NEXT CYCLE - The 1st Day of June; [action/voice]
[For those of you walking by the plaza today, there's a New Feather the midst, though you wouldn't know it by the behavior. She is neither confused nor panicked by the sudden situation, choosing instead to perch herself quietly on the edge of the fountain, journal open beside her as she listens to the voices trickle through from it. Despite the
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Then there's also the Brigade, he hasn't stopped looking for and bringing stuff to the headquarters that it seemed that could ever be used. It's sort of a defense mechanism, to not remember that Haruki won't be telling them to find a certain thing anymore. And he has also been training again, recovering his previous training schedule and pumping it up a bit more, exercise kept his mind clear and focused after all. It was also a time in which few people approach him so he can think calmly and without interruptions or without worrying anyone by his thinking semblance.
Right now, though, he wasn't doing any of that. He was just getting groceries, glad to have Hanyuu with him, no longer did he have to worry about burning the kitchen. It was similar to when he lived with Rena, except that that had been such a short time... Sometimes he wondered if it hadn't all been just a dream, an illusion. Sometimes he prefers to think it was. It makes things easier. It allows him to focus on the time she was at Luceti that lasted more than a few days, even if he could barely enjoy it. A time in which she made tons of friends, some of which he met and that became his own friends...
As he walks, he passes by the fountain, a climpse of red hair in the corner of his eye.
He stops. And turns around to see if she's still there. If it's not just another illusion, an hallucination.
But she's still there. Thoughtful and almost distant. The image makes his heart almost ache, thinking of when he saw her by surprise a few months before. Of how she vanished just as she had come. Without warning. How she hadn't remembered anything about Luceti and had been confused and lost.
One part of him wants to turn around and go back home. Go to Hanyuu and his friends. It's hard to lose people here, even if they do return home apparently, but Keiichi isn't so positive to not have doubts about that explanation, even if he wants to wish for it to be real, even if he won't admit it openly to many. But to lose her. To see her gone again, a third time... And he has just lost Haruki too. Maybe if he ignored her she will vanish just like that and he won't have to go through that...
But he can't do that. He can't abandon her, illusion or not, even if it's for only a few hours... She's here. With him. With Hanyuu.
With Takano.
The groceries fall to the ground and in a matter of seconds Rena will find herself embraced in a tight hug. But he took too much impulse and they may end falling to the fountain's water unless she braces herself properly.]
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...And the hollow, unforgiving barrel of Takano's gun as Rena's stared down what she knew to be her own death. It was like a never-ending record of tragedy.
How fitting, considering what Rika had told them before.
In any case, it's only by pure luck that Rena looks up in time to see someone making a beeline toward her, and her eyes widen considerably as her mind disbelievingly puts a face to the body as it comes into focus.]
Kei-?
[Yes. That's right. He was here, wasn't he? He was here and healthy and alive...]
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Oh damn, they're both going into the fountain aren't they.
There might be a squeal coming from the girl underneath him before they both tumble in.]
Eeek!
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Keiichi reaches forward with an arm to hold them up, getting out of the water inmediately so they're just sitting in the middle of the fountain. The other arm still holding her close and protectively.
He won't be saying a word for a moment, just holding her, trying to sort out his thoughts. Rena is here. Again. And Takano is here too. And Hanyuu. And Haruki's gone. Does she remember? Does she not? What does she remember? Where is she from? From which world? How will he explain things if she doesn't remember Luceti? How will he explain them if she remembers?]
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And then she remembers how she ended up like this. And suddenly, the water doesn't seem so important as her wide, blue eyes open up and lock onto his face intensely, almost desperately. It couldn't be true. Fate was never so kind to her. It had to be an illusion...
Keiichi.
It wasn't a dream. He was here, real and solid and breathing. It was like that horrendous bullet had never even touched him.]
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She doesn't have to. The way her eyes well up with tears upon seeing Keiichi's face should tell him enough.]
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But honestly, right now, he doesn't care. She's here, back again, and she's in just a light white sundress. And because of him she's now cold and wet.
Yeah, there are more important things right now, right? He moves, not letting her go yet, shifting to place his other arm around her knees, and then he pulls himself up. The groceries forgotten, he can get more later. Now he has to get her home, get her a change of clothes and something to eat to she recovers her temperature. A sick Rena isn't what he wants.]
