Work Text:
She reaches out to him, and then he’s gone.
A section of the walls opens up, and there he is, trapped, cuffed. Just like when they were 13, the cherry blossoms just starting to bloom. Not long before, they’d graduated together, despite how many of his classes he’d ditched, his gaze softening when she’d said she was glad. They'd silently agreed to skip going straight home to heed the call of a yakiimo truck, scarfing down the hot potatoes in the pleasant March heat.
It feels like she is detached from her own body, her heartbeat echoing through an empty void. She swallows, her mouth dry, as she watches.
It’s slow.
And he’s frantic. He gets shocked, the chains on his arms break. He gets shocked. The yellow glow of it pierces the darkness around him as the large voltmeter behind Nyanus ticks higher, higher, higher. He’s so far away, yet her eyes track every movement he makes. The only part of her moving, as the cries and desperate motions of the others are pressed into a blur at the sides of her vision. She watches.
He gets shocked. He gets shocked. Even from the distance they’re watching from, the stark red stands out against his body, droplets of blood being flung from his face every time the neck cuff yanks him back to the chair. He gets shocked. A mouthful of blood is spat out on his chest. She can hear it. He breaks the chains on his legs, and runs desperately towards the glowing exit. He grabs the closing exit just as it’s about to shut, and forces them open with his blood smattered hands.
She blinks.
Everything blurs.
His charred, bloodied body slumps in the chair.
Some vibration of a ghostly cry in her throat is the only thing she feels. All she can do is watch.
Her cheeks are wet with tears she never felt fall. Her eyes stay fixed on that same spot, unblinking, until the shutting of the ‘exit’ plunges it into darkness.
There’s nothing left to see. It’s finished, yet it keeps replaying over and over and over in her mind, the memories eating her alive to sustain their own survival. With each replay, the blur becomes sharper; the sharp yank of his body back to the chair. The way he hadn’t struggled at all, had sat in complete emptiness, and taken it. She never even saw his final expression.
She can almost see his final expression. She never saw it, yet it’s seared into her mind, every part of her mind, and in those old memories he pops a chunk of sweet potato in his mouth and blood rushes out down his chin. His ringing cough, viscous as he spit out the blood, the groan of the creaking chains. The blood. The blood. The blood. The blood. The blood. The blood.
Time has frozen, as she’s trapped in the memory. Trapped staring at the spot in the darkness where his body last lay, because it may be the last time she ever gets to see him. Her eyes frozen motionless, with the rest of her body.
Voices circle around her. They ring closer, until she can hear the echoes of Hiroshi’s voice, as he calls out to her. Before the oppressive emptiness of her head swallows her completely, all strength sapped from her limbs.
Sinking. Falling.
=====
Plummeting.
She wakes. It’s her dorm, her bed. She’s exhausted, still. Yet immediately, her hands move to her apron pocket, her limbs still cold.
The badge and the card are still there.