15strangers week 2 wednesday

[exequte]

CW: Extreme 999 Spoilers

[She's still holding an edge of fabric, though her grip is very weak, breakable, like everything about her. Tissue paper skin stretched over glass bones, brittle twig body ready to go up like kindling, fwosh.

She squeezes her eyes shut for just a moment.

No. No, she would not die like this. Like she had before. Like she was now.

Briefly, her fingers trembled.]

Comments

[unpossibilities]

[She's fragile, but she's incredibly strong. He knows this as a certainty. Kaito would never underestimate her, but right now she's in a bad spot. He sits at the end of the bed as she relaxes, hoping that Makima won't come in and question this. But she's probably busy with the rest of the minigame.

So there he sits. He sighs softly.]

Hopefully this is a little better. Y'need anythin'? I'm here to help however I can.

Or, y'know. Just stick around for support, heh.

[exequte]

[She smiles, just a little, though it's a little sad, and finally looks up at him.]

No. There's... not much I can do with this except wait for it to go down on its own.

[And then she bites her lip and wonders and wonders and-

It's a bad idea. It's nearly always a bad idea to give away knowledge of that kind. People shouldn't be given any more information than they needed, hadn't she learned that already? It only complicated things.]

[unpossibilities]

Then I'll wait with you.

[Kaito responds, sitting back on her bed.]

...Y'look like you're thinking about something. Penny for your thoughts?

[exequte]

[She pauses for a long moment, so long that Kaito may begin to wonder if she's planning on answering at all, just... just looking at him. Studying him, the planes of his face, the shape of his eyes, the way he's watching her.

But she does, finally, speak.]

You said you died before, right?

[unpossibilities]

Yeah. I did.

[He nods without hesitation. Kaito's already got the intent to be fully candid with Akane, at least. She's trustworthy.]

[exequte]

[There's another long, lingering moment before she bites her lip, just slightly.]

I did too. And I didn't. I....

I don't know what happened, yet.

[unpossibilities]

Like...this game took you away before you could find out? Or...?

...Were you somehow dead and not at the same time?

[Schrodinger's Akane...]

[exequte]

[She gives him a very little smile.]

There's a thought experiment. I wonder if you've heard of it. It's called Schrodinger's Cat.

[unpossibilities]

I have. It's the one where the cat could be alive or dead, right? Since it's still in the box? Like that?

[exequte]

Yes. Since both realities are equally possible, both exist until they collapse down to only one, when someone finally opens the box and observes.

[She sighs, and takes a moment, one more time. She doesn't talk about this, ever. Even with Aoi, really. Its referenced, but they rarely ever actually talk about it. It hurts them both too much.]

Do you remember what I told you a little while ago? That I was kidnapped when I was 12?

[unpossibilities]

...Yeah. I remember.

[He listens attentively.]

What about it?

[exequte]

I didn't tell you everything.

I...

I got kidnapped to play a 【Nonary game】, just like the one I was in before this. And... At the end of it I....

H-he locked me in the incinerator, and it got turned on and.... and I remember burning, and dying, and it hurts. Only... only something also stopped it. There was supposed to be something that could have stopped it from happening, nine years ago, and it happened when I got taken, I think. I can't really... I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Only that there is something and it... it fixes it.

But until that happens I'm the cat in the box, Kaito. And that's why a doctor can't help me stop my fevers. Because they're... I think it's because I'm... closer to burning up, nine years ago.

[She bites her lip and closes her eyes, mostly so she doesn't start crying again.]

I wonder, sometimes, what will happen then. I disappear, I think. I was never here in the first place, if I died nine years ago. But... I wonder, will anyone still... still remember me?

[And that is the real terror of it, in a way. Not only to die, but to vanish, to be forgotten. To never have existed in the first place.]

[unpossibilities]

[Kaito's eyes widen. He listens, and he looks, and he swallows dryly. Something stopped when she was taken. Akane is locked within an endless cycle of life and death. She's always on the verge of disappearing - this is what she meant. Her fevers aren't medical, she's not normally sick at all, she's just in...stasis.]

You have to be here for a reason. If you're here, then there's a reason for it. You didn't die if you're here - there...there's a way. I just know it. Things don't just happen at random. You wouldn't exist if there wasn't a way for you to exist.

Somewhere, in that catbox, there's...there's a place to open and get free. I don't know where, but...at the very least, I can promise you this.

[He swallows.]

I'm a stubborn bastard. No matter what happens--there will be someone who remembers you. Me. I don't forget people, not when they're my friends, not when I'm so goddamn determined to remember, not when...not when it's you, especially.

You will live on, always. Somewhere. Somehow. I know it. Because you're here.

[exequte]

[That does make her start to cry, and then she laughs a little, wetly, and sniffles.]

I can remember it. Dying. And sometimes it doesn't even feel like a memory, it feels like... like it's happening.

But thank you. I wish... I wish it was that simple. I don't want to die. But I'm already dead, right? Just as much as I'm not. It's... confusing.

[unpossibilities]

I believe in you more being here than you dying--you just...have to make your presence stronger, I think. Maybe? Just...establish you're here, and you're gonna keep existing, and no one's gonna forget that.

You're only as dead as you think you're dead. That problem is--it's about the power of belief, too. Whichever one you believe in most is the one you're gonna walk away thinkin' about. So...

I don't think I could consider the pretty girl next to me dead and gone. She's here with me. And, y'know, that makes us both lucky.

[exequte]

[Well. That's the end of that. Akane is moving--carefully, because she is still weak, but with great determination until she's next to Kaito, where she leans against him, eyes closing, tucking her head against his shoulder.]

I'm... really glad I met you, Kaito.

[Softly, a little hesitantly, she takes his hand.]

[unpossibilities]

I'm glad I met you too, Akane.

[It only takes him a second to think on it - before he decides somewhere in his mind that this is right, all of this feels right, this is the right action to do - before he gently raises her hand to his lips and kisses it.

It's soft. Sincere. He means it with all of his heart.]

[exequte]

[She goes red, but this time it's just a blush and not a fever; her temperature is slowly falling, true to her word.

A few moments after he brushes his lips against her hand, she shifts and reaches up to brush a kiss against his cheek, then lays her head against his shoulder.]

[unpossibilities]

[And now his face entirely heats up. His heart thumps in his chest. Well. That...seemed like an unspoken thing.]

...

I'm gonna make sure we're both okay, we're gonna get outta this, and then, um--

We can have a picnic under the stars. Together. Just you and me.

[exequte]

[She giggles at that, just a little, but shes not laughing at him, or not really.]

Okay.