Work Text:
“Hey, Yuu?”
It was a beautiful night outside the hospital that Yuu had been living in for the past week. The stars were shining bright, a perk of this specific hospital due to it being far from the city’s lights. Along the cliff surrounding half of the hospital, there were wooden planks acting as a walkway for people, offering a comfortable and rustic look to the stargazing spot there.
A bit further away from the hospital, away from the wooden planks, sat the group of friends, watching the night sky while chatting. Yusa and Joujirou were at the end of the cliff, seemingly chatting away about Yusa’s new album as the stars shined on them.
On the stairs leading to said cliff, sat Yuu and Ayumi. Yuu was watching Ayumi as she talked about the stars she could see in the sky, produced by her hobbies in astrology. Nao came down the stairs as she called out to him.
“Yeah?”
As she sat down next to him, she pulled out a music player from her pockets, positioned in the gym shorts she wore under her skirt.
“When you left, you told me to look after this.” Nao said, handing the music player. Yuu seemed confused, but accepted it anyway. “This is yours," she added, “I’m giving it back to you.”
Yuu had lost all of his memories after he came back from his travels. Yuu did not know the exact details due to his amnesia, but it must have been extremely tiring if he ended up in the hospital.
“It’s mine?” asked Yuu, still in confusion. “Thanks, I suppose. What is it, though?”
“It’s a music player. Nao-neechan gave it to you during a camping trip to the forest, was it?”
Ayumi, who was watching the night sky a few seconds earlier, had turned her attention towards the conversation between her brother and his girlfriend, and answered Yuu’s stupid-but-not-so-stupid question.
Nao, remembering her memories with Yuu that were made by that music player, leaned over and pointed to the music player once again, seemingly fully interested in it.
“Our favourite song is on it.”
“Our favourite?”
As Yuu heard those words, his face was painted with a smile. He obviously couldn’t remember, but his kind nature really allowed him to feel happy for anyone, even his past pre-amnesia self. As he looked back to the music player, he murmured words that were destined to only himself.
“Is that so…?”
“Want to listen to it?”
As Nao pulled out some headphones from her other pocket, she asked Yuu, who was still staring at the music player, as if admiring it like a precious object.
“Sure.”
With that, Yuu accepted the left headphone that Nao handed him, and placed it in his ear. After making sure that the headphone was snug in both their ears, Nao pressed the play button.
Nao closed her eyes. She was nodding her head to the music. She really likes this band, huh? What was it called? As Yuu pondered over these thoughts, they were washed away by the music entering his ears. As he closed his eyes, his vision was instantly filled with a vast and green field, full of grass and flowers that seemed endless.
He felt free. As if he wasn’t bound by his frail human body anymore. It seemed he could run around forever, stuck in this feeling of freedom and happiness.
But the music started to fade out. It was unclear whether his vision became blurry or the surroundings themselves started to become blurry. Yuu looked around in confusion. He slowly became more conscious, yet his situation did not change.
Eh? Wasn’t I next to Nao, watching stars under the night sky?
As he turned his head to his left once more, he found…
“Hey, Yuu. Or should I say, Other Me.”
… an exact copy of him, standing there, greeting him as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Yuu stood there, dumbfounded. He was really confused now. How was he, well, an exact clone of himself, standing in front of him? Actually, there was another question in his mind. Where and how was he here? This couldn’t be a dream, since he was fully conscious.
“Allow me to explain.”
Yuu’s clone started talking. Was he a clone, though?
“You’re inside your subconscious. Well, kinda. I am your subconscious. Something has triggered you to come back here, in order to restore your memories. Do you have any idea what it is?”
“Oh yeah, we were… wait, what were we doing?”
Yuu had started replying with confidence. After all, he did remember what he was doing before coming to this place. But, he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember what he was doing just a few seconds prior.
“I see, so it has started. Yuu, listen to me very carefully.”
As his clone started talking, Yuu was pulled out from his thoughts back into the world.
“This is your last chance at restoring these memories. Otherwise, you may never wake up again. And a new you would be formed, with a deeper level of amnesia than before.”
“Huh? Wha-”
“Your brain is too damaged. It is trying to fix itself, but the memories are about to be lost. Without those, your current consciousness would be lost, and your brain will do a full reset.”
“Ok, wait wait. How do I even start restoring these memories?”
“A little trip down memory lane. Let’s first remember, what were you doing before coming here? You have the faintest idea, don’t you?”
“I was… surrounded by darkness. Stargazing? There was a person who was very special to me next to me… and another one as well.”
“Great, you’re already restoring your memories. Keep remembering. Go further back.”
