Darkness.
Silence.
Then—
Warm sunlight touched Hiroyuki's skin.
The sound of laughter echoed gently through the air.
A park.
Bright green grass swayed beneath the wind while children played nearby.
A much younger Hiroyuki ran clumsily across the field while laughing loudly.
His father chased after him with a smile.
"You're getting faster, Hiro!"
"You're too slow, Dad!"
The boy laughed proudly before suddenly stopping.
Something caught his attention.
A familiar figure stood beneath the shade of a tree nearby.
Long dark hair.
Gentle eyes.
A soft smile.
His mother.
Hiroyuki's eyes widened instantly.
"Mom?"
He ran toward her as fast as his little legs could carry him.
"MOM!!"
He threw himself into her arms tightly.
Warm.
Soft.
Safe.
The feeling he had missed for so many years.
Hiroyuki looked up at her face.
"Mom…"
"Why haven't you come home?"
Her lips moved gently.
But no sound reached him.
The world around them became strangely quiet.
"...Mom?"
Again, her lips moved.
Still nothing.
Hiroyuki's smile slowly faded.
"I can't hear you…"
A painful sadness hid behind her smile.
The kind only a mother could carry.
The kind that pretended everything was okay for the sake of her child.
Then—
Tiny glowing flower petals began drifting away from her body.
Hiroyuki froze.
"...Mom?"
The petals increased.
Her fingers slowly dissolved into light.
Fear flooded through him instantly.
"W-Wait…"
His breathing shook.
"What's happening to you…?"
More petals scattered into the wind.
Her body slowly disappeared piece by piece.
Yet she continued smiling at him gently.
As if she wanted him to remember only that smile.
Not her pain.
Not her suffering.
Only her love.
Hiroyuki's eyes filled with tears.
"Mom…"
"Please don't go…"
The wind carried the glowing petals higher into the sky.
She mouthed something one final time.
Still inaudible.
Then she vanished completely.
Gone.
Hiroyuki collapsed onto his knees desperately.
"MOM!!"
The petals drifted away endlessly.
Then suddenly—
A blurry figure rushed toward him.
His father.
"HIRO!"
"Hang in there!"
The world shattered apart.
Hiroyuki's eyes snapped open.
Bright white lights blinded him instantly.
A rhythmic beeping sound echoed nearby.
His breathing felt weak.
Heavy.
Slow.
"...W-Where…"
His voice cracked painfully.
Everything smelled sterile.
Cold.
A hospital.
He slowly turned his head.
Machines surrounded him.
Bandages wrapped around his skull.
An IV tube connected to his arm.
Then the memories returned.
The bat.
The blood.
Fumi screaming.
Hiroyuki stared blankly at the ceiling for a long moment.
Then quietly—
He began speaking to himself.
"My name is Hiroyuki Aizawa."
His voice sounded distant.
Almost hollow.
"The meaning of 'Hiroyuki' is 'great happiness.'"
A faint smile appeared on his face.
But it carried no joy.
"Funny, isn't it?"
Silence filled the room.
"I lost my mother when I was six years old."
The words came out calmly.
Too calmly.
As if he had repeated them to himself countless times over the years.
"She had stage four lung cancer."
Hiroyuki slowly closed his eyes.
"At that age…"
"I didn't understand what death meant."
Images surfaced inside his mind again.
His mother lying silently in bed.
Neighbors crying.
Relatives gathering around.
His father trembling helplessly.
"Everyone kept saying she was sleeping."
His fingers tightened weakly around the bedsheet, his veins started to pop up on his hands, blood started to wet the head patches as he gripped harder.
"But I didn't understand why nobody could wake her up."
He swallowed painfully.
"I touched her face."
"Her skin was cold."
The room remained silent except for the monitor beside him.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
"They took me to where she would 'sleep forever.'"
Hiroyuki's eyes stared emptily ahead.
"Why was my mother sleeping under concrete?"
A shaky breath escaped him.
"Didn't she love us anymore?"
His voice weakened further.
"...Was she angry at us?"
For the first time since waking up—
Tears slowly rolled down the side of his face.
"A week later, I went back to school."
He laughed bitterly.
"Some kids beat me up."
"I went home crying…"
His breathing trembled.
"I called for my mom…"
Silence.
"...And that's when I remembered."
His eyes slowly closed again.
"She wasn't there anymore."
A tear slid across his cheek.
"She would never wipe my tears again."
"Never make lunch for me again."
"Never sing to me again."
His chest tightened painfully.
"That day…"
"I cried harder than I ever had in my life."
The monitor continued beeping softly beside him.
Outside the hospital window, rain slowly began falling from the evening sky.
"Some scars never heal, we just only know how to hide them deeper."
Hiroyuki stared at the foggy wet window slowly.
"As I got older, I learned how to live without her."
A faint smile touched his lips again.
This one gentler.
Sadder.
"Dad tried his best."
"Even when he was hurting too."
He remembered weekend visits to the cemetery.
The flowers.
The incense.
The silence between father and son.
"I think…"
"He cried when I couldn't see him."
Another long silence filled the room.
Then Hiroyuki looked toward the rain outside.
"Even now…"
"I still miss her."
The city lights blurred behind the wet glass.
"But sometimes…"
"I feel like she's still watching over us somewhere."
The memory of her smile beneath the tree appeared again.
Warm.
Gentle.
Beautiful.
"Just like that day in the park…"
His eyes slowly grew heavy again.
"Mom…"
A soft breath escaped his lips.
"I miss you."
And slowly—
Hiroyuki drifted back to sleep beneath the quiet sound of rain.