#silly aside I REALLY like the way you do narration stuff mav

[beantothemax]

Aerospace: A collective term used to refer to the atmosphere and outer space.

“Deep breaths.” 

That voice... So familiar, yet unknown at the same time. As though he heard it in another time, another place, months or years away from where was now. 

“That’s right, great job! Keep breathing for me. Try to wiggle your toes.” 

He couldn’t open his eyes, couldn’t open his mouth. But he could wiggle his toes. 

“Thank you. Now... Do you know where you are?” 

Somewhere. Somewhere he couldn’t reach his friends, somehow he could only breathe and listen and want. 

“More or less, yeah. You and I... We’re the same. We share a power. We did the same thing.” 

Did the same thing...? 

He recalled floating... Feeling a surge of power, using his love for his friends to seal a great power away. He had become one with that power. 

“Yes, that’s right. We both did that. And now we’re both here. But this place only needs one of us. I think it’s going to use half of each of us.” 

Half of each? What, would he wake up half-dead in a hospital surrounded by his friends? 

“Maybe. We won’t know until it happens, but isn’t that the same with everything? We won’t know until it happens.” 

Yes, he supposed the voice was right. Neither of them would know until it happened. 

“We have names, you know. I’m surprised you don’t remember mine.” 

Remember? He didn’t remember much of anything. He remembered hearing his friends’ voices, SEES and otherwise, and he remembered a rush of warmth. 

He remembered falling asleep on the rooftop, surrounded by everyone. 

He couldn’t recall their names, but he rememberes their faces. There were two in particular that stood out to him in his memory. 

“So you do remember. That’s good. It’s good that you remember there was someone else.” 

Someone else? Who would that have been...? 

Kotone. 

“Yep! Hi, Makoto. Took you long enough,” Kotone’s voice said cheerfully. 

Makoto. That was his name. His name was Makoto Arisato, and he had a twin sister named Kotone Arisato. They had sacrificed themselves at The Fall to save their friends. 

And they were dead. 

“No, we aren’t dead. Just... Not quite alive. An in-between of sorts. We should wake up any minute now.” 

... 

Makoto took a breath. A real, genuine breath. His body felt heavy, like he had just gotten out of a pool after floating in it for hours. Something inside him felt... Loose, like a too-big sweater. 

It wasn’t uncomfortable, by any means. It almost felt better than the constant tightness in his chest that he had felt for almost the entirety of his time at SEES. 

He opened his eyes slowly. He was in a hospital room, and there were people beside him, all around him. There was someone in a bed next to him, too. A girl with auburn hair. 

Kotone. 

“...Makoto...?” 

Kotone sat up. The boy beside her did as well. All around them, the people at their bedsides were frozen. A few were crying. 

The boy beside her blinked, then fixed his gaze on her. Makoto. Her brother. 

“Are we... Are we alive? Are we okay?” He asked.

She nodded. “We’re okay, Makoto. We’re okay.” 

She looked around her. She recognised everyone, every face crying and staring. Yukari. Junpei. Aigis. Koromaru. Ken. 

No Shinjiro. 

“Hey, everyone. Miss us...?” She tried. Junpei and Aigis were on her in a second, hugging her (and in Aigis’s case, pressing a kiss to her cheek). 

“We missed you all,” Makoto said from underneath Ken and Yukari’s bodies. 

“You two are terrible! Worrying us like that, falling into comas until goddamned October-” Yukari sobbed. 

“October...? How far into October-?” Kotone asked. Ken went still in Makoto’s arms.

“The fourth, as of today,” Yukari responded. Her voice shook, and Koromaru nuzzled her leg. 

Suddenly, Akihiko came barreling into the room, eyes wide. 

“Guys! Come quick, Shinji’s woken-” 

His gaze landed on the twins, and he froze. 

“...Holy shit. It’s October the fucking fourth, and everyone is awake,” he whispered, eyes shining. 

“Senpai- Did you say Shinjiro-senpai is awake too?” Junpei asked incredulously. Akihiko nodded slowly, never once taking his eyes off of the twins. Makoto shot him a grin, and Kotone waved. 

What an odd day.

On October 4th of 2009, a man fell into a deep slumber after being shot twice in the left shoulder in the alley behind Port Island Station. On March 5th of 2010, two siblings, a boy and a girl, fell into twin comas on the roof of Iwatodai High School surrounded by their friends. 

All three were predicted to never wake up again. Yet here they were, in separate rooms but awake at the same time. 

The event had doctors in the Tatsumi Memorial Hospital scratching their heads for weeks, desperately trying to find any sort of explaination for the strange and sudden bought of wakefulness of their patients. 

They moved Shinjiro Aragaki to the same ward as the Arisato twins, and assigned the same doctor to all of them. After all, the three of them were under similar circumstances as each other, and were likely to need similar treatments. 

Kotone was starting to grow restless in her bed, constantly shifting and squirming and asking for different things to keep her occupied. It reminded Shinji of Aki, with his constant bouncing around and desire to do and act and go. 

Makoto seemed content to read and listen to music and sleep. Even though the guy had been asleep for months, he didn’t seem satisfied with the amount of sleep he was getting. 

Or maybe there was just nothing else to do. Shinji could understand that. 

On October 10th, the three of them were discharged. The Arisato twins moved back into Iwatodai’s dorms, and Shinji moved in with Aki while he retook his third year. 

Somehow, the world had gone from ending, and three good friends being on the cusp of death, to everything thriving again. 

Somehow, everything had shifted back to a way similar to how it used to be. 

Shinji still cooked for everyone. The Arisatos still did everything together, now accompanied by Aigis. 

A year ago, Shinji had been dying in the same place he had killed someone. He had said his death was supposed to happen. 

It was how things were supposed to be. 

But now, surrounded by warmth and love in light of a new, Nyx-less life... 

Shinjiro couldn’t have been more wrong.