Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ken hoped that they’d be able to sleep tonight.

He didn’t know why, but when he came in to check on his daughter and her friends, he had been greeted with sheets and teenagers on the floor and an empty bed.

“...Are any of you planning to use the bed?” He asked, an eyebrow raised as he watched An and Akito tackle each other on the left while Toya and Kohane smoothed down their blankets and futons on the right. They all looked at him and shook their heads. Ken looked at An pointedly.

“I was trying to be a good host!” His daughter defends. “I told Kohane to take the bed but–”

“I couldn’t take An-chan’s bed! I told Aoyagi-kun or Shinonome-kun to take it instead–”

“I’m fine with the futon, Akito can take it–”

“No, I am not–Ow! An!” Ken watched as An shoved Akito towards her bed, who shoved back in retaliation. “I am not taking the bed. It’s your bed.”

“But I’m a good host! Good hosts don’t let their friends sleep on the floor if they can help it!” An insisted, continuing to push the ginger towards the corner where her bed was located. Akito didn’t budge, and glared at the other two teenagers in the room. Toya and Kohane glanced at each other, before staring back at Akito with no response. He groaned.

“Fine! No-one takes the bed,” he declares, even though An looks like she wants to retort. She earns another glare instead, and her mouth forms a pout.

Ken blinks, not questioning An and her friends' antics. At this point he’s used to it.

He clears his throat to get everyone’s attention back on himself again, receiving four sets of bright eyes flicking towards him.

“Well, if you guys need anything, just let me know. I’m in the room down the hall, and don’t be afraid to wake me up… As long as it’s reasonable.” Ken says, receiving nods and words of affirmation in return. With one last doubtful glance at the futons and teenagers on the floor, Ken grabs the doorknob to An’s room and gently closes the door to leave.

As soon as Ken leaves, however, An goes right back to her battle of being a Good Host. The Best Host, no matter what Akito says.

An crosses her arms, brow downturned and a frown on her face. She glares at Akito, who raises his hands in confusion, as if to say what else do you want from me? An huffs, turning towards Kohane and Toya on the other side of the room with a pleading face, earning a squawk from the boy beside her at her immediate change in demeanor.

Kohane brings a hand to cover her mouth in amusement while Toya simply shakes his head.

“Just give up and take your own bed, An.” Akito says while An groans in defeat, shaking her head.

“Fine…” She finally gives in, leaning back against the side of her bed, shuffling slowly in the direction of the pile of blankets and pillows in the middle of the room. “I guess no-one takes the bed.”

“You literally live here–”

“An-chan, you can sleep next to me.” Kohane cuts Akito off gently, helping An move the futons around to accommodate four people instead of the initially planned three. An dramatically flops onto the other girl’s back in response, earning a quiet squeak as the blonde adjusts to the sudden weight.

“This is why you’re my favourite, Kohane!” An says, inching them both towards Toya and pulling his arm to force him into the impromptu group hug. “Toya’s my second favourite, he can sleep next to us too.” She smirks, watching Akito squint at her. “Akito can sleep alone in the corner. Unless…” She drags the word out, taking not so subtle glances at her bed.

Akito seems to squint harder.

“No.”

An’s smirk immediately vanishes, and she squeezes Kohane and Toya closer to her.

“Fine. Be that way. Kohane and Toya and I are gonna have the best sleep ever. You can go freeze in your lonely little corner.”

“I don’t see how this will motivate him to sleep on your bed, Shiraishi.” Toya chimes in. There’s a hint of confusion and amusement in his voice. An turns her head to look him in the eye, warm amber locking into cool silver. She smiles a specific smile at him, which Toya has learned to understand as an invitation to join her shenanigans.

“If he wants to be lonely, that's on him! I'm a good host, aren’t I, Toya? The bed is right there, he just has to take it!” Her smile seems to widen as she watches Toya quickly debate his options. Even though An’s logic clearly has loopholes in it, he could join her in her relentless quest of being the Best Host there Ever Was, and assist her teasing, or defend Akito.

Toya takes the bait.

“You’re a very good host, Shiraishi. Akito, just take the bed. You won’t be cold and lonely if you do.” He says, in a way that seems genuine to most, but everyone in the room knows Toya enough to hear the teasing undertone in his voice. An and Kohane watch the ends of Toya’s mouth curl upwards slightly as he joins in An’s bullying.

Akito’s jaw drops, and An chokes back laughter to attempt to maintain her ‘serious’ attitude. Kohane buries her face into An’s arms that are curled around her shoulders to hide her own giggles while Toya’s eyes start squinting in that specific way they do whenever he feels very happy.

“Wellllllllllllll…?” An asks, drawing out the word as long as possible, and she can swear she can see an olive eye twitch in irritation.

There’s a moment of silence in the room as Kohane tries her best to contain her laughter as An and Toya stare at Akito, the ginger’s eyes flicking back and forth between the two in exasperation. It’s broken as Akito groans and sighs.

“I hate all of you.”

“Does that mean–”

“I’m still not taking your damn bed.”

“Oh come on–”

Eventually the futons are in place, covered in the copious amounts of blankets An hoarded in her closet. The bed stays upsettingly empty, much to An’s frustration. All regrets are forgotten, however, when the four finally settle down, watching the movie playing on An’s laptop with drowsiness in their eyes.

Kohane yawns as she tunes out whatever was playing on the screen. The movie marathon had lasted an hour or two already, and blinking the sleep out of her eyes was getting increasingly difficult. She adjusts her position where her elbows are lying on the futon’s surface, hugging the pillow beneath her chin. Her eyes slowly wander to her teammates, who were all at varying degrees of consciousness.

To her left, An is actively nodding off, head jerking up every few seconds to prevent herself from face planting into her pillow. On her right Akito is practically already asleep, one eye open and squinting at the screen. He doesn’t look like he’s processing anything that’s being said (not that Kohane can say much, since she’d long since stopped paying attention to the movie playing. What were they even watching again?) At Akito’s side is Toya, whose head is buried in his arms, but Kohane can tell he’s still awake as she sees his fingers twitching, trying to pinch himself awake.

“An-chan,” she mutters, biting back yet another yawn, watching as An sluggishly turns towards her, rubbing at her own amber eyes. An hums in response, before blindly reaching for her laptop, clumsily tapping the trackpad once to pause the video.

“Is it over…?” Akito mumbles, while Toya simply turns his head in their direction. Kohane chuckles lightly, finally releasing the tension from her shoulders and slumping fully onto the soft pillow in her arms.

“Yeah… Probably…” An says in response, closing the laptop and pushing it further away from where they would all lay their heads. Kohane can hear An yawn, before she hears sheets moving and a light “oomph” from the girl beside her as she finally settles down for sleep. Kohane can’t stop the smile growing on her face as they all drift to sleep.

“Goodnight.” She whispers, getting sleepy greetings in response. It wasn’t long after Kohane closed her eyes that she and her friends drifted into a deep slumber. Distantly she vaguely wishes them all sweet dreams…

When Toya opened his eyes, he wasn’t expecting to be greeted with a window that faced an absolute galaxy of a sky. He also wasn’t expecting for his friends to be playing instruments, either. Don’t they usually just sing with instrumentals in the background?

Similarly, when An blinked, she didn’t think she’d be on a stage facing a large crowd holding lightsticks. She knew the stage well, in fact she was very used to being on one, but what she wasn’t used to was the peppy idol-like music playing in the background. That wasn’t very common in a live house… And why were she and her friends wearing idol outfits?

As Kohane rubbed her eyes, she certainly wasn’t anticipating what was essentially the most outworldly theme park she’d ever been to. Hadn’t she fallen asleep with her friends at An’s place? Why was there a literal train in the air?

Akito was certainly confused, and honestly a little concerned when he woke up in what was basically an endless void. And why did his friends look so alright with it? And was that supposed to be Miku?

Chapter Text

i just, over and over again,

keep envisioning a new kind of future

i’ve been searching for a place where we can laugh.

we met in a dream - you were laughing in it

that clear and beautiful laugh rings next to my ears.

There’s a distinct feeling of pressing your fingers down on a set of piano keys that Toya has ingrained into his mind. He knows he’ll never forget it, and for a long while he had attempted to purge the idea out of his system as thoroughly as possible.

Evidently, that didn’t work, seeing as Toya’s eyes are flung open as soon as he feels his fingers touch smooth ivory.

He blinks. Once, twice. Several more times in fact, as his hands seem to move on their own, pressing down on chords he’s too disorientated to discern. His vision is still recovering, but he can see splotches of light purple, pink and blue. Was it just his vision playing tricks on himself, or were there sparkles in the air?

Eventually his ears pick up the distinct beat of a set of drums to his far right, along with the melody of a guitar and the deep tone of a bass. It’s then that his hands slow down, and Toya feels as if he’s in control again.

This is good, he decides for a second, and then in the next he panics since he has no idea what notes to press next. He’d seen his hands play several different chord progressions, but now in full control of his own body, he had no idea what to do.

He remembers the last chord he’d played, some vague variation of a dominant seventh (he thinks), and presses down on the keys once again. He follows the rhythm of the song that’s playing around him, but inwardly cringes when the chord does not follow the rest of the song’s progression. Toya bites the inside of his cheek as he continues to press the same few keys, listening to the dissonance it creates as the harmonies clash with the other instrumentals.

He doesn’t know what to do with his left hand, and it hovers awkwardly atop the keyboard. His brow furrows, staring at the keys.

How did he get here?

What was he doing?

Toya frowns as he attempts to recall his last few memories. Waking up, going to school, going to practice, Weekend Garage… Didn’t he just fall asleep at An’s place?

“...ya, are... –kay?”

Actually, where was he? Why was he playing the piano? While Toya has certainly recovered from a lot of his issues regarding the instrument, he didn’t expect to be playing one so soon, especially as soon as he woke up.

“...ya.”

He starts squinting at the keys, not even paying attention to the notes his right hand plays anymore. Was he dreaming?

“Toya!”

He startles, hands flying away from the keys in reflex as if the touch burned his fingers. When he looks up, his silver eyes meet the familiar faces of his friends, all with faces of concern.

“Toya-kun?” Kohane asks from the side, clutching a guitar in her arms. Toya’s so unused to seeing an instrument in her hands that he nearly misses how she had addressed his name (and the part of him that feels warm from the sound of his name in her voice).

“Uh… Are you alright? Do you need to stop playing?” An asks after his lack of response. She’s twirling one drumstick around in circles, the spinning flawless from honed skill. Watching the stick spin, almost hypnotized by its motion, Toya nods, albeit hesitant. He doesn’t know which of An’s questions he’s answering.

Clearly his uneasiness is easy to see, as Akito brings a hand onto his shoulder.

“Is there something wrong in the song? Or do you need a break?” He asks, tilting his head. Toya finds himself mindlessly nodding. He doesn’t even know what they were playing. He doesn’t know what the issue is with the song. Honestly, he was pretty sure he was the issue.

Why was he here? Where was he?

Surely this is a dream, right? Why else would he and his friends be playing instruments? Toya doesn’t remember ever having to play physical instruments during their performances.

An whistles, bringing her drumstick twirling to a stop. “How about we take a break then?” She asks, turning towards a desk in the room where a bunch of bags were sitting atop of it. “I brought snacks!”

Akito and Kohane voice their agreements, and Toya feels the hand on his shoulder slip off after two reassuring pats. He almost misses the warmth, the one source of familiarity. Akito places the bass guitar he was holding onto a stand, and Kohane does the same with her guitar.

He watches, lost, as Kohane walks over and grabs two granola bars from An’s hands, turning towards him and placing the wrapped food in his own.

“We can go over the portion again later, Toya-kun. Whatever you find wrong, we’ll fix it.” She says, sending him a sweet smile. He nods again, sending an unsure smile back.

Akito drags over a chair for Toya to sit on, bringing him a water bottle as well. “Rest, you seemed kind of out of it earlier. Have you been getting enough sleep?” He rubs his neck, chuckling. “I don’t think there’s a test we should be stressing about yet.”

“How would you know? It’s not like you’d study for one anyway.” An butts in, sliding her own chair over and sitting on it with the back of the chair against her front.

“This isn't about me!” Akito counters. An cackles, hitting the top of her chair.

“It should be! Maybe Toya’s stressed about having to tutor you for whatever test you’re forgetting about.” She teases, watching Akito glare at her.

“Oh, you’re one to talk–”

“How did you even get by in school back then without Toya or Kohane around, huh?”

“Hey! Talk about your own grades!”

“An-chan… Our class has a test in a few days…” Kohane chimes in. An squawks in response.

“We do?!”

Toya watches as Akito and An continue to bicker, with Kohane trying her best to mediate. He finds himself stuck on Kohane’s words.

Our class.

Our.

Kohane didn’t go to Kamiyama. Toya’s brows furrow again, and he reluctantly rips himself away from the conversation. He squints in the direction of the pile of bags on the table, and sees uniform ties leaking out of the unzipped bags. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he can recognize which bag was Kohane’s and he sees a red tie that undoubtedly belonged to the uniform for Kamiyama High School. No where could he locate a different tie, as An had her’s loosely tied around her neck, and Akito’s was lying on top of a table nearby. With a glance at his own clothes, Toya was also still wearing his school tie.

He glances at Kohane again, noticing her clothes. A white button up and a plaid skirt, much like the uniforms from Kamiyama.

This had to be a dream.

Toya pinches himself, but feels a sting from his squeezed skin. Was he dreaming? He honestly couldn’t tell at this point. It felt both real and unreal at the same time.

He’s long since zoned out of the conversation (read: argument) that his friends are having, and instead Toya looks around the room. Oddly enough, he finds himself in a classroom, but not one he’d ever seen before.

Desks were piled at the back of the classroom, thus resulting in an open space for their instruments. Was this where they rehearsed? Were they some sort of band? Toya glances at their instruments again, reminded of Saki and her friends. They too had a group of four, one on the keyboard, another on the guitar, and one for the bass and drums each. Was this dream inspired by Saki’s group?

He looks to the left of the room, where a large chalkboard hung off the wall. It was covered in scribbles which were all of different colours, and he could again feel something within him that recognized what handwriting belonged to which person. There were reminders written by Kohane in small and neat handwriting, while in another place there was a doodle that had notes littered around it which told him of a heated discussion between An and Akito. It was almost as if they were arguing in chalk. Toya could even recognize some of his own writing on the board, little short and concise notes here and there. What he couldn’t recognize were a few other random notes, all with handwriting that didn’t belong to anyone he knew.

Toya chewed the inside of his cheeks, confused. Who else used this classroom? The chalkboard was mostly dominated by writings from him and his friends. How often and what did they use this room for?

His eyes flit around the room some more, noticing items that distinctly belonged to each of his friends. A mint plant in a flower pot decorated with tiny painted sunflowers sat on a desk that was illuminated from the windows. A set of headbands and hats from Phoenix Wonderland was placed on a chair nearby. An oversized jacket laid over a seat was slowly slipping onto the floor. A short stack of books was neatly placed next to a table on the ground so no one would trip over it.

Just thinking about how much this room screamed familiarity yet was so unfamiliar to him made his head ache. Toya shook his head, turning around to look at the window.

His jaw nearly dropped at the sheer galaxy that greeted him back.

Toya had to be dreaming. The sky looked so beautiful it just couldn’t be real.

He hears a giggle, and turns to look at Kohane. She notices his gaze, and bashfully rubs the back of her neck.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.” She says, but Toya shakes his head.

“It’s fine. What’s so funny, though?” He asks. His voice feels a little dry. It feels as if he had spoken not long after he had woken up from sleep.

