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Ai hadn't been so high above the world before.
She and Alice were riding the Ferris wheel, and she had her hands pressed against the glass as she stared at the world below. Ostia stretched as far as the eye could see, and the setting sun cast countless shadows on all the buildings. This was a world that had existed before God had left, a fragment of the past brought into this space by a wish.
And if it could be broken, this world could finally move again.
Alice chuckled as he rested his chin on the back of his hand. "Is this your first time in a Ferris wheel?"
"Yes!" Ai exclaimed. "We're so high up - it's amazing! I can see everything!"
"Yes, it is." Alice closed his eyes for a moment. "I didn't even think it would still be operational. I haven't been on here for a very long time…"
Ai folded her hands in her lap. "You mean before you, Dee, and the rest of Class 3-4 were trapped here?"
Alice nodded silently.
"Does it still look the same as it did that day?"
"Yes, it's a perfect replica of the past we seemed to have collectively wished for."
"Wish…" Ai repeated, and she inhaled a deep breath. "This Ostia is beautiful, it really is, but it's lonely too. This is all that exists in this world, isn't it?"
"You can walk to the end of this world in less than a day, but then you'll just wake up back in the city," Alice explained. "It's a perfect closed circle."
"What if someone tries to leave by going through the black surface like you and Dee did?"
Alice was silent a while before answering, and he lowered his gaze. "They'll find themselves here again."
"But you and Dee are different." Ai tried to keep her voice steady.
"Ai." Alice let out a heavy sigh, and he seemed to hesitate again. "Dee can't physically leave the seal, and I can't age or die, so as long as this world exists, we can't be free." A slight smile came upon his lips and his gaze softened. "And besides, I can't just leave my classmates behind. I want to help them too."
"Just like how you helped our classmates at Goran Academy too, right?"
"I did that so I could meet you." Alice's smile grew wider. "And you were willing to stay behind for the sake of a single student. You truly are kind, Ai."
"Well, I didn't want to leave Tanya all alone." Ai's cheeks grew warm and she couldn't understand why. "We were friends, and I wanted to save her too!"
"And now you're risking everything again so you can save all of us." Alice's voice became grave. "You and your companions could be trapped here forever, never aging or changing."
Ai straightened her back and met Alice's piercing gaze. "You and Dee are my friends too."
Alice's eyes went wide, but then a quiet laugh slipped from his lips. "Is that your way of saving the world?"
"I don't know." Ai inhaled another deep breath to calm herself. "But I do know I want to save you and Dee and this world."
"But it may be painful," Alice muttered.
Ai glanced at the world below, and the setting sun just barely touched the horizon. Ostia was a beautiful, vibrant city, but even with the tens of thousands of people Alice had brought through the black surface, Ai knew that the city was still mostly empty, revolving only around a handful of young students who had been separated from the world itself due to a forgotten wish. They had wished for peaceful lives, and that wish had been granted.
She laid her hand on the cool glass. But it was all a lie, simply a pleasant dream they would have to someday awake from.
"Ai?" Alice said as he reached for her hand.
"There's something my father once told me," Ai began to say, and her chest hurt. "Because he was immortal, he was afraid of being the last human being in the world. Even once all the deceased were buried and gravekeepers gone, he would still be alive, all alone. The last observer of a dying world, and still unable to truly rest…"
Alice said nothing. He only shifted so that he was sitting beside Ai, and his presence so close to her was comforting.
Thus Ai continued to speak. "This world is peaceful, but it's so lonely too. Nothing ever changes. Even as the world outside changes and will someday end, all of you will still be trapped here, never changing, always repeating the same year over and over for eternity."
"It is frightening when you say it like that," Alice said with a weak chuckle.
Ai laid her hand over Alice's. "That's why I want to save your world! We can age together, and create a whole new future! Even… even if the world does end, we'll at least be together!"
"If anyone can save the world, it's you." Alice touched Ai's face, his fingers warm against her skin. "I've never met anyone like you."
"A-Alice?" Ai stammered.
"I've repeated the same year fourteen times," Alice said as he leaned in closer to Ai, and his breath was warm against her lips. "But now I'm grateful it's taken this long, because I was able to meet you."
"Yes, I'm happy to have met you too, Alice!" Ai exclaimed as she clasped Alice's hand between hers. "And Dee and Julie and Scar and Celica too! I'll save all of you, I swear!"
"Thank you, Ai." A faint smile formed on Alice's lips, and he rested his head on Ai's lap. "It's all right if I stay like this, right? Just for a little bit…"
Ai's entire body grew hot as her heart raced, and yet she found herself smiling as she laid her hand on Alice's soft hair. "Sure, just until we reach the ground."
Silence fell over them, but it was not unpleasant, and the slow movement of the Ferris wheel was soothing. This world was peaceful, and Ai was thankful to have seen it with Alice, but soon she wanted to be on the road again, traveling with her companions and Alice by her side.
She would free this world, and save Alice and Dee and everyone else, no matter what. Her mother had wished to create Heaven, and she wished to save the world, and she would make that wish come true with her own hands.
As she and Alice came closer to the end of the ride, he stirred and his eyes were clouded. "I'm sorry, Ai," he whispered.
Ai could not help but giggle as she took Alice's hand into hers, and their fingers became intertwined. "Didn't I already tell you? I will save you, I promise."
Alice simply smiled, a sincere, sorrowful smile, and Ai's heart beat even faster.