Her grandmother found her crying at the bottom of the stairs.

It was only a week since they had been called. The little girl crying, bawling and trying to contain everything in herself after keeping a lid on it for so long - it was a sight no one, should ever want to see. And yet a sight that had always been completely expected, given the circumstances.

The old woman knelt down beside the frail and inconsolable little girl, and knew that nothing she could say would change a thing. She just stroked Kayo's hair, hugging her with her free hand and trying to give her some form of warmth.

To Kayo, the feeling was unnatural, this comfort. She had only felt like this around him, and now, she - was probably never going to get another chance to feel him, to be with him, to be warm around him, and to see him smile and laugh and take her by the hand. All those times she would think about how much she was going to return.

How she was going to see him and embrace him the first chance she'd be able to make it back to that town. How much she was going to tell him that she was a better, stronger person because of him. How much of a human being he had helped her become. A part of her wanted to blame her mother, of all people. Surely, she had something to do with it. How dare she. How dare she come back and ruin everything when she had just been put down. Dogs needed to stay in the ground when they'd been kicked.

But when she realized she couldn't blame her mother, blame anyone except for the nameless monster responsible for this madness, it became impossible to stop the cracks from coming. Her best friend in all the world, gone so soon after she had left him.

On second thought, perhaps she was wrong; perhaps there was indeed someone to blame for all this. After all, she needed someone to blame. Might as well allow her to take the fall. She had pieced enough together after having received the call. She was a child, but she was not dumb.

Satoru's untimely incident occurring so soon after she had left for Sapporo? Satoru being so kind and generous all of a sudden, despite never having even spoken to her before? Satoru working so hard for her, protecting her day by day in school and from her mother and from everyone else she was too distrusting of to speak to?

She remembered one cold and dreary night she had been cooped up in a bus. A man had burst into the bus and then had hit something very hard. He had then left her and whatever he had kicked alone to go to waste and she - she remembered feeling so frightened, feeling so alone, feeling weaker than she had ever felt before. And then Satoru came to the conclusion that whatever the person had kicked was simply the bundled up tools of a criminal, when they had laid their eyes upon said tools for the first time.

Clearly, Satoru had known something. Perhaps Kayo herself had been a target of somebody's? That person who had arrived onto the bus? Something like that, she was sure. And Satoru had bent over backwards to make sure that she wasn't going to be hurt by whomever had targeted her. Perhaps he had caught wind of the plot after befriending her so suddenly. Perhaps he had always known, and that was why he had become so straightforward in his interactions with her.

She wasn't angry at the thought. She wasn't upset over the idea that maybe it had all been a lie just to protect her. It had just made her hate herself more.

What if she'd stayed? What if she had not left her mother for Sapporo? What if she had stayed in that dreary, snowy town and refused to leave? Would he have somehow survived? Would her presence have changed anything? Could it have? His presence had certainly changed her a lot - what if she had just stayed all along?

...Perhaps she could have done something. Hell, she might have been able to do something amazing, right? He - he was willing to do everything and put everything on the line for her, just all for her. Knowing that, knowing that, she knew she could have done everything she needed to! She knew she could have done something, anything! She knew she had the strength!

Strength he had given her! Strength he needed now more than ever to - !

No, she realized.

No. Nothing would have changed. Nothing. She was nothing. He had been everything. What could she have done, to fix things? What power did she have, on her own, when she had needed him to tell her to not be afraid and to not want to die? This was insane. This was a nightmare. And all she could do was hope that something, somewhere, out there, would speak to her and tell her that this was fixable. Reparable.

But there was only one time God had sent someone for her. She wondered, sincerely doubting it, if she was ever going to get a second chance.

Something flickering.

She flitted her red and wet eyes to her left. A blue butterfly made its way to her, and then she heard a low screeching noise. The world turned negative, and for a second she seemed like she was going to scream and choke and die in her own entrails and like she was being strangled-

She opened her eyes, and found herself somewhere cold.

Her cheek was against something soft. Fabric. The rest of her body was on something rough and thick and unevenly-stitched. What was this? What was she on? Why? Why was everything so cold? What was...what was going on? Where was she? Why were things like this? She was in her grandmother's arms not too long ago.

Had she just cried herself to sleep in her grandmother's arms? If this were a dream, why was everything so...so real? Her eyes...she realized she was somewhere dark. She just realized her eyes had been open all this time. They hadn't adjusted yet to the world, so everything appeared black. What she was on...what surface even was this? Why was it so familiar?

