Chapter Text
How do you go on when you have lost everything dear to you?
Dia Kurosawa has been asking herself this ever since her beloved trio fell apart. Despite priding herself on her ability to plan ahead, she never could have predicted just how disastrous their first live show would be for their friendship. Everything was going well until they stepped into the wings, after all. She had been so caught up in the joys of dancing together and dreaming of rising to the top of the school idol ranks that she never even allowed herself to worry about any pitfalls they might stumble into.
If only she had seen the signs, she wouldn’t be here now, gripping her idol magazine with such force that her nails begin to rip into µ’s sparkling outfits. Her eyes burned with tears. How could she ever let herself dream of being like them? It was obviously a stupid wish to have. µ’s was successful because they never gave up even when things were hard or when they had to make tough decisions. Deep down, Dia knew that she didn’t have that kind of resolve.
With a huff, she stuffed the now-ripped magazine as well as the rest of her idol media collection– a pile of CDs, concert DVDs and her penlight– into the back of one of her drawers. It was a cruel reminder of her present situation, and she knew she would move on from that childish obsession if only she surrounded herself with something new.
Last to go in the drawer was a framed photo of herself as well as her childhood best friends, Kanan and Mari. In the picture, they were in their second year of middle school, enjoying treats from their culture festival. Dia’s eyes were drawn to the innocent smiles on their faces. Only two years had passed since then, yet she felt so much more mature than the version of her captured in the photo. Her hands trembled as she placed it on top of the pile and watched the frame slowly disappear into darkness. It’s for the best, she tells herself. Her friends were probably doing the same in their rooms, and eventually they would all grow up and forget one another entirely. Dia was simply expediting the process. As much as her heart sunk to think about the future she lost with Kanan and especially Mari, whom she wasn’t sure she would ever see again after she left for her study abroad program, she couldn't afford to spend the rest of her high school life sulking. If she wanted to become student council president, she had to move on.
Just as she was about to leave her room, Dia noticed a sound coming from the direction of her phone. For a moment, she thought it was Kanan messaging her, perhaps to ask to meet up at the beach like they used to when one of them was upset. In the water, with the gentle waves crashing over them, nothing seemed insurmountable, so it was a natural place for them to destress or swim away their summer evenings. As Dia tapped on her phone screen, though, she was disappointed not to see any notifications. Of course. It was unreasonable of her to expect their argument to resolve itself so easily.
She can’t stop thinking back to what she had said to them that night– or rather, what she didn’t say.
-
“I’m so sorry…” Kanan held her head low. “I’ve let everyone down.” Her hand clenched the teal bow adorning her costume, indecision trickling through her nerves.
Mari, on the other hand, was filled with frustration. “I don’t understand! You were doing just fine in our practices- why now?”
The three girls stood outside the parking lot of the auditorium they were thrilled to stand in just minutes earlier. Any other day, the sun setting over Tokyo would be a sight the trio would reminisce on fondly, but the tension surrounding them acted in stark contrast to the beautiful scenery. Dia couldn’t stand to see her two closest friends crying, yet she knew this wasn’t a problem that could be solved with a joke or simple distraction.
“If you didn’t want to perform with us, why did you even agree to join?” Mari continued, “Dia and I could have gone on and maybe even saved the school! Don’t you care about Uranohoshi?”
“Of course I care about the school, it’s just…”
“Spit it out already!” Mari screamed.
“Enough, both of you!” Dia interjected, shoving herself between the two. She wanted more than anything to be able to give some heartening speech that will make both of her friends happy, yet she knew that if Mari found out the truth about Kanan’s sudden stage fright then she would become even more upset. As much as it pained her, it was her only path to keep them from hurting each other even more. “We.. We’re going to be late for our train if we keep standing around like this. Let’s go.”
She walked in the direction of the station, leaving Kanan and Mari to stare at her in silent shock. Even if they hated her or thought she was cold, at least she stopped things from getting any worse. All the way back to their town, Dia held onto the hope that the three of them would wake up the next day and laugh the incident off.
