chapter 12

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Tenma placed a steady hand on Tsurugi's shaky shoulder and right away, the ace striker immediately understood what he meant, he simply just backed off and Tenma went right through the door. When he entered the room, he was mortified by the sight that was in front of his vision.

The room itself was fine, but Yuuichi who was on the bed wasn't. Tenma floated up to him and saw that he was laying on his side with his back facing the wall, curled up into a ball while hugging and hiding his face in his pillow, sobs could still be heard coming out muffled by the tightly hugged, almost plushie treated pillow. Tenma felt his non-existent heart shattering into pieces, and he could almost swear that he heard those pieces hitting the ground, creating a vibrating sound, though he obviously knew that it was only an illusionary sound created by his ghost brain.

The more he stared at Yuuichi, the tighter his chest got. The older boy was mumbling inaudible words due to him hiding his face in his pillow, but then, one word was heard, fairly faint yet loud enough that it struck the ghost boy like a lightning bolt

"Tenma..." That was the last struck for Tenma himself, he leaned forwards and dropped on his knees while hugging the older brother. Yuuichi on the other hand, didn't know what was going on, all he felt was a sudden rush of warmth throughout his upper body that made his head and eyelids feel drowsy, but when that sudden warmness disappeared, Yuuichi's curiosity took ahold of him and he slowly pierced his right eye over the pillow, and there he saw the boy he was dying to see, Matsukaze Tenma.

Yuuichi didn't know how to react, handle or cope with this current situation, he just followed his instincts and hugged the seemingly ghostly boy with all his might, he didn't care if it was a dream or an illusion, in fact, even if it was, he would at least make the most out of it. But when his 'illusionary' Tenma hugged him back, he realized that it wasn't a dream nor an illusion, it was real, very real.

They stuck together for what seemed like hours before they finally let go of eachother, Yuuichi took a good look at the current Tenma that was kneeled down in front of him. And apart from his semi-transparent body, he also didn't like his black marks and dull eyes, but his biggest question was

"Tenma... Is that you...?"

And his only response was a slow nod along with a small and tender smile

"But... How...?" His voice was filled with disbelief, after all, it's not like you can see a ghost every single day

"It's a long story that I'm personally not willing to explain bit by bit, but~ I'm sure Tsurugi would be willing to take his time and tell the whole story from beginning to end." Tenma used a slightly joking tone for this part, trying his hardest to avoid making the mood go heavy.

Yuuichi was a little taken back at the mention of his brother's name. It's been pretty heart wrenching these past couple days, especially after his brother's confession about him being aggressive towards Tenma

'Kyousuke...' As much as Yuuichi was mad at Tsurugi for his uncorrectable mistake, he knew that he couldn't stay mad forever, he is his precious little brother after all, but it still felt wrong

"If you're thinking about not forgiving him, then I suggest you to not do that. Besides, me being the one who should hate him to bone, which I do, ended up willingly seeing him and kind of half forgiving him, so I don't see why you should stay mad at him when I'm not." The older brother was surprised, not only by the fact that Tenma has apparently just read his mind, but also because of what he said

'He forgave Kyousuke...?' He obviously didn't ignore the part where he said he didn't completely forgive him, but even the slightest hint forgiveness was enough to get Yuuichi's eyes wide as plates. He couldn't believe that he ended up forgiving his brother even the slightest bit after all the trauma he went through, but after he got over his shock, he began thinking about his words.

It does make sense in a number of ways, if the victim itself isn't angry - completely angry - with the other, then he doesn't have the right to stay furious either. Yuuichi let out a defeated sigh and said

"Alright..."

~'0'~

Tsurugi and Hikaru were sitting on the chairs that were around the dinning table. The ace striker was abnormally anxious, to the point where he began biting his nails, Hikaru was also nervous, but definitely not as much as Tsurugi, he was moreover nervous about how Tsurugi's brother is gonna take the sudden appearance of the ghost boy, he even had some terrifyingly crazy thoughts such as the older brother thinking that he's going insane for being able to see Tenma as a ghost and due to that, he began to slowly regret his decision of taking the ghost boy here.

Suddenly, a slow creak was heard from the distance and when they turned their heads to it, they saw Yuuichi slowly opening the door with Tenma right behind him. Tsurugi would be lying if he said he didn't want to run up to his brother and squeeze him to the point where he can't even breathe, but he knew that in and out of itself was a bad idea, especially at a time like this

"Nii-san..." He feels like it has been years since he last saw his brother standing in front of him and there is a lot of stuff he wants to say to him, but even so, he only managed to squeeze out that one single word. Yuuichi lifted his head and looked directly into his younger brother's eyes, and he felt a tight feeling in his chest. He saw emotions that he hasn't seen in Tsurugi's piercing eyes in a long time and he suddenly began feeling guilty for neglecting him when he was also having a hard time, not only because of Tenma's death, but also because of self blame.

He knew it better than anyone else, how much and how easily Tsurugi tends to push all the blame upon himself, with his leg injury being the perfect example of it. And he feels that he should've known that it wasn't gonna have any different with Tenma's death, especially after hearing his confession.

But after the day of his confession, his head was so clouded by the bundle of his own emotions, that he forgot about the one person that needed him because he was at a lower point than himself. His tears began streaming down and without a second thought, he took the first step, and the more steps he took, the closer he got and by the end, he was holding his younger sibling like a true brother.

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