Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

With her sneakers digging holes in the mixture of sand and dirt beneath her, Kohane is having a difficult time not falling to the ground in a fit of laughter. It works perfectly in this situation, as Akito’s big wireless speaker provides her with something to hunch over on with her giggles, leading to a futile attempt to block the feedback shrieking out of it.

 “Make it stop!” Kotaro shouts at Akito, genuinely terrified of receiving a noise complaint from angry townsfolk. This was Vivid Street, and as Kohane had grown closer to the community there, she could say with utmost certainty that waking up to the shrill noise of feedback wouldn’t cause a ruckus and was rather a gentle morning alarm. With his panicking, Kotaro sounds like he’s harmonizing with the speaker.

 Akito rubs his nose bridge with a command that sounds more like a groan than anything “Move the mic!”

 Kotaro agrees in an instant and points the mic away from the speaker, and just like that, the screams and shrieks come to a halt. Kohane slips off of the speaker with a sigh of relief onto the ground. 

 To prevent any more feedback, Akito rushes over to the speaker to turn it off. Crouching behind the speaker, he asks Kotaro, “…You… do have livehouse experience. You’re telling me you don’t know how to stop feedback?” He sounds exhausted, and truly they all are with the new training methods Ken-san had coerced them into doing after they learnt the truth about RAD WEEKEND. But Akito isn’t mad, no. What is this if not another mundanity of practicing in the park? 

 Admittedly, Kohane does enjoy little interruptions like these. She’d probably forget about it by the next day, or maybe even in an hour. It was strange how these fleeting moments brought lasting comfort, but to know that there was still room to have stupid conundrums like this between torrential practices made her exhaustion worth it. They felt like a breath of fresh air as her body began to ache and sink in the oceans of music from working for so long, and eventually she’d feel numb. 

There’s a small part of her that feels guilty for thinking this. Music gave her everything. It's the reason she is who she is, it’s the reason she’s been able to overcome her anxiety and meet her most precious friends…so who is she to complain? She supposes that’s why she’ll bask in this small hijink, focus on who she is now instead of who she once was. It was an old habit she often fell back into.

“I’m out of practice?” Kotaro tries, and Kohane smiles at him reassuringly. 

“It’s okay, Mita-san! You’re still getting back into the swing of things.” And with time, he’d get better. Kohane knows this. It was the same for her. That’s what Vivid BAD SQUAD taught her.

“…Is everything okay?” A concerned Touya stands still in the entrance of the park and his eyes fly across each one of them as he observes their discheviled states; Kotaro, who looks scared of his microphone, holding it in an outstretched arm to keep it away like it’d kill him, and Kohane who is heaving from her giggles right next to a grumpy Akito on the ground.

He grins subtly, and Kohane knows she would have missed that fond look a year ago. 

“Hi, Touya.” Akito says exasperated, suddenly gaining the will to stand up and give his partner a clap on the shoulder. 

“Apologies for being late…”

“You’re right on time, actually. We turned up early so we could set everything up.”

“It appears that went wonderfully for you all.” Touya stifles a laugh and Akito groans, placing his hands to his face with a sigh.

Touya takes his phone out of his pocket and clicks on some app Kohane can’t see from where she’s sitting. Akito, in an attempt to see what’s on his phone, tries to use Touya’s shoulder as an armrest, but has to give up once he comes to the crushing—daily—revelation that Touya’s too tall for that.

“Uh huh… Where’s An?”

 Kohane honestly can’t tell if Akito’s asking that out of genuine curiosity or if he desires An’s presence simply so he could use her as a more accessible armrest. The thought forces another giggle to leap from out of her throat, thinking about how annoyed An got whenever Akito did that to her, cheeks puffing up as she’d fight Akito’s arms off of her shoulder. It’s never intentional, usually just an innate response that Kohane surmised happened since the two of them had known each other for long.

 “Shiraishi messaged me that she’ll be running late today. WEEKEND GARAGE has a line going down the road.” Touya informs the group. He looks a tad wary of the situation.

Akito nods, “Good thing we got our drinks before the place opened this morning.”

“And we didn’t even have to pay!” Kohane pipes up, “We really are lucky to have An-chan and Ken-san taking care of us.” 

“She just said,” Touya squints to reread the message, “‘you guys can all start without me, I’ll show up later’, with eighteen fire emojis.”

“Eighteen?” Akito quips.

“Yes, I counted.”

Kohane finally stands up, rubbing some of the sand and dirt off of her skirt. “That sounds a lot like An-chan.” Along with the dirt, she tries to shake off the thought of An furiously pressing on the fire symbol like a lunatic because now it’s time to get this show on the road.

They all finish setting up the speaker and mics again—this time with no extra feedback— and after doing some embarrassing vocal warmups, they start singing. It’s an easy flow. They’re in no way at their best, Kohane knows it’s because An isn’t there, but she sings with everything she’s got. After performing solo at CRAWL GREEN, she supposes she feels more comfortable with her own voice and letting it shine, especially in this case since it contrasted Akito, Touya, and Kotaro’s so blatantly with no other female voices paired with them.

Well, it was an easy flow. That’s until it is forcibly cut short by Kohane and Kotaro’s screams when the ground shakes and the morning sky lights up into a burning afternoon. Along with their cries of terror, the speaker even has the means to join them and the feedback starts up again, but now with something that feels like malicious intent as Kohane’s legs fail to support her and she crashes to the ground with her hands pressed so firmly over her ears. She was willing to go deaf just to make it stop, please. The earth seems to let out one more sigh before the ground beneath her rattles again, and she can’t tell if the vibrations she feels are tremors of the world beneath her, or her friends joining her on the ground, toppling like dominos. 

Forcing herself to open her eyes, she blinks away some dust and frees her ears from their cage. She doesn’t know what to say. She can hardly hear her own thoughts over the palpitations of her heart, but it doesn’t really matter because the only thing in her head is varied ways of saying, ‘What the hell just happened!?’ 

“Wuh—huh!?…..What just—” She barely manages to spew the words out, having to fight to get them out of her chest. The spring riders were still bouncing behind them, leaving nothing but the squeaky sound of old metal and their panicked breaths in the park.

Akito’s eyes shoot open, “Was that a fucking earthquake!?” No time to lose, he offers everyone a hand and practically lifts their shaking bodies from the ground.

Touya blinks frantically, patting at Kohane’s shoulders like a worried father, “Is everyone okay?”

“I think?” Kohane hardly answers. She’s bewildered, but the rest of her body seems terrified. Akito does make a good point, though. With how common earthquakes were in Japan especially, that probably explained whatever just happened. “We need to get somewhere safe, right now! There’s always aftershock!”

“Smart thinking, Azusawa.” 

“Um… guys…” Kotaro’s breaths come out raspy, on an anxious lilt. “I don’t think that was an earthquake.”

Akito’s eyebrows furrow at the proposition, “What?” He follows Kotaro’s gaze, which is fixated on the sky. “Holy shit!”

A cloud of black smoke billows upwards from a nearby building, leaking into the blue sky. 

There was no earthquake. 

It was an explosion. That’s even worse! Which explained the flash of light Kohane saw before everything started shaking…

Kohane’s hands instinctively clamp her mouth shut. An explosion on Vivid Street!?

“We need to make sure everyone’s okay!” Adrenaline is still rushing through her veins and she figures she’ll make good use of it while it lasts. She needs to go check on everyone—what if someone got injured!? Getting ahead of herself, she runs over to the sidewalk and glances at her teammates from over her shoulders.

“Right behind you, ‘Hane.” Akito assures her with a determined glint in his eyes, catching up to her with Touya lagging behind. 

Kotaro shudders, “I think… I’ll stay here. So if An-chan shows up, I can tell her what happened.”

“Thank you, Mita-san,” Touya says. “We’ll be back soon. We’ll text you if anything shows up.” 

It’s not a challenge to find where the explosion must have happened. There's an alley on the street with nothing but smoke inside of it. Whatever was in there has been replaced with darkness, appearing as a portal to the underworld.

Investigating this alleyway seems like a bad omen that’ll give them all lung cancer and they especially couldn’t afford that happening as singers. She toys with the hems of her jacket and summons the courage to look at her teammates, “…Are we… going in?”

Akito’s answer lies in the fact that he swiftly lifts the collar of his sweatshirt up to cover his mouth and nose. “If someone’s in there, and they’re injured…”

“Shouldn’t we get an adult? Like, Ken-san or someone?”

“He’s kinda busy right now… and from the looks of it I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire population of Vivid Street is at WEEKEND GARAGE.”

Kohane still teeters back and forth, biting her lip, “You’re right.” If she could see his mouth, she knew he’d be grinning, somehow. Though, there are times where not even Akito’s willpower could alleviate her worries. This can't be a good idea, but seeing as a human life could possibly be a stake… “Aoyagi-kun?”

Touya takes a deep breath, and the two of them also cover their noses. “If it gets hard to breathe, we’re leaving immediately. All together.”

“That sounds like a good plan.” Akito snorts because it’s obvious.

They all stare at each other, not knowing who should go first. There’s a pit in her stomach just looking at the alleyway.

Noticing their dormancy, Akito is the one to take the fall and straight-up walks into the smoke and any trace of orange is swallowed whole by gray and black. 

Kohane’s lip quivers, “W-well, we are a team.”

Once she knows Touya is following her, she tries to wave some of the smoke away with her hat, but to no avail. Touya coughs behind her, and she twists back to see if he’s okay. He gives her a thumbs up with his free hand. Kohane can’t help it when she latches onto his wrist for support, albeit scared that he’d somehow wander off. Akito is nowhere to be seen—and how long is this alley exactly!?

Smoke builds up in her chest and she quickly starts hacking. She turns to Touya, who’s also struggling. They’ve got to leave—they’ll suffocate! 

They can’t leave yet. Akito is still gone. “Ak—” Touya wheezes, pushing forward and fighting through the smog, “Akito!”

There’s no response and Kohane thinks she’s going to hurl. He can’t be dead can he!? She tries her best to not collapse from the thought alone, internally screaming at her father for bequeathing his anxiety to her. She needs to be strong! “Shinonome-kun!” She removes the cloth covering her mouth to scream at him. She truly hopes she isn’t normally this impulsive, immediately regretting her actions and plugging her nose shut, detaching herself from Touya. There isn’t time for regret.

Akito is gone. But he can’t have died! Right!?

“Hello!?” It’s a desperate cry this time, it filters out the vague sound of a tick, tick, tick. She and Touya feel an obligation not to leave this alleyway—they said they would all leave together and they can’t live that down! 

She’s going to vomit all over Touya, she can’t think straight when her mind has convinced her that Shinonome Akito is dead. 

There’s a tug at her sleeve and she’s forced to the ground by a mysterious hand. First, Akito dies and now she’s getting murdered!? The pavement doesn’t taste very nice—why is that the only thought she can pull out of all of the other ideas that frantically swarm in her head?! She shakes her head in an attempt to clear her mind. It doesn’t work. In fact, it’s as if even more smoke enters her conscious thoughts and it does a great job of filtering out any useful ones she could conceive to get out of the present situation.

Tick, tick, tick. 

“…Aoyagi-kun?” She croaks. It’s so hard to keep her cool, the only prevention tactic is knowing that even more smoke will enter her lungs if she panics any harder, if that’s even possible.

The answer to her call is made evident when another body joins her on the ground. She doesn’t know whether to be relieved that It’s Touya—who’s still breathing—or horrified that he still hadn’t left. He doesn’t respond, his hand going white from how hard it’s clamping over his nose.

Oh yeah, she’s supposed to be doing that too. 

But they can’t just stay here!

She uses her free arm to try to propel herself up but is cut off by a loud, “Stay down!” The voice is so raspy she has no Idea who it could belong to.

So they’re getting mugged too!? Waiting for them to die of suffocation so their belongings could be stolen—that’s so messed up! The explosion was a mere distraction to lure them into a trap.

She’s not ready for death. She really isn’t, so she has to hold back her vomit and focus on trying to… not die. They say that in times like this, your life flashes before your eyes. But honestly…it’s more like a weird stereogram montage, and she can’t tell beginning from the end. She sees An, then she sees her cousins and then—

After a long 30 seconds that rather feels like 30 minutes—she opens her eyes and can see a lot more clearly.

“You guys can get up now.” The mugger says, breathing heavily. “Sorry, I thought inhaling the pavement would be safer than inhaling the smoke.”

Kohane’s head shoots up to see their murderer, “Shinonome-kun?!”

“Akito!?” Touya beams incredulously.

It’s still hazy with light gray. The smoke that mercilessly clings to her lungs makes her voice come out raspy when she leaps from the ground and wraps her arms around Akito, “I’m so glad you’re okay!” 

She honestly has no idea what just happened, but it doesn’t matter because Akito is alive, and even though he coughs a few times Kohane feels as if all the smoke in that godforsaken alleyway has been cleared and wrapped in warmth and sunshine and rainbows. She doesn’t think she’s been happier to hug someone in her entire life.

“I didn’t mean to scare you like that. I’m sorry” Akito clears his throat and hesitantly returns the hug, “Are you guys okay?”

“Why didn’t you leave?” Touya asks, ignoring his question entirely. He’s got that strict lilt to his voice, the one he always got when lecturing Akito and An about their crippling grades. “You risked your life without a question and—” Touya pauses his rant completely, and points in front of him, “Why is there a porta potty?”

Kohane squeaks and detangles herself from Akito and— there is an actual porta potty. It’s just sitting there at the very end of the alleyway, bright yellow, rusted and with a lack of roof. 

“I have no idea.” Akito states, “But I did rip the roof off of it and used it to fan all of the smoke away. It worked better than I expected.”

“That is so strange…” Touya slowly approaches the porta potty like he’s being lured to his doom by a cursed item. “Is that what caused the explosion?”

“It doesn’t look damaged, though. Look, I’m more confused about how it even ended up here.”

Kohane nods, and scans the periphery. She blinks, adjusting her eyes to the brighter light but it ends up stinging. Smoke got into her contacts—crap! 

Besides the irritation her eyes get from simply existing, this truly is an ordinary alleyway, and if not for the neon porta potty at the end of it, she would have paid it no extra mind. 

Though, if she was still under Taiga-san’s care, she’s sure she would. She took the idea of ‘looking at this town’ very literally at first, and her eyes used to ache from staring at every single minute detail the streets had to offer for so long. Though, then she had to wonder, how had she missed this alley? She’s sure she’s never stepped foot here before. It’s almost that along with the mysterious explosion, this alleyway had been born despite showing signs of past interferences. There's colorful graffiti, a staple of Vivid Street climbing up the walls instead of ivy, and crushed soda cans and bottle caps scattered on the pavement. 

It just begs the question: Seriously, why is there a porta potty here? Who put it there? Why!?

The plethora of questions makes her head heavy, and the lack of answers makes more pelt her brain with helpless inferences.

“Look, it’s the PXL logo.” Touya notes, tracing the divots on the left side of the porta potty with his fingers. He spares Kohane a lingering stare, and for some reason, a wave of embarrassment hits her because all she is doing is standing there blankly with her internal turmoil stopping her from contributing. 

Despite how much she’s grown, she still finds herself yearning for more, and perhaps a life where her anxiety lets her live in peace so she could actually help. She’s reeling, just standing there, wondering how they could move on so casually after nearly having tea with the Grim Reaper. Oh, but she can’t read their minds, now can she?

It was euphoric just now, knowing Akito was alive, as well as Touya and herself. But imagining a divergent reality in which her scenarios came true gnaws at her until the little nibbles she felt earlier begin to eat her alive, and she really wishes it would stop because Akito was not dead, and he was standing in front of her—alive—investigating a literal porta potty. 

“PXL has custom porta potties?” Akito scratches his nape in confusion. 

“Yes, but these are only for the workers who construct the rides,” Kohane pipes in like the PXL dictionary she isn’t ashamed of being. Phoenix Wonderland had actual bathrooms for guests—Kohane doubts she’d frequent the park as much if she was required to use the porta potties. “They have little cartoons of Phenny inside of it in order to get the worker’s minds off of the horrible smells.”

“You’re the professional. Does anything look, I don’t know, off about this thing?”

“Um,” Kohane joins them at the porta potty. It doesn’t smell that bad, only reeking of smoke, but at this point Kohane’s building a total numbness to those black and gray clouds and she can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not. She can’t say anything is out of the ordinary, except for one glaringly obvious inconsistency in its design. “There’s not supposed to be a clock on top of the door”

“Oh, huh. That is weird.”

Tick, tick, tick

The clock’s second hand glides across the circumference of its shape. It ticks loudly, akin to a bomb about to explode. 

“We should leave.” Touya says, echoing her sentiment. Kohane nods, but Akito still stands there. “Akito…”

Akito’s too stubborn for his own good. He’s like An-chan in that regard. “Did we not come here to search for human life in danger?”

“I believe if we stay here any longer, we’ll become the human life in danger.”

Kohane bites down on one of her nails, she hadn’t realized she had been doing that this whole time. 

She really wants to be out of this spooky alley. It’ll be better to come back once they’ve told An about what’s happened and enlist a trusted adult’s help, like Ken-san. Though, the An that lives in Kohane’s head when she’s not around bitterly says, “How about we get someone we could actually trust?”

If Akito won’t leave until he’s sure anyone in here is safe (bless his soul), then if they want to leave as a team…

Kohane takes a deep breath and walks past him, placing her hands on the door of the porta potty. A twisted thought whispers to her in the back of her mind, chiding her that she doesn’t care about anyone else, and that she simply is doing this to prove to herself she’s gotten less anxious, that she’s no longer a coward. 

It’s warm to the touch, probably because of the explosion that happened—but her hands don’t sway away.

Tick, tick, tick

She swings the door open, revealing…

An ordinary porta potty. Same old phenny pictures, same old blue water.

“No one’s in here.” She calls out to the boys, and she can’t put words to describe how relieved she is that she didn’t get scarred for life just now. They can finally go home. Well, after they tell Kotaro what happened. It’d be rude to leave him in the dark and worried about their whereabouts.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tock

She turns around to leave, but it turns out the door had closed behind her when she had entered. Weird. No, not weird. Scary.

She pushes the door open, but to no avail. It stays in place stiffly as if the plastic had just morphed into steel. “Aoyagi-kun? Shinonome-kun?”

Her stomach drops. No, they couldn’t have just gotten up and left! The sun beams into the cramped room she’s in since Akito removed the roof, so they should be able to hear her. She gets on her tippy toes and frantically tries to reach her hand out, so it’d be visible. “Guys!?”

They don’t respond to her call. In fact, when her head drops low in utter dread, she’s not standing on plastic ground.

It’s white. 

It’s a complete…void, full of light that envelops her entire being into a hug and peppers kisses on every inch of her skin. She’s unable to bask in her confusion for this false reality. It's a shame when her body begins to quiver like it had when the explosion had initially detonated, and the kisses transfigure into claws of fire that rip away at her figure and it feels like hell. 

All Kohane can do is scream until her throat pains her more than her body does.

“—Lo? Hey, are you okay?” A gentle voice sounded in Kohane’s ears. There was a firm grasp on one of her shoulders but her brain was too disorrented to care who it could have belonged to. Her head bobbed up and down like a bobble head as the voice’s owner shook and rocked her back and forth, “It’s dangerous to be sitting in the middle of the street like this, you know?”

Kohane opened her mouth, and only a sound that sounded like a deflated kickball came out. Her hands climbed up from her ankles to her throat, and in a blind attempt to say something, anything, she choked on the words and they poured out of her in a hoarse, guttural gasp, “A…A-An-chan…?”

“You’re alive!” The voice rejoiced, and it was then Kohane realized that An was unfortunately not its owner. Even when her brain was so muddled, and every inch of her body ached, she knew that An’s voice was higher than the one who spoke to her now. The two of their voices both danced with their diction, but the person who had found her here sounded more mature, and their voice was weighted with years of communication. “Can you…uh, open your eyes, kid?”

Opening her eyes was like how babies must feel when they opened their eyes for the first time; every color was so vividly saturated in the few blurry shapes one could make out in that stage of life. Or maybe Kohane needed new contacts, that was probably the kicker here. 

She blinked a few times more to see more clearly, so rapidly, so determined because she had to see the world and where she was. 

Luckily, that wasn’t hard to discover. Upon swift investigation of just the ground beneath her, she was so utterly grateful that it was Vivid Street’s pavement instead of a white void that she contemplated reaching down and kissing the road. It wouldn’t be hard, admittedly. If not for the hand on her shoulder keeping her secure and grounded, Kohane was sure she would have crashed back down and gotten a taste of a yummy entrée of pure cement and tears. 

Examining her surroundings further, Kohane’s eyes landed on the grip on her shoulder—a wrinkly hand that had long fingers, too many rings to count and nails painted a pretty coral color. Well, now she knew for sure this wasn’t An and her heart panged. 

Following the path of the person’s arm, Kohane could tell they were a denim connoisseur and seemed to enjoy purchasing clothes that were larger than their size, because the jacket had fallen off their shoulders. This revealed a black turtleneck and a gold necklace that housed a magenta stone in its center that looked fairly expensive. In her vision’s trek across this person’s body, Kohane’s heart stopped beating once she locked eyes with two brown ones that reflected years of kindness and dedication. 

For this was no ordinary resident of Vivid Street, not at all.

The warm smile that beamed onto her belonged to Kotaki Nagi.

Chapter Text

“Uh, Kohane?” Akito scratches his nape, “Everything okay in there?” 

The porta potty stands there, motionless, and Akito doesn’t even know why he pays attention to that factor because it’s not like that hunk of junk is going to spontaneously generate two legs and then waddle away with Kohane inside of it. That stupid clock keeps ticking as well, the tick, tick, tick, ticking sounds easily overpowers any answer Kohane could have replied with. 

What was taking her so long? Surely she wasn’t actually using this thing for its intended purpose. Ew, Why did he even think—!?

Honestly, despite his crude imagination, he’d be way happier if that was the case because at least that would give him an explanation for her spending such a prolonged period in a mysterious porta potty of all places. Kohane wasn’t the type to pull any pranks, and it’d be especially out of character for her to do after appearing so frazzled before she went inside. 

 Suddenly, it’s him who wants nothing more but to leave this alleyway…and it’s kinda stupid of him because he’s the one who got them into this situation, and it’s him who didn’t want to involve any adults. If he’d learnt anything from the truth-bomb that Ken and Taiga had dropped onto them, it was that he more or so found it a little difficult to trust anyone older than 21… 

If he forces himself to be truthful to the other inner workings of his head, then he truly is breaking a sweat wondering if something more sinister could have happened to Kohane inside of that… thing. He wishes he was the one who took it upon themselves to enter first, that he had stuck his arm out and stopped her in her tracks, told her to go home and also followed suit. This really is stupid, and he shouldn’t have let impulsivity take control of him when he barged into the fucking smoke…and now Kohane was paying the price instead of himself. 

Wishing never got Shinonome Akito anywhere, so he rolls up his sleeves and cracks his knuckles, “Screw this.”

“What are you doing?” Touya asks, and Akito is sure he already knows.

“Exactly what it looks like I’m doing. Do you know how upset An’ll be if her partner is dead?”

“Yes. But you act as if you don’t cherish Azusawa as well.”

Touya doesn’t try to stop him as Akito attempts to rip the porta potty door off of its plastic hinges. It doesn’t go as intended, but it gets the job done as the door pivots wide open.

Kohane isn’t there. 

“Fuck…” He breathes—it’s not gentle by any means—raspy from the smoke, shaky from the fact that Kohane is gone. What are the odds!? “Fuck!” 

Where the hell could she have gone!? How!? 

Touya places a hand on his shoulder but no bout of appearing expressionless could possibly cage the look of sheer terror on the boy’s face, or the wobbling of his legs that reminded Akito so much of a rotted wood pillar trying to hold up an old pier. 

There are no words. No words to describe the dread—no words to describe the supernatural occurrence they just witnessed.

He pushes forward, nearly toppling over into the blue water, searching for something—anything—that resembled Kohane or could be traced back to the girl even existing. If what he saw inside the yellow box of hell was right, Azusawa Kohane was an uncanny fabrication of his imagination, a heedful and gentle image that could be shattered so easily. He can hardly feel her presence anymore.

He’ll be damned if he doesn't try to hold onto it.

Whipping his back, the porta potty’s door closes Akito in and shoves him face first into the toilet hole. He’s able to catch himself on the lid but he’s mere centimeters away from getting a nice old taste of blue porta-potty water. 

Oh, what the hell. “You still out there, Touya?” And when there’s no response, Akito can’t hear anything but his heart. 

Right then and there, Akito goes blind. 

He’s not sure if he’s actually blind ‘cause he’s too caught up in his head about Kohane and Touya being completely vanquished from reality. It’s just white, a blinding white light and, wow, this must be what dying feels like. Not the greatest release, it kinda just makes his eyes hurt so he forces them shut and prays to a god he gave up on long ago that he’ll wake up in his bed with his teammates coddling him embarrassingly.

Akito woke up in the middle of the road. 

He didn’t realize that, though, assuming his mattress felt funny because he was developing back problems at the ripe age of sixteen .

He probably would have just stayed laying there if not for the loudest horns he’d ever heard in his life that blared in his ears with no remorse. He didn’t remember his morning alarm sounding like that.

HONK HONK…. HOOOOONK

Huh, and usually Ena didn’t snore that obnoxiously.

The honking got louder and Akito was concerned that Ena could be sleepwalking again, and that was enough to get him to sit up and notice the red truck flooring it towards him. 

No time to lose, Akito shot out of bed (…the road?) and sprinted to the sidewalk with all of his half-asleep-leg’s might. As the truck eventually zoomed by, Akito was slapped with wind and a whole lot of mental whiplash as he tried to process what just happened.

This was… he was on Vivid Street. 

He looked around and saw people of all ages, taking walks, pictures, and obviously singing. The music felt so loud and so full and passionate. And even though Akito almost died for the, what—third, time that day?—Akito stood there and knew the Vivid Street he stood on in that moment was different from the one he built his dream on. This street was far more, well, vivid. There was no other descriptor, even with his frail vocabulary he could say that confidently. In a town where the scaffolding used to contsruct all the buildings was made of music notes and the roads were paved with memories of those who had sang here before he had ever been born, paired with the music playing now by buskers and other residents simply living, Akito, oddly enough, had never felt more at home.

It was a mistake to bask in the warmth of the street before assessing the situation. When Akito blinked and leaned back on his nearest brick wall to try and collect his thoughts, two seconds later, Touya quite literally materialized in the middle of the road. 

He was probably lucid dreaming, huh? He hadn’t been able to do that again after that one time when he was eight or whatever. He guessed that explained why this version of Vivid Street was so bright, since reality affected what you dreamed about. It probably symbolized how Kohane had sleepily yapped for ages about how bright their future was going to be as long as Vivid BAD SQUAD was a team. He remembered feeling…pride—and also that you were pretty much able to control what happened in lucid dreams so he snapped his fingers, expecting for the Touya on the road to teleport to his side. 

It didn’t work, so Akito took it upon himself to go fetch Touya from active traffic. Whatever. Maybe magic snaps don’t work here.

“Touya.” Akito said, stepping onto the road. He held his hand out for his partner to take, but he kind of just stared at Akito like a madman.

“Huh.” Touya reached to scratch his head, but that happened to be the arm that Akito grabbed onto and used to drag him to the sidewalk.

His lucid dream came with a free Touya, too? Man, maybe he could excuse that truck for almost killing him. 

“This is one hell of a dream I’m having.” Akito stared intently at the glowing street, thinking of all the things he could do now. “Ow, what the!?—Touya, why’d you do that!?”

Touya removed his fingers from Akito’s skin, the surprise pinch stung like a bee sting. Curse Touya for actually taking care of his nails! “Akito, you aren’t dreaming.” Completely deadpan. “Do you see Azusawa anywhere around here?”

It all came back in a way that made Akito’s skin tighten around his bones, the buildings around all cave in on him and his stomach twisted into a knot.

“Kohane…” He grabbed onto his shirt, balling it into his fist. Kohane, who had gone into a smoke ridden alleyway with him and Touya, Kohane who had gone into a fucking porta potty and disappeared without a trace. And himself, who had also gone inside and now he presumed he was suffering the same fate Kohane had in a...uh, parallel universe—okay?, what the hell was even happening? “She’s here with us?”

“Akito, I don’t want you acting brash.” Touya said in a clipped tone, “We have no time to lose.”

“I never said we did.” Akito exasperated. “You’re upset with me, aren’t you?” 

Touya averted his eyes away and then at the ground. “Promise me that you won’t be brash, Akito.” That was all he said, and it made Akito duck his head. Now that he thought about it…Kohane was right. They should have gotten an adult but Akito wanted to be a leader in that awful moment and now…

“I promise.” Akito said without hesitation.

“Look me in the eyes and say it.”

“Jeez, dude.” Akito wanted to laugh at how serious Touya looked, fiercely staring at him like he’d murder him if he said the wrong answer. This wasn’t the place to waste time, was it? “You really don’t believe me, huh?”

Touya sighed heavily, his old man’s sigh that made him sound so much wiser and older than Akito could ever dare to be, and that made Touya feel almost omniscient at times and, man, Akito was lucky to have a partner who was actually tactful. However, this time, Touya didn’t seem chiding. He sounded somber. “Back in that alley…anything could have happened. You could have suffocated because you decided to push back all the smoke by yourself. Akito… Azusawa and I thought you were dead.”

“I’m sorry.” He swallowed back the words that he usually added onto his apologies, 'I wasn’t thinking, okay?', because he obviously hadn’t been, and it sounded like a lame excuse. 

Touya nodded expectantly. 

He looked back up at Touya. He looked at his eyes as his partner had requested. “I promise not to be brash.” Akito said after prolonged silence. His gaze lingered on his eyes, the gray that was usually so devoid of color seemed to echo the world around them. Akito was pulled in by the pink sky and the golden sun that seemingly ricocheted off the buildings all around. Regardless, the words came out smoothe and sincere. It was a promise to Touya but also to himself. At the same time, it was an oath to Kohane. They were going to find her. 

Touya’s eyes crinkled slightly as his lips quirked up, “Thank you.” 

Now, they had to find Kohane and somehow get a way out of this parallel universe. However that worked.

“Looking for Azusawa will get us nowhere.” Touya said as if he had read Akito’s mind. He probably did, knowing how Touya read him like he read those mystery books at his leisure. Only difference now was that there was no mystery anymore. How could there be when he knew Akito like he could put a magnifying glass up to his brain and find the problem with no clues to guide him. How Touya was able to stay so on-topic in a time like this was beyond Akito’s understanding. 

“So we should go around and ask.” Akito suggested, bouncing off of Touya with ease. 

Touya nodded. They need to focus on Finding their lost teammate. Anything else can wait until after.

The first three people they asked were no help. Supposedly, they had never heard of a girl named Kohane in their lives and remarked about how outlandish that name was in these parts. He remembered Kohane retelling one of her father's stories to him about how her name baffled her grandparents and cousins who lived in Canada. She admitted it was a strange spelling since it was built purely out of hiragana but she wouldn't trade it for the world. Akito’s stomach twisted. He missed her voice already.

“Blonde hair—well, kinda ashy?—she wears pigtails,” Akito felt pathetic hopelessly doing random gesticulations to get his point across. “Chubby cheeks, has a baseball cap…she’s really hard to miss. You haven’t seen her here at all?” 

The man Akito and Touya had approached stroked his stubble. Akito had never seen him before, nor anyone else on this version of Vivid Street, but his voice reeked of familiarity as he shook his head out of the window of the crepe place to answer their question, “Pigtails…huh?”  

Akito nodded hopefully but doubted this man would know anything about Kohane’s whereabouts just like everyone else they had talked to. 

“Pigtails…blonde…” The man muttered to himself. He seemed pretty deep in thought, like his eyes were focused on an entirely different world than the one that was present. “I think–oh, right. That was the little girl I saw talking with Nagi-chan.”

Akito blinked. “Talking with who!?”

“Nagi-chan.” The man said again. “As in, Kotaki Nagi. You lot come to Vivid Street and never heard of RADder?”

Akito’s head snapped in Touyas direction, who did a great job at hiding his disbelief as he asked more questions, unwavering from their goal, “Did they go somewhere together?”

“Yes?” The Crepe Guy (Akito decided that would be his name until they were formally introduced) scratched his head with a hearty laugh that sort of reminded Akito of Ken’s. “Can’t keep Nagi-chan in one place for too long!” And he slapped his hand on the windowsill like it was the funniest joke he’d ever heard. 

“Where did they go?” Touya eagerly looked at The Crepe Guy.

“To the house.”

Akito couldn’t hide his groan, “Which house?” 

“You really don’t know? They’ve got a whole open door policy down there. It’s the yellow one at the end of the road by the Kamiyama Street sign.”

There was all the information they needed. The two boys thanked The Crepe Guy and walked away. Now they knew where Kohane may have been, but—

“Nagi-san is here…?” Touya sputtered out. It seemed that along with the golden sun, the composure Touya had seconds ago completely sunk. 

Akito sighed, “None of this is making any sense…”

“Unless…”

“Unless?”

Touya’s eyes brightened with possibility, “The porta potty brought us back in time.”

“Time travel isn’t possible.” Akito said. Because it wasn’t. 

“Akito, we have direct contact Hatsune Miku”

“You’re saying that if SEKAIs are real, then so is time travel?”

“Precisely. I’ll be as bold to say that anything is possible.”

”You’re wrapping your head around all of this really fast, you know that, right?” Akito rubbed his temple. “I think time travel is out of the question. That's too—that’s too…uh, fictional.” 

He hated to admit it but Touya’s whole time travel theory backed up with the existence of SEKAIs actually…made sense, in a way. Not only was Touya naturally fifteen miles ahead of him when it came to this kind of stuff, he begged the question, What was stopping time travel from existing if Hatsune Miku also did? Maybe the idea of reality wasn’t as set in stone as he thought. When he was first introduced to the Street SEKAI he had thought, This can’t be real, and it hadn’t felt real at all either. For all Akito knew, every waking moment of his life couldn’t even be reality. The Street SEKAI had given him so much…but at the same time his mind began to wander after live shows with Vivid BAD SQUAD when his heart was so full. Maybe, it was all a dream he’d be bound to wake up from soon. So he’d savor every moment.

It made his head spin. This was too much thinking.

“Vending machine over there.” Touya pointed out, noticing his mental fatigue because of course he did. In the night that had shrouded the street, the vending machine that was pressed against a wall in a nearby alley was practically glowing like a beacon of something that made Akito think it was some sort of salvation.

