HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I haven't made a resolution yet, (don't worry finishing this book is one of em) hopefully ya'll already have ur goals set < 3

P.S. Hanako's past is my own interpretation based on manga hints! Pls don't expect it to be accurate X,(

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(Edited as of Wed, Aug 3, 2022)

I changed it to match with the updated happenings of Chapter 8! Anyway, please enjoy!

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The knife phased through Y/N's head, planting solidly into the kakujoudai within her brain. The experience was excruciating, but satisfying; she twisted the blade until the thrashing kakujoudai was forced out her ear, freeing her from the pain at last.

She pulled out the knife, relief and triumph spreading over her. She grabbed the panicked kakujoudai by the tail, trapping it in a clenched fist.

'It's not over yet.'

She looked down at her reflection in the pond - the old Y/N's H/C hair was now cut short, her placid expression turned to a smile.

"Well done."  Shijima's voice reverberated around her. The black void was filling in with light, the pool disappearing. Y/N slowly stood up as the Wonder returned her to the real world.

'Thank you.'  Y/N thought, hoping her words could reach the girl.

°°°

When Y/N left the Picture World, the real Kamome High was already closed. The sky was dark; when she checked the clock tower far ahead, it was 4 am.  She walked through the playground's moonbathed gardens, feeling peaceful. Yashiro and Kou were probably home, Mitsuba and the Sakura Wonders would be haunting, and Tsukasa...

She looked down at the kakujoudai, twitching helplessly. She grinned; it would send the message she recorded.

She opened her hand. With a loud WOOSH! the kakujoudai fled into the night.

Just to make sure it left for good, she tailed after it.  Her heart soared as the memories - her old school life, Hanako helping her, their fateful moment under the Tree - all of it, flooded back to her, strong and clear. She held back joyous tears as she ran, her head light and free from doubts. She knew who she was now.

'I need to tell Hanako.' She jarred to a stop. Scanning Kamome's garden, she made one last check to make sure the place was rat-free. When she heard no kakujoudai, she backtracked and ran towards the school buildings.

°°°

All the Wonders knew to leave Honorable No. 7 alone.

He was giving away Y/N to a life and death situation. He had failed to stop his danger of a brother. No sign of Mitsuba in the past few days and the rest of his friends growing even more restless.

Even the Mokke didn't know what to say. Earlier that day, they had left the bathroom in a depressed kanga line, unable to say the Wonder's greatest fear.

'We're back to square one.'

Hanako was left to haunt his abode alone, another day feeling lost and hollow. It was like the first day he had lost her; the shock of the event pulling at him like a deadweight, keeping him in a half-awake, half-asleep trance.

Suddenly, he heard a sound. Someone knocking thrice on the bathroom door's entrance.

"Hey! Are you in there?" A muffled voice called.

'Not now.' He hid his face in his hat. 'I think my mood will affect my wish-granting.'

"Hanako-kun!" The voice grew clearer, the knocks rapping faster.

He shifted, lifting the rim of his hat.

Only one person referred to him that way. A long forgotten greeting, spoken with warmth and hope, like meeting a dear friend. This was no ordinary wisher.

Fussing over his uniform, he floated down to the ground and opened the door.

There stood Y/N, adorned in her red coat. He stared. She had tied it around her waist like a normal jacket. The knife she usually pocketed by her side (so she could swiftly pull it out any moment) was gone, like she never even relied on it.

'You're acting different.'  He wanted to say. Y/N had that peculiar, forced calm, like she was holding an outpour of emotions. But Aka Manto was good at staying stoic.

"7th Wonder of Sakura." He leaned against the doorway, opting for a casual pose. "What are you doing here this late?"

"Just call me Y/N..." She wrung her hands awkwardly. "...please?"

Hanako saw the shine in her eyes again. The way she looked like that nervous, frightened girl who entered his abode for the first time, asking for a wish... Yet this time, it was him with a deep wish in his heart, a hope that Shijima had not failed him.

"I'm so sorry... I didn't intend for you to get in that state..." He didn't care if she didn't know what he was talking about. He needed her all this time, a dam he had built breaking down. 

"I gave you such deep conflict with a torn memory... prioritized my selfish wish over yours, for a faster recovery...  you must hate me, and I won't blame you, Y/N-"

"No no! Shh!" Hanako backed up in surprise as Y/N hissed, her finger pressed on his lips.

"Listen." Her E/C eyes were glistening. "You helped me train as a Wonder even if I was totally a pain.. You tried to save our relationship while Tsukasa was hunting us down...  And you think I hate you."

