“Today is the ten year anniversary of the tragedy that befell Yume High School. Five gunmen assaulted the school after detonating pipe bombs in the cafeteria. After an astounding hour of shooting between SWAT and police, the gunmen were ultimately shot dead. 867 victims were injured, and 84 were pronounced dead on scene. The following program is dedicated to the victims and their families. This is-”

Yami clicked the remote, turning off the television. Sighing, he walked away from his TV to his bedroom. Opening his closet, Yami picked one of his many white dress shirts, slipped it on, then tucked it underneath his black dress pants. Tying a Pratt Knot around his neck, Yami grabbed his coffee, keys, and wallet, then walked out of his house. Driving in a crowded expressway, he took sips from his coffee as he listened to the radio at 4 a.m..

“As many of you already know, today is the ten year anniversary of the shooting at Yu-”

Yami turned off his radio and continued his drive to work. Pulling into a dimly lit parking lot, with nearly no one else in it, Yami got out of his car and locked it. Walking up to the doors of the building, Yami held his ID card up to a scanner and walked inside of the building. Walking down many halls and down many stairs, Yami finally hit the basement. Walking to his own cubicle, Yami sat in his chair, then opened his cabinets and withdrew many pieces of paper. Pulling out a pen, he began to scratch away at the papers.

People walked past his cubicle, yet none talked to him. Yami’s focus was solely on the papers in front of him. Yami set his pen down. Looking at his phone, he saw that it was already noon. Swiping his phone to unlock it, he tapped to his contacts, then to ‘Alexis’. He held the phone up to his ear. A groggy Alexis answered the phone.

“Hey, Yami. What’s up?”

“Nothing, really. I wanted to make sure you were okay driving home. I know how hard you had to work these past few days.”

Alexis sighed.

“You’re one to talk. You only get four hours of sleep each night!”

“I’m used to it, though.”

Alexis smiled.

“How is your day going?”

Yami repeated his cycle of working 18 hours everyday, while Alexis became familiar with the all too uncertain schedule as a surgeon. The two would rarely spend time with each other, as Alexis would be called in most weekends, and regardless, Yami would spend that time doing research. The only time they would ever see each other is when they managed to find a time where they both fell asleep in the same bed.

Years passed with this schedule. One day, however, was different from the others. Yami repeated his cycle of driving to work and doing research. At about noon, Yami circled his paper. His usual expression of no emotion and seriousness began to lose its place on his face.

“No… No way…”

Heart racing, Yami began to look through every piece of paper that resided in the many large stacks that they formed. Coming back to the final piece of paper, Yami carefully inspected it once again.

“Rikai… Shitto… Posche… Everyone... “

Tears began to roll down Yami’s face.

“I can finally come back…”

As Yami began to cry, he was interrupted by a phone call. Looking at his buzzing phone, he saw it was Alexis. Wiping his face of tears, he picked up the phone.

“Hey, Alexis. What’s up?”

“Did you lose track of time?”

Yami looked at his phone. It was 1:23 a.m., and he had not so much as called Alexis.

“I’m sorry. Something important happened at work, and I couldn’t just leave.”

“Really? What happened?”

Yami smiled.

“I’ve solved the largest piece of the puzzle. I want to tell you in person.”

“What, your puzzle? That’s amazing! Will you be home soon?”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

“I’ll be waiting!”

Yami closed his phone, shoved all of the papers into a briefcase and ran to his car. Doing 100mph on the expressway, Yami raced to his house. Pulling in the driveway, Yami bolted from his car into the house. Alexis was on the couch in the living room with the TV on, but trying to stay awake that late in the night proved difficult for her, as she lay asleep on the couch. Yami smiled and took off his shoes. Walking to the couch, Yami sat next to Alexis. Yami relaxed for the first time in what seemed like forever. Closing his eyes, he began to reminisce about his life as the Jinsei no Hogo.

He opened his eyes and looked down at Alexis. He smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder and rubbed it. She slowly opened her eyes.

“Hey, sleepy-head.”

“Y-Yami!”

Alexis quickly sat up and blushed.

“I’m sorry. How long have I been asleep?”

“Not too long.”

“So, what do you have to show me?”

Yami opened the briefcase that he had sat on the table and sat out 10 pieces of paper.

“This is all of my research that I compiled over the past few decades. I managed to find a new element, which has amazing chemical properties. I can form bonds with almost everything, and just from the few examples I came up with, it has nearly infinite applications! With this, I can finally show you my past! I can help solve the puzzle of my life!”

Alexis looked down at the ground.

“Then what? If you actually find a way to go back to your own life, are you just going to leave this one behind?”

Yami turned to look at Alexis. Seeing her despair, he replaced his smile with a stern face.

“Alexis…”

She began to yell at Yami.

“Will this life have been for nothing?! Do your friends mean anything to you?! Will you even remember us?! Do you even love me?! What do I mean to yo-”

Alexis’ voice was muffled as Yami grabbed the back of her head and pulled her into his arms. Holding her tightly, Yami felt her begin to sob on his chest.

“Alexis. I know I haven’t been around much, and I’m sorry for that. But I want to ask you something.”

Letting go of her, Yami stood up from the couch and walked into another room. Alexis wiped her face of tears. Moments later, Yami walked back into the living room.

“Close your eyes.”

Alexis shut her eyes, yet tears still dripped through her eyelids.

“Open.”

Alexis opened her eyes to see Yami on his knees holding open a box in his palm. Inside of the box was a ring. Alexis covered her mouth with her hands.

