Chapter Text
“Aine Kisaragi is dead.”
Those words continuously burned through Ai’s mind. He had to face it eventually. That he was no longer that person.
It was… difficult to say the least.
Part of his brain recognized “Ai Mikaze” as his new identity. The other part, where damage made his thoughts jumbled and his memories filled with holes, held a longing to go back. To be himself again.
But that wasn’t him anymore, was it?
A few weeks after he had returned in mostly one piece again, Ai could only remember bits and pieces of who he was. His name was lost to him in his head, but “Ai” felt familiar. Safe. It turned out that that was part of a step towards returning to the world. Finding a name.
A large man with as much graceful enthusiasm as a horse was in the room when he came to, yet his brain did not register him as being familiar. He acted like he had control of Ai, as though his fate was predestined through this one man. Ai could have believed it.
Though his mind was loud with rings and buzzes - electricity, he managed to pull from his memory - the man known as Shining Saotome was significantly louder. So much so that Ai felt pain in his head from the overexposure of noises. He didn’t flinch though, nor did he cover his ears. Instead, his body locked up and he stared in a single direction, unsure of when or where he was.
He could hear someone different this time, though the emotions they conveyed in their voice were unknown. Before Ai could catch up to his surroundings again, the world was black and had gone mute once more. A sight he knew, deep down, that would haunt him for a long time.