Chapter Text
The first thought that crossed Yuki Maeda’s mind when he woke up was that he was somewhere he’d never been before. The mattress below him felt distinctly firm and hospital-like and the cool breeze of an AC pushing lightly against his sweaty forehead was something he’d grown unaccustomed to. Opening his eyes, he found his suspicion was confirmed. He was not in his room on the Monocruise, nor was he in the Tower of Babel, or the hotel in Higa City. The walls surrounding him were an off-white and remarkably bare aside from a small window looking into an adjacent room and a television screen. Definitely a hospital.
How the hell did he get here? The last thing Yuki remembered was being at the fifth trial with Sora and-
Oh. Sora.
Suddenly, it all came rushing back to him, crushing him under its weight like a massive wave. Utsuroshima. The final trial. Mikado Sannoji. Usturo. The voids. Sora.
Sora.
He remembered the way she smiled as she said her final goodbye. So impossibly warm and bright. No doubt holding back tears of her own, but even in her final moments she took care to make that sure everyone knew it would be alright. There was no way to properly describe Sora except, maybe, an Angel.
So…
That was it, right? Sora sacrificed herself to save everyone and now everything would return to normal. Yuki was back in the real world in his own body and the threat of Mikado Sannoji and the Voids was over, and as tragic as the outcome was, he could finally return to his regular life before everything went wrong.
So why did it feel like something was off?
Yuki couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something about the situation felt very wrong. Like there was something critical that he had forgotten, and would soon pay the repercussions for it.
But maybe, if be had forgotten, it was never been that important in the first place? Yuki tried to tell himself that and push the nagging feeling of dread to the back of his mind. He wouldn’t have to wonder for very long, though, as he was torn out of his thoughts by the sound of the door to his room creaking open. When he turned in the direction of the noise, he saw a woman with bright orange hair and stern eyes that sat behind a pair of glasses. Rei Mekaru, he remembered. She stood behind the door for a brief moment, as if she was analyzing him, before approaching.
She stared at him, eying him up and down before, making Yuki shift uncomfortably Uber her gaze, before finally speaking up. “How are you feeling?” She asked.
“I’m good”, Yuki replied, because truthfully he had no idea where to begin with his actual feelings. Fortunately, Rei seemed to understand his mental conundrum.
“I assume you’re feeling a bit confused right now. You should already know my name, although I do not believe I have had an opportunity to properly introduce myself to you. I am Rei Mekaru. Right now we are in the medical wing of the Kisaragi Foundation”. She paused. “How much do you remember?”
Yuki shifted uncomfortably in his bed. “Most of what happened, I think. Syobai managed to input the administrator code and log us all out of the virtual world. Mikado’s trapped in there now, and so is Utsuro.”
“Correct”. Rei spoke in unaffected tone, but something in her expression seemed the slightest bit… concerned?
Yuki began to raise his hand in a motion to tuck his hair behind his ear, as he had a habit of doing when he was nervous, but something suddenly stopped him. He hadn’t noticed it before when he was lying still, but his hand felt in some way… different. Actually, his whole body did, now that he thought about it, but his hand was what has really caught his attention.
Momentarily ignoring Rei in favor of investigating this new discovery, he brought his hand close in front of his face and inspected it. He immediately noticed it looked different. His fingers were much more slender and bony, and his skin was extremely pale, almost paper white. He clenched and unclenched his fist and it felt almost foreign.
This isn’t my hand, he realized with a start.
“Is something wrong?” Rei asked.
“Is t-there a bathroom I could use?”. Yuki tried to conceal the tremor in his voice, but it was to little avail.
If Rei took notice, she said nothing of it. She just gestured to the door. “Down the hall to and to your right.”
Nervously, Yuki stood up and walked towards the door, thankful that there was now a wall spectating him from Rei’s gaze burning into the back of his head.
