A/N: My OTP, the harutakas.

I cannot wait for the sixth novel. I really need to see what Shintaro and Konoha say about her getting her body back.

Maybe it'll happen in the anime. That'd be really great.

I combined ideas from the anime, the song Headphone Actor, and the novels. I just felt like it'd be more fitting that way.

This ship is painful. I wrote a painful story, too. I might do fluff of them one day.

Maybe someday.

Konoha hadn't remembered exactly when he'd fallen asleep. He told himself he'd just lie down for a bit, but it's never that easy when you're tired. He didn't mind though, sleeping was nice. Dreams would often bring him to places that didn't have such bizarre, strange things, and he was never forced to understand anything. He could exist, and really, why would he need to do much else?

Well, he could understand eating. Eating was nice.

From what he could see, this dream took him to a land covered in haze. Not to mention that it was unbearably hot at that, which didn't normally happen when he was dreaming, and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet. He decided it was best to sit down for a bit, and keep himself from passing out in a dream. Could he even do that? Either way, he was not about to get into thinking about that.

There was a small breeze that flew by; just enough to blow his hair and clothes a bit, but not enough to cool him off. Seriously, what was up with this?

To make matters worse, there was no blue sky. If there was one thing that Konoha liked, it was the pretty color blue the sky would be. Whether it be at night or during the day, he would sometimes just gaze at the sky and appreciate the blue. But the sky here wasn't blue at all. It was something he'd never seen before, at least to his memory of course. The sky was a deep, red color that poured out behind the cracks of the grey and white clouds, replacing the puffy white ones he loved so much. Nothing was pretty here. Not even the grass was a vibrant green. He felt out of place and rather uncomfortable with everything, and he just wanted to wake up and for this to be over.

What snapped him out of his thoughts was the crashing of a distant building.

He had barely noticed the town in front of him before; in fact, he was pretty sure this was the first time he was even paying mind to its existence. It was kinda weird, considering he was relatively close to it.

Despite a voice in his head telling him to run away, Konoha couldn't help himself when it came to exploring. Especially something like this, for he wanted to know why it was collapsing so suddenly. So, with a leisurely start, he wandered into the collapsing town to investigate.

He noticed that there was a surprising lack of people in the town. Was the town abandoned? Were the people evacuated so it could be knocked down? Did the people die? So many questions, so little answers. Despite the lack of much to work with, he kept going.

Konoha noticed that there was a surprising amount of crows everywhere. Although there were seagulls the closer he got to the water, the innards of the town were littered with crows. They all seemed to be staring at him too, which wasn't pleasant. The ones that weren't, he noted, were pointing in the direction of a hill. A large one at that.

As he walked, the silence started to get to him. Not even the crows were making noise. Nothing was, as the buildings had paused at that point. He found himself standing in what he perceived to be the middle of the town, although he wasn't too sure. He found himself beginning to panic, which he didn't normally do, which caused him to panic more. Why was he here? What was he looking for? Despite his questioning to himself, there was no real answer. He just knew this is what he needed to see, so he'd see it. That was that.

It was especially startling though, when he suddenly heard a large riot of people appear out of nowhere. He jerked to the right, now facing the left. He was positive what he was seeing was an illusion, but he backed up none the less, bumping into yet another one of a girl. She seemed familiar to him, and he backed up once more, watching her intently as she wiped her eyes on her red scarf. He then jerked around, facing the left once more, gazing at the hazy people who rioted against something he couldn't understand if he tried while a priest prayed in the back. Where had they come from? Had they been here before? Had he not noticed them? He stood in the center of this strange town, contemplating the answer, until he felt something brush past him.

Everything went silent, and building were once again falling. There were no more people around him, and Konoha would've reacted, had he not been focused on what was in front of him.

It was a girl, very short and not a very good runner. Her breath, from what he heard, was very faint, and she looked as if she was going to pass out at any moment. Yet, she kept running, wearing a bizarre outfit with a gasmask as she ran. Although he wasn't one to judge fashion choices, he did feel a pang of…well, he couldn't really explain it. But his chest began to hurt, seeing the twin-tailed girl run, and only one thought was on his mind as she was fading from his view: follow her.

He chased after the girl, yelling a "Hey!" every couple of minutes. As he got closer, he realized she wasn't ignoring him; she couldn't hear him. Konoha came to the conclusion that he was just an observer, kind of like a ghost, and could only watch. But that didn't stop him from chasing her.

