He accepted it too coolly.  It often bothered her, that her hapless senpai could talk so easily about his death.  He was so young, his death was predicted to be so young, and he talked as if it was something lighthearted.  He took all the risks in this difficult situation, and sometimes, that really riled her.  

She was a destroyer of predictions, too.  She would find a way to destroy predictions when they came.  And she had all the pain to make up for.  She had ruined so many lives by keeping silent.  She should be the one risking her life.

But always, always, he took the risks that she was too fearful to take.  He was the one that faced down the kidnapper's pistol.  He was the one to fall from the top floor of the business building.  He was the one to make that leap to the crane.  He was the one who destroyed the clock tower.  He faced down Makita in the stairwell, in the abandoned factory.  He saved her life so many times.  

She was just the eyes for his operation, though, and it bothered her.  She wanted to do more.  She was often just the damsel in distress, knocked out or kidnapped, creating problems for Kizaki.   

So when the right spring came, she was watching the mirrors around her constantly.  Kizaki would be in danger soon.  

It was so odd for her.  Within a school year, she had come to understand a bit more of this twenty-year-old held back student, and suddenly, she wanted to help him.  She wanted to protect him as he had protected her.  It was only fair.  

She saw what she had been looking for in the midst of the most beautiful week to watch the sakura in bloom.  A small tree, bursting with flowers, buried in the business section.  Kizaki stood with his back to the tree, and Makita was facing him down.  

Makita.  Nanaki shivered every time she heard that name.  It had been horrible, that enforcer kidnapping her, forcing her to face the worst horror of her life.  He had left her to die in a burning factory, had beaten her up to force Kizaki to lose once.  Makita had been trying to foil Kizaki's attempts to save his life.  

But Makita did not understand how Nanaki and Kizaki worked.  Apparently, he thought Kizaki did it all.  He thought so little of her, and Kizaki really had done a lot to protect her that way.  If Makita knew the truth, that Nanaki was the one that saw everything, surely Nanaki would be in danger.  

Until Makita knew, though, it would be Kizaki.

--

A hand waved suddenly in front of her eyes, and Nanaki blinked.  Kizaki grinned at her, putting his notebook on her desk.  "Class is over," he announced.  "You were dozing a bit, huh, Becky?"

Nanaki groaned at the bad pun of her family name.  "Don't call me that.  It's Bekku."

"Yeah, yeah," Kizaki muttered.  He glanced around the almost empty classroom, and then leaned closer.  "Makita is getting more bold.  He left a note asking for a meeting."

"A meeting, huh?" Nanaki asked, trying her best to act normal.  "When?" She knew though.  She had been preparing for two whole days.

"Today.  Around five."

Nanaki nodded.  "We have some time before then, Senpai."  She tried to smile at him.  "What about us going out on a date?"

Kizaki blinked in astonishment before he smiled.  "Sure."

--

Kizaki had been the one to notice first the dangers of breaking predictions.  Every action had a reaction.  An object in motion could only stop by an equal force exerted in the opposite direction.  For saving someone's life, someone else could get hurt.  It was the law of how these things tended to work.  

Nanaki had considered what she had seen over and over again.  There was only one way to break that killing as far as she could see, and there was no way Kizaki would find out about it.  Otherwise, he might try to stop her.  

Her blank gaze out the window must have confused him, because he put his tea down before drinking it.  "Bekku-san?  Are you feeling okay?"

She smiled at him.  "Well enough.  How is the tea?"  His fingers tightened around his cup, and her eyes were drawn there.  One hand was still tough from the burn he had received to save her life once.  Always, he took all the risks.  

Kizaki looked at it before sipping.  "Decent."  He took another sip.  "What is bothering you?"

Nanaki took a sip of her own tea, letting the flavor fill her mouth before she swallowed, savoring the warmth.  "In your prediction, how are you facing the tree?"

He seemed surprised, taking another sip.  "Away, I guess.  Why?"  His eyes grew wide.  "Did you see something?"

Nanaki smiled at him.  "I saw it.  It happens today."

Kizaki's face dimmed.  "I see.  Then I do not want you coming with me, Bekku-san."

She continued to smile at him.  "You do not have a say in this."

He frowned, sipping again, before he set his cup down firmly.  "No.  You are not getting mixed up in this, Bekku."

Nanaki stood up, leaning over the table to him.  He glared at her, obviously expecting a fight.  "Too late," she whispered, kissing his forehead.  She could feel his breath on her neck, could hear his heavy swallow.  "Sleep tight."

She turned before she could lose her courage, running out of the tea shop.  She did not need to look back to see what happened, for she had seen it long before it had happened.  She had seen the sleeping drug she had asked the waitress to slip into his tea.  She had seen his fumbled rise after her only to collapse, too drugged to follow.  

She would take the risk this time.  She would break his curse for him.  

