Kanade's gone.
That was all that went through Yuzuru Otonashi's head as he sobbed. He was aware that he couldn't keep her forever, as she had needed to move on.
Her time had come.
His could not yet come.
The logical part of Yuzuzu's mind knew that he could do nothing for Kanade but push onward and hope that her next life would be better than her last.
Deciding to listen to his more rational side, he wiped the tears from his eyes and stood to his feet. He could only hope that she'd find solace in her next life. He could only hope that someday, he too would move on to his next life. He could only hope that someday, they would meet in another life, free to live and love as they pleased without restriction. And then, he and Kanade could be together again, and not let each other go...
Yuzuru chuckled hollowly. "We're all a bunch of idiots, aren't we?"
His legs carried him through the school complex, around all the buildings without so much as a thought.
All the others had moved on as well. These people, that he had come to call his allies and friends, had left. All that was left to him was the hordes of NPCs that simply existed in the school.
As he climbed through the building, Yuzuru walked past the classroom the GLDMO had practiced in, and he smiled sadly at the instruments that the band members had left behind. "May you all make music in your next lives, too."
Yuzuru's legs carried him by the nurse's office, where he'd learned so much about this afterlife, about his past, and about Kanade.
His legs carried him to a halt right in front of the principal's office. He pushed open the door to step inside, and what he saw made his heart weep again.
"Yeah. They're gone." He had to fight to keep the tears from falling again.
Yuzuru clenched his hands into fists with a melancholic smile and turned sharply on his heel, unable to look at what his friends had left behind. He walked on, wherever his legs took him, until he wound up looking out of a window at that spot.
Where it all started. Where he woke up for the first time in the afterlife. Yuzuru closed his eyes and shook his head. If he hadn't helped them all move on, they'd have become NPCs. He scratched at his head in thought. "What now?" he wondered. "Everybody's gone. What do I do now...?"
Yuzuru sighed and opened his eyes to look at where he had woken.
...And there was somebody on the ground with their eyes closed.
"...Huh. I guess that's it, huh?" He smiled lightly at the thought of helping more people live the lives and happy childhoods that they'd missed out on.
"Yeah. I can do that."
With those words, Yuzuru rushed outside to check up on the newcomer, leaving his sorrow behind in favor of hope for a better tomorrow.
...
...
Eh. I'm not exactly the sort to be sappy, but... hey. It happens.