Let's go home, Rena.
[They will talk once he has taken care of her. Getting out of the fountain now and heading to house 22 with her in his arms, now.]
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She barely shed any tears at Keiichi's death. The need to survive, to get the rest out unharmed, took priority over grief. Rena understood that.
She didn't cry over Mion's body. Takano had caught up to them. The important thing was to give the other three a chance to run. Rena had to be strong for them.
She didn't even cry when it was her turn to fall, though that was more out of her own arrogance than anything else. Like hell Rena was going to give Takano the satisfaction of knowing she had regained the upper hand. Like hell.
But Luceti was different. Before, she would have been killed before the reality of the situation sank in. But now she had a second chance at life, though it was only temporary. And it gave her time to process the situation. It gave her time to process her grief.
So all pretenses of strength are dropped, either out of relief or exhaustion, and Rena simply clings onto Keiichi, buries her face in his neck, and wails.]
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As if he gets any relief upon knowing about the multiple worlds... Even if at the end it all turned out all right, he can't just forget or disregard all those times. Those memories, as faint as they may be.
Keiichi just holds her more tightly and makes his way to the house. He doesn't call for Hanyuu upon entering, just makes his way to the room he claimed as his own, a small space but enough for him, choosen by wanting to believe in the miracle that more of his friends would come and they would get the bigger rooms. He pulls the blanket from the bed, with difficulty as he doesn't want to set her down, and eventually sits on his bed, setting her on his lap and wrapping the blanket around her. He has to get her clothes, maybe a warm bath first, and warm food... But it seems that what she needs the most right now is to cry, and so he lets her do, hugging and holding her as if she was a child.]
It's all okay now, Rena. You're safe now. We all are.
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She didn't care that she was cold and wet and supposed to be dead. The only thing that was important was that Keiichi was alive.
Rena can only bury her face in his chest and shake her head miserably at his words, breath hitching in her chest.]
Keiichi-kun...you...you...
[She can't do it. She can't say it. The image bursts into her mind again and suddenly, Rena just feels like she's going to be sick.]
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Part of him wants to ask, to know for sure from where she's from. But now's not the moment and he knows it, besides it doesn't matter. Wherever she's, she's Rena and she's there. For as long as it is. Even if it's for just a few hours, he'll hold into her.]
Rena...
[What to say? How to explain things? He isn't dead, he wasn't killed, they won, they all are alive and fine. He knows that, but how to explain it? How to take it away from her mind? It's hurting her all over, he knows it. And he knows that he can't keep saying that it'll be okay. She knows it won't, back at her world it won't. And he knows it will just go to worse even.
He keeps hugging her. Trying to keep her warm and make her feel safe and protected. His mind trying to find something to say or do. Should he force her to take a bath? Act normally and ignore her crying since he can't comfort her?
He cuddles her, turning his head lightly to find one of her ears. A way to take that out of her mind... Or to stop that train of thought. Something. Anything.]
Rena... I l... you.
[A whisper so low that even a soft breathing covers it.]
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But it doesn't matter. The fact that he was here, saying anything at all, was a miracle in itself. And it was all she wanted.
Her despair drowns his voice. But the comforting tone and the feeling of his breath against her ear does not go unheeded, and subconsciously, it seems to register with her. Her sobbing begins to quiet down, gradually, until it's nothing more than a whimper.
Reluctantly, she loosens the hold on his shirt to wipe at her eyes.]
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She starts to calm down but he keeps holding her close, only moving to send out a small message to Shiki, not sure if she already knows that Rena's there or not. But he keeps holding her, confirming her that he's there and fine, with her.]
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...I'm sorry.
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So cute...
[Even now, with her face red, her nose swollen, her eyes puffy and her nose running... She's still the cutest thing he has ever seen. Keiichi takes a deep breath as he caresses her hair.]
It's okay, Rena. I'm going to leave you now for a second, okay? I'm going to prepare you a warm bath and then some clothes.
Then we will talk, all right?
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He's here. Really really really here.
It's reluctant, but she manages to make herself let go of his shirt. It's okay. It's okay. He's here. He's alive.]
...Okay.
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