Akito dug his hands into his pockets, rummaging through all the ones in his jacket before advancing to the ones on his pants until he’d found some spare change. It wasn’t much, but he could afford two sodas and a granola bar if the vending machines back in time (how far back even were they?) were anything like the ones on the Vivid Street he had familiarized himself with. Would this be enough to suffice for all three of them until they found a way outta here?

He shoved all his thoughts to the back of his head and grunted at the fact that he wasn’t getting anywhere. They should be going to the yellow house.

“I have enough for three things. You want anything?” Akito asked Touya once they walked over to the vending machine. He caught their reflections shining off the glass and he saw Touya shake his head. Akito would still buy him the coffee he always got here, and he’d get a soda for himself. 

The buttons he pressed felt like muscle memory, like a keyboard song he’d been practicing for his entire life.

Akito leaned his forehead onto the chill glass of the vending machine and watched the drinks and singular protein bar fall down with squeaks of old and rusted springs and metals scraping against each other. The cold felt nice admittedly, and he didn’t know whether to feel horror that this wasn’t a dream as he did shiver at the contact, or to be bursting with joy because this meant the porta potty didn’t kill him and he was alive.

“We should try going to SEKAI.” He thought aloud.

“…Ready Steady isn’t on my phone. Or any of my contacts for that matter.”

“Wait, really? Shit…” This proved that they had…time traveled. If they went back in time, they couldn’t access the Street SEKAI because it didn’t even exist yet. 

So they really were stuck here…

Though, as he reached down to grab his drinks from the compartment, he freezed. 

“You know how stubborn she is…” He heard a voice down the corner. Akito wondered why he even bothered to listen. He had never been keen on eavesdropping. 

Another voice replied, this one deep and brooding, raspy and hoarse. It contrasted the first one, which had come off very smooth and mediating. Obviously belonging to a man, his language slowly bubbled up with anger, ”Like that makes anything better? She’s already taking on so much unnecessary bullshit and now she’s—“

”You say any of this as if you could even stop her, Taiga.”

Taiga-san! Akito’s eyes widened, and judging by Touya’s silence and how he immediately perked up, he had arrived at the same conclusion. Taiga must be talking with Ken-san, then. 

Taiga grumbled in defeat. It sounded more like a growl if Akito was being honest. 

Akito stayed in place as if moving could disrupt the entire world. A little part of his brain was shaking with something like fear, recognizing that the last time he had come face to face with Kotaki Taiga was at the airport when he and the others had pretty much told him off. 

What, was he worried that Taiga was gonna do something to him? He didn’t know. Probably not, anyways.

He didn’t find himself shaking from fear but rather…resentment at what he had done to An—how he had broken the news about Nagi-san and had attempted to crush all of their dreams. Not to mention the public humiliation, being the reason EVER and Arata left them in the dust, and then deciding to book it back to America. He was lucky that he was yet to claim his soda from the machine, because he was sure he would’ve crushed it in his fist.

“Look, vending machine coming up. Get something to cool off with.” Ken said calmly.

“I really hate when you do this, you know?” Taiga snorted, “Actin’ like you’re my ma.”

“It’s what being someone’s old man does to ya. Ah, speaking of An…you’re still okay with us staying over for dinner? With, erm, the new situation and all?”

The two men’s footsteps got closer and Akito’s doom may have as well. He didn’t know what to do, so he frantically stood up and got all of his stuff, handed the granola bar and coffee to Touya and tried to prepare himself for a god awful interaction. The music on the street seemed to blast much louder than Akito knew it to be, he felt like he was squinting his ears to try and discern what they were saying and as well as how close they were to where he was over the rapping and sometimes even guitar riffs.

Whatever concoction of moonlight and neon lights that had flooded the alleyway a few moments ago was completely blocked by two bulky silhouettes. 

When Akito looked at Taiga all he saw was the man who had tried to destroy their dream. But the face who looked back at him looked as if he had no intention to do any of the things he was bound to do. His eyes were…kind. Even though he was clearly annoyed (Just as he had looked in the present day, Akito was beginning to think his muscles were permanently stuck in a scowl. An had made that comment too, but instead of directed at Taiga, it was at him) it was almost as if his steps were lighter on the ground.

“Hello.” Touya greeted. 

Akito said, “Um, hi.” He wanted to die, why did he say it like that!? If he was making his first impression towards Ken again…he kind of didn’t want it to make himself look like a loser, similar to the first time they’d met.

He genuinely didn’t know what to say after that. So he stood there, backing up to Touya’s side and let the two men in front of them examine them, and God was it awkward. Akito and Touya looked like two cats found in a cardboard box. Sopping wet, pathetic and cold cats.

Usually being straightforward and in Touya’s words: brash, Akito was sure he didn’t look this stupid normally. 

Touya bowed, and in a complete act of hypocrisy he asked Ken and Taiga, “By any chance are you welcoming more children inside of your home?”

Dammit. So much for not being impulsive. 

If that was how they were going to make all of their moves, even Akito had to admit they were probably doomed.

Chapter Text

An’s bouncing on her feet as she hurries to tighten her apron that threatens to come undone. She leans on the bar counter to see how far along her dad’s next dish is going. 

His fluffy pancakes with the whipped cream on top had become a WEEKEND GARAGE staple thanks to Akito’s praises that ended up on every corner of Vivid Street. Ken seemed to be able to zone out completely whenever he cooked those pancakes, knowing the recipe like he knew the in and outs of the live houses around here.

“Someone’s in a hurry.” Ken says with his signature dad-laugh once he notices her impatient drumming on the countertop. 

An wants to defend herself here because she loves her dad, but she sort of is. Her anticipation to sing with her friends only seems to boil up inside of her, intensifying for every lingering moment she spends working her shift. 

Ken drizzles some chocolate syrup onto the pancakes, “I’ll let you off the hook, kid. Just give these to Miss Kawasaki before you leave.” 

As much as she wants to get out of here and sing, she lets out a prolonged sigh at the notion. “I’ll finish my shift, dad. Mom told me to keep you in check while you work.” It’s half the truth, really. Waiting the customers for her dad saves him a great deal of energy and time, and she really didn’t want to leave him alone with such a large workload when it wasn’t even rush hour yet. Besides, being WEEKEND GARAGE’s sole employee had its benefits… like free food—but she mostly just liked to help wherever she could.

“She…said that?”

“Yeah,” An nods. “She doesn’t trust you to be left to your own devices or whatever.” 

Ken tries to say something to retaliate against his wife who wasn’t even in the room with them because of her work but mostly because of the kitchen ban that was placed over her head. 

An shrugs and tries to change the topic, “Have you ever considered hiring more people?” 

 “What, you think your old man isn’t competent for this job anymore?” He cocks an eyebrow, but he’s still smiling. 

 “No, no!” An waves her hands in front of her before turning sheepish, “Just…ah, I worry a bit.”

 “Don’t.” Ken says eloquently, handing her the plate with the pancakes. The fresh pancakes’ warmth spreads to the white ceramic and to her hands. It reminds her of Akito, the way it burns. She wouldn’t trade the feeling for the world… oh, she’s a sentimental freak. “Go, An. Sing.”

 And wants to say something to convince him otherwise, but he doesn’t take no for an answer and starts swatting her away. 

She should trust him to manage on his own, but she still feels guilty anyway. She can’t help but think letting her off the hook is simply out of pity, as her father had gone easier on her after she learnt the truth of RAD WEEKEND. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, it made her feel like a helpless little child; and as much as she does enjoy being doted on, she couldn’t enjoy anything if it made her look like a charity case. She was stronger than that, even if she could admit her father sliding wrapped cookies under her door when she refused to get out was endearing even if she viewed it as an apology done out of necessity.

 “Here you go, Kawasaki-san!” An slides the pancakes onto the woman’s table. She laughs, “It feels like forever since you’ve been here. You’re still doing photography, right?”

 “Oh, An-chan…” She says dotingly, “Of course I am. How could I stop after such a phenomenal shoot?”

 Realizing what she’s referencing, An’s face heats up, and Kawasaki-san giggles. “When was that, almost two years ago? Ah, look at you, An-chan. You’ve grown into such a beautiful woman since then.”

 “A-ah, Kawasaki-san!” An cries, and her eyes frantically fly all over the place for a subject to change the conversation in order to spare herself some dignity. It’s embarrassing, thinking about the photoshoot again… Whenever she looks back on it, she thinks about how stupid it was, how she—whatever, it didn’t clearly matter right now… on that topic, she also suddenly remembers that she forgot to take her ADHD meds this morn—

Kawasaki-san had always been too gracious with her compliments and words that she tended to do this alot whenever she came back to town. 

“Do you want extra powdered sugar?” An asks, like the S-tier waitress that she is.

 Kawasaki-san appears as if she had forgotten she’d ordered anything in the first place, and she begins to prattle on about her grandsons and her time she spent overseas for work opportunities. An nods along and tries her best to stay attentive as she gets a recap of Kawasaki-san’s life over the last year and a half since they’d last seen each other.

An glances at the doors that are held wide open. For a split second, her brain conjures an image of Arata and EVER sauntering inside the cafe, but she quickly blinks it away. Reality wasn’t that hopeful yet which is why she should really start heading to the park and get more practice in because how else would her vision become true. 

RAD WEEKEND isn’t going to surpass itself Tatsuya used to say when they wandered off topic, and An had always cackled. She feels sort of guilty for not giving Kawasaki-san her full attention but the music outside is so loud and her hands feign the feeling of a microphone interlocked with her fingers instead of the strings to her apron. 

 “—that about sums it up. Traveling abroad is one of the best things a person can do! Ah, you and your group will absolutely love it once you start touring.” Kawasaki-san says at last, “Though I suppose I shouldn’t keep you here any longer, now should I? You have always been the hyperactive type.”

 An nods vigorously and flashes her a thumbs up, “You know me! Hyperactive…!” She takes a moment to try and figure out how to wrap the conversation up with a neat little bow, but that’s too much thinking for her so she settles with a very loose, “This has been fun, bye!”

 She practically books it out the door at that and breathes in the sweet release that Vivid Street gave her everytime she finished a shift. All the anticipation that had previously boiled up in her body seems to gush out of her all at once as her sneakers slap into the cracked roads. 

 “Hi!” She waves to the owner of the crepe shop, and he nods at her in acknowledgement. 

 “Hey, An-chan.” The CD shop’s new employee calls out to her, and she smiles in return. 

 After everything that happened…Vivid Street would always be her home, and these people would keep seeing her run down the street twirling and humming. It was those small consistencies that made An feel a sense of contentment even after the street was flipped on its head and she found herself questioning the reflected expressions of happiness she’d recieve. 

 It pains her, looking these people in the eyes again knowing they lied, but… An hates thinking about that. She also hates raining on everyone’s parade, it would be rude to do that when Saturday was when Vivid Street seemed to explode with activity and the music always blasted the loudest. Just as it always has…well, at least after RAD WEEKEND. Maybe a part of her loathed the street for becoming less saturated after the event, and how —ugh, why was she thinking about this? She has a legend to surpass!

 The park was awfully quiet. It usually had been after EVER and Arata left, but this time it was completely devoid of…everything. 

There’s only one person present here. Kotaro sits on one of the benches, fiddling with his fingers as his leg bounces up and down.

 She recognizes Akito, Touya, and Kohane’s bags that are left sitting idly on the ground, as well as a speaker that is completely sideways. 

 “An-chan!” Kotaro’s composure comes back at full force upon noticing her at the park’s entrance. He half runs, half stumbles over to her in a frenzy, “I'm glad you’re okay.”

 An blinks a few times and tilts her head in interest, “It wasn’t even rush hour at the cafe.” She tries to lean sideways to get a look behind the boy, for any trace of her teammates, but their surroundings remain the same way they appeared when she had first gotten here. Touya texted her saying they were already here… 

 “You…didn’t hear it?”

 “No? Wha—hear what?”

 “And you didn’t feel it, like, not at all?”

 “What are you—Aha! I see what’s happening here. Akito’s trying to prank me, isn’t he?” She waves to the scenery behind Kotaro, expecting Akito to magically appear from wherever he was hiding. “You guys can come out now! You aren’t as slick as you think you are.” She puffs out her chest but then deflates once nothing happens.

 “I’m being serious!” Kotaro cries, “You didn’t see that massive explosion that happened earlier!?”

 “Kotaro, the jig is up, you know?” She can easily see him going along with any of Akito’s plans without a further question. Maybe Kotaro is…

Ah, but did Akito seriously have to do this all now? She really wanted to sing…

 Kotaro then grabs An by her shoulders and starts shaking her back and forth, “It’s the truth! I swear on my life! The others went to investigate the ruckus to see if anyone could have gotten hurt! You’ve got to believe me!” The way he desperately pleads with her was so reminiscent of the way he begged for her forgiveness for sabotaging Vivid’s first performance that An couldn’t help but contemplate the validity of claims…

 But an explosion!? On Vivid Street of all places? That made no sense, and she didn’t hear or feel anything while inside WEEKEND GARAGE…

 An lights up with an idea and fishes for her phone in her pants pockets, taking it out and calling VBS’ group chat. She expects to hear the ringing of 3 different ringtones alerting her of where they were hiding but the entire place stays quiet save for her nervous laughs. 

 “Oh shit.” She says, realizing that they literally are not there. What’s weirder is the fact that they didn’t even answer—and she expected the least from Kohane or Touya.

 Look, she really does not want to believe Kotaro here. This has to be an elaborate prank to freak her out, no? Oh, she’s going to get Akito back so hard…maybe she’ll put shaving cream on his pancakes instead of whipped cream, or she could find a way to spook him so bad he wouldn’t think to do something like this ever again. But why would Kohane and Touya do this to her? Sure, they both had a rebellious kick at times, but if anything, Akito was the one keeping them in check. So why…

 Kotaro looks ready to get down on his knees. 

She caves. Whatever, this is probably just a stupid joke. 

“You weren’t lying!?” Is the first thing she screeches after Kotaro leads her to a random alleyway further down the street. There’s a smokey haze that seems to envelope the alleyway and nothing else besides that. It’s not thick, and seems to be relatively light and thin enough for her to see through. She wants to scream at her teammates for being stupid enough to charge into a place that looks like that, but she also knows she’s no better.

Kotaro sputters, barely able to get any words out. An can’t blame him for that, “Uh, no… uhm—I thought—I thought they’d be back by now.”

This is just like Touya’s thriller books! An forces herself to fight the frown tugging at her lips. With this much smoke…it couldn’t have been a set-up like An had assumed, that’s too dangerous! Even for someone with ADHD like Akito! She gulps. She had probably been inside this alleyway a million times, but now it looked completely foreign. 

She cups her hands around her mouth and shouts, “Hey, Akito! Kohane!? Touya, you guys are in there, right!?” 

There’s no response to her screams so she promptly decides if they had found an injured person, they couldn’t answer her calls because they rushed them to the hospital. But no… Kohane would have answered, she’s—she’s certain of that. 

“Ahhh…” An breathes out shakily.

“Aoyagi said he’d text me if anything turned up,” Kotaro tells her. “He hasn’t messaged me since.” Like saying that is going to help.

An feels like her stomach has been emptied of all its contents. “I’m gonna kill Akito when this is over. He could at least answer my calls!” Even if he was in SEKAI, he’d be able to answer! Same with anyone else. Oh, she’s really starting to think something happened—unless they finally came to the conclusion that they were better off without her weighing down the team and decided to leave.

Speaking of phone calls, in a last ditch effort An pulls out her phone again and calls all of them individually. 

First, Akito. He doesn’t answer. Again. She can’t hear any ringing nearby. Asshole. 

Next, she dials Touya. He doesn’t reply either and An is shocked that someone as punctual as Touya would miss a call like this. 

Lasty, she calls Kohane and holds her phone to her chest in some sort of prayer that her partner will answer. “Please.” She softly mutters. 

“An-chan…” Kotaro whispers, “I think we should get Ken-san.”

“Shhhhh.” An hushes him. She needs to know if there's a ringing coming from inside the alleyway because An thinks she would rather lose her voice than go inside of there—and losing a voice and death were on par with each other in her eyes. She doesn’t want to drag her dad into this either and stress him out…she also isn't very keen on seeing him at the moment so she needs to brave this by herself. “Wait, oh my god.” 

She hears something. Something so subtle but there is something emanating sound from within the haze. 

It’s idol music, but instead of lyrics, there’s little cat meowing sounds at every syllable—Kohane’s ringtone! 

Oh, she has never been happier to hear it in her life!  

Disregarding any of her past concerns, An bolts into the alleyway, easily swiping away some smoke which presumably came from whatever explosion Kotaro spoke about. However, it turns out to be a horrible idea once she realizes, Wow! This is just like the horror movie Mizuki was telling me about yesterday, and she promptly walks right out. 

She really, really hates the dread that’s taken residency in her head that blocks out any other ideas related to going inside that alley. Which she hates even more! What if something happened to the others in that alleyway and they didn’t answer her calls because they couldn’t.

…Who was she kidding? Akito was never ever that cruel that he’d go so far as to prank her like this…

There’s still a mewing coming from the alleyway from Kohane’s phone, which as bad as this already was, proves that Kohane had no doubt gone inside of there!

“Shit, Kotaro,” Does it seriously have to look that spooky from out here? “I don’t think it matters what could be in that place, we—we need to—we need to see if they’re in there.” The way her voice trembles against her will unerves her even more. She was supposed to be the cool one, not the freak out in the face of danger one! 

“I can go in with you.” Kotaro suggests, looking uneasy. She hates that she can’t do anything to dissipate his worries. Maybe if she hadn’t been late for practice none of this would have happened…

“That would be nice…”

Next thing she knows, she and Kotaro are clinging onto each other for dear life as they go into the alley at snail’s pace. It’s just so…ominous, with the smokey haze that doesn’t deter her breathing but rather just her vision. She finds herself flinching at every sound that isn’t a cat meowing. Even the graffiti that she truly appreciated appears as drawings of devilish monsters, and there’s probably dead bodies in that dumpster over there thanks to her stupid brain doing everything in its power to scare her more. It sort of pisses her off because her brain is supposed to be on her side!

“Ow.” Kotaro says after An steps on his foot for the millionth time.

An mutters a curse and tries to steady her breathing, “Sorry! Sorry! Agh, I’ll try to be more careful.” 

“An-chan, don’t push yourself too hard. This is spooky.”

“I’m not scared!” She blatantly lies to make herself feel better about being so pathetic. 

Despite the bold claim, she clings onto his arm tighter and really wishes that Touya was here right now. He always stays so collected whenever she’s freaked out. He’s like her rock. He keeps her grounded and she doesn’t find herself scared of the dark whenever he’s around. Not to say Kotaro isn’t helping! He’s, uh, trying his best…! An ignores his quiet whimpers just as he ignores her nails that probably dig into his skin even with all his layers stacked on top.

With the arm that isn’t melded to An, Kotaro waves away some of the smoke, which goes surprisingly well, because the next thing An spots besides anything else creepy is Kohane’s phone laying face down at the very end of the alley. 

That is more than enough for An! “Ah, Kotaro! Come on!” She practically drags him over to Kohane’s phone as all her worries blend with the fading smoke for a few moments, taking the phone and basking it in like it were a hug from her partner.

Her relief quickly vanishes because if this is the end of the alley…

An gasps, and she suddenly feels nauseous because the scariest thing about the alley wasn’t what was in it, but rather, what wasn’t. 

Kotaro mutters the obvious, “They’re not…” 

“Something happened to her, Kotaro!” She nearly hisses and Kohane’s phone nearly slips out of her sweaty palms as she fumbles to decline the call from herself so the ringing would stop. The moment the meows from Kohane’s phone come to a stop, An wishes she kept it on—for one semblance of comfort. “W-what are we—where are—what are we supposed to do!?”

“You’re saying that they’re…gone?”

“I’m not saying that they’re gone! I’m saying that…” She takes a moment that is far too short to steady her breathing. She doesn’t even know how to punctuate her sentence—she doesn’t want to say they’re gone, that would imply that they were missing, or they left, or someone did something horrendous to her teammates—her best friends. Saying they were gone is…scary. “Forget it. Sorry if i’m being rude, it’s just—what do we even do!?”

“Report this to, uh, the police?” Kotaro glances behind him and An takes that as a signal to get the hell out of this place before the buildings close in on them. 

An doesn’t want to do that. That makes this seem real and An really hopes it isn’t. Even once they’re out of that alleyway, the air doesn’t feel any less suffocating. 

“Kotaro, I don’t know…I’m…uh, I’m thinking,” She’s not doing much of that, actually. If Kohane’s phone was left behind with no actual Kohanes nearby…and then Akito and Touya not answering any of her calls. An knows muggings aren’t uncommon in the city, but…not in Vivid Street, she tries to reason with herself. Not in her Vivid Street. 

Kotaro is correct, and there’s no time to lose. 

The first time Shiraishi An had spoken to the police was when she was ten or so and had run away from home under the guise that the people on Vivid Street didn’t love her. 

The second time is when she’s reporting three teenagers as missing persons. 

She’s only made it this far without one of her parents being called because Kotaro is freshly eighteen, but his age only gives her protection for just a little while and now she’s seated in the police station lobby next to her mother. 

The air conditioning blasts and blows away the sounds of other people nearby who are crying about something horrible An will never be privy to. 

She zips her jacket and stares at her sneakers on the almost reflective tiling of the floor. Everything is so bright here. Usually she wouldn’t mind something like that but she brings her legs up so her feet rest on the chair and she burrows her head into her knees.

The details don’t really matter anyways ‘cause everything is blurry and An can’t even make out what her mom is trying to say to her.

The only details that do matter are the ones she spews out to describe her teammates to an officer, like Touya’s mole under his left eye and how Akito has too many piercings to count, how Kohane’s height is exactly one hundred fifty six centimeters. For a second they're still with her.

An blinks a couple of times once her mother’s hands that ran through her hair halt in their tracks. Her eyes are heavy, and she wants to get up and do something but she feels as if she’s been glued to this chair and all she can do is watch the other people here and try to filter out all the hushed chatter with the humming of the radiator behind her. She can’t tell if she had fallen asleep or something of the likes but either way it’s probably only been five minutes when her disassociated thoughts seem to last for so much longer. 

She lifts her head up from her knees and spots her mother talking to the receptionist lady and Kotaro in the seat to her right. He’s typing furiously on his phone, texting someone. His fingers bounce across his keyboard so aggressively that every couple seconds he has to fan his hand to alleviate the tension in it. By the straightforward responses he receives in an instant, An recognizes it as a conversation between him and her father. 

She feels so numb, sitting here and waiting like this. She’s got a horrible aching in her chest for not trusting any of these law enforcement people to do their job, but why should she trust them when the justice system was already so— 

“An-chan? Ken-san says he’s coming.” Kotaro says apprehensively, setting his phone down. 

An only sinks deeper into the chair. It’s got to be made of plastic or something because it doesn’t feel comforting in the slightest. Maybe it could have been if she still had Kohane’s phone in her pockets, which she handed over to some detective guy to help them find more information regarding where they could have gone. An doubts they’ll find anything because even she couldn’t. “I hate this.”

She hears her mom say something about hiring a private investigator and it’s all awful. All she knows is that she’s got a fleeting feeling that the detectives aren’t going to do shit and she needs to get out of here. 

“I know…I do too, I really do.” Kotaro didn’t have to do any convincing there. “Um, It’s…It’s gonna be okay.” In a weird way he sounded so much older and wiser, like an older brother almost. But even feigning the act of an omniscient sibling can’t get An to budge when normally it would. 

On October 21st 2021, Shiraishi An walks to some place called Vivid Street with her parents as she wonders if she can even call it home when she does this on the same day Aoyagi Touya, Azusawa Kohane, and Shinonome Akito are declared missing.

Chapter Text

Akito was shooting lasers into the back of Touya’s neck as he trailed behind him indignantly while Ken—concernedly—and Taiga—begrudgingly, agreed to guide them to the yellow house at the end of the street. 

 Even somebody as perceptive as Akito—especially when it came to Touya- did not understand what Touya was trying to do then. 

He saw Touya’s request for hospitality to be a hypocritical act, which, admittedly Touya had just preached so ardently about not doing. He did have his reasons, though. Not only would it be rude to barge into what he assumed was Kotaki Nagi’s house, it would probably be wiser to, erm, also find a place to stay while they were stuck in the past. He still had no Idea how they were going to get out of this mess or if anything was even real, but he had told Akito that everything else could wait for later until they found Kohane. 

 Thinking about seeing her safe and intact after all of this time….he supposed that was the one thing keeping him from losing all that was left of his composure. 

 Ken was kind enough to break the silence, opposed to his partner who wouldn’t budge. Taiga’s eyes were fixed on the road ahead and Touya noticed that wasn’t all that contrary to the Taiga he had familiarized himself with. “So, what brings you kids to Vivid Street? Ken asked. “We don’t see many newcomers these days.”

 Ah, Touya hadn’t thought of that. He turned his head to look behind him at Akito. He had his hands in his hoodie's kangaroo pocket and Touya could tell that paired with his lost looking expression, he was fidgeting with his fingers not knowing what to say. He couldn’t blame him, after all that had happened.

 This was up to Touya, it looked like. So, he lied, “We….ran away from home.” He nodded as he said it, as if trying to convince himself he was being truthful as well as he was Ken and Taiga. Although the thought was so cruelly selfish, Touya couldn’t help but think: why shouldn’t they help themselves, after the way they’d been lied to? The way An had been lied to. Maybe it was his uncharacteristic way of reclaiming lost power.

 It was too late to turn back. The damage had been done the moment the lie slipped from his lips. Touya knew better than anyone that no matter how badly he wanted to rewrite the past, there was nothing he could do to rectify his actions, and now he’d be stuck with it. He was willing to bear the weight of that.

 In an instant, Akito grabbed onto his arm and his eyes screamed, “Dude, The hell are you doing?!” 

 Touya didn’t know, to be honest. It really was straight out of a novel, and now he was creating their alibi out of literally nothing. God, he already felt guilty. He wished he could talk this out with Akito, but they were in the middle of something…

 “I see…” Ken said, appearing in deep thought. “I take it you’re from the middle of the city, yeah?” 

 Touya nodded along, and Ken didn’t press for more information. Touya was so, so grateful for that. 

 Taiga seemed to snap out of his trance. It was then when Touya began to wonder why he was still wearing his sunglasses when it was pitch black darkness outside. Maybe the neon lights that bounced off his metal necklaces and piercings hurt his eyes. He craned his neck back to look at the teenagers and asked, “Brothers?”

 “Nope.” Akito butted into the lie, which was surprising since he had looked so opposed seconds ago. He must have caught on to what Touya was trying to do. 

 “He helped me escape.” Touya bounced off of him scarily easily considering none of this was even true. 

 Taiga pressed on, “Shit parents?”

 Ken elbowed him so hard it elicited a pained cry from the older man. ”You’ve ought to stop doing that.” 

 “His parents were…” Akito trailed off, at a loss of what to say—either that or he was caught off guard by Taiga’s bluntness that seemed to shatter glass. They exchanged a glance and Touya honestly couldn’t believe they were doing what they just did.

 Fortunately, Ken understood what was going on (What that even was, Touya would have to figure out later.) and messily changed the topic, “Would ya look at that?” He gestured over to a nearby house. It was yellow, a humble single story house that was crammed next to two other buildings. With Vivid Street mostly containing shops and livehouses, the house looked wildly out of place. It was that bold yellow color that made it fit on the street, the porch light illuminated it brightly, competing with other street and neon lights. 

 The four of them went over to the door, Touya and Akito nervously shuffling up the steps and watching as Taiga bent down and lifted the doormat up. Underneath it was a rusted house key, which he examined hastily before unlocking the door without caring to knock. 

 A quick “Kohane…”slipped out of Akito’s mouth before they even saw the inside of the house—before they even saw Kotaki Nagi, who was alive. Touya watched as the older men entered, and Akito practically charged in with Touya hesitantly following behind. 

 Upon entrance, Touya couldn’t tell if the most shocking thing was seeing Kotaki Nagi herself or if it was seeing Kohane sitting right next to her, hugging a pillow to her chest on a leather couch with a porcelain teacup in her hands. In addition to that, on the coffee table in front of the girls had an entire tea set atop it, but the fresh aroma of tea was the last thing Touya could take in before Kohane’s face livened upon seeing himself and Akito standing in the door frame. 

 Kohane essentially barreled over to them, and her arms knotted around Akito and Touya. “You guys!” She almost choked the words out, her speech tumbled out of her mouth so amok and frantic. “I’m so glad—Are you—”

 Akito pulled her in tighter, her face smooshing into his chest as he dug his face into the crown of her head and Touya rubbed circles into her back. She was shaking, but none of that seemed to matter as the three of them melted onto each other and the rest of the world disappeared. 

“There are no words,” Touya said softly, so just his teammates could hear him.

 As if hammering the chains that entangled the three of them, Taiga coughed, “Um.” 

 All three of them unknotted. themselves from each other. Touya had forgotten about the presence they were in. 

 “Oh, hi!” Kotaki Nagi said, and she set her teacup down on the coffee table and started approaching them. 

Touya quickly stuck his hands to his sides like a soldier and bowed down respectfully. “Hello, my name is Aoyagi Touya, my friend here is named Akito. It is an honor to meet you.”

“You two must be the friends Kohane spoke about–” He felt a light tap on his shoulder paired with a slight giggle, “Hey, there’s no need to be so formal...”

 The woman sounded so earnest, Touya wished she had pinched him instead of gently tapping him. He stood up fully and she was staring him in the eyes. The first thing Touya noticed about her was that he seemed to tower over her. She may have been the same height as An, either that, or only a few taller. He had to blink a few times to make sure he was processing any of this correctly because in the video of RAD WEEKEND Ken had showed them, her stature had always appeared so tall with the way she stood on the stage and the crowd would go wild at her fingertips.

 “Ah, apologies, Nagi-sama—I mean—I mean, Nagi-san-!” 

Nagi burst out laughing at his humiliation, going as far as to slap her knee in hysterics. Once she recovered, she wiped a tear and planted a hand on Touya’s shoulder, “Oh, I like this guy.”

How else was he supposed to react when he was looking in the eyes of a woman… who was dead.

“You like anyone that inflates your ego.” Taiga offhandedly commented, slipping his shoes off by the door.

 Nagi seemed to be baffled by how Touya carried himself, though Akito came in before Touya could conjure up any self-deprecating thoughts. “We’re very sorry for barging in so suddenly.” He plastered on a cordial grin, his nice guy persona and Touya knew there was no way he’d survive if he was going to put up a facade. 

 “It’s okay, it’s okay!” Nagi said, her hand still on his shoulder. He couldn’t believe she was in front of him. “We’re always welcoming ‘round here,” She shot a look at her brother, “Aren’t we, Taiga?”

 “…Always.” Taiga said, sounding quite unwilling. “You know who these kids are?” 

 “We’re runaways.” Touya filled her in. Kohane’s head snapped in his direction, confused out of her mind.

 “The little lady as well?”

 “Yes.” He may have said that a little bit too confidently, becauase Nagi quirked a brow for a split second in response. 

She nodded slowly and spared Kohane a glance before replying, so concerned, “Oh my god…how far are you all from home!?—Ah, that doesn’t really matter right now.” Her immediate empathy clawed away at Touya’s words. “You need a place to stay?”

Taiga tried to counter, “Nagi—“

“—Just for the time being, of course. No rent at all, since it sounds like you kids need it.”

“Really? Kohane asked.

Touya was hesitant although this was his plan coming to fruition, “But how will we pay you back?”

“I just said you don’t have to do any of that, no? We can figure everything else out later.” Nagi finally removed her hand from Touya’s shoulder and easily directed her attention to her own teammates who were standing stiffly next to Akito, “Ken, you’re here early. Are Yuka and An still coming for dinner?”

Ken blinked in shock, “After everything that’s happened tonight? It might be best if we—”

“But Keeeen, It’s been forever since I've seen Yuka! And An’s been excited to dig into the Kotaki special…” 

Watching the Kotaki Nagi quite literally bat her eyes so casually made it felt like he, Akito, and Kohane were invading in on such an exclusive vision of RADder. Which, in a way, they definitely were intruding. They were never meant to see any of this, that is if his time travel theory was correct. The people standing so close to them often gave the impression of being much taller than they actually were, and now…

Touya soon realized no one in RADder actually took the time to introduce themselves…..whether it was because of their egos or because they had assumed they had already known their names, Touya would never know. Maybe it was for the best, but how would he ever know that?

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes!” Nagi bursted out, grabbing Ken by the shoulders and pushing him out the door whilst his sneakers squeaked on the floor, “I’ll have more help in the kitchen, yeah? Now you go get Yuka and An, and when you’re back it’ll be time for dinner!”

No room for any protests, Nagi closed the door behind Ken. 

Taiga rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Nagi, please don’t push yourself. I’ll cook dinner.”

“I hate when you say that stuff, Taiga. I’m perfectly capable of cooking food, you know. Besides, you say that as if you can even be trusted in the kitchen.”

“You trust Yuka over me in that situation?”

“I didn’t say that. At least you wouldn’t burn the house down.” Now remembering about the three teenagers she just invited to live in her house, she bounced back to them. “You three alright with being my teammates in the kitchen?”

If they were in any other situation, Touya thought that the idea would have made the three of them drool.

They nodded. Of course they did. Maybe they really were runaways with how lost they felt.

Nagi graciously guided them to the Kitchen, which wasn’t too hard to get to considering the house had a very open floor plan that even when standing behind the kitchen island that Touya could very clearly watch as Taiga slumped down onto the couch. He seemed to let the cushions swallow him whole as he sighed and pressed his phone behind his ear as he picked up a call. Touya had to admit that the two siblings (who he presumed were roommates at this point) made very good use of their space. They had opted to use warm light bulbs instead of industrial-like ones. Instead of a huge television perched on the wall in front of the couch—which in turn was a very small one sitting on a second coffee table pushed against the wall—there were an indescribable amount of records hung up. Like, they had somehow gathered every record in the world and they all made a home out of that wall. 

Contrasting the cozy nature of the living area, the kitchen was…

“Sorry for the mess, things have been a bit hectic lately” Nagi scooped up at assortion of pill bottles and cups on the counter and pretty much threw them into an overhead cabinet with a huff. She was quick to collect herself with a deep breath in. “So it's a good thing the Kotaki Special's real easy.”

Touya doesn't feel real at that moment. Like, he's drifting through time and space and he's a ghost spectating everything. He can’t describe how badly he wants to speak with Kohane and Akito. Their group hug still lingers on the dimming warmth in his chest but he wants nothing more than to reignite that flame. Also, most importantly, have a conference on this entire predicament now that they were all together again.

