Otonashii Yuzuru walked the streets of Akihabara with his head down, in deep thought. He was looking back on his morning. The snow chattered in it's own cryptic way as it fell to the ground and on the unnoticing eighteen year old who was holding a thermo mug of green tea.
"I feel like an idiot" he thought, taking a sip of tea "Taking this test, in this state, wasting a work day stressing on trying to do well on this test, but I'd feel like an ass for much longer if I told Hatsune no." He took out a ticket for admission for a college entrance exam. The ticket didn't cause much reaction at all for the teen, it was just, a statement, telling him what he'd be attempting to do today. The ticket seemed to look back at him, and attempt to fire in a sense, the hole of empty meaning it'd be come,
"No!" Otonashii yelled to aloud, "I will do my very best on this test!" he declared, as he unconsciously performed a strange dance, but a dance that reminded him of a memory, a distant memory of the person he'd first seen use these moves. Suddenly, by some magic miracle, as he snapped back to reality, he found someone quite closely resembling this distant memory performing these dances right beside him. The man, about Otonashii's age, had long blonde hair , long for a guy. He had chestnut brow eyes. Rooting him on was a tall well-built man with brown spikey hair. Otonashii blushed, stopped dancing and cleared his throat.
"Hey dude!" The blonde slurred but not as if he were drunk, "Where're you headin'? Let's dance like this all day man~! Parteh with mah Valentine~!" Otonashii sheepishly put both hands up
"Sorry, I have a super big test to take so I can't dance with you."
"Well hey," the well-built man started "You're taking the train right? You and TK can keep dancing in there, oh and I'm Matsuhida." he offered happily, one hand stuffing his mouth with chips as the other pointed at the blonde who was still dancing Otonashii shrugged.
"I guess that's fine if you don't have anything else to do .. . " he replied with the same sheepish smile and they set off to the station.
The train station was warm with the body heat of the hundreds crammed in the halls generally harmlessly shoving their ways to their destinations. Otonashii, TK and Matsuhida fortunately arrived at the correct boarding destination in time, upon arriving they saw a girl of average height with lavender hair. She stood perfectly aligned with the yellow train line, standing perfectly straight, texting. While TK and Matsuhida ran off to the vending machines of the station, Otonashii felt compelled to talk to this girl. Another blurry image came to his mind, an image that tugged at Otonashii's heart greatly. A strong magnetic like force caused Otonashii to tap this girl's shoulder. She turned around and when Otonashii saw this girl's eyes, the pulling in his chest doubled He couldn't figure out why, but this girl, was so very familiar to him..
"Hello" she said in a soft melodic voice.
"Ya-uh, Hi" Otonashii stuttered fumbling a few steps back "Sorry to bother you I-"he stopped, unsure what to say. "My name is Otonashii" he got out finally.
"I'm –" the girl started but was interrupted by a very loud yell
The train arrived at that minute, seeming to sweep away their conversation with the giant gust of warm air it pushed at them. The doors opened and something that seemed like a shadow slipped into the train before Otonashii or this girl could take a step After that, a teen in dark police like attire entered, holding his head high with a smug smirk on his face, followed by another teen with orange hair with a laptop entered the train. Otonashii and the mystery girl entered the train and sat at the two opposite ends of a row of seats TK and Matsuhida followed shortly after with their arms full of food and drink. TK threw Otonashii a snack and beverage (left broad for reader's preference/creativity ) Otonashii nodded as a thank you. Right then three teen girls entered, one with lavender hair slightly darker than the mystery girl, one with blonde hair, they were helping a girl with bubble gum pink hair enter the train. The girl had hospital attire on. They sat next to each other, giving a sigh of relief Then a man with a man with long blue hair, wearing a black faded beanie with a gray trench coat , black pants and boots and a gray shirt entered and sat at a far end of the cart, his odor meeting the noses of all on board as he sat down.
"When was the last time you took a shower?!" The bubblegum pink hair girl exclaimed. She was sitting two seats from the man who looked back at her, glaring
""When was the last time you weren't in a hospital?" he shot back A glaring contest began between the two people. Three more teens then entered the train. One of them had blonde hair in two clumps with the rest flowing down in the middle, red eyes, the second had medium length violet hair with a green band in it with aqua eyes, the last had brown hair in a ponytail with brown eyes. They sat together. Otonashii then got up.