Wait.

She remembered.

This was...a bus seat. She remembered. Because the first time she slept on one of these, she had been annoyed. She had been annoyed at how rough the surface had been and how she couldn't catch a wink for at least thirty minutes before eventually dozing off. She remembered feeling a little bored and agitated because of her boredom of having nothing to do in a bus for days at a time. She remembered just contemplating about life and how everything was changing and how everything was happening because of-

What?

There was something on her. Another fabric - it was a blanket. Yes! Yes, she recognized this blanket! It was the one she had used to cover herself up and keep herself warm at night! Of course...! Then that meant...

No, impossible.

She stroked her hand on the surface she had been laid upon and her eyes started to adjust to the black.

This can't be real. This is not right.

It was blue. A blue cushion. A blue cushion of a bus seat. She widened her eyes before darting them to her left. There was a sheet in front of her. A sheet separating her from the rest of the dilapidated vehicle, hanging from a pole. She sat up, in her seat, and looked around - her eyes caught a window. She stared out, and saw a chain link fence, illuminated by some stray light. She knew that fence. She knew this place.

What she didn't know was how or why-

Something shifted. A lurching and metallic, creaking noise suddenly rang out.

Oh, no.

She kept herself still at the sound. She remembered what this was. Why? Why was she back here? Here, in this situation!? No, no...!

Why was she here? Why was she here? Why, oh, God, why did you put me here!? What was this...!? Why was she back here!? I don't want this! He'll come for me and he'll kill me this time! What, what if...!?

"Hinazuki, good morning," he joyfully said to her as he went through the sheet separating her from the rest of the car.

He was holding a bento box, he was wearing that same puffy jacket he'd always wear when she'd see him outdoors and he was here, alive, in front of her right now, giving her that same smile he had always given her, with that tender and caring voice she had once been weirded out by.

He was here and alive and in front of her and not dead, not having been drowned, not having been taken away from her so suddenly and so cruelly, not robbed of the life he had so clearly deserved and not a victim of hers anymore.

"Satoru..."

She just stared at him, taking in all of him, memorizing every single little detail about his face, his smile, his eyes, his presence; because dead people don't reappear, dead people don't get the chance to meet up with their friends again, dead people don't smile, because they're too dead to smile!

"Uh...are you okay?" he asked, a small twinge of nervousness in his voice. Then, he straightened himself. She needed to eat. He'd just have to ask her for her concerns later. "I've brought you some food."

She stared at the bento box, wary, afraid. Like this was all just some dream, and despite all evidence to the contrary, she refused to believe that this was anything but some frail, lucid, horrible dream that was just pelting her over the head and saying He's dead, he's not coming back, you're a fool to think he is. Like if she were to even touch the box, she'd awaken from this monstrously torturous dream, and never see him again.

"Don't worry, I've already eaten," he told her encouragingly. Handing her the box, placing it in her lap.

Before she realized it, she was crying, tears falling down onto the bento, and her breaths hefty with fear and regret and relief and utter happiness.

"H-Hinazuki?" Satoru stammered out. "What's the matter? What's wrong-?"

She embraced him like he was going to die any second now, uncaring if it was a dream, uncaring that the bento was spilling all over the floor now, uncaring that he was startled immensely by her forwardness.

Satoru - the one she knew - had been drowned in a lake, trapped helplessly in a car by someone. A murderer who had most likely targeted her first, and then killed him in retaliation. And she was not going to let another Satoru perish.

Never again.

"Hinazuki!" he exclaimed, somewhat of a mild blush appearing on his cheeks. He had to recompose himself again, "W-why are you crying?"

"Please, don't talk right now," was all she could reply. "Please, don't leave me again."

"What, did - did something happen to you last night?" he muttered, now taking her by the shoulders. "Were you hurt? Did somebody come in here and-!?"

She just held him closer, tighter, stronger than she had ever held anyone ever before. She didn't know what the future held for the both of them. She didn't know how she was going to fix things or how this was even happening. Maybe this was a dream. Or maybe her whole life after first sleeping in the decrepit old bus was a dream.

That didn't matter to her at all.

The point was that Satoru was with her, and for this brief moment, for this calm before the storm, she was going to make sure that nothing else mattered but that.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I saw Erased.

The first ten episodes were golden, some of the best I've ever seen out of anime. Seriously. But the last two were rushed trash.

And my objective with this fic is to fix that.

Made some slight edits to dialogue to make the words flow better.