Chapter Text
It’s not over yet.
That’s what Sora thinks, when against all odds, she wakes up in a blank white world, with two others by her side.
“It was supposed to shut down,” says Utsuro, slowly.
“Hmph,” Mikado mumbles, his tattered body laying on the floor.
“I guess it didn’t work,” Sora replies. “Or maybe it did, and this is all a dying hallucination.”
“You’re a real downer, you know that?” Mikado complains. Utsuro kicks him in the face.
“Quiet.”
“Hmph.”
It’s impossible to know what time passes. It wouldn’t matter, anyway. Sora’s eternity in this world would be the blink of an eye for the people in the real world, people like Yuuki and Yoruko.
(If she’s just a cheap burner AI, then what’s this burning inside of her? This pain in the chest at the thought of never seeing them again?
More proof that Mikado’s wrong, she supposes.)
“This is really boring,” she says.
“Try being riddled with bullet holes,” Mikado whines.
“Shut up, Sannoji.”
After what feels like a while, a window opens up in the world. Through it, Mekaru Rei can be seen.
“Testing, testing, Taira— I mean, Sora-san, can you hear me?”
“I’m right here,” Sora says. “What is it?”
“We’re just checking in on you,” she says. “Kabuya-san wouldn’t leave Tsurugi and I alone until we did.”
Sora cracks a grin. Sounds just like that girl of hers.
Or…
Wait…
“What about Maeda?” she asks. Rei averts her eyes for a moment.
“He ran away,” she says. “We believe we saw him at the bridge, aiding Hashimoto and Nijue in escaping our facilities. Psycho Cop wants him arrested.”
Sora’s heart stops for a moment.
(Just a perception, really, something she pretends happens. She has no heart to speak of.
It still stops, though.)
“You’d better not let that happen,” she warns.
“I had no intention of it.”
Mikado moans in the background, followed by the sound of a certain redhead kicking him.
“Give me one minute,” she says, and goes to get Utsuro.
“Sora. What is it?” he asks.
“Mekaru called in,” she explains. “I’d like you to talk to her.”
“What are you, his therapist?” Mikado snaps.
Sora ignores him, dragging Utsuro over. Rei gasps, just barely, but regains her composure quickly.
“Hello,” Utsuro says, his voice as flat as ever.
“What is it, Utsuro?” Rei asks. He shrugs.
“Sora dragged me over here. There is nothing I want.”
“Wrong,” Sora says, gently nudging him. “Pretty sure there’s something you’ve been complaining about the entire time we’ve been here.”
Utsuro sighs. “Can you fix Sannoji’s body? He keeps whining. It’s very frustrating.”
Rei makes a sound that sounds like either a suppressed chuckle or a suppressed sob. “I believe that’s doable.”
“And if you could get us some books or video games or something,” Sora adds, “that’d be great.”
“Video games inside of what’s essentially a video game?” Rei asks, raising an eyebrow. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The call shuts off.
And the monotony sets in once more.
Mikado’s body heals one day, over the course of an hour. He screams the entire time.
Once it’s over, he has the energy to harass Sora and Utsuro unendingly.
“He’s even more annoying this way,” Utsuro complains.
“Agreed.”
So, taking the advice of every child therapist, they give him a task to do.
“Sannoji, you can still hack, right?” Sora asks him one day.
“Mm, yes,” he replies.
“Great. It’s your job to look through the old Neo World Program files for anything useful. Maybe a way to wake up our dead friends or something.”
“That sounds useless.”
“You’d rather do nothing?”
“Absolutely not.”