Just some rambling written before going to bed.

All this bright white was starting to give him a headache already.

He did not like white very much, for some reason.

Maybe it was because of Hanoi's pure white cloaks.

Or maybe it was a visceral reason rooted in one of his lost memories, he did not know.

Yet, there he was walking through the Den City Hospital. With a few small flowers in his hand.

Hollyhocks to be specific. As soon as he saw them on the flower shop on the way, he decided they would be a perfect fit.

And there he was, in front of the door he aimed for.

He opened it, and sure enough, she was inside. Laid on the bed, eyes closed and body perfectly still apart for a weak breathing.

Zaizen Aoi. Blue Angel.

He placed the flowers on the nightstand and sat on a chair, staring at her coldly.

The same coldness present inside his mind.

Hanoi attacked her because she challenged him.

She challenged him because he, as Playmaker, was getting way too popular after the last battle with Hanoi.

He was getting way too popular because he had been way too careless in his eager crusade against Hanoi.

Bitterly, he thought about he was so lonely just because he did not want to involve people in his fight, yet people got hurt by involving themselves against his will.

It seemed like a Morton's fork. Two different paths, both leading to the same conclusion: innocent bystanders getting hurt because of him.

He started to wonder whether there was any difference in hurting comrades or bystanders. The result was the same after all.

An insistent doubt about what he had done up to that point made his way: "if everyone got hurt in a way or another, why not at least having them help?"

His only reply was her silence.

Blue Angel... no, Zaizen Aoi, was surely a strong person, but weak at the same time.

Just like him.

He was surprised by how much they were similar.

Orphans, with only a just-so-slightly-older legal guardian who was about their only confidant, but otherwise aloof.

Yet they were so different.

He felt Dueling as it were a burden, a tool to enact his guerilla war against a whole organization of cyber-terrorists.

However, for her, Dueling seemed like a liberation, she literally turned into a different person when having fun with her oblivious fans.

Blue Angel.

Still, in the end Dueling hurt her all the same.

She was forced again into Zaizen Aoi, locked into a sleep no one could say how long would be.

All because of YOU.

Yusaku was suddenly shaken out of his thoughts as the door opened, and a young adult came in. He immediately eyed him suspectful.

«Who are you?»

The words formed what seemed a natural question, but Yusaku could immediately tell the underlying accusative one would rightly use with a stranger found next to their unconscious younger sister.

«I am Fujiki Yusaku. I am a schoolmate of Aoi. I merely heard rumors at school about what happened to her and came to check if she were really here.» he lied through his teeth, bowing.

Zaizen Akira moved his sight from him to the hollyhocks on the stand, and immediately Yusaku cursed mentally.

«That's... interesting.» he began. «Aoi tells me everything about what she does at school, and she told me she had no friends outside the Duel Club, never once mentioning you. Moreover, none of those boys came with you. How singular.»

«I... simply joined the Duel Club a few days ago, just before she... experienced this. She may have had no time to talk about me.» Great, he really needed to be interrogated by whom he wanted to get info on. How ironic.

«I see...» he breathed.

«Now, if you would excuse me.» Yusaku bowed again as he sidestepped the older Zaizen sibling and walked away into the corridor.

Akira glared at him until he disappeared behind the corner, and then looked back the flowers.

«Fujiki...»

Meanwhile, the teenager's fist tightened. «I'm sorry, Zaizen. I'll absolutely find a way to atone for my sins.»

By taking the each head of every single Knight of Hanoi.

For my past.

For Kusanagi's little brother.

For your life.