So I got the idea for this fic while attending a presentation about sudden death concerning cardiac rhythm devices at the 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference. (Shout out if there's anyone out there that went to the meeting.) You shoulda seen me, while all these serious professionals were contemplating a quote that was said I had an epiphany and immediately started scribbling beautiful yuri fanfiction ideas in my notebook. Oh, young college kids.
By the way, the quote, more or less, was: "We can't stop people from dying, or we'd all be out of a job." True dat for a lot of people in this field!
I don't own Citrus or its characters. What angst there wouldn't be if I did, lol.
I study death. Why? Because no one wants to talk about it, and I need to know the meaning of dying. Someone has to have that knowledge, whether or not anything is done with it.
This world does not know of death. People here cannot die; our history has dictated that we are destined to live forever. Nobody knows where this comes from, or what is the future of it. However, using terms concerning "mortality" and the like is unlawful, as it acknowledges the unrealistic idea of not living forever. At least the people here are humble enough to demote themselves to a humanly status, rather than likening themselves to gods.
Because personally, I think living forever is bullshit.
I don't know how death sparked my interest, and it's not like I want to die as it stands right now, but I could never stop thinking about how different this world would be if life had an ending. Yes, people manage to distance themselves from the image of divinity, and long lives are good, but… No matter how hard anyone that may feel the same way I do has tried, death just does not wish to befall us. Attempts to kill anybody, oneself or otherwise, somehow doesn't work. It's a phenomenon that has not been figured out, and all it does is put people in the hospital with minimal recovery time.
Whatever the case, I'm moderately content with just living this life that has been set out for me. While I do have college studies to attend to, I can still fulfill my intrigue, and I have forever to do it.
Mei leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head. She had spent the last couple of hours catching up on homework because instead of doing so earlier, she was in the lab, working on yet another experiment in hopes of understanding why the world was how it was. She seemed to be getting nowhere despite hours upon hours of study.
Although she graduated at the top of her high school class and remained on the President's Honor Roll for the past two years, Mei didn't want to take the chance that all the stress would put a damper on her GPA.
Then what would people think of me? They'll think I was slacking off, therefore undeserving of academic honor and top university resources.
The black-haired girl sighed and rose from her seat. She threw on a coat and shoes, and left her room. Some time walking around in the brisk air of a fall evening would help to relax her. There weren't a lot of people out, even with the sun still visible in the sky and being right by the events arena where basketball games and concerts were held. Seeing the expansive tract of the campus lawn devoid of many students, as opposed to the bustling crowd present during the daytime, and lit so beautifully by the setting sun was quite satisfying.
Mei walked along the sidewalk, thoughts running about her mind. Not too far to her right was a small group of people enjoying a playful game of frisbee. One guy threw it to a girl across the field; the disc flew way over the girl's head in Mei's direction, and the girl ran after it, calling out to alert Mei of the incoming object.
"Hey, heads up!"
Mei lifted her gaze to see the frisbee whirl towards her. Reacting on instinct, she raised her hand at the moment the disc slapped into her palm, right before her face. The girl soon reached Mei, breath coming out slightly ragged.
"Hi… Um, sorry about that! Nice catch though!" She grinned widely.
Mei only stared at the girl, taking in her blonde locks pulled back in a ponytail to the bright greenness of her eyes. "You all should get better at playing so you don't pose the risk of hurting others," she eventually said coolly.
The blonde let out a chuckle. "Heh, yeah, I guess so." She tentatively held out her hand for the frisbee. After a moment, Mei handed it to her. They paused, studying each other's eyes for a second before the blonde smiled and ran back to her friends. Mei's gaze lingered on the girl for a while longer before continuing down the sidewalk.
Not even a minute later there was a commotion on the field back where Mei had come from. She turned her head around to see the frisbee players gathered around someone on the ground. Squinting her eyes, Mei saw that it was the blonde that had just come up to her.
Hmph, it doesn't concern me. There are others who can help her; I don't need to—
"Sh-she doesn't have a pulse!" someone exclaimed.
