Chapter Text
A tall man stood in front of him.
Tall figure, white hair, covered eyes, as he uttered the name "Suguru".
It sounded right.
From his lips, with his voice. The name sounded right.
As if everything had not changed.
As if they were still sixteen and had some quarrel over principles neither knew too much of, doctrines neither was that concerned about, some ethics, some honour thing….laughable. Looking back, none of today's events or the past ten years had been ghosts of even the faintest view or odor or audibility to his sixth senses twelve years ago.
How easy it was to dissolve all his sins in the blood, sweat and tears he drained now. How easy to get hallucinated by the sapphire eyes looking down at him.
Suguru did not have regrets.
Yet, a different life, a different choice…. he has to wonder if he will have regrets then.
A fan weakly rotating was the first thing he saw. He looked at it for a while. Being able to perceive the movement and sound of every wing as it the space around it had dialted. It was cold.
He turned his head to his left, eyes immediately traveling outside the glass of the door window to a red leaf swirling in the sky.
Scantily clad maple trees, blotched with streaks of yellow, orange, so close to browning, in the background of a grey sky.
It was autumn.
September? October?
The *Night Parade of a Hundred Demons* was due on 24th of December.
It should be December….
He got himself up and took in the room he was present in thoroughly.
A book shelf, a closet, white walls, a consisted open kitchen at the side. Beneath him his hips sunk into a soft matters.
The uniform, smell of soba, mingled with soap, and sweat…. And a mirror
He got off the besd to scurry to the mirror, ignoring how different his body felt for the time being.
That couldn't have been a dream.
He died. He was killed by Satoru.
And, his life flashing before his eyes could not move this slow, should feel surreal cannot be this….
Shoko imbibed the string of words from the letter she held in her hands. Her eyes, moisture-less only because she offered it to the grey wind she filled in her hollow insides.
The ribbons of smoke populated the air, dancing between the maple trees, and cherry blossoms. She shifted on her feet, crushing the dry leaves under her feet with the crisp sound getting carried by the winds, tearing of paper joining it shortly.
The tired fingers held softly to the tip of the bunched fragments, letting the winds ruffle it till bits left her touch one by one to surf the North-Westerlies. She let out her smoke to follow it, as if asking it to see to where the bits land.
She walked up the steps to the third floor of the housing quarters, her own room was on the second floor.
He knocked in three thuds and checked her watch.
07:34
"Suguru! Are you still asleep?"
"No."
She stood there for five minutes before speaking again.
"Then come out you idiot."
Suguru was not the one known to tardy. That was Satoru.
"....Class was supposed to start at 07:30."
The lack of conviction in her voice made her reconsider her schedule for today. She shouldn't have crawled out of the seclusion of her blanket in the first place.
She turned away from the door, but two steps and the door clicked. As soft as ever, the voice reached her,
"Good morning Shoko."
She turned to face him.
"Suguru, this is unusual isn't it? You never sleep in."
"Pardon, I had….this vivid dream."
She searched his face. Maybe it was just her, but something was off.
"I see, let's go"
"Satoru?"
Something was off.
"When is he in class nowadays?"
Suguru beheld her eyes, and she could see realization click, and a twenty more emotions she had not seen before.
"Oh, yeah."
He walked ahead in the direction of the stairs.
"Mind telling me about this dream?"
She had asked the question with a lot of hesitation. She wondered after speaking, why exactly? She was close to Suguru after all, she knew him well.
Didn't she?
"Ahh! Something about… adopting two little girls." He said and chuckled, his back facing her.
"Something happened."
"Oh, what?"
"I got a fax this morning."
"Let me guess, Nanami or Haibara got hurt on their mission."
His came out with an silence which was rhetoric. Shoko didn't even feel the need to answer him.
"Yes. Nanami got hurt."
They crossed the pathway to the South of the school complex in silence. The transition from autumn to winter was Shoko's favorite time of the year. No one would be surprised to hear that, Utahime-senpai had once told her that she fit with the ascethetic of the autumn.
So she let her hollowness get drained with the season, before his voice sinked in.
"When are… they coming back?"
"In two or three hours."
"I see."
"Suguru."
"Yes?" He still did not turn to face her, even though they were already in their classroom.
"How much of your dream do you remember now?"
He tilted his head up, and to the side. He hadn't been expecting that question. The only thing he hadn't been expecting.
His eyes widened and lips parted as he thought, "Not much…"