I don't own Angel Sanctuary. I never have, and I never will. I am, however, a huge fan, and this is a result of that fanerism.
Takes place after Katou's final scene in volume eighteen.
The fact that there was an afterlife after the afterlife both bemused and amused Katou. He wondered, vaguely, what would happen if he died here, too, but immediately ruled that possibility out. There wasn't anything here that he could die with, just himself, his smokes, and a lot of empty space. There wasn't even a floor for him to stand on, he just seemed to be floating on an eternity of empty air.
He pushed off of the air, and managed to move forward. This was far, far too weird.
"Hello?!" he called, and listened for the echo that never came. He supposed it was stupid to listen for the echo, since there was nothing for it to bounce off of… "Hello, is anyone there?!"
Of course there was no one there. There was nothing there, let alone another person. He had always believed that there was nothing after death, and it looked that he was right (after a series of deaths, at least), but he hadn't expected to be conscious for that nothing.
It took him what could have been hours (or months, or seconds, or days, or minutes) of exploring his nothing, before he realized that he wasn't in pain anymore, and that his original left arm was still attached. It took him only a moment longer that he didn't even need to push off of the nothing to move, he just had to think about going forward, back, up, down, sideways… and then that's exactly where he was going.
"Kira?!" he cried after that. "Where are you?! Weren't you the one who brought me here? Come out, you bastard!"
That was when the nothing decided to echo. 'You bastard, ou bastard, bastard, stard, stard, stard, stard.'
It was more than a little unnerving, and after it continued echoing back and forth for quite a few more minutes (or seconds, or days, or months, or years…) he decided he had liked it better when nothing had met his cries.
Aeons (or decades, or years, or centuries, or hours) later, he wished that he didn't have to be conscious for the nothing that came after death. He would surely go mad if he had to spend any more time there…
Luckily for him, he saw something in the nothing then. Something far, far below him. It was just a speck, but as he ran closer to it, he could tell it was a human, or something human-like. At this point in time, however, he would have taken Rociel's brand of madness, rather than the kind of madness a place like This could entice.
Once he got close enough that he thought that he could make out familiar dark hair though, the figure disappeared from sight. It wasn't as if it had just poofed into no where though, it was almost as if the figure had ran out of sight, despite the fact that the figure hadn't seemed to be moving very quickly at all.
It could have been millennia or nanoseconds later when he caught sight of the figure again, and once again ran in that direction. Risking the echo, he yelled out. "Hey! Hey you! Stop!"
The figure stopped, and Katou was close enough to see that the figure was surprised – they had stopped quite suddenly, and stood quite straight – but just as they turned, light coming from nowhere reflecting off a pair of classes, they were gone again.
'Hey you! Stop! He – Stop – y you – st – hey – op – yo – s – u – top.'
This kept on for microseconds – or scores, Katou always finding the figure, but never getting close enough to speak to it, or close enough to even see who or what it was, but it being the only bit of hope that he could find in this place.
It took him a while, before he finally decided that he was going insane. There was no figure, there was no anything here, it had just been him trying to find some reason for being stuck here. It had just been him going mad to keep himself from going mad.
He didn't stop seeing the figure, but he stopped chasing after it. It had to be at least a lustrum, but maybe it was only a millisecond where he didn't move. He followed the figure with his eyes, but that's was all of him that chased after it. His eyes locked onto it when he could see it, and searched tirelessly when he could not. He realized that he hadn't slept, but he wasn't tired, which made sense, considering the fact that he was dead.
"Hey," a voice whispered from beneath him, as a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. If there had been a floor, Katou would have been laying on top of whoever it was.
This whisper hissed angrily around them.
"I thought it was you, Katou."
The words hissed, until he realized who the voice belonged to. It had been so long that he had almost forgotten what Kira's voice sounded like. He rolled over, and looked directly into his friend's face. His friend was wearing his glasses, and a goofy grin.
"I'm so glad that you stopped moving around. It was damn hard to catch you when you did."
Katou was sure now that there was no echo, and he couldn't help but be grateful, though he wouldn't have minded hearing Kira's voice repeated back to him.
There seemed to be a pause in time, where none passed – though Katou wasn't sure any had ever passed – and suddenly Katou was laying on top of Kira in a field, surrounded by green grass and flowers and sunlight.
Then Katou kissed Kira, and it was a kiss that lasted for hours.
Please read and review. Constructive criticism and is always welcome, as is constructive praise, and flames will be mocked.