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It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.
The scale of the damage was inconceivable. Flames engulfed the surrounding area, illuminating the night sky in a dramatic crimson glow. The remains of the office building lay sprawled on the pavement in a graveyard of rubble and debris.
However, such a situation was merely incessant background noise in the face of the true calamity that lay before Katsuki’s very own eyes. In the wake of the raging fire, the mounds of rubble, and the smog-filled air, one outlier entirely occupied Katsuki’s focus.
Rion’s unmoving body lay limp before him on the pavement. Under more favourable circumstances, the sight would have almost been beautiful.
Her indigo locks were in their usual tousled fashion, softly sculpting her face which was now drained of all colour. Her tan skin was entirely covered by burn wounds, speckling her complexion in shades of maroon and sickly brown. Her teal eyes were now glazed and dull, a mere husk of the once vibrant soul that resided within.
This can’t be happening.
Katsuki could not bring himself to move, for movement meant physically interacting with the reality that stood before him. Perhaps, he thought, if he stood perfectly still, the universe would correct itself. Rion would get up and she would flash that shit-eating grin of hers, declaratively shouting that they still had a mission to complete — that she would never go out so easily.
She would never do that to him.
Time passed.
Rion’s corpse merely grew colder.
Katsuki learned that day that the universe could be unbearably cruel.
Resolute in its iron-clad finality.
The stars wrote that Rion Aikawa would take her last breath that day.
The worst part was that there was nothing he could do to change it.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The atmosphere was particularly tranquil that night.
Katsuki had never been a stickler for stargazing. Gazing at celestial phenomena for hours on end never gave him the rush of ecstasy that most astral enthusiasts chased like a drug.
He had only ever gone stargazing a few times before — all instances completely against his own volition.
Rion was far more attuned to the appeal of the stars, and was an indomitable force when she wanted Katsuki to be subject to her will. She pestered him endlessly, poking and prodding at him and pleading with feigned desperation.
“Let’s go see the stars!” She’d repeat in a mischievous, exaggerated tone that drove Katsuki up the walls every single time.
Such was the Rion-dubbed “Katsuki Rage Bait and Harassment Tactic.” The aforementioned tactic was hilariously and unsurprisingly effective. The sight of Katsuki shouting terrorist-level threats as she dragged him out to the front porch was enough to satiate her desires. (Katsuki, of course, would subject Rion and unusual punishment immediately after.)
Admittedly, Katsuki did not regret that experience one bit. Sure, the pestering was certainly bothersome, but such sentiments yielded trivial in comparison to Rion’s radiant presence. What did annoyances matter as they stood together on the balcony of their shared apartment, observing the cosmos in tangential harmony?
Katsuki noticed that the stars dimmed in luminosity following Rion’s passing.
It had been a full year since the mission that claimed Rion’s life occurred — the one that failed so terribly. Her departure formed a chasm deep within space and time, a deep and prevalent gap in his life’s continuity. Her absence was simply unneglectable. Their shared apartment took on a melancholic disposition, her untouched possessions collecting dust from a lack of use. Katsuki could still hear the faint sound of her bubbly laughter, with a melodic and musical intonation. If he could bottle up the scent — rich and tropical and full of zeal — he could get drunk on it for eternity.
Katsuki was certainly no physicist, but he did know that time was relative. The passage of time is no universal constant, as it fluctuates with differences of speed and gravity. Perhaps he finally understood what it meant by the fact that time moved slower relative to gravitational forces. Rion’s absence caused a curvature so prominent in the fabric of Katsuki’s heart that all notions of time bent relative to this disposition. Every second felt like eternity when Rion wasn’t by his side. Every day he was subjected to the interminable awareness of her absence, a sentiment that slowly etched at his sanity.
The laws of physics were certainly a cruel saboteur.
Katsuki scoffed. He had come out here to stargaze, and he most definitely did all but that. He came out here to observe the skies, to escape the very memories that he spent so long ruminating. It was about time he got to what he originally intended.
He stood there for a bit, staring at the stars in means of discerning a pattern that he recognized. After a long and arduous game of connect-the-dots (he was no astronomer, that's for sure), he finally saw a constellation that yielded some sentiment of familiarity.
That one spoon-shaped one with the ridiculous name. The Spoon, the Ladle?
Ah. The Big Dipper.
The last time he went stargazing with Rion, the pair had a brief altercation regarding the validity of its name.
“It’s called the Big Dipper?” He’d retorted judgingly at the revelation.
“Well, yeah,” she replied. “They call it that because of its resemblance to a ladle.”
“That’s dumb.”
“Pray tell, oh knowledgeable astronomer, what would be a more suitable name?” She put on her most obnoxious, scholarly tone.
“Uh.” He hesitated for a second, earning him a playful gaze. He’d merely suggested it for the sake of argumentation, but didn’t exactly have a better name in mind. “I dunno, something less on the nose?”
“Sure,” Rion smiled as she nudged him playfully. His ears reddened ever so slightly at the gesture.
That same night, Rion explained that the Big Dipper was renowned for its exceptional brightness, used as a symbol of navigation for centuries. She’d also taught him the trick to utilize the Big Dipper to find the North Star correctly every single time.
“Draw a line from one of the pointer stars to the other,”
He raised an outstretched finger towards Merak, gently moving his hand across the length of the bowl to Dubhe.
“Extend their distance about five times to find Polaris.”
He moved his hand further across the imaginary line, stopping at the brightly shining star nearby.
The North was certainly marvellous, its luminosity enshrouded the night sky in a dazzling display. Even without the use of Big Dipper, it was impossible to miss. Its presence was unshakable, steadfast in its determination to outshine all the rest.
The universe was truly strange, widely dichotomous in its methods.
The cosmos took Rion away from him. The knowledge of her departure was overwhelming, omnipresent within the echo-chamber of Katsuki’s heart.
Her absence was fabricated by the unwavering laws of the universe.
Inextricable, undeniable.
Yet, this was the same universe that gave Polaris her beauty, speckling her luminescent glow across the expanse of the universe.
The star’s beauty was a uniting force, where wayward explorers and experienced seafarers alike relied on its unwavering presence to navigate the uncertain landscape of the world.
It was a symbol of hope. A guarantee that direction followed with uncertainty.
The universe worked in mysterious ways.
So perhaps, Katsuki thought, two contradictory things could exist simultaneously.
Tears streamed down Katsuki’s face as he held his gaze towards the night sky. His lip quivered slightly as his body shook with silent sobs.
Rion was his Polaris.
Her absence was truly devastating, the grief of her departure entrenched deep within his heart.
Yet, as he observed the skies on his lonesome, he couldn’t help but reminisce on the memory of her.
On the memory of them.
Katsuki was the very evidence that love could transcend the realm of life and death.
She existed solely through the memories he carried deep within his heart. His memory was the conduit of her legacy.
She was his North Star, the ever-lasting beacon that guided him back towards where he belonged.
Rion’s surname was Aikawa, a combination of the Japanese characters for “love” and “river”.
Katsuki choked out a laugh through the onset of his tears. It truly was a fitting name.
Rion was his direction, his sense of navigation through the overwhelming grief in his heart.
While the pain was certainly unbearable, the very same awareness of her absence would lead him back to her.
Through hardship and uncertainty, Rion’s memory would lead him to the stars.
And there, they would reunite for eternity.