Kohane hums, turning her head to also look at the sky.

“Your expression reminded me of when we were little.” She explains, and Toya feels his heart ache at the thought. Had he known her when he was young here, wherever this was? “I remember the first time we went stargazing. You looked the exact same.” She laughs airily.

“Ah, well, it’s just very beautiful.” He finds himself responding, even though he doesn’t know what she’s referring to. Kohane nods, and it's silent as they both watch the sea of stars outside the window.

“Are you guys stargazing again?” An asks softly, pushing her chair to sit in between the two, leaning her elbow on the back of Toya’s chair. He hadn’t even noticed that the other two had long since stopped arguing.

“I still can’t believe our feelings created that.” Akito says, as he shuffles his seat next to Kohane. The other two nod while Toya pauses.

Their feelings created that? Was he in some sort of SEKAI then?

An laughs, and Toya can see a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“I know right? Thank god it didn’t create any dogs. Poor baby Akito, getting bit by a dog at the very same park we agreed on our dream.”

“Oh, shut up.” Akito replies, expression unimpressed. An simply snickers in response. Kohane giggles, fidgeting with the fabric of her sleeves.

“It’s kind of funny that the star in our band name kind of relates to a dog, though.” The blonde mentions, and Akito groans.

“Why am I always the butt of these jokes?” He asks, crossing his arms.

“You’ve always been easy to bully, even when we were little kids!” An says, smirking at him. She turns her head to Toya, and he’s reminded of what happened right before he had fallen asleep earlier. An has the same expression, the one where she’s inviting him to join in on her shenanigans, and this is where he’d usually accept her invitation easily.

It’s different though, since this time he has no idea what she’s talking about. Toya tries anyway, because he’s found that he can never say no to An whenever she wears that expression. One, because he knows it makes An happy, and two, that Akito’s reactions always create a feeling of fondness that bursts in his chest.

“You’re very easy to tease, Akito.” He settles, and An grins. He sees Akito gape at him, like he usually does whenever he joins An’s teasing. Akito turns his head, huffing in exasperation, but Toya notices that the redhead’s lips are curved at the corners regardless.

The discussion eventually keeps branching into more memories he doesn’t remember being a part of, so Toya turns his attention back to the sky. His heart aches with each story he can’t contribute to. Whatever this strange dream, or SEKAI, or universe was, it was honestly quite cruel to place him here. He almost feels as if he’s intruding on some other Toya’s life. A life he never got to live.

Was this how Saki interacted with her friends? Growing up, Toya can only remember having Tsukasa and Saki in his rather bleak childhood. It was only in middle school that he began to live life according to his own standards and even then, would he even be where he was at now, without Akito’s intervention? How much had he missed in his life, to not be able to retell experiences like these?

He can hear his friends retell stories of when they met, when they separated, when they reunited. He can hear his friends comment on how difficult it was to reconnect with the Kohane of this world since she had originally gone to an entirely different school. He wishes, longs, yearns to know these experiences like they did, to be able to recite them like words on the back of his hand.

He couldn’t help but feel jealous of the Toya that got to grow up with the people he wants to spend the rest of his life with.

Eventually Toya finds his head leaning on top of An’s, and while he can hear her voice talk animatedly as usual, he can tell she’s being softer to accommodate his rest. Sleepily, his gaze finally drifts over to a picture frame sitting on the window sill.

It’s a picture of the four as children. He can see a younger version of himself being hugged tightly by tinier versions of his beloved friends. An is grinning widely, and he can see she’s missing a tooth. Akito has a bandage on his cheek, but he’s smiling just as hard. Kohane’s cheeks are pink as the picture catches her mid laugh.

His own face speaks of unrestrained joy. Toya bitterly thinks about how he can barely remember his own childhood where he had ever smiled as brightly.

And yet, as he drifts to sleep with his friend’s whispers and laughs in the background, he can’t help but feel joy as well. While he was terribly jealous of the Toya that resided in this SEKAI, he was also happy he had found the people he loved so much so early.

Toya may have missed the memories he could’ve made when he was younger, but he also knows there lies so many more opportunities in his future. One day he’d get to retell stories of his own, made with the people he loves with all his heart.

“We’ll stay together, right?” He hears, before completely dozing off.

“We’ll stay together forever.”

the more I wish for it,

the unknown story begins to shine

i finally found it, a place where we can laugh.

Chapter Text

i’m in a hurry and keep stumbling

it’s alright, believe in yourself because the performance hasn’t started yet.

even if we recklessly hurry, it won’t go easily,

the important thing now is to go forward hand in hand.

Typically, when An wakes up, the most unusual thing she can hope to expect is the floor, being surrounded by blankets, pillows and plushies alike, because unfortunately she never outgrew the childish habit of being a little too active in her sleep.

Clearly, that wasn’t the most unusual thing, since as soon as she opens her eyes, her world is spinning.

Maybe spinning isn’t the right word, but she can feel herself move, even if her vision is still incredibly blurry. An is blinking rapidly to clear the fog in her eyes, frantically looking and squinting around as her body seems to move on its own beyond her control.

Eventually she finds herself aware enough to realize she’s… Dancing? Why was her body dancing? Was she dreaming? That would make a lot more sense… She’s danced in her dreams before. She can’t remember what most of her dreams are, but she can remember dancing in at least a few of them. It’s weird that she can’t exactly feel her dancing, though… It’s as if she was watching from a first person perspective of some character in a game Toya would play, but instead the perspective was for herself. She can barely feel anything other than a vague throbbing in the back of her head.

Eventually An feels that she’s beginning to gain control of her body again, which is both a blessing and a curse, since despite feeling a strange disconnection from her own limbs, An felt like she was dancing pretty nicely (even if she couldn’t entirely tell what she was doing).

It’s mostly a curse though, since as soon as all feeling returns, the next thing An sees is her face flying dangerously close to the floor.

(Somewhere in her mind, An is laughing at herself, since falling to the floor is common enough in her nightly routine that she’s used to it. But at least she’s asleep when it happens, and her falls are almost always cushioned by her mass of soft blankets that she doesn’t notice until after she wakes up.

Falling while fully awake and aware is way worse, at least in her opinion.)

An yelps, bringing her hands up in front of her, and her palms and knees take the brunt of her fall. She hisses as she rolls so she’s sitting instead, looking at her mildly scraped hands and shaking them off to get rid of the stinging sensation.

She glances at her knees too, but her right one has a nasty scrape that’s prickled with specks of blood. Nothing too serious that a bandaid couldn’t fix, but inconvenient nonetheless.

An huffs, taking a moment to really take in her surroundings. Wherever she is, it’s incredibly bright. The stage lights (she was on a stage?), the large screen on the distant wall behind her (why was there a need for such a large screen, and why were there flowery patterns being displayed on it?), the faceless audience of… was that hundreds? Who were holding lightsticks? Wait – Audience?!

An’s jaw drops, and she scrambles to try and stand up again. Was she mid-performance? Mortified, she stumbles again, rolling her ankle slightly and sending herself back towards the ground. How embarrassing!

It’s silent all of a sudden, and An belatedly realizes that there was music playing before it was shut off. She doesn’t know what kind of music was playing, but there was definitely noise and she was pretty sure it was music.

Instead her ears pick up the sound of footsteps behind her, and she feels a hand under her arm. There’s someone gently helping her back to her feet.

Dazed, An turns her head, and is taken aback at the sight of Toya who was wearing an outfit befitting of an idol. She nearly chokes on her own spit, because why is Toya wearing an idol outfit, and why did he look so good in an idol outfit? She turns her head to look slightly behind him, only to hold back a guffaw at seeing Kohane and Akito wearing idol outfits too!

An blinks several times at them, and then glances at her own clothes, only to find that she too is in fact wearing an idol outfit. What the hell! Where was she!

This had to be a dream, right? But her mild wounds stinging told her otherwise. You’re not supposed to feel pain in dreams, unless that was some kind of myth?

“An-chan! Are you okay? Do your legs hurt?” An turns her head again at the sound of a high pitched robotic voice belonging to a certain blonde haired vocaloid, and nearly collapses yet again at seeing Miku and Rin running up to her also wearing idol outfits.

Was she in some type of SEKAI? Were Miku and the others playing tricks on her with their weird SEKAI logic? Her head was beginning to throb more now too…

“Can you two go get some bandaids?” Akito asks, and the two Virtual Singers nod. Rin sends An a look of concern before running off the stage, to what An assumes is the backstage area, whatever that looks like.

Miku seems to start making her way there too, but tilts her head when she looks at An. The girl in question stares back at the Virtual Singer’s hesitance, but Miku seems to shrug before turning and following in Rin’s direction.

An feels one of her eyes twitch. What the hell was that?

In any normal situation An might’ve blurted something like where are we? But for some reason beyond her understanding she had a feeling the others were very familiar in this… SEKAI-type universe. So An ends up biting her tongue and decides to keep her words concise so she doesn’t say or ask anything strange.

She could probably fake something hard enough, she’s good friends with literal idols in her normal world at least, and she can recall a dream where she was an idol before. The difference here, though, is that her best friends and teammates are idols with her this time, instead of random people she can’t recall.

“Did you mess something up with the footwork, An-chan?” Kohane asks her, holding her hand. An bites her lip, unsure. She doesn’t even remember what the dance was.

“We could show you how it goes again if you forgot, Shiraishi.” Toya offers, and An agrees enthusiastically.

“That sounds great, Toya! I don’t even know which part I got wrong, I just ended up tripping!” An responds. It’s not a lie, since she does not in fact know what she got wrong, but she also doesn’t even know what the entire routine is supposed to look like in the first place.

Toya nods, turning around and looking at the other two. Kohane squeezes An’s hand before letting go, sending her a sweet smile. Akito on the other hand huffs and rolls his eyes, and An recognizes the action as something he does when he prepares for a relentless onslaught of teasing.

She bites back a laugh, because his reaction isn’t unwarranted. An had agreed to Toya’s offer not only because she didn’t know what was even going on in the first place, but also because she thinks that it would be fun to see her friends doing silly idol dances. It cracks her up, especially at the thought of Akito doing idol choreography.

Toya seems to count down, tapping his foot on the ground, and the other two follow as they begin the section, seemingly starting from just before An had stumbled earlier. It’s a little goofy, watching them dance and hop to no music, but An is entertained nonetheless, and is honestly in a bit of awe. She hadn’t expected them all to look so good doing preppy idol dances…

They finish the sequence with signature twirls and gestures, and An giggles when she watches Akito’s flushed face send a heart in her direction. Kohane finishes with a cute spin, and An claps when the other two follow up with their own finishing poses.

“Do you get it now, An-chan?” Kohane asks. An blanks for a moment at her question, but nods.

(The honest answer is no, she did not get it – An was way too distracted to actually pay attention to the dance moves.)

“You don’t have to try right now, since Rin-chan and Miku-chan aren’t back with the bandages yet, but we can try together afterwards.” Kohane smiles, and An can’t help the wide grin she sends back.

“Just don’t mess up when we’re live…” Akito mutters, scratching the back of his head. An swivels her head towards him, squinting at him with a smirk.

“Oh yeah? Maybe look at the camera when you send hearts to people next time!” She counters, thanking whatever higher being that exists that her comment slides and isn’t in any way unusual in this situation. Akito glares at her, ears red as he scoffs and crosses his arms.

An cackles, muttering a joking Tsundere Boy, Akito~ in his direction, a teasing chant she’d heard Tsukasa and Mizuki parrot around one day at school. The boy simply turns his back to her in response and walks away, mumbling something about getting some water.

Kohane taps Toya and asks if he could help her to grab some snacks since it was about time they took a break anyway, and Toya nods after patting An gently on the shoulder in reassurance. Touched, An watches them walk away, following in Akito’s direction offstage.

Left alone to her own devices, sitting on the edge of the large stage, An bites the inside of her cheek and stares at her light blue painted nails. What was it like being an idol, doing preppy dances, inspiring and bringing joy to others. Performing on stage wasn’t something that An was new to, but the atmosphere for idol performances and live houses were completely different.

Akito had said something about being live. Did he mean on television, or on a stream like how Haruka and More More Jump does in her own universe? Why did they choose to be idols? Why did she choose to be an idol? What about Vivid Street, her home?

Unconsciously, An begins picking at her flawless nail polish, the flakes of dried and cracked paint falling onto the floor. She watches the different sizes, thinking about her own life.

If they were idols, it was unlikely Kohane ever went to Vivid Street… What about Toya? And Akito? Did he see RAD WEEKEND in this universe too? What pushed them to pursue idol work? Did they decide as a group one day, if street music didn’t work out?

Speaking of, what about RAD WEEKEND? Her father, Uncle Taiga? Nagi?

Did they give up on their dreams to pursue a different one? Did they never have dreams of surpassing RAD WEEKEND at all?

Did her friends in this universe know about Nagi?

Did An’s dream change because of Nagi?

Was this a path she’d choose in a different universe if Vivid Street had been honest with her from the start?

An flinches as she feels a sudden sting from her thumb. She glances down, seeing that she’d accidentally picked a piece of her skin instead of her ruined nails. She hoped that the An of this universe wouldn’t be upset…

A hand gently touches her shoulder again, and An turns her head to see Toya again, back with bandages in his hands. He takes a look at her finger, gently taking a hold of her hands in his own, doing swiping motions over her palms. It’s calming, and An is reminded of how Toya would do the same back at home if any of their team was feeling particularly anxious.

“Is something wrong?” He whispers, taking the bandaids and wrapping one around her thumb before placing one on her scraped knee as well. An pauses, watching him do so with the utmost care.

“I’m fine,” She says, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t believe her. It’s clear as day in his eyes that her lie didn’t work, and his silver gaze questions are you sure?

Kohane and Akito make their way over, sitting beside the two on the stage and handing everyone snacks and water. The look of concern is also on their faces, and An’s heart aches. She feels guilty that she’s made them worried, but she also feels warm from their care.

An takes a deep breath, thinking back to her earlier thoughts before any of them had come back.

“I was thinking about Vivid Street and Nagi-san,” She admits, testing the waters, looking at her lap and rubbing the bandaid wrapped around her thumb. The other three send each other looks before nodding in understanding.

Oh, An thinks. They know.

She wonders what they think, since their stories had played out so differently. It wouldn’t matter nearly as much to them, right? She wasn’t holding them back in any way, right?

Something deep inside her chest tells her that maybe this thought wasn’t very foreign in this universe. She was in another An’s body, afterall. They had to be similar to an extent.

Kohane gently pats her bandaged knee, humming in thought.

“Maybe in a different time we could’ve met in your home,” She says. “That would be fun, wouldn’t it? We could be on stage there too.” An watches the blonde, the smile on Kohane’s face making her chest feel warm and light.

But a part of her also feels a little sad. So they didn’t meet in Vivid Street…

“But that’s okay, because we found each other being idols.” She continues. An tilts her head.

“You said Nagi-san wanted you to find people and to go beyond her. And maybe you can’t do that in Vivid Street, but you’ll be in that ‘next generation’ of musicians here too, right?” Akito adds. An nods, unsure.

“Nagi-san wanted you to be happy pursuing music. And you never stopped singing, just as she wished. You just sing in a different way here.” Toya says.

“I think that’s more than enough, An-chan. And we’re here for you too.” Kohane looks into An’s eyes, confident reassurance in her brown eyes. Looking at the other two, she sees the same resolve.

She trusts them.

