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If anyone, and I mean anyone, tells you that meeting another version of your dead brother isn’t weird; they are lying. How can I say that with certainty? It’s happening right now. He had that same bored look on his face, he had the same blue hair, he had that same…presence that my brother had. All that was different was that he was older and wearing a Gekkoukan uniform. But it couldn’t be my brother- that was absolutely impossible. Because my brother died on the moonlight bridge 10 years ago. The other reason I was certain he wasn’t my brother?
“Kotone?”
He didn’t know my name. I stayed silent for a couple minutes, studying him. He did the same while waiting for me to respond. The only sound that filled this endless void of stars we found ourselves in being our breathing.
“That’s not my name.”
“Oh…”
There was silence. I raised my eyebrow at him. Was he really expecting someone else? Did he have a sister that was like me, like I had a brother like him. Wait a second, I didn’t even ask him his name. No wonder the silence between us was so awkward.
“Minato?”
It’s light as I say it. I, subconsciously, asked the same question as him. I don’t know if I was influenced by it, or if we were just similar. Because that's what it was, right? We were similar. Not the same. Similar. Not different. Similar.
“Nope.”
“Ah…”
Not the same structure. Similar. Get my point? He shook his head slightly, his har moving along with it. He tilted his head looking off to the side, then looking at me. He tilted it to the other side and did it again.
“This isn’t what I expected.”
“Expected when what?”
“When I became the seal.”
The silence returned, with a vengeance. And again I thought we were similar. I also tried to become the seal, and I definitely didn’t expect this to happen.
“What did you expect?”
“Nothing.”
“Hmm. Me too.”
Scratch that. In this way we were exactly the same. It really was weird though, I went into this expecting nothing: and now I have something. I should be happy. I should be ecstatic. But no. There is just this… acceptance. This hollowness to it all.
“You feel it, too?”
“Hm?”
“Yeah.”
I don’t know how he got his answer, but he did. There were a few seconds where he seemed to look past me. I guess I did the same, as we just stood there for a minute. Again, only us and our breath seemed to fill this void.
“What do you feel?”
“Empty.”
“Hmm. yeah.”
I don’t know how I got that much understanding from that answer, but I did. It was weird. I could kind of guess what he was thinking. And I think he could kind of guess what I was thinking. It was like staring into a funhouse mirror.
“Do you miss anyone?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too.”
And again there was this understanding that I shouldn’t have. He was a different person. If he was my brother, maybe I could understand. But as far as I know, he is some stranger that happens to have a similar face.
“Do you think they miss us?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hope they do.”
It was nice to feel wanted. Therefore it's nice to be missed. I feel like he thought along the same line. No, not the same. He thought along a similar line.
“How long do you think we’ll be here?”
“Anywhere in between a few hours and eternity, if I had to guess.”
“Hmm.”
He sat down, his movements lethargic. His hands behind him, propping him up. He looked away from me and to the vast sea of stars. I looked to the same space he was looking, and didn’t notice anything. Though I don’t think I was, and I don’t think he was looking at anything either.
“Why did you sit down?”
“I wanted to.”
“Hmm… well, if we are going to be here for a long time…”
I sat down, my hands propping me up in a similar way. It was comfortable, like laying on a bed after a long hike. The silence resumed, and we just stared at the sea of stars. It seems, even if I am going to be here for eternity, at the very least I wasn’t alone: and while I didn’t feel ecstatic like I thought I should, I could at least be happy I wasn’t alone. After all, there was someone very similar to me to spend the time with.