As Yuu concentrated, his eyes naturally closed. Where was he before this? It was all blurry and unclear. He had never experienced this before, or at least as far as he remembered. He kept rewinding his memories, until finding another one.
“I was in the hospital, and someone was next to me. It was a girl, it seemed. I feel some way toward her.”
“You’re doing great. Keep remembering.”
“I woke up with a phrasebook nearby… wait, a phrasebook?”
He stopped at that word. A phrasebook. A simple small index used normally as an efficient way of memorizing things. But what about it was so special?
“There was also something next to it. What was it, though?”
His mind was going around in circles. He kept wondering, why was this happening? But this was no time for caution. He had to remember. For his own sake.
Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, more memories flowed through his mind. His travels. It seemed he went around the world, carrying around that phrasebook everywhere he went.
“I was travelling around the world… taking the powers from everyone in the world. And I had to come back. That phrasebook is what made me keep going.”
“Mhm. What about that promise?”
“What promise?”
“Try to remember the promise you made towards her before leaving for your travels.”
“Her? Who’s her?”
“Shut up and keep remembering.”
“Okay okay, geez.”
He concentrated once more. What promise?
A promise to come back to her.
“I made a promise to come back. To come back to her. Someone important to me. I wanted to see her again.”
“And?”
“And…”
And in an instant, all the memories came back. His ability of Plunder, his time leaps, his timelines, his high school life, his brother and sister whom he held dearly, and his friends in the student council. But there was someone missing. She was missing.
“I remember everything. But someone’s missing. And I don’t know who.”
“Hmm…”
As his clone dove into thought, Yuu also wondered. How did he get here, again?
“Let’s try something.”
As the clone said this, he left a pause for suspense. He exhaled the remaining air in his imaginary lungs, and said one word.
“Listen.”
He opened his eyes.
The field around him was no longer there, yet the peaceful, happy atmosphere remained. The music was still playing, and Nao seemed to be still listening to it with her eyes closed.
He remembered everything. All of it. And he remembered her, as well. The girl who was sitting next to him. She was the one who kept him going, the girl who gave him hope, the girl who reunited him with his brother, and the girl who helped him when he was at his lowest.
The girl whom he loved.
“Did you enjoy it?”
The song had finished. Nao turned to him to ask that question, desperate for an answer. It was their favourite song, after all.
“Yeah.”
He looked up to the night sky. Those bright stars that decorated and were sprinkled over the sky. They were truly beautiful, just like the girl next to her.
“Tomori, you really love ZHIEND, don’t you?”
“Yeah… wait, huh?”
Nao turned her head towards him, and her eyes met his. He was smiling softly, as if to tell her that he truly loved her.
“I never told you the band’s name, did I?”
“No, you didn’t. I just remember.”
“W-wait, wait a minute…”
Nao looked as surprised as one could be. Her eyes blinked again and again. Then, the sight of her eyes became blurry. She was crying.
“Y-you really remember? Everything?”
She was pleading to him to answer. She was desperate for the answer. Could she really regain the one thing she had lost, the thing she held dearest, even after she had gained so much?
“Yes. I remember everything.”
He remembered his promise. “Come back to me, no matter what,” she had said. They pinky swore. He dragged himself through literal hell, all to get to her.
“I remember my first meeting with you. I remember how, despite me supposedly not liking you, we still remained close. How you saved me from the timeline where my sister died. How you told me you would stay by my side. How you came up with that ridiculous idea and I went along with it to save you. I remember our promise. And I remember our favourite song. I could never forget it.”
Yuu reached out for her hand. At this point, she was crying oceans, but not of sadness, but rather of happiness. Tears of relief.
Her hand gently enveloped hers, covering it with his. He couldn’t hold it back anymore. And she needed to hear this, as well.
“I wanted to say this when I got back. What a shame I forgot until now.”
Adding more to her surprise, Nao looked up to meet his eyes once again.
“I love you, Tomori. And I will always love you."
After crying for a while, Nao’s eyes were as sore as one’s eyes could be. However, her face was covered by her smile. She was happier than anyone in the universe, she was convinced.
“I love you too, Yuu-kun. Maybe even more than ZHIEND.”
“... Seriously?”
As Yuu called her out on her joke, she laughed once again, remembering all of the happy moments and jokes she shared with her beloved.
“But Yuu-kun, it’s not “Tomori” anymore, right?”
“Huh?”
“We’re dating, right? I think you should call me by my first name now.”
“Okay, Nao.”
And with that, she rested her head upon his shoulder. Yuu looked down at his girlfriend’s ecstatic face. Her face is so cute, he thought. He wrapped his arm over her shoulder, and gazed up at the stars in the sky.
“The night skies and stars are as beautiful as you.”