"She's gone. We couldn't save her. I apologize Mr. Kisaki."

"What? Tell me that's a joke! Don't lie to me!" The artist grows enraged and suddenly jumps to his feet, grabbing the doctor's collar. "Tell me she's alive!" he shouts.

The bidders pry the artist off the doctor, Baba apologizing for the behavior, which the doctor brushes off saying it was natural. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kisaki." the surgeon bows to the blonde and leaves the 5 men alone to grieve, giving them permission to enter the operating room to say their goodbyes and pay their respects.

Soryu may have lost his sister, but nobody knew just how much Ota was suffering. It was way worse than Soryu. "Ota... Soryu, I'm sorry." Baba shakes his head, looking over to the ER. "Shall we go?" he asks quietly and once the bidders nod, he leads them all into the room, their heads hanging down.

Laying in the hospital bed, was Kira. Her normally beautiful and vibrant skin was littered with various cuts and bruises, her skin deathly pale. This wasn't her... Ota chose not to accept it.

For hours, Ota grieved by her side, and one by one, the bidders left. Mamoru, Eisuke, Baba, and after a final kiss to the forehead and a gentle 'I love you,' was Soryu. Ota refused to leave, thinking, hoping, that maybe he'd wake up, and all of this was a bad dream.

The tears continuously fell from his eyes, and he didn't try to stop either. He clutched her hand tightly in his and after hours on end, Baba and Soryu managed to coax him out of the room, saying that it was time to leave. 

Back at the hotel, in his suite, Ota broke anything he could get his hands on. He did this for hours on end until he no longer had anymore energy to do so. He slumped against a wall, sliding down to sit, just like in the hospital.

Out the corner of his eye was a picture, the only thing that remained intact.

With a shaking hand, he picked it up, and remembered their first date at the flower park.

He traces Kira's smiling face with nimble fingers as tears fell onto it's glass frame. Lying on his side, he clutches the frame close to his heart and waited.

Waited for her touch,

Waited for her voice,

Waited for her smile,

Waited for her.

~*****~

At her funeral, Ota took his place with Soryu and Kira's father up front after Soryu had given him permission. He cried, and even after the burial, he refused to leave, screaming at the bidders to leave as he sat beside the headstone.

By midnight he returned, covered in dirt and tears. But he chose to ignore it and left for his suite. Days passed, and those turned to week, then months, and after a year, Ota couldn't take it anymore. There was only one way to see her again.

But before he could swallow all the pills in his hand, he closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, he heard a sweet, melodic voice call out to him. For a moment, he thought he finally snapped, went crazy.

But as he turned, he found Kira in his shadowed room. She stood beside him as he knelt on the floor, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Ota..." her voice was pure bliss, and Ota's tears began flowing once more.

The artist watched through blurry eyes as she knelt before him, wearing a gentle smile. "Put it down. You need to live on, for me..."

Ota couldn't comprehend why she wanted him to live on. What was worth living for anymore? 

"Find someone. Someone who'll love you just as much as I did. Do it for yourself, for me."

The artist begins to wrack with sobs again and Kira removes the hands covering his face. "Ota, I'm not the reason you should go. Please..." her face approached his, and Ota's eyes drop.

Her lips touch his in a feather light kiss, and with her small hands, wiped away his tears.

"D-D-Don't leave me... please..." he whimpers. "Ota, I'm always with you, in here." she taps a spot on his chest, gesturing to his heart. "I'm always by your side." 

"But I can't hold you or see you anymore...!" he cries, clinging onto her. She wraps her arms around him, as if a mother trying to comfort a crying child.

Tears began falling from her eyes, and she whispered into his ear quietly. "I don't deserve it. Someone else out there does."

"Just don't leave me... Please stay here." "Ota, you know I can't do that." she pulls away from the embrace, cupping his cheeks in her hands and making him face her.

"Please... You're everything.. My best friend, my love and my muse... Please, Kira!"

Clutching his hand in hers firmly, she looks up to him with regretful eyes. "Promise you'll live for me?" 

"I... Y-Yes." "Thank you." they share another tender hug. But then Ota heard her chuckle. "What?"

"You know, when we first met, I honestly had no idea you would be so... so important to me."

"Me neither." "Ota... I love you... so much."

"Not as much as I do..." he whispers, petting her hair. "Remember me..." she whispers and shows him something, a ring with a chain looped through it.

"This ring..." "It was my engagement ring, and remember me by keeping it. Do me a favor, Ota. Finish my story, and find the man who killed Cole."

"Alright." Ota's determination made Kira smile softly and place another father light kiss on his lips. "Thank you."

Before Ota's eyes, his beloved began fading away. "I guess it's time, huh?" she chuckles miserably. "No... Kira, stay with me, we'll look for him together...!" "Do it for me Ota, and finish everything."

She disappears and Ota was once more left alone, but unlike her, he touched the cool metal of ring around his neck which stayed. "I'll finish everything, and I'll be there soon, Kira. And my promise'll be fulfilled."

From above, Kira watches with a smile as Ota picks himself up. They smile to themselves and Ota closes his eyes in bliss when he hears Kira's parting words.

"I love you. But it's time to let go..." she whispers.

"It will be okay." He mumbles. 

"As long as you're by my side."  They smile.