" Where are you going?" Matsuhida asked.
"I just realized I need to use the rest room" Otonashii replied running off, praying he'd make it back on time.
"Note to self" he muttered, never drink a big serving of green tea then gulp down another half of a bottle of liquid right before a train ride" By the time he ran back to the train a warning ring rang, a teen with purple hair was seen boarding Otonashii's car, followed by a boy with amber hair and green eyes. Right before Otonashii boarded, a voice rang through the station:
"Yui! Yui where are you?!" it yelled Otonashii saw the owner of the voice, she was all the way across the station, running very quickly down the path The doors started closing,.Otonashii boarded his cart . The train began moving. Bored, Otonashii looked out the back of his cart, which was the last car in the train. All he saw were tracks running back at first, then he saw her, the girl running accros the station running on the tracks toward the train.
"Hey," Otonashii yelled in the cart, "Someone's really trying to get in the train. Anybody got any ideas on how we can help?" Matsuhida stood up with his usuall smile. He opened his jacket, grabbed some rope fastened within the jacket, he opened the train door and yelled
"Hey, I'm gonna throw some rope at you, wrap it around your wrist" he yelled, the girl nodded and Matsuhida threw the rope which she caught and wrapped around her hand, then with huge effortOtonashii and Matsuhida pulled the girl who had hot pink hair and eyes with a guitar case on her back , onto the train.'deck' All three sat, catching their breathe
"Thank you, very much" the girl huffed
"Sure" Matsuhida replied
"Yeah" Otonashii followed, "So, this Yui person she must be pretty important for you to be-"before he could finish, the girl had opened the train door and entered the train, holding the door open.
"I-Iwasawa?" the girl with bubble gum hair stuttered. Iwasawa let go of the door as Takamatsu grabbed it and headed toward Yui
"Why are you here? You're supposed to be getting a surgery today. The doctors called mom when they realized you were missing, and mom called me because she was so worried. What's going on?" Iwasawa sat next to Yui, automatically making a face as she smelled the homeless man a few seats over, the man had taken out a beer glass bottle and was chugging it down. Yui looked down and was now shaking alittle
"I know I won't have the strength to walk again afterwards"
"What do you mean?"
"Mom's gonna be gone on her business trip for another two months, and dad would never care to visit me, so, I just won't recover, I won't try . . ." Yui replied, now on the verge of crying she felt a pat on her head, she looked up to see a full bottle of beer being handed to her by the homeless man.
"Just drink it up, and all of your problems go away" he slurred. Iwasawa snatched the bottle and silently threw it toward the open train door. Otonashii was standing in the door way at the moment, he quickly ducked as the bottle flew out of the train and made an epic airy crash noise as it hit the ground as the train kept moving. As a result some very small glass pieces flew into the train, hitting Otonashii, the homeless man and the floor. No serious injuries occurred.
"What is this blasphemy?!" The teen in dark police like wear yelled as he stood up "God demands that you idiots behave right now!"
"GOD?!" The kid with the laptop yelled "You can't be God! I am Christ! You are definetly not my equal!
"Cuz it's a THRILLER! THRILLER NIGHT~!" TK yelled 'God' and 'Christ' were standing, looking very ready to beat each other up
"ENOUGH~!" yelled the girl with the green head band in her hair. She pointed at the two standing "You get over yourselves." She then pointed at the homeless man "Stop trying to encourage kids to screw up their lives" She then pointed at Iwasawa "Stop throwing shit off the train" she then pointed toward the boy with red hair and green eyes who was shaking and tearing up scared out of his wits "Errr," the girl started "Someone give the kid some water?" TK threw a water bottle at the boy who graciously caught it and drank some. The girl sighed happily "My name is Yuri, and I will be keeping the peace on this short ride to Shinjuku. "Now, let's continue the discussion we were having before this mess." Everyone stared at Yuri in silent awe and shared unexplained nostalgia of some sort, from a long lost memory, and in all reality, Yuri herself was shocked how easily she took control of the whole mess.