--

Kizaki Banjou was embarrassed.  He had known she would do something stupid, especially when it came to this sort of thing.  But to drug him, to betray his trust in her and try to do it herself!  Picking himself up slowly, he felt his head swirl.  She had gotten some potent stuff.  Had she added it to both drinks?  She had taken a few sips from her tea, but something this powerful might deaden the senses with only a few sips-  

He refused to think that way.  There was no way she was going to get herself killed like that.  He did not want anyone else hurt.  If it meant his own death, then darn it all, he would die rather than let her get hurt.  

Hands were on his arms, helping him support himself.  "What happened?" a man's voice blurted out.  "She is running so quickly.  Did you say something wrong?"

"No," Kizaki hissed.  "No!  She's trying to protect me."  He cursed violently.  "I got mixed up in something, and she's trying to take my place!  No!"  His first few steps were hesitant, fighting the sway that filled his vision.  "Nanaki," he whispered.  "Don't you dare die."

His steps grew more sure as he left the shop, watching where she was going.  She was not doing this alone.  He thought they had made an agreement: he took the risks, she was his eyes.  Had that not been enough?  He was tough enough to handle the danger.  

But she was sweet enough to try to take it.

--

The little tree was smaller in her imagining than it was in real life.  She walked up to it, ran her fingers over its bark, breathed in the heady scent.  This was the tree that tried to condemn Kizaki.  

"You, Girl, where is Kizaki?  Where is the destroyer?"

Nanaki swallowed hard and turned around, glaring half-heartedly at the man that was trying to destroy their work.  "Makita," she replied.  The man glared at her, and she stared at him.  This man could kill her, would have killed Kizaki.  "I have a secret to tell you."

"Ah?" Makita snapped.  "Would that be why he sent his little girlfriend?"

Nanaki swallowed.  "I am not his girlfriend.  I am his eyes."

This seemed to break through Makita's thoughts.  "His eyes?" he hissed.  "You see it for him?"

"Yes.  I see it.  He prevents it.  I am what gives him his ability to prevent them."  What Makita did not know and would not know was that Kizaki would have no more need of preventing predictions anymore.  This was the end of it all.  

Makita pulled a knife from his jacket, grinning like a feral beast at her.  "So if you are dead, he cannot destroy any more predictions?"

Nanaki swallowed hard.  "That is the idea."

"Good."  Then he was suddenly running at her, knife extended.  Nanaki shrieked in response and jumped aside, only to have her hair caught in his meaty hand.  "Now, now, silence.  Surely you knew what telling me this meant."

Nanaki shivered, feeling the knife touch her throat.  "I still don't want to die."

"But if it's for him, you're willing?" Makita growled in her ear.  "For him?"  She was suddenly spun around, facing toward one of the entrances in the small park.  Leaning against the wall, breathing hard, was Kizaki.  

"Senpai," she whimpered, beginning to shake as she realized that he was having enough trouble staying awake.  He had still come!  He should have been asleep, unable to wake up until it was all done.  

"Bekku-san," he hissed.  "How many times do I have to tell you?  I take the risks!"

"Yet she is the eyes, is she not?" Makita snarled aloud.  "She is what makes you able to prevent all these?"  Kizaki frowned, pushing away from the wall, stumbling to keep his balance.  

"What has she been telling you?" Kizaki groaned, rubbing the back of his head like the situation was an annoyance.  "Becky, you need to stop lying."

"Senpai!" she screamed, understanding immediately what he was trying to do: he was trying to protect her, again!  "Senpai, stop!  I need to do this!  After all I failed to do, certainly I could do something right to fix this!"

"Cute," Makita groaned in her ear.  "A lover's spat."  Nanaki tensed, feeling the knife tighten on her skin.  "How about you both just shut up and die?"

Kizaki was suddenly there, hands on Makita's knife, fighting the deadly force of the other man.  "Let her go!" he shouted, as if his command was enough to make the man listen.  But it was a young man's two hands and force of desperation versus an older man's one backed by determination.  Kizaki took control before long, and Makita was forced to either let her go or give up the fight.  

Thrown to the side like a piece of garbage, Nanaki turned back to the fight as soon as she could, but by then the damage was done.  Kizaki had been drugged, and his relief at seeing her out of the line of danger had made him lose his step.  It took only one more hand on the knife to push the power struggle over the edge.

Nanaki only saw the follow through, Makita's body falling forward from the force before he caught himself, Kizaki stepping back as the force pushed him backward, a hand racing to the torn skin.  The blood.  Nanaki had seen blood before as she had seen many things, had seen her own friend's blood drying on her hands.  This was not any easier.  The blood covered hands, clothes, feet, knife hilt and blade.  Makita stepped back, as if satisfied, as Kizaki fell to the ground, his struggle against the drug ending, and he was losing.  

She scrambled to his side, dragging her purse haphazardly around her wrist, contents spilling around him.  "Senpai?" she whispered.  "Senpai!"  She got no further, for a pair of huge hands wrapped around her neck then, lifting her from the ground and cutting off any air.  

--

Kizaki was having issues breathing and thinking straight.  This was exactly how the images in his book had predicted it would end: laying on his back, stab wound in his side, the sakura blossoms waving above him in a gentle breeze.  He struggled to lift his head, hearing a terrible sound that was too similar to Bekku's voice for him to feel comfortable.  Yes, Makita was strangling her.  

