The first time he wakes up, it is raining.

He looks around but everything is unfamiliar. There are a few people around but they do not see him. But he sees her.

She's small, even smaller than him, with short, auburn hair in pigtails. A guardian is holding an umbrella over her head. Her gaze rests on the hole in the ground in front of them, where they are lowering her mother's remains. Her father's will follow soon after.

Her eyes are red but they are dry. He gets the impression that she has already used up all her tears.

But when he comes up to her and brushes his ghostly fingers against hers, the tears start to flow again.

.

.

He thinks the second time he wakes is a year later. He's uncertain. Most of the time, he's thinks he's not really awake but simply dreaming. Try as he might, he can't say for sure.

She's standing in front of a building with a man and a woman. He knows that this is not her first time here. In fact, she's being taken back to the orphanage after an unsuccessful adoption.

But this time, she does not cry when he touches her hand. She does, however, cock her head thoughtfully in his direction but he knows that she can't see him.

.

.

The next time he sees her, she is a lot taller and her hair is longer. She seems happy. He later learns that the orphanage has managed to find her next of kin who were living abroad and who agreed to support her.

She's in middle school now, with a lot of friends, and is doing well, all things considered. He's happy for her. But she seems farther than ever from him.

.

.

Then, for the first time, he does not peacefully wake from his slumber. The pull to consciousness is rough, abrupt, and leaves him disoriented. Her muffled sobs come from the bed as she tightly holds a pillow to her chest.

She's witnessed an accident today. It's nothing like the explosion seven years ago but it's enough to trigger the painful memories. She's terrified. And feels lost.

And also for the first time, he finds himself wishing for a real body as he wraps his arms gently around her.

Strange. Didn't he have a body? He feels... incomplete somehow. Like parts of his soul are missing. She is the only anchor he has.

.

.

She's in love. At least that's what it looks like to him. She's met this boy in school and is talking to her friend about confessing her feelings to him.

It's a concept very foreign to him. What is love? He begins to wonder.

Her friend suggests writing a letter. 'To my dearest—' but she cuts her friend off, and they laugh together. Her face is very red.

She's crushed when the boy rejects her and it's irrational that he can feel anger towards this unnamed boy and relief at the same time.

My dearest...

.

.

He can feel himself getting stronger. The times between his wakeful states is getting shorter and shorter. He's able to watch her for longer periods and he is content to be by her side at night.

He is as surprised as she is when it is announced that she will be transferring to Gekkoukan High School in Tatsumi Port Island. The name triggers something in him, but he cannot place it.

He wishes that there had been some sort of warning before their lives changed forever.

.

.

A day before she is set to transfer, he is summoned by an unnatural force, unnatural to him, anyway. He's long accepted that he is different from her and her world. He doesn't know what he is, but he knows he doesn't belong. But that's fine. If he can be close to her, then that is all that matters.

He finds himself in an elevator with deep blue furnishings everywhere he looks. And in the center of it all, a figure introduces himself as Igor. Igor hands him a contract and tells him that it is time for them to finally meet.

Do you know who I am? he asks Igor, clutching the contract in his pale hand.

Igor smiles. It is not our place to tell you. The residents of the Velvet Room merely watch and observe but know that she is irrevocably tied to your fate and whatever path she chooses will complete your destiny. You might even say, that both of you are tied together by the Red String of Fate.

Red String of Fate?

But Igor merely nods and smiles again. I request that you ask her to sign that contract so that we may be able to assist her in reaching that destiny.

.

.

When the door to the Iwatodai Dorm opens and she walks in, illuminated by the greenish tint of the Dark Hour, he knows, instinctively, that she'll be able to see him this time. And because she cannot possibly comprehend how long, how extremely long, he's been waiting for her, the first thing he says to her is:

"Welcome. You're late."

.

.

And so it begins.

On her first full moon in Iwatodai, she summons a power from the sea of her soul and Orpheus answers.

But something is wrong. Everything is wrong.

He wants to help her. He wants to be the one to be there for her.

The manifestation of his desire affects Orpheus. And before any of them registers what's happening, Orpheus is gone and Thanatos is hovering over them all in his full, otherworldly, glory. He brutally falls upon the hapless shadow, tearing it limb from limb.

In the aftermath, exhausted from expending so much energy, she falls unconscious.

He retreats into the limbo of his world, curling up into a ball, clutching his sides. Shame consumes his soul. The only person in this world that he wants to protect and he has caused her undue distress. She cannot handle his power, not yet, anyway.

He will no longer interfere.

But he can still be her friend right?