[Every time he had wished for the woman he loved to come back to life it had not been granted. So he had begun to wish for something else. To forget that there had ever been anyone who made him feel valued. Ariel, this accursed place, never ceased to both give and take. It gave him Aiichiro, then made him believe he was gone, only to grant his impossible wish.

At what cost?, whispered a voice from the past. An unimportant one. It would only be heard later. For now all he could see was the boy in front of him - it hadn't yet registered that he had changed. All that mattered was that the scent he had sought to recapture was no longer a physical trace of a memory. Ai's voice was as present as his grip, as the way the dark room changed his appearance, his this, his that, all of him, too much to process at once.]

I've missed you.