Darling... Darling... Hey, Darling...

Gora has lost count of how many times he has come to the train station late at night.

It was entirely empty, aside from him. It was quiet, aside from the sound of the wind and the crickets.

He has a box in his hands, like all the times he went there. The result had always been the same, but he still held a little hope…

It doesn't take that long for her to show up.

Chidori stands at the opposite end of the train station. Looking… It felt more like she was looking through him than at him. As if she just barely acknowledged him…

He walks up to her. He is a bit surprised to see her take a single step forward when he stops. It's a small thing, but still quite different from just staying in the same place the entire time…

He looks up at her face, straight into her empty, pure white eyes. She is very tall now, so his neck used to hurt a bit whenever he did that. But his neck has gotten used to it now.

After waiting for a moment more, he realizes she isn't going to do anything else.

He sighs, looking back down at the box in his hands. He opens it, revealing two manju he had made himself.

He takes her hand, and places one of the manju on it. Her pitch black hand just remains in place, as if she didn't know what to do with what she had been given. Not even her dark red claws move a single inch.

He takes one of the manju for himself. And as he takes a bite out of it, she leans her head to the side. Now it feels like she's looking at him, trying to understand what he was doing.

They remain like that for a few minutes. Chidori doesn't move, neither does he.

By all accounts, Gora should have given up by now. He had been told as much. Chidori… Whatever she was, wasn't human anymore. It was hard to say if it could still even be considered as the same being as Chidori anymore.

But he refuses to see her as anything else. He refuses to give up on her.

He sighs, eating what remains of his manju. There wasn't as much progress as he had hoped for, but it was better than nothing. Specially considering all the previous nights had been the exact same for the past 3 weeks.

But as he's about to leave, she moves.

She brings the manju to her dark red beak and eats it. The wings on her arms almost hit his face.

He stands still after she's done swallowing. And then, tears quietly start rolling down his cheeks.

For the first time, she had eaten it.

He starts sobbing from joy at that realization. Chidori was still there. Despite being told that the change would be irreversible not only to her body but to her soul as well…

He can't tell what is going on in her head, or even if she has any thought at all in that state. But he hopes she'll speak to him again one day, or that her eyes will feel less emotionless when she looks in his direction…

He wipes his tears away and brings a hand up to caress her beak, needing to stand at the tips of his toes to reach it properly. There's no reaction from her.

He sighed once more. It would take longer for her to acknowledge his touch again…

"I love you, okay?" He fights back another influx of tears, and then steps back.

With a heavy heart, he begins to leave the station. He glances back just in time to see Chidori running off into the night, her dark and damaged cloak barely distinguishable in the darkness.