An nods, wiping her eyes. She feels a little bad that the An of this world won’t get such insightful words from her friends. Maybe she’ll get them another day.

Akito chuckles, leaning back on his hands. “Being a street musician sounds like some faraway dream.” Toya huffs a breath in response, exhaling a brief laugh.

“I can’t see myself doing anything close to street music, but maybe if I had chosen to go to Vivid Street instead of impulsively signing up to be an idol…” He trails off, and An nearly takes him by the shoulders to beg him to tell her more, but resists as to not ruin the moment, and also because she’s beginning to feel tired again.

She leans her head on Akito’s shoulder as she listens to their conversations drift into different topics. She thinks about their words again, their reassurance, and also about the story of the An in this universe. Did she learn of Nagi early, and pursued music in the idol industry to get away from Vivid Street? Did she love music too much to stop singing, but was too bitter about Nagi’s passing?

Was it because she never found a partner? After all, meeting Kohane seemed to be entirely up to chance… Or maybe it was fate, since they met again as idols in the end too. And then they became a group with Akito and Toya in the end as well…

The thought of leaving Vivid Street behind makes her a little sad. It is (was?) her home, the place that made her love music. She was raised by music and the love for music.

But then again, as an idol she’s able to spread the love of music to others on a wider scale. She’s not sure how much influence her idol group has, but if Haruka’s group was any indication maybe she’s touched at least some people’s hearts. Chances are, some are in Vivid Street too, including her father.

An yawns, her brain feeling fuzzy and foggy from drowsiness, vaguely thinking about the SEKAI she’s in as well. Her thoughts and feelings combined with her teammates that they had created a SEKAI together in this universe too. She doesn’t entirely know what that dream is, but she’s incredibly happy she’s able to pursue it with the partners she’d never let go.

It’s okay, because we found each other. An smiles at the thought, as she slowly falls asleep on Akito’s shoulder. She hears a whisper in her ear, a reassurance that she can rest easy.

Yeah, they found each other.

don’t forget we’re dreaming the same dream (no matter what)

overcoming anxiety and impatience, we’ll sing about “only us”

in our shining story, let’s overlap our vivid singing voices

to make our dream come true, keep going forward!

Chapter Text

i waver and slip-up, in these days where i feel like i’m not making any progress,

even though i meant to learn my lesson

i haven’t had enough of these battles – ah, another mistake

Kohane groggily blinks, her vision blurry and unfocused. Her head aches slightly, and her joints complain as she realizes that she’s lying down on what seems to be the hard floor. Her throat feels dry, and she feels something rectangular in her left hand.

She brings her hand that isn’t occupied by anything to rub her eyes, feeling mildly disgruntled at the crust that laces her eyelashes. How long has she been asleep for?

As she brings her hand away, she opens her eyes again, squinting.

“Kohane-chan? Are you awake?” Miku asks, and Kohane stares, lost.

Miku?

“Ooooooh…” Miku says, her mouth forming a small ‘O’ as she drags out the sound. Kohane’s brain is still catching up, but she twitches her head at the pitch of Miku’s voice. It’s strangely higher than what she’s used to. Kohane shakes her head, blinking several more times before looking Miku straight in her starry eyes.

When has Miku had stars in her eyes…?

“Kohane-chan?” Miku says again, tilting her head. Her hair, much more blue than what Kohane’s used to, shifts with her movement, and Kohane finally feels her brain power back to life.

“Eh?!” She squeaks, bolting upright, watching the unfamiliar Miku spring backwards like that of a cartoon character. Another figure at the side of her eyes also flinches away, and Kohane turns her head and is surprised to see Kaito, wearing attire that she’d never expect him to wear, also there next to her. She sits and stares at him for a moment, looking at his fancy blue suit, and his clothes remind her strikingly of a stage performer’s costume.

“K-Kaito-san? Miku?” She asks, entirely confused, and her head throbs with vertigo from her sudden movement. Kaito moves back to her side, bringing a hand to her shoulder and asks if she’s alright, to which she vaguely nods. Miku crawls a little closer again, bringing a hand to her chin and humming in thought.

“Hmmm… Kohane-chan seems less… Kohane-chan than usual…” She mutters, and Kohane has half the mind to pay attention to what she says. She rubs her eyes again, before taking in her very bright and colourful surroundings. The ground was a collage of different coloured flooring, and it felt like she was dropped into the middle of the open area with no other warning.

Where was she?

“W-Where…” She asks, but she doesn’t finish the thought, and Kaito rubs her back. Miku makes a few more humming noises, before shoving her face right in front of Kohane’s own again.

“Kohane-chan!” She exclaims, causing both she and Kaito to flinch at the suddenness. “You feel less woosh woosh than usual! Is our Kohane-chan in mimimi land right now?” She asks, again tilting her head, the action accompanied by a jingling noise. Kohane gulps, feeling her mouth open and close, much like that of a fish out of water.

She feels incredibly out of place at the moment.

“...Miku-chan, what do you mean? Is this not Kohane?” Kaito asks tentatively from the side. He seems a little less confused than Kohane, but he looks perplexed nonetheless. Miku shakes her head.

“This is Kohane-chan, yes! But not the Kohane-chan! She’s more… Wow! Wow! And she has this tingling burning feeling beneath her when she speaks!” The blue-haired virtual singer waves her hands around, seeming to try to emphasize her point. Kohane watches, flabbergasted as Kaito nods. He still seems vaguely confused at Miku’s words, but at the same time he seems to get an inkling of what she’s trying to say.

Kohane is beyond confused. She’s so lost she doesn’t even know where she started.

Suddenly Miku jumps up again, almost vibrating as she moves. More jingling noises accompany her, and she makes more wild hand gestures.

“Kohane-chan! You have a rehearsal today!” She says, and Kohane hears worry in her robotic voice. She seems concerned, and Kohane belatedly realizes that it’s concern for her. Why was Miku concerned for Kohane over a rehearsal? “I don’t know where Other-Kohane-chan is right now, but that’s okay! I’ll go get the others, we’ll help you practice a little before they come for practice!” And before either Kohane or Kaito can say anything, she’s running off.

Kohane blinks twice, still entirely confused. She and Kaito share a look, and the man chuckles.

“I’ll go follow her. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in a few minutes.” He says, and pats her reassuringly on her shoulder. She nods, and adjusts her position on the brightly coloured floor.

Now left alone, Kohane hugs her knees, turning her head and taking the time to really observe her surroundings. As she does so, she’s left in complete awe. It was all so wonderful and fascinating and beautiful.

It was blindingly colourful, but it reminded her of Phoenix Wonderland, with its vibrant hues and exciting sights. There was a ferris wheel in the distance, blinking lights on the carts. There were different theme-park attractions around the area, and there was a train flying in the air. Kohane stared, longing to ride in it. She wondered if she’d be able to touch the fluffy clouds. Were they made with cotton candy?

Kohane felt that itch in her heart to capture the scene with a camera. She looks down at her hand, and belatedly realizes that the object she was holding was a phone. She goes to turn it on, but it glitches. Something deep inside of her tells her not to worry about it, which goes against everything that she’s ever believed, but she finds herself following its sentiment, turning off the phone and shoving it inside an unfamiliar pocket.

(Unfamiliar, in the sense that the clothes she wore were not something she ever recalls buying or belonging in her wardrobe at home. It was a casual fit with a sweater, jacket, and tights, but it was strange finding herself in clothes she doesn’t remember owning.)

Maybe it was some SEKAI feeling telling her not to think about it too hard? She had to be in a SEKAI after all, if Miku and Kaito were any indication, the literal flying train was a big tell as well. She’s learned from her own SEKAI that sometimes it’s better not to question the strange logic behind their little pocket universes.

Kohane hums, looking at all the attractions, connecting a lot of the attractions to things she’s seen at Phoenix Wonderland, feeling excitement in her heart. Did they also do shows here, like they did at the theme-park she loved so much?

Wait.

Shows.

Rehearsal?

Kohane feels everything stop for a second.

She had rehearsal?!

Kohane chokes for a second, bringing a hand to cover her mouth. She had just woken up, she doesn’t know what’s happening, she doesn’t know what the plan is. She was performing? She was performing? She is a performer?

Who else was here, other than the virtual singers? Were all six here as well? Did she perform with Miku and the others? Were there other SEKAI holders here? Did she perform with them? Were they the ones Miku was referring to?

Kohane bites her nails, pulling at one of her pigtails. She took in a deep breath, feeling her thoughts race as her gaze flits around.

Don’t get her wrong, Kohane has learned to love the stage, but the stage fright is something that still gets to her, even though it’s been getting easier with each live house they participate in. It has always been easier when she had her friends with her.

With them, she feels like she could do absolutely anything.

But they aren’t here, she’s alone here, in a weird SEKAI she’s never been to in her entire life. She didn’t know that other SEKAI even existed in the first place. Who knew who the other people residing in the SEKAI were, Kohane didn’t know them.

Miku was acting… strange, to say the least. She definitely seems keen on helping Kohane, but Kohane doesn’t know this Miku. She knows her own Miku, the confident older sister type Miku, who was a little more clumsy than she led on.

(Not that this Miku was bad, she had a charm that reminded Kohane of Emu, both from her interactions with the girl and how Kohane watched her act on stage. But Kohane was definitely not used to Miku acting this way.)

Kohane finds herself nervously picking at the seams of her mismatched socks, any loose thread being plucked from the soft fabric as she thinks more on what Miku said. What had she meant by other Kohane? Was she not herself? Was there another Kohane she had to worry about? She doesn’t remember having a twin, or some doppelganger. SEKAI was strange, but surely SEKAI logic couldn’t get this strange!

Kohane nearly screams when she feels a hand touch her shoulder again, and whips her head around to see Kaito again, who whispers a gentle apology for startling her in response. She shakes her head, taking a couple of deep breaths.

She’s honestly quite grateful he’d broken her endless stream of thoughts.

“Not-Quite-Kohane-Kohane-chan!” Miku calls, waving her hand to get Kohane’s attention. She turns her head, and glances at the rest of the Vocaloids behind her. They’re all wearing different attire than she’s used to, as if they’re getting ready to act in a play.

She bites her cheek, choosing not to think too much on it. Kohane feels like she’s already done too much thinking.

Meiko walks over with a stack of stapled paper. The Virtual Singer gives her hands a squeeze and a reassuring smile.

“Thankfully An-chan left a script here from yesterday, so we can use this to our advantage.” She says, and Kohane widens her eyes at the mention of her partner. Was she here too? How about Akito and Toya?

“Len-kun! How much time do we have until it’s rehearsal time?” Miku asks, and Len seems to stand straighter like he’s being called during a roll call.

“Around twenty minutes, Miku-chan!” He replies with just as much vigour. Miku claps in response.

“Okay! Kaito-kun! What do you say we do!”

“I think we should probably try to practice some improvisation. There’s no way Kohane-chan can remember an entire script by herself in twenty minutes or so.” He says, rubbing his chin. Kohane watches almost in a trance. The Vocaloids remind her of her own, yet are also distinctly different. Especially Kaito, who Kohane is much more used to seeing having a rather airheaded personality. It’s not bad though, she thinks, because even with Kaito’s clumsy guidance, everyone could tell he cared and wanted to help.

It brings her a little relief that there is a small bit of familiarity in this unfamiliar place.

Miku and the twins nod while Meiko flips the script to the scenes that seemed to be what were planned for practice today. After finding the page she was looking for, she drops the large stack of paper in Kohane’s hands, who lurches at the unexpected weight. Just how large was this script…? And Meiko seemed so unphased, swinging it around…

Behind them, Luka yawns and rubs her eyes, but she sends a sleepy thumbs up.

They all turn back to Kohane with reassuring and confident smiles.

“Are you ready, Kohane-chan?” Rin asks. Kohane gulps, holding the script in her hands, gripping the white paper tightly.

If she’s learned anything from being with her team, it’s that she can’t back down. Not yet.

Kohane nods firmly.

“Yes!”

The next twenty or so minutes are spent trying to memorize the portions that her group had agreed on practicing from the previous day. Kohane learns that the SEKAI holders are in fact the same friends she holds her own SEKAI with, and is beyond relieved that she doesn’t have to meet with strangers.

The scenes are still somewhat long in length, even without the portions that her character doesn’t have any lines in. Kohane bites her lip nervously, looking at her costume she’d changed into in the mirror. The Red Riding Hood-esque costume’s beautiful craftsmanship is nearly enough to distract her from her anxieties.

Just nearly.

Kohane sighs, smoothing down the wrinkles she’d gripped into the skirt of her dress. All that excitement from earlier has been replaced by absolute dread.

The play was typical for one to be performed at a show, and it was set in a fantastical universe that involved queens, knights and dragons. It also involved a commoner girl as one of the main leads, someone who’d come from a life of the mundane who would rise to the occasion.

A general fairy tale with an uplifting message.

Kohane’s eyes skim the words on the script again, for what feels like the hundredth time in the past five minutes. Just her luck, that the commoner girl was played by herself.

She’d love to see something like this performed by Wonderlands x Showtime, but her love of theme-parks and the entertainment that comes with it seems so far away. Her hands are sweaty and her knees shake.

Kaito had already assured her earlier, after their last short practice. Twenty minutes could only do so much.

“Don’t worry, Kohane-chan. There’s a scene or two before your character has any lines. Just try your best, alright?” He had said after giving her a reassuring hug. The firm grip had kept her grounded, but she couldn’t help but still feel anxious. “I’m not entirely sure what Miku means by ‘other-Kohane’, but if she means what I think it means, don’t stress too hard about making mistakes. Just remember that your team is here for you.” He says, squeezing her hands in his own.

He had also reminded her that he and the other Virtual Singers would be nearby to help, which had worked a little more to calm Kohane’s nerves.

“Okay, I’ll do my best.” She says, nodding. Her team deserved no less.

It was then that she heard the voices of her friends coming towards the stage. Earlier Len had let them know that the three had entered the SEKAI and were in the process of preparing for the practice. Kohane grips the edge of her skirt, taking deep breaths in attempts to calm her rapidly beating heart. It had been so long since she had last felt this nervous.

Her friends wave to her and she waves back with an unsure smile on her face. The Virtual Singers had attempted to distract them and had passed along a message that they’d begin rehearsal right away so that Kohane didn’t need to talk to them if she wasn’t ready.

She thanked them again in her mind. She’d always be grateful to any form of the Vocaloids, her own or some other universe. They were endlessly kind.

Kohane sighed one more time. She was as ready as she could ever be.

Kohane is more than a little grateful that her character doesn’t have to speak for a good portion of the first scene, since she’s found herself slightly too busy being in awe of her friends’ acting skills.

It doesn’t help that the costumes are designed stunningly, and her friends all look very very pretty in their knightley outfits. She had to hold back her jaw from dropping when she saw An’s beautiful red dress.

She watches, enchanted by An’s evil cackle as she brings a gloved hand to cover her smirk as Toya draws his prop sword. His dark armour looked real, even though Kohane was pretty sure it was likely made of foam.

“Aren’t you glad?” An, or, The Queen of Roses (as the script suggests) asks, a condescending lilt in her voice as Kohane and Akito ready their own prop weapons in response. “The Prince isn’t dead after all!”

Kohane watches as Akito grits his teeth, and she feels as if she isn’t on stage but really in the universe of their play at the rage in his eyes. It was fascinating…

“What did you do to him!” The White Knight (Akito) yells, and the Queen continues to cackle and throw sly words at them. Kohane’s amazed at An’s ability to make the words on the script sound so natural.

