Big Book of Writing

Forever Canvas (Soranade, SDRA2)

This takes place in a talentswap AU by nikeikeis on twitter, with Kanade being a psychologist and Sora being a painter! Go check them out!

Warning: spoilers for chapter 3

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As a car sped too close to the sidewalk beside her, Kanade forced herself to not turn around and yell at the offender. She had a reputation to keep up, after all. She was going to the most prestigious school in the world, it wouldn't good to act immature in the mental sciences community.

She had managed to 'pull a few strings' to get her sister to attend Hope's Peak Academy with her, even if it was just as the Ultimate Lucky Student - all it took was getting rid of the original lucky student and forging a copy of the letter for Hibiki. She had already gotten her letter to attend as the Ultimate Psychologist already, and her sister had sulked until she received her 'letter.'

They had met many odd people in their class, but today, her sister had told her to go take a walk so she could hang out with that wizard girl. Kanade grumbled at the thought of it as she kept walking along the sidewalk. She much preferred when that witch was aiding that odd vocalist with bothering that pissy guitarist.

The psychologist sighed as she pushed the thought out of her mind. She'd find a way to handle that situation later, she just wanted a coffee right now. In fact, she was on her way to a cafe to treat herself and calm herself down. Luckily, the cafe was right across the street.

After crossing the street, Kanade entered the cafe and spotted a familiar face at a nearby table. The Ultimate Painter of the class, Sora, was drinking an Americano there while scrolling through her phone. That was another person who Kanade had an eye on, but only because of the psychologist's talent rather than her past.

Kanade went to the counter and ordered an iced mocha, which she quickly received, and she went to sit down across from Sora. The white-haired girl looked up in surprise when she saw Kanade suddenly there.

"Kanade, hello. I thought you'd be with your sister," Sora greeted, and passed her a spare napkin.

"Hibiki's hanging out with Setsuka, and she told me to leave..." Kanade sighed. She drummed her fingers on the table as she took a sip of her mocha, then looked back to the other girl. "I didn't expect to see you here. Are you working on another project?"

"Yeah, something on the wall that Hope's Peak gave me a permit to paint on. I'm just waiting for my background of the painting to dry, then I can work on it more. It's been an hour now, so maybe it's done by now," she replied. She checked her phone again, and then put it down.

The psychologist smiled and put her coffee down. "Is it another painting of your dreams again? she asked.

"Yes, a pretty recurring one. I still don't know what it means or what this means for my lost memories. Honestly, I didn't think you'd be interested in paintings," Sora wondered.

"I'm not really interested in paintings. I'm actually interested in you," Kanade explained. "You already know that I'm not a therapist, so I can't interpret what your dreams mean. I study emotions, so a person whose emotions are equivalent to a newborn's is pretty interesting to me."

"What do you mean by that?" the painter questioned. Kanade noticed how both of them seemed to be drinking coffee while they weren't talking during their conversation.

She idly twirled her ponytail from the boredom of sitting still. "I don't know how, but your emotions seem primitive. There's usually some trace of a former personality from suppressed memories, but you don't have any of that. In other words, you're a very special case in my field of study. Seeing your emotions start to bud from the new experiences you have at this academy is very interesting."

"Is that so? I didn't think there was a difference between me and other amnesiacs, especially with my weird dreams," Sora remarked. "But on the other hand, how do you know my emotions are equivalent to a baby's?"

"Because it's nearly the same with my sister. Whenever any kind of hardship happens, her mentality weakens and her emotions start regressing to an infantile state. That's why I got into psychology, you know." Kanade chose to leave out her obsession with studying Hibiki's 'puppet state' and how far it could be pushed. "But with you, your emotions seem to have regressed all the way to that state, except without a weakened mentality."

"Huh, that's interesting to hear," the white-haired girl replied, and she finished her drink. "Anyway, I'm going back to my mural. Wanna tag along?"

"Sure, I don't mind!" Kanade replied, standing up while holding her mocha. Sora threw her empty coffee cup in the trash and began heading outside, and the tiny psychologist began following her.

A few streets later, they finally arrived at the wall where Sora was painting. Kanade looked up and marvelled at the mural in-process. It looked like shades of blue overlapping one another, growing darker and deeper from a certain angle. Sora had done an excellent job blending the colours, the painting looked almost lifelike so far.

"Since you're here, could you pass me some colours when I ask?" Sora asked, setting up her ladder.

"If it'll make the process go faster, then sure," Kanade replied. "Which colour do you need first?"

"Black, please."

For the next half an hour, Kanade passed paint buckets to Sora as she worked on the mural. Slowly, the mural began to look more like a photograph than it had been before, as if Sora had taken this scene straight from her dreams. Blacks, blues, whites, greys; these colours were all used to help Sora recreate her dream.

Finally, the mural was finished. Sora and Kanade stared up from the ground as the painting slowly began to dry from the wind. "Is it supposed to rain today?" Sora asked.

"No, it's supposed to be cloudy and windy for the next few hours," Kanade replied, not tearing her gaze away from the photo. "I wonder what this painting is supposed to mean?"

"It's just a scene from my dreams, but I don't know anything about it. I hope my memory returns soon..." Sora sighed and looked over at Kanade. "It's better not to think about it. Let's go back."

The girls turned around and began to leave the wall, with the psychologist making a note to return at a future time. The mural that Sora had created was of an unknown person endlessly falling into the dark ocean.