𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙆𝙞𝙩𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙚 -𝘼𝙣 𝙄𝙨𝙚𝙠𝙖𝙞 𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘-

The Search

Hatori's POV:

It's late when my and Ayame finally head back to the main estate. In some ways, I'm glad it was today. It meant one more day before I finally talk to Tanaka. But, in other ways, I wish I could already talk to her and get it over with.

"Tori? Are you coming?" Ayame asks as I stop for a moment.

"You go on ahead without me. I'll be there soon." I sigh. I need to be alone, to clear my headspace. Everyday since Dad passed, there's always someone around me. Someone asking me if I'm okay, if there's something they can do for me, on and on and on. And at first, it was fine but now, it's annoying.

"Alright. Don't come in too late though Tori, we wouldn't want you to catch cold." Ayame does that weird dramatic thing he does. 

"I won't." I sit down on a low wall. Constantly I'm reminded of Tanaka, and the fact that I messed things up big time. Gosh, why did I have to say those things to her? What was I think?

I hear a scream, not to far from here. It seems familiar. Like some one very close to me. And then it clicks, Tanaka. 

I jump up and try to figure out where the noise is coming from again. Part of me wants for her to scream again so I can find her. But, the other part of me knows I don't want to hear that. 

I get off the road, and run through tree and get smacked in the face by a branch, before stumbling into onto a quiet road. And I see her, blood running down her face. Her hands covering the wound.

"Tanaka! Are you alright? What happened?" I rush up to her.

"Ko...Koharu." She mutters, keeping her hands clamped down over the left side of her face.

I tug at the sleeve of my button up, and it snaps surprisingly quickly. I pull her hands away, and see the blood spewing out of her eye socket. 

"Come on Tanaka, I have to get you to the Main Estate. You need medical attention immediately." I tell her, as I finish wrapping the sleeve around her head, covering the wound. 

"No!" She shouts, looking at me with the most fiery look I've ever seen her have. "I'm sorry but no! I'm going after Koharu!"

Is she nuts? Does she want to go into shock from blood loss? "You need attention!" I argue.

"I've already abandoned her once, Hatori! I'm not doing it again! If you don' agree, than step aside and leave me to go find her!" She snaps.

"Then I'm going with you. I cannot allow you to go into certain doom on your own. Especially not in the state you're in." I state.

"Why? I'm sure you'd be fine if something bad happened to me. You already did that yourself." She asks.

I don't know what to say back to her. She's not wrong. I did butcher our relationship in only a few sentences. And then it comes to me.

"Because, like you said, I've already done one horrible thing to you. I can't afford to do something that leads me to never forgive myself. I can't stand by, and watch you get hurt. I've already done that, with my own words. I won't do it again." I tell her, placing my hand right where her left eye was.

"Okay." She whispers. I know that she'll probably never be in love with me again. But, that doesn't mean I can't have a good friendship with her. I can try to make her life easier. And I can help her.

"Well, when she took off, she went that way." Tanaka points to the other side of the empty road, into a narrow alleyway. 

"Then we go from there. It's a shame I don't have a good nose like Shigure does. It would be much easier to find her with it getting increasingly darker. But...."

"There will be blood on the knife she used to cut me. It will be dripping, right?" She asks.

"Unless if she cleaned it, then yes."

"I doubt with the state of mind she's in, that she'd clean it." She tells me, standing up. She's so calm for having been stabbed, in the eye. 

"And this is another reason why I'm coming with you. And you're positive it was Koharu?" I ask.

"Positive." She says, before taking off down the alleyway.

This seems surreal, to be running behind Tanaka who's bleeding with an eye missing, chasing after a nuts Koharu, in the dark. 

And then I remember something Dad told me. About adrenaline. And I realize that's what it is, why she can keep going. Her body's flowing with it, and she's going to crash soon.

"Slow down, Tanaka. Just for a moment." I order.

"What?" She stops, panting.

"You realize the only reason you can keep going on is because you're on adrenaline, right?" I ask.

"No."

"Well you are. It's going to stop soon. And your going to be in a lot of pain, what do you plan on doing after it stops?" I ask.

"Keep going. I have to find Koharu. I have to help her. I'm going to do whatever it takes. Even if I'm in pain, even if I can only see out of my right eye. I'm going to keep going on. I'm going to keep fighting. Because I stopped fighting for her once, and I'm not doing it again." She clenches her fists.

"Tanaka, if you come to feel that you cannot continue on, then that's fine." I tell her as we begin searching, again.

"Thank you for that Hatori. But, I'm sure I'll be fine." She replies.

"I think she went this way. There's a lot of trampled branches and leaves." I point to off the road.

"You're probably right."