The Black Knight, played by Toya, continues his slow advance towards the two while the Queen runs off stage after she finishes her cue. His pace is threatening, and his steps are purposeful in both the way he drops his foot to the ground and how much area he covers.

Kohane’s so distracted she nearly misses her line after Akito says his, catching his concerned glance towards her when she hesitates.

“Y-You have to remember!” She stumbles, but the line gets across and the scene continues. Kohane’s heart thumps hard in her chest, and she bites her tongue to stop herself from potentially throwing up.

She’s able to get through a few more lines as the scene nears its end, all at varying degrees of quality. Some of her lines sounded shaky at best and unintelligible at worst. But she made it through regardless. She’s terribly shaky by the end of each sentence, but she manages. Her friends have continued to send her worried looks, but she’s tried her best to ignore them.

The hardest part has yet to come, though, and Kohane feels yet another wave of anxiety flow through her body.

The scene ends with a speech towards the audience to really get through to the audience the main message of the play, but it was so long that Kohane has already realized she’s forgotten a couple of portions of it already in her haste to remember everything before. It happens right after their fight scene where they clash weapons with Toya to create a sense of tension, but Kohane’s pretty sure she doesn’t have to fake any heavy breathing that’s necessary once it’s finished.

Kohane and Akito both stumble backwards from Toya’s sweeping blow, and she feels her throat close up as she realizes that this is her big moment, the part where her speech matters the most.

That’s when the spotlight shines down on her, and even though she knows the only ones in the audience are the Vocaloids, she feels herself choke on nothing.

Kohane panics, as she realizes she’s completely blanked on the beginning of the speech, and scrambles to try and force even a syllable out of her mouth.

And it’s different than in a live house, it’s different than street music, and it’s just so different and unknown and Kohane's so stressed out and overwhelmed that she can’t really bring herself to speak at all.

And then that makes her feel worse because – oh, they’ll be so disappointed in her, all that training in confidence meant nothing, all the support from the Vocaloids of this world meant nothing, everything anyone’s said to her meant Nothing. Because she’s that same unconfident person she was back then, and it feels horrible.

It’s silent on stage, the world seems to stop, and Kohane can feel tears pooling in her eyes.

And then there’s a soft “Kohane?” from someone she can’t tell is who, and she’s bolting off the stage because what’s happened to her, she’s supposed to be so much better than this.

It’s strange, because she’s been able to do solos on stage, sing with all her might, yet here she could barely remember a word off of a page compared to the many lyrics she’d memorized back at home.

As she runs out of the tent where the stage was in, Kohane begins questioning if she’s really qualified, and she feels that same frustration at herself she’d felt at that moment with Taiga and Vivid Street, and she feels just so conflicted, and almost angry at herself.

When she finally looks back up, Kohane wipes her eyes with her palms, and ends up finding herself on a ferris wheel cart. It doesn’t move, and she doesn’t remember how she even got there, but after a brief moment she can hear the sounds of people running towards her.

An, Akito and Toya have caught up to her, pristine costumes all rumpled and out of breath. They speak over each other, but Kohane is able to catch all their distinct forms of asking if she’s alright.

An and Akito elbow each other bicker shortly as they keep interrupting each other’s sentences, and Toya is crouched over himself and still trying to breathe, and the whiplash of the situation and her feelings makes Kohane laugh.

They all look up at her tear filled giggles, all boarding the ferris wheel cart and sitting with her, before joining in on her giggly laughter. She doesn’t know why they’re laughing, and neither why she’s laughing, but her heart feels warm and it beats steadily for the first time in the past hour or so.

They don’t ask what happened, and they sit quietly with her after their laughter ends until she’s ready to speak. It makes her feel so loved, and Kohane realizes then that, yes, these are still her friends. What she was afraid of was the opinions of her friends from another universe but at the end of it all they were still her loved, cherished and silly friends she’d do anything for.

“Are you feeling better, Kohane?” An asks after a beat, taking Kohane’s hands and squeezing them with her own. Kohane nods, fingers and palms warm.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to mess up.” She apologizes, even though she knows she’s been told not to worry about mistakes, both here and back in her own SEKAI and universe. Even though she knows that her friends care about her and would never hate her over something so trivial in the grand scheme of things.

“Don’t worry about it, we all get off days. We can practice tomorrow.” Akito says, flippantly waving a hand in the air and leaning back in the seat next to her, Toya on the seat facing them nods in agreement.

“What matters is you, Azusawa.” He says, and the sincerity in his words never fails to blow Kohane away at how much they calm her down. She looks at him and his messed up hairstyle, and resists the urge she feels to go and neaten his hair.

It’s then that she notices that the cart has been lifted into the sky, with the sun setting. Her eyes widen at the beautiful ombre the sunset creates in the sky, and her gaze goes back to the flying train that she still feels the childish urge to ride.

The breeze blows through the open windows, and she shivers as it tickles her bare skin. Akito notices and wordlessly places the white and blue cape from his costume on her shoulders. An even offers to give Kohane her long white gloves, which Kohane gently turns down with a smile on her face.

They all settle again in the cart, watching the sky, and it’s a comfortable silence. Kohane sighs, leaning into the fabric of the cape, beginning to find herself feeling drowsy again.

Eventually she’s leaning her head on Akito’s shoulder, and now that she’s calmed down and really thought about it, the thought of doing plays with her friends sounded like fun (without crazy pressure and anxiety). She loves plays, her love for Phoenix Wonderland and the shows that Wonderlands x Showtime is enough proof of that. And maybe the Kohane of this universe loved it so much it became her dream.

And the thought of doing it with the people she loves so much, that sounds so special to her. It was becoming rather simple to her. In a different universe where they walked slightly different paths, they still all ended up meeting again.

And Kohane feels so happy that they did, because she doesn’t know where she’d be without them. She’s the way she is because of them, with their help, their support, their love.

Maybe in her own universe a full professional play in front of an audience sounds a little too overwhelming, but as a fun little idea she thinks it’d be fun to pretend being knights and princesses. It sounds a little silly and childish, but she thinks of her friends’ smiles and she thinks it would be completely worth it.

Someone’s holding her hand and she feels another brushing hair behind her ear as she falls asleep blinking away the pretty theme park landscape.

“Your team is here for you.” And that was all she really needed. The thought of the words filled her with joy beyond her belief.

She falls asleep with a sweet smile on her face.

it’s okay if you first set off by following your feelings,

little by little, things will start to take shape

so come, let’s go! how’re you doing?

don’t forget these feelings of frustration,

if we look ahead

we’ll be able to repaint a miracle

drawing out a vivid, bright world!

Chapter Text

they say that in the end, the value of music is subjective–

well then, i’ll sing as i please,

i’ll show you the message i want to convey.

The first thing Akito notices is the ache in his back, which only gets worse when he realizes he’s hunched over, leaning his head on a flat surface that’s placed on his lap. His arms are resting on his knees, and he thinks he can feel the shape of a pencil in his right hand.

The second thing he notices is the nasty feeling of cooled drool on his cheek, which only leads to more dread when he begins to feel the damp texture of wet paper on his skin.

Vaguely disgusted at his unconscious habit from his previous sleep, Akito raises his head, wiping away the moisture from his face using his sleeve. He stares at the shiny residue on the black oversized clothing that he doesn’t remember owning, furrowing his brow as he glances at the bumpy texture of the paper still sitting on his thighs.

It’s a sketchbook, which he also does not remember owning. Since when does Akito draw? Let alone sketch in a book dedicated for art?

He scratches his head with one hand, while also studying the pencil in his other.

Sure, Akito draws occasionally, but he doesn’t think he considers the scribbles as anything more than doodling. On his notes during class, on the margins of his homework, hell, even on napkins that were sturdy enough to handle the weight of a pen’s tip at a cafe, were many different doodles of vague things dancing in his imagination.

But drawing? In a sketchbook? Akito doesn’t remember even owning one since maybe when he was still a kid, scribbling down crude pictures while he spent time with his older sister in the family living room.

Art’s always been Ena’s thing anyway, so why would he have a sketchbook?

Blinking, Akito brings his head closer to look at the drawings again, noticing stray eraser shreds littering one section of the page, the indents of past pencil marks set deep into the rough paper. In his embarrassing little drool stain the graphite is slightly smudged.

Akito swipes at his face again with his other dry sleeve, fingers clutching the ends of the sweater. It’d be even more embarrassing if he had graphite marks on his cheek too…

He rubs his eyes afterwards, squinting at the drawings, even flipping back and forth between a few pages. Something in the back of his mind scornfully degrades each drawing, and the scribbled notes of unyielding criticism that he recognizes are in his own handwriting don’t help. Truthfully, Akito doesn’t think the drawings are that bad, in fact he’d even call them pretty good, but he seems to be arguing with his mind.

Akito’s been self critical before, but for some reason it feels like he’s arguing with someone else. Not quite himself, but who else would be criticizing what seems to be his own drawings with such disdain? There’s no one else here but him and his thoughts.

(Not that he even remembers drawing them in the first place. Everything points to it being his own, but at the same time for some unexplained reason Akito just can’t bring himself to connect the drawings to himself.)

Speaking of here, Akito finally looks away from the sketchbook, sick of the voice in his head.

The last thing he expects to see is… basically nothing.

Akito blinks. He blinks again. One more time. But the same scene greets him back each time.

Why was he in a literal white void right now?

He gently sets the sketchbook and pencil down on the platform he was sitting on, finding it a little odd that the floor was slightly elevated with a few tiny steps leading down to a semi-reflective ground below. Standing up, Akito walks down, watching in increasing concern at the lack of anything. The only thing he can see is strange debris of structures, some floating and rising into the air, others seeming to clip into the reflective floor.

Was he dreaming? If he was, this was definitely the strangest dream he’s ever had.

Looking down at his feet, Akito nearly flinches at the sight of his own reflection. Crouching down, he studies his own form.

Dark clothes he doesn’t remember owning. A simple oversized hoodie and loose pants. They’re comfortable, but unfamiliar. He turns his head from side to side, surprised to find a lack of piercings on his ears, bringing his fingers to feel the smooth skin. He raises his brow when he notices there isn’t that familiar blonde streak in his bangs like usual. He squints at his reflection, before moving closer to the floor to really study his own face.

He gazes, unsettled, into his own pair of eyes. He couldn’t explain it, but there was something… off about his stare. They looked tired, which he was used to seeing, but there was something more behind the tiredness that he couldn’t quite describe.

The only thing Akito knew was that it felt cold.

A shiver runs down his spine. He decides that this was enough of staring at his own reflection, and he pushes off of the floor to stand again. He turns when he hears a set of footsteps in the distance, the noise loud in the deafening silence surrounding the area.

He nearly chokes when he sees what seems to be Hatsune Miku and the other Virtual Singers following behind her.

Akito squints as they continue to walk closer, some of them quietly talking amongst themselves. He had to be dreaming. Or maybe Miku was playing a prank on him. Did she put him in some weird SEKAI to screw with him?

They all looked different, especially Miku, with clothes that leaned towards a more Victorian aesthetic. Miku even had hair to match! Instead of the light green in thin tails, she had long messes of grey hair pooling from her unbalanced pig tails. It was a stark contrast to their usual streetwear that Akito was used to.

Even their attitudes seemed altered, as he observed Miku’s apathetic stare and Kaito’s furrowed brows and grimace. Len looked unsure of himself as Rin guided him over. As the six got closer Akito could see Luka’s mischievous smirk as she poked at an unresponsive, yet slightly irritated Meiko.

Akito put his head in his hands, gripping at this hair. He needed to sit down, all of this was just too confusing. If it was a joke then Miku and whoever else was involved were never going to hear the end of it.

Once they do get close enough and Akito has in fact sat down next to his abandoned sketchbook, Miku seems to hesitate when she and Akito lock eyes. Her two toned eyes widen for a second, and she stops walking. The rest seem to notice her strange behaviour and also stop in tandem, eyes flicking back and forth between Miku and Akito as the two engage in an awkward staring contest.

“Akito…?” Miku asks softly, nearly in a whisper. Her robotic voice is slightly different from what Akito usually hears, which throws him for yet another loop.

It was starting to feel less and less like some weird joke.

She begins walking a little closer again, while Luka seems to perk up behind her.

“Ah, something is unusual today,” she comments, bringing a hand to her cheek. She smiles cryptically, and Akito feels his body lean back as the pink haired Vocaloid begins approaching at a faster pace. She crouches over slightly when she arrives in front of him, tilting her head. The unnerving smile never leaves her face.

“Luka, is this really necessary?” Meiko asks, her voice rather monotone. Regardless of the lack of expression in her voice, she seems unimpressed.

Luka laughs before backing off from Akito’s place on the platform. She turns to Meiko, who’s a fair distance away. “Oh, you never let me have any fun!”

Meiko’s expression changes ever so slightly as her eyebrows lower on her face in frustration at Luka’s response. “It would be better to observe this… strange… situation from a distance.” She mutters. Luka sighs, deflating.

“You always say that, Meiko. Come on, wouldn’t it be nice to learn some things about our strange little SEKAI?”

“This learning could come at a price.” Kaito grunts from the side. “How did this even happen?”

Miku shakes her head in response, holding one of her pigtails in her hands and twisting the long grey strands. She doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on either.

Akito feels one of his eyes twitch. Fantastic. Neither he, nor the Virtual Singers, who for all intents and purposes should probably know what’s going on, doesn’t know what’s going on.

(He’s not angry at them, but he was definitely frustrated from his confusion. After all, SEKAI was weird. At some point he thinks that he found it easier to accept whatever happened as is and stopped questioning why it was.

Maybe this was one of those situations where he should not even bother asking any more questions. His head hurts.)

There’s a silence in the SEKAI, and Akito bites his lip at the awkwardness and tension. The twins haven’t said anything and seem to be awkwardly shuffling off to the side away from him. Meiko seems less than interested while she bats off Luka’s persistent attempts at justifying her curiosity, and Miku and Kaito are more than unsettling him at the moment.

He specifically avoids Kaito’s gaze, as the man seems to be glaring at him. Was he angry at Akito for existing? He didn’t choose to be plopped in this random ass SEKAI he’d never been to before! Why was he pissed off!

Kaito seems to click his tongue in irritation, and Akito looks up to see him crossing his arms and staring straight at the redhead. Miku looks at him as well, and seems to make a movement to say something, but Kaito beats her to it.

“Do you have any idea where you are?” He asks. The tone of his voice is slightly aggressive, and in the corner of Akito’s eye he can see Len shrink away further while Rin follows with uncertainty. Kaito raises an eyebrow, dark blue eyes cold and unforgiving.

Akito clears his throat, glancing to the side. “U-Uh… SEKAI?” He asks, cringing at the uncertainty in his own voice. “Sorry for intruding… I guess…?”

Kaito briefly huffs, losing patience.

“Seems this one shares many issues like the other.” He mutters.

“What does that mean?” Akito asks, sitting up straighter.

“It means what you think it means.” Kaito says, narrowing his eyes at the boy on the platform. “You have confronted less problems than I thought you would have at first.”

Akito blinks at his words. That doesn’t make any sense. Was he being compared to someone else?

“That doesn’t explain anything!” Akito argues, but Kaito shakes his head with a frown.

“Disappointing.”

“What is?!”

Kaito scoffs, turning his back to Akito, beginning to walk away. Akito shoots up from his sitting position, ready to start running to face the Virtual Singer.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me! What the hell!” Akito calls, ignoring Miku’s soft attempts at trying to mediate. Kaito turns his head, glaring back at him.