The hallway was about what he expected. The walls were the same white as his room and people dressed in security uniforms and lab coats could be seen patrolling the floors, occasionally turning to him with a shocked expression before quickly averting their eyes.
Why were they so surprised to see him? Did he have a low chance of survival or something?
Ignoring the discomfort he felt from being gawked at in such a way, he approached the set of doors to his right and entered with a metal plate that read “Men’s” on the door.
When he opened the door and looked up into the large mirror above the sink he immediately froze. Almost in a trance-like state, he approached his reflection, mouth agape in abject horror.
Because staring back at him was not Yuki Maeda.
Instead, there was a white-haired girl.
At that moment, it finally all came back to him. The final piece of the puzzle he was missing.
This was not his body. This was Sora—no, Akane Taira’s body.
He must have started screaming because suddenly there was the sound of knocking at the door and Rei’s voice asking if he was okay, but Yuki (or could he even call himself that anymore?) wasn’t listening. His knuckles had gone white from how hard he was gripping the counter and were beginning to cramp up.
No. No, this can’t be happening. Who am I?
A sigh followed by the sound footsteps fading away.
No, that’s a stupid question. He’s Yuki Maeda, who else would he be?
Yuki wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there,, but the sound of knocking eventually returned. He stayed silent and waited for Rei to give up again, however this time, after the knocking stopped, the next sound he heard was a door creaking open.
What they hell? This was the men’s restroom, she couldn’t be here!
But when he turned to face the intruder, he was met by an unexpected sight. A man with blue hair and harsh red eyes. Tsurugi Kinjo.
~~~~~
“Do you really think it will make any difference?”, Rei had asked.
“Yes”, Tsurugi replied.
“Kinjo”, Rei started, clearly frustrated, “This is not the Yuki Maeda you knew. You’re just as much of a stranger to him as I am.”
“Re— Mekaru, you don’t understand”
“I don’t understand!?” Now she was pissed. “No, you’re the one who doesn’t understand! The Yuki you knew and loved is dead. In fact, he was never even real in the first place.” Tsurugi bristled at that. “Stop holding onto the past. It’s futile. Whatever you may have had in the previous killing game doesn’t matter, it’s all gone now. You are not special, Tsurugi Kinjo, not to him.”
Tsurugi signed and squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing his temples. Despite being himself the leader of the Kisaragi Foundation as well as one of the most prominent officers in the nation’s entire police force, Rei still managed to make him feel like a little kid being yelled at by his parents. The situation was reminiscent of a few days prior, shortly after the survivors had returned from the virtual world. Rei found him a few hours later and kept her promise to “make him feel her wrath”, which mostly consisted of grabbing him by the shirt, screaming into his ear, and shaking him occasionally until his head spun. She had calmed down significantly since then, but the air of resentment that lingered between them was still ever present.
“Mekaru, please”, Tsurugi said, trying to keep the exasperation from seeping into his voice. This is important to me, and I’d like to be there to ensure everything goes smoothly.”
Rei looked down. “You didn’t let me do that for Teruya”, she mumbled spitefully under her breath. However, she seemed to back off, fortunately, and she spun to face away from him and walked off with a click of her heels.
Professionally speaking, she had no right to speak to him this way. Although they were both cofounders of the Foundation, Tsurugi was the director and he had the authority to punish Rei for her insubordination. And Under normal circumstances he very well might have, but maybe, in this case, if he let her push his boundaries she would think he was sorry.
Because he was sorry, incredibly so. He was sorry that he was unable to save all of the students in time, he was sorry that Teruya had to get dragged into the mess and had to lose his life, and he was sorry that Rei had to get hurt for it. He wished things didn’t have to end like this.
But he wasn’t sorry for doing what he did, and truthfully, he would do it a thousand times again if need be.
But perhaps, the thing he regretted most, a selfish as it was, was the fact that he had to lose the person closest to him.
Now, all he could do was try to remedy it.
Tsurugi began to walk in the direction Rei came from, toward the hospital room in which a very special someone resided.