Pastel shades of pink and orange blended together, painting the sky above as the sun hid its face behind a dark cloud. A few stars were already visible in the early evening sky, the moon coming to view as well.

Todomatsu sat down on the roof, his eyes clouded over with worry.

Staring at his palms, the man shook his head, trying to forget all that had happened recently.

"Friends, family..." the figure chuckled, sitting down next Todomatsu, wrapping its dark, transparent arm around him, embracing him. "You only need me, and the ground below now. Just jump."

"I..." Todomatsu felt as if someone were stealing away each and every word he had to say. For when he tried to speak, all the could be heard was a distressed croak.

The figure chortled, a wide smirk on his shadowy face.

"You want to forget so badly, yet the more you try to forget, those memories just become more vivid, don't they? There's a reason why you're all alone now, Todomatsu. She died because of you. Everyone knows how you stole her life..."

"S-St..." Todomatsu tried to speak, but his own hallucination cut him off, his cold hand resting over the man's mouth.

"You're safe now," the figure whispered icily into Todomatsu's ear, a chilly wind rushing between the two. "You don't have to do anything anymore. You should just give up on living. Give it all up. Give your life over to me."

"N-No..." Todomatsu forced out, though his tongue had gone completely limp. His heart was pounding in his chest, so fast it felt as if it could explode.

Todomatsu covered his mouth with his hands, scared that he would puke. The world seemed to be spinning.

"See?" Todomatsu's friend sighed, "you're losing your sanity now...and whose fault is that? Todomatsu's fault. Not my fault, it's all your fault."

Suddenly, a different voice filled the air. It belonged to a female. Like the whisper of an angel, soft like a feather, but stronger than steel.

"Todomatsu, will you forget?" she spoke softly. "Promise me you won't forget..."

"F-F-For-Forget...?" Todomatsu stumbled over the simple word. He knew this voice.

Kinkai.

"Never forget the reason why my heart is still beating," Kinkai's voice resonated, pulling Todomatsu into a sudden state of deep sleep.

"Todomatsu!" Kinkai called out, jogging up to her friend, her school bag thrown over her shoulder.

Her hair was an absolute mess, but Todomatsu was used to seeing her in such a wreck on Fridays at school. She barely pulled through each week, yet she somehow always forced a smile on her face.

"Look!" Kinkai exclaimed, rummaging through her bag as Todomatsu just stared at her with a blank expression on his face. Abruptly, she revealed a type of I.D.

Todomatsu had no idea what he was staring at until Kinkai pointed at a small red heart on it.

"I'm an organ donor!" she exclaimed as if it were the best thing in all of the world. "That means, if I die, I can live on in people! My cousin was an organ donor, you know."

"Live on...?" Todomatsu laughed uneasily, trying to share her joy.

His weak heart was getting worse and worse as time progressed. To his luck, soccer had ended for the school year. Nobody knew how bad off he was at this point, not even his best friend, Kinkai.

"Exactly!" Kinkai sighed loudly in satisfaction. "Even though I'm much too young, since my parents are doctors, they said it was alright."

"That's..." Todomatsu forced on a fake smile. "That's great news!"

"Speaking of organs..." Kinkai began, but was cut off by her phone ringing from inside her school bag. "Shoot..."
Kinkai looked as if she were about to burst into tears.

"What's the matter?" Todomatsu asked worriedly.

"Parents," Kinkai sighed, quickly answering her phone. "Hello? Yeah- no! I'm still at school!"

There was a long pause, and as Todomatsu listened, he could here someone yelling on the other end of the line.

"Fine, fine," Kinkai sighed. "I'll be right over."

Kinkai snapped her small flip phone shut, gave Todomatsu a quick hug, then took off running, so fast that she had disappeared in just seconds.

"That's..." Todomatsu sighed.

Several weeks later...

"Have you seen Kinkai lately?" Todomatsu asked his friend Atsushi as they walked home from school, their final day together before summer break. "She's been out...hasn't she..? Did she move away...?"

Atsushi burst out laughing, tears coming to his eyes.

"Y-You didn't hear?" he choked, slapping Todomatsu on the back. "Kinkai died. I can't believe you didn't know! This is just utterly amazing!"

"She d-died...?" Todomatsu voice drifted off, stopping dead in his tracks. "And n-nobody told me...?"

Todomatsu awoke.