“S’in the freezer,” Nagi said as she messed around with the dials of this oven. “On top of all the ice cream, can you grab it for me?” 

Touya immediately nodded his head and moved over the refrigerator with Kohane behind him. 

He pulled the freezer open, a blizzard hitting his face. If his judgment was correct, The Kotaki Special was housed inside a bag of frozen chicken nuggets and french fries. How extravagant.

“Aoyagi-kun, look.” Kohane whispered and she tapped on his shoulder to get his attention. She pointed at a polaroid picture that was on the fridge, hung up by a magnet that was clearly a souvenir from a gift shop. “It’s a picture of An-chan.”

In actuality, there maybe were a dozen pictures of An on that wall, ranging from baby photos to the one Kohane just showed him. The fridge may have doubled as an art gallery; he noticed a drawing of three stick figures with ‘RADder’ written above it.

The An in the picture couldn’t have been older than thirteen. Her smile still was so infectious even when captured in time, she beamed at him and held up peace signs. Writing at the bottom of the polaroid said, ‘Summer 2010s!’. Ken-san was standing behind her with his sunglasses on. It felt almost uncanny seeing him dressed in something other than his WEEKEND GARAGE shirts. Compared to the other photos here, this was the oldest looking An, recognizing that she had braces and all the other ones didn’t.

Although he was holding a bag of frozen chicken nuggets, he couldn’t help it when his hands began to tremble in the slightest bit, and he knew it wasn’t because of the cold. 

An. Oh, he could only pray that she wouldn’t stumble upon that alleyway, that she wouldn’t go inside the porty potty as they had. That she was safe. 

Has she gotten to practice yet? Had she noticed they were gone? Did the time passing here pass differently than it does in the real world? In the present? 

He glanced over at Kohane who appeared to have the same idea he did, his apprehension reflecting on her face. 

Had this confirmed his idea that they could have time traveled? They must be in 2016, then, since An looked like a middle schooler in the photo. Maybe 2017 depending how long ago it was taken, but that was too vague for him to have any idea when they were. 

(He’d have to show Akito when they had a chance. Knowing him, he’d probably be able to tell the year accurately just by looking at their clothes and how they styled them.)

That would explain why his phone didn’t have Ready Steady. The song simply didn’t exist yet, and maybe his entire phone model hadn’t either considering how everything was wiped from it.

Kohane lifted up the bag of frozen french fries and took a deep breath that quivered along with her lip she bit on, “We need to find out…um, what date it is.”

Touya nodded, and was about to add on until Nagi called out for them. There were so many things they wanted to talk about, they needed to talk about. But for now, the words left unsaid would have to make do, even if all they did was communicate anxiety back and forth.

“Here you go, Nagi-san.” Kohane set the french fry bag on the counter and Touya followed suit with his chicken nuggets. 

Akito was getting to work buttering a baking tray, though he did it very aggressively. Touya knew he was trying to release tension and everything that was boiling inside of him, similarly to how he’d go on runs to clear his mind. Now he had to let it all out via butter. 

Nagi giggled in good fun and swatted at the pan to get him to stop, “Thanks a bunch, you guys—ah, Akito, was it?—you can lay low on the butter for now.” Something about watching all of this…

Kotaki Nagi was going to die. 

Did she know at this point in time?

She acted normal—but that was easy for him to say, he had never met her before—she hummed like it was any other day. If Touya was anybody else, he thought he might have looked at her and never suspected anything was wrong. Oh, how easily he’d fall for the street’s lies if it were him instead of An. If she knew she was sick…Touya undoubtedly would have fallen for the facade she put up. This facade that was like a wall, made him think she knew the answers even though her most prized cuisine was chicken nuggets and french fries.

Unlike the one Nagi put up, Akito’s facade was weaker and shattered as he froze and the tips of his ears went red, “Oh. Um, sorry about that.” 

Nagi opened the bag of french fries and poured them onto the baking tray, shoving them to one half of the tray and spreading them out enough that they wouldn’t be stacked on top of eachother. Then, she put the chicken nuggets on the other side of the tray, muttering, “I hope it’s enough for everyone…” Nagi took the tray and slid it into the oven with a sigh. “Jeez, I could really use a coffee right now.”

Touya perked up.

“You kids want some?” Nagi asked, “I’d imagine after everything that’s happened today you must be exhausted.”

It’d be selfish to ask for some, after all the lying he’s done today. He already started to wonder if he had told the truth, what would have happened? You can’t just go around talking about how you’re a time traveler, which he supposed he was now.

“You all look like you saw a ghost.” She laughed and pulled out four little coffee blends from a cabinet below. Her face became something much softer, “Look, I’m not gonna force you to say anything, but please, don’t hesitate to ask for stuff. For now, this house is just as much yours as it is mine and Taiga’s.”

“That’s really nice of you, Nagi-san.” Kohane said, “You’re really nice.”

Nagi grinned, “Coffee, going once, going twice.” She smirked at him and shook the coffee blends like they were maracas. 

He caved, “I’d like some, please.”

“I knew it!” She fist pumped made her way over to the coffee machine. It wasn’t as nice as the one he was used to seeing at WEEKEND garage, it was aged but in a way that gave it personality. “You fancy a certain flavor? I’ve got loads.”

“Nothing in particular. Thank you, Nagi-san.” 

Five minutes later, Touya had a new plan. Now that he and Akito had reunited with Kohane, their next objective was to get back home. He liked to think he would have spent a lot more time grappling with the idea that he had time traveled into the past, but he needed to use whatever time they had wisely. Fortunately for him, Kohane appeared to be on the same page after their small rendezvous in the kitchen, so he’d like to be smart about what questions they asked to avoid creating suspicion about where they came from or anything of the sort that would debunk his selfish lie. And, of course, to figure out what time they were in—the top priority. 

Akito, however, was in a daze. He sort of just sat at the small, circular dining table and blankly stared at the crevices in the wood opposed to he and Kohane’s sagacious gazes at Nagi. She gently slid him a mug of coffee and took a long sip of her own. 

The oven hummed all the way from the kitchen, almost harmonizing with the radiator. 

“So, um, Nagi-san,” Kohane anxiously drummed the fingertips atop the table. “You said you were a singer?”

The woman grinned widely, the prospect of music released the tension in her shoulders. Touya hadn’t observed before. “Yup, With Taiga and Ken.”

”When is—when are you all performing another gig? What date?”

Touya and Kohane exchanged a knowing glance. Kohane had created a smooth entrance for easy answers about the time.

“Tomorrow,” Nagi says, not entirely helping their case here. “Can’t have a weekend without singing at COL. It makes Fridays like these feel so restless.”

Touya nodded. As if to give himself time to think of a question to ask he took an extended drink of his coffee. God, was it good. The taste nearly took him back to WEEKEND GARAGE where An would smile at him and ask, “Is it good? Do you like it, Touya? Do you like it? ” repeatedly as he drank from the brew she made special for him. He had to swallow the thought though and focus on the task at hand, “I see.”

“It’s not a good mindset to have, force of habit, ” She shrugs nonchalantly, “Time is of the essence, you know? If you wanna enjoy the time you have, you’ve gotta stop living for tomorrow and live for today.” She contemplates this a little bit longer but decides to end her speech promptly with, “There’s a million songs about Friday nights for a reason.” She snorts at her own joke and waves one of her hands as if to swipe the seriousness away. 

“I see.” 

“You’re funny.” Nagi told him out of nowhere, She rests her head atop her palm.

“…What?” His face shadows as his brows crease. “I didn’t say any jokes.”

Akito snorted, deciding now was the best time to give any input. 

“You’re so…” Nagi begins, drawing a deep breath in. Well, that was before she audiby squeaked and shot up from her chair, “The food!” 

The string of curses she let out, sprinting inside the kitchen, nearly harmonized with the squeak of the front door as it opened and three people came pooling in. 

Leading the charge was… An. 

It was An, with the same fire in her eyes, with those same star clips. It was surreal seeing her here but there was nothing that compared to the relief he felt when he noticed this An was even shorter than he remembered—measuring up a little bit above Ken-san’s elbow—and had a long jean jacket on, something the An he knew would declare a fashion crime. 

It was An, who still tackled the closest person to her into a hug upon seeing them, “Taiga-ojisan!” 

Taiga looked like he was suffocating under An’s added weight, still sitting on the couch and all. Despite his protests for the girl to get off him, there was still an irrefutable fondness in his eyes that looked foreign to Touya. “It’s only been a few hours. Miss me that much?”

An nodded, “I missed you lots! Nagi-san too! Where is she?”

An’s mother, Yuka, he remembered, tapped her daughter on the shoulder and chided her, “You’ll give poor Taiga even worse back problems, dear. Get off him, maybe?”

“Sorry!” An squeaked, and promptly slid off of him.

Taiga groaned as he stood up from the couch, “Even worse back problems? You’re making me sound like an old man, Yuks.”

“Just looking out for you.” Yuka smirked, “If it bothered you so much you wouldn’t have stopped dyeing your grays.” 

Taiga hissed at her, clearly not able to combat the truth. So, he changed the topic, “Oi, Nagi!? Everything alright in there?”

An’s eyes lit up, having received the answer to her earlier question and she started running towards the kitchen. Though, that’d be impossible for her to do without noticing the elephants in the room.

Her jaw went slack. Her mission to find Nagi? Abolished. Gone. 

“Teenagers!” She gaped at the three of them. Wonder dancing in her eyes at speeds so rapid, Touya couldn’t dare to try and count the stars that shone so bright in her gleeful gaze. 

Ken came rushing in behind her, “I forgot to tell An about the, er, situation.”

“Oh, An! You’re here!” Nagi finally came out of the kitchen, patting An on the head in greeting. “So, Taiga and I are gonna be having some visitors over for the next couple…weeks?” She grinned weakly at the three of them, who were still sitting like statues at the table.

An clearly wasn’t taking any of that in though, so focused on the three of them. Her stare bounced from Kohane, to Akito, to him in a ricochet of curiosity. “Hi!” She waved at them excitedly. “I’m An! Who are you people? Do you sing? Wanna—” 

“Slow down An, you’ll overwhelm them.” 

“Ah, sorry! Sorry!” In an attempt to say anything more, she sputtered out, “It’s just—wow—you guys look so cool! Like, really cool! Cool like Dad and his team!” 

“That’s debatable.” Taiga said, walking into the kitchen and sneaking a french fry. 

“Cool like…” She pointed to Akito, “I really like your earrings!” Then, she turned to her dad, “So, can I get my ears pierced now that I'm old enough?”

”That's,” Ken took in a deep breath, shocked by the sporadicity of his daughter, “A discussion for another time.” 

“Bleh,” An stuck her tongue out. “Anyways, what’re your names?”

Touya’s coffee had gone cold by then. “Aoyagi Touya.” He said stiffly. Too stiffly, especially for him when talking to Shiraishi An. Either way, he still held his apprehension close to his chest no matter how badly he wanted to let it run free because that was something An had taught him how to be. 

“Akito.” His partner said, completely forgoing his nice guy persona. He even went as far as to slouch in his seat. That was understandable. Whenever he went ‘nice guy’ for too long he’d always complain to Touya about how badly his back hurt. 

“No last name?” An quirked a brow.

“S’not important.”

An was gripping onto the table with anticipation, leaning her body over it just to bask in their presence, “And you?”

Kohane bit back a giggle, a nervous giggle he presumed because her fingers anxiously frolicked across the table. “I’m Azusawa Kohane. It’s nice to meet you, An-chan.”

“An-chan…” An echoed, and thought about the name for a short bit. Then, she giggled to herself, giddy. “I like you guys.” 

It really is late for dinner time. Though, that was hard to say when the sun never set in Vivid Street. It was practically always daytime, always summer, the way the town never went to sleep. Streetlights illuminated the small patio where he and his teammates sat to eat the Kotaki Special. Nagi had pulled out some lawn chairs, only enough for the four adults but no one seemed to mind as the street sang loudly and filled up the silence that filled Touya, Akito, and Kohane.

 High on caffeine, Touya thought it’d be impossible to fall asleep, especially after everything that had happened. Kohanes head drooped so low, he ended up taking her plate away from her lap to avoid her smashing into it. That would probably cure her obvious exhaustion, but it was far too hefty a price. 

He couldn’t believe it. Time travel existed and honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if he had read a book with this same exact plot before. A novel lost to time, of course, as the story was vacant from his mind so he supposed for now he’d be a protagonist in a book filled with so many plot holes.  

The three of them would make it home. 

They’d figure this out. Hadn’t they always done that?

“So,” An sprung out of nowhere, making Kohane’s head shoot up with a peep. “You guys came to Vivid Street, so are you singers?” Kohane nodded, and grew even more excited. “You know, not a lot of kids my age show up around here.”

“We’re not kids.” Akito said, half asleep. 

“Ah right, teenagers.” An clapped her hands, “Actually, I’m a teenager too. I’m so old I can’t even count my age on my fingers” she explained to them. She started to count on her fingers, but once she reached ten, she shrugged. “See, I can’t continue. ‘Cause I'm so old.”

“…How old are you?” Akito asked, giving her exactly what she wanted..

“I just turned thirteen!” She puffed out her chest proudly. Akito snickered. 

“That’s lovely.” Said Touya with a gentle smile. 

If An was thirteen…then the earliest year they could be in was 2017. He would have thought 2018, but that would mean Nagi would be—

“Anyways,” An said, stealing a french fry off of Akito’s plate. “I think since we’re so close in age—and we all sing—we should team up! Teammates are really important, ya know. That’s what dad always says.”

“Ah…I’m really sorry,” Kohane sighed, placing a comforting hand on the middle schooler’s shoulder. “An-chan, I don’t think we can…we’re only staying here temporarily.”

Although he could only try to force himself to hope that was the truth, watching An try to hide how dejected she felt was a much harder feat. An impossible one, at that, as he found himself feeling even more guilty than he already dod. An scratched her nape, embarrassed, and tried to avert her eyesight away, landing on RADder and Yuka.

Touya glanced at the adults, their chairs facing outwards to look at Vivid Street. It was a quiet conversation they all seemed to have. He couldn’t make out any words because the music there was louder than he had ever heard it before. There were a few laughs weaved between their words, but they were being weighed down by something. That something…based on all of the things Ken had told them about RAD WEEKEND, it could be a lot of things. He and his friends' presence probably didn’t help, and he hated himself for it but he didn’t think there was any other place for them to be. Ken had an arm resting on Yuka’s shoulders, with his other he used it to—well, Touya assumed he used it to—playfully wack Nagi’s hand away from stealing some of his food (Maybe the influence for why An kept stealing Akito’s). There was a familiarity that covered them all like a blanket. 

Touya’s heart ached for them. 

They already knew it’d all be ripped away, didn't they?

Chapter Text

Kohane didn’t know how to put it. Kotaki Nagi’s living room looked perfectly cozy. Like, the woman must have read from a manual based on building a comforting environment. Maybe that explained the growing warmth in Kohane’s chest as she sat there, legs practically entwined with Touya’s as with the minimal space they had, decided to sleep on opposite ends of the couch. It was nice to think that the blankets Nagi had tucked them in with while apologizing profusely for the lack of a guest bedroom could offer her such warmth. But they really didn’t. If anything, Kohane believed that warmth in her chest was actually vomit creeping up her throat through peristalsis. 

 The cozyness was a facade, she thought. It reeked of loneliness in the house. She supposed it always had. Back when she was under Taiga’s wing, she’d been to this exact house before. Taiga had told her, “Don’t mind the mess. Didn’t have the heart to change anything ‘bout this place”. Turns out, he really hadn’t. She had never taken him as a liar. In that factor he had stayed true to this word, and at the time she had no reason not to trust him.

 “Um, are you okay with this, Aoyagi-kun?” Kohane tried to push some of her sleepiness away, sitting up. The Shiraishis had long since left the house, leaving it even more vacant than before. 

 “Yes.” Touya said. He placed his hands on his chest. He always laid down like he preferred sleeping in caskets rather than beds. “This is like a regular sleepover…but…”

 They all collectively heard the door at the end of the hallway close. With the squeak of the hinges, the three of them stopped everything they were doing.

 Knowing they were finally in the clear, Akito released a sigh that must have been building up inside of him for ages. He immediately (and rather urgently) stood up from his air mattress and turned one of the lamps on. Then, he looked down at the two of them on the couch. “Okay, what the hell is happening?”

 “I…” Kohane looked down at her hands, fidgeting, trying to find an answer. 

 “Okay, we time traveled, fine. And now we’re apparently runaway orphans,” He opened his mouth to say more, balling his fists, but he eventually shut himself up with a grunt. “But what!?”

 Kohane found herself not knowing what to say either. 

 Touya didn’t speak, too. He just stared at the ceiling as if he had actually died. 

 “Nagi-san’s alive, Taiga-san’s nicer, and An’s dressed like she walked straight out of kindergarten.” Akito began pacing back and forth, running a finger up and down his chin ‘cause he sometimes liked to stroke his non-existent beard when he thought hard enough. “What next?”

 “We’re gonna mess everything up.” The idea leaves her mouth before Kohane even has time to think about it. The idea leaves her terrified. 

 Akito pauses in his tracks, “What?”

 “It’s like, if we traveled back in time, what if we—what if we screw everything over, and then—and then—”

 “Kohane…”

 “And then back at home, if we even get there—how are we gonna do that!?—what if everything’s all messed up and there’s no vase on the table at Taiga-san’s because we accidentally broke it here, in the past.” She was fighting herself not to start digging whatever was left of her chewed up nails into her skin, “What if we never see An-chan again!?”

 “We…” Akito choked on his words, “We’re gonna get out of here. I dunno how, but…we will. I promise you, ‘Hane.”

 How was there any room for comfort when there was no knowing if it would actually be okay?

 On bad days when her anxiety would spike up, she’d reassure herself that no matter what happened, in an hour from that time she’d be okay again. She’d be at home or be singing with her bestest friends, and the stress would be lost to time.

 But now, nothing was certain. 

Kohane sat up, “We don’t have time to panic—I know—I've been trying to tell myself that this whole time but it’s impossible!” 

“Don’t give up yet!” The little An who lives in her brain chides, teasing a disappointed tone. “You’re just getting started, you know? Stick it through!”

An. 

“An-chan, She’s—what if—do you think—”

“Azusawa, you need to sleep.” Touya said.

“But that’s not gonna get us any closer to going home…to An-chan…” This was finally the chance they had to talk one on one—they needed this conversation, to get everything straight.

What would An say if she was here? She’d be scared too, Kohane knew she’d be. But she also knew An would be able to find a way to push through because she always did.

“Kohane’s right.” Akito said, looking like he was looming over them, the air mattress long abandoned.

His words came out almost like a hiss, “Don’t encourage her.” Touya said.

“Either way, how are we supposed to sleep when…there’s so much? There’s just so, so, so much.”

Kohane would love to think that she was dreaming. She’d pinched herself enough times already and had discovered they hurt really badly when you do it repeatedly every couple minutes. 

“I know,” Touya whispered. “I know.” 

Kohane was lost for words. They were all lost. Was it selfish to expect a solution on a platter so easily? She wanted to rip her brain out of her head. 

“Azusawa, let me help you.” Touya sat up and moved to the side so his arm became crammed neighbors with the back of the couch cushions. 

Wordlessly, she nodded her head weakly and crawled across the couch to his side. Laying her head on the pillow they both shared now, she released a sigh of…so many things. 

He was warm. Warm like a campfire. Warm in a way that made her melt into him just like she had so many times before. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck and squeezed her eyes shut, the light from the lamp suddenly a lot brighter than she remembered. 

“It’s just like a sleepover.” Touya said simply. He rubbed circles up and down her back, pulling the knitted blanket higher just so she felt it on her jaw.

“That’s so stupid.” Akito said, but he didn’t mean it, smiling at Touya so fondly. It was an agreement to call it quits for the night. 

“Look at the ceiling—Akito, turn the lamp off, please?”

Akito obliged, then she heard the sound of him grunting as he got under his own covers.

Touya continued, “Pretend it’s a beautiful night sky. Like when we went camping all together, there was no trace of light pollution.”

When Kohane started seeing stars she couldn’t tell if it was Touya’s soothing voice comforting her, or if the sleep deprivation was getting to her. It’d only been maybe twenty hours (She honestly had no clue), didn’t it take longer for the hallucinations to start kicking in?

“And the crackle of the fire…” She added. “The lantern An-chan had in our tent hummed so loudly”

Akito yawned, “Just like all the crickets out there.”

“The sleeping bags were…so…warm…”

Finally dozing off, she waited for Touya to add onto the chain. 

Sweet memories of the past (or well, now, future? This was getting confusing really quickly) worked like a lullaby. He had already fallen asleep.  

“—Just don’t do anything stupid, yeah?” That was Kohane’s morning alarm, the words sharp out of Taiga’s mouth. For a moment, she thought it was Akito who was speaking. Snapping at An for making too much noise so early in the morning as she stepped over VBS’ sleeping bags. 

“I think you’re the last person who gets to tell me that,” She recognized Nagi’s voice. “And can you quiet down a bit? The kids are still sleeping…”

“It’s four in the afternoon, Nags.” 

“But still…you know, from what the tall one told you, It sounds like they’ve had it rough with their parents and all. We’d know better than to—”

“Nobody went easy on us when we were like ‘em.”

“…‘Cause we didn’t have anyone to go to.” Nagi sighed, “It was just the two of us…”

Taiga stayed silent after that. Kohane supposed he also knew that the words left unsaid always screamed the loudest. He settled with, “Why’re you getting soft all of a sudden?”

“You said it yourself,” She replied simply. “You see us in those kids. Wouldn’t you want to sleep in?”

Kohane instinctively brought a hand to cover her eyes the moment the black she saw became a dull orange from the light threatening to spill into them. They were closed from the exhaustion that still enveloped her whole body and she really, really didn’t want them to open again. Everything hurt, like she’d just fought in a war. Maybe it was the aftermath of a dream she didn’t remember.

“Hey! Put those blinds back dooooown!” Nagi shrieked, ripping any semblance of sleep away from Kohane. It revealed a scene of flashing lights, one where Taiga raised the blinds up, and Nagi pulled them right back down. 

Taiga’s eyes widened in realization before he smirked and took the bottom of the blinds and raised them high above the window so his sister couldn’t reach. “Wakey wakey.”

“You’re the worst.”

“I know.” Taiga shrugged, “You and Ken are keen to remind me of that every day.”

“Be careful, Taiga. These kids’ll think you actually suck if you keep this up.” She crossed her arms, “Sleep’s important!”

“You get two hours of sleep a night, at most. Where’d this discovery come from, my dear hypocritical sister?”

“So what if I’m a hypocrite!?” She immediately went to defend herself. “It’s not like you’re any better!”

Beside Kohane, Touya stirred in his sleep. Well, as much as he could stir for someone who slept like a corpse. She had forgotten she had fallen asleep like this at Touya’s side, whatever happened last night was a long forgotten blur. Maybe it felt more natural than she had thought it would have been, having only slept that close to An at sleepovers. A small part of her that still had her hair long felt embarrassed about it, but she shouldn’t be. They were teammates. After all, the word had begun to become synonymous with family.

Noticing Touya’s movement, Nagi exaggeratingly pointed to a half awake Touya, “See, look what you’ve done.”

Taiga nodded at them, noticing that Kohane was awake too. “Heading out in ten minutes, by the way.” He told them, “I wouldn’t want to miss out on VIP seating…or whatever Nagi said.”

“…huh?” Kohane rubbed her eyes, suddenly being thrown into all of this. 

And then, it all felt real again. The supposed time travel, the confusion, and everything that kept her up last night returned to her and now there was a crushing pressure. Now they had all slept through more than half the day!?

“Sorry about him!” Nagi shoved her brother aside, proceeded to almost trip over Akito’s mattress which contained a profound lack-of-Akito.

Touya sat up in an instant, “Where is Akito?” 

“Out on a run.” Taiga explained, “He woke up a whole lot earlier.”

“Ah…so he’s still doing that.” 

Nagi smiled weakly, “We’re kinda short on time, so, you kids want anything for, er, breakfast?”

Kohane observed that Nagi was wearing sparkly dark eye makeup reminiscent of something she’d seen An wear to a gig once before. Her hair was pulled up along with the sleeves to a leather jacket. She was really, really pretty. Kohane easily slipped into an admiration she was sure many other people had. Nagi’s stage presence paired with how obviously cool she looked was something Kohane could only dream to achieve. 

But that wasn’t the point. Kohane didn’t think she could stomach much of anything. Unlike Touya who immediately asked for a coffee. It was nice to have at least one consistency.

For someone who had slept through the entire day, the idea of being energized was completely foreign to Kohane.

Nagi was practically frolicking down Vivid Street, Taiga right behind her but with a distinct lack of whimsy. 

Saturday nights at COL, a thing An loved to ardently ramble about whenever she had the chance to. The words would tumble out of her mouth in a fit of passion as she described how it felt like the population of Vivid Street disappeared because they all had squeezed themselves into COL to watch the performers there. Namely RADder, who had been performing at COL on the weekends ever since they were old enough to enter the livehouses. That’s at least what An had told Kohane about a hundred times. An would always mope about not having the vocabulary to describe the bubbling anticipation in that live house, how she swore the excitement could be classified in an earthquake. It was also there when An decided, “You know, when we surpass RAD WEEKEND we’ve gotta do it in an underground venue!”

At least there was something to look forward to. Although Kohane doubted there’d be any porta-potty-time-travel experts in attendance to the show.

“We’re the first act.” Taiga said, rolling his eyes affectionately at his sister who could honestly be a mile ahead of them. “Gotta get the energy levels up first. ‘S an important night. Got a new group of hotshots making their debut.” Touya nodded, Taiga slowed down so he’d be walking at their sides. “You kids familiar with live houses and all?”

Kohane answered immediately, “Yes!” 

He looked her up and down, like he didn’t expect it. He released a hearty chuckle, not hiding his amusement that an appearing small and cute girl like Kohane knowing stuff about street music was an endearing juxtaposition, “Then it’s a miracle you stumbled upon Vivid Street of all places. I reckon you’ll enjoy what's in store for you all.”

She ducked her head politely and clasped her hands together. “Uh, I’ve been wondering…earlier you mentioned VIP seating?”

“Oh yeah!” Nagi stopped in her tracks and waited for the three of them to catch up with her, “COL’s always so packed on Saturdays, so I pulled some strings and I got the live house manager to let you three watch the show from the wings.”

Taiga raised a brow, “What strings did you pull exactly?”

“Oh, you know,” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I have connections.”

“Spreading false information to make yourself look cool…I thought you’d only do that with An.”

Nagi elbowed her brother in the ribs, “Shut up!” She may have tried to hide it by proceeding to look straight ahead of her, but Kohane was observant enough to see the red that tipped her ears in embarrassment. “H-hey look at that!”

Kohane perked up, “Shinonome-kun!” 

His face was red and so very sweaty. Once she got the chance, she’d have to ask him if he had run across the entirety of Shibuya instead of just around town. His worn out sneakers continuously slammed across the cracked pavement as he made his way towards them. It was then when Kohane noticed It really was like a ghost town out there. Was everyone on Vivid Street actually crammed into COL like An had said they’d be?

“Sorry.” Akito murmured in between gasps for air. Concerned, Touya placed a hand on his shoulder. “I forgot…there was a gig.”

Echoing Touya’s sentiment, Nagi asked Akito, “You need water?” When Akito didn’t answer because he was heaving, she reached a hand into her purse and rummaged through it till she pulled out a water bottle for him. It probably wasn’t very cold if it had been sitting in there, but it was the thought that counted!

“Marathon in three layers…” Taiga mused to himself to mask his uneasiness. 

Akito nodded miserably and after taking a sip of his water, ripped off his sweatshirt, revealing….another sweatshirt. 

“Oh my god.” Nagi gasped, “It’s July.”

Akito’s head drooped down, “Sorry.”

It was Autumn back at home. Their choice of clothing reflected that fact, except Kohane left her jacket on the couch back at Nagi’s house. 

“Ehh, don’t worry about that right now. Drink, drink.” She patted Akito on the back like she was burping a baby and guided the group to a shady spot in an alleyway. 

“You’re going to be late.” Akito said in between sips.

“Oh, shit.” Taiga said.

“That doesn’t matter.” Nagi decided. “Heat stroke is very serious—”

“I don’t think he has heat stroke, Nagi.”

Nagi thought about that for a second.  

“You always get so caught up in things…” He muttered.

Brushing Taiga’s comment off like a speck of dust, Nagi retracted herself from Akito and asked him, “Akito, do you think you’re able to come with us?”

Akito nodded. “I’m sorry for holding you up.”

“It happens to the best of us. Don’t beat yourself up.”

“Summer’s a bitch.” Taiga remarked, sounding almost a little bit smug.

They continued their path towards COL without a hitch. 

“Shinonome-kun,” Kohane latched onto his arm and tried to keep her volume low. “What were you doing?”

“Tryin’ to find someone who could help us get back home.” Akito replied, craning his neck downwards so he could hear her whispers, “I wasn’t thinking…”

“We can tell.” Touya said with his brows furrowed, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. All I got out of that was some advice from a guy on maintaining stamina when belting.”

“At least it wasn’t a lost cause?” Kohane tried, hoping she wasn’t lying to him. 

What had they all gathered so far, anyways? That it was 2017, late July since An claimed to be thirteen…

There would have to be a better way to get a lead than just asking people. But how? Would having that information build them a time machine back home?

Whatever the answer was, it’d have to wait as they were shoved into COL and led backstage. 

It was like another world. No one was even singing yet and she could feel the anticipation radiating from everyone. Figuratively and literally as even as Nagi brought them backstage with her, Kohane was shoulder to shoulder with other performers. The chatter she was privy to due to the proximity felt like an entirely different language, singer lingo she didn’t recognize being thrown from person to person like the most hyped up game of telephone there ever was. 

COL in its prime was like nothing Kohane had ever seen before, and she had already felt how grand this livehouse was when Taiga had brought Vivid BAD SQUAD to see inside, even after closing. Looking at it then, with the lights off and devoid of an audience, there was still a heat that pulsed through her body.  

This place was legendary for a reason, and now her body felt like it was on fire. It was overwhelming, in the best way. 

She shouldn’t be seeing this, but she is. For some odd reason, this was the time her brain decided none of this could possibly be reality. It was also there when she decided downing could be a beautiful thing, getting on her tippy toes in order to see in an inch ahead of her.

Whatever Nagi was saying about live performances was cut off by the crowd around them slowly dissipating, not naturally—Kohane was sure of that—it quite literally split in half with a whole lot of ‘Ow!’s. This was further indicated by the little old lady that appeared. Another recognizable face, despite it losing years of wrinkles Kohane knew who it was. The owner of COL, Uchimura Mei—better known as Granny Mei by all who sung on Vivid Street. 

Propelling herself forward with her cane, the old lady forcefully grabbed Nagi by the cheeks, pulling her face down to give her a kiss on the both of them.

Nagi squeaked, “Granny!”

“You’re late.” Granny Mei said completely deadpan, Nagi’s face still in her grasp. “Had to set the show a couple minutes back.”

“Soooooorry”

“Doesn’t sound like they mind,” Taiga argued, titling his head towards the empty stage, basking in the cheers. “I’d say the wait’s fueling ‘em up even more.”

This earnt a whack at his ankles with Granny Mei’s cane. “You’re lucky Ken’s the punctual one of you kids.” She released Nagi from her hold at that, Nagi having to massage her cheeks to alleviate the actual pain this little old lady caused.

”We’re not kids anymore, Granny!” Nagi cried.

Taiga, meanwhile, rolled his eyes, “’Cause what would we do without our darling angel Ken?” 

“I don’t even wanna think about that…” Nagi sighed, taking that notion seriously. 

Granny Mei chuckled lowly, knowing the answer to that question. “Speaking of Ken… where is that boy? I swore I saw him just a minute ago…” She scanned the vicinity of the backstage only for her eyes to make a crash landing on Kohane. Granny Mei arched a brow and held her cane accusingly to Kohane’s chest. “Who are they?” She asked.

Taiga snorted, “Good question.” 

“My kids,” Nagi put her hands on her hips, reaching to knock the cane away but to no avail. “The ones you said I could bring back, remember?”

Kohane would have taken the time to freak out over Nagi calling them her kids, but there was no time for that when you’re being held at cane-point. She swallowed back a whimper with an audible gulp. Sure, the owner of COL had a spunky streak, but Kohane didn’t remember her being scary.

With a nervous giggle she provided a simple and hopefully effective, “Hi.” She attempted to bow in respect but discovered she wasn’t in the mood to crash into this cane face first, so instead she nodded cordially. 

“So you’re the ones Nagi’s got an eye on, eh?” Granny Mei grabbed a pair of glasses off the collar of her shirt and shoved them on, “Ya don’t look too shabby. Maybe you’ll be the ones that get Nagi to—”

“Really, Granny?” Nagi groaned. 

Granny Mei laughed, and took her cane away from Kohane at last. 

All the nearby speakers erupted with sound. It almost reminded Kohane of the feeling she got when that initial explosion that got them into this mess happened. Following this was a roar of cheers as a spew of ‘welcome’s, ‘thank you for coming’s, and a whole lot of ‘are you ready for this!?’s bursted from the stage. 

Taiga’s jaw went slack, “That bastard!”

“You’re gonna let Ken steal the show!?” Nagi elbowed her brother before grabbing onto his arm and dragging him along as they sprinted off to the stage to join Ken. 

“What a piece of work those two are…” Granny Mei sighed, gazing fondly at the stage, music beginning to play. “Been like that ever since they were little brats.”

Kohane and Touya nodded in acknowledgment

“Ah, that’s besides the point…” Leaning onto her cane, Granny Mei redirected her attention to Kohane and co. “I’ve got to make sure the new guy’s doing his job with the wires correctly, so I can’t stay with you lot forever, now can I? Stay outta trouble, will ya?”

Her shoulders relaxed knowing the scary side of the COL owner was gone…for now. “Of course. Thank you for your time, er…”

“You’re welcome to call me Granny, too.” The old lady smiled. Kohane’s heart swelled. What was that if not an invitation, a welcome to a Vivid Street she’d only been on for a day. Everyone was so welcoming here—even though she wasn’t meant to be here, she still felt a sort of belonging. 

A belonging that couldn’t fully latch onto her. An wasn’t here. The An she knew and loved more than anything else she could think of.

“Thank you, Granny. We’ll do our best to stay out of your hair.”

With that, Granny Mei dissolved into the crowd. 

Leaving the three out of her sight was her first mistake. But it was rude to put all the blame on Granny Mei of all people, no?