Hanako trembled. "If I'm being brave, the exact opposite..."

Before he knew it, he had lifted her off the ground, hands hugging her waist. Before Y/N could gasp, Hanako kissed her long and hard, the salt of their tears mixing. He couldn't believe it; that what he was feeling was real, that Y/N was back with her full memory.

But it was. He could feel it, in the way her arms hugged his neck, her body rested against his, the breath that escaped from her lingering smile. The feeling that, though not yet true, they had done this so many times before.

"You remember!" He pulled away, just for a moment. His voice was weak with joy. "It actually worked!"

"You changed my life! How could I ever forget that?!"

"I thought... I... I'm feeling light..."

"Well, we are!"

Hanako looked down, taken aback. They were floating midair in the bathroom, their legs and arms intertwined. They looked like two butterflies doing a crazy dance.

"I'm sorry..." His face reddened. "I forgot to tell you, when ghosts feel very happy, we tend to get carried away, then literally get carried away..."

"S-stop apologizing!" Y/N rested her head on his shoulder, trying to muffle her sobbing.  "It's okay... everything is okay now..."

Hanako half-smiled, half-choked back tears. It didn't matter if they looked like the sappiest couple in the world; he wanted it that way.

"You're never leaving this school again." He murmured, slowly guiding her back to the ground. "We'll stay here, in this bathroom, where no one can harm you."

At this, Y/N scoffed, wiping her eyes. "Oh, please! I'm a Wonder of my own!"

"But we're the same thing, right? Bathroom ghosts. Who says we can't use only one? This is the perfect place."

Y/N forced a smirk through a wave of hiccups. "Well? Knock thrice on my door. Call my name. Wish for me to even think of it!"

Hanako scowled and kissed her again.

This time, it was different. More needy. Desperate. Y/N's face burnt in embarrassment as he gently pressed her against the wall. One day she would atone for her long absence, but now she needed some time.

She slowly pulled him away. Hanako looked up as she called his name, but he still looked dazed.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that." His slow breath was warm. "Still as amazing as the last, or even better."

"Like what?" Y/N rose a brow. "When your past self smooched me like there's no tomorrow?"

Hanako snapped awake. He looked at Y/N's accusing face and cleared his throat. 

"Ahem... We have a lot to discuss."

"Definitely. All these memories feel like a bucket of ice water was poured on my head. So much to take in... my mind still feels a little foggy..."

"Please, Y/N." Hanako drew closer with a sly grin. "Allow me to clear it up."

Y/N threw her arm out. To her horror, Hanako was thrown across the bathroom, his hat knocked off completely.

"AH!" She yelped, running like her life depended on it. She extended her arms to lift him up. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!"

"Ah-ah." Hanako held up a hand in pain. "No apologizing."

She drew back her hands in shock. He held a lopsided grin beneath his messied black hair.

"It's just like the first time we met, eh?"

Y/N stood in confusion. Then the memory came, like a lightbulb flickering. 

An uppercut.

Y/N remembered. She really did. Happiness blossomed within her - strong and true - and they both laughed; the first they had in a long, long time. She noticed a wheeze in his laughter, however. She knelt beside him and helped him back on his feet.

"I promise I won't do that again." She hung her head apologetically. 

"It's nothing I can't handle!" Hanako dismissed, but by the way he clutched his side, the truth was obvious.

After Y/N had helped Hanako back to his feet, they began to roam the school. The sky had turned from an inky black to a dark blue - the clock tower tolled 5 AM.

Y/N decided this was the best hour to discuss the past together. As they roamed the same moonlit flowerbeds she had before, a vague sense of deja vu crept in. Then she realized; this was the same place they had said their goodbyes when she was transferring from Kamome to Sakura. When she was still alive.

She turned to Hanako. He was trailing the leaves absently with his fingers. 

She begun slowly. "Are you ready to talk about your past?"

"Of course. All you need to do is ask a question." Hanako leveled his eyes with her.

The mischief was gone in his gaze. The lighthearted cheer from before was replaced with the dreadful weight of seriousness. She stared at her feet, tugging at the coat around her waist.

"Well, um... when I went through the Hell of Mirrors, I stumbled upon a door I thought lead to Kamome. But I was wrong. It lead me to the past, and by some lucky chance, your past."

She took a peep at Hanako. To her surprise, he didn't look the least bit revolted.

"You... know about it?"

Hanako smiled a little as a hakujoudai brushed against his cheek. "What can I say? These little guys know just about everything."