“Nothing here is of interest to me. Find me if this issue is resolved.” Kaito says, directing his words to Miku. Her expression is helpless as she looks at him, and she flinches when Akito runs over.

“Are you calling me a problem?” Akito accuses. He practically demands that Kaito turn back around to properly talk to him, and Kaito’s expression only displays anger and hostility. The Virtual Singer exhales a frustrated breath, before bringing his angry eyes to stare directly at fiery Akito’s olive ones.

“As I said, there is nothing interesting here. You are not worth my concern as of now. You are not the one I am here to help. All of this is nothing but a disappointing waste of time.” Kaito’s words feel like ice crawling up Akito’s spine with each syllable. Akito watches, eyes wide, body frozen. His fingers clutch at the sleeves covering his hands.

He knows. Akito knows. It was highly likely that this strange, angry Kaito was just arguing due to being continuously provoked, but the words didn’t fail to hurt either.

Not interesting… No worth… Disappointing waste of time.

Akito knows he should be over this by now. He’s improved since then, since his mistakes as a kid, his battles with other musicians, his fight with his own self worth.

Why does that feel like it all suddenly doesn’t matter? Like all of it was meaningless, a singular drop in an entire expanse of an ocean that left barely an impact. Like an echo in this endless void of a SEKAI no one would hear.

It’s so cold.

“Akito!”

Suddenly, Akito feels hands grabbing his wrist and arm, gently pulling him away from the hostile Virtual Singer. Akito’s eyes widen as he finds himself face to face with Kohane, flitting his gaze over when he hears the sound of additional voices. An and Toya stand in front of them, with the former talking to an unimpressed Kaito and an anxious looking Miku.

He doesn’t pick up what An ends up saying, but Kaito huffs and turns, muttering something to Miku before walking off, his form growing smaller as he travels further and further away. Akito watches as An’s shoulders slump while Toya wordlessly walks over towards him and Kohane.

“Are you alright, Akito-kun?” Kohane asks, and Akito nods absentmindedly before swiveling his head over to gape at her for a moment at the unfamiliar use of his given name. He doesn’t mind it (in fact, he quite likes it, but he would rather be caught dead than admit it) but Akito again feels thrown off.

An sighs, bringing her hands to slump not so gracefully onto his shoulders. “Are you sure? I know you and Kaito argue sometimes but it doesn’t usually get that bad.” Her amber eyes stare at him, and after a moment Akito finds himself averting his gaze.

He makes a non-committal answer, unsettled as he thinks about her eyes. Like his own reflection, they felt weirdly off. While bright like he was used to, there was something strangely distant. Usually her eyes were very inviting like a warm cup of tea, but instead it felt like the drink was left to cool too long on a counter. The sight of them reminded him of the unpleasant feeling of drinking cold tea that was supposed to be hot.

An groans, breaking his train of thought in the process. “Come on, you don’t have to lie, Aki.”

“It’s okay not to be okay.” Toya mumbles in a monotone voice. If Akito didn’t know Toya as well as he did, he wouldn’t be able to tell that the taller boy was joking.

He was pretty sure Toya was joking. Even if his voice had next to nothing in terms of expression and the way the joke was delivered didn't make it sound like a joke. But Akito knows Toya, and even if he and the others seemed different he could recognize the same earnest personality in this more than stoic version of his partner.

An snorts while Kohane giggles softly. “See, you’ve even got Fuyu concerned enough to be cracking jokes.” An says, lightly hitting Akito on the arm with a closed fist. Akito finds the sides of his own mouth twitching as he glances over at Toya again, whose expression has softened, but only barely.

Why was she referring to Toya as Fuyu though?

Akito pauses yet again when he looks at Toya’s eyes, however. He’s used to Toya’s silver gaze, but here it really felt like ice. He glances at Kohane’s eyes, the pools of brown also odd… almost duller in a way he couldn’t explain.

His thoughts stop when Miku walks over to the group, hesitantly tapping on his shoulder.

“Akito… I think.” She starts. Akito furrows his brow while he hears An make a noise of confusion. He glances at Kohane, who still has her hands gently gripping his arm, and she also has a confused expression on her face. “I’m sorry about Kaito.” Miku apologizes. Her tone is soft and slow, words incredibly careful. Akito nods in response.

“It’s fine, Miku.” He reassures, but Miku makes a small frown. After a moment of contemplation however, she shakes her head and her expression clears.

“Mm, okay. I will leave you all to work on your music. It seems important today.” She says. Akito notices that she still seems like she wants to say something, but she seems to have decided to hold off, turning to walk in the direction of the twins instead. Akito bites the inside of his cheek.

The Vocaloids were strange. This SEKAI was strange.

An whistles to clear the awkward silence, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. She looks over to Toya, who Akito now notices is holding a sleek laptop, and nods at him with a smile. She turns back to look at the redhead, concern on her face.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asks, tilting her head. “It’s cool if you’re not feeling up to it today.”

Akito stares at her in response, taking a moment to process her question. He looks at the laptop in Toya’s hands, curious on what they were even about to do. Were they making music like Miku suggested?

His head turns to look back in the direction where Kaito had walked off to, still feeling unsure from the whole argument. His feelings were all over the place, and he was endlessly confused.

After another moment, Akito sighs. His friends would have more than a few words to say about what he was about to do. He could already hear their voices in his head, telling him not to cast away his mess of feelings in favour of doing something he considered easier to do than confront his problems.

Toya called it reckless, Kohane called it concerning, and if it were about studying An would likely say ‘fuck it we ball’ and Akito would likely agree.

“No, I’ll be fine. Let’s begin.” Because fuck it, we ball indeed. Not understanding what was going on and a confusion riddled headache be damned.

._.-._.-._.-._.-._.

In all honesty, Akito wasn’t entirely sure what he was expecting when Miku said ‘make music’. It was vague enough that it led to too many possibilities that raced through his mind, but the actual making of music was less stressful than he had initially thought it’d be.

Maybe it was because of his experience in songwriting with An in his usual life (Akito has since been convinced he’s probably just woken up in some other freak universe. There was surely no other explanation. He did not want to consider a different explanation), where the process involved a lot more allnighters (against both of their wills, chronic procrastination was a pain in the ass) and quite a lot more wild cursing, but he finds the current situation incredibly calm.

It was a very different, but welcome change in atmosphere than when he woke up.

They were all sitting on the platform now, An and Toya messing around with music samples and exchanging whispers about certain lyrics. Based on the very little he’s been able to observe, Akito’s been able to deduce that Toya does a lot of their lyric writing, while An mostly composes the music to accompany and complete the song.

Kohane had brought her own laptop, currently sifting through the most obscenely large folder of photos Akito had ever seen on anyone’s computer. He listened to the fan of her computer whir, his sight being occasionally distracted by the blinking light of an extra storage she had brought with into the SEKAI with her.

Open on her desktop was an editing software in one window, and on another was a Nightcord application window open to a server that was occupied by four people.

Admittedly, Akito had realized a little late that the server was compiled of the four people currently residing in the white void of a SEKAI, which were him and his friends. He probably should have noticed something earlier, especially since An had already referred to everyone using their online nicknames on multiple occasions in the short time he was here.

Something in his mind seemed to gloss over the use of the nicknames, as if they were just another affectionate call he’d hear every other day. It was kind of endearing that all the names seem to correspond to the seasons of the year.

It was strange too, that on the tip of his tongue when he’d go to ask her something he’d almost use Natsu instead of An’s actual name. It felt like second nature. The same went for Fuyu for Toya and Haru for Kohane. The feeling intensified after he skimmed over the chats and corresponding usernames of all the messages sent in the general chatroom.

He turned again at the sound of a trackpad clicking at his side. Occasionally Kohane would click through the chats to download some files, and what particularly caught Akito’s eye were the pieces of art she’d save into yet another large folder on her device.

The last part of their group’s process also seemed to involve the use of art, not just photos that Kohane seemed to take. Not that the use of art was weird, but the artist in the group seemed to be Akito himself.

Something in him feels… unsettled at the thought.

After a moment Akito tunes out Kohane’s clicking noises, turning to the unfinished sketch in his sketchbook again. He hasn’t made any progress in the whole time the group has been working. He estimates it’s been about twenty minutes since they’d split off into each of their designated jobs, and he’s since been able to get nothing done.

He can’t bring himself to edit the sketch he doesn’t even remember making in the first place.

The SEKAI, too, was still bringing endless confusion to him the more he thought about it. Honestly, he was beginning to feel concerned. Why was this SEKAI a white void? It was so empty and cold, yet the holders seemed absolutely fine with it.

Akito stares at his sketch again, suddenly reminded again of his older sister. It hits him like a truck, now that he realizes why he’s felt so awkward, almost ashamed of the art that was supposed to be his.

Ena was an artist for a group she’d talk to online in the late hours of the night, usually when Akito had long gone to sleep. Ena was an artist who’d help her friends make music (if the nights he’d spent listening to her sing samples for who he assumed was a person named K meant anything). Ena was an artist who had a father who had basically called it and all her effort worthless.

Not interesting… No worth… Disappointing waste of time.

It all made sense. How could Akito do–take Ena’s thing, when she struggled so hard at it every day?

No wonder Kaito’s words had shaken him up so much, not only did they see right through him to his insecurities, but they also reflected in yet another Shinonome.

Did Ena have a SEKAI too?

Was it as empty as this?

He sincerely hoped that if she did have feelings that manifested into one, that it wouldn’t be nearly as hollow as this one.

And what about his friends? Why did their feelings manifest into something so void? What would cause such feelings to create something so… hopeless?

There was something wrong.

“Aki-kun.” Kohane nudges his shoulder, knocking him out of his thoughts. He slowly turns to look at her. She smiles weakly at him, gently taking his hand again. “Are you okay? You seem to be thinking really hard.” She chuckles lightheartedly. Akito averts his gaze, and Kohane squeezes his hand.

“It’s not a big deal.” He mutters.

“Aki…” Kohane says, pouting a little bit. “You promised…” Akito raises an eyebrow.

“I–What?”

“Is Aki being stubborn again?” An asks from the side, both her and Toya’s heads turned to look at the other duo. Kohane nods firmly.

“Aki. Talk about your feelings.” Toya bluntly states, making An laugh at Akito’s expense. In response, the redhead glares at her, frowning.

“Wh-”

“Rely on us.” Toya says, staring straight at him. The taller boy leaves no argument in his short, clipped sentences.

Akito gulps, gripping the edges of his sketchbook.

What could he even say? He doubts he knows really anything that wouldn’t sound weird in the context of this universe. Akito opens and closes his mouth, attempting to form any words, but finds that he can’t bring himself to speak.

“Are you art blocked?” An offers when the silence drags on just a little too long. He shrugs. The other three seem to exchange glances, before An and Toya carefully take their things and shuffle over to where Kohane and Akito were sitting nearby on the platform.

“I’m guessing you either don’t wanna talk about it just yet, or don’t know how to explain.” An says, settling down behind him, back to back. She sets Toya’s laptop on her lap again as she leans back against Akito, making it so that they both support each other’s weights. Kohane shuffles so that she’s sitting on Akito’s left side, while Toya takes a seat down on his right.

“Take your time, Akito-kun.” Kohane smiles, squeezing his hand yet again. “We’ll be here when you’re ready.” Akito hears hums of acknowledgement from the other two, and leans back as well onto An’s back, taking a few deep breaths.

“...Can I look at the lyrics again, Toya?” He whispers after a few good moments of silence. Toya wordlessly passes him some sheets of paper, gently brushing his hand against Akito’s shoulder in the process. Akito picks up his sketchbook and pencil. His friends take that as a cue to begin working again for a little bit, and Akito skims the words on the page as he begins to hear their occasional comments and discussion between them.

When he sets the papers holding Toya’s lyrics down, he grabs his sketchbook and turns to a new page. He still may not know how to draw, especially not to the skill that his other self seemed to possess, but something compels him to get something down.

As he sketches, his strokes are uncertain. Lines are squiggly and nothing looks quite right. But Akito perseveres, listening to An finalize a segment of their project behind him.

“What do you guys think of this?” She asks, playing the portion, the music filling the air around them. To Akito’s right where Toya sits and observes An’s work, he can feel Toya tense up at the sound of a piano as the melody glides and sinks further into a classical type genre. Akito erases something as he feels Toya lean over and he hears clicking and tapping noises that he assumes is the editing process.

The segment is played again, and Akito feels like he’s falling into a sort of haze as he finds himself comfortably settling into a consistent pace of work as his friends rinse and repeat their editing process. The portion is played, someone makes an edit, it’s played again and someone makes a comment. While they worked on the music, Akito’s pencil glided across the paper, his lines more confident and smooth. He even finds himself adding his own thoughts into the mix of their discussion on the project on occasion as well, and the flow of the routine never finds any bumps.

Eventually, when Akito’s nearly finished, he hears what seems to be a very close thing to a finished segment. The melody plays and fills the SEKAI again, and when it ends he can hear An and Kohane share a high-five while he turns to see Toya nodding in approval.

They had finally landed somewhere satisfying enough for all of them, and Akito realized that it felt good because they had done it together.

An hums, nudging Kohane on the shoulder. “Do you think you’ll like this later, Haru?”

Kohane takes a moment to play a few parts of the segment she seemed to particularly enjoy again before responding. “Mmm. I think so. This makes me want to stay.” She says, her voice wistful.

Akito’s fingers grip his pencil as he pauses for a moment, thinking about Kohane’s words. What did stay mean? Did she want to leave?

She couldn’t have meant the SEKAI. Akito grimaces, beginning to draw again.

Something in his mind tells him that Kohane meant ‘stay’ in a way he never wanted to consider. His heart ached at the thought of Kohane being entirely gone.

“Thank you, An-chan.” She adds, and Akito can tell the gratitude extends beyond just their little project.

He can hear the grin in An’s voice as she cheers. It makes him feel a little better, knowing that Kohane wasn’t going to be struggling on her own with whatever was concerning her, and that An (and Toya and himself) would be there to help her.

“Maybe Dad will like this one too.” An comments, and her voice softens at the end. “He didn’t seem to enjoy the last one as much.” She laughs humorlessly. Akito frowns again as he furrows his brow at his drawing. Was Ken alright? Was An alright? Belatedly Akito realizes that if they were making music in some online group then they probably weren’t on Vivid Street…

He takes a moment to turn his head to look at An, who has her back turned and is currently texting someone on her phone. A brief glance tells him that she’s sending a message to Ken and telling her father to take care of himself. She pauses like she’s waiting for a reply, but several moments pass and she puts her phone away when one doesn’t arrive.

Akito hopes she’s taking care of herself too. The thought of An being unable to do so fills him with the need to support her to the ends of the Earth.

He turns back to his drawing again, nearly finished. He yawns, and hears An address Toya instead.

“Sorry about the piano and classical, Toya.” She says, dropping the nickname. She’d only done it a few times today. “I know it makes you sorta uncomfy, so thanks for letting us use it.” Akito hears subtle shifting noises and assumes Toya is shaking his head.

“Piano makes me feel something.” He says quietly. “It may not be good sometimes, but it’s better than nothing.” Akito can hear Toya breathe. The words remind him of when he had met Toya when they were young, on the streets practicing alone. Back when things were lonelier, colder.

It makes Akito wonder where they’d be in his own universe at home, if they never met at the time that they did. Where Toya would be, or wouldn’t be.

Akito feels his fingers twitch at the urge to hold Toya’s hand, to sling his arm around his shoulders like always.