Watching the performance from the sidelines, everyone’s attention was anchored to RADder. Kohane could hardly hear them over the jobuilant cheers and lyrics being shouted back at the singers.

“Holy shit.” Akito breathed, “They’re blowing the place up.”

Touya studied the scene in front of them, “This performance lacks the feeling of helplessness that RAD WEEKEND had. It makes it feel more…”

“I can feel that too, Aoyagi-kun!” Kohane soaked in RADder like a sunbath. The way they’d perfected the art of competition so it sounded like Ken and Taiga’s voices were fighting for dominance without it being overbearing. Taiga’s raspy, strong, overpowering voice kept in line by Ken’s more smooth voice, keeping it level. Nagi seemed to be the glue holding them together, the contrast between her feminine voice compared to the boys made it shine all the more than it already did. 

Kohane felt the legend wrapping around her skin, squeezing her tight. She had only ever seen RAD WEEKEND through that video. Grainy audio and all, you’d still feel the heat rushing over your body as you watched a legacy be built, a legend be made. But now, “It’s tangible.” Maybe this night was nothing close to RADder’s prime, to RAD WEEKEND…but it felt like it was their very best. Maybe it was better than RAD WEEKEND the way their arms moved to the beat more fluidly, their steps lighter on the ground and the end wasn’t upon them just yet.

“I’d always wanted to see them live after RAD WEEKEND…” Akito’s eyes stayed glued on the performance. RADder’s voices hypnotized them in a way there was nothing else to think about. No trains of doubt that said, we’ll never be as good as them and definitely no logical thoughts that begged to ask, are we not wasting time right now? We’ve got to get home!

The hypnosis is easily shattered as Kohane feels a tugging on her ankle, it pulls her down to the grimey livehouse floor. She bites back a shocked scream once she realizes she’s gotten tangled in maybe a million cords and wires. They connect to all sorts of things, like microphones and speakers and a scary amount of things she hasn’t learnt the names of yet. 

Oh god, she thought. One wrong movement and the show is—

Akito and Touya didn’t notice. She couldn’t blame them when they were face to face with a legend. 

“Shinonome-kun! A-aoyagi-kun!” She whisper-shouted, eventually giving up on that and decidedly tugging Akito’s wrist to thrust him towards her since he was closest.

He snapped out of his daze, blinking a few times, “Kohane!?”

“I’m…I’m stuck!”

“Hold on, I’ve got you.” He reaches down to the cords around her ankles before stopping. “Who would set the cords up like this!?”

Kohane cried, “I don’t know!” 

“Doesn't matter anyways. Are you able to stand up?”

“I’m scared I’ll unplug something!”

“Shit...” Akito bit his bottom lip in thought. “I could try to lift you up?”

“I-it’s worth a try!”

Turned out it was not. You know, along with the music and some of the lights backstage, Kohane thought her breathing got turned off too. 

Chapter Text

The bell chimes playfully as An pushes the door to the record store open, almost mocking her. They feel heavier than they used to be. Fluorescent lights above her hum and bore into her skin, subtly flickering every once in a while. They’re on full blast, it’s still dark outside so early in the morning, after all. The hums from the lights mesh nicely with the music playing from an above speaker, the welcoming kind of jazz music every other kind of convenience store plays. An fiddles with the ends of her leather sleeves, pulling them down to cover her palms, deciding the air conditioning to be far too powerful for October. 

She runs a hand over the displays of vinyls as she walks by them, fingers dancing across as she briefly scans the collection currently set up on the largest shelf. Maybe all of RADder’s albums reside on this one shelf she’s standing in front of, from their teenage debut up until the one they released before RAD WEEKEND. “They’re classics now”, Granny Mei told her one time, which was weird to think about. An normally sees more old folk than younger ones in this CD shop, anyways. They’d stop her and tell her about the good old days and how much more lively the street was back then. 

She knows. She was there, after all. It wasn’t that long ago, really. She may have been a little kid back then, but the memories she built before this current so-called era on Vivid Street shine the brightest in her mind. The kind of memories she still dreams about. The electric ones where Taiga gave her piggy-back-rides and sprinted down the street, much to her father’s dismay. The calming ones where Nagi would sing her to sleep after a long day of fun, soothingly running her fingers down An’s hair. The ones full of pride, where Ken would take her to all the livehouses he performed at, and she got to show her voice to the owners who’d be counting down the days ‘till she was old enough to sing on their stages. Memories of the excited kind of Vivid Street that Vivid BAD SQUAD are gonna bring back if they—

If. 

The bubbling anticipation in her chest fizzles out like expired soda. An has to choke back that horrible no good word and keeps skimming the albums, keeps moving forward. She’s seen them all before, she doesn’t know why she even spares the time to look. 

Consistency is comforting in an ever changing world.

On the shelf is all the RADder stuff, then the manager has always put the RUST albums next to their vinyls. Similar to RADder, RUST had also disbanded. Not after RAD WEEKEND, but after they had flown off to America for a record deal, separating ‘cause the money drove them apart. Though apparently after a reunion back home in Japan, the group reformed. An doesn't know the details, though. Her history book is her father’s word of mouth. 

She turns around, now facing the famously dubbed ‘RAD WEEKEND’ shelf, filled to the brim with the discographies of all the artists who performed at that event. RADder, RUST, then after them is GLaP DAY. 

Well, that’s how it usually is. An’s used to seeing the bright yellows of their album covers whenever she comes here. To make matters stranger, the row that has all the GLaP DAY music is completely empty. There is a noticeable gap where the vinyls should be. 

An tugs at her collar, anxious. After the gap, the shelf continues like normal with the rest of the performers’ music. 

She can’t be worrying about this now. She came here to get a job done and then leave. 

“Kinose-san.” An greets the music shop’s owner once she’s made it over to the counter. 

“Ah, An-chan!” He says, visibly perking up. “Long time no see, how have you been?”

She shrugs the question off, “How are you?”

“Busy.” Kinose glares at the desolate shop and rolls his eyes, An being the only person there. He rubs his stubble in contemplation, “I’ve gotta find a better way to appease the youngins in town.”

 “I’m sure you’ll find a way!” She also suggests helping him advertise the shop but the idea is lost in Kinose’s sulking.

“Gee, I sure hope so.”

There’s something weird about this that leaves An’s stomach in a knot. Kinose doesn’t know. He treats her normal and isn’t pitying her, unlike like her mom and maybe fifty other people. She appreciates it, dearly. Oh, but does it stress her out…

An laughs nervously, scratching her nape, “Hey, uh, I noticed all the GLaP DAY stuff was missing?”

Kinose purses his lips, eyebrows furrowing in thought. He tilts his head at her and then asks, “The hell is a GLaP DAY?”

“Why’s everyone playing tricks on me?” She tries to giggle to push her concerns away—this is oddly reminiscent of yesterday. An had thought Kotaro was joking around. And then— “It gets really tiring, ya know?” She leans over the counter casually and traces her fingers in the little aged divots on its surface.

“Is it music group? An-chan, you know I sell Vivid Street artists exclusively.”

“Yes!”

“Questionable name aside…hmmmm, I’ve never heard of them in my life.”

An almost scoffs. What’s he talking about? “Kinose-san!” She chides him mockingly, “It’s kinda hard to forget a name like theirs! Especially when they performed at RAD WEEKEND with dad—“

“You have such dark circles under your eyes. An-chan, did you sleep last night?”

”Kinose-saaaaaaan,” She groans, and flings herself away from the counter, pointing over to the empty section next to all the RUST stuff where the GLaP DAY things normally are, “Look, this is where they should be.”

”An-chan…” Kinose smiles tiredly at her. He smiles at her, looking pained, like he had never told her that she’s always welcome to the shop.

“I swear!” She shouts, with no regards to how ridiculous she looks. Doesn’t matter when she has a point to prove!

The bell chimes, and someone walks in on An’s scene of exasperation. “

Ah, welcome Hiro-kun!” Kinose waves at whoever just entered.

An deflates. She quickly goes back to the counter, whispers, “Sorry,” and digs through her pocket, “While I’m here…do you mind—do you—shit, sorry, I can’t talk right—do you mind hanging these up outside?” 

Kinose grabs his glasses from off the counter so he can read the three pieces of paper she just slid towards him. All three of them say ‘MISSING’ in bulky black text. There’s a bunch of other words typed out on the papers too, All different according to the black and white photos in the corner. An had hand picked them herself.

She mutters a quick, but also grateful, “Thanks.”

She’s just making her way out the door as when Kinose speaks up again, “Hiro-kun! An-chan wants to know: You ever heard of GLaP DAY?”

Hiro bursts out into laughter, he even slaps his knee, “GLaP DAY!?” He wheezes, “Pfft—What kinda—what kinda name is GLaP DAY!?” His giggles and cackles are drowned out by a profound ringing in her ears, she feels that tugging in her chest and knows it’s time to go.

Where? To hell, if An knows.

What she does know is that she’s got no time to waste. She can’t let anyone or anything stop her. She needs to find her teammates as quick as she possibly can—perferebly without involving the authorities, they’re already on the case, her mom’s been prattling on about investigators for the past who knows how many hours. 

But none of this matters. She knows what she has to do, she’s recited it to herself a bunch of times. It’s become the new song in her head. 

What else does she know about her situation?

Apparently that GLaP DAY never existed? That’s weird…and not to mention absolutely unnerving. But… Kinose wouldn’t lie to her? Right? It was hard to have a concrete answer after, well, everything—but An figures he would know. He owns a music shop!  

Is this the Mandela Effect thing Touya ranted about the other day? A phenomenon, he had said, where people collectively remember a certain detail…only for it to never have existed in reality. 

But An isn’t one to give in so easily. If there’s one thing she inherited from her father, it’s pure stubbornness. She stands outside that shop, quietly muttering the lyrics to a GLaP DAY song. It was a radio hit, even her mom would sing along to it whenever it came on. They played it at RAD WEEKEND—there was no way that it didn’t exist, that a whole music group never existed.

If GLaP DAY isn’t here because they never existed. Who’s to say Kohane ever did? What about Akito, Touya? 

“What the hell!?” An blurts out to the street in front of her.  

Why did her—why did her brain choose that thought? It’s not supposed to think like that, it's supposed to tell her where to go next! Where to find them! 

Because they’re gone. You need to find them, because they’re gone. 

Because when An found Kohane’s phone on the ground, it was at the end of an alleyway. All alone with nothing but smoke and maybe a tune from a nearby busker to take care of it. 

An feels dizzy. It’s ‘cause she didn’t sleep last night, no? No point in sleeping because that wouldn’t get her any closer to finding her friends. No point in sleeping because she was already living a nightmare. 

“Gotta move forward…” She whispers to herself, “Forward, forward.” 

Move forward ‘cause she’s always been the strong one. She’s never given up so why is she already feeling a crushing weight!? It’s too soon to give up, anyways—not like she’s got any plans on doing so! She’s got an event to surpass! They’ve got an event to surpass. And a future, a whole world to cross ahead of them…

But if she’s chasing ghosts…

”Fuck!” She stumbles in her footing, “For…ward, for—“

“A-An!” A distant voice cries at her, hardly breaking through the ringing in her ears. 

An shrieks in surprise—at least it makes her brain freeze for a second. She realizes that she’s panting, calves aching. The music shop is buried in yards of other storess. 

Her head snaps to where the call must have come from, but the street is deserted. It’s that weird limbo time before dawn, where the musicians who stayed up all night playing their songs have finally gone inside to sleep, and the ones who come to play first thing in the morning are just waking up. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is—

She huffs another string of curse words under her breath, An’s screaming legs forcing her into an alleyway as she slumps down against a brick wall, sliding to the pavement below. She briefly scans the knook for any phones conveniently on the ground before her head droops down. It feels too heavy for her body to be carrying. 

An tries to get back up, but her thoughts anchor her to the ground.

There she is, arms wrapped around her legs listening to her rapid heartbeat all by itself, remembering how much she likes to be held, how much she treasures small, unspoken reassurances. There’s something heartbreaking about it. After Nagi and Taiga left, she had gotten used to being all alone. Here, the loneliness that envelopes her instead of her teammate’s arms feels unfamiliar. It feels foreign. It feels like hell.

Was it selfish of her to have gotten used to the three of them glued to her side?

She clutches her temple, hissing in pain. She soon decides this kind of sucks and covers her ears with her hands just to make it stop.

What would Nagi do if she were in my shoes? An asks herself. Probably not sitting here freaking out. She’d be out and about trying to—

“An! An!” Her pocket shakes furiously. An can’t bring herself to move her hands at all to silence it—but it’s like she’s being tied down. But she needs to move, she just has to. 

It turns out the earthquake in her jacket isn’t just her trembling body, her phone’s buzzing from within her pocket, vibrations growing stronger each time An gasps for air. The vibrations become so violent that her phone eventually becomes sentient and falls out of her pocket, revealing Rin—who’s eyes widen once she gets a look at An. 

“Oh no!” Rin gapes, “An, are you okay!?”

An attempts to reply, but only a shaky cry comes out of her mouth.

“I’m gonna go get MEIKO, I’ll be back! I swear!” Rin’s hologram disappears in An’s blurred vision.

Don’t leave! An wants to desperately scream. But she can’t. She can’t do much of anything no matter how hard she tries—this pulsing in her head is too much, the shaking of her body is too much. Everything is too much. 

Rin appears again, her face is dark with worry, “An, come to the SEKAI!”

“I—“ An chokes out along with a sob, “I can’t—I can’t breathe!” She clutches onto her throat as if she were choking. She might as well be.

Rin almost looks as panicked as she is. Her face suddenly lights up in realization, “Wait, Miku can get you here—give me a second!”

Then, she disappears again. An hates it. 

Next thing she knows, her vision is covered in an array of familiar blue, pink, and yellow triangles. She squeezes her eyes shut.

Hushed muttering shrouds her as someone gently grabs her by the forearms and lifts her up from the ground—or well, floor, now. She’s guided to a table—one with the comfy sofas for chairs—and her body feels like it ragdolls the moment she’s set down. 

“Is she ok?” A voice sounds, It’s recognizable as Len’s.

“Give her a moment.” Luka tells him. “Hey, KAITO, go grab the ice cream—if you haven't already eaten it—get rum raisin.”

KAITO’s quick, “On it.” 

An senses a hand on her jaw, keeping her head stable or else it’d probably droop down again. Another hand rubs on her cheeks and under her eyelids, wiping away tears the girl hadn’t even been aware of. She sort of feels guilty, their work is fruitless as it seems the tears won’t stop. 

She slowly opens her eyes, peripheral vision blurred by her feelings but at least she can see some familiar faces. It’s MEIKO who’s holding her head up so delicately. The woman places a hand on her shoulder, telling her an abundance of soothing promises that nearly fly over An’s head. “You’re okay, now, An-chan. You’re here at the Crase Cafe, okay?”

The Kagamines watch the scene intently from behind MEIKO, only to be scolded by Luka to give An more space. They oblige (for the most part. Miku grabs them by their collars to get the twins out of the cafe) but An just feels like a loser. A crying, stupid, loser. Unsurprisingly, that thought makes everything worse.

She’s still heaving now matter what MEIKO tries to do, her sobs racking her body up and down as she mutters quick ‘I need to go’s, and ‘They’re gone’s. Her face is burning with embarrassment but she can’t stop herself, tears continuing to flow thick and hot down her cheeks.

“Here,” KAITO slides a pint of rum raisin ice cream onto the table, stabbing a spoon into it. It nearly bounces off, having been refrigerated for so long. “It’ll help.”

Rum raisin ice cream is magical. It saves lives, An knows that when she takes the spoon and scoops as much as she can up in her trembling hand, shoving it into her mouth like a crazed chipmunk. As it melts in her mouth, so does a whole lot of the tension of her body. It feels especially relieving feeling the cold go down her throat as she had briefly felt like she forgot how to swallow.

She blinks a few times, taking everything in. She still hears the pitter patter of her heartbeat in between heavy breathing but now she can actually feel the cool metal of the spoon and smell the familiar aroma of coffee.

She opens her mouth, a sigh being released. She looks at everybody here and she doesn’t even know what to say. She’s almost ashamed of herself for letting them see that side of her—as if they’d never seen it before. She has always liked being the strong, cool, emotionally intelligent girl. But screw any emotional intelligence because she has no clue what just happened to her. She even asks the question aloud.

“An-chan,” MEIKO says eerily calm. “You just had a panic attack.”

“I…” An grips onto the sofa’s armrests out of… fear? She doesn’t know. She hopes not. “Wuh…what!?”

“No, no, you’re okay, It’s okay. It’s normal.”

Are you sure about that? She wants to quip back, but bites her tongue. 

“Sometimes,” Luka starts, sounding a bit too mature for someone of her nature, “You get really stressed, and then it all builds up outta nowhere ‘till it explodes, and…uh,” She’s unsure of how to end her diagnosis, her random gesticulations hardly do the job for her, “…Yeah. Panic really attacks.”

“What!?” An’s mortified over here. What does any of this even mean!?

Miku shakes her head disappointedly, walking back into the cafe. “Luka, you suck at this.” She nearly groans at the pink haired woman. “Look, the best way to deal with this kind of thing is to identify what triggered the attack.”

An’s pupils dilate. She almost thinks she’s going to throw up once it all comes back to her. “Kohane, Akito and Touya they—“ She sniffles and tries to collect herself, “They…they…”

The Vocaloids look at her anxiously in anticipation for her response. The expectancy in some of their eyes makes An want to die.

“They disappeared.” She coughs out against her will. She quickly rolls up a sleeve so she can pinch herself, feeling lightheaded when a pain as sharp as the one in her head follows. She wants to start crying again but that won’t do anything. “They went m-missing. Yesterday, I—yesterday, I found—I found—” She can’t even get proper words out—she can’t bear the fact that she’s even saying them! To be the bearer of bad news is to be the bringer of death.

Everyone in the cafe kind of just stares at her, dumbfounded.

”Missing?” Luka asks, “How?”

An needs to take another spoonful of ice cream in order to even get words out. She releases a shaky breath, “I…don’t know. I—I found Kohane’s phone in this—in this creepy alley and she wasn’t there! And…and no one was answering my calls, either. What if someone kidnapped them!? What if they…”

”What in the world…?” MEIKO mutters. An’s not dumb—she doesn’t miss the shrill gasp MEIKO makes, how her grip tightens on An’s shoulder as her nails threaten to dig into her skin.

“I had to hand over Kohane’s phone to the police,” An explains, burrowing her face into her knees. She tries her best in between pants for air and little clusters of tears running down her cheeks to give everyone a run down of everything that had happened in the past twenty four hours. She decides to leave out the part about GLaP DAY allegedly never existing because that’s not going to bring her any closer to finding her teammates. “Everything’s horrible. I don’t know what to do!”

”I can try to hologram through their phones.” Luka suggests. “That way, I’ll get an idea of where they are.”

Miku urgently nods at Luka to do so. Luka squeezes her eyes shut and whispers Akito’s name. She peeps an eye open and nervously laughs when she finds herself still standing in the cafe. Then, she whispers Touya’s, only for the process to repeat. Lastly, she closes her eyes, says, “Kohane” and proceeds to evaporate into triangles. 

“It worked!” KAITO cheers lowly.

Everyone stares at where Luka was just standing, waiting for her to come back.

When she does, she doesn’t look all too thrilled. “I couldn’t see anything. Her phone’s inside a bag or something.”

“If the phone’s with the police now,” MEIKO thinks aloud. “Then you were most likely seeing the inside of an evidence bag.”

“Smart thinking, MEI.” Luka clears her throat, “There were some guys talking—oh, they were carrying the bag too.”

An can’t help herself when she asks, “Could you tell what they were saying at all?”

“Um.” Luka frowns sharpy. “Yes…”

Oh, it can’t be anything good can it? When you see a person deflate, how can it be?

“One guy said something like, ahem, ‘We shouldn’t be wasting money to find some teens who obviously ran away from home’.”

"That’s not fair!” An launches herself out of the sofa. Her legs instantly start wobbling so she leans back onto the table with her ice cream. See, she was right for not trusting the police! “They’ve got to do something! It’s their life’s job to—ugh!”

Then she needs to do something. She needs to finish what she started at the music shop! She needs to—

MEIKO grabs An's shoulders and slowly sits her back down in the sofa chair despite her protests.

“If you're planning on doing extreme…don't” 

“I wasn't gonna go doing extreme stuff! I was gonna go out and do the polices’ job! I need to find them, MEIKO-san, I…really need to.”

“It's not wise to make decisions when you're overwhelmed.”

“But I can't just sit here!” An argues like a petulant child. She feels a little more than a twinge of guilt for acting like this, but she has much bigger fish to fry. “They could be in danger! I can't just stay here and mope, I have to do something!” 

She pauses for a moment, then swallows hard, realization stabbing with millions of needles, “...But I don't know anything I can do. I just know I've gotta be productive, but—” She sighs, making some really intimate eye contact with the floor. “...I just feel so useless here.” Her eyes well up with tears all over again. Crying isn’t going to get her anywhere.

“An!” Luka says, placing a hand to her chest with the most confidence in the room. Which wasn't a hard feat considering the entire cafe reeked with hopelessness. “You're not useless! You're really, really strong.”

“I had a panic attack,” An replies miserably. “That's not—”

“Don't let that define you!”

Miku nods, the signature shimmer in her eyes making a long awaited comeback, “You've been through hell and back, An. Even when you found out about Nagi, you never gave up. You've never let a hardship drag you down. Don’t let this be any different.”

“We’re counting in you, An-chan.” KAITO says softly, “You'll find a way, like you always do”

“The SEKAI is still here,” Miku adds. “Everyone's feelings are still intact, An.”

“You're right.” An's face lights up. For whatever it's worth, the traces of the missing Vivid BAD SQUAD members still linger as strongly as they usually do. She knows herself, she knows she's never been the type to give up so early. She needs to stick it through—so she’ll ignore any other emotions that don’t correlate with determination.

MEIKO gazes at her like she’s got something more to say, but holds herself back. Not like she had much room to say anything because the cafe doors swing open, and Len comes running in, tripping over his feet with Rin not so far behind him.

“Oh,” Luka claps her hands together, feigning cheeriness, “You two came to join the motivation-fest?”

Len’s mouth is a straight line, “Uhhhhhhhhhhh, no. So—”

Rin shoves Len out the way and cries, “Something really weird is happening outside. Like, really, reeally weird.”

“Huh?” Miku blinks confusedly. Rin grabs Miku’s wrist with such an urgency that An thinks one of Miku’s joints could have gotten dislocated. (Could virtual singers actually sustain injuries? Eh, that was a question to ask later. Preferably in less perilous times.) With Miku getting dragged out of the cafe, of course everyone else follows.

“So,” Miku clears her throat once they’re all in the clearing outside the cafe. “…What happened?”

“There was this rumbling.” Rin explains, “Like, an earthquake or something!”

An’s eyes widen, and she turns to look at anyone who reflects her shock. But to no avail, Miku, MEIKO, KAITO, and Luka look…serious. Like they’re contemplating something.

Len nods, “Yeah. The ground was shaking and everything.”

“We didn’t feel anything inside the cafe.” Remarks KAITO. “But an earthquake in the SEKAI? …That can’t be good.”

“No shit.” Miku says.

SEKAI is connected to her, Kohane, Akito and Touya’s feelings. An earthquake here could only mean the worst, no?

Surprisingly, the rumbling the Kagamines speak of isn’t a delusion—it happens again as the ground beneath them trembles. 

What happens next is so sudden, An almost mistakes it for an hallucination. A nearby building seems to roar in agony before a line of brown smoke cracks through the middle of the building—like glass shattering—from the roof, down to the door before the two halves physically split from each other. The two sides of the building pull away from each other, leaving nothing but a billowing cloud of smoke in between them that eventually comes straight towards the group. It’s straight out of a horror movie, An thinks, the way it swallows everyone whole leaving them all with zero ideas as to what could have just happened, but with a plethora of coughs.

“Everyone—“ Miku coughs, “Is everyone okay?”

An squints her eyes open, having shut them prior to save herself from all of that dust and debris. She doesn’t really know the answer, to be honest. Everyone else has varied responses, ranging from, “I think I just got lung cancer” to “Yes! But are you okay?”

Once their arms are sore from waving all the smoke away, whatever just happened is a lot more clear. Obviously. 

The building that split… it formed an alleyway in the middle. A long alley, too—she wouldn’t be able to see the end of it even if she tried. There were warm lanterns and string lights hanging up going back and forth between each side of the alley. It renders An speechless. 

Did the SEKAI…expand?

Chapter Text

Shit, fucking—hell!? Akito was sure he had invented a couple new swear words. Even in a complete blackout he could still see the searing panic in Kohane’s eyes.

Seriously, he thought the legendary COL livehouse would have at least tried to, he doesn’t know, put the power generator thing in a more secluded part of stage? Away from all the tangled wires that Kohane was trapped in? You know, if they ever get back to their home in the present, he decided right then and there he’s gonna give whoever was responsible for this atrocious backstage set up a piece of his mind.

He glanced over to the stage and wasn't surprised to see RADder not missing a beat, still singing and resorting to clapping their hands for a beat. Their claps and stomps echoed and bounced of the walls. With the crowd joining in too, maybe some earthquake decibels could be recorded. Well, at least he knew where An got it from. 

Not like that even mattered because he still has a crisis in his hands. Literally. 

Yeah, so his idea of lifting Kohane out of the wires wasn’t the wisest decision he could have made—the wires stuck around her ankles were pulled out of whatever outlets they were in earlier. 

“Touya!” He called out, loud as he could be without drawing attention to the trouble they’d caused. “Untangle those!”

Touya looked down at Kohane’s elevated feet, “But then more equipment is bound to get unplugged—“

“It can’t get any worse than it already is, man!”

Touya ssw the validity of Akito’s claim and got to work. He never had thought he’d see Touya’s pretty much dainty hands doing something so intense. 

Kohane, meanwhile, was shaking in his grasp. Akito knew it’s not because of any tension in his arms because Kohane weighed as much as a feather. So, he attempted a reassurance, praying to God that Touya would figure out the art of untangling as soon as possible, “Don’t panic, Kohane.”

Kohane didn’t reply, taking scarily long inhales before exhaling through her mouth, eyes squeezed shut. It was a coping mechanism for anxiety and panic, Akito guessed. 

Fortunately for them, everyone in the live house was more focused on the power’s sudden outage than what could have caused it. Either that, or RADder was their beacon of light down there. 

“I can’t see…I can’t—” Touya sighed exasperatedly. Power outages and underground venues were a match made in hell.

Kohane finally spoke up, ”Positive affirmations, Aoyagi-kun!” 

“…What?”

“Get rid of the ‘I can’t’s! and turn them into ‘I will eventually’s!”

In Akito’s opinion, it sounded like Kohane was stealing advice from an annoying lifestyle vlogger. He really liked Kohane (And also wanted to get out of here) so he figured he’d let it slide.

Touya paused for a moment, “I will…eventually untangle these wires.”

“Yes,” Akito tried to coerce him into trying harder than he already was, “That’s the, er, spirit.”

Drowned out by the beating of his heart ringing in his ears—he didnt notice much of anything else besides the situation in front of him. Kohane and Touya were, like, having a mini therapy session there and Akito wasn’t sure if it was actually helping or not.

Akito almost dropped Kohane when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Fuck.

“…Akito?”

He hadn’t noticed the music had stopped.

Despite being a head shorter, Nagi loomed above him.

And, you know, Akito probably would have gone more in depth about the half-betrayal-half-confused look she was wearing if he could actually see.

Akito shut his eyes on instinct as a blinding light shot him and probably the whole scene.

Apparently, Granny Mei emerged from the shadows holding one of those bulky, orange handheld spotlights.

Now, there was no hiding from what they had done. He was not sure what to do yet so he promptly set Kohane down on her feet so she kind of just stood there awkwardly.

Deciding to ignore all of that, Nagi was more focused on Granny Mei

“Where’d you even get that!?” Nagi cried, running over to the lady to snatch the spotlight away. Too heavy for an old lady? Akito didn’t know.

“My purse.” Granny Mei offered camly, not yielding to Nagi’s attempts to take the spotlight. Akito cannot lie that he had to do a double take when she flashed Nagi in the face with the spotlight just to get her to stop. Then, she shined the light on the rest of any remaining backstage bystanders, which was very effective in getting them to scram. Akito reminded himself to never mess with the owner of COL. 

“Ow!? What the hell!?” Taiga grunted as the spotlight bore into his eyes, walking off the stage into the backstage area, “Alright, what's happening in here?”

“Power outage.” Nagi offered half-heartedly from Granny Mei's side.

“And we're out here kicking all the performers out ‘cause of it?”

“Well….” Granny Mei started to no conclusion.

Ken, appearing behind Taiga, said, “What? An up and coming group was going to debut after us...” Ken was spared from being flashed. Maybe Granny Mei just liked him more.

“I know. GLaP DAY, they’re called. Group of pipsqueaks, I was excited to see them.”

Taiga shifted his weight from side to side impatiently, “So? Can’t we just turn the lights back on or somethin’?” 

Akito and Kohane locked eyes. As inconspicuously as possible, Akito grabbed onto her shoulders and pushing her (gently) into Touya despite the wire’s protests. He stumbled into the spot she had just been standing in.

“Shinonome-kun!” Kohane whisper-shouted at him underneath the layers of a forming argument between all the adults. She tugged on his sleeve, “What are you doing!?”

He smirked against his will, “Turning the power off.”

Touya’s eyes widened, “Akito, don’t—”

Perfectly according to Akito’s plan that he came up with two seconds ago, Taiga eventually spotted the group by the clump of wires.

Granny Mei sighed, “I shouldn’t have trusted the new guy with the wires.”

Taiga, he looked—oh, Akito could feel a pit in his stomach all over again. Similar to the one he got when they were confronted about the truth of RAD WEEKEND. When Taiga tried to tear Vivid BAD SQUAD’s dream to shreds. How he went about it in the worst way—seriously, a battle after telling them that Nagi-san was dead?—and how tall he appeared to be when he chucked verses at him and his friends with no remorse, no regards to them and their now shattered world view. 

He wasn’t scared of Taiga. He was angry. It was such a baseline word but he didn’t have any words to describe the knot in his stomach, how it twisted painfully instead of squeezing anxiously. God, Akito was angry at Taiga. Akito was mad at himself, too. When all of that went down…he charged straight into the battle without stopping to help An. She was a wreck. She still was one even if she was convinced she was fine. Akito knew better.

And here he is. Giving Taiga some more bait to pick up, chew, and then spit out again like it was nothing. As perceptive as Akito had been told he was, he didn’t understand the mind of Kotaki Taiga, and he wasn’t sure if he was keen on doing so either way. 

He didn’t want Taiga to win again.

Before the man had a chance to say anything, Akito spoke up, “It was my fault. I tripped and turned the power off.”

Nagi frowned. Ken raised a brow, opposing Granny Mei's seeming indifference. Taiga, however, looked pissed. He took a deep breath, trying to collect himself, but he looked more like a balloon about to pop.

He turned to his sister, “Nagi.”

“What?” Nagi asked.

“You're an idiot.”

“What?” That was sudden.

“I told you it was a bad idea to bring those kids here!”

Nagi’s face flared in anger, “Hey!”

Akito couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

Nagi was mad, alright. Akito couldn’t have known what to expect. Whenever An rambled about her, she sounded cool and especially collected…

“You bring ‘em here and a group’s debut is over! They’ll never get a slot to book COL again, you know—”

“Taiga, you don’t need to get all riled up over this, you know.”

“Are you out of your mind!? You of all people should be upset about this!”

Whenever Ken went on his long rants about how he and his teammates never got along… was this what he was talking about? Akito shivered, getting an odd sense of deja vu, recalling how he acted towards the Vivids before they all teamed up.

“I’m perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Nagi crossed her arms, and Granny Mei groaned. Turning to Ken, who was standing like a plank next to Taiga, Nagi tried, “Ken, back me up here! Taiga’s been soooo ticked off lately!”

Ken grunted and froze up like Granny Mei’s spotlight was shining on him. (It wasn’t. It was pointed directly at pseudo-VBS. Pseudo because An wasn’t there.) “How about we…not do this?”

Nagi flailed her arms around dramatically, “Now you’re acting like you’re mature? Ken, you’re always arguing with us!”

“You say that like you’re mature, Nagi.” Taiga spat, “You act like a child!”

“Maybe I wouldn’t if you’d stop treating me like one!” Nagi’s voice bounced off all the walls, doing one hell of a job to cut off any refutes Taiga could snap back at her.

Akito swallowed, his gulp being the only audible sound. 

Holy shit…

He could probably hear a pin drop.

Granny Mei let out a long, hard, sigh. “Pack it up, you guys. I can hear the audience leaving, too.”

Taiga nodded aggressively, being the first one to get out of here, opening the backstage door and letting it close behind him with a reverted bang.

Ken exhaled. “Alright.”

Akito didn’t know whether to feel relieved that they were finally getting out of here or not. Because when they left, they’d still have a very angry Taiga to deal with. 

Because apparently, he was the same Taiga they knew. 

Maybe Akito misjudged him.

Shuffling out of the wires that he’d been so careful in not getting trapped in, he turned back to Kohane and Touya, both looking like deer in headlights. 

“You got untangled?” He asked.

Touya nodded slowly, keeping his voice low, “It was easier to help Azusawa with the spotlight shining on us.”

Ken was already walking over to the red EXIT sign, their escape out of here. He turned back to Nagi, who was still standing in the same place she had been when she was fighting with Taiga. She stared blankly at where Taiga had just been. 

“You coming, Nagi?” Ken retracted a few steps backwards to talk to his teammate.

“Yeah… I am…” He clapped her on the back, then started rubbing it as he guided her outdoors. She melted at the touch and leaned into him, “Ugh, I feel like shit. I shouldn’t have said all that. I hate fighting, ‘specially now.” 

Never had Akito thought he’d see Nagi this frail. An had never seen that side of her…or maybe she would rather not gush about it. Either way, he was glancing at a completely different person and it felt strange.

“And neither should he have.”

“He’s just looking out for me…with everything that’s happened.” She drew in a long breath, “He knows how much I hate being babied…makes me feel like a burden, you know?”

Ken nodded. “He loves you.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s right though. He’s just…”

“He’s Taiga.” Ken offered. “That’s just how he is.”

“That’s a little unfair, don’t you think? He’s too complicated to just be Taiga—You know that, Ken!”

“Yeah.” A pained chuckle, You’re right.”

Nagi grinned at him, albeit sadness was still woven in her eyes, “Hehe. That’s more like it.”

Ken elbowed her, “Can’t you be serious for a few minutes?” He was scolding her, but he wasn’t upset. He was also visibly brightened now that her spirits had been lightened. 

