Friday, April 15th 2016 (Part 2).
Later on the Day of the First Visit to Kamoshida's Palace
"Memento Mori."
...what?
"Remember, you will die."
Huh?
"Death comes for everyone eventually."
What... what are you saying?
"You're no exception."
What? What do you mean? Who are you? What's going on?
"Kotone."
Yes, that's me. Who are you?
"Kotone, you must..."
I must... what? I must...
"You must -̶̺͖͆̽͜i̸̢̮͋-̶̖̙̓͘e̴̯̚ ̶̡̤͍̚y̵̭̮̳̆̽-̵̨̩̟́̀͘-̶͚͆̑-̸̮̏ ̸̩̽̒͂-̶̖̭͐͠-̷̛̩̭̉f̸͉̳̮͆͌̚-̶̦̈́̄̾ "
What?
I don't understand.
Hello?
I don't understand.
Please, don't go!
Explain!
I don't... understand.
---
Sunlight.
"Which you want?"
Wind in her hair.
"Whichever's not carbonated."
A rooftop. Always a rooftop.
"Uh, they both are, actually."
Kotone could lay here forever.
"Then... that one."
If she died here, she could die happy...
"Here ya go. I'll save the other one for her."
But she couldn't die here.
"What about me?"
Not again.
"Huh? But you're a cat."
Wait, again?
Kotone sat up with a gasp, eyes shooting open in the harsh sunlight of Shujin's rooftop. She coughed, hacking up some strange emanation from within as she clawed away from the silence of sleep and burst once more into the world of the living.
"Whoah! She's up!" There was a commotion around her, people moving in the shadow of the sunlight. She coughed once more, rubbing her eyes. She tried blinking away what was left of sleep, groaning as she struggled to stay upright. "Whoah whoah whoah, easy, easy..."
Kotone winced, peering into the brightness of the rooftop. The first thing she saw was a bottle of soda being held out towards her. "Here. For energy."
"Ryuji, give her some space, she's not going to-" Ann's voice was silenced as Kotone snatched the bottle away from Ryuji, uncapping it in one quick motion and drinking freely from it. "Whoah."
Kotone finished the bottle in one go, squeezing it in her hand as she finally got a sense of the situation. Ann and Ryuji were looking at her with concern, Ren was sitting off to the side with a neutral look on his face, and Aigis...
Oh. She was sitting on Aigis' lap.
"Well, she's awake enough to blush." Ryuji snickered, crossing his arms. "I guess that means she's okay, right?"
YOU ARE READING
The Phantom Strangers
FanfictionKotone Shiomi was just a regular transfer student at Tokyo's Shujin Academy. All she had been looking to do this school year was stick to her studies, make new friends, and maybe spend some time with her girlfriend Aigis. She most certainly had not...