So it ended here?  He had fought so long, had struggled so no one else would get hurt, and this is how it ended?  He lifted a hand to his face, forcing the tears within again, before it got too tiring and his hand flopped to the ground –landing on something smooth.  Curious, he lifted the object to his face, saw the flip phone that Bekku always carried with her.  

It took no further thought.  His fingers found the sides of the phone, flipped it open, and struggled with the emergency contact numbers.  But once it was entered, Kizaki could press the phone to his ear.  

"Emergency services, this is Hayate, please tell me your emergency," a smooth male voice rumbled in his ear.  

"He's stabbed me," Kizaki struggled to get out. "He's stabbed me and he's hurting my girlfriend.  You've gotta help-"

"Just hold on.  We've got a trace on your phone, and we will be sending the police and ambulances as soon as possible."

Kizaki felt his arm begin to shake, and the edges of his vision blurred.  "I don't know if I'll make it, but save her, please."

"You will both be fine."

He had no more strength to hold the phone to his ear, so he simply dropped it, and let the drug take over.  

--

When he woke up, it was to white.  It took him a moment to realize that if he was dead, being dead hurt.  His side felt like there was a rock lumped inside him and his head was aching.  Then the sounds filtered in and then he was awake, alive, and scared.  Nanaki.  He sat up as quickly as he could, gritting his teeth against the pain.  Once he was sitting up straight, he pulled his feet around to touch them to the floor, wincing at the cold now.  

In a flurry of white and black, a doctor was at his side, pushing him back.  "Kizaki-san, you need to lie down!  Kizaki-san!  Nurse, please come help me!"  

"Where is Nanaki?" Kizaki yelled, and the hands gripping his shoulders pushed him firmly against his strength.  

"She is well.  She is fine!  But you will injure yourself if you fight any more!  Bring some restraints!  And see if his companion is nearby!"

Kizaki was up against overwhelming odds.  Weak from the drug's remaining vestiges in his system, the hole in his side, and the three on one ratio, he had no chance of staying up.  But he fought again and again, wanting to sit up, wanting to see for himself that she was fine.  

"Senpai!"

He froze, searching wildly before he met her eyes.  "Becky," he whispered, and he fell asleep again.  



When he woke again, he had merely to sit up to disturb his room's other occupant.  Bekku Nanaki was asleep, slumped over his bed in what he could only imagine was a very uncomfortable position.  Yet his sudden motion had startled her, and she sat up, rubbing her eyes as she looked at him.  "Good evening, Senpai," she greeted softly.  

"You're alright?" he asked quietly.  Nanaki nodded.  "You're sure?"  She rolled her eyes at him.

"Makita apparently escaped from a mental facility three years ago, which is where they sent him again.  Hopefully, they'll keep him there for a while."

"What happened?  I passed out after I made the call."  

Nanaki looked to his feet, and he felt himself grow nervous.  "Nothing much," she replied softly.  "I don't remember the cops coming."  She looked at him and smiled.  "The doctors said that you survived because of the sleeping drug in your system.  It kept you calm, prevented you from bleeding yourself out."

"I'm not going to thank you," Kizaki grumbled.  

"I never expected it."

"Don't do something like that ever again," Kizaki snapped.  

"I won't have to," Nanaki replied.  "The sakura are not blooming again this year, and you're turning twenty one in two weeks."

The enormity of the statement hit him only after she had said it to him.  He was free.  Finally, the curse that had bound him to breaking predictions in the hope that someday he could break the one of his death was gone.  He was going to live a long life.  He brought a trembling hand to his face, swallowing his emotions for a moment, before he reached his other hand for Nanaki's hand.

"Thank you," he whispered.  He looked up at her, smiling with all the relief he felt.  "You broke that prediction well."

"What'd I do?" she asked, her fingers tightening around his.  "I thought I ruined it all."

He grinned teasingly.  "You left your cell phone there."

Nanaki smiled softly.   "I really helped?"

"Yeah."

"Good."  She took her hand from his, both pairs of fingers fiddling with a loose string on the blankets.  Kizaki watched her for a moment before placing his bandaged hand on hers, stilling the frantic motions.

"Bekku-san?"

"Mm?"

His hand lifted to raise her face to him.  "Can I call you Nanaki?"

Her lower lip was suddenly gripped between her teeth, tears threatening to drop.  "You really want to?"

"It would be an honor."  Being bold, he slipped his hand up to trail through her hair, pushing it back behind her ear.  Still a bird's nest, still rumpled from being unable to comb her hair.  

"Please do," she whispered.  He smiled and lowered his hand to hers.  

"And Nanaki?"  She lifted her eyebrows, her silent sign that she was listening.  "The risks will be left to me, got it?"

"Fine," she huffed.  "I got my fill with Makita."

"I wouldn't have made it without you, but no more of that!"

"Yes, yes," she grumbled.  "Go to sleep."

Gripping her hand in his, he leaned back, smiling at her.  "Fine."

Ten minutes later, they were both asleep in the hospital room.