"Eheheheheh" Otonashiii laughed, still lying on the floor, hands over his head. "Yui is it? What about those two girls who helped you get on this train? They'd be there to support you" he walked and sat in the seat next to the girl he'd met at the train station
"No . . " the lavender colored hair friend of Yui's spoke, "I'm Sekine, and my friend is Irie we'd love to be there for Yui but we have school, which takes up all visiting hours at the hospital. We can't stay overnight, and the hospital is pretty far from our houses."
"We're just riding the train around . . ." Irie continued "Just trying to pass time by, we dunno what we're gonna do . . ." Iwasawa nodded. She grabbed Yui's hand
"OK." Iwasawa replied. "I'll stay with you. You'll get the surgery, and I'll be with you, since we're cousins helping you recover day and night, until you can walk again. " Yui frantically shook her head.
"I feel bad enough making mom spend all of her time by my side, you, mom said you were playing gigs and starting to record music I'd ruin all of that for yo-" Iwasawa put a finger on Yui'ss mouth
"As long as I can play my music my way, I'm living my dream" she said with a reassuring smile. The teen with brown hair in a ponytail clapped shaking her head.
"Truer words have never been spoken man"
"Indeed" the blonde friend replied
Suddenly the train jerked forward and shook, the sound of big rocks was heard on the roof top. Everyone huddled with the people they entered the train with, Iwasawa grabbed Yui into a tight embrace, Yuzuru held the hand of the girl next to him The rocks continued to fall and the train kept pulling forward. Suddenly, everything went black . . .
Otonashii woke up, for the first couple of seconds, he was absolutely terrified, it was dark, absolutely silent, and he had no idea where he was. Then, the memories bled back into his mind,, he was on a train with super animate people. The train started going crazy and then . . . this apparently.
"Hey" Otonashii yelled, "is everyone OK?" Otonashii heard many grunts and 'yeahs
"Sawa –chan?" Yui stuttered within Iwasawa's arms, Iwasawa grunted then let out a pained hiss "Sawa-chan what's wrong?!" Yui panicked
"Ughh, don't worry" Iwasawa replied, "Just sprained my arm, I'll be fine" Iwasawa struggled to keep a happy tone in her voice,. She inspected Yui's body minor cuts all over but she was fine, which was a relief. Everyone else's injuries varied in location and severity, but nothing more severe than a broken arm or a gash.
"DON'T STOP, BELIEVIN'" TK belted out waking everyone up fully, this resulted in a halberd being thrown in the blonde's direction, it was stopped by a teen in ninja clothing.
'She must be the person who ran in before that girl and I' Otonashii though
"This is so shallow minded" she huffed, placing the halberd down
"Well this sucks . . ." the homeless person grunted everyone sighed or sat quietly, unsure what to do next. This situation though, was all too familiar for Otonashii. This had happened before, he could tell, but he really couldn't remember anything about it. However it'd happened, this gave Otonashii a natural calmness and ability to plan out steps that should be taken.
"OK everyone" Otonashii announced clearly and confidently, "Everybody go outside of the train. I was on my way to a medical examination, but obviously I won't be taking it, however I have plenty of first aid with me and I will treat everyone's wounds. The last part seemed to be enough to get everyone to work their way out of the train, the purple hair teen using hiss halberd to break the door. Irie and Sekine helped Yui out
"U-um, Mr. doctor sir" the red head with green eyes stuttered. Otonashii smiled
"Call me Otonashii"
"Umm, how will we deal with food, a-and the bathroom?
"Well . . ." Otonashii started "bathroom won't be much of a problem for long due to dehydration . . ." this caused some people to squirm uncomfortably " Let's gather up all of the food we have and ration it out." Everyone reluctantly obeyed and piled up their food, which was a surprisingly large amount, especially thanks to TK and Matsuhida's vending machine splurge..
"Alright," Otonashii started "There are no young children or elderly; we are all teens, at the peak of our health. Let's, each day all split two vending machine items and try to consume as little water as we can.
"Why? "The homeless person asked. "We're all going to die here." He pointed to the train which was completely surrounded by large rocks. "There's no way we'll get out of here, the government won't save us! It'd cost them too much to even stop the railway traffic let alone actually come rescue us. So why are we stretching our stay so much?"