“I think this is progress. For me. For us.” Toya concludes. Akito almost smiles when he hears the ever so familiar unwavering conviction in Toya’s tone.

The SEKAI is quiet again after that, but it's a comfortable silence, only filled with more clicking noises from laptops as the group begins to work on the next section, and also the sound of a pencil scratching at paper.

Akito rubs his eyes, blinking slowly at his messy sketch. He doesn’t think it’s anything really impressive, but after reading the lyrics of the song and listening to the segments of the melody, he could almost say that he was inspired.

He yawns again as he looks at the whole of the drawing again, dragging his sight on the different parts of the illustration. He looks at the mirror, the person and their reflection. On one side the person was alone, slumped to lean on the surface of the glass. On the other side in the reflected image was the same person but surrounded by people.

Akito groans softly as he leans back against An again, who he can hear softly giggle. His hand is barely drawing anything comprehensible, and he feels himself scribble a heart at the bottom of the page. Drowsily he sets the pencil down, looking at his art one last time.

He almost laughs at the realization of what he was unconsciously trying to convey.

Akito knew he wasn’t very good at feelings, especially talking about them. He was good at song, conveying emotion through singing. But talking? That was a completely different story.

But he studies the scribbled and chunky figures of people in his sketch, a group of four leaning and supporting each other as they sleep. In his drowsy state he manages to connect unintentional features in his sketch to each of his teammates.

It was hard to say out loud, but he loved and appreciated them so much. He was still learning, but it was so freeing to have someone to rely on. He was more than overjoyed to know that his friends would be with him through thick and thin, and that he'd do the absolute same in return.

Akito closes his eyes, ready to fall asleep, entirely relaxed for the first time since he had arrived in this empty SEKAI. There wasn’t anything to worry about, he decided. If in this universe where he and his friends met online and hung out in a void, they’d still have each other at the end of the day. Even at their lowest lows, they’d be there for each other no matter what.

He’d probably need to find Ena when he got back home, but maybe the void wasn’t so bad after all. Akito’s back leans on An’s while his head falls onto Toya’s shoulder. His hand is still being held in Kohane’s gentle yet firm grip. He gets it now.

The presence of his loved ones made it feel warm.

if there’s a day where i lived, having wanted to disappear,

neither of those feelings have to be untrue.

sing, sing, o heart of mine!

both hope and despair drives my (our) pulse.

Chapter Text

Toya is pretty sure his right arm is asleep. That’s the only thought that enters his half asleep mind when he blinks awake. He’d bring a hand to rub at his eyes, but both are currently under something. Toya licks his lips, mildly irritated at the prickly feeling at the back of his throat from dryness. He tries to take a deep breath, but is surprised when instead of the normal feeling of his chest rising to compensate for his expanding lungs, he instead is greeted with a feeling of… compression.

Blinking at a more rapid pace, Toya turns his head and his gaze follows the few specks of dust being lit up by the very little light currently occupying the room. The flecks float in the air, and Toya squints as they briefly go in and out of focus as he blinks away the sleep in his eyes. As his vision recovers slowly, his ears pick up the noise of soft breathing from his right side and light snoring on his left.

Toya turns his head to the snoring, greeted by An’s lump of blankets and a mess of black and blue hair splayed across at least two pillows and the floor. The aforementioned lump subtly rises and falls with each snore, and the ends of Toya’s lip curl in amusement at An’s sleeping form. The snoring wasn’t disruptive or annoying, but the sound was loud enough to be noticeable, and Toya finds himself feeling incredibly endeared.

An’s legs move subtly, kicking like she’s walking or jumping, almost dancing in her sleep. Toya has to rip his eyes away to prevent himself from laughing and waking everyone up. When he turns his head though, he has to bite his tongue from gasping too loudly at the sight that greets him on his right.

No wonder he had felt so squished earlier, considering Akito was quite literally clinging onto Toya in his sleep. Kohane is behind him, practically spooning the boy, which was also quite amusing considering how much shorter Kohane was compared to Akito. She seemed quite content with shoving her face into his back.

Toya blinks and attempts to take another breath.

He ends up taking a very shallow breath as Akito seems to cling tighter to him, while Kohane shuffles in her sleep, and An continues to snore behind Toya.

He’s never felt more loved in his entire life.

After a moment (Or two. Or a few. Only Toya knows how long he chose to lie there and how many moments he decided to savour just existing in the presence of his lovely friends), Toya begins to wonder what time it is. Based on the light trailing in through An’s blinds, it seemed to still be very early in the morning.

As gently as he could possibly muster, Toya untangles his left hand from under Akito’s arms and manages to unceremoniously smack the nearest phone screen to check the time. Kohane’s lockscreen, showing a beautifully candid photo of their group at the park, reads that it is currently six in the morning. Toya grimaces, disgusted at how early it still is. He would not voluntarily choose to wake up at this time. If he were alone, and not surrounded by his friends at the moment, Toya would honestly just choose to go right back to sleep. Even better if he would be allowed to sleep past noon.

Not even the best cup of coffee would convince him to wake up this early given the choice.

Toya glances at the boy in his arms, wondering how in the world Akito could get up at what An likes to call ‘the asscrack of dawn’ every day just to take a run around the city. Absolute insane behaviour, in Toya’s opinion.

He ends up pathetically smacking Kohane’s phone screen several more times as the minutes tick by, not only to check the clock, but also to admire the girl’s photography skills. He tilts his head slightly, admiring the night sky underneath the numbers displaying the time.

Toya’s eyes widen as he suddenly recalls his dream, reminded of the other worldly galaxy that greeted him and his friends.

His head falls back against the pillows on the floor as he attempts to remember the blurry details he’d seen. All he can really remember are instruments, his friends, and the beautiful sky. That, and also a strange achy feeling in his heart he can’t describe. Toya’s free hand clenches in the blankets covering his and his friends’ bodies while he frowns when his dream gets increasingly harder to recall.

Toya didn’t want to forget it. It felt important somehow. Should he tell someone about it?

He glances at his friends who were still sleeping, and wonders what they’d think.

Eventually, after around fifteen minutes, Toya hears a groan, breaking his train of thoughts. He turns his head to find An rubbing her eyes and stretching her limbs. She yawns and then cringes when one of her muscles tenses and cramps.

After a minute or two of hushed ‘ow’s and ‘ouch’s, An’s body relaxes. Toya laughs, feeling a little bad he couldn’t help, considering he was currently covered by a whole other body at the moment. An sighs dramatically before noticing Toya’s silent chuckles. When she and him lock eyes, she grins and playfully swipes at his shoulder.

“Good morning, Toya.” She says, sticking her tongue at him.

“Good morning, Shiraishi.” Toya smiles back. She laughs after rubbing her sore limb one more time, crawling over closer to where Toya and the others lay.

“Aw, they’re still asleep.” An comments, poking Akito in the cheek and softly giggling. Toya bats her hand away, shushing her.

“You’ll wake them up.” He says, watching Kohane’s nose scrunch up before her face relaxes again. An pouts in response, but then seems to perk up again after a moment.

“I didn’t kick you in my sleep, did I?” She asks sheepishly, glancing at her mess of blankets behind them. Toya smiles before shaking his head.

“Don’t worry. If you did, we didn't notice.” He assures, and An breathes a sigh of relief. Toya pauses for a moment, before adding, “You did look like you were dancing, though.”

An’s head flicks towards Toya, cheeks flushed red. Her mouth opens and closes, forming words but no sounds ever end up coming out. Toya chuckles again, and An swipes at his shoulder once more in embarrassment.

“Listen!” She says, and Toya begins laughing a little harder. “C’mon, Toya! Don’t laugh at me!”

“I’m listening, Shiraishi.” Toya says between what could only be described as giggles, and An grabs one of her plushies to hit his arm.

“My dreams involve a lot of moving, okay?” She says, before pausing for a moment. Her mouth forms an ‘O’ before her eyes sparkle with inspiration. An throws aside the plushie before leaning over Toya with an excited grin.

Toya raises an eyebrow, watching An’s messy and slightly tangled hair fall in a dark curtain over her shoulder.

“Have you ever thought of being an idol?” An asks, and Toya blinks.

“Huh?”

“An idol, Toya! Do you think it’d be fun? All the costumes and stages, it’s not that different from live houses–” Toya listens to her ramble about idols and her brief mentions of her idol friends, and finds a picture being painted in his mind.

“Would you like me to put on a skirt?” He blurts, and An briefly chokes on her words before letting out a loud giggle. Toya flushes, before scrambling to say more. “Not that I’m opposed to that idea but should I be concerned–”

“No! No, you don’t need to be concerned, it’s just my dream–”

“Involved you being an idol?”

“Yes! All of us were idols–”

“All of us?” Toya asks, briefly shocked at the coincidence of the similarities between his own dream and An’s. An nods in response excitedly.

“Do you think you’d be down?” She asks after a moment, and Toya tilts his head to think it over. He hums before turning his head towards her and meeting An’s gaze again.

“Only if you seem interested in learning an instrument.” He answers, making An pause. The smile on her face seems to freeze as she processes his words.

“I mean… Sounds like fun, but why?” She asks, and Toya shrugs (as best as he can, underneath someone else).

“My dream had us together too, but we all played instruments.” He said, and An’s mouth yet again formed an ‘O’ in realization. She hums before smiling once more, laughing.

“Looks like our dreams are similar, Toya!” She says, and he nods, smiling too.

“Do you want to share what happened?” Toya asks after another moment, curiosity in his silver eyes, and An looks to feel the same way.

“Of course!” She smiles wide, and Toya’s heart begins to feel fuller.

When An finds her phone under a pillow, somehow on the other side of their mess of sleeping teenagers and piles of blankets, it tells her it’s been about an hour since she and Toya had begun discussing their dreams. It’s around seven in the morning now, and Toya had said (after making the most unimpressed expression An had seen him make in reference to a time of day) that he’d woken up around six.

As she hands Toya his own phone, she thinks about their strange little dreams. The thoughts were blurry, but there was enough information that was retained that they were able to whisper to each other all the details they were able to remember in the span of almost an entire hour.

An sighs, thinking about Toya’s dream and her own. When she first recalled the experience she’d been struck with so many feelings just in the span of a second. But the most significant thing was that after the initial recall, she was left with an indescribable feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t tell whether or not it was a good or bad thing. It just… ached in a way.

Listening to Toya’s words didn’t help the feeling go away, in fact it really only made the feeling more intense.

An clutches her phone in her hands, staring at her own reflection on the black surface of her screen. Her hair is messy, a stark contrast to the neat version of herself as an idol she can barely remember. The thought makes her frown, and An watches her reflection copy her.

It felt so real. Realer than a normal dream. More vivid, more… important. She couldn’t remember the very vague details anymore, like exactly what she was wearing, what the dance moves were, or what was spoken, but her body seemed to remember the experience more than her brain did.

Her finger presses down on the power button on her phone, watching as her bright phone screen lights up, erasing her reflection with it. The thin numbers tell her it’s been about another five minutes. An looks back over to Toya, still buried underneath warm blankets and covered by one whole Akito, scrolling on his own phone, silver eyes flitting side to side as he reads whatever is on his screen.

Did Toya’s dream feel as real as hers did? Did he feel a strange ache in his body too?

A soft groan distracts An from absentmindedly staring in Toya’s direction, and she turns her attention to Kohane who was slowly waking up. An’s face morphs into an excited smile as Kohane sits up rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn.

An moves to sit next to her, chuckling when Kohane blindly pats around for something. Eventually her hand finally finds her phone and she brings it closer to herself to check the time and any notifications.

When the phone screen turns off again after a brief moment, Kohane yawns again, using one hand to cover her open mouth. She finally turns to An, squinting in her direction.

“...An-chan?” She asks softly, tilting her head.

“Good morning Kohane!” An happily greets in response.

“Morning, Azusawa. Did you sleep well?” Toya asks, making Kohane turn her head to squint in his direction instead. Sleepily, she takes a moment to process his question before sluggishly nodding.

“Mhm…” Kohane answers, still barely awake. An watches, attempting to restrain her laughter as Kohane uses one hand to scratch her head and the other to push a nonexistent pair of glasses up her nose. When the girl notices that she had essentially just poked herself for no reason, she flushes a light pink before sheepishly asking where her glasses were in the room. An takes that as her cue to go find them near her desk, and gets up to go find them.

When she returns and hands Kohane her glasses, she receives a quiet thank you before the blonde puts them on, blinking a couple of times to adjust her vision.

“Oh, that’s better,” Kohane comments lightly, looking at the other two with more awareness than before. When she looks back at Toya though, she raises an eyebrow and tilts her head. “Aoyagi-kun?” She asks, making him hum in response. Kohane taps her phone screen again, checking the time, before looking back at the split haired boy in question. “...How are you awake right now?”

Toya blinks, confused. Kohane giggles after another beat.

“You’re usually never awake this early in the morning, at least not without coffee,” she says, and watches Toya pout.

“I’m not that bad with mornings…” He mumbles, and An has to bury her face into her hands to stop herself from laughing too hard.

“I’m sure Akito would like to disagree!” An says through stifled laughter. Kohane nods in agreement with laughter of her own while Toya’s brow furrows. He leans his head back onto the pillow with a dull flop, an unimpressed expression on his face. At the mention of the redhead though, the three glance over to their last sleeping teammate.

“A-Actually… How is Shinonome-kun not awake?” Kohane asks, and An can see her hand twitch towards Akito’s fluffy hair from its position near his head on the pillow. An makes a noise of confusion as well while Toya shakes his head.

A moment passes and An snorts, a grin making its way onto her face. She grabs her phone and unlocks it, pressing on the camera application and then points it in Toya’s direction.

“Smile, Toya!” She says as her finger spams the button to take pictures. Kohane catches on a little too late, and by the time she gently grabs onto An’s arm in giggly attempts to stop her, An has already gotten at least fifteen pictures of Akito clinging onto Toya in his sleep. Toya just lies there and chooses to accept his fate.

“An-chaaaaaaan,” Kohane drawls, leaning her head onto the other girl’s shoulder. “Don’t be mean.”

“It’s fiiiiiine, Kohane,” An reassures. “I’ll delete them after I make fun of him.”

Another ‘An-chan’ is followed by a soft ‘Shiraishi’, which she begins snickering at. Kohane giggles next to her while Toya just sends her an amused huff.

A soft ping distracts all of them once again, and Kohane checks her phone and perks up at the sight of a specific notification. An peers over her shoulder and raises her eyebrows at the sight of the official social media page for Phoenix Wonderland displayed on Kohane’s screen, the headline of ‘BRAND NEW SHOW’ catching her eye immediately.

An makes an ‘ooooh’ in interest, but a glance at Kohane shows that she doesn’t seem as excited as usually expected. She’s tensed up slightly, fingers wrapped around her phone tight enough that her knuckles are white. Concerned, An brings a hand to Kohane’s shoulder, startling the blonde out of her brief trance.

“Kohane?” The sound of her name seems to bring her back to Earth some more, and Kohane brings a finger to sheepishly scratch at her cheek with a bashful smile.

“S-Sorry. I’m fine, An-chan,” she says. “I just got reminded of the dream I had last night.” At her words, both An and Toya’s eyes widened in interest.

“What happened in it?” An asks with intrigue, excitement back in her voice again. Kohane hums in thought.

“Well, uhm… We were performers–”

“Like idols!?” An jumps in the same time Toya asks, “Like a band?” Kohane shakes her head no.

“It was more like we were acting in a play?” She says, but the end of her sentence lilts with uncertainty.

“Oh, like the ones Tsukasa-senpai does, right?” Toya adds, and Kohane nods.

