"Please... leave the window open." Nina spoke in the direction of Tenma, in a weak voice, lying in a hospital bed. She was connected to a drip, because due to recent events, her body still hasn't recovered.
"All right." Kenzo replied, turning his head towards her.
"How long have I been lying here?" She asked.
"Don't worry about it." He moved away from the window and sat down in the chair, right next to Emiko; the girl sat by her friend's bed motionless, staring at her face with worry written in her eyes. "You should rest." He added in a gentle tone.
"Thank you. Somehow I know... that you two took care of me all this time. Don't worry. It's fine now. I don't think about suicide anymore."
"Doctor Reichwein and Dieter will be arriving soon." Kenzo informed her.
"What about you?"
"I have to go."
"Where?"
"Well..." Emiko's brother made a serious face.
"Did you two analyze all the materials you collected? Have you learned anything?" She turned her head slightly and looked at them. "I'm fine, you can tell me."
"I spoke with many people from the former StB and subordinates of General Wolf... to get as much information as possible." Kenzo began and took out from the bag he carried with him, a bundle of papers with notes.
"About Franz Bonaparta?"
"Yes. He's a very mysterious man... but slowly his image is coming together. Czechoslovak born in Germany." He was reading. "Probably the name 'Franz Bonaparta' is fake. After World War II, although he was born in Germany, he was expelled from Bohemia and settled with his family in Czechoslovakia. It's not known what function he held there during the communist rule... I discovered that he married a Czech woman with whom he had a son. His son was one of the students attending his reading sessions in the early 1960s. 'Bonaparta's son is in Prague.' I think Petr Čapek's last words pointed at him. In an old photograph, a copy of which I managed to obtain, there are all the children participating in the sessions from the 60's." Nina tilted her head and looked at the photo Tenma was showing her. "The child is on the left-"
"He wasn't an outstanding child." The blonde answered unexpectedly. "He was expelled from classes because he wasn't 'an outstanding child'."
"How do you know that?" Tenma asked in surprise.
"He was rejected by Bonaparta. I'm pretty sure I met him in Prague."
"Does he know where his father, Franz Bonaparta, is now?"
"I don't know. But this is our only trace. We must hurry before something terrible happens."
"Something terrible?"
"I feel... that Johan wants to do something." In this moment Emiko remembered Nina's words when they talked in Prague for the first time. When she told her that twins feel a bond and know what is happening to the other, even if they are in distant places...
"What does he want to do?" Kenzo asked, leaning slightly towards the bed.
"He wants to plan the perfect suicide. True loneliness... that's his definition of love. If we don't hurry up... many innocent people will die." In that moment, in that one moment, young Tenma's heart jumped to her throat and froze there for a few long seconds, depriving her of her breath completely. She felt a great pressure in her chest, as if the emotions running through her veins were trying to convey a brutal truth to her mind at any cost. She remembered everything... These four days they had spent together, when they formed a great bond and when they parted. The words he had spoken to her back then.
"After all of this... I will kill myself. Just like you suggested to me. This will be my gift for you..."
An overwhelming and almost unspeakable sadness settled at the bottom of her soul and heart, suffocating her whole body so hard that tears flowed from her eyes without knowing when. She couldn't let him to do it... She couldn't let to...
But what would she have to do to save him?
****
When Tenma went to Prague to find Bonaparta's son, Emiko stayed behind to look after Nina. Both, although they didn't know each other for long, felt an extremely strong bond with each other, so strong that in some situations they were able to communicate without words. Thanks to this, they could support and encourage each other, especially when it came to events related to Johan.
Doctor Reichwein took Nina together with Emiko to his home after Nina was discharged from the hospital. Together with Dieter, they went to Munich in mid-May to wait for news from Tenma and to allow both girls to slowly recover from past events. The stigmas of the events they experienced left their marks on them so strongly that the only right thing they could and should have done now was to fully recover both physically and mentally. The latter, however, was more difficult to achieve.
Months passed, Nina and Emiko were visited in doctor's Reichwein home systematically by Karl and Lotte, and they even experienced an unexpected visit. Kenzo's former fiancée, Eva Heinemann, also moved in with them, due to the Frankfurt syndicate pursuing her and the fact that she had nowhere else to stay. It was also then when young Tenma met her in person. However, there was no much understanding between them; the barrier that separated them wasn't huge, but there was always that wall they couldn't break down.
****
Spring slowly turned into summer, and summer finally became autumn. The leaves on the trees were changing their colors from day to day, while at night the moon slowly played a lullaby for the Earth to the winter sleep; it wove its threads of light that one night too, slowly, through the long drawn curtains of a window, into a certain room.
The room was completely silent, broken only once in a while by a new breath audible only by the guardian angels; it was enveloping the figure lying in bed and deep in sleep, gently embracing her in its arms. The moonlight illuminated her lips, which moved in an inaudible whisper.
"Jo... han..."
This whisper was a silent call... How much longer did she have to search to finally find him? How long... must she wander around this place before she can meet him? Emiko opened her eyes and looked around.
White roses grew everywhere. Their bushes grew all over the garden where she was currently staying, their branches clasping the green-leaved growing trees, thus creating pristine white cascades that reflected the silver moonlight. The image looked like in a fairy tale - perfection intertwined with the color of the angels' wings, was breathtaking... And yet, the girl knew that something was missing for her... No. Someone... Someone who never came, though she had looked for him many times before. Elusive. Inscrutable. Unconquerable.
Emiko walked around the garden, still looking for the person she most wanted to meet. The curtain, however, never lifted up, it didn't bring her what her heart and soul expected...
