Inception

Chapter 64: A Dream in Stone

It was a good thing Leno hadn't been around here, she thought. She needed him to grow, find love, get married, have babies, and find happiness. She wondered if she could have made more of a difference as a soldier. Maybe she would have lasted longer. Or not. Had Kaiju No. 9 been destined to hunt her down based on her DNA?

Then Vice Captain Hoshina floated to her mind.

Strangely, she found herself beneath a great, aching sadness far greater than that of missing her brother.

What could they have become? She hadn't even the time to examine her feelings after she'd seen him fight his way through and out of a kaiju's body. It had been something electric, something exciting in a way new discoveries or a theory proven right could do.

But now she would never know.

As time became irrelevant in the darkness, and lack of stimuli gave her nothing to focus on, her imagination flew away with her. Perhaps they were dreams. Perhaps they were visions. With no eyes to see or ears to hear, she couldn't tell.

But in them, another life came into being. One where she hadn't rent the ground and a city and Soshiro escaped with her in his arms.

She knew nothing of dating save what she'd heard from others. But here she could respond to Soshiro's flirting. He'd be surprised, a treat in itself. Would his eyes go wide? Would he laugh? Would he smile so wide his eyes became mere squiggly lines of black lashes and his cheeks turn to apricot balls? Either way, he'd be happy, and he'd draw her in his arms and kiss her soundly on the mouth. She'd know what a kiss felt like. She'd know what it felt like to have every inch of her body pressed up against the warmth of another.

He take her on dates. She'd learn more about Gigi and the mysterious uncle who had rescued them. She'd tell him about her siblings, all of them, and it wouldn't feel sad because she'd have Soshiro and they'd be happy. He'd bring her snacks, she'd finish her radar, they'd help the other find the sources and work together to find a way to use the energy before it sent living tissue into the cancerous overgrowth of monsters. Kaiju would cease to be. The Defense Force would retire. Her and Soshiro would be released to go back home.

A home they'd share.

It would be somewhere out in the country. Perhaps one of those little villages filled with the elderly, where the most exciting thing to happen would be so-and-so's dog got hit by a bike the night before. Their house would be traditional, with big porches and sliding doors, wooden floors, shoji doors—very similar to the Hoshina house. A house that would no longer have a purpose, leaving her and Soshiro with the freedom to make a new one.

And it would start with children.

Her home would no longer be quiet. It would go to the way it was meant to be, full of voices and family.

She lost herself in that dream. There was no reason to care about staying sane. So she named every baby born to her and Soshiro, watched them grow, taught them as her mother and grandmother had—to dance in the rain, sing in the shower, and take naps beneath the swamp cooler. Some would learn their father's sword art. Others would tack away at circuitry and microscopes as she had with her father. Others yet would find something entirely their own. Maybe music. Maybe art. Maybe something outlandish like cutting watermelon faster than light or cracking the ABC's with their toes.

Uncle Leno would visit with his own family. Each visit would ensue in memorable chaos of counsins. In the summer they'd take turns having the other's kids over and it would be what summers with cousins were meant to be: late nights playing night games, dirty feet, too many popsicles, and bug hunts. Whole novels would be written by their kids about the adventures out in the boonies with the Hoshina cousins.