“It was kind of strange though,” the blonde says, biting the inside of her cheek. “And I wasn’t very good at acting…”

“Aw, it can’t have been that bad, right?” An attempts to comfort her, but Kohane grimaces in response.

“Well…” Kohane starts, and An can feel the pressure from earlier begin to lessen.

Kohane has no idea how the discussion of her strange dream, which had in turn led to An and Toya sharing their own (coincidentally similar in some ways) dreams, led to herself and Toya trying to convince An to let them go to Phoenix Wonderland in the near future.

It was practically whiplash how many feelings she had gone through in the short time that she had been awake. When she had suddenly recalled her dream upon the sight of the notification of her phone, Kohane had felt an absolute whirlwind of feelings and memories, all of which had simultaneously seemed to last for an eternity and also for just a second. When all the feelings went away, and An was brought out of her own world, the only thing left was a strange feeling of a weight in her chest.

Talking about their dreams had helped, but the feeling never seemed to go away, even when she was distracted by her friends’ presence. It was as if there was something important she had to remember, but couldn’t quite form the words to understand what it was.

Maybe it was something in her subconscious that had been affected. Was it because of her dream? Was her body trying to tell her not to forget? Even when she could only recall the bare minimum at this point?

Her thoughts are broken as An groans at Toya’s ‘enabling’ as she had just called it.

“Toya, you’re making this harder than this has to be,” she mumbles, head in her hands. Kohane looks at the boy, who has an entertained smile on his face, much to An’s dismay.

“I just think it would be fun, it’s been a while since I’ve last seen one of Tsukasa-senpai’s performances–”

“And the ones at school don’t count?!”

“That’s mostly Kamishiro-senpai–”

“Same thing!” An squawks, throwing her hands into the air.

“An-chan…” Kohane says, tugging on An’s shirt. The girl turns to the blonde before immediately turning in the opposite direction.

“You can’t do this to me, Kohane!” An fake sobs as Kohane bites back laughter.

“An-chan, pleeeaaaseee?” As she drags out the word as long as possible, Kohane clasps her hands together in front of her chest while putting on the saddest puppy eyes she could muster. An twitches, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Shiraishi, think about it…” Toya says, and Kohane’s pleading face cracks as she and him meet each other’s gazes. They both snort as they hold back laughter as An curls up into a ball to avoid looking at either of them.

“You guys know I’m weak to your pleading puppy-hamster eyes! Don’t do that!” An whines, weakly flapping a hand in their direction as if to fan away their desperate attempts at persuading her to let them all go to an amusement park. To her dismay Kohane and Toya continue to laugh at her suffering.

All of a sudden Kohane can hear Toya stop abruptly, with a short gasp as his breath hitches. Kohane’s own laughter ceases, and An peaks up from her arms as they both watch Toya completely freeze while Akito stirs slightly in his sleep.

Kohane watches in awe as Toya’s cheeks take on an endearingly light shade of pink as Akito buries his face deeper into the taller boy’s chest, seemingly still asleep. She can hear An snicker beside her as Kohane finds the corners of her own lips twitch upwards.

Akito mutters unintelligibly while the three awake teens’ widened eyes meet. It’s completely silent for a few moments until the mutters start sounding like humming. It takes another moment for them to realize that Akito was singing.

Singing, in his sleep.

Kohane’s eyes widen a little more, her hands coming up to cover the wide smile on her face to stop herself from giggling. A glance at An tells her that the other girl is in a similar state, and looking at Toya, Kohane watches the fondest expression slowly take over his face.

They sit for a while, listening to words that largely have no meaning. Since it’s so quiet it can barely be understood, but the melody is very pleasant.

Kohane finds that the smile on her face never leaves, and her heart feels warm. She watches as An quietly shuffles over to the two boys to brush a stray strand of hair out of Akito’s face, her amber eyes soft and inviting like a hot cup of tea. Toya’s eyes are squinting in that way that they all know means he’s incredibly happy.

Unfortunately the action, even with An’s gentleness, manages to finally wake Akito up. His singing stops and he scrunches his nose before bringing a hang up to rub at his eyes. There’s a soft groan before olive eyes slowly blink open.

“...What time is it?” He asks, scratching his head. Kohane checks her phone, before shuffling closer as well.

“Almost eight. Good morning, hehe,” she replies softly. Akito takes a moment to process her words before lifting his head off of Toya’s chest stiffly.

“Eight?” He repeats, squinting in Kohane’s direction. She nods before he sighs.

“What’s wrong, Akito?” An asks, before Akito groans again, dragging a hand down his face.

“It’s so late…” He mumbles. “How did I manage to sleep in…?”

Toya’s expression pinches and he lets out a noise of disgust. “I will never understand how you wake up so early, Akito.” At his words, Akito swivels his head towards the other boy, clearly much more awake than before.

“How are you awake before me? What the hell?” He asks incredulously, to which Toya simply shrugs, making Akito’s shocked expression drop to an unimpressed scowl.

An laughs before poking Akito in the cheek, a smirk on her face. In response the redhead seems to shrink back as the frown deepens on his face as An’s laughs turn into cackles.

“Hey, Akito, what were you dreaming about?” She asks, and Kohane could practically see the devil horns on her head.

“What kind of question is that? Were you watching me sleep? Like some creep?” Akito shoots, and An scoffs, offended.

“What! You woke up last, how were we not supposed to watch you! It wasn’t on purpose!” She defends. Akito sticks his tongue out at her, making An narrow her eyes at him.

“Screw you? Why do you even want to know?” He asks, squinting at An. But then Kohane giggles, and the two turn their heads simultaneously to look at her, making her laugh harder.

“Y-You were singing, Shinonome-kun,” she says between giggly laughter. “It was really nice.” Kohane feels as if her chuckles begin to turn borderline hysterical at the shade of red that consumes Akito’s face from her words. An begins absolutely hollering with laughter while Toya himself begins chuckling too.

Because Toya starts laughing Akito flinches, looking down and seeming to finally realize that he was quite literally on top of the other boy, and he somehow flushes even redder. The blush on his face begins to rival the fiery hue of his hair, and he rolls over to hide his face into the nearest pillow. Kohane sympathetically pats his fluffy locks but the embarrassed whine she gets in response tells her that he does Not feel any less humiliated, even when his shoulders shake with his own exasperated laughter.

Kohane continues laughing along with everyone else, and she feels the tension in her chest loosen. She wishes that this morning would last forever.

After wallowing in his own misery for a few minutes Akito gets his phone handed back after it vibrates near the wall due to being connected to a charger overnight. He taps the screen only to see a flurry of texts from his older sister and sighs in irritation as he swipes to open Nightcord (because she insists on using it to contact him since it was ‘most convenient’ for her, and no, Akito, she was not a chronic user of the internet).

Enanan:
hey
are u awake
are u Alive 👀
you should be awake by now
are u ignoring me
oi >:(
when you decide to finally read can u please get me cheesecake later today?
i’ll pay you back
maybe
if u keep on ignoring me i won’t >:///

Akito stares at the messages, all sent within a minute or two ago, expression blank. Usually he’d reply with just as many messages, if not more, just to piss Ena off, but he finds himself hesitating even sending a normal response.

His breath hitches when his mind catches up, flashes of his dream from the night sending him reeling. When he blinks again, Ena’s messages stare back at him, the silly little emoticons she sent mocking him on his screen.

From the way she texts, it would be hard to tell if she was alright or not. At the thought, Akito huffs a breath of frustration, furrowing his brows. It was strange to feel so concerned after something as fleeting as a random wacky dream he just happened to have. It didn’t mean anything… Right?

Besides, it’d be weird and Ena would think it out of character for him to just randomly drop a question asking about her wellbeing in the middle of nowhere, completely and entirely unprompted. Despite their rocky relationship as siblings improving in the past couple of years, it was still difficult to be so vulnerable around each other after so long of struggling in vain.

What would he even say anyway? Akito grimaces at the thought of randomly asking if his sister needed help with things on a random morning at 8 AM. How she was even awake at this hour, he didn’t know. Ena was probably fine, and the most concerning thing was that she wasn’t asleep due to her ungodly sleep schedule. Even so, the likely answer was someone woke her up, and for once it wasn’t Akito himself doing it. Hell, it was probably Mizuki who was having to deal with a grouchy Ena being woken up way earlier than noon.

After another moment of hesitation, he sends a simple ‘fine :/’, tacking on his own unimpressed emoticon. A glance at the status icon next to Ena’s profile picture says that she was offline, so Akito rolls his eyes and turns his phone off. She can spam him more messages about his dry response later.

Instead of dwelling on his strange unease involving Ena, Akito chooses to distract himself by watching his friends instead. They were currently taking turns running out of An’s bedroom to change out of their sleepwear into clothes for the day, and also packing things into bags and neatening blankets and futons.

Akito bites the inside of his cheek, feeling dread pool in his stomach as the feeling of unease doesn’t seem to disappear. In fact, he honestly feels it get worse. Akito shivers.

His dream couldn’t have meant anything significant, but he can’t help but feel a little concerned for his friends too. It’s blurry but he can remember feeling cold and that everyone seemed off in a way that he could not rationalize being good. The thought of something bad happening makes him shiver harder and it feels chilly despite the fact that Akito is currently wrapped in blankets.

The sound of rapid footsteps makes Akito flinch as he turns towards the door. An runs in, phone in hand, the screen blurring in his vision as she waves the device around excitedly. Kohane and Toya pause what they’re doing to walk over to her to get a closer look at what’s on An’s phone.

“A new cafe opened up nearby!” An explains, scrolling a bit and showing them all pictures of said new establishment. “Isn’t it cute! The menu sounds really good, how does breakfast over there sound?”

Kohane and Toya gently take turns trading back and forth An’s phone after being handed the device, both making comments here and there before turning back to An and nodding in agreement. Then they all turn their heads towards Akito, and the boy freezes.

“What do you think?” An asks, but he feels himself hesitate when he meets all of their eyes, reminded of their chilling gazes from his dream before. He gulps, panicking when their expressions fall in concern.

“I-I’ll think about it,” he settles, scratching his neck and averting his gaze. He shifts around before finding his own duffle bag and taking out fresh clothes to change into before awkwardly standing up to walk out of the room and into the bathroom next door.

When he closes the door, he gently lays his clothes on the counter, before leaning over the sink, feeling suddenly nauseous. It isn’t enough to want to genuinely throw up, but he feels queasy with unease.

Akito looks up into the mirror, faced with his own messy reflection. Tousled hair from sleep, impressions left on his cheek from the fabric of pillows and blankets, and tired olive eyes.

The eyes he’d seen in his dream flash across his vision again, all cold and uninviting, including his own. Words play in his mind, fragmented and fuzzy. Everything just was not alright.

Akito squeezes his eyes shut, applying pressure on his temples. He hasn’t felt really awful in a long time. And sure, this was far from really awful but it was still off putting enough to send him completely off balance.

His eyes fly back open when he hears a voice from outside the room, through the wall. He turns his head to one side to listen, hearing his friends' laughs and conversation.

“I think we’d be great idols!” An’s voice carries easily, loud and bold as always. He can hear Kohane giggle in response before the other girl continues. “Plus, it’d be really funny seeing Akito dance to something like Romeo and Cinderella.”

“An-chan, you only want to tease him,” Kohane admonishes, but An doesn’t seem to deny it at the happy cackle he hears right after.

“Look, Akito in my dreams looked good doing it, okay? He wasn’t that goofy. Mostly.” An defends, and Akito can hear the smirk in her voice.

“You said you laughed and made fun of him in your dreams, Shiraishi,” Toya says, and An scoffs.

“You said that happened in your dream too, Toya!”

“Yes, but that was about dogs and going to parks as kids.”

“That’s sweet though, that your dream was us being childhood friends, Aoyagi-kun,” Kohane compliments. “It kind of sounds like what Shiho-chan and her friends are like.” Akito hears Toya hum in response.

“I thought so too, with the instruments as well.”

“At least when you messed up it wasn’t as embarrassing though…” Kohane says, and Akito raises an eyebrow at her words.

“It’s fine, Azusawa. Tsukasa-senpai says that everyone makes mistakes, even stars like him.”

“Ah, true, but in my dream it seemed like you had all rehearsed so well, I felt like I ruined the play…”

“From what I can tell the us in your dreams didn’t mind! Besides, we’d never blame you for messing up, Kohane!” An reassures, and Akito can feel himself smile when Kohane laughs again.

The conversation drifts a bit more afterwards, and Akito stops listening intently, content with letting their voices turn into pleasant background noise as he begins to change out of his sleepwear. He hears laughter through the wall again when he tosses on a hoodie, and more discussion of the cafe and its menu options when he puts his socks on.

When he’s done, he can still hear his friends talk in the room next to the bathroom, and he finds himself face to face with his much neater reflection.

How funny, Akito thinks, that all their dreams coincidentally ended up being vaguely similar in the sense that it had involved each other in all four of them. The four of them in different situations, different stories. He takes a deep breath and finds the unease go away slightly, finding breathing a little easier than before.

As he finishes neatening his hair, his phone vibrates again, the screen lighting up with notifications from Ena again. He swipes to open Nightcord again, watching as the messages from his older sister begin filling the chat.

Enanan:
mizuki told me they told one of your friends about the new cafe
an-chan, right?
there’s cheesecake on their menu!!!
ur already going just get me some on the way 🥺
i can literally see ur online asshole REPLY!
i will Not pay u back at this point
not with ur dry texting

Akito rolls his eyes, taking his clothes and walking out of the bathroom, phone in hand. When he arrives back in An’s room the futons are still on the floor, blankets admittedly neater than before but still piled all over where they previously slept. The three of his friends meanwhile are huddled on An’s empty bed, looking at something on her phone.

As soon as they notice his presence, they run over towards him, pointing at the pictures on the phone screen being quite literally shoved in his face.

“Akito!” An exclaims after he pushes the device away from his face. “I know you’re still thinking about it, but look!” Her finger points to the pictures of cheesecake and scrolls down to another picture of fluffy pancakes. “Your favourites!”

“You looked a little tense earlier,” Kohane adds in a softer tone. “You don’t have to, but I’m sure these will cheer you up, right?”

“We didn’t mean to embarrass you, Akito.” Toya says, putting a hand on Akito’s shoulder. “We’re sorry for making fun of you.” He apologizes, but Akito shakes his head with a fond smile.

“Don’t worry about it, nothing you said was bad.” He says, waving a hand up and down. “I just remembered something, but it’s not important.”

“Are you sure?” An asks, and Akito laughs softly, heart warm at their concern.

“Positive.” He nods. When they don’t look convinced, he snatches An’s phone away from her hand, making her squawk. He scrolls for a second back to the pictures of cheesecake and pancakes, before turning to screen back towards his friends with his pick from the cafe’s lengthy list of options.

At their confused stares, he rolls his eyes. “Are we going for breakfast or not? These pancakes aren’t going to eat themselves.” He laughs harder when their expressions shift into ones of excitement before they burst into cheers.

A knock on the door turns all of their attention towards Ken, who also seems like he had just woken up. A tired smile is on his face and he holds a mug of steaming coffee. The man waves with his free hand before clearing his throat.

“Morning, kids. Do you guys want breakfast?” He asks, but An shakes her head.

“Nah, it’s okay, we’re going to the new cafe that opened up in a bit.” She says, and Ken nods, sipping at his coffee before taking a glance around the room, gaze landing on the pile of blankets and futons still lying on the floor. He raises his eyebrows at the state, before looking back at his daughter and her teammates.

