Darkness.
Silence.
A cold wind brushing through broken glass and dust.
Somewhere between a dream and a hospital room, Renji floated.
Beep… Beep… Beep…
His eyes slowly opened.
White ceiling.
Drip bag.
Bandages.
Pain.
He turned his head.
Ayame sat beside him.
Head down. Hands trembling in her lap. Her school uniform, stained. Her hair, messy. Her cheeks… wet.
She looked… tiny. Like the loudest part of her had gone silent.
“Yo,” he croaked, forcing a smile. “Guess I make a pretty good pillow when falling off buildings.”
She flinched. Looked up. Eyes wide. Teary.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Idiot,” she whispered. “Stupid… stupid idiot.”
He chuckled. “Guilty.”
Silence again.
Then, she pulled something from under her jacket—a folded paper crane. Crushed slightly.
“I was gonna give you this after class,” she said softly. “But then… that stupid rooftop…”
“…So this is what a love confession looks like from a wolf?”
She didn’t answer.
She just stood up, walked over, leaned down—
—and placed the crane on his chest.
Then whispered:
“I’m tired of hiding.”
Renji blinked.
“I know who you are,” she said.
She touched the scar near his eye. “You know who I am.”
And for a moment, their masks didn’t exist.
Not Fox. Not Wolf.
Just two dumb high schoolers with broken bones and too many secrets.
He looked at her.
She looked at him.
And both of them burst out laughing—like idiots—because of how stupidly dramatic their lives were.
“…Ayame,” he said.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s… just go to school tomorrow. Just that.”
She nodded. “No rooftops. No missions.”
“…Maybe just a vending machine war.”
They smiled.
Fade out.
---
Later that night, on another rooftop…
A shadowy figure stood alone.
Phone in hand.
“…So, both the Wolf and the Fox are down?” the voice on the call asked.
The figure watched the hospital from a distance.
“No,” they replied. “They’re just getting started.”
[End.]
> Somewhere between enemies, lovers, and idiots—they found something real.
The end… or maybe the beginning.