“Nope! Now come on, I wanna take a nap. Unless you’re gonna keep praising me~?”

Akito didn’t know why he was so shocked when she turned around and gestured for him and his crew to follow along. Her most sunshiney smile was flared right at them, as if nothing had ever happened. Even after what Taiga had said, she still saw them as some sort of pact. Her kids. 

Ken and Nagi walked up the stairs that lead to the exit. They all were sure to be extra mindful of their footing, not wanting to get concussed from falling down the stairs. Ken held the door open for them as they flooded outside. Akito felt like a vampire, the way he wanted to shrivel up and turn to dust just from coming into contact with all the neon lights. Compared to how dark it was in COL, he might as well be taking a stroll on top of the sun. 

“I hope Granny gets the lights figured out.” Nagi said at last.

Ken nodded before his eyes widened, “Oh god, I need to go get An. She was in the crowd. Don’t want to lose her again.” He started walking backwards, waving goodbye. 

“If you need any help, you know where to find me!” She shouted at him, as he disappeared into the crowd of less than enthused people still leaking out of COL’s front doors. “I’m a professional An-finder!”

And then, he was off. 

Nagi looked at the three of them, eyes ricocheting off of them in something akin to confusion, like she didn’t know what to say. 

“I’m... sorry…you had to see all of that,” She settled with, shrugging it off. “Let’s head back.”

And so marked the beginning of their journey back to Nagi and Taiga’s place. It was nighttime now, city lit with an array of neon lights, but Akito had been over that already so he didn't pay much attention to the scenery. His attention is more focused on Nagi, anyways.

Her neck was tense, he could spot it from a mile away, forcing herself to hold her head up high. Hands in her pockets and eyes on the path ahead. 

It reminded him of An. The stupid way she’d try to act normal when she was hurt. 

Nagi was a lot better than An was at the facade. Admittedly, Akito wouldn’t have thought as hard about her posture if he hadn’t seen her fight with Taiga…or if he didn’t already know that she was going to die.

He was going to approach this like he would with An. 

“Is your neck okay?” He asked Indirectly asking her if she was okay, he figured it’d be a smart move. If An had been influenced at all by this woman, the next thing she’d do is deny. 

Her brows raised in surprise, and she looked back at him from over her shoulder, “Yeah. You don’t need to worry yourself a grey mop of hair though! You’re a young kid, focus on…you know, kid stuff. Like, hm…that piece of spinach in your teeth!”

“I have spinach in my teeth?” He immediately brought his hand to his mouth to try and pick the food out of it. 

“Nope.” She said eloquently, twisting around just to flick his nose. “Just wanted to see your squirm.”

Akito didn’t even like spinach. No clue why he would have eaten it in the first place.

Nagi was very convincing.

Even better at deflecting. 

This was going to be harder than he thought. 

Why he cared? Well, she had been nothing but kind to them…and she was kind of the Kotaki Nagi. And, well, Akito just wanted for people to be happy.

He didn’t like to needlessly prattle on, might as well cut to the chase, “About Taiga…”

“What about him?” Akito had a feeling she already knew where this was going.

Why is he like… that? He wanted to ask. But the respectful, cordial, and beautiful part of his soul wouldn’t allow for that. 

“He’s…intense.”

“Akito,” Touya placed a hand on his shoulder, almost stopping him in his tracks. “You are as well.”

Nagi laughed, “He’s always been like that, since we were kids. It’s… a lot to unpack and I don’t want to be a buzzkill, so.” She shrugged, “But you know, despite him being quote-on-quote intense, the street still loves him. I still love him no matter how dumb and ridiculous he gets.”

Touya placed a hand to his heart, resonating with what she was saying. Akito waited for her to continue.

“Have any siblings?” She smiled softly when Akito and Touya nodded, “Then you’d understand that feeling, too. Unconditional love and such. Other people’s opinions don’t matter because you know them and they know you. And that’s all that matters.”

Akito thought about Ena. How cranky and needy she was…but also how she fostered him into who he was today and supported him in his dreams when hers were falling apart. Despite their fights and squabbles and how annoying she could be…he really did love her. Not like he’d ever say it aloud—that’s embarrassing. He missed her. He hoped she was doing okay and that she wasn’t taking his impromptu disappearance too badly. He knew how she got. Though a small part of him thought that no one would care that he was gone…he knew she would.

“All of that’s to say that Taiga’s not a bad person. There’s a lot of people—passerbys—who’ll come to this town just to test their luck in the music scene and say that.” Nagi sighed and turned her gaze back to him, “It’s just what happens when you don’t tell your story, and those who don’t care about it are the only ones who do.”

...Huh. 

Akito nodded, thinking deeper about her words. Not that hard because every waking moment he spent here in this time travel world his brain was reduced to mush.

“He also cried this one time when he dropped his ice cream cone,” She added on a lighter note. “So there’s also that.”

Kohane stifled a giggle before clearing her throat. She didn’t know if it was appropriate to laugh. Akito had to admit the idea of Taiga in tears over ice cream was kinda funny. He didn’t seem like the guy to cry at all—let alone at something like… ice cream.

“Evil people don’t cry ‘bout ice cream.” Nagi shrugged. She grinned, “There was also this one time where he—“

Once they were back at the blaring yellow house (With far too many embarrassing stories about Taiga now ingrained into their minds… apparently he wrote a bunch of edgy poems about Ken in middle school and hid them under his bed), with Nagi asleep and a distinct lack-of-Taiga, it was time to get this show on the road.

The show being, How The Fuck Do We Get Out Of Here? And the road being the coffee table they had covered with exploded pen ink and papers they had gotten via sneaking into the little office room at the house. The papers were filled with ideas on how to get back home. If you could even call them that.

Some of Akito's (debatable) favorite ideas included:

#1: Touya suggested manifesting their feelings of wanting to go back home into feelings strong enough to become a SEKAI. There, they could talk to Miku and ask to be taken to the Street SEKAI. No idea how that was going to work, but SEKAIs made no sense in theory so honestly it was a worthy try.

(“Don't you think we already had strong enough feelings for that?” Kohane asked. “It's the only thing we've been thinking about.”

Touya replied, “We can always feel harder.”

Akito watched in horror as the two of them proceeded to chant, ‘We want to go home’ for the next five minutes.)

#2: Go around preaching the art of time travel until they meet someone else who time traveled. Again, no clue how that would work, but Kohane was very adamant that a fellow time traveler could take them under their wing and lend them a handy dandy time machine that could bring them back home. 

(“Time travel isn't real.” Akito said firmly. “Also, the probability of finding a whole ass time traveler in Vivid Steet is so low.”

“Akito we've been over this,” Touya chastised him. “If Hatsune Miku is real…” 

Touya waited for Akito to finish his mantra. With a groan, Akito clutched his temple and fell back down into the couch cushions, “...Then so is time travel.”

Yeah. Akito wasn't convinced.)

#3: Try every porta potty in Shibuya. Yeah…no.

“We're getting nowhere.” Akito grumbled, letting the couch cushions consume him. “Also, that's disgusting.”

“Akito, you suggested that yourself.” Touya pointed out. He was sitting on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. His face was a blank slate but his fingers that had been tracing circles atop his empty mug of coffee for the past half hour loudly spoke loudly.

“Still, it just goes to show that we've got nothing!”

Kohane, who sat next to Akito on the couch, passionately squeezed the pillow she was hugging, “It's only three ideas! We can come up with more…”

“I wish An was here,” Akito admitted. “She'd be bouncing off the walls with ideas.” 

Touya looked up at him, a soft smile on his face at the mention of their teammate, “I think Shiraishi would be freaking out the most out of all of us if she was here.” 

“Okay, yeah. But, like, she's good at stupid brainstorming things.”

Kohane perked up, “Shinonome-kun, you know what I was telling Aoyagi-kun earlier? About channeling positive affirmations?”

“Yeah, it was… creative.”

“Instead of channeling that, you should try channeling your inner An-chan.”

Akito blinked, confused. “What?”

“Think like she would. Then, you'll be bouncing off the walls with ideas.”

“You're such an empath, Akito.” Touya said. Akito genuinely couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. “You can do it.”

It had only been two days. Two days and Akito had already figured out that he actually quite liked it when he’d get his shins kicked. He actually enjoyed the guttural nudges to the stomach that left him nauseous. 

He wondered what An could be doing right now, in the present. Playing detective? His stomach churned knowing she’d probably assume the worst and would walk herself around in circles about it. But he also knew she was strong; An could handle herself and she’d find solutions in the most wild ways because that was just how she was. 

An, An, An.

What would An do?

“She’d suggest something stupid.” Akito settled with. “Something so outlandish…and I’d call her an idiot for it. But then, she’d be right, and she’d rub it in my face like a little—”

Akito, get your head out of the gutter! Get your head in the game!

Touya and Kohane nodded their heads up and down expectantly.

“She’d…she’d uh…probably do something with the porta potties, right? Like, my idea, but somehow worse.”

“Shinonome-kun, you’re a genius!” Kohane bursted out, “An-chan’s a genius!”

“…What?”

“Think about it, the porta potty that brought us here was from Phoenix Wonderland.”

“Uh huh.”

“We should go there, go to the porta potties, and try to find one that looks like the time machine!”

Touya thought about that for a few moments, freezing in contemplation before saying, “That…isn’t a bad Idea. It’s perfect syncretism of Akito’s idea, but with the Shiraishi twist. It’d also be more beneficial, because not only is it more logical, it gives us less ground to cover with a higher chance of achieving the outcome we’d like.” He stood up from the floor, a wide grin on his face, “Mhmm, yes, You’re amazing, Akito.”

“Uhhh, thanks?” Akito scratched his nape, “Shouldn’t you be thanking An, though?”

“We will.”

“Gonna give An-chan the biggest hug ever tomorrow.” Kohane yawned, crawling over to the far side of the couch. She placed the pillow she had been choking down and rested her head on it, curling up into a fetal position so as to not kick Akito, who was still sitting there. 

“Tomorrow?” He twisted in her direction.

“Well, PXL is closed right now. We kind of…can’t go right now.”

“Azusawa is right.” Touya said, “So it’s best to get a good night of sleep so we can be fully energized when we hug Shiraishi tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. They were going home tomorrow, and they wouldn’t have to worry about screwing anything else over. Which was amazing. Everything that happened at COL was—well, it didn’t matter anymore. He wouldn’t have to listen to Touya and Kohane’s constant chides for putting the blame for the power outage on himself (It was, no? If he hadn’t picked Kohane up they would have been fine. Probably) anymore.

Honestly, that felt a little too easy, but Akito decided to shove all his doubts to the back of his mind and embrace…the ‘Inner An-chan’ channeling through him. Which…he won’t lie was kind of hard although the two of them weren’t as different as they once deduceded.

An was on a whole other level…of everything. The literal sun, he thought. Sometimes his eyes would hurt looking at her, and Kusanagi would have to duck under a desk when An bursted into the classroom and blinded everyone with her effervescence most could only dream of having. He supposed he admired her for it. How she stayed cheerful despite…everything that happened to her. Feeling as he did when they had just met as children, he wondered if he could do the same.

Though, in the end: you were you. He’d learnt to accept that. He hoped An would, too, seeing how much she looked up to Nagi.

Oh well, he would get to talk to her about all of this tomorrow when they had this giant coordinated group hug Kohane was already planning.

“Hell yeah.” Akito fist bumped. He thought of what songs they could all sing together once they were reunited. His throat itched, having not been used to belt notes in what felt like forever.

The front door flew open and Akito leaped out of his skin. Kohane did too, shaking to full consciousness as she shot upwards.

Cool air swept through the living room as Taiga stood in the doorway. His shoulders rocked up and down as he stared at the three teenagers. Face red in coordination with his knuckles redder.

Akito had a lot of questions about that man. Some answered, most not; shrouded by Nagi’s love for her brother and everything around her. But Taiga averted his eyes and walked down the hallway to sleep because most questions are better off left unanswered.

Chapter Text

The three of them collectively stared at each other in dumbfoundment.

“He seems chipper.” Akito commented sarcastically. 

He had been acting kind of strange ever since they got here—which was to be expected, Touya wouldn’t hold that against him—but especially towards Taiga. His partner held a disdain for the singer closer to his chest now than he had before. 

Of course, they had every reason to be mad at Taiga. Hell, that’s the reason Touya initially felt no shame in lying about being runaway orphans. However, he felt the slightest bit indebted to the man, and he hated himself for it. Taiga, who performed in RAD WEEKEND, showed them all the demarcation between their skill levels, the wall they needed to climb. 

Vivid BAD SQUAD was nowhere on his level.

Which went to show how much more training they needed, a wake up call. A necessary one. He shattered all their past fallacies.

Though, at the moment, Touya didn’t know how to feel. Brushing the complete indifference off as sleep deprivation (which, it probably was despite the fact they had all slept until evening. Was this some kind of time-travel-jet-lag? ), 

Touya stood up from the floor, shaky. He hoped Taiga didn’t mind the mess. “Ah…we should probably clean up and try to sleep.” He told everyone.

“I don’t think I can sleep anymore.” Kohane said, looking mildly shaken up by the Taiga-Jumpscare.

They had just been planning this revolutionary idea—now it was as if the enthusiasm had been stripped from the room. 

“We can lay together again if that helps, Azusawa.” Touya suggested

“Eh?” Kohane quickly went beet red in recollection, “I-I…forgot that happened yesterday.” She groaned, embarrassed and covered her face with her hands and doubled over on the couch. “…Sorry!”

“Why are you apologizing? I’m the one who offered.” In all honesty, it had also helped Touya anchor himself down to a state calm enough for slumber even though his arm was numb by morning. “You’re very dear to me, Azusawa, just as Akito and An are as well. I wanted you to feel better.”

He found it hard to express how much he truly loved his friends—the feeling was too expensive to be put into words. There was so much to say, so much to feel that his emotions became tangible and often came out in physical means, like when they had cuddled last night. He supposed that way of expressing his love wasn’t something too out of the blue for him, something he ended up doing when his love was too overwhelming to leave his heart verbally like he normally would.

“You’re really sweet, Aoyagi-kun, It’s just…” She sighed, “I let my anxiety get the best of me again.”

“It’s unrealistic to expect yourself to be one hundred percent all of the time.”

“…I know. But—“

Akito firmly placed a hand on Kohane’s shoulder, “Kohane.”

“Wait, hear me out. Remember what I said the first night? About our actions here affecting the future?”

Akito nodded. Touya, on the other hand, got a pit in his stomach, realizing what Kohane was going to say.

“…When we messed up the power…”

Touya thought aloud, “GLaP DAY—Taiga-san said they were going to debut!”

“Exactly,” Kohane agreed with him miserably. “If we go home tomorrow and GLaP day miraculously doesn’t exist…”

Akito titled his head, forehead wrinkled with confusion mixed with curiosity. “Who’s to say they can’t have debuted another day?”

“That’s plausible, but I’m just saying. Whatever we’re doing, we need to stop it.”

“…huh?”

“I’ll make this easier for you to understand, Akito.” Touya said, “There’s two types of characters in literature.” He explained.

Akito’s forehead creased furthermore, “Protagonist and antagonist?”

“Well, yes. But, what I’m talking about here are reactive and proactive characters.”

Kohane nodded, “We need to be reactive, don’t we?”

“Exactly.”

Akito blinked, “I’ll be honest. You guys are great and all but I do not understand all of this nerd stuff.” 

He should have known that the words ‘understand’ and ‘literature’ used in neighboring sentences would be like trying to make Akito’s brain eat soup with a fork. Touya kind of wished that his phone was working, because then he'd be able to pull out a handy dandy venn diagram. Those things worked wonders.

Touya, as an avid enjoyed of literature, almost found comfort in the by the book cliches, tropes, and archetypes that remain present in real life just as they do in fiction.

“Just…we can’t be foolish. We don’t know the consequences and frankly, I’m not keen on facing them.”

“Well, we won’t. We’ll be home tomorrow, anyways, so there’s not much room for fucking more things up.” Akito released the tension in his shoulders with sudden nonchalance, voice softer than it had been, “We’ll be alright, you guys.”

“How do we know that?” Kohane shook her head, getting up from the couch and starting to pace anyway, murmuring words to herself like she often did when she was anxious. 

Touya stood as a barrier, and soon, she walked straight into him. It got the job done; she instantly stopped in her tracks. 

“I’m so nervous!” She bursted out, flailing her arms like a little kid. 

Saying, don’t be, wasn’t going to cut it. 

Fortunately for Kohane, Touya had spent his fair share of hours on his computer researching ways to help others handle anxiety. 

(He had also read books about grief to try and help An. She told him that she was grateful that he cared, but she was ‘already over it’. Touya thought she was a hypocrite for holding her feelings in, after all she’d done for him. Touya had two shoulders to cry on, mind you. But alas, he knew it’d make things worse to beat it out of her so he held the information close to his heart for when necessary. Just as he’s done with his GAD research.) 

“Azusawa, maybe we should go for a walk? To clear your head?” He offered, internally, very proud of himself for handling the situation.

“It’s 1AM,” She said. “But… you know what? Why not.”

Fresh air was good, right?

Touya nodded with a slight smile. “Alright. Akito?” 

“You guys can go. If we’re set on going to PXL tomorrow, I’ll figure out the stupid stuff. Like money and whatever. You guys have any change?”

“Good idea.” Touya quickly grabbed his limp jacket from off the couch arms and started to ransack the pockets of all its goods. Lighting up once he felt coins, he scooped them into his palm and counted the amount, “I have four thousand yen.”

“Of course you do.” 

Kohane laughed, and did the same as him, though her search wasn’t as fruitful. “Ehhhh….”

Akito waved a hand at them, signaling for them to go towards the door, “I’ll figure it out while you guys are out.”

If Touya was being honest, he didn’t exactly trust Akito with their financials coming from a mathematical standpoint, but he slipped on his jacket now that it was in his hands anyway. He told Akito they’ll be back in a couple of minutes.

As they walked out the door, Touya commented, “I think he took the thinking like Shiraishi idea a little too seriously.”

Kohane giggled, voice small, “Yeah.”

He released a sigh of relief as the cool night air hit his face, not realizing how stuffy it was in that house until then. He supposed it was because of the tension, or maybe how Taiga left flames wherever he walked.

“Oh, wow.” Kohane marveled in the night scenery, “I already feel a lot better, Thank you, Aoyagi-kun.”

“It’s no problem. I think I needed this too.”

It was like an unwritten rule ingrained in their heads at this point, their footsteps syncing up as they began to walk down Vivid Street.

It was a normal sight, one he saw quite often as he usually stayed late for practice to procrastinate going home. Though, nothing was the same when swept away by the waves of time. Maybe there were more lights on than usual, shops that were closed were still open here. 

If one thing were to stay constant, Touya thought that he liked it being the fact that Vivid Street never went to bed. In lieu of the sun, the street shone brightly at night through its signs and especially the music coming from buskers. 

“I keep thinking about Taiga-san, and everything that happened today.” Kohane said, eyes wandering aimlessly across any surface besides his face, “He’s so…different, but also the same.”

Touya decided to ask the one question plaguing his mind since the walk home, “Do you think Taiga-san is a bad person?”

“No!” Kohane shouted. She quickly went red and lowered her volume, “I definitely don’t. And it’s not just because of what Nagi-san said.”

“I understand what you mean.”

”Taiga-san took me under his wing, didn’t make me pay or anything. For weeks I got trained by a legend, and that’s more than anything I could ask for. And he’s good. He really did care for me and I don’t doubt that.” Kohane spoke without hesitation before wavering, “But, that doesn't excuse the bad. Like what he did to An-chan and the whole battle… it…”

“It’s hard to look at him the same.”

”Yes. He’s so complicated, I feel like I’m thinking in circles. I'm upset at him for everything but at the same time I can’t help but sympathize with him.” 

“As expected from you.” He said with a slight grin.

”You know why he acted like that and decided to battle us, right? Why he blew up at us earlier?”

Touya thought hard. If Taiga were fictional, he’d be one hell of a character to analyze. “I think so.”

”He knows…that Nagi-san is going to die. I think anyone—especially him—would be on edge. Ken-san told us how close they were and everything…” Kohane’s shoulders slumped, “Agh, all this is making my head hurt even more…”

“Let’s change the topic?”

”I want to, but…everywhere I look it leads back to RADder and their complexities. How this city screams their names, Aoyagi-kun.” She finally tore her gaze from the street and looked up at him, “It’s like Taiga-san’s training. Had he ever told you to ‘look at this town?’” 

“Yes. He told Tono-san the same thing…and probably everyone else. I was starting to think it was some sort of fanaticism.”

“Did you ever figure out what he meant?”

“Honestly…no.”

“Looking at the street now…I can see what he meant. But I can’t put it into words, it’s so…”

Vivid Street was a place that was built by the community that resided there—a family of people who not only shared a love for music but an unconditional love for eachother. As Touya and Kohane continued to walk down the street, their shoes press down on paved memories. In a city where the walls were scaffolded with music notes and the neon lights powered by strums of guitars, it can be overwhelming to admit it’s not a dream. 

“We didn’t grow up here.” Touya suddenly said. 

He and Kohane had never truly experienced RAD WEEKEND or the Vivid Street An could ramble about for hours. For the longest time, Touya—and Kohane as well, no doubt—felt like outsiders looking in as they chased this dream alongside Akito and An. He was raised as a classical musician until Akito gave him something to live for…

As Touya squinted his eyes to read the glowing signs, he understood one thing at the very least. 

This was everything they had ever wanted, in a way.

Kohane nodded slowly, “It’s kind of weird to think that when the people here have fostered us into believing that we’ve been living here our whole lives. But then I think, if I had been born and raised here, how would I have turned out? Would I be anxious—or would I be like An-chan?”

“Nature versus nurture…” Touya muttered under his breath.

Catching this, Kohane asks, “You want to talk about philosophy?”

“I want to talk about a lot of things. But like you were saying, it will all come back to the street so maybe there’s no reason to talk at all.”

Kohane laughed. He was glad she was feeling better despite the heavy topic.

“It’s so beautiful…I really like it here,” She piped up. “But that’s selfish, isn’t it? We’re almost home and here I am feeling kind of sad that I wont get to see these sights again…”

She too agreed that the Vivid Street from three years ago was so alike, yet so different.

“We will,” Touya assured her. “Taiga-san is right that we won't be able to replicate the feelings Vivid Street had before, after, and during RAD WEEKEND. We aren’t RADder and I think,” He swallows, “I think we were tunnel visioned before Taiga came in. And… Akito will say it’s corny but, with our own feelings and ideas, Vivid BAD SQUAD will restore Vivid Street’s color.”

She giggled and looked at him incredulously, “You make it sound like we’re superheros trying to save the world. That’s wonderful.”

“It’s like the plot to a book…” He decided. He perked up, “Hey, do you think once we take over the world, we could write a group memoir covering everything we—oh. I’m getting ahead of myself, aren't I?”

Although the answer was obvious, there was not much room for contemplation, as a raspy voice called out to them. “Ey, you two look like you’ve got some nice voices attached to your throats.”

“E-eh!?” Kohane squeaked, “What’s that supposed to imply?”

“You look like good singers.” He put it, deadpanning. The man who was talking to them on the curb of the sidewalk is unfamiliar to Touya, with sunken eyes and decades of smile lines. He was hunched over an acoustic guitar that was sitting patiently in his lap.

“What a creative way of saying that.” Touya clasped his hands together and wondered if he was being genuine or not. 

So focused on trying to get back home and all of his feelings regarding RADder, the lie he had told them and the guilt he held regarding that was shoved to the back of his mind. Touya had never been a liar. He was blunt, as a lot of people had put it. He had learnt a lot of lessons ever since he had picked up street music, and he supposed honesty was something he had gathered.

It was hard to lie as a singer. The only way to begin to get decent at it is to sing from the heart.

Touya instead nodded and smiled at the man, trying not to question his own honesty and most importantly, himself.

“Sing for me will, ya?”

Touya scratched his nape. They had told Akito that they’d only be out for a few minutes.

Sighing at their lack of a response, the old fellow persisted, “You’re here on Vivid Street. This place is a singer’s haven! You haven’t truly sung if you haven’t done it on the curb until dawn.”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt…” Kohane said, and the man whooped and hollered. The ease of a late night walk finally getting to her. Either that, or she too had decided to embrace her inner Shiraishi. Though he supposed it was natural because of that special bond the Vivids had.

“Sit, sit.” the Old Fellow motioned the two of them towards him and patted on the curb next to him like he was guiding a pair of stray puppies.

”So,” Kohane placed her hands neatly in her lap as she plopped down on the sidewalk. “Are we doing something like a freestyle, or…”

“Sing whatever you’d like. I can replicate the cords on this baby in my sleep.” He smiled at his baby—his guitar—and then smirked at his bowl that had spare change in it. The money he received from busking appeared to be this man’s credibility.

Touya slowly sat at Kohane’s side, “What song should we do?”

Kohane smiled before her face fell. She leaned into him and whispered into his ear, “Our songs…don’t really exist yet.”

“You want to sing one of our songs?” He asked.

“Mhmm. Of course I do.”

The Old Fellow began tapping his foot on the pavement. Guess he got tired of their indecisiveness and decided to start without them. 

Counting the beats, Touya chose to start singing a song he thought would match the rhythm. “I waver and slip-up, in these days where I feel like I’m not making any progress…”

“Realize!?” Kohane gasped in recognition, a smile worth challenging all the neon signs shining tonight spreading onto her face. 

“You’re goin’ freestyle, eh?” The old man chucked.

He and Kohane silently laughed, for these were lyrics they’d ingrained into their hearts. Realize was a special song, one that Vivid BAD SQUAD had stayed up late drafting. When they had gotten home from the airport after confronting Taiga…the lingering adrenaline they all held easily transfigured into lyrics. Touya remembered it very well. He actually joined Akito and An in creating the production—and they’d tried to teach Kohane the basics as well—and created something they were all very proud of. A song that never failed to get his heart beating jubilantly and lips curving up into a smile. 

Due to the sidewalk playing improv as a budgeted stage, maybe it was natural when a small, humble crowd formed around them. Considering that it was one in the morning, Touya hadn’t thought of anyone’s cheers to harmonize with their voices. But alas, this was Vivid Street. Its people were chained together by one sole thing. Music.

As the song concluded, the crowd erupted into cheers. Someone commented, “RADder junior?”

Another spectator mumbled, “With everything that happened at COL yesterday at least we got one more good show”

The crowd eventually dissipated Once the people were cleared out, only one person remained.

“Touya?! Kohane?!” 

“An-chan!?” Kohane leapt up from the sidewalk in surprise, instinctively grabbing onto An’s hands. Old habits die hard. “It’s so late—“

An flushed at her name, like she had done every other time Kohane had added ‘chan’ onto it. Touya smiled, finding the interaction endearing. But An is not so different from her present self, he thought as she shook her head and cleared her throat so she could begin gushing.“You guys really are good singers!” An swooned, “Like, reaaally good. Good like Dad and his team, and, and—”

Kohane cried, ”My hands…An-chan—”

“Oh, sorry! Sorry!” An released Kohane from her grasp, the pigtailed girl having to fan her hands off due to how tight An’s grip was. “I just got really excited, y’know?”

Touya stood up. The old man who played the guitar for them disappeared before he could thank him. Okay, then.

“Shiraishi, isn’t it a little late for you to be out?” He asked her, concerned.

She was wearing a T-shirt with an unrecognizable graphic, dressed like it was blazing hot outside.

“No.” An crosses her arms, “I can stay up all night ‘cause I’m so mature as a thirteen year old.” She tilted her head up at him and nodded, trying to appear tough. Touya had to give it to future An, she had really improved upon her cool girl persona even if at most times he could see right through it and ended up staring at the young girl he was talking with then, in the past.

Kohane stifled a laugh, “If you say so…”

“Anyways, are you guys sure you don’t wanna team up? I think I’d be a really good asset—and it’d be really fun.”

“Shiraishi, did you hunt us down just so you could ask us to team up again?” Touya asked, already knowing the answer. 

“Um!” An clapped her hands together, face going red. She coughed and then eloquently said, “Nope.”

“I see.”

“Yeah, I just…uhm, had the Idea to ask you guys again.” She harmlessly lied through her smile, then shrugged. “Feelings change over time. Maybe, you had an epip—an apif—an…epipen?”

“An epiphany.” Touya supplied.

“Yeah! That! An epiphany. Maybe you guys had one and then changed your minds.”

They had to let her down gently again. They were leaving tomorrow, after all—if Akito of all people managed to get their funds situated. An sighed and forced on a smile, like she had done the first night when she asked them the same question. 

At least Touya could sleep at night knowing that good things were coming her way. That An would find a team and a partner who treasured her so, so much—even if they gave her an odd sense of deja vu. And that those teammates would never leave her side. Us against the world.

“Okay then,” An bounced on her feet, her sudden boredom tangible. “Well, since you’re here now, can I show you guys around Vivid Street? There’s some cool spots not a lot of people know about.”

Who were they to refuse?

Touya didn’t grow up on Vivid Street. The funny thing was, for the longest time, music had only taught him how to fight. It was Vivid Street that taught him how to love. The people on the street welcomed him the moment he stepped in for the first time with his rather dapper clothing and polished shoes, right at Akito’s side. It was that initial warmth and shared passion of music that he eventually learnt something about all the frustration and disdain he felt for his father and classical music. His anger was once love. 

An recieved Vivid Street’s love from the moment she was born. It was clear to anyone who was lucky enough to walk into the same room as her. She was loved, and she loved back even harder. 

It’s further evident in the way she dragged them down the street, rambling all about it and falling into tangents, like how aggravating light pollution is and how badly she wished she could see every star the sky had to offer. 

“Anyways,” An gestured to a street lamp as they walked by it, “That street lamp was where I was when—“

“AN!” A booming voice called out, rattling the calmness of their walk and causing a flock of birds to fly away.

“Shoot!” An hissed. 

“Is that Ken-san?” Touya asked as An grabbed onto his and Kohane’s wrists and yanked them forward. The girl started sprinting down the street further away from the call, and, God, someone please remind Touya to ask An what she was doing at age thirteen to obtain such brute strength. 

“No, it’s my mom,” An said casually looking at him from over her shoulder, “Don’t wanna mess with her when she’s angry. She made Taiga-ojisan cry this one time—woah!” She veered to the side, almost slamming straight into a flickering street lamp. She continued running unscathed, unlike Touya, who’s reaction time wasn’t swift enough to evade his right arm from hitting it. 

He groaned in pain, but An simply kept dragging them further down the street.

“Yuka-san doesn’t seem all that scary.” Kohane commented, flashing a pitiful look at his arm. 

“That’s what she wants you to think—ah, here we are.” An released them at last. 

She put her hands on her hips and looked their destination up and down with a victorious glare in her eyes. A music shop, apparently, the one with the giant window in front, giving a beautiful view of a metal shelf with a family of vinyls and CDs on display. It was a shop VBS frequented a lot, actually, the one that prided itself on being vintage although most of the records were from the 2000s and 2010s. Though, you wouldn’t have to look on any release dates to figure that out. Touya shivered, thinking of the bland pop music that was all about partying all night that always played in there.

Touya doubled over panting. Kohane gave him a pat on the back. 

“Jeez, Touya,” An giggled, smiling apologetically. “I was doing most of the work out there. You have asthma or something?”

He quite literally coughed out, “…No.”

“Oh.”

That was the nicest way anyone had told him he was out of shape.

An covered her mouth, but her shoulders shook in laughter. She took his hands and (thankfully) instead of dragging him along on another marathon, she helped him up. She grinned, but it somehow didn’t come off as if she was mocking him. “We all start somewhere.”

”An-chan,” Kohane started, “Why did you bring us here?”

“Oh,” An gasped, suddenly remembering just why they ran here in the first place. “Totally cool hiding spot, come inside.”

“Shiraishi… in all honesty I am pretty sure breaking into establishments is illegal.” Touya said as An pushed the front door open.

There are two types of characters in literature, Touya reminded himself, Reactive and proactive characters. A proactive character will actively make decisions that will influence the plot of the story and how it will end. A reactive character will simply go along with wherever the plot will spit them out. 

Touya could only hope he was being reactive as he left a trail of apprehensive footprints behind him as he entered the shop.

There was some sort of horrible foreshadowing running amok as soon as he entered the shop, a chill slithering up and down his spine like a snake and he knows this is a bad idea. Also, illegal. Has he mentioned how illegal this is, yet?

“Taiga-ojisan says that Nagi-san used to break into places all the time.” An told them as she scurried behind the shop's counter, messed with something on the wall, and the white florescent lights of the shop flickered on. “But like, this isn't even breaking in.”

It occurred to Touya that maybe RADder weren't the best influences.

An's habit of idolizing RADder prevented her from seeing the ugly truth. That her perception of Nagi was an idealized version and maybe she'd never known the true Nagi. The Nagi who was only tall when compared to the likes of a child or when she was on stage. The Nagi who got angry, who yelled at her brother and in turn was insecure about her own maturity levels. 

Or maybe Touya was reading too much into this. He probably was. He had always been too analytical for his own good. 

“How so?” He asked, glancing at the area of the shop. It was similar to how it presented itself in the future, with the exception for a few unrecognizable vinyls. He noticed a stray mop on the floor, a sign of an unfinished janitorial job.

“The owner of this place, Kinose-San, he told me I'm always welcome!”

”Not sure that means you’re welcome at two in the morning.” Kohane said slowly as she shut the door behind her. Ironic.

An’s smile faltered. “I’m sorry. We can leave if you guys wanna…just kinda assumed teenagers would be rebellious and, you'd like, I don't know…cool stuff.”

It was weird to see her try to impress them like that.

“We're very cool people, and we don't do illegal things, An-chan.” Kohane told her in a bout of confidence, “Right, Aoyagi-kun?”

“Very.” He wanted to laugh, both he and Kohane knew that Akito and An were the resident ‘cool ones’ of the group. Though one thing he could confirm with complete certainty was that he and Kohane had never broken any laws. The only stain in his record was the one time at school he used the bathroom school without taking a hall pass. How scandalous.

“You guys dress cool…” An mused aloud. “Like cool teenagers who'd wanna break into places.”

Touya wasn't quite sure how his simple jeans and the T-shirt that was layered atop a black long sleeved one gave her that impression. Same with Kohane, who normally dressed cute with flowy skirts and ribbons, little hints of street style peeping through.

“Delinquents?” He pressed on, just to see her squirm. 

“Wait, wait, wait, not like that!” She waved her hands frantically at him, promptly jumping over the counter instead of walking around it. “Touya, but you almost passed out after running so I'm not sure what kind of schemes you'd even be able to get into. No offense.”