Y/N nodded, at once impressed and embarrassed. 'How much of my dumb Wonder training did Hanako see?' she thought, but pushed that away. 

(Please skip this part if you're sensitive to abuse.)

"Well, I infer from what I experienced there... that what Tsukasa did to you was far worse than I thought.  I... I just want you to know, that you don't have to face that trauma alone! I want to help you, like you did to me!"

She caught her breath for a moment, the outpour of words sucking the life out of her. She felt like she both deserved to know and that she didn't, but what's said is said.

Hanako's eyes glazed over. His voice grew soft, "I think I must tell you the full story."

Y/N followed him to a bench in the fields, sitting across the troubled ghost. When he spoke, he looked at anything but her, his voice low. She had a feeling he had never opened up about this to anyone.

"Ever since Tsukasa was young, he had this odd... condition. He couldn't control himself over destroying things. He would shred his blankets with scissors, throw food all over his room, and if you'd enter it, you would see a huge pile of all the toys he had ruined and twisted."

A haunted look shadowed Hanako's face. Y/N tried to picture it herself, and a shiver went up her spine. He continued:

"Of course, my parents grew restless. They argued and fought over where to send Tsukasa off to. They were running out of money to entertain him and seek medical advice. They called me irresponsible, that I was the reason he had turned out this way. So what could I do? Mom crying as dad threatened to leave was the last straw. I had to turn Tsukasa back to normal.

So I entered his room. The biggest mistake of my life, but at that moment, I felt it was the most honorable thing to do. Seeing as Tsukasa had no more things to mangle... he looked at me... without hesitation, he..."

Hanako trembled, his breath shortening. Y/N reached out across the table and grasped his hand.

"I'm here, Hanako-kun. You don't have to continue." 

He collected a sigh as she gently rubbed his knuckles with her thumb. Hanako shook his head and set his shoulders.

"That was a hundred years ago, and it's all in the past. Speaking it won't repeat it.

Tsukasa treated me like as his toy. Every evening I would return to mom, weeping from all the bruises and wounds he had given me. She would bandage each of them and seal them with kisses. I knew it wasn't from love; she noticed Tsukasa was calmer the more I played with him. She wanted things to stay that way. But I didn't. I could feel that sense of honor crumbling away as that cycle repeated - returning to his room, everyday, just to get my arms and legs twisted. I eventually decided to stand up against Tsukasa, after one final playdate.

But... he did the same thing as mom did. After he injured me, he meticulously wrapped all my wounds, kissing each bandage like she did. I was a fool. I believed this was his way of asking forgiveness - so I allowed the cycle to continue. I allowed myself to be subjected to his trickery - that cycling torment - until I could no longer find a will to live..."

Hanako gestured to himself, his half-translucent frame eddying against the dark garden. 

"...and I let myself become this."

His amber eyes leveled with her E/C ones. 

Y/N stayed silent for what seemed years. She had never heard Hanako reveal a part of him this openly; she opened her mouth, wanting to say something reassuring, but nothing could erase the fact that Hanako had suffered through his entire mortal life. She felt horrible, that she couldn't change anything about it.

(If you followed the warning, you may continue reading here!)

"Hanako-kun, I never knew you had to go through so much." She blinked back a stinging sensation in her eyes. It pained her more than any headache she had. The suffering she had experienced in her younger years was something she never wished for anyone, especially him.

"I wish I could change that, I really do. But I know I can't. So please, tell me how can I help you now?" Y/N's heart raced.  Was she saying the right things?  "Do you want to take a walk? Talk it off with the other Wonders? Do you want to spar or... or..."

Hanako interlocked his fingers with hers tightly. She silenced as Hanako closed his eyes, smiling softly. "Don't you see? Just being with you makes me forget all that."

The nervousness washed away from her heart. Hanako rested his cheek against their clasped hands, holding it up with his left. Deep within her soul, she knew what he wanted to say. He knew that she understood and cared, and for Y/N, that was enough to wipe out her worries.

She slowly got up and walked through the table, making sure not to let go. She sat beside him and pulled him to a quiet embrace. As Hanako nestled his head on her shoulder, she ran a hand through his choppy hair and hummed a quiet lullaby. Slowly, Y/N's own eyes started to close.

Under the Moonlight they rested contentedly.

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Sorry to but in, but...

WOOOOOO! 30000 WORDS!!!!! Hope you enjoyed it!! (Bc I'll see you in the next chapter with our fav villain >;) )))