in the ataraxis of aftermath

shako dansu station

Naoko tried to be dreadfully subtle. She pointed it out with dismissive fingers and skimming eyes, chose stations conspicuously near it, let her eyes occasionally wander to the small colored circle on the map.

It still took Keyla quite a while before the idea hit her.

"Naoko," The girl had said, abruptly, as they had both bent reverently over the station map in Naoko's hands. "Let's go dancing."

"Dancing?" She tried to keep her face calm; she succeeded.

"Yeah!" Keyla nudged Naoko's shoulder with her own, grinning. "Dancing!"

"Where would we go?" She asked, with weakly feigned confusion.

"The hotel-looking-thing," Keyla's eyes narrowed until she brightened and pointed jubilantly at a point on the map. "That one. Next to the theater. You said there was a big ballroom and staircase and stuff."

Insecurity plucked at her strings. She frowned and shuffled a little, now uncertain of her idea.

"I wasn't sure about that," Naoko pointed out honestly. "I just said that I remembered that they had one. I haven't been there in a while."

That part was true- she hadn't. Naoko only recalled seeing pictures of the grand rooms inside on posters and from the words of others.

"Well, we might as well check it out!"

"It's the furthest stop on the map," she argued. "We'd have to stay there overnight."

"So we'll just stay there overnight! Or I could bring the ship!" Keyla smiled. "It's no biggie!"

The other girl looked so confident, so happy, so proud.

"Okay," Naoko said, exhaling and feeling the weight drift off of her shoulders. "Okay, let's do it."

---

Keyla left extra-early the next morning, supposedly before the sun had fully risen, packing both of their stuff into the ship. She only took Naoko's small map to guide her, and when Naoko had asked her why, she had told her not to worry about it, saying that she just needed to "scope things out" beforehand.

Naoko wasn't sure if this explanation relieved or concerned her.

Regardless, she woke up to a quiet world. She did everything as per her usual routine, and yet the normalcy felt just that much more off. It felt strange knowing that Keyla was not going to be waiting for her, meandering in the space outside her door.

She scuffed her boots along the flaky yellow line, hating the silence that muzzled the space around her. The rattling of the train was a welcome distraction from the empty air. The familiar huffing of the engine and squeaking of the brakes soothed the tension in her shaking fists.

Naoko curled up on her plastic seat, leaning her head in her hands, and waiting, impatient, to get to her stop.

---

It was much more barren downtown, Naoko realized, her face hovering next to the glass as she tried to get a clear look at the crumbling buildings. Most of them were missing large chunks, like some huge monster had taken a bite out of them then decided that they weren't quite up to its taste.

Naoko shook her head at that image, smiling ever so slightly.

Keyla was waiting for her at the station, bouncing on her heels. She excitedly took Naoko's hands and had pulled her onto the ship before she had time to blink.

"The theater, the theater, the theater!" was Keyla's restless chant as they sailed.

The other girl pushed Naoko to the direction of the doors. She turned around to ask, but Keyla ushered her forward again.