Reconciliation
is a Katawa Shoujo fanfic that takes place eight years after Hanako’s bad ending. Hanako, having cut ties with Lilly and Hisao over the shame of what she did, is now a best-selling author, but has no real friends apart from her publicist, Sho Yamane. But her past may not be completely behind her, and an unexpected phone call from Lilly gives her the chance to renew her ties with people from her past.
This fanfiction shares a name with Reconciliation, a Worm-derived work.
Tropes associated with Reconciliation:
- Anger Born of Worry: Akira in response to Lilly not sleeping for days after Hisao's death, not wanting to go back into the room they once shared. Hanako can't decide whether she's angry with the person she's worried about or herself.
- Author Avatar: Implied with Sho. Those more critical of the fic have noted that Sho seems to fill all of the 'necessary' roles for a replacement love interest; he acts as a close companion to Hanako for the beginning of the story and ends it alongside a subversion of the Just Friends trope. The fact that the author has Hanako as his forum avatar doesn't help.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hisao is dead, but Lilly and Hanako have renewed their friendship.
- Broken Ace: Hanako is a best-selling author, but is also perhaps even more withdrawn than her time at Yamaku. By the end of the fic, the “broken” part appears to have faded
- Death Fic: Hisao’s heart gave out once again, and this time, it could not be restarted.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Subverted for Sho; he considers his father's suicide to be a selfish act of abandonment.
- Despair Event Horizon: Hanako nearly crosses it after hearing about Hisao’s death. Lilly crosses it after Hisao’s body is lowered into his grave
- Distant Prologue: The Bad Ending, eight years prior to the start
- Downer Beginning: It starts with the bad ending from Hanako’s perspective, so it’s naturally this. And it gets worse after she learns about Hisao’s death.
- Driven to Suicide: Hanako contemplates this at one point, but decides not to for Lilly’s sake. Sho's father did this after his wife died, and Sho considers this decision extremely selfish
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Hanako’s hair is shorter, while Akira’s is much longer. Hisao also has a small beard on the picture at his funeral.
- Fangirl: Hanako has Julia and Lilly, among who knows how many others. It also turns out that Lilly bought all of Hanako's booksnote , and knows that Hanako doing in a book signing tour.
- Flat "What": Hanako's reaction to finding out that Lilly was never angry with her.
- From Bad to Worse: Hanako is a relatively lonely, if successful, woman who blames herself for cutting herself off from Hisao and Lilly. And then she hears about Hisao's death.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Lilly uses it on Hanako during her You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Hanako regarding Sho. This is true, but the events of the Epilogue change this
- Heroic BSoD: Lilly after Hisao’s funeral
- Heroic Resolve: Hanako suppresses her grief so that she can provide emotional support for Lilly
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Hanako does this quite a bit, partly due to her personality, and partly due to blaming herself for what happened between herself, Lilly and Hisao.
- Innocently Insensitive: One fan at the first chapter who wishes Hanako a happy birthday. The results aren't nearly as severe as what happens in her route, but she still finds the mention of her birthday to be painful.
- It's All My Fault: Hanako, Lilly and Hisao all blame themselves for what happened.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Hanako’s immediate reaction to her actions in the bad ending.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye:Hanako and Lilly to Hisao, who died of a heart attack
- Nice Guy: Sho. One particular instance is not flinching upon seeing Hanako's scars for the first time.
- No Name Given: Akira’s boyfriend, the one she was dating in Katawa Shoujo and still is in this fic, is never referred to by name, and she tends to refer to him as “The Boyfriend”. Hanako has to ask whether he’s the same one she was dating in the past, and Akira says yes.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Sho finds Hanako, her shirt is unbuttoned, and she only gets it buttoned up most of the way before Akira walks in, leading Hanako to say this. This is not Played for Laughs.
- Obligatory Swearing: Hanako tends to use a fair amount of profanity in her narration.
- Original Character: Sho Yamane.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Poor Hisao’s parents have to attend his funeral.
- Parting-Words Regret: To make matters worse, Hanako already feels extremely guilty about what she says before she hears of Hisao's death
- Plot-Triggering Death: Hisao, whose death motivates Lilly to contact Hanako.
- Precision F-Strike
- Lilly says "That's bullshit” when consumed by grief and rejecting Hanako’s attempt to console her.
- While Akira tends to throw profanity around more often, her comment that she's "really fucking scared" for Lilly's well-being after Hisao's funeral also fits.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A distraught and grieving Lilly gives one to Hanako, accusing her of not understanding what it means to lose her most important person and of running away from anything difficult. While Hanako is upset by and agrees with what is said, she is able to take it in stride, knowing Lilly didn’t mean what she said.
- Reclusive Artist: In-Universe, Hanako, naturally. She does book signings, but is not entirely comfortable with them, and tries to avoid calling attention to herself when Julia the flight attendant recognizes her.
- Second Love: Lilly for Hisao (third if you count Iwanako) Sho for Hanako
- So Happy Together: Lilly and Hisao, whose relationship was apparently deep enough that Hanako was able to accept them as a couple. Hanako narrates: I couldn’t be happier for her. And I couldn’t feel more horrible about what she must be going through now.
- So Proud of You: Lilly to Hanako
- Take That!: Sho does one to The Twilight Saga as a means of lightening the mood, saying that telling off Stephanie Meyer is a perk of his job.
- Visible Silence: Hanako's first reaction to hearing about Hisao's death.
- Walking Spoiler: Hisao, being dead is thus difficult to talk about without spoiling the plot.
- We Used to Be Friends: Hanako with Lilly and Hisao. Lilly thus has an awkward