"Well" Otonashii looked at the teen "Would you like to die now?" The homeless man stood gritting his teeth for a few seconds, then sighed and shook his head.
"Well then," Otonashii went on, "Let's not touch our food for the rest of the day. I'll use my watch to tell when one day ends and another begins Alright, let's all get along and make the best of things" OTonashii went off to start treating peoples' wounds. Yuri stood up.
"Thank you Otonashii, Now, We're all going to form a circle and get to know each other" The purple head and the homeless man face palmed as everyone else, with nothing better to do obeyed and made a circle.
"Alright," Yuri started, state your name, something about you, and why you were on this train"
"CIRCLE OF LIFE~!" Tk sang
"Anyway . . ." Yuri sighed "I'm Yuri as you all know. I came on this train . . .to escape reality I guess . . . I HATE being called Haruhi Suzumiya, so don't try me."
"I'm Yusa" Yuri's blonde hair red eyed friend said " "I wanna be a CIA agent when I grow up. I went on the train to accompany Yuri"
"I'm Hisako" the brown hair teen said next "I think Iwasawa's really cool-"
"Hisako" Yuri said sharply, "Say something about yourself, , complimenting someone you just met is not acceptable as a fact" Hisako huffed
"Fine, umm, "Avril Lavigne inspired me to pick up guitar, I'm here to hang with Yuri as well." Yuri sighed, at least Hisako didn't make her seem like some broken child,she wasn't . . .
"I am Takeyama" the guy with the laptop s=began "I ask that you all call me Christ and admire my computer skills. I was on the train to be able to do work in peace and quiet."
"Pfft" the guy in black attire huffed "I am Naoi, but look to me as God. God needs no reason to be on a train."
"Yeah you do." Yuri retorted
"I'll hypnotize you
"You'll die faster for using the extra energy."
"But I- FINE! I was here to escape reality too in a sense." 'That explains a lot' everyone thought.
"Well, I'm Otonashii" Otonashii said as he treated a head gash on the girl Otonashii met earlier "Hmm, well my heart is half technology. I was born with only half a heart, so doctors worked quickly and used this new technology to replace the other half. The technology, having been untested is faulty and I end up needing to go to the hospital a lot. So last spring, I was supposed to take exams to become a doctor, right before that I had major heart issues and couldn't attend. I just finished recovering and my sister Hatsune urged me to take the exams now. That's why I was on the train." He turned to the teen he was treating. "It's your tuen" he said smiling
"Um," the girl started "My name is Kanade. I love playing the piano and gardening. I was on my way to the market to get groceries. My mom loves a certain market that requires riding this train to get to."
"OK," the teen with red hair and green eyes began, "I am Ooyama. I live on a big mountain in the country, hence my name. So I was on the train to look at city life, which I rarely get to do."
"I'm Matsuhida, I'm a fith degree black belt holder, I was on the train to dance with my friend TK. TK doesn't say much, he loves quoting English phrases and songs, he was on the train to dance."
"I'm Sekine, I like dippin my oreos in peanut butter and I was helping Yui get on the train"
"I'm Irie I want to live in the country when I grow up and I too was helping Yui-who-is-where-now?" Irie asked as she turned to find the space where Yui was empty.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP" Yui yelled at the top of her lungs. She was farther down the tunnel. Everyone got up to run in and help. What they saw was pathetic. The homeless man and the purple hair boy had taken half of the food and drink Yui had both of her arms wrapped around the purple-hair boy's leg. With all of the people now watching, the purple head got anxious. Without thinking he swung his halberd and placed it close to Yui's neck.
"Do you want to die?" he asked, suddenly a well-defined click was heard. Yuri was then seen in front of the group, with a pistol pointed at the purple hair teen.
"Drop the weapon, right now." She said cooly.
"Wha-What the hell?" the teen yelled I wasn't going to actually kill her, it was just a threat." Yuri walked up to the purple head, pistol still pointed
"Just a threat .. ." she pursed her lips. "When thieves broke in to my house years ago to steal our valuables, they 'threatened' to kill my brothers and sisters, yeah I thought that was just a threat, until an hour and a half later when THEIR BLOOD WAS ALL OVER THE FUCKING LIVING ROOM" Yuri yelled.