The entire town collapsed behind them. By the time they'd reached the outskirts of town, Konoha had already caught up with the girl. The duo were running side by side at a slower than he would've preferred pace, but he wasn't going to start complaining. In fact, he was more up for listening. When he listened closely, lengthening and quieting his breaths, he could almost hear a voice that was not a part of the girl's music. This voice he definitely knew, or he thought so anyway, since it reminded him a lot of Ene's voice. He wasn't positive, but that's what he was going with. Because he was so focused on the voice, he hadn't realized that he'd been staring at her. Shintaro had told him multiple times that staring wasn't polite, and even though she'd never hear it, he apologized quietly. He was almost tempted to ask her where they were going, but again, he knew he'd get nothing. Just thinking that made him frown. He wasn't even sure why.

The hill was much steeper than he imagined, and he was running out of breath by the time they reached the top. He also felt remarkably weaker for some reason, and that didn't help. The girl, on the other hand, kept up her pace the entire time and was still going. What could be so important? She was away from the town, so it wasn't like she'd die or anything. The girl with the twin-tails ran through what seemed to be a bridge or so to the entry to the other side. Konoha pouted and caught up with her, only for the bridge to be crumbling under his feet. It was extremely distressing, and Konoha tried pinching himself to wake up. It had no effect besides hurting his arm, and he began to wonder if he was even dreaming to begin with. He and the girl were able to make it just as the bridge finished collapsing, although she landed on her stomach after tripping. He offered a hand, but she didn't see, so it didn't matter. With that, she once again started racing ahead, although stopping short not to long after. Konoha watched as her breaths faded to small puffs of defeat, and how her shoulders slumped down. She was staring straight ahead, watching in horror at something. Konoha decided that it must've been important, and walked up behind her. Before them stood men in white coats and a destroyed hospital. He noticed a small pain in his head at this point, but decided to disregard it.

He looked back down at the girl, who he noticed was in different clothes this time. Just looking at her made his headache multiply in pain, and he grasped the side in an effort to stabilize himself. God, it hurt so much. It hurt almost as much…as…something. He couldn't remember.

The breeze picked up into a fierce wind. The girl, who he guessed was wearing a school uniform, walked towards the edge of the cliff, looking down at the scientists and the wreckage that had been the hospital. There was almost no sound, not even her headphones were bleeding with the alternative rock that they had been moments before. Konoha noticed his vision was getting blurry, and the pain got so bad that he had to grit his teeth. This was a dream, right?!

"Haruka," the girl said quietly. Konoha's breathing stopped automatically, and he felt his heart rate increase dramatically. When he picked up his breathing again, it was horribly fast and staggered. He felt himself trying to say something, but he couldn't. There were no words that he could form and no way to escape his head pain. It got so bad that he dropped to his knees. His body threatened to collapse and his mind to go blank, but his emotions pushed him forward. Whatever this was, he needed to hear it.

"Haruka," she repeated, voice shaking as tears began rolling down the part of her face he could see.

"…I love you…!"

Konoha's eyes widened in horror. Despite his blurry vision, he could clearly see her body fading away with those words. No, no, no, no, no! He had to stop this, he couldn't, but he had to…!

And just as he felt his strength slipping away from him, he reached out to her, so close, but so far. Everything was shaking; his body, his voice, his breathing, the world around him. The only thing that was clear was the girl before him who was fading into nothing.

"No…NO!"

He didn't know why he was reacting this way, or why his eyes wouldn't stop leaking, but he didn't care at this point. He didn't even care that he couldn't remember why this mattered.

"TAKANEEEE!"

And everything went black.

Konoha woke up where he had fallen asleep. It was Mary's room; she'd let him borrow the bed to take a nap in. It was returning to him. Yes, he'd been tired, so he came here to sleep.

Despite the fact he was aware that it was just a dream, he still shook uncontrollably. It was probably due to the inability to save her, he had told himself. The inability to save…Takane.

Who was Takane, anyway? He didn't know, but as soon as he thought about it, his body shook even more. He made the command decision of figuring that out later and going to get a snack now. That was quite the nightmare, and he needed to calm down.