“You guys planning on staying another night? No problem with it, of course, but just making sure. I can always make you breakfast tomorrow too.” He says, tilting his head and leaning on the door frame. At his words, An seems to perk up, eyes sparkling with anticipation. She turns back to them all, a pleading look on her face as she brings her hands up to clasp them together.

“Guys… Pleeeeaaasseee?” She asks, and after a brief glance at both of their phones, both Kohane and Toya immediately nod.

“I can stay another night, An-chan!” Kohane says the same time Toya nods firmly, a bright smile on both of their faces. They all turn to Akito afterwards, who only rolls his eyes in exasperated fondness before taking out his own phone to open up Nightcord one more time.

Aki:
i can get you cheesecake at the cafe yes
only if you actually get out of bed
come to the cafe or no cheesecake

Enanan:
???????
wtf???? why can’t u just bring it home

Aki:
i won’t be home
you can bring akiyama if you want

Enanan:
😐
agh fiiiiine.
i’ll treat you to pancakes if you buy me cheesecake

Aki:
what the hell? but the cheesecake is more expensive?

Enanan:
get a drink or smth!
cry about it!

Aki:
>:///////

Enanan:
>:P

Satisfied, Akito looks back up at his friends and their pleading looks. He sighs.

“Yeah, another night doesn’t seem too bad.”

He’d look forward to endless amounts of nights and mornings like these with them forever.

Chapter Text

Toya is gently shaken awake. He blinks a few times as he slowly becomes more aware of his surroundings. When his vision clears, he blinks several more times, since the last thing he remembers is being in the middle of practice. When did he fall asleep?

The others look at him with concern, which he brushes off with a shake of his head. He rubs his neck as he stands up, the position from his sleep making his muscles feel sore.

“Are you ready to keep on practicing?” An asks, putting a hand on his shoulder. Toya nods, despite still feeling incredibly confused.

“Alright, let’s see what you had issues with during that one verse again.” Akito says, picking up his bass guitar. Kohane hums as she does the same with her own instrument on the other side of the classroom; the ever familiar noise of strings being strung to tune their instruments fill the air.

Toya blinks again. He had issues with a verse? Since when?

He huffs a frustrated breath, walking towards the keyboard. As he awkwardly takes his place and positions his hands, he watches An throw her drumsticks in the air before catching them as she takes her own seat. Like always, everyone sends each other a signal for An to begin her countdown for their song.

“One, two, three, four!” She says before she hits the first beat on her drum set. Toya has no choice but to follow, hands routinely moving across the keyboard as he finds himself immersed in their rehearsal.

They play the song, fully this time, and Toya ends his part with a lilting melody like they had originally planned. Satisfied, Kohane and Akito turn around to face An and Toya to begin their usual after rehearsal discussions.

“I think you were right, Toya-kun,” Kohane says, tapping her finger lightly on the side of her guitar. “That verse did sound a little off.”

Toya watches, lost, as An and Akito seem to nod along in agreement before all three of their eyes turn towards him, waiting for his input. He gulps, before nodding and smiling. He does not know how or why they reached this conclusion. Whatever was wrong, he was sure they’d find something to fix it. The issue was that he didn’t know what was wrong in the first place. And apparently it was his own idea?

“We can workshop it some more later,” Akito says, glancing at the time on his phone. “It’s getting late.” An nods, taking a glance over Akito’s shoulder. She then looks over at Toya once again, concern clear in her eyes.

“You good, Toya?” She asks, raising an eyebrow. “Are you still tired?” The other two also glance at him with light frowns on their faces, making Toya hesitate. Nervously he scratches the back of one of his hands, averting his gaze. He didn’t feel tired. In fact he doesn’t remember feeling tired before when he was practicing either.

What happened? Why was there a gap in his memory?

“You did take a nap after stargazing, maybe you need more sleep?” Kohane offers, and Toya just finds himself nodding again, even though he knows that isn’t the answer. But at the same time, maybe it was? Toya shook his head, beginning to feel an oncoming headache. Maybe he did need more sleep. Maybe he spent too much time reading last night.

Regardless, today was odd. Toya didn’t know why he couldn’t remember having a problem with something in the song, nor could he remember stargazing and falling asleep. It was as if he was replaced by someone else for a short portion of the day.

But that seemed ridiculous. And he only really forgot an hour or two. Maybe it was the SEKAI being strange?

He’d ask Miku or the others later.

An wakes up to a stinging sensation on her knees and palms. Blinking groggily, she squints at her knees, eyes widening when they finally focus on the bandage currently wrapped around one of them. There are subtle scrapes on the other too, and when she checks her hands, she has a bandage around one of her thumbs as well.

She sits upright suddenly, causing Akito to flinch next to her at her abrupt movement. She looks at his irritated and confused face with a wide-eyed clueless expression of her own, flailing her hands wildly towards the bandaged wound on her leg, silently asking him or the others to explain how this had occurred without her knowledge.

Akito scoffs, crossing his arms. “Relax, An. It wasn’t that embarrassing that you tripped.”

An squints at him, mouth open in utter confusion. Akito glares back at her, and they engage in a short staring contest.

“That was uncalled for!” She says after a moment when she blinks. Akito simply sticks his tongue out at her, a smirk on his face. Kohane giggles behind him while Toya rolls his eyes fondly.

They help each other to their feet, turning their heads as Miku and Rin run back towards them on the side of the stage.

“An-chan, are you alright?” Rin asks, hands clenched near her chest and concern in her eyes. An laughs before nodding.

“Of course! I don’t remember how this happened but a trip isn’t enough to stop me!” She puts her hands on her hips and raises her chin in confidence. “Let’s rehearse again!”

An awkward silence follows, before An breaks her pose to tilt her head at the others’ confused expressions. Was it something she said?

Miku breaks out of her trance first, before clapping her hands to bring the attention towards her instead.

“As long as An-chan is alright, let’s go through your dance one more time.” She says, and the others nod as she turns to lead them back to their positions on stage.

This time, the rehearsal goes without a hitch, and An huffs a breath of relief after the music stops once they all strike their finishing poses. She doesn’t remember how the last rundown of their dance went, especially since she’d somehow fallen asleep and injured herself, but she felt that she had done better this time.

Kohane runs over to her after they relax for a moment or two, taking An’s hands into her own. “You did it perfectly this time, An-chan!” She says with a bright smile on her face that An can’t help but return.

“Yeah!” She agrees, before pausing for a moment. “Wait–this time?” She asks.

“The portion you forgot earlier?” Kohane asks, concern and her own confusion taking over her face.

“Did I mess something up?” An asks, frowning. Kohane widens her eyes before waving her hands and shaking her head quickly in front of her in disagreement.

“No, no, nothing like that! But you said you’d forgotten the footwork of this part earlier when you tripped.”

“Oh! Yeah! That! Totally!” An replies with a strained smile. She averts her gaze, gulping. She’d forgotten footwork earlier? Is that how she tripped? Which part specifically had she forgotten?

An bites the inside of her cheek, before shuffling towards Toya, waving him over. He tilts his head when he comes closer, and An scratches her cheek.

“Toya, what happened?” She mutters, eyes widening more when his expression pinches.

“What do you mean?” He asks, before his eyebrows raise, like he had just realized something. His eyes soften before he brings a hand to her shoulder in reassurance.

An raises an eyebrow herself, making a noise of confusion. Toya chuckles softly.

“It’s alright, Shiraishi. It’s okay to be vulnerable, we’re here to help you.” He says with a soft smile, and An stands there, a shocked smile frozen at her face.

When she doesn’t reply after another moment, Toya pats her shoulder softly before walking over to where the others were discussing things, and An wordlessly follows.

She doesn’t really pay attention to the next few words exchanged, but the group does agree to stop for the day, which she is both grateful for and also vaguely frustrated at. Now she has to go and have some crisis at home about her strange gap in memory.

Tripping from forgetting choreography she was pretty sure she had memorized, getting injured, and then falling asleep. On top of that, she was being vulnerable or something?

Did something possess her? The thought sends a nasty shiver down her spine… The thought of some ghost possessing her body…

Hopefully it doesn’t happen again…

A light chill wakes Kohane up, and she vaguely registers it as a soft breeze of wind. It’s mostly her face brunting most of the subtle coolness, but it’s enough to bring her back into awareness.

For some reason, she’s on a ferris wheel she recognizes is from SEKAI, and despite the awe she feels at being so high in the sky and seeing the beautiful view, she can’t help but be overwhelmed with utter confusion on how she even got here in the first place.

Kohane turns her head, eyebrows raising when she sees all of her troupe mates also asleep in the cart, leaning against each other and covered by the capes of their costumes. Kohane fondly smiles, before adjusting Akito’s cape around her shoulders so that it wraps around his own as well.

Still confused, she takes her phone out of her pocket, shocked to see how late it is, and a sudden anxiety creeps up her spine at the thought that had crossed her mind.

Had they practiced? Did they miss practice for the day?

Kohane purses her lips, even more befuddled. Why were they in their costumes then, if they hadn’t rehearsed? And how could that explain how they ended up in a cart, right at the top of the SEKAI’s ferris wheel?

She leans her head a little further out the open window of the cart, noticing two bright figures near the bottom of the ride. Miku and Kaito both also seem to notice her after a moment, and she smiles when Miku begins jumping up and down, her costume bouncing along with her. Kaito seems to make a move towards the controls of the ferris wheel, and Kohane feels a little bit of relief when the cart begins to move back towards the ground.

When the cart does reach the ground, she quietly adjusts her position beside Akito, moving his costume’s cape to cover his lap like a blanket instead, and adjusting the cape on Toya and An as well before getting out to greet the two Virtual Singers.

Miku happily greets her when she gets closer, sparkles in her eyes getting brighter as she excitedly hops a few more times.

“Kohane-chan, you’re back!” She says, and Kohane nods gratefully.

“Thank you for bringing us back down.” She replies, but Miku shakes her head.

“Not like that, Kohane-chan! You’re back!” The Virtual Singer repeats, but Kohane simply stares in response. What does Miku mean?

Kaito clears his throat next to them, an unsure smile on his face as he laughs. “Ah… I’ll tell you another day, Kohane-chan.” He says, scratching his neck, almost as if she had read her mind. Kohane tilts her head at him, still endlessly confused. She bites the inside of her cheek, gaze flitting around, before turning back to him.

“Did we at least practice today, Kaito-san?” She asks, and Kaito brings a hand to his chin as his brows furrow.

“It’s… Hard to explain, Kohane-chan,” he says, and Kohane realizes that he seems confused himself. Kaito sighs before his expression softens. “It’s late though, go home and rest for now. I promise it isn’t a large concern you have to worry about.”

“It’s like magic, Kohane-chan!” Miku says, her words not offering any semblance of explanation to help Kohane’s confused state.

Feeling tired from an increasing headache, Kohane turns back to her friends after taking one last glance at the time on her phone. She’d need to make sure they also got home at reasonable times. She turns to the two Virtual Singers to thank them yet again, before walking back towards the cart to wake up the rest of her troupe.

While she gently shakes them awake, she hears snippets of Kaito and Miku’s cryptic discussions about the past few hours behind her, and Kohane’s brows furrow in curiosity.

Miku had to be playing tricks on her or something…

Akito wakes up to the noise of instrumentals playing behind him. He can hear An and Toya mutter a bit as he rubs his eyes, patting around for his sketchbook. At his side, Kohane giggles before gently setting it in his lap.

Akito yawns and thanks her, before raising his arms and stretching. He can feel An’s own laughter as her back shakes against his own. A hand, to which he assumes is Toya’s, brushes a few wild strands of hair on his head.

After another moment he glances back at his sketchbook, pencil in hand, ready to continue sketching. However he hesitates when he finds notes and sketches he does not remember drawing.

He brings the paper closer to his face to examine the words and lines, confused as the handwriting seems to match his own. He then leans back away from the paper, studying the unfamiliar drawing, most likely drawn by himself. Somehow, it doesn’t look… terrible?

Was he sure he drew it? Akito’s gaze flits around, suspicious, but he knows there would be no way it was anyone else. For one thing, he’s in SEKAI, and the handwriting matches so why wouldn’t drawings be from him too?

He hums, looking back at the composition. The sketch is a little rougher than what he’s used to, and the composition could certainly be different, but the drawing isn’t bad.

At the sound of his friends working behind him, clicks and mutterings alike, he grips his pencil a little tighter and sketches another drawing based on what was previously sketched in the book, refining the details and switching the positioning of things here and there.

When he’s done after a quick few moments (it didn’t take long, since most of the foundation for the drawing was already there), Akito finds himself rather satisfied, hand on his chin in contemplation. Kohane looks over his shoulder and she taps his arm to get his attention.

“That looks really good, Aki,” she comments. “It feels a little different, in a good way.” She smiles warmly, and Akito finds himself smiling back.

“Thanks, Haru,” he replies, happy at the praise, but still vaguely confused at where the other drawing had even come from.

“That matches the lyrics really well! Nice!” An says, holding her hand up for high-five. It’s awkwardly returned as Akito looks back at the drawing. Had he coincidentally drawn something that had fallen in line with whatever Toya had written?

“Oh, that’s cool… I guess? What’d Fuyu write?” He asks, shrinking slightly when everyone’s expression furrows.

“Have you slept recently?” Toya asks, tilting his head slightly. “You read the lyrics already.”

“...I-I did?” Akito asks, unsure. When had he done that?

“Yes.” Toya says, eyes narrowing. Akito averts his gaze. He’s known Toya long enough now to know he isn’t angry and that he’s actually concerned, but his expression is still unsettling. An huffs a breath of exasperation, making Akito bite his lip. Had he screwed up…?

“Alright, it’s bed time for you,” she says, smiling fondly at him. Akito squints at her, confused.

“Huh?”

“No more overworking! I think we’ve done enough for tonight anyway.” She settles, the others agreeing, leaving no room for argument.

Akito sits for a moment, before sighing and accepting his fate. He doesn’t even know if he’s too far gone to not have realized he had been overworking or if it was something else entirely.

The headache tells him to just sleep it off anyway.

Kohane, An and Toya begin shuffling around to gather their things to leave SEKAI, leaving Akito with his sketchbook and pencil to the side for a moment. He ends up just passing the short time picking at the seams of his hoodie, something Kohane would probably gently nag at him for later.

The sound of footsteps coming closer makes him turn his head as Miku and Kaito approach him, and he straightens his back when Kaito steps forward, clearing his throat.

“Akito,” he starts stiffly, dark eyes uninviting as usual. “I want to apologize for… earlier.” He pauses after averting his gaze briefly, but his eyes narrow yet again, and Akito feels his shoulders tense unwillingly at the action. Kaito huffs a breath and closes his eyes, turning his head to the side. “Nevermind, he’s gone. It doesn’t matter.” He walks over to Miku, muttering something before taking his leave yet again.

Akito stares, lost, before letting his head fall into his hands. He’s more tired than he thought he was, and people are being way more confusing than usual.

Miku walks over, sitting next to him. Akito turns his head, and the Virtual Singer gently pats his head sympathetically.

“Don’t worry about him, Akito,” she whispers. “Nothing bad happened, and he probably needed it. Just go home and rest.”

Akito nods tiredly, despite the rational part of his brain screaming questions about who the hell ‘he’ was referring to.

Against his better judgement, he doesn’t ask Miku any further questions, and takes his phone out to pause the song on his screen, excited to be greeted by his soft and inviting bed.

He’s probably sleep deprived like An says he is.