Mei snapped to attention. Yeah, people got injured all the time. Yeah, people sometimes slipped into comas. There was never any worry that the person would die, of course, but lacking a pulse? That's a rarity that still never failed to scare everybody. Even with all the more serious pains, there was always a pulse, signifying the enduring existence of the being. On the sparse occasion that someone lost their pulse (only two or three times that anyone could remember), though, they would recover it after a few seconds. Every time.
The serious student rushed back to the group. "What happened?"
"We don't know! She just fainted! She was perfectly healthy, and now…" a slender girl with short hair and glasses declared, voice shaking.
Mei knelt down to examine the collapsed student. "How could she just pass out? No one just falls and all of a sudden their pulse is gone." She could feel the girl's body grow colder as each second passed by. The change was subtle, but definitely still something to be felt. There was absolutely no way something like this could happen, this was too close to death…
Someone from the group stood up and reached for his cell phone. He called for help; luckily, the health center wasn't too far away and there was an ambulance on the scene within minutes. Medics stepped out of the vehicle, ordering the crowd to back away. Once they reached the girl, however, even they were confounded—their movements were slow and unsteady, as if they were unsure of any action to take. Eventually, the medics began to load the girl into the ambulance without much care to her.
"Wait. Take her to the first floor lab in the organic studies building. It'll be…better for her," Mei interjected. The medics halted their motions and gawked at the black-haired student.
One medic, seemingly the oldest with gray weaving through his hair and bushy beard, turned towards Mei. "Ah, Mei Aihara… I've heard of you, the top student in the biochemistry major." He crossed his arms. "But I still don't think you're in any position to tell us what to do."
Mei leveled an icy glare at the man. "And exactly what else are you going to do? Bring her to the health center and try to find out what's wrong with her? I can tell you right now, she's—"
"Hey!" The man grabbed her arm. "Look, it's our job to help people who have been hurt. I would never turn my back on an injured person. Although in this case…" He let go of Mei and lowered his voice. "I guess it's probably best to just trust you." He instructed the other medics to resume loading the blonde into the ambulance and that they were, in fact, going to the organic studies building. Mei hopped into the back of the vehicle, sitting down by the blonde girl.
"What am I doing…?" the man muttered under his breath as he got in the driver's seat.
The short ride was quiet; the two other medics tended negligibly to the unconscious student, almost afraid to touch her. Mei visually examined everything about the girl, from her face, to her arms, to her stomach, to her feet. There weren't any observable imperfections that would explain why she had abruptly fainted, but Mei felt an odd aura surrounding the girl. It couldn't be described; it was just…there.
The blonde girl lay on one of the metal tables in the lab, still unconscious. Once they had got to the lab and everyone else had left—presumably due to feeling uncomfortable and uncertain, though they were still right outside the room—Mei found that she really couldn't do anything, either. It was as if her brain and body refused to cooperate with each other, ideas running through her head but nothing being physically done.
I never thought I'd get to this point. I did tell them to bring her here, but… What was I actually expecting to do?
Mei had already come to the conclusion that the girl was dead. It was such a strange idea to grasp, one that she had been trying to understand for a while now, but still an exceedingly long way from mastering. How could she know what to do when this was the one thing that had never taken place in history, the one thing that haunted yet intoxicated her?
She took a deep breath and laid a hand on the girl's fully pallid face, immediately drawing her hand back. The skin was frigid. As far as Mei knew dead people weren't supposed to get that cold. Nothing was ever supposed to get that cold, not even somebody standing out in the snow in the middle of winter overnight with no clothes on.
However, there was something about that chill that interested Mei, inviting her to touch the girl's skin again. The temperature was just as low this time, if not lower, but the instant that Mei's fingertips made contact, the black-haired student's vision flashed. A fleeting illumination. Mei stepped back and blinked. The room had not changed, nor had the girl or even Mei herself.
So then what was that? Mei thought.
She cautiously approached the girl again. There was a pattern of noise so soft, that Mei could barely hear it—a sort of airy sound coming from the blonde. Was her chest…moving? Mei slowly lifted her fingers to the girl's cheek.
It was warm.