Getting up and walking helped a lot. He was also able to focus his mind on other things as well, such as what food he should eat, and who he should ask to cook it for him. He came to the conclusion that he'd ask Ene to search up some good food online (if she was home) and give him ideas.

When he entered the kitchen, he noticed a strangely large amount of noise coming from the living room. Now that it hit him, there was no one else in the kitchen to begin with. Maybe they'd finally come back. Maybe they brought food. Oh boy, did he hope they had food.

With that, he happily wandered to the living room, the thought of his nightmare completely pushed away to the back of his mind. Food was the only thing that mattered now, and his top priority was getting it. Seto was usually good with that.

But as he entered the room, he noticed the strange…clarity of Ene's laughter. He guessed that maybe they'd bought a stereo-system while they were out; Kano and Ene planned it and Seto hopped in when he went to get them. That could explain why it sounded so surreal.

He did notice though, that Momo and Mary were particularly giddy about the whole ordeal. Were stereo-systems really that great? What was he missing? He decided to ask Kido. Kido was trustworthy enough to give him the truth. She cooked for him. Luckily for Konoha, Kido had been more towards the back so he didn't have to cut through the large blob that the Dan created around what appeared to be Shintaro and Kano. He then tuned them all out, focusing on talking to Kido.

"Hey, Kido-san," he asked quietly. She turned to face him, an abnormal smile on her face. She quickly gained a serious look however, and addressed Konoha with such.

"Ah, you're awake! I suppose you're wondering what this is all about."

Konoha simply nodded.

"That's what I thought. Oi! You still have someone to introduce yourself to!"

Everyone, save Konoha, seemed to understand. Kano especially, he noted, and watched as said deceiver separated the blob so Konoha could see what everyone was fussing over. And it was not a stereo-system whatsoever.

"Ene-chan," Kido started. "It's time for formal introductions with Konoha, since he's up."

Everyone was all smiles (even Shintaro and Kido, ESPECIALLY Shintaro) seeing Ene as a human and not a cyber-girl. She was wearing a similar jacket that she did during her time as Ene, except with shorter sleeves. Her skirt was now a yellow color with black spandex underneath and pink high-tops. At first, she locked her gaze with Konoha's, before very quickly averting her eyes. Her expression grew rather dim, as did all the confused people in the room. Save Kano, of course.

"U-uhm," she started. "Hey K-konoha. It's me, Ene." She practically spat out the last word, and Shintaro raised an eyebrow. Konoha's gaze was fixed on her, as his body grew cold and his shaking started coming back.

"But since I'm human again, you can call me-"

"Takane-chan?"

All eyes were on Konoha at this point. Takane's glance shot up immediately. There was a mixture of hope and horror in her eyes, while everyone else was generally confused. Even Kano stopped smiling at this point.

"…yeah. How'd you know?" Takane's voice was quiet and broken as she said those words, her red eyes practically staring right into him. Konoha didn't know what to say. In fact, he didn't know anything. Everything came crashing in at once, and suddenly, Konoha found himself stammering for words.

"I-I…I d-don't…T-takan-ne…I…I'm s-sorry..."

He ran out of the room, spilling tears for something he didn't even understand. Everything hurt, and he found himself collapsing in the middle of the hallway, just trying to catch his breath. He'd done something wrong, so wrong, and he didn't know what. Just looking at her, or even thinking about her made him want to cry, and he didn't understand how or why. There was nothing. And that was all it took to flip him out.

Before he knew it, he saw a boy in a hospital bed looking down at him. There was a look a disappointment and sadness in his eyes, and despite having no clue what was going on, Konoha knew why.

"Takane, I'm so sorry…"

The entire dan had went to search the household for Konoha. All except two.

"Hey, Takane," Kano started, leisurely putting his hands in his pockets. "Aren't you going to chase after him?"

"He was in pain," she said softly. "I've done enough damage. I'll…just tell him I say I'm sorry and for him to feel better."

Kano rocked from his heels to his toes, titling his head at the girl with a small pout.

"You sure~?"

"…yeah. I'm going for a walk."

She didn't give him a chance to speak as she walked out of the building. It was her fault, all her fault. Had she just acted maturely that day and not turned away from him, this wouldn't be happening. She wanted to cry, but what good would that do? She missed him, her Haruka, and she hoped that deep down he missed her, too. Considering what just happened, she was pretty sure that was a stretch.

"Haruka, I'm so sorry…"