A/N: Just a little experiment. It's still pretty short, but the chapters will lengthen over time.

Disclaimer: There's a reason why it's called fanfiction, you know.

It was in the middle of class when Minato Arisato had the sudden urge to enter the Velvet Room—although certain circumstances, like getting dragged into Home Economics after school, or into the playground for instance, gave him no time to protest. Afterwards he'd just be too fatigued to do anything else.

Something happened, similar to a glitch in a game, and it filled his chest with something entirely unexplainable. It was as if his leg had been tied to a rock and he had been underwater. He felt heavy and it was hard to breathe. The world fell into silence, and all he could focus on was this peculiar feeling. All traces of the familiar environment had vanished. There were no desks, chairs, classmates nor teachers. Only him and the dark abyss.

The stillness of it all worried him, and it took several minutes before Minato heard someone taking a deep breath.

Death is patient.

The voice had sounded like a favorite song that he once listened to on his music player. It was bright and cheery, and apparently belonged to a girl of his age.

A voice filled with hope, yet uttered words so grim.

It was in that instant, when everything returned to normal. The air was once again filled with soft breathings, and the dull voice of the teacher. There was homework. And along the defeated sighs of the students came the sound of the bell for dismissal. The blue-haired boy took that as a cue to leave. Of course, being that he deadpanned his way through everything, no one actually noticed the strange way he was acting earlier on.

"Minato-kun!" called Yukari from behind, slapping a hand on his shoulder. "I'm heading to the mall. Wanna come with?"

Now, normally he wouldn't decline such an invitation. After all, Igor once told him that the bonds he formed would be important in the near future, so he made it a point to nurture each and every one of his friendships in the city. But Minato would only be bad company. Today, at least. He apparently had a lot to think about.

With a simple shake of the head, he parted his lips slightly to speak, ignoring the look of disappointment that would soon occupy her face. "Sorry."

The walk back to the dormitory was going to be a lonely one, but he didn't mind. He planned on walking past the shrine, after all. Doing so would always help him clear things out when it got confusing. Minato was grateful for the days when he could sit in solitude and where he could drown in his thoughts.

Footsteps faded when he reached the shrine, and he stood facing a well-aged statue at the middle. It had been said that you need only drop a coin to make a wish come true, but in all honesty, wishes were fleeting in his opinion.

There might come a time when granting them was possible, but that opportunity could just as well suddenly vanish.

Wishing for something to happen wasn't enough. Wishing for a world to call your own wasn't enough. Wishes wouldn't change reality.

Even though he was entirely certain of the fact that this was his reality, that this world was his, he couldn't help but feel as if somewhere, deep in the shattered gaps in time, someone was standing in the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing.

Making a wish despite of it all.

Admittedly, the blue-haired boy wasn't too keen with such things. He always accepted whatever it was life threw at him. He would take it without complaints and never say a word. It was actually his first time harboring feelings of wanting to discover an answer for himself. He always believed that the answers to his questions would come in time if he waited. Right now though, waiting seemed like a bad idea.

You're there, aren't you?

Of course he was. He had always been here, trapped in his own little world, although uncaring if someone dragged him away from it all.

Somewhere out there, there was someone whom he had a deep connection with.

Perhaps it was time to do a little bit of searching.

A/N: I wonder if I'll be able to pull this off. Lmao.