He Was Her Anchor

A scream tore through the night.

Ren and Umeko ran.

They didn't think. Didn't hesitate. The sound of their daughter's terror had them moving before their minds could catch up.

"No! Please!"

The door slammed open.

Sakura sat up in bed, drenched in sweat, wild-eyed, her chest heaving. But it wasn't them she saw.

It was him.

It was Kenji.

"Sakura," Umeko called softly, taking a hesitant step forward.

But the moment she moved closer, Sakura screamed.

"Get away from me!" Her voice cracked, raw and desperate. She scrambled back, her body colliding against the headboard. Her hands clutched the sheets like a lifeline, her entire frame trembling.

Ren lifted his hands, his voice calm but firm. "Sakura, it's us. It's your parents."

But her pupils shrank in fear. Her lips parted—then curled into an expression of absolute horror.

"No! That's a lie!" she choked out, shaking her head frantically.

"My parents are dead! They died three years ago in a car crash!"

The words hit Ren like a physical blow.

Those words.

He had heard them before. 

Sakura had said them when she first travelled back in time.

"Sakura, we're right here," Umeko pleaded, eyes glistening.

But Sakura only shrank further, shaking violently. "No, no, no," she sobbed. "You're not real. You're not real."

Her mind refused to accept them.

Because in her reality, they had already died.

She couldn't trust them. She couldn't believe in something that wasn't supposed to exist.

She could still hear the sound of metal crunching. The screech of tires. The funeral. The unbearable silence that followed

.

Her parents were gone.

So what were these people standing in front of her?

"Sakura," Ren tried again, his voice desperate now. "Sweetheart, you're safe. No one's touching you."

But to Sakura, Kenji was still there.

Watching.

Waiting.

And then—

"Sakura."

The voice cut through the fog.

Deep. Steady. Familiar.

Sakura's ragged breaths hitched.

Warmth.

Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her against a firm chest. A heartbeat against her ear.

A scent she knew. A presence her body recognised.

Haru.

Haru was real.

Haru had been alive in the future. Alive now.

He had found her when she ran. He had protected her. He had given her safety.

He was her anchor.

Her fingers clenched his shirt.

"Haru," she whispered. And then, as reality crashed into her— "Haru!"

A sob wracked her chest as she collapsed into him.

Haru held her tighter, his voice murmuring against her hair. "It's okay. You're safe. I've got you."

She clung to him, her body shaking with silent cries.

Because he was the only thing that made sense.

The only thing she could hold onto in a world where everything else had already disappeared.

Ren and Umeko stood frozen. Watching.

Their daughter—their daughter—clutching onto a boy like he was the only thing keeping her alive.

Umeko sniffled, her hand trembling as she wiped her tears. She turned to Haru—the boy holding their daughter together when they no longer could.

"I told you Sakura needs him here," she whispered.

Ren swallowed. "Yeah," he admitted, voice low. "I don't know what we would've done without him."

Ren was grateful for Haru.

Because he was giving Sakura something they couldn't.

Something she had already lost. No