"CUT IT OUT" the homeless man yelled "Rah, I have a major headache and your yelling is making it worse! It's like I said, we're all going to die so just give up already!" he threw the water bottles in his hands without warning. Everyone gasped; Otonashii was paralyzed by the familiarity of the situation. Suddenly the water bottles disappeared, then reappeared in the arms of the ninja girl.
"This is so shallow minded" she huffed. "To answer your questions Yuri, My name is Mai, I love cute things and want to be a ninja to show society what true ninjas are, not guys in orange jumpsuits"
"MORNING GLORY~! " TK yelled. Otonashii sighed in relief.
The days passedtthey went like this day, Otonashii helping people, half the group being civil, talking amongst themselves, the other half of the group persisting to have, problems, being loud and not getting along very well, homeless dude and purple head,who they finally identified as Hinata and Noda respectively were tyed up by Matsuhida's rope. Iwasawa managed to start teaching Yui how to play guitar. Yui learned miraculously fast, learning to play 'My Song'in a matter of hours. She and Iwasawa sang it in a duet form; the lyrics kept entering their hearts, coming from some faraway place that they once knew. The lyrics still held true today, because even now these people were suffering and looking for hope.
On the seventh day everyone was laying around in odd placements. Otonashii was next to Kanade who he got to know a lot better the last week
"Kanade"
"Hmm?"
Could I, touch your heart?"
"You already have with your kindness that you've showed, and how well you fit the name Otonashii." Otonashii blushed.
"Yeah- umm, thank you for that, really, but I wanted to actually touch your heart, you see, my heart doesn't beat like regular hearts do, it always relaxes me when I touch Hatsune's heart, I tell myself, this is what I am, I'm human like them, there's nothing really wrong with me, I just have slightly different circumstances" Kanade nodded and quietly guided Otonashii's hand to her heart. Otonashii was not ready for what happened next Suddenly, just, so much, so many memories built up in his mind like legos, then a sort of glue seemed to work it's way through and connect all of these memories, making sense of them, and connecting them to the people in the tunnel. Everything, every question he'd asked about his circumstances now had an answer, it now made sense. It was a powerful relief beyond all comparison. He'd gotten back his whole life and purpose of living. He'd gotten back his love. He grabbed Kanade into a warm embrace
"I know you don't understand this, but, I love you, Kanade"
He then thought of everyone else in the tunnel, a lot of them seem to have, to some degree, lost their purpouse, twhat kept them going, even in the afterlife. He wanted to help them find all of that again, and he knew just how to do it. He took a deep breath and with all of his might,
He Sang
"Itsumo hitori de aruiteta" Yuri heard and remembered this song, Brave Song. She'd wrote the first two lines one night in the SSS office, feeling depressed. When she woke up, two thirds of the song was written, by every member contribuiting a couple of lines
"Furikaeru to minna wa tooku" she sang
"Sore demo atashi wa aruita" Kanade sang
"Sore wa tsuyosa, datta" TK sang
"Mou nani mou, kowakunai" Iwasawa sang
"Sou tsubuyaite miseru . . ." Ooyama whispered
The song progressed and more and more people joined the singing, tears were falling everywhere as everyone remembered the wonderful adventures they had endured in the SSS, the feelings they overcame, the peace they found amongst eachother's company . . . Iwasawa and Hisako fist pumped weakly
"Otonashii . . ." Naoi whined
"Yui, YUI!" Hinata yelled, at this the SSS forgot about their memories for the moment and looked at Hinata, or listened because they lacked the strength to sit up and look. Hinata then felt Yui's hand and gasped, she was cold, very cold.
"Hey, Otonashii! Yui's body is cold, and she won't wake up Please do something" He didn't have the strength to yell, so it jst sounded like a whine. Otonashii gritted his teeth
'I can't move at all' he thought as he started crying 'This is actually happenin again. Someone was dying and he was powerless against it. Iwasawa, hearing this could only lay there crying as someone so precious to her was dying. -Suddenly a rumbling was heard quickly followed by rocks moving and light pouring in. Yui would still not wake up.
