Present day : August 1st, 21st Century, sometime during dawn...

Chris was tired. He never wanted this life. He didn't ask to be like this. Didn't ask to be loved. Didn't ask for the love of his life to be murdered in cold blood.

Now, he doesn't care. He wants to reunite with her.

He wants her smile. He wants to be with her. To embrace those soft lips again. To get lost in those hazel eyes.

But hey, fate has its plans for everyone. And this time, it's to disturb him. Yay fate.

CLANK! Went the bars."Hey bud, ding dong, times up." his recently discovered friend Darren, who seemed a good person to him at least, interrupted his thoughts.

Yep. He's a jail inmate.

"What is it, man?" He said, barely noticing what day it was, rather what month it tuned to now, this time of the year.

"Are you RETARDED? Seriously, how did you end up being a murderer? You don't seem that..." Darren sighed and opened his cell with the keys he had, dangling proudly by his belt.

"he seems lost..." Darren sneaked a thought in.

The barely-juvenile sentence he received had ended today, marking his release from a prisoner to being just another resident of the lesser known districts of Japan.

Chris, now enlightened by Darren, lazily got up and stretched with half a heart on his mind before they went ahead and did the honours of giving him all his belonings.

A little undersized shirt and jean, a camera with a film still not taken out for months.

Remnants of a massacre...

"Be happy they didn't give you more grounding. Don't do anything, kid. Don't ruin your life." Darren said before bidding his goodbye to the only outsider he got to know well.

"Uh...hey." He scratched his chin a bit, after calling out to Chris at the last second.

"Take this. You seem like a good kid. And you are a good one, excluding that incident." Darren handed a card, folded in his pocket.

Totally not in the mode of conduct of the Japanese.

Folding cards? That's a no-no.

"Call this number if you want some action. I'm no guarantee though, bud." He waved again.
"Did he refer to me as 'kid' and 'bud'? Gods..." Was all he thought.

Darren can't possibly make friends with the other guys. They kinda scare him. So much for being a warden.

*****

Dawn broke as Chris smelled the same old air.

Chris got back into the familiar streets of Japan. He only knew one place to go, since he almost forgot about everything except her at that moment.

Everything.

That he had a home to go to. Friends to reconcile with. Instead, he moved back to the place that haunted him all these months.

Kibō Heights. Only in name was it 'Hope'. It took all of his from his life.

In one swift and swell swoop.

He climbed the abandoned building after about 4 months after the death of his love.

"I miss you" He muttered to himself every floor. He found the air becoming thin and thinner and his breath running out, little by little from his lungs as he walked and walked while his knees groaned in pain.

Up 50 floors. Closer and closer to the hell of his with every step....

He paused for a moment, noticing the marks of struggle and a sharp object and the black mark that was scraping against the other half of the floor, all the way up the staircase.

At the 51st, he grasped for air as he saw the place still shrouded in dark memories and his nightmares caused him to double over in dizziness. He caught hold of his chest. Even a natural athlete can't run that far and not need replenishing of air.

The Canner can't 'can' this.

His vision started to take a blurry form as he sat down on the Tarmac ground. He sat there for a few moments, recollecting his thoughts and his physical relief.

He came to at the sound of his phone ringing."Hello?" He tried to not show any signs of his lack of air or any panic at seeing the name.

"Nii-san?? Where are you? They said you left the place immediately! WHERE ARE YOU?" A familiar voice hit him. Ichine Amane. A bit of memory came back to him. His sister, of sorts.

[Nii-san refers to Older Brother in Japanese]

"The usual, Amanda..." He told her, a small smile growing as an impulse, hearing her voice after many moons.

He could hear her puffing her cheeks on the phone."It's Ichine! Ichine Amane at that! Don't go forgetting all about names, now" She chided him, a giggle escaping his little sister of sorts.

He felt an involuntary grin reaching out onto his face, out of his control. On a reflex to his former self, in the past.

"What are you gonna do now?" She asked him. The signs of his grin; vanishing but he managed to maintain the tone of his voice as calm as he could.

"Uh....Probably gonna commit suicide" He tried to make a small laugh but it came better than excepted.

"There's this place..."

"The view is nice. Probably gonna jump off after a nap."

Ichine chuckled on the phone."Now, now. Don't do that, we'd miss you. Me more so, brother. Maybe your boyfriend."

"Alright...." He smiled for the first time in ages.

"Come home soon! They didn't let me in because I was underage or something. I'm dying to see you!" She cut the call, filling the air back in silence.

He looked down at a floor with a view drenched in the dry blood of three people.

One of innocence, two of muderers. Three of teenagers....

Chris then paced towards the railing-deficit edge as the scraping of his feet echoed across the insidious vacuum of sound. He looked over the edge, careless of the balance he made.

He then walked backwards slowly and laid down his back onto the wall, also unfinished, the exact place as the one who sat before, before starting to remember it all, bit by bit. Piece by piece....

Only if his sister knew he was serious....

Author's Note: From now on, Japanese language will be in italics ( Slanted words ) to be convenient to read