Linky's Fics

That Spark of Hope

The moment he saw her the past twenty years flashed before his eyes. Each meticulously planned death executed by Geryon or his dolls, sometimes the both of them. Each of his friends were taken out one by one… Until it was only the two of them.

And then she was struck down by a horrible evil all while trying to save the chemies, right before his very eyes.

Her final words haunted her each waking moment. He could hear them whispered into his ears from the darkest corners of any room he stood in. Rinne’s final plea to continue fighting alongside him. Until their world could be saved.

If it could be, anyways. Hotaro would think to himself, ever since that moment. Ever since his best friend was taken away from him. In a cruel, painful death.

As time continued to march onward, his cheerful demeanor and never-ending hope was chipped away bit by bit. Geryon had gotten exactly what he desired. Through his plans to make Hotaro’s life a living hell, he sculpted him just like he did with his dolls. Morphing Hotaro into a complete shell of his former self. Someone who was now void of dreams and joy.

A person who once cherished every moment of life… Now only looked for a place for it to all finally end.

So when the Rinne of the past wanted to fight, he lashed out. In a desperate but ultimately futile plea to keep her safe and preserve her life. He couldn't lose her again. Yet deep down he knew she would still go out to battle alongside them all anyways. And it absolutely terrified him.

She couldn’t be stopped no matter what he’d do or say.

He knew Rinne. Better than anyone else. How she was already ready to fight when the time required it, and chart her own path forwards following her own rules. It was pointless to stop her. But the fear that consumed every centimeter of his body, the guilt that weighed on him like nothing else still made him try.

“You’re Ichinose Hotaro, too, aren’t you?”

Those words cut through him harder than any attack Geryon had ever laid upon him in the past two decades. Hotaro looked down at his Rinne's old ring. A memento of his best friend, that also served to remind him of the sins he had committed. The friends he had failed to protect. All the mistakes he had made that lead to each of the flames of their lives being snuffed out.

He could still see the blood on his hands. Lingering phantoms of all the time that had passed. Each painful day of his existence since that one Christmas. When the hell that felt as if it would burn for eternity began.

His younger self reached out towards him. Begging for the three of them to fight together as one. To save this future.

Hotaro could see the determined look within Rinne’s eyes, as well as his past self. Whose look was the exact same. They both were ready to fight. Ready to liberate this timeline from the fate it had suffered from.

Something stirred within him in that moment. To see a past Rinne, and his younger self too, both so full of life and vigor. Prepared to take whatever was in their way— together.

Memories came rushing back to him, freeing themselves from the deepest parts of his mind. From the ones stained with the trauma of everything that had happened… Repressing it all.

So that’s what they were like back then. A duo who were prepared for anything. Two best friends who could never be separated. Who could, and would, overcome whatever stood in their way.

For the first time in what was a long time, there was true hope within him. Even if it was only just a little bit. A little flicker of a flame that began to ignite. But it was something. And it was a feeling he was convinced at this point in his life he would never feel again.

Though perhaps, things could go differently this time after all.

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