“None taken.” He slowly backed towards the door, hoping An would get the idea. One small step after another. “So, do you think breaking into places is the epitome of coolness?”

“Well—! Uhm…I guess…?” She admitted sheepishly, ducking her head. 

“I know something even cooler.”

An’s eyes widened in anticipation, about to take whatever he was going to say next as cool kid gospel. Kohane quirked a brow, curious herself.

He took a deep breath, and composed himself.

“Reading.”

Touya had to let out a laugh as An’s face fell into an expression that sighed, “Really?” Old habits die hard–if they ever had the chance to die in the first place. He motioned towards himself, grinning, “Now, come on. Let's get out of here. I hear they force you to read books in prison.”

An scoffed playfully. Once she was done retracing her steps in surrender, it appeared as nothing had ever happened and the flies buzzing on the ceiling had no light to reach out to anymore. She punched him lightly in the arm—something he hadn’t realized he was having withdrawals of—and chortled as she said. “Okay, cool guy. We’ll leave.”

Touya internally fist-bumped, though the gratification didn’t last long. His calf hit the aforementioned mop and he toppled over.

Not into the floor, no. But straight into that metal shelf. The music clattered to the floor in sync with Touya. Much to the horror of everyone unfortunate enough to witness it, upon impact with the shelf, the forces of gravity pulled the shelf down, falling straight into the window.

Yeah, definitely illegal. On the bright side, at least the memoir will be interesting?

Chapter Text

You know, when An found out she had a pocket dimension called Street SEKAI hanging around in her phone, it left her arms in a similar state as they are now; freckles replaced with scabs from how many times she’s pinched herself. 

Because why are there famous vocaloids there too, and how did this world get generated from her feelings? Is Hatsune Miku a mind reader with access to all her thoughts and emotions? Is that how she's been able to help An work through her problems!?

Regardless of that, she had been quick to learn that if her questions lacked answers, it wasn't worth asking them in the first place. So, of course, when a brand new alleyway forms in the Street SEKAI, An is thinking about an infinite amount of questions, muttering a few that. Only difference is…she's not the only one asking them for once.

“Holy shit.” Miku breathes, gazing incredulously at the SEKAI’s newly formed alleyway.

Luka’s eyeballs look like they’re about to pop out, “There’s no way—”

Miku and Luka's heads snap to each other's directions and they proceed to bolt straight into they alley, leaving the rest in the literal dust.

Len scratches his head, “uuuuuh…Miku???”

Rin elbows her counterpart and is quick to follow—until MEIKO snatches her by the arm and pulls her backwards. “Stay here.” MEIKO says sternly. 

The unusual sharpness from MEIKO makes An even more uneasy, like her feet struggle to hold up her body weight. 

“The SEKAI expanded!” Rin counterwauls, “I wanna exploreeeee!”

The pink and teal blobs blur into nothing, as if the alleyway walls closed in on them. An gulps.

In terms of spookiness? The new alleyway didn't quite make the cut as the warm, incandescent glowing lanterns hanging on strings from fire escape and roofs almost beckon An to go inside.

MEIKO hushes Rin like a chiding mother, KAITO nervously chuckling. 

Something's weird. The nervous energy coming from the older vocaloids is tangible. But with everything that she's recently told them…An isnt perceptive enough to know if it were something else about the alleyway that’s bothering them.

Eventually, Miku and Luka return, looking morose. 

An doesn't know where she got the idea that they'd emerge from the Alleyway with her teammates. 

“…So,” KAITO starts, “Is it, you know?”

Miku bites her lip. She mouths something An can’t decipher, and pulls the other three into some sort of huddle.

An is just…so fucking confused. The Kagamines are as well, their curious stares bouncing between the faces of Miku, Luka, KAITO and MEIKO at rapid paces. 

 She’s so exhausted, and after allegedly having a panic attack, a part of her heart is scared to feel, well, anything. Like any emotion could trigger another attack, An’s thinking she can’t let her guard down or else her own thoughts are going to gang up on her again. She sort of feels like she’s simply a spectator watching over all of this chaos.

It's a world where her emotions are the bricks that build the Crase Cafe and Vivid BAD SQUAD’s memories are used to pave the street. She thinks she deserves to know what's happening. It could have something to do with where her friends went. She needs to know.

“Uhm, guys…?” An taps on KAITO’s shoulder and he flinches and maybe even shrieks in surprise. “Sorry—what’s happening right now?”

MEIKO smiles at her, feigning a sense of casualness that seems even more manufactured considering her foreboding expresion she wore just moments ago. “An-chan, do you want to go rest in the cafe?”

Um. No? An wants to roll her eyes. She doesn’t like when people pity her—MEIKO of all people should know this. She sighs.

Why do they feel like they need to hide something from her? Why…

Miku lets out a shrill gasp, and her head snaps towards the new alleyway. “Oh no.”

“What?” Luka asks.

“Rin and Len!”

The duo in question have matter of factly vanished. Gee, wonder where they went.

MEIKO facepalms like a tired mother, “Oh my God…”

“Well, don’t just stand there!” Luka exclaims, “Let's go find them!”

“Says the one who’s just standing there!” Miku calls out—having already ran back inside to retrieve Rin and Len. Luka, in the face of competition, bolts after her, KAITO tailing shortly behind her.

An takes a deep breath, looking up at MEIKO. “MEIKO-san.” She says, “I want to go in.”

MEIKO’s grin falters, like a glitch in the system. It’s off putting. An doesn’t really understand why she shouldn't be allowed in there. If there were unforeseen dangers that An wasn’t privy to, she doesn’t know. But MEIKO knows something.

“Besides, it’s not like anything bad is going to be in there! It’s made by our feelings…” She shakes off the idea that a world generated by how she currently feels would be something ripped out of the pages of Touya’s thriller novels. 

MEIKO places her hands on An’s shoulders. She exhales and pulls some stray strands of An’s hair—remnants of her panic attack—and gently pulls them behind her ear, adjusting her hair clips so they’d actually be doing their purpose. “I’m sorry if I was being pushy. I just don’t want you to get hurt by pushing yourself too hard.”

“MEIKO-san, I’ll be fine,” An says, even though she doesn’t believe the sentiment earnestly. “When have I ever pushed myself too hard?”

“Oh, An-chan…” MEIKO looks flabbergasted at that, “Where do I even begin?”

MEIKO begins listing off every individual circumstance—An groans at the defamation.

“Hey, hey, hey! Okay! That’s enough!” An’s face flushes as she crosses her arms.

“I’m just looking out for you.” 

“I know…” An says. MEIKO really is the doting older sister or aunt she's been deprived of. She's probably doing the worst possible job of expressing her gratitude, but she truly was thankful that there were people like MEIKO who truly cared for her. “I really appreciate it, you know? Sorry for acting so childish.”

An glances back at the alleyway, and then back at MEIKO. 

“...So, can I go in?”

An knows the answer when MEIKO squeezes her shoulder. “Well, I know that nothing I say will stop you.”

An laughs in an attempt to disarm the women of her worries. She decides to walk inside with a little hope that each step will bring her closer to finding her teammates.

Stepping a foot in—the air already feels colder and a bit damp like it had been raining a few moments ago. In fact, when An looks up, the sky is no longer a bright afternoon, but rather a cloudless night. “…Huh?” She gasps. She steps out of the alleyway and the sun beams down on her again. 

MEIKO, however, presents herself as completely unphased, walking a few paces in front of An. The scattered puddles on the alleyway’s cracked pavement ripple and splash as An races to keep up with MEIKO. The older woman’s hands are behind her back as if she were taking a leisurely, scenic walk. 

It’s like she’s walked into an entirely new SEKAI.

It is pretty scenic here, in all honesty. Well, if you ignored the scraps of posters and newspapers that blew like tumbleweed in the subtle breeze. The lanterns up above are like beacons of warmth. And, the neon signs all over the graffiti-covered brick walls prevent a familiarity that draws An in further, the lights reminiscent of the ones that burn on Vivid Street. A few neon signs even reflect some of the exact ones she’s seen on the street; COL’s logo and CRAWL GREEN buried in the glow of the other lights. It looked like a bar street, really. Something straight out of a nightlife area of Tokyo but with a more…homey feel. More bricks, yeah?

If An weren’t so caught up in her own worries, she would have been awestruck by how cool this place is. She runs her hand along the brick walls, feeling the crevices of the worn down, almost eroded material. It all feels so real, and—

She wishes she was experiencing this with Kohane. She wishes Akito and Touya were here to see everything. 

Wishing won’t get her anywhere. She should stop wasting her time basking in the SEKAI’s expansion.

Frustrated, An places her palm in the center of a brick and it shines a brilliant crimson red. More importantly, or rather, surprisingly, the contact emits the sound of an F# on a piano.

“A piano wall!?” An can’t help herself from exclaiming.

“Oh, yeah.” Luka says, suddenly appearing over An’s shoulder.

An shrieks, “Luka!”

“Whoops, sorry, An!”

”Don’t jumpscare me like that!” 

Luka nudges into her softly, pressing onto another brick and humming along with the flat that plays, like it were a song she already knew all the lyrics to. “Isn’t this place super cool?”

“You’re acting so casually about all of this. The SEKAI expanded. How did this even happen all of a sudden?”

“Asexual reproduction?” Len suggests, joining them at the wall; music is a magnet for the vocaloids. “The Street SEKAI reproduced into a tinier Alleyway SEKAI.” 

Rin nods, “Budding!”

An blinks, “What.” It's not even a question, it's a statement. What.

Now that she examines her surroundings again, she supposes it reeks of the same energy the street SEKAI has. Welcoming, comforting, exciting. 

“Wait, wait, wait—I wanna play the wall!” Rin eagerly steps between An and Luka.

“Awesome.” Luka says, pointing at an unsuspecting brick, “That one is an A.”

An wants to nag. She wants to tell them they’ve got bigger fish to fry. That Akito, Kohane, and Touya are still missing and—

Wait.

“Luka, how do you know that?” An asks, genuinely perplexed, “You’ve never seen this wall before.”

Luka’s irises dilate into little pixels like she’s been stabbed. Guttural. “U-uhm! Lucky guess?” 

Good thing Luka is a terrible liar, backed into the wall with An’s confused suspicions. “That means you’ve been here before… how?”

“Goddammit, Luka.” Miku comes into view, rubbing the bridge of her nose. 

“Miku—” MEIKO starts.

Rin detaches herself from the wall, shocked, but mostly curious. “Luka, you’ve been here already!?”

Luka is visibly sweating, face red. “Well—“

The dissension in front of her is something An’s never seen in the SEKAI before. Sure, the vocaloids fought and argued a fair amount, but… 

Shouts and questions blur into one blob of loud chaos. A blob of loud chaos An shouldn’t be privy to.

Luka’s been here before. KAITO asked if the alleyway was ‘you know’—whatever that means. MEIKO wasn’t keen on letting An nor the Kagamines inside the alleyway. So why…

So, An breaks into the conversation at last, “Can someone explain what’s going on?”

Everyone kind of just stares at her. Well, except Rin and Len who look equally as lost as she is.

Miku opens her mouth with a long, drawn out breath.

“Miku,” MEIKO objects, “Are you really sure—?”

“Well, this was gonna happen eventually, no?” She smiles sadly at the brunette, “I just didn’t think it would happen so soon…or that I’d be talking about it here.”

Miku turns her full attention to An and the Kagamines, motioning for them to follow her as she trudges further down the alley. “Here.” They stop infront of what appears to be a little shop. Like, they had destroyed part of the brick walls and had installed it there—a bright red counter attached to the shop with three—also red stools—in front of it. So it’s some kind of food rest stop. Okay.

An swallows hard as she sits down on a stool, it squeaks as the pressure is applied. The last time she had to sit down whilst someone dumped a whole lot of information on her was when her dad told her the truth about RAD WEEKEND. 

She’s kind of gotten fed up with the amount of bombs that have been dropped on her as of late. An doesn’t know how many more of those she can survive, so she hopes for the best. 

Rin and Len join her at the neighboring stools.

Miku composes herself before saying flatly, “It’s been about ten years since I've last said this, but…welcome to the Alleway SEKAI.”

Miku receives a real nice, long, and drawn out silence after she says that. There’s no crickets here so the little rats that scurry up and down the alleyway provide ample awkward ambience.

“Huuuuuh?” Len scratches his head, “So I was right about the asexual reproduction?”

“No,” KAITO butts in, “The Alleyway SEKAI was here first.”

“What?” An breathes, “But how? Me and the others have never seen this place before.”

Miku nods, ”Exactly. If I’m being honest, I’ve got no idea how—or why—this place reopened. We watched the walls crumble in on themselves with our own eyes.”

There’s so much An wants to say—and a whole lot more she wants to ask. But, the only things that come out of her mouth are a whole lot of ‘what?’s and ‘how?’s, and inquiries don’t really contribute to the conversation—they drag it on, and they make the growing anticipation in her chest melt into dread—so she really does try her hardest to let Miku finish what she’s saying.

”I’ll cut to the chase.” Miku says, sparing An of all the new worries rapidly spreading in her head. “The Alleyway SEKAI…it belonged to RADder.”

“Huh!?” She practically shouts, almost falling off of her stool and getting a mouthful of cement. 

Then, she freezes.

RADder had a SEKAI!? There’s people other than herself and Vivid BAD SQUAD who have come into contact with Hatsune Miku!?

“Wh—”

“It’s kind of hard to sum up a decade of memories and music, but! In 2007, RADder’s feelings created this alleyway.” Miku runs a finger through her hair and averts eye contact, deciding to look at MEIKO instead, “A piece of work those three were….” She continues after a couple seconds, “And well, when Nagi got her diagnosis…”

An flinches. 

“This SEKAI started to deteriorate.”

An wants to throw up. She wants to lean her head down and hurl her guts out. What. Is. Happening?!

“We thought that as long as their feelings remained intact, we would as well. But, the three of them all had differing feelings after they disbanded. I remember talking to Nagi. She said—I remember her asking me if it were possible for her true feelings to change.”

She recites it to herself, Nagi wanted the next generation to flourish, to take over the world in her stead, almost. Taiga didn’t like that idea—if it weren’t evident in the way he tried to trample over everything Vivid BAD SQUAD and the others had worked for—and he went solo, all the way to America to finish what RADder had started. 

Was it their differing resolves that had done it? That had caused the SEKAI to… die?

”After she passed, that’s when the SEKAI closed in on itself. The walls caved in and we all ran for our lives.” Never had An seen Miku so uncharacteristically fragile. Like a pale, porcelain doll that would shatter upon contact. It made everything else ten times more unnerving, Miku—who was blunt and to the point with an unyielding spunk— had legs that wobbled like rotted wood pillars holding up a pier. “And outside of the alleyway, it led us to what we now know as the Street SEKAI.”

KAITO offers Miku a pat on the back. 

“Nagi wasn’t the only person we lost that day. Rin and Len, too. They—they didn’t get out in time.”

“We’re dead!?” The Kagamines launch out of their stools.

An can’t move. She feels that similar disconnect she’d experienced at the police station.

“No!” Luka shakes her head frantically, “You two were born from Akito and Touya’s emotions…the Rin and Len we lost were miles different from you. They came from Nagi and Taiga’s childhood and, uhm… that’s all of it, right, Miku?”

“…Yeah.” Miku says solemnly. “I know it’s a lot—”

“Stop it.” An slips from her stool. “Stop it, Miku.” Her words are harsh. They don’t sound like they come out of her mouth, like acid on her tongue, it stings.

An’s hands tremble and curl in fists.

 “So, you knew.” She states calmly. Her vision lands on all of the vocaloids individually, and she hates them, for some reason. She hates them like she hates Vivid Street and like how she hates her dad. She wants to scream, but she can’t find the strength. She hisses, “All of you knew about Nagi-san and you lied to me!? Just like everyone else did!”

All her grief—all of her sadness regarding living a lie for three years—is a beast that roars. As those tears that used to run down her cheeks become beads of sweat.

She doesn’t want to cry anymore. She laughs, she wheezes like she’s been told the funniest thing ever because this should be a joke. 

What the hell!? She wants to scream at them. How could they be complicit in Vivid Street's lie?

An understands why Nagi-san did it. Why she lied. But she supposes that will be the only thing she hates about Kotaki Nagi. She hates Nagi thought An was stupid enough to believe in that lie.... and that she hadn't been wrong about that.

But Miku? Why would Luka, KAITO and MEIKO lie to her as well?

“Ah…ah…” She breathes shakily, “This is why MEIKO-san didn’t want me to come in here….”

To An, there is nothing more scary than admitting that she is scared.

And she is horrified when she sees red. When she discovers all of her anger was once love and she feels like she's a different person. Shiraishi An is a cool girl. Shiraishi An loves everyone in her life. 

She loves, she loves.

The smallest, most bitter part of herself, hates.

It is a cursed balance. One An will never be able to achieve nor understand.

She hates her dad, she thought at one point, for lying to her. For raising her and making her nothing else but ‘Ken’s daughter.’ Oh, but she loves him. She loves him so much that she’ll let him stab her in the back as many times as he wants, endlessly yearning for his praise that had slowly fizzled out as she got older.

She hates Miku for hiding this from her—had she ever once thought of telling An the truth? All those times An had fallen asleep in SEKAI on bad insomnia nights and Miku would drape a jacket atop her… had she never thought? Is her honesty a product in the current situation? Is it out of pity? But An loves Miku like she loves music. She loves Miku and she will forgive her for this, she knows.

She hates Vivid Street. 

And she’ll come crawling back even after each time someone mentions their role in Nagi’s elaborate tapestry of lies that apparently stood for how much the street loved her. She’ll never stop loving all these people, even if she’s had doubts ever since she was little and ran away that her love wasn't reciprocated.

She hates Kohane, Akito, and Touya for disappearing without a trace and leaving her here to hold onto the scraps of them. But she doesn’t think she’ll love anything as much as she loves them. Her love for Vivid BAD SQUAD goes beyond her own understanding and she wants them to stay by her side no matter what, and she is at least able to understand how selfish she is.

And well, she also hates herself. For reacting like this. For harboring hate for everything she loves. For being selfish and for being a terrible friend and daughter and person. 

Shiraishi An is a lover.

She loves, she loves.

But she also hates, and that's the worst thing about loving.

“I’m sorry.” She croaks. And it’s strange because just seconds ago she believed that it was everyone else who owed her an apology. But An loves them. So she says that she is sorry, and she is, for lashing out at them.

Her anger becomes guilt. And like most times, it dissolves into sadness again and she’s left unsure of what to do. 

She wants to run away. 

“I—I'm just trying to wrap my head around all of this, you know?”

“An…” Rin latches onto her arm. “Len and I are really confused, too. It’s okay.”

But it’s not. It all feels wrong and so out of place. She instinctively rolls up her sleeve again to pinch herself. 

God, she wishes that the adult figures would change the topic—to stop looking at An the way they’ve been doing it ever since Miku brought her to SEKAI. It gives An more time to dwell. It gives her more time to hate and she so desperately wants to love because it’s all she’s ever done and all she’s ever known how to do.

“We’re not expecting you to understand…” Miku finally says, tearing her eyes off the floor and finally facing An. 

“‘Cause we don’t understand it either,” Luka supplies, like that’s going to help. “After all this time…I wonder why the alleyway opened back up, and why it decided to now.”

Well, what Luka is saying is worth mentioning. 

“Maybe it has to do with where the others went.” KAITO proposes.

“What's that got to do with RADder?”An asks. She doubts there's any sort of connection between the events of her teammates going missing and the old SEKAI they've had no connection to abruptly opening back up after more than three years.

It's a big math equation, except the answer is just a SYNTAX ERROR when you type it into the calculator and maybe a crazy decimal with a bar notation if you're lucky. Too complicated, no clear answer, migraine inducing.

Does this mean RADder's Rin and Len could be reincarnated or something? 

Somehow, the thought makes her even more nauseous.

“Good question.” Is KAITO's response, succumbing to the loose ends of all of this.

Luka taps her chin with her finger intermittently. If this were a dream (and unfortunately it's not) a shiny lightbulb would have appeared above her head. “Hm…maybe something like time travel?”

“Luka…” MEIKO sighs, “We're trying to have a serious conversation.”

“I'm being for real! Hear me out; we know about fragment SEKAIs and how wacky they are. Who's to say the three of them didn't get another one and…uhm…they went back in time?”

Well, no. That doesn't really add up with everything they know since Kohane’s phone was still in the real world, and she needed that to enter SEKAI. Not to mention all the things Kotaro was saying about explosions.

The so-called adults of the SEKAI enter another heated debate. An doesn’t trust herself to contribute anything. They’re just trying to help.

”This is really weird.” Len says, voice a whisper as to not disrupt the commotion, “That was a lot of info.”

An isn’t alone. It’s comforting, in a way, but that’s just the silver lining. Rin and Len are left confused, scared—and maybe their heart aches for a part of them that had died without their knowledge. Caught in a lie. Just like An, no?

But that's just a silver lining—a piece of hope that was born from despair. Does that make it hopeful…? Or it simply a reminder of the despondency?

Chapter Text

Something about the passage of time used to be Kohane’s worst nightmare. When she was smaller and had her hair long. When she was lost, the lingering idea of her life tick, tick, ticking away regardless of how she felt about it followed her around. When she’d sit around muttering over and over, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do…’ 

The lack of initiative was her own fault, but she had gotten to a point where she had accepted the monotony and that she played a part in building a cage for herself where existential dread ran rampant. Feeling like a spectator in her own life was her own doing.

The seconds nibbled at her heart and the days flashing by were punches to the guts that would leave her on the ground even more confused as to what she wanted to do with her life or why she was even there in the first place. 

It was silly now. 

The passage of time eventually amended itself into a warm hug. Kohane’s heart galloped at the thought of a future, one where she knew she’d continue to grow and blossom and the thought helped her sleep on nights where her anxiety would creep through the cracks of her meticulously built confidence.

That being said, time constantly ticking also brought great chaos. Like, Kohane would sometimes prattle on about, ‘Isn’t it crazy that just two minutes ago I was standing over there? And now I’m here?”

An would have nodded her head in feigned agreement, hiding her confusion for Kohane’s sake, “Yeah, I completely get you, Kohane.”

“…What???” Akito would ask at a complete loss, rubbing his temple like a tired father. He was seventeen.

Anyways, that was all to say that Kohane thought that it was pretty crazy how she went from falling into the blankets of slumber to dream about hugging her partner the next day and then be standing in front of a Not So Pleased Mrs. Shiraishi.

Yuka was short, and that was no insult. She was probably a few centimeters shorter than Kohane was but that didn’t hinder her presence that reminded Kohane that An’s mother was a teacher. Like a stern, disappointed teacher in the way her voice was sharp from years of dealing with unruly students. 

“I know you said I shouldn’t leave at night but—!” An tried to reason with her mother frantically flailing her hands around, “The music is just—it’s so exciting and I wanted to sing!”

“Goodness, your father might be the worst influence on you yet.” Yuka groaned, grabbing her daughter's shoulders to keep her from running away. She was obviously not ready to deal with such a situation such as the one Touya had accidentally caused in the CD shop, dressed to the nines in her pajamas and a pink bathrobe. While Ken had gone to the glass-ridden scene, Yuka had been left to deal with the, uhm, criminals?  

Did they have a bounty over their heads now? Was someone gonna watch over the camera footage and send the three of them to juvie!? Kohane swallowed hard to keep any panicked breaths from escaping. If they got arrested, they’d never get home. How long would the sentencing be? For a couple days? Maybe years!? An would get sent to a juvenile detention center and Vivid BAD SQUAD would have never existed…but only as a prison gang if worse came to worst. Vivid BAD CRIMES. Kohane shivered.

“I’m soooooory” An hung her head guiltily.

Touya grunted, before speaking up. He looked like he was drowning on air this entire time, his voice a release of the tension growing inside of him, “Shiraishi-san, please don’t be angry at, er, Shiraishi. She didn’t do anything wrong, it was me—“

An cut Touya off, sort of ignoring his claim completely, “Yeah, mom. I’m really sorry for all the trouble I caused. I’ll never do it again! I promise!”

Kohane had always known the Shiraishis were very easy going people, but somehow she knew this wouldn’t end in An’s favor.

“Come on, we’re going home.” Yuka sighed. It was strange because there was no ‘ kids will be kids’ that could be attached to the whole situation. Not when you break a window. Not when you technically break the law?

“Shiraishi, you didn’t do anything.” Touya sounded pleading, “Why are you—”

“Touya’s really nice trying to take the fall for me…” An murmured, averting her eye contact.

Kohane’s breath hitched. She knew exactly what An was doing. She really hadn’t changed at all.

“Touya is such a nice boy,” Yuka decided, sparing him and Kohane a disarming smile. She was as tired as they were, after all. Then, her brows furrowed, “Oh god. Your hands are bleeding!” 

“Oh.” Touya realized, looking down at the painful result of his attempt to pick up the shattered glass and try to fix the window somehow. His face was a blank slate and eyes cold. “I guess they are…”

His expression shifted to something unreadable and Kohane found herself struggling to decode him once again. 

Yuka charged towards Touya and grabbed his wrists, examining his wounds.

“He was trying to stop me.” An butted in, and Yuka shushed her.

Now Kohane truly felt like she was invading. Another thing to add to the long list of her crimes and such.

 Something that she always associated with An’s living space was familiarity. Stepping inside of An’s old house, the one she lived in before WEEKEND GARAGE’s opening was nothing short of jarring. It was a part of An she had never been privy to and it was weird because Kohane had the urge to ask An for permission to see a side of her she’d never seen before. It was a myriad of memories lost to time.

A lot of the elements there actually leaked into the present apartment above WEEKEND GARAGE, Kohane spotted several familiar framed pictures on her way to the kitchen.

Yuka reached into a kitchen cabinet and took out a comically red first aid kit. She placed it onto the counter and opened it, revealing rolls of bandages, band-aids (with cats and dogs on them) and alcohols.

“Shiraishi-san, I can assure you this isn’t that serious.” Touya said. “It’s a few cuts. I will be okay.”

Yuka shook her head, “No, no, no. Glass cuts are serious! Get a micro-shard stuck in one of them and it’s a trip to the hospital. It’s why the school I work at had to place a ban on any glass food containers.” She frowned, obviously recalling an accident., “Anyways, An, could you go find the tweezers for me?”

“I got it!” An gave a thumbs up and wasted no time in running out of the kitchen. 

Once An was gone, Yuka instructed Touya to try stretching his fingers, and the way she treated the whole thing made Kohane wonder why she had gone into education instead of medicine. Then again, if your daughter was Shiraishi An, dealing with these kinds of injuries was probably something more habitual. Thus, in between the ‘teacher edge’, Kohane called it, Yuka also radiated a tenderness that came from being a mother, and a very kind one at that.

“Can you feel anything? Yuka asked.

Touya nodded, eventually giving in to the impromptu medical attention, “Yes. But my left thumb…it feels weaker than the rest.”

“That can’t be good. If the cut is deep enough, there could be nerve damage.”

“What!?” Kohane cried. 

“I’m not sure though. Here, let's run your hands under the sink.”

The front door slowly opened.

“Ken?” Yuka called out, still focused on Touya’s fingers, washing the blood off of them like a seasoned doctor. Or maybe not, Kohane didn’t know much about this kind of stuff, her cautiousness keeping her far from most doctors offices. ”I have a question!”

Kohane heard the sound of shoes being kicked off, followed by a sigh and a, “Yeah?”

”If someone cuts their hand and they can’t move a finger…would it be because of a damaged tendon or a damaged nerve?”

There was a silence for contemplation. Regardless, Ken’s voice echoed into the kitchen, “Uhh, it could be either? I’m not sure, Yuks, I majored in business, not medicine.” Another pause, “Wait, did something happen to An back there!?” 

That’s when the mighty Ken-san bursted into the kitchen, and Kohane felt tiny again for some reason. It was weird to see him look…panicked like this. Kohane felt a soft warmth in her chest ‘cause she knew it was out of care for An. The kind of care and love that fostered An into the girl who gave Kohane a dream to chase after and—

“I got the tweezers!” An ran in, wielding the tweezers like they were a trophy. She handed them to her mother. 

Kohane had to look away at that part. Seeing pieces of glass being pulled out of your friend’s hands wasn't the best view. Touya hissed soon after as Yuka wiped his hands down with some alcohol to prevent infection which was imperative especially for hand injuries. Or something along those lines. 

“All done.” Yuka said at last, like a ray of sunshine was beaming down on her. 

“Thank you, Shiraishi-san.” Touya went to shake her hand but realizes that might not be the best idea. “Sorry for all the trouble.” 

Ken pat Touya on the back (more like a slap because it honestly looked like Touya had the air knocked out of him), “I knew the first aid kit was a good investment.” 

“I guess so.” Yuka settled with, before giving Ken the ‘ we need to talk ’ look Kohane had seen with her parents before. The older woman's eyes shifted towards An—the obvious subject of conversation. 

That left three in the kitchen. 

“Aoyagi-kun…” Kohane breathed. She tried not to look at his hands. She knew about his relationship with them and their connection to his time spent playing the piano. She knew that his first time holding a kitchen knife was at the age of sixteen because his parents were more concerned about an incapacitated pair of hands rather than the person the hands belonged to. She knew how Touya got. How he sometimes loathed the calluses of his hands because they were telling of a past he had left behind. “…Are you okay?”

“Yes.” He gritted out, and Kohane just knew it was because of his hands. “I’m…glad that we’re far from home.”

“Touya!” An climbed onto the counter behind him and plopped down atop it. She set the still open first aid kit onto her lap. “You need band-aids.”

Being rived from his somber, he looked confused again. “Huh?”

”Dude, you tried cleaning up the glass all by yourself. You need band-aids!”

“Shiraishi…” Touya started. “Why did you do that?”

“The band-aids? Well, you need them when you cut yourself! You’re in Doctor An’s care!”

“An-chan,’ Kohane uttered, “He’s talking about you shifting the blame to yourself.”

Touya nodded. “Exactly. You live here. We’re only here temporarily, after all. And now…you’re going to carry a crime on your shoulders?”

An took one of Touya’s hands, “Hold it out for me. Do you want the blue band-aids with the cats or the red ones with the dogs? Also, don’t worry about it”

“The cats, please.”  

“Hehe, I guessed you were gonna pick that one.” She grabbed one, took off the covering and placed it on the center of his palm. “We’re gonna need a lot of band-aids.”

”Shiraishi.”

“Awwww, the kitties are so cute! They look funny on a serious guy like you, huh, Touya?”

“Shiraishi, I genuinely appreciate your care, it’s just…. why did you do all of that? You barely know us.”

” Wellllll , we’re friends! I’m gonna look after my friends and make sure they don’t get in trouble. If Taiga-ojisan found out you guys broke the window, he wouldn’t be the happiest camper to be living with.” She laughed casually and waved her hand, “I don’t want you to get kicked out.”

Kohane didn’t  think Taiga would do that. Sure, things were on edge an all but, she knew Taiga was a kind man behind the scruff and gruff

Kohane had never thought of Taiga to be a bad person, even after everything that had happened. Maybe for a tiny second while he threw verses at her and her friends so violently, she had. But she knew the man who was kind enough to take her under his wing was no villain, no matter how hard it was for people—and perhaps the part of her who grieved for a woman she had never met—to believe. 

But…Maybe she had met Nagi, even before this mess. Vivid Street echoed the woman's name, she had always been present despite not being there.

“But, still—“

“Besides, if you got kicked out I’d be all bored again!” An exclaimed. She reached for a handful of cat band-aids. “S’not every day a bunch of cool…and nice…and fun teenagers show up on Vivid Street. Between me and you guys—don’t tell anyone I said this—the street’s full of smelly old guys!”

She took one of Touya’s fingers and gently wrapped another band-aid around it until she was sure it was secure. Then, she smiled at the two of them. 

It hit Kohane again. That feeling of disconnect, that feeling of not belonging despite everything the Kotakis had done for her, despite everything Granny Mei had done to make sure she felt welcomed. Despite everything, Kohane, Touya, and Akito were doomed to be spectators cursed with the ability to take initiative no matter what they tried to do to avoid it. She thought about all of the inside jokes between the Kotakis that she’d never understand, the small smiles she’d never be able to catch because truly, she wasn’t welcomed here, not yet.

And now An wanted to do nothing but make this place a home to them. But it simply wasn’t time for that yet. 

The middle schooler laughed at their lack of a response. She twiddled with the band-aid in her hand, “It’s just…with nobody my age around…” The band-aid snapped, “I just want you guys to stick around a little longer, ya know?”

Kohane opened her mouth to say more, but An’s voice came out instead as she continues talking, “I know you're gonna tell me that you’re leaving soon anyways, but…if our time together is so short I think that gives me a pretty good reason to want to have as much fun as possible. I'll make the most of it!”

”Committing crimes is so fun.” Touya said miserably, beginning to pick at his band-aids.

“Not that part!” An swatted at him, “That doesn’t count! I for one had a lot of fun showing you around town! And if you’re leaving so soon, I hope you’ll remember me and, like…uhhhh, all the fun we had, yeah!”

 “That’s sweet.” Kohane said. “Hey, do you want me to help you bandage him up?”

Touya painfully smiled at her, “Azusawa…” 

“I want to help you. Like you’ve been helping me this whole time.” 

“It’d be hypocritical to refuse.”

An tilted her head in interest as Kohane joined her fingers at the medkit, “Are you guys partners? You have, like, the synergy and everything. Dad says that partners are like each other's missing halves—you guys seem really close.”

Kohane took a band-aid and reaches for Touya’s other hand. She couldn’t help but giggle. “Us? Hehe, we’re teammates.”

“You have a team you sing with!? That’s so cool!”

“Akito is my partner.” Touya added because it’s natural to boast about one’s partner. 

“The ginger guy?”

“Yes.”

“That’s cool.” An then sighed wistfully, “Having a partner seems like a lot of fun…and a team? That’s like…mega fun.” 

“It is.” Kohane smiled widely, not even trying to hide it.

“Oh, Kohane. Do you… not have a partner? I’m guessing you and Akito and Touya are the team, right?”

“I have a partner. She’s…no longer with us.” Kohane sighed. 

Jeez, she really had been missing her An this whole time. Not like this An wasn’t any less lovable…but—

“She died!?” An shouted in shock.

“W-what!? No!” Kohane cried, shaking her head around frantically. “She just…uhm…didn’t come here with us.”

“Oh, phew.” An sighed in relief, “That’s good. A cute girl like you should have an alive partner!” Then, her eyes lit up, “Ooooh, your partner must be really lucky.”