“Alexis, I’ve had this rig for almost 14 years now. I didn’t want to marry you knowing I wouldn’t be around much, but now that my work is essentially complete, I want to spend the rest of my life in this world with you. You have been my best friend, even when I didn’t know who my friends were. You… are the love of my life - no, of my lives.”

Alexis began to cry.

“I’m sure that we’ll have many more hardships ahead of us, but I want to go through them like I’ve gone through others - with you. Alexis, will you marry me?”

Alexis began to sob. Yami stood up and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around Yami and held him tightly so that he wouldn’t be able to run away from her anymore.

“Of.. Of course I will!”

Yami smiled and shed a single tear.

“This life is truly a great one.”

Yami woke up on the couch. Rubbing his eyes, he saw Alexis sleeping with her head on his lap. He ran his hand through her hair.

“Yami, you awake?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve been thinking… You’ll need to create an apparatus to show me your memories, right?”

“That’s the train of thought, anyways.”

“I want to be sure you’re safe, so why don’t you come to the hospital to test the machine? We can monitor your vitals and ensure your safety.”

Yami smiled.

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

Yami locked hands with Alexis. Their rings glistened next to each other.

“Alright. I’ve completed the apparatus.”

“Awesome! Follow me, please.”

Alexis led Yami to a prepared hospital room. Setting the apparatus, which looked like a helmet, onto the bed, Yami stretched his arms.

“So, what do I have to do?”

Alexis tossed him a hospital gown and gave him a smile.

“C’mon, Yami! Off with your clothes!”

Yami, in the hospital gown, laid back onto the bed. Entranced by Alexis’ fluid movement around the room, Yami watched her turn on different machines and computers, all for the sake of monitoring his health. She walked up to him and began to stick different wires and devices onto his body. Getting cold from the hospital air, goosebumps formed on Yami’s arms.

“What if I leave her? What if I don’t wake up? What if this was all for nothing?”

Yami began to grit his teeth. Alexis kissed his cheek.

“I’ve known you for a while, Yami. I know that when you grit your teeth, you’re getting anxious. I also know how meticulous you’ve been with your work these past few years, so I know everything will be okay!”

Yami began to cry.

“I love you so much, Alexis.”

“I love you too, Yami.”

Alexis stood next to his bed with her hands on a keyboard.

“You ready?”

Yami sat still for a moment, then took a deep breath.

“Yeah. Let’s do this.”

Yami fell onto the cold, hard ground. As he took gasps of air, he tried to move his arms and legs, but it led to stumbling and him falling back onto the ground. As he turned his head back, he saw Rikai frozen in mid-sprint, and in front of him was Shinkai, who was grinning.

“Rikai!”

Rikai remained frozen in the air.

Yami, shaking from trying to control his body, walked to Rikai, and saw her tears on her cheeks. Then, Yami turned to glance at Shinkai, but had to look away. Yami looked into the sky.

“You getting this, Alexis?”

An overwhelming voice, which could’ve easily been mistaken for the voice of a goddess, responded.

“Y-Yeah… I’m getting it. Is this… you?”

Yami looked down at himself. Sure enough, he was decades younger, and was covered in blood, dirt, bruises, and the like.

“Yeah. This is the exact moment I was put into your world. But this doesn’t make any sense. I should be 30 years older in this world too, right?”

“Yes, but we can’t dwell on that. After all, this machine only lets you relive your memories. Wouldn’t that mean you couldn’t relive anything that you don’t remember?”

“I suppose, but in that case, the next memory I have would be waking up in the hospital as Sei. I need to go more in-depth with this machine. The element used may be exclusive to your world, just as Sirushi Inochi are exclusive to my world. So maybe, in some way, they are connected.”

“I see. I’m going to drag you farther back, okay?”

Yami thought hard.

“Yeah, but don’t look until I give you approval, alright?”

Alexis gasped.

“Was being the Jinsei no Hogo gruesome?”

Yami rubbed the back of his neck.

“Y-Yeah…”

“And I was going through puberty…”

Yami felt his body, or rather, his soul being pulled backwards as he appeared in the mayor’s office at homecoming. Yami looked at a clock on the wall, and time was moving again.

“Hey Alexis, it’s safe to look. In fact, I need you to.”

Alexis looked back to the monitor.

“Pretty soon, two policemen are going to shine lights in here. I need you to save their faces.”

“Right.”

Sure enough, two policemen shined lights in the office.

“You in there! Come out of there with your hands up!”

“I got their faces. Where to?”

“About an hour before my final memory.”

Yami’s soul was tugged forward. He looked up to see hundreds of people swarming him.

“Alexis, please pull up the two faces into my memory and put the memory on auto-pilot, then look away.”

“R-Right.”

Yami’s body moved independently of his will.

“Pefect. Now, to see if those people are in here.”

Watching the horrors of the slaughter unfold in front of Yami once again, he yelled for Alexis.

“Pause it!”

As time stopped, Yami broke free of the auto-pilot and walked to the police officers. Although they were in civilian clothes, it was the two men.

“So, she knew that we found out the whole time. Why wouldn’t she do the assault sooner?”

“Alexis, are my memories done backing-up?”

“Yes. Would you like to be pulled out?”

“Yeah. I’ve had enough of this for now.”

Yami blinked a few times. The bright light of the hospital room contrasted the darkness of his eyelids. Taking off the helmet, Yami put his hands behind his head and laid back.

“Hey, Alexis, can I ask you for a favor?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Could I see what Se- no, what I was like?”

Alexis smiled.

“Yeah, but only if I get to see you as the Jinsei no Hogo!”

Yami chuckled.

“Yeah. Just promise you won’t talk about anything embarrassing, okay?”

“I thought that was implied!”

They both laughed as the sun set.