Chapter Text
For Matsuri Mizusawa, it had been a rough two hundred years.
Decaying apartment complexes rose like skeletal giants out of the misty forest that used to be a middle-class neighborhood, and if Matsuri didn't know the road by heart, she never would have been able to find it through the twilight fog and the thick undergrowth. She'd been down this road a hundred times, maybe a thousand, back when people lived here. A few of them still did, of course, mostly out toward the Academy, living in Mei's shadow. Mei thought of herself as a benevolent goddess, but something about the presence of an immortal, reality-warping teenage girl made people want to live elsewhere - so when Mei rose, wild forests rose with her, reclaiming the places the humans left behind. Sometimes Matsuri liked coming here, bathing in the poisonous nostalgia, but tonight she was here on a mission and she couldn't afford to indulge in such things. A thorn had lodged itself in her left wing, and the remnants of the past seemed disturbing and oppressive instead of poignant.
Still, though, the memories seemed to call to her. She paused a moment, and closed her eyes. Ahh... there it is. For just a moment, she could hear them all again - kids playing in parks, cars going by, people laughing. She was just a kid again, on her way to visit her best friend. The worst thing she had to worry about was Yuzu's bitchy but hot girlfriend, and trying not to get kicked out of school.
A gust of wind blew through the collapsing buildings, and the illusion shattered. Matsuri opened her eyes and saw nothing but an ending world. Doesn't matter. I was an idiot back then anyway.
The first time was maybe sixty years after Mei rose. Mei had still been willing to leave the Academy back then, so they went to the old apartment together. Matsuri hadn't grown her wings yet, and still looked much like she had in her teenage years - maybe a little bit more vivid, a little bit more radiant, but still recognizable. The neighborhood was only just starting to be reclaimed by nature; the last humans had moved out a decade before. Matsuri still thought of herself as human, not as a... whatever Mei was. The word "goddess" seemed too ridiculous, somehow, but no other word could describe the reality of how Mei changed the world, and the people, around her.
That first attempt was a failure - Mei and Matsuri were both too shocked by what they saw, too slow. It hadn't stopped Mei from trying a second and a third time, though. Matsuri had been alone for the third, and it nearly worked; this was the fourth try, and Mei had once again sent Matsuri out alone. "You should be proud," Mei had murmured, her voice still as lovely as it had been two centuries earlier. "You're the only one i can trust... my beautiful guardian."
Then why aren't I enough? Matsuri didn't say, and instead just leaned deeper into Mei's embrace. Mei was all she had, after all, and she couldn't exactly go find a girlfriend at the immortal-winged-humanoid bar. Even the humans around the Academy feared her, just as they feared Mei, but without the love and worship Mei received.
That was okay, though. She had Mei, and that was what counted. That was what would endure, even when the humans were long gone.
The door to Yuzu's old apartment opened with what seemed like a deafening creak. Every decade or so, Mei sent out some of her followers to clean the place out, and it had not seen the same decay as the rest of the building. There was still a thick coating of dust, though, and signs of age elsewhere for anyone who chose to look - a tree branch growing against the window, mildew in the corners. In another fifty years, this place would be taken back by nature, unless Mei chose to intervene. Matsuri stepped into the room almost reverently, trying to ignore the memories that rose up around her like uneasy ghosts.
"Can you help me with my homework?"
"So did you two go all the way yet?"
"Just being near you made me happy..."
"It's not real. None of this can be real!"
She took a deep breath, tasting the stale, musty air, and waited. She thought she heard a noise from what had once been Yuzu's mother's room, but when she rushed in, a mother fox stared angrily back at her, ready to defend her kits. Matsuri sighed, and flicked a wing nervously; it was past the time Mei had given her. Maybe she should head back to the Academy, and face whatever Mei's disappointment would bring. She left the room and the agitated fox behind, and turned back toward the living room.
She wasn't alone. Tears pooled up in Matsuri's eyes, and her wings unfolded instinctively behind her.
Yuzu Aihara stood nude in the living room of her former home, translucent enough to see the outline of the door behind her, and promptly threw up.
"Are you ready to talk yet?" Matsuri asked, sitting on the floor and cradling her best friend (once upon a time, at least) in her arms. Yuzu had moved past the retching phase and into the sitting-limp-shaking-and-sobbing phase. The second time she had come back, Yuzu hadn't even gotten this far - she had just looked at Mei's wings, and the ruins outside the window, and started fading away, mumbling to herself about how she was dreaming.
This time, things were looking better. Yuzu's form still had a hint of translucency to it, but she didn't seem to be fading.
Matsuri held her tighter, stared into the bloodshot eyes of a girl she hadn't seen properly in over two centuries, and leaned down to kiss her gently on her forehead. Yuzu's shivering finally seemed to be subsiding, a little, but her eyes kept darting around the room like she expected something to jump out at her. "What- I mean, how -" she stammered, and Matsuri replied by stroking Yuzu's hair lightly.
"A lot of things have changed." Great way to start off - with the stupidly obvious. Matsuri closed her eyes, and a little stream of tears spilled out. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I was... with Mei." Yuzu's voice was shaking, and she grabbed on to Matsuri's shirt like it was her only tether to safety. "We were coming back from school. I wanted to hold her hand but I didn't know if she'd like it. And - that's it. How many days have I been out? Why is the apartment empty and gross? Where's Mei? Why do you have fucking wings? Just tell me!" Her voice trailed off into something between a gasp and a wail.
"Let's go to the Academy, okay?" Matsuri said, filling her voice with calm and confidence she didn't feel. "Mei's there. She'll tell you everything. I promise it'll be okay."
We got this far. She's back. Maybe we can somehow make things right.
... And maybe Mei can figure out how to explain to Yuzu that she died two hundred years ago.