She walked slowly to the bush and touched the flower; whiteness spilled over her, turning her clothes into a pristine white gown. She stroked its petals further, feeling the long suppressed feelings deep inside of her... At the same time, the thorn pierced her finger, and the blood mixed with the world. The white dress was stained with suffering, in the colors of red it showed light, and a bloody moon appeared in the sky...
Suddenly, however, the silk curtain fell down... spilled like a milk, over the entire landscape, restoring it to its pristine whiteness. In the silver moonlight, the blades of grass began to make soft noises, as if of a silent request and promise. Emiko turned her head...
The rose petals parted in full bloom, revealing at the same time a figure that had been hiding behind the silk curtain until then. The girl moved away from the roses and took one step towards him. And then another one... one more. But she stopped at his first breath she heard.
"Jo... Johan..."
A gentle smile appeared on his lips, and in his eyes melancholy and memories that should be forgotten. He didn't say a single word. He silently shook his head to the side, as if denying everything that had happened so far, as if denying even this meeting. After that, he started to go into the unknown again...
"Jo... han! I..." The girl with the moonlight reflected in her eyes, tried to sow a new, unknown fairy tale. "...I'll save you anyway! Johan!" She exclaimed.
In an instant, he was by her side. He bent his body slightly, then grabbed her face with his hand and gently pulled her him to him. Two blues became one great ocean.
"I won't let you die... because I love you, do you understand?"
The young man's hand went higher; fingers with an almost innocent feeling began to stroke her cheek as if this modest gesture was to ease all the pain and suffering she had experienced so far.
"We'll meet... when I finish what's left to do. When the Scenery of Doomsday will come." A gentle voice spoke. In that one moment, a particle of the great ocean split in two - half of the water remained the water and another half the flames.
"There will be no End... not here... not as long as I live. I'll save you." These words seemed to firmly try to cross out the reality, they whispered a promise that had to be fulfilled in order to remedy the greatest of tragedies. A promise that meant more than its words said.
The young man smiled, and then his arms tightly embraced the figure in the white dress... Heat began to flow through her whole body towards him and the spell of that night joined their souls in immaculate white... The golden strands fell to the ground, covering cheeks and lips of two people, where the greatest promise was made.
They sat among the flowers, filling the air with a scent full of sweetness - she sat in the grass and he rested his head in her lap and closed his eyes as if he was going to fall into an eternal sleep that would never end. The girl gently ran her fingers through his hair, then leaned slightly towards him.
"See you in the city of The End." She whispered in the language of the stars, placing a kiss on his forehead and lips.
"I'll be waiting for you..." The sweetness of the kiss turned into a truly angelic smile, expressing a connection with the heart hidden from the world until now. "...and if you don't change your mind, I will find a new meaning of my life."
The whiteness of the flowers embraced them both; mixed with the scent floating in the air and the sweetness of heavenly nectar, making the beating of two hearts become one, immaculate butterfly, floating on snow-white wings straight to the dreamed Paradise...
****
Emiko couldn't recover from her dream for several days. Everything she experienced in it was so incredibly realistic that just remembering it sent shivers all over her body. She even wondered if it wasn't as real as the one she'd experienced in Prague. And this time too, events were to prove it again.
A few days after waking up from her dream, Dr. Reichwein and Dr. Gillen called Nina and Emiko into the office to give them a message.
"I got this email three days ago." The old man pointed to a computer with a displayed message on it. "After consulting Dr. Gillen, we decided to tell you two about it.
"Thank you." Nina spoke up, while young Tenma began to stare at the screen.
an Nina und Emiko
Ich warte auf dich in Ruhenheim.
(To Nina and Emiko
I will be waiting for you in Ruhenheim.)
"Johan..."
"Do you think the same?" The blonde had no doubts and nodded her head.
"You've already told us what Johan wants to do. 'The Perfect Suicide'?" Dr. Gillen had a serious expression on his face. "You also mentioned that many innocent people will die."
"Ruhenheim." Doctor Reichwein thought for a moment. "There is a town in southern Germany with that name. There's a chance that Tenma is there too." At these words, Emiko felt her throat go dry.
"I have to go there." Nina and Tenma's sister said at the exact same time.
"Please, let us go." Johan's sister finished the begun thought.
"We'll let you go there, subject to certain conditions." The old doctor began. "Dr. Gillen will go with you. Also, you are not allowed to carry guns."
"I don't need a gun. I'm going to get ready." Nina frowned. "Please hurry up and do what we said before. Dieter and Eva... and you, Dr. Reichwein. Also Mr. Schuwald, Karl and Lotte. Everyone who knows Johan should hide." The man nodded. "Johan will try to cover all traces of himself."
"Then let's go, Nina." The blonde turned to Kenzo's sister and together they went towards the corridor.
****
Before going to their journey with Dr. Gillen, they stood by the window, sheltered under an umbrellas, looking at Eva and Dieter inside. It was like a silent farewell, because they themselves didn't know what would happen to them in the city of The End.
"We have to go before Dieter finds out!" Doctor Reichwein urged them on, and the three of them made their way through the rain to the gate.
"Memories related to Dieter... to you, Dr. Reichwein... and Karl and Lotte... Memories related to Fortners... Memories of Tenma... Or even you, Emiko..." Nina paused for a moment. "I don't want to lose my memories. Although some of them I would like to forget..."
"Johan..." Doctor Reichwein began slowly. "What about memories of Johan?"
"I can't forget them." She confessed honestly, to which Emiko squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her.
"Nina, some things... only the two of us can do."
____________________________________
**BONUS**