Still ample with her flattery. 

“Ehhh? I think I’m more lucky to have her than anything.” Kohane said with a laugh, and Touya’s eyes crinkled. “She’s just…she’s really good to me. I’m so glad to have her as my partner and I really…” She tried to find the words, but ended up at a loss. There’s so much she had to say about An, so much so, that her feelings for her partner were often too overwhelming put so flatly.

Touya finished for Kohane, “Miss her.”

“Yeah. A lot.”

“Huh.” An kicked her legs back and forth. “Well, wherever she is, I’m sure she misses you guys a whole lot too.”

Kohane had to restrain herself from squeezing Touya’s hand. She was more worried for An than, well, herself. She was certain they would be home tomorrow, but…a part of Kohane felt horrible for leaving An in the present with absolutely no idea as to where they all could have gone. Visions of An’s worried face—the one she tried to hide—where her brows would furrow but she’d still have a smile on her face , albeit a wobbly one. 

Kohane exhaled at last. “An-chan, when you’re older, I’m sure you're gonna get a partner who really loves you.”

“Just like you?” She asked. She gave Touya’s hand a soft pat before hopping off the counter and dumping all of the band-aid wrappers into the garbage. She blessed Kohane and Touya with a toothy grin, one so wide, her eyes squeezed shut. “That’s a really nice thing to look forward to! All this partner-talk is making me feel better about the future; maybe things won't be so bad after all.” 

Touya looked down at his bandaged and cat infested hands for one last examination. Kohane couldn’t tell if it was a look of gratitude or one of regret. Either one was valid. Then, he looked down at An. “What do you mean by that?”

An’s face fell, “Nagi-san and Taiga-san haven’t told you yet?”

Kohane shook her head.

”They’re leaving Japan in a couple weeks. Going to America to expand their careers.”

Touya audibly gasped.

Nagi and Taiga were leaving Japan in a couple of weeks…

It’s late July, An was freshly thirteen.

Taiga had been more on edge lately.

Oh no. 

Oh no, oh no, ohnoohnoohnohno.

It was a crushing realization. One Kohane was shocked she hadn’t come to earlier, but the thought had been washed away once her concerns were more directed to getting out rather than figuring out what the date was. 

What a horrible time to stumble into. 

RAD WEEKEND, merley days away. 

And here they were, progressively making things worse. They ruined GLaP DAY's debut, they stressed Taiga out even more, and they somehow managed to break a window. 

Without RAD WEEKEND, there was no Vivid BAD SQUAD.

It was a concrete timeline they had been trekking, one Kohane had familiarized herself with in order to understand the emotions behind what made RAD WEEKEND so legendary. The past that had been so simple had been turned into a history lesson once Ken had come clean about everything. When he came clean about lying about the past.

A concrete timeline that Kohane had discovered over the past few days was more like a wet mixture of said concrete that had not fully been dried.

One wrong move, and the timeline shifts. The future would be changed.

And that was when Kohane had a thought. A thought she shouldn’t have had because she needed to be a spectator rather than an active character but she felt sick just standing there. 

She felt sick just standing there and not saying anything.

When she nodded at An’s sentiment, she was lying to An. She was being complicit in a larger lie that had caused An so much suffering. So many nights spent on the phone with Kohane where she’d cry about how unfair everything was. When she’d ask Kohane knowing she wouldn’t tell anyone else, “ Just what else could everybody be hiding from me! ?”

Kohane wondered something selfish as a thirteen year old Shiraishi An looked up at her like she was omniscient. And well, she kind of was. She knew that An would find a partner and she also knew how her life would play out three years from now. 

So it begged the question. If Kohane were to—in that exact moment—tell An that everyone on the street was hiding Nagi’s sickness from her as well as her inevitable departure from the world, how would the future turn out?

Would An be different? 

Would Vivid BAD SQUAD be a group?

Would it spare An the future pain or would make it even worse?

Kohane opened her mouth. 

She knew it wasn’t her place to talk. But never had her voice wanted to leave her throat so badly.

An-chan, Nagi-san is lying to you. Vivid Street is lying to you.

The words got caught in her throat. And they continued to sit in there, silently choking Kohane even after she and Touya bid their farewells to the Shiraishis and began walking back to the yellow house at the end of Vivid Street.

She and Touya walked down the street silently again. But it wasn’t a comfortable silence, no. It was a silence that only brought dread and made Kohane feel like she had an iron leg shackle wrapped around an ankle.

“...Aoyagi-kun.” Kohane eventually choked out, raspy and low.

Touya made a grunting sound. His head was anchored to his shoes. “RAD WEEKEND is so soon.”

”…Aoyagi-kun.” She said again because she didn’t know what else to do besides repeat his name desperately. He looked at her like it was time to drop the formalities, but Kohane couldn’t stop. “I feel sick.”

He walked closer to her, letting Kohane shift some of her body weight onto him for support. 

They were so close to going home. But now, the idea of that seemed so far away. It was in her grasp, but that feeling of time ticking away so tangibly kept Kohane from slipping out of the ever so wide bars of this cage she was now in.

“Everything is riding on this.” She said into Touya’s shoulder, “All the things we messed up…it’s all connected to RAD WEEKEND.”

He stayed silent.

“Aoyagi-kun, I know we’re all set on going home tomorrow, but…now I feel like this is way bigger than we thought it’d be. I know—“ Her voice trembled, “I know that Ken-san and everyone in RADder have such an intense resolve…but now…this whole thing feels like more of fixing the problems we caused rather than trying to get back home…. and I’m—and I’m—”

Touya wrapped an arm around her. “It’s okay if you're scared, Azusawa.” His voice was low, recognizing what kind of moment this was. A private one; a few minutes where for once time didn’t matter and only the two of them did, “I am too.”

Kohane shivered. Touya stood like a beam but she knew that even if a building presented itself that way, it didn't mean you could simply waltz inside without questioning its architectural integrity. 

One more mistake and Kohane feared that she wouldn’t have a future to go back to.

“He’s going to kill himself one day.” Touya stated as he opened the front door as quietly as feasible. Kohane got what he meant. 

While they were gone, Akito had fallen asleep.

Well, she was sugar coating it to remind herself that she still believed in optimism and that her cup was half full rather than half empty. 

A more accurate description:

Akito passed out, his face down on the table. The black ballpoint pen was still in his hands that he had out on the coffee table to cushion himself, and he was mumbling incoherent sounds. It was kind of spooky, admittedly, because the lamp had been turned off while they had been gone, leaving the sleeping boy with only a blanket of lines of moonlight slipping through the blinds to keep him warm.

“Shinonome-kun…hello?” Kohane said pointedly, tapping lightly on his shoulder. She looked back up at Touya as he shut the door behind him. He went to lock it, but eventually stopped himself since Nagi had gone on and on about being ‘ anti-lock ’. It was a Vivid Street thing, apparently. “Is he breathing?”

“I’d hope so.” Touya stifled a laugh, but it sounded more like a yawn. 

Just to make sure An’s theory of Kohane having a dead teammate wasn’t true, she gingerly tipped Akito’s head to the side so she could see his face. As she did this, he let out a chainsaw-like snore. He was alive. A wave of relief washed over her. 

“There’s drool all over our plans for tomorrow.” She told Touya, who seemed too tired to mind, just as herself. 

“That’s okay. As long as he’s getting sleep.” 

Touya walked around the coffee table and attempted to hoist Akito upwards. This unfortunately failed and although Touya had pulled his partner up into a standing position by a limp arm, Kohane had to grab onto Akito’s other side to keep him from crashing back down. That wouldn’t be a very nice morning alarm. A very undeserving one. 

Akito’s eyes fluttered open, “…ya phoenix won’er land…wanna…” and then his head drooped back down with more mumbles. 

Good. He didn’t wake up. Kohane and Touya set Akito’s arms on their shoulders and guided—more or so dragged—Akito over to his—also, more or so deflated—air mattress. 

They maybe spent at least five minutes trying to figure out a strategy to get Akito into a comfortable position without waking him. Kohane suggested herself taking Akito’s ankles and Touya taking him by the wrists in order to precisely lay him down. The idea was the shortest lived one they had conjured that night, the two of them already struggling to support Akito’s body weight.

It took a hushed conversation, but by the grace of god they managed to get Akito tucked in and comfy even if it was at their aching arm’s expense. 

There was a perfectly nice couch to the side, but Kohane and Touya chose to sleep at Akito’s sides, as even in his sleep he still emitted flames. By day it was something more like a firework or stage pyrotechnics, but by night, it was more like a fireplace to warm up at after playing in the snow. Cheeks rosy and fingers shaking from the cold, but they would eventually ease and thaw out. 

The air mattress will probably be completely deflated by morning. But that’s a problem for later. An outcome that rests in the future. 

For the first time in a while, the idea of time tick, tick, ticking away started nibbling at Kohane. Her lack of initiative haunted her again, because as long as the earth keeps spinning, the hand on the clock will as well. Some worries would be eroded, but others will be a part of the anything but soothing cacophony inside of Kohane’s head. Some moments, such as silent reassurances, are immune to it. But others would be washed away in the storm of “what if” and Kohane could already hear the thunder in the distance that harmonizes with the soft cries of a woman down the hall.

No one was safe from the concept of time. 

It just took the right strength to be able to fend it off.

That strength was something Kohane had left behind after she had been forced to live three years in the past.

The future was at sake. And no one would be spared.

Chapter Text

They were going to go home today. 

Akito was thriving off of the thought. Home. He almost felt giddy. They were going to go back home today. 

He’d get to apologize to Ena for leaving out of nowhere. Maybe his dad, too, if he even noticed. It’s not like he came home most nights anyways, opting to sleep over at An’s or Kohane’s instead. 

(Not Touya’s though. Aoyagi Harumichi had this whole thing about not adopting a cat because its fur would get all over the furniture. Same thing applied to Akito, apparently. Maybe next time he goes to Touya’s, he should show up in a suit)

He’d get to see An again. 

An, who lit up Vivid BAD SQUAD’s morale with her sunshine, summertime eyes. 

An, who Akito felt he took for granted. He also wanted to apologize to her. 

It occurred to him throughout this entire endeavor that his feet were dragging on the ground because of this weird feeling of guilt. He kept thinking, I should have said goodbye to her. I should have apologized for being a prick and thanked her for being a bigger one back.  

He shook off the thoughts, though. It wasn’t like he could pay attention to his own mind anyways, not when the sound of whining kids and crying toddlers were the only thing he could hear.

Seriously. People who bring little infant babies to theme parks are like the same people who bring their little infant babies on planes, or even worse. Weddings. And all they do is cry because their little infant baby life is so hard. And they don’t even know that it gets worse. Like, how are babies supposed to know about the horrors of skinny jeans? 

To make matters worse, of course the lord chose to make Akito time travel back to 2017. The fashion made him physically ill, and he flinched every time he heard the stretching of denim. Although he may have been sweating to death in the baggy sweatpants he was wearing, at least he knew he wasn’t going to hell for fashion crimes. 

“Do we have everything?” Kohane tugged at the backpack he had slung over his shoulder for the umpteenth time in their outing. 

The backpack could have had pebbles in it with how little supplies they rounded up. Most of it (including the backpack) was whatever they found around Nagi’s and Taiga’s house that wouldn’t be too obvious to spot if it was missing. Like the fugly hat Akito was wearing that he was sure belonged to Taiga. 

(“Shinonome-kun.” Kohane had said, face completely serious. Akito gulped, like he was getting reprimanded for poor academic performances. “You need to wear this.”

“Kohane, that hat looks like it belongs to a beekeeper.” Akito’s version of saying ‘no’ politely.

“That’s how you know it offers the best protection! You have ginger hair, Shinonome-kun, you’re going to burn up out there!” 

“But—”

“If you get sunburnt, it’ll hurt really badly when we hug An-chan later.”

Akito put the hat on. Even he could not be saved from the hellscape of 2017 fashion. If you could even call it that.)

“Yeah.” Akito nodded, “You’ve checked, like…five times since we’ve been waiting in line.”

“I need to check again.” And she promptly slid the backpack off his shoulder. She unzipped it and started rummaging through it, “You have the yen in your pocket…alright…there’s the granola bars…I already got rid of anything that would have got us in trouble by security...” 

“Banning bottled water is insane.” Akito crossed his arms, glaring at a random security worker in the distance who was busy telling a father off for having a pre-packed sandwich in his bag. He huffed, “‘Cause they obviously don’t have enough money already.”

“Phoenix Wonderland is actually more lenient, nowadays.” Kohane informed him, taking out the bottle of sunscreen and squirting some of the cream out of it and onto her palm. She turned to Touya. “Aoyagi-kun.”

“Huh?” Touya asked. “Sorry, I was distracted by everything around us.”

“Can you come down to my level?”

Touya obliged, and Kohane proceeded to smother his face with sunscreen. 

“Touya is already glowing.” Akito pointed out. Then, he realized the implications of what he said and coughed, “F-from all the sunscreen. You sure he needs more of it?”

“I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Kohane said, applying more sunscreen to Touya’s nose. 

Ever since she’d woken up, Kohane had been in total game-mode. Rolled her sleeves up and everything just to show how serious she was taking all of this. He liked Kohane best when she was fired up like this, motivating him to go higher to the point that he was actually looking forward to checking each individual porta-potty at Phoenix Wonderland.

It wasn’t like Kohane was being neurotic or anything. Touya w as easy to mistake as a ghost with how pale he was. 

Once Kohane was done, she took her shooting star baseball cap off her head and placed it atop Touyas. 

Akito was suddenly no longer angry that he got the ugly hat. “You should wear caps more often.” He told Touya, and the other boy beamed and tipped the hat at Akito like he was a gentleman from ye olden days.

Kohane let out a sigh of relief and handed the backpack back to Akito, but not without swiping sunscreen onto his nose as well. He decided to ignore the part where she almost put it in his eyes by accident. 

Successfully looking like he was ready for a beach day, Kohane was satisfied enough with her work. “Sorry. I just…I don’t want anything to go wrong today.”

“Of course.” Touya reassured her like it was a reflex. He buried his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans and Akito couldn’t help but think that—

“So, now that that’s out of the way, Shinonome-kun, you have all our assets, right?”

Akito nodded. 

Kohane bit her bottom lip, and they all stepped forward in line. “I really hope it’s enough…” 

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Akito asked.

“Well, it’s what I was saying about Phoenix Wonderland becoming a lot more easygoing  with their policies in the present. That, um,” Her voice lowered into a whisper, “That also applies to the ticket prices.”

“Oh dear.” Touya’s eyebrows furrowed. 

“We’ll be fine.” Akito said, “PXL is greedy as hell, but the ticket prices can’t be that high when they’re out selling water for ¥7000. It cancels out or somethin’”

“Holy shit.” Akito choked out, jaw dropping to the floor once they were close enough to the ticket stands. “They are that greedy! In what world does one ticket for us cost ¥4000!?”

“2017…” Kohane shook her head solemnly.

They all kind of just stood there like cats who just got sprayed with water. Like cartoon villains who just had their incredibly stupid scheme foiled by even stupider means. 

The people behind them in line pushed impatiently and Akito felt like a ravine was forming between the three of them and going back home. Kohane had to keep telling the people behind them that they could cut in front of them in order to stall more time due to the shocking revelation of corporate greed.

“We only have enough for one ticket…” Touya deflated. 

“Well, Kohane.” Akito elbowed her as gently as he could muster, knowing she wasn’t An. “Go do your thing.”

Kohane, logically, would be the only one out of the three of them who would be able to navigate a Phoenix Wonderland of the past, find a time-machine-porta-potty and get back home. There was no question about that…

If at least one of them could get home and inform people of what happened…

Kohane lit up suddenly, softly giggling. She reached into the pockets of her skirt, revealing… “Actually, two of us can go in.”

“A Phoenix Wonderland lifetime pass!?” Akito exclaimed. He didn’t know why he was so shocked, actually. With how greedy this theme park seemed to be—he supposed the shock value came purley in the fact that he couldn’t believe lifetime passes were being sold in the first place.

The pass itself was yellow with age and crumpled, although laminated and attached to an orange necklace. Did Kohane just casually have this on her at all times!? Well, that sure seemed like her. 

Without a hat for protection, Akito pulled Kohane in for a celebratory side hug and ruffled her hair. “Never thought being a nerd would be useful, but here we are!” 

“That’s two of us, then.” Touya said. He quickly deduced, “Akito, you should go instead of me.”

“What!?

“I won’t be of much use in the theme park. I’ve only gone twice.”

“But we can’t just leave you behind ! You realize how dumb it’d be if only the two of us went back home!?”

“Well, you have your sister to get home too. And…” His expression faltered, “I…I’m not ready to see my father again, I can’t—“

“Touya, please. Go home instead of me.”

“Akito.” Touya blinked at him. “Apologies, but…is that not hypocritical? If only two of us going back home is what you’re worried about…swapping places with me will quite literally do nothing about that.”

Akito completely ignored that entirely valid statement, of course. “Is there a way we can smuggle you in or somethin’?” 

Kohane tugged at his sleeve to get his attention, as he was completely consumed by self-sacrifice. “Uhm…we…don’t have to go home yet.”

“What?”

“We can stay for a while longer…do some busking…and save up enough money to all get in.”

“And screw more things up? I don’t think so.” 

Kohane flinched. He could have worded that better, huh?

Akito paused, realizing the harshness of his words. “Sorry. We just. Need to get back home. Like, right now. How long have we been gone!? The longer we stay here, the more I keep thinking about all the people who might be worrying…like Ken-san or Granny Mei or Ena, or An, for crying out loud!” He relented, gazing at the godforsaken ticket prices again. “…Besides…we came this far.”

“A wonderful reason as to why you should go instead of me, Akito.” Then, he pointed to Kohane’s hat sitting tightly on his head, “Besides, I will always have you both with me in my heart.

Akito wanted to take Touya by the shoulders and shake him at maximum velocity. He thought he was the stubborn one of the partnership. ”Are you seriously not going to budge?”

Touya nods, and places a hand to his heart. “I stand as strong as a wall in my beliefs.” 

Whatever that means. Did he steal that line from a book? Maybe he didn’t. Touya kind of just talked like he was reciting sonnets.

Akito’s stomach churned at the thought of leaving without Touya. This wasn’t in their plans for today! It was supposed to be one and done, and now—

There was a tap on his shoulder and Akito hissed like a cat who just saw a cucumber. “Ahem, if you’re not going to enter the park, we’re going to have to kindly request you leave.” a random PXL employee said passive aggressively. 

Touya bowed cordially, “Ah, apologies, ma’am. I will be taking my leave now.”

Touya stepped out of the line and the employee ushered Kohane and Akito into the ticket booth. His tall figure was quickly drowned out by the Phoenix Wonderland fanatics that were insistent on getting inside of the park.

Akito almost swore, but when he almost stepped on a waddling toddler, he had to stop and keep his cool. He was at a public area with children and middle aged moms who’d threaten to kill him if he looked at their kids with runny noses weirdly.

The two of them become face to face with the ticket-dealer-guy (vender!) who looks just about as done with life as you’d expect a teenager working a summer job to look like. 

God, the entire scene felt even louder now. The stupid carnival jingles were growing more annoying and the line of people behind them added to the commotion, and Akito really hoped he was hallucinating the sound of a couple making out nearby. 

“Shinonome-kun…” Kohane’s inaudible over the line. “Should we really..?

”We’ve got to.” Akito said, tearing his mind away from Touya and looking only at the goal they had drafted last night.

1. Get into Phoenix Wonderland. Akito wrote in parenthesis, ‘easy part’ [COMPLETE. Kind of!]

He cursed his past self out for being an idiot. If only their phones worked so they could search up the damned ticket prices. 

2. Test out the porta potties… 

He was going to be really pissed off if they didn't get home. He just…had no idea where to find the holy grail of Official Pheonix Wonderland porta potties because unless he'd been dreaming this entire time, those yellow plastic beacons of hell somehow actually existed.

3. Go home and hug An.

Three steps. He was not one to be anxious, but with the easiest part of the plan having gone south he honestly had waning hope for the rest of the operation. He did have Kohane, though; if one person was going to be a key asset in a PXL mission it couldn’t be anyone but her. 

He took the yen out of his pocket and handed it over to the clerk, who busied himself with verifying if Kohane's lifetime pass was an authentic one. Either it was, or the employee simply didn’t have the will to actually check, because the two of them were thrusted into Phoenix Wonderland very, very quickly. The speed of all of this was dizzying…

What was Touya even doing now?? Sitting out there? Going back to Vivid Street? Akito rubbed his temple with a sigh. 

“We’re in,” Kohane breathed, eyes sharpening as she began scoping out the park. It was…surprisingly empty in terms of attractions, obviously missing some of its staple rides that hadn’t come to fruition yet. “Aoyagi-kun believes in us. We can do this.” She rolled up her sleeves (even though they were already rolled up) and stomped on the pavement for extra effect.

“…So, uhm. Porta potties.” Akito scratched his head, “Where do we find them?”

“Remember what I said before we got into this mess?”

“I’m gonna be real. I don’t.”

“The porta potties are employee-exclusive; they’re for the construction workers who build the rides to use on site.”

Why hadn’t she mentioned that earlier? Whatever. He couldn’t be mad at Kohane. She was a literal saint and Akito worried his roughness would have killed that part of her off by now, especially when they first teamed up and she seemed anxious about being alone in a room with him. But no—her resolve was as strong as whatever wall Touya was talking about earlier. And she chose to be nice to him when he was a total prick. 

He had more apologies brewing up in his head, didn’t he? Had he ever directly apologized for being such an ass?

He needed to get his head out of the clouds, this was definitely the last place he should be mulling over irrelevant things. And he obviously wouldn’t get any closer to the end goal if he was just standing here and listening to the roller coasters roaring and letting the debris of wasted time pelt him. But it was hard not to feel guilty… when Touya was going to be stuck here for longer and An—

“Come on.” She told him gently, like she was worried for him. She took his hand,bringing him deeper into the park. For some reason, he held on tighter. 

Akito sighed, he didn’t want Kohane to think he was weak or something like that. Ugh, this was so unlike himself, but he needed to ignore it for now. He needed to complete what they came here to do!

“Wow…” Kohane gushed, breaking free from the serious front she’d put up since morning. “I feel like a little kid walking into the park for the first time!”

He mustered a way to ease into conversation, “Is it just how you remember it?”

Kohane giggled. “Well, when I came here for the first time…”

Akito zoned out, like he usually does when people prattle on for too long. But then he remembered this was Kohane he was talking to and snapped himself back to full awareness. 

“That was the first roller coaster I ever went on.” She boasted. “I barely hit the height limit! Hehe, my dad has a picture of me standing in front of it and—ah, I’m rambling!”

“’S fine,” Akito said. “This place means a lot to you. Might as well try to make light of this situation.”

Kohane nodded. 

It occured to Akito that they could easily be mistaken for a couple with their fingers intertwined like this. So much so, he managed to get lost in his thoughts again . He might be doomed. Like actually.

He should be looking for a construction zone, right? He squinted his eyes and scanned the periphery. Just…a lot of people. If there were any constructions going on, it'd be impossible to see with all the people. His eyes eventually landed on a short, spectacled girl clinging into the arm of a man. 

Kohane, who had been following his gaze, immediately lost focus on the operation. 

“Kohane, is that…?” Being a beautiful example of social etiquette, Akito pointed at the little girl, who nearly shrieked in response. 

Kohane slapped his hand down, although it was more like a soft nudge. She shook her head and drew in a long breath, “This is so freaky…”

“So that’s—“

Kohane booked it. 

Akito obviously followed her, weaving in between all these people and veering sharply to the left, where Kohane decided to hide under a tree. 

She clutched her heaving chest and crouched down to sit on the bench underneath the shade. “Oh god…” She mumbled. 

Akito wasn’t sure what to do, so he joined her on the bench and put a hand on her shoulder in lieu of a response. He wondered what he would have done if he saw his twelve year old self frolicking about…if even possible since Akito knew that he was probably in the middle of a soccer game. The only place someone could find him was on the field, knees stained with grass and eyes wide with eagerness for a dream that was fit for a naive child. Would Akito want to say anything to his past self? That little shit probably wouldn’t listen to him anyways…but that was probably for the best. Maybe he was no better now. 

“That,” Kohane huffed, “Is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. I couldn't see—did she see us?”

Akito lied to quell her worries, “Nope.”

“Phew…” She stood up again and crossed her arms at him, “Don’t point at people, it’s rude.”

“My bad.”

She grinned after a drawn out battle against it, with an absolutely foreign twang of teasing in her voice,  “Aoyagi-kun’s not here to keep you in line, so I guess that responsibility falls on to me.”

Akito raised a brow, “What? You make it sound like Touya’s parenting me twenty four seven.”

“Well,” She offered him a hand and brought him up from the bench. “That’s just his way of caring for you. If he’s not here, I want to make sure you still have a shoulder to lean on.”

His heart swelled with such an intense warmth he nearly forgot why he was in the theme park. A part of him just wanted to go off and go on some rides with Kohane ‘till her cheeks were sore from smiling. They’d have to make plans for later.

She added, “You’re my precious teammate, after all.”

Akito nearly choked, flustered, “Kohane, stop it. We’re getting nothing done—”

“Oh? Is Shinonome-kun blushing?”

“An needs to stop teaching you ways to harass me.”

Kohane let out a laugh, and Akito did as well. 

She motioned with her hand for him to follow her, getting back to business. As much as the majority of his heart wanted them to stay on track and get home at last and to stop wasting time on miniscule things, the better part of him was glad they got a moment to cool off. In all their time they've spent in the past…they'd never taken a moment to be… normal. The walk to the sacred land of porta potties felt a lot more leisurely, even if Akito was left a flustered mess.

“Okay, so the Go! Go! Phenny! coaster should be being built around this time….” Kohane said, silently loathing the particularly busy business day for the park as they walk to wherever that roller coaster is. “It had just gotten transferred here from another amusement park who didn’t have enough funds to maintain it anymore.”

“Roller coaster encyclopedia, pray tell, why is it named after Phenny then?”

“Phoenix Wonderland renamed it.”

“Oh.” Well that was obvious. Akito internally face palmed.

Kohane continued, unable to contain her joy at finally receiving an opportunity to infodump about roller coasters because apparently she was really into those as well. “It was a really good idea for PXL to bring the coaster to a new home. It was the first—and only—inverted coaster track at the park, so that’s why it’s so popular. Not to mention the zero-G rolls and the corkscrews are really fun. All the other rides here are aimed more or so to appease little kids, so adding a thrill ride really—oh, here we are.”

Kohane didn’t need to tell him twice. It reeked , and they hadn’t even walked past any of the signs that said, Apologies for the dust! Construction is a must!

“Are you ready for this?” She asked him, swiftly hiding behind a nearby bush like this was a stealth mission. She tugged on the PXL lifetime pass that was strung around her neck like it was good luck charm.

Akito nodded, crouching beside her. It was probably the only time he’d be grateful that he was a time traveler from the future. At least someone like Tsukasa wouldn’t catch him in this kind of position; crouching down and hiding in the shadows of nature already showed guiltiness of their inevitable crime. At least it wouldn’t be a fashion crime.  “I guess I’ve got to be.” 

“Before we do anything…” She slipped the bag off his shoulders and looked through it again. “Agh…..we really should have brought binoculars.”

“Why would Nagi-san and Taiga-san even have those?” He refuted, before pausing, “Wait, why do we even need binoculars of all things?”

The construction site was nearby, and Kohane pointed at it. “It’d be nice to scope it out for any suspicious porta-potties before we do anything that might get us in trouble.” 

She really had thought of everything. Or maybe she just had spent a lot of time overthinking the possibilities, that also worked.

“And, uhm…” Kohane added sheepishly, “I kind of can’t see that well.”

“Huh? Why not?” Akito asked. 

“I’ve been living off of one pair of contacts this entire time…and well, a little bit of smoke got caught in them so I had to throw them away last night, and…yeah…”

“You’ve been blind this entire time!?”

“My vision isn’t even that bad! Just—binoculars would really come in handy right now!”

“Kohane…”

“What?”

“I don’t get how you can hound me for being stupid when you didn’t think to ask anyone for help.”

“It’s not a big deal!” She cried. She clamped her mouth shut suddenly before grabbing onto his arm and yanking him closer to the bush. 

Akito squeaked in discomfort, “Guh!?”

Kohane looked at him with the kindest expression possible that somehow still indicated that he needed to shut up, “Look, it’s one of the park managers.” 

At least Akito knew that Kohane wasn’t entirely blind, ‘cause she was right. A man on the younger side with this weird-dark-pink colored hair was walking like a soldier on the pathway leading to the construction site, the heels of his dress shoes punctuating his presence. He was armed with a clipboard in hands, ready to make sure the park wouldn’t get sued for injuring potential customers or something. Akito was really good at making assumptions… no, inferences. (fancy word. Thanks, Touya)

Maybe this guy knew something about the porta-potties? The secret mastermind behind time travel…using information from the future to the park’s advantage to predict competition. Or maybe not. It would actually be a genius business move. 

He tried to shuffle himself out of this guy’s line of sight. 

Damn, this really was a stealth mission now. He took the backpack out of Kohane’s hands and shielded the two of them with it.

The click clack clicking of the dress shoes eventually got quieter. 

Kohane took a peek above the bag. “I…think we’re in the clear now.”

Soon, they’re approaching the construction site, any perception of them—at least from the views of the actual workers—protected by the orange and plastic fences that are always at construction sites. Sounds of loud machines, hardware, and noise canceling headphones easily filtered out their hushed whispers. 

They’re crouched on the pavement again (more or so Akito. Kohane is politely sat in criss-cross-applesauce formation), looking through the holes of the fence. A little lightbulb went off in his brain once his eyes reached their destination on a line of four, bright yellow porta potties. And wow, had he never been happier to smell the sickening aroma of dust and other things that are better off left unsaid. 

“Do those porta-potties look out of the ordinary at all?” Akito asked Kohane. “If you can’t see…”

“Shinonome-kun, I can see fine.”

”You almost walked into a tree on the way over here.”

“I’m… uh…nearsighted?” She tried helplessly. Not like Akito was judging her for being overall blind or anything, he just didn’t want her to hurt herself accidently. “See, those porta-potties look…uh, normal?”

“Really?” Akito slumped down. His disappointment was soon taken by dread. He even felt a little stupid for being optimistic enough to really have thought that this outlandish plan would work. Channeling his ‘inner An-chan’ was worth nothing in the end, huh?

If this whole trip was for nothing…they would be back to square one. Completely lost. How would they get home now?

Kohane propped her chin on the palm of her hand, elbow resting on her thigh. She sighed, closing her eyes in defeat, “The porta potty that brought us here had that funky looking clock on it, remember? None of these…none of these are like that…”

Wait, what the hell were they doing? 

If An was here, she’d be yelling at him for sounding like he was giving up. And well, Akito wasn’t the type to do that, so he stood up. 

“Shinonome-kun?” Lines appeared between Kohane’s eyebrows. Her arm jolted for a second, like it was going to instinctually grab onto him and yank him back down to the ground. But she didn’t. 

She looked almost curious as to what he was going to do next and that was fair, all things considered, ‘cause Akito hardly had concepts of how he was going to complete this operation. All he knew was that he needed to do something. If all of this was a failure, he’d accept it only after he stopped at nothing to achieve the desired outcome.

There was no time like the present. Er, the past? Whatever . Akito rolled up his sleeves and cracked his knuckles, staring the porta potties down with the same resoluteness he used to evaluate the soccer field, eyes set on only one thing: the goal. 

And so obviously he jumped over the fence and started booking it towards the porta potties. 

“Eh?” Kohane gasped, getting up from the dusty pavement. “What are you doing!?”

“Getting a better look at these toilets.” He shrugged, slowing down in his tracks. He twisted to face her. “No offense, but how can we be so sure when you’re half blind right now?”

She looked absolutely dumbfounded, at a complete and utter loss. But she eventually relented, “You know what? It really doesn’t hurt to try.”

Akito went back and helped her over the fence. He already knew what they were doing was against park policies, but he wasn’t expecting the ground beyond the fence to feel distant. Like, the world was trying to send him a message that he shouldn’t be standing there. 

Akito never really cared for what fate saw fit for him.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Kohane said, voice trembling like a scared mouse. “My lifetime pass is on the line here.” She was like Touya, not one to break the rules. She wasn’t a stuck up for them or anything, he thought she was driven by the fear of what would happen if she were to break them. This was just…a step out of her comfort zone. She'd stepped out of it fine many times, she can do it again! Even if something like this was like taking a step out of her comfort zone and then getting thrown into an active highway.

“Relax, we’re not breaking any major rules or anything.” 

“I admire how easy going you are, but I counted ten ‘employees only’ signs on the path leading here, so uhm…we’re gonna be in big trouble if we’re caught.”

“We’re bending the rules .”

Kohane made a gagging noise. Akito couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic or if she was being controlled by her anxiousness.

“It’s now or never.” Akito decided, patting Kohane on the back like it would release the apprehension out of her. 

She exhales, “You’re right. If we do this, we’ll see An-chan again.”

Her partner was what drove her to sneak behind a nearby crate that probably contained a whole lot of roller coaster parts. Akito followed her, and with the new vantage point, they looked at the porta potties again. Wow, life really is all about perspective because getting a better look at them actually made it easier to discern the designs on them. 

The porta potty in the center was identical to the one he remembered seeing in the alley.

This new roller coaster was by no means near completion, only about ten feet tall of just metal support beams. The potties were stationed right in front of what was the early stages of a station. Besides that, workers barking commands at each other and a few discarded pieces of roller coaster laying about, the construction site was vast with bad air quality and closer to empty. Taking in the lay of the land, all they would have to do was make a break towards the porta potty. 

“No way,” Kohane peeped above the crate and breathed before frantically ducking down. “There’s no way they just have that thing sitting there. I’m not complaining or anything, it's just…” Did it seem too easy? Sort of. But that was a good thing, right?

“Wonder if PXL has a history of workers going missing ‘cause they went in…” Akito thought aloud. Seriously. Now that he thinks about it, Tsukasa, Rui, and Nene from school all worked here, right? Could they have known anything about this? 

Kohane looked dejected. “I don’t wanna think about that,” She whispered, “Are you able to see if it’s reserved or not?”

“It’s open.” Akito said, which meant there was only one thing left to do. They needed to calculate the perfect time to run over without getting caught, or worse, getting Kohane’s lifetime pass revoked. “…And so is the field. Let’s do this.”

“Right!”

