Tetsuya opened his eyes. What he found instead wasn't the vast stretch of blue sky dotted with clouds he'd imagined but the white ceiling of the room. He glanced around. His body was bundled in a thick blanket; he wore a hospital gown and had a breathing tube in his mouth, with a heart rate monitor hooked to his finger.
After observing and thinking for a moment, he realized this was neither heaven nor hell nor a hospital. There was no scent of medicine but a pungent aroma of crushed leaves and spices mixed. He didn't need to guess where he was—Tetsuya already knew.
The first thing that came to Tetsuya's mind upon waking was the image of a girl with a blonde ponytail and nothing else. Vaguely, while he was asleep, he had heard Renji's words about going to save the little pony, which could only mean Saki.
The nickname Little Pony was something Tetsuya had reserved solely for Fujimoto Saki—no one else. In his heart, Saki was special, irreplaceable by anyone.