-
Dia cringed in remembering how she acted in that moment. Now that Mari is studying in Europe and Kanan is absent from school, she wishes she tried harder to mitigate their conflict. She wishes she could simply call either of them, but whenever she tries to pull up their contact, her thumb starts shaking. Just like now…
Looking back down to her device, Dia saw that it wasn’t her thumb moving but actually the vibration of her phone. The discovery confused her, as she was sure she set her notifications to silent, and besides, who would be trying to contact her so late on a school night?
Where she would normally find a call or text screen pop up, Dia instead saw a file by the name of Untitled. There was no indication of the file type, so she couldn’t tell what exactly it was (she had a very meticulous organization system for her files; “Untitled” wasn’t a name she saw under normal circumstances). Either she had accidentally downloaded something without realizing, or her phone was hacked. Not great odds, given how the file flashed on her screen. Clearly the file wanted to be opened.
Before she could decide what to do with the mysterious popup, her phone exploded in a cloud of white light, completely blinding her.
When the light died down, Dia found her feet rooted to the ground in a completely different space from her room where she was mere moments earlier. Instead of her white walls and wooden floor, she was on some kind of beach, staring up at a gorgeous clouded sky. In her peripherals, she could make out the shape of trees and rocks. A light breeze passed through her hair, and she could smell the salt of the water just a few yards ahead of her. It looked and felt so real, yet it didn’t make any sense. Was she dreaming? Was this some kind of stress-induced hallucination?
“Hello there, Dia!” A voice called out. Dia whipped around at the sound to see a girl around her age, with wavy teal hair tied in two low ponytails. Her long white dress flowed with the breeze, and a sunhat graced the top of her head. Though Dia was much more partial to human idols, of course she recognized the figure.
“Hatsune Miku?” Dia exclaimed, “Are you some kind of cosplayer? You should know, then, that she doesn’t wear her pigtails like that! They should be much higher on your head.”
The girl laughed. “I thought you might say something like that. You’re quite the enthusiast, aren’t you? I might look a little bit different, but I am the virtual singer. Well, I might as well let you know why you were brought here. This is Shoreline Sekai, a world created from your feelings. Er, not just yours, but it was made to be a place that is important to you in some way. Here, you will be able to find your true feelings!”
So much of what she was hearing was illogical. A real virtual singer? A world created from her feelings? It was all so confusing…
“Though we’re on an island that may look small, this Sekai is actually made of many different shores. There may be others, even if you can’t see them now. If you’d like, you can send out messages through these,” Miku held out a clear glass bottle with a roll of paper within it. Dia took the bottle.
“How do you write in it? Is there a special pen?” Dia asked.
“Since this world is connected to your true feelings, you don’t need to really write it out. Any message you want to send will appear on that paper, then you just send it off! Eventually, it will reach one of the other islands, and you may receive a bottle back after a little while. Here, I’ll show you!” Miku picked up another bottle from within the sand and held it between her hands, closing her eyes. The paper glowed light blue after a moment, then she set the bottle in the rolling waves of the ocean. Dia watched it drift further and further until she could no longer make out the faint glow in the distance.
“How do you know if there are others here?”
Miku shrugged dejectedly. “There’s no way to tell exactly who is in the Sekai without receiving the bottles. I haven’t found any yet, but I believe there must be others out there who want to talk! Why don’t you try sending out a message?”
Dia sighed. She did not need more confusion in her life. This whole world, meeting Miku, magical bottles- it was all too much for her. She balled up her fists and burst out, “Miku, tell me how to get out of here, now!”
“Oh, you want to leave already? Well, all you have to do is press the Untitled file on your phone and you can travel to and from the Sekai. Oh, but please make sure to come back Dia, it was so nice to have your company!”
As soon as Miku gave the instructions, Dia pulled out her phone and pressed on that mysterious file, once again being blinded by the powerful light. Just as she had been transported before, she was back in her room. All that convinced her that the visit had been real was the tousled mess that the wind had made of her hair while on the island.
As much as she would love to escape into a fantasy world, reality demanded for Dia to put away all that nonsense. There was nothing she could do about her friends, but at least she could control how she behaved in school and how well she studied. She had to let go of her past wishes.