix of emotion boiled inside Miyuki; guilt, despair, greif, anger. But also happiness and love, warm and trust. It was confusing and she felt compelled to tell Midori the troubles on her mind.

"I want to change," Miyuki admitted, "I don't want to be a liability, but instead be able to protect myself and others. I've lived such a sheltered life that I never even realised how much I've taken for granted. I only realised when it was too late. I want to say sorry and thank him and you for all you've done for me despite my flaws." Miyuki realised she was basically saying gibberish that even she didn't fully understand, and was acting so out of character, but Midori didn't seem fazed or offended by her babbling and stroked her hair.

"You'll be able to do that when he wakes up. You're too young to not make mistake and take things for granted so you shouldn't worry about it, sweetie. Just enjoy yourself, nobody's perfect and everyone's at least somewhat selfish, what matters is whether you act on your selfish wishes or not that matters." The older lady looked at the unconscious red-head and directed Miyuki back there.

"Come," she ordered, "You want to stay don't you?"

"Are you sure?" Miyuki asked in an anxious voice.

"Of course! I can tell you all about Masaki's misadventures. It's better than being alone." Miyuki complied and sat next to Masaki's mother, still feeling a bit awkward about the whole ordeal, but proud that she managed to tell Midori what she desperately wanted to say; it definitely made her feel much better. They sat there until dinner talking about how reckless Masaki has always been, starting fights he couldn't win for one reason or another, how he once got stuck in a tree and would cry whenever he was left alone in the dark. Oddly, Miyuki never got bored of the many stories and time flew by so fast that she forgot to call her brother, which she never did, so apologised for worrying him after they ate, and she told him about the events that happened that day, that she wanted to be more independent from now on even though she knew he wouldn't like the idea of leaving her side any longer than he needed to. After all, she was a target.

Midori and Miyuki often visited Masaki together for the rest of the week and got to know each other very well from their stay. Miyuki even managed to get closer to the rest of the family, being more engaged and intimate with them until the week came to an end and the moment of truth came.

Well look who finaly updated! I'm sorry for the very long wait but I shouldd be updating more frequently now exams are over.

I re-wrote this chapter from scratch two or 3 times now and spend countless hours on it because I wanted to get it right. I'm sorry if it's boring compared to the last one, only to end it with another cliffhanger but I wanted Miyuki to have more of a change in character so focused on this existential crisis.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more!