Five years.
That's how long it had been since she died.
Five years since the night the color left my heart. Since the blood on my hands became my only memory of her. Since the world decided that I was guilty, even when the law eventually decided I wasn't.
I was released. The judge said there was no evidence. That I was innocent.
But innocence didn't matter.
The media had already written my life for me. They painted me as a murderer, a shadow behind a star who had fallen too soon. The name Aqua Yamato was no longer just mine it was a headline, a stain, a curse.
Even now, walking down the street, I can feel it. Eyes. Whispers. People looking, remembering, judging.
It's been five years. But I am still in prison.
My days are quiet. Too quiet.
I wake up, I breathe, I exist. That's all.
I try to laugh sometimes, just to see if it still works. But the sound is hollow, broken. Nothing like the way it used to be when Akari was beside me.
I lost everything that day. My name. My youth. My only friend. The only person who ever saw me.
Now I try to build something anything from the ruins.
But how do you build a future when the past is all you have?
One year passed after my release. I enrolled in a university, mostly because it gave me something to do. Something to keep my body moving while my heart stood still.
On the side, I worked at Sky High Company. They were famous for managing idols, the same kind of world Akari had belonged to. Maybe I wanted to punish myself. Maybe I wanted to stay close to what I had lost. I don't know.
The pay was good. My schedule was heavy. But no matter how much I worked, the emptiness didn't leave.
It was like I was trying to find someone I had already lost. Or maybe I was just trying to free myself from a ghost that refused to let go.
This is how life strikes you with me, always chasing something that isn't there.
One evening, after a long day at the company, some of the staff suggested going out for a drink.
"Come on, Aqua. Just one night."
I didn't want to. But saying no felt harder than saying yes.
So I went. Without troubling them, without saying much, I walked with them.
The bar was loud, filled with laughter and clinking glasses. Everyone around me was enjoying themselves, drinking and having fun.
I sat in the corner, untouched glass in front of me. Numb. Light. No emotion in my face.
Then, with a twitch of my head, I saw her.
A girl.
She wore a dark purple diva's tie, threaded with hints of other colors. Her blonde hair shimmered under the lights, half loose, half wild. She moved with a strange energy half careless, half graceful.
And then her eyes found mine.
Big, blue-purple-mixed-color eyes.
For a second, I forgot to breathe.
It was surprising. Shocking, even. Because in that moment, I felt something I hadn't in years.
A memory. A reminder.
She wasn't Akari. I knew that.
But it felt like life was trying to drag me back to where it all started.
Like the universe was laughing at me, throwing me a mirror of what I had lost, just to see if I'd break again.
She looked at me like she knew me.
But I didn't move.
I didn't have the place. I didn't have the courage.
I didn't really have her.
I just sat there.
And the ghost of my past sat beside me.
Like every normal guy, or maybe just every guy who doesn't belong, I stood up.
I gave the group a quick smile fake, practiced and bowed lightly.
"Thanks for today. I'll head home first."
A few voices rose in reply. "See you, Aqua." "Take care."
They went back to their drinks, their laughter, their joy.
And me? I just turned away.
It was strange, right?
The girl I mentioned the one with the dark purple tie, the blonde hair, those haunting eyes she didn't even turn to look at me.
Not once.
It was like I wasn't there at all. Like the seat I'd been sitting in had always been empty.
But I didn't care.
I wasn't seeking recognition. I wasn't looking for her gaze, her approval, or even her curiosity.
I just walked away.
Walked away like nothing happened.
The night air was cold when I stepped outside. I pulled my jacket tighter, not because I felt the chill, but because I wanted to feel something.
The city lights blurred around me, cars passing, people laughing, neon signs flashing. Tokyo was alive.
And I was not.
The next day, I sat in a lecture hall at the university.
The professor's voice echoed, scribbles filled the board, pens scratched across notebooks.
Around me, students whispered, laughed, shared notes.
And me?
I just stared down at an empty page.
Nothing written. Nothing drawn. Just white space.
Like my life.
Empty, but somehow still moving forward.]