So as they leapt from behind the crate and started towards the yellow beacons, they were leaving Touya behind. They were leaving Nagi’s last days behind and they were leaving An behind. Again. A part of him felt a release as the wind whipped through his hair, sneakers slamming down on the ground. It was an escape from all the chaos they’d caused, it was a way back home and they would be able to set their eyes on what was beyond their future as they always had.

But it all came to a halt as the clock on the porta potty glared at them.

Akito skidded to a stop. Fuck.

They hadn’t thought this far. It was like in the back of their minds they didn’t think they’d make it this far, so they didn’t plan out this exact moment.

If they went inside, who was to say they wouldn't get sent even further back in time? Or way into the future? What if they got teleported to a whole other city or country? It was too big of a risk, one that even Akito was afraid to take. 

“HEY!” Someone shouted at them from behind, and Akito’s blood went cold. 

“Shit!” Akito hissed and his body did the rest of the work for him. Quickly, he ripped the door of the neighboring porta potty open and grabbed onto Kohane’s arm, eliciting a squeak reminiscent of a dog toy. He pulled her inside of it with him and slammed the door shut. He set it to occupied , like that would stop an angry security guard.

It was stuffy in that porta potty. Aswell as it was awfully cramped, the two of them were practically suctioned together lest they wanted to get a taste of blue toilet water. It was also dark, save for the string of light that came through the little hole in the roof to prevent suffocation. The smell was self explanatory. The commotion that had started outside thanks to the security guard that was now in hysterics after witnessing two guests break into a construction site nearly matched the rapid palpitations of his heart in terms of volume.

Kohane’s jaw dropped like she’d just been traumatized, yet she stood as still as a statue. Or more like a kicked puppy.

Akito panicked, “Fuck, Kohane did I hurt your arm? I didn’ mean to be so rough.”

He didn’t know what to say. That steady stream of guilt in his heart became torrential. How could he help her? 

He weighed the circumstances to find a way out with no stains on at least Kohane’s record. He didn’t really care about his anymore. it was tarnished by poor grades and a gruff appearance anyways. If they were to stay in here would they be charged or something? If they got out, there was no doubt they’d be in hot water.

Kohane tugged on her lifetime pass, staring off into space. 

“Kohane, they’re not gonna take it away. I’ll take the fall for this, I’ll—”

“You think I'm worried about my pass?” Kohane shook her head and looked at the ground. While her words weren’t unkind, there was a slight indignation in her voice. “Shinonome-kun, that is the least of my worries.”

Akito recoiled. “I’m sorry.” He meant it. It was kind of rude of him to make that kind of assumption, huh?

Kohane never got… angry at anyone. He didn’t think he’d even seen her mad before when she had so many reasons to be. She wouldn’t hurt a fly even if that fly was a mosquito sucking the life out of her. She never held a long lasting resentment at him for all the things he said to her when they were nothing more than rivals from different duos. She’d shake her head in disappointment but she’d never act on it. And she should have. He deserved it. 

“No, don’t apologize.” She shook her head, hugging herself with her arms. “ I’m sorry for getting upset at you.”

“Kohane, you apologize like it’s a lifeline. If you’re upset with me, go ahead and be upset.” He didn’t want his words to be mistaken as condescending or prodding. He kind of just wanted her to be able to feel.

“Why would I be upset with you of all people!?” She cried, and she looked up at him, eyes glossy. “You’re just… too good. I hate how you keep—“ She choked, “I hate how you keep trying to take the fall for everything. Everyone keeps doing it for me. First with the lights, and again with something totally illegal! If my pass gets taken away, so beit. If one of us is going down, I'd like it to be together.”

Akito was going to affirm her, maybe he was going to assess himself, but first he paused. Like, his brain stopped producing thoughts and zeroed in on one detail. “Illegal things? Again? Wait, what did we do? ”

Kohane let out a shrill gasp before shielding her face with her hands. “It wasn’t you , Shinonome-kun. It was Aoyagi-kun and I, last night, we—”

The porta potty shook as someone banged on the door, demanding for their names. 

He didn’t know how, but the door swung open with the might only a trained athlete could have. When the sunlight from outside wooshed into the small space, it produced a threatening silhouette. Not one of the park managers they saw earlier, not a bulky one that belonged to a construction worker and not even a security guard. 

The park mascot grumbled. 

Akito shrugged sheepishly and feigned a look of innocence, “We uhm…really had to go?”

“Quit it, you’re gonna stretch it out!” Akito squirmed around, appearing as a complete buffoon to all the little kids who pointed at him with their eyes wide. It was probably unusual to see the park's mascot dragging two kids by their collars out of the park. 

The poor guy inside the suit must have been dying in the summer heat, but Akito found it hard to feel much sympathy for him. Jeez, was his deep voice a thud that rattled Akito to the core. Even though the mascot had to stay in character, he still found creative, child-appropriate ways to tell him and Kohane off for trespassing into an active construction site. 

By the end of it, he and Kohane were left outside the entrance of the park. Guess the guy didn’t get paid enough to ‘officially’ kick them out because their fate was left vague, but Akito was kind of just glad he didn’t have to talk to any snobby park officials. 

Well, actually, screw any kind of sense of being glad. 

Akito stood there as the sun neared the horizon line, a little unsure of what he should be doing. Go home , is the natural next move, but…they didn’t have a home to go to as long as they were still stuck in the past. 

They really had nothing to work with now. 

He turned to Kohane after what seemed like hours. The wind whispered pleas in his ears that begged him to somehow fix the outcome they were facing. His face was shadowed with violet under the gradient of orange and yellow taking residency of the sky due to the setting sun. Maybe it really had been a couple hours by then. It was only morning when they had entered the park.

“We should head back, shouldn’t we?” He tilted his head back and forth to ease the soreness, to crack his joints. 

Kohane only nodded. 

So they started the trek out of the park’s property as a whole, it was when they were walking out of the parking lot when Akito was sure he had lost it.

“Touya?” Akito had to do a double take. What was he still doing here!? He was hardly discernible, but it looked like he was leaning against a street lamp near the ‘See you next time!’ sign, eyes closed. 

He and Kohane ran over to him, of course. 

“Touya!?” Akito snapped his fingers in his face.

Touya’s eyes fluttered open. “Ah, Akito, Azusawa.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you were going to go back to Vivid Street?”

Had he expected them to fail from the start? Had he been waiting?

“I thought you two were going back home…” Touya said.

It was clear by Akito and Kohane’s expressions how that went. Maybe if Akito had just been a little faster—

“It wouldn’t really be home if you weren’t there with us.” Akito said to ease the pain. The guilt, also. It was partially true…at least now he wouldn’t have to worry about leaving Touya behind if all had gone accordingly. Especially if the boy had decided to stand in the parking lot the entire time. 

Touya smiled slightly. “I’m sorry. If I had planned it out better—”

Akito shook his head grimly, “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone in without you in the first place. It was a stupid move.”

Kohane frowned, “You guys have nothing to be sorry about. I’m sorry!”

“What?” Akito sputtered. “Kohane, you of all people shouldn’t be apologizing. It was completely on me, what happened back there.”

“If I hadn’t been so worried about breaking park protocol, we probably would have been okay.”

“Kohane, no—”

“I’m sorry!” The three of them all professed at once.

They all stared at each other blankly before the ice shattered and they all couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. 

“Well, it wasn’t all for nothing?” Kohane settled in as they finally left the park. “At least now we know that the time machine is there?

The walk to Vivid Street shouldn’t be too long. It would be light work with how much walking they do on the daily, being from the city and all. On their way back, they relay everything that happened to Touya. From seeing Kohane’s middle school self to when they trespassed into an active construction zone. 

“We were about to go in, but then I….I just… couldn’t.”

He wanted to punch a wall or something, but he couldn’t muster the will to do so. He mourned the loss of whatever optimism he had when he was standing in this exact spot two hours ago. He felt like such an idiot. Maybe they could have gotten home if he hadn’t cowered from the uncertainty of it all, or what could have happened if he and Kohane actually went inside of the time machine that his hands were only centimeters away from opening. If he did, they wouldn’t have had time to be caught by that goddamn mascot. If he hadn’t hesitated, maybe Kohane would actually be hugging An right then. Maybe he could apologize to them. 

But alas, his river of guilt ran rampant and a waterfall appeared into the scene, sending more cursed water into the stream. 

Chapter Text

An’s been spending a lot of time in the Alleyway SEKAI. Wandering aimlessly, wondering if it ever ended. 

It’s a terrifying thought, actually. She hadn’t ever gone too far out in the Street SEKAI because the thought of it being never-ending was kind of daunting. Luka liked to explore the SEKAI with KAITO and sometimes Kohane and Akito would tag along with them to take photos. But An opted for staying comfortably in the Crase Cafe, where she knew there would be no surprises. Just sweet, sweet consistency laced in the flavor of MEIKO’s coffee.

 She doesn’t know why she keeps showing up to the alleyway exactly. Its existence was a reminder that she had been lied to.

Again.

By Miku. By MEIKO, KAITO, and Luka. She thought they were supposed to help her. They were here to help her sort out her feelings…to be confided in…to love her.

An is selfish for expecting that of them. They had their own feelings, too…right? They bore the burden of Nagi’s death as much as the members of Vivid Street did as well. 

Selfish, An thinks, is a word that sums herself up perfectly. She’s disgusting. 

Nobody has to stay by her side. Nobody has to be honest with her. But she can’t stop feigning hope like a devotee at an abandoned shrine, praying, singing about how nice it could be if she was granted her desires. Even if they lasted for just a little while longer…

Everything is temporary, it's the fleeting feelings that come along with beautiful things that make those things more special. 

But An, ever the beggar, wants to hold onto these feelings she’s made with Vivid BAD SQUAD, Nagi, Taiga, her dad, the vocaloids—forever.

How cruel of her to make their presence obligatory. She’s a total wreck, now that her teammates are gone, now that she can't look at the people who have nurtured her emotions with so much care in the eyes.

She kind of hates the Alleyway SEKAI. 

But she keeps going back for some reason, feeling a little bit sick that the cracked pavement she drags her feet on had once held the weight of RADder’s footsteps. The idea of them all being here, where she stands now is such a weird thought. She wonders what they talked about, maybe what they did in such a cramped and unclean SEKAI. 

After all, random pieces of trash wafted through the air like tumbleweed in a barren desert. The string lights above her flickered dimly, and the puddles on the ground probably had some weird mysterious gunk floating around in it. She’s pretty sure she’s seen a couple rats scurrying around and it’s even crazy to think a SEKAI can produce life like that.

Is she walking in Nagi’s footsteps?

It’s an odd, comforting thought. She’s honestly surprised it doesn’t make her slip back down into the trenches of grief. She likes to think it’s because—although she slows her pace—she never stops moving forward.

No time for unnecessary feelings if she doesn’t stop to taste them.

There’s a funny thing about all of this. It’s something she observed after she found out Nagi passed, and it always hits at school.

“Hey An-chan, saw you weren't at school yesterday. Caught the flu?”

“Shiraishi-san, are you using a new lip gloss today? The color looks great on you.”

“Broadcasting committee meeting was so lame yesterday without you there, Shiraishi. You’ll be there next time, right?”

An doesn’t know why she can’t wrap her head around the prospect of the world continuing to spin. She doesn’t know why she expected it to stop for her. 

‘Cause she’s selfish, that's why.

The smiles, the greetings, the waves—all these people who talk with her don’t know about… everything.

Touya said the word for this is called Sonder . Which is pretty much the knowledge that all of the people around you have lives of their own, that you’re simply a blink in the life of another person. Too existencial for An, so she told him to major in philosophy and went on with her day. 

(She remembers Touya and this stupid calendar he had; every day, he’d be given a word, most not having a direct Japanese translation so she was at a loss about how he’d obtained it in the first place. A nerd reward program? 

He’d flip the pages of the calendar with a childlike awe. That’s how weird words like tiris and viadne were ones she could never forget, so outlandish she just needed to know what they meant. A lot of those words stuck, like sonder had for her.)

She really shouldn’t have. She should have let him go on and on about all this confusing stuff. She really loved him—of course she did!—but she didn’t realize the extent to which she really did until he was torn away from her, pain shooting in her heart as the seams that attached them ripped.

Akito, too. She sort of actually felt bad for being such a nuisance towards him just for the thrill of cheap entertainment…or the accompanying warmth that came alongside their banter, holding onto the truth that there weren’t many people the two of them could be so unfiltered with. He could see right through her, calling her bluffs whenever she got too in her head.

And Kohane. An should have held her closer. Maybe she should have dealt with her fears about her partner leaving her before Kohane actually did. 

Whatever. An doesn’t plan on being on the verge of getting held back a year again, so she forces herself to go to class. Although, she’s not paying attention. Her eyes keep wandering to Akito’s empty desk. When her eyes water at the fleeting image of him slouched in his seat, she needs to remind herself this is just… life for the foreseeable future. She’ll have to wait until the last bell of the day to get outside and try to find them herself. 

Lunch starts. An’s stomach begs to be left hollow and so she skips the food her father had so delicately packed for her. She’s fretting about a scenario where she throws all of it up, and the thoughts make her lose her appetite furthermore.

What the hell is she doing, moping around like this? It’s really starting to sound like she’s run out of hope, or worse— giving up— and those were two things An refused to see in her reflection.

An sighs, and starts the trek up to the rooftop. 

She hopes Mizuki is here. She has no plans on dumping all of her problems onto her friend though—it’d be a little insensitive. Mizuki hardly comes to school, An should at least try to make sure she has fun while she’s here. She just needs the company or something like that. Mizuki is an escape. Whether the problem is spoken aloud or being held in An’s head, the presence of her old classmate seems to quell something within her

She pushes the heavy door open. Is she taking advantage of Mizuki's presence…? 

The thoughts don't seem to matter much—in fact, they all dissolve the moment Mizuki spots An at the door. 

Mizuki audibly squeals, getting up from the bench she was eating her bento on and ushering An to sit down beside her. “An! An! You're here!”

An nods tiredly once she's seated, “Yep.”

Mizuki smirks at her, placing an excited hand onto An's knee. “Man, I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me~!”

“I would never!”

“Hehe, that's nice to know.” Mizuki takes some of her food with her fingers and pops it into her mouth. In between chomps she tells An, hardy coherent, “I missed you. School's a lot more boring without you as my classmate, huh?”

“Does Touya bore you?”

“Whaaat!? No! Touya-kun is fun. He just…well, he isn’t you .”

Mizuki’s words feel like arms wrapping around her. “You flatter me, Mizuki. And you know…”

The pink haired girl looks at her expectantly, lips curling into a familiar grin, “Aaannnd?”

“I missed you, too.” An says. It doesn’t need to be beaten out of her, it's a plain fact. She missed Mizuki like how she misses her teammates. She’s been yearning for some kind of reunion this entire time so this all feels… good . She wishes she had other words to describe it, but maybe words that could encompass so many things at once were better fits for confusing times like these. 

Mizuki smiles at An like she’d hung all the stars in the sky, basking in her presence. “Hmm, maybe if we can eat lunch together more often, I’ll come to school daily.”

“Wow, I didn’t even have to corner you into saying that.”

“You’re not in the disciplinary committee anymore, so, I can come on my own accord now.” She laughs after that to cover up the growing fondness in her gaze, “I feel like we’ve got lost time to make up for, right? Despite, you know, I kind of wish I had come to school more last year so we could have spent more time together.”

An can’t think of any witty remarks to say to that. 

The topic swings to another thing before An has time to process the newly lit warmth in her chest as Mizuki tilts her head, “Did you forget your lunch? Hey, you can have some of mine!

“My lunch? Ehhh, I’m not hungry right now.”

Mizuki obviously doesn’t believe her, evident by the scrunch of her nose and concern resting in her gaze, but she doesn’t push. And for that, An will be eternally grateful. 

However, An can’t help but notice how Mizuki’s hand keeps twitching. Like, she wants to do something but is holding herself back. It’s not something An is unfamiliar with, she had accustomed herself with a lot of Mizuki’s anxious habits all throughout last year. An deduces that Mizuki is fighting herself not to make it obvious that she wants to lend her support. It’s so sweet and also a little bit jarring that another person can read her like that and understand that she didn’t like to be viewed as a charity case when she was down. 

It’s a sacred little thing they share up here. Vulnerability doesn’t come easy to either of them.

So, Mizuki scoots a little closer to her and lets An rest her head on her shoulder. An releases a breath she had been holding in as the soft cotton of Mizuki’s cardigan caresses her cheek and her forehead gets tickled by pink strands of hair wisping in the cool, near November air. Mizuki leans her head onto An’s too, and they’re like two segments of a chain interlocked.

They stay like that for what feels like forever. And if it does last that long….An doesn’t find herself minding. 

The rooftop was Mizuki’s safe spot. She was gracious enough to lend the top floor’s comfort to soothe An.

Until the rooftop doors fly open and the gravity of An’s desperate longing for consistency hits her like a bullet train.

“Rui?” Mizuki asks, lifting her head up from An’s. An wants to pull her back down like a hissy, clingy cat, but decides against it because it’d be embarrassing if Rui was a spectator to it all. 

“Mizuk—” He pauses when his close to frantic eyes land onto An, and his gaze softens for a second, “Ah, Shiraishi-kun. I was…hoping you’d be here, actually…!”

“What's up?” Mizuki asks, getting up from the bench to approach him. She strategically stands in front of An's wilting composure, like a shield. How the tables have turned.

Evidently, Rui possesses this sort of kindness to not peer over Mizuki's shoulder and look at An, despite having the height to do so with ease. “I…wanted to discuss something with Shiraishi-kun. About…” He trails off like he's unsure of what he's saying, whether he should be speaking at all. It's too late.

Mizuki looks back at An, curious if she should let this play out or not.

An straightens her posture, something she'd learnt to perfect with her time in the disciplinary committee. “Hey, Kamishiro-senpai.” She has to admit, she's a bit curious as to what he wants to talk about. Certainly he doesn't know…

He puts his next words so bluntly that there's no way that they're real. Maybe An is so sleep deprived that her brain only makes out the words she wants to hear.

“I think I know what happened to your teammates.”

An stares at him. “Wuh…what!? How do you know…?” 

Mizuki kind of just stands there, face a mimicry of the confused expression taking over An's features.

“Well, Tsukasa-kun's been worried sick about Touya for the past couple days. He hadn't shown up to their plans and wasn't replying to any of his messages…”

“He's gone...” An says, the words feeling like acid on her tongue. Mizuki’s head snaps in An’s direction…and An knows this is why she was hesitant to come to Mizuki. An didn't want to burden her. Of course she screwed that up as well. 

“And Wonderland x Showtime's number one fan hasn't shown up to any of our shows as of late.”

Mizuki blinks, still standing in between Rui and An, she looks at both of them one at a time. “ What . Is happening?”

An shudders as she gives Mizuki (And Rui…except maybe he doesn't even need a summary of An's hell, considering he somehow knows about all of this already? For some reason? Anyways, she is sure to not mention anything about SEKAI) a run-down of everything that's happened in the past week. She shakes like a leaf, just like she had while explaining this stuff to the police and the vocaloids…all of which had betrayed her in some way or other. But Mizuki wouldn’t do that…would she?

“I didn’t wanna get held back, so I came here,” An finishes, “So…yeah….”

Mizuki swivels towards An, at a loss. Her mouth opens and closes multiple times like a nutcracker, but no words come out. Sometimes, there are no words. Frankly, An is tired of speaking words in general. Mizuki just stares at her, expression nearly unreadable although it's no doubt one of concern. Is it pity or genuine concern? An internally slaps herself. It’s not fair of her to assume that Mizuki of all people didn’t care for her. Maybe, it was even more unfair of her to doubt it in the first place.

An cant help but ask, “Kamishiro-senpai…how did you…. know that they,” She whispers her next words like they’re illegal,  “ went missing. How do you know what exactly happened? ”

He looks utterly serious, hand to his chest. Or at least that’s what An thinks. She’s not perceptive like Akito is and she doesn’t hold this understanding of human nature and ideology that Touya does and she's not as understanding as Kohane is. She’s selfish. For all she knows, her brain could be contorting Rui’s face into something else, twisting it in the completely wrong way. Maybe some sleep would be nice— but that’s not the point!

“This is going to sound interesting, but I swear I would never lie about something like this.”

The reassurance is nice, admittedly, Rui never came off as a liar. Despite all the weird stunts she had to prevent him from pulling last year—while most would think he could be planning something sinister—An is confident when she thinks that he is good. The way he talks to Mizuki is enough for An to hold him in high regard. In fact, she thought a lot of his inventions were pretty awesome, even if they broke Kamiyama’s code of conduct and maybe a couple laws.

The silence begs for Rui to go on, “I don’t really understand how it happened, it just did. With my troupe and I working at Phoenix Wonderland and all, I’ve had ample time to familiarize myself with the park in order to gather information for certain shows…”

“Go on,” Mizuki urges him, but not that urgently. She is talking to a fragile friend of many years, so her tone is softer like she could hurt him if she spoke too loudly. An realizes she speaks to An that way a lot too. Maybe because there's not many people she feels she can trust with the ‘softer’ side of herself. 

“There was this one porta potty.”

An stares at him. 

“I know, I know,” He waves his hands to carry the current of his words. “Well, I noticed that when people went inside of it, they wouldn't come out.”

“Uh huh,” An nods a little disbelievingly. Will crushing things ever stop getting dumped on her? 

“So, I eventually took the porta potty under my wing to study its oddities. I didn't want anyone else to go inside of it, obviously.”

“Please don't tell me they went inside of it.” An begs. What the hell was this magic porta potty stuff? There's no way this is true…there's no way—

“I’m assuming they did…” Rui says.

The silence that follows is deafening yet also unbearably loud, it makes An's ears ring.

What the!? How!?

Like it’s second nature, An rolls the sleeves of her cardigan up to pinch herself, praying she won’t feel anything.

“An, your arms!” Mizuki almost shouts, and grabs An’s wrist before she can strike.

“Huh?” An says confusedly, before she looks at them, “Oh.”

Covered in scabs like she'd fallen off her bike. Bruises, like she'd punched herself repeatedly instead of small, harmless pinches. She did this to herself. It looks disgusting, honestly. An won't be an idiot and lie to herself about that just to feel better about her life.

She grips onto the bench, placing her feet onto the floor in a weird attempt to ground herself. Her mom once suggested that she pretend to be a tree whenever she got anxious. Standing strong and watching the grass and flowers lightly be jostled by the winds, but An never got the appeal. 

(Guess it made sense coming from Yuka since all of her mother’s tattoos were nature-related. When An was little, she liked to trace her fingers on the vines that crawled up her mothers arms. In fact, Yuka and Nagi had gotten matching sunflower tattoos and, holy shit , An needs to stop zoning out. It’s probably because she’d rather be anywhere else but here.)

Besides, An wasn't normally anxious. If she really did lean into the whole tree thing, she thinks her branches would be snapping. 

She shakes her head and looks back up at Rui, his face is shrouded by grief. Like she’s in denial she asks, “But how…how do you know? It can’t have been them...It can’t!”

Mizuki, curious in her own right asks, “If it was in your care, how did they...”

Rui looks like he dies inside every time he adds more to his explanation, but he shakes his head and continues, refusing to waver. It’s admirable, honestly “I brought the strange porta potty to a storage room in the theme park. I even programmed a built-in tracking device in case a park executive went to take it back to where it was supposed to be.”

“Kohane wouldn’t break into a storage room.” An says with the most confidence she’s had all day. Pheonix Wonderland is too special of a place to Kohane for the girl to break park protocol. She had no reason to. Akito and Touya, too. Why would they have been there anyways, they were waiting for her at the park, no? 

“You all perform on Vivid Street, that’s what it’s called, yes?”

An nods.

“I went to go perform the tests on the porta potty, when I noticed it wasn’t there Anymore. Gone.”

Mizuki bites her bottom lip in disbelief, “This all sounds like an opening to an isekai anime.”

An shoots Mizuki a look that explicitly says, this isn’t the time!  

Rui continues, “This is where the tracking device comes into play. After the porta potty disappeared, I was led to an alley on that street. It was covered in smoke—I have no idea how it could have gotten there, but I digress—and hot to the touch, so I eventually decided to bring it to my workshop to keep it under my watch.”

“How did you, like, carry that?” Mizuki asks. 

“While I appreciate your faith in my athletics….I’m afraid I used some robots to safely transfer it.”

“Without any of your parents noticing?”

“Brought it in through the garage, then covered it up with a bedsheet I found.” He waves off the tangent and yellow eyes meet amber ones, “I surmise that your friends could have entered it.”

“In an alley,..” An murmurs to herself, trying to connect the dots—it’s terrible when they do, “Smoke— Kotaro said there was an explosion— Kohane and the others went into that alleyway, and then they… didn't come back. That’s why the police couldn’t find any evidence to prove they hadn’t just run away… Oh no .” 

She shoots up from the bench, “They—they…. shit!”

A fucking porta potty. 

With added terror, surprisingly comes newfound hope.

Half of this still makes no sense, and a lot of this information might be a product of her sleep deprived delusions, but a lead is certainly a lead! Bet Sherlock Holmes is shaking in his grave.

“There has to be a way!” An bursts out, crawling out of her exhaustion like a snake shedding its skin, “There has to be a way to use that porta potty to get them out!”

Mizuki smiles softly at her, “There’s the An I know.”

“Rui—I mean, Kamishiro-senpai.” An trudges over to him—probably manically—and grabs him by the shoulders. “There has got to be something we can do with that thing.” 

“May I show you?” He asks, and An has never nodded more vigorously in her life.

Admittedly, the vigor doesn’t last all that long. 

Under the shade of a tree, the three of them stare at the school’s gate. The black metal bars are closed shut, standing tall like the Kamiyama construction crew really did want this place to come off as if it was a prison. The sunny weather feels as though it’s mocking An….but the strong breeze feels refreshing as it combs through her hair.

Mizuki elbows An with a lighthearted snort once she notices her uneasiness at the sight, “What? Miss disciplinary committee scared to break the rules?”

“I’m a part of  the broadcasting committee.” An says with a huff, coming off like a toddler trying to sound smart.

“Yeah, but you clearly haven’t recovered from the indoctrination the disciplinary kids have to go through to be in the committee.”

“Whaaaat? It’s not a cult!”

Mizuki ignores that entirely and shrugs it off, setting her focus to the gate instead.  

“So…we’re gonna climb over it?” An asks.

“No, we’re gonna ask the headmaster to open it, duh.” Mizuki replies with a cackle, “Relax, you’ve got a pro helping you escape school. I’d be honored if I were you.”

“Kamishiro-senpai?”

“I’m calculating the perfect moment to make a break for it. Lunch is ending in a few minutes, if we hop the gate while everyone eating out here is focused on going back inside, we have a lesser chance of being caught by a disciplinary committee member.”

“Or snitched on.” Mizuki adds, annoyed, no doubt talking from experience.

An’s not sure about this whole breaking out of school thing, but if that’s what it takes for her to see her teammates again, of course she spent hardly any time weighing the consequences of this escapade. 

The bell rings, and following Rui's plan, the three of them bolt towards the gate. 

An places her hands on the bars and falters as she watches Mizuki begin her ascent like it's nothing. Rui has the advantage of being six feet tall, so he makes lightwork out of climbing.

“C'mon, An!” Mizuki says from above her. She's already at the top of the gate, casually sitting there.

An looks up at her helplessly. “There's no place for footing, what am I supposed to do!?”

“It’s like climbing a tree!”

“That has no branches!?”

“Okay, that was just a bad analogy. You can do it, though! Star basketball player Shiraishi An can certainly use her muscles~”

An raises her eyebrows, unimpressed. 

School doors open, and out comes a school administrator, who in a shocking turn of events starts screaming at them.

“Go, go, go!” Mizuki yells, jumping down from the top of the gate and landing on her feet elegantly. A cat always lands on its feet. 

Meanwhile, Rui hauls himself over the gate and joins Mizuki on the other side.

“I'm fucked.” An decides, like her foul language won't get her in hotter water. 

She's come this far, she's just got to—

With a grunt, she reaches her hands as high as she can muster and grips into the cool metal bars. Then, she lifts herself up like she's doing a really inconvenient pull-up. She hugs the bars with her thighs and tries to scooch herself upwards and she's never been more upset about the school's dress code. Pants would be amazing right now. Pushing her discomfort aside, she hoists a leg over the top of the gate. Doing that, she's able to leverage the rest of her body up there too. 

When she jumps down to the other side, she doesn’t achieve the grace Mizuki does by any means. She sticks the landing for a second before some kind of aftershock hits and she crashes straight into Rui.

Wasting no time, Mizuki seizes An’s wrist and yanks her forward. Oh yeah, the school admin is still there, whoops.

“If you saw my underwear back there,” An says pointedly as they officially run out of the school premises, “No you did not.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Mizuki replies, trying to match An’s pace. When An rolls her eyes, Mizuki adds, “For your first time, you actually did really good, An! Next time, I'll give you more pointers.”

“There will not be a next time!” 

Everyone’s a product of their surroundings, that’s true. Especially for An. Growing up on Vivid Street meant she was used to a cramped area and having to duck out of the way whenever the rare truck came by. It was some kind of unwritten rule that cars don’t come down Vivid Street. It wasn’t that convenient anyways, being a one-way street, but sometimes (usually foreigners) would rip it down the street, and all the performers would have to quickly take all their supplies (speakers, mics, etcetera) and scramble to the side of the road. She didn’t really have neighbors—well, that was after Ken opened WEEKEND GARAGE and they subsequently moved into the apartment above—since Vivid Street was mainly a bunch of shops and livehouses smooshed into a medley of fun. 

That’s all to say that whenever she sees her friends who have houses that have front lawns and fences and neighbors a part of her gets some weird culture shock. Like, wow, you can roll around in the grass whenever you want? Can you and your neighbor flash each other messages through your windows?

Rui lives in a quaint, more suburban neighborhood, full of one-story homes. His house in particular had this really pretty garden in the front of it. It looked like his family liked growing their own foods as well as housing brightly colored flowers that made their house stick out amongst the others. Peppers, peas—oh, look! Mint! Oh, she definitely needs to have a chat with him about mint cultivation strategies once everything is back to normal.

“Okay, so how are we doing this?” Mizuki asks once they all step foot on the driveway. One car in the driveway, which meant someone was home. “Your mom won't mind, right? I’ve heard that Rui’s mom is the sweetest~”

A fond smile spreads across Rui’s face before his poker face returns and he says, “It’s a shame we won't be seeing her today. Follow me.” 

The garage was closed, so they made a detour around the house. The back door was unlocked maybe? An’s kind of just following Rui here. They creep into the backyard, overgrown grass tickling her ankles and that's when Rui directs them to a conveniently open horizontal window.

“Through here.” He says camley. 

“It’s already open, huh?” Mizuki muses, “Don’t tell me you were planning for this.”

Rui simply puts a finger to his lips.

Since this is a bilevel house, the window is closer to the grass than anything. Rui crouches down and slips his legs into the window before dropping to the floor with a thump. Thankfully, breaking into Rui’s house proves to be a far easier task than breaking out of school, so An’s able to do it without flashing anyone. Thank god. 

“Jeez, Rui,” Mizuki observes the room, “Your room has changed a lot. ”

An stifles a gasp. This was his room? She wasn’t judging him or anything, just….there was no bed. She had honestly thought they had dropped into his basement with all the assorted things stationed about. Like the balloons up on the ceiling and colorful props she assumed were used for his shows at Phoenix Wonderland, but the most blaring thing in this room is no doubt the odd rectangular object veiled in cloth.

“It’s a given, no? We’ve changed a lot since you’ve last been here, after all.” Rui kicks some papers under his couch to feign cleanliness. “But that’s besides the point.” 

Mizuki slowly nods in acknowledgment. Then, she peers at the cloth-covered object and asks, “Is that…?” It’s obvious.

Rui sucks in a deep breath, staring into An’s soul as he takes measured steps towards it. Hey says, “I wouldn't want to waste any of your time since you risked so much to be here…”

He’s being nothing but kind to her—he’s being a godsend right now. But An is only further filled with dread, and her body can't seem to hold anything besides it. She’s getting a lead!— so why does doubt spill into her and drain any possible optimism? 

Hmmm, probably because disappearing in some random porta potty sounds even more impossible!

At last, Rui rips the cloth off like a magician showing off a magic trick. 

This reveals exactly what he said it would:

A bright yellow Pheonix Wonderland branded porta potty. Except it had this weird clock above the door. And its whole roof was missing.

An loses control of her body as her legs get possessed by all the unruly emotions that had been growing inside of her. She barrels straight towards the porta potty and swings the door open. 

Nothing. It’s literally a normal porta potty. 

“An!” Mizuki cries, grabbing her by the shoulders and yanking her away from it. “Don’t go in there!” 

For some reason, all her hope is snatched away. It’s an inanimate object, standing there casting a shadow onto An like it were a skyscraper.  “It’s…a porta potty.” An says blankly. Mizuki’s hands are still tight on her, but not in a constricting way. In a comforting way.

“It is.” Rui laments, clasping his hands together. “It is also… broken. I tried entering and nothing happened.”

 If nobody could enter now….was it even possible to get out?

“And they went inside…”

“That’s what I believe.”

“And then they…vanished?

“Shiraishi-kun, I’m sorry.”

“How is that even possible!?” An exasperated. There's no way of knowing what could have happened to them and those other employees who went inside this thing! “They could be anywhere—they could—what if it killed them!?”

Rui flinches, his hands still holding the cloth tighten, “I…”

She immediately comes to the realization that she shouldn’t have said that. She wants to slap herself in the face, “I’m sorry, Kamishiro-senpai, I—I'm sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize. I can’t imagine what it’s like being in your situation.”

Empathy.

A pause. 

An twists to Mizuki, who releases her, “You hang out with Akito’s sister a lot, right? Does Ena-san know about all of this?”

“About the scientifically impossible porta potty? No. She’s worried out of her mind, though, totally hysterical. Been talking with the police a lot with her mom.”

Ah, so Mizuki did know. Just…not about the porta potty aspect. In hindsight, An supposed it made sense. It made An appreciate her even more for treating her like normal.

“Well screw the police!” An declares, “They're not gonna be able to uncover shit about this!” 

They’d have to find a way to get this porta potty to work again (in the weird magical way it does) and then figure out how to retrieve Akito, Kohane, And Touya from porta potty hell if they’re not already dead. 

Oh, fuck, why did she have to put that idea in her head?

An will be damned if she doesn’t at least try . She’ll do anything to get them back home safe and sound and not even for her own sake. 

“Which means…” An prods, nodding her head. When neither Rui or Mizuki get what she’s going at, she puts it plain and simple, easy and naive, “Well, obviously it’s up to us to put the Shibuya Police Station out of business.”