"YUI, YUI YOU CAN'TT DIE! DON'T YOU SEE, WE'RE FREE NOW! wE CAN GET MARRIED LIKE WE'D PROMISED YUIII!"
"Calm down you moron" At first, all Hinata felt was vibration near him, a very small vibration. Then words formed in his mind. Was this a delusion? He struggled to look at Yui and saw her eyes were a fourth of the way open. Yui slowly grabbed Hinata's hand and weakly smiled.
"It's just, the stupid meds they gave me, a result of being in the hospital too long." Hinata was now chuckling in his tears.
"GUYS! YUI'S FINE, WE ALL MADE IT!" Hinata yelled, Iwasawa sighed in relief along with evryone else.
"Yeahhhh!" Matsuhida yelled, followed by the otrs giving weak cheers Otonashii just stared in disbelief. Kanade wrapped her arms around Otonashii, burying her face in his chest
"You made it" she whispered Otonashii nodded and lowered his head onto Kanade's, crying in amazement and relief. Many slaps were then heard as honey buns were being theown at everyone. They grabbed them and ate them quickly. They gave everyone the strength to stand, with some struggling. Hinata scooped Yui up bridla style, making Yui blush. Hisako grabbed Iwasawa's guitar
They walked out.
Outside many ambulances were ready to take people to get help and hydration. Otonasshii was guiding Kanade to te ambulance when Mai rushed in a blur passed them, leaving a white slip of paper floating down slowly until Otonashii grabbed it. It had a phone number on it.
"I guess we'll meet again later Otonashii mumbled.
Everyone else slowly made their way to the ambulances, Noda became upset when his hallberd was confiscaded. Yuri smirked thinking they'd never find her concealed pistol, they did, in the hospital hours later. Sekine, Irie, and Ooyama's parents were hugging their children on the stretcheres. Otonashii had just set Kanade on a stretcherr. He turned around, looked down and saw Hatsune standing there. Otonashii began crying all over again as he knelt down and held Hatsune tightly
"Glad you're OK bro" she cried in his chest "I-i"
"It's alright, I'm glad, to have been on that train.
"Yui!" a man voice yelled. Hinata turned, still holding Yui
"It's the doctor who was going to operate on me" she whispered. The doctor ran to them , phone in hand. Iwasawa stepped up with the group.
"Your mom has been so very worried this week" he said. She's on the phone right now.." He held the phone up to Yui.
"-hey mom" Yui muttered.
As this was going on Hisako tapped Iwasawa's shoulder
"Were you guys related in the past life?" she sked, Iwasawa laughed.
"I woulddn't know really, y parents always fought, so they'd never tell me about that kind of thing. Though, I still wonder how someone who's been in the hospital for so long could learn guitar so quickly."
"When you left" Hisako started "Yui was the one person woh dared try to take your place as lead singer and guitarist. She wasn't the best at doing both but, Girls DeMo was still a hit." Iwasawa smiled.
"That's good to know." she said
Two months later every member of the SSS, including Takamatsu who they found was modeling where Iwasawa had been recording her songs, stood in a park, mid-day. Hinata moved in with Otonashii, working at the hospital Yui was in as an assistant while playing baseball in his spare time.
"Well, the SSS is all back together on Earth." Yui said with pride
"It looks like our circumstances haven't changed a whole lot .. ." Noda pointed out, everyone has the same trouble
"Well our fates have changed for the better" Hinata said happily "Yui can walk now!" Yui nodded and jumped around
"It's thanks to Hinata and Iwasawa's support" she exclaimed Hinata ruffled Yui's hair laughing
"Soo," Ooyama started "What's gonna happen to Girls DeMo? Are you a band again?
"Hell yeah"Irie replied
"Who's the lead singer gonna be now?" Otonashii asked
"We're going to do it on a song to song basis" Iwasawa explained "Yui will do some and I'll do some, depending on the kind of delivery we want."
"So what shall we do now as the SSS?" Kanade asked.
"Hmmm," Yuri thought, "Well, we'll just, find some legit unjust to fight"
. . .and so, eternity continues, tears will continue to fall, only to soon drown in the sound of laughter . . .
Well . .That was long, I apologize and thank whoever saw it to the end. I hope you all enjoyed it! REVIEW PLEASSSSSEEEEEEEE