Orenda

Anabiosis

Shuichi Saihara's Perspective

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Maybe the strangest thing about the school that had been built for them was that there didn't seem to be anything outside it. Was it some kind of black curtain or screen around the complex? If so, Keebo should have ripped it to shreds. Shuichi reached out past the wall and felt...nothing. He quickly waved around for something tangible, but he couldn't even feel the air moving around his fingers. Just a completely empty sea of darkness. He looked to his right at Maki and Himiko, but he could still only see black in that direction.  Shuichi whipped around--his hair didn't move at all--and saw black behind him as well. He could feel the suffocating inky abyss closing in around him until he couldn't even see his own hands, until the sounds of hissing and whirring motors filled his ears. A single message appeared in front of him in blinding white letters:

Thank you for playing!

You may safely remove your headset.

Shuichi reached up to his face, and sure enough, there was...something...on his head. It didn't feel like any VR headset he'd ever seen, but there were wires coming off of every surface. There was no way this wasn't what the message was referring to. He dug his fingers under the edge and peeled the thing off of his head. Shuichi slowly opened his eyes before immediately shutting them away from the blinding fluorescent lights above him.

"Shuichi!" One voice chimed over all the noises suddenly being brought to Shuichi's attention. It sounded so... familiar. He took a moment to adjust to the light before opening his eyes once more. He was met with striking violet, and his heart skipped a beat. Kaede's face stood inches from his, her eyes filled with tears and her hands reached up to hold Shuichi's face. Out of all the emotions and thoughts rushing Shuichi's mind, the one that dominated was confusion. 

"Kaede... Kaede, I thought..." Shuichi's voice came out scratchy and hoarse, and he coughed a bit in an attempt to get whatever was caught in his throat out. There wasn't anything, and Shuichi came to the conclusion that this was from a lack of use of his voice... somehow. He remembered talking quite a bit before waking up here-- but where was here?

"W-wait, you--how--where--" He tried in vain to get at least three of the dozens of questions flying through his mind out at once.

Kaede chuckled, "Take a breath. Calm down a bit." She looked behind her at someone just out of Shuichi's view, though their identity was quickly revealed. "Kirumi! Go get a nurse!"

"Consider it done." Footsteps resided and Shuichi took his breath to look at who else was in the room with him. All of the faces were of his classmates who he had last seen dead. The only notable ones missing were Keebo, Tsumugi, and Kaito, as well as the two Shuichi had survived with. There were probably more missing, but Shuichi couldn't seem to focus on that anymore. When his eyes met Kaede he couldn't help but look away again, her last moments playing on repeat in his mind. She pulled Shuichi back toward her.

"Hey, Shuichi, look at me!" Couldn't she tell? That was the exact opposite of what he needed to do right now. Was he dead? This wasn't, couldn't be real. Kaede was--

"Please..." Suddenly her arms were around him and her voice was much closer to his ear. "Listen to me. I'm okay. Everyone's still here. It was all some sort of freaky simulation. But we're alive."

"B-but--"

"Just keep breathing for me. Can you do that?"

Shuichi waited for a few seconds--they felt more like hours--then nodded. His chest rose and fell a few times at a more normal pace. He was still a little shaky, but her hold on him was grounding and let him slowly breathe a little deeper. Kaede pulled away from him after another moment, and Shuichi grabbed her arms. The task alone made him feel worn out, but he gripped her as tight as he could, as if to make sure that she was actually there and not just a figment of his imagination.