Rain fell hard over Kanemachi.
The sky darkened by mid-afternoon. Rin stared at the raindrops racing down the windows
of his classroom at Hoshikawa High. Something didn't feel right.
Shizuku hadn't come to school. She'd texted:
"Just a dizzy spell. Nothing serious. "
Then his phone buzzed again.
Kazuki Nanami:
Rin. It's bad. She's at Kanzaki Hospital. Room 308.
Rin didn't even grab his umbrella. He ran through the city—past the train station, across
slick alleyways, under the faint glow of izakaya signs flickering to life.
She was smaller than he remembered.
Her body dwarfed by the white sheets, her skin pale beneath the fluorescent ceiling of
Kanzaki General.
"You're all wet," she whispered when he entered, soaked and panting.
"You're one to talk," he whispered, his voice trembling.
The doctor pulled him aside in the hallway.
Her heart was giving out. Her body wasn't responding. There was no donor. No more time.
Shizuku's breathing grew slower that evening. Rin didn't leave her side.
"Please," she said softly. "Promise me something."
"Anything."
"If I go… don't let your heart go with me."
Rin felt like the floor was breaking beneath him.
"I don't want to be the reason you disappear," she said. "I want to be the reason you keep
breathing."
He didn't speak. Couldn't.
He only cried into her fragile hand.